DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE MONDAY, MARCH 24, 2025, KOLKATA, LATE CITY, 14 PAGES BY UNNY THE WORLD ON AGENDA: UPGRADING INDIA-CHINA BILATERAL ECONOMIC RELATIONSHIP US tariffs looming, India looks at easing non-trade barriers, relaxing Chinese FDI Dialling down of border tensions has yielded space to promote trade, say officials SANDEEP SINGH & ANIL SASI MUMBAI, NEW DELHI, MARCH 23 TURKEY COURT JAILS ISTANBUL MAYOR ON GRAFT CHARGES ISRAELI STRIKE KILLS HAMAS LEADER PAGE 10 WITH SOME dialling down of tensionsbetweenIndiaandChina along the border, policy makers aremoreopentoupgradingbilat- INDIA-CHINA BILATERAL TRADE Year India’s export Change to China in % India’s import Change from China in % (Figures in USD billion) Trade deficit Total trade Change in % 2020 18.95 10.69% 58.71 -14.1% 39.76 77.66 -9.14% 2021 23.05 21.64% 87.65 49.29% 64.6 110.7 42.54% 6.4% 2022 15.15 -34.27% 102.63 17.09% 87.48 117.78 2023 16.23 7.13% 99.59 -2.96% 83.36 115.82 -1.66% 2024* 8.46 -9.23% 50.35 -9.02% 41.89 58.81 *Jan-Jul -9.05% Source: Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce and Industry; Embassy of India in Beijing eraleconomicrelationshipsnow. Itisbeingviewedasanopportune time, particularly when US PresidentDonaldTrumpispush- ing India to the corner on reducing tariffs and forcing it to agree to terms set by Washington, especially on tariffs. According to sources aware of developments,discussionsare on between departments to CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Ex-minister Chandrasekhar set to be next chief of BJP’s Kerala unit E EXPLAINED BUSINESS AS USUAL `6.00 (`12 IN NORTH EAST STATES, `20 IN ANDAMAN) WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 ● Signal to US THERE IS a growing view in India that entering into a visibly closer dialogue with China on normalising business ties could send out a signal to the US and likely act as a potential hedge. Talks are on to consider diluting some of the restrictions on trade and investments put in place after the Galwan clashes in 2020. CUSTODY DISPUTE WITH HIS FATHER Indian-origin woman slits 11-yr-old son’s throat after taking him to Disneyland Immediate challenge will be the local body polls in October PRESS TRUST OF INDIA NEW YORK, MARCH 23 LIZ MATHEW NEW DELHI, MARCH 23 THE BJP has decided to appoint former Union IT Minister and technocrat-turned-politician Rajeev Chandrasekhar as the next president of its Kerala unit. The BJP’s core committee took the decision at a meeting in ThiruvananthapuramonSunday that was attended by the party’s Kerala in-charge Prakash Javadekar and co-in-charge AparjitaSarangi,aLokSabhaMP. “The decision was unanimous,” said a source. Chandrasekhar’s name is expected to be announced officiallyatapartyconclavethatwill be held at the Uday Palace Convention Centre in Kowdiar, Thiruvananthapuram, on Monday. Union Minister and senior BJP leader Pralhad Joshi, whoisinchargeof theparty’sorganisational elections in Kerala, is expected to make the announcement at the meeting. “I am pleasantly surprised anddeeplyhonouredthatallmy colleagues in the Kerala BJP considered me worthy of being the partypresident,”Chandrasekhar, 60, told The Indian Express after the core committee meeting. Chandrasekhar impressed party leaders with his performanceinlastyear'sLokSabhaelections that he lost narrowly to Congress’s Shashi Tharoor in Thiruvananthapurambyanarrow CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 GOVT & POLITICS INVADER MINDSET THREAT TO INDIA: HOSABALE PAGE 3 GROUND UNDER THEIR FEET PULLED AWAY A woman and her daughter weep in front of their crumbled house in Belgachia Vagar in Howrah district on Sunday, days after land subsidence in the area left several homes damaged and water and power supplies disrupted. Partha Paul PAGE4 J&J payout plan for faulty implant victims wasn’t fair, so Govt rejected it: Book ANONNA DUTT NEW DELHI, MARCH 23 EVEN AS nearly 4,000 patients awaitjusticefromtheDelhiHigh Court in the form of compensation from Johnson & Johnson (J&J) over faulty hip implants that severely impaired their health, the pharma giant had proposed a payout formula to the Government during a closed-door meeting over five years ago. That plan was shot down — it did not take into account the severity of a patient’s disability caused by the implant. This undisclosed episode in the “ASR implant scandal”, which has resonated in pharma markets across the world over the past decade, has been brought to light in The Johnson & Johnson Files: The Indian Secrets ofaGlobalGiant(Juggernaut),au- The book by The Indian Express National Health Editor, Kaunain Sheriff M thored by The Indian Express National Health Editor, Kaunain Sheriff M. According to the book, J&J’s proposal was rejected by the Government.Overamonthlater, the Government put forward its own proposal based on the ex- tent of disability, and held the company liable to pay amounts ranging from Rs 30 lakh to Rs 1.2 crore. This prompted J&J to approach the court, where the matter is currently being heard. The new book is based on a series of investigative reports that was published from August 2018 in The Indian Express on J&J’s ASR hip implants. These reports revealed the key findings of a Government committee: J&J failed to inform the national regulator about the exact number of patients with implants, adverse reports following such surgeries and corrective procedures performed — and that over 3,600 such patients remained untraceable. InNovember2018,TheIndian Express,incollaborationwiththe International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), It’s not about NEP...can you teach enough children one language properly in UP, Bihar? PALANIVEL THIAGA RAJAN TAMIL NADU MINISTER FOR IT AND DIGITAL SERVICES PAGE 7 AN INDIAN-ORIGIN woman has been charged with allegedly murdering her 11-year-old son after a three-day vacation to Disneyland. Saritha Ramaraju, 48, has been charged with one felony count of murder for slitting her son's throat, killing the boy after they went on a vacation to Disneyland during a custody visit. She has also been charged withonefelonyenhancementof personaluseof aweapon,aknife. She faces a maximum sentence of 26 years to life if convictedonallcharges,astatement from the Office of the District Attorney, Orange County, California said Friday. Ramaraju, who moved out of California after divorcing the boy's father in 2018, was staying with her son at a motel in Santa Ana for a custody visit. During the visit, she bought three-day passes to Disneyland for herself and her son. On March 19, the day Ramaraju was scheduled to check out of the motel and return the boy to his father, she called 911 at 9.12 am to report that she had killed her son and taken pills to kill herself. Santa Ana police arrived at the motel and found the young boy dead on the bed in a room among Disneyland souvenirs. It appeared the boy had been dead for several hours before his mothercalled911,thestatement said. The boy was scheduled to bereturnedtohisfatherthatday. A large kitchen knife was found inside the motel room which was purchased the day CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 WEST BENGAL 18-YEAR-OLD VIRAT KOHLI FAN ARRESTED FOR ‘PITCH INVASION’ AT EDEN GARDENS PAGE 4 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 2023-24 STATE DEPARTMENT DATA F-1 visa denials surge to 10-year high, US rejects 41% of foreign student applicants ABHINAYA HARIGOVIND NEW DELHI, MARCH 23 STUDENT VISA denials by the United States (US) soared to a decade-high last fiscal year (October 2023 to September 2024) with 41% of F-1 visa applications from across all countries turned down — almost double the rejection rate of the 2014 fiscal year — shows an analysis of State Department data by The Indian Express. In 2023-24, (the US government's fiscal year runs from October 1 to September 30), the US received a total of 6.79 lakh applications for F-1 visas, of which 2.79 lakh (41%) were denied. This is an increase from 2022-23, when 2.53 lakh applications (36%) of a total of 6.99 lakh were turned down. While the US State Departmentdidnotsharedataon the country-wise refusal rate for F-1 visas, The Indian Express had reportedonDecember9lastyear that the number of student visas issued to Indians in the first nine monthsof2024haddecreasedby 38% as compared to the corresponding period in 2023. According to the data, the percentage of student visa denials increased even as the absolute number of applications from across all countries dipped over the last decade. During this period, the total number of applications peaked at 8.56 lakh in 2014-15, but saw a steady dip in the next few years, till it hit a low of 1.62 lakh in the Covid year of 2019-2020. Post-Covid, while the number of applications steadily increased, there was a 3% decrease in 2023-24 — from 6.99 lakh in 2022-23 to 6.79 lakh in 202324.Asaresult,theabsolutenumber of visa denials in the last fiscal year (2.79 lakh) represents thehighestpercentageinatleast a decade. A total of 4.01 lakh F-1 visas were issued in 2023-24, down from 4.45 lakh the previous year. The F-1 visa is a non-immigrant category for students attendingacademicinstitutionsin theUS,whiletheM-1visacovers vocational and non-academic programmes.TheIndianExpress analysis focussed on F-1 visas, which account for over 90 per centof USstudentvisasannually. Asked what explains the rise in F-1 visa rejections, a Department of State spokesperson told The Indian Express: “All visa adjudications are adjudicated on a case-by-case basis, in accordance with the provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) and applicable federal regulations.” The State Department did not share data on the countrywise refusal rate for F1 visas, and said they “do not publish data to the granularity requested”. The spokesperson also pointed to a CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Zafar Ali being taken into police custody, Sunday. ANI 2024 SAMBHAL VIOLENCE Mosque panel head held; was to appear before judicial panel: brother AMIT SHARMA & MANISH SAHU MEERUT,LUCKNOW,MARCH23 POLICE IN western UP’s Sambhal onSundayarrestedZafarAli,chairman of the Shahi Jama Masjid managing committee, accusing himofplayingan“incendiaryrole” in the violence that erupted on November 24 over a court-orderedsurveyof themosque. Sambhal SP Krishna Kumar said, “We have gathered evidencethatheplayedanincendiary role during the violence last year. He was picked up by the policefromhishouseinSambhal on Sunday morning and was interrogated at Kotwali police station by senior policemen before being arrested.” However, Zafar Ali’s brother Tahir alleged that Zafar was arrested to prevent him from appearing before the judicial com- mission set up to investigate the violence in which four people were killed. Ahead of the arrest, personnel from the Rapid Action Force (RAF) and the Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) were deployed in strength around the mosque and near Zafar’s residence. The house is just 100 metres from the mosque in Sambhal town. Zafar had previously been detainedbypoliceonNovember 25, 2024, a day after the violence outside the mosque, but was released after questioning. The 16th-century mosque has been at the centre of tensions after a petition claimed that it was the site of an ancient Hindu temple. AccordingtotheSP,Zafarhad allegedlyinformed“miscreants” about the survey team’s visits to the mosque on November 19 and 24, leading to protests. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 This teen archer’s target: Beat the odds, inspire others to beat her PAGE 1 ANCHOR PRITISH RAJ NEW DELHI, MARCH 23 SHEETALDEVIisonlyoneof two armless athletes to win a medal at the Paralympics. The story of this 18-year-old archer from Jammu, however, is not just aboutbeatingtheoddsandwinningmedals.Sheisalsoinspiring others in similar or more chal- lengingcircumstancestotakeup the bow — and be as good as her. On Sunday, Sheetal edged past17-year-oldPayalNaginthe final to win gold in the 2025 Khelo India Para Games. But then,haditnotbeenforSheetal's exploits at the 2024 Paris Paralympics, where she won bronze, Payal would not have taken up the sport at all. HailingfromBalangir,atown inOdisha,Payallostallfourlimbs in an electrocution incident at the age of five. Shifted to an orphanageasayoungchild,shedid not know anything about parasports, or even what a bow and arrow looked like -- until a cry for help on social media caught the attention of Sheetal’s coach, Kuldeep Vedwan. “I had no idea what archery was when I was in Balangir. Kuldeepsirspoketomeonvideo call for the first time and then showed me videos of Sheetal didi.WhenIsawthose,Ithought I could also do something like this. Kuldeep sir gave me further motivationandsaidthatyoucan also participate in the Payal (left) and Sheetal after their event at Khelo India Para Games on Sunday. SAI Media Paralympics,” Payal said. Sheetal was born with phocomelia, a rare congenital disorder, resulting in the absence of arms.Vedwandevelopedatechnique for her to take up archery; she picks the bow using her legs and then uses her mouth to fix the latch attached to her shoulder to aim and shoot. At the same academy, Payal was taught the basics of the sport using the same technique but with prosthetic legs. “I saw Sheetal didi picking the bow with both her legs and thought how would I do it as I don't have legs. But then the prosthetic legs came in and I practised on them to pick the bow,” Payal said. Payal was an instant success on the national circuit. In her first-ever tournament, the ParaArchery National Championships in Jaipur earlier this year, she beat Sheetal to win gold. On Sunday, it was Sheetal's turn to come out on top. “Payal played very well and I am not surprised that she has come so farinjusttwoyears,”Sheetalsaid. Kuldeep is bullish about Payal’s chances at the international level. “The world has only seen armless archers but now it is time for everyone to witness an archer without any limbs. We want to go ahead and compete in international tournaments as I think Payal is ready for that level,” he said, speaking ahead of the final. Asked how it feels to inspire others to take up the sport , Sheetal said, “It feels good. I am glad Payal took up the sport. When I saw her shoot first, I was CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Kolkata