Today’s Matches 11am: Afghanistan vs New Zealand (Chennai), 3pm: England vs Nepal (Mumbai) BENGALURU  SUNDAY  FEBRUARY 08, 2026  `12.00  PAGES 34  LATE CITY EDITION India captain Suryakumar Yadav rsecues team with 49-ball 84 against USA in the first game of the T20 World Cup on Saturday. India won by 29 runs | AFP | P17 7pm: Sri Lanka vs Ireland (Colombo) 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 $500 billion handshake Delhi inks favourable terms with US, both agree to phase out duties, boost mutual investments P U S H P I TA D E Y @ New Delhi WITH THIS ISSUE THIS ISSUE WITH THE OTHER CRICKET THE OTHER CRICKET PLUS 12 P AGES PLUS 12 P AGES annually,” Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said. INDIA and the United States set The overall tariff restructuring an ambitious target of $500 billion will be implemented in a phased in annual bilateral trade, as the manner. Zero-duty access will be two countries released a joint available only after the agreement statement on Saturday outlining is formally signed in March. On the framework of the interim market access for American proddeal. ucts, Goyal said India had adopted As part of the understanding, a c a l i b r at e d a n d s e l e c t ive India will eliminate or reduce tar- approach. iffs on US industrial goods and a “We have opened our markets broad basket of agricultural and for the US on some products like food products, including distillers’ DDGS and wines and spirits, but dried grains (DDGs), red sorghum in these cases we have also kept a for feed, tree nuts, fruits, soybean minimum import price to safeoil, wine and spirits. In guard domestic producreturn, the US will cut reers,” he said, adding that ciprocal tariff to 18% on no discriminatory measselect Indian goods such ures have been taken The interim trade as textiles, leather, plasagainst any Indian pact will tics, rubber, organic sector. strengthen the chemicals, home décor ‘Make in India’ by The minister clarified and certain machinery . that India has retained opening up new However, the US indi- opportunities for protection for sensitive farmers and cated that once the interagriculture and dairy im agreement becomes entrepreneurs, and segments. Only products create jobs for operational, tariffs will already being imported women and be lifted for sectors idenhave been given limited youngsters tified as aligned partners, concessions, subject to notably generics, gems quotas and minimum imNarendra Modi, PM and diamonds, and airport prices. craft parts. According to the joint With the immediate revocation statement, India has also indicat- of the 25% additional tariff, seced its intent to purchase $500 bil- tors such as textiles and apparel, lion worth of US energy, aircraft leather and footwear, plastics and and parts, precious metals, tech- rubber products, gems and jewelnology products and coking coal lery, and marine products are exover five years. pected to regain export momen“Considering the two countries’ tum in the US market. relations, diplomatic ties, and the Goyal said the marine sector is friendship between their leaders, likely to be one of the biggest discussions on a bilateral trade beneficiaries. agreement began in February “With markets now diversified 2025. The objective was to achieve and US tariffs coming down, seabilateral trade of $500 billion be- food exporters will have a double P15 tween India and the United States benefit,” he said. 5% Metro fare hike on hold, says Surya; No order yet: BMRCL EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @Bengaluru BENGALURU South MP Tejasvi Surya on Saturday said the proposed 5% increase in Bengaluru Metro fares will be kept on hold following the intervention of Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Manohar Lal Khattar. The revised fares, which were scheduled to come into effect from Monday (February 9), will not be implemented for now, Surya said. In a post on social media, Surya said he had a detailed phone conversation with Khattar, seeking immediate intervention against what he described as an “unjust” fare hike proposed by the State government. During the discussion, Surya pointed out that Bengaluru already has the highest Metro fares in the country and said that any further increase would make public transport unaffordable for lakhs of commuters, defeating the very purpose of the Metro. He said Khattar told him that the proposed hike would be put on hold temporarily and assured him of a personal review of alleged anomalies in the recommendations of the Fare Fixation Committee (FFC). Khattar indicated that the possibility of constituting a fresh FFC could be considered if the state government formally initiates the process. When contacted, BMRCL, however, stated that there has been no official communication on withholding the P2 fare revision. Small print of proposed big deal Lower or zero duty on US wine and spirits, dried distillers’ grains, red sorghum for animal feed, tree nuts, fresh and processed fruit, soybean oil Strings attached as Don nixes 25% punitive levy J AYA N T H J A C O B @ New Delhi US President Donald Trump on Friday signed an executive order rescinding a punitive 25% duty on Indian imports that had been imposed over India’s purchases of Russian energy. The White House said the move followed assurances from India that it would stop directly or indirectly importing Russian oil — assertions that New Delhi has not publicly confirmed. “Specifically, India has committed to stop directly or indirectly importing Russian Federation oil, has represented that it will purchase United States energy products from the US, and has recently committed to a framework with the United States to expand defense cooperation 5 ARRESTED 7-day-old boy sold in Kolar E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ Kolar Bengaluru already has the highest Metro fares in the country and said that any further increase would make public transport unaffordable, defeating the very purpose of the Metro Tejasvi Surya, B’luru South MP A seven-day-old male baby was sold to a childless couple for Rs 5 lakh in Srinivasapura, Kolar district, and was rescued within a few hours early on Saturday morning. Five persons — the baby’s parents, the couple who bought the child and the middleman— were arrested. Kolar SP Kannika Sikriwal said around Friday midnight, they got information that a child had been sold in Srinivasapura. Circle Inspector Shankarachar and team reached Venkateshwara Layout and questioned the child’s parents, Neethu and Raghavendra. After much interrogation they said they sold the baby to Manjula and Krishna, who were childless for the last 10 years. The police arrested the middleman Narayanaswamy first and then reached Chinthamani, where the baby was found and rescued. Neethu and Raghavendra already had two kids and sold the baby owing to financial woes. Gold, diamond deposits in Kappatagudda? R A G H O T TA M K O P PA R @ Gadag NOT just gold, Kappatagudda hillock range in Gadag could hold diamond deposits too, say geologists who recently visited Lakkundi and the gold caves in Gadag. They pointed out that the Gadag schist belt is one of the famous Precambrian schist belts in South India, which also runs through Kolar. News of the Lakkundi treasure discovery last month has drawn geologists from across Karnataka, with many visiting the golden cave areas in Kanvi Hosur area. Some of them said the Kappatagudda area is unique and the Precambrian schist belts in South India are known to have diamond deposits. Though early studies in Gadag were devoted to gold deposits, recent surveys have shown there may be diamonds, iron and manganese ore. Senior citizens of Kappatagudda claim that diamond mining was going on till 1960, but this was stopped and they don’t know the reason behind it. Chandrakant K, a geologist from Koppal, said, “The Precambrian era is the earliest age of early life. During this era, continents were formed and modern atmosphere developed, while early life evolved. Soft-bodied creatures like worms and jellyfish lived in the oceans, but the land remained barren. Several rocks we see at the gold caves look like ancient metamorphic rocks and a survey should be done on this. The Geological Survey of India should conduct a check for diamonds and other valuable metals.” Nag Bhushan, Senior Director, Mines and Geology department, said, “This place dates back more than 6 million years. Rock formations, under-earth chemical reactions and many u n k n ow n p ro c e s s e s h ave taken place. There may be diamonds and many unknown metals in those places. I don’t have any idea of a diamond survey but there was a gold survey done in Koppal.” A v i l l a g e r f ro m H o s u r, near Gadag, said, “We have heard from our father and uncles that there were gold and diamond mines in our villages. There was diamond mining till 1960 and it stopped afterwards. The British government might have taken all the gold and diamonds from here.” Reciprocal tariff down to 18% on Indian textile and apparel, leather and footwear, plastic and rubber, organic chemicals, home décor, artisanal products, and certain machinery Minimum import prices fixed on products like US apples No entry for US dried/ frozen/ canned/ provisionally preserved veggies, beans, pulses, roots & tubers, citrus fruits, berries Zero US duty on import of spices, tea, coffee, copra, coconut oil, areca nut We have heard from our father and uncles that there were gold and diamond mines here. There was diamond mining till 1960 and it stopped later — A resident Villagers at a cave near Kappatagudda in Gadag | EXPRESS Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal speaks on the India-US trade deal in Delhi | PTI over the next 10 years,” the executive order said. The document added that India has taken “significant steps” to address American concerns over Russian oil purchases and to “align sufficiently with the US on national security foreign policy , and economic matters.” Despite lifting the tariffs, the executive order makes clear that relief is conditional. It establishes a formal US gover nment monitoring mechanism to verify whether India has indeed stopped importing Russian oil. US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick has been tasked with overseeing this process, along with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. The order lays out a clear enforcement trigger. “If the Secretary of Commerce finds that India has resumed directly or indirectly importing Russian Federation oil,” it states, the Secretary of State — after consultations with senior Cabinet officials and White House advisers — “shall recommend whether and to what extent I should take additional action as to India, including whether I should reimpose the additional ad valorem rate of duty of 25 percent on imports of articles of India”.