The New Indian Express wishes its readers a HYDERABAD l Monday l January 26, 2026 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l late CITY EDITION A demonstrator weeps during a candlelight vigil during a protest in response to the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Alex Pretti in Minneapolis on Saturday | ap | P9 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 CPI overhaul New inflation basket to track OTT fees, rent DIPA K M O N DA L @ New Delhi THE basket for Consumer Price Index (CPI), which measures retail inflation, is set for a makeover. Digital consumption will assume greater significance in the new CPI basket with online media and OTT platforms being tracked. Rural house rent will be included, making the housing index more representative. Coverage of house rent has also been expanded in urban areas. Saurabh Garg, secretary, Ministry of Statistics and Programme implementation, said the new CPI basket—based on Household Consumption Expenditure Survey 2023–24—will see significant expansion. “At all-India level, the number of weighted items will increase from 299 in the 2012 series to 358 in 2024 series,” he said, adding the revamped CPI basket will be more contemporary . VS, Dharmendra awarded Padma Vibhushan Actor Mammootty, banker Uday Kotak, cricketers Rohit Sharma & Harmanpreet Kaur among awardees Ashok Chakra for Shubhanshu Shukla E x p r e s s ne w s s e r v i c e @ New Delhi FORMER Kerala chief minister V S Achuthanandan and actor Dharmendra were among awardees to posthumously receive the second-highest civilian honour, Padma Vibhushan, for 2026, the government announced on Sunday . The Union government announced 131 Padma awards for 2026, including five Padma Vibhushan, 13 Padma Bhushan and 113 Padma Shri on the eve of the Republic Day. Ninety awardees are women, six foreigners/NRIs/OCIs, and 16 posthumous recipients. Other Padma Vibhushan awardees include former Supreme Court Justice K T Thomas (public affairs), Hindustani classical violinist N Rajam (art), and eminent Malayalam journalist P Narayanan (literature and education). Padma Bhushan recipients e x p r e s s ne w s s e r v i c e @ New Delhi Dharmendra, actor V S Achuthanandan, former Kerala CM feature playback legend Alka Yagnik, Malayalam superstar Mammootty, tennis icon Vijay Amritraj, and banker Uday Kotak. Senior BJP leader VK Malhotra, JMM founder and former Jharkhand CM Shibu Soren, and advertising maverick Piyush Pandey were awarded posthumously . Among the 113 Padma Shri awardees are former Indian cricket captain Rohit Sharma and women’s cricket captain Harmanpreet Kaur. Hockey stars Savita Punia and Baldev Uday Kotak, banker Mammootty, actor Singh, and para-athlete Praveen Kumar also feature on the list. Bollywood actors R Madhavan, Prosenjit Chatterjee, and Satish Shah received Padma Shri, alongside former JNU V-C Jagadesh Kumar and whistleblower R V S Mani, a former MHA official who exposed attempts to suppress information in Ishrat Jahan case. ISRO scientist A E Muthunayagam, DRDO’s Chandramouli Gaddamanugu, and former CRPF DG K Vijay Kumar were also honoured.  P7, 11 Padma Bhushan for Nori, Padma Shri for eight from TG Express News Service @ Hyderabad As many as nine persons connected to Telangana have been honoured with Padma awards this year. Renowned oncologist Dr Nori Dattatreyudu received the Padma Bhushan in the field of medicine, while Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar was conferred the Padma Shri in literature and education. Dr Nori Dattatreyudu is pres- Nori Dattatreyudu Padma Shri awardees M Jagadesh Kumar and Deepika Reddy ently serving as an advisor to the Telangana government. Jagadesh Kumar, former chairman of the UGC, hails from Nalgonda district. Others from Telangana who received the Padma Shri include Chandramouli Gaddamanugu (science and engineering), Deepika Reddy (art), Dr Guduru Venkata Rao (medicine), Krishnamurty Balasubramanian (science and engin e e r i n g ) , Ku m a r a sw a m y Thangaraj (science and engineering) and Dr Palkonda Vijay Anand Reddy (medicine). Rama Reddy Mamidi was awarded the Padma Shri posthumously in the field of animal husbandry . Speaking to TNIE, Kumaraswamy Thangaraj, CSIR Bhatnagar Fellow at the CCMB, said young researchers should focus on identifying meaningful problems relevant to Indian society . From AP, four persons, including veteran actors Maganti Murali Mohan and G Rajendra Prasad, were conferred the Padma Shri. continued on p5 GROUP Captain Shubhanshu Shukla has been approved for the Ashok Chakra to be awarded by President Droupadi Murmu on the eve of the 77th Republic Day, for his role in India’s return to the human spaceflight through the International Space Station (ISS) mission last year. Group Capt Shukla became the first InShubhanshu Shukla dian to visit the ISS during the Axiom-4 mission, completing an 18-day stay in orbit. The mission marked India’s return to human spaceflight after four decades, following Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma’s historic spaceflight aboard Soyuz mission in 1984. E x p r e s s Re a d Mark Tully dies at 90 New Delhi: Veteran journalist and acclaimed author Mark Tully passed away at a private hospital in Delhi on Sunday. He had Mark Tully been unwell for some time and was admitted to Max 1935–2026 Hospital in Saket, south Delhi, on January 21. Born in Calcutta (now Kolkata) on October 24, 1935, Tully served as the BBC’s bureau chief in New Delhi for 22 years. | P7 As controversies mount, Revanth gets Delhi call I r e d d y S r i n i v a s Re d d y @ Hyderabad With controversies like the Singareni–Naini coal block tender issue and the HILT policy erupting, the Congress high command is learnt to have decided to summon Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy along with a few min, isters, to New Delhi. As the Congress comes under sustained fire from the Opposition, particularly the BRS, the party leadership at the Centre wants to take stock of the ground reality in Telangana and stem the rot before matters spiral out of control. According to sources, senior party leaders at the national level have brought the recent developments in Telangana to the notice of Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi, AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge, and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi. The sources said the high command is keen on reviewing the situation threadbare with the state leadership and assessing the likely political fallout of the controversies on the party’s prospects in the upcoming elections.  continued on p4