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N irav Modi, the main accused in the $2 billion PNB scam case, has been arrested in London where a court on Wednesday remand- ed the fugitive diamantaire in custody till March 29, saying there are “substantial grounds” to believe that he would fail to surrender if granted bail. “Nirav Deepak Modi, 48, was arrested on behalf of the Indian Authorities on Tuesday in Holborn,” the Metropolitan Police said in a statement. Meanwhile, India on Thursday welcomed the arrest of Nirav, and said it was engaged with the UK for his extradition at the earliest. “Government of India contin- ues to actively follow up this matter with the authorities concerned in the UK, with a view to have Nirav Modi extra- dited to India at the earliest," said Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar. Nirav’s arrest came days after a London court issued an arrest warrant against him in response to a request by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for his extradition in a money laundering case. Nirav was produced before the Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday, where he contested his extradition to India. District Judge Marie Mallon, presiding over the hearing, said that she was not inclined to accept Nirav’s bail plea due the “high value amount” attached to the alle- gations against him and that he would have “every incentive” to evade surrendering before the court. There are substantial grounds to believe that you would fail to surrender before the court if bail were to be granted,” the judge noted. Nirav, dressed in a plain white shirt and trousers, appeared in the dock where he spoke only to confirm his name and also to formally decline consent to be extradit- ed to India. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), representing the Indian authorities in court, told the court that Nirav was wanted in India for fraud and money laundering amounting to the tune of $2 billion. Under UK domestic law, the CPS said he is liable on charges of conspiracy to fraud, which has a maximum jail term of seven years, and con- spiracy to conceal, which could result in anywhere between seven, 10 years and life in jail. “We do object to bail because there are substantial grounds to believe the request- ed person (Nirav) would fail to surrender,” said Barrister Jonathan Swain, appearing for the CPS and on behalf of the Indian Government. Nirav’s legal team was headed by Barrister George Hepburne-Scott, and his solic- itor, Anand Doobay, is the same legal expert hired by for- mer Kingfisher Airlines boss Vijay Mallya in his extradition proceedings against India in the UK courts. Nirav’s team made their case for bail, offering 5,00,000 pounds as security and an offer to adhere to “stringent” conditions. “He strongly contests all the allegations and is prepared with comprehensive arguments to support his case...His legal team has had months contact with the extradition squad and expressed his willingness to cooperate,” Hepburne-Scott said. It emerged in court that Niravwas arrested from a Metro Bank branch in London by uniformed officers on Tuesday, when he went there to open a new bank account. A bank clerk alerted Scotland Yard as a result of the “high publicity” surrounding the case and Metropolitan Police officers arrived to exe- cute the arrest. This overrode a previous arrangement made between Scotland Yard’s extra- dition unit and Nirav’s lawyers for him to surrender “by appointment” at a London police station on Monday, something his legal team blamed on the “nature of pub- licity” surrounding the case. The location of the arrest indicates that Nirav, wanted in India in connection with the 13,500 crore Punjab National Bank scam case, was arrested from where he is believed to have been living in a plush apartment in Centre Point in the West End. It also emerged in court that Niravwas in possession of at least three passports, all since revoked by India. The court was told that Modi arrived in London in January last year before any of the allegations emerged and has maintained a very “visible” presence in the country and offered to cooperate with the UK authorities since his arrival. Nirav is currently employed by Diamond Holdings Ltd in London for a monthly salary of 20,000 pounds and pays his council tax regularly, his lawyers stressed in support of his defence. In New Delhi, ED sources said they expect a “faster” process of extradition in Nirav’s case, as compared to Mallya, as this is a instance of “clear defraud” of bank loan money. Unlike Mallya, who was grant- ed immediate bail on his arrest on an extradition warrant in April 2017 on fraud and money laundering charges, Nirav’s case will now take a slightly dif- ferent course as he remains in custody while court proceed- ings take place. UK Home Secretary Sajid Javid had certified India’s extra- dition request for Nirav earli- er this month, triggering the legal process in the courts, which led to the issuance of a warrant last week. News of the certification of India’s request came just as Niravwas tracked down to a three-bedroom flat in the Centre Point tower block of luxury apartments in the West End of London. Nirav is one of India’s rich- est men, worth an estimated $1.75 billion, according to Forbes. He launched his own eponymous brand in 2010 and he soon had stores across India, as well as in New York, London and Hong Kong. His diamond- encrusted designs were worn by Hollywood stars like Kate Winslet, Rosie Huntington- Whiteley and Naomi Watts, while Priyanka Chopra-Jonas appeared in advertisements for the brand. W ith its operating fleet down to under forty air- craft, its pilots threatening to go on strike from April 1 and its supposed white knight now wanting out, aviation industry experts were predicting that Jet Airways was reaching the end of the road. However, the biggest lender to Jet Airways, the state-owned State Bank of India (SBI) on Wednesday made it very clear that bankruptcy for the airline was the “last option”. SBI chair- man Rajnish Kumar said that it was in everyone’s interest that the airline keeps flying and that talks with Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Airline are ongoing even though the UAE airline offered to sell its shares to Indian banks to just 150 per share, after having acquired them for 750. It is not clear how the banks will manage this, but sources say that the there will be an insistence that Jet Airways chairman Naresh Goyal, who has held on to his position doggedly, will be asked to go and a new professional man- agement will be brought in. The banks are also not keen on moving Jet Airways under the bankruptcy code as that will mean further disrup- tion, with the airline having to surrender almost all its leased aircraft. Currently, Jet Airways owns only nine of the aircraft it is operation, with the remain- der of its fleet leased. With lessors repossessing aircraft on an almost daily basis, the airline on Wednesday axed several new services, stopping several domestic and international routes and almost all flights from Delhi. However, the time to save Jet Airways might be coming to a close with talk of some of the leasing companies offering some of Jet’s grounded aircraft to rival SpiceJet Airlines which itself has suffered a grounding of its Boeing 737 Max aircraft after two fatal incidents involv- ing that particular model in Ethiopia and Indonesia. T he Delhi Police has made elaborate arrangements to ensure nothing untoward hap- pens in the national Capital during the Holi celebrations. According to a senior Delhi Police official, around 35,000 personnel backed up by 33 companies will be patrolling the city roads to ensure a safe and secure Holi. “These measures have been put in place as there are certain intercepts about forces inimi- cal to the society may try to indulge in criminal activities to disrupt the celebrations,” the official said. The Delhi Police has also made elaborate arrangements in and around university campuses to ensure safety and security of people during the festival on Thursday, officials said on Wednesday. Apart from deploying almost half of its force, Delhi Traffic Police has advised par- ents not to allow their minor children to drive vehicles. In its advisory, the Delhi Police has also appealed to all motorists to avoid traffic vio- lations, especially drunken dri- ving. “All motorists are advised to obey traffic rules and regu- lations and follow the direc- tions of the traffic policemen on duty for their safety as well as the safety of other road users,” it said. The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) and the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) have issued advisory. As per DMRC, the Metro operations and services will be closed on Thursday till 2.30 pm on all lines, including the Airport Expressway. The Metro feeder bus services will also be not available till 2 pm on Holi. The Delhi Traffic Police teams with alcometers have been deployed at major inter- sections and vulnerable points to detect and prosecute traffic violators, police said. Deputy Commissioner of Police (Southwest) Devender Arya said where women per- sonnel have been deployed along with male policemen to ensure women can easily approach them. Arya said patrolling has been stepped up in the South Campus area and two special pickets have been placed out- side Moti Lal Nehru College and the main entrance of South Campus while an extra van has been patrolling the area. T he CBI on Wednesday arrested the Executive Director (Finance) of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) for demanding a bribe from the owner of a Chennai- based airport ground handling company. Ravichandran’s arrest came soon after the CBI registered an FIR against him on Wednesday. Ravichandran was demanding a bribe of 4 lakh for each allot- ted tenders with respect to ground handling contracts to the Chennai-based firm Bright Shine Services for ‘D’ category airports. Owner of Bright Shine Services V Venkatesh approached the CBI with a complaint on March 16, saying he did not wish to pay bribe and sought legal action against the AAI official who had demanded the bribe from him, according to the complaint which is now part of the FIR. Based on his complaint, the CBI conducted verification from March 16 to March 19 and gathered sufficient elec- tronic evidence. The CBI laid a trap on Wednesday morning when the alleged bribe was to be paid to Ravichandran. The agency nabbed the officer red-handed while receiving 2 lakh as bribe, sources said. New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate will sell 173 paint- ings and 11 vehicles “benefi- cially owned” by Nirav Modi, prime accused in the 14,000- crore PNB credit fraud case, after the agency obtained per- mission from a special PMLA court in Mumbai on Wednesday. PNS P ointing out that Opposition was insulting him for pre- fixing “chowkidar” in his name, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday likened it to “naamdaars” (dynastic lead- ers) defaming “kaamdaars” (those risen in lives by hard work) and asserted “these are the same people who are draw- ing sympathetic chord in Pakistan.” With chowkidar being the buzzword this election, Modi on Wednesday held an inter- action with security guards across the country on the eve of Holi and in an apparent ref- erence to Congress president Rahul Gandhi, he said, “I want to apologise as some people in last few months for their vest- ed interests have run a disin- formation campaign against ‘chowkidars’. It is unfortunate that language of these people has hurt you.” At the same time, he said maximum languages across the world have understood the word “chowkidar”. It seems as if they all have accepted it in their vocabulary, he main- tained. The Prime Minister said, “Today chowkidar has become a good substitute of “deskh bhakti and respect”. Hitting out at the Congress while answering a question on the Pulwama terror attack in Kashmir, Modi said armed forces bombed Pakistan but “people are feeling hurt.” He said in Pakistan’s television and Parliament was echoing and reflecting Indian Opposition leaders’ views (aired by them) in the post- Indian Air Force strike across the borders. “ This is strange… vaar Pakistan par aur bimaar Hindustan” (Pakistan is hit and hurt but Indians are turn- ing sick),” he said adding “country will not forget and for- give these people”. Congress and other Opposition parties had ques- tioned the effectiveness of IAF airstrike in Balakot, Pakistan, and sought the Modi Government to give evidence of real damage. Islamabad had said that barring a few trees no damage was caused by the Indian strike. Modi said all Indians should be proud of their armed forces who have given a fitting reply to Pakistan but Opposition “is supporting tukde-tukde gang”. Prime Minister who took some questions said make your children doctor or engineers but keep alive chowkidar. “Desh ka chowkidar zinda rehna chahiye”, Modi said rhetorically. “Main Bhi Chowkidar” slo- gan is a part of BJP’s campaign strategy which BJP is seeking to intensify as the Congress pres- ident has sought to deflate it by saying “chowkidar chor hain” by referring to the controver- sial Rafale fighter-jet deal with France. N otwithstanding the aggres- sive campaign by the BJP and the Congress to end the Biju Janata Dal’s (BJD) 19- year-long-regime, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik is apparently quite confident to rule the State for the next five- year term. He exuded the confidence before media after filing his nomination papers from his old Hinjili Assembly con- stituency at the office of the Sub-Collector in Chhatrapur in Ganjam district on Wednesday. When asked about the number of seats the BJD would win in this election, Patnaik instantly quipped, “Plenty of seats”. Before filing the nomina- tions, Patnaik, accompanied by senior leaders and a large number of workers of the party, had visited the Taratarini Temple in the district to pay obeisance the deity. It is for the fifth time that Patnaik filed his nomination for Hinjili, which will go to polls on April 18 in the second phase of the elections in the State. Patnaik said he would file his nomination papers for his second constituency, Bijepur in Bargarh district, very soon. T he Commissionerate police on Wednesday issued notices to three BJP leaders to appear before it for questioning in connection with the ‘fake’ intelligence report on Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s candidature for the Hinjili Assembly constituency. The notices were issued to BJP State vice-president Sameer Mohanty, spokesperson Golak Mohapatra and Yuva Morcha president Tankadhar Tripathy. They were directed to appear before the Kharavel Nagar police at 10 am on Thursday. Besides, they were asked to produce the original letter, if any, which was allegedly issued under the signature of Special DG Intelligence Sunil Roy with the seal of DGP Dr RP Sharma that was exhibited during a Press conference at the BJP headquarters here on Monday. In response to the notice, Sameer Mohanty said, “Whatever the police are doing is undemocratic and complete violation of the election model code of conduct. Neither the BJD nor the CMO has lodged any com- plaint in this regard.” Earlier, the BJYM president in a Press conference here on Monday had produced a “doc- ument” which suggested that the Chief Minister should not contest the Assembly elections from Hinjili. The report suggested four alternative constituencies, Rourkela, Bijepur, Balangir and Titilagarh for the Chief Minister. T he Regional Office of the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) here on Wednesday predicted that the temperature would rise across the State from March 23. The temperature in many places is likely to soar above 40 degree Celsius. The IMD offi- cials said some districts includ- ing Nabarangpur, Koraput and Kalahandi might experience nor’wester rains for the next two days but the temperature would soar from March 23. The department also fore- casted that maximum day tem- perature will see a rise of 3 to 4 degree Celsius over north interior Odisha and by 2 to 3 degree at places over other districts during the next two days. “Light to moderate rain or thunderstorm is likely to occur at a few places over the districts of south interior Odisha and there is possibility of light rain or thunderstorm at one or two places over parts of other dis- tricts of Odisha,” added the officials. F ormer Guwahati High Court Chief Justice Ajit Singh, who was appointed as the first Lokayukta of the State, assumed office on Wednesday. The office of the Lokayukta, which will work as an anti-corruption watchdog, will start functioning from April 8. Singh took charge after meeting Governor Ganeshi Lal at the Raj Bhavan in the after- noon. He will head the panel that comprises a total of five members. On March 3, the former Guwahati HC Chief Justice was appointed as the first Lokayukta of the State. Notably, Odisha wsas the first State in the country to pass the Lokayukta Bill.

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Nirav Modi, the mainaccused in the $2 billion

PNB scam case, has beenarrested in London where acourt on Wednesday remand-ed the fugitive diamantaire incustody till March 29, sayingthere are “substantial grounds”to believe that he would fail tosurrender if granted bail.

“Nirav Deepak Modi, 48,was arrested on behalf of theIndian Authorities on Tuesdayin Holborn,” the MetropolitanPolice said in a statement.

Meanwhile, India onThursday welcomed the arrestof Nirav, and said it wasengaged with the UK for hisextradition at the earliest.“Government of India contin-ues to actively follow up thismatter with the authoritiesconcerned in the UK, with aview to have Nirav Modi extra-dited to India at the earliest,"said Ministry of ExternalAffairs (MEA) SpokespersonRaveesh Kumar.

Nirav’s arrest came daysafter a London court issued anarrest warrant against him inresponse to a request by theEnforcement Directorate (ED)for his extradition in a moneylaundering case.

Nirav was produced beforethe Westminster Magistrates’Court on Wednesday, where hecontested his extradition toIndia.

District Judge MarieMallon, presiding over thehearing, said that she was notinclined to accept Nirav’s bail

plea due the “high valueamount” attached to the alle-gations against him and that hewould have “every incentive” toevade surrendering before thecourt.

There are substantialgrounds to believe that youwould fail to surrender beforethe court if bail were to begranted,” the judge noted.

Nirav, dressed in a plainwhite shirt and trousers,appeared in the dock where hespoke only to confirm hisname and also to formallydecline consent to be extradit-

ed to India.The Crown Prosecution

Service (CPS), representingthe Indian authorities in court,told the court that Nirav waswanted in India for fraud andmoney laundering amountingto the tune of $2 billion.

Under UK domestic law,the CPS said he is liable oncharges of conspiracy to fraud,which has a maximum jailterm of seven years, and con-spiracy to conceal, which couldresult in anywhere betweenseven, 10 years and life in jail.

“We do object to bailbecause there are substantialgrounds to believe the request-ed person (Nirav) would fail tosurrender,” said BarristerJonathan Swain, appearing forthe CPS and on behalf of theIndian Government.

Nirav’s legal team washeaded by Barrister GeorgeHepburne-Scott, and his solic-itor, Anand Doobay, is thesame legal expert hired by for-mer Kingfisher Airlines bossVijay Mallya in his extraditionproceedings against India inthe UK courts.

Nirav’s team made theircase for bail, offering 5,00,000pounds as security and anoffer to adhere to “stringent”conditions.

“He strongly contests allthe allegations and is preparedwith comprehensive argumentsto support his case...His legalteam has had months contactwith the extradition squad andexpressed his willingness tocooperate,” Hepburne-Scottsaid.

It emerged in court thatNiravwas arrested from aMetro Bank branch in Londonby uniformed officers onTuesday, when he went there toopen a new bank account.

A bank clerk alertedScotland Yard as a result of the“high publicity” surroundingthe case and MetropolitanPolice officers arrived to exe-cute the arrest. This overrodea previous arrangement madebetween Scotland Yard’s extra-dition unit and Nirav’s lawyersfor him to surrender “byappointment” at a Londonpolice station on Monday,something his legal teamblamed on the “nature of pub-licity” surrounding the case.

The location of the arrestindicates that Nirav, wanted inIndia in connection with the�13,500 crore Punjab NationalBank scam case, was arrestedfrom where he is believed tohave been living in a plushapartment in Centre Point inthe West End.

It also emerged in courtthat Niravwas in possession ofat least three passports, allsince revoked by India.

The court was told thatModi arrived in London inJanuary last year before any ofthe allegations emerged and hasmaintained a very “visible”presence in the country andoffered to cooperate with theUK authorities since his arrival.

Nirav is currentlyemployed by DiamondHoldings Ltd in London for amonthly salary of 20,000pounds and pays his council

tax regularly, his lawyersstressed in support of hisdefence.

In New Delhi, ED sourcessaid they expect a “faster”process of extradition in Nirav’scase, as compared to Mallya, asthis is a instance of “cleardefraud” of bank loan money.Unlike Mallya, who was grant-ed immediate bail on his arreston an extradition warrant inApril 2017 on fraud and moneylaundering charges, Nirav’scase will now take a slightly dif-ferent course as he remains incustody while court proceed-ings take place.

UK Home Secretary SajidJavid had certified India’s extra-dition request for Nirav earli-er this month, triggering thelegal process in the courts,which led to the issuance of awarrant last week.

News of the certification ofIndia’s request came just asNiravwas tracked down to athree-bedroom flat in theCentre Point tower block ofluxury apartments in the WestEnd of London.

Nirav is one of India’s rich-est men, worth an estimated$1.75 billion, according toForbes. He launched his owneponymous brand in 2010 andhe soon had stores across India,as well as in New York, Londonand Hong Kong. His diamond-encrusted designs were wornby Hollywood stars like KateWinslet, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Naomi Watts,while Priyanka Chopra-Jonasappeared in advertisements forthe brand.

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With its operating fleetdown to under forty air-

craft, its pilots threatening to goon strike from April 1 and itssupposed white knight nowwanting out, aviation industryexperts were predicting that JetAirways was reaching the endof the road.

However, the biggest lenderto Jet Airways, the state-ownedState Bank of India (SBI) onWednesday made it very clearthat bankruptcy for the airlinewas the “last option”. SBI chair-man Rajnish Kumar said that itwas in everyone’s interest thatthe airline keeps flying and thattalks with Abu Dhabi’s EtihadAirline are ongoing eventhough the UAE airline offeredto sell its shares to Indian

banks to just �150 per share,after having acquired them for�750. It is not clear how thebanks will manage this, butsources say that the there willbe an insistence that Jet Airwayschairman Naresh Goyal, whohas held on to his positiondoggedly, will be asked to goand a new professional man-agement will be brought in.

The banks are also notkeen on moving Jet Airwaysunder the bankruptcy code asthat will mean further disrup-

tion, with the airline having tosurrender almost all its leasedaircraft. Currently, Jet Airwaysowns only nine of the aircraftit is operation, with the remain-der of its fleet leased. Withlessors repossessing aircraft onan almost daily basis, the airlineon Wednesday axed severalnew services, stopping severaldomestic and internationalroutes and almost all flightsfrom Delhi.

However, the time to saveJet Airways might be coming toa close with talk of some of theleasing companies offeringsome of Jet’s grounded aircraftto rival SpiceJet Airlines whichitself has suffered a groundingof its Boeing 737 Max aircraftafter two fatal incidents involv-ing that particular model inEthiopia and Indonesia.

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The Delhi Police has madeelaborate arrangements to

ensure nothing untoward hap-pens in the national Capitalduring the Holi celebrations.According to a senior DelhiPolice official, around 35,000personnel backed up by 33companies will be patrollingthe city roads to ensure a safeand secure Holi.

“These measures have beenput in place as there are certainintercepts about forces inimi-cal to the society may try toindulge in criminal activities todisrupt the celebrations,” theofficial said. The Delhi Policehas also made elaboratearrangements in and arounduniversity campuses to ensure

safety and security of peopleduring the festival on Thursday,officials said on Wednesday.

Apart from deployingalmost half of its force, DelhiTraffic Police has advised par-

ents not to allow their minorchildren to drive vehicles.

In its advisory, the DelhiPolice has also appealed to allmotorists to avoid traffic vio-lations, especially drunken dri-ving.

“All motorists are advisedto obey traffic rules and regu-lations and follow the direc-tions of the traffic policemenon duty for their safety as wellas the safety of other roadusers,” it said.

The Delhi Metro RailCorporation (DMRC) and theDelhi Transport Corporation(DTC) have issued advisory.

As per DMRC, the Metrooperations and services will beclosed on Thursday till 2.30 pmon all lines, including theAirport Expressway. The Metro

feeder bus services will also benot available till 2 pm on Holi.

The Delhi Traffic Policeteams with alcometers havebeen deployed at major inter-sections and vulnerable pointsto detect and prosecute trafficviolators, police said.

Deputy Commissioner ofPolice (Southwest) DevenderArya said where women per-sonnel have been deployedalong with male policemen toensure women can easilyapproach them.

Arya said patrolling hasbeen stepped up in the SouthCampus area and two specialpickets have been placed out-side Moti Lal Nehru Collegeand the main entrance of SouthCampus while an extra van hasbeen patrolling the area.

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The CBI on Wednesdayarrested the Executive

Director (Finance) of theAirports Authority of India(AAI) for demanding a bribefrom the owner of a Chennai-based airport ground handlingcompany.

Ravichandran’s arrest camesoon after the CBI registered anFIR against him on Wednesday.Ravichandran was demandinga bribe of �4 lakh for each allot-ted tenders with respect toground handling contracts tothe Chennai-based firm BrightShine Services for ‘D’ categoryairports.

Owner of Bright ShineServices V Venkateshapproached the CBI with acomplaint on March 16, sayinghe did not wish to pay bribeand sought legal action againstthe AAI official who haddemanded the bribe from him,according to the complaintwhich is now part of the FIR.

Based on his complaint, theCBI conducted verificationfrom March 16 to March 19and gathered sufficient elec-tronic evidence. The CBI laida trap on Wednesday morningwhen the alleged bribe was tobe paid to Ravichandran. Theagency nabbed the officer red-handed while receiving �2 lakh as bribe, sources said.

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��� ����������������� ��� ��!��New Delhi: The EnforcementDirectorate will sell 173 paint-ings and 11 vehicles “benefi-cially owned” by Nirav Modi,prime accused in the �14,000-crore PNB credit fraud case,after the agency obtained per-mission from a special PMLAcourt in Mumbai onWednesday. PNS

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Pointing out that Oppositionwas insulting him for pre-

fixing “chowkidar” in his name,Prime Minister Narendra Modion Wednesday likened it to“naamdaars” (dynastic lead-ers) defaming “kaamdaars”(those risen in lives by hardwork) and asserted “these arethe same people who are draw-ing sympathetic chord inPakistan.”

With chowkidar being thebuzzword this election, Modion Wednesday held an inter-action with security guardsacross the country on the eveof Holi and in an apparent ref-erence to Congress presidentRahul Gandhi, he said, “I wantto apologise as some people inlast few months for their vest-ed interests have run a disin-formation campaign against‘chowkidars’. It is unfortunatethat language of these peoplehas hurt you.”

At the same time, he saidmaximum languages acrossthe world have understood theword “chowkidar”. It seems asif they all have accepted it intheir vocabulary, he main-tained. The Prime Ministersaid, “Today chowkidar hasbecome a good substitute of“deskh bhakti and respect”.

Hitting out at the Congresswhile answering a question onthe Pulwama terror attack inKashmir, Modi said armedforces bombed Pakistan but“people are feeling hurt.” Hesaid in Pakistan’s televisionand Parliament was echoingand reflecting IndianOpposition leaders’ views(aired by them) in the post-Indian Air Force strike acrossthe borders. “

This is strange… vaarPakistan par aur bimaarHindustan” (Pakistan is hitand hurt but Indians are turn-ing sick),” he said adding“country will not forget and for-give these people”.

Congress and otherOpposition parties had ques-tioned the effectiveness of IAFairstrike in Balakot, Pakistan,and sought the ModiGovernment to give evidence

of real damage. Islamabad hadsaid that barring a few trees nodamage was caused by theIndian strike.

Modi said all Indiansshould be proud of their armedforces who have given a fittingreply to Pakistan butOpposition “is supportingtukde-tukde gang”.

Prime Minister who tooksome questions said make yourchildren doctor or engineersbut keep alive chowkidar.“Desh ka chowkidar zindarehna chahiye”, Modi saidrhetorically.

“Main Bhi Chowkidar” slo-gan is a part of BJP’s campaignstrategy which BJP is seeking tointensify as the Congress pres-ident has sought to deflate it bysaying “chowkidar chor hain”by referring to the controver-sial Rafale fighter-jet deal withFrance.

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Notwithstanding the aggres-sive campaign by the BJP

and the Congress to end theBiju Janata Dal’s (BJD) 19-year-long-regime, ChiefMinister Naveen Patnaik isapparently quite confident torule the State for the next five-year term.

He exuded the confidencebefore media after filing hisnomination papers from hisold Hinjili Assembly con-stituency at the office of theSub-Collector in Chhatrapur inGanjam district on Wednesday.

When asked about thenumber of seats the BJD would

win in this election, Patnaikinstantly quipped, “Plenty ofseats”.

Before filing the nomina-tions, Patnaik, accompaniedby senior leaders and a largenumber of workers of the party,had visited the TaratariniTemple in the district to payobeisance the deity.

It is for the fifth time thatPatnaik filed his nominationfor Hinjili, which will go topolls on April 18 in the secondphase of the elections in theState.

Patnaik said he would filehis nomination papers for hissecond constituency, Bijepur inBargarh district, very soon.

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The Commissionerate policeon Wednesday issued

notices to three BJP leaders toappear before it for questioningin connection with the ‘fake’intelligence report on Chief Minister NaveenPatnaik’s candidature for theHinjili Assembly constituency.

The notices were issued toBJP State vice-president SameerMohanty, spokesperson GolakMohapatra and Yuva Morchapresident Tankadhar Tripathy.They were directed to appear

before the Kharavel Nagarpolice at 10 am onThursday.

Besides, they were asked toproduce the original letter, ifany, which was allegedly issuedunder the signature of SpecialDG Intelligence Sunil Roy withthe seal of DGP DrRP Sharma that was exhibitedduring a Press conference at theBJP headquarters here onMonday.

In response to the notice,Sameer Mohanty said,“Whatever the police are doingis undemocratic and complete

violation of the election modelcode of conduct.

Neither the BJD nor theCMO has lodged any com-plaint in this regard.”

Earlier, the BJYM presidentin a Press conference here onMonday had produced a “doc-ument” which suggested thatthe Chief Minister should notcontest the Assembly electionsfrom Hinjili.

The report suggested fouralternative constituencies,Rourkela, Bijepur, Balangir andTitilagarh for the ChiefMinister.

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The Regional Office of theIndian Meteorological

Department (IMD) here onWednesday predicted that thetemperature would rise acrossthe State from March 23.

The temperature in manyplaces is likely to soar above 40degree Celsius. The IMD offi-cials said some districts includ-ing Nabarangpur, Koraput andKalahandi might experiencenor’wester rains for the nexttwo days but the temperaturewould soar from March 23.

The department also fore-casted that maximum day tem-perature will see a rise of 3 to4 degree Celsius over northinterior Odisha and by 2 to 3degree at places over otherdistricts during the next twodays.

“Light to moderate rain orthunderstorm is likely to occurat a few places over the districtsof south interior Odisha andthere is possibility of light rainor thunderstorm at one or twoplaces over parts of other dis-tricts of Odisha,” added theofficials.

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Former Guwahati HighCourt Chief Justice Ajit

Singh, who was appointed asthe first Lokayukta of the State,assumed office on Wednesday.

The office of theLokayukta, which will work asan anti-corruption watchdog,will start functioning fromApril 8.

Singh took charge aftermeeting Governor Ganeshi Lalat the Raj Bhavan in the after-noon. He will head the panelthat comprises a total of fivemembers.

On March 3, the formerGuwahati HC Chief Justicewas appointed as the first

Lokayukta of the State.Notably, Odisha wsas the

first State in the country to passthe Lokayukta Bill.

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The first IITian to join main-stream politics became

Chief Minister of a State andeventually rose to the post ofDefence Minister of the coun-try. The inimitable ManoharParrikar was the batch-mate ofthe illustrious Indian entrepre-neur Nandan Nilekani whohas given Indians the Aadhaarcard. Parrikar took over asGoa Chief Minister in 2000during his worst personaltimes. His wife Medha died ofcancer just a month before hisoath-taking.

Parrikar became globallyfamous for his unpretentioussimplicity. He rode a bicycle orscooter to the Goa Vidhan

Sabha. Whenever he felt tiredor weak, he would proudlytravel by public transport. Henever moved into the CM’s official residence; lived in hisown humble house and trav-elled in his old car until the lasthealthy day.

He was known as thecleanest politician on the plan-et at one time. Parrikar hadonce termed LK Advani a ran-cid pickle, saying it was timethe old man retired happily andprovided guidance only whennecessary. After victory in2014, Modi was frantic to haveone or two sharp-skilled guysin the Cabinet. Parrikar was theobvious choice to manage theDefence Ministry.

Parrikar told friends thathis knees buckled on the firstday as a Defence Ministerbecause he knew nothing aboutthe military, arms or warfare.But Modi’s honest advisorsknew too well that Parrikarwould hardly take any time tofigure out what was best for thearmed forces and what reformsneeded to strengthen the forces.

What is not known tomany is that long before any-one could figure out that a‘Modi wave' would sweep

across the country, Parrikar hadtold everyone that if Modi, withhis enviable track records in Gujarat, was projected as the PM face, the party wouldgain immensely. The partyhonchos went by his advice andthe eternal quest for the PMface was over.

Parrikar was diagnosedwith pancreatic cancer inFebruary 2018. He went for acure to hospitals abroad and inIndia. But whenever he felt a lit-tle comfortable, he would rushto work in his frail frame asworkaholic as always.

He walked out of the hos-pital and reached workplacewith a life-support tube innostrils and strong medicinestaken by the hour, admittingbravely that he was battling a‘life-threatening disease', butthere was no reason why heshould not continue to worktill his mind was alert and bodypermitted him to move.

He would still beam a faintsmile and say he enjoyed doinghis job as the people trustedhim as one who could givethem relief and justice and ontime. He died on March 17,2019. A brilliant star of Indiais thus gone!

The Modi-Shah team hasflourished with support fromsocial marketing wizards.Prashant Kishore did big magicfor the party in 2014. Kishorehas, meanwhile, left the saffronoutfit and landed on more efficient shores wheremarketing tricks do not count so much.

Parrikar’s absence in Goaled to a virtual defeat of the BJPin the last State elections. Butthe Goa people, used to seeingParrikar as their leader, beganlosing faith in the new leader somuch as to force the Modi-Shah duo to dispatch Parrikarback home to Goa. On January30, he presented the StateBudget in the Assembly.

The frail appearance, witha tube in his nose drew severecriticism from the oppositionwhich screamed that a ‘physi-cally finished' CM should bedropped forthwith to facilitatesmooth functioning of theCabinet.

But the unshaken Parrikarwould make it clear in a shortspeech that he would talk lessnow to save all his energyto play an active role in thecampaign for the coming LokSabha elections. He was still

fit enough to run his State withease.

Parrikar was unlike thetypical BJP or RSS leader insome ways but added that thedifference was not substantial.He did not implement theHindutva agenda in the samerabid way the RSS and BJPwould have wanted him to.

But he did implement thesame agenda in subtle ways.Also, he made some compro-mises because he wanted todevelop Goa and he could nothave done it if he carried theHindutva baggage as distinct-ly as other RSS-BJP leaders.One thing was certain:Parrikar’s identification withthe BJP was absolute.

A very senior BJP nation-al leader had publicly saidParrikar was deployed in early2017 as the BJP’s ‘only credibleweapon' when nothing elsewas going the party’s way. Thenthey had no leader, no face,nobody who had stature to leadthe BJP in the 2017 elections.Goa is not Uttar Pradesh oreven Maharashtra whereModi’s appeal could see theparty through. Goa is a verylocalised State and it appreci-ates nativity.

In Parrikar’s death, Indialost one of the most patrioticpoliticians who served the peo-ple until his last breadth andwith incredible guts and com-passion for distressed com-munities whom he enjoyedserving with joy and pride.

The Pulwama terror attackwitnessed the killing of greatsons of India, who becamemartyrs to occupy space in his-tory books. But Parrikar isone of the greatest martyrs whogave his last breadth to the peo-ple. He protected them like asuper soldier and planned greatschemes for their relief andhappiness, all at a colossalprice due to unheard of person-al sacrifice. His two sons havebeen groomed by him so wellas to remain simple and peo-ple-friendly.

Without Parrikar, the BJPwill never be the same again!When Modi ran in 2014, hepromised to replicate the‘Gujarat model' of governanceacross the rest of India. Mostvoters expected big, employ-ment and money generatingpublic-private partnership pro-jects like the Kutch Railways,FDI (Ford’s Sanand plant) orinnovative solutions (Narmada

canal solar panels) and more.Modi did replicate some ofthese ideas including the pactwith France to develop solarfarms across rural India. But hisboastful promises of blackmoney recovery and abroga-tion of Articles 370, etc., arecausing big trouble now. TheHindi belt has nearly van-quished the saffron party.Stellar party faces like ArunShourie, Shatrughan Sinha andmany more have abandonedhim with good logic.

Though the Pulwama andthe resultant Balakot episodeshave brought in some strengthto the regime, there is cry forconcrete proofs in hand.Obviously, Modi overratedhimself for the overwhelming2014 mandate which was cer-tainly due to a very strong anti-incumbency factor.

Modi got swayed andignored to promote a robustprivate economy that generatesgood wealth for use for quali-ty development. Instead ofkeeping the government only asan umpire, he injected thegovernment into everythingthat is meant for the masses.His promise of minimum gov-ernment has failed miserably.

His accumulation of powerhas come at the expense ofStates which have been robbedof their abilities to be ‘labora-tories of democracy'. Modi isfrantic to keep all powers withthe Centre so as to arm-twistthe States easily.

The GST regime, which iscertainly more efficient thanthe old one, subsumes all Statetaxes into one tax to be underthe Central Government con-trol. Most significantly, a rabid-ly Aadhaar-hating Modi choseto embrace Aadhaar even morewholeheartedly than its origi-nal promoters. The informaleconomy where even ill-gottencash is king as it drove India’seconomy since the privatisationprogrammes of the early 1990sinitiated by financial wizardManmohan Singh.

To win a second stint,Modi has to slug with extreme-ly effective campaign plansthis election season. He hascaused a great deal of publicdisenchantment for havingignored the ‘governance model'promised in the last mani-festo.

(The writer is a core mem-ber of TransparencyInternational, Odisha)

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Kandhamal BJD MPPratyusha Rajeshwari

Singh resigned from the party’sprimary membership onWednesday after being denieda party ticket to contest again.

She sent her resignationletter to BJD supremo andChief Minister Naveen Patnaik.

“I could have been at leastinformed prior to theannouncement of the list ofcandidates. I was asked to pre-pare for the coming elections.Furthermore, I am irked as towhy (Minister) Bikram Arukhwould have any say in thematter of my nomination fromKandhamal,” Pratyusha said inher resignation letter.

“Furthermore, after myhusband Hemendra ChandraSingh’s demise, I have beenharassed in Nayagarh by(MLA) Arun Sahoo with legalcases multiple times in the last

four years. Though I informedit to the party, no action hasbeen taken in this regard,” theletter added.

Notably, KIIT and KISSfounder and Rajya Sabha BJDmember Achyuta Samanta hasbeen announced as the partycandidate for the KandhamalLS seat. Now, there are specu-lations that Pratyusha is likelyto join the BJP.

Earlier on Tuesday,

Pratyusha had said she wantedto contest from the NayagarhAssembly seat as the BJD can-didate. “If denied ticket for this,I will either join another partyor contest the polls as anIndependent candidate,” shehad said.

But most probably, sittingNayagarh MLA and formerMinister Arun Sahoo would bere-nominated by the party as itscandidate for the seat.

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Aday after resigning from the BJD, for-mer Paralakhemundi MLA Koduru

Narayan Rao on Wednesday joined theBJP.

He joined the saffron party at a func-tion in the presence of Union MinisterDharmendra Pradhan at the BJP Stateheadquarters here.

“I worked hard for the BJD in the past20 years in Gajapati, which is a strong-hold of Congress. However, the partymade injustice with me while allocatingtickets for the Paralakhemundi Assemblyseat.

Therefore, I along with my support-ers decided to quit the BJD and join theBJP,” said Rao after joining the nationalparty. “We joined the party beingimpressed by Prime Minister NarendraModi’s reform programmes, steps againstPakistan and the efforts by UnionMinister Dharmendra Pradhan for devel-opment in Odisha,” he added.

Along with Rao, 30 Sarpanches, 32Samiti Members, three Zilla Parishadmembers and two Block Chairmenjoined the BJP.

Besides, Balangir district’s seniorCongress leader Giridhar Pati joined the

BJP on the day. Pati was elected as ZillaParishad Member twice from Loisingha.

Pati said he joined the BJP beingimpressed with the ideology of PMModi and BJP national president AmitShah. BJP State vice-president SameerMohanty, general secretary BhruguBuxipatra and Yuva Morcha presidentTankadhar Tripathy welcomed him intothe party fold.

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Former Dhenkanal BJD MLA NabinNanda along with his many supporters

joined Congress here on Wednesday in thepresence of Pradesh Congress Committee(PCC) president Niranjan Patnaik and otherleaders.

Welcoming him to the party, Patnaik saidNanda’s joining would strengthen the party.

It may be noted here that BJD supremoNaveen Patnaik had suspended Nanda from the party in July 2018 after hewas arrested from a spa in Kolkata, where asex racket was running in the guise of a mas-sage centre.

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The Navnirman KrushakSangathan (NKS), which

has been spearheading a farm-ers’ movement demanding“price, prestige and pension”for long, has sought permissionfrom the State Chief ElectoralOfficer (CEO) for holdingawareness rallies against theelection process at differentplaces in the State from April2 to 22 during the election peri-od.

“We have been fightingfor the cause of famers since2010. Lakhs of farmers havetaken to the streets often,

demanding price, prestige andpension. Despite this, both theUnion and State Governmentshave not paid any heed to thedemands.

Even we are being arrest-

ed and stopped when pro-ceeding to press for ourdemands in front of the StateAssembly.

This violates our right tothe Freedom of Expression as

enshrined in the Article 19 ofthe Constitution.

As elected representativesare depriving us of our right tofreedom of expression, we havedecided to oppose the electionprocess and take to civil disobe-dient movement in a nonvio-lence and democratic way. Forthis, we are going to holdawareness programmes at dif-ferent places fromApril 2 to 22 and we hope thatyou will give permission andsupport us in protecting ourdemocratic right of freedom ofexpression,” mentioned NKSpresident Akshay Kumar in amemorandum submitted tothe CEO.

The Sangathan also pre-sented its schedule of awarenessprogrammes to be held at 42places in 21 districts.

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Former Finance MinisterPrafulla Chandra Ghadai,

who returned to the BJD withwithdrawal of expulsion orderon him by the party supremo recently, onWednesday said the BJD wouldagain achieve better results inthe coming elections and forma stable Government to expe-dite the State’s developmentalprocess.

“I have no intention tofight elections. I will only work

for the party. I am fully confi-dent that the BJD will do bet-ter results, form a stableGovernment and expedite thedevelopment process,” saidGhadai in an interview.

Ghadai said his return tothe BJD has made people ofSukinda very happy and theyhave thanked party supremoNaveen Patnaik.

He said he has been receiv-ing good wishes from peoplefrom different parts of theState for which he is obliged tothem.

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BHUBANESWAR: RameshSai, a BJD ticket aspirant for theAthmallik Assembly seat, seemsto be in a spot now as somelocals have approachedEconomic Offence Wing DIGAsish Kumar Singh with an alle-gation that his father NarayanSai has encroached 79.76 acres of forest-land in Mamurajharan mouzaof Ambasarmunda GP underthe Thakurgarh police station inAngul district for long.

“Ramesh Sai misutilisinghis official capacity has con-structed a farmhouse by wire-fencing the entire Governmentforestland and cutting valuable

forest trees. He is capable enough to

manage the said land to recordin the name of his fatherNarayan Sai,” a complaint sub-mitted to the DIG read.

The complaint signed bylocals like Harihar Nayak,Kamalakant Kar, Ajay Pradhanand Pratap Pradhan also men-tioned that Ramesh Sai is try-ing to enter politics to grab theforestland.

The complaints urged theDIG to take action againstfather-son due immediatedly.

They have also sent a copyof the complaint to the ChiefMinister for his information.

Notably, former MinisterSanjeev Sahoo is the incumbentBJD MLA of Athmallick. PNS

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Three BJD sitting MLAs,two former MLAs, a for-

mer JMM MP and theSundargarh DevelopmentCouncil chairperson, joinedthe BJP on Wednesday in pres-ence of senior BJP leaders.

Sitting BJD DasapallaMLA Purnachandra Nayak,Aska BJD MLA DebrajMohanty, Nilgiri BJD MLASukanta Nayak, former PolsaraMLA Niranjan Pradhan, for-mer Daspalla MLA KashinathNayak, former JMM MPLaxman Tudu and SundargarhDevelopment Council chair-person Kusum Tete joined thesaffron party at a ‘mishranparba’ in the BJP party office.

These leaders, who weredenied tickets by the BJD, arehopeful of getting BJP nomina-tions to contest in the upcom-ing polls.

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The Institute of Life Sciences(ILS) Bhubaneswar organ-

ised a two-day scientific discus-sion on ‘Emerging Trends inBiological Sciences Research’with focus on health, nutrition,environment and agriculturehere on Monday.

ILS Director Dr AjayParida said the symposiumwas of great relevance to theresearch communities ofOdisha as many youngresearchers are engaged in sev-eral research institutes anduniversities and it is importantthat they are aware of mostrecent advances in research and

development and innovationwith societal implications.

JNU Vice-Chancellor ProfSudhir Sopory, Dr SwapanDatta from the KolkataUniversity, Dr Amulya Pandaof National Institute ofImmunology, Dr SudhanshuVrati of Regional Centre of

Biotechnology, Dr UmeshVarseny, Dr DeepshikhaChakraborthy, Dr SoumitraDas, Dr Satish Raghavan fromthe IISc, Bangalore, Dr RameshSonti of NIPGR, DrDinabandhu Sahoo of IBSD,Imphal and Dr SarojBarik ofNBRI, Lucknow also spoke.

They called for collabora-tions and partnerships inresearch efforts for making achange and impacting the soci-ety for greater benefits.

Many leading scientists inthe area of plant biotechnolo-gy, agriculture, medicalbiotechnology and productand device development spokeon current priorities andemerging challenges in thearea of healthcare, agriculture,nutrition and environment.

On the occasion, five the-matic sessions on modern biol-ogy, cancer biology, infectiousdiseases, plant and Agribiotech, developmentalbiology and translationalresearch were held in the pro-gramme attended by morethan 500 researchers, facultiesand students.

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Dr Sumona Karjee Mishra,founder of Prantae

Solutions, a biotech startup inOdisha, is among 15 womenentrepreneurs in the country tobe awarded TiE-BIRACWinner Award for women inEntreprenuerial Research.

The award was presentedto Dr Karjee Mishra by NITIAayog Vice-Chairman DrRajeev Kumar at a function inNew Delhi recently on theoccasion of the seventh Foundation Day ofBIRAC.

Karjee Mishra has devel-oped a device – ProFlou -- forearly diagnosis of kidney dis-orders.

The award includes �5 lakhand a one-week residential

accelerator programme at theChennai Biotech Park. It alsoincludes one-year membershipat TiE Delhi NCR.

The patent technologyadopted by Karjee Mishrareports kidney health througha precise measurement ofmicroalbumin content in urine.

The ProFloU conceptdevelopment was fundedthrough Tata Trust-HarvardSAI and DBT BIRAC SIIPgrant while the product devel-opment was financially sup-ported by the Bharat PetroleumCorporation’s startup grant'Ankur'.

This affordable health self-monitoring device can be veryuseful for senior citizens, dia-betic, hypertension and kidneydisorder patients as well ashigh-risk pregnancies.

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Today billions of people areliving without safe water.

The World Water Day is anannual event celebrated onMarch 22 as a means of focus-ing attention on the importanceof freshwater and advocatingfor the sustainable manage-ment of freshwater resources.The theme for 2019 is “Leavingno one behind”.

Large parts of Odisha have

already become water stressed.Mismanagement of water

resources has led to a criticalsituation in many partsof the State. Rapid growth indemand for water due to pop-ulation growth, urbanizationand changing lifestyle poseserious challenges to watersecurity.

There are many habita-tions in Odisha that do notmeet the norm of 40 liters percapita per day (lpcd). In anumber of areas, tube wellsstop yielding water duringsummer. The problem occurswhen the water table falls belowthe level to which the tube wellhas been dug.

Around 38.5 per cent fam-ilies travel at least half a km tofetch drinking water in Odishavillages. The number of suchfamilies was 32.5 per cent in2001, which increased by 6 percent in 10 years.

Compared to 21.1 per centpeople in 2001, around 18.5 percent have to travel beyond 100metres for drinking water inurban areas. Out of 157,296rural habitations in Odisha,

only 72 per cent of the house-holds are fully covered withrespect to a provision of 40 liters per day of drinkingwater.

Proper water and sanita-tion facilities are crucial andpreconditions for promotingquality of life of communities.The National Water Policy -2002 as well as the Odisha StateWater Policy -2007 defineswater as a prime naturalresource, a basic human needand a precious national asset.Accordingly, both the NationalWater Policy and the

Odisha State water policyaccord highest priority to watersupply for human and livestockconsumption for drinking anddomestic use.

As per Odisha State UrbanWater Supply Policy 2013, allhouseholds shall have access towater through direct pipedconnection.

A comprehensive strategyshall have to be adopted toaddress the issues and chal-lenges and achieve the objectiveof the policy framework. Awater supply system master

plan for the city shall be devel-oped prior to initiating expan-sion proposals.

Most of the water bodies ofBhubaneswar are not protect-ed. Many ponds are turningdump yards. Sewage water isentering to many other waterbodies.

Besides increasing of sur-face runoff due to more pavedareas decrease the groundwater recharge. There is a lackin the number of coverage ofpiped water supply connectionsin the city.

Out of 67 wards in the city33 wards are fully covered withpiped water supply and 34wards are partially coveredwith piped water supply. 62.5percent of the water supplied isnon-revenue water with morethan 2,300 public water standposts. In a number of urbanareas people are not using toi-lets due to want of piped watersupply.

Bhubaneswar has 437authorized slums and several

unauthorized slums. Most ofthe people of the slum areasface drinking water problemduring summer season. Withno access to piped water sup-ply slum residents are forced touse water from dug wells fordrinking and other purposes.

Unplanned growth of multistorey buildings in and aroundwater body is also causing fastdepletion of the ground watertable.

Water body can controlcity’s ecosystem properly andreduce heat island effect in thecity. Wetlands and water bod-ies like lakes, ponds should notbe encroached, and they shouldbe protected properly.Rainwater Harvesting shouldbe encouraged to increase thelevel of groundwater.

Proper water and sanita-tion facilities are crucial andpreconditions for promotingquality of life of communities.Water resource is essential fordomestic work, commercial,industrial and agricultural

development. Besides, it is nec-essary for public health, soci-ety and economy. Therefore, itis critically important to mangewater resources effectively. Dueto uncontrolled developmentthe demand for water increasedrapidly and it has impact onwater resources like overextraction of surface andground water.

Over extraction of waterfrom surface and ground waterbodies may lead to environ-mental imbalance in the sys-tem.

Restoration of surfacewater bodies for improvingwater storage quantity in urbanarea and maximize the groundwater recharge is essential.Recycling and reuse of waste-water is an important aspect ofwater management providing away to increase available waterwhile also preventing pollutionof water bodies. Developmentof watershed is an importantprogramme to make best use ofthe rainwater for agriculturalproduction while improvingsoil conservation and biodi-versity.

The Government has todevelop proper framework tosecure natural water resources.The optimal harvesting of rain-water is necessary for replen-ishing surface and groundwater reserves.

The ground waterresources assessments are beingcarried out at an interval of fiveyears following on the normsand methodology prescribedby the Ground WaterEstimation Committee (GEC)of Government of India. Thereis a need to map the aquifers toknow the quantum and quali-ty of ground water resources(replenishable as well as non-replenishable).

Rainwater harvesting canbe done in residential build-ings, industrial and large scalecommercial, institutional build-ings. In addition rechargingprojects should be undertakenso that extraction is less thanrecharge.

This would allow theaquifers to provide base flowsto the surface system, andmaintain ecology. Integratedwatershed development activ-

ities with groundwater per-spectives need to be taken in acomprehensive manner toincrease overall water produc-tivity.

To leave no one behind, wemust focus our efforts towardsincluding people who havebeen marginalized or ignored.Water services must meet theneeds of marginalized groupsand their voices must be heardin decision-making processes.Regulatory and legal frame-works must recognize the rightto water for all people, and suf-ficient funding must be fairlyand effectively targeted at thosewho need it most. The waterdemand can be met using theexisting quantity of water sup-plied.

However, this requiresimprovements on water supplydistribution network. The cov-erage needs to be improved inslums and in partially coveredareas for equitable distributionof water.

(Dr Praharaj teaches inDepartment of Architecture,College of Engineering andTechnology, Bhubaneswar)

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Subarnapur district has beena focal point in the BJP's

efforts to make inroads inwestern Odisha during the lastfive years. The ruling party atthe Centre has been trying toestablish a foothold in the dis-trict.

But when the elections areround the corner, the pathdoesn't look easygoing for theparty in the region. Despiteexpending much energythrough aggressive implemen-tation of developmental pro-jects and Central schemes andlaunching of programmes to

woo voters, the saffron partyseems to have not risen to astrong position in the district.

Lack of organisational baseat grassroots, bitter infighting in the ranks and fileand weak leadership continuesto hinder the party's growth, and chances of win-ning the two Assembly seg-ments looks grim.

The party's focus onSubarnapur was exemplified ina grand manner with formerMP Sangita Singh Deo visiting grass rural areasrepeatedly. Union PetroleumMinister and party’s ChiefMinisterial face DharmendraPradhan along with manyUnion Ministers have fre-quently visited the Subarnapurand nearby districts andlaunching various develop-mental projects during the lastfour years. But they seem tohave little impact on the voters.

It is abuzz among farmersthat Central Governmentschemes like Pradhan MantriFasal Bima Yojana and UjjwalaYojana are not going to fetchvotes for the party.

Sumitra Bagarty, a womanleader, said even as almost halfof women residing in ruralareas have benefited from theUjjwala Yojana, it is doubtful ifthey will cast vote for the BJPbecause of the weak leadershipand lack of coordinationamong workers at the grass-roots.

BJP leader Achyuta Biswaladmitted that his party orga-nization is weak at the grass-roots level.

He also said that potentialBJP voters have been keepingaway from the party's publicmeetings fearing that theirnames might be deleted fromthe State Government’s KALIAYojana.

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With the Election Commission encour-aging women to participate in the

elections process, as many as 80 pinkbooths in Baleswar district would be man-aged by women officials.

And for these pink booths or Sakhibooths, women officials from the educa-tional institutions, teachers from theschools and colleges and banks have beenpooled and trained how to conduct theelection process smoothly.

Sources said for 1,887 booths fromeight Assembly segments across the district,there is a requirement of about over14,000 officials and for the first time, about3,000 women officials would be deployedin poll duty. The 80 pink booths have beenidentified which would be solely managedby the women officials.

District Election Officer ManojSenapati said, "This time there would be 80pink booths across the district. While all

12 blocks would have five pink booths each,each municipality and urban local bodies(4) will have five booths each. They aregiven training to conduct the pollingprocess as per guidelines. The objective isto empower women voters."

Each booth while would have one pre-siding officer and 5 poling officers, all thesix would be women officials in the pinkbooths.

In the town area while five booths with-in 5 km radius of the town have been iden-tified as pink ones, they would be managedby the women officials.

Senapati said the women officialswould transported to the polling stationand all the provisions have been made fortheir stay and food in the station and fur-ther for their security, women police offi-cers would be deployed.

Besides pink booths, women officialstoo would be deployed in the other boothswhere there are requirements.

No single woman would be deployedin any polling station in duty and on theother hand, at least two women would bedeployed which would be also managed bymale officials.

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The election scenario in theST-reserved Lok Sabha

constituency of Mayurbhanj isgradually hotting up. Althoughit is going to polls on April 29in the fourth phase, all the keypolitical players have nowgeared up their activities.

Even though major politi-cal parties, with the only excep-tion of the Jharkhand MuktiMorcha (JMM), are yet tofinalize the names of their can-didates for the elections, theirleaders are busy campaigningfor their respective parties.

The BJP and the BJD, how-

ever, seem to be a little aheadin this respect at thismoment.

Whosoever their candi-dates may be, they have beenembarking on different massmobilising programmes like‘Jana Sampark Yatra’, ‘VijaySankalp Abhiyan’, ‘Jana JagaranKaryakram’, ‘Lok SamparkPadayatra’ etc.. While BJP ismoving ahead with the slogan“Fir ek baar, Modi Sarkar’, BJDis telling people ‘Puni thareNaveen’ (Naveen once again).

Presently, while the sittingMP and the MLAs here belongto the BJD, the Zila Parishadpresident and 49 out of the 56ZP Members belong to the BJP.Thus both BJD and BJP appearto be on an equal footing incampaigning this time.

While the former talks ofNaveen’s achievements, the lat-ter counts on the success sto-ries of Modi Government.

The regional political play-er JMM, which has alreadynamed Morcha supremo SibuSoren’s daughter Anjani Sorenas its Lok Sabha candidate, isalso busy approaching the elec-torate in various ways. And itdoes seem to have some con-siderable influence on the trib-al voters in the area.

Significantly, the Congressnow appears here to be a fast-fading force. It is only likely togo for a tie-up with JMM and,instead of fielding its own can-didate, may extend its supportto that tribal-dominated partyat the last moment, observerssay.

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One Raising Sundhi(51), a disabled of

Ranjana village in BatisuanGram Panchayat ofPallahara block has beendeprived of ration cardunder the NFSA and pen-sion.

He belongs to the STcategory and has three chil-dren, earning hisbread as adaily wager.

All the family membersdepend upon him .He isalso residing in a dilapi-dated thatched house.

Disabled Raisingapplied many times toinclude him in theGovernment schemes butin vain till now. Now, he has decided not to cast his vote in thecoming elections.

SAMBALPUR: JayashreeMishra, popularly known as‘Jayashree Nani’ in Sambalpurtown, has decided to contestfrom the Sambalpur Assemblyconstituency for the sixth timeand, more importantly, fromthe Bijepur Assembly seat inBargarh district which ChiefMinister Naveen Patnaik haschosen as his second con-stituency this time.

As an Independent candi-date, 57-year-old Jayashree hasbeen contesting Assembly elec-tions as an Independent can-didate for the last five elections.She had also contested a LokSabha election. “I am regular-ly contesting elections to focus

the right of women and prob-lems of the poor people livingbelow poverty line,” Jayashreesaid.

Jayashree has no house ofher own and lives in veranda ofthe district Collectorate build-ing here using common toiletsand sleeping on the floor.

During the 2014 elections,her symbol was ‘coconut.’ Shewas seen moving with acoconut rapped on a red aus-picious cloth and hanging fromher neck. Jayashree startedunsuccessfully contesting elec-tions as a Ward member in theSambalpur Municipality in1988. Thereafter, she has therecord of contesting eight timesas ward member, Sarpanch,MLA and MP candidate, alsowithout success. PNS

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BALESWAR: Special POCSO Court Judge-cum-AdditionalSessions Judge Ajanta Sadangi convicted a rape and murderaccused and sentenced him for life imprisonment along with fineof Rs 25,000 and in default another 15 months’ jail term.

The convict, Muna Das alias Sahani (19), a native of Suan(Iram), under Basudevpur police station limits of Bhadrak, hadraped and killed a 7-year -old girl of Remuna area on April 24,2016. Further, he disposed of the body in the river Sono. Thebody of the missing deceased was found by the villagers the nextday. Muna was residing in his maternal uncle house when he com-mitted the offence. He was caught by the villagers in suspicionand handed over to the police. After interrogation, he confessedto the crime. “Sixteen witnesses were cross examined and 26 doc-uments were exhibited before the court. The medical examina-tion revealed that the convict committed the crime against thevictim since his private part bore injury marks,” said Special PublicProsecutor Pranab Panda. PNS

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Guided by the vision of its founder

JamsetjiNusserwanji Tata, theTata Steel is focusing on pro-motion of quality educationand healthcare services inKalinganagar area.It has takenseveral measures in this direc-tion. Under ‘Thousand Schoolproject’, which aims to improvethe standards of education inGovernment-run primaryschools in six blocks, the com-pany has reached out to morethan 40,000 students inDanagadi and Sukinda blocksunder various activities.Importantly, school drop outsare being brought to the main-

stream to make hamlets childlabour free zones.

Tata Steel has undertakenthe project of constructing 30model schools in Odisha, 9 outof which have been construct-ed in Jajpur alone. Tata Steelisextending financial assistanceto meritorious students underits Jyoti Fellowship programme.More than 1,700 students havebenefitted so far. The compa-ny has started a free bus servicefor schoolchildren from

Danagadi to SukindaCollege recently.

The Loyola Schoolconstructed by theTata Steel at a cost ofmore than Rs 25 croreis expected to spear-head quality educa-tion in the region.

Similarly, to pro-vide better healthcare

services to the community liv-ing in and aroundKalinganagar, the CSR wing ofthe company, Tata Steel RuralDevelopment Society (TSRDS),has introduced seven mobilemedical vans to cater to thehealthcare needs of more than9,000 people in remotest of vil-lages every month. This apart,the company has facilitatedthe setting up of a 100 bedstate-of-the-art hospital atKalinganagar.

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CUTTACK: The Vigilancepolice on Wednesday caughtKalahandi district’s NarlaRevenue Inspector (RI) RakeshRoshan Sahu and Peon ShyamSundar Bag red-handed fordemanding and accepting ille-gal gratification of �7,000.

They were caught takingbribe in the office from com-plainant Bharat Chandra Nayakof Kilbeda village under theNarla police station to settledetection of a sand loadedtractor of the complainant atSahu’s level.

Sahu’s house at Pastikudivillage in the district wassearched. Both the accusedpersons were arrested and for-warded to court.

Similarly, Gajapati district’sChhelagada Revenue Circle RIChintamani Panigrahi wascaught taking bribe of �1,000from complainant BikramRaita of Anjarba village in thedistrict to submit enquiryreport for issue of residence,caste and income certificate infavour of the complainant.His residential Governmentquarter at Chhelagada andhouse at Old Brahmapur wassearched. PNS

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Odias in Odisha and outsidecelebrated the Pakhala

Dibas on Wednesday.The Odisha luncheons are

typically an elaborate spread ofmouthwatering delicacies com-prising dishes keeping in mindthe taste of invitees. However,Chief Minister Naveen Patnaikonce hosted a Pakhala party forformer President PranabMukherjee, BJP patriarch LalKrishna Advani, former PrimeMinister HD Deve Gowda and

CPI (M) leader SitaramYechury.

Patnaik played host to thedignitaries at his residenceNaveen Niwas in January. Thedistinguished leaders hadarrived here to participate inthe launch of book ‘The TallMan Biju Patnaik’. The tradi-tional Odia food had PiajaPeetha, Saga Badi, and SajanaChhuin Bhaja as side dishes fol-lowed by Chhena Poda asdessert. The much-loved sum-mer delicacy was served onbanana leaves and brass wares.

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Nalco CMD Dr TapanKumar Chand honoured

the parents of Pulwama martyrManoj Kumar Behera at Purion the occasion of the 91stfoundation day of the PuriClub, which is one of the her-itage clubs of the State in thehistoric city of Puri.

Dr Chand attended theevent as chief guest while SJTAChief Administrator PradiptaKumar Mohapatra, Puri districtCollector Jyoti Prakash Das and

Superintendent of Police DrUmashankar Dash and DFOHarshvardhan Udgata wereguests of honour.

Dr Chand was given the

honorary membership of theclub on the occasion beinginducted as a club member byCollector Jyoti Prakash Das,who is chairman of the club.

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Gold bars weighing around610 grams and worth

�20.5 lakh were seized from apassenger at the Biju PatnaikInternational Airport (BPIA)here on the wee hours ofWednesday.

Reports said a CISF per-sonnel deployed at the airportdetected suspicious behaviourof the passenger and laterrecovered two gold bars offoreign origin kept hiddeninside his turban after a thor-ough inspection.

The passengerAmarjeet Singh ofHastinapur in UttarPradesh, who had arrived atthe BPIA from Bangkok,was carrying the gold barssealed in a black tape andtucked inside his turban.

He was supposed toleave for Delhi at 5.15 am onthe day.

The accused Singhalong with the seized goldbars and other belongingswere later handed over toairport Customs officialsfor further investigation.

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Former Chief Secretary ofOdisha Lalat Indu Parija’s

book ‘Fate Takes A Hand’ wasunveiled at Cuttack onWednesday. Former Judge,Supreme Court, Anang KumarPattnaik and Orissa HighCourt Judge Justice M M Dashjoined as the chief guest and theguest of honour, respectively, inthe programme and unveiledthe book.

Anang Pattnaik focusedon Parija’s 40 long years of workas a public servant.

Among other guests, BijanRay, Senior Advocate,Amarendra Nath Mishra, for-mer Chairman, Income TaxSettlement Commission ofIndia and Parija’s sonsBharatendu Parija andJagatendu Parija were present.

LI Parija is son of Dr PranaKrushna Parija, the world-renowned Botanist.

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As many as 100 MBBS stu-dents along with three

Assistant Professors, DrArvinda Singh, Dr Dibya JyotiMohapatra and Dr Sujata, ofthe All India Institute ofMedical Sciences (AIIMS),Bhubaneswar visitedthe National Career Service

Centre for Differently Abled(NCSCDA) on Wednesday.

The students were dividedin two teams lead by JPadmanav Rao, YoungProfessional and SoumayaRanjan Padhi, TrainingCoordinator and PlacementOfficer under the leadership ofRam Kishor Sharma, Centre

Head. At the end, a motiva-tional session was taken bySharma.

Both the teams visited eachand every activity and infra-structure of the NCSCDA and

interacted with Persons withDisabilities (PwDs) undergoingtraining there. Sharma dis-cussed at length about theGovernment InstitutionalRehabilitation Network.

Sharma said doctors pro-vide treatment, surgery andtherapeutic services to allPwDs.

In many cases, the possi-bilities of treatment, surgery

and therapy are very remote.Therefore, doctors can referPwDs and their parents toconcerned rehabilitation insti-tutions in the State and coun-try so that PwDs can become

independent by availing reha-bilitation services and schemes.

The visit of students ofAIIMS to NCSCDABhubaneswar was first-of-its-kind in the country. ProfGitanjali Batmanaben playedvery important role in thisunique exposure visit. Dr VikasBhatia, Asst Prof AravindaSingh, Dr Dibya JyotiMohapatra, Dr Sujata coordi-nated the visit.

The young MBBS studentstook very keen interest inobserving rehabilitation ser-vices for PwDs particularlybarrier-free infrastructure,Braille reading, writing, use ofcomputer by trainees withblindness etc. They asked sev-eral interesting questions.

Sharma said that exposurevisit of MBBS students defi-nitely would have meaningfuloutcome particularly in refer-ral services.

He appealed other medicalcolleges for such exposure vis-its to the NCSCDA.

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A State-level workshoporganised by the Sparsh

Foundation of JK Papers in col-laboration with the Nabarddecided to set up an OdishaBamboo Resource Centre(OBRC) in Bhubaneswar totake up research, advocacy andproject implementation initia-tives in the bamboo sector ofthe State.

The deliberations in fiveintensive sessions focused onunderstanding the utility of thebamboo in our lives, dissectedthe opportunities for liveli-hood promotion and develop-ing a bamboo startup cultureand suggested strategies onhow best to increase corporatefunding into the sector.

CGM, Nabard AChandrasekhar appreciated theeffort of the organisers andannounced to work with farmers producing

companies, banks and StateGovernment agencies to ensurecollateral-free loans to farmers to cultivate bamboo in non-forestareas and make bamboo culti-vation commercially viable.

Several notable bambooexperts like Dr BN Mohantyfrom IPIRTI, Bangalore, PankajArora from Bamboo Initiativeof Haryana, Harish Dash fromthe United States, Janmejay

Mohanty of Auroville BambooCentre, Puducherry, Dr NBarathi of Growmore fromHosur, Tamilnadu, ProfNirakar Bhol of OUATBhubaneswar, Dhruba Charan Bal, DGM, AgriFinance, SBI, Bhubaneswar, DrAmbika Nanda, Head CSR,Tata Steel, Biswajit Dwivedi,VP, JKPM, Basanta KumarDash Director, Handicraft andCottage Industries,

Government of Odisha, ProfBinay Jena, Director of NIFTBhubaneswar, PK Mohapatra,DGM, NABARD, Odisha,Kapil Kaul, Head CSR, JKGroup, Prof Srinivas Subbaraoof Sri Sri University and DrAmbika Nanda of Tata Steelargued strongly in favour ofbamboo’s huge utility as ahandy household product hav-ing large-scale industrial use aswell.

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The All India Forward Bloc(AIFB) Odisha State

Committee on Wednesdayannounced its first list of can-didates for the elections.

AIFB national secretaryNaren Chatterjee addressing aPress meet here said the partyin its first list has announcednames of candidates for threeLok Sabha and 20 Assemblyseats.

For the Lok Sabha seats,Praffula Kumar Nayak wouldcontest from Keonjhar,Surendra Baliputia from

Nabarangpur and RajeebChandra Khadenga from Aska.

For the Assembly seats,

Surjyamani Nayal would con-test from Chitrakonda,Samarjeet Mohanty from

Polosara, Jitendriya Beherafrom Puri, Abhijit Mishra fromGhasipura, Narendra Kumar

Jena from Anandpur, PadminiLaguri from Patna, RanjeetMunda from Keonjhar,

Ratikant Parida fromChampua, Sarbeswar Mishrafrom Baleswar and BijaylaxmiSamantray from Nimapara.

Pradip Das would contestfrom Bhubaneswar Central,Debraj Sahu from Ranpur,Siddharth Patjoshi fromBrahmapur, BibhudendraPadhi from Chikiti, AnirudhMallick from Remuna, BikashMadi from Malkangiri,Dhanurjya Hantal fromKoraput, Pratima Nayak fromCuttack-Choudwar, LaxmidharGiri from Basta and NarayanDalua from BhubaneswarEkamra.

Among others, AIFB Statecommittee general secretaryJyoti Ranjan Mahapatra, Statepresident Purnachandra Padhy,secretary Jitendra Behera andRatikant Parida were present.

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The EIRC, BhubaneswarBranch of the Institute of

Chartered Accountants of India(ICAI) conducted a seminar on“Bank Audit 2019’ here onWednesday.

The seminar was inaugu-rated by Canara Bank GM andCircle Head ShreekantaMohapatra, seminar chairmanCA Prashant Panda, ICAIBhubaneswar Past ChairmanCA Sumit Binani, EIRCChairman CA Nitesh Kumar More, EIRC ViceChairman CA Sunil KumarSahoo, EIRC Secretary CARavi Kumar Patwa, TreasurerCA Debayan Patra, MCMember CA Sugyan KumarSahoo and Secretary CABisworanjan Sutar.

Newly elected office-bear-ers and managing committeemembers of EIRC of ICAIwere felicitated.

Canara Bank GMMohapatra said that auditorsplay a major role in detectingfrauds and, thus, they should beequipped with latest technolo-

gy changes and manner ofconducting the audit.

Seminar Chairman Pandaemphasised on the importanceof conducting audit in CBSenvironment, importance ofLFAR compliance, bench-marking standards in auditand identifying critical areas inreporting etc.

In the technical session,CA Niranjan Joshi fromMumbai deliberated on thetopic “Overview on BankBranch Audit, Planning andDocumentation” and CS G V

Subba Rao from Hyderabaddeliberated on the topic“Prudential norms on IncomeRecognition, AssetsClassification and Provisioningpertaining to Advances,Implementation of BaselCapital RegulatoryRequirements in India,Disclosure Requirements andTreasury and InvestmentFunctions.

The seminar was attendedby over 250 Members from thefraternity and bank from dif-ferent banks.

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The Karttabya SwachhasebiSangathan in association

with the Blood Donors Are LifeSavers, Lions Club KendrapadaNilachakra and MahakalparaYouth Group organised ahealth awareness programmeand blood donation camp at Chhedakani,Mahakalpara and Kendrapadaon Wednesday.

More than three hundredpeople of nearby panchayatswere examined by Central RedCross Blood Bank Medical

Officer (MO) Dr ChandrikaPrasad Das and Mahakalpara MO DrHrushikesh Lenka.

In the blood donationcamp about 60 units of bloodwere collected. Among others,Lions Club, KendraparaNilachakra president DeepakChoudhury , Blood Donors areLife Saver founder LaxmanSwain, Red Cross life memberArun Das, Naba Diganta Bisoi,Pranay Parida RajkishoreNayak, Kulamani Choudhury, Ashok Senapati and BadalSenapati were present.

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Lashing out at the Congressfor insulting institutions,

including Parliament, judicia-ry, media and the armed forces,when it was in power, PrimeMinster Narendra Modi onWednesday asked people tomake a judicious decision whileexercising their franchise dur-ing the Lok Sabha poll, begin-ning next month.

“As you go to vote -remember the past and howone family’s desire for powercost the nation so greatly. Ifthey could do it then, theycansurely do it now,” Modi wrotein his blog .

“Think wisely: From thepress to parliament. From sol-diers to freespeech.From theconstitution to the courts.Institutional insult is theCongress way,” he said contin-uing his attack on the Congresswhich has challenged his claimson development and nationalsecurity.

“Everyone is wrong, onlythe Congress is correct,” hesaid, takinga dig at the princi-pal opposition party.

India has seen that when-ever dynastic politics has beenpowerful,institutions havetaken a severe beating, he said.

Referring to parliamen-tary proceedings, he said, “Thenation knowsthe numericaldynamics of both houses. It isclear that when a non-dynasty-party [has a] higher number, itstendency to work more is vis-

ible... Which were the forcesdisrupting the House and why.”

His Government haschanged things as it puts insti-tutions above everything else,the Prime Minister said .

On the issue of freedom ofexpression, the Prime Ministerallegedthat dynastic partieshave ever been comfortablewith a free and vibrant press.

“No wonder, the very firstconstitutional amendmentbrought in bythe CongressGovernment sought to curtailfree speech. Speaking truthtopower, which is the hallmark ofa free press was seen as vul-garand indecent,” Modi wrote.

He pointed out that theUPA years saw the bringing ofa law thatcould land you inprison for posting anything“offensive”.

“A tweet against the son ofa powerful UPA minister couldland innocent citizens in jail ...The nation watched with hor-ror when a few youngster-swere arrested for expressingtheir true feelings at a pro-gramme inKarnataka, wherethe Congress is sharing power,”he said.

Modi said he wants to tellthe Congress that “no amountof intimidation”will change theground realities. “Curbing free-dom of expressionwill notchange people’s poor impres-sion of the party.”

Referring to Emergency, hesaid it was imposed to “safe-guard” theinterests of a“dynasty”.

“The Congress hasimposed Article 356 almost ahundred times, with Mrs.Indira Gandhi herself doing soabout fifty times. If they didnotlike a State Government orleader the government wasdismissed,” he wrote.

Referring to the judiciary,he alleged that Congress’ con-tempt forcourts “is anywaylegendary”.

“It was Mrs. Indira Gandhiwho called for a ‘committedjudiciary’,which seeks to makethe courts more loyal to afamily than to theConstitution,” he claimed.

This pursuit of a “commit-ted judiciary”, Modi said, madeCongressoverlook severalrespected judges while appoint-ing the chief justice of India.

“Congress’ modus operan-di is simple- reject, discredit andthreaten.If a judicial verdictgoes against them, they reject it,then theydiscredit the judge andthereafter, talk about bringingimpeachmentmotions againstthe judge,” he said apparentlyreferring to moves to impeachthen CJI DipakMisra.

He said from CAG to theerstwhile PlanningCommission, Congressneverrespected institutions.

“In a telling comment, for-mer Prime Minister RajivGandhi called the PlanningCommission led by DrManmohan Singh, ‘A bunch ofjokers’,”he said.

In an oblique reference toCongress chief Rahul Gandhi’s

brother-in-law Robert Vadra’sappearance before investigatingagencies, he said,” The sense ofentitlement can be seen intheir conduct towards rou-tinelegal processes. At present,their top leadership is on bailvis-a-vis a major scam. Whenthe authorities seek to questionthem on their dealings, they donot even bother to reply.”

He also accused theCongress of lacking “internaldemocracy”, sayingif a leaderdares to dream to head thatparty, he or she is shunted out.

Modi’s attack against theCongress came on a day itsgeneral secretaryPriyankaGandhi Vadra also accusedhim of undermining everyinstitutionin the country.

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Continuing its unfinishedtask of finalising the

LokSabha list of candidates,the BJP Central ElectionCommittee (CEC) again methere on Wednesday and scru-tinised the list of candidates forUttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

According to sources, thenames a major chunk of can-didates, particularly those con-testing in the first phase, wouldbe out only on Friday (March22) evening, post-Holi. Theparty is yet to release its first listof candidates despite threerounds of intensive discus-sions, virtually burning themidnight oil.

This is the third time sincelast week that the BJP topleaders including PrimeMinister NarendraModi andParty president Amit Shah helda marathon meeting to give agreen signal to the list of can-didates for various states. Thefirst phase of voting is on April11 and most of the oppositionparties are out with the namesof their candidates.

With winnability in mind,the top BJP leadership is set todrop many a veteran MPs toovercome the crucial anti-incumbency factor againstthem. Constituencies of a num-ber of MPs have also been

changed , factoring new situa-tions, sources said.

BJP has already decided todrop all sitting MPs fromChhattisgarh and sought afresh list of candidates from thestate unit.

The BJP CEC discussed 91seats going to polls in firstphase on April 11 which arespread over 20 states includingUttar Pradesh, West Bengal ,Karnataka, Bihar, Odisha andUttarakhand. The last date offiling nomination is March 25and the last date withdrawal ofnomination is March 28.

Among the constituencieswhich would vote in the firstphase include eight in UP, fivein Uttarakhand, four in Bihar,Seven in Maharashtra, five inAssam, four in Odisha and twoin West Bengal.

The second phase of pollon April 18 involves 97LokSabha constituenciesincluding 13 states.

Third phase on April 23(115 constituencies, 14 states),Fourth phase on April 29 (71constituencies, 9 states), Fifthphase on May 6 (51 con-stituencies, 7 states), Sixthphase May 12 (59 constituen-cies, 7 states) and the lastSeventh phase on May 19 (59constituencies, 8 states). Thecounting of votes would be onMay 23 when results wouldalso be announced.

Two of the sitting BJP MPsand party seniorsSushmaSwaraj and Uma Bhartihave volunteered to not tocontest LokSabha polls. But BJPis open to field some of the vet-erans past 75 years if theychose to contest poll.

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Senior Congress leader PChidambaram on

Wednesday came out hardagainst Finance Minister ArunJaitley asking if a person dis-agreeing with the Governmentis a “compulsive contrarian”,can someone who alwaysagrees with it be called “hismaster’s voice”.

The Finance Minister hasslammed 108 economists andsocial scientists as “compulsivecontrarians” for raising concernover “political interference” toinfluence statistical data.

In his blog published onTuesday, Jaitley had said these“compulsive contrarians” haverepeatedly signed memoran-dums of what he said wasmanufactured political issues

against the present govern-ment.

Responding to Jaitley,Chidambaram tweeted:“According to Mr Jaitley, onewho disagrees with the gov-ernment is a ‘compulsive con-trarian’. Can we then say thatanyone who always agrees withthe government is ‘His Master’sVoice’?”

As many as 108 econo-mists and social scientists,including Jean Dreze(Allahabad University), EmilyBreza (Harvard University),Satish Deshpande (DelhiUniversity), Esther Duflo(MIT, US) and Jayati Ghosh(JNU), had made an appeal lastweek, expressing their concernover “political interference” ininfluencing statistical data inIndia.

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As the revelers gear up to par-ticipate in festival of

colours, Holi on Thursday, doc-tors have warned that in absenceof proper safeguards, these col-ors might do more harm thangood and dampen the festivemood, particularly those suf-fering with asthma. Asthmaticchildren are the worst victims.

Asthma is a chronic reac-tive airway disease character-ized by recurrent symptoms,reversible airway obstructionand bronchospasm.

Dr. Amitabha Ghosh,Columbia Asia Hospital,Gurgaon, said that they receivearound 20 to 25 patients in theOPD just before and after theHoli festival with complaints ofcough, breathing issues, skinirritations and rashes.

Besides, some also comewith complaints of sore orteary eyes after being affectedby some of the artificial colorsused during Holi.

“It is advisable that one

should take adequate precau-tion to guard themselves.Asthma patients should followthe medication regime for aweek in the run up to the fes-tival. While playing with colors,be careful that you do notinhale it anyway,” he said.

Asthma attacks can be trig-gered by dust, powders, coldair, air pollution, smoke andother allergens. As Holi isnearer, it can be disastrous forthe patients with asthma, addedDr. Sandeep Nayar, SeniorConsultant & HOD,Respiratory Medicine, Allergyand Sleep Disorder, BLK SuperSpeciality Hospital.

He suggested the asthmat-

ic patient to keep their inhalerswith them for emergency situ-ation while asthmatic childrenshould avoid playing with drycolours. “Children should notbe left alone, parents need toremain around them and not toleft them alone as they can helpin crucial times during asthmatrouble,” he added.

The doctors said that drycolours like gulals which arehigh on heavy metals like leadshould be avoided while qual-ity wet colours should be used.

Dr. Partap Chauhan,Director, Jiva Ayurveda talkedabout preventive measures thatone should take if playing Holiis unavoidable. A day before

Holi, one should apply mustardoil or lotion all over the bodyto keep the skin protectedwhich will also ensure remov-ing colours with ease. On hairone should apply plenty ofcoconut oil to prevent coloursfrom penetrating deep intothe roots, he said. “To get ridof hard colours which are pre-pared from harmful substanceslike acids, glass and strongchemicals,” Dr Chauhan said.

Do’s and Don’t’s duringholi

Use coconut oil on skinbefore playing Holi; Do prop-er oiling of hair; Use condi-tioner on hair after playingcolours; Cover yourself asmuch as possible; Use drycolours; Use colours madefrom plants;If colour enterseyes, immediately wash it withplain water repeatedly andthen take doctor’s advice

Don’ts: Avoid sitting in thesun after playing colours; Eat ordrink after washing hands orremoving colours; Do not playwith eggs, mud, black ink.

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Vice President M VenkaiahNaidu on Wednesday said

free media is the cornerstone ofdemocracy and it can actuallybe a force multiplier to sustaindemocracy. Delivering the firstAtal Behari Vajpayee MemorialLecture at Indian Institute ofMass Communication in NewDelhi, Naidu said media shouldplay a pivotal role in spreadingcorrect and credible informa-tion and the news and viewsshould not be mixed. The VicePresident said, an unbiasedmedia ensures that people arewell informed and mediashould take care of facts and theopinion must be expressedwithout any fear.

Naidu expressed concernover the menace of paid newssaying the people should comeand vote in large number in theLok Sabha elections as votingis not just a right, it is aboutduty and people must per-form their duty by castingtheir vote. He said during elec-tions, political parties tend tomake “popularistic promises”and the media should play therole of questioning the basis ofthese promises. Terming vot-ing a “national call of duty”, hesaid voting in every electionneeds to be made a habit.“The media has an importantrole in promoting participato-ry democracy throughenhanced voter turnout whichin turn broad bases the foun-dation of democratic gover-nance,” Naidu said.

The vice president asked

media organisations to devotespace and time to report on theantecedents of politicians, theirpast work, participation indebates in state legislaturesand Parliament. “These factsshould be reminded to thepeople so that they can makean informed choice,” he said inhis lecture on the ‘Role ofMedia in Moulding anEnlightened Electorate’.

Expressing concern overthe “unhealthy” trend of politi-cians switching from one partyto another after being elected,Naidu opined that defectionswere making a mockery ofdemocracy. Defectors mustresign from the post and seekreelection, he said.

Naidu stressed on theneed for speedy disposal ofelection cases pending beforevarious courts and time-bounddisposal of cases by presidingofficers of legislative bodies.The vice president asked peo-ple to elect leaders based ontheir character, caliber, capac-ity and conduct, but warnedthat some people were trying toreplace these qualities withcash, community, caste andcriminality (4Cs).

Referring to the efforts ofthe Election Commission tocombat fake news, Naidu saidthe media’s role is extremelyimportant during elections asthe chances of people propa-gating fake news increases.

“It is the responsibility ofthe media to act like myth-busters in such sensitive times,and report the absolute, undi-luted truth,” he said.

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Senior Congress leader KapilSibal on Wednesday

returned fire at Prime MinisterNarendra Modi over his“dynastic politics” attack on theCongress, saying the PM him-self comes from the SanghParivar without whose bless-ings no one in the country canoccupy any public position.

He said the Prime Ministershould introspect and insteadof talking about dynastic pol-itics, should focus on issuesconfronting people.

“What is the PM talkingabout? No one in the BJP canoccupy any public positionwithout the support of the RSS(Rashtriya SwayamsevakSangh). The Sangh Parivar isthe biggest parivar in the world.Without

their blessings no one canhold any public position in thecountry, be it the position of aPM, a minister, Governor orchief ministers,” Sibal told PTI.

Sibal’s remarks came inresponse to Prime MinisterModi’s attack on the grand oldparty in a blog published ear-lier Wednesday.

Modi urged people tothink wisely before castingvote, saying that from the pressto Parliament, from soldiers tofree speech, from theConstitution to the courts,“institutional insult is theCongress way”.

“India has seen that when-ever dynastic politics has beenpowerful, institutions have

taken a severe beating,” hesaid.

Reacting to the remarks,Sibal asked the prime ministerto look within and focus onaddressing the issues concern-ing the country - such as farmcrisis, joblessness, shortage ofdrinking water, education,

health and pollution chal-lenges.

“Is the PM so busy in thecampaign that he has forgottenall about the people of India.He’s only worried aboutdynasty,” the former HRD min-ister said.

Sibal added that there is noone in the BJP, barring a few,who have not come from theRSS background. The primeminister, governors, chief min-isters and ministers all belongto the RSS.

He also alleged that about2 crore jobs were lost sinceModi came to power, citing aNational Sample Survey Office(NSSO) data.

He said the national maleworkforce had shrunk from30.4 crore in 2011-12 to 28.6crore in 2017-18.

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Transgender model andactress from Manipur

Bishesh Huirem has beenengaged as “State Icon” by theElection Commission (EC) toinspire voters in Manipur toparticipate in the upcomingLok Sabha polls while Mumbaisocial worker Shree GauriSawant, another transgenderappointed as ‘election ambas-sador’ by the EC. For its part,the Punjab district electoraloffice also appointed a trans-gender Preeti Mahant as thedistrict icon to create awarenessactivities under the SystematicVoter Education and ElectoralParticipation Programme(SVEEP).

In another development,transgender leader Rajni Rawatwho contested Mayor electionof Dehradun as an Aam AdmiParty (AAP) candidate lastyear has been barred fromcontesting Lok Sabha polls asshe had failed to submit elec-tion expenditure of 2017assembly polls in Uttrakhand.

According to EC, Bisheshrepresented India at the MissInternational Queen inThailand in 2016, has beenappointed as one of the “stateicons” to motivate the masses,particularly transgender, toparticipate in the Lok Sabhaelections.

Bishesh is the first trans-gender celebrity in the countryto be appointed as a state iconfor the parliamentary polls. Agraduate in fashion and appar-el designing from BangaloreUniversity, she is one of the

highest-paid artistes inManipuri films and mobiletheatres.

According to EC, it’s thefirst time that Shree GauriSawant a transgender has beenappointed as an electionambassador in India. Born asGanesh Suresh Sawant, shemoved out of her Pune houseand shifted to Mumbai.

After years of extensivestruggle, ShreeGauri formed anNGO named ‘Sakhi CharChowghi’ to provide healthcare services and create sexu-

al awareness amongst trans-gender and the MSM commu-nity. In another progressivemove, in 2001 she adopted adaughter of a sex worker whopassed away while fightingHIV.

As per EC, there are 38,328transgender registered as elec-torate in the country. UttarPradesh has 8374 transgendervoters, followed by 5497 inTamil Nadu; 2700 in Bihar;2032 in Odisha; 2083 inMaharashtra; 1423 in MadhyaPradesh; 1426 in West Bengaland 1368 in Puducherry. InDelhi, as many as 665 trans-gender enrolled in the electorallist.

For the first time, trans-gender were recognised as thethird gender by the commis-sion during the 2014 Lok Sabhapolls after a landmark ruling bythe Supreme Court in thisregard.

EC officials said that alarge of transgender still preferto identify themselves as eithermale or female on the electorallist.

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Taking up the issue of jobs,the Congress on

Wednesday hit out at PrimeMinister Narendra Modi alleg-ing that the country’s “chowki-dar” is responsible for “stealing”jobs with 4.7 crore youth los-ing employment.

The party’s attack on thegovernment came over a mediareport which claimed that theactual size of India’s male work-force, or men who are working,has shrunk for the first timesince 1993-94.

“Modi ji has eaten up 4.7crore jobs of the youth. Due tothe BJP’s ‘pan-pakoda’ policy,4.7 crore youth had to washtheir hands of their jobs,”Congress’ chief spokespersonRandeep Surjewala said.

“Promise was to give 10crore jobs, but 4.7 crore jobshave been taken away. Thecountry’s chowkidar is respon-sible for stealing jobs,” he saidwith the hashtag “ChowkidarChor Hai”.

Senior Congress leaderKapil Sibal also slammed thegovernment over the unem-ployment issue. He alleged thatabout two crore jobs were lostsince Modi came to power, cit-ing National Sample SurveyOffice (NSSO) data.

Sibal said the national maleworkforce had shrunk from30.4 crore in 2011-12 to 28.6crore in 2017-18.

In all, since 2011-12, India’snational workforce shrunk by4.7 crore - more than the pop-ulation of Saudi Arabia, themedia report said.

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In a move to modernise theinfantry, the most crucial

fighting arm of the army, theDefence Acquisition Councilon Wednesday approved theprocurement of ten lakh handgrenades worth over �500crore. The grenades will be pro-cured through the Make inIndia route wherein an Indiancompany will manufacture thegrenades here.

The Defence Research andD e v e l o p m e n tOrganisat ion(DRDO)hasdeveloped the prototype of thenew grenade and an Indiancompany most probably in gtheprivate sector will manufacturethe bombs, sources said here.

The grenades are animportant part of the infantrysoldier’s kit comprising riflesalso and the grenades are usedto take out enemy bunkersand enemy in close combat. Atpresent, the Indian army usesHE grenades and they will bereplaced by the new grenades,officials said.

The nod for the grenadesclosely on the heels of openingof a factory to manufactureseven lakh AK-203 rifles with-in the country to replace thecurrently used INSAS riflesby the soldiers. The new fac-tory in Amethi is a joint ven-

ture between India and Russiaand the total value of the dealis more than �12,000 crores. AMajor General rank officerwill head the factory rifleswhich will later manfacture theAK series rifles for the para-military forces and the statepolice organizations.

Similarly, the governmentrecently gave the nod for buy-ing more than 12,000 Sig Sauerrifles for the infantry on a fasttrack basis. These rifles will beused by the soldiers guarding

the Line of Control withPakistan and the Line of ActualControl with China besidesthose engaged in counter insur-gency operations in the North-East and Jammu and Kashmir.

Since the infantry does thefighting on the ground, it’smodernisation is now top pri-ority and the government isalso likely to approve procure-ment of sniper rifles apartfrom light machine guns andmedium machine guns toguard the frontiers.

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With the aim to give a fillip to the Indian industry to man-ufacture big ticket items like warships, submarines and

helicopters besides fighter jet under the Strategic Partnershippolicy, the Government also approved new policy guide linesfor manufacturing ships, officials said. Tenders worth �25,000crore are likely to be awarded to different yards over the oneto two years, officials said.

The main focus of the new guidelines is to give a boostto the Indian medium scale shipyards to build smaller shipswithin the country after tying up with the original equipmentmanufacturer to gain access to cutting edge technology.

The government recently okayed a major project worthover �50,000 crores under the Strategic Parnership programmeto build six conventional submarines in the country and Indianshipyards. The new policy guidelines approved on Wednesdaywill also see the Indian shipyards manufacturing ships for theIndian Coast Guard, they said.

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New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate will sell 173 paint-ings and 11 vehicles “beneficially owned” by Nirav Modi, primeaccused in the �14,000- crore PNB credit fraud case, after theagency obtained permission from a special PMLA court inMumbai on Wednesday.

The special PMLA court also issued a non-bailable warrantagainst his wife Ami Modi after the ED recently filed a sup-plementary charge sheet underlining her role in the PNB scam.

The ED will put on sale the 173 paintings of Modi whichare valued at �57.72 crore and eleven vehicles that include RollsRoyce, Porsche, Mercedes and Toyota Fortuner.

Officials said a public auction will be held later this monthto monetize the seized items.

The court also allowed the Income Tax Department to sellanother 68 paintings seized by it as part of its separate probeagainst the fugitive diamantaire.

Modi was arrested by the Scotland Yard from the Holbornarea of London on Wednesday. PNS

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Dayanidhi Maran, the DMKcandidate from Chennai

Central Lok Sabha constituen-cy and his elder brotherKalanidhi Maran, suffered asetback on Wednesday asMadras High Court dismissedthe petition filed by them ask-ing to quash the chargesframed against them by thetrial court in the illegal tele-phone exchange case.

The Bench of Justice NAnand Venkatesh asked thespecial CBO court to completethe trial in four months. Thetrial court on January 30 hadfiled charges against the Maranbrothers under Sections 120 B(criminal conspiracy), 409(criminal breach of trust), 420(cheating), and Prevention ofCorruption Act.

Charges were framedagainst five others, includingformer BSNL General ManagerK Brahmanandam, deputygeneral manager Velusamy,Gauthaman (Dayanidhi’s pri-vate secretary), Kannan andReghu (employees of Sun TV,the TV network owned byKalanidhi Maran).

According to the CBI whichprobed the case following a dis-closure made by SGurunmurthy, Dayanidhi

Maran, during his tenure asunion minister for communi-cations (2004 to 2007) had setup an illegal telephone exchangeat his residence in Chennaimisusing his official power.

Dayanidhi Maran had usedthe network for the commercialtelecasting business of SunNetwork, owned by his broth-er Kalanidhi Maran. The inves-tigating agency had told thetrial court that exchequer hadlost Rs 1.78 crore because of theillegal telephone exchange.

The Special CBI court inChennai had acquitted all theaccused in the month ofMarch 2018 telling there werenot enough materials to framecharges. The CBI approachedthe Madras High Court againstthe trial court order. Justice G

Jayachandran who heard theappeal by the CBI said, “Error,illegality, and perversity allcould be pointed out in theimpugned trial court order”.Though the Marans rushed tothe Supreme Court seekingthe quashing of the MadrasHigh Court order, the apexcourt asked them to stand trialin the case.

Following the dismissal oftheir petition in the SupremeCourt, R Vasanthi, the XIVadditional special judge forCBI cases, charged framesagainst the Maram brothersalong with their five associatesunder Section 120-B of the IPC(Criminal Conspiracy),Criminal Breach of Trust (sec-tion 409), Cheating (section420) and criminal misconductby public servants (Section13(2) of the Prevention ofCorruption Act).

The trial was to begin on September 14 last yearwhen the Marans in a last-ditchattempt approached theMadras High Court which dis-missed their petition on Friday.

The Maran brothersapproached the Madras HighCourt early January with aplea to quash the subsequentcharges filed against them bythe CBI court and Wedneday’sverdict was the fall out of thecase.

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All major players competingin the April 18 phase of the

General election from TamilNadu launched their cam-paigns on Wednesday.

While Leader ofOpposition and DMK chiefMK Stalin began his election-eering from Thiruvarur (theAssembly constituency repre-sented by his late father andformer Chief Minister MKarunanidhi) with a heartrending speech pleading withthe voters to elect the DMKnominees, his son UdhayanidhiStalin declared from Saidapetthat the DMK president wouldsoon become the ChiefMinister of the State to usherin the Karunanidhi rule.

Chief Minister EdappadyPalaniswamy chose his homeconstituency of Salem as the

starting point of his campaigntrail. The Chief Minister’sspeech targeted TTVDhinakaran and theMannargdi family for forcingby-election from 18 assemblyseats in the State. “The DMKand the Dhinakaran clan hasbeen working over time fromday one to pull down theGovernment formed byAmma,” said Palaniswamy.

Two senior politiciansin the State, OPanneerselvam m DeputyChief Minister and DuraiMurugan, treasurer of theDMK, hit the campaign trailsat Theni and Velloor solicitingvotes for their sons.Raveendranatha Kumar, son ofPanneerselvam is theAIADMK Lok Sabha candidatefrom Theni while KathirAnand, son of Murugan is theDMK candidate from VelloorLok Sabha constituency.

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I m p h a l / K h u m u l w n g :Congress president RahulGandhi on Wednesday lacer-ated Prime Minister NarendraModi and the BJP for “destroy-ing” one crore jobs andunleashing “politics of divisionand hatred”, insisting whilethese were happening the PMwas busy “marketing” himself.

Addressing election ralliesin Manipur capital Imphal andKhumulwng in Tripura in theNortheast, where his party’slast standing citadel fell to rivalBJP’s ally Mizo National Frontin Mizoram in November 2018,Rahul accused the saffron partyof abandoning its ‘act east pol-icy’ and attacking culture andethos of people of the region.

Unsparing in his assault onModi, Rahul also wonderedwhether the PM ever studied ata university, and alleged edu-cational institutions wereundergoing saffronisationunder his watch.

Attacking Modi over allegedloss of employment opportuni-ties, the Congress leader said thePM had claimed on taking overthe reins of the Government thattwo crore jobs will be createdevery year, but one crore jobswere lost in 2018 alone. Over30,000 jobs were lost on an aver-age every day, he claimed.

“In 2018, Prime Minister

Narendra Modi destroyed onecrore jobs. This is the scale ofhis incompetence. It is absurdand ridiculous that the PMpromises giving two crore jobs,”Gandhi told the well-attendedrally in Imphal.

A Centre for MonitoringIndian Economy (CMIE)report had recently claimed1.09 crore jobs were lost in thecountry in the past one year.

The Modi Government isunder fire from Oppositionparties as also allies like theShiv Sena over alleged job loss.

“Modi has reduced thePrime Minister’s Office to thestatus of Publicity Minister’sOffice as he is busy marketinghimself,” he earlier said duringan interaction with students inImphal, where he also accusedthe Centre of saffronising edu-cational institutions.

During the interaction, heclaimed nobody knew whetherModi ever went to a university.“We still have no access to hisuniversity degree. Nobody actu-ally knows if he went to univer-sity or not. There is an RTI(application) in Delhi seekingPM’s degree but it has not beenresponded to,” Rahul said, adding“the PM is imposing mediocrityon a sophisticated country”.

Speaking about unrest atManipur University last yearafter students and teachersdemanded removal of then vicechancellor AP Pandey over hisalleged “anti-academic activities”,the Congress president said hewas happy people of Manipursucceeded in forcing him out.Protests for ouster of Pandey,who allegedly had RSS links, hadled to the closure of universityfor three months. PTI

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Agartala: Tripura ChiefMinister Biplab Kumar Deb onWednesday came down heav-ily on the Congress, dubbing itas a party of “traitors” whoseleaders come to the State onlyto “eat the fruits of success”.

Deb also alleged that thereexisted an “unholy nexus”between the Congress and theCommunist Party of India(Marxist) at the Centre, due towhich the Left FrontGovernment managed to be inpower for 25 years in Tripura.

Addressing a BharatiyaJanata Party (BJP) workersmeeting at Pratapgarh here,Deb said, “They (Congress) aretraitors. Nobody from the partyearlier came to Tripura-- RahulGandhi, Sonia Gandhi orManmohan Singh.”

“After we freed the statefrom the Communists withsupport from Prime Minister

Narendra Modi, why are theycoming here? They are a bandof Satans. They have come toeat the fruits of success,” headded.

The Chief Minister wasreferring to Congress presidentRahul Gandhi’s visit toKhumulwng near Agartala,where he had earlier in the dayaddressed a public rally.

Dubbing the Congress as“anti Tripura”, Deb assertedthat people would reject its callto overthrow the ModiGovernment in the Lok Sabhapolls. PTI

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Confusion prevailed in the Bengal BJP ranks over

distribution of nominationtickets even as party sourcessaid though there was nodearth of candidates, there was“dearth of agreement over rightcandidate for a right con-stituency.”

Sources said a section in the party was not sure about the efficacy of nominat-ing politicians who had migrated from the TrinamoolCongress. “There may be rival opinions particularly in alarge party but things will besorted out soon; maybe in aday’s time. Soon we will comeout with a list for the first twophases,” a State-level leader

said discounting Oppositioncriticism that the party wasfishing for Left and TMC dis-sidents.

In a first time and much tothe chagrin of the rulingTrinamool Congress Bengal will have a seven-phased elections.

“Ustaader maar sesh rastey (champion strikes inlast night),” said Bengal BJPpresident Dilip Ghosh overthe party’s delay in announcingits candidates’ list. When asked as to whether all theleaders who had switched sidesfrom the TMC would get tick-ets, he said the State unit of theparty had sent a list of candi-dates to central election com-mittee. “Now it is up to thehigher leadership to decide on

the issue.”The State BJP is known to

have sent a list of 159 aspirantsto the Delhi leaders, sourcessaid. Curiously the new lookBJP — which originally hadabout 5-10 per cent votes in theState — of 2019 has a goodnumber of its probable candi-dates drawn from the TMCwhile its mass base has swelledby the erstwhile CPI(M) cadrestaking the party’s current assumed vote base toabout 30 per cent.

While an undercurrent ofspite prevailed between the“old BJP” and the “new BJP” —the ones who had crossed overto the party during 2017-2018— the names of some candi-dates had almost been finalised,sources said.

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Patna: The grand-alliance ofopposition parties in Bihar isintact and its candidates for allthe 40 Lok Sabha seats in thestate will be announced afterHoli, RJD leader TejashwiYadav said on Wednesday.

“All is well in ‘mahagath-bandhan’. It is intact and strongand we will put up a strongfight at the hustings. All dif-ferences have been ironed out.We will announce our candi-dates after Holi,” Yadav toldreporters at the Patna airportafter arriving from Delhi,where he was over the past sev-eral days negotiating the seat-sharing pact.

RJD, he said, would bestaying away from Holi cele-brations this year as a mark ofrespect for the jawans killed inthe Pulwama attack.

Sharad Yadav, whoseLoktantrik Janata Dal (LJD) isone of the constituents of thegrand-alliance, was more spe-cific on the date of announce-ment of candidates. Candidateswill be announced at a pressmeet in Patna on March 22, hetold reporters in the nationalcapital.

Meanwhile, a seniorCongress leader from Bihar,who is camping in the nation-al capital, told PTI, on condi-tion of anonymity, that reportsof his party having agreed tocontest only nine seats are“mischievous”.

“Our state election com-mittee had met in Patna lastweek and authorised RahulGandhi to take the final deci-sion in the matter. There hasbeen no communication with-in the party about the numberof seats. The media reports are,

at best, speculative,” he said.Asked how many seats the

Congress would want to con-test, he said, “Initially we want-ed 15. Later on it was agreed toscale down. But we do notthink a number less than 11would be acceptable to evenRahul Gandhi.”

“Gandhi is likely to kick offhis campaign in Bihar with arally in Purnea on March 23.There is a possibility that for-mer BJP MP Uday Singh, whojoined the Congress today, willbe fielded from there on aCongress ticket. It is also almostfinal that actor-turned-politi-cian Shatrughan Sinha will befielded from his Patna Sahibseat on our ticket. His resigna-tion from the BJP and induc-tion into the Congress willtake place in a few days,” hesaid.

The Darbhanga seat hasbecome a bone of contentionbetween the Congress and RJD.While, the Congress wants tofield Kirti Azad, who had wonthe seat five years ago on a BJPticket, the RJD wants it too.

“The seat is a stronghold ofMohd Ali Ashraf Fatmi of theRJD, who wants a ticket again.That too remains to be sortedout,” the Congress leaderadded. PTI

)�������>0����������8�������������2'������������������������$�������Jammu: As a mark of respect to

the CRPF jawans who died inthe Pulwama terror attack, theRaj Bhavan here will not cele-brate Holi this year, an officialsaid on Wednesday.

The Central Reserve PoliceForce (CRPF) too will not becelebrating the festival of coloursthis year officially in solidaritywith the families of the 44troopers killed in the February14 suicide attack in southKashmir.

A Raj Bhavan spokespersoninformed that Governor SatyaPal Malik has decided that therewill be no official Holi celebra-tions at the Raj Bhavan in thestate’s winter capital of Jammu.Malik said that he will not becelebrating the festival person-ally as well. The Governor didgreet the people and observedthat celebrating festivals togeth-er strengthens the bond ofbrotherhood between people.

In his message, Malik said,the celebration of festivals, avaluable part of our rich culturalheritage, strengthens the bondsof brotherhood and amity. Ihope that this Holi wouldspread happiness and joy allaround and promote harmony,he added. Wishing a happyHoli to the people, the Governorsaid further as he prayed fortheir well-being and prosperity.

At an event to mark the80th raising day of the force,CRPF Director General (DG) RR Bhatnagar had on Mondaysaid that there will be no “offi-cial celebrations” on Holi as amark of respect to the 40 troopskilled in Pulwama. Paying trib-utes to the slain personnel, theCRPF chief said the force wascreating a “mobile app’’ to pro-vide help to the families ofjawans killed in action. PTI

Kolkata: The BJP onWednesday filed a complaintwith the Election Commissionagainst four TrinamoolCongress leaders, includingtwo State Cabinet Ministers, forallegedly threatening andintimidating voters.

“We have filed a complaintagainst ministers Firhad Hakim, RabindranathGhosh, and senior TMC lead-ers Jitendra Tiwari andAnubrata Mondal. They haveviolated the model code ofconduct by trying to threatenand intimidate voters,” BJPgeneral secretary Jai PrakashMajumdar said.

“These four leaders shouldbe kept out of election cam-paign and other poll-related

procedures,” he said.Hakim’s comment that

“central forces will come andleave after the elections but thevoters will stay under the pro-tection of the state police” is aveiled threat to the voters,Majumder said.

“North BengalDevelopment MinisterRabindranath Ghosh andAnubrata Mandal’s commentsare intimidating in nature. Thisis nothing but violation of themodel code of conduct. TheCommission should look intoit to ensure free and fair polls,”he said.

The BJP has also accusedAsansol Mayor and TMC MLAJitendra Tiwari of trying tobribe voters. PTI

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Mumbai: In a scathing attack onthe political drama between theBJP and its allies in Goa over theleadership issue, the Shiv Senaon Wednesday dubbed it as a“terrible state of democracy”, say-ing they did not even wait forlate chief minister ManoharParrikar’s ashes to cool down.

The “shameless game ofpower” started even beforeParrikar’s ashes could mergewith the land of Gomantak, theSena said in an editorial inparty mouthpiece ‘Saamana’.

It claimed that had theBJP waited till Tuesday, itsgovernment in Goa would havefallen and one of the twodeputy chief ministers wouldhave joined the Congress andgot the desired post, it claimed.

BJP MLA Pramod Sawant

was sworn in as the new ChiefMinister of Goa just before 2am on Tuesday, capping a dayof hectic parleys between thesaffron party and its allies toput a new Government in placein the State.

After multiple postpone-ments of the oath ceremony onMonday, the day Parrikar wascremated with state honours, 11other ministers, including thosefrom BJP’s alliesMaharashtrawadi GomantakParty (MGP) and Goa ForwardParty (GFP), were also sworn in.

As per the power-sharingarrangement reached withallies, an MLA each from twosmall parties backing the BJP inGoa will be made deputy chiefminister, according to sources.

They are GFP chief Vijai

Sardesai and MGP legislatorSudin Dhavalikar.

“In the end, those whowere eyeing their shares likecats ended the game postMonday midnight with theswearing in of Sawant as thechief minister along with histwo deputies,” the UddhavThackeray-led party said.

“This is a terrible state ofdemocracy. They should havewaited for Parrikar’s ashes tocool down. What would havehappened had they waited tillTuesday morning for the oathtaking ceremony? it asked.

The pyre was burning whilethe “power hungry” were catch-ing each others neck for power.There shouldn’t have been aproblem in waiting for at leastfour hours, it opined. PTI

Gandhinagar: The 1943Bengal famine, which is esti-mated to have caused overthree million deaths, resultednot from a drought as is wide-ly thought but from the Britishgovernment’s policy failures,say IIT Gandhinagar scien-tists who have analysed 150years of drought data.

Policy lapses such as pri-oritising distribution of vitalsupplies to the military, civilservices and others as well asstopping rice imports and notdeclaring Bengal famine hitwere among the factors that ledto the magnitude of the tragedy,historians have maintained.

Now, for the first time,researchers have analysed soilmoisture database from 1870 to2016 to reconstruct agricultural

droughts.Between 1935-45, the

famine-affected region, whichwas Bengal, had no drought, theteam from the Indian Instituteof Technology here found. “Weare trying to understand theentire history of droughts inIndia and what is the likelihoodthey will occur in future,” saidVimal Mishra, assistant profes-sor at the institute.

“Famines that occurredduring the British periodcaused the deaths of millions.We investigated the factorsbehind the causes of thesedeaths -- droughts or policyfailures,” he told PTI.

The Bengal famine of 1943was “completely because ofpolicy failure”, he said.

Aside from the 1943

Bengal famine, all otherfamines during 1870 and 2016,appear to be related, at least inpart, to widespread soil mois-ture droughts, Mishra said.

While historians have doc-umented policy failures that ledto the Bengal famine, this is thefirst time scientists have usedsoil moisture data to showthere was no drought in Bengalduring the period precedingthe famine.

After analysing over 150years of data for the study pub-lished in the journalGeophysical Research Letters,researchers identified sevenmajor droughts and six majorfamines in India.

“Out of six major famines(1873–74, 1876, 1877, 1896–97,1899, and 1943) that occurred

during 1870–2016, five arelinked to soil moisture drought,and one (1943) was not,”researchers wrote in the study.

“At the time, there was notmuch irrigation, groundwaterpumping was not happeningbecause electricity or mechan-ical pumps were not available,”Mishra said.

The last major famine inthe British era occurred in1943, which is also known asthe Bengal famine. The famine resulted in two-three million deaths.

“We identified 1935-45 asa period under drought, but the famine-affected region,which was Bengal, had nodrought during this period,”said Mishra.

“We find that the Bengal

famine was likely caused byother factors related at least inpart to the ongoing threat ofWorld War II -- includingmalaria, starvation and mal-nutrition,” he added.

Previous research hasshown that in early 1943, military and other polit-ical events adversely affectedBengal economy.

“We did a very solid diag-nosis for each famine that hap-pened in Bengal and Bihar —which was part of the north-eastern province of Awadh in the British period,”Mishra said.

“What was unique in the1873-74 famine was that therewere 25 million people affect-ed but low mortality due tofamine,” he added. PTI

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Worried over the poll out-come in Jammu &

Kashmir, former alliance part-ners — Congress and theNational Conference — onWednesday brokered a final‘poll deal’ to ensure victory oftheir ‘ joint’ candidates ‘by hook or by crook’ in 2019Lok Sabha polls.

The ice was broken afterhectic parleys at the residenceof National Conference chiefFarooq Abdullah in Jammu.

The Congress team was ledby Ghulam Nabi Azad, AmbikaSoni, JKPCC chief GA Mir andformer Minister Rigzin Zora while senior NationalConference leaders Mohd ShaftiUri, Devender Singh Rana andNasir Aslam Wani accompaniedAbdullah during the final round of discussions.

Addressing a joint Pressconference in the lawns of hisresidence, Farooq Abdullah toldreporters, “National Conferencewill contest all three Lok Sabhaseats from Kashmir Valley whileCongress will field its candidatesfrom two Lok Sabha seats inJammu province.”

However, in order tostrengthen the secular front inthe State both the alliance part-ners will enter into a ‘friendly

contest’ on two of the three LokSabha seats of Baramulla andAnantnag.

The alliance partners arealso expected to go in for afriendly contest from lone LokSabha seat of Ladakh.

“Legendary leader FarooqAbdullah will be our joint can-didate from Srinagar andtogether we will campaign toensure his smooth victory,”Ghulam Nabi Azad toldreporters after thanking topbrass of the NationalConference. He said, “By goingin for a friendly contest boththe parties are expected toretain their turf as they bothenjoy support base in differentpockets of Baramulla andAnantnag”. “We are comingtogether to defeat our rival par-ties by hook or by crook,”announced Abdullah during

the Press briefing.Reciprocating the gesture,

National Conference presidentFarooq Abdullah urged theCongress leadership to strikealliances with like-minded par-ties to strengthen the secularfront at the national level aheadof the Lok Sabha polls.

In 2014, BJP candidatesfrom Jammu-Poonch andUdhampur-Doda Lok Sabhaseats had defeated Congresscandidates by huge margins ofover 2.5 lakh and 60K votesrespectively. So far BJP has notreleased list of its candidatesbut inside reports claimed theparty may give ticket to boththe sitting MPs Jugal KishoreSharma and Dr Jitendra Singh.Congress is expected to fieldVikramaditya Singh, grand-son of Maharaja Hari Singhfrom Udhampur-Doda LokSabha seat.

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Lucknow: Bahujan Samaj Partychief Mayawati on Wednesdayannounced she will not contestthe upcoming Lok Sabha elec-tions, but kept open the optionof fighting a parliamentary by-election later.

“In view of the presentcircumstances and the need ofthe country and the interests ofthe party, the movement andthe public, it is the need of thehour that I do not contest theLok Sabha polls. And this is thereason that I have decided notto contest the Lok Sabha polls,”Mayawati said here.

The former Uttar PradeshChief Minister asked partyworkers to not get disheartenedwith her decision.

“When I became UP ChiefMinister first time in 1995, Iwas not a member of either UPAssembly or council. Similarly,is the provision at the Centrewhere a person have to be aLok Sabha/Rajya Sabha mem-ber within six months of hold-ing office of minister/PrimeMinister. Don’t get disheart-ened from my decision of notto contest LS poll now,” sheclarified in her tweet. The Dalitleader added it would not be aproblem if there is a need forher to enter Parliament later.

“If it so happens that I haveto get elected to the Lok Sabhalater, I can contest from anyseat by getting it vacated and

become anMP. I willnot faceany prob-lem,” she said.

Mayawati claimed that allshe has to do is to go and filenomination papers and herparty workers will ensure hervictory. The BSP chief sug-gested that if she contests, theparty workers will focus on herseat even if she forbids them,affecting the campaign in otherconstituencies.

“Hence, winning each andevery Lok Sabha seat is moreimportant than my personalvictory,” she added. The BSP,Samajwadi Party and the RLDhave entered into an alliance inUttar Pradesh for the April-May Lok Sabha polls.

The Congress is not part of this pact, but the alliance has said it will not field candidates in Amethi andRaebareli, the two seats that arenow with Congress leadersRahul Gandhi and SoniaGandhi respectively. PTI

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Varanasi/Mirzapur: Wrappingup her three-day tour of UttarPradesh in Prime MinisterNarendra Modi’s Varanasi con-stituency, Congress leaderPriyanka Gandhi Vadra calledthe coming Lok Sabha elec-tions a “new freedom struggle”.

In a blistering attack onModi on thelast day of thetrip, by boaton the Ganga,she asked him

not to treat people “as fools”.In Varanasi, party workers

from the Congress and the BJPconfronted each other with slo-gans, with some of them scuf-fling with each other.

At a workers meeting later,the All India CongressCommitee (AICC) general sec-retary referred to this face-offand said they should stick tonon-violence, just as theCongress did during the free-dom movement.

She said people wereharassed during the Britishrule as well.

“People were in trouble andthere was nobody to listen tothem. There was no rule of thepeople. Today, the country is fac-ing a similar situation. The onlydifference is that the dictator isa “Hindustani”,” she said, in aveiled reference to Modi. “Wefought for Independence and itwas fought on the basis of truth,”

she said. “Yeh naiyee aazadi kiladai hai (This is a new freedomstruggle).” She also asked partyworkers to deal with “short-comings” within the Congress.

“There are some short-comings in our organisationand we have to mend them.Our ideology is our strength,”she said. Literally testing thewaters in the politically crucialstate, Priyanka Gandhi, who isin charge of eastern UP for theparty, travelled about 100 kilo-metres on the Ganga overthree days, ending Wednesdayin Varanasi.

Earlier, she accused Modiof targeting the country’s insti-tutions.

“The Prime Minister hasattacked every institution inthis country for the last fiveyears, including the institutionof which all of you are a part,”she told reporters in Mirzapur,where the day’s boat-trip began.“So I think the PM should stopthinking that people are foolsand realise that they see throughall this,” she said. She accusedthe Bharatiya Janata Party-ledGovernment of “harassment”.“The more we are harassed, thestronger will be our fight,” shesaid. On reaching Varanasi, sheaddressed people from theNishad and the Mallah com-munities, who are traditionallyboatmen, at the Assi ghat. PTI

Bengaluru: The death toll in thebuilding collapseat Dharwad innorth Karnataka mounted toseven on Wednesday asrescuerspulled out four more bodiesfrom the debris and oneper-sonsuccumbed to injuries athospital, policesaid.

Rescuershad pulled out 55peoplefrom the rubble of thefour-storeyed under construc-tion building, which collapsedon Tuesday evening atKumareshwaranagar in the heartof Dharwad, about 400 kmfrom here.

“Sevenpeoplehave lost theirlives,” Director General of Police(chief of fire and emergency ser-vices) MN Reddi told PTI.

Earlier, Hubballi-Dharwadcommissioner of police MNNagaraj said 55people had been rescued.

He expressed apprehensionthat about 15 to 20 peoplewere

trapped inside the rubble.No arrests have been made,

Nagaraj said.“We have registered a case.

Arrests will also follow but ourfocus at present is on the rescueoperations,” he added.

Police said rescue operationshad been intensified to extricatepeople believed to be stilltrapped beneath the debris.

In addition to 10 ambu-lances and five fire tendersdeployed for relief and rescueoperations, three teams of theNational Disaster Relief Force(NDRF) have been engaged,two from Ghaziabad and onefrom Bengaluru. “Two moreteams of #NDRF are being air-lifted from Ghaziabad in addi-tion to one team which wasmoved from Bangalore in con-nection with Dharwad buildingcollapse,” the NDRF tweeted ear-lier in the day. PTI

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Bengal Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee has dis-

missed fugitive diamond mer-chant Nirav Modi’s arrest inLondon as a “match-fixing” bythe Narendra ModiGovernment which she said,had kept hidden more suchtricks up its sleeves for electoralpurposes.

Speaking to the media atthe State secretariat at NabannaBanerjee said “this is a got upmatch,” adding the ModiGovernment “does not deserveany credit for this. The creditmust go to the journalist whoexposed Nirav Modi,” beforethat the Government had no clue about where theloan defaulter was holed up inthe UK.

Nirav had defaulted onand decamped with a loan�14,000 crore loan taken fromvarious banks including the

Punjab National Bank.Even as the BJP faulted

Banerjee for “calling it got-upgame and at same time givingthe credit of getting him arrest-ed to a journalist,” the CMwondered what was behindthe whole game. “I wonderpardey ke peeche kya hai.”

She called it another“strike.” She added “like we sawstrikes in factories in the pastwe are seeing new strikes now.This Nirav Modi strike is one of them. Much morestrikes will happen during theelections.”

Wondering what the

Government was doing withthe “other man” presumablyMehul Coksi the uncle of Nirav,Banerjee said “the other man isalso there (abroad). They areno longer Indian citizens,”wondering how these peoplewould be brought back oncethey were allowed to go by theBJP Government.

Banerjee said “no amountof trick will impact the peopleas the expiry date of thisGovernment is over and noamount of medicine will worknow,” adding how public sectorundertakings were sufferingat the hand of the BJPGovernment. “The BSNLemployees are not getting theirsalaries. The Air India is undersale. They are disinvestingeverything. One day they willdisinvest the entire country.They have ruined the country’seconomy through demoneti-zation when about 2 crorepeople lost their jobs.”

Mumbai: The NCP onWednesday termed fugitivediamantaire Nirav Modi’s arrestin London as a “pre-planneddrama” by the Government toderive a political mileage inview of the next month’s LokSabha elections.

Maharashtra NCP chiefJayant Patil said it was alreadyknown that the economicoffender was living in Londonafter fleeing India.

“Nirav Modi’s arrest hasbeen timed ahead of Lok Sabhapolls...Some channels hadshowed Modi as being inLondon, which was knownpreviously,” Patil told reporters here.

“It is a pre-planned dramaby the Government...To pre-tend as bringing back thosewho had fled the country tillthe Lok Sabha polls (other-wise) the BJP never intendedto bring back the economicoffenders,” he alleged.

Nirav Modi, the main

accused in the $2 billion PunjabNational Bank (PNB) scam

case, was arrested in London.His arrest came days after

a London court issued an arrestwarrant against him inresponse to a request by theEnforcement Directorate forhis extradition in a moneylaundering case. PTI

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Ahmedabad: Suspenseremains on whether BJP patri-arch LK Advani will contest theupcoming Lok Sabha polls orhang up his boots.

The 91-year-old, whoserved as Home Minister andDeputy Prime Minister of thecountry, has won the Lok Sabhaelection from Gandhinagarseat six times.

Advani, credited for craft-ing the BJP’s rise to a pre-emi-nent position in the late 80s and90s after it won just two LokSabha seats in 1984 Lok Sabhapolls, has remained on thesidelines since he voiced his reservations on the nomi-nation of Narendra Modi as the

party’s prime ministerial can-didate in 2014.

Asked whether Advani waskeen on contesting the pollconsidering his age, his per-sonal secretary Deepak Chopratold PTI, “It is not yet decid-ed...He will decide when some-

thing (offer) comes.”Party sources said there is

no age bar for candidates andwinnability will be the criteriawhen candidates are finalisedby the party’s central electioncommittee.

Asked if the party hasurged Advani to contest fromthe Gandhinagar seat, Choprasaid, “Neither has the partyapproached him nor has heapproached the party so far.”

A section of Gujarat BJPleaders is of the view Advani may himself decidenot contest the elections due tothe age factor.

Advani did not make anyrepresentation to stake claim

for his traditional Gandhinagarseat before the BJP observershere.

“At his level, we do notneed to do this,” Chopra said.

Advani brought a para-digm shift in Indian politicsthrough his Rath Yatra in 1992in support of the Ram templein Ayodhya and played a keyrole in the BJP’s evolution

State BJP spokespersonBharat Pandya said the finaldecision about Gandhinagarwill be taken by the party’s par-liamentary board.

“Only the parliamentaryboard of the party can decideif Advaniji will fight or not,” hesaid. PTI

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The Jammu & Kashmir BJPon Wednesday alleged that

the Congress had conceded tothe National Conference’s(NC) pro-separatist agendaafter the two partiesannounced a pre-poll alliancein the State.

The Congress and the NCfinalised arrangements for thesix Lok Sabha seats of the stateearlier in the day.

“The NC-Congressalliance is an eye wash and awake up call for Jammu,” BJPspokesperson Brig (retd) AnilGupta told reporters.

“The Congress has notonly surrendered to theNational Conference but alsoconceded to the pro-sepa-ratist, Kashmir-centric, com-

munal and divisive agenda ofthat party,” he said.

He added that the “oppor-tunistic” alliance was aimed atpromoting “Kashmiri hege-mony”.

With the NC insisting oncontesting from all the threeseats in Kashmir, the party’scouldn’t-care-less attitudetowards Jammu is obvious,Gupta said.

The BJP spokespersonclaimed the Congress, like theNC, will oppose granting cit-izenship to West Pakistanrefugees and inheritance rightsto the state’s daughters.

The Congress-NationalConference combine will putan end to anti terror opera-tions and revive the overground terror support net-work, Gupta alleged.

Say if Saina Nehwal or PV Sindhuis one of the best badminton play-ers in India at present, why shouldboth not play for the country evenin the men’s singles or doubles if

there be any? The same should apply toSania Mirza if she is the best in tennis. Thislogic should also extend to hockey andcricket. If a girl or two or more are betterthan any male player in their positions,surely they could replace them. Strictly, theconcept of separate men’s and women’steams and tournaments reflects an oldmindset based on the women being weak-er, less skilled and, therefore, not able to playin the same teams.

Yes, women were much weaker phys-ically than they are today. In the old days,their diet was inferior in all respects, exceptin wealthy families. Then there were theissues of early marriage and reproduction.Because of high infant mortality, womenbecame even weaker in the days of lowtechnology. Shah Jahan was arguably thewealthiest man in the world in his day. Yet,of his 14 children born, he could save onlyseven of them — Dara, Shuja Aurangzeb,Murad, Jahanara, Roshanara and Gauhar.Inevitably, women were considered weak,for childbirth took a heavy toll on their sys-tems. They were deemed virtually a differ-ent species.

In older times, bodily strength wasplaced at a great premium. Often, the kingwas the strongest man in his court.Weapons were comparatively crude, sofighting or defending fell on the man’s bodywith the weapon serving as an aid. Whereassince then, revolutions have taken place, notto speak of missiles and nuclear arms. Thebalance of strength began to shift with theadvent of the musket being invented in the16th century. Its use reduced the impor-tance of the user’s personal strength. Asmore sophisticated guns replaced the mus-ket, they also became lighter in weight,enabling women to use them with as muchfacility as men. In the Iraq wars, womenfought as frontline soldiers. Their relativeor presumed weakness did not prove anyhandicap. If on a battlefield women canprove equal to men, why not also on thetennis or badminton court or the cricketfield? Strangely enough, even chess and car-rom tournaments are played generally bymen or women but separately. What elseis the explanation than a sexist bias?

It was not so long ago, only a matter ofdecades, when on the Indian stage, whetherin Kolkata or Mumbai, even the heroine,the obvious role of a woman, was playedby a man; and not necessarily an effemi-nate one, but by whoever was available and,therefore, pressed into service. All otherfemale characters were enacted by men.This experiment, of course, was not thechoice of the director of the play but thereluctance of families to allow their daugh-ters to participate in performing arts that

were considered not such arespectable profession. For awoman to flirt with a strangeron a public stage, to hold hishands, to embrace him or evenkiss was considered moreimmoral than moral. However,in the case of tennis, bad-minton, table tennis or hock-ey, no comparable intermin-gling with men is entailed. Inthis context evidently, the stage,as well as the celluloid, has goneahead; whereas sports havemarked time.

Referring back to the Iraqwars, we need to make it clearthat deploying women on thefrontline, whether in theinfantry, cavalry with tanks orin the air force as pilots of fight-er aircraft, come with the riskof an assault on their chastityif they are taken as prisoners ofwar. But that is an extreme case.If the world, not only on thestage but also on the battlefield,has travelled so far, why doesthe world of sport observewhat the Islamic world callstaqlid or orthodoxy? Our ownSania Mirza was upbraided bythe clergy for wearing function-al shorts while playing tennis.Sportswomen from such ortho-dox countries insist upon theirwomen participants wearingsalwar kameez as well as don-ning the hijab.

It is true that men andwomen are temperamentallydifferent. The former can seefar as well as wide. They can

look into the future with moreperceptiveness; whereaswomen are more committed totheir survival and observe theimmediate practicalities in timeand distance more accurately.Many of them are also credit-ed with greater intuition. Theyshould be more successful thanmen at obtaining immediateresults.

Of late, this female strengthis being repeatedly demon-strated in school board exam-inations, where girl studentsscore higher mark percent-ages. Surely, this asset can beutilised on the sports field aswell?

It is true that the male,whether in the animal orhuman world, is tempted todominate; whereas the corre-sponding female is able tofunction comfortably in a posi-tion of subordination. Thismay be a reasoning of nature inorder to enable the female tocarry the responsibilities ofchild-bearing and breeding. Inthis regard, nature has beenpartial; if we notice, the maleelephant has tusks, the lion hasthe mane, the peacock hasfeathers, the cock the redplume. The will or desire todominate does not lend itself toteam spirit as much as less ofsuch desire. Stretching thisreasoning forward should leadone to conclude that perhapswomen have the potential toexude greater team spirit, a sine

qua non of group sports likehockey or cricket. It is just pos-sible that the readiness to besubordinate might have beencultivated over centuries by ahierarchical society to denudethe role of the wife to the nor-mally patrician husband.

The tea gardens the worldover are an interesting instanceof an old mindset. The man-agers, their assistants, as well astheir subordinate staff havebeen male through decades,whereas two-thirds of theworkers in labour-intensiveenterprises have been female.What a paradox! This odditydid not even attract the atten-tion of either experts or teaboard members, except some15 years ago when fewer andfewer young men were apply-ing for garden assignments. Yet,compared to men, very fewwomen are deployed in the fac-tories. They are just sent out topluck the green leaves from thebushes and occasionally doother agricultural work. Thisman-woman inequality, unfor-tunately, continues in all cor-ners of the globe. Despiteprogress, women are scarceamong senior leaders. Veryfew women are CEOs of theworld’s largest corporations.As of the 2018 Fortune list, only24 women (4.8 per cent) wereCEOs of Fortune 500 compa-nies. This needs to change, now.

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Sir — After all the din and hulla-baloo, we finally have the begin-nings of an operational Lokpal. Ittook a long time but augurs wellfor the protection of our democ-ratic institutions. The expectedannouncement of Justice PinakiChandra Ghose as the first Lokpalwill, hopefully, set to rest all ear-lier controversies and delays. It’sa heavy cross that Justice Ghosewill have to bear. He certainly hasall the right credentials but canthere be any ducking of the ques-tion if the ‘system’ will enable himto deliver what he might seek toachieve? Let us hope that theLokpal will at least partiallyachieve the potential of its cre-ators. In my opinion, it woulddepend entirely on the personal-ity, evolution, conduct and lead-ership of its founder chairman.

Justice Ghose has had a non-controversial tenure in the judi-ciary and is blessed with both tal-ent and temperament. I am surehe realises that the post of Lokpalchair is much more than the judi-cial roles he has satisfactorily ful-filled thus far.

J Akshay Bengaluru

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Sir — This refers to the editor-ial, “Death of an icon” (March19). One of the characteristicfeatures about Manohar Parrikarwas that he enjoyed a man-next-door image. The reason for hismeteoric rise from being anRSS parcharak to becoming theDefence Minister and then the

Chief Minister of Goa was hiswide acceptance from all sec-tions of the BJP and beyond. Heplayed a key role in making theBJP a force to reckon with inGoa, which remained aCongress bastion for long. Truly,Parrikar was a great leader whocould lead Goa towards thepath of progress.

TK AnandanChennai

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Sir — This refers to the editor-ial, “Death of an icon” (March19). In the death of ManoharParrikar, not only Goa but theentire nation has lost a leadingpolitician, who had a rare qual-ity of austerity and simplicityrarely seen in leaders of the pre-sent era.

Parrikar’s respect for duty andresponsibility was evident fromhis whole-hearted style of work-ing. Even when he was diagnosedwith cancer, he used to performhis tasks as the Chief Minister ofGoa with medical tubes fitted onhis nose. Even the Oppositioncould not raise a voice for the fallof his Government because of hisunique personality.

Madhu AgrawalDelhi

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Sir — This refers to the editorial,“Death of an icon” (March 19). Inthe passing of Manohar Parrikar,the nation has lost a fine politi-cian, an excellent Chief Ministerand one of the best DefenceMinisters. He was also a politiciannoted for his integrity, dedicationand commitment to work. Knownfor his simplicity and geniality, headhered to the principle of servicebefore self. Even when his healthdeteriorated, he was committed tohis work.

M PradyuKannur

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The concept of self-help groups (SHG) orwomen’s collectives has been the most pow-erful and successful tool to empower

women in rural India. Over a span of 25 years,the movement has registered a tremendousgrowth. As on March 31, 2018, the total numberof SHG savings linked with banks stood at 87.44lakh and the total number of SHGs having loanswas 50.20 lakh with an outstanding loan of�75,598 crore. A typical Indian SHG consists of10-20 poor women from similar socio-econom-ic backgrounds, who meet once a month to poolsavings and discuss issues of mutual importance.One of the key objectives of SHGs is to providefinancial access to women through a system inwhich they cross guarantee each other’s debts.With help to start businesses, impoverishedwomen can earn money and support their com-munities as well as their families.

The great authority on microfinance,Malcolm, described Indian SHGs as “on-lendinggroups, which collect their own equity capital andsavings deposit from their owners, who are alsomembers and customers. They lend their moneyto the members at interest rates, which theydecide, and accumulate profits, which theychoose either to distribute to the owners or to addto the fund at their joint disposal.” Indeed, thereneeds to be a great emotional intensity to breakthrough age-old barriers. This is possible onlythrough groups, who share same emotional val-ues and are driven by strong impulse of mutu-al goals. One of the primary objectives is to availloans, which the women access by cross guaran-teeing each other’s liability. These loans are partof a financial philosophy called microfinance.Members take loans for a variety of reasons: Tobuy medicine, start a business, purchase animals,pay school fees, buy clothing and food during thelean season and invest in agriculture.

Once the groups have mastered the mechan-ics of savings and lending, they begin to ask:What’s next? When groups have a fair amount ofcapital, they can start lending portions of themoney back to individual group members — atan interest. Through the group mechanism, fundsbecome a collective asset, enabling uplift of thecommunity. They dispense small and unsecuredloans at varying costs to group members as pertheir need. The most significant aspect of thesecollectives — and which makes them innovativeand durable — is that they are wholly managedby the women. They themselves plan the design,implementation and trajectory of this model. Eachgroup has a constitution or a list of rules, creat-ed and accepted by the members themselves. Therules pertain to selecting members, electing officebearers, creating their own loan fund, decidingon the recipient of a loan, ensuring repayment ofthe loan and the like. Regular meetings are theenabling forces, giving women the courage to leaninto multiple household and community settings.

When a collective has a fair amount of cap-ital, the group starts giving small loans to its mem-bers. It is astonishing that hardly any of thesewomen default. Although financial aspect is notthe only benefit for members, credit remains animportant element. Disciplined efforts involvedin running a group make the women efficientmoney managers. As the women do the work that

is normally done by the bankers, banks’ admin-istration costs have come down drastically. It istrue that social dynamics cannot be changed with-out women’s involvement in the economy.

The formation and nurturing of SHGs is anonerous process and unless a good foundation islaid, there will be a lack of solidity. If there is anydisequilibrium, the default starts and there is adomino effect. It soon becomes a contagionsweeping like an epidemic. The groups need tobe economically, socially and educationallyhomogenous. In the absence of healthy groupdynamics, there are a lot of conflicts and frictionswith the group leader trying to impose person-al views on the group and executing decisions inan autocratic way.

These groups are obviously formed for finan-cial support but that is not an end in itself. Theysoon become a platform for education, healthinformation and training, savings, businessdevelopment, technical and marketing assistance.The mere act of leaving the isolation of familycompounds and joining the periodical peergroup discussions increases women’s confidenceand motivation. SHGs become a comprehensiveladder of support and opportunity. They con-ceptually address issues that had made themnon-bankable. They create a collective identityfor the women in the group and give transac-tion aggregation. Since it was a savings-ledmodel, it also created a transaction trail, whichcould be used for establishing a financial histo-ry for the bankers. This was important in theabsence of bankable collateral. SHGs are also aninstrument for the empowerment of the poorand marginalised. They have proved to be aneffective instrument for changing oppressive rela-tionships at home (gender and tradition-relat-ed) and in society. This is especially true for thoserelationships arising from caste, class and polit-ical power, which have made it difficult for thepoor to build a sustainable base for their liveli-hood and to grow holistically.

The hierarchical pyramid of SHGs supportsthree tiers of institutions in a typical district: SHGs,village-level committees and federations.

Initiatives taken by these organisations have beendiverse: Some have helped women consolidatetheir savings, others have addressed domestic vio-lence, alcoholism and caste-related issues in thepublic sphere. They are seen as more than just aconduit for credit — they are the biggest gener-ators of social capital in rural India and also actas a delivery mechanism for various other servicesranging from entrepreneurial training, preven-tive health education, food security, livelihood pro-motion activity and community development pro-grammes. They serve to provide formal channelsfor social and financial support.

This model generates a unique stock of socialcapital through the process of regular group meet-ings and it is this social capital that has been instru-mental in transforming the status of thesewomen, both within the home and community.

SHGs influence those oppressive relationshipsarising from caste, class and political power, whichhave made it difficult for the poor people to builda sustainable base for their livelihood. As with anysingle strategy, SHGs alone cannot put an end topoverty. How much the plan is simple, low-cost,resilient and can be carried out by non-govern-mental organisations, what is most important isthat development can happen only when the peo-ple really want to change.

Refuting village hierarchies, women inmany places hoisted the national flag in theirvillages, despite opposition from men. Women’scollectives have put an end to the brewing ofliquor in some villages. SHG women haveenhanced their economic position in numerousways, such as successfully bidding for contractsto fish in village ponds and developing waste-lands to grow fruits and vegetables.

These women are not just achieving theGandhian ideal of self-sufficiency but alsoadvancing modern ambitions. For poor women,empowerment is a journey towards the secondfreedom or real freedom, as Mahatma Gandhisaid.

(The writer is Member, NITI Aayog’sNational Committee on Financial Literacy andInclusion for Women)

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India’s ambitious plans to add100 gigawatts (GW) of solarenergy capacity by 2022 seem to

be running aground. This situationis exacerbated by the fact that the tar-get year set for its completion is justround the corner. According to a lat-est report by global analytics firmCredit Rating Information Servicesof India Limited (CRISIL), Indiawould be able to manage only 60 GWcapacity by 2022. The turn of eventsmay have triggered a spike in coststhanks to the anti-dumping duty onimported solar panels that are cur-rently widely used in our country.

The prospect of India not beingable to meet its 2022 commitmentsof installing 100 GW of solar poweris a cause of serious concern consid-

ering the fact that the country is beingegged by the international commu-nity to scale down its carbon footprintand green house gas emissions aris-ing out of fossil fuel usage.

The report further states thatIndia crossed 25 GW of installedcapacity during the end of December2018 and may only be able to addanother 44 to 46 GW in the next fiveyears. The slowdown is yet anotherpointer as to why India needs to getits renewable energy strategy in order.

One of the reasons for the solarslowdown is an anti-dumping measureimposed in July 2018, called the safe-guard tax on imported solar cells, whichare widely used all across the country.This tax was 25 per cent for the firstyear, 20 per cent for the next six monthsand 15 per cent for the following sixmonths. The tax was imposed as a safe-guard measure for the domestic solarmodule industry, which is unable to sellpanels due to lower priced importsfrom China and Malaysia.

Coupled with this, there was a lackof clarity on Goods and Services Taxfor the solar sector for over a year. Allof this meant that capacity addition in

2018 was much below the achieve-ments of 2017. In 2017-18, 9,000megawatts (MW) of solar capacitywere added, which slowed down to lessthan 7,000 MW in 2018-2019.

The interesting part, however, ishow the Government and expertcommittees could not predict the con-sequence of such duties on the domes-tic renewable energy sector. It isdevelopments such as these that areleading to the renewable sector inIndia moving one step forward andtwo steps backward.

The report also states that instal-lation rate will climb in the comingyears as safeguard duties are broughtdown incrementally. The impact of theduty increased the cost of installation

by 10-15 per cent, even though mod-ule prices fell from $0.30 per watt, peakin March 2018 to $0.24 per watt, peakin December 2018. In 2017, the low-est bid tariff was �2.44 per unit, whichcould not be reached in 2018. Thereport says that this year, 9,000 MW ofsolar capacity will be installed, whichwill rise to 10,000 and 12,000 MW inthe following years. By 2023, India’ssolar capacity could go up to 70 GW.

But the anti-dumping duty shouldbe of least concern for the renewableenergy industry amid talks doing therounds about the stalling of a compre-hensive strategy. This is plaguing thissector. Renewable energy, undoubted-ly, is the future, but the question is: Howwill this country achieve the target? This

is where ambiguity comes in. As ener-gy production gets ramped up withsolar technology, the role of distribu-tion companies might be impacted andthe current strategy does not have anyspecific clarity regarding the same. Inaddition to this, as the transition takesplace, the country needs to give a prop-er thought about the coal geography,existing coal stocks and those who willbe directly affected. Since the project-ed domestic social costs of power gen-eration from coal by 2024-25 will be toohigh, there would be of no use in build-ing new coal power plants.

Earlier, there were many plans tobuild more coal power plants but thatbubble has burst. The Governmentneeds to take policy decision toreplace fossil fuel, especially coal withrenewable energy installations. But thisneeds to get decisively reflected in therenewable energy strategy of India.

The urgency of a plan that on theone hand allows for a conducivesolar energy growth and at the sametime scales down the fossil fuel pow-ered energy sources is very important.In addition to this, there is also the crit-icality of ensuring that an effective

equilibrium is maintained betweenimported products, technology anddomestic industry products.

An effective combination of theabove will ensure that renewableenergy targets are met on a timelymanner. Then there is also a perti-nent need to increase the daily useapplicability of solar technology,which in turn will promote usageand indirectly push production.The Government must also focus onincreasing awareness levels, bringsolar energy technology and usagecloser to the common man. In orderto ensure this, stress must be put onplug and play systems that are basedon solar energy technology. Thesesystems must also clearly spell out acost benefit analysis over conven-tional non-renewable energysources. A combination of a compre-hensive future proof solar strategythat accounts for scaling down offossil fuel usage along with increas-ing common man awareness willalone prevent the slowdown of solarenergy progress in India.

(The author is an environmentaljournalist)

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The Government plans toprovide unused airport

slots of Jet Airways to otherdomestic airlines on aninterim basis, a senior offi-cial said Wednesday, amidefforts to minimise flightdisruptions.

Cash-strapped JetAirways, which is looking toraise fresh funds, has ground-ed at least 47 planes due tonon-payment of lease rentals.Besides, many aircraft are onthe ground due to other rea-

sons.Against this backdrop, the

civil Aviation Ministry officialson Wednesday held a meetingwith representatives of variousdomestic airlines.

Civil Aviation SecretaryPradip Singh Kharola said theministry would discuss withJet Airways about its require-ments, including how manyslots are being used.

As an “interim arrange-ment”, the unused slots of JetAirways at congested airportswould be given for operationsto other domestic airlines, he

said.Among others, represen-

tatives of Air India, SpiceJet,GoAir and IndiGo attendedthe meeting on Wednesday.

According to Kharola,domestic carriers would addaround 20-25 more planes inby April end.

Augmentation of fleet andutilisation of existing planeswere among the issues dis-cussed during the meeting.

“Our concern is aboutoperations (of flights), safetyand comfort of passengers,”Kharola told reporters.

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Shares of cri-sis-hit Jet

A i r w a y splunged nearly5 per cent onWednesday afterthe companygrounded sixmore planes dueto non-paymentof lease rentals.

The stocktumbled 4.82per cent to closeat �218 on theBSE. During theday, it plunged 6.59 per cent to�213.95.

On the NSE, sharescracked 4.89 per cent to closeat �218.05.

In terms of volume, 11.73lakh shares were traded on theBSE and over 1.33 crore on theNSE.

The shares of Jet Airwayshad declined by nearly 4 percent on Tuesday also.

As many as 47 aircraft ofthe full service carrier are onthe ground now as the compa-ny failed to pay rentals tolessors.

“.... An additional six air-

craft (include one aircraft of JetLite (India) Ltd) have beengrounded due to non-paymentof amounts outstanding tolessors under their respectivelease agreements,” the airlinesaid in a filing to the stockexchanges on Tuesday.

Jet Airways has been grap-pling with acute financial woesand has been looking at waysto raise fresh funds.

Meanwhile, in more trou-ble for the airline, an umbrel-la body of its domestic pilotsTuesday threatened to stop fly-ing from April 1 if their duesare not paid by March-end.

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Continuing its upward jour-ney for the eighth consec-

utive session, market bench-mark BSE Sensex ended mar-ginally higher on Wednesday,following gains in Infosys,HDFC twins and L&T amiduninterrupted capital inflowsby foreign funds.

Gains were, however,capped tracking Asian sharesthat slipped from six-monthhighs after a lackluster sessionas investors booked profitsahead of a policy decision bythe US Federal Reserve, expertssaid.

The 30-share index beganthe session on a firm note at38,433.86 and hit the ses-sion’s high of 38,489.81 onsteady inflow of buying by for-eign funds as well as retailinvestors.

However, after emergenceof profit-booking and losses inselect heavy weight stocks, theindex turned negative and hita low of 38,316.21 beforereturning in positive terrain toclose the day higher by 23.28points, or 0.06 per cent, to38,386.75.

The barometer had ralliedabout 1,500 points in the pre-vious seven sessions.

The broader NSE Nifty,however, ended 11.35 points, or0.10 per cent, lower at11,521.05 after shuttlingbetween 11,556.10 and

11,503.10 during the session onexpiry of March series deriva-tive contracts.

Market will remain closedon Thursday on account ofHoli.

Infosys was the top gainerin the Sensex pack, rising 2.36per cent, followed by HDFCBank up 1.39 per cent.

Other gainers includedYes Bank, 1.27 per cent, L&T1.19 per cent, Sun Pharma1.07 per cent, HDFC 0.98 percent, Vedanta 0.84 per cent,SBI 0.23 per cent, HCL Tech0.23 per cent, Kotak Bank0.20 per cent, Asian Paints0.07 per cent and RIL 0.03 percent.

Among laggards, NTPCsuffered the most, cracking4.29 per cent and ONGCplunged 3.28 per cent.

Other losers were CoalIndia, Tata Steel, Maruti Suzuki,Bajaj Finance, Bajaj Auto, TataMotors, ICICI Bank, M&M,Bharti Airtel, Axis Bank, HUL,IndusInd Bank, PowerGrid,TCS, ITC Ltd and HeroMotoCorp, falling up to 2.43per cent.

Stocks of oil marketingcompanies like BPCL, HPCLand IOC, however, faced sell-ing pressure and lost up to 5.32per cent after global crudeprices soared.

Sector-wise, the BSE real-ty index gained the most by ris-ing 2.21 per cent, followed byIT index up 0.93 per cent, teck

index 0.55 per cent, capitalgoods 0.48 per cent, healthcare0.08 per cent and consumerdurables 0.02 per cent.

However, oil and gas indexemerged worst performer byfalling 2.26 per cent and PSUindex lost 1.75 per cent. Power,metal, auto, FMCG and bank-ing indices too ended in thered.

The broader marketsended in a negative terrain withthe BSE mid-cap index falling0.38 per cent and small-capindex shedding 0.33 per cent.

Shares of Rel ianceCommunications furtherzoomed 10 per cent to hit thehighest trading permissiblelimit for the second day in arow Wednesday after thecompany cleared dues ofSwedish service providerEricsson.

The scrip rose sharply by10 per cent to �4.84 — its uppercircuit limit — on the BSE.

Stocks of softwareexporters were centre of briskactivity after the rupee slippedbelow the 69 mark against thedollar. Software exporters’majority of revenues come indollar.

“Global stocks were mixedas investors remained on thesidelines ahead of the FederalReserve policy meet,” said SunilSharma, Chief InvestmentOfficer, Sanctum WealthManagement, adding that datasuggests that the strength in

foreign investment flows hasoverwhelmed significantamounts of domestic selling,and FIIs have now taken backcontrol of the market fromdomestic investors.

“We have witnessed an 8.6per cent return off the lows inFebruary, which makes thecurrent market rise the sharpestsince March 2016.

“Heading into a holiday-shortened week, traders like-ly took money off the table.The Indian rupee recoveredmarginally to 68.83 to retainthe top spot as the best per-forming emerging market cur-rency over the last one month,”he said.

On a net basis, foreigninstitutional investors (FIIs)bought shares worth �2,132.36crore Tuesday, while domesticinstitutional investors (DIIs)sold shares worth �1,253.67crore, provisional data showed.

Most Asian markets endedlower, and European shareswere also weak form in earlydeals.

Hong Kong’s Hang Sengfell 0.31 per cent, ShanghaiComposite Index shed 0.01per cent, Korea’s Kospi fell0.02 per cent, while Japan’sNikkei ended 0.20 per centhigher.

In Europe, Frankfurt’sDAX fell 0.87 per cent, andParis CAC 40 shed 0.05 percent. London’s FTSE was down0.01 per cent.

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Sebi on Wednesday askedthe exchanges dealing with

agri-commodity derivatives tocreate a fund for farmers andFPOs in which the regulatoryfee forgone by the regulatorwould be deposited.

Besides, it has issuedframework including actionplan and guiding principles forthe utilisation of fund.

In September last year, theregulator had decided to levy anominal fee of Rs 1 lakh perexchange instead of levyingcharges based on turnover slabrates and proposed to set up afund with the fee foregone by it.

Sebi Wednesday said, “ithas been decided that the stockexchanges dealing with agri-cultural commodity deriva-tives shall create a separate fundearmarked for the benefit offarmers/FPOs (farmers pro-ducer organisations) in whichthe regulatory fee forgone bySebi shall be deposited.”

For the fund, Sebi said theexchange needs to draw anaction plan for full utilisationof foregone fee in any financialyear to be utilised during thesucceeding financial year.

Such action plan shall bedrawn up by the 10th of Aprilof the year in which the fundhas to be utilised, it added.

The exchanges would be

required to disseminate thedetails of the action plan ontheir websites under intimationto Sebi.

The earmarked fund shallnot be clubbed with any otherfunds such as InvestorProtection Fund, InvestorServices Fund, and CorporateSocial Responsibility Funds,Sebi said.

Factors like waiver or sub-sidy in warehousing charges,reimbursement of cost of bagsprovided to farmers and FPOsfor deposits on exchange plat-form, and subsidising of brokerfee for farmers, among others,should be considered byexchanges for preparing actionplan.

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German high-end carmakerBMW warned on

Wednesday it expects pre-taxprofits “well below” 2018 lev-els this year as it announced amassive cost-cutting schemeaimed at saving 12 billion euros($13.6 billion) in total by 2022.

A spokesman said that“well below” could indicate atumble of more than 10 percent.

The Munich-based group’s2019 result will be burdenedwith massive investments need-ed for the transition to electriccars, exchange rate headwindsand rising raw materials prices,it said in a statement.

Meanwhile it must pumpmore cash into measures tomeet strict European carbondioxide (CO2) emissions lim-its set to bite from next year.

And a one-off windfall in2018’s results will create a neg-ative comparison, even thoughpre-tax profits already fell 8.1per cent last year.

Bosses expect a “slightincrease” in sales of BMW andMini cars, with a slightly fatteroperating margin that will nev-ertheless fall short of their 8.0-per cent target.

“We will continue to imple-

ment forcefullythe necessarymeasures forgrowth, contin-uing perfor-mance increas-es and efficien-cy,” financed i r e c t o rNicolas Petersaid at thegroup’s annualpress confer-ence.

BMW aimsto achieve 12billion euros ofsavings in thecoming yearsthrough “effi-c i e n c yimprovements”i n c l u d i n greducing thecomplexity ofits range.

“Our business model mustremain a profitable one in thedigital era,” chief executiveHarald Krueger said.

This year, most newrecruits at the group will be ITspecialists, while the total num-ber of employees is set toremain flat at around 135,000worldwide.

Departures from the size-able fraction of the workforce

born during the post-WorldWar II baby boom and nowreaching retirement age “willallow us to adapt the businesseven more to future topics,”BMW said.

All the firm’s forecasts arebased on London and Brusselsreaching a deal for an orderlyBrexit and the United Statesforegoing new import taxes onEuropean cars.

“Developments in tariffs”remain “a significant factor ofuncertainty” in looking to thefuture, finance chief Peter said,

adding that “the preparationsfor the UK’s exit from the EUwill weigh on 2019’s results aswell”.

In annual results releasedahead of schedule last Friday,BMW blamed trade headwindsand new EU emissions tests fornet profits tumbling 16.9 percent in 2018, to 7.2 billioneuros.

BMW shares were down4.6 per cent in midday tradingwhile Frankfurt’s blue-chipDAX 30 index was 1.2 per centlower.

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Indians are not as happy in2019 as they were in 2018

and the country figures at140th place, seven spots downfrom last year, on this year’s UNWorld Happiness Reportreleased Wednesday which istopped by Finland for the sec-ond year in a row.

The report was released bythe Sustainable DevelopmentSolutions Network for theUnited Nations on March 20which has was declared asWorld Happiness Day by theUN General Assembly in2012.

The report ranks coun-tries on six key variables thatsupport well-being: income,freedom, trust, healthy lifeexpectancy, social support andgenerosity.

According to the report,the overall world happinesshas fallen over the past fewyears, which has mostly beenfuelled by a sustained drop inIndia, which came in 140thplace this year compared with133rd place in 2018.

The UN’s seventh annualWorld Happiness Report,

which ranks the world’s 156countries on “how happy theircitizens perceive themselves tobe”, also noted that there hasbeen an increase in negativeemotions, including worry,sadness and anger.

Finland has been ranked asthe happiest country in theworld for the second year insuccession. The Nordic nationis followed by Denmark,Norway, Iceland and TheNetherlands.

Pakistan is ranked 67th,Bangladesh 125th and China isplace at 93rd, according to thereport. People in war-tornSouth Sudan are the mostunhappy with their lives, fol-lowed by Central AfricanRepublic (155), Afghanistan(154), Tanzania (153) andRwanda (152).

The happiness study ranksthe countries of the world onthe basis of questions from theGallup World Poll. The resultsare then correlated with otherfactors, including GDP andsocial security.

The United States ranks at19th place for happiness,despite being one of the rich-est countries in the world.

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The employability of Indianengineers continues to be

low as over 80 per cent of themare unemployable for any job inthe knowledge economy, says areport.

According to a report byemployability assessment com-pany Aspiring Minds, only3.84 per cent of engineers in thecountry have the technical,cognitive and linguistic skillsrequired for software-relatedjobs in start-ups.

Moreover, only 3 per centof engineers have new-agetechnological skills in areassuch as artificial intelligence,machine learning, data sci-ence and mobile development.The employability in new-agejobs is pegged at an average 1.7per cent.

The report said the reasonsfor low employability and statesthat only 40 per cent engi-neering graduates do an intern-ship, while a mere 7 per centstudents do multiple intern-ships. Also, only 36 per cent doprojects beyond their curricu-lum.

It added that engineeringdiscipline in India is very the-oretical as 60 per cent faculty

doesn’t talk about application ofconcepts in the industry andonly 47 per cent of the engi-neers attend any industry talk.

“We find that a low pro-portion of engineers take upprojects beyond curriculumand do internships. Further,there is a lack of faculty talkingabout industry application ofconcepts in class or studentsgetting exposure throughindustry talks.

“These need to be reme-died by aligning incentives ofall stakeholder, building capac-ity and gamification,” AspiringMinds Chief TechnologyOfficer and co-founder VarunAggarwal said.

The report, which is basedon a research conducted onengineering students fromIndia, the US and China, foundthat the number of engineers inthe US who know how to codeis almost four times thanIndian engineers.

Though Indian engineersshow better potential thanChinese engineers in writingcorrect code, the proportion ofengineers who cannot writecompliable code in India isalmost three times the Chineseengineers who cannot do so,according to the report.

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European Union regulatorshave hit Google with a 1.49

billion euro ($1.68 billion) finefor abusing its dominant role inonline advertising.

It’s the third time thecommission has slappedGoogle with an antitrustpenalty, following multibil-lion-dollar fines resultingfrom separate probes into twoother parts of the SiliconValley giant’s business.

The EU’s competitioncommissioner, MargretheVestager, announced the resultsof the long-running probe ofGoogle’s AdSense advertisingbusiness at a news conferencein Brussels on Wednesday.

“Today’s decision is abouthow Google abused its domi-

nance to stop websites usingbrokers other than the AdSenseplatform,” Vestager said.

The commission foundthat Google and its parentcompany, Alphabet, breachedEU antitrust rules by imposingrestrictive clauses in contractswith websites that usedAdSense, preventing Googlerivals from placing their ads onthese sites.

Google “prevented its rivalsfrom having a chance to inno-vate and to compete in themarket on their merits,”Vestager said.

“Advertisers and websiteowners, they had less choiceand likely faced higher pricesthat would be passed on to con-sumers.”

AdSense is an older Googleproduct that lets web publish-

ers such as bloggers place textads on their websites, with thecontent of the ads based onresults from search functionson their sites.

Microsoft filed an EUantitrust complaint about theservice in 2009 and the EUCommission formally launchedits probe in 2016, although itsaid at the time that Google hadalready made some changes toallow affected customers morefreedom to show competingads.

Last year, Vestager hit thecompany with a record 4.34 bil-lion euro ($5 billion) fine fol-lowing an investigation into itsAndroid operating system. In2017, she slapped Google witha 2.42 billion euro fine in a caseinvolving its online shoppingsearch results.

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The rupee on Wednesdayrecovered by 13 paise to

close at 68.83 against the USdollar amid sustained buyingby foreign investors in domes-tic equity markets and lowercrude prices.

However, the local cur-rency remained cautious aheadof the US Federal Reserve pol-icy decision on Wednesday.

Brokers said foreign fundinflows in the debt and equitymarkets helped the rupeerecover. However, the dollar’sstrength overseas capped thegain, they added.

At the Interbank ForeignExchange (forex), the domesticcurrency opened lower at 69.11a dollar and gained to touch theday’s high of 68.72. It finally set-tled at 68.83 per dollar, up 13paise over its previous close.

The rupee on Tuesday hadslipped by 43 paise to close at68.96 against the dollar.

On a net basis, ForeignInstitutional Investors (FIIs)bought shares worth a net of�1,771.61 crore on Wednesday,while Domestic Institutional

Investors (DIIs) were net sell-ers to the tune of Rs 1,323.17crore, provisional data availablewith BSE showed.

The dollar index, whichgauges the greenback’s strengthagainst a basket of six curren-cies, surged 0.07 per cent to96.44, ahead of the outcome ofthe Federal Open MarketCommittee (FOMC) meeting.

Meanwhile, brent crude,the global oil benchmark, wastrading at $67.39 per barrel,lower by 0.33 per cent.

On the equity front, the 30-share Sensex continued its win-ning run for the eighth con-secutive session Wednesday.The 30-share index closed at38,386.75, registering a rise of23.28 points, or 0.06 per cent.However, the 50-share Niftyended 11.35 points, or 0.10 percent, lower at 11,521.05.

Meanwhile, FinancialBenchmark India Private Ltd(FBIL) set the reference rate forthe rupee/dollar at 68.8604and for rupee/euro at 78.1446.The reference rate forrupee/British pound was fixedat 91.2846 and for rupee/100Japanese yen at 61.72.

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The NCLAT on Wednesdayheld that statutory liabili-

ty, including income tax andvalue added tax dues, of debt-ridden companies are ‘opera-tional debt’, which will nowallow the concerned revenuedepartments to be treated asoperational creditors.

A two-member NCLATbench headed by ChairmanJustice S J Mukhopadhayaheld that Central or State TaxDepartments such as - IncomeTax Department, Sales TaxDepartments and LocalAuthority, entitled for dues are‘operational creditors’ underthe Insolvency & BankruptcyCode.

“We hold that all statuto-ry dues including income tax,Value Added Tax etc comewithin the meaning ofOperational Debt.

“For the said very reason,we also hold that income taxdepartment of the central gov-ernment and the sales tax

Departments of the stateGovernments and localauthority, which are entitledfor dues arising out of theexisting law are ‘OperationalCreditor’ within the meaningof Section 5(20) of the I&BCode’,” said the appellate tri-bunal.

The National CompanyLaw Appellate Tribunal(NCLAT) order came over afour petitions filed by theIncome Tax department, SalesTax Department, Maharashtra,where question as whetherstatutory dues come underthe definition of the opera-tional debt and if yes, then canthey be treated as operationalcreditors of the company.

Counsel appearing forrespective companies has con-tended before the NCLAT thatIncome Tax cannot be in thenature of operational debt asit refers to the claim in respectof goods or services, includingemployment or a debt inrespect of repayment of duesof the central, state govern-

ment or local authorities.However, Income Tax

department and Sales TaxDepartment, Maharashtracontended that operationaldebt also included debts aris-ing under any law payable tothe central and StateGovernment.

Consenting to it, theNCLAT said that goods andservices including employ-ment are required to keep acompany, a corporate debtor,operational as a going concern.

“If the Company(Corporate Debtor’) is opera-tional and remains a goingconcern, only in such case, thestatutory liability, such as pay-ment of Income Tax, ValueAdded Tax etc, will arise,” theNCLAT said.

“As the ‘Income Tax’,‘Value Added Tax’ and otherstatutory dues arising out ofthe existing law, arises whenthe Company is operational,we hold such statutory dueshas direct nexus with opera-tion of the Company,” it added.

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The Civil Aviation Ministryon Wednesday said it is

working with all airlines to pro-vide sufficient capacity and ismonitoring safety as well ascompliance levels on a dailybasis, amid concerns over flightcancellations and rise in air-fares.

The grounding of aircraftby crisis-hit Jet Airways,grounding of Boeing MAX737 planes by SpiceJet andcurtailed schedule of IndiGo,among other factors, have

impacted flight schedules.“To ensure passenger con-

venience, stable operations andaffordable fares, MOCA(Ministry of Civil Aviation) isworking with all airlines to pro-vide sufficient capacity acrossthe entire network. We con-tinue to monitor safety andcompliance on a daily basis,”the Ministry said in a tweet.

All airlines are required tofollow Passenger Charterrequirements fully and com-prehensively. Any complaintsmay be registered with theAirSewa portal, it added.

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The country’s telecom sub-scriber base for the third

time crossed 120-crore markwith Reliance Jio, BSNL andAirtel adding new customers inJanuary, according to a reportreleased by telecom regulatorTrai.

“The number of telephonesubscribers in India increasedfrom 1,197.87 million at theend of December 2018 to1,203.77 million at the end ofJanuary 2019, thereby showinga monthly growth rate of 0.49per cent,” the TelecomRegulatory Authority of Indiasaid in monthly subscriberreport for January 2019.

Earlier, the subscriber basecrossed the 120-crore mark inJuly 2017 and May 2018.

The mobile customer basegrew to 118 crore in Januaryfrom 117 crore in December.The wireline connection inthe country slid to 2.17 crore inJanuary from 2.18 crore inDecember.

Reliance Jio dominatedgrowth by adding over 93 lakhnew mobile customers. State-run telecom firm BSNL fol-lowed Jio by adding 9.82 lakhmobile subscribers. BhartiAirtel returned to growth track,after losing mobile customer inDecember, by adding over 1lakh new customers.

The net increase of telecomsubscriber in January was 59lakh, compared to over 1 croresubscribers added by the threeplayers. However, VodafoneIdea and Tata Teleservicesjointly lost close to 44 lakhmobile customers.

The country’s biggest tele-com operator Vodafone Idealost 35.8 lakh mobile cus-tomers, Tata Teleservices 8.4lakh and state-run MTNL4,927 mobile customers.

The wireline connectionsdeclined mainly because ofBSNL losing 90 thousand con-

nections. Private operators BhartiAirtel and Vodafone added29,930 and 6,386 connections.

Broadband connections inthe country grew 4.15 per centto 54 crore in January from 51.8crore in December. The mobiledevices-based broadband con-nections accounted for over 96per cent of total base with over52.1 crore subscribers whilewireline connections reached1.82 crore.

Top-five service providersconstituted 98.63 per cent mar-ket share of the total broadbandsubscribers at the end of

January. Reliance Jio led themarket with 28.94 crore broad-band subscribers. It was fol-lowed by Bharti Airtel with 11crore connections, VodafoneIdea 10.98 crore, BSNL 2 croreand and Tata TeleservicesGroup 22.6 lakh connections.

BSNL maintained lead inthe wireline broadband seg-ment with 91.7 lakh connec-tion. It was followed by Airtelwith 23 lakh connections, AtriaConvergence 14 lakh, HathwayCable & Datacom 7.9 connec-tion and MTNL 7.7 lakh con-nections.

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Singapore rejectedWednesday Sri Lankan

President Maithripala Sirisena’sallegation it was sheltering aformer central bank chiefwanted for fraud, sayingColombo failed to provide doc-uments to support its extradi-tion request.

Sirisena on Mondayaccused Singapore of shelteringArjuna Mahendran, one of hiscountry’s former central bankchiefs wanted in connectionwith a high-profile $74 millioninsider trading scam.

Sirisena said he appealed toPrime Minister Lee HsienLoong in January to returnMahendran, who is believed tobe in Singapore, but claimednothing had been done.

Mahendran, a Singaporenational of Sri Lankan origin,was accused in 2015 of passingsensitive information to hisbond-dealer son-in-law tomake millions.

The pair are accused ofmanipulating bond auctions in2015 and 2016, causing losses ofover $11 million to the state.

A spokesperson forSingapore’s Ministry of ForeignAffairs said authorities in the

city-state have been cooperat-ing with their Sri Lankancounterparts on the case sinceJanuary.

However, Sri Lanka’srequest to return Mahendran“lacked certain informationrequired under Singapore’sextradition laws” and the city-state has requested Colombo toprovide them, the spokesper-son told AFP.

“To date, Singapore has notyet received the requested sup-porting information and docu-ments,” the spokesperson said.

“We look forward to receiv-ing the requested informationfrom Sri Lanka, so that we canconsider the request further inaccordance with our laws.”

Singapore can extraditefugitives to declaredCommonwealth countries,which include Sri Lanka.

In February last year,Mahendran was named a keysuspect in the multi-milliondollar bond scam in Sri Lanka.He fled abroad, failing to appearin court to respond to charges.

A damning presidentialreport into the scandal accusedMahendran of insider tradingand recommended the staterecover its losses fromMahendran and his son-in-law.

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India on Wednesdayexpressed concern over the

widening trade deficit withChina which has ballooned toover $58 billion, with the coun-try’s new envoy here saying thataddressing the issue would behis top priority.

India’s Ambassador toChina Vikram Misri, whoassumed charge on January 8 ata time when the two Asiangiants were trying to boost theirbilateral ties, told the state-runGlobal Times that India isworking with the Chinese sidefor ensuring greater marketaccess to the Indian agriculturalproducts.

He expressed concern overthe growing trade deficit, whichhas now crossed over $58 bil-lion in over $80 billion trade.

The bilateral trade willcross the $100 billion mark thisyear, he said.“However, this figure includesa deficit of $58 billion forIndia and this deficit has beenincreasing over the years.Addressing this trade deficitwould be one of my prioritiesbecause it is not really sustain-able in the long term,” Misri

said.India is working with the

Chinese side for ensuring greatermarket access to the Indianagricultural products such assugar and rice, as well as variousfruits and vegetables, besidespharmaceuticals and IT, whichare India’s strengths, he said.

The Indian envoy’s inter-view was carried by the daily onWednesday.

“Progress has been made insome of these areas, but trans-lating this progress into actualand sustained exports is impor-tant. We hope that in thisregard, we will receive supportfrom the Chinese side andexpand our trade basket.

“In addition, we also needto address the barriers forgreater access to the Indianpharmaceuticals and IT prod-ucts and services in the Chinesemarket,” Misri said.

He said that the growth inbilateral investments has notkept pace with the expandingtrade volume between the twocountries. While both countrieshave emerged as the top invest-ment destinations for the restof the world, mutual invest-ment growth is yet to catch up.

“Many of the Chinese com-

panies are doing good businessin India. Xiaomi and otherChinese companies are amongthe largest distributors ofmobile phones in India. Wewelcome these companies to setup their manufacturing bases inIndia, which would contributeto lowering the trade deficit.

“We would also like to seemore Chinese investment ininfrastructure, such as roadsand railways, industrial parksand in the food processingsector,” Misri said.

The India-China bilateraltrade reached $84.44 billion in2017.

According to India’s tradefigures, the bilateral tradedeficit crossed $52 billion in2017. India has been pressingChina to open the IT andPharmaceutical sectors forIndian firms to reduce themassive trade deficit.

Misri said that anotherwelcome area for the Chineseinvestment would be the hos-pitality sector, such as restau-rants that cater to the Chinesepalate, which in turn would bean attractive factor for Chinesetourists.

He said that enhancingpeople-to-people and cultural

contacts would be anotherfocus area.

“In 2018, the total numberof travellers from China to Indiaand vice versa added up to justone million, which is a minus-cule number when we considerthat our combined population is2.6 billion,” he said.

“We need to change thesefigures and promote our coun-tries as preferred tourist desti-nations for each other. Thiswould be the best way toenhance trust and understand-ing between our two peoplesand further strengthen ouroverall bilateral relationship,” hesaid, adding that 2020 willmark the 70th anniversary ofthe establishment of diplomat-ic relations between India andChina and people’s exchangeswould be an important com-ponent of the celebrations.

Mirsi said that one of themain reasons for the low num-ber of Chinese tourists visitingIndia could simply be lack ofinformation.

“We are taking energeticsteps to bridge this informationgap and China has been iden-tified by us as a priority mar-ket for India’s tourism promotion,” he added.

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KM Mammen, Chairman &Managing Director, MRF

Ltd has been unanimouslyelected as Chairman ofAutomotive TyreManufacturers’ Association(ATMA), the national industrybody for automotive tyre sec-tor in India. AnshumanSinghania, whole-time Directorof JK Tyre & Industries Ltd hasbeen elected as Vice Chairmanof ATMA.

Set up in 1975, ATMA isamongst the most activenational industry bodies inthe country representing Rs60000 crore ($8.5 bn) auto-motive tyre industry. Elevenlarge tyre companies compris-ing mix of Indian andInternational tyre majors andrepresenting over 95% of pro-duction of tyres in India aremembers of the Association.ATMA members includeApollo Tyres, Birla Tyres,Bridgestone India, Ceat,Continental India, GoodyearIndia, JK Tyre & Industries,Michelin, MRF, TVS Tyresand Yokohama.

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India and Peru have con-cluded a fourth round of

negotiations for a proposedfree trade agreement (FTA) inthe South American nationlast week, the Department ofCommerce said.

The agreement is aimed atboosting the two-way com-merce between the countries.

“India and Peru are negoti-ating a trade agreement coveringgoods, services and investment.The fourth round of negotiationswas held from March 11-15 inLima, Peru,” the departmentsaid in a series of tweets.

The main chapters of thetrade agreement include mar-ket access for goods, trade inservices, movement of profes-sionals, investments, disputesettlement, technical barriers totrade, trade remedies, rules oforigin of goods, customs pro-cedures and trade facilitation.

In an FTA, two countriessignificantly reduce or elimi-nate duties on most of thegoods traded between thembesides relaxing norms and

rules to promote trade in ser-vices and increase bilateralinvestments.

With growing uncertaintiesin its traditional markets,including the US and Europe,India is looking to enhanceengagements with otherregions such as Africa, SouthAmerica and Central Asia.

The Federation of IndianExport Organisations (FIEO)said Peru holds huge potentialfor exports and investments fordomestic exporters and busi-nesses.

“The agreement wouldboost bilateral trade. Peru holdshuge export potential forIndian exporters,” FIEO

President Ganesh KumarGupta said.

Peru ranked third amongexport destinations for India inthe Latin America andCaribbean (LAC) region.

The bilateral trade betweenthe nations increased to $3.13billion in 2017-18 from $1.77billion in the previous fiscal.

Among the top-10 com-modities that India exports toPeru are motor vehicles, cars,auto components, tyres, dyes,products of iron and steel, cot-ton yarn and fabrics. While theimports include bulk mineralsand ores, gold, fertilisers, alu-minium, coffee, crude oil andzinc.

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Islamabad: Pakistan PrimeMinister Imran Khan onWednesday extended his greet-ing to the country’s Hinducommunity on the occasion ofHoli. Prime Minister Khanwas joined by other Pakistanipolitical leaders in wishing theminority community on Holi.

“Wishing our Hindu com-munity a very happy andpeaceful Holi, the festival ofcolours,” Khan said in a tweet.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari,Chairperson of PakistanPeoples Party (PPP), took totwitter to wish people on Holi.“Happy Holi to all my Hindubrothers and sisters. On thehappy occasion of Holi, let usspread the wonderful massageof peace and happiness,” hewrote. PTI

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Britain has asked EU leadersto delay Brexit until June

30, Prime Minister TheresaMay told parliament onWednesday, on eve of an EUsummit in Brussels.

May said she had written toEU President Donald Tusk“informing him that the UKseeks an extension to theArticle 50 period to June 30”.

“I don’t want a long exten-sion,” she said, warning that alonger delay would meanBritain having to holdEuropean Parliament electionsat the end of May.

“The idea that three yearsafter voting to leave the EU, thepeople of this country shouldbe asked to elect a new set ofMEPs is, I believe, unaccept-able,” she said.

“As Prime Minister, I amnot prepared to delay Brexit

any further than June 30,” shesaid. In the letter to Tuskreleased by Downing Street,May said she intended to bringthe Brexit deal she has negoti-ated with the EU back to par-liament even though MPs haverejected it twice by over-whelming margins.

“If the motion is passed, Iam confident that parliamentwill proceed to ratify the deal

constructively. But this willclearly not be completed before29 March 2019,” she wrote,adding that the timetable forpassing the necessary legisla-tion to allow Brexit was“inevitably uncertain”.

“I am therefore writing toinform the European Councilthat the UK is seeking anextension to the Article 50period... Until 30 June 2019.”

Beira (Mozambique): Thedeath toll from a cyclone thatsmashed into Mozambique andZimbabwe rose to more than300 as rescuers raced againstthe clock to help survivorsand the UN led the charge toprovide aid.

“We already have morethan 200 dead, and nearly350,000 people are at risk,”Mozambican President Filipe

Nyusi announced on Tuesday,while the Government inZimbabwe said around 100people had died but the toll could be three timesthat figure.

The UN, meanwhile, saidthat one of the worst storms tohit southern Africa in decadeshad also unleashed a humani-tarian crisis in Malawi, affect-ing nearly a million people and

forcing more than 80,000 fromtheir homes.

Four days after TropicalCyclone Idai made landfall,emergency teams in centralMozambique fanned out inboats and helicopters, seekingto pluck survivors from roofsand treetops in an inland sea offloodwater, sometimes in thedead of night.

Air force personnel from

Mozambique and South Africawere drafted in to fly rescuemissions, while an NGO calledRescue South Africa said it hadpicked up 34 people sinceFriday night, using three heli-copters. “It is the only way toaccess the people that arestranded,” Rescue SA’s AbrieSenekal told AFP, saying theNGO was trying to hire morehelicopters. AFP ��������� ��������������������������������&��������������'����'���������� 0�

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United Nations: India has saidthe UN General Assembly musttake lead in finding solutions tothe challenges faced by theworld, slamming the SecurityCouncil for “progressivelyundermining” the authority ofthe 193-member global body.

India’s Deputy PermanentRepresentative K Nagaraj Naidusaid growing number of com-plex challenges facing the world,like those related to peace andsecurity, climate change and sus-tainable development that cutacross boundaries and regionscan be addressed only througha genuine multilateral and par-ticipative process.

“The General Assemblymust take the lead in setting theglobal agenda and in restoringthe centrality of the UN in for-mulating multilateral approach-es to resolving transnationalissues,” he said. PTI

Lahore: As Pakistan and Indiadiscuss the alignment of theKartarpur Corridor, some 600villagers who are facing“forcible eviction” due to theproject say they will block thedevelopment work if deniedcompensation of their land oncommercial rates.

The entire population(600) of village Kothay Khurd,where Gurdwara Dera SahibKartarpur is located (some125-km from Lahore), hasbeen ordered by the districtadministration to vacate their

houses immediately for thedevelopment of the KartarpurCorridor to facilitate the Sikhpilgrims from India.

“My ancestors had settledin the village even before thepartition and now our fifthgeneration is living here. Someofficials came here and told theresidents that the governmentwas planning to buildKartarpur Corridor on ourland, therefore we will have tovacate the land,” MohammadArshad of Kothay Khurd toldreporters.

“We are living in the areafor centuries and it was notpossible for us to leave the areaand the graves of our ances-tors,” another villager ZaeemHussain said, adding that thegovernment officials had onlytold them that they would becompensated after their landand houses had been acquired.

Hussain said there hasbeen consensus among the vil-lagers to sacrifice their agri-cultural land but none of themis ready to leave their ancestralhouses. PTI

Islamabad: Pakistan will soonhave a definition to the word‘terrorism’. This was decided bySupreme Court Chief JusticeAsif Saeed Khosa onWednesday when he consti-tuted a seven-member bench todetermine the definition of‘terrorism’ and the cases thatfall within the category,Pakistani media reported.

The apex court’s decisioncomes amid intense pressureon Pakistan Government torein in terror groups like theJaish-e-Mohammed (JeM),which claimed responsibility

for the Pulwama terror attackthat killed 44 CRPF soldiers.

Pakistan has witnessed anumber of major terror attacksin the past. At least 595 people,including Pakistani securityofficials, have been killed and1,030 others injured in 262terror attacks in Pakistan dur-ing 2018, the Pak Institute forPeace Studies, an Islamabad-based independent think tanksaid in January. Pakistani mediareported that since 1997, it isnot determined which casecomes in ambit of terrorism,Chief Justice Khosa said. PTI

Almaty (Kazakhstan):Kazakhstan’s Parliament onWednesday voted to renamethe country’s capital in honourof long-time ruler NursultanNazarbayev, a day after heresigned as President.

“Astana is now officiallyrenamed Nursultan,” the state-owned Kazinform news agencysaid after a parliamentary vote.

Kazakhstan’s new interimPresident Kassym-JomartTokayev proposed renamingthe capital after he was swornin following Nazarbayev’sshock resignation on Tuesday.

In his first official act,

Tokayev asked that Astana —the gleaming new capitalNazarbayev erected in the coun-try’s vast steppes — be renamed“Nursultan” — which means“Sultan of Light” in Kazakh andother Turkic languages.

Astana, the Government’sshowpiece project on the Ishimriver in northern Kazakhstan,took over as the capital morethan 20 years ago.

It replaced Kazakhstan’slargest city Almaty as the capital in 1997 and wastransformed from a minorprovincial town into a futuris-tic city. AFP

Paine (Chile): The cows andhorses would have come for thelast blades of grass. Now theirbones are scattered on thecracked earth, victims ofdrought that wiped Santiago’sweekend playground LakeAculeo from the map.

Lake Aculeo’s demise is sosudden and complete it seemsas if someone had pulled agiant plug and let all the waterout. So sudden was it that asrecently as 2011 the 4.6 square-mile lagoon was a thrivingweekend getaway for peoplefrom the Chilean capital an

hour away.Thousands came here to

swim, water-ski, sail or simplycool off in the long austral sum-mer. They camped along itsshores and lined up for tablesat busy lakeside restaurants.

Now, water and coolingsummers on Lake Aculeo are afast receding memory. “Wehave been suffering drought for10 years, and now the lake hasdisappeared, with tourism,camping, business, everything,”laments Marcos Contreras, acampsite employee.

AFP

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India onWednesday sig-

nalled that it willboycott China’s sec-ond Belt and RoadForum for a secondtime, saying nocountry can partic-ipate in an initiativethat ignores its coreconcerns on sover-eignty and territorial integrity.

India boycotted the firstBelt and Road Forum (BRF) in2017 after protesting to Beijingover the controversial China-Pakistan Economic Corridor(CPEC) which is being laidthrough the Pakistan-occupiedKashmir (PoK) overriding NewDelhi’s sovereignty concerns.

Foreign Minister Wang Yirecently said next month Chinaplans to hold a much bigger,second BRF which will also beattended by Pakistan PrimeMinster Imran Khan.

Speculation is rife whetherIndia would attend the secondBRF as China has deepened itscommitment to expand theUSD 60 billion CPEC, whichaims to connect China’sXinjiang province withPakistan’s Gwadar port with ahost of road, rail, gas and oilpipelines.

China has also undertakena host of energy projects underthe aegis of the CPEC.

India’s Ambassador toChina Vikram Misri told thestate-run Global Times that

“above all, connectivity initia-tives must be pursued in amanner that respects sover-eignty, equality and territorialintegrity of nations”.

“No country can partici-pate in an initiative that ignoresits core concerns on sover-eignty and territorial integrity,”he replied to a question aboutIndia’s concerns over the BRIand whether India would takepart in the second BRF meet.

The Indian envoy’s inter-view was carried by the daily onWednesday. “To be honest, wehave made no secret of ourviews and our position on theBRI is clear and consistentand one that we have conveyedto the authorities concerned.

“India shares the globalaspiration to strengthen con-nectivity and it is an integralpart of our economic anddiplomatic initiatives. We our-selves are working with manycountries and internationalinstitutions in our region andbeyond on a range of connec-tivity initiatives,” Misri said.

“However, it is also our

belief that con-nectivity initia-tives must bebased on univer-sally recognisedi n t e r n a t i o n a lnorms, good gov-ernance and ruleof law. They mustemphasise socialstability and envi-ronmental protec-tion and preser-

vation, promote skill and tech-nology transfers and followprinciples of openness, trans-parency and financial sustain-ability,” the Indian envoy said.

India along with the USand several other countrieshave been highlighting theconcerns over the BRI projects,leaving a number of smallercountries in debt traps.

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Premier Giuseppe Conte pledged to make Italy the first Groupof Seven nation to join China’s ambitious Belt and Road ini-

tiative, despite objections from the United States and concernswithin his governing coalition.

Speaking to parliament, Conte said that Italy’s signing of amemorandum of understanding for the infrastructure-buildingventure, which is due to happen during the Chinese premier’svisit this week, would not “in the least” put into question Italy’sposition within the strategic trans-Atlantic alliance or withEuropean partners. Italy’s signature would be considered a majorlegitimation of the project that envisions overland and maritimeroutes connecting China with Europe.

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Berlin: European CommissionPresident Jean-Claude Junckersaid on Wednesday it wasunlikely the EU would reachany decision on Brexit at thisweek’s summit, adding thatanother gathering in Brusselsmay be necessary next week.

With just nine days left untilBritain’s scheduled exit from theEU, Juncker said the remaining27 members states’ hands weretied until the political indecisionin London was resolved.

“As long as we don’t know

what Britain could say yes to,no decision can be taken onour side either,” he said.

Exasperated Europeanleaders are demanding Londontell them clearly what it wants,warning that the risk remainsthat Britain could crash out ofthe bloc on March 29, endingits 46-year membership with-out formal arrangements.

Juncker insisted the dealnegotiated over two years withBrussels was remaining mem-bers states’ final offer. AFP

�= �% �$���%����������=� �� � 4������'������+&&� #��+�%'��London: The British pound

fell on Wednesday on sim-mering Brexit tensions afterPrime Minister Theresa Mayasked EU leaders to delay thenation’s departure until June30. On eve of an EU summitin Brussels, May told parlia-ment that she has written toEU President Donald Tusk toask for the withdrawal dateto be moved from March 29.

The EuropeanCommission warned in aninternal briefing note thatdelaying Brexit to June 30would bring “serious legaland political risks”.

The EU’s executive arminstead urged leaders tochoose instead a short delayto May 23 or a longer one atleast until the end of thisyear. Around 1300 GMT,sterling was down almostone per cent in value, slidingto USD 1.3149, while theeuro rose to 86.40 pence. Theunit was already in negativeterritory prior to May’sannouncement. PTI

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Apinch of gulaal, an abundanceof colour and a stir of bhang —holi means all that and more.

The day means that there are a pletho-ra of activities to do and celebrationsto be a part of. But before stepping intothis world of revelry and non-stop fun,here are a few things that need to betaken care of to make sure that the cel-ebrations continue, even post the fes-tival.

���������������� ����Wearing old, retired clothes on

Holi? Not done. It is a festival after all.The idea is to look vibrant, vivaciousfestive and fashion-trendy rather thantacky and worn-out.

Sandhya Sakhuja, business head,personal care at India’s largest privateplatform for products that are madefrom traditional techniques, skillsand hand-based processes andSoumya Kant, founding member at anonline lingerie brand suggest a fewclothing essentials:� Go bright in white: White is unof-ficially the colour of the day. Womencan opt for a white Chikankari kurtapaired with a vibrant bandhani-print-ed dupatta and/or a coloured churidaror patiala. Men, can utilise one of theircrisp cotton white shirts as a canvasfor the day.� Cool cottons: Summers have justbegun and choosing the right kind offabric in this heat means half the bat-tle won. Opt for a cotton kurta as itwill absorb the sweat. It will also dryout faster after Holi celebrations. Pairit up with the right-sized lingerie sothat it’s not too tight or loose to avoidfeeling sticky and uncomfortable.� Nude innerwear all the way:Always opt for nude lingerie insteadof white. Most people make the mis-take of wearing white lingerie under-neath white garments, which is morevisible. Nude-coloured undergarmentsblend well with the skin, provide a no-show underneath your sparklingwhites, offer the best cover and areyour safest bet to wear under the sheerkurtas.

�������������������With gulal and colours, come

traces of synthetic pigments whichcould potentially harm your hair andskin. The first suggestion from expertsis oiling hair with coconut, castor orjojoba oil before you go out in the sunand your hair gets doused withcolours. It is the most popular, tradi-tional and convenient way to reducehair damage caused by toxic colours.It greases the hair strands and helpsin removing the colour later. The oilputs a coating that shields and protectshair from the chemicals and theharsh, direct sunrays. It also avoidscolour deposition on the scalp.

They also suggest that split ends

should be chopped off before Holi asartificial colours can make the hairdrier and cause further split ends.Apart from that, one of the easiestways to protect the hair from damageis to use a headscarf or a bandana. Tieup your hair into a bun or make aponytail. Ensure that the scalp issecured, and colours don’t getabsorbed easily.

Well, there are a few things thatyour hair needs post-Holi as well.After playing with colours, washingyour hair correctly helps. Apply a mildshampoo on the hair, gently massagethe scalp and leave it for about 10 to15 minutes. This will help in remov-ing and softening all the dust, artifi-cial pigments and colours that getstuck on the scalp. Following that,apply a rich conditioner to reload theoil and moisture that have been takenaway by the chemicals.

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It’s important to remember some

safety rules amidst the swirl ofcolourful madness. This list from anIndian e-commerce brand has a fewmust-haves to protect your belong-ings and tech gadgets from watersplash and harmful chemicals incolours.� Rubber mobile pouch: Be pre-pared for water splashes and colourswith a waterproof mobile phonecover. The pouch is made up of sil-icon which will seal the gadget andmake sure it is safe from every pos-sible damage.� Waterproof speakers: SoundbotSB518 is a compact waterproof blue-tooth speaker which comes with asuction cup at its back. With this, onecan place the speaker even on thewall to enjoy the party. These comewith a warranty period of one yearand have a playback time of six hourswith a good battery backup.� Aviator sunglasses: Do not for-get to accessorise your look with apair of trendy sunglasses. They willnot only protect your eyes from the

scorching heat and colours, but addto the festive swag and keep up yourstyle quotient.� Power bank: A power bank is amust-have for people who can’tresist clicking pictures until their bat-tery dies. Keep your electronic gad-gets going and capture the lovelymemories for a lifetime.

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Keeping in mind the increasingawareness about the toxic impact ofcommercial colours available in themarket, why not go herbal and nat-ural this time?

Without having to worry aboutallergies, blotches of colour thatrefuse to be washed away and otherlong-term health implications, thistime, play Holi with flowers. Thereare also options in the market wherecolours made of flowers and othernatural ingredients are used. Gonatural and have a holi that is happy,colourful and safe.

Seekhne ki jab lalak aati hai toh aagepeeche kuch nahi dikhta hai (If you

have the passion to learn, all the hurdlesbecome immaterial), says Padmaawardee Teejan Bai and a renownedexponent of Pandavani — a folk artfrom Chhattisgarh which involvesnarrations and performances from theIndian epic Mahabharata.

Teejan Bai started performing sinceshe was 13. Her journey was full ofstruggles yet she chose not to stopsinging, which eventually paid off forher. She says, “I am the only source ofthis art because I have been strongthroughout my journey.”

What makes her journey special isthat she pursued her passion against allodds. Teejan Bai narrates the strugglesof her life and says, “I hail from Ganiyari(Chhattisgarh). I used to hear my nana(maternal grandfather) sing and I learntthe art from him. It came naturally tome. Mujhe bola jata tha Pandvani ganaladkon ka kaam hai, ladkiyon ka nahi.Sab mujhe mana karte they (I was toldthat only men could sing Pandvani,everyone forbade me from singing it.)”The mores of the time dictated thatwomen shouldn’t perform on stage. “My

mother used to punish me for singingbecause it was considered a taboo at thattime. I never understood the actualreason behind it. Why can’t a womanperform on stage? Just because of hergender or caste? I used to think, does allthis really matter? I was told that if Icontinued doing it, we would be ex-communicated by the society. Uss

zamaney mein aisa samajha jata tha kijinka gharaana acha nahi hai, wahiaurtein gaati or nachti hai. But I felt,bhagwaan ki katha to koi bhi gaa saktahai, chahe chote ghar se ho yaa ladki jaat(During that time, it was believed thatwomen from good households do notsing or dance. But I felt that since it wasthe story about God, anyone could sing

it.) So I continued it. I didn’t listen to mymother so I was thrown out of myhouse. I was very young then. Myparents loved me, but they wanted me togive up on Pandvani, which I didn’t do. Igot married thrice. Even my in-lawsused to say, humein gaana gaanewalinahi, khaana bananewali chahiye (wewould want someone who could cook,rather than sing),” says she.

Recently Aaliya NawazuddinSiddiqui (wife of Nawazuddin Siddiqui)and producer Manju Garhwalannounced a biopic on the legendaryartist.

Aaliya narrates that she came uponthe idea as she always wants to make thebiopic on her life. She says, “I have habitof listening to music on YouTube. Andone day I was scrolling down and Icame across amma’s performance. Itbeen almost five years now. I instantlygot attracted towards her music and theway she was performing. It blew mymind. Through this movie I want to payhomage to her. Amma crossed so manyhurdles in her life and here she is now asshe kept her eyes on the stars and herfeet on the ground. She is a true legend,everyone must know the story of herlife. It will be inspiring.”

Aaliya feels that there are manyfacets in her life that can be writtenabout and that is why she wants Teejan

Bai’s life to be immortalised lyrically byGulzar Sahab. She strongly feels thatthis can be a story of every Indianwomen.

She says that they are trying toapproach Amitabh Bachchan for therole of her nana and probably VidyaBalan for the role of Teejan Bai.

“It is heartwarming to see hersimplicity and honesty,” adds Aaliyasince Teejan Bai continues to enthrallaudiences, the world over, with herunique folk singing and her powerfulvoice.

But the legendary singer does notwant the art to pass into oblivion withher so she is passing on her singing tothe younger generation. “It is stalwartslike her who have kept our country’sculture and art alive. You need toconserve what is yours. It hurts to seethat today’s generation might not evenknow about her,” says Aaliya.

The recipient of many awards likethe Padma Shri in 1987, PadmaBhushan in 2003, and PadmaVibhushan in 2019 by Government ofIndia, besides 1995 Sangeet NatakAkademi Award, Teejan naivelyadmitted, “I didn’t have the knowledgeabout these awards They make me feelthat I have been strong. (PadmaAwards) until people told me what theymeant.”

Refusing to give in to tradition,Teejan Bai fought all the norms createdby the society at a time when womenbarely had the right to speak up.

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Zearalenone is a toxin pro-duced by soil fungi which

behaves like an endocrine dis-ruptor in humans. This meansthat this fungus can possibly leadto hormonal imbalances, birthdefects and other developmen-tal disorders. Various studieshave also indicated signs of earlypuberty in girls on exposure tohigh intake of this toxin.

The findings of this researchpublished in the ‘Journal ofFood Science’ present a quanti-tative assessment of zearalenonecontamination in cereals basedon their daily consumption val-ues. The experiment was carriedon 117 unbranded samples ofcorn, wheat, rice and oats inUttar Pradesh. After analysingthe average cereal consumed, thedaily intake of zearalenone in ricewas found to be 17 times high-er than the prescribed limit bythe European Food SafetyAuthority Standards (EFSA). Incase of wheat samples, the dailyintake of zearalenone was seventimes higher than EFSA limits.

In India, regulatory mecha-nisms are in place to control thecontamination of fungal toxinswhich have previously lead todisease outbreaks in humans andanimals, including aflatoxinswhich affects nuts, deoxyni-valenol and ergot, which infestscereal grains. Last year, 56 cowswere found dead after grazing onpost harvest cuttings of maize,which was later found to be con-taminated by aflatoxins in theGuntur district of AndhraPradesh.

Being a tropical country, thewarm and humid climate ofIndia inherently providesfavourable conditions for mouldinfection to develop in foodcrops. Hot weather also compli-ments the nature of zearalenone,which can endure very high tem-

peratures. Zearalenone starts toaccumulate as storage protein inthe cereal grains during thestoring, milling and other hightemperature processing.

The important fact to noteabout zearalenone is that thespores of this fungus are perme-ating, which makes all cerealgrain vulnerable to invasion andinfestation. Geographical factorsand environmental conditionssuch as erratic rain and highmoisture makes fungal infectionthrive in standing crops as wellas stored food grains in ware-houses, after harvest. “In theabsence of any regulatory limits,

the Indian population is at agreater risk of zearalenone expo-sure by consuming highly con-taminated cereals,” says MukulDas, a senior toxicologist whodesigned the study. When askedabout the presence of zear-alenone in food grain, con-sumers in local market of Delhisaid that they were now ‘simplyapprehensive about the foodthey are consuming’.

While the research was con-ducted on cereal samples inUttar Pradesh, the presence ofthis toxic fungus has indicated apotential risk for the Indianpopulation. However, there is aneed of further examinationand quantitative analysis at thenational level.

Considering the fact thatabout 80 per cent of the Indianpopulation consumes wheat andrice as their staple food, the expo-sure risk assessment of zear-alenone serves as an importantrevelation for ensuring foodsafety. This also calls for imme-diate regulatory framework bythe FSSAI to prescribe limits forzearalenone.

(The author is an engineer.)

�9>���78.�������������.���6��,As am employee of a bank in

The Netherlands where,within the department of build-ing Credit Risk Models, thepressure to work with regulato-ry banking deadline isimmense. With a high-poweredset up, there is a constant needto be on one's toes. be highpaced, extremely driven andsometimes willing to put inmore number of hours than isstipulated in the employmentcontract.

Within this setup, I haveobserved differences in themanagement and leadershipstyles of men and women. Ihave noticed that men, on anaverage, showcase moreconfidence on takingup a role thanwomen do,despite few ofthem beingequally ors o m e t i m e slesser qualifiedthan women forthe same role. Ithas also beenobserved that menand women, in general,react differently to success. Infact, success and likeability arerelated to some extent andthere appear to be differentrules for men and women froma stereotypical point of view. Itis a common trend that themore success women tendachieve in an organisation, themore they are perceived asbeing bossy, bordering towardsbeing disliked. This is especial-ly the case when the top man-agement is populated by moremen than women.

Sheryl Sandberg in herbook ‘Lean In’, suggests thatowning one's success is the keyto achieving more success.Professional advancementdepends upon people believingthat an employee is contribut-ing to good results. Men cancomfortably claim credit forwhat they do as long as theydon’t veer into arrogance. Forwomen, taking credit comes ata real social and professionalcost. In fact, there have been

studies to show that a womanwho explains why she is quali-fied or mentions previous suc-cesses in a job interview, canlower her chances of gettinghired. The studies showcase thatthey generally come across asbeing more arrogant for takingclaim of their successes. Frompersonal experience, I was ableto identify these differences inbehaviours and perceptions.This kind of ‘owning of success-es’ was typical of the male leadconsultant on our project,despite him having fewer num-bers of years of experiencethan anyone on the team.However, it was interesting to

note that when hiscounterpart, a

female lead whohad more yearsof experiencethan him wasleaving theproject with ahigher contri-

bution fromher end and a

lesser display ofher contributions,

she gave more credit tothe team for contributing in hersuccess than she gave herself.

I feel that it is common-place to notice that women arenot so ‘out there’ as men are.Part of the reason for thisbehavioural difference is theway boys and girls are raised. Ina study conducted by DukeUniversity, it was seen thatparents usually instructed theirdaughters to ‘be careful’, ‘not dothis or that’, imploring them tobe safe and not be adventurous.In contrast, from a very earlyage, boys are encouraged to takecharge and offer their opinions.They are told to be adventurousand raised to be ‘go-getters’. Thisis how young women inter-nalise societal cues about whatdefines ‘appropriate’ behaviourand in turn silence themselves.This is palpable in meetings anddiscussions and can negativelyor adversely affect their careers.

(The author is MalikaDavar. The views expressed arepersonal)

The Steel Authority of IndiaLimited (SAIL), has

launched Smart Garbage Binsmade of SALEM stainless steelin Delhi, which will be able tosend signals to the collectionvehicle about the ‘fill-up’ posi-tion. A Smart Garbage Stationwill be set up at Bhikaji CamaPlace in Delhi, which is beingdeveloped by the South DelhiMunicipal Corporation(SDMC).

The smart stations will beequipped with a RCC pit inwhich the environment friend-ly stainless steel bins will beplaced. There will be separatebins for recyclable and non-

recyclable wastes. Since the binswill be placed under ground, thepit will be covered with a cover,fabricated out of stainless steel,slip free sheets. Suitable open-ings will be kept on the pit coverthrough which the sanitationcrew can dump the collectedgarbage into the stainless steelbins. It is planned to have IOT(Internet of Things) enabledGazelle sensors on the pit coverwhich will transmit the signalsto the collection vehicle aboutthe ‘fill-up’ position. The com-pactor will lift the stainless steelbins from the underground pitsand empty the garbage into thecompactor vehicle.

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Aconfident Nirma Devifrom Gaya, Bihar, says

“We use condoms in ourhouse.” Her transformationfrom a diminutive girl, marriedoff early, to the present, ferventadvocate of family planning(FP), is exemplary. She repre-sents women of today, ready tobreak away from societal pres-sures.

Indian women have had ametamorphic journey sinceindependence, with transfor-mative improvements in edu-cation and employment.Challenges, however, persist, anumber of which can be over-come by giving women controlover their own bodies and sex-ual and reproductive health(SRH) decisions. India’s com-plex social fabric gives womenlittle freedom over fertilitydecisions. There is a clear dis-connect between the desiredfertility rate among women(1.8 as per the fourth NationalFamily Health Survey), asagainst the total fertility rate(TFR) of 2.2. Furthermore,there are wide disparities inTFR across the nation, rangingfrom 3.4 in Bihar to 1.2 inSikkim.

Family planning (FP) hasproven to impact allSustainable DevelopmentGoals. Timely investments inFP would allow women tocomplete their education, enterthe workforce and plan fami-lies—eventually benefiting thenation and the economy. WhileFP programmes must ensurewomen have access to SRH ser-vices, their success depends onseveral factors like quality ofcare, adequate infrastructure,counseling services, positiveprovider attitudes and so on.

Elucidating the potentialbenefits of investing in FP,findings from a study by thePopulation Foundation of Indiatitled ‘Cost of Inaction inFamily Planning in India: AnAnalysis of Health andEconomic Implications’, statesthat India can prevent up to 2.9million infant deaths, 1.2 mil-lion maternal deaths, 206 mil-lion unsafe abortions, and 69

million additional births by2031 if FP programmes are pri-oritised. There can also be anadditional 13 per cent increasein India’s per capita GDP. Thesefindings echo a 2013-14 esti-mate by the Ministry of Healthand Family Welfare (MoHFW),which stated that if unmetneed for FP is addressed in thenext five years, India couldavert 35,000 maternal and 12lakh infant deaths. The provi-sion of safe abortion services,together with FP services, couldsave the economy approxi-mately �6,500 crore duringthis period.

There are 80 millionteenage girls in India today andthe country’s progress rests asmuch on its young girls as onits young boys. With 65 percent of the population underthe age of 35, policymakersmust view this populationmomentum as an asset. Strongsocial commitment and polit-ical will are needed to over-come structural barriersimpeding the progress ofwomen and girls. The nation-al population debate needs torelocate its emphasis from onlyreducing numbers to empow-ering people, especially women.The ambitious AyushmanBharat programme aims toleave no one behind and thegovernment must ensure thatSRH of women and girls areput on priority.

(The author is executivedirector of the Population

Foundation of India).

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The profession of CompanySecretaries (CS) has been seen asan important part of any organ-

isation. ASHOK KUMAR DIXIT shares hisviews on the future of one of the mostprestigious and sought after professionsof the nation and the role of companysecretaries in shaping the governanceculture of the corporates of the coun-try. Edited excerpts form the interview:

� What does it take to be a compa-ny secretary?There are two entry points into the pro-fession —Foundation Programme for10+2 pass students and the ExecutiveProgramme, wherein a graduate(except fine arts) is directly admittedto the Company Secretaryship Courseof the Institute of Company Secretariesof India (ICSI). The FoundationProgramme is like a filter to determinethe students who have the acumen topurse the profession.

� What is the reason for the low passpercentage in the ExecutiveProgramme?It is important to understand that therole of a company secretary has evolvedover the years and it is important toalign the curriculum with the contem-porary developments and the demandsof the corporate. Today the CS is a keymanagerial personnel in an organisa-tion and his/her role is no longer lim-ited to taking minutes of a meeting oracting as an interface between theboard and its stakeholders. Our focusis on raising the standard and bench-marks for the profession. Thus, thiscourse requires rigorous efforts to meetthe tough standards which act as thelitmus test to determine the deservingcandidates for the high-stake andresponsible role that the CS has to playin an organisation. The students needto understand that analysis and appli-cation skills, as envisaged in the cur-riculum and evaluation methodology,is the way forward.

� What other courses are availableapart from the Foundation and theExecutive Programme?We have a host of Certification andPost Membership Qualification (PMQ)courses. Those persons who are alreadycompany secretaries can enroll for thePMQ course in Corporate Governance.The Certificate Courses have beenlaunched on varied topics such as GST,Internal Audit and CSR. The responseto the Certificate Courses has been

quite encouraging. We also have mem-orandum of understanding (MOU)with universities which recognise CSqualification to pursue Ph.D or post-graduation after the students becomea member of the ICSI.

� What are the initiatives taken bythe ICSI to regulate and develop theprofession?The Company Secretaries Act, 1980and the Regulations framed thereun-der, lay down a strong foundation forthe regulation and development of theprofession. The Council of the Institutefrom time to time is issuing variousguidelines to regulate the members andbuild their capacities in the profession.The guidelines provide for mandato-ry attendance at learning programmes,dress code to be followed by compa-ny secretaries, peer review by fellowprofessionals, advertising of profession-al services, and so on. There are threeentities working within ICSI which reg-ulate and carry out activities towardsdevelopment of the profession of com-pany secretaries.

The ICSI has formed a Section 8(Companies Act, 2013) company, ICSIInstitute of Insolvency Professional(ICSI IIP), which is registered as anInsolvency Professional Agency withthe Insolvency and Bankruptcy Boardof India (IBBI), which has around 800

members on its roll. The ICSI IIP edu-cates, develops, trains and monitors theinsolvency professionals enrolled withit and has disciplinary mechanism toregulate them. The portfolio of mem-bers enrolled with ICSI IIP include,company secretaries, chartered accoun-tants, advocates, cost accountants,bankers, management professionalsamong others. The members enrolledwith ICSI IIP are handling corporateinsolvency resolution process, liquida-tion, voluntary liquidations under theInsolvency and Bankruptcy Code,2016.

ICSI also has another Section 8(Companies Act, 2013) company,called ICSI Registered ValuersOrganisation (ICSI RVO), registeredwith the IBBI, with the objective ofeducating, regulating and monitoringthe discipline of Registered Valuers.Any professional possessing the qual-ification of CS/CA/CMA/MBA, withthree years of post-qualification expe-rience, is eligible to conduct the valu-ation of ‘Securities or Financial Assets’.The requirement of Registered Valuershas enhanced professional opportuni-ties for both the company secretariesand other professionals as well. Interms of the provisions of Section 247of the Companies Act, 2013, where avaluation is required to be made inrespect of any property, stocks, shares,debentures, securities or goodwill orany other assets or net worth of a com-pany or its liabilities under the provi-sion of this Act, it shall be valued by aRegistered Valuer. The ICSI RVOconducts 50 hours’ Educational Courseaccording to the syllabus notified by theIBBI, which is a pre-requisite forappearing in the entrance examinationconducted by IBBI.

Apart from this, the ICSI has setup the Governance Research andKnowledge Foundation (GRKF),which undertakes research and devel-opment activities. There is anotherentity known as the ICSI Centre forCorporate Governance, Research andTraining (CCGRT) at Navi Mumbai,which is dedicated to research andtraining in the field of economics, tax-ation, capital markets and so on. TheInstitute has recently set up a Centreof Excellence in Hyderabad.

� How the Regional Councils andChapters contributing to the growthof ICSI?Under the Company Secretaries Act,1980, the ICSI has been mandated withthe development and growth of theprofession of company secretaries.The chapters are playing a major rolein achieving this objective. As of now,we have 70 chapters in almost all majorcities and state capitals and fourRegional Councils in Delhi, Mumbai,Kolkata and Chennai. Though it is adistance learning course, the chaptersare providing class room teaching,library facilities, personality develop-ment and grooming workshops, on-spot career counselling and othertraining facilities to the students, to helpthem in their studies at a subsidised or

minimal cost. The chapters work tofacilitate the students and the membersacross the country and function as aninterface between them and theHeadquarter. They are responsible forconducting seminars and trainingprogrammes at the city and district lev-els to make education more inclusive.It is important to note that we have ascheme for the students in Jammu andKashmir and the North East region,where a concession in fee is permissi-ble in comparison to other cities, tofacilitate students of these places to pur-sue this course.

� What are the international recog-nition programmes available for themembers of ICSI?We have an MOU with ICSA-UKwhich works on a reciprocal arrange-ment. The company secretaries, afterpassing few of the papers of ICSA-UK,become eligible to obtain the member-ship of ICSA-UK. The arrangementenhances overseas employability of themembers and reciprocally opens thegates for professionals who are mem-bers of the UK counterpart for employ-ment in India. UK-NARIC or theNational Recognition and InformationCentre of UK has now recognisedmembers of ICSI in UK and Dubai.The CS Executive Programme passcandidate of ICSI is equivalent to thegraduate in UK and Dubai and the CSProfessional Programme pass candi-date of ICSI is equivalent to the postgraduate in UK and Dubai, accordingto this recognition programme.

� What according to you are the bestpractices in corporate governancethat India should follow?I believe that absolute disclosure,transparency and ethical businesspractices should be the key focus forany organisation. I feel that out of these,transparency is the prerequisite.

� What are some of the CSR initia-tives?We have taken an innovative initiativecalled ‘Shaheed Ki Beti’. When we invitedignitaries or guests to address the stu-dents or the members for seminars orto take an industry relevant lecture,rather than presenting them a memen-to, we honour their contribution bypresenting them a ‘Shaheed Ki Beti’Certificate. The amount saved by theinstitute on account of the mementois given to the Defence Ministry foreducation of daughters of the martyrs.

The National Book Trust(NBT) India is organising

a job-oriented book publish-ing course in association withthe Central University ofJammu at Samba, fromMarch 25-31, under the skilldevelopment initiatives.Graduates in any disciplineare eligible to register for thecourse. The details of thecourse are available on NBT’swebsite-www.nbtindia.gov.in.The chairman of NBT India,Prof Govind Prasad Sharma,and the vice chancellor of theCentral University of Jammu,Prof Ashok Aima, will gracethe inaugural function onMarch 25.

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After drawing over 43,000business visitors and del-

egates from India and abroad,the 34th edition of AAHAR,a specialised internationalfood and hospitality event ofIndia Trade PromotionOrganisation (ITPO) andapex industry bodies con-cluded on a successful note atPragati Maidan, New Delhi,recently. Almost all 560 par-ticipants from India andabroad expressed their satis-faction over the businessresponse, tie-ups, networkingand joint ventures in the fair.Santosh Kumar Sarangi, JointSecretary and PravinBonigala, Joint Secretary,Department of Commerce,Government of India andDeepak Kumar, ExecutiveDirector, ITPO, jointly pre-sented the Awards forExcellence in display in differ-ent categories which includ-ed F&B Equipment, Foodand Processed Food,Hospitality and DécorSolutions and Foreign sector.

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Four-time defending champi-ons India stormed into thefinal of the SAFF Women's

football championship with aresounding 4-0 win overBangladesh here on Wednesday.

Dalima Chhibber opened thescoring for India, which was fol-lowed by a brace from IndumathiKathiresan and an injury-timestrike by Manisha as the defendingchampions took their tally to 15goals in three matches in the tour-nament at the Sahid RangashalaStadium.

The match began with bothteams going hard from the firstwhistle as Bangladesh looked tomake the most of their physicalprowess and pressed the Indiandefenders with rigorous pace.

The Indian centre-back duo ofAshalata and Sweety Devi, howev-er, stood tall and denied the oppo-sition forwards any sniff at goal.

After a tense start, the Indiansfound their foothold and in the18th minute, Sanju curled in anexcellent delivery from the left thatfell to Dalima inside the box andthe right-back made no mistake asshe placed the ball into the back ofthe net.

The tempo of the match wentup a notch after the opener, withboth sides creating good scoring

chances.Bangladesh centre-back

Mosammat Khatun skied an effortfrom close range while Sanju was

denied by the rival custodian in aone-on-one situation in quick suc-cession.

India scored their second goal

in the 23rd minute through mid-fielder Indumathi, who showedexcellent composure to slot the ballpast the keeper after being played

through with a delightful reversethrough-ball from Sanju.

Bangladesh then looked to hitback, trying their luck from dis-

tance, only to be denied by a con-fident Aditi Chauhan in goal.

India, who scored 11 goals intheir first two matches of the tour-nament, showed their prowesswith a classic counter-attack goalin the 37th minute to triple theirlead.

Dalima played the ball outfrom the right after an attack fromBangladesh and in no time, Sanjuand Sandhiya combined well to putthrough Indumathi once again,who found the net with a well-placed finish for her second strikeof the day.

After the change of ends, it wasIndia that started out strongerand controlled most of the posses-sion.

Sanju and Dangmei Grace

were a handful for the Bangladeshdefence down the flanks and it wasthe latter who came close to scor-ing at the hour mark but saw hershot sail past across the goal.

Coach Maymol Rocky broughton Anju Tamang and Manisha inplace of Ratanbala Devi and Gracerespectively, and both substitutesproduced impactful performancesas soon as they came on.

In the dying minutes of thegame, Manisha pounced on a looseball inside the box, rounded thekeeper and scored her first goal.

It was her first goal of the tour-nament which helped in makingthe scoreline 4-0 and in favour ofIndia.

India will take on hosts Nepalin the summit clash on Friday.

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India will aim for a maiden appearancein the final round of the AFC U-23

Championship Qualifiers when theybegin their campaign at the continentalfootball tournament, starting inTashkent, Uzbekistan on March 22.

India have never made it to the finalround of the AFC U23 Championshipuntil now and in Tashkent too, the roadlooks tough as they have been clubbedalong side defending championsUzbekistan and Tajikistan.

India U-23 team head coach DerrickPereira named 10 19-year-olds andeven a 16-year-old in the squad.

"We should be excited about the pos-sibility of making history," quippedPereira.

"We need to find the right combina-tion and fight with the correct spirit."

Pereira further went on to stress theimportance of the friendly that Indiaplayed against Qatar.

"This is why the friendly againstQatar was so helpful. They are a tech-nically accomplished side, and weshowed that we can perform well againstsuch teams," he said.

"In our group, Uzbekistan is theteam that has the acumen for such styleof football, and judging by our last game,I think we can stand our ground againstthem."

India had controlled large share ofpossession against Qatar, whose seniorteam had clinched the AFC Asian Cuptitle, earlier this year.

Although the Blue Colts created a lotof opportunities, they failed to utilisetheir chances, which is something thatPereira has been working on.

However, the 57-year-old believes

that finishing is not the sole responsibil-ity of his attackers.

"Scoring is not the only responsibil-ity of my strikers. The whole teamshould work together to create oppor-tunities. Whoever gets the chance, in theend, needs to keep calm and finish it, butthe main emphasis is on teamwork," hesaid.

India U-23 squad:Goalkeepers: Dheeraj Singh,

Prabhsukhan Gill, Md Nawaz.Defenders: Narender, Nishu Kumar,

Sarthak Golui, Gaurav Bora, MehtabSingh, Anwar Ali, Asish Rai.

Midfielders: JerryMawihmingthanga, LallianzualaChhangte, Vinit Rai, Sahal Abdul,Amarjit Singh, Rohit Kumar, AnirudhThapa, Komal Thatal, Rahul KP.

Forwards: Liston Colaco, DanielLalhlimpuia, Rahim Ali, Rohit Danu.

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Star javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra wason Wednesday named to lead a 39-

member Indian athletics team for nextmonth's Asian Championships in Doha,with sprint sensation Hima Das alsomaking the cut in 400m despite herrecent below-par show.

National record holders, Mohd.Anas (400m), Jinson Johnson (800m and1500m), Dharun Ayyasamy (400m hur-dles), Avinash Sable (3000m steeple-chase), Tajinder Pal Singh Toor (shotput), Dutte Chand (200m) and AnnuRani (javelin throw) were also amongthose named in the team.

Tejaswin Shankar (high jump) andM Shreeshankar (long jump) — bothnational record holders — were left outof the team for different reasons whileseasoned campaigners Seema Antil(discus throw) and Arpinder Singh(triple jump) opted out of the continen-tal showpiece to focus on the WorldChampionships later this year.

Sanjivani Jadhav, who recentlyreturned positive for a specified sub-stance, was also named in the team for10,000m race subject to clearance by theNADA.

The 22-year-old Jadhav was nothanded a provisional suspension by theNADA and she won the 10,000m Goldin the just-concluded Federation Cupwhich served as the selection trials forthe April 19-24 continental showpiece.

The 21-year-old Neeraj, who wonGold in 2017 edition, was given exemp-tion by the Athletics Federation ofIndia from taking part in the FederationCup. He is currently training in SouthAfrica.

Hima, on the other hand, took abreak of one month from training at thenational camp to appear for her 12thclass examinations in Assam and that

showed in her performance in theIndian Grand Prix series and theFederation Cup in Patiala.

In the third leg of the Indian GP inSangrur on March 2, Hima finishedfourth in the quartermile event with atime of 55.19 seconds, the worst of hernascent career.

The 19-year-old reigning worldjunior champion, who holds the nation-al record of 50.79, won the Gold in theFederation Cup on March 18 but witha modest time of 52.88 seconds. She ranbelow the Asian Championships quali-fying standard of 52.75 set by the AFI.

"She had a break as she had herexams. She is young and what is crucialat this stage is to conserve her. Thebiggest stress for Galina (400m coach)is how to conserve Hima so that she cando some great stuff in 2024 Olympics,"AFI President Adille Sumariwalla saidon the inclusion of Hima in the team.

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Ace shuttler Saina Nehwal Wednesdaypulled out of the Indian Open BWF

World Tour Super 500 which begins here onTuesday, after failing to recover from an acutegastroenteritis problem.

Saina, who turned 29 last Monday, hadplayed through pain during the All EnglandChampionships after suffering from an acutegastroenteritis and mild pancreatitis ahead ofthe tournament.

She was forced to withdraw from SwissOpen last week and was admitted to hospitalfor treatment.

On Wednesday, Saina informedBadminton Association of India (BAI) abouther decision to withdraw from the USD350,000 tournament on medical grounds.

"She has not been well since the AllEngland Championship. She sent the letter towithdraw citing stomach pain," a BAI officialtold PTI on condition of anonymity.

Last week, Saina, who had reached thequarter-f inals of the All EnglandChampionship, had broken the news that shewas advised to get admitted to get treated forher illness.

"So some sad news was really goingthrough acute stomach pain from lastMonday... Managed to play few matches in AllEngland with lot of pain ... Decided to skipSwiss open and come back to India and findout the issue," she had written in her socialmedia account.

"... And I found out it's acute gastroenteri-tis with mild pancreatitis and the doctors haverecommended me to get admitted and hope-fully I recover soon out of it."

Saina had won the India Open women'ssingles title in 2015. Olympic silver medallistand former champion P V Sindhu will now beIndia's only title contender in women's singles.

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Asian Games Gold-medallistAmit Panghal will be making

his competitive debut in the 52kgcategory while Shiva Thapa (60kg)will eye a record-breaking fourthsuccessive medal after the duofound a place in the Indian men'sboxing team for the AsianChampionships, next month.

The Asian Championships arescheduled to be held in the Thaicapital of Bangkok from April 19to 28.

Panghal won a second succes-sive 49kg category Gold medal atthe prestigious Strandja MemorialTournament in Bulgaria last monthand trained in his new weight divi-sion in Germany earlier this month.

The Haryana-boxer has beenforced to shift divisions after the49kg category was dropped fromthe 2020 Olympic programme.

Thapa also started the new sea-son on a positive note with aSilver medal at the GeeBeeTournament in Finland this month.

The former world champi-onship Bronze-medallist fromAssam has won medals in threeprevious editions of the Asianshowpiece event — Gold in 2013,

Bronze in 2015 and Silver in 2017."The boxers who win Gold or

Silver medals at the AsianChampionships in the Olympicweight categories will be our auto-matic choices for the world cham-pionships later this year," nationalcoach C A Kuttappa told PTI.

The 49kg category will be rep-resented by national championDeepak Singh, who clinched aGold medal in the Makran Cup inIran earlier this month.

Kavinder Singh Bisht, theGold-winner in the GeeBee

Tournament, has been picked forthe 56kg category, whileCommonwealth Games Silver-medallist and Satish Kumar wasexpectedly the choice for the +91kgdivision. Satish won a Bronzemedal at the 2015 AsianChampionships.

The World Championships, tobe held from September 7 to 21 inYekaterinburg, Russia inSeptember, will be conducted in thenew Olympic weight categories asthe event will double up as a qual-ifier for the 2020 Games in Tokyo.

The other weights to havebeen dropped from the Olympicroster, apart from the 49kg division,are 56kg, 60kg and 64kg. In theirplace, the International BoxingAssociation (AIBA) has broughtback 57kg and introduced the63kg division.

Due to the re-jigging, the 60kgcategory boxers such as Thapa andCommonwealth Games Silver-medallist Manish Kumar will bemoving to the 63kg division.

"That is why, the world cham-pionship selection in the 63kg cat-egory will be done on the basis ofprobably trials and an assessmentof their sparring performance inthe camp," Kuttappa said.

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Former captain and India A teamcoach Rahul Dravid Wednesdaysaid there cannot be a one-size-

fits-all policy on workload managementand players are smart enough to knowwhere to draw the line.

Wading into the ongoing debate onhow the players should manage theirworkload in the IPL, starting March 23,followed by the ODI World Cup inEngland in May, Dravid said in mostcases cricketers know how to handlethemselves.

"Most players are smart aboutthese things. They know how to han-dle their body. I don't think the play-ers would put their body on the line. Iwas reading Patrick Cummins(Australia pacer) saying that he feelsbetter bowling when he is constantlyplaying rather than resting and com-ing back," Dravid said.

"So to each player, it's different.There cannot be a blanket case that allshould be rested. We have to just trustthe players. They know what needs tobe done," he added.

He was speaking at the launch ofESPNCricinfo's new metrics, Superstats,along with former India teammateSanjay Manjrekar here.

Manjrekar was even more forth-right in his views on the matter and saidthe Cricket Board should not putpressure on IPL franchises to restplayers in view of the World Cup, start-ing May 30.

"My views won't be appreciated.This is free enterprise. IPL is capitalismat its best. I don't think there should beany outside interference. It should beup to the franchises.

"Don't think there should be pres-sure (on IPL franchises) from theCricket Board (BCCI) (to rest someplayers)," the former Test batsman-turned-commentator remarked.

Reflecting on India's World Cupchances, Dravid said the 2-3 home ODI

series loss to Australia recently couldend up helping the cause of Virat Kohliand his men when they play in theWorld Cup.

"I think there was a bit of notionthat we are going walk there and win

the World Cup easily. So it's a goodthing that has happened. What it has(the outcome against Australia) hasreminded us is that we have to play theWorld Cup very, very well," said Dravid.

"India has performed well in the

last couple of years. There was a littlebit of talk that we are almost going towalk in there and win the World Cupvery easily because we are the No 1team and we have been dominatingone-day cricket for the last couple ofyears.

"But I don't find anything strange,from my perspective, watching theseries. I still feel that we are going to beone of the favourites. But it's going tobe tough. It's going to be competitive,"the batting stalwart explained.

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The Indian team manage-ment has slotted Mahendra

Singh Dhoni as a potentialnumber five in their line-upmoving into the World Cup butat Chennai Super Kings, theirskipper will be batting a notchhigher at No 4, said coachStephen Fleming.

Dhoni, who will be leadingthe defending champions forthe 10th year, would be used asa floater if required but KedarJadhav's presence makes it eas-ier to fix the slots.

"Dhoni batted pretty much(at) No. 4 last year but we douse him in a little bit of a flex-ible role, so that won't change,"Fleming said at the media con-ference organised by CSK.

"His (Dhoni's) form hasbeen outstanding in the past 10months. We have a new play-er as well (Kedar Jadhav) whichis great. So, we're really happywith the (batting) order and thethoughts around that," Flemingtold reporters at an event tolaunch CSK merchandise here.

Kedar played the firstmatch of the last season beforea hamstring tear kept him outfor nearly six months.

CSK is a team that's core isformed with players in theirmid or late 30's but Fleming

points out at the mindset,which made all the difference.

He alluded the team'smemorable triumph on thecomeback last year to mindset,(team) environment and cul-ture apart from winning the bigmoments to a question onCSK's balance compared toother teams.

"We tend not to do it (com-pare). Because if you startlooking at other teams, you'retrapped away from what's goodor bad of your own. There'senough great players with eachside, so it comes down tomindset, team environmentand culture and winning bigmoments," Fleming said.

He spoke about how theteam won the crucial momentswhich proved to be decisive inthe end.

"Last year, we just won bigmoments. We're just big onteam culture and empoweringthe players to make decisionsand win big moments. And lastyear was a snapshot of that.

"Even though the 'young'man (34-year-old KedarJadhav) was only with us forone game, he played a hugepart in winning that gamewith Bravo. And Faf du Plessisand Watson at the end. And theusual suspects like Dhoni andRaina."

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India all-rounder Kedar Jadhavon Wednesday said he will

have to manage his bowling toremain fit during the two-month long Indian PremierLeague, amid concerns aroundplayers' workload ahead of theupcoming World Cup.

"My workload, I think, isabout managing my bowling. InChennai Super Kings, I don'tthink I need to bowl as much asI do in the Indian team," saidJadhav, who is expected to sharethe responsibility of the fifthbowler during the World Cupstarting on May 30.

"We all are professionalcricketers and we know how tomanage our bodies. How yourecover after every IPL gamereally matters during this two-month period. You can't justimprove in one training session."

Jadhav said it was up toindividuals to handle the situa-tion and the players need towork in tandem with the Indianteam's trainers and physios aswell as that of IPL franchises.

"Obviously, its up to theindividuals and we are smartenough to handle the situation.We will work in tandem withtrainers and physios of Indianteam as well as the franchisees,"

he said."We have got some notes

(from the Indian trainers andphysios) and we have to followthem."

Jadhav, who was ruled outof last year's IPL after the open-ing match owing to a hamstringinjury, said it is every cricketer'sdream to play in a World Cup,but for now his focus will be ongiving his best for the Chennaioutfit.

"Basically every cricketerwho plays for India it's a dreamfor him to feature in a WorldCup team, and I'm no differentto that," Jadhav said.

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Indian spinner Kuldeep Yadav says MahendraSingh Dhoni's understanding of match situa-

tions beats that of the bowlers and the former cap-tain's presence behind the stumps makes his jobeasy.

Yadav, who is quite vocal in his admirationfor Dhoni, said he feels lucky to play alongside theiconic keeper-batsman, who led India to two worldtitles.

"He always guides us bowlers, whenever hefeels the need to get his message across he does

it. When the wicketkeeper supports you like that,it becomes easier for the bowler," Yadav was quot-ed as saying by India Today's YouTube channel'Sports Tak'.

"A lot of times, the bowler is not able to under-stand the situation but the wicketkeeper under-stands it better. Mahi bhai is just like that.

"He has so much experience. He tells gives ussmall details and even when he doesn't, I makesure to ask him for guidance. Chahal and I feelvery lucky to be playing with him. Bowlingbecomes easier with Mahi bhai behind thestumps," he added.

Speaking on India's chances at the World Cupin England, starting May 30, Yadav said the 2011champions are in with a great opportunity but healso expects teams like England and Pakistan todo well.

"We definitely have the chance to bring theWorld Cup home. But I feel England has a strongbatting line-up as compared to the other teams.They will be playing in home conditions.

"I think Pakistan will also perform well in theWorld Cup looking at the way they have been per-forming. So I think England and Pakistan will bethe ones to watch out for," Yadav said.

The left-arm spinner also lauded India's paceattack.

"We have a very good combination of bowlersin the side now. We train together and back eachother which is the biggest plus point," Yadav said.

On current captain Virat Kohli, Yadav said,"Virat bhai always backs us. He understands ourbowling styles be it spinners or fast bowlers. Heis a very attacking captain.

"It feels good as a spinner because then we getto take wickets regularly. He supports not only meand Chahal but all the other youngsters in theteam," he added.

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India speedster speedster Ishant Sharma believes his IPL franchiseDelhi Capitals has one of the best bowling attacks for the upcom-

ing edition of the event.The Delhi Capitals boast of a perfect combination of fast and

spin bowlers with the likesof New Zealand pacerTrent Boult and KagisoRabada in their side,according to Ishant.

"Our team has pickedup some great bowlingoptions in the squad andwith the likes of TrentBoult and Kagiso Rabadaalso in the team. I think wehave one of the best bowl-ing line-ups this time. Wehave some very good all-rounders along with greatspinners, which shall helpus in restricting teamsfrom scoring freely," Ishantsaid.

Talking about his goals, the Indian pacer said he is eager totake more wickets in the IPL, starting on March 23.

"I feel there is a huge ambition for me this season. I am veryfocused on taking more wickets throughout the tournament insteadof just bowling well.

"Of course, taking wickets depends on how well you bowl, butthe most important thing is that you use your good performanceby helping the team in taking important wickets," said the 30-year-old.

Speaking on his return to Delhi, Ishant said he is extremelyhappy to represent his home city in the IPL.

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Ravi Shastri remains favourite to continue as the Indiancricket team's head coach after the World Cup but the BCCI

will be forced to restart the process as the former India all-rounder's service contract doesn't have an extension or renew-al clause.

Unlike most of the big football or NBA clubs, who havea renewal or an extension clause for their coaches, the BCCI,from Anil Kumble's time as chief coach, never had that par-ticular clause.

"From Anil Kumble's time, the service contract of thecoaches and support staff doesn't have an extension or renew-al clause. Therefore, even if India win the World Cup underShastri's coaching, he will have to come through the freshrecruitment process even though he will be a direct entry intothe shortlisted panel as current coach," a senior BCCI official,privy to the development, told PTI on condition of anonymi-ty.

The official said that the BCCI needs to follow the dueprocess of putting up an advertisement on its website for fill-ing up the various positions of support staff in the senior Indialine-up.

"Shastri, Sanjay Bangar (batting coach), Bharat Arun (bowl-ing coach) and R Sridhar (fielding coach), their contracts willend with India's last match in the World Cup. With only 14days left for the inaugural World Test Championship match-es against the West Indies, we need to complete the processin due time. But everything will happen after the World Cup,"he said.

The official also indicated that there is very little chanceof Shastri being replaced if the team reaches at least the semi-final since under his tutelage, India have beaten Australia ina Test series Down Under for the first time in 71 years andalso won ODI series in South Africa, Australia and NewZealand.

It has also been learnt that this year, the mini-IPL forwomen will role with three teams and four games on a round-robin basis. Last year, one exhibition match was held.

"The Indian women's coach WV Raman and the nation-al selectors have given 30 names and there will be 12 foreignplayers. So there will be three teams of 14 players each andthey will play once against each other and then the final," theofficial said.

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