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Chandigarh schools receive bomb threats; students, staff evacuated

Several schools in Chandigarh were evacuated after they received bomb threat emails on Wednesday (January 28), said police.

After the school authorities informed the police about bomb threat emails, policemen reached school premises and conducted thorough searches of the educational institutions, they said.

At least five schools, including private ones, received the threat emails.

Bomb disposal and sniffer dog squads were rushed to school premises to carry out searches.

Students and school staff have been evacuated, they said, adding that security was stepped up around the schools. Students on way to the schools were sent back home, they said.

Jammu-Srinagar highway remains closed for the second day

The Jammu-Srinagar national highway remained closed for the second day on Wednesday (January 28) due to snow accumulation, with the authorities making efforts to restore the arterial road, officials said.

The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) personnel are sprinkling salt and urea on the road to improve conditions for safe driving as parts of highway remained slippery due to frosty conditions after the snowfall, the officials said.

Most parts of Kashmir received snowfall on Tuesday (January 27) that led to the suspension of traffic on the 270-km highway and flight operations at the Srinagar airport here.

However, the flight operations resumed at the airport on Wednesday morning.

Meanwhile, the night temperature plunged several degrees below the freezing point at most places in Kashmir on Tuesday night, the officials said. However, Srinagar recorded warmer than expected night temperature.

Union Budget must align with long-term vision to boost resilience, growth: Raghuram Rajan

Former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan on Wednesday (January 28) suggested that the upcoming Budget should be integrated with a longer-term vision to make the Indian economy more resilient and independent, while accelerating growth, as the world is passing through an 'extremely dangerous time'.

Long-term vision

In an interview with PTI Videos, Rajan said that earlier, India had five-year plans, but even then, the country's budget was not well integrated with them.

"I think it (Union Budget for 2026-27) should be integrated with a longer-term vision. How do we become more resilient, more independent as an economy, but also fast growing, so that everybody else wants to be friends with India, that requires a fair amount of work, and I am hopeful that Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's next budget will take us there," he said.

Nirmala Sitharaman will present the Union Budget on February 1, expected to include reform measures to shore up economic growth amid a volatile geopolitical situation.

'Dangerous time' for economy

Rajan said this is an 'extremely dangerous time' for both the global and the Indian economy, even as 'we are seeing lots of positive opportunities from the tremendous investment in artificial intelligence (AI)'.

"But there is also a lot of danger from becoming too reliant on entities that can squeeze us and make us vulnerable because we do not have a natural market which is nearby, which is rich, that we can supply to other than our own," he said.

Rajan, currently the Katherine Dusak Miller Distinguished Service Professor of Finance at Chicago Booth, emphasised that he understands the forthcoming budget may cut some tariff rates that keep India from being well integrated into the supply chain.

"And of course, the states are also helping by creating policies that are friendly towards investment. But we need more of that," he said.

Ties with neighbours

While noting that India is the fastest-growing large economy, and that needs to be celebrated, Rajan said, "We also need to make as many sorts of relationships as we can, including with our neighbours, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal." Asked if trade tensions with the US escalate further, then what mix of domestic reform and external positioning would help India absorb this stock, he said the most important aspect for India is to shut out the outside for a while, because there is a lot of noise that will be created, and instead introspect as to what it needs to do to up the rate of growth.

"We had a whole range of very big reforms through the 1990s into the early 2000s, then for a while we did not have very much. I think it is time to start that process again," he said.

Observing that the Narendra Modi government has recently implemented reforms, Rajan said it is time to focus more on what it will take to add, maybe, a couple of percentage points to India's economic growth.

"I think what we have right now is an opportunity created by the uncertainties of policy from the two big superpowers, an opportunity to re-insert ourselves in global supply chains," he said.

Diversification of supply chains

Rajan pointed out that India is not naturally part of any global supply chain because it is not near any major economy, except China, with which it has a border dispute.

"It would be important for India going forward to diversify across the supply chains that it has access to, including with China, but also importantly, with Europe, with Australia, with Canada, with the Middle East, as also with the East Asian countries," he said.

Rajan said that, given all the uncertainties the superpowers have created, India has got a fresh opportunity to catch the bus that it may have missed.

"It is not just manufacturing, it is services, and it is all kinds of services. Can we start thinking about how we can do that?" he asked.

Reforms for sustainable development

According to him, if India can offer a set of reforms, it will not only attract a lot more interest and foreign direct investment, but will also be integrated into global supply chains.

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.

Asked if India can aspire to grow at 8-9 per cent on a sustained basis, like China and East Asian countries, which grew at higher rates for over 30 years, Rajan said India does not need to grow at that helter-skelter pace that China grew.

"Some of that was unsustainable, and we are seeing the problems the Chinese property market is facing now, and you know, it will take a number of years for it to get fixed," he said.

Helter-skelter growth to be avoided

Rajan observes that even in India, some of the infrastructure build-out is getting worrisome.

"Every city seems to want a metro, but not every city has the ability to put metro stations in the right place, and some of that investment may be hard to recover over time, and clearly, we should not build public infrastructure that people can not use," he opined.

Rajan emphasised that India will have to be careful in creating growth that is temporary and not sustainable.

"It includes housing, as not all housing, even if we are a poor country with a lot of people without housing, can be utilised effectively, and so we have to be careful about helter-skelter growth," he noted.

(With agency inputs) 

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Ajit Pawar plane crash: DGCA says no person on board survived

An aircraft carrying Maharashtra deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and four others, including two crew members crash landed at Baramati airport, killing all five persons on board, a senior DGCA official said on Wednesday.

A team of DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation) officials is heading to the crash site, the official said.

There were five passengers -- Deputy CM of Maharashtra Ajit Pawar onboard along with two more personnel (one PSO and one attendant) and two crew members (pilot in-command and the first officer) -- on board the Learjet 45 aircraft when the accident happened, he said.

According to initial information, no person on board survived the crash, the official said. 

Rupee rises 11 paise to 91.57 against the US dollar in early trade

The rupee gained 11 paise to 91.57 against the US dollar in early trade on Wednesday, supported by a retreating dollar index and the landmark India-EU trade deal. Forex traders said the rupee opened higher as the US dollar index softened and a long-awaited trade breakthrough with Europe offered quiet reassurance.

FY27 Budget to incorporate recommendations of 16th Finance Commission

The forthcoming Budget would incorporate the recommendations of the 16th Finance Commission which has already submitted its report to President Droupadi Murmu.