TUESDAY 15 JULY 2025 www.thestatesman.com X.com/thestatesmanltd. Fb/thestatesman1875 SINCE 1818 Pages 12 |` 5.00 KOLKATA | NEW DELHI | SILIGURI | BHUBANESWAR RJD SLAMS CENTRE OVER ECI FINDINGS ON SIR P5 ISRAELI PM SLAMS ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR CHARGING TOP AIDE GADKARI INAUGURATES BRIDGE IN KARNATAKA P4 SENSEX 82,253.46 q247.01 NIFTY 25,082.30 q67.55 ` vs $ 85.99 P9 SIRAJ PENALISED FOR ICC CODE BREACH P12 SILVER `1,15,000 GOLD `1,01,180 Generally cloudy sky. A few spells of light to moderate rain/ thundershowers with an intense spell of rain (2-3 cm/hour) very likely to occur. Check fuel switches of Boeing planes: DGCA directs airlines RAINFALL: 10.0 mm BRENT CRUDE (IN $) 71.04 ‘India-China relations made good progress in last nine months’ This important directive comes days after the AAIB released its 15-page preliminary report WEATHER RELATIVE HUMIDITY Max. 97% Min. 91% TEMPERATURE Max: 28.4˚C ( -4.4) Min: 26.1˚C (- 0.8) SUN RISES 04:55 hrs MOON RISES 21:05 hrs SUN SETS 18:24 hrs MOON SETS 08:05 hrs New Moon on 25 July THUMBNAILS Sand artist Sudarsan Patnaik creates a sand art of Lord Shiva in Puri. nANI Five high courts get new Chief Justices: Chief justices were appointed to five High Courts on Monday, the Law Ministry said. According to separate Law Ministry notifications, Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva has been appointed as the Chief Justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court. He was so far the acting Chief Justice of that court. Justice Vibhu Bakhru, a judge of the Delhi High Court, has now been elevated as Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court, while Justice Ashutosh Kumar, the acting Chief Justice of the Patna High Court, is now Chief Justice of the Gauhati High Court. Similarly, Justice Vipul Manubhai Pancholi, a judge of the Patna High Court, has been appointed as its chief justice. Justice Tarlok Singh Chauhan of the Himachal Pradesh High Court is now the chief justice of the Jharkhand High Court. Their names were recommended by the Supreme Court Collegium on May 26. STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, 14 JULY A viation safety watchdog Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Monday directed airlines to carry out checks on the locking mechanism of fuel control switches of Boeing aircraft in their fleets. This important directive comes days after the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) released its 15-page preliminary report of the probe into the tragic Air India Boeing Dreamliner crash at Ahmedabad on June 12, in which 260 people were killed. According to one of the important findings of the report which was released on early Saturday, was that the twin engines of the illfated Boeing plane shut down seconds after take-off as the fuel supply was cut off. Both fuel control switches supplying fuel to the engines of Air India flight 171 were turned off in quick succession, shutting down both the engines, before the plane crashed in Ahmedabad seconds after taking off, revealed the report of the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB). The report raised fresh concerns over the aircraft’s engine fuel cutoff switches, as they transitioned from ‘Run’ to ‘Cutoff’ just 3 seconds after take-off. The cockpit voice recording of the crashed plane revealed one pilot asking the other: “Why did you cut off?” to which his colleague replied: “I didn’t.” The AAIB report also mentions FAA's 2018 bulletin that had warned of a potential malfunction of the fuel control switches, manufactured by US-based Honeywell, in a few Boeing models such as the 737s which also use the same switches. The bulletin recommended that carriers operating Boeing models, including the Dreamliner, inspect President appoints new Governors, Lieutenant Governor STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, 14 JULY President Droupadi Murmu Monday made several key gubernatorial appointments, nominating Ashim Kumar Ghosh as Governor of Haryana, Pusapati Ashok Gajapathi Raju as Governor of Goa, and Kavinder Gupta as Lieutenant Governor of Ladakh. "The President of India is also pleased to make the following appointments of Governor/Lieutenant Governor," a press communiqués from the Rashtrapati Bhavan said, pointing out that the appointments will take effect from the dates the appointees assume charge of their respective offices. The President also accepted the resignation of B D Mishra, Lieutenant Governor of the Union Territory of Ladakh, effective immediately. Ashim Kumar Ghosh, who replaces Bandaru Dattatreya as Governor of Haryana, is a former BJP state president of West Bengal. He also contested a by-election in 2013, from the Howrah Lok Sabha seat on a BJP ticket. A former political science professor at Manindra Chandra College in Kolkata, Ghosh was a protégée of Tapan Sikdar, who was a minister in Atal Bihari Radicalisation in prisons needs to be identified, dealt with: MHA to states STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, 14 JULY Identifying radicalisation in prisons across India as a threat to the internal security of the country, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has issued a comprehensive set of guidelines to all states and Union Territories to identify, monitor and rehabilitate radicalised individuals in jails and other correctional facilities within their jurisdiction. Amid growing concern over the issue, the ministry has stressed the urgent need for proactive measures to prevent vulnerable inmates from adopting extremist ideologies under the influence of elements involved in the destructive activities. The MHA has also urged them to incorporate the guidelines in their prison management practices to address the critical issue of radicalisation in prisons in a "structured, effective, and proactive manner." It noted that "prisons, due to their isolated and controlled environment, can serve as breeding grounds for extremist beliefs, particularly among inmates experiencing alienation, anti-social tendencies, or susceptibility to violence." Identification and risk assessment in states and UTs need to develop standardised screening tools for the identification of inmates, the guidelines said. Vajpayee's cabinet. Ghosh also played a key role in sowing the roots of the RSS and the BJP in West Bengal. He was currently working to advance party policies while being in the party's advisory board in West Bengal. Pusapati Ashok Gajapathi Raju is a former Union Minister for Civil Aviation in the Narendra Modi Government. He replaces Sreedharan Pillai as the Governor of Goa. Raju, a scion of the royal family of the Vizianagaram princely state, is the younger son of the last Maharaja of Vizianagaram. Kavinder Gupta is an Indian politician from the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. He is the last Deputy Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir state. Gupta, who replaces B D Mishra as Lieutenant Governor of the Union Territory of Ladakh, owes his roots to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, which he joined at an early age. He gained political prominence in Jammu, serving three consecutive terms as mayor from 2005 to 2010. In 2014, Gupta was elected MLA from the Gandhinagar constituency and made history as the first BJP Speaker of the J&K Assembly (March 2015–April 2018). the locking mechanism of the fuel cut-off switches — a step not taken by Air India, according to the AAIB report. Air India informed investigators that it did not carry out suggested inspections as they were "advisory” in nature and not “mandatory". However, after the Air India crash, some airlines, such as Emirates, that have Boeing planes in their fleets, are reported to be carrying out checks on the fuel switch locking mechanism on their own after the crash as part of enhanced safety measures. Meanwhile, the USA’s Federal Aviation Administration has informed civil aviation authorities of other countries that fuel control switch designs, including the locking feature, installed in Boeing planes, including the Dreamliner involved in the Air India crash at Ahmedabad, are safe. The US aviation safety regulator has stated that no airworthiness directive is deemed necessary for Boeing operators at this time. Criticising the preliminary report released by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) regarding the tragic Air India plane crash on June 12 in Ahmedabad, the Indian Pilots Guild (IPG) on Monday said the present findings are insufficient in key areas including unexplained dual engine shutdown and absence of detailed cockpit communication. Reacting to the report, the Indian Pilots Guild said, “We find the current report incomplete in critical areas — specifically the unexplained dual engine shutdown and absence of detailed cockpit communication.” NIKHIL VYAS NEW DELHI, 14 JULY Noting that good progress has been achieved in the past nine months for normalization of Sino-Indian relations, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Monday said it is now incumbent on the two nations to resolve issues related to their boundary dispute, including de-escalation in eastern Ladakh. Jaishankar, who is presently in China on a three-day visit to attend the Foreign Ministers' Meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Tianjin, held talks in Beijing with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi. "We have made good progress in the past nine months for the normalisation of our bilateral relations. It is a result of the resolution of friction along the border and our ability to maintain peace and tranquility there. This is the fundamental basis for mutual strategic trust and for smooth development of bilateral relations. It is ‘NITI Aayog has recognised Bengal’s strong performance’ STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE KOLKATA, 14 JULY Chief minister Mamata Banerjee today expressed happiness on the NITI Aayog’s recognition of the state’s performance in its summary report 2022-23 released recently. An elated Miss Banerjee in her post on X, said: “Pleased to share that NITI Aayog has officially recognized West Bengal’s strong performance across key socio-economic indicators – most notably in employment. The state’s annual employment rate for 2022-23 stood at just 2.2 per cent, which is 30 per cent lower than the national average of 3.2 per cent. NITI Aayog’s newly released summary report also highlights West Bengal’s positive standing in several areas. Literacy rate: 76.3 per cent, above the national average of 73 per cent (as of 2011). Education outcomes: Lower school dropout rates and higher pass percentages in Classes X and XI compared to national averages. Life expectancy: 72.3 years (2020), higher than the national average. Sex ratio: 973 female births per 1000 male births –significantly better than the national average of 889. Infant mortality rate: 19 per 1,000 live births ( 2020) and total fertility rate 16 children per woman (2019 -21), both better than national averages. Quality of life: The report notes steady improvement, including higher- than –average household access to drinking water. These achievements reflect West Bengal’s continued commitment to inclusive and sustainable development. Miss Banerjee’s today’s post, hailing the summary report of NITI Aayog, assumed significant as the chief minister had more often than not claimed that the state’s overall development is on the upswing and it is better than the national average. Shukla undocks from ISS, begins journey back home MUSKAN BHATIA NEW DELHI, 14 JULY Shubhanshu Shukla’s journey back home from the International Space Station (ISS), where he spent nearly 20 days, began smoothly on Monday. The Dragon spacecraft, carrying Shukla and three other Axiom-4 crew members, undocked from the ISS more than two hours after the hatch was closed. Following undocking, SpaceX’s Grace, its latest Crew Dragon capsule, will embark on a nearly 23-hour journey back to Earth, with splashdown expected off the California coast. “Dragon is slowly maneuvering away from the station into an orbital track that will return the crew and its cargo safely to Earth, targeting a splashdown off the coast of California on Tuesday, July 15,” the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said in a statement. The American space agency informed that the spacecraft is returning with more than 580 pounds of cargo, including NASA hardware and data from over 60 experiments conducted during the mission. After the successful undock- ing, Union Minister of Science and Technology Jitendra Singh welcomed Shubhanshu Shukla with a post on X, saying the entire nation is looking forward to his safe return. “Welcome back, Shubhanshu. The entire nation eagerly awaits your arrival back home… as you begin your return journey after the successful undocking of #Axiom4,” Singh wrote. Ahead of departure, during a farewell ceremony on Sunday, Shukla echoed the iconic words of cosmonaut Rakesh Sharma, the first Indian in space in 1984, saying that India still looks “saare jahan se achha” (best in the world) from space. As part of the Axiom-4 mission– fourth private human spaceflight operated by U.S.based Axiom Space – Indian Air Force Group Captain Shukla arrived at the ISS on June 26, becoming the first Indian to set foot on the orbiting laboratory. In a press statement on Friday, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said that after splashdown, Gaganyatri Shubanshu Shukla will undergo a week-long rehabilitation program under the supervision of flight sur- geons to help him readjust to Earth’s gravity. Insights gained by Shukla during the mission will contribute to India’s future space endeavours, including the development of the Bharatiya Antariksh Station (BAS), planned for the early 2030s, and Chandrayaan-4, the country’s first human mission to the Moon, targeted for 2047. Shubhanshu Shukla shared his optimism about India’s future space missions during his parting message at the farewell ceremony aboard the space station.“As my mission aboard the space station nears its end, our journey— mine and India’s—is far from over. The path to India’s human spaceflight is long and challenging, but I assure you: if we set our minds to it, even the stars are attainable,” Shukla said. now incumbent on us to address other aspects related to the border, including deescalation," he said in the meeting. He said as neighbouring nations and major economies in the world today, there are various facets and dimensions of India and China ties. "Measures towards normalizing our people–to–people exchanges can certainly foster mutually beneficial cooperation. It is also essential in this context that restrictive trade measures and roadblocks are avoided. I hope to discuss these issues in further detail," Jaishankar said. "Our meeting today will also include an exchange of views on global and regional issues. Tomorrow, we will be meeting in the format of the SCO, whose primary mandate is to combat terrorism, separatism and extremism. This is a shared concern and India hopes that zero tolerance for terrorism will be strongly upheld," the External Affairs Minister said. SC expresses concern over Indian nurse’s possible execution in Yemen PARMOD KUMAR NEW DELHI, 15 JULY The Supreme Court on Monday expressed concern over the possible execution of Indian nurse Nimisha Priya in Yemen, even as the Central Government informed the court that its diplomatic options are severely limited, since Yemen is not officially recognized by India. A bench comprising Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sandeep Mehta was hearing a petition seeking urgent intervention by the Government of India to halt the scheduled execution of Nimisha Priya, who has been convicted of murder and is reportedly set to be executed on July 16. Appearing for the Centre, Attorney General R Venkataramani informed the court that the Indian government has reached the limits of its diplomatic capacity due to the absence of official ties with Yemen and the ongoing conflict in the region. "There is a point up to which the Government of India can go, and we have reached that point. Yemen is not like any other part of the world. We didn’t want to complicate the situation by going public; we are trying to act at the private level," the Attorney General told the bench. He further stated that the government was engaging through private channels and deliberately refraining from public statements to avoid escalating the situation. Venkataramani informed the court that Nimisha Priya’s mother and a social worker were currently in Yemen, attempting to negotiate with the victim’s family for the acceptance of "blood money," the only legal recourse under Yemeni law for securing clemency.