kOCHI l wednesday l august 06, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 16 l LATE city EDITION India, Philippines announce strategic partnership Eye on countering china’s heft in region The announcement follows high-level talks between PM Narendra Modi and visiting Philippine President Ferdinand R Marcos Jr. At the heart of the deal lies a shared commitment to deepen defence, economic, and digital cooperation set against a backdrop of rising tensions in the Indo-Pacific, particularly with China’s growing assertiveness in the South China Sea | P7 India and Philippines upgraded their bilateral relationship to a strategic partnership following high-level talks between the two on Tuesday ■ $3.53 bn We are Friends by choice, says PM ■ The talks resulted in over a dozen key agreements and declarations, including enhanced naval, air, and army-to-army cooperation, and a landmark treaty on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters “India and Philippines are friends by choice, partners by destiny. Ours isn’t just a friendship of past, it is a promise to the future,” Modi said was the bilateral trade value between india, phillipines in 2023-24 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 Kalp Kedar Temple Gartang Gali the Dharali village that got washed away near an army camp at harshil Bhaironghati Gangotri Uttarakhand Kedar Kund Cumulative rainfall (in cm) as of 8.30 am in UttarKashi districts Station Aug 4 Aug 5 Barot Bhatwari Dunda Mori Purola 0.5 3 1.3 0.2 1.5 1.8 1 0 1.8 1.2 Uttarkashi 0.8 2.7 Jammu: The Indian Himalayas are vulnerable to extreme weather events, including cloudbursts, extreme precipitation, flash floods, and avalanches. Occurrence of extreme weather events is frequent for locations at elevation of 1,000-2,000 metres, according to a 2023 paper at IIT Jammu. Uttarkashi lies at an altitude of 1,160 metres THREE devastating cloudbursts within a span of three hours on Tuesday unleashed unprecedented havoc in Uttarakhand’s Dharali village in Uttarkashi district, leading to the deaths of at least four persons and more than 50 others reportedly missing. Rapidly flowing water and debris swept through the Himalayan village on way to Gangotri after the cloudbursts resulted in flashfloods that barrelled through homes, trees and cars, trapping scores of people. Substantially high tariff in 24 hrs: Trump wiped out Uttarkashi vulnerable to flash floods: IIT paper n a r e nd r a s e t h i @ Dehradun Don doubles down A view of the Dharali market in Uttarkashi right after the flash floods triggered by cloudbursts at Kheer Gad area on Tuesday afternoon. On left is a topographical image of the same location to show the disaster site Part of Dharali village in Uttarkashi buried as cloudbursts result in flash floods; four killed, over 50 missing; Army, NDRF roped in Officials said flash floods in the Kheerganga river led to the village being literally washed away Local villagers fear the ac. tual number of fatalities could be significantly higher. Dharali is the main stopover on way to Gangotri, the origin of the Ganges, and home to many hotels, restaurants and home stays. At least half the village was buried under slush, rubble and water, officials said even as rescue personnel battled the elements in the ecologically fragile heights to contain the damage of the afternoon. Eyewitnesses de- scribed horrific scenes as a deluge of water and mud surged towards the village around 1.45 pm. Contiguous buildings, including three and four-storey houses, fell like a pack of cards as the surging waters washed over them. “Everything is finished,” a voice is heard in a video of the cloudburst that went viral. The devastation was not confined to Dharali alone. A second cloudburst struck in the evening right in front of the Harshil Army camp, causing extensive damage. A third cloudburst occurred at Sukhi Top, leading to the formation of a temporary lake near the Army camp. This new water body poses a significant threat to towns situated along the Bhagirathi river. The Sukhi Top incident resulted in closure of the road to Harsil. Jai Prakash Singh Pawar, district disaster management officer for Uttarkashi, told this paper, “We received information about extreme rainfall from a person at 1.45 pm. Immediately, the Army, police, and SDRF were deployed for relief operations.” The flash floods came in the wake of cloudbursts somewhere in the catch- D I PAK MO N D AL @ New Delhi ment area of the Kheer Ganga river, an official said. District Magistrate Prashant Arya acknowledged a possibility of a rise in the toll. Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, who was in Andhra Pradesh and rushed to Dehradun, said he has directed officials to conduct rescue operations on a war footing. Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended his condolences. Home minister Amit Shah said three ITBP teams and four NDRF teams have been dispatched to help the Army in rescue operations.  P8 Under scanner: A Sufi sect renouncing mosque, Jumu’ah and even Hajj eral years for us to take the decision to come out of the sysThe State Human Rights Com- tem which was disturbing us mission’s intervention has badly. Though we quit the brought into focus the ‘Puthen- group some three years ago, veedu Sampradayam’, or Ko- my sister had to face indirect roor Thareeqath, a Sufi spirit- torture just because we started ual order in Koduvally known questioning them. And she for rigid adherence to rituals c a m e o u t o f t h e g ro u p and practices. The group is fac- recently,”she said. ing serious allegations of osThe Human Rights Commistracising families for minor sion, acting on multiple comdeviations from its customs, plaints, has registered a case leading to emotional, soand is scheduled to hear cial, and economic the matter soon. Prelimisolation. inary observations by According to a series the commission sugof complaints, several gest that the group’s inindividuals and famiternal regulations may lies have been excombe infringing upon the Case municated from the fundamental rights of registered sect after being acindividuals, particuThe Human cused of violating inlarly their right to live Rights ternal rules and cuswith dignity and freeCommission, toms. The af fected dom of belief. acting on families claim they The Koroor multiple were not only cut off Thareeqath, founded complaints, socially but also brandby a figure known as ed outsiders, with rela- has registered “Valliyapichi,” is cura case and is tives instructed to cut rently led by businessscheduled to all contact with them. man Shahul Hameed, hear the Lubina and her siswho is regarded by matter soon. ter Shibila belong to members as the curone such family. Lubirent “Prophet”. His na, along with her husword is considered abband Riyas, had come out of solute within the sect. the group three years back, but The group enforces a highly continue to be targeted by the rigid lifestyle, forbidding memsect in one way or other. The bers from engaging with outfamily hailing from Kizhisseri siders, including family memin Malappuram was recently bers who do not follow its attacked by a group of 100 peo- beliefs. ple who stopped them from Some of the sect’s practices meeting their mother. include discouraging members “We had to take the help of from attending public mosques, police to even see our mother,” Friday prayers (Jumu’ah) and ● More on P4 Lubina told TNIE. “It took sev- performing Hajj. P o o j a N a i r @Kozhikode A day after India launched a blistering counterattack on the repeated targeting by Washington for its trade ties with Moscow, US President Trump on Tuesday doubled down on his threat to raise tariffs on Indian goods “very substantially” in the next 24 hours. Last week, Trump had announced a 25% tariff on Indian goods plus an unspecified penalty tied to India’s trade with Russia. This, he said, would go up because India was not listening to his advice to stop buying oil from Russia. India has categorically clarified that it will, like any major economy, take all necessary measures to safeguard its national interests and economic security . “India has not been a good trading partner... so we settled on 25%, but I think I’m going to raise that very substantially over the next 24 hours, because they’re buying Russian oil, they’re fuelling the war machine,” Trump They (India) will give said in an interview on Tuesday . us zero tariffs... But Trump also said that he will that’s not good introduce a small tariff on pharenough, because of ma products and gradually raise what they’re doing it to 250%. Currently pharma has , with oil, not good been kept out of the purview of Donald Trump Trump’s reciprocal tariff. The US is the largest buyer of Indian pharma goods with $13 billion exports to the country , accounting for 54% of India’s total pharma exports. The Indian government has not officially reacted to Trump’s latest remarks. Clearly India is in no mood to , spoil its strategic relations with Russia. National Security Adviser Ajit Doval is set to travel to Russia this week to press for faster delivery of the remaining S-400 air defence systems and review new defence procurements. U-shaped seating in school classrooms mulled in sync with rain Kindergarten students of Markaz Public School at Pookad, Kozhikode, having a blast during the ‘Rain Walk’ organised as part of the Nature Study initiative. The school held the event to let children experience the magic of monsoon and connect with nature | E Gokul Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh on Tuesday cited a 1988 ruling of the then Lok Sabha Speaker Balram Jakhar to rule out a debate on the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar, in the House. “You know that I cannot comment upon the actions and decisions of the EC, which is an autonomous body Never be. fore I have done it nor I will do it now. Until and unless you change the Constitution and bring the EC under your purview, we cannot comment on EC actions. I am only concerned that the EC is an autonomous body and its decision cannot be discussed here,” Harivansh quoted Jakhar as having said in the Lok Sabha. He went on to reject 34 notices submitted by Opposition MPs, most of them seeking suspension of business under Rule 267 to immediately take up SIR. Harivansh cited procedural lapses in the notices, including incorrect formatting and lack of precedence. “Regrettably some members are using Rule 267 in an apparently casual manner. When notices are disallowed, the House is disrupted. Our previous chairmen were of...opinion that Rule 267 was applicable for raising rarest of rare cases and never on matters of routine nature,” Harivansh said. A s w i n A s o k K u m a r @T’Puram Even when skill is deemed as important as education in this tech-driven era, private industrial training institutes (ITIs) in the state are facing a hard time. The number of students taking admissions in these institutes has been decreasing drastically over the past few years, with only around 30% of the seats getting filled on an average. With just a few weeks left for the application process to end this year, only 5-10% of seats have been filled, according to private ITI officials. Nor do they expect the student turnout to improve. “From nearly 500 pri- enrolment stats Private Pa r v e z S u lta n @ New Delhi 16 pages, including 4 pages of kOCHI Express Admissions drop in pvt ITIs, only 5-10% seats filled so far this year Government RS head cites Jakhar, rules out SIR debate Govt proposal to change seating arrangement from the conventional rows is part of the plan to do away with the concept of ‘backbenchers’ | P4 No of private ITIs 245 Avg admission in recent years 25-30% ITIs maintained by industrial training dept: 108 Under SC dept: 44 Under ST dept: 2 Avg admission in govt ITIs in recent years- 95-98% Source: Industrial Training Department vate ITIs at one point, the count has now reduced to 245,” said a senior official with the industrial training department. With the student enrolment figures shrinking, officials from private ITI associations are planning to approach the Director General of Training for an extension of the admission deadline (August 30) for this academic year. “There is a general notion among people that ITIs are for weaker students, which is the primary reason for the drop in numbers,” said Private ITI Mana g ement Association (PITIMA) general secretary Vijayakumar T D. He said students from these institutions would easily get jobs in both private and public sectors. “The admission has been on the decline over the past 10 years,” Vijayakumar ● More on P4 said.