fridAY 26 june, 2026 epaper.morningstandard.in facebook.com/TheMorningStandard X.com/TheMornStandard IRAN Amazon CEO meets Modi, set to invest $13 bn more in cloud, aI Hormuz tense as ship targeted india an important market for amazon A cargo ship travelling through the Strait of Hormuz on a United Nations-approved route was hit by a projectile on Thursday, the British military said A CAPITAL VIEW OF NEWS Page 9 Passport proof: Govt, Oppn spar l New Delhi l J8.00 A g en c i e s @ Caracas E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ New Delhi VISA No change in position Govt sources said the interpretation was being misread, adding the position has remained unchanged for decades. “A passport is issued after due verification, but it is not, in law, a conclusive determination of citizenship,” a source said Pricey passport A fresh passport or its reissue for applicants aged 18 years and above will cost `2,500 under the normal category, up from `1,500. Corresponding Tatkal fee, inclusive of the normal fee is `5,000 | P7 Today's matches Group I (12.30 AM): Norway vs France; Senegal vs Iraq Group H (5.30 AM): Cape Verde vs Saudi Arabia, Uruguay vs Spain brazil march on Vinicius Junior scored twice as five-time champions Brazil beat Scotland 3-0 to clinch first place in Group C and enter knockout stage on Wednesday | ap Major rejig as 60 IAS, DANICS officers shifted An u p Ve r m A @ New Delhi The Delhi government has transferred 60 IAS and DANICS officers. According to the services department order, Navin Chaudhary (AGMUT 1994), ACS in the Irrigation Department, will take additional charge of the General Administration Department. Pandurang Pole (AGMUT 1994) will now be secretary (land and building). Sandeep Kumar Singh (AGMUT 2011), who is special secretary at the Chief Minister’s Office, will also be the managing director of Shahjahanabad Redevelopment Corporation. Sachin Rana (AGMUT 2014), holding the post of special secretary (home), will hold additional charges as special secretary of urban development and principal director of the Delhi Fire Services. Group G (8.30 AM): NZ vs Belgium; Egypt vs Iran Live on United8 Sports & ZEE5 (*IST Saturday) A heavily damaged apartment building following an earthquake in Catia La Mar, La Guaira state, about 30 km northwest of Venezuela capital Caracas | AFP FIR in Ram temple fund case against 8, Rai’s driver accused N a m i ta B a j pa i @ Lucknow Two days after the Special Investigation Team (SIT) submitted its report to the Uttar Pradesh government into the bungling of Ram temple donation funds and valuables, the Ayodhya police on Thursday lodged an FIR against eight people on the basis of a complaint submitted by Krishna Mohan, associated with Shree Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust. The eight named in the FIR include Ramshankar Yadav alias Tinnu, Lavkush Mishra, Anukalp Mishra, Avinash Shukla, Manish Yadav, Ramashankar Mishra, Subhash Chandra Srivasta- Donation va and Karunesh Pandey on boxes charges of theft, criminal breach of trust, cheating and The alleged embezzlement criminal conspiracy . However, Temple Trust of money general secretary Champat collected from Rai, Trust member Dr Anil donation boxes Mishra and temple construc- installed on the tion in-charge Gopal Rao’s temple premises names do not figure in the came to light FIR. They were interrogated earlier this by the SIT. While Lavkush month. Initially, Mishra and Anukalp Mishra the temple trust are among those involved in said that routine counting the cash and valu- audits had not ables received as donations detected any at the temple, Tinnu Yadav discrepancies was the driver of Rai and had been involved in the temple’s management since the consecration ceremony in 2024. The FIR was lodged under Sections 306 (theft by clerk or servant), 316 (criminal breach of trust), 317 (cheating) and 61 (criminal conspiracy) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). According to the complaint, the accused allegedly embezzled donations offered by devotees at the Ram Temple and misappropriated trust funds through a criminal conspiracy . CO of Rashtriya Rifles, other ranks booked for bashing cops f aya z w a n i @ Srinagar JAMMU and Kashmir police on Thursday booked 40 army men from 17 Rashtriya Rifles, including its Commanding Officer, a Major and a Naib Subedar for allegedly “assaulting police officers and damaging public property” in a police station in the mountainous Kishtwar district of Jammu and Kashmir. The FIR names Commanding Officer Colonel N Arun Gandhi, Major Vikas Sharma, Naib Subedar Shankar Gurkhe, Sepoys Raj Kumar, Rahul Kumar, Anoop Singh and Omkar Ingale, and other unidentified Army personnel of 17 RR. Sources said the trouble was caused after DC Kishtwar Pankaj Sharma’s convoy while passing through a road for a public outreach programme PAGES 12 Venezuela quake: 164 dead, 24K missing Can be issued to non-citizens as well under certain situations, says govt in its pushback The Centre on Thursday sought to defuse the controversy over whether an Indian passport can be treated as proof of citizenship, asserting that the position being cited in recent debates is neither new nor a policy shift. Government sources said there was no change in stance and rejected suggestions that the clarification issued by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) marked a fresh interpretation of law. “It was not decided yesterday that a passport is not proof of citizenship. It was not even decided in the last 12 years. A passport has never been considered conclusive proof of citizenship,” a government source said. The clarification came after political criticism and an online debate over whether the government was diluting the evidentiary value of one of the country’s most trusted documents. In a post on X, Congress leader K C Venugopal said the government excels in creating panic and helplessness among ordinary citizens. “By declaring that even a Passport doesn’t certify one’s citizenship, they are laying the groundwork to arbitrarily deny citizenship rights to Indians who they disagree with,” he wrote. Echoing the concern, Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal sought to know which document qualifies for the proof of citizenship. “A passport is a travel document, and not a document of citizenship. Which document then is proof of citizenship? BLO can doubt my citizenship. Deprive me of my vote. Result, BJP wins the election. Over to the Supreme Court!,” wrote Sibal on X. However, officials pointed to the legal framework governing issuance of passports. “The Passports Act, 1967 clearly provides that passports may be issued to non-citizens under certain circumstances,” a source said. The government further cited judicial precedents to back its position. “Judgments of the Bombay High Court since 2013 have also made it clear that a passport, by itself, is not proof of citizenship,” the source said. l Amazon chief executive officer Andy Jassy said on Thursday after meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi that his company’s India business is seeing strong momentum, driven by robust customer demand across ecommerce and Amazon Web Services (AWS), its cloud-computing division. Jassy described India as one of its most important growth markets globally | p10 encountered a private car driven by a soldier of RR. When the DC’s escort asked the soldier, who was not in uniform, to stop his vehicle and let the convoy pass, an argument took place. Subsequently police impound, ed the car and towed it to the Atholi police station. The FIR states that a group of about 30 to 40 army men from 17 RR Camp Kijaiyee led by Major Vikas Sharma and Naib Subedar Shankar Gurkhe under the command of Commanding Officer N Arun Gandhi entered the police station by scaling the main gate and boundary walls and launched a “pre-planned attack”. “The army men armed with lathis, iron rods and weapons attacked policemen at the station. “Government property main gate of , the police station were damaged by the army men.” ‘Murderous intention’ SHO Inspector Amrit Kotach of Atholi police station, where the soldier’s car was taken after confiscating it, said the “intention of RR soldiers was to kill police personnel” Matter being probed: Army Jammu-based Army PRO Lt Col Suneel Bartwal said the matter is being probed. “Appropriate action will be taken based on the outcome of investigation” At least 164 people were killed and over 1,000 injured after two powerful earthquakes ripped through Venezuela in the wee hours on Thursday The quakes, . with magnitudes of 7.2 and 7.5, hit a minute apart on Wednesday around 6 pm local time (Thursday 3.30 am IST). The second tremor was the strongest to hit Venezuela since 1900. “At the moment, the figure we have registered is 164 deaths, 971 injured,” Acting President Delcy Rodriguez was quoted as saying by El Nacional newspaper, adding that there were as many as 30 aftershocks. A website set up by leaders from the country’s opposition parties to track the missing people showed more than 24,000 people as unaccounted for, a Reuters report said. Local media said frantic rescue efforts were on in the state of La Guaira, near capital Caracas and home to the city’s airport. Visuals showed panic all around as ceilings came down in the airport and rubble from destroyed buildings along the seafront. “Dozens of buildings have collapsed, and we are currently carrying out very intense rescue efforts to save as many lives as God allows us to save,” Rodriguez said on state television. According to the US Geological Survey’s predictive modelling to estimate the death toll, the total casualties could run into thousands, with a substantial probability of exceeding 10,000 fatalities. P9 E x p re s s R ea d Mahesh Dixit appointed new Intelligence Bureau director DDA starts demolition drive in the Yamuna Bazar area IPS officer Mahesh Dixit was named the next director of the Intelligence Bureau, the country’s premier internal intelligence agency, on Thursday. An expert on Kashmir and China affairs, Dixit currently serves as a special director of the agency. He will take over from Tapan Kumar Deka, whose extended tenure will come to an end on June 30. P7 Delhi Development Authority (DDA) carried out demolitions in the Yamuna Bazar area on the banks of the river on Thursday. The action happened a day after the authority issued a fresh notice to residents between Ghat No. 2 and Ghat No. 32. About 80 families live in the area that falls under O zone. It is designated as a protected zone. P3 Provisional answer keys for NEET-UG out E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ New Delhi The National Testing Agency (NTA) on Thursday released the provisional answer keys for the NEET-UG 2026 re-exam conducted on June 21. Candidates can cross-check the answers provided and challenge any answer they believe is incorrect. The challenge facility will remain available on the NTA website from June 25 to June 28. A fee of `200 per question will be charged, which is refunded if the challenge proves correct. Challenges will be reviewed by subject experts, and, if found valid, necessary revisions will be incorporated into the final answer key . More than 20 lakh students appeared for the NEET-UG retest across 5,440 centres in India and 14 centres abroad. The procedure to challenge the answer is: visit neet.nta. nic.in; enter your question paper series code (from the test booklet cover); select the question you wish to challenge; upload supporting evidence (NCERT or standard textbook); pay the fee and submit. Expert review runs in parallel with OMR scanning so that results can be declared fast, said an NTA statement.