The Ideas Page: Our old compass has run its course. Here’s a new one for India 11 WEDNESDAY, DEcEMBER 31, 2025 JOurnalism of COurage AhMEdABAd, lATE CITY, 24 pAGES ₹5.00 l www.indianexpress.com dA I lY F R O M : A h M E dA B A d , C h A N d I GA R h , d E l h I , J A I p U R , KO l K ATA , l U C K N O W , M U M B A I , N AG p U R , pAT N A , p U N E , vA d O dA R A dhaka annoUnCes three-day state moUrninG; Prime minister modi oFFers CondolenCes Khaleda Zia, Bangladesh’s first woman PM, dies; Jaishankar at funeral today She loomed large in history, shadow falls on Dhaka’s future too Role in struggle for democracy, contributions to nation significant, says Hasina shubhajit roy Press trust of india inside New Delhi, December 30 Dhaka, December 30 BAnGLAdesh's FIRst woman prime minister KhaledaZia,whoplayedamajorrole in restoring democracy after a period of tumultuous military rule and dominated the country's politics for decades, died tuesdayafteraprolonged illness. she was 80. "My mother is no more," Zia's elder son and Bangladesh nationalistParty's(BnP)acting chairmantriqueRahmansaid. A three-time prime minister, Zia held the position of »ContinUed on PaGe 2 Happening today lController General of Accounts to release data on the Central government’s finances, including tax collections and capital expenditure, for November. In April-October, the Centre’s fiscal deficit stood at 52.6% of the FY26 target. lamid the ongoing Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in several states including West Bengal, a 10-member delegation of the Trinamool Congress led by national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee is scheduled to meet Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar at noon. lFinanCe ministry is sched- uled to release interest rates on small savings schemes for January-March 2026. Track These and more on www.indianexpress.com Business as usual By EP UNNY naTion P 18 multi-role helicoPter dhruv makes maiden flight the deAth of Bangladesh’s first woman prime minister Khaleda Zia tuesday marks a milestone in the nation’s fraught politics and will shape the way ahead, including how it engages with India. this comes at a time of political transition as Bangladesh heads to its first elections after four decades in which both Khaleda and her rival sheikh hasina – in exile in India – will notparticipate.theirshadows, however, will undoubtedly loom large. in area Under bmC, rUlinG mahayUti has 22 assembly seats and 2 mPs; oPPosition mva has 14 and 4 resPeCtively Reality check for Mumbai civic polls: In 3 yrs, 99% of development funds went to wards under ruling alliance express investigation vallabh ozarkar Mumbai, December 30 As MuMBAI heads towards civic elections on January 15, the dice has already been loaded in favour of the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance to replicate its dominating performance in local body polls across the rest of Maharashtra. Over the past three years, more than 99 per cent of funds allotted by the Brihanmumbai Municipal corporation (BMc) for development work went to wards in constituencies represented by Mahayuti lawmakers, an investigation by The Indian Express of records obtainedundertheRighttoInformation (RtI) Act has found. the records show that between February 2023 and October 2025, more than Rs 1,490.66 crore was sanctioned by the BMc for civic development, such as road repairs, drainageupgrades,healthfacilities and neighbourhood beautification. Of this, Rs 1,476.92 crore went to areas under MLAs, MLcs and MPs from the ruling alliance of BJP, Ajit Pawar-led ncP and eknath shinde-led shiv sena, the records show. BJP lawmakers got the lion's share(Rs1076.7crore),followed bythosefromshinde'ssena(Rs 372.7 crore). Opposition got only Rs 13 cr from Rs 1,490 cr granted for local development since Feb 2023; no bias, strictly followed norms, claims Minister-in-charge injustice,bias... whyshouldour wardspaythe price:opp vallabh ozarkar Mumbai, December 30 mahayuti workers in Worli on Tuesday, the last day of filing nomination papers for the bmc elections in mumbai on January 15. AKASh pATIl l Year-wiseallocation(2023–26*) Fiscal Year Total allocation ruling alliance opposition opposition share 2023–24 ₹736.85 cr ₹727.03 cr ₹9.82 cr 1.33% 2024–25 ₹393.30 cr ₹389. 38 cr ₹3.92 cr 1% 2025–26 ₹360.51 cr (until Oct) ₹360.51 cr ₹0 cr 0% Total ₹1,476.92 cr ₹13.74 cr 0.92% ₹1,490.66 cr *NOTE: AS pER RTI REplIES dATEd OCT 16, 2025 In sharp contrast (see charts), only Rs 13.74 crore, or 0.9 per cent, was granted to the Opposition during this period — and that too to one legislator from the congress, Amin Patel, who represents Mumbadevi, a constituencyinsouthMumbai withasizablepopulationofminorities. Of the rest, all the ten MLAs from the shiv sena (uBt), two others from the congress and one from sP »ContinUed on PaGe 18 ROAdMAIntenAnce,drainageupgrade,toiletrepair,waste collection points, and benches for senior citizens. these are just some of the civic amenities for which their requests for funds were ignored by the Brihanmumbai Municipal corporation (BMc), according to Opposition legislators and parliamentarians. TheIndianExpressspoketo nine Opposition MLAs, MLcs and MPs from across Mumbai who said in one voice that their proposals were stalled despite repeated reminders, visits to wardoffices,anddirectappeals to the ruling Mahayuti alliance's Guardian Ministers who are authorised to release the funds. ‘Not one proposal approved’ sunil Prabhu, mla, shiv sena (Ubt), dindoshi “I have been following up for nearly two-and-a-half years on work that includes drain repairs, resurfacing of internal roads and fixing old public »ContinUed on PaGe 18 At PM meet, experts flag: Pvt investment, reforms, FDI outflow ‘Need AI centres of excellence, encourage return of Indian talent’ Page 16 dhaka calls its envoy to india, holds meeting E. supporters mourn the death of former bangladesh pm khaleda Zia in dhaka on Tuesday. REUTERS india boarded reForm eXPress: Pm Prime Minister narendra Modi conveyed his condolences and external Affairs Minister s Jaishankar will travel to dhaka to attend her funeral Wednesday. this is a clear signal of India’s outreach to the new political establishment in »ContinUed on PaGe 2 PM ‘concerned’ over targeting of Putin home, Ukraine says ‘disappointed’ shubhajit roy New Delhi, December 30 WIth neGOtIAtIOns between Russia and ukraine, brokered by us President donald trump, at a critical stage, Prime Minister narendra Modi weighedintuesdayonthe“targeting of the residence” of Russian President Vladimir Putin andurged“allconcerned”tobe focused on the diplomatic talks, avoiding any action that could undermine those efforts. hours later, Kyiv expressed disappointment over the statement, saying “no such attack happened”. ukraine Foreign Minister Andrii sybiha, in a post on X, said, “Almost a day passed and Russia still hasn’t provided any plausible evidence to its accusations of ukraine’s alleged ‘attack on Putin’s residence’. And they won’t. Because there’s none. no such attack happened.” “We were disappointed and concernedtoseethestatements by emirati, Indian and Pakistani sides expressing their concerns regarding the attack that neverhappened.Itisevenmore surprising given that all three statesfailedtoissueanyofficial statementswhenarealRussian missile struck the real ukrainian government building on september 7, 2025,” he said. On Monday, Moscow accused Kyiv of attacking a Presidential residence in northern Russia, an allegation that prime minister narendra modi and finance minister nirmala sitharaman during a pre-budget meeting on Tuesday. pTI aanchal magazine New Delhi, December 30 PRessInGAheAdwiththereform process by extending it to land and agriculture; rationalisationofsubsidies;tradediversification;incentivesforprivate investment, philanthropy, researchanddevelopment;along with a focus on capex and fiscal consolidation — these were some of the key suggestions made by top economists in their meeting with Prime Minister narendra Modi at the niti Aayog tuesday. technology was also in focus, with many economists suggesting setting up centres of excellence for Artificial Intelligence (AI) along with the need to take measures such as grants to support the »ContinUed on PaGe 2 How digging work at Gandhi Ashram in Gujarat threw up buried steps and a plan for preservation Work underway at sabarmati ashram in ahmedabad. ExpRESS Parimal a dabhi Ahmedabad, December 30 As the Rs 1,200-crore Gandhi Ashramredevelopmentproject progresses in the 55 acres of land, the trust in charge of the corefive-acreareaofsabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad has taken up restoration of the buildings there, including the residence of Mahatma Gandhi. Once completed, one of the major changes visitors are likely to find in the core part of the ashram is the "elevation" of Vinoba-Mira kutir, a one-room cottage where social reformer Acharya Vinoba Bhave and British-Indian author Madeleine slade (whom Gandhi rechristened as Mira Behn) lived with Gandhi, at different times between 1918 and 1933. trustee of the sabarmati Ashram Preservation and »ContinUed on PaGe 2 The Big PicTure »ContinUed on PaGe 2 Walking back to Pahalgam Page 19 more rePorts, Page 21 l nine-member commiTTee Was seT up by The governmenT for roadmap To improve sporTs governance Bindra-led panel flags gaps in sports system, presents blueprint for Olympic future Pritish raj & mihir vasavda continuity, and an absence of long-term professionalism within the sports Authority of India (sAI) and state sports deIt's OFten been said that In- partments due to “generalist dia’s athletes have won Olym- civil servants” lacking sportspic medals in spite of the sys- specific expertise. tem, not because of it. now, set up by the sports MiniswithIndiaaggressivelybidding try in August, the task force has for the 2036 Olympics, a task also made key recommendaforce headed by Beijing Games tions to fix the system. “Buildgold medallist Abhiing strong systems page 1 nav Bindra is deterand professional camined to rewrite pacityisnotseparate that script. from the goal of winIt has highlighted critical ning medals— it is central to it. gaps in Indian sports adminis- Medalsarenotproducedbytaltration in a 170-page report to ent alone,” Bindra told The Inthe Government: ad-hoc deci- dian Express. sionmaking,weakinstitutional “they are produced by ecoNew Delhi, Mumbai, December 30 anchor systems, which include athlete pathways, coaching, education, sports science competition planning, governance standards, integrity frameworksandadministrativecompetence. countries that perform consistently at the Olympics do so because they haveinvestedpatientlyinthese systems and in the people who run them,” Bindra said. “If one had to identify the most essential step that everything else depends on, it would be the professionalisation of sports administration through a clear national framework for capability, accountability, and career progression,” the ace Building strong systems, professional capacity is not separate from the goal of winning medals — it is central to it. Medals are not produced by talent alone ” abhinav bindra, BEIJING GAMES GOld MEdAllIST shooter said. the report has detailed a clear roadmap: set up a nationalcouncilforsportseducation and capacity Building under the sports Ministry “to regulate, accredit, and certify sportsadministrationtraining”. It has recommended Indiaspecific curriculum development to train future leaders, dual career pathways for athletes to transition into administrative roles, global partnership and exposure for existing administrators,andintegration of sports administration in IAs and state cadre programmes. At the same time, the report bythenine-membertaskforce, whichalsoincludesWorldAthletics vice-president Adille sumariwalla, has identified a numberofstresspoints,underlining “over-centralisation” of authority in national federations as a key concern. Additionally,ithascitedthe examples of Zimbabwean swimmer Kirsty coventry, who became the first woman presidentoftheInternationalOlympiccommitteeearlierthisyear, and World Athletics chief sebastien coe, to flag the lack of dualcareerpathwaysforIndian athletes, “resulting in them retiring without relevant skills in administration, leadership or governance”. speaking to reporters tuesday about the task force's report, sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said, “Medals don't only come with good athletes but also good governance and administration.Weformedthis task force to figure out a roadmap that can improve sports governanceinIndia...thegaps found by the committee and the roadmap suggested will be implemented along with the national sports Governance Act.” Apart from the lack of subject experts in sAI and state departments, the report has highlighted a lack of coordination »ContinUed on PaGe 2 Ahmedabad