THRISSUR l Thursday l January 29, 2026 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l city EDITION Potential bidders for RCB as Rajasthan valued at over $1 bn After months of speculation, reports suggest that over 50 companies have showed an interest in acquiring defending IPL champions representative image $2 billion buzz on bengaluru’s future 4 potential buyers for Rajasthan royals As RCB are one of the most valuable franchises, companies hoping to buy them will have to shell out top dollar. Several reports suggest $2bn but that figure may not be hit. While several Indian companies have shown interest, including vaccine giant, Serum, other names includes Temasek (Singapore), US based businessman, David Blitzer ■ ■ Rajasthan Royals have received a few proposals and the franchise is studying them. The cheapest franchise when they were bought in 2008, it’s expected that any deal will fetch them over a billion. American investor Kal Somani, Times Internet Group, Blackstone and Carlyl Group are reportedly interested in buying the team $1.3bn Four RR bidders have offered as initial bids 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 Maha shocker as Ajit Pawar dies in jet crash Four others including two pilots perish; state’s ruling coalition in turmoil; last rites to be held today in Baramati s u d h i r s u r ya w a n s h i E x p r e s s Ne w s Se r v i c e @ Mumbai Ajit Pawar was a leader of the people... his passion for empowering the poor were noteworthy. His untimely demise is saddening A stand was floated from Kolkata that there is politics involved in this incident. There is no politics in it. It was an accident Narendra Modi, Prime Minister Sharad Pawar, NCP chief fatal landings Sanjay Gandhi (1980) Cong leader; died June 23 in a plane crash near Safdarjung Airport, Delhi Madhavrao Scindia (2001) Senior Congress leader died Sept 30 in plane crash near Mainpuri, UP G M C Balayogi (2002) Lok Sabha Speaker; died March 3 in helicopter crash in Krishna district, AP Y S Rajasekhara Reddy (2009) AP CM; died September 2 in helicopter crash in Nallamala forest Gen Bipin Rawat (2021) First CDS; died Dec 8 in Mi-17V5 crash near Coonoor, TN (14 fatalities) Vijay Rupani (2025) Ex-Gujarat CM; died June 12 in Air India Boeing 787 crash in Ahmedabad (270 total deaths) poor visibility, later cleared to laND MAHARASHTRA Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and four others were killed when their chartered aircraft crashed barely 200 metres from the edge of a tabletop runway at Baramati airstrip in Pune district on We d n e s d ay m o r n i n g . FlightRadar data showed the aircraft departed Mumbai at 8.10 am and disappeared from radar shortly after 8.44 am. The 66-year-old leader, fondly known as Dada (elder brother), was flying from Mumbai to address zilla parishad election rallies near Pune, when the Learjet 45 crashed during a second landing attempt at 8.44 am. Poor visibility forced the pilot to abort the first approach, but moments after receiving clearance for the second attempt, the aircraft burst into flames near the runway threshold without providing the mandatory readback to air traffic control. Also killed were Captain Sumit Kapoor, co-pilot Shambhavi Pathak, Pawar’s personal security officer Vidit Jadhav, and flight attendant Pinki Mali. All five were declared dead at The aircraft VI-SSK was trying to land amid poor visibility. It first came in contact with Baramati Air Traffic Controller at 8.18 am Industrial activity grew at its fastest pace in 2 yrs in Dec E XPR E SS N E WS S E RVIC E @ New Delhi india’s industrial activity galloped in December last with the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) growth accelerating to 7.8% from 7.2% in November 2025, marking the fastest pace in the last 26 months, government data released on Wednesday showed. The manufacturing sector, which has a 77.6% weight in the index, grew 8.1%, slightly slower than 8.5% in November 2025 but higher than 3.7% in December 2024. The sector was supported by 6.8% growth in mining and 6.3% rise in electricity generation. Observing that the growth in factory output in December last exceeded expectations, ICRA’s chief economist Aditi Nayar said the surprise was largely driven by the manufacturing output. She said the growth in this crucial sector was “likely aided by restocking post the festive season, even as the growth in India’s non-oil exports was sluggish in the month”. Within the manufacturing sector, the computer, electronic & optical products category representative image grew 34.9% while the motor vehicles, trailers & semi-trailers segment surged 33.5%. Dipti Deshpande, principal economist at Crisil, said that within manufacturing, GST rationalisation is likely to have benefited sectors like food products and automobiles, but export-oriented sectors such as apparel, textiles and chemicals saw moderate IIP growth. As per the use-based classification, primary goods and consumer sectors provided traction. Consumer durables rose 12.3% and non-durables surged 8.3%. Deshpande said going forward, while domestic tailwinds should support demand in consumer segments for a few more quarters, the adverse impact of higher US tariffs on export segments could get more pronounced. 1 DAYS after the Bangladesh cricket team was replaced by Scotland after they refused to travel to India citing security reasons, their shooting team, comprising of two shooters and other support staff, have seemingly confirmed their participation at the Asian Shooting Championships, to be held in Delhi from February 2 to 14. Two of their shooters — Shaira Arefin and Md Robiul Islam — are set to take part in the individual as well 2 Its next call was at 30 nautical miles inbound to Baramati; advised to descend in “visual meteorological conditions” at the pilot’s discretion 3 On first approach to Runway 11, pilot said the runway was not visible and initiated a go-around. On second attempt, the airstrip was spotted 4 The aircraft was cleared to land on runway 11 at 8.43 am, but failed to respond to Baramati ATC. Next minute, it was up in flames Aeroplane crashes near runway Crash site Ajit Pawar Baramati airstrip 22 July 1959 - 28 January 2026 Baramati hospital. Eyewitnesses described watching the aircraft circle the airfield before it “hit the ground hard and exploded,” with the blast heard across the area. Aviation experts said the tragedy could have been avoided if the runway had been equipped with an instrument landing system to guide pilots through marginal visibility . The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau is analysing the black box to determine the exact cause. NCP founder Sharad Pawar, Ajit’s uncle, rushed to Baramati where he said, Lok Bhavan slams speaker’s ‘leaked letter’ allegation E x p r e s s Ne w s Se r v i c e @T’Puram The tussle between the chief minister and the governor over the latter omitting certain portions of the policy address has taken a new turn with the Lok Bhavan taking objection to Speaker A N Shamseer’s remark that a “confidential” letter from Rajendra Arlekar, seeking video visuals of the speech, was leaked to the media. The Lok Bhavan slammed both the allegation and the speaker’s decision to raise it at a press conference, saying constitutional decorum bars public replies to official correspondence from the state’s constitutional head. TNIE had reported on Monday that the governor’s direction to the speaker was the precursor to a move to ensure that only the address actually delivered is retained in the assembly records. “The original of the letter was served on the Hon’ble Speaker and it has not so far come to the notice of the Lok Bhavan that any media has published the said letter. Lok Bhavan is also not appreciating the manner in which the Hon’ble Speaker has responded to the letter addressed to him by the constitutional head of the state,” the ● More on P4 Lok Bhavan said in a statement. EXPRESS READ Cabinet gives in-principle approval for 583-km rapid transit system corridor T’Puram: After the Union government formally rejected the state’s ambitious and long-pending SilverLine project, the Kerala cabinet on Wednesday gave in-principle approval for a 583-km Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) corridor from Thiruvananthapuram to Kasaragod. P4 Cricket team says no, but B’desh shooters set to visit India for Asian championship i n d r a n ee l d a s @ Chennai Final budget of Pinarayi 2.0 govt today as mixed team in the 10m air rifle category The two have been given clear. ance by the ministries concerned and the Indian High Commission in Dhaka has been requested to help them with visa formalities. This was confirmed by the National Rifle Association of India as well. Its secretary, Rajiv Bhatia, while speaking with this daily, said that they have sought all clearances from ministries and as of now their counterparts in Bangladesh have confirmed participation. “They have confirmed and are coming for the championships,” he said. “We have sought clearance from Ministry of External Affairs, Home and sports ministries. We are in touch with Bangladesh players. They have confirmed participation and are coming. As of now there is no change.” Interestingly, the cricket team refused to travel to India days after BCCI directed Kolkata Knight Riders to drop Mustafizur Rahman from the roster. Reports in Bangladesh indicate the team has got government nod as well. Ajit’s loss is one “that can never be filled”. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis declared three days of state mourning and called Ajit’s death a personal loss. Ajit served as deputy CM for a record six terms across governments led by Congress, Shiv Sena, and BJP After split. ting from his uncle’s party in July 2023, he secured 41 assembly seats in alliance with BJP, solidifying his position in state politics. His last rites will be held on Thursday at Vidya Pratishthan ground in Baramati with full state honours. P8 @ T’Puram Finance Minister K N Balagopal will present the final budget of the second Pinarayi Vijayan government on Thursday With only . a few months left for the assembly elections, populist announcements are expected in the budget. Speculation is rife that the government will further raise the social security pensions. Government employees expect a favourable decision on the pending dearness allowance arrears. As the LDF government aims for a hat-trick, there will be sufficient allocations to ensure continuity for its flagship programmes like the LIFE and Ardram Missions. Research and development funding and agefriendly initiatives will be other priority areas. The 2026-27 budget is set to be historic as it will be the first time the budget size crosses the `2 trillion milestone. The budget presentation will begin at 9am. Balagopal will address the media later. The minister had earlier said the budget will be practical and realisP4 tic in approach.