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1Front Page

A London-bound Air India A Boeing 787 carrying 242 people crashed shortly after taking off from Ahmedabad airport on Thursday afternoon, killing all on board save one, in one of the worst such incidents in the country's aviation history.

India’s demographic advantages, GDP expansion and opportunity to broaden exports make it an important growth engine for Mizuho Financial Group, says Masahiro Kihara, chief executive of Japan’s third-largest megabank with $1.9 trillion in assets.

2Pure Politics

The visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Canada to attend the forthcoming G7 summit in Kananaskis will present an opportunity to reset relations, based on mutual respect and sensitivity to each other’s concerns, external affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said on Thursday.

Karnataka Chief minister Siddaramaiah has written to his Andhra Pradesh counterpart N Chandrababu Naidu, urging him to lift the ban on entry of totapuri mangoes from the neighbouring states into Chittoor district.

The Karnataka government on Thursday decided to conduct a fresh state-wide socio-economic survey and complete it in 90 days as desired by the Congress leadership.
Defence minister Rajnath Singh felicitated members of an expedition team of NCC whose members summited Mount Everest and successfully unfurled the tricolour there.
There was major chaos in the West Bengal assembly on Thursday after Speaker Biman Bandopadhyay rejected an adjournment motion brought by the BJP legislators over the violence in Maheshtala and Murshidabad.
The death of BJP's Punjab in-charge Vijay Rupani has come as a shock for the state BJP leaders. The BJP leaders, including Punjab unit chief Sunil Jakhar, paid tributes to the departed leader.
Three Maoists, including two women, carrying a collective cash reward of ₹19 lakh on their heads, have surrendered in Chhattisgarh’s Narayanpur district, citing disillusionment over the ‘hollow’ Maoist ideology and exploitation of tribals, police said on Thursday.
Union power minister Manohar Lal on Thursday said the Centre will soon restart work on the Wullar barrage in Bandipora of northern Kashmir, now that India has suspended the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) with Pakistan.
India rallied all BRICS countries to unanimously condemn the Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 people were killed and support New Delhi’s stand against terrorism, Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh said on Thursday.
West Bengal CM on Thursday wrote to PM Narendra Modi, seeking his intervention into the alleged vandalisation of Rabindranath Tagore’s ancestral mansion in Bangladesh.
The Karnataka High Court on Thursday granted interim bail to the marketing head of Royal Challengers Bengaluru cricket team and three executives of event management company DNA Entertainment Network. They were arrested in connection with the stampede outside a stadium in Bengaluru where the team was celebrating its IPL win.
Bihar CM Nitish Kumar on Thursday laid the foundation stone of a ‘dharmshala’ on the Mahavir Cancer Hospital Campus in Patna’s Phulwarisharif locality. The event was organised on the occasion of the 75th birth anniversary of Acharya Kishore Kunal.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday visited the site of the Air India aircraft crash in Ahmedabad to take stock of the ongoing relief and rescue operations.
With emergency landings and mishaps involving helicopters on the rise on the Char Dham Yatra route, Uttarakhand CM Pushkar Singh Dhami has told heli service operators that compromise with safety standards cannot be tolerated.
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) President Raj Thackeray held a meeting at a suburban hotel in Bandra on Thursday.
Bangladesh chief adviser Muhammad Yunus has said that his interim government wanted good relations with India, but “something always went wrong”.
BJP on Thursday condemned the interim government of Bangladesh over the alleged attack on Rabindranath Tagore’s ancestral house. BJP spokesman Sambit Patra told media persons that the Bangladesh government’s stance is not proper as it could have taken some action.
People in Maheshtala stayed awake the whole of Wednesday night as fear of vandalism and looting continued to grip this locality where Hindus and Muslims have always lived peacefully.
Former Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani was one of the casualties of the Air India tragedy that rocked Ahmedabad on Thursday. His demise was confirmed by Union Minister and Gujarat BJP president CR Patil.
The Army has undertaken successful trials of indigenous vertical take off and landing (VTOL) drones being developed for cross-border strikes to take down enemy artillery positions.
Delhi High Court on Thursday refused to grant bail to Kashmiri separatist leader Shabir Ahmad Shah in a terror funding case, observing the possibility of him carrying out similar unlawful activities and influencing witnesses couldn’t be ruled out.
Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s husband Robert Vadra has no intention of avoiding summons and is ready to appear before the Enforcement Directorate anytime before or after his travel abroad later this month, his lawyer Suman Khaitan said on Thursday.
External affairs minister S Jaishankar, who is on a week-long visit to Europe, met President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Thursday and thanked him for France’s strong support in the fight against terrorism.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has filed a supplementary chargesheet against Rafeek M S, the 64th accused in the murder case of Sreenivasan in Palakkad, Kerala, by members of the Popular Front of India (PFI).
The Lokpal has sought applications from officers with experience in working with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) to join its inquiry wing on deputation.

3The AI 171 Files

The catastrophic crash of an Air India flight in Ahmedabad on Thursday is likely to trigger the costliest aviation insurance claim involving an Indian airline, with claims estimated to exceed $120 million, people familiar with the matter said.

The crash of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner passenger jet in western India on Thursday is renewing scrutiny of company’s safety record after a yearslong quality crisis.

At least 10 passengers from Rajasthan were on the flight. Banswara’s Dr Kaumi Vyas shared a picture of her family—husband Dr Pratik Joshi and three children—on social media as they sat on the plane on Thursday.
Bhavesh Patel, 52, from Sojitra, Anand had booked his tickets only on Wednesday. He wanted to surprise his daughter in London. After living alone for years following his divorce, the news of his daughter’s pregnancy had brought some happiness to his life and he just wouldn’t miss her baby shower for the world.
The Tata Group is flying in top experts from Boeing and GE Aerospace to Ahmedabad to assist in the ongoing government investigation of the tragic crash involving an Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner—seen as one of the most advanced passenger aircraft in service.
The crash of the Air India aircraft on Thursday baffled safety experts and pilots given the immaculate safety record of the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner over the past 14 years since it was first delivered to All Nippon Airways.
Deepak Pathak, one of the cabin crew members onboard, had last spoken to his mother, wishing her “good morning”, his sister said. They have not heard from him since the crash.
Savjibhai Timbadia can’t stop thanking the gods for his decision to not take the Air India flight. “I owe my life to Swaminarayan,” Timbadia told a TV news channel.
A passenger on board the London-bound Air India flight that crashed near the Ahmedabad airport on Thursday afternoon survived the horrific incident, a doctor at the city civil hospital said.
Aircraft determine the required runway length for take-off by calculating the distance needed to reach the speed required to lift and then accelerate to take-off. Additional factors such as weight, altitude, temperature, runway conditions, and wind also impact the requirement.
A US government agency that investigates civil aviation accidents on Thursday said it would be leading a team of American investigators to India to assist in the investigation of the tragic Air India crash in Ahmedabad.
Boeing said it is aware of initial reports of the plane crash in Ahmedabad and working to gather more information even as the company's shares tumbled in pre-market trading.

4The Edit Page

Our forefathers believed that we were different from Hindus in every possible aspect of life. Our religion is different. Our customs are different.

For a country long used to blaming its swelling population for all its woes, the irony is rich: life has come full circle. According to State of World Population 2025 report, India’s fertility rate has dropped to 1.9 — below the replacement level of 2.1.

The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools.… They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help.
There are few pleasures as joyfully meditative as watering plants in the early morning. The newspaper is read. The double shot of double espresso has done its job. Breakfast is still a distant dream.
​The Trump regime’s reported invitation to Pakistan Army chief Asif Munir to attend the 250th US Army Day celebrations in Washington tomorrow has stirred various vectors of speculation. Chief among them:
Each season in a year is beautiful — warm and bright summer, golden autumn, cosy winter, and a flourishing spring. Each season elicits a strong emotional response within us. In today’s technological world, we live out of tune with nature, which results in health issues.
If you listen closely, you can almost hear the faint hum of California’s state assembly rehearsing ‘O Ca…nada.’ After all, when facing existential crises like drought, wildfires and now a showdown with the zamindar of Mar-a-Lago over ICEmen, what’s a state to do?
HAL’s order book is expected to touch ₹2.5 lakh cr in FY26. That is eight times the FY25 turnover. The huge order backlog, coupled with facile assumptions about HAL’s purported prowess in execution, drives optimism about the company.

5ET Markets

PhonePe Private Ltd sold shares of CE Info Systems Ltd (MapMyIndia) worth Rs 486 crore in a bulk deal on BSE on Thursday.

Reliance Industries sold 3.6% in Asian Paints in a block deal to SBI Mutual Fund for ₹7,704 crore ($900 million), said people in the know. This would arguably be the largest bilateral block deal between a seller and a home-grown asset manager since 2023.

India’s equity indices shed 1% on Thursday as a flare-up in tensions in West Asia and a resultant rebound in crude prices soured investor sentiment.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has directed banks and non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) to allow all transactions from so-called “low-risk” customers even if their know-your-customer (KYC) processes are pending.
U.S. stock indexes are drifting higher on Thursday following another encouraging update on inflation.

6Smart Investing

Banks’ non-statutory liquidity ratio (SLR) investments rose 15% in FY25, while SLR investments rose 10% in the same period. SLR investments are central government bonds managed by RBI.

Oswal Pumps, a pump manufacturer, plans to raise ₹890 crore through an issue of fresh shares to repay debt, and for capital expenditure. It will raise another ₹497 crore through an offer for sale.

India plans to undertake a district wise assessment of the progress on the Sustainable Development Goal 5 (SDG 5) pertaining to gender equality and empowerment of women and girls.
Shares of oil marketing companies (OMCs) Hindustan Petroleum (HPCL) and Bharat Petroleum (BPCL) tumbled 4-6% on Thursday, while upstream companies Oil India and ONGC closed higher after global crude prices firmed up, fuelled by heightened tensions between the US and Iran.
Wall Street banks are back to selling second-lien loans, a riskier kind of corporate debt, thanks to demand from a wider swathe of lenders including their private credit rivals and conventional investors.
Bajaj Finance, the biggest non-banking financial company (NBFC) accepting deposits, has cut deposit rates for the third time since the beginning of 2025.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) received bids of ₹53,031 crore against the notified amount of ₹26,000 crore at the second buyback auction of this fiscal year. At the auction held on Thursday, the central bank accepted 99% of the notified amount.
The steel export parity price scheme has yet to take off two months after it was launched because it covers limited grades of the commodity and the prevailing domestic prices are lower, said people familiar with the matter.
Investments in solar energy generation need to be evenly distributed to cover more middle- and lower-income countries, according to Ashish Khanna, director general at International Solar Alliance (ISA).
The RBI on Thursday said it will not conduct the 14-day variable rate repo (VRR) auction for the upcoming fortnight. This is the third such cancellation in a row.
The finance ministry has amended rules to allow Indian companies, engaged in sectors where foreign direct investment (FDI) is barred, to issue bonus shares to their pre-existing non-resident shareholders.
The Financial Services Institutions Bureau (FSIB) is likely to now initiate the process to select the next chairman and managing director for General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC Re), the largest and listed reinsurer in the country.

7World Play

Prize money for Wimbledon’s singles champions this year — the highest across all Grand Slams and a 11.1% increase on the last year.

In April of this year, FIFA president Gianni Infantino took to the podium at the Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena and claimed that the Club World Cup (CWC) would, “for the first time in history”, determine the best team in the world.

A low-scoring World Test Championship final was heading to a thrilling conclusion after Australia took a 74-run first-innings lead before being reduced to 144-8 by South Africa by the close of Day 2 at Lord’s on Thursday.
Top Indian shooter Sift Kaur Samra tackled a strong field with aplomb to claim the bronze medal in the women’s 50m rifle 3 positions event at the ISSF World Cup on Thursday.

8Disruption: Startups & Tech

Amazon asked Europe's second-highest court on Thursday to scrap its designation as a platform subject to stricter requirements under landmark EU online content rules, arguing that it poses no systematic risks to its users.

Google has offered buyouts to another swath of its workforce across several key divisions in a fresh round of cost cutting coming ahead of a court decision that could order a breakup of its internet empire

Incumbent IT player HCLTech bagged an engineering services deal from Swedish truck maker Volvo Group, the third largest software services exporter announced on Thursday.
Ola’s artificial intelligence arm Krutrim is looking to get its base infrastructure, from semiconductors to hardware, fast and cost-effective as the company scales up its AI services, senior vice-president and head of business A Navendu said.
India is currently a key investment destination for Databricks as it looks to ramp up talent development, go-to-market expansion, and R&D operations, Arsalan Tavakoli, co-founder and SVP of Field Engineering at Databricks told ET in an exclusive interview.
​Billionbrains Garage Ventures, the parent company of wealth management platform Groww, reported a more than threefold jump in net profit to ₹1,819 crore and a 31% increase in revenue to ₹4,056 crore for fiscal 2025, as per financial documents seen by ET.
The Ministry of Finance’s clarification that there was no plan to reintroduce the merchant discount rate (MDR) on payments done via Unified Payments Interface has dampened the monetisation plans that payment firms had around the popular payment ecosystem.
Mattel has teamed up with OpenAI to develop toys and games with artificial intelligence, and expects to launch its first AI-powered product later this year, the Barbie-maker said on Thursday.
Rapid expansion of quick commerce into smaller cities and towns is fuelling demand for niche direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands in categories ranging from intimacy products and sexual wellness to curly hair care and fitness accessories, where convenience and discreet delivery are key drivers.
Meta Platforms is suing a Hong Kong-based business for allegedly promoting so-called nudify apps, as the Facebook owner attempts to combat a surge in naked and sexual images created by artificial intelligence.

9Economy & Companies

Urban consumption recovery is still some time away as the recent government interventions to ease the financial challenges of consumers will take time to bear results, said Procter & Gamble Hygiene & Health Care chief financial officer Mrinalini Srinivasan.

The finance ministry is nudging large central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) and key government agencies to boost their capital expenditure (capex) in this financial year, said a senior official, amid scepticism over a broad-based rebound in private investments given the global turmoil.

Industrialist Sunjay Kapoor, the non-executive chairman of auto components major Sona Comstar, passed away in London on Thursday after suffering a heart attack while playing polo.
Taxpayers money will go towards incentivising only clean mobility solutions, with zero tailpipe emissions such as battery electric vehicles, Sudhendu Sinha, programme director (electric mobility, transport & infrastructure) at Niti Aayog, told ET, adding that hybrid vehicles will not be ‘penalised’ as they are more fuel efficient and emit less emissions than conventional petrol and diesel cars.
Squeezed for supplies, automakers have made a three-pronged suggestion to improve supplies of rare earth magnets over the next three years to reduce dependence on China.
India’s retail inflation dropped to a 75-month low of 2.8% year-on-year in May, driven by a steep fall in food prices, data released on Thursday showed. Economists expect it to ease further in June.
The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has capped at 10 the number of projects that engineers at consultancy firms it engages can undertake for inspection, a move aimed at improving the quality and supervision mechanism.
​The IPL may be over for the season, but the action off the field is just heating up. A major Indian business conglomerate is said to be eyeing a high-profile entry into the league, with feelers already sent out about acquiring a prominent team.
India is open to ease the quality control order (QCQ) framework for “trusted partners”, producing good quality products, commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal has said.

10Around the World

Gene M. Grossman is Jacob Viner Professor of International Economics at Princeton University. Speaking to Srijana Mitra Das, he discusses trade in the time of Trumpian tariffs:

US President Donald Trump said Thursday that Los Angeles was "safe and sound" for the past two nights, crediting his deployment of thousands of troops to quell anti-deportation protests.

China on Thursday affirmed a trade deal announced by US President Donald Trump, saying both sides needed to abide by the consensus and adding China always kept its word.
The US ordered some staff to leave its embassy in Baghdad, officials said, after Iran threatened to strike American assets in the western Asia in the event it’s attacked over its nuclear program.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government survived an attempt to dissolve Israel's parliament early on Thursday morning, with most of his ultra-Orthodox coalition partners joining him in voting against a bill that would have forced them to register for military service while the country is at war.
US filings for jobless benefits were unchanged last week, remaining at the higher end of recent ranges as uncertainty over the impact of trade wars lingers.
International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA’s) board of governors on Thursday formally found that Iran isn’t complying with its nuclear obligations for the first time in 20 years, a move that could lead to further tensions and set in motion an effort to restore United Nations sanctions on Tehran later this year.
Britain's economy shrank more than expected in April following a tax hike on UK businesses and a record drop in exports to the United States due to President Donald Trump's tariffs, official data showed Thursday.
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