BHUBANESWAR l sunday l april 05, 2026 l `12.00 l paGEs 24 l JEypOrE EdiTiOn pharMa exporTS aT $28 Bn TILL FeB, MaY See growTh In rupee TerMS India’s pharma exports stood at over $28 billion up to February in the last financial year, recording a growth of nearly 6%, a top official said forMulations, biologicals drive groWth Despite global challenges, pharmaceutical exports have been among the few sectors to maintain growth momentum, K Raja Bhanu, Director General of the Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council of India (Pharmexcil), said. The 5.9% year-on-year export growth was led by formulations, biologicals, vaccines and AYUSH products, he added ■ 34% tariffs led to higher procureMent in u.s. ■ Rajesh Agrawal, Secretary in the Department of Commerce, noted that exports would show growth in rupee terms as the Indian currency continues to weaken against the US dollar Tariff-related issues in 2025 led to higher medicine procurement worth $1.6 bn in the US, Pharmexcil Chairman Namit Joshi said oF IndIa’S pharMaceuTIcaL exporTS are dIrecTed TowardS The u.S. 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 Amid search for US Puri airport gets nod 9-judge bench sabari for forest land diversion to hearon Tues airman, Don issues review Iran 48-hr ultimatum entry of WoMen logical Survey of India (ZSI). The state has been asked to comply THe proposed Shree Jagannath Inter- with 33 different conditions for grant national Airport at Puri has got a big of the stage-II (final) clearance. The boost with the Centre according in- MoeFCC has asked the state to take principle approval for the diversion of up compensatory afforestation in 27.887 hectares of forest land required 29.939 ha of non-forest land in two for the greenfield project. identified villages of Kakatpur tehsil In a communication to the odisha in two years and ensure that an addigovernment, the Ministry of entional afforestation is carried out vironment, Forest and Climate on 59.52 ha of degraded forest Change (MoeFCC) stated that land. Stage-I (in-principle) approv“The non-forest land shall al under the provisions of the be transferred and mutated in Van (Sanrakshan evam Samfavour of the state Forest devardhan) Adhiniyam, 1980, partment, or shall be notified has been granted for diveras protected forest under secsion of 27.887 hectares of fortion 29 of the Indian Forest est land in Puri division for Act, 1927 or under the releconstruction of the airport. vant section(s) of the local The state has The approval follows due exForest Act, before handing been asked to amination of the proposal by over the forest land to the comply with 33 the Ministry’s Advisory Comuser agency,” the ministry conditions for mittee (AC) two months ago. stated. grant of final clearance. The while the state government The Committee, in its meeting on February 27, 2026, MoEFCC has asked had submitted that a majorithe state to take ty of trees, approximately minutes of which have been accessed by TNIE, has made up compensatory 9,151 out of 12,213, which will afforestation in it clear that the approval has 29.939 ha of non- be felled comprise planted species such as cashew, Jhaun been granted on condition forest land (casuarina), acacia and noni that the state government Officials (Great Morinda), are largely will ensure the user agency in moribund condition due to implements mitigation measures and other important recommen- biotic pressure and lack of natural redations derived from the impact as- generation. The MoeFCC has stipusessment studies and site specific lated that the user agency shall explore wildlife management plan developed the possibility of translocation of as per the recommendations of wild- maximum number of trees identified Continued on P5 life Institute of India (wII) and Zoo- to be felled. S u d a r S a n M a h a r a n a @ Bhubaneswar Both Iran and US hunt for the missing F-15E crew; 1 more jet, 2 choppers hit An apartment building struck by an Iranian missile in Petah Tikva, Israel on Saturday | ap day WITH THIS ISSUE All in Good Time PLUS 12 P AGeS Mistry petition Venu srinivasan quits Hirabai Tata Trust B e n n K o c h u v e e d a n @ Mumbai Power struggle within the Tata Trusts appears to have intensified with its seniormost vice-chairman Venu Srinivasan resigning from the Hirabai Tata Trust. His resignation came hours after former trustee Mehli Mistry moved the Charity Commissioner, seeking the ouster of Srinivasan and another vice-chairman, Vijay Singh, from the Bai Hirabai Tata Navsari Charitable Institution on the grounds that they are nonParsis. while Mistry’s petition pertains to this relatively lesser-known trust, its implications could extend to over a dozen entities within the Tata Trusts ecosystem. In his petition, Mistry also challenged his own ouster from the trusts last october, arguing that the votes cast by Srinivasan and Singh — who he claims were ineligible — should be deemed invalid. Mistry had earlier challenged his removal before the Charity Commissioner in November but withdrew the plea within a week and resigned, stating he no longer had any interest in the trusts. Srinivasan, chairman emeritus of TVS Motor, reportedly quit the trust on Saturday citing “preoccupa, tion with other business commitments.” ExprESS rEAD Govt warns action against hindering Census exercise BHUBANESWAR: Persons refusing census officials access to their house or providing false information will face penalty and imprisonment up to three years, warned the state government ahead of the crucial house-listing operations | P3 36 a g e n c I e S @ Washington/Dubai US President Donald Trump on Saturday threatened that hell would “reign down” on Iran if it didn’t open the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours. “remember when I gave Iran ten days to MAKe A DeAL or oPeN UP THe HorMUZ STrAIT,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. “Time is running out—48 hours before all Hell will reign (sic) down on them,” the president said, referring to an ultimatum issued on March 26. Trump’s latest threat came as the US continued its search for a missing crew member of a US F15e fighter jet downed by Iran. It was the first a US aircraft is shot down by enemy fire in over 20 years. reports said armed Iranians have joined the hunt after the state media announced a “precious prize” for those finding the US airman. If Iran manages to capture the crew member, it would give Tehran more leverage in potential peace talks with the US. Confirming that Iran shot down the US warplane, Trump said it won’t affect peace talks. “No, not at all. No, it’s war. we’re in war,” he said. Another US aircraft and two helicopters were hit by Iran while conducting a search for the downed F-15e’s airman. A-10 warthog—a type of air- us-israeli strikes hit 30 universities US-Israeli strikes have hit more than 30 universities across Iran since the war broke out in late February, Iran’s science minister said on Saturday. “To date, more than 30 universities have been directly targeted,” Hossein Simai Sarraf told reporters during a visit to the Shahid Beheshti University in northern Tehran, which was struck on Friday 1 Several loud explosions were heard over Jerusalem on Saturday after Israeli military warned of missiles inbound 2 Iran’s atomic agency says an airstrike has hit near its Bushehr nuclear facility, killing a guard and damaging a building 3 Two buildings in Dubai were hit by debris, including one housing the US cloud computing firm Oracle craft designed for providing close air support—was downed near the Strait of Hormuz on Friday. Reuters reported that the aircraft crashed in Kuwait. As per reports, the pilot ejected and is safe. Two Black Hawk helicopters were also hit. The choppers managed to exit Iranian airspace after being hit. These incidents come days after Trump declared that Iran has no functional air defences left after intense US-Israel attacks. Mohammad Ghalibaf, the speaker of Iran’s parliament, mocked the Trump administration, saying the “war they started has now been downg raded from re gime change to Hey! Can anyone find our pilots?” As of Friday, 247 of the wounded were US Army soldiers, 63 were Navy sailors, 19 were Marines and 36 were Air Force airmen, data released by the Pentagon shows. Meanwhile, Pakistan rejected reports that its initiative to facilitate talks between the US and Iran to end the ongoing conflict had hit obstacles after the initial exchange of peace P9 proposals. S u c h I T r a K a LYa n M o h a n T Y @ New Delhi A nine-judge bench of the Supreme Court will start hearing a batch of petitions seeking review of its Sabarimala case verdict on discrimination against women, from April 7 (Tuesday), two days before Kerala goes to polls. The review pleas challenge the 2018 verdict, which held that the traditional ban on women aged 10–50 years to enter the Sabarimala was unconstitutional. The new bench comprises Chief Justice Surya Kant and justices B V Nagarathna, M M Sundresh, Ahsanuddin Amanullah, Aravind Kumar, Augustine George Masih, Prasanna B Varale, r Mahadevan and Joymalya Bagchi. The court in its last hearing on February 16 had indicated the timeline for the hearing. “The nine judge bench shall begin hearing the review case on April 7, 2026 at 10.30 am. The review petitioners shall be heard from April 7 to 9, 2026. The parties opposing the review will be heard from April 16-17, 2026. rejoinder submissions will be heard on April 21,” a threejudge bench headed by the CJI had said on February 16.