NEW DELHI 19 APRIL 2026 SUNDAY `12 PAGES 24  facebook/TheMorningStandard  X.com/TheMornStandard https://epaper.morningstandard.in False Alarm IT’S RAINING IPOs Anand Neelakantan Prabhu Chawla Ravi Shankar Shankkar Aiyar Neha Sinha Shyam Bhatia Anuja Chandramouli Heart of Fire R A K E S H K U M A R @ New Delhi ‘WILL HELP CUT DEPENDENCE ON FOREIGN INSURERS’ Addressing reporters after the Cabinet meeting, Information and Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said, Bharat Maritime Insurance Pool will help India cut dependency on foreign insurance companies and save foreign exchange outflow insurance. Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said the public sector reinsurer General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC Re) will act as the administrator of the pool. GIC Re will contribute `400 crore, while public sector general insurance com- panies will chip in `280 crore, with the rest coming from private insurers and oil marketing firms. “The BMI Pool will cut down the cost of insurance premium by at least 25% as of now,” Vaishnaw said. The pool will provide coverage for Indian-flagged vessels, Indian-controlled ships, as well as ships arriving in or departing from Indian ports. The coverage will include hull and machinery damage, cargo loss or damage, third-party liabilities such as oil spills, collisions and crew injuries, as well as war and conflict-related risks. Ships transporting goods such as oil, gas, food, and other commodities require insurance to protect against risks including accidents, piracy, war, oil spills, and cargo damage. So far, India has largely depended on foreign insurers like the International Group of P&I Clubs for such coverage, as these entities provide global insurance services. Under the proposed structure, policies will be issued through the BMI Pool, with risks and liabilities distributed among the insurers. The pool will have an underwriting capacity of `950 crore. P7 AN ODE TO HERITAGE Lieutenant Governor Taranjit Singh Sandhu during an event organised on the World Heritage Day at Mehrauli Archaeological Park in New Delhi on Saturday. He said the park has been restored by DDA as part of its redevelopment project | EXPRESS | P3 PARKING OF HEAVY VEHICLES ON HIGHWAYS BARRED The Supreme Court has said that the “safety of a commuter” is an integral part of “right to live with dignity” under Art 21 of the Constitution EXPRESS READ HC withholds order for FIR against Rahul The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court on Saturday withheld its order directing registration of an FIR against LoP in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi in the case of alleged dual citizenship. P8 Main accused in Noida stir arrested from TN The Uttar Pradesh STF arrested Aditya Anand, the main accused in Noida labour unrest case, from Tamil Nadu. He had been on the run since the unrest settled, while half a dozen teams of Noida police were out to net him. P3 ‘Judges falling prey to greed must be removed’ Supreme Court judge Justice B V Nagarathna on Saturday said that judges, who cannot live within their means and fall prey to greed and temptation, must be removed from the judicial system. MAGAZINE Missing the Finer Notes EXCLUSIVE VOICES Desi maritime insurance pool to protect cargo amid conflict AS the war in West Asia disrupts oil and gas supply— partly due to reduced vessel movement linked to insurance constraints—the government on Saturday approved the creation of the Bharat Maritime Insurance Pool (BMI Pool) with a sovereign guarantee of `12,980 crore. The government said the objective of the insurance pool is to ensure uninterrupted and affordable marine insurance for India’s shipping sector, while also reducing dependence on foreign insurers, particularly the International Group of P&I Clubs, which dominate the maritime insurance market. The conflict in West Asia has disrupted the movement of ships in and around the Strait of Hormuz, with many shipowners halting operations. Insurance companies have also become cautious, with some unwilling to provide coverage due to heightened risks. According to the government, the BMI Pool will function as a collective of Indian insurance companies working together to provide marine PLUS: 12 PAGES COPS BUST RADICAL MODULE; 4 HELD ACROSS 3 STATES EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ New Delhi DELHI Police has arrested a welder, a Class XII student, a security guard, and a plumber who were allegedly radicalised and believed in the emergence of an ‘ar my’ (lashkar) from Khurasan bearing black flags to establish a caliphate in the Indian subcontinent and beyond, officials said on Saturday . Police said the four were preparing to join the ‘army’, besides radicalising others. Material for the preparation of an IED was recovered. The accused have been identified as Mosaib Ahmad, Mohammad Hammad, residents of Maharashtra, Sheikh Imran, from Odisha, and Mohammad Sohail from Bihar. DCP (Special Cell) Praveen Kumar Tripathi said the accused were part of various closed groups on encrypted social media platforms. Two members of the module were in the process of collecting locally sourced material for preparing a remote-controlled IED. Another member promised to arrange arms training for the members of the module. He asked other members to send money for the same. He had visited various sensitive installations, including Red Fort in Delhi 1 visited Delhi to ‘recce’ Red Fort Imran, one of the members, promised to arrange arms training for the members of the module. He asked other members to send money for the same. He had visited various sensitive installations, including Red Fort during December 2025. during December 2025 and posted a photo of Red Fort with a black flag atop to radicalise others, the DCP said. Ahmad worked in various capacities, including welder, auto mechanic and auto electrician, in India and abroad, including Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Hammad is pursuing Class XII through correspondence. In January, he joined a closed group in which other active members included Ahmad. Imran worked as a security guard and delivery boy. He discussed targeting Ram Mandir and Parliament. He visited Delhi in December 2025 for recce of Red Fort and India Gate. Sohail is a plumber. ‘I Connect With Broken Parts of People’ At the Crossroads of Passing Lives SWAMI SUKHABODHANANDA SPEAKS The Good in the Unwanted Seas the Day PM seeks forgiveness from all women of the country as bill to expedite quota fell in LS Oppn will pay INDIA bloc for for its women’s quick rollout of bill ‘sin’: Modi the 2023 Act R A J E S H K U M A R T H A K U R @ New Delhi P R E E T H A N A I R @ New Delhi PRIME Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday berated the Congress-led Opposition for what he called was their ‘big sin’ of rejecting the Constitutional amendments to operationalise the 33% women’s quota in the Lok Sabha the previous day He said the women of the country would not . forget how the Congress and its allies like the DMK, Trinamool Congress and Samajwadi Party opposed the legislation aimed at advancing women’s representation in legislative bodies. His address to the nation came ahead of assembly elections in two Opposition-held states, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, where the ruling TMC and DMK were among those that voted against the amendments. Launching a broadside against the Congress, Modi accused the party of being anti-women and opposed to reforms in the nation-building process. “The Congress inherited the British legacy of divide and rule and spread the canard of North-South divide. They opposed Article 370, triple talaq, PM Jan Dhan Yojna, Aadhaar, digital payments, GST, reservation for the economically weaker section in the general classes and many other efforts made in the larger interest of the nation,” he alleged. The prime minister also criticised the Congress’ stance on delimitation, alleging it was fuelling divisions. He said the government had consistently clarified that no state’s proportional representation in Parliament would be affected, yet the Opposition refused to relent. Describing the Congress, TMC, DMK and SP as dynastic parties, he alleged they resisted the bill out of fear of losing control within their organisations and preventing women outside their families from rising to leadership. “Nari Shakti Vandan Amendment was the need of hour and we made an honest effort to ensure balanced empowerment across the North, South, East and West. But the Congress, which is a parasite on regional parties, spiked them,” the PM charged. He accused the Opposition of committing the political crime of opposing amendments aimed at expediting the implementation of the reservation for women in Parliament and state assemblies. Expressing confidence in the country’s women, he said, “A woman forgets everything, but not her insult; this insult by Congress and its allies will always remain in every woman’s heart.” P7 A day after the historic defeat of amendments to the women’s quota bill in Parliament, the opposition INDIA bloc decided to push for the immediate rollout of the Women’s Reservation Act, 2023, within the existing framework of the 543-member Lok Sabha, while also seeking to counter the BJP’s narrative to portray the Opposition in a negative light. At a meeting chaired by the Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge, on Saturday top leaders of the alliance agreed that , each constituent party would independently push for the implementation of the Act, while also continuing to raise the issue in public to hold the BJP accountable. The meeting was also attended by CPP leader Sonia Gandhi, NCP (SP)’s Supriya Sule, Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Sanjay Raut, CPI(M)’s John Brittas, and CPI’s P Sandosh Kumar, among others. It was decided that parties in the INDIA bloc will hold press conferences across the country and stress that they support women’s reservation, adding Parliament had already passed the bill in 2023. By introducing three new bills, they said the government was trying to change the political map of the country under its guise. At a press conference after the meeting, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi underlined that the Opposition was not against reservation for women and would support the Women’s Reservation Act, 2023, if the government sought to implement it on the current strength of the Lok Sabha. Speaking to this paper, Congress MP Manickam Tagore said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has to clarify when the government will implement the Act. “For the PM, it was a face-palm moment after he failed in pushing through a Constitutional amendment,” said Tagore. While there were suggestions among the parties to hold a joint press conference of the INDIA bloc or write a joint letter to the PM demanding implementation of quota for women in the existing framework immediately leaders said the up, coming elections in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal may pose a hurdle for such joint action. “INDIA bloc parties will continue with the coordination on this issue, and we are confident that we will be able to do it adequately A joint letter to the . PM may be prepared soon,” said a leader. The opposition has committed a sin by opposing women’s reservation, and they will surely be punished for this. Opposition parties have insulted our Constitution by defeating the bill Narendra Modi, prime minister PIC: SHEKHAR YADAV What happened yesterday was a very significant victory for democracy. The government’s conspiracy to alter the federal structure and weaken democracy was defeated and stopped Priyanka Gandhi-Vadra, Cong gen secy Court acquits all accused in 32-yr-old President house records forgery case U DAYA N K I S H O R E @ New Delhi A Delhi court has acquitted all surviving accused in a 1986 case related to the alleged forging of documents of the Rashtrapati Bhawan, saying that the prosecution rested on conjectures and inferences. In the case originally initiated on the directions of the Supreme Court, Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Jyoti Maheshwari cleared three accused—Mohan Lal Jatia, Ashok Jatia and Ashok Jain— of all charges, including criminal conspiracy, fabrication of evidence and forgery Two oth. er accused, Milap Chand Jagotra and Gurcharan Singh, who were working in the President’s Secretariat during the Case dates back to 1986 The case arose in 1986 when Mohan Lal Jatia, detained under the Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act, challenged his detention. A key claim in his case before the SC was that a representation had been submitted to the President. alleged offence, died during the pendency of the case. “The non-examination of material witnesses, failure to prove secondary evidence in accordance with law and inconsistencies in the testimony of crucial prosecution witnesses collectively give rise to a serious and reasonable doubt. On the other hand, the accused have been able to cast a serious dent in the case of the prosecution,” the judge said in the March 27 order. The case arose in 1986 when Jatia challenged his detention before the courts. A key claim in his case before the Supreme Court was that a representation had been submitted to the President of India but was never considered. Doubts over the authenticity of this claim led to allegations that the accused conspired to fabricate evidence, including forging entries in official records at the President’s secretariat. Acting on these concerns, the SC in 1994 directed that a criminal complaint be filed and investigated by CBI. US extends sanction waiver on Russia oil till May 16 R A K E S H K U M A R @ New Delhi WITH the war continuing in West Asia, the United States has extended its waiver on sanctions for countries importing Russian crude by a month until May 16. This is the second such relaxation since the escalation of the West Asia crisis, which has disrupted the global crude supply following the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. According to the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) under the US Department of the Treasury, Russian oil and petroleum products loaded onto tankers—including those under sanctions—on or before 12:01 a.m. Easte r n D ay l i g h t Time (9:31 a.m. IST) on April 17 can be purchased and received by most countries until May 16. The previous waiver, issued in March, had expired on April 11. US Treasury Secretary Scott DAY 50 Bessent had earlier indicated that the waiver would not be extended. However, the ongoing conflict in West Asia —now lasting over a month — has significantly disrupted global crude and gas flows, prompting a reassessment. Russian crude is now expected to help offset supply shortages caused by reduced exports from Gulf producers. In addition, the US has also temporarily waived sanctions on Iranian crude imports for a month, with that exemption set to expire on April 19. As the world’s third-largest crude oil consumer, India relies on imports to meet over 88% of its demand. Russia has emerged as India’s top oil supplier since the outbreak of the RussiaUkraine war. Despite criticism from the West that purchasing discounted Russian crude effectively funds the war, New Delhi has continued to purchase crude from Moscow.