FP The publishers permit sharing of the e-paper's pdf on WhatsApp and other social media platforms Vol. 15 No. 224 | BHOPAL | SUNDAY | JANUARY 25, 2026 | Pages 18 ` 4 | Regd. No. Indore MP/ICD 216/2024-2026 | RNI No. mpeng/2010/35815 FREE www.freepressjournal.in Sports Suryakumar reveals how family & focus fuelled his 82 blitz P.16 ESTD-1983 iii QUALITY @ VALUE EDITIONS: BHOPAL WORLD 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 Trade & mobility pacts will empower youth: PM Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar ‘Reform Express benefiting workers, employees, businesses’ NEW DELHI Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said his government was entering into trade and mobility agreements with numerous countries which will open up countless new opportunities for the youth of India and that the nation has embarked on the “Reform Express” with the intent to make both life and business easier across the country. Addressing the 18th Rozgar Mela via video conferencing, Modi said the event has in recent years evolved into an institution through which lakhs of young people have received appointment in various government departments. Through the program, he said, 11 lakh appointment letters have been issued and he urged youth getting government jobs to work with the spirit of “Nagrik Devo Bhava” (Citizen is God). Stating that over 61,000 young people would be beginning a new chapter in their lives by receiving appointment letters for government services, the PM termed these letters “an invitation to nation building and a pledge to accelerate the creation of a developed India”. 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 He said these youth will go on to strengthen national security, empower the education and healthcare ecosystem, reinforce financial services and energy security, and play a vital role in the growth of public sector enterprises. Modi added that connecting youth with skills and providing them employment and selfemployment opportunities has been a priority of his government and noted that the Rozgar Mela was launched to bring government recruitments into mission mode. 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. Speaking about India’s demographic dividend of possessing the largest youth population in the world, Modi said, “India today is among the youngest nations in the world, and the government is consistently striving to create new opportunities for the youth both domestically and globally.” He said India has also made unprecedented investments in modern infrastructure, leading to increased employment across construction-related sectors. Also, he said, the startup ecosystem has expanded rapidly and now has over 2 lakh registered units that employ over 21 lakh youth. The PM said 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. Modi said India has also emerged as a major manufacturing power, with unprecedented growth in production and exports across sectors such as electronics, pharmaceuticals and vaccines, defence, and automobiles. 4Continued on | P8 UJJAIN PRESS PUNE INDORE NASHIK MUMBAI E-paper Nation Shah sounds poll bugle... Cinema SRK’s King sets December... P.15 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) Trump aide sees ‘path’ to remove 25% tariff on India PTI NEW YORK US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said there is a "path" to remove the 25 per cent tariffs imposed on India for buying Russian oil, noting that such purchases by Delhi from Moscow have "collapsed". United States President Donald Trump has imposed 50 per cent tariffs on India, including 25 per cent for its purchases of Russian oil, leading to a strain in the bilateral ties between the two countries. Bessent on Friday defined the sanctions imposed on India as a "success". "We put 25 per cent tariffs on India for buying Russian oil. And the Indian purchases by their refineries of Russian oil have collapsed. So that is a success. The tariffs are still on. The 25 per cent Russian oil tariffs are still on," There are instructions to include 105 members Our Staff Reporter 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. EU chief Ursula arrives for four-day visit PTI Kallas’ first visit as EU VP NEW DELHI 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. Costa will land in the national capital on Sunday. The two European Union leaders will grace the Republic Day 4Continued on | P8 Justice Bhuyan flags ‘executive influence’ in HC judicial transfers Shah sounds poll bugle for 2027 in Lucknow IANS LUCKNOW PUNE Supreme Court's Justice Ujjal Bhuyan, on Saturday, flagged the perceived dilution of judicial independence linked to a recent transfer of a High Court judge under the influence of the Executive, warning that the judiciary may lose "credibility" due to such aberration. Delivering the Principal G.V. Pandit Memorial Lecture on "Constitutional Morality and Democratic Governance" at ILS Law College in Pune, Justice Bhuyan asked, "Why should a Judge be transferred from one High Court to another High Court just because he had passed certain inconvenient orders against the government?" "Does it not affect the independence of the judiciary?" he asked, asserting that the Executive has absolutely no say in the matter of transfer and postings of judges. Warning that such actions directly undermine the independence of the judiciary, which is a basic feature of the Constitution, he cautioned against using transfers as tools Indian-origin man shoots wife, three relatives in US PTI 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, celebrations as the chief guests on January 26. 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 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. The Consulate General of India in Atlanta, expressing grief over the shooting, said the alleged shooter has been arrested and all possible assistance was being extended to the bereaved family. 4Continued on | P8 to penalise judges. Questioning the recent Collegium decision to modify the proposal to transfer a High Court Judge at the request of the Central government, Justice Bhuyan said that the development "reveals a striking intrusion of Executive influence into what is constitutionally supposed to be an independent process". Though he did not name anyone, Justice Bhuyan's remarks come in the backdrop of a development in October 2025 when the Collegium modified its original proposal to transfer Justice Atul Sreedharan from Madhya Pradesh High Court to the Chhattisgarh High Court. 4Continued on | P8 Biswajeet Banerjee Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah on Saturday formally set the tone for the 2027 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections from the state capital, launching a sharp attack on the Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and Congress, and urging people to give the BJP another “thumping majority” in the next polls. Addressing a large gathering at the UP Day celebrations, Shah said SP, BSP and Congress were casteist and familyrun parties which, according to him, could not ensure the welfare of the people. “Only the BJP can work for the welfare of Uttar Pradesh,” he said. See Nation Bessent said in an interview with Politico. "I would imagine that there is a path to take them off. So that's a check and a huge success," he added. Bessent also criticised Europe for not imposing tariffs on India. "Our virtue-signalling European allies refused to do it (impose tariffs) because they wanted to sign this big trade deal with India," he said. Bessent accused India of importing and refining more oil from Russia after the in- Several leaders will be out of BJP’s state executive BHOPAL Briefs P.7 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. 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. 4Continued on | P8 vasion of Ukraine. "Before the Ukraine invasion, approximately 2 per cent or 3 per cent of Indian oil that went into their refineries came from Russia. The oil was sanctioned. It got deeply discounted and moved up into the high teens17,18,19 per cent was being refined. Huge profits from the refiners," he said. He accused Europe of funding Russia's war by purchasing the oil refined in India. "But in the ultimate act of irony and stupidity, guess who was buying the refined products from the Indian refineries made from Russian oil. the Europeans are financing the war against themselves," he added. When asked if he called the Europeans "stupid", Bessent said, "I said there was an act of stupidity." 4Continued on | P8 Sharp chill sweeps north day after snowfall PTI NEW DELHI Minimum temperatures dropped sharply across north India, a day after the hills witnessed widespread snowfall and rains lashed the plains of the region. Several key roads in Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh remained closed for the second consecutive day, affecting traffic and the movement of goods. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has forecast dense to very dense fog in isolated pockets of Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab on January 25 and 26, while shallow to moderate fog is likely in Delhi in the morning on Sunday. Parts of Rajasthan recorded near-freezing night temperatures, with Lunkaransar in Bikaner emerging as the coldest in the state at 0.3 degrees Celsius. The IMD has predicteda gradual rise in minimum temperature by 2-4 degrees Celsius in Gujarat over the next three days. Police failure to assess situation led to Tarana riots Despite a brawl on Thursday night, cops became careless 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 Don 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