THIRUVANANTHAPURAM l tuesday l september 15, 2026 l `10.00 l PAGES 16 l late city EDITION Houthis seize more Red Sea islands, attack Saudi’s King Khalid Air Base Houthi rebels said on Monday they have captured more strategic islands in the southern Red Sea and hit a major Saudi Arabian airbase in Khamis Mushait Arab states call off Iran meeting Saudi Radar systems hit, claim rebels The capture of the islands of Greater and Lesser Hanish is the latest in the Yemen-based, Iran-backed rebels’ swift advance around the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, an alternative to the Strait of Hormuz and a key passage for Saudi oil shipments. In response to the fresh attack by the Tehran-backed outfit, Arab states in the Gulf called off a meeting with Iran planned for Monday ■ ■ Houthis said they fired dozens of missiles and drones at the Saudi military airbase, hitting aircraft hangars, radar systems, runways and ammunition depots. They described the attack as retaliation for hundreds of Saudi airstrikes on Yemen in recent days | P9 There was no immediate response from Riyadh about Houthis’ claims Mocha Saudi-backed forces are trying to retake this port city from houthis 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 No consensus High command puts state Cong rejig on hold K S S r ee j it h @ T’Puram The Congress high command has decided to maintain status quo for the time being in the Kerala unit, putting on hold the appointment of a new KPCC president after the state leadership failed to agree on a single name. The decision follows intense lobbying by several senior aspirants, with key leaders unwilling to back any particular name, Congress sources said. The AICC, which has been sounding out the state leadership, has realised that there is no broad-based agreement on any of the contenders, they said. Chief Minister V D Satheesan and a majority of state leaders, however, argue that the party cannot afford to delay the organisational revamp when the UDF government has retur ned to power after a decade. Leaders close to the CM point out that the government lacked adequate organisational support from the party when several controversies erupted during its first three months in office. There is also a growing view in the party that several of the government’s new initiatives have failed to get adequate political traction in the absence of a sustained party campaign. In addition, with the new government implementing a slew of popular programmes, the AICC does not want a change at the party’s helm to disturb the present atmosphere in the organisation. With key figures in the state leadership now in the cabinet, it has asked the KPCC to step up organisational activities while discharging their administrative re● More on P4 sponsibilities. Wholesale, Winning back mass base to ideological retail inflation apps: CPM brainstorms major reforms up in August Food prices push up CPI inflation to eight-month high of 4.82%; WPI at 9.9% P USH P I TA D E Y @ New Delhi Inflationary pressure in the economy is slowly building up, with both retail and wholesale inflation inching up. Retail inflation rose to an eight-month high of 4.82% in August from 4.45% in July driven by higher , food prices. Wholesale inflation rose to 9.9% in August from 9.8% in July . With retail inflation breaching the Reserve Bank of India’s estimate of 4.7%, the prospects of a rate hike in the October monetary policy review have brightened. According to the data released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation on Monday higher prices of cere, als, sugar, milk and other essential food items contributed to the increase in household expenses. Elevated global crude oil prices have also pushed up fuel and transportation costs. Food inflation emerged as a key driver of the rise in headline inflation, increasing to 5.95% in August from 5.52% in July, due to erratic weather conditions and supply-side disruptions affecting prices of several agricultural commodities. The prices of onion, ginger and garlic rose by more than 40%. Higher inflation was not restricted to food, with the hospitality sector also witnessing a significant rise. Inflation in restaurants and accommodation services rose by 8.38% in August, while transport inflation stood at 4.60%. Personal care, social protection and miscellaneous goods and services recorded the highest inflation at 15.17%. According to economists, although 4.82% remains within the RBI’s statutory 2-6% tolerance band, the combination of accelerating food prices and evidence of firming core inflation leaves less room for monetary easing. “Inflation is still below 5%; it is unlikely that the credit policy will see any change in the repo rate. However, the inflation threat remains... 11 of the 36 regions had inflation above 5%,” said Madan Sabnavis, chief economist, Bank of Baroda. In wholesale inflation, major groups such as primary articles, fuel and power, and manufactured products recorded 7.76%, 22.93% and 8.37% respectively in August. , The sharper rise in food inflation is worrisome since food has a large weight in household consumption Manoranjan Sharma, chief economist at Infomerics Ratings Oil prices shoot up Oil prices rose more than 3% on Monday, after fresh Houthi strikes on Saudi Arabia and Iranian attacks on ships in the Gulf region compounded supply concerns following the closure of a key Saudi oil pipeline. Brent crude futures rose $3.21, or 3.1%, to $107.82 per barrel. WTI futures gained $3.17, or 3.2%, to $103.22 per barrel close shave for woman sports biker 3 The car struck her bike while overtaking, causing her to fall. A camera mounted on her bike captured the collision 4 1 A woman, in a group, riding Aprilia RS 457 sports bike chased by a car on Golf Course Road in Gurugram on Sunday State leadership draws criticism A nil S @ Kozhikode 2 The woman biker said she asked the occupants to maintain distance, but they allegedly asked her to stop the bike One of her friends confronted the driver at a red light. The accused admitted the collision but denied it was deliberate Steps to win back its once-solid Hindu vote base, introducing mobile apps to circulate ideological insights and a move to fix greater responsibility on leaders for better mass outreach were among the key proposals that came up at the CPM extended state committee meeting in Kozhikode. Effective intervention to ensure that festivals and celebrations are treated as common spaces rather than being branded as platforms to spread communal hatred is also something the CPM is seriously looking into. The move gains significance in the backdrop of recent open calls by some Muslim clerics against people from their community celebrating Onam. Keen to regain its firm grip on the state’s electoral politics, the CPM has chalked out a slew of measures to win back its key political constituency. Poll re- CPM state secretary M V Govindan having refreshments from a tea stall set up near the venue of the extended state committee meet in Kozhikode | Vincent Pulickal views by both the state and central committees had underscored the need to make effective intervention in line with changing times. Use of technological assistance via mobile apps to impart ‘party education’ is one of the key proposals. “Comrades can use mobile apps which will im- Fresh govt outreach to Cong for spl UPI payments Parliament session on delimitation above `2k may no longer remain free D I PA K M O N D A L @ New Delhi UPI transactions above `2,000 may no longer remain free. The government on Monday notified that banks and payment service providers cannot charge customers for transactions made through RuPay debit cards or UPI for payments of up to `2,000. The move provides a statutory basis for keeping these digital payment modes free for users within the specified limit. This means that UPI transactions above `2,000 could attract a Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) or a fee that the banks and payment gateways charge from the merchant for processing the payment. However, the government has yet to announce the MDR. But sources have pegged the rate at anywhere from 0.25% to 0.4% of the transaction amount. UPI has become a popular mode of cashless transactions with over 24 billion monthly transactions involving `30 lakh crore. This may change with the levy as the number of UPI transactions involving large payments may come down. The government had earlier assured that any MDR, if introduced, would apply only to a limited set of merchant transactions above a specified threshold and at a nominal rate, much lower than MDRs of debit and credit cards. The government has also assured that all Person-to-Person (P2P) transactions will continue to be free of charge. On the rationale for levying charges on UPI transactions, the government says with UPI transaction volumes expanding rapidly, the payment infrastructure requires continuous investment in cybersecurity, fraud prevention, technology and infrastructure. 16 pages, including 4 pages of THIRUVANANTHAPURAM Express From living beside public restroom to Asiad: Ashish’s tale Imagine living next to a restroom. The stench, the commotion, especially at night, the never ending sound of flowing water...it could be overbearing and at times, depressing. But when one doesn’t have a place to stay this can turn , into heaven. Ask Ashish, 24-yearold sepaktakraw player from New Delhi, he would narrate innumerable stories associated with the place where he was born and brought up. Now, sports has given him a new life. The young player from Majnu- ka-tilla in North of New Delhi will make his Asian Games debut in Japan for India. A striker with the Indian team, Ashish is one of the many athletes for whom sports have become a lifeline. Not just to make a living, but also uplift his family Born . to a mason and a housewife in Khargapur, Madhya Pradesh, Ashish recalled life in his home at Majnu-ka-tilla, north of New Delhi. “First, my parents shifted to Chandigarh in search of a job, ogy More tech savvy individu. als would be inducted into the teams. Some delegates also sought to use the party’s research machinery for in-depth studies into the growing right wing shift in Kerala society . Wealth creation among leaders too was critically dis● More on P4 cussed.  MDR TO KICK IN inspiring journey c h and r a p r a b h u @ Chennai part real-time information about the party’s ideological and political aspects. It can be used to improve political and ideological understanding,” said a leader. Similarly, proposals have come up to revamp the party’s new media wing, making it a better propagator of Left ideol- Kozhikode: Criticism against nurturing parliamentary ambitions among leaders, flagged by CPM central leadership as one of the key reasons for its current setback, figured prominently during the discussion on the report at the CPM extended state committee meeting on Monday. The delegates pointed fingers at the state leadership for its failure to gauge mass sentiment, overconfidence of winning a third term and constant violation of norms in candidate selection. P4 but couldn’t find any, and then they moved to Delhi before the year 2000. He constructed that public toilet and hence we got that two-room house to live in. I was born there,” he told this daily from Sonepat, where the Indian sepaktakraw team is training. As his father Jugal did not have a permanent job, the family faced a lot of issues. Such was the financial stress on the family that Ashish had to clean buses in the city to help his father even though he wanted to pursue sports. “I wanted to take up sports from the beginning. I began cleaning Volvo buses from the age of 14, and I did it for three years,” Ashish added. That is when Kishore Bisht, physical education teacher from his school, changed his life. “When I cleaned buses and trains before and after school, my boss there encouraged me to take up sport, but I could not find a way out. One day , Kishore sir saw me with my dark circles and found out I didn’t sleep properly He deposited `10,000 in . my account and told me not to work,” he recalled. P R E E T H A N A I R @ New Delhi WITH Parliament yet to be prorogued, the Centre has reached out to the Opposition parties over a proposal to convene a special session of Parliament before the festive season to push through the delimitation-linked women’s reservation Bill, it was learnt. Sources said Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju’s office has reached out to Congress chief and Rajya Sabha Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge to explore whether the session can be held before October 11, when the Navratri season begins. Kharge’s office is yet to respond to the latest outreach, sources said. The move comes amid Opposition questions over the government’s unusual delay in proroguing Parliament more than a month after both Houses were adjourned sine die. The delay has kept speculation about a special session alive, though the government has made no formal announcement about its timing or agenda. Congress communications chief Jairam Ramesh on Friday said the government had broken its previous record for the longest delay in proroguing both Houses.