BHUBANESWAR l saturday l november 14, 2026 l `9.00 l PaGes 14 l Late CIty edItIon afTER MassIvE global oUTagE, MICRosofT REsToRIng sERvICEs Microsoft said on Friday it was working to get back its services amid an outage that disrupted public services and businesses globally elevated load caused it, says tecH co indigo, akasa air email services Hit The outage, which hit several Microsoft products, disrupted health care services, delayed corporate earnings reports and left schools struggling to communicate. A top UK trade union said the disruptions were having a “serious impact” on the country’s health care service. Microsoft attributed the disruption to “elevated load” on its technology infrastructure ■ ■ In India, airline IndiGo said its email support services were impacted, while Akasa Air said its email services were experiencing delays. Air India said its flight operations remained unaffected Microsoft said it did not have any indication that the global outage was caused by any kind of malicious activity or threat actors 43 crore PEoPlE globally UsE sERvICEs of MICRosofT on a DaIly basIs 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 us promises India trade tariff edge over rivals P U s h P I Ta D E y @ New Delhi THE US has promised to give India a comparative tariff advantage over its competitors under the proposed trade deal, a senior official said on Friday The legal . text of the agreement will include safeguards to ensure that the US cannot impose additional tariffs beyond its commitments once the deal is concluded, the official added. The US team visited India in the first week of November for discussions. India’s major competitors include vietnam, Bangladesh and Brazil, with which the US is actively engaged in tariff discussions and trade negotiations. vietnam currently faces 12.5% general duties on its exports to the US under Section 301, while Bangladesh faces a 10% duty. Section 301 of the US Trade Act of 1974 grants the Office of the United States Trade Representative the authority to take retaliatory action against foreign government policies or practices that violate US trade agreements. India and the US have been negotiating the trade deal since it was announced in February 2026. During the negotiations, the US imposed an additional 10% ad valorem import duty on Indian goods under Section 301, effective july 24, 2026. The final tariff framework will depend on the outcome of the ongoing Section 301 investigation. express reaD Beyond ganja: Odisha Police plans alternative farming push in 6 dists Bhubaneswar: In a bid to wean farmers away from lucrative but illegal ganja cultivation, Odisha Police has proposed setting up a dedicated agency to promote alternative farming in six cannabis cultivation hotspots across the state. The agency will function as a project management unit (PMU) under the Anti Narcotics Task Force (ANTF) and facilitate the transition of traditional ganja cultivators to viable and profitable cash crops | P2 Amid Andhra buzz, NALCO says exploring greenfield projects Bhubaneswar: Amid reports of National Aluminium Company Limited (NALCO) exploring the possibility of setting up an aluminium smelter in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, the state-owned aluminium major on Friday said it was evaluating opportunities for additional greenfield projects beyond its existing facilities | P7 Delhi corners Dhaka with water diplomacy India plans to let Ganga Water Sharing Treaty expire, but will release water as goodwill gesture 54 J I T E n D R a C h o U b E y @ New Delhi THE Centre plans to let the India-Bangladesh Ganga Water Sharing Treaty expire when the 30-year pact concludes next month. However, water sharing will continue for now as per existing terms, officials aware of the matter told this paper. India intends to demonstrate goodwill by maintaining the same volume of water allocation to Bangladesh as per the existing treaty even after its lapse. The water card is apparently a diplomatic tool to enhance bilateral relations. The treaty was signed on December 12, 1996 to govern the sharing of Ganga water between India and Bangladesh, particularly around the Farakka Barrage during the lean season. The agreement was scheduled to be renewed with mutual consent after 30 years. Sources said the Centre wants to renegotiate the terms to obtain additional water to meet India’s developmental initiatives. These include supporting operations at Kolkata’s Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port, meeting the water requirements for NTPC’s thermal power plant, and addressing salinity issues in the Sundarbans and other regions. The current arrangement stipulates that each country receive 35,000 cusecs of water alternately for 10 days during the lean season, which runs from March 11 to May 11. India needs 40,000 cusecs of water to keep its developmental rivers flow into Bangladesh from India. A few of them are governed by bilateral treaties 35,000 cusecs for 10 days each during lean season is the current bilateral arrangement 5,000 cusecs additional water sought in lean season to maintain India’s port, NTPC work on at the Kolkata port. In “We need at least 5,000 cusecs this context, the Central Water extra water to flush out sediCommission presented the ments at Kolkata Port in the technical details to the Minis- lean season and also to stop satry of External Affairs last line intrusion in Sundarban month. deltas and adjoining agricul“ We w e r e tural suitable arasked to give all eas,” said the technical deofficial. press tails and presTaking a dig at clusive Bangladesh’s poentations associated with the litical confrontaTreaty and how tion with India, India can get more water dur- an MEA official said: “On any ing the lean season,” said an of- treaty made in good faith, it is ficial. Officials of West Bengal the duty of the lower riparian and Bihar governments, which state to respect the upper riparcomplained that the treaty was ian state to maintain that hurting their states’ interests, faith.” also attended the meeting. Earlier, India set up a panel to examine the restoration and future management of the Teesta Barrage Project in West Bengal. This move came amid growing Chinese involvement in Bangladesh’s plans for the Teesta river. An estimated 54 transboundary rivers flow into Bangladesh from India. Experts see the need for multiple treaties to govern these rivers. Former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina claims she wants to return home in December. New Delhi may use the water treaty as leverage to negotiate the proper handling of Hasina, who is known for a proIndia approach. ‘TAxpAyERS fUNd STATS Body WiTH liTTlE ovERSigHT’ P R E E T h a n a I R @ New Delhi SANjEEv Sanyal, member of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, on Friday backed the Centre’s proposed overhaul of the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) Bill on grounds that the premier institution relies on taxpayer funding but its governance rests with a 1,200-member society with little public oversight. However, Opposition members, including Congress MP P Chidambaram and Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Sougata Roy strongly opposed the overhaul at the meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance, sources said. Introduced in the Lok Sabha during the Monsoon session, the bill was sent to the standing committee after objections from the Opposition and the academic community, alleging it would undermine the ISI’s autonomy. In his submission, according to What is the isi bill about? The Indian Statistical Institute Bill, 2026, seeks to replace the ISI Act of 1959 and convert the Kolkata-based institute, founded in 1931, from a registered society into a body corporate, with the President as Visitor. The bill was brought to the LS in the Monsoon session sources, Sanyal told the panel only five of the institute’s 33 council members are from the government, adding that the institute is audited by an approved auditor and had no direct oversight by the Comptroller and Auditor General. “Two review committees have pointed out that a Council with 33 members is too large. The second review committee (1983) proposed 12 and the fourth review committee (2021) proposed 19. Both asked for a majority of external members in order to avoid conflict of interest and ensure independent oversight. Peer bodies like IITs have around nine members while IIMs and IISERs have 11 members. A worrying sign is the recent drop in NIRF ranking,” sources quoted him as saying. Sanyal said leaving decisions on reform to a management elected by serving faculty or to the society’s general body risked a conflict of interest. Roy said repealing the ISI Act, 1959 and converting the institute into a statutory body corporate would concentrate power in the Union Ministry of Statistics and Prog ramme Implementation. Chidambaram and Roy also objected to replacement of the 33-member Council, which includes elected representatives of teaching and non-teaching staff, with an 11-member Board of Governors (BoG). Former NITI Aayog vice-chairperson Suman Bery told the panel the bill gives the proposed BoG excessive powers, which could make it harder for the ISI to attract and retain a top director. He said this could affect efforts to bring talent back to India from overseas. state govt gives teachers, staff 15 reasons to cheer ExPREss nEws sERvICE @ Bhubaneswar IN a major decision to meet demands by various teachers and non-teaching employees’ associations, the state government on Friday approved implementation of 15 recommendations of the Ashok Tripathy Committee. The decision was taken at a highlevel meeting chaired by Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi following a detailed examination of the committee’s recommendations on the institutions and teachers under School and Mass Education and Higher Education departments. The key decisions include bring- Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi chairing the meeting on Friday | ExPREss ing 194 high schools, which were left out of the 2013 government block grant scheme, under the grant-in-aid system and increasing the monthly remuneration of parttime art, music and sports teachers in government schools from `10,000 to `16,000. The government also decided to pay arrears to trained graduate teachers (TGTs) and physical education teachers (PETs) of government secondary schools who completed six years of service and were regularised in 2022. Regular promotions for primary school teachers and regularisation of sikshya sahayaks appointed between 2016 and 2018 are among the other decisions. The government will also appoint regular teachers in Prathama and Madhyama Sanskrit tols, include classical teachers serving in government schools in the trained graduate (TG) teachers’ eligibility list and deploy teachers in fully aided Madhyama Sanskrit tols. vocational instructors will be paid under the regular salary structure, while Odisha junior Teachers (schematic) will be given an opportunity to acquire higher qualifications. The decisions also cover Odisha Adarsha vidyalayas (OAvs). The government will complete and operationalise all residential hostels in the schools and ensure regular s a l a r y p ay m e n t s t o t h e i r employees. Children of OAv employees will also be allowed to study in these institutions. The previous service of TGTs appointed in OAvs will be counted, with their pay CONTINUED ON P7 protected. Handling of cubs tiger waste on human bodies angers activists b o s k y k h a n n a @ Bengaluru SOMEWHERE in a forest, a bureaucratic rulebook imagines a forester in a tiger mask and striped work robes, doused in big-cat urine and faeces, moving towards an orphaned cub. Conservationists say the picture is less wildlife science and more indignity . The instruction comes from the National Tiger Conservation Authority, under the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change. Its ‘standard operating procedure’ for handling orphaned or abandoned cubs and old, injured tigers in rewilding (rehabilitation) centres says handlers must wear a tiger mask and striped clothing “smeared with tiger urine and faeces” to minimise human imprinting “to the extent possible”. Wildlife experts called the directive ‘inhuman’. The row has sharpened because Karnataka has approved its first CONTINUED ON P7 rewilding centre. stiff opposition The Karnataka forest department had proposed to create one rewilding centre in Bhadra Tiger Reserve, but the plan was dropped following opposition from locals. The forest department is now scouting for another location