KOCHI l wednesday l june 10, 2026 l `9.00 l PAGES 16 l LATE city EDITION Pay less foR domestic Air India flights if you opt out of food Air India said Tuesday it is mulling a proposal to offer cheaper flight tickets for flyers who opt out of food or snacks while booking a domestic flight a fully optional service, says carrier Unlike other airlines, Air India has always included complimentary meals in all its domestic flights. An Air India source said, “This will be a fully optional service. The move will reduce the fares by I500 to I600 for Economy class. It will not be introduced for Premium Economy or Business class.” The free beverage (coffee/water) served to all flyers will continue ■ 27% eyeing to get back competitive edge ■ The move will initially be introduced on a pilot basis on routes including Delhi-Amritsar, Delhi-Chandigarh and B’luru-Hyderabad Another Air India source said the move is meant to make the carrier competitive. “Price-conscious passengers choose our competitor as their fares are lesser. If our fares reduce a bit, we get back our edge.” of india’s domestic aviation market is commanded by air india 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 Resource crunch Big push to asset, land monetisation and disinvestment A CID team raiding Abhishek Banerjee’s office; and Mamata Banerjee leaves Sonia Gandhi’s house in Delhi | parveen negi CID raids Mamata’s office amid meeting with Sonia D i pa k M o n d a l a n d P u s h p i ta D e y @ New Delhi Buzz over Didi seeking INDIA bloc help to contest Basirhat LS bypoll preetha nair & subhendu m a i t i @ New Delhi/Kolkata TRINAMOOL Congress chief Mamata Banerjee held closeddoor talks with senior Congress leader Sonia Gandhi at her 10, Janpath residence on Tuesday even as CID teams in Kolkata raided TMC offices at her Kalighat residence and Camac Street. The meeting followed Sonia and Mamata’s warm hug at the Opposition INDIA bloc’s meeting the previous day . Just a day earlier, leaders of 23 Opposition parties vowed unity and better coordination among the alliance partners. According to sources, Rahul Gandhi told the Opposition meeting that if TMC and Congress had tied up in the West Bengal election, the results would have been different. Sources said Mamata and Sonia discussed the strategy between the two parties going forward. This was their first closed-door meeting after Trinamool’s defeat in the polls, Signature probe CID officers in Kolkata said the raids were held to dredge out the original copy of TMC’s resolution book and attendance sheet containing signatures of 70 MLAs present at the May 6 meeting held at the party office No morality: TMC Trinamool Congress leaders Kalyan Banerjee and Kirti Azad accused dissident MPs of lacking political morality and deserting the party. Alleging a broader attempt to weaken opposition parties, Banerjee said, “They are destroying democracy” and alleged attacks on party workers and MP Abhishek Banerjee after the elections. The meeting also comes amid speculation that Mamata is seeking the help of Congress and the INDIA bloc to contest a by-election from Basirhat Lok Sabha constituency. The seat fell vacant after the death of TMC MP Haji Nurul Islam. A rebellion within the TMC, with as many as 20 MPs deciding to form a separate group and align with the ruling NDA, has added to Mamata’s troubles. A majority of Trinamool’s 80 MLAs have already formed a separate group led by Ritabrata Banerjee as the leader of opposition in the state Assembly . The timing of raids on TMC offices as Mamata sat with Sonia, led to an uproar from TMC leaders. TMC joint secretary Derek O’Brien called it “political vendetta, shamelessly timed.” Two CID teams swept into TMC offices in Kolkata to probe charges of forged signatures of MLAs in connection with the election of Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay as Leader of the Opposition in Bengal. A CID team was prevented from entering Mamata’s housecum-of fice by Subhashis Chakraborty, former Rajya Sabha MP. After waiting outside for about 40 minutes, thet managed to enter the office. With the Centre facing a significant resource crunch following a series of emergency measures to shield the economy from the West Asia crisis, the government has activated plans to mobilise additional revenue, official sources said on Tuesday. The measures include aggressively pursuing asset and land monetisation while also stepping up efforts to raise funds through disinvestment. Sources said senior government officials are holding weekly meetings with the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) and the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) to explore more avenues for resource mobilisation. The government hopes DIPAM would exceed the Budget target of `80,000 crore from disinvestment in FY27. One official said the proposed strategic sale of IDBI Bank, which had been put on hold due to valuation concerns and lack of investor interest, is likely to be revived. The government has set a target of `10 lakh crore in asset monetisation during the five-year period from FY26 to FY30 under the National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) 2.0. Under NMP 1.0, it achieved nearly 90% of its `6 lakh crore target. At the same time, the Centre is accelerating the monetisation of idle and non-core public assets through the National Land Monetisation Corporation (NLMC). According to the DPE, approvals were received during FY26 for monetisation of assets valued around `10,048 crore. The government’s fiscal burden has risen sharply following a series of support measures announced in recent weeks. It has created a `1 lakh crore Economic Stabilisation Fund to build fiscal buffers and respond to emergencies such as supplychain disruptions and sectoral shocks. Of this, `10,000 crore has been allocated for oil marketing firms to stabilise aviation turbine fuel prices. The centre has also launched a fresh Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme with an outlay of `18,000 crore to support MSMEs and the aviation sector. Gaming verdict windfall The govt hopes for a windfall from the favourable SC ruling in the GST dispute involving online gaming companies. Officials estimate that tax demands of around H1.5 lakh crore are under litigation Sops to adversely hit revenue The H10 per litre excise duty cut on fuel and the tax waiver for FIIs in govt securities is expected to adversely impact revenue. Excise duty reduction alone could result in a revenue loss of around H1.23 lakh crore Deaths outnumber births: Kerala’s Christian, Hindu population growth rate -ve M S V i d ya n a n d a n @ T’Puram In Kerala, Hindu and Christian communities are recording more deaths than births in a year, registering a negative Natural Growth Rate (NGR). A decadal analysis of official data showed that the gap between births and deaths among these communities in the state is widening. Kerala’s overall natural growth rate now remains in positive territory because of the Muslim population, which records more births than deaths. For NGR calculation, the absolute numbers of births and deaths were taken from the economics and statistics department’s annual Vital Statistics Reports from 2014 to 2023. In 2023, the latest year for which the vital statistics report is available, Kerala’s overall natural growth rate — births minus deaths per 100 population — was 0.249%. Hindus recorded -0.115% and Christians -0.084%. A negative natural growth rate means a community is no longer replacing itself through births alone. For Hindus, it was the second consecutive year in negative territory and , for Christians, the third. Hindu NGR, which turned negative for the first time in 2022 (-0.080%) worsened further to -0.115% in 2023, while Christians have been in negative territory since 2021 (-0.095%), reaching -0.084% in 2023. “Hindu and Christian communities are leading Kerala’s slide towards a negative natural growth rate,” said Dr Anil Chandran S, assistant professor, department of demography University of Kerala. , “The population decline in these groups began with upper-class communities decades ● More on P4 ago,” he said.  2023 demographic transition Sources: Births and Deaths: Vital Statistics Reports Community Birth Death Difference Population NGR Hindu 1,58,399 1,80,971 -22,572 1,95,80,205 -0.115% Muslim 1,76,312 59,541 1,16,771 95,02,106 1.229% Population Projection: Christian 56,810 62,338 -5,528 65,75,629 -0.084% Dr Anil Chandran delimitation bill Spl session possible if govt has the numbers RA J ESH KUMAR THAKUR @ New Delhi The ruling NDA government is open to reworking the delimitation bill to specify upfront that Lok Sabha seats across all states would be uniformly raised by 50%, if it were to muster two-thirds majority for the passage of the legislation. It could even call a special session of Parliament — ahead of the Monsoon session, which is slated to begin in the second week of July — if it is confident of the numbers game. An oral assurance on the 50% formula was made by Union home minister Amit Shah during the previous session of Parliament, but the Opposition was not convinced and the bill was defeated in the Lok Sabha on April 17. “If we get the required majority in the House, we would convey the special session of Parliament to pass the delimitation bill,” a senior BJP leader said. The proposed legislation is otherwise sound and the legal framework would remain intact, the leader added. “A uniform 50% increase would raise the LS seat count from 543 to about 815. So, the current cap of 550 seats was raised to 850,” a source said. When the bill fell on April 17, NDA was short of 54 votes — 298 ayes against the required 352 — out of 528 members present and voting. It already has 20 TMC rebels in the bag and is scouting for more. ED summons Veena for questioning in CMRL case E x p r e s s N e w s S e r v i c e @ Kochi frenzy kicks in As the excitement of the FIFA World Cup sweeps across towns and cities, a group of children braves heavy downpour to have a whale of a time playing football in a flooded ground at Nainamvalappu in Kozhikode on Tuesday | Vincent Pulickal The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has issued summons to Veena T, daughter of former chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, in connection with the CMRL-Exalogic financial transactions case, directing her to appear for questioning at its Kochi office on Friday . Sources said summons were issued to a total of nine persons as part of the ongoing money laundering investigation. Earlier, the ED had questioned Vee- na during searches conducted in connection with the case. Sources said the agency was not satisfied with the clarity of some of the responses provided at that time, following which she has been summoned. This is the first time that the central agency has formally summoned Veena for questioning. Apart from Veena, summons have also been sent to Saran S Kar tha, son of businessman Shasidharan Kartha, and several officials of ● More on P4 CMRL.  16 pages, including 4 pages of KOCHI Express candid interaction Gukesh and the burden of being world champion s w a r o o p s w a m i n at h a n D GUKESH, the youngest undisputed world chess champion in history, has admitted that managing expectations has been one of the hardest things as world champion. “As much as you try to switch off, you are still aware that there is this kind of elephant in the room,” he told a few Indian journalists after Norway Chess. “Like you are expected and also you expect something. I’m in general also an ambitious player and I keep going for wins. Considering all these things, it has been pretty hard. But, I either break from it or grow through it.” The 20-year-old said he had struggled for motivation during ‘parts of 2025’. “You can still do everything that you’ve been doing,” he said. “But the reason why you’re doing it is different. You’re not waking up striving for the World Championship. But it doesn’t mean you have to lose motivation. There was obviously some motivation issues, probably in parts of 2025. But if you really love the sport, if you’re able to connect back to it, that’s why people keep saying, ‘find the reason why you started playing the sport’. I feel like external resources can never, they’re not reliable sources of motivation for a very long time. So, something that drives you from within, that’s something that I’ve been trying to connect with.” He vowed to keep fighting because ‘I don’t know what else I would want to spend the day with’. “Chess is something, even though I’m playing badly, it’s still something that I want to spend time with. To do something badly for a long time... if you don’t have any kind of love for the game, there’s no reason to continue. But just the fact that I’m trying so hard, means that there is something behind all of this. Just connecting with it, I think is the reason that I want to keep going.”