HYDERABAD l sunday l may 31, 2026 l `12.00 l PAGES 24 l late city EDITION GT’s Shubman and RCB’s Rajat have a chance to etch history With two young Indian captains going up against each other in the Indian Premier League final in Ahmedabad on Sunday, a look… Gill aims to make statement as captain 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 DKS to take oath on Wednesday CM dares BRS on Keep swearing-in low key, says Rahul; new cabinet to be a mix of old and new faces D e v a r a j B H i r e h a l l i @ Bengaluru DEPUTY Chief Minister DK 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 new CLP leader. Senior leader Dr G Parameshwara seconded the proposal and all 135 Congress Humbled to be unanimously elected as the Leader of the Congress Legislature Party ... We remain committed to serving the people — D K Shivakumar J Encomiums for Sidda at CLP meet Karnataka Congress leader D K Shivakumar with Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot and outgoing CM Siddaramaiah in Bengaluru on Saturday | special arrangement 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 Raj 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 Outgoing chief of navy charts the next frontier 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 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. Phogat fails to qualify for Asian Games|P11 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 platforms to quantum-secure networks and sovereign design capability outgoing , Navy chief Admiral Dinesh Kumar Tripathi told TNIE. He demits office on Sunday . He said the Navy is currently steering about 140 major R&D projects across 25 DRDO labs. “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-generation conventional submarines equipped with Air Independent Propulsion (AIP) under Project75(I). Also, a contract for 31 MQ9B Sky/Sea Guardian high-altitude long-endurance remotely FinMin: India faces headwinds from Wasia, weak monsoon outlook D i pa k M o n d a l @ New Delhi 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 piloted aircraft has been placed, with 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. ,” Q&A: P7 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 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 Food inflation Review (MER) for May 2026. The ministry said the near- risks alive and kicking term outlook for the economy is one of cautious resilience, with The report said domestic fundamentals remain- recent increase in petrol and ing broadly intact. However, it cautioned that diesel prices the global environment has be- could trigger direct and indirect come materially more challenginflationary ing since the outbreak of the effects, while West Asia conflict, with elevat- any further rise ed crude oil prices, tighter fi- in global energy nancial conditions and slowing prices could erode growth across major economies the inflation creating headwinds that India cushion. cannot fully escape. “The near-term outlook for the Indian economy is one of cautious resilience,” the report said, warning that forecasts of a below-normal monsoon and a likely moderation in economic activity could weigh on consumption demand in the months ahead. It noted that the conflict has disrupted energy markets, trade routes and supply chains, reviving inflationary pressures globally Brent crude aver. aged $120.4 per barrel in April before easing to $108.3 in May while supply disruptions intensified. , Consumer price inflation rose marginally to 3.48% in April, remaining below the RBI’s medium-term target of 4%. In contrast, wholesale price inflation accelerated to 8.3%, a 42-month high, driven by elevated energy prices, rupee depreciation and favourable base effects. Iran conflict’s positive side: Recycled plastic J i t e n d r a C h o u b e y @ New Delhi 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 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 preconflict monthly sourcing of about 5,000 tonnes of r-PET, 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 180,000 tonnes annually .” Significantly the cost of manufac, turing virgin PET has shot up from `90/kg to `135/kg, while that of food packaging-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, which mandate the inclusion of at least 40% r-PET in food packaging. However, the usage of r-PET at present in food packaging is only about 20%. free power, meters Manda Ravinder Reddy @ Hyderabad Asserting that his government had no plans either to scrap free power supply to farmers or install smart meters on agricultural pump sets, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on Saturday challenged the BRS leadership to stake its political future on the issue. He dared the BRS to announce that it would not contest the next elections if the Congress government neither withdrew free power nor installed meters on farm pump sets. He said the Congress, too, would not contest the elections if it went back on free power or introduced meters. During an informal interaction with reporters at the MCRHRD, the chief minister stated that the Congress holds the “patent to the free power scheme”. He said the proposed Rythu Discom was aimed at bringing transparency to power distribution. ‘Lift paddy by June 15...’ The chief minister warned that if the Centre failed to procure paddy by June 15 and other crops, including maize purchased by the state government, the produce would be dumped in front of the residences of BJP and BRS leaders. He also demanded that the Centre procure all crops for which it announces MSP . Revanth alleged that the previous BRS government had initiated the installation of smart meters. He said the then government signed an agreement with the Centre in 2017 and installed 29,632 smart meters during 2017-18. Rejecting claims that the Centre had imposed any condition on the state regarding smart meters, he accused for mer chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao of spreading misinformation for political gain. Revanth also blamed the previous BRS regime for the poor financial health of Telangana’s power utilities. He said that at the time of Telangana’s formation, TGNPDCL and TGSPDCL ranked among the better-performing Discoms in the country, but slipped to near the bottom during the BRS regime due to financial indiscipline, mounting debt, non-collection of bills, pending government dues and organisational lapses. According to him, the two utilities accumulated losses of around `70,000 crore.  continued on P4 WITH THIS ISSUE Testing Times PLUS 12 P AGES inside ACB NABS CYBERCRIME INSPECTOR WITH `2 lAKH BRIBE I P5