kannur l sunday l may 31, 2026 l `12.00 l PAGES 24 l city EDITION GT’s Shubman and RCB’s Rajat have a chance to etch history Gill aims to make statement as captain With two young Indian captains going up against each other in the Indian Premier League final in Ahmedabad on Sunday, a look… Patidar’s chance to enter exclusive list Having been dropped from the Indian T20I team, Shubman Gill has upped his intent and shown why he can be a successful batter and captain in this format. Leading from the front for the Gujarat Titans, the 26-year-old will be keen to dismantle defending champs Royal Challengers Bengaluru and lift the trophy at his IPL home ground. ■ ■ When Rajat Patidar was appointed captain of RCB, the batter from Madhya Pradesh surprised everyone with his captaincy, breaking the franchise’s 18-year IPL title drought, in Ahmedabad last year. Come Sunday, he has a chance to make history by winning back-toback titles, joining the likes of MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma | P11 TWO CSK and MI are the two other teams to win consecutive titles 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 40% crowdfunding plan for high-speed rail going the distance E x p r e s s N e w s S e r v i c e @Kochi Karnataka Congress leader D K Shivakumar with Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot and outgoing CM Siddaramaiah in Bengaluru on Saturday | special arrangement DKS to take oath on Wednesday Keep swearing-in low key, says Rahul; new cabinet to be a mix of old and new faces WITH THIS ISSUE Testing Times PLUS 12 P AGES India resilient despite global uncertainties: Fin Ministry D i pa k M o n d a l @ New Delhi INDIA’S economy remains resilient despite escalating global uncertainties triggered by the conflict in West Asia, but rising energy prices, a weakening rupee, mounting inflationary pressures and the prospect of a below-normal monsoon pose significant risks to growth and price stability, the Finance Ministry said in its Monthly Economic Review (MER) for May 2026. It said the near-term outlook for the economy is one of cautious resilience, with domestic fundamentals remaining broadly intact. Manufacturing and services activity continues to expand, labour market remains stable and foreign exchange reserves provide a substantial buf fer against exter nal shocks. However, it said the global environment has become materially more challenging since the outbreak of the West Asia conflict, with elevated crude oil prices, tighter financial conditions and slowing growth across major economies creating headwinds that India cannot fully escape. “The near-term outlook for the economy is one of cautious resilience,” the report said, while warning that forecasts of a below-normal monsoon and likely moderation in economic activity could weigh on consumption demand ahead. D e v a r a j B H i r e h a l l i @Bengaluru DEPUTY Chief Minister D K Shivakumar was on Saturday elected Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader and will be sworn in as Karnataka’s 18th Chief Minister at 4.05 pm on Wednesday The ceremony will be held at the . Glass House, Lok Bhavan, Bengaluru, with Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot administering the oath of office. Shivakumar fixed the auspicious date and time after consulting personal astrologers. Around 20 MLAs are expected to be sworn in as Cabinet ministers alongside him, though names are yet to be officially confirmed. At the CLP meeting, outgoing Chief Minister Siddaramaiah proposed Shivakumar’s name as the new CLP leader. Senior leader Dr G Parameshwara seconded the proposal and all 135 Congress MLAs, two associate members, and one Raita Sangha MLA approved it unanimously The swearing. in was initially planned on the grand steps of Vidhana Soudha but was shifted to the more modest Lok Bhavan on the advice of Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, who preferred a low-profile event. Following the CLP meeting, Shivakumar, accompanied by Siddaramaiah and senior legislators, called on the governor at Lok Bhavan, staking claim to form the government. The Governor issued formal permission for the swearing-in. Party general secretary (Organisation) K C Venugopal said, “Under the leadership of Shivakumar, the Congress will return to power again with the support of Siddaramaiah in the 2028 assembly election in Karnataka.” According to sources, there are indications that the new cabinet will have a mix of both old and new members. Humbled to be unanimously elected as the Leader of the Congress Legislature Party ... We remain committed to serving the people D K Shivakumar Encomiums for Siddu at CLP meet At the CLP meeting, newly elected leader Shivakumar moved a resolution praising the service rendered by Siddaramaiah during his tenure as chief minister, and sought the support of legislators. Five MLAs — Raju Kage, Rahim Khan, GT Patil, P Koliwad and H V Venkatesh — were not at the meeting The Kerala High-Speed Railway project between Thiruvananthapuram and Kannur, proposed by ‘Metro Man’ E Sreedharan, will carry a price tag of `60,000 crore, of which `24,000 crore (40%) will be mobilised via crowdfunding and the remainder funded jointly by the Centre and the state. The KHSR, submitted to Chief Minister V D Satheesan, envisages a 473-km high-speed rail corridor connecting the two districts in three-and-ahalf hours. Its cost is less than half the financial implications projected for the scrapped SilverLine, which a NITI Aayog assessment had estimated could end up placing a burden of around `1.26 lakh crore on Kerala. The report also pitches the The alignment would connect the T’Puram, Kochi and Kozhikode airports directly, while Kannur Malappuram airport would be linked through a dedicated road corridor. Kannur C60,000 cr 473.2 km Total project cost B24,000 cr Crowdfunding Route length Ernakulam B36,000 cr Centre-State equity B17,600 cr Kerala’s share (49%) Stations corridor as the world’s first ‘Green Rail Corridor’, with its entire energy requirement proposed to be met through a captive solar power system. Surplus power generated would be The ongoing Iran conflict has had an unexpected positive spinoff for the environment. The beneficiary: India’s plastic recycling industry . Before the conflict began, virgin polyethylene terephthalate (PET) was the go-to packaging product for India Inc. This was despite the fact that the government had mandated adding 40% of recycled PET or r-PET to their procurement. Two important ingredients J a v a r i a R a n a @ New Delhi The Indian Navy’s next frontier of self-reliance lies not in shipbuilding, but in mastering critical technologies, from AIenabled combat systems and autonomous platfor ms to quantum-secure networks and sovereign design capability, outgoing Navy chief Admiral Dinesh Kumar Tripathi told this newspaper in one of his final interviews before demitting office on Sunday . He said the Navy is currently steering about 140 major R&D projects across 25 Defence Research and Development Organisation laboratories. “The next frontier of indigenisation lies in critical technologies and sovereign design capability The Indian Navy’s . modernisation story is increasingly being written in Indian shipyards and Indian laboratories,” he said. On the subsurface domain, he said the Navy is in the final stages of procuring six next- I leave with immense confidence that the Indian Navy is stronger, more capable, more indigenous, more networked, and better prepared than ever before Admiral Dinesh Kumar Tripathi generation conventional submarines equipped with Air Independent Propulsion (AIP) under Project-75(I). Also, a contract for 31 MQ-9B Sky/Sea Guardian high-altitude longendurance remotely piloted aircraft has been placed, with A day of toil for Vinesh New Delhi: Vinesh Phogat’s return to competitive wrestling ended in heartbreak on Saturday following a 4-6 loss against Meenakshi Goyat in the 53kg semifinals of the Asian Games selection trials. She won her first bout against Jyoti by 7-1 and her second against Nishu, the U23 2025 World Championships bronze medallist, by 7-6, before losing to Goyat. P11 Trawling ban from June 9 Abhishek roughed up Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee wears a helmet after stones, shoes and eggs were hurled at him during a visit to Sonarpur in South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal on Saturday to meet victims of post-poll violence | PTI | p8 Call for strong deterrent If a company does not meet its recycled plastic usage target, it faces either no penalty or a mere J2.90/kg penalty. In contrast, penalties in the European Union exceed J50/kg, serving as a strong deterrent, said Deepak Rungta, an r-PET manufacturer 180,000 tonnes annually .” Significantly, the cost of manufacturing virgin PET has shot up from `90/kg to `135/kg, while that of food packaging- Average distance between stations: 21.5 km Estimated completion period: 5 years Total carrying capacity 54,400 passengers/day supplied to KSEB, it says. A major attraction is the project’s financing structure. Of the total cost, `36,000 crore will be contributed as equity by the Union and the state govern- Outgoing chief of navy charts the next frontier EXPRESS READ for virgin PET were imported from countries like the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Bahrain. With the conflict disrupted that critical supply chain, it gave the recycled plastic industry a huge breakthrough. From a pre-conflict monthly sourcing of about 5,000 tonnes of rPET, orders has now surged to around 15,000 tonnes a month. Goutham Jain, Director General of the Association of PET Recyclers (APR) Bharat, said, “If the war crisis persists, production capacity could reach Travel time T’puram T’Puram: The 52-day annual trawling ban, aimed at protecting marine resources and facilitating sustainable fishing, will be enforced in Kerala from June 9 till midnight of July 31, the fisheries department said. Surface-level fishing activities by traditional fishermen will be allowed. Iran conflict’s positive side: India Inc goes for recycled plastic J i t e n d r a C h o u b e y @ New Delhi 3 hr 30 min 23 Maximum speed: 180 kmph grade r-PET climbed from `95/ kg to `115/kg. The Food Safety Standards Authority has approved r-PET production capacity of around 300,000 tonnes, which represents 40% of the total PET consumption in the country This approval is based . on new regulations from the environment ministry, which mandates the inclusion of at least 40% r-PET in food packaging. However, the usage of rPET at present in food packaging is only about 20%. Experts say the regulations are slanted towards virgin plastic consumers as they allow industries to defer their recycling targets without immediate penalties or minimal penalties. deliveries beginning in 2029. “The undersea domain remains central to maritime deterrence. It is not just about having submarines but about having underwater domain awareness and the ability to respond faster than any potential adversary,” he said. On carrier aviation, Tripathi identified the Twin Engine Deck Based Fighter as the cornerstone of India’s long-term indigenous carrier air power roadmap. “The future must be shaped by an indigenous carrier-borne fighter ecosystem to secure our national maritime interests, anytime, anywhere, anyhow,” he said. The strategic necessity of Carrier Battle Groups was aptly demonstrated during Operation Sindoor, when their deployment forced the adversary’s navy to remain confined to ports and the Makran coast, he said. Vice Admiral Krishna Swaminathan will succeed Tripathy as the next Navy chief.  Q&A: P7 ments on a 51:49 ratio, leaving Kerala’s share at around `17,600 crore. The remaining `24,000 crore is proposed to be mobilised through crowdfunding, significantly reducing the need for large-scale debt financing. Sources close to Sreedharan said the crowdfunding component could be implemented through the issuance of taxfree bonds, a model that proved successful during the construction of the Konkan Railway. However, the interim report only refers to crowdfunding and does not specify the mechanism. The proposal also differs susbtantially from SilverLine in its design. It envisages a double-line railway corridor running largely on elevated viaducts, with only a shor t underground stretch in Thiru● More on P4 vananthapuram.  YC attack case Murder attempt charge against suspended cops EXP R ESS NEWS SE R VI C E @Alappuzha The special investigation team (SIT) probing the alleged attack on Youth Congress workers during the Nava Kerala Sadas in Alappuzha in December 2023, has added attempt to murder charges against the five suspended cops, who include two security officers of then CM Pinarayi Vijayan. The SIT added Section 109 of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita against Pinarayi’s gunman Anil Kumar, security officer S Sandeep, and police officers Shaiju, Arun and Vipin in its report placed before the Judicial Magistrate Court, Alappuzha on Saturday The accused security . officials, who were expected to surrender in court on Saturday , have gone into hiding following the latest development. They were suspended based on an earlier SIT report submitted before the state police chief recommending action. ‘Dignity in life & in death’: Report makes the case for virtual autopsy in Kerala P R AMDAS @Kochi “Doctor, is it possible to avoid performing a postmortem on my child?” It was a heart-wrenching question that a forensic surgeon in Kerala encountered recently when an eight-year-old boy, who had drowned in a swimming pool during a family outing, was brought for postmortem examination. For grieving families, the anguish is often compounded by the thought of a surgical blade cutting into the body of a loved one, the distress of seeing it stitched up after examination, or religious beliefs surrounding death and dignity . To address such concerns, forensic experts in Kerala have proposed a modern method —‘virtual autopsy’ (VA) or ‘virtopsy’. A detailed project report for establishing a VA centre in the public sector is pending with the state government. According to Dr A K Unmesh, head of forensic medicine department at Kottayam Medical College Hospital (MCH) and police surgeon, who prepared the report, the technique makes it possible to determine the cause of death without cutting open the body While VA may not be . applicable in all cases, it could significantly reduce the need No cuts and stitches Challenges to current system Religious & cultural objections to invasive autopsies Backlog of cases due to shortage of forensic manpower Difficulty in presenting autopsy findings effectively in court Limited long-term preservation of forensic evidence, as traditional autopsy findings degrade over time Why virtual autopsy in Kerala? Improves medico-legal services Enhances judicial transparency Reduces distress among families Provides permanent digital evidence for appeals and case reviews for conventional open-body autopsies, he said. The report states that every human being deserves dignity in life and after death. Traditional autopsies, involving large incisions and extensive dissection, are often distressing for grieving families and add to their emotional trauma. VA has emerged as a valuable alternative, supporting both forensic experts and families by reducing the need for invasive ● More on P4 procedures.