2 ./3˛ .0 4 ˚˝#!˛ $˛$˚! $˛%& ’(˛)*˛˜ ˜% + in phulpur, nagendra ... subramanian...

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I n a country which is perpet- ually in an election mode, the results of bypolls seldom induce more than fleeting political ripples and are forgot- ten no sooner than the next ones. But the outcomes of the Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha polls are like powerful twisters that are bound to cre- ate lasting political churning in the run-up to the next year’s general elections. Added to this, the RJD’s success in retain- ing its base in Bihar despite coming together of the BJP and the Janata Dal (U) also carries a serious message for the rul- ing NDA at the Centre. In UP, BJP’s defeat on seats represented by Chief Minister Adityanath Yogi and his Deputy Keshav Prasad Maurya has come as big surprise for political experts, mediaper- sons, and main stakeholders. Even when the BSP and the Samajwadi Party came togeth- er a fortnight ago after 27 years of bitter rivalry, few had expected that the fledgling alliance could pose a serious challenge to the formidable BJP. After all, both Yogi and Maurya had won with massive marigins of over 3 laks in the 2014 lok sabha polls. Gorakhpur, especially, was seen as a no contest, since the BJP had never lost from here in the last 30 years. With Yogi in the chair of Chief Minister, it was expected that the people of Gorakhpur would rally around him. But the result showed that in the penultimate year of the Modi Government, the people are becoming restless about unfulfilled promises and unre- alsitc expectations. The BJP’s recent defeat on two Lok Sabha bypolls in Rajasthan and setbacks in Madhya Pradesh Assembly bypolls could be attributed to anti-incumbency factors. For a host of reasons, Rajasthan Chief Minister Vashundhara Raje is seen on a losing wicket in the State, and Shivraj Singh Chouhan faced the burden of three-terms of anti-incumben- cy. But Yogi faced no such chal- lenges. Here is a Government that swept to power less than a year ago, reducing its oppo- nents to the status of “also-ran”. Historically, it has been rare that Governments lose in by- polls in the first year in power. So, what was it that caused such huge loss of face for the BJP in Uttar Pradesh? Yogi thinks that the over- confidence of the part of the BJP and its inability to fathom the impact of the electoral understanding between the SP and the BSP led to the defeat. But Opposition leaders — including SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, BSP supremo Mayawati and Congress president Rahul Gandhi — see the result as peo- ple’s no-confidence against the Modi Government. The truth may lie some- where in between. It’s clear that the BSP and the SP make for a formidable force in UP. It is has often been seen that stitching together such an alliance at the eleventh hour does not ensure transfer of votes. Mayawati astonished everyone by proving that she may have drawn a blank in the last LS polls in UP, but her hold over support base remains intact and her supporters are ready to dance to her tune. It’s equally true that the BJP could not have lost seats which it had won with such massive margins without disenchant- ment of the voters. The Modi Government will now have to do serious introspection and convince the people that it is on the right path of transforming the econ- omy of the country and the promise of the “Acche din” is not a mere political slogan. Continued on Page 2 I n a huge blow to the ruling BJP, the Samajwadi Party with backing of Bahujan Samaj Party on Wednesday wrested two Lok Sabha seats of Gorakhpur and Phulpur from the BJP which were vacated by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and his deputy Keshav Prasad Maurya. The election results are embarrassment for Yogi as they come four days before he completes one year in office on March 19. In Gorakhpur, Pravin Nishad of the SP defeated his nearest rival Upendra Dutt Shukla of the BJP by 21.961 votes. SP candidate polled 4, 56, 437 votes, the BJP got 4, 34,476 while the Congress candidate got 18,844 votes only. In Phulpur, Nagendra Prtap Singh Patel of the SP defeated his nearest BJP rival Kaushelendra Patel by 59,613 votes. The SP polled 3,42,796 votes, the BJP got 2,83,183. Independent Atiq Ahmed polled 48,087 votes and the Congress candidate Manish Mishra polled only 19,334 votes. The voter turnout was 47.45 per cent in Gorakhpur and 37.39 per cent in Phulpur in polling held on March 11. The SP took early lead, right from the beginning of the vote count, and steadily built up the gap with its BJP rivals both in Gorakhpur and Phulpur. As the SP raced ahead of BJP, party workers of BSP and SP raised ‘bua-bhateeja zindabad’ slogans. While SP activists celebrated in Phulpur and Gorakhpur, the BJP was stunned into silence. Leader of the Opposition in State Assembly and SP member Ram Govind Choudhury rushed to the residence of the Bahujan Samaj Party Chief Mayawati and thanked her for extending support to the SP candidates in two Lok Sabha seats. The counting began amidst tight security for both the con- stituencies. Gorakhpur was represented by Yogi before he became the CM, while Phulpur was represented by Keshav Prasad Maurya, before he became the deputy Chief Minister. J ubilations broke out in the RJD camp on Wednesday fol- lowing the declaration of the results of three bypolls, one Lok Sabha and two Assembly seats in Bihar. The party of jailed leader Lalu Prasad won two, Araria Parliamentary and Jehanabad Assembly seats handing over humiliating defeat to the newly-alliance of the BJP and the JD(U). The BJP won Bhabua seat. The result is seen as a per- sonal triumph of Lalu’s youngest son Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, who led the party from the front and carried out a sin- gle-handed campaign in the absence of his father. Excited at the outcome, Lalu Prasad tweeted, “If you throw the oil of conspiracy on Lalu it will help his lantern to be lighted more. This result is victory of truth over lies.” While Tejashwi dedicated the victory to the people of Bihar, party’s senior leader Manoj Jha said, “No jail can detain the ideologies. You can put Lalu in jail but not his ide- ologies nor his support base.” In Araria, on Bihar-Nepal borders, RJD’s Sarfaraz Alam defeated BJP’s Pradeep Kumar by over 57,000 votes. The seat fell vacant due to demise of Alam’s father and legendary political figure Mohammad Taslimuddin, a former Union Minister of State for Home. Alam was in the JD(U) and represented Jokihat in the Bihar Assembly but resigned from the party to join the RJD just before the bypoll was announced. The BJP’s game plan did not succeed in this Muslim-dominated constituen- cy where it had won four of the six Assembly segments in 2015. The NDA took the Araria election so seriously that all the big leaders of the alliance —including Nitish Kumar and Sushil Kumar Modi — stumped there for days. So desperate was Nitish to win over Muslim votes that he revived the scheme of the fencing of graveyards by per- sonally making announce- ment in the Assembly last week. A head of hearing the crucial Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title suit, the Supreme Court on Wednesday decided to examine the question whether a mosque constitutes an essen- tial and integral part of Muslim religion. The court also dismissed all intervention applications filed in the matter and maintained only original parties to the suit will be allowed to file applications henceforth. The dismissed applicants included BJP MP Subramanian Swamy who sought enforcement of his right to worship at Lord Ram’s birth- place. The question whether mosque is essential to Muslim faith goes to the root of the controversy as the September 30, 2010 Allahabad High Court verdict that partitioned the Ayodhya property into three parts had relied on a 1994 decision by the apex court laying down that pray- ing at a mosque is only a reli- gious practice and not essen- tial practice of Muslims. S tephen Hawking, whose brilliant mind ranged across time and space though his body was paralyzed by disease, has died. He was 76. Hawking died at his home in Cambridge, England, according to a statement by the University of Cambridge. The best-known theoreti- cal physicist of his time, Hawking wrote so lucidly of the mysteries of space, time and black holes that his book, “A Brief History of Time,” became an international best-seller, making him one of science’s biggest celebrities since Albert Einstein. “He was a great scientist and an extraordinary man whose work and legacy will live on for many years,” his children Lucy, Robert and Tim said in a statement. His courage and persistence with his brilliance and humour inspired people across the world. He once said, ‘It would not be much of a uni- verse if it wasn’t home to the people you love.’ We will miss him forever.” Even though his body was attacked by amyotrophic later- al sclerosis, or ALS, when Hawking was 21, he stunned doctors by living with the nor- mally fatal illness for more than 50 years. A severe attack of pneumonia in 1985 left him breathing through a tube, forc- ing him to communicate through an electronic voice synthesizer that gave him his distinctive robotic monotone. But he continued his scien- tific work, appeared on televi- sion and married for a second time. As one of Isaac Newton’s successors as Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University, Hawking was involved in the search for the great goal of physics — a “unified theory.” Such a theory would resolve the contradictions between Einstein’s theory of rel- ativity, which describes the laws of gravity that govern the motion of large objects like planets, and the quantum mechanics theory, which deals with the world of subatomic particles. For Hawking, the search was almost a religious quest — he said finding a “theory of everything” would allow mankind to “know the mind of God.” “A complete, consistent unified theory is only the first step: our goal is a complete understanding of the events around us, and of our own existence,” he wrote in “A Brief History of Time.” In later years, though, he suggested a unified theory might not exist. He followed up “A Brief History of Time” in 2001 with the more accessible sequel “The Universe in a Nutshell,” updating readers on concepts like super gravity, naked sin- gularities and the possibility of an 11-dimensional universe. Hawking said belief in a God who intervenes in the universe “to make sure the good guys win or get reward- ed in the next life” was wish- ful thinking. “But one can’t help asking the question: Why does the universe exist?” he said in 1991. “I don’t know an oper- ational way to give the ques- tion or the answer, if there is one, a meaning. J harkhand may have been the first State in the country to launch free oven along with gas connections given under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s brainchild Ujjwala scheme but it appears to be an uphill task as of now. Against the target set for the State to provide 2853904 connections the achievement so far has been meagre 35 per cent since the scheme was launched in October 2016. Official figure suggests that just 11,29,542 gas connections have been provided to poor families in the State and it is still short of nearly 14 lakh new beneficiaries, thanks to glitch- es, starting from muddled list of beneficiaries to issues involving dealers and oil marketing com- panies. “The families marked in the Social Economic and Caste census, 2011 have to be given free gas connection under the scheme and based on that total 28,53,904 families have been identified in Jharkhand. But so far we have been able to pro- vide connections to only 11,29,542 families. There are about one lakh more beneficia- ries whose KYC is complete and connection would soon be issued to them. Yet we have a challenge to provide 14 lakh connections in the State,” said Amitabh Kaushal, Secretary of Food Supply and Consumer Affairs Department. Palamu has been the top performer with 74 per cent achievement while Pakur fared poorly. The Department along with the 20-point programme implementation committee presidents and members start- ing from State to district and block levels, conducted a review of the scheme on Wednesday where Chief Minister Raghubar Das was also present. Moreover, the Department, on its part, has modified the modus operandi and decided to furnish list of deserving beneficiaries village- wise as well as PDS shop-wise to District Supply Offers and Marketing Officers. Gas com- panies would also open 312 new agencies. “This has been done to ease the identification process. Now, the activists and 20-point presidents and members at block levels can directly pick up names and help them fill up forms to submit to the dealers. We have set a target to do KYC of three lakh beneficiaries every month,” added the Secretary. Continued on Page 2 S eraikela-Kharsawan police on Wednesday arrested BJP’s Ichagarh MLA Sadhu Charan Mahto from Tata Main Hospital (TMH) in Jamshedpur. The accused was undergoing treatment since Tuesday late night. The 45-year-old MLA has been absconding after an FIR was lodged against him at Nimdih police station in the neighbouring Seraikela- Kharsawan district for assault- ing Seraikela-Kharsawan dis- trict land acquisition officer (DLAO) Dipu Kumar last month. The incident took place during a meeting at Raghunathpur village in Nimdih block on February 22. He had taken admission in TMH yesterday night. “It is really not fair to arrest me as I was having stom- ach pain, loose motion and am also diabetic. So, I took admis- sion at TMH yesterday night. During examination it was found that blood pressure had also shot up. The police came this afternoon. I have nothing to say,” said Mahto who was staying in a private cabin at TMH. SDPO Chandil, Sandeep Bhagat confirmed the arrest. “Yes we have arrested him. We got information and arrested the MLA as an arrest warrant had been issued and also a notice had been pasted at his house in Sridungri in Adityapur (Seraikela- Kharsawan district) under sec- tion 82 of CrPC on March 10 for assaulting a government servant on duty. We will take him into custody depending on his medical condition,” said Bhagat. The land acquisition offi- cer assault case snowballed into a major controversy fol- lowing protest from the Jharkhand Administrative Service Association (JHASA), the representative body of the state administrative service officials. Denying the assault, Sadhu Charan Mahto had said that he just opposed the ‘meager com- pensation’ being given by the land department to the villagers who parted from their land to pave way for widening of road at NH 32. The administration was acquiring land for a project of widening of NH-32. For the NH widening project, the administration is acquiring land from five villages through which the NH-32 passes. According to police, after gathering that Dipu Kumar had started distributing com- pensation at Raghunathpur, the legislator had first threat- ened Kumar over cellphone at about 10 am and subsequent- ly arrived at the village in the afternoon and assaulted him.

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Page 1: 2 ./3˛ .0 4 ˚˝#!˛ $˛$˚! $˛%& ’(˛)*˛˜ ˜% + In Phulpur, Nagendra ... Subramanian Swamy who sought enforcement of his right to worship at Lord Ram’s birth-place. The question

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In a country which is perpet-ually in an election mode, the

results of bypolls seldominduce more than fleetingpolitical ripples and are forgot-ten no sooner than the nextones. But the outcomes of theGorakhpur and Phulpur LokSabha polls are like powerfultwisters that are bound to cre-ate lasting political churning inthe run-up to the next year’sgeneral elections. Added tothis, the RJD’s success in retain-ing its base in Bihar despitecoming together of the BJP andthe Janata Dal (U) also carriesa serious message for the rul-ing NDA at the Centre.

In UP, BJP’s defeat on seatsrepresented by Chief MinisterAdityanath Yogi and hisDeputy Keshav Prasad Mauryahas come as big surprise forpolitical experts, mediaper-sons, and main stakeholders.Even when the BSP and theSamajwadi Party came togeth-er a fortnight ago after 27years of bitter rivalry, few hadexpected that the fledglingalliance could pose a seriouschallenge to the formidableBJP. After all, both Yogi andMaurya had won with massivemarigins of over 3 laks in the2014 lok sabha polls.

Gorakhpur, especially, was seenas a no contest, since the BJPhad never lost from here in thelast 30 years. With Yogi in thechair of Chief Minister, it wasexpected that the people ofGorakhpur would rally aroundhim. But the result showed thatin the penultimate year of theModi Government, the peopleare becoming restless aboutunfulfilled promises and unre-alsitc expectations.

The BJP’s recent defeat ontwo Lok Sabha bypolls inRajasthan and setbacks inMadhya Pradesh Assemblybypolls could be attributed toanti-incumbency factors. For ahost of reasons, RajasthanChief Minister VashundharaRaje is seen on a losing wicketin the State, and Shivraj SinghChouhan faced the burden ofthree-terms of anti-incumben-cy. But Yogi faced no such chal-lenges. Here is a Governmentthat swept to power less than ayear ago, reducing its oppo-nents to the status of “also-ran”.Historically, it has been rarethat Governments lose in by-polls in the first year in power.

So, what was it that causedsuch huge loss of face for theBJP in Uttar Pradesh?

Yogi thinks that the over-confidence of the part of theBJP and its inability to fathom

the impact of the electoralunderstanding between the SPand the BSP led to the defeat.

But Opposition leaders —including SP chief AkhileshYadav, BSP supremo Mayawatiand Congress president RahulGandhi — see the result as peo-ple’s no-confidence against theModi Government.

The truth may lie some-where in between. It’s clear thatthe BSP and the SP make for aformidable force in UP. It is hasoften been seen that stitchingtogether such an alliance at theeleventh hour does not ensuretransfer of votes.

Mayawati astonishedeveryone by proving that shemay have drawn a blank in thelast LS polls in UP, but her holdover support base remainsintact and her supporters areready to dance to her tune.

It’s equally true that the BJPcould not have lost seats whichit had won with such massivemargins without disenchant-ment of the voters.

The Modi Governmentwill now have to do seriousintrospection and convince thepeople that it is on the rightpath of transforming the econ-omy of the country and thepromise of the “Acche din” isnot a mere political slogan.

Continued on Page 2����� 2.#4�5�

In a huge blow to the rulingBJP, the Samajwadi Party

with backing of Bahujan SamajParty on Wednesday wrestedtwo Lok Sabha seats ofGorakhpur and Phulpur fromthe BJP which were vacated byChief Minister Yogi Adityanathand his deputy Keshav PrasadMaurya. The election resultsare embarrassment for Yogi asthey come four days before hecompletes one year in office onMarch 19.

In Gorakhpur, PravinNishad of the SP defeated hisnearest rival Upendra DuttShukla of the BJP by 21.961

votes. SP candidate polled 4, 56,437 votes, the BJP got 4, 34,476while the Congress candidategot 18,844 votes only.

In Phulpur, NagendraPrtap Singh Patel of the SPdefeated his nearest BJP rival Kaushelendra Patel by59,613 votes. The SP polled3,42,796 votes, the BJP got2,83,183. Independent AtiqAhmed polled 48,087 votesand the Congress candidateManish Mishra polled only19,334 votes. The voter turnoutwas 47.45 per cent inGorakhpur and 37.39 per centin Phulpur in polling held onMarch 11.

The SP took early lead,right from the beginning of thevote count, and steadily built upthe gap with its BJP rivalsboth in Gorakhpur and

Phulpur. As the SP raced aheadof BJP, party workers of BSPand SP raised ‘bua-bhateejazindabad’ slogans. While SPactivists celebrated in Phulpurand Gorakhpur, the BJP wasstunned into silence. Leader ofthe Opposition in StateAssembly and SP member RamGovind Choudhury rushed tothe residence of the BahujanSamaj Party Chief Mayawatiand thanked her for extendingsupport to the SP candidates intwo Lok Sabha seats.

The counting began amidsttight security for both the con-stituencies. Gorakhpur wasrepresented by Yogi before hebecame the CM, while Phulpurwas represented by KeshavPrasad Maurya, before hebecame the deputy ChiefMinister.

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Jubilations broke out in theRJD camp on Wednesday fol-

lowing the declaration of theresults of three bypolls, one LokSabha and two Assembly seatsin Bihar. The party of jailedleader Lalu Prasad won two,Araria Parliamentary andJehanabad Assembly seatshanding over humiliatingdefeat to the newly-alliance ofthe BJP and the JD(U). The BJPwon Bhabua seat.

The result is seen as a per-sonal triumph of Lalu’syoungest son Tejashwi PrasadYadav, who led the party fromthe front and carried out a sin-gle-handed campaign in theabsence of his father.

Excited at the outcome,Lalu Prasad tweeted, “If youthrow the oil of conspiracy onLalu it will help his lantern tobe lighted more. This result isvictory of truth over lies.”

While Tejashwi dedicated

the victory to the people ofBihar, party’s senior leaderManoj Jha said, “No jail candetain the ideologies. You canput Lalu in jail but not his ide-ologies nor his support base.”

In Araria, on Bihar-Nepalborders, RJD’s Sarfaraz Alamdefeated BJP’s Pradeep Kumarby over 57,000 votes. The seatfell vacant due to demise ofAlam’s father and legendarypolitical figure MohammadTaslimuddin, a former UnionMinister of State for Home.

Alam was in the JD(U) andrepresented Jokihat in the BiharAssembly but resigned fromthe party to join the RJD justbefore the bypoll wasannounced. The BJP’s gameplan did not succeed in thisMuslim-dominated constituen-cy where it had won four of thesix Assembly segments in 2015.

The NDA took the Arariaelection so seriously that allthe big leaders of the alliance—including Nitish Kumarand Sushil Kumar Modi —stumped there for days. Sodesperate was Nitish to winover Muslim votes that herevived the scheme of thefencing of graveyards by per-sonally making announce-ment in the Assembly lastweek.

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Ahead of hearing the crucialRam Janmabhoomi-Babri

Masjid title suit, the SupremeCourt on Wednesday decided toexamine the question whethera mosque constitutes an essen-tial and integral part of Muslimreligion.

The court also dismissed allintervention applications filed inthe matter and maintained onlyoriginal parties to the suit willbe allowed to file applicationshenceforth. The dismissedapplicants included BJP MPSubramanian Swamy who

sought enforcement of his rightto worship at Lord Ram’s birth-place.

The question whethermosque is essential to Muslimfaith goes to the root of thecontroversy as the September30, 2010 Allahabad HighCourt verdict that partitionedthe Ayodhya property intothree parts had relied on a1994 decision by the apexcourt laying down that pray-ing at a mosque is only a reli-gious practice and not essen-tial practice of Muslims.

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Stephen Hawking, whosebrilliant mind ranged across

time and space though hisbody was paralyzed by disease,has died. He was 76.

Hawking died at his homein Cambridge, England,according to a statement by theUniversity of Cambridge.

The best-known theoreti-cal physicist of his time,Hawking wrote so lucidly of themysteries of space, time andblack holes that his book, “ABrief History of Time,” becamean international best-seller,making him one of science’sbiggest celebrities since AlbertEinstein.

“He was a great scientistand an extraordinary manwhose work and legacy will live

on for many years,” his childrenLucy, Robert and Tim said ina statement. His courage andpersistence with his brillianceand humour inspired peopleacross the world. He once said,‘It would not be much of a uni-verse if it wasn’t home to thepeople you love.’ We will misshim forever.”

Even though his body wasattacked by amyotrophic later-al sclerosis, or ALS, whenHawking was 21, he stunneddoctors by living with the nor-mally fatal illness for morethan 50 years. A severe attackof pneumonia in 1985 left himbreathing through a tube, forc-ing him to communicatethrough an electronic voicesynthesizer that gave him hisdistinctive robotic monotone.

But he continued his scien-

tific work, appeared on televi-sion and married for a secondtime. As one of Isaac Newton’ssuccessors as LucasianProfessor of Mathematics atCambridge University,Hawking was involved in thesearch for the great goal ofphysics — a “unified theory.”

Such a theory wouldresolve the contradictionsbetween Einstein’s theory of rel-ativity, which describes the

laws of gravity that govern themotion of large objects likeplanets, and the quantummechanics theory, which dealswith the world of subatomicparticles.

For Hawking, the searchwas almost a religious quest —he said finding a “theory ofeverything” would allowmankind to “know the mind ofGod.” “A complete, consistentunified theory is only the first

step: our goal is a completeunderstanding of the eventsaround us, and of our ownexistence,” he wrote in “A BriefHistory of Time.”

In later years, though, hesuggested a unified theorymight not exist.

He followed up “A BriefHistory of Time” in 2001 withthe more accessible sequel“The Universe in a Nutshell,”updating readers on conceptslike super gravity, naked sin-gularities and the possibility ofan 11-dimensional universe.

Hawking said belief in aGod who intervenes in theuniverse “to make sure thegood guys win or get reward-ed in the next life” was wish-ful thinking.

“But one can’t help askingthe question: Why does theuniverse exist?” he said in1991. “I don’t know an oper-ational way to give the ques-tion or the answer, if there isone, a meaning.

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Jharkhand may have been thefirst State in the country to

launch free oven along with gasconnections given under PrimeMinister Narendra Modi’sbrainchild Ujjwala scheme butit appears to be an uphill task asof now.

Against the target set forthe State to provide 2853904connections the achievementso far has been meagre 35 percent since the scheme waslaunched in October 2016.

Official figure suggests thatjust 11,29,542 gas connectionshave been provided to poor

families in the State and it is stillshort of nearly 14 lakh newbeneficiaries, thanks to glitch-es, starting from muddled list ofbeneficiaries to issues involvingdealers and oil marketing com-

panies.“The families marked in

the Social Economic and Castecensus, 2011 have to be givenfree gas connection under thescheme and based on that total

28,53,904 families have beenidentified in Jharkhand. But sofar we have been able to pro-vide connections to only11,29,542 families. There areabout one lakh more beneficia-ries whose KYC is completeand connection would soon beissued to them. Yet we have achallenge to provide 14 lakhconnections in the State,” saidAmitabh Kaushal, Secretary ofFood Supply and ConsumerAffairs Department. Palamuhas been the top performerwith 74 per cent achievementwhile Pakur fared poorly.

The Department alongwith the 20-point programmeimplementation committeepresidents and members start-ing from State to district andblock levels, conducted a review

of the scheme on Wednesdaywhere Chief Minister RaghubarDas was also present. Moreover,the Department, on its part, hasmodified the modus operandiand decided to furnish list ofdeserving beneficiaries village-wise as well as PDS shop-wiseto District Supply Offers andMarketing Officers. Gas com-panies would also open 312new agencies.

“This has been done toease the identification process.Now, the activists and 20-pointpresidents and members atblock levels can directly pick upnames and help them fill upforms to submit to the dealers.We have set a target to do KYCof three lakh beneficiaries everymonth,” added the Secretary.

Continued on Page 2

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Seraikela-Kharsawan policeon Wednesday arrested

BJP’s Ichagarh MLA SadhuCharan Mahto from Tata MainHospital (TMH) inJamshedpur. The accused wasundergoing treatment sinceTuesday late night.

The 45-year-old MLA hasbeen absconding after an FIRwas lodged against him atNimdih police station in theneighbouring Seraikela-Kharsawan district for assault-ing Seraikela-Kharsawan dis-trict land acquisition officer(DLAO) Dipu Kumar lastmonth. The incident took placeduring a meeting atRaghunathpur village inNimdih block on February 22.He had taken admission inTMH yesterday night.

“It is really not fair toarrest me as I was having stom-ach pain, loose motion and amalso diabetic. So, I took admis-sion at TMH yesterday night.During examination it wasfound that blood pressure hadalso shot up. The police camethis afternoon. I have nothingto say,” said Mahto who wasstaying in a private cabin at

TMH.SDPO Chandil, Sandeep

Bhagat confirmed the arrest.“Yes we have arrested him. Wegot information and arrestedthe MLA as an arrest warranthad been issued and also anotice had been pasted at hishouse in Sridungri inAdityapur (Seraikela-Kharsawan district) under sec-tion 82 of CrPC on March 10for assaulting a government

servant on duty. We will takehim into custody depending onhis medical condition,” saidBhagat.

The land acquisition offi-cer assault case snowballedinto a major controversy fol-lowing protest from theJharkhand AdministrativeService Association (JHASA),the representative body of thestate administrative serviceofficials.

Denying the assault, SadhuCharan Mahto had said that hejust opposed the ‘meager com-pensation’ being given by theland department to the villagerswho parted from their land topave way for widening of roadat NH 32.

The administration wasacquiring land for a project ofwidening of NH-32. For theNH widening project, theadministration is acquiringland from five villages throughwhich the NH-32 passes.

According to police, aftergathering that Dipu Kumarhad started distributing com-pensation at Raghunathpur,the legislator had first threat-ened Kumar over cellphone atabout 10 am and subsequent-ly arrived at the village in theafternoon and assaulted him.

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Page 2: 2 ./3˛ .0 4 ˚˝#!˛ $˛$˚! $˛%& ’(˛)*˛˜ ˜% + In Phulpur, Nagendra ... Subramanian Swamy who sought enforcement of his right to worship at Lord Ram’s birth-place. The question

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Police in consultation withlaw abiding residents are

setting up Mohalla Samitis inPalamu. Sources said MohallaSamiti so set up is to prove itsmettle this Ramnavmi .

SP Palamu IndrajeetMahatha has asked officials inpolice stations, out posts, pick-ets etc to set up Mohalla Samitiscomprising men and womenwho have their say in themohalla and society tostrengthen link of police withpublic and also for a makeoverof image of the police.

State DGP D K Pandey onhis frequent visits to Palamuhas always stressed on buildinga bridge between the com-moners and the police and thisMohalla Samiti is one suchbridge said sources.

Sources said the settingup of Mohalla Samiti daysahead of the Ramnavmi festi-val in Palamu is being seen as

an instrument of strategy tohelp save the environmentfrom getting any vitiated in thisfestival as past experiencesassociated with this festivalhave more bitterness and lesscordiality in the district wheresenior police officers and citi-zens had to spend winklessdays and nights all for peace toremain unshattered.

Sources said Daltonganjpolice set up one such Samiti atAbadganj and held parleyswith the residents there.

Sources said SP has askedhis officers to put on jobpolice official having a some-what clean image and dispo-sition towards public friend-liness and here sources saidthe count of such officials isnot so long.

To a query that in suchSamitis participation ofwomen, house wives andschool or college going girls bealso ensured SP Mahatha saidit would be done so.

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Killol Kamani, Vice chair-man, Confederation of

Indian Industry (CII)Jharkhand State Council andmanaging director, SamarthEngineering Co Pvt Ltd waselected as chairman of CIIJharkhand State Council for theyear 2018-19. Neeraj Kantchairman CII JamshedpurZonal Council and managingdirector The Indian Steel &Wire Products Ltd was electedas Vice Chairman of CIIJharkhand State Council.

CII Jharkhand Annual Daywas held on Wednesday alongwith a Session on Sustainability– The Inclusive Approach forResponsible Business.

Discussion on various ini-tiative and benefits for theindustry including policy ini-tiatives from State Governmentand projecting the State as thepreferred investment destina-tion was part of the agenda ofthe session. Sunil Bhaskaranalso emphasised that CII goingahead can play a vital role in

shaping the industrial fabric ofthe State.

Both Kamani and Kantassured to continue with themomentum of work that hap-pened last year. They alsovowed to continue to workclosely with the StateGovernment and all the otherstakeholders.

Sunil Bhaskaran extendeda warm welcome to all themembers present . He high-lighted that business today hasto be very responsive especial-ly given the obvious fragilitiesand uncertainties of today’sworld. He added that with theadvent of technology, there isan opportunity to reinventsociety, and ways of doingbusiness that are more sus-tainable and inclusive.

He also mentioned thatwith Governments, businessand civil society frequentlyclashing at the intersection ofeconomic policy and conjec-ture over future livelihood via-bility, sustainability has assert-ed itself as a precondition, alicense to operate, or simply a

moral imperative.Shubhenjit Chaudhuri,

managing director, TataPigments Limited mentionedthat the challenge for respon-sible business leaders is whatcan businesses do to becomeleaders in making a bettersociety. He, further, elaboratedthat it also entails improvingquality of lives of its citizensand economic empowerment.He further highlighted the sig-nificance of SustainableDevelopment Goals (SDGs)and the compliance andGovernance structure corpo-rates should imbibe movingahead, he also talked about thecost of non compliance.

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Jharkhand Industrial AreaDevelopment Authority

(JIADA) approved the invest-ment proposal to set up amega food park atChandankyari in Bokaro. Thedecision was taken in the pro-ject clearance committee meetheld at JIADA office at Balidihin Bokaro on Tuesday underthe chairmanship of BokaroDC M K Baranwal and theRegional Director of JIADA.

In the meeting, JIADA hasapproved land to set up the unitat Chandankyari. With an esti-mated investment of �222 croreTriveni Group a real estatecompany is on move to set upa mega food park, said Manoj

Jaiswal Secretary BIADA.This would be the second

food processing park inJharkhand. The first is erectedover 56 acres of land at Getalsudvillage at Ranchi. It is a PublicPrivate Partnership (PPP) pro-ject under the aegis of the MegaFood Park Scheme (MFPS) ofthe Ministry of Food ProcessingIndustries, Government of India,informed an official.

The Triveni Group has a0.5 million tonne integrated

steel mill and captive powerplant in Seraikela-Kharsawanand low-cost housing projectsacross the State, he said.

The park will have facilitiesfor multi-chamber cold storage,dry warehouse, vegetable dehy-dration line, modern qualitycontrol and testing laboratoryand other processing facilitiesfor fruits and vegetables.

This project will create amodern infrastructure to min-imise the post-harvest losses ofthe agricultural produce andwill also give a strong boost tothe growth of food processingsector in Jharkhand, said AmarBauri Minister for Revenue,Land Reforms, Art, Culture,Sports and Youth Affairs ofJharkhand.

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A14-year old class VIII stu-dent of Camel school,

Bokaro Thermal allegedly com-mitted suicide by hanging her-self in his house room inNisan-hut area within limits ofBokaro Thermal police sta-tion here on Wednesday.

Neha Kumari (14) daughterof Amar Nath Singh residing inNisan-hut area, was found hang-ing from a ceiling fan in herroom by plastic rope around 10am on Wednesday, police said.

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Tata Steel has been con-ferred the ‘Asia’s Best

Treasury Team’ award by theHong Kong based CorporateTreasurer, an independent printpublication in Asia dedicated toserving treasury teams andchief financial officers. Thepublication is published byHaymarket Financial Media.

Sandip Basu, chief treasurymanagement, Tata Steel alongwith the other members of theTreasury team received theaward on behalf of theCompany at an event held in

Singapore on March 7, 2018.“To be recognised as Asia’s

Best Treasury Team is a won-derful achievement and a tes-tament to the professional skillsof Tata Steel’s Treasury team.For a large, multi-geographicalCompany like ours, managinguncertainty and volatility iskey and hence a sound treasurystrategy is important. We willcontinue to pursue best prac-tices and strive for excellence inthe future”, said KoushikChatterjee, executive directorand chief financial officer, TataSteel.

The award winners are

selected basis attributes includ-ing treasury managementthrough innovation, astuteforecasting and effective riskmanagement, ability to executecomplex corporate treasuryoperations amid challengingmarket and regulatory condi-tions.

Published by HaymarketFinancial Media, the CorporateTreasurer was born out ofFinance Asia’s CorporateTreasury News and has becomea forum for daily market intel-ligence and long-term strategicinsight for senior finance pro-fessionals across Asia.

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After the tragic incident ofelectrocution that took

away the life of a youth and leftseven other youths injuredwhile trying to set up a flagpolenear Argora Chowk, followingthe incident, the StateGovernment on Wednesdaygave �2 lakh to the familymembers of deceased, VipulSingh as compensation.

Ranchi DC, RaiMahimapat Ray today handedover a cheque of Rs 2 lakh tovictim Vipul Singh’s UncleNiranjan Singh at collectorateon Wednesday. After this ter-rible episode, Chief MinisterRaghubar Das had instructedthe DCs of all 24 districts to beextra vigilant during the RamNavami processions to avoidsuch untoward incidents.

When enquired about theelaborate plan of action aheadof Ram Navami processionthat covers all major routesbesides just diverting the traf-

fic plan here in State Capital,Ranchi DC said, “A meetingwith Mahavir Samiti membershas been scheduled on March15. All the senior officials willbe there to chalk out a concreteplan of action imposing strin-gent orders to keep a watchduring Ram Navami proces-sions to avert any unpleasant

incidents.”From smooth traffic plan to

deployment of additional forcesat strategic localities will be dis-cussed in the upcoming meet-ing. Ray assured that the vul-nerability mapping of locationsincluding other essential com-ponents will be taken up dur-ing the meeting excepted to beattended by all senior officialsof the district administration.

Notably, Singh who was themain teacher of MaharshiArvind Prabhat Branch and amember of RashtriyaSwayamsevak Sangh (RSS) was

leading a procession with hugeflag-post ahead of a celebrationplanned for the upcomingHindu New Year. Along withSingh, several other youthswere also in the march, whenthis unfortunate incident tookplace. According to the sources,under the specialized care andobservation, treatment of all

the injured victims is going on.Meanwhile, when further

explored about the prime causeof this untoward incident,Ranchi DC clarified that noformal approval or even infor-mation of a procession wasgiven to the district adminis-tration officials. “We were hav-ing no prior information aboutany big or small processionbeing carried out yesterday atone of the busiest locality. As ofnow, we will try to manage theupcoming major festivals –Sarhul and Ram Navamiaccordingly.”

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Ranchi District CollectorRai Mahimapat Ray on

Wednesday conducted a meet-ing with senior police officersincluding the Officers-in-Charge (OCs) of respectivepolice stations. During themeeting, Ranchi DC instruct-ed the officials to ensure allmajor preparation a weekahead of Ram Navami.

SSP Kuldeep Dwivedi saidthat recently police had bannedthe songs which hurts the reli-gious sentiments public andwill continue to do so. Dwivedi ordered the officials tobe extra vigilant and deployextra police force at vulnerablelocations. Dwivedi ordered theofficials to take immediateaction under Act-107 who soever activities appear suspi-cious.

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����� 6��#3�

Newly constituted JharkhandState Dental Council

(JSDC) has been tasked to keepa check on fraudulent andunethical practices undertakenby dentists here.

This apart, the Council,which has come into existencefor the first time in Jharkhandsince it parted ways from Bihar,would ease the practitioners ingetting their registrations donewell within the State.

Informing about the devel-opment having taken place acouple of days back with the

Department of Health andMedical Education ascertain-ing the JSDC, Dr Sushil Kumarsaid the Council would conducta drive and generate awarenessacross the State in this regard.

“There was no such bodyearlier where the dentists can getthemselves registered in theState. Whosoever are practicinghave either got registration fromother states or are un-regis-tered. There may be severalunauthorised doctors involvedin unethical practice or improp-er treatment but getting let-offsince there was no such regula-tory authority in place. Now the

Council has come into existencethat can look into these aspects,”said Dr Sushil, who has beennamed as Registrar of the JSDC,addressing a press conference onWednesday.

Also present on the occasionwas Dr Vivek Kumar Singh whohas been instrumental in gettingthe Council come into force inJharkhand. “The forum wouldget the dentists from Jharkhandregistered here. Now, those prac-tising in the State need not go toother states to get themselvesrenewed. This would regulariseand streamline the system. Thisapart, the Council can take cog-

nizance of the complaints com-ing against any doctor and get itexamined before initiatingaction and intimating theDepartment,” he said.

Dr Vivek Singh is a memberof Dental Council of India (DCI)and has been given the task bythe apex council of the countryin dentistry to setup State levelcouncils in all such States whereit is missing. “I am happy that Ibegan this job from Jharkhand,”he added.

Members of the Councilare of the view that best practicesand regulations adopted in otherplaces would be followed and

adopted in Jharkhand in future.“There are State level councils inseveral states of the countryhaving well laid down proce-dures. The procedures are therefor the benefits of the dentists aswell as to ensure quality serviceand standard treatment to thepatients. The JSDC would followthe rules in this regard whichwould ensure better environ-ment for both the doctors andthe patients,” said Dr Vivek.Also present on the occasion wasDr NN Singh, HOD in RIMS,Dr Anshu Sahu, Dr Zaffarbesides, other members of thecouncil.

����� 6��#3�

The Aam Adami Party(AAP) is waiting for the

verdict of Jharkhand HighCourt (HC) which is expectedto come today. The party hasfiled a writ in Jharkhand HC onMarch 6 seeking permission tofight municipal elections 2018.

According to party, StateCommittee Member, RajanKumar Singh, due to the pre-planned norms of Departmentof Urban Development,Housing and Planning, AAPcannot contest the municipalpoll-2018. Besides, putting alle-gation on BJP, AAP membershave blamed Minister, UrbanDevelopment, Planning andHousing predominately for themuddle and conspiracy behind.

Singh during a press meeton Wednesday said,“Intentionally AAP has beenkept out of this municipal elec-tion. Political parties whichare not affiliated to States butare recognised everywhere canparticipate in the poll. Severalstates like Gujarat, Tamil Nadu,Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradeshetc have this provision, how-ever here in Jharkhand throughconspiracy bringing in a fewguidelines, AAP, Janta DalUnited (JDU) includingCommunist Party of India(CPI-ML) have been targeted.”

“The party has filed thewrit in Jharkhand HC aftertrying all possible measuresand the prerequisites neededto contest the election. EveryState has a provision of regis-tration but here in Jharkhand,there is no such regulation ofregistration,” added Singh.

Also, during a press meet,members said that as many as29 political parties here inJharkhand are such which areat present lying defunct buthas the consent to fight themunicipal poll-2018 and arein race. According to themembers of AAP, Divisionbench of Acting Chief Justice(ACJ), DN Patel will give thejudgment on the case.

����� 6��#3�

People jostling to commute inthe restructured public trans-

portation system in the CapitalCity may finally take a big sighof relief with Public BicycleSharing (PBS) project set to belaunched soon in the city. In thefirst phase 100 bicycles will beput for the use of people at 25 sta-tions.

A team of State UrbanDevelopment Authority(SUDA) led by its DirectorRajesh Sharma today inspectedsites for setting up cycle stationsin the city in the first phase ofthe project. Sharma also chaired

a meeting at the RanchiMunicipal Corporation andgave necessary instructions toofficials.

Town CommissionerShantanu Kumar Agrahari,Ranchi Smart City CorporationLtd CEO Yatin Kumar Sumanand senior officials of RMC andSmart City were present on theoccasion.

The work of Public BicycleSharing project has been allot-ted to Ahmedabad basedChartered Speed Pvt Ltd underthe Samart City Mission. In thefirst phase of the project 25 sta-tions will be built and 100bicycles will be introduced.

In the first phase cycle sta-tions will be set up at ChandaniChowk, CMPDI, RelianceMart, Premsons Motors, SidhuKanhu Park, IMS, RanchiCollege, Morhabadi Ground,Children Park, Nakshatra Van,Zakir Hussain Park, KacheryChowk, Ranchi University,RMC, Panchwati Plaza,dShahid Chowk, Albert EkkaChowk, Anzuman Plaza, RatanTalkies, GEL ChucrchComplex, Roshpa Tower, SujataChowk and Big Bazar.

The team took a tour of allthe sites and did physicalinspection for setting up the sta-tions.

����� 6��#3�

With the blow of bugle,political parties have

begun their preparations forthe upcoming municipal poll-2018 adopting several strate-gies. However, after the delim-itation of wards several wardcouncilors, who are strugglinghard to somehow manage thethings at their respective wardsin order to win the confidenceof their loyal voters, have com-plained of irregularities in theelectoral roll.

The councillors stated thatdespite of making constantefforts to get the voter lists cor-rected, no one had ever paidheed to their pleas. With mere-ly a month left for the munic-ipal election-2018, slated onApril 16, most of the wardcouncilors have got stuck badlywith the irregularities involvedin voter lists.

Nazima Raza, ward coun-cilor of ward number 16 alongwith the ward councilors of 7and 15 again went to meet thesenior officials of State ElectionCommission but had to returnempty handed as regardless ofassurances her correction filehas not yet even moved aninch. As many as 569 voters ofher ward have been affecteddue to delimitation of wards.

“I had submitted a writtencomplaint about anomaliesinvolved in voters’ lists withseveral other ward councilors onFebruary 21. The officials of theState Election Commission hadthen asked us to come and ver-ify the facts on February 23.However, so far, in spite of sev-eral attempts, no work has beendone by the concerned officials.Every time, we come here, we getto hear some or the other excusefrom the officials,” Raza said.

Not just Raza but SujataKacchap, ward councilor ofward number 7 told a similartale. According to Kacchap asmany as 300 voters of herward are being affected bydelimitation. “Mathematically,if you go, two polling booths ofmy ward have been left intototal mess. As a leader of a par-ticular area, now the responsi-bility is upon me to get the vot-ers list corrected on time. Atpresent, I am helpless as noneof the officials are clarifying ourdoubts on this.”

Similarly, ward councilor37, Arun Kumar Jha said thata delegation covering almost 90pe rcent ward councilors weresupposed to meet Ranchi DC,Rai Mahipat Ray but takinginto account the approach ofofficials at the lower levelincluding the pace of the work,the plan was cancelled. Jha saidthat over 70 per cent public of

his ward have submitted a req-uisition letter regarding thealteration in voters list. “Nearly1000 people of my ward aresuffering due to delimitationand officials just give us reas-surances,” Jha added.

When contacted RanchiDC, Rai Mahimapat Ray toenquire about the steps beingtaken by the district admin-istration to curtail the anom-alies involved in voters list ofdifferent wards including theproblem faced by ward coun-cilors due to the delimitationplan, he said, “This is a con-stitutional matter and I amnot the right person to com-ment on this issue.”

According to the sources,a few ward councilors onWednesday have submitted arequisition letter to DDCRanchi, Shashi Ranjan onthis similar issue.

����� 6��#3�

State Election CommissionerNN Pandey today informed

that the schemes of CentralGovernment and the ongoingschemes by the State govern-ment have been kept free of themodel code of conduct.However, he said that all thenew schemes will come underthe purview of the code of con-duct imposed in the wake ofupcoming municipal polls.

Pandey informed that ameeting of the GeneralSupervisors was held and allinformation related to the elec-tion was given to them, how theexpenditure observers wouldmaintain the expenditureincurred by the candidates andthe supervisor would also seethat there was no violation ofthe Code of Conduct.

The State Election

Commissioner also informedthat two days ago, meeting withelectoral officials and Assistantelectoral officials was held andthey were given informationrelated to the election andrelated manuals were alsogiven.

Pandey said that the stateelection office is committed forthis election to be fair andpeaceful.

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����� �1���123�

In an effort to maintain thetempo of operational pre-

paredness, the DefenceMinistry has approved the hikein powers of Vice Chiefs in ten-der process includingProprietary ArticleCertificate(PAC) and SingleTender Enquiry. This willenhance the ability of theArmed Forces to keep a highdegree of serviceability of thein-service equipment and pro-curement of stores includingammunition.

Notwithstanding thisapproval by Defence MinisterNirmala Sitharaman onWednesday, the StandingCommittee on Defence in itsreport tabled in Parliament onTuesday mentioned delegationof powers to the Vice Chiefshas not shown the desiredresults on ground.

One such example was thedeposition of Vice Chief ofArmy Lt General Sarath Chandbefore the panel which saidwhile the Vice Chief wasempowered to spend �14,097crores to improve the securityof army camps following ter-rorist attacks, there is no sep-arate allocation for this. “Sothis money also to be foundfrom the same budget leavingwith us with no choice but tore-prioritise either to reduceour requirement as far as the

security of military stationsare concerned or to go slow onsome other acquisitions,” theVice Chief said.

Giving details of the latestdecision, Defence Ministryofficials said here till now pow-ers for procurement of articlesunder PAC and STE wasrestricted to 50 and 5 per centrespectively of normal powersdelegated for revenue pro-curements. Wherever full pow-ers had been delegated inrespect PAC and STE, a cap of�50 crore and �5 crore respec-tively were made applicable.Revenue budget includes day today maintenance of weaponsincluding tanks, ships and air-craft, fuel cost, salaries, train-ing and procuring ammunitionfor operations.

Officials said a number ofinitiatives were taken by theministry in the recent past tosimplify and streamline theprocedures and decentralise the

d e c i s i o n - m a k i n gthrough delegation ofpowers. Now, the gov-ernment has enhancedfinancial delegation tothe Armed Forces inrespect of RevenueProcurement as well,they added. In the pastfinancial powers weredelegated to the ViceChiefs for emergencyprocurement of sparesand ammunition in spe-

cific areas. These are part of rev-enue budget.

With this approval, thepowers of the Vice Chiefs inrespect of PAC cases, hithertorestricted to 50 per cent ofcompetitive bidding cases, hasbeen increased and made equalto the powers delegated incompetitive bidding cases. Inrespect of STE cases, the pow-ers have been enhanced to 50per cent of the powers of com-petitive bidding cases from theexisting cap of 5 per cent ofcompetitive bidding powers.

However, the StandingCommittee in its report notedthat even the Defence Secretaryadmitted before the panel thatthe finance ministry is not sup-porting the defence minister asper its requirements. The allo-cated funds are not adequate forcapital procurements and thesituation is same for revenuebudget which looks after day today operational costs.

����� �1���123��

Amidst noisy protests by theOpposition ,the Lok Sabha

on Wednesday passed theFinance Bill 2018 and a �89.25lakh-crore spending plan forthe next fiscal year without dis-cussion – a first in recentyears–leading to the adjourn-ment of both the Houses ofParliament for the eighth day.

The Finance Bill as well asthe Appropriation Bill werepassed in a matter of 35 minuteduring which opposition par-ties and ruling NDA ally TDPshouted slogans and created adin. The Lower House wasadjourned for the day bySpeaker Sumitra Mahajanimmediately thereafter.

Applying the guillotineprocess, the Bill was passedwithout any discussion as theopposition continued to disruptthe proceedings for the eighthday. The guillotine allows fora vote on demands for grants,whether discussed or not, oncethe time frame allotted for thediscussion is over due to ongo-ing political issues.

Finance Minister ArunJaitley moved 21 amendmentsto the Bill containing taxationproposals for 2018-19, whichwere approved by voice vote. Sowas the Appropriation Billwhich detailed spending plansfor 99 Government ministriesand departments.

With this, the Parliamentaryapproval for the ModiGovernment’s fifth and finalBudget is complete in Lok Sabha.The finance bill was passedafter house resumed proceedingsat 1200 hrs following firstadjournment in the morning.

It is, perhaps, for the firsttime in recent years that the

Lok Sabha had not discussedand voted even a single min-istry’s demand for grants(spending plan). In the recentpast, Union budgets werepassed without discussion in2013-14 and 2003-04 when,like on Wednesday, alldemands were guillotined.

Neither the Lok Sabha, northe Rajya Sabha have transact-ed any substantial businesssince the second leg of the bud-get session that began on March5. Earlier in the day, Congress,Trinamool, DMK, RJD, SP, Left,NCP among others had sub-mitted a memorandum to theSpeaker , objecting to what ittermed was government’s“arrogance and unilateral moveto bulldoze all financial businesswithout discussing them in theHouse”.

As government forced itsway in the lower house, oppo-sition parties cried foul over themove with Congress, NCP andTMC staging a walkout whilethe Telgu parties - TDP, TRSand YSR-Congress were in thewell shouting slogans and

showing placards.Opposition and TDP and

AIADMK raised slogans onvarious issues including againstthe passage of the budget with-out debate, the �12,700 crorePNB banking scam, specialstatus to Andhra Pradesh andsetting up of CauveryManagement Board for riverwater sharing by riparian states.

Samajwadi Party too wasin the well of the house protest-ing clamp down on the mediaduring the counting of votes forGorakhpur Lok Sabha bypoll.

The Rajya Sabha, whichwas informed of the passage ofthe budget by the Lok Sabha at2 PM, was also adjourned for

the day within about threeminutes thereafter.

After passage of the financeand appropriation bills in theLok Sabha, both these legisla-tions have to go to Rajya Sabhafor passage. However, sincethese are money bills, theywould be considered approved,if the Upper House does notreturn them to the LowerHouse within 14 days.TheOpposition has an upper handin the Rajya Sabha. The pro-ceedings in the Rajya Sabhawere also washed out for theeighth straight day onWednesday , amid uproar bythe opposition and NDA part-ner TDP over the same issues.

����� �1���123�

Kamov-226T, or Ka-226T, asmall, multi-purpose heli-

copter, designed by KamovDesign Bureau, which is affil-iated to Russian Helicopters, issoon to make its presence feltin India as two helicopters aredue to be delivered by the endof March and yet another onein June this year.

Under theIntergovernmental agreementsigned by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and RussianPresident Vladimir Putin inOctober 2016, the plan originallyis to manufacture 200 Ka-226Tunder India’s ‘Make in India’

programme, but as the facilitystarts its operations, the quan-tity of these light utility heli-copters produced can beincreased up as per requirement.

This helicopter multipur-pose helicopter and is intend-ed to conduct aerial recon-

naissance, targeting patrol todrop small reconnaissance andsabotage groups, transportcargo and passengers and evac-uate the wounded.

The baseline helicopter canaccommodate a variety ofmodules with special equip-

ment and can be modified forpatrol, search & rescue, med-ical, transport or freight; pas-senger or corporate. The Ka-226T’s airborne equipmentprovides safe flight controlboth along air routes and in off-the-airway regulated andunregulated airspace, day andnight, and in adverse weatherconditions.

Lighting equipment of theKa-226T’s cockpit enables thepilot to fly the helicopter atnight, including using nightvision goggles. The effective-ness of patrol and search mis-sions at night can be enhancedby using TV or thermal imag-ing equipment. The helicoptercan carry various types of spe-cial and optional equipment.

It has two propellers and isa coaxial helicopter with themaximum take off and landingweight of 3.6 tonne. It has themaximum internal payload ofone tonne and external payloadof 1.3 tonne. Its ability tomaneuver makes it the besthelicopter of the kind.

Ka-226T obtained certifi-cation in Russia in 2015. In2017, Russian Helicopters andIran Helicopter Support andRenewal Company (IHSRC)accomplished Ka-226T trials inIran. It proved that it can suc-cessfully operate in extremelyhigh temperature up to +50degrees Centigrade.

Meanwhile, Russian newsagencies have been steadilyreporting that trials of Ka-226TNaval version for patrol ships aregoing on and are proving to bequite successful. The differencebetween land and Naval versionsis that the latter will have fold-able blades so that it can be moreeasily based on board of a ship.It will have enhanced anticor-rosion protection and morecomplex avionics for better take-off and landing in disorientingsea conditions.

At present, India also has arequirement for light utilityNaval helicopters to replaceCheetah and Chetak fleet. Afterthe Ka-226T production facili-ty (joint venture with HAL Ltd.)

starts its operations, the defenceministry may also explore theopportunity to use the same pro-duction facility to make bothKa-226T land and Naval version.It could prove advantageousfrom the point of view of tech-nology transfer and cutting pro-duction costs by using an alreadyexisting facility.

The sooner the joint ven-ture on Ka-226T productionbecomes operational in Indiathe better. In fact, it couldbecome yet another ‘Make inIndia’ success story and evenreplicate the high benchmarkof Indo-Russian defence tech-nology cooperation set up byBrahMos Aerospace. LikeBrahMos, Ka-226T JV mightsee a future of expanding itstechnological capabilities byincreasing production, diver-sifying model line and explor-ing export opportunities.

‘Make in India’ is yet tomake India advance techno-logically and commercially andKa-226 T might contribute itsbit into it.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inau-gurate a three-day Krishi Unnati Mela on

March 17 that aims to create awareness aboutthe latest farm technologies and receive feed-back from farmers. The agri-science fair ormela, to be held at the Pusa campus, will starton March 16. The Prime Minister willaddress lakhs of farmers, agri-scientists andother stakeholders the next day.

Modi will also unveil a portal onorganic farming and lay the foundationstone of 25 Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs).The Prime Minister will confer KrishiKarman Award and Pandi Deen DayalUpadhaya Krishi Vigyan ProtsahanPuruskar to progressive farmers and stateson the occasion, Agriculture MinisterRadha Mohan Singh told reporters. Twostate chief ministers and six state agri-ministers are expected to attend theevent, he said while declining to share thelikely cost of organising the annual fair.The fair will have more than 600 stalls,display of latest agriculture and allied sec-tor technologies, live demonstration ofmicro-irrigation, waste water utilisationand animal husbandry and fisheries.

There will be theme pavilion on dou-bling of farmers income, organic farming,cooperatives, farm inputs, among others.Textile, food processing and commerce min-istries as well as North East Council will setup stalls.The fair is organised every year ona priority area of agricultural research andtechnology transfer.

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The CBI has registered a pre-liminary enquiry (PE) to

look into alleged irregularitiesin SSC examination. Theagency registered a PE after theCentral Government referredthe SSC exam matter for theprobe.

On March 5, theGovernment had ordered CBIinquiry into the alleged ques-tion paper leak. The SSC’schairman had recommended aCBI inquiry after a week ofprotests by aspirants in NewDelhi since February 27. Theaspirants had alleged that oneof the tests held on February 21had been leaked. Theydemanded a CBI enquiry intothe allegations of leak of ques-tions of the CombinedGraduate Level (Tier-II)Examination 2017 held fromFebruary 17 to 22.

The aspirants have beenprotesting outside the SSCoffice at CGO complex heresince February 27. The SSCconducts examinations forrecruitment to lower categoriesof posts in the central govern-ment. SSC CGL 2017 exami-nation began in August lastyear. The Tier-I examinationwas held between August 5 toAugust 24, 2017 in shifts.

Aspirants, however, alleged“mass cheating” in the exami-nation and said the questionpaper was leaked. They alsoaccused the SSC of blatantcorruption in the way it con-ducts the exams.

They further alleged thatthe shifts that were held before

August 15 were comparativelydifficult due to which some ofthe students moved the CentralAdministrative Tribunal (CAT)and the case kept gettingdelayed thus, delaying the Tier-II exam.

The CAT dismissed thestudents’ case on grounds thatthe exam cannot be furtherdelayed and on February 16,one day before Tier-II com-menced, the date of the examwas confirmed. Moreover, theadditional 40,000 shortlistedstudents had only a month’stime to prepare for the exam-ination.

On February 21, it wasalleged that minutes beforethe mathematics exams, theentire question paper withanswers was on a Facebookpage. The students alleged thatthere was a huge scan in SSCexamination demanded probeinto the matter.

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Opposition parties cried foul over the moveof passage of Finance Bill without discus-

sion in Lok Sabha on Wednesday with theCongress terming it as a Black Day in Indiandemocracy. Talking to reporters outside theParliament, AICC spokesperson and party MPJyotiraditya Scindia said, “Today is a black dayfor democracy. The way the biggest financialdocuments of the country was passed in the LokSabha amid din without any discussion or with-out seeking any views from the Opposition par-ties is a blot on Indian democracy.”

Scindia said from day one of the session, theOpposition has been saying that they want a dis-cussion on issues of public importance but theGovernment was running away from dis-cussing these issues.

The Lok Sabha passed without discussion theFinance Bill 2018 and a �89.25 lakh crore spend-ing plan for the next fiscal year beginning April1, all in a matter of 25 minutes during which oppo-

sition parties shouted slogans and created the din.Congress, Trinamool, DMK, RJD, SP, Left,

NCP among others had submitted a memo-randum to the Speaker, objecting to what itcalled was government’s “arrogance and uni-lateral move to bulldoze all financial businesswithout discussing them in the House”.

Accusing the Government of not beinginterested in talking to the Opposition toresolve the ongoing standoff, Scindia said,‘though the Speaker convened an all party meet-ing to resolve the impasse, the Government didnot even once call the Opposition parties for dis-cussion. If this is not the evidence of the arro-gance of the Government then what is?

“It is probably the first time in recent yearsthat the Lok Sabha had not discussed and votedeven a single ministry’s demand for grants(spending plan). In the recent past, Union bud-gets were passed without discussion in 2013-14and 2003-04 when, like today, all demands wereguillotined,” said AICC chief spokesmanRandeep Surjewala.

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Union Home MinisterRajnath Singh on

Wednesday urged for better co-ordination of investigatingagencies in tackling cyber crimeand terror-related probes evenas he cautioned about the rad-icalisation of youth through thesocial media by various groups.

He was speaking at a two-day Asia-Pacific regional con-ference of the InternationalAssociation of Chiefs of Police(IACP) on “Challenges toPolicing in 2020- How is CyberSpace shaping our approach toCyber crime & Terrorism, howdo we perform within it andtake advantage of it”.

“I am afraid, cyber attackswould occur very often. Toolsalready exist to mount cyberattacks and they will beimproving over the nextdecade. We have already wit-nessed an increase in the num-ber and severity of suchattacks,” he said.

Singh said cyber crime hasbecome an industry and manycyber crimes-related tools andtechniques are being offered asservices. Even novice criminalwith limited investments ofmoney can afford to have suchservices at his disposal.

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Defence personnel in remote areasor at the borders and forest

guards will now no longer have toworry about charging their phones.In fact, they can even beat the heat.

Union Science and TechnologyMinister Dr Harsh Vardhan onWednesday launched a jacket havingmobile phone charging facilities, illu-minated identification code andpocket solar fan, completely poweredby solar energy.

“Solar jacket is a mobile energysource specially needed for thedefence people to ensure safety andsecurity of the country, forest dwellersas well as people living in the far flungareas where mobile network is notavailable or poorly functioned,” saidthe Minister, who displayed the jack-et by wearing it. The jacket has beendeveloped by the Indian Institute ofEngineering Science and Technology,Shibpur in West Bengal.

Solar power expert Santi PadaGon Chaudhuri from the IIEST, whodeveloped the technology, said that 20jackets have already been distributedto defence personnel and more willbe provided soon.

He said that the jacket has prop-er insulating materials for use in cold-er regions. Each jacket costs Rs 4,000without the GPS option. The scien-tist explained that the jacket has an

array of solar panels to collect solarpower for charging the gadgets suchas mobile phones if one find him-

self/herself in a power bind. Chaudhar y further

explained that the jacket isfitted with water resistant,flexible solar panels thatsnap on and off easily. Acable runs to battery pack in

one of the front pockets, which inturn has USB port, so that one cancharge the device.

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Page 6: 2 ./3˛ .0 4 ˚˝#!˛ $˛$˚! $˛%& ’(˛)*˛˜ ˜% + In Phulpur, Nagendra ... Subramanian Swamy who sought enforcement of his right to worship at Lord Ram’s birth-place. The question

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ACBI Special Court inChennai on Wednesday dis-

charged former Union Ministerfor Telecommunications andInformation TechnologyDayanidhi Maran, his elderbrother Kalanidhi Maran andfive others of all charges in the“illegal telephone exchange case”.

V Gowthaman , formerpersonal secretary to DayanidhiMaran, K Brahmanathan, for-mer chief general manager ofBSNL, M Velusamy, formerdeputy general manager, BSNL,S Kannan, vice president, SunTV Network and K S Ravi, tech-nician, Sun TV Network are theothers who were dischargedfrom the case aog with theMaran brothers.

“There is no prima faciematerial against you. Hence youare discharged from the case,”said, CBI special judgeNatarajan.

The CBI case was that theexchequer had suffered a loss of�1.78 crore because of thealleged private telephoneexchange installed at the resi-

dence of Dayanidhi Maran dur-ing 2004 to 2007 when he wasthe Union Minister forTelecommunications.

According to the CBI,Dayanidhi Maran got a privatetelephone exchange installed inhis residence in Boat Club Roadin Chennai during the periodwhen he was the union minis-ter in the UPA-1 Government.This high-end telephoneexchange which had more than700 lines with ISDN facilitieswas used exclusively for businesstransactions involving the SunTV Network. The exchange wasinstalled under service catego-ry and bills were not raised forthe same, alleged the CBI.

It was alleged that the tele-phone lines with high speed dataexchange facilities were used tofacilitate the telecasting of pro-

grammes by the Sun TVNetwork owned by KalanidhiMaran, elder brother ofDayanidhi.

The details of the privateexchange came out after the exitof Dayanidhi Maran from theManmohan Singh Governmentin 2007 following the internalstruggle in the family of theDMK chief M Karunandhi. TheMaran brothers are the sons ofMurasoli Maran, former UnionMinister and nephew ofKarunanidhi.

Though Dayanidhi wasousted from the Government in2007, he came back in 2009 andwas in charge of the textilesMinistry. But he had to quitmid-way because of the Aircel-Maxis scam which reportedlytook place during his previoustenure as telecommunicationsMinister.

The discharge of the Maranbrothers in this case has come asa major relief to the DMK.Earlier, a special court in NewDelhi had acquitted Kanimozhi,daughter of Karunanidhi andformer Telecome Minister ARaja in the 2G Spectrum Scamwhich had rocked the country.

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Within hours after theSupreme Court rejected

his anticipatory bail plea,Hindu Ekta Aghadi (HEA)leader Milind Ekbote wasarrested by the Pune ruralpolice on Wednesday after-noon for his alleged role ininstigating and abetting vio-lence at Bhima-Koregaon, inwhich one person was killedand sizeable property wasdestroyed.

The district rural policearrested Ekbote from hisShivajinagtar residence inPune, after the Supreme Courtrejected his anticipatory bailplea. The apex court had lastmonth granted Ekbote interim

anticipatory bail till March 14,a period that ended onWednesday.

The Pune district will seekEkbote’s custody for interroga-tion, by producing him beforea Pune court on Thursday.

The Pune police have reg-istered two FIRs against Ekbotefor allegedly instigating andabetting violence at Bhima-Koregaon on January 1, 2018.

Ekbote has been bookedunder sections 153 -A (Givingprovocation with intent tocause riot), 120 (b) (criminalconspiracy) and Sections 117(Abetting commission ofoffence by the public or bymore than 10 persons) of IPCfor his alleged role in trigger-ing disturbances at Bhima-

Koregaon.Ekbote also faces charges

under sections 307 (attempt tomurder) 143 ( punishment forunlawful assembly), 148 ( riot-ing, armed with deadlyweapon) 149 Unlawful assem-bly with a common object), and295 ( injuring or defiling placeof worship with an intent toinsult the religion) of the IPC,

and the Prevention of AtrocitiesAct, based on complaints filedat various police stations onJanuary 1.

On January 22, a Pune ses-sions court had rejected hisanticipatory bail application.Subsequently, the Bombay HighCourt rejected his anticipatorybail application on February 2.

On February 6, a Punecourt had issued an arrest war-rant against Ekbote. The devel-opment had followed rejectionof his anticipatory bail plea bythe Bombay High court fourdays earlier.

Later, Ekbote moved theSupreme Court seeking inter-im anticipatory bail. Whileextending Ekbote’s interimanticipatory bail plea, the apex

court had last month upbraid-ed the MaharashtraGovernment and the police forthe tardy progress of iits probeagainst him on the groundthat he was “untraceable”.

It may be recalled that onJanuary 1, one RahulPhatangale (28), a Dalit, waskilled and another 40-odd vehi-cles and some other propertywere damaged after some mis-creants attacked Dalits cele-brating the January 1, 1818 vic-tory of British troops overPeshwa Bajirao II's army atBhima-Koregaon in Pune dis-trict of western Maharashtra.Following the incident,Maharashtra had witnessedlarge-scale Dalit protests whichturned violent at some places.

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In a last ditch attempt toensure continuance of min-

ing operations in Goa, aCabinet advisory committeehere has recommended filing areview petition in the SupremeCourt of India, even as the apexcourt directed temporary banon all mining activity in thecoastal State comes into effectfrom March 15.

The members of the com-mittee Public WorksDevelopment Minister SudinDhavalikar, UrbanDevelopment Minister FrancisD'Souza and AgricultureMinister Vijai Sardesai, alsosaid, that their recommenda-tion had been sent to ChiefMinister Manohar Parrikar,who is being treated for a pan-creas-related ailment in theUS, and a final decision on thematter would be taken by theChief Minister himself in theUS.

"The committee has rec-ommended that the StateGovernment should file areview petition before theSupreme Court, through theoffices of the Attorney Generalof India. We have sent our rec-ommendation to the ChiefMinister, who will take a finaldecision on the matter,"Dhavalikar told The Pioneer onWednesday.

The Supreme Court orderin February had cancelled all 88

mining leases, which wererenewed by the BJP-led coali-tion Government in Goa infavour of the same miningcompanies implicated in the�35,000 crore illegal miningscam.

The order also mandates,that mining leases should beissued anew, after getting all thenecessary environment clear-ances, a process which couldtake nearly one and a half totwo years according to experts.

Ruling MLAs haveopposed mining, claiming that"outsiders" would exploit theState's natural resources andhave been demanding that theCentral Government shouldmake an exception vis a visGoa, by allowing renewal ofexisting mining leases in favourof the same mining companiesinstead of issuing fresh leasesusing the auction route.

But members of the cabi-net committee insist, that auc-tioning of Goa's mines is theonly way ahead for resumptionof mining in the coastal State.

"There is no other waythan auctioning of mines. Butall we want to request theapex court is that, until the mines are auctioned min-ing should be allowed to con-tinue. The mining activity andtrade impacts more than onelakh lives directly and indi-rectly" Urban DevelopmentMinister Francis D'Souza toldThe Pioneer.

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BSP leader Lalji Verma's son,Vikas Verma, who was

depressed over illness, onWednesday allegedly commit-ted suicide at his Gomti Nagarresidence here, police said.

Vikas, 40, allegedly shothimself from his licensedweapon on Wednesday, the

police said, adding he wasrushed to a hospital where hesuccumbed to injuries.

He was depressed over his

prolonged illness, the policesaid, adding the body has beensent for post-mortem.Meanwhile, senior leaders,including BSP presidentMayawati and Leader ofOpposition Ram GovindChaudhary, visited Verma'sresidence to meet the bereavedfamily members and offer con-dolences.

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Page 7: 2 ./3˛ .0 4 ˚˝#!˛ $˛$˚! $˛%& ’(˛)*˛˜ ˜% + In Phulpur, Nagendra ... Subramanian Swamy who sought enforcement of his right to worship at Lord Ram’s birth-place. The question

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In an unprecedented decisionGujarat Assembly Speaker

Rajendra Trivedi suspended twoCongress MLAs — PratapDudhat and Amarish Der forthree years and one legislatorfrom the Opposition party BaldevThakor for a year on Wednesdayfor attacking BJP MLA and usingunparliamentary language.

All the three suspendedCongress MLAs have also beenbanned to remain member orany committee related toAssembly and they would alsorequire taking the Speaker’s priorpermission in order to enterinside the Assembly complex tilltheir suspension period.

Pronouncing suspension ofthe three lawmakers Trivedicondemned the behaviour of leg-islators involved in creating thechaotic situation in the Houseand termed their act as ‘hooli-ganism’. A precedent wasrequired to be set to maintaindecorum of the House, said theSpeaker adding that he wantedto suspend the errant lawmakersfor entire term of five years butthe ruling party was generousenough to sought only threeyears suspension.

The chaos began whenCongress MLA Vikram Madamfrom Jamnagar attempted toraise point of order over thedeaths of two children in the self-styled godman Asaram’sAshram. Madam demanded totable the report of Justice DKCommission on the incident.When Speaker Trivedi restrict-ed him to raise the point of order

and repeatedly asked him to takehis seat, he kept on talking andother Congress MLAs AmarishDer and Virji Thummer rushedtowards the well of the House.Der in fact questioned intent ofthe Speaker and allegedly usedderogatory words for him.

Seeing aggression of theCongress MLAs, BJP legislatorsincluding from treasury benchstood up and heated argumentstoo exchanged among them.Amid such chaos Dudhat, anMLA from Savarkundla con-stituency in Saurashtra regionabruptly attacked with micro-phone on BJP member JagdishPanchal. Defending himselfbefore the media, Dudhat said,“I was instigated by Nikol MLAPanchal who used foul languagefor my mother and sister. Onlyafter hearing such words, I react-ed. Though my behaviour waswrong but I am not ashamed.”

Denying allegation on himPanchal said that he wouldn’t useabusive language as women leg-islators were sitting near him. Hewent on to say that if theCongress party would provethat he used abusive language, hewould immediately resign asMLA. He also alleged that KalolMLA Thakor threatened him tobreak his legs outside the House.

Deputy Chief Minister NitinPatel who proposed suspensionof three Congress MLAs up tothree years said that even in thefootage of Assembly proceedingsit was clearly visible that withoutany reason Congress MLADudhat became aggressive andattacked BJP legislator withmicrophone.

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The Karnataka High Courton Wednesday dismissed

the bail plea of Congress MLAN A Haris's son MohammedHaris Nalapad in an assault case.The Bench said his plea wasdismissed on the grounds of‘protecting peace in society’and to check the ‘manipulationand destruction of evidence’.

In February, a lower courthad sent Nalapad to 14 days injudicial custody for allegedlybeating up a man in the com-pany of his friends at a restau-rant on February 17.

Special Public ProsecutorShyamsundar had argued that

Nalapad should be not be givenbail for fabricating evidence. Healleged that the defence had fur-nished a fake report of Vidvat,the victim, being dischargedfrom hospital. The special pros-ecutor also claimed that thedefence had violated the law byaccessing such a document.

Nalapad and his supportersare believed to have also visit-ed Vidvat at the hospital andwarned him against filing acomplaint. The court also hadtaken cognisance of the footageof the assault contradicted thedefence’s claim that Nalapad wasnot at the restaurant and did notassault the victim. The defencelawyer had also claimed thatVidvat was drunk and was

injured when he fell on his face.However, doctors at Mallyahospital who treated him deniedthe claim.

Nalpad was denied bail inrelation to an alleged brutalattack on Vidvat Loganathan atFarzi Cafe in UB City in centralBengaluru on February 17.

Justice Sreenivas HarishKumar dismissed the bail peti-tion filed by Nalpad. The deci-sion came after Nalapadapproached the HC followingthe revoking of his bail plea bythe session’s court.

In February, the accusedMohammed Haris Nalpad andseven others allegedly hit Vidvatwith a jug, a bottle and knuck-le rings.

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Even as 13 people who sufferedburns are battling for their lives

in Theni and Madurai, there areunasked questions and unansweredqueries coming out of Sunday’s for-est fire in the Western Ghats in TamilNadu which claimed 11 lives.

On Wednesday, the Tamil NaduGovernment appointed senior IASofficer Atulya Misra to probe the cir-cumstances leading to the forest fireas well as trekking activity withoutproper permission from forestdepartment in forest fire prone area.He has been asked to submit thereport within two months.

While the Chennai TrekkingClub, organisers of the trekking,claimed that the expedition wasundertaken after gettingGovernment clearance and paying

mandatory fees to the ForestDepartment, the Tamil NaduGovernment was firm in its stancethat it has not allowed anybody toorganise adventure sports liketrekking in the area.

The Chennai Trekking Club ina release issued through the socialmedia claimed that it had made pay-ments to the official at the checkpoint who allowed the trekkersinside the reserve forest. But the

Tamil Nadu Forest Department onlate Tuesday suspended Jayasingh, aforester attached to theBodinayakannoor Range for allow-ing trekkers into the forests.

D Prabhu, proprietor, Tour DeIndia Holidays, an Erode basedcompany , said that he had led a teamof 12 trekkers into the forest onSaturday after paying Jayasingh �200per person. Some of the local mediahad reported that Jayasingh hadmade the organisers to transfer themoney into his personal bankaccount to facilitate the entry of thetrekkers into the forest.

But the most startling disclosurewas made by Dr K Sivan, chairman,Indian Space Research Organisation.According to the ISRO boss, theNational Remote Sensing Centrewhich is keeping track of forest firesall over the country sends text mes-sages to the officials of the forest

departments of all States with thehelp of Forest Survey of India. "ButTamil Nadu Government has not yetshared the mobile phone numbersof its forest officials either with theNRSC or the FSI. Had they sharedthe contact numbers of their offi-cials, we could have sent SMS alertswhich inturn would have reducedthe disaster response time,” said DrSivan.

The mystery behind the CTCcontinued as Peter Van Geit, theBelgian citizen behind the clubremained elusive. The website of theclub is silent about its office bearersand their contact addresses. “This isdisturbing. I wanted to undertake atrekking expedition but the CTC issilent about the people behind theorganisation and hence I opted outfrom becoming a member,” said KP Lalchand, an entrepreneur who isseriously into adventure sports.

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Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjeehas said that the losses suffered by the

BJP in UP and Bihar by-elections markedthe beginning of the end of the saffronregime even as her senior party men saidthe party in power in Delhi would “fall onits face” in the 2019 elections.

Banerjee currently in Darjeeling toattend a State-sponsored business summittweeted, “Congratulations to Mayawati jiand Akhilesh Yadav ji for the UP bypolls.”She also greeted jailed RJD chief LaluYadav after his party humbled NitishKumar’s JD(U) in Bihar in three by-elec-tions counting for which was held simul-taneously with the one for UP polls onWednesday.

She said, “Congratulations LaluPrasad ji for winning Araria andJehanabad (seats). This is a great victory,”iterating “beginning of the end (of BJPrule) has started.”

In UP SP-BSP combine won theGorakhpur and Phulpur parliamentaryseats while in Bihar the RJD won ArariaLok Sabha constituency and JehanabadAssembly seat while JD(U)-BJP alliancebagged the Bhabhua Assembly seat.

Once again raising the Tripura issuewhere the BJP recently ended the 25-yearLeft rule senior Trinamool leaders likeFirhad Hakim said “Didi has said the rightthing that BJP’s end is nearing. Thoughthey are trying to play divisive politics towin in Northeastern States like Tripurathose victories will be short-lived as thepeople will not vote for them now.”

Referring to UP and Bihar by-pollsTrinamool leader Sukhendu ShekharRoy said time had come when the peo-ple had started thinking of removing theBJP from power for its “arrogance andanti-people policies.”

The BJP has of late been coming upas a primary opposition party in Bengalshoving aside the Left Front and has

already started projecting itself as a chal-lenger to the Mamata BanerjeeGovernment.

Firmly sitting on 30 percent minor-ity vote bank the Trinamool leaders likeSubroto Mukherjee said “let the BJP firstsave its own backyards of UP, MP,Rajasthan and other places before look-ing at Bengal. Today’s election resultsshow what the people are now thinkingabout BJP.”

Meanwhile, in an apparent bid tohijack the Hindutva plank from the BJPTrinamool Congress has planned to takeout processions on Ramnavmi Day par-ticularly in Birbhum district where the saf-fron outfit last year took out a massive rallyto celebrate the birth day of Lord Rama.

According to sources the State policehave been instructed to withhold per-mission to the non-Trinamool Congressparties for any kind or procession onRamnavmi though the ruling party lead-ers refused to comment on the issue.

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India quickieMuhammad Shami

continued to receiveyorkers from hisestranged wife HasinJehan who made it clearto the ace pace bowlerthat any talk of reconcil-iation would arise onlywhen he publicly apolo-gised for the “sins youhave committed bytouching other womendespite having your own legal-ly married wife.”

Jehan — shown by aBengali channel responding toa WhatsApp call from herhusband, currently stationedsomewhere in UP — toldShami in a raised voice that“We can sit for talks onlywhen you will accept your sinbefore the media and police.”She said so after an apparent-ly subdued cricketer enquiredfrom her as to “what I have todo now?”

She promptly retorted,“Don’t you know what youhave done and don’t you knowwhat you should have done.You simply have to give methe respect that I a legallymarried wife of yoursdeserve.”

When Shami asked back“when have I not showed yourespect and when have Ineglected you,” Jehan wholater said that she is being con-sistently “nagged and threat-ened” by the cricketer forcompromise replied “youcrossed all the limits of sleazeand now you are talking ofcompromise for the sake ofthe family!”

When Shami said that hewanted an amicable settle-ment across the table “for thesake of the family, the childand love” she hit back saying“Janeman (darling) is this theway a husband shows love toher wife by touching otherwomen and doing dirty thingswith them? Do you knowwhat love is” and added “nowthings have crossed all limitsand the whole world knowsabout this so let the police, thecourt and the society settle theissue for us.”

She also told him to“swear by your dead fatherthat you have not done badthings” and reminded “I amalso concerned about the fam-ily and the child but in thegiven circumstances talks willtake place only after you haveto accept your fault before thepolice and the media.”

Jehan alleged that Shamiwas trying to “play game withme because he has now toanswer the police, the Board.This is why he called me up onthe WhatsApp so that I can-not record his audio.” Jehanvideo-graphed the conversa-tion between Shami and her.

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Vishwa Hindu Parishad(VHP) has blamed BJP’s

poor organisational manage-ment and over confidence of theleaders as the reason for party’signominious defeat in theGorakhpur and Phulpur bye-elections, results of which wereannounced on Wednesday.

Senior VHP leader andSangh pracharak PurshottamNarain Singh said that the resultshave exposed the party structureand its working style. “There isa need to improve this,” Singhsaid in a statement issued here onWednesday.

He said that BJPGovernment is doing its workbut the party organisation hasfailed to keep a pace with the

Government. “Party lost thiselection because of the indiffer-ence of these leaders. This resultalso speaks volumes about theelection strategy,” he said.

“This is the time for intro-spection. The workers are the bul-wark of any organisation. If theyare not active the organisation isbound to fail. The onus is now onthe party leadership to analyse theresult. The party should take cor-rective steps immediately other-wise it may prove doom for theorganisation,” Singh said.

VHP spokesman SharadSharma said that this defeat is notof any person or Government.The party should take responsi-bility of this defeat. “Winningand losing elections is part of thegame and leaders should take itin that stride,” he said.

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Trial proceedings in the sen-sational case pertaining to

the assault on a young frontlineSouth Indian film actress in amoving car in February lastyear began in a Kochi court onWednesday. Malayalam moviesuperstar Dileep, who is theeighth accused in the case andallegedly the chief conspiratorbehind the assault, appeared inthe court even as the victimsought special arrangementsfor trial.

A private lawyer whoappeared for the actress in theErnakulam District andSessions Court in Kochimoved a plea praying that thetrial in the case be held in cam-era presided over by a womanjudge in a fast track court. Thevictim also sought expeditiousproceedings for ensuring com-pletion of the trial in minimumpossible time.

However, the court ques-tioned the need of a privatelawyer for the victim when aSpecial Prosecutor had been

made available to represent her.The judge said that the privatelawyer could assist theProsecutor but the counselargued that victims in suchcases had the right to have pri-vate lawyers. The court willtake up the case on March 28.

Dileep appeared in thecourt on Wednesday contraryto the speculation that hemight avoid a situation ofcoming face to face with firstaccused Sunil Kumar, hisalleged co-conspirator andhead of the gang that had

abducted and attacked theactress. Apart from Dileep andSuni, eight other accused alsoappeared in the court. Thereare a total of 12 accused in thecase.

The leading actress wassexually assaulted and video-graphed in that awkward con-dition by a gang led by Suni ina moving car on the night ofFebruary 17 last year when shewas on her way to Kochi fromThrissur. Suni and some of hisassociates were arrested with-in a week of the incident and

the first chargesheet in the casewas filed subsequently.

The superstar was arrest-ed on July 10, 2017 on thecharge of giving a Rs 1.5-crore‘quotation’ to Suni to abductand assault the actress physi-cally and sexually and video-graph her in the awkward sit-uation and he had spent 85days in the Sub-Jail in Aluva,his hometown near Kochi,under remand. The probe washeld by a special Kerala Policeteam headed by ADGP BSandhya.

In the additionalchargesheet filed in the case atthe Chief Judicial MagistrateCourt in Angamaly near Kochion November 22 last year, thepolice named Dileep as eighthaccused and slapped on himserious charges includingcriminal conspiracy, gang rape,kidnapping and destructionof evidences. Two of theaccused had turned approvers.

According to the police,Dileep and Suni were theonly persons involved in theconspiracy.

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Congress received yet anoth-er setback in the electoral

battle when their ‘Ekla Chalo’move boomeranged with boththe candidates for bypolls in theGorakhpur and Phulpur losingtheir deposits.

Interestingly, the Party ear-lier go in alliance with theSamajwadi Party (SP) in the lastAssembly polls but got thebiggest setback when theycould not even touch the dou-ble figure mark winning just 7seats. This time, they decided togo alone and take a lead inannouncing the candidate forthe bypolls, but the peopleonce again rejected their moveand ensured a humiliatingdefeat.

Sources said that manyleaders now termed Raj Babbaras most unlucky for the UttarPradesh Congress and demand-ed that at least now the highcommand should take no timeto shunt him out and hand oversome other responsibility. ``RajBabbar was brought to give newoxygen to Uttar PradeshCongress in 2016 after theParty could just manage to wintwo-Rae Bareli and AmethiParliamentary seats in 2014under Nirmal Khatri but in lastAssembly elections in 2017,the Party received a biggest set-back by winning 7 seats”, point-ed a senior leader of theCongress while reacting todefeat of the Party in the by-polls.

He said that Raj Babbarthen made a mistake for goingin alliance with SamajwadiParty and now when theyshould fight together sharingone seat each in the by-polls,Babbar decided to go alone andnow the outcome is beforeeveryone. “Our candidate gotless votes then evenIndependent Atiq Ahmed inPhulpur”, the leader said addingthat now before making anyanalysis of defeat, the Partyshould remove Babbar and gaveresponsibility to someone otherso that new strategy for fight-ing with full strength in 2019Lok Sabha elections could bedrawn.

Former Member ofParliament from Congresswhile reacting to the defeat ofthe Party in the bypolls said thattime has now come that all thethree Opposition Parties,Samajwadi Party, BahujanSamaj Party and Congressshould come on one platformand draw a well designed strat-egy to consolidate the Partiesvote bank so that just likebypolls, BJP could be wiped outin the next general electionstoo. “The leaders of all the threeParties should discuss the seatsharing formula in UttarPradesh and then start a cam-paign to defeat BJP in thisbiggest state of the countryhaving maximum 80Parliament seats’, asserted for-mer MP saying that success inUP means formation of a non-BJP Government in the Centre.

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Page 8: 2 ./3˛ .0 4 ˚˝#!˛ $˛$˚! $˛%& ’(˛)*˛˜ ˜% + In Phulpur, Nagendra ... Subramanian Swamy who sought enforcement of his right to worship at Lord Ram’s birth-place. The question

On the last day of his visit toIndia, French PresidentEmmanuel Macron went to inVaranasi for a cruise on theGanga with Prime Minister

Narendra Modi. This was the culminationof a visit with a difference.

Macron’s trip touched upon twoaspects of the bilateral relations, theancient and the modern (and strategic).Before the visit to the Ghats, Macronoffered to Modi, an original copy of theBhagavad Gita translated from Sanskritinto French in the early 20th century bythe great French scholar Émile Senart. Thissymbolises the first aspect of the relations,but perhaps more important in today’sworld there is the ‘strategic’ angle.

Addressing the French community inDelhi, the young President explained:“geopolitical context is deeply changed.India rightly fears the reorganisation of theworld; she fears forms of hegemony in theregion and in particular in the IndianOcean and the Pacific. And why not nameit, she fears a Chinese hegemony”.

He reminded his countrymen: “Franceis a power of the Indian and the PacificOceans; we are present at the Reunion, weare also there in French Polynesia and NewCaledonia. And we are a maritime power,it is often forgotten but France is the sec-ond maritime power in the world. We havea strong navy, we have nuclear sub-marines equipped like few other powers inthe world; a maritime surveillance capa-bility through our own satellites and tech-nologies; it is obvious we are a military andintelligence power ranking us among thefirst nations in the world”. France is nowready to share this power with India.

Before concluding, Macron quoted theAustralian Prime Minister, who spoke of“freedom of sovereignty”; he then added:“This renewed strategic partnership isreflected by the confirmation of a defenselink that has already materialised in somevery important contracts, be it in the navalor aviation domain, in the engine indus-try …a coming generation of a new part-nership on development of engines (theKaveri for the Tejas), but also enhancedcooperation in terms of spatial surveillanceor in terms of intelligence”.

A vast programme, symbolising thespecial relations between France andIndia, which celebrate 20 years of ‘strate-gic partnership’; the accord signed in 1998by French President Jacques Chirac andIndian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayeeis the oldest such partnership.

Over the last two decades, it hasgrown steadily, no major political differ-ence having darkened the sky betweenParis and Delhi.

Between 1947 and 1954, the relationswere often tense due to the issue of the

French settlements in India which wouldonly be solved with the de facto transferof Pondicherry to the Union of India at theend of 1954.

What is less known is that despite dif-ferences, India and France continued towork together. This was perhaps one of themost trying times on the ground, partic-ularly in Pondicherry. A contract had, how-ever, been signed with Dassault in June1953 for 70 planes; in October 1953, whileanother 35 were sent with the Dixmudeaircraft carrier, four planes reached Indiaby air. The remainder 32 aircraft would bedelivered in early 1954. And those were thedifficult days between the two nations!

Since the signature of the 1998Strategic Agreement, France has con-stantly been supportive of India.

On his arrival, Macron stated that thevisit would open a new era in the strategicpartnership for the coming decades: “Ourtwo democracies have common concerns,like terrorism, lots of common risks andcommon threats. But we have to protect thishistory and the state of freedom”.

The French President also said “I wantmy country to be the best partner inEurope. This is a strong message. I wantIndian citizens coming to France forstudying, becoming entrepreneurs andopening start-ups”.

Some 14 bilateral agreements weresigned at Hyderabad House, strengthen-ing the bilateral economic, political andstrategic ties between the two countries.The joint statement affirmed: “Both lead-ers agreed to deepen and strengthen the

bilateral ties based on shared principles andvalues of democracy, freedom, rule of lawand respect for human rights”.

A message for China?And on the emotive side, it recalled

“the valiant sacrifices made by Indian andFrench soldiers during the First WorldWar”. The Indian Prime Minister agreedto participate in the closing of the FirstWorld War Centenary celebrations, whichwill take place on November 11 in Paris.

And there is, of course, the �59,000 croredeal for 36 Rafale fighters in September 2016;it will soon prove to be a game changer,mainly due to the offset clauses forcing theFrench to reinvest in India 50 per cent of thetotal deal’s amount, but also for India’s west-ern and northern fronts.

Delhi also knows that it needs to diver-sify its diplomatic relations if it wants to playa major role in the world. Here too,France could be a crucial partner.According to the Joint Statement: “Theleaders reiterated that this cooperation willbe crucial in order to maintain the safetyof international sea lanes for unimpededcommerce and communications in accor-dance with the international law”. It maytranslate into a logistics accord allowingIndia access to the strategically importantFrench base in the Reunion Islands nearMadagascar. Another possibility is theopening to India of the French facilities inDjibouti in the Horn of Africa where India’srival China has already a military base. Thisis part of India’s new maritime strategy.

The shortest article of the JointStatement is worth noting: “The leaders

noted ongoing discussions betweenDefence Research and DevelopmentOrganisation and SAFRAN on combat air-craft engine and encouraged necessarymeasures and forward-looking approach-es to facilitate early conclusion”. The ideais to develop an M88 engine for the LightCombat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas with Safran,one of Dassault’s partners in the Rafale deal.

There is also a vibrant educationalcooperation between Indian and FrenchUniversities and academic institutes; a hostof agreements were signed during theKnowledge Summit, the first Indo-Frenchconference on research and higher educa-tion in presence of the French and IndianMinister of education.

The Joint Statement spoke of increas-ing the number and quality of studentexchanges, with the aim of reaching 10,000students by 2020. An agreement for themutual recognition of degrees should “facil-itate the pursuit of higher education byIndian students in France and French stu-dents in India and enhance their employa-bility”. The cherry on the visit’s cake was theco-hosting of the International SolarConference (ISA). An alliance of more than121 countries launched at the UN ClimateChange Conference in Paris in November2015, the ISA wants to create a coalition ofsolar resource-rich countries and addresseach participant’s special energy needs.

All this does not mean that the prac-tical collaboration will be easy, but it isworth a try.

(The writer is an expert on India-Chinarelations and an author)

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Sir — This refers to the article,“Mumbai march and implica-tions” (March 14) by NavneetAnand. Hats off to the residents ofMumbai for their warm welcom-ing and hospitality to poor farm-ers. Likewise, I salute the farmer’smorcha for taking the long marchto Vidhan Bhavan during the day,they got a few hours rest onSunday evening and began theirwalk at two in the morning.

They reached Azad Maidanbefore most people in the city got outof bed only not to disturb the cityroutine. If a large number of peopledecided to walk together down onone of Mumbai’s arterial roads onany working day, the city would havecome to a grind halt.

Ashfaque Nadwi Hyderabad

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Sir— This refers to the editorial,“The French connection” (March13). Relations between India andFrance have traditionally been cor-dial with both countries leveragingbilateral cooperation and exchangesin strategic areas like defence,counter-terrorism, nuclear energyand space. From being the first ma-jor power to appreciate India’s secu-rity predicaments and open dialoguedespite the latter’s nuclear adventur-ism in the Third World to signingthe 1998 Strategic Agreement andendorsing India’s candidature for apermanent seat in the UN SecurityCouncil, France has never shiedaway from setting out a detailed fra-mework for a privileged bilateralpartnership. It is imperative for

Prime Minister Narendra Modi tocarry the legacy forward by build-ing more bridges with Europeannations, France in particular, ifIndia is to add credibility to its grandclaims of relations with the worldpowerhouses.

That French President Emma-nuel Macron’s visit to India has pro-vided a broader underpinning to theoverall bilateral partnership by signi-ng of Memorandum of Understan-dings to strengthen business-to-bu-siness linkages and people-to-peop-le contacts is welcome.

The renewed commitment tothe promotion of global solar powerunder the International Solar Alli-ance is expected to reduce depend-ence on fossil fuels and correct India’simpression as an obstructionist out-lier in sharing climate change res-ponsibility globally.

Shreyans JainDelhi

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Sir — Children nowadays are get-ting irreversible back problemsbecause of heavy school bags behindtheir backs. It causes fatigue andreduces the child’s concentrationlevel. Since only some portions of thetextbook are taught at a time, indi-vidual topics can be published assmaller booklets. This will mean thatkids only have to carry the requiredbooklets for the topic being taught.Schools can also provide lockers tostudents where they can keep theirbooks so that they don’t have to carrythem back and forth.

Jubel D’CruzMumbai

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Page 9: 2 ./3˛ .0 4 ˚˝#!˛ $˛$˚! $˛%& ’(˛)*˛˜ ˜% + In Phulpur, Nagendra ... Subramanian Swamy who sought enforcement of his right to worship at Lord Ram’s birth-place. The question

Ithink I know why the UnitedStates President Donald Trumpsuddenly agreed to hold talks

with North Korean leader KimJong-un after a year of mutualthreats and verbal abuse.

Anything short of a completebreakdown of the talks would vir-tually guarantee Trump next year’sNobel Peace Prize. Moreover, itwould seem bigger and shinierthan the one they gave to BarackObama because Obama had notactually earned it. He got it just forbeing a nice guy.

Oh, no, wait a minute. If theygave it to Trump they’d also have togive it to Kim Jong-un, and thatwould be even sillier. Yet thereprobably won’t be a complete break-

down at the talks, which are due byMay, because both men are strong-ly motivated to make them looksuccessful.

Kim’s minimum goal is to estab-lish North Korea as a legitimate sov-ereign state that is accepted by othersovereign states (including theUnited States) as an equal. Just hav-ing a one-on-one discussion withTrump about the security problems of the Korean peninsulagives him that. He will do his bestto keep the meeting civil, andunder no circumstances will hebreak off the talks first.

Trump’s main goal is to lookgood — to get a ‘win’ — and Kim’sadvisers must have told him to letTrump win something. It doesn’tmatter much what, so long asTrump can wave it in the air andclaim victory when he gets home.But it will definitely not be anenforceable agreement to disman-tle North Korea’s new nuclearweapons and their delivery vehicles.

Look at it from Kim Jong-un’sstandpoint. Former Iraqi President

Saddam Hussein gave up hisnuclear weapons programme(involuntarily) after the first GulfWar in 1990-91, and 12 years laterthe United States invaded Iraq,overthrew Saddam, and hangedhim. Well, the new Iraqi regimeprovided the rope and the gallows,but the United States invasionwould never have happened ifSaddam had really had nuclearweapons.

Libya’s Colonel MuammarGaddafi gave up his quest fornuclear weapons too. It never real-ly amounted to much, but it wor-ried Western powers enough tomake them leave him alone most ofthe time. Then Gaddafi handedover all his pathetic scraps ofnuclear weapons-related technolo-gies — and North Atlantic TreatyOrganisation (NATO) airpowersubsequently backed the tribalrebels who finished him off with abayonet up his backside.

So, if the United States sees youas a problem and you value yourlife, don’t stop until you get your

nukes, and never give them up. TheNorth Koreans understand this les-son very well.

No promise Trump could makewould persuade the North Koreansto surrender their nukes. As far asKim is concerned, nuclear deter-rence against the United States hasnow been achieved, and he wouldbe mad to give it up again.

It’s a pretty flimsy form ofdeterrence — his rockets aren’tvery accurate and his nuclearweapons don’t always explode in afully satisfactory way — but even a10 per cent chance that NorthKorea could kill half a millionAmericans in a ‘revenge from thegrave’ attack should be enough todeter the United States from usingnukes on North Korea.

A nuclear war between theUnited States and North Koreawould probably kill 10 times asmany North Koreans, includingpractically every member of theregime — Pyongyang would be aglowing, radioactive pit — so Kim’sregime would never initiate such a

conflict. But he needs the assurancethat the United States will neverresort to nuclear weapons either,and only North Korean nuclearweapons can provide the necessarydeterrence.

You may deplore this kind ofthinking, but it is entirely rationaland it is at the heart of NorthKorea’s strategy. Kim’s willingness totalk about the “denuclearisation ofthe Korean peninsula” is, therefore,just that: A willingness to talk, but not to act. And there’s plenty totalk about.

Does ‘denuclearisation’ meanno American nuclear weapons canbe located in South Korea? Giventhe range of those weapons, howwould that make North Korea anysafer? Does it mean dismantlingNorth Korea’s nuclear weapons?Certainly not. It’s just what Kim hadto say to get the talks started.

His ultimate goal is to ‘nor-malise’ North Korean nukes, asIndian and Pakistani nuclearweapons were eventually acceptedas normal. This can only happen if

the United States acknowledges astate of mutual nuclear deterrencebetween the two countries, whichTrump is not yet ready to do. Buteven by talking to Kim about it, hebegins to give the concept substance.

Kim can promise Trump a‘moratorium on nuclear and missiletests’ because he doesn’t really needmore tests. His nuclear weaponsand rockets are far fewer and muchless sophisticated than theirAmerican counterparts, but mutu-al deterrence can work effectivelyeven when one side has a hundredor a thousand times more nuclearweapons than the other.

So, Trump gets an early ‘win’,and Kim gets to nudge the UnitedStates a little closer to an under-standing that its future relationshipwith North Korea will be one ofmutual deterrence. Or maybe lock-ing two narcissists in a room isbound to end in tears, but it’s wellworth a try.

(The writer is an independentjournalist)

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The distribution of global poweris rapidly evolving, precipitat-ing far-reaching economic and

political changes affecting nations ofevery size and standing, reads theintroductory sentence of the The SoftPower 30 report of 2015. This com-ment aptly summarises the underly-ing power of the International SolarAlliance (ISA), a brainchild of India,that was launched along with Franceat the COP21 United Nations ClimateChange Conference in Paris in 2015.

In just three years, the alliancehas become a reality, a quick progres-sion, generally unseen in the diplo-matic community. India along withFrance has created an internationaltreaty-based intergovernmentalorganisation that may affect theworld order, at least in terms of ener-gy and create a new developmentalmodel.

The alliance, according to theParis Declaration on the InternationalSolar Alliance, is open to member-ship from 121 solar resource-richcountries that lie fully or partiallybetween the Tropic of Cancer and theTropic of Capricorn. Membership ison a voluntary basis with no targetsor legal obligations imposed onmember countries and is based sole-ly on shared collective goals.

Unlike hard power, whose strat-agem focuses on military interven-tion, coercive diplomacy and eco-nomic sanctions to achieve interna-tional objectives, the InternationalSolar Alliance eschews traditional for-eign policy tools of the carrot (rewardand punishment to induce desiredbehaviour) and the stick (coercion),emphasising instead on using itsnetwork, attractiveness and appeal topersuade and draw member nationsinto its structure. India, sitting in thedriver’s seat of this alliance, has thepower to both steer the organisationand frame the agenda.

If hard power is push, soft poweris pull; and India has pulled over 60countries to the founding summit ofthe International Solar Alliance host-ed in New Delhi. It is interesting tonote that French PresidentEmmanuel Macron’s maiden visit toIndia signalled stronger cooperationbetween the two nations.

Joseph Nye, a proponent of softpower, contends that a nation canincrease its soft power throughengaging, informing and influencingthe Governments and citizens ofother countries. Drawing from thisargument, India can advance its softpower status through theInternational Solar Alliance in threepossible ways.

First, a majority of the potentialmembers of the International SolarAlliance are developing countrieswith large agrarian populations who

face similar challenges like energydeficiency and are in need for astronger voice in the internationalcommunity.

The alliance will give thesenations a voice and act as a platformto share experiences and narrowtechnological gaps through cooper-ation and increased engagementbetween Governments, businessesand the citizenry. India will also beinstrumental in shaping theInternational Solar Alliance’s agendaas it houses the Secretariat and is amember of the steering committee —two factors that will raise India’s softpower.

Second, India, along with France,is driving the “world’s largest renew-able energy expansion programme”,that will help transform the lives ofpeople through simple devices likesolar lanterns, cookers, water pumpsand solar street lights. This soft, rel-atively cheaper and sustainableapproach provides a positive devel-opment pathway. This may be doneby skilling people and utilisingindigenous renewable resources forindustrialisation and employmentgeneration.

Western nations benefited froma cheap carbon-based economy tofuel their development, ushering inimprovements in productivity,income and standard of living.However, the model is clearly not sus-tainable and the world is witnessingthe ill-effects of a carbon-economysuch as deforestation and climatechange.

Today, the International SolarAlliance can be an enabler and act as

a launch pad for nations to reap thesame benefits from renewable ener-gy, but through a better and sustain-able model. It can, therefore, beargued that this is an initiative thatserves to demonstrate the value ofsoft power in the pursuit of a specif-ic initiative. It is India’s chance at cli-mate leadership.

Third, the International SolarAlliance will seek to achieve the sev-enth UNDP SustainableDevelopment Goal (SDG) to “ensureaccess to affordable, reliable, sustain-able and modern energy for all” byenhancing international coopera-tion, upgrading technology, pro-moting investment and increasinginfrastructure by 2030. India hasassumed a leadership role and hassuccessfully created an organisationthat aims to tackle this importantuniversal goal.

In fact, the International SolarAlliance is the only agency under theUnited Nations system that is work-ing on achieving these goals, givingIndia an opportunity to demonstrateits leadership capacity, especially inthe developing world. The appeal ofIndia’s soft power rests in its promiseto deliver key international objectiveswithout high costs and unpopulari-ty associated with hard power.

India has attracted the attentionof the West and central Africannations such as Nigera, Ghana,Gabon and Sudan, with whom it hastraditionally not shared deep-rootedties as it does with some east Africancountries such as Kenya andZanzibar. India can use theInternational Solar Alliance as a

strategic, monetary and knowledgetransfer platform to smartly counter-balance other nation’s aggressive andgrowing presence in the Africancontinent.

In this summit, India has extend-ed a $1.4 billion Line of Credit to sup-port 27 projects in 15 countries, ofwhich 23 projects are in Africannations. The summit witnessed theparticipation of 60 countries, 23 ofwhom were represented by Heads ofStates, indicating the keenness ofnations to be a part of this newalliance.

The success of this alliance inpart hinges on India and France’scredibility and willingness to take theInternational Solar Alliance forward.India, for its part, has demonstratedboth. Its commitment to solar ener-gy is evident from the increase ininstalled solar power capacity fromthree gigawatts in 2014 to 20 GW in2017, as reported by Bridge to India.

Moreover, India also played acrucial role in according the status ofa treaty-based international intergov-ernmental organisation to theInternational Solar Alliance.

Finally, the summit also sig-nalled India’s ability to engage withand attract global audiences and isproof that India has developed andcommunicated a compelling narra-tive, established an internationalnorm and drew on key resources toallure one country to another.

Indeed, this approach is soft,long-term and tangible: It is smartpower at play.

(The writer is a Research Fellowat the India Foundation)

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Domestic carriers IndiGoand GoAir cancelledaround 50 flights on

Wednesday as almost one-third of their A320 Neo air-craft fleet remained groundedfor the third day following asafety directive by aviationwatchdog DGCA.

Of the 48 flights, which arenot being operated as part of thecurtailed schedule, 42 are ofIndiGo and six of GoAir.

GoAir has also announcedthat it is cancelling 18 flightsfrom March 15 to 24.

IndiGo has cancelled 42flights for March 14. Theyinclude flights to Mumbai,Kolkata, Pune, Jaipur, Srinagar,Bhubaneswar, Chennai,Delhi, Dehradun, Amritsar,Bengaluru and Hyderabad,among others, the airlineannounced on its website.

However, the Wadia Group-promoted GoAir said it had can-celled a total of six flights onWednesday due to the ground-ing of three of its A320 Neoplanes, as against 18 on Tuesday.

In an announcement on itswebsite, GoAir said it wouldcancel 18 flights, including 8daily ones, from March 15 to

24. These include flights fromCochin, Bengaluru, Chennai,Hyderabad, Bhubaneswar andKolkata.

The Gurugram-headquar-tered IndiGo operates over1,000 daily flights while GoAiroffers 230 services daily.

On Tuesday, the two airlinestogether had cancelled over 65flights, with IndiGo alone can-celling over 47 services, due tothe grounding of their 11 aircraft— eight of IndiGo and three ofGoAir — by the DirectorateGeneral of Civil Aviation onMarch 13, citing passengerssafety concerns arising out of themid-air shut down of thePratt&Whitney- manufacturedNeo engines of these airplanes.

There are a total of 45 A320

Neo planes fitted with P&Wengines with the two airlines.

Of these, IndiGo has 32 andGoAir 13 planes. The cancella-tion of services in a large num-ber has put thousands of pas-sengers at inconvenience asthey had pre-booked theseflights amid the concerns ofexorbitant fares which arecharged by the carriers for last-minute travel.

However, the two carriershad on Tuesday said they weretaking measures to minimiseinconvenience to the passengerswhose flights have been can-celled by booking them onalternative flights as well givingthem the option of cancelling orrescheduling their travel with-out any extra cost.

����� �1���123�

The benchmark BSE Sensexclosed marginally down by

21 points at 33,835.74 after achoppy trade due to selling inoil and gas, auto and metalstocks amid a global sell-off onheightened trade war fears.

Asian stocks declined fol-lowing an overnight slide inUS equities after PresidentDonald Trump replaced hismoderate Secretary of StateRex Tillerson with a hawk, CIADirector Mike Pompeo, whosupports a hardline approachwith China and Iran.

The Sensex, after a gapdown opening at 33,733.55continued its slide to toucha low of 33,580.69.

Later, it recovered to33,875.15 on firming trend inEurope and a recovery in majorbanking stocks following abenign wholesale inflation data.

The index finally settled21.04 points or 0.06 per centlower at 33,835.74. During theday, the barometer swungalmost 295 points both sides.

The broader NSE Niftycracked below the key 10,400-mark to touch a low of10,336.30, before finally ending15.95 points, or 0.15 per cent,down at 10,410.90. Intra-day ittouched a high of 10,420.35.

A fresh spell of sellingdragged down most of the sec-toral indices, led by oil & gas,realty, metal, FMCG, power,capital goods, auto and PSUwhich fell up to 0.94 per cent.

“Market traded in a rangebound due to mixed trend in

global market, but recouped thelosses as banking stocks out-performed due to improve-ment in financial market liq-uidity. Ease in February WPIinflation to 2.48 per cent willfurther provide support to themarket while any escalation inglobal risk may lead investors tostay cautious,” Vinod Nair, Headof Research, Geojit FinancialServices Ltd said.

Inflation based on whole-sale prices eased to a seven-month low of 2.48 per cent inFebruary on cheaper food arti-cles, including vegetables, offi-cial data showed.

Banking stocks recoveredfrom early lows to end in thegreen. Yes Bank rose 1.85 percent to emerge as the biggestgainer among Sensex scrips.Axis Bank, SBI and ICICIBank also pared early losses toend higher by up to 0.89 percent. Bank of Baroda, PNB,and HDFC Bank also rose upto 3.01 per cent.

RBI on Tuesday hadbarred banks from issuingguarantees in the form of let-ters of undertaking (LoU) as it

clamped down on the importfinancing route used by fugi-tive jeweller Nirav Modi andhis uncle Mehul Choksi forallegedly committing India'sbiggest bank fraud.

Gains in Maruti Suzuki,NTPC, Infosys, Adani Ports andL&T helped the index limit itslosses. However, oil majorONGC dropped by 1.53 percent after crude prices surged.

HeroMotoCorp took thebiggest blow in the Sensex kittyby slumping 1.78 per cent fol-lowed by Tata Steel 1.25 percent. Other laggards includedHDFC, Bajaj Auto, BhartiAirtel, Wipro, M&M, CoalIndia, Power Grids, SunPharma, ITC, TCS, AsianPaints, Kotak Bank and RIL,falling up to 0.91 per cent.

Coal India fell 0.41 percent after brokerage firm Citidowngraded the stock to neu-tral and lowered its target price.

Gitanjali Gems cracked 4.90per cent to �13.60 after NationalStock Exchange (NSE) leviedpenalty on the company for fail-ure to file financial results forquarter ending December.

����� �1���123�

Inflation based onwholesale prices

eased to a seven-monthlow of 2.48 per cent inFebruary on cheaperfood articles, includingvegetables.

On the basis ofWholesale Price Index(WPI), inflation was2.84 per cent in Januaryand 5.51 per cent inFebruary 2017.

WPI inflation at2.48 per cent inFebruary is the lowestin seven months. Theprevious low levelwas recorded in Julyat 1.88 per cent.

According to a government data released on Wednesday,inflation in food articles slowed to 0.88 per cent in Februaryfrom 3 per cent in the preceding month.

Inflation in vegetables softened with annual inflation at15.26 per cent as against 40.77 per cent in January.

While the rate of price rise in onion slowed, it increasedin the case of another kitchen essential, potato.

Inflation in pulses remained in the negative zone at (-)24.51per cent and so in cereals and wheat. WPI inflation in proteinrich items like egg, fish and meat too was in the negative zone.

As per the data, inflation in 'fuel and power' segment tooeased to 3.81 per cent in February compared to 4.08 per centin the previous month.

The data also showed that the rate of price rise in manu-factured items was higher compared to January.

As per the data of Central Statistics Office (CSO), retail infla-tion measured in term of Consumer Price Index had droppedto a four-month low of 4.44 per cent in February on cheaperfood articles and lower cost for fuel.

NEW DELHI: India's largest tele-com operator Bharti Airtel onWednesday said its committee ofdirectors has approved the allot-ment of 30,000 debentures forraising about �3,000 crore via pri-vate placement.

The Sunil Mittal promotedcompany, which is engaged in afierce tariff war to safeguard itsturf in the Indian telecom market,said the proceeds of the issue willbe utilised for debt refinancingand spectrum liabilities.

“Within the authority of thespecial resolution passed by theshareholders of the companythrough postal ballot on March14, 2017, the committee of direc-tors has approved the allotment of30,000 listed, unsecured, rated,redeemable, non-convertibledebentures of face value �10 lakheach, at par aggregating to �3,000crore on private placement basis,”the company said in a BSE filing.

This will be allotted via twoseries or tranches of �1,500 croreeach, it added. The two series —Series I and II — will carry acoupon of 8.25 per cent perannum payable annually, and 8.35per cent, per annum payableannually, respectively.

The proceeds of the issuewould be used for general corpo-rate purpose including routinetreasury activities and refinancingof existing debt and spectrum lia-bilities, the company added.

����� ����3�����6

Expressing deep anguish overa spate of banking frauds,

RBI Governor Urjit Patel saidon Wednesday that like the‘Neelakantha’, the central bankwill consume poisonand face brickbats, butwill persist withendeavour to becomebetter with each trial.

Breaking silence overthe �12,967 crore scam atPunjab National Bank (PNB),he said: “I have chosen tospeak today to convey that weat the Reserve Bank of Indiaalso feel the anger, hurt andpain at the banking sectorfrauds and irregularities.”

Delivering a lecture at theGujarat National LawUniversity here, he said: “Inplain simple English, thesepractices amount to a lootingof our country's future by somein the business community, incahoots with some lenders.”

Patel said RBI has in placeasset quality review of banksand “we are doing all we can tobreak this unholy nexus”.

Invoking mythology, he

said RBI has undertaken thecleaning up of the country'scredit culture as the Mandaramount or the churning rod inthe Amrit Manthan or theSamudra Manthan of the mod-ern day Indian economy.

Until the churn iscomplete and the nectar ofstability safely secured forthe country's future, some-one must consume thepoison that emanatesalong the way, he said. “If

we need to face the brickbats andbe the Neelakantha consumingthis poison, we will do so as ourduty; we will persist with ourendeavours and get better witheach trial and tribulation alongthe way,” the Governor said.

He also wished that morepromoters and banks, individ-ually — or collectively throughtheir industry bodies — wouldreconsider being on the side of“Devas rather than Asuras inthis Amrit Manthan”.

He made a pitch for “mak-ing banking regulatory powersneutral to bank ownership andleveling the playing fieldbetween public sector and pri-vate sector banks”.

����� �1���123�

Giving some relief toinvestors, the Government

on Wednesday extended index-ation benefit for computingtax liability on sale of shares list-ed after January 31, though cap-ital gains arising from suchtransactions will continue to betaxed at 20 per cent.

The indexation benefit —which takes into account theimpact of inflation on acqui-sition cost — will not be avail-able on gains made from saleof listed securities, as per theamendments to the FinanceBill, which was passed by LokSabha on Wednesday.

The 2018-19 Budget hadafter a gap of 14 years reintro-duced 10 per cent tax on long-term capital gains(LTCG) exceed-ing �1 lakh from sale of shares.

Currently, 15 per cent taxis levied on capital gains madeon sale of shares within a yearof purchase. However, LTCGtax is nil for shares sold aftera year of purchase.

LTCG on sale of unlistedshares is taxed at 20 per cent,while in case of short term cap-ital gains it is 30 per cent.

The Finance Ministry hadreceived various representationsdemanding removal of LTCG tax.

Nangia & Co Managing

Partner Rakesh Nangia said theamendment addresses the con-cerns of the community inrespect of capital gains arising ontransfer of unlisted shares that getlisted after February 1, 2018.

“The Finance Bill providesthat the indexed cost of acquisi-tion of such shares shall be con-sidered for the purpose of com-puting capital gains. Thisamendment has partlyaddressed the concern, sincethe Cost Inflation Index maynot completely account for therise in the fair market value ofsuch share,” Nangia said.

The amendment seeks toprovide that the fair marketvalue of shares which are unlist-ed on January 31, 2018 but list-ed on date of transfer shall be

indexed as per cost of acquisition.“This will also apply for

unlisted shares which are sub-stituted in tax neutral transfers(like amalgamation, demerger,gift, succession, etc) for shareswhich are listed on date oftransfer,” EY India Tax PartnerRaju Kumar said.

Besides, the government hasintroduced an amendment toensure that the Public ProvidentFund (PPF) accounts are notattached in case of loan default.

The amendment has beenmade in the Government savingsBanks Act, 1873, through theFinance Bill, 2018.

Nangia & Co Director DirectTaxation Shailesh Kumar said theamendment intends to protect theretirement benefits/social securityof such person, who may havedefaulted in repayment of debt forany circumstantial reasons.

The Finance Bill, which willnow be taken up by Rajya Sabha,will become an Act once signedby the President.

Observing that Sensex andNifty have lost more than 7 percent since February 1, 2018,Taxmann.Com DGM NaveenWadhwa said investors wereexpecting some relief from thegovernment like deferment ofnew capital gains tax orincrease in the threshold limitfrom �1 lakh to �2 lakh.

NEW DELHI: Reacting toReserve Bank of India’s (RBI)decision to scrap the system ofissuing Letters of Undertaking(LoUs) and Letters of Comfort(LoC) by banks in thewake of the �12,600crore fraud on state-run Punjab NationalBank (PNB), industrybody CII said onWednesday it wouldhave a disruptiveimpact on the buyerscredit market.

The RBI on Tuesday dis-continued the system of issuingLoUs and LoCs by banks foravailing trade credits forimports into India followinglast month's unveiling of thePNB fraud by accused dia-mantaire Nirav Modi and hisuncle Mehul Choksi.

“The decision of RBI todiscontinue Letters ofUnderstanding and Letters ofComfort for trade credit wouldhave a disruptive impact on thebuyers' credit market, in theimmediate term,” CII PresidentShobana Kamineni said in astatement here.

“The traders who havebeen conducting business

through these two instrumentswill now have to necessarilyshift their transactions toLetters of Credit and BankGuarantees. The result would

be that cost of creditmay go up, especiallyfor the SMEs.”

CII feels that RBIcould have strength-ened and tightened theexisting regulations onLoUs and LoCs, orcould have announced

a phasing out mechanism,rather than completely dis-continuing a legitimate andestablished product.

As per the RBI's latest noti-fication, Letters of Credit andbank guarantees for trade cred-its can continue to be issued.

LoUs are bank guaranteesthrough which a bank allowscustomers to raise money fromanother Indian bank's foreignbranch as short-term credit.

The PNB scam involvedusing LoUs issued in favour ofthe accused by bank employ-ees who misused their accessto PNB's SWIFT — the elec-tronic messaging systememployed for overseas fundstransfers. PNS

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The new industrial policy,which will be released soon,

will focus on modernising exist-ing industries, besides pushingfor frontier technologies likerobotics and artificial intelli-gence, on Wednesday said.

The Ministry has alreadyreleased the draft industrialpolicy, seeking views of allstakeholders.

“Because of new industries,what (will) happen to existingindustries? Our policy focuseson modernising existing indus-tries as a first step,” he said hereat the AIMA function.

The Minister also askedindustries to come forward torespond on the changes whichwould come up on account ofIndustrial Revolution 4.0.

The term IndustrialRevolution 4.0 is synonymouswith smart manufacturing andit encompasses cyber-physicalsystems, Internet of Things,robotics, artificial intelligence,cloud computing and cognitivecomputing.

On fears that introductionof these technologies wouldimpact jobs, the Minister saidthese new technologies mayhave some implications onemployment generation in onesector, but it would create hugejob opportunities in severalother areas.

Further, he said that India’seconomy would reach $5 trillionin the coming years; and out ofthis, 20 per cent is expected tocome from manufacturing sec-tor. “While we modernise exist-ing industries, we should focuson new industries also” as theywill drive the growth of tomor-row, he said.

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British financial servicesgiant Prudential said on

Wednesday that it will splitinto two separate firms, inorder to focus on strategic pri-orities in the various regions inwhich it operates.

The demerger will createM&G Prudential, a savingsand investment provider forBritain and Europe, andPrudential plc, which willmostly focus on insurance inAsia, the United States and

Africa, the company said in astatement.

No clear timetable wasgiven for the move, which wasrevealed alongside the group’sannual results. “Prudential plcon Wednesday announces itsintention to demerge its UK &Europe business M&GPrudential from Prudential plc,resulting in two separately-listed companies with differentinvestment characteristics andopportunities,” it said in astatement.

"On completion of the

demerger, shareholders willhold interests in bothPrudential plc and M&GPrudential.”

The two new groups willboth be based in London,where they will have separatelistings on the stock market.

“The decision to demergeM&G Prudential follows a rig-orous review by the boardwhich considered all options,including the status quo, andconcluded that it is in the bestinterest of the group to operateas two separately-listed com-panies, able to focus on theirdistinct strategic priorities intheir chosen geographies,”Prudential Chairman PaulManduca said.

“Both are expected to meetthe criteria for inclusion in theFTSE 100 index.”M&G

Prudential, a leading retirementand savings business in Britainand Europe, will also sell £12.0billion ($16.7 billion, 13.5 bil-lion euros) of its shareholderannuity portfolio to RothesayLife. The proceeds from thistransaction would be used tosupport the demerger process,it added.

“Following separation,M&G Prudential will havemore control over its businessstrategy and capital allocation,”said Prudential Chief ExecutiveMike Wells in the statement.

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The Government onWednesday made a case for

a national e-commerce policyand a related consolidated legalframework to address the chal-lenges of the sectorand realise the oppor-tunities in the globalbusiness-to-con-sumer (B2C) space.

“Most importantfor us at this point oftime as policy-makersand also as stake-holders who are atthe receiving end. Wedo not have a national e-com-merce policy and we do not havea consolidated legal frameworkto deal with it.

“So if we look at the e-com-merce. We do need a broad pol-icy that looks at the broad ele-ments, that we will use to realisethe opportunities,” CommerceSecretary Rita Teaotia saidaddressing a workshop on e-commerce here. She saidDepartment of Commerce wasgrappling with the issue of whoowns the B2C e-commercespace as within the govern-ment, there are multiple policy-

makers and regulators likedepartments of IT, industrialpolicy, revenue, posts, and RBI.

“So there are a fairly largenumber of players in the gov-ernment itself. And all of themneed to come on the same

page,” Teaotia said.She said India

first needs to ensurereadiness of its owncompanies foraccessing globalmarkets before talk-ing about rule-mak-ing on the globalfront, observing thatthere are differences

in the definition of MSME inthe US, Germany and India.

“The World TradeOrganisation (WTO) is not atalk shop unlike the UnitedNations and UNCTAD. Whenyou go to WTO you are talkingabout global rules for trade andwhen you talk about globalrules you have to be ready.

“This is not lightly done..Getting very excited aboutMSMEs on the global rule-making platform is unwiseunless you know you are com-paring apples to apples”,Teaotia said.

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����( ����������"����� !���(�"����+���*���������(�����������(���� �������!������!����������(����������� ���������(� � �����" ���%����� ����� ����� �"�����������������"�������+D��������$�( ������1��������!���������������������� ��(� ��� ��(

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Life insurance firms report-ed an increase of about 27

per cent in its new premiumcollection in February at�13,698.52 crore, data frominsurance regulator Irdaishowed on Wednesday.

Of all the 24 life insurancefirms, country’s only state-owned as well as the largestinsurer LIC, the increase innew premium collection wasup by 24 per cent to �8,476.73crore during the month.

Rest of 23 private sectorplayers had new premiumcollection of �5,221.79 crore

in February, up 32.4 per centfrom a year ago, showed theInsurance Regulatory andDevelopment Authority(Irdai) data. Among the pri-vate sector life insurers, SBILife reported new premium of�709.72 crore in the 11thmonth of this fiscal, up 32 percent; HDFC Standard Lifewitnessed a jump of 80.4 percent in new premium at�1190.90 crore during themonth.

Of the others, ICICIPrudential Life had new busi-ness worth �780.79 crore,down 12 per cent from ayear ago, Bajaj Allianz Life

was at �368.49 crore asagainst � 177.51 crore yearago and Birla Sun Life�182.79 crore against �142.43crore.

Bajaj Allianz said, this isthe highest increase in newbusiness premium for thecompany among the top play-ers in the insurance industry.

The growth was 107.59per cent. Cumulatively, allthe 24 life insurance compa-nies' new premium collectionduring April-February periodof this f iscal rose to�1,64,321.18 crore, from�1,40,346.76 crore a year agoperiod.

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������� �!)�����5���.�':�����7"-;8�<����&���NEW DELHI: India wouldgrow at 7.3 per cent in 2018-19,the World Bank said onWednesday forecasting thatthe economy would revert to itstrend growth rate of 7.5 percent by 2019-20 as it bottomsout from the impact of theGoods and Services Tax (GST)and demonetisation.

In the current year, theeconomy is expected to clocka growth rate of 6.7 per cent,said the World Bank’s IndiaDevelopment Update report,which takes stock of the Indianeconomy.

It said while India’s GDPgrowth saw a temporary dip inthe last two quarters of 2016-17 and the first quarter of2017-18 due to demonetizationand disruptions surroundingthe initial implementation ofGST, but economic activityhad begun to stabilize sinceAugust last year.

“While services will con-tinue to remain the main dri-ver of economic growth, indus-trial activity is poised to grow,

with manufacturing expectedto accelerate following theimplementation of the GST,and agriculture will likely growat its long-term average growthrate,” it said.

It added that reachinggrowth rates exceeding 8 percent will require continuedreform aimed at resolvingissues related to credit andinvestment, and enhancing thecompetitiveness of India’sexporting sector.

“Maintaining hard-wonmacroeconomic stability, pro-viding a definite and durablesolution to the cleaning up of

banks’ balance sheets, realisingGST’s growth and fiscal divi-dend, and regaining momen-tum on the unfinished struc-tural reform agenda will be keyfor realising these rates ofgrowth,” it added.

“Accelerating the growthrate will also require continuedintegration into the globaleconomy.”

According to the WorldBank, India’s growth in recentyears has been supported by"prudent macroeconomic pol-icy including a new inflationtargeting framework, energysubsidy reforms, fiscal consol-idation, higher quality of pub-lic expenditure and a stable bal-ance of payment situation.

“In addition, recent policyreforms have helped Indiaimprove the business environ-ment, ease inflows of foreigndirect investment (FDI) andimprove credit behaviour,” itadded. World Bank’s IndiaCountry Director JunaidAhmad said India’s long-termgrowth has become more

steady, stable, diversified andresilient.

“In the long-run, for high-er growth to be sustainable andinclusive, India needs to useland and water, which areincreasingly becoming scarceresources, more productively,make growth more inclusive,and strengthen its public sec-tor to meet the challenges of afast growing, globalizing andincreasingly middle-classeconomy,” he added.

Poonam Gupta, the leadeconomist and the main authorof the report, said that durablerevival in private investmentsand exports would be crucialfor India achieving a sustainedhigh growth of 8 percent andabove.

“This will require contin-ued impetus for structuralreforms. Resorting to counter-cyclical policies will not helpspur sustained growth andIndia should not compromiseits hard-earned fiscal disci-pline in order to accelerategrowth,” she added. IANS

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Page 12: 2 ./3˛ .0 4 ˚˝#!˛ $˛$˚! $˛%& ’(˛)*˛˜ ˜% + In Phulpur, Nagendra ... Subramanian Swamy who sought enforcement of his right to worship at Lord Ram’s birth-place. The question

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Lahore: A provincial assemblyin Pakistan on Wednesday cre-ated history by unanimouslypassing a bill that will providelegal status to Sikh marriages inthe Muslim-majority country.

The Punjab Assemblyunanimously passed the

Punjab Sikhs Anand KarajMarriages Act 2017. This is thefirst time that family matters ofthe community, such as mar-riage, will be separately regulated.

The Bill was on Wednesdaytabled by minority member

Punjab Assembly SardarRamesh Singh Arora. The pas-sage of the bill has repealed theAnand Marriage Act, 1909 thatwas passed under British rule.

The Bill will come intoforce after it has been approvedby the Governor. PTI

London: British PrimeMinister Theresa May onWednesday held Russia respon-sible for the nerve agent attackagainst a former Russian spyand his daughter as sheexpelled 23 Russian diplomatsand suspended high-level bilat-eral contact.

Former Russian spy SergeiSkripal, 66, and his daughterYulia, 33, were found collapsedafter being poisoned last week.Both remain in a serious con-dition along with a police offi-cer who came in contact withthe same substance.

Russia denies beinginvolved in the attempted mur-der of the former spy and hisdaughter.

“The Russian state wasculpable of the attempted mur-der” of spy Sergei Skripal and

his daughter, May told lawmakers.

She said Britain will sus-pend high-level bilateral con-tact with Russia and revoke aninvitation to Russian ForeignMinister Sergei Lavrov to visitthe UK.

The Prime Ministerannounced that Britain willexpel 23 Russian diplomats,saying they have one week toleave the UK.

She identified those diplo-mats as “undeclared intelli-gence officers”, BBC reported.Moscow, which had been givenan ultimatum to provide a“credible response” over how aRussian-made nerve agentcame to be used on British soil,had warned of “an equal andopposite reaction” against anyUK reprisals.

The reprisals follow days ofdiplomacy since May firstinformed Parliament that therewas enough evidence to con-clude that it is “highly likely”that Russia is behind the poi-soning of Skripal and his daugh-

ter in Salisbury on March 4.“Russia’s record of con-

ducting state-sponsored assas-sinations; and our assessmentthat Russia views some defec-tors as legitimate targets forassassinations; the Governmenthas concluded that it is highlylikely that Russia was respon-sible for the act against Sergeiand Yulia Skripal,” she hadsaid. PTI

Brussels: The European Unionmoved on Wednesday to speedup the return of unauthorizedmigrants, announcing plans topunish countries that refuse totake back their nationals byrestricting visas for their diplomats.

While the number of peo-ple entering Europe in searchof better lives has droppeddramatically over the past year,EU countries only send backaround half of migrants deniedvisas, often because themigrants have lost or destroyedtheir ID documents and it’s dif-ficult to establish their nation-ality. Fake ID is also oftenused.

France, for example, isangered that Mali routinelyrefuses to take back people thatParis insists are from there.Formalizing a threat alreadymade to some African coun-tries by EU member states, theEU’s executive Commissionannounced that it has “a newmechanism to trigger stricterconditions for processing visaswhen a partner country doesnot cooperate sufficiently.”

The aim is to target deci-sion-makers by dragging outthe application time for diplo-

matic visas, hiking costs or cut-ting short their stays.

At the same time, theCommission said it plans tomake tourism visas moreattractive. It would allow forearlier applications, electronicvisas, and strictly limited staysof one week in one EU coun-try.

But the price of visasalready beyond the means ofmost Africans � would risefrom 60 to 80 euros ($74 to$99), leaving many heading toEurope in search of better liveswith little incentive to apply.

“With these changes, wewill keep Europe’s door openfor bone fide travelers butclosed for those who posesecurity risks,” said EUMigration CommissionerDimitris Avramopoulos.

Avramopoulos said hewould shortly travel to Niger,a transit hub for many migrantsbound for Europe via Libya, fortalks with regional leaders, andthat he would try to “convincethese countries to take backtheir nationals.”

“Readmission of ownnationals is an obligation underinternational law,” he said.

AP

United Nations: The UNreceived 138 allegations of sex-ual abuse last year and nearlyhalf of them were against thepersonnel deployed at itspeacekeeping and special polit-ical missions, a report saidtoday. The report compiled byUN Secretary-General AntonioGuterres on implementing azero-tolerance policy for thesecrimes, the number of suchallegations brought against thepersonnel serving with the UNdropped. PTI

Islamabad: Pakistan has sum-moned India’s Deputy HighCommissioner J P Singh overthe alleged harassment of offi-cials and families of thePakistan High Commission inNew Delhi and said such“despicable incidents” indicate“complicit unwillingness” ofthe Indian Government to pro-tect foreign diplomats.

Director General (South

Asia and SAARC) MohammadFaisal summoned Singh and “astrong protest was lodged at themaltreatment being meted outto the officials and families ofthe Pakistan HighCommission”, Pakistan ForeignOffice (FO) said in a statement.

Faisal said the safety andthe security of Pakistani diplo-mats is the responsibility of theIndian Government. PTI

San Diego: President DonaldTrump has eagerly inspectedeight towering prototypes forhis long-sought wall at theUS-Mexico border and accusedCalifornia of putting “the entirenation at risk” by refusing totake tough action against ille-gal immigration.

Trump, making his firsttrip to California as president,said he preferred a fully con-crete wall because it was thehardest to climb, but he notedthat it needed to be see-through. He said the first thinghe noticed on the drive to theborder was the patched-upholes in part of the existingfence.

“We have a lousy wall overhere now, but at least it stops 90,95 per cent,” Trump said.

“When we put up the realwall, we’re going to stop 99 percent. Maybe more than that.”

Trump’s visit was greetedwith peaceful protests bydemonstrators both for andagainst his planned wall.

AP

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ARussian man living in exilein the UK and a critic of

President Vladimir Putin hasbeen found dead in his Londonhome, prompting ScotlandYard to launch a probe into the“unexplained” death.

Nikolai Glushkov wasfound dead by his family andfriends late Monday night andthe cause of death is not yetdetermined.

The 68-year-old was a closefriend of late Russian oligarchBoris Beresovsky, an oppo-nent of Russian PresidentPutin.

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Helsinki: EU Council PresidentDonald Tusk on Wednesdaysaid Moscow was “most likely”behind the poisoning of aRussian former double agent onUK soil.

Tusk tweeted in Helsinkithat he expressed his “full soli-darity” with UK’s PrimeMinister Theresa May “in theface of the brutal attack inspired,most likely, by Moscow”.

Tusk was in Helsinki onWednesday to meet FinnishPrime Minister Juha Sipila forBrexit talks.

His comments came on thesame day as May was expectedto announce retaliatory mea-sures against Moscow over theMarch 4 attack against ex-spySergei Skripal and his daughterYulia in sleepy Salisbury, south-west England. PTI

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Berlin: Germany’s parliament elected AngelaMerkel for her fourth term as chancellor onWednesday, putting an end to nearly six monthsof political drift in Europe’s biggest economy.

Lawmakers voted 364-315 to re-electMerkel, Germany’s leader since 2005, who ranunopposed.

The coalition of Merkel’s conservativeChristian Democratic Union, its Bavaria-onlysister party, the Christian Social Union and thecenter-left Social Democrats has 399 of the 709seats in parliament.

Merkel will head a much-changed newCabinet, with the governing parties, which aretraditional rivals, keen to send signals of renew-al after a September election in which all lostsignificant ground.

There are new faces in the most important

posts, the finance, foreign, economy and inte-rior ministries.

The same parties have governed for the pastfour years but putting together the new adminis-tration has been unprecedentedly hard work. AP

Kathmandu: Nepal’s contro-versial Chief Justice GopalPrasad Parajuli was removed bythe Judicial Council onWednesday amid a raging dis-pute over his multiple birth cer-tificates.

Minutes before he waspreparing to administer oath toPresident Bidhya DeviBhandari, a day after she wasre-elected to the post, theCouncil sacked him sayingthat as per the available cer-tificates, he should have retiredfrom the post on August 5,2017.

He completed 65 years on

that day, and as per Nepali law,civil servants should take retire-ment after reaching 65 years,the Council said.

“We have informedParajuli that he no longerremains in the post of CJ as hecrossed the retirement age,” aletter signed by the JudicialCouncil Secretary stated.

After a series of exposés bythe Nepali media about hismultiple birth certificates andquestioning over his academ-ic qualifications, Parajuli was inthe limelight since long for allwrong reasons.

IANS

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Rex Tillerson, who was firedby President Donald Trump

as the US secretary of State, saidhe would ensure an orderly andsmooth transition by delegatinghis responsibilities to his deputybefore stepping down by theend of this month.

Tillerson, who was travel-ling to Africa, had to return inmidway citing “the demands ofwork and the need to be inWashington for in-personmeetings.”

For technical purposes,Tillerson said he would remainthe secretary of state till March31 and till then he would del-egate his responsibilities to theDeputy Secretary of State JohnSullivan.

The 65-year-old formerExxon Mobil chief executiveand the president had strainedrelations and the two had dif-ferences over a host of issuesincluding the US policy onNorth Korea, Russia and Iran.

Trump fired Tillerson onTuesday and replaced him withCIA Director Mike Pompeo.

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Kabul: Insurgents attacked asecurity checkpoint in westernAfghanistan early onWednesday, killing at least 10security forces, officials said.

No one immediatelyclaimed the attack, but a seriesof assaults by the Taliban inFarah province over the pastweek have killed at least 38security forces, while anotherfive were captured and severalwere wounded.

Abdul Samad Salehi, amember of the Farah provincialcouncil, said four of thosekilled in today’s attack werefrom the intelligence serviceand six were police.

“We have asked the centralgovernment for additionaltroops before Farah city fallsinto the hands of the Taliban,”Salehi said. AP

Beijing: Wang Yang will be thenew chairman of the NationalCommittee of the ChinesePeople’s Political ConsultativeConference (CPPCC), thecountry ‘s top political adviso-ry body.

Wang, who was one of thefour Vice Prime Ministers ofChina, succeeded YuZhengsheng as the head of thebody, which has nearly 2,200members from all walks of life.

IANS

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The youngest member of thefashion design council ofIndia, Samant Chauhan

unfurled the fashion week It’s aGlitch, the collection was created toexplore the play of monochromes.Inspired by painter Jonathan I wholost his ability to see colourSamant Chauhan’s collection wasan effort towards doing some-thing that hasn’t been exploredby any of the designer. The ideawas to look beyond the colour-ful rainbow deep into the blackhole. “The collection is a depar-ture from the quintessential us,”said Chauhan. He is proud tocall himself colourblind. Usinga background screen wherepixels moved with the rhythm of themusic and made the audience sit on theedge in anticipation. While the intensescore of the Swan Lake played in thebackground, a model sashayed inwearing a high neck gown made outof black net with glass and zariembroidery. The colours as well asthe embroidery paid homage toindividuals who are colourblind.Said the designer, “Colour blind-ness is not brain damge or a lim-iting condition. It is a lens of

resilience from which we coura-geously leave the comfort ofcolour.”

The gowns were flowy withsharp cuts and loose ends. Thebacks had intricate designs usingsheer, stripes and cuts in the cen-ter. The motifs used were floral innature. The accessories were bedaz-zled clutches which complimentedthe evening gowns. There was animpressive play with grey, black andwhite. The parted hair in the mid-dle with a looped ponytail gave asharp look to a rather intense col-lection. The most eccentric of thelot — a gown designed like thehabit of nuns paired with a jacket.

The arrival of menswear wasapplauded by the women in the front row. The heavybeard and the royal moustache added an elementof aristocracy to the collection. With geometricdesigns on beige jacket and an all black look, themens’ wear collection stood out in terms of mak-ing a more lasting impact. The clothes were pairedwith pointed shoes and duffel bags. The highlightof the event was when all the models walked outwearing black glass as a tribute to the colour blind.Another thing which made the show different wasthat it played out in the reverse format where thecouture creations walked out first followed by dif-fusion and then the pret line.

Beginning on asoulful note,

Anupama Dayal’scollection, Fida-e-Lucknow played withthe colourful tradi-tion of kite flying inLucknow. Inspiredby the crafts and thetehzeeb (culture) ofthe city, she tweakedher collection to themodern times. Thebackground scorehad remixes ofBollywood songsfrom the golden era.The designer said,“The light fabricscreated the effect ofgossamer and gave atransparent look tothe resort wear.”Decorative dagger,slender swords andsoaring kites domi-nated the clothes andare a symbol of com-munal harmony thatdefines Lucknow.Dayal is known forher use of vibrantcolours and this isthe first time thatshe has made a boldswitch to white,which dominatedthe palette. The sil-ver work on whitegave a resplendentlook to the gowns.Each model wore astrand of jasmineflowers in her hairwhich added a play-fulness to the look.The colours weremuted and rangedfrom lilac to yellowto red, peach andpink. The kite squarewas used on theshoes, as a pendantand as an earring.

Most of thegowns were mid-length and wereplastered with rosemotifs as well ascolourful kites anddagger prints whichgave a sl ightlyandrogynous look tothe clothes. Thecloth sling bags usedas accessories werein pop hued colours.

The key moment that held the attention of everyone in the audiencewas when Anupama herself walked the ramp in white. Wearing a crown,she resembled a Greek princess.

The show ended with Love In The Moment written on the screen. SaidDayal, “I tried to focus on the beautiful collarbones of Indian women byusing askewed and asymmetrical necklines. For my forthcoming events, Iwould use more white in my collection with a certain composition of colours.Also, ruffles which have fascinated me would be used in a subtle manner.”

From winning the Miss Universecrown to navigating her way in

Bollywood, coming up with a prena-tal yoga series and now debuting ontelevision, Lara Dutta Bhupathi hasenjoyed various roles in showbiz.

She says with increasing participa-tion of women behind the cameras,there’s a change visible in the enter-tainment industry.

“I think the whole scene is chang-ing because of more participation ofwomen, and so there are that muchbetter-written parts that women are

getting in films. I think the youngerlot — Alia Bhatt, Anushka Sharma,Deepika Padukone and Kangana

Ranaut — they are really lucky to bea part of Indian cinema at a time whenmore women filmmakers are tellingstories that deserve to be told.”

“This is only improving the imageof our women in Indian cinema,” saidLara.

Lara pointed out how since sheproduced the film Chalo Dilli, thenumber of female filmmakers has

increased.“They are coming up with the right

story and thankfully, studios are readyto invest money and taking femalefilmmakers seriously.”

“On the other hand, actresses likeKangana and Anushka are also pro-ducing their own films. I think that ishow we are getting more and moreempowered,” she added.

While some of the iconic filmmak-ers like Mira Nair and Aparna Senhave represented Indian cinema on theglobal platform in the past, in the lastfew years names like Zoya Akhtar,Alankrita Shrivastava, Gauri Shindeand Konkona Sen Sharma have gonebehind the camera for movies.

Actress Anushka has backed someoffbeat films like NH10, Phillauri andthe latest Pari under her home produc-tion, while Priyanka Chopra is produc-ing a slew of regional films. And whocan miss out Ekta Kapoor.

Though heroines tend to get type-cast in a mother’s role after a certainage, it is interesting how at 39, Lara

gets to play a strong professional likeher part as a lawyer in Azhar, and asan art gallery owner and curator inFitoor.

On this, she said, “I never made astrategy to choose a certain kind ofrole, but yes those are the kind of rolesI am offered. Maybe, filmmakersbelieve that I can bring somethingmore to such characters in a film.Honestly, I do not analyse them thatmuch.

“I think that is why I have done avariety of roles from a lawyer to a vil-lage woman and a mad character in acomedy film like Singh Is Bliing.”

Lara is making her debut onIndian television with a dance realityshow titled High Fever... Dance KaNaya Tevar.

On what sets the show apart, shenoted, “The fact is that in our coun-try, there are many relationships in thefamily that maintain a certain distanceall their life. Our society works thatway. And I think to an extent themainstream Indian television played it

to the gallery. Therefore, there hasalways been a certain distance betweena mother-in-law and daughter-in-law,or a relationship between brother-in-law and sister-in-law.”

Said Lara, “In our show, we arebreaking the stereotypical equation ofsuch relationships. Here, a brother-in-law is coming with his sister-in-lawand saying what a friendly bond theyshare, through their dancing.

“This will create a huge impactamong many people out there in theaudience to come out and celebratefamily bonds. This show will bring anew perspective to the traditional mindset of family relations,” empha-sised Lara.

According to her, that is the mostinteresting element about being a partof the show.

The show, also featuring AhmedKhan and Dana Alexa, an internationaldancer and choreographer as judge, isstarting from Saturday on TV.

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Delhi is known as the fashion capitalof the country with individ-

uals dressed in everything fromhoodies to ghagras to skinnyjeans, salwars, jutis and train-ers. So a trans-seasonal collec-tion inspired by streets ofDelhi was unveiled byAbraham and Thakore.

The idea was toobserve the everydaylife in all its simplici-ty and ref lect onwhat’s happening Thedesigner duo believesthat women whoreside in the city arepowerful and coura-geous.

Moving beyondblack and white, brightcolours were used todress the models. Fabricslike silk and cotton wereused to craft the clothes.The embroidery Calicoembroidery was extractedfrom the 18th and 19thcentury to create a pat-tern. With classic gabar-dine, the expected wascombined with the unex-pected in a search for acontemporary yet rooted

fashion voice. The jewellery was a fusion with a

few statement pieces. The designerswere of the opinion that real fashion livesin the street and should be from thestreets.

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The Central IndustrialSecurity Force (CISF) cele-

brated its 49th CISF Raising Dayrecently in a grand colourful cer-emonial manner at CISFCampus 5th Reserve Battalion,Indirapuram, Ghaziabad. Onthis occasion, Union HomeMinister Rajnath Singh wasthe Chief Guest, he took thesalute and reviewed the parade.

AK Pateria, OfficiatingDirector General, CISF wel-comed the Chief Guest and allthe dignitaries present on theoccasion. Addressing to thegathering, AK Pateria said thatit is a matter of great pride forthem that on this year’s Raisingday, they would enter into the50th year in securing the mostsensitive and critical infrastruc-ture of the country. This year isbeing celebrated as the GoldenJubilee year of the CISF. Theforce has more than 1,54,000personnel in its payroll and isproviding security to 341 instal-lations of national importancerelentlessly. CISF is the only

Central Armed Police Forcehaving its fire service and pro-viding fire protection to 101installations. He said that CISFpersonnel are performing theirduties with utmost devotionand dedication in the units sit-uated in all parts of the country.CISF Coffee Table book wasreleased by Union HomeMinister Rajnath Singh. He con-gratulated the ParadeCommander and all the person-

nel who took part in the paradefor the excellent performance.He said that the services ren-dered by CISF in the past 49years are commendable.

He said that economy ofthe country is growing rapidly.The Minister emphasised that

force should observe the year2018-19 as “the year of planning”to become more multidimen-sional and competent force tohandle the emerging challengelike “Cyber threat”. At Home cer-emony was organised at lawns ofCISF headquarters , on March8. VP M Venkaiah Naidu gracedthe occasion as the chief guest.A Commemorative postagestamp on CISF was released byM Venkaiah Naidu.

The Prime Minister will address farmers, inaugu-rate the Jaivik Kheti portal and lay the foundation

stone of 25 KVKs on March 17. Krishi Vigyan Kendras(KVKs), State Agriculture Universities (SAUs) andinstitutes of ICAR to call farmers to their premises andlive telecast PM’s speech. Krishi Karman Award andPandit Deen Dayal Upadhaya Krishi Vigyan ProtsahanPuruskar awards to be conferred by the Prime Minister.Display of agri and allied sector technologies, livedemo, theme pavilion et al. The three-day AnnualKrishi Unnati Mela is being organised between March16 and 18 at Mela ground, IARI, Pusa. It was initiat-ed in 1972. The objective of the mela is to create aware-ness about the latest agricultural technological devel-opments and receive feedback from the agriculturalcommunity, which helps in designing the Institute’sfuture research strategy. Lakhs of farmers are expect-ed to attend the mela. There will be more than 800stalls, live demonstrations on micro-irrigation, wastewater utilisation, animal husbandry et al. TheTheme Pavilions will also cover — Jaivik MahaKumbh on organic farming, Sahkar Samelan,Pavilion for inputs (seeds, fertilisers, pesticides sup-plying agencies) and stalls of Ministry of Textile,Ministry of Food Processing and Industry, Ministryof Commerce and North East Council have also beenset up.

The two days National Conference on‘Indian Social Work: Scope and

Challenges’ was inaugurated recently inBhim Rao Ambedkar College, Universityof Delhi by Chief Guest Mukul Kanitkar,National Organising Secretary, BharatiyaShikshan Mandal (BSM).

Inder Mohan Kaphy, Member,University Grants Commission (UGC);Manoj Kumar, Head, Department ofSocial Work, Mahatma GandhiAntarrstriya Hindi University, Wardha;G K Arora, Principal, BR AmbedkarCollege and delegates from across thecountry were present on this occasion.

Delivering the “Key Note Address”for the conference, Mukul Kanitkarsaid, “The Indian concept of socialwork is not profession in the sense oflivelihood but a service to the society. It’sintegrated, holistic and scientificapproach towards social change andsocial development aimed at welfare ofall the living beings including the nature.”He also emphasised that the westernworld is today looking at India as thewestern theories of social change anddevelopment have incurred huge socialcost in western countries.

Their overreliance on the publicfunding of social security measureshave become a financial burden for thegovernment and even the richest ofthem — United States of America

(USA) is facing economic challengesdue to increased spending on socialsecurity. The family system in Indiais the basic institution which takescare of several aspects of social secu-rity for which western thinkers ortheir Indian counterparts looktowards the government machineryand public funding. Inder MohanKaphy said that in the post Nehurvianage, the intellectual vacuum wasoccupied by the academicians advo-cating western model of social workwhich is continuing till date butneeds to be changed.He praised theeffort and said such more efforts arerequired for Indinisation of socialwork in India.

GK Arora said that India has a tra-dition of social work but unfortunatelythis traditional knowledge could not beinducted in the academic discipline of thesocial work. The academicians of socialwork from across the country and over50 research paper presenters are partic-ipating in the conference which wouldconclude on March 15.

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Hawa Badlo is a movementagainst air pollution which

is supported by GAIL (India)Ltd. Its objective is to createawareness about the conse-quences of environmental con-tamination caused by humanactivities. It motivates themasses to inculcate friendlyhabits such as switching tocleaner fuels like CNG/NaturalGas, carpooling, and use ofpublic transports.

Along with the support ofGAIL and its startup partnerPerSapien Innovations, HawaBadlo has taken an initiative togift ‘Airlens’, smart nasal filterthat entraps air pollutants toempower everybody with purebreath. They were distributedto traffic policemen in Delhiand NCR to combat AirPollution.

More than 60,000 quanti-ty of ‘Airlens’ available in3000 packs werehanded over toDelhi traffic policemen to helpthem combat air pollutioncomfortably without causingany hindrance in speaking,whistling while performingtheir duty unlike a traditionalair pollution mask. AirPollution is a silent killer claim-ing one life every 23rd secondin India. Recently, the situationin Delhi was rightly called amajor public health emergencyby the experts. The city’s traf-fic police faces with the task ofmanaging over 1 crore vehicleseveryday, facing the brunt ofrising air pollution.

Pained by the growing airpollution, researchers fromStanford University, AIIMSand IIT founded “PersapienInnovations” with a mission tocare for each (Per) Human(Sapien). The team hasresearched for two years todevelop a new technology“Active Molecular Technology”that filters PM 2.5 and otherpollutants while causing min-imal resistance to breathe. Also,based on this research, theydeveloped “Airlens” which waslaunched by Padma Shri ProfRandeep Guleria, Director,AIIMS and other eminent per-sonalities recently. They havealso developed a unique digi-tal technology to get the airquality information at everylocation using advanced math-ematical models like satellite,traffic and weather data. Usingthis, Air Quality Data andprogress tracking are providedthrough a free App“Airlens Data”.

���'.������(������� ��(�"������ �������)(�����/�������� �����)����������� ��.��� ��(�7�������2�)���������������("����������� �����������

India has achieved substantial growth inits electricity generation capacity overthe last decade, much of it through the

addition of coal-based generation capaci-ties. This trend is now being dramaticallychanged with the Government’s thrust topromote renewable-based power generationto the level of 175 GW and even more. Notonly would this be good for the country’senergy security, it would also help Indiameet its climate commitments and PrimeMinister Modi’s vision of zero environmen-tal effect in meeting India’s ambitiousdevelopment goals.

We are a tropical nation with generoussunshine through the year, India haspitched its renewables programme main-ly on Solar power. Revision of the targetsin 2014 under National Solar Mission(NSM) from the previous level of 20 GWto 100 GW was the first big step. India’s lead-ership of the International Solar Alliance(ISA) is another one. As a platform for overa hundred solar rich countries betweenTropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn,the ISA headquartered in India would adda further thrust to the renewables.

The Government’s determination tomake sure that electricity reaches to allunconnected areas by March 2019 wouldadd a new aspect to the power sector land-scape, including generation, transmission,and distribution. Providing power at afford-able rates and with minimum impact to theenvironment is also a marked priority forthe Government. The Electric Vehiclesagenda of the Government would add tothe need for clean and green electricity inincreasing quantities.

The past one year has been particular-ly memorable for renewable energy asextremely low solar tariffs ( �2.44 per kWhachieved in May 2017) and wind tariffs(�2.44 per kWh achieved in February 2018)were discovered. For the first time in his-tory, more solar PV capacity was set up in2017 than any other form of power gener-ation. While solar tariff levels may havethereafter increased slightly, they haveestablished a benchmark that offers directcompetition to conventional forms ofpower. It is only the intermittency factor thatholds it back from challenging the baseloadstatus of coal-based power.

The output gaps of Solar PV caused bythe non-availability of 24X7 sunlight wouldget filled by conventional power, especial-ly coal-based capacity, for quite some timeto come. This would be supplemented bya stronger transmission backbone, at leastuntil bulk electricity storage becomes com-

mercially competitive. Solar PV is moreenvironment-friendly than other forms ofpower generation but there are problemsthat need attention. One big concernaround this massive production of solarenergy is about what will happen to de-commissioned solar panels at their end-of-life. While the production of solar energyis green, is there a well thought through andenvironment-friendly plan for end-of-lifetreatment of Solar PV panels and associ-ated equipment?

��������# ������It is evident that the Government and

its key agencies are aware of the largeamount of waste that would be generatedby decommissioned Solar PV panels infuture. The Solar Energy Corporation ofIndia (SECI) and NTPC have incorporat-ed clauses on waste handling in their con-tract conditions. But, there are some gapsthat need to be plugged quickly.

Solar PV tenders issued by NTPC andSECI place the end-of-life responsibility onthe Solar Power Developers ‘as prescribedunder the E-Waste Management Rules’. Butthese Rules don’t cover solar PV panelsunder their ambit and actually cover elec-tronic waste from various other manufac-turing processes and equipments. While itappears that there have been discussionswithin the Government around the neces-sity to include solar panels in the ambit ofthese Rules, nothing till date has materi-alised. This reason could be the warrant-ed life of currently sold PV panels is around25 years and hence the repercussions ofwaste from used PV modules are not glar-ing presently. But on the one side, panelssold a few years ago had much lower lifeand on the other, there is the possibility ofearly failure on any panel which can hap-pen due to many reasons like glass break-age, installation failures and backsheet relat-ed failures, like delamination and degrada-tion.

��%������������#�������������As the solar industry grows, so will the

amount of PV waste generated fromdecommissioned PV panels. As per thereport published by International

Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA),cumulative PV waste generated in India wasbetween 1000-2500 metric tonne in 2016which will probably rise to 50,000-320,000metric tonne by 2030, and further culmi-nating in 4.4-7.5 million metric tonne by2050 as a result of the NSM. Thus it’s imper-

ative to manage the disposal of PV wastethat is generated at the end-of-life of thesePV solar modules.

��������� ���������The European Union is the only region

that has formulated guidelines aroundwaste generated from solar panels. TheWEEE (Waste of Electric and ElectronicEquipment) Directive places the onus onthe manufacturer to responsibly collect backthe solar modules and dispose it. As per theregulations, ‘the collection, transport andtreatment (recycling) of PV panels are reg-ulated in every single EU country includ-ing setting minimum collection and recov-ery targets’. Japan, as recently as December2017 acknowledged the repercussions thatthe decommissioned solar panels couldcause. The Japan Photovoltaic EnergyAssociation (JPEA) voluntarily issuedguidelines, which are not enforceable yetstrongly recommended to the industry, on‘proper disposal’ of used solar modules.

������# ��'������The first step could be to include solar

PV panels in the existing e-waste manage-ment Rules so as to regulate its recycling.India is identified as one of the top fivecountries that will generate large volumesof end-of-life PV panels by the IRENAreport, alongside China, USA, Japan andGermany and thus it’s a pressing issue.

The three basic principles of wastemanagement are — reduce, reuse and recy-cle. With the ambitious target set for solarenergy, ‘reduce’ is a limited option linkedto efficiency improvements that wouldbring down the number of panels per MWof output. Also, solar is expected to play anincreasingly crucial role in reducing India’sdependence on fossil fuels. So, we shouldfocus on — reuse and recycle.

Another concern about solar panels isabout the materials used in the solar pan-els which make recycling a challenge. A

2017 study by a US-based research and pol-icy organisation in the field of clean ener-gy warns that toxic waste from used solarpanels now poses a global environmentalthreat due to the use of heavy metals,including lead, chromium, and cadmium.Looking at the amount of predicted PVwaste, it’s time that India builds and ade-quately regulates the PV recycling indus-try as not all the components of solar pan-els are made of biodegradable materials.

For solar power to be truly green, theproducers/manufacturers must use green-er and environmentally sustainable ele-ments. These would call for better specifi-cations on the one hand and the removalof restrictive aspects that may prevent bet-ter and cleaner components from replac-ing traditional ones. NTPC and SECIhave taken a significantly positive steptowards making PV cleaner in India byopening up the technical requirement of PVbacksheets allowing equally performing butmore sustainable backsheets to be used inthe solar PV panels. This makes it a levelplaying field in the solar sector for all theindustrial players in striving to attain whatis best for India — environmentally, eco-nomically as well as technologically.

As the Prime Minister said very recent-ly in his address at the World SustainabilitySummit in Delhi, it’s crucial that Indiaensures that sustainability is an essentialaspect of all its endeavours in achieving eco-nomic progress. He reiterated his call forzero environmental effect of technologydeployment. This calls for a close look atthe use of the right materials, efficient designand operations and robust recycling pro-grammes. Comprehensive regulationsaround the handling of solar e-waste gen-eration would form part of this endeavor.As India moves forward in its determina-tion to make ‘power for all’ a reality, it muststrive to keep the sources of power gener-ation as clean as possible through the choiceof appropriate technologies, whether thesebe in the use of renewable sources of ener-gy or even in the cleaner use of convention-al sources. While the government has takena great step towards green energy, it shouldnot get shortsighted. Even though the prob-lems owing to heaps of decommissionedpanels may aggravate only 5-10 years fromnow, it would be prudent to address theproblem in its early stages rather than whenwe are already in the middle of it. The timefor action is now!

(The authors, Mohan Menon is aSenior Advisor and Kanan Dubal is aConsultant at Chase India)

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Page 15: 2 ./3˛ .0 4 ˚˝#!˛ $˛$˚! $˛%& ’(˛)*˛˜ ˜% + In Phulpur, Nagendra ... Subramanian Swamy who sought enforcement of his right to worship at Lord Ram’s birth-place. The question

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Frustrated and feeling increas-ingly uneasy, Manchester Unitedfans unleashed a loud cry of

"attack, attack, attack" with their team'sChampions League fate hanging in thebalance against Sevilla.

It was the Spanish side whoanswered the call.

Within eight minutes, Sevilla hadscored two goals and were heading intothe quarterfinals of Europe's top com-petition for the first time in 60 years.

In the biggest surprise of the last16, Sevilla eliminated United by win-ning the second leg 2-1 at Old Traffordon Tuesday, thanks to two goals in thespace of four minutes by substituteWissam Ben Yedder. In the night'sother match, Roma advanced afterEdin Dzeko scored early in the secondhalf to secure a 1-0 home win overShakhtar Donetsk, overturning a 2-1first-leg defeat to advance on awaygoals.

It was a historic night for Sevillaand an embarrassing one for United,who managed only four shots on tar-get in 180 minutes against one of theweakest defences left in the competi-tion.

"I don't want to make a drama outof it," United manager Jose Mourinhosaid, struggling for an explanation forhis team's feeble performance. "That'sfootball. It's not the end of the world."

United were lucky to escape fromthe first leg with a 0-0 draw and italways felt like a dangerous score linefor United.

The longer it went scoreless, themore nervy it got inside Old Trafford.The "attack, attack, attack" chant —made famous during the glory yearsunder Alex Ferguson — came after 70minutes, and Sevilla's response was tothrow on Ben Yedder two minuteslater.

The French striker, a former inter-national futsal player, gave the visitorsa cutting edge the man he replaced —

Luis Muriel — didn't offer. Anothertwo minutes later, he ran onto PabloSarabia's precise through-ball, gothalf a meter on marker Eric Bailly anddrove a low shot inside the post.

De Gea had no chance with thatgoal, but could have done more aboutthe second. A Sevilla corner wasflicked onto the back post where BenYedder stooped to send in a headerthat De Gea tried to palm over the bar

but only succeeded in diverting it intohis own net.

Ben Yedder moved onto eightgoals in this season's competitionand he missed a chance for a hat trickas United's defense fell apart in the lat-ter stages. Only Real Madrid'sCristiano Ronaldo — with 12 goals —has more.

Romelu Lukaku pulled one backfor United from close range in the 84th

but a late rally couldn't prevent Unitedslipping out of the competition inmeek fashion.

"I sat in this chair twice in theChampions League," Mourinho toldreporters after the match. "I knock outManchester United at home at OldTrafford. I sit in this chair with Porto(in 2004), Man United out. I sit in thischair with Real Madrid, Man Unitedout. I don't think it's something newfor the club."

But unlike in those victories,Mourinho might have got his tacticswrong this time.

By starting MarouaneFellaini for the first time sinceNovember 22, United managerJose Mourinho ceded some ofthe midfield control thatwas a standout feature ofhis team's 2-1 win overLiverpool in the PremierLeague on Saturday.

There was space in front ofUnited's back four, with holding mid-fielder Nemanja Matic isolated asFellaini roamed, and a team withmore incisiveness than Sevilla wouldhave capitalized earlier than they did.

As it was, Sevilla couldn't find thetarget with a slew of efforts from dis-tance in the first half but, with StevenNzonzi and Ever Banega controllingthe midfield, United were not findingit easy.

After halftime, United lookedmore threatening — Jesse Lingard's lowshot brought a good save from goal-keeper Sergio Rico — but was thank-ful for a last-gasp tackle by Bailly todeny Joaquin Correa just as the Sevillaforward was about to shoot.

Mourinho chose to bring PaulPogba on for Fellaini on the hour markto bring some variety to the team'sattacking moves. But it was the intro-duction of Ben Yedder that had the big-ger impact.

���'���������.$�65&1� Roma overcame a poor first-

half performance to beat ShakhtarDonetsk 1-0 on Tuesday and reachthe quarterfinals of the ChampionsLeague on the away goals rule after a2-2 aggregate score.

Edin Dzeko scored the only goalof the match early in the second halfas Roma became the second Italian sideto progress to the final eight afterJuventus beat Tottenham last week.

Shakhtar led 2-1 from the first legand would have advanced with adraw, but its hopes of an equalizerdiminished 11 minutes from timewhen defender Ivan Ordets was sent off

for hauling down Dzeko.It is the first time in 11 years

that two Italian teams are in thequarterfinals, with the draw taking

place Friday."Going through and being

among the strongest teams hasto be a source of great pride,"

Dzeko said. "I don't have a preferredopponent: they are all strong teams, butwe will play to win against anyone. Weare among the eight strongest teams inEurope, it means we are strong too."

Roma hadn't conceded in theirthree Champions League matches atthe home this season but nearly net-ted an own goal when Florenzi tried tohead clear a free kick but sent the ballflashing across the face of goal.

Shakhtar dominated possessionearly and Taison almost scored but hiseffort flew narrowly over the crossbar.

But Roma broke the deadlockseven minutes after the break as Dzekolatched on to Kevin Strootman's ballover the top and slotted it into the bot-tom right corner.

That gave Roma confidence andthey almost doubled their lead 10 min-utes later but Dzeko fired narrowlywide.

"What I liked best is that weplayed like men and that's the mostimportant thing if we want to aspire tocertain goals and dreams," said Romacoach Eusebio Di Francesco, in his firstever Champions League campaign.

����� 0�6&���3�&

SStar shuttlers P V Sindhu andKidambi Srikanth prevailed

in tough first-round battles butSaina Nehwal exited from theprestigious All EnglandChampionship after suffering astraight-game defeat againstWorld No 1 and defendingchampion Tai Tzu-Ying, here onWednesday.

World No 3 Srikanth recov-ered from a lop-sided openinggame to struggle past France'sBrice Leverdez, ranked 23, 7-21,21-14, 22-20, while Olympicand world championship silvermedallist Sindhu staved off astiff challenge from Thailand'sPornpawee Chochuwong toprevail 20-22, 21-17, 21-9 in a56-minute contest.

Srikanth will square offagainst either China's HuangYuxiang or England's RajivOuseph, while Sindhu facesthe winner of the matchbetween USA's Beiwen Zhangand Thailand's NitchaonJindapol.

Singapore Open championB Sai Praneeth squandered anopening game advantage to godown 21-13, 15-21, 11-21 tofifth seed Korean Son Wan Ho.

Srikanth was no match forLeverdez in the first game as hefailed to execute his strokesproperly with most going wideand long. After a pep talk withcoach Pullela Gopichand,Srikanth came back strongly inthe second game.

He looked more aggressiveand his approach earned himdividends as he forced thematch into decider after win-ning 21-14.

In the third game, Srikanthwas comfortably placed at 11-6 but Leverdez made fantasticrecovery to make it 12-12. Theduo fought hard and movedneck and neck till 18-18.Leverdez then won a long rally

to grab a 19-18 advantage butSrikanth drew parity.

The Frenchman held amatch point but the Indianonce again levelled par andgrabbed a match point, beforemanaging to convert it.

Sindhu, on the other hand,blew a 11-4 advantage in theopening game as Pornpaweefought back to catch up with theIndian at 14-14. She went to the20-18 game point advantagebefore Sindhu clawed back butin the end it was the Thai shut-tle who pocketed the game.

Jolted by the reversal,Sindhu surged to a 14-6 and 15-7 lead in the next two gamesand didn't lose control despitesome spirited fight byPornpawee.

Saina, who had reachedthe finals in the 2015 edition,couldn't match up to the preci-sion and athleticism of Tai Tzuand went down 14-21, 18-21. Itwas Saina's eighth successiveloss to the Taiwanese wizard infive years.

Among others, AshwiniPonnappa and N Sikki Reddylost 14-21, 13-21 to secondseeded Japanese combo ofMisaki Matsutomo and AyakaTakahashi, while JakkampudiMeghana and Poorvisha S Ramwent down 14-21, 11-21 tofifth seeded Japanese combo ofShiho Tanaka and KoharuYonemoto 21-14, 21-11 inwomen's doubles.

��� ��������122'

Juan Martin Del Potro con-tinued his dominance over

David Ferrer to book a spot inthe Indian Wells fourth roundas second seed Marin Cilicsuffered a shock loss.

World No 8 Del Potroextended his win streak overthe Spaniard to five straightmatches, winning 6-4, 7-6(7/3) at the ATP Tour hard-court tournament hereTuesday.

The 29-year-old Del Potroimproved to 7-6 overallagainst Ferrer and his five

consecutive victories dateback to the 2013 Wimbledonquarter-finals.

"We always play toughmatches. I got lucky," said DelPotro. "I played really well inthe tiebreak and served well inthe important moments." Del Potro will next face fellowArgentinian Leonardo Mayer,who defeated Japanese quali-fier Taro Daniel 6-4, 6-1.

Del Potro is playing someof his best tennis in years ashe improved to 13-3 on theseason. In January he returnedthe top 10 for the first timesince 2014.

� ���D�(��#�������JB��World No 1 Simona Halep

and Venus Williams punchedtheir tickets to the IndianWells quarter-finals, whileCaroline Wozniacki sufferedanother exit at the hands ofRussia's rising star DariaKasatkina.

Halep breezed through herfourth round match with a 7-5, 6-1 win over China's WangQiang and eighth seed VenusWilliams faced a stern testfrom Anastasija Sevastova butheld on for a 7-6 (8/6), 6-4 vic-tory.

The 20-year-old Kasatkina,

who has beaten all four reign-ing Grand Slam champions inthe past year, continued hergiant-killing form with a 6-4,7-5 shock victory over worldNo. 2 Wozniacki.

Kasatkina recorded hersecond straight win overWozniacki, having also beatenthe Australian Open champ atthe St. Petersburg tournamentlast month.

"I'm playing my bestmatches against the best play-ers," she said. "But if you wantto be on the top, you have tobeat the top players. So quitea simple rule."

����� 01���2.6.

Indian hockey team's analytical coachChris Ciriello on Wednesday said

apart from improving dragflicking abil-ities, his task is also to inculcate win-ning habit among players.

"This is a very good opportunity. Iknow India and understand its culture.I think we will get to taste lot of wins,but want to make sure these guys havean understanding of winning. This isone of my main focus area as analyti-cal coach," he said.

Team India captain Manpreet Singhalso lauded Ciriello's induction as ana-lytical coach. "I am excited about Chris.He is a typical Aussie, who puts lot ofweight behind winning.

"I know him from past few months.I am amazed about his enthusiasm toinculcate the habit of winning amongplayers. Most of the players are already

learning finer aspects of winning, andI am no exception," he added.

Ciriello had shot into limelight withhis superb hat-tricks in The HagueWorld Cup and GlasgowCommonwealth Games finals in 2014.

He had also bagged two ChampionsTrophy gold medals in 2010 and 2012and World Cup crown in 2014. He wasalso a part of Australia's bronze medalwinning side in 2012 London Olympics.

Apart from providing inputs to

head coach Sjoerd Marijne, Ciriello willwork with Indian dragflickers ahead ofthe big-ticket events.

"Dragflicking is not only aboutflicking. There is much to it. 33 per centis all about executing a good push.Another 33 per cent is about perfecttrapping and 34 per cent is aboutflicking. So, I am working on impart-ing these three skills to dragflickers," hesaid.

"You don't get goals, if one of theseskills goes awry," he said.

Replying to a query on P RSreejesh's comeback, Ciriello said thegoalkeeper brings in good culture andcalmness, besides he also is very expres-sive in his thoughts.

"Sreejesh also is one among the coreplayers who has played over 100 gamesand many youngsters bank on hisexperience and assistance to improvetheir game," he said.

���� 25��5�

British police said onWednesday that they were

probing a spitting incident involv-ing TV football pundit JamieCarragher as broadcaster SkySports suspended the formerLiverpool and England defend-er for the rest of the season.

Carragher was filmed lean-ing out of the driver's window ofhis Range Rover before spittingat a car containing a ManchesterUnited fan, hitting the driver's 14-year-old daughter in the face aftersome goading followingLiverpool's 2-1 defeat at OldTrafford on Saturday.

Sky Sports on Wednesdaysuspended Carragher from hisjob as TV pundit until the end ofthe season, a role reportedlyworth £1 million ($1.4 million)a year.

"Jamie has taken full respon-sibility for what has happenedand we will ensure he gets thehelp he needs to guarantee some-thing like this never happensagain," said a Sky Sports state-ment.

A spokeswoman for GreaterManchester Police said: "A policeinvestigation has been launchedand the owner of the footage hasbeen spoken to. Attempts are

being made to speak to all par-ties involved."

Sky, which holds the bulk ofBritish television rights toPremier League matches, hintedthat Carragher could return toTV screens next season.

"Before the start of the nextseason we will sit down withJamie to discuss whether he isready to return to his role," thestatement said.

Carragher, 40, apologised tothe family and described hisbehaviour as a "moment of mad-ness", although he said he had notseen the girl in the front of the car.

"I have already said I takeresponsibility for what happened.It was a moment of madness andI'm going to speak to the relevantpeople to ensure something likethis never happens again. Againapologies all round," Carragherposted on Twitter today.

Carragher has also beenbacked by high-profile col-leagues, including formerManchester United captainGary Neville, who has formeda highly regarded punditryteam with Carragher at Sky.

"He's massively passion-ate about football and he'soverstepped the mark andshouldn't have reacted," Nevilletweeted.

����� ��������122'

Yuki Bhambri's stu-pendous run at the

Indian Wells Masterscame to an end followinghis defeat to Americanworld number 21 SamQuerrey in the thirdround, here.

The Indian qualifier,ranked 110, pushed hisopponent before bowingout with a 7-6(4), 4-6, 4-6 loss, which came afteran intense battle lastingtwo hours and 20 min-utes.

The 25-year-oldIndian saved 11 of the 15breakpoints in the gru-elling match.

The 45 points heearned by making thethird round and 16 fromthe qualifying event, arelikely to push Bhambriback to top-100 whenthe new rankings areissued on Monday.

It has been a greattournament for Bhambri,who knocked out playersof the calibre of two-timedoubles Grand Slamwinner Nicolas Mahutand world number 12Lucas Pouille en routethe third round.

Bhambri said play-ing Frenchman Pouilleand Querrey was verydifferent.

"They were com-pletely different oppo-nent. Sam has biggerserve and relies a lot on it.That was the differencetoday. He bailed himselfout on a lot of points.Losing serve early in thethird set was tough as Iwas playing catching upafter that and more diffi-cult against a big server,"Bhambri said onWednesday.

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Ace striker Rani Rampal willcaptain an 18-strong Indian

women's team, while experi-enced goalkeeper Savita willshoulder the duties of vice-cap-tain at next month'sCommonwealth Games in GoldCoast, Hockey India said onWednesday.

The Indian team has beengrouped in Pool A along withMalaysia, Wales, England andSouth Africa at the multi-sportevent scheduled to begin onApril 4. India will begin theircampaign on April 5 againstWales.

27-year-old Savita, who ismaking a return to the team afterhaving been rested for the recent-ly concluded tour of SouthKorea, will be accompanied byRajani Etimarpu in goal.

The defence unit is packed

with experience and grit asDeepika, Sunita Lakra, DeepGrace Ekka, Gurjit Kaur andSushila Chanu Pukhrambamwill look to keep out the oppo-sition's attacks.

Monika, Namita Toppo,Nikki Pradhan, Neha Goyal andLilima Minz will form the mid-field while Rani, VandanaKatariya, Lalremsiami, NavjotKaur, Navneet Kaur and PoonamRani, who returned to the squadduring South Korea tour, willform India's attack.

The Indian team is current-ly ranked No. 10 in the world andwill face stiff competition fromhigher ranked teams such asWorld No. 2 England, World No.4 New Zealand and World No.5 hosts Australia.

However, Chief CoachHarendra Singh is confidentthat the determined team cancause huge upsets on the back of

winning the five-match series inSouth Korea.

"We have played with thesame set of players for a longperiod so the players haveformed a great understandingamong themselves which wasevident during our 2017 AsiaCup triumph," he said.

"The team also performedwell in South Korea to beat ahigher-ranked side and we willbe looking to cause a few upsetsand aim for the podium as themorale is high going into theprestigious Gold Coast 2018XXI Commonwealth Games."

The Coach also welcomed

the inclusion of the experiencedgoalkeeper Savita, who is cur-rently in Oman undergoing aGoalkeeping coaching course.

The Junior Men's WorldCup-winning coach said, "Savitais an integral part of the teamand brings a lot of experience ingoal for us. She has played over200 matches for her country andhas performed in crucial match-es of big tournaments. Therefore,it is good to have her back in theteam as she helps the defensiveand offensive players as well byimparting her expertise."

The Indian Women'sHockey team had won the goldmedal at the 2002Commonwealth Games inEngland after defeating the hosts3-2 after extra-time in the finalmatch, and bagged the silvermedal in the subsequent 2006Commonwealth Games inAustralia.

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Skipper Rohit Sharma roared back to formwith a blazing 89 as India scored a com-petitive 176 for three against Bangladesh in

the final league encounter of the Nidahas T20Tri-Series here on Wednesday.

After a prolonged bad patch starting fromthe tour of South Africa, the stand-in captainwas in his element, starting cautiously before fin-ishing with a flourish as he hit five fours and anequal number of sixes off only 61 balls.

With another senior pro Suresh Raina (47off 30 balls) for company, Rohit added 102 runsfor the second wicket in only 9.2 overs.

The two veterans of numerous IPL battles,shifted gears in the four overs between 16 to 19,in which India scored 55 runs. The final overwas a bit of an anti-climax with Bangladesh's bestbowler Rubel Hossain (2/27 in 4 overs) keep-ing things tight and giving away only four runs.

The turning point was the 18th over bowledby left-arm military medium bowler Abu HiderRony (0/43 in 4 overs), which fetched India 21runs.

Rony was hit for three sixes, two by Rohitand one by Raina, which suddenly propped upIndia's score that was looking below par at onestage.

Of the sixes hit by the Indian skipper, thestandout was a slog sweep off MustafizurRahaman. He also punished the slower bowlers,off-spinner Mehidy Hasan Miraz and left-armspinner Nazmul Islam hitting them for a sixeach.

When Mustafizur (0/38 in 4 overs), whiletrying for the slower one, ended up bowling fulltosses, Rohit opened the bat face to fetch bound-aries in the arc between point and third man.

While Rohit upped the ante in the end,Raina once again played a significant role, hit-ting five boundaries and two sixes.

He started with a couple of boundaries offMiraz, his signature slog sweep towards the deepmid-wicket region followed by a lofted shot overlong-off. He also hit Mahmudullah over mid-wicket for a boundary while an attempted inside-out lofted shot was edged towards third-man fora boundary.

Raina missed out on a half-century as anoth-er attempted flick over deep mid-wicket offRubel was taken by Soumya Sarkar.

India had their best start of the tournamentwith Shikhar Dhawan (35 off 27 balls) and Rohitadding 70 in 9.5 overs.

Dhawan hit Mustafizur for a six over longon, picking a slower delivery earlier thanexpected.

Dhawan was bowled by a yorker from Rubel,which uprooted the middle stump.

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Domestic doyen Wasim Jaffer showed his mas-tery with a 53rd first-class hundred in

Vidarbha's 289 for two against Rest of India onthe opening day of the Irani Cup, which witnessedan out-of-sorts Ravichandran Ashwin trying hishand at bowling leg breaks.

The Ranji Trophy champions were hardlybothered by the Rest of India bowlers on a placidJamtha track as the 40-year-old Jaffer remainedunbeaten on 113 off 166 balls with 16 boundariesand a six to his credit. He was as regal in hisstrokeplay as he has always been, becoming thehighest ever run-getter in the history of Irani Cup.

Jaffer, who was appearing in his 242nd first-class matches, has now played 12 Irani Cup games(mostly for Mumbai, a few for Rest of India andnow for Vidarbha) with over 1000 runs.

Ashwin's figures of 25-1-66-1 won't tell thestory about him being largely ineffective primarilydue to lack of assistance from the track.

In between, Ashwin tried bowling leg-breaks, but Jaffer and Vidarbha skipper Faiz Fazal(89, 190 balls) negotiated him without much dif-ficulty.

The successful opening pair of Fazal andRamaswamy once again showed why they hadmade such a big impact in Vidarbha's Ranji tri-umph, adding 101 runs for the opening stand.

Fazal was more dogged in his approach,something that got him 900 runs in the Ranji sea-son.

Once Jaffer came in, he showed why hebelonged to a different league.

70 off his 113 came in boundaries and heshowed time and again as to why he will forev-er remain one of India's finest first-class batsmen.

His sixth consecutive half-century in IraniCup came when he cover drove Ashwin, and athickish edge over slips off Jayant got him to hiscentury.

In the process, he added 118 runs with Fazalfor the second wicket and another 72 for theunbroken third wicket with Ganesh Sathish (29batting).

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The Committee of Administrators (CoA)chairman Vinod Rai has instructed BCCI's

Anti-Corruption chief Neeraj Kumar toprobe alleged corruption allegations againstMohammad Shami, surfaced during a report-ed telephonic conversation between the fastbowler and his wife Hasin Jahan.

Jahan has also filed a police complaintagainst the pacer alleging infidelity anddomestic violence, resulting in BCCI with-holding Shami's central contract.

The CoA chief asked Kumar to submit areport within a week. It is to be noted that theletter nowhere mentions the word "match fix-ing".

"This has reference to the various mediareports pertaining to allegations againstMohammad Shami. The Committee ofAdministrators has listened to the audiorecording of a telephonic conversation whichit is claimed is between Md. Shami and hiswife. The said audio recording is available inpublic domain," Rai wrote in the letter.

Jahan has alleged that Shami "took moneyfrom a Pakistani woman named Alishba onthe insistence of an England-based business-man Mohammad Bhai".

"The Committee of Administrators is con-cerned only with such portion of the saidaudio recording in which the person who itis claimed is Md Shami is heard saying anoth-er person by the name of "Mohammad Bhai"had sent money to Md. Shami through aPakistani lady by the name of 'Alisba'."

"Please investigate the above assertions/allegations under the BCCI Anti-CorruptionCode and submit a report to the Committeeof Administrators with your findings as towhether there is any basis to proceed furtherin terms thereof."

Rai wrote that the terms of investigationshould cover (i) "the identity and antecedentsof "Mohammad Bhai" and "Alisba"; (ii)whether any money was in fact sent by the saidMohammad Bhai through the said Alisba toMd. Shami; and (iii) if yes, the purpose forwhich the said money was received byMohammad Shami."

The investigation will be only about thecorruption allegations, Rai asserted.

"The Committee of Administrators wish-es to emphasize that the investigation be lim-ited to the above issues only and not deal withany of the other allegations againstMohammad Shami unless you find that thesame fall within the purview of the BCCIAnti-Corruption Code," he added.

Last week, Jahan on her facebook pagealleged that Shami was cheating on her andthat she was a victim of domestic violence.Shami, though has denied all the allegations,saying it was a conspiracy to defame him andruin his career.

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