bengaluru l friday l july 17, 2026 l `9.00 l PAGES 42 l late city EDITION Avoid putting Indian sailors on vessels moving via Hormuz: DGMA The advisory from the Directorate General of Maritime Administration (DGMA) came after this week’s attacks on two vessels in the strait No deployment till further orders The DGMA directed ship owners, ship managers and recruitment and placement service companies to avoid deploying Indian sailors on vessels travelling through the waterway till further orders. “The Directorate considers it ​necessary to adopt enhanced precautionary measures to safeguard the interests of Indian seafarers...” the order said ■ 13 U.S. deepens attacks, areas near tehran hit ■ The DGMA also directed ship captains to maintain a “heightened level of security vigilance” when operating in the Gulf waters The US intensified its attacks on Iran early Thursday. Strikes also reached into areas around Tehran for the first time in this latest round of violence. Iran said it struck a US air base in Jordan Indian seafarers have died in the strait of hormuz since feb 28 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 Feet of God: No “Hand of God” this time. Instead it was the hallowed feet of Lionel Messi and the unbreakable team spirit that took them into the final. 0-1 down, Messi produced two assists with goals from E Fernandez and sub L Martinez Back-to-Back, all the way Spain vs Argentina The best offense. The best defense. A mouthwatering final is set. Lionel Messi and defending champion Argentina will take on Spain’s defensive juggernaut on Sunday in East Rutherford, New Jersey Defensive tactics cost England England had victory in their sights after Anthony Gordon scored the opening goal in the 55th minute. However, the Three Lions opted to stay deep than go for the kill and in the end they paid for it. The bounce back seemed inevitable with Albiceleste scoring twice in a span of seven minutes | P17 Man dies after head gets stuck in hotel lift E x p r ess Ne w s S e r v i ce Punjab boy tops NEET-UG, 11.21 L qualify It is crazy to be playing in back-to-back finals. Once again we managed to do the job when things were looking bad. We never stopped believing — Lionel Messi Punjab’s Aryan Gupta and Haryana’s Panshul Bansal score 715 out of 720 S L a l i t h a @ New Delhi A total of 11.21 lakh candidates qualified in the re-examination of the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (Undergraduate), or NEET-UG 2026, the results of which were declared late on Thursday night. As amny as 58% of them are women. Aryan Gupta (Punjab) with the highest score of 715 out of 720 was declared AIR 1, while Panshul Bansal of Haryana, with the same score was AIR 2. Both scored 99.9999 percentile, the NTA said. Kudale Shravani Krishna was the topper among women. She stood fifth in the overall NEET ranking. “The result has been declared in time so that the medical-admission and counselling calendar for candidates stays on track,” the NTA said in a statement. The top 17 who scored over 705 marks are from Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, UP, Maharashtra, Bihar, TN and Telangana. An official release said that 138 candidates scored above 690 marks out of 720. Of these, 99% are between 17 and 19 years of age and over 93% of the toppers have appeared for NEET-UG for the first time. They are drawn from 66 cities across the country . The NTA said that 19 candidates scored above 700 out of 720, 1,492 scored 650 and above, 10,160 scored 600 and above and 90,780 scored 500 and above. Uttar Pradesh tops the number of candidates qualified with over 1.7 lakh candidates. Out of overall qualifying students, 2.91 lakh belong to the general category; other backward classes – non-creamy layer 5.12 lakh; Scheduled Caste 1.59 lakh; Scheduled Tribes 63,716; gen-economically weaker sections 95,026; persons with benchmark disability 3,666; and persons with disabilities 303. Scorecards of all candidates are available on the official website, neet.nta.nic.in. Nearly 20 lakh candidates appeared in the retest held on June 21. Kharge seeks all-party meet on ‘revised’ delimitation bill @ Bengaluru P r eet h a N a i r @ New Delhi In a freak incident, a 22-yearold man died after his head struck the lintel of a hotel freight (service) lift in Jayanagar police station limits on Thursday. The deceased is Rajesh of Dharwad and residing in Yelachenahalli. According to police, Rajesh aspired to start his own hotel. To learn about hotel operations, he visited his friend’s Dakshina Uphaar Hotel at 27th Cross, 4th T Block, Jayanagar, to observe the day-to-day functioning of the establishment. Around 8.30am, food items were being transported from the ground floor to the first floor using the hotel’s freight lift. During the process, the lift door suddenly opened. As Rajesh attempted to step out, the lift moved, trapping his head which hit the lintel of the lift. He sustained grievous head injuries and died on the spot, police said. A case of negligence was registered against the hotel and building owners. Amid speculation that the Union government is working on multiple formulations to reintroduce the Constitution amendment bill that would involve delimitation, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Thursday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging him to convene an all-party meeting to discuss the revised proposals. In his letter, Kharge said he had written to the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Kiren Rijiju, in March and April requesting an all-party meeting to discuss the proposals on delimitation. “Unfortunately, these requests had not been accepted. The Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026, then failed to secure the required 2/3 majority in Lok Sabha on 17 April 2026 by a clear margin,” he said. “I have been reading in media reports that the Union Government now proposes to reintroduce a revised (131st I... request you to convene an all-party meeting to discuss the government’s revised proposals on delimitation, etc., and give us adequate time to study them in detail before they are introduced in Parliament Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge to the PM Amendment) Bill, 2026 during the forthcoming Monsoon Session of Parliament. I would, once again, request you to convene an all-party meeting to discuss the government’s revised proposals on delimitation, etc., and give us adequate time to study them in detail before they are introduced in Parliament,” he said. The Congress chief ’s letter comes even as the ruling NDA Raising LS strength The govt wants to increase LS seats to a maximum of 850 from the current 543 to “operationalise” the women’s quota law before the 2029 polls following delimitation based on the last published 2011 Census. Currently, the NDA needs 360 votes to achieve the magic figure appears to be inching towards a two-thirds majority in the Lok Sabha to pass constitutional amendment bills. On Wednesday, INDIA bloc partner NCP (SP) leader Supriya Sule hinted that her party would consider supporting the proposed delimitation bill provided the Centre gives an assurance that the number of Lok Sabha and Assembly seats in every state will be increased uniformly by 50%. While the government failed to muster the required twothirds majority to clear the bill on April 17, sources said that there is a proposal to increase the number of Lok Sabha seats for all states by 50% to address the concerns of the South. Southern states feel that a population-based delimitation exercise would shrink their political power in the Lok Sabha. drought looms C’durga farmers forced to sell bulls but find no buyers G S u b a s h C h a n d r a @ Chitradurga Sea of humanity at Rath Yatra A sea of devotees participating in the annual Rath Yatra festival in the temple town of Odisha’s Puri on Thursday. The yatra features the ceremonial procession of the sibling deities — Lord Balabhadra, Devi Subhadra and Lord Jagannath. None of the three chariots reached the Shree Gundicha Temple. Devotees will get another opportunity to pull the chariots on Friday to take them to their destination. One person died and many others fell ill in a crowd surge during the yatra | PTI | P7 K’taka’s Sandur cave oldest high altitude habitat in India, confirms carbon dating cheology Science Centre of IIT @Sandur (Ballari) Gandhi Nagar, renowned archeologist Ravi Korisettar told Archaeologists are claim- The New Indian Express. ing that carbon dating The cave site, Rashhas placed one of the eed Padi, named after caves in Sandur fora local ascetic, was ests here as the oldest brought to the notice cave habitat in a forest of the public in 2024 ecosystem at 850 meby a team of archaeotres above sea level in logical enthusiasts led the country, dating by Korisettar and enback to the Stone Age. vironmentalist Samad The carbon dating Kottur as well as assowas conducted on a Stone implements ciates of the Ballari microlith, surface ma- found at the cave site Heritage Trust and terial of a fragmenRobert Bruce Foote tary human bone recovered Sangankal Archaeological Mufrom the cave floor, at Physical seum in Ballari. Research Laboratory Ahmeda, Unlike many other caves, the bad, in collaboration with Ar- caves in Sandur forests were Subhash Chandra NS not formed of limestones but because of the tectonic uplift of the rocks, said Korisettar. “We had assumed that the tools found here might be as old as 10,000 years. Radiocarbon dating has now confirmed that this human habitat is 10,000 years old,” he said. These caves are in located dense forest and exploring them is a difficult task. The team had visited various cave sites in the Sandur forests including Rasheed Padi, Devadhari Padi, Rama Padi, Bhairava Teertha Padi, near Taranagar; Bhima teertha, Harishankar teertha, near Kumaraswamy temple; Navilu teertha, and Kappara Guppara Swamy Padi. COntinued on: P7 With drought conditions worsening across Central Karnataka, Chitradurga farmers, who had purchased bulls to till their land in anticipation of a good monsoon, are now trying to sell them at steep losses, fearing an acute shortage of water and fodder. Buying and selling bulls is a routine feature of the agricultural season in the region. Expecting normal rainfall, many farmers bought ‘Hori’ (draught) bulls, particularly the Amruthmahal breed, at the Chitradurga cattle market during May and the first fortnight of June. However, the deficient monsoon has left them without the means to sustain the animals. As a result, many are attempting to sell their bulls at prices well below their purchase cost. But with few buyers in the market, most are returning to their villages with the unsold livestock. COntinued on: P7 express read Woman stabbed to death by jilted lover at Bantwal bus stand Mangaluru: A 21-year-old woman was murdered by a jilted lover in broad daylight at BC Road bus stand in Bantwal on Thursday. The victim is identified as Lavanya of Uligrama village in Bantwal taluk while the accused, Chethan (22), is a resident of Odilnala in Belthangady taluk. Police said Lavanya, who worked in a hospital in Kalladkda, was returning home when Chethan attacked her. The video of the incident has gone viral. Police said Chethan is a distant relative of Lavanya and was in love with her. Police have launched a manhunt for the accused. W ITH THI S I S S U E CITY’S BEST WEEKEND GUIDE 42 PAGES, INCLUDING 24 OF INDULGE (TABLOID) The results were declared within time through re-engineering of the process, with stages designed to run in parallel rather than in sequence, and with the de-linking of the OMR sheet challenge from answer key release — NTA Other toppers Tamil Nadu’s Venkatapathi Velayutham (AIR 12); Telangana’s Veeriahgari Sahyu (AIR 13); Vaishnavi Das of Karnataka (20th rank); AP’s Namala Prerana (36th rank). Odisha’s Satwik Patnaik (40th rank); Kerala’s Neeraj B (89th rank) SC QUERY Why introduce 3rd language in Class 9? S U C HI T RA K A LYAN M O HAN T Y @ New Delhi THE Supreme Court on Thursday expressed serious concern over the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE)’s decision to introduce a third language in Class 9, observing that it would add to students’ stress with the Board examinations just a year away . “Ninth standard is stressful. Why do you introduce a new language in 9th?” Justice B V Nagarathna asked. She suggested that the third language should ideally be introduced from Class 6 to give students more time to adapt. The bench, also comprising Justice R Mahadevan, made the remarks during the hearing of an appeal by the Tamil Nadu government against a Madras High Court order directing the state to facilitate the establishment of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas in every district. During the hearing, the topic of CBSE schools briefly came up. In response to a query by Justice Nagarathna, a counsel informed the court that thirdlanguage is compulsory in CBSE schools only from the 9th standard. To this, Justice B V Nagarathna said it could be stressful for the students to have to start learning a new language at the higher secondary level. The judge said it can be introduced in middle school instead. Drawing from her own experience, Justice Nagarathna said students in her school were introduced to multiple languages during middle school so that they were better prepared before appearing for their secondary school examinations.