tiruchy l Thursday l October 10, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 14 l late city 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 HC: protest can go on 10 workers held as FM asks samsung union to end stir EXPRESS NEWS SERV I CE @ Chennai A month after Samsung workers started striking work at Sriper umbudur, Kancheepuram police on Wednesday arrested 10 workers from their houses and detained over 600 others from the protest venue for unlawful assembly This comes a . day after Samsung, firm in its stance of not engaging with the CITU-affiliated Samsung India Thozhilalar Sangam, entered into an agreement with a workmen committee at its Chennai factory . Eight arrested workers were let off after the magistrate refused to remand them and two were remanded in judicial custody , CITU members said. The 600-odd detainees were released later in the day Meanwhile, . the Madras High Court, closing a habeas corpus petition filed by CITU’s E Muthukumar alleging illegal detention of workers, said there is no bar on their peaceful protest. Union members said the protests will, therefore, continue from the same site. On Wednesday senior political leaders , from DMK-allied parties, including VCK chief Thol Thirumavalavan, visited the protesting workers, in solidarity . However, Finance Minister Thangam Thennarasu urged CITU to call off the strike, keeping in mind the interests of the thousands of Samsung employees. He said the labour department is not opposed to the registration of the union and will act as per the verdict to be given by the Madras High Court. P4 Knives out for Congress from INDIA bloc allies after Haryana debacle Shiv Sena (UBT), AAP, TMC lead the attack, say grand old party’s arrogance led to defeat PREET H A NA I R @ New Delhi Labour dept is not against recognising the workers’ union. As Samsung raised certain objections, the department has sought an explanation from the CITU Minister Thangam Thennarasu Allies to meet CM DMK alliance partners have planned to meet CM M K Stalin to urge his direct intervention over the strike to settle issue amicably | P4 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 seatsharing 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 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 Police removing Samsung workers from protest venue | special arrangement express read September salaries for SS employees released Chennai: Following a protest by the coordination committee of all teachers’ and non-teaching staff associations on Wednesday, the state school education department released the salaries of more than 20,000 employees under the Samagra Shiksha (SS) scheme for the month of September | P2 Ratan Tata in critical condition, says report Mumbai: Industrialist Ratan Tata, 86, is in critical condition in intensive care at a Mumbai hospital, Reuters reported on Wednesday. He has been admitted to Mumbai’s Breach Candy Hospital. The chairman emeritus of Tata Sons had said on Monday he was undergoing routine medical checkup 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 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 accommodate 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 Par ty 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 Youth hurt in Chennai student clash dies express news service @ Chennai A 20-year-old Presidency College student, who was attacked allegedly by five students from Pachaiyappa’s College at the Chennai suburban terminal on Friday, succumbed to his injuries at the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital (RGG G H ) e a rl y We d n e s d ay mor ning. Periamet police, which arrested the five students on Friday evening, has altered the charges in Tiruttani in Tiruvalagainst them from atlur district, was pursutempted murder to ing his first year in Pomurder. litical Science. Both his Security has been parents are daily-wage tightened at the suburlabourers. On Friday at ban terminal and at the suburban terminal, A Sundar both colleges, police the police said, an argusaid. Some Presidency ment broke out between College students protested on Sundar and two of his friends the campus until the police as- and the five Pachaiyappa’s Colsured them of action. The col- lege students after the latter lege has declared a holiday till had asked the Presidency stuTuesday. The police said the dents to remove their college victim, A Sundar from Ponpadi identity cards. P7 Buzz on appointment of Kejri’s aide Bibhab as CM Mann’s chief adviser 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 Bhagwant Mann Bibhav Kumar 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 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. Two other aides of Mann — Director, Communications, Navneet Wadhwa and Onkar Singh, OSD to the CM — had put in their papers earlier. New chief secy The Punjab government appointed KAP Sinha as the new Chief Secretary. A 1992 batch IAS officer, he replaced Anurag Verma due procedure Drama over Atishi’s ‘eviction’ from official house 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 A man carrying goods on a cart leaves the residence of Delhi CM | PTI 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 oc- cupy the CM residence,” the Chief Minister’s Office alleged in the statement. AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay 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 resi- 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. dence 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. Just moved Chief Minister Atishi moved to the bungalow in North Delhi’s Civil Lines area on Monday. It was occupied for over nine years by Arvind Kejriwal RBI keeps repo rate unchanged at 6.5% for 10th time in a row B e n n K o c h u v e e d a n @ Mumbai The Reserve Bank of India on Wednesday kept the repo rate unchanged at 6.5%, for the 10th time in a row, but changed its stance to ‘neutral’ that may lead to a cut in the forthcoming policies. According to analysts, the change in stance is the first step towards a rate cut and signals the beginning of the easing cycle as early as December. However, RBI governor Shaktikanta Das, who completes his five-year term in December, refused to accept the policy stance change is a pivot. “The prevailing and expected inflationgrowth balance has created conditions for a shift in the monetary policy stance as there is greater confidence on last mile of disinflation,” he said. The banking Shaktikanta Das regulator also retained the retail inflation projection at 4.5% for 2024-25, with Das stressing the central bank will have to closely monitor the price situation and keep the ‘inflation horse’ under tight leash lest it may bolt again. RBI maintained status quo despite the US Federal Reserve lowering the benchmark rates by 50 basis points last month. The central banks of some developed nations have also reduced their interest rates. This was the first meeting after the RBI’s monetary policy committee was reconstituted last month. The three newly appointed external members are Ram Singh, Saugata Bhattacharya and Nagesh Kumar.