HYDERABAD  TUESDAY  SEPTEMBER 10, 2024  `9.00  PAGES 16  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 GarG Power Products PVt.Ltd. 5-36, type-I, 10/a, Prashanthi Nagar, Kukatpally, Hyderabad - 500 072, India. Phone: +91-40-23074040 / 50, cell No. 99481 23459, e-mail: garg@gdpl.org, website: www.gdpl.info HC gives Speaker 4 Arekapudi Gandhi, New GoM on insurance premium GST weeks to hear pleas a defector, made on disqualification PAC chairman BHATTI: CUT GST ON HEALTH INSURANCE PREMIUMS E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ Hyderabad E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ Hyderabad JUSTICE B Vijaysen Reddy of the Telangana High Court on Monday directed the Legislative Assembly Secretary to place before the Speaker a batch of three writ petitions seeking disqualification of the MLAs who defected from the BRS to the Congress. The court also instructed that a schedule for hearings, including the filing of pleadings, submission of documents and personal hearings, be set within four weeks. The judge further directed the Secretary to submit a status report to the Judicial Registry of the High Court detailing the Speaker’s schedule. If the Speaker fails to fix the schedule within the stipulated time frame, the court will It’s not the final reopen the cases suo motu and pass ap- order, I can move Supreme Court. propriate orders, Justice Reddy said. BRS inducted It may be recalled here that 10 BRS several MLAs MLAs defected to the ruling Congress. when in power. Justice Reddy observed that two writ They don’t have petitions were filed in April and another the right to pass comments on in July and despite the arguments con, defections cluding on August 10, no information has been provided regarding the status Kadiyam Srihari, of the disqualification petitions. He defector MLA opined that the petitioners have presented special circumstances that warrant relief. Aleti Maheshwar Reddy, P Kaushik Reddy and KP Vivekananda have sought the disqualification of Danam Nagender, Tellam Venkata Rao and Kadiyam Srihari. BARELY hours after the Telangana High Court directive on disqualification petitions, the Legislature Secretary on Monday appointed Arekapudi Gandhi, who is among the 10 MLAs who defected from the BRS to the Congress recently, as chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC). State Legislature Secretary V Narasimha Charyulu issued a bulletin on Monday appointing chairpersons to the PAC, Estimates Committee and Public Undertakings Committee (PUC). Nalamada Padmavathi, wife of Irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy and Kodad MLA, was appointed chairperson of Estimates ComThe honourable mittee and K Shankaraiah of the PUC. Speaker has 4 Understandably the main Opposition , weeks to restore BRS cried foul over the appointment of transparency the PAC chairman which it saw as a deand uphold the parture from convention. sanctity of the The first time a member of the OpHouse. No more position was appointed the PAC chairbetrayal of the people’s man was in 1958–59 and the practice has mandate continued since. This time, the BRS proposed three KT Rama Rao, BRS names — T Harish Rao, Gangula working president Kamalakar and Vemula Prasanth Reddy — for the PAC chairman post and all of them submitted their nominations. However, the Legislature Secretary sprang a surprise by appointing Gandhi as the PAC CONTINUED ON P4 chairman. SC tells WB doctors to resume work 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 for additional CCTV cameras and for the safety of doctors. It also directed the state government to coordinate with the CISF — tasked with providing security 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 con- Hostel in-charges demand costly eggs taken off menu A S E S H A C H A R Y U L U @ Nalgonda POINTING out that the state government has not increased diet charges in line with rising food prices over the past seven years, Hostel Welfare Officers (HWOs) in Nalgonda district are urging the authorities to make changes to the menu for the food served to students in various welfare hostels A revised menu is expected to be finalised within the next two days for SC, ST and BC welfare hostels in the district. The HWOs are pushing for a reduction in the weekly egg quota for students from three to two due to increasing prices, which have averaged `5.50 per egg over the past year. They said that reducing the egg allo- cation would help ease financial strain, as the government has not adjusted the diet charges despite rising prices of essential commodities. Currently, the government allocates `950 per month for students from Classes III to VII, `1,100 for students in Classes VIII to X, and `1,500 for Intermediate students. This amount is meant to cover daily meals, including breakfast, evening snacks and holiday lunches. However, HWOs say that the current prices are inadequate and want them to be at least doubled to sustain the menu. HWOs also say that delays in the release of funds have forced them to take loans from private moneylenders to continue to provide meal services. tinue 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 government. After examining the CBI’s status report, 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. World No.4 Arjun Erigaisi on Olympiad & chess in TG CITY EXPRESS 1st mpox case in India; Centre issues advisory K A V I TA B A J E L I - D AT T @ Delhi THE Centre on Monday wrote to all states and Union Territories asking them to screen, test, and trace contacts of all suspected mpox patients. It comes after India reported its first mpox case — after the latest WHO alert — in a man who arrived from a country experiencing mpox transmission. However, lab tests showed the man is infected with the older clade 2 strain of the virus, and not the deadlier and fasterspreading clade 1b that has led to a surge in cases worldwide and prompted the WHO to declare a public health emergency . 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, followed by person-to-person non-sexual contact. Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka suggested that the GST rate on health insurance premiums for all age groups be reduced from 18% to 5%. He attended the GST Council meeting chaired by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman on Monday | P4 M O N I K A YA D A V @ New Delhi 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 expected to clear back-to-back loan payments to states related to GST compensation, with total cess collections projected to reach `8.66 lakh crore and an estimated MAJOR DECISIONS GoM to look into GST on life insurance and health insurance GST on cancer drugs cut from 12% to 5% GST on helicopter services on seat-share basis cut to 5% from 18%; chartered services to attract 18% No decision on plan to levy 18% GST on small transactions below `2,000 surplus of `40,000 crore after repayments, the FM said. The Council also exempted supply of research and development services by a government entity university college , , or other institutions notified under Section 35 of the Income Tax Act. It may be recalled that Nirmala Sitharaman at the GST Council meeting in Delhi on Monday | ANI 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.