Egyptian Prez sisi begins India visit Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, the chief guest at the Republic Day celebrations, being accorded a warm welcome as he arrives at Air Force Station Palam in New Delhi on Tuesday. He is on a three-day state visit to India to enhance bilateral ties on a range of areas. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Sisi will hold summit talks on Wednesday | PTI bhubaneswar l wednesday l january 25, 2023 l `9.00 l PAGES 14 l late city EDITION 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 Campuses push back on BBC film Screened at University of Hyderabad, widely in Kerala; JNU group watches it on phones E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Thiruvananthapuram/Hyderabad/New Delhi RRR leads the Indian brigade at oscar 2023 Chandhini R Nominations for the 95th Academy Awards were announced on Tuesday, and as anticipated, it turned out to be an unforgettable day for India. While Naatu Naatu from S S Rajamouli’s RRR made it to the Best Original Song category, the two documentaries, All That Breathes and The Elephant Whisperers, made the nomination list under the Best Documentary Feature and Best Documentary Short, respectively. However, Chello Show (Last Film Show), India’s official entry to the Oscars under the Best International Feature category, did not feature in the final list. History was created with the nod for RRR’s Naatu Naatu, composed by M M Keeravani and written by Chandrabose, as it became the first Indian song to be nominated at the Oscars. Naatu Naatu also won under the same category in the recently announced Golden Globes and Critics Choice Awards as well. Even though Indian musicians like A R Rahman and Bombay Jayashri have been nominated for the Oscars previously, it happened for non-Indian films like Slumdog Millionaire and Life of Pi, respectively . The Indian contingent performed well in the Documentary categories too, as Shaunak Sen’s All That Breathes won a nomination under Documentary Feature.  continued on: P11 The Opposition’s pushback against the government purging social media of a controversial BBC documentary on the 2002 Gujarat riots came from university campuses with multiple screenings in Kerala, Telangana and New Delhi amid protests by the BJP’s youth wing. At the volatile Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in Delhi, a group of students watched the documentary together on their mobile phones. Just before its screening, there was a power cut, leading to suspicion that the administration had pulled the plug. The organisers, then, shared the Quick Response (QR) code of the series, India: The Modi Question, to help the students watch it on their smart phones as a workaround. Attacking the ABVP JNU students un, ion president Aishe Ghosh said, “If ABVP had a problem with screening, then they should also hold a parallel screening or debate on it.” While the first screening happened in the University of Hyderabad on Saturday last, the process took off in a big way in Kerala on Tuesday Screenings across . Kerala were organised by the youth wings of both the CPM and the Congress. Tension prevailed in various parts of the state, especially in Thiruvananthapuram, Palakkad and Wayanad following vociferous protests by the BJP Yuva Morcha workers, who tried to prevent screenings organised by the DYFISFI and the Youth Congress. The Democratic Youth Federation of Mass screening planned The DYFI has decided to organise screenings at 2,000 centres in Kerala, said state president V Waseef. CPM’s student organisation SFI has called for nationwide screening of the documentary Ganjam tops country in MGNREGA E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Berhampur GANJAM district has bagged the top honours in the country for generating man-days and providing 100 days of work to rural households under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) till January 22. Four days after Aska police station received the best police station status in the country, the administration’s achievement in rural employment scheme has come as a double bonanza. Around 63,449 households in the district were provided 100 days employment during 2022-23. “The district also generated 2.26 crore man-days under MGNREGA during the same period and topped the country,” said chief development officer of Ganjam zilla parishad V Keerthi Vasan. It also achieved the top position among 30 districts of the state regarding participation of women under the scheme. It achieved 58 per cent women participation under the scheme, said Vasan. Rajasthan’s Bar mer (2.18 crore) and Tiruvannamalai (2.13 crore) in Tamil Nadu were placed after Ganjam in terms of generating man days during the period. S i m i l a rly, K a n d h a m a l d i s t r i c t (35,141), Barmer (34,994) and Balangir (26,209) stood second, third and fourth respectively in the country in providing 100 days work to households during Continued on P7 the fiscal. India (DYFI) organised the screening in Muthalakulam, Kozhikode. In Thiruvananthapuram, the screening organised by the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) in the Government Law College and the University College went off without a hitch. However, a screening at Poojapura turned into a street fight with BJP workers trying to remove barricades erected by the police to prevent them from reaching the venue. The police had to fire water cannons six times at the protesters. A similar protest was witnessed at Manaveeyam road, where the Youth Congress screened it. In Telangana, a group of students under the aegis of the Fraternity Movement screened it at the University of Hyderabad without seeking the administration’s permission. The matter came to light after the ABVP lodged a complaint with the university’s Registrar. The administration then tried to stop it but the organisers refused to budge. express read Digvijaya remarks ridiculous: Rahul amid BJP roast Srinagar/New Delhi: Rahul Gandhi has termed party leader Digvijaya Singh’s remarks questioning the 2016 surgical strike as ridiculous. He said the party trusts the Indian Army and that armed forces don’t need to give any evidence for their daredevilry | P9 Supreme Court simplifies the process for passive euthanasia New Delhi: In a bid to simplify the process to withdraw life support for a terminally ill patient by way of a living will, the Supreme Court on Tuesday removed the clause that mandated a magistrate’s approval for it. Living will is an advance medical directive on end-of-life treatment | P9 ‘Collegium shouldn’t have disclosed IB, RAW reports’ SHR U T I K A K K AR @ New Delhi AMID escalating tension between the executive and judiciary Union law minister Kiren Rijiju on Tuesday again , targeted the Supreme Court collegium, terming its decision to make public the sensitive reports of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and Intelligence Bureau (IB) “a matter of grave concern”. The reports contained the agencies’ objections about certain names reiterated by the court for appointment as high court judges. Rijiju said he will deal with the issue in due time but expressed concern that intelligence agency officials, who work in a secret manner for the nation, will think Kiren Rijiju twice in future if their reports are put out in the public domain. The collegium in its resolution dated January 18 had referred to the “adverse comments” of the IB while reiterating the name of advocate R John Sathyan as a judge in the Madras High Court. It also referred to RAW’s inputs about appointing advocate Saurabh Kirpal as a judge of the Delhi High Court. Rijiju said appointment of judges is an administrative matter, which has nothing to do with judicial order.