GROWTH OF CORE SECTORS AT 7.9% IN SEPT, HIGHEST UNDER NEW SERIES THURSDAY 22 Production in key infrastructure industries rose 7.9% in September, the fastest pace under the new series, official data showed on Wednesday OCTOBER, 2026 Iron ore, electricity drive growth epaper.morningstandard.in facebook.com/TheMorningStandard Among segments, iron ore output rose by 18.4%, electricity by 11.4%, coal by 10.7% and refinery products by 10.3%, the data showed. Cement production rose 9.8% and steel by 4.9% in September compared with the same period last year. However, fertilisers (-11.7%), natural gas (-4.6%), and crude oil (-1.4%) output fell during the month under review | P10 X.com/TheMornStandard RUSSIA OPEN FOR DIALOGUE WITH UKRAINE, US Russia is open to resuming trilateral talks with Washington and Kyiv towards ending the Ukraine war, Kremlin said after Putin met US special envoy PAGE 9 A CAPITAL VIEW OF NEWS  NEW DELHI Bilateral trade pact with India pretty close: Trump Speculation rife as US prez claims it would be a ‘different kind of deal’ Rubio’s jam session at RIL in Jamnagar D I PA K M O N D A L @ New Delhi SIGNALLING that the IndiaUS trade deal could be sealed soon, US President Donald Trump has said the pact is “pretty close” to being finalised. Speaking to reporters at a White House briefing on Tuesday (US time), he termed it “much different kind of deal” without elaborating. “They want to make a deal. We’re going to make a deal. Pretty close, yeah,” Trump told reporters when asked about the prospects of the India-US trade pact which has been in the making since February 2025. Trump’s statement comes at a time when Secretary of State Marco Rubio is on a three-day visit to India. It also comes days after the US waived fresh sanctions that threatened up to 100% tariff on India for its purchases of Russian crude oil. Earlier, Rubio told media that the India-US trade talks were down to technical details, adding that “it is something we anticipate seeing in a matter of weeks, not months”. He also attributed the US’s sanctions waiver to the efforts to finalise the trade deal, while highlighting that a comprehensive trade deal was almost complete, hinting at the possibility that it could be signed during his visit to India. Rubio, who reached India on Tuesday, is scheduled to leave on Thursday . Union commerce minister Piyush Goyal has also indicated that the agreement is 99% ready and both sides were doing the legal scrubbing of the trade pact. He said the deal would be signed when the tariff structure is finalised and other issues such as anti-dumping measures and Section 301 EXPRESS READ Ladakh panchayat polls scheduled for Nov 21 Amid deadlock between Ladakh’s leadership and the Centre, the state poll body announced the first panchayat polls in the Union territory on November 21, while the administration dissolved the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council, Kargil, the only elected body in the UT. | P8 Ex-HC judge appointed mediator in Rajpal case The Supreme Court has appointed former Delhi High Court judge Justice Najmi Waziri as mediator to resolve a 15-year-old chequedishonour dispute of Bollywood actor Rajpal Yadav over a `5 crore loan for producing a film. Waziri has been told to submit a report within eight weeks. | P4 US President Donald Trump Bilateral trade to be $500 bn in 3 yrs: Gor US Ambassador to India Sergio Gor has said that Washington has set an ambitious target to double its bilateral trade with India to $500 billion in the next three years. Speaking at an event in Mumbai, Gor cited opportunities in technology, pharma and investment are addressed. “The bilateral trade agreement’s first tranche has been finalised. It’s going through the final contours, the legal drafting, and we hope to be able to finalise that soon and operationalise that once we get comparable advantage or competitive advantage over our peer countries,” Goyal said during Centenary Conclave inauguration of SRCC last week. Trump’s latest comment that the trade pact will be a “different kind of deal” has triggered speculation about the final shape of the agreement. A commerce ministry spokesperson refused to comment on Trump’s statement. “There is no comment on this from the department,” the spokesperson said when contacted. Analysts TMS reached out to for comment said nothing much could be read into it. R A K E S H K U M A R @ New Delhi AS part of his efforts to encourage Indian refiners to buy more Venezuelan crude, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday visited Reliance Industries (RIL)’s oil-refining complex in Jamnagar, Gujarat. On Tuesday, Rubio had said Indian refiners should process more Venezuelan crude oil. In Jamnagar, Rubio and his entourage including US Ambassador Sergio Gor were welcomed by RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani, his wife Nita, and their children Isha and Anant. They were given a tour of the refinery complex and were briefed on ReMarco Rubio liance’s new energy gigafactories, RIL said in a statement. “The visit included discussions on the global energy landscape and opportunities for commercial partnerships across conventional and new energy .” RIL’s Jamnagar facility is the world’s largest single-site oil refining complex with a combined processing capacity of 1.4 million barrels per day. The firm has a total refining capacity of 68.2 million tonnes per annum. Rubio also met business leaders Gautam Adani and Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran in Mumbai on Wednesday .  J8.00  5.1% PAGES 12 CUMULATIVE GROWTH RATE OF CORE SECTORS DURING APRIL-SEPT 2026 Das, Ranka out of Tihar jail, and Jantar Mantar U D AYA N K I S H O R E @ New Delhi A special executive magistrate’s court ordered the release of CJP leaders Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka on Wednesday after they gave written undertakings that they would not breach peace or call for protests at Jantar Mantar as long as the site remains denotified. The duo was arrested for violating a “peace bond” while trying to protest at Jantar Mantar. Das and Ranka were ordered to be released from Tihar jail after they were produced before him on the expiry of their sevenday judicial custody The magis. trate passed the order after accepting their fresh sureties. They were directed to furnish personal bonds and surety bonds of `50,000 each. Cockroach Janta Party leaders Saurav Das (left) and Ashutosh Ranka after their release from Tihar jail in New Delhi on Wednesday | PARVEEN NEGI The CJP welcomed their release, with founder Abhijeet Dipke calling them “much, much bigger leaders” than himself and legal head Ratna Singh saying the decision should have come earlier. “Saurav and Ashu are not just better, but much, much bigger leaders than me. Happy to follow your orders, my leaders. Jaan hazir hai,” Dipke posted on X. Season’s first ‘poor’ air day, TRADE GRAP-I invoked in Del-NCR HALTS BETWEEN PAKISTAN AND IRAN E X P R E SS N E WS S E R V I C E @ New Delhi A day after Dussehra, the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) on Wednesday invoked Stage I of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) across Delhi-NCR as air quality slipped into the “poor” category . The decision was taken by the sub-committee on GRAP after reviewing the air quality situation in the region. “The AQI of Delhi, which was observed 179 on October 20, has exhibited a sharp rise at 244 at 2 pm on October 21,” the CAQM said in a statement. It added that forecasts by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) and the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) predicted that the AQI would remain in the “poor” category in the coming days. The sub-committee decided 248 DAILY AVERAGE AQI IN DELHI 159 187 179 139 WORST READING AT Chandni Chowk: 328 PIC: PARVEEN NEGI to implement all measures under Stage I of GRAP across the NCR with immediate effect. It directed all concerned agencies to implement, monitor and review the measures to prevent further deterioration in air quality. Agencies were also asked to maintain strict vigilance and intensify the prescribed measures. Citizens were urged to adhere to the citizen charter under GRAP Stage I, the order said. The sub-committee will continue to monitor air quality and review the situation periodically based on pollution levels and forecasts by the IMD and the IITM. Under Stage I, restrictions include a ban on the use of coal and firewood as fuel in tandoors at hotels, restaurants and open eateries. The use of diesel generators is also restricted to emergency purposes. Stage I of GRAP is invoked by CAQM when the AQI level is between 201 and 300. Stage II kicks in when it hovers between 301 and 400 and Stage III when it is between 401 and 450. Stage IV applies when the AQI exceeds 450. P4 Priyanka’s son says asked to remove Flier count drops at Hindon, protest photographs from exhibition airlines scale down operations S R E S T H A S A R K A R @ New Delhi RAIHAN Vadra, son of Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, has alleged that the management of Bikaner House in New Delhi directed him to remove most of the photographs displayed in his solo exhibition “No Idea is Final”, ahead of its scheduled opening on Wednesday evening. The photographs document the anti-SIR protests in Delhi. This newspaper captured him while documenting one such agitation on October 11 outside the R K Ashram metro station, where AISA president Neha Bora was present. In a statement issued hours An exclusive photo of Raihan Vadra at R K Ashram metro station, published by this newspaper on Oct 12 | PARVEEN NEGI before the exhibition was due to open at 7 pm, Raihan said the Bikaner House management had objected to the content of the works, describing them as “objectionable”. According to him, the management also directed him to remove two pho- The bail order came after the Delhi High Court made scathing remarks against them, while pointing out a statement about “regime change” and student protests turning violent in other countries. Justice Subramonium Prasad, on being informed that Das and Ranka were 27 and 31 years old respectively had re, marked, “That means you are not Gen Z.” The high court emphasised that the purpose behind a police permission for a protest was not to stop anyone but prevent “unwanted persons” from joining the protest group and ensure that a peaceful agitation does not escalate into violence. It refused to interfere with their judicial custody and asked them to await the outcome of hearing in magistrate’s court. P4 tographs of the tricolour. “I have refused. I will not take down a picture of the Indian flag,” a defiant Raihan wrote on Instagram soon after. He claimed that the management forced him to remove 75 of the 105 pictures on display. “The show will go on in part for now, but I will find another venue and display the entire collection,” he said. He said the management justified its objections by saying that, given the current political climate in India, it was not the right time to display the images. Bikaner House officials didn’t respond to multiple calls and messages from this newspaper till the time of going to press. S L A L I T H A @ New Delhi DESPITE a major infrastructure upgrade, Hindon airport is seeing passenger count and daily flights plunge to a quarter of their earlier levels. The airport earlier handled an average of 4,000–4,500 flyers daily. But the number has now dropped to between 1,000 and 1,200, sources said. Air traffic movements (arrivals and departures of flights) have declined from 44 a day to just 12, a source said. Owned by the Indian Air Force, the airfield does not permit operations after sunset, placing severe restrictions on airlines. The limited availability of parking bays is another longstanding bottleneck. Star Air, which began operating flights to Nanded and Adampur under the UDAN regiona l c o n n e c t iv i t y s c h e m e, continues to serve both destinations. However, its operations to Mundra airport in Gujarat, which had been quite successful, have been discontinued. Air India Express launched operations from Hindon on March 1, 2025, but ended them on March 30 this year. IndiGo began operations on July 20, 2025. It has recently withdrawn its Chennai service. Airport Director Chilaka Mahesh said the AAI had undertaken major upgrades to improve passenger facilities and ease congestion. Several trucks queued at Pakistan border crossings with Iran after trade between the countries was suspended, a provincial official said | P9 U’khand ends Friday off for madrasas N A R E N D R A S E T H I @ Dehradun THE Uttarakhand government has ordered madrasas recognised as schools to switch to Sunday as the weekly holiday instead of Friday, with immediate effect. “All recognised institutions must follow the rules laid down by the education department and the authority,” Surjeet Singh Gandhi, chairperson of the Minority Education Authority, which replaced the Madrasa Education Board in July said. He , said schools operate from 8 am to 1 pm, and the schedule won’t prevent students and staff from attending Friday afternoon prayers which are typically held after 1 pm. The Opposition slammed the order, which comes ahead of the assembly elections. Congress spokesperson Pratima Singh alleged that whenever polls approach, the BJP reverts to “the politics of polarisation and communalism”. Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami hailed it as a step towards bringing a uniform system. An official said 452 madrasas had previously been recognised by the Madrasa Board. Of them, 76 have so far received recognition under the new system. FOUR CATEGORIES Final jury meeting to choose winners of prestigious RNG Sahithya Samman today PA R A M I TA G H O S H @ New Delhi ALL literary awards serve as signals of quality. They have their curatorial emphases and specific ambitions. Words that last, writers who take the job of imagination seriously, mark it with integrity, and speak in a unique voice, capturing attention in a crowded world of content. The Ramnath Goenka Sahithya Samman (RNGSS), instituted in honour of Ramnath Goenka, a stalwart of Indian print media and founder of The New Indian Express Group, returns for its fourth edition with a sharper aim. TNIE’s shortlist was decided after a meeting of the internal jury, comprising Santwana Bhattacharya, Editor, The New Indian Express Group; K Vaidyanathan, Editor, Dinamani; and Ravi Shankar, Consulting Editor, Sunday Magazine. Books published between July 2025 and June 2026 were considered for the longlist across three categories—Fiction, Non-Fiction and Debut. The fourth category, the RNGSS Lifetime Achievement Award, honours distinguished literary figures whose contributions have en- riched Indian literature over the course of their careers. In the Best Fiction shortlist are Amitav Ghosh’s Ghost-eye, a climate-crisis novel that is about families, food and marginalisation; Rahul Bhattacharya’s Railsong, about a woman who grew up in an Indian railway township against the backdrop of a nation in motion, as steam engines gave way to diesel and India passed through the tumultuous 1970s; Geetanjali Shree’s Once Elephants Lived Here, an unsettling short story anthology of people caught in their pasts; and Ashwin Sanghi’s Ayodhya Alliance, a cross-cultural story in which an Indian industrialist and a South Korean technocrat uncover an ancient metallurgical force. Four books are part of the Best Non-fiction list. They are: Abhishek Choudhary’s Believer’s Dilemma — Vajpayee and the Hindu Right’s Path to Power 1977-2018, , a mapping of the Hindu Right movement from the margins to a party of power, and its first prime minister; Raghu Palat and Pushpa Palat’s God’s Own Empire, a dramatic period novel about Marthanda Varma, the first monarch of Travancore; Ghazala Wahab’s The Hindi Heartland, a book that debunks the idea of the region as a monolith, arguing for its plurality in history , culture and politics and the way to reclaim its diverse roots; and Shaan Kashyap’s Who Owns the Past, on the official histories of colonial to modern India and the historians who wrote them. The contenders for the Best Debut award are: Never Logged Out — How the Internet Created India’s Gen Z by Ria Chopra on the constantly ‘connected’ generation; Mohsin Khan’s Allah Miyan’s Workshop on the doubts and disquiet of a Dickensian boy hero; Ponnu Elizabeth Mathew’s The Remnants of Rebellion, about a Syrian Christian family of Kerala in the backdrop of caste oppression and emerging Hindu nationalism; and Sowmiya Ashok’s The Dig: Keeladi and the Politics of India’s Past, on the archaeology of Keeladi, its centrality to the storytelling about Tamil Nadu and the politics of presenting competing stories about the past. A jury meeting in Delhi, comprising the external and internal jury, will choose the winners from the shortlist on October 22. Chaired by author and parliamentarian Shashi Tharoor, the external jury includes economist Sanjeev Sanyal and author-historian Vikram Sampath. The winners will be announced at a prestigious award ceremony in Chennai, the TNIE headquarters, on December 2.