India’s first fully-digital census to start on April 1 The process starts with selfenumeration in Delhi, Goa, Karnataka, Lakshadweep, Mizoram, Odisha, Sikkim and Andaman & Nicobar Islands from April 1. The Census 2027 will be done in two phases—house listing or house census and population enumeration. After a 15-day self-enumeration period, the 30-day house-listing phase will begin on April 16. Across the country, the first phase will be wrapped by October | P7 HUBBALLI  TUESDAY  MARCH 31, 2026  `9.00  PAGES 12  CITY EDITION 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 TRUMP THREATENS OBLITERATION Draft IT rules give Centre powers to Open Hormuz or face destruction of power plants, oil wells, desalination plants: Don to Iran Man from TN killed in strike on Kuwait plant Port city hit Site of a Oil building and refinery a fuel tanker afire at Haifa HAIFA oil refinery after missile debris impact EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Ramanathapuram/ New Delhi Gaza Strip Jordan US President Donald Trump said Iran faces a mass destruction of its energy resources unless a deal to end the war is reached “shortly”. Trump wrote on a social media post “great progress is being made” in talks with Iran but bristled that if a deal is not reached and if the strategic Hormuz Strait is not immediately reopened, the US would broaden its offensive by “completely obliterating all of their electric generating plants, oil wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinization plants!).” Destroying civilian infrastructure such as power and water facilities would be illegal under international humanitarian law and could constitute a war crime, experts say. A scrubby island in the Gulf that is roughly one third the size of Manhattan, Kharg Island is the nerve centre of the Iranian oil industry . Later in the evening, Trump said he was negotiating with Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, as per Times of Israel. Iran has previously threatened to retaliate by targeting energy infrastructure and desalination plants in its Arab neighbours in the Gulf who host US military bases. Market experts warned that any US ground operation or wider Iranian retaliation could send oil prices to levels not seen since the July 2008 commodity boom, when the cost of world Syria A G E N C I E S @ Washington, Tel Aviv Egypt benchmark crude Brent hit close to $150 per barrel. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi appealed directly to Trump on Monday to find an off-ramp. “Please, help us to stop the war, you are capable of it,” Sisi said in Cairo. On the ground on Monday, there was no let-up in hostilities. Israel said its air defence batteries responded to “missiles launched from Iran” after earlier announcing it was striking “terror regime military infrastructure across Tehran”. Israel’s fire and rescue services also reported a blaze at an oil refinery in the northern port A blaze at the site of a missile strike at the Haifa oil refinery in Israel after it was hit by debris from the interception of a projectile on Monday | X DAY 31 city of Haifa. Israel’s military said it had struck the Imam Hossein University in Tehran run by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. Iran confir med Revolutionary Guards commander Alireza Tangsiri had been killed. In the Gulf, Kuwait reported strikes on a power station and a desalination plant. There was fresh bombardment of Beirut’s southern suburbs on Monday as well as airstrikes in the country’s south, one of which targeted an army checkpoint and killed a soldier. The UAE and Saudi Arabia said they intercepted Iranian P9 missiles and drones. A DAY after Santhana Selvam, a Tamil working in a Kuwait firm, was killed in Iranian attack on a power and water desalination facility in the Gulf country his family on Monday , sought the state government’s help to bring the body back to India. With the death of the 36-year-old from Raman ath apuram, the total number of Indian fatalities in the West Asia conflict has gone up to eight since the hostilities began on February 28. Santhana Selvam had been working in Kuwait for more than a decade at Al Dhow Engineering General Trading & Contracting Company He was the sole . breadwinner and is survived by his wife and two children. Rupee breaches 95/$ level, recovers The rupee breached the 95/USDmark in intra-day trade on Monday before regaining some lost ground to settle at 94.70 against the US dollar, up 15 paise, after Iran war escalation jolted markets, fuelling rupee volatility and risk-off sentiment. P10 censor user-generated news content R A K E S H K U M A R @ New Delhi THE Ministry of Electronics and IT has proposed to make sweeping changes to the digital media oversight framework to monitor and regulate user-generated news and current affairs content on social media. The proposed amendments to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 give the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting statutory powers to order removal of news-related content from YouTube, Facebook, In- stagram, X, and other influential social media platforms. Currently, the digital media oversight framework applies to publishers of news content and curated content platforms. The amendments would extend it to individual users, professional content creators, and social media influencers with millions of followers. According to the government, the move is to strengthen social media platforms’ accountability and stop malicious content from going viral. Under the proposed rules, all social media platforms must One dead, two injured in Nanjangud Rathotsava E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ Mysuru ONE person died and two others suffered serious injuries in the heavy rush at the annual Pancha Maharathotsava at Sri Nanjundeshwara Temple in Nanjangud on Monday . The deceased, Nanjundaswamy (56) -- a resident of Magadi in Bengaluru, had travelled to Nanjangud to witness the grand chariot festival, which draws lakhs of devotees every year. He reportedly collapsed and was rushed to a nearby hospital, where doctors were unable to revive him. Preliminary reports indicate that he might have suffered a cardiac arrest triggered by the crowd pressure. The temple town, referred to as Dakshina Kashi, saw an estimated turnout of over 1.5 lakh devotees on Monday. Rangaswamy (52) and his son from Srirampura Layout in Nanjangud were injured after falling down near a police barricade amid heavy rush of devotees. In another incident, Ningamma from Chikkade village in Pandavapura too experienced difficulty and with the help of police was sent in an ambulance to Jayadeva Hospital, where she has been admitted. The Pancha Rathotsava attracted devotees from across Karnataka and neighbouring regions. The rush of devotees led to chaos and traffic jams for a while. comply with government advisories and directions, including orders to remove content deemed harmful or misleading. Non-compliance may cost safe harbour protection (legal provisions that shield platforms from liability for content posted by users). The contentious move comes amid allegations of arbitrary ban and restriction of Facebook pages, YouTube videos, and Insta reels of influencers who are critical of the government. Digitial rights activists say the proposed amendments would heighten censorship risks. EXPRESS READ Retd brigadier dies in road rage crossfire Dehradun: A retired Army brigadier, who was on his morning walk, was killed in a crossfire when occupants of two cars opened fire following a dispute over giving way on the road. The incident happened in Johri village of Rajpur in Dehradun early on Monday | P8 Cong did nothing to end Naxal violence: Shah New Delhi: Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday blamed the Congress for the long spell of Naxal violence, saying it did “nothing” during its rule to end the menace. During a debate in the Lok Sabha, he said Maoists are almost eradicated from their den Bastar in Chhattisgarh | P8