coimbatore l Wednesday l January 14, 2026 l `9.00 l PAGES 14 l late city EDITION no more 10-minute delivery by quick commerce companies Eternal-owned quick-commerce firm Blinkit dropped its ‘10-minute’ delivery claim after a Union labour ministry fiat on Tuesday | P12 keeps in mind risks of quick delivery model Other aggregators, like Zepto and Swiggy-owned Instamart, are also expected to follow suit. The decision to do away with the ‘10-minute’ delivery model came after Union Labour Minister Mansukh Mandaviya persuaded delivery aggregators, keeping in mind growing concerns over welfare and safety of delivery workers galloping to close orders pic: P Ravikumar gig workers hail govt intervention ■ The promise of 10-minute delivery led to gig workers holding a nationwide strike on New Year’s Eve in 2025, drawing attention to workers’ health, safety vis-a-vis the model, and their income ■ In a statement, Gig and Platform Service Workers Union welcomed the govt’s decision to discontinue the instant delivery system 2.3cr is the projected strength of india’s gig workforce by 2030 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 Different strokes Split verdict on prior nod clause in anti-graft law SUCHITRA KALYAN MOHANTY @ New Delhi The Supreme Court on Tuesday delivered a split verdict on the validity of a 2018 provision that was inserted into the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, which mandates prior government approval before investigating public officials in corruption cases. While Justice B V Nagarathna ruled that Section 17A be struck down, Justice K V Viswanathan partially read it down. The matter would now go to the Chief Justice of India to assign it to a larger bench. Justice Nagarathna observed that Section 17A was an attempt to “protect the corrupt”. “The requirement of prior sanction is contrary to the object of the Act, and it forecloses inquiry and protects the corrupt rather than seeking to protect the honest and those with integrity who really do not require any protection,” she said. On the other hand, Justice Viswanathan held that an independent agency must decide the question of prosecution sanction. He directed that the sanction be decided by the Lokpal/Lokayukta, reading down Section 17A to that extent. “Section 17A is constitutionally valid subject to the condition that the sanction must be decided by the Lokpal or the Lokayukta of the State,” Justice Viswanathan said. Addl 25% Iran-linked tariff to have minimal impact on India: Govt With toll topping 2,000, Trump announces fresh levy to press Tehran to go easy on the protesters P u s h p i ta D e y @ New Delhi While US President Donald Trump delivered yet another blow by announcing 25% additional tariff on countries that do active trade with Iran, government sources said India is likely to have minimal impact. Their confidence stemmed from the fact that India’s total merchandise trade with Iran stood at only $1.6 billion (in 2024-25), which is 0.15% of the country’s total trade. “For India, Iran does not even figure in the top 50 global trading partners. India’s trade value with Iran is expected to further go down in the current fiscal year given external economic factors. (Therefore) 25% tariff announced by the US on trade partners of Iran is likely to have minimal impact on India,” said government sources. Iran’s total import in 2024 was worth about $68 billion, sourcing it goods mainly from the UAE ($21 billion - 30%), China ($17 billion 26%), Turkiye ($11 billion - 16%) and the EU ($6 billion - 9%). India’s share was only $1.2 billion (2.3%). Top exports from India to Iran include cereals (rice), coffee, tea, spices, edible oil, etc. “There is still no clarity on whether humanitarian products like food and medicines will be exempted. India significantly exports such products. In any event, given the low overall trade volume, the macro impact will be low. If these products are exempted, the impact will be even lower,” said Anup Wadhawan, former commerce secretary. Trump announced the additional tariff to pressure Iran to step back from its violent crackdown on a wave of protests in the country that have left over 2,000 people dead. As per the data collated by Bloomberg citing WTO, India despite being one of the top 10 trading countries of Iran accounts for only 2.9% of the total share of trade. Polluted water may have led to death of two in TN RAJALAKSHMI SAMPATH @ Chennai A preliminary bacteriological report issued by the State Water Laboratory in Guindy on December 30, 2025, has confirmed that the drinking water supplied to Karlambakkam village in Tiruttani taluk was contaminated with E-coli bacteria of faecal origin, lending weight to the allegations that polluted water had led to the deaths of two residents last month. The report on samples collected on December 28, 2025, accessed by TNIE, showed that tap water samples from four households in Karlambakkam Colony were found to be of “poor bacteriological quality with the presence of , E-coli-I of faecal origin”. The remarks column stated that “other pathogenic organisms causing Acute Diarrhoeal Disease are absent on this occasion”. Tiruvallur collector M Prathap said, “We cannot treat the preliminary report as the final conclusion. We must get viscera report.”  P7 Pak-born US cricketer ‘denied’ WC visa ground. With many teams having Pakistan-origin players, it remains to be seen ALI Khan, a Pakistan-born and raised whether those players are also facing US international cricketer, has claimed similar situations. UAE, another team on Instagram that his Indian visa has with a few Pakistan origin players, are been ‘denied’. Khan has featured in yet to hear about the fate of the vi13 T20Is for the US. It’s undersas of several of their players. stood that there are other Paki“We have submitted the names stan-origin players in the US but haven’t heard anything,” a team who are in a similar situateam source told this daily. VISA tion but the ICC is expected to Apart from UAE and US (these find a quick resolution to the two teams are yet to announce the issue. final 15), other teams that have playWith the T20 World Cup scheduled to ers with Pakistani roots may include be held in India and Sri Lanka in under Netherlands, Italy, Oman and England. a month, the heightened tensions be- In 2024, Shoaib Bashir, the England offtween India and Pakistan have once spinner had to miss the first Test due to again brought this issue to the fore- delay in visa.  P13 E x p r e s s N e w s S e r v i c e @ Chennai inside Rahul slams centre over bid to block vijay’s film | p4