TIRUCHY l saturday l june 07, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 14 l late city EDITION Elon Musk’s Starlink gets India licence for broadband internet Elon Musk’s Starlink has bagged a licence for satellite internet services, a milestone towards launching commercial operations in India licence hours after trump-musk spat strict security rules await foreign co Starlink is the third company after Eutelsat OneWeb and Jio Satellite Communications to get a licence from the Dept of Telecommunications to provide satellite internet services in the country. A fourth applicant, Amazon’s Kuiper, is still waiting for approvals. Notably, the licence came hours after an ugly, public spat between Musk and Donald Trump | P12 ■ ■ TRAI last month recommended that satcom companies like Starlink pay 4% of their adjusted gross revenue as spectrum charges to govt—a rate steeper than what these firms had lobbied for India’s rules mandate satcom firms to demonstrate capabilities with respect to security aspects, including monitoring, before operations 550 km above earth is world’s largest low Earth orbit used by starlink 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 India’s Operation Sindoor will Double delight: haunt Pakistan forever, says Modi RBI cuts repo by RA J E SH KU M AR THAKUR & FAYA Z WANI @ Katra / Srinagar Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday lit into Pakistan, accusing the ‘unfortunate neighbour’ of conspiring to derail the economy and empowerment of Jammu and Kashmir through the brutal terror attack in Pahalgam on April 22. “Pakistan attacked both insaniyat (humanity) and Kashmiriyat (Kashmir’s social harmony) in Pahalgam. It wanted to spark communal riots in India and rob Kashmiris of their livelihood,” Modi said in his first visit to J&K after the April 22 terror attack. His comments came while addressing a rally after inaugurating the world’s highest single-arch rail bridge over the Chenab river, India’s first cable-stayed Anji bridge, and flagging off Vande Bharat trains to mark the completion of the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla railway link that providies direct train connectivity to the Kashmir Valley . In all, Modi inaugurated development projects worth `46,000 crore for the region. “On the night of May 6, doom was let loose on Pakistan’s terrorists,” Modi said, adding that Pakistan will be reminded of its shameful defeat whenever it hears the name Operation Sindoor. “The edifice of terror that Pakistan built over the years was reduced to rubble in minutes. Development and peace of J&K is the Modi guarantee which nothing can hamper,” he said. He also lauded the people of Jammu and Kashmir for standing firm against terrorism. Reaffirming the Centre’s commitment to J&K’s development, he said improved railway connectivity would transform the region. Praise for Adil India launches pre-feasibility study to divert Chenab water J i t e n d r a C h o u b e y @ New Delhi INDIA has launched a pre-feasibility study for the construction of the Chenab-Ravi-BeasSutlej link canal project aimed at diverting water from the Chenab currently flowing into Pakistan under the currently inactive Indus Water Treaty (IWT). The project proposes to channel 15-20 million acre-feet (MAF) of water from the Chenab to Indian states of Punjab, Haryana, and Rajasthan, as part of a broader effort to strengthen domestic water infrastructure and assert greater control over Indus basin resources. The move follows the effective suspension of the Indus Actor-politician Kamal Haasan has declared `245.86 crore in movable and immovable assets in his nomination papers filed for the Rajya Sabha polls on Friday. The value of his assets has gone up by 39% (`70 crore) compared to the `176 crore asset value declared in his nomination papers for the 2021 Assembly poll. His overall liability, however, has remained the same at `49 crore over the last four years. Six candidates, four from DMK alliance and two from AIADMK, filed the papers for the six RS seats from Tamil Nadu. DMK Rajya Sabha candidates — P Wilson, Rajathi (a) Poet Salma, and SR Sivalingam — joined the Makkal Needhi Maiam chief in filing their nomination papers for four RS seats with the assembly additional secretary B Subramaniyam in Chennai. Chief Minister M K Stalin, Deputy CM Udhyanidhi Stalin and leaders of alliance parties were present. Kamal’s income as per his tax returns for 2023-2024 was `78.9 crore, up from `22.1 crore in 2019-2020. Value of his movable assets has gone up to `59.69 crore, a rise of nearly `15 crore from `45.09 crore reported in 2021.  P7 Speaking to the media, RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra said the The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) move was aimed at ensuring policy has ‘frontloaded’ the dose of relief certainty He said RBI could have . for borrowers. On Friday, the cen- done the rate cut in tranches, but it tral bank’s rate-setting panel sur- wanted to give a sense of certainty prised the Street with a 50 to the market with a 50 bps basis point cut in the repo cut. rate—the benchmark lendMalhotra said the Monetary ing rate—to 5.5% against Policy Committee’s decision the expectation of a 25 bawas taken in view of durable sis point reduction. The disinflation and the need to panel also shifted its policy boost private consumption stance from ‘accommodaand investment. “Inflation has tive’ to ‘neutral’, signalling softened, with headline CPI an end of rate cut cycle for falling to 3.2% in April—below MPC will now. With Friday’s cut, RBI carefully assess the 4% target,” he said. “We has lowered the repo rate now project inflation for FY26 data to chart by a cumulative 100 basis at 3.7%, down from our earlier out future points (bps) in 2025. forecast of 4%.” course of monetary To ease liquidity condiOn reverting to the ‘neutral’ policy tions, RBI also announced stance from ‘accommodative’, a 100 bps cut in the cash re- Sanjay Malhotra, he clarified this change serve ratio (CRR) from 4% indicates a “very limited RBI guv to 3%, to be implemented in space” for further monetary four tranches starting September 6. policy action. A neutral stance will This is expected to release `2.5 lakh mean rates in future can go either crore into the banking system. way . D i pa k M o n d a l @ New Delhi Top: PM Narendra Modi with railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, MoS Jitendra Singh, J&K L-G Manoj Sinha, and CM Omar Abdullah during inauguration of Chenab rail bridge; Above: Vande Bharat crosses the bridge | PTI Kamal, 5 others file papers for Rajya Sabha election @ Chennai Signals pause in rate cut cycle for the time being; releases `2.5L cr into banking system PM praised the courage of Syed Adil Shah, who was killed by terrorists when he tried to save tourists from bullets (From left to right) Kamal Haasan, P Wilson, IS Inbadurai and M Dhanapal E x p r e s s Ne w s Se r v i c e 50 bps, CRR 1% ‘Livelihood hit’ Modi said the Pahalgam attack directly impacted local workers in J&K—horse riders, porters, guides, shopkeepers and guest house owners Waters Treaty under which India was permitted to use 20% of the basin’s water. Additionally, a team has begun assessing the existing canal structures across Jammu, Punjab, Haryana, and Rajasthan. An officer involved in planning the study at the Ministry of Jal Shakti stated, “We need to evaluate if the water diverted from the Chenab through these canals is being delivered in proper condition and determine investment required for restructuring the canal system.” In addition to the ChenabRavi-Beas-Sutlej link canal project, India is fast-tracking several new storage and run-ofriver projects to support these initiatives. Mark Carney invites Modi to attend g7 Jayanth Jacob @ New Delhi IN a major signal of improving ties between India and Canada following erosion of diplomatic relations under former Canadian PM Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday confirmed his participation in the upcoming G7 Summit, to be held in Kananaskis, Alberta, from June 15–17. Confirming his attendance, Modi said he looks forward to meeting the newly elected Canadian PM Mark Carney. Bengaluru stampede: RCB marketing head, three others arrested E x p r e s s Ne w s Se r v i c e @ Bengaluru IN connection with the death of 11 persons in a stampede outside the M Chinnaswamy Stadium during the IPL title triumph celebration of RCB, four persons, including the marketing head of the RCB franchise, were arrested in a joint operation by the Central Crime Branch(CCB) and Cubbon Park police, when they were reportedly flying to Mumbai on Friday . Nikhil Sosale, the marketing head of RCB franchise, was arrested at the Kempegowda International Airport when he was, allegedly trying to escape. , The other three are employees of the DNA Entertainment Networks Private Limited. Its director and vice- president Sunil Mathew, manager Kiran Kumar and Sumanth, working in the ticketing section, were also arrested from the airport. The arrests were made in the early hours of Friday after the Cubbon Park police registered three FIRs, including a suo motu FIR against the RCB franchise, DNA Entertainment Private Limited and the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) Administrative Committee. FIRs were registered accusing them responsible for the deaths of 11 people in the stampede at different g at e s o f t h e C h i n n a sw a my S t a d i u m o n Wednesday . HC rejects plea of students for NEET-UG re-examination E x p r e s s Ne w s Se r v i c e @ Chennai The Madras High Court has dismissed the petitions filed by 16 candidates seeking reconduct of the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET)-2025 for admission to under-g raduate (UG) courses in medicine. The candidates had prayed for a re-exam stating that they were affected by power outage at their exam centres due to sudden storm, rains and gusty winds. Concurring with the submission of the National Testing Agency (NTA) that an expert committee, which went into analysis of the performance of the centres concerned and the students, had found out that the performance was not affected, Justice C Kumarappan said the level-playing field of about two million candidates would be affected. “The authority themselves had arrived at a reasonable conclusion that there are no grounds for re-exam,” the judge said.  P7