WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM COMING OF AGE India’s senior citizens banish a taboo, embrace the growing industry of retirement homes and elderly community living KOLKATA, FEBRUARY 15, 2026 SCREEN Director Anubhuti Kashyap and actors Konkona Sensharma and Pratibha Ranta on Accused and making characters seen and heard LATE CITY 12+4 PAGES ₹7.00 (₹12 IN NORTHEAST STATES,₹20 IN ANDAMAN) D A I L Y F R O M : A H M E D A B A D , happening today lNAVY’S EXERCISE MILAN begins in Visakhapatnam. This year, it is being held simultaneously with International Fleet Review and Indian Ocean Naval Symposium Conclave of Chiefs. lKERALA CM PINARAYI Vijayan will inaugurate his government's Vision 2031 International Conference on Development and Democracy. TRACK THESE AND MORE ON www.INDIANExPrEss.cOm InBengal,SIR hearings end, nearly5lakh didn’tturnup Atri Mitra Kolkata, February 14 AS HEARINGS for the “logical discrepancies”, a part of the SpecialIntensiveRevision(SIR) ofelectoralrolls,formallycame toanendinWestBengalonSaturday, sources in the Election Commissionsaidthatnamesof another 4.98 lakh people will likely be deleted from the state’s voters list since they did not turn up for the hearings. Also, the scrutiny of the documents provided by those summoned for the hearings so far shows that 1.63 lakh people failed to show proper documents, thereby their names are most likely to be deleted, said sources in the EC. In the first phase of the SIR, names of 58 lakh electors – nearly8percentofthetotal7.66 crorevotersinthe2025electoral roll — were deleted in the state on grounds of being absent, shifted, dead and duplicate. “So far, in the second phase of the SIR (in Bengal), 6.61 lakh »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 C H A N D I G A R H , D E L H I , J A I P U R , K O L K A T A , L U C K N O W , ‘GUPTA WORKED WITH VIKASH YADAV, A GOVT EMPLOYEE’ Pannun plot: In Nikhil Gupta’s guilty plea, US Justice Dept names R&AW Hetookblame onhimself… wantedtoendit: Gupta’sfamily No MEA response; Gupta faces up to 40 yrs in jail on 3 charges, including murder-for-hire Ritika Chopra Mumbai, February 14 Divya A New Delhi, February 14 THE US Department of Justice (DoJ) has confirmed that Indian national Nikhil Gupta, charged in the 2023 assassination plot against Khalistani separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun in New York, has pleaded guilty — and said that his sentence will be pronounced on May 29. The DoJ also said that Gupta(54)workedatthe“direction” of Vikash Yadav, “employed by the Government of India’s Cabinet Secretariat, »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 A photo of Nikhil Gupta posted by the US DEA on X. @DEANEWYORKDIV Will keep our interests in mind on foreign policy, says Rahman ExPrEss IN DHAKA Shubhajit Roy February 14 IN HIS first remarks since winningthenationalelectionswith a landslide majority, Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) chief Tarique Rahman, who is tipped to become the Prime BNP chief Tarique Rahman, who is set to be Bangladesh PM, in Dhaka on Saturday. AP Minister, underlined Saturday that he would keep in mind the “interests of Bangladesh” and its people while deciding his foreign policy. Responding to a question about former PM Sheikh Hasina’s extradition request from Dhaka, Rahman said it would “depend on the legal process”. On the future of Awami League supporters, who have been facing legal cases and alleged harassment over the past 18 months since the Hasina NIKHIL GUPTA’S decision to plead guilty in a United States court in the murder-for-hire conspiracy case linked to Khalistani separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun in New York was amovetobringanendtoa“long and exhausting” legal battle for himself and his family, sources close to Gupta’s family told The Indian Express Saturday. Whilethefamilyhadaninkling that such a step could be taken, they learnt of Gupta’s final decision only through his lawyer on Friday, within hours of which the news was already »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 ThE wOrlD pagE 8 EuropE lEadErs say NavalNy was poisoNEd by KrEmliN M U M B A I , N A G P U R , INDIA AI Impact Summit AN EXPRESS SERIES C Raja Mohan New Delhi, February 14 ASNATIONALleadersandglobal entrepreneurs gather here this week for the India AI Impact Summit (February 16-20) todebatetheimpactofArtificial Intelligenceon“people,planet, and progress”, the mix of anxietyandanticipationishard to miss. The spectacular rise in AI-driven tech valuations over E. »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 External Affairs Minister’s remarks after Rubio says US got India’s ‘commitment’ to stop buying ‘additional Russian oil’ Divya A New Delhi, February 14 EXTERNAL AFFAIRS Minister S Jaishankar underlined Saturday that India remains committed to strategic autonomy and will make “independent” choices which may not agree with someone’s thinking. He said this when asked if the recent trade agreement with the United States and its termson"weaning"offRussian oil didn't undermine India's strategic autonomy. Jaishankar’s remarks come as the government faces sharp attacks from the Opposition, whichhasaccuseditof“surrendering” to Washington in the wakeoftheinterimtradeagreement. Speaking at the Munich Security Conference in a session with his German counterpart Johann Wadephul, Jaishankar said, “We are very much weddedtostrategicautonomy,” when asked if the interim trade agreement with the US would affect India’s energy ties with Russia, and impact its strategic autonomy. »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Express News Service Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan was at the Adda, Friday »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 l FOUR-MONTH BOYCOTT OF AN ANGANWADI COOK IN AN ODISHA vILLAGE Every day she cycles to work, waits for kids who never show up — because she is Dalit Sujit Bisoyi cott, for Sarmista having “dared” apply for the job she did, and then landing it: that of a helper-cum-cook at the local SARMISTA SETHI should be anganwadi centre. the pride of Nuagaon. The first On Saturday, officials from among her commuthe district adminisPAGE 1 nity to do gradutrationandamember ation, and one of the State Commisamong a handful in sion for Women the coastal village to visitedNuagaon,and getagovernmentjob.But,what got the villagers to promise to should have been the best sendtheirchildrentotheanganperiod of the 21-year-old’s life, wadi centre from Monday. is turning out to be its worst. Therehavebeenattemptsby For four months now, the officials to bring the ostracisaDalit woman and her family tion to an end before this too, so have been facing a social boy»CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 V A D O D A R A ‘Strategic autonomy runs deep... across political spectrum’ New Delhi, February 14 DESCRIBING ARTIFICIAL Intelligence as a “good catalyst” anda"bridge",UnionEducation Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said at the Express Adda Friday thattheNationalEducationPolicy(NEP)2020focusesonusing technology to “fill learning gaps”and“takeeducationtoinaccessible areas”. Responding to a question on NEP and whether it can meet the challenges posed by AI, Pradhan said: “The policy came in 2020, but work began in 2014. The document was broughtaftersixyearsofhomework. The policy gives importance to making technology a means to fill learning gaps. AI and technology were there before as well. But now there is a P U N E , S JAISHANKAR AT MUNICH SECURITY CONFERENCE Digital feudals, state In NEP, AI catalyst, role, rewiring society: technology bridge for Framing India AI map education: Pradhan the last few years has just collided with a sharp correction in global markets. Predictions of massivejoblosses,inasweeping range of white-collar sectors, from software and finance to law and realty, sit uneasily beside expansive claims that AI will generate such extraordinary wealth that work itself may become optional. The promise of liberation from drudgery is shadowed by the fear, triggered most recently by Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4.6, that AI could instead enslave humanity. Opus 4.6 is specifically designed for complex, agent-driven, and enterprise-level workflows. Yet behind these confusing P A T N A , Nuagaon (Kendrapara), February 14 anchor On Saturday, district officials got residents to promise to send their children to the centre where Sarmista Sethi works. SUJIT BISOYI Kolkata External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar with his German counterpart Johann Wadephul in Munich on Saturday. ANI “It’s very much a part of our history and our evolution…It's something which is very deep, and it's something which cuts acrossthepoliticalspectrumas well," the minister said. Significantly, Jaishankar wasspeakingafterUSSecretary of State Marco Rubio, addressingtheconferenceearlierinthe day, touched upon the Ukraine war and claimed US had got India’s “commitment” to stop purchases of “additional Russian oil.” “We don't know the Russians are serious about ending thewar,theysaytheyare...And under what terms they were willing to do it and whether we can find terms that are acceptable to Ukraine that Russia will agreeto.Butwearegoingtotest it,” said Rubio. He added: “In the meantime,everythingelsecontinues to happen. The United States has imposed additional sanctions on Russia's oil. In our »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2