The Editorial Page: Celebrating the voter in the age of SIr — a modest proposal 10 FRIdAY, NOvEMBER 13, 2026 JOUrNAlISm of COUrAgE mumbAI, lATe cITy, 20 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 announCemenT By Board eXPRess investigation CosT of 1,500 megawaTT Tarali pumped sTorage projeCT revised from rs 5,675 Crore To rs 56.75 Crore 118 146 181 adani slashes its maharashtra power project cost by 99%, its forest dues plummet; centre orders probe Asked to deposit Rs 227 cr for wildlife fund, Adani Green Energy now commits only Rs 2.27 cr; company says project on ‘no forest’ land 92 happening today lThe 45Th ediTion of the India International Trade Fair kicks off under the theme ‘Vikas aur Virasat’ with over 3,500 exhibitors and 11 countries set to participate. Chandan haygunde Patan (Satara), November 12 adanI Green energy ltd, a renewable energy company ownedbytheadaniGroup,has sought to sharply revise downwards the cost of its 1,500 megawatt hydropower project inMaharashtra’ssataradistrict to rs 56.75 crore from rs 5,675 crore, according to documents and records reviewed by The Indian Express. this reduction in cost to a one-hundredth matters because it also proportionally reduces the money adani Green energy has to deposit towards wildlife sanctuary conservation and protection to just rs 2.27 crore as against rs 227 crore.theproposaltorevisethe projectcostestimatetors56.75 crore was accepted by the Maharashtraforestdepartmentrecently, and the company accordingly deposited rs 56.75 lakh (1% of rs 56.75 crore) into the bank account of sahyadri tigerreserve,withthebalance to be deposited after the national Board for Wildlife project site near tondoshi village in maharashtra’s satara district. cHAndAn HAygunde (nBWl) clears the project. Following a complaint by rohan Bhate, Honorary WildlifeWarden,sataradistrict,registered on October 30 with the Prime Minister’s grievance redressal portal and to the Chief Minister of Maharashtra throughthestategovernment’s aaple sarkar grievance redressal portal, alleging “incorrect cost of the project”, the union Ministry of environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoeF&CC) has Affairs with ‘spy’ and V-P outed, Nvidia chief resigns Interim CEO named, Nvidia shares fall, Trump wants Tim Cook to take over »ConTinued on page 2 eXPRess exclusive ChargesheeT deTails BreaCh iaf officer shared war plans, deployment details with pakistani agent, police tell court sakshi Chand New Delhi, November 12 a WInG Commander of the IaF, arrested five months ago andbookedunderprovisionsof the Official secrets act, allegedly shared classified operational information including war-plandocuments,dronecapabilities,militarydeployment locations, movements of frontlinecombataircraftandcoordinates of sensitive installations with a suspected Pakistani intelligence operative. detailing this in a chargesheet filed in a delhi court, police said the disclosure of such information potentially compromised critical military assets, exposed operational vulnerabilities and put national security at risk. according to the chargesheet, information about the strength and structure of a secret drone unit, its operational capabilities, locations earmarkedfordeploymentduring hostilities and the movement of combat aircraft were also passedontothesuspectedPakistani operative. the Wing Commander, according to police, had been in communication over Whatsapp with the suspected operative from January 12 to april 1 this year when he was stopped and checked for carrying a smartphone to the office. the officer, according to the police chargesheet, “uploaded” a page of a “secret »ConTinued on page 2 inside page 8 govt absorbed oil price hike heat to protect farmers, says pm Upbeat for summit union commerce minister piyush goyal, andhra pradesh chief minister n chandrababu naidu and deputy cm pawan Kalyan ahead of the inaugural session of the 31st cII partnership summit in visakhapatnam, thursday. pTI business as usual eXPRess special By EP UNNY why gokul win has unsettled sections of bJp, shiv sena shubhangi Khapre & vallabh ozarkar tHe MaHaYutI’s recent win in Maharashtra’s biggest dairy Gokul — weeks after it lost an election there to the Opposition — has not gone down well in sections of both the BJP and ally shiv sena. nationalist Congress Party (nCP) leader rajesh Patil was elected Gokul’s chairman 16 votesto13onnovember10,days afterthegovernmentpassedan ordinance giving four directors mahayuti supporters outside gokul dairy. sHubHAm KurAle nominated by it voting rights. thesevoteshelpedtherulingallianceovercomethevotedeficit thathadseenitlosetheelection tothedairy’sboard12votesto13 siddharth upasani eXPlained summit that wasn’t shubhajit roy New Delhi, November 12 a suMMIt of the Quad leaders is expected to take place in Manila next week where Prime MinisternarendraModiwillbe attending the asean-India and east asia summits. security near the venues for asean summit in manila. Ap us President donald trump, Japanese Prime Minister sanae takaichi and »ConTinued on page 2 aditya soni & anhata rooprai Bengaluru, November 12 nVIdIa CeO Jensen Huang stepped down on thursday after revelations of two extramarital affairs, including one involving a suspected Chinese spy, plunged the chipmaker intocrisisandsentshockwaves acrossanaIindustryhehelped bankroll. Huang's exit caps a tumultuous week for nvidia, one of the major engines behind the aI boom, and could have farreaching consequences for us chip export policy and the broader aI ecosystem, given the ex-CeO's push to preserve access to the Chinese market, as well as his close ties with us President donald trump. the crisis has threatened to implicate some trump admin- INSIDE As HuAng quITs, A TesT looms For AI boom page 15 wAll sTreeT recoVers, nVIdIA woes deepen page 17 romAnce cAn be A long gAme In cHInA’s spy ops the world istration members, including Commerce secretary Howard lutnick, who is facing growing questions over the administration's oversight of chip sales to China, particularly as both he andHuangpushedforrelaxing those sales despite scrutiny from longtime China hawks in both parties. the Commerce department did not immediately comment. »ConTinued on page 2 Mumbai, November 12 on October 19. While the concern among some in the BJP, »ConTinued on page 2 related reports, page 6 Politics page 8 govt weighs special session before house winter meet Quad summit likely in Manila next First time in 2 yrs, retail inflation week on margins of regional meets over 6%, RBI may hike rate again PM will attend India-Asean, East Asia summits Jensen huang with alice huang in taiwan in 2025; (right) Kimberly powell, nvidia’s vice president of healthcare. Ap, reuTers Leaders of the Quad grouping last met in Atlanta in 2024. India was to host it in 2025, but that never happened. Scheduling issues were cited as the reason, but by the latter half of that year, India-US ties had taken a knocking over Trump’s actions. New Delhi, November 12 l thetwo-yeaRRide IndIa’s retaIl inflation rate increasedforthe12thmonthin a row in October as an unfavourable base effect and rising food prices pushed the main headline number past 6% for thefirsttimeintwoyears,likely cementing another interest rate hike by the reserve Bank ofIndia(rBI)earlynextmonth. datareleasedbytheMinistryof statistics and Programme 12 10.87% l cpI inflation (%) l Food inflation (%) 8.94% 10 8 6.21% 6 4 2 6.09% 0 0.25% rbI’s inflation -2 target range -4 -5.02% -6 oct-24 oct-25 oct-26 note:dATA prIor To 2026 Is As per 2012 cpI bAse yeAr serIes; souRce:mospI »ConTinued on page 2 J&K: Bullet-riddled bodies of two SPOs found; LeT terrorist attacked CRPF men arun sharma, Bashaarat masood & mahender singh manral Jammu, Srinagar, New Delhi, November 12 less tHan 24 hours after two special Police Officers were reported missing, their bulletriddledbodieswerefoundnear a nullah thursday morning in Kishtwar district of J&K. the sPOs, rashpal Kumar (45) and Bobby Chand (57), were posted at Kiyar village in the higher reaches of the dachhan area. Official sources said the killings of the two sPOs was the first such incident in the areain26years—terroristshad killed eight members of a village defence group in the region on august 1, 2000. Meanwhile, security agencies have identified Mohammed latif Bhat alias latif Bobby chand and (right) rashpal Kumar ahmad Bhat, a local commander of the lashkar-e-taiba (let) and its proxy the resistance Front (trF), as the man who carried out Wednesday’s attackonasecuritycheckpoint, leaving three CrPF personnel injured, in the akhran area near Mir Bazar in Kulgam district Wednesday. On the Kishtwar incident, officials said the bodies of the two sPOs were found in the »ConTinued on page 2 lcontroversy heats up IndIan olympIc assocIatIon electIons Usha gets a lifeline via Ice Hockey Federation, takes on Anju, Olympic medallists nihal Koshie & mihir vasavda pressureandquestionsoverthe transparency of the electoral process, usha’s re-election bid New Delhi, Mumbai, November 12 suffered a setback three days ago when she failed to secure a eleCtIOns tO the Indian place among the eight sportOlympic association (IOa) are spersons of merit (four men turning out to be a race to and four women) elected to the watch. General assembly of the IOa. the arena is set for sprint But she is back in contention queen P t usha to now after the Ice face off against Hockey Federation Page 1 another track and of India nominated field star, anju her to the General assembly. Bobby George, and a number of Olympic medallists elections will be held for in the race for the IOa presi- nine IOa office-bearer posts, dent’s post. besides positions on its execuWith allegations of external tive council. under the IOa anchor Constitution, an eligible presidential candidate must either be elected to the General assembly by the sportspersons of Outstanding Merit (sOM) or be nominatedbyanationalsports Federation. usha’s return, however, does not necessarily set up a straight contest with the other star from Keralam, anju, with several other Olympic medallists also potentially in the fray. thevotingonMonday,conducted by 80 current sOMs, saw anju emerge as one of the early frontrunners. the former long jumper, the only Indian woman to win a World Cham- p t usha and anju Bobby george are in the race for the post of Ioa president. pTusHAoFFIcIAl/InsTAgrAm, Anjubgeorge/InsTAgrAm pionships medal in athletics, secured 53 votes, followed by former hockey captain rani rampal (50), archer dola Banerjee (45) and shuttler saina nehwal(43).ushafinishedfifth with 40 votes. usha, the IOa’s first woman president who had initially expected a relatively smooth reelection, now faces the prospect of a contest involving not just anju but also Olympic medallists Gagan narang, saina nehwal, boxer Vijender singh and wrestler Yogeshwar dutt. the process leading up to Monday’s vote has been mired in controversy after eight male and five female candidates pulledoutofthesOMelections. according to sources, usha, whohadstrainedrelationswith members of the IOa executive committee during her tenure, was also asked to withdraw but refused. usha subsequently wrote to the International Olympic Committee (IOC), seeking a probe into possible government interference or external pressure in the sOM elections. anju, meanwhile, believes her experience as an athlete and administrator puts her in a position to contribute to the IOa, though she declined to comment on whether she was interested in succeeding usha as president. “I have been a senior vice president of the athletics Fed- eration of India for two terms. this group of the IOa will work for the 2030 Commonwealth Games. as an elite former athlete and as an administrator, I feelIcancontributeimmensely and be performance-oriented. this is not a sudden jump by me into sports administration. I worked with aFI for so many years. It is a big opportunity to be part of the IOa,” anju said. the2003WorldChampionships bronze medallist said her biggest learning from her time as an aFI vice-president was theimportanceoftakingeveryone along. “What I have gained »ConTinued on page 2 Mumbai