2026 Asian Para Games: India finish on a high chennai l saturday l october 24, 2026 l `9.00 l PAGES 20 l late city EDITION Double medallist shooter Mona Agarwal (C) will be one of India’s flag-bearers | pci Chennai: India registered their best-ever show at the 2026 Asian Para Games with a rich haul of 114 medals, including 30 gold medals on Friday. On the last day of their competition, they collected as many as nine gold, India’s highest single-day haul in the ongoing edition. They were placed fourth on the medal tally. The country had finished fifth in the last edition (2023) 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 state of the economy Festive cheer eludes Street amid oil shock e x p r e ss r e a d Cyclone likely to bring heavy rain till Oct 26 Chennai: Tamil Nadu is likely to receive heavy to very heavy rainfall till October 26 as a low-pressure area over the Bay of Bengal is expected to intensify into a cyclonic storm and move towards the north Andhra Pradesh and adjoining south Odisha coasts | P7 TN govt cuts VAT on aviation turbine fuel Chennai: Starting November 1, TN will cut value-added tax on aviation turbine fuel from 29% to 16% for scheduled airlines fuelling at the Chennai airport, and from 29% to 1% at other airports across the state in order to promote regional connectivity | P2 Stalker murders girl’s mom in Thoothukudi Thoothukudi: After a 15-yearold girl snapped contact on her father’s order, a 26-year-old man in Thoothukudi district allegedly attacked the girl’s family at their house on Friday, killing her mother. Later, the suspect abducted the girl and her younger sister | P5 A R S HA D K HAN @ New Delhi INDIAN equities continue to bleed through the festive season when buying sentiment is typically strong. The benchmark indices settled in the red in all four trading sessions of this week, with the broader indices facing a much steeper decline. On Friday, the Sensex opened higher but later plunged 797.02 points, or 1.08%, to hit an intraday low of 72,452.37. It recouped some losses to close at 73,123.83, down 125.56 points, or 0.17%. The 50-share NSE Nifty dropped 87.65 points, or 0.39%, to close at 22,600 after tumbling 315.65 points, or 1.39%, to a low of 22,372 on Friday. The Nifty Midcap 100 declined 2.21% and the Nifty Smallcap 100 fell 2.94%. Investors lost `20 lakh crore this week as the market capitalisation of all BSE-listed firms Friday’s 74,000 73,249.39 came down from `473.46 lakh close crore to `452.40 lakh crore. Previous 73,123.83 close The fall is attributed to elevat73,000 ed crude oil prices due to the West Asia conflict. At $116 per barrel, Brent is trading at a six-month high. For India, high prices pose 72,000 9 am risks to imported inflation, cor11 am 1 pm 3 pm 4 pm porate margins, and currency Change- -125.56 (-0.17%) stability They could also lead to . foreign fund outflows. “Indian markets are currently seeing selling pressure primarily due to global factors with elevated geopolitical tensions, rising bond yields and the sharp rise in crude oil prices, which increased concerns around inflation, margins and the current account. At the same time, tighter global liquidity and higher interest rates have reduced risk off sentiment,” said Shweta Rajani, associate director, Anand Rathi Wealth Ltd. Rajani explained that historically the festive season that starts from the Navratri days till the , end of Diwali has been favourable for equities. The Nifty50 and Sensex have fallen 14% since the beginning of this year. If the bearish trend continues, it would be the first time in the past 10 years that Indian equities give negative returns in a calendar year. BSE sensex PLA patrol deviation tied to LAC disturbances, says govt j aya n t h j a c o b @ New Delhi INDIA and China continue to use established diplomatic and military mechanisms to resolve outstanding issues and prevent misunderstandings along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Friday, amid a row over remarks by Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) chief Shatrujeet Kapur about an ongoing faceoff in Arunachal Pradesh. MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal, responding to questions about Kapur’s reported comments, said disturbances along the India-China border occur when Chinese troops deviate from “established patrolling patterns.” He, however, did not provide specific details about the reported face-off in Arunachal Pradesh and referred questions on operational matters to the Ministry of Defence. Arunachal standoff On ITBP chief Shatrujeet Kapur’s lowdown on the face-off in Arunachal, MEA didn’t elaborate on locations involved, nature of the confrontation or whether the situation was still on “We have noted in the past, the situation in the India-China border areas gets disturbed from time to time when Chinese forces diverge from established patrolling patterns,” Jaiswal said. “Both sides continue to use existing diplomatic and mili- tary mechanisms to resolve outstanding issues and avoid misunderstanding and miscalculation along the Line of Actual Control,” he added. Jaiswal also said the two countries had agreed to discuss ways to improve their understanding of the LAC in appropriate areas to strengthen border management. The MEA’s remarks came after Kapur reportedly referred to a continuing face-off at multiple locations in Arunachal Pradesh during an address to ITBP personnel at a felicitation ceremony in Alwar, Rajasthan, on Thursday . “In recent days, there was a situation in Arunachal where there was a face-off at different locations, which is still continuing. There our Shaurya commando teams did really exceedingly well,” Kapur reportedly said, praising the performance of ITBP’s elite Shaurya platoon.  P9 ‘Remove cec’ Nine parties walk out of poll roll meet in TN E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V IC E @ Chennai Nine political parties — including the ruling TVK, its ally Congress, and the principal opposition DMK — walked out of an all-party meeting chaired by Chief Electoral Officer Archana Patnaik on Friday demand, ing the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar. The meeting was convened to discuss the Special Summary Revision (SSR) of electoral rolls, scheduled to begin on November 12. Of the 13 national and state parties invited, nine — TVK, DMK, Congress, CPI, CPM, VCK, NTK, AAP and DMDK — staged the walkout. While the AIADMK, BJP and National People’s Party took part in the meeting, the BSP was not represented. P7 No lapse in ’07 probe that gave Gyanesh a clean chit S h a n A S @ T’Puram In possible relief to embattled Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, Keralam’s Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) has found no lapses in its 2007 preliminary inquiry against him following the suicide of a Malaysian engineer involved in a road-widening project in the state. Kumar was given a clean chit in the probe at the time. Earlier this month, the UDF government ordered a relook into the 2007 inquiry after a Congress leader filed a complaint alleging that past probes were compromised. The move came amid protests demanding Kumar resign over alleged poll irregularities. Sources said scrutiny of the preliminary inquiry against Kumar, then secretary of public works department, did not reveal any lacunae and “it appears there is no scope for any further vigilance action”. They said the complainant did not produce fresh evidence against Kumar. Lee See Been, who was as chief project manager for PATIBEL, an Indo- M a l ay s i a n c o n s o r t i u m involved in a road project, ended his life in Kuala Lumpur in 2006 allegedly after officials stonewalled his bid to get bills cleared. Kumar’s name was mentioned in one of his suicide notes, which alleged systemic graft in the project. Now, the state might ask the Crime Branch to form a special team to probe all angles, other than graft, in Lee’s death.