eye THE SUNDAY EXPRESS MAGAZINE FOUR-PAGE PULLOUT In Other Rooms, Other Worlds AHMEDABAD,LATECITY SEPTEMBER21,2025 16+4PAGES,`6.00 WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM CBC 15502/13/0019/2526 DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PATNA, PUNE, VADODARA Booker Prize-winning writer Kiran Desai on how her new novel became a cartography of selfhood, longing and exile SEPT 21 DEADLINE SETS OFF PANIC TECH FIRMS WILL LOVE IT: TRUMP $1-MN GOLD CARD ANNOUNCED After 50% tariff, $100,000 annual fee for H-1B visa: Trump’s latest hits skilled Indian labour in US Why the visa roadblock will cast shadow on trade talks in US next week Humanitarian consequences because of disruption: MEA; flags how skilled talent creates wealth in both US, India SHUBHAJIT ROY NEW DELHI, SEPTEMBER 20 ANNOUNCINGAsweepingoverhaulof theH-1Bvisasystemthat, effectively,targetsskilledIndians more than any other group, US PresidentDonaldTrumpsigneda proclamation Friday that will raise the fee for these visas to $100,000 (Rs 88 lakh) annually —makingitprohibitivelyexpensiveforcompaniestohireIndian professionals in the US. Currently, the H-1B visa fee rangesfromabout$2000-$5000 dependingonemployersizeand othercosts.Thevisasarevalidfor three years and can be renewed for another three years. Companies pay to sponsor H-1B applicants. India-born professionals are ECONOMY H-1B FEE EXPLAINED: WHO PAYS, WHO IS EXEMPT, WHAT IS STILL UNCLEAR? FIRMS ASK H-1B VISA HOLDERS TO RETURN RAVI DUTTA MISHRA NEW DELHI, SEPTEMBER 20 FULL COVERAGE, PAGE 12 thebiggestbeneficiariesof these visas.BetweenOctober2022and September 2023, 72 per cent of thenearly4lakhvisasissuedunder the H-1B programme went to Indian nationals. During the same period, top four Indian IT majorswithapresenceintheUS —Infosys,TCS,HCL,andWipro— obtained approval for around CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 AP Is that person valuable enough (for the employer to pay) $100,000 a year to the government... That’s the point of immigration: hire Americans, make sure people coming in are the top, top people. The President is crystal clear. Valuable people only for America. Stop the nonsense. HOWARD LUTNICK, US Commerce Secretary, alongside President Donald Trump at Oval Office Huge fee can potentially kill H-1B, Trump decision sparks but Delhi keeps its fingers crossed rush, anxiety: ‘Don’t know what awaits me’ EMPLOYERS WITH MOST H-1B STAFF AGGAM WALIA & SOUMYARENRA BARIK NEW DELHI, SEPTEMBER 20 JUST LIKE the 50% tariffs endangers Indian goods and merchandise exports to the US, the $100,000 a year application fee for H-1B visas threatens to effectively kill the programme unless US President Donald Trump changeshismindandtweakshis order in the coming months. It is still early hours for the government and the IT industry to fathom the impact of Trump’s CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 OVERALL (FY25) INDIAN FIRMS (FY24) Amazon Infosys 10,044 8,137 TCS 5,505 TCS Microsoft 5,189 HCL America 7,566 2,952 Meta 5,123 LTIMindtree 2,136 Apple 4,202 Wipro 1,636 Google 4,181 2,493 Tech Mahindra Americas 1,199 Cognizant JP Morgan 2,440 351 Walmart 2,390 L&T Technology Services Deloitte 2,353 Source: US DHS, US Citizenship and Immigration Services data INDIA’S OSCAR ENTRY Homebound enters the margins to bring statistics to life: Director Ghaywan ALAKA SAHANI MUMBAI, SEPTEMBER 20 MAN KILLED DURING THEFT BID P4 A DAY after Homebound was announced as India’s official entry for the 2026 Academy Awards in the Best International Feature CONTINUED ON PAGE 11 A still from the movie NIKHILA HENRY, VIDHEESHA KUNTAMALLA & SAMAN HUSAIN HYDERABAD, NEW DELHI, SEPTEMBER 20 ON SATURDAY, a family of three —wife,husbandandchild—who were vacationing in Dubai rushed to Abu Dhabi’s international airport on receiving a call from their employer to return immediately to California. The reason? US President Donald Trump signing a proclamation imposing a $100,000 fee on H-1B visas. SpeakingtoTheIndianExpress over phone, the woman, who is from Telangana and did not wish to be identified, said, “We were told we need to cross the immigration line before midnight of September 21. We were relieved whenwemanagedto,butseveral of ourfriendsareinIndiaandunable to get a flight out to the US.” AccordingtotheWorldTelugu CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 GIVEN THAT the average annual salary of an H-1B visa holder in the US is $66,000, the $100,000annual fee announced by US President Donald Trump cripples a programme that most benefits the Indian diaspora. Significantly, it marks the first expansion of America’s protectionist stance from goods to the services sector. The visa move, just like the additional 25 per cent tariffsoverRussian oil imports and the withdrawal of sanctions waiver granted to ChabaharportinIran,largelyimpacts India. This comes barely days after a US team, led by Assistant US Trade Representative (USTR) for South and Central Asia Brendan Lynch, visited New Delhi, when India-US trade deal negotiations seemed to be slowly inching back towards the road to normalcy. More importantly, the visa proclamation is days before Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal is expected to visit the US next week. Thevisaordercastsashadow on these negotiations as India typically seeks better access to services-led developed countries under Mode 4. Under the General Agreement on Trade in CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 How tigress Jhumri helped revive big cat numbers at Chhattisgarh reserve JAYPRAKASH S NAIDU RAIPUR, SEPTEMBER 20 IN 2018, Jhumri traversed swathes of fragmented forests, hilly terrain and human inhabitations to stake claim on the sal and bamboo forests of Chhattisgarh’s Achanakmar Tiger Reserve (ATR). That 400kilometre journey by the tigress, from Madhya Pradesh’s Bandhavgarh to ATR, was trans- Jhumri at Achanakmar Tiger Reserve. The tiger numbers have increased from 5 in 2022 to 18 now. ATR formative for the reserve -- it infused new life into its tiger conservation programme. Today, ATR’s tiger population is thriving, up to 18 – 10 adults and eight cubs — from the five recorded in 2022. According to officials, much of this is down to conservation efforts, spurred on since Jhumri’s arrival. These included short-term efforts such as increased patrolling and aggressive — even CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 UNVEILS PROJECTS WORTH `34,200 CR Our dependence on other countries is our biggest enemy, says PM No alternative to self-reliance... chips or ships, they must be made in India: Modi Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a roadshow in Bhavnagar, Gujarat, Saturday. ANI EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE AHMEDABAD, SEPTEMBER 20 SAYINGTHATIndia'sbiggest“enemy” today is dependence on other countries, Prime Minister NarendraModionSaturdayreiterated his call for self-reliance andunderlinedthatwhetheritis (semiconductor)“chipsorships, they must be made in India”. Addressing the ‘Samudra se Samruddhi’ event in Bhavnagar, where he inaugurated and laid thefoundationstonesof projects worth Rs 34,200 crore, Modi said: “Bharat aaj vishwabandhu ke bhavna se aage badh raha hai. Duniya mein hamara koi bada dushman nahin hai. Sacche arth mein agar hamara koi dushman hai, toh woh hai doosre deshon par hamari nirbharta (India is moving forward today with the spirit of global brotherhood. It has no major enemy in the world. But, if India has an enemy in the true sense, it is dependence on other nations).” Saying that greater foreign dependence leads to greater national failure, he emphasised that this dependency must be collectively defeated. The future of 140 crore Indians cannot be lefttoexternalforces,norcanthe resolve for national development be based on foreign dependency, he said. For global peace, stability and prosperity, the world’s most populous country must become self-reliant, he added. Saying that reliance on others compromises national self-respect, he added that the future of coming generations must not be put at risk. Modi declared that the solutiontoahundredproblemsisone — building an Aatmanirbhar Bharat.Toachievethis,Indiamust confrontchallenges,reduceexternaldependenceanddemonstrate true self-reliance, he said. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Parsiana: 60 years on, magazine for Parsis to shut operations in October PAGE 1 ANCHOR NAYONIKA BOSE MUMBAI, SEPTEMBER 20 IN 1973, an article in Parsiana on the secluded Tower of Silence — araised,circulartowerwhere,as per the centuries-old Zoroastrian tradition, dead bodiesareexposedtovultures—created an uproar in the orthodox Parsi circles of Mumbai. Shiavax Vakil, then trustee of the Bombay Parsi Punchayet who had gained access to the tower,hadpennedapieceforthe magazine about bodies lying exposed owing to the dwindling vulture population. “While the issue was known since the 1900s, it had not been documented. In 1973, perhaps for the first time, someone had gone inside and written about the bodies lying around. It created an uproar, with people wondering how a layperson could enter the tower or talk aboutthecustomsof disposing,” says Jehangir Patel, the editor and publisher of Parsiana, now in his 80s. This was not an isolated article. Helmed by Parsi founders and editors, and anchored by Parsi patrons, Parsiana, a fortnightlymagazine,haschronicled religious events, accomplishments and lives of the Zoroastriancommunitysinceits launch in 1964. Over six decades later, its closure announcement has sent yet another shock wave through the community. Besides the coverage of Parsi events,themagazinealsovoiced issues plaguing the community, often spoken in whispers. Despite its coverage leading to Jehangir Patel, the editor and publisher of Parsiana who bought the magazine in the 1970s, at its office in Mumbai’s Fort area; the cover of its latest edition. Amit Chakravarty & Nayonika Bose flared tempers within the more orthodox sections, Parsiana’s readership spanned from Mumbai to Pakistan and the United States. In its heyday, its subscriptionssoaredto3,500.Its annual subscription in India costs Rs 1,200. When The Indian Express visitedthemagazine’sofficeinFort, tucked inside the now-defunct 138-year-old Parsi maternity hospital building, the staff was busy with the upcoming Octoberedition—typingstories, editing copies and attending to trilling landlines. Yet, a sense of gloom was all pervasive. On a break, senior editor Sherene Vakil petted a restless Tiger, an Indie who grew up in Parsiana’s corridors. “I think he hassensedthatourdayshereare numbered. He has become very needy,” she says. Parsiana was launched to chronicle the community’s life in November 1964 by Pestonji Warden, a Parsi doctor who also dabbled in the sandalwood trade. Faced with a dwindling readership, he sold it for a symbolic Re 1 to Jehangir Patel, who had returned from the US in 1970 after a two-year stint at CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Ahmedabad