HImanta takes charge as Assam chief minister Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma greets Prime Minister Narendra Modi after the BJP-led NDA assumed power for the third term on Tuesday. Governor Lakshman Prasad Acharya administered the oath of office to Sarma and four legislators at a 25-minute grand ceremony held at the Veterinary Ground in Guwahati | P12 VILLUPURAM l wednesday l may 13, 2026 l `9.00 l PAGES 16 l CITY EDITION 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 NEET-UG cancelled, CBI begins paper leak probe West Asia crisis is a stress test for India: CEA D i pa k M o n d a l @ New Delhi Re-exam notice in 7-10 days; one accused arrested from Nashik lalitha s, sudhir s u r ya w a n s h i & r a j e s h a s n a n i @ New Delhi/Nashik/Jaipur Rahul Gandhi dissents in CBI boss pick express news service @ New Delhi A high-powered committee chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi met here on Tuesday evening to decide on the appointment of the next Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation. The committee comprises of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi and Chief Justice of India Justice Surya Kant. However, Rahul Gandhi issued a dissent note during the deliberations, where he said, “Deliberate denial of information on 69 candidates makes a mockery of selection process of CBI director.” CBI Director Praveen Sood is scheduled to retire on May 24. The discussions centred on three senior IPS officers: Parag Jain, Shatrujeet Kapoor, Yogesh Gupta and GP Singh, but the final call is yet to be taken. THE NEET (UG) 2026 exam held on May 3 was cancelled on Tuesday amid allegations of paper leak, with the CBI registering an FIR after the government asked it to probe the “irregularities”. The National Testing Agency (NTA), which conducts the exam for admission to undergraduate courses in medical colleges, said fresh dates will be notified in the “next seven to 10 days” for the re-exam. The cancellation triggered nationwide outrage among medical aspirants, with students raising questions on NTA’s competence and demanding that the exam be conducted by AIIMS-Delhi. The Opposition attacked the Centre, alleging administrative failure, insensitivity toward students and “repeated lapses” in the conduct of national-level competitive examinations. The Rajasthan Special Operations Group, which probed the leak first, found that before the exam, a 150-page “guess paper” was circulated among students in Jaipur, Sikar, Jhunjhunu and Churu districts. The document contained 410 questions of which 135 appeared in the actual exam paper. As per Rajasthan Police, the match was not limited to the Similarities in sequence of options, language Rajasthan Police said the match with the guess paper was not limited to the questions alone. Investigators found similarities in sequence of options, language and punctuation marks BAMS graduate arrested in Nashik, probe on A 30-year-old BAMS graduate from Nashik was arrested Tuesday. Police said he bought the leaked paper for `10L and resold ten sets at `15L lakh each in Rajasthan and Maharashtra Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Vijay with AIADMK leaders C Ve Shanmugam, S P Velumani and others during a meeting in Chennai on Tuesday | PTI Trust vote today, all eyes on AIADMK E x p r e s s Ne w s Se r v i c e @ Chennai Most of the MLAs were appalled at the proposal of a DMK-AIADMK front, as for the past 55 years the AIADMK and DMK have been arch-enemies SFI members and supporters stage a protest against the cancellation of NEET 2026, after NTA cancelled the exam held on May 3, in New Delhi on Tuesday | Praveen negi questions alone. Investigators found similarities in sequence of options, language and punctuation marks. The SOG has so far detained 15 people, including Manish Yadav from Jaipur and Rakesh Mandawaria from Sikar. Manish Yadav is said to be the ‘mastermind’ of the paper leak operation in Rajasthan. Investigators also found that all 90 Biology questions and all 45 Chemistry questions in NEET exam matched the circulated material. Preliminary investigations suggest that a student from Churu, currently pursuing MBBS in Kerala, allegedly sent the question bank to a person in Sikar, who passed it to a PG accommodation operator in Sikar, who further shared it among students there. After the examination on May 3, a PG operator in Sikar filed a complaint with the Udyog Nagar police station and the NTA, alleging that many students had received the suspected question bank before the exam. Following this, police stepped in. C Ve Shanmugam, AIADMK leader AMMK’s lone MLA expelled NDA ally AMMK’s lone MLA, S Kamaraj, while felicitating the newly-elected Speaker J C D Prabhakar, announced his support for the TVK. After this, the party’s general secretary, T T V Dhinakaran, expelled Kamaraj The internal rift in the AIADMK on Tuesday became official with one group from the party announcing its support to the TVK government ahead of the trust vote in the Tamil Nadu Assembly on Wednesday while the o t h e r i s s e t t o vo t e a g a i n s t n e w dispensation. High drama unfolded at the Secretariant as the group led by former Ministers C Ve Shanmugam and S P Velumani said they would back Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay’s TVK in the House. On the other hand, the leader of the other group of the AIADMK’s legislature party, general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami, issued a whip to the MLAs to vote against the TVK government in the floor test. Shanmugam also urged Palaniswami to convene a general council meeting at the earliest to discuss the party’s continued electoral defeats and the corrective measures that need to be taken. Later speaking to reporters, the former minister accused Palaniswami of proposing to form a government led by him with the support of the party’s arch-rival, the DMK. “Most of the MLAs were appalled at this proposal, as for the past 55 years the AIADMK and DMK have been arch-enemies,” Shanmugam said. P7 The West Asia crisis has become a live balance-of-payments stress test for India, with direct implications for inflation, the current account deficit (CAD) and the rupee, Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran said on Tuesday “Man. aging the current account credibly, financing it sustainably, and preventing further currency depreciation are the central macroeconomic imperatives of FY27,” he said at the CII’s Annual Business Summit. CAD is expected to rise to 2.2% of GDP in FY27 from an estimated 0.8% in FY26. CAD is a situation when a country’s imports exceed exports. A higher CAD weakens the currency increas, es inflation risks and reduces economic stability. Rupee on Tuesday fell to another low of 95.63 against the dollar. Nageswaran said 87% of crude oil is imported, with a major share transiting through or near the Hormuz. Around 60% of LPG comes from the Gulf, while 38% of annual remittances originate from Gulf nations. “These are not the readings of a temporary shock that will self-correct when the situation stabilises.” Puri worry on losses “How long the oil companies will continue to take losses, frankly, worries me,” petroleum minister Hardeep Singh Puri said | P14