Dept for Promotion of Industry & Internal Trade on Monday notified changes in FDI policy to let overseas cos with Chinese shareholding of up to 10% invest in India under automatic route villupuram l tuesday l march 17, 2026 l `9.00 l PAGES 14 l city EDITION New norms for FDI to draw china notified Earlier, foreign firms with shareholders from China or other countries sharing land border with India had to seek mandatory approval to invest in India A decision to ease the FDI norms was taken by the Union Cabinet last week During the Covid-19 pandemic, govt had tightened FDI policy through Press Note 3 (2020) to curb opportunistic takeovers/ acquisitions of Indian companies Countries that share land borders with India are China, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Bhutan, Nepal, Myanmar, and Afghanistan Press Note 3 has now been amended to ease the restrictions 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 Unprecedented purge of Mamata’s top babus For the first time in West Bengal, ECI transfers state chief secretary S U B H E N D U M A I T I @ Kolkata In an unprecedented shake-up of the top administration in West Bengal hours after announcing the poll schedule, the Election Commission of India removed Chief Secretary Nandini Chakraborty, home secretary Jagdish Prasad Meena, Director General of Police Peeyush Pandey, additional DGP (Law and Order), Vineet Goyal, and Kolkata’s Commissioner of Police Supratim Sarkar in one sweep. While major transfers do happen after the model code of conduct kicks in, never before has the cream of the administration been ejected in one go. The transfer orders came in two batches, first the bureaucrats and then the police brass. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was acidic about the mass upheaval, particularly characterising the transfer of the chief secretary as anti-women and anti-Bengal. She called it a panic reaction by the BJP that realises it cannot win elections through democratic means. The poll panel replaced Chakraborty with Dushyant Nariala. Sanghamitra Ghosh, secretary of the Women and Assembly elections Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at a rally in Kolkata on Monday | PTI Big fight: Suvendu vs Didi at Bhawanipore Suvendu Adhikari, Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly and BJP MLA from Nandigram, will take on Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee from south Kolkata’s Bhawanipore. He defeated her at Nandigram in the 2021 state poll.  Child Development department, was appointed home secretary. Siddh Nath Gupta was appointed the new DGP while Ajay Mukund Ranade and Ajay Kumar Nand took charge as ADG (Law and Order) and special election coverage I P6,7 Kolkata’s Commissioner of Police, respectively . The panel also directed that the replaced officers must not be given any portfolio related to the upcoming elections till the poll process is over. West Bengal goes to polls in two phases on April 23 and 29. Some senior serving and retired bureaucrats in the state said no chief secretary of West Bengal has been ever chucked out during election time since Independence. Political observers saw in the purge the poll body’s determination to keep the election process free and fair. The ECI apparently hopes to rewrite the state’s chequered history of nor malising election-time violence. Besides, senior bureaucrats have been seething over Mamata’s decision to appoint juniors in various important posts. For instance, former chief secretary Chakraborty and axed home secretary Meena leapfrogged over seniors to land the plum posts. Meena is junior to her successor, Ghosh, by as many as seven years. EC officials justified the transfers, saying they aimed at ensuring administrative impartiality and strict adherence to law and order. i handled r n ravi well, says APPAvu I P6 a four-cornered contest I P6 Not in talks with US over Strait of Hormuz: MEA D I PA K M O N D A L @ New Delhi india has not held any bilateral discussion with the US on policing the Strait of Hormuz, Randhir Jaiswal, spokesperson, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), said on Monday . The clarification came in response to a question on whether the US had approached India to send warships to secure the Strait, which is currently under Iran’s control. On Sunday, US President Donald Trump had said that he told seven countries to send warships to the Strait. “I’m demanding that these countries day come in and protect their own territory, because it is their o w n t e r r i t o r y, ” Trump said, claiming the shipping channel is not something the US needs because of its own access to oil. Trump said 17 China gets about 90% of its oil from the Strait, while the US gets a minimal amount. Rakesh Kumar Sinha, special secretary in the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, said two LPG carriers—Shivalik and Nanda Devi—successfully crossed the conflict zone on March 13. Shivalik carrying 46,000 MT of LPG reached the INDIA bloc cross-vote adds to the NDA haul in RS polls P R E E T H A N A I R @ New Delhi THE INDIA bloc suffered a major setback on Monday as instances of cross-voting and absenteeism by Opposition legislators helped the NDA consolidate its position in the elections to the Rajya Sabha. Polling was held for 37 seats across 10 states, with the NDA winning a majority of the contested seats. While 26 candidates were elected unopposed earlier, voting took place on Monday for the remaining 11 seats—five in Bihar, four in Odisha, and two in Haryana. The NDA secured two of the three closely fought seats in Odisha, Bihar, and Haryana that were being watched for a possible Opposition breakthrough. The result of one seat in Haryana has been put on hold after the Congress ap- Suspension of 8 Oppn MPs in LS may be lifted The suspension of eight opposition MPs from the Lok Sabha is likely to be revoked on Tuesday, sources said, citing a decision taken at a meeting convened by Speaker Om Birla. Seven Congress MPs and a CPI(M) member were suspended for unruly behaviour for the entire session, which will conclude on April 2 proached the Election Commission alleging interference in the electoral process. The numbers were stacked in favour of the ruling alliance —four seats in Bihar, two in Odisha, and one in Haryana giving NDA a comfortable edge even before polling began. INDIA bloc had hoped to clinch the remaining three seats and had moved several of its MLAs to other states to prevent defections. In Bihar, the results dealt a blow to the Mahagathbandhan after the NDA swept all five seats. The Opposition candidate, RJD’s Amarendra Dhari Singh lost after the alliance failed to garner the required support of at least 41 MLAs. At least four MLAs, three from Congress and one from RJD remained absent during voting. The battle for one extra seat in Odisha also went the Bihar way. BJP candidates Manmohan Samal and Sujeet Kumar and BJD’s Santrupt Misra were elected, as did BJP-backed Independent Dilip Ray. Five MLAs of BJD and Congress cross-voted in favour of Ray . Mundra Por t on Monday evening. “20,000 MT will be unloaded at Mundra and 26,000 MT will be unloaded at Mangalore,” an Adani group spokesperson said. Shivalik is carrying LPG ordered by IOCL. Nanda Devi is expected to arrive at Kandla Port soon. Another Indian vessel, Jag Laadki, which departed from UAE on March 14 carrying 81,000 tonnes of crude oil, will reach Mundra on Tuesday . E x p r e s s Re a d TN history-sheeter shot dead in police encounter Chennai: A history-sheeter was shot dead allegedly in a police encounter near Madhavaram in Chennai early on Monday. The deceased, R Ganesh (35), had over 30 criminal cases pending against him. A judicial inquiry is on | P2 ECI orders transfer of SPs in four TN districts Chennai: Within 24 hours of announcing the schedule for the Assembly poll, the ECI on Monday directed the TN chief secretary to transfer the SPs in Karur, Erode, Nagapattinam and Virudhunagar, and appoint new officers | P4 10 patients killed in Odisha hospital blaze Cuttack/Bhubaneswar: At least 10 patients, including a 101-year-old man, died after a fire broke out in the trauma care ICU of the SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack in the wee hours of Monday | P5