BHUBANESWAR  THURSDAY  OCTOBER 10, 2024  `9.00  PAGES 14  JEYPORE EDITION TRIO WIN NOBEL CHEMISTRY PRIZE FOR WORK ON PROTEIN STRUCTURE David Baker, Demis Hassabis and John Jumper were honoured for their work in predicting and even designing the structure of proteins DAVID BAKER JOHN JUMPER DEMIS HASSABIS BAKER AWARDED FOR DESIGNING NEW PROTEINS USING AI TO PREDICT PROTEIN STRUCTURE Baker designed a new protein in 2003 and his research group has since produced several new proteins, including those that can be used as pharmaceuticals, vaccines, nanomaterials and tiny sensors. “David Baker has succeeded with the almost impossible feat of building entirely new kinds of proteins,” the Nobel Committee said in its statement | P11 ■ ■ Hassabis and Jumper created an artificial intelligence model that has been able to predict the complex structure of over 200 million proteins The shape of proteins is key as it determines their function. Heiner Linke, chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, said the two solved a 50-year-old problem: predicting proteins’ complex structures 2020 WHEN HASSABIS AND JUMPER FIRST USED AI TO PREDICT PROTEIN STRUCTURE 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 KNIVES OUT FOR CONG FROM ALLIES Buzz on appointment of Kejri’s aide AFTER HARYANA ELECTION DEBACLE Bibhab as CM Mann’s chief advisor SS (UBT), AAP, TMC lead attack, say GOPs arrogance led to defeat P R E E T H A N A I R @ New Delhi THE Congress on Wednesday came under fire from its INDIA bloc allies who squarely blamed the grand old party for the poll debacle in Haryana, with several leaders accusing it of being ‘arrogant, overconfident and entitled’ and giving less space to its regional allies. Launching a scathing attack, the Shiv Sena (UBT) attributed the Congress’s poor show to the ‘overconfidence and arrogance’ of the party’s state leadership. In an editorial of Sena’s mouthpiece Saamana, it asked the Congress leadership to introspect and learn from its mistakes. The jibe comes at a time when Congress and the alliance partners are engaged in seat-sharing talks ahead of the Maharashtra elections, scheduled for later this year. “The INDIA alliance could not win in Haryana because the Congress felt they would win on their own and they did not need any other partner in power. If they had shared seats with the SP, AAP or other smaller parties, the results would have been different,” said Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut. The Congress’ Haryana unit had unit refused to accommo- TM Krishna’s MS misogyny S Gurumurthy calls out the conferring of the ‘Sangita Kalanidhi MS Subbulakshmi Award’ on TM Krishna despite the latter’s misogynistic tirade against MS, who Nehru said was the Queen of Music PAGE 9 Congress leaders Pawan Khera, Ashok Gehlot, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Jairam Ramesh, K C Venugopal and others after meeting the Election Commission of India | PARVEEN NEGI date the AAP and the SP, though senior leader Rahul Gandhi was in favour of it. The party suffered another setback as its Uttar Pradesh ally Samajwadi Party on Wednesday released a list of six candidates for the upcoming Assembly bypolls. Sources said Congress leaders were upset about the SP’s unilateral move as it came in the middle of ongoing talks. Meanwhile, leaders of AAP and TMC were unsparing towards the Congress. AAP leaders also ruled out any truck with the Congress in Delhi assembly elections, scheduled for early next year. Taking potshots at Congress, AAP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha penned a poem on X: “If you had cared about my wishes, it would have been a different matter, If you had taken care of our desires, it would have been a different evening. Today he too must be regretting leaving me, If we had walked together it would have been something else.” Several Opposition leaders including Congress’ Jammu and Kashmir ally Omar Abdullah, the Left parties, and Bihar ally RJD targeted the Congress and asked it to introspect and change its strategies. “Congress will have to go deep into it and find the reasons for its defeat,” Abdullah said. TMC MP Saket Gokhale said the attitude of not accommodating regional parties even in places where they felt they were winning, led to the shocking electoral setback. Shop owner blown to pieces in air compressor blast, two others hurt work. “The explosion could have taken place due malfunctioning of the air compressor’s A person was killed and two valve. However, a detailed a inothers suffered injuries after vestigation has been launched an air compressor exploded in to ascertain the details,” Nath a tyre repair shop at Dasaid. dhimachhagadia within Police suspect the air Sadar police limits in compressor was possiKhurda on Wednesday bly not maintained morning. properly. “It is likely Police identified the that the equipment was deceased as Naba not checked periodiKishore Barad (50) of cally to ensure if it Kadalibari. Barad was was fulfilling various running the tyre reparameters like the The explosion pair shop near Pandit pressure balance or if could have taken Dhaba alongside Nathere was any jam inplace due tional Highway-16. side the machine,” The mishap took place malfunctioning of said police sources. the air between 7.45 am and 8 The cops are verifycompressor’s am. ing the source from valve. Adetailed a Sources said the ex- investigation has where the air complosion was so powerpressor was supplied been launched ful that Barad’s body to Barad and whether Sagarika Nath, SP p a r t s we re fo u n d there was any agreestrewn all over the ment to car ry out spot. Condition of the two in- maintenance of the equipment. jured persons, who are drivers, Necessary action will be initiis stable. ated during the course of invesKhurda SP Sagarika Nath tigation, they added. said it is believed that the inciKhurda Sadar police has regdent occurred when Barad was i s t e r e d a c a s e i n t h i s carrying out tyre resoling connection. EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Bhubaneswar H A R P R E E T B A J W A @ Chandigarh WITH Delhi assembly elections expected within four months, the Aam Aadmi Party wants to clean up its act in Punjab and present it as a model of good governance. That perhaps is why it is purging Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s trusted core in a hurry . The buzz in the corridors of power is that AAP heavyweight Bibhav Kumar, who was party convenor and former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s trusted lieutenant, could be planted in the Punjab Chief Minister’s Office as Mann’s chief advisor. There were also claims that the terms of his appointment were cleared by the Punjab cabinet, which met on Tuesday . If Bibhav indeed becomes the chief advisor, he would be running the show, given his proximity to Kejriwal. For the record, the official spokesperson of the Punjab government dismissed all talk of Bibhav’s appointment in the Punjab CMO as false and social media gossip. Bibhav is out on bail in the Swati Maliwal assault case. The development came as two more close aides of Mann — Director, Media Relations (Overseas), Baltej Pannu and IN a significant discovery astrono, mers from National Institute of Science Education and Research (NISER), Bhubaneswar, claimed to have uncovered the place where baby exoplanets begin to form in the galaxy . The team led by Liton Majumdar, a faculty at the School of Earth and Planetary Sciences (SEPS), NISER, has observed the earliest stages of exoplanet formation outside the solar system by using the Atacama large millimeter/submillimeter array (ALMA), Director, Social Media, Manpreet Kaur were shown the door. A former journalist, Pannu was hired by the Punjab State Media Society and he had joined the CMO in July 2022. As for Kaur, she had joined just one-and-a-half months ago. RBI keeps repo rate unchanged Drama over at 6.5 pc for 10th time in a row Atishi’s ‘eviction’ from official house mile of disinflation,” he said. The banking regulator also retained THE Reserve Bank of India on Wednes- the retail inflation projection at 4.5% day kept the repo rate unchanged at for 2024-25, with Das stressing the cen6.5%, for the 10th time in a row, but tral bank will have to closely monitor changed its stance to ‘neutral’ the price situation and keep the that may lead to a cut in the ‘inflation horse’ under tight forthcoming policies. Accordleash lest it may bolt again. ing to analysts, the change in RBI maintained status quo stance is the first step towards despite the US Federal Rea rate cut and signals the beserve lowering the benchmark ginning of the easing cycle as rates by 50 basis points last early as December. month. The central banks of However, RBI gover nor some developed nations have Shaktikanta Das, who comalso reduced their interest Shaktikanta Das pletes his five-year term in rates. December, refused to accept This was the first meeting the policy stance change is a pivot. “The after the RBI’s monetary policy commitprevailing and expected inflation- tee was reconstituted last month. The growth balance has created conditions three newly appointed external memfor a shift in the monetary policy stance bers are Ram Singh, Saugata Bhattachas there is greater confidence on last arya and Nagesh Kumar. B E N N K O C H U V E E D A N @ Mumbai A N U P V E R M A @ New Delhi THE never-ending political tussle between Delhi’s AAP government and the Lieutenant Governor has a new flashpoint: the Delhi chief minister’s official residence. Delhi Chief Minister Atishi’s office on Wednesday alleged that her official residence at 6, Flagstaff Road was forcibly vacated by Lieutenant Governor (L-G) V K Saxena on orders from the BJP . “For the first time in the history of the country the Chief Minister’s residence was , vacated. On the instructions of the BJP L-G , forcibly removed CM Atishi’s belongings from the CM residence. LG is preparing to allot the CM residence to a big BJP leader. The BJP, which has been out of power in Delhi for 27 years, is now trying to occupy the CM residence,” the Chief Minister’s Office alleged in the statement. A man carrying goods on a cart AAP Rajya leaves the residence of Delhi Sabha MP SanCM | PTI jay Singh said, “Despite official correspondence, the CM residence had not been allotted to Atishi, who is the rightful allottee as CM of Delhi. Although a temporary office was set up at the residence and meetings were held, the staff was later evacuated, and it was declared that the office would not operate from there.” Sources at the L-G’s office, however, said the owner of the CM’s residence is the Public Works Department, which takes possession of the residence after it is vacated, makes inventory of goods kept there, and then, allots it to the next chief minister. “This house has not been allotted to CM Atishi yet and her allotted residence is still 17 AB Mathura Road. CM Atishi herself kept her belongings in that house without allotment and then removed it herself. This bungalow will be allotted to the CM immediately after duly preparing the inventory ,” the sources said. The BJP claimed that the bungalow was not handed over to the Public Works Department and its keys were still with Kejriwal. NISER scientists zero in on exoplanet formation an advanced telescope with 66 high-precision antennae that can observe electromagnetic radiation at millimetre and submillimetre wavelengths. Estimated to be one to five million years old, this young system has been enveloped in a swirling ring of dust and gas - the raw material that fuels the birth of baby exoplanets. Although exoplanets can form in binary or multi-star systems, direct evidence of the process of their formation has been difficult to capture until now. Principal investigator Majum- Bibhav Kumar DUE PROCEDURE ASTRONOMICAL FEAT H E M A N T K U M A R R O U T @ Bhubaneswar Bhagwant Mann Two other aides of Mann — Director, Communications, Navneet Wadhwa and Onkar Singh, Officer on Special Duty to the CM — had put in their papers earlier. In all, the axe has fallen on four of Mann’s trusted soldiers. In a related development, the state government on Wednesday appointed K A P Sinha as the new Chief Secretary A 1992 . batch IAS officer, he replaced Anurag Verma. Last week, Verma was called to Delhi for a meeting with the AAP top brass. Sinha is the fourth chief secretary of the state ever since the AAP wrested power in Punjab two-and-a-half years ago. Observed molecular emissions (panels 1 to 3) and dust thermal emission (panel 4) from the GG Tau A disk dar and his PhD student Parashmoni Kashyap led the team that zoomed in on the most massive cir- cumbinary disk ever detected around T Tauri stars, which are less than about 10 million years old, uncovering where baby exoplanets begin to form. Utilising ALMA’s high-resolution capabilities, they have pinpointed emissions from key molecules like diazenylium (N2H+), one of the few molecular ions observed in interstellar clouds, and DCO+, one of the most common deuterated molecules in cold molecular cloud, providing a clear view of the cold, dense regions of the GG Tau A disk where exoplanets begin CONTINUED ON P5 to emerge.