chennai l sunday l december 22, 2024 l `12.00 l PAGES 30 l late city EDITION lanka out of sovereign default rating after FITCH’s upgrade The island nation’s finance ministry said it officially ended its debt default after Fitch upgraded its credit rating, paving way for easier borrowing Finance ministry hails it as a milestone Medium term interest for govt to be high Mahinda Siriwardana, a finance ministry bureaucrat, said December 20 marked a major milestone in the country’s economic recovery process as Sri Lanka officially exited sovereign default. Fitch upgraded Sri Lanka’s long-term foreign-currency default rating to CCC+ from restricted default after creditors approved the nation’s $12.55 billion debt ■ ■ Despite the debt restructuring the “general government debt/GDP and the interest/revenue ratio are likely to stay high in the medium term,” Fitch Ratings said In 2022, Sri Lanka plunged into an economic crisis, defaulted on its foreign debt due to its high debt burden amid the Covid pandemic Nov 26 Date when Lanka announced ratification of debt restructuring 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 Rule tweak cuts access to certain poll documents Pegasus liable in WhatsApp suit: US court Ex press N ews Service @ New Delhi With a US court finding Israel’s NSO Group — which sells spyware Pegasus — liable in a lawsuit filed by WhatsApp in 2019 flagging breaches in devices, snooping is back on the front burner, including in India. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton in Oakland, California, on Friday granted a motion by Mark Zuckerberg-owned WhatsApp and found NSO liable for hacking and breach of contract, Reuters reported. In 2019, WhatsApp sued the NSO Group accusing it of accessing WhatsApp servers without permission to install the Pegasus software on mobile devices. The suit alleged the intrusion allowed the surveillance of 1,400 people. The US Supreme Court last year turned away NSO’s appeal against the lower court’s decision, allowing the lawsuit to proceed. The ruling assumes significance as over 300 mobile numbers in India, including those of ministers in the Modi government, Opposition leaders, journalists and business magnates were allegedly infected with Pegasus in 2021. Soon, several petitions were filed in the Supreme Court seeking a probe. The court set up a committee of technical experts, which found no conclusive evidence on the use of the spyware in phones examined by it. WITH THIS ISSUE Delivery of Instant Gratification PLUS 12 PAGES Cong raps amendment, says it will seek legal recourse P r e e t h a N a i r @ New Delhi Centenarian’s spirit Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets Kuwait-based retired Indian Foreign Service officer Mangal Sain Handa, 101, upon his arrival in Kuwait, on Saturday. On Friday, Handa’s granddaughter Shreya Juneja had on Friday requested the prime minister to meet her Nanaji | PTI Plan to formalise spl cess on disaster relief d i pa k m o n d a l @ Jaisalmer THE GST Council on Saturday decided to formalise a procedure for states to levy special cess to raise money for disaster relief. This was decided after Andhra Pradesh sought the Council’s permission to levy a 1% cess on goods and services in the highest rate bracket of 28%. Andhra Pradesh’s request for a 1% cess will be referred to a Group of Ministers (GoM) as was done previously for a similar request by the Kerala government in 2018. Addressing the press after the meeting, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that since similar requests have been made earlier as well, “we are of the view that there should be a laid-out pro- Unpaid bill: 4K schools in TN may lose internet s u ba s h i n i v i jaya k u m a r @ Chennai At a time when the state government is promoting smart classrooms and hi-tech labs across state schools, more than 3,700 high and higher secondary government schools may soon lose their internet connection as they haven’t been able to settle outstanding bills worth `1.5 crore to BSNL. A majority of these 3,700 government schools, which account for 50% of the total 6,223 high and higher secondary schools in TN, have not paid their internet bills for the last two to three months, mainly due to lack of funds. A school education department circular sent to chief edu- cation officers of all districts said the hi-tech labs in these 3700 schools are equipped with Fibre to the Home (FTTH) connections under the Samagra Shiksha Scheme. BSNL, in a letter from its TN Telecom Circle, had warned of service suspension if dues aren’t paid by Saturday . In May first week, the state government said it was partnering with BSNL to upgrade internet speeds in schools from 5-6 Mbps to 100 Mbps, addressing the growing need for faster connectivity High-speed inter. net has already been installed in 5,907 out of 6,223 schools and the remaining would be covered by the end of that month, an official release said. P7 cedure to deal with such requests in future”. Besides floods, several states wanted drought to be brought under the definition of disaster, she added. Andhra Pradesh finance minister Payyavula Keshav told the media that the state in August and September faced unprecedented rains and flood, which caused severe financial loss to the state. “…we will need a sum of `15,000 crore to come back to normalcy. Therefore, we requested the Council to allow us to levy a cess of 1%,” said Keshav, adding that most states were supportive of the Andhra demand. Meanwhile, the 55th GST Council meeting ended without any major decisions being taken.  P16 Insurance premium call put off The muchawaited decision on lowering GST rates on health and life insurance premium has been deferred as the Council was of the view that the issue needs more discussions. EB deaths up, but no count on demise of contract employees S GURUVANMIKANAT H AN @ Chennai The recent electrocution deaths of two contract employees engaged in maintenance work on a 11-kV power line along the Olaiyur Ring Road in Tiruchy district has brought the focus back on the avoidable yet recurring mortalities of the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board’s workers. While data obtained by TNIE revealed that as many as 87 employees died in the three-year period from 2021-22 to 2023-24, this number is likely to be an underestimation since TNEB doesn’t count deaths of contract labourers as employee deaths. For instance, the recent deaths of Kalaimani (42) and Manickam (37), both contract labourers who previously worked with the state highways department and then with TNEB, will not go on record as TNEB employee deaths.  P7 we d d i n g b e l l s Love-all: Sindhu-Sai set for new match A j ay t o m a r @ Hyderabad There is always a sprinkling of condiments to add flavour to a celebrity marriage. The brouhaha it generates is sometimes bewildering. When P V Sindhu announced her engagement and marriage to a Hyderabad entrepreneur, interest grew as date of marriage neared, especially surrounding the identity of her to-be-husband Venkata Datta Sai. As Udiapur gets decked up for the marriage on Sunday, Sindhu would be ready for a different match. Something close to her heart and soul. As the two went about inviting guests, the man who stole Sindhu’s heart was in the limelight as well. Sai is a Hyderabad-based IT professional and Executive Director at Posidex Technologies. His father G T Venkateshwar Rao is the managing director there. “The two families are friends and have known each other for long,” Sindhu’s father P V Ramana told this newspaper over phone from Udaipur. “He is an avid sports follower and an active supporter. Who doesn’t follow sports these days?” asked Ramana. Sai’s career has been equally dynamic. He has a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting and Finance and a Master’s degree in Data Science and Machine Learning from the International Institute of Information Technology, Bengaluru. Sai began at JSW as an intern and later worked as an in-house consultant (2018-19). He then became the managing director of Sour Apple Asset Management while also contributing to Posidex since December 2019. Sai also managed the Delhi IPL team. “My BBA pales in comparison to managing an IPL team,” Sai later wrote. The two will tie the knot in a royal wedding apparently with Rajasthani flavour in Udaipur on Sunday In a move that drew sharp criticism from the Opposition parties and RTI activists, the Centre on Friday amended the ‘Conduct of Election Rules’ to prevent public scrutiny of certain electronic documents such as CCTV footage and video recordings of polling. Based on the Election Commission’s (EC) recommendation, the Union Law Ministry amended Rule 93 of the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961, to restrict certain documents that were to public inspection till now. Rule 93(2)(a) earlier stated that “all other papers relating to the election shall be open to public inspection”. The amended version says “all other papers as specified in these rules relating to the election shall be open to public inspection.” Acting upon a complaint filed by advocate Mehmood Pracha, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has recently directed the EC to provide videography security camera footage, and cop, ies of documents related to votes polled at a polling station during the recent Haryana assembly elections. Pracha had sought video and CCTV footage, and copies of Forms 17-C Parts I and II related to the polls. Coming down heavily on the amendment, the Congress said it would chal- lenge it in court. In a post on X, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said that the tweak was a “vindication” of its assertions regarding the “rapidly eroding integrity” of the electoral process managed by the EC in recent times. For their part, the Law Ministry and EC officials said documents such as nomination forms, appointment of poll agents, results and election account statements are mentioned in the Conduct of Election Rules, but electronic documents such as CCTV footage are not. “There have been instances where such electronic records have been sought, citing the rules. The amendment ensures that only papers mentioned in the rules are available for public inspection,” an EC official said. He added that the misuse of CCTV footage from inside polling booths could compromise voter secrecy and could be used to generate fake narratives using AI. “All such material is available to candidates, including footage. After the amendment, too, it will be available to them.” Prominent RTI activist Anjali Bharadwaj said it is a huge setback for transparency. “Applications we filed under Rule 93(2) in May 2024 for copies of Form 17C are still pending,” she wrote on X. polls for local bodies may be delayed The TN government on Saturday informed the Madras HC that rural civic polls would be held only after completion of delimitation and reservation exercises | P4