DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2025, LUCKNOW, LATE CITY, 18 PAGES USAID FUNDING TO CEPPS LISTED BY DOGE Team Musk flags, Trump waves, but a fact-check: $21 million did not go to India for ‘voter turnout’, was for Bangladesh Agencies got $13.4 million for range of programmes in Bangladesh: ‘Political and civic engagement’ among youth, projects that questioned polls under Hasina JAY MAZOOMDAAR NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 20 SINCE THE Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) announced February 16 that it had “cancelled,” among a string of projects, USAID funding of “$21 million for voter turnout in India,”therulingBJPhasaccused theoppositionCongressof using alleged external influence in India’s election process. Trumphimself,inaspeechin Miami Wednesday, said: “Why do we need to spend $21m for voter turnout in India? Wow, $21m! I guess they were trying to get somebody else elected.” Facts show all may have jumped the gun. That $21 million, records accessed by The Indian Express show, was sanctioned in 2022 for Bangladesh, not India. Of this, $13.4 million has alreadybeendisbursed,ostensibly for “political and civic engagement” among Bangladesh students in the run-up to the January2024electionsandprojects that put a question mark on theintegrityof theseelections— seven months before the ouster of Sheikh Hasina. At the centre of the dispute are two USAID grants on DOGE’s list that were channelled via the Consortium for Elections and Political Process Strengthening A December 2024 LinkedIn post by USAID advisor in Dhaka Lubain Masum that confirms $21-mn grant through CEPPS has been disbursed so far. The Bangladesh political project However, the USAID $21million grant that DOGE flagged was meant for Bangladesh. Consider these: ■ Each federal grant comes with a specific place of performance — the country where it is meant to be spent. According to the official open data source of US federal spending, there is no USAID funded CEPPS project in India since 2008. ■ The only ongoing USAID grant to CEPPS matching the denomination of $21 million and the purpose of voting was sanctioned — with Federal Award CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY THE CENTRAL Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) is learnt to be considering a significant compression of its Class 10 board examination period from the usual month-long schedule to less than two weeks in order to accommodate a two-exam system starting next year. Currently,theBoardprepares the Class 10 exam schedule in a waythatnotwosubjectschosen by a student fall on the same date. This effectively translates intoamonth-longschedulewith E EXPLAINED NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 20 PAGE 8 THREE YEARS after the BJP returned to power in Uttar Pradesh,itannouncedtodistributescootytoeligiblemeritorious college-going girls in the state, an election promise that the party made in the 2022 Assembly elections. The announcement was made in the Budget, which was presented in the Assembly on Thursday. Presenting his ninth Budget as Finance Minister of the state, Suresh Khanna said that he has focused on research, development and Information Technology this year. While Rs 400 crore has been allotted for the newly launched RaniLaxmibaiScootySchemefor Girl Students, Khanna has made significant allocations for four newexpressways,development of religious places, especially Banke Bihari Temple Corridor in Mathura,andforupkeepof stray cattle in the state in the Rs 8.09 lakh crore Budget outlay. After the presentation of the VIKAS PATHAK NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 20 AS US President Donald Trump once again questioned USAID funding of US$ 21 million for “voterturnout”inIndia,saying,“I guessthey(theJoeBidenadministration) were trying to get somebody else elected”, the Congress and BJP got into a war of words on Thursday. While the Congress dismissed Trump’s remarks as “nonsensical” and demanded a whitepaperonUSAID’sfinancial supporttogovernmentandnongovernmental organisations in India, the BJP said Trump had “confirmed”aforeignattemptto influence Indian elections. Addressing an event in Miami Wednesday, Trump said: “...US$ 21 million for voter CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Opening a window for ● students THE NATIONAL Education Policy, 2020, envisages moving away from highstakes exams and proposes biannual board exams to provide students with more opportunities. In line with this, the Education Ministry has asked the CBSE to prepare a proposal for holding two exams per year. a gap of anything between three toeven10daysbetweentwopapers at times. This year, for instance, the Class 10 board exams began on February 15 and will continue till March 18. However, if the two-exam system is to be introduced, CBSE may have to reduce the gap between papers considerably, maybe even to a day, to ensure both exams are held and all results declared by June, said sources. This could mean that the exams will be squeezed into a week or 10-day period. The issue was discussed at a recent meeting chaired by CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 FOREIGN MINISTERS MEET IN JOHANNESBURG Jaishankar, Lavrov discuss US-Russia talks in Riyadh on ending Ukraine war P8 THE EXPRESS INTERVIEW MOHAN YADAV MADHYA PRADESH CHIEF MINISTER CM dedicates Budget to Sanatan culture, FM says focus on research and development BJP questions ‘foreign role’, Cong seeks white paper ABHINAYA HARIGOVIND NOD FOR AYUSHMAN BHARAT, CAG REPORTS: DELHI CM, TEAM CHECK IN Scooty for college girls, AI City: UP Budget aims welfare, growth MAULSHREE SETH 2 Class 10 board exams next yr, CBSE may shrink schedule to under 2 weeks GOVT & POLITICS NEARLY 10% JUMP IN OUTLAY US President Trump again questioned USAID funding (CEPPS), a group based in Washington, DC, which specialises in “complex democracy, rightsandgovernanceprogramming.” CEPPSwasmeanttoreceivea totalof $486millionfromUSAID. This corpus included, as per DOGE: $22 million for “inclusive and participatory political process” in Moldova; and $21 million for “voter turnout in India.” The first was awarded to CEPPS in September 2016 to “promote”an“inclusiveandparticipatory political process” in Moldova. With Federal Award Identification Number AID117LA1600001 (an ID specific to the grant), this was to run until July 2026 and $13.2 million SHUBHAJIT ROY NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 20 TWO DAYS after he met US Secretary of State Marco Rubio inRiyadhtodiscussanendtothe war in Ukraine, Russian Foreign MinisterSergeyLavrovheldtalks Thursday with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar who said they discussed “developments pertaining to the Ukraine con- `6.00 WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar with Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Johannesburg. Reuters flict” including the meeting in Riyadh, and agreed to stay in touch. LavrovandJaishankarmeton the sidelines of the G20 ministerial meeting in Johannesburg in South Africa. In a post later on X, Jaishankar said, “Reviewed the continued progress of IndiaRussia bilateral cooperation. Discussed recent developments pertainingtotheUkraineconflict, CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 LUCKNOW, FEBRUARY 20 I&B ministry issues warning on ‘vulgar content’ amid Allahbadia row EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 20 AMID THE row over podcasterinfluencer Ranveer Allahbadia’s remarks on a YouTube show, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has warned OTT (over-the-top) platforms and their self-regulatory bodies to strictly adhere to the Code of Ethics prescribed under the IT Rules-2021, underlining the need to ensure age-based classification of content. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court, while referring to the Allahbadia case, had asked whether the government intended to do something about obscenityinsocialmediacontent, sayingthat“otherwise,wearenot going to leave this vacuum”. In an advisory dated February 19, the I&B Ministry said it had received complaints about the “spread of obscene, pornographic and vulgar content by certain publishers of OTT platforms and social media”. It warned such platforms to “not transmit any content which is prohibited by law (and) undertake age-based classification of content”. The ministry asked these platforms to adhere to the Code of Ethics and implement “access Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath with Finance Minister Suresh Khanna before the tabling of the state Budget in the Assembly, in Lucknow on Thursday. Vishal Srivastav FULL COVERAGE PAGES 3 & 4 Budget, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath dedicated it to “Sanatan culture”, saying it was aligned with the principles of 'Sarve Bhavantu Sukhinah' (happiness for all). "It focuses on the upliftmentofyouth,women,and farmers, with a clear vision inspired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's priority for the deprived sections of the society," said Adityanath. In his Budget speech, the Finance Minister said that while theoutlayhasbeenincreasedby 9.8% — up from Rs 7,36,437 crore of last year — that included new schemes worth Rs 24,863.57 crore—thefiscaldeficithasbeen curtailed to 2.97 per cent of the state Gross Domestic Product (GSDP), and noted that it remained within the prescribed FRBM limit of 3 per cent. Khanna said the revenue expenditure has been pegged at Rs5.83lakhcroreandthecapital CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 ‘Very, very disturbing’: SC stays Lokpal decision to probe HC judges ANANTHAKRISHNAN G NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 20 CALLING IT “something very, very disturbing”, the Supreme Court Thursday stayed the Lokpal’s January 27 order which held it had the power to look into complaints against sitting judges of High Courts. The top court had taken suo motu cognizance of the January 27 order and listed it for hearing beforeabenchheadedbyJustice B R Gavai and also comprising Justices Surya Kant and A S Oka. “Something very, very disturbing,”JusticeGavaisaidasthe bench issued notice to the Centre, Lokpal and the complainant in the matter. It directed its registrar judicial “to mask the identity of the complainant and serve him through the Registrar Judicial of the High Court where the complainantresides”.Itinjunctedthe complainantfromdisclosingthe nameof thejudgeagainstwhom the complaint had been filed, or from disclosing contents of the complaint. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Coach Gopichand’s reality check for middle-class parents: Investing everything in sport is big risk PAGE 1 ANCHOR SHIVANI NAIK MUMBAI, FEBRUARY 20 “ALL I’M saying is, don’t go all in, hoping they will be the next Sachin and earn Rs 200 crore. It won’t happen 99 per cent of the time.” That’s the reality check PullelaGopichand—India’sbadminton national head coach and the man credited with shepherdingmanysuccessfulcareers, fromSainaNehwaltoPVSindhu and Kidambi Srikanth — has for parentsinasportslandscaperiddled with uncertainties. In an interview to The Indian Express, Gopichand, the man responsible for making India a badminton powerhouse, spoke of the realities of life that even the most elite of India’s athletes (barring,possibly,thecricketers) face when they step out of their brightly lit sports arenas — from the shrinking of employment options that offer financial mobilitytothelackof growthinjobs under the sports quota and the prevalence of casual disrespect at the workplace. “SomeonelikeTanishaCrasto Pullela Gopichand with badminton stars Kidambi Srikanth, P V Sindhu and Saina Nehwal. Express file (Top 30 in badminton mixed doubles) or Treesa Jolly (women’s doubles Top 10) are giving it their all. But when they come and ask me, ‘koi job hai?’,it saddens me. Treesa is two-time All England semi-finalist, but if they still have to think ‘I need a job’,andjobsareelusiveanddisappearing, then something is majorly wrong. Even top players... Lakshya Sen (World Championshipbronzemedalist) gotajobonlyayear-and-half ago. SatwikReddy-ChiragShetty(formerworldNo1s)alsohadtowin manytitlesbeforetheywereconsideredforjobs,”Gopichandsaid. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Lucknow