Records galore as Pant breaks bank tirupati l monday l november 25, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l late city EDITION Climate talks end with mere $300 bn pledge S V Krishna Chaitanya EXPRESS IN BAKU T he United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29) in Baku concluded on Sunday amid high drama with the adoption of a controversial agreement to triple climate finance for developing countries to $300 billion annually by 2035 as against the $1.3 trillion sought by developing countries per year until 2030. The process and the amount agreed upon faced strong opposition from India and other developing nations.India, a prominent voice among developing countries, rejected the proposal outright, calling the agreed-upon financial goal inadequate and unfairly distributed. Chandni Raina, adviser to the Department of Economic Affairs and part of India’s negotiating team, described the sum as “abysmally poor” and “a paltry amount”.  CONTINUED ON P9 Winter session of parliament from today The Centre has listed 16 bills, including the Waqf Amendment Bill, for consideration. The opposition is expected to raise issues like Manipur violence and Gautam Adani’s US indictment Rishabh Pant became the most expensive player on day one of the auction in Jeddah. A look... Big pay day for skippers While Shreyas Iyer was the first to go in the history books when he was signed for `26 crore by Punjab Kings, Pant went past him as Lucknow Super Giants went as high as `27 crore for the keeper-batter. KL Rahul, meanwhile, was signed by Delhi Capitals for `14 crore NOTABLE signings The other key signings were Venkatesh Iyer (`20 cr) for KKR, Arshdeep Singh (`18 cr) for PBKS, Y Chahal (`18 cr) for PBKS, Mohammed Siraj (`12.5 cr) to GT, R Ashwin (`9.75 cr) and Noor Ahmad (`10 cr) to CSK, and Ishan Kishan (`11.25 cr) for SRH 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 ■ ■ Decision on Maharashtra CM choice today, swearing-in likely tomorrow Sources say Fadnavis tipped to lead next Mahayuti govt; Home portfolio may go to Shinde camp Soren stakes claim to form govt, oath-taking on 28th R A J E S H K U M A R T H A K U R @ New Delhi amid intense speculation over who will be the next Maharashtra chief minister, the BJP’s top leadership is expected to finalise the name on Monday, it is learnt. Informed sources told this newspaper that the swearing-in ceremony of the Mahayuti government is most likely to take place on Tuesday evening as November 26 is the last day of the current assembly term. If the ceremony gets delayed by even one day then , President’s Rule will kick in, said a senior leader. Senior Shiv Sena leader Deepak Kesarkar said the oath-taking ceremony would be held on Monday, though BJP sources denied it. “The BJP and allies are set to meet on Monday to finalise their decision on the CM pick,” said a senior BJP source. While intense lobbying for the CM post is underway, a source privy to the decision making clamed Devendra Fadnavis is most likely to be named the chief minister of the new government with two deputy CMs. In this scenario, sources said, the Home department may be given to Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena. The BJP-led Mahayuti alliance has ShivSena (Shinde) and NCP (Ajit Pawar) as partners. In the recently held election, the BJP emerged as the single largest party. In the previous term of the Mahayuti government, the BJP supported Shinde as chief minister even though it M U K E S H R A N J A N @ Ranchi Devendra Fadnavis was the single largest party. Former CM Fadnavis agreed to become deputy CM on the advice of the top leadership. According to BJP sources, Fadnavis has emerged as a master strategist this time and his prowess to run alliance smoothly will also work in his favour. On November 26, there is joint session of Parliament on the Samvidhan Diwas. Thereafter, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other senior elders are expected to fly to Mumbai to attend the swearing-in ceremony . Sources said the chief minister and the deputy CMs may take oath on Tuesday The swearing-in . of other ministers will take place later after finalising the final list of the ministers for each party. The venue of the swearing-in has not been decided but it could be either the Wankhede Stadium or Shivaji Park, sources told this newspaper. (With inputs from our Mumbai bureau) The new Jharkhand government will be sworn in on Thursday Chief Minister Hemant Soren , said on Sunday after meeting Governor and staking claim to form the next government. “The process of formation of the new government has started. I met the Governor and submitted my resignation and staked claim to form the new government. The Governor has invited us to form the government,” Soren said. Soren will be sworn in as the 14th chief minister of Jharkhand. Earlier in the day, a meeting of the INDIA block’s legislative party was held at the official residence of the chief minister in Ranchi to elect Hemant Soren as the legislative party leader. Soren, who has resigned as Chief Minister, was appointed by the governor as acting CM till Thursday, when the new government will be sworn in. Notably this is the first time a government is , retaining power in Jharkhand, which was formed on November 15, 2000. So far, every election ushered in a new government. Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and former Bihar deputy chief minister and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav are likely to attend the swearing-in ceremony . In the results declared on November 23, Hemant Soren’s JMM-led INDIA alliance stormed to power for a second consecutive term winning 56 of the 81 Assembly seats. The majority mark in the state assembly is 41 seats. JMM alone has 34 seats. The BJP-led alliance, on the other hand, won only 24 seats. express read Hemant Soren hands over his resignation to Governor Santosh Gangwar (left) | PTI One minister for five MLAs One ministerial post for every five MLAs is a formula that is being considered by INDIA bloc in Jharkhand. If a consensus is reached on it, JMM will have six ministers, Congress three and RJD one. There may be new faces in the cabinet as four ministers — Mithilesh Thakur, Baidyanath Ram, Baby Devi and Banna Gupta lost their seats ‘P’varam Phase-1 proposed by AP govt in ’21’ Vijayawada: At a time when both TDP and YSRCP are blaming each other responsible for reduction in height of Polavaram Irrigation Project, the Polavaram Project Authority (PPA) has made it clear that the Phase-1 concept emerged from the AP government’s proposal in 2021, and the Centre approved it at a review meeting held on April 10, 2023 that the focus should be on achieving benefits at specific water level of +41.15 M | P4 Bidding for SCoR Zone HQ from Dec 13 Visakhapatnam: Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced the issuance of a tender notice for constructing the headquarters building of South Coast Railway (SCoR) Zone in Visakhapatnam. Bidding for the `149 crore project will commence on December 13, 2024, with a pre-bid conference scheduled for December 2, 2024. The last date for bid submission is December 27, 2024 | P4 Laddu row: SIT inspects AR Dairy Vijayawada: The Special Investigation Team probing the adulteration of TTD ghee, inspected AR Dairy Pvt Ltd at Dindigul in Tamil Nadu. A team of 11 sleuths scrutinised the dairy’s records, quality testing procedures, and documents related to the supply of cow ghee. “The raid resulted in seizure of documents related to the tender agreement between TTD and AR Dairy,” said a senior official | P3