Global Nuclear Weapons Inventory Nine nuclear-armed countries together possess 12,187 warheads, as per SIPRI Yearbook 2026. India has 190 warheads, up from 180 last year UK 225 US 5,042 J a v a r i a R a n a @ New Delhi India may have deployed 12 nuclear warheads with operational forces, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said in its latest report released on Monday . It is unusual for India to deploy nuclear warheads during peacetime. Last year’s report counted none. “It has long been assumed that India stores its nuclear warheads separate from deployed launchers during peacetime,” SPIRI noted in its 2026 Yearbook. The report noted that India may have started deploying a small number of nuclear warheads aboard a ballistic missile submarine (SSBN) conducting deterrence patrols, suggesting the posture is gradually shifting towards a more operational sea-based deterrent. India’s growing use of canisterised missiles and sea-based deterrence patrols suggests it “could be shifting in the direction of mating some of its warheads with their launchers in peacetime”, the report noted. SIPRI cautioned that the finding comes with “considerable uncertainty”. India’s total nuclear stockpile is estimated at 190 war- North Korea 60 Pakistan India 170 190 kottayam l tuesday l june 09, 2026 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l city EDITION India may be mating N-warheads & launchers, says SIPRI Russia 5,420 France 370 Israel 90 heads as of January 2026, up from 180 a year earlier. With 1,796 warheads mated to launchers, Russia leads the deployment chart. China has de- China 620 ployed 24 of its 620 warheads, while Pakistan has deployed none of its 170 warheads. The report also noted that India is expected to field its fourth nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine next year. The new submarine and the recently commissioned INS Aridhaman are significantly larger than their predecessors and can carry twice as many missile tubes, it noted. India’s planned S5-class programme could eventually see the country operating between six and eight SSBNs simultaneously, SIPRI noted in the report. 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 Now, Trinamool Oppn to write to CJI on SIR, disintegrates in ‘poll theft’, makes unity pitch LS with new bloc p r ee t h a n a i r @ New Delhi 20 of its 28 MPs, led by Kakoli Ghosh, seek separate group, pledge support to NDA p r ee t h a n a i r @ New Delhi THE rebellion in Trinamool Congress (TMC) reached Parliament on Monday with a dissident camp led by Lok Sabha MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar claiming that at least 20 of its 28 Lok Sabha members have decided to form a separate bloc and support the BJP-led NDA. Incidentally, the latest blow to the TMC came on a day when its chief Mamata Banerjee and party national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee were attending the INDIA bloc meet in Delhi. The twin revolts in the assembly and Parliament plunged the party into its gravest crisis since its inception in 1998, with 58 of the TMC’s 80 MLAs already defying the party high command and backed expelled MLA Ritabrata Banerjee as Leader of the Opposition. Dastidar told reporters they had decided to write to Speaker Om Birla to declare their support for NDA. The decision came after a string of meetings at Union minister Bhupender Yadav’s home, along with Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari. Sources said at least 13 of the rebel MPs attended the meetings at Yadav’s residence and one at another rebel MP Satabdi Roy’s home. The , rebels also claimed the support of six more MPs. Speculation is rife that Yusuf Pathan will also shift to the rebel camp. A photograph from the meeting circulating online showed Rajya Sabha MP Sukhendu Shekhar Ray along with MPs Abu , Taher, Asit Mal, Arup Chakraborty, Kalipada Soren, Jagadish Basunia, Prasun Banerjee, Sharmila Sarkar, and Satabdi Roy. Ray resigned from the Rajya Sabha and from the party’s primary membership on Monday and issued a statement accusing the TMC of a “15-year anarchical rule”. A TMC leader said the party had communicated its decision to remove Dastidar as chief whip and appoint Kalyan Banerjee to the Lok Sabha Secretariat through an official letter dated May 20, signed by TMC chief Mamata Banerjee. Nearly 20 TMC MPs, including me, have decided to support the NDA. We have decided to write to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and formally support the NDA Kakoli Ghosh, rebel MP New group has numbers TMC currently has 28 Lok Sabha MPs, with one vacancy. The support of 20 MPs will comfortably cross the twothirds threshold (19) needed for protection under the anti-defection law, making it difficult for the leadership to seek disqualification of the dissidents Moitra lashes out at rebels Party MP Mahua Moitra launched a blistering attack on the rebels, accusing them of betraying the mandate on which they were elected. “MPs won in 2024 on TMC ticket. Mandate was NOT for NDA,” she said in her post on X Indian army’s ‘two-and-a-half front challenge’ Army Chief Gen Dwivedi lists challenges before India in interview with Javaria Rana, adding: “The future warrior will be a human amplified by tech, not replaced by it” | P7 CALLING for greater unity against the BJP the Opposition , INDIA bloc members on Monday unanimously decided to demand Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s immediate resignation over the NEET-CBSE paper leak row and write to the Chief Justice on alleged anomalies in the SIR exercise and allegations of ‘vote theft’. Leaders of 22 Opposition parties and Independent MP Kapil Sibal were part of the deliberations that lasted for more than 150 minutes at the Constitution Club in New Delhi. The DMK, a key INDIA bloc constituent, was conspicuous by its absence, while AAP had distanced itself from it. The deliberations began with a call to forge unity and rework the Opposition strategy to take on the BJP while ironing out the , differences within after the drubbing of the Trinamool Congress and DMK in the recent Assembly polls in West Bengal and Lok Sabha LoP Rahul Gandhi, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi, TMC chief Mamata Banerjee and others during the INDIA bloc meet | Sayantan Ghosh Tamil Nadu. Addressing a press conference after the meeting, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge said, “A letter will be sent to the CJI soon on the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, ‘vote loot’, and ‘stealing of elections’. It was also agreed to demand the immediate resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan,” he said. Sources said Rahul Gandhi stressed unity and said one must bring everyone together with love and affection. Akhilesh Ya- Govt weighs penalty on HAL over Tejas delays J a v a r i a R a n a @ New Delhi The defence ministry is considering imposing penalties on state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) over the continued delay in delivering the Tejas Mk1A fighter jet to the Indian Air Force (IAF), sources said. The programme is already more than two years behind its original deadline. The programme review, itself delayed by a month owing to HAL’s lack of progress, was finally held on Monday. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh chaired the meeting, which was also attended by Chief of Defence Staff General N S Raja Subramani, Air Chief Marshal A P Singh, Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh, HAL Chairman and Managing Director Ravi Kota and other senior officials. Sources in the defence establishment told this newspaper that the financial penalty being considered against HAL is not punitive in the extraordinary sense, but stems from a standard contractual clause that can be invoked in cases of delayed delivery . Incidentally HAL has itself used the same provi, sion against American engine maker GE Aerospace for delays in supplying F404 engines, a critical bottleneck in the programme. GE has delivered far fewer engines than scheduled, with only six currently available with HAL. Kanji Going global Kerala’s humble rice gruel on the boil M a n o j V i s w a n at h a n @ Kochi It may look bland, but it blends tradition and nourishment in a bowl—a versatile mix that is ready to blow up. The kanji, Kerala’s humble rice gruel, is all set to go international and find a place on the shelves of stores in bustling cities such as Toronto and Vancouver. Malabar Kaipad Farmer Producer Company Ltd (MKFPCL), a farmers’ collective in Kannur, has received an order to export the famous Kaipad kanji to Canada. The company will be dispatching 240 packets of ready-to-serve Kaipad kanji, packed using Japanese retort technology, to Canada by the end of this month. Retort is a method of thermal processing which preserves precooked foods in pouches, by sealing and heating them to 120°C under high pressure in a retort machine. This eliminates microorganisms and contaminants, extending the shelf life of the product for up to two years. 300g packets with sides The Kaipad kanji, prepared using rice bran, is rich in nutrients. The collective is planning to export the product in 300g packets, along with traditional side dishes such as boiled cowpea and banana blossom stir-fry with grated coconut. Kaipad is an organic rice variety cultivated in the saline coastal tracts of Kozhikode, Kannur and Kasaragod. The most popular traditional varieties cultivated in these regions are Kuthiru and Orkayama. Improved varieties such as Ezhome-1 and Ezhome-2 are also grown here. The Kaipad rice was granted the Geographical Indication (GI) tag in 2014. “The rice is cultivated without using chemical fertilisers. We had ex- ported Kaipad rice, puttu podi, pathiri podi (rice flour) and aval (rice flakes) to the UAE in 2022 and 2024. We have been able to establish the brand name by ensuring quality Now, we have re. ceived an order from Canada to ship 240 packets of ready-to-serve kanji. We hope to get a regular order from Canada,” the collective’s CEO Nidhina Das said. Technical support provided by the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) and Kerala Agricultural University helped MKFPCL obtain the GI tag for Kaipad rice and attract exporters. APEDA provides financial aid to develop export infrastructure, improve product quality and expand markets, and it helped the collective bag the Canada order by hooking it up to a Kerala-based export agency . dav who spoke about “vote chori” , and said the Bengal polls were “robbed”, appealed to the Congress to show a big heart and back strong regional parties. The meeting was attended by Shiv Sena-UBT’s Uddhav Thackeray and JMM’s Hemant , Soren joined virtually. Others include Sonia Gandhi, Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee, Akhilesh from SP Tejashwi , Yadav from the RJD, Omar Abdullah from NC, and Mehbooba Mufti from the PDP along with , Left leaders. Cost: L712 crore annually Free KSRTC rides for women from June 15 The free ride scheme, a key election promise under the The V D Satheesan-led UDF Congress-led UDF’s ‘Indira government will roll out its Guarantees’, is exepected to highly-anticipated free bus cause substantial losses to the travel scheme for women on state-run carrier. June 15, almost a month after it As per estimates, limiting took charge, but with a couple the free ride to ordinary buses of riders. alone will cost a significant First, the free ride will ini- `712 crore annually. This will tially be limited to increase to `1,300 KSRTC’s ordinary Ambitious plan crore if the scheme bus services. Second, is extended to all 10-12 lakh women the roll-out will be on services. depend on KSRTC a trial basis for 100 Meanwhile, buses daily. days. Satheesan has diThe decision, fi- Free rides in ordinary rected officials to nalised in a high-lev- buses will cost govt frame provisions in I712 cr a year. This el meeting between a way that transgenS a t h e e s a n a n d will rise to I1,300 cr der individuals also Transport Minister if this is extended to benefit from the all services. C P John, lays emproject. phasis on managing The finance secrethe immediate financial impli- tary has been tasked with precations as well as assessing the paring a report and finding demand before deciding on ex- ways to compensate KSRTC for panding free rides to fast and the revenue loss. super-fast services. Satheesan has also directed An official announcement is officials to find revenue-generexpected following the cabinet ating measures using KSRTC’s ● More on P4 meeting on Wednesday . properties. E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @T’Puram