BHUBANESWAR l tuesday l july 07, 2026 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l JEYPORE EDITION India’s crude basket at lowest level since start of west asia war India’s crude oil basket averaged $67.88 per barrel so far in July, below the $69.01 per barrel recorded in February, before the start of the West Asia war Down sharply from $113.49 per barrel in mar July purchase price lower than fy26 avg Crude oil prices had surged sharply during the West Asia conflict that began on February 28, with the crude oil basket averaging $113.49 per barrel in March. It moderated to $106.23 per barrel in May and further declined to $83.22 per barrel in June. It has averaged $67.88 per barrel in July, the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) data showed | p10 ■ ■ According to the PPAC data, India’s average purchase price of crude oil so far in July is lower than the FY26 average of $70.99 per barrel Though the crude purchase price has fallen, a cut in fuel prices is unlikely to happen soon with the government indicating prices must be stable at the pre-war level for months before that can happen $62.20 per barrel in December was the lowest purchasing price in fy26 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 Lift on Balogun ban sparks outcry USA’s Folarin Balogun was set to play the last 16 tie against Belgium despite being sent off in 2-0 win against Bosnia thanks to “phonecalls,” before Brazil got eliminated. A look... Belgium appeal rejected FIFA has dismissed Belgium’s challenge over the eligibility of Balogun after they decided to suspend his one-game ban. “The RBFA is not a party to the proceedings and, has no standing to appeal the decision.”FIFA statement. Pahalgam chargesheet: Saeed named accused i started this process, says Trump US President Donald Trump said that he called FIFA boss Gianni Infantino to review red-card decision on Balogun. Then, FIFA stated that his red card has been lifted and instead ordered a probationary period of a year under Article 27 of FIFA’s Disciplinary Code A late brace from Erling Haaland against Brazil sealed Norway their first quarterfinal spot with a 2-1 win. Following elimination, superstar Neymar announced his international retirement. Haaland and Co will face England in the quarterfinals, who beat a strong Mexico side at the daunting Estadio Azteca in Mexico City PIL against sharing court proceedings and recordings on social media Today’s matches (Round of 16): Argentina vs Egypt | 9.30 PM; Switzerland vs Colombia | 1:30 AM* ( *IST Wednesday) u d aya n k i s h o r e @ New Delhi SIR in odisha Malkangiri loses 10% voters; 2.07L struck off in Ganjam E x p r ess Ne w s S e r v i c e Sudarsan Maharana The National Investigation Agency (NIA) named Lashkar-eTaiba chief Hafiz Saeed as an accused in a supplementary chargesheet filed over last year’s Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 people, the agency said. In the chargesheet, filed before the NIA special court in Jammu, the agency charged Pakistan-based Saeed in his individual capacity and as head of the banned Lashkar-e-Toiba and its proxy group, The Resistance Front. He has been charged under provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, including waging war against India and hatching a conspiracy from across the border. The chargesheet, filed in continuation of the original 1,597page chargesheet, provides details of Pakistan’s conspiracy, Saeed’s role, and supporting evidence collected by the NIA in the case, the agency said in a statement. Twenty-six people were killed when terrorists opened fire at tourists in Pahalgam on April 22, 2025. While the post-Special Intensive Revision (SIR) draft electoral roll has revealed the exclusion of 20.13 lakh voters across the state, Malkangiri appears to have been the worst affected with at least 10 per cent of its electors removed from the revised list. Four other districts of Cuttack, Balangir, Nayagarh and Ganjam have witnessed exclusion to the tune of around 7 per cent. The removal of the names from the draft roll notified by the Election Commission has been attributed to ASDD (absent, shifted and deceased/ duplicate). As per districtwise figures, with 10.25 pc, Malkangiri has recorded the highest percentage of voter deletions in the SIR. Against 4,62,171 electors in the pre-SIR roll, the district now has 4,14,816 voters in the draft roll as 47,355 names have been deleted in the preliminary enumeration exercise. Cuttack has witnessed a voter-share drop by 7.44 pc followed by Balangir at 7.39 pc, Nayagarh 7.11 pc and Ganjam at 6.92 pc. Among top 10 districts with highest eliminations, Jajpur @New Delhi Can’t police videos: Meta, Google to HC Early exit for Selecao @ Bhubaneswar Deletion map  Total voters excluded: 20.13 lakh  Malkangiri : 10.25% (47,355)  Cuttack: 7.44% (1,55,164)  Balangir: 7.39% (99,258)  Nayagarh: 7.11% (56,705)  Ganjam: 6.92% (2,07,624 – highest in absolute numbers)  Bhubaneswar marks the lowest deletions at 2.51% and Kandhamal recorded 6.83 pc each while Gajapati marked 6.76 pc deletions followed by 6.74 pc in Jagatsinghpur and 6.72 pc in Sambalpur. In absolute terms, however, Ganjam, the home turf of former chief minister and BJD president Naveen Patnaik, has recorded the highest number of deleted voters at 2,07,624, followed by Cuttack at 1,55,164, Mayurbhanj at 1,11,267, Jajpur at 1,05,014 and Balangir at 99,258. On the other hand, the newlycreated Bhubaneswar election district has recorded the lowest deletion rate at 2.51 pc, followed by Nuapada at 3.33 pc, Subar- napur 4.06 pc, Boudh 4.13 pc and Deogarh 4.50 pc. The data also shows wide variations in the number of electors categorised as ‘untraceable’ or ‘absent’. Ganjam has reported the highest number in this category at 20,497, followed by Jajpur at 14,341, Cuttack at 12,608, Khurda at 10,720 and Balasore at 10,184. In percentage terms, however, Jharsuguda recorded the highest share of untraceable voters at 1.68 pc of its electorate, ahead of Khurda at 0.96 pc, Jagatsinghpur 0.94 pc, Jajpur and Nayagarh 0.93 pc each and Malkangiri 0.81 pc. Death has emerged the single largest reason for deletion across the state, accounting for 8.32 lakh names or 2.49 pc of the electorate, followed by permanent migration at 8.08 lakh or 2.42 pc, untraceable or absent voters at 1.99 lakh or 0.60 pc, duplicate enrolments at 1.58 lakh or 0.47 pc and other reasons at 14,441 or 0.04 pc. Ganjam collector and district election officer Keerthi Vasan said though the number appears highest for the district, proportionately it is similar to other Continued on P5 districts.  YouTube is a dynamic platform where millions of videos are uploaded every hour. It is impossible to proactively monitor the videos uploaded on the platform Google, in Delhi HC Behind the petition Lawyer Vaibhav Singh had filed the PIL against the unauthorised sharing of the court proceedings on April 13 by several Opposition leaders and journalists, in which Arvind Kejriwal had sought recusal of Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma in the liquor policy case. The other respondents in the case include Congress leader Digvijay Singh, AAP leaders Sanjeev Jha, Mukesh Ahlawat, and Jarnail Singh, and journalist Ravish Kumar SOCIAL media behemoths Google and Meta on Monday informed the Delhi High Court that they cannot be burdened with an obligation to police millions of videos uploaded on their platforms worldwide. They submitted that they were only intermediaries and neither create nor control third-party content, and cannot be “compelled to proactively monitor their platforms for unlawful content”. While Google said it was impossible for it to proactively monitor “millions of videos uploaded on the YouTube every hour throughout the world”, Meta said there were over 2.9 billion users of Facebook, and more than 115 billion users of the Instagram Service worldwide and it was “impracticable (if not impossible) for Meta to locate or identify the contents posted on them without URLs.” The submissions were made in affidavits filed by the social media companies before a bench of justices V Kameswar Rao and Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora in a PIL concerning circulation of videos of hearing in Arvind Kejriwal’s recusal plea on April 13. The court had earlier ordered takedown of the video from YouTube and Facebook/Instagram, owned by Google LLC and Meta respectively, which was complied with. The petitioner later moved the court alleging that the video in question was resurfacing on the platforms, and sought a direction to prevent their recurrence. Both Google and Meta opposed the submission, claiming that YouTube and Facebook/Instagram were merely intermediaries under the IT Act, and that the liability if any “rests with the publisher , , or uploader of the content”. Meta in its submission termed monitoring of content on Facebook or Instagram as “impracticable”. The bench deferred hearing on the petition till August 27. Express exclusive ‘AI won’t kill jobs, only professions’ J AYAN T H J AC O B @ New Delhi I NDIA is yet to meaningfully benefit from the global ‘China+1’ supply chain shift and remains a difficult place for foreign investors to do business, according to Ruchir Sharma, chairman of Rockefeller Inter national. Speaking to TNIE in a wide-ranging interview, he said the world risks overestimating the transformative power of artificial intelligence (AI). “We are in an AI bubble,” said Sharma, adding that and one of the biggest misconceptions about AI is that it will ‘kill jobs’. “Technolo g y doesn’t kill jobs. It kills professions,” the prominent glob a l i nv e s t o r a n d author said. “Every technological revolution destroys certain professions but creates entirely new ones. We tend to focus on what’s being destroyed rather than what’s being created.” He pointed to historical technologi- Five years from now, the belief that the entire world order is going to be built solely on AI will look wrong Ruchir Sharma, chairman, Rockefeller Int’l cal shifts and the Jevons Paradox— technological progress increases efficiency , and so overall consumption goes up rather than decreases —as reasons to believe AI will create new forms of work even as it automates existing roles. “I don’t believe the world is going to be defined by an ‘AI or bye-bye’ mindset.” He then clarified: “I am a huge believer in AI as a technology It is . going to be transformative. But the current view is far too unifocal.” On India’s AI ambitions, Shar ma said partnerships with countries from France to Japan are important but can’t quickly bridge India’s infrastructure gap. “The winners are the countries producing AI infrastructure (from semiconductors to data centres)”, he said. While India’s strength has been “software, not hardware,” AI leaders invest 3-4% of GDP in technology and R&D, compared with about 1% in India. On manufacturing, Sharma offered a blunt assessment of India’s performance in attracting global supply chains. “The big beneficiaries of China+1 (a supply chain strategy where companies keep part of their manufacturing operations in China but move some production to another country) have been Vietnam and South Korea. We have not seen anything really on that front in any meaningful way .” He said India’s biggest obstacle is the domestic business climate. “At the end of the day India is a very tough , place to do business,” Sharma said, citing coordination challenges across different levels of government. He also war ned against complacency . “There is this underlying attitude that ‘where else will the money go?’ It has to come to India because the market is so large. I think that prevents the most efficient policymaking.” (Edited excerpts of interview on op-ed page on Thursday) Trust president Nritya Gopal Das (R) on his way to the meeting in Ayodhya| PTI Rai resignation okayed, interim gen secy named N a m i ta B a j pa i @ Lucknow THE Shree Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust on Monday accepted the resignations of Champat Rai as its general secretary and member Anil Mishra in the wake of alleged embezzlement of donations. Trustee Krishna Mohan has been named as interim general secretary . Trust Treasurer Swami Govind Dev Giri announced the decision after a crucial meeting on Monday and named trustee Krishna Mohan as interim general secretary. Both leaders had resigned on June 27 following allegations of theft of Ram temple donations. Krishna Mohan, 74, a former Indian Forest Service officer and RSS’s eastern UP Kshetra Sanghchalak from Hardoi, had filed the police complaint that led to the FIR and arrests. Giri said the temple Trust would meet again on July 22 to decide on the appointment of a new trustee. He also announced the formation of a three-member panel to identify a CEO for the Trust, comprising retired judge Pramod Kohli, retired Lt Gen Vishnukant Chaturvedi and trustee Suresh Haware. Meanwhile, special invitee Gopal Rao Nagarkotte, who has been in the eye of a storm over the theft controversy, was debarred from the Trust. Giri described the donation theft as a matter of “deep embarrassment” for the Trust, saying the controversy had cast a shadow over a temple built after a centuries-long struggle. However, he rejected claims of missing valuables, and said detailed records of donated items exist. “Some people claimed that many valuable items donated have disappeared. We have registers of about 2,800 donated items. These records are available, and we are prepared to show them,” he said. No flood situation yet, govt prepared: pujari gone with the rain Debris blocks a newly-opened section of the Mumbai-Pune Expressway following a landslide amid heavy rainfall in Pune and neighbouring districts on Monday. The weather office issued a ‘red alert’ for the district, warning of further rains ahead | PTI | P8 R&DM minister Suresh Pujari on Monday conducted a meeting to review readiness for tackling a possible flood-like situation in Baitarani river | P3 Majhi, Vaishnaw launch Puri-Koraput express train E x p r ess Ne w s S e r v i c e @ Bhubaneswar In a major boost to rail connectivity in the state, Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi and Railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Monday flagged off the Puri-Koraput Express from Puri railway station and the Berhampur-Udhna (Surat) Amrit Bharat Express from the Berhampur railway station, marking the commencement of its daily operation in place of the existing tri-weekly service. Speaking on the occasion, the Majhi said the Puri-Ko- raput Express train will run three days a week and connect eastern, western and southern Odisha. This train will be a blessing for people of southern and western Odisha who wish to visit Puri for darshan of Lord Jagannath or come to Bhubaneswar for any work. “Today is a historic day for all of Odisha as a new train service has started from Srikhetra Puri to Sabar Srikhetra Koraput,” he added. The chief minister said the Puri railway station is also being redeveloped at a cost of `184 crore to provide better ex- CM Mohan Charan Majhi and Rly minister Ashwini Vaishnaw examine the plan of Puri station development perience to pilgrims visiting the town from different parts of the country Majhi, who be. longs to Keonjhar district, requested Vaishnaw to introduce a similar train service from north Odisha. The Railway minister announced that a new train connecting north Odisha with Puri would be introduced soon. Addressing the gathering, Vaishnaw said there had been a long-standing demand for a train connecting coastal Odisha with the western and southern parts of the state during the daytime. “Only the Hirakhand Express runs from Bhubaneswar to Koraput, and that too at night. Therefore, there was a demand for a daytime train service,” he Continued on P5 said.