no more 10-minute delivery by quick commerce companies MADURAI l Wednesday l January 14, 2026 l `9.00 l PAGES 16 l late city EDITION Eternalowned quickcommerce firm Blinkit dropped its ‘10-minute’ delivery claim after a Union labour ministry fiat on Tuesday Keeps in mind risks of quick delivery model Other aggregators, like Zepto and Swiggy-owned Instamart, are also expected to follow suit. The decision to do away with the ‘10-minute’ delivery model came after Union Labour Minister Mansukh Mandaviya persuaded aggregators, keeping in mind concerns over safety of workers galloping to close orders In a statement, Gig and Platform Service Workers Union welcomed the govt’s decision to discontinue the instant delivery system 2.3cr is the projected strength of india’s gig workforce by 2030 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 Penalty on states in dog bite cases express news service @ New Delhi THE Supreme Court on Tuesday said it will ask states to pay a “heavy compensation” for dog-bite cases and hold dog feeders accountable as it flagged the lack of implementation of norms on stray animals. A b e nch of Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta, and NV Anjaria said even dog lovers and feeders will be held ‘accountable’ for dog-bite incidents. “For every dog bite, death or injury caused to children or elderly, we are going to ask the state governments to pay heavy compensation, as they did not do anything on implementation of norms in the past five years,” Justice Nath said. express read RaGa slams centre over bid to block Vijay’s film Chennai: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday alleged that the centre’s “attempt to block” Vijay’s Jana Nayagan is an attack on Tamil culture | P4 With toll topping 2,000, Trump announces fresh levy to press Tehran to go easy on the protesters P u s h p i ta D e y @ New Delhi Donald Trump $17.3 bn Iran’s trade Major partners in total trade in 2024 India $3.6 bn Iraq Turkiye $12.3 bn $28.2 bn The Supreme Court on Tuesday delivered a split verdict on the validity of a 2018 provision that was inserted into the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, which mandates prior government approval before investigating public officials in corruption cases. While Justice B V Nagarathna ruled that Section 17A be struck down, Justice K V Viswanathan partially read it down. The matter would now go to the Chief Justice of India to assign it to a larger bench. Justice Nagarathna observed that Section 17A was an attempt to “protect the corrupt”. “The requirement of prior sanction is contrary to the object of the Act, and it forecloses inquiry and protects the corrupt rather than seeking to protect the honest and those with integrity who really do not require any protection,” she said. On the other hand, Justice Viswanathan held that an independent agency must decide the question of prosecution sanction. He directed that the sanction be decided by the Lokpal/Lokayukta, reading down Section 17A to that extent. “Section 17A is constitutionally valid subject to the condition that the sanction must be decided by the Lokpal or the Lokayukta of the State,” Justice Viswanathan said. He added that striking down the provision will amount to “throwing the baby out with the bath water”, warning of policy paralysis from frivolous probes, and stressing the need to protect honest officers. He said a fine balance has to be maintained between the need to protect a public servant from mala fide cases. UAE SUC H ITRA KALYAN MO H ANTY @ New Delhi Addl 25% Iran-linked tariff to have minimal impact on India: Govt $32.4 bn Split verdict on prior nod clause in anti-graft law China Different strokes Source: Trade Data Monitor via WTO, compiled by Bloomberg While US President Donald Trump delivered yet another blow by announcing 25% additional tariff on countries that do active trade with Iran, government sources said India is likely to have minimal impact. Their confidence stemmed from the fact that India’s total merchandise trade with Iran stood at only $1.6 billion (in 2024-25), which is 0.15% of the country’s total trade. “For India, Iran does not even figure in the top 50 global trading partners. India’s trade value with Iran is expected to further go down in the current fiscal year given external economic factors. (Therefore) 25% tariff announced by the US on trade partners of Iran is likely to have minimal impact on India,” said government sources. Iran’s total import in 2024 was worth about $68 billion, sourcing it goods mainly from the UAE ($21 billion - 30%), China ($17 billion - 26%), Turkiye ($11 billion - 16%) and the EU ($6 billion - 9%). India’s share was only $1.2 billion (2.3%). Top exports from India to Iran include cereals (rice), coffee, tea, spices, edible oil, etc. “There is still no clarity on whether humanitarian products like food and medicines will be exempted. India significantly exports such products. In any event, given the low overall trade volume, the macro impact will be low. If these products are exempted, the impact will be even lower,” said Anup Wadhawan, former commerce secretary . Trump announced the additional tariff to pressure Iran to step back from its violent crackdown on a wave of protests in the country that have left over 2,000 people dead. As per the data collated by Bloomberg citing WTO, India accounts for only 2.9% of the total share of trade. Polluted water may have led to death of two in TN RA J ALAKS H MI SAMPAT H @ Chennai A preliminary bacteriological report issued by the State Water Laboratory in Guindy on December 30, 2025, has confirmed that the drinking water supplied to Karlambakkam village in Tiruttani taluk was contaminated with E-coli bacteria of faecal origin, lending weight to the allegations that polluted water had led to the deaths of two residents last month. The report on samples collected on December 28, 2025, accessed by TNIE, showed that tap water samples from four households in Karlambakkam Colony were found to be of “poor bacteriological quality with the presence of , E-coli-I of faecal origin”. The remarks column stated that “other pathogenic organisms causing Acute Diarrhoeal Disease are absent on this occasion”. Tiruvallur collector M Prathap said, “We cannot treat the preliminary report as the final conclusion. We must get viscera report.”  P7 Pak-born US cricketer ‘denied’ WC visa E x p r e s s N e w s S e r v i c e @ Chennai ALI Khan, a Pakistan-born and raised US international cricketer, has claimed on Instagram that his Indian visa has been ‘denied’. Khan, who put out a story on his personal handle without elaborating, has featured in 13 T20Is for the US. It’s un- derstood that there are other Pakistan-origin players in the US team who are in a similar situation but the ICC is expected to find a quick resolution to the issue. With the T20 World Cup scheduled to be held in India and Sri Lanka in under a month, the heightened tensions between India and Pakistan have once again brought this issue to the foreground. With many teams having Pakistan-origin players, it remains to be seen whether those players are also facing similar situations. UAE, another team with a few Pakistan origin players, are yet to hear about the fate of the visas of several of their players.  P13