THIRUVANANTHAPURAM l friday l august 28, 2026 l `10.00 l PAGES 16 l LATE city EDITION Sehwag and Dravid’s sons to play together for India U19 Legendary batters Rahul Dravid and Virender Sehwag's sons, Anvay and Aaryavir respectively, are set to play for India U19 in the Australia series Anvay Dravid Aaryavir Sehwag Maiden call-up for Aaryavir in blues ■ 14 Second series with India U19 for Anvay It is a maiden India call-up for 18-year-old Aaryavir, who is currently playing for West Delhi Lions in the Delhi Premier League. He will be joining Anvay in the one-day squad where India U19 will play three matches from September 18. The junior cricket committee picked separate squads for the three one-day matches and two multi-day games vs Australia ■ Anvay, the younger son of former India captain and coach Dravid, retained his place in the ODI squad after being part of the U-19 side that toured Sri Lanka last month The 17-year-old wicketkeeper-batter had scored 14 and 87 in the two youth ODIs he played during the tour. P11 Dravid and Sehwag last played together for India 14 years ago 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 Big haircut, but Chandra says it’s against `3,992 crore Emergency contact numbers of Embassy of India in Kathmandu: +977 985 131 6807, +977 970 910 7500, +977 981 032 6117 ‘Can it secure even 5k votes in a seat?’ CPM hits out at CPI D IPA K M O N D A L @ New Delhi E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Kochi AFTER a major controversy erupted over the National Company Law T ribunal (NCLT) approving Essel Group chairman Subhash Chandra’s `6.5-crore repayment plan against admitted creditor claims of `22,006 crore, the media baron on Thursday said the claims against him as a personal guarantor were just `3,992 crore. In a statement, Chandra said he had not borrowed money from any lender and was only a personal guarantor for the loans raised by Vivek Infracon, Spirit Textiles and Churu Enterprises. Chandra said that `620 crore of these claims had already been settled, while the borrowing entities had ofSubhash Chandra fered to pay `1,113 crore to multiple lenders. Discussions are continuing, he said. On Tuesday, the NCLT’s Delhi Bench had approved the repayment plan despite objections from financial creditors over the size of the proposed recovery, the conduct of the resolution professional and the participation of entities alleged to be associated with Chandra. The repayment plan was approved by 80.814% of the creditors. However, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, Canara Bank, LIC Housing Finance and some other lenders voted against it. Creditors opposing the plan argued that the proposed recovery amounted to over 99% haircut. Further straining ties between the LDF’s two leading partners over the deputy leader of opposition issue, CPM state secretariat member C N Mohanan launched a no-holds-barred attack on the CPI, mocking its electoral strength and accusing the ally of repeatedly trying to embarrass the CPM through public criticism. Stating that the CPI was using pressure tactics against the CPM, Mohanan said the party’s latest demand was part of an attempt to single out and attack senior leader Pinarayi Vijayan. He questioned the CPI’s claim to The CPI publicly the post of deputy leader of oppoattacked the LDF sition, saying it was seeking to government from break conventions that had never within during been altered before. its tenure, “Among assembly constituenembarrassing the cies with more than two lakh votes, administration in how many can the CPI get even C N Mohanan, CPM 5,000 votes?” Mohanan asked in a state secretariat social media post, taking a direct member swipe at the party’s electoral dependence on the CPM to remain relevant in the LDF. He alleged that the CPI had repeatedly embarrassed the LDF government by attacking it publicly from within the alliance, and suggested that such pressure tactics had contributed to the front’s defeat in the recent assembly elections. “CPI publicly attacked the LDF government during its tenure, embarrassing the administration. This was part of the circumstances that eventually led to the LDF’s defeat in the 2026 assembly elec● More on P4 tions,” Mohanan said. An area covered in mud and silt washed along the flash flood, near Trishuli Dam in Nepal on Thursday | PTI Toll up, 290 Indians uncontactable so far E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ New Delhi At least 290 Indian nationals remain uncontactable in Nepal’s flood-hit Rasuwa district even as rescue teams have brought more people to safety and authorities race to establish the whereabouts of those stranded in the disaster zone. The External Affairs Ministry (MEA) said on Thursday that 54 Indians had been rescued so far. The number of workers rescued from the Trishuli-1 hydropower project has also risen sharply, with 63 workers now safe, compared with 33 reported earlier. MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said Indian authorities were coordinating with Nepalese officials, state governments, tour operators and project authorities to trace those out of contact. Among those still uncontactable are two large Tamil Nadu groups of 37 and 49 people, who were travelling for the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra through separate travel opera- 16 pages, including 4 pages of THIRUVANANTHAPURAM Express Pilgrimage activity With Raksha Bandhan and Shravan Purnima approaching, pilgrimage activity in highaltitude areas is particularly heavy. The absence of a comprehensive record of travellers moving through the remote region is making it harder for authorities to determine the full number of people affected Row over CJI invite: NLSIU cancels annual convocation E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Bengaluru National Law School of India University (NLSIU) on Thursday cancelled its 34th annual convocation, initially scheduled to be held on September 12, citing “unavoidable circumstances”. The development comes amid pushback from students against Chief Justice of India Surya Kant attending the event. “Despite our collective best efforts, due to unavoidable circumstances, we are unable to hold the 34th annual convocation,” read a circular issued by the NLSIU administration on Thursday morning. Graduating stu- dents of the 2026 batch will be conferred their degrees ‘in absentia’ after due approvals by NLSIU’s governing bodies. The students were left with the choice of receiving their certificates via courier or collecting them at the NLSIU campus. On August 15, around 165 students from the graduating class of 2026, 409 current students, and 128 alumni had signed an open letter to the university administration, expressing ‘unconditional solidarity’ with National Academy of Legal Studies and Research (NALSAR, Hyderabad) students, who had opposed the CJI’s presence at their convocation. tors, Samrat Travels and Fly Everest Travels. Another group of 32 Indians from West Bengal, travelling through Samrat Travels, was reportedly in Timure, one of the areas affected by the disaster. Authorities are also trying to contact 61 Indians travelling through Richa Tours and 33 people from Kerala whose whereabouts remain unconfirmed. The government has stressed that “uncontactable” does not mean that a person is necessarily missing, injured or dead. It indicates that officials have so far been unable to establish communication. The scale of the disaster is growing. The official death toll rose to 362, including three in Tibet, while Nepal authorities reported 910 people missing. A newly formed lake at the flood site is also reportedly rising after a river blockage, prompting Nepal’s disaster authorities to warn residents and rescuers to stay away from riverbanks amid fears of a possible outburst.  more on: P4, 7, 9 EXPRESS READ Congress seeks all-party talks on delimitation New Delhi: Amid talk of a possible special session of Parliament to discuss the delimitation bill linked to the women’s reservation legislation, the Congress on Thursday reiterated its demand for an all-party meeting to deliberate on the proposed law. P7 C’garh varsity cancels paper after third leak in 20 days Raipur: Raipur-based Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya has ordered an inquiry and cancelled its BSc Agriculture first-year ‘Fundamentals of Genetics’ examination following a question paper leak. This is the third paper leak at the varsity within 20 days, officials said. P8 K eepsake m essa g i n g p l a t f o r m Petra: An inbox for memories that matter Ra j e s h Ra v i @Kochi There are some things we never throw away A faded let. ter in familiar handwriting, an old postcard, a birthday card whose colours have begun to fade, or even the wrapper of a gift from someone we loved. They may look insignificant to others, but for us, they can hold an entire relationship. Touching them can bring back a voice, a face, a moment — sometimes even the feeling of having that person beside us. But in an age when most of our conversations arrive as messages on a phone, such keepsakes are slowly disappearing. Entrepreneur Bivin A Peter wants to bring some of that magic back — in digital form. Petra, which describes itself as the world’s first ‘keepsake messaging’ platform, is built around a simple question: what if the messages that matter most were designed to be kept? “I’m someone who has always liked letters and postcards. I have this habit of carefully preserving whatever people send me. But nowadays, hardly anyone sends letters, and in the digital space, we don’t really have an option to send letters in that sense,” says Bivin, who hails from Palakkad. Petra is not trying to replace instant messaging platforms. Instead, it seeks to recreate something digital communication has gradually lost — the keepsake. The platform recreates the visual and emotional character of physical correspondence. A ‘Postcard’ — a feature in the webapp — can combine photographs, voice notes, handwriting, stamps and signatures, and can even be scheduled for delivery on a future date. Similarly , ‘Letter’ offers more space for longer messages and stories. According to Bivin, the sense of beauty and permanence of ‘messages’ disappeared with the shift to digital communication.  ● More on P4 The homepage of Petra keepsake platform The platform recreates visual and emotional character of physical correspondence. 4 Nagas killed in alleged Kuki ambush in Manipur P r a s an ta M a z u mda r @ Guwahati Amid signs of normalcy returning to Manipur following the resumption of inter-state bus services, alleged Kuki rebels carried out an ambush on Thursday, killing four Naga civilians. One other Naga individual was injured in the ambush while a student leader was reported missing. The incident occurred at around 8.30 am at a place between Makui Ashang and Thanamba Naga villages on the IT Road in Kuki-majority Kangpokpi district. The victims were travelling from Makui village to Senapati which is a Naga-majority district bordering Nagaland when they were attacked. Manipur’s apex Naga organisation, ‘United Naga Council’ (UNC), condemned the “barbaric and calculated” attack on the Liangmai Naga civilians.