THE FREE PRESS JOURNAL Vol. 67 No. 249 | FRIDAY, JULY 19, 2024 | 39 Pages | `5 & for Pune `6 only www.freepressjournal.in EDITIONS: 96 Y A NN TH IVERSAR INSPIRATION The Free Press Journal brings a special pull-out today with this edition on the occasion of its 96th anniversary. To align with this year’s theme, Inspiration, we spoke to some known faces to know about their Inspirations. We also celebrate some unsung heroes whose lives can be an inspiration to all. fp INDORE PUNE BHOPAL NASHIK KONKAN E-paper GAMES NATION Will Eknath Shinde sell golgappas, Kangana on seer’s betrayal remark FPJ MUMBAI Reg.No MCS/048/2021-23; RNI No. 1541/1957 M.p.c.s office Mumbai. PIN 400001 Member: Audit Bureau of Circulation (Jan to Dec 2023) Cinema Shraddha, RajKummar open up about Stree 2 Indian women face off Pakistan in the Asian Cup opener today Edit It’s better to scrap the bill on reservation SLICE OF LIFE | A man may aspire for 'vishwaroop', but nobody is certain what lies ahead... despite being human, some people lack human qualities Hey Bhagwan! Bhagwat on human ambition: NO END PTI GUMLA (JHARKHAND) Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Chief Mohan Bhagwat on Thursday said in the course of self-development, a man may want to become 'superman', then 'Devta' and 'Bhagwan' and aspire for 'vishwaroop', but nobody is certain what lies ahead. He also said that some people, despite being human, lacked human qualities and they should inculcate them first. Addressing a village-level workers meeting, organised by a non-profit organisation Vikas Bharti here, the RSS chief asserted that people should work relentlessly for the welfare of mankind, since there is no end to the pursuit of development and human ambition. "After achieving human qualities, man aspires to become superman with supernatural powers and then attain the status of 'Devta' and 'Bhagwan'. He then aspires for vishwaroop (the supreme power's all-pervading form). What is beyond that, no one is certain," Bhagwat said. There is no end to the development of the inner and outer self and one should work relentlessly for humanity, he said, adding that a worker should never be satisfied with his or her work. 4Contd on | nation Briefs NEET marks to be shared 7 drown as car falls into well Seven persons returning from a pilgrimage to temple town Pandharpur were killed and three injured on Thursday after a taxi veered off the road in Maharashtra's Jalna district and fell into a well, a police official said. Officials said the incident took place at 5.30pm and that the taxi had 12 occupants, including the driver. They added that it veered off the road while trying to avoid a motorcycle coming from the opposite direction. "The black-and-yellow taxi fell into a well, trapping some of the occupants as the front doors got jammed. Some of them managed to escape as the taxi began to sink. A crane had to be deployed to extricate the bodies from the car," officials said. 3 killed in derailment At least three people were killed and around 20 sustained injuries when several bogies of the Dibrugarh Express derailed on Thursday near Gonda. Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak, however, told PTI that four passengers had died. The statement came even as driver of the train claimed he heard a loud explosion before the derailment. The issue has also taken a political twist with the Congress calling on PM Modi and Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw to take responsibility for this and other recent accidents and resign. UBT can take donations The Election Commission on Thursday offered a major relief to Shiv Sena Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray. The ECI has allowed the party to accept public donations. The relief has come just in time for the upcoming assembly elections in Maharashtra. Breakup will be city-wise and centre-wise to detect any discernible pattern; identities to be masked FPJ NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the National Testing Agency (NTA) to publish the marks obtained by all 23 lakh candidates who took the NEET UG exam for the year 2024 by noon Saturday, reports Bar and Bench. (According to Live Law, the results will be uploaded by 5 pm on Friday.) The results are to be pub- lished in their entirety – city and centre-wise. The identities of the students will, however, remain masked, the court instructed the NTA, which is under-fire over allegations of leaked question papers and violation of marking protocol. ‘‘You can have dummy roll numbers, so no student’s identity is disclosed. But let us see, centre-wise, what was the mark pattern.” The court's order followed a day of intense arguments over IAS trainee’s mother is booked for murder bid FPJ News Service PUNE The police have booked Manorama Khedkar, the mother of IAS probationer Puja Khedkar, for attempt to murder, as they sought her custody for five days in a land dispute case. Cops have described Manorama, her husband Dilip and three others, all shown as accused in the FIR, as ‘influential and politically active’ persons, at the court in Paud that remanded Manorama in police custody till July 20. A search was launched for Manorama and her husband after a video surfaced showing her allegedly threatening some persons with a gun, over a land dispute at Dhadwali village in Mulshi tehsil, Pune, in 2023. Manorama was ‘missing’ for nearly a week after the video went viral on social media. The prosecution told the court that the accused had placed the gun on the complainant’s head. When she was about to pull the trigger, the complainant ducked in fear, while the other accused restrained her, police told the court. Manorama is neither cooperating with the investigators nor sharing information on the whereabouts of her husband and the other three accused; 4Contd on | nation a clutch of petitions. Some petitioners argued that making the scores public would increase public confidence in the NTA. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the exam agency, opposed the request on grounds the test results were students' private property. "Entire results are never published... they are the personal property of students," 4Contd on | nation B’DESH ANTI QUOTA TOLL TOUCHES 32 Anisur Rahman DHAKA IAS trainee Puja Khedkar's mother Manorama Khedkar, who was detained from Mahad, brought to Pune on Thursday. At least 25 more people were killed and over 2,500 injured in Bangladesh on Thursday, media reports said, as violence escalated in the capital Dhaka and elsewhere over student protests on the issue of job reservations. This has taken the death toll to 32 since the protests erupted. Students have been holding rallies demanding change in a system which reserves a third of public sector jobs for the relatives of veterans of the country’s war for independence from Pakistan in 1971. 4Contd on | nation Scramble for seats: All eyeing 100+ FPJ Political Bureau MUMBAI PLANS OPEN FOR ASSEMBLY POLLS Preparations for the state assembly polls are going none too smoothly, neither for the ruling Mahayuti nor for the Maha Vikas Aghadi. In both cases, alliance partners are seeking to contest close to 100 seats or more. On Thursday, the mood in the Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena was that the party should contest 110 seats. In a meeting at Shinde’s official residence Varsha, where ministers, MPs, MLAs and senior leaders were present, it was announced that party observers had been appointed for the purpose. According to sources, Shinde directed his party members to start preparations for 100 assembly seats. Along with ob- servers, the party will also appoint an in-charge for every assembly seat it wants to contest. This is in tune with a demand raised at the party’s anniversary day function, where former minister Ramdas Kadam demanded 100 seats in the presence of CM Shinde. The party’s resolve is likely to evoke strong reactions in the 4Contd on | nation off-grid Surya to lead, Gill is VC in both formats Joe Williams MUMBAI PANDYA IS OUT Explosive batsman Suryakumar Yadav has been appointed as the captain of the Indian T20 team for the upcoming threematch series against Sri Lanka, which kicks off on July 27. Giving him company will be Shubman Gill, who has been named vice-captain for both formats, highlighting the selectors' confidence in his Rohit, Kohli in ODI team for Sri Lanka leadership abilities and his impressive performances in recent outings. In the T20 format, the most striking omission is Hardik Pandya. As the designated vicecaptain of India in the T20 World Cup, it was expected that the next logical step would be to make him captain. According to ESPNCricinfo, "Fitness concerns and workload management tipped the scales." Pandya went on a lengthy break after a freak ankle injury during the ODI World Cup 2023. That was not all, even before that Pandya has often missed tournaments due to injuries. He staged a comeback, though, to the IPL.’’ 4Contd on | nation Clock is ticking for Joe Biden WazirX hit by a `1,900cr breach Attack pattern points to state-backed hacker group from North Korea Gautam S Mengle MUMBAI One of India’s biggest cryptocurrency exchanges, WazirX, confirmed on Thursday that they had been hit by a cybersecurity breach. Cybersecurity researchers who first spotted the breach told the FPJ in an exclusive interaction that the pattern of the attack was similar to those by the Lazarus Group, an infamous North Korean state-sponsored hacker group. According to independent researchers as well as data accessed by the FPJ, around $230 million, which is more than Rs 1,923 crore, has been lost in the incident. “We’re aware that one of our multisig wallets has experienced a security breach. Our team is actively investigating the incident. To ensure the safety of your assets, INR and crypto withdrawals will be temporarily paused. Thank you for your patience and understanding. We’ll keep you posted with further updates,” said the official update from the company. A multisig wallet is a crypto storage system that requires multiple approvals before the operator can access the funds in the wallet. While this is a very strong security measure, in this case, it also means that the hackers behind the breach were capable enough to crack it. The breach was first noticed by Cyvers, a cryptocurrency cybersecurity firm based in Israel, who, after verifying it, immediately reached out to WazirX and also announced the breach on X, formerly known as Twitter. 4Contd on | nation FPJ News Service NEW YORK President Joe Biden tested positive for Covid-19 while on the campaign trail. His political future, already in jeopardy due to age-related concerns, Biden walked very slowly off Air Force One, pausing multiple times and struggled to get into the car. In an interview this week Biden had said he would only drop out of the presidential race if doctors told him to and there was a medical reason that made it necessary. He had previously said only the 'Lord almighty' would keep him out of the 2024 race. More important, in the past 24 hours, private conversations with three top 4Contd on | nation Lateral MBA entry, now Musab Qazi MUMBAI Starting this academic year, engineering graduates in Maharashtra can complete their Masters in Business Administration (MBA) in just one year. Additionally, professionals will be allowed to pursue en- gineering and management courses through evening or weekend classes. The state is rolling out lateral or direct entry to the second year of MBA for those who have completed their Bachelor of Engineering (BE) 4Contd on | nation