tirupati l friday l may 16, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 14 l anantapur EDITION Voyager 1 makes comeback as dormant thrusters revived NASA engineers have revived thrusters aboard Voyager 1, the farthest spacecraft from Earth, just before a planned communications blackout feat accomplished just in time: nasa revival process took lots of planning The feat was accomplished just in time, as a scheduled maintenance period for a crucial Earth-based antenna threatened to sever communication with the probe. The revived thrusters are the original roll thrusters, which have been dormant since 2004. These thrusters allow Voyager 1’s orientation in space and let it send data back to earth ■ ■ Voyager 1 operates at an immense distance, beyond the heliosphere, and the team had to carefully plan and execute the revival process In addition to the risk, the team faced time constraint. A giant antenna in Canberra went offline on May 4. The antenna is the only one with enough signal strength to send commands to the probe 56,000 kmph is the speed at which the voyager moves in space 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 Put rogue Pakistan’s nukes under IAEA watch: Rajnath SIPB meet gives nod to 19 projects worth `33k crore Says India brushed aside the neighbour’s nuclear blackmail during Op Sindoor India rebuts Trump claim on zero tariffs D i pa k M o n d a l @ New Delhi Defence minister Rajnath Singh offers sweets to an army officer in Srinagar on Thursday | PTI MAYA N K SI N GH @ New Delhi Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday demanded IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) supervision over Pakistan’s nuclear weapons, arguing they were not safe in the hands of the rogue nation. Pointing out that India was not deterred by Pakistan’s nuclear blackmail, he said Operation Sindoor sent a clear message to the terrorists in Pakistan that they no longer had a safe sanctuary . Addressing soldiers in Srinagar, Rajnath said the world has witnessed how irresponsibly Islamabad has issued nuclear threats to New Delhi several times. “I raise this question before the world: Are nuclear weapons safe in the hands of such an irresponsible and rogue nation? Pakistan’s nuclear weapons should be taken under the supervision of the IAEA,” Rajnath said. Pakistan had sought to play the nuclear card amid Operation Sindoor as media reports suggested that a meeting of their Nuclear Command Authority (NCA) — the highest decision making body on the use of nukes — would be held shortly While it sent the inter. national community into a tizzy, Pakistan defence minister Khawaja Asif later denied any proposal to call the meeting. Another lie peddled on social media that Pakistan’s nuclear facilities were hit during Operation Sindoor, was rebutted by the IAEA, which said there was no radiation leak. “Based on information available to the IAEA, there has been no radiation leak or release from any nuclear facility in Pakistan,” the IAEA said. Rajnath termed Op Sindoor as the biggest action ever taken by India against terror. I didn’t have a very strong relationship (with Nadeem). Things will not be the same again Neeraj Chopra, on his relationship with Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem after Pahalgam terror attack and subsequent Operation Sindoor M o r e o n Pag e 1 1 Work on CBMs to continue “Further to the understanding between the two DGMOs on 10 May, it has been decided to continue the confidence building measures so as to reduce the alertness level,” the army said on Thursday Security approval revoked Aviation watchdog BCAS revoked the security clearance of ground handling company Celebi Airport Services India, a unit of Turkiye, in the “interest of national security” | P9 US President Donald Trump on Thursday said India has decided to drop all tariffs on US goods, a statement the latter immediately denied. “They [India] have offered us a deal where basically they have agreed to charge us literally no tariffs,” Trump has said while responding to a question in Doha on Apple’s plan to shift iPhone manufacturing to India. He told the Apple CEO not to shift manufacturing to India. India rebutted the claims. “Between India and the US, trade talks have been going on. These are complicatS Jaishankar ed negotiations. Nothing is decided till everything is. Any trade deal has to be mutually beneficial; it has to work for both countries. That would be our expectation from the trade deal. Until that is done, any judgment on it would be premature,” minister of external affairs S Jaishankar said. Meanwhile, a commerce ministry official said every country negotiates with its national interests in mind. “Negotiations must balance sensitivities and strengths on both sides. The aim is always a mutually beneficial agreement, as mentioned in the joint statement.” SC raps MP minister for ‘irresponsible’ remarks SUCHITRA KA LYA N MOHA N TY @ New Delhi THE Supreme Court on Thursday rapped Madhya Pradesh tribal affairs minister Kunwar Vijay Shah, against whom an FIR has been filed for his scurrilous remarks targeting Col Sofiya Qureshi, saying persons holding constitutional post must exercise utmost restraint. “What kind of statement you are making? Such a person holding a constitutional office should be responsible... when this country is going through such a situation (Operation Sindoor),” said a bench led by Chief Justice Bhushan Ramkrishna Gavai. The court’s remarks came when lawyer Vibha Makhija, appearing for Shah, mentioned a petition against the Madhya Pradesh High Court’s order to register an FIR against the minister for his alleged remarks. Shah’s counsel said the minister’s comments were over-hyped and he was misunderstood, adding that he has already apologised for the controversial remarks. Assam Rifles guns down 10 militants in Manipur In the ensuing firefight, 10 cadres were neutralized,” the Eastern Command posted on TEN suspected militants were X. A cache of arms and ammukilled by the Assam Rifles in nition was recovered. The an encounter near the India- Ar my did not disclose the Myanmar border in Manipur’s name of the group that these Chandel district. slain militants beThe Army’s Eastern longed to. Command said an AsThe operation is in sam Rifles unit under progress in a remote Operation is still the Spear Corps (Na- underway ... more area. “We will share g aland’s Dimapur- information will the inputs as soon as based 3 Corps) had possible,” an Army ofbe shared only launched an operation ficer said. when it is over on May 14 acting on This was among the Defence PRO specific intelligence major counter-insurabout the movement gency operations in of armed militants near New Manipur since the ethnic vioSamtal village in Khengjoy lence between Meiteis and KuTehsil of Chandel. ki-Zo tribals on May 3, 2023. “During the operation, In the past 24 hours, securitroops were fired upon by sus- ty forces apprehended seven pected cadres, to which they m i l i t a n t s f ro m T h o u b a l , quickly retaliated in a cali- Kakching, Bishnupur and brated and measured manner. Churachandpur districts. E x p r e s s ne w s s e r v i c e @ Guwahati The bench declined to grant any stay on the FIR at this stage but agreed to hear the matter on Friday . “We will hear it tomorrow. You know who you are. We know nothing will happen. Just because you are a minister,” the bench said. The controversy erupted after a video clip of Shah’s speech went viral on social media, in which he was heard referring to Col Qureshi as “sister of terrorists”. The high court took suo motu cognizance of the matter and issued an order to police to book the minister for his “language of gutters”. Vijay Shah Contents of fir WEAK: HC The FIR against Shah is weak, the MP high court said, adding police seem to have drawn it in such a manner as to help the minister jolt to ySRCP Mydukur municipal chairman quits party E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Kadapa The YSRCP suffered another setback in Kadapa district on Thursday after Mydukur Municipal Chairman Machanuru Chandra resigned from the party and its primary membership. Chandra submitted his resignation letter to party president and former Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy citing personal reasons and , thanking the party cadre for their support. His exit follows the resignation of Annamayya district MLC Deputy Chairperson Zakia Khanam just a day earlier. Chandra, according to party sources, had longstanding differences with former Mydukur MLA S Raghurami Reddy. Despite his repeated appeals, the party leadership allegedly failed to address the issue. Recently, Raghurami Reddy reportedly took eight municipal councillors to meet Jagan Mohan Reddy without informing Chandra—an act that reportedly triggered his resignation. At a meeting in Mydukur, Chandra alleged that senior leaders had sidelined and humiliated him. S V i s w a n at h @ Vijayawada New firms to create 35k jobs New projects to be set up in Energy, Tourism, IT, and Electronics sectors are expected to generate 35,000 jobs SIPB so far cleared 76 projects SIPB, which had six meetings in the past 11 months, has given its consent for `4,95,796 crore investments with regard to 76 projects. The sixth State Investment Promotion Board (SIPB) meeting, held under the Chairmanship of Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu at the State Secretariat on Thursday, approved `33,000 crore investments related to 19 projects, which are expected to generate employment for 35,000 people in the Energy, Tourism, IT, and Electronics sectors. The SIPB, which had six meetings in the past 11 months, has given its consent for `4,95,796 crore investments with regard to 76 projects, creating a total of 4,50,934 jobs. Officials stated that the State is making significant pro g ress in industrial growth, with both national and global organizations showing keen interest in investing in the State due to the new policies adopted by the government. Immediately after signing agreements with the State Government, these organizations are initiating the process of establishing their units. While some have already completed the process of laying foundation stones, others have signed agreements and are in the initial phases of implementation. The Chief Minister instructed officials to continuously monitor the companies that have committed to investing in the State, from laying the foundation stone to till the inauguration. Officials are to closely track the progress of each project and develop a dashboard to reflect the status of investments and onground developments. This will allow real-time monitoring of each project’s progress, the Chief Minister noted. The portal should include details of both the investments and the jobs created, Naidu said. In addition to approving new investments, SIPB meetings should also provide detailed updates on the progress of previously approved projects and agreements, the Chief Minister P4 directed.  express read Girls outperform boys in AP ECET-2025 Vijayawada: Girls outshone boys in the AP Engineering Common Entrance Test (AP ECET), results declared on Thursday, registering a pass percentage of 95.60% against 92.18% by boys with overall pass rate 93.26% | P3 Trump urges Apple to halt iPhone mfg in India New Delhi: In a move that could jeopardise India’s ambitions to become a hub for iPhone manufacturing, US President Donald Trump asked Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook to stop producing iPhones in the country | P10 Exports rise 9% in April; US shipments up by 27% New Delhi: Despite the 10% tariff imposed by the US in April, India’s merchandise exports rose by 9% during the month with exports to the US surging by 27%.Total exports during the month was at $38.5 billion | P10 Fugitive Nirav Modi loses fresh push for bail London: A UK court on Thursday rejected a fresh bail application of fugitive diamond magnate Nirav Modi. He had sought release on bail pending extradition to India. Modi had cited potential threats to his life