chennai l sunday l april 20, 2025 l `12.00 l PAGES 24 l vellore EDITION 24 get 100 percentile in JEE-Main, Rajasthan has most toppers Twenty-four candidates scored a perfect 100 in JEE (Main), results of which were announced by the National Testing Agency on Saturday File photo t’gana, u.p., maharashtra do well too 21 top candidates from general list Rajasthan, India’s coaching hub, had the highest number of candidates with a perfect score with as many as seven scoring 100 percentile. Next in line, three toppers each are from Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, followed by two toppers each from Delhi, West Bengal and Gujarat. One topper each is from Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, as per NTA ■ ■ While 21 top-scoring candidates are from general category, the list includes one candidate each from SC, ST and OBC categories The examination was held in April across nine shifts at 531 centres in 300 cities, including 15 outside India. Results of 110 candidates found using unfair means, including forged documents, were withheld 9,92,350 appeared in the second edition of jee main exam 2025 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 Rift in MDMK: Durai resigns as principal secy S K U M A R E S A N @ Chennai In an indication of irreconcilable differences between top leaders within the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK), Durai Vaiko—Lok Sabha MP and son of party founder Vaiko—resigned from his post of principal secretary on Saturday a day , before the party’s high-level committee is scheduled to meet in Chennai on Sunday . Durai, in a statement, expressed his anguish over “persistent personal attacks” against him in the past four years. Though he did not name anyone, party sources said he was referring to the rift between him and senior party leader Mallai Sathya. He said while he had endured the attacks silently, time had come to step down from organisational responsibilities.  P5 WITH THIS ISSUE The Great New AdVentures PLUS 12 PAGES Putin springs a short Easter truce surprise our example.” Ukraine has been wary of short-term truces, having preAMID growing frustration in viously rejected a January 2023 Washington over stalled peace ceasefire. Zelenskyy wrote on X efforts, Russian President that the truce plan came as air Vladimir Putin announced a raid alerts were announced in surprise Easter truce in Ukraine due to drone the conflict in Ukraine. attacks. The truce will pause The ceasefire an“all hostilities” from 6 nouncement follows pm Moscow time on Satfresh Russian claims of urday (11 am Eastern territorial gains, includTime) until midnight ing the capture of anon Monday (5 pm ET other settlement near Sunday). the Kursk border reThe announcement gion. President Putin came on the same day suggested the truce as Russia, Ukraine Our troops must would serve as a test of be ready to swapped hundreds of Ukraine’s sincerity repel violations prisoners in the war’s about wanting peace. of the truce largest exchange. RusUS Secretary of State and any sia said 246 Russian Marco Rubio had sigprovocations service members were nalled growing impareturned from territory —Vladimir Putin tience with the peace controlled by Kyiv, and process. that ‘as a gesture of goodwill’ On Friday, he warned that 31 wounded Ukrainian prison- the United States is prepared to ers of war were transferred in “move on” from its role in broexchange for 15 wounded Rus- kering peace talks unless there sian soldiers. are tangible signs of progress Putin said he expects Ukraine in the coming days. “We can’t to reciprocate: “We assume that keep chasing a breakthrough the Ukrainian side will follow that isn’t coming,” he said. E x p ress N e w s S er v i c e @ New Delhi First in-person trade talks with the US from April 23 D i pak M o n d a l @ New Delhi Aiming to quickly wrap up the first phase of the Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) with the US before the September-October deadline, India is sending a small delegation of five-six negotiators to the US on April 23. The delegation is li kely to st ay there for three days, commerce ministry sources told this newspaper. US vice-president J D Vance is due to arrive in India on Monday April 21. The , Indian delegation’s visit a couple of days later indicates the mutual urge to expedite the talks. Earlier, the ministry had indicated that physical negotiations will begin only in the first week of May “While vir. tual negotiations have started, we thought we will send a small delegation to the US to carry forward the discussions,” a commerce ministry official told this newspaper. India’s chief negotiator — additional secretary in the Department of Commerce Rajesh Agrawal — will lead the team for the first in-person talks. He was appointed the next commerce secretary on April 18. He will assume office on October 1. Though some reports suggest both sides have agreed to have the discussions covering 19 chapters, including tariffs, non-tariff barriers, and customs facilitation, the ministry official quoted earlier denied chapter-wise discussions would be held during the visit of the delegation. He said chapter-wise discussion would begin in the second half of May. “The texts and contours of those discussions are being prepared currently the official said. ,” “The September-October timeline is a deadline, not a target. If negotiations can be concluded earlier, it will benefit both,” said a commerce ministry official. India condemns Hindu leader’s murder in B’desh Jayan t h Ja c o b @ New Delhi In a sharp escalation of tensions over attacks on Hindu minorities in Bangladesh, India on Saturday condemned the brutal killing of community leader Bhabesh Chandra Roy as part of a “systematic persecution” and firmly urged Dhaka to protect its minorities without offering excuses or justifications. ter he receiving a suspiBhabesh Chandra cious call around 4.30 Roy, 58, a prominent pm. They took him to Hindu leader and viceNarabari village, where president of the Biral h e w a s s av a g e l y unit of the Bangladesh assaulted. Puja Udjapan Parishad, The attackers later Bhabesh C Roy dumped the unconwas murdered in Dinajpur, Bangladesh. Local scious Roy at his home media reports said Roy was ab- in a van. He taken to a hospital, ducted from home by four men where he was declared dead. on motorcycles half-an-hour af“We have noted with distress the abduction and brutal killing of Shri Bhabesh Chandra Roy a Hindu minority leader in , Bangladesh,” External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said. “This killing follows a pattern of systematic persecution of Hindu minorities under the interim government even as the perpetrators of previous such events roam with impunity .”