New IPL rules Ahead of the 2025 season, BCCI has made some major changes in the rules in the all-captains meet. A look... Saliva ban revoked vijayawada l friday l march 21, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l late city EDITION The usage of saliva on balls had been banned since Covid pandemic, but it has been lifted for the IPL from hereon. This came after appeals from several star bowlers including Mohammed Shami slow overrate ban The IPL will enforce demerit points for captains if they fail to adhere to optimal over-rate. Mandatory ball change after the 11th over in second innings for night games cwg 2030: india sends Expression of interest India formally submitted Expression of Interest to host the Centenary Commonwealth Games at Ahmedabad. The letter of interest was sent by P T Usha as the chief of Commonwealth Games Association of India on March 13 | P11 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 social uplift Panel moots to categorise SCs into 3 groups S V i s w a n at h @ Vijayawada The AP Legislative Assembly discussed the sub-categorisation of Scheduled Castes (SCs) at length on Thursday going by the , report of the One Man Commission headed by retired IAS officer Rajeev Ranjan Mishra. It decided to implement the SC sub-categorisation by taking the State as a unit at present based on the 2011 Census, and district as a unit after the 2026 Census. Later, the Assembly passed a resolution to include the Budaga Jangam caste in the SC list. On November 15, 2024, the government constituted the One Man Commission headed by Mishra to study SC sub-categorisation. After touring the 13 erstwhile combined districts, and gathering public feedback, the commission submitted a comprehensive report on March 10, 2025, proposing division of 59 SC subgroups into three categories. They include Group 1 - Most Backward (Relli sub-group) with 1.0% reservation, Group 2 - Backward (Madiga sub-groups) with 6.5% reservation, and Group 3 Relatively Less Backward (Mala sub-groups) with 7.5% reservation within 15%. The proposed system ensures justice for all SC sub-groups. For example, if 100 jobs are available, 8 will go to the Mala community, 6 to Madigas, and 1 to Rellis as per the system. Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu said he is committed to SC categorisation, ensuring jusP4 tice to all sub-groups.  30 more Naxals killed in C’garh E J A Z K AI S E R @ Raipur At least 30 members of the banned CPI (Maoist) were killed in two separate encounters in Bastar division on Thursday, as security forces intensified operations against left-wing insurgency in south Chhattisgarh. “A joint team of the District Reserve Guards (DRG) from Bijapur and Dantewada, Special Task Force, CRPF and elite CoBRA force was out on search operations based on specific intelligence inputs. Around 7 am, an encounter broke out in the dense forest along the inter-district border area of Bijapur-Dantewada, where 26 Naxalites were neutralised. During the exchange of fire, DRG jawan Raju Oyami lost his life,” said Jitendra Yadav, Bijapur district police chief. In another gunfight at Kanker district in the north Bastar region, a combined team of the Border Security Force, Bastar Fighters and DRG gunned down four Maoists close to the Abujhmad jungle of Narayanpur. No security personnel sustained injuries in the Kanker encounter. The recovered bodies of Maoists are yet to be identified and the casualty count of the red rebels may rise further, the officer said. The forces also recovered 21 weapons, including an AK-47, two Self-Loading Rifles, one INSAS rifle, three BGL rocket launchers, and explosives among Jawans returning from the encounter site in the forest area at Bijapur-Dantewada border, in Bijapur on Thursday | ANI others from the encounter site. Union Home Minister Amit Shah stated that the security forces had achieved another big success in the mission to eliminate Naxalism under the ‘Naxal Mukt Bharat Abhiyan’. Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai praised the commitment of the security personnel. “We are achieving historic success in the fight against the Maoists,” he said. So far this year, 113 Maoists have been eliminated in various encounters in the state. Last year, Maoists lost 219 of their fighters in anti-insurgency operations. The series of encounters during the last one year are part of the renewed strategy to eliminate Maoist influence in Chhattisgarh by March 2026. Bijapur, Dantewada, Kanker and Narayanpur are among the seven Maoist-affected districts of Bastar division. US detains Indian student for alleged Hamas support A g e n c i es @ Washington, D.C. US federal authorities have detained an Indian citizen who came to the country legally on a student visa and threatened to deport him claiming he posed risk to American foreign policy . Badar Khan Suri, a postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown University, was detained by masked agents from outside his home on Monday, US media reports said. His visa was revoked due to his alleged ties with Hamas. Suri was being targeted because of the Palestinian heritage express read of his wife Mapheze Saleh, a US citizen, his lawyer said in a lawsuit seeking his immediate release. Some reports said Saleh’s father served as a senior political adviser to the Hamas leadership. Confirming Suri’s detention, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson claimed Suri was “actively spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media.” The incident comes days after another Indian student, Ranjani Srinivasan, ‘self-deported’ following cancellation of her visa over her alleged support for Hamas. Elon Musk’s X sues Indian govt over content blocking, misuse of IT rules R a kes h K u m a r @ New Delhi Naidu should become CM for next two terms: PK Vijayawada: “Chandrababu Naidu should become the Chief Minister of the State for the next two terms, just like Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister for three consecutive terms. I am ready to work under his leadership, and learn for the next 15 years for the development of Andhra Pradesh,” said Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan, at the valedictory of the legislators’ sports and cultural meet | P4 ELON Musk-led-social media platform X (formerly Twitter) has filed a petition in the Karnataka High Court against the Centre, accusing it of illegally blocking content on the platform. The petition, filed on Thursday, alleges the government is circumventing established legal safeguards and procedures in its bid to censor online content. According to X, the government is improperly using Section 79(3)(b) of the Information Technology Act to issue content blocking orders. It argued that this section is not intended for such purposes and that the government is deliberately bypassing the more stringent requirements of Section 69A of the IT Act and the associated Blocking Rules. Section 69A is the legally defined route by which the government can restrict access to online content that is deemed harmful to the nation’s interests. However, this process is regulated by the 2009 IT (Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking for Access of Information by Public) Rules, which require a structured review process before blocking decisions are made. Section 79(3)(b) says if a government agency flags illegal content, the platform must take it down within 36 hours or risk being liable for third-party content. Safe harbour Non-compliance of a takedown order under Section 79(3)(b) may strip platforms of safeharbour protection that shields them from being liable for content posted by third parties Sahyog portal X also refused to join govt’s Sahyog portal, set up to streamline takedown requests under Sec 79(3)(b), terming it a ‘censorship tool’ that pressures platforms to remove content without proper legal review