˘! rni regn. no. mpeng/2004/13703, regd. no. l …...2019/10/05  · trade tensions. the rate cut...

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I n a clear admission about the poor health of the economy, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday slashed its GDP growth estimate for the current fiscal to 6.1 per cent from 6.9 per cent and reduced the interest rate by quarter of a per cent even as the stock market benchmark BSE Sensex plummeted by 434 points due to heavy sell-off in banking and FMCG stocks. The market was disap- pointed by such a massive downward revision of growth forecast and less than expect- ed reduction in interest rate. Given the tame inflation rate and feeble growth, the street was expecting at least 40 basis point rate cut. The disappoint- ed triggered a collapse in the market. It was the fifth straight rate cut that brought interest rate to almost a decade low. With all six members of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voting in favour of a rate cut and for retaining the accommodative stance, the benchmark repurchase rate was cut by 25 basis points to 5.15 per cent. The previous lowest repo rate of 5 per cent was recorded in March 2010. Following the rate cut, the reverse repo rate was reduced to 4.9 per cent. While five members voted for a 25 bps cut, Ravindra Dholakia voted for a 0.40 per cent reduction. The RBI revised down- wards its estimate for GDP growth in the current fiscal to 6.1 per cent from 6.9 per cent it had previously estimated after lower-than-expected 5 per cent growth rate in April- June and no substantial uptick in the following quarter. Risks on the 6.1 per cent GDP growth estimate are “evenly balanced”, it said. The repo rate cut is aimed at pushing consumption up during the ongoing festival season by reducing borrowing costs for home and auto loans, which are now directly linked to this benchmark. RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said as long as the growth momentum remains as it is now and growth revives, the MPC will continue with an accommodative stance while ensuring inflation remains within the target.” The RBI will continue accommodative stance as long as it is necessary and growth revives,” he said. In the four previous rate cuts since February, the RBI had cut interest rates by 110 basis points whose transmis- sion to borrowers in form of lower lending rate has “remained staggered and incomplete”, the Central bank said in a statement. As against the cumulative policy repo rate reduction of 110 bps during February- August 2019, the weighted average lending rate (WALR) on fresh rupee loans of com- mercial banks declined by 29 bps. However, the WALR on outstanding rupee loans increased by 7 bps during the same period. Central banks around the world are loosening monetary policy to offset a global slow- down, worsened by US-China trade tensions. The rate cut by the RBI follows a series of fis- cal steps taken by the Government over the last six weeks to spur growth, includ- ing steepest ever cut in tax paid by companies, cost the exche- quer 1.45 lakh crore. Asked if the corporate rate cut would impact fiscal deficit target of 3.3 per cent of the GDP, Das said the Government has stated that it will maintain fiscal deficit target and “we have no reason to doubt that”. Admitting that the impact of the 135 bps rate cut will “take time” to filter in, Das said, “While the recent measures announced by the Government are likely to help strengthen private consumption and spur private investment activity, the continuing slowdown warrants intensified efforts to restore the growth momentum.” The RBI raised its near- term inflation forecast slightly to 3.4 per cent for the second quarter of the fiscal started in April, while projecting it would stay below its medium-term target of 4 per cent. On reviving growth, the MPC welcomed the recent moves by the Government as the ones in the right direction, but the resolution did not have any reference to the fiscal deficit or fiscal management, which is generally deemed to have an inflationary impact. Meanwhile, after opening nearly 300 points higher, the Sensex gave up all the gains to turn negative shortly after the policy announcement by the RBI. The Sensex gyrated 770 points during the day to end 433.56 points or 1.14 per cent lower at 37,673.31. It hit an intra-day low of 37,633.36 and a high of 38,403.54. The broad- er NSE Nifty plunged 139.25 points or 1.23 per cent to close at 11,174.75. During the holi- day-truncated week, Sensex plummeted 1,149.26 points or 2.96 per cent, while Nifty declined 337.65 points. Top laggards included Kotak Bank, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Tata Motors, L&T, SBI, Tata Steel and Axis Bank. On the other hand, TCS, Infosys, ONGC, Tech Mahindra, IndusInd Bank and NTPC rose up to 1.03 per cent. Rate-sensitive banking stocks faced the heat, finance, auto and realty indices tanking up to 2.45 per cent. I ndia has finally broken its silence on repeated state- ments issued by Turkey and Malaysia attacking New Delhi on the Kashmir issue and asked them to have a proper under- standing of the situation in Kashmir before making further comments. Expressing “deep regrets” on the statement issued by the two countries, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar reiterated India’s position that Pakistan had invaded and illegally occu- pied parts of Jammu & Kashmir and the current devel- opments in J&K and Ladakh are purely its internal matter. Kumar called upon Ankara, which has issued sev- eral statements on Kashmir since August 6, to have a prop- er understanding of the situa- tion in Kashmir before making further comments. “India and Turkey are friendly countries. We, there- fore, deeply regret that since August 6, there have been repeated statements by the Turkish Government on a mat- ter completely internal to India. These statements are factually incorrect, biased and unwar- ranted,” Kumar said. Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad had raised the Kashmir issue at the United Nations, alleging that India had “invaded and occupied” Jammu & Kashmir and asked New Delhi to work with Pakistan to resolve the issue. Pointing out that India and Malaysia have traditionally enjoyed good and friendly ties, Kumar said, “This relation- ship has been enhanced in recent years. We have noted the comment on J&K by the Prime Minister of Malaysia. We deeply regret these comments since they are not based on facts,” Kumar said. “Government of Malaysia should bear in mind the friend- ly relations between the two countries and desist from mak- ing such comments,” he added. I ndian Air Force (IAF) chief RKS Bhadauria on Friday said “it was a big mistake” by IAF men to bring down the MI-17 chopper on February 27 in Jammu & Kashmir, killing all six on board besides a civilian on the ground. He said the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) is over and action will be taken against the guilty. Officers may face charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder as per provisions of the military law and IAF top brass will decide on the quantum of punish- ment, said sources. Hit by a surface-to-air mis- sile of the IAF, the helicopter crashed in Budgam shortly after take-off from Srinagar. The incident took place on a day when the Pakistani fight- er jets intruded into Indian air- space and tried to hit Indian mil- itary targets in Rajouri sector in retaliation to the IAF air strikes against terrorist infrastructure in Balakot a day earlier. “It was a big mistake, action being initiated against two IAF personnel,” said Bhadauria, adding following the CoI corrective measures have been taken so it does not happen again and those who lost their lives will be declared battle casualties. He said this at his first annual Press conference as IAF Chief ahead of the 87th Air Force Day on October 8. Bhadauria took over as the IAF Chief on September 30 from outgoing Chief BS Dhanoa. He also said the Court of Inquiry got over last week. The Commission of Inquiry confirmed that the chopper was shot by Israeli ori- gin ground based Spyder sur- face to air missile system of the IAF. The probe found at least five officers, including a Group Captain responsible for the crash, defence sources had stated earlier. The Pioneer had reported on August 23 that the high-level probe by the IAF had held five officers guilty as it was found out that the helicopter went down after getting hit by an Indian missile. These findings formed part of the mandatory court of enquiry. The officers found guilty of negligence and not fol- lowing procedures include one Group Captain, two Wing Commanders and two Flight Lieutenants, sources said. The enquiry found that the ‘Identification of Friend or Foe’ (IFF) system on-board the helicopter was switched off and there was a “vital gap” in communication and coordi- nation between the ground staff and the crew of the ill- fated helicopter. The IFF helps air defence radars identify whether an aircraft or heli- copter is friendly or hostile. In early May, the IAF transferred the Air Officer Commanding (AOC) of Srinagar base to ensure a thorough probe into the incident. Officials said the CoI was also specifically focusing on examining the role of various people, including those con- trolling the air defence system when the helicopter was hit by a surface-to-air missile. Incidentally, the helicopter was shot down around the same time when Indian and Pakistani fighter jets were engaged in the aerial battle. Moreover, the incident took place when the Indian forces on their highest alert following the Pakistani aerial raid. The heli- copter crashed within ten min- utes of take off after getting hit by own missile. Earlier, the then IAF Chief Dhanoa had also said some time back the Service needs to learn lessons on what hap- pened, how it happened and if mistakes were made need to make sure it does not happen again. Bhopal: The State Government has dissolved the existing Bharat Bhavan Trust under the notifica- tion of March 1, 2008 under sec- tion 36 (2) of Public Trust Act- 1951. Now the trust has nomi- nated 6 new members from the fields of literature, film, dance, visual arts, drama and music have been nominated in the trust. According to the order issued by the Department of Culture, Gulzar (Literature), Shyam Benegal (fFilm), Astad Debu (Dance), Ghulam Mohammad Sheikh (Visual arts), Sanjana Kapoor (Drama) and Ustad Bahauddin Dagar (Music) have been nominated as new members in the Bharat Bhavan Trust. The tenure of the present members will be deemed to have ended automatically from the date of issue of the order for reorganiza- tion of Bharat Bhavan Trust. SR I ndia’s decision to ban onion export has impacted the kitchen of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Disclosing that she has asked her cook not to use onion in food due to shortage, Hasina said India’s sudden decision to stop onion exports has caused difficulty for her countrymen and suggested that New Delhi should provide prior information about such decisions in future. The onion prices have gone up sharply in neighbouring countries after India banned exports of onion to increase availability of the commodity in the domestic market and con- tain spiralling prices. “Pyaaz se thoda dikkat ho gaya hamare liye. Mujhe mal- oom nahi kyun aapne pyaaz band kar diya? Thoda sa notice agar dete toh dusre jagah se laa sakte the. Maine cook ko bol diya ab se khana mein pyaaz dalna bandh kar do. Aage se agar kabhi bhi iss tarah aisa kuch karna hai, toh hume thoda sa pehle bata dena,” (We have been slightly inconve- nienced with the ban on onion. I don’t know why did you stop this? If you had given a notice to us, we could have got it from somewhere else. I have instructed my cook not to put onion while preparing food. If you want to do such a thing, then do let us know at the ear- liest), Bangladesh PM Hasina said in a light-hearted manner at the India-Bangladesh Business Forum. Interestingly, her comments in Hindi left the audience in splits.) She was addressing India- Bangladesh Business Forum here, which was organised by industry chambers, including CII and Assocham. Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal was also present at the event. Bangladesh has been badly hit by India’s export ban, with prices crossing 10,000 per 100 kilogram in Dhaka. The country has turned to the likes of Myanmar, Egypt, Turkey and China to increase supplies and control prices in its mar- kets. In retail markets, one kg of the staple vegetable usually costs 30 taka (36 US cents), but has soared to up to 130 taka after India imposed the export ban over the weekend while it was being sold at 60-70 a kg in India. About two-thirds of the demand for onions — an essential ingredient in Bangladeshi cui- sine — is grown locally by farmers, with the rest mostly imported from neigh- bouring India, where heavy monsoon rains have reduced the crop. The price of onions is a sensitive subject in South Asia, where shortages can trig- ger widespread discontent with political ramifications. According to reports, India’s decision to ban onion exports has also impacted South Asian and Gulf coun- tries, including UAE where prices have gone up sharply. Indian onion exports were valued at over $496 million in the 2018- 19. Last Sunday, the Ministry of Commerce imposed stock limits on both retail and wholsesale traders of onion as onion producing States — Maharashtra, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan — are suffering from floods which impacted the kharif crops and movement of stored onions across the country. C hief Minister Kamal Nath called on the Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi today and submit- ted a memorandum regarding the heavy loss to farmers’ crops due to excessive rainfall in the State. Nath urged the Prime Minister to send the Central study team again to the State so that the actual assessment of the damage could be done. He asked the Prime Minister to categorize the massive devas- tation caused due to rains in the state as a serious disaster. The Chief Minister urged NDRF for assistance of about 9,000 crore for infrastructure reconstruction so that loss caused to the farmers and common people could be com- pensated immediately. Nath said that the entire country will get affected by the damage which was caused to the Kharif crops at large scale in the state as the crops grown in Madhya Pradesh fulfill the need of the entire country. He further stated that the state has suffered a loss of over Rs 16,000 crore due to the excessive rainfall and floods. The Prime Minister Narendra Modi has assured the Chief Minister Kamal Nath for the help. The Chief Minister held discussion with the Prime Narendra Modi for about 45 minutes. He apprised the Prime Minister of the damage caused to the farmers, houses, build- ings and other losses by the excessive rains in the state. Nath informed the Prime Minister that 46 percent more than normal rainfall has been recorded in the state till now. Out of the 52 districts of the state, 60 percent more than the normal rainfall, has been recorded in 20 districts. Continued on Page 4 RNI Regn. No. MPENG/2004/13703, Regd. No. L-2/BPLON/41/2006-2008

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Page 1: ˘! RNI Regn. No. MPENG/2004/13703, Regd. No. L …...2019/10/05  · trade tensions. The rate cut by the RBI follows a series of fis-cal steps taken by the Government over the last

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���� )23�+2-8*

In a clear admission about thepoor health of the economy,

the Reserve Bank of India(RBI) on Friday slashed itsGDP growth estimate for thecurrent fiscal to 6.1 per centfrom 6.9 per cent and reducedthe interest rate by quarter ofa per cent even as the stockmarket benchmark BSE Sensexplummeted by 434 points dueto heavy sell-off in banking andFMCG stocks.

The market was disap-pointed by such a massivedownward revision of growthforecast and less than expect-ed reduction in interest rate.Given the tame inflation rateand feeble growth, the streetwas expecting at least 40 basispoint rate cut. The disappoint-ed triggered a collapse in themarket. It was the fifth straightrate cut that brought interestrate to almost a decade low.

With all six members of theMonetary Policy Committee(MPC) voting in favour of arate cut and for retaining theaccommodative stance, thebenchmark repurchase ratewas cut by 25 basis points to5.15 per cent. The previouslowest repo rate of 5 per centwas recorded in March 2010.

Following the rate cut, thereverse repo rate was reducedto 4.9 per cent. While fivemembers voted for a 25 bps cut,Ravindra Dholakia voted for a0.40 per cent reduction.

The RBI revised down-wards its estimate for GDP

growth in the current fiscal to6.1 per cent from 6.9 per centit had previously estimatedafter lower-than-expected 5per cent growth rate in April-June and no substantial uptickin the following quarter. Riskson the 6.1 per cent GDPgrowth estimate are “evenlybalanced”, it said.

The repo rate cut is aimedat pushing consumption upduring the ongoing festivalseason by reducing borrowingcosts for home and auto loans,which are now directly linkedto this benchmark.

RBI Governor ShaktikantaDas said as long as the growth

momentum remains as it isnow and growth revives, theMPC will continue with anaccommodative stance whileensuring inflation remainswithin the target.” The RBI willcontinue accommodativestance as long as it is necessaryand growth revives,” he said.

In the four previous ratecuts since February, the RBIhad cut interest rates by 110basis points whose transmis-sion to borrowers in form oflower lending rate has“remained staggered andincomplete”, the Central banksaid in a statement.

As against the cumulative

policy repo rate reduction of110 bps during February-August 2019, the weightedaverage lending rate (WALR)on fresh rupee loans of com-mercial banks declined by 29bps. However, the WALR onoutstanding rupee loansincreased by 7 bps during thesame period.

Central banks around theworld are loosening monetarypolicy to offset a global slow-down, worsened by US-Chinatrade tensions. The rate cut bythe RBI follows a series of fis-cal steps taken by theGovernment over the last sixweeks to spur growth, includ-ing steepest ever cut in tax paidby companies, cost the exche-quer �1.45 lakh crore.

Asked if the corporate ratecut would impact fiscal deficittarget of 3.3 per cent of theGDP, Das said the Governmenthas stated that it will maintainfiscal deficit target and “wehave no reason to doubt that”.

Admitting that the impactof the 135 bps rate cut will “taketime” to filter in, Das said,“While the recent measuresannounced by the Governmentare likely to help strengthenprivate consumption and spurprivate investment activity, thecontinuing slowdown warrantsintensified efforts to restore thegrowth momentum.”

The RBI raised its near-term inflation forecast slightlyto 3.4 per cent for the secondquarter of the fiscal started inApril, while projecting it wouldstay below its medium-term

target of 4 per cent.On reviving growth, the

MPC welcomed the recentmoves by the Government asthe ones in the right direction,but the resolution did not haveany reference to the fiscaldeficit or fiscal management,which is generally deemed tohave an inflationary impact.

Meanwhile, after openingnearly 300 points higher, theSensex gave up all the gains toturn negative shortly after thepolicy announcement by theRBI. The Sensex gyrated 770points during the day to end433.56 points or 1.14 per centlower at 37,673.31. It hit anintra-day low of 37,633.36 and

a high of 38,403.54. The broad-er NSE Nifty plunged 139.25points or 1.23 per cent to closeat 11,174.75. During the holi-day-truncated week, Sensexplummeted 1,149.26 points or2.96 per cent, while Niftydeclined 337.65 points.

Top laggards includedKotak Bank, ICICI Bank,HDFC Bank, Tata Motors,L&T, SBI, Tata Steel and AxisBank. On the other hand, TCS,Infosys, ONGC, TechMahindra, IndusInd Bank andNTPC rose up to 1.03 percent. Rate-sensitive bankingstocks faced the heat, finance,auto and realty indices tankingup to 2.45 per cent.

���� )23�+2-8*

India has finally broken itssilence on repeated state-

ments issued by Turkey andMalaysia attacking New Delhion the Kashmir issue and askedthem to have a proper under-standing of the situation inKashmir before making furthercomments.

Expressing “deep regrets”on the statement issued by thetwo countries, External AffairsMinistry SpokespersonRaveesh Kumar reiteratedIndia’s position that Pakistanhad invaded and illegally occu-pied parts of Jammu &Kashmir and the current devel-opments in J&K and Ladakhare purely its internal matter.

Kumar called uponAnkara, which has issued sev-eral statements on Kashmirsince August 6, to have a prop-er understanding of the situa-tion in Kashmir before makingfurther comments.

“India and Turkey arefriendly countries. We, there-fore, deeply regret that sinceAugust 6, there have beenrepeated statements by theTurkish Government on a mat-ter completely internal to India.These statements are factuallyincorrect, biased and unwar-ranted,” Kumar said.

Malaysian Prime MinisterMahathir Mohamad had raisedthe Kashmir issue at the UnitedNations, alleging that Indiahad “invaded and occupied”

Jammu & Kashmir and askedNew Delhi to work withPakistan to resolve the issue.

Pointing out that India andMalaysia have traditionallyenjoyed good and friendly ties,Kumar said, “This relation-ship has been enhanced inrecent years. We have noted thecomment on J&K by the PrimeMinister of Malaysia. Wedeeply regret these commentssince they are not based onfacts,” Kumar said.

“Government of Malaysiashould bear in mind the friend-ly relations between the twocountries and desist from mak-ing such comments,” he added.

���� )23�+2-8*

Indian Air Force (IAF) chiefRKS Bhadauria on Friday

said “it was a big mistake” byIAF men to bring down theMI-17 chopper on February 27in Jammu & Kashmir, killing allsix on board besides a civilianon the ground. He said theCommission of Inquiry (CoI)is over and action will be takenagainst the guilty.

Officers may face chargesof culpable homicide notamounting to murder as perprovisions of the military lawand IAF top brass will decideon the quantum of punish-ment, said sources.

Hit by a surface-to-air mis-sile of the IAF, the helicoptercrashed in Budgam shortlyafter take-off from Srinagar.

The incident took place ona day when the Pakistani fight-er jets intruded into Indian air-space and tried to hit Indian mil-itary targets in Rajouri sector inretaliation to the IAF air strikesagainst terrorist infrastructure inBalakot a day earlier.

“It was a big mistake,action being initiated againsttwo IAF personnel,” saidBhadauria, adding followingthe CoI corrective measureshave been taken so it does nothappen again and those who

lost their lives will be declaredbattle casualties.

He said this at his firstannual Press conference as IAFChief ahead of the 87th AirForce Day on October 8.Bhadauria took over as the IAFChief on September 30 fromoutgoing Chief BS Dhanoa.He also said the Court ofInquiry got over last week.

The Commission ofInquiry confirmed that thechopper was shot by Israeli ori-gin ground based Spyder sur-face to air missile system of theIAF. The probe found at leastfive officers, including a GroupCaptain responsible for thecrash, defence sources had

stated earlier. The Pioneer hadreported on August 23 that thehigh-level probe by the IAF hadheld five officers guilty as it wasfound out that the helicopterwent down after getting hit byan Indian missile.

These findings formed partof the mandatory court ofenquiry. The officers foundguilty of negligence and not fol-lowing procedures include oneGroup Captain, two WingCommanders and two FlightLieutenants, sources said.

The enquiry found thatthe ‘Identification of Friend orFoe’ (IFF) system on-boardthe helicopter was switched offand there was a “vital gap” in

communication and coordi-nation between the groundstaff and the crew of the ill-fated helicopter. The IFF helpsair defence radars identifywhether an aircraft or heli-copter is friendly or hostile. Inearly May, the IAF transferredthe Air Officer Commanding(AOC) of Srinagar base toensure a thorough probe intothe incident.

Officials said the CoI wasalso specifically focusing onexamining the role of variouspeople, including those con-trolling the air defence systemwhen the helicopter was hit bya surface-to-air missile.

Incidentally, the helicopterwas shot down around thesame time when Indian andPakistani fighter jets wereengaged in the aerial battle.Moreover, the incident tookplace when the Indian forces ontheir highest alert following thePakistani aerial raid. The heli-copter crashed within ten min-utes of take off after getting hitby own missile.

Earlier, the then IAF ChiefDhanoa had also said sometime back the Service needs tolearn lessons on what hap-pened, how it happened and ifmistakes were made need tomake sure it does not happenagain.

Bhopal: The State Governmenthas dissolved the existing BharatBhavan Trust under the notifica-tion of March 1, 2008 under sec-tion 36 (2) of Public Trust Act-1951. Now the trust has nomi-nated 6 new members from thefields of literature, film, dance,visual arts, drama and music havebeen nominated in the trust.

According to the order issuedby the Department of Culture,Gulzar (Literature), ShyamBenegal (fFilm), Astad Debu(Dance), Ghulam MohammadSheikh (Visual arts), SanjanaKapoor (Drama) and UstadBahauddin Dagar (Music) havebeen nominated as new membersin the Bharat Bhavan Trust. Thetenure of the present memberswill be deemed to have endedautomatically from the date ofissue of the order for reorganiza-tion of Bharat Bhavan Trust. SR

���� )23�+2-8*

India’s decision to ban onionexport has impacted the

kitchen of Bangladesh PrimeMinister Sheikh Hasina.

Disclosing that she hasasked her cook not to useonion in food due to shortage,Hasina said India’s suddendecision to stop onion exportshas caused difficulty for hercountrymen and suggested thatNew Delhi should provideprior information about suchdecisions in future.

The onion prices have goneup sharply in neighbouringcountries after India bannedexports of onion to increaseavailability of the commodity inthe domestic market and con-tain spiralling prices.

“Pyaaz se thoda dikkat hogaya hamare liye. Mujhe mal-oom nahi kyun aapne pyaaz

band kar diya? Thoda sa noticeagar dete toh dusre jagah se laasakte the. Maine cook ko boldiya ab se khana mein pyaazdalna bandh kar do. Aage seagar kabhi bhi iss tarah aisakuch karna hai, toh humethoda sa pehle bata dena,” (Wehave been slightly inconve-nienced with the ban on onion.I don’t know why did you stopthis? If you had given a noticeto us, we could have got it fromsomewhere else. I haveinstructed my cook not to putonion while preparing food. Ifyou want to do such a thing,then do let us know at the ear-liest), Bangladesh PM Hasinasaid in a light-hearted mannerat the India-BangladeshBusiness Forum. Interestingly,her comments in Hindi left theaudience in splits.)

She was addressing India-Bangladesh Business Forum

here, which was organised byindustry chambers, includingCII and Assocham. Commerce

and Industry Minister PiyushGoyal was also present at theevent.

Bangladesh has been badlyhit by India’s export ban, withprices crossing �10,000 per100 kilogram in Dhaka. Thecountry has turned to the likesof Myanmar, Egypt, Turkeyand China to increase suppliesand control prices in its mar-kets. In retail markets, one kgof the staple vegetable usuallycosts 30 taka (36 US cents), buthas soared to up to 130 takaafter India imposed the exportban over the weekend while itwas being sold at �60-70 a kgin India.

About two-thirds of thedemand for onions — anessential ingredientin Bangladeshi cui-sine — is grownlocally byfarmers, withthe rest mostlyi m p o r t e dfrom neigh-

bouring India, where heavymonsoon rains have reducedthe crop. The price of onions isa sensitive subject in SouthAsia, where shortages can trig-ger widespread discontent withpolitical ramifications.

According to reports,India’s decision to ban onionexports has also impactedSouth Asian and Gulf coun-tries, including UAE whereprices have gone up sharply.Indian onion exports werevalued at

over $496 million in the 2018-19.

Last Sunday, the Ministryof Commerce imposed stocklimits on both retail andwholsesale traders of onion asonion producing States —Maharashtra, Karnataka,Madhya Pradesh, Bihar andRajasthan — are suffering fromfloods which impacted thekharif crops and movement ofstored onions across the country.

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���� )23�+2-8*

Chief Minister Kamal Nathcalled on the Prime

Minister Narendra Modi inNew Delhi today and submit-ted a memorandum regardingthe heavy loss to farmers’ cropsdue to excessive rainfall in theState.

Nath urged the PrimeMinister to send the Centralstudy team again to the State sothat the actual assessment ofthe damage could be done. Heasked the Prime Minister tocategorize the massive devas-tation caused due to rains in thestate as a serious disaster.

The Chief Minister urgedNDRF for assistance of about�9,000 crore for infrastructurereconstruction so that losscaused to the farmers andcommon people could be com-pensated immediately. Nathsaid that the entire country willget affected by the damagewhich was caused to the Kharifcrops at large scale in the stateas the crops grown in MadhyaPradesh fulfill the need of theentire country.

He further stated that thestate has suffered a loss ofover Rs 16,000 crore due to theexcessive rainfall and floods.The Prime Minister Narendra

Modi has assured the ChiefMinister Kamal Nath for thehelp.

The Chief Minister helddiscussion with the PrimeNarendra Modi for about 45minutes. He apprised the PrimeMinister of the damage causedto the farmers, houses, build-ings and other losses by the

excessive rains in the state.Nath informed the PrimeMinister that 46 percent morethan normal rainfall has beenrecorded in the state till now.Out of the 52 districts of thestate, 60 percent more than thenormal rainfall, has beenrecorded in 20 districts.

Continued on Page 4

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Governor Lalji Tandon ispreparing a practical

model of profitable vegetablesfarming at Raj Bhavan. Ademonstration centre equippedwith modern technique forproduction of vegetables will beestablished soon at Raj Bhavan.

In order to display a prac-tical example of modern hor-ticulture and farming, a HitechPolyhouse is being built at RajBhavan.

Vegetables will be grown inthe polyhouse throughout theyear. Any vegetable can beproduced during any season.

The Secretary ManoharDubey said that apart from tra-ditional farming, there is aneed for protected farming onFriday. He said organic farm-ing has to be given more

importance to restrict the useof chemicals and pesticides.This will increase both yieldsand income. At the same time,higher production with lowercosts will strengthen economyof the country.

Dubey said that with thisintention, the demonstrationcentre is being developed to usemodern methods to growfruits, flowers, vegetables etc.The Centre will make the peo-ple of the state aware of the newtechnology. It will also enable

people to know about the mod-ern farming. The Raj Bhavanwill have protected cultivationinstead of traditional farming.It will also produce organicproducts without soil, which isknown as soil less farming. Thiswill reduce the dependenceon soil.

Residents of urban areaswill be able to grow fresh veg-etables at their homes withoutsoil as per their requirement byobserving the farming at RajBhavan.

��""� ��� �� �� �8"1!-

Andhra Bank is organising CustomerOutreach Initiative Programme

with NBFCs and Retail Borrowers in 11identified districts across the countryproviding access to credit for Retail,Agriculture, Vehicles, House, MSMEand other Personal Loans to takeadvantage of the ensuing festive seasons.

Andhra Bank is also participatingin addition to the above, in CustomerOutreach Initiative meetings beingheld in two phases, by other PublicSector Banks.

The Meetings will be held in twophases first one being organized in 250districts from October 3 to 7 andanother 150 districts from October 21to 25, 2019.

Apart from marketing of our vari-ous above said loan products, the out-reach meetings will also marketFinancial Inclusion schemes and alsoencourage/assist the customers to shiftto digital payments including BHIMapp downloading.

In line with the same AndhraBank, Bhopal Zone organized‘Customer Outreach Initiative’ on 3 &4 October 2019 at Bhopal.

The customers and public were

apprised of various products of the Bankto the benefit of Retail, Agriculture,Vehicles, House, MSME and other

Personals. Zonal Manager M Narendra

Kumar, Asst General Manager G

Nageswara Rao with zonal office staffand local branch managers were presenton the occasion.

��""� ��� �� �� �8"1!-

Amit Soni, the husband ofBarkha Soni Bhatnagar,

an accused in the honeytrap-ping scandal, here on Fridayclaimed that his wife was inno-cent and also trashed reportsthat he pocketed big projectsthrough her wife’s contacts.

While talking to mediapersons here, he affirmed thathis wife is innocent and haswrongly framed in the case.

He, however, could notexplain as to why the policechose her wife to name in thecase. This is first such publicstatement from any of the per-sons linked with the scandal.

Soni accepted that previ-ously he was associated withthe Congress IT Cell but in themonth of June, his twitterhandle was hacked and someinappropriate tweets were

posted from it following whicha complaint was lodged incyber cell and the matter isunder probe.

In such cases, the partytakes disciplinary action,added Soni. He also acceptedthat his wife Barkha SoniBhatnagar was also associatedwith the Congress party.

Soni however trashedmedia reports which claimedthat he had grabbed big timeprojects through his NGO,using influential contacts of hiswife. “I wish to clarify that Ihave no NGO registered on myname and I am also not asso-ciated with any other non-gov-ernmental organisation.

In the police investiga-tion, as it was reported inmedia, it was said we knewinfluential people includingpoliticians and ministers. Hadit been true, we would not have

been arrested by police, con-tested Soni claiming that hisITRs of last eight-nine yearsaffirm that he had hardlyworked on projects worth Rsone crore in all these years.

“Neither other womennamed in the scandal haveidentified my wife nor thecomplainant in the case,” saidSoni adding they are yet toapply for the bail as they havefull faith in the court.

He though accepted thatone of the accused –ShwetaVijay Jain, a resident of MinalResidency, though has claimedthat she knew his wife Barkha.He accepted that on the day,Shweta and his family mem-bers were picked up by police,he was also taken to police sta-tion and heard that around Rs14 or 15 lakh were recoveredby police from the three neigh-bours of Jain.

��""� ��� �� �� �8"1!-

The Nishatpura police has nabbedfive miscreants near Dwarka Palace

and recovered gold, silver and �36,000cash from their possession late onFriday. It is pertinent to mention herethat miscreants were planning robberyat petrol pump.

Police said that on the receipt of theinformation of men carrying arms andplanning robbery police swung intoaction and team of Nishatpura policerushed to the spot and nabbed five per-sons near Dwarka Palace. The miscre-ants tried to escape the spot but werenabbed by the police.

The five were identified as Ashualias Javed (24) of Gandhi Nagar andYunus alias Innu of Gandhi Nagar, Asif(20), Golu alias Gulab(21) and Amir(21)of Nishatpura.

From their possession police haverecovered two country made pistol, 7live cartridges, one sharp edged weapon,chilli powder and rope.

The police have registered a caseunder section 399 and 402 of the IPCand section 25 and 27 of the Arms Act.

Later in the investigation the nabbedaccused revealed that they have com-mitted burglaries in the past.

Police have recovered valuablesworth �5 lakh.

Gold jewelry weighing 100 gm

and 1.5 kg of silver and �36000. Theaccused have been booked for burglary,robbery, Arms Act, Excise Act in theBhopal and Gwalior and were abscond-ing in cases.

Police said that more crimes would

be confessed by the accused in the fur-ther investigation and more recoverieswould be made. Accomplices who havehelped in disposing the valuablesobtained in crimes would also be inves-tigated.

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Anger and indignation overthe brutal thrashing of an

MSc student of the AgriculturalCollege by some unknown mis-creants led to mass protests bythe students today. The protest-ing students locked the maingates of the college and did notallow any students or membersof the staff to enter the collegepremises.

The student who wasallegedly beaten up was identi-fied as one Sunil, a student ofMSc final year. According toreports some miscreants fromoutside entered the college hos-tel room where Sunil was stay-ing and beat him up with rods,seriously injuring him.

The protesting students aftergathering at the main gate thismorning raised slogans againstthe police and the collegeadministration.

As the protests continuedASP Pankaj Pandey with a policeforce arrived at the college andappealed to the students to calloff the protests. He assuredthem that the culprits will soonbe apprehended.

The students during theirtalks with the ASP and theDean of the college raised manyquestions about the securityarrangements in the college,especially in the hostels.

Talking to the media per-sons, the protesting students saidthat beating up a roommate insuch a manner is not acceptable

and that it will send a wrongmessage. They further said thatthey are protesting so that suchincidents don’t happen again.

Talking to the media per-sons, J P Dikshit, Dean of thecollege expressed hope that thestudents will withdraw the agi-tation as assurances have beengiven by both the college admin-istration and the police to takeagainst the wrongdoers.

ASP Pankaj Pandey saidthat the police will soon appre-hend the culprits and strictaction will be taken againstthem. He also said that thepolice are examining the footageof all CCTV cameras in andaround the college and assuredthat urgent investigation into thematter is underway.

Bhopal: Misrod police nabbedthree miscreants including aminor who were planning tobreak ATM of Axis Bank nearBangrasia late in the evening onThursday.

Police said that acting on atip off regarding miscreantsplanning breaking of ATM ofAxis Bank , a team was rushedto the spot and caught theaccused breaking the ATM.

The accused were identifiedas Ejaj Khan (18), Lokesh Raialias Nandkishore( 20) and aminor of Bangrasia. After thepolice received information andreached the spot the three triedto escape but were nabbed andwhen they were questioned thatrevealed that they have attempt-ed earlier on September 6 at PatelMarket Bangrasia in which AxisBank ATM and Indicash ATMwas targeted but they failed to

reach the cash tray by breakingthe ATM. The police have reg-istered a case under sections 457and 427 of the IPC and havestarted further investigation.Accused confessed that he was inneed of money and due to whichhe committed the crime. Theaccused works with contractor.

After the incident onSeptember 6 in the morning nextday complainant SatishLohwansi who runs shop nearthe ATM reported the incidentto the police.

During the investigation itwould probed that the accusedare involved in other crimes. TheCCTV footage of other ATMbreaks of Bhopal and othernearby areas would be checked.Police have started to investigatethe crime record of the nabbedaccused. More details would berevealed. SR

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Bhopal: Valuables worth �2 lakh were burgled fromParavekhedi under Eithkhedipolice station area in the weehours on Friday; victim wasasleep at the time of the incident.

Police said that the victimShivnarayan alias ShubhamMeena was asleep and when hewoke up at around 7 in themorning on Friday valuableswere found burgled.

A complaint was lodgedwith the police by the victim inwhich the victim stated that hewas asleep and at around 7 amwhen he woke up valuableswere found burgled.

The police said that as partof the investigation, footage ofthe CCTV cameras of the local-ity will be checked. The neigh-bours have expressed ignoranceover the burglary. In the incident,more than gold jewellery, silver

jewelry and �3,50,000 cash andvaluables were burgled. Thetotal loss in the burglary isaround �2 lakh. Domestic helpand security guards would bequestioned in the further inves-tigation. The victim runs a gro-cery shop in the area. Meanwhile,valuables worth �50000 wereburgled from Shiv Nagar phaseII under Chola Mandir policestation area on Sunday. The vic-tim Sunil Kulhaiya had gone forsome work and when hereturned home valuables werefound burgled.

A complaint was lodged bythe victim with the police stat-ing that valuables worth �50000were burgled from the house.Based on the complaint thepolice have registered a caseunder section 457 and 380 of theIPC and have started furtherinvestigation. SR

��""� ��� �� �� �8"1!-

Minister for SchoolEducation Prabhuram

Chowdhary reviewed educa-tion system of schools ofChambal and Gwalior divisionsin Gwalior. He said that qual-ity education system will beensured in government schoolsby holding such meetings in allthe divisions of the state.Informing about the upgrada-tion of schools, facilities beingprovided to students and effortsbeing made for the welfare ofthe teachers as well as deci-sions, Chowdhary mentionedthat a meeting of Parents-Teachers unions will be orga-nized at all government schoolson October 19.

Chowdhary said that pub-

lic representatives and peopleshould also be linked withquality education system. Makesuch an environment in thegovernment schools that par-ents themselves should sendtheir children to the govern-ment schools in place privateschools. He told the teachers toreach school in time and impartquality education to the chil-dren. Stop cheating trend.

Chowdhary further statedthat teachers will be awardedfor getting better examinationresults. Action will also betaken against teachers who arenegligent towards their dutiesand for not attending schoolson time.

In the review meeting, theDirector of SarvashikshaAbhiyan Irene Cynthia JP

Director gave information indetail through power pointpresentation on important sub-jects like skill upgradation pro-grammes in schools, Ankur,Tarun, Umang, ChhaonGroups, Analysis of BoardExaminations, Teaching, CopyChecking, SchoolManagement, Ek Parisar EkShala, Mission One thousandas well as personality develop-ment.

The Principal SecretarySchool Education RashmiArun Shami, CommissionerPublic Instruction JaishreeKiyawat along with theCommissioners and Collectorsof Gwalior and ChambalDivision as well as DistrictEducation Officers were pre-sent on the occasion.

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The Swami VivekanandaLibrary organised an inter-

active session on Friday, by theReadersburg Story Club forchildren and teenagers.

It included Tanishka Khare,Reet Banga, Harjas Banga,Manya Ati, Nitya Sharma,Anushka Khare, SamrathKhare Mayukh Arora as themain guests. These are thechildren who are associatedwith this club and they gave dif-ferent presentations throughstories.

It is to be noted that theReadersburg Story Club adaptschildren's behavior and thinkingin such a way that they becomegood influences. Because thesuccess of people depends onhow well they can influence andcelebrate the people aroundthem. And all in the world isthrough influenced and reas-suring storytelling. So people'ssuccess depends on how wellthey can tell their stories.

Stories are needed to sell aproduct to people, to ensuregood teamwork in the office, to

have a happy family, to have ahappy and healthy social lifeand so on.

Everything depends onhow good your story is andhow well you can tell yourstory.

Readersburg trains chil-dren to write and tell storiesthat make them effective.

Then, Readersburg goesone step further and publish-es these stories made by chil-dren on its newspaper, The

Shepherd of Readersburg, andon its online TV ReadersburgTV. With newspaper and TV,children get a professional plat-form to express themselvesand this boosts their confi-dence.

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The kitablovers nationalbook fair at Manas Bhawan,

Bhopal has entered third dayand is being thronged by read-ers in huge numbers. Readersare finding their choices fromamong the books available here.

The book fair was inaugu-rated by Rajpal Singh, member,university grants commission,New Delhi and KK Singh, AddlChief Secretary, MP Govt onThursday. Speaking on thisoccasion, Rajpal Singh high-lighted the importance of read-ing among today’s generationand exhorted them to spendmore time with books to devel-op as a complete human being.

Talking further about thebook ‘Divorce Negatives’launched on this occasion of theBhopal author Alok Kumar, hesaid that the book identifies theproblems being faced by all ofus today and provides solutionsto tackle them successfully.The world economic report of2019 has identified loneliness,weather and economy as top 3global human risks today.

Further book deals with theday-to-day problems and sug-gests very easy and holisticsolutions to tackle issues facedby an individual and family.

He further said that byreading this book, one canexpect to be fully at ease withoneself in terms of his self-exis-tence.

It helps one to declutteremotionally, homely, financial-

ly, psychologically, socially, spir-itually etc. KK Singh talkedabout the importance of booksand suggested the audiencepresent to attend the AuthorDiscussion Forum on Sunday at11 am wherein the local Bhopalauthor Alok Kumar will beavailable to talk about his book‘Divorce Negatives’ and its high-lights.

Further he will be giving

small useful tips to tackle smallissues that we face on daily basisin terms of wellness, socially,financially, psychologically etc.

A copy each of his book willbe presented to 10 selectedreaders asking meaningful ques-tions on issues like loneliness,weather, economy, wellness,tackling social spiritual andpsychological negatives etc.

��""� ��� �� �� �8"1!-

Indira Gandhi RashtriyaManav Sangrahalaya

(IGRMS), Bhopal are organis-ing One Year Post GraduateDiploma in Museology - 2019-20 with collaboration of IndiraGandhi National TribalUniversity (IGNTU),Amarkantak.

The online process hasstarted of registration forentrance examination and lastdate of online registration isOctober 21.

The participant can applyon the official website of theIGRMS: www.igrms.gov.in.

The entrance examinationwill be held on November 3,2019 and result will be declaredat November 7, 2019. Classeswill start from November 18,2019.

The participants who grad-uate in any discipline from arecognized institution withminimum 50% of marks ingeneral category and 45% forSC/ST can apply for this exam-ination.

To register candidates haveto fill all the information andupload the necessary docu-ments in the application form.

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��""� ��� �� �� �8"1!-

The posting of AssistantProfessors, Librarians and

Sports Officers selected fromMadhya Pradesh Public ServiceCommission will now be madethrough choice filling. Selectedcandidates can fill the onlineoption for the posting from 11am on October 8 to 5.30 pm tillOctober 14. Detailed infor-mation will be available onHigher Education Departmentwebsite www.highereduca-tion.mp.gov.in.

According to the instruc-tions of Higher EducationMinister Jitu Patwari, this deci-sion has been taken only forone time for the postings oflarge number of vacant posts incolleges.

Only those selected candi-dates will be able to do onlinechoice filling, whose docu-ments are complete and havebeen physically verified. Atthe time of the choice filling ofthe candidates, their namesand address in Hindi will alsobe registered online. If foundcorrect, it will be recorded inthe appointment order / post-

ing order. If candidates do notfill the option, the posting willbe decided at the governmentlevel.

On the basis of merit can-didates will be allotted collegefor appointment and appoint-ment order will be issued. Thedepartment can also give post-ing to the candidate in anoth-er college outside the optiongiven, on the basis of adminis-trative requirement. The pro-ceedings of online choice fill-ing will be completed under thedirection of the Commissionerof Higher Education.

The new candidates, whohave been included in therevised list released by thePublic Service Commission,will be given the chance ofchoice filling only after physi-cal verification of the docu-ments. Order for onlineappointment / posting processwill be valid only for once.

The candidates, who areunable to join the onlineprocess for any reason, will begiven appointment and postingthrough the official offlineprocess like before.

��""� ��� �� �� �8"1!-

Awards of worth�16,92,47,853 have been

passed in 11 cases in 9 meetingsof Madhya Pradesh Micro andSmall Enterprises FacilitationCouncil. Development grantassistance of �112 crore has alsobeen provided to MSME units.

Minister of Micro, Smalland Medium Enterprises ArifAqueel informed that 1,74,368industrial units have been reg-istered under UAM (UdyogAadhaar Memorandum). Inthis, investment of �11690.66crore has been made andemployment opportunitieshave been made available to 5lakh 68 thousand 228 people.Infrastructure upgradation andmaintenance works are beingdone at a cost of Rs. 36 crore 25lakh 73 thousand in the indus-trial areas operated by thedepartment.

Under the Mukhya MantriYuva Udyami Yojana 811 ben-eficiaries have been benefitted.Likewise 15 thousand 173 ben-eficiaries under MukhyaMantri Swarozgar Yojana and

351 under Mukhya MantriKrishak Udyami Yojana havebeen benefitted.

Proposals have been sent toMSME department ofGovernment of India for infra-structure upgradation of indus-trial areas in Govindpura-Bhopal, Chandrapura-Chhatarpur, Kusmoda-Guna,Ratlam, Gandhari-Datia,Ashoknagar, Matehna-Satna,Maxi Road-Ujjain and Dewasand to develop new industrialarea for saw mills in PowerLoom Cluster-Burhanpur andChandpura-Bhopal under theCluster Development Schemeof the Government of India.

��""� ��� �� �� �8"1!-

The students discussed theburning issues of the soci-

ety. Bal Bhawan School held itsfirst day of Bal Bhawan ModelUnited Nations in the schoolcampus on Friday.

The Opening Ceremonywitnessed soothing welcomesong performance by theschool choir and enthrallingdance performance by theschool dance group.

Principal Rajesh Sharmaalong with the TeacherCoordinator of the conference,Fiza Khan welcomed the dele-gates, the executive boardmembers, and the entire teamin the second chapter of BalBhawan Model United Nationsand imbibed values associatedwith the objective of the con-ference.

The Secretary-Generaldeclared the conference openafter which the seven commit-tees started with the sessions inrespect to the pre-selected andindividual agendas.

The committess discussedvarious problems with respec-tive to their agendas and somenote worthy issues raised in

each committee. UNSC:Delegate debated on militrisa-tion and China and USA.

UNHRC: The committeehighlighted the sentimentalaspect of slavery in the dia-mond trade, effects of illegaldiamond trade on economy,child and women right viola-tion and pointed out that ISISand terrorist organisations area source of diamond tradebusiness.

UNW: Discussed the bar-riers on the way of abortion inurban areas, accessibility ofabortion in rural areas, andabortion rights to be com-pletely surrendered in thehands of woman irrespective ofthe spouse's will.

UNEP: The delegates dis-

cussed the possible solutions tocurb global climate change.They discussed the role ofmoney regarding as it cansupress climate change at agreater level.

Lok Sabha: This energisedcommittee discussrd variouscontroversial topics of theIndian Society such as HarshVardhan accepting the scamscommitted by BJP, DeepakBaiju mocking BJP to beBhrastachar Janta Party, GirirajSingh emphasises that practi-cal and theorotical conceptshould be equally proportion-al in order to release stress ofthe students, Sadhvi PragyaThakur going against BJP andRaj Nath was supported byArjun Munda to remove reser-vations.

AIPPM: This committeediscussed current GDP sce-nario, controversies prevailedwhen JD Nadda claimedModiji to be a corrupt politi-cian, heated debate was wit-nessed between Mayawati andKejriwal and others regardingreservations and GDP deflationand paid attention on the roleof demonitization and GST inthe decline of GDP.

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The new comers of PatelGroup of Institutions had a

blast at the fresher’s partyAayam 2019 organised at thecollege premises. Clicking self-ies, dancing on the rockingtunes and singing the rhythmloud, was all about the fresher’sparty at Patel Group ofInstitutions.

The seniors organised a daz-zling fresher’s party for the newcomers at the college’s premisesto give them a warm welcome tothe college life. The programmebegan with the lighting of lampby Vice President of the collegePreeti Patel.

Notably, the juniors camein different attire and in trendylook. There was traditionaland western dress code of theevent. The programme was allabout the various enthrallingperformances including dancesand musical performances.

On one hand the studentsgave a prologue of their talenton stage and on the otherhand they confidently walkedover the ramp leaving everyoneimpressed. The students weredressed as the movie and fan-tasy characters.

The fun began with thesolo singing and dance perfor-mances. First the students pre-sented a fusion which was fol-

lowed with a group dance ofpopping and locking style. Theprogramme was followed withthe ramp walk, and through theramp walk Mr and MissFresher were selected. The stu-dents were marked over thewalk, dressing sense and pre-sentation. All the students triedtheir best to impress the judgeson stage.

The excitement and thrillwas clearly seen among thefresher’s, as they ramp walkedand introduced themselvesbefore the faculty and stu-dents. Later all the studentswere seen taken selfies andenjoying every moment at thefresher’s party.

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Bhopal: The youngsters of thecity presented wonderful garbaperformance before theBhopalites on Friday.

As the city is adorned withthe celebrations of Navratri, thepeople are taking full pleasure ofGarba dance with a lot of fervor.Various Navratri celebration pro-grammes are being organised inthe city where the enthusiasts areenjoying the colours of this fest.

Similarly, the GarbaPerformance was held at UtkalBhavan on Saturday wherein theparticipants enjoyed theDandiya Raas. Here on Fridaythe participants tapped their feetover the Gujarati rhythms andtraditional songs. The partici-pants gave wonderful perfor-mances adding more zest to

Garba Event. They performedon songs like Amba AaoniRamiye, Sonaro Garbo, KhelKhel re Bhavani Maa and more.

It is to be noted that a 15 dayGarba workshop was organ-ised by Chaitanya Socio CulturalGroup at Utkal Bhavan. Underthe week long workshop, theyoungsters learnt the tradition-al and folk steps of garba per-formance which they presnetesbefore the Bhopalites on Friday.

The programme began withthe devotional spirit where theparticipants performed Aarti forGoddess Durga. The perfor-mance was then followed withthe aradhna of Garba DeviMaa. The participants with a lotof enthusiasm performed theGarba Raas keeping their spir-

its high. The energy level thatwas put in by the performers intheir performances added morezest in the presentation and theGarba was pleasing to the eyesof the audience.

Following the traditionalgarba steps, the artists gave anenthralling performance pre-senting the Garba on tradition-al songs and then adding theLavani dance making the per-formance even more delightful.Later, the students gave a per-formance on Ghoomar, anoth-er form of Garba dance whichmade the people tap their feetwith more fervor and ecstasy.

The artists carried beautifuland traditional attire that addedto the mood of the perfor-mances. SR

Bhopal: A 21-year-old nursingstudent girl was robbed of hermobile phone by two bike-bornemiscreants at Idgah Hills underShahjehanabad police stationarea in the evening on Thursday.

Police said that the victimAnshwika Ingle was robbedwhile she was on her way tohome and when she reached atIdgah Hills she was attacked androbbed by two bike borne mis-creants. The victim in her com-plaint stated that the two mis-creants came from behind andescaped with mobile phone overwhich she was talking.

Based on the complaint afterthe preliminary investigationthe police have registered a caseunder section 392 of the IPC andstarted search for the accused.

The victim is pursuing nurs-ing from a private college. Afterher college while she was s on her

way to home she received a callafter which she picked the calland continued to move forwardbut unaware of the bike bornemiscreants she was robbed of hermobile phone. Police suspectsthat the miscreants would bethose visiting liquor shops in thenearby area. The victim in hercomplaint stated that she was tar-geted by two miscreants over ablack coloured bike and werewearing mask. Based on thedetails police have started inves-tigation.

The victim lives at IdgahHills and was walking towardshome after college when she wastargeted by the miscreants.During the further investigationpolice would search for details ofmiscreants in the footages ofCCTV cameras installed in thearea, said police. SR

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Former Haryana ChiefMinister Bhupinder Singh

Hooda on Friday filed hisnomination papers from GarhiSampla-Kiloi assembly seg-ment after performing ahavan.

The Congress’ ChiefMinisterial candidate. his wifeand relatives gathered arounda pyre, praying to Vedicchants.

Hooda said the “anti-peo-ple” BJP Government inHaryana will be ousted afterthe October 21 polls as peoplehave made up their mind tobring back the main opposi-tion party to power. TheHaryana Congress Legislature

Party leader said the “falsepromises” made by BJP havebeen exposed before the peo-ple.

“They talk of ‘ab ki baar 75paar, but people are saying ‘abki baar Congress ki sarkar’,” theveteran Congress leader toldreporters after filing nomina-tion papers.

“All sections of society,

including farmers, workers,traders and Governmentemployees, have been hit bythe anti-people policies of theBJP,” the leader of opposition

in Haryana Assembly claimed.

“This Government hasbeen hit by various scams,including cash-for-jobs scamand illegal mining scam. Theyhave not fulfilled any promis-es they made to the publicbefore coming to power. Butthey are experts in event man-agement and in selling dreamsto the public,” he said.

He said days of the anti-people BJP-led governmentin Haryana are numbered andpeople of the State have madeup their mind to vote it out.

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Former Har yana ChiefMinister Bhupinder Singh

Hooda on Friday filed hisnomination papers declaringthat seven criminal cases areregistered against him.

The two-time formerChief Minister filed his nom-ination papers from GarhiSampla Kiloi in Rohtak dis-trict on the last day of filing ofnominations for the StateAssembly polls, scheduled tobe held October 21 inHaryana.

Hooda is a four-timeMLA from Garhi Sampla Kiloiassembly constituency.

The 72-year old Congressveteran has declared a totalassets of �6.67 crore(�6,67,67,390) while his wifeAsha Hooda is richer thanhim with a total assets of�8.99 crore (�8,99,92,446), asper the affidavit filed.

The senior Congressleader has seven criminalcases registered against him.

The cases include oneregistered by Haryana police,two by EnforcementDirectorate and four othercases registered and beingi n v e s t i g a t e dby the Central Bureau ofInvestigation.

The cases are related tomisuse of the official position,criminal conspiracy, cheatingand criminal misconduct bypublic servants, activitiesassociated with crime under

the Prevention of Money

Laundering Act 2002.The former Chief Minister

has however termed the crim-inal cases as “frivolous andfalse allegations”.

As per the affidavit filed,Hooda has declared movableassets worth �2.04 crore andimmovable assets worth �4.63crore. His liabilities stood at�13,20,000.

The former Chief Ministerowns one revolver (worth�50,000 approx), one rifle(�50,000 approx) and one pis-tol (�50,000 approx).

Hooda’s wife Asha ownsmovable property worth �2.40cr and immovable propertyworth �6.59 cr, the affidavitstated.

Hooda has declared hisprofession as agriculturist,advocate and politician in theaffidavit.

He had filed income taxreturns of �41.44 lakh infinancial year 2018-19, �38.26lakh in FY 2017-18, �35.39lakh in FY 2016-17, �27.46lakh in FY 2015-16 and �38.81lakh in FY 2014-15.

In 2014, Hooda haddeclared assets worth �8.8 crore (including his wifeassets).

The former Chief Ministerhad won the 2014 Assembly

polls by a margin of 47185votes against his nearest rivalSatish Kumar Nandal ofIndian National Lok Dal fromGarhi Sampla Kiloi segment.

Hooda, a prominent Jatleader had earlier this yearunsuccessfully contested theLok Sabha election fromSonipat seat against BJP’s

Ramesh Chander Kaushik. The former Chief Minister

had lost by a margin of 1.64l a k hvotes.

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Air Marshal (retd) KC Cariappa, the sonof India’s first Army Chief, Field

Marshal KM Cariappa, was a 27-year-oldsquadron leader during the 1965 Indo-Pakwar, when the Pakistani forces shot downthe Hunter aircraft that he was flying andhe was taken as a prisoner of war. “It wasSeptember 22.

I did not know that mine was the lastsortie until I got back home. I doremember that it was at 9:04 that I land-ed on the ground. We were returninghome and we were being fired at byground weapons, we returned the fireand in that process the aircraft I was fly-ing got shot down.

I ejected from the aircraft, I landedon my bottom and I was momentarilyparalysed, as I could not move. Peoplewearing khaki uniform surrounded meand I thought that I was surrounded byIndians but at that time the artilleryopened up and started attacking us.

It was at that moment that werealised that we were prisoners. I washurt, my spine got injured and I was ingreat deal of pain,” recounted Cariappain an interview during his visit toDehradun on Friday as the chief guestat the annual Military History Seminarorganised by Welham Boys’ School. “Iwas taken to a hospital and then even-tually to Lahore.

From Lahore, I was taken toRawalpindi and from there to the mainprisoner of war camp at Dargai in thenorthwest frontier. I stayed there for fourmonths during which I spent a lot oftime in solitary confinement,” he nar-rated.

On what scared him while he wastaken prisoner, the veteran remarked,“The worst thing that can happen to aperson is the fear of the unknown. Thatwas also my greatest fear when I wastaken as a prisoner of war as I did notknow how I was going to be treated bythose who had captured me. Whenyou’re fighting a war, you do not knowwhether your loved ones back homeknow that you are alive.

And this to you is a threat. That isalso what the Pakistanis used to scare meto get information from me. They usedto tell me, ‘Nobody back home knowswhether you are alive or not. You bettergive us answers to the questions that weare asking.’ According to the GenevaConvention, as a prisoner of war we aresupposed to disclose only three pieces ofinformation-name, number and rank.But that does not work, they really tryto get whatever information they can outof you and as a young flight lieutenantthere was very little information that Icould actually give. We were a total ofabout 57, out of this there were around12 Sikh army officers who were kept ina separate compound and this was typ-ical Pakistani way of trying to encour-age Khalistan at that time.” Recallingthose four months that he spent as a pris-oner of war, Cariappa stated, “It was adifficult time but my confidencereturned when I was with the other sixIndian Air Force officers who had beentaken as prisoners of war and then laterfor all of us when we received our firstRed Cross parcels in the first week ofDecember 1965 because we understoodthat it had been acknowledged that wewere alive and were being kept as pris-oners of war.

Our source of information while wewere prisoners of war was a local sweep-er who belonged to a minority commu-

nity of Pakistan. One day he told us that he had heard

rumours that we were going back toIndia and that the next day a tailor wouldcome to the prison to give us newclothes.

And on the morning of 22nd wewere told that we were being moved outof the prison, that we would leave at 4o’clock in the morning.

It was only after returning to Indiathat I got to know that Ayub Khan hadmade a special gesture to my father offer-ing to repatriate me back to India towhich my father had said, ‘they’re all mysons please look after all of them inexactly the same way.’ And these famouswords of Army chief Field MarshalCariappa became the theme of thisyear’s military history seminar as ethicsand leadership.”

The opening segment had AirMarshal (retd) Cariappa; the schoolchairman Darshan Singh, former airchief Air Chief Marshal (retd) AY Tipnisand Colonel Vivek Sharma, the presentcommandant of RIMC as panelists withauthor Shiv Kunal Verma as the mod-erator. As stated by Welham Boys’ prin-cipal, Gunmeet Bindra, “Each edition ofthe Military History Seminar gives anopportunity to set higher benchmarks bydelving in topics of acute concern, cel-ebrating real life heroes and promotinginformed citizenry.”

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The director of StateMeteorological Centre,

Bikram Singh, said that thewithdrawal of monsoon fromthe State this year will be a bitlate. The expected date for themonsoon withdrawal inUttarakhand is October 10,whereas in Punjab andRajasthan, the withdrawal ofmonsoon is about one monthlate.

He further said, “We takethe time period from June 1to September 30 as monsoon.This year in Uttarakhand thewithdrawal of monsoon islikely to start from October10. The rainfall in the State is18 per cent, which can beconsidered within normalrange.

On the other hand in thecountry, the rainfall has beenrecorded above normal range.In the year 2018, the mon-soon in the entire region ofUttarakhand started with-drawing from October 1. Inthe year 2017, the withdraw-al in some parts of state start-ed from September 30 but inthe entire state it started with-drawing from October 11.”

About the drop in tem-perature during the morningand night time he said, “Thisis a standard observance thatcan be seen after rainfall butfrom mid October toDecember it will be post-monsoon season or north-eastern monsoon and inJanuary-February the win-ters will come.”

When asked about the

effect the increase in globalwarming have on regionalweather he said, “With theincrease in global warmingthe number of severe weath-er events have had no changebut the intensity of theseevents has increased. Thesame can be said for rainfall,the number of rainy days hasdecreased but the intensity atsome places is so much thatthe total rainfall recorded issame. The distribution ofrainfall is also becomingincreasingly irregular.”

It is pertinent to mentionhere that the StateMeteorological Centre hasforecast moderate thunder-showers especially in moun-tainous regions ofUttarakhand on Saturday.Overall, the weather is likelyto remain partly cloudy withpossibility of light to moder-ate rainfall and thunder-storms at most places.

In the provisional capitalof Dehradun the maximumand minimum temperaturesare likely to be 30 degreeCelsius and 19 degree Celsiusrespectively. Meanwhile onFriday, the maximum andminimum temperaturesrecorded at various places inthe state were 29.7 degreeCelsius and 19 degree Celsiusrespectively in Dehradun,32.1 degree Celsius and 22.4degree Celsius in Pantnagar,20.3 degree Celsius and 11.5degree Celsius inMukteshwar, 20.6 degreeCelsius and 13.2 degreeCelsius respectively in NewTehri.

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The investigation in thearmed robbery case at the

residence of the West Bengalcricket team captainAbhimanyu Easwaran is reveal-ing more facts about othercrimes by the day. The most sus-picious among these is the rob-bery at the residence of a gov-ernment official from DehradunRegional Transport Office(RTO). In the same investiga-tion district police have arrest-ed another person involved inthe robbery case at Easwaranresidence. The accused arrest-ed on Thursday helped themain accused of the robbery bymelting the jewellery and sell-ing it in the market.

The accused arrested hasbeen identified as MohammadArshad. During the interroga-tion with the earlier arrested sixaccused Virendra Singh alias

Thakur, Mohammad Adnan,Mujibbur Rehman alias Piru,Furkan, Firoj and Haider, it wasrevealed that they took helpfrom Arshad to sell the jewellerylooted from Easwaran’s resi-dence. Arshad is a relative ofAdnan and has a jewellery shopin Titli Bazaar, Delhi.

During interrogation,Arshad told the police that hehas a shop near Jama Mazjid inTitli Bazaar. Few days agoAdnan and Haider told him thatthey had successfully complet-ed a robbery in Dehradun andhad large amount of jewellerythat they needed to sell imme-diately.

As he could not melt sucha large amount of jewellery inhis shop, he took them toDareeba where there are moreresources to melt gold or silver.He also said that they gave himsome money as commissionafter selling the jewellery.

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From Page 1He further informed that

Mandsuar, Neemuch and Agar-Malwa of Malwa region havebeen affected the most becauseof the excessive rainfall. Exceptpaddy, all other crops havebeen affected. About one lakhhouses have suffered damage.Nath told the Prime Ministerthat 242 villages were evacuat-ed fully or partially due to theexcessive rainfall. About 1100km roads and over 1700bridges and culverts have suf-fered damage.

The Chief Ministerinformed that over 75,000 peo-ple have been evacuated to thesafer places and relief campswith the help of the StateGovernment, Government ofIndia and various agencies.

Arrangement for lodging, food,clothes and medicines etc. havebeen made for the affectedpeople. The voluntary organi-zations have also helped thegovernment in this work, headded.

Nath urged the PrimeMinister that rains are stillcontinuing in the state after thevisit of the Central Study Team.Therefore, a survey of the dam-age should be conducted againso as to make a realistic assess-ment of the damage caused. Heasked to provide Rs. 6621.28crore from the NationalDisaster Relief Fund (NDRF)and Rs 2285.88 crore for infra-structure rebuilding immedi-ately so as to provide immedi-ate help to the farmers andother affected people.

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���� )23�+2-8*

Asserting that he will not beafraid of taking decisions

for fear of attracting com-plaints of corruption, DefenceMinister Rajnath Singh onFriday invited the private sec-tor for active participation inthe defence industry.

Singh also said the Centreis committed to exploiting theentrepreneurship spirit of pri-vate defence sector and readyto interact and resolve theirproblems in the plans to takethe Indian defence industry tothe size of USD 26 billion by2025.

Stating that his doors arealways open, he urged the pri-vate companies to come for-ward as he would like to give allhelp wherever possible. Singhis scheduled to travel to Parison October 7 on a three-dayvisit, primarily to receive thefirst of 36 Rafale fighter jets.The next day, Singh will fly asortie in a Rafale fighter jetfrom a French airbase in Paristo gain first-hand experience ofthe aircraft.

Speaking at the IndiaInternational Security Expo,

organised by PHD Chamber ofCommerce and Industry, Singhsaid India cannot remaindependent on importedweapons for long since it didnot align with the country'splans to become a superpow-er.

The Minister said thatwhen he became the DefenceMinister people told him heshould be careful on whom tomeet and who to allow entry,as there could be scope forinviting complaints of corrup-tion.

"They said that there aremany business-related propos-als, and there are matters relat-ed to imports and exports,

and the minister should becareful of all this otherwisesomeone will raise a finger('Nahi to ungli uth jayegi').

"A Minister who is afraid ofcorruption charges, shouldrefrain (from taking decisions),Rajnath Singh is not worriedabout all this. People and bigindustry organisations in thiscountry know who is what('kaun kya hai'). I am not wor-ried at all. Come. My doors areopen. Whatever help I cangive, the defence ministry willgive. This is an assurance Iwould like to give you," he said.Defence procurement has oftenbeen dogged by allegations ofcorruption.

���� )23�+2-8*

The Centre has handed overthe probe into recovery of

huge arms, ammunition andcommunication hardware inPunjab, suspected to have beendelivered through drones fromacross the border, to theNational Investigation Agency(NIA).

The decision to hand overthe probe to the federal anti-terror probe agency was takenfollowing Punjab government'srequest in the wake of thestate police's claim to havebusted a terror module of theKhalistan Zindabad Force(KZF), backed by a radicalterror group based in Pakistanand Germany, last month.

Punjab Police had said theterror group was conspiring tounleash a series of strikes inPunjab and adjoining States.

The Centre is convincedthat scheduled offences underthe National InvestigationAgency Act 2008 have beencommitted and having regardto the gravity of the offencewhich include conspiracy to

carry out terrorist activity tocreate communal tension,instability and revival of ter-rorism in Punjab, these arerequired to be investigated bythe NIA in accordance with theAct, according to a HomeMinistry order.

The central Governmenthereby directs the NIA to takeup the investigation of theaforesaid offences, it said.

The initial investigation hasfound the use of drones todeliver weapons and communi-cation hardware from Pakistan,a home ministry official said.

Four persons were arrestedfrom the outskirts of ChohlaSahib village in Tarn Taran dis-trict on Punjab on September22. A huge cache of arms,including five AK-47 rifles, pis-tols, satellite phones and hand

grenades were seized from them.The weapons were sus-

pected to have been deliveredfrom across the border by thePakistani intelligence agencyISI for jihadi and pro-Khalistani terrorist outfitsworking under its command,Punjab Police said.

Punjab DGP Dinkar Guptasaid the module was busted fol-lowing inputs gathered from

sources that activists of thebanned KZF had planned tocarry out multiple terroriststrikes in J-K, Punjab andother adjoining States.

The Pakistan Army-ISIcombine has been workingovertime for the last one decadeto revive militancy in Punjabthrough terror outfits proppedup by them and based in othercountries.

���� )23�+2-8*

The CPI(M) on Fridayaccused the BJP and the

RSS for trying to duplicate theNational Population Register(NPR) and the NationalRegister of Citizens (NRC) aspart of their efforts to "sharp-en polarisation" in the countryand consolidate "communalvote bank".

Addressing a press con-ference here after the conclu-sion of the party's two-daycentral committee meeting,CPI(M) general secretarySitaram Yechury said thoughNRC is specific to Assam andwhile knowing this aspect theChief Ministers of various BJP-ruled states purposefully

demand a National Register ofCitizens (NRC) in their Statesto create tensions.

"The NPR is dangerous.This Government has revivedthe preparation of the NationalPopulation Register (NPR).This is being done in prepara-tion for an all India NRC on thebasis of this NPR. The centralGovernment has asked somestates to start constructingbuildings to be used as deten-tion centres," he said.

���� )23�+2-8*

Amidst rising tensionbetween India and

Pakistan and reports indicatingthat the Balakot terror camp,which was destroyed by the IAFaerial strikes on February 27and other such launch padshave become active again, IAFchief RKS Bhadauria said hereon Friday if the Governmentdecides they will carry out thenecessary action.

Asked about the threatpotential of drones especially inthe aftermath of such an attackon oil refineries in SaudiaArabia recently as part of thenew way of asymmetric war-fare, the IAF chief had antici-pated such a challenge and weare also procuring sensors andother equipment to thwart anyattack. He said the IAF is alsoaware of incidents in Punjabwhere drones were used todrop weapons by Pakistan.

Sounding this warning toPakistan without naming it, theIAF chief, however, said it is notthe IAF strategy to use suchstrikes as the first step but if anyincident takes place, in obvious

reference to Pulwama attack,the Service is ready if theGovernment decides.

He also said it was wrongto assume that despite theBalakot air raids, terrorist campswere now thriving. If Balakotstrikes had not taken place, thelevel of terrorism would havebeen much more, he pointedout. The Air Chief was address-ing the annual Press conferenceahead of the Air Force Day onOctober 8 and responding toArmy Chief General BipinRawat's recent statement aboutBalakot reviving.

On China rapidly rampingits infrastructure especially

along the Line of ActualControl (LAC) and mod-ernising its air force, he said,"We know what exactly is hap-pening there(China)."

Responding to queriesabout IAF's modernisation, hesaid the focus is on indigenisa-tion and modernization besidesacquiring critical weapons andspares to maintain operationalpreparedness. In one of themajor steps towards indigeni-sation, the IAF is backing thedesign and production ofadvanced medium combat air-craft (AMCA) by DRDO. Itwill be a fifth generation fight-er aircraft (FGFA). Bhadauriaruled out importing a new air-craft of such generation "now orin foreseeable future."

Incidentally, India andRussia have been working onthe joint project to developFGFA since 2007. Both sideshad signed only a preliminary$295 million design contractfor the co-development of theFGFA in 2010.

He also dismissed reportsabout procuring 36 moreRafale fighter jets from Franceand said the process of select-

ing the suitable fighter for the114-jet project is on. These jetswill be manufactured withinIndia as part of the StrategicPartnership. The proposeddeal is worth over 10 billiondollars.

Bhauduria said IAF willsoon place an order for 83 moreindigenously designed andmanufactured Tejas light com-bat aircraft (LCA). The costnegotiations were in anadvanced stage, he said addingbesides these projects, the IAFwill soon procure 21 moreMIG-29s and 12 more SU-30s.

About the induction planeof 36 Rafale jets as per the gov-ernment to Govt deal withFrance worth over �58,000crores, he said the first fourRafales manufactured as perthe Indian specifications willcome to India in May end nextyear. Bhadauria as deputy chiefof air staff was instrumental inthe Rafale jet negotiations withthe French Government andDassault Aviation, manufac-turers of the fighter jet. As trib-ute to him, the first IndianRafale aircraft is having tail noRB-01.

���� )23�+2-8*

The Parliamentary StandingCommittee on Information

and Technology headed byCongress MP Shashi Tharoorhas decided to examine thesecurity and privacy of thecitizens' data and review thefunctioning of the UniqueIdentification Authority ofIndia (UIDAI).

The Lok Sabha Secretariaton Friday said the panel hasselected various subjects forexamination including policyissues on information tech-nology including cross borderdata flows, artificial intelli-gence (AI) and internet ofthings (IoT).

The committee is alsoreviewing functioning of thetelecom regulator TelecomRegulatory Authority of IndiaTRAI, Bharat Sanchar Nigam

Limited (BSNL), MahanagarTelephone Nigam Limited(MTNL) and the country'spreparedness for 5G.

"Review of functioning ofUIDAI, Citizens' data securityand privacy, and digital pay-ment and online security mea-sures for data protection," arethe subjects selected by thecommittee for examination,"said the Lok Sabha secretariat.

Safeguarding citizens'rights and prevention of mis-use of social or online newsmedia platforms, includingspecial emphasis on womensecurity in the digital space, willalso be examined.

���� )23�+2-8*

In a bid to ensure trans-parency, members for

National Medical Commission(NMC) will be elected throughlottery system on 14th of thismonth, Union Minister forHealth Dr Harshvardhan saidon Friday.

Talking to reporters heresaid that the entire process ofconstituting the NMC will befully transparent and mediawill also be involved in selec-tion process. He said, NMCwill bring historic reforms inthe medical education systemin the country.

An official in the HealthMinistry said that once theNMC becomes effective,Medical council of India willautomatically be abolished. Hesaid, there is also a high possi-

bility that NMC will be able toimplement its rules, regulationsand guidelines for medicaleducation system from nextacademic year.

The Act provides for set-ting up of NMC in place of theMedical Council of India fordevelopment and regulationof all aspects of medical edu-

cation, profession and institu-tions.

Several relevant sections ofthe Act came into force onSeptember 2 after which theUnion Health Ministry onAugust 9 wrote to to all chiefsecretaries, home secretaries ofUTs and state medical councilsseeking nominations for selec-tion of members of the NMC.

InsetFrom 2020, admission to

MBBS courses in all medicalcolleges across the country including JIPMER andall the AIIMS will be throughthe National Eligibility cumEntrance Test (NEET), UnionHealth Minister HarshVardhan announced on Friday.

AIIMS and JIPMER havealso been brought under theNEET ambit now.

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���� )23�+2-8*

The filing of applications fornext year's Haj pilgrimage

will be completely digital andthe process will start fromOctober 10 and there will be 22embarkation points for 2020Haj, Minority Affairs ministerMukhtar Abbas Naqviannounced on Friday

"The new embarkationpoint to be opened for Haj nextyear will be at Vijayawada inAndhra Pradesh. So, in Haj2020, two lakh Indian Muslimswill go for Haj from 22embarkation points across thecountry," he told newspersons.

Naqvi said this after chair-ing a review meeting organisedon the completion of Haj 2019where he took stock of thepreparations for next year's

pilgrimage.The meeting was attended

by senior officials from theministries of External Affairs,Civil Aviation and Health.India's Ambassador to SaudiArabia Ausuf Sayeed and HajCommittee of India ChairmanSheikh Jinna Nabi also attend-ed the meeting.

Naqvi said Haj 2020 will be"100 per cent online" and a sys-tem has been developed to pro-vide e-visa to all the pilgrims.

"People can apply onlinefor Haj 2020 from October 10till November 10. Applicationsfor Haj can also be be filedthrough a mobile application,"he said.

The minister said HajGroup Organisers (HGOs) canapply on an online portal fromNovember 1 to December 1.

�� � )23�+2-8*

Chief Minister BhupeshBaghel addressed a massive

public gathering on Fridayduring 'Gandhi VichaarPadyatra' held on the occasionof 150th birth anniversary ofMahatma Gandhi in Kandel.

He announced that a col-lege would be opened inKandel in the name of Fatherof Nation Mahatma Gandhi,Madamsilli dam would benamed after late BabuChhotelal Shrivastav, waterwould be released from damsfor crops in summer. He also

announced bridge construc-tion in Kandel and naming ofGovernment HigherSecondary School Gopalpuriafter freedom fighter ShriHazari Lal Jain.

The Chief Minister said to

protest the irrigation tax impo-sition by British rulers inKandel, freedom fighter lateShri Babu ChhotelalShrivastava had launchedKandel Nahar Satyagrah.Mahatma Gandhi had decided

to reach Kandel and join theprotest but soon after receivingthis information, British rulershad withdrawn the irrigationtax imposed. To make thesememories of Kandel NaharSatyagrah unforgettable,'Gandhi Vichaar Padyatra' hasbeen organized. Chief Ministercommemorated the personal-ity and contribution ofMahatma Gandhi in socialreformation, his fight for farm-ers, labourers and poors. Hededicated his life for womeneducation, women empower-ment and self-dependence. Hefollowed the path of truth andnon-violence to made Indiafree. It was the first ever non-violent movement for inde-pendence of a country.Mahatma Gandhi made non-violence his strength and madeIndia free.

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Page 6: ˘! RNI Regn. No. MPENG/2004/13703, Regd. No. L …...2019/10/05  · trade tensions. The rate cut by the RBI follows a series of fis-cal steps taken by the Government over the last

Recently, while addressing theUN Climate Action Summit2019 in the US, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi said, “Webelieve that an ounce of action

is worth more than a tonne of preaching”and announced that India had ambitiousplans to harness solar energy. A target ofinstalling 175 gigawatt (GW) of renewableenergy by 2022 has been set, which mayfurther increase to 450 GW by 2030. TheGovernment had an initial target of 20GW of solar capacity by 2022, which wasachieved four years ahead of schedule.Encouraged by this performance, thetarget was revised in 2015 to 100 GW,which has now been further raised, as thePrime Minister informed in his address.

To meet this goal, a series of solarpower projects such as the Solar Parks andUltra Mega Solar Power Projects, CanalSolar Power Project and the installationof 1,00,000 solar pumps for farmers areat different stages of implementation.Solarisation of nearly 50,000 petrol sta-tions across the country is also being promoted. Over 3,000 fuel stations arealready solar-powered. Considering thatIndia is the fourth-largest emitter of carbon dioxide in the world, solar ener-gy appears to be a very convenient alter-native.

India is lucky that sunlight is availablein abundance but the challenge lies in theprocurement of solar Photo Voltaic (PV)cells, which is one of the major constrain-ing factors in our efforts to realise the fullpotential. According to a report submit-ted by the parliamentary standing com-mittee, in order to achieve the target of 100GW of solar electricity capacity by 2022,India should have had an installed capac-ity of 32,000 megawatt (MW) by 2017-18.But as of January 31, 2018, the countryonly had a capacity of 18,455 MW. As perthe standing committee, the Ministry ofNew and Renewable Energy has to installthe remaining 81,545 MW in just fouryears — this is over 20,000 MW a year andappears difficult to achieve.

A serious lacuna in the entire exer-cise is our poor record in indigenousmanufacturing of solar panels. TodayChina is the only country that caters tomost of the global PV cell demands. Itproduces the cheapest solar panels. It isdifficult for any country to match suchlow prices. This has led to a situationwhere China has a virtual monopoly andthis may not be desirable in the long run.Our own imports, mostly from China,accounted for 90 per cent of 2017 sales,up from 86 per cent in 2014. Thus, it isparadoxical that both our sources of ener-gy and oil as well as solar are currentlyheavily dependent on imports.

The world’s annual solar capacityreached close to 500 GW last year, whichmay go up to 3,000/5,000 GW by 2030, a

ten-fold increase. In the next30 years, this demand is like-ly to increase by hundredtimes and the major beneficia-ry will be China.

Strategically, it will not belogical for India to continuenourishing the Chinesemonopoly as it would intro-duce serious imbalances in theglobal situation. This calls forthe need to prioritise theexpansion and investment inthe manufacture of PV cellindustry. In the near future,hydrocarbon resources aregoing to be scarce and, hence,the emphasis on electric vehi-cles (EVs). They can becharged directly using PVcells. This will not only bringdown the carbon dioxideemission levels but also reduceour dependence on fossil fuels.

To actualise such a situa-tion, we must start investing inlithium ion batteries. Here,too, the Chinese have an upperhand and, hence, the need tolook for alternatives. Lithiumion batteries being compatiblewith PV cells, once they losetheir efficiency in cars, can bereused for domestic solar bat-tery applications.

In the years to come,demand for solar panels isbound to see a dramatic rise.Land availability for the estab-

lishment of solar plants in adensely populated country likeIndia can become a majorissue. It has been estimatedthat the setting up of a 1 MWpower solar plant requires twoto three hectares of land. Incase the solar panels are thin-film based, requirement ofland can go up to four to fivehectares. As for the first case,wastelands or land that is notavailable for cultivation can beused for the setting up ofsolar parks.

In order to improve effi-ciency of solar panels in theseparks, directional limitations inthe existing design have suit-ably been addressed by devis-ing a tracking system. A solartracker is a device that is usedto orient the panel towards thesun. For flat panel PV systems,a solar tracker ensures that thesun’s rays fall at the correctangle of incidence. A solartracker fitted PV panel canshow considerable improve-ment in its efficiency.

A dual axis tracker rotateson two axis and follows thesun vertically as well as hori-zontally so that the panel getsthe best incidence of sun rays,thus increasing its efficiencyby about 20 per cent.Nevertheless, in areas whereland is available like Rajasthan,

dust is a major problem, whichover a period of time, tends toerode the efficiency of thesolar panels.

But all is not lost as wemay not have to put all oureggs in the Chinese basket. Fordirect generation of electrici-ty, the solar thermal routecan also be explored. An arrayof parabolic mirrors helps putthe focus of the sunlight at theright place to produce suffi-cient heat, which raises steamand can be used to run a tur-bine, thus generate power.

Currently, this technologyis being used in the US(California), Israel, Spain andGermany. In India, two plantsare already operational inRajasthan and six others areunder construction, all in theprivate sector. The modelexperimental plant to harnesssolar energy through the ther-mal route was inaugurated justoutside Delhi in January thisyear and is running up to 50per cent efficiency. The devel-opment of indigenous solarmanufacturing facilities isimportant to harness solarenergy. This needs attentionand on priority.

(The writer is a formerGovernor of Uttarakhand anda Senior Advisor at the PranabMukherjee Foundation)

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Sir — Recently, a young softwareengineer was killed in Chennaiafter an illegal hoarding fell onher, following which she was hitby a water tanker. The MadrasHigh Court had pulled up theState Government, asking it totake appropriate action againstpolice and corporation officialswho were responsible for theincident.

“How many litres of blood doyou want to paint the road with,”rued the court. Following this,various political parties in TamilNadu vowed not to erect hoard-ings. However, warnings wereissued, only to be forgotten soon.

It was disgusting to note thatunder pressure, the same courthas allowed the Tamil Naduand Central Governments toerect banners to welcome PrimeMinister Narendra Modi andChinese President Xi Jinping fortheir informal meet in Chennainext week. The StateGovernment has claimed that itwas customary for the Ministryof External Affairs to welcomea visiting dignitary by way ofbanners.

The Modi Government has

been doing away with manytime-tested conventions in thelast five years. In the same vein,it should put an end to the ban-ner culture. I am sure the bilat-eral meeting will not fail if theconvention is given up.

N NagarajanVia email

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Sir — With the onset of theautumn season, hundreds of farmfires instances have been record-ed in Punjab and Haryana. Everyyear during this time, Delhi isfaced with the difficult task of

maintaining its air quality due tocrop burning from neighbouringStates. Although the DelhiGovernment has shown that it isalert regarding the situation, a per-manent solution is yet to come.

The States of Haryana andPunjab have been doing their bitto help the farmers shun the

practice of stubble burning. Theyhave been provided with manyalternatives and are being offeredsubsidies, too. But farmersremain reluctant and have nowdemanded a bonus of �200 perquintal on paddy or compensa-tion of �6,000 per acre to makethe switch. Perhaps, the DelhiGovernment can help by pitch-ing in some funds.

KristyVia email

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Sir — This refers to the editorial,“The ODF challenge” (September4). Prime Minister NarendraModi’s declaration that rural Indiais open defecation free (ODF) isa tall claim. The fact of the mat-ter is that despite the constructionof thousands of washrooms, manyvillagers prefer to do their businessin the open. The rural populacemust be enlightened about theimportance of hygiene and clean-liness so that they know about theperils of defecating in the open.

KusumVia email

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Page 7: ˘! RNI Regn. No. MPENG/2004/13703, Regd. No. L …...2019/10/05  · trade tensions. The rate cut by the RBI follows a series of fis-cal steps taken by the Government over the last

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Astrong independent director is an asset toan organisation if he/she has the ability toobjectively analyse affairs to bring about a

convergence in the views of different sharehold-er groups and works towards protecting the inter-ests of minority stockholders and the company asa whole. Such a person increases the transparen-cy and accountability of the board and can pavethe way to making it strong.

After the �7,000 crore 2009 Satyam financialfraud, several committees were set up and theirrecommendations paved the way for India’s newCompanies Act, 2013, which clearly establishedthe responsibility and accountability of indepen-dent directors and auditors. Over the years, therehas been a sea change in their duties and obliga-tions, with an increased expectation to play anactive and vigilant role in the decisions that arebeing taken by the company at the board level.

In order to make the corporate governancestructure stronger, the Government has tightenedthe norms and taken the relatives of independentdirectors under its ambit and amended theCompanies (Appointment and Qualification ofDirectors) Rules, 2014. It has ordained that no rel-ative of an independent director should be in anyway “indebted” to the company, its holding, sub-sidiary or associate company, promoters or direc-tors. Additionally, relatives cannot give guaran-tee or provide any security in case of indebted-ness of any third person to the company or its pro-moters and subsidiaries. The new rules would gov-ern all transactions involving an amount startingfrom �50 lakh in the preceding two financial yearsor even the current year.

Now the question arises, whether indepen-dent directors are caught in a catch-22 situationwith stringent regulations on one side but do nothave enough power to govern company operationsas they are not involved in day-to-day function-ing?

It is common knowledge that many boards aremore of a “friends club” with directors rarely rais-ing any contentious issues. According to the the-ory of critical mass, any person, being in minor-ity in a group, would not be able to exert his/herpoint of view and generally tends to go with thedecisions of the majority. So, any independentdirector with a divergent view may not be com-fortable in expressing his/her views and maychoose to follow the crowd. This may have beenquite prevalent, considering the fact that many cor-porate governance mismanagements, like the liq-uidity crisis among the NBFCs due to the unex-pected default by IL&FS, have come to light recent-ly and the independent directors were alsocaught unawares.

Now, a majority of independent directors arefinding it difficult to discharge the stringent statu-tory duties that have been thrust on them by thechanges made to the Companies Act.Consequently, the number of resignations this yearwent up by 30 per cent and many eligible and expe-rienced members of business and bureaucracyrefused to accept positions as independent direc-tors. Although almost all have cited personal rea-sons for quitting, it’s clear that they are resigningbecause of some inkling of corporate mismanage-ment. However, Anil Khandelwal, formerChairman and Managing Director of Dena Bankand Bank of Baroda and also independent direc-

tor of JM Financial Asset ReconstructionCompany, boldly proclaimed the lack oftransparent governance in the compa-ny to be the cause for his leaving.

Some departures are appropriate ifthe board failed in its basic fiduciaryduties, especially where the independentdirectors fail to exercise their liberty.However, on the downside, honest peo-ple may be forced to abandon boards,undermining a system that was meantto bring balance to the boardroom.

One cannot expect independentdirectors to function at their best withpossible information asymmetries,which stems from the fact that the struc-ture of Indian companies is quite differ-ent from that of firms in the West. In theUS, the ownership is diverse and notconcentrated in a few hands and the roleof independent directors is to protect theinterests of shareholders. For instance,61.1 per cent of Dow Jones-listed tech-nology major Apple, is owned by vari-ous institutional investors, 27.89 per centby mutual funds and 1.06 per cent byindividual stakeholders like ArthurLevinson, Chairman and CEO TimCook and so on and 9.95 per cent byother investors. Compare this withIndian technology giant Wipro, 74 percent of whose ownership is with the pro-moter/promoter group, 16 per centwith institutional investors and a mere5.66 per cent with the general public orretail investors. This shows that owner-ship and management are not separatein India, mostly dominated by familiesand maintaining freedom of indepen-dent directors is questionable, peculiarand challenging.

This brings us to the major difficul-ty that is being faced by independentdirectors — the selection process. Willthe monitoring role not be hampered,given that the majority shareholders havea strong influence on selection and sus-

tenance of independent directors? In anattempt to enhance their eligibility cri-teria and role, the Securities andExchange Board of India (SEBI) hasaccepted the recommendations of theKotak Committee that an independentdirector must provide an undertaking ofhis/her liberty and this declarationmust be taken on record by the boardof directors of the listed company afterduly assessing its veracity. In addition,there must be no “board inter-locks”,which means that if A, being a non-inde-pendent director of a listed company X,is an independent director of companyY, then any non-independent director ofcompany Y cannot be an independentdirector of the listed company X.

The second problem faced by themin exercising wisdom is inadequateknowledge about the organisation, asownership and access to informationremain in the hands of the controllingstockholders. This is the case in mostcompanies and independent directorsjust have a ceremonial presence. Theyare generally luminaries in their fieldsand their reputation can get tarnishedbecause of the wrongdoings of firms. Forinstance, the Satyam episode defamedsix famous corporate and academic per-sonalities.

Their plight is apparent from the factthat after the confession by Satyamfounder B Ramalinga Raju on January7, 2009, some 115 independent directorsof more than 100 listed companies quitwithin a month.

As per sub-section four of Section149 of the Companies Act, 2013, at least50 per cent of the board should havenon-executive directors. If the chairmanis a non-executive director, then at leastone-third of the board should compriseindependent directors. If the chairmanis an executive director, then indepen-dent directors should make up at least

half of the board. If an independentdirector resigns or is removed from theboard, he/she has to be replaced by a newone within 180 days. With these changes,it is expected that India Inc. would needan additional 5,000 of them by 2019-end,which is quite challenging in itself.According to the Kotak Committee,there must be at least one independentwoman director on the board of the top1,000 listed companies by April 1, 2020.With the slew of recent resignations,there is a definite gap here. Althoughdatabanks are available from whereindependent directors can be selected,this experience has not been encourag-ing as companies prefer having a knownthan an unknown face on their boards.

Concrete steps need to be taken toimprove the functioning of independentdirectors. First, apart from the control-ling shareholders having a say in theirappointment and removal, minorityshareholders should also participate inthe process for the sake of transparen-cy. Second, SEBI should also create anombudsman where independent direc-tors can report any malpractices. If theyhave to honestly monitor performance,advise the Chief Executive Officer andprotect the interests of minority share-holders, they must unite and become arobust team capable of extracting infor-mation for better decision-making.

Finally, they should not be held liablefor any mismanagement by firms unlessthey have power and knowledge to pre-vent the same. Independent directorsshould have the power to question thepromoter group and dispassionatelyserve the interest of minority sharehold-ers in boardrooms. For this, SEBI has tocreate structures to ensure that they aremore than mute and passive participantsin board meetings.

(The writer is Assistant Professor,Amity University)

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The USA loves India”,tweeted AmericanPresident Donald Trump

as he enthusiastically shared theIndian Prime Minister’s Offices’message thanking and applaud-ing the energetic presence ofthe huge Indian diaspora atHouston, to mark the success-ful celebration of the HowdyModi event. The strength andshow of personal chemistrybetween Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and Trump atHouston does mark a water-shed moment in Indo-US rela-tions. As Modi called for astanding ovation for Trumpfrom the 50,000-strong Indian-

American community, he alsothanked the American peoplefor their “exceptional welcomeand hospitality” during hisvisit to the US.

Beginning from the meet-ing between former USPresident Obama and Modi in2014, to the first-ever trilater-al engagement between India,Japan and America in 2018, theleadership of both the countrieshas reaffirmed the importanceof strong Indo-US ties. Thereis a greater set of convergencebetween both the nations, rang-ing from a “free and open”Indo-Pacific region to the fightagainst global terrorism. Overthe years, the relationshipbetween these two maturedemocracies has evolved signif-icantly, which is not subject toany kind of “transactionalframework” and rather is wit-nessing a more robust “strate-gic alignment.”

India has sought to trans-form itself from being a “bal-ancing power” to a more “will-ing state” in redefining its pri-

orities in the international sys-tem. The same is reflected inIndia’s active public diplomacyin the last few years, seekingincreased global footprints withan emphasis on the nation’s softpower attributes and civilisa-tional strengths. This includesemphasis on yoga, spiritualism,peace and harmony. It alsoinvolves capitalising on thestrength of the Indian diaspo-ra. The Indian-American com-munity has been one of mostsuccessful in driving theadvanced technological revolu-tion in the US.

Modi’s charismatic andpopular leadership appeal andits hyper-energetic diplomacyhave backed this process inrecent years across the globe.The Howdy Modi event was anexpression of the same desireand objective. The soft powercredential of India is nowbacked by hard power choicesin terms of strategic align-ment and tactical diplomacy inforeign policy-making underhis leadership.

In the last few years, theIndian Government has soughtto build on developing newlinkages in Indo-US relation-ship. The Declaration ofFriendship to elevate strategicdialogue to a strategic andcommercial dialogue inJanuary 2015, the JointDeclaration againstCombatting Terrorism inSeptember 2015, developing

International Solar Alliance in2016 and the initiation of the2+2 Dialogue between Indiaand the US are some key devel-opments which define thenature of bilateral relations inrecent years. Indo-US defenceties have also seen an increasedlevel of engagement. In 2016,the two governments signedthe Logistics ExchangeMemorandum of Agreement

(LEMOA) and in 2018, theC o m m u n i c a t i o n sCompatibility and SecurityAgreement (COMCASA). Itenabled India access to UStechnology and utilisation of itsexisting platforms. Today, Indiais a major defence partner ofthe US, and there has been asignificant amount of increasein military hardware imports tothe country. Moreover, after agap of nearly eight years, theCope India exercise betweenIndian and American air forceswas organised.

Nonetheless, bilateral rela-tions still face limitations on thetrade front as market access hasbeen a key issue of contention.However, Modi pitched for USinvestment support as Indialooks to build a $5 trillioneconomy. While Modi reas-sured Trump that he was learn-ing from the President the “artof the deal”, it remains to beseen how both the leaders sur-mount difficulties in bilateraltrade negotiations.

On the global level, these

developments do pave the wayfor a greater understandingand better institutional cooper-ation. More importantly, thedevelopments in the Indo-Pacific have come with theirown set of challenges thatunderline the necessity ofcooperation. The meeting offoreign ministers from India,the US, Japan and Australiaexpressed their commitment tostrengthen “rules-based order”in the Indo-Pacific.

At his speech at the UnitedNations General Assembly,Modi highlighted the impor-tance of global action to fightagainst terrorism; climatechange and healthcare chal-lenges. The visit in his ownwords has been an “extremelyproductive one”, as he engagedwith a wide and different set ofpeople from industry to diplo-macy; civil society; businesscommunities and political lead-ers. To mark the 150th birthanniversary of MahatmaGandhi, Modi invoked hisvision for peace and prosperi-

ty for all at the inauguration ofthe Gandhi Solar Park. In hismeeting with leaders fromPacific island nations, heunderlined India’s commit-ment to advance their develop-ment priorities.

The show of politicalwarmth and trust betweenboth the leaders shall lead tosomething more tangible interms of trade negotiationsand cooperation. This willallow them to set more long-term objectives for commercialand trade engagements.

As both India and the USseek to consolidate on gainsfrom this comfort in relation-ship, it is necessary that bothmove beyond the framework ofa “top-down approach” andseek to institutionalise this“strategic alignment” at differ-ent levels to make it a morecogent and structural partner-ship in the future.

(The writer holds a PhDin East Asian Studies from

JNU and teaches at DelhiUniversity).

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The Bombay High Court onFriday dismissed all peti-

tions challenging the proposedfelling of 2,646 trees in AareyColony at Goregaon in northMumbai to make way for con-struction of a car shed forMetro phase-III, after address-ing the environmental con-cerns raised by the petitioners.

Holding that the decision-making process on tree fellingadopted by the Tree Authorityof the BrihanmumbaiMunicipal Corporation (BMC)as “fair, transparent and basedon reason”, a HC division benchof Chief Justice PradeepNandrajog and Justice BharatiDangre noted: “The Carbon di-oxide sequestration of 2,702trees for their entire lifetime cal-culated at 12,79,062 kg would becompensated in 3,948 fullyloaded trips of Metro Trainsoperating”.

The HC bench refused todeclare Aarey Colony a forestand also declined to quash theBMC tree authority's decisionallowing felling of over 2,646trees in the green zone to makeway of a metro car shed.

Dismissing the petitionsfiled by green activist ZoruBhathena and Shiv Sena cor-porator Yashwant KamalakarJadhav, the HC bench observed:“Thus, as in the two companion

petitions which we have dis-missed today, the Greens faileven in these two petitions, butnot on account of sailing theirboats in the wrong channel, buton merits”.

The HC bench imposed afine of �50,000 on YashwantJadhav, who had filed a petitionagainst the approval granted bythe civic body's tree authority.He is a member of the BMC’stree authority.

Terming all the petitioners"Davids" (environmentalists)taking on the industrial"Goliaths", apparently suggest-ing that they are fighting anunequal battle, the court said:"Relationship with nature andlove for environment alone istrue and all other relationshipsare unreal and temporary, istheir (environmentalists) belief.Their hearts are a temple ofdevotion to flora and fauna".

"The greens (environmen-

talists) fail in the instant petitionbecause they have lost touchwith the procedure to be fol-lowed as per law. The clock can-not be put back. We do notmake any comments thereon asthe petitioner has to now swimor sink before the SupremeCourt,” the judges noted.

“The issue is pending beforethe Supreme Court and theNational Green Tribunal.Hence, we are dismissing thepetition on the principle ofcommonality and not on mer-its," a bench of Chief JusticePradeep Nandrajog and JusticeBharati Dangre said.

Activist Zoru Bhathena,who had challenged the deci-sion to cut the trees, said: “I amextremely saddened to get thisnews. We will take this fight for-ward. It’s a sad day for Aareytoday. We will approach theSupreme Court”.

Later in the evening,

Bhathena tweeted: “The Aareybattle of David Vs Goliath nowmoves to the Supreme Court.Do take a few seconds to readwhat the Bombay HC had to sayabout this epic battle to SaveAarey”.

Alluding to environmentalconcerns raised by the petition-ers, the Judges noted: “In con-nection with the issues of envi-ronmental concerns, it has to benoted that the project proponenthas already planted 20,900 treeswith GPS tagging on each plantin Sanjay Gandhi National Parkand the survival rate is 95%,proved by the letter dated 27thSeptember 2019 addressed bythe Chief Conservator Forestand Director Sanjay GandhiNational Park to the ChiefProject Manager of MMRCL.This establishes that about 7times the number of trees to befelled have been replaced byplanting saplings of trees, whichprocess commenced two yearsago”

“Further, the project isbeing financed substantially byJapan International CooperativeAgency (“JICA”) and the projectis registered with The UnitedNations Framework for ClimateChange (UNFCC). It is thusbeing monitored by ForeignAgencies on the environmentalimpact,” the judgement stated.

“The project report demon-strates that the benefits and/or

reduction in Carbon di-oxideemissions by virtue of the pro-ject demonstrate that the samewould be reduced by 2,61,968tonnes over ten years because ofreduced dependence onmotarised transport,” the HCbench observed.

The green activists, ofwhich Bhathena is part, havebeen protesting vehementlyagainst the decision taken by theBMC’s tree authority on August29 to allow cutting of 2,185 treesand transplantation of 461 trees.

While giving a go-ahead tothe MMRCl to cut 2,185 treesand transplant 461 trees inAarey Colony for constructionof car depot for Metro-3 corri-dor, the BMC’s Tree Authorityhad said that the MMRCLwould have to plant 13,110 trees

In its petition filed in thehigh court, activist Bhathena hadchallenged the proposed fellingof 2,648 trees in Aarey Colonyto make way for construction ofa metro card there by saying thatthe decision taken by the BMC'sTree Authority, taken on August29 this year, approving the fellingof trees to make way for ametro car shed was not in accor-dance with a previous order ofthe high court.

Last month, several celebri-ties, including AmitabhBachchan and Akshay Kumar,had come out in support of theMumbai Metro.

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���� ��6+�"72�� 8������9�%:%������Muzaffarpur/Wayanad: AnFIR has been lodged in Bihar'sMuzaffarpur against nearly 50celebrities, including AparnaSen, Adoor Gopalakrishnanand Ramchandra Guha foralleged sedition after they wrotean open letter to Prime MinisterNarendra Modi voicing concernover growing incidents of moblynching.

Police said the FIR waslodged on Thursday under sev-eral sections of the Indian PenalCode, including those related tosedition, public nuisance, hurt-ing religious feelings and insult-ing with an intent to provokebreach of peace.

Reacting sharply to the reg-istration of the FIR againsteminent film personalities, writ-ers and others, Congress leaderRahul Gandhi alleged the coun-try was moving towards becom-ing an "authoritarian state"where anybody who said any-thing against Modi or his gov-ernment was put behind bars.

The case was lodged fol-lowing an order by MuzaffarpurChief Judicial Magistrate SuryaKant Tiwari on a petition bylocal advocate Sudhir KumarOjha, who claimed, amongother things, that the letter sup-ported secessionist tendencies".

"The CJM had passed the

order on August 20, acceptingmy petition upon the receipt ofwhich an FIR was lodged at theSadar police station here," Ojhasaid. He said nearly 50 signato-ries to the letter were named asaccused in his petition, whichaccused them of having "tar-nished the image of the coun-try and undermined the impres-sive performance of the primeminister", besides "supportingsecessionist tendencies".

The letter was written by 49eminent personalities, alsoincluding filmmakers ManiRatnam, Anurag Kashyap,Shyam Benegal, actor SoumitraChatterjee and vocalist ShubhaMudgal in July this year.

Rahul Gandhi, who wasaway in his constituencyWayanad in Kerala, denouncedthe FIR.

He said it was not a secretanymore that the country wasmoving towards an authoritar-ian state, adding that the primeminister should tell the countrywhy had he "destroyed" theeconomy and created "massivejoblessness".

"Everybody knows what isgoing on in the country. It is nota secret. In fact, the wholeworld knows it. We are movingtowards an authoritarian state.It is pretty clear," the WayanadMP, who has come to his con-stituency to express solidaritywith the protests against thenight traffic ban on a highwaypassing through the Bandipur

Tiger Reserve, told reporters."Anybody who says any-

thing against the prime minis-ter, anybody who raises any-thing against the government isbeing put in jail and attacked.The media is crushed.Everybody knows what is goingon. This is not a secret," he said.

An FIR was filed at Bihar'sMuzaffarpur on Thursdayagainst around 50 celebrities,including Ramachandra Guha,Mani Ratnam, AdoorGopalakrishnan and AparnaSen, who had written an openletter to Prime Minister Modi,raising their concern over thegrowing incidents of moblynching in the country.

The case was lodged after achief judicial magistrate passedan order on a petition filedagainst the celebrities before hiscourt.

The petition claimed thatthe celebrities had allegedly"tarnished the image of thecountry and undermined the impressive performance ofthe Prime Minister", besides"supporting secessionist ten-dencies".

Hitting out at the ModiGovernment over the "massivejoblessness" and the dwindlingeconomy, Gandhi said the"GDP growth was not visible"anymore.

The Centre could give a taxbenefit of �1,25,000 crore to 15people, but not to the poor, healleged. PTI

Burdwan (WB): Ten personswere arrested here on Friday foralleged assault on DebanjanBallav — a Sanskrit college stu-dent who was accused of heck-ling Union Minister BabulSupriyo at Jadavpur Universityon September 19.

In his complaint, Ballav,who has been in the eye ofstorm over the JU campusepisode, claimed that he and hisgirlfriend were dragged out ofa bus and assaulted by theactivists of Akhil BharatiyaVidyarthi Parishad (ABVP)near Burdwan on Wednesday.

"Based on Ballav's com-plaint, we have arrested 10persons. We are still investi-gating the matter," EastMidnapore Superintendent ofPolice Bhaskar Mukherjee said.

He, however, declined tocomment on whether thosearrested were members of the

ABVP. The right-wing stu-dents' outfit, on its part, saidBallav's charges were "baselessand politically motivated".

Supriyo was shown blackflags and heckled by a sectionof students last month onJadavpur University Campus,where he had gone to addressa seminar organised by theABVP.

The next day the Unionminister tweeted a picture ofthe Sanskrit college studentpulling him by his hair duringthe scuffle.

Ballav's mother hadappealed to Supriyo not toharm his son's career and theminister assured him of thesame.

The undergraduate stu-dent, however, refused to apol-ogise to Supriyo, claiming thathe had raised his hand in selfdefence. PTI

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Kolkata: The economic slow-down has dimmed the lights ofBengal's biggest festival thistime, forcing Durga puja organ-isers to scale down celebrationsdue to shrinking sponsorship.

Not just small-budgetpujas, big-ticket ones have alsocurtailed their budget by near-ly 15 per cent to 30 per cent,mostly compromising on mar-quee decoration, according toorganisers.

On an average, setting up atheme-based marquee for thefive-day fiesta, replete withsafety arrangements and basicamenities, costs anythingbetween �12 lakh and �30crore in Bengal.

"Owing to economic slow-down, we failed to achieve ourtarget of Rs 65 lakh. We are run-ning short of Rs 20 lakh. Most

sponsors, this time, eitherdeclined to make a contributionor paid less than what they do,"Sudipto Kumar, an official ofDeshapriya Park communityPuja in south Kolkata, said.

Corporate firms are notwilling to spend on advertise-ments, he claimed.

"Every year, huge adver-tisement hoardings and postersgreet revelers outside the pujapandals, but this time, thenumbers have shrunk consid-erably," he added.

Echoing similar sentiments,Ekdalia Evergreen Club saidseveral sponsors have goneback on their promise, citingthe ailing economy.

"Some sponsors, who hadsigned a contract with us, havealso backed out. In 2008-2009(during global recession), we

had faced a similar situation,"club secretary GautamMukherjee said.

Organizers have made sev-eral modifications this year,mostly cutting down on pro-motional activities.

Kajal Sarkar, the presidentof Forum for Durgotsab, saidsponsorship has fallen by 30-50per cent.

"Donations, subscriptionsand retail advertisements coverabout 30 per cent of the expens-es, the rest is usually taken careof by corporate funding," Sarkarsaid. The situation has goneworse for small-budget Durgapujas committees, with some ofthe organisers opting for amarquee without any distincttheme.

"We had decided to adornour pandal with glass struc-

tures, but lack of funds forced us to find

an alternative in plaster ofparis," said

Ashok Deb, an official of aDurga Puja committee in North24 Parganas district.

According to advertisingagencies, weak consumer sen-timent is also one of the reasonsfor lack of sponsorship.

"Most advertisers in Indiatry to leverage the festive sea-son. In the current year, adver-tising spends across multiplesectors have taken a hit due toweak consumer sentiment.

"Nevertheless, the govern-ment is taking active measuresto tackle the scenario by pro-viding relief in corporate taxrates," Anand Bhadkamkar, theCEO of Dentsu Aegis NetworkIndia, stated. PTI

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The DMK and other fringeTamil forces in Tamil Nadu

which swear by Tamil and areknown for their stiff oppositionto Hindi may have to do arethinking on their aversion forthe national language of thecountry.

It has been brought to lightthat CN Annadurai, the founderof the DMK and the first non-Congress Chief Minister of theState, was for the three-lan-guage policy prescribed by thethen national leadership of India.This revelation came immedi-ately after the DMK-ownednewspaper Murasholi publishedan article stating that Annaduraiwas never a supporter of thethree-language system.

But the revelation made bya Tamil scholar and commen-tator T Ramakrishnan thatAnnadurai had endorsed thethree-language formula hasshaken the DMK leadershipwho propagates the sloganHindi is Hinduism. Since 2014,the DMK has been attacking theCentre of trying to imposeHindi over non-Hindi States inthe country.

In an exclusive interviewgiven to the popular Tamil lit-erary journal Kanaiyazhi (Tamilfor Ring) in its April 1967 issue,

Annadirai had said: “We in theState Government are ready toaccept the three-language for-mula if other States too follow itup.” The journal had carried theinterview with Annadurai in itsApril 1967 and has since then,formed one of the prized itemsof Kanaiyazhi. The interview fig-ured in the collected issues ofKanaiyazhi (1965-1970).

K Kasturirangan, the theneditor of the journal who hadinterviewed Annadurai, laterrose to the position of editor ofDinamani, a popular Tamilnewspaper. The then ChiefMinister had said during theinterview that there were schoolsin Chennai where Gujarati andMarati were being taught.“Hence, there is no bar in teach-ing Hindi in similar lines in ade-quate number of schools,” hehad said during the interviewwhich was held at New Delhiwhere he had gone to attend theChief Minister’s Conference.

Despite Annadurai’s stanceon the three-language formula,the Tamil Nadu LegislativeAssembly had passed a resolu-tion demanding the scrapping ofthe three-language formula inJanuary 1968. Political com-mentators are of the view thatAnnadurai was not keepinggood health at that time andmight have lost his hold over theparty apparatus.

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Srinagar: Normal life remainedaffected in Kashmir for the 61stconsecutive day on Friday asmain markets were shut andpublic transport was off theroads, officials said.

Few shops in some areas ofthe city here were open from7:30 to 11:00 am, but downedtheir shutters afterwards, theofficials said.

However, there were no

restrictions anywhere in thevalley, but security forces weredeployed in strength in vul-nerable areas to maintain lawand order, they said.

They said auto-rickshawsand few inter-district cabs wereseen plying here, but the othermodes of public transport wereoff the roads.

The movement of privatecars was lesser on Friday ascompared to Thursday whenthe city had witnessed trafficjams at various places, theyadded.

Mobile services remainedsuspended in Kashmir exceptin Handwara and Kupwaraareas in the north, while inter-net services — across all plat-

forms — continued to besnapped in the valley since thenight of August 4, officialssaid.

The functioning of schoolsin Kashmir has remainedaffected since August 5 —when the Centre announced itsdecision to abrogate Article 370of the Constitution and tobifurcate the state into twoUnion territories.

The officials said the stateGovernment was trying itsbest to have normal function-ing in schools, but its effortsfailed again on Thursday asmost parents continued to keepchildren at home due to appre-hensions about their safety.

Divisional Commissioner,Kashmir, Baseer Khan had onMonday directed all DeputyCommissioners and concernedofficers to ensure that all gov-ernment schools as well asprivate institutions up toHigher Secondary level of thevalley be open by Thursday andColleges to open by or beforeOctober 9.

Most of the top level andsecond rung separatist politi-cians have been taken intopreventive custody while main-

stream leaders, including twoformer Chief Ministers —Omar Abdullah and MehboobaMufti, have been eitherdetained or placed under housearrest.

Another former ChiefMinister and sitting Lok SabhaMP from Srinagar FarooqAbdullah has been arrestedunder the controversial PublicSafety act, a law enacted by hisfather and National Conferencefounder Sheikh MohammadAbdullah in 1978 when hewas the Chief Minister.

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Shahjahanpur: A court hereon Friday reserved its order onan application by a SpecialInvestigation Team (SIT) seek-ing permission to take voicesamples of former Union min-ister Chinmayanand and a lawstudent, who has accused himof raping her.

The SIT had on Thursdaymoved the application for tak-ing their voice samples as wellas that of three youth, who havebeen charged with demandingextortion from the BJP leader.

After hearing the respec-tive counsels, Chief JudicialMagistrate Omvir Singhreserved his order and is like-ly to pronounce it on Saturday.

The law student's counselAnoop Trivedi said he andothers objected to the SITapplication as voice samples, ifrequired, should have beensought within stipulated 15days time. "Now after passageof one month, this applicationdoes not seems right," Trivediadded. PTI

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The impersonation case con-nected with the National

Eligibil ity-cum-EntranceExamination Test (NEET), thequalifying examination foradmission to under graduateand post graduate courses inmedical colleges across thecountry, has snowballed into amajor scam of all-India pro-portion by Friday as theMadras High Court asked forcomments from the UnionHealth Ministry and the UnionHuman ResourcesDevelopment Ministry regard-ing the issue.

While the Madras HighCourt sought comments fromthe Centre, DMK chief MKStalin demanded a CBI probeinto the whole affair which hasshook South India as nine per-sons have been taken into cus-tody in connection with the

case.The impersonation case

broke out last month with theDean of Government MedicalCollege in Theni receiving anemail stating that one of theunder graduate students whocracked the 2019 NEET exam-ination had used fraudulentmethods like using the servicesof a proxy to write the exami-nation. The youth and hisfather, a practicing medicaldoctor were arrested by TamilNadu Police on September 25.The Tamil Nadu Governmentsince then had transferred thecase to the Crime BranchCriminal InvestigationDepartment of the State Police

which took into custody/arrest-ed another six persons inconnection with the scam.

The MHC asked theCBCID to complete the probeby October 15 and submit adetailed report to the court. Tilldate, four students and theirfathers have been arrested forresorting to fraudulent meth-ods to get admission to theMBBS course. While hearingthe case on Friday, the Courtopined that a scam of suchmagnitude could have nation-al ramification and hencesought comments from thetwo Ministries which are incharge of the NEET examina-tion.

It may be noted that polit-ical parties in Tamil Nadu bar-ring the BJP have been oppos-ing the NEET and has beenseeking status quo on theprocess of admission to MBBScourses in the State. The man-agement of the self financingmedical colleges in the State toowere resisting the introductionof NEET.

Stalin, while speaking tojournalists at Chennai said that

more than 50 students are‘believed to have taken thisroute to secure MBBS seats andagents from other States werealso said to have been involved,and hence an ideal case for theCBI to take up the investiga-tion’.

The police was told by theTheni Medical College studentand his father that a numberof students have “managed”admission to MBBS coursewith the help of proxy exam-ination writers, some of themhailing from Kerala. Followingthe disclosures by the father-son duo, the Tamil Nadupolice arrested four morestuets and their fathers. TheMadras High Court said onFriday that a case of this seri-ousness would not have hap-pened without official collu-sion and remarked that it hasan all India ramification. Thelocal media has reported thatthe Police have asked theNational Testing Agency, thebody entrusted with theconucting of the test to furnishdetails of Tamil Nadu stu-dents who cracked the NEET.

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Aurangabad: As many as six outof nine major dams that supplywater to urban and rural areas inMaharashtra's drought-proneMarathwada region continue toface shortage, the data released bythe irrigation department statedon Friday.

Dams, including Manjaraand Majalgaon in Beed,Siddheshwar in Hingoli, LowerTerna and Sina Kolegaon inOsmanabad, Lower Dudhna inParbhani are still in dead storageas rainfall has receded in the State.

There are nine major and 800medium and small irrigationprojects in Marathwada.

According to the irrigationdepartment's latest report, majorprojects in the region are in aslightly better position with 56.47per cent storage, compared 30.49per cent last year. As of today, themajor projects hold a total of3828.65 million cubic metre(mcm) water. However, the sce-nario with medium-sized projectsseems bleak. Medium projects in

Marathwada (Aurangabadregion) have 317.19 mcm water,which is 21.06 per cent of theirtotal capacity. It was 24.25 per centlast year on same day.

The small projects are in aslightly better shape with a grossstorage of 4473.44 mcm. Thisstorage is 40.89 per cent of totalcapacity, which was 26.92 per centsame day last year, the depart-ment's report stated.

Out of nine, six major pro-jects are in dead storage, where-as two — Jayakwadi inAurangabad and Lower Manar inNanded — are full.

Yeldari of Hingoli has livewater storage, which stands at 7.84per cent (188.18 million cubicmeter) of the project's total capac-ity. "Excess use of water for sug-arcane cultivation has alwaysbeen the primary cause for theshortage every year. However, thistime around, it is the scantyrainfall that has kept most of theprojects dry," water expertPradeep Purandare said. PTI

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Pudukottai (TN): The Centrallaw against instant divorce hasbeen invoked for the first timein Tamil Nadu on Friday againsta man for allegedly pronounc-ing triple talaq, police said.

A First Information Reportwas filed against SheikhAbdullah at the All WomenPolice Station here following acomplaint from his wifeRizwana, they said.

"A case has been registeredagainst a man under the MuslimWomen (Protection of Rightson Marriage) Act based on acomplaint from his wife," asenior district police officialtold PTI, adding he has beenbooked for other offencesincluding harassment as well.

Also, his relatives, includinghis father, mother and brotherhave been booked for offencesincluding harassment, localpolice said. In her complaint, thewoman said she allegedly had toendure harassment at her in-laws house and her husband"pronounced triple talaq." PTI

Muzaffarnagar: A woman wasallegedly burnt to death overdowry in Saidham Colony inthe city, police said on Friday.

The incident happened onThursday evening in CivilLines police station area here.

The victim Sugna wasrushed to a hospital where shewas declared brought dead,Station House OfficerSameypal Atri said

A case has been registeredagainst four people includingher husband Arun Kumar whowas absconding, the SHO said.

According to a complaintlodged by the victim's family,the woman was burnt to deathby her in-laws who wereharassing her over dowry sinceher marriage to Kumar one-and-half-years ago.

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Sulthan Bathery (Kerala):Congress leader Rahul Gandhion Friday visited the five youthssitting on a relay hunger strikefor 10 days against the restric-tion on movement of vehicleson a national highway thatpasses through a tiger reservein neighbouring Karnataka.

Expressing solidarity withthe youths, Gandhi spoke tothem and said he hoped theissue would be resolved soon.He promised to make availablelegal help to solve the issue.

Gandhi, who reached thesite of the protest at Freedompark here, said the youngstersrepresent the cause ofWayanad, his Lok Sabha con-stituency, and thanked them fortheir "sacrifice".

"They represent the suffer-ing of the people here. All polit-ical parties are united as far asthe night travel ban issue isconcerned. There is no politi-cal difference on this," he said.

The movement of vehicleson a stretch of the nationalhighway in Kerala is bannedfrom 9 pm to 6 am to reducedisturbance to wildlife in theBandipur Tiger Reserve.

Gandhi recently metKerala Chief Minister PinarayiVijayan in New Delhi and dis-cussed the hardships faced bypeople of Wayanad due to theban of traffic.

Demanding that the ban belifted, the youths are sitting ona hunger strike.

Gandhi said no travel banis imposed in similar cases inother parts of the country.

The Congress leaderpromised to the people ofWayanad that "best legalresources" would be madeavailable in this matter.

"I have spoken to our legalexperts to deal with this issue.We will have the best legalresource of this country for thecause of Wayanad. I wantedyou to know that I stand withyou and we are going to gointelligently and sensitivelywork on this matter," he said.

He pointed out that hehad raised the issue in

Parliament.On Tuesday, the Centre

assured Kerala CM Vijayanthat a committee would beformed to study the ban.Thousands of farmers and stu-dents have taken out longmarches against the ban.

The Kerala governmenthas suggested construction ofan elevated stretch throughthe core area of the tigerreserve.

However, UnionEnvironment Minister PrakashJavadekar in a letter to Vijayanlast month stated that the state'srecommendation had been dis-cussed and it was suggestedthat a 'status quo' be main-tained.

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The Congress on Fridayasked its former Mumbai

unit chief Sanjay Nirupam andformer Haryana unit presidentAshok Tanwar to stop makingstatements against the partyahead of the Assembly electionsin the two States and asked himto act responsibly.

Congress spokespersonManish Tewari asked Nirupamto stop fuelling conspiracy the-ories, after he launched a vitri-olic attack on the party leader-ship for not granting tickets tohis supporters.

Tewari said that leaders,who have held top positions inthe party, should realise thattheir statements should nothelp those who have broughtthe nation to this passe.

"Sanjay Nirupam would bewell advised to restrain himself.It would be appropriate if hedoes not kite fly these conspir-acy theories that are unimagi-native," Tewari said at AICCbriefing. Tewari said it is under-

standable that there are differ-ences over ticket distributionand these two leaders are angryover it, but asked them to workwith maturity and sagacity.

Nirupam has launched arevolt against the party leader-ship saying that even after rec-ommending just one name forthe upcoming assembly polls,the party chose not to take hisadvice and rejected it. Nirupam,however, did not specify thename of the contender he waspushing for.

Congress also faces discon-tent in Haryana over ticket dis-tribution ahead as the formerchiefs of the party's units in thestate on Thursday resigned fromthe election committees anddeciding to stay away from thecampaign respectively.

Nirupam, who joined theCongress after he quit the ShivSena in 2005, has also threat-ened to quit the party. He wasremoved as the chief of theCongress in Mumbai earlierthis year and replaced by rivalMilind Deora.

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Chief Minister KChandrasekhar Rao on

Friday submitted a 22-pointcharter of demands to PrimeMinister Narendra Modi inNew Delhi and sought theirearly resolution.

The meeting betweenModi and KCR lasted for about50 minutes.

KCR is learnt to have dis-cussed the proposed Godavari-Krishna linkage by theTelangana and APGovernments and soughtCentre’s financial assistancefor the project.

In a memorandum sub-mitted to PM, the CM broughtto his notice about the severedelay in implementing thebifurcation-related promisesmade to Telangana in the APReorganiation Act and in therelease of funds.

The issues raised by KCRinclude: Release of �450 crore,which is the fifth instalment offinancial assistance for back-ward districts in Telangana asper State Reorganisation Act,2014.

Revival of CementCorporation of India inAdilabad district with the helpof NHAI (National HighwaysAuthority of India).

Enhancement of numberof Judges in Telangana HighCourt from 24 to 42.

Establishment of IndianInstitute of Management (IIM)in Telangana.

Sanction of Indian Instituteof Science Education andResearch (IISER). Sanction of23 Jawahar NavodayaVidyalayas (JNV) in new dis-tricts Pending railway projectsin Telangana State:Requirement of funds for com-pletion and expediting thework

Financial assistance toMission Kakatiya and MissionBhagiratha as recommended byNITI Aayog (�5,000 croresand �19,205 crore respective-ly) Setting up of Steel Plant atBayyaram in Khammam dis-trict as promised in StateReorganisation Act.

Release of funds forNational Investment andManufacturing Zone (NIMZ)at Zaheerabad, Medak District

Setting up of National Instituteof Design (NID) at Hyderabad.Its location was shifted toVishakhapatnam after bifurca-tion.

Sub-categorisation of SCsin Telagnana as per the reso-lution adopted by the TSLegislative Assembly.

Sanction of IIIT underPPP model at KarimnagarEnhancement of reservationsfor BCs in employment andeducation (BC 37 per cent, SC15 per cent , ST 10 per cent) 33per cent Reservation for OBCsand women in Parliament andState Legislatures as per theresolution adopted by TSLegislative Assembly.

Development ofHyderabad — Nagpur &Wa r a n g a l - H y d e r a b a dIndustrial Corridors

PMGSY (Prime MinisterGram Sadak Yojana) allotmentof funds for upgrading 4,000km for better connectivity inbackward regions

Road works in Left wingextremism affected areas.Centre should bear full costinstead of 60:40 ratio betweenCentre and State.

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Page 10: ˘! RNI Regn. No. MPENG/2004/13703, Regd. No. L …...2019/10/05  · trade tensions. The rate cut by the RBI follows a series of fis-cal steps taken by the Government over the last

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The reduction in key policyrate by the RBI is expected

to revive investment andencourage consumption, there-by kick-starting the sluggisheconomy, India Inc said on Friday.

Industry’s reaction came asthe central bank slashed itsbenchmark lending rate by0.25 percentage points to 5.15per cent. The industry empha-sised that it was now critical forbanks to facilitate a faster trans-mission of rate cuts to ensurethat the measures reap results.

CII Director GeneralChandrajit Banerjee said thecumulative 135 basis points ratecuts this year along with a slewof measures announced by thegovernment to provide growthstimulus to a variety of sectorsis expected to lift growth fromits current stupor and unleashanimal spirits.

PHD Chamber ofCommerce and Industry

President D K Aggarwal saidFriday’s repo rate cut will helpinduce demand and refuel eco-nomic growth in coming quar-ters.

“This further reduction ofrepo rate will not only bringdown the lending rates but alsoincentivise investment andboost consumption,” saidSurendra Hiranandani, CMD,House of Hiranandani.

The RBI’s latest move totrim repo rate comes at a timewhen the economic growthhas hit a six-year low of 5 percent. This is the fifth straightrate cut by the central bank inas many policy reviews in2019, and takes the total quan-tum of reductions to 1.35 percent. Exporters body FIEO’sPresident Sharad Saraf howev-er, said the challenges inexports will continue and mayaggravate with geo-politicalsituation.

Muthoot PappachanGroup CMD Thomas JohnMuthoot said for the common

man to get the benefits ofthese cuts, it is important thatbanks ease the challenges forNBFCs to get funding fromthem, eventually pushing con-sumer sentiment.

“The rate cut is expected tocomplement other fiscal mea-sures such as the corporate taxrate cut that was announcedlast month to propel GDPgrowth,” said AnshumanMagazine, Chairman & CEO,India, South East Asia, MiddleEast & Africa, CBRE.

RBL Bank economist RajniThakur said the central bank isreaching its lower bound ofpolicy space and has tried tosteer support expectations awayfrom monetary side, addingthat it does not see more than15-40 basis points additionalcuts in this cycle.

Given the concerns ongrowth and inflation remainingwithin the target levels, amajority of analysts wereexpecting the RBI to cut ratesat the policy review meet.

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The Reserve Bank’s decisionto cut key policy rate by 25

basis points will boost con-sumer sentiment as well ashousing sales during the ongo-ing festive season which is acrucial period for the realty sec-tor, industry experts said onFriday.

With this cut, repo rate, atwhich it lends to the system,will now come down to 5.15per cent. The central bankmust now ensure effectivetransmission of rate cuts,announced on Friday as well asearlier, to home loan borrow-ers, they said.

“It is a significant and wel-come move by the ReserveBank of India (RBI)... To boostthe credit flow and spur theeconomic growth of the coun-

try,” said Confederation of RealEstate Developers Associationof India (Credai) NationalChairman, Jaxay Shah.

“We hope that the benefitof this reduction is passed onto the home buyers by thebanks/financial institutions.

“This, coupled with theupcoming festive season andreduction in corporate tax, willfurther enhance the sentimentamongst them, thereby pro-viding a fillip to the housingdemand and achieving Hon’blePrime Minister’s goal ofHousing for All by 2022,” Shahadded.

Echoing Shah’s view,National Real EstateDevelopment Council(Naredco) President NiranjanHiranandani said the movewill boost sales in festive spirits.

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Auto industry body SIAMon Friday welcomed the

RBI’s lending rate cut and saidthe availability of cheaperfinance along with the onset offestive season will help gener-ate better demand for vehicles.

The remarks came as thecentral bank slashed its bench-mark lending rate by 0.25 per-centage points to 5.15 per cent.

“The reduction of reporate by 25 basis points is a wel-come move indeed by RBI. Wehope that the banks wouldfully pass on the repo rate cutbenefit to consumers in theform of lower lending rates,”Society of Indian AutomobileManufacturers (SIAM)President Rajan Wadhera saidin a statement.

The onset of festive seasonalong with availability of cheap-er finance should induce high-er demand for vehicles, headded. The automotive sectorhas been going through a pro-longed slowdown with salesplummeting to all-time low inalmost two decades in August.

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The Economic OffencesWing (EOW) of the

Mumbai police on Fridayarrested Joy Thomas, the sus-pended Managing Director ofscam-hit Punjab andMaharashtra (PMC) Bank, inconnection with the �6,500crore bank fraud.

Thomas’ arrest came a dayafter the arrest of two promot-ers of the HousingDevelopment andInfrastructure Limited (HDIL)Sarang Kumar Wadhawan andRakesh Wadhawan and freez-ing of property worth �3,500crore that had been mortgagedto the bank.

Confirming the arrest ofThomas, Deputy Commissionerof Police and police spokesper-son Pranay Ashok said, “Yes. Wehave arrested the official inconnection with the PMC Bankcase registered by the EconomicOffences Wing of the Mumbai police”.

Simultaneously, the EOWagency carried out searches atsix places in Mumbai andneighbouring areas linked tothe former chairman of thebank and promoters of HDIL.

Rakesh and Sarang, whoare executive chairman andManaging Director respective-ly of the the HDIL, have been

remanded by a city court inpolice custody till October 9.

In a “confession” made tothe RBI through a letter, PMCBank’s suspended ManagingDirector Joy Thomas had ear-lier admitted to have givenloans to HDIL and its relatedentity to the tune of �6,500crore without informing allthe board members.

Last Monday, the EOWhad registered a case against thePMC Bank and the HDIL forcausing alleged losses worth�4,335 crore to the bank.

On the heels of a findingduring the investigations that thePMC Bank’s exposure to theHDIL group was nearly 73 percent of its total loan book size of�8,880 crore as of September 19,2019, the police had onThursday taken Sarang andRakesh into custody after they“failed” to give a “satisfactory”explanation to the questionsposed by the EOW officials.

The EOW has identified 44bank accounts relating to theaccused associated with theHDIL. It has also found �100crore worth shares in the demataccounts of one of the accused.

Among other things, it hascome to light during the inves-tigations that the PMC Bankcreated more than 21,000 fake accounts to hide the var-ious loans.

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Allaying fears of any threat tothe banking system, Reserve

Bank governor Shaktikanta Dason Friday asked the public notto panic as the entire bankingsystem, including cooperativeones, continue to remain soundand stable.

Das also said in the wake ofthe crisis at Punjab &Maharashtra Cooperative(PMC) Bank, the RBI is review-ing the existing regulatoryframework for cooperativebanks and will discuss thematter with the Government.

The statement assumesimportance as PMC is the 24th

cooperative bank to be placedunder RBI administrators in2019 and there are many regulatory and adminis-trative gaps in the system as thestates have a big say in their matters.

Also, there is political inter-ference in their functioning.Urban cooperative banks areregistered as cooperative soci-eties either with the StateCooperative Societies Act orthe Multi-State CooperativeSocieties Act, 2002 and are reg-ulated and supervised by theRegistrar of CooperativeSocieties of the respective statesor by the Central Registrar ofCooperative Societies.

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Agroup of aggrieved home-buyers of the scam-hit real-

ty developer HDIL have writ-ten to Prime Minister NarendraModi seeking his interventionto resolve their distress.

The Whispering TowersFlat Owners WelfareAssociation, representing over450 home-buyers of the HDILproject in suburban Mulund,have in a letter datedSeptember 1, to Modi saidthey are seeking his interven-tion as a last resort.

According to the letter,over 450 families have paidaround �350 crore to the now

bankrupt HDIL but the projecthas been stuck since the pastnine years.

“The project was launchedin 2010 and bookings wereaccepted since then. But,in thepast nine years,only 18 floors ofthe 46 storeyed-tower havebeen built, while work has noteven started on the secondphase,”the association said.

Shyam Chittari, a member of the association,has posted the letter on histwitter account.

The letter claims HDILhad taken �175 crore fromAllahabad Bank, J&K Bankand Syndicate Bank for the project.

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Union Textiles MinisterSmriti Irani will participate

in the plenary session of theWorld Cotton Day celebra-tions in Geneva, which willshed light on the challengesfaced by cotton economies.

The plenary session will beattended by heads of states,heads of international organi-sations and executives from theprivate sector.

The World TradeOrganisation (WTO) is hostingthe event at the request of Cotton— 4 countries, Benin, BurkinaFaso, Chad and Mali, to celebratetheir official application forrecognition of October 7 asWorld Cotton Day by the UnitedNations. “The Ministry ofTextiles, Government of India, isparticipating in the WorldCotton Day being observedfrom October 7 to 11 in Geneva,”an official statement said.

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Consumer Affairs MinisterRam Vilas Paswan on

Friday said bullet-resistantjackets manufactured accord-ing to the national BIS stan-dards are safer, lighter, 50 percent cheaper and even beingexported.

The formulation of theBureau of Indian Standard (BIS)standard on bullet resistant jack-et has placed India in the selectleague of nations like the US, UKand Germany who have theirown national standard.

“BIS has formulated anational standard on bulletproof jacket which will pro-mote Make in India. This jack-et is of best quality in the worldand is also lighter in weightwhich is convenient for ourjawans. Prices of these jacketsare 50 per cent lower and as aresult more exports are takingplace,” Paswan told reporters.

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Top union ministers includ-ing Home Minister Amit

Shah and finance ministerNirmala Sitharaman held a cru-cial meeting on Friday to discussthe proposed mega free-tradeagreement RCEP, which hasentered the last phase of itsnegotiations, an official said.

External affairs minister SJaishankar, commerce andindustry minister Piyush Goyaland minister of state for com-merce and industry HardeepSingh Puri also attended themeeting.

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Amid an industry feud overcall ringing time, Reliance

Jio has urged the telecom reg-ulator to abstain from man-dating a specific duration forcalls to ring, and said the mat-ter should be kept under for-bearance as “there is no needfor any regulatory intervention”.

Jio said if at all the TelecomRegulatory Authority of India(Trai) wants to take a view onthe issue, it should be in formof a “reference guideline andnot in form of a mandatedvalue”.

“In such case, the range of

20 seconds to 25 seconds maybe prescribed as referenceguideline,” Jio informed Trai,which is in the process offinalising its views on the issuethrough a consultation paper.

Rival Bharti Airtel —which had charged Jio of arbi-trarily shortening the ring timefor outgoing calls from its net-work -- has argued that low

ringing time for calls directlyimpacts the customer experi-ence, and asserted that stan-dardising the value at bothoriginating and terminatingends “is paramount at thisstage”.

Airtel has recommendedthat the terminating exchangetimer should be fixed at 45 sec-onds and the originationexchange timer at 75 seconds.

In its submission,Vodafone Idea has argued thatthe minimum ringing timershould be retained at 30 sec-onds, which, the companyclaimed is in tune with globalpractices.

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Hong Kong: Thousands of defiant masked protesters streamedinto Hong Kong streets on Friday after the city’s embattled leaderinvoked rarely used emergency powers to ban masks at ralliesin a hardening of the Government’s stance after four months ofanti-government demonstrations.

Challenging the ban set to take effect Saturday, protesterscrammed streets in the central business district and other areas,shouting “Hong Kong people, resist.”

Carrie Lam said at an afternoon news conference that themask ban, imposed under a colonial-era Emergency Ordinancethat was last used over half a century ago, targets violent pro-testers and rioters and “will be an effective deterrent to radicalbehaviour.”

The ban applies to all public gatherings, both unauthorisedand those approved by police.

Lam stressed it doesn’t mean the semi-autonomous Chineseterritory is in a state of emergency. She said she would go to thelegislature later to get legal backing for the rule.

“We must save Hong Kong, the present Hong Kong and thefuture Hong Kong,” she said.

“We must stop the violence ... We can’t just leave the situa-tion to get worse and worse.”

Two activists immediately filed legal challenges in court ongrounds that the mask ban will instill fear and curtail freedomof speech and assembly. The High Court was hearing a bid lateFriday to halt the ban. AP

Athens: Greek Prime MinisterKyriakos Mitsotakis on Fridaycalled on Turkey to “takeresponsibility” for a renewedwave of migrants to Greece, andfor an EU-Turkish deal to berevised so Athens can speed upthe return of rejected asylum-seekers.

“Turkey must take respon-sibility” and “control themigrant flow in the Aegean Sea,”the conservative Greek leadersaid during a debate in parlia-ment on migration.

Greece has felt underincreasing pressure. For thefirst time since 2016, the coun-try has become the main port ofentry into the European Unionfor migrants and refugees arriv-ing via Turkish shores.

The UN refugee agency(UNHCR) announced on

Tuesday that arrivals by seafrom Turkey to Greece, mostlyAfghan and Syrian families,increased to 10,258 inSeptember.

It said this was the highestmonthly total since 2016, whenthe European Union reached anaccord with Turkey to stem theflow of arrivals.

Turkey has welcomed near-ly 3.6 million refugees, the vastmajority from neighbouringwar-ravaged Syria.

Turkish President RecepTayyip Erdogan threatened inearly September to allow a newwave of migrants to go to theEU if he did not receive moreinternational aid.

Ankara wants to create inSyria a “security zone” somigrants could return there.

AFP

Washington: US PresidentDonald Trump openly calledon China as well as Ukraine toinvestigate his potential 2020election rival Joe Biden, taunt-ing Democrats seeking hisimpeachment for inviting for-eign election interference.

Speaking in Florida,

Trump blasted his accusers as“maniacs” pursuing “impeach-ment crap” as he sought to turnthe tables on a probe thatthreatens to make him only thethird US president everimpeached in the House ofRepresentatives, and face atrial in the Senate.

Adam Schiff, the Democratleading the impeachmentprobe in the House ofRepresentatives, said Trumpwas acting “with impunity” inthe face of the law.

“Once again we have apresident of the United Statessuggesting, urging a foreigncountry to interfere in ourpresidential elections,” Schiffsaid.

“It endangers our elec-tions, endangers our nationalsecurity and ought to be con-demned by every member ofthis body, Democrats andRepublicans alike.”

As a former StateDepartment diplomat testifiedbehind closed doors inCongress on his role in theUkraine scandal, Trump dou-bled down by calling forUkraine President VolodymyrZelensky and Chinese leader XiJinping to go after Biden, wholeads the race for theDemocratic presidential nom-ination next year. AFP

Islamabad: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan did not meeta high-level Afghan Taliban delegation to discuss the revival ofthe stalled peace process in Afghanistan, his top aide said onFriday, dismissing reports of the meeting in the local and inter-national media as “not true”.

Several local and international media outlets had reportedthat prime minister Khan and the Taliban Political Commission(TPC), led by its head Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, discussedthe Afghan peace process during a meeting.

Geo News channel reported that Khan stressed the need forpeace in Afghanistan and termed it as key to peace and stabili-ty in the region. PTI

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Iraq’s Shia spiritual leaderGrand Ayatollah Ali Sistani

called on the Government onFriday to heed the demands ofprotesters who have throngedBaghdad and other cities forfour straight days and con-demned the mounting death tollfrom clashes with police.

The endorsement fromSistani, who is revered amongIraq’s Shia majority communi-ty, prompted celebratory gunfirefrom protesters and piled newpressure on Prime MinisterAdel Abdel Mahdi as he battlesto quell the intensifying unrest.

Many had been waiting fora signal from Sistani in hisFriday prayer sermon read out

by representatives in Shiite holyplaces across Iraq before decid-ing whether to join other pro-testers in defying the daytimecurfew in force in Baghdadand other cities.

The Prime Minister hasappealed for patience from theyoung unemployed who haveformed the mainstay of theprotests, saying his not yet year-old Government needs moretime to implement reforms.

But Sistani retorted thatthe Government needed to actnow “before it’s too late” toaddress popular grievances orthe protests would simply inten-sify. The crisis required “clearand practical steps” or the pro-testers will “simply come backeven stronger”, he said.

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Kiev: Ukraine’s prosecutor-gen-eral said on Friday he wouldreview cases related to a gas firmwhere Joe Biden’s son used towork, after US President DonaldTrump pushed his Ukrainiancounterpart to look into theissue.

Trump’s request thatUkrainian President VolodymyrZelensky probe the activities ofHunter and Joe Biden, the fron-trunner for the Democraticpresidential candidacy, hassparked an impeachment probein the US.

Prosecutor-General RuslanRyaboshapka told reporters hisoffice would revisit about 15cases but stressed that they werenot necessarily connected toBiden’s son, Hunter Biden.

“We are conducting an auditof the cases that were earlier

overseen by the Prosecutor-General’s Office,” saidRyaboshapka, who was appoint-ed in August.

“We are reviewing all casesthat were closed or broken upinto separate cases, to make adecision on whether this wasillegal.” Ukrainian authoritieshave previously said the inves-tigation into gas firm Burismafocuses on a period beforeHunter Biden joined the com-pany’s board.

Ryaboshapka also suggest-ed the prosecutors may focusnot on Hunter Biden but onBurisma’s founder MykolaZlochevsky and other figures.

“As far as we can see, this ismore a question of Zlochevskyand Ukrainian businessmanSergei) Kurchenko than Burismaand Biden,” he said. AP

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Top US diplomats encour-aged Ukraine’s newly elect-

ed president to conduct aninvestigation linked to JoeBiden’s family in return for apotentially high-profile visit toWashington with PresidentDonald Trump.

That’s according to a cacheof text messages released lateThursday by House investiga-tors following a 10-hour inter-view with one of the diplomats,Kurt Volker, who stepped downas special envoy to Ukraineamid the Democrats’ impeach-ment inquiry.

The pages of text messagesconvey a distinct campaignamong the three diplomats,who — apparently against someof their stated better judgment

— appear to be trying to helpUkraine reset its relationshipwith Trump by pushing hisinterest in investigating hisDemocratic rival.

Volker, in a text message onthe morning of a planned July25 phone call between Trumpand Ukraine PresidentVolodymyr Zelenskiy, wrote:“Heard from White House —Assuming President Z con-vinces trump he will investigate/ “get to the bottom of whathappened” in 2016, we will naildown date for visit toWashington.”

An adviser to theUkrainian president appearsto go along with the proposal,which entailed investigatingBurisma, a Ukrainian gas com-pany where Joe Biden’s sonHunter served on the board.

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TOOR, JINSON OUT OF WORLD C'SHIPSDoha: *����F��!�����0����0����������� ������'��� � �� �� �� ����� 1��� ������ ���� ���� #6==����������������������������� ��'� ���3���! ��� ���� �F������ �' �� '������� �� J����'�� '�� ��'�������'� ���� ����� �������� �%�����:4����������������������������F����� ��''� ��'�:=%45� �'������ ���� �� ��� ��� 0���� �� J����'��� ���� �������� #C �� ������� �� � �'� 54� ���� � ��� ��������������������������5���� ���5>%C?�������� ������#= ���������'�� ��������� ������������%8��'��������54 ����������� ��'�45������%

JAMUNA GIVES INDIA WINNING STARTUlan-Ude: ������ ���� @64&�A� ����� �� '������ � � �� *����F���������� ��� ���3����3���F���7������������������������������ �� ������J�� �'�������� ����'����������������������%������'�� �����������F�����������2����������6�=/��������� '�� �� ����� � � � '�� �� ������������ ��%� ���� ::��������/� �������� �� �� !�����'���/������� �����������7 �����������������J����''������� �!�����F��'�' ���������"�������'������ ��� ���J�� �'�����%� �����/� '��� �� ������������� )��� � @6$&�A� ���� ����� �� ����@$6&�A/����7�������������� � ������� /������������� ����'��*����%

PAK-SL LAUNCH T20 WC PREPARATIONLahore: 3���� ����� ���� ���� �:=� ��1�&�� ��� �&�����������7������������-��&����� ��'�� � �'� �� ����� ��� ������ ��� -����� ����/� � ���� ���� ����� ���� '�� ��7 � ���F�� 3���������� ������ �� �'�� %�1�&�� ����������������� �������� �:=�� ��������!�� �������7 ��� ���'������ ��������������������� �� ��������� �*������ ���� 2������/� ���� ������ �'� ��� ���� �:=!���� ���%� ��� � ������ ��� ������ ����� ���� '� ������� �:=�3�������� �������������!�� �������"� ��������)��������7 ����%

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Ravichandran Ashwin, play-ing his first Test match

since December last year, sayshe badly missed playing forIndia in the last 10 months, somuch so that the wily off-spinner stopped watching thegame.

The 33-year-old, who hasbeen playing only one formatfor India since July 2017, lastplayed the Adelaide Test fromDecember 6 to 10, the first ofthe four on the tour ofAustralia.

To his disappointment,Ashwin did not feature in theplaying eleven in the followingTest series against the WestIndies in August-Septemberwhen India only played onespinner in Ravindra Jadeja.

“To stay away from crick-et itself was very tough for me.In order to substitute, I playedwhatever games I got. I triedand made opportunity formyself to go and play somecounty cricket (forNottinghamshire). I tried andplayed the TNPL as much as Icould, played some leaguecricket in Chennai,” he said.

“It was very important totick those numbers off becausethat is essentially where I camefrom. Going back and playingthere is probably the best thingthat could have happened,”said Ashwin, who when askedabout time away from nation-al duty.

After claiming his 27thfive-wicket haul in Tests onFriday, Ashwin showed that heremained India’s go to spinnerin home conditions.

Ashwin enjoyed his coun-ty stint in England where heeven dismissed South Africanopener Dean Elgar, who got thebetter of him here on Friday.

The offie said not playingregular cricket for India alsomade him realise how much heloves bowling.

“I am elated to be back.There is nothing like picking upa five-wicket haul for your

country. This place is very spe-cial for me but I enjoyed a five-wicket haul for Nottinghamtoo. One is not too lesser thanthe other,” Ashwin said.

“For me it is about playingthe game and I have realisedthat the joy of the game has tobe back in my heart. I madesure that I enjoy the gamewhere ever I go and play. ThatI thought to an extent was quitevisible when I played yesterday.”

Talking about SouthAfrica’s fightback in the ongo-ing first Test, Ashwin said Elgarand Quinton de Kock deservesall the credit for playing the waythey did.

“It is a proper Test matchpitch. You expect two teams tobat well don’t you? I thoughtthey batted really well.Whenever the ball spun, itspun from far distances notfrom the normal length.

“We might have giventhem few too many runs in themorning session which proba-bly gave them the momentum.You expect a good side to playthe way they did. So credit hasto be given where it needs to begiven,” he said.

“We came back in the backhalf of the day. That is how Testcricket is supposed to be,”Ashwin added.

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Opener Dean Elgar said he may have madehis best hundred for South Africa on Friday

in the first Test against India here and credit-ed county cricket, including his battles with RAshwin there, for making him a better batsmanagainst quality spin.

“Any three-figure mark for South Africa isa massive moment for me. It’s always an emo-tional time. A lot of hard graft has happened inthe previous series where you have failed. Youlook back and you realise that it’s very special.Even in the trying conditions that we have, wehave not experienced heat like this back home,”Elgar said at the press conference after the day’splay.

“The wicket obviously wears down quitequickly. I’d like to think it may be my best hun-dred I have had for South Africa, especially play-ing against the prowess of India and to showthem that last time was a little bit easier but thistime it is not going to be a pushover,” said Elgar.

Elgar was among the South African bats-men who had a disastrous tour of India fouryears ago. Even on Friday, South Africa were upagainst the wall at one stage it but Elgar andQuinton de Kock (111 off 163 balls) put theirteam back in the game with memorable knocks.

The southpaw said he learnt a lot from hispast mistakes ahead of his second series in India.

“We knew it was going to be tough. Weknew we were going to be facing qualitybowlers on a wearing pitch. But I always had thehope that if we knuckle down and give ourselvesa chance, the best chance to try and score, giveus a platform to allow us to express ourselves

a little bit, we could always get to the positionwe are.

“A lot of stern messages were given out thismorning in the huddle and it is nice to see thatthe new faces or even the older faces knuck-le down and do their bit for the side. It is toughplaying Test cricket in India. You are alwaysup against it, they are always coming at you.But I felt with previous experiences of play-ing against them that if you apply yourself, yougive yourself the opportunity, you can getthere.”

He said he learnt the importance of hisdefensive game from previous experience ofplaying against the Indians.

“The previous stats and history of playingagainst them proves that if you allow yourselftime, you give yourself a bit of opportunitywith your defensive game, your attacking gamewill come naturally and you will be able to getinto the position that you are now.”

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They need just one win out of thefour remaining matches to secure

playoffs spot in the Pro KabaddiLeague season 7 but Nitesh Kumar ledUP Yoddha (58 points in 18 games)want to keep the winning momentumgoing and win all four matches of thehome leg to not just only seal theremaining playoffs spot available butalso keep them on the winning trackbefore the final tussle for the glory.

Going into the home leg whichthey will play at Shaheed Vijay SinghPathik Sports Complex, GreaterNoida from today, last season's stardefender (100 tackle points in season6) and team captain Nitesh Kumarsays that though the team just needone win to pip Jaipur Pink Panthers(57 points in 21 games) to advancefurther in the tournament but that inno way will stop the side to play forwin in the remaining matches andmaintain winning run.

"Going into the home leg weexpect a lot of things to go in ourfavour. We have a chance to seal play-

off spot and what's better than doingit in front of the home fans. We needone win out of four matches toadvance further, so this in some waytakes out a lot of pressure from us andwe can go with a positive mindset.However, let me make it very clearthat even though one win will do thejob for us but we want to win all thefour games in front of our fans andmaintain the winning streak."

Going into the last phase of theleague, UP Yoddha will face table-top-pers Dabang Delhi and defendingchampions Bengaluru Bulls alongwith Telugu Titans and Puneri Paltanand according to the captain the teammanagement has plans to keepNaveen Kumar (Delhi) and Pawan

Sehrawat (Bengaluru) silent duringthe tie which will help them toachieve the goal.

"Delhi and Bengaluru are twosides that heavily depend on theirraiders and if we want to win againstthem then we have to make sure thatwe keep their main raiders Naveenand Pawan out of action for as muchtime as possible."

"We have played them againstbefore and in those games also theywere not able to take many pointsfrom us, so this is going to be a sortof motivation this time even and weare confident that we will keep themunder check this time too," he captainsaid.

The team during the course offour month-long tournament sufferedbecause of injuries to senior playerslike Rishank Devadiga and MonuGoyat but now that when they are fitand back in the side, the captain whoscored record 100 tackle points dur-ing last season says that the return ofsenior pros in the squad will furtherboost their chances to go a stepbeyond this time and win the trophy.

"Rishank and Monu are the twomost experienced players in ourteam and their return from injury isa massive boost for us in this last twoweeks of the tournament. They havea lot of experience and their presenceis going to matter a lot during crunchsituations and I am sure that togeth-er we will achieve better results thistime," the captain concluded.

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Dean Elgar and Quintonde Kock centuries helpedSouth Africa fight back

on Friday to reach 385 for eightin response to India’s mammothfirst-innings 502.

De Kock made 111 and puton a key 164-run stand withElgar, who scored 160, to thwartthe Indian bowling attack on daythree of the first Test inVisakhapatnam.

Off-spinner RavichandranAshwin kept chipping away atthe batsmen however to claimhis 27th five-wicket haul in 66Tests.

At stumps, the Proteas stilltrail by 117 runs as they chaseIndia’s first innings score of 502for seven declared.

Debutant SenuranMuthusamy, on 12, and KeshavMaharaj, on three, were at thecrease after the long day with 98overs bowled to make for losttime because of storms on dayone.

Wicketkeeper-batsman deKock completed his fifth Test

hundred in the final session witha six off Ashwin before eventu-ally being bowled by the off-spinner.

Ashwin struck again withthe wicket of Vernon Philanderfor nought.

The left-handed Elgar, whostarted the day on 27, led therevival after South Africa slippedto 63 for four in the morningsession.

NO FLUKEThe 32-year-old credited

his stint with Surrey in theEnglish county championshipfor his impressive show.

“I have played five monthsof county cricket. That’s anextremely big motivating factorfor my career that alwaysimproves me as a player,” saidElgar.

“I’d like to think that thisinnings didn’t come by fluke, butcame because I have done the

hard work. I have spent a lot oftime away from home whichyou have got to sacrifice.”

Elgar put on 115 with skip-per Faf du Plessis for the fifthwicket to put pressure on India’sbowlers.

Ashwin, back in the IndianXI after his last outing inAustralia last year, also saidplaying county cricket forNottinghamshire had helpedhim during his time away fromthe Indian team.

“I am elated to be back. It isalways special for India. Thereis nothing like picking up a fivewicket haul for your country,”said Ashwin.

“This place is very specialfor me but I enjoyed a five wick-et haul for Nottingham too. Oneis not too lesser than the other.”

SELFIE WITH KOHLIAshwin’s spin partner

Ravindra Jadeja also made itcount with Elgar’s wicket in thefinal session as he moved to 200Test scalps.

South Africa started the

day on 39-3 but fast bowlerIshant Sharma struck early, tak-ing overnight batsman TembaBavuma low for 18.

Jadeja also posed problemsand nearly got Elgar on 74 butwicketkeeper Wriddhiman Sahaspilled the chance.

Indian opener MayankAgarwal set the tone for thehosts’ dominance of the gamewith his 215 and a 317-run

opening stand with RohitSharma, who hit 176 of India’sgiant score.

An over-enthusiastic fancaused a brief security scarewhen he rushed on the field toget a selfie with the India cap-tain Virat Kohli.

Kohli, who is treated as anational hero, was taken bysurprise by the intrusion inbetween overs when the youth

tried to hug him before takinga picture and touching the starplayer’s feet.

Kohli tried to order theteenager off and vice-captainRahane also intervened but thepersistent fan stayed on thefield for more than two minutes.

Security officers eventuallyoverpowered him as he ran off,while the crowd roared andclapped.

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World number oneAshleigh Barty said

she produced some of herbest tennis this year as shebattled into the China Opensemi-finals on Friday with agutsy victory over PetraKvitova.

The Australian camefrom a set down to win 4-6,6-4, 6-3 and will play KikiBertens of the Netherlandsin the last four in Beijing.

“From my opinion, thatwas one of the highest-quality matches I played allyear,” said the 23-year-old,the reigning French Openchampion.

“Petra always has a wayof bringing out the best inme, she really does.

“From both of us, Ithink the level was incredi-ble.

“Regardless of winningor losing, I think I’d be sit-ting here with the exactsame perspective, kind ofthe same feeling of thematch afterwards.”

This was the sixth meet-ing between Barty and two-time Wimbledon championKvitova, with the formerwinning only one of her pre-vious encounters againstthe Czech.

Barty, who had strap-ping on her left calf, wasunder the cosh in the decid-ing set after seventh-rankedKvitova broke her first ser-vice game.

But Barty grabbed thebreak back and, with theclock ticking past two hourson court, broke Kvitovaagain for a decisive 5-3 lead.

Bertens, eighth in theworld, sealed her spot in thesemi-finals with a two-setvictory over Elina Svitolinaof Ukraine.

HEARTENED PROGRESSAndy Murray said that

his comeback from career-saving hip surgery was pro-gressing better than expect-ed despite going down fight-ing in the quarter-finals.

The 32-year-old Britonlost 6-2, 7-6 (7/3) to top seedDominic Thiem in Beijing,but said: “I think this (week)was maybe the best in termsof how I played since Icame back.

“It was great for me, Iplayed three matches infour days, which is quite alot.

“Actually I felt betterthan I expected today, aswell,” said the former num-ber one, who had a majoroperation in January and

only returned to singles ten-nis in August.

Asked if he was furtherahead than he expected tobe in his comeback, hereplied: “Yeah, maybe.

“I'm getting there, thisweek is better than lastweek, I hope next week isbetter than this week,” thethree-time Grand Slamchampion said.

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Left-arm spinner RavindraJadeja on Friday became

the second fastest Indian toscalp 200 wickets in Testcricket.

Jadeja achieved the featwhen he dismissed centurionDean Elgar (160) duringSouth Africa’s first innings onthe third day.

Jadeja took 44 Tests toreach the milestone and is

now only behind off-spinnerRavichandran Ashwin, whoneeded 37 matches to enterthe 200-wicket club.

Former India spinnersHarbhajan Singh and AnilKumble needed 46 and 47matches respectively to reachthe milestone.

Jadeja is also the fastestleft-arm bowler to achieve thefeat ahead of Rangana Herath(47 matches) and Australia’sMitchell Johnson (49).

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World number oneNovak Djokovic on

Friday put on a stunningshow of supremacy at theJapan Open with a 6-1, 6-2 win over Lucas Pouilleof France.

The Serb over-whelmed his opponent inthe quarterfinal match,showering Pouille with abarrage of powerful, pre-cision shots to deep, widecorners mixed with deli-cate drop shots.

“I am not a machine.But I did play like one

today,” he said after their50-minute contest.

“This was one of thebest matches I played thisyear. Very, very pleasedwith the way I feel andplayed on the court,” saidDjokovic.

"I am looking forwardto another battle onSaturday, hopefully I willbe able to keep up withthis quality of tennis.”

In the semifinals,Djokovic will face 2017champion David Goffin,who also comfortablydefeated Chung Hyeon 6-2, 6-2.

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To keep personal hygiene isnecessary for many rea-sons; personal, social,health, psychological orsimply as a way of life.

It has been observed that manyhealth care practices focus on pre-venting diseases by strengthening thebody from the inside out, personalhygiene focuses on preventing prob-lems by working from the outside in.Simple measures, like proper wash-ing, oral and foot care, are corner-stones of good body maintenance.

Personal hygiene is somethingthat comes really naturally to everyindividual. Exactly that their way ofmaintaining the actual hygiene lev-els is different. The entire idea ofgood personal hygiene is aimed atkeeping your body, hair, as well asteeth clean and free from smells andinfections. Additionally, it is crucialto follow hygiene practice withinaccord with the social, social, andfamily norms.

Handling raw food, changingdiapers, working in the garden,cleaning toilets and emptyinggarbage cans all expose us a varietyof contaminants and bacteria.Immediately after coming into con-tact with any materials you feelmight be harmful if swallowed orrubbed into your eyes or nose, washyour hands with soap and warmwater.

Body image influences self-esteem, confidence and motivation.Those who already have low selfesteem and especially those withdepression often neglect personalhygiene which perpetuates the prob-lem of poor body image.Many formsof modern media including maga-zines, fashion, TV, film and the inter-net present a certain body image asbeing "acceptable" or "expected".Young children and teenagers areespecially influenced by this; phys-ical appearance being the ultimatefactor by which to judge and bejudged.

Skipping any cleanliness practiceeven for a day or even more can leadyou to a higher risk of being a tar-get to different ailments. If the fin-gers are not washed with cleaningsoap after visiting the bathroom andalso you directly get involved in foodpreparation, you might expose oth-ers to various contagious diseases.Additionally, skipping bathroomsalso increases infection danger.Therefore, it is important to devel-op great personal hygiene is helpfulin reducing the likelihood of fallingsick.

Keeping your teeth, tongue and

gums clean takes more than a rinsewith mouth wash or the occasionalbrush. Your mouth is a considerablebreeding ground for bacteria, and atransfer station for sending harmfulbacteria throughout your body'ssystem. According to research bac-teria trapped in teeth can travelthroughout the body, infectingorgans, glands and tissue and candamage the kidneys, eyes, heart,brain and joints. In addition tothorough brushing, floss frequentlyto remove food lodged betweenteeth. Flossing also helps strengthengums. Brush your tongue and gums,as well as your teeth, twice a day, toremove harmful bacteria and pro-mote fresh breath.

Athlete's foot is caused by a fun-gus which thrives in warm, dampplaces. Wearing shoes without socksincreases your chance of contractingthis fungus. Athletes who do notchange their wet socks after they aredone with sports also run the risk ofpicking up this affliction. If you playrecreational sports, consider bring-ing an extra pair of socks to yourgame or match so you can keep yourfeet dry if the team or foursome goesout for pizza or a beer after thenight's activity. If you wear shoeswithout socks, line the shoes with anabsorbent pad and/or use foot pow-der each time you wear them.

The actual quotient of personalattractiveness can be enhancedthrough good personal hygienemethods like brushing the teeth, get-ting regular showers, taking a mindwash, and regular utilization of adeodorant. Being thoroughly cleanas well as free from smells makes itmuch simpler for others to getacquainted with a person. Being cau-tious with your cleanliness require-ments also makes you aware of theappearances. Feeling physically greatenables you to look at yourself with-in an optimistic way.

Always wash fingers regularly.Since we’re talking about fingers,trim and clean your own nails reg-ularly. Wash the body and your hairoften. Keeping your finger and toenails trimmed and in good shapemay prevent problems such as hangfingernails and infected nail mat-tresses. It lessens the likelihood inorder to contract athlete’s foot.

To maintain a wholesome smile,visit the dentist from six-monthintervals for checkups as well ascleanings.

Being clean and hygienic sup-plies a much better feeling about youthan the one experienced whilebecoming dirty. Furthermore, youget better reactions to a hygienic aswell as clean appearance thus obtain-ing a raise in your self-esteem.

One of the most important thingis proper hygiene which is quite cru-cial for social acceptance. This isbecause no one likes being about adirty or unhygienic individual. Mostpeople hate to be talked about, espe-cially in a negative manner. Byensuring that our body is clean andwell presented, we are more assuredof projecting a positive body imagethat reflects our personalities.

Children should be taught theimportance of hygiene and how toachieve good hygiene very early tokeep themselves and others healthyand to reduce the risk of being bul-lied at school.

Conditions such as head lice, ath-lete’s foot etc. should be treatedimmediately to prevent further infec-tions and spread to others. Handwashing cannot be emphasisedenough as this simple action can pre-vent a plethora of illnesses and dis-orders developing.

Many people ‘forget’ to washtheir hands after using the toilet orbefore handling foods; this can causea great deal of illness and even death.By being well presented, clean andtidy, people can feel more confident,especially in social situations. Ourchances of succeeding either in workor social settings, or even with theopposite sex can be altered by main-tenance of good hygiene.

It is seen that for most people,good hygiene is so much a part oftheir daily routines that they think lit-tle about it. They bathe, they brushtheir teeth, visit the dentist and doc-tor for regular checkups, and washtheir hands when preparing or eatingfood and handling unsanitary items.

To keep those you care abouthealthy and safe, help them learn, andbe sure that they are practicing, goodpersonal hygiene.

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�While you are continuing your actingcareer, you have also turned into a suc-cessful producer, foraying majorlyinto regional films before The Sky isPink. What’s the story of PurplePebble?

I started my production housebecause I wanted to create somethingthat would stand outside of me andengage with meaningful cinema.Which is why I’ve produced region-al films that have amazing storiesto tell, be they Marathi, Sikkimese,Punjabi and Gujarati. You can callPurple Pebble my dream, sonamed because purple is thecolour of royalty and I consid-er myself a queen (laughs).And like a little pebble, likea rolling stone, I go from oneplace to the other, chasingnewer horizons. It has avery deep meaning but it’salso a cute name. WhenI started the productionhouse with my mother,who is also a director inthe company, the idea ofit was to be able to tella story that I wanted totell but couldn’t alwaysas an actor. And I

believe a lot in the kind ofcinema I want to make,which is content-heavy. Ichose to co-produce TheSky is Pink not because itis a Hindi film but itbeing a real human story.The characters are notsuperheroes, they are justeveryday people, a regu-lar couple, who havethrived in extraordinary

circumstances and survivedthem in such a positive andamazing way. I feel in such acynical world, people look forinspiration and surprisingly,we forget that they existamong us. Families shouldwatch this film and see howif you stick together, you cancome out of difficult cir-cumstances. It is one ofthose films.

�Considering you are aglobal star, how do youmanage your projects?

I worked around theclock for a year. Now I amjust dividing my timebetween what I do in theUS and what I do here.But that is manageablebecause I have alwaysbeen selective about allmy characters. If you gothrough my filmography,I have never played thesame person ever. I getbored by doing the same

things. Once I choose not torepeat myself, I find newer

areas to work on.

�How do you manage thismulti-national to and fro?

It is multi-continental, actual-ly. It was a very difficult balance to achievebut I was up for the challenge.

�What made you take up the TV showQuantico in Hollywood? You were anywayat the top of your game here, why did youchoose to begin again from the base inanother industry, especially one that isn’ttoo absorptive of Asians?

As I said, I do not like repeating myselfand I was honestly looking to evolve. I didmy rounds of the studios and had to intro-duce myself all over again. The struggle wastremendous. I had to take meetings and tellthem, ‘I am Priyanka Chopra. I am an actorfrom India and this is the kind of work I wantto do.’ I had the humility to do that and I feelthat it is required when you want to start any-

thing new, not just films. Just because I ama star here doesn’t mean the world knows me.

�But let’s face it, keeping it real is a diffi-cult adjustment to make, right?

It is difficult for people who don’t havehumility, whose pride is bigger than them orthe end result. I am sorted that way. I start-ed from scratch and I didn’t have my careerhanded over to me. I made my career bit bybit. Since I had done it once, I did it againthis time. Of course, this was a tougher taskbecause I did it in my 30s, when they say thata woman’s career in showbiz is over. I am veryhappy to be proving them wrong. I have analmost two-decade long career now. I thinkit’s all because I had humility and though itwas difficult at times and took a mentaladjustment, I knew what I wanted to do. AndI wanted to do it well. I didn’t want to do side-kick roles in Hollywood. Since I had been aleading lady here, I wanted to take off fromthat point and start out in a lead role there.I have to give kudos to ABC that they couldsee me as the leading lady. In the process, Ibecame the first Asian ever to helm theirshow. It had never happened before. So thatwas a big achievement and post that, it hasbeen an amazing experience, doing the workthat I have, people giving me that space andaccepting me in the US. Yes, it did take a lot.

�As somebody who is a fan of technolo-gy, your app, Bumble, is now a big hit inIndia. So now, you are a techpreneur?

I love technology and wanted to be anaeronautical engineer when I was young.Physics and Mathematics were my favouritesubjects in school and I have been a nerd allmy life. (Laughs) Like they say, nerds will rulethe world, if they don’t already! Anyway, mymanager in the US is a venture capitalist. AndI told her that if I ever wanted to diversify,I would want to focus on something relat-ed to women and their education. I was hav-ing dinner when Bumble got launched inNew York. Its founder Whitney (Wolfe Herd)was giving a speech, detailing why she decid-ed to create it. At that instant, I thought howamazing it would be to take this to womenin India to encourage conversations that theymay be diffident about, and to help themexpress themselves better. I lost no time andasked her if she was planning to expand over-seas? She said “no” but I told her that I wasthinking of taking the platform to India. Anapplication, which allows women to makethe first move, is such a powerful tool aswomen making the first choice doesn’thappen too often in our country. She likedthe idea and we worked on it for a year. I’llnever forget the date when I launched it inIndia, which was right after my wedding —December 5. I was super excited about it. Wenever expected the numbers we got.

The only thing I told Whitney was thatyou have to culturally reform it to be able toprotect the girls in the country. So we addedthe privacy feature and gave the user the rightto send the first text and not be inundatedby queries. There is also a photo verificationoption, so that you know the person you arespeaking to is actually the person you’respeaking to. Besides, Bumble BFFs and net-works allow women to not just date but also

find like-minded people and friends. And incase, you’re a homemaker or a home entre-preneur and are looking to expand your busi-ness, you can also find people who can helpyou do that. So it is just a tool to empowerIndian women and take command of theirown lives in their own hands. I just knew itin my gut that this is what I wanted to cre-ate for the girls here. And I’m happy that ithas done so well.

�How do you see the transformation ofIndian women over the years, having tra-versed a bit of that journey yourself?

To reach a place of equality and be treat-ed the same as guys is going to take a long

time. But the most important thing is to havewomen support each other and have eachother’s backs. Who else is going to do thatif not women themselves? The reason whyit didn’t happen for a long time was thatwomen didn’t have the time and opportu-nity. There were such few opportunities thatthey had to fight each other off to get whatthey wanted. Now, we are creating moreopportunities for women and have men whoare feminists. For example, in this film,Farhan (Akhtar), Sid (Siddharth Roy Kapur)and Ronnie (Screwavala) are feminist men.They believe in a female filmmaker and aproducer. So that is the world we want to cre-ate in our generation in the hope that maybe and hopefully, the work that we do is whatour grandchildren also follow without eventhinking about it. It really depends on us andI am seeing such a massive change, not justin India but around the world. Of course, itis a really long conversation and has to godeep. Education is a really big part of it andI think the government is taking necessarysteps and initiatives when it comes to that.I think that it will also require parents to havethat understanding of giving exposure to thegirl child instead of devaluing her. They needto give her the ability to stand up on her feetand understand that for her, educationmatters a lot. This kind of thought processwill dig a deeper road to a smarter India. AndI feel it will require us talking about it moreoften.

�Women in our country are also deeplycircumscribed by societal taboos. Youyourself have been at its receiving end inpublic life, as recently as when you choseto marry. How do you fight them?

We are one of the oldest civilisations andcultures in the world, so traditional tabooshave existed for thousands of years. But theywill take as much time to be obliterated asit will take us not to succumb to societal pres-sure. I don’t succumb.

�How do you handle trolls?I really want young boys and girls to con-

sider seriously what I say right now. Theseyoung people seek validation through socialmedia, from people who are not even theirfriends. They are not “your people” and theirvalidation wouldn’t even matter. That shouldcome from your friends and loved ones andthose who are, most importantly, invested inyour growth. Criticism from those peopleshouldn’t be taken seriously as someone sit-ting behind the anonymity of a computer,telling you how you should behave doesn’tmatter. There is a reason why they are calledtrolls. But why has trolling become news Inever understood! I have blamed the mediaa lot for it about how they have started to lit-erally report tweets. We should just stop mag-nifying their worth; it’s just crazy. You canreact to tweets where may be my mother issaying something about me. But it’s crazywhen some random people starts writing any-thing s/he fancies and that becomes news.And if you see the numbers of trolls, they arejust about 100-150 people. So it’s basicallymaking a headline out of 100-150 peoplewriting something absurd.

�How do you maintain a work-life balance?The most important thing is to have a

partner who understands and supportsyour individual ambition outside of him.Nick and I may be a unit but we are also indi-viduals. We both support our personalambitions.

And the second bit, which me and hehave, is communication. No matter where weare, we update each other about the entireday. I tell him if I am doing interviews or hav-ing dinner. He knows what is happening inmy life just as I know what’s happening inhis. Besides, video-calling has saved our long-distance relationship tremendously. Wevideo-call each other all the time. I thinkeventually it is also about how much youwant to make it work with the other person.And most importantly, to have time for eachother and support each other’s ambitions andnot just boast one’s own.

(The film releases on October 11.)���������!�1/$���

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While traditions might have beenlost amid the glitter and glamourof the modern culture, they are

being revived with great intensity throughfood today. And what could poignantlyremind of this better than the time aroundDurga Puja, the annual highlight ofBengali social and religious calendar? It istime when long-lost delicacies and recipescould be brought back as the Puja is notjust a religious festival but something thatis experiential in itself — with pandal-hop-ping, feasting around and reliving child-hood and bittersweet memories. UnlikeNorth India, where fasting is observedthroughout the nine auspicious days ofNavratri.

Festive food is one thing that helps cre-ate memories. However, with the chang-ing times and a growing dependence onpre-packaged foods, takeaways and diningout, today’s generation doesn’t fit into thepicture. As a result, many delicacies haveconfided themselves only into cookbooksand long-lost grandmother’s recipes. ManojRawat, executive chef at Hilton Garden InnGurgaon Baani Square, tells us that thistime “there is again a shift towards tradi-tional dishes,” which have stood the test oftime and are sure to keep their presencealive. Be it Sondesh, Mishti doi, Bhapa doior Rasagulla, no puja celebrations can becomplete without these. However, apartfrom these delicacies, which are conven-tional, one will be surprised to know howmuch more could be explored. Forinstances — Shukto, plethora of vegetables

cooked in various spices with creamy,milky gravy and the slightest hint of sweet-ness and a core taste of bitterness; Mocharghonto, a traditional Bengali preparation,where the banana flowers are cooked alongwith potato and aromatic spices; Kabirajicutlets, a crumb fried cutlet, preferablyfilled with chicken, mutton or fish; Khichdibhog, a mixture of regular rice and dal witha few additions like spices, peas, potatoesand tomatoes; Charchari, a medley of

mixed vegetables cooked in Bengali styleto make a dry curry.

Other special dishes that, chef LalitMohan, director at Asian Academy ofCulinary Art, says, “evoke a distinct senseof nostalgia for the years gone by” andcould be revived today are Aakhir jolerniramish pulao, Muger dal dhonepata diye(Moong dal), Mete chorchori (stir-fried goatliver), Panch phoran (five-spice fish) andmany more.

New-generation singerArmaan Malik is out with

his new single, Tootey khaab,and fans are applauding not justat his singing skills, but also hisscreen-presence in the musicvideo. Armaan says he has nobig plans to give acting a shot,but he would probably not beable to resist the idea of facingthe camera if a true-blue musi-cal came his way.

He said, “Singing is a partof who I am but it is also truethat I am a performer. Actingis a performing art. So if I amoffered something like Aashiqui2 or Rockstar where I have toportray an artiste or a musician,it would be relatable to me.That might intrigue me enoughto become an actor. I wouldlove to be part of a Bollywoodmusical film, as an actor and asinger because music has to bethere for my act.” However, headds that currently, he has nobig plans to step into the actingbusiness because “I am quiteengrossed in my music and mylive gigs.”

This was the first time hehas appeared extensively in avideo of his song, and headmits enjoying the experi-ence.

Armaan, who has scoredhits such as Naina, Hero, Bol DoNa Zara, Main Rahoon Ya NaRahoon, believes that socialmedia plays an important rolein image and popularity build-ing exercise, but if only the starcan keep it “real.”

So, how “real” is he onsocial media?

He said, “I keep it 90 percent real (laughs). The rest 10per cent is my personal spacethat every individual shouldhave. Youngsters — whethercelebrities or regular persons —

are intelligent enough to under-stand what is real and what isfake. One cannot build a steadyfan following if you are fake.My pictures, songs, shootingdays, vacations, my people, theway I engage in conversation in

the comments section — every-thing is real.

“I think fans are smartenough to differentiate betweenfake and real social mediafeeds. One cannot be fake onsocial media to build a real

image as a celebrity. You can’tbe fake to look real,” he added.

His new song Tootey khaabis a break-up number. Thesinger said that although he hasnever faced heartbreak in life sofar, it was a very relatable songfor youngsters and that he cre-ated it observing people aroundhim.

“We live in an era where wefall in and out of love very eas-ily. We are not those lovers any-more who sulk after a breakupas it used to happen in the caseof old-world romance. But Ialso have seen friends whowent through rejection andheartbreak, and cried beforemoving on. In the video that iswhat I have tried to capture.The boy, after the break-up,feels upset for a while. Duringthis phase, he writes a song, andthat breakup song makes hima singing sensation. You see, itcompletely makes sense in areal context!” he smiled.

Starting his career inBollywood playback singingwith Bum Bum Bhole for thefilm Taare Zameen Par in 2007,Armaan has garnered a lot ofpopularity among the youngmusic-lovers. However, he saysthat every new song gives himthe same excitement to knowpeople’s reaction on his creativ-ity.

“I am always excited abouta new song because I am alwaysaiming to make my new songbigger and better from my lastreleased song. So, no matterhow much love and apprecia-tion my last song received, Ihave to offer something new tothem, I have to surprise themwith a new side of me. I amglad that Tootey khaab doesthat,” Armaan signed off.

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Goals by Navjot Kaur and GurjitKaur helped the Indian women’s

hockey team hold hosts Great Britainto a 2-2 draw in the last match of theTour to England held here on Friday.

The last match saw Navjot (8thminute) give her side an early lead whileGurjit (48th) converted a penalty cor-ner to give India a 2-0 lead before GreatBritain’s Elizabeth Neal (55th) andAnna Toman (60th) scored twice in thelast few minutes to earn themselves adraw.

India thus ended the tour with yetanother draw against a relativelystronger Great Britain side, performingexceptionally well during the fivematches as they won one, drew threeand lost one.

After having lost for the first timeduring the tour in their previous match,the Indian team started the match onan attacking note, and pushed the hostsback into their own half, creating a hostof opportunities inside the opening 10minutes.

The constant pressure on Great

Britain’s defence meant that India man-aged to find the breakthrough in theeighth minute as forward Navjot slot-ted past home team goalkeeper SabbieHeesh to hand her side a 1-0 lead.

The first quarter belonged to Indiaas they had a couple of more chancesto extend their lead, but could not con-vert the penalty corners.

However, the second quarter saw atussle between the two sides, which wasdominated by Great Britain who earnedthemselves as many as three penaltycorners before the half-time break.

But Indian goalkeeper Savita madesome impressive saves to deny the hosts.

Both the teams had similarchances in the third quarter, but it wasIndia who dominated the posses-

sion.However, some resolute defending

by the experienced British backlinemeant that the visitors were denied onmultiple occasions.

Amy Tennant, who had replacedHeesh at half-time, was called intoaction by Gurjit in the 40th minute,but produced a fine save to deny thevisitors.

It was only in the 48th minute ofthe match that India finally managedto extend their lead as Gurjit found theback of the net from a penalty corner.

With less than six minutes to goon the clock, Great Britain wereawarded another penalty corner, andthis time it was Elizabeth who convert-ed from the spot to pull a goal backin the 55th minute.

It was a nervous last five minutesfor the Indian team, and after keep-ing the hosts at bay on multiple occa-sions, the Indian defence was finallycaught off guard in added time.

Great Britain were awarded apenalty corner, and Anna Tomanconverted the chance to earn her teama 2-2 draw.

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Real Madrid have hardlygot going and Granada

have just arrived but La Liga’schaotic opening few weeksmeans they face each other inan unlikely battle of first againstsecond today.

By the end of the eighthround in Spain, seven teamscould potentially go into theinternational break at the topof the table, with AthleticBilbao in seventh, only threepoints behind Madrid at thesummit.

In between, Barcelona sitfourth and Sevilla sixth, withthose two also up against eachother at Camp Nou tomorrow.Atletico Madrid and RealSociedad complete the groupof early front-runners.

None have truly convincedafter a merry-go-round ofresults against each other thatleaves few patterns and many

doubts.Madrid beat Sevilla but

were held by Atletico whileGranada beat Barcelona butlost to Sevilla. Real Sociedadbeat Atletico but lost to Bilbaoand Sevilla, who beat Granadaand la Real but lost to RealMadrid.

Bilbao, who visit CeltaVigo tomorrow, have not lostto any of the leading sevenwhile Barcelona and Atletico,last season’s champions andrunners-up, have not beatenany of them.

“La Liga is complicated foreveryone right now,” saidAtletico coach Diego Simeonelast month. “Everyone is tryingto build some momentum.”

After two years of domes-tic disappointment, ZinedineZidane said in April the league

would be Real’s priority thisseason and they remainunbeaten, approachingGranada and have three con-secutive clean sheets in league.

Yet aside from an excellentwin away at Sevilla last month,Zidane’s team have lookedlaboured, particularly at theSantiago Bernabeu, where thetension and frustration in thestands has regularly taken holdon the pitch.

Eden Hazard has beensluggish and the midfieldstodgy. Thibaut Courtois ingoal was whistled on Tuesday,his popularity with the fans stillto be established.

“Criticism doesn’t affectme,” Hazard said on Monday.“I’ve never taken notice of it.Everyone expects me to scorethree goals in every game but

you have to wait a bit, I’ve hadan injury. Goals will come.”

Madrid were held 2-2 byClub Brugge in the ChampionsLeague in midweek. If Granadawere watching, they may haveconcluded there is little to fearthis weekend.

Promoted after finishingsecond in Segunda last term,Diego Martinez’s side havemade a remarkable start, evenif their coach feigns ignoranceabout their heady place in thetable.

“We are not interested” hesaid last month. “I don’t lookat the table. In May, I will.”

By then, few would expectGranada still to be among theleading pack. Sevilla and Bilbaolook better equipped to last thedistance and replace Valenciain the top four.

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Arsenal teenager GabrielMartinelli scored twice to sparka 4-0 rout of Standard Liege in

the Europa League group stage onThursday, while Manchester Unitedstuttered to a goalless draw against AZAlkmaar.

Martinelli, 18, headed in superblyto give last year’s runners-up Arsenalthe lead on 14 minutes at the EmiratesStadium before adding a quick-fire sec-ond barely two minutes later.

The Brazilian was making just hissecond start for the Gunners since join-ing the club in July. He also struck twiceon his full debut against NottinghamForest in the League Cup.

Joe Willock fired in a third for ayouthful Arsenal on 22 minutes andMartinelli set up Dani Ceballos on thehour to wrap up another comfortablewin in Europe as Unai Emery’s sidemoved on to six points at the top ofGroup F.

“The team had a great perfor-mance. It’s a very important win for us,”defender Hector Bellerin told BT Sport,praising the dedication shown byMartinelli.

“He keeps his head down, he worksreally hard, he is doing what the coachwants him to do and it shows on thepitch. Everyone is really pleased forhim.”

Arsenal are three points clear ofboth Standard and Eintracht Frankfurt,who beat Vitoria Guimaraes 1-0 inPortugal.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s United againstruggled in attack and failed to mustera single shot on target with the club stillsearching for a first away win sinceMarch.

United are winless in 10 gamesaway from home — a run that has seenthem score just five times.

“The conditions were tough but Ithought we did very well. It puts us ina good position,” said Solskjaer.

“If you get your draws away fromhome and win the home games, you’llbe fine.”

Academy product BrandonWilliams was handed his first start forUnited, who saw teenager MasonGreenwood denied by a superb blockfrom Ron Vlaar on 30 minutes.

The game was played in The Hague,on an artificial surface described as “oneof the worst” by Solskjaer, after a stormdamaged Alkmaar’s home ground inAugust.

STONEWALL PENALTYUnited rarely threatened

with substitute Jesse Lingardfiring wide although Solskjaerreacted in disbelief whenMarcus Rashford appeared tobe chopped down in the penal-ty area.

“It’s a penalty 101 times outof 100,” said the Norwegian.

Owen Wijndal and Oussama Idrissiforced David de Gea into a couple ofsmart saves late on as the draw leftUnited level on four points in Group Lwith Partizan Belgrade, who won 2-1away to Astana.

Steven Gerrard’s Rangers concededan injury-time goal in a 2-1 loss at Swiss

side Young Boys.Colombian for ward Alfredo

Morelos put Rangers ahead just beforehalf-time, but Young Boys levelledthrough Roger Assale and ChristianFassnacht grabbed a 93rd-minute win-

ner.Feyenoord claimed a 2-

0 home victory over Portoin a clash of formerEuropean champions in theother match in Group G.

Celtic gained a degreeof revenge on CFR Cluj, theRomanians who oustedthem in the third qualifyinground of the Champions

League, as Odsonne Edouard andMohamed Elyounoussi scored in a 2-0win in Glasgow.

Wolves, in their first Europeancampaign since 1980, rebounded froman opening loss to Braga as WillyBoly’s stoppage-time goal earned thema 1-0 win at Besiktas.

“It’s huge for us. We don’t want to

make up the numbers, we want to com-pete to win,” said Wolves captain ConorCoady.

Espanyol forward Wu Lei becamethe first Chinese man to score in amajor European competition as his sidebeat CSKA Moscow 2-0.

Austrian debutants Wolfsberg drew1-1 at home to Roma in Group J, whileJavier Hernandez grabbed the onlygoal as five-time champions Sevillaovercame APOEL of Cyprus.

Azerbaijani club Qarabag beatDudelange 4-1 in a game that was inter-rupted in the first half when a dronecarrying a flag from the disputed sep-aratist region of Nagorno-Karabakhflew over the pitch in Luxembourg.

PSV Eindhoven defeatedRosenborg 4-1, while Lazio came frombehind to beat Rennes 2-1.

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Liverpool’s perfect start to thePremier League season is under

threat from an in-form Leicesterled by a manager with a point toprove at Anfield in BrendanRodgers.

The European champions havea five-point lead at the top of thetable over Manchester City, butLeicester are the closest chal-lengers to the top two as they aimto break the glass ceiling of the topsix.

The Foxes’ chances have beenaided by the early-season strugglesof Tottenham, Arsenal, Chelseaand Manchester United.

All four have winnable fixturesto get back on track this weekend,but Spurs are most in need of a liftafter a 7-2 Champions Leaguemauling by Bayern Munich inmidweek.

Rodgers returns to Anfieldfor the first time since he wassacked by the Reds in 2015. TheNorthern Irishman has sincerebuilt his reputation, win-ning seven trophies in two-and-a-half seasons at Celticbefore making the moveback to the PremierLeague with the Foxesin February.

Since Rodgersreplaced Claude Puel,Leicester have thethird-best record inthe league behindrelentless Liverpool anddefending championsCity.

A 5-0 thrashing ofNewcastle last weekendsaw Rodgers’s men open upa two-point lead on thechasing pack in third andthey have shown their abil-ity to test the traditional topsix with a 1-1 draw atChelsea and 2-1 victory overTottenham already this

season.However, Rodgers knows end-

ing Liverpool’s unbeaten run athome in the Premier League sinceApril 2017 is a much tougher chal-lenge.

“We just want to continue withour performance level. Liverpool areon an incredible run, they are greatopponents to test and challenge thequality of our team,” said Rodgers.

“We’re bringing a real positivemindset into our games, no matterwho the opponent is.”

Rodgers came agonisingly closeto ending Liverpool’s long wait towin the league in the 2013/14, butsaid he feels no bitterness aboutJurgen Klopp’s success with theReds, so much so he rents his houseto the German.

“I was never going to be bitter,”Rodgers told the Telegraph. “That’swhy I let Jurgen move into myhouse.”

Tottenham’s second-half capit-ulation to German giants Bayern

on Tuesday has raised ques-tions over whether MauricioPochettino can turn thetide in his sixth season incharge after a dramaticdip in form over the pasteight months.

Spurs have now wonjust three of their opening10 games to the season

and have lost 13 of their past28 matches stretching backto February.

Pochettino called forunity after Tottenham’sworst-ever home defeat inEurope, but to get the fansback onside they need aquick response against aBrighton side that havenot won since the openingday of the season.

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Borussia Dortmund have beenurged to rediscover their killer

instinct, and silence linger-ing doubts about a lack ofruthlessness, in order tostay in the Bundesliga titlerace this weekend.

Back-to-back drawsagainst mid-table teamsEintracht Frankfurt and WerderBremen — having been ahead onboth occasions — left Dortmundeighth in the table.

They are just three pointsbehind leaders BayernMunich in a tightly-packedtop half, with five teams just apoint behind the defendingchampions.

Bayern host mid-tableHoffenheim today hunt-ing a fifth straight win,boosted by Tuesday’s stun-ning 7-2 away romp atTottenham Hotspur in theChampions League.

Dortmund need a win atthird-placed Freiburg today to

stay in touch.Having won 2-0 at

Slavia Prague onWednesday in theChampions League, a sec-ond victory in four days

would put Dortmund’sBundesliga campaign back ontrack.

Goalkeeper Roman Burkihas said the team must ‘manup’ and get ruthless inFreiburg, a notoriously hardplace to pick up three points.

“We aren’t playinglike men. The killerinstinct up front ismissing,” he ravedafter Bermen draw.

With MatsHummels restored to theteam after a back injury,Dortmund’s defenceshould be tighter at

Freiburg.

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Unai Emery said Mesut Ozil did not deservehis place even in a squad packed with

youngsters after Arsenal beat Standard Liege.Ozil, the highest-paid player in the histo-

ry of the club, was once again left out of thematchday squad.

Emery made 10 changes from the side thatdrew at Manchester United on Monday, withOzil not making the matchday squad on eitheroccasion.

“I am thinking every time to decide thebest players for each match and the best play-ers in the squad to play and to help us,” Emeryreplied when asked about Ozil’s omission.

“When I decided he shouldn’t be in thesquad it’s because I think other playersdeserved it more.”

The 30-year-old has had a difficult relation-ship with Emery since the manager’s appoint-ment last year and his absence from the squadwill lend weight to speculation that he does nothave a long-term future at Arsenal.

On a positive night for the Gunners, RobHolding, Kieran Tierney and Hector Bellerin,who captained the side, all came through 90minutes as they continued their comebacksfrom injury.

Bellerin battled back from a long lay-offwith a serious knee injury to skipper the sideon his first start since January and was proudto lead out the team.

“There’s not a better way to come back,” hesaid. “I feel very honoured to wear the Arsenalarmband and lead the team out. It’s been atough road for me over the past eight monthsbut I feel very lucky to have had my players,family and friends around me.”�������=�������2������2����!�������'��!����A�(�$�/��������������������'�$��������� ��

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