Sangrur: An underground power wiring project launched by Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Maan He described it as a first of its kind initiative to make the state the first state in the country to have poll-free villages on a pilot basis in his native village Satoj here.Mann said the project will prevent crop fires, fatal accidents and frequent power cuts due to overhead lines, and will also free villages from the maze of dangerous poles and tangled wires.Under the pilot project, 384 electric poles will be removed from Satauj and underground cables will be laid without digging the road.Describing the “Satauj Model” as a roadmap for the entire country, Mann said the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government has fulfilled its promise of creating wire-free villages for Punjab’s farmers and said underground power supply will also end politics over installation of electric poles in villages.“Today is a historic day for the villages of Punjab as a big project to free the villages from the web of electric wires and unnecessary poles is being launched here.Addressing a gathering here, Mann said, “Under this pilot project, all the overhead power lines in Satoj will be taken underground at a cost of about Rs 8 crore. This is the first project in the country and with this initiative Punjab will emerge as a model project for the entire country.”Giving technical details of the project, Mann said, “Under this project, seven kilometer long high tension lines, 9.5 kilometer long low tension lines and 41 kilometer long service cables connecting the houses of 800 consumers will be laid underground.”All the high tension lines connected to the 66 KV grid Satoj to the village through three 11 KV feeders and connected to 28 transformers will go underground. He said that after this, under a historic initiative, all the low tension lines from 28 transformers to meter boxes will also be laid underground.The cable connecting meter boxes to all houses will also be underground, removing 384 unnecessary electric poles.A special feature of the project is that there will be no need to dig roads for laying underground cables because trenchless drilling machines will be used to lay underground pipes. He said that these pipes will be laid three feet below the ground, which will prove to be a big boon for the common people.Highlighting the dangers posed by overhead power wires, Mann said that electric poles and overhead wires pose a risk of electric shock to animals and people, especially children.Accidents often occur when tractors, combine harvesters and other vehicles come in contact with overhead wires.Similarly, farmers suffer huge losses due to crop fire incidents.He said rains, storms and strong winds damage poles and wires, disrupting power supply and causing financial loss to the power corporation.The network of poles and wires also affects the aesthetic appearance of the villages. By shifting high tension and low tension lines underground, power leakage will be eliminated, thereby reducing transmission and distribution losses, Mann said.“Villages will get uninterrupted power supply, underground cables will significantly reduce accidents, crop fires caused by power lines will be prevented, and power supply will no longer be disrupted by rain and strong winds. Removing unnecessary poles and tangled wires will further enhance the beauty and appearance of the villages.”Recalling the tragic incidents in the village, Mann said, “Three youths from this village lost their lives due to electric shock in their combine harvester. They were the sole earners for their families. This project is a tribute to those youths as such tragic incidents should never happen in the future.”Referring to the anti-sacrilege law, Mann said the state government has enacted it against sacrilege, which has a provision of punishment up to life imprisonment, to ensure that in future no one would dare to disrespect the Guru Granth Sahib.He said, “The previous rulers neither had the intention nor the will to enact laws to prevent sacrilege, due to which desecration of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji became a regular occurrence during their reign. However, the Act passed by the Punjab Government will put a stop to it as no one would ever dare to indulge in this unpardonable crime.”

Isac Andic is the founder of Spanish fashion brand Mango.

Spanish police said on Tuesday they had arrested Jonathan Andic, the eldest son of Mango founder Isaac Andic, in connection with the death of the billionaire businessman while hiking in December 2024.Jonathan Endick, 45, was alone with his father when the 71-year-old retail giant fell to his death in the Montserrat mountains near Barcelona. Catalan regional police confirmed that he was taken into custody and taken in handcuffs to a court in Martorell for questioning.Sources close to the family, quoted by AFP, said they were “completely” confident in Jonathan Andik’s innocence, adding that “there is no and there will be no valid evidence against him”.He also said he believed “this will be demonstrated during the investigation,” and called for “respect for the presumption of innocence.”Authorities initially treated Isak Endić’s death as an accident, saying he appeared to have slipped near the Salnitre Caves in Kolbato, an area known for steep slopes and ravines. A judge closed the case in January 2025 after finding no evidence of criminal wrongdoing.However, the investigation was reopened in October 2025 after police, prosecutors, and the court reportedly found inconsistencies in Jonathan Andik’s testimony.Spanish newspaper El Pais reported that investigators had seized Jonathan Andic’s phone immediately after the incident. The report also cited the testimony of Isak Andić’s partner, professional golfer Estefania Knuth, who described the at times strained relationship between father and son. According to the newspaper, the two disagreed over Jonathan’s role in the company. Isak Andik reportedly handed him greater operational responsibility in 2014 before taking back tighter control a year later amid business difficulties at Mango. Knuth was also reportedly involved in a financial dispute with Isak Endik’s three children over the businessman’s will.Catalonia’s High Court said details of the case would remain under judicial confidentiality.Meanwhile, Jonathan Endick has denied any involvement in his father’s death and said the fall was accidental. He joined Mango in 2005 after studying audiovisual communications in the United States and business in Spain. Two years later, he began managing the Mango Man Line and later became vice chairman of the company’s board. “If you’re clear about where you want to go and keep moving forward, you will achieve your goals,” Jonathan Andik said in a 2023 Mango promotional video posted on YouTube.Born in Istanbul, Isak Endik moved from Türkiye to Barcelona with his family in the late 1960s. He founded Mango with his brother Nahman in 1984 after opening the brand’s first store in Barcelona’s Paseo de Gràcia.Mango later became one of the world’s leading fashion retailers, operating approximately 2,850 stores in more than 120 markets and employing more than 16,400 people globally.In December 2023, Isak Andik transferred 5 percent of the company to Mango CEO Tony Ruiz, who currently leads the group. At the time of his death, Forbes estimated Isak Andik’s net worth at $4.5 billion.

“We the people of India” saved the nation during Covid by “living like soldiers”. Today, citizens are again being asked to help the country by “living responsibly”.The language has changed from pandemic precautions to economic discipline, but the political pattern feels familiar.One way to detect coming trouble is to watch how governments speak. When administrations begin talking less about policy and more about behaviour — conserving fuel, avoiding excess spending, reducing travel, consuming responsibly — it often means the state is psychologically preparing society for harder economic measures.India has now seen this twice within five years: during Covid and now during the ongoing Gulf crisis triggered by the US-Israrel-Iran war.In both moments, governance shifted from direct administration to behavioural management. Citizens were no longer treated merely as taxpayers or voters, but as participants in national survival.The BJP-led NDA government has in the past resorted to direct administration when it believed it was necessary. Demonetisation, the rollout of GST are examples of high-impact executive action that had a huge impact on public life.However, during periods of economic or geopolitical stress, the Centre often changes tone before it changes policy.This is the politics of behavioural governance, and it may be one of the clearest early warning signs of a nation facing stress.

The grammar of distress

Prime Minister Narendra Modi‘s recent speech in Hyderabad carried echoes familiar to anyone who remembers the pandemic years. The message was framed as an appeal, not an emergency order. There was no announcement of rationing or restrictions. Instead, the emphasis was on restraint, conservation and collective responsibility.The tone mattered.

Governments rarely begin crisis management with force. They begin with persuasion.Economists often describe this as behavioural economics applied to governance — influencing public decision-making through messaging rather than compulsion. Instead of immediately imposing harsh measures, governments attempt to gently reshape behaviour first: consume less fuel, postpone discretionary spending, reduce imports, avoid panic buying, travel differently, work from home where possible.“The basic economics is that behavioural appeals are generally fast and low-cost because major fiscal interventions—subsidies, tax changes, stimulus packages, rationing systems, or price controls — require legislative approval, budget allocation, administrative coordination, and so on. Whereas, behavioural appeals, or a sort of signal, which sometimes also called ‘demand-side adjustment through norms’, shift part of the adjustment burden onto citizens voluntarily, reducing immediate state expenditure,” said Surya Bhushan, an alumnus of CESP, JNU, and now economics professor at DMI, Patna.Adding a political logic to it, he said “behavioural messaging avoids politically painful policies”.

Are crises psychological before they get administrative?

Economic distress is not only about shortages or numbers on a spreadsheet. They are also about public emotion.Bhushan argues that governments increasingly recognise this psychological dimension.“Crises are often partly psychological … economic crises are not only about material shortages; expectations matter enormously. For instance, if consumers panic: they hoard, rush to banks, speculate, overbuy fuel, or trigger inflationary spirals. In this regard, behavioural appeals aim to stabilize expectations and reduce panic behaviour.”This helps explain why official communication during crises often sounds calm even when underlying risks are serious. The objective is not only economic management, but emotional management.The speech itself becomes an economic tool.That was visible during Covid. It is visible again now amid fears surrounding oil supply disruptions and instability in the Persian Gulf that has impacted countries across the globe.

Has India seen this form of governance before?

Yes, long before behavioural governance became an academic phrase, governments were already using it during moments of national stress.During the 1962 India-China war, then PM Jawaharlal Nehru appealed directly to citizens not merely for support, but for participation. Asking Indians to contribute to the Prime Minister’s National Defence Fund, he framed the war effort as a collective civic responsibility rather than a task for the state alone.“The hardships which our soldiers are facing are not unknown to you,” Nehru said, urging citizens to become “comrades in this great struggle”.The appeal was not only financial. It psychologically transformed civilians into stakeholders in national defence.

A similar pattern emerged during the 1965 Indo-Pak war, when Lal Bahadur Shastri urged citizens to voluntarily fast once a week to conserve food supplies amid shortages. Importantly, Shastri reportedly implemented the practice within his own household before asking the country to follow, giving the appeal moral legitimacy.By the 1971 war and the Bangladesh refugee crisis, behavioural messaging had become even more explicit. With the country’s economy under severe strain, Indira Gandhi appealed for “stern national discipline” and sacrifice.“Our factories and farms must produce more. Our railways and our entire transport and communication system must work uninterruptedly,” she said, warning that “everything must be subordinated” to preserving national stability.What connects these moments across decades is the language of collective duty. During crises, governments begin treating citizens not simply as governed populations, but as instruments of national resilience.

The current appeals around fuel conservation, restrained consumption and “duty-first” behaviour follow the same political grammar — only updated for a modern economy shaped by oil shocks, global supply chains and digital life.The recent fuel price increase is a case in point.Petrol and diesel prices are not just economic indicators in India. They are deeply political symbols. Fuel prices shape transport costs, food inflation and household budgets, affecting nearly every layer of daily life. That is perhaps why fuel prices were not raised in the last four years.Finally, when the fuel prices were hiked it was timed to avoid the ongoing assembly election period despite rising global crude prices linked to West Asian tensions. Economically, the increase reflected global pressures. Politically, the timing reflected management.And before citizens fully processed the implications, the language of conservation had already entered public discourse.

Why oil shocks hit India so deeply?

India’s vulnerability to energy shocks makes behavioural governance especially relevant.Bhushan points out that oil is not just another commodity in the Indian economy: “Of course, India is structurally vulnerable to a prolonged oil-supply disruption because crude oil sits at the center of multiple systems simultaneously: transport, agriculture, logistics, chemicals, inflation management, fiscal stability, and the rupee itself.”That interconnectedness explains why governments become cautious when disruptions emerge around the Strait of Hormuz or the wider Gulf region. A sustained oil shock quickly spills into inflation, transport costs, fertiliser prices, currency pressure and household budgets.“What needs to be kept in mind is that the government had already cushioned the impact by cutting the excise duty on petrol and diesel by Rs 10 at the end of March. That has significant fiscal impact on the finances of both the Central and state governments,” said Ananth Krishna Varahe, head of the Nation First Policy Research Centre (NFPRC).“As a country without significant petroleum resources, we are downstream of a huge oil shock that we have more or less not seen the full effect of. The Government of India has taken in my opinion a calibrated approach in managing that shock to the domestic economy, which was the only right approach,” he added.He further argued that rising prices were unavoidable “considering that the OMCs were making losses up to Rs 1,000 crore a day”.

How does behavioural governance work?

Behavioural governance works by making citizens feel like active participants in managing a national crisis rather than passive subjects of state control. Governments first shape public behaviour through emotion, symbolism and collective responsibility before enforcing stricter measures.The Covid-19 pandemic offered perhaps the clearest example of this strategy.Before the nationwide lockdown was announced, Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealed for a voluntary “Janta Curfew” on March 22, 2020. There was no immediate coercive enforcement attached to it. Yet millions across the country stayed indoors, roads emptied, markets shut and public life paused almost entirely.What made the appeal effective was not law, but psychological mobilisation.The language used during the period deliberately transformed ordinary citizens into participants in a national mission. PM Modi repeatedly framed the pandemic as a collective battle and citizens as “soldiers” fighting it together.A similar vocabulary is visible again in the current Gulf-linked economic stress. Speaking at a public event in Secunderabad, PM Modi argued that rising global energy prices and supply-chain disruptions required “collective restraint” and a “duty-first” approach from citizens, once again framing behavioural adjustment as part of a national response.“Crises are often partly psychological … economic crises are not only about material shortages; expectations matter enormously,” said Bhushan.

Can everyone equally participate in ‘national sacrifice’?

Behavioural governance works best when sacrifice appears collective. But in practice, the ability to participate in it is deeply unequal.The Covid experience exposed this divide sharply. While sections of the middle class shifted to online meetings, home offices and app-based services, millions of migrant workers and informal labourers faced immediate economic collapse once transportation systems shut down and work disappeared almost overnight.The migrant crisis during the lockdown became one of the starkest reminders of how unevenly national sacrifice is experienced. As cities closed and transport networks stopped, thousands of migrant workers were forced to walk hundreds of kilometres back to their villages, often without income, food or shelter. For many of them, “staying home” was never a realistic option because survival itself depended on physical mobility and daily wages.“Behavioural austerity has hard limits, we all know because of informality of the economy, like, a street vendor, factory worker, truck driver, or migrant labourer cannot easily ‘opt out’ of fuel dependence. So we still need to think and work towards energy security,” Bhushan said.

Crisis management or shifting responsibility?

Many argue that behavioural governance builds resilience during emergencies. Encouraging lower fuel consumption, restrained imports and moderated spending can genuinely reduce pressure on foreign exchange reserves during periods of global instability.Critics, however, ask where responsible citizenship ends and the shifting of state responsibility begins.Varahe rejected the argument that responsibility is being outsourced to citizens. “The state responsibility has not been ‘shifted’. While there has been a ‘call to action’ from the PM himself, the Government has introduced measures to increase duty on imported gold or cap import of duty free gold. Similarly, the petrol/diesel prices have been increased. There are likely going to be many other measures that the Government will take.”He argued that the government is attempting to balance intervention with economic flexibility.“The line of thought is that the citizen should be pointed to ideal action, but not limited from making their own decisions.”Behavioural governance works because it turns citizens from passive recipients of policy into participants in crisis management. But it also raises a difficult question: how much of the burden of crisis should be absorbed by citizens themselves?That is why political language matters during uncertain times. When leaders begin speaking about discipline, restraint, conservation and sacrifice, they are also preparing society psychologically for the turbulence ahead.The speech becomes a policy instrument.And perhaps that is the real warning sign of a crisis – not when governments impose restrictions, but when they begin asking citizens to voluntarily change how they live.

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BenQ MOBIUZ EX321UZ QD-OLED gaming monitor price and availability in India

BenQ MOBIUZ EX321UZ will be available in India from May 19 across leading online and offline channels at a special launch price of Rs 1,28,998.The monitor is powered by a 4th generation QD-OLED panel with an advanced 5-layer tandem structure for increased brightness, deeper blacks and better color purity. The company claims that this new panel architecture improves light efficiency and durability while maintaining the ultra-fast response and infinite contrast OLED technology. Combined with quantum dot color enhancement, the EX321UZ produces richer, more vibrant visuals with superior HDR performance. The EX321UZ features razor-sharp clarity and near-instant responsiveness for fluid gameplay with 4K UHD (3840×2160) resolution, 240Hz refresh rate, and 0.03ms GtG response time. Designed for both immersive story-driven games and high-performance gaming, the monitor supports AMD FreeSync Premium Pro and next-generation connectivity including DisplayPort 2.1a UHBR20 (80Gbps) and HDMI 2.1 with eARC support.

BenQ Smart Game Art Technology

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World number two Carlos Alcaraz has confirmed that he will miss this year’s Wimbledon Championships as he continues to recover from a wrist injury. Alcaraz was already Withdrew from the French Open earlier this monthHe also missed the clay-court majors due to injury.

The Spanish star injured his right wrist during the Barcelona Open in April. Since then, Alcaraz has also withdrawn from the Madrid Open and Italian Open to focus on recovery.

In a post on social media, Alcaraz said that the decision to skip Wimbledon was made to avoid further aggravating the injury and to ensure that he returned fully fit for the remainder of the season.

“My recovery is going well and I’m feeling much better, but unfortunately I’m still not ready to play, and that’s why I’ve had to withdraw from the grass-court swing at Queen’s and Wimbledon. They’re two really special tournaments for me and I’ll miss them a lot. We’ll keep working to get back as soon as possible!”

no syncraj at wimbledon

Alcaraz was injured during the Barcelona OpenWhere he was forced to retire from the match against Otto Virtanen. Since then, the Spaniard has been sidelined, missing the opportunity to defend his title at the Madrid Open, Italian Open and now the French Open.

Alcaraz’s withdrawal from Wimbledon also means fans will have to wait longer for another chapter in the much-anticipated Sincaraz rivalry. The two last met in a Grand Slam in the US Open final last year, where Alcaraz emerged victorious at Flushing Meadows.

Alcaraz’s rivalry with Sinner has become one of the biggest attractions in men’s tennis, making his absence from the next two Grand Slams a major shock for fans and broadcasters. The pair produced a memorable French Open final last year, with Alcaraz recording a comeback victory, in response to which Sinner defeated her in the Wimbledon final.

Earlier this year, Alcaraz became the youngest person to complete a career Grand Slam by defeating Novak Djokovic in the Australian Open final. However, he lost the world No. 1 ranking to Sinner after his defeat in the recent Monte Carlo Masters final. After Alcaraz missed Wimbledon, Sinner now has a golden opportunity to strengthen his hold on the top spot in the ATP rankings.

– ends

The US has issued a travel alert amid the Ebola outbreak in DRC and Uganda.

The US State Department has issued a Level 4 alert for the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), South Sudan or Uganda, urging Americans not to travel to any of these countries for any reason. Ebola outbreak. For Rwanda, the department issued a Level 3 alert asking Americans to reconsider travel. The travel alerts are in response to the CDC and WHO announcement on the recent Ebola outbreak.“Medical services in South Sudan are extremely limited. Access to adequate medical treatment, as well as routine emergency procedures, is often unavailable, and even minor health problems may require medical evacuation. All medical services, including medical evacuation, are at your expense. If you purchase additional medical insurance, be sure to keep records of all medical services paid for and provided,” the U.S. Department of Health wrote in the advisory for South Sudan.Ebola is a rare, serious and often fatal hemorrhagic fever disease spread by direct contact with infected individuals or their bodily fluids.Dr. Peter Stafford, an American doctor, has been infected with Ebola as he and his wife Dr. Rebekah Stafford were treating patients during the outbreak in the DRC. The couple’s four children are also being monitored for symptoms. The couple moved to Africa in 2019.As of Tuesday, there have been 131 deaths linked to the current outbreak.The American doctor is being treated in a hospital in Germany at the request of the US government. Germany’s Federal Health Ministry said, “At present, arrangements are being made for the admission and treatment of the patient in Germany.” “Germany has a nationwide network of specialists for the management and care of patients with diseases caused by highly pathogenic pathogens,” the ministry said.The CDC issued a new order on Monday barring foreign travelers from entering the US if they have visited a country affected by the outbreak, including DR Congo, Uganda and South Sudan, in the past 21 days.The agency enforced Title 42, a law that temporarily bans non-citizens from coming to the US for public health reasons.President Donald Trump said on Monday he was “concerned” by the outbreak in DR Congo, but also said he believed it had not spread to the US.

Excerpts from the interview:Why: : How Did this book pass through? A: : Most of my books begin with a character…, not a specific person, but someone in a village in the 1920s. This is what I was imagining in my mind: living in a village, growing up there and then moving out of the village during a period that coincides with the beginning of India’s struggle for independence. And I wondered what would happen to the young man who heard about it… but it was all very vague in my mind. That’s why I first started building that village. And that’s how I thought about parents, and then Devrai came into existence. Making Kesarugattu, meaning mud village, was a very interesting experience… The initial chapters go very deep into the social fabric of rural life and the complexities, frictions and companionship… Why: : wCap Were creative sets you free took?Is it possible gang up universal blueprint of a Villagee or Caste structures? A: : I think they’re particular to each location… A hundred years ago people assumed that this hierarchy was necessary. And when anyone tried to break that hierarchy and do anything outside it, there would be consequences… When people respected the boundaries, castes co-existed peacefully, it was important for the upper castes. And the upper castes have no objection to other castes entering, but they do not want others to move forward...Devaraya himself is a Brahmin, but there is another Brahmin character who is a priest in the temple. And his beliefs are very rigid and he cannot tolerate any intrusion. There is an example in the book where a girl of about nine years old and her dog inadvertently violate something that is sacred to the religion. But its effect is very serious on both. I imagined these stories. But because I work closely with the village people, I have seen the kind of exploitation, injustice that happens. And people think that this is all right, that is not considered injustice. It is like showing a person his proper place. Why: : htoo much Research did you to do? A: : I did very little research. If you know something deeply, you sit back and let your imagination do the work. That means you let yourself go into those houses and sit with your characters. You know, you’re hearing what they think, what they would do. When this whole tragic incident about Devrai came to my mind, it kind of came to me… This is not a historical book, but history is always in the foreground and background and so is caste. We cannot forget these two things in that period of Indian history. And it amazes me that we don’t pay enough attention to this… After I’ve written everything, I’ll usually go back if I’ve mentioned dates or talked about a certain thing in history, just to make sure it’s correct… I felt like the South was overlooked in fiction. Most of our leaders that we know come from the northern and western states. I read about him to some extent, like about Periyar Ramaswami Iyer. There were a lot of ordinary people in the South who dropped out of college, who left their jobs, who joined the freedom movement. Many people were killed, many had to suffer, many had to go to jail. Why: : Iit was fantastic that you managed to take away memories across. A: : My father was in politics and he joined the freedom movement at a very young age. He went to jail. So even though I wasn’t born at that time,…sometimes you would hear him talk about how they were punished, what was done, how the food was. And I have heard how big leaders like Rajagopalachari or Kamaraj and Nehru, when they were in jail, used to take classes for young people. He taught them economics, history, science. They took it upon themselves because they knew that these young people had dropped out of college or left their jobs to join the struggle. And I’ve heard my father say that it was the best education he ever had. So these were the realities that I have used in a different way in the book. Why: : Fiction lends Self to become Great treasury of these historical Description, Use to live Memories, testimony A: : There were a lot of old people at one of my readings in Bengaluru. And many of them came up to me later and said how much of it they remembered. They were telling me things I’d heard about, but they’d lived it, and they loved the book because it brought back memories. Why: : how did you switch like this beautifully between Male and this Female voices? A: : I spend a lot of time with the characters… I really try to place them and I become a fly on the wall… Only then do I understand the natural thing that ‘What will this person do in such a situation?’ I don’t, because otherwise I would impose my views and ideologies on them. That’s why when certain characters do something and I don’t want them to do it, I’ll say, ‘Oh no, please don’t do that.’ But you know that person is meant to do this...I think it’s very important for a writer to be able to deal with gender, not just identify your side of your gender… And when you understand the opposite, then you understand yourself better because both are very closely linked to each other throughout life. I think there’s probably a certain level of asexuality that you have to bring to writing as well as being aware of gender and its implications. Why: what were Topic You districtsis discussed How else did it Get selected? A: : I did not discuss any other titles. A lot of people asked me, ‘Why Rising Sons?’ It seemed as if some people thought the whole story was about men. But I guess I didn’t have any particular reason for anything. Like, I have books that feature male protagonists and I also have books that feature female protagonists. But I feel the story demands something and I do it. And ‘Rising Sons’, for me, was generational because there are so many people in it. It is Devaraya himself who has to rise. He has two sons, he has friends. Getting up and doing something was the domain of men during those years. Women held the fort, many of them stepped into other types of work, but generally it was the men. And I think if you can understand men, you can understand what women go through.