tirupati l friday l september 18, 2026 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l late city EDITION Centre tells SC it is ready to cut NEET-SS qualifying percentile The Centre’s plan to lower qualifying percentile for Super Speciality seats from 50% to 30% is due to 1,857 vacant seats after counselling 6,000 candidates will become eligible plea against diversion of tN’s seats In a note filed before the Supreme Court on Thursday, the Centre said many seats remain vacant in highly specialised medical and surgical disciplines. Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, representing the Centre, told the court that the lower percentile would make roughly 6,000 additional candidates eligible — nearly thrice the vacant seats ■ ■ Centre also cited the Supreme Court’s earlier orders on Tamil Nadu, saying 40 vacant in-service seats in the state would be reverted to the state government to let it conduct its stray vacancy round The govt’s submission was in response to a plea against “diversion” of 152 vacant SS seats — reserved for TN doctors — to all-India quota 2 weeks in which medical counselling committee has to fill vacant seats 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 Russia curbs bill could impact ties, India warns US in strong pushback Energy security of 1.4B citizens top priority while protecting trade. economic interests: MEA J aya n t h J a c o b a n d P u s h p i ta Dey @ New Delhi E x p r e s s Re a d 50,000 families to get house title deeds Vijayawada: In a major initiative aimed at providing secure housing rights to the poor, the AP government is set to confer ownership rights on nearly 50,000 poor families in Vizag and Vijayawada. In all, 25,880 families in Vizag will receive title deeds from Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on September 19 | P4 AP tops in patient safety standards Vijayawada: Andhra Pradesh has secured the top rank in the country for patient safety standards, scoring 86 out of 100 in the national evaluation announced by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare during the World Patient Safety Day event held in New Delhi on Thursday | P5 India on Thursday pushed back against the latest US sanctions legislation targeting buyers of Russian energy warning , that the measures could have implications for both bilateral ties and global energy markets. New Delhi said the immediate priority was to ensure energy security for its 1.4 billion citizens while protecting trade and economic interests. It further said that India would continue to pursue this objective through “diversified sourcing and on the basis of evolving market dynamics”. Responding to the passage of the Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act in the US Congress, the External Affairs Ministry said India was monitoring the developments and had already raised its concerns with Washington at senior levels. The statement indicated that the issue has been discussed extensively between Indian and US officials in recent months. “Its potential implications for not just the bilateral relation- Monitoring the situation, says commerce ministry Officials from the Ministry of Commerce said that they are currently monitoring the situation, adding necessary steps will be taken accordingly. Currently, both the countries are involved in negotiations to conclude a Bilateral Trade Agreement ship but also the international energy market have been very clearly articulated by the Indian side,” the MEA said. The ministry also made clear that New Delhi was prepared to respond to any economic consequences arising from the new US measures. “The Indian side has also made clear its determination to take all necessary measures to protect its trade and economic interests,” it said, adding that the government would work with Indian trade and industry bodies to address the implications. Earlier in the day, the US House of Representatives passed a sweeping sanctions package aimed at increasing economic pressure on Russia over its war in Ukraine. The legislation, which was approved by the House by a 262159 vote after clearing the Senate 86-11, has been sent to President Donald Trump, who has said he will sign it. Among other provisions, the legislation gives the US president authority to impose tariffs of up to 100% on countries that continue significant purchases of Russian oil and gas. China and India, two major buyers of Russian energy could , potentially face such measures. India is the world’s third-largest oil importer and has significantly increased its purchases of Russian crude in recent years, making the issue particularly important for its energy policy and trade relations with Washington. However, opposition within the US Congress also remains. Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, described the bill as “deeply flawed”, arguing that its tariff provisions could give the White House broad authority over US import taxes. Guntur police: Mention of ‘FBI’ in official email to X was a ‘clerical error’ In order to regulate those fake and unverified posts in the social media platforms, the team Responding to the mention reported to X seeking action, of US Federal Bureau of Inves- and might have selected ‘FBI’ tigation (FBI) in an official mistakenly from the drop down email request to social media box, which led to the controverplatform X (formerly Twitter) sy Andhra Pradesh police did . seeking action against posts of not intend to misrepresent the some YSRCP activists, journal- identity of the department,” he ists and individuals, maintained. which had triggered a The controversy controversy, Guntur surfaced after YSRCP police have clarified activist Nagarjuna Yathat the ‘FBI’ term The IT core team dav, who operates the might have that creeped into the X handle @ImYanselected ‘FBI’ mail was a ‘clerical amala, received a notimistakenly from error’. fication from X on Speaking to TNIE, a the drop down box, July 28 stating that which led to the senior police official three of his posts had controversy. AP on condition of anobeen flagged by law police did not nymity explained that , enforcement authoriintend to the ‘FBI’ reference octies for allegedly viomisrepresent the identity of the curred while composlating the Indian law. department ing the request sent to The X communication X, and was an ‘inad- A senior police official stated that the request vertent mistake’. had been made by the The official main“FBI”. tained that there was no intenThe posts alleged irregularition to misrepresent the iden- ties in the District Selection tity of the Andhra Pradesh Committee (DSC) recruitment, police. and criticised the handling of “The IT core team, which is the recruitment, besides questasked to monitor social media tioning the NDA government accounts, has found certain over the alleged lack of transP4 posts were fake and unverified. parency  . P h a n i n d r a Pa pa s a n i @ Vijayawada seeking divine blessings for pm Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu, Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath, Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and others offer special prayers at Kashi Vishwanath temple in Varanasi to mark the birthday of PM Narendra Modi | Express UPI fleecing won’t be allowed: Govt P U SH P I TA D E Y @ New Delhi AMID concerns that consumers will end up bearing the cost of newly introduced Merchant Discount Rate on UPI transactions, finance ministry officials said a monitoring mechanism will be put in place to ensure that merchants do not pass on the MDR burden to customers. MDR on UPI payments will be effective from October 15. In a bid to allay the concerns, officials from the Department of Financial Services clarified on Thursday that monitoring will be done on a regular basis to ensure the MDR is not passed on to the end-consumers. The officials clarified that if any challenges arise regarding GST on the MDR, it will be eventually taken up by the GST Council. MDR on UPI transactions will attract a GST of 18% as it is considered as a service. The officials claimed there will be no additional revenue for the government from the GST on MDR as businesses can set it off via input tax credit. However, only regular GST assessees can use this provision. Officials said the introduction of MDR will help small businesses that don’t have a credit history and thus no CIBIL score. “With more formalisation of UPI, we are trying to make an alternative of credit history they said. ,” Events begin amid chaos With just one day to go for the Games, excitement is ramping up. A few issues have dominated the buildup even as events have already started. A look... Accommodation issues continue Cricket takes centrestage For the first time, a senior Indian team will play Japan in an international cricket match on Friday. The Harmanpreet Kaurled team will take on Japan in the quarterfinal match. On Thursday, Bangladesh women advanced based on ranking after tie against China was abandoned while Pakistan beat Thailand As this daily reported, accommodation has been chaotic for athletes. It continued on Thursday with rooms meant for two being shared by three at the Costa Serena cruise ship. With no Games Village for this event, around 17,000 athletes and officials are being accommodated at various locations, including the cruise ship, shipping-container style wooden huts at the dock area & hotels across Aichi prefecture Doubles pair loses in Teqball Declan Gonsalves and Anas Baig were out of medal contention in the men’s doubles Teqball event on Thursday. The Indians first lost 10-12, 8-12 against Vietnam’s Truong Giang Ba and Anh Khoa Le before going down 4-12, 7-12 against South Korea’s Junsuk Lee and Taebeen Lee | P11 It’s Tata vs Tata over Chandra’s reappointment B E NN K OCH U V E E DAN @ Mumbai THE boardroom war at Tata Sons deepened on Thursday with four out of six directors of the group holding company voting to re-appoint N Chandrasekaran as executive chairman for five more years and clearing the proposal to list the company mandated by the Reserve Bank of India. Both proposals were opposed by Tata Trusts, the largest shareholder of Tata sons with 66% stake. Tata Trusts chairman Noel N Tata termed both decisions illegal. Noel said the trusts and the board had unanimously decided against listing Tata Sons and alleged he was kept in the dark about the board’s communications with RBI about listing. In a detailed statement, Noel said Tata Trusts would file an RTI application to obtain details of the board’s communications with RBI. According to the statement, Noel told the board that there is nothing in the September 11 RBI communication that says Tata Sons should be listed. He said if RBI doesn’t accept the firm’s demand to not be treated as a regulated entity then it should seek three years , to comply with the listing requirement. According to Noel, listing will destroy SP group’s Tata Sons’ character. Earlier, the Tata Sons board said four of liquidity plan its six members voted to give another five- Noel Tata tabled year term to Chandrasekaran, who had on a proposal to August 12 said he was not seeking a third provide `25,000 term beyond February 2027, when his cur- crore of liquidity rent term ends. The board said Chandraseka- to the debt-laden ran accepted the reappointment proposal Shapoorji Pallonji after the board requested him to continue. Group by buying Soon after the board meeting on Thursday out a portion of , Noel said Chandrasekaran’s decision not to its holding in the seek another term had already been accept- Tata Group’s ed and, therefore, the reappointment by vote holding company, was illegal. Tata Sons “Tata Trusts maintains that Chandra’s decision not to offer himself for reappointment at the end of his current tenure had already been accepted and had attained finality as his decision was freely taken, clearly expressed and not the outcome of any process of review,” he said, adding that Chandra had decided not to seek another term without prior intimation to or deliberations with Tata Trusts. “Once such a decision has been publicly communicated, it has consequences which cannot be afterwards undone, since the group’s employees, its lenders and counterparties, the market and the majority shareholder have all proceeded on it,” he said, and asked the board to finalise the search panel to find his successor at the earliest. Unnatural deaths report in Manipur relief camps shocking, says SC bench Consumers feel pinch as onion prices hit `70 a kg supply crunch S U CHI T RA K A LYAN M OHAN T Y @ New Delhi EXPRESSING shock and displeasure over the 25 alleged unnatural deaths in relief camps — set up for the victims and internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the 2023 Manipur violence cases — the Supreme Court on Thursday directed Manipur Chief Secretary to file a status report. “We direct the Chief Secretary to submit report about all the 25 unnatural deaths reported in the newspapers...along with post-mortem report iden- Special report The order came after the bench perused reports of the Justice Mittal committee and an IAS officer about unnatural deaths in the relief camps in Manipur housing internally displaced persons from the 2023 Manipur riots tifying the cause and what preventive steps have been taken in (camps for IDPs),” said a bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana. The court took note of a report by an IAS officer from Manipur stating that 25 deaths had occurred in relief camps, but post-mortems were conducted in only 20 cases. “The state is also obliged to explain as to why only `20,000`30,000 as compensation was paid to internally displaced persons who met with unnatural deaths while sheltered in relief camps,” the bench said. The bench also directed the Manipur State Legal Services Authority (MSLSA) to file a separate status report on the issue of unnatural deaths. K M a d h u Su d h a k a r @ Kurnool With retail onion prices soaring past `70 per kg, kitchen budgets across Andhra Pradesh have taken a severe beating, leaving consumers in literal tears over the sudden and relentless price hike. The steep rise in onion prices has put an additional financial strain on middle and lowerincome families, driven by nationwide supply deficits in the open market. The sudden surge has been triggered by an unprecedented supply collapse at the Kurnool Agricultural Market Yard, the State’s primary governmentregulated onion trade hub. On Thursday, daily arrivals trickled down to a meagre 597 quintals, with top-grade stock fetching up to `5,089 per quintal in wholesale auctions. The total arrivals at the Kurnool yard between September 1 and 17 stood at just 10,395 quintals. During the same period in 2025, the yard recorded 1,47,738 quintals, with maximum wholesale rates hovering at a manageable `1,429 per quintal. Behind this dramatic fall in market volume lies a severe agricultural setback caused by El Niño-driven weather conditions. Prolonged dry spells and dwindling groundwater levels severely restricted Kharif sowing across the State’s traditional onion belts. In Kurnool district alone, onion cultivation plummeted to 11,000 hectares this season, down from 24,000 P4 hectares last year.