The Editorial Page: Let’s resist easy indictments of Indian Knowledge Systems 10 MoNDAY, JUNE 8, 2026 JouRnAlism of CouRAge NEw DElhI, lATE CITy, 18 PAgES ₹7.00 (₹8 rAIPUr, ₹15 SrINAgAr) 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 , lU 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 No need to worry about US Section 301, we will tackle it… confident of a good trade deal: Goyal Asks India Inc to get out of ‘comfort zone’, look for opportunities at home, abroad express news service Mumbai, June 7 dAys AfTeR the Trump administration proposed 12.5% tariffs on india and 53 other countries after a united states Trade Representative (usTR) trade investigation under section 301 of the us Trade Act of 1974 declared that these countries failed to impose a legal prohibition on “importation of goods produced wholly or in Union minister Piyush Goyal in mumbai, sunday. SANKhADEEP BANErJEE part with forced labour”, Commerce and industry Minister Piyush goyal said sunday he didn’tthinktherewasanyneed toworryaboutsection301,and that “we will tackle it”. The proposed tariffs have been announced while us and indian negotiators are finalisinga bilateraltradeagreement. speaking at the Financial Express india’s best banks Awards in Mumbai, goyal said usTradeRepresentativeJamieson greer will visit india in the next two weeks for further discussions on the trade deal. earlier, he had indicated an agreement could be reached by July. “so this (section 301 investigation) is really a mechanism »COnTinUeD On pAge 2 seCOnD pRiCe RevisiOn sinCe CRisis in wesT AsiA LPG cylinder price up Rs 29; OMCs still losing Rs 700: Govt Ministry: Price of household cylinder lower than that in neighbouring countries l afterthehike city price Delhi rs 942 Kolkata rs 968 Mumbai rs 941.50 Chennai rs 957.50 sukalp sharma New Delhi, June 7 Some MPs out of reach, Mamata 15 months & counting, in Delhi amid fears of rebellion pROBe inTO plAnTATiOn wORks rajasthan Forest dept sits on its probe that exposed graft within 2025 report alleged forged bills, fabricated records, fake signatures Jay Mazoomdaar New Delhi, June 7 oneinTeRnAlreportalleged corruption, including illegal money transfers, forged bills; this report gathers dust until a year later, a second report is ordered which says that the paymentwasinbanktransfers,not cash, so there was no need for a probe. now,everyone’swaiting for a third report. This is the unusual case of the Rajasthan forest department sitting on its own enquiry’s recommendation — 15 months and counting — to initiate an Anti-Corruption bureau (ACb) investigation into alleged embezzlement in Business as usual By EP UNNY plantation works, according to records reviewed by The Indian Express. Keytothecaseareallegedillegal withdrawals of Rs 17 crore for advance soil work during 2023-24 in a single forest range oftheAlwardivision.forestdepartment sources, however, said an ACb probe could exposedeepersystemicirregularities in a state that has spent an estimatedRs600-800croreannually on plantation schemes in recent years. based on internal evaluationsofadvancesoilandplantation works carried out by seven Village forest Protection and Management Committees »COnTinUeD On pAge 2 Manoj C g & Ravik Bhattacharya New Delhi, Kolkata, June 7 beleAgueRedTRinAMool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata banerjee landed in delhi on sunday with the avowed objective of resurrecting the indiA bloc—whichshewasoncecriticalofandmaintainedadistance from — amid indications that a section of her lok sabha and Rajya sabha MPs are getting readytochartaseparatecourse. TMC sources said efforts wereontoreplicatetheKolkata model of MlAs breaking away and forming a separate group andelectinganewleaderinthe parliamentary wing of the party. The TMC’s organisational leadership is said to be making a last-ditch attempt to preventasplitintheparliamentary party, but several MPs are incommunicado, it is learnt. “There is a possibility and the process has already started as far as the lok sabha is concerned. What has happened in the West bengal Assembly will be repeated in lok sabha so far as our party is concerned,” »COnTinUeD On pAge 2 Tmc chief mamata Banerjee with aaP convenor arvind kejriwal and Tmc mP abhishek Banerjee in new delhi, sunday. ANI ‘Two people destroyed the India Bloc alliance: Mamata Banerjee and Arvind Kejriwal’ sAnJAy JhA JD(U) worKINg PrESIDENT Page 14 The four from Ballia: Joining dots between accused in killing of Suvendu aide in Bengal Manish sahu Ballia, June 7 A business installing water pipelines for agricultural fields brought together four men from ballia. Two years later, they would find themselves at the centre of a high-profile criminal investigation. The four are among seven people arrested by the Central raj kumar singh and Gyanendra singh, two of the four accused from Ballia, UP. a total of seven people have been arrested in the case bureau of investigation in connectionwiththekillingofChandranathRath,acloseassociateof WestbengalbJPleaderandnow CM suvendu Adhikari, in the state’s Madhyamgram city on May6,shortlyafterbJP’sthumpingwinintheAssemblypolls. Themen,whosevillagesare scattered across a radius of roughly 50 kilometres, first »COnTinUeD On pAge 2 The PRiCe of a 14.2-kg domestic lPg cylinder was raised by Rs 29 effective sunday, the secondsuchpricerevisionsince the start of the war in West Asia which triggered a supply crisis. TheincreasefollowsaRs60per-cylinder hike on March 7, takingthecumulativehiketoRs 89 per 14.2-kg domestic cylinder. it will now cost Rs 942 in delhi—correspondingchanges in price have been effected in other parts of the country. beneficiariesofthePradhan Mantri ujjwala yojana (PMuy) willcontinuetopayaneffective Rs642percylinderafterreceivingasubsidyofRs300perrefill onthefirstfourrefillsannually, down from 9 refills announced last year. despite the hike, public sector oil marketing companies (oMCs) continue to absorb under-recoveriesofaboutRs700 per 14.2-kg cylinder as the market-linkedpriceofthefuelisover Rs 1,600 per cylinder, the Petro- LPG cylinders being delivered in nadia, West Bengal, sunday. PTI E. explained consumption down India’s LPG consumption stood at about 90,000 tonnes a day before the West Asia war. But with the disruption in flows through the Strait of Hormuz and seasonal dip in demand, LPG consumption has declined to about 72,000 tonnes a day, according to recent estimates. leumMinistrysaidsunday. it also said that the price of domestic lPg in india continues to be lower than in neighbouring countries as the government and the oMCs have been shielding house »COnTinUeD On pAge 2 Opp targets Govt: ‘Why are BJP leaders not protesting now?’ express news service New Delhi, June 7 The oPPosiTion on sunday targeted the bJP-led Central government over the domestic lPgpricehike,sayingitreflects the failure of its economic policies and asked if bJP leaders would hit the streets in protest like they did during the uPA years. The bJP, meanwhile, defended the increase in price, pointing to global factors. CongresspresidentMallikarjun Kharge said the cost of lPg cylindershadincreasedbyRs89 »COnTinUeD On pAge 2 happening Revanth says he took today ‘inspiration from Hitler’ for HYDRAA; BJP calls it ‘Emergency mindset’ lA high-level EU delegation will be in Assam to advance collaboration opportunities between Europe and India’s Northeastern states in line with the priorities set out in the India–EU Joint Comprehensive Strategic Agenda. nikhila henry Hyderabad, June 7 TelAngAnA Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy has triggered a controversy with his statement that the hyderabad disaster Response and Asset ProtectionAgency(hydRAA)drew itsnameandconceptfromgerman dictator Adolf hitler’s “fondness for the word hydra”. “hydra, the word is hitler's favourite word. his core team was called hydra, which could assassinate anyone. so, i have taken inspiration from hitler and named it hydRAA,” he said at a conclave in bengaluru lChinA’s Xi Jinping will meet Telangana cm revanth reddy on saturday. The bJP and the bharat Rashtra samithi (bRs) were quick to criticise the Congress leader’s comment, suggesting that this was an indication of his “dictatorial” mindset. »COnTinUeD On pAge 2 North Korea’s Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang. This will be his first visit to North Korea in nearly seven years as Beijing looks to reassert ties with its ally. Track These and more on www.indianexpress.com the world Page 12 Israel hIts BeIrut areas desPIte truce; wIll retalIate: Iran l shoWs rare conTinUiTy oF hUman acTiviTy LinkinG earLy TooL-makinG TradiTions WiTh LaTer riTUaL, symBoLic and sociaL LiFe Rock marks, game boards: Wildlife trail leads to prehistoric past in Aravalli sophiya Mathew & Abhimanyu hazarika carved or engraved on rock), possible stone game boards, New Delhi, June 7 andstonetools—partofawider archaeological pattern emergfouR MonThs ago, a wildlife ingfromtheAravallibeltwhere, trailthroughtherockyoutcrops researchers say, evidence from of the bhondsi stretch of the multipleprehistoricphasesapAravalli forests in gurgaon led pears to survive within the wildlife enthusiasts same landscape. page 1 to a stone surface “A chronological marked with dozens continuity is being of carefully carved found here,” said cup-shaped deAkash gupta, a Phd pressions, geometric grids, and scholar and faculty member at a large foot-shaped engraving. delhi university’s satyawati That spot has since been College who has examined the identifiedasaclusterofancient bhondsi material. “The dispetroglyphs (images or designs covery is significant because it anchor shows a rare continuity of human activity linking early tool-making traditions with laterritual,symbolic,andsocial life across this region.” gupta said scholars such as french archaeologist André leroi-gourhan viewed hand engravings on rock as evidence of a cognitive shift. Placing the latest discovery in context, he saidtheregionhasyieldedsigns rangingfromthelowerPalaeolithic to the Mesolithic period. “handaxes and cleavers point to early stone-tool traditions, while the tools indicate later Middle Palaeolithic activ- (Left) Foot engraving on quartzite rock; an acheulean bifacial hand axe found close to rock art cliff. CoUrTESy: TEJvEEr MAvI, ShAIlESh BAISlA AND yATIN vErMA ity (300,000 to 50,000 years ago). The cupules (cup-shaped depressions) and rock-art-like markings are more likely to belong to later symbolic or ritual phases, especially the Mesolithic, when prehistoric communitiesareknowntohaveleft behind paintings, burial practices and other markers of social life,” he said. officials said excavation teams from the Chandigarh Circle of the Archaeological survey of india (Asi) and the haryana Archaeology department have been documenting the site, including the petro- glyphs and other remains, and have submitted a report. Kamei Athoilu Kabui, superintending Archaeologist with Asi’s Chandigarh Circle, said, “The site needs to be protected from the land mafia and furtherstepsinthisregardneed to be taken by the state government department.” she said the Asi's local exploration team, working with localvillagers,hadfoundinsitu petroglyphs and stone tools. Anil Tiwari, deputy superintending Archaeologist, Asi Chandigarh, said: “A brief report was prepared but there is New Delhi still a lot of scope for further work and research.” Accordingtoshalaishbaisla, a Phd scholar and researcher at theschoolofheritageResearch and Management, dr b R Ambedkar university delhi, the bhondsi documentation began after wildlife photographers yatin Verma and Ramkumar shared images of the cupmarked rocks they had come across in the forest in february. Verma said, “during a birdwatchingtripwithmyteam,we heard a leopard calling from a cliff above us. The cliff is a »COnTinUeD On pAge 2