THIRUVANANTHAPURAM l tuesday l October 21, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 16 l late city EDITION Internet services cut for hours by Amazon cloud outage Many popular internet services and some banks went offline for hours on Monday due to an outage in Amazon’s crucial cloud network issue resolved after over four hours AWS, the cloud leader Amazon’s Prime Video, Disney+, Perplexity AI, Airbnb, Snapchat, & Duolingo were hit. Messaging apps such as Signal and WhatsApp were also affected in Europe, a website monitoring internet problems said. Amazon Web Services (AWS)’s maintenance site fixed the underlying DNS issue over four hours after they became aware of “increased error rates” hitting multiple services ■ It is followed closely by Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud ■ AWS handles nearly a third of the planet’s cloud infrastructure market, powering millions of apps and websites around the world ■ AWS said Monday’s problem appeared to originate in one of its critical infrastructure zones located in the US state of Virginia 8.5 mn devices were affected in a 2024 outage due to faulty update by CrowdStrike 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 g ra n d a l l ia n ce Rift widens as Cong, RJD field candidates against each other R a m a s h a n k a r @ Patna Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Navy personnel on board INS Vikrant during his Diwali visit, off the coast of Goa and Karwar | PTI Coordination of forces brought Pak to its knees during Op Sindoor: PM Modi lauds defence manufacturing sector during his Diwali celebrations with Navy officers R a j e s h K u m a r T h a k u r @New Delhi In keeping with his longstanding tradition of celebrating Diwali with the armed forces, Prime Minister Narendra Modi once again marked the festival with service personnel on Sunday and Monday This year, he . celebrated Diwali with Navy officers and sailors aboard the INS Vikrant, off Goa coast. During his visit, the Prime Minister interacted with the Navy’s bravehearts, sat with them and shared meals, cementing not just an official connection but an emotional bond with the naval personnel, symbolising his role as a guardian of the nation. Addressing the sailors and officers, he said on Monday that the exceptional coordination among the three armed Prez to travel by 4WD to Sannidhanam E X P R ESS NE W S SE R V I C E @ P’thitta President Droupadi Murmu, who is scheduled to visit Sabarimala on Wednesday will , travel by a four-wheel drive via Swami Ayyappan Road, making her the first head of state to reach Sannidhanam in a vehicle. According to sources, the decision to travel by a special Force Gurkha vehicle was taken in view of her health and security constraints in the hilly terrain. In 1973, then President V V Giri reached Sannidhanam using the dolly service. In fact, dolly service was introduced in Sabarimala for his visit. The Travancore Devaswom Board and police have intensified preparations and security arrangements ahead of the high-profile visit. TDB president P S Prasanth said arrangements have been completed at Nilakkal, Pampa, and Sannidhanam, and pilgrim entry will remain unaffected till October 21. Regular darshan will continue even on the day of the President’s visit, though Special Protection Group protocols will be in force. On a four-day visit to Kerala, the President will arrive at Thiruvananthapuram airport on Tuesday evening and will fly to Nilakkal by helicopter on Wednesday She is expected to . reach Nilakkal by 10.20am. From there, she will proceed to Pampa by road and then travel to Sannidhanam. ● More on P5 forces — fear instilled by the Navy, extraordinary skills of the Air Force and bravery of the Army — forced Pakistan to its knees during Operation Sindoor in no time. On Atma Nirbharta, he said, “We are proud that our armed forces have made rapid strides toward self-reliance in the past decade. Our armed forces made a list of thousands of items and decided that these will no longer be imported. As a result, most of the essential equipment for the forces is now being produced within the country .” Further highlighting the achievements in the defence manufacturing sector, he said, “Defence production in over 11 years has more than tripled. Just last year, it crossed a record of `1.5 lakh crore. Since PM: India on verge of eradicating Naxal terror Panaji: India is on the verge of eradicating Maoist terror and over 100 districts freed from this scourge will celebrate Diwali with dignity this year, the PM said. He said security forces have achieved significant success against Maoists, reducing their influence to just 11 districts, from 125 districts a decade ago. 2014, on average, one new indigenous warship or submarine is being added to the Navy every 40 days.” He said, “Our missiles like BrahMos and Akash proved their capabilities in Operation Sindoor as well. BrahMos — just the name alone creates fear. Now, several countries around the world want to buy these missiles. Bharat is now building the capacity to export weapons and defence equipment for all three services. Our goal is to place Bharat among the world’s top defence exporters. In the last decade, our defence exports have grown over 30 times! Behind this success is the huge role played by our defence startups and indigenous defence manufacturing units.” Pointing out the Navy’s vital role in securing maritime routes, he said, “Today 66% of , the world’s oil supply and 50% of global container shipments pass through the Indian Ocean. In securing these routes, the Indian Navy stands guard like the sentinel of the Indian Ocean.” The rift within the opposition Mahagathbandhan widened on Monday after the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) released a list of 144 candidates, hours after the Congress finalised five more names, taking its tally of candidates to 61 for the upcoming Bihar assembly elections. The RJD’s final list sets the stage for a direct contest between the two major partners of the ‘grand alliance’ — part of the INDIA bloc — in five seats. They will also have to contend with the CPI, another key ally, in three-four seats if an agreement is not reached. This has led to confusion among workers of the various parties. Alliance leaders said that there is still scope for an agreement as the last date of withdrawal of names for the second phase is Wednesday. In the meantime, RJD put to rest rumours that it would contest Kutumba, held by Congress state president Rajesh Ram. On Monday, Ram filed his papers from the constituency . Both the RJD and the Congress have fielded candidates in Narkatiaganj, Lalganj, Vaishali, Sultanganj and Kagalgaon. Similarly, the Congress and the CPI have fielded candidates in Bachhwara, Kargahar, Biharsharif and Rajapakar. However, in a relief to the JMM pulls out Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren-led Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) has decided not to contest the Bihar election. The party had earlier announced plans to contest six seats. Alleging a political conspiracy, the JMM blamed its allies, the RJD and the Congress, for its withdrawal. Mukesh Sahani-led Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) candidate for Gaura Bauram, Santosh Kushawaha, RJD chief Lalu Prasad issued a letter clarifying that the seat has been allotted to VIP. Santosh is the brother of Mukesh. Interestingly, the CPIML, which is contesting 20 seats, and the CPM, which is contesting four constituencies, don’t feature in intra-alliance contests. CPM sources said senior leaders are holding talks with the Congress over allotment of seats. The RJD list includes Tej a s h w i P r a s a d Ya d av (Raghopur), Alok Mehta (Ujiarpur), Mukesh Raushan (Mahua), Akhtarul Islam Shahin (Samastipur) and Bhola Yadav (Bahadurpur). The party is mainly relying on its traditional ‘M-Y’ (Muslim-Yadav) vote share. But it has given a substantial number of tickets to OBCs, EBCs and upper castes. The party has also named 20 women candidates. Welfare pensions likely to be hiked ahead of polls M S V i d ya n a n d a n @ T’Puram Election season is upon us. And, in an apparent move to woo voters ahead of the two back-to-back polls, the state government is considering a hike in social-security pension. Though it is yet to take a final call on the amount, there are indications that there would be an increase of `100-200. The LDF, in its 2021 assembly election manifesto, had promised to raise the pension amount from `1500 to `2,500. But, the new government could not carry out any increase owing to the financial constraints that stemmed from restrictions on off-budget borrowing by the Union government. The last time the pension was revised was in 2021, when the last budget of the first Pinarayi Vijayan government announced a `100 hike. “The government has not made any final decision so far. But there would be an increase shortly The poll promise would . have been realised much earlier if not for the Union government’s restriction on borrowing,” a source in the government said. The government is exploring the possibility of hiking pensions ahead of the upcoming local-body elections. The state has around 62 lakh beneficiaries of welfare pension schemes, including socialsecurity pensioners and welfare fund board pensioners, who get `1,600 a month. The numbers may vary every month, depending on the number of people who meet the mustering requirements. As per the government order for pension payment in September, the state had 48.80 lakh social security pensioners and 5.99 lakh welfare fund board pensioners. In September, the state spent `716.93 crore to make the payment for social security pensioners while the rest was met through the Centre’s contribution. The state government’s spending on welfare fund board pensions was `94.39 crore. The state is having a tough time meeting pension payment with the Union government revising conditions for market borrowings in 2022-23. Since that year, borrowings by the Kerala State Social Security Pension Limited were considered offbudget borrowings. Such offbudget items are then adjusted from the state’s net ceiling for market borrowings. EXPRESS READ Sabarimala gold theft case: Potti’s friend quizzed T’Puram: The special investigation team (SIT) probing the Sabarimala gold theft case on Monday questioned Ananthasubrahmaniam, who had received the gold sheets used on the dwarapalaka idols and the door frames in the temple on behalf of Unnikrishnan Potti and took them to Bengaluru. Sources said he told the SIT that the artefacts, weighing 42.8kg, were kept at his house for a few days before being sent to Hyderabad for maintenance work. P5 Trump warns New Delhi of ‘massive tariffs’ over Russia oil P T I @Washington US President Donald Trump has warned of “massive tariffs” if India continues to buy oil from Russia, while reiterating that he got assurance from Prime Minister Narendra Modi that New Delhi is going to halt its oil purchases from Moscow. “India will continue to pay massive tariffs if they do not cease buying oil from Russia. They (India) don’t want to do that,” Trump told reporters onboard Air Force One. He was replying to a question about India’s recent remarks on oil purchases from Russia. India last week said it is “broad-basing and diversifying” its sourcing of energy to meet market conditions, hours after Trump claimed that Modi assured him that New Delhi will stop procuring Russian crude oil. However, Trump said he does not believe India made such remarks. “I don’t believe they said that. No, I spoke with Prime Minister Modi of India, and he said he’s not going to be doing the Russian oil thing,” he said. Washington has been maintaining that India is helping Putin to finance the war through its purchase of Russian crude oil. The relations between New Delhi and Washington have been reeling under stress after Trump doubled tariffs on Indian goods to a whopping 50%, including a 25% additional duty for India’s purchase of Russian oil. US envoy in israel to strengthen ceasefire It comes a day after Israel threatened to halt aid transfers claiming that Hamas militants killed its two soldiers | P9 lighting up hearts People light ‘diyas’ on the occasion of Diwali at Lal Chowk in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, on Monday | PTI 16 pages, including 4 pages of THIRUVANANTHAPURAM Express A die u , comic k i n g Veteran actor Asrani passes away at 84 S h r e ya s Pa n d e Bollywood actor Govardhan Asrani, known for his impeccable comic timing and striking onscreen presence, passed away at the age of 84 on Monday after a prolonged illness. Asrani was admitted to Bharatiya Arogya Nidhi Hospital four days back after he faced difficulty in breathing, and according to doctors, water had accumulated in his lungs. In a career that spanned over five decades, Asrani acted in over 300 films. His first artistic stint was at All India Radio, where he worked as a voice artist. The acting bug struck Asrani in 1960, and he moved to Mumbai in search of opportunities. He later joined the Film and Television Institute of India in 1964. After passing out of the institute, Asrani acted in Hare Kaanch Ki Choodiyan (1967), and for two years after that, the actor worked prominently in Gujarati films. It was Hrishikesh Mukherjee who offered him a supporting role in Saty akam (1969), which ushered his return to Hindi cinema. In 1972, his collaboration with Mukherjee for Bawarchi marked an important shift in his career and ce- mented his position as an actor with natural comic rhythm. His antics found a louder release later in the iconic Sholay (1975), where he played the eccentric jailer. He appeared in close to 100 films from 1970 to 1979, and his collaborations with Rajesh Khanna was celebrated for its quality and longevity Some . of his memorable work as a supporting actor includes Parichay (1972), Abhimaan (1973), Roti (1974), Chupke Chupke (1975) and Chhoti Si Baat (1975). Asrani made his directorial debut with the comedy-drama Chala Murari Hero Banne in 1977. He also helmed the romantic-drama Dil Hi To Hai (1992) and the actioner, Udaan (1997). In the 2000s, Asrani saw another resurgence as he starred in popular comedy films like Hera Pheri, Chup Chup Ke, Hulchul, Malamal Weekly and Welcome. His last appearance was in Non-stop Dhamaal (2023). From the simple sincerity of Mukherjee’s middle-class comedies to the grand spectacle of Sholay and the madcap chaos of Priyadarshan’s films, Asrani remained an actor dedicated to keeping his craft rooted in truth and timing.
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