kannur l tuesday l july 21, 2026 l `10.00 l PAGES 12 l city EDITION Core sector output growth at five-month high of 5% in junE Core sector output grew 5% year-on-year in June, driven by robust growth in iron ore, power and cement production, official data showed iron ore sector reports 44% growth 9 sectors now in index of Core Industries Among the nine sectors, iron ore recorded the sharpest growth of 43.9% in June, followed by electricity and cement at 9.8% each. Steel output rose 4.6%, while coal production increased 1.4%. On the other hand, natural gas (-7.4%), refinery products (-4.7%), crude oil (-4.2%) and fertilisers (-3.3%) contracted during the month, the data showed ■ ■ The June data marks the first release of the revised Index of Core Industries with the base year updated to 2022-23 Also, under the revised series, iron ore has been included as a separate core industry owing to its extensive use in industrial production, increasing the number of core sectors to nine | P10 3.2% was the year-on-year core sector growth in May 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 Tripura DGP found hanging at police HQ P r a s a n ta M a z u m d a r @ Guwahati Tripura Director General of Police (DGP) Anurag Dhankar was found hanging in the washroom of his official chamber at the Police Headquarters in Agartala on Monday and was declared , dead minutes later at a hospital in the city . “I am deeply shocked and saddened by the tragic demise of Anurag, IPS, Director General of Police, Tripura, who was found hanging in the washroom of his official chamber today Tripura ,” Chief Minister Manik Saha said. Saha said Dhankar was immediately rushed to Agartala Government Medical College & Govind Ballabh Pant Hospital, where doctors declared him brought dead. Dr Pradip Bhowmik, Head of the Department of Medicine at the hospital, told media that the DGP was brought around 12 pm. “We could not detect a pulse or blood pressure. We immediately began administering CPR. A team of doctors did everything possible, but as he could not be revived, we declared him dead at 12.48 pm,” Bhowmik said. “The cause of death will be known after postmortem,” he said. Opposition parties demanded an impartial probe into the circumstances leading to the death. CPM leader and the Leader of Opposition in Tripura Assembly, Jitendra Chaudhury said an , officer like Dhankar, who had faced many challenges in his career and successfully navigated them, would not take his own life without major reasons. State BJP president Abhishek Debroy assured that there will be a magisterial-level probe into the indcident. Govt’s emissary J P Nadda meets CJP leaders as protest march to Parliament turns violent; several injured Centre blinks as CJP protest turns violent n i t i n r a w at @ New Delhi Security personnel use batons and tear gas on agitators during a protest march at Sansad Marg in New Delhi| PTI Union Minister J P Nadda meets CJP’s Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka | Express Oppn stalls Parl over 1 NEET-UG paper leak Delhi High Court sought a comprehensive medical report from Safdarjung Hospital on Sonam Wangchuk’s health after his wife moved court alleging he was forcibly kept there P r e e t h a N a i r @ New Delhi THE Monsoon Session of Parliament got off to a tumultuous start on Monday as protests over the alleged NEET-UG 2026 paper leak rocked both Houses and spilled onto the streets, setting the stage for a combative session. The Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha witnessed repeated adjournments as Opposition MPs demanded discussion on the baton charge on protesting students and action against those responsible for the alleged leak of the medical entrance test paper. They also targeted the government over the alleged Ram temple donation row. In the Lok Sabha, proceedings were adjourned four times amid slogan shouting and placard displays by Opposition members. The protests began soon after the House assembled at 11 am for Question Hour, forcing Speaker Om Birla to adjourn proceedings until noon. The protests followed a morning meeting of INDIA bloc floor leaders, where the Opposition decided to jointly raise issues concerning students. The DMK and AAP did not attend the meeting. The Rajya Sabha, too saw multiple adjournments after the Opposition members protested against the police action against protesters. 2 Key metro stations, such as Central Secretariat, Rajiv Chowk, Mandi House and Patel Chowk were shut. There was commotion and sloganeering at these stations 3 Education Minister Pradhan met Home Minister Amit Shah at the latter’s office in the Parliament House. However, it was not immediately known what transpired in the meeting 4 Amid the uproar in the Lok Sabha, Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal introduced a Bill to replace an ordinance that increased the strength of the Supreme Court from 34 judges to 38 5 The Bill to make insult to Vande Mataram a punishable offence could not be introduced in the Rajya Sabha due to the protests IN one of the biggest mobilisations against the Union government in the last 12 years, the streets of Lutyens’ Delhi came to a halt on Monday when a massive crowd of protesters marched towards Parliament from Jantar Mantar, demanding the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over alleged question paper leaks. The scenes inside Parliament were equally tumultuous, but it was on the streets of New Delhi that the youth’s angst met the belligerence of police. The government snapped internet services. The protest venue, Jantar Mantar, was cleared by evening, but the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) said that its founder Abhijeet Dipke and three others — Saurav Das, Ashutosh Ranka and climate activist Sonam Wangchuk’s wife Gitanjali Angmo — are still continuing the sit-in protest in front of Kerala House. Wangchuk, whose hunger strike entered the 23rd day, wrote an open letter in the evening, saying he will continue his fast over police actions against the protesters. Police resorted to lathicharge and burst tear gas shells to disperse protesters—who drew from across the country and all strata of life—on most roads leading to the Parliament complex. Paramilitary personnel, in riot gear, joined cops to prevent protesters from reaching Parliament. A video surfaced in the morning, showing workers erecting metal barricades to restrict the agitators. However, when the crowd swelled and tried to move ahead, police used force and fired tear gas shells. Many protesters said they were brutally assaulted by police. According to the RML Hospital, 65 medico-legal cases were in till 7pm. The scale of the protest prompted the government to approach the protesters for talks it had resisted since the protest started at Jantar Mantar on June 20. Union minister J P Nadda and CJP members Das and Ranka held a meeting, during which CJP members raised three demands: immediate release of Wangchuk, resignation of Pradhan and `1 crore compensation for all NEET aspirants who had died by suicide. Nadda assured them he will put across their message to the party’s top leadership. Waqf Board backs Act, LDF in a fix ‘IIM University’ on after new iimK campus the cards in Kochi A n u K u r u v i ll a @ Kochi With a “university” campus proposed in Kochi, IIM Kozhikode is looking to grow beyond its traditional tag as a premier management school. This will be on the lines of a management university, said Debashis Chatterjee, director of IIMK. The project is in its initial stage and an appropriate location is being prospected in Kochi, he told TNIE. “My vision is for an II M u n ive r s i t y, ” pointed out Debashis. “I am not thinking of a conventional business school. We should have students studying various subjects. The university will have management studies at its core. But it will also be a space where people study for , instance, psychology or digital enterprises,” he said. It will be a campus offering undergraduate degrees in multiple subjects, Debashis said, adding that it won’t compete with other universities. “The aim is to make universities more relevant to the world. We are a bunch of very pragmatic people. We are not guided by ideology alone. We are guided by what you should be doing when the rubber hits the road,” he added. The project will be implemented in Kochi, and we are trying to get a sizable chunk of land, the IIMK director said. “We have not zeroed in on any specific area. There are multiple sites under consideration. However, the board has to take a decision,” he said. Infopark is on the list of places being surveyed. The director pointed out that connectivity will be pivotal in deciding the site. “But the fact is wherever we are, connectivity happens. Take the case of Kozhikode, and how our campus there and the region has evolved. Another clincher will be the atmosphere for studies. We don’t want the university to be located in a place where students will find it difficult to access amenities, utilities and all that,” he said. Recently, IIMK opened a new Kochi campus adjacent to the Cochin University Metro Station in Kala● More on P4 massery  . L a k s h m i At h i r a @Malappuram Virtually acce pting the amended central Waqf Act’s provision mandating non-Muslim members in the Waqf Board, the LDF-appointed Kerala State Waqf Board has told the Supreme Court that it is the state government’s responsibility to appoint them. In its special leave petition (SLP) challenging the Kerala High Court’s interim order that effectively froze the functioning of the statutory body, the board told the apex court that the absence of two non-Muslim members and other pending nominees cannot be grounds to invalidate or reconstitute the board, as appointing them is solely the responsibility of the state government. The government has no authority to reorganise or supersede the present board merely because those appointments have not yet been made, it said. The petition assumes significance as the Board has, rather than challenging the validity of the amendment, argued that implementing the provision is the statutory responsibility of the state government and that any delay or failure on its part cannot be used to suspend or dismantle the existing body . Some pro-CPM groups had blamed the UDF government for failing to oppose the provision mandating non-Muslim members in the Kerala High Court, alleging that it was toeing the BJP ● More on P4 line.  Chenthamara gets death penalty for Nenmara murders S h ya m P V @ Palakkad Describing the Nenmara double murder case as falling within the “rarest of rare” category the Palakkad Addi, tional District and Sessions Court on Monday awarded death sentence to Chenthamara for the brutal killings of his neighbours Sudhakaran and his mother Lakshmi at Pothundi, Palakkad, on January 27, 2025. Judge Kenneth George also imposed a fine of `10 lakh for each murder. “The record unmistakably demonstrates that the accused is a menace to society There is no trace of remorse . discernible in his conduct... the materials available in this case clearly establish that the chance of reformation is virtually nil,” the court said in the 132-page judgment. Chenthamara, 61, had earlier been arrested for the 2019 murder of Sudhakaran’s wife, Sajitha, whom he allegedly blamed for his marital problems. After being released on bail in January 2025 in the case, he murdered Sudhakaran and Lakshmi. Apart from the capital punishment, under Section Chenthamara being brought to the 103(1) of the Bharatiya court in Palakkad on Monday Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), the court sentenced the accused to one month’s simple imprisonment and imposed a fine of `5,000 under Section 126(2) of BNS, with an additional 10 days’ simple imprisonment in case of default of payment. The sentences will run concurrently with the life imprisonment already awarded to the convict for the murder of Sajitha. The death sentence is subject to mandatory confirmation by the Kerala High Court. Sudhakaran’s daughters, Athulya and Akhila, welcomed the judgment and said they had faith in the judicial process. “We are grateful to everyone who worked for this. We are happy that he has been sentenced to death,” Akhi● More on P4 la told reporters.  E x p r e s s Re a d Malayali sailor killed in Russian missile attack Kasaragod: A 26-year-old sailor identified as Vaaliplackal Akhil Joyan from Vellarikundu in Kinnanoor - Karinthalam panchayat in Kasaragod district was killed in a Russian missile strike on a ship off Odesa port in Ukraine on Sunday. Akhil was part of the 17-member crew consisting of Indian and Syrian sailors of Golden Leo, a Guinea-Bissau flagged cargo vessel that came under attack. P5 football wins Messi ends World Cup in tears as La Roja say two cheers express news service There was no fairytale ending. There was no surreal comeback. Sunday evening stood still in time as the tears rolled down his face. On one end of the New York/New Jersey Stadium, Lionel Messi stood transfixed, wondering if this was the end of his Argentina journey after a mostly angelic month at the World Cup where he bent time and space like only he could. Next to him, amid a crestfallen bunch of colleagues, the Spanish were just getting started with the celebrations. A second star on the jersey The victorious Spanish team with the World Cup trophy on Sunday. (Right) Lionel Messi in tears after match | AP a just reward for the side that had most played like a team throughout the 40 days in US, Mexico and Canada. There is a certain irony because in the land where stars are venerated and deified — it was no surprise that Messi, Kylian Mbappe, Jude Bellingham, Michael Olise, Vinicius Jr, Cristiano Ronaldo and Erling Haaland routinely made head- lines in the country of Hollywood — the nation with an ethos for the collective burnt the brightest when the competition got serious. The final itself went on predicted lines as the Europeans, whose only previous win came in 2010, suffocated Argentina before killing them slowly and softly In extra-time, they fi. nally put Argentina out of their misery Ferran Torres crashing , the ball into the roof of the net in the first-half of extra-time. In the end, it was no surprise that the South Americans had as many red cards as shots on goal P11 after 120 minutes.