tuesdAY COAI raises Prasar Bharati’s direct-to-mobile Test issue 06 january, 2026 epaper.morningstandard.in facebook.com/TheMorningStandard X.com/TheMornStandard north korea iit-Kanpur test rules out harmful effects ‘hypersonic missiles tested’ North Korea said on Monday that Kim Jong Un observed testflights of hypersonic missiles. This is part of its stated goal of having a nuclear war deterrent A CAPITAL VIEW OF NEWS Page 09 l New Delhi l J8.00 The public broadcaster did not involve telecom operators and mobile device companies for the test, the telecom industry body said on Monday. Prasar Bharati had roped in IIT-Kanpur in 2019 to verify concerns over interference of direct-to-mobile (D2M) broadcast service with telecom services and heating of mobile devices, involving Aracion Technology and Tejas Networks. Its report refuted the concern raised by some stakeholders | P10 PAGES 12 l COAI Claims d2m could IMPACT the spectrum bands for 5G use Can raise tariffs on India very quickly, warns Trump AP villagers evacuated after gas leak, fire at ONGC well Claims Modi knew he wasn’t happy over India’s Russian oil purchase E x p r e ss n e w s s e r vic e @ Kakinada J AYA NT H J A C O B @ New Delhi A major gas leak followed by fire at an ONGC well at Andhra Pradesh’s BR Ambedkar Konaseema district on Monday forced authorities to evacuate all people from nearby villages. There were no casualties. The incident occurred during re pair operations by ONGC’s contractor Deep Industries Ltd. Officials said there was a blowout when the drilling work was underway and large volumes of gas mixed with crude oil were released. The gas spread across the site in a thick, fog-like cloud, which workers initially mistook for mist. Soon, the leaked gas ignited, producing flames and dense smoke that engulfed surrounding areas. District Collector Mahesh Kumar Ravirala, Superintendent of Police Rahul Meena, and other senior officials rushed to the site. Around 10 fire tenders were deployed, while disaster management teams worked to contain the situation. Videos circulating on social media showed police and workers fleeing as flames rose amid paddy fields and coconut groves, with thick smoke visible across the Godavari delta. ONGC said the well is located in a remote area with no habitation within a 500-600 metre radius, adding that cooling operations have begun. Renewing his pressure tactics on India over its trade with Russia, US President Donald Trump warned that Washington could raise tariffs on New Delhi “very quickly”. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One while flying from Florida to Washington DC on Sunday (local time), Trump said Prime Minister Narendra Modi is aware of his displeasure over India’s continued purchase of Russian oil. “They (India) wanted to make me happy, basically. Modi is a very good man; he is a good guy . He knew I was not happy and it , was important to make me happy. They do trade and we can raise tariffs on them very quickly It would be very bad for . them,” Trump said. Trump’s remarks came during a press briefing on the US’s future plans for Venezuela after capturing its president Nicolas Maduro in a military operation on Saturday. India on Sunday reacted cautiously to the development, urging dialogue but dead in Bangladesh A Hindu businessman, who was also the acting editor of a newspaper, was fatally shot in the head by unidentified assailants on Monday in Jessore district of Bangladesh. Deposed Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro being taken to Manhattan Courthouse in New York City for first appearance in a narco-terrorism case | X | P13 Khalid, Imam fail to get SC bail, barred from appeal for a yr dence, including recoveries, digital communication trails, and statements indicative of The Supreme Court on Mon- managerial responsibility”, the day refused to grant bail to ac- court observed. It brought Sectivists Umar Khalid and Shar- tion 43D(5) of UAPA into play. jeel Imam in the 2020 Delhi 43D(5) mandates that an acriots case, noting that the mate- cused cannot be released if rial against them atthere are reasonable tracted a prima facie grounds to believe that case under the Unlawthe charges are prima ful Activities (Prevenfacie true. tion) Act. They were “T he expression also barred from filing “prima facie true”, a fresh petition for bail which lies at the heart for a year. of Section 43D(5), does Khalid and Imam not invite a detailed exUmar Khalid stand on different footamination of evidence, ing as compared to the nor does it require the other five who had Court to assess the sought bail, which probability of conviccan’t be ignored in tion. Equally, it does terms of “parity and not reduce the judicial culpability”, the bench role to a mechanical comprising justices acceptance of the prosAravind Kumar and N ecution’s assertions. Sharjeel Imam V Anjaria ruled. The The statutory standard other five — Gulfisha contemplates a threshFatima, Meera Haider, Shifa Ur old inquiry of limited but real Rehman, Mohd. Saleem Khan content,” the verdict said. and Shadab Ahmed — were It went on to observe that “ Argranted conditional bail. ticle 21 occupies a central space The prosecution material in the constitutional scheme. against Khalid and Imam “com- Pre trial incarceration cannot prises direct, corroborative, be assumed to have the characand contemporaneous evi- ter of punishment.” p3 S U C H I TR A K A LYA N M O H A NT Y @ New Delhi Delhi can borrow from market for infra projects, with RBI as banker A n u p V e r m a @ New Delhi The Delhi government will now be able to borrow funds from the open market for its infrastructure and other projects under the state development loans provision. Managed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), they are state financial instruments that allow borrowing at a much lesser interest rate of around 7% against 1213% in the alternative routes. The RBI and the Delhi government signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on Monday that will markedly reshape public financial management framework in the city . According to the terms of this agreement, the RBI can now function as the banker, debt manager, and financial agent of the government and facilitate its market borrowings through state development loans. Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, who holds the finance portfolio, described it as a long-overdue reform. “This agreement marks a historic correction in Delhi’s financial governance. Despite being the nation’s capital, Delhi was denied the benefits of structured RBI banking and market borrowings for years,” she said, adding that earlier governments did not show the intent to adopt globally accepted norms of fiscal prudence. This agreement also opens Funding Strategy The CM said funds raised through market borrowings will be used exclusively for capital expenditure in asset creation. Projects that are likely to benefit include Yamuna rejuvenation Drainage infrastructure Drinking water supply systems Hospitals and health infrastructure Public transport and urban mobility Roads, flyovers, and other essential urban infrastructure parking of surplus funds of the government through RBI mechanisms as investments, which can be made on daily basis. This process will allow the government to earn interests on funds that are kept idle hitherto. The RBI has also assured the government of low-cost liquidity support through the ways and means advances route and the special drawing facilities, which are directed at addressing temporary cash flow mismatches. “Our government has placed fiscal discipline, transparency, and sustainability at the core of governance,” Gupta said, adding that she had been following with the Centre on enabling this provision. House Speaker marshals out 4 AAP MLAs A n u p V e r m a @ New Delhi Four AAP MLAs—Sanjeev Jha, Som Dutt, Kuldeep Kumar and Jarnail Singh—were suspended on Monday for the remaining three days of the Delhi Assembly’s winter session for disrupting Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena’s address. The first Assembly session of the year began with Saxena’s ceremonial speech, which was interrupted by AAP MLAs, who protested against the air pollution levels in the city Fol. lowing this, Speaker Vijender Gupta ordered several opposition members to be marshalled out of the House. After the address, PWD minister Parvesh Sahib Singh moved a resolution for the suspension of the four MLAs. The House subsequently passed the motion. AAP MLAs said pollution has become such a forbidden subject that MLAs were expelled for speaking on Delhi’s biggest health crisis, even as the L-G’s claim of an 80% pollution reduction formula now stands unanswered. Narendra Modi Donald Trump without explicitly naming the US or condemning its action. South Carolina Republican senator Lindsey Graham, who was also present at Air Force One press gaggle, said the tariffs imposed by the Trump administration were the “chief reason” India is now buying less Russian oil. Graham has been the driving force behind a proposed tariff bill that seeks to impose up to 500% tariffs on imports from countries that continue to buy Russian oil. Linking energy trade directly to the Ukraine war, Graham claimed the conflict can only be ended by targeting Russia’s customers. “Pressure must be put on President Vladimir Putin’s customers,” he said and added that India and China S U C H I TR A K A LYA N M O H A NT Y @ New Delhi Declining to intervene in a petition filed by ex-Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) member K P Shankar Das in the Sabarimala gold robbery case, the Supreme Court on Monday made a scathing remark, “You did not even spare God.” A two-judge bench, comprising Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice S C Sharma, made the observation while hearing an appeal filed by Shankar Das, seeking to expunge five paragraphs from a Kerala High Court single-bench verdict. Das, who had signed the Devaswom Board’s minutes, cannot evade responsibility the , top court said. However, he was free to approach the high court to seek the removal of the disputed observations. The apex court also ordered that if Das files an application for anticipatory bail, it should be considered on merit. The HC single bench had observed that Das and another member Vijayakumar bore responsibility in the gold robbery case. Das contended that these observations were made without hearing him. Tranquilliser dart for man-eater hits Guj forest spotter, kills him HOW IT HAPPENED D ili p S i n g h K shat r iya @ Ahmedabad Tragedy struck twice within 24 hours in Gujarat’s Junagadh district after a tranquilliser dart meant for a man-eater lioness accidentally hit a forest tracker who was part of a team to trap the animal, killing him on Monday Earlier on Sunday, . the animal mauled a fouryear-old boy to death on the ourskirts of Nani Monpari village of Visavadar taluka. It all happened in a flash. When a cage was being set up in a field in the village on Sunday the lioness suddenly , jumped onto it taking all by surprise. In the resultant melee, a tranquilliser gun was fired with the dart hitting the left hand of tracker Ashraf Alarkhan instead of the beast. Since the dart had thrice the amount of sedative than is safe for humans, Ashraf passed out. He was hospitalised but could not be saved. The lioness continues to be on the loose. “This is probably the first incident in history where a forest staffer died due to a misfired tranquilliser gun,” an official admitted, calling it a “dark and shocking day” for the department. Express read Woman to be deported back from Pakistan 52-year-old Sarabjit Kaur, reported missing during a Sikh jatha visit to Pakistan, is likely to be repatriated back today. She had reportedly married a Pakistani man there. According to sources, she has three cheating cases against her in India | P4 EC notice to Bengal voters for ‘confusion’ The ECI has decided to issue notices to one crore electors in West Bengal to appear at various centres to clarify ‘logical discrepancies’ related to their details in the draft electoral rolls during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision exercise. 1 Lioness kills boy, 4, on the outskirts of a village in Junagadh district on Sunday morning. By afternoon, a team from Sasan Gir arrives, armed with cages and tranquilliser guns. “She became aggressive and was hiding in nearby agri lands. A quick capture was critical,” a senior forest official said Ashraf Alarkhan 2 By 4 pm, lioness was spotted in a field near the village. Over 30 forest officials reach the spot to set up a cage, sedate the animal. While positioning the cage, the lioness suddenly climbs onto it. In the melee, a tranquilliser gun goes off with the dart piercing tracker Ashraf Alarkhan’s left hand 3 Ashraf collapses almost immediately as the sedative quantity was safe for the beast but not humans. Colleagues abandon operation, rush Ashraf to the Visavadar Civil Hospital and later to the Junagadh Civil Hospital, where he succumbs to the sedative overdose around 7 am on Monday MANDAR PARDIKAR Hindu BIZMAN & Editor shot Maduro in court play a decisive role in sustaining Moscow’s war effort. Trump echoed this positioning and said that US sanctions were “hurting Russia very badly before specifically mention,” ing India. Referring to his recent engagement with Indian officials, Graham said: “I was at the Indian Ambassador’s house about a month ago, and all he wanted to talk about was how they are buying less Russian oil.” According to Graham, the Indian envoy had urged him: “Would you tell the President to relieve the tariff ?” There were no immediate comments from Indian officials on Trump’s statement. Last month, Indian Ambassador to the US Vinay Mohan Kwatra hosted several US senators at India House in Washington DC, including Graham, as New Delhi sought to press its case against punitive tariffs. According to data analytics firm Kpler, India’s crude imports from Russia fell to 1.2 mn barrels per day (bpd) in December 1.84 mn bpd in November. ‘Did not even spare God’: SC to ex-TDB official Akal Takht summons Punjab CM on Jan 15 for ‘insulting’ Sikh institutions H a r p r e e t B a j w a @ Chandigarh THE stand-off between the AAP government in Punjab and the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee escalated on Monday, when the officiating head of the Akal Takht Kuldip Singh Gargaj summoned CM Bhagwant Mann on January 15 and sought explanation on his remarks, which the religious body considers went against Sikh institutions. There are social media videos which show Mann purportedly making derogatory remarks on Sikh traditions and tenets, though the possibility of them being AI-generated is not being ruled out. Mann has not been asked to appear at the Akal Takht, considered the most important religious seat of Sikhs, and instead told to be present at its secretariat, as he has cut his hair, a practice considered irreligious in Sikhsim and denoted by the term “patit”. Gargaj’s statement to Mann read: “Since you are a patit and, as per the Sikh tradition, can’t be brought before the railing of the Akal Takht Sahib, you are summoned to appear in person at the secretariat of Akal Takht Sahib on January 15, 2026, at 10 am to offer clarification.” Mann said he respected the directive. “Like a humble Sikh, I will appear before the Akal Takht by walking barefoot [to the secretariat], and not as the CM,” he wrote on X. He added that the President of India would be in Amritsar on January 15, but he would have to skip her function. “For me, the Akal Takht is supreme,” he said.