COIMBATORE l saturday l june 28, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l LATE city EDITION Govt won’t enforce 20-28°C AC temperature norm in a hurry Union minister Bhupender Yadav on Friday said the government is unlikely to implement the new AC temperature range anytime soon ‘climate targets must be met under rules’ developed nations have more to do Asked at the India Climate Summit when the new AC temperature range would be implemented, Yadav said any such situation “may arise only after 2050”. “I do not think it will happen immediately; capacities will be gradually built for it over time,” he said. Achieving climate targets must be done in line with national circumstances and the CBDR-RC principles ■ ■ The principle of CBDR-RC (Common But Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective Capabilities) means all countries must fight climate change, but developed nations should do more Earlier this month, Union minister Manohar Lal Khattar said ACs will soon be required to operate between 20-28 degrees Celsius 6% of electricity can be saved just by raising ac temperatures by 1°C 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 Let’s avoid new complexities, India to China After US-China deal, Trump hints at ‘big one’ with India Express News Service @ New Delhi US President Donald Trump on Thursday said India and the US would soon sign a major trade agreement. He did not divulge more information. Trump also disclosed that he had signed a new trade agreement with China the previous day. The White House later clarified that the US has reached an agreement with China for exports of rare earth elements, a key raw material for auto and electronics manufacturing. Trump’s remarks on a deal with India came as an Indian delegation led by chief negotiator Rajesh Agarwal arrived in Washington for the Rajnath flags trust deficit, stresses need for permanent solution to border demarcation A defence ministry readout highlighted Singh’s concern India and China should build about trust deficit remaining a on the fresh momentum in the major barrier to progress. bilateral relations and avoid Singh reiterated India’s posinew complexities, Defence tion that the Chinese People’s Minister Rajnath Singh said on Liberation Army must return Friday, a day after he met his to its deployment positions as Chinese counterpart Admiral they stood in April 2020, prior Dong Jun on the sidelines of to violent clashes at multiple the Shanghai Cooperation Or- friction points such as Finger 4 ganisation Defence Ministers’ on the north bank of Pangong c o n c l ave i n Tso, Hot Springs, Qingdao, China. Gogra, Galwan, “It is incumand Depsang. bent on both The 2020 standsides to maintain off breached sevthis positive moeral agreements mentum and and confidenceavoid adding new building meascomplexities in ures, underminthe bilateral relaing decades of On border issues tionship,” Singh peace and stabilposted on X, addity efforts. Rajnath Singh told ing that he exAlthough disChina’s Admiral Dong Jun changed “conengagement the border issues may be s t r u c t ive a n d from all standoff addressed through a forward-looking points was com“structured roadmap of views” with Dong pleted in October permanent engagement on Thursday . 2024, over 1,00,000 and de-escalation” During the troops with talks, Singh emheavy military phasised the need for a struc- equipment still remain detured and permanent approach ployed near the LAC, indicatto de-escalation and peace ing that challenges persist. along the Line of Actual ConBeyond border issues, Singh trol. He outlined a roadmap for also briefed the Chinese deeffective border management, fence minister about the April achieving a permanent solu- 22 Pahalgam terrorist attack tion to border demarcation and India’s Operation Sindoor through established mecha- aimed at dismantling Pakinisms, bridging the trust defi- stan’s terror infrastructure. He cit stemming from the 2020 underlined India’s right to selfEastern Ladakh standoff, and defence and urged shared recreating good neighbourly con- sponsibility in combating ditions to foster cooperation. terrorism. Maya n k S i n g h @ New Delhi Bogus ‘award’ India categorically rejected a “supplemental award” issued by what it described as an “illegal” Court of Arbitration purportedly set up under the Indus Waters Treaty | P7 e x pr e s s r e a d HC refuses bail to MLA in boy abduction case Chennai: The Madras HC has refused to grant anticipatory bail to KV Kuppam MLA ‘Poovai’ M Jagan Moorthy in the boy abduction case in which ADGP H M Jayaram has already been suspended. “He must be subjected to custodial interrogation,” the court ruled | P2 Man held for harassing IIT intern on campus Chennai: An employee of a food court on IIT-Madras was arrested for allegedly sexually harassing a 20-year-old intern on the campus around 9.30pm on Thursday. The suspect, Roshan Kumar of Mumbai, who allegedly held her by the hair, fled the spot after she shouted for help. Male foetus found in woman who killed self Tiruvannamalai: Postmortem carried out on Umadevi (25), a five-month pregnant woman who allegedly ended life after being forced by her husband to abort her female foetus, showed that the foetus was actually male. The first scan was suspected to have been taken illegally in AP | P2 Chariots crawl The annual Rath Yatra at Puri on Friday was chaotic. None of the three chariots could even be pulled for half the distance from Shree Jagannath Temple to the Gundicha Temple amid heavy crowds and gross mismanagement | Ranjan Ganguly Chandru report S u b a s h i n i V i j aya k u m a r @ Chennai The School Education Department has issued a circular with a set of guidelines to end the recurring issue of castebased violence in TN schools. As part of the plan, a committee comprising Chief Educational Officer (CEO), District Child Protection Officer (DCPO), and Superintendent of Police will be set up in each district to monitor schools. Wearing coloured wristbands by students, which may indicate caste affiliation, and using bicycles with casteidentifying colours should be banned. Parents should be informed about this, the note said. Students expressing caste pride should be sensitively counselled, and use of mobile phones in schools by students must be strictly prohibited, the circular said. It can be recalled that the Justice K Chandru committee, appointed to recommend measures to prevent caste-based differences in educational institutions, had submitted a detailed report more than a year ago.  P5 Shah says NDA will form coalition govt in TN in 2026, lands AIADMK in a spot E x p r e s s N e w s S e r v i c e @ Chennai Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s remarks that there will be a coalition government of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in Tamil Nadu after the 2026 Assembly elections, have triggered uneasiness once again in the alliance between the AIADMK and the BJP with , leaders of both the parties treading carefully with their reactions on Friday . When asked about the CM candidate of the alliance in his interaction with a Tamil media organisation, Shah reiterated that the NDA alliance is contesting in TN under the leadership of the AIADMK. The Union Home Minister, however, did not explicitly mention the name of AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami as the alliance’s CM candidate. Though Palaniswami did not react to Shah’s remarks on Friday, former AIADMK minister SS Vaigaiselvan said the people of Tamil Nadu have never liked a coalition government in the state. He said that since Shah had already asserted that Palaniswami would be leading the alliance in Tamil Nadu, there was no need to explicitly mention his name as the CM candidate. Another former minister KT Rajenthra Bhalaji said EPS would be the CM candidate as he is heading the alliance. Though BJP supporters shared their happiness over Shah’s alliance government remark, BJP state chief Nainar Nagenthran evaded a direct response and instead said Shah and EPS would discuss and decide.  P5 The number of students who applied for this year’s singlewindow counselling for Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions (TNEA) saw a sharp increase of 20.9% with the rank list released on Friday by Higher Education Minister Govi Cheziaan featuring 2,41,641 students, compared to the nearly 2 lakh students in the rank list last year. This is the sharpest increase since 2022, when the number stood at 1.58 lakh students. The number of students securing a perfect 200 out of 200 too rose to 144 this year, twice more than the 65 students last year, as more centums were recorded in Class 12 core subjects this year. Of the 144 students, 139 are from the state board while the remaining five are from other boards. This increase is seen as an indication that the cut-off marks for top engineering colleges will rise and there will be fierce competition among students to get a seat of their choice. There were 1,32,582 male and 1,09,055 female candidates, and four trans persons in the rank list. “Last year, only 2,862 students had scored above 195 wines, petrochemical products, dairy items, and agricultural products such as apples, tree nuts, and genetically modified crops. In return, India is pushing for duty reductions on its labour-intensive exports such as textiles, gems and jewellery, leather goods, g ar ments, plastics, chemicals, shrimp, oil seeds, grapes, and bananas. Earlier this month, US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said that a deal between India and the US could be finalised soon, with both countries finding common ground that suits their interests. We are having some great deals. We have one coming up, maybe with India, a very big one, where we’re going to open up India —Donald Trump, US President Engineering rank list out, 21% more students vie for seats this year B i n i ta Ja i s w a l @ Chennai TN guidelines to end caste Tiffs in schools latest round of trade talks. Agarwal, special secretary in Department of Commerce, is leading discussions to finalise an interim pact ahead of Trump’s July 9 deadline to slap reciprocal tariffs. The Trump administration had on April 2 announced plans to impose reciprocal tariffs on several countries, including India. However, those tariffs have been suspended until July 9 to allow room for negotiations. The US is seeking tariff concessions from India on a range of products, including industrial goods, automobiles, electric vehicles, Number of students in TNEA rank list 2025 2024 2023 2022  2.41 L 1.99 L 1.79 L 1.58 L Counselling dates 7.5% quota seats: July 7 to 8 Spl reservation categories:July 9 to 11 General counselling: July 14 to Aug 19 End of counselling: August 26 marks, but this year, the number is 5,251. It is likely there will be a rise of 2 to 2.5 marks in the cut-off for top engineering colleges,” said career c o n s u l t a n t Jay p r a k a s h Gandhi. In the general category 24,900 , students had scored above 180 marks last year. This year, it surged to 52,126. “In the lowermark ranges like 150 and above, the cut-off for colleges is likely to increase by 15 marks compared to last year,” said another career counselor, R Ashwin. In the general category seven , girls were in the top-10 rank, while five were on the top-10 list under the 7.5% reservation category for government school students.  P5 Window Higher Education Minister Govi Cheziaan releasing the TNEA rank list | P Ravi Kumar Accused being produced in court | PTI 3 held for WB law student’s gang-rape Ka u s h i k P r a d h a n @ Kolkata Days after the horrific gangrape a law student inside a college campus at Kasba in South Kolkata, the city police arrested three suspects, including a former student of the institution. Alumnus Manojit Mishra (31) is allegedly a local leader of the students’ union of the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC). The other two are third semester law students of the college and are allegedly associated with the TMCP . According to the survivor’s complaint, the incident took place between 7.30 pm and 10.50 pm on Wednesday at the South Calcutta Law College. On his Facebook profile, Mishra claimed he was the organisational secretary of TMCP’s South Kolkata district. He is also a practicing lawyer in Alipore court. The other two accused were identified as Zaib Ahmed (19) and Pramit Mukhopadhyay (20). All three accused were produced before the Alipore court and remanded in police custody till July 1. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee cut short her stay at Digha and returned to Kolkata after participating in the Rath Yatra there. She was originally scheduled to come back on Saturday . man gets bail Live-in relationships are against settled law in middle-class society: HC n a m i ta b a j pa i @ Lucknow OBSERVING that live-in relationships disproportionately harm a woman in case of a breakup as the man can always move on and get settled after getting married, and that women find it difficult to get a life partner after breakup, the Allahabad High Court said “livein relationships are against the settled law in middle-class societies.” A single judge bench of Justice Siddharth expressed displeasure at the growing number of live-in cases reaching the court. “The concept of livein relationship goes against the interest of women since a man can marry even after live-in relationship but it is difficult for the women to find a life partner after a breakup,” Justice Siddharth ruled. “This court finds that after live-in-relationships were legalized by the Supreme Court, these cases are coming to the courts because the concept of live-in-relationship is against the settled law in the Indian middle-class society .” The court’s remarks came while hearing a bail plea of an accused named Shane Alam who had been booked under various provisions of BNS and POCSO Act on charges of getting involved in a physical relationship with a woman after giving false assurance of marriage. While arguing for the in- formant, her counsel Madhu Yadav said the act of the accused had ruined the life of the woman. Taking note, the bench said that while the concept of live-in relationship had found favour with the young generation, its after-effects were seen in the present case. The bench, however, granted bail to the accused on June 24 this year.