4˚ 1 560˙7ˆ˝02 8 %&˚’˙!˚˜˚ˆ!(!)˚*(+,$-!˙ guava, pulses, beans and other fruits are...

16
A cting on a Central Intelligence agency input, a team of the elite Anti- Terrorist Squad of Uttar Pradesh and 20 commandoes on Tuesday launched an oper- ation in Haji Colony of Kakori area and gunned down a sus- pected terrorist linked to the Tuesday’s Bhopal-Ujjain train blast, in which at least ten peo- ple were injured. The ATS operation came hours before the final phase of polling in Assembly election covering 40 seats in eastern UP. UP Additional DG (Law and order) Daljit Chaudhary said the terror suspect belongs to localised group influenced by ISIS. He said two other ter- ror suspects have been arrest- ed from Kanpur and Itawah. In the wake of the incident the Centre sounded an alert across the country. "We are alert. We have sounded an alert all over the country," Union Minister of State for Home, Hansraj Ahir told reporters here. The tip off about the ter- rorist hiding in Lucknow came after one man suspected to be involved in the train blast was arrested in Kanpur on Tuesday morning. However, his aide managed to escape the police dragnet. Around 2.15 pm, an ATS team backed by Lucknow Police teams cordoned off the dense- ly-populated Haji Colony on the fringes of Lucknow and evacuated the local residents before launching the offensive. After completely cordon- ing off the area, some members of the ATS team knocked at the door of the house where the suspected terrorist Saiful was holed up. Instead of coming out, he closed the door and then there was sound of pistol fire suggesting he had weapons. Later, Inspector General ATS Aseem Arun using a megaphone instructed Saiful to surrender, but, he started firing at the police party intermit- tently while shouting that he wanted shahadat (martyrdom). However, the ATS was in no hurry to storm the house and Continued on Page 2 I n an apparent indication of yet another bout of family feud in the offing in the first family of the Samajwadi Party, Sadhna Gupta, the second wife of Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav, has said that her son Prateek Yadav should enter politics and be elected to the Rajya Sabha. Sadhna said, “I wish that the SP is voted back to power and Akhilesh Yadav again takes over as the CM of UP’’. She added, “Akhilesh is being misguided, he takes care of both the parents.” Ab hum peeche nahi hatenge, mera bahut apmaan hua hai. Netaji ne nahi aane diya, par haan background mein kaam karte rahe” (I won’t Continued on Page 2 T en people were injured, three of them seriously, in an IED blast on a passenger train near Jabdi station Shajapur on Tuesday. Madhya Pradesh's Inspector General, Law and Order, Makrand Devaskar said the blast in the passenger train was a terrorist attack. Police have detained three persons from Pipariya town in Hoshangabad district. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has asked the State DGP, forensic experts, and officials of the Special Task Force and Anti-Terrorism Continued on Page 2 C hief Minister Raghubar Das on Tuesday inaugu- rated a major food and fruit processing plant at Nagri near Ranchi which is the lone plant of that magnitude in the region. Built at the cost of 82.77 core, the plant would consume most of the green produces grown in the massive vegetable belt in the form of Nagari, Mandar, Khunti and adjoining areas which often perish giving miniscule return to the farm- ers. The Government has allot- ted land to Mother Dairy Fruit and Vegetable Private Limited and subsidy of 82.77 crore under the Jharkhand Industrial Policy. The processing plant would be run jointly by the Mother Dairy and National Dairy Development Board (NDDB). The CM, on the occasion, recalling the upper hand of Jharkhand in vegetable pro- duction said the State can emerge as a major export cen- tre with the plant coming up locally. “With the establishment of vegetable and fruit process- ing plant at Nagri, we can export fruits and vegetables to the world. 70 per cent people to be employed with this plant are the locals,” said the Chief Minister. This is inaugural phase of the plant and has attained operation status within one year time. The second phase plant is coming up and expect- ed to be started by November this year. “The Government is not going to stop here and more such plants will be estab- lished in different districts of the State. This is one of the largest plants of Eastern India,” said the CM. He also underlined inten- tion of his Government and added that improvement in the lives of farmers through raising their income is one of his priorities. “Still 23-24 lakh people live below poverty line. The Government is committed to generate employment oppor- tunities in rural areas and stop migration and this is one of the ways we can do this,” said the CM. He also talked about State Entrepreneur Board, which is working for employment gen- eration and prosperity. “Under this scheme, 4.5 lakh women will be made entrepreneurs. A training centre will also be established to train people. People should use bio fertilis- ers for greater and sustainable production. Farmers should also adopt floriculture which is also a focus area. If this is start- ed by the people, the Government may consider a plant for flowers also,” said the CM, adding that the Government has made a pro- vision of 700 crore for skill development of the people. Also present on the occa- sion was Union Agriculture Minister for State and Farmer Welfare Sudarshan Bhagat who said that the plant would ben- efit fruit and vegetable growers of the State. The plant in its first phase would process pea and jackfruit which would be extended to other locally pro- duced fruits and vegetables. Agriculture Minister of Jharkhand Randhir Singh said that the Government is think- ing for the farmers and the production of fruits and veg- etables will get new dimension with this initiative. “The Government is promoting organic farming. This year, 50 lakh papaya plants are being prepared and other fruits like mango, guava, pulses, beans and other fruits are also pro- moted.” Chief Secretary Rajbala Verma said that ‘Mother Dairy’ is ready to enter in vegetable production and the unit of NDDB would ensure good returns to the farmers for their produces. She said that farm- ers should produce all sorts of fruits and vegetables for better income. NDDB Chairperson Dilip Rath, Secretary to the CM Sunil Kumar Barnwal, Cooperative Department Secretary Nitin Madan Kulkarni, Special Secretary Pooja Singhal, Horticulture Director Rajeev Kumar and other officials were present on the occasion. S tate Chief Minister Raghubar Das on Tuesday said that he was not going to be trapped in a political conspir- acy surrounding the CNT and SPT Acts amendment. The development of the State would be done even faster with the blessing of people of Jharkhand, he said. Das, on the sidelines of his meeting with students and teachers of the Tribal and Regional Language department of the Ranchi University, was replying to a query from media persons relating to tribal- Christian religious leaders meet- ing the Governor recently over the land laws amendment. In the meeting, the CM said that the Government has completed the unfinished tasks of the former governments by simplifying the CNT and SPT Acts. “Some selfish elements are trying to pose hurdles and the raiyyats are forbidden to do business on their own land. The previous government and the then existing TAC members approved the proposal of doing business on their land. Previous governments also amended CNT/SPT laws for industrial- ization and mining. But, today some people with vested inter- ests are misguiding the people of the State. They want the poor to remain poor forever and work as labourers,” Das said. Talking to the students, the CM said that the tribal peo- ple have protected their culture and civilisation against all odds. They should be vigilant still. The government is removing middlemen and focusing on development and strengthen- ing the institutions. The CM also said that Uttrakhand and Chhattisgarh have declared their local poli- cy and thousands of people got jobs there. “The government defined local policy and opened vacancies for the peo- ple. Posts in scheduled districts have been reserved for the locals for ten years. 40,000 appointments have been done so far. The Government is focusing on agriculture, IT, Industry and tourism sectors to employ people and develop the state. Investors in the GIS proposed investment in these sectors,” Das added. The CM also answered to the questions of students and told them that no one can snatch the land of tribals without their consent. “Please let me know if government has forcibly taken land from any raiyyat?” he asked. Meanwhile, Union Minister of State for Agriculture Sudarshan Bhagat also reiterated the need to clear confusion of the people of the State about CNT and SPT Acts amendment. “I do not think there is any evil intention of the Government behind the amendment but there is lot of confusion among the people of the State, which needs to be cleared,” Bhagat said. J ust a day before the International Women’s Day, when the world celebrates the power and quintessence of females dominating all major streams today, the first citizen of Ranchi, Mayor Asha Lakra made an appalling statement, stating that she is being targeted by all her coworkers of Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC) as she belongs to a tribal com- munity and, most prominent- ly, being a female holding an important position. “After some incidents that occurred in the past few days and after shocking detection of some RMC officials’ illegitimate activities, I have felt that I am being unnecessary harassed as I am a female that too from a tribal background who through sheer hard work and dedication towards public welfare activities has risen up to this position,” lamented the Mayor, while briefing the media. Armed with legal advice from the advocates, especially from the senior advocate of the Supreme Court (SC), A Mariam Putham on the power of Mayor, Lakra has now decided to take her adversaries head on. Continued on Page 2

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Page 1: 4˚ 1 560˙7ˆ˝02 8 %&˚’˙!˚˜˚ˆ!(!)˚*(+,$-!˙ guava, pulses, beans and other fruits are also pro- ... Pooja Singhal, Horticulture Director Rajeev Kumar and other officials

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Acting on a CentralIntelligence agency input,

a team of the elite Anti-Terrorist Squad of UttarPradesh and 20 commandoeson Tuesday launched an oper-ation in Haji Colony of Kakoriarea and gunned down a sus-pected terrorist linked to theTuesday’s Bhopal-Ujjain trainblast, in which at least ten peo-ple were injured.

The ATS operation camehours before the final phase ofpolling in Assembly electioncovering 40 seats in eastern UP.

UP Additional DG (Lawand order) Daljit Chaudharysaid the terror suspect belongsto localised group influencedby ISIS. He said two other ter-ror suspects have been arrest-ed from Kanpur and Itawah.

In the wake of the incidentthe Centre sounded an alertacross the country.

"We are alert. We havesounded an alert all over thecountry," Union Minister ofState for Home, Hansraj Ahirtold reporters here.

The tip off about the ter-rorist hiding in Lucknow cameafter one man suspected to beinvolved in the train blast was

arrested in Kanpur on Tuesdaymorning. However, his aidemanaged to escape the policedragnet.

Around 2.15 pm, an ATSteam backed by Lucknow Policeteams cordoned off the dense-ly-populated Haji Colony onthe fringes of Lucknow andevacuated the local residentsbefore launching the offensive.

After completely cordon-ing off the area, some membersof the ATS team knocked at thedoor of the house where thesuspected terrorist Saiful washoled up. Instead of comingout, he closed the door andthen there was sound of pistolfire suggesting he had weapons.

Later, Inspector GeneralATS Aseem Arun using amegaphone instructed Saiful tosurrender, but, he started firingat the police party intermit-tently while shouting that hewanted shahadat (martyrdom).However, the ATS was in nohurry to storm the house and

Continued on Page 2

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In an apparent indication ofyet another bout of family

feud in the offing in the firstfamily of the Samajwadi Party,Sadhna Gupta, the second wifeof Samajwadi Party patriarchMulayam Singh Yadav, has saidthat her son Prateek Yadavshould enter politics and beelected to the Rajya Sabha.

Sadhna said, “I wish that theSP is voted back to power andAkhilesh Yadav again takes overas the CM of UP’’. She added,“Akhilesh is being misguided, hetakes care of both the parents.”

“Ab hum peeche nahihatenge, mera bahut apmaanhua hai. Netaji ne nahi aanediya, par haan backgroundmein kaam karte rahe” (I won’t

Continued on Page 2

����� 097:��

Ten people were injured,three of them seriously, in

an IED blast on a passengertrain near Jabdi station Shajapuron Tuesday. Madhya Pradesh'sInspector General, Law andOrder, Makrand Devaskar saidthe blast in the passenger train

was a terrorist attack. Police have detained three

persons from Pipariya town inHoshangabad district.

Chief Minister ShivrajSingh Chouhan has asked theState DGP, forensic experts,and officials of the SpecialTask Force and Anti-Terrorism

Continued on Page 2

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Chief Minister RaghubarDas on Tuesday inaugu-

rated a major food and fruitprocessing plant at Nagri nearRanchi which is the lone plantof that magnitude in the region.

Built at the cost of �82.77core, the plant would consumemost of the green producesgrown in the massive vegetablebelt in the form of Nagari,Mandar, Khunti and adjoiningareas which often perish givingminiscule return to the farm-ers.

The Government has allot-ted land to Mother Dairy Fruitand Vegetable Private Limitedand subsidy of �82.77 croreunder the Jharkhand IndustrialPolicy. The processing plantwould be run jointly by theMother Dairy and NationalDairy Development Board(NDDB).

The CM, on the occasion,recalling the upper hand ofJharkhand in vegetable pro-duction said the State canemerge as a major export cen-tre with the plant coming uplocally. “With the establishmentof vegetable and fruit process-ing plant at Nagri, we canexport fruits and vegetables tothe world. 70 per cent peopleto be employed with this plantare the locals,” said the ChiefMinister.

This is inaugural phase ofthe plant and has attainedoperation status within oneyear time. The second phase

plant is coming up and expect-ed to be started by Novemberthis year. “The Government isnot going to stop here andmore such plants will be estab-lished in different districts ofthe State. This is one of thelargest plants of Eastern India,”said the CM.

He also underlined inten-tion of his Government andadded that improvement inthe lives of farmers throughraising their income is one ofhis priorities. “Still 23-24 lakhpeople live below poverty line.The Government is committedto generate employment oppor-tunities in rural areas and stopmigration and this is one of theways we can do this,” said theCM.

He also talked about StateEntrepreneur Board, which isworking for employment gen-eration and prosperity. “Underthis scheme, 4.5 lakh womenwill be made entrepreneurs. Atraining centre will also be

established to train people.People should use bio fertilis-ers for greater and sustainableproduction. Farmers shouldalso adopt floriculture which isalso a focus area. If this is start-ed by the people, theGovernment may consider aplant for flowers also,” said theCM, adding that theGovernment has made a pro-vision of �700 crore for skilldevelopment of the people.

Also present on the occa-sion was Union AgricultureMinister for State and FarmerWelfare Sudarshan Bhagat whosaid that the plant would ben-efit fruit and vegetable growersof the State. The plant in its firstphase would process pea andjackfruit which would beextended to other locally pro-duced fruits and vegetables.

Agriculture Minister ofJharkhand Randhir Singh saidthat the Government is think-ing for the farmers and theproduction of fruits and veg-

etables will get new dimensionwith this initiative. “TheGovernment is promotingorganic farming. This year, 50lakh papaya plants are beingprepared and other fruits likemango, guava, pulses, beansand other fruits are also pro-moted.”

Chief Secretary RajbalaVerma said that ‘Mother Dairy’is ready to enter in vegetableproduction and the unit ofNDDB would ensure goodreturns to the farmers for theirproduces. She said that farm-ers should produce all sorts offruits and vegetables for betterincome.

NDDB Chairperson DilipRath, Secretary to the CMSunil Kumar Barnwal,Cooperative DepartmentSecretary Nitin MadanKulkarni, Special SecretaryPooja Singhal, HorticultureDirector Rajeev Kumar andother officials were present onthe occasion.

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State Chief MinisterRaghubar Das on Tuesday

said that he was not going to betrapped in a political conspir-acy surrounding the CNT andSPT Acts amendment. Thedevelopment of the State wouldbe done even faster with theblessing of people ofJharkhand, he said.

Das, on the sidelines of hismeeting with students andteachers of the Tribal andRegional Language departmentof the Ranchi University, wasreplying to a query from mediapersons relating to tribal-Christian religious leaders meet-ing the Governor recently overthe land laws amendment.

In the meeting, the CMsaid that the Government hascompleted the unfinished tasksof the former governments bysimplifying the CNT and SPTActs. “Some selfish elementsare trying to pose hurdles andthe raiyyats are forbidden to do

business on their own land. Theprevious government and thethen existing TAC membersapproved the proposal of doingbusiness on their land. Previousgovernments also amendedCNT/SPT laws for industrial-ization and mining. But, todaysome people with vested inter-ests are misguiding the peopleof the State. They want the poorto remain poor forever andwork as labourers,” Das said.

Talking to the students,the CM said that the tribal peo-ple have protected their cultureand civilisation against all odds.They should be vigilant still.The government is removingmiddlemen and focusing ondevelopment and strengthen-ing the institutions.

The CM also said thatUttrakhand and Chhattisgarhhave declared their local poli-cy and thousands of people gotjobs there. “The governmentdefined local policy andopened vacancies for the peo-ple. Posts in scheduled districts

have been reserved for thelocals for ten years. 40,000appointments have been doneso far. The Government isfocusing on agriculture, IT,Industry and tourism sectors toemploy people and developthe state. Investors in the GISproposed investment in thesesectors,” Das added.

The CM also answered tothe questions of students and toldthem that no one can snatch theland of tribals without theirconsent. “Please let me know ifgovernment has forcibly takenland from any raiyyat?” he asked.

Meanwhile, UnionMinister of State forAgriculture Sudarshan Bhagatalso reiterated the need to clearconfusion of the people of theState about CNT and SPT Actsamendment. “I do not thinkthere is any evil intention of theGovernment behind theamendment but there is lot ofconfusion among the people ofthe State, which needs to becleared,” Bhagat said.

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Just a day before theInternational Women’s Day,

when the world celebrates thepower and quintessence offemales dominating all majorstreams today, the first citizenof Ranchi, Mayor Asha Lakramade an appalling statement,stating that she is being targetedby all her coworkers of RanchiMunicipal Corporation (RMC)

as she belongs to a tribal com-munity and, most prominent-ly, being a female holding animportant position.

“After some incidents thatoccurred in the past few days

and after shocking detection ofsome RMC officials’ illegitimateactivities, I have felt that I ambeing unnecessary harassed asI am a female that too from atribal background who throughsheer hard work and dedicationtowards public welfare activitieshas risen up to this position,”lamented the Mayor, whilebriefing the media.

Armed with legal advicefrom the advocates, especiallyfrom the senior advocate of theSupreme Court (SC), A MariamPutham on the power of Mayor,Lakra has now decided to takeher adversaries head on.

Continued on Page 2

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Page 2: 4˚ 1 560˙7ˆ˝02 8 %&˚’˙!˚˜˚ˆ!(!)˚*(+,$-!˙ guava, pulses, beans and other fruits are also pro- ... Pooja Singhal, Horticulture Director Rajeev Kumar and other officials

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Jharkhand ArcheryAssociation (JAA) is organi-

aing a two-day selection trialfor senior national and subjunior meets at JRD Tata SportsComplex starting fromWednesday.

The 37th Senior NationalChampionship is scheduled atFaridabad (Haryana) betweenMarch 26 to 30, while the onefor the 37th sub-junior nation-als will be staged atBhubaneswar from March 17to 21. According to JAA work-ing secretary Purnima Mahto,over 150 archers from differentdistricts were expected toattend the twin trials.

For seniors, the partici-

pants will try luck in recurveand compound rounds whilethe exercise for the sub-juniortrials will have aspirants in therecurve, compound and Indianround.

The aspirants for the seniortrials will shoot at a distance of70 m (recurve) and 50 m(compound) while their sub-junior counterparts will aim atthe 60 m (recurve), 50 m(compound) and 20 m and 30m (Indian round).

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Ameeting of district healthmission was organised on

Wednesday in the meeting hallof collectorate. Presiding themeeting DC Ravi ShankarShukla directed the medicalofficers and other staffs ofhealth department to start doorto door campaign for makingthe people aware about thebenefits of vaccination. Hesaid that every PHC will ensureorganization of vaccinationcamp to protect the childrenfrom many killer diseases.Reminding the medical officersand staffs Shukla said thatfrom coming 7th and 8th Aprilanti pulse polio drive will takeplace and it will be yourresponsibility that every childshould get its dose.

Dr. Deepak Kumar ofWHO illustrated things withthe help of audio video pre-sentation. In this meeting themedical officials of district andblock levels were present alongwith other concerned officials.

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DC Vinod Kumar hasstarted a new campaign

to discourage open defecationby felicitating such persons.In the leadership of manysenior officers some teamswere set up. They visited therural areas in early morningat 5:30 am. The team of DDCDanial Kandulana visited

Harmu of Sadar block, DPOMahesh Bhagat visited KaimoPatra Toli , SDO RajMaheshwrama visited Kujivillage, the executive engineerPHED Reyaz Ahmad visitedKurse Kujra and RajeevKumar visited Nadia village.They caught the person doingso and distributed roses andgarlanded them to make themfeel that they are doingwrong.

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Referring to the recentamendments made in the

CNT and SPT Acts, contro-versy related to holding tax andtaking over liquor sale by theState Government, the AJSUparty made it clear that eventhough the party was an ally ofthe present NDA Government,it was not with the governmenton all the issues. Talking to themedia persons at the partyoffice in Ranchi on Tuesday,Spokesperson DeosharanBhagat also added that a threeday Central Conference will beorganized in Ranchi fromMarch 17-19 at Morhabadi inRanchi which will prove to bea milestone in giving the direc-tion to the current scenario inthe state.

“Even though we are inGovernment, we are not withit on all the decisions taken byit which are not in the publicinterest. We have always regis-tered our protests against someof the burning issues likeamendments in CNT and SPTActs or other decisions takenby the Government in writtenthough postcards collectedfrom all over the state,” saidBhagat. He said that there is amajority government in the

state and they honour the sup-port enjoyed by it.

Referring to the CentralConference being organizedin Morhabadi Maidaan inRanchi, Bhagat said that it willbe completely different fromthe conferences organized sofar in the state.

“Definitely it will be dif-ferent from other conferencesin the state as more than onelakh workers and office bear-ers of the party will be presentduring the open session orga-nized on the last day of it,”Bhagat said. The open sessionwill prove to be a milestone ingiving direction to the currentscenario in the state, he added.

Before that, the Conferencewill be inaugurated on March17 in presence of the freedomfighters of the state while onMarch 18 thorough discus-sion will take place on social,political and economic sce-nario of the state to be attend-ed by over 7500 representativescoming from all over the stateright from the central level tothe Panchayat level.

Meeting of CentralWorking Committee has beencalled on March 9 where finalapproval will be given to theissues raised during theConference, Bagat said.

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Rahul Roshan, a class 9 stu-dent of the prestigious

Netarhat School in Latehar ismissing since March 5 from theschool campus. His father haslodged a complaint of missingat Netarhat Police Stationrequesting the police to lookinto the matter. According tothe hostel administration, theboy was seen in the schoolcampus till 10: 30 in the morn-ing but was not spotted any-where in the campus after that.

“A complaint has beenlodged by boy’s father AbhishekKumar, who came here onMonday morning fromLohardga after being informedby the school administration,”said the officer in charge ofNetarhat Police Station.According to the schooladministration, the boy wentsomewhere without informinganybody in the school whoused to stay in Kishore Ashramin the school campus, he said.

Ashram in charge MarutiPrasad Singh said that he waslast seen by the students in theschool campus at around 10:30in the morning after which hewas not seen anywhere in thecampus.

“When I returned in theevening from evaluation work

of the entrance test conductedrecently, I was told by the stu-dents that Rahul was not thereat the lunch following whichwe came into action and start-ed searching from him in theschool campus itself but hecould not be found there,” saidthe Ashram in charge. He fur-ther added that students are notallowed to leave the campus butsince it is open having noboundary wall from any of itssides, there were chances thathe might have gone some-where without informing any-body.

Rahul’s father said that hehad no record of fleeing fromhome or anywhere in the pastand also ruled out the chancesof kidnapping as he had noissues with anybody.

“We have asked all our rel-atives and friends living in thearea, but they said that he hadnot gone to their place.Moreover, he had no record offleeing from home in the pasthence we are worried about hiswhereabouts,” said Rahul’sfather Abhishek Parasad.

Meanwhile, police wasinvestigating the case and havesent teams to Banasi andGhaghra in search of the boy.The boy was traceless while thestory was being filed till late inthe evening.

From Page 1The legal opinion highlights

the role and power of Mayor,jurisdiction of Mayor, when itcomes to deciding an agenda orscrapping out any proposal fromthe board meeting.

“I have taken the legalopinion on issues that haveoften created confusion overthe power of an elected repre-sentative. The communiquéthat I had received fromPutham clearly mentions thatMayor has the power to call ameeting besides, fulfilling otherconditions like deciding dates,cancellation of any subject,calling next meeting, if unfa-miliar about the subject,” saidLakra.

“The report also adds thatDeputy Mayor’s power is justconfined to giving suggestionsand only those files are sup-posed to be sent to DeputyMayor that contain some finan-cial details, including standingcommittee meeting files,” Lakrafurther added.

Putham’s opinion, accord-ing to Lakra, also stated thatMunicipal Corporation Actcontains all mandatory details.However, the StateGovernment must clear thenorms mentioned in the clause165 under sub-clause 1,2,14 ofthe Municipal Act.

Notably, the conflict thathas created rift among theRMC officials, especiallyMayor, Deputy Mayor, SanjivVijaywargia and TownCommissioner PrashantKumar on tender procurementprocess of Bright Neon is yet tobe sorted out.

“Despite my repeatedattempts to clear the pendingissues, none of the officials hasyet turned up or presentedany clarification on the matteron cancellation of the tender,”she signed off.

Earlier, the Mayor had alsothreatened the RMC officers todrag them in court to clarify allissues related to tender andlease assessment.

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According to the DelhiGovernment, the economy

of the national Capital is boom-ing with the Gross StateDomestic Product (GSDP) esti-mated to grow at 12.76 per centover the year 2016-17. Itclaimed that the advance esti-mate of Delhi at current pricesduring 2016-17 is likely to

attain level of �6,22,385 crore. Delhi’s economy grew at

8.34 per cent during 2015-16 ascompared to 7.6 per centgrowth at the national level.

As per the EconomicSurvey of the national Capitaltabled in the Delhi Assembly onTuesday, Delhi's per capitaincome was almost three timesof the national average, both atcurrent and constant process.

"The advance estimate of

Net State Domestic Product(NSDP) of Delhi is likely toattain a level of 5,65,655 crore in2016-17 which is estimated togrow at 12.88 per cent," under-lined the survey.

The survey highlighted thatDelhi's economy has a pre-dominant service sector with itsshare of contribution to GSVAat 82.26 per cent during 2016-17 followed by contribution ofsecondary and primary sectors.

The per capita income ofDelhi at current prices reachedat the level of 2,73,618 in2015-16 as compared to2,49,004 in 2014-15 and2,29,518 in 2013-14.

The advance estimate ofper capita income of Delhi atcurrent prices during 2016-17estimated at 3,03,073. TheGSDP is defined as a measureof the volume of all goods andservices produced within the

boundaries of the State duringa given period of time.

The tax collection in Delhihas grown at a rate of 20.84 percent (estimate) in the currentyear, but its revenue surplus hascome down, as per the latestsurvey. "Tax Collection of DelhiGovernment registered agrowth of 20.84 per cent in2016-17 (BE) as compared tothe growth of 13.61 per cent in2015-16 (Prov.).

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In a major judicial pro-nouncement against Maoist

movement in the country,Delhi University Professor GNSaibaba and four others,including a Jawharlal NehruUniversity student, were onTuesday sentenced to lifeimprisonment by Gadchirolidistrict court for their linkswith the banned organisationCPI(Maoist) and its leaders,while the sixth convict, VijayTirkey, was sent to 10 years’ jail.

Gadchiroli’s PrincipleDistrict and Sessions Judge S SShinde handed out sentences toProf Saibaba and five others afterconvicting them under sections13, 18, 20, 38 and 39 of theUnlawful Activities (Prevention)Act (UAPA) and 120-B (Criminal conspiracy) of theIPC.

Apart from Prof Saibaba,the four others convicts areJNU student Hem Mishra, for-mer journalist Prashant Rahiand Mahesh Tirki, PanduNarote.

In his verdict, the Judgestated that the prosecutionhad “established” that all six

accused belonged to bannedorganisations CPI (Maoist)and another Maoist frontorganisation RevolutionaryDemocratic Front (RDF).

“Several people had beenkilled and public property hasbeen destroyed in the Maoistviolence in Gadchiroli. ... Forthat all accused, who are mem-bers of the banned organisa-tions, are responsible,” theJudge stated.

The Judge said that thoughlife imprisonment was insuffi-cient punishment meted out tothe five accused. “But thehands of the court are closedwith the mandate of sections 18and 20 of UAPA and in myopinion it is a fit case to awardsentence of imprisonment oflife to the accused,” JudgeShinde noted.

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From Page 1step back now, I was

insulted. Netaje did not allowme to come on the forefrontbut I kept working frombehind the curtains), saidSadhan Gupta.

“I am not behind the feudin the family. Netaji andShivpal Yadav were bothhumiliated last year. I have told‘netaji’ that I won’t wait anylonger. I have no politicalambitions and I want to engagein social work and for the poorand I want to see that Prateek

enters politics and is elevatedto the Rajya Sabha,’, saidSadhan Gupta here on Tuesday.

She said “Shivpal Yadav islike son to Netaji who had seenvery hard days of povertywhen he uses to cover himselfwith Durries during the win-ters. They should not haveinsulted Shivpal Yadav as hehad done no wrong. When hewas appointed as the Statepresident of the party he wasnot even aware of that he wasin Sefai on that day,” saidSadhna.

From Page 1Squad to conduct an enquiry.The State Government has announced a financial assistance of

Rs 50,000 each to the seriously injured persons and Rs 25,000 eachto the other injured passengers.

The Union Home Ministry has sought a report from the StateGovernment on the blast. The Government was also told to informthe Home Ministry as early as possible whether any terror groupwas suspected to be involved in the incident.

Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Bhupendra Singh said, "Theinitial investigation suggests the blast is a terror attack as there wasa gunpowder odour. An investigation is underway to unravel theconspiracy behind the incident."

The blast took place in the second-last coach that was an ordi-nary second-class coach of train No. 59320 between 9.30 am and10 am when it was on its way to Ujjain from Bhopal, Indian RailwaysPRO Anil Saxena said.

Two coaches were damaged in the blast, and were separatedfrom the train which later left for its onward journey, said PROJitendra Kumar Jayant adding that a relief train has been rushed tothe mishap site.

The glass panes of the windows in the general coach were shat-tered in the blast, which occurred when the train was about to reachJabdi station, which falls between Kalapipal and Sehore railway sta-tions. Following the blast, the train came to a halt and smoke engulfedthe general coach, causing panic among the passengers who rushedout to save themselves.

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From Page 1after returning fire, they

waited for the terrorist to runout of ammunition.

In the meantime, Aruncalled in commandoes from theBijnore training centre to mopup the operation.

When the staccato of gun-fire slowed down after 30 min-utes, the security forces around4.30 pm fired tear gas shellsinside the room where the sus-pect was holed up in order toflush him out. When that failedto work, the police team firedchilli bombs, but to no avail.

After waiting for more thanhalf an hour, a small comman-do team climbed an adjoininghouse, and drilled off a portionof the house where the militantwas holed up to gain entry.

"The operation was theresult of the UP Police receiv-ing specific inputs regardingpossible terror suspects in theState. We co-ordinated with theATS chief and decided tolaunch the operation,"Additional Director Generalof Police (Law and Order)Daljeet Chaudhary said, addingthe terror suspect might belinked to train blast in MadhyaPradesh this morning.

The UP Police was tippedoff by Central Intelligence agen-cies, Chaudhary said, andadded that one arrest was madein Kanpur and there could bemore than one terror suspect inLucknow.

Aseem Arun said, "Thepolice gave ample chance to thesuspect to surrender but insteadhe resorted to firing with anautomatic gun. We wanted tokeep the collateral damage tothe minimum and hence wererestrained in approach. Itappears that only one personwas hiding inside the house."

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Page 3: 4˚ 1 560˙7ˆ˝02 8 %&˚’˙!˚˜˚ˆ!(!)˚*(+,$-!˙ guava, pulses, beans and other fruits are also pro- ... Pooja Singhal, Horticulture Director Rajeev Kumar and other officials

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State Development Councilmembers and Secretary of

Vikas Bharti, Ashok Bhagattoday appreciated the progressof women but bemoaned thefact that they were still beingvictimised. “Women are step-ping up in every field, StreeShakti Self-Help groups havebeen set up, Women have beenallotted reservation inPanchayat but still they arebeing oppressed by none otherthan so called educated people.There is a clear lack of sensi-tivity towards women and menget jealous of their progress,” hesaid addressing KasturbaGandhi Mahila Mahapanchayatorganised here on Tuesday.

Bhagat urged people totake responsibility of socialwelfare and not depend only onGovernment. “Governmentcan make rules. It can give facil-ities but the main responsibil-ity lies with the society toimplement the rules, to use thefacilities. The problem doesn’tget solved with the ban ofliquor, women organisationsmust ensure that liquor isn’tmanufactured so that mendon’t drink. The people have toensure that the schools runproperly and teachers teachproperly. The Government andthe Police have their limits. Thesociety must also step up to thechallenges,” he said.

Around 500 people includ-ing Mukhiya, Sarpanch,Prakhand Pramukh and Wardmembers attended the eventwhose main motive was to bringtogether the problems of womenin front of the Government andfind their solutions so thatmigration of women could bestopped. One PrakhandPramukh, Pushpa Tirki saidthat women were still beingexploited and their conditionscouldn’t be improved just by dis-cussions. They needed to beempowered and given propereducation so that they couldfight against their exploitation.

����� 1���9'

The Cabinet on Tuesdayapproved funds over

�1750 crore to give a boost tothe road network in the State.

Informing about theCabinet decisions, CabinetSecretary SS Meena said thatHazaribagh town would get abrand new Ring Road forbetter commutation.

“18 roads have beenapproved for their wideningand strengthening. This alsoincludes 16.42 kilometerslong Hazaribagh Ring Roadwhich alone would cost�645.15 crore. Other roads arein various districts, includingthree small ones in Ranchi,Palamu, Khunti, Chatra,Seraikela-Kharsawan andDeoghar districts,” said he.

Most of the roads havebeen transferred from REO tothe Road ConstructionDepartment for their better

management and upgrada-tion. Meena added further thecost coming on theHazaribagh Ring Road wouldinclude land acquisition,shifting of settlements, build-ing bridges and incurring onrehabilitation over there.Another proposal to create apermanent post of oneExecutive Engineer and twoof Superintending Engineersgot the assent of the Cabinet.

This apart, the Cabinetalso gave its nod to appointIIT-Kharagpur on nomina-tion basis to monitor the sew-erage and drainage projectcoming up in Ranchi. “TheCivi l EngineeringDepartment of the IIT-Kharagpur would indepen-dently monitor the workbeing done under the sewer-age and drainage projectunder-construction in

Ranchi. The experts from theinstitute would pay at least 40visits for which �two lakhwould be paid. In addition tothat �50,000 would be paidfor every visit of the team,”said the official.

In another importantdecision, the Cabinet hasdecided to waive VAT on thechairs, tables and benches tobe supplied to theGovernment schools. Earlier,the Government had decidedto purchase the furniture foral l the Government-runschools from local carpentersonly in order to provideemployment to the localskilled manpower. In a relat-ed decision, the VAT(amendment) Ordinance-2016 which was to come into force from February 9, 2016, would be applicable from September 23, 2015 itself.

The Cabinet a lsoapproved rules for appoint-ment and promotion of teach-ers in the residential schoolsrun by the WelfareDepartment. Also, rules forappointment of computeroperators by the JSSC hasbeen framed that includeguidelines for holding writtenexam and typing skills.

����� 1���9'

Questioning credibility ofthe postmortem report

issued by the medical boardwhich indicates that IcchitaSingh committed suicide in herhostel room, her family mem-bers demanded a CBI inquiryinto the case.

Talking to media persons atFirayalal Chowk here onTuesday, Ichhtia’s father alsoalleged that Goal Institute man-agement in connivance withthe local police was trying todivert this murder case into asuicide case by removing allevidences related to it.

“It is a clear cut murdercase, but the police and theInstitute Management are try-ing to misguide everyone call-ing it a case of suicide. As weare not convinced with theinvestigations conducted sofar and lost faith in the localpolice, we demand a CBIinquiry into the case so thatjustice could be done with mydaughter,” said Icchita’s fatherSanjay Singh. He warned thathis whole family will immolateat Firayalal Chowk if the casewas not handed over the CBI.

When asked what madehim doubt over the investiga-tions done by Ranchi Police,

Singh said that there were sev-eral things which raise doubtsover the whole story told byGoal Institute officials – PrinceKumar and Kamrendra Kumar,who took Icchita to hospitalafter the incident.

“Firstly, in the CCTVfootage it is clearly visible thatthe girl was being taken to thehospital at 9:12 pm then howcome they got death certificateat 9:10 pm. It means they man-aged to get the death certificatemuch earlier even before thebody was brought to the hos-pital,” said the father. Secondly,despite the fact that hostelwarden remains in the hostel

round the clock, she was notpresent there at the time of the

incident, he added.“If she was alive when they

found her hanging from theceiling fan, why they took herto Rajendra Institute of MedicalSciences, rather than taking herto the nearest Orchid Hospital,”Singh added. Moreover, therewas no mention of the injurymarks on her neck and shoul-der which are quite evidenteven in the photograph takenafter her death which raisesdoubts over the autopsy reportprepared by the medical board,Ichhita’s father said.

“How come the ‘O’ shape,found during the primaryinvestigations by the doctorsimmediately after the incident,changed into ‘V’ shape in the

postmortem report,” saidSingh.

Referring to Ichhtia’s rela-tionship with her school timefriend Manish Agrawal, her sis-ter Swarnim Singh said thatpolice was trying to misguidethem by giving a differentangle to it.

“We do not want charactercertificate from the police, wewant proof of her suicide, whichthey have failed to producebefore us so far,” said the sister.“It is very unfortunate thatwhenever such incidents happenwith a girl, police starts ques-tioning her character to hidetheir shortcomings,” she said.

The family also urged all thegirl students in Jharkhand toobserve ‘black day’ on‘International Women’s Day’against the alleged murder ofIcchita. Some of the studentorganisations are also planningto organise a rally from Women’sCollege to Firayalal Chowk.

Police, however, reiteratedthat it was clear in the investi-gations that it was a suicidecase. “It is clear in the investi-gations that no one killed her.Now the challenge before us isto find out what were the rea-sons behind taking her such aharsh step,” said City DSPShambu Kumar Singh.

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Page 4: 4˚ 1 560˙7ˆ˝02 8 %&˚’˙!˚˜˚ˆ!(!)˚*(+,$-!˙ guava, pulses, beans and other fruits are also pro- ... Pooja Singhal, Horticulture Director Rajeev Kumar and other officials

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In serial snatching incidents,two bike-borne criminals

snatched gold chains from asmany as three women at sepa-rate places under Bistupurpolice station area last night,sending the police into a tizzy.

The three incidents tookplace on the roads near JHTarapore School, Sacred HeartConvent and Keenan Stadium,all three spots under Bistupurpolice station between 7.30pm to 9 pm, leading the policeto swing into action late in thenight after the incidents werereported to them.

The first incident tookplace, when Deepak Kumar, aresident of Adityapur, was rid-ing his bike with his elderly

mother sitting pillion throughthe JH Tarapore School inDhatkidih. The bike-bornecriminals snatched the goldchain and sped away towardBH Area.

The second incident tookplace at about 8.00 pm whenthe two criminals snatchedgold chain from the neck of a30-year-old woman nearSacred Heart Convent. Thevictim, Manjula Devi wasreturning home at PanchavatiNagar in Sonari from Sakchimarket. While she was cross-ing through the Sacred HeartConvent Road, the criminalscame from behind and theone riding pillion snatchedManjula's chain.

The third incident tookplace near Keenan Stadium atabout 9 pm, when a 35-year-oldman Samir Kumar was ridingback home on a bike with hiswife sitting pillion. As the bik-ers snatched the gold-chainfrom Samir's wife

“We are still in shock. Wewere coming from a relative'shouse in Sonari back to our res-idence in Agrico at about 9 pm,while the road passing alongthe Sacred Heart Conventappeared to be lonely. I heardmy wife screaming. On turn-ing around I saw two youths,who were in their early twen-ties, were on bike close to

ours. One of them who was sit-ting pillion was extending hisleft hand toward my wife'sneck. Before I could under-stand something, the duo spedaway," recalled Samir who is ajunior doctor posted at MGMMedical College Hospital.

OC, Bistupur police sta-tion, Shreeniwas confirmedabout the chain-snatching inci-

dents at Bistupur on Mondaynight. “We are trying to detectthe case by taking out footagesfrom the CCTV camerasinstalled in front of the JHTarapore School where one ofthe incidents took place,” saidthe officer-in-charge.

Shreeniwas claimed whilemaking attempts to detect thechain-snatchers, they have alsointensified patrolling on theroads.

According to records avail-able, during the past sixmonths, over 100 incidents ofchain-snatching and bag-snatching have been reportedin different thana areas acrossthe city, but the police havecracked only few cases.

A police official said thatpersons, whose movementswere found to be suspicious,were detained in the last twomonths. Besides, the policehave been keeping extra vigil inresidential colonies not onlyduring night but daytime too.

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Acamp office for the dis-bursement of allowances to

483 displaced people ofBataney Dam is to start func-tioning in Chhaterpur fromMarch 8 said DC PalamuAmeet Kumar. All claims forallowances are to be settled in7 days time he said.

Kumar further said a teamof officials would visit Bihar’sAurangabad land acquisitionoffice there to collect relevantdocuments/ compensationdetails with regard to dis-placement and rehabilitationand map in connection withthis Bataney Dam since thisissue was in limbo between thetwo states Jharkhand and Bihar.

He said ‘ Our office has

Xeroxed copies related o thisdam’s displacement and reha-bilitation but Xeroxed copies arenot to be depended much andhence a team is to go toAurangabad this March 17 tocollect the original ones or tomatch the available ones with theones available in the Aurangabadland acquisition office’.

He said administrationhere is working on the modulesof compensation in the back-ground of 2012 rehabilitationpackage in the event of dis-placement caused by waterbodies for 500 acres of landfearing to be submerged by thisdam which will affect 60 to 70households here,

Chhaterpur BJP MLARadha Krishan Kishore said,“The 483 displaced were tooangry and in their anger andfrustration had welded the sixgates of this dam rendering it ofno use since 2012 and wereclamouring for allowances to begiven to them and on the direc-tive of the principal secretarywater resources department

Sukhdev Singh an overdue/ longpending meeting of the co ordi-nation committee of this Damwas held on Monday March 6which was chaired by DC whereI took up the cause of the dis-placed and it was decided thateach of the 483 oustees wouldget �1.50 lakh as allowances forhouse construction.”

Kishore further said, “ThisBataney Dam issue was like afestering wound but withoutany surgical intervention thefrayed tempers of the ousteeswere soothed and balmed bythe Palamu administration andnow they would get �1.50 lakhfor house construction.”

Kumar admitted that thedisplaced have agreed in prin-ciple to free the locked gates ofthis dam which they did longyears back while the technicalcell of the irrigation depart-ment would do mechanicalworks so left over in this damnow. The DC said work is onwith regard to submergence of500 acres of land affecting 60to 70 families there.

����� E�;�9!#:51

The Operation and Electricalwas declared among best

safety conscious departmentsin the Safety Week observed byAdhunik Power and NaturalResources Limited at itsPadampur plant. The otherAdhunik Group Company,Adhunik Alloys and PowerLimited also makred SafetyWeek at its Kandra plant site.

Adhunik Power & NaturalResources Limited, AdhunikAlloys and Power Limited andOrrisa Manganese & MineralsLimited commemorated 46thNational Safety Week at itsrespective premises.

Dilip Mahato, RajeshMahato and Mangal Besra wonprizes for being best safetyconscious worker for AdhunikPower.

Addressing to the employ-ees on concluding day of theweek Bhalchandra Nellikwar,plant head, Adhunik Power &

Natural Resources Limitedsaid: “Each and every employ-ee should make safety as a habitof daily routine life and it isstarts from the home only.” Healso congratulated to employ-ees for making APNRL zeroaccident plant.

Safety department ofAdhunik Power has organisedslogan writing, poster paintingand quiz competitions for theemployees and contractingagencies on the occasion too.

Subsequently, Nellikwargave away the prizes to the win-ners of various completionsduring the safety week.

Senior officials AjayBangde, Sanjeev Choudhary,NSP Rao and Amitav Patra alsopresent on the occasion forAdhunik Power while O PVerma, Plant Head, AAPL, R KSharma, Asit Dahari, DebbartaUpadhyay and RajeshDidwania shared the dais atAdhunik Alloys safety weekconcluding day function.������*����*���

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The establishment day ofNorth Karanpura Super

Thermal Power Project ofNTPC was organised withenthusiasm in Atal ground ofTandwa on Tuesday. GMNKSTPP RK Singh hoistedthe flag of NTPC and inspect-ed the parade of jawans ofCISF.

Addressing the gatheringGM Singh said that now the

countless sacrifices of landowners and hard labor of theofficers and staffs of NTPChas become visible here atTandwa. The erection work ofthermal power plant is goingon in full pace, more than35% work has been complet-ed and we are sure that by thestart of 2018 production ofelectricity will start here.

Talking about the CSRactivities GM Singh said thatNTPC is going to providesmokeless stoves to more than1500 houses of the displacedvillagers. He started the dis-tribution work of smokelessstoves on this occasion. Heinformed that the project hasspent more than 26 crore inCSR activities.

Talking about the

Hazaribagh Bijupada roadGM Singh informed thatNTPC is going to spent Rs450 crores on this project. Itwill be a four lane road whichwill bring the entire length inmain stream line of develop-ment.

Akshayvat Pandey thesecretary of Mukhiya Sanghsaid that on 6th of March1999 former PM AB Vajpayeehas laid the foundation stoneof this project so it should benamed as Atal power project.Several dist inguisheddenizens, officials of NTPCand district administration,general people, staffs etc. werepresent on this occasion. Acricket match was playedbetween NTPC XI andTandwa XI on this occasion.

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Areview meeting of Healthdepartment and Social

Welfare Department to boostthe health facility in the districtwas called by the DC VinodKumar on Tuesday.

In the meeting Kumartook stock of the facility ofdelivery patients, training ofhealth employees, high riskareas, looking after of children,works of Asha workers and theworks of NRHM. He directedto set up micro plans to get thecent percent aim of vaccinationat each health centre. He alsoinstructed to joint the malnu-trion centers with Anganbadi,to open new centers at Peshrarblock, promote the girl

teenagers health plan, to pro-vide the iron pills to the girlsof teenagers groups, to makethe people aware of malnutri-on and AIDS by organisingcamps under ITCC.

Kumar on the occasiondirected all the officials ofhealth department to be intheir head offices, all the ANM,doctors and CDPOs must visittheir areas. The civil surgeonwas directed that the doctorsmust present in Peshrar blockso that the people would haveto not face any problem.

On the occasion civil sur-geon Dr Patrick Tete, DSWSanjay Thakur, all the blocklevel health officers, CDPO,DPM Nazish Fahim and oth-ers were present.

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Page 5: 4˚ 1 560˙7ˆ˝02 8 %&˚’˙!˚˜˚ˆ!(!)˚*(+,$-!˙ guava, pulses, beans and other fruits are also pro- ... Pooja Singhal, Horticulture Director Rajeev Kumar and other officials

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Sugar output is expected to godown by almost 19 per cent

this year due to anticipation ofpoor crop yield in drought-affected States of Maharashtra,Karnataka, Andhra Pradeshand Telangana. Demonetisationcould also be a reason for thedecline. This has been dis-closed by the Indian SugarMills Association (ISMA).

“The output for the 2016-17 season beginning fromOctober would be 20.3 milliontonnes, compared to 25.1 mil-lion tonnes in the previousyear,” a press release issued byISMA said.

The ISMA said that insome areas of these States, theyield per hectare in Februarythis year was 40-50 per centlower than last year at thesame time. “In addition tothis, higher need of seed forincreased acreage, especially inthe State of Maharashtra, alsoresulted in lower sugarcaneavailability for crushing thisseason,” the ISMA said.

“After detailed discussionsand after considering the viewsof members representingrespective States, the ISMA is

of the opinion that the sugarproduction in 2016-17 seasonwould be around 20.3 milliontonnes,” it said.

The ISMA said that the allmills, except 17 inMaharashtra, had almostclosed their crushing opera-tions, and, therefore, the Statewas expected to producearound 4.2 million tonnes.

“Similarly, the mills inKarnataka have also closedtheir crushing operations, butconsidering that it will have aspecial season from July toSeptember, 2017 in SouthKarnataka, it is expected thatthe State will produce 2.12million tonnes,” the ISMA said.

On other hand, sugarcane

availability, sugarcane yieldsand sugar recovery in the UttarPradesh is substantially betterthan last year. “The trend in UPis, therefore, very different tothe drought-affected States inthe western and the southernpart of the country,” the ISMAsaid.

“Currently, there are 107sugar mills which continue tocrush sugarcane in UP, whichis higher than the mills whichwere crushing last year at thesame time. Sugar productionthis year is 0.9 million tonnes,more than what it was at thesame time last year.”

As most of the mills areexpected to run till the latterpart of April 2017, members

from UP felt that they willtogether produce around 8.5million tonnes of sugar this sea-son, the ISMA said. Also, theISMA said the sugar sales andofftake from sugar mills wasfound to be substantially loweras compared to last year.

The ISMA said, “Instead ofseeing an increase in the sales,the mills are witnessing a dropin the same in comparison tolast year. We have alreadyreceived reports from all sugarmills, and noted that in the firstfour months of the current sea-son, up to the end of January2017, sales by sugar mills hasbeen lower by 0.75 milliontonnes.”

In the same meeting, theISMA members reported thatthe sugar off-take was dulland, therefore, the off-take inFebruary as well as in March,was also on the lower side.

“The main reason for lowersales could be demonetisation,drop in sugar purchase by thebulk consumers, price elastic-ity affecting demand and antic-ipated lower demand by StateGovernments because of pro-posal to remove subsidy fromthe Centre on PDS sugar," theISMA said.

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Aadhaar is no longermandatory to avail the

benefits of social welfareschemes funded by theGovernment.

In a statement issued onTuesday, the Government reit-erated that till the Aadhaarnumber is assigned to anyindividual, the benefit will con-tinue to be given on alternate

means of identification. It alsodirected the departments toprovide Aadhaar enrollmentfacilities to their beneficiariesunder Regulation 12 ofAadhaar (Enrollment andUpdate) Regulations 201.

Considering the useful-ness of Aadhaar in curbingleakages and bringing trans-parency in delivery system,the Government recently hadissued orders to use Aadhaar inseveral welfare schemes fund-ed from the Consolidated Fundof India.

While the order requiredbeneficiaries of these pro-grammes to give their Aadhaarnumber, it has also beenensured that no one is deprivedof the benefits for want ofAadhaar, the release said.

In the case of Mid-Daymeal scheme and under theIntegrated Child DevelopmentScheme, the schools andAnganwadis have been asked tocollect the Aadhaar number ofthe children beneficiaries. Incase a child does not haveAadhaar, the school or ICDSfunctionary will be required toprovide enrollment facilitiesto a child till Aadhaar numberis assigned.

Aadhaar has been given tomore than 112 crore people toensure that the benefits of wel-fare schemes reach only to thedeserving and entitled indi-viduals and are not corneredaway by the fake persons andmiddlemen.

Various studies and surveyhad have pointed out massiveloopholes in welfare schemes.During the last two-and-halfyears, Aadhaar has helped indirect delivery of benefits tocrores of people through theDirect Benefit Transfer (DBT)in schemes such as LPG sub-sidy under Pahal, Scholarships,MNREGA, and Pensions.

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The Supreme Court onTuesday called for the

multi-agency probe (MAG)reports into the Panama Papersleak case which revealed thenames of 500 Indians havingoffshore deposits.

Dealing with a PILdemanding for a SpecialInvestigation Team (SIT) to beset up to probe the criminali-ty linked to each of the unac-counted deposits revealed inthe Panama Papers leak, aBench headed by Justice DipakMisra asked the Government toproduce the reports in a sealedcover before April 18, the nextdate of hearing.

Solicitor General RanjitKumar, appearing for theCentre, informed the Courtthat following the leak, theGovernment constituted amulti-agency group in Aprillast year comprising officers ofthe Central Board of DirectTaxes, Reserve Bank of India,Enforcement Directorate andFinancial Intelligence Unit.This group held several meet-ings and submitted five reportstill date to the SIT on blackmoney, headed by retiredSupreme Court judge MB

Shah. A sixth report is in theprocess of being filed.

The Bench, also comprisingJustices AM Khanwilkar andMM Shantanagoudar assuredthe petitioner that after going through the reports, itwill form an opinion whetherthe matter required furtherprobe.

The Bench said, “We directUnion of India to file all sixreports in sealed cover withinfour weeks. On the questionwhether there should be a sep-arate SIT to look into the indi-vidual cases shall be consideredafter going through the reports.”

During the proceeding,petitioner advocate ML Sharmapressed his request for SIT.Solicitor General pointed outthat the anxiety of the peti-tioner is to ensure that appro-priate enquiry for purposes of

launching criminal prosecutionhas been made. Although heclaimed he had no access tothese reports which are confi-dential, he urged the Court topass orders after going throughthe reports.

Earlier, the Department ofEconomic Affairs of theFinance Ministry had informedthe Court that “an undisclosedincome of �8,186 crore hasbeen brought to tax, on accountof deposits made in unreport-ed foreign bank accounts.”

The Centre even claimedthat about �1,282 crore waslevied in 159 cases pertainingto concealment of tax. So far164 prosecution complaintshave been filed in 75 cases, the Centre claimed, addingthat the SIT on black money ismonitoring progress of eachcase.

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Hailing spirituality as India’sstrength, Prime Minister

Narendra Modi on Tuesdaylamented that some peopletend to link it to religion andasserted that the two are verydifferent.

Addressing a function hereto commemorate the centenarycelebrations of the YogodaSatsanga Society of India (YSS),he said that yoga is the first steptowards the journey of spiritu-ality.

“India’s spirituality is itsstrength. But, it is unfortunatethat some people link spiritu-ality to religion. But both spir-ituality and religion are verydifferent,” he said. The PrimeMinister also hailed YogiParamahansa who left the

shores of India to spread hismessage but remained con-nected to the country all thetime. Even for a second theYogi was not away from hismotherland, which he keptremembering even in his lastwords, the PM added.

Back from campaign trailin his Varanasi constituency,Modi recalled how the Yogi isstill remembered in Kashi andhis teachings, “which are aspure as Maa Ganga”, continueto flow within many in the holycity where he spent his child-hood.

The Yogoda SatsangaSociety was founded byParamahansa Yogananda in1917. A special postage stampon Yogoda Satsanga Societywas also released by Modi tocommemorate the occasion.

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The Supreme Court onTuesday directed UP

Minister and senior SamajwadiParty leader Azam Khan toappear before the LucknowBench of the High Court onWednesday after he was issueda bailable warrant for not turn-ing up in a case of alleged per-jury relating to an affidavit filedby Uttar Pradesh Jal Nigam.Khan is the ex-officio Chairmanof the Nigam being the State'sWater Supplies Minister.

The High Court had fixedthe hearing of the case onTuesday, the day Khan chose toapproach the apex court againstthe March 6 order summoninghis presence through bailablewarrant. The Bench of ChiefJustice JS Khehar, Justices DYChandrachud and Sanjay KishanKaul gave an urgent hearing toKhan but was convinced at theend that the Minister should not“hoodwink” the court and givehis explanation on the allegedly“forged” affidavit by appearingbefore the HC.

Although Khan though

offered an unconditional apolo-gy, but he failed to appear beforethe HC on two occasions. Eventhe warrant could not be servedon him. Taking notice of this fact,the apex court remarked, “Youare the Chairman of the JalNigam and even a Minister andyet warrants are not served onyou. In your affidavit you can’tsay that you were busy with elec-tion meetings on March 1 whenthe Court had summoned you.Does he not have a helicopter toreach Lucknow?”

Senior advocate V Giri, whoappeared for Khan, agreed toappear in HC on a date and timefixed by the Court.

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The Supreme Court onTuesday considered the case

of single parents for surrogacyand asked them to make a rep-resentation to the Governmenton the law banning commercialsurrogacy is finalised. It, how-ever, refused to extend similartreatment to NRIs and personsof Indian origin (PIO), who tooare barred under the proposedlaw to have surrogate babies.

The Bench of JusticesRanjan Gogoi and NV Ramana,while dealing with the aspect ofbanning commercial surrogacy,were informed by the Centrethat the Bill in this regard —The Surrogacy (Regulation)Bill 2016, is pending for con-sideration before a StandingCommittee of Parliament.

Senior advocate ShekharNaphade, who appeared for apetitioner lawyer JayashreeWad, informed the Court thatthe Bill does not consider sin-gle parents for surrogacy. TheBench allowed the petitioner tosubmit a representation in this

regard to Solicitor General,who shall forward it to the con-cerned authorities.

However, another appli-cation filed seeking similarrelief for NRIs and PIOs wasdismissed by the Bench. “Howcan we go on dictating terms tothe law making authority? Ifyou are consciously excluded,the only remedy is to challengethe law after it is passed,” theBench said.

The 2016 Bill at presentonly allows married childlesscouples to have babies throughsurrogate mothers, providedthey have been legally weddedfor five years and the surrogatemother is a blood relative.

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The National InvestigationAgency (NIA) on Tuesday

issued a notice to controversialIslamic preacher Zakir Naikasking him to appear before iton March 14 in a case filedagainst him under anti-terrorlaw.

The notice was served atthe Mumbai-based residence of51-year-old Naik, who isbelieved to be staying in SaudiArabia to evade arrest after hisactivities came under scannerfollowing accusations that hehad inspired some of the ter-rorists who had attacked a cafein Dhaka last year.

Naik, the founder of pro-scribed Islamic Research

Foundation (IRF), has beenasked to appear before the

anti-terror agency at its head-quarters in Delhi on March 14,an NIA official said here. Thenotice was received by hisbrother, Mohammad AbdulKarim Naik, at his residence inJasmine Apartments inMazagaon here, he said.

The physician-turned-preacher has been booked forpromoting enmity between dif-ferent groups on grounds of reli-gion and doing acts prejudicialto maintenance of harmony.

Sections of the UnlawfulActivities (Prevention) Act(UAPA) has also been slappedon him. His controversialpreaching were aired illegallythrough his TV channel

Peace TV.The Centre has declared

IRF, an NGO based at Dongriin south Mumbai, an unlawfulorganisation under the UAPA.Besides the IRF, Naik is alsofounding trustee of the IRFEducational Trust and theIslamic Dimensions Trust.

“The televangelist is alsolinked with a slew of other enti-ties like Peace TV, HarmonyMedia Pvt Ltd, LonglastConstructions Pvt Ltd, RightProperty Solutions Pvt Ltd,Galaxy Multichannel NetworkPvt Ltd, Majestic Perfumes PvtLtd and Alpha Lubricants PvtLtd,” said NIA officers.

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Uttar Pradesh

Manipur

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Varanasi is in news.Just 40 out of 403constituencies will goto polls on March 8

but the region is hogging thelimelight. A big question is whyVaranasi and the adjoiningregion going to polls in the finalphase are so important?

All top BJP leaders fromPrime Minister Narendra Modito party chief Amit Shah andfrom Union Ministers to RSSleaders and from poll strategiststo election managers havestormed this VVIP con-stituency. Prime Minister heldthree roadshows — thoughthe BJP claims these to beJanata Darshan.

The question is whyVaranasi is that important?

A senior BJP leader said ifthe Samajwadi Party-Congressalliance works, the BJP’s road tosuccess in Varanasi can get verytough. “Muslims and Yadavstogether make a very formida-ble combination on all the seats,especially, the urban ones. If thetwo segments remain intactwith the alliance, things can go

against the BJP,” he said.Therefore, the challenge

for the BJP, and most impor-tantly for Modi is to ensure theBJP’s dominance in the region.An effort is to capitalise on‘Brand Modi’ and that’s the rea-son why top brass of the BJPstormed Varanasi.

The fact is despite Varanasibeing the parliamentary con-stituency of Prime Minister,BJP’s Vidhan Sabha perfor-mance has been poor show. In2012 it could just win four seats— Varanasi North, VaranasiSouth, Cantt and MungraBadshah in Jaunpur.

The BJP hopes for acounter-polarisation and is alsobanking on long-drawn in-fighting between rival sectionsof the Congress in the district?The symbolism of Modi’s vis-its to temples, including the KalBhairav, might just be a subtleattempt at revoking a larger

Hindu identity.A Congress leader Rajesh

Shukla said the BJP had alwaysbeen able to polarise the elec-tions in its favour? “This timewe are trying hard not to let itbecome Hindu vs Muslimspoll,” he said.

Out of eight seats in

Varanasi, the alliance has threeseats. This includes theCongress stronghold of Pindra,from where party MLA AjayRai is contesting again. TheSamajwadi Party has Rohaniyaand Sevapuri seats, while theBSP has MLAs from Ajagaraand Shivpur.

BJP MP from GorakhpurMahant Adityanath tried todownplay the concerns.“Anyone is a PM or Ministerlater and a party worker first.Since it is an election and weare taking it seriously, everyworker is devoting his time andenergy for the cause,” he said.

Congress State spokesper-son Kamlakar Tripathi said,“The BJP is highly anxious. Thealliance is giving their leaderssleepless nights. It’s not only thebattle for UP. Modi ji’s is prob-ably keener on saving his hon-our in his own parliamentaryconstituency.”

When, in 2014, the BJPdecided to field Modi fromVaranasi, several agendas werein mind. One, of course, was tosilently emphasise Modi’s‘Hindu’ image and his connectto Ganga, a strong symbol ofHindu religious and culturalidentity. Politically, it was alsoaimed at long-term strategy togive the BJP a strong launchpadin the east from where botheastern UP and Bihar could beinfluenced.

Bihar elections last yearhad been a bitter pill for theBJP. Will UP be a sweetener?The results will be known onMarch 11. But before that, thePrime Minister is ready to facehis biggest challenge.

The stakes are really high.As one of the disgruntled MPsof the BJP said, “Somewherebetween Bihar and Delhi liesUttar Pradesh.”

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The seventh and the finalphase of UP StateAssembly elections onMarch 8 is going to be

the “mother of all battles” ofState Assembly polls as stakes arehigh for all the contenders. Thisphase includes Varanasi, theLok Sabha constituency ofPrime Minister Naredra Modi.Modi not only camped for threedays in Varanasi, he becomes thefirst Prime Minister to haveconducted three roadshows inthe city for three consecutivedays and addressed three pub-lic meetings.

Top leadership of the BJP,including party president AmitShah and senior leaders of theRSS and the BJP leaders fromWest Bengal also campaignedin Varanasi to woo Bengali vot-ers who are in sizeable numbersin Varanasi.

The stakes are high for theSamajwadi Party-Congressalliance. The SP had won 23 seatsout of total 40 seats going to pollsin the seventh phase of Assemblyelection. The Bahujan SamajParty is also a strong contenderin the all the seats thus makingthe electoral battle highly inter-esting and triangular. In 2012Assembly elections out of total 40seats in seventh phase — the SPwon 23, the BSP 5, the BJP 4, theCongress 3 and 5 Independents.

The BJP in 2014 parlia-mentary election had won allthe Lok Sabha seats in this

region of east UP. The sevendistricts going to the polls inthe seventh and last phase areGhazipur, Varanasi, Jaunpur,Chandauli, Mirzapur, Bhadoiand Sonebhadra. The BJP facestough challenge of retaining thelead it had established in 2014Lok Sabha elections. In 2014Lok Sabha polls BJP had wonall the 4 Assembly segmentsunder Varanasi Lok Sabha seat.In 2017 BJP is facing toughchallenge from the Congress inPindra, Varanasi south andVaranasi Cantonment. AjayRai is the Congress candidatefrom Pindra seat. He has wonfor the four times from this seatand in 2014 had also contest-ed as the Congress candidateagainst Narendra Modi.

Besides the Prime Minister,the prestige of the four UnionMinisters is also at stake. TheMinisters are Union HomeMinister Rajnath Singh, a nativeof Chanduli district, UnionMinister of State MahendraNath Pandey also from theChanduli district, Apna Dalpresident and Union Minister ofState Anupriya Patel MP fromMirzapur, and Union Ministerof State and MP from GhazipurManoj Sinha.

From Chunar seat ofMirzapur, Anurag Singh son ofthe former State BJP presidentOm Prakash Singh is locked intriangular contest with SP andBSP. Prominent candidates inthe phase are Parasnath Yadav(Malhani), Shailendra Yadav(Shahganj), Surendra Patel

(Sevapuri) and KailashChaurasia (Mirzapur) — allMinisters and senior SP leaderOm Prakash Singh fromJamania Assembly seat inGahzipur district. Vijay Mishra,former Minister of State wasdenied ticket by the SP so heswitched over the BSP and is inthe fray thus adding to owes ofthe Samajwadi Party.

BSP president Om PrakashRajbhar, an ally of the BJP is inthe fray from Zahurabad seatof Ghazipur district), ApnaDal (Krishan Patel faction)president Krishna Patel(Rohania), Congress leadersAjai Rai (Pindra), LaliteshpatiTripathi (Marihan) and NadimJaved (Jaunpur).

Some mafias and their closekin are also in the fray, includ-ing Dhananjay Singh, MukhtarAnsari’s brother SibatullahAnsari, sharp shooter MunnaBajrangi’s wife Seema Singh,mafia don Brajesh Singh’s broth-er Sushil Singh and mafia donfrom Gyanpur seat of Bhadoidistrict Vijay Mishra, sittingMLA, who was denied ticket bythe Samajwadi party.

In the seventh phase, 1.41crore electorate — 76.62 lakhmales and 64.76 lakh females— are expected to exercisetheir franchise in 14,458 pollingbooths. There are 535 candi-dates in the fray for the lastphase. Varanasi Cantonmenthas the highest number of 24candidates and Kerakat seat inJaunpur district has the lowestonly six candidates.

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With the first roundof polls for the11th ManipurState Assembly

election got over on March 4,all eyes and ears are now turnedtowards Thoubal district inthe State where fate of ChiefMinister Okram Ibobi and hisCongress party will be sealedon March 8. Although it will besmooth sailing for him, butpolitical observers expect —being his home constituencyand district — the fate of hislong 15 years long career asChief Minister of this troubledtorn State will be decided.

Though he can be creditedhimself for many major devel-opments and lowering unem-ployment rates in his home dis-trict and moreover lack of cred-ible opponents from other polit-ical parties, including the BJP, thewave of anti-incumbency factoracross State, high corruptioncharges against him and party,UNC’s economic blockade,AFSPA, fake-encounters and hisunimpressive enunciation thatthe only Congress party could“save” the State could be some ofthe factors for his downfall in thishighly charged election.

In a State where “incredi-bility” is synonymous with itsnatural beauty, the secondphase of Manipur will see civilrights activist Irom SharmilaChanu, aka Iron Lady ofManipur or “Mengoubi” fight-ing against the mighty Ibobi in

his own home turf. O Ibobi, 69,became the Chief Minister twoyears after Sharmila began her“hunger strike” in November 2,2000. Chanu will be fightingfrom her newly formedPeoples’ Resurgence and JusticeAlliance (PRJA). Though shecan’t have much effect onIbobi’s vote bank, this will be amorale booster for those wholove and believe in her strug-gle against injustice andAFSPA. While Ibobi will fight-ing from Thoubal constituen-cy, his son Suraj Kumar will becontesting from Khangabokconstituency, which was earli-er held by his mother, OLandhoni Devi, wife of Ibobi.

The second phase will seesome of the biggest figures inthe State from the Congressparty, including Deputy ChiefMinister Gaikhangam fromNungba constituency, CabinetMinister MoirangthemOkendro from Heirok, CabinetMinister D Korungthang fromTengnoupal, Cabinet MinisterMuhammed Abdul Nasir fromLilong and, MLA Md FajurRahim from Wabgai and vet-eran Congress leader and for-mer Minister ThoudamDebendra Singh from Jiribam.

The BJP will have few lead-ers, including MoirangthemHemanta, former Minister, for-mer IPS officer ThokchomRadheshyam from Heirok,Thokchom Jadumani fromKhangabok, Md AnwarHussain from Lilongand DrUshem Deben Singh. For firsttime ever a Muslim (Meitei

Pangal) woman candidate,Najima Bibi, a foot-soldier ofPRJA, will be contesting in thesecond polls from Wabgai con-stituency. Though many haveappreciated her “bold move”, a‘fatwa’ was imposed upon herby local Muslim leaders forbeing ‘anti-Muslim’ activities.

While the Congress andthe BJP were major contenders,the Nagaland-based regionalpolitical party, Naga People’sFront (NPF), will play a crucialrole in the hill areas of Manipur.Anil Khuraijam, a journalistand political observer of theState, told The Pioneer that NPFwill be the biggest force inmany Naga dominated hill dis-tricts of Manipur, includingUkhrul, Senapati, Tamenglongand Chandel this time as manypeople have already edged outthe Congress party for its ‘anti-Naga policies’.

Moreover, the BJP toocould make inroad in this hillyareas specially Ukhrul district,the birth place of Th. Muivah,leader of Naga insurgencygroup — NSCN (M), where alarge number of people turnedout in a recently held BJP elec-tion rally. Khuraijam furtherinformed that the BJP andnon-Congress parties will bebiggest gainer in hill districts.

Altogether 22 seats, includ-ing 11 seats for ST and 11 forGeneral will be going for pollson the second phase. Ninety-eight candidates,including four women, are in the fray for the remain-ing 22 seats.

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Just a few days ago, hundredsof devotees went toPanchkoshi Yatra on auspi-cious occasion of Mahashi-

vratri, the biggest festival for thisDwadasjyotiling city of KashiVishwanath, making a ‘parikar-ma’ of Varanasi. A few hadshown courage even to go forPachchiskoshi, covering someold Shiv temples at the entry ofadjoining districts. This indicatesthe holy character of Varanasidivision. Normally, the devoteeswalk to complete theirPanchkoshi Yatra in five days,staying at some famous templesduring the nights. Religion walksthrough a defined way but pol-itics ‘maange’ (needs) more.

Prime Minister NarendraModi completed political‘parikarma’ of his parliamentaryconstituency in three daysthrough roadshows, knowingthe character of this holy city andits adjoining areas, going to thepolls on Wednesday. By prayingat Kashi Vishwanath and KaalBhairav temples and visitingGarhwaghat Ashram, Modiknew the importance of this lastphase in formation ofGovernment in Lucknow wheredespite several good shows since1990s, in last election in 2012 theBJP was reduced to 10 per cent,claiming just four seats out of 40.In this Varanasi and Mirzapurdivisions, Cycle had rununmatched, claiming 22 whileBSP 6, Congress 3, Independents

3, QED 1 and United Apna Dal1. This figure had changed, lateron, as all three Independentswere loyal to SP (Sayyedraja-Chandauli), BJP (Sakaldiha-Chandauli) and Congress(Duddhi-Sonebhadra).

In Varanasi division, BJPwas blank in two districts(Chandauli and Ghazipur) outof four, claiming three seatsfrom Varanasi and one fromJaunpur. This time it hasrespected its alliance partnersAD (Soneylal) and SBSP givingthem four, two each while itselfcontesting at 24 and in bothdivisions, it is contesting in 32and rest of eight are equallyshared by two alliance partners.SP which had won 22 andincreased to 24, snatching one

from AD in Rohaniya(Varanasi) and join-ing of Independentits fold in SayyedRaja (Chandauli) butdespite such domi-nation, it is contestingin 31 giving nine toCongress. “Kanjoos ban kardoshti majboot nahi rah sakti”,said Akhilesh Yadav in severalrallies in this belt of Purvanchalduring dying days of election-eering, trying to boost moraleof SP workers who were unhap-py over giving more seats toCongress. Contrary to boththese alliances, Mayawati didnot believe in alliances and gavesome seats to Mokhtar &Company only when QEDmerged with BSP.

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Prime Minister NarendraModi rounded up hisbreathless poll cam-paign in Uttar Pradesh

with a total 24 rallies which sawhim spending three consecu-tive days in Varanasi, his LokSaha constituency, in the lastleg of electioneering.

An almost non-stop cam-paigning for the seven-phasedUP Assembly election endedon Monday that witnessedPrime Minister and UttarPradesh Chief MinisterAkhilesh Yadav making a finalpush ahead of the March 8 vot-ing on Wednesday.

Besides 24 rallies, PrimeMinister had earlier addressedsix mega rallies during BJP’s“Parivartan Yatra” that culmi-nated on December 24, last

year. According to the BJP, theYatra had helped it connectwith two crore people in 403Assembly segments. In all, itmeans the PM addressed a total30 rallies in UP.

In the 2015 Bihar elections,Modi had addressed altogeth-er 31 rallies which also includ-ed five “Parivartan” ralliesacross the State.

Among the BJP leaders,party president Amit Shah hasscored the highest rallies of 153followed by Union HomeMinister Rajnath’s 150, accord-ing to the BJP.

In the seven-phased poll,BJP estimated to have organ-ised the highest 850 rallieswhich were addressed by Shah,Rajnath, Transport MinisterNitin Gadkari and several other Union Ministers andparty leaders.

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KBristo, a 21-year-old fish-erman from

Thankachimadom village inRamanathapuram district waskilled in a shootout at Palk Bayon Monday night. Fishermenwho had accompanied Bristofor fishing in the territorialwaters of Sri Lanka alleged thathe was killed by a bullet firedby the Sri Lankan Navy. Theincident drew widespread con-demnation and protests fromall major political parties in theState. Chief Minister EdappadyPalaniswamy condemned thehigh handed attitude of the per-petrators of the crime.

The Chief Minister whosent a letter to Prime MinisterNarendra Modi on Tuesdaydescribed the incident as “coldblooded, inhuman, horrificand illegal barbaric killing of ayoung Indian fisherman fromTamil Nadu due to the unpro-voked firing by Sri LankanNavy on Indian fishermenwhile peaceably fishing in theirtraditional waters of Palk Bay”.

A spokesman of the SriLankan Navy denied reportsthat Bristo was killed by theLankan Navy. Lt CmdrChaminda Walakuluge toldreporters at Colombo that SriLankan Navy had no role in theshootout in which Bristo waskilled. “No Navy personnelhave the permission to shoot atpoaching fishermen. They onlyhave permission to round uptrawlers found poaching andarrest the fishermen,” he said.

The Sri Lankan ForeignAffairs Ministry in a releasesaid that the Sri LankanGovernment was firm in its

commitment to ensuring thatall Government agencies treatall Indian fishermen in ahumane manner at all times.“Initial investigations indicatethat the Sri Lanka Navy is notinvolved in this alleged inci-dent,” the Ministry said in amedia release.

“While they were fishing intheir traditional waters of PalkBay, around 9.30 pm on March6, 2017, a fleet of four SriLankan Naval vessels sur-rounded the fishing boat andopened unprovoked and indis-criminate fire on the unarmedfishermen,” said Palaniswamyin his letter. Bristo who got shotin the neck died while he wasbeing taken to the hospitalwhile two other fishermenwere injured in the firing.

The Chief Minister wantsthe Centre to summon the SriLankan High Commissioner toIndia and convey the strongfeelings of the Government ofIndia and the Government ofTamil Nadu about the unpro-voked firing on fishermen.

This is the second letterPalaniswamy is writing to thePrime Minister in as manydays. On Sunday he had writ-ten to the Prime Ministerpleading with him to take upwith the Sri LankanGovernment for the immediaterelease of 85 fishermen fromTamil Nadu who are languish-ing in jails in the island nation

and also the release of 128mechanised fishing boatsseized by the Sri Lankan Navy.

Tamil Nadu Governmentannounced a solatium of Rs 5lakh to the members of Bristo’sfamily while the injured fish-erman was given Rs 1 lakh.

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After hectic poll campaign inUttar Pradesh, Prime

Minister Narendra Modi onTuesday sounded the poll buglefor his home State Gujaratwhere Assembly elections aredue in few months.

From inaugurating a mag-nificent bridge on Narmada atBahraich to announcing sever-al infrastructure projects, includ-ing road sector, Modi who is onhis two day visit also dedicatedRs 30,000 crore to ONGC pro-ject at Dahej Special EconomicZone in South Gujarat.

Modi during his speech didnot forget to mention Varanasi- his Parliamentary con-stituency which goes to poll onWednesday. The PM said allStates should learn fromGujarat how to carry infra-structure development withina stipulated time frame. Heregretted the fact noticing someof foundation stone done 15years ago in UP.

Modi talked about high-ways to expedite economicdevelopment of the country,simultaneously he urged tomake maximum use of I-way(information way). “We needboth highway and I-way,” hesaid receiving a great applausefrom the huge crowd.

The BJP is struggling topacify the agitating Patels postthe Hardik Patel episode. Modiinvoked the name of formerCM Keshubhai Patel whoundertook some of the signif-icant infrastructure improve-ment in the State of Gujarat.

Road Transport MinisterNitin Gadkari, Gujarat CMVijay Rupani were too presenton the occasion.

Modi dedicated Rs 30,000crore ONGC Petro additionsLtd’s (OPaL) plant situated atDahej Special Economic Zonein South Gujarat.

Addressing an ‘IndustryMeet’ on the occasion, PrimeMinister hailed hisGovernment’s decision ofdemonetisation saying thatdespite aggressive propagandafrom several quarters against the

move, the GDP report of lastquarter indicated that India’sGDP has not gone down.

“In fact majority of theworld leaders, including BillGates appreciated the decision.Even International MonetaryFund (IMF) supported themove. Black money willwashout from the economyand ultimately people at largewill be benefitted,” said Modi,adding very few people hadproblem with the decision andthey were trying to terrify peo-ple by spreading rumours thatthe country’s economy would beruined. Demonetisation willhelp retrieving black moneyfrom criminals and strengtheneconomy, he added.

Modi claimed that not asingle Opposition party raisedissue of prise rise or inflation

in the recent polls of five States.This is the indicator that theNDA Government at theCentre is successful in con-trolling price rise, he said.Further, he claimed that theMake in India initiative hasmade India a global hub formanufacturing over the lasttwo years and the country hasbettered its position from ninthto sixth during this period.

Ahead of his Dahej visit,Modi landed at Surat airportwhere he addressed a gatheringand lauded the people of‘Diamond City’ for being hardworking and announced that4,000 seats were sanctioned forpost-graduation in medicalstudies across the country.

This is Modi’s 10th visit tohis home-state Gujarat afterbecoming the Prime Minister.

He is expected to visit theState more frequently asAssembly polls are due inGujarat in December this year.

Modi also laid foundationstone laying ceremony of air-port like bus station in Bharuchtown, around 40 km fromDahej. Later on he flew downto the state capital Gandhinagarto attend a dinner at ChiefMinister Vijay Rupani’s resi-dence, where Rupani’s councilof ministers and BJP MLA sremained present.

On Wednesday, Modi willleave for Diu and then reachSomnath Temple where he willattend the meeting of theSomnath Trust along withparty president Amit Shah andGandhinagar MP LK Advani, who are also membersof the trust.

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New Delhi: An angry IndianGovernment on Tuesday raisedthe incident relating to allegedkilling of Indian fisherman bythe Sri Lankan Navy on Tuesday.The matter was taken up byIndian High Commissioner inColombo with Lankan PrimeMinister Ranil Wickremesingheeven as its Foreign Ministrydenied Lankan Navy fired at the Indians.

“Government of India isdeeply concerned at the killingof an Indian fisherman. OurHigh Commissioner to Sri Lankahas taken up the matter with thePrime Minister of Sri Lanka. TheSri Lankan Navy has promiseda full and thorough investiga-tion,” MEA said in a statement.

Responding to the allega-tions, Sri Lankan Governmentsaid it was deeply concernedabout the alleged shooting onIndian fishermen. PNS

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Simmering tension continuesin Assam’s Dhemaji district

after an irate mob vandalisedan office of the All AssamStudents’ Union at Silapatharon Monday, forcing the districtadministration to impose nightcurfew in the town.

Although the situationimproved yet the Army carriedout flag march in the town andintensified security arrange-ments. Assam Chief MinisterSarbananda Sonowal whilecondemning the incidentdirected Additional ChiefSecretary VB Pyarelal toenquire into the incident andsubmit report within onemonth. The Chief Ministersaid that some elements aremaking efforts to create riftamong different communitiesof the State and these elementswill not be allowed to succeedin their designs.

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In a breakthrough in theinvestigations into the flour-

ishing illegal abortions andfoeticide racket in Sangli dis-trict of western Maharashtra,the police on Tuesday arrestedthe prime suspect DrBabasaheb Khidrapure fromBelgaum district in neigh-bouring Karnataka.

Acting on the informationprovided by the Sangli police,their counterparts from theneighbouring Belgaum districtin Karnataka tracked down DrKhidrapura to a specific placein their district. The Belgaumpolice detained Dr Khidrapuraand handed him over to theSangli district police.

Khidrapura was producedbefore a Sangli Magistrate’scourt which remanded inpolice custody till March 17.

Srinagar: Winter-like conditions re-appeared in Kashmir onTuesday as rainfall lashed the entire Valley while snowfall occurredat upper reaches including the ski-resort of Gulmarg in northKashmir. Director Meteorological Center Sonam Lotus said therewas possibility of heavy rains in the plains in the next four dayswhile the higher reaches of the Valley including Ladakh wouldwitness fresh spell of snow. PNS�� ������� ����� 67�6���

Sasmita Ghosh the arresteddistrict child protection offi-

cer of Jalpaiguri on Tuesday lit-erally implicated an officer ofIAS cadre in the infant-traf-ficking racket saying whatevershe had done was under hisdirections.

Ghosh and her husbandalso a DCPO of Darjeeling dis-trict were arrested alongwith ahost of doctors, politicians andNGO officials for selling outorphans to foreigners for apremium.

Sasmita who was earlierawarded two weeks’ CID cus-tody pleaded innocent saying“often the lesser officers have tobear the brunt for carrying outthe orders of the higher author-ities.”

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Jammu & Kashmir ChiefMinister Mehbooba Mufti

on Tuesday claimed that adozen youngsters who hadtaken up arms have been relo-cated to their homes during thepast three months. She soughtto refrain from calling theirreturn to home as “surrender”saying they were like her fam-ily members.

Addressing a convention ofyouth at the ruling PDP head-quarters here, Mehboobalinked generation of employ-ment opportunities for theyouth with the return of peace.

Under flak for using dis-proportionate power to quell amassive public uprising inKashmir last year after thekilling of Hizbul Mujahideen

commander Burhan Wani thatkilled around a hundred civil-ians and injured hundreds ofothers, especially with pelletguns, which also blasted outeyes of a large number of pro-testers, Mehbooba is now try-ing to make peace with theyounger generation by promis-ing jobs and other avenues.

“I am happy to see that atleast a dozen of local youth whohad picked up guns were broughtback to their homes during thepast two or three months. I won’tsay that they surrendered as theyare my family members and I amhappy to see them back to theirhomes,” Mufti who holds thehome portfolio, said. She regret-ted the trend that youngstersacross the valley were holdingstones in their hands to targetthe security forces.

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The two sisters, the elder oneaged 12 and the other 9,

found dead under mysteriouscircumstances in their one-room thatched house atAttappallam near Walayar inPalakkad district respectivelywithin a span of 50 days werevictims of sexual abuse, theKerala police said quoting post-mortem reports. The exactcauses of deaths were yet to beconfirmed but autopsy reportsuggested that death of theyounger one might not be acase of suicide, they said.

Close on the heels of thedisclosure by the dead girls’mother that a close relative hadsexually abused her elderdaughter several times,Inspector General of Police(Thrissur Range) MRAjithkumar told the media onTuesday that the younger girlalso could have been subject-ed to rape. He said that herpostmortem report had sug-gested this possibility.

“What we understand fromthe postmortem report is thatthe younger girl had been sub-jected to sexual assault. Wealso suspect that the girl whodied earlier had also been sub-jected to sexual assault,”Ajithkumar told newsmen.Police officials said that theyounger girl’s death could be acase of murder as per the post-mortem report and the pecu-liarities of the situation.

The police on Tuesdaytook into custody three menincluding the relative, son ofthe brother of the girls’ father,who had allegedly raped theelder girl and sources saidtheir interrogation was pro-gressing. Though the girls’ par-ents had told the police afterthe elder girl’s death that therelative had assaulted her sex-ually, they had released himafter questioning him briefly.

Kolkata: In yet another jolt tothe Mamata BanerjeeGovernment the Calcutta HighCourt on Tuesday State forlarge scale irregularities in theappointment of about 1.3 lakhcivic volunteers — more pop-ularly known as “green police.”

Expressing disbelief at theunusually scant time taken toconduct selection process forsuch a large cadre the DivisionBench of acting Chief JusticeNishita Mahtre said theappointment process lackedtransparency.

The court howeverreserved its order for a futuredate. Earlier the in May lastyear Justice Sanjib Banerjee ofthe same Court had terminat-ed the services of the civicpolice volunteers over irregu-larities in appointment process.

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The seven minor girls of an orphanage at Muttil, Kalpetta inKerala’s Wayanad district, victims of alleged sexual abuse,

had been subjected to brutal rape inside two shops near theirschool for several weeks by a pack of men who first lured theminto their den with offers and then by threatening them usingphotographs, as per how the girls — all in the age group of 13-14 years — described their ordeal to PK Sreemathy MP.

The Kalpetta Police have arrested six men aged between 24and 41, all of them local residents, for the crime and the victimshave identified them. They have registered 11 cases under var-ious provisions including those of the Protection of Children fromSexual Offences (Pocso) Act and for rape following a complaintfrom the orphanage authorities. Two of those held were hotel busi-nessmen and the remaining rapists were their friends.

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Page 8: 4˚ 1 560˙7ˆ˝02 8 %&˚’˙!˚˜˚ˆ!(!)˚*(+,$-!˙ guava, pulses, beans and other fruits are also pro- ... Pooja Singhal, Horticulture Director Rajeev Kumar and other officials

As the campaigning inUttar Pradesh drewto a close on theevening of March 6,one could not help

but feel surprised at the manner inwhich some elements — bothpolitical and in the media —reacted to Prime MinisterNarendra Modi visiting his con-stituency during electioneering.The reaction, always extremewhen it comes to anything thatModi does, took umbrage at thefact that the Prime Minister, whois a sitting Member of Parliamentrepresenting the Varanasi LokSabha constituency, visited hisconstituency, decided to visit itsmany sections, mingled with hisconstituents and spent a goodamount of time criss-crossing thearea and in addressing politicalmeetings, meeting intellectualsand plain simple driving throughits many alleys.

It did not matter that it was thePrime Minister’s democratic rightto spend time with his constituentsand to actively participate in theongoing election campaigns notonly in his constituency but acrossthe State.

The surprise or the umbrageis primarily because in the last 10years, we have lost the habit andthe sense of the taste of seeing aPrime Minister actively and vig-orously participate in the processof elections. One is reminded ofBJP president Amit Shah’s repar-tee when asked why the PrimeMinister Modi was so actively andenergetically working in theseelections: “It is but natural for himto actively energetically participatein elections. Apart from being ourtallest leader, he is today the mostpopular leader.” He added,“Elections are festivals of democ-racy and participation in them anda deep involvement in them arebut natural. People have forgottenthe fact that past Prime Ministershave all, always actively participat-ed in elections across the country.This trend has come down to usfrom Nehru. Such active partici-pation is a legitimate exercise ofdemocracy and just because in thelast 10 years one hardly realisedthat we had a Prime Minister,especially during elections, doesnot mean it cannot happen.”

Moreover, it was “also theright of the Prime Minister to goout on such occasions and direct-ly speak to people about hiswork, of the promises fulfilled”,Shah signed off.

A section, with access andcontrol of media resources, whichhas always pledged allegiance and

loyalty to Modi’s political and intel-lectual opponents and adversaries,always resists the conferring onModi of his legitimate democrat-ic rights. For such people, nothingthat Modi does or says can beright. Even when he says that thereshould be no discrimination whenit comes to development and thatthe fruits of growth and of oppor-tunities must reach all, goingbeyond denominational differ-ences and dimensions, they havea problem with that and make surethat the message is killed.

Some off-track leaders, whohave lost touch with the groundand now mostly live in a make-believe world of grouse and sulk,have also said that the road showwas unnecessary and that thePrime Minister of the countryshould not indulge in it. This isagain a blatantly facetious positionwhich is being bandied about,especially by those who havenever been exposed to grassrootsactivism and who have never suc-ceeded in developing a clearunderstanding of our democraticprocess, despite holding publicoffice at the union level.

The flavours and the energyof Prime Minister Modi’s connect

to his constituents, his travels toVaranasi, his mingling with hisvoters, continue to remain undi-minished. Their symbolism,power and appeal remain as theywere when Modi first visited thecity and declared that he hadcome from the land of Somnathto serve the people of the regionand that “Maa Ganga’s” call hadpulled him there. His engagementwith Varanasi, his reiteration of allthat Varanasi symbolises in thecivilisational consciousness ofIndia, his reference to Varanasi’seternal strength and energy whileaddressing a public meeting onthe Kashi Vidyapeeth grounds, areby themselves a reiteration of thecentrality of Varanasi in India’scivilisational quest and in hercivilisational self-renewal.

While a section in the West —represented by a certain mediatype — has seen Varanasi as a cityof the dead or of dying, Modi’spresence, his commitment and hisallegiance to spirit of Varanasi isa reiteration of its actual positionin the Bharatiya psyche. For Modi,Varanasi is symbolic of India’sregeneration and he is not diffi-dent in articulating that convic-tion. It also brings out the peren-

nial karyakarta in him, the grass-roots political worker who nevertires of connecting, of conveyingthe message, of ceaselessly peram-bulating among his people forwhom his presence, words andemotional involvement is all thatmatters. The last few days inVaranasi, in Modi’s movementsand his actions, one could discernthat karyakarta, trained as whichhe had begun his journey of pub-lic work and service.

The last three days of the elec-tioneering in Uttar Pradesh that hespent at Varanasi, Modi spent itlike a worker, a mentor and moreimportantly as one who has actu-ally spent years among the peoplein actual political work. His visitto Garhwa Ghat Ashram, hiswalking down to Lal BhahadurShastri’s house and spending timethere, were all expressive of thisdeeper impulse — that of beingessentially and quintessentially aworker, intrinsically linked to theethos of the land and its people.

Disconnected and self-styled‘liberators’ like Rahul Gandhi willscarce understand the dimen-sions and realities of such a link.Parachuted leaders, with dynas-tic allegiances, who have neverhad to sweat it out in the dustyand often clashing preparatoryfields of Indian politics and who,having become leaders by chancestill struggle to perform theduties that leadership enjoins,would do well to desist fromcommenting on this connectthat Prime Minister Modi hasrepeatedly demonstrated.

The results of local election inMaharashtra and Odisha — inOdisha, interestingly, the BJPdid spectacularly well, especiallyin the backward districts, sig-nalling the aspiration for amelio-ration and change among thepeople of the area — have alldemonstrated a sense of the col-lective mind that a leader likeNarendra Modi possesses. Whenthe battle for Uttar Pradesh isdone and won, it is this that willcontinue to exercise and drive thepeople to seek betterment.

The repeated bombastic yetchurlish references toBollywood, the demented obser-vations on patila and coconutjuice, the ‘erudite’ comment byan Indian economics professorbased abroad, that Modi’s is aminority Government, and thewhole lot of other trash aimed atModi, will all fall by the wayside,roundly rejected and dumped.

(The writer is director, DrSyama Prasad Mookerjee Research Foundation)'

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Sir — Every year, March 8 is cele-brated as International Women’sDay as a tribute to the strength ofwomen and honour them for theirachievements. However, it is beingobserved that nowadays, manywomen of marriageable age arepostponing marriage or choosing toremain single as they have realisedthat economic independence canempower them.

Women have come a long wayin all spheres, which were onceconsidered as male bastions. Theyare successful journalists, lawyers,pilots, astronauts, police/armedforces officers, film personalities,politicians, writers, CEOs andwhat not. Women want to comeforward and contribute in build-ing up new and progressive India.It is need of the hour to encouragetheir participation in the decisionmaking at home, in the commu-nity and at the national level.

TS KarthikNew Delhi

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Sir — This refers to the article, “Forthem, treason is ‘new Indian order”(March 7) by Sandhya Jain. Onefails to understand what made 20-

year-old student Gurmehar Kaur tomis-state the circumstances of herfather’s death? This only proves thatstudents are willing to mislead thepublic to gain support for their ide-ological stance. Surely, students atthe Delhi University are not taughtthat academic excellence is achievedat the behest of truth and honesty.

Pat Via web

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Sir — This refers to the editorial,“Not to be brow-beaten” (March 6).Despite extreme Chinese sensitiv-ity to the Dalai Lama’s publicengagements (it has forced manyworld leaders to call off theirengagements with the Tibetanleader), India has enjoyed the bet-ter of the exchanges. There is stillone month left for the Dalai Lamato visit Arunachal Pradesh’s bordertown of Tawang, and it is unfortu-nate that the Sino-Indian verbalskirmish has already started.

A visit by Dalai Lama, viewedas a ‘separatist’, is thus even moreoffensive to Beijing. For Chinaclaims most of Arunachal as part ofwhat it calls south Tibet, andprotests whenever Indian or evenforeign officials visit the region.Beijing ought to realise that after itsposition on Jaish-e-Mohammed

chief Masood Azhar, it is hardly wellplaced to raise objections on theDalai Lama’s social engagements.

J AkshayBengaluru

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Sir — Despite the seemingly fran-tic efforts of the present dispensa-tion in Tamil Nadu to ‘clear the air’on J Jayalalithaa’s death by first get-ting a UK specialist and ApolloHospital chairman, Pratap Reddy,to issue statements, and now byreleasing this bulletin from theAIIMS, it will be wrong to concludethat apprehensions about the sus-picious, happenings have beeneither dispelled or laid to rest.

This so because the extremesecrecy and denial of any informa-tion during Jayalalithaa’s treatment,with no direct access even to theGovernor, besides many anotherrelatives/VIP visitors, has neverbeen, nor looks likely ever to be,explained satisfactorily. Just one per-son apparently controlled every-thing. There was no accountabili-ty whatsoever about the mostimportant functionary of the State.

NS RajanBengaluru

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Page 9: 4˚ 1 560˙7ˆ˝02 8 %&˚’˙!˚˜˚ˆ!(!)˚*(+,$-!˙ guava, pulses, beans and other fruits are also pro- ... Pooja Singhal, Horticulture Director Rajeev Kumar and other officials

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India’s Silicon valley inBengaluru and Hyderabad’scyber city, India’s IT hub, are

shivering with uncertainty abouttheir future if the US blocks H1-B visas as a part of curbing out-sourcing. India’s software serviceindustry, which is already facingpressure on profitability, is brav-ing to face the TrumpAdministration’s protectionistpolicies. The NationalAssociation for Software andServices Companies (Nasscom),which represents the IT industry,has kept its fingers crossed.

US President DonaldTrump made his intentionsclear during his inauguralspeech. He said, “We will followtwo simple rules: Buy Americanand hire Americans.” Fearingprotectionism, India has beenlobbying with the TrumpAdministration to spare themtheir H1-B visas. A Nasscomdelegation had been to the USrecently. Indian officials led by

Foreign Secretary S Jaishankaralso visited Washington to lobbywith the Trump Administration.The Indian argument is that theHI-B visa is a “category of tradeand services” which actuallyhelps the American economy bemore competitive.

However, Trump decided tohalt expedited processing ofH1-B visas last week. Thisshocked the IT industry. Even asthe Indian officials were claim-ing that their forceful presenta-tion to the Congress and admin-istration had met with a degreeof understanding, the USCitizenship and ImmigrationServices brought the axe downon the expedited processing sys-tem which many Indian andAmerican companies use tofacilitate the entry.

The US Governmentannounced last week that as ofApril 3, it will suspend the “pre-mium processing” option , whichensures an application will be

reviewed within 15 days at a costof $1,225. The order came a dayafter visiting Jaishankar met JohnKelly, the US Secretary ofHomeland Security, and raisedthe visa issue. The suspensionmay directly hit Indian IT majorslike Infosys, Wipro and TataConsultancy Services .

What is H1-B visa and whyis India concerned? It is a type ofvisa that allows the employers tobring skilled workers fromabroad to the US, which wouldin turn boost the US economy.

Indian IT companies useH1-B visas to fly their engineersto the US to service the clients.While tech firms claim they usethe H1-B visas to hire highlyskilled workers, some US politi-cians complain that IT compa-nies misuse and bring low-levelIT workers to the US.

New Delhi’s is worriedbecause India wants more H1-Bvisas to boost its IT industry,which is vital for its growing

economy. The IT sector con-tributes 9.3 per cent to India’sGDP and employs of 3.7 millionpeople. The US accounts formore than 60 per cent of India’s$108 billion in foreign technol-ogy and outsourcing sales lastyear, according to the NationalAssociation of Software andService Companies.

Even before the visa freeze,IT majors in India reported slowgrowth last year. Uncertaintyabout the future has led to a fallin employment. The US lawmak-ers have introduced the LofgrenBill, which proposes the mini-mum wages be doubled to$130,000. The current H1-Bminimum wage of $60,000 wasfixed in 1989. Most H1-B visaholders get an average of$1,00,000. This hike in salarieswill reduce the flow of Indian ITworkers to the US . The draft Billaims to make it difficult to bringforeign workers.

The US receives nearly three

lakh applications and issuesvisas through lottery system.Last year about 85,000 visas weregiven out. Around 60 per centof them are granted to Indian ITcompanies. An estimated onemillion jobs are vacant in the USin the IT sector.

Of the 12 lakh jobs certifiedfor H-1B visas in 2015, IndianIT firms accounted for 2.54 lakhpositions. In 2016, it was 1.72lakh, as per US labour depart-ment records. The Nasscompredicts that the IT sector willgrow at the lower end of itsrevised target in fiscal 2017.

So, are things really going tobe hard for IT majors? AreIndian companies ready to facethe blow? More importantly, arethe US firms ready to do with-out outsourcing? If Trump push-es the stringent HI-B visa norms,Indian IT majors are sure to facea setback and they must exploreways to soften this blow. Theyshould re-work their economics

and look for ways to bring downon-site work.

First, they should adopt anew model of business. At pre-sent, most of them have businessin several places, but do not paytaxes. Second, as the Infosysmentor NR Narayana Murthyhas suggested, IT companiesshould employ local Americanseven if they have to pay highersalaries, and even if it reducedtheir profit margins.

Third, is to diversify theirmarkets beyond the US toother countries. But it is noteasy. Fourth, is to see how thechanges would affect the IndianIT industry the least by lobby-ing with the Congress andFoggy Bottom. IT majors arehopeful that during his bilater-al visit later this year, the PrimeMinister might try to soften theblow. But it is an uphill task.

(The writer is a senior polit-ical commentator and syndicat-ed columnist)

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In his Budget speech on February1, Union Minister for FinanceArun Jaitley announced hisGovernment’s intention to abol-ish the Foreign Investment

Promotion Board (FIPB). This step isintended to further encourage and easeforeign investments in the country. Forlong, there had been uncertainty overthe future of Foreign Direct Investment(FDI) flows which was subject toapproval of the Government.

The FIPB, established in the courseof economic liberalisation in the 1990s,provides a single-window clearance toforeign investment proposals in sectorswhich require Government’s clear-ance, for example, in defence, mining,media or air transport services etc.

The board was initially institutedunder the Prime Minister’s Office, andlater transferred under the Ministry ofCommerce, Department of IndustrialPolicy & Promotion. It was then final-ly re-constituted in 2003 under theFinance Ministry, under which it oper-ates till date. As an intra-governmentalbody, it comprises of secretaries fromvarious ministries, including Commerce& Industry, External Affairs, OverseasIndian Affairs, Small and Medium &Micro Enterprises and Finance.

Although viewed as an FDI-approvalbody, the FIPB also has the power to pro-vide recommendations on various pro-ject proposals. Consequently, the FIPB’srecommendations, for projects involving�5,000 crore or less of foreign equity, isconsidered by Union Minister of Finance.Whereas, the Cabinet Committee onEconomic Affairs reviews the projectsinvolving more than �5,000 crore.

Following various reforms that wereintended to attract foreign investmentsinto the country, that have been under-

taken by the Modi Government eversince it came to power, the number of FDIrestrictions have significantly reduced.

In particular, in June last year, theGovernment introduced major changesin the FDI policy and further openedup traditionally sensitive sectors such asdefence, pharmaceutical, e-commerceand retail to overseas participation. Atpresent, over 92 per cent of sectors, opento foreign investments coming to India,are subject to the automatic route, ieinvestments in these areas do notrequire Government clearances andhave to only comply with sectoral laws.

As a result of the Government’scontinued efforts to relax FDI restric-tions, the role of the FIPB has dimin-ished significantly over the years.Currently, it is reviewing less than 20pending proposals. Considering thelimited number of sectors subject to theapproval route, the announcement ofwinding up the FIPB has been wel-comed. Yet, it is not entirely clear at thisstage what alternative institution or pro-cedure is going to substitute the role ofthe board after its closure.

Though initially, some read theFinance Minister’s announcement tomean that all FDIs will now be subjectto the automatic route, it has beenrecently clarified by Minister ofCommerce and Industry NirmalaSitharaman that the FIPB and theMinistry of Finance’s role is likely to besubstituted by the relevant ministriesand regulatory bodies, which alreadyparticipate in reviewing individual pro-ject proposals under the approval route.

Following the introduction of e-fil-ing system for FDI under the approvalroute in 2015, the board has been pre-dominantly acting as an intermediarybetween an investor and a concerned

ministry which scrutinises the propos-al and provides comments to the FIPBfor it to take the final decision.

Thus, the FIPB constitutes an addi-tional layer of approval in the bureau-cratic system which the foreign investorhas to go through in order to com-mence its operations in the country. Asa consequence, dissolution of the boardis likely to shorten and simplify theclearance process for the FDI projects.It thus appears as a logical next step thatthe powers of the Council for theCurriculum, Examinations andAssessment (CCEA), to approve invest-ment proposals over �5,000 core,should also be delegated back to theindividual ministries.

On the other hand, functioningunder the indicative timeline, the FIPBproceedings provided foreign investorswith certain degree of predictability andtransparency. Consequently, the aboli-tion of the FIPB will contribute tospeeding of the approval process onlyif time limits are maintained and strict-ly followed by individual ministries andrelevant regulatory bodies which will beempowered to grant clearances.

Also, removal of the board is likelyto simplify the existing FDI regimewhich has been so far scattered amongdifferent ministries. In particular, the FDIpolicy is currently elaborated by theDepartment Of Industrial Policy &Promotion under the Ministry ofCommerce, but it is essentially imple-mented by the FIPB, Ministry of Finance,while the rules on foreign exchange arelaid down by the Reserve Bank of India.

The removal of the board providesan opportunity to streamline the FDIrule-making and implementation pro-cedures and make it easier for foreigninvestors to seek clarifications concern-

ing the policy. However, theGovernment’s efforts to attract foreigninvestments in the country should notbe limited to simplifying clearance pro-cedures for individual projects, butrather strive for a broader reform of thesystem ensuring transparency in theFDI rule-making process.

Yet, it is this complex, intra-govern-mental structure of the FIPB whichallowed it to play an important role inscrutinising FDI in sectors sensitive forthe economy and security of the coun-try. Comprising of representatives fromvarious ministries, it provides an oppor-tunity for the Government to coordinateits position and exercise control over theforeign presence in most vulnerable sec-tors. At the time when the security con-cerns are being increasingly invoked byvarious developed economies whilescreening incoming FDI (eg the US isopposed the controversial $18 billion dol-lar merger proposal between Chinesestate oil company, Cnooc, and its domes-tic oil company, Unocal, inter alia on thebasis of the national security), it is impor-tant to ensure that this coordinated secu-rity control does not diminish in Indiawith the closure of the board.

Although, the announcement of theabolition of FIPB has raised several con-cerns over the future of FDI subject to theapproval route and the detailed roadmapfor its winding up will be known only inseveral months, the Government’s com-mitment to pursue the liberalisationagenda and create favourable conditionsfor FDI sends a positive signal to foreigninvestors and serves as an importantcounter-act to the growing protectionismamong the Western economies.

(The writer is a researcher at theObserver Research Foundation and aPhD candidate at Delhi University)

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As telecom consolida-tion gathers stream in

t h e c o u nt r y, t h eGovernment is mulling amerger plan of its twoS t a t e - o w n e d e nt i t i e s -Ma h a n a g a r Te l e p h o n eNigam Limited (MTNL)and Bharat Sanchar NigamLimited (BSNL). The PrimeMinister’s Office (PMO) islearnt to have directed tothe MTNL to suggest viableoptions on the merger planbefore the Government assoon as possible. A top-level meeting recently heldat the PMO, discussed pos-sibility of merging boththe telecom firms whichhave been facing financialstress due to high compe-tition in the sector.

A highly-placed sourcet o l d T h e P i o n e e r o nTuesday, “The PMO hasa s k e d d e p a r t m e nt o fTelecom (DoT) to go for

the MTNL-BSNL merger.T h e t h e n Te l e c o mSecretary JS Deepak dis-cussed this issue with theMTNL chief and asked toexplore the modalities forthe merger of these twoentities.”

The consolidation movec om e s at a t i m e w he nmajor players in the sectorwant to make themselves asbig as a g loba l p layer.Bharti Airtel’s recent acqui-sition of local operations ofNorway’s Telenor and like-ly merger of Vodafone andIdea are the best examplesof this sort. Moreover, thedominance over major tele-com operators in the coun-try is being threatened bytelecom giant Reliance Jio,which is backed by billion-a i r e Mu k e s h A m b a n i ’sReliance Industries, whichhas already picked up 100million subscribers in itsfirst six months.

As far as the MTNL-BSNL merger issue is con-

cerned, sources fur thers a id , “It i s l e ar nt t hatMTNL is working on a setof options which could beviable for the merger plan.O n e , t h e G ov e r n m e ntshould either form a com-pany for assets monetisa-t ion and repayment ofloans or go for a merger ofM T N L - - D e l h i a n dMumbai units’ operation

with BSNL without loanliability. Two, there maybe an option for the MTNLstaff to get absorbed inBSNL with the BSNL’s pay.Third, an option is alsoopen for voluntary retire-ment for employees of 55-years and above with extraincrements for the remain-ing service.”

The meeting, headed

by t h e t h e n Te l e c o mSecretary, was held about 3weeks ago and the seniorofficials came up with theidea. However, the f irstidea of merging the twofirms was mooted yearsago by the then TelecomMinister Pramod Majahanand has been deliberatedupon a few times sincethen.

A s f a r a s f i n a n c i a lhealth is concerned, MTNLhas been reel ing underserious debt problem and isborrowing money to meeti t s day- to-day re quire-ments. In written reply tot h e R a j y a S a b h a i nNov e m b e r l a s t y e a r,Communications MinisterManoj Sinha had said, “Incase of MTNL, it has beengoing slow in upgradationof equipment during thelast 4-5 years due to severefinancial problems. MTNLis under serious debt bur-d e n a n d i s b o r r ow i n gmoney to meet its day to

day requirements.”MTNL’s standalone net

loss has widened to �819.96crore, surpassing its totalrevenue, during the three-m o nt h p e r i o d e n d e dDecember 31, hit primari-ly by finance cost. The netloss surpassed its tota lincome of �690.59 crore.The total debt of MTNLreached �19,418.23 crore atthe end of December 31,2016, from �11,542.3 crorein 2012-13, according toofficial data. In 2015-16,MTNL reported total annu-al revenue of �3,197.41c r o r e a n d n e t l o s s o f�2,005.72 crore.

On t he ot her hand,BSNL have narrowed downits losses to �4,890 crorefor the nine-month periodof the current fiscal from�6,121 crore in the year-ago period. It posted 5.8per cent increase in incomefrom services at �19,379.6crore during the periodunder review.

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Tata Motors on Tuesday said itis in talks with the world’s

largest auto maker Volkswagen fora possible partnership.

The company is exploringvarious opportunities, includingpartnership in its new advancedmodular platform (AMP) devel-opment, possibilities of a joint ven-ture or a contract manufacturingwith the German auto major, inits bid to scale up.

“I can only confirm that weare in talks but nothing to beannounced yet,” Tata MotorsCEO & MD Guenter Butschektold the news agency here.

When asked how far thetalks have progressed, he said: “Weare in the midst of discussions. Wewill let you know in good time.”

Explaining the rationalebehind such a move, Butscheksaid although the company hasset sights on becoming among thetop three passenger vehicle mak-ers in India by 2019, it might notbe enough to get the scale upeffects.

“Even if we get a large scalein the national business we mightstill not be up to the mark as far

as scale effects are concerned,” hesaid.

“Therefore, we are, since awhile, have been having intensivetalks with different potential part-ners, who might join us on theAMP,” Butschek added.

It is aimed at bringing addi-tional volumes through the newplatform that the company willintroduce to the market by 2018.

“These additional volumeswill bring higher economies ofscale, which is going to give us thecost advantage and competitive-ness,” he added.

The company is hoping totranslate competitiveness intovolume on one hand and into newfeature capabilities on the otherthat will help it become moreaggressive and desirable in themarket place, he said.

“This is the reason why webelieve if we can find a partner itwould be a very helpful strategic

move,” Butschek said.He, however, insisted that it

needed to be the right partner interms of alignment, on the objec-tives of joint development with theAMP as the reference point andright partner as far as volume isconcerned.

“Just getting a partner for thesake of getting one but not reallyadding substantial volume is notexpected from such kind of part-nership,” he said. When askedwhat type of partnership would itbe, a joint venture or a technicalcollaboration he said, “I am notruling out one or or the other...Itis always about the right fit.”

“If this is finally going to endup in a development JV or pro-duction JV or sharing of capaci-ty contract manufacturing agree-ment, these are all subject for fur-ther discussion in order to makeit a win-win for both the parties,”Butschek said.

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General Motors India on Tuesday said it will stop produc-tion at its Halol plant in Gujarat from April 28 and the auto

major assured support to the employees at the facility duringthis “transition”.”General Motors India today confirmed that itwill cease production at its Halol manufacturing facility on April28, 2017, as the company consolidates manufacturing at itsTalegaon facility. We will support our employees at the Halolplant throughout this transition,” GM India President andManaging Director Kaher Kazem said in a statement.

The company has in place the options of a significantlyenhanced separation package or continuity of employment atits Talegaon plant, he added.

Elaborating further, the company said transition supportfor employees will include financial counselling and taxadvice, as well as information and transition support for employ-ees transferring to the Talegaon manufacturing facility.

GM India is working with government authorities andlabour unions, as well as impacted employees and suppliers, toensure an orderly transition, it added.

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India on Tuesday announcedan open acreage licensing

policy for oil and gas explo-ration, allowing bidders tocarve out areas where theywant to drill as the energy-hungry country looks at greaterforeign investment to boostoutput.

The world’s third-largestoil consumer will conduct auc-tion of oil and gas blocksunder the Open AcreageLicensing Policy (OALP) twicea year, with the first roundbeing held in July this year, OilMinister DharmendraPradhan said here at the influ-ential CERAWeek conference.

OALP auction will be heldunder the overhauled explo-ration licensing policy allowspricing and marketing freedomto operators and shifts to a rev-enue sharing model.

The July auction will beIndia’s first major explorationlicensing round since 2010,although it had recently award-ed 31 small discovered fieldsmainly to state-owned andlocal firms under the liberalisedHydrocarbon ExplorationLicensing Policy (HELP).

Showcasing HELP, whichwas approved by the UnionCabinet on March 10 lastyear, to global investors,Pradhan said the new policyis part of the strategy tomake India a business andinvestor friendly destinationand cut import dependenceby 10 per cent by 2022.

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From the humble Indica 20years ago to the sports car

RACEMO, Tata groupChairman Emeritus RatanTata feels that it has been “aworthwhile journey” at theprestigious Geneva motorshow.

From the company’s firstpassenger car in 1998 to thesports car under the compa-ny’s new sub-brand TAMO,Tata Motors is marking its twodecades of participation atthe auto show with a leap offaith to future.

“The cars are fantastic,”Tata, who came to the showafter a gap of four years, saidwhile commenting on theproducts displayed by thecompany.

Besides the RACEMO, thecompany is showcasing thespecial editions of its next gen-eration product line-up in thecompact segment -- sedanTIGOR and SUV NEXON.

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Two Cyrus Mistry family companies onTuesday urged the National Company

Law Tribunal (NCLT) to use its discretionin waiving the eligibility criteria of 10 per centshareholding required under the CompaniesAct for moving the Tribunal to challengeMistry’s ouster from Tata Sons.

The Mistry Companies had filed peti-tions challenging his removal from Tata Sonsbut NCLT had yesterday held their plea ‘notmaintainable’ as both the firms did not ful-

fil the eligibility criteria of 10 per cent share-holding to move NCLT.

The petitioners had alleged ‘misman-agement’ at Tata Sons and ‘oppression ofminority shareholders’ and argued that theremoval of Mistry from Tata Sons was notproper.

Counsel for the petitioners, AryamaSundaram, argued that there were grievancesin respect of the Articles of Association ofTata Sons which went against the company.

Sundaram said that the petitioners werenot just minority shareholders but a differ-

ent class of shareholders because the deci-sions taken by Tata Sons were “oppressive”(against them).

On alleged mismanagement at TataSons, the Mistry Companies’ lawyer said itseems that “Tata Sons is becoming a ‘BoardManagement Company’.

Sundaram further alleged that theArticles of Association of Tata Sons were notin public interest. Arguments by MistryCompanies concluded on Tuesday. Tata Sonsand other parties have been asked to argueon the next date of hearing, March 17.

�4� ����� IDFC Bank onTuesday launched a digital pay-ment platform ‘Aadhaar Pay’ thatwill allow even those withoutmobile phones to do cashlesstransactions and is expecting theinitiative to win 1 crore customersevery year.

The newest bank in the pri-vate sector today formallylaunched the unique identifica-tion number-based Aadhaar Payservice, having done a pilot in 16states three months before.

“It actually makes cashlesstransactions possible even forthose who do not have mobilephones, but the merchant has tohave a mobile phone. All oneneeds is to get the bank accountnumber linked with Aadhaar.With this, basic banking willcome to those not having evenmobile phones,” IDFC BankFounder MD & CEO Rajiv Lallsaid at the launch here.

It is the first bank to launchthis merchant solution in thecountry.

Lall hopes to acquire about

1 lakh merchant sites on thisinfrastructure in about two years.

“Imagine if IDFC Bank hasa network of 1 lakh merchantsacross the country, each mer-chant over 1 year is able toacquire for me 100 savingsaccount customers from thatvillage each year. I would havecreated a network which is capa-ble of acquiring at least 10 mil-lion savings account customersfor me every year,” he reasonedwith calculations.

The bank will levy no MDR(merchant discount rate) fee onmerchants who come on boardthe Aadhaar Pay application.

These merchants, mostlylocated in remote areas, willsimply need a smartphone todownload the app and anAadhaar dongle to read biomet-rics of a customers for a trans-action. IDFC Bank said it will alsobear the price of Aadhaar don-gles, costing �2,500 apiece formerchants, as recovery can hap-pen by acquiring more savingsaccount customers.

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The sixth edition of the annu-al ‘Bhopal Vigyan Mela’ was

inaugurated last week (3rd ofMarch, 2017) by Science &Technology Minister of MadhyaPradesh Government,Umashankar Gupta, along withState Cooperative Minister,Vishwas Sarang in the presenceof Dr Sudhir Kumar Mishra,Distinguished Scientist & ChiefController DRDO & CEO &MD BrahMos Aerospace, JayantJi Shastrabuddhe, Vigyan Bharti

and other dignatries fromMPCST.

Dr Mishra, who has beenhonoured with the ‘VigyanPratibha Samman 2016’, awardduring the previous edition of theevent organised by the MP Govtto create scientific awarenessand popularise science amongthe rural, tribal and urban pop-ulace of the state, made a specialaddress on the inaugural day. DrMishra was later invited by theScience & Technology Minister,Gupta to visit the MadhyaPradesh Vidhan Sabha.

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The Centre is likely to approve a newcoal linkage policy next week for

ensuring adequate supply of the fuel topower plants through reverse auctionroute. “The proposal on the scheme called‘SHAKTI’ to provide coal linkages topower plants was listed on the agenda ofthe Cabinet meeting held on Monday.However, it could not be taken up due topaucity of time as the meeting wascalled on short notice,” a source said.

The proposal would be taken up in theCabinet meeting to be scheduled sometimenext week, the source added. The new coallinkage policy for power plants would helpproducers ensure fuel supplies in an organ-ised manner. The Government’s initiativesas well as international market conditionshave helped bring down price of the dry fueland boost domestic production. But amechanism is required for providing coal

linkages to power plants at competitive rates.The source said the new fuel linkage

policy would address this concern and putin place a proper mechanism for sourcingof dry fuel by the power plants as per theirschedules. Companies which do not havecoal linkages at present, would benefitimmensely from the new policy as theywould get domestic fuel supplies at com-petitive rates through auction.

India has total installed generationcapacity of about 314 GW, including188GW coal-based thermal capacity, ason January 2017, the Central ElectricityAuthority (CEA) data showed. CEAdaily coal stock report on March 5, 2017,stated that only one plant of the 110 ther-mal plants monitored by it had super-critical coal stock. That means it had coalstock for less than four days. There wasonly one plant which had critical coalstock situation which meant coal stock forless than seven days, the report said.

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NEW DELHI: A key Parliamentary panel is likely tosubmit its report on the impact of demonetisation nextmonth after reviewing various submissions, includingby RBI Governor Urjit Patel. The PAC, headed by seniorCongress leader KV Thomas, is looking into the impactof demonetisation on various sectors of the economy.“We are regularly having meetings with stakeholdersconcerned. Our report will be presented before the endof the budget session,” Thomas told PTI. The secondhalf of the budget session of Parliament is sched-uled to begin from Thursday and end on April 12.Thomas said the PAC has asked RBI to come outwith the exact number of old �500 and �1,000 noteswhich were demonetised and deposited with banksafter PM’s announced the move on Nov 8. PNS

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NEW DELHI: Anil Ambani-led group f irm RelianceCapital has sold its about 1per cent stake in digital pay-ments firm Paytm to China’sAlibaba Group for �275 crore.The deal, which values Paytmat over $5 billion, has yieldedhuge gains for the financialservices arm of the RelianceGroup, according to sources.Reliance Capital had invested�10 crore for the stake inPaytm, they added. PTI

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After issuing a new executiveorder on Monday to tem-

porarily bar the entry of citizensfrom six predominantlyMuslim nations, the DonaldTrump administration ispreparing to ask 13-14 othernations with unsatisfactory vet-ting procedures to beef up theirmethods in order to escape sim-ilar travel restrictions.

“There’s probably 13 or 14countries, not all of them Muslimcountries, not all of them in theMiddle East, that have ques-tionable vetting procedures wecan rely on,” Homeland SecuritySecretary John Kelly told CNN.

Kelly did not name thecountries he had in mind, evenas critics of Trump’s travel bancontinue to hold the view thatones like Pakistan and SouthAfrica, given the past involve-ment of their nationals in actsof terrorism in the US, meritpunitive action than the sixnations targeted byWashington.

Saying he does not expectan expansion of the list of coun-tries under the travel ban, Kellycommented: “But there arecountries out there that we willask, like Iraq has done... tocooperate with us better, to getus the information we need tosafeguard the country.”

Trump’s new executive orderreinstituting the temporary banon nationals of Iran, Libya, So-malia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen,while leaving out Iraq, has comeweeks after the earlier one wasstayed by a Seattle court, with aSan Francisco-based AppealsCourt upholding the stay.

The new order has been so

crafted as to avoid legal pitfalls,but the possibility of fresh legalchallenges still remains withsome critics continuing to brandit as one targeting Muslims.

New York’s AttorneyGeneral Eric Schneiderman, aDemocrat, said he is scruti-nizing the new order andstands ready to challenge it.“While the White House mayhave made changes to the ban,the intent to discriminateagainst Muslims remains clear,”he said. “This doesn’t justharm the families caught in thechaos of President Trump’sdraconian policies – it’s dia-metrically opposed to our val-ues, and makes us less safe.”

In Seattle, Washington StateAttorney General Bob Ferguson,another Democrat who suc-cessfully halted Trump’s firsttravel ban, said he has concernsabout the new version as well,but is unsure if he will challengeit. “I do not take lightly suing thepresident of the United States,” hetold reporters.

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Washington: Terming President Donald Trump’srevised executive order on immigration as“immoral and fundamentally un-American”, topIndian-American lawmakers have said the movedoes not make the country “safe”. Trump signedthe revised executive order on Monday, tem-porarily halting entry to the US for people fromsix Muslim-majority nations while dropping Iraqfrom the list, after his original order was blockedby the courts last month.

“Make no mistake: this ban does not keep ussafe. It puts American lives at risk while isolat-ing the Muslim community at a time when weneed to address the threat of homegrownextremism. No matter the changes, this execu-tive action remains immoral and fundamental-ly un-American,” California Senator KamalaHarris said. Harris, the first Indian-AmericanSenator, was joined by four other Indian-Americans in the House of Representatives – AmiBera, Raja Krishnamoorthi, Ro Khanna andPramila Jayapal, the first Indian-Americanwoman to be elected to the House. PNS

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North Korea on Tuesdaybanned Malaysians from

leaving the country, dramatical-ly escalating an already-heateddiplomatic row over the murderof Kim Jong Nam.

Moments later, Kuala Lum-pur retaliated, banning diplomatsand staff at the North Koreanembassy from leaving Malaysia.

The tit-for-tat movesmarked an extraordinary height-ening of tensions three weeks af-ter the airport assassination of le-ader Kim Jong-Un’s half-brotherwith the banned VX nerve agent.

The North decided to “tem-porarily ban the exit of Malaysiancitizens in the DPRK”,Pyongyang’s official Korea

Central News Agency said, cit-ing the foreign ministry andusing the North’s official name,the Democratic People’s Republicof Korea.

The bar would remain inplace “until the safety of thediplomats and citizens of theDPRK in Malaysia is fully guar-anteed through the fair settle-ment of the case that occurred inMalaysia”.

Pyongyang and KualaLumpur had unusually stronglinks for years, but ties haverapidly degenerated in the weekssince Kim Jong-Nam wasattacked at an international air-port by two women using VXnerve agent, a chemical so dead-ly it is classed as a weapon ofmass destruction by the UN.

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Penang: Malaysia will wait toquestion suspects in the KimJong-Nam killing believed to beholed up in Kuala Lumpur’sNorth Korean Embassy “even ifit takes five years,” the country’spolice chief said on Tuesday.

A police cordon was set upoutside the embassy after Pyon-gyang announced it would ban

Malaysians from leaving NorthKorea, prompting an immediatetit-for-tat move from KualaLumpur. The travel bans are justthe latest twist in a heated diplo-matic row over the Cold War-style assassination of the half-bro-ther of North Korea’s leader inMalaysia last month, which hasseen Kuala Lumpur expel Pyon-

gyang’s envoy and vice-versa.“We will wait, if it takes five

years, we will wait outside.Definitely somebody will comeout,” police chief Khalid AbuBakar said at a press conferencein Penang, adding that hebelieved three people wanted inconnection to the murder werein the building. AFP

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Malaysia said on Tuesdaythat North Korea

Embassy staff are barred fromleaving the country, in a tit fortat response after Pyongyangbanned all Malaysian citi-zens from leaving.

“No official or employeeof the DPRK (North Korea)embassy is allowed to leavethe countr y,” the HomeMinistr y said in a statement, as a row over thekilling of Kim Jong-Namescalated.

The statement clarifiedan earlier tweet from nation-al news agency Bernamawhich suggested all NorthKorean citizens in Malaysiawere subject to the ban.

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Iraqi forces said on Tuesday they had seized the mainGovernment offices in Mosul and its famed museum as they

made steady progress in their battle to retake the city’s west fromjehadis. The advances, which also included the recapture of threeneighbourhoods, were announced on the third day of a renewedoffensive against the ISIS group in west Mosul — the largestremaining urban stronghold in the “caliphate” declared by thejehadis in 2014.

Supported by the US-led coalition bombing ISIS in Iraq andSyria, Iraqi forces began their push against west Mosul onFebruary 19.

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Tehran: More than 2,000 fight-ers sent from Iran have beenkilled in Iraq and Syria, thehead of Iran’s veterans’ affairsoffice said on Tuesday.

“Some 2,100 martyrs havebeen martyred so far in Iraq orother places defending the holymausoleums,” Mohammad AliShahidi told the state-runIRNA news agency.

Shahidi, who is head ofIran’s Foundation of Martyrsand Veterans Affairs, wasspeaking at a conference onmartyrdom culture in Tehran.

The figure was more thandouble the number he gave inNovember, which referred onlyto Syria.

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The US authorities havebegun a civil rights inves-

tigation into the shooting of aSikh man in suburban Seattlelast Friday with the attacker, aburly white man, yelling at him,“Go back to your own country”.

The Federal Bureau ofInvestigation, working along withthe US Department of Justice,announced the action followingdemands from the New York-based Sikh Council and others toinvestigate the attack as a hatecrime that provides for moredeterrent punishment.

“The FBI is working withthe Kent Police Departmentand will collect all availablefacts and evidence to determineif there is a federal civil-rightsviolation,” Ayn Dietrich-Williams, spokeswoman forthe FBI’s Seattle office, said. “Asthis is an ongoing investigationwe are not able to commentfurther at this time,” the SeattleTimes quoted the spokes-woman as saying.

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IP University is going to organise 12 thConvocation on March 10, 2017 at its

Dwarka campus. An eminent academicianPadma Bhushan Prof SK Joshi, former DirectorGeneral of the Council of Scientific andIndustrial Research (CSIR) is the chief guest ofthe occasion who will also deliver theConvocation address.

Lt Governor of Delhi and Chancellor of theUniversity Anil Baijal will preside over theConvocation function. A total of 18,536degrees, 47 PhDs will be awarded on the occa-sion. 75 Gold medals and 18 exemplary per-formance certificates will also be given on theoccasion.

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From the increasing media reports on sexu-al assaults to alarming statistics highlight-

ing the fact that 33 per cent of women popu-lation is illiterate, women’s empowerment inIndia is a crucial national issue. Considering itsneighbouring countries in South Asia, femaleworking population rate (WPR) is one area inwhich India is lagging. Women participation inthe Indian labour force is 31.8 per cent, where-as male WPR stands at 73.2 per cent. WhileNorth-eastern India has performed well onfemale WPR, the situation is worrisome in statessuch as Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab,with WPR as low as 9 per cent.

According to a Mckinsey Global Institutestudy, India could boost its GDP by $2.9 tril-lion by 2025, if female workforce participationrate is increased by 10 per cent, which is equiv-alent to bringing 68 million more women intothe non-agriculture labour force.

Recognising India’s massive need to skillmillions of formal and informal workers in thenext coming years, the Government has devel-oped an ambitious plan of increasing the ratioof formal and informal skilled workers in itstotal workforce by 2022 from a mere 2 per centnow to 50 per cent, thus creating a strongresource pool of 500 million. Women form asignificant proportion of this work force; how-ever, they are largely concentrated in theinformal sector, engaged in vocations charac-terised by low earning, poor working condi-tions, low productivity and lack of social pro-tection.

Taking serious note of this dire situation,there are various campaigns initiated byGovernment, who has joined hands with pri-vate organisations, declaring it as a national pri-ority.

Here, provision of modern skill trainingprogrammes and increasing their accessibilityand availability may substantially help inenhancing the productivity of the womenworkforce.

������ �������E�� �������There are gender specific roles for women

in our country. One of the main reasons for thisdivide is the low social value which is attachedto girl’s education. In our traditional patriarchsociety, women are considered secondaryincome earners, and hence lower importanceis given to skilling and training of girls foremployment.

�����������*���������Women face complex ground realities,

including discriminatory social customs andtraditions, low levels of literacy, limited hoursavailable for training and work, and limitedexposure to new technology. Hence, institutesneed to make the skill development process flex-ible and accommodating to encourage womento enroll. The training should incorporate teach-

ing of basic skills such as communication,English, mathematical aptitude, critical think-ing, learning agility, interpersonal skills, adapt-ability, problem-solving and other deeplyimpacting skill like behavioural skills, buildingself-esteem, team work, self-organisationaland negotiating capacity for employment pur-poses.

Issues pertaining to identity, autonomy,leadership, rights and responsibilities, entre-preneurial and business management skills,increasing awareness on gender are relevant forwomen as well, and should be given equalemphasis as to men. Moreover, to make train-ing programmes truly accessible to women, itis crucial to provide additional basic amenitiesand facilities such as safe and secure transport,toilets, etc. These trainings are important forrural women because they provide options forbetter livelihoods.

Learning a new skill will help women to notonly become financially independent, but alsosignificantly develop their confidence andbuild their esteem, especially in the eyes of theirfamilies and society. Furthermore, sectors thatwomen can seek training include Retail,Garment and Apparel, IT, Banking, Teachingand Counselling and also as Fork lift operatorsand drivers.

Investing in skill and education for womenand men leads economies to achieve dynamicgrowth with a strong skilled workforce. Theseare basic facilities and services, which shouldform an integral part of the design, imple-mentation, monitoring and evaluation of skilltraining and development at institutes. The keystrategy for women’s empowerment and pro-mote gender equality is to combine policies andskill development institutions at the locallevel. Education and skill development is themost significant instrument of individual self-realisation, and is an absolute necessity to boostwomen empowerment today.

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For women, 2016 proved to be anexcellent year, with a host ofopportunities available just for

them. Be it in IT, E-commerce, or anyother industry, 2016 introduced thefemale workforce to new and dynam-ic avenues, from which they couldchoose to pursue any career that theywere interested in.

Many organisations have nowbegun to prioritise gender paritywithin the workforce by encouragingwomen to enter the corporate sphere,and are doing their bit to create aresponsive work environment tocultivate their professional growth.Here are a few prospective careeropportunities for women in Indiathat are expected to be the biggesttrends in 2017.

������������*�E����Almost all individuals harbour a

talent for being creative in what theydo. It may be the way they solve arith-metical equations, design a blueprintfor a skyscraper, or have the abilityto depict feelings/depth throughtheir artistic creations, creativity canbe utilised in any form. Some of themost popular careers in design, cre-ative, and art are:Architect: For the longest time,studying or making a career in thefield of Architecture was largelyattributed as a male-dominated pro-fession. While women were not dis-couraged to pursue a career as anarchitect, they did face several chal-lenges like hostility from other peers.However, things have certainlychanged for the better in this field.

Although this is a conventionalcareer path, being an architect canenable people to bring out their cre-ative side and create unique designs.If their project is commissioned, theycan actually see their dream turn intoa tangible reality.Filmmaking: Filmmaking is anoth-er profession that is gradually becom-ing the career of choice for manywomen in India. Whether it is direct-ing an independent movie or a full-fledged Bollywood film, womenfilmmakers in the country are gain-ing both prominence and praise fortheir abilities in this field. As anemerging career, filmmaking is tout-ed to become a prominent careeroption for many women in the nextcouple of years.Rise of Independent serviceproviders: Independent ServiceProviders (ISP) are individuals whoagree to perform specialised services

for either an organisation or as partof their own project and are not asso-ciated with any company or corpo-rate establishment. While it is quitesimilar to freelancing, ISPs carry outonly specific tasks for a person ororganisation usually on a one-timebasis.

Being an ISP enables individualsto have a better work-life balance asthe working hours are flexible. Theycan either choose to work fromhome or conduct field work based onthe project they have been assigned.This can also be a lucrative option forwomen, who wish to broaden theirskill-set by performing such spe-cialised services.

����������Over the past couple of years,

India has begun to witness a rise inunconventional career options thatare proving to be immensely popu-lar among highly creative individu-als.

One such profession isStorytelling that is gaining promi-nence among many individuals,especially women, in India. Thosewho have a knack for improvisation,and can tell compelling, unforget-table, and witty stories are best suit-ed for this profession.

������������ ���The Indian Micro, Small and

Medium Enterprises (MSME) indus-try has become one of the fastestgrowing sectors in the last couple ofyears owing to a favourable ecosys-tem that has resulted in more oppor-tunities for growth for such busi-nesses. The same holds true for thethriving start-up culture in the coun-try that has enabled many to chasetheir passion and build their ownbusiness from scratch. Even theGovernment’s Make in India andStart-up India campaigns providesuch emerging entrepreneurs with astable platform that can facilitate thegrowth of their business.

Such initiatives have begun toencourage many women to come for-ward and establish themselves in thecorporate realm on their own terms.While there have been severalwomen entrepreneurs in India, col-lectively they still form a small per-centage of women-led businesses.Since women are traditionallybelieved to be the home-makers inour society, most of them never con-sider pursuing their ambition, eitherdue to family or societal pressure.

According to a report by theSixth Economic Census by theNational Sample SurveyOrganisation, only 14 per cent ofbusiness establishments in India arecurrently run by female entrepre-neurs. This suggests that out of theestimated 58.5 million functionalbusinesses, only 8.05 million are ledby women.

Despite that, many have nowbegun to realise that with changingtimes, one needs to change theirmindset as well to broaden their hori-zons and explore a sea of optionsavailable in the job market. Womenhave now begun to validate theircapabilities by confidently leadingtheir business ventures through chal-lenges, and are garnering lots of suc-cess through such determination.

*��� ��������������*�Virtual collaboration refers to a

unique approach towards enablinggroup effort between two or morevirtual team members via technolo-gy based communication. While it isquite similar to conventional collab-oration, the difference lies in the factthat in such collaborative models, theparticipants involved do not interactwith other physically, and commu-nicate almost exclusively via virtualnetworks. In simpler terms, virtualcollaboration allows individuals tocommunicate online, whether it’s ver-bal, visual, or written.

There are mainly five types ofvirtual collaborations.Synchronous collaboration: Itallows team members to exchangeinformation with each other instant-ly over chat rooms & instant mes-sengers.Asynchronous collaboration: Theparticipants can respond to messagesand ideas almost instantly through e-mail, shared databases, online dis-cussion boards are some primeexamples of asynchronous collabo-ration.Audio conferencing collaboration:Collaboration via audio conferencesallow team members to verballycommunicate with each other with-out any form of visual descriptions.Some examples of this collaborationtype include phone calls, conferencecalls, etc.Video conferencing collaboration:It allows participants to communicatewith each other by sharing verbal andvisual information in real time.Group video-conferencing and ordesktop video conferences are typesof video conference virtual collabo-ration.Computer mediated communica-tion: It allows team members to com-municate using either text, images, ordata that are received via the com-puter without any effective real-time voice or video images from fel-low collaborators. Application spe-cific groupware is one such exampleof computer mediated communica-tion. With almost every employerlooking to create a diverse and con-ducive work environment irrespec-tive of cast, creed, race, or gender,candidates from all walks of life canexpect to find any job opportunity oftheir choice in 2017.

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Amazon announces thelaunch of rekindle, an ini-

tiative to encourage womenon a professional break, toresume their career. Throughthis initiative, the aim’s to pro-vide opportunities to supportwomen, who intend to pro-fessionally re-integrate andrecommence their job.

As per Gender DiversityBenchmark for Asia 2011report, female employees rep-resent a very small percentagein the total workforce (29 percent) and constitute thelargest talent pipeline leakage(percentage reduction infemale employees while mov-

ing from junior to middlemanagement or middle tosenior management). It hasbeen observed that Indianfemale employees are givingup their careers sooner incomparison with other Asiancountries.

The rprogramme offersthem flexible work optionsincluding work from home,and flexible shift optionsdepending on the role. It willoffer roles that allow a flexi-ble work arrangement and at

the same time provide anopportunity to perform effec-tively on the job such as liveprojects across different func-tional areas includingTechnology, Operations aswell as support functions likeHR, Finance and Legal etc.

The rekindle programmeis open to any candidate whohas prior experience thatmatches the job requirementsfor the identified positions.Candidates will go through astructured assessment process

comprising of a telephonicinterview and multiple in-person interviews. Basis theperformance during theseinterviews, final hiring deci-sion will be made for the posi-tion. Once the selected can-didates are on-boarded,Amazon.in will help them getassimilated into the Amazonculture and way of businesswith rekindle MentoringProgramme. The mentoringengagement will include aseries of developmental con-versations spread over fivemonths, where each of theidentified areas is progres-sively worked upon.

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C&(�'!(A!��'!��,!= $��!+������ $��9��, ���� �����#����+9��!" �� ��������������� ,��� +����7����4��6� ���67����4��6�,���6�E�= ,���

E��; �/������(����� �"��������(���������������������������������'������������;��(����"��1���"�/�������������""�������"��������������How can one make a careerin astrology?

Initially, you have to startwith one subject. I will suggestyou to start with numerologyas it’s easy to learn and one canlearn it online. After that, prac-tice it with your friends andfamily because you need lot ofpractice till the time you are notperfect. Try to study differentcharts of the people, observepeople faces and guess theirdate of birth or their rulingnumber. When you realise youfind perfection in yourself, it isthe time to learn another sub-ject. Till then, you’ve to prac-tice and really make it yourstrength.�Astrology is not just a hypo-thetical concept but realScience and Math...

Astrology isn’t just a faithit works physically. You canunderstand, examine andrecognise how it applies. Thereare sound reasons why it hasproved so difficult to test thereal practice of astrology underscientific conditions and whyso many tests have been flawed.However, there are simpleexperiments that have shownthat there is a scientific basis toastrology even though most ofthe practice is not strictly sci-entific.�What are the challenges inthis profession?

The challenges we face inthis profession is that lot ofpeople in the name of astrolo-gy misguide people and suggestwrong remedies to their clientsjust to make money. It isimportant to clear the thoughtsof the people about astrologyand make them trust over thewhole Science.�Are there courses availablefor this study?

Lot of easy and knowl-edgeable programmes are avail-able for studying this science.Online tarot and astrologycourses are very good but onlyfor the basic knowledge of theplanets.

You can see YouTubevideos for numerology and get

more knowledge about it. �How can one make a suc-cessful career in astrology?

Start learning from differ-ent teachers, even if you canhold one subject to get moreinsights. Learning astrology isa never ending process. It issomething that leaves you witha happy feeling at the end of theday because you are guidingsomebody to be a better per-son.

If you want to start learn-ing online, tarot, face readingand numerology are easiest tolearn. Handwriting analysis isalso a very scientific and inter-esting subject to learn. You canexamine handwriting of peopleand suggest better ways of liv-ing.

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UEI Global Education, the hospitalityand business management education

institute, organised Le Vitesse 2017, its firstsports and cultural festival. The eventmarked the participation of around 700students pan India from across all its nineinstitutes.

The festival saw a melange of thevibrant culture and tradition, where allmanagement students seemed to relive thespirit of unity in diversity.

The event was inaugurated with open-ing ceremony of lighting the torch, oathceremony and the declaration of sportsmeet open.

A total of seven sports were playedincluding both indoor and outdoor.Expressing his pleasure on the success ofthe event, Manish Khanna, the CEO, said:“It was our first major national event andthe overwhelming response from ourstudents made it a stupendous affair in thehistory of the institute. We have alwaysfocused on skilling and academic align-ment with the industry and this eventadded value to the students in managingthe diversity of India and showcased theirspirit & strength in making their pro-gressive institute the top most HotelManagement Institute of India."

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Page 14: 4˚ 1 560˙7ˆ˝02 8 %&˚’˙!˚˜˚ˆ!(!)˚*(+,$-!˙ guava, pulses, beans and other fruits are also pro- ... Pooja Singhal, Horticulture Director Rajeev Kumar and other officials

Two CommonwealthScholarships for PhD studyare available at the NationalUniversity of Singapore atits Graduate School ofIntegrative Sciences andEngineering (NGS). Citizensof any Commonwealth coun-try (other than Singapore) areeligible to apply for thesescholarships.

Eligibility: The followingcriteria must be met in orderfor applicants to be eligiblefor the scholarship: Awardsare open to citizens of anyCommonwealth country(other than Singapore),Applicants should have atleast an upper second classhonours degree or equivalent

How to apply : Allenquiries and applicationsshould be made directly tothe National University ofSingapore — ngsenquiry-at-nus.edu.sg. Please note thatthe CSC is not involved innominating candidates forthese scholarships, and is,therefore, unable to answerany queries.

Application deadline:Deadlines are: May 15 for theJanuary intake of the follow-ing year; November 15 forthe August intake of the fol-lowing year.

Applications are invitedfor three RACIRIScholarships enabled within

the framework ofthe India@DESY

Collaboration for the year2017. Young Indian scientistsare eligible to apply for thisscholarship.

Eligibility: The followingcriteria must be met in orderfor applicants to be eligiblefor the scholarship. JNCASRexpect the successful candi-dates to be excellently qual-ified senior master studentsin the final phase of theirstudy programme (mas-ter/diploma), or PhD stu-dents with the proven acad-emic background and neces-sary qualifications, or youngscientists (Postdocs).Students and young scientistsfrom India wishing to par-ticipate must first apply at theJawaharlal Nehru Centre forAdvanced Scientific Research(JNCASR) and will then benominated by a committee(based on their academicaccomplishment, researchand education experience,and with careful considera-tion of gender balance).

How to apply: Applicantsare requested to electronicallysubmit: A CV, A one-pagemotivation letter explainingwhy he/she would like to par-ticipate and how this mightbenefit his/her ongoing orplanned research, Two refer-ence letters. All documentsshould be submitted tocbhas-at-jncasr.ac.in andindia-desy-at-jncasr.ac.inSubmit your application assoon as possible.

Application deadline: Itis March 15, 2017.

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As part of the diamond jubilee celebration of MarTheophilus Training College, the three-day interna-tional seminar and media literacy conclave-2017empowered more than 350 researchers, teachers andstudents. The seminar titled — Emerging KnowledgeSociety-Curricular and Technological Innovationsand Practices (EKSCTIP-2017) sponsored by theUGC, supported by ICSSR organised in collabora-tion with Indian Institute of Information Technologyand Management — Kerala, Centre for EducationalTechnology (University of Kerala) and Associationof International Researchers of Indian Origin.

The seminar, multi-disciplinary in nature, invit-ed papers on the main theme or on a wide array of

related sub-themes.On the inaugural day, a book titled Media World

in Students Life jointly compiled/edited by SS Dograand Dr KY Benedict was released by SanthoshMathew (IAS)-NCTE-chairperson, New Delhi andblessed by Moran Mor Baselios Cardinal Cleemis(Major Arch Bishop Catholicos of the MlankaraCatholic Church).

Other eminent people who were part of the sem-inar were Dr Carolina Lopez (founder, UnitedNations Regional Centre of Expertise on Education,Mexico), Dr Laji Varghese, Dr Joju John-OrganisingSecretary of International Seminar also graced thebook release ceremony just before the media conclave.

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It may be hard to say good bye.But the good with it is a promise ofsomething better. Leadership is thecapacity to translate vision intoreality. It is this vision of Dr AFPinto, chairman, Ryan InternationalGroup of Institutions and MD

Grace Pinto to transform ouryoung students intofuture leaders thattranslated into realitywith the batch of2016-2017.

The students were

overjoyed when Dr Pinto graced themomentous occasion of the farewellceremony who joined the studentsfor their class photograph, whichmade the moment special. The

solemn ceremony then began byinvoking the Lords blessings to beshowered on the students on thissignificant day of their lives. Studentswere addressed on the qualities ofa leader and importance of pru-dence.

A candle lighting ceremonywas held wherein the seniors lit thecandles for the juniors symbolisingthe passing of the rich legacy of theiralma mater and the strong belief andfaith that each Ryanite possessed fortheir institution.

Coursera has announced acollaboration with Google to offerGoogle Cloud Training courses onits platform. Developed and taughtby Google experts, these courseswill be available on-demand forany present or aspiring IT profes-sionals and data engineers.

The course in the data engi-neering on Google CloudSpecialisation — Big Data andMachine Learning— will be the

first in a five-course specialisation.More foundational, intermediate,and advanced courses in infra-structure, machine learning, ana-lytics, and application developmentare planned for launch soon.

Offering these courses makesit highly convenient for currentand aspiring IT professionals, dataengineers, and anyone else toaccess high-quality cloud trainingon the latest tools and technolo-

gies. Through the platform, learn-ers have the flexibility to takecourses on their schedules both ontheir computers and on an app.

Commenting on the associa-tion, Leah Belsky, VP of GlobalEnterprise Development atCoursera said: “Our mission is toenable anyone, anywhere to trans-form their life through access tothe world’s best learning experi-ence.”

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Today is InternationalWomen’s Day and it isstirring discussions on

equal pay, gender gap andconcerns related to women atwork. Monster India releasedthe latest Monster SalaryIndex (MSI) on gender.

Gender pay gap: The datafrom 2016 indicates that thepresent gender pay gap inIndia stands at 25% wheremen earned a median grosshourly salary of �345.8, incomparison women earnedonly �259.8. The gap has nar-rowed by two percentagepoints from 27.2% in 2015 andis closer to the 24.1% in 2014.— Source: WageIndicatorFoundation

Women of India Inc sur-vey: The survey aimed atunderstanding the workingwomen of India and theirworkplace concerns broadlywas categorised under theparameters of- workplace,growth and safety. The surveywas conducted on MonsterIndia’s database capturingresponses from over 2000working women.

The survey witnessedmaximum share of participa-tion from Delhi-NCR at 15%,followed by Mumbai andBangalore at 12%. The partic-ipation from non-metros wasat 35%. Hence, it would be log-ical to say that the sentimentportrayed in the report is pri-marily from Delhi NCR,Mumbai and Bangalore.

Happy-sad or sad-sad?:Focussing on the growth para-meters at work, 53.9% womenare between happy to partial-ly happy, as they feel that therecould be more opportunities.Despite conversations on equalpay and initiatives being takento create a more inclusive envi-ronment, 62.4% women feelthat their male counterparts getmore promotions opportuni-ties and gender continues toplay a role in deciding promo-tions along with other para-meters.

Oh so not safe!: A notable78.1% consider safety as keyparameter while choosing ajob. The women of India Incexpressed their reservationstowards opting for night shiftjobs with over 66.4% who con-sider it as unsafe and wouldchoose to avoid night shifts.However, about 62.7% feel thatorganisations should provideshort term self-defence class-es.

Information andCommunication TechnologyServices: The average genderpay gap of 38.2% is one of thewidest observed in this report.Women earn �142.5 less per

hour than men. This meansthat men gain another 38.2%more of their salary.�Salaries for both, men andwomen, decreased in 2015 andthen rose above the 2014 paylevels in 2016.�Absolute decreases andincreases have been strongerfor female employees (-�3.8compared to�23.0 and +�38.4compared to �94.9)�After a sudden rise from36.9%, a difference of INR134.8 per hour, to 43.7%(�161.6) in 2015, the genderpay gap shrank again in 2016to ‘only’ 25.8%, meaning a dif-ference of �105.1 per hourlymedian wage

Financial Services,Banking and Insurance: Thegender pay gap in the Financialservices, banking and insur-ance sector amounts to 21.5%.�This is slightly under thegeneral gender pay gap inIndia (25%). On average, menearn an hourly median wage of�346.4 and women �272 �The comparison of the threeyears reveals that the wages forboth genders experienced onlylittle changes from 2014 to2015�In 2016, however, wages roseby �144.3 (+45.4%) for maleemployees and by �79.5(+29.8%) for female employees.Therefore, while the genderpay gap shrank slightly from2014 to 2015, it grew again in2016 to 25.0%

Education and Research:In the education and researchsector the gender pay gapamounts to 14.7% on average.It is nearly 10 percentage pointsbelow the overall level of 25%.�Hourly median wages formen have risen by 7.0% fromI�190.5 to �203.8 between2014 and 2016�Women also gained more in2016 than 2014 as much as�50.5 (32.8%). The gender paygap increased again from19.2% and 13.1% in 2014 and2015 respectively to -3.4% in2016

Manufacturing: Maleemployees in theManufacturing sector earn �256.6 on average, femaleemployees �179.8. Thisamounts to a gender pay gap of29.9%�Compared to the averagevalue observed in the WageIndex Report 2015 (34.9%) animprovement of 5 percentagepoints can be observed.However, the gap remains oneof the highest in India�Wages for male employeesstayed stable in 2015 butdecreased by �43.3 in 2016,forming the gender pay gap13.3%.

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Very few women know thatone can make lots ofmoney by pursuing a

career in sectors like pet groom-ing, becoming an ethical hacker,being a puppeteer or evenbecoming a tea taster. Till a cou-ple of years back, these optionsmay have been looked downupon for women, today a pro-fessional in one of these fields ishighly sort after. The good newsis that there are many collegesand institutions, now in India,that are offering these courses.Here are a few options.

�������� �With the rising incidents of

cyber-attacks on Government,enterprises and individuals, NIITand EC-Council introduced first-of-its-kind training programmesin ethical hacking to create amanpower pool of trainedInfoSec professionals in thecountry.

According to Nasscom, Indiawill require at least 77,000 ethi-cal hackers each year as com-pared to the present figure of15,000. If you are well-versedwith the inner workings of a sys-tem and have the capabilities todiscover new weaknesses in anotherwise secure system , thenyou will find it easy to build yourcareer.

The best part is that it is ahighly paid job. Average salarystarts at �2-�5 lakh annually.After a few years of experience,one can earn �10-�12 lakhannually, depending on theskills.

��������������This is a new and interesting

work area that has gained promi-nence in the country. If you areinteresting in knowing the insidestory of a carpet, a career in thisfield is lucrative. Those whohave Physics, Chemistry andMaths in Class XII can pursue acareer. Admissions are giventhrough AIEEE score. As thename suggests, carpet technolo-gy involves knowing everythingabout this carpet and the indus-try and how one can use differ-ent space using different floorcoverings.

The remuneration is thissector is �1 lakh per annum.With experience, this goes up.

�����������If you are the kind of person

who loves animals and theymake you smile, then pursuinga career in this field may bethe correct choice.Though this profes-sion doesn’t requireformal degree,there are severaltraining coursesavailable that onecan take up. Therest of the learningcomes from on job-training.

A pet groomer is likethe beautician of the animals. Heworks with animals toincrease their hygiene and

appearance using differentgrooming techniques. But to bea pet groomer, there are certainskills needed. One has to be

extremely patient and a gen-uine love for the animals.

The groomer mustmaintain a highstandard of cleanli-ness. He must alsohave managementskills if one has hisown business.

A groomer canearn anywhere

between �10,000-�25,000 a month. But if

you have your business, theearning increase as your clientbase increases.

For a decade, it has been seen that women havestarted taking their career more seriously and pro-fessionally than ever before. They have realised

that they cannot only control and manage householdaffairs, they are equally capable of leading and repre-senting an organisation, they can be really good man-agers. Chanda Kochar, Indra Nooyi and Naina LalKidwai are examples this paradigm shift. Career suc-cess for women in no way different from men and itis the professional cum personal growth of an employ-ee along with the mutual growth of the employer/organ-isation.

Women today are getting great exposure and free-dom as compared to the earlier days. Today, familiesare supporting them to explore opportunities andchoosing a career as per their own interests and dis-cretions. Besides, Centre and various StateGovernments are taking sincere initiatives for the edu-cation, gender equality and other rights of the women.The ratio of women is increasing tremendously bothin the public sector and the corporate world.

In a traditional setup, women are expected to dothe domestic chores while the husbands are the breadearners. Our paradoxical patriarchal ridden societyneedless to say considers women as walking deity whoare supposed to possess endless energy. It is consid-ered her duty to take care of each member emotion-ally and physically in the house and it only grows man-ifold over the period as she enters motherhood. Beinga housewife means “being on your toes” as a part ofsocial mores in a typical traditional setup.

Today women contribute to approximately 50 percent of the total population of the world. They standequal right as men and in every walk of life and soci-ety. Women empowerment would certainly impact theoverall economic development hence they should beactive participants in the economic activities and shouldalso have equal decision-making powers.

Empowerment of women would have a positiveimpact on the whole, both at the micro and macro levelof the society. These days participation of women invarious verticals is on a rise. They are employed in goodnumbers and at senior levels in media banking, hos-pitality, healthcare, and other sector industries. Theyare certainly making their footprints.

More and more women should be encouraged toattain economic independence. Being focal of house-hold management in the family is a proof that they arecompetent and good leaders.

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There are many companies who havesome great practices to help womenmanage both work and home without

neglecting their careers. Women these dayshave option to choose from varied options.�Work in flexible hours�Work from home�Profiles like business development, dataentries, content management etc. which does-n’t require one to be in office�Conduct meetings via Skype�Part time projects where once can take upwork projects as per their availability�Work from flexible locations through satel-lite offices or while they are on the move�Movement within the organisation. Womenworking on senior positions with hectic roles

have options to switch and opt for less hecticroles within the organisation� Flexi working plans post maternity leaves.Besides extended maternity leaves - some

organisation and employees devise flexi work-ing plans that are convenient to both.

These practices not only benefit theemployee but also the employers. The employ-ees of course spend less time in commuting toand from work. Increased control over whenwork is done. For example, an employee mightchoose to work at late hours and spend timewith family and children in the afternoon andhelps in maintaining a balance between workand home life. For employers it is beneficial asthey can function with smaller office space, lessoverhead cost, reduced absenteeism and or late-ness and increased productivity because offewer distractions.

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Ravichandran Ashwin's 25th five-wicket haul was the cornerstone ofIndia's remarkable turnaround as

the hosts defeated Australia by 75 runs inthe second cricket Test to level the four-match series 1-1 here.

Defending a competitive target of 188with the Border-Gavaskar Trophy online, Ashwin was unplayable on a trickyfourth-day surface with magnificent fig-ures of 6 for 41. Australia ended up dec-imated for 112 in only 35.4 overs.

Just like Indian wickets fell like ninepins in Pune, Australia too crumbled likea house of cards and lost the last six for amere 11 runs between overs 26th and 36th.

With their backs firmly against thewall, it was a battle of attrition for Kohliand his boys after their humiliating lossin Pune.

It turned out to be a collective effortin the end with KL Rahul (90 and 51),Cheteshwar Pujara (92) and AjinkyaRahane (52) doing their bit with the bat.Not to forget an invaluable 20 runs fromWriddhiman Saha.

After a bad run in Pune, spin twinsAshwin (8 wickets) and Ravindra Jadeja(7 wickets) accounted for 15 out of the 20wickets.

The pitch, which deteriorated witheach passing moment, made the target of188 look as big as 350. Skipper Steve Smith

(28) and Peter Handscomb (24) were theonly batsmen to cross 20-run mark forAustralia.

Till the 10th over of the chase, thingslooked good for Australia as they were 42for 1, losing only Matt Renshaw (5) whogot an unplayable delivery from IshantSharma.

David Warner (17) got a leg beforedecision off Ashwin's bowling goingagainst him. Warner reviewed it unsuc-cessfully.

Umesh Yadav (2/30 in 9 overs) thenproduced the double break with ShaunMarsh (9) getting one to come back afterhitting one of those ever widening cracks.

Smith got a shooter that didn'teven rise enough hitting himon the boot.

It was plumb and Smith,trying to get a clue from thedressing room beyond his15-second time, got into abrief altercation with rivalcaptain Kohli.

Mitchell Marsh (13)and Peter Handscomb(24) added 27 runs andtried to stem the rotduring their fifth wick-et partnership.

This was the timewhen Ashwin, comingfor his second spell, ranriot dismissing Marsh,Matthew Wade andMitchell Starc inquick succession.

Once it was 103 for 7,the game was all over forAustralia. The third Testwill be played in Ranchifrom March 16.

Ashwin's three-wicket burst literal-ly ended any hopesthat theAustralians hadprior to that.

Ashwinhit the

cracks consistently, didn't try to impartoverspin on his deliveries

and the ball gripped a lot.Mitchell Marsh's delivery

spun and jumped taking hisglove to Karun Nair at shortleg.

Wade's wicket was asmuch as Wriddhiman Saha's

as it was Ashwin's. The wicketkeeper flewfrom his position to snap it up from theshort leg where the ball had lobbed.

The dangerous Starc was removedwhen an Ashwin straigher breached hisdefences. Handscomb, a gritty customerneeded support at the other end but therewasn't much that the Australian tailenderscould have done on a surface like that.

����� 0!�=��515

Indian skipper Virat Kohli on Tuesday called thesecond Test win over Australia as the best of his

captaincy career, comparing his team to a snakewhich can sting from any direction.

"Yes, this is the best one. I don't want to say toomuch as the game panned out as it did. It was quitean emotional game for us," Kohli said after the 75-run win which helped the Indians draw level in thefour-match series. "Everyone got along well.Talking about the head of the snake, the head didpretty well. It is not just about one individual here.This snake can sting from any direction. Some peo-ple need to keep that in mind," he added, taking aveiled dig at Nathan Lyon's comment about Kohlibeing the prized wicket.

Kohli lavished praise on the team's bowlers forensuring that Australia's first innings lead was nottoo big. "Yes, our bowlers gave only 47 runs in thefirst session on day two. They (Australia) could havetaken the game away from us because they were40 without loss. Probably, the momentum changedat that stage. Then we picked up six wickets con-ceding less than 100 runs I think we picked up from

here," he said.Kohli said Ravindra Jadeja, who took seven

wickets in the match, was "outstanding"."Umesh and Ishant supported very well. These

are the things you need as a team to change whenthe tide is going against you. But one thing is wenever stop trying. We did not give in and we didnot let the opposition roll over us and get a big firstinnings total," he said. "To chase even 120 in thefourth innings will be difficult here. 150 can be agood total to defend. We surprised ourselves by win-ning 75 runs eventually at the close of the match,"he added.

Kohli said the victory has also made it clear thatIndia does not rely merely on him to do the scor-ing. "Our opponents used to think that once I getout, the team will be under pressure. I told the teamthat everyone has to perform," he said. "If my per-formance is good and the team wins I am alwayshappy. So, our plan was that the focus should beon the team's performance and let opponents focuson me. This is what exactly happened in this Test match."

����� 0!�=��515

Indian captain Virat Kohli onTuesday stirred up a major con-

troversy by virtually accusing theAustralian captain Steve Smith ofcheating in the usage of DRS, flar-ing up the tensions between the twosides.

"We have been inconsistent withthe DRS but we take our decisionson the field, we don't ask for con-firmation from the dressing room,"a sarcastic Kohli let it rip afterIndia's 75-run win in the second Testhere.

"I have seen it twice while bat-ting. I have seen their players look-ing upstairs (dressing room). I toldthe umpires, this had to stop. I don'twant to mention the word but it fallsin that bracket. I would never dosomething like that on the cricketfield," he added.

Asked if he was accusing theAustralian team of cheating, Kohliretorted, "I have not said that either."

It was the 21st over of the

Australian second innings, whichcollapsed to 112.

Smith was trapped LBW bypacer Umesh Yadav and havingalready blown a DRS call, involvingDavid Warner, the Australians werein a fix on whether to go for anoth-er referral.

Smith first turned to the non-striker's end to seek an opinion with-in the mandated 15 seconds. Butsparks flew when the umpiresnoticed that the batsman had turnedtowards the dressing room as well toget a clue.

The on-field officials immedi-ately intervened to stop Smith butmatters came to a head when Kohlitoo joined the discussion, leading toan exchange between him and therival captain.

Rules pertaining to the usage ofDRS clearly state that "signals fromdressing room must not be given".

In the post-match press confer-ence, Smith sought to douse the fire,calling his actions a "brain fade" andsomething he shouldn't have done.

But Kohli was in no mood torelent and claimed that this was notthe first time the Australians hadsought dressing room instructionson DRS calls.

"I can only say, if it happensmore than twice, it's not brain fade,"he said.

Smith and Kohli had a brief butcharged-up exchange of wordsbefore the former walked back to thepavillion. Smith played down thatexchange as well, calling it "just ban-ter".

Kohli was spoken to by theumpires after Smith's departure.

The two captains have had theirfair share of run-ins during the series,frequently exchanging barbs on theground.

India versus Australia Testmatches have never been short ofcontroversies with one dating backto 1981. The famous victory atMCG was marred by a controversywhen Sunil Gavaskar had staged awalkout after being adjudged lbw toa Dennis Lillee delivery.

����� �!,�#!�9'

Sunil Gavaskar and VVS Laxmanon Tuesday criticised Australian

skipper Steve Smith for seeking thedressing room's input for a DRSreferral in the second Test againstIndia, saying it violated the spirit ofthe game.

In the 21st over of Australiansecond innings, Smith was trappedLBW by pacer Umesh Yadav.

Smith first turned to the non-striker's end to seek an opinion butsparks flew when the umpiresnoticed that the batsman had turnedtowards the dressing room as wellto get a clue. The on-field officialsimmediately intervened to stopSmith but matters came to a headwhen Virat Kohli too joined the dis-cussion, leading to an exchangebetween him and the rival captain.

Asked about the incident ,Gavaskar said, "A lot of people were

talking regarding this in the com-mentary box that the Australianslooked up to the dressing room toget input from their computer guywhether they should go for referralor not. It was quite blatant and PeterHandscomb suggested to Smithand then Smith asked the guy at thedressing room. I don't think that wasin the spirit of the game. We have tosee what the ICC and Match Refereedo," Gavaskar told NDTV.

����� �7�#7�

Umpires will have the authority to sendplayers off for serious breaches of

behaviour under updated laws of the gamewhich will be used from October 1, 2017,MCC has confirmed.

MCC has also laid out the restrictionson bat sizes and there will be an amend-ment to the run out law to protect a bats-man whose bat has bounced in the aironce they have crossed the poppingcrease.

The new laws follow the recommen-dations of the MCC Cricket Committeefrom their meeting in Mumbai lastDecember.

"We felt the time had come to intro-duce sanctions for poor player behaviourand research told us that a growingnumber of umpires at grass roots levelwere leaving the game because of it," JohnStephenson, the MCC's head of cricket,

said."Hopefully these sanctions will give

them more confidence to handle disci-plinary issues efficiently, whilst providinga deterrent to the players."

Regarding the size of the bat, an MCCstatement said, "If the bat (held by thehand) or another part of the batsman'sperson is grounded beyond the poppingcrease and this contact with the groundis subsequently lost when the wicket is putdown, the batsman will be protected frombeing run out if he/she is running or div-ing and has continued forward momen-tum towards the stumps and beyond.

����� 0!�=��515

Steve Smith had no qualms in admitting thathe made a mistake by seeking help from

the dressing room on a DRS call but theAustralia captain insisted that the game wasplayed in good spirit.

The incident had snowballed into a con-troversy with many former players criticisingSmith's act.

Explaining the incident, Smith said therewas a bit of brain fade when he turned todressing room for help.

"I got hit on the pad and looked towardsthe non-striker batsman and then turnedaround towards Paddy. I should not have donethat. This happened for the first time. I waslooking at our boys, I should not have donethat. There was a bit of brain fade," Smith saidat the press conference.

Asked about his animated chat with rivalcaptain Virat Kohli, Smith dismissed it as merebanter.

"Me and Virat were having a little chat outthere. There was not much in it, so it was bit

of fun, a bit of banter. That is the kind of thingshappen in these matches. It is nice to occa-sionally get engaged in such conversations. Itwas only good fun," he said.

Smith refused to say Kohli lost his cooland insisted game's spirit was kept intact. "Iam not sure, I think that is the question to askthem. As far as I am concerned the game wasplayed in good spirit. You know, emotionssometimes get better of you , but I don't think

anyone crossed the line. If emotions are keptin check it will make great contest."

The visiting captain said the result was"disappointing" but his side fought hard. "Weexpected India to come back hard and in theirsecond innings they played some good crick-et. Partnership between Pujara and Rahanewas really good. But I am still proud of theway these boys have played it. From my cam-era, they were bit North competing incredi-bly harder. I am sure we will continue to dothat. We can get some more results going ourway," he said.

Smith said in the hindsight he thinks theyshould have taken a review call when ShaunMarsh was dismissed by Umesh Yadav.Marsh had shouldered arms to Yadav's deliv-ery and was hit on the pads in the off stumpregion. "Regarding Shaun's one — we were notsure entirely. I sort of said "go" as in "go havea look at it" and he sort of turned around andstarted walking, so I should've probably putmy hands up and done it. Obviously we sawthe replay and it was missing the stumps. Itwould have been a nice one to review," he said.

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