kochi l tuesday l august 26, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 20 l late city EDITION SC asks Samay Raina, 4 others to apologise for disability jokes Supreme Court asked 5 social media influencers to display their apology in their shows for ridiculing persons with disabilities and rare genetic disorders Penalty to be considered later, says court Commercial content is not free speech A bench of justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi said the degree of repentance should be higher than the degree of offending and made it clear that the court would later consider imposing a penalty on the influencers—Samay Raina, Sonali Thakkar, Vipul Goyal, Balraj Paramjeet Singh Ghai, and Nishant Jagdish Tanwar—for offending disabled persons ■ ■ The five influencers are accused of making fun of the disabled, and those suffering from spinal muscular atrophy and visual impairment Justice Bagchi said the influencers should be more cautious while creating humour, adding that those who use social media platforms to earn money can’t label their commercial content as free speech Petition Against the influencers was filed by Cure SMA Foundation of India 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 Satheesan overruled, Rahul to stay on as MLA E x p r e ss N e w s S e r v i c e @ Kochi/T’Puram In a major loss of face for Leader of Opposition V D Satheesan, his decree calling for disgraced Cong ress le gislator Rahul Mamkootathil to step down was overruled by the state party leadership on Monday In a face-sav. ing act, the party suspended the Palakkad MLA from its primary membership. Watching the developments unfold, a desperate Satheesan who had asserted a couple of days back that Rahul must demit office as MLA, took a U-turn and defended the party’s decision. Significantly the episode signals , the emergence of a new power centre in the state Congress with the three working presidents — Shafi Parambil, A P Anilkumar and P C Vishnunadh — forming a nexus, and receiving the backing of state party chief Sunny Joseph and UDF convener Adoor Prakash. Announcing the disciplinary action against Rahul in Kannur, Sunny said the duration of the suspension has not been specified. He said the Palakkad MLA does not have to demit office, as there are no official complaints Amazon, Flipkart data to help govt assess inflation Statistics ministry to overhaul the way retail inflation data is collected and measured registered against him. “The decision to suspend him was taken after thorough discussions with the UDF convener and senior party leaders,” he said, emphasising that the action was based on the Congress’ firm stance to protect the dignity and safety of women. “It was a E X P RESS READ PM’s degree: HC chucks CIC ’16 fiat 20 pages, including 4 pages of KOCHI Express + 4-page pullout How will it work? Given the rise in household spending on e-commerce platforms, capturing the latest online prices can improve the quality of retail inflation data. Around 27 crore Indians shopped online in 2024. The number is projected to rise 22% every year Spending trends A recent consumption survey showed that Indians were spending a lower share of their budget on food expenses. To capture the new trend in consumption, the revamped CPI index could include airfares and streamingmedia prices, reports said A damaged bridge following heavy rainfall in Jammu on Monday | PTI Rare amoebic variant detected in state; total active cases touch 18 P o o j a N a i r @Kozhikode Amid serious concerns over an increase in the cases of amoebic meningoencephalitis in the state, an expert team at the Kozhikode Government Medical College Hospital (MCH) has confirmed the detection of a rare amoeba variant, Sappinia pedata, in a patient under treatment at the MCH. This is the first time the variant is detected in the state. Currently there are 18 active cases of amoe, bic meningoencephalitis across Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Kozhikode, Wayanad and Malappuram districts. Of them, eight have been admitted to the Kozhikode MCH. This year, 41 cases have been confirmed in the state so far. With the cases on the rise, the state gover nment has heightened vigil, launching preventive measures, including chlorination of wells and water tanks across homes, hospitals, hostels and educational institutions. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has urged local self-government institutions to carry out preventive measures effectively . Vermamoeba vermiformis, a free-living amoeba that has been identified as a cause of primary amoebic meningoencephalitis (PAM), and Naegleria fowleri, also known as the brain-eating amoeba, were the two variants identified in the cases reported in the ● More on P4 state so far.  BCCI faces `1,000 crore shortfall THE corridors of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) are no stranger to their sponsors facing significant headwinds. But they find themselves in the curious position of having to bring on board a sponsor for one of the most visible slots — title sponsor for all Indian teams embossed on the T-shirts — within a twoweek period. With the men’s team set to feature in the Asia Cup and the women’s team featuring in a home 50-over World Cup within the next two months, they will not be short on offers (they are expected float a tender soon). What, though, remains to be seen is if they will be able to make up for the shortfall on an immediate basis. The loss, brought about because of a policy change at the Centre related to real money gaming, could run into `1,000 crore. But the real loss will be known once the board ropes in new sponsors. On Monday board secretary , Devajit Saikia confirmed to this mast that they have ceased associations with Dream11 or ‘any other gaming agencies’. “BCCI cannot go with Dream11 or any other gaming agencies,” he said. “They will not be part of the BCCI under the current legal system. We are deliberating what can be done to substitute their Devajit Saikia sponsorship slots. edit: CONG PROBITY AT STAKE IN KERALA MORAL CRISIS | P6 J i t e n d r a C h o u b e y @ New Delhi dream turns nightmare Gomesh S & Swaroop S w a m i n at h a n @ Chennai them that a resignation could politically backfire, as the CPM and the BJP would raise it during the campaigning for the local body and assembly polls. They also contended that resigning without any complaint or police case could amount to admitting the allegations. Following his suspension, Rahul will now have to sit as an independent in the state assembly. However, to avoid further embarrassment, he is more likely to keep away from the assembly during the period of suspension.  ● More on P4 India alerts Pak on possible flash floods New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Monday set aside a 2016 order of the Central Information Commission (CIC) that had directed the University of Delhi to disclose and allow inspection of records relating to PM Narendra Modi’s bachelor’s degree. Justice Sachin Datta who had reserved the judgment on February 27, pronounced the verdict on DU’s plea challenging CIC directive. P8 D i pa k M o n d a l @ New Delhi IN a bid to make the official retail inflation data more updated and cognizant of the changes in household consumption patterns, the government is planning to effect major changes to the way the data is captured and measured. As part of the overhaul, the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), which publishes inflation data, will source data directly from e-commerce platforms such as Amazon and Flipkart. The ministry will also update the inflation basket and base year. Speaking to this newspaper, MoSPI Secretary Saurabh Garg confirmed that the ministry will track prices from e-commerce platforms across 12 cities. He did not specify the criteria for selecting these cities but said they would be chosen on a random sampling basis. “Our effort is to collect data in a way that better represents the economy today he said. ,” Earlier in the day a Reuters report said the , ministry plans to scrape prices from e-commerce sites in 12 cities with populations above 2.5 million. According to the report, e-commerce firms were told to share weekly average prices of goods with the government. These figures would be cross-checked against a broader dataset to guard against distortions. The objective is to build a more robust system for tracking retail inflation, given the rising share of e-commerce in household consumption. Estimates suggest that e-commerce sales touched $125 billion in FY24 and are projected to rise to $350 billion by FY30. The government will also revise the base years. CPI’s base year will shift to 2023-24, while the GDP’s will be updated to 2022-23. Currently , both the GDP and CPI are calculated using 2011-12 as the base year. The CPI product basket is also set for expansion and rebalancing. The weight of food in the new basket will decline, as household consumption surveys from 2022-23 and 2023-24 show a smaller share of food in monthly expenditure compared to 2011-12. The number of items tracked will rise from 300 to 400. unanimous decision. It has already been communicated to Rahul that he will no longer serve as a Congress legislative member. He does not have to resign. There is no justification or logic to what is being demanded by our political opponents. There is no such precedence in state politics. There have been instances where cases and chargesheets were filed against people’s representatives, yet they chose not to resign,” Sunny said. The KPCC chief along with the three working presidents held hectic parleys with senior party leaders and convinced We will take a call soon.” Saikia was fairly intimate when asked if a communique has been sent out to all contracted players about the change in law, vis-a-vis endorsing real money gaming firms. “Everybody should be aware of the existing laws. Do I have to tell any player that they can’t go and commit any murder? It is the same situation.” While the top level of Indian cricket may cope with the headwind, all state-level T20 leagues are in a perilous situation. Several real money gaming firms sponsors these events at some level and they are struggling to find alternatives. It’s in BCCI’s interest to keep these leagues, which have unearthed several gems over the past few years, P11 afloat.  With the weather office issuing a red alert on Sunday predicting extreme rainfall over the next two days in J&K, India formally notified Pakistan about the potential risk of flash floods in the Tawi and Sutlej rivers as a gesture of good neighbourliness. The alert was sent through diplomatic channels rather than the Indus Waters Treaty framework, since India placed the Treaty in abeyance shortly after the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22. For its part, the Pakistan Foreign Office confirmed India’s two alerts: on Sunday about the Tawi flooding, and on Monday on possible flash floods in the Sutlej. Sources said the alert was directly communicated to the Pakistani government through the Indian High Commission (IHC) there. The IHC reached out to the Pakistani Foreign Office, instead of routing the information through the Pakistan High Commission in Delhi. The Jammu region experienced record rainfall on Sunday, significantly increasing water levels in the Tawi, which could lead to a flood disaster in Pakistan. The Tawi in Jammu is a tributary of the Chenab, flowing through Jammu city before joining the Chenab, which eventually flows into Pakistan. The Sutlej, on the other hand, flows entirely within India and joins the Indus in Pakistan. On Sunday, Jammu experienced the second-highest rainfall in 99 years — about 191 mm of rainfall in 24 hours. The previous record was 228.6 mm on August 5, 1926, while the previous second-highest was 189.6 mm on August 11, 2022.