16
A fter nearly three years of investigations in the VVIP chopper scam, the CBI on Friday arrested former Air Force chief SP Tyagi over charges that he took Rs 450 crore bribe for changing the technical parameters to suit AgustaWestland (AW), a UK- based company, which is a subsidiary of the Italian con- glomerate the Finmeccanica. The agency also arrested his cousin Sanjeev Tyagi and a lawyer in the sensational case involving procurement of 12 VVIP helicopters during the UPA-2 Government. These are the first arrests in the sensational case in which the CBI registered an FIR in 2013 after the prose- cutors in Italy levelled allega- tions of corruption in the deal against the chief of Finmeccanica, the parent company of AW. Seventy-one-year old Tyagi, who retired in 2007, is the first former chief of the Air Force to be arrested in a cor- ruption case. The agency called Tyagi for questioning at CBI headquarters along with his cousin and Chandigarh- based lawyer Gautam Khaitan. They were taken into custody after nearly four hours of grilling, CBI sources said. In a statement in the evening, CBI spokesperson Devpreet Singh said, “It was alleged that Chief of Air Staff entered into criminal con- spiracy with other accused persons and in 2005, conced- ed to change IAF’s consistent stand that flying ceiling of 6,000 metres for VVIP heli- copters was an inescapable operational necessity and reduced the same to 4,500 metres.” Singh said such changes in Operational Requirements made AW eligible to partici- pate in the Request for Proposal for VVIP helicopters. “It was revealed during investigation that such undue favours were allegedly shown to said UK-based private company by accepting illegal gratification from the accused vendors through middle- men/relatives including his cousin and an advocate etc, who accepted the illegal grat- ification for exercising influence through illegal means, or using personal influence over the concerned public servants,” the CBI spokesperson said. Singh said the arrested accused persons will be pro- duced before the competent court on Saturday where their remand would be sought. In the past, Tyagi has insisted that the change of specifications, which brought AW into contention, was a col- lective decision in which senior officers of Indian Air Force, SPG and other depart- ments were involved. The con- tract was finally signed in 2010 for 12 helicopters and the first three helicopters were delivered in 2012. They are now non-operational after the contract was cancelled in January 2014. The CBI had claimed that Khaitan accepted having taken money from European mid- dlemen Guido Haschke and Carlo Gerosa but insisted it was not kickbacks to influence the deal. The CBI during investiga- tions had claimed that back in 2004, Tyagi’s cousins Sanjeev, Rajiv and Sandeep, influenced the purchase deal in con- nivance with Guido Hashke and Carlo Gerosa, who emerged as main accused in the scam in the probe carried by the Italian investigators. It was alleged that the Tyagi brothers received huge bribe (1,26,000 Euros after May 2004 and 200,000 Euro after February 2005) as consultan- cy fees. Some of the money was allegedly paid off to SP Tyagi also. D ense fog, that engulfed this part of the region, on Friday led to death of 13 teach- ers, including five women, and the driver after their vehicle rammed into a truck in Fazilka. Four of them were reportedly going to join their duties. The police claimed that the collision took place between the vehicle they were travelling in and a truck com- ing from opposite direction over dense fog near Chandipur village in Fazilka district on Fazilka-Jalalabad road in the morning at the time when the teachers were on their way to duty. “When their jeep tried to overtake a vehicle, it collided head on with a truck coming from the opposite direc- tion…The cause of mishap was poor visibility due to dense fog,” said the police. The van was hired for daily transportation by the teachers deployed in different govern- ment schools of Fazilka district. Two of the teachers were said to be seriously injured. Continued on Page 4 T he sudden appearance of posters around the AIADMK headquarters in Chennai demanding Sasikala Natarajan, the close friend of late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, be made the next general secretary of the party has bewildered the party leadership and the cadre. If the reactions of senior lead- ers who were close to Jayalalithaa and the cadre are any indication, the AIADMK is in for major trouble with dissensions, defec- tions and dismissals. Chief Minister O Panneerselvam has convened the first Cabinet meeting of his Council of Ministers on Friday. The Chief Minister and some of his colleagues were seen trooping into Veda Nilayam, the res- idence of late Jayalalithaa, on Thursday and Friday following the summons of Sasikala Natarajan, Jayalalithaa’s friend for more than three decades. The top cops in the city were also seen visiting the imposing building from where Jayalalithaa held court since she took over the party in 1989. “It seems the Secretariat itself has been shifted to Veda Nilayam. This people will never improve. Now we will see them paying obeisance to Chinnamma,” said a veteran bureaucrat who is disgusted with the kind of sycophancy being shown by the party cadre, Ministers and civil servants to the presiding deity. (Chinnamma means small mother as Sasikala is addressed by hangers on). The immediate priority in front of the AIADMK leadership is to elect the new general secretary of the party. “This is going to be the most crucial decision the AIADMK leaders have to make,” said a senior commentator based in Chennai. He pointed out that while Jayalalithaa was in command, she could balance the caste, community and regional equilibrium with élan and poise. Referring to local newspa- per reports that Panneerselvam was appoint- ed as Chief Minister at the instance of Sasikala, he said that could not be true. “Panneerselvam belongs to the Thevar community, which wield enormous power in the AIADMK. But Sasikala is also from the same community. How is it possible to have the same community people in two important positions in a State where the caste equations are so sensitive?” asked the com- mentator. The names of Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker Thambi Durai and former Minister Senkottaiyyan,(both trusted aides of Jayalalithaa) are also doing the rounds as potential candidates for the post of gen- eral secretary. Both are from the equally powerful Gaunder community from south west Tamil Nadu with headquarters in Coimbatore. I n a bid to curb to the menace of counterfeit notes, the Government has decided to print plastic banknote. The Government on Friday informed Parliament that pro- curement process has been already started in this regard. “It has been decided to print banknotes based on plas- tic or polymer substrate. The process of procurement has been initiated,” Minister of State for Finance Arjun Ram Megh- wal said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha to a query whether RBI proposes to print plastic currency notes in place of paper ones. Plastic notes have an average life span of about five years and can incorporate many security features that cannot be successfully reproduced by pho- tocopying or scanning making them difficult to counterfeit. Also, currency notes made of plastic are cleaner than paper ones. Such notes were first introduced in Australia to safe- guard against counterfeiting. At least 20 countries, incl- uding Canada, Fiji, Australia, Mauritius, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Romania, Vietnam and Britain, have been using polymer currency. As per an IMF report, the plastic currency pro- vides a wide range of benefits, including security features and long durability, apart from being environment-friendly. E nforcement Directorate and Income Tax sleuths continued nationwide crack- down on Friday in connection with demonetisation. In two separate crackdowns in Delhi and Chennai, the I-T sleuths seized more than Rs 200 crore and unearthed well-knit rack- ets in converting the scrapped currency notes. While the I-T department unearthed Rs 100 cr of sus- pected deposits in 44 accounts of Axis Banks in Delhi, the department seized Rs 106 crore cash and 127 kg gold bars in searches in mul- tiple locations in Chennai. On Wednesday, the ED had arrested a Rajeev Singh Kushwaha, a Chartered Accountant, for floating shell companies and laundering more than Rs 39 crore by opening benami bank accounts in the Axis Bank’s Kashmere Gate and Chandni Chowk branches. Between November 10 and November 22, in connivance with Axis Bank managers Shobit Sinha and Vinit Gupta, Kushwaha deposited money in several shell companies and benami accounts. The Chartered Accountant was charging 10 to 20 per cent commission for converting the scrapped cur- rency notes, said ED officials. Axis Banks has already sus- pended 19 staffers after the frauds were detected. “The department is checking the records of the bank as part of a survey oper- ation. There are some instances under scanner where huge deposits have been made post the currency scarp and that is being probed,” officials said. Axis Bank said it is coop- erating with the agency. “The bank is committed to follow- ing the highest standards of corporate governance and has zero tolerance towards any deviation on the part of any of its employees from the set model code of conduct. Strict action will be taken against any employee found deviating from the guidelines. We would also like to add that we are cooperating with the investigating agencies,” it said in a statement. They added the taxman was probing some accounts which were dubious as they were opened by allegedly using fake Know Your Customer (KYC) documents and it was suspected some entry operators used the accounts to deposit funds. Meanwhile in Chennai, the IT sleuths raided offices and residences of those engaged in the lucrative sand mining business. Prominent among those whose houses were raided include Sekhar Reddy, who is also a member of the Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthnam Trust Board. The raids yielded Rs 106 crore cash and 127 kg gold bars. The seized cash include new currencies worth Rs 10 crore. According to sources, the raids were in connection with tax evasion following the demonetisation of high value currency notes announced by the Centre on November 8. An officer in the group said 127 kg gold in 1 kg bars and Rs 96 crore in old cur- rency and Rs 10 crore in Rs 2,000 notes has been seized. This is the largest seizure of new currency notes after the demonetisation, said the I-T officials. I n what could be a major embarrassment to the DMK, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday filed a chargesheet in a Chennai court against former Union Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication Dayanidhi Maran, his elder brother Kalanidhi Maran (who owns the Sun TV network), and three others in the illegal tele- phone exchange case. The case has been filed in the court of the Principal Sessions Judge for CBI cases in Chennai. According to the chargesheet, the exchequer lost Rs 1.78 crore due to the illegal installation of an unauthorised private telephone exchange in the personal residence of then Minister Dayanidhi Maran. The Marans are the grand nephews of M Karunanidhi, the DMK patriarch. The existence of a private unauthorised telephone exchange in the residence of then Minister Maran was exposed by noted charted accountant S Gurumurthy in a series of columns in New Indian Express. According to Gurumurthy, the exchequer had lost Rs 440 crore because of this illegal telephone exchange. Chandigarh: Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, his deputy son Sukhbir Badal, Punjab Congress pres- ident Capt Amarinder Singh, Aam Aadmi Party’s state con- vener Gurpreet Singh Ghuggi on Friday condoled the demise of 12 teachers and a driver in a tragic road acci- dent. Badal, in his condolence message, said that he was extremely pained to learn about this fatal road accident, which snatched the precious lives of 12 teachers from us. Describing this tragedy as a “huge loss for the state”, Badal said that the teacher was the true guide and a philosopher besides an archi- tect to shape the destiny of our future generation. He also expressed heartfelt sym- pathies with the family of the driver of ill-fated vehicle car- rying these teachers to their destination. Continued on Page 4

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After nearly three years ofinvestigations in the VVIP

chopper scam, the CBI onFriday arrested former AirForce chief SP Tyagi overcharges that he took Rs 450crore bribe for changing thetechnical parameters to suitAgustaWestland (AW), a UK-based company, which is asubsidiary of the Italian con-glomerate the Finmeccanica.The agency also arrested hiscousin Sanjeev Tyagi and alawyer in the sensational caseinvolving procurement of 12VVIP helicopters during theUPA-2 Government.

These are the first arrestsin the sensational case inwhich the CBI registered anFIR in 2013 after the prose-cutors in Italy levelled allega-tions of corruption in the dealagainst the chief ofFinmeccanica, the parentcompany of AW.

Seventy-one-year oldTyagi, who retired in 2007, isthe first former chief of the AirForce to be arrested in a cor-ruption case. The agencycalled Tyagi for questioning atCBI headquarters along withhis cousin and Chandigarh-based lawyer Gautam Khaitan.They were taken into custodyafter nearly four hours ofgrilling, CBI sources said.

In a statement in theevening, CBI spokespersonDevpreet Singh said, “It wasalleged that Chief of Air Staffentered into criminal con-spiracy with other accusedpersons and in 2005, conced-ed to change IAF’s consistentstand that flying ceiling of6,000 metres for VVIP heli-copters was an inescapableoperational necessity and

reduced the same to 4,500metres.”

Singh said such changes inOperational Requirementsmade AW eligible to partici-pate in the Request forProposal for VVIP helicopters.

“It was revealed duringinvestigation that such unduefavours were allegedly shownto said UK-based privatecompany by accepting illegalgratification from the accusedvendors through middle-men/relatives including hiscousin and an advocate etc,who accepted the illegal grat-if icat ion for exercising influence through illegalmeans, or using personalinfluence over the concernedpublic servants,” the CBIspokesperson said.

Singh said the arrestedaccused persons will be pro-duced before the competentcourt on Saturday where theirremand would be sought.

In the past, Tyagi hasinsisted that the change ofspecifications, which broughtAW into contention, was a col-lective decision in whichsenior officers of Indian Air

Force, SPG and other depart-ments were involved. The con-tract was finally signed in2010 for 12 helicopters and thefirst three helicopters weredelivered in 2012. They arenow non-operational after thecontract was cancelled inJanuary 2014.

The CBI had claimed thatKhaitan accepted having takenmoney from European mid-dlemen Guido Haschke andCarlo Gerosa but insisted itwas not kickbacks to influencethe deal.

The CBI during investiga-tions had claimed that back in2004, Tyagi’s cousins Sanjeev,Rajiv and Sandeep, influencedthe purchase deal in con-nivance with Guido Hashkeand Carlo Gerosa, whoemerged as main accused inthe scam in the probe carriedby the Italian investigators. Itwas alleged that the Tyagibrothers received huge bribe(1,26,000 Euros after May2004 and 200,000 Euro afterFebruary 2005) as consultan-cy fees. Some of the moneywas allegedly paid off to SPTyagi also.

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Dense fog, that engulfedthis part of the region, on

Friday led to death of 13 teach-ers, including five women, andthe driver after their vehiclerammed into a truck in Fazilka.Four of them were reportedlygoing to join their duties.

The police claimed thatthe collision took placebetween the vehicle they weretravelling in and a truck com-ing from opposite directionover dense fog nearChandipur village in Fazilkadistrict on Fazilka-Jalalabadroad in the morning at thetime when the teachers wereon their way to duty.

“When their jeep tried toovertake a vehicle, it collidedhead on with a truck comingfrom the opposite direc-tion…The cause of mishapwas poor visibility due to densefog,” said the police.

The van was hired for dailytransportation by the teachersdeployed in different govern-ment schools of Fazilka district.

Two of the teachers weresaid to be seriously injured.

Continued on Page 4

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The sudden appearance of posters aroundthe AIADMK headquarters in Chennai

demanding Sasikala Natarajan, the closefriend of late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa,be made the next general secretary of theparty has bewildered the party leadershipand the cadre. If the reactions of senior lead-ers who were close to Jayalalithaa and thecadre are any indication, the AIADMK is infor major trouble with dissensions, defec-tions and dismissals.

Chief Minister O Panneerselvam hasconvened the first Cabinet meeting of hisCouncil of Ministers on Friday. The ChiefMinister and some of his colleagues wereseen trooping into Veda Nilayam, the res-idence of late Jayalalithaa, on Thursday andFriday following the summons of SasikalaNatarajan, Jayalalithaa’s friend for morethan three decades. The top cops in the citywere also seen visiting the imposingbuilding from where Jayalalithaa held court

since she took over the party in 1989.“It seems the Secretariat itself has been

shifted to Veda Nilayam. This people willnever improve. Now we will see them paying obeisance to Chinnamma,” saida veteran bureaucrat who is disgusted withthe kind of sycophancy being shown by theparty cadre, Ministers and civil servants tothe presiding deity. (Chinnamma meanssmall mother as Sasikala is addressed byhangers on).

The immediate priority in front of theAIADMK leadership is to elect the newgeneral secretary of the party. “This isgoing to be the most crucial decision theAIADMK leaders have to make,” said asenior commentator based in Chennai.

He pointed out that while Jayalalithaawas in command, she could balance the caste,community and regional equilibrium withélan and poise. Referring to local newspa-per reports that Panneerselvam was appoint-ed as Chief Minister at the instance ofSasikala, he said that could not be true.

“Panneerselvam belongs to the Thevarcommunity, which wield enormous powerin the AIADMK. But Sasikala is also fromthe same community. How is it possible tohave the same community people in twoimportant positions in a State where the casteequations are so sensitive?” asked the com-mentator.

The names of Lok Sabha DeputySpeaker Thambi Durai and formerMinister Senkottaiyyan,(both trusted aidesof Jayalalithaa) are also doing the roundsas potential candidates for the post of gen-eral secretary. Both are from the equallypowerful Gaunder community from southwest Tamil Nadu with headquarters inCoimbatore.

��� ����� ����� ����� ���� ����� ������� �78�6739

In a bid to curb to the menaceof counterfeit notes, the

Government has decided toprint plastic banknote. TheGovernment on Fridayinformed Parliament that pro-curement process has beenalready started in this regard.

“It has been decided toprint banknotes based on plas-tic or polymer substrate. Theprocess of procurement hasbeen initiated,” Minister of Statefor Finance Arjun Ram Megh-wal said in a written reply in theLok Sabha to a query whetherRBI proposes to print plasticcurrency notes in place of paperones. Plastic notes have anaverage life span of about fiveyears and can incorporate manysecurity features that cannot besuccessfully reproduced by pho-tocopying or scanning makingthem difficult to counterfeit.Also, currency notes made ofplastic are cleaner than paperones. Such notes were firstintroduced in Australia to safe-guard against counterfeiting.

At least 20 countries, incl-uding Canada, Fiji, Australia,Mauritius, New Zealand, PapuaNew Guinea, Romania, Vietnamand Britain, have been usingpolymer currency. As per an IMFreport, the plastic currency pro-vides a wide range of benefits,including security features andlong durability, apart from beingenvironment-friendly.

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Enforcement Directorateand Income Tax sleuths

continued nationwide crack-down on Friday in connectionwith demonetisation. In twoseparate crackdowns in Delhiand Chennai, the I-T sleuthsseized more than Rs 200 croreand unearthed well-knit rack-ets in converting the scrappedcurrency notes.

While the I-T departmentunearthed Rs 100 cr of sus-pected deposits in 44accounts of Axis Banks inDelhi, the department seizedRs 106 crore cash and 127 kggold bars in searches in mul-tiple locations in Chennai.

On Wednesday, the EDhad arrested a Rajeev SinghKushwaha, a CharteredAccountant, for floating shellcompanies and launderingmore than Rs 39 crore byopening benami bankaccounts in the Axis Bank’sKashmere Gate and ChandniChowk branches. BetweenNovember 10 and November22, in connivance with AxisBank managers Shobit Sinhaand Vinit Gupta, Kushwahadeposited money in severalshell companies and benamiaccounts. The CharteredAccountant was charging 10to 20 per cent commission forconverting the scrapped cur-

rency notes, said ED officials.Axis Banks has already sus-pended 19 staffers after thefrauds were detected.

“ The department ischecking the records of thebank as part of a survey oper-at ion. There are someinstances under scannerwhere huge deposits havebeen made post the currencyscarp and that is beingprobed,” officials said.

Axis Bank said it is coop-erating with the agency. “Thebank is committed to follow-ing the highest standards ofcorporate governance and haszero tolerance towards anydeviation on the part of anyof its employees from the setmodel code of conduct. Strictaction will be taken againstany employee found deviatingfrom the guidelines. Wewould also like to add that weare cooperating with theinvestigating agencies,” it saidin a statement.

They added the taxmanwas probing some accountswhich were dubious as theywere opened by allegedlyusing fake Know YourCustomer (KYC) documentsand it was suspected someentry operators used theaccounts to deposit funds.

Meanwhile in Chennai,the IT sleuths raided officesand residences of thoseengaged in the lucrative sand

mining business. Prominentamong those whose houseswere raided include SekharReddy, who is also a memberof the Tirumala TirupathiDevasthnam Trust Board.

The raids yielded Rs 106crore cash and 127 kg goldbars. The seized cash includenew currencies worth Rs 10crore. According to sources,the raids were in connectionwith tax evasion following thedemonetisation of high valuecurrency notes announcedby the Centre on November 8.

An officer in the groupsaid 127 kg gold in 1 kg barsand Rs 96 crore in old cur-rency and Rs 10 crore in Rs2,000 notes has been seized.This is the largest seizure ofnew currency notes after the demonetisation, said theI-T officials.

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In what could be a majorembarrassment to the DMK,

the Central Bureau ofInvestigation (CBI) on Fridayfiled a chargesheet in a Chennai court against formerUnion Minister for InformationTechnology andTelecommunication DayanidhiMaran, his elder brotherKalanidhi Maran (who ownsthe Sun TV network), andthree others in the illegal tele-phone exchange case. The casehas been filed in the court of thePrincipal Sessions Judge forCBI cases in Chennai.

According to the

chargesheet, the exchequer lostRs 1.78 crore due to the illegalinstallation of an unauthorisedprivate telephone exchange inthe personal residence of thenMinister Dayanidhi Maran.The Marans are the grandnephews of M Karunanidhi, theDMK patriarch.

The existence of a privateunauthorised telephoneexchange in the residence ofthen Minister Maran wasexposed by noted chartedaccountant S Gurumurthy in aseries of columns in NewIndian Express. According toGurumurthy, the exchequerhad lost Rs 440 crore because ofthis illegal telephone exchange.

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Chandigarh: Punjab ChiefMinister Parkash SinghBadal, his deputy son SukhbirBadal, Punjab Congress pres-ident Capt Amarinder Singh,Aam Aadmi Party’s state con-vener Gurpreet Singh Ghuggion Friday condoled thedemise of 12 teachers and adriver in a tragic road acci-dent.

Badal, in his condolencemessage, said that he wasextremely pained to learnabout this fatal road accident,which snatched the preciouslives of 12 teachers from us.

Describing this tragedyas a “huge loss for the state”,Badal said that the teacherwas the true guide and aphilosopher besides an archi-tect to shape the destiny ofour future generation. Healso expressed heartfelt sym-pathies with the family of thedriver of ill-fated vehicle car-rying these teachers to theirdestination.

Continued on Page 4

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Haryana Chief MinisterManohar Lal on Friday said

that all the railway stations in theState would be modernised and given new look in accor-dance with the religious and cul-tural importance of that area.

“In the same series, thedesign of Railway Station,Kurukshetra would be linkedwith the message of lordKrishna,” said the Chief Ministerwhile speaking as chief guest ina programme where he, along-with Union Minister forRailways, Suresh PrabhakarPrabhu, flagged off a new train between Kurukshetra and Mathura at the railway station in Kurukshetra.

They also laid the founda-tion stone of work for upgra-dation of passenger amenitiesat the railway station.

The Chief Minister saidthat Haryana and the Railwayshave formed a joint venturecompany for development ofrail infrastructure in the State.He said that all the new railprojects in the state would beundertaken with the assistanceof this company.

The new express trainwould run betweenKurukshetra and Mathura fivedays a week. The train wouldstart its journey from

Kurukshetra at 2.55pm, and itwould reach Mathura at 9.40pmafter passing through railwaysstations at Karnal, Panipat,Samalkha, Sonipat, SubziMandi, New Delhi, HazratNizamuddin, Faridabad, Palwal,Kosikalan and Chhata.

On its return journey, thetrain would start from Mathuraat 5.30am and would reachKurukshetra at 12.40pm. Thetrain would cover 298 kilome-tres in 7.10 hours. It would have12 Deen Dayal coachesequipped with latest facilities.

The Chief Minister saidthat the new train would bene-fit the passengers of bothKurukshetra and Mathura in abig way. He urged the UnionRailways Minister to name thenew train as Gita Jayanti Express.

He also requested that thetrain run all seven days a weekduring various fairs organisedfrom time to time at bothKurukshetra and Mathura,which are known for their reli-gious and cultural significance.Apart from this, he also urgedthat the train also have a haltat Vrindavan Road.

Manohar Lal said thatwith the assistance of theRailways Ministry, all themanned and unmannedcrossings in the state would bereplaced either with under-pass or railway over bridges.

The Chief Minister said thatthe State Government providesfinancial assistance to the pil-grims who intend to undertakereligious yatras. This year, theGovernment has provided finan-cial assistance to the pilgrims forvisiting Kailash Mansarovar andfor Sindhu Darshan.

Now, by expanding thescope of this facility, it has beendecided to provide financialassistance to those visitingNankana Sahib and other reli-gious destinations so as further

promote the places of religiousimportance, said he.

Speaking on this occasion,Union Railways Minister,Suresh Prabhu said that asKurukshetra is a religious des-tination which depicted ourancient culture, it has beendecided to undertake newworks associated with railwaysin Kurukshetra by investing ahuge amount of money.

This would not only attractmore tourists to this place, butalso provide more employ-

ment opportunities to theyouth, said he.

He lamented that for thelast many years, requiredinvestment for developmentof rail infrastructure in the statewas missing. However, growthrate of 100 per cent has beenregistered in Haryana in termsof investment in railways dur-ing the last two years. Haryanahas the potential to become anindustrialised state, the RailwayMinister added.

Prabhu said that Railway

has also inked a Memorandumof Understanding (MOU) withHaryana Government underwhich saplings would be plant-ed on the vacant land on bothsides of the railway lines.

He said that various stepsare being taken for the upgra-dation of railway stations inHaryana and assistance of aFrench company is being takenfor the modernisation ofAmbala Railway Station.

Apart from this, work hasbeen started on speed-raisingon Delhi-Chandigarh route,he added.

��� � �9��6 0�:9

For effective implementa-tion of Goods and Services

Tax (GST) from next financialyear onwards in the state,Haryana Government hasrestructured the Excise andTaxation Department.

Apart from this, the StateGovernment has also sanc-tioned two posts each ofDistrict Excise and TaxationCommissioners (Inspection)for districts Gurugram andFaridabad, said FinanceMinister, Capt. Abhimanyuon Friday.

He said that the

Government has created anew range at Rohtak for the purpose of tax administration, thus increas-ing the total number of ranges to five.

At present, ranges arefunctional at Ambala,Faridabad, Gurugram andHisar. The Ambala rangecomprises Panchkula,Ambala, Yamunanagar,Kaithal, Kurukshetra andKarnal. Similarly, Faridabadrange comprises Faridabad(East), Faridabad (West),Faridabad (North), Faridabad(South) and Palwal.

He said that Gurugram

range comprises Gurugram(East), Gurugram (West),Gurugram (North),Gurugram (South) andMewat. The Hisar range com-prises Hisar, Jind, Fatehabad,Sirsa and Bhiwani.

Now, the newly-createdRohtak range comprisesRohtak, Panipat, Sonepat,Rewari, Narnaul and Jhajjar,he added.

The Minister said thatthe Government has bifur-cated district Gurugram intotwo new Excise Districts, thatis, Gurugram (East) and(West) to administer variousActs of the Department.

��� � �9��6 0�:9

Haryana Police has recov-ered Rs 10 lakh in new cur-

rency notes of Rs 2,000, fromtwo persons in Gurugram.

A team recovered the cur-rency notes from two personsriding a two-wheeler duringchecking near village Islampur,district Gurugram, said aspokesman of the PoliceDepartment. He said that onbeing enquired about themoney, they failed to reply sat-isfactorily. The currency noteswere seized, and the IncomeTax Department informed forfurther action.

Meanwhile, the police hasalso arrested one person with361 boxes of illicit English andcountry-made liquor. Theaccused, who was identified asMohan, a resident of Ditaur,district Rohtak, was arrested ata naka near Atul KatariaChowk, Gurugram. A case inthis regard has been registeredand further investigation isunderway, he added.

!�����?������ �9 23�

Following the maxim ‘it’s theearly bird that catches the

prey’, the BJP is all set to soundthe election bugle in HimachalPradesh almost a year beforethe assembly polls in the State.

Even as the BJP govern-ment at the Centre appears tobe skating on thin ice follow-ing its demonetization decision,the party has made it clear thatit is going to bet on its grass-root level workers in the nextAssembly polls.

BJP national presidentAmit Shah’s plans of holdingfour massive meetings withthe grassroot level BJP workersin the State is the first step inthe direction. The party con-ferences being named 'TridevSammelan will start with thefirst in the series to be held inSolan on Sunday.

As the party tries to regainpower it lost to the Congresssome four years back, PrimeMinister Narendra Modi too isexpected to visit to the State inthe beginning of 2017 to boostthe party's prospects for‘Mission-50 Plus’ in the nextyear’s Vidhan Sabha poll. Thedevelopments make it clearthat Himachal is next on BJPagenda after Punjab and UP.

Shah will formally launchthe pre-poll campaign of theBJP workers to propagate themisdeeds and poor governanceof Congress government. Over6,000 booth level functionariesare expected to attend the day-long 'Tridev Sammelan' at his-toric Thodo ground at Solan.

Talking to media, StateBJP spokesman and MLA fromNahan, Rajeev Bindal said thatShah would guide the Booth

level functionaries on variouspolitical and organisationalaspects and future planning tocorner ruling Virbhadra SinghGovernment in public.

Bindal also said while theTridev Sammelans are exclu-sively planned for Booth levelfunctionaries, Shah may alsotake a meeting qith BJP coregroup.

Divulging the details ofTridev Sammelan, HimachalBJP vice president, GaneshDutt said the party has plannedfour such meetings to be heldat the four Parliamentary con-stituency areas. Each to beaddressed by Amit Shah.

Dutt added that BJP isfocussing its poll strategy onthe grass root level, and partywill depute its representativesat each page of the electoral listpage, to be finalised by theElection Commission.

��� � �9��6 0�:9

In a bid to promote digitaltransactions in the state,

Haryana Government hasdecided to make all collegesand universities in the statecashless.

Besides, student volun-teers will educate people aboutusing digital payment systemsduring a special awarenesscampaign from December 12to January 12, 2017.

Haryana EducationMinister, Ram Bilas Sharma onFriday said that the StateGovernment is making con-sistent efforts to make thestate cashless.

In view of this, the HigherEducation Department hasprepared an action plan underwhich teaching and non-teach-ing staff of colleges and uni-versities would be associatedwith the cashless payment sys-tem. Students would also bemotivated to adopt differentmethods of cashless transac-

tions for payment of fee, with-drawal of scholarship andother transactions, said theMinister.

He said that assistance ofunits such as NSS and NCCwould be sought for makingpeople aware about digitalpayment systems.

It is the responsibility of theHeads of colleges and univer-sities to make students awareabout the systems and thenselect some students to serve asvolunteers. Such studentswould register on the websitewww.mhrd.gov.in/visaka tillDecember 14. After that, train-ing would be imparted to thesevolunteers from December 15to 20 so that they may educatestudents in colleges, and otherpeople about digital modes ofpayment, starting from theirown homes, said he.

These volunteers wouldbe assigned particular areas forthis purpose. After the cam-paign ends on January 12,2017, the volunteers wouldupload report on their workand experiences on the websiteof the Department, he added.

��� � �9��6 0�:9

Haryana Government onFriday appointed chair-

men of four Corporations withimmediate effect.

Jagdish Chopra, PoliticalAdviser to Chief Minister andBJP leader from Sirsa has beenappointed as chairman,Haryana TourismCorporation.

BJP leaders ChanderPrakash Kathuria has beenappointed as chairman,

Haryana SUGARFED,Rameshwar Chauhan appoint-ed as chairman, HARCOFEDand Ajay Gaur as chairman,Haryana Land Reclamationand DevelopmentCorporation.

Deep Bhatia has beenappointed as executive vicepresident of State SportsCouncil and Rajesh, ProjectManager, HARTRON will alsoact as Chief Minister’s PersonalSecretary in addition to hispresent duties.

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Describing PunjabCongress chief Capt

Amarinder Singh as an “epi-curean monarch”, ChiefMinister Parkash Singh Badalon Friday asked him to list“any single sacrifice” made forthe State and its people.

Addressing a gatheringduring Sangat Darshan pro-gramme in Raikot Assemblysegment, Badal said that CaptAmarinder was a “typicalking” who was a firm believ-er in absolute powers forrulers without bothering forthe subjects.

He said that CaptAmarinder was trying to mis-lead people by “promisingmoon” to them whereas inreality he just wanted to formGovernment. “Nothing goodfor the State could be expect-ed from a Maharaja likeCaptain,” he said.

Badal cautioned the peo-

ple that if voted to power,both the Congress and AamAadmi Party (AAP) would“discontinue” several pro-people schemes and subsidiesbeing currently given.

He said that bothCongress and AAP have a“proven track record of beinganti-poor and anti-Punjabis”.

During his stint as chiefminister, Capt Amarinder had“discontinued” free power topeople and welfare schemeswere a “distant dream” duringhis regime, Badal said addingthat the AAP government inDelhi has also “done nothing”tangible on the welfare frontand even its leaders in Punjabwere insulting beneficiaries ofpro-poor schemes by termingthem as beggars.

He said that if voted againto power, the SAD-BJPalliance would dedicate thenext term for economic pros-perity of every section ofsociety and enhance their

income manifold.Badal said that there

was complete synerg ybetween NDA Government at Centre and SAD-BJPGovernment in the state.

He also said that therewas no revolt in party overticket distribution adding thatonly those people were leav-ing Akali Dal, who have beendenied tickets by the party.

“The ticket distribution hasbeen done purely on meritand such people would notget any support amongst themasses,” he added.

“Demonetisation would

prove very beneficial for thecountrymen as this step hasbeen taken in larger interestof the country,” he said addingthat after initial hiccups, thescheme would act as a catalystto wipe out the parallel econ-omy propel led by blackmoney and corruption.

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Hitting out at the ModiGovernment, Punjab

Congress chief CaptAmarinder Singh on Fridayalleged that it is offering “pettysops” to the people who havesuffered “tragic losses” due to“shockingly ill-conceived”demonetisation move.

“The appalling lack ofempathy of Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and his croniesin the Government, such asFinance Minister Arun Jaitley,has assumed deplorable pro-portions,” Capt Amarinder said.

He said that instead ofaddressing the problems of thepoor who are the worst ones toget affected by demonetisation,the government is busy trying tofind ways to cover up its lapsesthrough stupid incentives forgoing digital.

Capt Amarinder was react-ing to reports of a womandying at a bank in Ludhiana

after being pushed by the bankguard and suffering a heartattack as she fell in the queuewhere she had been standingfor hours to withdraw a paltrysum for her family’s survival.

One month after the “ill-planned and badly executed”policy move by the Modi gov-ernment, the problems of thepeople are getting aggravatedinstead of being alleviated, hesaid urging the judiciary tointervene in the matter. The so-called incentives announced, aday before, by Jaitley are as farremoved from the ground real-ity in the wake of demonetisa-tion as the move itself, he said.

The former chief ministersaid that the Union FinanceMinister is talking of petrol,diesel, and insurance policies,when people don’t have cash tobuy food. He claimed that theCentre, with the demonetisa-tion move, has found a legalway of seizing the hard-earnedmoney of the citizens of India.

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Leader of Opposition andINLD’s senior leader Abhay

Singh Chautala on Friday hada narrow escape as severalvehicles piled up nearNilokheri on NationalHighway-1 due to dense fog.

Abhay Chautala along withhis staff, met with an accidentnear Raipur Roran village inNilokheri Tehsil of Karnal.Chautala’s Fortuner car rampedwith another vehicle.

Talking to reporters,Chautala lashed out atHaryana Government for poortraffic management duringdense fog in the State.

He said, “I and my staffmembers are safe but the gov-ernment should intensify policepatrolling on NH-1 and deployambulances here.”

Meanwhile, two personswere killed and another one was

injured in a head-on-collisionbetween a truck and a jeep near Sarsaud village, on Hisar-Chandigarh road lateThursday night.

According to police,

deceased identified as Jitender,Pappu and injured Vinod Kumarwere on their way fromLudhiana to Rajasthan after pur-chasing some parts of machines.A truck coming from Hisar side

hit their jeep near Sarsaud village,killing Jitender (23) and Pappu(40) on the spot. The deceasedwere residents of Ratoda villagein Boondi district of Rajasthan.

The injured Vinod Kumar,also from the same village, hasbeen admitted to civil hospitalhere for treatment.

Low visibility on account offog was the cause behind theincident. A case has been reg-istered on a complaint of theinjured against the unknowndriver of the truck who ranaway after the accident, leavingbehind the truck.

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About six years after twodalits were burnt alive in

an inter-caste violence inMirchpur village in Hisar dis-tr ict , the CRPF troops deployed there tomaintain peace were with-drawn by the Union HomeMinistry on Friday.

The CRPF troops werewithdrawn with the consentof Haryana Government.

“Now, a 20-member com-mittee has been formed tomaintain peace and harmonyin the vi l lage,” saidSuperintendent of Police (SP)Rajender Singh Meena.

He said that CRPF wasdeployed in Mirchpur afterthe incident when a group ofvillagers belonging to uppercaste had torched over a

dozen houses belonging todalits on April 21, 2010 inwhich a 17-year-old polio-stricken girl Suman and heraged father Tara Chand werecharred to death.

Around 75 CRPF person-nels were deployed in thevillage after the incident.

The Mirchpur incidentwas a reflection of long-standing and deep-rootedacrimony between dalits, con-sidered as the lower casteand Jats, considered as uppercaste in Haryana.

The incident was trig-gered by an argumentbetween some dalit youthsand upper caste men after aperson from the latter faction had thrown a stone ata dog which was barking athim. He was passing through a dalit locality in the

village.An armed group of vil-

lagers stormed the localityhousing dalit families and setabout a dozen houses ablaze.While the able-bodied fled,the disabled girl Suman wastrapped inside and her body was recovered by fire-men. The girl’s father TaraChand, who was badly burntin the incident, died in thehospital later.

The SP said that HaryanaPolice has been deployed inthe village now.

“Members of Valmikicommunity have confirmedthat brotherhood prevails inthe village and now there is noneed of CRPF,” he said.

Following an assurancegiven by both communities,CRPF has been withdrawn, headded.

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Following demonetisation ofRs 500 and Rs 100 curren-

cy notes, Haryana Governmenthas decided to promote cash-less transactions through elec-tronic media such as debit andcredit cards, especially theRuPay card and through othermodes of digital payments toenable ease of doing business inthe state.

Finance Minister, Capt.Abhimanyu said that the StateBank of India (SBI) had agreedto provide the Point of Sale(POS) machine facility free ofcharge to the StateGovernment and itsDepartments across the state.The SBI would not chargeany fee either fromGovernment and Departmentsor from the customers.

The transactions settledthrough POS terminals wouldbe credited by SBI to therespective Department'sDrawing and DisbursingOfficers (DDOs) bankaccounts on T+ I basis (Tdenotes transaction day), saidhe.

The Minister said that allAdministrative Secretaries,Heads of Departments,Divisional Commissioners,Deputy Commissioners, andRegistrar General, Punjab andHaryana High Court have beenasked to identify the locationsfor installation of POSmachines in consultation withSBI and provide requisite infra-structure facilities such as land-line with internet connectivityand mobile connectivity, forthis purpose.

����� �9��6 0�:9

In a bid to check crimeagainst women in rural

areas, Haryana Governmentwill appoint women volunteersin the state.

To being with, womenvolunteers would be appoint-ed in two districts includingKarnal and Mahendragarh.These women volunteers willbe given an appointment let-ter by the government and aspecial badge to wear.

“Women volunteers wouldbe recruited in every village tocurb crimes against thewomen and help for their

upliftment. These women vol-unteers would work in coor-dination with the police” saida senior official of HaryanaGovernment.

He said that about 1000women volunteers each wouldbe appointed in the districts.These volunteers would keepa check on crime againstwomen and also, report it tothe police, he added.

The Chief MinisterManohar Lal is scheduled tolaunch the project next weekin his constituency Karnal.

Notably, Haryana has beeninfamous for honour killingsand a skewed sex ratio.

From Page 1The teachers who were

killed were identified as SanjivBagla, Shankar Lal, ManoharLal, Ram Pal, Satinderjit Singh,Ashish, Nazam, SanjeevKumar, Bindia, Tejinder Kaur,Shetal Kakkar, Natasha andKiran Bala, as all of thembelonging to Fazilka andAbohar.

The bodies of the deceasedwere kept at Civil Hospital inFazilka, most of whom werenewly appointed ETT teach-ers.

Out of the newly appoint-ed teachers, four teachers wereto join duty today. Of the thir-teen dead, six died on the spotand others succumbed to theinjuries the hospital, whilethe seriously injured teacher,Gopi Chand, was taken to ahospital at Abohar. The seniorofficials of the district admin-istration were at the spot.

The markets in this bordertown of Fazilka remained

closed to show solidarity withthe bereaved families.

Senior leaders includingPunjab Health Minister SurjitKumar Jayani, Congress MLASunil Jakhar and Akali Dal MPSher Singh Ghubaya reachedthe local civil hospital. PunjabEducation Minister DaljeetSingh Cheema also rushed toFazilka as soon the newsreached.

Cheema met the bereavedfamilies, and even attended thecremation ceremonies of someteachers.

Education Minister hasalso issued directions to theDirector Public Instructions(Senior Secondary) for hold-ing within seven days a campin Fazilka to provide compas-sionate appointments to thekin of the victims.

Fazilka SeniorSuperintendent of Police (SSP)Narinder Bhargav said that theinvestigation of the accident isunderway.

From Page 1Expressing profound grief

and sorrow over this disas-trous accident, the ChiefMinister shared his deep con-dolences with the members ofthe bereaved families andprayed to the Almighty togive them courage to bearthis irreparable loss and granteternal peace to the departedsouls.

Meanwhile, the ChiefMinister directed the districtadministration to extend allout support and cooperationto the distressed families inthis hour of gr ief and provide the best treatment tothe person injured in thisaccident.

Also expressing grief overthe incident, Deputy ChiefMinister Sukhbir Badal saidthat he and his governmentwere with the bereaved fami-lies at this critical hour. He alsoadvised all to use utmost cau-tion while driving in the com-ing days when dense fog dom-inated during early and later

hours of the day.Also condoling, Capt

Amarinder said that it was asad moment and his heartwent out to the bereaved fam-ilies.

The Congress leader alsoasked the state government tochange the school timings inorder to ensure that “schoolteachers, students and otherstaff are not exposed to therisk of such accidents due tofog”.

Expressing grief over theheart wrenching mishap, AAPPunjab convener GurpreetSingh Ghuggi said that theaccident was a sad moment forthe whole state and expressedsolidarity with the bereavedfamilies.

He requested the stategovernment to implement theroad safety measures effec-tively so that such accidentscan be avoided.

He also appealed to thestate government to changethe timing of schools in viewof the dense fog in the state.

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New Delhi: The Centre onFriday faced tough questionsfrom the Supreme Court on itsdecision to remove a SpecialDirector of the Central Bureauof Investigation (CBI) in line tobecome the next chief of theagency and install a man of itschoice in the post without fol-lowing the procedure thatrequired the Prime Minister tosit with the Chief Justice ofIndia and Leader of the largestOpposition party to choosethe next Director.

The Court asked theCentre to explain why CBISpecial Director RK Dutta wasmoved as Special Secretary,Internal Security in theMinistry of Home Affairs(MHA) with just two days leftfor Anil Sinha to retire as

Director on December 2. Apetition filed by NGOCommon Cause saw throughthe plot to remove Dutta andalleged in its PIL that the entireattempt was to scuttle Dutta’sascension to the top post in thepremier investigating agency.

Giving time to the Centreto respond by Friday, the benchof Justices Kurian Joseph andRohington F Nariman askedAdditional Solicitor General(ASG) Tushar Mehta whetherthe Central VigilanceCommissioner (CVC), theVigilance Commissioners hadrecommended curtailment ofDutta’s tenure in CBI. It referredto Section 4C of the DelhiSpecial Police EstablishmentAct that said that curtailment oftenure of any officer in CBI

above Superintendent of Policerank required a Committeecomprising CVC, VigilanceCommissioners, Union HomeSecretary and another Secretaryrank officer in CabinetSecretariat to recommend thesame.

The bench asked Mehta,“The Act says, even for cur-tailing tenure you require per-mission of the Committee.Show us on Friday where hasthis been done.”

The PIL before the Court,argued by advocate PrashantBhushan further pointed out thatDutta carried rich experience of15 years in the Anti-Corruptionwing of CBI and was handpickedto supervise the probe into the2G and coal scam cases due tohis integrity and honesty. ���

����� �78�6739

Before the year ends, formerSupreme Court judge

Markandey Katju wants to endthe contempt case pendingagainst him in the apex court.

On Friday, senior advocateRajeev Dhavan appeared forthe retired judge and request-ed a bench headed by JusticeRanjan Gogoi to take up thecontempt case for hearingbefore court break for vacationon December 16.

Justice Gogoi told Dhavanthat the appropriate bench willconsider the request if a prop-er application is filed in thisregard. Dhavan informed thatthe application had been filedand it should be taken up beforethe winter break. The benchfailed to give an assurance as itdecided to take up the applica-tion as and when it got listed.

Katju faced the ire of theCourt for airing faults commit-

ted by the apex court judges ina recent case where a manaccused of rape and murder ofa Kerala girl was acquitted of theheinous murder charge. Sincethe incident took place in a mov-ing train, the former judge usedwords referring to the poorknowledge and understandingof the judges to appreciate evi-dence in the case. The benchheaded by Justice Gogoi invitedKatju to share his views in opencourt on November 11 duringthe hearing of a review petitionfiled by the victim’s mother andthe Kerala Government.

After the hearing got over,the Court confronted Katju withhis blog posts showing “intem-perate” language” used againstjudges and issued contemptnotice against him for “scan-dalizing” the judges in question.This took Katju by surprise. Hescoffed on being treated in thismanner and dared the judges toproceed against him.

����� �78�6739

Congress president SoniaGandhi on Friday met Lok

Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajanbut there were no signs of anyimmediate end to the 16-day-long deadlock in Parliamentover the demonetisation issue.

Soon after Sonia had abrief meeting with Mahajan,the Congress made it clearthat there has been no toningdown of its demand for havinga discussion on demonetisationunder the rule entailing votingin the Lok Sabha and ensuringthe presence of the PrimeMinister during the debate inthe Rajya Sabha.

Congress spokesperson

Abhishek Singhvi claimed thatthe ruling side was “runningscared” of voting in the LokSabha despite a comfortablemajority as it apprehends thatsome of its allies may voteagainst it.

Singhvi dismissed as “jokeof the century”, BJP’s demandfor an apology fromOpposition for disruptingParliament insisting that thePrime Minister owed an apol-ogy to over 100 crore peopleaffected due to his decision.

Hitting back at the BJP andthe Government, Singhvi saidat AICC briefing that the “fail-ure” of the ruling dispensationto have a debate in Parliamentshowed its “panic and scare”.

����� �78�6739

Despite just three workingdays left for the conclusion

of the Winter Session, theParliament remained paral-ysed on Friday as the impasseover demonetisation continuedin the two houses with treasuryand Opposition clashing andaccusing each other for the sus-tained disruption of the pro-ceedings and seeking an apol-ogy from each other.

The Lok Sabha and theRajya Sabha continued to bedeadlocked over the way a debateshould take place on demoneti-sation announced by PrimeMinister Narendra Modi onNovember 8. While in the Rajya

Sabha Opposition sought pres-ence of the Prime Minister andhis apology before debate couldbe resumed, in the Lok Sabha itsought that discussion on thehardships faced by the peopledue to demonetisation take placeunder the voting provisions.

In the Lok Sabha, theParliamentary affairs MinisterAnanth Kumar remindedOpposition of President PranabMukherjee’s appeal to ensuresmooth running of theParliament and demanded thatthey apologise to people forwasting their money. BJP MPMeenakshi Lekhi also askedopposition to tender “apology”for disrupting the house busi-ness. She said for protests and

sit-ins, as suggested by thePresident, Jantar Mantar is thebest place and not Parliament.

As soon as the lower Houseassembled for the day, Congressleader Mallikarjun Kharge roseto make some points but BJPmembers latched on to thePresident’s observations madeThursday, to target the opposi-tion party. Slogan shoutingstarted from both the sides.

The two sides accused eachother of constantly changinggoal posts and derailing theproceedings of the Parliament.The Lok Sabha was adjournedtwice by Speaker SumitraMahajan before being adjournedfor the day until December 14,at 1210 hours.

����� �78�6739

The Supreme Court onFriday directed the Centre

to suggest urgent measures toremedy the inconveniencefaced by the public whichincluded a minimum assuredlimit on withdrawal in a weekand a mechanism to enable dis-trict cooperative banks todeposit the old currencydeposited with them.

Among the many issuesraised by a batch of two dozenpetitions in the apex court, thecourt framed nine questions oflaw that required adjudicationby the court. But for the pre-sent, the bench of Chief JusticeTS Thakur, Justices AMKhanwilkar and DYChandrachud focused on theinconvenience faced by publicdue to shortage of cash supplyto banks.

Leading the charge against

the Centre, senior advocatesKapil Sibal and PChidambaram informed theCourt that contrary toGovernment’s claim that citi-zens could withdraw �24,000each week, the banks wereturning away customers byclaiming there was no cash. Insome instances, the bank man-agers were allowing withdraw-al limit of as low as �2,000 to�5,000 per week, which was

insufficient for a family to runhousehold expenses.

The bench asked AttorneyGeneral Mukul Rohatgi, “Howmuch is the gestation periodgoing to be we want to know.After all, was there a plan inplace before you prepared thispolicy and was mind applied tohow much will return in oldnotes, how much new notes areto be printed. If you projectedto receive �11-12 lakh crore,

you should have arranged forthe new notes.”

Rohatgi said that �24,000withdrawal limit was fixed as anouter limit keeping in mind theshortage of new currency notes.“This is a maximum limit youcan reach and not a minimumassured sum,” A-G said.Chidambaram pointed out thatas per his estimates being a for-mer Finance Minister himself,the country’s mints will takeanother six to seven months toreplenish the cash reserves withbanks. As on date, close to �3.5lakh crore new currency notesare in the market in lieu of �15lakh crore currency that wasremoved. He suggested ofintroducing a floor limit onwithdrawal so that every cus-tomer gets at least a minimumamount of say �10,000, if not�24,000.

Sibal who appeared foranother petitioner said that the

Government cannot deprivecustomers of their legitimatemoney. “This is breach of trust.We have entrusted our moneywith banks and no limit can beplaced on our withdrawal. Wecan understand 86 per cent ofcurrency is black, but 86 percent of bank accounts are notblack,” Sibal submitted.

The bench asked Rohatgito suggest by Wednesday on aminimum limit of withdrawal.In addition, the Court direct-ed the Centre to ready a pro-posal to ensure district coop-erative banks can deposit thedemonetised currency collect-ed from their customers andwithdraw new currency to giveto their clients.

The bench indicated that itwill frame the questions oflaw on the next date and waseven open for listing the mat-ter before a Constitution Benchof five judges.

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Continuing with his directattack on Prime Minister

Narendra Modi, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi onFriday threatened to “reveal”the truth behind the Centre’sdenomination move whichwould create “earthquake in theHouse”, prompting the BJP tohit back saying those who wereat the “epicentre” of scams forthe last 60 years are now talk-ing about quakes.

Rahul also accused theGovernment of not allowinghim to speak in Parliament ondemonetisation, which hedubbed as the “biggest scam”.

Speaking to reporters out-side Parliament, Rahul saidthat his party wants debate ondemonetisation so that thetruth can come to the fore, butthe Government is runningaway from it. He asserted thatthe Prime Minister shouldcome to the House so that itcan be discussed “what demon-etisation is, who has benefitedfrom this decision and what itmeans for whom”. TheGovernment had initially pro-posed debate on demonetisa-tion to which his party agreedbut then the Government back-tracked, he alleged.

Rahul said when he gets achance to speak about demon-etisation in the House, “thePrime Minister will not be ableto even sit there”. “If they allowme to speak in Parliament, youwill see an earthquake,” statedthe Gandhi scion inviting sharpreactions from BJP leaders andthe Government, and someeven taking a swipe at him.

Rahul was speaking afterhis party announced in the LokSabha that it was ready todebate the issue but the Gover-nment demanded that it firstapologise to the people of thecountry for stalling Parliamentproceedings for 16 days.

“The PM is giving speech-es across the country but isafraid of coming to the LokSabha and is not willing to sitthere,” Rahul said and askedwhat could be the reason forthis “nervousness”. “Demone-tisation is the biggest scam inthe history of India.... I want tospeak in the Lok Sabha. I willtell everything there,” he said.

Rahul said initially theGovernment spoke about blackmoney, then moved to coun-terfeit currency and then againto a cashless society campaign.He said, “I want to tell aboutthe biggest scam committed byNarendra Modi single hand-edly” and present the “voice ofpeople, specially the poor, whohave suffered due to this move”.

The BJP ridiculed theCongress vice-president andsaid he is best known for polit-

ical “quackery”, not quakes.With earthquake being

invoked metaphorically by therival parties in an escalation ofexchanges on note ban, BJPleader Sambit Patra scoffed atRahul, saying that those whowere at the “epicentre” of scamsfor the last 60 years are nowtalking about earthquakes.

Union Minister VenkaiahNaidu said may this quakehappen when we are not pre-sent in Parliament. UnionMinister Ravi Shankar Prasadsaid, “Our party is not afraid ofhim or his speeches, we areready to listen to him but heshould not run away when werespond... Actually these daysMr Rahul Gandhi is annoyedhis party is losing everywhereespecially after he started han-dling affairs of the party.”

“Rahulji thinks too highlyabout his oratory skills and hehimself knows how much hisspeeches appeal... As far astremors are concerned. I thinkwhen he speaks there aretremors within the Congress notoutside,” Union Minister SmritiIrani said.

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An International Film Festival of Kerala that began atTrivandrum on Friday suffered a major jolt from the

Supreme Court which asked the organisers to comply withits order of playing the national anthem before screening ofa movie. The organisers sought an exemption as the eight-day event is to witness 490 screenings, with an average of 60films to be screened each day.

Since the event will witness participation of delegates from62 countries, with 13,000 online global registrations alreadyin place, the organisers had sought recall of the apex court’sNovember 30 ruling as it felt the repeated rendition of anthemat the event would not be appreciated by the foreign dele-gates who have to stand every time the anthem gets played.

Making no bones of its displeasure over such a demandput forth by the event organisers, the bench of Justices DipakMisra and Amitava Roy said, “If we understand the tone andtenor of your petition, do we have to oblige your foreign del-egates by recalling our order.”

Senior advocate CU Singh along with PV Dinesh whoappeared for the IFFK Society said that the FundamentalDuty to respect the anthem binds citizens and not foreign-ers. Moreover, the Court order did not contemplate the sit-uation that at an event such as the present one, participat-ing foreign delegates who do not understand a word of theanthem cannot be expected to show respect to the same.

The bench shot back, “Have we directed singing of thenational anthem? Our direction is that you must stand. Inany international event, whenever the anthem of that coun-try is played, the whole audience rises to its feet. Why shouldour anthem be an exception?”

The event organisers realised they were running out of luckas even the Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi demanded thatthe festival must go on as per the court's direction. Rohatgisaid, “This foreigner business is guiding this petition for recall.It must either be rejected or let them amend the petition.”

Singh said that the application should not be seen as againstthe anthem. "If anthem is played, we all must stand. But herethe court is directing the manner of showing respect to theanthem which is sought to be given effect to in all cinema halls."

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As the death of late ChiefMinister of Tamil Nadu J

Jayalalithaa has opened upavenues for political changesin the heartland of Dravidanpolitics, BJP, which is aimingto conquer the south, hasindicated that it is too early todiscuss anything on BJP’salliance with the AIADMK inTamil Nadu.

Addressing a PressConference in Bengaluru onFriday Union Information andBroadcasting Minister MVenkaiah Naidu said it is tooearly to discuss anything aboutthe BJP and AIADMK alliance.

He said, “It is too early todiscuss anything (aboutalliance)…just now only lastrites of madam (Jayalalithaa)were performed. Secondly,there is no election now. Thereis no alignment. There is norealignment also now. Let uswait and see.”

Naidu was responding to aquestion about the role of theCentre and BJP in the emerg-ing power play post the pass-ing away of Jayalalithaa, whichhas caused a huge politicalvacuum in the highly polarisedpolitics of Tamil Nadu andthrown up several imponder-ables within the AIADMK.

He also hit out at theOpposition asking it to apolo-gise to the country for not let-ting Parliament function overthe issue of demonetisation.

Naidu said the people hadalready given a huge mandateto Prime Minister Narendra

Modi and his government since2014 and through differentlocal civic body elections.

“The opposition shouldapologise to the people fordisrupting Parliament ... andfor damaging the country for somany years,” Naidu said.

“First, you don’t letParliament function, then youask for voting... It will beembarrassing for you if there isa voting... Voting was done in2014 in Assam, Maharashtra,Madhya Pradesh... People hadalready given their mandate,”

Naidu said.Pointing towards former

Prime Minister ManmohanSingh, Naidu said, “ManmohanSingh has caused huge damageto the country in terms of infla-tion... It is the Congress whichshould apologise,” he said.

Taking a jibe at the jointopposition that criticised theGovernment over demoneti-sation, Naidu said all the callsof “temporary friends” hadfailed. “You made a temporarytent which fell... all yourattempts and calls like thecountrywide shutdowns hadfailed... you are not united,”Naidu said.

Saying that the Congresshas mismanaged and misin-formed the country, Naidualso took on the party's VicePresident Rahul Gandhi forcalling the Prime Ministernames.

"”They are making cheapcomments against the PrimeMinister. You can accuse thePrime Minister but not abusehim... The PM is an institution,masses follow him, entire worldspeaks in favour of Modi,”Naidu said.

Countering Gandhi’sremarks, Naidu said, “If it isfoolish, then why you are notwise enough to allow theParliament? The best way to

underscore your point is toexpose the government and toallow the debate to take place,but you have given a rebate toa debate.”

“Making noise outsidewithout raising your voiceinside-what is this? You arecommitting a contempt againstthe people and democracy ofthe country,” he said

Naidu also urged theOpposition, especially theCongress, the Left and theTrinamool Congress, to “intro-spect” and allow the function-ing of the Parliament for theremaining period of the wintersession, as there were impor-tant bills to be passed whichwould benefit the poor.

On Opposition demandthat Prime Minister NarendraModi apologise in theParliament over demonetisa-tion-related problems faced bypeople, Naidu said theOpposition in turn shouldapologise for obstructing theParliament.

Naidu said the entire coun-try is agitated over the mannerin which the Opposition, par-ticularly Congress, Trinamooland the Left are obstructing theParliament continuously, whichhas also forced the PresidentPranab Mukherjee to expressanguish on the issue.

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The security forces shot deadthree Lashkar-e-Tayyeba

(LeT) terrorists during a fierceencounter spanning three daysin south Kashmir’s Arwanipocket of Anantnag district onFriday morning.

Massive clashes erupted inthe area during and after theculmination of the operation.A civilian was also killed andtwo others were woundedwhen security forces openedfire to chase away protesterswho attempted to break the

cordon of the village to ensuremilitants’ passage out of thesealed area.

“Three holed up terroristseliminated; bodies of two ter-rorists and three weaponsrecovered,” a spokesman ofArmy’s Northern Commandsaid in a twitter message.

“Bodies of two militantshave been recovered from thedebris of the house where theywere holed up sinceWednesday evening,” a policeofficial said.

The encounter triggered offlate on Wednesday when alarge contingent of securitypersonnel including RashtriyaRifles soldiers cordoned offHussanwani village nearArwani in Bijbehara pocket ofsouth Kashmir, following aspecific input about presence ofmilitants in a residential house.

The holed up militantsengaged the security forces fora drawn out period and theoperation was complicated bythe hundreds of locals whoshouted anti-India slogans andattempted to break the cordonand help the holed up mili-tants escape.

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The Mehbooba Mufti ledcoalition Government in

Jammu & Kashmir has taken atough decision to forfeit mov-able and immovable propertyof a civilian who allegedly har-boured three Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT) terrorists at hishouse in south Kashmir’sBijbehara area. The three mil-itants were killed by securityforces in a 42-hour fierce gun-battle on Friday and the resi-dential house was razed tosmithereens.

This is the first time dur-ing the current regime that theauthorities have initiated pro-cedures to forfeit property of analleged militant harbourer. Themove is seen as a strong mes-sage to dissuade people fromoffering shelter to militants.

Sources said that police

have initiated process to forfeitthe now-demolished residentialhouse and land belonging toone Mushtaq Ahmed Ganai ofHussanpora village in Arwanipocket of south Kashmir andfreeze his bank accounts. Thematter has been taken up withthe revenue authorities andthe bank officials.

Ganai’s house was zeroedin on December 7 following aspecific input that three LeTmilitants were hiding there.Police said Ganai was an over-ground worker (OGW) of theLeT outfit.

A south Kashmir basedpolice officer said that Ganaihas gone into hiding and alookout has been ordered tonab him. “We have requestedthe bank authorities to freezehis accounts while the revenueauthorities have beenapproached for the attachment

of his immovable propertyincluding the house and land,”he said.

"According to our reports,Ganai offered shelter to the LeTmilitants at his house and wasproviding all logistic support tothem,” he said.

This is for the first timeduring the PDP-BJP coalitionthat a harsh step has beentaken to forfeit property of analleged militant harbourer.

Earlier, in 2002 duringFarooq Abdullah’s rule, a residential house was sealed offin old Srinagar underPrevention of TerroristActivities ACT (POTA) for thehouse-owner’s alleged linkswith militants.

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GANDHINGAR: Gujarat policeseized �1 crore in newly intro-duced �2000 denomination cur-rency notes on Friday near SouthGujarat’s commercial capitalSurat. The police have arrestedfour persons in connection withthe handling of cash, includinga woman, for possessing 38bundles of �2,000 notes totalling�76 lakh from a SUV car bear-ing a Maharashtra registrationnumber from the industrialestate of Sachin in Surat. Theyhave been handed over to the I-T officials for questioning.

In a similar case, the policearrested two persons for pos-sessing 90 bundles of �100 cur-rency notes worth �9 lakh from

Patan district of north Gujarat. Earlier, �25 lakh worth of

currency was seized from a carin Ranavav area of Porbandarcity in which two persons weretravelling. The currency was in�2,000 and �100 denomina-tions. The police are on the lookout of a banker allegedly involvedin the racket.

The last dates for thedepositing demonetised cur-rency notes is December 30.With the deadline coming clos-er, cases of carrying largeamount of new as well asdemonetised currency notes indifferent denominations arecoming to fore as police too hasincreased vigil. PNS

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In a stern condemnation of ademand made on Thursday

by its junior alliance partner, theMGP, the Goa Bharatiya JanataParty (BJP), on Friday, ruled outchopping and changing ChiefMinister Laxmikant Parsekar,adding that such a demandwas unjustified and a sign ofimmature politics.

Addressing a PressConference in Panaji, BJPspokesperson Nilesh Cabralsaid, that Laxmikant Parsekarwas unanimously chosen as aChief Minister by the party’sLegislative wing and as a seniorpartner in the coalition with 21MLAs, as againstMaharashtrawadi GomantakParty's three, it was not a choice

for the latter to make. “We condemn such a

demand. We are surprised bythe demand made by DeepakDhavalikar, who is himself aCabinet Minister and hasworked under Parsekar’s lead-ership for the last two and a halfyears,” Cabral said. “Parsekar’sleadership will not changeunder any circumstances,” healso said.

The BJP legislator fromCurchorem also said, that MGPwas violating “coalition dhar-

ma” by discussing issues inpublic, when differences couldbe sorted out between the twoparties and also described thedemand made by Dhavalikar asimmature.

On Thursday, DeepakDhavalikar, who is the Statepresidasent of one of Goa’s old-est regional parties, haddemanded that for the BJP-MGP alliance to continue forthe 2017 State Assembly elec-tions, Parsekar had to be sackedand replaced by another CM.

“The Chief Ministership ofParsekar has been imposed onus. We have asked the BJP tochange him and a new ChiefMinister should be sworn, in ifthis alliance is to be taken for-ward to the next election,” MGPpresident Deepak Dhavalikarhad said, following a meeting ofthe party’s central committee.

The comment by DeepakDhavalikar, whose brotherSudin, is a Public WorksDepartment Minister in theBJP-led coalition Government,capped continuous criticism ofthe BJP and its functioning byits alliance partner.

Tension has been rife in theruling alliance camp over issuesrelated to seat-sharing and lead-ership, even as the StateAssembly elections draw close.

With the stakes high andBJP insiders claiming off record,that the party needs an alliancewith MGP to win the upcom-ing poll, the BJP does notappear in the mood brusquelyto respond to defiant chargemade by Deepak Dhavalikar.

When asked, if the BJPwould ask Dhavalikar and theMGP to apologise for insultinga sitting CM, Cabral said, “Thereis no question of an apology. Weare an elder brother in the coali-tion. An elder brother cannotask the younger sibling to apol-ogise. It is for them to realize it”.

Cabral also said that theparty preferred to discussalliance talks with Deepak'selder brother Sudin Dhavalikar,who was “more mature” thanhis brother.

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Despite people standing inlong queues outside banks

and ATMs a month afterdemonetisation of high valuenotes, an internal survey ofBharatiya Janata Party has pro-jected a clear victory for theparty in the coming VidhanSabha polls.

The survey carried out byan American agency has pre-dicted 317 seats for the BJP ifelections were held immedi-ately. The gain is uniform in allregions of the State but westernUP takes the lead and it hasbeen predicted that the partywill bag over 70 per cent seatsin that region.

A senior BJP leader said thatdemonetisation has gone downwell with the people. “They aresuffering at present but havehailed the decision to cull highvalue notes for national interest.They know the PM’s decisionwas taken with an aim to endcorruption. Over 90 per cent ofthe people are with the PM inthis decision,” he said.

The BJP looks confident asthree surveys, one of them car-ried out by an American agency,has predicted a clear majority forthe party.

“The prediction of the sur-vey has helped party to re-coinits slogan. Earlier the slogan was265+ but now the BJP has beensaying ‘ab kee baar 300 ke paar’,”the leader said.

The survey says that theparty has made inroads into vil-lages – from where reports ofviolent skirmishes outside banks

are being reported regularly. On Friday a bank manager

in a village in Kanpur Dehatlodged a complaint with policeafter he was thrashed by cus-tomers as the bank ran out ofcash.

“We do not deny that peo-ple are facing problems. They arenot getting required cash frombanks because RBI is unable tosupply adequte cash. Despitethese, people are with the BJPand have voiced their support.No one is questioning the inten-tion of the PM,” the leader saidand added: “People used toterm the BJP as a ‘shahar kiparty’ but now it has made itspresence felt in rural areas too.”

In urban areas, the RSS isplaying a pivotal role as it haslinked demonetisation withpatriotism. The message hasspread through whisper cam-paign. The inroad in rural areais not of that magnitude.

The region wise survey saysthat party will do well inBundelkhand and eastern UPbut only sore point is Central UP.The BJP has lost ground therebecause of the influence of theYadav clan. In western UP thesurvey has predicted a fightbetween BJP and BSP. It saysMuslims are preferring BSPover SP in that area.

The survey has classifiedvoters as per caste, religion,region and education. The uppercaste educated youth is sup-porting teh BJP, while around 55per cent backward castes favourthe saffron pary. Even Dalitswant development issues shouldbe taken up by the party.

Lucknow:Governor Ram Naikcalled upon the men in khaki tobrace themselves for the comingAssembly polls in the State asthey played an important role inensuring a peaceful environ andsmooth conduct of the process.

“The UP Police has playedan excellent role in maintain-ing law and order in the State.But you all should now pull upyour socks as your role is veryimportant to ensure peacefuland smooth elections,” assert-ed Naik while praising themen in uniform.

Addressing a gathering afterinspecting the ceremonial paradeat Lucknow Reserve Police Lineat the inaugural function ofPolice Week on Friday morning,Naik paid homage to thosebravehearts who lay down theirlives in the line of duty.

“You all should work withhonesty and devotion and leavethe Government to take care ofyou and the welfare of yourfamily members,” he asserted.Naik said that the cops playeda key role in ensuring peacefulcelebration of festivals alongwith maintaining law and orderduring VVIP visits.

The Governor furtherexhorted the cops for ensuringbetter dialogue with the peopleas it would not just help them inmaintaining order but also helpin refurbishing their friendly

image. “The image of the copsmust be such that people werenot afraid do come to you andlodge their complaint or seekyour help in overcoming theirpoblems,” Naik pointed out.

He said that cops must acttough against the criminalsand anti-social elements with-ouht paying anying any heed yothe status or clout enjoyed bythe goon or the accused.

The Governor also hailedthe role of women in UP Policeand said that women werecoming forward in all fields anda shining example was that awoman officer (SSP LucknowManzil Saini) was leading theceremonial parade at Friday'sfunction. He also praised theGovernment for taking variousmeasures for the welfare of thecops, modernising the UPPolice and facilitating latesttechnology for upgradation ofthe largest force of the country.

Naik also felicitated copswith Presidents Medals for gal-lantry and distinguished services.The officers feted for Gallantryincluded Vijay Singh Meena(IG), Jogendra Kumar (SP),Rahul Srivastava (AdditionalSP), SKS Pratap (Dy SP), BindKumar (Inspector), ShashiBhushan Rai (Inspector), AshokKumar Singh (Head constable)and Vishist Singh Yadav (retiredInspector).

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Seven persons were killed and18 others injured in different

road accidents due to fogprompting Chief MinisterAkhilesh Yadav to direct officialsto take steps to protect peoplefrom biting cold that has set in.

Reports reaching Lucknowsaid that seven people died indifferent accidents across UP.Four of them died inSonebhadra when a tractortrolley they were traveling inturned turtle and fell into aditch in Markundi area. Thepolice said that the driver prob-ably failed to see the turn dueto fog resulting in the accident.

In Chitrakoot, the driver ofa speeding truck (UP78AT-0423) lost control over thevehicle and crushed twolabourers sitting on the road-side around a bonfire. Anotherperson died in Allahabad.

Meanwhile, Akhilesh Yadavhas directed district officials toarrange bonfires and blanketsfor the poor so as to protectthem from the biting cold thathas set in across the State.

“Budget has been allocat-ed to each district. It is respon-sibility of the DMs to organisebonfires and blankets for thepoor and homeless,” Yadavsaid in a statement issued inLucknow on Thursday.

A Government spokesmansaid that officials have beenasked to light bonfires at publicplaces at prominent city junc-tions like bus stands, outside rail-way stations and importantcrossings of the State.

He said that theGovernment has allocated�1.70 crore for bonfires and�17 crore for purchase and dis-

tribution of blankets amongpoor. “Any laxity on the part ofofficials will not be tolerated,”the spokesman said.

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In what might help the secu-rity agencies operating in

troubled Garo Hills region ofMeghalaya, senior cadre ofGaro Hills Based militant out-fit, Garo National LiberationArmy (GNLA), Baichung aliasNikam Ch Momin surrenderedbefore the police on Friday.

The top ranking leader ofthe outfit—who used to be thesecond in command in thehierarchy after outfit’sCommander-in-Chief SohanD Shira—surrendered beforeSuperintendent of Police ofthe South Garo Hills district atBaghmara on Friday. The mil-itant also laid down one 5.56 X45 HK-33 Rifle, 120 RoundsLive ammunition, one maga-zine, two mobile phones etc.

“Baichung surrendered atChokpot Police station today. Itis a great success for us and wehope his surrender will weak-en the outfit to a large extent.We also hope to get vital infor-mation about the outfit and itsother top leaders,” said South

Garo Hills SP, Anand Mishra.He said that the surrender

of Baichung came after he sur-vived many encounters, recent-ly one in Dabalgre area wheretwo of his accomplices werekilled. “The police had recent-ly seized huge amount of fundsgenerated by Baichung. Wehave also froze two accountsbelonging to Baichung, wherehe parked extortion money,”the SP said.

“The surrendered militant

told us that Sohan D Shita isrunning the organisation likedictator and he is more intosaving and investing the moneycollected by the cadres throughextortion. We are also toldthat Shira is running the organ-isation like family businesswith his wife Sengachi Mominand some of her relatives,” hesaid, adding that he decided tosurrender as he felt there wasthreat to him from Shira andhandful of his followers.

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The Samajwadi Party’s firstfamnily feud refuses to

die down with Chief MinisterAkhilesh Yadav appointinghis trusted lieutenant JavedAbdi as adviser of theIrrigation department. TheCM’s uncle Shivpal Yadav wasthe Irrigation Minister till hewas dismissed from theCabinet in October.

Abdi was physically pre-vented and pushed away fromthe dais by State SP chiefShivpal Yadav during the SP’ssilver jubilee foundation dayfunction in Lucknow onNovember 5.

Official sources said onFriday that Sayeed JavedAbbas alias Javed Abdi ofAmroha has been appointedas adviser of Irrigation depart-ment with immediate effect.The appointment of Abdi,days ahead of the announce-ment of Assembly polls, isbeing seen as the beginning ofa fresh round of sparringbetween ‘chacha’ Shivpal and‘bhatija’ Akhilesh.

Abdi was first appointedas Chairman of UP PollutionControl Board by the ChiefMinister in August 2014 andwas accorded the status of aMinister of State.

Abdi also got an officialbungalow close to the CM'sresidence on Kalidas Marg.However a yearlater onAugust 14, 2015, Abdi wassacked from the post by theCM without assigning anyreason.

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Afuming Mamata Banerjeeon Friday dashed off a

strong letter to DefenceMinister Manohar Parrikarsuggesting ways of addressinga Chief Minister even as shestuck to her earlier stand on“army coup” remark against theNarendra Modi Governmentthat she made early this monthquestioning some routine armyexercise near her State secre-tariat Nabanna allegedly with-out her consent.

Bengal Chief Minister’shard-hitting missive shot offbarely a few hours after shereceived a protest letter fromthe Defence Minister that con-fronted her allegations in rela-tion to an Army exercise inwhich the forces gathered infor-mation on available publiccareers to be requisitioned dur-ing emergency situations.

Banerjee’s remarks “runthe risk of adversely impactingthe morale of the country’sarmed forces,” he said.

Almost reproducing herusual way of attacking opposi-tion in public nBanerjee’s‘sharp-tongued’ letter remind-ed how “unhappy” she was withthe “language used by theDefence Minister in the letter.”

Claiming that her remarksagainst the Army, was actually

not against the men in olive-green but directed at the CentralGovernment she said, “I takestrong exception to your wildassertion that my articulation ofrights of State Government hasimpacted the morale of armedforces. Don’t think that it behoves

a Union Government Minister topass near-defamatory remarkson a CM of any State.”

Alleging once again that theGovernment was using Armyfor political gain that she oftenchooses to refer to as “politicalvendetta” Banerjee said, “theydon’t even know how to writeto a Chief Minister. They areusing the Army to achievepolitical gains.”

The Chief Minister alsowondered how a“Government-to Governmentletter” could be leaked to themedia letting it appear in thechannels much before it land-ed at her table.

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Awar of words broke out onFriday out between

Defence Minister ManoharParrikar and West Bengal ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjee overthe issue of a recent Armyexercise in West Bengal. In a let-ter to her, Parrikar said the Chief

Minister’s allegations againstthe Army can “adversely”impact the morale of the forcesand this was not “expectedfrom a person of her standingand experience in public life”.Taking strong exception,Mamata replied the Centre wasusing the Army to achieve theirpolitical purpose.

Parrikar in the letter writ-ten to Banerjee on Thursdayexpressed “deep pain” over herallegations against the Army forits recent exercise at toll gates inthe State and said while thepolitical parties and politiciansmay have the luxury of making“wild and unsubstantiated alle-

gations against each other,” oneneeds to be extremely carefulwhile referring to the Armedforces. “Your allegations in thisregard run the risk of adverse-ly impacting the morale of thecountry’s Armed forces and thesame were not expected from aperson of your standing andexperience in public life,” theMinister said.

Banerjee had accused theCentre of deploying the Armyat toll plazas in West Bengalwithout informing the StateGovernment and described it as“unprecedented” and “a veryserious situation worse thanEmergency”. The TMC chiefhad refused to leave her officein Kolkata till the Army menwere withdrawn from tollplazas, and had asked whetherit was an “Army coup,” drawingsharp reaction from the Centre.

Reacting to CM’s allegationslast week, Parrikar termed it asan “avoidable controversy” andthe exercise carried out by theEastern Command in WestBengal and other States underit jurisdiction was to collectinformation about movement ofheavy vehicles at toll gates.

He also said such exercisesare undertaken by all formationsof the Army all across the coun-try for many years adding theexercises are held as per thedates convenient to the Army inconsultation with agencies of theState Government.

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The recent death of threeelephants — includingtwo that were pregnant-— in an accident involv-ing the Kanyakumari-

Dibrugarh Vivek Express inAssam’s Nagaon district, warrantsserious concern. This is the secondtime this year that elephants havebeen killed in train accidents inAssam, the earlier one being whentwo of them were mowed down bythe Dibrugarh-bound RajdhaniExpress in September. Includingthose in the instances above, 17 ele-phants have died in train accidents— two in Tamil Nadu in June, threein West Bengal in August, three inKerala in July and November, twoin Jharkhand in September, one inUttarakhand in October — in thelast six months of this year.

According to the report of theElephant Task Force, Gajah:Securing the Future for Elephants inIndia, submitted on August 31,2010, train accidents had taken aheavy toll of elephant lives, killingas many as 150 of these behemothssince 1987. Thirty-six per cent ofthese occurred in Assam, 26, 14and 10 in the cases of West Bengal,Uttarakhand and Jharkhandrespectively. Tamil Nadu account-ed for six per cent, Uttar Pradeshand Kerala three each, and Odisha two.

Appointed by the Ministry ofEnvironment and Forests, the TaskForce further stated in its report,“The physical presence of theroads and railway lines in thehabitat creates new habitat edges,alters the hydrological dynamicsand creates a barrier to the move-ment of elephants and other ani-mals, leads to habitat fragmentationand loss, apart from death due totrain and vehicular hits.” It added,“Rail and an increase in road traf-fic operates in a synergetic wayacross several landscapes and caus-es not only an overall loss and iso-lation of wildlife habitat, but alsosplits up the landscape in a literalsense. Various developmental activ-ities also come up on either side ofthe highways and railroads there-by further fragmenting the habitatand increasing biotic pressures.”

The Elephant Task Force’sreport has recommended severalmeasures to prevent road and railaccidents. Besides those related tosite-specific short- and long-termmitigation, others include theannouncement of the principles offorest area, railway track and high-way management, the grant of min-ing licences and rules governing thedrawing and maintenance of powercables through forest areas. Theseare comprehensive but will require

time and funds.Implementation, however, has

been half-hearted, with IndianRailways being particularly insen-sitive to the task of protecting ele-phant corridors cutting acrosstracks. Consider the case of acci-dent involving the Chennai-boundCoromondal Express, which hit aherd of elephants in Odisha’sGanjam district on December 30,2012. It was, according to BijoyKumar Hota, Khallikote ForestRange Officer, travelling at aspeed of between 115 and 120kilometres per hour, consideringthe impact, which scattered thebodies of the elephants hit, hereand there around the track, andpieces of carcasses over a distanceof half a kilometre!

Not only that, it occurred in anarea where elephants crossed therailway line regularly. There wereas many as 10 signboards, warningthat it was an ‘elephant crossingzone’ between Rambha and Humastations, where the accidentoccurred. As in several other cases,the railways and Odisha forestdepartment traded allegations as towho was to blame, with the latterclaiming that the railways had

been informed in time and the ele-phants could have been saved hadthe train driver been warned on thewireless; and the former claimingthat the forest department’s infor-mation came at the time of the acci-dent, which left no scope for a mes-sage to be sent. Even if there was adelay, the fact that the CoromondalExpress was travelling at a very highspeed through a highly sensitivearea, indicated an utterly cavalierattitude toward elephants.

Consider the case in which theJaipur-Kamakhya KaviguruExpress ran into a herd of 40 ele-phants at Jaldhaka bridge in northBengal’s Jalpaiguri district, killingsseven of them including two calves,and seriously injuring at least 10 onNovember 13, 2013. HitenBurman, then West Bengal’sMinister for Forests, had said afterthe accident that the railways hadrepeatedly ignored requests fromhis department to reduce the speedof the trains in areas where therewere elephant crossings. Burmanclearly knew what he was talkingabout as he had been carefullymonitoring unnatural elephantdeaths in the State. He had told theState Legislative Assembly on June

21, 2012, that of the 63 elephantdeaths in West Bengal duringJanuary 2010-2012, 49 and 14occurred in north and south Bengalrespectively. Of the 49 deaths inNorth Bengal, 22 were from rail-way accidents, while accidentsclaimed seven of the 14 fatalities insouth Bengal.

Measures taken jointly by for-est departments and animal welfareorganisations in some States to avertsuch deaths include patrolling,electric fencing, installation of sig-nage and hoardings, levelling ofsteep embankments, creation ofawareness among train drivers andother railway staff, the clearing ofvegetation at blind corners toimprove visibility for train driversand so on. There, however, have alsobeen glaring lapses. For example,the death of two elephants in RajajiNational Park in Uttarakhand inJanuary 2013, appeared clearly to bethe railways’ fault as the train wasmoving at a speed faster than thatdecided upon at a meeting betweenrepresentatives of Indian Railwaysand the State’s forest department.This was most unfortunate as,cooperation between railways andforest department personnel wasbehind the park’s remarkable recordof not having a single elephant deathin railway accidents between 2002and January 2013.

Clearly, the need for reducingspeed is paramount. AnimalEquality, an animal rights organ-isation in Britain, has outlined anumber of steps for protecting ele-phants in letters to the Ministersfor Railways and Environment andForests respectively. The recom-mendations include equippingtrains with automatic speed gov-ernors which would be activatedonce these enter forests where themaximum speed should be 20-25kmph on even tracks, and 40-45kmph on steep tracts. Equallyimportant is the implementationof some of its other suggestionslike installing in trains, scintillat-ing head lamps with halogen/LEDbulbs which would help to illumi-nate much longer stretches oftracks, fitting them with, watercannons to remove animals refus-ing to budge from tracks, andinstalling in them radar sensors todetect animals on tracks, deter-mine the train’s distance fromthese, and act as instant auto-brakes for preventing collisions.

All this will cost money. But theprotection of elephants which havebeen declared India’s NationalHeritage Animal, more than war-rants the expenditure.

(The writer is Consultant Editor,The Pioneer, and an author)�

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Sir — This refers to the report,“Pranab rebukes MPs for disruptionof Parliament” (December 9). TheOpposition has made it a practiceto resort to sloganeering inParliament on one pretext or theother. The ongoing Winter Sessionis no exception to this. PresidentPranab Mukherjee has rightlyasked the MPs to do their job forwhich they have been elected. ThePresident’s rebuke must compelthe Opposition to mend its ways.

MC JoshiLucknow

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Sir — This refers to the report,“Pranab rebukes MPs for disruptionof Parliament” (December 9).Pranab Mukherjee has rightlyslammed the Opposition, thoughwithout naming the Congress, forregular disruptions in Parliament.

Since the past 15 days, opposi-tion parties, mainly the Congress,have wasted Parliament’s most pre-cious time along with crores of taxpayers’ money. Will any smart, sen-sible, understanding voter evervote for them again? I an doubtful.

Hansraj Bhat Mumbai

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Sir — This refers to the editorial,“Forecasting the next fog”(December 8). Apart fromadvanced fog forecasting tech-niques, the Government must alsoexplore fog harvesting methods,which collects water from low-hanging clouds. This mechanismwas first developed in Peru, and hasbeen followed by Chile and ruralSouth Africa, Morocco, Yemen.Interestingly, the water thus collect-ed conforms to the World HealthOrganisation standards!

CV Krishna ManojHyderabad

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Sir — This refers to the article,“National Symbols bind, notdivide, the people” (December6) by A Surya Prakash. The apexcourt’s ruling that singing ofNational Anthem is mandatorybefore screening films is laud-able. Indian citizens are duty-bound to honour theNational Anthem, National flagand the Constitution.

These are basic nationalsymbols which inspires nation-al unity and integrity andenhances spirit of patriotism and

nationalism. But it is not under-stood why the apex court tookthe onus onto itself to direct thisorder. Is it not interfering in thedomain of the executive?

Nimai Charan SwainBhubaneswar

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Sir — It is an irony that ChoRamaswamy died barely 36 hoursafter his friend-turned-foe-turned-friend J Jayalalithaadeparted. Ramaswamy was aman of many parts. Certainly,part vidushak, part chanakya. Hetook strong positions and nevershied away from using his pen tospeak his mind against the highand mighty. DMK supremo MKarunanidhi and Indira Gandhiwere among his pet punch-bags.

J AkshayBangalore

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In our Edit page section, ‘SoundBite’, a quote by US DefenceSecretary Ashton Carter was inad-vertently attributed to ‘GeneralJohn. The error is regretted.

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The recent victory of Donald Trump asAmerican President raised hope that the

relations between Moscow and Washingtonwill be back to “normal” as the President-elect, Donald Trump, and Russian PresidentVladimir Putin share a common concerntowards a number of global issues. Both thecountries demonstrated the same optimismin the first half in the nineties of the last cen-tury when Russian policymakers consideredAmerica as their “natural partner”. Therecent victory of Trump raises such a hopethat both the countries can “mend” theirfences and “reboot” their relationship to a newheight. This optimism is emanating despitethe fact that both the countries are havingdivergent opinions on various internationalas well as bilateral issues like NATO’s grow-ing expansion in the Eastern Europe, deploy-ment of missile warheads by both the par-ties aiming against each others, growing sus-picion on part of Moscow what it claimsregime changes by Washington in the post-Soviet space keeping its strategic interests inmind and Syrian question. Last but not theleast is the West’s financial sanctions against Russia. Despite all these differences, both thecountries have certain common concernswhich can bring peace and stability both atregional and global levels.

On the question of fight against radi-calism, both the countries have some com-mon understandings. As both Moscow andWashington are experiencing the menace ofradicalism at their respective sovereignspaces, it is a historic opportunity for bothof them to strengthen their bilateral relationsto fight against the evil forces. Trump dur-ing his campaign for the presidential raceargued for taking strong actions against theradical forces. This gives both the countriesan opportunity to fight against the commonenemies, the dreaded Islamic State (ISIS). Inan interview to Wall Street Journal in theaftermath of his election victory as President,Trump stated that he will “positively coop-erate with Russia in Syria in taming ISIS”.Similarly, during their telephonic conversa-tion as reported by kremlin.ru website boththe leaders agreed to “work together in the struggle against the number one com-mon enemy — international terrorism and extremism”.

Considerable sections of policy analystsare of the opinion that Washington underPresident Trump will adopt a more prag-matic foreign policy towards Russia. Thisthey argue by sensing some trends. Forinstance, prior to Trump’s election asPresident, one of his key aides, Carter Page,visited Moscow in August and called for a“relook” at American foreign policy towardsRussia. Page even hinted at “scrapping”financial sanctions against Russia. One mayrecall here that prior to economic sanctions,

America used to be one of the largest trad-ing partners of Russia. If there is growingtrade cooperation between the two countries,it will certainly reduce Moscow’s unilateraldependence on Beijing, and may enhancebetter cooperation between the two nations.

During his election campaign, Trumpconsistently prioritised domestic issues con-cerning Americans; be it in the sphere of cre-ating jobs or allocating public goods. He hasalso favoured at protecting American eco-nomic interests, etc. One may also argue herethat Trump will focus less on intervention indifferent parts of the world which is part ofAmerican foreign policy. During thePresidential debate, the transcript of whichwas as reproduced by Los Angeles Times,Trump disdained external intervention car-ried out by the NATO. He stated that“NATO could be obsolete”. Taking a dig atmember countries of this body, he furtherhighlighted that “we are defending them(NATO member states), and they should at

least be paying us what they are supposed tobe paying by treaty and contract”. If Trumpimplements some of the election speechesinto official policies, it could certainly easetension and will reduce the “New Cold War”syndrome. The Russian President in his Stateof the Nation Address on December 1, 2016,as reproduced by the kremlin.ru, has alsomade a pointed reference towards “re-build-ing” positive relationship with the UnitedStates by stating that “we need friends.” Thepositive gesture on the part of Putin will cer-tainly “reshape” Russia-US relations.

Another arena, where US-Russia rela-tions can be strengthened is in the energy sec-tor. As reported by the Russian official mediaRT, way back in 2012, when the second phaseof Eastern Siberia Pacific Pipeline (ESPO) wascompleted, the head of Transneft stated thatAmerican market is getting “35 per cent ofoil through Kozimo terminal”. One may recallhere that in the post-1991 phase, Russiasought greater American participation in the

Siberian energy sector and even sought lat-ter’s technologies to explore energy from thisregion. The “US-Russia Energy and EnergyEfficiency Cooperation” published by theBureau of European and Eurasian Affairs in2012 highlighted major areas of cooperationbetween these two countries in the domainof energy. The report envisaged the creationof “joint grids”, “clean energy”, “joint coop-eration between the State-owned Russianenergy firm Gazprom, and the US EnergyInformation Administration (EIA)”, etc.Despite the bilateral bonhomie over energy,there are certain areas, where energy isbecoming one of the focal points of conflictbetween Moscow and Washington. It hasbeen argued that the Cold War trajectoriesbetween the Soviet Union and Russia werelargely shaped by control over energyresources and its distribution. Trump, on theother hand, is approaching the question ofenergy in different ways than his predeces-sors. In an interesting Press release published

in his personal website, he stated that “ener-gy independence” will be the keystone ofAmerican energy policy. He has also criticisedthe OPEC and present American energy pol-icy by stating that it “weakened our securi-ty by keeping us reliant on foreign sourcesof energy”. The main objective of Trump’senergy policy, in fact, focuses on curtailingAmerican involvement in different energyregions and achieving “self-sufficiency” inenergy production. If Trump implements thispolicy after assuming office, then it will cer-tainly reduce global tension in different partsof the world. Be it in Africa or in LatinAmerica, the US is at loggerheads with bothChina and Russia. Even the phrase “NewGreat Game” came up when Bill Clinton tooksome extra interest in the Caspian regionwhich was later resented by Russia. Strategicanalysts are of the opinion that the root caus-es of the current Syrian crisis can be attrib-uted to pipeline diplomacy and controllingenergy reserves in which both the externalpowers (Moscow and Washington) have vitalstakes. By reorienting its external energy pol-icy America can certainly assuage the feel-ing of Russia that its energy interest both atits backyard (Central Asia and the Caspianregion) as well in the Arctic (where both thepowers are in rivalry with each other) andalso in the West Asian region can be protectedwithout turning it into a “Zero-Sum game”.One may add here one footnote that beinga “Rentier state”, Russia depends substantiallyon energy for securing external revenuewhich sustains its economy. Lesser Americaninterest in these energy fields will remove onemajor source of irritants. Though energyprices at international market are quite lowat present, one expects it to bounce back inthe near future. Trump’s move in the ener-gy sector may pay rich dividend to Russia.

In cementing relationship between thesetwo Cold War foes, India can play a positiverole in bringing Russia and the US muchcloser. New Delhi shares a positive rela-tionship with both the countries and sharesmany of their common concerns like fightagainst radicalism. Already both Moscowand Washington share a common positionon New Delhi’s entry into Nuclear SupplierGroup (NSG). Hope there will be no majorchanges at the policy-level under TrumpAdministration. Prime Minister NarendraModi’s foreign policy of building “bridges”with both the countries is also paying richdividend to India. In this context, one mayenvisage a trilateral strategic triangle involv-ing Delhi Moscow Washington that can con-tribute to the stabilisation of global politicsto a significant level.

(The writer is Assistant Professor, CRCAS,School of International Studies, JawaharlalNehru University, New Delhi)

Indian diaspora is thematically andpractically very unified in the

lifestyle experience of the UnitedStates with the Indian communityamalgamating both with the home-land and keeping in sync with thenation’s binding ethos. It’s a very reg-ular and mainstreamed group dis-tinct from others with much strongerinner identities. The larger group ofpeople of Indian origin are settled inthe United States after the historicalantecedent of the Komagata Maruincident, where shiploads of Indianswere shown the door on the NorthAmerican sea coast. Prime MinisterNarendra Modi very appropriatelycalled the grouse of the global poli-ty to be the fact that now the Indiannation and its denizens manage thecomputer mouse and are largely techand cyber savvy. Modi contends thatno more can the “rest” allude to theIndian nation as a land of “cows, fliesand serpents” and other belittlinganalogies to the nation, and its larg-er ethos. Another facet is that sucha narrative is equivalent to simpletalk, as the way the Indian commu-nity has made potent inroads insidethe American polity, which is anexemplary exercise in civilizationalnavigation. Way back in the sixties,the then American Presidentdeclared, “The people of India arehardworking and self-respecting andif the Indian nation seeks help andsuccour, then the United States willbe ready to collaborate with them.”After all, it’s the defining relationshipof the twenty first century now withthe Trump regime.

Since the freeing of theAmerican freeway through the 1965,immigration laws, much differentfrom the railroad migrations ofearly twentieth century from Asia,the post-1965 laws liberalised themigration from Asia and profes-sionals made America their home.According to the Migration PolicyResearch Institute, around, 2.6 mil-lion Indian immigrants and theirchildren (the first and second gen-erations) live in the United States.Prior to the 1970s, restrictive immi-gration laws passed by the USCongress prevented the easy inflowof the Indian immigrants. The immi-gration policies were unfortunatelynationality-based which slowed

down flow of the migrants to theAmerican homeland; and as a reper-cussion only 6,250 Indians could beregularised as Lawful PermanentResidents (LPR) in the time frame of1920 till 1960. Now, the numbers andtheir functional contributions arebeing felt as tremors with the rise ofpersonages such as Bobby Jindal,Nikki Haley and Ro-Khanna in theAmerican homeland. The Indianmigrants are the third largest immi-grant population residing in theUnited States following up on thenumbers of the heady Mexicansand the doughty Chinese segment ofthe population in its entirety. TheReport further states that the Indiandiaspora comprises a comparative-ly young population with high lev-els of academic achievements andeconomic patterns of productivitiesattached to them. Even the labourparticipation rates of the Indian

community are an impressive exer-cise reflecting the able functioning ofthe working diaspora. Indian dias-pora are a widespread lot with thelargest sections of the populationbeing settled in New Jersey,California and Texas. Looking at theconfiguration of the Metropoles,New York City area has the largestchunk of Indian population, followedby Chicago and San Jose. Studyingthe population profile of the Indiandiaspora, Aspen Institute’s Diaspora programme says that “69per cent of the Indian population isforeign born representing about 4.8 per cent of the US immi-grant population.”

Lobbies such as the Indiancommunity have played a construc-tive role in the integration of theIndian causes, Delhi’s goals and thepelf of the community with the larg-er American ethos and the attendant

dream. It might be a different mat-ter that both the presidential candi-dates attacked the lack of trans-parency of the lobby system in theUnited States. The 116th Governorof South Carolina, Nikki Haley,since 2011, has served SouthCarolina and she is the youngestGovernor in any of the AmericanStates. The President-elect, DonaldTrump, has declared Nikky’s appoint-ment as the US Ambassador to theUnited Nations. With the dates forthe Syrian attrition coming nearer inline with the Vienna plan of October-November, 2015, the role of theAmerican envoy to the UN assumessignificance. The ascent of NikkiHaley reflects the notion symboli-cally that how far the Indian com-munity has risen in the power struc-ture and the systemic matrix of theland of milk and honey. She initial-ly worked in a waste management

and recycling company. Her familybusiness is a multi-million dollar cor-porate interest. Her political agendasince her days in the LexingtonCounty has been largely anti-tax andfiscally conservative, with, an empha-sis on education reforms in an age ofuncertainty defined by terror mod-ules and the past radicalisationefforts in a stereotypical Americancounty. As part of her agenda onimmigration, she is a firm believerlike Donald Trump, on the essen-tiality of the function and a loyal exe-cution of immigration laws.

She is known for having signedan Arizona style Immigration Bill in2011 styling her state’s immigrationpolicy on the lines of the ArizonaSenate Bill 1070, which, at the timeof passage in 2010, was the strictestlegislative provision against the ille-gal immigration practice in theUnited States. The Arizona law con-

troversially legalised lawful detention,“stop and arrest” by the law enforcersif the men in blue feared the presenceof illegality in the neighbourhood.This issue of the illegality of theTrump campaign on immigrationwas hyped by the American main-stream media. The Trump-ship final-ly succeeded with the Americanelectorate despite the connivance ofthe public opinion builders againstthe intransigence of a venom spew-ing Trump as described by the liberalportals. Thus, the elevation of NikkiHaley declares the arrival of theIndian community as a vibrant,hardworking, dexterous and an influ-ential lot, in the doughty Americanhomeland. Just like candidate Trump,Nikki Haley was never at war. DonaldTrump lived true to the ethos of theIndian community and emphatical-ly declared on CBS in October that“We are the best of friends for India”.Sopan Deb reported in CBS News,“Women in glittering saris roamedthe space, as faint smells of samosasfilled the air. Signs such as “Trumpfor Hindu Americans” and “TrumpGood for India” lay on the seats in theNew Jersey Convention Centre andExpo in Edison — a town that ishome to one of the largest Indianpopulations in the state.” The famil-iar Trump soundtrack of rollingStone and Luciano Pavarotii’s versionof “Nossum Dorma” were prudent-ly replaced with Indian music when-ever the candidate addressed theRepublican Hindu Coalition. Theseoccasions were not merely confettiand stripes occasions, but, displayeda shift in the inclination of the larg-er Indian community. ThoughWashington Post reported that mostin the Indian community did not sup-port the President-elect, other reportshave pointed out that the Ivanka andTrump family factors helped thecampaign trail. The insignia of theblue and red “Om” atop a sitting pic-ture of the President-elect in a “Yogadhaynam” seems to be the real timedepiction of how Indians enmeshedwith the Republican bandwagonwith apparent rewards coming their way.

(The writer is Faculty,International Relations andInternational Organisations, IIPA)

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���������Tata Motors sufferedfrom product portfolio, qualityand service responsiveness issuesbesides drag from some “legacy”passenger car product lines lead-ing to an adverse impact on thebrand, according to ousted TataSons Chairman Cyrus Mistry.

Facing a shareholders’ votingon December 22 in an EGMcalled by Tata Sons to oust himas director of Tata Motors, Mistryalso said the company’s cash cowJLR is at a critical juncture fac-ing “many challenges” as well asopportunities.

“Apart from product portfo-lio issues, Tata Motors Ltd (TML)suffered from issues relating toquality and service responsive-ness, all having an adverse impacton the brand,” Mistry wrote toshareholders while seeking theirsupport.

He said the company wasunable to come up with newproducts in a very competitiveIndian passenger vehicles market.

“During the last four years,the market has become signifi-cantly competitive, with over 5MNCs launching over 50 newproducts. In

this time, TML has launchedonly 2 new products, the Bolt andZest, which were an evolution ofthe past design language,” he said.

Other models such as theManza, Vista and Safari Stormewere seen as only facelifts, headded.

The existing product pipelineneeded a great deal of work toensure the company had aspira-tional products going into thefuture, Mistry said.

“Lastly we had had somelegacy passenger car productlines” which had a large negativecontribution and suffered fromlarge discounts in the marketplace further eroding marketshare and brand perception,”Mistry said.

Commenting on after salesand service, he said: “Apart fromthe product portfolio issues,TML suffered from issues relat-ing to quality and service respon-siveness, all having an adverseimpact on the Brand.”

In this period, major newplayers strengthened their posi-tion with re-engineered productsspecifically designed for theIndian market, he added.

On new product line up,Mistry said the Kite 5, the Hexaand a new compact SUV areexpected to be launched in thenear future.

On its Brtish arm JaguarLand Rover (JLR), Mistry saidthe company is at a critical junc-ture.

“The decisions taken todaywill decide its future resilience.The company faces many chal-lenges, but also many opportu-nities. The strategy at JLR hasbeen to achieve scale as well asminimise currency and supplychain risks by investing in newfacilities,” he said. JLR’s lack ofscale required it to investdis-proportionately compared tothe industry in new technolo-gies that will help meet regula-tory requirements and differ-entiate its products, Mistrysaid.

“All this has been donewithout leveraging the balancesheet and retaining adequateliquidity. The result is a strongercompany that will reward theshareholders more consistent-ly in the future.

Tata Motors has convenedan extraordinary general meet-ing (EGM) on December 22 tooust Mistry and Nusli Wadia asdirectors of the company.Mistry, however, continues tobe the company’s chairman.Tata Sons holds 26.51 per centstake in Tata Motors. � �

��� ������ A NITI Aayogpanel, set up to review theframework related to digitalpayments, on Friday calledfor promoting electronicmodes by providing levelplaying field to all stake-holders including new play-ers.

It has recommended amedium term strategy foraccelerating growth of digi-tal payments in the countrywith a regulatory regime thatis conducive to bridging thedigital divide by promotingcompetition, open access andinteroperability in payments,said a NITI Aayog release.

Headed by formerfinance secretary Ratan PWatal, who is presentlyPrincipal Advisor, NITIAayog, the panel has calledfor “inclusion of financiallyand socially excluded groupsand assimilation of emergingtechnologies in the marketwhile safeguarding securityof Digital Transactions andproviding level playing toall stakeholders and new

players who will enter thisnew transaction space”.

It has also suggested“inter-operability of the pay-ments system between banksand non-banks, up-grada-tion of the digital paymentinfrastructure and institu-tions and a framework toreward innovations and forleading efforts in enablingdigital payments”.

According to the release,the Committee was seized ofthe fast developments fol-lowing the decision of thegovernment to demonetisecurrency of high denomina-tions.

It added that theCommittee has calibrated itsrecommendations accord-ingly and has provided asuitable framework forsmooth and speedy transi-tion towards a DigitalPayments Economy.

The panel was constitut-ed on August 23, 2016 andhas submitted its final reportto Finance Minister ArunJaitley on Friday. � �

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With insufficient staff and noproper infrastructure facili-

ties in the I-T department, whichis dealing with a huge volume ofblack money cases post-demon-etisation, two of its employees’ asso-ciations have written to PrimeMinister Narendra Modi, seekingadequate manpower and infra-structure facilities to probe into sev-eral instances of tax evasion in thecountry.

Income Tax EmployeesFederation (ITEF) and the IncomeTax Gazetted Officers’ Association(ITGOA) - the two associationsthat represent almost 97 per centof the workforce of the Income Taxdepartment, said in a joint mem-orandum that they should be pro-vided with proper infrastructurefacilities and sufficient manpowerso that the workforce stays moti-vated. The associations said theyhave written a communication inthis regard to the Prime Ministeron November 17 suggesting sev-eral measures to effectively fight thebattle against black money.

“It is evident from post-demonetisation developments thatvarious other stringent measureswill also be needed to fight themenace of black money and cor-ruption and in such measures, theIncome Tax department will haveto play a pivotal role. The totalnumber of information of suchdeposits may figure up to severalcrores of rupees. In order to

achieve the above objectives, thedepartment must have adequatemanpower, especially at key posi-tions, be provided with properinfrastructure facilities so that theworkforce stays motivated, com-mitted and highly spirited,” thememorandum said.

The associations claimed thatafter the November 8 declarationby the Government scrapping�500/1000 notes, the demonetisedcurrencies are coming back intobanking channels in much high-

er proportion than what was ini-tially expected, indicating theblack money hoarders are tryingto circumvent the process ofdemonetisation by resorting toillegitimate means.

“The lower rungs of thedepartment are facing almost 30-35 per cent of vacancies at cutting-edge positions like AdditionalCommissioner of I-T and DeputyCommissioner of I-T, their juniorranks and others,” they said in thememorandum, flagging the issueof severe space problems beingfaced by Assessing Officers (AOs)as they have to take hearings incases on a rotational basis.

The associations also said inthis time of e-governance, theinternet and intranet connectivi-ty of the department stands verypoor, thus hindering the e-gov-ernance as well as internet-basedenquiries/assessments as well asknowledge sharing.

The memorandum also saidthe promotions in their ranks aregetting abnormally delayed due toflimsy bureaucratic hurdles, cre-ating huge vacancy at severalgrades. “We have already madethe request to the PM and theFinance Minister to equip the I-T department with sufficientmanpower and proper infra-structure so that the officers/offi-cials of the department can deliv-er their best. We, therefore, onceagain request the government toaddress these issues on prioritybasis,” the memorandum said.

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�������� State Bank of Indiatoday sold 3.9 per cent stake inSBI Life for �1,794 crore toSingapore sovereign fundTemasek and global privateequity major KKR, valuing thelife insurance firm at �46,000crore ahead of its plans to gopublic within a couple of years.

Both the partners will pickup equal stake in the thirdlargest private life insurer, afterHDFC Life (post merger withMax Life) and ICICI PrudentialLife.

In October, SBI hadinformed the exchanges it wasplanning to dilute up to 5 percent to interested parties andthat it was working towardstaking SBI Life public over thenext 18-24 months. SBI hadalso offered to shed 10 per centstake to its French joint venturepartner BNP Group, at a rightprice.

Asked whether SBI wouldsell the remaining portion inthe planned stake dilution, asenior company official toldPTI that it is unlikely in thecurrent fiscal year.

SBI Life is a joint venturebetween the nation’s largestlender and French financialpowerhouse BNP ParibasCardif, which owns 26 percent stake.

Post-transaction, SBI’sstake in the life insurance firm

will come down to 70.1 percent from current 74 per cent,while BNP Paribas Cardif willcontinue to hold 26 per cent.

In a statement, SBI said theexecutive committee meetingof its board has approved thesale of 3.9 crore shares of �10each, equalling a 3.9 per centstake in SBI Life for �1,794crore ($264 million).

It said an investment vehi-cle affiliated with the KKR-managed funds and an affiliateof Temasek will each purchase1.95 crore share from the bank.

“We are happy to welcomeKKR and Temasek as ourincoming partners in SBI Life.The partnership with Temasekand KKR is a recognition of theefforts of SBI Life’s commit-ment to create a high-qualityinstitution which is a leaderamongst the close to two dozenprivate life insurers in the

country,” SBI ChairpersonArundhati Bhattacharya said.

The valuation of SBI Life at�46,000 crore reflects signifi-cant value creation since itsinception in 2001, she added.

KKR India Chief ExecutiveSanjay Nayar said, “We lookforward to supporting SBI Life’slong-term growth alongsidethese high-calibre partners,and are excited to enhancefinancial access for citizensacross the country and pro-mote development of a moreinclusive financial servicesindustry.”

Temasek India joint headRohit Sipahimalini said: “Weare positive on the long-termpotential of insurance businessin this country which is a playon growing middle income, ris-ing household savings and sup-portive demographics.”

In October, SBI had said it

would offload up to 5 per centin the life insurance arm.

“As of now we have takena call to dilute only 3.9 per centstake in SBI Life. For the bal-ance 1.1 per cent stake we havenot decided yet. The companyis growing so we can offloadthe balance stake in futurealso,” SBI Deputy ManagingDirector (associates & sub-sidiaries) Neeraj Vyas told thenews agency.

He said however that thelender may look at offloading1.1 per cent more stake in SBILife next year only.

Last month, Bhattacharyahad said the bank planned tolist SBI Life in the next 18-24months.

The financial advisors tothe transaction were SBICapital Markets and KotakInvestment Banking.

SBI Life had turned in a netprofit of �213 crore in theSeptember quarter, up 3.40per cent a year ago. Its grosspremium grew 50 per cent to�4,644 crore, while the samestood at �15,825 crore - com-prising �7,107 crore new busi-ness premium and �8,719 crorerenewal premium - in the lastfinancial year.

The SBI counter closed2.41 per cent up at �266 on BSEas against a tepid closing of thebenchmark Sensex.

3�������@ABC������������� ������$��;;/��������)B!��� �������� Country’s top 100

companies in terms of marketvaluation have generated �28.4lakh crore wealth in the last fiveyears, with Tata Group firmTCS retaining the numero unoposition in the chart, says a lat-est study.

According to the leadingbrokerage firm Motilal Oswal’s‘21st Annual Wealth CreationStudy’, TCS is the biggest wealthcreator for generating over �2.6lakh crore for the period 2011-16. The firm has retained therank for the fourth year in arow.

The IT giant was followedby private sector lender HDFCBank, as per the study, whichlooks into top 100 wealth cre-ating companies during theperiod 2011-16.

Overall, top 100 companiescreated �28.4 lakh crore during2011-16, which is the thirdhighest ever quantum ofamount generated.

The wealth created is cal-culated as change in the mar-ket cap of companies between2011 and 2016, duly adjustedfor corporate events such asmergers, de-mergers, freshissuance of capital, buyback,among others.

While Ajanta Pharma wasfound to be the fastest wealthcreator for the second year in arow, Asian Paints emerged asthe most consistent wealth gen-erator.

S e c t o r - w i s e ,consumer/retail emerged as the

country’s biggest wealth creat-ing industry for the second con-secutive time.

The report noted that pub-lic sector undertakings wealthcreation performance continuesto be dismal during 2011-16.

Only 7 PSUs -- BPCL,HPCL, Petronet LNG, Concor,LIC Housing, BharatElectronics and Power GridCorporation -- figure in the top100 wealth creators list and con-tributed to 4 per cent of the totalwealth generation.

Meanwhile, wealth worth�15 trillion was destroyed dur-ing 2011-16. This accounts for53 per cent of the total wealthcreated by top 100 companies.

“Seven of the top 10 wealthdestroyers are in the business ofglobal commodities,” MotilalOswal said.

“Metals/mining is thebiggest wealth-destroying sec-tor as was the case last year, fol-lowed by banking and finance,which mainly includes state-owned banks at the wrong endof the NPA cycle,” it added.

Motilal Oswal noted thatwhile the compound annualgrowth rate of Sensex stood at5 per cent, the pace of wealthcreation was healthy at 18 percent CAGR.

“This reinforces the pointthat wealth creation happens inall kinds of market conditions.So, investors are better offfocusing on which stocks toinvest in, rather than timing themarkets,” it said.

� ��� �78�6739

Giving partial relief to somecar makers from a penalty

order by CCI, the CompetitionAppellate Tribunal on Fridayruled they need to pay a 2 percent fine on three-year averageannual turnover of spare partsin the aftermarket, and not onthe basis of their overallturnover.

The CompetitionCommission of India (CCI)had imposed a penalty of 2 percent on overall average annualturnover of the concernd com-panies, including Toyota (�93.38crore), Nissan (�1.63 crore) andFord (�39.78 crore).

The three foreign automak-ers had approached the Tribunalagainst the order by CCI, whichhad passed its directive afterinvestigating complaints ofalleged abuse of dominant posi-tion and anti-competitive agree-ment/practices adopted by thefirms.

The automakers subse-quently filed their appeals beforeCompat, which on Fridaypassed an order after lookinginto whether the CCI “erred inholding appellants’ distribu-tions/sales agreements and prac-tices violative of” relevant sec-tion of the Competition Act.

In a detailed 190-page

order, the Tribunal said theCCI had ordered an expandedprobe against as many as 17 carmakers in 2011.

Passing its order after look-ing into various aspects of thecase and into submissions madeby all the concerned parties, theCompat said, “... It is our opin-ion that this investigation hascovered certain practices asthey exist in the automobile aftermarket and the repair and ser-vice sector.

“All companies have beenfound violating the relevantprovisions of the act albeit invarying degrees, therefore evenif specific company wise con-clusions are not drawn viola-tions need to be stated andchecked.”

The Tribunal ruled that the“appellants Toyota, Ford andNissan are in dominant positionin respect to their respectivespare parts including diagnos-tic tools, technical information,fault codes, repair manuals etc,in the aftermarket.”

“The appellants are abusingtheir dominant position byimposing unfair conditions inthe nature of restrictions on pur-chase or sale of goods or serviceson their authorised dealers andoriginal equipment suppliersthereby violating Section 4(2)(a)(1) of the Act.”

��� ������ Paytm founderVijay Shekhar Sharma has soldone per cent of his shares inOne97 Communications to itsshareholders for about �325crore.

The amount raised will beutilised for Paytm’s proposedpayments bank operations, inwhich Sharma holds 51 percent stake.

Confirming the develop-ment, a Paytm spokespersonsaid: “It is done for Paytm pay-ments bank investment.”

The spokesperson addedthat the shares have beenbought by the existing share-holders. The details of the dealwere, however, not disclosed.

At the end of Marchthis year, Sharma held over 21per cent stake in One97Communications. The latest

sale would bring down hisholding to over 20 per cent.

Last year, the Reserve Bankof India had awarded ‘in-prin-ciple’ approval to Sharma, thefounder of One97Communications, to set up apayments bank.

Paytm payments bank is inthe process of securing the finallicence from RBI and willcommence its operations afterdue approvals.

While Sharma holds amajority share in the new pay-ments bank entity, the rest isbeing held by One97Communications.

Earlier this week, One97Communications also restruc-tured its business, mergingPaytm’s wallet business withpayments bank operation.

China’s Alibaba Group andits affiliate Ant Financial holdover 40 per cent in One97Communications. They hadpumped in USD 680 millionlast year into the parent com-pany of Paytm.

However, the Chinese enti-ty will not have a direct share-holding in the payments bank.

Other investors of One97Communications include SAIFPartners, Intel Capital and SAPVentures. � �

��� ����B� Almost 85 percent of country’s cash dis-pensing machines had beenrecalibrated to fit the newnotes till November 30 and theGovernment has also advisedbanks to set up micro ATMs inrural areas to meet the cashneed post demonetisation,Parliament was informedtoday.

As on September 30, 2016there were 2,11,594 ATMs ofbanks and 14,324 white labelATMs working across thecountry.

“There are 1,79,614 ATMswhich have been recalibratedtill November 30, 2016,”Minister of State for FinanceSantosh Kumar Gangwar saidin a written reply to the LokSabha.

Gangwar said the govern-

ment has advised banks todeploy micro ATMs in ruralareas in all sub-service areasacross the country.

He also informed thehouse that 1,14,036 microATMs have already beendeployed as on December 2,2016.

On being asked about thenorms to set up ATMs, he saidscheduled commercial banks,excluding regional rural banks,do not need the RBI permis-sion to install ATMs at branch-es and extension counters.

The scheduled commercialbanks can also install off-siteATMs without permission ofthe RBI subject to certain con-ditions, he added.

Besides, non-bank enti-ties incorporated in India arealso allowed to set up, own and

operate ATMs that are knownas White Label ATMs (WLAs).

In a separate question’sreply in the House on cost ofprinting currency, Minister ofState for Finance Arjun RamMeghwal said the rates paid forprinting of banknotes by dif-ferent presses are different.

“The reasons for these dif-ferences are that the cost ofproduction varies due to manyfactors including the age ofmachines, capacity of plant,level of automation and man-power employed,” Meghwalsaid.

However, the pricing isreviewed periodically by theRBI and the prices for the sup-ply of banknotes are paid onthe basis of cost plus approach,return on investment andreturn on capital, he added.

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���������Government’s revenuecollection in April to Novembersaw indirect tax-mop up growingat an impressive 26.2 per centwhile that of direct tax came in at15.12 per cent.

Total direct and indirect taxcollections at the end of Novemberstood at �9.64 lakh crore, 59 percent of the �16.26 lakh crore tar-get for 2016-17.

The Government is eyeing12.64 per cent growth in direct taxat �8.47 lakh crore for the currentfiscal and 10.8 per cent in indirecttax at �7.79 lakh crore.

Direct tax mop-up touched�4.12 lakh crore and indirect taxrevenue stood at �5.52 lakh croreduring April-November, led byrobust collections in personalincome tax and excise duty,respectively.

Direct tax revenue includes

corporate and personal incometax. Indirect tax takes into accountmobilisation from excise, servicetax and Customs duty.

The gross collection of cor-porate income tax (CIT) grew at11.22 per cent while under per-sonal income tax (PIT), it was22.41 per cent over the corre-sponding period last fiscal.

After adjusting for refunds,however, the net growth in CITcollections is 8.75 per cent whileunder PIT, it is 23.89 per cent.

Refunds amounting to over�1.05 lakh crore have been issuedduring April-November 2016,up 17.35 per cent from a year ago.

Excise duty collectionsclocked a growth of 43.5 per centin April-November at �2.43 lakhcrore while service tax recorded anincrease of 25.7 per cent at �1.60lakh crore. � �

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Industrial output slipped intothe negative territory again

with a contraction of 1.9 per centin October mainly due to sharpdecline in production of capitalgoods and poor performance ofmanufacturing sector.

After showing decline fortwo consecutive months of July(-2.5 per cent) and August (-0.7per cent), factory output, asmeasured in terms of the Indexof Industrial Production (IIP),had grown at 0.7 per cent inSeptember.

For the April-October peri-od, industrial output declined by0.3 per cent as against a growthof 4.8 per cent a year ago, as perthe data released by CentralStatistics Office (CSO) on Friday.

Factory output grew at ahigher rate of 9.9 per cent inOctober last year mainly drivenby better performance of man-ufacturing sector and increase inoutput of capital goods by 16.5per cent. The manufacturingsector, which constitutes over 75per cent of the IIP index, record-ed a contraction 2.4 per cent inOctober. Similarly the capitalgoods output also shrank by 25.9per cent. In terms of industries,

12 out of 22 groups in the man-ufacturing sector showed nega-tive growth in October.

The mining sector recordeda contraction of 3.1 per cent inOctober as against a growth of3.5 per cent a year ago. Powergeneration recorded a growth of1.1 per cent in October com-pared to 5.3 per cent growth in

the same month a year ago. Growth in output of con-

sumer durables went up by just0.2 per cent in October com-pared to 41.9 per cent growth ayear ago. The output of con-sumer non-durable goodsdeclined by 3 per cent inOctober as against 4.8 per centgrowth a year ago.

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Tata Consultancy Services,Deloitte Touche, EY and

Tally Solutions were among the34 firms short-listed on Fridayto provide interface between thenew Goods and Services Tax(GST) server and taxpayers.

GSTN, the company that istasked with building the world’sbiggest and most complex taxframework, short-listed these 34companies to be the GSTSuvidha Provider (GSP). TheGSP is mandated to provideinnovative and convenient waysto taxpayers and other stake-holders in interacting with theGST Systems from registrationof entity to uploading of invoicedetails to filing of returns.

Prominent among theshort-listed are Karvy DataManagement, Mastek Ltd,MothersonSumi Infotech, NSDLe-Governance Infrastructure,Ramco System, RelianceCorporate IT Park Ltd and TeraSoftware, according to GSTN.

The taxpayer under theGST regime that theGovernment intends to roll outfrom April 1 will have to provideinvoice data as well as filing ofreturns. In addition to the afore-

said services, the GSP will main-tain taxpayers’ individual busi-ness ledgers (sales and pur-chase ledger) and other valueadded services around the same.

While the GST Systems willhave a G2B (Government tobusiness) portal, a wide array oftaxpayers like SMEs or smallretail vendors may require dif-ferent facilities like convertingtheir purchase and sales registerdata in GST-compliant format,integration of their accountingpackages with the GST System.

Similarly, the specific needsof an industry or trade could bemet by the GSP. In short, theGSP can help taxpayers in GSTcompliance through their inno-vative solutions. Another keyservice the GSP is expected tooffer is automatic reconciliationof purchase made and enteredthe purchase register and datadownloaded in the form ofGSTR-2 from the GST portal.

In addition, there will besector- or trade-specific needsthat the GSP is expected to ful-fil. Other firms short-listedinclude Alankit Ltd, BodhtreeConsulting, Botree Software,Central Depository Services,Computer Age and CygnetInfotech.

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NEW DELHI: The impact ofdemonetisation will only beshort-term and India’s growthmomentum is likely to get backon recovery path from Aprilnext year with support fromconsumption and exports, saysa Morgan Stanley report.According to the global finan-cial services firm, the currencyreplacement programme is aroadblock in the short term andGDP growth for the quartersending December and March isexpected to slow down byaround 50-75 bps.

The broad growth outlookof the country however, remainsunchanged, it said. “We main-tain our overall constructiveoutlook on India. We expectgrowth to be back on the recov-ery track from 2Q17 after ashort period of slowdownbetween November 2016 andMarch 2017, due to the cur-

rency replacement program,”Morgan Stanley said in aresearch note. The reportexpects consumption, whichaccounts for 60 per cent of GDP,to recover from the quarter end-ing June’17, and the recovery tobroaden following the pick-upin public capex and FDI flows.

Moreover, as global growthis expected to accelerate to 3.4per cent in 2017 from 3 per centin 2016, following which India'sexports is likely to support anoverall recovery in 2017 afterbeing a drag in 2016, the reportnoted. On equity markets, thereport said that the country willexit the low return environ-ment of the past two years,thanks to better equity valua-tions. “In our view, equities arelikely to deliver 14 per cent INRreturns in 2017, comparedwith (-) 3 per cent in 2015 and2016,” Morgan Stanley said.PTI

NEW DELHI: India hasexpressed reservations on WorldBank’s ‘Doing Business Report’where it has been ranked 172amongst 190 countries, FinanceMinister Arun Jaitley said onFriday. Government is aware ofthe latest analysis of the WorldBank’s report in which India hasbeen ranked 172 amongst 190countries surveyed in the matterof paying taxes.

“We have some reservationsabout the methodology of theassessment parameters in thisregard,” he said during QuestionHour, amidst noisy protests byOpposition. The Government hasbeen taking a number of steps toease tax compliance for tax payers,he said. “We are constanly striv-ing to improve our position,” he

said. FM said the TaxAdministration ReformCommission (TARC) in its 4reports had made useful recom-mendations on issues like cus-tomer focus, structure and gover-nance, dispute management, keyinternal processes, use of infotech.

Other issues are informationexchange, revenue forecasting,predictive analysis and researchfor tax governance, customscapacity building, impact assess-ment, expanding the base, com-pliance management etc. FMsaid on the recommendationsgiven by TARC, 130 recom-mendations have already beenimplemented whereas 173 rec-ommendations relating to CBDTare acceptable with modificationand 95 recommendations. PTI

1��������������?@����������+�����@�0 NEW DELHI: Fair trade regu-

lator CCI has imposed a penal-ty totalling �12,917.63 crore in327 cases related to anti-com-petitive practices during the lastthree years and till October thisyear. Out of the penaltyimposed, a total of �10,454.08crore have been stayed by theCompetition Appellate Tribunal,various courts, including theSupreme Court, and �2,427.90have been dismissed duringthe period, Minister of State forCorporate Affairs Arjun RamMeghwal said in the Lok Sabha.

The amount realised bythe Competition Commissionof India (CCI) stands at�29.49 crore and �6.16 croreremains unpaid during thelast three years and the cur-rent year till October 31, theminister said. PTI

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BOSTON: Mobile money ser-vices, which allow users tostore and exchange monetaryvalues via mobile phone, mayhelp lift people in developingeconomies out of poverty, anew study led by an Indian ori-gin researcher suggests. Thestudy shows that mobile-money services have hadnotable long-term effects onpoverty reduction in Kenya -especially among female-head-ed households and haveinspired a surprising occupa-tion shift among women.

The study led by TavneetSuri, associate professor atMassachusetts Institute ofTechnology (MIT) in the US,estimates that, since 2008,access to mobile-money ser-

vices increased daily per capi-ta consumption levels of194,000 or 2 per cent of Kenyanhouseholds, lifting them out ofextreme poverty (living on lessthan $1.25 per day). Female-headed households saw fargreater increases in consump-tion than male-headed house-holds, researchers said.

“Previously, we’ve shownmobile money helps you withfinancial resilience. But noone has understood, if youimprove resilience, what hap-pens over the longer term.This is the first study thatlooks at long-term povertyreduction and at gender,” saidSuri, who collaborated withWilliam Jack, an economist atGeorgetown University. AFP

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South Korean lawmakers onFriday impeached President

Park Geun-hye, a stunningand swift fall for the country’sfirst female leader amidprotests that drew millionsinto the streets in united fury.

After the vote, parliamen-tary officials hand-deliveredformal documents to the pres-idential Blue House thatstripped Park of her power and

allowed herNo 2, PrimeMinisterH w a n gKyo-ahn,to assumeleadershipuntil thecountry’s

Constitutional Court rules onwhether Park must perma-nently step down. The court hasup to six months to decide.

“I’d like to say that I’mdeeply sorry to the peoplebecause the nation has to expe-rience this turmoil because ofmy negligence and lack ofvirtue at a time when oursecurity and economy bothface difficulties,” Park said at aCabinet meeting after the vote.

Once called the “Queen ofElections” for her ability to pulloff wins for her party, Park hasbeen surrounded in the BlueHouse in recent weeks by mil-lions of South Koreans who havetaken to the streets in protest.

They are furious over whatprosecutors say was collusionby Park with a longtime friendto extort money from compa-nies and to give that confidanteextraordinary sway over gov-ernment decisions.

Organisers said about10,000 people gathered in frontof the National Assembly todemand that lawmakers passthe impeachment motion.

Some had spent the nighton the streets after travelingfrom other cities. Scuffles brokeout between angry anti-Park

farmers, some of whom haddriven tractors to the assemblyfrom their farms, and police.

When impeachment hap-pened, many of those gatheredraised their hands in the air andleapt about, cheering andlaughing. “Can you hear theroar of the people in front of

the National Assembly? Weneed to overcome the old estab-lishment and create a newRepublic of Korea by passing(the impeachment motion),”Kim Kwan-young, an opposi-tion lawmaker said ahead of thevote, referring to South Korea’sformal name. “Our great peo-ple have already opened theway. Let’s make it so we can

stand honorably in front of his-tory and our descendants.”

The handover of powerprompted the Prime Ministerto order South Korea’s defenseminister to put the military ona state of heightened readinessto brace for any potentialprovocation by North Korea.

No suspicious movementsby the North were reported,however. Park will be formal-ly removed from office if atleast six of the ConstitutionalCourt’s nine justices supporther impeachment, and thecountry would then hold apresidential election within 60days. National Assembly speak-er Chung Sye-kyun said the billon Park’s impeachment waspassed by a vote of 234 for and56 opposed, with seven invalidvotes and two abstentions.

That well surpassed thenecessary two-thirds voteneeded in the 300-seatAssembly, with the oppositiongetting strong support frommembers of Park’s party.

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Impeached South KoreanPresident Park Geun-hye

on Friday said she was“gravely accepting” the deci-sion after the vote on herimpeachment motion waspassed in the NationalAssembly with over-whelming support.

“I’m gravely accept-ing parliamentary andpublic voices, and wish

the current turmoil comes toa stable end,” Xinhua newsagency quoted Park as sayingat a meeting with cabinetmembers in the presidentialoffice after the impeachmentbill obtained the two-thirdsmajority vote.

Park apologised to peoplefor causing national turmoilbecause of her lack of virtueand carelessness at a timewhen the country’s securityand economy are in trouble.

The 300-member assem-bly passed the bill, proposedlast Saturday by the oppositionbloc, with 234 legislators vot-ing for, 56 opposing.

The first South Koreanfemale leader became thecountry’s second Presidentimpeached by the NationalAssembly.

Prime Minister HwangKyo-ahn is to become actingPresident, temporarily assum-ing presidential power while

the Constitutional Courtweighs the case.

The number of votes infavour indicates that over 20pro-Park faction members castsecret ballots in favour of thePresident’s impeachment.Among Saenuri lawmakers,62 members voted for it, with56 against. The impeachmentis only the country’s second. In2004, late President Roh Moo-hyun was also forced out ofoffice for two months.

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British spies are taking thefight to the enemy by pen-

etrating the dreaded IslamicState and other terror groupsto prevent attacks on the UK,the chief of Britain’s SecretIntelligence Service MI6 hasindicated.

Alex Younger used a first-of-its-kind speech within MI6headquarters in London yes-terday to warn that a “highlyorganised” ISIS external cellwas planning to unleash moreviolence on the West and thatBritain’s intelligence serviceshad disrupted at least 12 ter-rorist plots in the UK sinceJune 2013.

“We need to take the fightto the enemy, penetrating ter-rorist organisations upstream.By which I mean as close to thesource as possible. In foot-balling terms, it is about alwaysensuring that you are playingin the opponent’s half... They(agents) know that the result ofbeing identified as an MI6agent could be their death.

“But they do what they dobecause they believe in pro-tecting their country and reli-gion from the evil that Daesh(ISIS) and other terrorist organ-isations represent,” he said.

“I will not seek to hide thechallenges that come withwork against an organisation

as murderously efficient asDaesh (ISIS), but MI6 andGCHQ intelligence has onnumerous occasions givenMI5 and the police the infor-mation they need to identifyand stop threats in the UK andto our allies,” he added.

The head of the SecretIntelligence Service alsodescribed the scale of the ter-rorist threat to the UK as“unprecedented”.

“As I speak, the highlyorganised external attack plan-ning structures within Daesh...Are plotting ways to projectviolence against the UK andour allies without ever havingto leave Syria,” he warned.

Younger, the 16th chiefsince MI6 was founded in1909, is known as “C”, ratherthan “M” as in the James Bondfilms based on Ian Fleming’sfamous fictional spy.

C is the only member ofMI6 who can be publicly iden-tified. The 53-year-old formerarmy officer who joined MI6in 1991 took charge of his newpost from Sir John Sawers inNovember 2014.

This week’s unusual on-the-record speech was part of a wider attempt by thespy agency to step out from theshadows and explain what it does to the public to attract wide support andrecruits.

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London: Faced with a losingbattle against mice, DowningStreet has roped-in two morecats to the Cabinet Office.

Evie and Ossie are the lat-est recruits in the Government’songoing — and losing — bat-tle against mice.

The black and white moth-er and son were rescued fromthe Celia Hammond AnimalTrust and arrived in time for theCabinet Office’s centenary this week, The Sun reported on Friday.

Evie is named after DameEvelyn Sharp — the first everfemale Civil Service PermanentSecretary. And her boy Ossie isnamed after top civil servant

ECB Osmotherly — an experton Whitehall and parliamen-tary procedure.

No taxpayer money will bespent on the two furry friends,the report said. So far they haveshunned the limelight withonly a sneaky snap of Evie sur-facing after it was tweeted by aWhitehall chief.

A Cabinet Office said thetwo cats had been specificallychosen to avoid fights with theWhitehall tomcats. No10’sfamous Larry — theGovernment’s official ChiefMouser — has been locked ina vicious territorial war with Palmerston, the ForeignOffice cat. PTI

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"������������������������� �������������Aleppo: The Syrian armypressed an offensive in Aleppoon Friday with ground fightingand air strikes in an operationto retake all of the city’sbesieged rebel-held east thatwould bring victory in thecivil war closer for PresidentBashar al-Assad.

“The advance is goingaccording to plan and is some-times faster than expected,” aSyrian military source toldReuters, adding that the Syrianarmy and its allies had recap-tured 32 of east Aleppo’s 40neighborhoods, about 85 per-cent of the area.

Reuters witnesses, rebelsand a monitor on Friday con-firmed the military thrust.There were no reports theSyrian Army had made significant gains.

Russia’s Foreign MinisterSergei Lavrov said on Thursdaythat the Syrian army had halt-ed military activity to let civil-ians leave rebel-held areas, RIA

news agency reported.But there was no sign on

the ground that fighting hadslowed and after Lavrov’sannouncement, the army andits allies tried to advance ontwo fronts, a Turkey-basedofficial with the Jabha Shamiyarebel group told Reuters.

“Helicopters, warplanesand rocket bombardment likeevery day. Nothing haschanged,” the official said,describing the situation as of9:30 a.m. local time (0730GMT). The official added that

despite the bombardment, “theguys are steadfast”.

Russia’s air force and Iran-backed Shi’ite militias are alsofighting in Aleppo on the gov-ernment side. Rebel leaders havegiven no sign they are about towithdraw as the civilian popu-lation is squeezed into an ever-decreasing area. The Russianmilitary said on Friday it hadhelped more than 8,000 Syriancitizens flee parts of easternAleppo still controlled by rebelsin the last 24 hours, includingalmost 3,000 children. Agencies

Houston: John Glenn, a trailblazing astronaut who broke the glassceiling twice by becoming the first American to orbit the Earthand the first senior citizen to venture into space, has died aged95. “We are saddened by the loss of Sen John Glenn, the firstAmerican to orbit Earth. A true American hero. Godspeed, JohnGlenn,” NASA tweeted immediately after his death wasannounced by the Ohio State University.

Glenn died at the James Cancer Hospital in Columbus, Ohio,where he was hospitalised for more than a week, the John GlennCollege of Public Affairs announced.

The former astronaut had been battling health issues aftersuffering a stroke a few years ago.

He had also undergone a heart valve replacement surgery in 2014.

“With John’s passing, our nation has lost an icon and Michelleand I have lost a friend. John spent his life breaking barriers,from defending our freedom as a decorated Marine Corps fight-er pilot in World War II and Korea, to setting a transcontinen-tal speed record, to becoming, at age 77, the oldest human to touchthe stars,” President Barack Obama said in a statement. PTI

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Turkey is sending hundredsof commandos to reinforce

its military campaign insideSyria, where the Turkish Armyhas suffered increasing casual-ties in its fight to capture a keytown from ISIS jehadis, reportssaid on Friday.

A total of 300 commandosfrom a base in the westernTurkish province of Denizliwere first taken in buses to a mil-itary airport and then to the bor-

der region in military planes tojoin the Turkish-led operation,Turkish newspapers and theAnadolu news agency reported.

Ankara in August launchedan operation dubbed EuphratesShield to back up Syrian rebelsseeking to oust jehadis from theborder zone. The Syrian townsof Jarabulus, Al Rai and Dabiqwere retaken from the ISjihadists in lightning moves inthe early weeks of the opera-tion. But the Syrian fighters andTurkish troops have found far

greater resistance in the fightfor Al Bab — 25 kilometresfrom the Turkish border —where the jehadis have report-edly regrouped after fleeing anearlier offensive.

Nineteen Turkish soldiershave lost their lives in the Syriacampaign so far, with theGovernment wary of any sign itcould become a focus of publicconcern. The Army has alreadysince summer 2015 been wagingan offensive against KurdistanWorkers Party (PKK) militants

in the southeast that has claimedthe lives of hundreds of membersof the security forces.

Most of the attacks in theSyria campaign have beenblamed on the ISIS extemists.

But four Turkish soldierswere killed last month by anairstrike the Turkish armyblamed on the Syrian regime.Russian Foreign MinisterSergei Lavrov said last weekneither Moscow nor its allyDamascus were behind thedeadly strike.

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Beijing: China on Friday askedVietnam to stop constructionwork on a disputed reef in theresource-rich South China Sea,reaffirming its “indisputablesovereignty”, days after satelliteimages showed Hanoi carryingout dredging work in the con-tested waterway.

“China has indisputablesovereignty over Nansha(Spratly) Islands, Riji reef andrelevant waters,” Chinese

Foreign Ministry spokesmanLu Kang told media here react-ing to reports of Vietnam car-rying dredging work there.

“We urge the relevant coun-try to respect our sovereigntyand our relevant rights and stopconstruction activities andrefrain from complicating thesituation and work with Chinato safeguard and peace stabilityin the South China Sea,” he said.

Latest images by US-based

satellite firm Planet Labsshowed several Vietnamesevessels carrying out dredgingactivities which analysts said isa precursor to bigger con-structions activity.

Reports earlier this yearsaid Vietnam had fortified sev-eral islands under its controlwith mobile rocket artillerylaunchers capable of strikingChina’s holdings across theareas under its control. PTI

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■ You look very tired after your multi-city pro-motional tour. Do you believe this strategyworks for films today with such an aware audi-ence?

I have not been able to sleep for around fivedays. I go to bed at 4 am and sleep for an hour orso before heading out to work. I have always beena bit old-fashioned and have kept my connectionalive with traditional print media (Khan actuallydid only print interviews in Delhi with even ver-nacular press). I share my thoughts with them andI have high hopes from Delhi. I think I will have agood night’s sleep today (laughs).

■ Is the beard and moustache look for Thug? Haveyou already slipped into another zone?

Shooting for my next begins in March. This isnot the final look for Thug (Vijay Krishna Acharya’sfilm) but I am growing my beard and moustache.We will finalise the look later. I allow my facial hairto grow in the prep period of any film so that wecan play with it.

■ So what are your expectations from Dangal?I don’t ever have monetary expectations from

my films. More than expectations I have hopes. Ihope people love this film. I hope they feel the samewatching it as we felt while making it.

■ Reality TV shows have become the new plat-form to promote Hindi films. Be it The KapilSharma Show or Bigg Boss, every film release teamis there for appearances. Even stars and peers likeSalman Khan and Shah Rukh Khan have partic-ipated in these shows. Yet you have refused to pro-mote your film on TV. Why?

I am someone who doesn’t believe in overkill.Anyway our trailers are running on relevant fam-ily channels. I will explain the logic behind my aver-sion to TV show appearances. If I had to sell a smallfilm like Peepli Live, which doesn’t have any big stars,I would definitely plug that into a very popular TVshow, which is watched by the whole country andaddresses varied demographics and concerns.Besides, there is a relatability at play.

The key to marketing and promotion is to cre-ate a desire for the consumer. When it comes to myown film, I may go on and on about its release, youmay be aware of it but may not be interested inwatching it. Then I have to create desire in differ-ent ways; I can even create desire by disappearing.

I have a very old-fashioned view of marketing.So I believe that the good old trailer is the best toolfor creating a desire in the viewer. It opens a win-dow to the film. Then there are the posters, whichI consider an art form.

■ Also, you are not very active on socialmedia. How do you stay in touch with your fansthen?

But I am on Twitter, which is a platform toengage with my audience. The way actors interactwith their audience via Twitter is a part of their per-sonality. So if I interact less, that is a part of my per-sonality, doesn’t mean I care less or more. As a per-son, I am mostly lost in my own world and not evenaware of what’s going on around me. I don’t readnewspapers for days. I am cocooned in my ownworld. I have become non-communicative. And ittakes a huge effort on Kiran’s part to pull me backto earth. It is not that I don’t value Twitter orFacebook as a platform. I speak less. That’s me.

■ Did you know anything about the Phogat fam-ily before the script was offered to you? Are youtrying to promote the family or the sport throughthe film?

I did know about the Phogat family before read-ing the script because I had researched on them forthe TV series Satyamev Jayate. I knew their entirestory beforehand. And I think the biggest way wecan promote Phogat sisters and Mahavir is by mak-ing a film on them. And that we have done. So whenthe film releases and people watch it, they will appre-ciate it more perhaps. They will see what the fam-ily has been through, the sacrifices and the achieve-ments they have made. The resilience they haveshown. The film itself is the biggest marketing piecefor the family.

My purpose is not to promote myself or thesports personality. Neither of the two. When I ammaking a film, it is because I love the story and Iam creatively excited. I just want to share this joywith my audience. My primary responsibility is tomake a good film and that is what I concentrate on.For example, Raju Hirani is making a biopic onSanjay Dutt; Sanjay is not in the film but it’s aboutSanjay. Ranbir Kapoor is playing Sanjay Dutt. I haveheard the script, it’s fantastic. I called up Sanju andtold him that this is the first time in the history ofcinema that an actor who is not in the film will getmore popularity than the actor who has actuallyworked hard for the film. I said your stardom isalready great but it will become greater after peo-ple watch the film. So the supplementary benefitsof this entire exercise will, of course, go to every-one involved with the film. But to begin with, it willgo to the people on whom the film is being made.

So you will come to know what Mahavir has done,you will get a closer look at Geeta and Babita. Yourrespect for the entire family will go up by ten-foldin my opinion.

But that is not my purpose, I am not makingan ad film on the Phogat family nor has the Phogatfamily told me to make a film on them. This is nottheir intention either. My job is to be a good pur-veyor of a remarkable story. I am very impatient-ly waiting for the Phogats to watch the film and tellme if I have done my bit well. Then I will be satis-fied. The trouble with biopics is that they automat-ically shift the gaze to the real life characters. Whenyou watch Bhag Milkha Bhag, of course, you likeFarhan but your respect for Milkha Singh goes up.

■ How was it working with the debutant girls,Sanya and Fatima?

Dangal is a very demanding film. And it canbe more challenging if it’s your first film. I was happyto see the same kind of passion in all the four girlsthat I had when I came to the industry. These girlsgrew up in the city. Sanya is from Delhi and Fatimagrew up in Mumbai. They had to transform intogirls from Balali village and transport themselvesinto a different world. They chose this over doinga romcom. It’s easy to do a first film where you arein your comfort zone. I definitely was in my com-fort zone when I did Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak. Sothey have pushed themselves much more. They hadto go through rigorous casting. We also tested themfor wrestling. I was worried they would not be ableto handle the pressure. They worked with suchpassion and hard work. I never had to ask themto come to the sets on time. When you watchthe film, you will see that they are 10 steps aheadof me.

■ And Sakshi?Sakshi was a dream to work with. She is

so talented; I can’t remember a single shot inthe film where she had to do an extra take.She is a one-take actor with a nice combina-tion of skills and emotions.

■ How did you prepare yourself for therole?

We used to do wrestling training for twohours, followed by three to four hours ofHaryanvi diction. Then we would do twohours of weight-training. That was our rou-tine.

■ Transforming yourself completely to fita character is not an alien concept for you.You are always at your best when it comes togetting into the skin of the character. Whenwe watched the trailer, we were all surprisedwith the transformation but then it gave riseto a lot of speculation. There were people whosaid it is not physically possible for a man whois 50 to lose 27 kilos this easily.

(Laughs) I don’t know anything about theirknowledge and their understanding of fitness. Letme tell you this, when you try to lose weight, youwork on calorie deficit. A person spends roughly2,000 calories a day. Now if I want to lose weightand especially fat, then I have to follow a balanceddiet and within that balanced diet my calorie intakewill have to be 1,500 which is 25 per cent less ofwhat I am spending. So on a daily basis there willbe a deficit of 500 calorie. At the end of the sev-enth day, you will have a deficit of 3,500 calories,which means you would have lost one pound in oneweek. Now let’s assume in that 2,000 calorie spentI add 500 calories more by doing weights. Now myspending is 2,500 and my intake is 1,500. My deficitis not 500 a day now, it is 1,000 a day. So at the endof one week I will lose two pounds. This is a healthyrate to lose weight. It is not recommended to losefaster than that. But is it possible to? Yes, it is. I hada particular requirement that in five months I hadto look in a particular way, so I had to do that, Ihad no choice. My deficit of calorie was 2,000 a dayfor the first three weeks. And even I couldn’t dareto continue this after three weeks. But it gave mea kickstart and I lost six kilos in the first three weeks.That’s the science behind it.

Now I don’t know what theory those people arefollowing. I followed this theory.

■The songs of the film are attracting a lot of atten-tion already, be it Bapu Hanikarak or the Dangalsong. How did the team work on them and whatwas your contribution here as a producer?

Kiran and I have a house in Panchgani. So I calledover the team, Pritam, Amitabh Bhattacharya, to workon the music. We would brief them in the morningand then they would lock themselves in a room andwork on the tunes. And everyday in the evening theywould come to us with a song. Each song was finalisedin the first hearing.

■ You always promote your films in a unique waybut you are not very active about Dangal, evenwith the trailer. Reasons?

I can’t remember why I didn’t launch the trail-er of Dangal formally though it is well-circulated

already. I must have been busy. It’s a rumour thatI promote my movies in a unique way. Marketingis very much a part of filmmaking and I do what-ever is required. For example, in 3 Idiots I was trav-elling around the country in disguise. That conceptcame from the film’s story. The movie was abouttwo friends who are searching for their third friend.I thought let me disappear and my friends, my audi-ence will look for me then. So people might thinkit is an innovative idea, but it is not, it was just therequirement of the film.

My intention is to always send a message thatwe have made a film honestly and what it is about.

■ You are playing a father to four grown-updaughters in the film. How are you as a father?

In reality, I am a father of two grown-ups in anycase, so it wasn’t difficult for me to play this role.I am a very indulgent father. As parents, both Kiranand I are not too harsh on the kids. We are not toosoft either. We don’t want our kids to be spoilt. Butwe are not strict. When we need to instill discipline,we do that with love.

■Farhan Akhtar recently said in a statement thathe might work on a female version of Dil ChahtaHai. Who do you think can play the female Akash?

I think Farhan has a good idea there. Youshould cast young girls in the film. Out of the

three, two should be Fatima and

Sanya. Both are bright actors. It was a mis-take when they cast me, a 36-year-old man,for the film. We should not repeat the samemistake. Farhan should cast actors in theirearly 20s.

■ After reaching this stage in your career,do you have to put in extra thoughts toselect a film?

I feel very blessed that I don’t havethat kind of fear or carry a baggage ofmy last outing. Even if I have hits seri-ally, I do not go in the direction of eitherthe people or the industry’s expectationsor work under pressure. Which is whyafter doing a big film like 3 Idiots, I amvery comfortable doing a small film likeTalaash. As an actor, I genuinely followmy heart and instincts about what Iwant to do and what I want to do is veryunusual and clutter-breaking. That iswhy I don’t take money from the pro-ducers, we share the profit. When Iwant to work on something, I don’twant them to question me. BecauseI am not charging anything, theywon’t. I am working for free; if itworks we will earn together. Ialways go with my emotions at that

point of time and that gives me a lotof freedom to do what I want to. Which is why Iam able to do different and unusual films. I enjoyexperiencing each story and character in a differ-ent way and that is what I am living for. I don’t feelthe need to surpass myself.

As a creative person, I will do the films that Iwant to. As a producer, I never sell my film. Instead,I give it on commission to the distributor.

Also I am very instinctive about a film’s fortunes.I conducted a meeting with my team beforeTalaash and told them that it wouldn’t earn above�70 crore. I knew the figure wouldn’t go up. If itearned above that, I told my team we would be more

than happy. The film did better than we expected.It earned 95.

Now why did I go for this film? I found Talaashvery unique as it was a film about coming to termswith loss. That’s a very rare topic. Each one of us,whether we like it or not, have or will lose some-body close to us. Death is the ultimate reality. Wenever prepare ourselves for a loss like that and whenthat actually happens, we can’t deal with it. And notjust because of death, you sometime lose peoplebecause of certain circumstances. That pain of los-ing someone is Talaash. Every character in that filmhad lost somebody and I found that very beauti-ful. I have also worked in Dhobi Ghat, which earnedonly �15 crore.

■ What’s your estimate for Dangal?You people are badmaash (laughs). When we con-

ducted the meeting for Dangal, I wasn’t worried aboutthe business and never thought about the limit, hon-estly. The requirement of cost was �60-70 crore. Wewere sure it would at least earn that much.

■ You have always given hits but as an actor doyou ever get the pre-release jitters?

I fear for every film of mine, despite the plan-ning. I remember when Ashu (director AshutoshGowariker) and I were working on Lagaan, every-one in the industry told us it would not work. Wewere speaking Awadhi, wearing dhotis and playingcricket. The match scenes were unending. Reena(now ex-wife) told me that she couldn’t understandthe language we were speaking in the film, how

would the audience do so? There is a scene in themovie where I say, Ma, ye beda uthake maine

kauno galti toh nahi kar di hai? So I toldAshu instinctively, Ashu, yeh beda uthake

hamne kauno galti toh nahi kar di?Fear keeps me alert. And it’s also a

part of my excitement.

■ Do you believe in box officeratings?

Unfortunately, this is allfake. Most of the time wrongfigures get published on thebasis of paid publicity. Buteverybody in the industryknows about the actual figures(laughs). So, whatever youread or see, forget that. Ask thedistributors, they will tell youthe truth. I make sure that we

don’t publish fake reports. I havealready told my producers and

distributors that we won’t do it.Talaash earned �95 crore. I could

have easily added another 5 (laughs)but I don’t believe in that.

■ Most of your films release aroundDecember. Is this month lucky for you?I am hoping that my previous films didn’t

work because of luck (laughs). They workedbecause people loved them. My films get ready atthe end of a year. From a holiday point of view, bothDiwali and Christmas are two important dates. It’smore of a coincidence that my films get releasedon Christmas, but it’s a happy coincidence. I likeChristmas.

■ How was it shooting in Punjab again since itwasn’t your first time shooting there?

Punjab is a fantastic state to shoot in given myearlier experience with Rang De Basanti. It’s verydifficult to shoot outdoors without the cooperationof people. In that sense, people from Punjab are verycooperative and hospitable. In Ludhiana, peoplewould greet me by the roadside, be it morning orevening. And it continued for 90 days. Where doyou get to see that? When one of my friends cameto meet me on the sets, one elderly man stoppedhim saying, “Don’t disturb the team as they areshooting.”

■ Your meticulous choice of films and attentionto details have given you the title of MrPerfectionist. Does it put any kind of pressure onyou?

It puts no pressure on me because I don’t believein the title, it is inaccurate. The correct title that fitsme is not Mr Perfectionist but Mr Passionate.Perfection according to me does not exist. Certainlynot in the creative field. There are so many differ-ent opinions, so how can there be a perfect idea?When I am in a shot, there are many elements thatneed to be right. There are a lot of technical prob-lems because of which a shot has to be redone. WhatI look for, therefore, is whether one has been ableto capture the heart of the moment. Then every-thing else falls in place.■ Any recent films that you have watched andliked?

I don’t watch films much but I liked Sultan andAe Dil Hai Mushkil. I liked Ranbir Kapoor andAnushka Sharma’s work in ADHM. I loved thesongs.

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Photo artist Shraddha Borawake hasshot around 2,000 images for her

walk-through installation titledBenevolence. The process, for her,involved many sleepless nights thatdefy words. Shuttling between Puneand Amsterdam and exploring the fiveelements in between was a life-trans-forming experience for Shraddha.She has chosen the all-encompassingearth as the topic for her workswhich are on display at the showPanchatattvas: The Road Ahead, partof the Photosphere photo festival inprogress at the India Habitat Centre.

She is focussed on the earth andbelieves that the five elements areinseparable from each other and thebalance and imbalance of the sameresults in various outcomes. Herinstallation Dharti (Earth) bringsinto question those very materials thatwe excavate from the earth to protectus from the elements. “The planet iscontaminated with mass-producedobjects ranging from natural to toxic.As the earth is exploited for herresources, she exhibits her own force,constantly reclaiming that which hasbeen taken from her. Everything thatis an artifact of man is a result of beingprocessed through the five elementsto create that, which is drawn from theearth,” she says.

In the image Agni (fire) what isexplored is the various qualities of fireand how it plays a strong role inhuman lives ranging from the cosmicto the sentient. The aspect examinedin this image looks at earth’s own his-tory as a ball of fire that left the sun.She says that fire manifests in our livesinternally – through the digestive fire— as well as externally, through thedestructive forces that gives birth tothe new. In the image, a morphinggravestone at the British Cemetery inPune represents the flux foundbetween man and nature. The chula,put under the work, illustrates ourneed for food as sustenance. Throughrepresenting the slow death of chula,Shradha provokes a thought of ourown identity.

Vayu (air) draws a parallel

between wind and time. Like theearth’s planetary journey, over time thewind cooled the fiery ball to create aglobe that could give birth to lifeforms in the ideal temperature. Timehere is represented through a piece ofcloth. Looking at our own human his-tory, the photographic installationillustrates how the action of the wind

reclaims the scaffolding by coveringit with dust and other moving earthparticles.

The fourth image Jal exploreswater as an essential element; whichcovers 70 per cent of the earth’s sur-face and is fast depleting in its potableform. “The earth gives us oil and wecreate plastic from it. I try to draw

attention to the fact that it costs muchless to produce little plastic bottles,then discard or recycle them” she says.

In the image Akash, the sky holdsthe creative energy that flows withinmankind itself. This energy reflects inthe ability of mankind to create,transform as well as discard materialas an urban consuming being. “We

build and pollute this world, as theplanet remains in flux between natureand artifact,” she says. Shraddha adds:“My project is a public art thing andhence it should be an experiment.There are so many people in the pub-lic space, so my attempt was to makea work that is universal. The entireexperience which have been gonethrough for the work can’t beexpressed through words,” she says.

For her everything is a processand human beings are just a minus-cule part of it. Growing up in an agrar-ian, semi-rural environment, sheinstead of creating installations for agallery decided to use visual signifiers.

“That is what I am exploring. Acelebration - with a highly critical eye- considering the complexities of ourtimes. I am formulating a way to setup an installation that will provide anall-encompassing experience of allthese various layers of thought, sub-tleties and nuances,” she says. A sec-tion of the installation was designedin collaboration with ceramic artistRuby Jhunjhunwalla who added sup-plementary clay forms that help tietogether the concept of Benevolence.

“I like cookies. I also have at r e m e n d o u s

singing voice. Otherthan that I am perfect-ly ordinary,” beganTom Richmond,humorous illustrator,cartoonist and carica-turist. As a hugeBatman fan who evenowns his own cape andcowl, Richmond relish-es drawing BruceWayne. The award win-ning artist has manyaccolades under his beltbut is best known for hismovie and TV parodies and featurearticle illustrations. “I work for ahumour magazine that makes fun ofTV shows, movies and nearly every-body. And I believe that what is lifewithout fun (or making fun),” hewinked.

The journey however, did nothave an easy beginning. “I had to doodd jobs at a local grocery store in theneighbourhood and many jobs likethat only for a financial support. It wasnot until I completed my college thatI got paid for doing some art work.It was my summer job in a theme parkto draw caricatures and I was paid wellfor doing that,” said Tom. He furtheradded, “I went to a college of art butdid not learn anything about cartoon-ing. I learnt realistic painting and illus-trations. However, that did help meto look at art with more discipline.”

He shared that there was very lessencouragement for cartooning whenhe started. “I was told cartooning was

for losers and learning to do real art-like product illustration was the onlyway to make a living as a commercialartist. Obviously PhotoShop was notinvented then,” he said.

Tom recalled that it was comicsthat got him interested in creating artin the first place. He mostly drewBatman and it was only after StarWars that he began drawing sci-fi car-toons. “Batman was always myfavourite but I also had a number ofthe C.C. Beck Shazam, books, andother DC comics. Not too manyMarvels. My father was a manager ata grocery store, so he would bringhome comics from the old rotatingwire display stands they had in thestores,” he said. Tom recalled an inci-

dent which made hisparents believe that hewas a complete Batmanfan. “When I was three,I knocked over andblew up our familytelevision during anepisode of the oldAdman West BatmanTV show. FortunatelyI was shielded fromharm by the thickbath towel I hadpinned around myneck as a cape. I gotthe bat-paddle forthat one,” he laughed.

When about what sort of thingsdoes he hope younger Con-goers cantake away from such conventions, hesaid, “In general, I hope Con-goersreach out past their familiar favouritesand discover new comics and car-toons. They should explore the placewhich gives them a window to reachout to the comics which are equallygood as their favourite ones. There isso much out there.”

The cartoonist, who is on his firsttrip to India, believes that the vibrantculture of the country makes conven-tion like Comic Con all the more fun.“I have never been out of my coun-try doing a convention so coming toIndia is a fantastic experience. Apartfrom the lively culture, I love thefood,” he said. Tom has also createdAlfred E Neuman-Rajnikant Mashup.“I have heard about Rajnikant a lot.I got a chance to watch one of hismovies and like every Indian, I toobelieve he is fantastic,” chuckled Tom.

It all started with her dad coming upwith a brand of beer back in Englandalmost 20 years back. While growing

up she used to watch him intentlyputting little bottles of Double Dutchtogether. It was his passionate involve-ment in the production of the cult beerat every level that piqued Lisa’s curiosi-ty in the liquor business. Today she standsgrateful to him as she heads her ownbrand of liquor, I Brands Beverages. “Ofcourse all the experience came handy tome. I am what I am because of my dad.He sowed the seeds of passion in me.”

But it wasn’t the case always. Lisa wasworking with the top media companies

in the UK, including Viacom, Vivendiand Universal to name a few. It washer moving to India after her mar-riage which turned out to be thegame changer. It was then whenshe realised there’s a lack ofaccessibility to good qualityproducts of international stan-dard. “It’s not about the eliteof India, they can get what-ever they want. What aboutthe regular people? It wasunimaginable to me as towhy there was nobody cater-ing to the needs of the mass-es here. Why can’t we givethem a good quality prod-uct at an affordable pricepoint? It’s either too expen-sive or not available,” shestresses.

This realisation led toan exhaustive researchand in-depth marketanalysis with an ardentstreak to bring about a

change leading to the birthof I Brands Beverageswhich today manufactures

and distributes alcoholicbeverages in India. A startup

so to speak, the company hascome a long way under the

aegis of Lisa. She has fought toothand nail and made her pet projecta company to reckon with today.“When I started I realised that each

state is different from another. If youtake Delhi and compare it withKarnataka you will notice the changein tastes. It’s like as if you are work-

ing with two separate countries. Soone couldn’t bring a brand from

abroad and expect it to run panIndia. And I understood that it wasall about making a really cost effec-tive product in India with interna-tional quality which everybody couldafford.”

And the only way to crack intothe Indian Made Foreign Liquor(IMFL) market was to begin with thenorthern belt in the country with ablended whisky at a price segment

that’s really low. Playing it safe all theway. She took a cue from the likes ofRoyal Stag and Blenders Pride andlaunched her whisky label Granton.“We first launched in Uttarakhand as

a test market and it did work out well Imust say.” And why not when they areproviding a fine tasting blend in an attrac-tive packaging? “Indians love to flauntwhat they have and I’m giving them justthat. I’m giving a good looking productwhich you can show off at a very reason-able price,” she adds. They do have sev-eral awards to boast off in their kitty.Having won the best packaging forGranton whisky and retailing it at �250to �500 depending on the market, it’s areal steal when it comes to the value seg-ment.

It’s not just Lisa’s products in the port-folio of I Brands which have been recog-nised, she herself has been awarded mul-tiple times back to back. She is preppingfor her next and the biggest till now, themost dynamic leader in the spirits indus-try as I speak to her. “Of course it is over-whelming. After having won all thewoman entrepreneur awards, this onecomes as too far-fetched considering weare just a startup and achieving this muchis too big a thing. But the feeling is def-initely good.”

So how does she feel about breakingground in a male bastion? “It wasn’t easy,”she says. “I had journalists laughing in myface, most of them being men. Theycouldn’t believe that I was blatant aboutit. And I asked them if u want to drinksomething.. anything then why it can’t bemade by a woman? And why it can’t bemade in India with the same internation-al quality..so we have roadblocks atevery step which we need to overcome.”It wasn’t just a bunch of journos she hadto tackle, she wasn’t even taken serious-ly by the distributors. “They were notready to take my stock; I wasn’t estab-lished enough for them.”

The hard liquor market for womenin India is expected to grow at 25 per centover the next five years. But whisky wasnever seen as a woman’s drink or so theybelieve. With a few labels selling theirsweeter takes targeting the fairer segmentcan the notion be changed? “I’m unableto fathom the concept of changing theproduct for women. My whisky is greatin a hand of a man as it is in a woman’s.Both can appreciate the quality. Men andwomen don’t have different palates sowhy give them different versions.”

In hindsight Lisa feels as if she haswon a huge battle of sorts, in making aname for herself as one of the fewwomen in the Indian liquor scene as wellas raising her company to the level whereshe is being looked upon as a strategicalliance. “We started off with five casesand look at us, the demand kept onincreasing. People loved our taste, pack-aging, everything. It’s like living a dream.”She goes on, “I feel at the right place atthe right time. I have the right productsand the strategy,” We have just launchedin Andhra Pradesh, Telangana,Maharashtra and Karnataka. We hope todo great in the south as we did in thenorth. Also I’m going to hit the marketsoon with my yet another blendedwhisky,” a gleeful Lisa says.

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Star World’s fifth season of Koffee with Karan has been noth-ing short of magical with Karan Johar being the magician

who gets the most unusual set of celebs together on the Koffeecouch. And after getting Salman Khan to admit to being a“virgin” last season, you were probably thinking there is noway KJo can top that. When brothers Salman, Sohail andArbaaz take to the Koffee couch, the resulting episode willbe beyond mind-blowing and hilarious.

The enigmatic trio kick-start the #KoffeeCentury cele-bration on this Sunday’s episode with Karan adding anoth-er feature to the show’s cap as it reaches the centurial episodemark.

When asked to name the one star he thinks is clueless,Salman promptly replies ‘Katrina’. But Salman is endearing-ly candid as he professes his fondness for Katrina through-out the episode. When Karan asks Sohail to rate a list ofactresses from one to five, Salman jumps in and interruptsto say that Katrina rates the highest from Numbers 1 to 4.Not only that, he also breaks into an impromptu jig to Katrina’sSheila Ki Jawaani, shaking his hips in perfect rhythm to thesong’s steps.

In the race to be the reigning superstar in Bollywood, onewould think that competition would run rife within the indus-try. But Salman will put a lid on all such conjectures whenhe states that his competitiveness stems from a strong feel-ing of positive ambition. Not only does he support other actorswhen they do well, which spurs him to do better, he in factrecommends his friends to directors if he feels they wouldmake a good fit for a particular script. That is the true pathto success we would say.

As the stars sizzle on the couch be sure to catch the episodethis Sunday at 9 PM only on Star World.

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Manchester United won for thefirst time in 10 away games inEurope and advanced to the

Europa League knockout stage by defeat-ing Zorya Luhansk 2-0 on Thursday.

Another defeat and a Feyenoord winin the other Group A match, and Unitedwould have been eliminated.

But midfielder HenrikhMkhitaryan's first goal for United tobegin the second half ended the team'sfrustration, and Zlatan Ibrahimoviccame through at the end for his seventhgoal in his last six matches.

"The first goal was magnificent,"Ibrahimovic said on MUTV. "He camein speed and had control all the way.Then the timing to put between the legswas beautiful. He killed the game byscoring."

United was second in the group toFenerbahce, which beat Feyenoord 1-0courtesy of a Moussa Sow bicycle-kickgoal.

A group of around 200 United fansheading to the stadium were pelted withbottles and stones by local fans. Policeprevented fighting.

In another incident, some Ukrainianfans also tried to attack United sup-porters in the stadium, The AssociatedPress witnessed. This follows majortrouble two nights ago in the capital ofUkraine around the Dynamo Live-Besiktas match.

��� ���� ����3�������Southampton was eliminated in its

maiden Europa League campaign.The sides drew 0-0 in Israel and were

tied for second in Group K.Maor Buzaglo's goal in the 79th

minute made the difference for Hapoelto advance. Virgil Van Dijk's equalizerin stoppage time was not enough forSouthampton.

� ����� ���In Group G, Celta Vigo progressed

with a 2-0 win at Panathinaikos. StrikerJohn Guidetti headed in the opener fourminutes into the game, and Fabian

Orellana doubled the lead in the secondhalf from the spot.

AZ Alkmaar qualified from secondplace in Group D after beating groupwinner Zenit St. Petersburg 3-2. BenRienstra, Ridgeciano Haps, and MuamerTankovic scored for the Dutch side.Giuliano pulled one back for Zenit, andStijn Wuytens' own goal settled the score.

A 0-0 home draw with Group E win-ner Roma meant Romania's Astraadvanced with the Italian club.

Saint-Etienne came from two goalsdown to beat Anderlecht 3-2 and claim

Group C, after both had qualified.Fiorentina moved into the knockout

stage from the first place in Group J afterbeating Azerbaijan's Qarabag 2-1.

Matias Vecino's first goal of the sea-son put Fiorentina 1-0 up an hour in, andsubstitute forward Reynaldo leveled inthe 73rd. But three minutes later,Federico Chiesa netted the winner.

PAOK finished second in the groupafter a 2-0 win over Slovan Liberec.

Newcomer Osmanlispor made theround of 32 by beating Zurich 2-0 andfinishing top of Group L.

Spanish side Villarreal was alsothrough after beating Steaua 2-1, trail-ing Turkey's Osmanlispor by one point.

Group H winner Shakhtar Donetskcompleted its perfect group stage recordwith a 4-2 away victory at Braga. CaptainTaison and defender Serhiy Kryvtsov hadtwo goals each. KAA Gent advancedwith a 1-0 win at last place Konyaspor.

I����������Thirteen other clubs made the

knockout stage in the previous rounds.Four sides qualified with two matches to

spare: Four-time European Cup winnerAjax, St. Petersburg, Shakhtar Donetskand Schalke. The qualifiers after fivematches were Roma, Anderlecht,APOEL, Athletic Bilbao, Genk,Krasnodar, Olympiakos, Saint-Etienne,and Sparta Prague.

Eight other teams who played in theChampions League and finished third intheir groups secured a consolation spotin the Europa League: Besiktas,Copenhagen, Legia Warsaw, Ludogorets,Lyon, Borussia Moenchengladbach,Rostov, and Tottenham.

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Atletico de Kolkata and Mumbai City FC will lookfor the crucial early advantage as they battle for

a place in Hero Indian Super League final atRabindra Sarobar Stadium, Kolkata, on Saturday.

Past results and form will not count for anythingas the two teams square up for first-leg semi-finalbattle but neither team will want to hand over theearly advantage to the other team. Scoring first willbe the key for the teams as in eight out of 14 match-es when Mumbai have managed to score first, theyhave never lost, winning six of them.

Similarly when Atletico de Kolkata have scoredfirst, they have never lost. ATK have won just oncewhen they have conceded the lead.

"It's one more matchagainst Mumbai. We did agood job against them in theleague matches and I have theconfidence thatmy team canwin. We haveto do a greatjob in defence(to containMumbai strikers) but we also need to do a great jobto score the goals," said Atletico de Kolkata coachJose Molina.

Atletico de Kolkata's form at home has been dis-appointing as they have won just one of their sevenmatches. Their eight draws in the league stage hasalso evoked criticism but Molina promised that hisside will continue to play for a win, even when thereis a final place at stake.

"We never play for a draw. We play to win everymatch, always. We will try to win; if we cannot win,we will try to at least draw. We cannot afford to lose,"said the coach.

Mumbai City ran away with the match whenthey played in Kolkata but Molina said previousresults and form will count for nothing as the tabletoppers take on the fourth-placed team.

"May be people think Mumbai are the favouritesbecause they finished on top and we were fourthbut that doesn't matter," said Molina.

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Commonwealth Games cham-pion P Kashyap advanced to

the semifinals of the Korea OpenGrand Prix Gold badminton tour-nament after edging past Korea'sJeon Hyeok Jin in a three-gamethriller here on Friday.

Kashyap, who is on a come-back trail after recovering his fit-ness following a long injury lay-off,defeated sixth seed Jin 18-21, 21-8, 21-16 in a nearly one-hourmen's singles contest of the$120,000 event here. The LondonOlympics quarter-finalist will faceKorean top seed Son Wan Ho inthe semifinals.

Kashyap blew a 9-5 and 11-8lead at one stage to allow Jin makea comeback and draw parity at 11-11. The Korean then managed tomove ahead to a 19-14 lead. TheIndian did narrow down the gapto 18-19 but could not stop Jinfrom pocketing the opening game.

Kashyap got back his bearingin the second game as he dishedout a superlative performance tojump to a 6-1 lead early on andthen surged to 10-3 and then to 15-8. He then reeled off six straightpoints to win the second game andbounce back into the match.

In the decider, Jin changed hisgears and zoomed to a 9-3 lead butKashyap showed tremendous gritas he crafted his way back to drawlevel at 11-11 and grab a 13-11

lead.After a few tight rallies, it was

the Indian who had the last laughas he rode on a five-point burst towin the deciding game and seal theissue. Kashyap said he was happyto have beaten a player who hadreached the Australian Open SuperSeries finals earlier this year.

"He is a good player, hereached the Australian Open finals

but then he had a break as he wentfor compulsory military training.He used to be in top 20," saidKashyap. The shuttler fromHyderabad said that he decided toplay more rallies in the second andthird games and the strategyworked for him.

"I could play fast paced rallies,the conditions were suitable to me.I could play my strokes. He has got

a good defence and so I decided toplay more rallies in the second andthird game and it worked.

"Tomorrow it would be atough match. We have played a fewtimes and I have beaten him(Korea's top seed Son Wan Ho)twice, so hope to do well. I am feel-ing good about my rhythm in thisevent. I prepared well for this," saidKashyap.

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Rio Olympic gold medalistCarolina Marin set the

stage for an explosive start tothe Premier Badminton Leaguestarting next month by sayingthat she is looking forward tothe clash with Rio silver medal-list PV Sindhu.

"The final at Rio was a tightcontest. Sindhu is a goodattacking player. I look forwardto playing her again. I am sureit will be interesting," Marinsaid through a video link dur-ing a press conference inHyderabad on Friday to launchthe bigger and grander editionof the League.

The Spanish superstar whohad been picked up byHyderabad Hunters for a phe-nomenal Rs 61.5 lakh is expect-ed to face off with arguablyIndia's best player currentlywho will be representing

Chennai Smashers in the open-ing round of PBL-2.

"It's a pleasure to be asso-ciated with the PBL. It's a veryexciting tournament and wehave a very strong team in theHunters. I believe we can go allthe way and win the tourna-ment, and surely," she said. "Iam looking forward to mystay in Hyderabad. I hear thatfans in india turn up in hugenumbers. I am excited aboutthe event that awaits me," sheadded.

Sindhu brought a smile toMarin's face by not only wel-coming her to India, but also toher home to enjoy Hyderabad'smost famous dish: the biryani."I am sure she will enjoy herstint in India. I would like herto come home to relish home-made biryani," she said thatonly underlined the healthyrivalry that is brewing betweenthem.

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Legendary runner and coach,Rick Muhr, said on Friday

that cycling and running com-plement each other, adding thatit is wrong to single out one ofthe two as the better form ofendurance-building exercise.

"I personally feel cyclingand running complement eachother. I am into cycling as welland I firmly believe had it notbeen for my cycling, I would nothave been a successful runner,"said Muhr who has completed32 marathons.

When asked about his opin-ion on Indian running commu-nity, he said, "The zeal andenthusiasm among India run-ners is there for everyone to see.I met few runners in the parkthis morning and they were asdedicated as any running com-

munity in the world. With prop-er training equipments andunder the guidance of world-class coaches, they will only getbetter.

Rick is in the country these

days to launch 'Zero Runner', aone-of-its kind training solutionmeant for marathoners . Theequipment features mechanicalhip and knee joints that mimichuman biomechanics in run-ning. The independent pedalsallow runners to replicate theirnatural running gait, providingsupport throughout. Moreimportantly, this apparatus is notat all injury-inviting as it haszero impact on the body.

Rick Muhr further said onthe launch, "India is rapidlyadopting the culture of fitnessand running, people here areopen to new techniques andtraining tools to improve theirform. I am glad to be a part ofZero Runner launch in Delhi. Itwill be a great opportunity forme to share my experience andlearning as an endurance runnerand coach.

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Their campaign off to a ram-paging start, India colts

would look to carry forward themomentum when they faceEngland in their second poolmatch of the men's JuniorHockey World Cup, here onSaturday. Dubbed as one of thestrong contenders for the title, thehome team recorded a resound-ing 4-0 win over Canada intheir opening at the Major DhyanChand Astroturf stadium onThursday. Stakes are high forIndia in the tournament as theylook to end their 15-year-old titledrought as they last won theevent in 2001 in Hobart and thecolts would leave no stoneunturned to reclaim the glory.

The Indians would also beeyeing an all-win record in thepreliminary stages of the tour-

nament which will enable themto top their pool and avoid six-time champions and title holdersGermany in the quarterfinals.

A win on Saturday will vir-tually seal their place in thequarterfinals and the Indianswould be eager to raise the levelof game a notch high againstunpredictable Englishmen.

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Five-time World Champion boxerM.C. Mary Kom asserted on Friday

that she aims to return to the 48 kgweight category amid speculation that itcould be included in the Tokyo Olympicsin 2020.

The star boxer from Manipur hadwon all her world titles in women's 48kgdivision but had moved up to thewomen's 51kg category in order tocompete at the Olympics. She had takena bronze in her new weight class at the2012 London Olympics but went emptyhanded at the Rio Olympics earlier thisyear. But with the International BoxingFederation (AIBA) reportedly thinkingabout including the 48kg division in theTokyo Games, Mary is hoping to win anOlympic medal of a better hue.

"Yes, I am planning to go back to the48kg weight category. I am back as thisis my real and original weight (catego-ry) in which I am fit to," Mary said.

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India made a strong reply with the batafter off-spinner RavichandranAshwin picked up yet another five-

wicket haul as the hosts reached 146 for1 on the second day of the fourth crick-et Test against England here on Friday.

After Ashwin took two more wick-ets today to return with innings figuresof 6/112, Murali Vijay (70 batting) andCheteshwar Pujara (47 batting) led asolid Indian reply to England's firstinnings 400 all out with a 107-run standfor the unbroken second wicket to helpthe hosts take the Day 2 honours.

India, 2-0 up in the five-match Testseries, now trail England by 254 runswith nine first innings wickets in handon a Wankhede Stadium track offeringcopious turn and bounce to the spinners.

Opener Vijay rediscovered his formwith an elegant knock of 70 not out whilein-form number three Pujara continuedto torment the visitors with his impec-cable judgement with his bat in making47 not out as India closed the day withtheir nose ahead on 146 for 1 in 52 overs.

The duo's unfinished second wick-et partnership of 107 runs came from 228balls and it was their seventh 100-plusstand in Tests and second of the seriesafter the double century stand in thedrawn series opener at Rajkot.

Earlier, Indian spin twinsRavichandran Ashwin and RavindraJadeja claimed all the 10 wickets betweenthem to bowl England out for 400 in thevisitors' first innings, 22 minutes into thesecond session.

Ashwin bagged 6 for 112 with his off-spin, his 23rd five-wicket haul in his 43rdmatch, while left-arm spinner Jadejaclaimed 4 for 109 as the tourists were allout in the post-lunch session. Ashwin hasnow equalled legendary Kapil Dev'stally of 23 five-wicket hauls in Test crick-et to be behind just Anil Kumble (35) andHarbhajan Singh (25).

Opener K L Rahul (24) was outbefore Vijay and Pujara, who had put ona stand of 211 in the series opener atRajkot, came together to consolidate theinnings by negotiating the spin of MoeenAli and Adil Rashid with aplomb.

India grabbed three wickets in thefirst session after England commencedat the overnight 288 for five and then

claimed the last two wickets within sixovers after lunch.

Jos Buttler was the last man to be dis-missed for 76, the second-highest scor-er after the 112 made by debutant open-er Keaton Jennings yesterday. He wasbowled by Jadeja after he faced 137 ballsand hit six fours and one six.

Jadeja had grabbed two out of threewickets in the first session -- sendingback Chris Woakes and Adil Rashid --after Ashwin had given the first break forthe home side with the dismissal ofovernight not out Ben Stokes for 31.

Ashwin, who had four scalps in hiskitty on Thursday, added another wick-et by dismissing the tall number 10 bats-man Jake Ball (31 off 60 balls) who added54 runs with Buttler for the ninth wick-et, a very useful stand.

Indian openers Rahul and Vijaystarted confidently against the paceattack of the visitors who tried to use theshort ball to unsettle both without suc-cess. Vijay, who had got out on a fewoccasions in the series to the short ballaimed at his ribs, negotiated similarthreats with more conviction.

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The dry Wankhede Stadium pitch onwhich Indian spinners claimed all the

10 wickets in England first innings in thefourth cricket Test here, was still goodenough to bat on after two days of play, saidvisiting team batsman Joss Buttler onFriday.

"It's still a good wicket for batting. Themajority (of balls) are quite consistent (inbehaviour) barring one with extreme turn.If you put that out of your mind and play,it's still good to bat on," said Buttler at themedia conference after second day's play.

Buttler, not among the first-choice Testbatsmen for the tourists, played a crucialknock of 76 in 137 balls, the second bestscore in England's score of 400, and was thelast batsman out after putting on 54 runswith number 10 Jake Ball to frustrate thehome team bowlers.

"Firstly, very pleasing. The knock wasagainst quality bowlers in their conditions.I felt the team needs them and that's real-ly satisfying. I really enjoyed the time in themiddle and getting ourselves to what we feelis a good score on the board," he said abouthis innings.

Buttler felt that England need to bowlconsistent line and length to reap rewardsfrom the turning track when play resumestomorrow with India on 146 for 1 in 52overs with Murali Vijay (70 batting) andCheteshwar Pujara (47 batting) at thecrease.

"Two guys (Vijay and Pujara) haveplayed very well for India, but there is stilla lead of 250 (to catch up), and as you seein this part of the world the game can accel-erate when the ball is spinning. When webuild up pressure there are definitely wick-et-taking balls on that surface. We need toland the ball a bit more consistently and geta string of dot balls, that's when things seemto happen," Buttler said.

Buttler, who has been considered moreas a limited over batsman before thisseries, said he has learned to remain opti-mistic when he has not been picked forTests.

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Wicketkeeper-batsman ParthivPatel on Friday insisted that

the quality of India's bowling is "farbetter" than that of the Englandcricket team as the home teambowlers are not dependent on pitchconditions alone.

Leading 2-0 in the five matchseries, India made a strong reply withthe bat to be well placed at 146 for oneafter off-spinner RavichandranAshwin picked up yet another five-wicket haul on day two of the fourthTest here.

"More than the surface, the qual-ity of (our) bowlers is far better, ourbowlers definitely have more revolu-tion on the ball than what their spin-ners are doing and obviously wevary pace very well. We deceive a lotof players in the air, rather than justget help from the wicket. There is adefinite difference between the qual-ity for sure," he said.

Parthiv added, "That's what evenI felt in the last game also (in Mohali).The way our bowlers bowled inMohali, where there was no turn andyou could see how well they bowled inMohali when we were batting second.”

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Harshal Patel returned witha match-haul of seven

wickets to enable Haryanathrash Tripura by 119 runs andqualify for the Ranji Trophycricket quarterfinals for the firsttime since 2011-12.

Resuming on 186 for four,Haryana declared their secondinnings at 261 for nine justbefore lunch to set a target of315 runs for Tripura.

Chasing a massive target,Tripura put up yet anothersloppy batting display to bebundled out for 195, less thanhalf an hour after tea to sufferthe loss with a day to spare.

The former RoyalChallengers Bangalore mediumpacer Harshal Patel (2/33)rocked the top order in his twin

bursts from his first two overs,even as the four-seam Haryanaattack accounted for nine wick-ets, while one was a run out.

Skipper Mohit Sharma(2/50), Joginder Sharma (2/24)and Sanjay Pahal (3/47) joinedin the act to reduce them to65/7 and it seemed that theywould fold inside tea.

But the eighth wicket pairof Gurinder Singh (62) andskipper Manisankar Murasingh(60) who put on 119 runs todelay the inevitable.

Pahal dismissed Gurinderin the fourth over after tea totrigger the collapse beforeclaiming his third victim inMurasingh to bundle themout in 40.4 overs.

The 26-year-old Patel, whohad also contributed with acameo of 26 in a significant 66-

run last wicket partnershipwith Mohit Sharma (39 notout) in the first innings,returned with a match haulseven for 60 to be adjudgedman-of-the-match.

�������������� ��������Maharashtra's chanceof securing a quarter-finalberth was crushed as they werehanded a 10-wicket thrashingby Karnataka on the third dayof their Ranji Trophy Group Bmatch here.

Having taken a 182-runfirst-innings lead, Karnatakabowled out Maharashtra for218 in the second innings,which left them to chase just37 runs for victory.

Karnataka openers — RSamarth and Kaunain Abbas— achieved the target without

much fuss to secure a bonuspoint victory. This wasKarnataka's fifth win this sea-son.

Earlier, resuming on 313for nine in their first innings,Karnataka folded for 345 inreply to Maharashtra's modestfirst essay total of 163, there-by taking a huge lead.

Karnataka medium pacerDavid Mathias (3/37), originallynot picked in the playing XI butdrafted in late as a replacementfor Manish Pandey, then pickedup three crucial wickets, includ-ing that of Kedar Jadhav, whotop scored with 85 off just 59balls that included 10 fours andtwo sixes. Abhimanyu Mithun,who bowled just two deliveriesin the first innings before goingoff the field, returned to taketwo for 44.

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