FP The publishers permit sharing of the e-paper's pdf on WhatsApp and other social media platforms FREE PRESS Vol. XLII No. 230 | INDORE | SUNDAY | JANUARY 25, 2026 | Pages 18 ` 4 | Regd. No. Indore MP/ICD 216/2024-2026 | RNI No. 38281/83 N AT I O N A L TO U R I S M DAY www.freepressjournal.in Nation Shah sounds poll bugle for 2027 in Lucknow P.7 ESTD-1983 iii QUALITY @ VALUE EDITIONS: INDORE WORLD TRADE AGREEMENTS FUEL JOBS, SAYS MODI Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar ‘Reform Express benefiting workers, employees, businesses’ Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said India’s expanding trade and mobility agreements with multiple countries are opening up fresh employment and career opportunities for the country’s youth, both at home and abroad, as the government pushes job creation in “mission mode”. Addressing the 18th Rozgar Mela via video conferencing from New Delhi, Modi electronically handed over more than 61,000 appointment letters to newly recruited candidates across central government departments and organisations. The Rozgar Mela was held simultaneously at 45 locations across the country. “India is signing trade and mobility agreements with several nations. These agreements are bringing new opportunities for the youth of the country,” the Prime Minister said, underlining that India has the world’s largest population of young people and that harnessing this demographic advantage remained a key priority of his fp rime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said the country is moving ahead on a fast-paced ‘Reform Express’, which is bringing widespread benefits to workers, employees, entrepreneurs and businesses, while making life and business easier across India. He noted that nextgeneration reforms, especially under the Goods and Services Tax (GST), have helped young entrepreneurs and strengthened micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).“Today the country has set out on the Reform Express. Its objective is to make both life and business easy in the country,” PM Modi stated P government. Calling the appointment letters an “invitation to nation-building”, Modi urged the new recruits to see their roles as part of a larger constitutional responsibility. The event, he said, has also empowered women as “over 8,000 daughters have received appointment letters”. Modi also said that in the last 11 years, the participation of women in the workforce has nearly doubled. He said schemes like Mudra and Startup India have also benefited women and their self-employment has risen by about 15 percent. The Prime Minister linked the occasion to the spirit of the Republic and recent na- tional commemorations, saying the start of government service marked a new chapter not just in individual lives but also in the country’s development journey.He added that India was also the “only major economy in the world that has doubled its GDP in a decade” and now has over 100 countries that have invested in it through Foreign Direct Investment. According to an official statement from the Prime Minister’s Office, the Rozgar Mela is a flagship initiative aimed at translating the government’s commitment to employment generation into tangible outcomes. Since the programme was launched in October 2022, more than 11 lakh recruitment letters have been issued through such melas across the country. The newly appointed candidates, selected from all parts of India, will join a range of ministries and departments, including the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the Department of Financial Services and the Department of Higher Education, among others. Modi said their work would directly strengthen key sectors such as internal security, healthcare, education, energy security and public service delivery. 4Continued on | P8 PUNE BHOPAL NASHIK MUMBAI E-paper Readers’ Corner R-Day 2026: Upholding... Winter storm hits US, 9000 flights cancelled EMPLOYMENT BOOST | Modi says providing youth employment and self-employment opportunities has been a priority of his govt NEW DELHI UJJAIN NEW DELHI AI cancels NY flights Air India has cancelled its flights to New York and Newark for January 25-26 due to severe winter storm forecast in the US East Coast. The airline operates daily flights from Delhi and Mumbai to New York. There are daily flights from Delhi to Newark also while services between Mumbai and Newark are operated on certain days of the week. RAIPUR/BIJAPUR Maoist plot foiled In a major success for security forces combating left-wing extremism in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district, a joint operation on Saturday led to the recovery of a significant cache of IEDs and Maoist supplies hidden in dense forest areas. The joint teams discovered 16 pressure IEDs. T20 WC ON EDGE Pak weighs exit after ICC ousts Bangladesh Agencies ISLAMABAD/NEW DELHI The T20 World Cup 2026 has been thrust into fresh turmoil after Pakistan signalled it may reconsider participation following the ICC’s decision to eject Bangladesh and replace them with Scotland. PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi termed the move “unfair” and accused the ICC of “double standards,” adding that a final call would be taken after consultations with Pakistan’s Prime Minister. The ICC formally informed the Bangladesh Cricket Board that it had missed the 24-hour deadline to confirm travel to India and breached protocol. Scotland are set to inherit Bangladesh’s Group C fixtures in Kolkata and Mumbai. While Pakistan had earlier secured a hybrid model to play its matches in Sri Lanka, Naqvi’s remarks suggest even that arrangement could now be under review. Bangladesh has reportedly approached the ICC’s Dispute Resolution Committee. With one full-member nation already out and another wavering, cricket’s global spectacle faces unprecedented uncertainty weeks before the first ball. (Detail Report on Sports Page) Path exists to roll back India tariffs: Bessent Agencies DAVOS US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent known for making anti India remarks on Friday, hinted that the additional 25 per cent tariffs imposed on India over its purchase of Russian oil could be rolled back, after Indian refinery purchases of Russian crude dropped sharply following the tariff move. Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos during a conversation with Politico, Bessent described the impact of the tariffs as a “huge success” and suggested that a diplomatic path exists to remove them, even as they remain in force for now. “We put a 25 per cent tariff on India for buying Russian oil, and the Indian purchases by their refineries of Russian FP News Service Indians remained the most abandoned seafarers in the world for the second consecutive year, with cases rising a sharp 25 per cent in 2025, according to new data released by the UK-headquartered International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF). A total of 1,125 Indian seafarers were abandoned by shipowners in 2025, up from Bessent suggests EU avoided imposing tariffs on India to protect negotiations for an upcoming EUIndia Free Trade Agreement. oil have collapsed. So that is a success. The tariffs are still on. I would imagine there is a path to take them off, so that’s a check and a huge success,” Bessent told Politico. His remarks come amid growing geopolitical tensions around Indian oil imports, US trade measures and European Union trade ambitions. They also follow discussions in the US Congress on a proposed bill that could impose duties of Several leaders will be out of BJP state executive There are instructions to include 105 members Our Staff Reporter EU chief Ursula arrives for four-day visit In such a situation, only 82 leaders can be accommodated in the party’s executive committee. There were 175 members in the previous executive committee. Because instructions have been issued to reduce the number of members in the committee, the party leadership is facing problems in announcing the names. Most of the ministers and important leaders are accommodated in the committee. Senior legislators, powerful leaders who have lost elections, and the important leaders from the districts are to be included in the committee. But this time, such leaders will be out. One-third of the women leaders must also be included in the committee. Keeping these problems in mind, the party leadership is unable to announce the executive committee. up to 500 per cent on countries buying Russian oil. Bessent also criticised European countries for purchasing refined petroleum products from India that were made using Russian crude, accusing them of indirectly financing Russia’s war effort. He called the practice an “act of irony and stupidity”. 4Continued on | P8 BOARD OF PEACE Merz & Meloni: We can’t join Agencies ROME German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Friday insisted they would have been ready to join US President Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace” but were prevented by constitutional barriers. Their rejection of Trump’s controversial Board of Peace — an integral part of his plan for post-conflict governance in Gaza — appeared to be a tactical way of not getting on Trump’s wrong side. U.S. president. Meloni and Merz are considered two of Trump’s closest allies in the EU and are at the forefront of trying to defuse transatlantic tensions, Politico reports. Within the EU, only Hungary and Bulgaria signed up to Trump’s initiative, with many countries worried by the invitations issued to Russia and Belarus. France, Spain, Norway, Sweden have declined. NEW DELHI Kallas’ first visit as EU VP European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen kick-started her four-day visit to India to firm up a series of big-ticket initiatives to significantly expand two-way ties. President of the European Council Antonio Costa and von der Leyen will hold summit talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on January 27 amid increasing global concerns over disruptions caused by the Trump administration's economic and security policies. Kaja Kallas, the EU VicePresident, landed in the national capital on Saturday on her first official visit to India. Welcoming her, in a post on X, MEA Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said that her visit builds on the momentum of regular high-level engagements and comes at an opportune moment to strengthen the India-EU Strategic Partnership further The BJP’s state leadership is sweating it out to announce the party’s executive committee. Three months have passed since Hemant Khandelwal announced names of the officebearers, but he is unable to announce the executive committee. Many leaders of the party will be out of the executive committee this time. The party’s central leadership has made it clear that the number of members of the state executive committee will not be more than 105 this time. The names of a 23-member team of office-bearers, an office secretary, and the person in charge of the media cell have been announced. PIO shoots dead wife, 3 relatives in US Police failure to assess situation led to Tarana riots PTI Despite a brawl on Thursday night, cops became careless PTI Costa will land in the national capital on Sunday. The two European Union leaders will grace the Republic Day celebrations as the chief guests on January 26. 4Continued on | P8 Govt has no say in transfer of judges, says Justice Bhuyan FP News Service Why should a judge be transferred from one High Court to another just because he had passed certain inconvenient orders against the government? Does it not affect the independence of the judiciary? – Justice Ujjal Bhuyan PUNE Supreme Court judge Justice Ujjal Bhuyan on Saturday said that the transfer and posting of judges is an exclusive domain of the judiciary and that any role of the Central Government in the process compromises judicial independence and the integrity of the collegium system. Delivering the Principal G.V. Pandit Memorial Lecture on “Constitutional Morality and Democratic Governance” at ILS Law College in Pune, Justice Bhuyan expressed serious concern over collegium resolutions that record judicial transfers as being made at the request of the government. He said such disclosures reveal a “striking intrusion of executive influence” into a process that is constitutionally meant to be independent, Live Law and Bar & Bench report. “By the very nature of things, the Central Government can have no say in the matter of transfer and posting of High Court judges. It cannot say that such and such a judge should or should not be transferred. It is within the exclusive domain of the ju- INDIANS MOST ABANDONED SEAFARERS GLOBALLY MUMBAI P.11 Cinema SRK’s King sets December... P.16 BHOPAL Briefs N AT I O N A L V OT E R S ’ DAY Seafarers were owed a total of $25.8 million in unpaid wages and dues in 2025, of which the ITF said it had recovered $16.5 million 899 in 2024. The figure marks a steep escalation from 401 cases recorded in 2023, mak- ing Indian nationals the worst affected globally for the third year running. The ITF said seafarer abandonment worldwide hit record levels last year, with 6,223 seafarers left stranded across 410 vessels. It welcomed the Indian government’s move to “blacklist” ships linked to repeat abandonments and other exploitative practices, calling it a step towards accountability. 4Continued on | P8 diciary,” he said. Justice Bhuyan was referring to the Supreme Court collegium’s decision in October last year to modify its proposal to transfer Justice Atul Sreedharan from the Madhya Pradesh High Court to the Chhattisgarh High Court, and instead recommend his transfer to the Allahabad High Court. 4Continued on | P8 NEW YORK A 51-year-old Indian-origin man has been arrested for allegedly shooting dead his wife and three relatives purportedly due to a family dispute in the US state of Georgia. Vijay Kumar was taken into custody a short distance from the residence in Lawrenceville city where the shooting occurred on Friday, Gwinnett County Police said in a social media post. Gwinnett County Police identified the victims as Kumar's wife Meemu Dogra, 43, who is an Indian national, and the relatives Gourav Cumar, 33, Nidhi Chander, 37, and Harish Chander, 38. 4Continued on | P8 BHOPAL Members of both communities pelted one another with stones at night and that, too, in the presence of police The wrong assessment of the situation by the police is also one of the reasons for the riots at Tarana in Ujjain. When the riots erupted in Tarana, the senior officers from the police headquarters were busy organising Puja and Namaz at Bhojshala in Dhar. But the local police of Ujjain failed to understand the situation in Tarana. The police were under pressure. So, riots took place in the home district of the Chief Minister before Republic Day. A dispute cropped up between the two communities on Thursday night, but there was a lack of security after the Friday namaz. A dispute took place between Sahil Thakur and Salman Beg on Thursday night. Some people laid siege to the police station demanding the arrest of the culprits. In the meantime, a few people, belonging to a par- Our Staff Reporter ticular community, torched some buses. Afterwards, FIRs were registered against Beg and his accomplices. The police thought the dispute would end, but the police failed to assess what was going to happen between the two groups on Friday morning. Had the police arrested the anti-social elements of both groups, the situation in Tarana would have never descended into riots. The members of both communities pelted one another with stones at night and that, too, in the presence of the police. Now, the higher-ups are assessing these events. 4Continued on | P8 offgrid Trump joins ‘penguin meme’ trend, gets trolled Agencies WASHINGTON, DC Even as proposed tariffs on Europe linked to Greenland have been put on hold, US President Donald Trump has continued to signal sustained interest in the Arctic territory. The White House on Saturday renewed focus on the issue by sharing an AIgenerated image of the 79year-old president walking towards Greenland alongside a penguin, with the caption, "Embrace the penguin." However, the post did not sit well with netizens, who began trolling Trump. Many pointed out the error that there are no penguins in the Arctic region. Penguins are only found in countries or regions in the Southern Hemisphere. One user posted, “Nice try. We don't have penguins down against illegal immigrants. Trump has for months publicly described Greenland as strategically vital to US national security. He had earlier warned Denmark, which administers Greenland, that failure to reach an agreement could lead Washington to use military force to take control of the territory. here in Greenland.” While another wrote, “Two illegal aliens on Greenland?” referring to Trump’s crack- 4Continued on | P8