KOLLAM l sunday l june 21, 2026 l `12.00 l PAGES 24 l city EDITION IAS officer elected v-P of global anti-money laundering body Aggarwal’s election a big win: MEA Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal described Aggarwal’s election as a “major win” for India. “The appointment places an Indian official at the apex of the global standard-setting body for antimoney laundering and counter-terrorist financing,” the ministry said. The FATF vice president is elected by delegates from the member countries Union Culture Secretary Vivek Aggarwal was elected as the vice president of the Financial Action Task Force during its plenary in Paris First Indian ever to hold the post ■ ■ It will be the first time an Indian is holding the post. Aggarwal will succeed Giles Thomson from the UK, who was elected FATF president Aggarwal’s appointment puts the focus on Pakistan. India has repeatedly sought to bring Pakistan back onto the FATF “grey list”. Pakistan was removed from the watchlist in October 2022 | P7 200 Jurisdictions sent delegates to paris for the june 17-19 FATF plenary 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 USA’s dream run & ‘historic’ red card USA emulate fellow World Cup co-hosts Mexico to march into the Round of 32 stage of ongoing FIFA World Cup on Friday while Brazil get first win of the tournament. Talking points... Two strong for Oz After an unconvincing build-up, USA have made a dream start to the tournament. Having posted a 4-1 win over Paraguay in the opener, Mauricio Pochettino’s side beat Australia 2-0 to enter the next phase with one game to spare Red card draws attention Paraguay's Miguel Almiron became the first player in WC history to be sent off for covering his mouth during an on-field confrontation under new FIFA rules. Covering his mouth, Almiron appeared to direct a comment at Turkiye's Mert Muldur during the two teams' Group D tie in Santa Clara, California. Paraguay won 1-0. Turkiye, meanwhile, became just the second team to get eliminated Today's matches Three cheers for Selecao Five-time champions Brazil also bolstered their chances of entering the knockouts by beating Haiti 3-0. Matheus Cunha was the standout with two goals while Vinicius Junior scored the other goal. Haiti, in the process, were eliminated L a st p e n - a n d - p a p e r e x a m 22.8 lakh to take NEET retest today High security measures in place across 95K centres S l a l i t h a @ New Delhi WITH THIS ISSUE The Young Sound Wave PLUS 12 P AGES Op Tiger hits murder case acquittal roadblock MORE than 22.8 lakh medical aspirants will appear for the NEET UG re-examination on Sunday, nearly seven weeks after the original test was cancelled following a question paper leak that triggered nationwide outrage. The re-examination will be held from 2 to 5.15 pm across 551 cities in India and 14 cities abroad. Candidates with disabilities (PwD/PwBD) eligible for compensatory time will be allowed to write the examination till 6.20 pm. Nine states will see more than one lakh candidates each, led by Uttar Pradesh, foll o w e d by M a h a r a s h t r a (2,22,905) and Rajasthan (2,03,470). Lakshadweep has the lowest number with just 141 candidates. As many as 5,401 foreign candidates will also take the test. The Centre has installed 1,38,560 CCTV cameras with live feeds being monitored at national, state and ministry levels. As many as 51,311 jammers have been deployed Our mock drill was a success. We checked working of jammers, CCTVs, seating positions, and biometrics infra NTA Abu Dhabi aspirant’s choice: NTA The NTA on Saturday claimed that the allotment of Abu Dhabi as exam centre for a Nagpur NEET aspirant was done as the request came from the candidate. NTA later alloted Nagpur as his new centre | P7 across the 95,000-plus examination centres to prevent electronic malpractice. A nationwide mega mock drill conducted on Saturday was declared successful. “We checked the working of the jammers, CCTVs, seating arrangements, biometrics and police deployment,” a senior NTA official said. “NTA has put in place a multi-layered security framework, including end-to-end secure handling of confidential materials under sealed protocols, GPS-enabled vehicles with police escorts for movement of examination materials, CCTV surveillance at all examination centres linked to centralised control rooms, and Aadhaar-based biometric authentication,” NTA said. The National Medical Commission has directed all medical colleges under its purview not to grant leave to students on June 20 and 21. The move comes in the backdrop of instances when medical students were found to be involved in illegal activities that affect the exam process. S u d h i r S u r ya w a n s h i @ New Delhi A special CBI court’s verdict acquitting all nine accused in the 2006 Pavanraje Nimbalkar murder case appears to have stalled Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s plan of engineering a second split in the Uddhav faction of the Shiv Sena. Dr Padmasinh Patil, BJP MLA Ranajagjit Sinh Patil’s father, and eight others were accused in the case. The court acquitted them all citing lack of evidence. The verdict left Omprakash Nimbalkar, a Lok Sabha member from the Uddhav Sena camp who was weighing the possibility of defecting to the Shinde group as part of what was called Operation Tiger, furious. “If all accused are acquitted, then who killed my father?” he questioned, adding there has been no closure for his family . Omprakash was among the six of nine LS members who skipped a recent parliamentary party meeting called by the Uddhav Sena in Delhi. If he backs off, rebels would be short of the two-thirds majority mark in the parliamentary party botching their , proposed merging with the Shinde Sena. CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke with supporters at a protest meet in New Delhi Saturday | Sayantan Ghosh Drama at Jantar Mantar as CJP refuses to end protest A d i t i R ay C h o w d h u r y @ New Delhi OVER 200 people associated with Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) were still lingering with placards at the Jantar Mantar protest site even as the clock ticked 9 pm on Saturday night. Delhi Police had allowed the protest meet from 1 pm till 5 pm only . In what remained a visibly peaceful protest, determined faces stood firm amid the sweltering heat. CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke announced in the evening that the protest will continue till the time the Sonam Wangchuk joins in Climate activist Wangchuk, who has earlier joined two of CJP’s protests, announced that he would go on a hunger-strike from June 27 if the education minister does not resign education minister resigns. The protest was also joined by climate and social activist Sonam Wanchuk. “I request Delhi Police, since youth are here from all over the country they want to , continue the sit-in. The protest has been peaceful, we request Delhi Police to extend our permission. We are innocent students,” Dipke said, appealing to more people to join them at Jantar Mantar. Police, however, refused to allow them to continue, and cited a court order that protests can’t continue after 5 pm, before asking them to leave. Spain vs Saudi Arabia l 9: 30 PM Belgium vs Iran l 12:30 AM* Uruguay vs Cabo Verde l 3:30 AM* New Zealand vs Egypt l 6:30 AM* Live on United8 Sports & ZEE5 (*IST Monday) Provide Wi-Fi: DGCA to all airlines S L a l i t h a @ New Delhi Only on 28 AI aircraft Air India website shows in-flight Wi-Fi is avaiable on 28 aircraft— six Boeing 787-9, six Airbus A350900, 10 Airbus A321 and six Boeing 777-300. The retrofit Boeing 787-8s are provisioned to offer Wi-Fi The Directorate General of Civil Aviation has requested that all domestic airlines provide Wi-Fi internet access to their passengers on board. As of date, only 28 Air India aircraft offer such connectivity . Multiple airline executives said it is highly unlikely that the airlines would comply with the request. A communication issued on Friday (June 19) by the Deputy Director General of DGCA, A X Joseph, to the Accountable Manager of all airlines states, “Rule 29B of the Aircraft Rules 1937 allows the use of internet services by passengers on board an aircraft in flight Carriers warn of cost An airline executive said, “The expenses for retrofitting will run into crores and the aircraft needs to be pulled out of operations temporarily. It can be considered for new aircraft, but not on exisiting ones” through Wi-Fi for use of smartphones in flight mode or airplane mode.” It has been issued as a Civil Aviation Requirement (CAR) too, it added. IndiGo did not respond to this reporter while Air India Express sought more time to get back on the matter. A SpiceJet source said the airline has been offering an inflight entertainment system ‘Spice screen’ for all its passengers since August 2020, using which they can view movies and other content available. Asked about the possibility of incorporating Wi-Fi services, an airline source said, “It is not an easy process. The aircraft needs to have antennae to receive a signal. For that, we need to create a hump in the fuselage. It is a costly and timeconsuming affair.” Another airline executive said the cost would ultimately be borne by the consumer. “If we add `100 or `200 as Wi-Fi charges, the passenger might even not be interested,” the executive said. Sabarimala to get After KIIFB, govt AI-based crowd looks to restructure control system think tank K-DISC E x p r ess Ne w s S e r v i c e @ Kochi As w i n As o k K u m a r @ T’Puram The Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) will implement Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based pilgrim management system at the Sabarimala temple during the upcoming pilgrimage season, which begins mid-November. The board organised a workshop in Kochi on Saturday in which representatives of , three AI firms from Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai demonstrated the functioning of the technology in managing the movement of pilgrims. “We are discussing the scope of deploying AI cameras and drones in monitoring crowd movement. The AI system will provide real time data and predictive analysis regarding the movement of pilgrims at Sannidhanam, Pampa and Nilakal. The system will analyse the crowd and forward messages to the Sabarimala temple (File pic) police officers concerned. This will help ease pilgrim movement and avoid building up of crowd pressure,” said TDB president K Jayakumar. He said the system will also help spot children and elderly who get separated from their groups amid rush. “It will help avoid unscientific parking at Nilakkal and Pampa. The system will also provide inputs to avoid waste accumulation and ensure safety of drinking water resources,” he said. DGP and Vigilance director Manoj Abraham, who also attended the session, said predictive analysis and real time data provided by the AI system will be helpful in providing suggestions to the police officers deployed along the trekking path to ● More on P5 manage the crowd.  Continuing with its ‘corrective’ measures, following the announcement of the restructuring of the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB), the state government is likely to turn its focus to the Kerala Development and Innovation Strategic Council (K-DISC). According to official sources, active discussions are ongoing, under the close scrutiny of the chief minister’s office, to limit the council’s political character and bring in more professionalism. Chief Minister V D Satheesan is expected to convene a meeting of council officials this week to evaluate the organisation’s functioning. Notably, former IAS officer K M Abraham, who came under fire over KIIFB’s ‘masala bond’ issue, among others, served as executive vice chairperson of K-DISC at the same time that he was the former’s chief executive officer. “The new government wants to put an end to the culture of politicisation that the CPM fostered at K-DISC, particularly in appointments. Also, the CM Advisory body K-DISC is a think tank advisory body of the state government formulated under the first Pinarayi Vijayan government to provide development plans based on modern technology. Functioning with the aim to make Kerala an innovation hub, the council anchors various projects, including Young Innovators Programme for students, the STRIDE programme for the inclusion of disabled individuals into society, etc. The CM will be the chairperson of the council. believes in result-oriented initiatives, in making its functioning more professional. More recently, the council had veered towards the academic side of things, with the preparation of analysis reports, rather than focusing on effective interventions, which was its stated primary goal,” an official working closely with K-DISC told TNIE on condition of anonymity . Notably, K-DISC drew criticism for appointing P Sarin, who was expelled from the Congress, as strategic advisor of the ‘Vijnana Keralam’ cam● More on P5 paign.  e x p r ess r e a d PM SHRI: IUML youth wing intensifies protest Sukumaran Nair slams ‘arrogant’ Satheesan Govt bans 16 ‘combo’ drugs for being risky Malappuram: The youth and student wings of IUML have intensified their opposition to the UDF government’s decision to move ahead with the PM SHRI scheme, turning the issue into a fresh point of friction within the ruling coalition. P2 Kottayam: The rift between Chief Minister V D Satheesan and the Nair Service Society has widened after he reportedly refused twice to meet an NSS delegation, prompting general secretary G Sukumaran Nair to publicly label him “arrogant”. P5 New Delhi: The Centre has banned the manufacture and sale of 16 fixed-dose combination drugs with immediate effect, saying they lack “therapeutic justification” and their use was not considered beneficial keeping in mind potential risks involved. P7