WWW.INDIANExPRESS.COM The spectacle and the smaller stories The nominations for the Chetak Screen Awards reflect the range of Indian cinema — from big-budget entertainers to intimate independent films JAIPUR, MARCH 29, 2026 LATE CITY 12+4 PAGES ₹6.00 D A I L Y SPOTLIGHT Chef Prateek Sadhu on soul cooking F R O M : A H M E D A B A D , 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 , NEw fLIGHT TO UTTAR PRADESH’S GROwTH AND DEVELOPMENT: CM YOGI WITHTODAY’S ISSUE M U M B A I , N A G P U R , P A T N A , P U N E , V A D O D A R A MILITARY OPS SET TO CONCLUDE IN wEEKS: RUBIO PM opens Jewar airport, flags ethanol Iran war expands push as shield against energy crisis as Yemen’s Houthis fire missiles at Israel 12 US service personnel injured in attack on base in Saudi Arabia IE1002026 IE 1002026 THE LIST OF MOST POWERFUL INDIANS lINDONESIAN PRESIDENT Prabowo Subianto will go to Japan for his first official visit. He will be meeting Japanese PM Sanae Takaichi to deepen ties. lIN THE SECOND MATCH of the IPL, Mumbai Indians will face Kolkata Knight Riders, which will look to bounce back from a poor season last year. TRACK THESE AND MORE ON WWW.INDIANExPRESS.COM Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Governor Anandiben Patel, Union Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu and Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya in Jewar on Saturday. PRAVEEN KHANNA Highlights role of farmers, especially sugarcane growers in Western UP Neetika Jha New Delhi, March 28 AMID THE war in West Asia, Prime Minister Narendra Modi Saturday stressed that India’s ethanol push has helped the country through the global energy crisis, and acknowl- Great Indian Bustard birth in Gujarat after a decade, with egg from Rajasthan Nikhil Ghanekar »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 INSIDE l IGIA VS NOIDA AIRPORT: SHORT-TERM COMPETITION BUT LONG-TERM NECESSITY l DELHI JOINS MUMBAI IN TWO-AIRPORT CLUB: HERE’S WHAT IS DIFFERENT, THOUGH l AIRPORT LAUNCHPAD FOR UP’S BRIGHT FUTURE: CM WWW.INDIANExPRESS.COM FOR THE first time in a decade, Gujarat saw the birth of a Great Indian Bustard (GIB) chick on March 26 — after a “trans-state conservation effort” that involvedan“arduous770-kmroad journey” across a “halt-free corridor” to transport a 15-day old fertile egg from Sam in Rajasthan’s Jaisalmer district to Naliya in Gujarat’s Kutch district. This is the country’s first birth of the critically endangered bird under the “jumpstart” method, where a female GIBinKutch,whichhadlaidan infertileegg,incubatedafertile egg chosen from a captive breeding centre in Jaisalmer. »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 page 6 UAE Strait of Hormuz Oman Eritrea Yemen Bab el-Mandeb Ethiopia Somalia Sri Lanka’s supplies hit, India sends fuel shipment Shubhajit Roy New Delhi, March 28 INAsignificantoutreach,India has sent a shipment of fuel to Sri Lanka, days after the phone conversation between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake. Fuelshortageandpanicbuying have led to queues in the island nation, which depends on imports for its energy demand. “…A shipment of 38,000 MT (metric tonnes) of petroleum, of which 20,000 MT is diesel and 18,000 MT petrol, has arrived in Colombo today 28th March, 2026,” the Indian High Commission in Colombo said in a statement. “Lanka IOC had earlier »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 more reports, p 6, 10 Tension after jubilation: Days into new Nepal Musk in call with Govt, ex-PM Oli arrested over ‘role’ in protests Trump, Modi: NYT; Govt says only the two leaders spoke A DAY after jubilant celebrations marked the coming to power of a government led by BalenShah,thatwasseenasthe face of Nepal’s young, Kathmandu woke up to a huge contingentofpoliceattheresidence offour-timePrimeMinisterand Chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist K P Sharma Oli who wasarrestedSaturdayontheinstructions of new Home Minister Sudan Gurung. Former Nepal PM K P Sharma Oli leaves for a health checkup after being detained in Bhaktapur on Saturday. PTI In parallel, police also arrested Ramesh Lekhak, a Nepali Congress leader. Lekhak was Home Minister in the Oliledcoalitiongovernmentwhen security agencies used force to quelltheanti-corruptionGenZ protest on September 8-9 last year, that resulted in the death of 78 participants. Lekhak and Oli, who live 5 km apart in Bhaktapur district, adjoiningKathmandu,werearrestedonchargesthatincluded murder as recommended by the Gauri Bahadur Karki »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 From doctors to lawyers, cops: In Murshidabad and Malda, villages flag deletion of names from voter list Ravik Bhattacharya & Atri Mitra Murshidabad, Malda, March 28 share info to counter fake news: raJnath mamata hits back at bJp over ‘unrest’ in west bengal lf MUSK-TRUMP PATCH UP? Kathmandu, March 28 The Great Indian Bustard chick with its foster mother. PTI »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 PREMATURE, SAYS EX-PRESIDENT Yubaraj Ghimire New Delhi, March 28 NATION edged the crucial role that farmers, especially sugarcane growers in Western UP, have playedinreducingthecountry’s dependence on crude oil. Speaking at the inauguration of Phase I of the Noida International Airport (NIA) in Jewar, Modi highlighted the significant role of ethanol produced from sugarcane and said,“Iftheproductionofethanol had not increased, and its blending with petrol, then the country would have had to importanadditional4.5crorebarrels, which is almost 700 crore litres of crude oil, every year...” The PM was accompanied byUttarPradeshChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath, UP Governor Anandiben Patel, Union YEMEN’S IRAN-ALIGNED Houthis launched missiles at Israel on Saturday, their first suchattacksincethestartofthe Iran war, heightening the risk that a conflict now in its fifth week could expand further across the region. Speaking before the strike, Secretary of State Marco Rubio saidtheUnitedStatesexpected toconcludemilitaryoperations within weeks, but the Houthis said they would continue their operations until the “aggression” on all fronts ended. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian spoke to Pakistan’s PrimeMinister,ShehbazSharif, whose government hosts a meeting with the Turkish and Gu a lTHE ALL INDIA POLICE DUTY Meet will begin in Nagpur. A total of 29 teams from states, Union Territories and Central police organisations will participate in the event. Cairo, Dubai, March 28 Saudi Arabia Egypt Sudan Iran ian Se Happening today Pe rs Israel d Re Menna AlaaElDin, Nayera Abdallah & Humeyra Pamuk l Thetwochokepoints People whose names were deleted from rolls show their SIR notices in Kaliachak block of Sujapur Assembly constituency. PARTHA PAUL MD YASIN Mahaladar, 53, started practising as an advocateinWestBengal’sMaldadistrict court from 2002, around the same time that the last SpecialIntensiveRevision(SIR) of electoral rolls was held. This time, his name has been deletedfromthelist–buthisson’s DECISION 2026 wEST BENGAL more rep0rts, page 7 is there. In the case of 28-year-old Khaleda Khatun, a gynaecologist at Murshidabad Medical College Hospital, she and four members of her family are not on the voters’ list. Thesearen’tisolatedcases– the lakhs of voters now removedfromthestate’selectoral list following adjudication include doctors, police officers, BSFjawans,advocates,farmers, daily wagers and migrants. As many as 37 lakh out of 60 lakh adjudication cases have been disposed of by a team of 705 judicial officers. Already, »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Automotive to social media, satellites, Musk has business interests in India Soumyarendra Barik, Shubhajit Roy & Anil Sasi New Delhi, March 28 BILLIONAIREBUSINESSMAN Elon Musk, according to two USofficials,hadparticipatedin a phone call on Tuesday with US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the New York Times reported on March 27. This was “notable because it is rare for a private citizen to be on a call between two heads of state during a wartime crisis”, it said. Responding to the NYTreport,theMinistry ofExternalAffairssaidSaturday “thetelephoneconversationon March 24 was between Prime Minister Modi and President Trumponly”.“Wehaveseenthe story. The telephone conversation on 24 March was between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Donald Trump only. As has been stated earlier, Billionaire Elon Musk it provided the opportunity for exchange of views on the situationinWestAsia,”MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said. TheNYTreportsaid, “It is unclear why Mr. Musk was on the call or whetherhespoke”.ItsaidMusk did not return multiple requests for comment and the White House declined to comment on Musk’s inclusion. While it is extremely rare and unusual to have a private citizen to be part of phone conversations between world E. »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 l ‘PUJARIS’ GET Rs 15 FOR REFERRING A PATIENT, Rs 500 IF THE PATIENT TURNS OUT TO BE MALARIA POSITIVE Spotting symptoms to referring cases: ‘Pujaris’ help in Gadchiroli’s malaria fight Purnima Sah “For generations, this has been our only profession. For us, it is not about money, but INLAHIRIvillageofGadchiroli about doing good for people district in Maharashtra, 65- and the society we live in. After year-old pujari Pengda Kuma attending several counselling Bongani has been practising sessions, I realised that things ‘jhar phook’ for decades — a have changed with time and faith-healing ritual of chants, the sisters (Accredited Social rice grains and belief. Grains Health Activists and Auxiliary Nurse Midwives) do are scattered, PAGE 1 make sense. If our counted or pressed joint effort can save on the body to read lives, I don’t mind illness,orspirits,and wardthemoff.Butsincethebe- this collaboration,” he says. “From this year onwards, I ginning of this year, when someone arrives with a fever, have been referring all kinds of he has also been sending them fever cases to the sisters at the toagovernmenthealthworker. Lahiri PHC (primary health Mumbai, March 28 anchor centre). Once the patient returns from the hospital, I perform the ritual for a double impact,” he adds. For a man whose authority stemsfromfaith,theshiftissignificant. “Pengda is among the few pujaris willing to listen,” says Kamal Ramdas Sidam, 44, an Auxiliary Nurse Midwife who has worked in the region for over a decade. This change is now at the centre of Maharashtra’s malaria strategy in Gadchiroli — among India’s 10 worst-performing malaria-endemic districts — where faith healers havelongbeenthefirstpointof Gadchiroli Health Department officials during a campaign to enlist faith healers in the fight against malaria. ExPRESS care. Over the past year, the government has identified 1,759pujarisandbeguntraining them to recognise symptoms and refer suspected malaria cases, effectively turning a cul- tural gatekeeper into a link in the public health system. “So far, we have identified and listed 1,759 pujaris in our registry. We have counselled 1,200 of them so far, who participated in our ongoing workshops since April 1, 2025. The number of pujaris is over 2,000 in the district,” says Dr Sujita Wadiwe, Gadchiroli District Malaria Officer. The healers are being encouragedtoreferanyfevercase toASHAsandANMs.“SinceJanuary 2026, they have referred 27 patients, of which four were positive. When a pujari refers a patient, they get Rs 15, and if Jaipur that patient turns out to be malariapositive,theygetanincentiveofRs500,”saysDrWadiwe. The move reflects a deeper challenge. Despite accounting for barely 1% of Maharashtra’s population, Gadchiroli continuestocarryadisproportionate malaria burden, a pattern seen across several tribal and forestedregionsinIndia,where delays in seeking medical care, often rooted in belief systems, can prove fatal. In 2025, the Maharashtra government launched an intensified malaria elimination initiativeinthedistrict,including a dedicated task force, ex- panded surveillance, and community-based strategies such as involving traditional healers toimproveearlydetection.The push followed the Centre's finding in 2022 that identified Gadchiroliamongthe10worstperforming malaria-endemic districts in India, with an Annual Parasite Incidence (API) above 1. The geography compounds the risk. With over 70% of the district under dense forest cover, average annual rainfall of1,700mm,andlargesections of the population sleeping outdoors without mosquito nets, »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2