BHUBANESWAR  TUESDAY  JANUARY 21, 2025  `9.00  PAGES 14  LATE CITY EDITION NATIONAL COMPANY LAW TRIBUNAL ORDERS LIQUIDATION OF GO FIRST LIQUIDATOR TO PROBE FINANCIAL AFFAIRS The resolution process did not take off and the tribunal has now ordered liquidation of the airline on an application by the Committee of Creditors (CoC). Dinkar Tiruvannadapuram Venkatasubramanian is the liquidator, who will continue to probe the airline’s financial affairs. He will submit a preliminary report within 75 days from the date of start of liquidation | P12 The budget carrier had stopped flying three years ago after being bogged down by financial woes and filed for a voluntary insolvency resolution AIRLINE ONCE HAD A FLEET SIZE OF 54 JETS ■ ■ The airline reported a loss of `1,800 cr, including `800 cr notional loss due to accounting standards in the financial year ended March 2023 At its peak, Go First operated a fleet of 54 aircraft. In May 2024, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation de-registered all planes and by December lessors repossessed 28 aircraft and moved out of India 17 years NO. OF YEARS GO FIRST, EARLIER KNOWN AS GO AIR, REMAINED IN SERVICE 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 TRUMP 2.0 BEGINS NATIONAL EMERGENCY DECLARED AT U.S.-MEXICO BORDER A RAFT OF EXECUTIVE ORDERS EXPECTED The golden age of America begins right now... I will very simply put America first —DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT Donald Trump takes the oath of office during the Presidential Inauguration in the Rotunda of the US Capitol in Washington, on Monday. As per convention, J D Vance was sworn in as the vice president just ahead of Trump | AP Guests including Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Sundar Pichai and Elon Musk at the inauguration ceremony | AP A G E N C I E S @ Washington DONALD Trump, 78, on Monday took his oath of office for a historic second term as US president, and pledged a blitz of immediate orders on immigration and the culture wars as he caps his extraordinary comeback. As per protocol, J D Vance was sworn in as Vice President first, followed by Trump’s taking oath as President. With one hand raised in the air and the other on a Bible given to him by his mother, the 47th US president took the oath of office beneath the huge Rotunda of the US Capitol. Trump started his inaugural speech with: “The golden age of America begins right now,” adding that the US will “flourish and be respected”. In his fiery address, he said “America’s decline is over” as changes will come “very quickly”. Hitting out at the Biden administration for the migrant crisis, he promised to clean up the mess on a war footing. He said he was declaring a national emergency at the US-Mexico border and would deploy troops there to deal with the crisis. He also listed a series of actions to be rolled out: renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, and reclaiming the Panama Canal. On the international trade front, he promised a ‘complete overhaul’ by taxing foreign countries through tar- iff to enrich US citizens. Trump is expected to issue some 100 executive orders. A political outsider at his first inauguration in 2017, now Trump is surrounded by the wealthy and powerful. While Trump refused to attend Biden’s 2021 inauguration after claiming electoral fraud by the Democrat, this time Biden has been keen to restore the sense of tradition. Biden joined for mer presidents Barack Obama, George W Bush and Bill Clinton at the Capitol. Former first ladies Hillary Clinton and Laura Bush were there but ex-first lady Michelle Obama stayed away . Unusually for an inauguration where foreign leaders are normally not invited, this time Argentina’s hard-right president Javier Milei attended the event, along with Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni. Chinese vice president Han Zheng represented his government. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar attended the ceremony as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s special envoy Con. gratulating Trump, Modi wrote on X: “Congratulations my dear friend President Donald Trump on your historic inauguration as the 47th president of the United States! I look forward to working closely together once again, to benefit both our countries, and to shape a better future for the world. Best P11 wishes...” BIDEN ISSUES PREEMPTIVE PARDONS Hours before Trump’s swearing-in, outgoing president Joe Biden on Monday issued pre-emptive pardons to Dr Anthony Fauci, retired Gen Mark Milley, and members of the House committee that investigated the Jan 6 attack on the Capitol PUTIN CONGRATULATES TRUMP, SIGNALS THAW Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday congratulated Donald Trump just before his swearing in. “We hear Trump’s statements about restoring direct contacts with Russia, which were halted by the outgoing administration... We welcome the approach,” he said Coal min GK Reddy asks states to ensure timely operation of all auctioned mines B I J O Y P R A D H A N @ Bhubaneswar INSIDE MAJHI ASKS DEPTS TO ENSURE 100% FUND UTILISATION BEFORE BUDGET | P3 UNION minister for Coal and Mines G Kishan Reddy on Monday called upon states to expedite operationalisation of major mineral and coal blocks which have been auctioned since 2015 but are yet to be made functional. Addressing the inaugural session of the third national mines ministers’ conference at Konark, Reddy stressed the need to operationalise auctioned mines to harness the untapped mineral resources for rapid economic growth of the country. More than 442 mineral blocks have auctioned since 2015 but a vast majority of them are still not operational despite the Narendra Modi government bringing in major re- CM Mohan Charan Majhi and Union Coal minister GK Reddy at the conference forms in the Mining and Mineral (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957, he said. “Many states are doing well but some are lagging behind. The auction objective will be defeated if the mines remain non-operational,” Reddy said while appealing to the states to grant statutory clearances in mission mode and ensure that the operators do not face problems due to administrative issues. “The doors of the Coal and Mines ministries are always open for the states and other stakeholders. The Centre is always ready to sort out any problem encountered during the auction process or operationalisation of mines,” Reddy said. Emphasising the role of states in auctioning of critical and strategic mineral blocks, the minister said the central government is giving maximum thrust on exploration of critical minerals to meet its energy security and net zero goals through the National Critical Minerals CONTINUED ON P7 Mission. PLANETARY PARADE Skywatch time as seven planets to align in March R I S H I TA K H A N N A @ Bengaluru IN a rare celestial event, seven planets of the Solar System will align by March this year. Six of them — Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune — will begin to come into alignment on Tuesday (January 21), while Mercury will join in on February 28. Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn will be visible to the naked eye, but Uranus and Neptune will require a telescope to observe the alignment, which is called a ‘planetary parade’. Dr B R Guruprasad, Director of Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium, explained to this newspaper that a ‘planetary parade’ is a phenomenon in which multiple planets appear in the sky at the same time from the perspective of observers from Earth, more clearly visible in the evening/ night sky . Highlighting its signifi- cance, Guruprasad said while a few planets align when they cross paths in their orbits, having as many as seven align at once is rare. Venus will be the brightest and the most eye-catching. Mars, with its red hue, will resemble a glowing bulb. Saturn will appear as a tiny dot in the western sky, while Jupiter will look similar, but positioned in the The planets will not line up side by side in a straight line next to each other, but will appear at different points in the sky, all visible to the observer — Dr B R Guruprasad, Director, Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium southern sky Uranus and Neptune . will appear like small bright dots, but not be visible to the naked eye. March 8 will mark the maximum elongation, with Mercury reaching its farthest point from the Sun. By March 12, Saturn will dip below the horizon for a while, but from February 28 to March 12, the planetary alignment will be at its peak. The alignment happens along the ecliptic, which is an imaginary line that marks a path that Earth and other planets follow while orbiting the Sun. Lifer till death for RG Kar accused S U L A G N A S E N G U P TA @ Kolkata A Sealdah court on Monday sentenced Sanjay Roy the lone , accused in the horrific rapemurder of a trainee doctor at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in August last year, to life imprisonment till death. The court, however, rejected the prosecution’s demand for death penalty saying it was not a “rarest of the rare” crime. Additional District and Sessions Judge Anirban Das ordered Roy to pay `50,000 as penalty and directed the West Bengal government to give the victim’s family `17 lakh as compensation — `10 lakh for death and `7 lakh for rape while at work. But the victim’s father refused to accept it. He instead demanded capital punishment of the accused. The judge said, “I don’t think money can compensate for any death. It was the liability of state to protect your daughter as she was on duty (when the Different strokes While Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and junior doctors at RG Kar were unhappy with the verdict, the National Commission for Women welcomed it horrific rape-murder happened). This is a statutory provision. If you take it, you can use it. I gave whatever I felt. You can move a higher court.” Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said she was not happy with the verdict, and so did junior doctors at RG Kar. The victim’s colleagues cited unresolved questions and the absence of action against other potential suspects. They wanted a more thorough probe, including the motive and the involvement of others. However, the National Commission for Women welcomed the ruling. Roy was convicted by a special court on Saturday, nearly six months after his arrest. U’KHAND CABINET CLEARS UCC RULES N A R E N D R A S E T H I @ Dehradun THE Uttarakhand Cabinet on Monday approved the Uniform Civil Code’s (UCC) regulations, close to a year after the legislation was passed by the state assembly Chief Min. ister Pushkar Singh Dhami said the date of its implementation will be announced soon. Sources suggested it could be notified on January 26, a day after the results of the January 23 municipal elections is announced. A mock drill of a UCC portal set up by the government will be held on Tuesday Govern. ment officials tasked with managing the portal have already been given ample training. Uttarakhand’s UCC encompasses various aspects of personal law, including marriage, divorce, maintenance, property rights, adoption and inheritance. “The code recognises live-in relationships, ensuring that children born from such unions are entitled to equal inheritance rights,” an official stated. The UCC aims to establish a uniform legal framework applicable to all individuals, regardless of their religion, caste or community . However, the state’s tribals are out of its ambit. 2 MAOISTS Two women Naxals were neutralised during a joint operation launched by GUNNED DOWN Odisha and Chhattisgarh BY ODISHA, C’GARH POLICE police near Nuapada | P4