The Ideas Page: A reply to CEA — What’s missing in India is not ambition, but competition 11 SATURDAY, JUNE 20, 2026 Journalism of Courage AHMeDABAD, lAte cItY, 24 PAgeS ₹6.00 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 TODAY, THE COUNTRY HAS NEARLY 1,000 WAREHOUSES, ALMOST TWICE AS MANY AS IN 2014 Business as Usual By EP UNNY Happening today lPrime minister narendra Modi will release the 23rd instalment of the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana from West Bengal. lPresident drouPadi Murmu will celebrate her 68th birthday at her native place in Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district. Track These and more on www.indianexpress.com Gujarat vanCe, iranians Call oFF sWitZerland meetinG Deal under strain: Iran suspends talks after Israel attacks Lebanon Via Hormuz to Gujarat Hezbollah-Israel ceasefire after intense fighting, but Israel says its troops will stay sohini Ghosh New Delhi, June 19 Zurich, Cairo, June 19 »Continued on PaGe 2 PAGE 3 E. explained LnG carrier Disha, which was the first Indian vessel to cross the strait of hormuz after the Us and Iran announced a deal, at Gujarat’s dahej port, Friday. carrying Qatari LnG, the vessel had been stranded in the Persian Gulf for over three months amid the West asia war. PtI India’s Russian oil imports at record high, set to remain core of crude diet sukalp sharma Difficult talks ahead 2 killED, 5 injUrED AftEr rockfAll At PAvAGADh hill Delhi HC upholds Govt order blocking Telegram to secure NEET retest Sunday Govt empowered to issue emergency blocking directions under IT Act: Court aamer madhani, Jamey Keaten & samy magdy the aMeRiCan push to quickly begin high-stakes talks with iran hit a snag Friday, just two days after the signing of an agreement that opens a twomonth window for negotiations on tehran’s nuclear programme and returning oil trafficthroughtheStraitofhormuz to pre-war levels. iranian officials did not travel as planned to Switzerland, insisting that israeli strikes on iranian-backed hezbollah militants in lebanon must stop before the talks can ‘least restriCtive’ New Delhi, June 19 The discussions in Switzerland, when they do happen, are expected to focus on Iran’s nuclear programme. Tehran maintains it is peaceful, though it has highly enriched uranium that could be used to build multiple atomic bombs. With india steppingupitsoil imports from Russia amid the lossofWestasianbarrelsdueto supply disruption owing to the crisis in the region, crude imports from Moscow in June are expected to touch an all-time high,preliminaryshiptracking data indicates. although the US has allowed its sanctions waiver on Russian oil purchases to lapse, at least for the time being, industry experts and insiders expect Russian crude to remain indianrefiners’mainstayinthe foreseeable future. SofarinJune,india’soilimports from Russia averaged at 2.6 million barrels per day (bpd), a whopping 53.5% of the country’s total crude imports for the period, as per vessel tracking data from commodity market analytics firm Kpler. Forthefullmonth,Kplerexpects Russian oil imports at over 2.35 million bpd, which would be the highest-ever. the previous monthly high was 2.2 million bpd in May 2023. Sumit Ritolia, Manager, »Continued on PaGe 2 l importofrussianoil overeightmonths l in million bpd Nov 2025 1.84 Dec 2025 1.24 Jan 2026 1.09 Feb 2026 1.04 Mar 2026 1.99 Apr 2026 1.57 May 2026 1.91 Jun 2026* 2.66 *uP tO JuNe 19 source: KPler Upholding the Centre’s order directing temporary blockingofmessageapplication telegram until June 22, ahead of the neet-Ug 2026 re-examination this Sunday, the delhi high Court said Friday that the government is “empowered” to issueemergencyblockingdirections to not only individual users, but also platforms or applications like telegram. dismissing telegram’s plea challenging the June 16 blocking order, Justice tejas Karia held the government action to be proportionate and the “least vikas Pathak New Delhi, June 19 anUMbeRofstateandcentral universitiesinsomestateshave decided to replace the word “india” with “bharat” in their degrees, marksheets, correspondence, invites, and signboards, among other things. on Sunday, president droupadi Murmu will attend a convocation of Rani durgavati University in Madhya pradesh's Jabalpur, a state university, where all degrees to be awarded will feature bharat instead of india. Rani durgavati University's Vice-Chancellor (V-C) Rajesh Kumar Verma told the indian express that the university will henceforth use bharat on all its degrees and marksheets in hindiaswellasenglish.“inthe »Continued on PaGe 2 air india CrasH Pune, June 19 a year later June17,5.50am: “irfan,islamic naya saal shuru hua hai. Moharram ka mahina” maY22,6.37am: “irfan,aajbarish ho rahi hai. Is saal garmi ke baad ki pahli baarish… maine video nahin nikali... tujhe bhejti thi na, ab kisko bhejoon…” maY3,6.14am: “Janamdinmubarak ho irfan, or aaj hi Bhaijaan ka nikah bhi hai. Dua karna sab thik ho. Ameen” maY 3, 8.08 Pm: “Abhi hum raaste mein hain. Inshaallah 10-11 baje tak pahuchenge. Bhaijaan Scorpio chala raha hai, dulha bana hai or khud ki gaadi chala raha hai” Family members of 22-year-old Irfan shaikh with the last uniform that he wore, at their home in Pimpri, Pune. Arul HOrIzON on JUne 12, 2025, 22-year-old »Continued on PaGe 2 Ahmedabad »Continued on PaGe 2 seCond instanCe WitHin 3 daYs ‘Ragging’ row again at Gujarat medical college: 6 PG students suspended No compromise with safety & dignity of students, govt has zero tolerance policy against ragging: Health Minister express news service Many universities in MP, Part oF ai 171’s Cabin CreW, 22-Yr-old Would Call uP Home WitHout Fail Chhattisgarh replace For family, flight attendant killed in Air ‘India’ with ‘Bharat’ in India crash lives — one message at a time degrees, marksheets dipanita nath restrictivemeasure”forachieving the objective of potential misuseoftheplatformaheadof theneet-UgretestonJune21, and preventing potential public order implications. “the temporary blocking of telegram under the orders is operativeonlyuntil22.06.2026, whilethedisablingofthemessage-editing feature is confined to the period until 30.06.2026. the limited temporal scope of these measures demonstrates that they are narrowly tailored and confined to the period strictly necessary for securing the stated objective,” Justice Karia said. Ahmedabad, June 19 a total of six students of the orthopaedic department at the government Medical College in bhavnagar were on Friday suspended for periods ranging from six months to two years in connection with allegations of ragging. “Students are made to sit (byseniors)inaroosterposition on tables till cramps develop in muscles, or made to do sit-ups till they lose consciousness, and told to write ‘apology note’ 500-1,000 times,” one of the firstyearstudentsatthecollege told The Indian Express on Friday, alleging that they were subjectedto“mentalandphysical harassment.” this is the second such instance reported from a government medical college in guja- rat in a span of three days. on June 17, three postgraduate (pg) students of the orthopaedicdepartmentofbJMedical College, ahmedabad, were suspended for periods ranging from six months to one year for allegedly ragging their juniors. on Friday, the state government ordered the suspension of six of a total 12 second year students after a marathon meeting of the anti-ragging committee of the medical college that started at 5 pm onJune18andwenttill2amon June 19. “theofficialsofthegandhinagar health department, director and the anti-Ragging CommitteeofbhavnagarMedical College along with the members of the anti-Ragging Committee worked in continuous coordination till 2 am »Continued on PaGe 2