dharmapuri l Friday l march 14, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l city EDITION Spadex Mission Achieves Maiden Undocking, next docking in april Indian Space Research Organisation recorded its first successful undocking as part of the Space Docking Experiment (SpaDeX) mission paves way for crucial future missions The two light weight satellites, SDX-01 (the chaser) and SDX-02 (target) successfully separated almost a month-and-a-half after it was scheduled to be achieved. With this success, ISRO is now bracing for its future missions — Chandrayaan-4, Bhartiya Antriksh Mission, manned space mission Gaganyaan, and Man on Moon mission ■ 460 km announcement After 3-Hour Assessment ■ Although the undocking happened around 9.20 am, ISRO announced on ‘X’ only at 12.21 pm, after assessing all parameters ISRO monitored operations from Bengaluru, Lucknow, and Mauritius. Satellites’ independent ops, sensors, and components are being analysed, said ISRO Chairman V Narayanan above Earth, the two mini satellites were successfully separated 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 Stalin emerges as anchor of In short term, TN’s Opposition unity against BJP growth rate to be 9%, Telangana & Karnataka govts, BRS, YSRCP, BJD to attend Chennai meet P r e e t h a N a i r @ New Delhi With several political parties extending support to the DMK government in Tamil Nadu in its fight over the proposed delimitation of parliamentary constituencies, Chief Minister M K Stalin appears to be emerging as the voice that binds the nonBJP parties on the issue. Congress-ruled Telangana and Karnataka governments, opposition BRS in Telangana, former Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik’s BJD, and former Andhra Pradesh CM Jagan Mohan Reddy’s YSRCP are some of the parties that have confirmed their participation in a meeting convened by Stalin on March 22. Spearheaded by Stalin, the coming together of political parties is widely seen as a show of Opposition unity against ‘delimitation’. On Thursday, Telangana CM Revanth Reddy said he would attend the Chennai meeting after taking permission from the Congress high command. “I welcome M K Stalin’s stand. I have to get permission from the Congress high command to attend the meeting. In principle, I have agreed to attend,” Reddy told reporters. Earlier this month, Stalin had written to the chief ministers of seven states, including Reddy to form a joint action commit, tee against the delimitation exercise. The Chennai meeting is seen as a first step towards ‘unified action’ against any move by the Centre to implement delimitation of Lok Sabha constituencies in a manner that will cut down the representation of states that have successfully implemented population control. Though the BRS in Telangana keeps a distance from both the Congress and the BJP BRS leader K T Rama Rao on Thursday , confirmed it will attend the meeting. A DMK delegation also extended an invitation to Andhra Pradesh’s ruling TDP and a key ally of the NDA government. According to sources, the party said that it will discuss the matter with CM Chandrababu Naidu and take a call. Revanth to consult party brass Telangana CM Revanth Reddy said he would attend the Chennai meet after taking permission from the high command. A DMK delegation led by minister K N Nehru met him in Delhi on Thursday and extended an invitation Rupee symbol axed Intensifying the language showdown, the DMK government on Thursday replaced the Devanagari rupee symbol with a Tamil letter in its logo for Friday’s TN budget | P4 says economic survey T M u r u g a n a n d h a m @ Chennai The first-ever economic survey of Tamil Nadu released by Chief Minister M K Stalin for the year 2024-25 said that based on current trends and economic projections, the state seems to be well-positioned for robust growth in the coming years. Tamil Nadu contributes 9.21% of India’s GDP despite having just 6% of the population, the CM said in his ‘X’ post pointing to the survey . The survey said given the projected capital expenditure (Capex) of `47,681 crore, a significant influx of committed investments, and a supportive policy environment, Tamil Nadu’s economy is likely to outpace national growth. In 2022-23, Tamil Nadu’s per capita income was `2.78 lakh, 1.6 times the national average of `1.69 lakh. The state consistently outpaced the national average over the years and is the fourthlargest state in per capita income. The survey also pointed out that in the short term, Tamil Nadu is expected to maintain a real growth rate of approxi- DMK government’s last full budget today Chennai: Finance Minister Thangam Thennarasu will present the last full budget of the present DMK regime for 2025-26 on Friday. While key announcements are likely, opposition parties AIADMK and BJP are expected to target the government over law and order, and debt | P4 mately 9% with an inflation rate of around 5%, as large-scale infrastructure projects, industrial growth, and foreign investments continue to spur economic activity India’s national economy . recorded 7.61% growth in 202223, 9.19% in 2023-24, and 6.48% in 2024-25. The survey covers the developments in all sectors of Tamil Nadu’s economy over the past five years. “Over the medium term, the growth rate may moderate to around 8% with a 4% inflation rate, reflecting the long-term sustainability of growth driven by industrial, agricultural, and service sector reforms.”  P5 After TN raids, ED claims `1K crore fraud in Tasmac E x p r e ss n e w s s e r v i c e @ Chennai The Enforcement Directorate (ED), in a statement on Thursday, alleged that its recent searches in Tasmac offices have revealed “a well-orchestrated scheme” through which distilleries, particularly through bottling units, generated unaccounted cash of over `1,000 crore. The money the agency claimed, was then used for kickbacks , to secure increased supply orders from the Tasmac — the sole organisation empowered to procure and sell liquor in the state. Last week, the ED searched 25 locations, including Tasmac offices, distilleries and bottling units. The statement said, “Evidence reveals direct communication between distilleries and Tasmac officials, exposing efforts to secure increased indent orders and undue favours.”  (Read full report at www.newindianexpress.com)