kozhikode l tuesday l september 29, 2026 l `10.00 l PAGES 14 l city EDITION Sensex tanks 1,124 pts to 6-month low amid surging crude, FII exit Sensex plunged 1,124 points to a six-month low on Monday amid a broader sell off triggered by Iran war uncertainties and weak global cues oil spikes after U.S. Rejects IRan truce Analysts said surging crude oil prices following the US-Iran stalemate over the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and foreign fund outflows hit investor sentiment, triggering the selloff. Brent crude jumped 3.81% to $108.3 per barrel. Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth I3,693.93 crore on Friday amid a sharp rise in US bond yields ■ 29 K17.17 lakh cr investor wealth wiped out ■ With the Monday’s slump, Sensex and Nifty have fallen by over 5% over the past month, wiping out I17.17 lakh crore of investor wealth Wall Street stocks fell in early trading on Monday. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 index and Shanghai’s SSE Composite index ended lower while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index settled higher | P12 of 30 sensex stocks in red, with Infosys being the sole gainer in the pack 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 Teen gangrape in Delhi park has Nirbhaya parallel, says SC bench Bench led by Justice Pardiwala takes suo motu cognisance, seeks status report in 4 weeks Repeat offenders s u c h i t r a k a lya n m o h a n t y @ New Delhi CEC in crosshairs of CWC meet today Pa r v e z S u lta n @ New Delhi THE Congress Working Committee will meet on Tuesday to chart the party’s action plan to further pressure the Centre on Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s exit. The Opposition has demanded Kumar’s removal since media reports revealed differences in the EC over the Two held in Special InAgra protest tensive ReviCongress leaders sion of elecMukesh Dhangar toral rolls. Cong ress and Anil Yadav were arrested for p r e s i d e n t Mallikarjun spray-painting Kharge on the wall of CEC Gyanesh Kumar’s Monday told home in Agra reporters he with “Gyanesh had called Gaddar, Gyanesh for the CWC Chor” on Monday, to meet and police said discuss the issue. T he INDIA bloc is likely to meet on this on Wednesday “This . issue concerns the country, the existence of our democracy and the survival of our country The EC’s own peo... ple have exposed them,” he said. Referring to a former Keralam official’s claim, Kharge said Kumar had become a BJP worker. Preparations for polls in five states are also on the CWC agenda. Meanwhile, the Congress staged protests in several cities. General secretary KC Venugopal on X said workers protested in over 1,000 districts and called on the Centre to sack Kumar. WORRIED over recent reports of sexual violence cases in the Delhi-NCR region, the Supreme Court on Monday took suo motu co gnizance of the alle ged gangrape of a 17-year-old in a park near Lady Sri Ram College, and observed that “painful parallels with the 2012 Nirbhaya case were unavoidable.” A bench of justices J B Pardiwala and K Vinod Chandran expressed concern over rising crimes against minor girls and women in the capital and directed the court registry to register a suo motu public interest litigation in the matter. “One cannot help but draw painful parallels with the 2012 Nirbhaya case, raising the question of whether systemic law-enforcement mech- The bench sought a report on the manner in which the National Database on Sexual Offenders is being utilised by Delhi Police. “Whether the database is being regularly accessed for identification of repeat sexual offenders?” the court asked. anisms have made any meaningful progress in the decade since then,” Justice Pardiwala said. “The safety concerns emerging from this incident, however, cannot be viewed in isolation. This incident has also brought to light pre-existing complaints of recurrent sexual harassment faced by students of Lady Shri Ram College, situated in the vicinity of Aastha Kunj Park. Regrettably these prior grievances , failed to serve as a wake-up call Noel proposes major Tata Sons rejig to stay private B e n n K o c h u v e e d a n @ Mumbai Tata Trusts on Monday proposed restructuring Tata Sons by merging two privately held arms — Tata Electronics Systems Solutions and Tata Consulting Engineers — with the group holding company, to take it outside the RBI’s definitions of an NBFC and a Core Investment Company (CIC). Noel Tata, chairman of Tata Trusts, which owns 66.6% of Tata Sons, has opposed the listing, while the Tata Sons board recently decided to comply with the RBI’s September 11 directive to go public. The restructuring is meant to turn Tata Sons into an operating firm alongside its role as the group’s holding company while staying private. However, it requires approval from the Tata Sons board and a prior no-objection certificate from the RBI. The Trusts said it has asked the Tata Sons board to consider and approve the plan and apply to the RBI for the necessary noobjection certificate. “Tata Trusts, along with Tata Sons, will engage with the RBI on all aspects of the proposed reorganisation,” it said in a statement. Unlike a breakup or demerger of Tata Sons, the proposed restructuring would enlarge the holding company by Avoiding listing Tata Sons classified as an Upper Layer NBFC, triggering RBI listing requirement absorbing two operating, nonfinancial businesses. This would give it substantial operating revenue in addition to income from its investments in Tata group companies. The resultant entity would have aggregate net assets of `2,00,158 crore, of which `1,77,120 crore, or about 88.5%, would comprise investments in group companies. This would keep the proportion below the 90% threshold applicable to CICs, according to the statement put out by the Trusts. N Chandrasekaran Noel Tata Restructuring plan by merging Tata Electronics Systems Solutions and Tata Consulting Engineers with Tata Sons Merger will give Tata Sons better operating revenue, reducing its reliance on financial investments Merged entity will have I1.05 lakh crore in operating revenue, against I40,072 crore from financial assets Group investments will account for less than 90% of net assets, taking it outside the CIC definition Restructuring will require RBI’s NOC under its 2025 voluntary amalgamation directions 3 out of 10 CPOs to be women as police go for recruitment reform A s w i n A s o k K u m a r @T’Puram Soon, three of every 10 civil police officers (CPOs) appointed in the state will be women, as Kerala Police undertake a significant overhaul of the CPO recruitment process. In a letter to additional chief secretary (home), State Police Chief Ravada A Chandrasekhar proposed changing the male-female recruitment ratio for CPOs from the existing 9:1 to 7:3, which will eventually lead to achieving the target of one-third female officers in the state. Sources in the police force said the recommendations have been reviewed by the home department and are currently with the chief minister’s office. Since the initiative is part of the UDF government’s 100-day action plan which wraps up by October 9, the proposal is likely to be reviewed by the cabinet soon. The Public Service Commission handles the recruitment of male and female police personnel via separate marklists. It was later proposed that every 10th CPO vacancy should be reserved for women. Now, the latest proposal, if approved, would mean that the first seven vacancies will be reserved for men and the subsequent three for women constables. Terming it a revolutionary step in the state’s history, Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala said it was high time the representation of women was increased in all domains, including the police force. He said the move will also bring about a change in the public’s outlook towards the police. “At least 50% of our population is women. The move should be seen as the continuation of the government’s decision to appoint 63 women as SHOs in the state,” ● More on P4 Chennithala told TNIE.  HC order to assess affordability of patented cancer medicines E x p r e s s N e w s S e r v i c e @Kochi E X P RE S S REA D Govt weighs Waqf Board reconstitution Malappuram: The government is considering reconstituting the State Waqf Board amid questions over the eligibility of some of its members. While it is examining the possibility of replacing the entire board, a decision will be taken after assessing legal implications of removing the members found ineligible or dissolving the board as a whole | P4 for the police or the local administration,” the court said. On September 21, three men — Asif, Hemant and his brother Manish — posed as cops and allegedly took turns to rape the 17-year-old girl inside Aastha Kunj Park near Kalkaji Mandir. It was also submitted before the court that at least 13 cases of sexual assault have been reported in the national capital this month. In another case last month, a 16-year-old girl, who boarded a sleeper bus in Greater Noida, was allegedly gang-raped by its conductor and driver and abandoned near Kashmere Gate, more than 40 km away in Old Delhi, on August 4. The two accused have been arrested. In the third case, a 17-year-old girl was gang-raped and killed in Swaroop Nagar area. The bench said the right to live a fear-free life with dignity is an integral part of the fundamental right under Article 21. The court ordered certain immediate interim measures shall be undertaken within four weeks. It asked the police commissioner to form teams for each police district, headed by an officer not below the rank of DSP , to conduct a survey of parks, roads, public transport facilities, m a rke t s a n d e d u c a t i o n a l institutions. Silver spree M Sreeshankar competes in the men’s long jump final at the Asian Games in Nagoya, Japan, on Monday. He continued India’s medal-winning run in athletics with a silver | PTI | P7 The Kerala High Court on Monday directed the Union government to collate data on the affordability of patented life-saving medicines and assess whether existing price control and subsidy measures were benefiting cancer patients, while also observing that the Centre had the right to use a patented invention for government purposes without its holders’ permission. Hearing petitions filed by two breast cancer patients, one of whom died while the case was pending, Justice Harisankar V Menon observed that the government had not placed on record data required to deter- mine whether patented cancer medicines were affordable. He said data on the number of persons affected by this type of cancer, those consuming patented medicines and those not consuming it citing high prices should be collected from hospitals. Saying there could be no doubt that the government was required to provide all necessary facilities to citizens to ensure access to healthcare, including life-saving treatment, the HC observed that the Centre can invoke Section 100 of the Patents Act, which allows it, or a person it authorises, to use a patented invention for government pur- poses without the permission of the patent holder. “The government, people and stakeholders...should ensure no man is refused or refuses treatment exclusively due to financial constraints,” the court said. In her petition filed in 2022, one of the patients, a retired bank employee getting monthly pension of `28,400 then, had submitted that she was undergoing targeted therapy and Ribociclib was one of the medicines used. It cost about `58,140 for 21 days, with three tablets required per day. She had contended that steps were needed to reduce the cost of such medi● More on P4 cines.  bronze show H God by her side, Vithya breaks oldest nat’l record in athletics ER initial target to break the women’s 400m hurdles national record — the country’s longest-standing and one of its most famous athletics records — was at the India Athletics Final Series in Delhi on September 10. Vithya Ramraj stumbled on a hurdle and missed out. If she had succeeded in Delhi, the natural progression would Indraneel Das Express @ asian games Nagoya have been a sub-53s here. But God had other plans as Vithya broke PT Usha’s record set in 1984 LA Games at the Asian Games here on Monday . The conditions were not ide- al. Rain was battering the sprawling Paloma Mizohu Sports Park arena. Vithya, a firm believer, had only one wish: for the rain to stay away . When she was warming up, it had already started raining. However, God did answer her prayers when she needed it the most. The interlude was enough for her to complete the race; the initial burst off the blocks was An emotional Vithya Ramraj with her bronze medal on Monday | PTI slow, but she picked up her rhythm in the next six hurdles. With the crowd breaking into a cauldron of noise, the runners picked up the pace. The giant display board displayed her timing: 54.75s. The smile never left when she walked into the mixed zone. “I prayed to God,” she kept repeating. It took the athlete from Coimbatore three years to break the record after equalling Usha’s record at the Hangzhou Asian Games. In the end, a bronze medal was a fine reward. Vithya’s personal coach Nehpal Singh had told her that she would break the 55-second barrier. “When my coach said you are around 55s, I never believed him,” she said. “But today (Monday), I believed him. My coach is with me, my God is with me.” Class 6 too to get relaxation under three-language policy, says SC express news service @ New Delhi IN a major development on the implementation of the National Education Policy in schools, the Supreme Court on Monday directed that the relaxation given to classes VII, VIII and IX under the three-language policy be extended to Class VI as well. A three-judge bench led by Chief Justice Surya Kant did not accept the Union government’s plea that relaxation was not needed for Class VI. The direction comes as a breather for around 28 lakh Class VI students. The Centre, through Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, argued that of 28,819 affiliated schools, only 1.2% had reported issues with the implementation. The court’s order ensures that under the transitional arrangement, the third language will remain part of studies but students will not have to write a separate Board examination in Class X for it. Schools will assess the subject internally and no student’s promotion will be stopped. The bench also allowed students already learning two non-native languages to continue them and add a native language as the third option.