66 dead, 51 injured in Turkey hotel fire As many as 66 people were killed and 51 injured when a massive fire raged through a 12-story hotel at a popular ski resort in northwestern Turkey early on Tuesday. The fire at the Grand Kartal hotel in Kartalkaya, 300 kilometres east of Istanbul, occurred near the start of a twoweek winter break for schools, when hotels in the region are packed. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said all steps will be taken to nab those responsible for the blaze bengaluru l wednesday l january 22, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 22 l late city EDITION 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 Short-term pain, long-term gain... D IPA K M O N D A L @ New Delhi HOURS after taking charge as US president, Donald Trump took a slew of major executive actions to effect major policy shifts, many of them with global ramifications whose ripple effects would be felt across the world including India. The Indian equity markets felt the tremors on Tuesday with benchmark indices falling by 1.6%, while the rupee tanked 14 paise to close at 86.59 against dollar. However, most analysts and commentators expect limited economic impact on India as most decisions won’t impact India directly though , the uncertainties could shake a few indicators in the short term. Soon after assuming office, Trump announced his America First Trade Policy and withdrawal from global tax deals. He also declared a national energy emergency Trump hinted he would target . countries with trade surplus with the US. India figures in this list but Soumya Kanti Ghosh, SBI’s group chief economic adviser, says the impact will be limited as India has broadened its export market. Ajay Sahai, CEO, Federation of India Exports Organisation, believes India stands to gain. “These measures create opportunities for Indian exporters to fill supply chain gaps in textiles, pharma and engineering goods,” he said. Trump also signalled potential sanctions on Russia and Iran, which could disrupt energy imports for India. But on the positive side, there is a possibility of more US energy coming to India, Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri said. “India must prepare by diversifying energy supply sources to reduce its vulnerability to external shocks,” said Ajay Srivastava, founder, Global Trade Research Initiative. P12,13 4 held for selling 7-yr-old boy for `4L E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Belagavi DON’s 1st day key executive orders Donald Trump signed on HIS INAUGURATION DAY Withdraws US from the Paris Agreement and WHO Pardons for Jan 6 US Capitol Attack Combating consumer inflation Trump pardoned around 1,500 people convicted or charged in the Jan 6 attack Easing regulatory burdens Ordered easing of regulatory burdens on oil and natural gas production Tariffs on Canada, Mexico 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico starting Feb 1 Calls for an “all of government” response to bring down costs for Americans Ending Birthright Citizenship It denies citizenship to children born in the US whose parents lack legal immigration status even if they are not illegals ...India sees window of opportunity amidst tests J ayan t h J a c o b @ New Delhi External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will be the first foreign minister to meet US Secretary of State Marco Rubio for a bilateral discussion, as India aims to strengthen its ties with the US following the inauguration of President Donald Trump as its 47th President. Rubio will be meeting Jaishankar in the state department soon after his meeting with for- eign ministers of India, Japan and Ausralia under the Quad format in the same venue. Jaishankar, who represented India at the inauguration, was seated in the front row alongside Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa. He also had brief interactions with members of Trump’s administration, including Speaker Mike Johnson, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, and FBI Director nominee Kash Patel. Trump is expected to visit India to attend the first Quad summit later this year. Sources said India-US ties will continue to grow under Trump despite negotiating some of the challenges, like the tariff plans and the efforts to draw outsourced manufacturing units back to the US. “Tariff on imported goods, we need to wait and see. It could also be the case that the new American administration takes some time before arriv- ing at any definite plans,” said a source. New Delhi has maintained that Trump’s policies that change the global order will have less impact on countries like India as New Delhi is not heavily invested in the existing order. “For the countries who are less invested, it could very well be a time of opportunity ,” Jaishankar said during the Nani Palkhivala Memorial Lecture on January 18. Four people have been arrested for allegedly selling a sevenyear-old boy from Sultanpur in Hukkeri taluk of Belagavi district for Rs 4 lakh. This is the third such case reported in the district in the past three months. The arrested have been identified as Sadashiv Shivbasappa Magdum, 32, child’s stepfather, who hails from Sultanpur; Laxmi Babu Golbhavi, 38, who hails from Bhadgaon, but resides in Sultanpur; Sangeeta Vishnu Sawant, 40, of Nagala Park in Kolhapur and a resident of Ambedkar Nagar; and Anasuya Girimallappa Dodmani, 50, of Kesroli in Haliyal taluk of Karwar. Superintendent of police Bheemashankar Guled said Shivbasappa Magdum and some middlemen from Kolhapur and Karwar sold the boy to a woman, Dilshad Sikandar Tehsildar from Belagavi city, for Rs 4 lakh. Dilshad, who has two daughters, wanted a son. Magdum married the boy’s mother Sangeeta Gudappa Kammar, 30, four months ago. Magdum had children from his previous marriage. Their children used to fight frequently and fed up with this, Magdum wanted to sell the boy . Lakshmi helped Magdum marry Sangeeta four months ago. She conspired with Sangeeta and asked her to hand over the boy to Anasuya Dodmani at Kesroli in Karwar. Anasuya later sold the boy to Dilshad, claiming that he was an orphan. Meanwhile, the boy’s biological mother, Sangeeta Kammar, filed a complaint stating that her son was missing. A police team found the boy in a village near Bailhongal. Top gun among 14 Maoists killed in Chhattisgarh E J A Z k a i s e r @ Raipur IN a big jolt to the outlawed CPI (Maoist), its Central Committee member Jayram Pratap Reddy alias Chalapathi and 13 senior cadres were killed in an exchange of fire with security forces along the Chhattisgarh-Odisha border, 160 km east of Raipur. The gun battle late on Sunday continued intermittently for 48 hours in the Kularighat forest of Mainpur region in Gariaband district, said a senior police officer supervising the operation. Chalapathi, who hailed from Andhra Pradesh, was an active member of the Central Committee, which holds significant authority in the banned CPI (Maoist), just below the Polit- buro. He had a bounty of `1 crore on his head. “The encounter is still on. So far, fourteen bodies have been recovered. The casualty count is expected to rise as the search operation has been intensified in the area. This is the first operation where senior leaders of the banned outfit have been killed in Chhattisgarh,” Nikhil Rakhecha, Gariaband SP told this paper. There were intelligence inputs specifying the presence of the senior Maoist assembling in the region. A joint operation launched by a special team faced heavy gunfire from the Naxals, the officer said. Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on X: “Another mighty blow to Naxalism.” express read Seize MF Husain’s two paintings: Delhi court New Delhi: A Delhi court ordered the seizure of two paintings by renowned artist M F Husain displayed at the Delhi Art Gallery following a complaint that they were offensive.