source: NASA chennai l Saturday l January 10, 2026 l `9.00 l PAGES 24 l late city EDITION NASA cuts ISS mission short after astronaut takes ill The space agency said on Thursday a crew of four astronauts aboard the International Space Station will return to Earth earlier than planned no emergency, just being careful: nasa First-ever medical evacuation from ISS The crew included NASA’s Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke along with Japan’s Kimiya Yui and Russia’s Oleg Platonov. NASA did not identify the astronaut or the medical issue, citing privacy. The crew member with the ‘serious medical condition’ is stable. Dr James Polk, NASA’s chief health and medical officer, said it was not an emergency, but NASA being careful ■ ■ Two crew members, Fincke and Cardman, were to carry out a spacewalk for a rollout of solar panels. It was Fincke’s fourth visit to ISS and Yui’s second; and a first for Cardman and Platonov This was NASA’s first medical evacuation from ISS though astronauts have been treated aboard for things like toothaches and ear pain | P8 2030 is time limit nasa has set to bring back the iss out of its orbit 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 ‘Not accurate’: India rejects U.S. charge on Modi no-call J ayanth J acob @ New Delhi India on Friday rejected claims by US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick that a long-pending India-US trade agreement collapsed because Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not place a phone call to President Donald Trump and termed the characterisation of events “not accurate”. Responding to Lutnick’s remarks, the External Affairs Ministry said New Delhi and Washington have been engaged in sustained, detailed negotiations on a bilateral trade pact for over a year and remain committed to concluding a “balanced and mutually beneficial” agreement. The MEA also highlighted that Prime Minister Modi and President Trump spoke to each other eight times in 2025, covering a wide range of issues. “We remain interested in a mutually beneficial trade deal between two complementary economies and look forward to concluding it,” MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said. Lutnick, speaking on the AllIn Podcast, had claimed that the Trump administration was keen to finalise an early trade agreement with India after concluding a deal with the UK in May 2025. According to him, India was offered a limited window, “three Fridays” to close the deal, with the incentive of lower tariffs for early signatories under what he described as a “staircase” tariff framework. “It was all set up. But you had India voiced concern over the killing of a woman by a federal agent in Minneapolis in the US. “We are closely following it,” Jaiswal said. “We are concerned as we have a large Indian community in the US, including students, professionals and others.” to have Modi call President Trump. They were uncomfortable doing it. So Modi didn’t call,” Lutnick said. He further claimed that when India later indicated readiness to finalise a deal, it was too late. “Are you ready for the train that left the station three weeks ago?” he said, arguing that tariff terms had already hardened by then. Trade talks formally began in February 2025 and included several rounds of in-person discussions, including a visit by a US delegation led by Deputy US Trade Representative Rick Switzer in December. Trump imposed tariffs of up to 50% on Indian goods, including a 25% levy linked to India’s purchases of Russian energy . On energy sourcing, and the questions related to the proposed bill to raise tariff to 500% for energy ties with Russia, Jaiswal said India’s position was clear and guided by global market dynamics and the need to secure affordable supplies for its 1.4 billion people. rbi cuts u.s. treasury exposure for first time in four years Country-wise US Treasury holding ($ bn) 1200 1,200 JAPAN 1000 UK 800 600 877.9 CHINA 200 INDIA temple arrested mega protest march West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee leads a protest march against the ED’s searches linked to political consultancy firm I-PAC, in Kolkata on Friday | PTI | P12 190.7 0 October 2024 to October 2025 B E N N K O C H U V E E D A N @ Mumbai IN what may be a strategic shift towards foreign exchange reserve diversification and non-dollar assets amid rising global economic and geopolitical risks, the Reserve Bank of India has cut 21% of its holdings of US Treasury securities. According to the US Department of Treasury RBI’s holding , of US bonds dropped from $241.4 billion on October 31, 2024 to $190.7 billion on October 31, 2025, marking a shift in forex strategy towards better asset diversification. The US follows October-September as its fiscal year. According to a Bloomberg analysis, this is the first annual dip in US treasury investments by RBI in the past four years. The drawdown comes despite relatively attractive yields in US bonds. During the period, the yield on the benchmark 10-year US bonds traded in 4-4.8% range. Experts say this steep reduction is not driven by yield considerations but by a reassessment of the allocation of reserves, which hovered around $700 billion in October. As part of diversification, RBI has been building its gold reserves. After a record 64 tonnes of gold buy in 2024, the central bank has been going slow in adding the yellow metal in 2025, which as of September-end stood at 880.8 tonnes. Gold’s share in the total foreign exchange reserves shot up to 13.9% by September, up from 9% in the year-ago period. In 2025, RBI made only modest direct purchases of gold to the tune of 4 tonnes till September, but significantly increased its domestically held reserves by repatriating over as much as 64 tonnes from overseas vaults. China, too, reduced its treasury holding by 9.3% to $688.7 billion during the year. The SIT probing the Sabarimala gold loss case on Friday arrested Thantri Kandararu Rajeevaru for his alleged close links with prime accused Unnikrishnan Potti | P7 HC stays film release, no Pongal ‘Share your dreams’, CM plans grand vision for TN outing for Vijay’s Jana Nayagan E xpress N ews S ervice E xpress N ews S ervice @ Chennai Hours after a single judge of the Madras High Court on Friday directed the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) to forthwith grant certification to actor-politician Vijay’s film Jana Nayagan, a two-judge bench stayed that order, stalling the release of the film that was expected to hit the screens on Friday for Pongal. The next hearing will be on January 20. The first division bench of Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava and Justice G Arul Murugan granted the interim stay while hearing an urgent appeal filed by the CBFC against the single judge’s order. The division bench observed that the CBFC, the respondent in the writ petition, ought to have been granted reasonable time to file its counter-affidavit. It held that the writ court should not have displayed urgency in deciding the matter when substantive questions of law had been raised, particularly on the powers of the CBFC chairperson to refer a film to the revising committee after the examining committee had CM: CBFC is new weapon of BJP Chennai: Hours after the Madras HC order, CM M K Stalin, without specifying the issue, condemned the CBFC. “After CBI, ED and the I-T, the Censor Board has become the new weapon of the BJP-led union government,” the CM said in a post on X | P5 HC may punish officers for contempt in Deepam issue E xpress N ews S ervice 688.7 400 Thantri of Sabarimala Minneapolis killing matter of concern @ Madurai The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court said on Friday that it would frame contempt charges against the officers, who failed to implement its order directing lighting of lamp on ‘Deepathoon’ on Thiruparankundram hilltop last year, if they don’t properly show cause before February 2 as to why contempt proceedings not be initiated against them. Hearing the contempt peti- tions filed by Rama Ravikumar and S Paramasivam over the non-compliance of the order dated December 1, Justice GR Swaminathan criticised the officers, who had appeared in person, for not filing a reply despite being granted sufficient opportunity. The officers were Madurai Collector KJ Praveen Kumar, city police commissioner J Loganathan, deputy police commissioner AG Inigo Divyan and executive officer of Subramaniya Swamy temple Yagna Narayanan.  P7 recommended certification. Issuing notice to the KVN Productions LLP the two-judge , bench directed the production house to file its response and posted the matter for hearing on January 20. Appearing for CBFC, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and Additional Solicitor General A R L Sundaresan submitted that the single judge had not afforded the board adequate time even to file a counter-affidavit. Mehta contended that the single judge had moulded reliefs that were not sought in the writ petition by ordering the immediate grant of certification. He also pointed out that the chairperson’s order dated January 6, 2026, referring the movie to the revising committee had not even been challenged by the producers. P5 @ Chennai Chief Minister M K Stalin on Friday launched a new statewide outreach initiative, “Unga Kanava Sollunga” (Tell your dream), aimed at directly engaging with citizens to understand their aspirations, future needs and to receive feedback on government schemes. “I am going to announce a grand vision plan for Tamil Nadu. This vision will be forward-looking, with a clear roadmap towards 2030,” the chief minister said while speaking at the launch in Padianallur at Ponneri taluk of Tiruvallur district. Stalin said the programme marked a significant moment where an elected government was formally reaching out to people to listen to their dreams express read TN notifies 100 forest blocks as reserved area Chennai: The state government has notified 100 forest blocks as Reserved Forests between 2021 and 2025, adding about 135 sq km (26,450 to 26,585 sq km) to the Tamil Nadu’s legally protected forest area, Forest Minister R S Raja Kannappan said on Friday | P2 HC bins Sastra plea in encroachment case Chennai: Holding that govt lands are public property, the Madras HC on Friday dismissed petitions filed by Sastra University challenging an eviction notice and directed authorities to evict the encroachers from 31.37 acres of govt land in Thanjavur within four weeks | P4 Ramadoss lauds DMK govt, hints at alliance plan Villupuram: PMK founder S Ramadoss on Friday described CM M K Stalin’s four-year tenure as “good”, indicating the possibility of the party aligning with the DMK-led front ahead of the polls, days after an Anbumani Ramadoss-led PMK faction joined the AIADMK-BJP alliance. Speaking to reporters at Thailapuram, Ramadoss recalled the PMK’s support to the DMK between 2006 and 2011. He added that the party’s future course would be decided soon | P4 Uttarakhand Hill yes! How thousands are reverse migrating N A R E N D R A S E T H I @ Dehradun THE migration pattern that hollowed out Uttarakhand’s villages for decades is showing signs of reversal. As per an estimate, 6,282 people have returned across 13 districts in five years, swapping jobs abroad and in Indian cities for entrepreneurship back home. Among those are 169 who left 27 countries including China, Dubai, France, Australia and the United States to establish ventures in agriculture, tourism and animal husbandry, said Dr S S Negi, Vice Chairman of Uttarakhand Migration Mitigation Commission (UMMC). About 39 per cent have turned to agriculture and horticulture, data shows, while tourism and homestays account for 21 per cent, animal husbandry 18 per cent, and small businesses like shops and restaurants make up a further 6 per cent of returnee ventures. “In Uttarkashi, returnees are successfully marketing millets online,” said Dr Negi, the commission’s vice-chairman. “The experience these people bring is invaluable. We expect this reverse migration trend to accelerate significantly .” Tehri district recorded the highest number of returnees, many leveraging global exposure to tap local resources in ways their migrant parents never imagined. Whether the trickle meta- morphoses into a flood depends partly on state support. Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has ordered ‘Pravasi Panchayats’ (migrant councils) at district level this year, which are forums where returnees can discuss both successes and challenges. For its part, UMMC is drafting plans for these panchayats to institutionalise what remains a fragile trend in a state that loses thousands to urban migration annually . “These entrepreneurs aren’t just setting up businesses; they’re instilling hope across the rural landscape,” a source from UMMC said. and translate them into policy action. “I am here to ask you to tell us your dreams and to assure you that we will work to fulfil them,” he said. Recalling his speech at a massive public meeting in Tiruchy ahead of the 2021 Assembly elections, Stalin said he had articulated seven key promises, which he described as his dreams for Tamil Nadu. These included expanding opportunities and prosperity, increasing agricultural p r o d u c t iv i t y a n d farmer welfare, ensuring adequate drinking water for all, providing quality education and advanced healthcare, developing attractive citi e s, s t re n g t h e n i n g r u r a l infrastructure to improve living standards, and creating an inclusive Tamil Nadu for everyone. P7 Parliament from Jan 28, Budget Feb 1 EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ New Delhi THE Budget session of Parliament is likely to commence on January 28 with the Union Budget possibly being tabled on February 1, a Sunday . Officials, citing the tentative schedule finalised by the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs, said on Friday that President Droupadi Murmu will address a joint sitting of the two Houses on January 28. The customary address of the President takes place on the first day of the first Parliament session of a year. The two Houses will not meet on January 29 due to Beating Retreat ceremony . Parliament will sit on January 30 when the Economic Survey is expected to be tabled. On January 31, the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha will not meet. The Union Budget is set to be tabled on February 1. After discussions on the Motion of Thanks on the President’s address and Union Budget, Parliament will adjourn for a month-long recess on February 13. It will reconvene on March 9 and the session will conclude on April 2. The Budget session is likely to be stormy, with the Opposition set to target the government over US tariffs and the ongoing SIR of electoral rolls in various states.