TUESDAY 10 SEPTEMBER, 2024 epaper.morningstandard.in facebook.com/TheMorningStandard X.com/TheMornStandard U.S. ANNOUNCES PARTNERSHIP WITH INDIA ON SEMICONDUCTORS ONLINE AD TECH GOOGLE FACES NEW ANTITRUST TRIAL After search engine, the tech giant faces another antitrust lawsuit that threatens to break up the company, this time over its advertising technology. PAGE 9 $500 MN A CAPITAL VIEW OF NEWS  NEW DELHI  J8.00  PAGES 12 IS HOW MUCH THE ITSI FUND PROVIDES THE U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT EACH YEAR The US announced on Monday it is entering into a partnership with India’s Semiconductor Mission launched by the Centre in 2022 TO GROW AND DIVERSIFY GLOBAL CHIP INDUSTRY The two countries will work together to boost the growth and diversification of the global semiconductor ecosystem amid increasing reliance on chips and concerns over the resilience of their supply chains. As a first step, a detailed assessment of India’s existing semiconductor ecosystem will be done that will form the basis for future joint initiatives, the US State Department said | P10 5 pm today deadline for New GoM on insurance premium GST WB docs to resume work M O N I K A YA D A V @ New Delhi SC says protest cannot be at the cost of duty; agitators defiant 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 gave the protesting junior doctors in West Bengal 24 hours to join work, failing which they will not get any judicial protection. “Protest cannot be at the cost of duty,” a bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud observed. It directed them to get back to work by 5 pm on Tuesday and assured that there will be no adverse action if they resume duty . The junior doctors have been on protest since August 9, demanding justice for the rapemurder of a trainee doctor at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata. The direction came after West Bengal’s counsel said 23 people have died in the state due to the mass abstention of resident doctors. The court noted that funds have been sanctioned by the state government for setting up additional CCTV cameras and for the safety of doctors. It also directed the state government to coordinate with the CISF — tasked with providing security HARYANA POLLS Alliance talks with Cong fail, AAP list of 20 candidates out H A R P R E E T B A J W A @ Chandigarh THE Aam Aadmi Party on Monday released its first list of 20 candidates for the Haryana assembly elections, signalling the end of pre-poll alliance talks with the Congress. It confirmed that the negotiations with Congress did not materialise. The party fielded candidates in constituencies having Congress MLAs. It fielded state vicepresident Anurag Dhanda from Kalayat in Kaithal and Indu Sharma from Bhiwani. The party’s largest lead was from the Kalayat assembly segment in the recent Lok Sabha polls. While Vikas Nehra is being fielded from Meham, Bijender Hooda from Rohtak, Kuldeep Gadrana will take on Digvijay Chautala of the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) in Dabwali, Amit Sihag of Congress and INLD’s Aditya Devi Lal. In addition to it, Pawan Fauji has been fielded from Uchana Kalan against former deputy CM Dushyant Chautala of JJP and Brijendra Singh of Congress. Confirming the development, AAP leader Manish Sisodia said the pre-poll alliance talks with Congress for the assembly elections failed, prompting the party to go it alone. Citing the strength of its organisation in every assembly constituency, AAP state president Sushil Gupta stated that the party waited patiently for an alliance but it could not work out. The second list of candidates is expected soon. However, at the national-level, he added that AAP remains a partner of the INDIA bloc. On Sunday Rajya Sabha MP , Raghav Chadha, who was in talks with Congress, said that the party will decide before September 12, the last day of filing nominations. “If there is no win-win situation, we will leave it. The talks are on, good discussions are happening. I hope a good conclusion will come out of it,” he had said. Protesting junior doctors of RG Kar watch the live proceedings of the Supreme Court hearing on the rape-murder of a trainee doctor, in Kolkata on Monday | PTI at RG Kar — for giving them suitable accommodation and providing security gadgets to its personnel. But the junior doctors in West Bengal said they will continue their ceasework since they do not feel secure enough in their places of work. The court also expressed serious concern over the absence of a challan, a key document for postmortem of the victim and sought a report from the West Bengal gover nment. “Where is the challan of the body when it was handed over for postmortem?” it asked. After examining the CBI’s status report on the probe, the bench said, it is pursuing a few leads. “There was at least 14 hours delay in registration of the FIR on the rape-murder incident by the Kolkata Police. Two things are known — the time when the victim went to seminar hall to rest, and the movement around that room after that,” the bench said and asked the CBI to file its next status report by September 16. The court also directed the immediate removal of photographs of the victim from all social media platforms. P8 BJP, RSS believe that women should stay at home and cook: Rahul P R E E T H A N A I R @ New Delhi IN his first trip to the US after assuming the role of Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi launched a scathing attack on the BJP and the RSS on Monday calling them downright patriarchal. Interacting with students at the University of Texas, the Congress leader said: “The BJP and RSS believe that women should be restricted to a particular role… that they should stay at home, cook food, and not talk too much. But we (Congress) believe that women should be allowed to aspire to whatever they want to do.” He also observed that the RSS believes India is one idea, while the Congress considers it a multiplicity of ideas. Rahul Gandhi’s three-day visit comes ahead of the US presidential elections in November. Addressing the Indian diaspora in Dallas, he claimed that the ‘fear of BJP’ disappeared immediately after the 2024 Lok Sabha election results came out. “Within minutes of the election result, nobody was scared of the BJP and the Prime Minister of India. These are huge achievements, not of Rahul Gandhi or Congress, but of the people of India who realised we are not going to accept LoP in Lok Sabha and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi addresses the Indian diaspora at Dallas in Texas, US | PTI MAJOR DECISIONS AMID calls for a reduction in the tax rate on health and life insurance premiums, the GST Council meeting on Monday decided to form a Group of Ministers (GoM) to deliberate on the issue. The GoM will submit its report next month and the Council will take a call on this in its upcoming meet in November. Monday’s GST Council meeting, chaired by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, took several key decisions. The Council also recommended the formation of a separate GoM to study the future of compensation cess. By January 2026, the Centre is expected to clear back-to-back loan payments to states related to GST compensation, with total cess collections projected to reach `8.66 lakh crore and an estimated surplus of `40,000 crore after repayments, the FM said. Revenue Secretary Sanjay Malhotra said: “Before we can make use of the surplus, the GoM to look into GST on life insurance and health insurance GST on cancer drugs cut from 12% to 5% GST on helicopter services on seat-share basis cut to 5% from 18%; chartered services to attract 18% Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Revenue Secretary Sanjay Malhotra during the GST Council meeting at Sushma Swaraj Bhawan in Delhi on Monday | ANI GST Council must determine the future course of action. The compensation cess cannot continue indefinitely.” While the cess collection has been extended till March 2026, its continuation must be reviewed, he added. In other decisions, the Council reduced the GST rates on cancer drugs Trastuzumab Deruxtecan, Osimertinib, and Durvalumab from 12% to 5%. The Council also exempted supply of research and development serv- ices by a government entity, or a research association, university college or other insti, tutions notified under Section 35 of the Income Tax Act using government or private grants. Remember, institutions such as IIT Delhi, too, had received a show cause notice from the Directorate General of GST Intelligence for over `120 crore. “GST exemption on public & private research grants to higher education institutions is a major boost that shall not First Indian mpox case tests positive, govt issues advisory K A V I TA B A J E L I - D AT T @ Delhi THE Centre on Monday wrote to all states and Union Territories (UTs) asking them to screen, test, and trace contacts of all suspected mpox patients. It comes as a man who travelled to India from a country experiencing mpox transmission tested positive for the virus, but not the deadlier and fast-spreading strain that has led to a surge in cases worldwide and prompted the WHO to declare a public health emergency . The Union health secretary Apurva Chandra, in a letter to all the states and UTs, asked them to identify isolation units in hospitals for both suspected and confirmed cases. They must also review public health preparedness, particularly at the health facility level. He said sexual contact is the most commonly reported way of transmission of the virus, followed by person-to-person non-sexual contact. “Among cases where at least one symptom is reported, the most common symptom is rash, followed by fever,” he wrote adding that most cases are young males with a median age of 34. Chandra said health units at points of entry (airports) have been told to strengthen screen- PREVENT PANIC The Union health ministry asked all states and Union Territories to undertake appropriate activities to make people aware about the mpox infection and take necessary steps to prevent undue panic ing of incoming travellers. Regarding the confirmed case, the ministry said lab test has shown the presence of the older clade 2 strain of the mpox virus. “This case is isolated, similar to the earlier 30 cases reported in India from July 2022 onwards,” it said adding the patient is isolated and is stable. “The good news is that the strain of concern, clade 1b, is yet to be detected in India. Clade 1b was the strain for which WHO declared a public health emergency That was be. cause it was relatively new, originating from a different part of Africa than clade 2, was spreading faster, and was more severe,” Dr Rajeev Jayadevan, former president of the IMA, Cochin told this newspaper. MOLOTOV COCKTAIL an attack on the Constitution,” he said. In his speech, Rahul asserted that everyone, regardless of caste, language, religion, or history, should have full freedom to express themselves and dream. “This is the fight and this fight was crystallised during the elections when millions of Indians realised that the prime minister was attacking the Constitution,” he said. Terming Constitution as the foundation of modern India, he said that people understood it in the elections. “Every single word that I said to you is in the Constitution. When I used to raise the Constitution like this, people understood what I was saying,” he said. Kalindi Express, heading to Bhiwani from Prayagraj, narrowly escaped the derailment in Kanpur when it hit a gas cylinder kept on the tracks on Sunday midnight Railway authorities rushed to the spot to find molotov cocktail on tracks ATS, IB & UP STF launched a probe to find whether it was a planned sabotage Police and fire services personnel inspect an LPG cyclinder after an attempt to derail Kalindi Exp | PTI Watch out! Waking up with morning alarm shoots up BP R I S H I TA K H A N N A @ Bengaluru WAKING up to the sound of an alarm clock in the morning can cause a significant surge in blood pressure, with a 74% increase compared to those who wake up naturally according to , a recent study by UVA Health. This abrupt awakening, driven by alarms, can trigger a “morning blood pressure surge,” a routine rise in blood pressure that occurs naturally but is significantly heightened by sudden wake-ups, the study stated. This spike in blood pressure puts stress on the heart and veins, potentially activating the “fight or flight” response, which forces the heart to work harder and can lead to fatigue, breathing trouble and other symptoms. The study conducted by , a nursing student for the University of Virginia Health System, which conducts monthly surveys, warns that this height- ened blood pressure surge could lead to serious heart issues, including heart attacks or strokes. The effects are more pronounced among individuals, who already have heart conditions, as the additional stress from an abrupt wake-up can escalate into a health emergency . For those with cardiovascular issues, insufficient sleep combined with being jolted awake by an alarm can inten- sify these risks, making the early-morning blood pressure surge particularly dangerous. The research also highlighted the broader impact of alarminduced wake-ups on overall well-being. Sudden awakenings increase stress levels and trigger stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline, disrupting the body’s natural sleep cycle and leading to “sleep inertia,” where individuals feel groggy and disoriented for up to two hours after waking. This can affect mental health and mood, as sleep interruptions can leave individuals feeling irritable, stressed, and anxious, indirectly impacting heart health. Inadequate sleep combined with abrupt awakening from an alarm can worsen the problem, activating the sympathetic nervous system and causing symptoms such as fatigue, shortness of breath, anxiety, neck stiffness and in severe cases, nosebleeds and headaches. No decision on plan to levy 18% GST on small transactions below `2,000 only increase research outcome but also achieve global tax parity Indian academia is . hugely relieved and on behalf of eligible universities & institutions, I thank the Hon’ble FM,” said S Vaidhyasubramaniam, Vice-Chancellor of SASTRA University which is , among the institutions that received show cause notice. The Council also decided to exempt the import of services by branch offices of foreign airlines when these are provided without any payment. IN HC TODAY Stephen’s plea on admission of 7 students S H E K H A R S I N G H @ New Delhi ST. Stephen’s College on Monday approached the Delhi High Court against a single judge’s order of granting admission to seven students based on Delhi University’s seat allocation system. A division bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela agreed to hear the matter on Tuesday . The dispute arose from Justice Swarna Kanta Sharma’s decision last Friday, ordering St. Stephen’s College to admit the petitioning students according to the university’s seat allocation policy used in the previous academic year. Since the university’s system had not been declared invalid, the college must ensure the students are admitted and allowed to attend classes upon completing the necessary formalities, the court emphasised. The case involves two separate petitions filed by the students, who argued that their admissions were not finalised despite being allocated seats by DU for various courses at St. Stephen’s. DU backed their claims, while the college resisted, arguing that it was not obliged to admit all students through the university’s standard seat allocation system due to its own admission limits. Initially, the single-judge bench granted provisional admission to six students, noting their merit and the uncertainty surrounding their admissions. However, St. Stephen’s appealed this decision, resulting in the division bench barring the students from attending classes until the case’s final resolution. A seventh student later joined the petition, with all petitioners seeking admission under DU’s “single girl child” quota. EXPRESS READ India, UAE sign pacts on energy, N-power India and the UAE on Monday signed four agreements to expand cooperation in energy, including nuclear power, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi held bilateral discussions with Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, focusing on boosting strategic ties. | P7