HYDERABAD l tuesday l october 06, 2026 l `9.00 l PAGES 16 l LATE CITY EDITION U.S.-German trio wins medicine Nobel for illuminating the brain The Nobel Prize in medicine was awarded on Monday to three scientists for their pioneering work in the neuroscience field of optogenetics Karl Deisseroth Peter Hegemann Prof. Dr Georg Nagel Using light as a switch to control brain Helps understand role of specific cells Using light, researchers can now switch individual neural circuits on or off in the brain. It all began when Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel discovered a protein, channelrhodopsin, in a single-celled alga. German researcher Karl Deisseroth then worked with the gene that controls that protein to create a light-controlled switch for nerve cells in mice’s brain ■ ■ Optogenetics helps researchers understand how specific cell types contribute to behaviours like learning, fear, addiction and movement Optogenetics has “altered our understanding of the brain. Every day brings discoveries, helping to solve one of humanity’s great mysteries: how our incredible brain works,” the Nobel committee said Today Nobel prize for physics to be announced 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 Didn’t approve change Your IndiGo ticket just got costlier to ECI’s Form 6, says SC A R S H A D K H A N @ New Delhi Says will annul unilateral decisions; rejects plea to suspend CEC su c h i t ra K a lyan M o han t y @ New Delhi THE Supreme Court on Monday said it had never approved any modification to Form 6 used by the Election Commission of India (ECI) during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of poll rolls, and said it would examine records to find out who altered the statutory form without following due process. A bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana issued notice to the ECI and the Centre on a batch of pleas alleging that Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar took key decisions unilaterally , without the concurrence of the other two Election Commissioners. It directed the ECI and the Law Ministry to file responses in a week and listed the matter for October 13. “Any modification to Form 6 has not been approved by us. Let’s be clear. When records are produced, we would like to see who modified it,” the CJI said. Later in the day, the ECI pushed back, saying a declaration was attached to Form 6 in the Bihar SIR order of June 24, 2025, which was upheld by the top court in its May 27 order. The court on Monday was hearing a PIL by advocate Shailendra Mani Tripathi challenging unilateral decisions and software changes introduced by the CEC. The plea, filed through advocate C h a n d Qureshi, was taken We will examine all the decisions. If any decision is not in accordance with the law, we will annul it. You know the power of the court — Chief Justice Surya Kant 1 One plea contended that under Article 324, ECI is mandated by law to take decisions by unanimity 2 The petition raised additional concerns over electoral roll revisions in Goa and West Bengal up in the wake of a recent report stating that two Election Commissioners had objected to changes made during SIR, including modifications to Form 6 requiring details of an applicant’s ancestry and a link to the previous SIR, which the petitioners said was arbitrary . The bench tagged the plea with a petition by Patna resident Rakesh Kumar Singh through senior advocate Vikas Singh. Tripathi alleged that the changes were introduced through EC software without following statutory procedure, adding the two ECs, Dr Vivek Joshi and Dr Sukhbir Singh Sandhu, noted on file that the changes were “unauthorised and illegal” and sought their immediate rescission. The ECI’s DG-IT Seema Khanna had “no legal authority” to curtail Electoral Registration Officers’ (ERO) access to ECI 3 SC ruling came ahead of a proposed protest outside EC HQ on Tuesday by INDIA bloc parties Net, he said. The plea alleged violation of collective decisionmaking and sought criminal proceedings against Kumar. The second petition, filed by Rakesh Singh and others, claimed SIR in Bihar and other states, rationalisation of polling booths and model code enforcement were decided by the CEC alone. Senior advocate Vikas Singh cited the 2023 Anoop Baranwal judgment, and argued collective decision-making was essential to avoid a perception of bias, and that the other two ECs could run ECI if Kumar were suspended. “If there is any violation, we will undo (it),” the CJI said. “Let the Election Commission file its affidavit.” The court declined to suspend Kumar or pass any interim direction, saying it could not do so without hearing the respondents. It cautioned that an ex-parte suspension would stall the ECI’s functioning. “Who will conduct the elections?” the bench asked. Applications received 28,870 Form-7 petitions filed during SIR in state 6,300 2,90,486 28,870 4,44,759 S Ba c han J e e t S i ngh @ Hyderabad Form 7 Form 6 Form 8 Form 6A Far and wide Top districts for Form 7 5,400 Hyderabad Sangareddy 3,145 Jayashankar Bhupalpally 2,633 3,095 Siddipet On a day Chief Electoral Officer C Sudharshan Reddy directed Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) across Telangana to act against applicants found to have knowingly furnished false statements or declarations in electoral roll applications, data showed that more than 28,870 Form-7 applications had been filed during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. Form 7 is used to object to the proposed inclusion of a name or seek deletion of an existing entry from the electoral roll. Hyderabad district accounts for around 5,400 applications, followed by Jayashankar Bhupalpally with 3,145, Sangareddy 3,095, Siddipet 2,633, Nizamabad 1,492, Nirmal 1,339, Rangareddy 1,305 and MedchalMalkajgiri 1,198. Certain political parties are learnt to have sought deletion of voters through their designated Booth Level Agents (BLAs) using Form 7 during the SIR exercise. Applicants are required to specify the reason for seeking an objection or deletion, such as the person not residing at the given address, being deceased or having permanently migrated. ECI sources said Form-7 applications filed in bulk, including those submitted through political parties, would be subjected to inquiry and verification before any action is taken. Particular care is being taken while processing bulk Form-7 applications.  continued on P4 IN a fresh blow to air travellers, the country’s largest airline IndiGo on Monday announced a fuel surcharge on domestic and international flights from October 6. The surcharge will range from `375 to `10,000, depending on the route and sector. The move comes amid a sharp surge in fuel prices triggered by the ongoing geopolitical tensions in the Gulf. For domestic flights, IndiGo will charge a fuel surcharge of `425 for routes less than 500 km, `600 for routes between 501-1,000 km, `900 for routes between 1,001-1,500 km, `1,150 for routes between 1,501-2,000 km and `1,300 for routes above 2,000 km. For international flights, In- Rising ATF costs Air India, IndiGo and Akasa, introduced fuel a surcharge in March when global ATF prices shot up due to the West Asia war. They lowered it in July as prices stabilised. With tension again peaking in the region, energy prices, including ATF, have seen a sharp jump diGo will charge a fuel surcharge of `500 for the SAARC nations that are within 500 km. For the SAARC region beyond 500 km, the charges are `1,000. For South East Asia, Middle East & GCC and North & East Asia, a fuel surcharge of `5,500 has been introduced. For Africa, it is `6,000 and for Europe, the fuel surcharge is `10,000. power POINT ERC okays `7,635 cr true-up recovery express read Singareni workers get `1.1 L bonus Hyderabad: Singareni workers will receive a festival bonus of `1,10,250, Union Coal and Mines Minister G Kishan Reddy said on Monday. Taking to X, he said Singareni was the wealth of Telangana and provided livelihoods to lakhs of families. He urged the management and workers to work together to increase coal production and meet present and future demand. Justice Sam Koshy is TG HC Acting CJ Hyderabad: The Union government on Monday issued a warrant appointing Justice P Sam Koshy as Acting Chief Justice of the Telangana High Court. The appointment will take effect after Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh relinquishes charge as Chief Justice following his elevation to the Supreme Court. gone in 5 minutes Gang loots jewellery showroom, flees with `2 cr booty Ch e e ra m K an i shka Yada v @ Hyderabad A gang of seven masked burglars broke into a CaratLane jewellery showroom in Boduppal along the HyderabadWarangal Highway (NH-163) around 4 am on Monday and fled with about 300 gold and diamond jewellery items worth around `2 crore. According to the store manager, the burglars arrived with tools and equipment to break the shutter lock. While six of them remained outside keeping watch, the seventh broke the lock, entered the showroom and collected the jewellery in multiple bags. He came out within five minutes. The burglars appeared to know how the showroom’s alarm system worked. “They knew that the alar m would go off if the door remained open for more than five minutes and carried out the theft within that time,” the store manager said. The suspects appeared to know that the door had to be closed within five minutes to prevent the alarm from being triggered. Police suspect that they had conducted a recce and that the burglary was planned in advance. Malkajgiri police, DCP Suresh Kumar of Uppal zone, Medipally police and forensic teams examined the showroom and collected evidence.  continued on p5 Ministers Hardeep Puri, Verma out of BJP’s UP Rajya Sabha list N a m i ta Ba j pa i @ Lucknow E x p r e ss N e w s S e r v i c e @ Hyderabad The Telangana Electricity Regulatory Commission (ERC) has allowed Discoms in the state to recover `5,420.23 crore in trueup charges from electricity consumers and `2,214.99 crore from the government. The recovery will begin with the CC bills issued in November 2026. It will be spread over 29 billing months for TGSPDCL and 26 billing months for TGNPDCL, the ERC said. The total true-up amount of `7,635.22 crore relates to power purchase true-up for 2022-23 and revenue true-up for 2023-24 for the retail supply business. Of this, `2,214.99 crore attributable to the agricultural category will be recovered from the government — `1,442.49 crore for TGSPDCL and `772.50 crore for TGNPDCL, the ERC said in orders issued on Monday . The remaining `5,420.23 crore will be recovered from other consumers, comprising `4,222.93 crore from TGSPDCL consumers and `1,197.30 crore from TGNPDCL consumers. The ERC directed the Discoms to take necessary steps to approach the state government for recovery of the `2,214.99 crore attributable to agriculture.  continued on p5 Screen grab of the robbery at a CaratLane jewellery showroom in Medipally on the Hyderabad-Warangal Highway in the early hours of Monday IndiGo controls two-thirds of India’s d o mestic air traffic. The fresh levy will lead to a sharp surge in ticket prices. “The continuous rise in fuel prices, with the latest monthon-month increase exceeding 14%, has taken ATF costs to levels that are amongst the highest in the last decade. Given that Aviation Turbine Fuel makes up a significant share of an airline’s operating costs, this rise is expected to impact airlines’ cost structures and network economics, including those of IndiGo,” said IndiGo in a statement. The airline added, “In view of the situation, IndiGo has marginally re-calibrated its fuel charges across its domestic as well as international flights. The following charges will be included in all new bookings on IndiGo flights starting 0001 hrs on 6 October 2026.” Aviation turbine fuel or ATF, which accounts for up to 40% of an airline’s operating costs, has become more expensive amid the ongoing conflict in West Asia. After falling from `115 per litre in June to `110 in July domestic ATF prices rose , back to `115 per litre in August and then climbed to `121 per litre on September 1. The prices further shot up to `137 per litre for domestic airlines from October 1. All outgoing MPs dropped Among the BJP Rajya Sabha members retiring from Uttar Pradesh are Hardeep Singh Puri, B L Verma, Arun Singh, Geeta Shakya, Neeraj Shekhar, Brijlal and Seema Dwivedi Union ministers Hardeep Singh Puri and B L Verma did not feature in the list of eight candidates announced by the BJP on Monday for the October 16 Rajya Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh. The list has a mix of uppercaste, Other Backward Classes (OBC), Dalit and women faces, with sources saying the party is aiming to strike a careful caste and regional balance. The eight candidates announced are: State minister Dharampal Singh, Radhakant Ojha, Prakash Pal, Vidyasagar Sonkar, Gopi Krishna Pandey, Priyanka Singh Rawat, Ram Pratap Singh Chauhan and Shruti Gangwar. Besides two women, the list has three candidates from the OBC community two from the , Scheduled Caste and three from the upper caste. The nominations offer clues to the BJP’s strategy in UP, where social engineering remains central to electoral success. By accommodating various caste groups and regions, the party appears keen to reinforce its broad social coalition. The ruling BJP announced its candidates just a day before the last date for filing nomination papers. The Samajwadi Party has fielded its secretary general Ram Gopal Yadav and senior Reliance Industries executive Dhanraj Parimal Nathwani for two seats.