BHUBANESWAR  SUNDAY  JUNE 01, 2025  `12.00  PAGES 26  LATE 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 Odisha reports 1st Covid death of the season HEMANT KUMAR ROUT @ Bhubaneswar ODISHA reported its first Covid-related fatality of the season after an 85-year-old man from the capital city succumbed at his residence on Saturday . Sources said swab samples of the elderly man was collected and sent for tests after he developed symptoms and fell sick. His test reports confirmed that he was positive for SARSCoV2. Odisha has reported a total of eight Covid cases in May. The tally includes five from Bhubaneswar, two from Cuttack and one from Khurda. Other patients are in stable condition and are recovering well, sources said. Director of public health Dr Nilakantha Mishra said he has been informed of the death and has asked officials to inquire into it. “An audit will be conducted to ascertain whether the elderly man had comorbidities, and the primary cause of his death,” Mishra told TNIE. So far, 3,395 Covid cases and 22 deaths have been reported in May in the country . In Odisha, recent genome sequencing has identified LF.7.9 and XGF as the dominant subvariants in circulation. WHO has classified these as variants under-monitoring. Health secretary Aswathy S urged people to remain vigilant but not panic. She emphasised that the circulating variant has not led to any serious complications among patients so far. 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 are a part of combat” while stressing that all IAF pilots 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 who took part in Operation Sindoor returned home safely . The operation was jointly conducted by the Indian Air Force and the Army to destroy terror hubs in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied kashmir. During the limited war, both countries deployed a larg e 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 the issue of disinformation, the CDS 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.” 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. At a press briefing on Shashi Tharoor Thursday, Tharoor had voiced his ‘disappointment’ over Bogota’s pro-Pak stance. The delegation has held a series of meetings with Colombia’s political brass, apprising India’s retaliatory strikes against Pak terror infrastructure following the Pahalgam attack. Other delegation members inc l u d e Te j a s v i S u r y a ( B J P ) , Bhubaneswar Kalita (BJP), Milind Deora (Shiv Sena), Shambhavi (LJP), GM Harish Balayogi (TDP) and former ambassador of India to the US Taranjit Singh Sandhu. Forester burnt to death by wife and son over ‘extramarital relationship’ A S I S H M E H TA @ Bhubaneswar IN a gruesome incident, a forester was allegedly burnt to death by his wife and son at their house in Baramasi Lane in Nayagarh town, about 85 km from Bhubaneswar, for allegedly having an extramarital affair. Sisir Sahu, a native of Manapur in Nayagarh district, was posted in Pancharida forest range under Sarankul. He had constructed a new house in Baramasi Lane where his wife Namita Sahu (45) and son Abhishek Ranasingh (26) resided. He, however, lived separately due to a marital dispute between the couple. Police said Sisir used to visit their house rarely and whenever he did so, he either spent the night in his car or the drawing room. On Friday night, he went there reportedly in an inebriated state and had an argument with his wife and son. Police said initial investigation revealed Namita and her son Abhishek had already planned the murder. They had purchased five to 10 litre of petrol to set him ablaze. Taking advantage of his inebriated condition, the mother-son duo reportedly poured petrol on him after 12.30 am on Saturday, killing him on the spot. Such was the severity of the burning that deceased Sisir’s bones cracked in the heat, police sources said. Namita then reportedly contacted Sisir’s brother Sarat Chandra Sahu and informed him that he died due to burn injuries in a fire accident caused by a short circuit in their house. Odisha Fire and Emergency Service personnel reached the spot and realised it was a case of foul play Nayagarh Sadar police were alerted . and they rushed to the spot. Prima facie it did not appear like a fire accident. Initially, the woman and her son claimed that Sisir had caught fire due to a short circuit, police CONTINUED ON P5 said. MISS WORLD 2025 Thailand’s Opal Suchata Chuangsri after being crowned the 72nd Miss World in Hyderabad on Saturday | VINAY MADAPU EXPRESS READ Iran amassed more uranium stockpile: UN watchdog Vienna: Iran has further increased its stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels, a confidential report by the UN nuclear watchdog said Saturday. In a separate report, the agency called on Tehran to urgently change course and comply with its years-long probe | P9 WORDS WORK S WA R O O P S WA M I N AT H A N @ Chennai Sarandeep Singh ble,” 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 difP13 ferent. WITH THIS ISSUE Auditions, mock commentary: How commentators prepare for IPL 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 audience 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 bi- Colombia sheds pro-Pak stance, supports India DARK AI The Black Hole PLUS 12 P AGES INDIAN-ORIGIN MIT STUDENT Megha Vemuri barred from graduation commencement for her pro-Palestine speech Don to double tariff on steel, aluminium 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. For India, the consequences are direct, says Ajay Srivastava, founder, GTRI. India exported $4.56 billion worth of iron, steel, and aluminium products to the US in FY25. “These exports are now exposed to sharply higher US tariffs, threatening the profitability of Indian producers and exporters,” he said. The economic impact would be significant for the US as well. It is expected to push US prices to about $1,180, squeezing US industries such as automotive, construction, that depend on steel and aluminium as key inputs.