The New Indian Express wishes its readers a kochi l monday l January 26, 2026 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l late city EDITION A demonstrator weeps during a candlelight vigil for 37-year-old Alex Pretti, who was shot dead reportedly by ICE agents in Minneapolis, US, on Saturday | ap | P9 Our offices will remain closed today. There will be no issue of the paper tomorrow. 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 VS, Dharmendra awarded Padma Vibhushan Padma Bhushan for Mammootty, Vellappally and Uday Kotak; cricketers Rohit, Harmanpreet among 113 Padma Shri recipients E x p r e s s ne w s s e r v i c e @ New Delhi/T’Puram FORMER Kerala Chief Minister and CPM stalwart V S Achuthanandan and actor Dharmendra were among awardees to posthumously receive the country’s second-highest civilian honour, Padma Vibhushan, for 2026, the government announced on Sunday . The Union government announced 131 Padma awards for 2026, including five Padma Vibhushan, 13 Padma Bhushan and 113 Padma Shri on the eve of Republic Day Ninety awar. dees are women, six foreigners/NRIs/OCIs, and 16 posthumous recipients. Kerala shone bright with three Padma Vibhushan, two Padma Bhushan and three Padma Shri. Retired Supreme Court judge K T Thomas and veteran journalist-writer P Narayanan from the state were in the Padma Vibhushan list, E x p r e s s Re a d Amid Rahul-Tharoor rift, CPM sends feelers to MP T’Puram: The CPM has reportedly opened communication channels with Congress MP Shashi Tharoor amid his deepening rift with party leader Rahul Gandhi. The CPM leadership is said to be exploring the possibility of Tharoor joining or associating with the LDF by floating a new political party. LDF convener T P Ramakrishnan, however, rejected the reports | P4 V S Achuthanandan, former Kerala CM Dharmendra, actor which included Hindustani classical violinist N Rajam (art). Padma Bhushan recipients featured playback legend Alka Yagnik, Malayalam superstar Mammootty SNDP Yogam gen, eral secretary Vellappally Natesan, tennis icon Vijay Amritraj and banker Uday Kotak. Senior BJP leader VK Malhotra, JMM founder and former Jharkhand CM Shibu Soren, and advertising maverick Piyush Pandey were awarded posthumously . Vellappally Natesan, SNDP Yogam gen secy Mammootty, actor Among the 113 Padma Shri awardees were former Indian cricket captain Rohit Sharma and women’s cricket captain Harmanpreet Kaur. Hockey stars Savita Punia and Baldev Singh, and para-athlete Praveen Kumar also featured on the list. From Kerala, ex-ISRO scientist A E Muthunayagam, celebrated as ‘Father of Propulsion Technology’, Kalamandalam Vimala Menon, an acclaimed classical dance artist and teacher, and Kollakkayil Devaki Amma, who grew a mini forest on a five acre land in Alappuzha, were named for Padma Shri. Bollywood actors R Madhavan, Prosenjit Chatterjee, and Satish Shah received Padma Shri, alongside former JNU V-C Jagadesh Kumar and whistleblower R V S Mani, a former MHA official who exposed attempts to suppress information in Ishrat Jahan case. DRDO’s Chandramouli Gaddamanugu, and former CRPF DG K Vijay Kumar were also honoured with the fourth-highest civilian award. Expressing happiness over the honour for Mammootty, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said the state government had been recommending his name for years. Meanwhile, there are indications that the Centre recommended the names of VS and Vellappally for the honours. With this, the Centre has sent a clear message to the state, which goes to polls in a few months | P2, P4, P7 Ashok Chakra for Shubhanshu Shukla e x p r e s s ne w s s e r v i c e @ New Delhi GROUP Captain Shubhanshu Shukla has been approved for the Ashok Chakra to be awarded by President Droupadi Murmu on the eve of the 77th Republic Day, for his role in India’s return to the human spaceflight through the International Space Station (ISS) mission last year. Group Capt Shukla became the first InShubhanshu Shukla dian to visit the ISS during the Axiom-4 mission, completing an 18-day stay in orbit. The mission marked India’s return to human spaceflight after four decades, following Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma’s historic spaceflight aboard Soyuz mission in 1984. New inflation basket to track OTT charges, house rent D I PA K M O N D A L @New Delhi The Consumer Price Index (CPI) basket used for measuring retail inflation is all set to get a newage makeover to reflect current consumption trends and consumer behaviour. For the first time, rural house rent will be included, making the housing index more representative across geographies. Coverage of house rent has also been expanded in urban areas, with a larger sample size and exclusion of employer-provided accommodation. Digital consumption will assume greater significance in the new basket. Online media and streaming services (OTT platfor ms) will now be tracked. In line with rising air travel, international travel has been added within the airfare in- dex. In the energy basket, compressed natural gas (CNG) and piped natural gas (PNG) have been included. Saurabh Garg, secretary, Ministry of Statistics and Programme implementation, told TNIE that the new CPI basket, based on the latest Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES) 2023-24, will see a significant expansion in the number of items tracked. For items whose prices are administered centrally—such as rail fares, petrol, diesel, LPG, CNG, PNG and postal charges—price indices will now be compiled centrally using administrative data from the relevant ministries. Garg says the revamped CPI basket is designed to be more contemporary, transparent and robust, while maintaining continuity with past series. Veteran journalist Mark Tully dies at 90 E x p r e s s ne w s s e r v i c e @ New Delhi Veteran journalist and acclaimed author Mark Tully passed away at a private hospital in Delhi on Sunday He . was 90. He had been unwell for some time and was admitted to Max Hospital in Saket, Delhi, on January 21. Born in Calcutta (now Kolkata) on October 24, 1935, Tully served as the BBC’s bureau chief in New Delhi for 22 years. His work with the British broadcaster included coverage of several defining moments in post-Independence Indian history, such as the 1971 India-Pakistan war, the Emergency of Mark Tully 1975–77, Operation Blue Star, the assas1935–2026 sination of Indira Gandhi and the antiSikh riots in 1984, the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi in 1991, and the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992. He authored several books on India, including No Full Stops in India, India in Slow Motion, and The Heart of India. He was knighted in 2002 and received the Padma P7 Bhushan from the Government of India in 2005.