kalaburagi l saturday l july 25, 2026 l `9.00 l PAGES 14 l city EDITION Anand first-ever indian to occupy fide top post FIVE-TIME WORLD CHAMP’S ELECTION STANCE Viswanathan Anand becomes interim president of world body after Russian Arkady Dvorkovich steps aside following European Union sanctions Focus on World Championship The five-time world champion assumed the top post as per FIDE charter. During the recent Chennai Grand Masters event, Anand had said he won’t be contesting the September elections. As it stands, the 56-year-old from Chennai hasn’t announced his candidacy, but the last date for nominations is on July 26. He is expected to take a final call within that date ■ There’s still no clarity on the host for the World Championship tie between D Gukesh and Javokhir Sindarov. Anand won’t be the deciding authority but it will be interesting to see how things pan out ■ Chennai is yet to bid and there are murmurs that Bengaluru has shown interest but nothing has been confirmed yet | P13 July 26 LAsT DATE FOR filing NOMINATION papers FOR FIDE ELECTIONS 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 Kolkata Mumbai Pune B’luru friday furore 10% US tariff on India over forced labour concerns mained in force for the maximum statutory period of 150 days before Hours after the 10% temporary tar- expiring on Thursday . iffs imposed under Section 122 of the While India has qualified for the Trade Act of 1974 expired, the US on lower tariff bracket, which gives it a Thursday retained the tariffs on relative advantage over several commerchandise imports from India un- peting nations, export bodies and inder Section 301, citing concerns over dustry experts cautioned against the country’s enforcement overlooking the broader imof restrictions on forced plications of the US action. labour. According to economic US Trade Representative think tank GTRI, it could Jamieson Greer said the raise the cost of Indian new levy will kick in on products in US markets. Friday . “The tariff lacks a credible Following the conclusion factual basis and appears of its Section 301 investigadesigned to preserve the tion linked to forced labour, The fact that India Trump administration’s tarthe US has imposed tariffs has been placed in iff wall rather than address on imports from 60 econo- 10% tariff category an unproven forced-labour while competing mies that it said had failed problem in India,” said nations face a to adequately prohibit or higher tariff, shows G T R I f o u n d e r A j a y enforce restrictions on US’s recognition of Srivastava. g o o d s p ro d u c e d u s i n g India’s measures to Manoj Mishra, partner check forced labour and tax controversy manforced labour. Of these, 17 countries— agement leader at Grant SC Ralhan, FIEO including India, Canada, the Thornton Bharat, said India president UK, Bangladesh, and Pakiis relatively better placed stan—will face a 10% tariff, than several Asian manuwhile the remaining 43 economies facturing hubs. will be subject to a higher levy of According to Mishra, the tariff dif12.5%. ferential could improve the relative Goods loaded before July 24 and en- competitiveness of Indian exports, tering the US by July 28 will be ex- particularly in sectors such as texempt under a transition provision. tiles and apparel, footwear, furniture, The earlier 10% tariff under Sec- engineering goods, electronics and tion 122, announced on February 20 electrical equipment, and toys, where and implemented on February 24, re- these countries compete directly . PUSHP I TA DE Y @ New Delhi Student groups in different cities protest in solidarity with the CJP’s agitation, despite inclement weather and caning in some places, on Friday. In Bengaluru too, hundreds of students protested at Freedom Park | PTI/martin louis/ Kevin Nashon Cabinet OKs draft bill on strict punishment in paper leak cases Proposes up to 10 years jail; amendment bill may be tabled on Monday m u k e s h r a n j a n @ New Delhi THE Union Cabinet on Friday approved a draft bill prescribing harsher punishment for examination paper leaks, hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced in a midnight video message that the government would move to tighten the law. The bill amends the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024, and proposes a minimum jail term of five years for those involved in paper leaks, up from the current three years. In cases of organised paper leaks, the punishment could extend to 10 years in prison along with a fine of up to `10 crore, a sharp jump from the existing three to five years’ imprisonment and a minimum fine of `1 crore. The Cabinet meeting, chaired by the Prime Minister at the Parliament House complex, decided that the amended law would target organised gangs and institutions profiting from examination fraud, while shielding ordinary candidates from its harsher provisions. Officials said the government also intends to set up fasttrack courts to ensure speedy trials of the offenders. The existing law already covers major recruitment and entrance examinations, including the UPSC, SSC, NEET, JEE and CUET. Announcing the move on Thursday night, Modi had said the Cabinet would take up a draft law providing for stricter punishment and quicker trials in paperleak cases. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said on Friday that the bill would be introduced “at the earliest,” adding that the prime minister had directed there be no delay in bringing legislation concerning students. “We are preparing to present the bill. After the Cabinet briefing, we will announce the timing... It would not be appropriate to obstruct such a measure,” Rijiju said, while accusing the Congress of trying to disrupt parliamentary proceedings. He warned that any attempt to stall debate on the bill would draw public anger. Sources indicated the bill is likely to be tabled in Parliament on Monday . The Cabinet’s decision comes against the backdrop of sustained protests over alleged irregularities in the NEET-UG examination and growing demands for stronger safeguards against paper leaks. It also follows talks between Union ministers and the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP), which has been leading the agitation. express read DKS, Vijay Aug 3 talks to focus on Cauvery waters Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister DK Shivakumar and his Tamil Nadu counterpart C Vijay Joseph are expected to hold bilateral talks , which could mainly focus on the sharing of Cauvery waters, at Vidhana Soudha in Bengaluru on August 3 | P4 13 die as falling boulders crush vehicle in Himachal Shimla: Thirteen people, including a six-month-old, were killed after boulders from a hill fell on a taxi on the Udaipur-Pangi road in Himachal Pradesh’s Lahaul and Spiti district on Friday. Following the impact, the rear section of the vehicle caught fire. Apart from the infant, eight men and four women were among the dead | P13 day’s developments 1 Centre aks GitHub to remove Bitchat, which enables peer-to-peer communication over Bluetooth without mobile networks 2 SC said it will ensure end of ad-hocism in NEET and institutionalise the exam system, and sought govt’s response on online exam mode 3 SC to hear on Monday two pleas alleging police excesses on students during Sansad march on July 20 protesting the NEET paper leak 4 About 47 officials of the National Testing Agency have been sacked, with the Centre saying it will overhaul the testing body 5 Centre directs airlifting of 10 more CRPF companies from Chhattisgarh to be deployed in Delhi in view of the student protests 6 Delhi Police cancels all routine leaves of its personnel with immediate effect in view of the prevailing law and order situation Govt softens on two demands, may not yield on Pradhan Rajesh Kumar Thakur and Anup Verma @ New Delhi At their second round of talks on Friday, the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) told the government that its three demands — exit of Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan, `1 crore compensation for NEET-UG victims, and no legal action against protesters — were non-negotiable. Union ministers J P Nadda and Dr Jitendra Singh, the interlocutors who spoke to the CJP delegation at Vithalbhai Patel House, said they had heard the demands and will get back on Saturday . “They had three main demands and five reform suggestions for exams. We told them we will meet again tomorrow afternoon and share the government’s perspective,” Nadda said. The deliberations, described as cordial by the ministers, reportedly saw the government agree to two demands — adequate compensation for the families of those who allegedly died by J P Nadda after a meeting with a suicide following CJP delegation, at Vithalbhai Patel the paper leak, House in New Delhi on Friday | PTI and the withdrawal of cases against the protesting youth. However, indications are that the government will not ask Pradhan to quit. Instead, it intends to shift the focus towards sweeping reforms of the examination system through legislation and administrative measures. “The priority is to restore confidence of the students by introducing measures to prevent future exam paper leaks, strengthen safeguards within the exam process and ensure those responsible for the leaks are brought to justice,” several well-placed sources said. The Centre has already taken a slew of steps, including a top bureaucratic reshuffle and sacked many NTA officials as part of a wider overhaul. It’s the NTA that runs national competitive exams like NEET. OpenAI can use copyrighted content to train ChatGPT: HC UDAYAN K I SHORE @ New Delhi THE Delhi High Court on Friday refused to restrain artificial intelligence platform ChatGPT from using published news material, saying it does not amount to copyright infringement. In an interim order, Justice A m i t B a n s a l r u l e d t h at OpenAI’s use of retrieved copyrighted works to train its large language models (LLMs) falls under “fair dealing” provision of the Copyright Act. The court was hearing a petition filed by news agency Asian News International (ANI) in 2024 against Open AI Inc and Open AI OpCo LLC, raising is- sues of infringement of its copyrighted material for LLM training by OpenAI. Justice Amit Bansal said prima facie, the outputs generated by ChatGPT using retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) technique did not amount to infringement under Section 51 of the Copyright Act, since the outputs generated were not substantially similar to ANI’s ‘original literary works’. OpenAI argued that there cannot be a monopoly on facts and that if any news platform does not want their website accessed by OpenAI, they can get themselves included in the blocklist. Copyright laws vs tech innovation HC observed that copyright law and technological innovation enjoy a dynamic relationship. When technologies evolve, they enable new forms of creative expression and disrupt settled copyright arrangements. Student found dead in Gadag varsity hostel E x p r e s s N e w s S e r vi c e @Gadag A female student was found dead under suspicious circumstances at Mahatma Gandhi Rural Development and Panchayat Raj University (MGRDPR) hostel in Gadag on Thursday night. Veena Hanapura (25), a second semester student of Masters in Public Health (MPH), was found hanging in her hostel room. Her father, Ramappa Hanapura, alleged that it was a murder and said the signature in the death note did not match with that of his daughter’s. Ramappa said there were injury marks on Veena’s face and her body was hung at ground level. Veena was from Gaddanakerio in Bagalkot district. She had gone to her room around 8.30 pm and did not join other inmates for dinner. When she did not open the door even after 11.00 pm, her classmates informed the hostel warden. Later, when the door of the room was broken open, she was found hanging. They rushed her to the GIMS Hospital but doctors declared her dead on arrival.