Giorgio Armani 11 July 1934 - 4 sept 2025 chennai l friday l september 05, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 44 l late city EDITION Armani, who built $10 billion global fashion empire, dies Italian designer Giorgio Armani, one of the most iconic names in the contemporary fashion, died at his home on Thursday at the age of 91 A favourite of many hollywood a-listers Armani’s fashion empire spanned clothing, accessories, perfumes, home furnishings, cosmetics, books, chocolates, and more. His designs graced over 200 films and became a red carpet staple, dressing stars like Anne Hathaway, Brad Pitt, George Clooney, and Jodie Foster. Recently, his health made headlines after he missed Milan Fashion Week in June ■ 50 his designs Redefined elegance ■ In 1975, Armani and his partner Sergio Galeotti sold their car for $10,000 to launch their own menswear ready-to-wear label The first breakthrough came in the late 1970s with the creation of the liningless sports jacket, embodying his vision of relaxed, understated elegance. It was an immediate success in the West | P13 years since Armani founded his fashion empire 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 Peace deal done with Kuki-Zos in Manipur After over two years, NH-2 to be opened for the Meiteis As per the tripartite SoO agreement signed by the CenIn a major breakthrough ahead tre, Manipur government, and of Prime Minister Narendra Kuki-Zo groups on Thursday, Modi’s proposed visit to Ma- the territorial integrity of Manipur, the Union Ministry of nipur will be maintained. “The Home Affairs (MHA) on Thurs- parties under the pact agree for day arrived at an agreement relocation of 7 designated with the Kuki-Zo insurgent camps of militants away from groups to renew the Suspen- areas vulnerable to conflict in sion of Operations (SoO). It Manipur and also agree for a also persuaded them to open negotiated solution to bring National Highway-2 that was lasting peace, stability to Mablocked for Meitei people for nipur,” the Union home ministhe last two years since try said. the ethnic clashes broke The Kuki-Zo Council PM’s out in the state on May decided to open NationManipur al Highway-2, which 3, 2023. In an official statepasses through Mavisit ment, the government nipur, for free movement said the decisions came of commuters, essential after a series of meetings be- goods, the statement said, addtween officials of the MHA and ing the Council has committed a delegation of the Kuki-Zo to cooperate with security forcCouncil (KZC) over the past few es to maintain peace along the days here. Kuki National Or- National Highway . ganisation (KNO) spokesperThe Kuki-Zo council, an umson Seilen Haokip confirmed to brella group of Kuki-Zo groups, media persons that the agree- is yet to issue a for mal ment had been signed. statement. Over the last two years, the Since May 3, 2023, after ethMHA had been regularly hold- nic clashes broke out, the state ing talks with Kuki-Zo insur- has been divided on ethnic gent groups to renegotiate the lines with Meiteis restricted to terms and conditions of the the valley districts and Kuki-Zo SoO. people in the hills. MU K ESH R A N J A N @ New Delhi The Kuki National Organisation and United People’s Front agreed to: Relocate 7 designated camps away from areas vulnerable to conflict Reduce the number of designated camps Relocate the weapons with nearest CRPF/BSF camps Stringent physical verification of cadres by security forces to de-list foreign nationals, if any Ballot e x press rea d HC bins plea on election of EPS as AIADMK chief CHENNAI: In a big relief for EPS, the Madras HC on Thursday quashed an order passed by a civil court in a petition challenging his election as AIADMK general secretary by members of the party’s general council in 2022 | P6 Terms of agreement papers in k’taka polls State govt will ask EC to hold local body polls using ballot papers: minister H K Patil | P9 WITH THIS ISSUE CHENNAI’S BEST WEEKEND GUIDE 44 PAGES, INCLUDING 24 OF INDULGE (TABLOID) Another GE engine deal soon M AYA N K SINGH @ New Delhi India intends to soon sign a contract with American giant General Electric to procure 113 F404 aero engines for the advanced version of the light combat aircraft (LCA) Tejas Mark1A. The deal is in addition to a previous one for F404s for which supplies are on, though there was some hiccup attributed to supply chain issues. Sources in the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) said that “negotiations with GE has been completed and the contract will be signed at the end of this month.” In August, the Cabinet Committee on Security gave its approval for 97 LCA Mk1A jets to be manufactured by HAL at a cost of around `67,000 crore. Meanwhile, a couple of LCA MK1s would be delivered to the Indian Air Force (IAF) in October this year, another source in the HAL said. “Ten aircraft have already been built and are being tested. The first delivery will take place in October, with one aircraft from Nashik already ready for handover,” he said. The Mk1A has completed weapons integration trials, including the firing of Astra and ASRAM missiles. Besides the F404s, India has already procured 10 F414s from GE, sources said. They will be used to develop prototypes of the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) and the Twin Engine Deck Based Fighters (TEDBF) for the Navy . Illegal felling of trees led to floods, says SC Express News Service @ New Delhi 13th ANNUAL CONVOCATION TAKING serious note of the devastating landslides and floods in northern parts of the country, the Supreme Court on Thursday sought the stand of the Centre, National Disaster Management Authority and others, while noting that “illegal felling of trees led to the disasters”. “We have seen unprecedented landslides and floods in Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab. From the media reports it is noticed that in the flood a huge number of wood was flowing along. Prima facie it appears that there has been illegal felling of trees. Thus issue notice to respondents,” Chief Justice B R Gavai said. The SC was hearing a plea filed by environmentalist Anamika Rana seeking guidelines and an inquiry to prevent ecological disasters and to protect Himalayan states. 6th September 2025, Saturday | 9.30 AM | Mahatma Gandhi Auditorium, VIT Chennai Hearty Welcome to the Chief Guest Dr. Palanivel Thiaga Rajan Hon’ble Minister for Information Technology and Digital Services, Government of Tamil Nadu GUEST OF HONOUR NIRF RANKING 2025 Mr. Shelley Salehin IIT Madras No 1 engineering college in India Express News Service @ New Delhi The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras has retained the top slot in the overall category of rankings in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) 2025 for the seventh straight year. At the second and third positions in the ‘overall’ rankings are IISc Bengaluru and IIT Bombay IIT Delhi is at . the fourth position. The rankings, released by Union education minister Dhar mendra Pradhan on Thursday, ranked IIT Madras as the best in engineering, innovation, and the newly introduced sustainable development goals categories. This is the 10th consecutive year that IIT-M has been ranked the best engineering institute in the country . Among universities, IISc Bengaluru bagged the top spot, while the Jawaharlal Nehru University and Manipal Academy of Higher Education secured the second and the third positions, respectively . Manipal Academy is also the first private institution to feature in the top three of NIRF rankings. The National Law School of India University, Bengaluru, has been ranked the best law college in India. The National Law University, Delhi, and NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad, have retained the second and third spots, respectively . In the management institution category, IIM Ahmedabad has come on top. Deputy High Commissioner, Bangladesh Deputy High Commission, Chennai AU loses 1st rank, but 10 TN univs among top 50 PRESIDED BY Dr. G. Viswanathan Founder & Chancellor B i n i ta J a i s w a l @ Chennai Tamil Nadu’s state-funded universities have witnessed a noticeable slump in the NIRF 2025 rankings released on Thursday, with several prominent institutions dropping from their positions last year, underscoring the financial and administrative challenges faced by them. Despite drop in rankings of varsities, TN has continued to be among the better performers at the national level with 17 institutions in the top 100 ranks in the overall category . “With 17 institutions among top 100, 33 among the top 100 in the college category and 10 among , the top 50 in the state public universities category , TN holds the largest share of institutes across these lists,” CM MK Stalin said in a post on X. Anna University, which topped the newly-introduced state public universities category in 2024, was pushed to second place this year by Jadavpur University in West Bengal. P9 VITCChennai vit.chennai in/vitchennai ChennaiVit VITChennaic VIT - A PLACE TO LEARN; A CHANCE TO GROW