The editorial Page: india will de-risk, not decouple, from us and China 8 MoNdAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2026 JouRnAlism of CouRAge kolkAtA, lAte CIty, 16 pAgeS ₹6.00 (₹12 in North east states, ₹20 in Andaman) l www.indianexpress.com dA I ly f R o M : A h M e dA B A d , C h A N d I gA R h , d e l h I , j A I p u R , ko l k AtA , l u C k N o W , M u M B A I , N Ag p u R , pAt N A , p u N e , vA d o dA R A happening today lA ThrEE-DAYspecial session of the karnataka legislature begins to discuss the drought situation in the state and the kasturirangan report on Western ghats ecologically sensitive areas. lbJP ChIEf Nitin Nabin will begin a two-day visit to uttar pradesh to lead organisational meetings and public programmes ahead of the polls. TRACK THESE ANd MORE ON www.indiAnexpRess.cOm business as usual By EP UNNY expRess investigation IN COllAbOrATION wITh INTErNATIONAl CONSOrTIUM Of INvESTIGATIvE JOUrNAlISTS 2017 Doklam border fallout in Mumbai: china’s top bank froze loans worth $185 mn, told party cadre to alert embassy ‘Internal and external’ challenges of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China’s lone India branch detailed in 178-page ‘confidential’ work summary ritu Sarin New Delhi, September 20 Jaishankarto attendUNGA session,likelyto discussrussia sanctionsbill Divya A New Delhi, September 20 dAYSAFTeRpresidentdonald Trump signed the Russia sanctions Bill — allowing the United States to impose penalties on Russia'senergytradingpartners, including India — external Affairs minister S Jaishankar is set totraveltotheUS,offeringawindow for the two sides to have a discussion on the issue. Jaishankar is visiting new YorkfortheHighlevelWeekof the 81st session of the United nationsGeneralAssemblynext week,andwillalsoholdseveral bilateral meetings on the sidelines. Announcing his visit on Sunday, the ministry of external Affairs said in a statement: "eAm’s address at the High levelSessionofthe81stUnited nations General Assembly is scheduled for September 26. during the visit, eAm will also attend various plurilateral and bilateral meetings." After the US House of Representatives passed the Bill on Wednesday, new delhi said it “remains firmly committed to »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 west bengAl P3 cAsEs AGAinst KurMis filED by tMc rEGiME to bE DroPPED: cM WHen IndIAn and chinese troops were locked in a face-off at doklam along the northeastern border in 2017, the fallout was felt over 2,000 km down themap—inmumbai,hometo the Industrial and commercial Bank of china’s only branch in India. The IcBc branch “proactively reduced its exposure to loan and investment risks and suspendedthedisbursementof 11 approved but undisbursed loansandbondinvestmentstotalling $185 million”. It also “organized” chinese communist party members across every department to stay in constant touch with china’s embassy and consulate. Thesearethekeyrevelations from internal documents reviewedbyTheIndianExpressin china capital — a global investigationledbytheInternational consortium of Investigative Journalists(IcIJ),whichliftsthe veil on how state-owned IcBc, theworld’sbiggestbankbyasset size,isavitalcoginchina’sgeopolitical blueprint. The investigation lays bare the extent of influence the chinese state holds in all sections 11YeARs, 5-FOld Rise ICBC in India ₹6,378 crore Assets as on March 31, 2026 — nearly five-fold rise in 11 years from Rs 1,386 crore as on March 31, 2015 ₹3,522 crore Investments as on March 31, 2026; of which Rs 2,885 crore is held in govt securities ₹1,871 crore Advances as on March 31, 2026 ₹4,194 crore Customer deposits 2025-26 — up from Rs 3,439 crore in 2024-25 ₹1,000 crore Borrowings 2025-26 — down from Rs 1,296 crore in 2024-25 ₹60.96 crore SouRCe: RegIStRAR of CoMpANIeS (RoC), ICBC ANNuAl RepoRt of its economic infrastructure — and offers a rare peek at how china sought to ringfence its assets in India during the »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Prices up three times in one year, affecting availability of major complex fertilisers harish Damodaran New Delhi, September 20 IndIAHASstavedoffapotential foodcrisisbyimportingenough ureaandliquefiednaturalgasto enable domestic production of high-nitrogen fertiliser. But there is another critical commodity, sulphur, whose soaring prices — again, linked to the escalating West Asia and Russia-Ukraine conflicts — is impactingtheavailabilityofdiammonium phosphate (dAp), single super phosphate (SSp) and other major complex fertilisers. Since the start of this year, landed (cost plus ocean freight) prices of sulphur imported into India have doubled to $1,0501,100 per tonne. The main reason:Ukrainianlong-rangedrone ICBC watchlisted $500mn Vedanta subsidiary loan, recovered in full year later Jay Mazoomdaar & Shyamlal Yadav A complex corporate structure; the parent company’s limited access to much of the group’s reported cash; a weak standalone financial position; and, the borrower’s reluctance toprovideinformationrequired for compliance checks. These were among the con- cerns flagged in internal documents of the Industrial and commercial Bank of china (IcBc) even as it placed a cyprus-based subsidiary of Anil Agarwal’s Vedanta Resources on its internal watchlist in 2016 over a $500 million loan. However, records show the bank’s exposure was repaid in full in 2017. Theserecordswerereviewed »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 uNIoN MINISteR foR CultuRe ANd touRISM George Mathew Mumbai, September 20 Vidarsa Vinod, Sonam Maskar and Elavenil Valarivan won silver in the 10m Air Rifle event, Sunday. ptI inside PAGE 6 sinGhvi, sAlvE wEiGh in on tAtA sons boArDrooM bAttlE ing vote. In its statement, the Trusts said the Articles of Association (AoA) of Tata Sons provide that nodecisioncanbetakenunless ithastheaffirmativesupportof »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Neck pillows, no phones: How India’s shooters tackled 2-hr bus ride to silver expRess At asian games Mihir vasavda Toyota City (Japan), Sept 20 THe RoAd to the shooting range,locatedatanelevationof 670 metres in Toyota city, runs through the pretty Aichi countryside, with tall trees stretching up to the hills and scenic waterfalls. What Indian shooters hadn't anticipated, though,wasabusjourneyfrom nagoya that could stretch to two hours on winding roads, with its own set of challenges. To stay mentally and physically fresh at the Aichi prefectural General Shooting Gallery, the Indian shooters used neck ($ per tonne, cost & freight to India) 1,200 $1,070 1,000 800 600 400 $504 Jun 2022 $322 Sept 2025 $95.2 200 0 Aug 2019 Sept 2026 and missile attacks on Russian oilrefineriesandgascomplexes and Iran, likewise, targeting the energy infrastructure of Saudi New Delhi, September 20 ‘This generation is overpowered with information. To deal with them, you have to change... In a tsunami, only flexible trees that bend can stay alive’ GAJENDrASINGhShEkhAwAT Tata Trusts challenges Chandra’s ‘casting vote’ over his reappointment N Chandrasekaran is the Chairman of Tata Sons priceofsulphur Amrita Nayak Dutta PAGE 14 TATATRUSTS,chairedbynoel Tata, has categorically rejected the decision to reappoint n chandrasekaran as the Tata Sons chair and questioned the validity of using his own ‘casting vote’ to claim a majority afterthetwonomineedirectors of the Trusts voted differently over his continuation beyond his current term’s expiry on February 20, 2027. TataTrustsholds66percent in Tata Sons, the group holding company,andhastwonominee directors on its board — noel Tata and Venu Srinivasan. on September17,onedirectorvoted against the resolution to reappoint chandrasekaran, the Trusts said in a statement on Sunday.ButtheTataSonsboard went ahead with its decision to reappoint him for another five yearsonthebasisofthehiscast- l Averageimport Aramco, Qatarenergy and Abu dhabi national oil company. only a tenth of the world’s sulphur output is directly mined. The rest comes as a byproduct of petroleum oil refining (56%) and natural gas processing (34%). environmental rules mandate desulphurisation—removalofsulphurfrom crude oil and raw gas — for the production of clean, lowemission fuels. This recovered sulphur is, however, essential for agriculture. The fertiliser sector alone accountsforroughly60%ofthe 70 million tonnes (mt) annual global sulphur consumption. mostoftheworld’ssulphurgets converted into sulphuric acid that is, in turn, a core chemical formanufacturingallfertilisers containing phosphorous (p). “The primary source of p is rockphosphate.Butthismined ore cannot be used as fertiliser unless broken down into a »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 6 high-tech Army labs to weed out foreign bugs from drones and CCTV cameras ONE BKC building, where ICBC's only India branch is located, at Bandra Kurla Complex, Mumbai. SANkhAdeep BANeRjee New Delhi, September 20 Net profit for 2025-26 Russia, West Asia energy infra under attack, India has a new fertiliser problem — Sulphur pillows to prevent stiffness causedbythetossingasthebus changed direction. phone screens were kept off to avoid motion sickness, and some opted to sleep before reaching the competition venue. despitethedifficultjourney, India opened its Asian Games tally here on Sunday with two »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 full covErAGE, PAGE 15 THe IndIAn Army will soon be operating six AASHVAST labs across the country, where all its drones—and eventually ccTV cameras too—will undergo mandatory inspections to identify and eliminate firmware-level vulnerabilities. This will ensure that these do not fail during operations in contested zones and can perform their tasks effectively. AASHVAST stands for Assessment and Analysis of electronic Systems Hardware for Vulnerabilities and Security Threats. currently, one lab has beeninauguratedindelhi,with plans to establish at least five more in the coming months. AASHVAST, a Firmware Analysis and Validation Suite, developedby Quickpaypvt ltd for the directorate General of electronics and mechanical engineering (dG eme), is designed to do more than just physically inspect drones. It the wORld E. explAined chinese parts cause for concern This mechanism is significant in light of the Army's large-scale drone procurement initiative through the emergency route. The use of Chinese components in military drones has been a cause of concern for India, especially since many of these drones are used in operations along the eastern borders. alsoexaminesthesoftwarethat operates these unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) – to identify and eliminate firmware-level vulnerabilities. The Army has published a Request for proposal in April thisyeartoprocurecustomised licensedsoftwareforvalidation »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 PAGE 10 Ukraine laUnches biggest drone attack amid polls in rUssia l HE gAVE IT pEOplE, SKIllS, CulTuRE NEEdEd TO OpERATE AT HIgHEST lEVEl Of NATIONAl SECuRITy R&AW anniversary in spotlight, how its first chief built spy agency from the shadows Deeptiman Tiwary dhaka and Bangladesh was born. The man at the head of the In THe last week of november organisation that had pro1971, India’s external intelli- duced the intelligence was Ragence agency got an extraordi- meshwar nath Kao, the first nary piece of information. one chief of the Research and ofKSankarannair’ssourcesin- Analysis Wing. R&AW had side the pakistani establish- existed for barely three years. established in 1968, R&AW, ment had learnt that pakistan was preparing a pre-emptive whichwillcompleteits58thyear of existence on Sepair strike on Indian pAge 1 tember 21, was built air bases in the westfrom scratch by Kao, ern sector. nair a former Intelligence passed on the warning. The Indian Air Force was Bureau officer whom prime put on alert. pakistan event- minister Indira Gandhi had ually launched its air strikes on taskedwithcreatingIndia'sfirst dedicated external intelligence december 3. India was ready. Thirteendayslater,thepak- agency. The achievement was istani Army surrendered in notmerelytheestablishmentof New Delhi, September 20 anchor a new agency. It was the speed with which Kao gave it the people, skills and institutional culture needed to operate at the highest level of national security. According to former R&AW Additional Secretary B Raman’s book “Kaoboys of RAW”, in the first few months afterits formation,Kao gaveofficers two priority tasks: strengthenitscapabilityforthe collection of intelligence about pakistan and china and for covert action in east pakistan. “A little over two years is too short a time to build up an effective covert action capability, but the R&AW managed to do so,” Raman said in the book. phonic conversations of Yahya Khan and others with their officers in east pakistan,” Raman says in the book. A childhood of loss Rameshwar Nath Kao He also recalls how Kao's men had completely compromised General Yahya Khan's communications. “Almost every day, Indira Gandhi and others entrusted with the conduct of the war had at their disposal extracts from the tele- Yet the man behind the organisation remained largely in the shadows. As V Balachandran, a former R&AW officer whoworkedwithKao,tellsThe Indian Express, “people see then Army chief Sam maneckshaw and BSF chief Rustam Ji in context of the Bangladesh war. But it was Kao who had laidallthegroundworkfortheir achievements to follow. Kao never wanted to be talked about. He believed intelligence work had to be done quietly.” Kao’s instinct for discretion was not simply professional. It had roots in a childhood shaped by loss and humiliation. Hisfatherdiedwhenhewas five, leaving his mother widowed at 25. The family struggled financially. Born in Varanasi, Kao found school in Baroda socially difficult. classmates repeatedly mispronouncedhissurnameas“cow” and mocked him with nicknames such as “brown buffalo” and“sackofpotatoes”givenhis obesity. According to nitin A Gokhale’s biography “R.N. Kao: Gentleman Spymaster”, which draws from Kao’s personal papers and recordings, Kolkata Kao remembered himself at 11 or 12 as a boy who had become acutely conscious of being watched. He later recalled that he could not bring himself to eat in public without a servant accompanying him. decades later, he wrote that thediscomfortofeatinginpublic had never entirely left him. “I tended to withdraw into my ownshell,”Kaowrote,recalling those years, and believed that this had laid “the foundations of an introspective withdrawn approachtolifeingeneral”.Itis a revealing admission from a man who would eventually spend his career mastering the art of watching others without himself being noticed. There was, however, another side to Kao. He developed an interest in ancient Indian history, temple architecture and sculpture, practised yoga and worked with clay, woodandstone,saysGokhale's book.Hestudiedenglishliterature, history and persian at lucknow University before completinganmAinenglishat Allahabad.Hewasinterestedin flowers and animals, and was known among colleagues for his cultivated tastes. He joined the Indian police in 1940 and moved to the Intelligence Bureau after Independence. Working under IB chief B n mullik, he was put in »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2