Starlink gets licence to start India services Elon Musk’s Starlink has received a licence from the telecom department for providing satellite internet services in India, a key milestone that will take it closer towards launching commercial operations in the country. Starlink is the third company after Eutelsat OneWeb and Jio to get the licence | P16 chennai l Saturday l june 07, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 22 l late city EDITION 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 Double delight: Repo Op Sindoor will haunt Pak: Modi cut by 50 bps, CRR 1% RAJESH KUMAR THAKUR & FAYAZ WANI @ Katra / Srinagar D i pa k M o n d a l @ New Delhi The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has ‘frontloaded’ the dose of relief for borrowers. On Friday the central bank’s rate-set, ting panel surprised the Street with a 50 basis point cut in the repo rate—the benchmark lending rate—to 5.5% against the expectation of a 25 basis point reduction. The panel also shifted its policy stance from ‘accommodative’ to ‘neutral’, signalling an end of rate cut cycle for now. With Friday’s cut, RBI has lowered the repo rate by a cumulative 100 basis points (bps) in 2025. To ease liquidity conditions, RBI also announced a 100 bps cut in the cash reserve ratio (CRR) from 4% to 3%, to be implemented in four tranches starting September 6. This is expected to release `2.5 lakh crore into the banking system. Speaking to the media, RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra said the move was aimed at ensuring policy certainty. He said RBI could have done the rate cut in tranches, but it wanted to give a sense of certainty to the market with a 50 bps cut. Malhotra said the Monetary Policy Committee’s decision was taken in view of durable disinflation and the need to boost private consumption and investment. “Inflation has softened, with headline CPI falling to 3.2% in April—below the 4% target,” he said. “We now project inflation for FY26 at 3.7%, down from our earlier forecast of 4%.” On reverting to the ‘neutral’ stance from ‘accommodative’, he clarified this change indicates a “very limited space” for further monetary policy action. A neutral stance will mean rates in future can go either way “If . growth is weaker, it can mean it will go down. If growth is good, inflation is going up, the repo rate can go up,” he said.  P16 MPC will carefully assess data to chart out future course of monetary policy Sanjay Malhotra, RBI guv 6.5% growth Real GDP growth for FY26 has been retained at 6.5%, with Q2 projected at 6.7% Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday lit into Pakistan, accusing the ‘unfortunate neighbour’ of conspiring to derail the economy and empowerment of Jammu and Kashmir through the brutal terror attack in Pahalgam on April 22. “Pakistan attacked both insaniyat (humanity) and Kashmiriyat (Kashmir’s social harmony) in Pahalgam. It wanted to spark communal riots in India and rob Kashmiris of their livelihood,” Modi said in his first visit to J&K after the April 22 terror attack. His comments came while addressing a rally at Katra after inaugurating the world’s highest single-arch rail bridge over the Chenab river, India’s first cable-stayed Anji bridge, and flagging off Vande Bharat trains to mark the completion of the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla railway link that providies direct train connectivity to the Kashmir Valley . In all, Modi inaugurated development projects worth `46,000 crore for the region. “On the intervening night of May 6-7, doom was let loose on Pakistan’s terrorists,” Modi said, adding that Pakistan will be reminded of its shameful defeat whenever it hears the name Operation Sindoor. Lauding the people of Jammu and Kashmir, the prime minister said, “The edifice of terror that Pakistan built over the years was reduced to rubble in minutes. Development and peace of J&K is the Modi guarantee which nothing can hamper.” express read B’luru stampede: Four arrested Bengaluru: Four officials of RCB and event management firm DNA Entertainment Private Limited were arrested on Friday in connection with the stampede outside Chinnaswamy stadium that killed 11 people, police sources said | P7 Kamal, five others file papers for RS election Prime Minister Narendra Modi with railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, MoS Jitendra Singh, CM Omar Abdullah and others during inauguration of Chenab rail bridge | PTI Carney invites Modi to G7 summit J aya n t h J a c o b @ New Delhi IN a major signal of improving ties between India and Canada following erosion of diplomatic relations under former Canadian PM Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday confirmed his participation in the upcoming G7 Summit, to be held in Kananaskis, Alberta, from June 15–17. Confirming his attendance, Modi said he looks forward to meeting the newly elected Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney . Taking to X on Friday Prime , Minister Modi said. “Glad to receive a call from Prime Minister @MarkJCarney of Canada ... thanked him for the invit at i o n t o G 7 S u m m i t i n Kananaskis later this month.” CHENNAI: Actor-politician Kamal Haasan and three DMK candidates filed their nomination for the Rajya Sabha polls in Chennai on Friday. AIADMK candidates IS Inbadurai and M Dhanapal also filed their papers | P4 Madras HC rejects plea for NEET-UG re-exam CHENNAI: The Madras HC has dismissed the petitions filed by 16 candidates seeking re-conduct of the NEET-UG, 2025. The students had prayed for a re-exam stating that they were affected by power outage at their exam centres | P5