vijayawada l saturday l march 01, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l late city EDITION India’s economy rebounds to 6.2% in December quarter growth pegged at 6.5% for fiscal 2024-25 The 6.2% growth in gross domestic product (GDP) was higher than a revised reading of 5.6% expansion in the July-September 2024 period, according to data released by the Statistics Ministry on Friday. It was, however, lower than the RBI’s estimate of 6.8% for the period. For the full 2024-25 fiscal, the government pegs GDP growth at 6.5% Positive growth in the current fiscal and less than 7% growth expected in the next will keep India as the fastest-expanding major economy ■ 4.6% urban demand still needs to make up ■ The recovery in October-December quarter was primarily driven by a revival in government expenditure due to buoyant construction sector, strong rural demand and bullish service exports | P10 However, the recovery remains uneven across sectors, with urban demand still showing signs of weakness despite festive season fillip by which output of 8 key infra sectors rose in January CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOgGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI WELFARE assured, growth guaranteed  Payyavula presents AP Budget for 2025-26 with an outlay of `3.22 lakh cr  Viability Gap Funding for PPP projects STATE 2025-26 The State Budget helps ensure both welfare and development. Allocations have been made to Thalliki Vandanam and Annadata Sukhibhava as part of fulfilment of ‘Super Six’ Pawan Kalyan, Deputy CM Finance Minister P Keshav with the CM and the Deputy CM before the presentation of the State Budget | Express Naidu, CM INSIDE `3,22,359.33 cr `2,51,162 cr Revenue expenditure `40,635 cr Capital expenditure `33,185 cr Revenue deficit (1.82% of GSDP) `79,926 cr * in Paisa `2,17,976.53 cr `1,04,382.80 cr Capital receipts Tax revenue 34 Share of Central taxes 18 Open market loans and other liabilities 32 18 25 3 4 4 18 5 glance Non-tax revenue 6 Grant in aid 10 How Rupee goes Fiscal deficit (4.38% of GSDP) Revenue receipts Budget at a Total budget outlay How Rupee comes The State Budget for 2025-26 has laid the foundation to rebuild AP as the NDA government remains committed to welfare, growth and good governance. It is an effort to promote holistic growth as the budget prioritises infra projects, besides welfare 6 6 11 Interest & principal repayment Welfare Education Panchayat Raj and Rural Development Health Water resources MA&UD Agriculture Transport, Roads & Buildings Others Health sector gets `19,264 crore, allocation increases by 4% | P2 Deal fails Trump, Zelenskyy shout it out Agencies The White House on Friday witnessed unprecedented drama as visiting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and US President Donald Trump exchanged angry words in public, turning their discussion to end the war with into a shouting match. The last 10 minutes of the 45minute engagement devolved into a tense back-and-forth between Zelenskyy, Trump, and Vice President J D Vance. Zelenskyy was in Washington to sign a revenue-sharing minerals agreement with the US. He left White House without signing the deal that Trump had demanded in return for US help to end the war and support Ukraine. A joint press conference that was planned after the meeting was also cancelled. During the talks, Trump shouted at Zelenskyy and berated him for “gambling with millions of lives” and accused him of trying to trigger World War III. The talks appeared to have gone sideways after the Ukrainian leader expressed skepticism about Russia’s commitment to diplomacy . This evoked a sharp reaction from Vance, who said: “Mr President, with respect. It’s disrespectful for you to come to the Oval Office to try to litigate this in front of the American media.” Zelenskyy tried to object. At this stage, Trump intervened. “You’re not in a good position. You don’t have the cards right now,” Trump said pointing his finger toward Zelenskyy “With us you start hav. ing cards,” he said, adding: “You’re either going to make a deal, or we’re out, and if we’re out, you’ll fight it out. It’s not going to be pretty ,” The TDP-led NDA government, living up to the spirit of MS Swaminathan’s words, is working toward achieving the goal of Swarna Andhra @ 2047, supporting agriculture as the primary sector Atchannaidu, Min It is a ‘deceptive numbers game’ filled with selfpraise, and criticism of the previous regime, lacking a solid development plan, and leaving the Super Six promises unfulfilled Botcha, YSRCP leader S V i s w a n at h @ Vijayawada Finance Minister Payyavula Keshav on Friday presented the Andhra Pradesh Budget for 2025-26 in the Legislative Assembly with an outlay of `3,22,359 crore. The revenue expenditure has been estimated at `2,51,162 crore, while the capital expenditure has been shown at `40,635 crore. The revenue deficit is `33,185 crore (1.82% of GSDP), while the fiscal deficit is `79,926 crore (4.38% of GSDP). The revised estimates of revenue expenditure for the financial year 2024-25 are `2,24,342 crore, while the capital expenditure is `24,072 crore. The revenue deficit for 2024-25 is `48,311 crore (3.01%), whereas the fiscal deficit is `73,362 crore (4.57% of GSDP). As asserted by Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, the budget proposals seem to have struck a fine balance between welfare and development. Besides enhancing the capital expenditure to `40,635 crore from `24,072 crore compared to the revised estimates of 2024-25, the TDP-led NDA government has laid more emphasis on welfare. An allocation of `20,281 crore has been Agriculture and allied sectors to drive State’s economic growth | P4 made for SC welfare, `8,159 crore for STs, `47,456 crore for BCs, and `5,434 crore for minorities. The NDA government, which is already implementing Deepam 2.0 scheme (providing 3 LPG cylinders to women beneficiaries a year free of cost), one of the promises made under Super Six, is set to launch two more major schemes, including Thalliki Vandanam (`15,000 for mothers of schoolgoing children) and Annadata Sukhibhava (`20,000 financial aid to farmers, including `6,000 given by the Centre under PM Kisan in three installments per year). While `9,407 crore has been proposed for Thalliki Vandanam, `6,300 crore has been earmarked for Annadata Sukhibhava. In his speech, the Finance Minister has announced the innovative Viability Gap Funding (VGF) scheme for Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects for up to 20% of the project cost of any department, beyond the existing budgetary allocation. It has been proposed to set up a corpus of `2,000 crore for the VGF scheme. Besides allocating `10 crore for the development of Telugu language, it has also been proposed to provide free powP5 er to government schools.  `6,000 crore for Amaravati infra expansion projects | P5 Major allocations `9,407 cr `6,300 cr Thalliki Vandanam Annadata Sukhibhava Department In ` crore Agriculture 48,341 School education 31,805 Health, medical and family welfare 19,264 Panchayati Raj & Rural Development 18,847 Municipal Administration and Urban Development 13,862 Water Resources 18,019 Energy 13,600 Transport, Roads and Buildings 8,785 Home 8,570 Women, children, differently abled and senior citizens welfare 4,332 Shashi Tharoor’s row: Cong issues gag order on Kerala leaders P r e e t h a N a i r @ New Delhi Amid the row over Congress leader Shashi Tharoor’s TNIE column hailing the achievements of the CPM-led government in Kerala, the Congress leadership on Friday said those who don’t toe the party line would face action. Speaking at the meeting of the Congress brass with Kerala leaders, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge and senior leader Rahul Gandhi cautioned the leaders “not to go against party line and disrespect the people of Kerala”. With Tharoor by her side, Congress’ Kerala in-charge Deepa Dasmunshi said all leaders have to work in coordination, discipline, and unity to win the upcoming local body and Assembly elections in the state. “We have got clear indication from the high command that people are looking for a change, so we should not do anything that disrespects the people. If any- one says anything personally ... we will take strong action,” she said. According to sources, Rahul said he is emotionally connected to the state and the people. “People are yearning for a change and we should be careful about our strategies. We should not do anything wrong against the party line,” sources quoted him as saying. AICC general secretary K C Venugopal said that no leaders have the right to make out-of-line statements in the media. At least three leaders, including M M Hassan, targeted Tharoor, saying his public comments damaged the party . When asked if the censure is directed at Tharoor, Dasmunshi said: “Why are you only pinpointing Tharoor? So many others made personal views. It has been told generally to everyone.” She also ruled out a leadership change in the state unit. It means K Sudhakaran will continue as the president. Rescuers carry workers to safety on Friday. Search for the remaining 25 workers will continue on Saturday | PTI Avalanche buries BRO camp, 32 rescued n a r e n d ra s e t h i & m aya n k s i n g h @ Dehradun/New Delhi AN avalanche that rolled down early on Friday buried a Border Roads Organization (BRO) camp in the high-altitude village of Mana in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district. Thirty-two of the 57 workers trapped under the avalanche have been rescued, with concern over the safety of the other 25 mounting as inclement weather forced a pause in rescue operations. Multiple teams comprising the Army disaster response forces battled through tough terrain and heavy snow through the day to reach the men. They initially pulled out 10 workers and then the others, sources said. Four of those rescued are in a critical condition, the Army PRO said. All 32 have been taken to the ITBP camp in Mana for treatment, the sources said. Mana, three kilometres from Badrinath, is the last village on the India-Tibet border at an altitude of 3,200 metres. The avalanche hit around 7.15 am, burying the workers inside eight containers and one shed, the Army said. Swift response teams, comprising more than 100 people from the Ibex Brigade, especially trained in high altitude rescue operations, were immediately mobilised. The teams included doctors and ambulances. According to Disaster Management and Rehabilitation Secretary Vinod Kumar Suman, the situation is critical with the containers buried under six to seven feet of snow. The bad weather continues. Teams of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and SDRF left for the spot, about 300 km from Dehradun, amid continuing snowfall and rain. Home Minister Amit Shah said rescuing the trapped people is the government’s top priority. In a post on X, he said he spoke to Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and the chiefs of the ITBP and the NDRF. (With agency inputs) win-win deal Kangana Ranaut, Javed Akhtar bury defamation hatchet after five years S h r e ya s Pa n d e @ Mumbai Kangana Ranaut and Javed Akhtar have officially called a truce. The actor-turned-BJP MP and the veteran lyricistscreenwriter, have put an end to their compounding legal feud through mediation. After completing the formalities of the settlement, Kangana shared a photo on her social media where she was beaming in a grin standing alongside a smiling Akhtar. The actor, who earlier had some fiery exchanges with Akhtar, called him “kind” and “gracious” to have settled the matter. Their legal tussle began in 2020 when Kangana gave a TV interview after actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death. In her shaky soft voice she made a big , claim about a meeting she had with Akhtar at his house. She said Akhtar pressured her to apologise to Hrithik Roshan over their much-publicised feud in 2016. Kangana even alleged that Akhtar warned her of dire consequences if she doesn’t act accordingly . Akhtar strongly rejected the claims. “Whatever Kangana said in the interview is a lie and nothing but a lie. I had told her about the agenda of the meeting on call. Didn’t call her to discuss t h e weather, political situation or America’s election in 2016,” Akhtar told the court. The man, known for writing some pow- er-packed Amitabh Bachchan dialogues wasn’t going to stay silent, was he? Neither was Kangana going to back down. She filed a counter-defamation case against Akhtar in 2021. Now, Kangana has clarified that what she said in the TV interview was due to a misunderstanding. Exiting the court after the hearing on Friday, Akhtar told the media, “The matters are finally settled. She has apologised for all the inconvenience caused to me. I will take back my case and she will take back her case.” Kangana added in her social media post that the veteran lyricist has agreed to write a song for her upcoming directorial. With the legalities settled, will we get to see a moment of “poetic justice” with their collaboration? Only time will tell.