COIMBATORE l saturday l october 25, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 14 l LATE city EDITION MODI obliquely endorses Nitish as Bihar Chief Minister candidate Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said the National Democratic Alliance under the leadership of Nitish Kumar will script a record win in Bihar polls PM’s statement comes after Tejashwi jibe 20 yrs of nda rule did NO GOOD: RJD leader Modi’s statement indirectly endorsing Nitish as the NDA’s CM face comes a day after RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, Opposition INDIA bloc’s CM candidate, had claimed that the BJP would not let Nitish become CM again. Modi’s stance is different from Union home minister Amit Shah’s recent remark that the NDA would decide on CM after the elections ■ ■ Modi said people can’t expect the RJD-Congress to solve any of their problems. “They (RJD-Cong) are a problem by themselves,” he said Meanwhile, Tejashwi alleged there is widespread unemployment and rampant corruption. “Despite 20 years of NDA rule in Bihar, the state’s per capita income is the lowest and farmers remain poor,” he claimed Nov 14 When Bihar Assembly election results will be announced CBC 15502/13/0041/2526 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 India-US trade deal to be inked very soon: Govt Talks over, pact now in drafting stage: official Doc names cops in palm note, ends life S u d h i r S u r yawan s h i @ Mumbai Despite geopolitical challenges, India and the US are close to concluding a bilateral trade deal, a commerce ministry official said on Friday, adding major differences have been ironed out and both sides are now on the same page. “We are very near as far as the deal is concerned,” said the official while disclosing that both countries are now working on the language of the trade deal. Commerce and industry Minister Piyush Goyal, who is in Germany for the Berlin Global Dialogue, had on Thursday said the talks were progressing well with both the sides working towards a deal. Speaking to Doordarshan in Berlin, Goyal said, “We are in dialogue with the US; our teams are engaged. We recently had the commerce secretary visit the US and meet his counterparts. We continue to engage with them and talks are progressing. We hope to work towards a fair and equitable agreement in the near future.” However, he reiterated that India “does not do deals with deadlines or with a gun to its head”. India and the US have completed five rounds of talks so far. A team of Indian delegates Taliban to build dam to limit water flow to Pakistan J AYA N T H J A C O B @ New Delhi IN a move that could have far-reaching consequences for Pakistan’s strained water and energy security , Afghanistan’s Taliban government has said it will build a series of dams on the Kunar River. Taliban’s announcement comes on the heels of India’s decision in April to suspend the Indus Waters Treaty with Pakistan following the Pahalgam terror attack and signals Kabul’s determination to assert its ‘water sovereignty’. According to Afghanistan’s Ministry of Information, Taliban Supreme Leader Mawlawi Hibatullah Akhundzada ordered the Ministry of Water and Energy to begin dam construction on Kunar “as fast as possible” and award contracts to domestic firms. “The directive reflects Afghanistan’s right to manage its natural resources for the benefit of its people,” Deputy Minister of Information Muhajer Farahi said in a post on X. The decision comes just weeks after deadly clashes along the Durand Line between Afghan and Pakistani border forces, which left several dead and heightened diplomatic friction. The Kunar River, known as the Chitral in Pakistan, originates from the Chiantar glacier near the Gilgit-Baltistan-Chitral border. It flows into Afghanistan at Arandu before merging with the Kabul River in Nangarhar Province, which eventually joins the Indus River near Attock in Pakistan. This network is vital for irrigation, hydropower, and drinking water across Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab provinces. Reliance to fully comply with US sanctions RIL, India’s largest buyer of Russian oil and most impacted by the latest US sanctions, said it will comply with all applicable restrictions and will adjust its refinery operations to meet compliance requirements | P10 from led by Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agarwal visited US last week. After Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump met in February a target , was set to negotiate a bilateral trade deal by November. However, relations soured after Trump announced a 50% tariff on Indian goods from August onwards as a penalty for buying Russian oil. The US delegate’s visit to India was also cancelled. However, both sides continued talks. The momentum was restored when Brendan Lynch, assistant US trade representative for South and Central Asia, met Indian officials in New Delhi. The proposed pact aims to double the bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030. E x p r e s s N e w s S e r v i c e @ Chennai The weather system brewing over the southeast Bay of Bengal has intensified into a wellmarked, low-pressure area on Friday evening, setting the stage for a potential cyclonic storm over the Bay early next week. According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the system lay over the southeast Bay of Bengal and adjoining south Andaman Sea. “It is likely to move west-northwestwards, intensifying into a depres- sion by October 25, a deep depression by October 26, and further into a cyclonic storm over the southwest and adjoining west central Bay of Bengal by October 27 morning.” With the system gaining strength, the IMD has issued an orange alert for Chennai, Kancheepuram, and Tiruvallur districts on October 27, forecasting heavy to very heavy rainfall accompanied by thunderstorm and lightning. Chengalpattu and Ranipet districts are also expected to experience intense showers.  P7 He spoke to India in its language G u r b i r S i ngh @ Mumbai P Kurnool Bus Tragedy 20 Dead Bus hit a bike and dragged it along 20 people were charred to death, and several others injured when an bus from Hyderabad to Bengaluru caught fire on Friday | P7 iyush Pandey was the odd man out at a RedInk Awards panel discussion soon after Prime Minister Modi was voted in for the first time in 2014. As an advertising creative executive, he didn’t fit into a panel of popular news anchors Rajdeep Sardesai and Arnab Goswami, and Star chief Uday Shankar. Not surprisingly, he drew fire for his catch line: Aab ki Bar, Modi Sarkar — a slogan that moved the anti-incumbency wave. He laughed it off. “We have to deliver the message of our clients. We have nothing to do with politics.” Pandey’s creative campaigns for Ogilvy — the ad agency he started with in 1982 and ended his career and life with at 70 as Mandar Pardikar A 28-year old woman doctor working at a government hospital in Phaltan in Satara district of Maharashtra died by suicide late on Thursday night and left a seven-line note on her palm, blaming two police inspectors for her harassment, torture and sexual exploitation. In the note, the doctor accused police sub-inspector Gopal Badane of raping her five times while police inspector Prashant Bankar harassed and mentally tortured her for four months. The note that was spotted during autopsy has been sent for forensic analysis. The victim had briefed her seniors about the harassment but could not get justice; hence she allegedly hanged herself in a hotel room near the Phaltan hospital. SP Tushar Doshi said a case has been registered against Badane and Bankar. PUS H PI TA DE Y @ New Delhi Cyclone brews off TN coast, heavy rain likely by Monday Piyush Pandey 5 Sept 1955-24 Oct 2025 Chief Creative Officer — grew it to an industry leader even as his creative skills dominated advertising in India for over three decades. He carried his walrus mustache, his broad grin and infectious sense of humour everywhere; but it was his pioneering effort in changing Indian advertising from borrowed West- ern idioms to campaigns rooted in the language of our streets and villages that made him a legend. Remember the Mile Sur Mera Tumhara in 1988? It was a jingle for national integration written by him. It took the country by storm as it worked up a pride for unity in diversity . He also made some big brands daily, household names. Like his 1993 Cadbury’s campaign, Kuch Khaas Hai ham Sabhi Mein, which used local imagery to convince adults there is no sin in enjoying chocolates. Who can ever forget his incredibly creative Hutch (now Vodafone) campaign with the pug ZooZoo? Pandey made his mark in advertising using a simple, storytelling style. As a person, he was never the corporate bigwig. An unkempt, easygoing guy he was everyone’s man. ,