WWW.indiAneXPReSS.CoM Mango on my Map It’s not a fruit, it’s an aroma, it’s sticky elbows, summer and chaos and, when everything is forgotten, a memory that brings you home lucknow, July 5, 2026 Screen Deepali Sahay on her song Tere paas main from Main Vaapas Aaunga that is leaving listeners misty-eyed LATe CiTy 14+4 PAgeS ₹6.00 d A i L y F R o M : A h M e d A b A d , C h A n d i g A R h , d e L h i , j A i P U R , K o L K A T A , L U C K n o W , M U M b A i , n A g P U R , ‘new ev policy empowerS middle clASS’ express special ‘Subsidies not capped… total incentive around Rs 60,000-70,000 per vehicle’ Women’s overall contribution to workforce, however, continues to languish — just one of every four women employed in big cities compared to almost 3 of every 4 men ‘Delhi transforming… Biggest cities offer better salaries, more has chosen a new regular jobs for women, but stark direction for cleaner, more modern future’ gender disparity in income favours men Zeeshan Shaikh Mumbai, July 4 New Delhi, July 4 the Capital’s new electric Vehicle (eV) Policy is not merely an incentive scheme, but a comprehensive roadmap to transform its transport ecosystem, reduce pollution and make electric mobility affordable, Delhi Chief minister Rekha Gupta said Saturday. InaninterviewwithTheIndian Express, Gupta described the policy, which came into effect july 1, as “common-man centric” and one designed primarily for Delhi’s middle class. the policy, she said, departs significantly from previous approaches by removing subsidy caps and focusing on the segments that contribute the most % employed in regular jobs average monthly salary mn-plUs Urban cities india mn-plUs cities Urban india the CentRe Saturday designatedasterrorists23operatives of Pakistan-based terror organisations including jaish-e-mohammed (jem) and Lashkar-etaiba (Let), citing their involvement in terror recruitment, infiltration, training, supplyofarmsthroughdrones, and planning of attacks in jammu and Kashmir. this raises the total count of designated terrorists to 80. Fol- Rs 30,707 Rs 27,984 men women Men 56.4 46.5 Men 65.1 50.9 Women Rs 23,707 Rs 21,664 bengaluru Rs 37,430 Rs 28,325 overall 58.5 47.6 overall Rs 28,808 Rs 26,258 Chennai Rs 31,655 Rs 22,919 SoURCe: PeRiodiC LAboUR FoRCe SURvey (PLFS) 2025 delhi cm rekha Gupta delhi Kolkata Rs 35,708 Rs 31,644 Rs 21,534 Rs 13,784 Happening today to air pollution. “We have given all kinds of possible incentives: Subsidy, scrapping incentive, road tax exemption and registration exemption,” Gupta said. lJoint AwAmi Action Committee, a collective of activist groups leading the protests in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, has called for a shutdown in response to sweeping crackdown by Pakistani authorities. »continUed on pAGe 2 lowing the amendment to the UnlawfulActivities(Prevention) Act, 1967 (UAPA) by the Centre in2019,57individualshadbeen designated as terrorists in 2024 under Section 35 of the Act and listed in its Fourth Schedule. Amongthe23aretheson-inlaw of Let founder hafiz muhammadSaeedandhiscloseassociates, three involved in the 2016 terror attack on an Army camp in nagrota, and two involved in the 2018 terror attack ontheSunjwanmilitaryStation. »continUed on pAGe 2 lShiv SenA (UBt) chief Uddhav Thackeray is set to launch a ‘Ram Raksha’ agitation in Maharashtra over the alleged theft of donations at the Ram temple in Ayodhya. Track These and more on www.indianexpress.com lionel messi reacts as cape Verde players celebrate their second goal against argentina. AP Cape Verde lose to Argentina, but steal the show in a match for ages express at World Cup Sandip G New York, July 4 In the beatifically lit hard Rock Stadium in miami, a fairy tale met a tearful end. Cape Verde’s journey from an utter unknown to nearly pulling off thegreatestshockinWorldCup history ended at the hands, legs, and experience of the world champions, Argentina, in extra time, 3-2. the story their brave men wrote will hauntthem:menwhodefeated the odds and left everything on the field. But Cape Verde leave this World Cup as its most heart-warmingnarrative.they leave as heroes. Some leave as household names. thetollwasvisibleinitsfinal seconds.messisanktohisknees and prayed, staring at the sky. his teammates lay sprawled on the grass; Cape Verde’s players staggeredlikeghosts.theworld would spend days replaying an unseemlyclassic,wishingithad never ended. Until the last second of the »continUed on pAGe 2 Bashaarat masood Srinagar, July 4 Officials cite national security; residents allege no due process as per SC guidelines Kerkori (Barmer, Rajasthan), July 4 InonecornerofBarmer’sKerkori village, hishamuddin Sindhi surveys the wreckage before him: concrete slabs, bricks, construction debris piled together. All that remains is a tall, white minaret. "We PM: Navigated energy crisis withIndia jalwa and hard work Mumbai Rs 36,453 Rs 35,788 politics paGe 5 MaMata slaMs reBels as key aide qUits aMid tMC MeltdoWn Barmer mosque razings spark legal A month after he crossed LoC for battle, unite residents across faith love, 22-yr-old PoK man sent back parul Kulshrestha SAyS feArmonGerS did not SUcceed »continUed on pAGe 2 Listing by Centre will help fight terror networks at national, international levels New Delhi, July 4 v A d o d A R A how metro cities pay Women Hafiz Saeed kin and aides among 23 added to terror list under UAPA, total count 80 mahender Singh manral P U n e , lJobsandsalariesinbiGcities InDIA’SBIGGeStcitiesseemto offer better opportunities for womentogetsalariedorregular jobsthanurbanIndiaasawhole. Accordingtothelatestreport on‘LabourmarketDynamicsin million-plus Cities’ published bythenationalStatisticsoffice, women participation in such Gayathri mani P A T n A , built it with such hardship but now it’s gone. this is the only mosque within a 10-km radius. Where are we supposed to go now?” says hishamuddin, the mosque’s maulvi. Fellow resident harla Ram meghwal still can’t make sense of what is happening. “We offered food to the muslims after theystoppedcookingtoprotest at the site of a mosque that was razed in kerkori. PARUL KULShReSThA the demolition,” he says. “I don’t understand what the »continUed on pAGe 2 A month after he crossed the Line of Control (LoC) in Uri to meet his love, Zeeshan Ahmad mir, a resident of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), was sentbackacrosstheborderSaturday, officials said. Zeeshan, 22, a resident of Pankedi village in Uri, crossed the border on may 31 to meet his love, Iram majeed. on the same day, the Indian Army issued a statement saying an “in- The Indian Express report published on saturday truder”hadbeenapprehended whilecrossingtheLoCinKashmir’s Uri sector. Sources later said that he appeared to have “no hostile intent”. Zeeshan and Iram had falleninloveoverSnapchat.on his arrival in the Valley, ZeeshanwasdetainedbytheArmy at Silikote, a fenced border village where access is restricted to soldiers and residents. While the Army was convinced Zeeshan had crossed the border only to meet Iram, »continUed on pAGe 2 Pm narendra modi at an integrated refinery-cum-petrochemical complex in rajasthan’s Barmer, saturday. PTi ‘India has friendly ties, sourced fuel from over 40 countries during West Asia war’ hamza Khan Jaipur, July 4 UnDeRLInInG thAt hisgovernment took “every single step… sensitively, whether at the policy level or the diplomatic level” at the height of the WestAsiacrisis,Primeminister narendra modi said Saturday that India successfully navigated one of the worst global energy crises by sourcing fuel from more than 40 countries, and credited it to friendly relations, diplomatic power, hard »continUed on pAGe 2 E. explained shift in strategy India’s crude import strategy has shifted ever since the outbreak of hostilities in West Asia hit oil flows and increased freight risks. While Russian crude is still the backbone of India’s import slate, refiners have diversified towards North American and Venezuelan barrels to offset the drop in supplies from the Gulf. politics paGes 5, 6 pM Wishes trUMp as U.s. tUrns 250 Jaishankar leaves for West asia, U.s., eUrope toUr today Adani power infra: Gujarat govt notifies new compensation policy for farmers ritu Sharma Ahmedabad, July 4 theGUjARAtgovernmenton Saturday announced new guidelinesforcompensationof land in Right of Way (RoW) corridors and towers for transmissionlinesto“balancethefinancial burden on the power transmission companies and the possible increase in tariff to the end consumer”. Citing various queries and representations regarding compensation of land in Right of Way (RoW) corridors and towerbasedareasduringlaying of transmission lines, the resolutionissuedbytheDepartment of energy and Petroleum will supersede provisions of all other resolutions issued earlier bythestaterelatingtocompensation for damage to land/ crops/ fruit trees and other trees, during the erection of transmission lines and towers. TheIndianExpressreported Friday how farmers at jetpar village of morbi district who were facing loss of land were protesting against Adani energy Solutions Ltd (ASeL) whoseSpecialPurposeVehicle, halvad transmission Ltd is installing high tension towers for transmissioncablestoevacuate power from the renewable energyparkatKhavdainKutch. they would wind up the agitation only after the state issues a fresh resolution, they had said. on Friday, Agriculture minister and Gujarat government spokesperson jitu Vaghani agreed to key demands of thefarmersincludingdoubling themarketpriceforcalculating compensation, and the setting up of a market Rate Committee »continUed on pAGe 2 l 24-year-old marine enGineer from kerala, on her firsT shiP duTy, can’T forGeT The siGhT of missiles sTreakinG oVerhead ‘Saw missiles for first time’: For Paanch Saab, baptism by fire at sea near Hormuz Sunanda mehta planned cargo run to Kuwait in early march. the vessel was instead diIn the early hours of a tense rected to drift outside the Strait morning outside the Strait of of hormuz, near the Fujairah hormuz, near the Fujairah an- anchorage, and wait. Salim chorage,ayoungmarineengin- laterlearnedthatarrivinginthe eer from Kerala looked at the area just 15 hours earlier would sky and saw missiles streak have trapped the vessel inside past,oneafteranother.Itlasted the strait when the situation a few seconds but it was a sight, really deteriorated. It was on one of she says, she will those drifting mornnever forget. paGe 1 ings, stepping onto hifa Salim (24) the deck for fresh air was just months into before her engine her dream job, having joined her very first ship in room rounds, that she heard a houstoninoctober2025,when sound from the sky and looked war broke out in the Persian up to see the flashes. “thiswasthefirsttimeIsaw Gulf, scrapping the ship’s Pune, July 4 anchor missiles in real life. my hands started shivering,” she says. terrified, she ran below to the messroomandconsideredasking to sign off. But once there, she found her crewmates eating breakfast, laughing, entirely at ease and something in her perspective shifted. “If my seniors could carry their own fear and still show up forwork,socouldI,”saysSalim. She heard the main engine starting—asmallkickaheadfor position adjustment. “I heard the starting sound. ‘tak tak tak.’ I hear that sound every time.Butthatmorningitfeltdifferent. It felt like the heartbeat of the ship. And that time I real- hifa salim (24) was just months into her dream job, having joined her very first ship, when war broke out in the Persian Gulf ised the ship is alive. We are not alone,” wrote Salim later in an essay published in the magazine of Synergy marine Group that manages her ship. Shewentdowntohaveacup ofteawiththeSecondengineer, the officer she reported to. “he took one look at me and could read that something is not right and when I said that I want to stay on board and be part of the team instead of quitting, he smiledandsaidinmalayalam,‘5 saab ippo strong aayi, Vaa namuk oru fuel valve overhaul cheyyam, appo ellam sheryavum’whichtranslatedto‘5saab had become strong now. Come, let’s overhaul one fuel valve, then everything will be alright.’ In the middle of uncertainty, those simple words gave me comfort,strengthandtheconfidencetocarryonwithmywork.” As a fifth engineer everyone on board called her “Paanch Saab”,thetraditionaltitleforthe ship’syoungestengineer.“Iliked the name. It made me feel like I belonged, even though I didn’t have a watch yet,” says Salim who also made the decision to not tell her family at home the full extent of what was happening — she didn’t want them to panic. It was only after the ship had safely cleared the area that she learned her parents had been doing the very same thing for her: staying composed on their calls, masking their own fear so she wouldn’t carry the weight of theirs. “We were all trying to protect one another in our own way,” she reflects. hailingfromedakkazhiyur, a small town in thrissur district, her close-knit family had always taught her to dream big while staying grounded, she says. She had once dreamed of the Indian navy, but the engineering side of the merchant navy pulled her in, partly because almost no one at home could tell her what the profession even involved. »continUed on pAGe 2 Lucknow