BHUBANESWAR  SUNDAY  JANUARY 12, 2025  `12.00  PAGES 26  LATE CITY EDITION NOW META, AMAZON NIX DIVERSITY PROGRAMS AHEAD OF JAN 20 Tech giants join Ford, McDonald’s, John Deere and Walmart in scaling back their diversity, equity and inclusion programs ahead of Trump inauguration META OUTLINES SWEEPING CHANGES TO DEI DEI INVITES IRE IN THE LOS ANGELES WILDFIRE Meta outlined widespread changes, including elimination of its diverse slate hiring approach and the disbanding of its DEI team in an internal memo, which was leaked online. The move by US companies comes after recent Supreme Court decisions on how courts will approach DEI going ahead. Amazon said it is winding down outdated programs ■ ■ Besides the SC decision, the move by companies comes as Trump, who has long riled against tech giants for being biased towards him, is set to become the president Elon Musk targeted DEI during the Los Angeles wildfire. He said, “They prioritised DEI over saving lives and homes” 81 ANTI-DEI BILLS IN COLLEGES WHICH HAVE BEEN INTRODUCED IN 28 STATES 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 NTA exams may ECoR split: Panel favours retaining Waltair div go UPSC way for better security HEMANT KUMAR ROUT @ Bhubaneswar Would involve DM, SP to make the process of conducting entrance tests fully secure K A V I TA B A J E L I - D AT T @ New Delhi Maha shift as Uddhav’s Sena to go it alone in civic body polls S U D H I R S U R YA N V A N S H I @ Mumbai IN a seismic shift that threatens to upend Maharashtra’s political landscape, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) has announced its decision to contest the upcoming local body elections on its own. The decision was conveyed on Saturday by senior leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut, who said that the move to go solo has the backing of party chief Uddhav Thackeray and is meant to preserve the party’s organisational growth and provide more opportunities for its workers. “We are confident in our strength and will fight the elections on our own ... whatever happens, will happen,” he said. The development raises questions about the future of the MVA coalition, particularly in light of the recent drubbing in the Maharashtra assembly elections, which saw the MVA suffer a humiliating defeat. The Shiv Sena (UBT) bagged just 9.96% of the vote share, a drop from the 16.72% it got in the Lok Sabha elections six months earlier. The Congress has welcomed Shiv Sena (UBT)’s decision, with leaders citing the challenges of transferring votes between parties. A senior Maharashtra Congress leader, speaking on condition of anonymity, acknowledged difficulties in securing votes from Shiv Sena (UBT) supporters, adding that the party now sees an opportunity for growth and expansion. THE government is mulling to conduct all entrance exams to higher education institutions (HEIs) using the UPSC model to ensure strict security and avoid any future allegations of cheating and mismanagement, highly placed sources said. The Union education ministry is considering this approach so as to involve all state and district administrations during the entrance exams, which will be conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA). “Now, the government is thinking of conducting all entrance exams to HEIs using the UPSC model. The UPSC model means the district administration and the state government are involved in the entrance exam process,” the source told this paper. UPSC exam centres are heavily secured by district administrations, with the collector and superintendent of police involved in the entire process. The government is looking at applying the same rigour for conducting various entrance exams, which include CUETUG, CUET-PG, JEE-MAINS, and NEET-UG. NEET-UG was mired in controversy following allegations of cheating and mismanagement last year. The source said the entire state administration is involved in the UPSC exams. “This will help make the entire exam procedure much more secure as the state administration will be Why big reforms A series of reforms are being undertaken so as to make NTA a globally-recognised exam body. “NTA handles one crore students. This is huge as compared to any other country. It will increase,” the source said part of the process. The government’s thinking is to conduct all exams related to admission in such a fashion. Also, the state administration will feel part of the exam system.” The plan to adopt the UPSC model was discussed following the recommendation of the committee led by former ISRO Chairman Dr K Radhakrishnan. The committee was set up to suggest exam reforms, better security protocols, and their operation by the education ministry following the NEETUG fiasco. Last month, Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan had announced that NTA will focus solely on conducting entrance exams for admission to higher education institutions. The idea was to make the system “error-free”. AMID the political uproar over creation of South Coast Railway (SCoR) zone, carving it out of East Coast Railway (ECoR) and South Central Railway (SCR), a committee constituted by the Railway Board has recommended not to close down the contentious Waltair division. As proposed in the detailed project report (DPR) of SCoR zone, Waltair division, now under ECoR was to be split into two parts with one merging with Vijayawada division and the other converting into a new division headquartered at Rayagada. While the SCoR zone was proposed to have three divisions Vi j ayaw a d a , G u n t u r a n d Guntakal spreading across And- hra Pradesh and Telangana, ECoR zone is also to have three divisions - Khurda Road, Sambalpur and Rayagada, confined to Odisha, after the bifurcation. The SAG committee constituted to review the DPR and look into the public demands of both Odisha and Andhra Pradesh has, however, recommended to retain the truncated Waltair division after splitting it into two parts with some administrative adaptations. The recommendations are awaiting the nod of the central cabinet. According to the committee recommendations (accessed by The New Indian Express), around 565 km will fall within the jurisdiction of the truncated Waltair division and the rest 541 km will come under Rayagada division after the bifurcation. J A I S O N W I L S O N @ Pathanamthitta A day after the shocking revelation that more than 60 people had raped a minor over five years, the police arrested 20 people, including a juvenile. Police have registered six cases, including under the POCSO Act, with more to follow. Based on the survivor’s statement, the police had on Friday arrested five persons. On Saturday they ar, rested 15 more, including a 17-year-old boy A special in. vestigation team, headed by Pathanamthitta Deputy Superintendent of Police S Nandakum a r, i s q u e s t i o n i n g t h e accused. The girl, who belongs to a NCW SEEKS STATUS REPORT IN THREE DAYS The National Commission for Women has taken cognizance of the case and has directed the state police to submit a report within three days. The survivor is currently receiving counseling and support at a shelter home, police said. Scheduled Caste community, had revealed her ordeal to the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) members who subsequently informed the police. According to the survivor’s account, the sexual abuse began when she was 13, with Subin, the son of her father’s friend, luring her into a The Waltair division comprises around 1,106 route km. The committee may have recommended against the closure of Waltair and advised an optimum staff strength of 105 gazetted and 780 non-gazetted officers for the new zone, but the demands of Odisha for inclusion of Kothavalasa-Kirandul Line and merger of major revenue cycle of sexual exploitation that would continue for years. When the girl turned 16, Subin took her to a secluded rubber plantation and sexually assaulted her. He also recorded videos of the act on his phone. This was followed by regular sexual abuse, police said. Subin’s actions were enabled by a network of accomplices, who shared explicit visuals and videos of the girl. The perpetrators used the girl’s father’s mobile phone to communicate with her. Police have identified 40 individuals as potential perpetrators and are working to bring them to book. District Superintendent of Police V G Vinod Kumar said legal action against the perpetrators will continue. EXPRESS READ ISRO brings SpaDeX mission satellites within 230 metres for docking Bengaluru: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Saturday corrected the drift anomaly between the two Space Docking Experiment (SpaDeX) satellites by closing the distance between them to 230 metres. This puts the two satellites, SDX01 (the chaser) and SDX02 (the target) on the way to the muchawaited docking, although ISRO did not specify when that would happen | P7 ROOF COLLAPSE AT U.P. STATION SITE Rescue operation underway at Kannauj railway station after an under-construction building there collapsed injuring 23 labourers. Six have been rescued with three sustaining critical injuries. The incident happened around 2.30 pm on Saturday when the shutter collapsed during casting of the roof. Officials said around 35 people were working at the site | PTI | P10 Fan, fandom & Harish: Cricketing bridge between India-Aus IN terms of support, the Melbourne Cricket Ground almost looks like any other ground in India. There is a sea of blue in every corner and the din was as loud as one could hear back home. There have been times, especially during practice, when the Indian crowd outnumbered those from the home side Australia. The BorderGavaskar Trophy is slowly turning out to be one of the most popular bilateral series in cricket. The MCG witnessed history when 373,691 fans poured in for the Boxing Day Tests throughout the five days of absorbing cricket. It incidentally recorded the highest at- PRESS CLUSIVE 20 arrested for the horrific rape of Kerala minor, hunt on for 40 more SPORTS CONNECT G O M E S H S @ Sydney Proposed headquarters of SCoR tendance for any Test played in recent times. With the growing Indian population, there has been a shift in the administrative set-up too. Harish Rao, who has roots, including cricketing ones in Chennai, became the first Indian-Australian to be appointed on the board of Cricket Victoria in its close to 150year history. The Indian diaspora has become a pivotal part of Australian cricket and it is increasing every series. It all started in 2022 when India-Pakistan T20 World Cup match was played in front of a capacity crowd of 90,293. India won and Australia realised the growing popularity among the Indian fans. The same year India and Australia signed the Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement. Realising the significance of the Indian diaspora, Cricket Victoria contacted Harish, an Indian Australian Business leader, who founded the Australia India Chamber of Commerce, and was a past board member of the Australia-India Institute before coming back to his cricketing roots. “There’s been a huge momentum in the AustraliaIndia relationship over the last few years, especially after Harish Rao the signing of the Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement in 2022. That has filtered through to many different aspects of relationships and certainly sport,” Harish explains. While Harish is on an exciting journey himself, it has also helped him connect to the sport which has been a big part of his family. His great grandfather B S Ramulu Naidu captained “Presidency Hindus” versus “Presidency Europeans” in the Madras Presidency match at the now M A Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai in 1908-09. Harish’s grandfather, B S Badradi played first-class cricket for Madras alongside M J Gopalan, C P JohnP13 stone, and A G Ram Singh. earning railway lines of the state, now under other zones, with ECoR have reportedly been overlooked. What has left many perplexed is that the foundation stones have been laid for SCoR zonal headquarters and Rayagada divisional headquarters even before their respective boundaries are finalised. Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the stones for both the projects earlier this week. “The railway committee recommended retaining Waltair as per the demands of Andhra Pradesh, but surprisingly the demands of Odisha to merge the state’s railway portions, now under South Easter n Railway (SER) and South East Central Railway (SECR), with ECoR were not considered,” sources CONTINUED ON P7 said. 2 Odia migrants found dead on rly line near Chennai EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Bhubaneswar/Balangir TWO Odia migrant labourers, who were on their way to Kerala for work, reportedly died after falling from a train near Chennai on Friday night. The migrant workers have been identified as Umesh Pandey and Kunu Banchhor, both in their early 20s. They belonged to Hatisalapada within Town police limits of Balangir district. Their bodies were found on the railway tracks near Perambur railway station by some locals who then informed the government railway police (GRP). Through their Aadhaar cards, police found out their identity and informed their family members at Hatisalapada. An official of Perambur GRP said the two persons were travelling together and were going to Kerala in a train. CONTINUED ON P7 WITH THIS ISSUE PARENTAL GUIDANCE PLUS 12 PAGES