WEDNESDAY 11 JUNE 2025 www.thestatesman.com X.com/thestatesmanltd. Fb/thestatesman1875 SINCE 1818 Pages 16 |` 5.00 | LC KOLKATA | NEW DELHI | SILIGURI | BHUBANESWAR ‘INDIA IS THE MOTHER OF DEMOCRACY, PAKISTAN FATHER OF TERRORISM’ SHEKHAWAT CASTS DOUBT ON KEEZHADI EXCAVATIONS’ ANTIQUITY P5 P6 SENSEX 82,391.72 q53.49 WEATHER Partly cloudy sky. Possibility of thunderstorm with light rain occur in some areas. RAINFALL: 005.8 mm NIFTY 25,104.25 p1.05 ` vs $ 85.55 ISRAEL DEPORTS GRETA THUNBERG P11 GOLD `99,170 CM Mamata rejects Opp charges on new OBC list The CM said religion played no role in the preparation of the revised OBC list RELATIVE HUMIDITY Max. 92% Min. 60% TEMPERATURE Max: 35.2˚C (+0.7) Min: 29.2˚C (+2.0) SUN RISES 04:52 hrs MOON RISES 17:43 hrs SUN SETS 18:21 hrs MOON SETS 03:39 hrs Full Moon on 11 June THUMBNAILS Women dressed in traditional Himachali attire perform during the foundation stone laying ceremony of 'Sarhad Van Udyan' - a green development project near the Indo-Tibet border, at Shipki-La in Kinnaur on Tuesday. nANI ChatGPT suffers global outage including in India, OpenAI 'investigating': OpenAI's popular chatbot ChatGPT suffered an outage on Tuesday, as users across the world, including in India, were facing problems with loading and accessing results to prompts. The company said there are “elevated error rates and latency” that users have been experiencing on various AI platforms. (Page 11) STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE KOLKATA, 10 JUNE C hief Minister Mamata Banerjee, while speaking on the revised list of Other Backward Classes (OBC) in the state Assembly on Tuesday, dismissed the Opposition BJP’s allegations that the updated list reflected religious discrimination and had not adhered to the guidelines issued by the Cal- cutta High Court and the Supreme Court. Miss Banerjee accused the BJP of unnecessarily making controversies over the new list of Other Backward Class (OBC) communities prepared by the state government following a directive from the Supreme Court. She said that religion played no role in the preparation of the revised OBC list and asserted that the list was updated in accor- India’s population reaches 1.46 bn, sees decline in fertility rate: UN AGENCIES NEW DELHI, 10 JUNE While India continues to be the most populous country, with an estimated 1.46 billion people in 2025, the country's total fertility rate has fallen to 1.9, below the replacement level of 2.1, according to the latest report by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) released on Tuesday. The 2025 State of World Population (SOWP) report underscores that the real crisis lies not in population size, but in the widespread challenges to support individuals’ right to decide freely and responsibly if, when, and how many children to have. The UN report estimates “India's population at present at 1,463.9 million”. “India is now the world’s most populous nation, with nearly 1.5 billion people ~ a number expected to grow to about 1.7 billion before it begins falling,” the report said. The Total Fertility Rate (TFR) in India is currently 2.0 children per woman. This means that on average, a woman in India would be expected to have 2 children during her childbearing years (typically ages 15-49). This rate has remained constant since 2020, according to the Sample Registration System (SRS) report for 2021. However, the new report showed it has declined to 1.9 births per woman, which means that, on average, Indian women are having fewer children than needed to maintain the population size from one generation to the next, without migration. Despite the slowing birth rate, India's youth population remains significant, with 24 per cent in the age bracket of 0-14, 17 per cent in 10-19, and 26 per cent in 10-24. While 68 per cent of the population accounts for the 15-64 age bracket, the elderly population (65 and older) stands at seven per cent. As of 2025, life expectancy at birth is projected to be 71 years for men and 74 years for women. The UN report also placed India in a group of middleincome countries undergoing rapid demographic change, with the population doubling time now estimated at 79 years. “India has made significant progress in lowering fertility rates -- from nearly five children per woman in 1970 to about two today -- thanks to improved education and access to reproductive healthcare,” said Andrea M. Wojnar, UNFPA India Representative. “This has led to major reductions in maternal mortality, meaning million more mothers are alive today, raising children and building communities," Wojnar added. dance with an order from the Calcutta High Court. “There is hardly any link with religion in the preparation of the revised OBC list. The updated list is based on a survey conducted in accordance with the High Court order, with economic backwardness as the primary criterion,” Miss Banerjee said. The Chief Minister stated that following the survey, the total number of OBC ‘India ready to move forward on trade agreement with USA’ STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, 10 JUNE The Union Minister for Commerce and Industry, Piyush Goyal, on Tuesday said that India is ready to move forward with a trade agreement with the United States by first addressing simpler, less contentious issues. “I am a born optimist,” the Union minister said in Bern, Switzerland, when asked whether something conclusive could be expected before 9 July. SpeakingonForeignDirect Investments (FDI), in the country, the Union minister also said there is no declining trend in FDI into India, though periodic fluctuations may occur sometimes due to global interest rate changes. He added that India is seeing renewed overseas inflows and the government is open to suggestions and will adopt new measures to promote FDI in the country. Odisha CM showcases achievements, milestone reforms ahead of anniversary STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE BHUBANESWAR, 10 JUNE Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi on Tuesday delivered a powerful statement of intent and progress, outlining the transformative achievements of his government in less than a year. With a clear focus on serving the poor, farmers, youth, and women, the CM declared that Odisha is witnessing a new era of people-centric governance, transparency, and rapid delivery of promises. Addressing his first press conference ahead of the completion of one year in office, CM Majhi underscored the government's swift action on key electoral commitments. "It didn’t take us 24 years— it took just 24 minutes to fulfill four major promises," he said, drawing a contrast with the previous regime. In just 24 minutes, decisions to open all four gates of the Jagannath Temple in Puri, symbolising spiritual access and transparency, and for launch of the Subhadra Yojana, providing 10,000 annually in two installments to empow- er women, for input subsidy of 800 per quintal for paddy to farmers and establishment of a dedicated corpus fund for temple management and Jagannath culture preservation were taken, he said "We have already fulfilled 11 out of the 21 promises in our manifesto in under a year," he asserted, adding that this is just the beginning. The government, he said, has laid the foundation for a Vision 2036 framework comprising 36 ambitious programmes, which will be unveiled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 20 June. Highlighting administrative reforms, CM Majhi emphasised that the government has shown "zero tolerance to corruption." A recent exam- ple is the arrest of a senior IAS officer, he noted, adding: "This is a government that acts." He assured the public that inquiries into past scams— including mining and chit fund irregularities—are ongoing, and appropriate legal steps will be taken without delay. CM Majhi placed special emphasis on agriculture and industrial development. Key highlights include: 800 additional input subsidy on paddy procurement above the MSP, Cold storage units in every subdivision to strengthen farm logistics, coverage of 15 lakh dairy farmers under the Mukhyamantri Kamdhenu Yojana, 19,000 crore loan disbursed to 36 lakh farmers. communities in the state now stands at 140. Of these, she noted, 49 communities have been placed in the OBC (A) category and 91 in the OBC (B) category. The Opposition BJP, however, remained unconvinced by Miss Banerjee’s remarks. Leader of the Opposition, Suvendu Adhikari, attempted to respond to the Chief Minister’s assertion, but his request was denied by Speaker Biman Banerjee. This led to protests from BJP legislators, who walked out of the Assembly, alleging that the Chief Minister’s statements were false and misleading. Mr Adhikari claimed that Miss Banerjee had favoured a particular community while allegedly excluding Hindu OBCs. He stated that the BJP would present its case on the OBC quota before the Supreme Court at the next hearing. Earlier, during a state cabinet meeting at Nabanna on 2 June, the government approved the revised OBC list, which currently includes 140 communities. Officials have indicated that more communities might be added in the future. ‘ALL-TIME GREAT STATUS BECKONS FOR AUS TEAM’ P16 SILVER `1,06,800 BRENT CRUDE (IN $) 67.30 Proud of how all-party delegations put India’s voice forward: PM Modi STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, 10 JUNE Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday hosted members of the various delegations who went to various countries to highlight India's stand against terror and India's commitment to world peace during their visits to various nations at 7, Lok Kalyan Marg. “Met members of the various delegations who represented India in different countries and elaborated on India’s commitment to peace and the need to eradicate the menace of terrorism,” Mr Modi said in a post on X. “We are all proud of the manner in which they put forward India’s voice.” The government had dispatched seven delegations, consisting of MPs from across party lines, former MPs and distinguished diplomats, to major world capitals for a diplomatic outreach to expose Pakistan's hand in the recent Pahalgam terror attack and to mobilise global support against cross-border ter- rorism in the context of Operation Sindoor. The MPs who led the delegations included Congress party’s Shashi Tharoor, the BJP’s Ravi Shankar Prasad, and Baijayant Panda, Janata Dal (United)’s Sanjay Kumar Jha, the DMK’s Kanimozhi Karunanidhi, NCP (SP)’s Supriya Sule, and Shiv Sena’s Shrikant Eknath Shinde. Ready to strike anywhere inside Pak: EAM STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, 10 JUNE Nearly three weeks after the end of a confrontation between India and Pakistan, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has asserted that the root causes of the brief conflict remain unchanged and that India stands ready to strike anywhere in Pakistan if provoked by terrorist attacks. “It [Pakistan] is a country very steeped in its use of terrorism as an instrument of state policy. That is the whole issue,” he said in an interview with Politico during a visit to Brussels. Asked if the conditions that led to the outbreak of the war last month were still in place, he said: "If you call the commitment to terrorism a source of tension, absolutely it is." Mr Jaishankar did not deny the destruction of Indian Air Force planes, but said the appropriate authorities would communicate on the matter when ready. He argued that India's fighter planes and missiles had inflicted far more extensive damage on the Pakistani Air Force than vice versa, forcing Pakistan to sue for peace.