madurai l Tuesday l September 10, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l late city EDITION U.S. announces partnership with India on semiconductors The US announced on Monday it is entering into a partnership with India’s Semiconductor Mission launched by the Centre in 2022 to grow and diversify global chip industry partnership under biden’s chips act 2022 The two countries will work together to boost the growth and diversification of the global semiconductor ecosystem amid increasing reliance on chips and concerns over the resilience of their supply chains. As a first step, a detailed assessment of India’s existing semiconductor ecosystem will be done that will form the basis for future joint initiatives, the US State Department said ■ ■ The partnership will come under the International Technology Security and Innovation (ITSI) Fund created through the CHIPS Act of 2022 — an initiative of President Joe Biden’s administration One of the aims of the CHIPS Act is to diversify the semiconductor supply chain to minimise the risk of large-scale disruptions $500 mn is how much the ITSI Fund provides the u.s. state department each year 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 5 pm today deadline for New GoM on insurance premium GST WB docs to resume work M O N I K A YA D A V @ New Delhi SC says protest cannot be at the cost of duty; agitators defiant S u c h i t r a K a lya n M o h a n t y @ New Delhi The Supreme Court on Monday gave the protesting junior doctors in West Bengal 24 hours to join work, failing which they will not get any judicial protection. “Protest cannot be at the cost of duty,” a bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud observed. It directed them to get back to work by 5 pm on Tuesday and assured that there will be no adverse action if they resume duty . The junior doctors have been on protest since August 9, demanding justice for the rapemurder of a trainee doctor at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata. The direction came after West Bengal’s counsel said 23 people have died in the state due to the mass abstention of resident doctors. The court noted that funds have been sanctioned by the state government for setting up additional CCTV cameras and for the safety of doctors. It also directed the state government to coordinate with the CISF — tasked with providing security Protesting junior doctors of RG Kar watch the live proceedings of the Supreme Court hearing on the rape-murder of a trainee doctor, in Kolkata on Monday | PTI at RG Kar — for giving them suitable accommodation and providing security gadgets to its personnel. But the junior doctors in West Bengal said they will continue their ceasework since they do not feel secure enough in their places of work. The court also expressed serious concern over the absence of a challan, a key document for postmortem of the victim and sought a report from the West Bengal gover nment. “Where is the challan of the body when it was handed over for postmortem?” it asked. First Indian mpox case tests positive, govt issues advisory K a vi ta B a j e l i - D at t @ Delhi The Centre on Monday wrote to all states and Union Territories (UTs) asking them to screen, test, and trace contacts of all suspected mpox patients. It comes as a man who travelled to India from a country experiencing mpox transmission tested positive for the virus, but not it’s the deadlier and fastspreading strain that has led to a surge in cases worldwide and prompted the WHO to declare a public health emergency . The Union health secretary Apurva Chandra, in a letter to all the states and UTs, asked them to identify isolation units in hospitals for both suspected and confirmed cases. They must also review public health preparedness, particularly at the health facility level. He said sexual contact is the most commonly reported way of transmission of the virus, followed by person-to-person non-sexual contact. “Among cases where at least one symptom is reported, the most common symptom is rash, followed by fe- ver,” he wrote adding that most cases are young males with a median age of 34. The states and UTs must spread awareness among people about the disease and prevent any undue panic. Chandra said health units at points of entry (airports) have been instructed to strengthen health screening of incoming travellers. Regarding the confir med case, the Union health ministry said lab test has shown the presence of clade 2 strain of the mpox virus. “This case is isolated, similar to the earlier 30 cases reported in India from July 2022 onwards,” it said adding that the patient is isolated and is stable. “The good news is that the strain of concern, clade 1b, is yet to be detected in India. Clade 1b was the strain for which WHO declared a public health emergency That was because it . was relatively new, originating from a different part of Africa than clade 2, was spreading faster, and was more severe,” Dr Rajeev Jayadevan, former president of the Indian Medical Association, Cochin said. After examining the CBI’s status report on the probe, the bench said, it is pursuing a few leads. “There was at least 14 hours delay in registration of the FIR on the rape-murder incident by the Kolkata Police. Two things are known — the time when the victim went to seminar hall to rest, and the movement around that room after that,” the bench said and asked the CBI to file its next status report by September 16. The court also directed the immediate removal of photographs of the victim from all social media platforms. MAJOR DECISIONS AMID calls for a reduction in the tax rate on health and life insurance premiums, the GST Council meeting on Monday decided to form a Group of Ministers (GoM) to deliberate on the issue. The GoM will submit its report next month and the Council will take a call on this in its upcoming meet in November. Monday’s GST Council meeting, chaired by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, took several key decisions. The Council also recommended the formation of a separate GoM to study the future of compensation cess. By January 2026, the Centre is ex- GoM to look into GST on life insurance and health insurance Amid tension surrounding the sealing of the Madras Race Club (MRC) located at Guindy in Chennai on Monday following the termination of a 1945 lease agreement, the Tamil Nadu government informed the Madras High Court that due procedures of issuing notices to the club will be followed before proceeding on to taking possession of the land. A posse of police personnel and revenue officials arrived at MRC on Monday morning and locked the premises. A notice was also put out, stating the land is under the control of the revenue department and trespassers will be prosecuted. Advocate General (AG) P S Raman made the submission before a division bench of Justices S S Sundar and K Rajasekar when an urgent motion moved by MRC seeking to stall the eviction process came up for hearing on Monday . The AG explained the state government has issued a G.O. only for “terminating the lease” and not for taking possession of the land. “Separate proceedings will be initiated by issuing notices to the club regarding termination of lease agreement and taking possession of the land,” he informed the court. D V i n c e n t A r o c ki a r a j @ Tiruchy Thousands of farmers in delta districts, who are getting ready to prepare their fields for samba cultivation, are facing trouble in accessing crop loans and other funds as the income tax department has frozen the bank accounts of many Primary Agriculture Cooperative Credit Societies (PACCS) citing non-compliance with TDS (tax deducted at BJP, RSS believe that women should stay at home and cook: Rahul S u l a g n a S e n g u p ta @ New Delhi IN his first trip to the US after assuming the role of Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi launched a scathing attack on the BJP and the RSS on Monday calling them downright patriarchal. Interacting with students at the University of Texas, the Congress leader said: “The BJP and RSS believe that women should be restricted to a particular role… that they should stay at home, cook food, and not talk too much. But we (Congress) believe that women should be allowed to aspire to whatever they want to do.” He also observed that the RSS believes India is one idea, while the Congress considers it a multiplicity of ideas. Rahul Gandhi’s three-day visit comes ahead of the US presidential elections in November. Addressing the Indian diaspora in Dallas, he claimed that the ‘fear of BJP’ disappeared immediately after the 2024 Lok Sabha election results came out. “Within minutes of the election result, nobody was scared of the BJP and the Prime Minister of India. These are huge achievements, not of Rahul Gandhi or Congress, but of the people of India who realised we are not going to accept an attack on the Constitution,” he said. He added that everyone, regardless of caste, language, or religion, should have the freedom to express themselves. “This is the fight and this fight was crystallised during the elections when millions of Indians realised that the prime minister was attacking the Constitution,” he said. Senior counsel A L Somayaji, appearing for the club, submitted that the government has attempted in an “undemocratic manner” to take possession of the land without even hearing his client.  P5 GST on helicopter services on seat-share basis cut to 5% from 18%; chartered services to attract 18% Nirmala Sitharaman at the GST Council meeting in Delhi on Monday | ANI pected to clear back-to-back loan payments to states related to GST compensation, with total cess collections projected to reach `8.66 lakh crore No decision on plan to levy 18% GST on small transactions below `2,000 and an estimated surplus of `40,000 crore after repayments, the FM said. The Council also exempted supply of research and devel- I-T freezes bank a/cs of TN agri societies TN seals race club, to take over land as per law e x p r e ss n e w s s e r vi c e @ Chennai GST on cancer drugs cut from 12% to 5% Revenue and police officials, descended on the MRC premises and sealed its gates on Monday morning | Martin Louis source) rules. While 51 of 84 PACCS in Karur district are facing the issue, at least 10 PACCS in Tiruchy district have received the notice from the I-T department, sources said. Since each society on an av, erage, has 3,000 members, thousands of farmers may have lost access to agricultural credit, sources added. Tamil Nadu has a total of 4,451 PACCS. The main objective of these credit societies is to provide agricultural and non-agricultural loans to farmers who are enlisted as members. Delta districts, which include Thanjavur and Tiruchy, have a total of 1,006 societies. Agricultural credit includes loans for crops and seeds, and for allied purposes such as buying of farm machinery, irrigation equipment, and milch animals.  P5 opment services by a government entity, university, college or other institutions notified under Section 35 of the Income Tax Act. It may be recalled that IIT Delhi had got a show cause notice from the Directorate General of GST Intelligence over `120 crore. “GST exemption on public & private research grants to higher education institutions is a major boost that shall not only increase research outcome but also achieve global tax parity Indian academia is . hugely relieved,” said S Vaidhyasubramaniam, Vice-Chancellor of SASTRA University , which is among the institutions that had received show cause notice. express read Woman murders 3-yr-old over feud with neighbour Tirunelveli: A 40-year-old woman allegedly murdered her neighbour’s three-year-old son over previous enmity and hid the body inside her washing machine on Monday at Athukurichi village of Radhapuram taluk in Tirunelveli district. Radhapuram police identified the deceased as V Sanjay, son of Vignesh, a construction worker. A Thangammal has been arrested in connection with the murder | P4