tirupati l friday l july 17, 2026 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l late city EDITION Avoid putting Indian sailors on vessels moving via Hormuz: DGMA The advisory from the Directorate General of Maritime Administration (DGMA) came after this week’s attacks on two vessels in the strait No deployment till further orders The DGMA directed ship owners, ship managers and recruitment and placement service companies to avoid deploying Indian sailors on vessels travelling through the waterway till further orders. “The Directorate considers it ​necessary to adopt enhanced precautionary measures to safeguard the interests of Indian seafarers...” the order said ■ 13 U.S. deepens attacks, areas near tehran hit ■ The DGMA also directed ship captains to maintain a “heightened level of security vigilance” when operating in the Gulf waters The US intensified its attacks on Iran early Thursday. Strikes also reached into areas around Tehran for the first time in this latest round of violence. Iran said it struck a US air base in Jordan Indian seafarers have died in the strait of hormuz since feb 28 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 Feet of God: No “Hand of God” this time. Instead it was the hallowed feet of Lionel Messi and the unbreakable team spirit that took them into the final. 0-1 down, Messi produced two assists with goals from E Fernandez and sub L Martinez It is crazy to be playing in back-to-back finals. Once again we managed to do the job when things were looking bad. We never stopped believing — Lionel Messi Back-to-Back, all the way Spain vs Argentina The best offense. The best defense. A mouthwatering final is set. Lionel Messi and defending champion Argentina will take on Spain’s defensive juggernaut on Sunday in East Rutherford, New Jersey Defensive tactics cost England England had victory in their sights after Anthony Gordon scored the opening goal in the 55th minute. However, the Three Lions opted to stay deep than go for the kill and in the end they paid for it. The bounce back seemed inevitable with Albiceleste scoring twice in a span of seven minutes SC QUERY Why introduce 3rd language in 9th Class? S U C HITRA K A LYAN MOHANT Y Punjab boy tops NEET-UG re-exam, 11.21 lakh clear it e X P RE S S NEW S S ER V I C E @ New Delhi @ New Delhi THE Supreme Court on Thursday expressed serious concern over the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE)’s decision to introduce a third language in Class 9, observing that it would add to students’ stress with the Board examinations just a year away . “Ninth standard is stressful. Why do you introduce a new language in 9th?” Justice B V Nagarathna asked. She suggested that the third language should ideally be introduced from Class 6 to give students more time to adapt. The bench, also comprising Justice R Mahadevan, made the remarks during the hearing of an appeal by the Tamil Nadu government against a Madras High Court order directing the state to facilitate the establish ment of Jawahar Navo d ay a Vidyalayas in every district. During t h e h e a ring, the topic of CBSE schools briefly came up. In response to a query by Justice Nagarathna, a counsel informed the court that third-language is compulsory in CBSE schools only from the 9th standard. To this, Justice B V Nagarathna said it could be stressful for the students to have to start learning a new language at the higher secondary level. The judge said it can be introduced in middle school instead. Under the three-language formula, students must study two Indian languages and one non-native language. Drawing from her own experience, Justice Nagarathna said that students in her school were introduced to multiple languages during middle school so that they were better prepared before appearing for their secondary school examinations. A total of 11.21 lakh candidates have qualified in the re-examination of the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (Undergraduate) NEET UG 2026, the results declared late on Thursday night showed. More than 58% of these are women. Aryan Gupta (Punjab) with the highest score of 715 out of 720 was declared AIR 1, while Panshul Bansal of Haryana, with the same score was AIR 2. The cut-off percentile and marks for different categories of students and those who qualified are: Unreserved 50th Percentile (715-213 marks); 996935; Other Backward Classes, SC and ST it is 40th Percentile (212 to 177 marks - 81111 qualify in OBC, 29947 in SC and 12452 in ST categories. The Top 17 rankers who scored more than 705 marks are from the states of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, Tamil Toppers score 715 Punjab’s Aryan Gupta, Haryana’s Panshul Bansal topped NEET-UG with 715 marks. The Top 17 rankers who scored more than 705 marks are from Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, UP, Maharashtra, Bihar, Tamil Nadu and Telangana Nadu and Telangana, the NTA said. An official release said that 138 candidates scored above 690 marks out of 720. Of these, 99% are between 17 and 19 years of age and over 93% of the toppers have appeared for NEET (UG) for the first time. They are drawn from 66 cities across the country . The NTA said that 19 candidates have scored above 700 out of 720, 1,492 candidates scored 650 and above, 10,160 candidates scored 600 and above and 90,780 candidates scored 500 and above. Uttar Pradesh tops the number of candidates qualif i e d w i t h ove r 1 . 7 l a k h candidates. Out of overall qualifying students, 2.91 lakh belong to the general category; other backward classes – non-creamy layer: 5.12 lakh; scheduled caste: 1.59 lakh; scheduled tribe: 63,716; gen-economically weaker sections: 95,026; persons with benchmark disability: 3,666; and persons with disabilities: 303. Scorecards of all candidates are available on the official website, neet.nta.nic.in. Nearly 20 lakh candidates appeared in the retest held on June 21. The crucial exam conducted on May 9 was cancelled by the NTA on May 12 amid allegations of paper leak. Kharge seeks all-party meet on delimitation Writes to PM on proposed reintroduction of bill that was defeated in LS on April 17 P r e e t h a N a i r @ New Delhi Amid speculation that the Union government is working on multiple formulations to reintroduce the Constitution amendment bill that would involve delimitation, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Thursday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging him to convene an all-party meeting to discuss the revised proposals. In his letter, Kharge said he had written to the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Kiren Rijiju, in March and April requesting an all-party meeting to discuss the proposals on delimitation. “Unfortunately, these requests had not been accepted. The Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026, then failed to secure the required 2/3 majority in Lok Sabha on 17 April 2026 by a clear margin,” he said. Kharge’s letter comes even as the NDA appears to be inching towards a two-thirds majority in the Lok Sabha to pass constitutional amendment bills. On Wednesday, INDIA bloc partner NCP (SP)’s Supriya Sule hinted that her party would consider supporting the proposed delimitation bill provided the Centre gives an assurance that the number of Lok Sabha and Assembly seats in every state will be increased uniformly by 50%. Sources said that there is a proposal to increase the number of Lok Sabha seats for all states by 50% in the new draft to address the concerns of the South. The draft is being readied to address the concerns that a population-based delimitation would shrink the South’s political power in the Lok Sabha. According to the government’s plan, Lok Sabha seats will be increased to a maximum of 850 from the current 543 to “operationalise” the women’s quota law before the 2029 parliamentary polls following a delimitation exercise to be carried out based on the last published 2011 census. The NDA needs 360 votes to achieve the magic figure. I... request you to convene an all-party meeting to discuss the government’s revised proposals on delimitation, etc., and give us adequate time to study them in detail before they are introduced in Parliament Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge to the PM FCRA bill on the list The govt’s legislative agenda includes the contentious Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2026. It was introduced during the Budget session but did not come up for consideration PPP projects with VGF key to AP’s growth strategy: CM S V i s w a n at h @ Vijayawada Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has said the Viability Gap Funding (VGF)-supported projects will play a pivotal role in driving future infrastructure development. “India, which witnessed an era of economic reforms in the past, is now undergoing an infrastructure revolution. The Public-Private Partnership (PPP) projects offer the best opportunity to accelerate development across multiple sectors,” he observed. Reviewing the status of PPP projects and related government investments at an official meeting at the Secretariat on Thursday, the Chief Minister said all PPP projects should be developed on a sustainable model with adequate opportunities for economic activity built into every project. He directed officials to effectively leverage Central support mechanisms such as the Urban Challenge Fund. He called for establishing an efficient institutional mechanism for managing ports, airports and other major infrastructure. Officials informed the Chief Minister that the State is currently implementing 260 PPP projects, including ports, shipya rd s, a i r p o r t s, t o u r i s m projects and other infrastructure initiatives. Projects worth `1,23,229 crore are at various stages of implementation across sectors such as industries, infrastructure, urban development, tourism, medical colleges, roads and solar power, the officials exP4 plained. Close shave for 7 fishers as boat capsizes off Vizag U s h a P e r i @ Visakhapatnam Barely two weeks after six fishermen were lost in a boat capsize off the Visakhapatnam coast, another accident at sea ended in a close call on Thursday when seven fishermen escaped after their boat overturned near the Visakhapatnam Fishing Harbour amid rough sea conditions. The incident occurred while the crew was hauling in its fishing net. According to the fishermen, strong sea currents suddenly dragged the net, destabilising the boat and causing it to capsize. With the Bay of Bengal remaining turbulent under the influence of a well-marked lowpressure area off the Odisha coast, the overturned vessel was pushed towards the tetrapods lining the harbour, briefly trapping the fishermen beneath it. The crew managed to cling to the overturned boat until they were rescued. Fishermen at the harbour initially reported that two crew members, Tatarao and Akash, had sustained injuries. H o w e v e r, K i n g George Hospital (KGH) officials later clarified that both had suffered minor injuries, were administered first aid and discharged. The accident left the crew with substantial financial losses. The boat, reportedly valued at more than `2.5 lakh, and fishing nets worth about `2 lakh were damP4 aged beyond use. Sea of humanity at Rath Yatra A sea of devotees participating in the annual Rath Yatra festival in the temple town of Odisha’s Puri on Thursday. The yatra features the ceremonial procession of the sibling deities — Lord Balabhadra, Devi Subhadra and Lord Jagannath. None of the three chariots reached the Shree Gundicha Temple. Devotees will get another opportunity to pull the chariots on Friday to take them to their destination. One person died and many others fell ill in a crowd surge during the yatra | PTI Melbourne to Delhi After years, ultra long-haul Air India plane flies in a pet cargo hold ( p l a n e b e l ly ) , Air India is on cloud nine. It only Air India recently flew in a male Rott- has the permit weiler, 4, named Cloud, from to transport Melbourne to New Delhi, mak- cats and dogs on ing him the first pet to take an such long journeys. ultra long-haul An Air India Indian passenger source said, “The press flight in recent pet parent is reloclusive c at i n g p e r m a times. Ultra long-haul nently from Ausflights refer to journeys with a tralia to India and was very travel time of more than 10 particular about taking his dog hours. While airlines permit back home. Both flew by AI 309 pets in domestic flights and and Cloud, (weighing 56 kg) short international flights in- had a smooth journey in his pet side the cabin as well as the carriage in the cargo hold for IndiGo does not permit pets on long-haul flights S L a l i t h a @ New Delhi nearly 12 hours. Water was placed in it for him. To calm him down during the trip, a mild medication was given which was not a sedative.” The airline had been working to get pet clearances both in India and abroad for more than a year, he added. Air India operates long haul flights to the US, Australia and Canada. “We had to get the consent from the stakeholders and regulatory agencies “Air India used to ferry pets by ultra long-haul many years ago. It was discontinued much before the Tata Group took over the airline. Since, we had to restart after a long gap, all the clearances had to be obtained afresh,” another airline source said. IndiGo at present does not permit pets on long-haul flights while Air India Express, SpiceJet and Akasa Air do not operate ultra long-haul flights of these international airports. We also had to get the nod from airport operators in India as well as regulatory agencies like the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, the Bureau of Civil Aviation and the Central Industrial Security Force.” Airports too need to have a pet-friendly infrastructure. “Flyers with pets arrive a few hours ahead of other passengers. The airport needs to be equipped with infrastructure to house the pets and attend to their needs until the start of the journey Delhi airport has these . facilities already he added. ,” El Niño leaves farmers in distress as crops wither Y B r a h m a j i @ Vijayawada The prolonged dry spell triggered by El Niño has severely impacted agriculture across Andhra Pradesh, leaving thousands of farmers anxious as standing crops begin to wither due to acute water scarcity . Expecting a good monsoon, many farmers took up cultivation in the third week of June after a few spells of rain across several parts of the State. Kharif operations gathered momentum in the first week of July, and around Eruvaka Purnima, traditionally considered an auspicious time for sowing new crop. Despite repeated advisories from the Agriculture Department urging farmers not to hasten sowing without assured rainfall, many went ahead with cultivation fearing further delay would result in missing the crucial Kharif crop. According to official data, the normal Kharif crop acreage in the State is 30.84 lakh P4 hectares.