The editorial Page: after BrICS, it’s time to navigate the realities of great power rivalries 6 WEDNESDaY, SEPtEmBER 16, 2026 JournaLISm of Courage AhMeDAbAD, lATe CiTy, 18 PAGeS ₹5.00 l www.indianexpress.com DA i ly F R o M : A h M e DA b A D , C h A n D i GA R h , D e l h i , J A i P U R , Ko l K ATA , l U C K n o W , M U M b A i , n AG P U R , PAT n A , P U n e , vA D o DA R A Happening today lIran’s ForeIgn Minister Abbas Araghchi will visit China. This comes ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s meeting with US President Donald Trump on September 24. Track This and more on www.indianexpress.com rbIfilescaveat inHighcourt overtatasons listingissue george mathew Mumbai, September 15 THE rEsErvE Bank of india (rBi) has filed a caveat petition in the Bombay High Court in connection with the mandatory listing of Tata sons, seeking to ensure that the central bank is heard before the court passes any order if a petition is filed in the matter. The caveat appears to be a pre-emptive move by the rBi to ensure that the court considers its explanation and positionregardingitsdecisiontorejectTatasons’pleatoderegister asaCoreinvestmentCompany, a move that requires Tata sons to list on the stock exchanges. apersonawareofthedevelopment said the rBi may have expected Tata sons to pursue legal recourse against its decision. The rBi did not respond to an email from The Indian Express for a response. onseptember11,therBirejected the application of Tata sons, seeking to remain an unregistered core investment company. instead, the central bank directed the company to “ensurefullcompliancewithall guidelines/instructions,”effectively requiring Tata sons to undertake an initial public offering (ipo) and list its shares on the stock exchanges. The listing of Tata sons has been one of the key issues dividing the trustees of Tata Trusts which collectively hold mDr exemPts Person-to-Person Gujarat reservoirs gain 3% after 48-hour Merchants to rainfall, remain 13% below last year levels pay 0.4% fee on UPI payments over Rs 2,000 Reservoirs gain 603 million cubic metres in just two days aditi raja Vadodara, September 15 Four days after the Gujarat assembly discussed the possible drought situation in the state, with opposition parties demanding relief measures for farmers, there was a ray of hope. after the 48-hour rain since sunday, water levels in the reservoirs of the state rose by over three per cent. although the overall water reserve in the state was 13.88% lower than september last year's figures, data from dams across Gujarat showed. Thestate'sreservoirsgained 603 million cubic metres (MCM) of water in just two days of rain, even as the total storage remained in a deficit of 3,191 MCM comparedwiththe reservoir statistics of last year. as of Tuesday, sardar sarovar dam on the Narmada river was 95.42% full, 316 MCM over thelastyear’sfigures;reservoirs in saurashtra, however, remained less than half full. Waters of the Narmada feed a major part of the state, up to saurashtra and Kutch. The figures of the Narmada Waterresources,Watersupply and Kalpsar departments on Tuesday showed that Gujarat’s 207 reservoirs, including sardar sarovar, were positioned at 78.41% storage as against 91.04% on september 15, 2025. This is a shortfall of 3191.45 MCM or 13.88%. on september 13, the 207 reservoirs held 19,200.30 MCM and, by september 15, the figurehadrisento19,803.37MCM, an increase of 603.07 MCM or 3.14%. The number of completely filled reservoirs also rose from 17 to 23 in the period. The state saw a dry spell for over a month, with districts such as Kutch, devbhoomi dwarka and Jamnagar reporting a higher deficit. Excluding sardar sarovar, the other 206 reservoirs gained 441.87 MCM, taking their storage from 10,334.40 MCM on september 13 to 10,776.27 MCM on september 15—an increase of 4.28% from an overall storage of 65.42% to 68.21%. But compared with september 15 last year, these reservoirs still »contInueD on Page 2 as of Tuesday, sardar sarovar dam on the narmada river was 95.42% full. File l reservoirs,Theirstatus 603 mIllIon cubIc metres (mcm) oF water: Reservoirs gain after two days of rain 161.20 mcm: What Sardar Sarovar dam got 441.87 mcm: What other 206 reservoirs got 3,191 mcm: Deficit compared with overall reservoir statistics as of Sept 15, 2025 23: Completely filled reservoirs 207: Total reservoirs in Gujarat In HC, Govt backs plea to let same-sex partner take medical call for the other sohini ghosh New Delhi, September 15 supporTiNG a plea filed by a same-sex couple in the delhi HighCourt,theunionMinistry of Health and Family Welfare has said that those in a “nonheterosexual/ queer relationship” cannot be excluded from the existing legal framework of nominating their partners to take medical decisions on their behalf, “merely on account of sex, gender or sexual orientation”. The ministry filed its response on september 9, ahead ofthenexthearingonThursday. onaugust20,theHChadquestioned the Centre for its failure to respond to the petition. The petition, filed in July 2025 by a same-sex couple who got married in New Zealand in december2023,saidthereis “no framework which grants or recognisestherightsofnon-hetero- sexual couples to act as a medical representative of their respective partners during medical treatment/ emergencies.” The ministry, in its response, has affirmed that courtsaswellaslegislation,like the Mental Healthcare act, 2017, have recognised that a medical representative “can be any person”, and not necessarily a blood relative or a “spouse” only. »contInueD on Page 2 Business as usual By EP UNNY »contInueD on Page 2 tHe Big Picture once tHere Were 5 StudentS Page 14 Pilot project congress leader sachin pilot with charanjit singh channi and amrinder singh raja Warring in chandigarh, Tuesday. This was pilot’s first visit to poll-bound punjab after being made congress in-charge amid a feud between the two state unit leaders. KAMleShWAR SinGh p 10 Saudi , HoutHiS trade StrikeS aS conflict groWS p 15 Odisha rejects Staines ED flags bankruptcy code killing convict Dara’s plea frauds, ‘disproportionate’ for premature release haircuts as thrust areas sujit bisoyi Bhubaneswar, September 15 THE odisHa government has rejected the plea of convict rabindra Kumar pal alias dara singh for premature release fromjail.Heisservingalifesentenceforthe1999killingofaustralian missionary Graham staines and his two minor sons who were burnt alive while sleeping in a vehicle in Mano- harpur in Keonjhar district. The state sentence review Board,whichmetonaugust31, said it was “not inclined to recommendhis(darasingh’s)premature release at this stage”. on august 19, the supreme Court had asked the Board to take a decision on his plea for premature release. on september8,thebenchofJusticeManoj MisraandJusticevijayBishnoi, »contInueD on Page 2 Deeptiman tiwary New Delhi, September 15 rEd-FlaGGiNG frauds under theinsolvencyandBankruptcy Code (iBC), the Enforcement directorate (Ed) has identified “re-examination of collusive resolutioncasesinvolvingdisproportionately large haircuts through which promoters re-acquire assets” as a key thrust area. This comes in the backdrop of the National Company law Tribunal's (NClT) august 25 order which allowed Essel Group founder subhash Chandra to settle his personal insolvency proceedings by paying rs 6.25 crore, against admitted claimsofrs22,006.57crore.on september 1, a five-member special bench of the NClT stayed the settlement order. »contInueD on Page 2 l sepTember 22 maTch parT of celebraTions marking 75 years of bilaTeral Ties Japan prepares ground for T20 with India, Sri Lanka pitches in, and sponsors line up Venkata Krishna b & shuvaditya bose Chennai, New Delhi, September 15 iNJaNuarythisyear,External affairs Minister s Jaishankar and his Japanese counterpart, ToshimitsuMotegi,exchanged cricketing gifts. Motegi’s gift was the Japan cricket team's pink jersey, while Jaishankar handed him a bat autographed by indian cricketers. That proved to be a harbinger of sorts. The two countries are now set to play their first bilateral match at the sano inter- The sano international cricket ground, 100 km from Tokya. JCA nationalCricketGround,about 100 kilometres from Tokyo, on september 22. Team india led by shreyas iyer will face the Japan team captained by Kendel Kadowaki-Fleming in the T20 international. The match is part of the celebrationstomark75yearsofdiplomatic relations between the two countries. Following a meeting between prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese prime Minister sanae TakaichiinJuly,thetwosideshad announced 2027 as the ‘indiaJapan year of shared Horizons' to mark the milestone. “suddenly, this wasn’t just us wanting to attract a full member (of the international »contInueD on Page 2 Ahmedabad Flat Rs 5 fee on railway, insurance, credit card bill payments; charges to be reviewed every 6-12 months siddharth upasani New Delhi, September 15 upi TraNsaCTioNs over rs 2,000 will attract a fee of 0.4 per cent from october 15, and this will be paid by merchants, the National payments Corporationofindia(NpCi)saidTuesday. For instance, a merchant will pay rs 40 when it receives rs 10,000 via upi. an e-commerce website, grocery shop or a shopkeeper, receiving more than rs 1 lakh per month from customers paying through upi are categorised as merchants. The 0.4 per cent fee on p2M (person-to-merchant) transactions, which is called the Merchant discount rate (Mdr), has been capped at rs 300 per transaction. This means the Mdr fee will not exceed rs 300 forupipaymentofrs75,000or more made to a merchant. Thenewmdrslabs amount paid to merchant applicable mDr Up to ₹ 2,000 0 ₹ 2,001-₹ 74,999 0.40% ₹ 75,000 and above E. Fixed ₹300 explained Will boost tech infra, innovation The 0.4% fee merchants must pay on UPI payments is expected to provide the money for continuous technological innovation and allow new fintech startups and tech companies to enter the digital payments space and compete with well-capitalised conglomerates. in a separate statement, the union Ministry of Finance said banks have been “advised” to ensure merchants do not pass on the cost to customers. The NpCi framework also »contInueD on Page 2