The Ideas Page: I was asked to sing with an aI band — here’s why I said no 9 SATUrdAY, JUlY 25, 2026 JOuRnaLISm of COuRage mumbAI, lATE cITy, 18 pAgEs ₹5.00 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 reg.no. mcs/067/2018 - 20 rni regn. no. 1543/57 BIll lIKelY In PArlIAment monDAY; Pm tHAnKS PeoPle For ‘PoSItIve SUggeStIonS’ Jail up to 10 years, rs 10-cr fine for exam leak: Nod for tough new law 118 146 181 94 Happening today lA CentrAl government team will visit flood-hit Assam to review the rapidly deteriorating situation. The deluge has so far killed 47 people and affected over 7.21 lakh people across 11 districts in the state. SCbarscourt hearingclips onsocialmedia withoutapproval Direction by three-judge bench led by cJi surya Kant Ananthakrishnan g New Delhi, July 24 INaNinterimorderFriday,the supreme Court barred the recording and circulation of courtroom proceedings without prior permission of the court concerned. It concerns over alleged misuse on social mediabutclarifiedthatthecurb will not affect news reporting. a three-judge bench, led by Chief Justice of India surya Kant, said, “as an interim measure, we direct that there shall be no posting, reposting, extraction, modification, dissemination, monetisation, recording or review of the livestreamed proceedings of this court on social media or any other digital platform without thepriorpermissionoftheconcerned registrar and the secretary general of this court and registrar general of high courts.” directing the secretary general of the supreme Court and registrar general of high courts to display this order on their court websites, the bench said, “This order shall have no bearing on news reporting.” The bench, also comprising Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V Mohana, was hearing a PIL by journalist harshita Grover highlighting “increasing misuse of audiovisual recordings of judicial proceedingsthroughselectiveclipping, editing, decontextualised Usingdiscarded wrappers,cops traceoutlets sendingfoodto Jantarmantar Statutory backing for fast-track courts, 5 months for probe, trial Damini nath, Harikishan Sharma & Jatin Anand Aanchal magazine & Soumyarendra Barik New Delhi, July 24 a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced fast-track courts and a tough new law to punish those involvedinexampaperleaks,the Union Cabinet Friday approved a draft Bill with provisions for a jail term up to 10 years, penalty up to rs 10 crore, statutory backing for fast-track courts and a five-month timeline for investigation and trial of cases, official sources said. hourslater,inanInstagram post, Modi thanked everyone for the responses and positive suggestions received on his Thursday midnight video in which he announced the government’s decision. “Thank you, friends. I got theopportunitytotalktoyouat midnight.Thewayyouhaveresponded to my video, positive suggestions given by you, thanks to everybody. your love will continue to flow; our relations will continue with more bonding.Thankyou,thankyou friends,” he said in the new video message. »ContInUeD on PAge 2 inside PaGe 4, 7 ‘Here for tHe kids’: Parents, GrandParents join Gen Z 2024 anti-PaPer leak act: How tHe House Passed it New Delhi, July 24 Union ministers J P nadda and Jitendra singh with cJP’s saurav Das and ashutosh ranka, friday. ANI Pradhan resignation non-negotiable, says CJP; more talks today: Centre Sophiya mathew & liz mathew New Delhi, July 24 rePreseNTaTIVes OF the Cockroach Janta Party, spearheading the protest at Jantar Mantar over examination paperleaks,toldtheCentreFriday that their key demands for the resignation of Union education Minister dharmendra Pradhan,compensationforthe familiesofstudentswhoended their lives following the NeeT paper leak, and no legal action Four General Managers and 16 young professionals to be engaged: Ministry vikas Pathak New Delhi, July 24 IN a sweeping internal crackdown following the NeeT-UG paper leak and amid protests led by the Cockroach Janta Party, the National Testing agency (NTa), which is the »ContInUeD on PAge 2 nodal autonomous body that conducts entrance tests to higher educational institutions, has “terminated the services” of 47 officials, sources told The Indian Express. sources said the agency would also initiate “legal and criminal action” against the of- »ContInUeD on PAge 2 Business as usual By EP UNNY ficials to send a “strong message”. These are “only the initial steps” in reforming the functioning of the agency, and “severalmorestringentandreformorientedmeasures”arelikelyto follow, the sources said. In a separate statement signalling wider reforms within the NTa, the education Ministry said it has issued advertisements for the appointment of seniorprofessionalsatthelevel »ContInUeD on PAge 2 eXPRess special India attracts 10% US tariff, lower rate after policy shift 12.5 per cent for Vietnam, China: Trump administration redraws tariff architecture ravi Dutta mishra New Delhi, July 24 The Us Friday imposed 10% tariffs on India, lower than the 12.5% rate proposed in March when the United states Trade representative (UsTr) identified 60 countries under section301oftheUsTradeact,citing import of goods produced with forced labour. This comes weeks after the directorate General of Foreign Trade (dGFT) announced prohibitionofimportofgoodsproduced using forced labour, alongwithparallelnegotiations for a trade deal with the Us. In the new tariff regime enforced Friday, the european UnionandTaiwanreceivedthe most favourable rates — the section 301 tariff is applied on goods from these two economies only if the product’s existing most favoured nation (MFN) tariff is less than 10%. If Deeptiman tiwary New Delhi, July 24 sonam Wangchuk with wife gitanjali J angmo and mPs vivek tankha, sagarika ghose and John brittas at medanta Hospital, gurgaon. ANI Three days of negotiations, the government softening its stand, and intervention by sonamWangchuk’slawyerand leaders from Ladakh driven by concerns about his health. That’swhatittooktonudgethe activist, the face of the ongoing Jantar Mantar protests, to reconsiderhispositionandbreak his fast late on Thursday night. sources said the governmentbeganmakingattemptsto reach out to Wangchuk by the evening of July 20 when the protests ran into lathicharges and tear gas fired by the police during the march to Parliament. It is learnt that Vivek Tankha who was among the lawyers who fought Wangchuk’s National security act (Nsa) case in the supreme Court — and is known to be close to the activist — played a significant role in persuading him to end the fast. a source said Tankha’s intervention was drivenpurelybyhisconcernfor Wangchuk’s failing health due to the prolonged hunger strike. “he had lost more than 11 kg and those around him were concerned,” the source said. sources said that after speaking to Tankha, who is a CongressMP,Wangchukissued an open letter to Nadda in »ContInUeD on PAge 2 E. eXPlained Bar on import of forced-labour goods Ahead of the US tariffs, India barred the import of goods made using forced labour. On July 13, the Directorate General of Foreign Trade had inserted a new paragraph in the Foreign Trade Policy regarding ‘forced labour’, stating that import of goods produced or manufactured, ‘wholly or in part’, through the use of forced labour is ‘prohibited’. the product from the eU or Taiwan already has an MFN tariff of 10% or higher, the section 301 tariff is zero. India has been placed in the »ContInUeD on PAge 2 HC: OpenAI’s use of copyrighted material to train ChatGPT ‘fair’ Sohini ghosh New Delhi, July 24 The deLhI high Court has heldthatOpenaI’strainingofits large language models (LLMs) on original retrieved copyrighted works constituted fair dealing, and did not amount to infringement of copyright. TheinterimrulingFridayby Justice amit Bansal extends a measureoflegalcovertodevelopers of artificial intelligence (aI)chatbotssuchasOpenaIto continue training on Indianorigin content without licensingagreements,andalsointerprets broadly what constitutes “fairuse”ofcopyrightedworks. Thesuit,thefirstofitskindin Indian jurisdiction, was moved by news agency aNI Media Pvt Ltd in 2024 against OpenaI Inc and OpenaI OpCo LLC, seeking an injunction against the use of lawyer who fought wangchuk’s nsa case, three days of talks: the nudge that convinced activist to end fast PaGe 10 cji: cockroacH reMarks onlY for fake law deGree Holders Meet the protesters: Young, angry and very Gen Z PaGe 13 NTA sacks 47 officials, Govt starts recruitment for reform overhaul »ContInUeD on PAge 2 Politics The Big PicTure against the protesters were not negotiable. Union Minister J P Nadda, whoalongwithhiscolleagueJitendrasinghmetCJPspokespersons ashutosh ranka and saurav das for nearly two hours at the Constitution Club of India, notfarfromtheprotestsite,told reportersthattheCJPdemands andsuggestionshadbeennoted and there would be another meeting saturday afternoon. UsING dIsCarded wrappers and packaging from the Jantar Mantar protest site, delhi Police is allegedly tracking down restaurants and cafes and asking them to stop supplying free food or making bulk deliveries to the venue. The owners of several cafes andrestaurantstoldTheIndian Express that delhi Police officers visited them and went through the records of the ordersplacedandthedeliveries made over the last few days. someeaterieswereaskedtofurnishproofofthepaidorders,including bulk deliveries, as well as the food sent by the outlets for free. some restaurants and cafes claimed they were also summoned to police stations. The owner of a restaurant, which has supplied 800 pieces of food items daily on an average to Jantar Mantar over the lastthreedays,saiddelhiPolice officers reached their south delhistoreThursday,enquiring about those running it and askingwhyitsfoodwasavailableat SeCtIon 301 ForCeD lABoUr ProBe its copyrighted content in the training of LLMs. California-based OpenaI is the developer of the ChatGPT series of generative aI models. Open aI OpCo LLC is the commercialarmoftheorganisation. “...in my prima facie view, Open aI’s acts of storage of the literary works of aNI for the training of its LLMs would fall under section 52(1)(a) of the Copyrightact(fairdealing)and hence,wouldnotamounttoinfringement,” Justice Bansal ruled. he took into consideration that OpenaI’s use of the copyrighted works for training its LLMsis“completelyaninternal process” and does not involve providing the copyrighted material to any third party. “I am also of the prima facie viewthattheoutputsgenerated »ContInUeD on PAge 2 inside nAtIon 13 dead as fallinG Boulders crusH MovinG veHicle in HiMacHal PaGe 10 nAtIon anotHer indian sailor killed in ukraine-russia war: Mea PaGe 10 PolItICS union Minister Bittu quits, to focus on 2027 PunjaB election PaGe 10 l electoral roll revision in some of state’s most inaccessible villages Rivers rising, BLOs in Punjab’s border areas take boats to meet SIR deadline Kanchan vasdev that even the state’s last voters, living on the edge of the IndiaPakistanborder,arenotleftout. FOr MOsT Booth Level OfIn Gurdaspur district, Vikficers (BLOs), revising electoral ramsingh’sworkdaybeginsnot rolls means walking from one on a road but on the ravi. To house to another with forms in reachBharyalvillage,heboards hand. For some in Punjab’s re- asmallcountryboatatMakaura mote border belt, it has meant Pattan, near the confluence of rowing across rivers, the ravi and Ujh Page 1 waiting out floodrivers.Villagersferry waters and, on occahimacrosstoasettlesion, relying on ment that remains army boats to return home. cut off from the mainland for as the special Intensive months every year. revision (sIr) of electoral rolls “With rains lashing Jammu gathers pace, BLOs posted in and Kashmir and the river getsome of Punjab’s most inac- ting into spate, it becomes difcessible villages have been ficult.Ihadtogodaily.Iwanted navigating swollen rivers and to finish my work before the flood-prone terrain to ensure monsoon. I have been able to Chandigarh, July 24 anchor identify 60 percent of the voters. It was not an easy task,” singh told The Indian express, adding that sIr is still underway. Bharyal, which has 369 voters, is inundated almost every year. Many of its residents temporarily move to 15 neighbouring villages during the flood season. “I had to map each one of them. Like today, it is raining and I cannot go,” singh said. Bharyal and neighbouring Toorvillage,coveredunderPolling station Nos. 1 and 2 of the dinanagar (sC) assembly constituency, are among Punjab’s most isolated habitations. Pakistan lies on one side, the ravi blos Pushpa grover and Darshan singh cross the sutlej on a boat to reach Kaluwala village in Punjab’s ferozepur district. ExprEss on the other, while the international border is barely 8 kilometres away. Of Punjab’s 12,500 villages, 50 are considered remote becausetheyarelocatedalongthe international border and have poor road connectivity. For part of the year, a temporary pontoon bridge connects the villages with the mainland. during monsoon, the bridge is dismantled as the riverswells,leavingboatsasthe only means of transport. “These villages are cut off during monsoons but that doesn’thappeneveryyear,”one official said. Gurdaspuralonehas15such villages. “The ajnala, dharamkot and Bhoa assembly segments also have such remote villages,” Tript rajinder singh Bajwa, Congress MLa from Fatehgarh Churian in Gurdaspur, told The Indian Express. For BLOs, this means crossing the swelling river multiple times during the exercise — from house-to-house enumerationandmapping,andfollowup rounds that involve revisiting locked houses and identifying ineligible voters, to sitting at local polling booths to process forms. singh recalled one such day when a routine visit nearly turned into a rescue operation. “The water level was manageablewhenIwenttoBharyal. But by the time I had to return, flash floods in rajouri had affected the river here too. Then the army boat helped us come back,” he said. “When the river is in spate, village boats stop operating because it becomes risky. The armytakesoverwithboats,life jackets and all necessary arrangements.” he said residents had urged authoritiestokeepthepontoon bridgeinplacethisyear,butrising water levels made that impossible. Boat to Kaluwala Nearly 150 km away, a similar story is unfolding in Ferozepur district. Kaluwalavillage,underPolling station No. 7 of the Ferozepur Urban assembly constituency, is often called Punjab’s island village. encircled by the »ContInUeD on PAge 2