hubballi l thursday l september 18, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 14 l city EDITION from Bihar polls, EVMs to have colour photos of candidates Photographs of candidates will be printed in colour on the EVM ballot paper starting with the upcoming Assembly elections in Bihar File photo Large font, big photos to avoid confusion SIR: 50% voters need not show proof It comes after black-and-white photos of candidates, introduced in 2015, drew criticism with many voters finding them difficult to recognise. The candidate’s face will now occupy three-fourths of the photo space on the EVM ballot paper. Additionally, the names, serial numbers of all candidates, and the NOTA option will be printed in larger, bold fonts | P9 ■ ■ The poll panel said over half the electorate in most states may not have to provide any document as they will be covered in the electoral roll of the last intensive revisions held in their states The last revisions will serve as the cut-off date to decide who is already registered. In most states, it was held between 2002 and 2004 70 GSM Paper to be used for printing EVM ballot papers 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 EU sets yr-end In a first, pvt firm vets NIRF rankings target for India free trade pact S L A L ITHA @ New Delhi Strategic framework evolved for enhanced ties on trade, security, climate, technology Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomed the new agenda, The European Union set a firm calling it a forward-looking initarget to conclude its long- tiative to strengthen bilateral pending Free Trade Agreement ties. “…Delighted to know about (FTA) with India by the end of the ‘New Strategic EU-India 2025 and unveiled a new sweep- Agenda’ adopted today he post,” ing strategic framework aimed ed on X. “India is ready to take at expanding the bloc’s ties the India-EU relationship to the with New Delhi. next level. It is our shared comThe New Strategic EU-India mitment, shared goal, and Agenda, adopted through a shared responsibility .” Joint Communication by the The announcement marks a European Commission key policy priority for and the EU’s High Repthe EU, which comes resentative on Wednesamid a changing geoday outlines a broad political landscape of vision for enhanced cogrowing push for resiloperation spanning ient supply chains and trade, security climate, , diversified trade parttechnology, and global nerships. The Joint governance. Communication talks “Europe is already about untapped potenEurope is open India’s biggest trading tial in trade and investpartner, and we are for business. And ment and sets out we are ready to committed to finalising measures to reinforce invest in our our Free Trade Agreesupply chain resilshared future ment by the end of the ience, enhance coopwith India year,” said European eration in critical and Ursula von der Commission President emerging technologies, Leyen, European Ursula von der Leyen. and deepen engageCommission “Now is the time to foment through the EUPresident cus on reliable partIndia Trade and Techners and double down nology Council (TTC). on partnerships rooted in The strategy also proposes a shared interests and guided by possible EU-India Startup partcommon values. With our new nership and invites India to asEU-India strategy, we are tak- sociate with the Horizon Euing our relationship to the next rope research programme. In level — advancing trade, invest- climate and energy cooperament and talent mobility, tion, the EU plans to expand its strengthening joint economic collaboration with India on resecurity and deepening indus- newables, green hydrogen and , trial cooperation in defence.” green finance. J aya n t h J a c o b @ New Delhi Asia cup Pak flip-flop delays match versus UAE E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Chennai THE Asia Cup continues to deliver drama — off the field. On Wednesday, Pakistan were seemingly on the verge of conceding their group stage game to UAE before they left their team hotel to belatedly play their opponents at 7.30 pm local time, one hour after the scheduled start. The entire episode goes back a few days after their game against India. They had alleged that match referee, Andy Pycroft, had asked the two captains to not shake hands at the toss, a regular sight. So, they wanted Pycroft removed for the remainder of the tournament but the organisers and the International Cricket Council (ICC) were unmoved. In a who will blink first contest, PCB relented after some furious backchannel lobbying on an incident-packed Wednesday. Chair, Mohsin Naqvi, had multiple formal talks before giving the green signal to the team to leave hotel. While Pycroft was the referee for the UAE game, the PCB apparently got an apology from the Zimbabwean. “The ICC’s match referee, Andy Pycroft, has apologised to the manager and captain of the Pakistan cricket team,” a PCB release claimed. “The ICC has expressed its willingness to conduct an inquiry into the code of conduct violation.” India Rankings 2025 released by the Union education ministry a fortnight ago was vetted by a private consultancy firm—the first such instance since the inception of the prestigious rankings in 2015. Global consulting firm EY, currently associated with various Central government projects, was entrusted with the task. Multiple sources told this newspaper that the decision to Why the rankings matter to institutions The rankings matter to the institutions because they will impact their credibility and reputation. The parameters assessed to arrive at the rankings are teaching, learning and resources; research and professional practice; graduation outcome; outreach and inclusivity, and perception rope in EY for double verification of data was taken in the backdrop of an inexplicable surge in rankings by some institutions and the shocking slump registered by a few others. “It was heartening to note that the firm (EY) endorsed the rankings made by us and did not find even a single error,” claimed an official with the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) team. The rankings were delayed by six weeks this year due to the additional verification process, said sources. “Post-Covid, we were releasing the rankings by July and August. It was done in June since 2015 when we commenced the ranking process. Our original plan was to release them by mid-July this year. But due to the third-party verification process, we were able to release them only by the first week of September,” said an official. NIRF is a part of the National Board of Accreditation, an autonomous body which evaluates the quality of professional courses in the country and carries out the job annually for the Department of Higher Education. `21 cr robbed from SBI branch, 10 held hostage 2nd bank heist birthday bonding Narendra Modi holds a child as he tours the Health Kiosks and the PM MITRA Park Pavilion in Dhar on Wednesday | PTI Hyundai signs wage deal with union Hyundai Motor India inks three-year wage deal with its employee union, offers `31,000 monthly hike. An all-inclusive package, it’s an industry-best | P12 This is the second major bank heist in Vijayapura district in recent months. Earlier, 50 kg of gold was looted from a Canara Bank branch E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Vijayapura In a high-profile robbery criminals stole cash and gold worth , Rs 21.04 crore from the SBI branch at Chadchan town in Vijayapura district on Tuesday evening. As per preliminary assessment by bank officials, robbers have taken away Rs 1.04 crore in cash and around 20 kg of gold ornaments, worth around Rs 20 crore, SP Laxman Nimbargi said on Wednesday The jewellery was pledged by customers . for taking loans, the police said. The SP said that one of the accused arrived at the bank around 4.30 pm under the pretext of opening a bank account. “He sat in the bank till 6.30 pm. When the bank staff was about to close the branch for the day he called two of his accomplices. , After they arrived, all the three held some ten people at the bank -- six staffers and four customers -- hostage at gunpoint and lethal weapons,” Nimbargi said. CONTINUED ON P5 SIT resumes op in D’sthala, finds human remains E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Mangaluru The Special Investigation Team (SIT), probing alleged mass burials in Dharmasthala village, reportedly recovered human remains at five separate locations in the forest patches of Banglegudde, near the bathing area of Dharmasthala temple, during a search operation on Wednesday . Sources said a rope, walking stick, identity card and poison bottle were recovered during the search. This follows a recent video statement by Vittal Gowda, the uncle of Sowjanya — the 17year-old girl who was raped and murdered in 2012. P4