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 ■ ■ hyderabad l Saturday l October 11, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 18 l late city EDITION Nobel Peace Prize goes to Venezuelan leader Machado, who dedicates it to US President Humbled, grateful Thank god it’s not Trump! Agencies There was a collective sigh of relief across the world after the Norwegian Nobel committee awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, passing over US President Donald Trump in the process. Months of badgering by Trump for the most coveted award came to nought despite loads of nominations in his favour. He knew he had little chance of making it, as most of those nominations came after the February 1 deadline for this year’s award, yet he went on bullying the Nobel committee like a spoilt child. That the panel showed spine to fob him off came like a breath of fresh air. After the announcement, he went into a sulk, despite Machado dedicating the award to Trump. “Today more than ever , we count on President Trump, the people of the United States, the peoples of Latin America, Nobel laureates Abhijit Banerjee, Duflo to leave US a g e n c e f r a n c e p r e s s e @Geneva US-based Nobel laureates Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee will soon join the University of Zurich, where they will establish a new centre for development economics, the institution said Friday . The University of Zurich (UZH) said the married couple, who won the 2019 Economics Nobel alongside Michael Kremer, and currently work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), would join its economics faculty from July next year. They will be moving to Switzerland at a time when experts have warned that US President Donald Trump’s cuts to research funding and attacks on academic freedoms could lead to a brain drain. and the democratic nations of the world as our main allies to achieve freedom and democracy she said. ,” Her opposition to Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro aligns with the Trump administration’s stance. Secretary of State Marco Rubio had previously praised her as ‘the personification of resilience, tenacity and patriotism’. , The first nation to face Trump’s anger was China, as he said he no longer felt it nec- Tata Trusts board meet cordial amid public listing call B e n n K o c h u v e e d a n @ Mumbai The board of Tata Trusts, recently hit by an unprecedented revolt from four trustees led by Mehli Mistry — a close friend of the late Ratan Tata and first cousin of the late Cyrus Mistry — against chairman Noel Tata, held a ‘cordial’ meeting on Friday . It discussed only routine charity matters, even as the government urged the warring sides to resolve their differences quickly . The meeting took place a day after the first death anniversary of Ratan Tata and amid growing questions over Noel Tata’s leadership. Tata Trusts owns 66.6% of Tata Sons that controls around 400 companies, 30 of them publicly listed with a combined market capitalisation of about `30 trillion. While the meeting was underway the Shapoor, ji Pallonji Group — which owns 18.4% of Tata Sons, making it the second-largest shareholder after the Trusts — issued a statement urging that Tata Sons be taken public to improve transparency and governance. The company has already missed the Reserve Bank’s September 30 deadline for its listing. Cong faces wrath of party netas as uncertainty hangs over local polls I r e d d y S r i n i v a s R e d d y @ Hyderabad The Congress and the state government are facing flak for what many call an inept handling of the 42% BC reservations issue that led the Telangana High Court to impose a stay on the GO concerned. At the grassroots level, discontent is brewing. Local leaders are unhappy over the prolonged delay in conducting elections to local bodies, which have been under special officers’ rule for nearly a year and a half. With no elected representatives in place, people have no one to approach for redressal of village-level grievances. MLAs, too, are growing increasingly uneasy as anti-incumbency sets in with each passing day. The absence of public representatives has stalled developmental activities, leaving legislators directly exposed to public anger. An MLA from the erstwhile Rangareddy district admitted that the situation was denting the party’s image. “When the Congress came to power in 2023, there was tremendous hope among local leaders. But even after nearly two years, villages have no elected bodies. People are losing patience,” he said. An MLA from Karimnagar echoed similar concerns, warning that the government’s credibility was taking a beat- ing due to its “shoddy handling” of the BC reservation issue. While the intention — to increase representation for BCs — was laudable, the inability to address the legal hurdles has frozen the entire process. “Now, not just BCs, even SCs, STs, and others are frustrated,” the legislator said. The MLA added that just two months ago, the Congress seemed poised to sweep a majority of the local body seats. “But the mood has changed. People are growing restless and slowly turning against both the MLAs and the government,” he confided. A former minister agreed with him, observing that although the Congress had tried to implement 42% BC reservations, the move got entangled in legal complications. “It might be wiser to go ahead with elections under the existing quota system while simultaneously mounting pressure on the Centre to ensure justice for BCs,” he said. Despite the internal unrest, the party leadership reportedly remains firm on holding elections only after securing 42% BC reservations. However, this stance has left several MLAs jittery wor, ried that rising public resentment could jeopardise the party’s interests. Meanwhile, opposition parties have seized the opportunity to attack the ruling party  . CONTINUED ON P4 essary to meet President Xi Jinping at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit later this month. He lit into China’s hostile trade practices, including new export controls on rare earths, and threatened it with massive tariff hikes. Democracy activist Machado who sought to challenge President Maduro in last year’s elections, has become a “unifying” figure in Venezuela, the Nobel jury said. “In the past year, Ms Machado has been J aya n t h J a c o b @ New Delhi IN a recalibrated diplomatic strategy India has officially up, graded its Technical Mission in Kabul to a full-fledged Embassy , the clearest sign yet of New Delhi’s intent to deepen engagement with Afghanistan under Taliban rule. The announcement was made at External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar’s meeting in New Delhi with Afghanistan’s Acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi on Friday where , the two leaders held wide-ranging discussions spanning security cooperation, infrastruct u r e, h u m a n i t a r i a n a i d , education, trade, and people-topeople ties. pocso case 8-year-old raped by man in front of her brother e n s @ Hyderabad A 23-year-old man allegedly raped an eight-year-old girl in front of her seven-year-old brother in Saidabad. Though the incident occurred 15 days ago, it came to light recently when the victim fell ill and narrated her ordeal to her mother. The accused was reportedly under the influence of drugs when he perpetrated the crime. On the day of the incident, the accused noticed that the victim and her brother were alone after returning from school while their parents, who are daily-wage workers, were away at work. Taking advantage of this, he sexually assaulted her and threatened to kill the girl and the boy if they revealed his brutal act to their parents. The terrified children kept quiet until the girl fell ill. Following this, the victim’s parents complained to Saidabad police, who have registered a case under the POCSO Act and launched an investigation. Nalgonda 3rd-worst among cities in air quality Even as several cities in India recorded improvements in air quality under the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP), Nalgonda in Telangana has emerged as one of the worst performers, witnessing a steep deterioration in air quality over the past seven years. According to data accessed by TNIE from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), Nalgonda’s PM10 concentration rose from 59 µg/m³ (micrograms per cubic metre) in 2017–18 to 78 µg/ m³ in 2024–25, marking a 32.2% increase — the third steepest decline in air quality among 130 Indian cities monitored under NCAP . While 103 cities showed improvement and 25 achieved more than 40% reduction in PM10 levels, Nalgonda went in the opposite direction, join- ing a list of worst-performing cities topped by Aurangabad, whose PM10 levels rose from 75 µg/m³ to 100 µg/m³ (a 33.3% increase) and Visakhapatnam, which saw a 32.9% rise (76 µg/ m³ to 101 µg/m³). Hyderabad, in contrast, saw PM10 concentrations fall by 26.4% during the same period, from 110 µg/m³ in 2017–18 to 81 µg/m³ in 2024–25. Officials and environmentalists attribute Nalgonda’s poor showing to increasing vehicular exhaust and road dust, and partly also to industrial emissions and cement manufacturing units, all of which have increased with urban expansion and highway development projects in the district. “Construction and demolition (C&D) activity, open waste burning, road dust, several small and mediumscale industries operating around the town, combined with growing ve- forced to live in hiding,” said Jorgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Nobel committee. “Despite serious threats against her life, she has remained in the country, a choice that has inspired millions. When authoritarians seize power, it is crucial to recognise courageous defenders of freedom who rise and resist.” Machado was set to run against Maduro in last year’s presidential election, but the government disqualified her. She then campaigned for her stand-in, ex-diplomat Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, seen by much of the international community as the rightful winner. The run-up to the election saw widespread repression, including disqualifications, arrests and human rights violations to ‘steal’ the mandate. India upgrades its technical mission in Kabul to embassy scary scenario K h yat i S h a h @ Hyderabad “This is something that the Venezuelan people deserve,” Machado said in a call with the Nobel Institute. ‘I am just part of a huge movement... I’m humbled, I’m grateful and I’m honoured.” hicular traffic, have led to a steady increase in particulate matter,” Venkaiah, environmental engineer at the Nalgonda regional office of the Telangana Pollution Control Board, told TNIE. “Concretisation is another reason,” said Donthi Narasimha Reddy , an environmentalist. Due to an increase in concretisation and urban expansion, air circulation has reduced, leading to increasing pollution,” he added. “Rice mills are also one of the major contributors to the rise in air pollution in Nalgonda city,” said Purs h o t t a m R e d d y, a n o t h e r environmentalist. The MoEFCC’s report shows that Telangana received `737.8 crore under NCAP and the 15th Finance Commission’s performance-linked grants, of which `443.9 crore has been utilised for air quality improvement across the state.  CONTINUED ON P2 S Jaishankar with Afghani counterpart Amir Khan Muttaqi in New Delhi | PTI Muttaqi used the occasion to publicly reassure India about one of its core concerns: terrorism emanating from Afghan soil. “We had a detailed discussion on security cooperation. We will not allow Afghan territory to be used against any country,” he said. He further urged restraint over cross-border tensions, cautioning that “issues cannot be solved through this approach” and referencing Afghanistan’s historical resistance to foreign aggression. “The Afghan people’s patience and courage should not be challenged. If someone doesn’t know, they should ask the British, Soviets, or Americans.” In response, Jaishankar acknowledged Kabul’s assurances and said that India and Afghanistan shared a common goal: peace, prosperity, and regional stability “We appreciate . your sensitivity towards India’s security concerns. Your solidarity with us in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terrorist attack was noteworthy he said. ,” It’s not for me to judge whether the current US president deserves the Nobel prize — I don’t know. He’s really doing a lot to resolve these complex crises, which have lasted for years, even decades Vladimir Putin, Russian President It should... remind those of us lucky enough to live in America that we have a solemn responsibility to constantly preserve and defend our own hard-won democratic traditions Barack Obama, former US President Democracy is a precondition for peace. However, we live in a world where democracy is in retreat Nobel Peace Prize jury express read HYDRAA reclaims land worth `1,100 crore hyderabad: The HYDRAA cleared government lands across Hyderabad, Medchal-Malkajgiri, and Rangareddy districts of encroachments, reclaiming 12.5 acres of property worth `1,100 crore on Friday. This included five acres of prime land in Banjara Hills valued at `750 crore, including 1.2 acres allotted to HMWSSB | P3 SC questions HC over SIT probe on Karur stampede New delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday questioned the Madras High Court for constituting a special investigation team (SIT) to probe into the Karur stampede in which 41 people were killed. The top court also asked how the postmortem examination of the victims was conducted at midnight and completed within four hours | P7