express illustration BHUBANESWAR l thursday l september 03, 2026 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l JEYPORE EDITION Banks mobilise $127.23 billion in deposits from Indian diaspora: RBI Total forex inflows touch $136.38 billion India attracted $127.23 billion in Foreign Currency Non-Resident deposits under RBI’s special USD-INR forex swap facility till August 31, the closing date Scheme a big hit, closed one month early RBI’s special USD-INR forex swap facility for FCNR (B) deposits, Overseas Foreign Currency Borrowings and External Commercial Borrowings was launched on June 8 as part of efforts to strengthen India’s external sector position and support forex liquidity amid global uncertainties. The measures led to a surge in forex inflows totalling $136.38 billion as on August 31 ■ ■ Under RBI’s the FCNR (B) scheme, Indian banks offered attractive interest rates to mobilise foreign currency deposits The response has been strong enough for the RBI to advance the closure of the FCNR(B) window from September 30 to August 31, having already achieved its objective ahead of schedule FCNR(B) Deposits are foreign-currencydenominated fixed deposits 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 Retd Air Marshal Mishra 1st CEO of Ram temple trust Govind Dev Giri is the new general secretary; Mahesh Bhagchandka to be the treasurer relative of the late VHP international president, he has also THE Shri Ram Janmabhoomi authored a book on Singhal. Teerth Kshetra Nyas, the trust Madan Mohan Pandey had that manages the Ayodhya tem- been associated with the Ram ple, appointed former Air Mar- Janmabhoomi case in local shal Jeetendra Mishra as its courts and is also associated first chief executive officer at a with the VHP . meeting held on Wednesday . Nirmala Yadav has been asA native of Deoria in Uttar sociated with the RSS. Pradesh, Air Marshal Mishra Air Marshal Mishra is exled the Western Air Command pected to bring in discipline during Operation Sindoor. and management expertise in The Ram temple trust also running the affairs of the Ram appointed for mer temple, search comtreasurer Govind Dev mittee member Giri as general secreSuresh Haware said. tary to fill the post vaHaware is a retired cated by Champat nuclear scientist and Rai, who chose to reformer chief of Shri sign following the doSaibaba Sansthan nation theft scandal. Trust in Shirdi. Among other deciThe other members sions, the trust anof the three-member Jeetendra Mishra nounced three new selection panel are retrustees, including a tired Supreme Court woman. The new trustees are judge Pramod Kohli and retired Delhi-based businessman Ma- L t G e n e r a l Vi s h n u k a n t hesh Bhagchandka, Ayodhya- Chaturvedi. based advocate Madan Mohan The selection panel reviewed Pandey and Nirmala Yadav of , 5,585 applications and held disShikohabad. cussions with 16 candidates. VHP leader Sharad Sharma The final shortlist had three has been appointed the spokes- names, from which the trust man of the trust. picked Air Marshal Mishra. Mahesh Bhagchandka is The other two shortlisted likely to be named treasurer of candidates, according to rethe trust. He is the chairman of ports, were retired Major GenM2K Group and a trustee of the eral Sanjay Pratap Singh Bisht Ashok Singhal Foundation. A and Shruti Hardwari. NA M ITA B A J PAI @ Lucknow back to campus Modi to visit Delhi’s SRCC in Gen Z pitch I f r a h M u f t i @ New Delhi Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to address students at Delhi’s Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC)—a campus that once marked his national rise—on September 5 on the occasion of Teachers’ Day . The proposed visit to the college, which is celebrating its centenary year, comes amid the BJP’s ongoing outreach efforts to draw young voters to the party In the wake of the . recent students’ protests and growing discontent among youngsters over education reforms to employment, party leaders have turned their focus to wooing first-time voters through campus interactions and digital platforms Just three weeks ago, Modi had addressed the convocation ceremony at IIT Delhi, where he interacted with graduating students and positioned Narendra Modi youth as central to India’s future. The upcoming interaction at SRCC is expected to carry a similar tone, but in a more conversational campus setting. Modi last visited SRCC in 2013 as Gujarat chief minister. His speech then drew a packed audience and marked one of his early high-profile engagements with students in Delhi. Over a decade later, his return to SRCC comes at a time when campuses are more politically aware and digitally active, with student engagement often spilling into social media. The official confirmation of PM’s SRCC visit is awaited. Odisha added 3.2L ha irrigated land with `54K cr water projects in 2 years: Majhi E x p r e s s Ne w s Se r v i c e @ Bhubaneswar Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi on Wednesday said the state has sanctioned water infrastructure projects worth `54,000 crore and created irrigation potential for additional 3.2 lakh hectares of farmland in the past two years. Addressing a departmental summit meeting organised by the Ministry of Jal Shakti in New Delhi in presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Majhi said water security and irrigation have been accorded top priority as agriculture remains a key component of Odisha’s economy . He said 770 check dams and nine in-stream storage structures (ISS) have been completed in the state, Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Jal Shakti summit in New Delhi on Wednesday while 1,312 old check dams have been renovated. One dam, one barrage, two underground pipeline distribution networks, six mega lift irrigation projects and 32 minor irrigation projects have also been completed, he said. The government plans to take up 14 more ISS projects and six medium irrigation projects over the next year while work is cur- express read SC questions 5-yr tenure of BCI chief New Delhi: Questioning the five-year tenure of Bar Council of India (BCI) Chairman Mannan Kumar Mishra, the Supreme Court on Wednesday said his continuation cannot be viewed as a tenure running until 2030 | P7 Tankers drawing mountain water as the water pipeline network was washed away in the recent flash floods across Nuwakot and Rasuwa districts of Nepal | S V Krishna Chaitanya Health crisis looms as water grid collapses monitoring, E. coli tests,” a WHO official said. The government is using portable With thousands feared dead or miss- water-testing kits, with support from ing and large parts of Nuwakot and WHO and UNICEF, as WASH (Water, Rasuwa buried under mud and de- Sanitation and Hygiene) intervenbris, Nepal is confronting tions are expanded across a second emergency in the affected areas. form of a health crisis. The water crisis is parKeeping survivors safe is ticularly serious in Nuwabecoming a challenge as Ground Zero kot and Rasuwa because drinking-water systems settlements depend on a Nepal seeks have completely collapsed, network of mountain rivglobal climate sanitation infrastructure ers and streams. The reparation is destroyed and access to Bhote Koshi and Trishuli healthcare is disrupted. are the principal river Nepal’s PM Te a m s f ro m Wo rl d system through the disBalendra Shah on H e a l t h O r g a n i z at i o n tricts, fed by tributaries Wednesday (WHO) Nepal and Minisincluding the Salankhu blamed the flash try of Health and Family and Falakhu. Further floods on climate Welfare are visiting temdownstream, the Trishuli change. “There is a porary holding and sheljoins the Narayani system global contribution ter centres to check survibefore entering India as behind climate vors for signs of disease the Gandak. change. And the spread. Authorities have Here, the drinking waresponsibility to also begun regular testing ter pipelines feeding thoumanage and of drinking-water sources sands of people are comminimise its for E. coli, an indicator of pletely destroyed. effects also rests faecal contamination. In Bidur Municipality, on the global Tsering Gurung, Comthe biggest local body in community” | P9 munication Officer at Nuwakot, the main drinkWHO Nepal, said WHO is ing-water system serving working closely with the nearly 6,000 households Ministry of Health and Food Safety, has been damaged. Around 7-8 km of “to assess emerging health needs and pipelines have been destroyed, while coordinate the health sector response about 20 smaller water-lifting schemes to this emergency”. serving scattered settlements have “Basically, we are doing regular also been affected.  Continued on: P9 S V KRISHNA CHAITANYA @ Rasuwa (Nepal) BrahMos board shake-up on cards J a v a r i a R a n a @ New Delhi Sixteen months after BrahMos missiles were battle-tested during Operation Sindoor, the Indian side is examining a proposal to restructure the Indo-Russian joint venture (JV) behind the supersonic cruise missile, including changes to its board and a plan to bring more engineering and R&D work in-house, sources familiar with the matter said. The proposal, discussed at a meeting on Monday, looks at dropping DRDO’s Director General (Missiles and Strategic Systems) from the Indian side of the BrahMos Aerospace Pvt Ltd board and rently underway on five new major and medium ir rig ation projects, 58 mega lift irrigation projects and five minor irrigation projects. The chief minister said the state government has set up 3,224 community lift irrigation projects, 20,228 deep borewells and 8,917 solar-powered deep borewells to expand irrigation access in rural areas. Over 20,000 rooftop rainwater harvesting projects have been completed under ‘Chhata’ scheme and 1,200 recharge shafts under ‘ rua’ scheme to improve groundA water sustainability. More than 40,000 Pani Panchayats are also being strengthened to improve transparency and effective participation in irrigation management.  Continued on P5 setting up a dedicated engineering team within the company Sources . said it also envisages splitting the Chairman of BrahMos Aerospace and Director General (BrahMos) roles into two separate posts. The Russian side’s representation is proposed to remain unchanged. The proposed restructuring comes as BrahMos scales up to meet a sharp rise in domestic orders and exports. The Philippines, BrahMos’s first overseas customer, began receiving the missiles in 2024, while Indonesia and Vietnam have emerged as new buyers. Negotiations with the UAE are also gaining momentum. Production has been ramped up. The BrahMos integration and testing facility in Lucknow has added around 20% to the programme’s overall production capacity, supplementing existing lines in Hyderabad, Pilani and Thiruvananthapuram. Indigenous content has risen to around 70%, against a target of 85%. Sources said BrahMos Aerospace had outgrown the governance structure created in 1998, when the programme was still under development. “BrahMos Aerospace is now running four plants, supplying all three services and working against fixed export delivery schedules,” one source said. “It needs a structure suited to a production company rather than one designed around a development programme.” The proposal has also triggered concerns. Sources said the DRDO labs had provided much of the design base, testing infrastructure and specialist manpower behind the indigenisation. Removing the DG (MSS) from the board, they argued, could weaken BrahMos’ formal link with those labs. They also questioned whether a relatively small in-house engineering team could quickly replace capabilities built up across the DRDO missile complex over decades. 45,000 affected in fresh floods Balasore: Over 45,000 people in 22 gram panchayats across three blocks of Balasore were affected by floods as Subarnarekha river breached its banks again on Wednesday, prompting the district administration to intensify rescue and relief measures | P4 Couple trapped inside car, suffocate to death, after it plunges into pit E x p r e s s Ne w s Se r v i c e @ Paradip A 60-year-old retired engineer of Paradip Port and his wife were killed after their car fell into a water-filled pit along National Highway-53 near Biju Patnaik market complex chowk under Paradip Lock police limits in the small hours of Wednesday . The deceased were identified as Bibhuti Bhusan Das, a retired junior engineer of the Marine department of Paradip Port Authority (PPA), and his wife Pratima Das (55). Sources said the couple had gone to a relative’s house at Paradipgarh to The partially submerged car attend a feast on Tuesday night. They were returning to Paradip by car when the mishap took place around 2 am. Das was driving the car while his wife was seated in the front. A cargo-laden truck approached their vehicle when they were attempting to enter the Chandikhole-Paradip NH-53 from a connecting road. Das reportedly gave way to the truck but lost control of his car. The car veered off the road and fell into the pit near the ARSS company storage area where construction work for expansion of the Continued on P5 highway was underway  .