The Editorial Page: Energy transition will need more than chasing the sun or the wind 10 SATURDAY, JANUARY 3, 2026 JOURNALISM of COURAGE kOLkATA, LATE CITy, 18 PAgES ₹6.00 (₹12 in North East states, ₹20 in Andaman) 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 Grokuseagainst 10 DEAD fROM CONTAMINATED DRINKING WATER women:UnionIT MinistryseeksX replyin3days BOARD Of TRADE MEETING Behind Indore deaths, civic collapse, health Exports hurt: system struggling with deluge of patients States flag Soumyarendra Barik New Delhi, January 2 TAKING NOTE of artificial intelligence service Grok being abused to generate objectionable pictures and videos of women, without their consent, the government has sent a missive to social media platformX, saying it was not adhering to the country’s laws. Raising red flags over “serious failure” in enforcement of safeguards, it has sought information within 72hoursabouttechnicaldetails related to Grok’s actions. “Grok AI developed by you and integrated and made available on the X platform, is being misused by users to create fake accounts to host, generate, publish or share obscene images or videos of women in a derogatoryorvulgarmannerin order to indecently denigrate them,” the IT Ministry said in the notice sent Friday to X’s chief compliance officer. The government said the service was being used by people to target women, who host or publish their images or videos, through prompts, image manipulation and synthetic outputs, and said “such conduct reflects a serious failure of platform-level safeguardsandenforcementmechanisms, and amounts to gross misuse of artificial intelligence technologies in violation of applicable laws”. This, the IT Ministry said, is being viewed with “grave concern” as it could violate the dignity, privacy and safety of women and children, “normalising sexual harassment and exploitation in digital spaces, and undermining the statutory due diligence framework applicable to intermediaries operating in India”. It has directed X to submit a detailed action taken report within 72 hours, covering specific technical and organisational measures adopted by X in relation to Grok AI, the role and oversight exercised by its India chief compliance officer, and action taken by the company against offending content, users and accounts. HC directs supply of water through tankers Over 66,000 screened; many first rushed to small clinics barely equipped to deal with crisis Anand Mohan J New Delhi, January 2 Anand Mohan J New Delhi, January 2 THE SURGE began as a trickle assixpatientswereadmittedat Bhagirathpura’sUrbanPrimary HealthCentreonDecember28. Within48hours,thattricklebecame a deluge as outpatient clinicssawnumbersjumpfrom 129 to over 300 in a single day. Within a week, a hurriedly Residents affected by the contaminated water at Bhagirathpura in Indore on Friday. PTI BJP UNDER FIRE, CM STEPS IN, PAGE 7 mobilised army of health workers had screened 66,107 people across nearly 13,000 households. These were the scenes playing out in a densely populated neighbourhood in Indore, which has time and again topped the rankings of Indian cities for its cleanliness and management.Exceptthistime, the contamination of drinking waterbywastefromatoilethad »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 HEARINGApublicinterestlitigation in connection with the deaths linked to contaminated drinking water in Indore’s Bhagirathpura, the Madhya PradeshHighCourthasordered the municipal corporation to supplyadditionalwatertankers and urged authorities to “uphold the beauty of Indore”. ADivisionBenchofJustices Dwarkadhish Bansal and RajendraKumarVanidirectedthe municipal corporation and the Business as Usual By EP UNNY Exporters say raw materials 15-20% more expensive than global prices Ravi Dutta Mishra E. New Delhi, January 2 »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Woman student dead: 4 seniors, professor booked in Himachal Saurabh Parashar Shimla, January 2 FOUR WOMEN students of a government college in Himachal Pradesh’s Dharamshala havebeenbookedonchargesof ragging and voluntarily causing hurt while a professor has been booked for sexual harassment of a 19-year-old student who died on December 26, police said Friday. The19-year-olddiedduring treatment at a hospital in Ludhiana, Punjab, and an FIR was registered Thursday based on a complaint by her father. The man alleged his daughter was harassed and assaulted by three senior students on September 18 last year and the college professor “indulged in »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Magh Mela Begins Today facility and testing gaps ExplainEd IT’SNOTjusthighUStariffsthat arehurtingexports.Costlierraw Feedback from materials,shortageoftestingfastates, exporters cilities to ensure products meet global quality standards, and IN THE Board of Trade meetlack of adequate shipping con- ing, representatives from tainers are all leading to loss of states and the industry, as competitiveness of goods ex- well as key Central minisports,UnionCommerceandIn- tries, provide the Commerce dustryMinistrysaidinresponse Ministry with specific inputs toanRighttoInformation(RTI) to boost exports and trade. In November, more than 120 application. These challenges were representatives provided flagged by exporters in a meet- suggestions on the hurdles ingoftheBoardofTradechaired they faced. byUnionCommerceandIndustryMinisterPiyush Goyal on Novem2025, have damyour right ber 25. The BoT is pened exports, and an advisory body have triggered canand suggests meacellations in orders AN EXPRESS RTI suresrelatedtoforand delayed payAPPLICATION eign trade policy ment. There are and procedural also worries that simplifications to boost trade. these could result in orders The Indian Express had sought moving to its competitors such thedetailsoftheBoTmeetingin as Bangladesh, Vietnam its RTI application. and China. TheBoTmeetinghappened Exports dipped in October, in the backdrop of slowing ex- but jumped 19 per cent in Noports due to the steep US tariffs vemberdrivenbygrowthinexof 50 per cent, and both coun- ports of products that remain tries failing to conclude a trade outside the tariff net. Labourdeal till the fall of 2025. India intensive goods, however, risk was one of the first countries to losing market share as shipinitiate trade talks with the US ments of garments, footwear whenPrimeMinisterNarendra and other products are being Modi visited Washington in replaced. New Delhi is aggresFebruary sively pushing for newer marlast year. kets and has signed as many as The steep US tariffs, which three free trade agreements, came into effect on August 27, »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 to know ‘Ever seen dead walking ramp?’: Abhishek kicks off ‘Abar Jitbe Podium to playground: How big medals fuelled Bangla’ yatra with poser to EC »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Boats anchored at the Sangam in Prayagraj on Friday, a day before the start of the annual Magh Mela. PTI excellence in javelin, shooting, badminton Pal. A former 400m runner, Pal spotted Misti during the pandemic lockdown and convinced Sanjay to let him coach his daughter free of cost. “And I madehimapromise—tomake Misti an ‘India’ athlete,” Pal says. “Like Neeraj Chopra.” Big jumps in disciplines where Indians emerged as world beaters; in javelin, 125% spike in women’s participation Mihir Vasavda Mumbai, January 2 AT JUST 12, Misti Karmakar’s days began before dawn. By 3.30 am, she was on her bike, pedalling 4 km through the silent streets of West Bengal’s Malda, a javelin in tow, to write her story in the morning sky. Raising an athlete daughter l was a struggle for Sanjay Karmakar, a hawker at the Malda railway station. On a good day, he would earn Rs 500; just enough to feed the family and keep hope flickering. But when it came to Misti’s future, there would be no compromise. “She comes from a very modest background but is rich intalent,”saysMisti’scoachAsit »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 THE BIG PICTURE Participation in National Javelin Day, to celebrate Neeraj Chopra’s Olympics gold, has grown from 700 in 2022 to 4,974 in 2025. AP FILE As champions rise, a wave follows P 8 MP dares CEC: ‘This time I went toDelhi,butwhat’ll you do when CM comes next time’ Atri Mitra Kolkata, January 2 TRINAMOOLCONGRESSgeneral secretary Abhishek BanerjeeonFridaystartedhismonthlong'AbarJitbeBangla'(Bengal Will Win Again) yatra from Baruipur of West Bengal's South 24 Parganas district, targeting the Election Commission over the issue of “flesh-and-blood” TMC General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee during a rally in Baruipur of South 24 Parganas district on Friday. @AITC people being declared dead in the draft voter list during the SpecialIntensiveRevision(SIR) exercise in the state. Withthestateheadedforthe »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 GALAXY FROGS LIVE EXCLUSIVELY UNDER ROTTEN LOGS IN KERALA’S WESTERN GHATS 7 of world’s rarest frogs presumed dead, study blames rise in photo tourism Alind Chauhan appearing. According to the study, a group of seven galaxy frogs IT MAY be no bigger than a fin- vanished, all likely to be dead, gertip, but it appears to carry after multiple photographers thecosmosonitsback.Itsshiny descended on their habitat, black skin is dotted with pale causing disturbances and beblue speckles, resembling a havioural changes that could clear night sky studded with have disrupted their feeding stars. There are also dashes of and breeding success. Thereport,titled‘Unethical orangepatterns,reminiscentof luminoussupernova wildlife photograpagE 1 phy imperils the explosions. Galaxy frogs Western Ghats endemic galaxy frog, (Melanobatrachus indicus) are one of the rarest Melanobatrachus indicus Bedand most dazzling amphibians dome, 1878’, was published in in the world that live exclus- the journal Herpetology Notes ively under rotten logs in Ke- on December 17, 2025. The rala’s Western Ghats. However, study was authored by K P the elusive species is now dis- Rajkumar, Benjamin Tapley, New Delhi, January 2 anchor Jyoti Das and Sandeep Das — all of them fellows at the Zoological Society of London — andPSEasa,thechairpersonof Thrissur-basedAranyakamNatureFoundation,anon-government organisation working for biodiversity conservation. Although galaxy frogs were first discovered in 1878, not much is known about them since they are difficult to find. Measuring between 2 cm and 3.5 cm, these frogs do not produce sounds. Scientists believe they use their spots to communicate,makingexistingdata about their population and breeding behaviour deficient. The frogs are already listed as vulnerable to extinction by Shola National Park in 2021. The case of missing galaxy frogs A galaxy frog (Melanobatrachus indicus). WIkIMEDIA COMMONS the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Among major threats to these creatures are the conversionofforestareastofarmland, firewood collection and land- slides. However, in recent years, photo tourism has emergedasanewdangertogalaxy frogs, especially after they were designated as the flagship species of Kerala’s Mathikettan In March 2020, Rajkumar, the lead author of the latest report, and his team discovered seven galaxy frogs in a forest patch in the Western Ghats. The researchers had been visiting the area as part of a programme to monitor these amphibians since 2019, with approval from the Kerala forests department. The Covid-19 pandemic broke out soon after their discovery. Even as the researchers couldnotreturntotheareadue to the pandemic, hordes of photographers landed at the Kolkata site between June 2020 and April2021.“Thephotographers were familiar with the microhabitatofthespeciesfrompublicationsandlocaltrackers,and overturned many logs whilst searching for the species,” the study said. When Rajkumar and his team finally revisited the spot in August 2021, the logs under which the frogs had been discovered earlier had been displaced and the vegetation trampled. The galaxy frogs had vanished. A local informant told the researchersthatphotographers often captured the frogs with their bare hands and moved them to moss or other logs for “morepicturesquebackdrops”. The amphibians were exposed to high-powered camera flashesfornearlyfourhoursper session, according to the study. The informant told the group that two of these frogs had died during these marathon photography sessions, a claim that Rajkumar and his team could not verify. The researchers returned to the site in November 2021 and May 2022, but never saw the galaxy frogs again. All of them are presumed dead. Perils of wildlife photography According to the paper, »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2