DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA THE WORLD REPO RATE CUT BY 25 BPS TO 6.25% After tax relief in Budget, RBI cuts key rate, first in five years, to spur growth Key takeaways: A less restrictive policy, no clear exchange rate targeting RBI keeps stance neutral, expects growth to be 6.7% in FY27, estimates inflation at 4.2% GEORGE MATHEW MUMBAI, FEBRUARY 7 HITESH VYAS MUMBAI, FEBRUARY 7 YUNUS CALLS FOR PEACE AS ARSON SPREADS ACROSS BANGLADESH RUBIO TO VISIT WEST ASIA AMID PROTESTS OVER TRUMP KHAMENEI SLAMS PROPOSED N-TALKS WITH U.S. PAGE 14 AS WIDELY expected, the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) unanimously decided to reduce the repo rate — the interestrateatwhichitlendstobanks —by25basispoints(bps)to6.25 per cent amid easing inflation andworriesoverslowinggrowth RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra along with Deputy Governors M Rajeshwar Rao, Swaminathan Janakiraman and T Rabi Sankar in Mumbai on Friday. Amit Chakravarty due to global uncertainties. The six-member rate-setting panelhasprojectedtherealgross domesticproduct(GDP)at6.7per cent and theretail inflationat4.2 per cent for the fiscal 2025-26. The cut in the key policy rate — the first in nearly five years — will provide relief to home, CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 E Banks told to lend in call money market Malhotra said some banks MIHIR VASAVDA MUMBAI, FEBRUARY 7 ANAND MOHAN J BHOPAL, FEBRUARY 7 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 RBIGOVERNORSanjayMalhotra sent clear signals to the banking sector and other marketparticipantsonthe rupee, liquidity management and monetary policy changes on the cards. are reluctant to on-lend in the uncollateralised call money market. Instead, they are passively parking funds with the Reserve Bank.He askedbanks to actively trade among themselves in the uncollateralised call money market to make it deeper ● andvibrantforbettersignal extraction from the weighted average call money rate (WACR). This could be aimed at facilitating the orderly CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 To check doping and age fraud, Govt scraps cash awards for junior athletes Beaten in court over interfaith marriage, man arrested; no FIR over attack AN INTERFAITH couple who visited a court in Bhopal to register their marriage was targeted by members of right-wing outfits, who assaulted the man and accused him of “love jihad”, after which he was arrested on charges of forcing the woman to change her religion. No FIR has been registered against his attackers. The assault on the man, whichtookplaceinabusycourtroom, was captured on video, which has since spread online. According to police officers, right-wing groups went to the court premises after being tippedoff by“sources”aboutthe couple deciding to register their marriage. The man, a resident of Narsinghpur, had travelled to Bhopal with the woman, but couldnotcompletethecourtformalities, police officers said. Chandra Shekhar Tiwari, presidentof theSanskritiBachao Manch, which was among the groupswhosentmemberstothe court, alleged that the man had "multiple photographs and contact numbers of Hindu women onhisphoneandhadcoercedhis partnerintomarriage”.Thegroup demanded that police “charge the man under sections of rape”. Confirming the incident, Bhopal ACP Akshay Chaudhary said, “The couple was first taken under our custody and questioned. Their statments were taken down. The woman told us thatshewasbeingforcedtomarry him and change her religion.” The man has been booked under section 3/5 of the Madhya PradeshFreedomof ReligionAct, 2021. Police contacted his local police station to investigate any `6.00 WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 EXPLAINED BY UNNY POSTAL REGN. NO. JAIPUR CITY/001/2024-26 JOURNALISM OF COURAGE SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2025, JAIPUR, LATE CITY, 18 PAGES BUSINESS AS USUAL ● Anti-Corruption Bureau members at the residence of AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal in Delhi. PTI JUNIOR ATHLETES winning international medals will no longer receive cash awards from the government. This major Sports Ministry policy shift, which came into effect on February 1, is aimed at tackling the twin menace of doping and age fraud as well as “keeping the hunger of youngsters alive”. Accordingtotheoldsystem,a gold medal at the World Championshipwouldfetchajunior athlete approximately Rs 13 lakh while a top of the podium finishatAsianorCommonwealth had a cash prize of Rs 5 lakh. ASportsMinistryofficialsaid oneof thekeyfactorsbehindthis decision was to promote junior competitions as developmental events rather than making it all about a podium finish. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Delhi results today, Kejriwal gets notice over horse-trading claim EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 7 AS CANDIDATES, parties and the city braced for the counting of votes Saturday to decide a new government and Assembly in Delhi, the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) showed up at the door of the ruling AAP Friday to serve notices to its leaders over claims that the rival BJP had offered bribes to AAP MLAs and others to jump ship. The ACB issued notice to AAP convener and former party, offering each Rs 15 Chief Minister Arvind crore, to jump ship. Kejriwal, in addition to Responding to the alother senior party leadlegation, Delhi BJP presiers, to join an inquiry reDECISION dent Virendra Sachdeva garding allegations that called it a result of panic 2025 the BJP was seeking to arisingoutof“frustration” DELHI poach sitting and potenand the AAP’s acknowltial AAP legislators to form the edgment of its “seemingly innext government in Delhi. evitable defeat”. On Thursday, Kejriwal and On Friday, the Delhi BJP AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay wrote to Lieutenant Governor V Singh alleged that the BJP had K Saxena seeking registration of embarkedon‘OperationLotus’in a case against AAP leaders, inDelhi, and was seeking to bribe cludingKejriwal,overtheparty’s as many as 16 leaders of their CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 PM to visit US on Feb 12-13, will meet Trump: Foreign Secretary SHUBHAJIT ROY NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 7 PRIME MINISTER Narendra Modi will visit the US on February 12-13 and meet President Donald Trump. This will be their first meeting since Trump’sreturntotheOvalOffice last month. Announcingthevisit,Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said Modi’s visit will give further im- Modi will head to the US from France after AI summit petus and direction to India-US bilateral relationship. Before visiting the US, Modi will be in France from February 10-12 to co-chair the AI Action Summit with French President Emmanuel Macron, Misri said. “This will be the first visit of PrimeMinisterModitotheUnited States since the inauguration of the second presidential term of PresidentDonaldTrump,”hesaid. “The fact that the Prime CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 ‘Schools treat home, class knowledge of math as separate... need to bridge’ ABHINAYA HARIGOVIND NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 7 IN A studypublished in the journalNature,ateamfromtheAbdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), including Nobel PrizewinningeconomistsEstherDuflo and Abhijit Banerjee, found that childrenworkinginmarketscan do complex transactions as part of their job, but struggle with textbookmathtaughtinschools, while children in schools work well with academic math problems,butdon’tdoaswellinpractical calculations. Thestudyexaminedchildren in Delhi and Kolkata to understand how math skills transfer between real-world and classroom settings. In an interview with The Indian Express, Duflo discusses the findings and their implications for curriculum and teaching. Can you tell us about what prompted the study? We’ve worked on education in India for over 20 years. The recent ASER report by Pratham shows progress in basic learning — a significant achievement. However, for years it has revealed low levels of basic math andlearningachievementinpri- maryschoolsandamongadolescents. This contrasts sharply with what we observe in markets, where children easily handle transactions and calculate change. PTI THE EXPRESS INTERVIEW ESTHER DUFLO ECONOMIST, NOBEL LAUREATE Based on your findings, what changes are needed in teaching and assessment to bridge the gap between market maths and academic maths? The key is recognising existing knowledge. Children have math skills from various sources — markets, video games, farm work — but schools treat home CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Jaipur Devotees take boat rides at the Sangam during the Maha Kumbh, in Prayagraj on Friday. PTI ‘Lost my mother in Kumbh stampede… now doing the rounds for death certificate’ MANISH SAHU PRAYAGRAJ, FEBRUARY 7 AFTER LOSING his mother in the stampede at the Maha Kumbh on January 29, Dhananjay Kumar Gond (24) returned home to Bihar’s Gopalganj — only to be told by the local administration and the police that he needed her death certificate to wrap up the formalities. He returned to Prayagraj on Monday and has since been makingdesperateroundsof hospitals and government offices – but in vain. Withlittleclarityonwhowill issue death certificates, Dhananjay isoneof severalfamily members of stampede victimswhohavebeenrunningpillar to post in Prayagraj. Since the Maha Kumbh is being held in a cantonment area, families and officials say there is confusion about which authority would issue death certificates. The Cantonment Board, Allahabad, Tara Devi was among 30 who died in the Jan 29 incident has handed over the land to the Kumbh administration for the duration of the event. The state government has said 30 people died in the stampede, though an official list is yet to be released. Several hospitals where the dead and injured were taken told The Indian Expresstheywouldnotsharethe list of stampede victims who were brought in. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has announced a compensation of Rs 25 lakh for each victim’s family. Amidst the confusion, The Indian Express reached out to officials across departments to determine who would issue the death certificate. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2