The Editorial Page: To list, or not to list Tata Sons, that is our question 10 TUESDAY, JUNE 2, 2026 JournaliSm of CouraGe KolKATA, lATE CITy, 16 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 35 More MinisTers sworn in Happening today lThe UniTed Nations General Assembly will vote to elect its next president for a one-year term. Bangladesh Foreign Minister Khalilur Rahman and Cyprus Special Envoy for Multilateralism Ambassador Andreas Kakouris are vying to lead the General Assembly during its 81st session,which starts in September. lLebanon and Israel are set to hold their next round of direct talks in Washington even as Israel’s government ordered strikes on the southern suburbs of Beirut Monday. In Suvendu’s Team 40, veterans rub shoulders with first-timers No big surprises as Swapan Dasgupta, Arjun Singh make it to the Cabinet atri Mitra, Tanusree bose & sweety Kumari Kolkata, June 1 thRee WeekS after taking charge as the first BJP chief minister of West Bengal, SuvenduAdhikari,onmondayexpanded his Council of ministersto41,byinducting35new members. there were no big surprises, but a few small ones forsure,asthepartytriedtobalance regional, caste, and gender representation. While veterans got the coveted seats in the Cabinet, many first-time mLAs like kalita majhi, who worked as house help, and 32-year-old BirajBiswaswerealsoinducted as ministers of State. Of the 35 new ministers sworn in by Governor R N Ravi at the Lok Bhavan, 13 were inducted as Cabinet ministers, three as ministers of State with independent Charge, and 19 as Track These and more on www.indianexpress.com inside Won’T alloW our TerriTory To be uSed aGainST india’S inTereSTS: myanmar PaGe 5 delhibuildinG collaPSe:oWner arreSTed PaGe 8 West Bengal chief minister suvendu adhikari in kolkata on monday. express Full coverage Who all are in Suvendu’S Team 40 PaGe 4 ministers of State. the government can have threemoreministersastheConstitution caps the size of the Council of ministers to 15% of »ConTinUed on PaGe 2 cId officials outside Tmc mP abhishek Banerjee’s kolkata residence, monday. PTI TMC expels 2 MLAs after CM says they complained of fake signatures atri Mitra Kolkata, June 1 Amid the ongoing Cid probe into alleged forged signatures of tmC mLAs in a letter to the WestBengalAssemblySpeaker, the party on monday expelled two mLAs — Ritabrata Bandyopadhyay and Sandipan Saha—foranti-partyactivities. the tmC announced its decision minutes after Chief minister Suvendu Adhikari told mediapersons that the two tmC mLAs had filed complaintsallegingthepartyforged signaturesofitsmLAsinaletter to the Speaker endorsing Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay as the Leader of Opposition. Countering the Opposition’s allegations of political vendettaastheCidsummoned tmC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee in connection with the forged signature probe, the Chief minister said his government was not seeking revenge against the tmC. “it may seem like vengeance to some, but we do not want to do any such thing since the party (tmC) is already defunct,” Adhikari said, adding that the Cid »ConTinUed on PaGe 2 foUr-day Trade TaLKs India seeks edge over Asian peers in talks with US 10% tariffs lapse in July, Trump can use Section 301 to levy higher duties ravi dutta Mishra New Delhi, June 1 STEM girl power: In JEE Advanced, over 10,000 clear exam — highest pass rate Pallavi smart Mumbai, June 1 FOR the first time, more than 10,000 girls have cleared Jee Advanced 2026, the gateway to iits and premier engineering institutions, according to data analysed by The Indian Express. With one in four girl candidates clearing the exam, this also marks a new record. the data shows that the number of girls clearing Jee Advanced has jumped nearly 89percent,from5,356to10,107, since 2019. Over the same period, the number of girls appearing for the exam rose by about 22 per cent, from 33,249 to 40,562. As the results were declared monday, 24.9 per cent of the 40,562 female candidates, who appeared, cleared the exam. Overall, around 56,000 candidates qualified and made it to the common rank list. howmanyofthesuccessful girl candidates make it to iits depends on their rankings and availabilityofseats—the23iits together offer about 20,000 seats.thosewhodonotmakeit arestilleligibleforadmissionto other premier institutions and arelikelytosecureaseatataNational institute of technology (Nit) or an indian institute of information technology (iiit). Speaking to the indian express, experts described the 10,000-mark as a milestone for genderrepresentationinStem education and reflects the growingparticipationofgirlsin premier engineering institutions. they also attributed it to the supernumerary seats scheme introduced in 2018 to address the low and stagnant representation of girls at iits. Under the scheme, additional seats were created exclusively forgirlcandidates,withtheaim of raising their enrolment to 20 per cent within five years. »ConTinUed on PaGe 2 33,249 5,356 32,851 6,707 32,285 6,452 40,712 6,516 40,645 7,509 41,020 7,964 hamza Khan Jaipur, June 1 OveR the pasttwoyears,selfstyled godman Asaram Bapu, convicted for rape in two cases, has cited his deteriorating health to obtain court relief at least 15 times through medical treatmentpermissions,emergency paroles, and interim bail. On may 27, that run was halted. the Rajasthan high Court upheld his life sentence in a »ConTinUed on PaGe 7 JULy 26: HC removes condition that he pay for his security aUG 13: HC grants “emergent parole” for 7 days so Asaram can get treatment at Madhavbaug hospital in Maharashtra. sePT 3: HC extends Asaram’s emergent parole by 5 days. nov 7: Court eases his bail conditions, says can stay at Arogyadham for a “period deemed appropriate” by hospital authorities. deC 10: HC allows Asaram’s treat- gives bail until June 30, extends it to July 1. aPriL 7: Rajasthan HC extends bail until July 1; is extended to July 7 by Gujarat HC & July 9 by Rajasthan HC. JULy 8: Rajasthan HC extends bail until Aug 12. aUG 11: Asaram’s lawyers submit Gujarat HC has extended his interim bail up to Aug 21, Rajasthan HC extends his bail until Aug 29. oCT 13: Arogyam Ayurvedic Hospital states Asaram suffering from Annamalai set to resign from BJP, open a new chapter in TN politics Chennai, June 1 50,000 n No. of female candidates who took test n Those who cleared 40,000 30,000 20,000 10,000 0 2026 2025 2024 2023 2022 2021 2020 2019 pass% 19.4 18.5 19.4 19.9 18.6 16.1 of girls 24.9 22.7 41,337 9,404 He’s back in jail ● 15timesandcounting after Rajasthan MarCh 21,2024: HC allows Asa- ment at Madhavbaug for 17 days. ram to be taken to Arogayadham HC on May 27 Jan 7,2025: SC gives him interim Centre, Jodhpur; stays until April 2 bail until March 31 for treatment. cancelled bail, aPriL 16: HC allows him to get Jan 14: Rajasthan HC too gives him upheld conviction admitted at the Jodhpur centre for bail until same date; Gujarat HC “7-10 days”. arun Janardhanan l risingsuccessrate 40,562 10,107 For 2 years, rape convict Asaram kept getting bail, citing failing health — until HC drew line k ANNAmALAi, the former tamil Nadu BJP president and one of the party’s most visible faces in the South, is likely to submithisresignationfromthe BJP and formally convey this decision to party chief Nitin Nabin in delhi, according to multiple senior BJP sources familiarwiththedevelopment. familiar with the development. Reliable sources in the BJP Former Tamil nadu BJP chief k annamalai. @ANNAMAlAI_K/X asaram in Jodhpur on may 28 before his surrender. PTI FIlE multiple serious illnesses. oCT 29: Rajasthan HC gives Asaram interim bail for six months aPriL 29,2026: HC grants him bail until May 25, or up to the date judgment delivered in his appeal, whichever is earlier May 25: Bail extended until July 7 May 27: Rajasthan HC cancels bail AS NeGOtiAtORS from india and the US begin what seems like the final round of talks beforeformallysigningabilateral trade agreement, Commerce and industry ministry officials mondaysaidNewdelhiisseeking an edge over Asian competitors under the new set of Section 301 tariffs Washington is expected to announce before July-end. the US had earlier said it would use Section 301, which gives it powers to slap higher import duty on countries hurting its industry, after the President donald trump administration lost the case on reciprocal tariffs in the US Supreme Court. immediately after this loss, the US had imposed 10% global tariffs under Section 122. this lapses on July 24, which creates the urgency for New delhi to sign a trade deal within the next 5-7 weeks. the framework for the USindia bilateral trade agreement was agreed upon in February whentheUSsaiditwouldbring down tariffs to 18% from an effective tariff of 50% (25% reciprocal and 25% penalty for buy- business as usual By EP UNNY ing Russian oil). “Now the fight is about Section 301, which is the only statute available to the administration given by the US Congress. the rates do not matter in this case; preferential market access is what matters,” a Commerce and industry ministry official said. “We are not willing to lower duties unless our goods get preferential market access in theUScomparedwithourcompetitors in Southeast Asian countries.thedutyimposedby the US on the european Union or other developed countries does not affect us because our »ConTinUed on PaGe 2 Telangana bans salary in cash, brings gig workers under minimum wage net saidhehasalreadymadeuphis mind and that the delhi visit is intended not merely as a politicalmeetingbutalsoasagesture of gratitude towards a party with which he spent the last six years of his public life. “he wants to thank the leadership for the opportunities, experiences and political journey the BJP gave him after he resigned fromtheiPS,”atopsourcefamiliar with the discussions said. »ConTinUed on PaGe 2 nikhila henry Hyderabad, June 1 ABANoncashwagepayments, mandatory electronic transfer andbringinggigworkersunder the country’s minimum wages law — that’s what the telangana government has done through a government order that was issued recently. thiscomesmonthsafterthe telangana Assembly passed thetelanganaPlatform-Based Gig Workers (Registration, Social Security and Welfare) Act, 2026. the GO serves as the mechanism to execute that law by bringing eCommerce, courier,andplatformworkersunder the official minimum wage net and tightening wage payment compliance. issued on may 30, but coming into force monday, the order — GO ms No. 6 — activates the provisions of the »ConTinUed on PaGe 2 E. explained Wage security The government order brings e-commerce, courier and platform workers under official minimum wage net and tightens wage-payment compliance. Platforms are now required to pay overtime at double the standard rate. l culTure mInIsTry, nGma, GuJral FoundaTIon WorkInG on Plan To remove, relocaTe murals InsTalled In 1968 Shastri Bhawan to be razed, Satish Gujral murals to find new home damini nath New Delhi, June 1 The mural by satish Gujral at shastri Bhawan. GuJRAl FouNdATIoN ALmOSt 60 yeARS after they were installed, murals by artist Satish Gujral on the facade of Shastri Bhawan are set to be removedandrelocatedbeforethe building’s demolition for the Central vista redevelopment project, TheIndianExpresshas learnt. As part of the government’s redevelopment project, Shastri Bhawan and the adjoining krishi Bhawan are set to be demolished soon to pave the way for two new office buildings — Common Central Secretariat (kartavyaBhawan)4and5.the Central Public Works depart- ment (CPWd) has floated the tenderfortheproject,whichincludes the demolition of the existing structures. the last date for bids is June 6, with an estimated cost of Rs 3,218.44 crore, as per the tender document. According to government officials, the ministry of Culture, National Gallery of modern Art (NGmA) and Gujral Foundationarecurrentlyworking on a plan to move the ceramictilemurals,spanningthe height of the seven-storey building, which were installed on the facade of Shastri Bhawan in 1968. the final place for the murals has not been decided yet, they said. When reached for com- wan murals were among sevment, mohit Gujral, son of Sat- eralinstalledbytheartistinthe ishGujralandtheco-founderof 1960s. “Satish Gujral had gone to the Gujral Foundation, said: “the National Gallery of mod- study mural-making in mexico ern Art has been consulting in the 1950s from diego Rivera conservation experts to deter- and david Alfaro Siqueiros. he mine the most appropriate was the first indian artist to go methodology for undertaking on a scholarship to study mural-making. this complex exerpage 1 When he came back, cise and has rehe started making mained in touch his murals using cewith the Gujral Foundation wherever necess- ramictiles.hemademuralsfor the delhi high Court, Baroda ary during the process.” kishore Singh, an indepen- house and Shastri Bhawan. if dent art consultant and the cu- his murals are being removed rator of the Satish Gujral retro- andrelocated,itisaprogressive spective at NGmA earlier this stepandsetsagoodprecedent,” year marking the artist’s cen- Singh said. With the work on the buildtennial, said the Shastri Bha- anchor Kolkata ings likely to start soon, the murals are expected to be removed within a month. Under the government’s Central vista plan, 10 new Common Central Secretariat (CCS) buildings have been proposed to house all Union ministries.thenewbuildingsareto come up at the site of existing offices and other government buildings.Lastmonth,Nirman Bhawan became the first of the old office buildings to be demolished. the demolition of Udyog Bhawan, Shastri Bhawan and krishi Bhawan are expected to start soon. Started in 2019, the Central vista plan includes the constructionofthenewParliament building, vice-President’s enclave and executive enclave (Prime minister’s Office, Cabinet Secretariat and the National Security Council Secretariat). Of the 10 CCS buildings, three have been completed, while tendering or construction of the remaining seven are underway. the construction of the Prime minister’s residence is also underway. As of February this year, according to a reply by the ministry of housing and Urban Affairs in Parliament, the total sanctioned cost of the projects, including Parliament, vicePresident’s enclave and kartavya Bhawan, was Rs 13,169.61 crore.