c m y k ˇ ˘ ˇ ˘ˆ ˙ ˝ ˛ ˛ ˚ ˜ ˆ ˜ ˜ ˜˘ ˇ ˘ ˜ ˛! ˙ " ˆ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˆ ˜˛ ˆ...

16
T he TDP on Thursday pulled out its Ministers from the BJP Government at the Centre after a last-ditch effort by Prime Minister Narendra Modi failed to per- suade TDP supremo and Andhra Pradesh Chief minis- ter Chandrababu Naidu to rethink on his demand for spe- cial category status to Andhra. Within hours of Modi dial- ing up Naidu to discuss the stand-off , TDP Ministers, Ashok Ganapathi Raju and YS Chowdhary, submitted their resignations. Talking to media persons after meeting the PM and ten- dering the resignation, Chowdhary said he and his colleague Ashok Gajapathi Raju were stepping down as Ministers but would continue to be part of the NDA, a move that was necessitated by “unavoidable circumstances”. The development of the last two days, including resig- nation of BJP MLAs from the Andhra Pradesh Government on Thursday morning clearly showed that neither side was looking for a face-saving com- promise. Under the circum- stances, it could be a matter of time before the TDP finally walked out of the NDA as well. What could worry the BJP is the fact that after the TDP, the Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal (U) has also revived its demand for special category status to Bihar. While Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has not made any comment on the issue, senior leaders of his party have come out in support of Naidu and asked the Centre to meet their demand. A Bihar Minister has also gone on record saying that Nitish will soon meet the PM to discuss the old-pending demand for special category status for Bihar. The resignations of the TDP Ministers came a day after Naidu indicated his party was considering a divorce with the BJP-led NDA. This was fol- lowed by the resignation of two BJP Minister from the Andhra Cabinet on Thursday morning. For weeks, the TDP has been protesting both inside and outside Parliament to press for its demand for special cat- egory status to Andhra. The crisis climaxed after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday rejected TDP’s demand saying the Centre was willing to accord a monitory equivalent to special status to the state. Jaitley pointed out that the 14th Finance Commission did not provide for grant of spe- cial status to States other than Northeast and hilly States. He asserted that the Centre would fulfill all commitment as man- dated in the Andhra Pradesh bifurcation Act and the Constitution. TDP leaders maintain that the party studied the situation and decided that it would take one step at a time and the sep- aration could be a gradual process. Likening the decision to an unfortunate divorce, Chowdhary, the Union Minister of State for science and technology, said he and Raju, Union Civil Aviation Minister, would continue to work as parliamentarians for Andhra. “We will be happy when marriages happen, not when divorces happen. It is not a good move, but unfortunately due to unavoidable circum- stances we had to take this move. We are stepping down as ministers, but our president has said we will be continuing as part of NDA,” Chowdhary told reporters. The beauty of democracy, he said, was to bring unanim- ity and make everyone happy and this was the BJP’s respon- sibility. “When they are in respon- sible positions they will have to balance such things and during the process of balancing they will have to face such situa- tions,” he said adding that Raju and he would continue to work in their personal capacities as parliamentarians and exert pressure to achieve their demand. “All parliament members will work for this. We hope we will succeed in getting special status...,” he said. The TDP has 16 MPs in the Lok Sabha and six Rajya Sabha members. Asked about Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s offer to give special status to Andhra if the party came to power, he said it was a hypothetical situ- ation. According to TDP MP Konagalla Narayana, Naidu waited for four years and the decision to withdraw the party’s ministers was an outcome of his losing patience. “The chief felt that during a fight for special status, it is not right to have our members in their cabinet. So he took this decision... Now if they don’t act, this agitation will be intensi- fied,” Narayana said. Another MP Naramalli Sivaprasad said the BJP had considered them smaller all these days but would now understand their strength. Naidu had said on Wednesday that the TDP joined the NDA Government only to protect the interests of Andhra following its bifurca- tion but claimed the Centre was taking unilateral decisions without thinking about solu- tions to the state’s problems. J udicially separated by the Kerala High Court in the name of love jehad, Kerala girl Hadiya aka Akhila Asokan and her husband Shafin Jahan were united again by the Supreme Court on Thursday. The apex court was con- vinced after talking to the adult woman that she married will- ingly and wished to remain away from her parents. However, the court allowed the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to continue its probe against Shafin Jahan for his alleged terror links. It was only a coincidence that the order came on a day which marked International Women’s Day. The verdict came as a special gift for Hadiya, who had waited all along to be united with her husband after her father was successful in persuading the Kerala HC to annul the mar- riage and secure her custody. Her husband Shafin Jahan had challenged the HC order in the top court demanding his reunion with Hadiya. Finding fault with the HC order of May 24, 2017, the Bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud said, “We hold that the High Court should not have annulled the marriage between appellant No.1, Shafin Jahan and respon- dent No.9, Hadiya alias Akhila Asokan, in a habeas corpus petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India.” The Bench added, “Article 226 of the Constitution is for the pur- pose of keeping alive constitu- tional rights and not to scuttle it, in this case the girl’s free right to choose her partner.” The court felt that a habeas corpus petition allows High Court to examine where a per- son is in confinement. To rule out this possibility, the apex court had summoned Hadiya on November 27, 2017 to ascer- tain whether she was married forcibly or under pressure. “She appeared before this court and admitted her marriage with Shafin Jahan,” added the Bench. The court felt that once this was clear, HC ought not to have decided on the marital status of the girl. Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Maninder Singh presented a confidential report prepared by NIA on that revealed there was an organised racket in Kerala to trap vulner- able girls who do not wish to be with parents and later get them married off to Muslim youth linked with terrorist organisa- tions abroad. The girl’s father, represent- ed by senior advocate Shyam Divan, further pointed out that the court must see the larger picture emerging from this case as to how marriage is used as a device to prevent scrutiny by courts. The Bench said that crim- inality of the petitioner is dis- tinct from testing the validity of marriage which cannot be done in a habeas corpus peti- tion. Releasing the operative part of its decision with a detailed order to follow later, the Bench observed that mar- riage made no difference at all as even without it, the girl was unwilling to return to her father. Secondly, even if it is assumed that she was to be traf- ficked to Syria for terrorist activities, the Government can prevent her travel based on evi- dence, however good or bad her marriage is. The court allowed Hadiya to pursue her future endeav- ours as she is currently under- going her homoeopathy course with a college in Tamil Nadu on orders of the court. Meanwhile, her father stated that he will challenge the SC order by fil- ing a review petition. T he Supreme Court on Thursday granted a major relief to Karti Chidambaram by directing the Delhi High Court Chief Justice to set up a Bench to decide on his plea for pro- tection against arrest by the Enforcement Directorate in the INX Media bribery case. Wasting no time, Karti’s lawyers moved the HC, which will hear his plea on Friday. Karti is presently into CBI custody and his five-day remand will expire on Friday. Karti’s lawyers — senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Abhishek Manu Singhvi — expressed apprehension that based on the Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) registered against Karti in the INX Media case, they feared that the ED might try to arrest him. They requested the Bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra to allow them to withdraw their petition for protection against arrest from the SC so that they could file a similar petition in the Delhi High Court. Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Tushar Mehta, who appeared for the ED, objected to the plea claiming that no ordinary criminal will get such treatment and the cor- rect course of action available to any accused is to approach the High Court with an antic- ipatory bail petition. The bench, also compris- ing Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud asked Mehta to show a single High Court order which said that based on a ECIR the ED can arrest a person. Continued on Page 4 L ike Nirav Modi, Gitanjali group owner Mehul Choksi has also made it clear to the CBI that he was not going to return to India to join the probe in the 12,700-crore PNB loan fraud. Choksi wrote to the CBI on the day the probe agency once again asked him and Nirav to join the investigation. In its emails to the Choksi and Nirav, the CBI also asked them to dis- close their locations. The letter came hours after Choksi said it is “impossible” for him to return to India due to health reasons and suspension of his passport. CBI officials said that both Nirav and Choksi have been repeatedly asked to disclose their locations but they haven’t disclosed yet. The agency had sent three summonses on February 19, 23 and 28 asking them to join the probe at the earliest. CBI officials said that their replies were extraneous. “It is legally binding on an accused to join the probe. We have asked them to go to nearest Indian High Commission or Embassy. We will be replying to their mails,” CBI said. Continued on Page 4 A head of the 25th anniver- sary of the Mumbai serial blasts, the CBI on Thursday took into custody Dawood Ibrahim’s close aide Mohammed Farooq Yasin Mansoor alias Farooq Takla for his role as a key conspirator in the March 12, 1993 serial bombings. Takla (57), who was arrest- ed by the CBI at the New Delhi airport on his extradition from Abu Dhabi at 5.15 am, was brought to Mumbai and pro- duced before a designated TADA court which later in the day remanded him in the investigative agency’s custody till March 19. Takla who was part of the inner circle of the Karachi- based underworld don Dawood Ibrahim then, had allegedly provided logistic sup- port to the co-accused to engi- neer the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts and sent several of them for training to Pakistan via Dubai. Takla’s extradition had followed a request made by the Indian Government to the Government of United Arab Emirates (UAE) on August 22, 2017. Takla had been absconding for the past 25 years. He had faced several non-bailable war- rants of arrest against him, so much so that the Interpol had issued a Red Corner Notice against him way back in 1995. He was finally traced to Abu Dhabi in the UAE. Continued on Page 4 T he Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday moved the Supreme Court challenging the acquit- tal of dentist couple Rajesh and Nupur Talwar in the mysteri- ous case of their daughter Aarushi’s murder at their Noida flat in May 2008. The CBI had faced criti- cism for not appealing against the acquittal order passed by the Allahabad High Court on October 12, 2017. Although the body of the domestic servant Hemraj was also found on the terrace of the same house, the acquittal of the couple led to a mystery as to who killed the two persons. Hemraj’s widow had filed an appeal against the HC order before the top court in December last year. Continued on Page 4 C hief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Thursday said that a Mukhya Mantri Mahila Kosh will be established to strengthen women. The cell will be used for women empowerment activities. He announced to give 30 per cent reservation to women lawyers in the appointment of Government lawyers in High Court and district courts. He was addressing a Mahila Sammelan organised on the occasion of International Women’s Day. Chouhan said social secu- rity pension will be given to widows and grass widows over 50. Private buildings will be taken on rent to run hostels for working women in big cities. Adequate measures will be taken to provide security and facilities to women in these hostels. Chouhan also said the work of manufacturing and supply of take home ration to be distrib- uted in anganwadis of the State will be taken care of by women self-help group federation. Also, the uniforms to be distributed in Government schools will also be stitched by the women self-help groups. Loan guaran- tee to federations of skillful women self-help groups will be given by the Government. He said that women labourers will be given 4,000 every month from their 6th month of preg- nancy till childbirth and 12,000 after delivery. The Chief Minister said that rapists will be given death penalty for which a law has been formed and sent for President’s approval. He said that the society will also have to take a stand for protection of girls. Mentality of people will have to be changed. Boys too should be given lessons on culture so that they learn to respect girls and women. He further said that max- imum opportunities would have to be given to promote women power so that the soci- ety and the world can move ahead. He appealed to women to move ahead and contribute in development of Madhya Pradesh. He said that every day should be considered a day for women. Continued on Page 4 C hief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, replying to the debate on the motion of thanks to Governor’s Address, on Thursday replied point-wise to the questions raised by the Opposition members. He stated that the Leader of the Opposition put forth his points without any facts. He claimed that till his last breathe, he would work for the develop- ment of the State and welfare of the people. He clarified that it is not correct as the Opposition has raised that the debt on the Government has increased more. In the year 2003, the interest payment was 22.44 per cent of the whole revenue receipts, while now, it has come down to 8.25 per cent only. The per capita income in compar- ison to 10 year rule of Congress, has almost doubled at 13,722. Chouhan claimed that the present Government received loans only for development of the State, while the previous Congress Government had dis- tributed loans without any guarantee. He said that the Opposition members should come out with facts, as false statements amount to loss of credibility. While congratulating women and girls of the State, the Chief Minister highlighted different schemes run by his Government for the girls. He stated that women empowerment is on top prior- ity of his Government and thus in the cases related to crime against women, direc- tives have been issued to police officials to immediately regis- ter an FIR and arrangements for speedy hearing in courts have also been made. He informed the House that during Congress regime, the power supply was hin- dered, while now, people get round the clock electricity. He further said that in the present government the irrigation capacity has increased in the State from previous 7,500 hectares to 40 lakh hectares. RNI Regn. No. MPENG/2004/13703, Regd. No. L-2/BPLON/41/2006-2008 C M Y K C M Y K

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The TDP on Thursdaypulled out its Ministers

from the BJP Government atthe Centre after a last-ditcheffort by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi failed to per-suade TDP supremo andAndhra Pradesh Chief minis-ter Chandrababu Naidu torethink on his demand for spe-cial category status to Andhra.

Within hours of Modi dial-ing up Naidu to discuss thestand-off , TDP Ministers,Ashok Ganapathi Raju and YSChowdhary, submitted theirresignations.

Talking to media personsafter meeting the PM and ten-dering the resignation,Chowdhary said he and hiscolleague Ashok GajapathiRaju were stepping down asMinisters but would continueto be part of the NDA, a movethat was necessitated by“unavoidable circumstances”.

The development of thelast two days, including resig-nation of BJP MLAs from theAndhra Pradesh Governmenton Thursday morning clearlyshowed that neither side waslooking for a face-saving com-promise. Under the circum-stances, it could be a matter oftime before the TDP finallywalked out of the NDA as well.

What could worry the BJPis the fact that after the TDP, theNitish Kumar-led Janata Dal(U) has also revived itsdemand for special categorystatus to Bihar. While ChiefMinister Nitish Kumar has notmade any comment on theissue, senior leaders of his partyhave come out in support ofNaidu and asked the Centre tomeet their demand. A BiharMinister has also gone onrecord saying that Nitish willsoon meet the PM to discussthe old-pending demand forspecial category status for Bihar.

The resignations of theTDP Ministers came a dayafter Naidu indicated his partywas considering a divorce withthe BJP-led NDA. This was fol-lowed by the resignation of twoBJP Minister from the AndhraCabinet on Thursday morning.

For weeks, the TDP hasbeen protesting both insideand outside Parliament to pressfor its demand for special cat-egory status to Andhra. Thecrisis climaxed after FinanceMinister Arun Jaitley onWednesday rejected TDP’sdemand saying the Centre waswilling to accord a monitoryequivalent to special status tothe state.

Jaitley pointed out that the14th Finance Commission didnot provide for grant of spe-

cial status to States other thanNortheast and hilly States. Heasserted that the Centre wouldfulfill all commitment as man-dated in the Andhra Pradeshbifurcation Act and theConstitution.

TDP leaders maintain thatthe party studied the situationand decided that it would takeone step at a time and the sep-aration could be a gradualprocess.

Likening the decision to anunfortunate divorce,Chowdhary, the UnionMinister of State for science andtechnology, said he and Raju,Union Civil Aviation Minister,would continue to work as

parliamentarians for Andhra.“We will be happy when

marriages happen, not whendivorces happen. It is not agood move, but unfortunatelydue to unavoidable circum-stances we had to take thismove. We are stepping down asministers, but our president hassaid we will be continuing aspart of NDA,” Chowdhary toldreporters.

The beauty of democracy,he said, was to bring unanim-ity and make everyone happyand this was the BJP’s respon-sibility.

“When they are in respon-sible positions they will have tobalance such things and during

the process of balancing theywill have to face such situa-tions,” he said adding that Rajuand he would continue to workin their personal capacities asparliamentarians and exertpressure to achieve theirdemand.

“All parliament memberswill work for this. We hope wewill succeed in getting specialstatus...,” he said.

The TDP has 16 MPs in theLok Sabha and six Rajya Sabhamembers.

Asked about Congresspresident Rahul Gandhi’s offerto give special status to Andhraif the party came to power, hesaid it was a hypothetical situ-ation.

According to TDP MPKonagalla Narayana, Naiduwaited for four years and thedecision to withdraw the party’sministers was an outcome ofhis losing patience.

“The chief felt that duringa fight for special status, it is notright to have our members intheir cabinet. So he took thisdecision... Now if they don’t act,this agitation will be intensi-fied,” Narayana said.

Another MP NaramalliSivaprasad said the BJP hadconsidered them smaller allthese days but would nowunderstand their strength.

Naidu had said onWednesday that the TDPjoined the NDA Governmentonly to protect the interests ofAndhra following its bifurca-tion but claimed the Centre wastaking unilateral decisionswithout thinking about solu-tions to the state’s problems.

������%���%����*56�7589&

Judicially separated by theKerala High Court in the

name of love jehad, Kerala girlHadiya aka Akhila Asokan andher husband Shafin Jahan wereunited again by the SupremeCourt on Thursday.

The apex court was con-vinced after talking to the adultwoman that she married will-ingly and wished to remainaway from her parents.However, the court allowedthe National InvestigationAgency (NIA) to continue itsprobe against Shafin Jahan forhis alleged terror links.

It was only a coincidencethat the order came on a daywhich marked InternationalWomen’s Day. The verdictcame as a special gift forHadiya, who had waited allalong to be united with herhusband after her father wassuccessful in persuading theKerala HC to annul the mar-riage and secure her custody.Her husband Shafin Jahan hadchallenged the HC order in thetop court demanding hisreunion with Hadiya.

Finding fault with the HCorder of May 24, 2017, theBench of Chief Justice DipakMisra, Justices AM Khanwilkarand DY Chandrachud said,“We hold that the High Courtshould not have annulled themarriage between appellantNo.1, Shafin Jahan and respon-dent No.9, Hadiya alias Akhila

Asokan, in a habeas corpuspetition under Article 226 ofthe Constitution of India.” TheBench added, “Article 226 ofthe Constitution is for the pur-pose of keeping alive constitu-tional rights and not to scuttleit, in this case the girl’s free rightto choose her partner.”

The court felt that a habeascorpus petition allows HighCourt to examine where a per-son is in confinement. To ruleout this possibility, the apexcourt had summoned Hadiyaon November 27, 2017 to ascer-tain whether she was marriedforcibly or under pressure.“She appeared before this courtand admitted her marriagewith Shafin Jahan,” added theBench. The court felt that oncethis was clear, HC ought not tohave decided on the maritalstatus of the girl.

Additional SolicitorGeneral (ASG) ManinderSingh presented a confidential

report prepared by NIA on thatrevealed there was an organisedracket in Kerala to trap vulner-able girls who do not wish to bewith parents and later get themmarried off to Muslim youthlinked with terrorist organisa-tions abroad.

The girl’s father, represent-ed by senior advocate ShyamDivan, further pointed out thatthe court must see the largerpicture emerging from thiscase as to how marriage is usedas a device to prevent scrutinyby courts.

The Bench said that crim-inality of the petitioner is dis-tinct from testing the validityof marriage which cannot bedone in a habeas corpus peti-tion. Releasing the operativepart of its decision with adetailed order to follow later,the Bench observed that mar-riage made no difference at allas even without it, the girl wasunwilling to return to herfather.

Secondly, even if it isassumed that she was to be traf-ficked to Syria for terroristactivities, the Government canprevent her travel based on evi-dence, however good or badher marriage is.

The court allowed Hadiyato pursue her future endeav-ours as she is currently under-going her homoeopathy coursewith a college in Tamil Nadu onorders of the court. Meanwhile,her father stated that he willchallenge the SC order by fil-ing a review petition.

����� *56�7589&

The Supreme Court onThursday granted a major

relief to Karti Chidambaram bydirecting the Delhi High CourtChief Justice to set up a Benchto decide on his plea for pro-tection against arrest by theEnforcement Directorate inthe INX Media bribery case.Wasting no time, Karti’slawyers moved the HC, whichwill hear his plea on Friday.Karti is presently into CBIcustody and his five-dayremand will expire on Friday.

Karti’s lawyers — senioradvocates Kapil Sibal andAbhishek Manu Singhvi —expressed apprehension thatbased on the Enforcement CaseInformation Report (ECIR)registered against Karti in theINX Media case, they fearedthat the ED might try to arrest

him. They requested the Benchheaded by Chief Justice ofIndia (CJI) Dipak Misra toallow them to withdraw theirpetition for protection againstarrest from the SC so thatthey could file a similar petitionin the Delhi High Court.

Additional SolicitorGeneral (ASG) Tushar Mehta,who appeared for the ED,objected to the plea claimingthat no ordinary criminal willget such treatment and the cor-rect course of action availableto any accused is to approachthe High Court with an antic-ipatory bail petition.

The bench, also compris-ing Justices AM Khanwilkarand DY Chandrachud askedMehta to show a single HighCourt order which said thatbased on a ECIR the ED canarrest a person.

Continued on Page 4

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Like Nirav Modi, Gitanjaligroup owner Mehul Choksi

has also made it clear to theCBI that he was not going toreturn to India to join theprobe in the �12,700-crorePNB loan fraud.

Choksi wrote to the CBI onthe day the probe agency onceagain asked him and Nirav tojoin the investigation. In itsemails to the Choksi and Nirav,the CBI also asked them to dis-close their locations. The lettercame hours after Choksi saidit is “impossible” for him toreturn to India due to healthreasons and suspension of hispassport.

CBI officials said that bothNirav and Choksi have beenrepeatedly asked to disclosetheir locations but they haven’tdisclosed yet. The agency hadsent three summonses onFebruary 19, 23 and 28 askingthem to join the probe at theearliest.

CBI officials said that theirreplies were extraneous. “It islegally binding on an accusedto join the probe. We haveasked them to go to nearestIndian High Commission orEmbassy. We will be replying totheir mails,” CBI said.

Continued on Page 4

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Ahead of the 25th anniver-sary of the Mumbai serial

blasts, the CBI on Thursdaytook into custody DawoodIbrahim’s close aideMohammed Farooq YasinMansoor alias Farooq Takla forhis role as a key conspirator inthe March 12, 1993 serialbombings.

Takla (57), who was arrest-ed by the CBI at the New Delhiairport on his extradition fromAbu Dhabi at 5.15 am, wasbrought to Mumbai and pro-duced before a designatedTADA court which later in theday remanded him in theinvestigative agency’s custodytill March 19.

Takla who was part of theinner circle of the Karachi-based underworld donDawood Ibrahim then, hadallegedly provided logistic sup-port to the co-accused to engi-neer the 1993 Mumbai serial

blasts and sent several of themfor training to Pakistan viaDubai. Takla’s extradition hadfollowed a request made by theIndian Government to theGovernment of United ArabEmirates (UAE) on August 22,2017.

Takla had been abscondingfor the past 25 years. He hadfaced several non-bailable war-rants of arrest against him, somuch so that the Interpol hadissued a Red Corner Noticeagainst him way back in 1995.He was finally traced to AbuDhabi in the UAE.

Continued on Page 4

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The Central Bureau ofInvestigation (CBI) on

Thursday moved the SupremeCourt challenging the acquit-tal of dentist couple Rajesh andNupur Talwar in the mysteri-ous case of their daughterAarushi’s murder at their Noidaflat in May 2008.

The CBI had faced criti-cism for not appealing againstthe acquittal order passed bythe Allahabad High Court onOctober 12, 2017. Although thebody of the domestic servantHemraj was also found on theterrace of the same house, theacquittal of the couple led to amystery as to who killed thetwo persons. Hemraj’s widowhad filed an appeal against theHC order before the top courtin December last year.

Continued on Page 4

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Chief Minister Shivraj SinghChouhan on Thursday said

that a Mukhya Mantri MahilaKosh will be established tostrengthen women. The cellwill be used for womenempowerment activities. Heannounced to give 30 per centreservation to women lawyersin the appointment ofGovernment lawyers in HighCourt and district courts. Hewas addressing a MahilaSammelan organised on theoccasion of InternationalWomen’s Day.

Chouhan said social secu-rity pension will be given towidows and grass widows over50. Private buildings will betaken on rent to run hostels forworking women in big cities.Adequate measures will betaken to provide security andfacilities to women in thesehostels.

Chouhan also said the workof manufacturing and supply oftake home ration to be distrib-uted in anganwadis of the Statewill be taken care of by womenself-help group federation. Also,the uniforms to be distributedin Government schools willalso be stitched by the women

self-help groups. Loan guaran-tee to federations of skillfulwomen self-help groups will begiven by the Government. Hesaid that women labourers willbe given �4,000 every monthfrom their 6th month of preg-nancy till childbirth and�12,000 after delivery.

The Chief Minister saidthat rapists will be given death

penalty for which a law hasbeen formed and sent forPresident’s approval. He saidthat the society will also haveto take a stand for protection ofgirls. Mentality of people willhave to be changed. Boys tooshould be given lessons onculture so that they learn torespect girls and women.

He further said that max-

imum opportunities wouldhave to be given to promotewomen power so that the soci-ety and the world can moveahead. He appealed to womento move ahead and contributein development of MadhyaPradesh. He said that every dayshould be considered a day forwomen.

Continued on Page 4

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Chief Minister Shivraj SinghChouhan, replying to the

debate on the motion of thanksto Governor’s Address, onThursday replied point-wise tothe questions raised by theOpposition members.

He stated that the Leader ofthe Opposition put forth hispoints without any facts. Heclaimed that till his last breathe,he would work for the develop-ment of the State and welfare ofthe people.

He clarified that it is notcorrect as the Opposition hasraised that the debt on theGovernment has increasedmore. In the year 2003, theinterest payment was 22.44per cent of the whole revenuereceipts, while now, it has comedown to 8.25 per cent only. Theper capita income in compar-ison to 10 year rule ofCongress, has almost doubledat �13,722.

Chouhan claimed that thepresent Government receivedloans only for development ofthe State, while the previousCongress Government had dis-tributed loans without anyguarantee.

He said that the Oppositionmembers should come out withfacts, as false statements

amount to loss of credibility.While congratulating womenand girls of the State, the ChiefMinister highlighted differentschemes run by hisGovernment for the girls.

He stated that womenempowerment is on top prior-ity of his Government andthus in the cases related tocrime against women, direc-tives have been issued to policeofficials to immediately regis-ter an FIR and arrangementsfor speedy hearing in courtshave also been made.

He informed the Housethat during Congress regime,the power supply was hin-dered, while now, people getround the clock electricity. Hefurther said that in the presentgovernment the irrigationcapacity has increased in theState from previous 7,500hectares to 40 lakh hectares.

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Players of Madhya PradeshState Taekwondo Academy

Kunal Bhosale, UttaraDandotiya, Latika Bhandariand Shashank Singh Patelexhibited a wonderful perfor-mance at taekwondo champi-onship and bagged two Goldmedals and two silver medals.

In the World TaekwondoMalaysia Open Grade OneChampionship held inMalaysia TaekwondoAcademy's players KunalDhosale and Shashank SinghPatel won two Gold and UttaraDandotiya and Latika Bhandaritwo silver medals for the coun-try. The championship wasplayed from March 1 to 4.

In the championship,Kunal Dhasale has earned aGold medal with a weight of 73kg and Shashank Singh Patel ofthe 78 kg weight category.While Dastotia has securedthe silver medal in the catego-

ry of 51-kg and LatikaBhandari bagged the Senior-53kg.

It is worth mentioning thatShashank Patel has given thecountry two Golds inCommonwealth Taekwondo

Championship and CanadaOpen Taekwondo champi-onship held in Canada inNovember,2017. LatikaBhandari also won the silvermedal in the CommonwealthTaekwondo Championship.Similarly, the player of theAcademy, Dandotiya, has given

two silver medals to India at theMalaysia Open TaekwondoChampionship and FujairahOpen TaekwondoChampionship.

State Sports and YouthWelfare Minister, YashodharaRaje Scindia said that in theWorld Taekwondo MalaysiaOpen Grade OneChampionship, Akademi play-ers have won the honour of thecountry and the State by win-ning two Golds and two silvermedals. She said that MadhyaPradesh is proud of the spec-tacular performance of theplayers by the internationallevel. The Sports Minister con-gratulated the medal winnersfor their fantastic performance.

Director Sports and YouthWelfare Upendra Jain alsoappreciated the excellent per-formance of the players ofTaekwondo Academy. Theplayers are being trained bychief coach of taekwondo acad-emy BLN Murthy.

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Iam too much excited forserial Chandrashekhar, as it

will be a different experiencenot for us, but for audience aswell,” said television actressSneha Wagh.

Sneha was in Bhopal onThursday for a formal visit tothe city. During her visit, shealso talked about her upcom-ing show ‘Chandrashekhar’.

Indian television actress,Sneha Wagh has alwaysdonned roles that have chal-lenged her repertoire as anactress. Also the power-packedperformer has always seen to itthat she picks up roles thatempower women.

After her stint in showsJyoti, Ek Veer Ki Ardaas…

Veera and Sher-E-PunjabMaharaja Ranjit Singh as a

mother, Sneha Wagh is all setfor her comeback yet again asa mother on television.

She will be seen on StarBharat’s next big show,Chandrashekar. She will essaythe role of Chandrasekhar’smother as Jagrani Tiwari. Theshow Chandrashekar is aboutthe journey of an eight year oldkind, who is fearless and brave.Sneha Wagh plays the role of aninspirational mother, who

guides and imbibes the quali-ty of fearlessness inChandrashekar.

Sneha Wagh while talkingabout her role said, “I’ll be play-ing the role of Jagrani Devi theonly love and mother ofChandrashekhar.” Talkingabout her experience, Snehasaid, “Experience is breath-taking. Going back to the erawhen there was no electricity,superstitions were the sole baseof life and men dominatedwomen unconditionally.”

She wrapped up saying, “Iam excited about the show. Iam excited because it’s tooreal, from the language to thewriting. Scripting is so real thatI don’t feel like its dialoguewriting, it feels like a day to daylife conversation.”

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The main opposition in theState assembly, Congress on

Thursday alleged that theGovernment is trying to avoidresponding to queries related tocompensation to peasants forland acquisition.

Raising the issue of acqui-sition of land belonging tofarmers for construction of anational highway in Rewa'sGudh Nagar Parishad (citycouncil) during the QuestionHour, Sunderlal Tiwari ofCongress said the land locatedin the city council is being pur-chased on price equivalent inrural areas.

He said that compensationshould be provided in accor-dance to the legislation enact-ed by the previous UnitedProgressive Alliance regimeand demanded that the officialsresponsible should be pun-ished.

While stressing that thequery pertained to the RevenueDepartment and the PublicWorks Department, Urban

Development and HousingMinister Maya Singh said thatthe legislation concerned wasnot applicable on national high-

ways. However, the member read

out rule book issued by theCentre. When Singh reiteratedthat the question concernedanother department, Leader ofthe Opposition Ajay Singh saidthat the Minister should havereturned the question to anoth-er department. SeveralCongress members alleged thatthe regime was trying to avoidan answer.

In the meantime, RevenueMinister Umashankar Guptatried to provide an explanationbut Tiwari alleged that theUrban Development andHousing Department did notprepare enough and that theGovernment is adopting a dic-tatorial attitude.

In view of the deadlock,Speaker Sitasaran Sharma

directed him that the matter beraised through some other

rule and continued the pro-ceedings.

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Bhopal:The MadhyaPradesh Government onThursday told the StateAssembly that new rulesframed by the regime haveprovision for confiscation ofvehicles conveying sand toother States without obtainingpass.

"Transportation of sandto other States is not prohib-ited. There is an arrange-ment for checking vehicles atborder areas and collectingroyalty. There is a provisionfor confiscation of vehiclesconveying sand withoutobtaining pass," said MineralResources Minister RajendraShukla while replying to a

query by Girish Gautam ofruling Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) during the QuestionHour.

Gautam said that a largenumber of trucks were con-veying sand to Uttar Pradeshleading to an increase in pricein the State.

Earlier, slogans of 'Jai ShriRam' and 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai'by principal-oppositionCongress members rent theMadhya Pradesh House soonafter Congress legislatorsMahendra Yadav BrajendraYadav who recently won theassembly bypolls fromKolaras and Mungaoli todaytook oath as members of the

state Assembly.As soon as the proceed-

ings commenced for the day,the member duo was admin-istered oath by SpeakerSitasaran Sharma.Immediately after the mem-bers took oath, Leader of theOpposition Ajay Singh chant-ed the slogan 'Jai Shri Ram'.Other Congress members toojoined him. Later, Congresslegislators also chanted theslogan 'Bharat Mata KiJai.'Taking a jibe at oppositionmembers, senior BJP memberand former chief ministerBabulal Gaur said theCongress took too long tochant 'Jai Shri Ram.

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An artist workshop based onKrishna and Rukmini tales

was organised at theIntroductory Gallery of Tribalhabitat Open-air exhibition inIndira Gandhi RashtriyaManav Sangrahalaya. the artistsfrom Andhra Pradesh, WestBengal, Bihar, Manipur, Orissa,Himachal Pradesh showing hiscreativity in the canvas, tasar-silk, drawing sheet, Tada patrathrough the colors of differentstyles and expressions the folktales on Lord Krishna andRukmini.

On this occasion a womanartist Manimala from WestBengal told about thatPatachitra is a symbol of folkart and culture in West Bengal.Cultural and divine shapesdrawn from the colors on the

cloth are called patachitra andthe painter is called Patua.

“We use natural colorswhich are made from trees,leaves, flowers and soil. Thepainting brush is made fromsquirrels or tail of Mongoose.The outside lines of the picturesare made from black and redcolour. Then the natural colorsare filled in them. The paintingcontains stories related to reli-gion and everyday life. Painterssing a song with painting,” sheadded.

Madhavi and Chandrakalafrom Srikalahasti, AndhraPradesh, said that Kalamkari isan ancient style of hand paintingdone on cotton or silk fabric witha tamarind pen, using naturaldyes. The word Kalamkari isderived from a Persian wordwhere ‘kalam’ means pen and‘kari’ refers to craftsmanship.

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Every day is a woman’s dayand every woman works for

making every day a better day,says Pallavi Rao Chaturvedi,Director, Human Resources inAISECT University andfounder of Brainy Bear Pre-School and Activity Club.

While talking to ‘ThePioneer’, she said that informa-tion of handling finance andeducation are biggest tools forempowerment of women.Empowerment relates to man-age all kinds of aspects.

“Woman is stereotyped inthe society and to help break themindset we have been workingfor the past 15 years and pro-duced 1800 entrepreneurs.Pehchan is an initiative to forsupporting women entrepre-neurs which has been startedfew years and garnered tremen-

dous response,” she said.The organisation came up

with a book of 500 top womanentrepreneur produced bywoman empowerment pro-grammes of AISCET. Some ofthe woman entrepreneur couldbe found in veil and managestheir business with acumenmarking the rich cultural tra-dition of the country and at thesame time working at theirbest.

Pallavi informed that atAISCET 40 per cent women arein the top management whichis something that differentiatesthis organisation and showswomen by no means less in anyrespect in the society.

To a query of improvingcondition of the women andgirls, she said that boost in con-fidence from inside as when awoman moves out of house dueto lack of safety her confidencefrails and the strength could beprovided by the male among thepeers and in the house, as theirrole is vital in supporting and lift-ing self esteem of woman.Woman gains greater confi-dence on having another womanon their side.

Pallavi further said that tohandle the job being a woman innot tough as according to herthat work itself speaks and noth-ing else is required to prove.

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The Higher EducationDepartment has instructed

all Government colleges in theState to organise mental check-ups for the students to detectsigns of depression or anyrelated issues.

Official sources said thatthe Higher EducationDepartment these check-upswill offer a quick and reliableway to identify students whomay be struggling with com-mon mental health issues andwill allow the college author-ities and teachers to offersupport and help to the strug-gling students.

The aim of these check-upcamps is to create campusesfree of depression where everycollege going student can con-

tinue his/her studies hopefulof their bright future, feelingsecured and cared for.

As per the notification ofthe Higher EducationDepartment, regular mentalcheck up of the students must

be conducted from the nextacademic session onwardsunder the supervision of aMental Health Professional.The department has alreadymade provisions to appointpsychologists, holding Post-graduate and Doctoral degreesin psychology as MentalHealth Professionals.

These professionals will

check the students 2 or 3times every week to make surethat the students are learningin a tension free state of mind.The examiner will inform theprofessor in charge, who willbe the Head of theDepartment of Psychologyabout the state of mind of thestudents. If any college has nopsychology department, asuitable professor will beappointed as the professor incharge.

The examiners and theprofessors in charge are alsodirected to submit a monthlyreport to the college principal.The directive clearly statesthat all reports must be strict-ly confidential and no detailsof it must be shared withanyone other than the con-cerned student.

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An artist will never forget histalent whatsoever and this

message was clearly showcasedthrough play Haanush. Theplay was performed at ShaheedBhavan auditorium here onThursday marking the secondday of a five-day theatre festi-val Rang Triveni.

The play is adapted from thestory by Bhishm Sahni. Directedby Manoj Mishra, the play wasperformed by the artists ofMandap theatre troupe, Reewa.

The play revolves aroundthe life of a clock makerHaanush. Haanush, since hischildhood was adherent to dosomething different and spec-tacular in his life. He was alwaysinterested in doing somethingunique from others.

One day Haanush saw a wallclock which was made by a for-

eign artist. He was so inspiredwith its design that Haanushdecided to make a beautiful anda unique wall clock. He sharedhis idea with his family and evenhis family supported him.

Haanush then put all his

concentration in making theclock. Forgetting even his mar-

ried life, Haanush was focusedon the clock. He was so pas-sionate about it that it made hisfamily poor. Haanush now hadto give up on making the clockas there was no money or anyother financial support.

But, with the help of hisfriends and financers, Haanushwas able to complete the clockafter hardwork of many years.Once Haanush put up his clockin an exhibition, and it wasmuch appreciated by the King.

The King liked it so muchthat he ordered his soldiers totake off Haanush’s eyes. Butafter sometime, when the clockwas not working, the kingcalled Haanush to check it.The blind Haanush again madethe clock.

“The play is just about to tellpeople that an artist never givesup on his art what may come,”said that director of the play.

Bhopal:Aishbagh policehave booked a woman forthreatening and demandingan extortion of �10 lakh tovacate house of a retired irri-gation engineer at HousingBoard Colony; a case was reg-istered on Wednesday.

The accused womanNarmadi Bai occupied victimMA Khan’s house illegally andwhenever the victim wouldask to vacate the house shewould lodge fake complaintswith Aishbagh police andrecently she agreed to vacatethe house in return of � 10 lakh.

Police said that the victimused to work with Irrigationdepartment and after the divi-sion of Chhattisgarh he wastransferred there. Later whenthe victim returned he foundthat the accused Narmadi Baihad broken the locks and occu-

pied the house illegally heasked to vacate the house butaccused refused to vacate andlodged fake complaints againstthe victim.

The police have registeredcase of extorting money andthreatening against theaccused. After the victimlodged complaint the accusedwent missing. Police have start-ed search for the accused.

The FIR was registeredafter Khan’s wife Saira Banolodged complaint with theSuperintendent of Police andafter investigation on the ordersissued by the SP it was foundthat the accused had illegallyoccupied the house and shopsand have collected rent forthan a decade.

The accused had occupiedthe house after the victim hadgone to Chhattisgarh.

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Apower company of Indorein Madhya Pradesh has

made the first all-women’s zonewith all women employees.Not only this, these womenhave been entrusted theresponsibility to make 24-hourpower supply available to apopulation of 60 thousand inthe area.

Madhya Pradesh PaschimKshetra Vidyut VitaranCompany has formed aunique power zone in AranyaNagar in Indore on the occa-sion of Women’s Day.

All 25 employees in thiszone office are women. Thesewomen have already takencharge in the zone.

This is the country’s firstpower zone that has beeninitiated in the honour ofwomen on International

Women’s Day. Work includingbill making, meter reading,bill submission and recovery,cutting and resuming con-

nection, redressal of com-plaints, new connections,transformer, line maintenanceand primary repair work etc.of Aranya Nagar are beingundertaken by women.

Aranya Nagar has beenchosen for this creative ini-tiative as there is not muchsettlement in new Indore.Bhagyashri Dagoud has beenappointed as AssistantEngineer while AnshikaKhare has been posted asJunior Engineer. Besides forall other work is being under-taken by women. It is a kindof women empowerment andit can be seen.

The zone headquarter hasbeen given a pink aura. Apartfrom this, engineers and fusecall attendants will move inpink coloured vehicles. Poweris supplied to 60,000 popula-tion from total 12 feeders inthe zone.

There are nearly 13,000power connections and morethan 200 transformers. Poweris supplied from total sixgrids to the zone.

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To recognise and honour thewomen’s feat, State Bank of

India, LHO, Bhopal held a grace-ful function on Woman’s Day onThursday.

KT Ajit, Chief GeneralManager felicitated the four dis-tinguished woman from thesociety. The felicitated womenare- Nirmala Shrama, who isknown for her Ceramic Potteryworks, Mrinalini Awasthy, whois running a school for mental-ly challenged children, Bhuri Bai,a well know tribal artist andMaya Vishwakarma, who is

popularly known as the PadWomen of MP. They have notonly contributed for their respec-tive fields but they have alsoraised the benchmark of womencontribution to the society.

Speaking on the eve,Ajit hasthrown fresh light on women’scontribution to the society.Various programmes and adance drama has also been con-ducted by staff members. Alsopresent on the occasion were all3 General Managers AK Shukla,Kaushik Sinha, CR Powar andDeputy General Manager andCircle Development Office GeetaPillai along with senior officialsand staff members.

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AHindi movie Lilkee wasscreened at Madhya

Pradesh State Tribal Museumhere on Thursday. The moviewas screened under the regu-lar film screenings of chil-dren’s movie Ullas.

The movie was directed byBatul Mukhtiar. The film talksabout poverty and dreams of asmall girl Lilkee.

Poverty forces little Lilkee,originally from Nainital tobecome a domestic help forarchitect Bela in Mumbai. She

has difficulty in adjusting tocity life. To add insult to injuryshe is humiliated by a gang offour girls from a rich family.Later, when the girls come toknow of her plight, they notonly befriend Lilkee but try toraise money to help her go backto Nainital.

But full of self respect,Lilkee politely refuses. Oneday, the girls ask her to accom-pany them to the sea duringschool hours. Lilkee informsher employer but the other girlsdon’t tell their parents. Whenthe children don’t return for along time, the parents get wor-ried. After being found, theyscold their girls but Lilkee’ssense of responsibility winsover Bela who admits her to aschool.

It is to be noted that BatulMukhtiar graduated in direc-tion from FTII. She directedtwo short fiction films as diplo-ma projects for the FilmInstitute and has worked as aresearcher, producer coordi-nator and associate producerwith international documen-tary crews shooting inMumbai. In 2002, she made‘150 Seconds Ago’, a docu-mentary on the survivors of theearthquake that devastated thecity of Bhuj (Kutch) in 2001.

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Mangalwara police havenabbed two vehicle lifters

near Bharat talkies and recov-ered four scooters worth �1.8lakh from their possession onWednesday. The accused werenabbed during vehicle check-ing.

According to the police,during routine vehicle check-ing, a scooter without regis-tration number was stoppedand when the two personswere asked regarding the reg-istration papers, he failed toprovide the details and laterconfessed that the scooter wasstolen from Patel Nagar.

One of the accused wasidentified as Yash Bhatnagarwhile the other was a minor.The accused confessed to havestolen three other scooters inthe past two months from TTNagar, Karond and OldCatergorised market area.

During the investigation,police have recovered scooterswhich were stolen in the pasttwo months. The scooterswere sold to Vineet Rajput ofNishatpura.

Based on the informationRajput was searched, nabbedand recovered. One of theaccused Anni alias Anas whowas involved in stealing anddisposing the two wheelers, isabsconding and search forAnas has been started. Policesuspect that Anas had morestolen vehicles and after hisarres, more vehicles would berecovered. It must be writtenhere that vehicle lifting casesin this area had become acommon phenomenon.

The police have registereda case under section 379 and413 of the IPC against Vineetand Yash and have startedfurther investigation.

During the investigation,police have not found anycrime records and have askedfor details from other policestations regarding the twoaccused.

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Kanika Vaidya of India hasnow entered the semi-finals

of $15000 International TennisFederation (ITF) Women’sTennis Tournament. In a longfought out battle, she defeatedFreya Christie of Great Britainseeded no 5 on the fourth dayof the tournament.

Here on Thursday, afterlosing the first set, Kanika gavea tough fight to Freya and wonthe match by 6-1, 6-3 points.Now Kanika would meet EmilyWebley-Smith of Great Britainin the semi-finals.

It is to be noted that $ 15000International Tennis Federation(ITF) Women’s Tennis

Tournament is being played atArera Club tennis court that willcontinue till March 11.

On Thursday, the matchsaw variety of shots topspin lob,drop shot, chops and slices onboth the flanks besides the reg-ular forehand and backhanddrives. In the second quarterfinal Emily Webley-Smith(Great Britain) defeatedBunyawi Thamchaiwat(Thailand) seeded no.4 after los-ing the first set 3-6, won the nexttwo sets 6-1, 7-5.

The next quarter final sawTereza Mihalikova (Slovakia)packing Prerna Bhambri (India)by 6-3, 6-2 points in one sidedmatch. Dhruthi TatacharVenugopal (India) defeated Riya

Bhatia (India) by 6-3, 7-6 pointsin a one sided tie-breaker. Itmust be written here that this isgoing to be a great opportuni-ty for players.

In the doubles semi-finalsTereza Mihlikova (Slovakia)and Ana Veselinovic(Montenegro) defeated FreyaChristie (Great Britain) andAlbina Khabibulina (Uzbeistan)by 7-6 (3), 7- 6 (6) points in atight tie-breaker set. KanikaVaidya (India) and Rosalie VanDer Hoek (Netherlands) afterlosing the first set 3-6, took thenext set 6-4 and clinched thematch super tie-breaker 10-7points against Emily Webley-Smith (Great Britain) andPranjala Yadlapalli (India).

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Forum of Women in PublicSector BHEL Bhopal on

Thursday observedInternational Women’s Daywith great zeal and fervour.

DK Thakur ExecutiveDirector was present as theChief Guest in the programmeorganised on the theme‘Women Leader: Insight toCommitment, Creativity,Collaboration’.

Priyanka Das,Commissioner, BhopalMunicipal Corporation waspresent as the guest of honourin the programme, whileBhakti Sharma, Sarpanch,Barkheri, Abdullah village waspresent as the Guest speakerand Pratibha Thakur PresidentBHEL Ladies Club was espe-cially present in the pro-gramme.

MS Kinra GeneralManager (Quality & HR)presided over the programme.Mamta Dhingrocha, President(WIPS), Anita Chandra Vice-President (WIPS), Sima SinhaTreasurer (WIPS) and ShikhaSaxena Secretary (WIPS) wereespecially present in the pro-gramme.

Addressing BHEL Bhopalas the empowered sentinel ofthe nation, Thakur said that theorganisation has always been

committed to protecting thehonour and integrity of theempowered women of theempowered nation. He fur-ther throwing light on the con-tribution of women employeesof BHEL Bhopal said that theplace which BHEL has estab-lished today in the national andinternational level accounts forequal proportion of womenparticipation.

The women employees areworking with equal merit alongwith their male counterpart inareas of technical, administra-tion and finance. There is nocompetition among men &women in the society, they bothare of equal need for the organ-isation, family and society andwith their assistance only a

society, family and organisa-tions existence is possible,added Thakur.

Das briefed on the diffi-culties and hardship relatedwith women. Laying concernon the abnormal sex ratio stillprevailing in certain districts ofMadhya Pradesh, she said thatthe Beti Bachao Beti Padhaocampaign started by theGovernment is a significantstep in this direction.

The President of BHELLadies Club further said thatcommitment, creativity andcollaboration is women’s gen-eral specialty and empower-ment of women is not possiblewithout men, at the same timethe women should also realisetheir potential.

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The Bhopal Branch of Instituteof Chartered Accountant of

India (ICAI) held theConference on the eve ofInternational Women’s Day atHotel Atishay on Thursday. Themeet was conducted by CAAnshul Agrawal SecretaryBhopal Branch of ICAI.

More than 100 of WomenCA have attended the confer-ence. The speakers had moti-vated and influenced with theirspeeches. Preeti Mishra hadspoken on “Managing Stressbefore It Ruins You”. Few yearsback, she was suffering fromBreast Cancer and with herwillpower she fought with it,hence becoming an inspirationfor all. Another speaker Dr.Neel kamal Kapoor, Oncologistat AIIMS, Bhopal expressed herviews on “Managing Living andWorking Imbalance” And Dr.Pooja Gupta expressed her viewson “Professional opportunities in

Investment Planning and MutualFunds”.

International Women's Dayis annually held on March 8 tocelebrate women's feats through-out history and across nations. Itis also known as the UnitedNations (UN) Day for Women'sRights and International Peace.

More than 2, 85,000 CA’s are

there in India out of which25.39% of total membershipconsists of Women membersand this percentage is expectedto be increased in future. ICAIhas a special portal, especially forWomen Chartered Accountant.There is a special committeecalled Women MemberEmpowerment Committee

(WMEC) which looks toenhance the prospects of womenmembers in ICAI.WomenChartered Accountants con-tribute to the growth of thenation in various accountingareas like accountancy, directtaxes, indirect taxes, companylaw matters, strategic decisionmaking, international businessand taxation, project financeand many other regulatory mat-ters. Recognizing the same, stepshave been taken up by ICAI toenhance their contribution in thedevelopment of the professionand of the economy as well.

The meet was headed by theConference Chairman CAKemisha Soni, Chairman andCommittee for CapacityBuilding of Members in Practiceof ICAI. ConferenceCoordinator CA AbhishekGupta, Chairman, BhopalBranch of CIRC of ICAI, CAMayank Agarawal ViceChairman were present in themeet.

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For Seema Negi, wife ofMhow station commander

Brigadier Rajesh Negi,International Woman’s Daywas like any other day as shecompleted her yoga trainingschedule to the ladies of Mhowin cantonment garden Mhowlike any other day.

Negi is a yoga and fitnessinstructor and she trains thewomen of Mhow civil areaeveryday in morning hoursfree of cost.

While talking to ThePioneer Seema Negi told thathealth is wealth. A personshould always leave the societya better place than he or she

received it and should givewhatever knowledge and artone has because if we keepknowledge with us it is of no

use but if give it to others it willhelp the society, she added.

“Everyday two hours in themorning I teach yoga aerobicsand fitness exercise to theMhow ladies and also I havetrained two women fitnessinstructor who will train theladies of Mhow even if I amtransferred from Mhow,” saidNegi.

Notably, Mhow canton-ment board looks after thecantonment garden and it is

provided free of cost to theMhow people for yoga classesin the morning and evening.CEO cantonment board MhowManisha Jat told that soon thecantonment would come upwith the concept of open greengym in all the gardens of thecantonment board Mhow.

On Thursday, a represen-tation of women of Mhowfelicitated Seema Negi for herextraordinary efforts for pro-viding free yoga and fitnesstraining to women of Mhow formore than a year and also felic-itated CEO cantonment boardMhow Manisha Jat for provid-ing clean green garden as venuefor the yoga to the Mhowladies.

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Governor Anandiben Patelhas said that seeing dedi-

cation towards education inDivyang children, their confi-dence and Sanskaras as com-pared to normal children, it canbe said that teachers educatingDivyang are equal to parents.They teach how to live life withboosting their confidence.

The Governor stated thisafter visiting Arushi - an organ-ising teaching Divyang. TheGovernor took every detail ofeducation, art and music beingtaught to Divyang childrenwhile visiting each room ofArushi Sanstha. Divyang stu-dents Farguni, Sargam andVivek presented song andKumkum presented dance onthe occasion. Kumari Khushipresented music on piano.

Patel said that it is difficultto take care and educateDivyang children. Teachers

here take care of students astheir children. I salute them forthis work. Governor became

emotional while meetingDivyang children. During thevisit, she took informationabout education being given to

children by teachers. TheGovernor appreciated a lotpainting made by KumariKumkum Shakya. TheGovernor gave fruits anddonated fund for Divyang tothe organisation.

Principal Secretary to gov-ernor, M Mohanrao, SapnaGupta of Arushi Sanstha,Sachin Devliya and teacherswere present on the occasion.

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A66-year-old auto-rickshawdriver died when his vehi-

cle collided with a car beingdriven recklessly by a 17-year-old boy on Kasturba GandhiMarg in Connaught Place areaon Thursday morning.

After being hit by a car, theauto driver lost control of hisvehicle and he was thrownseveral metres in the air dyinginstantly, said police, addingthat the minor driving the carand two of his friends aged 15and 17 years on board also sus-tained injuries in the crash andwere rushed to Dr RamManohar Lohia hospital.

Police said the three juve-niles were heading to CP for afun ride.

“It was around 5.53 am thata PCR call was received at theBarakhamba Road PoliceStation in New Delhi reportingthat an accident has takenplace at KG Marg. When apolice team reached the spot,one Maruti Ciaz car and oneauto rickshaw were found at theaccident site,” said Deputy

Commissioner of Police (NewDelhi) Madhur Verma.

“Probe has revealed thatthe two vehicles were speedingand collided after losing control.The auto driver who was iden-tified as Shiv Shankar Mehto, aresident of T Huts on MataSundari Road in New Delhi areahad received critical injuriesand was rushed to the RamManohar Lohia Hospital. Butdoctors there declared himbrought dead,” said Verma.

“A case of rash driving andfor causing death due to neg-ligence was registered at PoliceStation Barakhamba Road andthe matter is being probed.CCTV footages are also beingchecked to ascertain thesequence of incident,” the DCPsaid.

Police said the accused willbe apprehended after theirtreatment is done and will bequestioned. All angles related tothe accident are being lookedinto, they said.

The car belongs to one ofthe uncles of the minor boywho was behind the wheelwhen the accident took place.

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Continuing the sealing driveagainst illegal business

establishments in New Delhi,three municipal corporationson Thursday targeted 528properties/ shops. The SouthDelhi Municipal Corporation(SDMC) alone sealed 350shops in Lajpat Nagar-4 and106 units in 33 properties inGreater Kailash Enclave 2,Rajouri Garden, Janakpuri,Virender Nagar, Hari Nagaand other areas.

While North DelhiMunicipal Corporation (NMC)sealed 40 properties in areaslike Nai Sadak, Sadar Bazar,Rajinder Nagar, Rohini Sector16, Pitampura, Saraswati Vihar,Outrem Lane and RamgarhGTK road, East DelhiMunicipal Corporation sealed32 properties in Gandhi Nagar,Shakarpur and Pandav Nagar.

Sealing drive in LajpatNagar areas took a violent turnafter locals got into scufflewith SDMC officials, forcingpolice to intervene and resortto lathi-charge to control thesituation. Shop owners allegedthat they were not given priornotices for sealing. “Civic bodyofficials sealed my shop with-out giving me reason. I evenproduced documents to proveno due on my shop. But theydid not listen anything,” saidSumit Kumar, owner of ready-made garment shops.

Meanwhile, Confederationof All India Traders (CAIT)called a day-long ‘Trade Bandh’on March 13 to lodge protestagainst sealing. The decisionwas taken at a meeting con-vened by the CAIT and attend-ed by leaders of more than 250prominent trade associations.

“Traders are deeplyannoyed in the manner thesealing is being done by mak-ing the entire area as policecamp. They will be forced toshift their business to neigh-bouring cities like Noida,Faridabad, Gurgaon,Bahadurgarh, Sonepat if the sit-uation does not improve,” astatement released by CAIT

said.The trade leaders further

said that bungalows occupiedby political parties and MPs inprestigious Lutyan Zone havemass scale of unauthorisedconstructions in. But theMonitoring Committee haskept its eyes closed on thesebungalows and could notmuster courage to seal them,they alleged.

A senior SDMC officialsaid the building departmentscarried out action on the direc-tion of the Supreme Court-appointed MonitoringCommittee.

“All the shops and proper-ties were sealed for a numberof reasons, including unau-thorised construction of officesand rooms at different floorsand ongoing commercial activ-ities at basement and stilt park-ing areas, non-payment of con-version charges and encroach-ment. The action was taken inthree zones, South, Centraland West today and will becontinue,” he said.

Meanwhile, one photo-journalist was allegedly assault-ed by Additional DCP forclicking pictures during thesealing drive at Lajpat Nagar.

A senior police officersaid that the incident tookplace on Thursday afternoonat Lajpat Nagar 4 area whenthe Additional DCP alleged-ly slapped one of the shopkeepers for obstructing theofficer from fulfilling the duty.“It was at that time that aphoto-journalist of a Hindidaily clicked the picture of theincident. This led the addlDCP to seize the photo jour-nalist’s camera. Followingwhich the photographer wasmade to delete the picturesand taken by the two policeconstables to the police sta-tion,” he added.

However, ChiefSpokesperson of the DelhiPolice Madhur Verma said,“As soon as the matter came tomy notice, I contacted theDeputy Commissioner ofPolice (Southeast district) andhe informed me that he is per-sonally looking into it.”

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From Page 1In its application seeking

Takla’s custody, the CBI statedthat Takla was “deeplyinvolved” in the criminal con-spiracy to terrorist acts, includ-ing the 1993 Mumbai serialblasts. “The accused was neveravailable in this case as heremained absconding despiteour best efforts to nab him fol-lowing NBWS and a RedCorner Notice against him,” theremand application stated.

It may be recalled that 257people were killed, 713 othersinjured and properties worthRs 27 crore were destroyed inthe March 12, 1993 serial blasts.

Takla is accused numberA-196 named in the charge-

sheet filed by the MumbaiPolice in the serial blasts caseon November 11, 1993. He wasdeclared proclaimed offenderby a TADA court in Mumbaion June 19, 1995.

The CBI’s case is that Taklaparticipated in the criminalconspiracy behind the 1993Mumbai serial blasts case, as akey conspirator and perpetra-tor along with other accusedlike Dawood Ibrahim, AneesIbrahim and others.

Apart from providinglogistic support like providingair tickets to other accused,Takla arranged hotel accom-modation to Salim BismillaKhan alias Salim Kurla andfour others on their arrival

from India in Dubai. He alsofacilitated the onward journeyof Salim Kurla and four othersfor arms and explosives han-dling training in Pakistan.

Though his interrogationin its custody, the CBI expectsto unravel more aspects relat-ing to the criminal conspiracybehind the 1993 blasts and alsogather additional evidenceagainst him and other knownand unknown abscondingaccused, particularly DawoodIbrahim and Anees Ibrahim, inthe Mumbai serial bombings.

Considered one of biggestterror strikes in the world, the1993 Mumbai serial blasts hadbenumbed the entire country.

Immaculately planned and

executed as it had been, theperpetrators behind the 1993blasts had targeted 13 promi-nent sites in Mumbai for theblasts. The targets included:Bombay Stock Exchange (84killed/217 injured), KathaBazar (4 killed/21 injured),Sena Bhavan (4 killed/50injured), Century Bazaar (113killed/227 injured), MahimCauseway (3 killed/6 injured),Air-India building (20 killed/87injured), Zaveri Bazaar (17killed/57 injured), HotelSeaRock (no casualties), PlazaTheatre (10 killed/37 injured),Juhu Centaur Hotel (3 injured),Airport Bay-54 (no casualties)and Airport Centaur Hotel (2killed/8 injured).

From Page 1The ASG said an ECIR is

an internal document which isa starting point for issue ofsummons, followed by search,seizure, attachment and final-ly arrest. Even in the absence ofa predicate offence or registra-tion of a FIR, based on credi-ble information and a seriousmoney trail, an accused can bearrested. Following this state-ment, Sibal requested thebench to consider grantingthem interim protection tillthey approach the Delhi HC.

Mehta insisted that thecourt cannot pass such anorder and protect the accused

in a proceeding where thevalidity of CBI’s Look OutNotice is under challenge. Thelaw officer further maintainedthat the offences probed by theED and the CBI stand on a dif-ferent footing, denying claimsof Sibal that both emanatefrom same offence. At onestage, Sibal got furious and said,“The ASG cannot dictate to thecourt.” This offended the Benchwhich shot back at Sibal forusing such language. “Whyshould you (Sibal) remind us ofour responsibility. We takeexception to what you said,” theBench said, forcing Sibal toapologise.

From Page 1Earlier, in a detailed e-

mail reply to the CBI’s noticeseeking his appearance, Choksisaid he was not in a position totravel as his passport has beensuspended by the authoritiesand he was undergoing medicaltreatment.

“I want to assure yourgood office and good self thatI am in no manner dictatingthe terms of my appearance.However, as my passport standssuspended by the RegionalPassport Office under Section10(3)(c) of the Passport Act, itis impossible for me to travelback to India,” the seven pageletter said.

The accused diamondtrader explained that he is notin a position to travel for at leasta period of four to six monthsdue to persisting health prob-lems. “I had a cardiac proce-dure which was conducted inthe first week of February, andthere is still pending work to bedone on the same,” said the rel-ative of celebrated jewellerNirav Modi the prime accusedin the PNB case.

Choksi further said that heis worried about his health andfears that he will not get prop-er treatment if he gets arrested.He also fears that he might notbe allowed to undergo treat-ment in a private hospital.

From Page 1The agency’s appeal, likely

to get listed along with the otherappeal of Hemraj’s widow,pointed out mistakes in the HCorder discarding statement ofmaterial witness and evidence,crucial to solve the mysteriousmurder. Entry of any outsiderwas ruled out and in such ablind murder case, circumstan-tial evidence becomes crucial, afact that was ignored by theHigh Court, said CBI.

Interestingly, the trial courthad convicted Aarushi’s parentsfor the murder in 2013 con-necting the dots left by the CBIin its closure report. The trialcourt did not accept the sameand directed the agency to pro-ceed with the investigation lead-ing to conviction in the case,with the dentist couple beingsentenced to life imprisonment.

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From Page 1There is need to work in

this direction more than sim-ply following a ritual by orga-nizing programme in theirhonour on just one day, headded.

The Chief Minister felici-tated women for their out-standing contribution in theirrespective fields. Women wereawarded with Lado Samman,Sex Ratio ImprovementAward, Tejaswini Award,Sashakt Wahini Award besidesthose women above 60 werealso awarded who are workingtirelessly in their respectivefields.

The Chief Minister hon-oured Assistant Loco Pilot ofWest Central Railway Arti

Singh Rajput, Priti Verma andDeepa Jharwade. He awardedPuran Jyoti, IshitaVishwakarma, RaghavendraSharma and AnitaVishwakarma with LadoSamman. Saurabh Singh wasawarded for working towardsimproving sex ratio inBurhanpur district.

Tejaswini award was givento Vinita Namdeo, RekhaPanjam, Indrani Varkade andShanti Tekam. Sashakt Wahiniaward was given toBurhanpur’s Nidhi Gupta.Earlier, the Chief Ministerdedicated women’s hostel“Swayamsiddha”. He also vis-ited an exhibition based onachievements of women.

Woman and Child

Development MinisterArchana Chitnis said thatInternational Women’s Day isa celebration of the glory ofwomen power. She told thatnearly one lakh girls havebeen given driving license.Now commercial license willalso be initiated. She said thestate is way ahead in provid-ing security to women and fortheir welfare.

Mobiles have been givento 12,000 anganwadi workers.Remaining workers will alsobe given mobiles soon. Shesaid that Janani SurakshaYojana has resulted in moreinstitutional deliveries.Number of underweight chil-dren and acute malnourishedchildren has reduced.

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Leader of the Opposition inthe State Assembly Ajay

Singh said that BJPGovernment after its 14 yearsof rule in Madhya Pradeshmaintained the State in deteri-orated condition.

Singh was participating inthe debate on the motion ofthanks to Governor’s address.He said the State is at the topof the list in malnutrition.Child mortality rate is 50, chil-dren mortality rate in ruralareas is 37, woman mortalityrate is 221 and all these arehigher than National mortali-ty rates. Massive amount was

spent over Save Girl Childcampaign which proved failureas in the region of ForeignMinister and CM ShivrajSingh’s working area the femaleratio is 721 per 1000 males andall these situations are wit-nessed when around Rs 10000crore have been spent overHealth and Children andWoman Welfare last year.

The education sector sharethe same picture as 10000 gov-ernment schools are withoutteachers, 18000 governmentschools have teacher each tooperate school. For construc-tion of government schoolsout of Rs 850 crore, details ofspending of Rs 400 crore are

not found and Rs 19 crore scamwas revealed in RTE and this allhappened after Rs 5740 crorewere spent in the year 2017-18.

Spending leniently onbranding, advertisement andhuge events have led to themassive debt of Rs 1.5 lakhcrore over the state. OnNarmada Yatra Rs 500 crorewere spent and on a state gov-ernment corporation the debtis Rs 20000 crore and govern-ment is preparing to avail aloan of Rs 22000.

The rate of unemploymentis surging and highest numberof unemployed is in the statecapital which is 1.26 lakh. INthe past two years rate of

unemployment is increased to53 percent.

On human developmentindex state lags among thepeers and stands on 16 and 19place among 19 states inHuman Development Indexand Inequality-adjustedHuman Development Indexrespectively.

In the lack of proper facil-ities 20 IT companies returnedtheir allocated lands. For youngentrepreneurs capital venturefund of Rs 100 crore wasannounced by the CM duringglobal investors meet but afternegligence by state govern-ment other stake holdersrefused to provide finance.

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The World Kidney Day wasobserved at All India

Institute of Medical Sciences(AIIMS), Bhopal on Thursday.On the occasion, a symposiumfor doctors, a poster competi-tion and lectures for the generalPublic was organized for thePublic in general jointly by theDepartment of Nephrology incollaboration with Departmentof Obstetrics and Gynaecology.The theme of the function was‘Kidneys and Women health-Include, Value and Empower’.

While talking to generalpublic Medical Superintendentof AIIMS Bhopal Dr RajeshMalik said that such kind offunctions are being regularlyconducted at AIIMS, Bhopal tomake general public aware ofspecific diseases.

During SymposiumNephrologist and KidneySpecialist of AIIMS, BhopalDr Mahendra Atlani whilegoing subjective told doctorsabout how to differentiatePreeclampsia from worseningkidney disease in a pregnant

woman of chronic kidney dis-ease.

Dr K Pushplatha of Depart-ment of Obstetricsand Gyn-aecology said during pregnan-cy in women with chronic kid-ney disease, blood pressureshould be kept in rage of 110-140 mmHg systolic and 80-90mmHg diastolic to helps inproper growth of child on onehand and on the other hand tokeeps mother away from dan-ger of severe rise in Blood pres-sure.

Medicine specialist DrSagar Khadanga told that whiletreating women with recurrenturinary tract infections, specialattention should be paid to ruleout obstructive diseases of kid-ney.

Paediatrician Dr GirishBhatt told that if babies cry dur-ing passing urine or if a bal-looning of penis is seen whilepassing urine in male children,doctor`s advice should betaken as it could be an indica-tion of a disease predisposingkidney disease. Sonu won theposter competition organizedon the theme of function.

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For the fourth consecutiveday on Thursday Parliament

did not function but both theHouses were unanimous inpromoting women's rights onthe occasion of theInternational Women's Day.The Rajya Sabha urged theearly passage of the Women'sReservation Bill passed by it and now pending in theLok Sabha.

Appreciating the sentimentsof the members, Rajya SabhaChairman M Venkaiah Naidusaid the "Bill should be backedby will, administrative skillsand then go for the kill toremove the evil" of gender injus-tice and discrimination againstwomen. Lok Sabha SpeakerSumitra Mahajan extendedgreetings to the people on theoccasion and exhorted thewomen to move forward withrenewed vigour and confidence.

The Upper House, marredby repeated adjournments forthe last three days, functionednormally for an hour in the prelunch session to discuss theissue of rights of women and

improving their plight.However, the peace was shortlived as members resorted toprotest after the discussionended forcing one adjournmentin the morning and then for theday shortly after the House metagain after lunch. TDP andAIADMK members rushed intothe well on the issue of specialcategory status to AndhraPradesh and constitution ofCauvery Management Board respectively.

Earlier, Naidu said theInternational Women's Daywas being observed all over theworld to celebrate the achieve-ments of women as well as to

renew the commitment toempowering them and endinggender biases."With womenconstituting about 50 per centof our population, social, eco-nomic and political empower-ment of women, including pro-viding reservation inParliament and state legisla-tures, has to be accorded toppriority for the country toachieve rapid progress," Naidusaid. He also agreed to a sug-gestion by some members tohave a woman member in thepanel for Vice Chairman.

Women MPs cutting acrossparty lines pressed for early pas-sage of the Women's Reservation

bill. Veteran Congress leaderAmbika Soni said a resolutionshould be passed by the Houseto support the legislation pro-viding reservation to women inParliament and assemblies.Leader of Opposition GhulamNabi Azad expressed concernover rising incidents of sexualassault against the girl child andagreed with others on the earlypassage of the bill.

External Affair MinisterSushma Swaraj said she favouredthe bill and said althoughwomen have excelled in manyfields and entered areas so fardominated by men, but still"continued to face injustice,which is shameful", she said andcalled or a mass movement tousher in a change of the mind-set of the people towardswomen. Derek O'Brien(TMC),Viplove Thakur(Congress),Sanjay Singh(AAP),Kanimozhi(DMK), DilipTirkey(BJD), Anu Agha(nomi-nated), Satish Mishra(BSP) andSubramanian Swamy(BJP) alsospoke on the occasion.

In the Lok Sabha, theSpeaker said women's empow-erment was the need of the

hour as well as a big challenge.She emphasised the need towork together for all-rounddevelopment of women forpositive change.

Soon after she ended herspeech, members of the TDP,AIADMK, TRS and TMCtrooped into the Well, withmany holding placards andraising slogans. Amid the din,Minister of State forParliamentary Affairs ArjunRam Meghwal moved theSupplementary Demands forGrants seeking Parliament nodfor additional cash spending of�85,315 crore.

Parliamentary AffairsMinister Ananth Kumar urgedthe Speaker to continue withthe listed business and said "Weare ready to discuss irregulari-ties in the banking sector." Healso said a debate under Rule193, which does not entail vot-ing, was listed on agenda on thealleged systemic irregularities inbanking sector over the yearsand its impact on Indian econ-omy. However, as protestscontinued, Mahajan adjournedthe proceedings first till noonand thereafter for the entire day.

����� *56�7589&

Bangladesh PresidentMohammad Abdul Hamid

on Thursday began his four-day visit to India from Assamand Meghalaya where he hadspent years as a freedom-fight-er. Hamid will on the weekendfly to New Delhi to attend theInternational Solar AllianceSummit.

The ‘historic’ trip to Assamand Meghalaya will actuallytake President Hamid downthe memory lane to remind himof the days of Bangladesh Warof Liberation in 1971. As ayoung Awami League leader,Hamid, had crossed over toMeghalaya and joinedBangladesh Liberation Force,known as Mujib Bahini, as itssub-sector commander with thetask of mobilising Bengaliyouths who took refuge inGumaghat, Mailam and Balat inMeghalaya.

During his days in India,Hamid played a leading role in

inspiring the youths to takepart in the war and arrangedguerrilla warfare for them withthe help of Indian military. AtBalat, Hamid helped set up aYouth Reception Camp toreceive Bangladesh youthscrossing over to the state toguide and train them for theliberation war.

Diplomatic sources saidPresident Hamid has fondmemories of his days in Indiaand he is deeply attached to thiscountry. India had providedshelter to 10 million Bengalees

during the 1971 LiberationWar, in West Bengal, Tripura,Meghalaya and Assam.

In New Delhi, Hamid willattend the ISA, which is thefirst treaty-based internation-al and inter-governmentalorganisation. Bangladesh,which has created a powerplant that will produce 500MW solar power in future, iscurrently producing 240 MWsolar power. Bangladesh gov-ernment has set a target to pro-duce 10 per cent of its totalelectricity from solar power.

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As many as 19 Heads of Stateand several top leaders of

43 countries will deliberate onclean energy options during theInternational Solar Alliance(ISA) Summit to be held onSunday. In addition, heads ofsix Multilateral DevelopmentBanks, including the BRICSBank, will be attending theSummit along with a repre-sentative of the United NationsSecretary General.

Some of the prominentworld leaders who will beattending the Summit includ-ing French PresidentEmmanuel Macron, Sri LankanPresident Maithripala Sirisena,Bangladesh PresidentMohammad Abdul Hamid andVenezuelan President NicolásMaduro Moros. Several bilat-eral meetings are also lined upwith the world leaders on thesidelines of the ISA.

During the ISA Summitthe delegates will attend threetechnical sessions on -- solarpriorities, low cost priorities,and power for all. Sources said

the session on solar prioritieswill focus on how the ISA canassist countries in enhancingtheir policy and regulatoryframeworks. It will exploreincentives that are necessary tospur innovation and researchand development and how ISAcan support capacity buildingprograms.

Discussion on low costfinance will look at the reasonson why clean energy invest-ments remain risky, despiteencouraging trends.Deliberations will focus on howthese risks could be hedged,such that the quantum of invest-ment increases, the sources ofinvestment are diversified, andthe cost of capital declines.

The technical session onpower for all will explore waysto scale up off-grid solar ener-gy and enhancing energy accessin small island states. This ses-sion will also share best prac-tices. There will also be a deepdiscussion on how policy, tech-nology, and finance can alignwith a partnership approach toachieving a comprehensive sys-tems change.

����� *56�7589&

Union Housing and UrbanAffairs secretary Durga

Shankar Mishra on Thursdaysaid that a new metro law willreplace the existing two lawsrelating to construction, oper-ation and maintenance ofmetro networks across thecountry.

"The new law has beenwarranted because the para-digm in the field has changed.The issue of land acquisitionand public-private-partnershipmodel has evolved, and the leg-islation that will replace theexisting laws will "create anecosystem that will further thegrowth story of the metros",Mishra said.

The Urban Affairs secre-tary was interacting withreporters on the sidelines of thelaunch of 'I-Metros' or IndianMetros Rail OrganisationsSociety, an association of all

Indian metro rail companies, ata conference on 'Indian Metros:Collaborating for Excellence'held at Metro Bhawan onThursday.

"The two existing lawsrelated to operation and main-tenance, and construction, havebecome very old, and theywere formulated when the sce-nario was completely different.Now the situation has changed.And, the new law would seekto address all the issues facedby metro networks," he said.

"We have been working onit for the last two years. And.The legislative department (ofthe Law Ministry) is givingfinal shape, after which it willgo to Cabinet as per the dueprocedure," he said.

The Metro Railway(Operations and Maintenance)Act, 2002, is an Act of theParliament that governs theoperations of metro rail sys-tems in India.

Mishra also said that cur-rently the span of all metronetworks operational in thecountry stands at 425 km.And, another 700 kms areunder construction in 13 cities,he said.

Cabinet Secretary P KSinha, in his address said thisnew platform (I-Metros) "willgo a long way, if things progressin the right spirt by adoptingthe best practices and the lat-est technologies".

Mishra said, this new plat-form will allow them to shareexperiences, challenges, andlearn from each other for thebetter.

"The MDs, directors,would be connected. And, newtechnologies, new innovationscan be shared. Also, we willbring in our Institute of UrbanTransport, so that it can beshared in electronic mode,"the Urban Affairs secretarysaid.

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In keeping with PrimeMinister Narendra Modi's

promise of delivering healthproducts at affordable costs,the Government on Thursdaylaunched a low-costbiodegradable sanitary napkins"Suvidha" to be available across586 districts through Centralmedicine distribution outletsJanaushadhi.

The set of four napkins willcost �10 as against existing cor-responding prices for similarpacks of non biodegradablepads being anywhere between�30 to �80.

"This is a special gift forwomen of India on the occasionof Women's Day. From theaverage price of �8 a napkin weare bringing down the cost to�2.50. These are the first

set of biodegradable sanitarynapkins to be available in themarket.

"These are muchcheaper thanCarefree, Stayfreeand Whisper padsavailable in the mar-kets," Union Ministerfor chemicals and fer-tilisers AnanthKumar said at a pressconference here.

The Suvidha nap-kins can be bought atall 3,200 jan aushad-hi stores across 586districts and are easyto use and dispose.

There has beenregular need for bio-degradable pads asthe non biodegrad-able sanitary padsbeing manufactured

on huge profits by top compa-nies contain chemicals, gelsand plastic sheets which make

them leak proof and pose healthhazards due to chemical con-tents.

Ananth Kumar saidSuvidha answered everyone'sconcerns by addressing allthree challenges around sani-tary pads - Suvidha, Swasthyaand Swachhta.

Suvidha sanitary pads arealso expected to be within thereach of the poor girls who dueto poor menustral hygieneface several health hazardssuch as fungal infections,reproductive tract infection,urinary tract infection.

According to an estimateby PATH, Water aid and WaterSupply and SanitationCollaborative Council , Indiagenerates an estimated 13tonnes of menustral wasteannually in the form of 12.3billion disposed sanaitary pads.

��� � *56�7589&

AParliamentary dele-gation from the

Republic of Korea,headed by Chung Sye-kyun, Speaker of theNational Assembly ofKorea, called on theVice-President andChairman, Rajya Sabha,M. Venkaiah Naidu inParliament House onThursday.

Welcoming the delegation,the Vice-President said thatrecent years have seenenhanced contacts betweenthe parliamentary institutionsof India and Korea and the pre-sent visit would add furthermomentum in this direction.He congratulated South Koreafor successfully hosting thePyeongchang Winter Olympicsin February this year.

Stressing the importance ofcivilisation linkages and deep

people to people bonds instrengthening the bilateral rela-tions, the Vice-President saidthat the growing ties betweenthe two countries are reflectedin the elevation of the rela-tionship to a 'Special StrategicPartnership' in the year 2015.

India sees Korea as a nat-ural partner for mutually ben-eficial development. Naidu saidIndia was keen to create abroad-based strategic partner-ship with Korea to harness thepotential of bilateral relations.

He expressed satisfactionthat our relationship has made.

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You can now know inadvance if you are prone to

genetic diseases, that too, with-in a week and at affordablerates.

The Council of Scientificand Industrial Research (CSIR)on Thursday entered into part-nership with PathLabs, one ofthe largest chain of diagnosticcentres in the country, to trans-fer the unique DNA basedtechnology GOMED(Genomics and other Omicstechnologies for EnablingMedical Decision) to enablediagnosis of close to 30 genet-ic diseases.

This is for the first timethat such tests would be donein the country itself. These testscover a variety of diseases/dis-orders such as movement dis-orders, motor neuron diseaseand Inborn error of metabo-

lism among others. (See Box)With seven crore Indians

affected by genetic diseases andthe diagnostic costs being exor-bitant, the CSIR's lab Institute ofGenomics Integrated Biology(IGIB) has developed GOMED,carrying out over 14,000 genet-ic tests and benefiting 4000plus needy patients in the coun-try in the last few years.

"Now, the testing facility for27 genetic diseases will becommercially available withDr Lal PathLabs which isexpected to use its wide net-work to cover large number ofpatients across the country,"said CSIR DG Dr. Girish Sahniadding that in many cases, anappropriate diagnosis is notarrived at, due to lack of gen-eral awareness, lack of accessand high-cost of services.

Dr Anurag Mathur, direc-tor of the IGIB said that earlygenetic diagnosis and treatment

of a large and increasing num-ber of genetic diseases likeAchondroplasia and Turnersyndrome could significantlyimprove the quality of life andoutcome of patients.

"Till now, we had to sendthe DNA samples to detectgenetic diseases abroad whichcame with huge bill, rangingbetween Rs 4000 to Rs 45,000,depending on the nature of test.

However, with this indige-nous technology, the cost willcome down by half while resulttime will also reduce," said DrAtul Thatai, National Head(Molecular Diagnostic andR&D) for Dr Lal PathLabs.

Dr Arvind Lal, from Dr LalPathLabs noted that availabilityof an accessible, affordable sys-tem and equitable access tosuch services is in keeping withPrime Minister's "Make In India"vision in healthcare sector.

BChE deficiency / Pharmacogenetic testing forSuxamethonium (Succinylcholine); OmennSyndrome; DPD Deficiency/ 5 FluorouracilPharmacogenomics; Thalassemia, Beta; Peutz-jeghersSyndrome; Lamellar Icthyosis; Dowling-degos dis-ease / Galli-galli disease; MegalencephalicLeukoencephalopathy with subcortical cysts; Canavandisease;

Achondroplasia; Tay Sachs disease; Melas, Merrf,Cpo,Leigh disease ad Narp; Myotonic dystrophy;Cerebral Arteriopathy, Autosomal; Dominant, withSubcortical Infarcts and Leukoencephalopathy,Cadasil; Spino-bulbar-muscular atrophy (SBMA);Episodic Ataxias; Familial Parkinson's disease;Autosomal Recessive Cerebellar Ataxias;Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis; Autosomal DominantCerebellar; Ataxias; Rasopathy; CongenitalHypothyroidism; Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis; X-linked Adrenoleukodystrophy; Metachromatic;Leukodystrophy; Congenital Myasthenia;Transthyretin Amyloidosis.

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With rapid urbanisation inIndia and most othercountries, the provisionof urban transportrequires some careful

planning and direction by which urbanresidents get access to satisfactory levelsof mobility. It is also important that urbandwellers spend their productive hours inactivities which add economic value andgive them satisfaction as well as a senseof achievement.

Transport-related problems in ourcities are a major determinant of adverseimpacts on the quality of life, includingunacceptable levels of exposure to air pol-lution. In fact, the efficiency of an urbanarea and living conditions of its popula-tion depend significantly on its infrastruc-ture for mobility. As it is, families in urbanareas are subjected to multiple forms ofstress because of the time spent at workand in coping with daily chores, partic-ularly in nuclear families. The time takenin commuting often for long durationsonly adds to occupational burdens thatpeople carry home from their workplaces.

A recent article carried by CNNdescribes the unusually difficult condi-tions which exist in a city like LosAngeles (LA), where persons spend con-siderable time every day driving from onelocation to the other. Like most other met-ropolitan areas, LA has continued to grow,which adds distance and time to travel.In the article referred to, it was estimat-ed that in LA, drivers spent an average of102 hours in traffic during peak periodsin 2017. As compared to this, the averagetime spent during peak hours in the sameyear was 91 hours in Moscow, 91 hoursin New York City, 74 hours in London and69 hours in Paris.

The provision of highways in LA doesnot help much either because thesestretch across the five most congested seg-ments of the city. LA’s congestion is afunction of the generally poor publictransport infrastructure and services.The result is that people have no choicebut to travel by passenger cars. However,even in areas generally well-served bypublic transport, overall driving times aremuch greater than by car.

Urban transport challenges are com-plex and varied and depend on the lay-out of the city. Often, the larger the city,the greater its complexity. The productiv-ity of an urban location is also highlydependent on the efficiency of its trans-port systems and its ability to movelabour, consumers and freight betweenvarious points of origin and destinationof transport. In cities which have ports,airports and railway yards within urbanlocations, the complexity of problemsincreases disproportionately.

In most cities, the supply side of trans-port infrastructure has generally notkept up with the demands for mobility.Motorisation has also expanded thedemand for parking space, which createsland-use problems, particularly in centralareas of cities. Hence, the problem of con-gestion is compounded further, becausedrivers are often looking for space forparking, which is often in short supply.Further, in several locations, traffic sig-nals are often not synchronised, whichalso adds to congestion.

Several cities have geographical char-acteristics, which are predisposed toinbuilt transport problems. If we turnagain to the example of LA, then the geo-graphical layout of Los Angeles Countyhad an area of 4,060 square miles and anestimated population of 10 million in2016. As compared to this, New York Cityhad an estimated population of 8.5 mil-lion in the same year but squeezed intoroughly 300 square miles of land area.Among Indian cities, Delhi has a largegeographical spread and the largest pop-ulation of cars; consequently, the wide-spread problems of congestion are becom-ing increasingly worse. The traffic inDelhi also happens to be one of the worstin respect of people following traffic rules.

If we look at the data for car owner-ship and population in major cities, LosAngeles County, with a population of 10million, has 7.8 million cars, Tokyo witha population of 9.3 million has 4.9 mil-lion cars, London with 8.6 million has 2.6million cars, and Singapore with a pop-

ulation of 5.6 million has 0.6 million cars. Once a city develops with a domi-

nance of private transport, a changebecomes extremely difficult. Often,adding road facilities does not solve theproblem because adding highway spaceincreases vehicle miles travelled. This isbecause with additional road facilities, the‘induced travel’ by car goes up, becausethe time and cost of driving between twopoints goes down, which attracts moredrivers on the expanded road infra-structure.

It is, therefore, essential that publictransport and detailed transport planningprecede increase in population anddemand for mobility. Ideally, efficienttransport patterns also involve greatermobility for pedestrians and bicycles.However, this requires consideration onthe part of the public for pedestrians andbicycles in the actual design of infrastruc-ture and facilities for these forms of trans-port. In many urban locations, a signifi-cant share of mobility is for generallyshort distances, which could easily be metby bicycles and pedestrian movement.But this requires a major attitudinalchange on the part of the public. In manyparts of India, for instance, zebra cross-ings, which require cars and motorisedtransport to stop for the convenience ofpedestrians, such traffic courtesy is gen-erally ignored by motorists.

What is needed in this country is notonly the planning and creation of appro-priate transport infrastructure but alsopublic education and an effective reduc-

tion of traffic violations so that all typesof passengers feel safe and are able to exer-cise their rights as citizens, whether theyare car owners or pedestrians.

Also, in India’s case, what is criticalis for major urban centres, and evensmaller towns and cities, to create exper-tise on transport planning in urban habi-tats. In cities which are planned as greenfield projects, the very layout of facilities,including centres of employment and liv-ing spaces, need to be designed in a man-ner that keeps the demand for transporta-tion in mind, and minimises road trips.

In those cities where large additionstake place, through developments such asDwarka in New Delhi, and several partsof Bengaluru, it is important that thetransport aspect is treated as an integralpart of the urban design. The benefits ofspecialised expertise for transport plan-ning and urban facilities, in general, willbring about major efficiency gains andcost reductions. Even old cities likeCopenhagen, Amsterdam and Zurichhave employed outstanding expertiseand political vision to revamp theirtransport systems for all-round benefits.

Significantly, consequent environ-mental benefits would also result in ahigher quality of life. It is time that specialisation is created in critical areassuch as urban transport design sinceIndia’s growing population is gettingrapidly urbanised.

(The writer is former chairman,Intergovernmental Panel on ClimateChange, 2002-15)�

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Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “Goodbye, Lenin” (March 8).The clash of civilisations is aphrase familiar to us in the con-text of geo-politics. We haveheard of it too often.

Interestingly, the disman-tling of statues is equated withthe demolition of ideologies,embodied and espoused by ourleaders. It is, therefore, more of‘the clash of ideologies’. Thisnew triumphalist phenomenonneeds to be stopped forthwithlest it marks the beginning of thereturn to the dark past.

India has the space to accom-modate the statues of all leaders,be they progressive or reac-tionary. After all, whether a per-son is a progressive, a reac-tionary, a freedom fighter or aterrorist is a matter of perceptionand opinion that varies.

India has been so tolerant acountry that it can boast of thestatues of Bhagat Singh andGodse. But the problem with theRight is that it is driven by the goal of a HinduRashtra and is not comfortablewith India’s composite culture. Itis futile to seek to banish plural-ism from a country composed ofdisparate communities and sub-nationalities with their dis-tinct identities.

However, much as zealotswish to believe otherwise, Indiais a mix of races and religionswith myriad strands for them tosuperimpose their skewed reli-gious nationalism on all the sub-structures.

G David MiltonMaruthancode

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Sir — This refers to the editorial,“Goodbye, Lenin” (March 8). Thebulldozing of the statue of Leninin Tripura and the vandalisationof the statue of DravidarKazhagam leader Periyar EVRamasamy in Tamil Nadu isbound to create tension andunrest. Statues are supposed to beerected as a mark of respect to theleaders. Those erecting statues for-get them after photo-ops andpublicity. It is high time we shedthe culture of statues if we want torespect them. Democracy is large-ly defined as a rule by the people,of the people and for the people.If this is followed in true spirit, wecan enjoy the success of democ-racy in society in its truest sense.

S VasudevanKodaikanal

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Sir — This refers to the article,“Army chief raised the right issue”(March 8) by Sandhya Jain. WhatArmy chief Bipin Rawat said wasthe truth. Vested interests, possi-bly supported and paid by forcesinimical to India, are in the fore-front to encourage immigration.India can learn from Bangladesh,which is planning to locateRohingyas to an uninhabitedisland in the Indian Ocean. TheGovernment must re-locateRohingyas away from the State ofJammu to island territories.

ArunVia web

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The characteristic chill of win-ter this year has been conspic-uous by its absence. The pre-

mature fading away of the winterseason is all too evident with the airconditioners being serviced andreadied in a flurry and woollensbeing mothballed and packed away.

This pattern of weather playingtruant is mainly due to the com-bined impact of climate change andglobal warming. In fact, accordingto the Indian Meteo-rologicalDepartment (IMD)’s prediction,this change in the weather is all setto get worse in the coming summermonths with severe heat wavesexpected to hit most of India.

The IMD estimates that there isa 52 per cent probability of grid

point maximum temperatures inthe core heat wave zone duringMarch to May 2018 to be abovenormal.

Scorching hot summer hasalready knocked the door of someStates such as Chhattisgarh, whichis recording higher than normaltemperatures. Chhattisgarh’s cur-rent maximum temperature isaround 37 degrees Celsius, which isthree to four degrees higher thanusual. The early onset of summermeans there is a higher probabili-ty of heat waves that too a bit earlythan the normal schedule.

Making things worse is theexpected change in seasonal aver-age temperatures which are expect-ed to be above normal by at leastone degree Celsius, especially in thenorthern and central parts of thecountry such as Jammu & Kashmir,Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh,Delhi, Himachal Pradesh,Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, UttarPradesh, parts of Madhya Pradesh,Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh andGujarat.

High temperatures are poised towreak a global havoc as well. It isexpected that if the greenhouse gasemissions continue to fuel globalwarming and climate change at thecurrent pace, the year 2040 will wit-ness urban areas registering 50degrees Celsius as average temper-ature, making sweltering tempera-tures a new normal for our cities.

These conditions can be detri-mental to human survival. Humanshave an upper limit to heat toler-ance; beyond which in extremecases, death occurs. Though humandeath rates do climb on extremelycold days too, fatalities increasemuch more steeply on extremelyhot and humid ones.

Heat by itself is not the majorrisk factor in heat waves but ratherit is a combination of heat andhumidity. Heat and humidity bothhave an effect on the body’s abilityto maintain its internal temperature.The internal temperature of thehuman body is 37 degrees Celsius,while the temperature on the sur-face is around 35 degrees Celsius.

Sweating is the key process tothis constant temperature modula-tion and the ability for moisture toevaporate is affected by heat andhumidity. While cold weather canbe tackled with warm clothes,avoiding heat stress requires accessto fans or air conditioning, whichis not always available.

The predictions of ultra-hightemperatures as new normal are notnew. A recent study by Massach-usetts Institute of Technology(MIT) also predicted that by theyear 2100, heat waves in South Asiawould carry heat and humiditybeyond the limits of human surviv-ability if current emission levelscontinue, and the worst part thenews is that India, Pakistan andBangladesh are likely to be the mostseverely hit countries.

As per the IMD prediction, heatwaves are going have to have freerun in 2018 and the intensity ofthese heat waves will impact most-ly the agricultural sector as thefarmers are exposed to sun. The citydwellers too will feel the pro-

nounced impact of heat waves as aheavy concentration of concrete andglass along with limited naturalcover increases ambient tempera-tures in the cities creating the heatisland effect. Studies have foundthat by 2100, cities could get up toas much as eight degree Celsius hot-ter than current levels. These fac-tors, combined with the typicallyround-the-clock physical labour incities, is set to cause heavy and dis-proportionate mortality in cities ascompared to the countryside.

Heat waves are now the secondbiggest natural cause of death.According to Government data,nearly 15,500 people have died ofheat strokes, more than floods,earthquakes and cold waves. Still, itis believed that ambiguity in deathsassociated with heat waves haskept the number down. It is diffi-cult to ascertain the role of heat inindividual deaths as it not onlycauses stroke but also affects thefunctioning of nearly every vitalbody organ.

Despite evidence of ever

increasing the risk associated withheat waves, the National DisasterManagement Act, 2005 and theNational Policy on DisasterManagement, 2009 do not consid-er them to be a natural calamity.

The Government, therefore, isunable to devote appropriate finan-cial and infrastructure resources tothe problem. This must be rectifiedimmediately. Though the State andlocal Governments have initiatedpreventive and adaptive action withcity-level action plans, the level ofconcerted action required is stilllacking and the mounting humanfatalities each summer are the proofof the same.

The Government needs toquickly embark on a twin objectivestrategy that not only seeks to cutback on the adverse impacts of ris-ing temperatures and heat wavesbut also aims at rolling back humanactivities that are contributing to thegreenhouse gas emissions and global warming

(The writer is an environmentaljournalist)

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This past November, the UnitedNations Office on Drugs andCrime (UNODC) released its

annual survey of opium poppy culti-vation in Afghanistan for 2017. As ever,the survey’s findings are hardly surpris-ing. They reflect periodic fluctuationsin the amount of opium poppy culti-vated and produced in the country. Lastyear, cultivation increased to 3,28,000hectares and production to nine thou-sand metric tonnes — a 87 per centincrease over 2016.

Indeed, drug production andother challenges currently facingAfghanistan, the US, and their com-mon allies are cumulative. They didnot spring up overnight. They havebeen evolving since the Taliban weredriven from power in late 2001. In thecase of narcotics trafficking, failure toproperly assess the problems causesand effects is encouraging mispercep-tions. Narcotics problem inAfghanistan has been cultivated by thepast four decades of war, destructionand human suffering. We know frominternational experience that globaldemand for narcotics finds its supplyin environments where State institu-tions are weak, where general insta-bility is high and where poverty is rife.

Although Afghanistan is copingwith such dire conditions today, thenumber of drug-free Provinces in thecountry has increased from six in 2006to 10 in 2017, according to UNODC.This progress has been achieved inProvinces where the Government is infirm control, delivering alternativeassistance to farmers and prosecutingdrug traffickers.

However, where the Writ of theGovernment is weak or has grownweaker, poppies have bloomed, despitethe presence of the US and NorthAtlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO)forces. In fact, 95 per cent of all ofAfghanistan’s opium is grown in justeight Provinces in the south-west, east,and north-east (Helmand, Kandahar,Farah, Nimroz, Uruzgan, Nangarhar,Balkh, and Badakhshan). In theseareas, there has been a growingTaliban presence and organised crim-inal groups remain strong.

Afghans understand that if theydo not eliminate drugs, then drugs willharm their health and eliminate theirlivelihoods. Of course, fighting nar-cotics is not Afghanistan’s businessalone, nor can the AfghanGovernment do it by itself unless itreceives help from its allies and thosewho join Afghanistan in the belief thatnarcotics is a common enemy of thewhole international community —one that takes millions of young livesacross the world every year, one thatspreads HIV/AIDS, one that financesurban violence and crime and one thatincreasingly fuels global terrorism andannually provides $200 million for the

Taliban’s brutal terrorist activities inAfghanistan.

On the whole, Afghan opium fuelsa global trade in heroin that generatesover $60 billion in profits for corruptofficials, drug traffickers, organisedcriminal groups and insurgents,according to the US Department ofState. The US Government seems tounderstand the need for a comprehen-sive solution. Former President BarackObama once stressed the need fornon-military forms of assistance: “Toadvance security, opportunity, and jus-tice — not just in Kabul, but from thebottom up in the provinces — we needagricultural specialists and educators;engineers and lawyers. That is how wecan help the Afghan Governmentserve its people, and develop aneconomy that isn’t dominated byillicit drugs”.

In the Afghan context, it is clearthat the best weapon against narcoticsis gradual, but steady prevention in theform of improved governance and ruleof law, sustainable alternative devel-opment and increased security. Quickfixes such as forced eradication ofpoppy crops merely target the effectsof poppy production — not its under-lying causes. We know from interna-tional experience that eradicationalone is ineffective. Decreases in cul-tivation in one area can simply leadto increases in another, and news ofimpending eradication efforts canprovoke growers to disperse cultiva-tion over a larger area, much likeinvestors diversifying portfolios tohedge risk.

Counter-narcotics efforts thenmust be enacted contemporaneously

across the country in a strategic man-ner. Above all, farmers must be giventhe opportunity and necessaryresources to grow alternative crops.The problem is exacerbated by the factthat most Afghan farmers are share-croppers, whose landlords dictatewhat they can grow.

Consequently, high-value opiumpoppy is the crop of choice. Liberatingfarmers from this cycle of dependencerequires that they have access to bothland and alternative financing, in par-ticular, micro-credit. Further, to makealternative crops more lucrative tofarmers, investments in infrastructureare needed. In addition to supplies ofwater, seed and fertiliser, farmersmust have access to reliable farm-to-market roads or to cold-storage facil-ities to preserve products for later ex-port. Today, besides the increasinglyinsecure ring road connecting Kabulto outlying Provinces, Afghanistanlacks a farm-to-market road system,and only a small number of Afghanshave access to electricity.

Once effective alternatives areavailable, farmers would have anincentive to try to make transitionaway from poppy cultivation withoutpaying a financial penalty. An initialgrace period could be extended,beyond which non-compliant farm-ers would face crop eradication andcriminal prosecution. For example, inthe western Province of Herat, farm-ers, who have been helped switchaway from growing poppy to saffron(a comparatively high-value crop),have done remarkably well. TheAfghan Ministry of Agriculture,Irrigation and Livestock (MAIL)

recently announced that Afghanfarmers have earned $18 million inrevenue from nearly eleven tons ofsaffron produced last year, surpassingthe estimated harvest. Even so, how-ever, the Taliban threaten farmers notto grow licit crops, while some coun-tries in the region, which also producesaffron, manipulate the saffron mar-ket against a fair competition, effec-tively discouraging Afghan farmers togrow the crop on a larger scale.

To be effective, counter-narcoticsefforts must target all players in thelong chain of the opium trade, includ-ing traffickers, distributors and deal-ers, who pull in about 80 per cent ofthe export value of Afghan narcotics.Essential to the prosecution of thesekingpins is a functional justice sector,with coordinated law enforcement andjudicial activities. Inadequate compen-sation, training, and equipment cur-rently limit the ability of the Afghanpolicemen and judges from effective-ly combating this threat.

However, even if the above prob-lems were gradually resolved withinternational support, transnationaldrug traffickers would continue topermeate Afghanistan’s borders andundermine the rule of law in theabsence of coordinated prosecutionand enforcement efforts amongAfghanistan, its neighbours and con-sumer countries. As President AshrafGhani once said: “Using and smug-gling of narcotics is a universal prob-lem, similar to international mafiawho through smuggling narcotics,subsidise the corrupt elements invarious countries”.

To address this internationalproblem, proactive regional cooper-ation is needed to implement theUnited Nations Security Council(UNSC) resolution 1818 of July2008 to curb the flow of precursorchemicals into Afghanistan andexport of narcotic products out of thecountry to the end-markets throughneighboring States.

The tenets of Islam, Afghan cul-ture, and the Afghan legal system allprohibit the production, consumptionand trafficking of drugs. Poor Afghanfarmers would honour these tenets ifthey were given a legal and viableoption. As UNODC’s annual surveysdemonstrate, periodic declines inpoppy cultivation could be reversedif the Afghan Government does notdeliver an effective combination ofcarrots to aid poor sharecroppers andsticks to enforce the law against high-value drug traffickers as the main dri-vers of drug production inAfghanistan.

The international community,led by the United States, must reviewand effectively double their counter-narcotics efforts on the global andregional levels, and recommit firmlyto provide Afghanistan with long-term law enforcement and alternativedevelopment resources necessary towin the drug war.

(The writer is the Director-Generalof Policy & Strategy of the Ministry ofForeign Affairs of Afghanistan and for-merly served as the country’s DeputyChief of Mission to India)

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Over the last four decades, aninter-collegiate debating

competition being held inChennai has emerged as one ofthe topmost event in the yearlycultural calendar of Tamil Nadu.

“Elihu Yale Inter CollegiateDebate, the flagship pro-gramme of the Indo AmericanAssociation draws not onlycolleges but even theUniversities in the State. Thishas been launched to help theyouth by offering them a plat-form for debate, discussion,dissent and develop,” saidPejavar Murari, former secre-tary to the President of India

who is the master brain behindthis high decibel event whichdraws Chennai’s cultural andintellectual czars.

The debate is named afterElihu Yale, President of FortSaint George, the highest postin this part of the country dur-ing the days of East IndiaCompany. The debate held onWednesday was the 44th edi-tion of this competition whichis being watched with interestand enthusiasm,” said Murari.

The IAA, working forstrengthening the people topeople relation in India andUnited States is hopeful ofinnovation in the educationsystem by the debating com-petition. “This will motivate the

students to explore their poten-tial and hone their skills inresearch, communication andpresentation,” said MeeraRamanathan, president, IAA.

Murari said the event waslaunched in 1973 and since thenthere was no looking back forthis thrilling and spirited debat-ing championship. The subjectselected for Wednesday’s con-test was “Monitoring TheMedia-Should we or Not?”.

P Shankar, former chief vig-ilance commissioner of Indiawho chaired the panel of judgeswas all praise for the participants.“The youngsters were reallyimpressive. Sure, the google hashelped them a lot but whatcaught the attention was they

were able to incorporate topicalevents and current affairs into thetopic making the whole day live-ly. Though I have seen some spir-ited discussions by media pro-fessionals about the issue, theseyoungsters embellished thedebate with incidents like the sit-in held at Marina Beach last yeardemanding the lifting of the banon Jallikkattu and how the socialmedia was exploited by them tosustain the protest,” said Shankar.

Stella Marry’s College,Chennai walked away with thecoveted rolling trophy. Whilethose who spoke against themonitoring of the mediadescribed it as an invasion intothe privacy and throttling ofdemocracy , those who spoke in

support of the motion rebuttedthe argument point by point andthat too within the allotted time.

“What made this eventmemorable is the enthusiasmand seriousness with whichMurari and Shankar, veteranbureaucrats who handled sen-sitive issues concerning thecountry showing the same pas-sion in organising an eventmeant for youngsters,” saidProf Shanaz Ahmed, principal,JBAS College for Women,which hosted this edition of thedebate. For the participantsand the audience, the eventturned out to be a new kind ofDerby with the best colts walk-ing away with the beautifullycarved trophy.

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Karnataka Chief MinisterSiddaramaiah on Thursday

denied he had asked prisonofficials to give jailed AIADMKleader, V K Sasikala specialamenities.

The Anti CorruptionBureau is investigating the caseafter a prison report submittedby DIG (Prisons) D Roopa inJuly, 2017 stated that Sasikalahad bribed �2 crore to seniorpolice officers to be given spe-cial treatment in prison. TheFormer Chief of Prisons, H NSatyanarayana Rao has saidthat he had received instruc-tions from the Chief Ministerto provide a cot, a mattress anda pillow in the prison. Roopahad accused her senior Rao ofgiving Sasikala special facilities.

Chief MinisterSiddaramaiah denied havinggiven any such instructions.

“A delegation from TamilNadu had come to me statingthat Sasikala was not evengiven a mat and pillow”, he said.“I asked him [the prisons chief]to see what help can be doneaccording to the jail manual. Ihad not asked [him] to givespecial amenities. I had said –give a mat and pillow if it isallowed under the jail manual.”,he added. He said Rao wasmaking baseless allegations.Rao has levelled baseless

charges against me,”Siddaramaiah said.

“The Anti-CorruptionBureau (ACB) has been inves-tigating alleged irregularities inthe jail.”

The State Home Minister,Ramalinga Reddy however hada different version. He saidSasikala had been given allthese comforts on a doctor’sadvice. “There is a 100-bedhospital within the jail premis-es,” Reddy said. “Sasikala hadhealth issues and the decisionto provide her with a bed andpillow was on medical advice.”

Sasikala was convicted inFebruary 2017 in an illegalassets case and sentenced tofour years in jail.

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India’s civil aviation sector waspoised to fly high and may

witness a compound growth of15% per annum for the next 20years eventually to surpassUnited States and China as thebiggest civil aviation market inthe world, experts at WingsIndia 2018 said. However toachieve this target the oil pricesshould remain soft at below 80$per barrel.

The biennial conferenceand exhibition of the civil avi-ation sector at the BegumpetAirport in Hyderabad was inau-gurated on Thursday by theSecretary Civil Aviation R NChaube and Telangana Ministerfor industries and commerce KTaraka Rama Rao.

Ten countries includingthe US, UK, France, Germany,Japan, Singapore, Malaysia,Iran and Italy and 25 States ofIndia were participating in thefour day event.

15 aircrafts of ATR, Honda,Trujet, Gulfstream, Boeing,Embraer, Dassault, Club OneAir, Aeroteck, Zook Air, AirIndia and NLA were at staticdisplay at the exhibition.

Union civil aviation min-ister P Ashok Gajapati Raju was

to inaugurated the event butdue to the dramatic overnightchange in political situationresulting in his resignationfrom cabinet cast its shadowson the event.

Addressing the inauguralsession RN Chaube said thatIndia was already the thirdbiggest civil aviation market inthe country and its size can dou-ble over the next four-five yearstaking the number of passengersper annum to 800 million.

While the growth over thelast three years was around 20%this year it was around 17.5%, hesaid. Giving an idea of the spurtin the growth in civil aviation inthe country he said that over thelast 67 years the fleet in thecountry had only 395 aircraftsbut during only three years onlyorders were placed for 900 air-crafts which will be deliveredover the next four-five years.

“Number of cities con-nected by air in 67 years wasonly 75 at the rate of just onecity per year. But with thelaunch of Regional connectiv-ity service to provide depth andconnectivity to hinterland andsmaller towns, in two years 56airports were awarded”, he said

Pointing out that 70% of theairtraffic in the country wasamong the 10-12 major cities,Chaube said that the emphasiswas now on connecting thesmaller cities and towns underUDAN or udega desh ka aamnagrik (common citizen will fly).

“Regional connectivity

needs creating more airportsand that needs land. Fortunatelywe have 400 airstrips in thecountry built at the time ofworld war II”, he said.

He said that air travel willnot be affordable if smaller air-crafts of 19, 42 or 72 seats wereflown to the smaller cities as thefare will be 50% more and costwill be one and a half timesmore. He said keeping this inview the Government took thesignificant political decisionof giving direct subsidy andupgrade the airports if the air-lines come forward to fly to thesmaller cities.

Of the 56 airports identified,18 have already become opera-tional and two new airports werebeing added every month and in6 to 8 months all the airports willbecome operational.

Talking of the 15% annualgrowth in the sector, Chaubesaid that in a country of 1.25billion people, one middle classperson flies one way only oncein four years because of lack ofconnectivity.

“if you take the airportcloser to the place of businessthere will be a growth of 15%every year. If only 400 millionpassenger fly two way once ina year it will mean 800 milliontickets”, he said.

The challenge will be dou-bling the capacity of the air-ports every four five years. Asland is not available in the citieswe will have to make the exist-ing airport efficient.

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In a major relief to suspend-ed IAS officer Pradeep

Sharma, Gujarat High Courton Thursday granted him bailin a money laundering caseregistered by the EnforcementDepartment.

Reacting positively onSharma’s bail application, JusticeAJ Desai rejected the Centre’srequest to stay the order for abrief period so agency couldapproach the Supreme Court.

The Gujarat cadre IAS offi-cer and former Kutch collectorSharma was arrested on July 31,2016, under the provisions ofPrevention of MoneyLaundering Act (PMLA) afterthe apex court vacated an inter-im stay on his arrest. On

January 4, 2018 a special PMLAcourt denied bail to Sharmaand he later approached theGujarat High Court.

He got bail as the SupremeCourt had read down Section45 of the PMLA that restrainedcourts from granting bail con-sidering proof of burden to con-vince the court of innocence layon the shoulders of the accused.The ED had registered a caseagainst Sharma basis caseslodged by CID (Crime) andAnti-Corruption Bureau of theState Government.

The cases relate to an allegedsanction of Government land atcheaper rate to Welspun IndiaLimited and its group companiesWelspun Power and Steel andWelspun Gujarat Style Rohranin Kutch district as part of the

suspected quid pro quo. Theprobe agency stated that Sharmahad sanctioned the land to thecompany in 2004 when he wasKutch collector. At that point oftime he was also chairman ofdistrict land evaluation andpricing committee of Kutch.

As per the probe agency’sclaim Sharma’s decision causeda loss of �1.2 crore to Stateexchequer. It also alleged thatin lieu of clearing land deal ata cheaper rate Sharma received�22 lakh on his wife Shyamal’sname. ED also claimed thatShyamal invested hardly �1lakh in a company namedValue Packaging and in returnshe constantly received croresof rupees in her and their chil-dren’s accounts in USA viaDubai through ‘hawala’.

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The Supreme Court verdictthat set aside the annul-

ment of the marriage of hisonly daughter Akhila (Hadiya)with Muslim youth ShaffinJahan by the Kerala High Courtis indeed a blow to KMAsokan, but it did not takemore than a few minutes forthe former Indian Army soldierto come out of that shock andState with determination, “Iwill continue the legal battle.”

Observing that theSupreme Court’s verdict wasnot complete, Asokan toldnewsmen on Thursday after-noon at his house at TVPuram, Vaikom in Kerala’sKottayam district, “Only (theHigh Court verdict annulling)the marriage has been set aside.

The NIA investigation againstShaffin Jahan has not been can-celled. That must be becauseShaffin is an extremist.”

Asokan was on his way tohis house from Kochi to wherehe had gone for some affairsconnected with the Hadiyacase on Thursday when theSupreme Court pronounced

its order scrapping the HighCourt order that annulled hisdaughter’s marriage withShaffin Jahan, which hasallegedly been a case of LoveJehad.

“When the court has saidthat the marriage is legal andvalid, we cannot say anythingagainst it. It is not proper to

criticise that decision. But, ofcourse, such a verdict willcause a lot of mental pain toany father whose daughterhas married an extremist. Iwant to speak about it but I amnot speaking about it now,”Asokan said.

Stating that he wouldexamine the possibilities of fil-ing a review petition overThursday’s Supreme Courtdecision, Asokan said that themarriage between his daughterand the Muslim youth was anact of “adjustment”. “I will tryonce again to convince thecourt that the marriage was asham, an adjustment. I will cer-tainly go ahead with my legalbattle,” he said.

“When I filed the habeascorpus writ in the High Court(Hadia’s) marriage had nottaken place. But when she wasbrought to the court later, sheand Shaffin had got married.This makes it clear that the

marriage had been an act ofadjustment,” Asokan, who hadstarted the battle to get hisdaughter off the alleged Islamisttrap over two years ago, said.

Hindu woman Akhila, 25,had embraced Islam andassumed the name of Hadia in2015 when she was a student ofHomeopathy medicine inSalem, Tamil Nadu. She hadmarried Shaffin Jahan, who isaccused of being an activist ofIslamist outfit SDPI and of hav-ing close connections withIslamic State (ISIS) operatives,on December 19, 2016.

The sensational Hadia casestarted with Asokan approach-ing the Kerala High Courtseeking her custody early 2016.The High Court annulled themarriage and entrusted hercustody with Asokan on May24 last year. Shaffin then movedthe Supreme Court seekingannulment of the High Courtverdict.

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Alleged Trinamool Congresscadre raring to realise

Mamata Banerjee’s dream of aclash-less Bengal on Thursdaydid to their BJP counterpartswhat they have been doing tothe Marxist comrades for thepast seven years: Beating themblack and blue in broad day-light even as a helpless policeforce conveniently looked theother way.

The Trinamool men whopublicly chased and muggedthe saffron cadre were pro-voked by the BJP’ desperationto consecrate the statue ofparty ideologue Shyama PrasadMukherjee vandalised anddefiled by a group of extremeLeftists who vented their ire onMukherjee’s bust a day afteralleged saffron followers pulleddown the statue of Marxist iconV.I. Lenin near Agartala in

Tripura.Even as a procession led by

State BJP president Dilip Ghoshneared the CR Das Park atKeoratala to consecrate ShyamaPrasad Mukherjee’s statue withmilk and Ganges water hun-dreds of Trinamool supporterspounced on the BJP, localssaid adding “even women andaged were not spared.”

“We are not criminals. Wewere just proceeding to per-form a lawful act to consecratethe bust of one of India’s great-est icons but Mamata Banerjee’spolice stopped us from doingso. Not only this they allowedthe Trinamool goons to beat upour workers,” Ghosh who aban-doned the programme anddemanded an immediate pro-posal from the Government torefurbish Mukherjee’s statue“failing which we will start aStatewide agitation fromtomorrow.”

Notwithstanding whoreceived the jolt about 27 BJPsupporters were arrested by thepolice, sources said.

Banerjee who was at thetime delivering a speech some-where else said herGovernment never supportedthe idea of breaking statues ofgreat men “be it Lenin, orHochi Minh or Ambedkar orPeriyar or for that matterShyama Prasad Mukherjee,”and “our Government willresist such acts of violence.”

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The desecration of statues ofleaders continued on thurs-

day with busts of MahatmaGandhi and BR Ambedkarbeing found defaced in Keralaand Tamil Nadu, respectively.

A 42-year-old man,Dinesan, was arrested in con-nection with the defacing ofMahatma Gandhi statue inKannur district of Kerala,police said.

Police said he was mental-ly unsound and later releasedon bail. Gandhi's bust near theThaliparamba taluk office wasfound defaced in the morningwith its spectacle carving dam-aged and a garland on it seenlying nearby.

Meanwhile, at a residentiallocality in Chennai, a bust of

Dalit icon B R Ambedkar wasfound with paint smeared on itsface and head.The bust isplaced inside a structure cov-ered with a grill in a residen-tial neighbourhood inTiruvotriyur in North Chennai.Police assured the agitatedlocal people that action wouldbe taken against the culprits.

“Based on a complaintfrom the local people, we haveregistered an FIR and two spe-cial teams have been formed totrace the culprits,” DeputyPolice Commissioner GShashank Sai said.

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Taking serious view ofattempts to disturb peace in

the State by vandalising statuesof prominent icons, ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath onThursday directed officials totake stern action against thoseinvolved in such activities.

Yogi asked officers thatincident like Meerut whereDalit icon Dr BR Ambedkar’sstatue was vandalised shouldnot be repeated. The CM’sdirections come amid a spate ofincidents targeting statues andbusts of icons in the countryreported in the last 24 hours.

Both Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and the UnionHome Minister have alreadyexpressed concern onWednesday and issued ordersto check such unlawful activi-ties hurting the sentiments ofthe public.

“Maintaining law andorder is the priority of the Stateand the Government will takestrict action against those

involved in vitiating it. Districtpolice chiefs should remainalert and ensure security ofstatues of icons,” Yogi assertedin Lucknow on Thursday.

Through an official com-munique released in Lucknowon Thursday evening, Yogisaid that strict action be takenagainst those involved in theMeerut incident and measuresbe taken to ensure that such

incidents did not recur. Thestatue of Dr Ambedkar wasvandalised on Tuesday andreplaced by the administrationon Wednesday.

On Wednesday, a bust ofJana Sangh founder SyamaPrasad Mookerjee was dam-aged in Kolkata after the raz-ing of statues of Soviet iconVladimir Illyich Uliyanov akaLenin in Tripura a day before.

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Mamata Banerjee onThursday called upon the

women of India to unite andthrow BJP out of power in2019. The Bengal ChiefMinister who was addressing agathering of TrinamoolCongress women’s wing saidthe saffron outfit was thebiggest threat to India’s unityand had to bepulled down tosave the great nation.

“I appeal to all the womenof India to unite against theBJP if you want to save thisgreat nation, its rich culture,society, economy right up tothe individual family level”because the saffron outfit wasthe “biggest threat to India,”she said once again attackingthe Narendra ModiGovernment for using apartfrom money power, the cen-tral agencies and forces todestablise the regionalGovernments “as it did inTripura.”

She said, “we have all theevidences and documents to

show how the BSF is being usedto distribute money in the bor-der districts of Bengal to createpolitical unrest,” insisting “weknow full well how the centralagencies and forces were usedin Tripura to win the electionswith sheer money power.”

Apparently nervous aboutthe possible impact of saffronoutfit’s phenomenal success inthe North-eastern State inBengal, Banerjee otherwise astrong communist-baiter saidthe BJP splurged money like

water in Tripura to win theelections there and blamed theLeft Front for failing to seethrough the saffron outfit’s“nefarious designs.”

Even after using the centralforces, spending so much ofmoney, engineering defectionin the Congress and striking anunholy alliance with the localtribal parities by promisingthem a State by breakingTripura the BJP won the elec-tion there by a narrow margin,she said.

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YSR Congress president andleader of opposition in

Andhra Pradesh Assembly YSJaganmohan Reddy has saidthat he was willing to supportany party which gives SpecialCategory Status to AndhraPradesh. “If the BJP does notgive the SCS there is no ques-tion of supporting”, he said.

Talking to the mediaSantarapur village inPrakasham district this morn-ing during the course of hisongoing state wide PadyatraJaganmohan Reddy termedTelugu Desam’s decision topull out its two ministers fromthe NDA government at theCentre as “people’s victory”.

Reacting to Chief MinisterN Chandrababu Naidu’sannouncement that his partywas quitting the NDA govern-ment in protest over Centre’srefusal to give SCS to the state,Jaganmohan Reddy said, “It isthe result of people’s pressure. Itis the victory of the people ofAndhra Pradesh. ChandrababuNaidu had to bow before thepeople’s wishes”.

Announcing that YSRCongress will move a no trustmotion against Narendra Modigovernment in Parliament onMarch 21 he said that if TDP

was sincere in its fight for SCS,it should support the motion. “IfTDP moves no trust motion weare ready to support it”, he said.“If all the 25 Lok Sabha mem-bers from the state resign onMarch 21, it will become a sub-ject of discussion all over thecountry. Then the Centre will beforced to comedown”, he said.

Jaganmohan Reddy ques-tioned the sincerity of Naidu’sdecision to quit the Union cab-inet while continuing to remainin the NDA as alliance partner.“What is the meaning of this”,he asked. He also wanted toknow why Naidu wanted to talkto Modi after deciding to pullout his party of the cabinet.

Holding both the TDP andthe BJP responsible for thebifurcation of Andhra Pradeshin 2014, he said that the YSRCPwas the only party which stead-fastly opposed it.

Pointing out that nothingwas new in yesterday’s statementof Union Finance MinisterArun Jaitely rejecting thedemand for SCS, JaganmohanReddy said that Naidu shouldhave come out of NDA whenJaitely had made a similar state-ment long ago. “If he had comeout soon after the first statementof Jaitely rejecting the SCS, sit-uation would have been totallydifferent”, he said.

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Very next day of withdraw-ing from two TDP Union

Ministers from the ModiGovernment, the ChandrababuNaidu Government presentedits Budget for Andhra Pradeshfor FY 2018-19 with an outlayof �191603.61 Crores 21.70%higher than 2017-18 outlay�156999.40 crores.

On Thursday, State’sFinance Minister YanamalaRamakrishnudu presented theoverall Budget. Whereas, StateMinister for Agriculture, SChandramohan Reddy has pre-sented a separate Budget forAgriculture and allied services.Apart from State Budget pri-orities, he also spoke about theVision 2022, 2029 and 2050and the commitment of theGovernment towards differ-ent welfare measures. Hebriefed how the TDPGovernment made allocationstowards uplifting the farmingcommunity, healthcare andtowards establishing a knowl-edge economy by introducingthe latest technology to educa-tional pedagogies.

As Finance Minister, whilepresenting his 10th Budget,Yanamala said “look at the sky.We are not alone. The whole uni-verse is friendly towards us andconspires only give the best thosewho dream and work”, anddeclared Chandra BabuGovernment Policy is as “FirstPeople”. He said, “because of theapathy shown by UnionGovernment in implementationof rights declared inReorganisation Act and thepromises given by the PrimeMinister, is effecting growth verybadly as State is suffering withheavy revenue deficit”, and added“because of unruly bifurcation,Andhra Pradesh has lost maineconomic sourcing City and ser-vice sectors. For years period isvery less to re-build a woundedState. Though, Chandra BabuGovernment is committed to2022, 2029 and 2050 targets”.

“It is important to note thatState Government is proposinga revenue surplus budget forthe year 2018-19 anticipatingthat the Government of Indiawould release all the dues as perthe AP Reorganisation Act,2014 at least this year”, he told.

The Receipts on Revenue

Account during the year 2018-19 are estimated at �1,55,507.23crores as against �1,23,254.01crores during 2017-18 (RevisedEstimate).

The expenditure is esti-mated to be �1,50,271.99 croresas against the expenditure of�1,27272.02 crores during2017-18 (Revised Estimate).

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Varanasi, the Lok Sabha con-stituency represented by

Prime Minister Narendra Modi,would be the venue for the 70thbirthday of late J Jayalalithaa, theformer Chief Minister of TamilNadu who also was the gener-al secretary of the AIADMK.Saturday will see nearly 3,000AIADMK delegates from vari-ous parts of Uttar Pradeshjassembling at Varanasi underthe auspices of Dr Mythreryan,MP and senior leader.

“In 2014 many people fromNorth India had joined theAIADMK . Our party has unitsin New Delhi, Maharashtra,Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh andAndaman islands. But theAIADMK units in these placeshave only Tamils as members.It is a different story in UPwhere the Hindi-speaking peo-ple constitute the majority ofthe party,” Dr Mythreyan toldThe Pioneer.

He said taking into accountthe personal friendshipbetween the Prime Ministerand the late AIADMK supre-mo, it was felt that the ideal

venue to observe the birthanniversary of Amma would beVaranasi. “The Prime Ministerhad visited Chennai onFebruary 24, the birth anniver-sary of Amma, to inaugurateone of her pet programmes-distribution of subsidised twowheelers to working women inTamil Nadu,” said Mythreyan.

Saturday will see manypoojas and homams in thetemples in the city as a mark ofrespect to the late AIADMKleader. “We are also honouring70 senior citizens by offeringthem veshtis and sarees.. Themeeting will also discuss howto strengthen the party in theHindi belt,” said Mythreyanwho disclosed that there weremore than 10,000 members ofthe party in UP itself.

The AIADMK MPs may beon a warpath with the Centreover the delay in constitutingthe Cauvery ManagementBoard as per the verdict of theSupreme Court. But it has notcome in the way to expressgratitude to the Prime Ministerfor flying down to Chennai toinaugurate the two-wheelerscheme for women, accordingto Mythreyan.

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The Telgu Desam Party’srigid stand over demand

for special category status toAndhra Pradesh, Bihar leaders,including the ruling alliancepartner JD(U), have also start-ed reviving their old demandfor similar status to Bihar. Thismight not go down well withthe BJP which has alreadyturned down such demandsand instead offered specialpackage. Even as ChiefMinister Nitish Kumar, thearchitect of this demand, hasnot made any comment someof the leaders of his party havecome out in support ofChandrababu Naidu and askedCentre to meet their demand.

A day after Andhra CMNaidu’s decision to pull out ofCentre’s NDA Government inprotest, JD(U) leaders herereiterated their demand. Biharbuilding construction ministerMaheshwar Hazari said onThursday, “Ours is an olddemand. Bihar should get spe-cial category status.” He alsoclaimed that Nitish would soonmeet the PM on this issue verysoon. A similar statement alsocame from sidelined JD(U)leader Pavan Kumar Varma,

once Nitish’s close confident,but the party in no time dis-tanced itself from Varma’sviews.

JD(U) general secretaryKC Tyagi said, “We agree witha part of what Mr Pavan Vermahas tweeted out. Special cate-gory status is essential for thedevelopment of Bihar.However, JD(U) is not dissat-isfied or angry when it comesto NDA . It was his personalview.”

However Bihar JD(U)spokesman Neeraj Kumar said,“Demand of special status toBihar is a unanimous decisionof the state legislature. Ourdemand is still active. Bihardevelopment is our primefocus.”

Calling Nitish “spineless”,his former deputy and nowleader of opposition in BiharAssembly Tejashwi PrasadYadav hit out at the CM. Hesaid, “Nitish should take a les-son from Naidu. If PMNarendra Modi and Centrerejects this demand, the CMshould resign and breakalliance with the BJP on the callof his conscience. Kuch tohhimmat dikhaye chacha ji(Uncle please show somecourage).

Lalu Prasad who is in jailin Ranchi tweeted, “Why Biharis not getting special categorystatus when at Centre and inBihar NDA is in power? IfNitish does not want this sta-tus for Bihar or BJP does notwant to accord this status? Tellthe people clearly why thisdemand is not met and who isresponsible for it.”

In another tweet Lalu com-mented, “How many coinsBihar got after PM Modiannounced �1.65 lakh croreeconomic package? Himmathai toh batao kitna mila? (Tellus, if you have courage, howmuch Bihar got. Dhela nahimila dhela (Not even a pennycame).”

Bihar’s demand for specialcategory status is over a decadeold when Nitish launched apublic campaign, millions ofsignatures were collected andpresented to the President,the CM sat on ‘Upvas’ (fast),held two mega rallies in Patnaand Delhi and hammered theUPA Government constantly.But during the last sevenmonths after the JD(U)realigned with the BJP afterparting ways with RJD of LaluPrasad, this demand was puton backburner.

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In another move in appease-ment politics ahead of the

polls, Karnataka Chief MinisterSiddaramaiah has approved ofa Kannada flag to play toKannada pride. The Cabinet onThursday has approved a flagfor Karnataka recommendedby a flag committee set up lastyear by the ruling CongressGovernment.

The “Naada Dhwaja” hasyellow, white and red colours inthree strips and the stateemblem–the “Ganda Berunda”,a two headed mythical bird inthe middle on the white strip.

The KannadaDevelopment AuthorityChairman , S.G. Siddaramaiahpresented the design of the flagto the Karnataka ChiefMinister Siddaramaiah inVidhana Soudha. The ChiefMinister assured them thatthey would send it to the HomeMinistry in the Centre forapproval.

The BJP had opposed thismove when the Committeethat designed the flag was setup last year.

The Chief Minister saidhaving a state flag was notunconstitutional. “The onlything is we have to hoist itbelow the national flag, whichwe will anyway do.”

Karnataka has had anunofficial flag since the mid1960s. If the flag is approvedby the Centre, Karnataka willbe the second state after Jammu& Kashmir to have its own flag.

For both the BJP andCongress Karnataka polls arecrucial and people of the stateare witnessing a high voltagecampaign.

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Bharatiya Janata Party haswithdrawn their two

Ministers from theChandrababu Naidu Cabinetin reaction to the withdrawaldecision of TDP from theModi Cabinet. On Thursday,State Ministers KamineniSrinivas and Manikyala Raohave submitted their resigna-tions to the Chief Minister inhis Chambers located in theState Assembly.

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NIT NO. 55/(S-I) (2017-18)S. Name of work Estimated Date of release Last date/time of No. cost of tender in receipt of tender

e- procurement through e- procurementsolution solution

1 Improvement of water supply in Rajokari 33,17,705/- 2018_DJB_ 26.03.2018 village at different locations by replacement 146791_1 upto 3:00 PMof old /damaged water line by 100mm dia 07.03.2018DI water line in Mehrauli Constituency (AC- 45) under EE(South)-I

2 Replacement of old /damaged sewer lines of 33,70,764/- 2018_DJB _ 26.03.2018Masoodpur village under EE(South)-I 146791 _2 upto 3:00 PM

07.03.2018

NIT along with all the terms & conditions is available on Web Site https://govtprocurement.delhi.gov.in.

ISSUED BY P.R.O. (WATER) Sd/-Advt. No. J.S.V. 572/2017-18 EXECUTIVE ENGINEER (SOUTH)-I

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Markets staged a smart comebackon Thursday after six straightsessions of losses as investors

piled into recently hammered stocksamid positive global cues.

The BSE Sensex zoomed 318 pointsto end at 33,351.57, while the broaderNifty spurted 88 points to 10,242.65.

Benchmarks benefited from valuebuying in beaten-down stocks and afirm trend in overseas markets asfears of a global trade war eased afterthe White House signalled it wouldwater down plans for contentiousmetal tariffs, brokers said.

Stocks of state-run lenders staged arebound in late afternoon trade onshort-covering, they added.

The 30-share Sensex stayed in thepositive zone throughout the session onunabated buying by domestic institu-tional as well as retail investors and hita high of 33,439.97. It finally settledat 33,351.57, showing a robust gain of318.48 points, or 0.96 per cent.

This is its biggest single-day gainsince February 23, when it hadjumped 322.65 points.

The index had lost 1,412.66 pointsin the previous six sessions on negativedomestic as well as global cues.

The broader NSE Nifty reclaimedthe key 10,200-mark and touched a highof 10,270.35, before finally settling at10,242.65, showing a sizeable gain of88.45 points, or 0.87 per cent. Intra-day,it hit a low of 10,146.40.

“Market reversed from the last sixdays losing streak as ease in trade warconcerns and short covering in PSUbanks supported the rally. Mid andsmall caps continued to underperform,as investors are still jittery waiting forfurther ease in valuation,” said VinodNair, Head of Research, GeojitFinancial Services.

Meanwhile, domestic institution-al investors (DIIs) had net boughtshares worth �409.34 crore, while for-eign portfolio investors (FPIs) soldshares worth �719.78 crore onWednesday, as per provisional data.

Steel and aluminium stocksclimbed, with Nalco and HindustanZinc gaining 1.83 per cent and 1.15 per

cent. Other metal stocks gained up to0.84 per cent, led by Jindal Steel,NMDC, SAIL and JSW Steel.

Shares of Bhushan Steel rose16.26 per cent as Tata Steel emergedas the highest bidder to acquire thedebt-laden firm. Tata Steel endedlower by 1.98 per cent.

SBI was the biggest gainer in theSensex pack, spurting 4.09 per cent.Other gainers were ICICI Bank, AdaniPorts, M&M, RIL, HDFC Ltd, AsianPaints, L&T, NTPC, Infosys, MarutiSuzuki, Power Grid, Hero MotoCorp andBajaj Auto, gaining up to 2.13 per cent.

Losses in Sun Pharma, Yes Bank,TCS, Tata Motors, Kotak Bank andONGC limited the upside.

Shares of telecom stocks MTNL,Bharti Airtel and Idea fell up to 1.19 percent, despite the Cabinet on Wednesdayclearing a relief package for the debt-rid-den sector, giving more time to opera-tors to pay for the spectrum bought inauctions. It also relaxed the spectrumholding limit for the telecom operators.

The BSE realty index took the poleposition among sectoral indices, rising1.63 per cent, followed by bankex (1.43per cent), capital goods (1.12 percent), auto (0.92 per cent), power(0.88 per cent), consumer durables(0.78 per cent), PSU (0.60 per cent),oil & gas (0.45 per cent), infrastruc-ture (0.28 per cent), IT (0.26 per cent)and teck (0.18 per cent).

Metal, healthcare and FMCG endedin the negative zone.

Gitanjali Gems slumped 5 per centto hit its fresh 52-week low of �16.60 onthe BSE. This is the 16th straight sessionof fall for the stock. It has lost as as muchas 73.58 per cent since February 14, theday the PNB fraud came to light.

In the broader markets, the mid-capindex moved up 0.56 per cent while thesmall-cap index gained 0.50 per cent.

Globally, there was a firm trendin Asia coupled with a higher open-ing in European markets as investorsawaited a regular policy meeting ofthe European Central Bank.

In the Asian region, Japan'sNikkei ended 0.54 per cent higher,Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 1.52 percent, while Shanghai CompositeIndex was up 0.51 per cent.

����� *56�7589&

The Government onThursday sought

Parliament's nod for a net addi-tional cash spending of �85,315crore in the current fiscal end-ing this month, 70 per cent ofwhich will go towards com-pensating states for revenueloss suffered post the Goodsand Services Tax (GST) rollout.

Minister of State forParliamentary Affairs ArjunRam Meghwal moved thefourth batch of SupplementaryDemands for Grants for 2017-18 in the Lok Sabha.

The additional expenditureis being incurred to match therevised estimates provided inthe Budget and will not impactthe 3.5 per cent fiscal deficit.

As per the SupplementaryDemands for Grants, thegross additional expenditurewould be over �9.06 lakhcrore and this would bematched by over �8.21 lakhcrore savings by various min-istries and departments.

The net cash outgo from theexchequer would aggregate to�85,315.30 crore, as per theFinance Ministry document.

A bulk of the net cashoutgo would be spent to com-pensate states on account ofrevenue loss suffered due tothe implementation of GST aswell as for phasing out ofCentral Sales Tax (CST). GSTwas rolled out on July 1.

A total of �61,215.58

crore, which is about 71 percent of �85,315 crore, hasbeen earmarked for theDepartment of Revenue.

This includes �58,999 croreto be paid for revenue loss tostates on account of revenue losspost GST implementation and�1,384 crore to be paid as CSTcompensation.

Another major spendinghead is �15,065.65 croretowards grants in aid and cre-ation of capital assets undervarious schemes, while �9,260crore has been earmarked forpaying pensions to defencepersonnel. Besides, �5,721.90crore would be spent on meet-ing expenditure towards inter-est payment on market loansand treasury bills.

In the Union Budget

2018-19 presented onFebruary 1, Finance MinisterArun Jaitley revised the fiscaldeficit target for the currentfiscal ending on March 31 to3.5 per cent of GDP from 3.2per cent previous target.

For the next fiscal (2018-19), he projected a fiscal deficitof 3.3 per cent of GDP asopposed to 3 per cent previouslyannounced.

The government is likely tointroduce amendments to theFRBM Act in the ongoingBudget Session of Parliament,specifying the fiscal consolida-tion roadmap.

As per this roadmap, the fis-cal deficit will be lowered to 3.3per cent in the next fiscal start-ing April 1; 3.1 per cent in 2019-20, and 3 per cent by 2020-21.

�� �� *56�7589&

Larsen & Toubro (L&T) onThursday moved the NCLT seek-

ing higher priority in getting its duesfrom debt-laden Bhushan Steel whichis undergoing insolvency proceedings.

Counsels appearing for Larsen &Toubro submitted before the benchthat the company owes it �9 billion(�900 crore) in dues for supply ofcapital goods.

The engineering and construc-tion major has asked NationalCompany Law Tribunal (NCLT) toacknowledge it as a secured credi-tor for Bhushan Steel.

The NCLT bench has asked theresolution professionals to share their

stand on the matter. The tribunal haslisted L&T's plea in Bhushan Steel caseon March 23.

Tata Steel on Wednesday said it

has been identified as the highest bid-der for acquiring controlling stake inthe Bhushan Steel undergoing insol-vency proceedings.

Besides, JSW Living Pvt Ltd (ajoint venture between JSW andPiramal Enterprises), and a consor-tium of the Bhushan Steel's ownemployees had submitted bids to takeover assets of the bankrupt firm.

The last day to submit bids wasFebruary 3, 2018.

Tata Steel had said in Wednesday'sstatement that it ‘has received a for-mal communication from the resolu-tion professional (RP) of BhushanSteel Ltd that it has been identified asthe highest evaluated compliant res-olution applicant to acquire control-ling stake of BSL under CorporateInsolvency Resolution Process (CIRP)of the IBC, as decided in the meetingof CoC of BSL on March 6’.

����� *56�7589&

The Direct Tax collection hasrisen 19.5 per cent to �7.44

lakh crore in the April-Februaryperiod of the current fiscal,buoyed by a strong pick up incorporate tax.

The netdirect tax col-lection repre-sents 74.3 percent of the�10.05 lakhcrore as perthe revisede s t i m a t e sgiven in UnionBudget 2018-19, presentedin Parliament last month.

“The provisional figuresof direct tax collections up toFebruary, 2018 show that netcollections are at �7.44 lakhcrore which is 19.5 per centhigher than the net collec-tions for the correspondingperiod of last year,” a FinanceMinistry statement said.

The gross collections,before adjusting for refunds,rose 14.5 per cent to �8.83lakh crore during 11 monthperiod of the current finan-cial year. Refunds amountingto �1.39 lakh crore have beenissued till February.

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Leading stock exchange NSEon Thursday said it hopes to

float its initial public offer(IPO) next fiscal even as mar-kets regulator Securities andExchange Board of India (SEBI)returned its consent applicationin a high-profile probe into theco-location issue.

The exchange's �10,000crore IPO has been delayedbecause of the probe in the co-location matter and the regu-lator had earlier issued showcause notices to several indi-viduals as well as the exchange,while the role of some brokersis also being probed.

“The timeline for theIPO is dependent on the res-olution of the regulatorymatters with SEBI and we arehopeful we will be able to dothe IPO in fiscal 2019,” NSEsaid in a statement.

The exchange said thatSEBI has returned its consentapplication in the co-locationprobe due to ongoing inves-tigations in the case.

Further, the NSE (NationalStock Exchange) said it is com-mitted to resolving the regu-latory issues expeditiously.

The exchange had filed thesettlement application withSEBI in July last year.

It had sought a settlementwith the regulator in connec-

tion with a probe relating toallegations of unfair access toits high frequency trading sys-tems to some brokers.

The NSE said it can file theconsent application after thecompletion of the investiga-tions and it intends to do thesame in due course.

A consent settlement allowsentities to settle charges by pay-ing a penalty without admissionor denial of guilt.

According to regulatorysources, SEBI has returned NSE'ssettlement plea as the probe is atcritical position with regard tobrokers and former senior exec-utives of the exchange.

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��How did the HCL Grant come to be?This is part of our Corporate Social

Responsibility (CSR) initiative throughthe HCL Foundation and it started in2015, and we wanted to look at the valu-able contributions made by Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs).And since we were also initiating our-selves into CSR, we also wanted tolearn from NGOs. Then our Founder-Chairman Shiv Nadar also said thatwhile we know that the governmentis based on three estates — theExecutive, Legislature and Judiciary,and we have always known about therole of a free media as the fourthestate, we defined non-governmentalorganisations as the fifth estate.

So, in 2015 we started the grant andgiven that Mr. Nadar has an interest ineducation we started with that sectorwith several applications for the grant,especially in the area of Hindi educa-tion and in 2016 we added Health andEnvironment also.

Again, we took a very broad spec-trum approach. For example in educa-tion we look at primary, secondary andhigher education, we look at inclusion.In health we also kept it quite broadspectrum as we have in the environmentsector, although everything revolvesaround conservation.

So we conceptualised the HCLGrant and it was open for all NGOsto apply, and the moment we openedup health and environment the num-ber of applications and registrationsgrew significantly. We do a grant of�5 crore each, and the recipient getsa �5 crore grant for a specific three-five year project.

��And how are the recipients selected?It is a very robust process, of

course, being an IT company we realisethe value of technology enhancing thereach of NGO’s to approach us and vice-versa, so we have an online portal. InIndia there are very few CSR grants thathave an online portal. So NGOs can goto the site and register and give an idea

of the project they want the grant for.We have kept it quite simple, so thatNGOs from all over India and all sizes,although there is a slight eligibility cri-teria, where in the environment cate-gory the NGO should have an annualbudget of �50 lakhs and in the healthand education categories they shouldhave an annual budget of �1.5 crores.

��So as to not overwhelm themselves?Well, most of the NGO’s that apply,

all have a budget of at least a crore, inenvironment also most NGO’s have abudget of around �75 lakhs. In the

health and education space, however,most NGO’s have higher budgetsbecause they are institutionalised oneway or another.

Also we want an NGO with tenyears of experience, a legal life of tenyears and in environment at least fiveyears. The reason for relaxation in envi-ronment is that the environment spaceis still quite new, the workings in the sci-ence and methods in the environmen-tal space are also quite new whereashealth and education are more con-ventional spaces. The reason for keep-ing some limit is because we also

believe in strong governance and webelieve that the success of the chosenprogram will be backed by strong gov-ernance and have experience of man-aging money and a �5 crore grant isnot a small grant.

��So how many NGO’s apply for thegrant?

This year we had 3,449 NGOsapplying for the grant and only around850 completed the process, whichadhered to the conditions. Then thereis a four-level expert evaluation of eachapplication, which means that eachapplication is read by four experts.One in finance, one in the subject areaof the application, and even in thatarea we sought thematic expertsmicro-category. So, if the grant appli-cation is in early childhood educationwe ensure that we consult someone inthat space, so we have a panel of thir-ty such experts.

Then we also have a governancepartner, which is Grant Thorntonwhich looks at the board and socialaudit and the kind of image they have,but each and every application is read.So we spend sixty days to narrowdown from 800-odd applications toaround 50-odd applications. And then westop screening the applications in the tra-ditional sense and we go visit them, tosee their work on the ground. This yearwe must have visited 19 states and unionterritories to see ongoing projects thatare closest to the proposed projects. Insome projects scalability is a challenge,so we go and assess that as well throughorganisation strength and governance.We look at relevance and innovationaspects and look at scalability, can theproject scale up over the period of thegrant as well as sustainability, will theproject continue once the grant is overand how well it works with ongoinggovernment schemes as well.

(The HCL Grant will be awardedtoday evening at the HCL campus, Sector126, Noida by Union Home MinisterRajnath Singh)

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Chinese Foreign MinisterWang Yi on Thursday said

that China and India should be"free of mental inhibition" andbuild mutual trust, which is a"precious commodity" in theirties.

Speaking at a Press con-ference on the sidelines of theChinese parliament session,Wang said that both countries,which nearly came to war overa two-month military stand-offalong their border last year,should replace suspicion with trust.

Sounding positive on bilat-eral ties in the coming year, theMinister said: "The Chinesedragon and Indian elephantmust not fight each other butdance with each other."

Sino-India ties took a nose-dive after their militaries faced-off each other in their worststand-off at Doklam in theSikkim section of their boundary.

China's Opposition to aUN ban on Pakistani terroristMasood Azhar and India'sentry into the Nuclear SuppliersGroup has also tested their rela-

tionship. "Despite some tests and

difficulties, the China-Indiarelationship continues to grow.In the process, China has bothupheld its legitimate rights andinterests and taken care to pre-serve the relationship.

"Chinese and Indian lead-ers have developed a strategicvision for the future of our rela-tions. The Chinese dragon andIndian elephant must not fighteach other but dance with eachother," Wang said.

He emphasised that mutu-al trust was a key factorbetween India and China.

"China and India must doeverything to empathise withand support each other andavoid mutual suspicion andattrition.

"In this, mutual trust is themost precious commodity inChina-India relations. Withpolitical trust, not evenHimalayas can stop fromfriendly exchanges. Withoutit, even level land cannot bringus together," Wang said.

"Let me put this to ourIndian friends, our sharedunderstanding far outstripsour differences and our far out-

weigh our frictions. China iswilling and ready to inherit andforward traditional friendshipand be a friend and partner ofthe Indian people."

"I hope the two sides willbe free of the mental inhibitionand meet each other halfway.Let us replace suspicion withtrust, manage differences withdialogue and build a futurewith cooperation," the ForeignMinister added.

After resolving the Doklamcrisis last year, both countrieshave attempted to repair theirrelationships and have shownwillingness to engage in moredialogue.

Last month, India's ForeignSecretary Vijay Gokhale quiet-ly visited Beijing and met Wangand China's top diplomat YangJiechi.

The visit by the formerambassador to China was seenas a key development in theties. Gokhale is understood tohave set the tone for more talksbetween both countries.

Prime Minister NarendraModi is likely to meet ChinesePresident Xi Jinping at theShanghai Cooperation Summitin China in June.

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Washington’s top diplomatbegan his first Africa

tour on Thursday by meetingwith the African Union chief,who said the continent hadmoved on from a reportedinsult by President DonaldTrump.

Secretary of State RexTillerson and AU commissionchairman Moussa FakiMahamat discussed securityand counter-terrorism, tradeand development, corruptionand conflict in an hour-longmeeting at the continentalbody's headquarters in theEthiopian capital.

London: British detectivestoday scrambled to find thesource of the nerve agent usedin the attempted murder of a

Russian former double-agentand his daughter.

Sergei Skripal, 66, whomoved to Britain in a 2010 spy

swap, is in a critical conditionin hospital along with hisdaughter Yulia after they col-lapsed on a bench outside ashopping centre on Sunday.

A policeman also fell illafter coming to their aid but isshowing signs of recovery,according to interior ministerAmber Rudd.

"The two targets are still invery serious condition, thepoliceman is talking and isengaging so I'm more opti-mistic for him, but it's too earlyto say," she told ITV1's GoodMorning Britain.

The brazen poison-ing in the southwestern Englishcity of Salisbury is alreadybeing linked with Russia byBritish politicians and themedia, sparking an angryresponse in Moscow. AFP

Berlin: Austrian police saythey have detained a 23-year-old suspect in connection withknife attacks in Vienna inwhich four people wereinjured.

Police spokesman PatrickMaierhofer said in a state-ment on Thursday the malesuspect was detained shortlyafter a 20-year-old man wasstabbed and brought to thehospital with life-threateninginjuries last last night.

Police say they are stillinvestigating whether the sus-pect is also responsible for thestabbing of a family of three anhour earlier, also in the heartof Vienna. They did not releaseany further details on the iden-tity of the suspect. AP

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An aid convoy planned foron Thursday to bring assis-

tance to besieged civilians inSyria's rebel enclave of EasternGhouta will not go through, theInternational Committee ofthe Red Cross said.

"The convoy for Thursdayis postponed, as the situation isevolving on the ground, whichdoesn't allow us to carry out theoperation in such conditions,"ICRC spokeswoman IngySedky told AFP.

The joint convoy between

the ICRC, United Nations, andSyrian Arab Red Crescent wasexpected to deliver aid toEastern Ghouta's main town ofDouma on Thursday.

A reporter contributing toAFP saw the trucks onThursday parked on the edgesof Eastern Ghouta, at the gov-ernment-controlled Wafideencheckpoint.

It marks the second timethis week that desperatelyneeded aid operations toEastern Ghouta have been dis-rupted by military developments.

Seoul: South Korea's president said on Thursdaythat many "critical moments" still lie ahead toend the nuclear crisis despite North Korea'srecent outreach to Seoul and Washington.

Moon Jae-in spoke before two senior Seoulofficials left for the United States to brief offi-cials about the outcome of their recent visit toNorth Korea.

The Seoul officials said North Koreaoffered talks with the United States over nor-malising ties and denuclearisation of theKorean Peninsula. Seoul said the North alsoagreed to suspend nuclear and missile testsduring such future talks.

Some experts question how sincere NorthKorea is about its reported offers, citing whatthey call its track record of using past disar-mament talks to wrest aid and concessions while

covertly continuing its bomb programme.According to the South Korean officials,

North Korea said it has no reason to possessnuclear weapons as long as military threatsagainst the country are removed and its secu-rity is guaranteed.

That's the same position North Korea haslong maintained to justify its nuclear programmeor call for the withdrawal of 28,500 US troopsand a halt to annual US-South Korean militarydrills as a condition for scrapping its nuclear pro-gramme. The North sees the allies' drills as aninvasion rehearsal.

Choi Hyunsoo, spokeswoman of Seoul'sDefence Ministry, said the military willannounce the schedule for the joint drills afterthe Pyeongchang Paralympics, which startFriday and run through March 18. AP

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The Haqqani Network con-tinues to enjoy significant

support inside Pakistan due towhich the terrorist group stillcarrying out across the borderin Afghanistan, a top NATOcommander has said.

General Petr Pavel,Chairman of the NATOMilitary Committee, the sec-ond in command in theHaqqani Network, he said, iseffectively driving the Talibanon Thursday.

"We still see that there is asignificant support, or at leastprovision of safe haven toHaqqani network (inPakistan)," Pavel told DefenseWriters Group yesterday.

A number of high profileattacks in Afghanistan in thelast couple of months weredelivered by the Haqqani net-work, General Pavel said.

General Pavel has beenChairman of the NATOMilitary Committee since June2015.

As such he said Pakistanhas a very important role toplay in the Afghan peaceprocess.

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Fresh violence on Thursdayerupted in Muslim neigh-

bourhoods in Sri Lanka's hillycentral district where com-munal clashes destroyed moreshops and homes, as a worriedPresident Maithripala Sirisenadivested the law and orderportfolio from Prime MinisterRanil Wickremesinghe.

The communal violencebetween majority SinhalaBuddhists and minorityMuslims in the Indian Oceanisland nation has not sub-sided despite a state of emer-gency and a heavy deploymentof troops in riot-hit Kandy dis-trict.

Anti-Muslim riots, sinceMonday, have damaged severalhomes, businesses andmosques. The violence erupt-ed after the death of a manfrom the mainly BuddhistSinhalese majority last week.

To rein in communal vio-lence, a state of emergency hasbeen imposed by the SirisenaGovernment.

The Government orderedthe internet blackout, blockingof social media websitesincluding Facebook and instantmessaging app Whatsapp, after

police discovered mobs ofSinhalese rioters were usingsocial media to coordinateattacks on Muslim establish-ments.

According to mediareports, petrol bombs werehurled at a mosque even asarmoured vehicles and heavi-ly-armed troops fortified thetroubled district, where anti-Muslim violence has left twopeople dead.

A total of 81 people,including the main suspect,who had led anti-Muslim vio-lence were arrested, policesaid.

"A man, namedVidanapathiranage AmithJeewan Weerasinghe, who isbelieved to be the main sus-pect and nine others werearrested today," policespokesman RuwanGunasekera told reporters.

They were arrested by theTerrorism InvestigationDivision (TID) in a specialoperation.

"They were arrested forinciting communal violenceand hate speech," he said.

He said since March 4,there have been two deathsdue to clashes. "One of themdied of suffocation due to an

arson attack while the otherhad died due to a grenadeexplosion", he added.

During the period, therehave been 45 attacks againstMuslim properties throughoutthe Kandy district and at leastfour religious sites had beenattacked, the spokespersonsaid.

The arrests of main sus-pects came after the policecame under increasing publiccriticism over its alleged inac-tion to prevent violence inspite of the imposition of cur-few.

Earlier in the day,President Sirisena, underattack for alleged police inac-tion, replaced Prime MinisterWickremesinghe as the lawand order Minister.

Ranjith MaddumaBandara, a senior politicianfrom Wickremesinghe'sUnited National Party (UNP)was sworn in as the new min-ister in charge of the police.

Wickremesinghe wassworn in as the law and orderMinister just 11 days ago.

Yesterday, the Presidentvisited riot-hit Kandy andordered security forces to usethe full force of the law againsttroublemakers.

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Despite warnings from severalnations and sharp dissent

from within his own RepublicanParty, with more than 100 law-makers writing to him, PresidentDonald Trump was gearing upto sign on Thursday an order toslap tariffs on steel and alu-minium imports as part of hispush to protect American indus-try and workers.

The White House, however,held out the possibility of exemp-

tion or delayed execution of theorder for some countries, notablyneighbours Canada and Mexicowith which the US has beenengaged in talks aimed at arevamp of the North AmericanFree Trade Agreement (NAFTA)that Trump has been insistingupon.

“There are potential carve-outs for Mexico and Canada,based on national security, andpossibly for other countries aswell,” White House press secre-tary Sarah Huckabee Sanderssaid on Wednesday.

Without disclosing thenames of any other country thatcould hope for exemption,Sanders said: “That would be acase-by-case and country-by-country basis, but it would bedetermined whether or not thereis a national security exemption.”

India is among the steelexporting nations that accountsfor 2.4 per cent of the steel thatthe United States imports.Canada tops the list, accountingfor 16.7 per cent of US steelimports, followed by Brazil (13.2per cent), South Korea (9.7 percent) and Mexico (9.4 per cent).

“We’re going to open this upfor our allies to just see if we canwork through this problem,”White House Trade AdviserPeter Navarro told Fox BusinessNetwork on Wednesday night.

Once signed by PresidentTrump, the tariffs would go intoeffect in 15 to 30 days, Navarrosaid, noting that the proclama-tion will have a clause that doesnot impose these tariffs imme-diately on Canada and Mexico.A permanent exclusion of thetwo neighbours will, however,depend on the outcome of theNAFTA renegotiation talks, hesaid. Trump last week indicatedthat he would impose 25 per centtariff on imported steel and 10per cent on imported aluminum.Canada is also the US’s top sup-plier of aluminium, accountingfor as much as 41 per cent of thetotal.

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Miami: The US State of Florida,scene of America's latest schoolshooting, has passed bill that rais-es the minimum age to buyfirearms to 21 while funding aprogram that allows some teach-ers and school employees to bearmed.

The "Marjory StonemanDouglas High School PublicSafety Act," which takes its namefrom last month's mass shootingin which 17 people including 14students were killed, passed thelegislature's lower house a dayafter clearing the senate. AFP

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The Executive Engineer South Building (M) PWD,P.T.S., Malviya Nagar, New Delhi invites on behalfof President of India online PercentageRale/ItemRale Tender/bid from approved and eligible con-tractor of CPWD, those of appropriate list of MES,BSNL and other state Govt. Departments deal-ing with buildings and roads and other experi-enced contractors who satisfy the criteria of exe-cution of similar works for Following works:-

(1). NITNo.100/EE/PWD BUILD. SOUTH(M)/2017-18 Tender ID 2018_PWD_146428_1. Name of work:-"Window panesin new building, requirement of sink andslab, tiles flooring and painting in draw-ing room, renovation of school auditoriumwith provision of AC, chairs, sound sys-tem and repair of stage and toilets andother misc. Civil works at SarvodayaKanya Vidyalaya, Sultanpur, New Delhi(School ID:- 1923061,Building ID:-19231337, EOR ID:- 20161955)."Estimated Cost:Rs.l 11,68,338/- EarnestMoney:- Rs.23,367/- Period of completion02 (Two) Months, Last Date and time ofsubmission of Tender Through websitehttps://govtprocurement.delhi.gov.inon 12/03/2018:15:00 PM , Date and Timeof opening of Tender 12/03/2018:15:30PM.

(2). NIT No.101/EE/PWD BUILD. SOUTH(M)/2017-18 Tender ID 2018_PWD_146432_1.Name of work:-"EOR for 1. Repair ofBoundary wall with concertina coil fencingand washed stone grit plaster 2. Boys andgirls toilet replacement of toilet gates, cis-tern on urinals and WC and repair of roofsand walls to stop leakages, 3. Provision ofsecurity cabin 4.Rising of ramp on back gateof school at Govt. (Co-ed) Sr. Sec. School,Neb Sarai, New Delhi.School ID:- 1923031."Estimated Cost:Rs. 15,80,081/- EarnestMoney:- Rs.31,602/- Period of completion03(Three) Months, Last Date and time ofsubmission of Tender Through websitehttps://govtprocurement.delhi.gov.in on12/03/2018:15:00 PM , Date and Time ofopening offender 12/03/2018:15:30 PM.

(3). NIT No. 102/EE/PWD BUILD. SOUTH(M)/2017-18 Tender ID 2018_PWD_146439_1. Name of work:-"EOR for 1.) 2more water drinking points required, 2.)Tubewell rebore and underground pipelinefitting for watering the plants, 3.) Re-inno-vation of 2xGuard living room & 4.) Re-fab-rication of main gate of school building gateand Re-fabrication of grilled gate atSarvodaya Bal Sr.Sec.Vidyalaya, MehrauliQutab, New Delhi. (School ID: 1923004).."Estimated Cost:Rs. 18,90,924/- EarnestMoney:- Rs.37,818/- Period of completion02(Two) Months, Last Date and time ofsubmission of Tender Through websitehttps://govtprocurement.delhi.gov.in on12/03/2018:15:00 PM , Date and Time ofopening of Tender 12/03/2018:15:30 PM.

(4). NIT No. 103/EE/PWD BUILD. SOUTH(M)/2017-18 Tender ID 2018_PWD_146445_1. Name of work:-" EOR for Misc.Civil works including missing grills of win-dows, complete renovation of three nos.toilet blocks, Kota Stone flooring in openarea and water proofing of roof of old SPSblock at Acharya Tulsi Sarvodaya BalVidyalaya, Chattarpur, New Delhi (SchoolID:- 1923081, Building ID:-19231165,EOR ID:- 20163311)." EstimatedCost:Rs.25,49,229/- Earnest Money:-Rs.50,985/- Period of completion 02(Two)Months, Last Date and time of submissionof Tender Through website https://govt-procurement.delhi.gov.in on13/03/2018:15:00 PM , Date and Time ofopening of Tender 13/03/2018:15:30 PM.

(5). NIT No.104/EE/PWD BUILD. SOUTH(M)/2017-18 Tender ID 2018_PWD_146446_1. Name of work:-"Misc. civil repairand renovation work, (SH:-I. Concertinawire/fencing over boundary wall, 2. Mainentry gate to be replaced 3.Termite to becleared and face lift of auditorium,Renovation of Science Lab etc.) at RajaRam Mohan Roy Sarvodaya KanyaVidyalaya, Hauz Rani, New Delhi. (SchoolID:-1923041, Building ID:-19231286, EORID:-20163410)." EstimatedCost:Rs.47,30,149/- Earnest Money:-Rs.94,603/- Period of completion 03(Three)Months, Last Date and time of submissionof Tender Through website httpsv/govt-procurement.delhi.gov.in on13/03/2018:15:00 PM , Date and Time ofopening of Tender 13/03/2018:15:30 PM.

The Bid/Tender form and other details can beobtained from the website:- https://govtpro-curement.delhi.gov.in

DIP/Shabdarth/3546/17-18

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Minerva Punjab on Thursdaytriumphed against all oddsless than a year after a mir-

acle by another underdogs AizawlFC, concluding an I-League seasonpeppered with twists and turnsnever seen or felt before.

The 2017-18 league was downto the most dramatic final day in thecompetition's history with as manyas four teams, including old guardsMohun Bagan and East Bengal, gun-ning for the title.

Debutants Neroca FC, surpris-ingly, were the other contenders.

For a club that is only in its sec-ond season in top-flight, the title tri-umph would easily qualify as someachievement.

In the process, they createdhistory by becoming the first teamfrom North India to win the HeroI-League.

William Asiedu Opoku's goalwas enough to seal the title forMinerva Punjab, who beat ChurchillBrothers by a solitary goal.

This is a landmark moment inIndian football where two relegationthreatened teams have won back toback I-League titles. Last year it wasAizawl, this year it is MinervaPunjab from Chandigarh.

Churchill Brothers, on the otherhand, got relegated as this defeatdemotes them to second division.

Minerva Punjab's attacking trioof Chencho Gyeltshen, Williamand Girik Khosla combined well to

put Churchill's defence in jeopardy.Chencho almost scored the

opener in 8th minute when a lowKhosla cross wasn't dealt with prop-erly by Osagie Monday, giving theBhutanese ace a chance, but hecouldn't make full use of it.

Minutes later Akash Sangwanhad an opportunity to score fromleft but his shot went straight intothe keeper's hands.

The moment finally came in the16th minute when William con-verted from point blank range aftera rebound from Khosla's shot,which fell right into his feet.

William had another greatchance in the injury time of first halfbut he couldn't control his effort andlost possession.

The first half ended with the

home side leading 1-0.The second half started with a

flurry of attacks from ChurchillBrothers who tried their best tocome back but got unlucky onmany occasions.

In the 49th minute, Sangwan'spin point corner kick met Chenchoheader but his effort went just wideof target.

Churchill Brothers almostscored in the 51st minute whenBritto got a chance from just sixyards out but his weak effort hit thekeeper. Ceesay took a long shot inthe 54th minute but Kiran was thereto save comfortably.

Monday tried his luck in the59th minute but his wayward shortwas nowhere near the target. The bigchance for Churchill came in the

61st minute when Ceesay createdspace inside box to set himself fora shot but ball just went over thecrossbar.

Minerva should have doubledtheir lead in the 64th minute whenKassim Aidara played one two withChencho but Chencho's followingcross towards Sangwan, who wasunmarked, went out for a goalkick.

In the 65th minute, Brittomissed the opportunity of the matchso far when he went one on one withthe keeper Kiran but Minerva shotstopper came out quickly to save hisside.

In another show of combinationplay Chencho was brilliantly set upby William in the 73rd minute in thebox but he decided to cut inside and

in doing so lost possession.Minerva centre back Eric Dano

got a chance in the 80th minutewhen he took a shot after a deflect-ed corner kick but his shot wasnowhere near target.

Gangandeep Bali got a chanceto get his name on the score-sheetbut his weak effort didn't trouble thekeeper.

������� � ���������Neroca FC wrapped up a mem-

orable I-League debut season by fin-ishing runners-up after holdingheavyweights East Bengal to a 1-1draw, here on Thursday.

It was heartbreak for both theKolkata heavyweights, as they failedto win the title with East Bengal fin-ishing fourth in the table behind

arch-rivals Mohun Bagan who alsoplayed a 1-1 draw with GokulamKerala FC.

In quest for the elusive I-Leaguetitle, East Bengal required to win thematch and pray for a favourableresult from other two matches.

But with eventual championsMinerva Punjab winning 1-0 overChurchill Brothers at Panchkula,East Bengal fought a losing battle.

The Khalid Jamil's men also hadan uninspiring first-half that sawthem squander at least four oppor-tunities, and trail by Felix Chidi's42nd minute goal.

In the second-half, East Bengalshowed some urgency and theirNigerian leading scorer DuduOmagbemi, who missed at leastthree chances, finally found the net

in the 73rd minute.But that was not enough, as

Neroca FC put up a solid defencebacked by goalkeeper Lalit Thapawho was adjudged man-of-the-match for his brilliant show underthe bar.

"We were inspired by AizawlFC's I-League triumph in theirmaiden appearance last season. Ihope many more teams fromNortheast come up in future," Thapatsaid at the post-match conference.

It was a tale of missed chancesfor East Bengal who squandered atleast four attempts at the goalincluding a sitter by Joby Justin inthe 36th minute, as the Manipurheld a one-goal advantage at thebreak.

Justin found himself in front ofan open net from a cross coming inthe right from Mahmoud Al Amnaas the goalkeeper was completelycaught out.

But Justin failed to turn andpush the ball into the empty net, aminute after Dudu Omagbemimissed his second chance in the firsthalf.

Chidi cut inside the one defend-er marking him inside the box, rana little to his left and the goalkeep-er is left scampering for the ball.

Keeping his calm, Chidi turnedit in to draw the first blood.

Neroca FC mounted pressureon East Bengal through SubhasSingh and Fabien Vorbe.

East Bengal finally found theequaliser with Dudu finding the tar-get from a Lalram Chullova cross.

East Bengal players exchangedfour passes before Chullova curledthe cross inside the box and Duduconverted it with a brilliant header.

In the last minute, KatsumiYusa curled a corner inside the boxand it seemed Saran Singh handedthe ball as East Bengal furiouslyappealed for a penalty.

But referee Rowan Arumughanoutrightly rejected it as East Bengalended another season without a tro-phy in the top flight league.

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Ayoung and inexperiencedIndian hockey team will be

eyeing a big win over Irelandand favourable results in othermatches to keep alive its slimhopes of qualifying for theAzlan Shah Cup final, here onFriday.

After a below-par outing inthe first three matches, Indiarekindled their hopes by regis-tering their first win of the tour-nament on Wednesday, maul-ing hosts Malaysia 5-1.

Before the win, India hadearlier lost 2-3 to Olympicchampions Argentina, 2-4against world championsAustralia and drew 1-1 againstEngland.

World championsAustralia are already through tothe final with four wins from asmany games but barringIreland, all other four teamshave a chance to make it to thesummit clash.

Australia are leading thepoints table with 12 pointsahead of second-placed and

Olympic champions Argentina(7 points), Malaysia (6),England (5) and India (4).Ireland are already out of therace with four consecutivedefeats.

But India's fate completelydepends on lots of permuta-tions and combinations. For

India to qualify for the final,they will first have to beatIreland by a big margin andhope Australia beat Argentinaand the final round robin matchbetween Malaysia and Englandends in a draw.

With four big-ticket eventslined up this year, including theCommonwealth Games andthe Asian Games, the Indianshave opted to field a young andinexperienced side under vet-

eran Sardar Singh.India chief coach Sjoerd

Marijne wanted to test all hisoptions before deciding on hissquads for the big tournaments.

Agianst Malaysia,Shilanand Lakra, Gurjant Singh,Sumit Kumar and RamandeepSingh scored and Marijnewould be hoping for the samespark from his forwards tomor-row.

Skipper Sardar especiallyneed to produce an inspiringperformance as an ordinaryshow in the tournament couldwell draw the curtains on hisillustrious career.

This could well be make orbreak tournament for Sardar ifhe wants to prolong his careertill 2020 Olympics as the teammanagement have alreadyshown their interest on youngerlegs keeping the busy year inmind.

India play their match sec-ond on Friday and by then theywould be in a position to learntheir fate as Australia andArgentina square off in the day'sopener.

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Roger Federer, who regained the world NumberOne ranking last month, is on a quest to make

history in the California desert by winning anunprecedented sixth Indian Wells title.

The 36-year-old Swiss marvel continues todefy the aging process, claiming his 20th GrandSlam title and sixth Australian Open crown inJanuary.

He has enjoyed a perfect start to 2018 by win-ning both events he has competed in and takinghis career singles title tally to 97.

"He shows there is no limit," said third-seed-ed Grigor Dimitrov on Wednesday.

"He keeps on proving it every year on thetour."

Federer opens the defence of his Indian Wellstitle by playing a second-round match againsteither American Ryan Harrison or FedericoDelbonis of Argentina.

He also won this tournament three straightyears beginning in 2004, and in 2012 as well aslast year.

Federer comes into the elite event as the old-est ATP Number One in history. In the Open era,only American Jimmy Connors has won moretitles than Federer, with 109.

Federer has played two tournaments this yearand won both the other being the RotterdamOpen.

"For me to stand right here as world NumberOne in San Jose is very, very special for me,"Federer said at a charity event in San Jose,California on Monday.

Federer is not alone in his hunt for a sixthIndian Wells crown when the men's draw kicksoff on Thursday.

Serbian Novak Djokovic, who is making hisfirst return to the Tour since the Australian Open,is also a five-time Indian Wells champion andwould like nothing more than to announce hisreturn from an elbow injury by going all the way.

Both players are in opposite halves of thedraw so they would not meet each other until thefinal.

Djokovic won Indian Wells in 2008, 2011,2014, 2015 and 2016.

Djokovic, who is seeded 10th, has a bye andwill face the winner of a first- round matchbetween two qualifiers in his opener.

He is in the same half of the draw asArgentina's Juan Martin del Potro, who is freshoff a win in the Mexican Open in Acapulco lastweekend.

Del Potro, who made the Indian Wells finalin 2013, said Wednesday he is healthier than hehas been in years and full of confidence from hisMexico success.

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Tiger Woods is drawinginspiration from fellow

veteran Phil Mickelson's winin Mexico last weekend as heplots the latest stage of hiscomeback this week ahead ofnext month's Masters.

The 42-year-old formerworld number one will tee offin the PGA Tour's ValsparChampionship on Thursdayhoping to get more roundsunder his belt heading intoAugusta in three weeks' time.

Woods has endured mixedresults since returning to thetour this season, finishing tiedfor 23rd at Torrey Pines inJanuary before missing thecut at Riviera in Los Angelesin February.

He followed that up witha 12th-place finish at theHonda Classic and is playingthe Valspar at Tampa, Floridathis week in an attempt tohone his game before theMasters.

Woods missed all of 2016and most of 2017 because ofdebilitating back trouble that

culiminated in spinal fusionsurgery last April.

He said the 47-year-oldMickelson's victory at theWGC Championship inMexico on Sunday encouragedhim to believe he could stilladd to his collection of 106professional wins.

"What Phil's doing isshowing that we can still do itlater on in our careers," Woods

told reporters on Wednesday."Davis won at 51, Phil at

47," he said, referring to DavisLove III. "There are a few guyswho can do it late in theircareer." Woods, who hasmissed the last two Masters, isalso not ruling out a memberof the old guard prevailing atAugusta in April.

"The favorites are the guyswho've always done wellthere," Woods said, insistingthat himself and former cham-pions such as Fred Couples,Bernhard Langer, BubbaWatson and Mickelson wereall capable of challenging.

"I'm not going to put it outof the realm if Freddie feelsgood, he's still in he mix.Bernhard is still in the mix.Phil is in the mix. Myself,Bubba. There's a few whoknow how to play the golfcourse and it fits us," Woodssaid.

"There's definitely going tobe some young guys who'vebeen playing well up there. ButAugusta is one of those cours-es that favors the vets. It's ahard test."

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Gonzalo Higuain and Paulo Dybalascored twice inside three minutes as

Juventus stunned Tottenham with a sec-ond-half fightback to reach the ChampionsLeague quarterfinals with a 2-1 victory.

While Juventus collapsed in the firstleg to draw 2-2, it was Tottenham's turn atWembley Stadium to throw away a win-ning position and go out with a 4-3 aggre-gate loss.

When Son Heung-min capped a dom-inant first half for Tottenham with a goal,it should have been a platform to build onfor a team without a domestic league titlein 57 years against one that's won the lastsix Serie A titles.

But a pair of substitutions and a tac-tical shift by Massimiliano Allegri trans-formed the last-16 match.

And it was pair of Argentines thatended the hopes of compatriot MauricioPochettino, the Tottenham manager.

Higuain struck from close range in the64th minute and then created the winner,holding off three Tottenham players beforefeeding Dybala to net his first ChampionsLeague goal of the season.

From a position of strength, this wasa capitulation stemming from a loss of con-centration and composure by the hosts.

"I think we conceded three chancesand they scored twice," Pochettino said.

"I am disappointed because we misseda lot of chances and because the teamdeserved more."

There was one chance to force thegame into extra time in the 90th. HarryKane's header hit the post and the ball creptacross Gianluigi Buffon's goal line beforebeing hooked clear by Andrea Barzagli.

"It's the history of Tottenham theyalways create many chances to score ... Butat the end they miss something." Juventusdefender Giorgio Chiellini said.

For Tottenham, which beat holder RealMadrid and Borussia Dortmund in thegroup stage, there would be no thirdEuropean Cup quarterfinal in its history.Instead Pochettino's side became the firstEnglish side to be eliminated in theChampions League this season.

� �������������� ������With their first home loss in 15

months, Manchester City ended up stum-bling into the quarterfinals of theChampions League.

Not that Pep Guardiola was particu-larly bothered about a surprise 2-1 homeloss to Basel.

"This kind of position is not going tohappen in the quarterfinals, where you havea 4-0 (lead) from the first leg," the Citycoach said.

A 4-0 win in Switzerland in the firstleg three weeks ago made qualificationalmost a formality for a team that is 16points clear in the Premier League and oneof the favorites to win the ChampionsLeague.

City took the lead in the eighthminute through Gabriel Jesus in his firststart in 2018, but Mohamed Elyounoussiequalized in the 17th and Basel regularlybroke through the home side's midfield inthe final hour of the game.

Wing back Michael Lang earnedBasel its latest victory over a PremierLeague giant by smashing a rising shotinside the near post through goalkeeperClaudio Bravo's attempted save in the 71st.

"You will find in all the clubs in theworld," Guardiola said, "that when youmake six changes, the team is not thesame."

Still, City's first home loss since a 3-1defeat to Chelsea in the Premier Leaguein December 2016 came as a surprise.

And it was something to savor forBasel, the Swiss champion that has beena scourge of English powers with wins overManchester United, Chelsea, Liverpooland Tottenham in European competitionsince 2011.

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Serena Williams is throughtaking baby steps on the

comeback trail after the birth ofher daughter Alexis Olympia inSeptember.

The 23-time Grand Slamsingles winner is ramping up herreturn this week by playing inIndian Wells, her first WTATour event since she won the2017 Australian Open.

After a couple of exhibi-tions and a Davis Cup doublesmatch, Williams is eager to hitwith the big guns as she opensher campaign on Thursday nightagainst Zarina Diyas.

"I'm ready to just jump inand get started and see what hap-pens," the 36-year-old Americantold the Wall Street Journal onWednesday. "Obviously I'm goingto have a few hiccups, I wouldimagine, and I'm ready for that."

Indian Wells features a star-studded women's field in a tour-nament that looks wide open.

Many of the players onWednesday said they welcomedSerena's return.

"We are all going to look tosee how she is playing," saidreigning Wimbledon championGarbine Muguruza.

"She is one of the best play-ers so it is good that she is back,especially after being a mom. Itis great."

French Open championJelena Ostapenko said Serena'scontribution to women's tenniscannot be overstated.

"She is an amazing athlete,"said sixth seeded LatvianOstapenko. "She is a very specialand what she has done forwomen's tennis is huge."

�� ����������But Czech fifth seed Karolina

Pliskova said it is going to takemore than one WTA event forSerena to get back in champi-onship form.

"Obviously it is tough to getback even for a champion likeher," Pliskova said Wednesday. "Idon't have that experience withhaving a baby, but I think itchanges the body and the mind-set a lot.

"We will see in the firstround. For sure she is going to bea little bit nervous. I don't knowwhat kind of shape she is in andif she was practising or not prac-tising.

"She can play good tennisagain but I don't know if it isgoing to be at this tournamentmaybe it will take her a while."

The first clues to Williams'form will be displayed inThursday's night game againstDiyas, Serena's first match inIndian Wells will be Thursdaynight against Diyas, the 24-year-old world number 53 fromKazakhstan.

Serena boycotted this event,with her sister Venus, for 14 yearsafter she was booed in the 2001final. She returned in 2015 buthad to pull out before her semi-final with a knee problem.

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Preparing for the StateExaminations can be a stress-ful process for the entire

family. It’s normal for parents to beanxious about how much their sonor daughter is working andwhether they’ll get the resultsthey need. Parents can, however,play a key role in helping theirchildren cope with exam stress.

Help your child to plan theirstudy schedule early and to makea clear, realistic plan of what theywant to achieve in each study ses-sion.

Make sure your child has anenvironment conducive to effec-tive study: a proper desk in a quietspace in which they will be able toconcentrate fully.

Remind your child to takeshort breaks and to move aroundin between chunks of study time.

Offer help sometimes. It canbe useful for students to havesomeone to give advice or practisewith.

Help your child to establish ahealthy balance in their weeklyroutine, which includes rest andrelaxation as well as dedicatedstudy times.

First and foremost, a pattern ofproper sleep is extremely impor-tant. Encourage the student to dosomething relaxing like reading orlistening to music, rather thanstudying, in the hour or so beforethey go to bed.

Exercise and sport are highlybeneficial habits for your child toget involved in.

A balanced diet containingplenty of fresh fruit and vegetables,as well as adequate hydration, arekey ingredients for all teenagers,let alone those studying for exams.

Your att itude is crucial .Remain calm and try not to trans-

fer additional anxiety on to yourchild in the lead up to the exams.Don’t place unnecessary pressureto gain certain grades. They mayfeel they’ve failed if they don’tachieve what they thought wasexpected of them.

Try to support your son ordaughter rather than ‘policing’them.

Observe how your child isdealing their stress. Ask how youcan help if they appear to bestruggling. Sometimes it’s justenough for your son or daughterto talk things through. Actively lis-tening can be enough to supportthem.

Keep perspective: exams arenot the be-all and end-all. Yourchild isn’t defined by their results,there are many career optionsopen to them.

Consider the build-up to andduring exams as an amnesty onissues that would typically causesome friction. Bedrooms might bemessier than usual. Chores mightbe forgotten. But all of that is ok.

It is easy for parents duringexams to revert back to the normalhabit of badgering their teenagerinto action. By easing off on theusual household duties you willhowever be giving your childmore time and space to focus onexam revision. Once exams are outof the way, the temporary suspen-sion can lift and son or daughtercan do a bit of catching up. Afterall, they will have the whole sum-mer holidays to make up for it!

Though it might seem akin to

poking a caged tiger, gentlyencourage your daughter or son totalk, when ready, about examnerves. How are they feeling?What pressure are they putting onthemselves to deliver certainresults? Emphasise that such feel-

ings are completely normal and tobe expected. Remind them oftheir hard work to date to buildconfidence and suggest they havea look at our exam stress tips forstudents.

Parents during exams want

their kids to do as well as they can.By definition that entails a com-mitment to revision, past papersand the like. A regime of eat-sleep-study-repeat is however counter-productive.

Parents, naturally, want theirchildren to do well in examsthrough school and further edu-cation. That is completely natur-al. Most kids place enough pres-sure upon themselves during studyand exam preparation to make thatoutcome a reality.

Addit ional expectat ions,demands or pressure from mumand dad can end up being moredamaging than useful.

The application of additionalpressure by mum and dad may beexplicit, like telling them youwant them to achieve certaingrades. Or it can be more implic-it, like how you talk about yourexpectations for exam success infront of their friends/parents oftheir friends.

If you hear yourself saying,"you can do all you like when theexams are over in just a couple ofweeks", you might consider thatthis is an eternity for a teenager.In their mind, the period after theexam seems millions of light yearsaway and they may feel like theyhave a mountain to climb inbetween now and then.

If you want to encourage themto study more or to highlight theprogress that they're making, sug-gest a reward system based on veryshort-term goals. For example,after they do x amount of ques-

tions or achieve a competency ina certain area, they can treatthemselves to a warm bath, anhour of television, going to the cin-ema at the week-end, going for acoffee with their friends, listeningto music etc.

If you're worried about themand they won't open up to you,encourage them to talk to some-body who has recently comethrough the exam and can shedsome light on their fears

If they're expected to tireless-ly study without regular smallpleasures along the way, it's anawfully tough ask and their moti-vation and mental strength isbound to wane.

If you feel your child could dowith a change in their study envi-ronment but they aren't willing totake time off; or alternatively,they don't want to simply sit downand study, how about taking themout to a coffee shop to study? Itworks very well either as a treat ora bribe. You read the paper or abook and they bring their notes.This can be a pleasurable space tostudy, a break from their routineand it gives them an opportunityto talk to you on a one-to-onebasis if they want.

When it's time for the exams,they will be in an exam hall for amaximum of three and a halfhours at a time and will be forcedto take breaks in between exams.At this point, the uncertaintyaround the situation will be steadi-ly declining; they will have lots ofsocial interaction with theirfriends. And with each passingexam, they will have made hugestrides towards completing thetask at hand and won't have to tryto remember what they studied foreach exam they've done.

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The Jeep Compass was one the top vehicles of 2017 andit has finally given FiatChrysler Automobiles a hit on theirhands, the ‘Made-In-India’ Jeep Compass is actually anIndian manufacturing story the government can go to townwith. In less than a year, FCA India has built over 25,000Compass’ at their plant in Ranjangaon in Maharashtra anda fifth of them have been exported across the Asia-Pacificregion. If you look at a Compass, you see a piece of qual-ity production, and owners of the Compass would havenoticed the hidden Easter eggs across the car, like the LochNess monster on the rear windshield.

The Jeep Compass Limited 4x4 that I had driven lastyear was powered by the 170 horsepower two-litre diesel.This was a great four-wheel drive car, a comfortable rideand a very capable off-road car. It is a sort of vicious cir-cle with SUVs, you see the guy in the next lane with a bigcar and you want one yourself. Most SUVs are nothing morethan estate cars on stilts, they’re neither really sporty or util-itarian, but the Compass 4x4 can actually do what it sayson the label.

But, if there is an issue with the Compass, it has a six-speed manual, and frankly, driving a manual in the city nowis a pain. I will be honest and admit that most of thecars I get for a test-drive nowadays are auto-matics, it is just so much easier to drive intraffic. This is clearly evident in carsales today, from basic and afford-able automated manualtransmissions onsmall hatch-backs to thea d v a n c e ddual-c lutchtransmissionson luxury cars,a u t o m a t i ctransmissionsales are gath-ering pace inIndia with a thirdof sales on some car mod-els being automatic transmissions. Dual-clutchtransmissions promise higher levels of fuel economy basedon the premise that the next gear is kept ready to engage andhelps gear shifts happen in the blink of an eye, and in real-ly advanced systems even faster than that. If you have everdriven a Volkswagen GT TSI you know dual-clutch shiftsquickly and because it minimises the loss of power, it feelslike riding a constant crescendo of power.

So I looked forward to driving the Jeep Compass 1.4MultiAir. This is the same engine that is found in the awe-some Fiat 595 Abarth with the same 160 horsepower. The595 Abarth was ruined by an irritating gearbox, but you couldpossibly fit the 595 inside the cabin of a Compass. TheCompass was much bigger, but it had a new seven-speeddual-clutch gearbox. Sure, the Compass is a bigger car butthis new gearbox would be better. Right?

First things first, you have to understand about theengine. The MultiAir is a great engine, but the problem witha turbocharged engine is that until the turbo starts spinningfast, you won’t get power easily. Now, some carmakers havebeen working around that, using stored energy to spin theturbo sooner. In Formula 1, some of the reasons forMercedes-Benz stunning success is how they have packagedthe turbo. Now, the way a turbo works is by taking the hotexhaust gases from the engine to spin a turbine to pump in

the even more fresh air into the engine. But at lower enginespeeds, the turbo is not really effective. You can feel this onany turbocharged diesel car as well. However, as the turbokicks in, you feel another surge of power, but while on dieselcars this surge is often unbearably short as the engine red-lines at around 4500 revolutions, on petrol cars, the fasterspinning engine keeps on going will around 6500-7000 rev-olutions.

The MultiAir on the Compass seems to have nothingwhatsoever below 2500 revolutions, and this is the problemof putting a small turbocharged engine in a big car. See untilthe turbo kicks in, the engine is producing power like anytraditional aspirated engine. And a small petrol engine strug-gles on the Compass, and while the power comes on andboy, does it come on, the automatic Compass is very thirstyas a result.

When I received the ear, the trip computer remainedfrom the previous drive, and that showed that over 300 kilo-meters the Compass had done a measly 6.6 kilometers to

the litre and I had thought to myself thatduring the last drive, they must have

really driven the Compasshard. On the first day, I had

the Compass Automatic,I drove to Noida in the

evening, in not partic-ularly bad traffic, a 30km drive and I droveit gently. And theonboard trip com-puter, which I hadreset showed that I

had done a measly 7.5km per litre. Sure, aheavy car would givepoor fuel economy,

but remember this is asmall engine giving the same sort of fuel econo-

my that a sports car would give; you would getsomething similar in a Ford Mustang GT which has

a five-litre engine, three and a half times the size ofthis engine with three times the power.

After a week with the car, including some highwaystretches, I returned the Compass having driven around 300km and returned it with an economy of around 8 km perlitre with no particularly aggressive driving. Sure, I used theonboard gadgets and air-conditioning occasionally but noth-ing out of the ordinary. Sure, fuel economy, even on an auto-matic depends on the driving style. While on a manual, theway to operate both your feet together, how quickly youchange and while synchromesh gearboxes make things eas-ier, in an automatic how hard one accelerates and brakes canmake a difference. Even then the Compass has a publishedfuel economy of 14 km per litre, much more than I got. Eitherthis means that I have a very heavy right foot or that theCompass is tremendously thirsty in city conditions.

That said, the Compass is still a great car, just buy it indiesel and there is supposedly a diesel automatic in the worksas is the Compass Trailhawk which is likely to have a big-ger petrol engine as well. The MultiAir Automatic though,which in the Limited Option specification I drove, costs �20.5lakhs. This is quite steep, and when you will certainly bespending a significant amount on fuel, maybe it is a bit too much.

Indians are gradually turning intoworkaholics, unable to detach them-selves from their profession. Scared

of asking for holidays in hopes of win-ning the rat race to achieve their goals,they tend to work round the clock. Theneed for vacations which althoughseems like a luxury is in fact a necessi-ty for most of the employees with theamount of work pressure and resultantstress that they feel and yet ignore in thisfast paced generation. Therefore, itsessential to encourage colleagues to takea holiday so as to maintain a healthy stateof mind

A recent survey undertaken byBritish Airways has found that a vastmajority of Indians are not utilising theirholiday allowance due to work commit-ments, often fearing stigmas and ulti-mately losing out on valuable timeaway from work. Conducted with 2,006respondents in India between December20, 2017 and January 4, 2018, the studyreveals that 65 per cent of employedadults have had leftover holidayallowance at the end of last year, as overhalf of them (55 per cent) were too occu-pied with work while close to 30 per cent

were caught in vices of guilt over usingall their holidays.

While there are not many words inthe dictionary that invoke as many pos-itive emotions as the word ‘holiday’ —which brings together happiness, reju-venation and much more. Nearly 60 percent expressed their discontent for notbeing able to completely ‘switch off ’ dur-ing their vacation. The word ‘holiday’might thus seem to be serving againstits purpose. Nearly 32 per cent attributedthis to the short duration of the break,about 11 per cent said that they dread-ed the thought of returning to the grindand 59 per cent wished they had spentmore time on vacation.

This indicates that many Indians,

facing the pressure of work responsibil-ities and changing priorities, are unableto fully detach, detract and take a stepback. According to the study, 16 per centof the workforce begins to panic aboutusing up holiday days in the month ofDecember. Yet, approximately 97 percent have rolled over holiday days, outof which 49 per cent spend the day athome. Around 34 per cent are usuallyembroiled in work and 27 per cent haveall the time blocked for administrativeresponsibilities.

Diving deep to understand the rea-sons behind diminishing holidays,British Airways found that despite afixed holiday entitlement stipulated byorganisations, most employees refrain

from taking leave due to the stereotypesattached to it. On average, employedadults in India get 17 days paid holidaydays per year. Despite that, 42 per centare often concerned with the mountingload of the work while the other 26 percent are unable to find the time to dis-engage from the official responsibilities.Close to 30 per cent are unable to sum-mon the courage to ask for leave, as alarge share believes that two-week hol-idays are frowned upon or discouragedby their workplace.

Indians, however, did exhibit anupward trend in vacations taken glob-ally, topped by only the Japanese whotook eight trips abroad in 2017. This isa testament to the prolific spending

propensity of the people, the unwaver-ing will to explore cultures and theshrinking borders of the world, madeaccessible with convenient and afford-able air travel.

According to the survey, the issue ofuntaken holidays appears to stand as aglobal phenomenon. The majority of theworkforce in places like Hong Kong,Japan, Malaysia and Singapore believethat holidays are condemned and dis-couraged in offices. As a matter of fact,even while on break, 72 per cent of thepeople in Singapore complained thatthey couldn’t fully switch off and 59 percent of the respondents in Hong Kongwished they had spent more time onvacation.

The grand old dame of Delhiand former Chief Minister

Sheila Dikshit believes thatwomen’s rights begin at home. Ata conference, She Leads India,Celebrate Women Today andEveryday, she pointed out,“Seventy-five percent of work thatevery woman does — from takingcare of the family and their foodneeds to maintenance of houseclearly states how significant awoman's presence is in the familyand yet they are treated badly bymen. This somewhere states thatthe upbringing of a man in thefamily is not appropriate andneeds to be changed from child-hood.”

Sheila Dikshit, made a markfor herself in a profession which isdominated by men. After rulingand leading the party for a periodof 50 years, the leading lady sharedsome insights into her politicalcareer. She has also turned authorwith her recently penned autobi-ography: Citizen Delhi- My Times,My life which talks about how a girlwho loved cycling along the tree-lined avenues of a brand newLutyens’ Delhi, five decades later,went on to govern and transformDelhi as its chief minister — notonce, but thrice consecutively.Dikshit’s tenure lasted from 1998to 2013.

She said, “My life inspired meto pen down my thoughts. My lifehas been interesting but challeng-ing at times.” From being an ordi-nary woman to a politician to aminister, Dikshit has devoted herlife to the well-being of the city.“Having spent a good time in pol-itics, I am now more relaxed.”

Dikshit shared a solution totackle the prevailing unsafe envi-ronment for a woman in Delhi. Shesaid, “I feel bad that women do notfeel safe in the capital. Boys mustbecome more responsible when itcomes to women.”

Having had an upbringingwhich was similar to an ordinarywoman, Dikshit shared the chal-lenges of her journey as a politician.“Immediately after the death ofIndira Gandhi, I was asked to par-ticipate in elections and fortunate-ly I was able to create my space inpolitics,” she said. Talking about thekey changes the country has gonethrough after handing over theresponsibility to the current chiefminister, Dikshit shared, “Fifteenyears ago a 24-hour power supplywas our first challenge. This wasfollowed by pollution which wasand continues to be a major prob-lem. The metro rail and CNGscheme in Delhi were initiatedwhen I was the Chief Minister andthe BJP government led by formerPrime Minister Atal Bihari Bajpaiwas at the centre. With the digitalmedium growing, today the gov-ernment can reach out to the cit-izens directly which is a hugechange compared to 15 years ago.”Adding to the ballooning of digi-tal media in the country, she said,“Indian media is a very important

part of everyday life and illiterateindividuals are also using it. Todaythey all have access to print andelectronic media, aware of theenormous amount of informa-tion. But apparently, the informa-tion they are delivering has becomequestionable as it majorly focuss-es on sensationalism of newsrather than factual news. The bal-ance of information and news islost. The news we readthese days across theworld is about rape,racism and mur-der. There is somuch beautyin the worldand I wish weall couldreflect onthat.”

Sheddinglight on Delhi asnot just the cap-ital but the reflect-ing mirror of thecountry, she asserted, “Weneed to recall that Delhi is not afull-fledged state but the capital ofour country, visited by dignitariesand diplomats from all over theworld. It must be moulded into aworld-class city because the imagethey have of India is through theimage of Delhi. I wish to look atDelhi as a smart city”. The womanwho herself is an exemplary exam-ple of empowerment wished fellow

women on women’s day, “Be awoman and that too a strong one”.

Other prominent womanpresent was Priyanka Raina, wifeof sportsperson Suresh Raina.During the discussion, the activistwho has contributed towards thecause of human rights and femi-nism, talked about ‘FinancialAbuse’ which she believes is the keyreason for women being tortured

by men. “We are well aware ofthe term physical abuse

but it eventually leadsto ‘financial abuse’.

When a woman isf i n a n c i a l l ydependent andis not allowedto independent-ly managefinances, it caus-es financial

abuse.” Raina hasrecently initiated a

Radio network whereshe is an RJ, discussing

matters related to domesticviolence, acid attack, girl child edu-cation, sexual harassment, genderbias, menstrual hygiene and taboosrelated to women. Raina also talksto victims on-air with the aim toempower woman of the country.“The target audience is inclusive ofeveryone — women, men, andchildren. I feel that together withmen, the women’s mindsets needto change as well,” she asserted.

Adding to the term financialabuse, Raina shared her on-air dis-cusssion with women who havesuffered from it. “Most women arevictims because they do not haveaccess to money and are bound tolive a tortured life. Financial inde-pendence therefore is immenselyimportant as it further helps in tak-ing major decisions in life.”

She also encouraged women tohelp others of the same gender.“The scenario is changing but it alldepends on creating awarenessamong the masses. Being a fellowcompanion, I feel it is my respon-siblity to educate women andmake them financially independ-edent. And, we have to bring thatchange together,” she said.

Nishtha Satyam is a DeputyCountry Representative, UNWomen. As a futurist and feminist,the active advocate talked aboutfinancial inclusion of women. “Wegenerally talk about this term inone breath unaware of the deep sig-nificance it holds. Financial inclu-sion does not end with womenhaving access to finance but it’s alsoabout being able to invest more,doing something for yourself andyour children which in itself is amajor challenge in today’s time”,she said.

Elaborating on one such inci-dent where a woman’s personalchoice of spending money wasattacked, she narrated, “Even in themost elite households, wheneversomeone swipes a card and comeshome with shopping bags, she isquestioned. When such acts arespoken in relation to a woman, theshopping is made fun of and it isconsidered acceptable to do so.That is not correct. It seems to saythat a woman doesn’t know whatto do with her life so she spends herentire money on shopping.Though the truth of the matter isthat women, in reality, are the mostrational consumers around theglobe”.

Satyam also believes that thereis an urgent need to look at finan-cial inclusion in a more compre-hensive way to deal with its con-sequences. As a closing note sheshared, “A woman must participatein the economic activities unfazedby the questions that are flung ather by the household and themedia. They should be empoweredenough to invest money withoutany patriarchal influence.”

Ihitashri Shandilya, anotherspeaker has chosen to remainrooted in culture and has consis-tently worked towards servingwoman artists. She excels in tradi-tional madhubani art and empha-sised on the inequality of incomeamong male and female artists.“Arts like madhubhani have sur-vived till now only because womenhave passed along the flame acrossgenerations. People might be awareof Bollywood artist but if the samegroup is asked to name a fewpainters, they probably would goblank. I am working to give themtheir due credit.”

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Chef Shaun Quade’s style of cookingis referred to as minimum-ingredi-ent and maximum-impact. He hired

an acting coach for his floor staff at Lûmébecause operating a restaurant like his isno different than putting on a show.“Everyone has their part to play to makethe entire experience come to life. Muchof being on the floor is storytelling so thestaff needs to be confident in their deliv-ery and presentation for every guest.Hiring an acting coach to work on theirprojection and posture just seemed like thenatural thing to do,” asserted chef Quade.

The owner and chef of SouthMelbourne’s Lûmé, Quade never had anyplans to become a pastry chef or even arestaurateur. Beginning his career atMcDonald’s chain as a teenager, one thingled to another and in 2005, he ended upin Sydney’s Quay restaurant. With out-of-the box ideas, he never presents the menuuntil the meal is over leaving the fate of thedinner in the hands of the chef.

Lûmé doesn’t just serve food, it createsexperiences best enjoyed by curious minds.“Dinner at the restaurant is more than foodand wine. We try to create a personalisedexperience each day for our guests likethey’ve never had before. In the brief timethat they spend with us, we want toimmerse them into a world we have cre-ated for them, to break their reality for afew moments. People need to

keep an open mind and be inquisitive asto what’s going on around them otherwisethey will miss out on the small things.”

Serving highly-technical dishes likeemu that looks like burnt eucalyptus, duckliver that looks like quince, the idea hasalways been to experiment with food. Saidchef Quade, “People enjoy surprises andlove the unexpected. When one exceedsthe expectations of the guests, that’s whenthey have created something truly extra-ordinary. We always start with the best pro-

duce we can find from Victoria and pre-sent it in such a way that it not only looksand tastes great but also has a story to it.”

From hanging around the pastry sec-tion at Quay to becoming the owner atLûmé, the transition has been hugely sat-isfying, stressful, exciting, all-consuming,heart breaking in his own words. However,most of all it was brimmed with fun ele-ments because Chef Quade wouldn’t haveit any other way.

The multisensory tasting menu is an

experimental dive into flavours, texturesand ingredients not so frequently used

by other chefs. He has a food philos-ophy that is innovative, artistic and

a little eclectic as well. “Everythingon the plate must have a purposeand a reason. I’ve created dishesthat have over 100 ingredientsand also created dishes thatcomprise two to three. They arequite different but both made

sense to me. I’ve communicatedan idea through them. We never

compromise with the quality of theproduce and pick out ingredients

from what’s the best we can get ourhands on in Victoria from farmers, fish-ermen and producersthat practice sustainable methods.”

Chef Quade’s signature dish is toutedto be sea pearl dish although he is not fondof this term. “Technically, all of the dish-es have my ‘signature’ on them. The dishthat guests consistently comment on themost would be the ‘Pearl on the OceanFloor’ which is basically sashimi thoughit varies on what’s in season, with sea suc-culents and a ‘pearl’ made from miso andpine nut ice cream. I am inspired by theseasons. To truly call oneself a chef, I thinkan intrinsic sense of fascination withnature, an appreciation for ingredients intheir rawest form and the readiness to drawone’s inspiration from what nature givesthem is a necessary requirement. AtLûmé, we have numerous small farms indifferent parts of Victoria where farmersgrow produce exclusively for the restaurant — according to our specifica-tions.”

The pastry chef believes that theweirdest thing on the menu is cow’sudders though he uses it as a substitute foraged cheese because of its milk content.“People classify things as being weird ifthese are something they’re not accus-tomed to eating as part of their culture.What’s seen as weird to someone fromMumbai might be completely normal tosomeone from Berlin and vice versa. Butthat’s the most exciting part of being achef. There’s an arsenal of ingredients andtechniques around the globe to discoverand create. Cow’s udder is actually a verycommon cut of meat to eat in Israel andit’s absolutely delicious.”

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India's young bowling unit got its bear-ings back with a disciplined effort torestrict Bangladesh to a modest 139/8

in the second round robin league matchof the Nidahas Twenty20 Tri-Nationtournament, here on Thursday evening.

After a nightmarish effort againsthosts Sri Lanka in the opener, the inex-perienced line-up gave a much betteraccount of themselves, using the condi-tions well, much to the delight of theirskipper Rohit Sharma.

The testimony to a better perfor-mance was as many as 55 dot balls (9.1overs) being bowled by the 'Men in Blue'.

On a slow Premadasa track, all-rounder Vijay Shankar's (2/32 in 4overs) wicket-to-wicket stuff proved tobe handy even though he had at leastthree catches dropped off his bowling.Jaydev Unadkat (3/38) had most num-ber of wickets but he was inconsistentthroughout his four-over spell with amixture of good deliveries followed byhalf trackers.

Skipper Rohit once again started withoff-spinner MS Washington Sundar(0/23 in 4 overs) and the normally dan-gerous Tamim Iqbal (15, 16 balls) foundit difficult to get going in the Powerplayovers. Sundar bowled as many as 13 dotballs in those first six overs.

His partner Soumya Sarkar (14, 12balls) flicked Unadkat over long-leg fora six but the Saurashtra left-armer hadthe last laugh when he was caught at shortfine-leg trying to whip a rising delivery.

Tamim's misery was ended by a well-disguised short-ball from Shardul Thakur(1/25 in 4 overs), which climbed on himsharply.His mistimed pull-shot was takeneasily by Unadkat at short fine-leg.

Liton Das (34, 30 balls) and formerskipper Mushfiqur Rahim (18) added 31runs for the third wicket.

Rahim in fact, started with a switchhit sweep and a conventional slog sweepoff Yuzvendra Chahal (1/19 in 4 overs),who didn't bowl too many boundaryballs after that.

Shankar, playing his second inter-national game, impressed every one byhitting the right length time and again.

The lack of pace in his bowling, wasmanaged well by managing to hit thegood length spot with Suresh Raina drop-ping a dolly to give Liton a reprieve.

The ball stopped on him and climbedup. It was an easy skier went abeggingwith Raina running from mid-offdropped it.

Liton once again got lucky as anoth-er Shankar bouncer saw him try to clearthe deep fine leg but Chahal running in-

front spilled the catch.However in his next over, Shankar

got his first international wicket whenMushfiqur edged one to Dinesh Karthikbehind the stumps.

Skipper Mahmudullah (1, 8 balls)wasfrustrated by Chahal's variations and inhis desperate bid tried to hit Shankarinside out gave an easy catch to Shardulat sweeper cover boundary.

Liton couldn't utilise the chances that

he got as Chahal enticed him with aflighted delivery as Raina took a simplecatch at long-off.

Shankar was again unlucky in hisfinal over, when he sprinted around 35metres towards vacant on side trying tolatch onto a catch off his own bowling.The batsman in question was ShabbirRahaman (30, 26 balls), whose lustyblows towards the end gave Bangaldesh'stotal, a semblance of respectability.

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Selecting a talent like Virat Kohliearly in his career would be con-

sidered a masterstroke by most butaccording to former India captainDilip Vengsarkar, it ended his careeras a national selector.

Vengsarkar has claimed that helost his job as chairman of selectors forpicking Kohli over Tamil Nadu'sdomestic heavyweight S Badrinath in2008, courtesy the then BCCISecretary N Srinivasan.

"There was an Emerging Playerstournament in Australia (for) young-sters — four A teams were there —India, Australia, South Africa and NewZealand," Vengsarkar recalled at a pro-gram organised by the MumbaiMarathi Patrakar Sangh.

"Me and my colleagues decidedthat we will take the U-23 boys and atthat time we had won the U19 WorldCup, Virat Kohli was the U19 captainand I selected him in the team," he

added.Vengsarkar claimed that Dhoni

and coach Gary Kirsten were scepti-cal about the selection. The straight-talking former batsman said he even-tually fell out of favour with Srinivasan,something that cost him his job.

"He (Kohli) was technically soundand I thought he should be played. Wewere going to Sri Lanka and I felt thatthis is the ideal situation that he shouldbe in the team. My four colleagues said'As you say Dilip Bhai'," he said refer-ring to the other members of the selec-tion panel.

"However, Gary and Dhoni weresaying 'No, we haven't seen him andwe will continue with the same team'.I told them 'You haven't seen him butI have seen and we have to take thisboy'," Vengsarkar said.

Even Kohli, in the past, has spo-ken publicly about how Vengsarkarlanded in Australia during an A teamtournament and told the currentIndia captain to open the innings.

Kohli took up the challenge to scorea hundred and was selected in theIndian team for the tour of Sri Lanka.

Kohli and Badrinath were fightingfor one vacant middle-order spot atthat point in time in Dhoni's team thathad six batting slots sealed. VirenderSehwag, Gautam Gambhir, SachinTendulkar, Yuvraj Singh and Dhoniwere automatic selections.

"Me and my colleagues had goneto Brisbane and it was against NewZealand A. Kohli was opening andtheir team had some good players(Martin Guptill, Corey Anderson,Jesse Ryder), Kohli scored an unbeat-en 120 and I felt that we should playthis boy for India," recalledVengsarkar.

'Colonel', as he is fondly called,alleged that he sensed a generaluneasiness with Kohli's selection asBadrinath played IPL for the ChennaiSuper Kings, which was then ownedby erstwhile secretary and TamilNadu strongman Srinivasan.

"I knew there was South'sBadrinath, who was playing for NSrinivasan's CSK. When Kohli waspreferred over Badrinath, Srinivasanwas not happy. He got fed up as hisplayer was kept out and he questionedme as to how I didn't pick Badri? Ireplied that I had gone to watch theEmerging Tour in Australia and foundthis boy Kohli exceptional.

"So I have picked him in the teamand Srinivasan reasoned thatBadrinath had scored 800 runs forTamil Nadu. I told him he will get achance and angry Srinivasan asked"when he will get a chance , he is 29years old? I replied: 'Whenever thetime comes.'

Vengsarkar said soon after hewas replaced by Srinivasan's choiceKris Srikkanth as chairman of selec-tors.

"Srinivasan then made Srikkanththe chairman and I was sent home.That was the end of my career as aselector."

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Zimbabwe's left-arm seamer BrianVitori was on Thursday suspended

from bowling in international cricketafter his action was found to be illegalby the ICC.

The suspension is "with immediateeffect" after the Event Panel of the ongo-ing ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier inHarare confirmed that the left-arm fastbowler has an illegal action.

The 28-year-old was reported by thematch officials following his side's non-broadcast match against Nepal onSunday.

"As per Article 3.6.2 of the ICCIllegal Bowling Regulations, Vitori'sbowling action was filmed in the nextmatch he played after being reported,which was against Afghanistan onTuesday, and the video footage of hisbowling spells were provided to theEvent Panel of Helen Bayne and MarkKing, who are both members of the ICCPanel of Human Movement Specialists,for analysis and assessment," the ICCsaid in a statement.

The panel concluded that Vitori'saction is illegal and, "in accordance withArticle 6.5 of the regulations, he hasbeen immediately suspended from

bowling in international cricket".Vitori's will remain suspended till

an assessment of his action at an ICCapproved Testing Center concludesthat his bowling action is legal.

Meanwhile, the Event TechnicalCommittee has allowed the Zimbabweteam to replace Vitori with RichardNgarava.

Ngarava is a left-arm fast bowlerand a lower-order batsman, who hasplayed in six ODIs, taking eight wick-ets and scoring 12 runs. His last ODI forZimbabwe was against Scotland inEdinburgh in June 2017.

Vitori was originally suspendedfrom bowling in January 2016 but waspermitted to resume in June the sameyear following an independent reassess-ment where his action was found to belegal.

He was again reported during theBulawayo ODI against Sri Lanka thesame year and was subsequently sus-pended for 12 months after an inde-pendent assessment revealed an illegalbowling action.

Vitori underwent reassessment ofhis bowling action at the HighPerformance Centre in Pretoria inJanuary this year and was allowed toresume bowling.

���� �@7*5@

Australia vice-captain David Warnersays he will always stick up for his

family after claiming a "vile and dis-gusting" remark about his wife by SouthAfrica's Quinton de Kock led to theirugly altercation.

Both players were punishedWednesday for the bust-up during theopening Test in Durban, with Warnerfined 75 percent of his match fee and DeKock 25 percent.

They are free to play the second Teststarting Friday in Port Elizabeth,although Warner was also given threedemerit points, meaning he will bebanned if he gets one more within thenext year.

Warner admitted he let his emotionstake over after confronting the Proteaswicketkeeper/batsman as the playerswalked up a narrow staircase to thedressing rooms during the tea intervalon Sunday.

Footage was captured on CCTV andleaked, showing the Australian beingrestrained by his team-mates.

Warner said he was used to takingflak from fans and opposition players,but claimed De Kock's remark crosseda line.

"The other day I was probably outof line. I've seen the footage and I regretthe way it played out but for me — it ishow I am and I responded emotional-ly and regretted the way I played out,"he told Australian media in SouthAfrica.

"But I'll always stick up for my fam-ily.

"I cop it left, right and centre, espe-cially off the field from spectators. I amused to that and it doesn't bother me.

"But in the proximity of my personalspace and behind me, a comment thatwas vile and disgusting and about mywife and just in general about a lady wasquite poor, I felt."

He added: "When it comes to fam-ily or racism comments or anything likethat, that's just a no-go zone."

New footage shows the pair walkingfrom the ground together and Warner

is heard to call De Kock a "fucking sook",according to The Australian newspaper,referring to someone who is soft or eas-ily upset.

He apparently responded by mak-ing disparaging remarks about Warner'swife Candice, a model, which escalatedthe row as they made their way to thedressing rooms.

South African coach Ottis Gibsonhas defended De Kock against allega-tions he provoked the heated altercation.

"I think everybody just needs tofocus on cricket. Calm down and get

back to cricket," he said.Warner and De Kock are yet to

speak since the incident but theAustralian opener said he hoped tobreak the ice at some point in the nearfuture.

"Hopefully I can speak to him in thenext couple of days, or after the game,or after the series," he said.

Match referee Jeff Crowe is expect-ed to meet with skippers Steve Smith andFaf du Plessis on Thursday, spelling outhow he wants players to behave whenthe series continues.

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Injured Black Cap Ross Taylor said onThursday he was desperate to play in the one-

day series decider against England, as punditsdeclared his unbeaten 181 the greatest ever lim-ited-overs innings by a Kiwi batsman.

Taylor overcame cramps and a severe thighstrain to bludgeon New Zealand to victory witha career-best performance in the fourth ODImatch in Hamilton on Thursday.

Grimacing with pain after every shot andlimping between the wickets, he levelled theseries 2-2 to set up a winner-takes-all clash inChristchurch on Saturday.

Coach Mike Hesson was reluctant to riskTaylor in thecrunch match ifthere was risk oflong-term injury,and has called inrookie MarkChapman ascover.

"We need toknow the extent ofit and whether it'sone of thoseinjuries that canget worse, orwhether you cangrin and bear it,we're just not sure yet," Hesson told reporters.

Taylor said he was keen to play and wouldbe icing his injured thigh and resting with theintention of taking the field even if he was notfully fit.

"I'm hoping to," he told Radio Sport.“Obviously I won't be 100 (percent) but we'll

just see how it pulls up in the next couple of daysand give it the best chance possible."

Taylor hurt his thigh earlier in the seriesthen aggravated it diving to avoid a run out asNew Zealand chased England's challenging tar-get of 336.

The 34-year-old's 181 not out was his 19thOne Day International century and the thirdhighest score by a New Zealand player in the50-over format.

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