tadepalligudem l saturday l march 07, 2026 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l city EDITION Red or black to change of hotel, it’s all happening in ahmedabad India, who lost the last match against South Africa & 2023 ODI World Cup final to Aussies, are not taking any chances for T20 World Cup final PIC: DEBADATTA MALLICK divine intervention and focus on soil rickey martin in the house for final Two days before India took on England in semis in Mumbai, the team deferred its training session by an hour due to Lunar Eclipse. Now, the team has changed the hotel in Ahmedabad ahead of the final. The team had stayed in a different hotel previously. The Motera strip is made of three soils — red, black and a mixture. India might not go for black this time ■ ■ Puerto Rican Grammy award-winning singer Ricky Martin will be the star performer before T20 WC final on Sunday. Falguni Pathak and Bollywood playback singer Sukhwinder Singh too will be part of it With airfares soaring, Western and Central Railways to operate several special trains to facilitate travel to Ahmedabad | P11 1,00,000 The number of spectators expected at the stadium 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 Presenting Partner Luxury Mobility Partner March 7 2026 Raajkutir, Kolkata - IHCL SeleQtions 6 pm Associate Partners Celebration Partner Prosenjit Chatterjee, Actor, Padmashri Awardee will be presenting the awards Ban on social media access for children under 13 on anvil: CM Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has said his government is considering steps to restrict social media access for children below 13 years of age. Speaking in the Legislative Assembly on Friday Naidu said , the gover nment will soon launch a programme to prevent children from accessing social media, while mentioning the proposal suggested by HRD and IT Minister Nara Lokesh. Making it clear that concrete steps will be taken to restrict CM Chandrababu Naidu and Speaker Ayyanna Patrudu with Deputy Speaker Raghu Ramakrishna Raju during the cultural event for MLAs & MLCs | Express ED attaches assets worth `441.63 crore of 3 accused E x p r ess Ne w s S e r v i c e @ Vijayawada 30-day u.s. ‘waiver’ Turkey Syria For India to buy stranded Russian oil RAK E S H KUMAR @ New Delhi Israel sovereignty to a foreign power. Government sources, meanwhile, clarified that India had not stopped buying Russian oil despite US overtures. In February, Russia was India’s largest crude oil supplier. Sources said despite the US waiver, Indian refiners are seeking a legal opinion on purchasing the Russian oil stranded at sea, which may include shipments from sanctioned entities and vessels. “So far refiners have bought only non-sanctioned oil,” said a petroleum ministry official, adding that oil companies want to avoid complications including payment problems if they buy sanctioned oil. Since the Russia-Ukraine war started, New Delhi has increased purchases from Russia from 0.2% of total oil imports in December 2021 to around 40% now. Iraq Status of major Gulf energy sites Basra Mina AI Ahmadi Kuwait Kharg Island AI Zour IRAN Juaymah Strait of Hormuz Ras Tanura ed eR S ea with the Iran-Israel/US war starting to impact crude supply and setting prices on fire, the US on Friday said it would issue a 30-day waiver for Indian refiners to buy Russian oil stranded at sea. The Strait of Hormuz, the crucial chokepoint through which 20% of global oil and gas shipments pass through, is currently under threat due to the war. Announcing the decision, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the temporary waiver is to ensure oil continues to flow into global markets. The announcement, however, kicked of a political storm in India with the opposition parties questioning how the US can decide where India should buy from, accusing the Narendra Modi-led government of “surrendering” the country’s Iranian warship docked in Kochi New Delhi: Days before the US sank Iranian frigate IRIS Dena, Iran had approached India seeking urgent docking permission for IRIS LAVAN with 183 crew members, in Kochi. Sources said request was made on Feb 28 and permission given on March 1. The ship remains docked in Kochi since March 4 Oil facilities Ras Laffan qatar Gas facilities Ruwais Jebel Ali Fujairah Gulf of Oman UAE Oman Saudi Arabia Duqm THE Centre on Friday invoked its rarely used emergency powers to direct all oil refiners operating in India to ramp up LPG production in view of supply disruptions due to the ongoing war in West Asia. As much as 85% of India’s LPG imports pass through the Strait of Hormuz, which is now effectively closed. To ensure seamless supply of cooking gas, the government issued an order under the Essential Commodities Act, 1955 (ESMA) asking refiners to maximise LPG Recently damaged Shut down Yemen Gulf of Aden production and supply it only to the three state-owned oil marketing companies (OMCs) — Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation. The order further stated that refiners must use all available propane and butane J aya n t h J a c o b @ New Delhi Balendra Shah India bullish India, through MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said, “We look forward to working with the new Government of Nepal to build on the robust ties between our two countries and peoples for mutual benefit.” Top choice in Gen Z protest Balendra was a popular choice to lead the interim government after Gen Z youths toppled the Oliled coalition government in September last year. But Balen declined, saying he would rather contest the parliamentary elections for a full term. Arabian Sea Govt invokes ESMA, asks OMCs to raise LPG output E x p r ess Ne w s S E r v i c e @ New Delhi Voters across the nation align with spirit of Gen Z revolution, chuck all major parties Turkmenistan on new govt Caspian Sea Th The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) has attached properties worth `441.63 crore of three accused in the alleged multi-crore liquor scam during the previous YSRCP regime. According to an official release on Friday, the ED attached properties of prime accused (A1) Kesireddy Rajasekhar Reddy alias Raj Kesireddy his family and relat, ed entities, Booneti Chanakya, his family and related entities, and second accused (A2) Donthireddy Vasudeva Reddy under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002. The attached properties include bank balances, fixed deposits, land parcels and other immovable assets. Based on the inputs from the probe conducted by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) into the liquor scam, the ED had registered a case. The probe revealed that the previous government monopolised retail liquor trade through Government Retail Outlets (GROs) operated by the Andhra Pradesh State Beverages Corporation Limited (APSBCL). As part of a criminal conspiracy, the automated system was deliberately disabled and replaced with a manual one, thereby vesting unfettered discretionary powers with APSBCL officials in the issuance of Orders for Supply (OFS). It found that the manual OFS system was misused to discriminate against established liquor brands, which were deliberately marginalised or removed from the market. Simultaneously, preferential and irregular allocations were extended to select “favoured” brands on P4 receipt of kickbacks.  ering restrictions on social media for those under 16 - an idea we had proposed earlier in Andhra Pradesh to protect young minds from the darker side of the digital world. Sometimes good ideas travel fast. Wishing them success in taking it forward.” In fact, it is Lokesh, who initially mooted the idea of restricting social media for child re n a n d a l s o c o nve n e d meetings with officials to study the implementation of the social media ban in Australia and other nations, so as to evolve an effective model for AP . The Group of Ministers (GoM) constituted by the government, has also discussed the ban on social media access for children. Pakistan liquor scam social media access for children below 13 years within the next 90 days, the Chief Minister said the government will also discuss curtailing the social media usage for children between 13 and 16 years of age. Naidu asserted that the government will make sincere efforts in the direction of ensuring children are not negatively affected by social media. Earlier in the day Karnataka , Chief Minister Siddaramaiah while presenting the State Budget for 2026-27, proposed a ban on social media access for children below 16 years. Responding to the move of the Karnataka government, Lokesh wrote on X, “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery . Glad to see Karnataka consid- to produce LPG and should not use the two chemicals to make petrochemical products or other downstream derivatives. “All Public sector OMCs shall ensure that LPG so procured is supplied/marketed solely to consumers of domestic LPG only the order read. ,” Hospitality Partner Rapper-politico Balen on Nepal landslide course Afghanistan S V i s w a n at h @ Vijayawada Silver Partner RAPPER-turned-politician Balendra Shah’s Rastriya Swatantra Party is on course for a historic landslide in Nepal’s first post-Gen Z protest general elections, toppling decades of dominance by the Nepali Congress and CPN-UML (Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist). Shah, 35, a former mayor of Kathmandu, joined the three-year-old RSP in January as its prime ministerial candidate. Early counting trends from the Election Commission, covering 144 of 165 constituencies, show the RSP has already won three seats and is leading in 104 others. By contrast, the Nepali Congress has secured two seats and leads in 12, while the CPN-UML leads in 10 constituencies. In its manifesto, Shah’s RSP promised to bold economic and social reforms, pledging to create 1.2 million jobs, curb forced migration, and double Nepal’s per capita income from $1,447 to $3,000 within five years. The party also vowed to expand the national GDP to $100 billion and provide universal healthcare insurance. Voter turnout reached approximately 60%, reflecting strong engagement in a politically fragile nation that has seen 14 governments in 18 years. The RSP’s dominance is evident in Kathmandu, where it leads in all 10 constituencies. Shah was leading in Jhapa-5 against four-time prime minister Oli, securing 6,551 votes to Oli’s 1,428. Other RSP victories include Ranju Darshana in Kathmandu-1 with 15,455 votes. Analysts caution that much of Shah’s success will depend on the team he surrounds himself with to tackle a corruptionprone bureaucracy and aspiration of youth who voted for change. Shah, popularly known as ‘Balen’, owes part of his appeal to a strong social media presence, boasting over 3.5 million followers, which allows him to engage directly with younger voters who spearheaded the anti-corruption, proP9 reform protests last year.  E x p r e s s Re a d SPV for shipbuilding cluster at Dugarajapatnam Visakhapatnam: The State government has approved incorporation of Shipbuilding & Heavy Industries Park Andhra Pradesh Limited as a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) for developing shipbuilding, shiprepair and allied maritime infrastructure at Dugarajapatnam | p3 CAG report points to fiscal lapses in AP Vijayawada: The CAG has delivered a sharp indictment of Andhra Pradesh’s financial management in its audit of the State’s Finance Accounts for 2024–25, tabled in the Assembly. It raised concerns over transparency and accountability in State’s fiscal practices | p4 Political messaging Social inclusion triumphed party heft in Cong call on RS ticket to Tilak P r ee t h a N a i r & R a j es h A b r a h a m @ New Delhi The Congress announcement of M Christopher Tilak as its Rajya Sabha candidate from Tamil Nadu sparked quiet discussions within party circles, with sources indicating that the decision followed intense internal consultations amid differing views among the top leadership. Sources said Leader of Oppo- Committed organisational worker Party insiders said the choice of Tilak reflected a balance, along with the need to ensure coordination with the DMK. Regarded within Congress circles as a committed organisational worker, Tilak is expected to strengthen the party’s outreach in the state M Christopher Tilak | P JawahaR sition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and former party president Sonia Gandhi had favoured the candidature of Dr A Chellakumar, a former MP from Tamil Nadu who has held several organisational responsibilities in the party However, . the proposal did not find wider acceptance during the final round of discussions, with Congress president Mallikar- jun Kharge and a section of the leadership backing the idea of fielding a Dalit representative. The leadership eventually settled on Tilak. Senior leaders, including Kharge, Sonia and Rahul, were closely involved in consultations on both seat sharing with the DMK and the selection of the Rajya Sabha nominee. According to sources, Rahul and Sonia argued that the nomination should reflect organisa- tional experience and merit, pointing to Chellakumar’s long association with the party and his earlier tenure as a Lok Sabha member from Tamil Nadu. However, another view emerged, with some leaders emphasising the importance of social representation. Kharge and a section of the leadership are learnt to have felt that nominating a Dalit would align with the party’s broader political messaging on social inclusion.