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 ■ ■ CHENNAI l friday l october 09, 2026 l `9.00 l PAGES 42 l LATE CITY EDITION TCs, Infy hit IT giants out of US green card process E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Bengaluru AHEAD of Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s expected visit to India this month, the US government has suspended several Indian IT giants, including TCS and Infosys, from the Permanent Labour Certification (PERM) programme, a key step in the employment-based green card process, amid allegations of abuse and fraud in US visa programmes. Labour Secretary Keith Sonderling said Cognizant, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro, HCL and Capgemini were among the companies affected. Microsoft and Adobe were also suspended, with the Labour Department citing multiple federal investigations. US Vice-President J D Vance accused the companies of using H-1B to replace American employees and said the programme had become “rife with fraud”. PERM generally requires an employer sponsoring a foreign worker for permanent residence to show that there are not enough qualified US workers available for the job and that employing the foreign worker will not adversely affect wages and working conditions. Indian IT trade association NASSCOM downplayed the action, saying Indian firms have built a strong US workforce, adding immigration and skilled talent mobility are two distinct issues that should not be viewed through the same lens. Taxman losing arrest power among GST Council reforms Threshold for prosecution now `10 crore; for issuing notice, it’s `10,000 Pu s h p i ta D ey @ New Delhi The GST Council on Thursday approved a series of process reforms aimed at easing compliance for businesses, including simplifying registration and refunds, scrapping arrest powers of GST officers and raising the monetary threshold for prosecution to `10 crore from `5 crore. The Council also approved a `10,000 threshold for issuing GST show-cause notices and allowed input tax credit (ITC) on several business expenses, including employee insurance. The decisions were taken at the 57th meeting of the GST Council, chaired by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. The meeting focused on process reforms to cut compliance burdens and litigation risks for businesses. The Council also addressed a Nana Patekar 1 Jan 1951 — 8 Oct 2026 Input tax credit issues “In the spirit of cooperative federalism, it was decided to have an officers’ committee to examine ITC issues. Why should an honest taxpayer face issues in claiming ITC, if the person/business pays the input tax?” Sitharaman said major pain point for businesses — denial of ITC because of non-compliance by vendors in the supply chain. It said genuine buyers should not lose credit because of supplier defaults. A standing committee of officers will examine the issue and submit its report within three months, after which the matter will be placed before the next Council meeting. The Council also widened the scope of ITC to several business expenses, including out- door catering, health and life insurance, telecommunication towers and pipelines laid outside factory premises. ITC will also be allowed on free samples and goods destroyed or written off after expiry where such destruction is required by law. It also brought input services within the scope of refunds under the inverted duty structure, where businesses are left with accumulated credit because their inputs are taxed at a higher rate than their output. The benefit will be available for credit availed on or after Nov 1. The Council also scrapped the power of GST officers to arrest taxpayers. To curb litigation, it proposed that no showcause notice be issued where the amount involved is up to `10,000. A common standard will govern the issuance and service of notices in cases involving alleged fraud.  P16 Canadian writer Anne Carson won the Nobel Prize in literature on Thursday for her “bold and inventive” works that fuse the classical and the modern | AP | P15 Opposition stages sit-in at Rajghat U D AYA N K IS H O R E & A N U P V E R M A @ New Delhi INDIA bloc leaders, including Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi, staged a peaceful protest on Thursday at the Mahatma Gandhi memorial at Rajghat against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar over alleged election malpractices. The leaders met briefly for lunch, hosted by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, at Connaught Place and then moved in buses towards the memorial, along with a group of supporters, where they paid floral tributes and sat in a peaceful protest. The INDIA bloc leaders said they were praying for “wisdom to the BJP government” as they alleged that the CEC in connivance with the Centre had “hijacked” the country through “a criminal conspiracy by indulging in vote theft”. They said they would continue their protest till Kumar resigns. They are likely to meet again on Friday in Parliament. Samajwadi Party, Shiv Sena-UBT, and NCP-SCP also attended the lunch. Besides TMC’s Abhishek Banerjee and Menaka Guruswamy, CPI-M leader John Brittas and CPI leader P Sandosh were present. E x p r e s s Re a d Faeces found in school water tank, case filed Dindigul: A case was booked against unidentified persons on Thursday for endangering lives after human faeces were found dumped inside a water tank used by students at a government school near Palani. Staff noticed the excreta when the school was reopened on Monday after a two-week exam holiday. The incident came to public attention on Wednesday | P5 WITH THIS ISSUE CHENNAI’S BEST WEEKEND GUIDE 42 PAGES, INCLUDING 24 OF INDULGE (TABLOID) Man of contradictions and fiery, mesmerising monologues N am r ata J o s h i N ana Patekar was a star sans glamour. If one phrase could capture him succinctly it’d be “son of , the soil”. It didn’t just reflect in his favourite attire of the kurta and the gamcha but also in his rootedness in his Marathi identity and culture, his simple one BHK (bedroom-hall-kitchen) life in Mumbai, and his love for farming and all things rural, towards which he focused most of his philanthropic efforts through the Naam Foundation that he jointly set up in 2015 along with actor Makarand Anaspure. His rough-around-the-edges, mercurial, far-from-glitzy personality found an answering reflection in the volatile, capricious, crusty characters he came to be identified with on screen; most of them, like him, driven by fierceness, fervour, outspokenness, and a righteous rage. He first caught the audience’s eye with the grounded way he captured the angst of an unemployed wastrel in N Chandra’s Ankush (1986). His popularity among the masses peaked in the zealous patriotism of films Tirangaa (1993) and Krantiveer (1994). His distinctive voice and unmistakable dialogue delivery added to the appeal. In that aspect, he was a true inheritor of the legacy of legendary Hindi film star Raaj Kumar, also known for his declamatory style. Nana’s iconic monologues were certainly not about mincing words; in fact, they whipped up the crowd and were repeated with the same gusto by his fans. Like the famous line on communal harmony in Krantiveer, which underscores that one can’t distinguish between Hindu and Muslim blood, and if the creator has treated them equally, humans have no right to drive wedges: “Yeh Musalman ka khoon, yeh Hindu ka khoon. Bata ismein Musalman ka kaunsa hai, Hindu ka kaunsa? Banane wale ne ismein fark nahi kiya, tu kaun hota hai fark karne wala?” Continued on: P12