COIMBATORE l SATURday l FEBRUARY 08, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 14 l LATE CITY EDITION Modi to meet Trump next week during two-day U.s. visit: MEA Prime Minister Narendra Modi will reach the US on February 12 for a two-day working visit, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Friday Trip comes as India faces don’s tariff threat prime minister to visit france on Monday Foreign secretary Vikram Misri said the visit will give further direction and momentum to the India-US relationship. “There is a clear convergence of interests between the two in several areas,” he said. It also comes as India faces Donald Trump’s tariff heat. The Republican has launched a global trade war by raising tariffs on goods from China, Canada and Mexico | P9 ■ ■ “The fact that the Prime Minister has been invited to visit the US within barely three weeks of the new administration taking office shows the importance of the India-US partnership,” Misri said Prior to his US visit, Modi will be in France from February 10-12 to co-chair the AI Action Summit with President Emmanuel Macron Sep 21 When prime minister Modi last visited the u.s. 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 CYBER SECURITY Figured out GROWTH RBI forecasts FY26 growth at 6.7% on better Rabi harvest, tax relief INFLATION Inflation rate pegged at 4.2% in FY26 CHEAPER LOANS Home, auto, small business loans to see a drop in interest rates Banks to have ‘bank.in’ and non-bank financial entities ‘fin.in’ domain names to check cyber security threats RBI tango with FM gives 1st rate relief in five yrs Interest rate cut by 25 bps; guv says RBI will support growth while keeping inflation down BENN KOCHUVEEDAN @ Mumbai SEEKING to build on the feelgood factor generated by the Budget, which announced significant tax cuts, the Reserve Bank of India on Friday cut interest rates by 25 basis points to 6.25%. This is the first rate cut in five years and, together with the income tax relief, could give a big boost to consumption-driven growth. The immediate impact of the rate cut is that it will make home, auto, and small business loans cheaper; loans on floating interest rates will automatically come down by 25 bps. The latest cut brings curtains on the second longest high interest rate regime since the rate revision on October 22, 2008 ended a 5.1-year wait for the repo to fall from 8% after the global financial crisis that began in September 2007. Friday’s rate correction comes after five years, as the last cut was in May 2020 when RBI cut rates by an unconventional 50 bps to 4% during the peak of the pandemic. While industry as well as the markets were not im- pressed by the nominal 0.25% repo rate cut as they expected more, what is striking in the policy announcement this time is the tone of new governor Sanjay Malhotra’s statement; it says the monetary policy should be more accommodative to growth concerns than inflation. This signals a shift in approach by the central bank as taming inflation is the legal mandate of the monetary authority . RBI expects economic activity to improve with agricultural output remaining upbeat, while manufacturing is set to recover in the second half of 2025. Accordingly, Malhotra said the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is confident of the economy growing at 6.7% next fiscal compared to 6.4% in FY25. On inflation, the MPC sees prices moderating and finally aligning to the lower end of the target through the year. It sees inflation closing this fiscal at 4.8% and 4.2% in FY26. On the tax cuts in the Budget, Malhotra said household consumption would improve on the back of better employment conditions.  P12 BJP or AAP govt? Delhi assembly poll results today Counting of votes for the Delhi assembly polls will take place on Saturday to decide whether the AAP retains power for a third consecutive term or the BJP forms a government after more than 26 years express read Stalin slams centre for ignoring TN in Budget Tirunelveli: After inaugurating projects worth `1,304 crore at a government function organised on the Tirunelveli Medical College campus, CM M K Stalin took a ‘halwa’ dig at the centre for ignoring TN in the Union Budget, saying that Tirunelveli is known for its world-famous ‘halwa’, “but now, the ‘halwa’ given by the centre to the state has become even more famous”. He added southern districts will make a giant leap in the next 5 years | P4 SC bench may decide on TN bills’ repugnancy New Delhi: The SC on Friday said that under Article 200 of the Constitution, the governor is obligated to return the bills to the Assembly for reconsideration if repugnancy is found in the bill. The bench observed that an “impasse” has been created as the President has also returned them saying they are repugnant. The bench hinted that it may go into the legal question if the bills were repugnant, if needed | P7 four-member Special Investigation Team formed in Punjab to probe the racket; Fir registered Cuffing avoidable, shared concern Most of deportees with Trump administration: govt entered u.s. in Jan J aya n t h J a c o b @ New Delhi Amid widespread outrage over mistreatment of 104 deportees from the US, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri on Friday said India has registered concerns with the US authorities, adding handcuffing was avoidable. “It is a valid issue to raise and we continue to emphasise to the US authorities that there should be no mistreatment. We will continue to take up any instances of mistreatment that come to our attention. Action needs to be taken across the system against the underlying ecosystem that thrives on promoting illegal immigration,” the foreign secretary said. 487 more Indians face deportation The US has notified about 487 other individuals, believed to be Indian nationals, against whom removal orders have been issued. Of these, the nationality verification process is underway for 295. Identifying details have been supplied to India ob 298 individuals, Misri said Asked whether India, like Brazil and Colombia, had protested the use of handcuffs and chains on deportees, Misri said, “We have been in touch with the US and have registered our concern.” Responding to yet another question of whether there is any record of the government of the day (Congress-led UPA) protesting the use of restrains since 2012, the foreign secretary said there was none. TN horror Pregnant woman resists rape, thrown out of train E x p r e s s N e w s S e r v i c e @ Tirupattur A four-month pregnant woman was pushed out of a moving train between Kavanur and Virinjipuram stations by a 30-year-old man after she resisted his attempts to sexually assault her late on Thursday The accused, iden. tified as K Heamaraj of KV Kuppam in Vellore district, had boarded the Coimbatore-Tirupati Intercity Express when it was about to leave the Jolarpet station, sources said. The woman, who suffered fractures in leg and hand, is out of danger. According to railway police sources, the victim, a resident of Tiruppur employed at a shirt-making unit, was travelling to Chittoor to visit her mother. She boarded the ladies’ compartment of the train on Thursday morning. Seven other female passengers, who were travelling with her in the coach, alighted at Jolar- K Heamaraj pet station, sources said. Police said Heamaraj, who has several criminal cases pending against him, boarded the train at Jolarpet when it was in motion noting that the victim was the lone passenger in the coach. When the woman confronted him and told him to get off the ladies’ compartment, Heamaraj said he would alight at the next station. However, he soon began misbehaving with her and attempted to rape her, sources said. As the pregnant woman resisted, the enraged accused pushed her out of the moving train. Local villagers rescued the woman and rushed her to the nearest government hospital in Vellore.  P7 Correspondent’s hubby, 4 held for sexual assault of Class 4 girl E x p r e s s N e w s S e r v i c e @ Tiruchy Five people, including the school correspondent and her husband, have been arrested following allegations of sexual assault of a Class 4 student at a private CBSE school in Manapparai in Tiruchy district, police said on Friday. The incident has sparked off massive protests by parents and relatives in Manapparai. According to police sources, the incident happened after the nine-year-old girl took part in a drawing competition in her classroom on Thursday . She was sexually assaulted by J Vasanth (54), the husband of school correspondent V Sudha. He is also a member of the school’s board of directors. After reaching home, the girl told her parents about the alleged incident. Shocked, her parents and relatives went to the school and had an argument with the school manage- ment on this. Later, when the CCTV footage was checked, it was confirmed that he had sexually assaulted her, sources added. Police said, “Angry parents and relatives of the minor girl attacked Vasanth, and vandalised two cars and classroom windows of a nearby matriculation school belonging to the same management. Later, they staged a road blockade at N o c h i m e d u o n T i r u c hy Dindigul national highway demanding immediate arrest of those involved in the incident.”  P2 Relatives of victim vandalising properties of the school | Express The girl told her parents about the incident. When the CCTV footage was checked, it was confirmed that he had sexually assaulted her Police sources While the deportation process itself was not new, this latest one was “somewhat different” from previous repatriations, as it was classified by the US as a “national security operation”, Misri said while answering a question why a military aircraft was used. “This deportation is different. In the US system, it was described as a national security operation.” H a r p r e e t B a j w a @ Chandigarh Almost all of the 104 Indians deported by the US entered it in January via Mexico, and while most of them were helped by travel agents based in Dubai, some went through agents in Delhi and the UK. As per officials who questioned the deportees at Amritsar, many of them got in touch with the agents in Dubai through their local partners in India. Most of them paid several lakhs of rupees to these agents, travelled for months through multiple countries, before reaching the US. Mandeep Singh, 29, from Punjab contacted a Dubai-based agent who had earlier helped him reach Spain. After paying `1 crore, he landed in Dubai. From there, he travelled to Armenia, and then to Serbia. From there, reached Tijuana in Mexico. He then walked for over 100 km through jungle, and finally entered the US, only to be detained by the border police. In Punjab, the police have begun a crackdown on “fake travel agents”. A four-member Special Investigation Team has been constituted to look into the issue. The police registered a case on Friday against a person on a complaint filed by one of the deportees, who alleged that he paid `60 lakh to migrate to the US through the legal route, but was cheated. HC junks plea for CBI probe in MUDA case Yat h i r a j u @ Bengaluru The verdict is a big relief for Chief Minister Siddaramaiah The High Court of Karnataka on Friday dismissed a petition filed by Mysuru-based social activist Snehamayi Krishna seeking its direction for a CBI probe into the alleged irregularities in allotment of 14 compensatory MUDA sites to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s wife B M Parvathy . The material on record nowhere indicates that the investigation conducted by the Lokayukta police is partisan, lopsided or shoddy for the case to be referred to CBI for further investigation or re-investigation, Justice M Nagaprasanna said while delivering the verdict dismissing Krishna’s petition. Granting liberty to the Lokayukta police to place its probe report before the special court to try criminal cases against sitting and former MPs/MLAs, which passed an order to register an FIR, the high court said it is for the petitioner to avail all such remedies under the law.