HYDERABAD l sunday l December 07, 2025 l `12.00 l PAGES 24 l late cITY EDITION pregnant deportee from bengal returns to india on orders of sc torture living in solitary cell: sunali Sunali, who is in an advanced stage of pregnancy, was a migrant resident of Murarai in West Bengal’s Birbhum. She was admitted to the Rampurhat hospital in Birbhum, where she will remain under observation. “It was a torture living in a solitary cell of the Bangladeshi prison,” she said, recounting her hundred days at a correctional facility in Bangladesh Sunali Khatun, arrested by Delhi Police on suspicion of being a Bangladeshi and deported in June, was repatriated via Malda border trinamool calls it victory of oppressed ■ ■ Trinamool Congress MP Samirul Islam, who steered the legal battle for Sunali and the five other deportees, described her return as “a victory of the oppressed against the might of the Central government” Delhi Police had arrested Sunali, husband Danesh and her minor son in June and branded them “illegal immigrants” before expelling them 6 months is the time the woman from birbhum stayed away from india 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 Maintaining pricing discipline The objective is to maintain pricing discipline, prevent any exploitation of passengers in distress, and ensure that citizens who urgently need to travel are not subjected to financial hardship, the Union govt said Up to 500 km `7,500 500-1,000 km `12,000 Fare caps exclude User Development Fee, Passenger Development Fee & other taxes 1,000-1,500 km `15,000 They do not cover Business class tickets and flights operated under UDAN scheme Spl flights for Summit guests if needed: Bhatti T i c k e t ava i l a b i l i t y Airlines must maintain ticket availability across all fare buckets. They may increase capacity on high-demand sectors, govt said over 1,500 km `18,000 E x p r e ss N e w s S e r v i c e Ticket price before fare cap kicked in No clarity yet on whether the caps for economy class tickets apply for premium economy as well Govt caps fares, wields whip IndiGo CEO gets DGCA show-cause notice; 800 cancellations on Sat; ticket refund by Sun SCR, TGSRTC roll out special services for pax S L a l i t h a @ New Delhi WITH THIS ISSUE Looming Large PLUS 12 P AGES Telugu Student dies in house fire in Albany, New York. Sahaja Reddy Udumala’s family hailed from Jangaon district and now lives in Hyderabad | P9 The Ministry of Civil Aviation on Saturday stepped in to address the greed of some airlines exploiting the IndiGo mess as fares went beyond 8X on some sectors. It imposed strict caps on domestic fares with the maximum of `18,000 for an economy class ticket. Later in the day the , Director General of Civil Aviation slapped a show-cause notice on IndiGo’s CEO to respond within 24 hours why action should not be taken against him for the unprecedented chaos. The ministry also directed IndiGo to clear all pending passenger refunds for all cancelled or disrupted flights by 8 pm on Sunday December 7. , The fare cap of `7,500-18,000 (see graphic) prescribed by the ministry was still on the higher side, with fliers being made to pay for the needless chaos. These caps will remain in place “until fares stabilise or till further review”, the ministry said. The caps exclude levies like User Development Fee, Passenger Development Fee and other taxes. They do not cover Business class tickets and flights operated under the regional connectivity scheme (UDAN), the order stated. As for refunding, the ministry cautioned that any delay or non-compliance by Indigo E x p r e ss N e w s S e r v i c e @ Hyderabad A passenger rests while waiting at Terminal 1 of the Indira Gandhi International Airport for her flight, in New Delhi on Saturday | PTI would invite immediate regulatory action. The system of automatic refunds will remain active until operations stabilise completely . IndiGo quickly responded with a “No questions asked. All refunds for your cancellations will be processed automatically to your original mode of payment.“ The airline also announced full waiver on all cancellations/reschedule requests of bookings made between December 5 and December 15. In another directive, the ministry directed IndiGo to ensure that all baggage that was separated from passengers due to cancellations or delays be traced and delivered to each passenger’s residential or cho- 3 more bomb threats Hyderabad: Adding to the chaos, the RGIA received three bomb threat emails directed at international flights between Friday & Saturday evening | P5 sen address within 48 hours. IndiGo for the first time obliquely quantified the day’s cancellations — around 800. “By the end of day, we would have operated over 1,500 flights. With regards to destinations, over 95% of network connectivity has already been re-established as we are able to operate to 135 out of the existing 138 destinations in operations. There is a recovery IndiGo said. ,” Even as flight cancellations by IndiGo continued for a fourth day the South Central Railway , (SCR) and the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TGSRTC) moved to ease passenger movement on Saturday . A total of 144 services were cancelled by IndiGo, including 26 arrivals and 43 departures in Hyderabad, leaving many travellers stranded at the RGIA and seeking alternative transport. SCR arranged additional trains on high-demand routes to Chennai, Mumbai, Kolkata and Delhi. Likewise, TGSRTC, working with GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd, started buses from the RGIA to support t h o s e d i s p l a c e d by t h e cancellations. SCR officials told TNIE the special services could carry over 4,000 passengers. The Cherlapalli-Shalimar Special (07148) with 1,566 AC, sleeper and general seats left at 9.35 pm on Saturday  continued on P5 . @ Hyderabad The state government was prepared to arrange special flights for dignitaries attending the Telangana Rising Global Summit if IndiGo’s ongoing operational issues affect travel to Hyderabad, Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka stressed on Saturday . “We expect airline connectivity to stabilise before the event, but alternatives would be in place if needed,” Vikramarka told reporters at the Lok Bhavan (formerly the Raj Bhavan). The deputy chief minister, accompanied by IT and Industries Minister D Sridhar Babu and Chief Secretary K Ramakrishna Rao, met Governor Jishnu Dev Varma to formally invite him to inaugurate the Summit. Speaking to reporters later, the deputy chief minister confirmed that the Governor will inaugurate the event, which he described as an exclusive economic forum aimed at positioning Telangana on course Making the event truly memorable  Invitations sent to all states and all political parties, with ministers reaching out to senior leaders  Dinner for delegates on December 8 at Bharat Future City; MLAs and MPs invited for a $3 trillion economy by 2047. The summit will begin at 1.30 pm on December 8. The first day will include addresses by Abhijit Banerjee, Eric Swider of Trump Media & Technology Group, Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, Nobel Laureate Kailash Satyarthi, Kiran MazumdarShaw, Union Minister G Kishan Reddy Sridhar Babu and , Vikramarka. Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy is scheduled to deliver the keynote address at 2.30 pm.  Continued on P4 Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka invites Governor Jishnu Dev Varma to inaugurate the Telangana Rising Global Summit, on Saturday UK imposes sanction on its national, The science behind TG’s Vision document goes after terror outfit Babbar Khalsa S u n i t h a N at t i @ Hyderabad E x p r e ss N e ws S e r v i c e @ New Delhi The UK Treasury imposed sanctions on a British national and an organisation for alleged terrorist activity in India and support for the Sikh extremist group Babbar Khalsa. This is the first time London has used its domestic counterterrorism framework to target the pro-Khalistan group, officials said. The measures include an asset freeze and director disqualification against Gurpreet Singh Rehal, who is suspected of involvement in organisations carrying out terrorist activities in India. The Treasury also imposed an asset freeze on Babbar Akali Lehar, an organisation accused of promoting and supporting Babbar Khalsa. According to the UK Treasury, Rehal is involved in Babbar Khalsa and Babbar Akali Lehar’s activities, including recruitment, financial support, and procurement of weapons and military material. Babbar Akali Lehar, the Treasury said, engages in similar activities by promoting, encouraging, and recruiting for Babbar Khalsa. All funds and economic resources in the UK owned, held, or controlled by Rehal or Babbar Akali Lehar are now frozen. UK individuals and entities were prohibited from dealing with these assets or providing financial services to them without a licence from the Treasury . Rehal was also barred from acting as a company director or participating in company man- agement, directly or indirectly . Economic Secretary to the Treasury Lucy Rigby said: “We will not stand by while terrorists exploit Britain’s financial system. This landmark action shows we are prepared to use every tool at our disposal to choke off funding for terrorism -- wherever it occurs and whoever is responsible. The UK stands firmly with peaceful communities against those who promote violence and hatred.” The sanctions were imposed under the Counter-Terrorism (Sanctions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019, which empower the Treasury to freeze assets and restrict individuals or entities suspected of involvement in terrorism, safeguarding the UK’s financial system. It’s easy to forecast forward in time. More so, when it comes to economic projections as few undertake a meticulous exercise to estimate potential growth rates. But the Government of Telangana just did the opposite and more. Breaking away from indulging in simple statistical extrapolations, it roped in economists from the Indian School of Business (ISB) to draft the state’s first flagship Vision 2047 document that lays out a blueprint with a grandiose vision for Telangana. To be released during the forthcoming two-day Telangana Rising Global Summit, it envisions the youngest state’s economy to touch an enviable $1.2 trillion by 2034 from the current $200 billion, and $3 trillion by 2047. It’s not a simple statistical exercise with linear plotting or some nonlinear method, where one simply multiplies 7.5% by 20 years to arrive at the numbers. We’ve done proper modelling, used the World Bank long-term growth model. Based on this, we get $1.2 trillion, which will eventually be a growth rate of around 6%y – Prasanna Tantri, who headed the panel that drafted the Vision document But to reach there, we need a real growth rate of 11% for the next 25 years, which is much sharper than the 7.7%7.8% registered in the last 10 years or so. Which begs the question if it’s doable? “It’s not easy but not , impossible. To go to that 11% growth, we need high productivity and higher investments. Our savings are just about 29%, which means the only other source is to tap foreign direct investment from say the Middle East, Japan, and , from all countries that have sizable savings but limited growth potential. But unlike the Chinese model of savings and investment-led growth, we need to focus on innovation, research and human capital,” Prasanna Tantri, Executive Director, Centre for Analytical Finance, ISB, told TNIE. Tantri headed the committee that drafted the Vision 2047 document. Diminishing returns factor According to him, the state, however, won’t keep growing at such high rates throughout the next two decades. At some point, two things will happen. You will have diminishing returns once capital builds up. And depreciation catches up. Once you have more capital, you need more resources to maintain that capital. Which means, growth rates will gradually settle at say 6.5% and then to 5%. China, for instance, now grows at 4% and not at 8% or 10%. What makes the projections and the Vision document itself unique is that it’s perhaps the first such attempt across the country to arrive at growth estimates using time-tested econometric models. In fact, neither the Centre nor states have ever undertaken such an exercise, according to Tantri. Even the Centre’s chest-thumping $5 trillion target announced before Covid wasn’t derived based on any models. As Tantri emphasises, that’s precisely what sets Telangana’s Vision document apart.  Continued on P4 ODI BALM FOR TEST SCAR Try mediation, says SC in case of sexual abuse AFTER the famine, the feast? Not quite but Indian cricket, after enduring a shambolic 0-2 Test series defeat against the visiting South Africans, has something to smile about after a 2-1 ODI series win. After sitting through the disappointments of Kolkata and Guwahati, Indian fans welcomed the familiar rhythms of watching Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma playing pivotal roles in the wins. Of course, this is nothing new. India continues to enjoy unparalleled dominance in New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday urged parties involved in a sexual harassment case against Venu Gopalakrishnan, CEO of Kochi’s Litmus 7 Systems Consulting, to explore mediation to resolve their dispute. A bench comprising Justices B V Nagarathna and K V Viswanathan said, “...We find that in the interest of all parties, there ought to be a settlement. The matter is referred to the Supreme Court Mediation Centre. The parties are directed to appear before the Centre on 07.01.2026 in person or through videoconferencing” | P5 g o m e s h s @ Chennai India team celebrates 2-1 ODI series win against South Africa in Visakhapatnam on Saturday | g satyanarayana white-ball cricket at home. Sure, one can argue that the threematch ODI series was almost devoid of context as the 50-over World Cup is two years away in very different conditions. But this win is a reminder of the talent that exists in India across formats even if they were missing multiple players either through rest or injury . Question marks will persist over the medium-term futures of Kohli and Sharma but they know that as long as they perform, they will be undroppable whatever the management and the selectors think about them keeping in mind the World Cup in 2027. If the seniors led the way Ru, turaj Gaikwad and Yashasvi Jaiswal staked their claim in the team with a century each. The former was asked to bat at No 4 by the management and he delivered with a ton in the second match. Jaiswal’s hundred came as the icing on the cake on Saturday. Kohli and Sharma have three more ODIs to look forward to before disappearing from the national setup for at least six months. As of now, it’s over to the T20Is for India.  P11 E x p r e s s Re a d