HYDERABAD l saturday l december 13, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 18 l late city EDITION type 2 diabetes wonder drug ozempic makes india debut Ozempic is now available in India as 0.25 mg, 0.5 mg and 1 mg in ‘FlexTouch Pen’ - an easy-to-use, once-weekly pen device, at `2,200 per week popular as a weight loss drug GLOBALLY pricing remains competitive, says md Danish pharma major Novo Nordisk’s type 2 diabetes injection Ozempic is also popular globally for its weight-loss benefits. A prescribed Ozempic injection would start with a 0.25 mg dose for four weeks at a total cost of `8,800. This is the company’s second medicine with semaglutide as the active ingredient to be launched in India after its weight-loss drug Wegovy ■ ■ On its pricing, Novo Nordisk India Managing Director Vikrant Shrotriya said, “It remains competitive to offer Ozermpic at a price like this” One reason for Ozempic being launched late in India was to do with uninterrupted supplies, Shrotriya said, adding that the injection would be directly imported from Denmark, where it is produced 11.4% of indians are living with diabetes as per world health organization 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 Messi-CM fixture kick-off today Stage set Personnel deployed n (Traffic), 1,492 (Law & 300 Order), 18 platoons (TSSP/AR), 2 Octopus teams, 10 Mounted Police, 2 Vajra units, plus SB, CCS, SOT and fire services n Z-category cover for Messi, with exclusive entry points E x p r ess N e w s S e r v i c e @ Hyderabad cameras 450 CCTVdrones for in and around the stadium; aerial monitoring Command centres at the stadium and ICCC 39,000 Estimated seating Over 3,000 police personnel on duty t E ve n arts st 7 pm Hyderabad is preparing for a once-in-a-lifetime fixture on Saturday, with Lionel Messi set to take the field in a city transformed into a giant home stadium, going by the banners that lined the streets on Friday Fans . are warming up early and organ, isers say the “City of Pearls” is ready for its first taste of a penalty-shootout-style frenzy . Messi is scheduled to touch down at 4 pm before heading straight to Falaknuma Palace for a meet-and-greet at 4.30 pm. About 240 attendees, each reportedly paying `10 lakh, will get a photograph and autograph with Other big-ticket Cabinet decisions `12K cr for Census okayed Opening nuclear sector The Union Cabinet approved `11,718 crore for conducting the Census of India, 2027, which would include the caste enumeration for the first time. The Census will be conducted in two phases — house-listing and housing census from April to September, 2026; and population enumeration in February 2027. This will be the first digital census, minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said | P9 The Cabinet is also learnt to have approved a bill that seeks to open up the civil nuclear power sector for private participation. Called the Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India (SHANTI) Bill, the proposed legislation aims to help the country achieve its target of 100 giga watts of atomic energy capacity by 2047. Cabinet clears 100% FDI in insurance PU S HPITA D E Y @ New Delhi THE Union Cabinet on Friday approved a proposal to raise the foreign direct investment (FDI) limit in insurance firms from 74% to 100%, and usher in a set of structural reforms to strengthen the sector. The move is expected to draw substantial foreign capital, increase competition, and improve customer services across India’s insurance market. The government is likely to introduce the Insurance Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2025 in Parliament on Monday a senior finance min, istry official confirmed. By lifting the cap, the government aims to attract long-term global investors and deepen the sector’s capital base. “A more open market is expected to foster greater competition, leading to innovative product development, superior customer service standards, and the adoption of global best practices and technology,” said Narendra Ganpule, partner and insurance industry leader, Grant Thornton Bharat. The Centre expects that the higher ownership limit will unlock fresh global capital, enabling companies to scale operations, expand distribution, develop new products and enhance service standards. The government believes higher investment and competition will help extend insurance coverage to a wider population. Greater competition could also create jobs and improve efficiency . To give effect to the changes, amendments to the Life Insurance Corporation Act, 1956, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority Act, 1999, and the Insurance Act, 1938 will be introduced as part of the comprehensive legislative exercise. Alok Rungta, MD and CEO, Generali Central Life Insurance, said raising the FDI limit may open doors for potential new players. Single regulator to replace UGC, AICTE & NCTE R A J E S H K UM A R TH A K UR @ New Delhi THE Union Cabinet on Friday cleared a proposal to set up a single higher education regulator to replace multiple bodies such as the University Grants Commission (UGC). Sources said the government is likely to present a bill in the ongoing Parliament session, which concludes on December 19. The bill—previously called the Higher Education Commission of India Bill—has been renamed the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhikshan Bill. The move is in line with the National Education Policy which moots , a new unified body to subsume UGC, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE). However, medical and law colleges will remain outside the new regulator’s scope, sources said. An official told this paper that the unified regulator is expected to have three major functions: regulation, accreditation and the setting of professional standards. Funding—considered the fourth pillar—is not expected to come under the regulator at this stage, with financial autonomy proposed to remain with the administrative ministry . Rahul to attend Messi event Hyderabad: Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi will be among the thousands of fans who will see Lionel Messi in action on Saturday. Rahul will arrive in Hyderabad at 5 pm and reach the stadium in time for the event. He will return to Delhi by the 10.30 pm flight. the Argentine captain. From there, the World Cup winner will make his way to the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in Uppal for a 20-minute friendly with Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, a match organisers are No India on US silicon supply chain grp J ayan t h J a c o b @ New Delhi A new US-led strategic initiative, named Pax Silica, which aims to build a secure, prosperous, and innovationdriven global silicon supply chain, has been launched without the inclusion of India amidst crucial trade negotiations between the two countries. The US State Department defined the initiative as focused on the entire silicon supply chain, “from critical minerals and energy inputs to advanced manufacturing, semiconductors, AI infrastructure, and logistics.” The inaugural Pax Silica Summit will A-1 in phone tapping case surrenders E N S @ Hyderabad A day after the Supreme Court issued directions, former SIB chief T Prabhakar Rao, the prime accused in the phone tapping case, surrendered before the SIT at 11 am on Friday . This is perhaps the first instance in Hyderabad that an accused has been placed in police custody without a prior arrest. Prabhakar Rao had returned to Hyderabad from the US after securing interim bail from the apex court. He was questioned on six occasions in connection with the case. Sources said Prabhakar Rao faced questions on the formatted data recovered from his devices. 58 kids from govt schools fall ill after meals A a r t i K as h ya p @ Hyderabad As many as 58 students were taken ill in two separate food poisoning incidents at government schools in Hyderabad on Friday . Sixteen girl students from the Telangana Minority Residential School in Baghlingampally were admitted to the government hospital in King Koti after reporting nausea, vomiting and stomach pain. They were later discharged. Hospital superintendent Dr Santosh Babu told TNIE, “The students were admitted in the afternoon with vomiting and nausea. All 16 are stable.” Officials said the students began showing symptoms early on Friday, hours after eating curd rice for dinner A doctor checks one of the 16 students from a minority school in Baghlingampally that fell ill due to suspected food poisoning on Friday on Thursday Some students reported . that the curd had a foul smell. In the second incident, students at billing as the city’s most unusual crossover fixture. According to officials, the cricket pitch will remain untouched, with only half the ground opened for the event. Once the whistle blows on the friendly Messi will jog a lap with , 24 underprivileged children from across Telangana as part of a football clinic focused on basic skills, particularly dribbling. A brief parade and a state felicitation will follow, taking the total runtime to roughly 90 minutes. Messi will then return to Falaknuma Palace before leaving for Delhi at 11 pm. Fan interest has surged across the city  . CONTINUED ON P7 a government school in Chandra Nayak Thanda fell ill after eating the mid-day meal on Friday . Director of School Education Naveen Nicholas told TNIE, “The Hare Krishna Mission Foundation supplies mid-day meals to the school through a centralised kitchen. Around 30 students reported stomach pain an hour after eating payasam served for lunch. They were taken to the Area Hospital in Kondapur, and a few were shifted to a private hospital and discharged later.” An official statement later put the number of affected students at 42. Nicholas said the same food had been supplied to other schools without complaint, but the service provider would look into the matter. Vinesh training in Bengaluru as she takes big step towards LA28 | p13 have Japan, South Korea, Singapore, the Netherlands, the UK, Israel, the UAE and Australia. The US State Department emphasised the group’s critical role, and said: “Together, these countries are home to the most important companies and investors powering the global AI supply chain.” The objective of Pax Silica is clearly strategic at a time when building alternative to Chineseled supply chains on critical minerals and emerging technologies are in focus. The alliance seeks “to reduce coercive dependencies, protect the materials and capabilities foundational to artificial intelligence, and ensure aligned nations can develop and deploy transformative technologies at scale.” The initiative, which responds to “increasing risks from coercive dependencies” and a collective desire to secure all strategic “stacks” of the technology supply chain — including software, foundation models, semiconductors, and mineral refining --signals a concerted effort to establish a trusted economic order for the AI era. Red flag on ‘birth tourism’ The US Embassy in India issued a warning to touristvisa applicants on what it called “birth tourism”. It said consular officers will immediately deny B-1/B-2 tourist visas if they suspected it | P9