The Editorial Page: At Beijing summit, both Trump, Xi got what they came for. But Xi got a bit more 6 MoNDAY, MAY 18, 2026 Journalism of Courage ahMeDaBaD, laTe CiTy, 16 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 Happening today lA 21-member CAbinet led by Chief Minister V D Satheesan will take oath in Kerala, marking the return of the UDF government after a decade. Track These and more on www.indianexpress.com Business as usual One OF tHe LArGeSt DrOne AttACKS As rupee stares at 100 to a $, policymakers engage with a lesson from just three years ago Rupee kept artificially stable at 82-83 for two years in 2023 and 2024 Aanchal magazine & Siddharth Upasani New Delhi, May 17 By EP UNNY AS ThE West Asia crisis continues to put pressure on the capital account, internal deliberations among policymakers in delhi and Mumbai over the last few weeks have underlined the counter effects of “artificial stabilisation” of the rupee that precededtheslidethatbeganin 2025. onFriday,therupeefellpast the 96-per-dollar mark, hitting a new record low. The reason why the ghosts of the past have cometohaunttodayisthesteep slide in the exchange rate of the domesticcurrency.Therupeeis down 5.2% against the dollar since the war began in late February and the prospects of it breaching the psychological barrier of 100 has turned real. Policymakers fear this may furtherhurtinvestorsentiment. “It’s like past ghosts are haunting us,” a top official told l slide-hold-slump:Howtherupeehasfared 70 80 84.0 (3 Oct 2024) 74.4 81.0 (22 Sept 2022) 90 100 3 Jan 2022 85.1 (19 Dec 2024) SoURCe: iNVeSTiNG.CoM The Indian Express. “If you see thelevelsfortheyears2023and 2024,therupeedidnotdepreciate much and forex was burnt to keep it stable. It was artificially held back for so long. The next psychological level is, of course, 100. And if it crosses 95.9 15 May 2026 that level, then it may slide further,” the official said. Policymakers see the currency remaining under pressure going ahead, especially as the ability of interventions to defend any particular level are seen as limited. According to another person aware of the discussions, the forex market is now pricing in the depreciation that may have occurred in the earlier phaseofexchangeratestability, when interventions from the reserveBankofIndia(rBI)had increased significantly. This period of stability has led to the currentfallintherupeeappearing steeper, the person said. “If you see the curve of rupee’s value over the last 2-3 years, it plateaued within a narrowrange.Theeffectsofthe long,artificialstabilisationthen are being felt now,” he said. After breaching the Vidheesha Kuntamalla ThE TrAIn from rudrapur to Kota was already full when 25year-old yash Gangwar and his cousinArthikboardeditonMay 14.TherewerenoACticketsleft. The region was in the grip of a heatwave,butthetwonEETaspirantscouldnotaffordtowait. “Wehadtoreturnimmediately. We had to start preparing again,” yash told The Indian Express from Kota. Across the country, Tata Electronics & ASML sign MoU for semiconductor fab in Gujarat Shubhajit roy New Delhi, May 17 ElEVATInG ThEIr bilateral ties to a strategic partnership, Indiaandthenetherlandshave agreed on a five-year roadmap (2026-30), and signed as many as 16 pacts including agreements on semiconductors, critical minerals, migration andmobility,waterandrenewable energy. Meeting his dutch counterpart, 39-year-old rob Jetten, at The hague, Prime Minister narendra Modi said, “India is the youngest nation in the world and the fastest-growing major economy globally. you representthenewgenerationof leadership in the netherlands »COntinUeD On PAGe 2 »COntinUeD On PAGe 2 l nsui members protest against the neeT paper leak, at Vikhroli in mumbai, sunday. DeepaK JoShi Manisha Waghmare, a beautician from pune, has emerged as a “common link” in the CBi’s NeeT probe, connecting students with teachers of reputed schools for tuition on a commission basis — and allegedly using these contacts to distribute the leaked paper. The CBi has identified Manisha Mandhare, an expert on NTa’s question-setting panel for NeeT-UG 2026, as one of the “masterminds” in the case. P 9 ‘In Kerala, preparations for the next election will start... people used to say we won’t win in Bengal, but we did’ pm narendra modi with netherlands pm rob jetten in The hague, saturday. on sunday, the pm arrived in sweden, where he held talks with his swedish counterpart ulf kristersson. aNi india rejecTs duTch pm remarks on press, minoriTies, p 5 PrALHAD JOSHi, UNioN MiNiSTeR oF CoNSUMeR aFFaiRS, FooD aND pUBliC DiSTRiBUTioN; NeW aND ReNeWaBle eNeRGy Page 11 FiLeS reVieW PLeA AFter DeLAY 4 years on, Govt plugs cost escalation loophole Despite top court raps, Jharkhand does not in Jal Jeevan projects Harikishan Sharma secure Saranda’s prized E. explained sal forests, jumbo herds check back in place New Delhi, May 17 A KEy safeguard to regulate spending under Jal Jeevan Mission, the Centre’s showpiece rural tap water scheme, has been reinstated in new rules to govern the initiative — plugging a gap that had led to cost escalations in projects far beyond official estimates. The safeguard, called “Tender premium”, refers to the additional amount quoted by a project bidder that is higher than the Government’s estimated cost. It was part of the original rules for the scheme drafted in 2019, and ef- A dilution of rules in 2022 allowed states to use Central funds to cover inflated bids for projects under the showpiece rural tap water scheme. The latest rules reinstate a check on such spending. fectivelymeantthatstateswere not allowed to use Central funds to cover the additional amount. »COntinUeD On PAGe 2 Jay mazoomdaar New Delhi, May 17 dISrEGArdInG SuPrEME Court remarks over misleading the bench, and despite assurances by two of its own senior officials who made personal appearances before the court, Jharkhand has filed a review petitionagainsttheapexcourt’s reiterated order directing it to notify Saranda’s elephant forests as a wildlife sanctuary. one of the country’s most significant sal forest landscapes, Saranda is a biodiversity hotspot. But deforestation and mining in the region have increasingly pushed elephant herdsintoneighbouringstates. After the state missed multiple deadlines, the Supreme Court, on november 13, 2025, gave Jharkhand three monthstonotifythesanctuary. Instead, the state filed a review petition on February 14 after a delay of two months. »COntinUeD On PAGe 2 l also linked To alleged robberies and gunrunning, ops exTending from nagaland To gujaraT From Bihar jail, criminal masterminds a syndicate to chase his fascination for gold Kamal Saiyed & Santosh Singh Kiran Bhoge and threatened to blow his face off. “Vault room Surat, Patna, May 17 ki chabhi de. Nahin toh moonh mein goli maar doonga.” Around1pmonApril27,seven They could not get the key men on three motorcycles rode — it was with the branch manup to the State Bank of India ager who wasn’t around at the (SBI) branch on time. So the robbers page 1 Surat’s Varachha left with about rs 50 road.Theysnatched lakh in cash that the mobile phones of they could lay their thesixemployeesandsevencus- hands on. The Surat Crime tomers in the bank, and herded Branch tracked two of them, them into a corner room. Shubham Thakur (24) and VikThe criminals put a gun to ram Singh rajput (30), to the head of bank in-charge Gonda in uP, and produced anchor kundan bhagat, 29, was held by bihar police last year for a gold robbery in dehradun in 2023 120 drones headed to capital shot down: Russia; strikes justified, says Zelenskyy »COntinUeD On PAGe 2 Chips to clean energy, India Ahead of retest, a scramble again for rooms, crash courses in Kota and Netherlands upgrade Beauticiankey ties to strategic partnership linkincase:proBe New Delhi, May 17 Indians hit by drones near Moscow: One dead, 3 injured them in court on May 7. The investigation quickly zeroedinontheallegedmastermind: Kundan Kumar alias Kundan Bhagat, a 29-year-old gangster who has been lodged in Patna’s Beur Jail for the past six months. Police and investigators say Kundan is linked to cases of alleged extortion, robbery and gunrunning, with operations extending from nagaland to Gujarat. Before the Surat bank robbery, the Bihar Police had at »COntinUeD On PAGe 2 Ahmedabad a building damaged in krasnogorsk, in the moscow region. ReUTeRS Shubhajit roy New Delhi, May 17 An IndIAn worker was killed and three others were injured inadroneattackintheMoscow region, the Indian embassy in russia said Sunday. This was one of ukraine’s largest drone strikes on russia which killed at least four persons,includingthreenearMoscow, and wounded a dozen others, local authorities said. gujarat Page 3 While at least 22 Indians are estimated to have died since the start of the russia-ukraine began in February 2022, this is possibly the first Indian casualty in the Moscow region. “one Indian worker has lost his life and three others have been injured in a drone attack in the Moscow region earlier today. Embassy officials have visitedthelocationandmetthe injuredworkersinthehospital,” »COntinUeD On PAGe 2 BJP closer to ‘one umBrella rule’, like cong after 1947: shah