The Editorial Page: Let players play, let diplomats do the work of diplomacy 8 THURSDAY, JANUARY 8, 2026 JOURNALISM of COURAGE MUMBAI, LATE CITY, 16 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 REg.NO. MCS/067/2018 - 20 RNI REgN. NO. 1543/57 happening today lSUPREME COURT to hear a plea filed by Gitanjali J Angmo, the wife of jailed climate activist Sonam Wangchuk, against his detention under the National Security Act. TRACK THESE AND MORE ON www.INDIANExPrEss.cOm fIRST ADVANCE ESTIMATES AHEAD Of UNION BUDGET GDP growth in FY26 expected at 7.4% despite US tariff troubles Nominal GDP growth at 5-year low of 8%: Statistics ministry data Siddharth Upasani New Delhi, January 7 126 154 192 83 INDIA’S REAL GDP growth is expected to rise sharply to 7.4 percentinthecurrentfiscal,according to the government’s first advance estimate of the number, on the back of a sharp reboundinmanufacturingsectorgrowthto7percentfrom4.5 per cent last year despite problems caused by the 50 per cent US tariffs on Indian goods. According to data released Wednesday by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), while the real GDP growth is projected to rise from 6.5 per cent in 2024-25, nominal growth — orgrowthwithoutadjustingfor price increases — is set to fall to afive-yearlowofjust8percent. The nominal GDP number willbeakeyinputincalculations E. ExPlAINED New gDP data from next month This first advance estimate will have a short shelf life because GDP data released February 27 onward will be as per a new series with a base year of 2022-23 as against 2011-12 now. Updating the base year is key to a correct picture of economy. for the upcoming Budget for 2026-27,especiallyfortabulating the growth in tax collections. Whilebroadlyinlinewithexpectations,MoSPI’sfirstadvanceestimateconfirmstheviewamong economists that growth is set to slow down in the second half of the fiscal year. The last time India’s nominal GDP growth was lower was in the pandemic year of 202021,whentheeconomyhadcontracted by 1.2 per cent. In rupee terms, the nominal GDP in 2025-26 is seen at Rs 357 lakh crore. Using the exchange rate of 89.89 per US dollar that the rupee closed Wednesday, the GDP amounts to $3.97 trillion, just short of the $4-trillion mark. According to Dharmakirti Joshi, Chief Economist of rating agency Crisil, the 60-basispoint (bps) gap between nominal and real GDP growth in 2025-26 will be the lowest since 2011-12. “Next fiscal, we expect the nominal and real growth to flip — nominal growth is expectedtorisetoclosetoitslongterm average at 10.5-11 per cent and real growth to be at 6.7 per cent,” Joshi said. »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 2.89 CRORE DELETIONS IN STATE’S DRAfT ROLL fOR CIVIC POLLS IN AMBERNATH, AKOT Fadnavis orders immediate exit BJP’s target after SIR deletions in as BJP ties up with Cong, AIMIM UP: Add 200 voters to each booth Alok Deshpande Mumbai, January 7 A DAY afteritcametolightthat BJP units had tied up with the Congress at Ambernath in Thane and the AIMIM at Akot in Akola to gain majority control in the two local bodies following the municipal elections last month, Maharashtra Chief MinisterDevendraFadnavisdirected his party to break both alliances while saying they were “not acceptable”. At the same time, the Congress dissolved the party's city unit in Ambernath, about 60 km from Mumbai, and suspended its chief Pradip Patil while the AIMIM warned its corporatorsinAkot,whichfalls in the Vidarbha region, of legal action if they did not pull out from the BJP alliance. »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Threat, assault, murders: poll season turns violent Mohamed Thaver & Manish Pathak Mumbai, January 7 MAHARASHTRA CONGRESS vice-president Hidayat Patel, who was stabbed in Akola district’s Akot city, succumbed to his injuries while undergoing treatmentWednesdaymorning. Police have arrested Ubed Patel, 25, who was seen on CCTV camera committing the crime. Police said the accused, who belongs to the same community as the senior Congress leader, blamed Hidayat Patel for the murder of a relative in 2019, and there was animosity between the two families. Since local body elections were held in December, incidents of threats to assault to murdershasbeenincreasingin Maharashtra,wheremunicipal corporationelectionsarescheduled on January 15 — a shift fromthetraditionaltrendinthe state where much violence is not reported during elections. Incidents that happened within 48 hours till Wednesday evening include that of stabbing of Hidayat Patel in Akola on Tuesday, knife attack on a Shiv Sena candidate in Mumbai on Wednesday, mob attack onAIMIMleaderImtiazJaleel’s vehicle in Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar on Wednesday, an »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 ‘No due process’: Vaishno Devi medical college got nod 4 months before NMC withdrew permission College has faced protests against admission to Muslim students 28, not 68: US President’s claim on Apaches for India not correct Shubhajit Roy New Delhi, January 7 US PRESIDENT Donald Trump’s latest remark claiming “Prime Minister Modi came to seeme,‘Sir,mayIseeyouplease’. Yes”hasledtoasenseofdisquiet in Delhi, which has chosen not to issue an official response, at least for the time being. Whilethisisnotthefirsttime that Trump has made commentstargetingIndia,Delhihas been restrained in its response. On Tuesday, Trump said Modi is “not that happy with me” because of the tariffs Washington imposed on Delhi over its purchaseofRussianoil—the25per cent penalty took the tariffs on Business as Usual By EP UNNY India to 50 per cent. Trump also said India told him it has been waiting five years for the Apache helicopters. “We are changing it… India ordered 68 Apaches,” he said. In Delhi, government sourcescontradictedtheclaim, sayingIndiahasonlybought28 ApachehelicoptersfromtheUS — 22 for the IAF, 6 for the Indian Army. And that all these helicoptershadbeendelivered. The first deal of 22 Apache helicopters was signed during the Obama administration in September 2015, and were delivered during the Trump administration’s first term. »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 ThE wOrlD PAgE 12 CM, state BJP chief hold meeting with ministers, MPs, MLAs, MLCs Lalmani Verma Lucknow, January 7 HOURS AFTER the Election Commission (EC) released the draft electoral roll of UP with 2.89 crore deletions, comprising18.70%oftheelectorate,the top leadership of the state's rulingBJPmettoshareitsconcern exclusive U.S. SEIzES RUSSIA-FLAggED OIL TANkER, ANgERS MOScOW Midnight demolitionin Delhitriggers violence,5held After the anti-encroachment drive near the Faiz-e-Elahi mosque in Delhi's Turkman gate area. GAJENDRA YADAV Alok Singh, Drishti Jain & Sohini Ghosh New Delhi, January 7 Arun Sharma Katra (J&K), January 7 THENATIONALMedicalCommission’s decision to withdraw permission to run an MBBS courseattheShriMataVaishno DeviInstituteofMedicalExcellence (SMVDIME) flies in the faceofitsowngreensignalfrom just four months ago, when the institute was given a go-ahead followingextensiveinspections and due diligence, officials say. Officials from the institute and from central health bodies also said the decision appeared According to the EC, 12.55 crore voters made it to UP’s draft roll while the state topped thetotalnumberofdeletionsin the country, mainly due to over the large ExPrEss electors being number of exclumarked as desions ahead of Asceased, shifted, sembly elections absent or enrolled next year. The top brass also gave the state's party at multiple places. Pointing out that there are leaders a target: get at least 200 voters added at every polling 1.77 lakh polling booths after boothbeforetheelectoralrollis the recent rationalisation »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 finalised. Disquiet on Trump’s PM remark, but Delhi chooses not to react Students outside the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Institute of Medical Excellence on Wednesday. ARUN SHARMA MORE REpORTS, pAgE 7 to be made in “undue haste” and without “due process”. “Colleges are usually served a show cause notice based on the onlinedataorasurpriseinspection. Then, a decision is taken based on the reply, followed by a first appeal before the NMC and a second appeal before the health ministry. Officials from the regulatory body confirmed »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 HOURS AFTER the Delhi High Court declined a plea for an interim stay on its proposed action, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi moved in with bulldozerspastmidnightTuesday to raze encroachments next to a mosque near Turkman Gate in central Delhi. Violence erupted about half an hour after bulldozers started razing the illegal structures on public land around the Faiz-eElahi Mosque. Some 30-35 people who had gathered there raisedslogansandthrewstones. »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 l CM pROMISES SpEEDY TRIAL, LAW AgAINST ‘HONOUR KILLINg’ ‘Never thought caste could make a father kill’: Shockwaves of a death in Karnataka Kiran Parashar Vivekananda: “I dreamt that my child may some day play with Manya’s father. I MANYA’S FATHER and his never thought that caste could had been friends for long, says make a father kill his own Vivekananda Dhoddamani, daughter.” Caste violence, his voice breaking. PAGE 1 even ‘honour killThat is what bewilders the 22ings’, are not new to year-old Dalit youth Karnataka. Howthe most, a fortnight after Ma- ever, the circumstances of Manya’s Lingayat family allegedly nya’s killing have shaken the killed the pregnant 20-year- state, prompting protests by old. Dalit organisations and conFriendship was okay; with demnationbyLingayatgroups, marriage, Vivekananda and whichhelda‘RepentanceDay’. Manya's father PrakashManya crossed a line. Says Bengaluru, January 7 anchor Vivekananda Dhoddamani with Manya; she was killed on Dec 21 gouda Patil and relatives Veeranagouda Patil and Arunagouda Patil are under arrest for her killing, charged for murder and under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. On January 4, Chief MinisterSiddaramaiahannounced a fast-track court for a speedy trial in the case, as well as appointmentofaprivateprosecutor, to ensure there is no delay in trying the case. Siddaramaiah said his government wouldalsodiscussaspeciallaw to curb ‘honour killing’. »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Mumbai