FRIDAY Anne Carson won the Nobel Literature Prize on Thursday for her ‘bold and inventive’ works that fuse the classical and the modern 09 OCTOBER, 2026 CANADIAN POET ANNE CARSON AWARDED LITERATURE NOBEL epaper.morningstandard.in facebook.com/TheMorningStandard X.com/TheMornStandard UKRAINE WAR 30 CIVILIANS KILLED IN RUSSIAN STRIKES 3RD CANADIAN TO WIN THE HONOUR AFTER ALICE MUNRO AND SAUL BELLOW Known for modern takes on Greek classics Ukraine on Thursday accused Russia of deliberately targeting civilians after 30 people were killed when two buses were blown up in Kramatorsk city A CAPITAL VIEW OF NEWS PAGE 9  NEW DELHI  J8.00  Carson brought a modern twist to ancient myths through her genre-blending writings about love, desire and despair. In doing so, she has created new forms for contemporary literature, the Swedish Academy said. For example, her Autobiography of Red (1998) reimagines the myth of Hercules and the monster Geryon as a 20th-century coming-of-age story | P9 PAGES 12 INDIA bloc stages Taxman losing arrest power sit-in at Rajghat among GST Council reforms U D AYA N K I S H O R E A N D A N U P V E R M A @ New Delhi Threshold for prosecution now `10 crore; for issuing notice, it’s `10,000 INDIA bloc leaders took their protest to the Mahatma Gandhi’s memorial at Rajghat on Thursday, while repeating the Wednesday’s template for first assembling at a popular restaurant for lunch and then moving to a protest site. The leaders, including Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi, met at the Connaught Place and then moved in buses towards the memorial, while a large number of supporters walked along the route with drums, slogans and flags. The opposition leaders paid tribute to Mahatma Gandhi. They said that they prayed for the “wisdom to the BJP government” and alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and the CEC Gyanesh Kumar had “hijacked” the country through “a criminal conspiracy by indulging in ‘vote chori’”. They repeated that the protests would continue till Kumar resigns. They are likely to meet again on Friday in Parliament House in the morning. Like on Wednesday Congress , president Mallikarjun Kharge again hosted lunch for the opposition MPs and leaders on Thursday Kharge said the op. position wanted to highlight to the people of the country that the BJP gover nment was snatching away our right to vote. “Modi and Shah are P U S H P I TA D E Y @ New Delhi Congress leaders Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi at Rajghat on Thursday | PTI CEC gets Z+ security The security cover of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar has been upgraded from Z to Z+ category following a fresh assessment of the threat perception amid opposition protests over SIR exercise. P7 snatching away that freedom which great leaders like Gandhiji, Nehru ji and Sardar Patel ji had won for us,” he said. Samajwadi Party, Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP(SP), which missed the protest the day before, attended the lunch on Thursday. Several Congress MPs, including K C Venugopal, Jairam Ramesh, Vivek Tankha, Manickam Tagore, Jothimani, Rajiv Shukla and Deepender Hooda, were present at the lunch, along with Himachal Pradesh and Telangana chief ministers Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu and A Revanth Reddy . TMC’s Abhishek Banerjee also attended the lunch. THE GST Council on Thursday approved a series of process reforms aimed at easing compliance for businesses, including simplifying registration and refunds, scrapping arrest powers of GST officers and raising the monetary threshold for prosecution to `10 crore from `5 crore. The Council also approved a `10,000 threshold for issuing GST show-cause notices and allowed input tax credit (ITC) on several business expenses, including employee insurance. The decisions were taken at the 57th meeting of the GST Council, chaired by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and attended by finance ministers from several states. The meeting focused on process reforms to reduce compliance burdens and litigation risks for businesses. The Council also addressed a major pain point for businesses — denial of ITC because of noncompliance by vendors in the supply chain. It said genuine buyers should not lose credit because of supplier defaults. A standing committee of officers will examine the issue and submit its re- A D I T I R AY C H O W D H U R Y @ New Delhi CJP rally in Bengaluru FOR two days, they had not been allowed to protest. On the first day, they protested at Akashwani Bhavan, where they were stopped in front of the Election Commission. Then, on Wednesday when they , tried to go to Jantar Mantar, they were stopped there too. Their bus procession, which lasted nearly three hours, ended dramatically at the roundabout in front of the Shangri-La hotel, where security personnel stopped Opposition MPs. Some of their people were even beaten, Rahul Gandhi told the media. On the third day, Thursday, there was little sign that the opposition leaders or the young protesters who had gathered with them had lost any enthusiasm. The air around Connaught Place’s inner circle remained charged and vibrant as Rahul, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and other INDIA bloc leaders went about their CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke accused the PM and ECI of “murdering democracy” and “vote theft” at a massive protest in Bengaluru on Thursday. He said CJP would continue protest till Gyanesh Kumar resigned. P5 FRANCE SCHOOL STUDENTS RENEW PROTESTS High school pupils across France launched a fresh day of protests on Thursday, despite government attempts to ease the crisis | P9 PRESSINTAKE Cancer drugs set to get cheaper after trade margin cap | P7 20 rebel Trinamool MPs seek grace period from LS Speaker | P8 protest, with NSUI and Indian Youth Congress workers gathering around them. Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge organised lunch at Moets. The previous day they had met at Sagar Ratna. But outside Moets, the mood was unmistakably protest. NSUI and IYC flags waved across the street. People gathered around the buses; some leaders spoke to the media from inside, and vehicles trying to get through the stretch moved at a snail’s pace. So be it appeared to be the mood of the day. Around 3.153.30 pm, Rahul was seen waving from a bus as it left CP . CONTINUED ON P3 Input tax credit issues “In the spirit of cooperative federalism, it was decided to have an officers’ committee to examine ITC issues. Why should an honest taxpayer face issues in claiming ITC, if the person/business pays the input tax?” Sitharaman said port within three months, after which the matter will be placed before the next Council meeting. The Council also widened the scope of ITC to several business expenses, including outdoor catering, health and life insurance, telecommunication towers and pipelines laid outside factory premises. ITC will also be allowed on free samples and goods destroyed or written off after expiry where such destruction is required by law. It also brought input services within the scope of refunds under the inverted duty structure, where businesses are left with accumulated credit because their inputs are taxed at a higher rate than their output. The benefit will be available for credit availed on or after November 1. The Council also scrapped the power of GST officers to arrest taxpayers. To curb litigation, it proposed that no show-cause notice be issued where the amount involved is up to `10,000. A common standard will govern the issuance and service of notices in cases involving alleged fraud. EXPRESS READ PAC questions SAI over coach postings The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Thursday questioned the Sports Authority of India (SAI) over delayed projects, unused facilities and coaches posted at centres without trainees, asking how the government approved and released funds for hostels without surveys, estimates or even identified locations, said sources. PAC chairman and Congress MP K C Venugopal sought explanations from the secretary, Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. Pvt TV channel to give credit to Sansad TV The I&B ministry has asked private satellite television channels to give credit to Sansad TV, state-owned channels broadcasting the proceedings of Parliament and other public affairs programmes, if they use their content. In an advisory, the ministry said attribution would bring greater clarity regarding the source of parliamentary footage and programmes being used across television platforms. TCS, INFOSYS HIT SAFETY SC ISSUES ORDERS US suspends IT giants from green card process FOR MAKING CITY SAFE FOR WOMEN THIRD DAY PROTEST ON THE MOVE: FROM CP TO RAJGHAT Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Karnataka CM D K Shivakumar (R), Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis and others at the GST Council meet in Delhi on Thursday | PTI E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ Bengaluru The Supreme Court has directed the Delhi Police and the city government to strengthen beat patrolling around educational institutions and ensure strict verification of drivers and helpers of public vehicles | P4 DOWN THE HOLE A car fell into a massive sinkhole after a section of the road caved in near Tidel Park, Chennai, on Thursday. The two occupants of the car escaped unhurt | P RAVIKUMAR L-G transfers 22 IAS officers in major bureaucratic rejig, DTC gets new MD A N U P V E R M A @ New Delhi LIEUTENANT-Governor Taranjit Singh Sandhu has made sweeping reshuffle of 34 IAS and DANICS officers in health, education, transport, food safety waste man, agement and civic administration departments, according to an order issued on Thursday . Among the most significant changes, Rupesh Kumar Thakur, who held the post of secretary (health and family welfare) along with additional charge of CEO, Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB), has now been moved to serve solely as CEO of DUSIB. Niharika Rai, secretary-cumcommissioner (transport), has been given additional charge as chairman and managing director of the Delhi Transport Corporation, while being divested of her earlier charge as secretary of tourism. The move places the city’s public bus service directly under an officer already overseeing the broader transport portfolio. In the health sector, Mekala Chaitanya Prasad, special secretary (health), has been given additional charge of special secretary (PWD), a move that divests Suneel Anchipaka of that respon- sibility Ajay Kumar Gupta, com. missioner (food safety), retains that role while gaining additional charge as managing director of the Delhi Transco Limited, chairman of IPGCL and PPCL, and chairman of the Pension Trust, while being relieved of his earlier charge as secretary (home). Bipul Pathak, additional chief secretary (social welfare), has picked up additional responsibilities across several citizen welfare departments, including the Delhi C o m m i s s i o n f o r Wo m e n , where he has got managing director’s role. CONTINUED ON P4 AHEAD of Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s expected visit to India this month, the US government has suspended several Indian IT giants, including TCS and Infosys, from the Permanent Labour Certification (PERM) programme, a key step in the employment-based green card process, amid allegations of abuse and fraud in US visa programmes. US Vice-President J D Vance announced the action on Thursday La. bour Secretary Keith Sonderling said Cognizant, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Wipro, HCL and Capgemini were among the companies affected. Microsoft and Adobe were also suspended, with the Labour Department citing multiple federal investigations. Vance accused the companies of using H-1B workers to replace American employees and said the programme had become “rife with fraud”. He alleged that Microsoft had laid off about 6,000 American workers while receiving thousands of H-1B approvals and filing PERM applications. The programme is run by the Department of Labour. It requires an employer sponsoring a foreign worker for permanent residence to show there are not enough qualified US workers and that employing the foreign worker will not adversely affect wages and working conditions. Industry responds Indian IT trade association NASSCOM downplayed the action, saying Indian firms had built a strong US workforce. But immigration and skilled talent mobility are distinct issues and must not be viewed via the same lens, it said The message to Microsoft is that you’ve got to hire American workers J D Vance, US Vice-President ICONIC DIALOGUE DELIVERY NANA PATEKAR 1 JAN 1951 — 8 OCT 2026 Man of contradictions and fiery, mesmerising monologues N A M R ATA J O S H I N ANA Patekar was a star sans glamour. If one phrase could capture him succinctly it’d be “son of , the soil”. It didn’t just reflect in his favourite attire of the kurta and the gamcha but also in his rootedness in his Marathi identity and culture, his simple one BHK (bedroom-hallkitchen) life in Mumbai, and his love for farming and all things rural, towards which he fo- cused most of his philanthropic efforts through the Naam Foundation that he jointly set up in 2015 along with actor Makarand Anaspure. His rough-around-the-edges, mercurial, far-from-glitzy personality found an answering reflection in the volatile, capricious, crusty characters he came to be identified with on screen; most of them, like him, driven by fierceness, fervour, outspokenness, and a righteous rage. He first caught the audience’s eye with the grounded way he captured the angst of Intensity, individuality Nana Patekar passed away at his Goa residence on Thursday after suffering a heart attack. He was 75. “Few actors possessed the intensity, individuality and unmistakable presence that Shri Nana Patekar Ji had,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on X an unemployed wastrel in N Chandra’s Ankush (1986). His popularity among the masses peaked in the zealous patriotism of films Tirangaa (1993) and Krantiveer (1994). His distinctive voice and unmistakable dialogue delivery added to the appeal. In that aspect, he was a true inheritor of the legacy of legendary Hindi film star Raaj Kumar, also known for his declamatory style. Nana’s iconic monologues were certainly not about mincing words; in fact, they whipped up the crowd and were repeated with the same gusto by his fans. Like the famous line on communal harmony in Krantiveer, which underscores that one can’t distinguish between the blood of a Hindu and a Muslim, and if the creator has treated them equally, humans have no right to drive wedges between the two: “Yeh Musalman ka khoon, yeh Hindu ka khoon. Bata ismein Musalman ka kaunsa hai, Hindu ka kaunsa? Banane wale ne ismein fark nahi kiya, tu kaun hota hai fark karne wala?” Or the sharp barb, in the same film, on how the politicians continue to enjoy power while common people perish: “Ek ek karke sab marenge! Aur yeh neta log kursi par baithkar maza lenge!” CONTINUED ON P8