The Editorial Page: India’s next manufacturing leap will be about what it produces 10 SATURDAY, JANUARY 31, 2026 JOURNALISM of COURAGE MuMbAI, lATE CITy, 20 PAgES ₹5.00 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 REG.NO. MCS/067/2018 - 20 RNI REGN. NO. 1543/57 GOYAL FLAGS 5-YEAR EU DEFENCE BUDGET OF EURO 800 BN AS AN OPPORTUNITY 114 142 176 75 JALNA A RED initiative appears in today’s edition of The In dian Express. These pages are an initiative of the marketing solutions team of The Indian Express Group and contain content paid for by advertisers. These pages should be read as advertisement. EU deal goes beyond trade... Ajit Pawar’s wife can lift manufacturing: Goyal Sunetra set to be E. Says technical know-how, investment to spur industry to build capacities Anil Sasi & P Vaidyanathan Iyer New Delhi, January 30 INDIA IS looking at ramping up itsmanufacturingwithtechnologyknow-howandinvestments fromEuropeancountriesthatgo well beyond just trade, said Union Commerce and Industry Orders free sanitary pads, separate toilets in all govt and private schools New Delhi, January 30 STATING THAT the right to menstrualhealthisapartofthe right to life, a fundamental right under Article 21 of the Constitution, the Supreme Court on Friday directed all ‘Doorwaslocked fromoutside’: AfterBengal blaze,25families lookforanswers Sweety Kumari & Tanusree Bose States and Union Territories to putinplaceMenstrualHygiene Management (MHM) measures, including gendersegregatedtoiletsandfreesanitarynapkins,inallgovernment as well as private schools. Issuing a slew of directions, the bench of Justices J B Pardi- PM Narendra Modi and EU leaders Ursula von der Leyen and Antonio Costa witness the exchange of MoU between Union Minister Piyush Goyal and EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic on Tuesday. ANI FULL TRANSCRIPT OF GOYAL’S INTERVIEW TOMORROW MinisterPiyushGoyal,afterhavingwrappedupthenegotiations foraFreeTradeAgreementwith wala and R Mahadevan asked the Centre, States and UTs to ensurecompliancewithinthree months.Citingprovisionsofthe Right to Education Act, the court also warned of stringent consequences for non-compliance,includingthede-recognition of private schools and holding state governments directly accountable for failures in public institutions. “In our considered view, »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Income Tax team at his Bengaluru office, top Kerala realtor kills self the European Union. InaninterviewwithTheIndian Express, Goyal said, “The TWENTY-FIVE charred body partsandbonesareundergoing DNA tests to match samples collected from 27 people who say their relatives have been missing since a fire gutted two warehouses, including one belongingtoWowMomo,inNazirabad on the outskirts of Kolkata. As the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) undertakes the painstaking task, the site of the Republic Day blaze remains a scene of grim recovery. Fire services and disaster management teams have deployedcranesandgascuttersto sift through the debris, while distraught families continue to scourtheperimeterforanysign of life. With crowds swelling as desperation mounts, police have imposed BNS Section 163 to prevent large gatherings. The fire broke out in the earlyhoursofJanuary26atone of the two warehouses and quickly spread, killing at least 25. Three arrests have been made so far, including two employees of Wow Momo. On Friday, Prime Minister Narendra »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 C J Roy was the chairman of Confident Group PAGE 9 the afternoon at the officecum-bungalow, with a senior police officer saying Roy allegedly used a pistol he had in his »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Mumbai, January 30 CAMPUS POLITICS at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) is being fundamentally reshaped this year, with the administration rolling out changes that replace the Students’ Union with a Students’ Council, introduce a mandatory non-political affiliation undertaking for candidates, E. explained How Students’ Council changes campus politics P 4 and remove student representatives from key decision-making bodies. Studentbodyelectionshave Process begins to return AI-171 crash victims’ personal effects to their next of kin PAGE 14 business as Usual By EP UNNY nation PAGE 7 ZUbEEN DEATH: ACCUSED SAYS SHE WAS TOLD TO SHArE HIS rOOM returned to TISS’s Mumbai campus after being on hold for a year, during which the administration revised the Students’ Union Constitution, the rulebook governing student elections and the union’s functioning. The elections are set to be held on February 6. Thechanges,however,have sparked pushback from student groups, which say they »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 l AT MALAPPURAM GHATS, FESTIVAL ‘RE-ENACTING ALL RITUALS’ OBSERVED AT KUMBH MELA IN NORTH Blessed at Prayagraj, riding ‘Hindu revival’ push, ‘Kumbh Mela’ comes to Kerala Shaju Philip oftheMelafromtheNorth.The riverthatrunsnexttotheghats, Bharathapuzha, incidentally is known as ‘Dakshin Ganga’. BEFORE THE curtain rises on Tensofthousandshavebeen the Assembly elections in Ke- throngingtotheghatsforthe18rala, it is witnessing a debut: its dayMela,whichendsonFebruvery first “Kumbh Mela”. ary 3. Vedic chants echo round On the bathing the clock as devotees page 1 ghats of the Nava take the holy dip. By Mukunda Temple at evening, the place is Thirunavaya in Malcrawling with safappuram district, where gener- fron-clad sadhus, including ations have offered prayers to priests from Kashi Vishwanath the souls of the dead, a festival Temple who conduct the isseeingarevivalasasurrogate »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 A L L T H AT ’ S L E f T b E H I N D TISS redraws rules of campus politics, replaces students’ union with council, removes student reps from key bodies Pallavi Smart fact is that this (the deal) is much more than just trade. It is Maharashtra Dy cM Decision comes hours after NCP delegation met CM Fadnavis Alok Deshpande & Shubhangi Khapre Mumbai, January 30 AJIT PAWAR’S wife and Rajya Sabha MP Sunetra Pawar is set to succeed her late husband as Maharashtra Deputy Chief MinisteronSaturday,becoming thefirstwomantoholdthepost. Sunetra will be appointed the Nationalist Congress Party’s (NCP) Legislature Party leader at 2 pm and will be sworn in as DeputyCMlaterintheevening, sources in the party said. The decision came hours afterNCPbeganformalconsultations with Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on filling the Deputy CM’s post, even as theBJPindicateditwouldleave »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Kiran Parashar, Shaju Philip & Aanchal Magazine CONFIDENTGROUPchairman Roy Chiriankandath Joseph, popularlyknownasCJRoy,died after allegedly shooting himself at his Langford Road office in BengaluruonFriday.According to sources, Income Tax officials wereathisofficepremiseswhen the incident took place. The incident occurred in The EU trade deal offers an opportunity for Indian manufacturing to scale up and emerge as an alternative to China as a supplier for the 27-member European bloc . It is being seen as a win-win for both. THE BIg PIcTURE Bengaluru, Thiruvananthapuram, New Delhi, January 30 Kolkata, January 30 explained Why India, EU see deal as win-win SC: Menstrual health is a part of fundamental right to life Ananthakrishnan G FORMAL ANNOUNCEMENT ExPECTED TODAY Thirunavaya (Malappuram), January 30 anchor Priests from Kashi Vishwanath Temple perform Nila Aarti on the banks of Bharathapuzha in Kerala’s Malappuram district. ShAju PhIlIP inside PAGE 5 THE rELUCTANT POLITICIAN SET TO CArrY fOrWArD HUSbAND’S LEGACY Ajit Pawar’s wife Sunetra Pawar (right) with NCP (SP) MP Supriya Sule at his funeral in Baramati, Thursday. PTI RELATED REPORTS, PAGE 5, 6 ‘What can we do?’: INDIA signals limited options amid NCP merger buzz Asad Rehman New Delhi, January 30 AMID A push for the reunificationoftheNationalistCongress Party (NCP) and speculation that the Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP) faction may “join the government”followingthemerger, the other parties in the Opposition INDIA bloc have adopted a wait-and-watch approach. “What can we do?” asked a senior All India Congress Com- mittee (AICC) leader in Delhi. “The two factions and the (Pawar)familyhavetotakeacall. A senior member of the family hasdiedandwedon’twanttointerfere and make any overtures right now. We are watching the situationandwilldosomething as the situation develops.” The two NCP factions were set to announce their merger on February 8, before the untimely demise of Maharashtra »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2