belagavi l friday l january 03, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 16 l late city EDITION Professor Debapratim Das (left) with a research student Targeted drug release can cut side effects Researchers developed an advanced injectable hydrogel for localised cancer treatment with fewer side effects than conventional treatments Tumour shrinks 75% within 18 days Hydrogel is a water-based, three-dimensional polymer network that can absorb and retain fluids. It can act as a stable reservoir for anti-cancer drugs. It responds to high glutathione (GSH) levels, a molecule found in cancer cells. Upon encountering high GSH levels, it releases the drug in a targeted manner, not affecting nearby cells, leading to fewer side effects IIT-Guwahati develops injectable hydrogel for cancer treatment ■ ■ “In preclinical trials, a single injection of the hydrogel, loaded with the chemotherapy drug Doxorubicin, resulted in a ~75% reduction in tumour size within 18 days,” professor Debapratim Das of IIT-G said The research was conducted in collaboration with Bose Institute, Kolkata. It has been published in the journal Materials Horizons 8,00,000 New cancer cases in india each year, according to govt estimates 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 Head coach Gambhir’s ambiguous reply gives new twist to Rohit not figuring in the playing XI for Sydney Test saga rested? g o me s h S @ Sydney With less than 24 hours to go for the Sydney Test, the India team did not know who would come out for toss. Or so it seems. “The answer remains the same.” That was what India team head coach Gautam Gambhir had to say when he was asked whether Rohit Sharma will be in the playing XI for the fifth and final Test between India and Australia that begins on Friday “We are . going to take a look at the wicket and probably announce our playing XI tomorrow,” Gambhir said moments earlier. Probably for any other player this would have been an apt answer but for a captain who has been appointed for a series this seemed little ambiguous. Whether resting was the decision of the team management or Rohit’s was also not clear. India begin their last match of the tour amid speculation of dressing room drama and Gambhir’s stern warning to players for not performing well. Even before a ball was bowled there seemed to be intrigue over Sharma’s position in the team. There were multiple indications, including his time in the nets, that suggest he is all set to be replaced. In fact, there are indications that he has told the team about his decision to opt out. This could be one of those rare instances when a captain has been dropped on poor form and for India this could be one of the first instances when a captain has been dropped or opted out. Gambhir made it clear during the briefing that performance alone matters. “Indian cricket’s transition is in safe hands as long as there are honest people in the dressing room. Only criteria to be in that dressing room is performance,” he said. In that case, Shubman Gill E x p r e s s Ne w s Se r v i c e @ Bengaluru BJP slams govt From January 5, fares of stateowned KSRTC, BMTC, NERTC and NWRTC buses will be increased by 15%. The state cabinet on Thursday approved a proposal to revise fares of ordinary and air-conditioned buses run by the four RTCs. Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister HK Patil told reporters that the cabinet has given administrative approval for revision of bus fares. Patil said the RTCs spent Rs 13.21 crore a day on fuel. Ten years ago, diesel price was Rs 60.98 per litre and the RTCs spent Rs 9.16 crore a day on it. The expenditure on employees, which was Rs 12.85 crore, has increased to Rs 18.36 crore. The financial burden on the RTCs has increased and hence, fares BJP has criticised the state government for increasing bus fares by 15%. State unit president BY Vijayendra said the government has launched five guarantees, but it is unable to mobilise funds for them. The transport corporations have gone bankrupt because of the Shakti guarantee. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah arrives at Vidhana Soudha to attend the cabinet meeting on Thursday | nagaraj Gadekal have been revised. The proposal was for a fare hike by 13 to 15%. “We decided to hike it by 15%. Fares in buses run by RTCs in Karnataka are lesser than those in Maharashtra, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh,” he said. He, however, said that the state government will not stop its ambitious Shakti free ride guarantee for women. With the fare revi- sion, the RTCs are expected to generate an additional revenue of Rs 74.85 crore a month. “We have earmarked Rs 5015 crore for Shakti scheme in our budget, and Rs 417 crore is released to the four RTCs every month. This has not affected the state’s finances. Karnataka is one of the best states in managing finances,” he said. Patil said the cabinet also ap- proved a proposal to obtain loans amounting to Rs 2,000 crore by the RTCs towards payment of provident fund dues and the expenditure on fuel till November 2024. Asked if the RTCs will get loans from financial institutions, he said they will get based on their incomegenerating capacity . Work not over yet, Waqf JPC could miss Budget session deadline as well P r ee t h a Na i r @ New Delhi What next for Rohit? Rohit Sharma’s future, with England visiting India for a whiteball series (five T20Is and three ODIs) in January before the Champions Trophy, depends on him and what he decides. His ODI numbers have been exceptional and he could lead the team against England after a possible meeting with selectors. Bumrah likely to captain India Jasprit Bumrah, the vice captain, has been the team’s top performer with 30 wickets in four outings at an astonishing 12.83 average, is expected to take over if Rohit sits out. Under Bumrah’s captaincy India won the first Test in Perth. is set to walk in at No 3 and in-form Jasprit Bumrah will lead in the absence of Sharma, who has been out of form, scoring only 31 runs at an average of 6.2 from five innings so far. He lost two Tests after joining the team in Australia. With the home series loss against New Zealand, pressure was mounting on the Indian captain. If nets were any indication, Sharma, who was not much involved for the better part while India were training. He could be seen chat- ting with Washington Sundar, Bumrah, Gill before batting briefly along with the backup batters towards the end. It was not until most of the drill was over that Sharma and Gambhir were seen together alongside Bumrah. If Sharma gets dropped, which is most likely as of Thursday evening, MCG Test could be his last as a Test player. For India, a win in Sydney would help retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy and keep World Test Championship hopes alive.  P15 1,228 graft cases pending before Lokayukta Woman kills husband for bid to rape daughter, held A s h w i n i M S r i pa d @ Bengaluru E x p r e s s Ne w s Se r v i c e @ Belagavi As many as 1,228 cases under the Prevention of Corruption Act against elected representatives and government officials are pending before the Karnataka Lokayukta. Corruption cases against Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, former CMs BS Yediyurappa and HD Kumaraswamy, and minister Zameer Ahmed Khan are among them. Some cases have been pending for more than 10 years. Of the 1,228 cases, only 337 have been sent for sanction for prosecution. But the authorities have given sanction only for prosecution in 142 cases. During the recent winter session in Belagavi, Siddaramaiah, in his reply in the Council to BJP’s DS Arun, stated that many cases needed legal opinion, some of the accused had obtained stay orders, and a few needed opinion from heads of various departments to proceed further. Corruption cases have also been registered against many MLAs, including BY Vijayendra, ST Somashekar and Gali Janardhan Reddy, and many former legislators, including Madal Virupaksha and Chowdareddy  . P6 15% bus fare hike in K’taka from Jan 5 Police have arrested a woman for allegedly murdering her husband who attempted to rape their daughter at Umarani near Chikkodi on Wednesday night. After murdering him, she chopped his body into pieces and buried them in a field, according to sources. The deceased has been identified as Srimant Itnal and his wife as Savithri. When Savithri refused to cooperate with him, Itnal attempted to rape their daughter. Enra g ed by this, Savitri smashed his head with a stone and murdered him. She later chopped his body into pieces, put them into a barrel, rolled it to the field nearby and buried them, the sources said. After returning home, Savit- Srimant Itnal and his wife Savitri ri packed the knife and the machete she used to chop Itnal’s body, his blood-stained clothes and a mattress in a gunny bag, tied a stone to it and dumped it into a well. She also dumped the barrel into the well and washed the stone with which she smashed her husband’s head and kept it in a shed. Savitri warned her elder daughter, who woke up when she was cleaning the house, not to disclose anything about the murder. When local police recovered Itnal’s body parts in the field, she confessed to the crime, the sources said. The Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) examining the Waqf Amendment Bill may miss the next deadline of the Budget session of Parliament, scheduled to begin on January 30, according to sources. The committee headed by BJP MP Jagadambika Pal is scheduled to present its report on the last day of the Budget session after missing the first deadline of the just concluded winter session of Parliament. The Budget session is expected to conclude on February 12. The Centre may now push the report for the Monsoon session as the committee will not be able to complete its work by the stipulated deadline, said p e o p l e aw a re o f t h e developments. Another key reason, according to sources, is the strong opposition from NDA allies Telugu Desam Party and the Janata Dal (United) over the proposed legislation. Several Muslim groups in Andhra Pradesh and Bihar have been opposing most of the amendments, including the appointment of non-Muslims as members of the Central Waqf Council and state Waqf Boards. “The government has not given any assurance to TDP or JD (U) on bringing any chang es in the contentious proposals. The JD(U) does not want to risk its electoral prospects in view of the impending assembly elec- top honour Manu, Gukesh among 4 Khel Ratna awardees E x p r e s s Ne w s Se r v i c e @ Chennai This being an Olympic year, there were exceptions to the number of Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna awardees and also the Arjuna Awards list. As expected the list is dominated by Olympic and Paralympic medal winners. What seems interesting is that D Gukesh who became the youngest world champion in December too has been included in the list the sports ministry released on Thursday . Speculation over Manu Bhaker not being considered for Khel Ratna for not applying too has been laid to rest. India men’s hockey team captain Harmanpreet Singh who won bronze medal at this year Olympics his second medal after Tokyo 2020 in 2021 too feature among the four chosen for country’s highest sports awards. Paraathlete high jumper Praveen Kumar is the fourth name. There were reports that suggested Manu’s name was not on the list but the ministry’s announcement included her name. What seems to be interesting is that Manu did not apply. It is not clear if Gukesh’s name was added after his world championship match that he won on December 12. express read ‘Return of Maharashtra farm land soon’ MP town protests over Union Carbide waste Veteran journalist S Jayachandran passes away in Bengaluru Mumbai: Maharashtra cabinet on Thursday decided to amend the land revenue code and return 4,949 acres of defaulted agriculture land to original farmers from whom these parcels were seized due to non-payment of government dues and taxes | P10 Bhopal: Protests erupted at Pithampur in Dhar district on Thursday, hours after truckloads of toxic waste was brought from the defunct Union Carbide factory. Waste from the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy site is to be disposed at TDSF at Tarapura|P10 T’Puram : Veteran editor, author, critic and screenplay writer S Jayachandran Nair (85), who revolutionised magazine journalism in Malayalam, passed away in Bengaluru on Thursday. He served as editor of Samakalika Malayalam Weekly, a sister publication of TNIE | P7 tions in Bihar,” said a party leader, adding that the TDP and JD(U) enjoy a strong support base of minorities in their states. Though the government had listed the Waqf bill for passage during the winter session, the panel sought an extension after a showdown with the Opposition. A panel member said it is impossible for the committee to meet the deadline as it will take a long time to record the concerns of lakhs of witnesses. “The chairman is under pressure from the Opposition to hear out stakeholders who have real concerns. The committee has not followed due process till now,” said an Opposition member. Muizzu minister-EAM meet today India and the Maldives are set to further strengthen their ties as New Delhi hosts the Foreign Minister of the island country, Abdulla Khaleel. He will meet External Affairs minister S Jaishankar on Friday | P9