coimbatore l Monday l august 11, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l LATE city EDITION Air India set to upgrade its Dreamliner fleet Air India’s move to upgrade its 26 Dreamliners is to reduce operational disruptions and better overall reliability first aircraft in california for upgrade Air India’s fleet of Dreamliners — 26 legacy 787-8s and seven 787-9s — had undergone checks, including fuel switches, after the fatal crash on June 12 in Ahmedabad. Under the $400 million fleet retrofit programme announced in December 2022, the airline has flown its first Dreamliner to a Boeing facility in California in July configuration records for these aircraft, followed by modifications based on Boeing’s service information bulletins, Air India said ■ As part of a Reliability Enhancement Programme, the airline will upgrade the avionics of its 26 legacy B787-8 aircraft 190 re-configuration to be done if needed ■ The retrofit programme entails analysis of maintenance and narrow-body and wide-body planes are part of air india’s fleet CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOgGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI Rajnath targets Trump, says India’s rise irks some people Express News Service @ Bhopal IN a veiled dig at US President Donald Trump for his tariff action and repeated targeting of India, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday said that some people are not willing to accept India’s economic progress and influence on the world stage. Describing India’s economy as the world’s most “dashing and dynamic”, Rajnath said that some people who consider themselves as Sabke Boss (everyone’s boss) are unable t o d i g e s t I n d i a ’s progress and economic development. “They think that we are everyone’s boss and how is India moving forward so fast? Many people are trying to do something, so that when things made by the hands of Indians in India go to other countries, they become more expensive than the things made in those countries,” he said of Trump’s tariff action against India. “But, I’m confident that the pace at which India is progressing, no global power can stop our country from becoming a major world power,” Singh asserted during his speech after laying the foundation of BEML Rail Hub for Manufacturing (BRAHMA) -a greenfield rail manufacturing facility at central Madhya Pradesh’s Raisen district. Describing Operation Sindoor as a symbol of India’s self-reliance and self-confidence, Singh asserted that the armed forces effectively utilised indigenous equipment, which played a pivotal role in the success of the operation. “India was able to reach this position only because it has taken the pledge to become Aatmanirbhar in the defence sector,” he added. Singh said India is now not only manufacturing equipment on its soil, but is also catering to the security needs of friendly nations. “When Modiji became PM for the first time in 2014, the defence sector exports from India were merely `600 crore, which 10 years later have soared to `24,000 crore.” India is the world’s fastest growing economy: Modi D e v a r a j B H i r e ha l l i @ Bengaluru Days after US President Donald Trump’s ‘dead economy’ barb, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday asserted that India is the fastest growing economy in the world. “In the last 11 years, our economy has gone from 10th place to top five. We are now moving rapidly towards becoming one of the top three economies,” he said after inaugurating the Yellow Line of Bengaluru Metro rail and laying the foundation stone for Phase-3. Attributing the growth momentum to the spirit of ‘reform, perform and transform’, he said: “The journey to a Viksit Bharat will move forward hand in hand with Digital India.” Modi’s remarks were also aimed at Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, who had drawn eco- Prime Minister Narendra Modi being received by Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Governor Thawar Chand Gehlot, in Bengaluru | Express nomic parallels between the NDA government and the UPA dispensation. “In 2014, India had only 74 airports, and now, there are over 160. Then, only three national waterways were operational, now there are 30. The country had only seven AIIMS and 387 medical colleges, but today we have 22 AIIMS hospitals and 704 medical colleges, adding 1 lakh more medical seats in the past 11 years. The number of IITs has risen from 16 to 23, IIITs from 9 to 25, and IIMs from 13 to 21,” Modi said. K’taka CEO sends notice to Rahul for ‘vote theft’ proof express news service @ Bengaluru/New Delhi IN the wake of ‘vote theft’ allegations levelled by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi against the Election Commission at a press conference in New Delhi on August 7, the chief electoral officer (CEO) of Karnataka on Sunday served a notice to the Congress leader, asking him to share documents based on which he had alleged that a woman voted twice. Gandhi had alleged that there was an instance of duplicate voting, citing the case of one Shakun Rani, who he claimed had voted twice in the Mahadevapura constituency in the 2024 general election and had stated that the document was from the ECI. The ECI, however, stated that its preliminary inquiry found no such evidence, with Shakun Rani herself asserting that she voted only once and the “tickmarked” document Gandhi displayed not being an official record issued by a polling officer. The CEO has asked Gandhi to submit the documents he relied upon to support his allegations, so that an investigation can be conducted. Upping the ante over Rahul Gandhi’s poll rigging claims, the Congress on Sunday launched a web portal for people to register and demand accountability from the EC against what it called “vote theft”, and express support for the demand for digital voter rolls. “The responsibility is once again on us and you, the people of the country — join us and support the demand for transparency and fairness from the Election Commission,” Gandhi said on X, urging people to register on the portal. express read CM Stalin likely to visit Europe in September Chennai: CM MK Stalin is expected to travel to the United Kingdom and Germany by the end of this month or the first week of September, during which meetings related to attracting more investments to the state are planned, highly placed sources said | P5 Kidney racket: 2 hosps’ transplant licence cancelled Express News Service @ Namakkal The Tamil Nadu government has decided to permanently cancel the kidney transplant licences of Dhanalakshmi Srinivasan Medical College Hospital in Perambalur and Cethar Hospital in Tiruchy following a health department probe into a suspected kidney trafficking racket in Namakkal district that uncovered irregularities and illegal practices. The racket came to light when police and health officials received complaints about brokers allegedly coercing vulnerabl e i n d iv i d u a l s f ro m Pallipalayam and nearby areas in Namakkal into selling kidneys. Subsequently Health Min, ister Ma Subramanian ordered a detailed probe by a panel led by S Vineet, Project Director of TN Health System Refor m Programme. The panel’s report, details of which were released on Sunday , revealed that activities by both the hospitals violated the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act, 1994 with evidence showing that forged documents were obtained and submitted by the private hospitals to improperly secure authorisation for transplants.  P5