thrissur l friday l september 19, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l city EDITION Visas of certain Indian business executives revoked: u.s. embassy The visas of a few Indian business executives were revoked for their alleged involvement in trafficking of fentanyl precursors, the US said decision to rein in trafficking of drugs fentanyl overdose deaths tipping point The embassy’s decisions is in keeping with the Trump Administration’s efforts to keep Americans safe from dangerous synthetic narcotics. “Individuals and organizations involved in illegal production, trafficking of drugs to US, along with their families, will face consequences including being denied access to US,” affirmed Chargé d’affaires Jorgan Andrews ■ ■ The US embassy in Delhi said the Trump administration has already taken critical steps to confront this crisis through a series of executive orders that secure its borders and combat drug trafficking | P7 Fentanyl is a potent synthetic opioid and drug. There have been reports in US of drug overdose deaths from consumption of fentanyl 70% of US’ 1,07,000 drug overdose deaths in 2024 were from fentanyl 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 Fresh Rahul-CEC sparring on ‘vote theft’ in Karnataka Six missing, 2 dead as rain batters U’khand n a r e n d r a s e t h i @ Dehradun TWO people were killed, five rescued alive while six people are missing as landslides and flooding triggered by heavy rain flattened more than 40 houses in four villages of Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district on Thursday . The deceased were identified as Narendra Singh (42) and Jagdamba Prasad (70). Of the six people still missing, four are from Kuntari Lagaphali and one each is from Kuntari Lagasarpani and Dhurma. All four affected villages — Kuntari Lagaphali, Kuntari Lagasarpani, Sera and Dhurma — come under the Nandanagar area, 260 km from Dehradun. Nandanagar is already reeling from land subsidence. Four people were rescued alive in Kuntari Lagaphali and one in Dhurma village, the State Emergency Operation Centre (SEOC) in Dehradun said. Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami directed officials to ensure adequate arrangements is made for shelter, food and water and other amenities for those affected. Those seriously injured, including a child, were airlifted to AIIMS in Rishikesh, Dhami told reporters in Gopeshwar after speaking to officials. P r e e t h a N a i r @ New Delhi SDRF personnel during a search operation in Nandanagar area of Chamoli district in Uttarakhand on Thursday. The four villages affected by the rain-related landslides and floods are located about 260 km from Dehradun. Six people — four from Kuntari Lagaphali and one each from Kuntari Lagasarpani and Dhurma — are still missing, SDRF officials said | EPS Nato-style agreement to treat attack on one country as attack on both India weighs Pak-Saudi def pact JAYANTH JA C O B @ New Delhi Sebi clean chit to Adani on Hindenburg allegations B ENN K O C HUVEEDAN @ Mumbai Markets watchdog Sebi on Thursday dismissed all charges levelled by the now-shuttered US-based short-seller Hindenburg Research against the Adani group, its founder Gautam Adani, his brother, and a few top executives including the group’s chief financial officer Jugeshinder Singh. The Hindenburg report had accused the group of share price rigging, insider trading, accounting fraud, and using offshore tax havens and shell firms to route funds. Sebi said its probe found no violation of regulations and that there were no related-party transactions. Accordingly, the watchdog decided to “dispose of the instant proceedings against noticees (Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone, Adani Power, Adicorp Enterprises, Gautam Adani and his brother Rajesh Adani) without any direction”. The final orders issued by Sebi’s whole-time member Kamlesh Chandra Varshneya also exonerated group chairman Gautam Adani and his brother Rajesh. Reacting to the order, Gautam Adani said that it reaffirmed his and the group’s stand that Hindenburg’s claims were baseless, adding that “those spread false narratives owe an apology”. Wildlife bill introduced in House In a rare instance, the ruling and opposition fronts together pushed for an amendment to the Wildlife Act. Even as opposition UDF supported the bill, it questioned the timing of the legislation INDIA on Thursday said it would assess the security implications of the newly signed Strate gic Mutual Defence Agreement between nucleararmed Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, amid concerns over shifting power dynamics in the Middle East and South Asia. The pact, signed on Wednesday during Pak Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif ’s official visit to Riyadh, marks a major upgradation of defence ties between the two countries. It includes a mutual defence clause that says “any aggression against either of the two countries shall be considered as an aggression against both”. The accord was signed in the presence of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s de-facto ruler, and Pakistan’s powerful army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir, highlighting its strategic weight. The agreement, finalised days after Israeli airstrikes on Qatari soil targeting Hamas leaders, has the potential to reshape regional security alignments as many Gulf states are now questioning the long-term Im p l i cat i o n s f o r I n d i a India to assess the Pak-Saudi pact’s impact on national security and regional stability 1 Future military conflicts with Pak could technically evoke a response from Saudi Arabia 2 India worried about nuclear proliferation as Pak is expected to provide N-cover to the Saudis 3 Energy security, diaspora safety India is expected to weigh not just the military dimensions of the pact and also its broader strategic implications on energy security, diaspora safety, and the evolving balance of power in the Gulf. Over 8 million Indians live and work across the Gulf, with a substantial population in Saudi Arabia Pak PM Shehbaz Sharif (left) with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman after signing a pact in Riyadh | AP reliability of the US as a security guarantor. It also comes months after the military conflict between India and Pakistan following Phagalgam attack. Reacting to the development, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) offered a measured response. “We have seen re- ports of the signing of a strategic mutual defence pact between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan,” MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said. Pakistan’s decades-old alliance with Saudi Arabia, home to Islam’s holiest sites, is deeprooted in shared faith, strategic interests, and deep econom- tax rationalisation ‘Pazhampori’ set to get cheaper with GST cut R a j e s h R a v i @Kochi Finally, banana fritters—the humble ‘pazhampori’—are likely to get cheaper by 10% across bakeries in the state, following the nationwide GST tax rationalisation that has reduced the number of slabs to just two. Banana fritters, along with traditional snacks like ‘vada’, ‘ada’, and ‘kozhukatta’, have been moved to the lower slab of 5% from the 18% slab on which they were taxed earlier. Products like mixture and wafers that came under 12% slab earlier have also been placed in the lower slab of 5%. As a result, bakeries in the state are planning to reduce the effective selling price by 7-10% after rationalising their cost structure, according to Vijesh Viswanath, CEO of Bakery B, which has around 50 retail outlets in Ernakulam and its suburbs. “Banana fritters will become cheaper by `1 for those priced around `10 per piece. Big snack manufacturers and bakers have in-principle decided to lower the selling price,” he said. “The effective reduction in tax burden for us when the tax gets reduced to 5% from 18% is 11%, but the real benefit to the bakeries is nil. Now, we will have to pay 5% tax on inputs like va- naspati and get input credit for the same,” he added. Vijesh pointed out that during the past few months, the increase in the price of inputs has been phenomenal and is burdening quality producers. Noushad M, managing partner of Kannur-based Bake Story Live Bakery , welcomed the tax rationalisation, saying it has eliminated a major pain point. “We were often confused and penalised due to ignorance. The 5% tax rate for all snacks and savories has brought us relief,” he said. Noushad highlighted that traditional snacks faced differential treatment due to classification issues under the Harmonised System of Nomenclature (HSN). For instance, ‘pazhampori’ was taxed at 18% while ‘unniappam’ was taxed at 5%. He added that his outlets will sell products cheaper by 7-10% ● More on P7 from September 22.  ic interdependence. It also includes a longstanding military partnership. Between 1,500 and 2,000 Pakistani troops are currently deployed in Saudi Arabia, providing operational, technical, and training support, including to the kingdom’s air and land forces. While defence cooperation between the two nations is not new, formalising it into a mutual defence pact to include the nuclear umbrella marks an escalation that is likely to trigger close scrutiny in New Delhi. A senior Saudi official, speaking to the international media, acknowledged the complexities involved regarding India — a key Saudi partner.“Our relationship with India is more robust than it has ever been. We will continue to grow this relationship and seek to contribute to regional peace whichever way we can,” the official was quoted as saying. When asked whether Pakistan would provide Saudi Arabia with a nuclear umbrella, the official said: “This is a comprehensive defensive agreement that encompasses all military means.” Such comments are likely to be watched closely in India. In yet another exposé on ‘vote theft’, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday claimed large-scale irregularities in Karnataka’s Aland constituency, accusing Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar of ‘protecting those murdering democracy’. Rahul charged that 6,018 voter names were deleted in Aland in a systematic manner using software, adding the CEC was complicit in the deletion as he refused to provide crucial data and take any action despite repeated requests from the Karnataka CID. However, the Office of the Chief Electoral Officer in Karnataka claimed it had handed over all information required for the probe to the Superintendent of Police, Kalaburagi district on Sept 6, 2023. In Delhi, the ECI said, “No deletion of any vote can be done online by any member of the public, as misconceived by Gandhi.” The fraud was exposed by chance when a booth-level officer discovered that her uncle’s vote had been deleted after a neighbour applied for the deletion of his vote, said Rahul. “However, the neighbour denied it. Some other force hijacked the process,” he added. Although the Karnataka CID sent 18 letters to ECI in a span of 18 months seeking destination IPs, device ports and OTP trails of the fake Form 7 applications, the poll body has not Congress leader Rahul Gandhi at a press conference in Delhi | Parveen Negi ECI must stop protecting vote thieves. They should release all evidence to the CID within a week Rahul Gandhi, Cong leader responded so far, he alleged. The deletions, he added, were at the top 10 booths where Congress holds strong influence and had won eight of them. Rahul said that an automated program chose the first name from each booth to delete votes, with mobile numbers from outside the state used to file fake applications. “Someone set up a centralised criminal operation to steal elections. In Aland, this operation filed 6,018 deleted applications by impersonating voters using automated filling of online EC forms,” he said. Suryakant, a Karnataka resident, said his identity was used to delete 12 voters in 14 minutes; however, he was unaware of the deletions. E X P R E SS R E A D CM to inaugurate Global Ayyappa meet tomorrow Congress begins hunt for assembly candidates Pathanamthitta: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will inaugurate the Global Ayyappa Sangamam at Pampa on September 20. Devaswom Minister V N Vasavan will preside over the function. Ministers from various states, legislators, community and cultural leaders, and representatives of several organisations will attend the ayyappa meet. P4 Kochi: As the Congress begins the exercise of shortlisting candidates for the 2026 assembly polls, a flurry of names is surfacing across constituencies based on survey feedback and discussions. From retired IAS officer Biju Prabhakar to KSU leaders Ann Sebastian and Aloshious Xavier, the leadership is casting the net wide while weighing community equations and local strengths. P4 Infopark eyes IPO, big expansion Anu Kuruvilla and K r i s h n a k u m a r K E @ Kochi Infopark is making its way into the big leagues. In an ambitious move, the IT park is eyeing an initial public offering (IPO) that will help raise funds for its growth, besides ensuring greater visibility . According to sources, the IPO, which will make Infopark the first Kerala government entity to list on the stock exchanges, might probably happen once the Phase III and IV projects are completed. As part of the IPO road map, the IT park has decided to re gister itself as a company . “We have been functioning as a charitable society till now. However, this structure doesn’t give us the flexibility needed for future ventures. Even the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has long taken a position that IT parks are not charitable societies. So, the immediate step is to register Infopark as a company said a source. Also, a company ,” structure is needed to get into joint ventures, the source said. “If Infopark plans to go IPO in the future, it will need a corporate structure. The shift to a corporate structure will help get a positive difference in taxes,” said the source. Meanwhile, the source hinted that the Infopark Phase III might grow beyond the projected 300 acres. “It Established: July 18, 2004 Kerala government entity 582+ companies 70,000+ IT professionals 9.2 mn sqft of built-up space may take up around 500 acres of land.” As for the deadline set for the completion of the Infopark Phase III, the source said the effort now is to ensure that at least half of the work gets completed by 2030. “The work on Phase IV coming up on Traco Cable , Company land, will be the one getting off the starting blocks first. In the case of Phase III, it is expected that the activities associated with land pooling can be completed within eight months,” said the source. C J George, MD of Geojit Financial Services, said Infopark’s IPO, when it happens, would augur well for the IT park. “If there are any such plans in the future, it will be good as the IT park will be able to raise funds for expansion. However, to get market attention, it will have to reduce the state government holdings to below 50%,” he said. The Crisil Ratings, in its report on July 31, 2025, reaffirmed Infopark’s Crisil A/Stable rating, stating that the IT park has consistently maintained a healthy cash balance, which is estimated at `174 crore as on March 31, 2025. As of March 31, 2025, Infopark’s reported profit after tax is `20.74 crore compared to `13.15 crore in 2024. Another ambitious proposal by Infopark submitted to the state government is the construction of an eightlane road from Vyttila to connect Phases I, II, III, and IV with NH 544 via Angamaly - Kundanoor Bypass. “A proposal has also been sent to Kochi Metro Rail Limited (KMRL) seeking the extension of the Metro corridor to Infopark Phase III,” said the source. Speaking to TNIE, KMRL said it will provide the provision at Infopark Phase I station for further extending the Pink Line corridor to Infopark Phases II and III. “During Phase I, we included a provision at JLN stadium for future expansion to Kakkanad and beyond. Now, Phase 2 is under way with the , Pink Line being constructed from JLN station to Infopark. A similar provision will be made at Infopark Phase I for further corridor extension,” a senior KMRL official said.