saturdAY 10 october, 2026 epaper.morningstandard.in facebook.com/TheMorningStandard X.com/TheMornStandard house panel recommends NTA accountability to Parliament Trade Deal EU, China sign on interim plan Top trade envoys for China and the EU have agreed on an initial deal following two days of talks aimed at calming escalating tensions over trade imbalances Page 9 A Parliamentary standing committee has called for a legislative mechanism to ensure NTA’s accountability to both Houses of Parliament Wants robust exam security apparatus A CAPITAL VIEW OF NEWS l New Delhi l J8.00 l PAGES 12 India calls US V-P Vance remark on foreign workers deeply offensive India on Friday termed US Vice-President J D Vance’s remarks on foreign workers “unwarranted” and “deeply offensive”, asserting that Indian professionals make significant contributions to the American economy innovation and job crea, tion. New Delhi also said the US decision to suspend Permanent Labour Certification (PERM) applications for certain companies does not advance the shared ambitions of the two nations. “Talent mobility is of tremendous mutual benefit for the two countries and our expectation is that all stakeholders in this process can appreciate this fact,” the external affairs ministry (MEA) said. “The steps announced by the US do not advance the shared ambitions of both countries,” said the MEA. The response came after the US suspended new PERM applications and halted the processing of pending applications for eight companies, including Microsoft, Adobe and Capgemini, as well as Indian IT firms Cognizant, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Wipro and HCL. The move is part of the Trump administration’s wider push to tighten employment-based immigration, with officials arguing that companies should prioritise American workers. Vance accused Microsoft of using the programme to replace American employees with foreign workers. Rejecting the characterisation of foreign professionals as “foreign indentured servants”, the MEA said such descriptions ignored the contribution of Indian workers to the US economy and innovation ecosystem. “Resorting to terminology that carries painful historical and colonial legacy connotations is deeply offensive,” the MEA said and highlighted the role generations of immigrants have played in America’s economic growth and prosperity . The suspension affects the PERM programme, a labour-certification process that US employers generally need to complete before sponsoring eligible foreign employees for employment-based Green Cards. Introduced in 2005, the programme requires employers to establish that there are not enough qualified and available US workers for a position and that hiring a foreign worker will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of similarly employed Americans. J D Vance The steps announced by the US (on Green Cards) do not advance the shared ambitions of both countries MEA statement Why it matters For Indians, the suspension could delay permanent residency. Many skilled workers enter the US on H-1B before seeking employersponsored Green Cards No H-iB impact MEA said since PERM is separate from H-1B visa, the suspension does not by itself affect the status of existing holders and dependants Yogi: Jewar int’l airport to be renamed after Modi N amita B a j pai @ Lucknow The Uttar Pradesh cabinet, chaired by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, on Friday passed a resolution to rename the Noida International Airport at Jewar as ‘Narendra Modi International Air port. “The Council of Ministers expresses its gratitude to PM Narendra Modi for gifting the state Noida International Airport at Jewar. It has approved a proposal to name it Narendra Modi International Airport,” Yogi said. The cabinet also passed a resolution to mark PM Modi’s 25 years of public service as the head of a government (starting President Droupadi Murmu with Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, LoP Rahul Gandhi, TMC chief Mamata Banerjee and CPI’s D Raja on Friday | PTI Delhi turns into fortress Security personnel at a road near Jantar Mantar, which will stay barricaded on Saturday | PTI Jayanth Ja c o b @ New Delhi his tenure as Gujarat chief minister in 2001). The airport, inaugurated in March 2026, was developed by the Yamuna International Airport Private Limited, a subsidiary of Swiss firm Zurich Airport International AG, in association with the Noida International Airport Limited, which is the implementing agency on behalf of the UP government. Yogi said that UP took pride in PM Modi representing the state as an MP . The state is scheduled to go to elections next year. The state is grappled with administrative inefficiency and a lack of basic amenities, reports said. The committee, examing the National Testing Agency (NTA) in the wake of NEET-UG paper leak and re-test, said the cancellation of the exam this year implies need for further improvement. “The NTA needs adequate staff, robust security, clear accountability mechanisms and digitalization of operations and examinations” to prevent paper leak, it said | p7 45 metro stations closed, 250 trains cancelled, internet blackout near CP U d ayan K i s h o r e @ New Delhi Delhi Police and other Central agencies made unprecedented security arrangements in Delhi on Friday ahead of the Saturday march of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP). The New Delhi district has become a virtual fortress, with restrictions applied even to courts and educational institutions. Authorities have deployed over 25,000 police and paramilitary personnel to curb movement of protesters. Police have divided the New Delhi district, where Jantar Mantar lies, into 20 zones. Each zone will be monitored by a joint commissioner, a deputy commissioner and an additional deputy commissioner. Additional CCTV cameras have been installed at important locations in New Delhi, central Delhi and north Delhi districts. A news agency said the police will hold additional review meetings at 4 am, 6 am and 7 am on Saturday . The police asked the Delhi Metro to close 57 stations, which promptly responded an issued a notification to this effect. However, the figure was later revised to 45. The entry and exit gates at these stations, which include busy interchange points like Rajiv Chowk, Central Secretariat, New Delhi Railway Station and Kashmere Gate, were closed at 9 pm on Friday Metro . officials said they would stay closed till further orders. Authorities targeted trains originating in other states to stop protesters from reaching Delhi. In an unprecedented move, the Northern Railway said that 38 trains, which are scheduled to arrive at New Delhi and Hazrat Nizamuddin stations between 4 am and 2 pm on Saturday, have been cancelled. Towards the end of the day, this number was raised to 250. The Sarai Kale Khan and New Ashok Nagar Namo Bharat stations were also closed at 9 pm on Friday . They will remain shut till 10 pm on Saturday . Police checked hotels, lodges, guest houses and dharamshalas on Friday as part of the preventive security exercise. It issued appeals from various mosques and temples, urging people to maintain peace. Several schools and colleges in Delhi have shifted classes online, rescheduled parentteacher meetings and postponed examinations scheduled for Saturday. The New Delhi Traders Association, following advice from authorities, advised shops, offices, restaurants and other establishments in Connaught Place to remain closed on Saturday . Earlier, the police denied permission for the protest, citing the “short notice given for the event”. P3 stir security SC unhappy with curbs The SC told the Centre that there should be no complete prohibition on the movement of metro services and trains in Delhi ahead of the protests. P7 Prez sought vote theft evidence, say INDIA bloc parties Pr e e tha N air @ New Delhi After a meeting with President Droupadi Murmu at Rashtrapati Bhavan, INDIA bloc leaders on Friday said the president neither denied the Opposition’s allegations nor questioned them, but asked the delegation to provide evidence of “vote theft”. A 10-member delegation, including Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, Congress Mock drills president Mallikarjun Kharge, TMC chief undertaken Mamata Banerjee and CPM general secrePolice conducted tary M A Baby, met the president in the mock drills at several evening and submitted a memorandum. The locations on Friday. demands in the memorandum included the It will be supported resignation of Chief Election Commissionby more than 120 er Gyanesh Kumar, a return to ballot papers companies of CAPF. and repeal of the 2023 law that provides lifelong immunity to the CEC and ECs. women police Other demands included immediate susfrom 2 states pension of SIR and restoration of all 13.30 crore deleted voters. The memorandum Around 500 women urged the repeal of all Assembly polls over police personnel the last two years, in which conclusive evieach from UP and dence of “vote chori” has been presented. Haryana have been deployed in the New “Assembly elections in Haryana, Maharashtra, MP Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Delhi and West , Delhi area to assist Bengal have been stolen,” it read. in security exercise Rahul Gandhi termed it an “unbelievable during the protest. meeting”. “I expected the President of India to deny that ‘vote chori’ is taking place. I exDelhi Police pected the president to say ‘India has free nodal body and fair elections’. I was shocked and Union home secy stunned that the president accepted what we Govind Mohan on said,” he said, adding that the Opposition Friday wrote to state would provide the evidence when the presipolice chiefs to dent is ready to accept it. He said the INDIA coordinate with the bloc would approach the Supreme Court on Delhi Police ahead Monday to meet the chief justice and hand of the CJP protest. over a memorandum to him. JNU removes Cong MP as prof for sexual harassment Peace Nobel for jurist who found Israel guilty of Gaza genocide a g e n c i e s @ Oslo NAVI Pillay, a South Africanborn jurist and former UN human rights chief whose career has spanned from defending the rights of an imprisoned Nelson Mandela to leading a panel that found that Israel committed g enocide in Gaza, won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for her efforts to promote international law as it comes under attack. Her win is a high-profile rebuke to US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who have both rejected the findings of the UN commission she led on Gaza. The lead- ers also have been highly critical of the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court. Pillay, 85, has worked at both. Hours after the award was announced in Norway, the Trump administration imposed sweeping new sanctions on the ICC as part of a campaign to dismantle the tribunal that the US believes has become politicised and attempted to unfairly and illegally prosecute Americans and Israelis on charges of war crimes. On the 125th anniversary of the prize’s inception, the Norwegian Nobel Committee sought “to remind the world that the rule of law, national and international, underpins the system we have set up to ensure peace and resolve conflicts nonviolently. Peace requires justice,” committee Chair man Jørgen Watne Frydnes said. Pillay received the news while attending a forum in Nuremberg, Germany . She chaired the Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel, which was created by the UN-backed Human Rights Council. Following a hearing, the commission a year ago concluded Israel was responsible for genocide in Gaza. Gaza was among Pillay’s first comments after hearing she had won. “What’s happening there is genocide,” she said in Germany . I F R A H M U F T I @ New Delhi Navi Pillay Tamil roots Born in Durban on September 23, 1941, to a family of Indian origin with Tamil roots, Navanethem “Navi” Pillay grew up under apartheid. She later pursued postgraduate studies at Harvard Law School. In 1995, she was elected to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, where she served as a judge until 2003. M e ssi a f f a i r Kochi stadium revamp claim `70 crore, actual cost `8.44 crore AN inter nal report of the Greater Cochin Development Authority (GCDA) has found that the cost of renovating the city’s Jawaharlal Nehru International Stadium for the failed Lionel Messi friendly was inflated by over `60 crore. The GCDA owns the stadium. The report, accessed by TNIE, put the preliminary cost of the renovation at `8.44 crore, against the `70 crore sponsor Reporter Broadcasting Corporation claimed to have spent. According to the internal report, a panel headed by the GCDA secretary conducted a preliminary assessment of the stadium renovation, calculating costs based on the market rates of materials and individual works. The report pegged the cost of boundary wall work at `1.19 crore, parking ground development at `1.66 crore and press clusive gallery chair installation at `2.22 crore. Painting, entrance lobby revamp, toilet renovation and electrical work cost `1.36 crore, while another `2 crore was spent under other heads. Even if a 10% margin is allowed, the actual cost wouldn’t have touched `10 crore, GCDA Lionel Messi GOP I K A V A R R I E R @ Kochi sources said. The report also said 15,000 fixed seats were left untouched during the renovation and needed replacement when the sponsor handed the stadium back to the GCDA. Contrary to former GCDA chairperson K Chandran Pillai’s claim that the renovation cost the authority nothing, the report said GCDA carried out electrical and fencing works and maintained the floodlights, spending `50 lakh. Pillai was unavailable for comment. The report said Sports Kerala Foundation (SKF) prescribed the specifications for the materials used to meet FIFA approval requirements. It noted that GCDA engineers did not supervise the work, with SKF officials overseeing it instead. The stadium was handed over to the RBC through the SKF on September 26, 2025. The sponsor claimed to have spent `70 crore on the renovation. THE Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on Friday dismissed Professor Angomcha Bimol Akoijam, a Congress Lok Sabha MP from Inner Manipur, after an internal inquiry found him guilty of sexually harassing female students. Prof Akoijam was part of the School of Social Sciences. The dismissal order, issued on October 9 and signed by ViceChancellor SanProf Angomcha tishree D PanBimol Akoijam dit, was based on the findings of the university’s Internal Complaints Committee, which recommended a “major punishment” to him. The order said the dismissal would take place with immediate effect. “Upon following the due process and considering all available facts and as per the report of the Internal Committee, the punishment of dismissal from the services of the University is hereby imposed on Professor Angomcha Bimol Akoijam, Centre for the Study of Social Systems, School of Social Sciences.” Earlier, DCW chairperson Lata Gupta took suo motu cognisance of a viral video in which students said the university did not take appropriate action on their complaint.