BHUBANESWAR l tuesday l september 29, 2026 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l late 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 `17.17 lakh cr investor wealth wiped out 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 `3,693.93 crore on Friday amid a sharp rise in US bond yields ■ ■ With the Monday’s slump, Sensex and Nifty have fallen by over 5% over the past month, wiping out `17.17 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 29 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 CAG flags irregular DMF spend on pvt hosps during Covid hire beds in private hospitals @ Bhubaneswar under PPP mode. The three districts fixed the The Comptroller and Auditor rates based on offers made by General (CAG) has detected ir- the hospitals but audit found regular expenditure of `145.06 no records of negotiations, if crore from District Mineral any over the rates. , Foundation (DMF) funds In Jajpur, Bhoomika by three mineral-rich Multi Specialty Hospidistricts in lieu of retal at Kuakhia was enserving ICUs and gengaged from May 24 to eral beds in private August 23, 2021, to rehospitals during the serve 50 ICU and 150 Covid-19 pandemic. general beds. The The findings are DMF paid `9.70 crore. part of the CAG’s perIn Keonjhar, Utkal formance audit of imHospital Private LimThe largest plementation of the ited at Ranki was enpayment of P r a d h a n M a n t r i `109.45 crore was gaged from April 2020 Khanij Kshetra Kalyto February 2022, made by an Yojana (PMKKKY) with the number of Sundargarh DMF and functioning of ICU beds varying to Jai Prakash Hospital and DMFs in Odisha till from 14 to 44 and genResearch Centre, March 2024. The reeral beds from 36 to Rourkela, for port was tabled in the 106. It received `25.91 Assembly o n reserving ICU and crore. general beds Saturday . The largest payThe audit covered ment of `109.45 crore CAG report six major mineralwas made by Sundarbearing districts and garh DMF to Jai Prafound that DMFs in Jajpur, kash Hospital and Research Keonjhar and Sundargarh Centre, Rourkela, for reservh i r e d p r iv a t e h o s p i t a l s ing ICU and general beds bethrough PPP arrangements to tween August 2020 and March provide treatment to Covid-19 2022. patients. The hospitals were The audit further detected a paid for reserving beds, even possible excess payment of though the Ministry of Mines `10.60 crore to the Sundargarh Continued on P5 had not instructed DMFs to hospital.  E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e INDIA bloc meet tomorrow 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 Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Monday told reporters he had called for the CWC to meet and discuss the issue. The INDIA bloc is likely to meet on this on Wednesday . “This issue concerns the Two held in entire country Agra protest , the existence Congress leaders of our democ- Mukesh Dhangar and racy and the Anil Yadav were s u r v iva l o f arrested for sprayour country... painting the wall of The EC’s own CEC Gyanesh Kumar’s people have home in Agra with e x p o s e d “Gyanesh Gaddar, them,” he said. Gyanesh Chor” on Referring to a Monday, police said for mer 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. Noel for major Tata Sons rejig to stay private B enn K o c h u v ee 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, chair man 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 S Chandrasekaran said it has asked the Tata Sons board to consider and approve the plan and apply to the RBI for the necessary no-objection 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 break-up or demerger of Tata Sons, the proposed restructuring would enlarge the holding company by absorbing two operating, non-financial 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. Noel Tata Avoiding listing Tata Sons classified as an Upper Layer NBFC, triggering RBI listing requirement 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 `1.05 lakh crore in operating revenue, against `40,072 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 bronze show God by her side, Vithya breaks oldest national record in athletics Indraneel Das H Express @ asian games Nagoya 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 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 ideal. An emotional Vithya Ramraj with her bronze medal on Monday | PTI 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 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.”  P11 Teen gangrape in Delhi park has Nirbhaya parallel: SC s u c h i t r a k a lya n m o h a n t y @ New Delhi Repeat offenders WORRIED over recent reports of sexual violence cases in the Delhi-NCR region, the Supreme Court on Monday took suo motu cognizance of the alleged gangrape of a 17-year-old in a park near Lady Shri 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 mechanisms 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 for the police or the local administration,” the court said. On September 21 evening, three men — Asif, Hemant and his brother Manish — posed as police personnel and allegedly 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. took turns to rape the 17-year-old girl inside the 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-yearold girl, who boarded a sleeper bus in Greater Noida, was alle gedly gangraped 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 gangraped and killed in Swaroop Nagar area. The bench said the right to live a fearfree 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, markets and educational institutions. express read Calm returns to LPU campus in Punjab Chandigarh: A day after violent protests erupted at Lovely Professional University (LPU) , peace returned to the campus with several students leaving for home following suspension of classes for 10 days | P8 tanker disaster averted by coast guard The force rescued a foreign tanker after it developed engine failure and rapid ballast tank flooding off Odisha | P4