WEDNESDAY 26 AUGUST, 2026 epaper.morningstandard.in facebook.com/TheMorningStandard X.com/TheMornStandard SUPREME COURT DIRECTS TEJPAL TO SURRENDER WITHIN THREE WEEKS TRADE WAR CANADA STRIKES BACK AT US Canada on Tuesday imposed retaliatory tariffs on about $20 billion worth of American goods, including steel, dairy products, appliances and farm equipment. PAGE 9 SC directed journalist Tarun Tejpal to undergo his 10-year rigorous imprisonment in a 2013 rape case in which he was convicted by the Bombay High Court Appeal against HC order to be heard in Sept A CAPITAL VIEW OF NEWS NEW DELHI   J8.00  A bench of Justice Alok Aradhe dismissed Tejpal’s plea seeking exemption from surrendering. “The application seeking exemption from surrendering is rejected. However, the appellant is granted three weeks’ time to surrender and file surrender certificate before this court,” the bench said. SC posted his appeal challenging his conviction and sentence on Sept 22 | P7 PAGES 12 AUGUST 6 WHEN BOMBAY HC CONVICTED TEJPAL TO 10 YEARS RIGOROUS IMPRISONMENT Missile tech transfer to `2.5K cr ADB loan for water projects pvt sector gets approval A N U P V E R M A @ New Delhi Covers air-defence, air-to-air missiles & battlefield-strike weapons 1 Several DcPP programmes have moved forward. At a salvo launch of NASM-SR from Sea King helicopter in April, two missiles were fired in quick succession 2 The DRDO conducted first flight trial of TARA from a Jaguar, converting a 500-kg bomb into a guided stand-off weapon. Gaurav has completed release trials from Su-30MKI 3 File photo of a Pralay test-fire, a quasi-ballistic missile | PTI Astra Mk-2, with a range of 200+ km, is also learnt to be among the first major systems to be offered to pvt firms. COMM, Adani, Bharat Forge, Tata and Mahindra are among contenders Body of minor, who fell in open drain chasing kite, recovered N I T I N R A W AT @ New Delhi THREE days after Mithun, a Class-VIII student, allegedly fell into an open drain while chasing a kite in southeast Delhi’s Jasola area, his body was recovered on Tuesday with his , anguished father urging the government to close the drain at once so that no other family loses its child. A video that surfaced on social media earlier showed the boy’s father, Avdhesh Kumar, searching for his son Mithun inside that drain. In a desperate attempt to find him, Kumar was seen removing filth from the drain himself. Mithun’s body was found at the same spot where his father had got into the drain to search for him. “I was tired of begging from the very first day If some. one had listened to me earlier, maybe my child would have been alive today he said. ,” A search operation involving the Delhi Fire Service, National Disaster Response Force and divers recovered the body around 1 pm on Tuesday . However, Kumar was left with grief and questions over the open drain near his house, which he alleged had been a danger for a long time. He said that if it had been covered, Mithun might not have fallen victim to the accident. “My child is gone, now no one else should lose their child. The government should take some steps to close this drain,” he said. J A V A R I A R A N A @ New Delhi per applicable qualifications, certifications and regulatory THE government on Tuesday requirements”, the ministry cleared the transfer of technol- said. The DRDO will retain reogy for all conventional missile sponsibility for design certifisystems developed by the De- cation and quality assurance. fence Research and DevelopIt marks a further shift away ment Organisation (DRDO) to from the traditional model unIndian industry for domestic der which a DRDO missile, afproduction, opening a wide ter completing development swathe of the country’s indig- and user trials, was assigned to enous guided-weapons portfo- a nominated production agenlio to private manufacturers. cy for series manufacture, a Defence minister Rajnath role state-run Bharat DynamSingh approved the transfer, in ics Ltd (BDL) has traditionally what his ministry described as held for much of the indigean “important milestone” in nous missile portfolio. expanding industry It also follows the participation in the government’s decision defence ecosystem. earlier this year to The ministry however, , open tactical missile did not specify the inproduction to the pridividual systems covvate industry under ered by the decision. the Development-cumOfficials in the deProduction Partner fence establishment (DcPP) model, which said the conventional brings companies into portfolio includes the The initiative aims a programme during to enhance Akash and Akash-NG development rather operational surface-to-air systems, capability, reduce than after it. DRDO VSHORADS, Astra import dependence has distributed around air-to-air missiles, the 10 to 12 tactical missile and increase domestic value Rudram anti-radiation programmes among addition family, anti-tank syspublic and private tems such as Nag, firms, with Adani DeDefence ministry SANT and the manfence and Aerospace, portable ATGM, the Bharat Forge, ICOMM NASM-SR anti-ship missile, in- Tele and Solar Defence and Aerdigenous land-attack cruise ospace as DcPPs. missiles and Pralay, the quasiAdani Defence is the DcPP ballistic weapon geared for con- for the Rudram anti-radiation ventional strikes. series, including the hyperson“Strategic missiles are a sepa- ic Rudram-II, which is to be rate category and will continue built at its Hyderabad facility, to be dealt with separately. and for NASM-SR. It is also a Hence, Agni and the K-series are DcPP along with Bharat Forge, , not part of this transfer. Simi- for the 1,000-kg-class Gaurav larly BrahMos and MRSAM in- long-range glide bomb and the , volve foreign partners and are TARA glide kit. Adani broke governed by separate arrange- ground last month on a missile ments,” the official said. complex at Shivpuri in MP with , Companies will be able to composite-propellant and TNT manufacture the systems “as production planned there. THE Delhi government plans to improve and modernise the city’s water supply with the help of a `2,500 crore loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), extended through the finance ministry, CM Rekha Gupta said on Wednesday . The Delhi Jal Board (DJB) has approved two water-supply projects worth around `1,741 crore in the command area of the Wazirabad Water Treatment Plant. Package-1 is worth `805 crore and Package-2 `935 crore. ADB will fund 70% of the projects, with the remaining 30% to be borne by the Delhi government. The projects will cover DJB OKAYS 2 WATER-SUPPLY PROJECTS WORTH AROUND `1,741 CRORE IN COMMAND AREA OF WAZIRABAD WATER TREATMENT PLANT Package-1 is worth `805 cr and Package-2 `935 cr To cover 43.96 sqkm, nine underground reservoir command areas and eight Assembly constituencies ADB will fund 70% of the projects, with remaining 30% to be borne by govt ROADS TO MODERNISE 836 km water distribution network to be developed, with 570 km new pipelines around 43.96 sqkm, nine underground reservoir (UGR) command areas and eight Assembly constituencies. Around 836 km of water distribution network will be developed, including nearly 570 km of new or replacement pipelines. Areas such as Mukherjee Nagar, Model Town, Jahangirpuri, Azadpur, Keshavpuram, Pita- mpura, Shalimar Bagh, Tri Nagar, Paschim Vihar, Rani Bagh, Wazirpur and Ashok Vihar will benefit. The aim is to provide pressurised water 24x7 while accounting for every connection and reducing water losses. The system will use Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition, instrumentation, smart meter- Patna erupts in chaos as job aspirants march to CM’s house, clash with cops PATNA witnessed dramatic scenes on Tuesday as thousands of students and job aspirants clashed with police after they were stopped from marching towards the chief minister’s residence to press for their key demands, which included a single-stage exam for teacher recruitment instead of holding separate Prelims and Mains. The protesters were also seeking the cancellation of Combined Competitive Exams held by Bihar Public Service Commission earlier this year, alleging irregularities. The march, which started from the historic Gandhi Maidan that has witnessed many upheavals in the past, saw participation by a number of Left-wing activists affiliated with AISF and DYFI. Members of NSUI were also present. The protesters pulled down the metal barricades and tried to break the security cordon. CIA CHIEF IN MOSCOW FOR RARE IN-PERSON TALKS Police personnel use water cannons to disperse protesters in Patna on Tuesday | PTI FlightRadar24 spotted the large C-17 transport plane’s arrival in Moscow’s Vnukovo international airport. CIA boss John Ratcliffe was its high profile passenger. Ukraine was instructed not to attack the aircraft | P9 Some protesters pelted stones on security personnel. Police personnel first used water cannons to disperse the crowd but later resorted to baton charge as the protesters refused to relent. In the melee that followed, several protesters and security personnel were injured. A female demonstrator was seen lying unconscious. Several protesters were also detained. US sanctions 4 India-based entities over Iran imports Later, an eight-member delegation of job aspirants met Bihar Chief Secretary Pratyaya Amrit in his office with a memorandum containing 15-point charter of demands. The chief secretary told the delegation that he would discuss with Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary and promised the matter would be settled in the next couple of days. EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu on Tuesday said that the government plans to carry out psychoactive substance screening tests on all pilots on a random basis throughout the year to ensure safety. Naidu said that the present regulations permit testing of 10% of pilots on a random basis. CALL TO REWORK IT AFTER CONSULTATION Kharge, Rahul demand scrapping of Census questionnaire on caste P R E E T H A N A I R @ New Delhi REITERATING the party’s demand for a drop-down list of castes, Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi demanding the scrapping of the existing questionnaire for it in the ongoing Census exercise and formulate a new one after consulting political parties, experts and the general public. Both leaders said they do not accept the caste census being conducted in the current manner and urged the government to take its cue from the caste surveys done in Telangana and Bihar. Briefing reporters on the letter, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said the government’s current efforts towards a caste census are just a “whitewash”. @ New Delhi Govt wants all pilots to undergo dope tests: Civil aviation minister Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, serving a 20-year prison sentence in connection with the rape of two women disciples, walked out of the Sunaria jail in Rohtak on Tuesday morning after being granted a 21-day furlough. This is his 17th temporary release since 2020. The conundrum The same caste is known by different names, sub-castes, and linguistic variations across regions. If members of the same caste are recorded under different names, the caste could be fragmented into thousands of distinct names Ramesh said this is the third letter written by the Congress leadership to Modi over the issue but have not received any reply . “Your government has opted for an open-ended question format to record caste details in the census, which is misleading. Under this method, what- The mystery US plane heading to Russia turned out to be a C-17 | X R A M A S H A N K A R @ Patna EXPRESS READ Dera chief given 21-day parole, his 17th release since 2020 ing and non-revenue water (NRW) monitoring. A total of 131 District Metered Areas will track water entering the system, reaching consumers and being lost through leakages or other causes. The projects target a reduction in NRW to 15% through network rehabilitation, accurate metering, and systematic leakage reduction. Around 2.15 lakh household service connections will be covered, with 100% metering to improve transparency and scientific accounting. The DJB has also approved a project to install smart meters for real-time monitoring and to prevent water loss. CONTINUED ON P4 ever name an individual provides for their caste will be recorded as it is,” the leaders said in their letter. In India, the same caste is known by different names across different regions, they pointed out. Recording them as is would result in a list of hundreds of thousands of caste names, rendering the entire dataset useless. “An easy solution already exists: a drop-down list of castes should be created. This is the method adopted for the enumeration of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. Such a list can be easily compiled based on existing government lists such as those for Socially and Educationally Backward Classes and the list from the Anthropological Survey of India,” they said. India, China push political settlement of border dispute NSA Ajit Doval and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi held talks in Beijing on Tuesday, with both sides agreeing to continue dialogue on their long-running boundary dispute and seek a “fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable” settlement. The two Special Representatives co-chaired the 25th round of talks. P7 CPM and CPI fight over Kerala deputy LoP post latter’s statement on the Deputy LoP issue a violation of coalition dharma and lack of ethTHE CPM-CPI standoff over ics in coalition politics. the post of Deputy Leader of “The Leader of Opposition Opposition took an ugly turn made the statement at a time on Tuesday with Left leadwhen the CPI’s suggestion ers engaging in open is being discussed at difmud-slinging. As the ferent levels. It’s a poCPM hardened its posilitical matter, and not tion over CPI’s demand something the Leader for Dy LoP role, the latof Opposition can deter chose to target Leadcide on his own. Bilaterer of Opposition Pial discussions are goM A Baby narayi Vijayan. approached ing on in the matter, Accusing Pinarayi and it is before the naReaching out to of nurturing an ‘I’m tional leaderships of CPM general everything and I’ll deboth parties. During secretary M A cide everything attinone of the bilateral tude,’ senior CPI lead- Baby, CPI leader discussions, did the Binoy Viswam er Sathyan Mokeri Leader of Opposition said Pinarayi’s reminded the ex-chief ever mention about minister that such an statement was in giving a letter (to the violation of approach doesn’t suit Speaker about Dy a Communist leader. coalition dharma. LoP). It’s evident that Parties in a coalition it’s not because of Left do not have a master-servant politics,” said Mokeri. relation, he pointed out. CPM leader V Sivankutty acMokeri, in an article in party cused Mokeri of violating pomouthpiece ‘Janayugam’, at- litical decorum through his tacked Pinarayi, terming the criticism against Pinarayi. EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ T’puram HOURS after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced ‘Operation Economic Outcast’, the US on Tuesday sanctioned four India-based entities for importing petroleum and petrochemical products from Iran. Among those facing action is customs broker Portease Partners, along with its partners Indrismiya Ashrafmiya Sheikh and Harish Ramachandra Rangi. They facilitated the import of Iranian petrochemical products, according to the US State Department. The other India-based entities are Sadashiva Overseas, PP Softtech and Prakrutees Infra Impex. PP Softtech director Prashant Garg has also been sanctioned. Sheikh, Rangi and Garg are Indian nationals. Sadashiva Overseas imported Iranian-origin petroleum products worth $69 million from multiple companies, while PP Softtech and Prakrutees Infra each imported products worth $25 million, the US said. The companies were designated for “knowingly engaging in a significant transaction for the purchase, acquisition, sale, transport, or marketing of petroleum or petroleum products from Iran”. The sanctions are part of ‘Operation Economic Outcast’, announced by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Monday. The fresh measures are aimed at cutting off potential sources of revenue for Iran. The US has also warned countries to reduce economic ties with Tehran or face action. Bessent termed the move an unprecedented campaign to sever Iran’s financial lifelines. Entities that continue to do business with Tehran may attract secondary sanctions.