THURSDAY 06 AUGUST, 2026 epaper.morningstandard.in facebook.com/TheMorningStandard X.com/TheMornStandard AIR INDIA TAPS FORMER ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES GROUP CHIEF AS NEW CEO S PA C E D E B R I S SPACEX ROCKET HIT ON MOON SURFACE Ethiopian national Tewolde Gebremariam will replace New Zealander Campbell Wilson, who had announced his resignation in April PILOTED A MAJOR EXPANSION AT PREVIOUS ROLE A four-tonne piece of a SpaceX rocket is believed to have unintentionally crashed into the Moon on Wednesday, a collision that has created lunar crater A CAPITAL VIEW OF NEWS PAGE 9  NEW DELHI Shah may speak on FCRA bill in LS, Rijiju meets Rahul No proposal on special session of Parliament: Govt Amid speculation on a special session of Parliament from August 16 to 18 to take up the women’s reservation and delimitation bills, Rijiju dismissed the reports, saying there was no such proposal | P7 EXPRESS READ Cabinet, home secys get one year extensions Couple among three Maoists held in J’khand The Centre has extended the tenures of cabinet secretary T V Somanathan and Union home secretary Govind Mohan by one year. The former will continue till August 30, 2027, and the latter till August 22, 2027. Security forces in Jharkhand have arrested three Maoists in the Saraikela-Kharsawan region. They include Madan Mahto, who carried a bounty of `15 lakh, and his wife Meena, who carried an award of `2 lakh on her arrest. J8.00 THE TVK government is transforming its political momentum into policy with its maiden 2026-27 budget targeted at Gen Z and Gen Alpha. Finance Minister N Marie Wilson, in his revised budget for 2026-27 presented on Wednesday, has attempted a tightrope walk to balance TVK’s poll promises and fiscal prudence. The budget weaved concrete schemes covering education, human capital, social infrastructure, employment generation, hostels, skills training, AI programmes, social infrastructure and antidrug measures. Education emerged as the biggest priority, with announcements including the ‘Super Clean Super Campus’ PAGES 12 R A K E S H K U M A R @ New Delhi Mark Zuckerberg must apologise within three days. If he does not apologise, we will withdraw the safe harbour protection that has been given to these social media platforms which they misuse Nishikant Dubey, IT panel chief BIG MONEY TO BOOST CONTENT Government sources said Vaishnaw asked Meta whether it accepted payments to promote content that could trigger public disorder. After the meeting, Meta executives admitted to failures involving child sexual abuse content and deepfakes and that “a lot of money was paid for boosting certain content” US tech giant Meta on Wednesday apologised for promoting ‘biased’ and anti-government posts on Instagram and Facebook and admitted to being paid “a lot of money” to boost certain types of content, government sources said. The firm also expressed regret for briefly removing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s video posted on Facebook, which it claimed was due to an error by automated content filters. Earlier in the day, Meta’s Chief Global Affairs Officer Joel Kaplan and members of his team met Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) Secretary S Krishnan for about 45 minutes. The delegation later met Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw. In a statement, Kaplan said: “I apologised to the minister on behalf of Meta for the error restricting PM Modi’s post.” However, Meity sources Another meeting likely today Government sources said Meta’s global officials have been asked to stay back for another round of questioning on Thursday, when IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw will meet the firm’s executives once again claimed the apology came from the Meta CEO. “Mark Zuckerberg sent his apologies for the CSAM (child sexual abuse material) content, deepfake content and errors in operating the platform. They admitted that a lot of money was paid for boosting certain types of content. They apologised and regretted the mistake.” Sources said Meta officials will be summoned again. Meta-owned platforms Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp have been under the government’s radar over allegations BANGLADESH’S ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday reiterated that she would return to Bangladesh in December despite facing criminal convictions and prospect of imprisonment or worse, while demanding that the ban on her Awami League party be lifted. In her first interaction with the media since being ousted from power in August 2024, Hasina addressed journalists remotely through an audio message at an event hosted by the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of South Asia in Delhi. “I will return to my people,” Hasina said, adding that she would announce the exact date “when time is right”. “They may try to implicate me with fabricated cases, but fear cannot decide my duty to the people, my life or beyond,” she said. Making it clear that she intended to return despite the risks, Hasina said, “I know they may put me in jail or kill me. I will go back home to be with my people.” She said she had chosen the last month of the year because “December is our victory of algorithmic bias. Sources said the platform promoted one-sided content during the recent student protests. Another major issue flagged was the presence of CSAM on Instagram. The move followed a BBC report which found that Instagram displayed paid ads containing terms such as “rape video” and “child video”. Meta officials were summoned after Facebook briefly removed a video posted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressing the youth during the student protest. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Communications and IT, headed by BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, asked Zuckerberg to apologise within three days. The panel also warned that Meta could lose the safe harbour protection, which shields platforms from liability for user-generated content, if it uses algorithms to curate content instead of merely hosting third-party material. POLITICAL PARTY PREVAILS OVER LEGISLATURE PARTY: SC S U C H I T R A K A LYA N M O H A N T Y @ New Delhi DRONES TO LIFT SOLDIERS’ SUPPLIES TO LAC The Army is set to acquire a fleet of 2,715 logistic drones for last-mile delivery of arms, ammo and rations to frontline troops. The push will help formations near the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China. It has started a request-for-Information step as the first move for acquisition | P7 A political party retains control over its MPs and MLAs and the party’s official directives prevail over the will of the elected members, the Supreme Court observed on Wednesday . The oral remark came from a bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V Mohana during the hearing of a plea against the Maharashtra Speaker’s decision not to disqualify Shinde faction MLAs under the antidefection law. “The control of the political party subsists over the legislature party. Any decision of the political party, validly demonstrated, must prevail over any will, even of the majority of the legislature party said Justice Bagchi. ,” The top court was also hearing Uddhav Thackeray’s plea challenging the ECI order that recognised the Eknath Shinde group as the real Shiv Sena. Senior lawyer Kapil Sibal, appearing for the Uddhav faction, argued that the ECI was wrong in refusing to accept the 2018 party constitution. He added that both sides were appointed under the 2018 constitution and that programme for 10,000 government schools, curriculum reforms, digital public libraries and modern bicycles with helmets for nearly 5.32 lakh Class 11 gover nment school students at an estimated cost of `277 crore. The TN SPARK programme will be expanded to 2,600 schools to help students get grip of emerging technologies. With an allocation of `2,000 crore to equip college students with digital learning tools, the budget proposed ‘Vetri Laptop Scheme’, by rebranding an earlier DMK scheme. To address the accommodation needs of students and young professionals, the government has also announced the establishment of the Tamil Nadu Student Housing & Infrastructure Corporation. the 10th Schedule does not recognise ‘split’ anymore—the only defence is merger, which has not happened. He argued that the ECI lacked jurisdiction to determine the validity of a political party’s constitution. “The poll panel’s decision refusing to recognise the 2018 party constitution on the ground that it was not on record was erroneous,” the senior lawyer contended. Sibal further argued that Article 11A of the constitution had already been brought to the ECI’s notice in 2013. CJI Kant asked if there are clear parameters in ECI rules or the party constitution to define “majority of the political party”, calling it a grey area. To this, Sibal cited the Sadiq Ali judgment as laying down the law. On the point of 10th Schedule, Sibal argued that the concept of ‘split’ stands abolished— merger alone is recognised, and no such merger has occurred. In that light, it was contended that a splinter legislative group cannot lay claim to being the real party . The SC is examining the interplay between party constitution, ECI powers, and the 10th Schedule. The hearing on Wednesday was inconclusive and would continue on Thursday . FACES CHALLENGE AS ISRAEL SAYS NO ard.in rningstand ndard epaper.mo orningSta com/TheM facebook. ndard eMornSta X.com/Th THE Delhi High Court on Wednesday directed the cops to survey all the police stations within six weeks and ensure the availability of functional sanitary pad vending machines and exclusive washrooms for women personnel. A Bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia issued the direction to the Delhi Police Commissioner while hearing a PIL alleging a near-total absence of basic menstrual hygiene facilities in police stations across the city . Muskan Singh Bankura, representative of the Women Cell of NGO Justice for Rights Foundation, filed the PIL citing RTI replies obtained in July and August 2025 from all the 18 districts and units of the Delhi Police. The petition alleged an “almost complete absence of functional sanitary pad vending machines, menstrual waste incinerators, and dedicated budgetary allocations for menstrual hygiene across police stations.” The bench also sought responses on compliance from the Centre through the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Delhi Police and the Delhi government by September 23, the next date of hearing. The PIL argued that requiring thousands of women police personnel to work without access to these basic facilities of hygiene and conveniences violated their fundamental rights to dignity, health, privacy and humane working conditions. The NGO has sought directions to immediately install and maintain sanitary pad vending machines and incinerators in all police stations, provide dedicated budgets, frame binding standard operating procedures for menstrual hygiene management, and ensure clean washroom facilities for women personnel and female visitors. Everybody into PIL for publicity, says HC | P4 rating system for eateries A D I T I R AY C H O W D H U R Y @ New Delhi PM Narend ra Modi ins pects the engine roo m of the train in Jind on Friday 0 hp s and a 3,20 s 10 coache l and largest n feature erfu ly igned trai of the most pow ns current ously des one rogen trai en fuel cell The indigen system, making it world. Most hyd s s on hydrog propulsion ered trains in the The new train run 2,600 passenger pow te s. oda hydrogen- h only 2-4 coache can accomm rate wit zero emission and ope duces tech, pro | Pti um maxim t tha speed in the traain can att don Jin t SonipaP8 route | ries er a se ent ov de ci sio ns vernm the go in ist rative a’s tenure. lch ad m re der Go ters. gged we es of adquar pt exit com - taken un e issues fla s for postth lice he - Po lcha’s abru after his ap , Among in the proces transfers Go te of as -scale atanges a year 22, 2025 the da s than on August which ch g SHOs, large rity officers nt from ge and until les ec ha in ent ngh, with eff n of char e ministry nal secu d the pointm cing S B K Si attack on n of perso to VIPs, an ach Janta Page 9 an sumptio orders.” Th o l c h a , a d niti repla is te r lowed ckro ched JAn An further i r e c t e d G dre IPS had fol Ch ie f M in ng a ta g of the Co st. h rAn st d ca ri ote M u K E S @ New Delhi dlin a l s o tch AGMUT e DelDe lh i Gu pt a du JP) pr Red Fort bla ion rty (C th e sig r A w At 1992-ba to report to rnor Re kh a eting. the Un ci- PaMoreover, thviewed as a ite me move, Af fa ir s the de s officer, tenant Gove after e public rprise se desp s said nt ar wa In a su y of Ho m lhi Police Source llowed mou in last ye t security lap cache of hi lieu er posting ge to tr ge M in is removed De h Golcha furth nifican very of a lar abad earsion fo ncer ns with ch ar asfor ) rid g over ar r Satis nths be(MHA ing co the reco es from Fa an operaha nd in essor. 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New co r y AGMUT the IG to his mKuma d “per batch ministr Director the co ns” an shall a 1994ed from Special A home approval of ag Kult” functio Kumar, ing repatriat s serving as ur the charge made defau jective, “With authority, An e of 1994 after be nsfer, he wa ob tly dr tra sisten ed through iable cripetent S-AGMUT ca pointed as rif be definable, and ve e rules, to mar, IP is hereby ap lice, Delhi, measur the Act or th , ensure st batch, er of Po ity ent, pa Delhi ission teria in e ambigu event ari r @ New Comm tablishm nt s an d at pr hA nA ai y of es to elimin rency, and powPrEEt categor nc e, co m pl ng public aring of the ia re prep transpa invocation ik co m pl tors involvi e Cent Bharat Sh ’s th dhury fac bitrary persession.” th at th e World Cup WITH e Viksit Chow 25 for game. highother th i t i r Ay risks. guidelines, tch’ at the . A look at the of su he r sa id Bill, 20 sesdAd er ce move hishthan amen onze ma e France health r these Delhi soon will fa of @ New It fu rt (2)(a) shall be Chairranded ‘Br d fac sha Ad e in the mont, a Joint Unde blishments ns from oration a he 47 In the reb te game, Englan tio ta l Corp ed Clause be read as, “T ission, or passag Parliamen ittee has , jude risk es quent inspec while outunicipa approv penultima , ot e, Kane THe M CD) has nal guideed may of the Comm Councils sion of entary Comm ainst exmore freted officials mpliance (M e mbappe golden bo ag Delhi t of operatio lishments, person idents of th rs of th e signa Parliamsafeguards te d ong co recomand th torically w se in - de s with a str be in sp ec inestab ht s, e Pres r m em be ation, tation d ne th lis s his ck soug eating let Council m ay he k-base tch ha ge rise centra nsul ll to sa lines for cing a ris d uniform an d ot ion or the , shall, as This ma hes play frin see re co rd often. 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Both Mb the bers, th s to key cla sm fro m h ve detaine y decided to ft clo ud Bo ci MatC th at ha in clu di ng delivTr ad e in 1964. tions an of this Act, to have Golden l Messi have ter is change ar p cr iti including on Frida option of a dra s d by d d s, ne ed pla yns sh ar an frame de r iss ue partdeem visio and Lio als but the lat of his ting wa 3rd pla cence vs dr ew le quarters, ting the the ad th e ye s, takeaway d kiosks, shall t an when vo panel’s An or c Health De dy said rs foo to of fice vacated.” off : Fra d same go r on accoun multip ies, for gr report kitcheny kitchens, ur ts, base bo we rs bli empowedide IM’s ay on the all Eng lan into civic nl co ng po gr ee the Pu been as Clause 45 the lea nDA underw ndations. AIM P ding of the s have come ll be ery-o carts, food op dining fasists. swee pi di sa ory 2.3 0 AM * ) d NC While to issue bin of poliment more as oft en Ce nt re de po lic y recomme Owaisi an had chef day al and wi ideline ns ntre re gulat g. y has be s and ro din (*I ST Sun nd fin the gu mediately all zones the Ce s on questio for objecov er ri supersede Asadud Supriya Sule t kitchen each categor erational to atte d t im fundin eron ross will p . ac op effec recti panel calle oc ed ur al ments, and control an ov Trump al Trum (SP) MP ed their dissen m cilities d separate scale mented fin Donald m eon its ne imple CD. cy, the re sh ol ds, pr parency bodies, ll proposes ucation submitt withdrew the to sident ’s World Cup M se d fra or assig ards based ns a, US Pre of the r th e revi The Bi e higher ed e Unitive th rds and tra rning the nd tes but nel decided P3 m ay Sunday and Argentin le. no sta th g th pa attend Spain k profi Continued on Un de pr ov ed by ay, rou| P7 — his safegua ments gove proposed n haul of by dissolvin mission, after the adoption id and ris e said ent ap m betwee ite Hous ev wo rk , h Wahi on Fr be based require’s power. It r the pursector Grants Co defer the ll Techni the Wh pearance at s ntre rds “fo e proviPraves ections wi business, versity a Council fore nationfirst ap who ha He sp th si- Ce the wo d amps, . d th , oppo s adding this Act” to rnment atine in type of foo l Indi rEad , an es uc Al Desch r this match gove lder rEss s of her ed ucation Didier ocus the iversiti , ight hit s overn n and tio US strike Deadly a railway sta g three rt, lin an airpo es in Iran, kil media o bridg nian state tw Ira y people, ed on Frida report per s to temn bill k Jpc see ducatio higher e month. So, I want to go back to Bangladesh in December. I know I may face anything.” At the outset of her address, U D AYA N K I S H O R E @ New Delhi ry establishment will begin with a score of 100 during inIsraeli PM Netanyahu says spections. One point will be dehis country has not agreed to THE Municipal Corporation of ducted for every minor violathe US-backed plan, even Delhi (MCD) has introduced a tion, four points for every major after receiving assurances hygiene grading system under violation and 10 points for evethat an Israeli pullout would which food establishments will ry critical violation before a fionly happen after be assigned ratings from ‘ ’ A nal hygiene grade is asto ‘D’ based on kitchen signed. The revised Hamas disarms | P9 cleanliness, food hanguidelines also require dling, staff hygiene, EXPRESS food handlers to wear pest control and waste clean unifor ms and IMPACT management. Modelled head coverings. on the New York City’sEd Establishments scorEr En-Pow A drog ryAn rdaY health gradingoFsystem, 75 kmph ing between 90 and 100 FirSt hy satu indiA’S AggEd F in hA er 18 trAin Fl the framework , yet massive pow came into efwill receive Grade ‘A’, those ission Zero em an emotional Hasina paid trib- that although she had been f e c t l a s t m o n t h a s p a r t scoring between 75 and 89 ute to Bangladesh’s founding “forced away” from her coun- of the civic body’s first Grade ‘B’, between 60 and 74 k comprehensive revision of hief Grade ‘C’, while those scoring leader Sheikh Mujiburt a cRah- try she was “never separated” l PAGES 12 , at Infra GES 0 e c opT, ID AIr erational guidelines olic eater- below 60 will get Grade ‘D’. Any man, her father, whoSTPOrCkbr IrAN wasIN assas- from its people. NEW DELhI l J8.0 ru lcha as pfor l s Go sinated along with most of her establishment found with two Hasina OF NEWS defended her ies eplace1964. W also AL VIE ar r since A CAPIT family in the 1975 military government’s handlingurag Kum The new guidelines, first re- or more critical violations will of the Anwidely ported by this newspaper on receive Grade ‘D’ regardless of coup. Her voice repeatedly unrest, rejecting the broke as she remembered the held characterisation of the July 18, aim to make food safety its final score. The Hygiene Rating Cercountry’s Liberation War and protests as a peaceful student inspections transparent by altificate will have to be disthose who died defending its movement.sweeping powers begin with lowing customers to “Let me ’s independence. the curbs on govt about July and Au- see how truth draft, D hAs played prominently at the ges in yrs, MC entrance of every estab“For the last two Suggests key chI gust 2024. It was not a peaceful an estabyears, an ter 60ry rulebOOK Af te watched my beloved Bangla- student movement,” she said, lishment lishment. Failure to diseA atCh An ion m desh suffer. This is not the alleging organised groups nsolat performed play it will Co had Bangladesh we built; this is not turned genuine student de- d u r i n g amount to a TMS reported the Bangladesh for which three mands into “a violent political inspection. violation of on July Under the million people sacrificed their instrument” aimed at ousting l i c e n c e 18, 2026 system, evelives in 1971,” she said, adding her government. conditions. , 20 26 ju ly Sheikh Hasina ‘Install sanitary pad vending machines in all police stations’ GAZA New York-style hygiene REBUILDING PLAN Hasina sticks to Dec return, seeks ban on Awami League lifted J AYA N T H J A C O B @ New Delhi SURVEY IN 6 WKS It received ‘a lot of money’ to boost certain content, say govt sources Vijay govt presents maiden budget, bets big on youth T M U R U G A N A N D H A M @ Chennai  Meta apologises to govt for removing PM’s video P R E E T H A N A I R @ New Delhi its old format. We will oppose it very strongly We are not going . EVEN as the deadlock in Par- to allow them to pass such a liament persists, the Centre is draconian bill,” he said. likely to introduce the contenThough the bill was introtious bill to amend the Foreign duced in the Lok Sabha on Contribution (Regulation) Act March 25 this year, the Centre in the Lok Sabha during the on- deferred its passage after facgoing session, sources privy to ing fierce objections from the the development said. Opposition parties and variUnion home miniso u s c iv i l s o c i e t y ter Amit Shah is exorganisations. pected to intervene in While several prothe debate and reply visions of the bill to the discussion on have been opposed by the proposed legislap o l i t i c a l p a r t i e s, tion, sources said. church heads and The proposed taNGOs, it was learnt bling comes amid rethat the government peated disruptions in m ay b r i n g s o m e Kiren Rijiju both Houses, with the amendments to the Opposition insisting proposed legislation. that Shah make a A key point of constatement in Parliatention is the proposment on the alleged al empowering the police action against Centre to appoint a protesting students. ‘designated authoriIn a bid to break ty’ who would control the logjam, Parliathe funds and assets mentary Affairs Minin case the FCRA cerister Kiren Rijiju met tificate is cancelled, Rahul Gandhi Leader of Opposition surrendered or in the Lok Sabha Raceased. The concern hul Gandhi and sought his co- is that it could lead to excessive operation in passing crucial government control and arbibills, said sources. trary action against NGOs. Speaking to reporters after Speaking to this paper, DMK the meeting, Congress MP K C MP P Wilson said, “The proviVenugopal said the Opposition sions in this FCRA amendment will not allow the bill to pass in bill are so draconian that they its current form. “The Leader resemble the Enemy Property of the Opposition has strongly Act, 1968, which allowed the expressed his concerns, and government control over assets the party and Opposition’s left behind by people who stand is also very clear. They moved to enemy countries like cannot bring the FCRA bill in Pakistan or China.”  Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran said that after completing the initial phase of stabilisation, integration, and fleet commitments under Wilson, the airline is now entering a critical era of execution and expansion. Air India cited Gebremariam’s experience spearheading a major expansion that transformed Ethiopian Airlines into Africa’s largest and most profitable carrier | P10