bengaluru l Wednesday l January 14, 2026 l `9.00 l PAGES 24 l late city EDITION no more 10-minute delivery by quick commerce companies Eternal-owned quick-commerce firm Blinkit dropped its ‘10-minute’ delivery claim after a Union labour ministry fiat on Tuesday keeps in mind risks of quick delivery model Other aggregators, like Zepto and Swiggy-owned Instamart, are also expected to follow suit. The decision to do away with the ‘10-minute’ delivery model came after Union Labour Minister Mansukh Mandaviya persuaded delivery aggregators, keeping in mind growing concerns over welfare and safety of delivery workers galloping to close orders | P15 pic: P Ravikumar gig workers hail govt intervention ■ The promise of 10-minute delivery led to gig workers holding a nationwide strike on New Year’s Eve in 2025, drawing attention to workers’ health, safety vis-a-vis the model, and their income ■ In a statement, Gig and Platform Service Workers Union welcomed the govt’s decision to discontinue the instant delivery system 2.3cr is the projected strength of india’s gig workforce by 2030 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 EAM, Rubio talk trade, may meet in Feb J aya n t h J a c o b @ New Delhi A day after Washington’s new ambassador to New Delhi Sergio Gor said India and the US would take up outstanding trade issues, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar spoke to Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday and discussed the next steps in the trade negotiations, critical minerals and a possible meeting next month. Highlighting the breadth of engagement between the two sides, Jaishankar said the conversation also covered nuclear cooperation, defence and energy. Gor, too, said that Rubio and Jaishankar discussed “next steps regarding our bilateral trade negotiations, critical minerals and a possible meeting next month.” The diplomatic outreach signals an early effort to stabilise India–US relations. On Monday, Gor described the current frictions as part of a mature partnership capable of managing disagreements. With toll topping 2,000, Trump announces fresh levy to press Tehran to go easy on the protesters P u s h p i ta D e y @ New Delhi Iranian Patriots, KEEP PROTESTING TAKE OVER YOUR INSTITUTIONS!!! I have cancelled all meetings with Iranian Officials.... HELP IS ON ITS WAY. MIGA!!! $17.3 bn Iran’s trade Major partners in total trade in 2024 India $3.6 bn Iraq Turkiye $12.3 bn $28.2 bn The Supreme Court on Tuesday delivered a split verdict on the validity of a 2018 provision that was inserted into the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, which mandates prior government approval before investigating public officials in corruption cases. While Justice B V Nagarathna ruled that Section 17A be struck down, Justice K V Viswanathan partially read it down. The matter would now go to the Chief Justice of India to assign it to a larger bench. Justice Nagarathna observed that Section 17A was an attempt to “protect the corrupt”. “The requirement of prior sanction is contrary to the object of the Act, and Protecting it forecloses inquiry and officers protects the corrupt rather than seeking to protect “The singular the honest and those object (of with integrity who really Section 17A) is do not require any proto protect tection,” she said. bona fide On the other hand, Jusrecommen- tice Viswanathan held dations and that an independent agendecisions taken cy must decide the quesby officials and tion of prosecution sancbureaucrats,” tion. He directed that the Justice sanction be decided by Viswanathan the Lokpal/Lokayukta, observed reading down Section 17A to that extent. “Section 17A is constitutionally valid subject to the condition that the sanction must be decided by the Lokpal or the Lokayukta of the State,” Justice Viswanathan said. He added that striking down the provision will amount to “throwing the baby out with the bath water”, warning of policy paralysis from frivolous probes, and stressing the need to protect honest officers. He said a fine balance has to be maintained between the need to protect a public servant from mala fide cases and the importance of upholding probity in public office. UAE SUCHITRA KALYAN MOHANTY @ New Delhi Addl 25% Iran-linked tariff to have minimal impact on India: Govt $32.4 bn Split verdict on prior nod clause in anti-graft law China Different strokes Source: Trade Data Monitor via WTO, compiled by Bloomberg While US President Donald Trump delivered yet another blow by announcing 25% additional tariff on countries that do active trade with Iran, government sources said India is likely to have minimal impact. Their confidence stemmed from the fact that India’s total merchandise trade with Iran stood at only $1.6 billion (in 2024-25), which is 0.15% of the country’s total trade. “For India, Iran does not even figure in the top 50 global trading partners. India’s trade value with Iran is expected to further go down in the current fiscal year given external economic factors. (Therefore) 25% tariff announced by the US on trade partners of Iran is likely to have minimal impact on India,” said government sources. Iran’s total import in 2024 was worth about $68 billion, sourcing it goods mainly from the UAE ($21 billion - 30%), China ($17 billion - 26%), Turkiye ($11 billion - 16%) and the EU ($6 billion - 9%). India’s share was only $1.2 billion (2.3%). Top exports from India to Iran include cereals (rice), coffee, tea, spices, edible oil, etc. “There is still no clarity on whether humanitarian products like food and medicines will be exempted. India significantly exports such products. In any event, given the low overall trade volume, the macro impact will be low. If these products are exempted, the impact will be even lower,” said Anup Wadhawan, former commerce secretary . Trump announced the additional tariff to pressure Iran to step back from its violent crackdown on a wave of protests in the country that have left over 2,000 people dead. As per the data collated by Bloomberg citing WTO, India despite being one of the top 10 trading countries of Iran accounts for only 2.9% of the total share of trade. In 2024, the overall trade including both service and merchandise, between India and Iran stood at just $3.6 billion. Its merchandise trade with Iran dived by more than 20% in the last five years from $2.1 billion in 2020-21 to $1.6 billion in 2024-25, showed the data compiled by the commerce ministry . None of pvt space firms insured satellites on PSLV B o s k y K h a n n a @ Bengaluru The failure of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV)C62-EOS-N1 mission has shaken the confidence of space startups and raised concerns, particularly over insurance. None of the satellites from Indian private space companies that were on the launch vehicle were insured. This is because Indian private insurance agencies do not offer any budget-friendly insurance schemes for the growing space sector. A senior Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) official, not wanting to be named, said that earlier, satellites were launched by only government agencies for the government and the insurance was not necessary. But now, with the space sector opening up for the private sector, the same trust factor has continued without safety nets, like insurance. Also, this was the first time that a PSLV carrying commercial satellites failed.  P7 Pak-born US cricketer ‘denied’ WC visa B’desh stand firm On Tuesday, after a video conference with ICC, Bangladesh remained firm in their refusal to travel to India for T20 WC. BCB have said they want their matches to be played at a neutral venue (Sri Lanka) ed to find a quick resolution to the issue. ALI Khan, a Pakistan-born and With the T20 World Cup raised US international crick- scheduled to be held in India eter, has claimed on Instaand Sri Lanka in under a gram that his Indian visa month, the heightened has been ‘denied’. Khan, tensions between India who put out a story on and Pakistan have once his personal handle again brought this isVISA without elaborating, sue to the foreground. has featured in 13 T20Is With many teams havfor the US. It’s understood ing Pakistan-origin playthat there are other Pakiers, it remains to be seen stan-origin players in the US whether those players are also team who are in a similar situ- facing similar situations. UAE, ation but the International another team with a few PakiCricket Council (ICC) is expect- stan origin players, are yet to E x p r e s s N e w s S e r v i c e @ Chennai hear about the fate of the visas of several of their players. “We have submitted the names but haven’t heard anything,” a team source told this daily Apart from UAE and US . (these two teams are yet to announce the final 15), other teams that have players with Pakistani roots may include Netherlands, Italy, Oman and England. In 2024, Shoaib Bashir, the England off-spinner had to miss the first Test due to delay in visa. Former Aussie opener Usman Khwaja faced the same issue in 2023.  P19