chennai l Monday l July 28, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 16 l late city EDITION Israel to halt fighting in Gaza as food crisis looms Israeli military’s pause is for 10 hours a day and meant to open secure routes for aid delivery to desperate Palestinians flour, sugar and canned food airdropped Global criticism of israel behind move Israel said it would begin a ‘tactical pause’ in Gaza City, Deir al-Balah and Muwasi, three areas with a large populace, to ‘increase the scale of humanitarian aid’ entering the territory. The military also said Sunday that it carried out aid airdrops into Gaza, which included packages of aid with flour, sugar and canned food ■ ■ Experts have warned for months of the risk of a famine in Gaza, where Israel has restricted aid because it says Hamas siphons off goods to help bolster its rule, a claim that Hamas has denied Images from Gaza in recent days of emaciated children have fanned global criticism of Israel, including by close allies | P9 5 lakh people in gaza are experiencing famine like conditions: U.N. 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 Parliament set Chola kings’ statues will be installed in TN: Modi for fiery debate on Op Sindoor P T h i r u s e lv a m Memo to Modi: Stalin repeats key demands @ Gangaikonda Cholapuram (Ariyalur) Congress issues whip to its members to be present in LS for three days from Monday Tuesday, party sources said. The Congress has been allotted WITH the Lok Sabha set to be- three hours to speak. gin a three-day debate on the Sources said Home Minister Pahalgam attack and Opera- Amit Shah and External Aftion Sindoor on Monday, the fairs Minister S Jaishankar ruling alliance and the Opposi- will speak, while Prime Ministion parties have lined up top ter Narendra Modi may interspeakers to put across their vene to explain his governpoints of view. ment’s track record on national The Cong ress on security . Sunday issued a whip The whip issued by to its MPs to be present Congress Chief Whip in the Lok Sabha. Kodikunnil Suresh After a week-long said” “Be present posistandoff between the tively in Lok Sabha Opposition and the from 11:00 AM onwards Treasury benches, the till adjournment of the Tharoor Monday session is exHouse on Monday, to speak? pected to be stormy as Tuesday & Wednesday While there is some Opposition parand support the Party no clarity if ties are expected to Stand. This may be Congress will raise the ongoing spetreated as three-line ask Shashi cial intensive revision whip”. Tharoor to (SIR) in Bihar as well. With 65 minutes alHowever, Union minis- speak, sources lotted for the Samajwater Kiran Rijiju has said Lok Sabha di Party, Akhilesh YaSpeaker can said that every issue dav and Rajeev Rai will invite him to cannot be taken up for speak on the issue. discussion in Parlia- speak since he Besides its battery led an ment at once. of leaders like Anurag important While Defence MinThakur, Sudhanshu delegation ister Rajnath Singh is Trivedi and Nishikant likely to open the disDubey the NDA is like, cussion from the ruling camp, ly to field members from the the Congress will field deputy multi-party delegations that leader of Lok Sabha Gaurav travelled to over 30 world capiGogoi to open the debate. The tals to present India’s case after Congress line-up includes gen- Operation Sindoor. They ineral secretaries Priyanka Gan- clude Shrikant Shinde of the dhi and K C Venugopal, who Shiv Sena, Sanjay Jha of JD(U), will speak on the opening day and Harish Balayogi of TDP . . Leader of Opposition Rahul The Rajya Sabha will take up Gandhi is likely to speak on the issue on Tuesday . P r e e t h a N a i r @ New Delhi one month on TN’s new mini bus scheme still remains a non-starter B A N B U SELVA N @ Chennai Despite high demand for transportation in Chennai and surrounding areas, the Mini Bus Scheme 2.0 that was launched on June 16 — allowing private operators to run mini buses on routes up to 25km — risks repeating the same mistakes as the 1997 rollout. The scheme was intended to provide bus connectivity across more than 25,000km of unserved areas across Tamil Nadu. Although the transport department has issued proceedings — a document granted by the RTO after the operator presents the bus — for over 2,000 routes, services have yet to start on more than 50% of these routes, according to industry sources. Currently, mini buses are operational only on 1,200 routes that were migrated from the previous scheme and brought under the revised guidelines. A field survey by TNIE in Chennai found that several sanctioned routes remain nonoperational. While the transport department claims services have been launched on 10 routes, buses are actually running on only three. In many areas, services either haven’t begun or were discontinued shortly after starting. Even on routes where operations have commenced, only one round trip is being made daily — far below the 12 trips originally approved.  P5 Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday announced that statues of emperors Raja Raja Chola and Rajendra Chola I will be installed in Tamil Nadu. Speaking at an event at Gangaikonda Cholapuram in Ariyalur commemorating 1,000 years of Rajendra Chola I’s maritime expedition to Southeast Asia and marking the Aadi Thiruvathirai festival at the temple, Modi said, “While taking pride in the tradition of our Bharat, I take a pledge today that we will install grand statues of King Raja Raja Chola and his son Rajendra Chola I in Tamil Nadu. These statues will become modern pillars of our historical consciousness.” In a 45-minute speech in Hin- express read CM out of hosp, set to return to work in 3 days Chennai: CM M K Stalin was discharged from Apollo Hospital around 6 pm on Sunday. The CM is set to return to his routine in three days, as per medical advice. Later, in a post on X, Stalin said, “Returned home in good health. I shall continue to fulfil my duty of working tirelessly for you, always!” | P4 ‘Fake ambassador’ visited 30 countries New Delhi: Harshvardhan Jain, who posed as the ambassador of several micronations and ran a fake embassy out of a rented bungalow in Ghaziabad, visited 30 foreign nations nearly 200 times between 2005 and 2015, initial probe revealed. The probe team found 25 shell companies registered under Jain’s name PM Narendra Modi, Governor R N Ravi and other leaders at the Aadi Thiruvathirai event in Gangaikonda Cholapuram, Ariyalur district, on Sunday | Express di, translated into Tamil, Modi spoke at length about the contributions of the Chola emperors and the Shaivite tradition to the country Referring to the . Chola era as one of the golden ages of India, he said, “The A day before the Supreme Court is set to hear a batch of petitions challenging the Election Commission of India’s decision to carry out a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar, the poll panel on Sunday said it has successfully completed the first phase of the exercise to collect enumeration forms. Enumeration forms were submitted by by 7.24 crore electors (91.69%) out of a total of 7.89 crore, the ECI said. In an official statement, the ECI said 65 lakh voters will be excluded from the upcoming draft electoral rolls to be published on August 1. These exclusions include 22 lakh deceased voters, 36 lakh who have either permanently relocated or were not traceable, and 7 lakh who were regis- tered at multiple places. The revision drive aimed to ensure that no elector is left behind, with targeted outreach to first-time voters, urban residents, migrants, senior citizens, and persons with disabilities, the panel said. “The initiative also witnessed a strong political response, with all 12 major parties participating. Notably the number of , booth level agents (BLAs) surged by over 16 percent, with CPI(M) and Congress registering more than a 100 percent increase in BLA nominations. CPI(M) reported a dramatic 1083 rise, while the BJP led in absolute numbers with over 53,000 BLAs, followed by RJD and JD(U),” it said. The draft rolls, available both online and offline on August 1, will be open for claims and objections for 1 month. the Kashi Tamil Sangamam and Saurashtra Tamil Sangamam.” On the Shaivite tradition, Modi said, “Our Shaivite tradition has played a huge role in the cultural formation of India. Six dead, 35 hurt in Haridwar stampede N a r e n d r a s e t h i @ Dehradun AN avoidable stampede on the path leading to the Mansa Devi Temple in Haridwar, Uttarakhand, claimed the lives of six devotees on Sunday while more , than 35 were injured, some with critical injuries. Rumours of a broken electric wire near the stairs to the temple triggered panic among people, leading to the stampede, Haridwar SSP Pramendra Singh Dobal said. The deceased were identified as Arush (12), Shakal Dev (18), Vicky (18), Vipin (18), Vakil and Shanti. What began as a routine spiritual journey for hundreds quickly turned into a nightmare. Devotees were making their way to offer prayers or returning after ‘darshan’ when the rumour caused panic, lead- An injured person being taken for treatment after a stampede broke out at Mansa Devi temple, in Haridwar, on Sunday | PTI ing to the tragedy . “It was sheer chaos. People started screaming about electrocution, and everyone just pushed forward,” recounted Pankaj Chaurasia, a devotee who managed to escape. “Those who fell on the narrow, crowded stairwell had no chance. People were trampled as the crowd surged forward.” The incident took place around 9 am. Being a Sunday a , large crowd of devotees had TCS to cut workforce by 2% amid shift towards AI Bihar SIR: Over 90% voters submitted forms, says EC M U K ESH RA N J A N @ New Delhi Chola kings bound India with the thread of cultural unity To. day, our government is carrying forward the same ideas of the Cholas. We are strengthening these centuries-old threads of unity through events like Chennai: In a memo submitted to PM Modi during his visit to Tamil Nadu on Saturday, CM M K Stalin reiterated key demands, including the immediate release of Samagra Shiksha funds, approval for long-pending railway links in TN and a permanent solution to the conflict between TN fishers and Sri Lankan Navy | P4 U M A K A N N A N @ Bengaluru Congress workers in Kolkata protest against Bihar’s revision of electoral rolls on Sunday | PTI INDIA bloc asks EC to discontinue exercise With over 65 lakh voters at the risk of exclusion after the first phase of Bihar’s SIR exercise, INDIA bloc parties on Sunday asked the Election Commission of India to stop the process immediately, alleging that the data is ‘flawed’. At a joint conference held by the bloc, leaders said SIR is based on ‘opacity’ and termed it ‘institutional arrogance’ | P7 THE AI storm is finally here, and as feared it is taking away jobs. Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India’s largest IT services firm, plans to lay off 2% of its global workforce in line with the company’s broader strategy to become ‘future-ready’. In absolute terms, 12,260 employees in the middle and the senior grades will lose jobs this year. TCS’s workforce, as on June 30, stood at 6,13,069. In a statement, TCS said it is on a journey to become a future-ready organisation, and this includes strategic initiatives including investing in new-tech areas, entering new markets, deploying AI at scale for clients and for the company creating next-gen , infra, and realigning workforce model. “Towards this, a number of reskilling and redeployment initiatives have been under- way We will also be releasing ... associates from the organization whose deployment may not be feasible,” it added. HR experts directly link such layoffs to AI as it automates tasks. Though TCS has not spoken about AI displacing employees, in a recent post-earnings conference, company officials said they are focusing more on upskilling employees and making them AI-ready . A d i t ya N a r aya n Mishra, MD and CEO of CIEL HR, said AI has emerged as a major disruptor in the IT services industry. “As processes have become standardised, AI tools are handling them with speed and accuracy. This is also redefining the role of people managers, whose traditional responsibilities such as delegating, monitoring, and supporting teams are now being augmented or replaced by AI,” he said. india in england Hundred reasons to smile for dramatic comeback TNIE in England Firoz Mirza @manchester Ravindra Jadeja celebrates his wellfought hundred against England at Old Trafford on Sunday | AFP Relief, joy and exuberance. Those were the emotions running through the Indian dressing room on Sunday evening. Not too long ago, nay hours one may say, they were staring down the barrel, staring at in- The Chola emperors were important architects of this heritage. That is why even today, Tamil Nadu is one of the living c e n t r e s o f t h e S h a iv i t e tradition.” Referring to the Chola rulers’ extensive diplomatic and trade relations with Sri Lanka, the Maldives, and Southeast Asia, Modi noted the coincidence of his return from the Maldives the previous day Pointing out . that while historians speak of Britain’s Magna Carta in the context of democracy, Modi said the Chola Empire had implemented democratic electoral practices centuries earlier through the Kudavolai Amaippu system. The PM said the legacy of Raja Raja Chola and Rajendra Chola I is synonymous with India’s identity and pride.  P5 evitability with awe. England were toying with their bowlers and captain Shubman Gill seemed to have no answer. A lead of 311 runs and India were pushed to the wall. Any chance of batting out three sessions on Sunday started looking even more grim when England captain Ben Stokes took the ball from the other end and sent back wellset overnight batter K L Rahul. Gill, however, completed his century before a lapse of concentration minutes before lunch cost his wicket. The job, however, was not over. Ravindra Jadeja picked from from Lord’s, and in the company of Washington Sundar, enacted one of India’s greatest comebacks. Draws in Test cricket do have dramas and ample was in store as the evening winded towards dull draw. With both the batters closing in on their hundreds England captain wanted to shake hands but India wanted to continue. Though England players livid everything was within the laws. Part-timer Harry Brook was pressed into action and he bowled some donkey drops as both batters got to their respective centuries. Now, India go into the last Test with head held high and chin up. They will try and give everything at The Oval and draw the series 2-2. P11 gathered at the temple atop the Shivalik hills at a height of more than 500 feet. Videos from the spot showed a massive rush of people, including children and women, near the temple. Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, while announcing a financial assistance of `2 lakh to next of kin of the deceased and `50,000 to the injured, ordered a probe. President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi were among those who expressed grief over the loss of lives in the stampede. Modi, in a post on X, said: “Condolences to those who lost their loved ones. May the injured recover soon.” Mahant Ravindra Puri, President of the temple trust, said, “The stampede was caused by someone falling near the temple, not due to a broken wire.” One-fifth of pvt TN polytechnic colleges opt out of admissions B i n i ta J a i s w a l @ Chennai As many as 80 — or one-fifth — of the 401 private polytechnic colleges in Tamil Nadu have opted out of the admission process this academic year. The unprecedented development has brought to light the issues ailing polytechnic education — at private institutions in particular — where colleges and seats are aplenty but takers few. , According to officials of the Directorate of Technical Education (DoTE), of these 80 colleges, 35 have applied for permanent closure in the last two years, while the remaining have chosen not to admit students this year. “Some of these colleges have failed to enrol students even in single-digit figures in the last three years. Hence, we have not asked them to join admissions,” said an official. Experts attribute the declining enrolment to the rising interest among students in engineering courses and the high fees charged by private polytechnic colleges. “When a student can study a course in a government college for just `2,500 a year, why would they want to spend `30,000 in a private college,” said the principal o f a p r iv a t e c o l l e g e i n Coimbatore. P Selvaraj, secretary of the Consortium of Self-financing Professional, Arts and Science Colleges in TN, said private polytechnic colleges are struggling to fill even half their seats and operational costs are taking a toll on their survival.  P5