DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY MODI, XI LIKELY TO ATTEND BRICS SUMMIT IN RUSSIA IN OCTOBER LAC talks: India, China for ‘intensified contact’ to ‘narrow down differences’ Diplomatic delegations meet in Beijing, underline ‘respect for LAC’ SHUBHAJIT ROY NEW DELHI, AUGUST 29 Compliance should be a low hum in background: SEBI chief Madhabi Puri Buch in Mumbai, Thursday. PTI `6.00 (`12 IN NORTH EAST STATES & ANDAMAN) WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 SIGNALLING SOME progress in diplomatic negotiations to resolve the standoff between Indian and Chinese troops that began in May 2020 along the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh, India said Thursday that the two sides had a “frank, constructive and forward-looking” exchange of views in Beijing on the situation along the LAC to “narrow down the differences” and “find early resolution of the outstanding issues”. The two sides, according to the Ministry of External Affairs, also agreed on “intensified contactthroughdiplomaticandmil- The Ladakh standoff began in May 2020. File itary channels”. The expression “narrow down the differences” has been usedforthefirsttimeinthebilateral talks on the border standoff and,indiplomaticparlance,indicatesprogressinthenegotiations. It assumes significance given that the Kremlin said two days agothatPrimeMinisterNarendra Modi has “confirmed his readiness” to take part in the BRICS Summit in Kazan, Russia, in October.ItwillprovidethePrime Minister and Chinese President XiJinpinganopportunitytomeet on the summit sidelines. The MEA, in its statement, said, “The 31st meeting of the Working Mechanism for Consultation & Coordination on India-China Border Affairs (WMCC) was held on 29th August 2024 in Beijing. Gourangalal Das, Joint Secretary (East Asia) from the Ministry of External Affairs led the Indian CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 PAK INVITES MODI FOR SCO MEET PAGE 5 Minister claims Dhami didn’t overrule others on Rajaji posting, but records show otherwise MUMBAI, AUGUST 29 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Forest Minister’s note asking the CM to reconsider posting JAY MAZOOMDAAR & AVANEESH MISHRA NEW DELHI, DEHRADUN, AUGUST 29 UTTARAKHAND FOREST Minister Subodh Uniyal claimed Thursday that the decision to postIndianForestServiceofficer Rahul, who was ousted from Corbett Tiger Reserve (TR) after illegal tree felling and constructionallegedlyunderhiswatch,as directoroftheRajajiTRwastaken unanimously by him and Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami. Referring to the report in The Indian Express, Uniyal told news agency ANI: “There is this news todayinaprominentnewspaper that the Chief Minister bypassed the minister, Chief Secretary and others to appoint the Rajaji (National Park) Director. This is wrong information. All the decisionsweretakenunanimouslyafter mine and the CM’s consent.” On Facebook, Chief Minister Dhami posted a video clip of Uniyal’s remarks, and said the Forest Minister had rejected the reportinTheIndianExpresswhile CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 CPI(M) MLA among more Malayalam actors booked, pressure grows on Left SHAJU PHILIP THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, AUGUST 29 MOREMALAYALAMactors,who were accused of sexual misconduct in the wake of the Justice Hema Committee report’s release, were booked by Kerala Police on Thursday, including CPI(M) MLA M Mukesh. A woman actor had on MondayaccusedactorsMukesh, Jayasurya, Edavela Babu, and Maniyanpillai Raju, as well as PAGE 1 ANCHOR In new chip push, Centre ready with $15-bn blueprint Capital support for raw materials, but lower subsidy for assembling plants SOUMYARENDRA BARIK NEW DELHI, AUGUST 29 AFTER HAVING committed nearly all of the $10 billion in subsidies under its ambitious semiconductor manufacturing incentivepolicy,thegovernment has prepared a blueprint for the second phase of the scheme — it could increase the outlay of the programme to $15 billion, offer capital support for raw materials and gases used in chip manufacturing, and reduce subsidies for assembly and testing plants, The Indian Express has learnt. “In a short period of time, we managed to clear four chip proposals including a fabrication plant. The original incentive policy outlay of $10 billion will almost get over once subsidy pay- E Focus on chip ● fabrication THE NEW scheme could see an increased focus on fabrication plants, and more advanced display technologies as India looks to climb the complexity ladder in the chips ecosystem, going beyond packaging and assembly plants where countries such as Malaysia already have a stranglehold. ments are made to the entities setting up these facilities. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 After 7 years, Ayodhya land circle rates set to rise — by 50% to 200% HITESH VYAS SECURITIES AND Exchange Board of India (SEBI) Chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch on Thursday said compliance should become a “low hum in thebackground”foreveryentity it regulates. Addressing the Global Fintech Festival, she said: “This is our ultimate objective in SEBI, thatforeveryentity weregulate, compliance should simply be a low hum which goes on in the background. It is like each one of us is just breathing, and we are not having to think about breathing.” Her statement comes amid concerns raised by many companies and market players over increasing compliance load in recent years, pointing to a rise in financial burden. This was Buch's first public appearance after the Hindenburg Research's recent allegations against her, raising 4 SEMICONDUCTOR PROPOSALS CLEARED EXPLAINED FRIDAY, AUGUST 30, 2024, KOLKATA, LATE CITY, 16 PAGES Mukesh has denied charges: ‘Blackmail tactics’ filmproductioncontrollerNoble and Congress-affiliated lawyers association leader V S Chandrasekharan,of sexualmisconduct. They were all booked Thursday. Mukesh has denied the allegations as “blackmail tactics”. Director Ranjith, who was booked by police earlier this week after another woman actor accused him of sexual misconduct in 2009, faced yet another allegation Thursday by a man from Kozhikode. The man filed a police complaint against Ranjith in Kozhikode. Speaking to the media afterwards, he claimed that he had approached Ranjith for anactingopportunityandthedirector called him to a hotel in Bengaluru in 2012. The man, CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Graffiti painted on a road at Calcutta Medical College, in protest against the alleged rape and murder of a trainee woman doctor at RG Kar Medical College, in Kolkata Thursday. Partha Paul Haven’t uttered a word against students, BJP trying to create anarchy: Mamata RAVIK BHATTACHARYA Malicious campaign: CM Mamata Banerjee KOLKATA, AUGUST 29 WEST BENGAL Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said Thursday thatshehadnot“utteredasingle word against students or their movement”, and alleged that there was a “malicious disinformationcampaign” overaspeech she had made on Wednesday. “I detect a malicious disinformation campaign in some print, electronic and digital media, GOVT & POLITICS which has been unleashed with referencetoaspeechthatImade inourstudents’programmeyesterday,” she said, referring to the speechshedeliveredWednesday, ontheoccasionofthefoundation day of the Trinamool Congress FARRUKHABAD, AUGUST 29 PAGE 5 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 FULL COVERAGE PAGE 3 NEW DELHI, AUGUST 29 AFTER A gap of seven years, the circle rate of land in Ayodhya is set to increase. On Thursday, the District Magistrate put out a list of proposed circle rates and invited public feedback. The proposed rates are mostly 50 per cent to 200 per cent higher than the prevailing rate which has been in force since August 2017. The deadline for receiving suggestions is September 4 and the rates will then be finalised and notified. On July 10, The Indian Express reported that the circle rate in Ayodhyahadnotbeenrevisedfor sevenyearsdespiteasurgeinland transactionsandthesoaringmarket value of land ever since the 2019rulingoftheSupremeCourt The Indian Express report on Ayodhya land deals (July 10) which cleared the decks for the construction of the Ram temple. District Magistrate Chandravijay Singh did not respond to phone calls from The Indian Express for comment on the proposed rates. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Mystery over deaths of two UP girls: Police say suicide, kin deny, 2 youths from village booked MAULSHREE SETH INDIA’S SECOND N-SUBMARINE COMMISSIONED Chhatra Parishad – the party’s student wing. “Let me most emphatically clarifythatIhavenotutteredasinglewordagainstthe(medicaletc.) studentsortheirmovements.Itotally support their movement. Their movement is genuine. I never threatened them, as some people are accusing me of doing. SHYAMLAL YADAV DAYS AFTER the bodies of two Dalit girls, aged 15 and 18, were recovered in Uttar Pradesh’s Farrukhabad, police have booked two youths from the village, even as the case remains mired in mystery. Though police maintain the two girls died by suicide, their families insist this is not possible.OnThursdayevening,thefather of one of the girls filed a complaint, and hours later, police booked two youths on charges of abetment to suicide. “We are sure that things will become clear by tomorrow,” Alok Priyadarshi, Superintendent of Police, Farrukhabad, told The Indian Express on Thursday evening. The two girls, their families say,wereinseparable.Infact,the younger of the two would mostly stay at the older girl’s home, which is right next door. Both were out of the schooling system. The 15-year-old’s father cited her mother leaving as the reason, while the older girl’s familysaidshedroppedoutduringCovidandneverresumedher education. Onthenightof August26-27, they were found hanging from two ends of the same dupatta. “Yeh hatya hai (this was murder),” said the father of the younger girl. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 ‘Fearless, straightforward... more of a lawyer outside courtrooms’ APURVA VISHWANATH & OMKAR GOKHALE NEW DELHI, MUMBAI, AUG 29 HE WROTE — and wrote fearlessly — on the Emergency, on Kashmir, on the Babri Masjid. A leading voice on constitutional law and issues of Kashmir and Indian Muslims, Abdul Ghafoor Abdul Majeed Noorani, or A G Noorani, rarely minced words when he argued his case — both as a senior lawyer practising in the Supreme Court and Bombay High Court and in his writings. On Thursday, Noorani, scholar, lawyer, commentator and author, passed away in Mumbai at the age of 93. “He was a man of conviction and wrote fearlessly... He called a spade a spade. During the Emergency,hisbookonKashmir saw him getting arrested. Then, many members of the Bombay Bar had stood up for Noorani againsttherestrictionsplacedon him. Noorani also openly wrote about the Babri Masjid issue. He was a secularist to the core," said senioradvocateYusuf Muchhala, who practised for over four decades in the Bombay High Court, from where Noorani be- gan his career. FromtheRamJanmabhoomi issue to the annexation of Hyderabad to India, from Kashmirconstitutionalismtothe RSS, Noorani’s scholarship extended to several areas. His 2013 book on Kashmir, The Kashmir Dispute 1947-2012, which traces the complex history of the region, was submitted to the Supreme Court in an annexure as essential reading during the 2023 case challenging the abrogation of Article 370. It is learnt that Noorani was working on a book on the Supreme Court’s Ayodhya ver- A G NOORANI 1930 - 2024 dict of November 2019. Lawyers involved in the case recollected thatNoorani would call them up seeking papers for the book. Born in Mumbai in 1930, Noorani studied law at the Government Law College in the city. While he practised in the Bombay High Court and defended several high-profile clients, including Sheikh Abdullah, N T Rama Rao and J Jayalalithaa,Nooraniwasknown more for his work outside the courtrooms. “He was more of a lawyer outside the courtrooms. His scholarshipandjournalismwere meticulous.Hewasaleadingpolitical commentator for decades. He did not just give his opinion, it was rigorous research that informed his views,” senior advocateShyamDivantoldTheIndian Express. As a young lawyer, Noorani went to Dharamshala as legal help to the Dalai Lama. He only returnedwhenhismothercame to visit him and found the weather too harsh for her son to live there. “He was a man of great intellectual integrity. What stood out was his courage and absolute fearlessness. It is important, es- pecially in a day and age when the number of fearless lawyers has diminished. His scholarship and erudition are of the highest quality,” said senior advocate Navroz Seervai. Many in the legal fraternity refertoNooranialsoasajournalist, given this off-court persona. “His passing away is a great loss to society. He was a great lawyer,journalistandwasaman of integrity, character and honesty and was straightforward," said senior advocate Muchhala. Those who knew Noorani say he had “many admirers and CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Kolkata