kollam l tuesday l february 04, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 14 l city EDITION Trump tariffs : Rupee plunges 55 paise to low of 87.17 against $ Rupee suffered significant pressure from sustained foreign fund outflows and strong US dollar demand from oil importers surge in u.s. dollar index weakens rupee Forex traders said the plunge was due to a surge in the US dollar index after US President Donald Trump levied tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China, triggering fears of a broad trade war. “We expect the rupee to trade with negative bias on strong US dollar and FII outflows amid weak domestic markets,” said Anuj Choudhary, Mirae Asset Sharekhan ■ 319 fiis offloading equities led to fall ■ Finance Secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey on Monday said there is no concern over the rupee value, and the Reserve Bank of India is managing the volatility of the local currency Foreign institutional investors offloaded equities worth C1,327.09 crore in the capital markets on Saturday, contributing to the fall points drop in the 30-share BSE Sensex on monday 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 Demolish, reconstruct Chander Kunj Army Towers: HC E x p r e s s N e w s S e r v i c e @ Kochi The Army Welfare Housing Organisation’s Chander Kunj Army Towers in Kochi | A Sanesh The Kerala High Court on Monday ordered the demolition and reconstruction of two 26-storied towers of the Army Welfare Housing Organisation’s (AWHO) Chander Kunj Army Towers in Kochi as they endangered lives and properties. Due to poor quality of construction, continued occupation of towers B and C of the apartment complex on Silver Sand Island at Vyttila poses grave risks, necessitating immediate evacuation to ensure community safety, the court observed. Justice Mohammed Nias C P observed that the distress to the towers is undeniably human-induced, causing significant loss and suffering due to cumulative violations of regulatory structural, and , environmental standards. Considering expert reports, the Kerala Municipalities Act, 1994, the Kerala Municipality Building Rules 1999, and the Disaster Management Act, 2005, and the order passed by the District Collector, Ernakulam, there is no alter native but to direct AWHO to demolish and reconstruct the towers, the HC said. The court issued the order on a batch of petitions filed by the owners and the association of the owners of the apartments. The petitioners informed the court that the Silver Sand Island project of the AWHO consists of three towers (Tower A of 14 stories and Towers B and C of 26 stories each with stilt and basement), consisting of a total of In the works, PM-Trump talks in the US on Feb 13 Both sides exploring possibility of scheduling it after Paris AI summit J aya nt h J a c o b @ New Delhi Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to travel to Washington for a meeting with President Donald Trump after attending the AI summit in Paris on February 10 and 11. While there has been no official word from either the White House or the External Affairs Ministry both sides are looking at Feb, ruary 13 and 14 as the possible dates. The Indian side has been eager for an early engagement between the two leaders, hoping that their strong personal rapport would help establish a foundation for deeper collaboration, especially as the new US administration begins implementing measures such as raising tariffs and cracking down on illegal immigration. If these plans work out, the two leaders could hold discussions on February 13 to lay out the roadmap for their future cooperation. During his trip, Modi is also expected to hold meetings with business leaders. The prime minister will be attending the AI Action Summit in France on February 10-11 at the Grand Palais after which he will be travelling to Washington. According to a statement from the Élysée Palace, the AI summit will gather heads of state and government, international organisation leaders, business executives, academics, NGOs, artists, and civil society members. If the subsequent US trip is firmed up, Modi will arrive in Washington on February 12 depending on his final engagements in France. “The leaders (Modi and Trump) discussed plans for Prime Minister Modi to visit the White House, underscoring the strength of the friendship and strategic ties between our nations,” a White House read out said after a phone call between Modi and Trump on January 27. President Trump has said Modi was likely to visit the White House for a meeting in February. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, en route to Joint Base Andrews from Florida, Trump said on the day of is phone call with the Indian prime minister: “I had a long talk with him this morning. He is going to be coming to the White House, probably in February We have a very good . relationship with India.” Rahul raps slide in manufacturing Pr e e t h a N a i r @ New Delhi In a departure from his usual combative mode, Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi addressed the Lok Sabha on Monday touching upon all the key is, sues that currently dominate the Budget season — unemployment, border security, Election Commission, China and caste census — among others. He began his address on a conciliatory note, saying that both the Congress-led UPA governments and the BJP-led NDA failed to address the burning issue of unemployment. Though he hailed the prime minAttempt to ister for his flagship ‘Make in India’ hurt image initiative, he pointed out that Narendra Modi failed because manufacJaishankar turing went from 15.3% of GDP to accused Rahul 12.6% now, the lowest in 60 years. of damaging “The record of the country in orIndia’s image abroad. “Rahul ganising production is dismal,” he said, adding that India has handed Gandhi’s lies over production to the Chinese. may have Showing his mobile phone, Rahul political intent, said though it is assembled in India, but they harm all the components including the the nation network are owned by China. he internationalso alleged that External Affairs ally,” he said Minister S Jaishankar was sent to the US to secure an invite for the PM to attend Donald Trump’s inauguration as US President. In his pushback, Jaishankar said, “Rahul Gandhi deliberately spoke a falsehood about my visit to the US... At no stage was an invitation for the PM discussed. It’s well-known that our PM doesn’t attend such events. India is generally represented by Special Envoys.” ‘Grave risk’ The HC observed that due to poor quality of construction, continued occupation of towers B and C of the apartment complex poses grave risks, necessitating evacuation to ensure community safety The court directed  to constitute a committee comprising experts for proper implementation of the demolition and reconstruction 264 dwelling units with other essential services (club house, swimming pool, sewage treatment plant etc). The work on the project, spreading over 4.28 acres, had commenced in April 2013 and completed in July 2018. In 2019, the residents raised concerns regarding seepage Realty is in for a reality check. For generations, owning a home back in Kerala was the ultimate dream of many migrants from the state. However, times are changing. Secondgeneration non-resident Keralites are now less inclined to invest in building or buying a residence in their home state, opting instead for more liquid investment options. “In fact, NRIs now refrain from buying or investing in houses and land unless they plan to reside in them,” Rajan told TNIE. A recent study by Crisil, a leading ratings agency, corroborated this trend, highlighting a significant shift in the investment preferences of non-resident Keralites. One of the key findings of a Previous budget had earmarked C2,744 cr for Kerala. No major projects announced for state this year | P4 since covid lockdown pa r v e z s u lta n @ New Delhi Amid a spurt in murders involving close family members, the police department has initiated a discussion among its ranks to set up an exclusive database on such cases, beginning from the Covid lockdown period. The objective is to get the statistics and all related data on parricide cases so that mitigation plans could be charted out to deal with the issue. Sources said the repository will be prepared by the intelligence wing and the State Crime Records Bureau. The current practice followed by the police is to count the parricide cases under murder. However, the rise in murder cases involving family members has prompted the police higher-ups to consider such cases separately . There is a dearth of scientific study and analysis on parricide cases and that hinders effective policing in such incidents, said a source. “There are IN its draft political resolution for the 24th party congress released on Monday the Commu, nist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) said its attitude to the Congress is determined by the need for broader unity among secular forces. However, it said it cannot have a political alliance with the Congress. The party acknowledged that the Congress, the main secular opposition party, has a role to play in a common struggle against the BJP and in the “broader unity to be forged among secular forces”. It pledged to continue to work with INDIA bloc on core issues as it seeks “mobilisation of all secular forces against Hindutva ideology. “CPM will cooperate with INDIA bloc in Parliament and on agreed issues outside Parliament. We will join hands with all secular forces on issues of authoritarian onslaughts against democracy use of dra, conian laws to suppress dissent and opposition to efforts to subvert the Constitution,” it said. However, the draft called for strengthening the independent support base of the party It em. phasised that there should be more attention on independent political campaigns and mass mobilisations around the political platform of the party with special focus on ideological work and movement to counter the ideology and activities of the Hindutva forces. The draft was jointly released by CPM Polit Bureau members Tapan Sen, Ashok Dawle, Nilotpal Basu and its coordinator Prakash Karat in New Delhi. The resolution will be taken up in the party congress in Madurai from April 6 to 9. State’s property market sees shift as NRIs lose interest Migration expert S Irudaya Rajan confirmed a significant shift in investment trends among non-resident Indians (NRIs). According to Rajan, chair of the International Institute for Migration and Development and former professor at the Centre for Development Studies (CDS), NRIs no longer view homes and land as viable investment opportunities. R3K cr for rly devpt Centre, states Cops to collate data on cases can’t reduce where kin turned murderers forest cover: SC No political alliance with Congress: Draft CPM resolution realty check! R a j e s h R a v i @ Kochi and water leakage, in some areas of towers B and C. A study report of IIT Madras directed immediate evacuation of all residents from the two towers. A later evaluation by the IIT highlighted that continued occupancy poses serious risks to residents because of significant corrosion levels. Evacuating residents from towers B and C was recommended due to urgent safety concerns. The court noted that various studies found that the buildings in residential towers B and C are in severe distress. Although the buildings appear to be structurally stable, the amount and nature of distress caused due to corrosion and severe cracking make it highly risky for safe occupation, the court ● More on P4 said.  sentiment survey conducted before its Real Estate Conclave (CREC), held in Kochi in December, revealed that the NRI customer base had dropped sharply over the years. A significant proportion of developers who were surveyed indicated that second-generation NRIs are less interested in investing in Kerala’s real-estate market due to better lifestyles and job opportunities in other ● More on P4 markets.  S h a n A S @ T’Puram multiple dimensions to these cases and they ought to be reviewed separately and intensely. In most of the cases, apart from alcohol and drug abuse, the elements of money, emotion and lust are involved. Once we have proper data on such a category of cases, we can chart out action plans to deal with the issue,” the source said. The data bank will cover all the cases that occurred since the Covid-induced lockdown. A senior police officer said the pandemic brought a drastic change in the interaction between individuals, especially within the family . “The penetration of the internet rose exponentially during the period and that had a telling effect on human relationships. We have to set a time period for the collection of data and have tentatively decided to start from the Covid lockdown period,” the officer said. All aspects of parricide cases will be analysed with an academic interest, the ● More on P4 officer said. S u c h i tr a K a lya n M o h a nt y @ New Delhi IN a stern warning, the Supreme Court on Monday restrained the Centre and state governments from reducing forest areas without providing compensatory land. The interim order came after a batch of petitions challenged amendments to the 2023 forest conservation law, which allegedly excludes nearly 1.99 lakh square kilometres of forest land from the definition of “forest”. A two-judge bench led by justices B R Gavai and K Vinod Chandran, directed the Centre to submit a status report in three weeks. The court stressed it will not allow any reduction in forest area without compensatory land being provided. The Forest (Conservation) Amendment Bill was passed by Parliament in 2023. The pleas sought to strke down amended law. The petitioners argued that the 1996 Godavarman judgement by the SC mandated protection of forests regardless of classification or ownership. From right, Chandrika Tandon, Wouter Kellerman and Eru Matsumoto accept the Grammy for their album, Triveni | AP Indra Nooyi’s sis wins Grammy R u pa m J a i n @ Chennai Chandrika Tandon, a Chennai-born Indian-American businesswoman and musician, claimed her first Grammy at the 67th Annual Grammy Awards in 2025. She is the elder sister of Indra Nooyi, former chairperson and chief executive officer of PepsiCo. Chandrika, 71, won the prestigious award in the Best New Age, Ambient, or Chant Album category for her album Triveni. A captivating blend of Vedic chants and modern world music, Triveni is a collaboration with South African flautist Wouter Kellerman and Japanese cellist Eru Matsumoto. The album’s title, inspired by the confluence of three sacred rivers in India, symbolises the fusion of diverse musical traditions, resulting in a meditative journey of inner healing. Chandrika’s win marks the culmination of a career that spans both business and music. Born into a Tamil Brahmin family, she studied at Madras Christian College before earning an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad. She went on to become the first Indian-American woman elected partner at McKinsey & Company, later founding Tandon Capital Associates. Despite her business success, Chandrika’s passion for m u s i c n e ve r w ave r e d . Trained in Hindustani and Carnatic classical music, she earned her first Grammy nomination in 2011 for her album Soul Call. Triveni, released in 2024, includes seven tracks, each representing a step in a spiritual journey with pieces like , Pathway to Light and Seeking Shakti. In her acceptance speech, Chandrika expressed her gratitude, saying, “Music is love, music is light, and music is laughter.” Her win is a tribute to her commitment to both business and art, proving it’s never too late to pursue your passions.