Giorgio Armani 11 July 1934 - 4 sept 2025 TIRUNELVELI l friday l september 05, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 16 l city EDITION Armani, who built $10 billion global fashion empire, dies A favourite of many hollywood a-listers Armani’s fashion empire spanned clothing, accessories, perfumes, home furnishings, cosmetics, books, chocolates, and more. His designs graced over 200 films and became a red carpet staple, dressing stars like Anne Hathaway, Brad Pitt, George Clooney, and Jodie Foster. Recently, his health made headlines after he missed Milan Fashion Week in June Italian designer Giorgio Armani, one of the most iconic names in the contemporary fashion, died at his home on Thursday at the age of 91 his designs Redefined elegance ■ ■ In 1975, Armani and his partner Sergio Galeotti sold their car for $10,000 to launch their own menswear ready-to-wear label The first breakthrough came in the late 1970s with the creation of the liningless sports jacket, embodying his vision of relaxed, understated elegance. It was an immediate success in the West 50 years since Armani founded his fashion empire 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 Peace deal done with Kuki-Zos in Manipur After over two years, NH-2 to be opened for the Meiteis As per the tripartite SoO agreement signed by the CenIn a major breakthrough ahead tre, Manipur government and of Prime Minister Narendra Kuki-Zo groups on Thursday, Modi’s proposed visit to Ma- the territorial integrity of Manipur, the Union Ministry of nipur will be maintained. “The Home Affairs (MHA) on Thurs- parties under the pact agree for day arrived at an agreement relocation of 7 designated with the Kuki-Zo insurgent camps of militants away from groups to renew the Suspen- areas vulnerable to conflict in sion of Operations (SoO). It Manipur and also agree for a also persuaded them to open negotiated solution to bring National Highway-2 that was lasting peace, stability to Mablocked for Meitei people for nipur,” the Union home ministhe last two years since try said. the ethnic clashes broke The Kuki-Zo Council PM’s out in the state on May decided to open NationManipur al Highway-2, which 3, 2023. In an official statepasses through Mavisit ment, the government nipur, for free movement said the decisions came of commuters, essential after a series of meetings be- goods, the statement said, addtween officials of the MHA and ing the Council has committed a delegation of the Kuki-Zo to cooperate with security forcCouncil (KZC) over the past few es to maintain peace along the days here. Kuki National Or- National Highway . ganisation (KNO) spokesperThe Kuki-Zo council, an umson Seilen Haokip confirmed to brella group of Kuki-Zo groups, media persons that the agree- is yet to issue a for mal ment had been signed. statement. Over the last two years, the Since May 3, 2023, after ethMHA had been regularly hold- nic clashes broke out, the state ing talks with Kuki-Zo insur- has been divided on ethnic gent groups to renegotiate the lines with Meiteis restricted to terms and conditions of the the valley districts and Kuki-Zo SoO. people in the hills. MU K ESH R A N J A N @ New Delhi express read HC bins plea on election of EPS as AIADMK chief CHENNAI: In a big relief for EPS, the Madras HC on Thursday quashed a civil court’s order regarding a petition filed in that court challenging his election as AIADMK general secretary by members of the party’s general council in 2022 | P4 Terms of agreement The Kuki National Organisation and United People’s Front agreed to Relocate 7 designated camps away from areas vulnerable to conflict Reduce the number of designated camps Relocate the weapons with nearest CRPF/BSF camps Stringent physical verification of cadres by security forces to de-list foreign nationals, if any Ballot papers for k’taka local body polls State govt will ask State Election Commission to hold all future local body polls using ballot papers, minister H K Patil said PAGE 9 Another GE engine deal soon M AYA N K SINGH @ New Delhi India intends to soon sign a contract with American giant General Electric to procure 113 F404 aero engines for the advanced version of the light combat aircraft (LCA) Tejas Mark1A. The deal is in addition to a previous one for F404s for which supplies are on, though there was some hiccup attributed to supply chain issues. Sources in the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) said that “negotiations with GE has been completed and the contract will be signed at the end of this month.” In August, the Cabinet Committee on Security gave its approval for 97 LCA Mk1A jets to be manufactured by Illegal felling of trees led to floods, says SC Express News Service @ New Delhi TAKING serious note of the devastating landslides and floods in northern parts of the country, the Supreme Court on Thursday sought the stand of the Centre, National Disaster Management Authority and others, while noting that “illegal felling of trees led to the disasters”. “We have seen unprecedented landslides and floods in Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab. From the media reports it is noticed that in the flood a huge number of wood was flowing along. Prima facie it appears that there has been illegal felling of trees. Thus issue notice to respondents,” Chief Justice B R Gavai said. The SC was hearing a plea filed by environmentalist Anamika Rana seeking guidelines and an inquiry to prevent ecological disasters and to protect Himalayan states. N I R F RA N K I N G 2 0 2 5 IIT Madras No 1 engineering college in India Express News Service @ New Delhi The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras retained the top slot in the overall category of rankings of higher education institutions in India, acc o rd i n g t o t h e N at i o n a l Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) 2025, released on Thursday . This is the seventh consecutive year that IIT Madras has bagged the No 1 rank for the best engineering institute in the country . A total of 14,163 universities competed for the top spots in 17 sections in NIRF rankings. IISc Bengaluru came in second in the ‘overall’ category fol, lowed by IIT Bombay and IIT Delhi, the rankings showed. Among universities, IISc Bengaluru bagged the top spot for the 10th consecutive year. The Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi was at the second position. The rankings, released by Union education minister Dhar mendra Pradhan on Thursday, ranked IIT Madras as the best in the Innovation Institutions and Sustainable Development Goals (SDG, a new introduction this year) categories. In the Research category the first rank went to , IISc Bengaluru. The National Law School of India University, Bengaluru, was ranked the best law college in India. The National Law University, Delhi, and NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad, retained the second and third spots, respectively . AU loses 1st rank, but 10 TN univs among top 50 B i n i ta J a i s w a l @ Chennai Tamil Nadu’s state-funded universities have witnessed a noticeable slump in the NIRF 2025 rankings released on Thursday, with several prominent institutions dropping from their positions last year, underscoring the financial and administrative challenges faced by them. Despite drop in rankings of varsities, TN has continued to be among the better performers at the national level with 17 institutions in the top 100 rank in the overall category . “With 17 institutions among top 100, 33 among the top 100 in the college category and 10 among , the top 50 in the state public universities category , TN holds the largest share of institutes across these lists,” CM MK Stalin said in a post on X. Anna University, which topped the newly-introduced state public universities category in 2024, was pushed to second place this year by Jadavpur University in West Bengal. P9 HAL at a cost of around `67,000 crore. Meanwhile, a couple of LCA MK1s would be delivered to the Indian Air Force (IAF) in October this year, another source in the HAL said. “Ten aircraft have already been built and are being tested. The first delivery will take place in October, with one aircraft from Nashik already ready for handover,” he said. The Mk1A has completed weapons integration trials, including the firing of Astra and ASRAM missiles. Besides the F404s, India has already procured 10 F414s from GE, sources said. They will be used to develop prototypes of the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) and the Twin Engine Deck Based Fighters (TEDBF) for the Navy .