DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE SATURDAY, JANUARY 13, 2024, AHMEDABAD, LATE CITY, 20 PAGES Seven years after IAF plane went missing, its debris found off Chennai coast `6.00 ● WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 PM INAUGURATES INDIA’S LONGEST SEA BRIDGE IN MUMBAI Defence Ministry confirms wreckage is of AN-32 that had 29 on board AMITABH SINHA NEW DELHI, JANUARY 12 The AUV spotted the debris of the plane during its trial in the Bay of Bengal Some nearby areas were also searched and a few metal pieces were observed. We sent the images to the Indian Navy and the Indian Air Force. The IAF identified it as their plane,” M Ravichandran, Secretary of the Ministryof EarthSciences under which NIOT functions, told The Indian Express. Referring to the search operation soon after the plane went missing, the Defence Ministry saidinastatementFriday:“Large CONTINUEDONPAGE2 RELATED REPORT PAGE 13 Prime Minister Narendra Modi with workers after inaugurating the bride in Mumbai on Friday. ANI Atal Setu message to nation is... every corner connected: Modi SWEETY ADIMULAM MUMBAI, JANUARY 12 INAUGURATINGTHE22-kmAtal Setu, the country’s longest sea bridge, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Friday that the bridge symbolised a developed India even as he took a swipe at the previous governments at the Centre, saying they failed to deliver on their promises. “AtalSetuisthepictureof developed India. This is a glimpse of what a developed India is goingtobelike,”thePrimeMinister said during the inauguration of theMumbaiTransHarbourLink, which has formally been named as Atal Bihari Vajpayee SewariNhava Sheva Atal Setu. “In a developed India, there will be facilities for all, there will beprosperityforall,therewillbe speedandtherewillbeprogress. IndevelopedIndia,distanceswill be reduced and every corner of thecountrywillbeconnected.Be it life or livelihood, everything willgooncontinuously,without interruption.Thisisthemessage of Atal Setu,” he said. The six-lane bridge, which will be thrown open to the public Saturday morning, connects Sewri in Mumbai to Chirle in Raigad district. It will enhance connectivity from Mumbai to Navi Mumbai, Pune, Goa, and South India. The Prime Minister travelled the entire length of the bridge CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 VIBRANT GUJARAT GLOBAL SUMMIT CONCLUDES NICARAGUA FLIGHT PROBE Gujarat CID books 14 agents for human Industry captains pledge to invest trafficking, destruction of evidence Rs 3,000 cr in Jammu & Kashmir: L-G RIJIT BANERJEE & SOHINI GHOSH GANDHINAGAR, JANUARY 12 NEARLY THREE weeks after a Nicaragua-boundplanecarrying Indians was grounded in France and later sent to India, the Gujarat Crime Investigation Department(CID)hasbooked14 agentsonthechargesof "human trafficking" and "causing disappearance of evidence" for trying to send over 60 people from BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY At least 66 people from Gujarat were on board the flight. File Gujarat to the United States illegally. At least 66 people from the state were among the 303 on board the Legend Airlines plane that flew from Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and was headed to Nicaragua to eventually take the passengers to the US via the Mexico border "illegally", as per officials. In an FIR lodged on Wednesday, based on a complaint filed by PJ Kharsan, an inspector at CID Crime's Economic Offence branch, the Gujarat CID has accused the agents of a "well-planned conspiracy to obtain financial benefits of crores CONTINUEDONPAGE2 PAGE 1 ANCHOR JAMMU & Kashmir, which for the first time participated in the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit (VGGS) this year, saw industry players pledging to invest Rs 3,000 crore in the Union Territory(UT)atendof thethreeday summit, J&K's Lieutenant Governor (L-G), Manoj Sinha, said on Friday. Hardselling J&K and inviting Karan Singh differs from party: After SC verdict, why hesitate to attend NEW DELHI, JANUARY 12 PAGE 12 GANDHINAGAR, JANUARY 12 RAM TEMPLE CONSECRATION ON JANUARY 22 LALMANI VERMA SC DECLINES TO STAY NEW LAW ON PICKING CEC, ECs PARIMAL DABHI EVEN AS the Congress on Friday againhitoutattheBJPforturning the Ayodhya Ram Temple inauguration into a “political event”, senior party leader Karan Singh said that after the Supreme Court's 2019 judgment in the Ram Janmabhoomi case “there should be no hesitation in attending the function, if invited”. In a statement, 92-year-old Karan Singh receives the invite for the January 22 event. Express Singh, who is the son of Jammu and Kashmir’s last Dogra ruler Maharaja Hari Singh, said he had receivedthe“beautifulinvitation” to the “historic pran pratishtha ceremony”butwouldnotbeable to attend it because of medical reasons. “As a Raghuvanshi myself, and having made a modest personal donation of Rs 11 lakh towards the construction, it wouldhavebeenagreatpleasure toattend.Regretfully,nearing93, itwillnotbepossibleformetodo CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 L-G Manoj Sinha at summit on Friday. Nirmal Harindran MOREREPORTS,PAGE4 industrialiststoinvest,Sinhasaid the UThas the"cheapestpower" THE WORLD US, UK ATTACK YEMEN IN RESPONSE TO RED SEA STRIKES MYANMAR MILITARY, GUERILLAS REACH TRUCE DEAL: CHINA SUNAK IN KYIV, SIGNS SECURITY PACT WITH ZELENSKYY PAGE 17 and as per National Crime Records Bureau data — tabled in the Parliament — "it has a crime rate lower than Gujarat and many other states”. This was the first time that the VGGS provided a "platform" for smaller states to attract investments.ApartfromJ&K,afew northeastern states also participated in the summit. “Come, invest in J&K. If you are75yearsold...thenaftercoming there (J&K), it (life span) will CONTINUEDONPAGE2 SIGNALS STATUS QUO FOR RBI Retail inflation surges to 4-month high; IIP slips to 8-month low AANCHAL MAGAZINE NEW DELHI, JANUARY 12 RETAIL INFLATION surged to a four-monthhighof 5.69percent in December driven by higher prices of food items such as pulses, spices, fruits and vegetables, data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) Friday showed. SeparatelyreleasedNSOdata also showed that factory output, as measured by the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), slippedtoaneight-monthlowof 2.4 per cent in November as against11.6percentamonthago, and 7.6 per cent a year ago, due to a high-base effect and slower growth in manufacturing, mining and capital goods output. This marked the second consecutivemonthofriseinheadline retail inflation and four calendar years and a quarter (51 months) of retail inflation staying above the 4 per cent mark in the 4 +/- 2 per cent band of medium-term inflationtargetsetbytheReserve E E X P L A I NE D A ROUTINE testing of a recentlyacquired automatic underwater vehicle (AUV) by the Chennaibased National Institute of Ocean Technology stumbled upon a large debris that eventually solved the seven-year-old mystery of a missing transport plane of the Indian Air Force. The AN-32 transport plane, with 29 people on board, was flying from Chennai to Port Blair on July 22, 2016 when it had gone missing. The AUV, used for deep sea exploration up to a depth of 6,000 metres, was imported from Norway by the NIOT about six months ago for its own use, and was being lowered in the Bay of Bengal last week for testing and training purposes, when it spotted a few metal parts. “The first thing it saw was a chakra, a three-coloured emblem. When the people at NIOT saw it they first thought it might be the remains of a ship-wreck. Non-food, non-fuel ● eases CORE INFLATION declining to a 48-month low is a big positive. On the industrial output side, the slide in capital goods production, an indicator of investment momentum, and consumer durables output, a proxy for consumption demand, are continuing areas of concern. Bank of India (RBI). The annual rate of food inflation, as measured by the Consumer Food Price Index, surged to 9.53 per cent in December from 8.70 per cent in November and 4.19 per cent a year ago. Urban areas recorded double-digit 10.42 per cent food inflation in December and rural areas registered 8.49 per cent. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 EDUCATION MINISTRY ORDERS INQUIRY Cloud over degree, IIM Rohtak director faces financial probe IIM defends Rs 2-cr variable pay citing his ‘performance’ RITIKA CHOPRA NEW DELHI, JANUARY 12 MONTHS AFTER the Union Government amended the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Act, granting it greater say in the functioning of the 20 premier business schools, the EducationMinistryhaslaunched an inquiry into the accounts of IIM-Rohtak Director Dheeraj Sharma. File IIM-Rohtaktoinvestigateallegationsoffinancialirregularities,including a complaint that the institute“illegally”transferredRs2 crore to its director's account as “variable pay.” The Indian Express has learned that the ministry, a little less than two months ago, tasked its Principal Chief Controller of Accounts with investigating allegations of funds embezzlement by the institute's director, Dheeraj Sharma, in the form of “variable pay” and CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Stadium repairs, new dept: Ranji disaster wakes up Bihar govt SANTOSH SINGH PATNA, JANUARY 12 WHENMUMBAIandBiharfaced off for a Ranji Trophy fixture at Patna’sMoin-ul-Haqstadiumon January6,neithertheplayersnor thecrowdcouldhaveanticipated the sort of impact the match would have. Thestadium,hostingasignificant fixture after 27 years, was barelyreadyforone—someparts were under construction, others undergoing repair, and visitors were welcomed by overgrown grassintheseatingarea.Eventhe scoreboard was not clearly visi- ble from all parts of the ground. With images from the match causing embarrassment to the state government, Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav visited the stadium on Friday. “We are aware of the people's grouseoverthepoorconditionof thestadium…Wehaveprepared a detailed project report for the structure,” Tejasjwi said, adding that as a sportsman himself, he could relate to the situation. “The CM has directed me to monitortherenovationwork.We plan to make it an international stadiumwithasportscomplex,a five-star hotel, restaurant, drainage system and parking lot with connectivity to the upcoming Patna Metro,” he added. On Thursday, the state government also decided to create a full-fledged sports department, which had ceased to exist after JharkhandandBiharsplitin2000. The new department will have Jitendra Rai as minister and B Rajinder as secretary. A senior government official said,“Thoughtherehadbeentalks about revamping Moin-ul-Haq stadium,theimmediatetriggeris the national embarrassment.” The poor infrastructure was not the only reason the stadium was in news – on the first match of the season, two teams, each A notice cautioning visitors against using the damaged gallery area; a rough patch of the field at the Moin-ul-Haq Stadium in Patna. Nagendra Kumar Singh claiming to represent Bihar, had turned up for the game against Mumbai. As the in-fighting between two factions of Bihar Cricket Association spilled over to the ground, there were heated exchanges and a minor scuffle between officials at the start of the game. Eventually, it was the intervention of the local police that got the BiharMumbai season-opener to start around 11 am. Ofthetwoteamsthatreached the ground early in the morning, the one picked by the BCA president Rakesh Tiwary played the game. The other, which had the blessings of secretary Amit Kumar, was left high and dry. Constructedin1969andoriginally called Rajinder Nagar stadium,itwasnamedaftergeneral secretary of the Indian Olympic AssociationMoin-ul-Haqafterhis death.Thestadium,withacapacityof 25,000,hashostedonlyfive internationalmatchessofar—the last one being between Zimbabwe and Kenya in 1996. “Moin-ul-Haq Stadium and sports in Bihar in general have fallenpreytolong-drawnpolitics aftertheBiharCricketAssociation lost its affiliation with the BCCI,” Bihar players association president Mrityunjay Tiwari told The Indian Express. Ahmedabad