BHUBANESWAR l friday l february 20, 2026 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l late CITY EDITION uk Police arrest King Charles’ brother in ‘misconduct’ probe Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was arrested by UK police on Thursday for misconduct in public office following revelations from Epstein files accused of forwarding govt reports no one is above the law, says British PM According to the Epstein emails release, Andrew was accused of forwarding government reports from official visits to the American sex offender and financier, who died in a New York prison in August 2019. As Duke of York, Andrew, 66, had served as UK’s trade envoy between 2001 and 2011, travelling globally and having privileged access to government ■ ■ British Prime Minister Keir Starmer issued a statement after Andrew’s arrest stating that there is no individual who is placed above the law Once a high-flyer, Andrew had been stripped of all his royal titles of Prince and Duke of York by the King last year. In several news bytes to press, he has consistently denied any wrongdoing | P9 2011 when Andrew was jailed for 11 months over epstein links 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 SC slams states over freebies ahead of polls suc h i t r a k a lya n m o h a n t y @ New Delhi THE Supreme Court on Thursday slammed the freebies and subsidies culture ahead of elections and said it was “high time” to revisit such policies that hamper the country’s economic development. Observing that the ultimate financial burden of such populist measures falls on taxpayers, a bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant said, “But this money which the State says it will pay now... Who will pay for it? This is taxpayers’ money .” The observations were made during the hearing of a petition filed by the Tamil Nadu Power Distribution Corporation Limited which proposed to give free electricity to all consumers irrespective of paying capacity . “It is understandable when some people cannot afford, you have to provide. But the persons who ... are affluent ... is it not high time to revisit these policy frameworks?” the CJI asked. The bench, also comprising justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi, said state governments should generate employment, make roads and hospitals instead of freebies. Need democratised and human-centric AI: Modi Odisha economy set to touch `10 lakh cr: Economic Survey RA K E S H K U M AR @ New Delhi B i j o y P r a d h a n @ Bhubaneswar PM says India does not fear AI but sees future and fortune in it Artificial intelligence (AI) must be democratised and should serve as a medium of inclusion and empowerment, especially in the Global South, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Thursday . Speaking at the for mal opening ceremony of the India AI Impact Summit 2026 here, Modi said some countries think AI should be developed in a confidential manner but India believes the codes should be shared for the common good. As for the potential job disruptions, Modi said AI will also create new employment avenues, though it is difficult to predict what kinds of jobs will emerge. He observed that there are two kinds of people—those who fear AI and those who see future in it. Stressing that India does not fear AI, Modi unveiled the MANAV vision for AI, where M stands for moral and ethical systems, A for accountable governance, N for national sovereignty A for accessible , and inclusive, and V for valid RIL to invest `10L cr in AI over seven yrs Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani announced a `10 lakh crore investment in AI over the next seven years to connect every Indian citizen, business, and government service to AI and legitimate. He further said that AI will open higher-value, creative, and meaningful roles for more people, creating opportunities for innovation, entrepreneurship, and new industries. “AI will make work Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Google CEO Sundar Pichai, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and others during the India AI Impact Summit 2026 | pti smarter, more efficient, and more impactful, enabling better design, faster building, and improved decision-making,” said Modi. The event was attended by AI leaders including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, Microsoft’s Brad Smith, Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis, Accenture CEO Julie Sweet, and Meta’s Alexandr Wang, among others.  P10 the national average and ref l e c t s i m p r o v i n g l iv i n g Odisha’s economy is on standards. course to reach the `10 lakh Industry continued to be a crore mark very soon, with its key growth driver, accounting Gross State Domestic Product for 41.3 per cent of Gross State (GSDP) estimated at `9.9 Value Added (GSVA) and lakh crore in 2025-26, recontributing around flecting a year-on-year `3.6 lakh crore. The growth of 9.5 per cent, sector registered a the latest Economic growth of 6.4 per cent, Survey on the state has with manufacturing revealed. expected to expand by The Economic Sur8.3 per cent, above the vey report, tabled in national average. the Assembly on During 2025-26, the Thursday, said the state approved 244 The state’s real state’s real economic economic growth projects involving ingrowth is projected at is projected at 7.9 vestments of `5.66 7.9 per cent in 2025-26, per cent in 2025- lakh crore with the po26, higher than higher than 7.2 per tential to generate 3.35 7.2 per cent in cent in 2024-25 and lakh jobs. Of these, 80 2024-25 and above the national avprojects with investabove the erage of 7.4 per cent, ments worth `1.75 lakh indicating broad-based national average crore were implementof 7.4 per cent expansion across ed, creating 1.4 lakh Economic Survey sectors. jobs. Per capita income in The services sector, Odisha rose by 9.2 per which contributed 39.1 cent to `1,86,761 in 2025-26, sig- per cent to the economy is pro, nificantly faster than the na- jected to grow at 9.3 per cent, tional increase of 6.9 per cent. d r i v e n b y f i n a n c i a l The survey noted that this services, digital infrastructure trend is helping the state stead- a n d technology-led ily narrow the income gap with investments.  Continued on P5 India set to join Pax Silica today JAYAN T H JA C O B @ New Delhi INDIA is set to join US-led strategic alliance Pax Silica on Friday, marking a major step in New Delhi’s evolving technology and economic partnership with Washington. Sources said India’s entry into the initiative, which is aimed at building resilient supply chains for critical minerals and AI, is expected to be formalised at the India AI Impact Summit. Launched in December 2025, Pax Silica seeks to establish a secure, innovation-driven ecosystem from raw materials and critical minerals to semiconductors and AI infrastructure. US Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg is currently in India and is expected to attend the formalisation event on Friday alongside senior Indian officials and US Ambassador to India Sergio Gor. As a member of the BRICS grouping, India’s decision to align with a US-led economic security framework is strategically significant. Current members of Pax Silica include Australia, Greece, Israel, Japan, Qatar, South Korea, Singapore, UAE, and UK. India’s entry into Pax Silica signals a sharpening focus on technology-led economic security and a recalibration of its strategic alignments amid intensifying global competition over AI and critical resources.