FRIDAY AVOID PUTTING INDIAN SAILORS ON VESSELS MOVING VIA HORMUZ: DGMA 17 JULY, 2026 epaper.morningstandard.in facebook.com/TheMorningStandard X.com/TheMornStandard WA R E S C A L AT E S US STRIKES IRAN’S COASTAL DEFENCES The advisory from the Directorate General of Maritime Administration (DGMA) came after this week’s attacks on two vessels in the strait NO DEPLOYMENT TILL FURTHER ORDERS The US struck Iran while Tehran hit back at US allies in the Gulf on Thursday, as the foes battled over the vital Strait of Hormuz in the renewed West Asia war A CAPITAL VIEW OF NEWS PAGE 9  Feet of God: No “Hand of God” this time. Instead it was the hallowed feet of Lionel Messi and the unbreakable team spirit that took them into the final. 0-1 down, Messi produced two assists with goals from E Fernandez and sub L Martinez NEW DELHI Spain vs Argentina The best offense. The best defense. A mouthwatering final is set. Lionel Messi and defending champion Argentina will take on Spain’s defensive juggernaut on Sunday in East Rutherford, New Jersey Defensive tactics cost England England had victory in their sights after Anthony Gordon scored the opening goal in the 55th minute. However, the Three Lions opted to stay deep than go for the kill and in the end they paid for it. The bounce back seemed inevitable with Albiceleste scoring twice in a span of seven minutes Concern over 3rd language in 9th Class S U C H I T R A K A LYA N M O H A N T Y @ New Delhi THE Supreme Court on Thursday expressed serious concern over the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE)’s decision to introduce a third language in Class 9, observing that it would add to students’ stress with the Board examinations just a year away . “Ninth standard is stressful. Why do you introduce a new language in 9th?” Justice B V Nagarathna asked. She suggested that the third language should ideally be introduced from Class 6 to give students more time to adapt. The bench, also comprising Justice R Mahadevan, made the remarks during the hearing of an appeal by the Tamil Nadu government against a Madras High Court order directing the state to facilitate the establishment of Jawahar Navo d ay a Vidyalayas in every district. During t h e h e a ring, the topic of CBSE schools briefly came up. In response to a query by Justice Nagarathna, a counsel informed the court that third-language is compulsory in CBSE schools only from the 9th standard. To this, Justice B V Nagarathna said it could be stressful for the students to have to start learning a new language at the higher secondary level. The judge said it can be introduced in middle school instead. Under the three-language formula, students must study two Indian languages and one non-native language. Drawing from her own experience, Justice Nagarathna said that students in her school were introduced to multiple languages during middle school so that they were better prepared before appearing for their secondary school examinations. J8.00 It is crazy to be playing in back-to-back finals. Once again we managed to do the job when things were looking bad. We never stopped believing — Lionel Messi BACK-TO-BACK, ALL THE WAY SC REMARK  Kharge seeks all-party meet on ‘revised’ delimitation bill P R E E T H A N A I R @ New Delhi AMID speculation that the Union government is working on multiple formulations to reintroduce the Constitution amendment bill that would involve delimitation, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Thursday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging him to convene an all-party meeting to discuss the revised proposals. In his letter, Kharge said he had written to the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Kiren Rijiju, in March and April requesting an all-party meeting to discuss the proposals on delimitation. “Unfortunately, these requests had not been accepted. The Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026, then failed to secure the required 2/3 majority in Lok Sabha on 17 April 2026 by a clear margin,” he said. “I have been reading in media reports that the Union Government now proposes to reintroduce a revised (131st I... request you to convene an all-party meeting to discuss the government’s revised proposals on delimitation, etc., and give us adequate time to study them in detail before they are introduced in Parliament Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge to the PM Amendment) Bill, 2026 during the forthcoming Monsoon Session of Parliament. I would, once again, request you to convene an all-party meeting to discuss the government’s revised proposals on delimitation, etc., and give us adequate time to study them in detail before they are introduced in Parliament,” he said. The Congress chief ’s letter comes even as the ruling NDA Raising LS strength The govt wants to increase LS seats to a maximum of 850 from the current 543 to “operationalise” the women’s quota law before the 2029 polls following delimitation based on the last published 2011 Census. Currently, the NDA needs 360 votes to achieve the magic figure appears to be inching towards a two-thirds majority in the Lok Sabha to pass constitutional amendment bills. On Wednesday, INDIA bloc partner NCP (SP) leader Supriya Sule hinted that her party would consider supporting the proposed delimitation bill provided the Centre gives an assurance that the number of Lok Sabha and Assembly seats in every state will be increased uniformly by 50%. While the government failed to muster the required twothirds majority to clear the bill on April 17, sources said that there is a proposal to increase the number of Lok Sabha seats for all states by 50% to address the concerns of the South. Southern states feel that a population-based delimitation exercise would shrink their political power in the Lok Sabha. P7  PAGES 12 The DGMA directed ship owners, ship managers and recruitment and placement service companies to avoid deploying Indian sailors on vessels travelling through the waterway till further orders. “The Directorate considers it necessary to adopt enhanced precautionary measures to safeguard the interests of Indian seafarers” the order said 13 INDIAN SEAFARERS HAVE DIED IN THE STRAIT OF HORMUZ SINCE FEB 28 Punjab boy tops NEET-UG, 11.21 L qualify Punjab’s Aryan Gupta and Haryana’s Panshul Bansal score 715 out of 720 S L A L I T H A @ New Delhi A total of 11.21 lakh candidates qualified in the re-examination of the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (Undergraduate), or NEET-UG 2026, the results of which were declared late on Thursday night. As amny as 58% of them are women. Aryan Gupta (Punjab) with the highest score of 715 out of 720 was declared AIR 1, while Panshul Bansal of Haryana, with the same score was AIR 2. Both scored 99.9999 percentile, the NTA said. Kudale Shravani Krishna was the topper among women. She stood fifth in the overall NEET ranking. “The result has been declared in time so that the medical-admission and counselling calendar for candidates stays on track,” the NTA said in a statement. The top 17 who scored over 705 marks are from Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, UP, Maharashtra, Bihar, TN and Telangana. An official release said that 138 candidates scored above 690 marks out of 720. Of these, 99% are between 17 and 19 years of age and over 93% of the toppers have appeared for NEET-UG for the first time. They are drawn from 66 cities across the country . The NTA said that 19 candidates scored above 700 out of 720, 1,492 scored 650 and above, 10,160 scored 600 and above and 90,780 scored 500 and above. Uttar Pradesh tops the number of candidates qualified with over 1.7 lakh candidates. Out of overall qualifying students, 2.91 lakh belong to the general category; other backward classes – non-creamy layer 5.12 lakh; Scheduled Caste 1.59 lakh; Scheduled Tribes 63,716; gen-economically weaker sections 95,026; persons with benchmark disability 3,666; and persons with disabilities 303. Scorecards of all candidates are available on the official website, neet.nta.nic.in. Nearly 20 lakh candidates appeared in the retest held on June 21. The results were declared within time through re-engineering of the process, with stages designed to run in parallel rather than in sequence, and with the de-linking of the OMR sheet challenge from answer key release — NTA Toppers from city Kashvi Dhall, who secured 99.9978999 percentile, emerged topper in Delhi, with AIR of 24. Thejas Varun Reddy stood second in Delhi and bagged the 49th rank in the country with a percentile of 99.995998. Hanshika stood third. Govt to spend `400 crore to ‘make city startup hub’ A N U P V E R M A @ New Delhi THE city Cabinet has approved the Delhi Start-up and Incubation Policy to promote innovation, research and entrepreneurship in the national capital. The government will invest more than `400 crore over the next five years to support young innovators and help them turn their ideas into start-ups. Chief Minister Rekha Gupta said the policy has been designed to develop Delhi into one of the country’s leading hubs for innovation and entrepreneurship while ensuring that young people receive every possible support to build successful start-ups. She said the policy aims to create a strong innovation ecosystem across educational institutions. The policy will be implemented in 11 state universities, 13 government-funded colleges, polytechnic institutes and Industrial Training Institutes. Students from government schools will also be able to avail themselves of the policy’s benefits through these institutions. Successful students will receive financial assistance, while the incubation centres will be provided annual operational support for mentoring and networking activities. According to Gupta, the support will cover prototype development, proof of concept, product development and market validation. Driven by demand for housing across all categories, the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) sold 1,284 flats in the first quarter of 2026–27 generating around `1,020 crore in revenue. Sub-city Narela emerged as the biggest contributor to the DDA’s kitty, with 1,153 flats sold during the quarter, accounting for nearly 90% of the total sales. P3 Worker dies in Silkyara tunnel after slab breaks SEA OF HUMANITY AT RATH YATRA A sea of devotees participate in the annual Rath Yatra in the temple town of Puri in Odisha on Thursday. The yatra features the ceremonial procession of the sibling deities—Lord Balabhadra, Devi Subhadra and Lord Jagannath. None of the three chariots reached the Shree Gundicha Temple. One person died and many others fell ill in a crowd surge during the yatra | PTI | P5 IndiGo does not permit pets on long-haul flights nearly 12 hours. Water was placed in it for him. To calm him down during the trip, a mild medication was given which was not a sedative.” The airline had been working to get pet clearances both in India and abroad for more than a year, he added. Air India operates long haul flights to the US, Australia and Canada. “We had to get the consent from the stakeholders and regulatory agencies THE Delhi High Court on Thursday directed the Centre and the Delhi government to monitor activist Sonam Wangchuk’s health daily and provide all necessary medical intervention, observing that “the life of any citizen is precious” as he continues an indefinite hunger strike seeking the Union education minister’s resignation. The order came on the 19th day of Wangchuk’s hunger strike, which began on June 28 at Jantar Mantar during protests organised by the Cockroach Janta Party The protest. ers are demanding the education minister’s resignation over alleged question paper leaks and irregularities in the education system. A bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia issued the directions after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, on instructions, assured the court that government doctors would examine Wangchuk every day and, depending on their assessment, undertake whatever medical intervention was required to check any deterioration in his condition. Recording the assurance, the bench said Wangchuk’s medical condition, “clinically and otherwise”, must be monitored on a daily basis. “We only observe that life of any citizen is precious and all efforts ought to be made by the government authorities to save the same,” it observed. The court was hearing a PIL which alleged that Wangchuk was being treated “like a hardcore criminal, terrorist or traitor to the nation”. DDA revenue increases by 120% in first quarter After years, ultra long-haul Air India plane flies in a pet cargo hold ( p l a n e b e l ly ) , AIR India is on cloud nine. It only Air India recently flew in a male Rott- has the permit weiler, 4, named Cloud, from to transport Melbourne to New Delhi, mak- cats and dogs on ing him the first pet to take an such long journeys. ultra long-haul An Air India Indian passenger source said, “The PRESS flight in recent pet parent is reloCLUSIVE c at i n g p e r m a times. Ultra long-haul nently from Ausflights refer to journeys with a tralia to India and was very travel time of more than 10 particular about taking his dog hours. While airlines permit back home. Both flew by AI 309 pets in domestic flights and and Cloud, (weighing 56 kg) short international flights in- had a smooth journey in his pet side the cabin as well as the carriage in the cargo hold for U D AYA N K I S H O R E @ New Delhi EXPRESS READ MELBOURNE TO DELHI S L A L I T H A @ New Delhi Keep a watch on Wangchuk’s health, Centre & Delhi govt told “Air India used to ferry pets by ultra long-haul many years ago. It was discontinued much before the Tata Group took over the airline. Since, we had to restart after a long gap, all the clearances had to be obtained afresh,” another airline source said. IndiGo at present does not permit pets on long-haul flights while Air India Express, SpiceJet and Akasa Air do not operate ultra long-haul flights of these international airports. We also had to get the nod from airport operators in India as well as regulatory agencies like the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, the Bureau of Civil Aviation and the Central Industrial Security Force.” Airports too need to have a pet-friendly infrastructure. “Flyers with pets arrive a few hours ahead of other passengers. The airport needs to be equipped with infrastructure to house the pets and attend to their needs until the start of the journey Delhi airport has these . facilities already he added. ,” A 25-year-old worker was killed after a block of concrete lining fell down in the under-construction Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand. The accident occurred while construction and maintenance work was under way in the tunnel. Sources said a part of the concrete lining broke loose and struck the worker on the neck. Girls strip-searched for teacher’s missing `500 R A J E S H A S N A N I @ Jaipur GIRLS at a government school in Rajasthan’s Sawai Madhopur district faced a humiliating ordeal when a senior teacher allegedly forced them to remove their clothes during a search for missing money The . Class IX and XI students were allegedly treated as suspects over `500 lost by the teacher, an act that has left their families and the village outraged. The incident took place on Tuesday at the Government Senior Secondary School in the village of Livali in the Bamanwas subdivision. According to students’ complaints, senior Hindi teacher Saraswati Meena lost 500 rupees and suspected the girls of taking it. Under the pretext of an investigation, the teacher questioned them, mentally harassed them and forced them to remove clothes. The students also alleged that the teacher threatened them with a `500 fine if they refused to follow her instructions.