HUBBALLLI l sunday l june 01, 2025 l `12.00 l PAGES 26 l CITY EDITION Monsoon fury kills 24 in n.e., leads to despair in maha, kerala Flash floods and landslides due to monsoon led to the death of 24 people in Northeast, and threw life off gear in Maharashtra and Kerala kerala gets 6 times more rain this week odisha dole for crop, house damage IMD data shows Kerala received nearly 40 cm of rain between May 24- 30, 6 times the normal average of 7 cm for this period. In Karnataka, minister Dinesh Gundu Rao announced a compensation of `5 lakh each to the families of those killed in rain-related incidents. In Andhra Pradesh, minister P Narayana asked officials to address risks of urban floods ■ ■ Odisha Revenue and Disaster Management minister Suresh Pujari said on Saturday the government will provide financial assistance for crop and house damage due to unseasonal rain between May 27 and 30 In the wake of continuous and heavy downpour, several states in the Northeast have advised people to avoid unnecessary travel 500 tourists stranded in Sikkim as main road blocked by landslides 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 ‘Forces rectified tactical mistakes and hit Pak; Islamabad’s claim of downing 6 Indian jets rubbish’ Suffered initial losses during Op Sindoor: CDS M AYA N K S I N G H @ New Delhi WITH THIS ISSUE dark ai The Black Hole PLUS 12 P AGES CHIEF of Defence Staff (CDS) Gen Anil Chauhan on Saturday acknowledged aircraft losses during Operation Sindoor, but rubbished Islamabad’s claim of downing six Indian fighter jets, including four Rafale fighters, as “absolutely incorrect”. The CDS’ comments on Operation Sindoor came during an interaction with Bloomberg TV on the sidelines of ShangriLa Dialogue in Singapore on Saturday When asked whether . Pakistan downed Indian jets, the CDS said: “What is important is not the jet being downed, but why they were being downed, what mistakes were made—that is important.” Without going into the details, he said: “The good part is that we are able to understand the tactical mistake which we made, remedy it, rectify it, and flew all our jets again, targeting at long range.” Earlier this month, Air Marshal A K Bharti, the DG Air Operations had noted that “losses What is important is not the jet being downed, but why they were being downed, what mistakes were made—that is important Gen Anil Chauhan, CHIEF of Defence Staff are a part of combat” while stressing that all IAF pilots who took part in Operation Sindoor returned home safely . The operation was jointly conducted by the IAF and the Army to destroy terror hubs in Pakistan and PoK. During the limited war, both countries deployed a large number of drones and missiles. “Indian Army destroyed more than 600 drones using multi-layered air defence systems”, said a source. “The Akashteer Command and Control System increased efficiency as it was able to detect, track and inform about the enemy drones, missiles and aircraft,” the source added. On US President Donald Trump’s ceasefire claim, the CDS said it was ‘far-fetched’. “There is a lot of space between conduct of conventional operations and the nuclear threshold,” he added. He said channels of communication with Pakistan “were always open” to control the situation. He also ascertained that there were “more sub-ladders which can be exploited for settling out our issues” without needing to resort to nuclear weapons. On disinformation, he said: ““Combating fake news was a constant effort. Our communication strategy was deliberate; we chose to be measured, not reactive... India has always built its narratives on solid ground, even if we have sometimes been slow to present them.” Colombia backs India after Op Sindoor U-turn e x p r e s s n e w s s e r v i c e @ New Delhi COlombia has withdrawn its statement offering condolences to Pakistan for the loss of lives following India’s military strikes in response to the Pahalgam attack after an Indian parliamentary delegation explained Islamabad’s relentless support to cross-border terrorism. Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, leading the all-party delegation to the South American country said he was , ‘very pleased’ to confirm Bogota’s withdrawal of the controversial statement after meeting Vice Foreign Minister Rosa Yolanda Villavicencio. The nine-member delegation held a series of meetings with Colombia’s senior political brass, apprising India’s policy of “zero tolerance for terrorism” and its retaliatory strikes against terror infrastructure on Pakistani soil following the April 22 Pahalgam attack. Other members of the delegation include Tejasvi Surya (BJP), Bhubaneswar Kalita (BJP), Milind Deora (Shiv Sena), Shambhavi (LJP), GM Harish Balayogi (TDP) and former ambassador of India to the US Taranjit Singh Sandhu. 21-year-old develops smart device for women’s safety in public spaces B K L ak s h mikan t h a @ Mysuru Keeping women’s safety in public spaces in mind, a 21-year-old final-year student from the Electronics and Communication Engineering Department at Sri Jayachamarajendra College of Engineering (SJCE) in Mysuru has developed an innovative Intelligent Geofence-enabled Wearable System (IGWS) that can relay alerts to the user’s emergency contacts in case of deviation, along with her location, in real-time. Geofencing allows creating a virtual geographic boundary around an area using global positioning system (GPS) or radio-frequency identification (RFID) – a technology using radio waves to automatically identify and track items or people – and enables the software Karan D (left) with his invention Intelligent Geofence-enabled Wearable System, in Mysuru | Udayashankar S to trigger responses when the device carrying that software enters or leaves the area. The youth, Karan D, told The New Sunday Express at the Open Day 2025 at the SJCE campus on Saturday where he showcased his smart wearable device, that the device enhances safety by allowing users to define “safe zones” (geofences) and enabling pre-designated emergency contacts to receive alerts when user enters or leaves these areas. “One of the key features is a geofence-based stranger-following detector,” said Karan. “If a woman is being followed by someone for more than three minutes, the device detects the persisting presence of the same mobile phone (of the suspected stalker) or Bluetooth MAC address (also known as a Bluetooth Device Address, a unique identifier assigned to each Bluetooth device, which can help identify and locate devices during communication).  P5 on top of world Thailand’s Opal Suchata Chuangsri after being crowned the 72nd Miss World in Hyderabad on Saturday | Vinay Madapu Indian-origin MIT student Megha Vemuri barred from graduation commencement for her pro-Palestine speech wo r d s wo r k Auditions, mock commentary: Preparing commentators S wa r oop S waminat h an @ Chennai Indian cricket has moved beyond Hindi and English commentaries. The transition as always was not easy When the . Indian Premier League’s host broadcaster decided to expand their footprint by offering commentary in multiple regional languages including Haryanvi, Punjabi and Bhojpuri, the top management had to workaround an issue. Considering several Indian languages didn’t lend itself to cricket commentary they had to come up with , a dossier of sorts to get the au- dience hooked. That’s when they came across the idea of terms the commentators could use to connect better with the fans they were addressing. “We worked with the guys and created a bible,” says Siddharth Sharma, content head at JioStar (sports). He said that Bhojpuri and Haryanvi are languages that never existed (from a cricket commentary perspective). “What are some catchphrases that you could use? What happens when (Virat) Kohli comes down the track and hits a cover drive? What will you tell?” Over time, the broadcaster worked with the commentators to come up with ‘bibles’ in all 12 languages, including Hindi and English. If one thought playing cricket for India is enough to be a commentator, hiring process for commentators are a bit more complicated. It includes auditions, mock commentary sessions as well as feedback protocols. “It’s difficult,” says Sarandeep Singh, Delhi’s Ranji Trophy coach who doubles up as an expert on JioStar. “It’s all in the words and how we express them. Words will look similar but we will have to speak in a different way .” When he was asked to give an audition, his first thought was ‘why an audition? I have played Tests for India. But he quickly understood that speaking cricket on broadcast is very different.  P13 It’s all in the words and how we express them, says Sarandeep Singh US to double steel, alu tariffs D I PA K M O N D A L @ New Delhi THE Trump administration in the US is planning to double down its efforts to curb metal imports as it is planning to increase tariffs on steel and aluminium from 25% to 50% citing security reasons. “We’re going to bring it from 25% to 50% — the tariffs on steel into the United States of America, which will even further secure the steel industry in the United States,” US President Donald Trump said at a rally in Pennsylvania. This could come as a double whammy for the Indian Steel industry, which is already facing risk of ‘dumping’ from China. The US government raised the tariff on steel and aluminium to 25% in February this year. When the US announced retaliatory tariffs on imports from around 60 countries in April, it had kept steel and aluminium out of its purview.