kollam l tuesday l october 06, 2026 l `10.00 l PAGES 12 l city EDITION U.S.-German trio wins medicine Nobel for illuminating the brain The Nobel Prize in medicine was awarded on Monday to three scientists for their pioneering work in the neuroscience field of optogenetics Karl Deisseroth Peter Hegemann Prof. Dr Georg Nagel Using light as switch to control brain Helps understand role of specific cells Using light, researchers can now switch individual neural circuits on or off in the brain. It all began when Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel discovered a protein, channelrhodopsin, in a single-celled alga. German researcher Karl Deisseroth then worked with the gene that controls that protein to create a light-controlled switch for nerve cells in mice’s brain ■ ■ Optogenetics helps researchers understand how specific cell types contribute to behaviours like learning, fear, addiction and movement Optogenetics has “altered our understanding of the brain. Every day brings discoveries, helping to solve one of humanity’s great mysteries: how our incredible brain works,” the Nobel committee said | P9 Today Nobel prize for physics to be announced 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 Didn’t approve change Your IndiGo ticket just got costlier to ECI’s Form 6, says SC ARS H AD K H A N @ New Delhi Says will annul unilateral decisions; rejects plea to suspend CEC s u c h i t r a K a lya n M o h a n t y @ New Delhi THE Supreme Court on Monday said it had never approved any modification to Form 6 used by the Election Commission of India (ECI) during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of poll rolls, and said it would examine records to find out who altered the statutory form without following due process. A bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana issued notice to the ECI and the Centre on a batch of pleas alleging that Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar took key decisions unilaterally , without the concurrence of the other two Election Commissioners. It directed the ECI and the Law Ministry to file responses in a week and listed the matter for October 13. “Any modification to Form 6 has not been approved by us. Let’s be clear. When records are produced, we would like to see who modified it,” the CJI said. Later in the day, the ECI pushed back, saying a declaration was attached to Form 6 in the Bihar SIR order of June 24, 2025, which was upheld by the top court in its May 27 order. The court on Monday was hearing a PIL by advocate Shailendra Mani Tripathi challenging unilateral decisions and software changes introduced by the CEC.The plea, filed through advocate C h a n d Qureshi, was taken express read Messi row: Trouble mounts for ex-minister T’Puram: The government has in-principle agreed to accord sanction to register a case against former Sports Minister V Abdurahiman and ex-Sports Council president U Sharaf Ali under Prevention of Corruption Act after SIT probing the alleged financial irregula-rities linked to the proposal to bring Lionel Messi reported that there was evidence against them. P4 Irregularities found in three more PSC exams T’Puram: The investigators probing the PSC recruitment exam scam have found discrepancies in the conduct of three more exams. Legal action, including registration of more FIRs, will be initiated soon. P4 We will examine all the decisions. If any decision is not in accordance with the law, we will annul it. You know the power of the court — Chief Justice Surya Kant 1 One plea contended that under Article 324, ECI is mandated by law to take decisions by unanimity 2 The petition raised additional concerns over electoral roll revisions in Goa and West Bengal up in the wake of a recent report stating that two Election Commissioners had objected to changes made during SIR, including modifications to Form 6 requiring details of an applicant’s ancestry and a link to the previous SIR, which the petitioners said was arbitrary . The bench tagged the plea with a petition by Patna resident Rakesh Kumar Singh through senior advocate Vikas Singh. Tripathi alleged that the changes were introduced through EC software without following statutory procedure, adding the two ECs, Dr Vivek Joshi and Dr Sukhbir Singh Sandhu noted on file that the changes were “unauthorised and illegal” and sought their immediate rescission. The ECI’s DG-IT Seema Khanna had “no legal authority” to curtail Electoral Registration Officers’ (ERO) access to ECI 3 SC ruling came ahead of a proposed protest outside EC HQ on Tuesday by INDIA bloc parties Net, he said. The plea alleged violation of collective decisionmaking and sought criminal proceedings against Kumar. The second petition, filed by Rakesh Singh and others, claimed SIR in Bihar and other states, rationalisation of polling booths and model code enforcement were decided by the CEC alone. Senior advocate Vikas Singh cited the 2023 Anoop Baranwal judgment, and argued collective decision-making was essential to avoid a perception of bias, and that the other two ECs could run ECI if Kumar were suspended. “If there is any violation, we will undo (it),” the CJI said. “Let the Election Commission file its affidavit.” The court declined to suspend Kumar or pass any interim direction, saying it could not do so without hearing the respondents. It cautioned that an ex-parte suspension would stall the ECI’s functioning. “Who will conduct the elections?” the bench asked. Hardeep Puri, Verma out of BJP’s UP Rajya Sabha list N a m i ta B a j pa i @ Lucknow Union ministers Hardeep Singh Puri and B L Verma did not feature in the list of eight candidates announced by the BJP on Monday for the October 16 Rajya Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh. The list has a mix of uppercaste, Other Backward Classes (OBC), Dalit and women faces, with sources saying the party is aiming to strike a careful caste and regional balance. The eight candidates announced are: State minister Dharampal Singh, Radhakant Ojha, Prakash Pal, Vidyasagar Sonkar, Gopi Krishna Pandey, Priyanka Singh Rawat, Ram Pratap Singh Chauhan and Shruti Gangwar. Besides two women, the list has three candidates from the OBC community, two from the Scheduled Caste and three from the upper caste. The nominations offer clues to the BJP’s strategy in UP, where social engineering remains central to electoral success. By accommodating various caste groups and regions, the party appears keen to reinforce its broad social coalition. The ruling BJP announced its candidates just a day before the last date for filing nomination papers. The Samajwadi Party has fielded its secretary general Ram Gopal Yadav and senior Reliance Industries executive Dhanraj Parimal Nathwani for two seats. IN a fresh blow to air travellers, the country’s largest airline IndiGo on Monday announced a fuel surcharge on domestic and international flights from October 6. The surcharge will range from `375 to `10,000, depending on the route and sector. The move comes amid a sharp surge in fuel prices triggered by the ongoing geopolitical tensions in the Gulf. For domestic flights, IndiGo will charge a fuel surcharge of `425 for routes less than 500 km, `600 for routes between 501-1,000 km, `900 for routes between 1,001-1,500 km, `1,150 for routes between 1,501-2,000 km and `1,300 for routes above 2,000 km. For international flights, In- Rising ATF costs Air India, IndiGo and Akasa, introduced fuel surcharge in March when global ATF prices shot up due to the West Asia war. They lowered it in July as prices stabilised. With tension again peaking in the region, energy prices, including ATF, have seen a sharp jump diGo will charge a fuel surcharge of `500 for the SAARC nations that are within 500 km. For SAARC region beyond 500 km, the charges are `1,000. For South East Asia, Middle East & GCC and North & East Asia, a fuel surcharge of `5,500 has been introduced. For Africa, it is `6,000 and for Europe, the fuel surcharge is `10,000. ED’s allegations HC orders CBI probe into graft in Punjab CMO H a r p r ee t B a j w a @ Chandigarh The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Monday ordered a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) investigation into allegations of corruption linked to Punjab Chief Minister’s Bhagwant Mann’s office. The allegations of graft in transfers, policy decisions and tenders were raised by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in three letters to the Punjab Director General of Police (DGP). Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema said the state would challenge the order in the Supreme Court. Pronouncing the order, a division bench of Chief Justice Ashwani Kumar Mishra and Justice Rohit Kapoor directed the CBI to register an FIR and submit a status report within two months. The court ordered the state government and police to cooperate with the agency not, ing it was “not impressed by the manner in which Punjab police has acted so far in the matter”. The HC was hearing a PIL filed by advocate Nikhil Saraf seeking an independent central probe into the ED’s allegations. The PIL alleged corruption by senior state officials, including Mann’s Officer on Special Duty Rajbir Singh Ghuman. The ED’s letters were based on material unearthed in an money laundering investigation involving Greater Mohali Area Development Authority land allotments in which one Nitin Gohal allegedly acted as an intermediary for Ghuman. The ED alleged that Gohal, in collusion with Ghuman and other associates, operated an organised bribery network out of the CMO, collecting crores of rupees in cash and real estate in exchange for influencing postings, leaking files and clearing commercial projects. Tripping on numbers R a j e s h R a v i @ Kochi Calculating ‘X’ can be a headache even for grown-ups. Add ‘Y’, and things get trickier. For Keralam’s schoolchildren, the trouble begins when mathematics moves beyond addition and subtraction — into fractions, algebra and abstract reasoning. The numbers bear this out. In Grade 6, only 39% of students in the state could represent and compare fractions such as a half or a quarter, according to a Niti Aayog policy report titled ‘School Education System in India: Temporal Analysis and Policy Roadmap for Quality Enhancement’. By Grade 9, only 36% could use fractions and decimals in every- Maths learning in India Why for Keralam, maths still does not add up Only 55% of students in Grade 3 are able to arrange numbers in order up to 99 Just 33.7% of children in Grade 3 can solve a basic subtraction problem Mere 30.7% in Grade 5 can solve a division problem Only 45.8% in Grade 8 can do a basic division problem Source - School Education in India: A Temporal Analysis (Niti Ayog) day situations. The cohort of students that could apply percentages to solve problems stood at 31%, with just 35% able to construct a logical proof or convincing argument. Yet, children in the state start with a clear advantage. The PARAKH Rashtriya Sarvekshan 2024 (Performance Assessment, Review, and Analysis of Knowledge for Holistic Development) shows Keralam’s Grade 3 students scoring 70% in mathematics, against the national average of 60%. In Grade 6, they still lead, 60% to 46%. By Grade 9, the state’s score slips to 45%. That is striking because Keralam does well in several other subjects. Mathematics seems to pose a different challenge, one that becomes more demanding as s t u d e n t s cl i m b t h e s ch o o l system. “Students do not suddenly lose the ability to think mathematically as they move up classes. The way mathematics is taught needs to be examined,” says Dr Sheron K P R, assistant professor at Chinmaya Vishwa Vidyapeeth, who has researched how algebraic concepts are taught in the state’s middle schools. Children develop mathematical thinking naturally he says, when , maths is tied to things they can see, touch and reason about. The trouble starts when classroom mathematics drifts away from everyday experience.  ● More on P4 IndiGo controls two-thirds of India’s d o mestic air traffic. The fresh levy will lead to sharp surge in ticket prices. “The continuous rise in fuel prices, with the latest monthon-month increase exceeding 14%, has taken ATF costs to levels that are amongst the highest in the last decade. Given that Aviation Turbine Fuel makes up a significant share of airline’s operating costs, this rise is expected to impact airlines’ cost structures and network economics, including those of IndiGo,” said IndiGo in a statement. The airline added, “In view of the situation, IndiGo has marginally re-calibrated its fuel charges across its domestic as well as international flights. The following charges will be included in all new bookings on IndiGo flights starting 0001 hrs on 6 October 2026.” Aviation turbine fuel or ATF, which accounts for up to 40% of an airline’s operating costs, has become more expensive amid the ongoing conflict in West Asia. After falling from `115 per litre in June to `110 in July domestic ATF prices rose , back to `115 per litre in August and then climbed to `121 per litre on September 1. The prices further shot up to `137 per litre for domestic airlines from October 1. Prakash complains to AICC prez, ball now in high command court E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ T’Puram Days after he publicly accused Chief Minister V D Satheesan of taking major decisions unilaterally, UDF convener Adoor Prakash has taken his fight to the Congress high command. On Monday, Prakash met AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge in New Delhi and handed over a written complaint. The complaint reportedly highlights the lack of coordination between the government and the UDF. It also lists the decisions Satheesan allegedly took without discussions in the UDF. Prakash, however, did not reveal details of the complaint to mediapersons who met him afterwards. Asked whether he submitted the complaint, Prakash only said “yes”. Prakash also met AICC general secretary Deepa Dasmunsi on Monday and he , is likely to meet Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday . UDF convener Adoor Prakash with AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge in New Delhi Meanwhile, Congress state president Sunny Joseph met Kharge. On Tuesday, Satheesan will also be in Delhi to attend the GST Council meeting. With the three state leaders in the national capital, the AICC is likely to hold conciliatory talks. AICC general secretary K C Venugopal had earlier said that the party leadership would step in to settle the issue. Deepa Dasmunsi, meanwhile, played down Prakash’s move, saying it was not a complaint against the CM.  ● More on P4