eye THE SUNDAY EXPRESS MAGAZINE Stringing Together KOLKATA,LATECITY MARCH16,2025 PV Sindhu and Datta Sai Venkata on what brought them together 12+4PAGES,`7.00 (`12 IN NORTH EAST STATES, ` 20 IN ANDAMAN) WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM TRUMP ADMINISTRATION CRACKDOWN P4 THE EXPRESS INTERVIEW U U LALIT FORMER CHIEF JUSTICE OF INDIA Amid peace talks, Ukraine minister, other key players in India next week Ukraine Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha SHUBHAJIT ROY NEW DELHI, MARCH 15 AT A time when talks to end the Russia-Ukraine war have gained pace, after the disastrous White House meeting between US President Donald Trump and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha is scheduled to reach India on Monday. Sybiha, who is coming to attend the Raisina Dialogue — a three-dayconference(March1719) organised by the Observer Research Foundation and the Ministry of External Affairs — will meet External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, and may call on Prime Minister Narendra Modi as well, sources told The Indian Express. US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard will be here for the Intelligence chiefs' conference being hosted by India on Sunday, and she will also likely meet Modi and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval among others, apart from attending the dialogue. While Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is not coming to India, Alexander A Dynkin, president of the Primakov National Research Institute of World Economy and InternationalRelationsatRussian Academy of Sciences, who is CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 THE WORLD US visa revoked for ‘supporting Hamas’, Indian student at Columbia self-deports Ranjani Srinivasan was on F-1 visa as a doctoral student: Homeland Security DIVYA A NEW DELHI, MARCH 15 AN INDIAN PhD student at ColumbiaUniversity,whosevisa was recently revoked by the Donald Trump administration forallegedly“advocatingforviolenceandterrorism”bysupporting Hamas, has self-deported and left the country. Ranjani Srinivasan, an Indian citizen, entered the US on an F-1 student visa as a doctoral student in Urban Planning at Columbia University, the Department of HomelandSecurity(DHS)saidin a statement Friday. Stating that Srinivasan was “involvedinactivitiessupporting” CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 US looks at travel curbs on over 40 countries, Bhutan in red list WASHINGTON, MARCH 15 Ranjani Srinivasan’s visa was revoked on March 5. PTI THE DONALD Trump administration is considering targeting the citizens of as many as 43 countriesaspartof anewbanon travel to the United States that would be broader than the restrictions imposed during President Trump’s first term, according to officials familiar with the matter. A draft list of recommendations developed by diplomatic and security officials suggests a “red” list of 11 countries whose CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 All travel banned ● Afghanistan ● Bhutan ● Cuba ● Iran ● Libya ● North Korea ● Syria ● Venezuela ● Somalia ● Sudan ● Yemen ORANGE Visas sharply restricted ● Belarus ● Eritrea ● Haiti ● Laos ● Myanmar INSIDE VoA TO BE DOWNSIZED ● Pakistan ● Russia ● Sierra Leone ● South Sudan ● Turkmenistan Source: NYT PAGE6 U.S. EXPELS SA ENVOY DAMINI NATH NEW DELHI, MARCH 15 THE ELECTION Commission (EC) is holding a meeting with the top officials of the Union Home Ministry, Law Ministry and Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) next week to discuss the issue of linking Aadhaar numbers with the voter identity cards, EC sources said Saturday. Following an amendment to theRepresentationof thePeople Act, 1951 in 2021 enabling the linking of the Aadhaar numbers with the Electors Photo Identity Cards (EPICs), the EC began col- lecting the Aadhaar numbers from electors on a voluntary basis in 2022. However,theEChasnotused the Aadhaar numbers in its revisions of the electoral rolls so far. The exercise was meant to aid theCommissionindetectingduplicate registration of voters in order to clean up the electoral rolls. The Aadhaar-EPIC linking CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 AFTER THE HIJACK Pakistani soldiers guard a tunnel days after a train hijack by militants left 31 people, including 23 Army personnel, dead, at Bolan in Pakistan’s Balochistan province on Saturday. Reuters From V-C to ‘Oman high commissioner’: How lure of VVIP life landed 66-yr-old in police net KRISHN SEKHAR Rana, who was arrestedbytheGhaziabadpolice on Thursday for impersonating the “High Commissioner of Oman”, longed for a “VVIP life”, briefly harboured political ambitions, and managed to get high-rankingpostsinprestigious US top market for India’s aluminium, new tariffs threaten $1-billion exports AGGAM WALIA NEW DELHI, MARCH 15 THE DONALD Trump administration’s decision to raise tariffs on aluminium imports from 10 to 25 per cent starting March 12 is set to hit Indian exporters, for whom the United States has become the largest international market for aluminium products. In 2023-24, India’s aluminium exports to the US stood at $946 million (Rs 7,831 crore), afterexceeding$1billionineach of the previous two financial years, according to official trade data. Exports have surged in recentyears,upfromjust$350millionin2016-17,whenTrumpbeganhisfirsttermasUSPresident. WhileIndiaaccountsforonly 3 per cent of US aluminium imports, it is the largest supplier of aluminium conductors — stranded wires and cables used in electrical applications. India is also the world’s second-largest aluminiumproducerafterChina, though much of its output is consumed domestically. As the new 25 per cent tariffs are significantly broader than those imposed in 2018, covering a wider range of semi-finished and finished aluminium products, it may disrupt the recent E More products ● hit THE NEW 25% tariffs imposed by the US cover a wider range of semi-finished and finished aluminium products, along with derivative goods — from machinery components to knitting needles — posing challenges for India’s fragmented downstream aluminium industry. growth momentum of firms with strong export focus on the US. However, while some may see a hit in revenues, the overall impact is expected to be limited, as aluminium exports form a small share of business for most companies. The US, despite being India’s top market, accounts for around 12 per cent of total aluminium exports. In 2024, the US imported nearly 38 per cent of aluminium conductorsbyweightfromIndia, valued at $130 million. In 2023, imports peaked at $261 million, rising from just $40 million in CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 CLINICAL TRIAL RESULTS CEC Gyanesh Kumar NEW DELHI, DEHRADUN, MARCH 15 PAGE 6 RED EC to meet Home, Law, UIDAI officials on linking voter card and Aadhaar SHYAMLAL YADAV, AISWARYA RAJ & NEETIKA JHA STARMER TELLS LEADERS TO ‘KEEP PRESSURE’ ON PUTIN OVER UKRAINE TRUCE PROPOSED TRAVEL BAN LIST CHARLIE SAVAGE & KEN BENSINGER FOUR-PAGE PULLOUT EXPLAINED DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA KrishnSekharRana,66,wasarrestedbyGhaziabadpoliceon Thursdayforimpersonatingthe‘HighCommissionerof Oman’ universitiesdespitequestionable qualifications, according to several associates and colleagues The Indian Express spoke to. The66-year-oldwasarrested after the Ghaziabad Police Commissionerate and District Magistrate’sofficereceivedaletter requesting “necessary protocol and security arrangements” for “Dr (Prof) K S Rana, High Commissioner of the Sultanate of Oman (Muscat)”. Except, Ghaziabad Police CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 EXPRESS NETWORK India’s CAR T-cell therapy for cancer patients shows 73% response rate: Lancet Also warns of high incidence of complication affecting immune cells ANONNA DUTT NEW DELHI, MARCH 15 ACTOR RANYA RAO’S STEPFATHER, DGP RAMACHANDRA RAO, SENT ON LEAVE TEJ PRATAP ASKS CONSTABLE TO DO THUMKA, STIRS ROW PAGES 10, 4 THE CLINICAL trial results of India’s first CAR T-cell therapy, published in The Lancet, showed a 73 per cent “response rate” in patients suffering from specific types of blood cancer. However, the results also pointed to the “challenge for broader clinical adoption” due to the high incidence of a known complication of CAR T-cell therapies, where the immune cells get overactive, leading to hyper-inflammation and organ failure. Response rate refers to the percentage of patients who respondedtothetreatment—cases in which the progression of cancer was either halted or reduced. The results — from the Phase I and II trials, where researchers assessedsafetyandeffectiveness against a given condition — are significant as this is the first clinical trial of CAR T-cell therapy from India to be published in an international journal. CAR T-cell therapy, or chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy, trains the body’s immune cells to identify and destroycancercells.Thistreatment is designed for specific types of blood cancer, and is given in cases where cancer has relapsed or there has been no response to first-line treatment. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 A ‘letterbox’ in a Bengal school becomes keeper of secrets and heartaches PAGE 1 ANCHOR SWEETY KUMARI KOLKATA, MARCH 15 ■ “I am unable to sleep and my mother scolds me for that.” ■ “My parents fight daily and I don’t like going back home.” A WOODEN letterbox hung low onapillarataprimaryschoolfor boys in West Bengal’s Jalpaiguri hasoverthepastmonthbecome the keeper of secrets of students from pre-primary to Class 4. NamedMonPionerBag(alettercarrier’sbag),theburntsienna letterbox was installed at Fanindra Deb Institution (Primary Section) around midFebruary as part of a mental healthinitiativebytheschoolauthorities. A government-sponsored school with 900 students, theinstitution,whichismanaged by an external entity, receives financial support and is subject to oversight from the government. SpeakingtoTheIndianExpress over telephone, headmaster Jaherul Islam, who joined the school in December 2024, said the letterbox was unlocked for the first time on March 12, just before the long Holi weekend. “It had nearly 100 handwrittennotesinBengalionplainwhite paper. The children have poured theirheartsoutinthesenotes,revealingarangeofpersonalissues. Wewilladdressalltheirconcerns confidentially,” he says. Stating that none of the letters contain complaints about theschool,theheadmasteradds, “We had anticipated complaints abouttheinfrastructureorteach- The letterbox at Fanindra Deb Institution (primary section) in West Bengal’s Jalpaiguri. ers or even mid-day meals, but the children have primarily shared their personal struggles. The students may be a bit hesitantaboutsharingschool-related concernsfornow,butIamhopefulthatwillchangeinthefuture.” Stating that some students had expressed their desire for more sports periods, a teacher said most letters are about poignantpersonalissues.“While one note complains, ‘Aami ghumote pari na... maa onek boke (I am unable to sleep... my mother scolds me for that)’, another one laments, ‘Baba sudhu bayeri thake ... kaaj a time daye (my father works outside... gives all his time to work)’,” says the teacher. One of the letters that caught their attention, the teacher says, was from a boy who detailed the distress he felt due to frequent arguments between his parents. “His note says, ‘Amar ma-baba roz jhogra kore...amar bari jete bhalo e lage na (my parents fight daily... I don’t like going back home)’,” the teacher adds. Besidesaddressingtheissues mentioned anonymously, in caseswherestudentshaveiden- tified themselves, particularly where they have mentioned a parental conflict, the school plans to engage with their parents to provide support. The school has formed a team of sixseven teachers, led by a nodal teacher,tomanagetheletterbox. The letterbox was a collaborative effort between headmaster Islam and resident teacher Arindam Bhattacharya, the teachers said. “The duo commissioned the letterbox while overseeing repairs at the school, including the CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Kolkata