thursdAY 03 FCNR(B) september, 2026 epaper.morningstandard.in Deposits are foreign-currencydenominated fixed deposits facebook.com/TheMorningStandard X.com/TheMornStandard Banks get $127 bn from diaspora: RBI Trump on Coin India attracted $127.23 bn in Foreign Currency Non-Resident deposits under RBI’s special USD-INR forex swap facility till August 31, the closing date US Treasury puts Prez on $1 coin Total forex inflows touch $136 bn US Treasury has issued $1 coins featuring the face of President Trump. It follows a campaign by him to put his personal stamp on national institutions A CAPITAL VIEW OF NEWS Page 9 l New Delhi l J8.00 l PAGES 12 RBI’s special USD-INR forex swap facility for FCNR(B) deposits, Overseas Foreign Currency Borrowings and External Commercial Borrowings, was launched on June 8 as part of efforts to strengthen India’s external sector position and support forex liquidity amid global uncertainties. The measures led to a surge in forex inflows totalling $136.38 billion as on August 31 | p10 Retd Air Marshal BrahMos board shake-up on cards Mishra 1st CEO of Ram temple trust J a v a r i a R a n a @ New Delhi Govind Dev Giri is the new general secretary; Mahesh Bhagchandka to be the treasurer relative of the late VHP international president, he has also THE Shri Ram Janmabhoomi authored a book on Singhal. Teerth Kshetra Nyas, the trust Madan Mohan Pandey had that manages the Ayodhya tem- been associated with the Ram ple, appointed former Air Mar- Janmabhoomi case in local shal Jeetendra Mishra as its courts and is also associated first chief executive officer at a with the VHP . meeting held on Wednesday . Nirmala Yadav has been asA native of Deoria in Uttar sociated with the RSS. Pradesh, Air Marshal Mishra Air Marshal Mishra is exled the Western Air Command pected to bring in discipline during Operation Sindoor. and management expertise in The Ram temple trust also running the affairs of the Ram appointed for mer temple, search comtreasurer Govind Dev mittee member Giri as general secreSuresh Haware said. tary to fill the post vaHaware is a retired cated by Champat nuclear scientist and Rai, who chose to reformer chief of Shri sign following the doSaibaba Sansthan nation theft scandal. Trust in Shirdi. Among other deciThe other members sions, the trust anof the three-member Jeetendra Mishra nounced three new selection panel are trustees, including a retired Supreme woman. The new trustees are Court judge Pramod Kohli and Delhi-based businessman Ma- retired Lt General Vishnukant hesh Bhagchandka, Ayodhya- Chaturvedi. based advocate Madan Mohan The selection panel reviewed Pandey and Nirmala Yadav of , 5,585 applications and held disShikohabad. cussions with 16 candidates. VHP leader Sharad Sharma The final shortlist had three has been appointed the spokes- names, from which the trust man of the trust. picked Air Marshal Mishra. Mahesh Bhagchandka is The other two shortlisted likely to be named treasurer of candidates, according to rethe trust. He is the chairman of ports, were retired Major GenM2K Group and a trustee of the eral Sanjay Pratap Singh Bisht Ashok Singhal Foundation. A and Shruti Hardwari. NAMITA B AJPAI @ Lucknow back to campus Modi to visit SRCC on Sept 5 in Gen Z pitch I f r a h M u f t i @ New Delhi Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to address students at Delhi’s Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC)—a campus that once marked his national rise—on September 5 on the occasion of Teachers’ Day . The proposed visit to the college, which is celebrating its centenary year, comes amid the BJP’s ongoing outreach efforts to draw young voters to the party In the wake of the . recent students’ protests and growing discontent among youngsters over education reforms to employment, party leaders have turned their focus to wooing first-time voters through campus interactions and digital platforms. Just three weeks ago, Modi had addressed the convocation ceremony at IIT Delhi, where he interacted with graduating students and posiNarendra Modi tioned youth as central to India’s future. The upcoming interaction at SRCC is expected to carry a similar tone, but in a more conversational campus setting. Modi last visited SRCC in 2013 as Gujarat chief minister. His speech then drew a packed audience and marked one of his early high-profile engagements with students in Delhi. Over a decade later, his return to SRCC comes at a time when campuses are more politically aware and digitally active, with student engagement often spilling into social media. The official confirmation of PM’s SRCC visit is awaited. Sixteen months after BrahMos missiles were battle-tested during Operation Sindoor, the Indian side is examining a proposal to restructure the Indo-Russian joint venture (JV) behind the supersonic cruise missile, including changes to its board and a plan to bring more engineering and R&D work in-house, sources familiar with the matter said. The proposal, discussed at a meeting on Monday looks at drop, ping DRDO’s Director General (Missiles and Strategic Systems) from the Indian side of the BrahMos Aerospace Pvt Ltd board and setting up a dedicated engineering team within the company Sources . said it also envisages splitting the Chairman of BrahMos Aerospace and Director General (BrahMos) roles into two separate posts. The Russian side’s representation is proposed to remain unchanged. The proposed restructuring comes as BrahMos scales up to meet a sharp rise in domestic orders and exports. The Philippines, BrahMos’s first overseas customer, began receiving the missiles in 2024, while Indonesia and Vietnam have emerged as new buyers. Negotiations with the UAE are also gaining momentum. Production has been ramped up. The BrahMos integration and testing facility in Lucknow has added around 20% to the programme’s overall production capacity, supplementing existing lines in Hyderabad, Pilani and Thiruvananthapuram. Indigenous content has risen to around 70%, against a target of 85%. Sources said BrahMos Aerospace had outgrown the governance structure created in 1998, when the programme was still under development. “BrahMos Aerospace is now running four plants, supplying all three services and working against fixed export delivery schedules,” one source said. “It needs a structure suited to a production company rather than one designed around a development programme.” The proposal has also triggered concerns. Sources said the DRDO labs had provided much of the design base, testing infrastructure and specialist manpower behind the indigenisation. Removing the DG (MSS) from the board, they argued, could weaken BrahMos’ formal link with those labs. They also questioned whether a relatively small in-house engineering team could quickly replace capabilities built up across the DRDO missile complex over decades. express read 6 Haryana-cadre IAS officers charged: CBI The CBI on Wednesday filed a chargesheet against 19 accused, including six IAS officers of Haryana cadre, three officials of IDFC First Bank and one of AU Small Finance Bank, in the alleged misappropriation of `504crore funds of government departments. P4 Tankers drawing mountain water as the water pipeline network was washed away in the recent flash floods across Nuwakot and Rasuwa districts of Nepal | S V Krishna Chaitanya Health crisis looms as water grid collapses official said. The government is using portable With thousands feared dead or miss- water-testing kits, with support from ing and large parts of Nuwakot and WHO and UNICEF, as WASH (Water, Rasuwa buried under mud and de- Sanitation and Hygiene) intervenbris, Nepal is confronting tions are expanded across a second emergency in the affected areas. form of a health crisis. The water crisis is parKeeping survivors safe is ticularly serious in Nuwabecoming a challenge as Ground Zero kot and Rasuwa because drinking-water systems settlements depend on a have completely collapsed, network of mountain rivNepal seeks sanitation infrastructure ers and streams. The global climate is destroyed and access to Bhote Koshi and Trishuli reparation healthcare is disrupted. are the principal river Nepal’s PM Te a m s f ro m Wo rl d system through the disBalendra Shah on H e a l t h O r g a n i z at i o n tricts, fed by tributaries Wednesday (WHO) Nepal and Minisincluding the Salankhu blamed the flash try of Health and Family and Falakhu. Further floods on climate Welfare are visiting temdownstream, the Trishuli change. “There is a porary holding and sheljoins the Narayani system global contribution ter centres to check survibefore entering India as behind climate vors for signs of disease the Gandak. change. And the spread. Authorities have Here, the drinking waresponsibility to also begun regular testing ter pipelines feeding thoumanage and of drinking-water sources sands of people are comminimise its for E. coli, an indicator of pletely destroyed. effects also rests faecal contamination. In Bidur Municipality, on the global Tsering Gurung, Comthe biggest local body in community” | P9 munication Officer at Nuwakot, the main drinkWHO Nepal, said WHO is ing-water system serving working closely with the nearly 6,000 households Ministry of Health and Food Safety, has been severely damaged. Around “to assess emerging health needs and 7 to 8 km of pipelines have been coordinate the health sector response destroyed, while about 20 smaller to this emergency”. water-lifting schemes serving “Basically, we are doing regular scattered settlements have also been monitoring, E. coli tests,” a WHO affected. Continued on P9 S V K RISHNA CHAITANYA @ Rasuwa (Nepal) 3 arrested in `1K crore ‘Indo-US defence’ project fraud n i t i n r a w at @ New Delhi A fictitious Indo-US defence project, backed by promises of contracts worth hundreds of crores of rupees, allegedly helped three men lure investors in a suspected nationwide fraud involving nearly `1,000 crore. T h r e e p e o p l e — Ve n k i t a Venkat, Rahul Nair and Hitesh Kumar—have been arrested in connection with the case. Police registered a case at Vasant Vihar police station on July 30 this year after a Bengaluru- based technology company alleged that it had been duped of `1.75 crore. The complaint has since brought to light a purported defence and infrastructure project that the accused allegedly presented as having links with the US Department of Defence. According to the FIR, the company’s director came in contact with representatives of VPVV Techno Construction in May 2023. During meetings at its Vasant Vihar of- fice, they allegedly claimed the company was involved in infra projects in India and abroad. They alleged that a defence project would be launched in India under an entity called the “Indo-US Pacific Peace Treaty”, with links to the US Department of Defence and plans to manufacture weapons in India. The company was allegedly promised work orders worth `500 crore annually until 2050. Continued on P4 Case lodged at Vasant Vihar police station on July 30 A case was registered at the Vasant Vihar police station on July 30 this year after a Bengaluru-based technology company alleged that it had been duped of `1.75 crore. The company was allegedly offered the role of tech partner and promised work in land acquisition, engineering, technical services, cyber security, telecommunications, AI, electronic security and surveillance in a purported defence and infra project as having links with the US Department of Defence. SC questions 5-year tenure of BCI chief The SC on Wednesday questioned the five-year tenure of Bar Council of India (BCI) chairman Mannan Kumar Mishra. It said his continuation cannot be viewed as a tenure till 2030. It asked attorney general and solicitor general to take part in BCI policy decisions. P7 NSA detention of DU grad in Noida protest quashed N a m i ta B a j pa i @ Lucknow The Allahabad High Court on Wednesday quashed the National Security Act (NSA) detention of Aakriti Chaudhary, 25, a Delhi University history graduate who has been in custody for about five months over cases arising from the Noida workers’ protest in April. A division Bench of Justice Atul Sreedharan and Justice Achal Sachdev allowed her habeas corpus petition and said her detention was based on a “concocted story” by the State. It ordered her immediate release unless she was required in another case. The bench found several procedural lapses while examining the circumstances of her arrest and the notices issued under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS). A detailed order is awaited. The State told the court that Chaudhary was arrested on April 12, 2026, and was issued a notice under Section 130 of BNSS. It alleged that she had instigated the mob to indulge in arson and stone-pelting. Justice Sreedharan asked whether she had first been served a notice under Section 126. The State said no such notice had been issued and that Section 130 had been invoked. The bench said the Section 130 procedure followed the earlier stage under Section 126. Justice Sreedharan said: “As per the notice under Section 130 of BNSS, if she was willing to give a statement, she wouldn’t be arrested.” The court then referred to the General Diary entry, which appeared to show that Chaudhary had already been arrested before the notice was prepared, raising questions over the State’s account of the arrest.