16
A Government-funded IVF programme that aims to help save India’s shrinking Parsi community from extinc- tion is delivering bundles of joy and controversy. Some 120 children have been born through the “Jiyo Parsi” fertility initiative since it was launched four years ago in a bid to help reverse a dramatic decline in India’s Zoroastrian population. The programme, which provides Parsi couples with free in-vitro fertilization treatment, has been hailed a success by many in the influ- ential community. But critics say the scheme, which has also seen the launch of an advertising campaign effectively damning Parsis that are not having children, amounts to selective procre- ation and reinforces orthodox Zoroastrians views that Parsis should only have children with each other. For Aspi and Persis Kamakhan — from Mumbai, where most of India’s 57,000- odd Parsis live — it represent- ed a unique opportunity to have a child after trying to con- ceive for twelve years. “We had lost all hope but Jiyo Parsi was a big blessing and completely changed our lives,” 38-year-old Persis, now mother to a 3-year-old girl, told AFP. Parsis are Zoroastrians who first arrived in India more than 1,000 years ago after flee- ing persecution in Persia. They follow the teachings of the ancient Prophet Zoroaster and worship in fire temples. The group flourished under British colonial rule and became one of India’s wealthiest and most powerful communities, boast- ing a number of famous indus- trialists including the Tata, Wadia and Godrej families. But their population has been dwindling for decades. Across India, where the major- ity of the world’s Zoroastrians reside, their numbers have halved since 1940. At the last census, in 2011, 57,264 Parsis were recorded in India. T he Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to submit all evidence and findings against a retired High Court judge and a hawala operator, who allegedly received a bribe of Rs 2 crore to swing a case in the Supreme Court in favour of a medical college debarred from admit- ting students for the next two years. The move came on a peti- tion filed by advocate Kamini Jaiswal. She had claimed that ever since the CBI registered a case on September 19, 2017 leading to the arrest of the for- mer judge, a woman alleged to be a tout, a hawala operator from Odisha who promised to swing the deal, and managers of the medical college, these named accused were out on bail and hardly anything was being done to unearth the truth behind such a serious allegation compromising with the integrity and independence of the judiciary. Senior advocate Dushyant Dave, who appeared for Jaiswal before a Bench of Justices J Chelameswar and S Abdul Nazeer, said, “My concern is, has the CBI filed a false case to discredit this institution or is there something more to be unearthed? Looking at it either way, this case requires a thor- ough investigation by a special investigation team headed by a retired Chief Justice of India. This case cannot be handled by CBI and it should be monitored by the court.” The Bench termed the alle- gations as “disturbing”. However, before the Bench could further hear the case, a note arrived from the Registry of the Supreme Court inform- ing about a decision taken by Chief Justice of India to place the said matter before a five- judge Bench comprising the top five judges of the Supreme Court in the order of seniori- ty. To pass this order, the CJI got up midway from a hearing by the Constitution bench on the Centre versus AAP matter at 12 pm. Subsequently, the two- judge Bench placed the matter before the five-judge Bench on Monday and directed the CBI to “produce the entire materi- al collected by it in the course of investigation of the crime” in a sealed cover. What was disturbing in the entire sequence of events was the prayer made by Dave and Jaiswal that the CJI should not hear the matter as the order in favour of the medical college in question was passed by him. A “pollution emergency” prevailed in Delhi for the third consecutive day on Thursday as a toxic cloud of smog kept the city shrouded. “The air is already satu- rated with pollutants and there is hardly any dispersion. In a situation like this, whatever is getting added is cumulatively adding up to the prevailing lev- els thus keeping pollution in the emergency category,” the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) member secre- tary said A Sudhakar, adding that north-westerly winds were still blowing over the Capital, bringing smoke-laden air to the city. The “emergency” or “severe-plus” situation arises after the major pollutants — PM2.5 and PM10, or particles in air with diameter less than 2.5 and 10 mm, remain above 300 and 500 units, respective- ly, for at least 48 hours. The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) on Thursday said both PM2.5 and PM10 had been beyond the “safe limits” for the past 52 hours or since 7 am on Tuesday, November 7. On Thursday (since Wednesday evening), all the 10 monitoring stations of the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (Safar) recorded “beyond severe” or 500-plus units of PM10 and PM2.5. As per SAFAR, the average PM2.5 was 546 units and PM10 was 895. According to the CPCB, at 5 pm, the average PM2.5 read- ing on the Air Quality Index (AQI) in Delhi-NCR across 20 active stations (including Alwar in Rajasthan) was 478 units (on a scale of 0 to 500). The safe limit for PM2.5 and PM10 as per internation- al standards is 25 and 60 microgrammes per cubic meters, while as per national standards it is 40 and 100 units, respectively. According to SAFAR, both PM2.5 and PM10 are expect- ed to be “severe-plus” on Friday as well. The CPCB data, showed the average Air Quality Index (AQI) of Delhi at 491 — close to “severe-plus”, while the average PM2.5 of 13 active monitoring stations was 490 units by 10 am. The apex pollution regula- tor recorded an Air Quality Index (AQI) of 486 on a scale of 500 for the day in the nation- al capital. AQI of neighbouring Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Noida and Gurugram were also in the emergency category. W ith dangerous ‘pea soup fog’ engulfing the entire national Capital in a vice-like grip, the Delhi Government on Thursday announced to roll out Odd-Even Scheme from November 13 to 17 as an emer- gency measure. Odd-Even is part of the Graded Response Plan (GRAP) to tackle city’s highly noxious air. However, according to the members of the Supreme Court-appointed Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA), November 13 is too late as the “emergency or severe- plus” category under GRAP calls for immediate imple- mentation of the odd-even car rationing scheme. “Air pollution in Delhi has crossed the severe level. That’s why we are bringing back the odd-even scheme,” said Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot, adding that modalities of the road rationing scheme are the same as before with similar timings and exemp- tions. “We don’t have a lot of time left to design the whole pro- gramme, hence we are going with the rules that were imposed in the previous two phases,” he said. It would be pertinent to mention that EPCA and the Lieutenant Governor on Wednesday instructed the Delhi Government to stay pre- pared to roll out the odd-even car rationing scheme in view of alarming air pollution levels. R eeling under intense blan- ket of highly dangerous smog, Delhiites are likely to get some respite from Friday with wind blowing across the city. According to the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) and private weather forecasting agency Skymet, the wind speed is less — five to 10 kmph, but this is enough to bring effluents and not dis- perse them due to its low speed. “There would be a slight variation in the air quality on Friday. The winds, which were for now only westerly have changed into north-westerly coming from Punjab,” Charan Singh, the head of IMD fore- cast said on Thursday. However, the weatherman cautioned that people may have to wait a bit longer for some relief from the noxious Delhi air. Forecasting some relief for Delhi-NCR from November 14 onwards, the IMD) said rain in parts of Haryana, western Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab would help disperse the efflu- ents, thereby normalising the air quality in Delhi. C hina on Thursday said President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Donald Trump have reached a consensus on fighting terrorism and uphold- ing peace and stability in South Asia, amid America ramping up pressure on Pakistan to dis- mantle terror safe havens. During their talks here, Xi and Trump discussed Afghanistan and committed to working toward a peaceful future for the terrorist haven. But the agreement seems opportunistic considering the fact that China has been vetoing UN efforts to declared Pakistan- based JeM chief Masood Azhar as global terrorist, despite America’s verbal support to the UN bid. “This morning, the two Presidents talked and held joint Press meeting. I am not aware of the details of the talks. What I know is that the two sides also discussed anti- terrorism issues and upholding peace and stability in South Asia,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told a media briefing. Shimla: Himachal Pradesh on Thursday recorded a voter turnout of 74 per cent, one of the highest in the State where the BJP is seeking to dislodge the Virbhadra Singh-led Congress Government on the issue of corruption while deflecting attacks by rivals on demonetisa- tion and GST. Sixty sitting MLAs were among the 337 candidates fighting for a seat in the 68- member Legislative Assembly, one of few States under Congress rule. The results along with those of the BJP-ruled Gujarat will test the popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. As many as 7,525 polling booths were set up and 37,605 person- nel deputed for poll duty in the State, which has a total of 50,25,941 voters. Voting for the Assembly, which started at 8 am, came to an end at 5 pm, but con- tinued in some booths were people were still waiting to cast their votes. A total of 17,850 per- sonnel of police and Home Guards and 65 companies of central paramilitary force had also been deployed. To ensure free and fair polls, other officials, including 29 general, three police and 22 expenditure observers as well as 1,561 micro observers were believed to have been deployed across the state. The 12- day high-voltage campaign, which ended on Tuesday, saw over 450 rallies by star cam- paigners of the BJP and the Congress. PM Modi addressed seven rallies and BJP president Amit Shah, six. Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi addressed three rallies. At pre- sent, the Congress has 35 and the BJP 28 MLAs in the House. There are four independents while one seat is vacant. PNS

0/10˚23 ˚- 1 ˇ˜˚ˆ !˚#$ ˚ˆ%!&’˙˜’( nel deputed for poll duty in the State, which has a total of 50,25,941 voters. ... well as 1,561 micro observers were believed to have

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AGovernment-funded IVFprogramme that aims to

help save India’s shrinkingParsi community from extinc-tion is delivering bundles of joyand controversy.

Some 120 children havebeen born through the “JiyoParsi” fertility initiative since itwas launched four years ago ina bid to help reverse a dramaticdecline in India’s Zoroastrianpopulation. The programme,which provides Parsi coupleswith free in-vitro fertilizationtreatment, has been hailed asuccess by many in the influ-ential community.

But critics say the scheme,which has also seen the launch

of an advertising campaigneffectively damning Parsis thatare not having children,amounts to selective procre-ation and reinforces orthodoxZoroastrians views that Parsisshould only have children witheach other.

For Aspi and PersisKamakhan — from Mumbai,where most of India’s 57,000-odd Parsis live — it represent-ed a unique opportunity to

have a child after trying to con-ceive for twelve years.

“We had lost all hope butJiyo Parsi was a big blessingand completely changed ourlives,” 38-year-old Persis, nowmother to a 3-year-old girl,told AFP.

Parsis are Zoroastrianswho first arrived in India morethan 1,000 years ago after flee-ing persecution in Persia. Theyfollow the teachings of theancient Prophet Zoroaster andworship in fire temples. Thegroup flourished under Britishcolonial rule and became oneof India’s wealthiest and mostpowerful communities, boast-ing a number of famous indus-trialists including the Tata,Wadia and Godrej families.

But their population hasbeen dwindling for decades.Across India, where the major-ity of the world’s Zoroastrians

reside, their numbers havehalved since 1940. At the lastcensus, in 2011, 57,264 Parsiswere recorded in India.

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The Supreme Court onThursday directed the

Central Bureau of Investigation(CBI) to submit all evidenceand findings against a retiredHigh Court judge and a hawalaoperator, who allegedlyreceived a bribe of Rs 2 croreto swing a case in the SupremeCourt in favour of a medicalcollege debarred from admit-ting students for the next twoyears.

The move came on a peti-tion filed by advocate KaminiJaiswal. She had claimed thatever since the CBI registered acase on September 19, 2017leading to the arrest of the for-mer judge, a woman alleged tobe a tout, a hawala operatorfrom Odisha who promised toswing the deal, and managersof the medical college, thesenamed accused were out onbail and hardly anything wasbeing done to unearth thetruth behind such a serious allegation compromising withthe integrity and independenceof the judiciary.

Senior advocate DushyantDave, who appeared for Jaiswalbefore a Bench of Justices JChelameswar and S Abdul

Nazeer, said, “My concern is,has the CBI filed a false case todiscredit this institution or isthere something more to beunearthed? Looking at it eitherway, this case requires a thor-ough investigation by a specialinvestigation team headed by aretired Chief Justice of India.This case cannot be handled byCBI and it should be monitoredby the court.”

The Bench termed the alle-

gations as “disturbing”.However, before the Benchcould further hear the case, anote arrived from the Registryof the Supreme Court inform-ing about a decision taken byChief Justice of India to placethe said matter before a five-judge Bench comprising thetop five judges of the SupremeCourt in the order of seniori-ty. To pass this order, the CJIgot up midway from a hearing by the Constitutionbench on the Centre versusAAP matter at 12 pm.

Subsequently, the two-judge Bench placed the matterbefore the five-judge Bench onMonday and directed the CBIto “produce the entire materi-al collected by it in the courseof investigation of the crime” ina sealed cover.

What was disturbing inthe entire sequence of eventswas the prayer made by Daveand Jaiswal that the CJI shouldnot hear the matter as theorder in favour of the medicalcollege in question was passedby him.

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A“pollution emergency”prevailed in Delhi for the

third consecutive day onThursday as a toxic cloud ofsmog kept the city shrouded.

“The air is already satu-rated with pollutants and thereis hardly any dispersion. In asituation like this, whatever isgetting added is cumulativelyadding up to the prevailing lev-els thus keeping pollution inthe emergency category,” theCentral Pollution ControlBoard (CPCB) member secre-tary said A Sudhakar, addingthat north-westerly winds werestill blowing over the Capital,bringing smoke-laden air tothe city.

The “emergency” or“severe-plus” situation arisesafter the major pollutants —PM2.5 and PM10, or particlesin air with diameter less than2.5 and 10 mm, remain above300 and 500 units, respective-ly, for at least 48 hours.

The Central PollutionControl Board (CPCB) onThursday said both PM2.5and PM10 had been beyondthe “safe limits” for the past 52hours or since 7 am onTuesday, November 7.

On Thursday (sinceWednesday evening), all the 10monitoring stations of theSystem of Air Quality andWeather Forecasting andResearch (Safar) recorded“beyond severe” or 500-plusunits of PM10 and PM2.5. As per SAFAR, the averagePM2.5 was 546 units andPM10 was 895.

According to the CPCB, at5 pm, the average PM2.5 read-ing on the Air Quality Index(AQI) in Delhi-NCR across 20active stations (includingAlwar in Rajasthan) was 478units (on a scale of 0 to 500).

The safe limit for PM2.5and PM10 as per internation-al standards is 25 and 60microgrammes per cubicmeters, while as per nationalstandards it is 40 and 100units, respectively.

According to SAFAR, bothPM2.5 and PM10 are expect-ed to be “severe-plus” onFriday as well. The CPCB data,showed the average Air QualityIndex (AQI) of Delhi at 491 — close to “severe-plus”, while theaverage PM2.5 of 13 activemonitoring stations was 490units by 10 am.

The apex pollution regula-tor recorded an Air QualityIndex (AQI) of 486 on a scaleof 500 for the day in the nation-al capital. AQI of neighbouringFaridabad, Ghaziabad, Noidaand Gurugram were also in theemergency category.

������������ ���� ��������������� ���� �������� �������� ��� �� ����

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With dangerous ‘pea soupfog’ engulfing the entire

national Capital in a vice-likegrip, the Delhi Government onThursday announced to rollout Odd-Even Scheme fromNovember 13 to 17 as an emer-gency measure. Odd-Even ispart of the Graded ResponsePlan (GRAP) to tackle city’shighly noxious air.

However, according to themembers of the SupremeCourt-appointed EnvironmentPollution (Prevention andControl) Authority (EPCA),November 13 is too late as the “emergency or severe-plus” category under GRAPcalls for immediate imple-mentation of the odd-even carrationing scheme.

“Air pollution in Delhi hascrossed the severe level. That’swhy we are bringing back theodd-even scheme,” said DelhiTransport Minister KailashGahlot, adding that modalities

of the road rationing schemeare the same as before withsimilar timings and exemp-tions.

“We don’t have a lot of timeleft to design the whole pro-gramme, hence we are goingwith the rules that wereimposed in the previous twophases,” he said.

It would be pertinent tomention that EPCA and theLieutenant Governor onWednesday instructed theDelhi Government to stay pre-pared to roll out the odd-evencar rationing scheme in view ofalarming air pollution levels.

�������������������������������������� ������ ��

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Reeling under intense blan-ket of highly dangerous

smog, Delhiites are likely to getsome respite from Friday withwind blowing across the city.

According to the IndianMeteorological Department(IMD) and private weatherforecasting agency Skymet,the wind speed is less — fiveto 10 kmph, but this is enoughto bring effluents and not dis-perse them due to its lowspeed.

“There would be a slightvariation in the air quality onFriday. The winds, which were

for now only westerly havechanged into north-westerlycoming from Punjab,” CharanSingh, the head of IMD fore-cast said on Thursday.

However, the weathermancautioned that people mayhave to wait a bit longer forsome relief from the noxiousDelhi air.

Forecasting some relieffor Delhi-NCR fromNovember 14 onwards, theIMD) said rain in parts ofHaryana, western Rajasthan,Uttar Pradesh and Punjabwould help disperse the efflu-ents, thereby normalising theair quality in Delhi.

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China on Thursday saidPresident Xi Jinping and his

US counterpart Donald Trumphave reached a consensus onfighting terrorism and uphold-ing peace and stability in SouthAsia, amid America ramping uppressure on Pakistan to dis-mantle terror safe havens.

During their talks here, Xiand Trump discussedAfghanistan and committed to

working toward a peaceful futurefor the terrorist haven.

But the agreement seemsopportunistic considering thefact that China has been vetoingUN efforts to declared Pakistan-based JeM chief Masood Azharas global terrorist, despiteAmerica’s verbal support to theUN bid. “This morning, the twoPresidents talked and held jointPress meeting. I am not aware ofthe details of the talks. What Iknow is that the two sides alsodiscussed anti- terrorism issuesand upholding peace and stability in South Asia,”Chinese Foreign Ministryspokesperson Hua Chunyingtold a media briefing.

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Shimla: Himachal Pradesh onThursday recorded a voterturnout of 74 per cent, one of thehighest in the State where the BJPis seeking to dislodge theVirbhadra Singh-led CongressGovernment on the issue ofcorruption while deflectingattacks by rivals on demonetisa-tion and GST. Sixty sitting MLAswere among the 337 candidatesfighting for a seat in the 68-member Legislative Assembly,one of few States under Congressrule. The results along withthose of the BJP-ruled Gujaratwill test the popularity of Prime

Minister Narendra Modi. Asmany as 7,525 polling boothswere set up and 37,605 person-nel deputed for poll duty in theState, which has a total of50,25,941 voters. Voting for theAssembly, which started at 8 am,came to an end at 5 pm, but con-tinued in some booths werepeople were still waiting to casttheir votes. A total of 17,850 per-sonnel of police and HomeGuards and 65 companies ofcentral paramilitary force hadalso been deployed. To ensurefree and fair polls, other officials,including 29 general, three police

and 22 expenditure observers aswell as 1,561 micro observerswere believed to have beendeployed across the state. The 12-day high-voltage campaign,which ended on Tuesday, sawover 450 rallies by star cam-paigners of the BJP and theCongress. PM Modi addressedseven rallies and BJP presidentAmit Shah, six. Congress vicepresident Rahul Gandhiaddressed three rallies. At pre-sent, the Congress has 35 and theBJP 28 MLAs in the House.There are four independentswhile one seat is vacant. PNS

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The Punjab and HaryanaHigh Court on Thursday

reserved its judgment on aplea filed by AAP MLA andLeader of Opposition in thePunjab Assembly SukhpalSingh Khaira challenging thesummons issued to him by aFazilka court in a drug case.

The single-judge bench ofJustice A B Chaudhari heardthe arguments of the petition-er and the state Governmentcounsel.

"The HC has reservedjudgment in the matter,"Khaira's counsel MehtabKhaira told reporters after thecourt hearing.

During the last hearing, thehigh court had stayed the non-bailable warrant issued by theFazilka court against Khaira ina drug case. Khaira had movedthe high court on November 3against the Fazilka courts order.

In his petition, Khaira hassaid that an attempt was beingmade to make him an accusedwith a purpose to tarnish hisreputation.

He stated that when thetrial court had already con-cluded the case and accused

had been convicted, how couldhe be summoned now.

The Fazilka court onOctober 31 had issued sum-mons to Khaira for November30 under section 319 of the

CrPC (power to proceedagainst other persons appear-ing to be guilty of offence) fol-lowing an application fromthe prosecution.

The court had sentenced

nine persons to imprison-ment in a trans-borderheroin smuggling racketw h i ch h a d s u r f a c e d i n2015.Such cheap tacticswould not help his cause.

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China has evinced keeninterest in investing in

Haryana in the fields of indus-trial infrastructure, steel indus-try, electronic and automobileprojects.

A delegation from HubeiProvince of China, led by theVice-Governor, WangXiaodong called on the ChiefMinister Manohar Lal in NewDelhi on Thursday.

Lauding the StateGovernment for its achieve-ment in the ease of doing busi-ness in which Haryana reachedsecond place, Xiaodong saidHaryana had emerged as one ofthe most preferred investmentdestinations for them in India.

Chinese entrepreneurs,

especially from Hubei, are get-ting more opportunities withthe change of policies for theflourishing industrial andinvestment sector in Haryana,said he.

The Chief Minister told thedelegation that the StateGovernment had implementedvarious new provisions withregard to the industrial policyto attract foreign investment inthe state.

Principal ResidentCommissioner, New Delhi,Anand Mohan Sharan,Managing Director HSIIDCRaj Shekhar Vundru,Chairman Foreign Investmentand NRI Cell Ashwin Johar,members of the Chinese dele-gation among others were alsopresent at the meeting.

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Punjab Vigilance Bureau’schief director BK Uppal on

Thursday held a meeting withState Chief Secretary Karan Av-tar Singh to brief him about thestatus of important cases beingprobed by the Bureau, includinginfamous irrigation scam.

During the meeting, alsoattended by VB director andAIG, Uppal has given detailedpresentation on the investigation

of irrigation scam case registeredagainst one contractor GurinderSingh and the state IrrigationDepartment’s engineers.

Uppal also apprised theChief Secretary about theorders passed by the Punjaband Haryana High Courtregarding the interim bailsgranted and the details of argu-ments advanced by AdvocateGeneral on the anticipatory bailpetitions filed by the accusedpersons in the court.

Spokesperson alsoinformed that Vigilance Chiefalso apprised the CS about var-ious programmes includingthe seminars, rallies, radiotalks, painting competitionsin schools, interaction with

panchayats, NGOs and otherpersons in villages, offices andedu institutes and distribu-tion of pamphlets and litera-ture during VigilanceAwareness Week – 2017.

He also discussed theadministrative matters withKaran Avtar Singh includingacute shortage of manpower inBureau, release of pending billsin treasury and progress ofconstruction of VigilanceBureau building at SAS Nagar.

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Lashing out at the AamAadmi Party (AAP) leader

Sukhpal Khaira, the ShiromaniAkali Dal (SAD) on Thursdaysaid that it was shameful thata drug accused was invitingCongress legislators to join hisparty to stake claim to form thenext Government.

“It is shameful that a drugaccused, who is facing gravecharges of being the kingpin ofan international drug racketwith Pakistani connections, isinviting Congress legislators tojoin his party to stake claim toform the next government,”said the former Akali MinistersMaheshinder Singh Grewal andSikander Singh Maluka, in ajoint statement.

They said: “What is evenmore shocking is that the sameperson, Sukhpal Khaira, is invit-ing Congress MLAs to join AAPunder his leadership when a largesection of AAP legislature partyhad demanded his resignation asthe Leader of Opposition.”

Terming Khaira’s “latestgimmick” as another vulgarattempt to divert attention fromthe grave charges levelledagainst him, the Akali leadersasked Khaira to explain why hearm-twisted the AAP highcommand to force AAP MLAsin Punjab to support him aftera virtual revolt in the party.

“The AAP high commandhas averted a split in the Punjabunit even though some AAPMLAs are still opposed toKhaira and refused to attend a

party meeting held to drum upsupport for him. This shows thatKhaira has some control over theAAP high command,” they said.

SAD has even asked AAPnational convenor and DelhiChief Minister Arvind Kejriwalto come clean, but he hasrefused to do so indicating hemight also be compromised byKhaira.

Pointing that there was noother reason for Kejriwal toshelter Khaira, they said that itwas obvious that Kejriwal fearshis name could be disclosed asa direct beneficiary of the drugmoney which has been shownreceived as election fund.

Asking Khaira to firstearn the support of AAP leg-islature party, Grewal andMaluka said that

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Punjab Vigilance Bureau hasnabbed 12 officials, includ-

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ing eight police personnel, red-handed accepting bribes in 10different trap cases in themonth of October.

Bureau has put up its bestefforts to stamp out corruptionamongst public servants andothers in every sphere, said thespokesperson adding that in thisdirection, the Vigilance officershave ensured that suspect didnot escape judicial punishmentin the various courts in the State.Spokesperson informed thatthe Bureau had submitted chal-lans of seven vigilance cases invarious special courts in themonth of October. Apart fromthis, 12 vigilance enquires havealso been registered to probeinto the allegations against pub-lic servants.

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Punjab Chief Minister CaptAmarinder Singh on

Thursday urged PrimeMinister Narendra Modi toconvene a meeting of the ChiefMinisters of the affected Statesalong with the Union Ministersfor Agriculture, Food andEnvironment to resolve themounting pollution levels inthe northern States.

Besides, Capt Amarinderhas once again written to thePrime Minister seeking com-pensation for the farmers formanaging their crop residue tocheck the dangerous trend ofstubble burning.

Reiterating his request, asraised earlier on July 5, 2017,the Chief Minister has soughtModi’s intervention for arrest-ing the problem of paddy strawburning by providing a bonusof �100 per quintal as incentiveto compensate the farmers tomanage the crop residue sci-entifically.

Capt Amarinder pointedout that most of north India,including the national capitalNew Delhi, is currently in thethroes of a pollution crisis,induced largely by burning ofpaddy straw in the paddy-growing areas of Punjab,Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.

The higher courts of thecountry and the NationalGreen Tribunal have also takencognizance of the matter, hefurther observed.

However, what is probablynot being understood in prop-er perspective is that a problemwhich is essentially scientificand economic cannot be tack-led through other means,including coercion, said theChief Minister.

Scientific management anddisposal of paddy straw entailssignificant cost for the farmerand he naturally prefers thecheaper and easy solution ofburning the crop residue, saidCapt Amarinder, adding thatthere are, at present, no tech-nical or biological systems formanaging this farm operationthat are economically attractiveto the farmer.

He called upon the PrimeMinister to get the matterexamined on priority andannounce a compensation ofcost management of cropresidue at the rate of �100 perquintal on wheat, above mini-mum support price (MSP),and later for paddy to incen-tivise farmers not to burn theircrop residue.

This could be released byway of Direct Benefit Transferto farmers after due verifica-tion, he said, expressing hopethat the Prime Minister wouldaccede to this reasonable andpracticable suggestion, giventhe large economic and envi-ronmental benefits that willaccrue to the nation from thispositive policy intervention.

JOINT EFFORTS NEED-ED, SAYS KHATTAR

Haryana Chief MinisterManohar Lal Khattar onThursday said that joint effortsby all concerned Governmentsneed to be taken to deal withthe problem of smog.

Whenever required, we areready to hold a joint discussionwith the Centre and Punjab todiscuss the issue, said the ChiefMinister while talking to themediapersons on Thursday.

He said that the StateGovernment is concerned

about the problem of pollutionin the national capital region.The Government has takenconcrete steps to deal with thesudden increase in pollution inthe NCR, he added.

Khattar said that hisGovernment is keeping a closewatch on the cases of stubbleburning and had also finedfarmers for following this prac-tice despite a ban.

Former Chief MinisterBhupinder Singh Hooda hasalso called for joint efforts bythe concerned StateGovernments and the Centreto tackle the problem of smog.

Expressing concern overthe situation in the NCR due tosmog, Hooda, while talking tothe mediapersons here, saidthat necessary steps should betaken to deal with the problem.

On the issue of farmersburning the crop residue,Hooda said that farmers do nothave any alternative and thus,burn stubble. The Governmentshould make arrangements forthe farmers so that the practiceof stubble burning could bestopped, said he.

Over the past few days,there has been a suddenincrease in the air pollution inHaryana and neighboringStates.

HARYANA WANTSMNREGA LABOUR FORDISPOSAL OF PADDYSTRAW

Haryana AgricultureMinister Om Prakash Dhankarhas requested the CentralGovernment to allow utilisa-tion of labour under theMNREGA for disposal ofpaddy straw for a period of onemonth.

He has written a demi-offi-cial letter to Agriculture andFarmers Welfare MinisterRadha Mohan Singh andMinister of Rural Developmentand Panchayti Raj NarenderSingh Tomar in this regard.

Dhankar said after gettingthe residue collected at an ear-marked place in a village, thesarpanches may dispose of thematerial by supplying it toindustrialists, power makingsmall plants and brick kilns.

The farmersshould be provid-ed an incentive atthe time of purchaseof paddy for the managementof paddy straw, said theMinister.

He also requested theCentre to allow utilisation oflabour under the MNREGAscheme for disposal of paddystraw for a period of one monthduring the peak season ofpaddy procurement.

The State Government isconcerned about the problemof smog in Delhi due to burn-ing of paddy crop residue. InHaryana, all possible steps arebeing taken to stop farmersfrom burning paddy straw,said Dhankar.

He said that a subsidy of�75 crore for disposal of theresidue, with an additionalsubsidy of �10 crore for pur-chase of implements have beenprovided for paddy straw man-agement.

A large area measuringabout 12.85 lakh hectare isunder paddy cultivation in theState, he added.

Notably, thick smog, main-ly caused by stubble burning,has enveloped parts of Punjaband Haryana over the past fewdays affecting normal life.

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Deadly fog continues toengulf Punjab with two

more accident death report-ed from the State onThursday.

While one person diedand 12 others got injuredwhen a potato-laden truckcollided with a bus at railwaycrossing near Jalandhar,another 22-year old girl wascrushed under wheels of atractor in Faridkot due todense fog.

The incident took placenear the Viditpur Gate onAmritsar road during themorning hours. A speedingbus rolls into a truck full ofpotatoes leading to death oftruck cleaner. The injuredhave been admitted to near-by hospitals.

Police claimed that thebus driver could not see thetruck in the fog and the bushit the truck. The bus wascoming from West Bengaland going to Amritsar.

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While people are affecteddue to ‘hazardous’ con-

ditions with a thick grey smogenveloping the region, thepoliticians seems to haveturned a blind eye to the severeproblem.

In the ongoing politicalslugfest between

Delhi, Haryanaand Punjab

Governments overthe problem of smog, Haryanasenior Minister Anil Vij onThursday went onto demand-ing that Arvind Kejriwal ledDelhi Government should givegrants to the farmers ofHaryana for not burningstubble.

Anil Vij, who himself is aHealth Minister of Haryana,appeared nonchalant about theserious risks of smog.

Notably, a public healthemergency has been declaredby doctors in Delhi as air qual-ity in the national capital hasplunged to severe category.Delhi’s toxic air has been linkedto allergies, respiratory condi-tions, birth malformationsamong other health problems.

“To avoid smog, KejriwalGovernment should pay grantto the farmers of Haryana tostop stubble burning. The riceproduced by farmers ofHaryana are consumed byDelhi also,” said Anil Vij in atweet.

The Minister, while talkingto the mediapersons said thatthe farmers need equipment forprocessing paddy stubble.Delhi Government, which is

also a stakeholder in solvingthis problem, should help. They(Delhi Government) have nodearth of funds, he added.

Vij’s statement came a dayafter Delhi CM ArvindKejriwal sought a meeting withcounterparts in Haryana andPunjab to discuss ways to tack-le the alarming air pollutionlevels in Delhi.

Lashing out at Kejriwal,Anil Vij had earlier said thatblaming others for the problemwill not help anyone. They(Delhi Government) have ahabit of putting blame on oth-ers for their own shortcomingsand failures. The stubble burn-ing in Punjab and Haryanacannot be fully blamed for theproblem of air pollution inDelhi, Vij had said.

Hitting back at Vij, AamAadmi Party’s Haryana incharge,Naveen Jaihind has said thatthere is BJP Government at theCentre and in Haryana. But ifyou still cannot give grant to thefarmers even in Haryana, thenresign from the immediateauthority, compensation will begiven by the KejriwalGovernment, said he.

Even as the residents ofDelhi and neighboring States,continue to suffer due to thicksmog, the political leaders arebusy in blame game and polit-ical one-upmanship.

Over the past few days, thedense smog caused by alarm-ing levels of air pollution hasthrown normal life out of gear,affecting road, rail and air traf-fic across the region.

The smog even caused fatalaccidents at some places inHaryana and nearby areas. Atmany places, traffic on themain roads and highwaysmoved slowly as visibility waslow in the mornings.

The Indian MedicalAssociation has stated that thecountry’s capital is suffering ahealth emergency and calledfor an upcoming half-marathon to be cancelled toavoid “disastrous health con-sequences”.

While HaryanaGovernment had imposed aban on burning of paddyresidue, the farmers have con-tinued with the practice, lead-ing to health risks, causingdamage to environment.

After the onset of harvest-ing season, more than 1000farmers have been identifiedfor burning stubble across theState. While FIR has been filedagainst over 227 farmers incases caught by the PollutionControl Board, more than 450farmers were charged a fine ofover �12 lakh in Haryana.

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Haryana Chief MinisterManohar Lal on Thursday

said that in order to promoteAyuveda in the State, AyurvedicAIIMS would be set up over 20acres of land in Panchkula.

Besides, Shri KrishnaAyurvedic College,Kurukshetra, has been upgrad-ed to the level of university, anda Government Unani MedicalCollege and Hospital has beenestablished in Nuh, said theChief Minister while speakingafter laying the foundation

stone of Lala Khem ChandCharti Lal Goel GovernmentAyurvedic Dispensary to beestablished in the ancestralshop of the Union Minister ofState, Vijay Goel, in Jharoth vil-lage of Sonipat district.

Manohar Lal said thatAyurveda can be called the fifthVeda as this system of medicinecompletely cures diseases. Thestate government is workinghard to promote AYUSH as wellas allopathy, Unani and naturalsystems of medicine, he said.

A 120-bedded hospital andNational Research Institute of

Unani would be set up inFaridabad, he added.

The Chief Minister said theState Government has plannedto give AYUSH a big push in theState. At present, three Ayurvedichospitals, 19 Homeopathic and458 Ayurvedic dispensaries arealready functioning across theState.

Fulfilling the demands ofboth panchayats of villagesAnandpur and Jharoth, heannounced to give �2 crore andassured the people that therewould be no dearth of funds forthe development of Sonipat.

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The country’s acclaimed firstvoter Shyam Saran Negi

exercised his franchise at Kalpapolling station at around 11 amon Thursday with the ElectionCommission rolling out a redcarpet for the centurion Negi,who apparently also polled inthe first General Elections ofindependent India.

Deputy CommissionerKinnuar, Naresh Kumar Lathfelicitated Negi with tradition-al Tamka weaved Kinnaur cap.Earlier, Negi was escorted fromhis home to the polling stationby Sports Officer Ganga LalNegi in a special vehicle.

Later he was escorted tothe EVM machine by TriptaLath, wife of the DeputyCommissioner.

People standing in thepolling station cheered himwhen he raised his blue inkedindex finger in the air in frontof media persons and in pres-

ence of DC Kinnuar. Negi hadturned up 100 years on July 1this year. Election Commissionhad included Negi in the list ofstate icons to inspire the voters.

As per the information,Negi has used his electoralfranchise for the 29th time inthe history of democratic India.He is said to have not missedcasting his vote ever in the his-tory of Himachal Pradesh.

Negi was declared first voter

of the country by former ChiefElection Commissioner NaveenChawla before 2009 GeneralElection. Negi had been castinghis vote at Chini village (oldname of Kalpa) since 1951.

The Kinnuar is reservedtribal constituency of Statewhere 35 per cent turn out wasrecorded till 12:00 hours. Negiretired as teacher and he is nowliving with his grandson atKalpa village.

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Once again recording a jumpin polling, Himachal

Pradesh on Thursday registeredan impressive around 74 per centpolling. After witnessing a hec-tic poll campaign, the Stateremained peaceful on the pollingday and the voters turned out inabundance to elect the futurepolicy makers for the State.

Polling started on a surpris-ingly quick pace on Thursdayand more than 54 percent vot-ers had cast their polls by 2 pm,though the the polling processslowed down a little after 2 pmbut as the voting continued atsome polling stations till 6 pm,the final turn out of the voterscame up to 74 percent in theevening.

Though the polling per-centage could not cross themaximum record of the state,which was made in 2003Assembly polls when HimachalPradesh recorded 74.51 percentpolling yet a gain of around 10percent was recorded over thepolling percentage recorded in2014 Parliamentary Elections.

Talking of Assembly polls, in

the last five Assembly elections inHimachal Pradesh, the highestvoter turnout was recorded in2003 when 74.51 per cent of vot-ers cast their vote. In 2012, thevoter turnout stood at 73.51 percent voters had cast votes, whilethe voter turn-out remained71.61 per cent in 2007.

Before 2003 record voting,the vote percentage in 1998Assembly polls had remained71.23 per cent and 71.72 per centin 1993.

The polling on all the 68constituencies of HimachalPradesh was held in a single goon Thursday. As per the ElectionCommission data, as many as50,25,941 people in the state wereeligible voters including around19 lac women and 14 transgen-ders. In the Assembly Elections,a total of 337 candidates, includ-ing 19 women are in fray. 62incumbent MLAs fromCongress, BJP and others havebeen trying their luck again inthe electoral contest.

The Chief Election OfficerPushpender Rajput said that thefinal data of polling had shown74 per cent polling in the State.Rajput said that not even a sin-

gle incident of violence or dis-ruption in poll process wasrecorded throughout the State.

He said that a total of 11,283ballot units, 9,809 control unitsand 11,050 VVPATs were usedin the polling process and dur-ing the polling 33 ballot units, 29control units and 79 VVPATswere replaced due to technicalsnags.

Kullu recorded maximumpolling as the overall voter turn-out in the district was 81 per cent.The Kullu assembly segment indistrict recorded highest pollingof 86 per cent, Banjar con-stituency in Kullu also recordedhigh percentage of polling wit-nessing 85 per cent polling.

Though the final data ofpolling was yet to be received, asper the data available till eveningrecorded polling in district as perthe below percentage. Shimladistrict recorded 73 per centpolling, while Jubbal Kotkhairecorded maximum polling inthe district with 81 percent,Rampur 74 per cent, Chopal 73per cent, Shimla Rural 72 percent, Theog, Kasumpti andRohru 71 per cent, Shimla Urbanwas least with 65 per cent.

In Solan 73 per cent pollingwas recorded where Doonrecorded 84 per cent polling,Nalagarh 82 per cent, Arki 71per cent, Solan 67 per cent andKasauli 60 per cent.

In Kullu district pollingwent up to 81 percent in ManaliAssembly segment, it was 79 percent, Kullu 86 per cent, Banjar85per cent and Anni 76 per cent.

In Mandi district 73.58 percent polling was recorded, whereSeeraj 82 per cent, Balh 80 percent, Nachan 78.37, Sundernagar76.29 per cent, Mandi 76.7 percent, Karsog 75.68 per cent,Jogindernagar 72.40 per cent,Sarkaghat 67.9 per cent, Darang67.2 per cent Dharmpur 64.22per cent.

In Hamirpur district thepolling remained 69.5 per cent,in the district Sujanpur receivedmaximum polling with 70.27 percent, Hamirpur 69.11 per cent,Badsar 70.01 per cent andNaduan 72 per cent and Bhoranj65.88 per cent. In Spiti valleyabout 80.43 per cent polling hasbeen recorded with highestturnout of voters at Key pollingstation, where 100 per centpolling was recorded.

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As the people of HimachalPradesh gave an over-

whelming response to the pollprocess, the veterans of the stateproved to be an inspiration forothers. Six centurion elderspressed the button of the EVMsto have a say in the making of thenext Government of the State.

While the first voter of thecountry and centurion ShyamSingh Negi cast his vote inKalpa. Himachal Pradesh alsosaw five more centurions par-ticipating in poll process includ-ing two 115-years old persons.In Chamba district, 115-year oldPrabhia Ram cast his vote atSurgani polling station underDalhousie assembly segment.

115-year old Kalaavatiremained the eldest women inthe State to cast her vote. Shepressed the button of EVM atGehra Panchayat polling stationin Bharmour Assembly.

108-year-old Sita Devi Kuladcast her vote in Palampur ofKangra distirct. 104-year-oldGarib Dass came to vote on theback of his grandson RamanSharma. He cast his vote inNadaun Assembly segment.

100-years-old Govind RamSharma cast his vote at KotPanchayat of Rural Shimla, hevisited the polling station aroundone kilometre away from hishome. Besides, these centurions,98-year-old Puran Sharma casthis vote at Satohal polling stationat Mandi Sadar Assembly seg-ment. 94 yrs Mela Ram of UnaAssembly also cast his vote.

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Six-time Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh on Thursdayclaimed that Congress would return to power with and he

will serve the State for the seventh time as Chief Minister.Virbhadra Singh cast his vote along with his son

Vikramaditya and wife Pratitbha Singh at Rampur Bushar andsaid that the misleading campaign and derogatory remarkswere not going to gain any benefit for the rival BJP andCongress would repeat Government.

Commenting on the remarks made by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi against the Opposition, Virbhadra Singh saidthat in his long political life he had seen many Prime Ministersand heard their speeches, however, Modi speeches during thecampaign trail was unbecoming of his status.

Responding to a query on his being the sole warrior tocarry the poll campaign of his party, he said it did not mat-ter much as they had gone in poll on the basis of the perfor-mance of the Congress in last five years.

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Acting on the complaintsreceived about quacks run-

ning clinics, Haryana ChiefMinister’s Flying Squad(CMFS), along with officers ofthe Health Department, onThursday conducted raids at147 places all over the State andhave registered 54 FIRs, arrest-ed 55 quacks and their helpers.

While some of thesequacks were operating fromtheir houses, others hadopened shops. The CMFS andteams of doctors also recoveredsome prohibited medicines andother surgical items from theseclinics, said an official

spokesman. So far, 54 caseshave been registered againstthose quacks who were unableto produce their degrees or rel-evant documents for runningclinics. Raids were still contin-uing till the filing of this report.

The spokesman said amaximum of 31 raids wereconducted in Gurugram wherethree FIRs were registered andthree persons were arrested fol-lowed by 11 raids in Faridabadwhere 11 FIRs were registeredand 11 persons were arrested,and nine raids each were con-ducted in Panchkula and Sirsa.

While one FIR was regis-tered and one person wasarrested in Panchkula, two

FIRs were registered and twopersons were arrested in Sirsa.Similarly, eight raids each wereconducted in Sonepat andNarnaul where eight FIRs wereregistered and eight personswere arrested and one FIR wasregistered and one person wasarrested, respectively.

He said seven raids eachwere conducted inYamunanagar, Hisar and Jind.While one FIR was registeredand one person along with twohelpers was arrested inYamunanagar, two FIRs wereregistered and two persons werearrested in Hisar and one FIRwas registered and one personwas arrested in Jind, he added.

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Haryana Chief MinisterManohar Lal on Thursday

unveiled the statue of KushalSingh Dahiya who made the sac-rifice of his own life to ensurethat the head of Guru TeghBahadur could reach AnandpurSahib.

The statue was unveiled atBadhkhalsa Memorial Complex,Rai, in Sonepat.

While dedicating the stat-ue of Kushal Singh Dahiya to thepeople, the Chief Minister urged

them to draw inspiration fromthe sacrifice made by KushalSingh. He also assured people ofBadhkhalsa village that the issueof land would be resolved at theearliest. The technical hurdle ofstamp duty has already beenremoved, he added.

Referring to the historical

event of the sacrifice,r ManoharLal said when Guru TeghBahadur was executed duringthe reign of Mughal EmperorAurangzeb in India, the guru’sdisciple was trying to takeGuruji's head to AnandpurSahib. On the way when KushalSingh stopped here, he realisedthat Aurangzeb's army wouldnot let it happen. So, he offeredhis own head as his face boreresemblance to Guru to cheatthe army of Aurangzeb. It was anact of great courage and sacrifice,he added.

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Punjab Health Minister BrahmMohindra on Thursday said

that the process to open five newmedical colleges in the State hasbeen initiated.

He said the foundation stonefor one such medical college atMohali will be laid down soon.

“It will be after a gap of near-ly 60 years that a new govern-ment medical college will beopened in the state,” the minis-ter said while addressing a gath-ering of doctors and studentsafter laying the foundation stoneof state cancer institution to bebuilt in the Medical CollegeAmritsar. The minister alsoinaugurated the administrativeblock and state of the art audi-torium of the Guru Nanak Devhospital. He said that the vacantposts of the professors in medicalcolleges will be filled soon.

Mohindra also assured themthat the scales of the professorswould be revised so that they optfor government service. Heannounced to give a grant of �70crore for the ongoing construc-tion work in the medical collegecomplex.

Mohindra said that the totalestimated cost on the construc-tion of state cancer institutewould be � 115 crore.

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Athree-day 17th All-IndiaPoetess Conference

(AIPC) commenced at PunjabArts Council campus here onThursday with over 350 poet-esses from across India and 14foreign countries, attired intheir traditional dresses, takingpart in the conference.

Organised by the AIPC incollaboration with the PunjabArt Council, the conferencewas inaugurated by Punjab'sMinister for Cultural Affairsand Tourism, Navjot SinghSidhu.

To provide much-neededfillip to the art, literary and cul-tural activities in Punjab, Sidhuannounced Rs three crore grantto the Punjab Arts Council.

Out of the total, Sidhuapproved Rs 2.01 crore grant tothe Punjab Kala Parishad andRs 33 lakh to the each of thethree academies — PunjabSahit Academy, Punjab LalitKala Academy and SangeetNatak Academy — functioningunder the Parishad.

“Women occupy a promi-nent place in the society andthey are the axis of purity,goodness and gentlenessaround which the well-beingand progress of any societyrevolves,” Sidhu said.

He said that such occasionssymbolize the women powerand clearly signifies the trend

that sees them taking theirdeserving and rightful place inthe society around the globe.

Calling the present occa-sion a special one in the annalsof Punjab, the Minister saidthat it is heartening to seefamous poetesses from allaround the country lendinggrace to this prestigious event.

He also said that suchevents act as a unifying forcewith people from diverse back-grounds gathering at a com-mon place and getting to know

about the culture, traditions,art, literature, customs andhistory of the other states thusstrengthening the ideology ofunity in diversity.

Council chairman andrenowned poet Dr Surjit Patarsaid that lingual harmony is theneed of the hour as it is a per-fect way to achieve synchro-nization among the vastly dif-ferent cultures existing in thecountry.

He also reiterated that thePunjab Kala Parishad would

leave no stone unturned toignite the fire of renewedawareness about Punjab's cul-ture and historical heritage atthe grassroots level.

AIPC founder Lari Azadsaid that the whole countrytakes inspiration from andsalutes the glorious historical,cultural and literary heritage ofPunjab which has alwaysshown the path of unity to thenation. Renowned poetess lateAmrita Pritam was one of thefounding pillars of AIPC.

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In the process of compilingcaste details of its employees,

Haryana Government has nowwarned of taking strict actionagainst those who fail to sub-mit their caste details.

Haryana Government hadin September asked eachemployee to submit a self-attested declaration to theHead of the Department inthis regard by October 10.

In a communiqué to alldistrict education officers anddistrict elementary educationofficers, the state EducationDepartment has again asked

to ensure 100 percent upda-tion of caste survey data of allemployees on HRMS undertheir control by November 9failing which they will appear

before the Director SecondaryEducation on November 10and strict disciplinary actionwill be initiated against thedefaulters.

While the caste data was to

be updated by October 10 ona prescribed format, the req-uisite updation is still pending,the communiqué added.

Notably, the Chief Secretaryhad in September written to allHoDs, Deputy Commissioners,Registrar General Punjab andHaryana High Court, chairmenand MDs ofBoards/Corporations/PSUs,commissioners of four divi-sions, directing them to ensurethat the caste data of all employ-ees under their control isentered in the HRMS (HumanResource Management System)by October 10.

The State Government hasissued the orders to complywith directions of Punjab andHaryana High Court. The HChad on September 1 upheldthe Haryana Backward Classes(Reservation in Services andAdmissions in EducationalInstitutions) Act passed bythe state assembly however, itreferred the matter to theHaryana Backward ClassesCommission for compilingquantifiable data and deter-mine the extent of reservation,extending the stay on the Act’simplementation till March 31,2018.

An official spokesman hadsaid that the HaryanaBackward ClassesCommission has now soughtinformation from the StateGovernment with regard tocaste data of all class I/II/III/IVemployees under the state. Inthis regard, each employeewill submit a self-declarationto the HOD in this regard, hehad said.

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To enhance the employabil-ity skills of students,

Haryana Government willembark on a project to improvevocational education in col-laboration with a Swedish orga-nization in schools on a pilotbasis.

The pilot project would belaunched in 100 governmentsenior secondary schools fromthe next academic session.Three skills namely, retail,IT/ITes and beauty and well-ness have been identified to beintroduced in 100 governmentsenior secondary schools.

“Already, 1001 governmentsenior secondary schools withtwo skills each have been cov-ered under a separate schemeapproved by the Chief MinisterManohar Lal, where 14 skillshave been introduced now,”said Education Minster RamBilas Sharma, at a meeting ofthe Haryana School ShikshaPariyojna Parishad.

He said that the collabora-tion with the Swedish organi-zation will be a unique modelof personalized learning whichcan be adapted to make voca-tional education more effective.Under the pilot project, lifeskills such as effective com-munication, digital literacy,entrepreneurship, criticalthinking, problem-solving andself-management would be theoutcome of the proposed inno-vative methodology that willhelp the students, Mr Sharmasaid.

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India on Thursday soughtdetails from its embassy in

Washington about the latestannouncement by theAmerican State Department'splans to give $493,827 aid to"reduce religiously-motivatedviolence and discriminationin India". The Ministry ofExternal Affairs said that anysuch aid has to come throughproper channels and any suchactivity will have to be as perlaw of the land.

The MEA reaction cameafter United States said it wantsto "increase societal tolerance"and reduce "religiously-moti-vated violence" and discrimi-nation in India with the near-ly $500,000 grant to NGOs inthe country. The US StateDepartment also announced asimilar grant for Sri Lanka.

The Department of State,Bureau of Democracy, HumanRights and Labor, in its noticeof funding opportunity, saidthrough its $493,827 India pro-gramme, it seeks to "reducereligiously-motivated violenceand discrimination in India".

The State Department said

the NGOs applying for thegrant should come with pro-posals to develop and imple-ment systems to mitigate large-scale violence and implementconflict mitigation pro-grammes between minorityand majority groups.

It added that the applicantsalso need to come out withideas for successful programmeactivities to counter hateful ordiscriminatory public mes-sages with positive messages.They should also have propos-als to educate civil society andjournalists about legal protec-tions for religious freedom,particularly for members ofreligious minorities; documentand report religious freedomviolations to authorities; andeducate law enforcement onhuman rights standards.

Among other proposalscould be ideas to engage law

enforcement to better protectrights of religious minorities,including preventing incidentsof discrimination and violenceand holding perpetratorsaccountable, the StateDepartment said. The StateDepartment did not respondimmediately to a set of questionson the necessity of such a grantamounting to nearly $500,000.

The announcement forgrant comes months afterInternational ReligiousFreedom Report for 2016released by the US StateDepartment highlightedattacks in India by cow pro-tection groups against peopleaccused of bovine trafficking orhaving beef in its annual reporton religious freedom, whileattempting a measure of bal-ance by also including criticalmention of practices by minor-ity religions.

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Central Governmentemployees can now pur-

chase or construct a houseworth �1 crore and borrow upto �25 lakh as House BuildingAdvance (HBA), as per the newHBA rules notified onThursday. The earlier cost ceil-ing limit for purchasing/con-structing a flat was �30 lakhwhile the borrowing limit wascapped at �7.50 lakh. The newrule for cost ceiling also pro-vides for upward revision of 25per cent in deserving cases. Thenew rules will benefit about 50lakh Central Governmentemployees in the country.

In case both husband andwife are Central Governmentemployees, they would be eli-gible to take HBA either joint-ly or separately. Earlier, only onespouse was eligible for HouseBuilding Advance. The HBA is

admissible to an employee onlyonce in a lifetime.

"The demand for housingsector will rapidly increase inthe middle-income segment.The EMIs will be comparativelyless than what taking a loanfrom a private bank wouldaccrue. Overall, there would bea huge saving for CentralGovernment employees," saida senior official of Ministry ofHousing and Urban Affairs.

A Central Governmentemployee said that new HBArules will help in availing loan ata cheaper rate from the bank.Besides, they can also avail loanfrom the bank on the basis ofregistry of the document.

As per new rules, the rateof interest on HBA should be8.50 percent while earlier theinterest rate was 9.50 percent.

This rate of interest should bereviewed every three years."All cases of subsequenttranches/instalments of HBAbeing taken by the employee indifferent financial years shouldbe governed by the applicablerate of interest in the year inwhich the HBA was sanc-tioned, in the event of a changein the rate of interest.

As far as expansion ofexisting house is concerned, theamount of HBA will be limit-ed to 34 months basic pay sub-ject to a maximum of �10lakhs only.

The amount of the advanceshall be restricted to 80 per centof the true cost of the land andconstruction of house or cost ofthe expansion of living accom-modation in the case of con-struction in rural areas.

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Against the backdrop of20 highways developers

being barred by NHAI fromundertaking any projects tillfurther orders, RoadTransport Minister NitinGadkari on Thursday direct-ed the central road makingagency to examine legaloptions before taking actionagainst the concessionaires.

In an urgent meetingconvened by Road TransportMinistry alongwith all thestakeholders including theNHAI it was decided to keepthe show cause notices inabeyance until the reviewprocess is completed.

Gadkari asked the NHAIto put in abeyance the scrap-ping of 20 highway contrac-tors which includes bignames like L&T, HCC etc."Debar defaulting developeronly after completion of anypending legal proceedings. Ihave directed the NHAI toreview these cases andundertake detailed exami-nation of each case on itsown merits, examine thesame from legal sustainabil-ity, if required," the ministersaid in the meeting which heintervened after NHAI'sstringent decision to sus-pend the erring contractors.

The NHAI has also beenasked to keep any furtheraction on its show-causenotices in abeyance till they

complete the review process,he said and added that directions have also beenissued to debar any default-ing developer only aftercompletion of any pendinglegal proceedings.

The meeting assumessignificance in the wake ofhighway builders' bodyNational Highways BuildersFederation (NHBF) taking astrong exception to theNHAI's move to put in pub-lic domain the names of asmany as 20 companies.

The NHBF had objectedto NHAI uploading a list ofhighways contracts termi-nated since 2014 and with-drawing it. The highwaybuilders' body in its letter toGadkari and PrincipalSecretary to PM NripendraMishra said, "Even assumingthat NHAI falls under thedefinition of a state instru-mentality and thereby it has,powers to blacklist an entityflows from the executivepower to Carry out thetrade/business, it has noauthority to upload suchdocument in public domain."

The companies includeLarsen & Toubro, HCC andEssel Infra Projects whowere barred from bidding forprojects. Gadkari said thegovernment is trying toreduce the turnaround timeof highway projects to sig-nificantly enhance the con-struction pace.

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Prime Minister NarendraModi will travel to Manila

from November 12-14 for the15th India-ASEAN and 12thEast Asia Summit meetings.Improving trade, connectivity,people-to-people contact andcountering radicalisation willbe among the issues that areexpected to be discussed at theSummits. India and ASEANare celebrating 25 years ofpartnership this year.

This would be Modi's firstvisit to Philippines and hisfourth time participation in theAnnual ASEAN-India and theEast-Asia summit.

In Manila Modi will alsohold bilateral talks withPhilippines President RodrigoDuterte during which the twosides will review the bilateraltrade, investments and otherissues of mutual interest andconcern.

Modi will also attend aASEAN Business conference,address Indian community inManila and visit theInternational Rice Research

Institute (IRRI) where a largenumber of Indian scientistsare working. The IRRI willsoon set up its South AsianRegional Centre in Varanasi.This will be the first center ofIRRI outside Philippines.

"Together with our bilater-al interaction and interactionsat various regional forums likethe, ASEAN-India Summit,East-Asia Summit, ASEANRegional Forum, ADMM+(The ASEAN DefenceMinisters Meeting +) and othersuch forums, we remainstrongly committed to furtherstrengthening and expandingour bilateral cooperation andwe look forward to discussingand evolving a geo-strategic sit-uation in the region," saidPreeti Saran, Secretary (East) inthe Ministry of ExternalAffairs.

India has taken a numberof initiatives in capacity build-ing, and in doing projects aspart of the Initiatives forASEAN Integration, particu-larly focused on the CLMVcountries. India has three fundsthat help finance projects.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi, his Bangladesh coun-terpart Sheikh Hasina and the West Bengal Chief Minister

Mamata Banerjee on Thursday flagged off the new passengertrain ‘Bandhan Express’ service between Kolkata andBangladesh’s southwestern industrial city of Khulna. Thethree leaders launched the train through video conference.

The fully air-conditioned weekly passenger train servicewill run every Thursday from both Kolkata and Khulna. Onthe occasion, Modi said the ties of friendship between Indiaand Bangladesh have further strengthened.

Modi said in Bengali, 'Aaj ei shubho uplokkhe dui deshbashider amar abhinandan janai. Aaj amader moitreyee,bandhon aro sudriro holo' (I congratulate the people of thetwo countries on this auspicious occasion. Our ties of friend-ship got more strengthened today.) They also inauguratedtwo bridges over the rivers Meghna and Titas in Bangladesh.

Hasina said, "Today is a great day for relations betweenthe two countries with the inauguration of the train servicesand the two bridges. This train service is a dream come truefor people on both sides of the border."

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee described the launchas a remarkable day for India and Bangladesh. "The rela-tions between the two countries will strengthen in the future,"she said. Immigration and customs facilities were also inau-gurated at Kolkata station.

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The Narendra ModiGovernment is promoting

organic farming through manyschemes and 22.5 lakh hectareshave been brought under suchcultivation so far. TheGovernment is aimed to bring50,000-hectare area underorganic farming in the northeastregion and till now, 45,863hectares have been broughtunder organic farming. Thishas been stated by UnionAgriculture and FarmersWelfare Minister Radha MohanSingh on Thursday while inau-gurating Organic WorldCongress 2017 at India ExpoCentre in Greater Noida. On

this occasion, Food regulatorFood Safety and StandardsAuthority of India (FSSAI) onThursday released a unifiedregulation on organic foods toensure that these food items areactually organic.

According to Singh, a total2,406 Farmers Interest Group(FIG) have been created and44,064 farmers have been linkedto the scheme against the targetof 2,500 FIG. Presently, 22.5 lakhhectares have been broughtunder organic farming and3,60,400 farmers have been ben-efited by Paramparagat KrishiVikas Yojana.

''Now, the aim is to bring50,000 hectare area underorganic farming in the northeast

region. India is one of the oldest organic agriculturalnations of the world and a largepart of the country still practicestraditional organic farming,"Singh said.

The Organic WorldCongress (OWC) is organisedonce every three years in a dif-ferent country and this time itis oganised in Greater Noida.The last edition of the OrganicWorld Congress took place inIstanbul, Turkey, in 2014. TheInternational Federation ofOrganic Farming Movements(IFOAM) and OAFI are orga-nizing the event where 1,400representatives from 110 coun-tries, and 2000 Indian dele-gates will participate the event.

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Doctors in India see patientsfor barely two minutes on

average, according to a globalstudy which found that prima-ry care consultations last lessthan five minutes for half theworld’s population, rangingfrom 48 seconds in Bangladeshto 22.5 minutes in Sweden.

While India’s primary careconsultation time was two min-utes in 2015, the mean durationwas just 1.79 minutes in 2016 inneighbouring Pakistan, thelargest international study onconsulting time, published inthe British medical journal BMJOpen, found.

"Shorter consultation timeshave been linked to poorerhealth outcomes for patientsand a heightened risk ofburnout for doctors,"researchers wrote in the journal.

As demand for primaryhealth care rises around theglobe, the length of a consulta-tion has increasingly comeunder pressure.

To tease out the potentialimpact on patients and thewider healthcare system, theresearchers reviewed the data

on consultation length from 178relevant studies covering 67countries and more than 28.5million consultations.

They included both peerreviewed research and the 'greyliterature' — research producedoutside of traditional academ-ic or commercial channels —published between 1946 and2016 in English, Chinese,Japanese, Spanish, Portugueseand Russian.

"The results showed thataverage consultation length var-

ied widely, from 48 seconds inBangladesh, to 22.5 minutes inSweden," researchers said.

Commenting on the studyfindings, Dr Aashish Chaudhry,Managing Director andOrthopedic Surgeon, AakashHealthcare in New Delhi said,"This figure does not representthe entire spectrum of medicalprofessionals offering consul-tations to patients."

"The figure of two minutesis indeed a gloomy figure, butlargely it represents doctor's

consultation time in govern-ment hospitals where patientload is massive, and most of thetime one doctor has to seemore than 100 patients in oneto two hours on an average,"Chaudhry said.

In 15 countries, which rep-resent around half of the world'spopulation, the appointmentlasted less than five minutes.And it lasted under 10 minutesin a further 25.

"Little can be achieved inless than five minutes unless thefocus is largely on detection andmanagement of gross disease,"suggest the researchers.

"An average of five minutesmay be the limit below whichconsultations amount to littlemore than triage and the issueof prescriptions," they said.

"The time also depends onmany factors including the dis-ease, pain intensity, urgency ofthe problem, apprehension andanxieties of the patient, whichneed to be addressed to thepatients' satisfaction," Chaudhryadded.

"There have been times whenI have completed the consultationunder five minutes, and I havealso given more than an hour to

a single patient to address all oftheir concerns," he said.

In developed countries,average consultation timeseemed to steadily increase: by12 seconds a year to over 20minutes in the US; and by justover four seconds a year to 10minutes in the UK.

Consultation length seemsto be shortening in some lowand middle income countries,which may have importantimplications for populationgrowth and the expansion oftreatment options, researcherssaid.

Shorter consultation lengthhas also been associated withmultiple drugs prescribed to apatient (polypharmacy),overuse of antibiotics, and poorcommunication with patients,they said.

Although this is the largestinternational review of consul-tation length to date, theresearchers highlight that thequality of the evidence wasgraded 'good' in less than halfthe included studies.

Differences between ruraland urban, and public and pri-vate practices, were not takeninto account, they said.

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In a novel idea, a Korean del-egation proposed the estab-

lishment of a “South KoreaCity” in Andhra Pradesh, bring-ing in at least 30 companies toset up their units.

The companies are businessdivisions of local industry coop-eratives, in the areas of electricsteel, logistics, construction,finance, automobile compo-nents, chemistry, heavy equip-ment manufacturing, battery,meat processing, liquors, ship-building, medical and marineequipment.

The delegation, onThursday, met Chief Minister

Chandrababu Naidu, compris-ing 20 entrepreneurs from SouthKorea, led by Honorary ConsulGeneral, Jeong Deok-min.

“Following the deal with Kiamotors, the investment oppor-tunities in Andhra Pradesh haveopened up exponentially”, saidone of the delegates. The ChiefMinister said that AndhraPradesh is at an advantage,because of many reasons.Logistically speaking, it is at thecentre of the country’s transportnetwork, he said. “Our peopleare also very hard-working andenterprising. The state is blessedwith rich natural resources, andall our infrastructure projects areeco-friendly”, he added.

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The recent visit to ChiefMinister Chandrababu

Naidu by a UK delegation hasgiven a positive result whichtransformed into investmentsby UK Infra Companies. A del-egation from UK led by RetiredBaroness Varma of Leicestermet the Chief Minister. Hespoke to the delegation of thepotential in many fields in APfor investment opportunitiesand development programmes.

They expressed keen inter-est to collaborate with AndhraPradesh in the areas of infra-structure development, solartechnology, education, capaci-ty building and tourism.

Geoffrey Clements,Chairman of CommonwealthInfrastructure Partners, pro-posed the development of solar

technology, and facilitating skillupgradation and training pro-grammes. They told the ChiefMinister, that they would like toinvest in capacity building pro-grammes and help strengthenthe skill-sets of the people ofAndhra Pradesh.

Fareena Sajjad, the BusinessDirector at NeoXcraft,explained the opportunities infuture-transport systems, andtrain and update professionalsto efficiently use them.

This system intends toreduce road congestion, air-borne pollutants, the wear andtear of roads, improve safetyand create a vastly improvedtransport network towards atrue smart city transport solu-tion.

The Chief Minister saidthat he looks forward to review-ing more information on thissystem, and further the deal.

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Readying to make a frogleap in the agriculture

sector Bihar adopted its thirdAgriculture Roadmap involv-ing �1.54 lakh crore whichwas unveiled on Thursday byPresident Ram Nath Kovindhere.

The President expressedconfidence that by implement-ing the roadmap and providingall necessary facilities to thefarming community Biharwould make remarkable progressin its economy. “I wish the nextgreen revolution will start fromBihar with the help of the rain-bow revolution scripted in itsthird edition of agri roadmap,”said Kovind.

This was Kovind’s first visitto Bihar after becomingPresident. Before that he wasserving as Governor of Bihar. Hesaid the State would increase its

grain production and play its rolein fulfilling the demand of thegrain requirement in the coun-try.

The President lauded thesuccess of the Sudha Dairy ofBihar and said its popularity anddemand has crossed the bound-aries of the State. “On the occa-sion of the Chhat festival lastmonth the ‘thekua’ made bySudha had been distributed inthe Rashtrapati Bhavan,” he dis-closed amid applause. “Bihar’sagricultural progress will alsohelp building State’s image in thecountry,” he added.

Earlier Chief Minister NitishKumar said that after the firstroadmap in 2008 the productionof paddy, wheat and corn hasincreased more than double.The two farmers of Nalandashattered world record in pro-duction of paddy and potato.

The earlier two roadmapswere for the period 2008-12 and

2012-17 and the third editionwill cover 2017-22. Nitish saidthe roadmaps help tremendouslybut still many things were to bedone for the farming communityas, he said, 95 per cent of Biharfarmers were small and mediumcategory. “More than 76 percent of our population is engagedin farming and their economydepends on farming activities.The farmer means all engaged ingrain, vegetable and fruit pro-duction, fishing, animal hus-bandry, poultry and milk and themotto of the roadmap is toincrease their production andincome,” the CM said.

Nitish also announced pro-moting organic farming andsaid that the Government woulddevelop a corridor of organicfarming along the Ganga on bothflanks. He said the Governmentwas planning to utilise properlytreated sewage water for irriga-tion.

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Having prohibited beggingin public places,

Hyderabad city police havestarted rounding up and shift-ing the beggars to shelterhomes.

According to one esti-mate there were 13,000 oddbeggars on the city roads andthere was hardly any place tokeep all of them during thetwo month long prohibitionperiod.

Two Ashrams or shelterhomes attached to the twoprisons in the city alreadyhave 200 odd beggars andefforts were being made tosend them back to their fam-ilies on a written assurancethat they will not indulge inbegging again.

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Kerala’s beleaguered Congressparty and the Opposition

UDF leading on Thursday suf-fered a severe jolt with thereport of a judicial commissionthat probed the infamous solarscam involving money, sex andpower finding former ChiefMinister Oommen Chandy andhis senior Cabinet and party col-leagues guilty of aiding andabetting massive fraud. Chandyand several others have also beenaccused of sexually exploitingfraudster-con woman Saritha SNair.

Facing one of its worstembarrassments in recent his-tory, the Congress and the UDFwent all out against theGovernment, accusing it even oftrying to influence the judicialcommission. The Governmentrejected their allegations sayingtheir stand amounted to “ques-tioning the very integrity of thecommission” which wasappointed by their own formergovernment.

According to the 1070-page,

four-volume report of the Justice(Retired) G Sivarajan JudicialCommission which was tabledin the Assembly on Thursday byMarxist Chief Minister PinarayiVijayan in a specially convened40-minute session, Chandy, whowas chief minister between 2011and 2016, had helped conwoman Saritha and her compa-ny Team Solar to dupe manypeople of several crores of rupeesby promising to install solarpower plants.

The report said thatChandy, his office, some of hisaides and then Power ministerAryadan Muhammad helpedSaritha and her former boss andlive-in partner BijuRadhakrishnan to cheat theirclients and had taken bribe forthis. Then Home ministerThiruvanchoor Radhakrishnanhad tried to protect Chandy afterthe scam erupted in 2013, thereport said.

The commission made a let-ter written by Saritha on July 19,2013 a part of its report sayingthat there was substance in it.The letter said Chandy, Aryadan,

several other Congress leadersincluding ex-ministers, an MPand MLAs had sexually exploit-ed her. The panel said this sex-ual exploitation could be con-sidered as corruption and rec-ommended a probe into thesecharges.

“The panel has pointed outthat the factor of sexual favourcomes under the ambit of ille-gal gratification as mentioned inthe Prevention of CorruptionAct,” Chief Minister Pinarayisaid in the Assembly. He said theGovernment would initiate legalaction, including under thePrevention of Corruption Act,against all those who had beenfound guilty by the panel.

The commission also foundfault with the special investiga-tion team of the State police con-stituted to look into the scamduring the UDF rule. It said theSIT had tried to protect the thenchief minister by creating a feel-ing that it was not Chandy buthis aides Tenny Joppen,Jikkumon Jacob and Salim Rajwho had been in contact withSaritha S Nair.

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The report of the Justice(Retired) G Sivarajan

Judicial Commission thatlooked into Kerala’s infamoussolar scam that erupted in June,2013 and a letter written by conwoman Saritha S Nair of theTeam solar company, which hasbeen mentioned in the reportare giving a detailed descriptionof those who had allegedlyearned money and sexual plea-sure for facilitating fraud.

Former chief ministerOommen Chandy (74) of theCongress, his colleagues in theformer Cabinet, Congress lead-ers including MLAs and an MPand several others figure in thelist of the fraud facilitators. Thecharges are extremely seriousconsidering the position thealleged wrong-doers were andare holding.

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Maharashtra CM DevendraFadnavis on Thursday

sought the co-operation ofBelgium in setting up a uni-versity exclusively various dia-mond industry-related courses.

Speaking at a functionorganised to host a visitingBelgian ministerial and businessdelegation headed by KingPhilippe and Queen Mathilde ofBelgium at Raj Bhavan here,Fadnavis said the State Govern-ment had accepted an ideamooted by the visiting delegationto set up a university exclusive-ly to offer courses relating to dia-mond industry. He sought thecooperation of Belgium in settingup the University.

Earlier, King Philippe saidthat diamond trade over-whelmingly dominated Indo-Belgian commerce, making formore than 80 per cent of Belgianexports. He called for furtherstrengthening the economicengagement between Belgiumand India by diversifying thebilateral trade basket andexpanding investment ties.

The CM informed theirmajesties that the State

Government was implement-ing a slew of infrastructure pro-jects like Metro Rail, Mono Rail,Elevated Corridor project,Coastal Road, Mumbai to NaviMumbai Sea Link, Ro-RO ser-vices, etc to augment publictransport in Mumbai and to easethe burden of traffic on subur-ban trains and buses. He soughtthe cooperation of Belgium ininfrastructure development andin the implementation of thescheme of Smart Cities Mission.

Welcoming the Royal dig-nitaries to Maharashtra,Governor Vidyasagar Rao saidthe State would like to see greatercooperation betweenMaharashtra and Belgium in the

areas of clean energy, infra-structure development, highereducation, skill developmentand film-making.

The Governor later host-ed lunch in honour of theRoyal Delegation. Prominentamong those present at thelunch were the Governor’swife CH Vinodha, ChiefMinister Fadnavis, StateAssembly Speaker HaribhauBagade, Finance MinisterSudhir Mungantiwar, RuralDevelopment, Women andChild Development MinisterPankaja Munde and leader ofthe Opposition in the StateAssembly RadhakrishnaVikhe-Patil.

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Sleuths of the Department ofIncome Tax on Thursday

early morning swooped downon nearly 180 premises belong-ing to VK Sasikala, the oustedgeneral secretary of theAIADMK, her close familymembers, associates and busi-ness establishments owned bythem in Tamil Nadu, Karnatakaand Andhra Pradesh.

A senior Income Tax officialhas been quoted as saying thatthis was part of an operationnamed “Clean Money” launchedby the department to flush out

black money and unaccountedmoney. An IB source said thatthere was nothing surprising inthe operation as the PM himselfhad declared the other day thatmore than 2 lakh shell compa-nies have been deregistered bythe Ministry of Company andCorporate Affairs following thedemonetisation and theiraccounts are being probed into.

All major vernacular dailieshad reported that more than 60shell companies were owned bySasikala and kin in Chennai andelsewhere in the State. Morethan hundred officials fanned outto different areas in Chennai,

Tiruchirappalli, Mannargudi,Thanjavur, Coimbatore at thestroke of four in the morning inhired cabs portraying themselvesas members of marriage parties.The T Nagar residence ofKrishna Priya, niece of Sasikala,where the latter stayed during herparole from Bangalore prisonrecently, the offices of Sasikalafamily owned Jaya TV, NamathuMGR (once the official mouth-piece of the AIADMK), JazzCinemas, Phoenix Mall, MidasDistilleries (all belonging toSasikala’s residences) whereamong the places raided by theIncome Tax officials.

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Telangana Chief Minister KChandrasekhar Rao on

Thursday assured the StateLegislative Assembly that hewould secure the nod of theCentre to the MuslimReservation Bill which seeks toincrease the quota for back-ward Muslims to 12 per centfrom 4 per cent. He announcedthat the TRS MPs will raise theissue in the forthcoming wintersession of Parliament.

Intervening on the discus-sion on minority welfare in theHouse on Thursday, KCR saidthat the bill passed by the Statelegislature was under consider-

ation of the Centre at present.“We will implement it at anycost”, he said while replying to thequestions raised by some mem-bers. “The Prime Minister hasalso reacted positively to it”, hesaid.

Urging the members not topoliticise the issue he said thatthe reservation for the backwardMuslims was modeled on a sim-ilar law in Tamil Nadu. “We aregiving reservation to Muslims onthe basis of economic and socialbackwardness”, he said.

He was referring to the crit-icism by the Congress legislatorT Jeevan Reddy who had ques-tioned the sincerity of the CM onthe issue.

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The quality of air in thenational capital has

improved considerably within the last 24 hours and willbe back to normal within thenext few days, Union Ministerfor Science and Technologyand Environment has said,while also urging people tonot panic and requesting res-idents of Delhi to stayindoors.

Vardhan, who was in Goato attend a function at theCentre for Scientific andIndustrial Research-fundedNational Inst itute ofOceanography at Dona Paula,near the State capital ,Vardhan also said, that thecentral government as well asState Governments in the

National Capital Region, weretaking steps to curb air pol-lution, whose levels have shotup due to a combination offactors.

“We have asked the DelhiGovernment to ensure that ifthey can sprinkle water on theroads, use mechanism meansfor for dust removal from theroads and then to improvepublic transport to ensurethat more of trains aredeployed for metro services,”Vardhan said.

"We have simultaneouslyinstructed neighbouringStates also to ensure that thecrops burning should stopimmediately. We are ensuringthat all these measures whichneed to be taken as an emer-gency, have been taken and Ithink from yesterday, to today,

things have become better," the Union Minister added.

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Union Minister for Textileand Information &

Broadcasting Smriti Irani onThursday claimed that Gujarat-based textile traders met her andshown readiness to pay tax butthey also wanted solution ofsome practical difficulties in thenewly introduce GST.

Addressing a press confer-

ence at BJP media centre creat-ed on Ahmedabad-Gandhinagarhighway in view of upcomingGujarat Assembly polls nextmonth Irani said that her meet-ing with Surat based Zari andTextile industry representativesmet her and their problemswere sent to GST Council forappropriate solution. TheMinister also congratulated tex-tile traders for their willingness

to be GST compliant.She stated that BJP-led NDA

Government at the Centre wascommitted to women’s empow-erment and said women shouldcome forward and vote for theBJP in next month’s Assemblyelection. The Minister claimedthat the Modi Government hadlaunched many schemes forempowerment of women duringits rule of over three years.

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In a major allegation againstIT officials and BJP

Government led by PrimeMinister Narendra Modi,Karnataka Chief MinisterSiddaramaiah said the IT offi-cials were forcing his Cabinetcolleague and power MinisterDK Shivakumar to join BJP.

Siddaramaiah alleged thatthe BJP was exerting pressurethrough IT raids and forcinghim to join the party. He saidat Hubballi airport onThursday that Shivakumar wasa born Congressman and hewould not yield to pressure bythe BJP and the IT raids.

“This BJP Government is a‘raid’ Government and the I-Tofficials who were part of theraid team directly askedShivakumar to crossover to

BJP’s side. He will not fall forit as he is a ‘born-Congressi’ (ahardcore loyalist).”

Shivakumar was raided bythe Income Tax Department inAugust, at a time when he washosting Congress’ MLAs fromGujarat at his Bengaluru resort,in order to keep them awayfrom horse-trading attemptsahead of the Rajya Sabha polls.

Siddaramaiah’s statementscome close on the heels of I-Tofficials raiding many locationsin connection with AIADMKleaders TTV Dinakaran andSasikala in Tamil Nadu and other States, whichDinakaran has termed as“political vendetta”.

There is a buzz doingrounds in the seat of power thatDK Shivakumar a powerfulvokkaliga leader and someother Ministers and leaders in

the Congress have been in thehit list of the BJP ahead ofassembly polls which is crucialfor both the parties. The pollbound Karnataka is witnessingtheatrics of the absurd and thepoaching from one another hasbecome order of the day. BJPinsiders say that they havealready in talks with five seniorleaders including Shivakumarto lure them to BJP to defeatSiddaramaiah and theCongress. To keep the taglineof the party to make CongressMukth Karnataka, the saffronparty is working-out strategiesto recapture power in the State.

“Karnataka is anticipated togive leverage in its quest toenter South for the party whichhas almost decimated theCongress in the north, thepolitical strategies like this iscrucial” said an insider.

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Days after former TrinamoolCongress leader Mukul Roy

joined the BJP, strings were

allegedly pulled and Bengalpolice swung into action thistime drawing an FIR against theformer Railway Minister linkinghim to a case of sexual exploita-tion filed earlier against expelledCPI(M) MP Ritabrata Banerjee.

Roy who on Thursday spon-taneously responded to thecharges alleging, “Bengal had

become a police State” anddenied his involvement in thestated case said he had, “neverknown the complainant and notaware of the contents of the casein any manner.”

The case relates to NamrataDutta, a techie from Balurghat inSouth Dinajpur who filed acriminal complaint against the

expelled CPI(M) MP allegingsexual exploitation with apromise of marriage.

She complained that a per-son close to Roy had threatenedher with dire consequences if shedid not withdraw the casebecause “Ritabrata is a closefriend of Mukul Roy who is aninfluential person” and hence

consequences of running intoBanerjee could be unpleasant forher.

Dutta had claimed that shewas repeatedly exploited sexuallyat various places includingBanerjee’s flat in Delhi beforebeing thrown out of his life withan alleged “compensation” of afew lakh of rupees.

“He even threatened meand asked me to withdraw thecase as Rs 8 lakh had been trans-ferred by him to my bankaccount,” the woman said againstBanerjee adding Roy was alsothreatening her “following whichthe police have filed cases undernon-bailable sections againsthim and some other persons.”

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Giving a thumbs up to pro-jects the Yogi

Government had initiated inthe last six months, Niti Aayogofficials said that develop-ment in Uttar Pradesh wasback on track with the onlygray area being constructionof houses for the urban poor.

“Uttar Pradesh to ab chalpada hai (UP has started mov-ing now),” Niti Aayog vice-chairman Rajiv Kumar saidunderlining that developmentprojects in all sectors have start-ed taking shape.

Addressing the media aftera review meeting with nineworking groups and ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath sepa-rately, Kumar on his maiden visitto his home town, said that workin all sectors was progressingspeedily, except for someteething troubles in

Pradhanmanti Awas Yogjna(Urban) and financial grantsfrom the Centre in the OpenDefecation Free (ODF) scheme.

The meeting was attendedby Niti Aayog officials and nineworking groups dealing with pri-ority sectors like nutrition,health, education, cleanness, irri-gation, labour, agriculture, indus-try and urban development.

Kumar said that UP was thegrowth engine of the countryand without its developmentthe country could not moveahead.

“But in seven months, UPhas crossed almost all hurdles toaccelerate the momentum ofdevelopment works,” the NitiAayog official said.

Prime Minister NarendraModi, who is chairman of NitiAayog, is expected to attend thenext quarterly meeting betweenthe Aayog and UP Governmentin January.

“There is a big challenge toacgieve the target in urbanPradhanmantri Awas Yojgna inUP though the project’s progressin rural areas has been very good.The urban project will certain-

ly need more focus as it will gen-erate employment for a largechunk of the population,” he said.

Commenting onAdityanath’s announcement onmaking the State ODF by

October 2018, Kumar said thatthe State Government had raisedthe issue with Union FinanceMinistry and it would be takencare by Niti Aayog.

State Health MinisterSiddharth Nath Singh, who waspresent at the press meet,announced that the PrimeMinister would be invited to thenext quarterly review meeting inJanuary. The Niti Aayog vice-chairman announced that verysoon a workshop would be heldin the State in which severalexperts from different sectors willimpart training and knowledgeto UP officials.

Disclosing that 53 districts ofUP were still backward andneeded special attention for all-round development, Kumar said,“It is a big challenge for the coun-try and UP, as without develop-ment of these districts, thegrowth engine of the State wouldnot accelerate.”

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The Central Government'sspecial representative on

Jammu & Kashmir, DineshwarSharma on Thursday arrivedhere in Jammu after winding uphis maiden visit to Kashmir val-ley.

Since he arrived late in theafternoon only one politicaldelegation led by the State BJPChief Sat Sharma called onhim at the state guest housealong with senior party leaders.

In the evening DineshwarSharma separately called onChief Minister Mehbooba Muftiand Governor NN Vohra.Before meeting Sharma ChiefMinister held hour long meet-ing with Governor at RajBhawan.

According to the state gov-ernment spokesman, duringhis meeting with the Governor

Sharma informed him about histalks with various individualsand groups in the Valley and themajor concerns which had beenvoiced by those he had met onhis first visit to Kashmir.

Governor suggested toSharma that, notwithstandingany initial reservations in somegroups, he must sustain the dia-logue and hear one and all, par-ticularly elements of the societywho apparently held contraryconvictions.

Sharma is scheduled tointeract with different delega-tions on Friday before headingto New Delhi. Interacting withthe media persons after attend-ing the meeting with centre'srepresentative State BJP ChiefSat Sharma said, "during ourmeeting with DineshwarSharma we raised the issue offulfilling aspirations of all threeregions of the State.

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Eighty-year-old King SalmanAbdulaziz Al Saud, in a politicalliquidation, rounded up 11princes of the royal House ofSaud, along with various

Ministers and officials in what was mar-keted as an “anti-corruption” initiative inwhich prominent royal members werearrested and “jailed” in Riyadh’s notorious-ly luxurious Ritz-Carlton hotel. Thisincluded globally influential names suchas billionaire investor Alwaleed Bin Talaal,who has close ties with various Americanindustrialists and owns five per cent ofsocial media site Twitter. Over the spanof 72 hrs starting November 3, a purge wasunderway, ballistic missiles were firedtowards the Saudi-capital Riyadh fromYemen, Lebanon’s Prime Minister SaadHariri resigned (on television) from hispost from Saudi Arabia, accusing Iran ofmedaling in internal Arab affairs beforedisappearing from public eye, Yemen’sincumbent President Abdrabbuh MansurHadi, who also took up refuge theremonths ago, was reported to be under‘house arrest’ (Saudis released pictures ofa meeting with Hadi in attempts to refutesuch rumors). Two other princes werereportedly killed, one in a curiouslytimed helicopter crash near Yemen andanother, rumored to have been shot whileresisting an ‘attempted arrest’. Thistragedy-ridden Shakespearean-theatremakes King Salman the conductor of anever seen before ‘tri-purge’, orchestratingpolitical changes in his own country,Lebanon and Yemen simultaneously.

Understanding the politics of theSaudi monarchy is no easy task, with over9,000 members in the royal family, Saudipolitics is a never-ending series of inter-nal turmoil and power-struggles. However,most analysts agree that the recent eventsare King Salman’s strategy to clear way forthe 32-years-old heir-apparent, PrinceMohammed Bin Salman. It is believedKing Salman has already started theprocess of aiding Prince Salman to thethrone, his son from his third spouse,transferring power by the end of 2018. Thestart of the said process was highlightedby social reforms with Saudi Arabiaagreeing to allow women to drive, a long-standing issue of contention. It has alsoallowed women to attend sports events atstadium. These changes come on the backof waiting for the accession of a youngKing, who will preside over a very-youngand globally well-connected Saudi popu-lation on the cusp of a post-oil econom-ic and social order, and a corrupt royal sys-tem against which sentiments had beenlatently bubbling for a long time.

The challenges for the Saudi monar-chy in the decades to come are plenty.

Currently, the Saudi youth have it relative-ly easy, with various social schemes keep-ing them occupied, thanks to the petro-dollars, however, Riyadh has (finally)decided to move beyond its dependenceon a singular mode of finance andapproach models, such as those embracedby its neighbours, specifically Dubai.

This would require relaxed norms anda better global positioning to attract foreigninvestments, foregoing its rigid and suffo-cating rules that curtail freedom and basichuman rights for its citizens, specificallywomen. The announcement of SaudiAramco, the country’s national oil compa-ny, which at a point few years ago wasworth more than India’s GDP, going par-tially public to raise money came as a sur-prise to many. However, it implanted thenarrative of slow but drastic changes tak-ing place in the kingdom, both politicallyand socially. This is highlighted by exam-ples such as the steadily increasing domes-tic oil consumption in the country, thanksto domestic population growth. A robustand rich domestic economy is critical forRiyadh, both to keep a check on its youngpopulation and till a certain degree securethe House of Saud’s own future.

Geo-politically, the Saudis are contin-uing to make attempts to rein in the grow-ing Iranian influence in the region, some-thing that Prince Salman, the world’syoungest Defense Minister, has reiterat-ed during the purge in an effort to stamphis own authority. Saudi concerns inregional West Asian dynamics haveheightened over the past few months with

Iranian influence growing at a rapidpace. The question around Syria andfuture of the said conflict has now beenpretty much decided, with PresidentBashar al-Assad expected to stay, with thehelp of the Russians and Iranians. IranianIslamic Revolutionary Guard Corps(IRGC) and Hezbollah-backed militias aretoday already prevailing interest groups inlarge parts of Syria, with Tehran alsowielding significant power in Iraqi andLebanese politics along with running aindirect war in Yemen. The recent failedKurdish referendum also saw Iran’s influ-ence shine through over contentionsbetween Baghdad and Erbil regarding thecontrol of Kirkuk after its liberation fromISIS, while the Saudi — Qatar diplomat-ic standoff pushed Doha to increase itsengagements with Iran as well.

Despite collusion of regional interests,the exact reasons and future outcomes ofthis purge remain unclear. The narrativeof an anti-corruption drive remainsstrong, but also begs the question whetherthis is the start of greater transparency inSaudi Arabian affairs or greater turmoil.Riyadh is banking on US PresidentDonald Trump to back it to the hilt, specif-ically against Iran, on the pretext ofwhich its regional overtures could be mar-keted as legitimate political tinkering toan often-naive new White House. Howthis purge plays out in reality, is anyone’sguess at the moment.

(The writer is an Associate Fellow withthe Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi)

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Sir — This refers to the report,“Demo, GST twin blow to econo-my” (November 8). Aware that a for-mer Prime Minister cannot be seenas rabble-rousing, but speaking‘with a sense of deep responsibility’,Former Prime Minister ManmohanSingh, once nicknamed‘Maunmohan’ by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, has delivered themost comprehensive and stringentcritique of the Union Government,declaring it a failure with ‘both thehead and the heart’.

One thing that the ModiGovernment is well-known for isthe art of obfuscation. From polit-ical messaging, managing head-lines, juggling numbers, blurringfacts and changing the narrative tostupefy people, the Governmenthas often done its best to deflectattention by weaving its own storyto score political points. The casewith demonetisation is no differ-ent. Claiming that it has served allits goals, the Government is cele-brating the first anniversary ofdemonetisation as anti-blackmoney day. However, all availabledata proves that demonetisationwas an epic failure.

P ArihanthSecunderabad

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Sir— This refers to the editorial,“Was it worth it?” (November 08).I thought, in our country, we havetwo national anniversaries that pro-vide unquestionable occasions forjoy and celebrations: Independenceand Republic Day — virtually allother festivity is religion-linked.

Now, probably unique to thiscountry are politically-generatedblack days: June 25, 1975, when theEmergency was imposed and whatis now being flayed in some sectionstoday ‘one-year after demonetisation’.

There is a common link — both‘actions’ were and are hailed by theGovernment of the day. Neither con-tention was lapped up on the peo-ple, but the latter has been accept-ed in some quarters. Emergency isnow accepted as a national shame,the jury is still “out” on November8, 2016. But it was the common cit-izen who is the worst hit. How the“celebration versus condemnation”will play out remains to be seen, onethat might ‘sting’ beyond Gujaratand Himachal Pradesh.

JS AcharyaHyderabad

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Sir — This refers to editorial, “Don’tdebut with a dud” (November 4).Actor-turned politician KamalHaasan’s entry into politics is no sur-prise as film stars entering politicsin Tamil Nadu is not new. The Stateitself has seen five Chief Ministersfrom the cinema world. But whatTamil Nadu needs today is a right-eous, no-nonsense person.

With fingers crossed, onewonders if Haasan, in his newpolitical avatar, can easily essay thecharacter of a politician withoutbeing coerced to compromise hisvalues and also direct people toperform their respective roles tothe best of their abilities.

TS Karthik Chennai

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While all eyes are on the out-come of the GujaratAssembly poll on

December 18, (the home State ofPrime Minister Narendra Modiand BJP chief Amit Shah), the tinymountain State of HimachalPradesh is no less important, politically.

If the ruling Congress retainspower this year, it would give a bigmoral boost to the party. And if itis a win for the BJP, it would meanthat the winning streak for the partycontinues. So, stakes are high forboth parties which have been traditionally alternating in power inthe State.

It is, in fact, a direct fight asthere is no third factor, like former

Telecom Minister Sukh RamSharma’s Himachal Vikas Congressin 1998 and 2003 and the BahujanSamaj Party in 2007, which fieldedcandidates in almost every seat. In2012, again, there was anotherparty, the Himachal Lokhit Party,started by former State BJP presi-dent Maheshwar Singh.

Unable to find any strong leaderto replace Chief Minister VirbhadraSingh, the Congress has projectedthe 83-year-old warhorse as itschief ministerial face. Singh hasproved his worth over the past fivedecades but will he hold sway in theState? He is fighting a battle for sur-vival and also to establish his sonVikramaditya Singh, who is contest-ing from Shimla rural.

While the Congress has beenconcentrating on its re-emergencein Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh hasbeen left to the mercy of VirbhadraSingh, who is facing corruptioncharges in the Delhi High Court.

The Chief Minister has beencampaigning single-handedly, con-ducting 15 to 20 meetings in two to

three constituencies almost everyday. Singh is old and facing stronganti-incumbency.

Second, the campaign has beena very low profile. Third, seniorCongress leaders seem to havegiven a miss to visit the State.Except three rallies by Congress vicepresident Rahul Gandhi and fre-quent visits by former UnionMinister Anand Sharma, who hailsfrom the State, the campaign hasbeen really pathetic.

The Congress does not evenhave a war room and Singh is notwilling to spend money for a losingState. This has led to Prime MinisterNarendra Modi making snideremarks in his campaign rallies (hehas done seven rallies so far).Taking a dig at the Congress, Modisaid, “No senior congress leadercame here to campaign… Theyhave the left the field leaving every-thing on fate”.

The BJP, on the other hand, hasnominated former Chief MinisterPrem Kumar Dhumal as its chiefministerial face. The tilting of the

dominant Rajput votes, (38 percent) towards Singh led to a last-minute decision to declare Dhumalas the chief ministerial candidate.

Dhumal is also in his seventies.He is fighting his battle for survivalas he had been sidelined after hisdefeat in the 2012 Assembly poll.Interestingly, both Singh andDhumal are seeking re-electionfrom new seats and that is not goingto be easy for them.

With no dearth of funds, theBJP has electrified its campaign,blending traditional rallies, news-paper advertisements, spots onradio and television as well as vis-ible social media campaign to woovoters. It has several vehiclesmounted with huge televisionscreens for campaign and streetplays. It is also building an alterna-tive narrative to the Congress pollcampaign, touting the PrimeMinister as its mascot.

Personal attacks and negativecampaign dominate the elections inHimachal Pradesh. Contenders,who had alternated for two decades

in power, have tailored their respec-tive campaigns around corruptionscandals against each other. Thecontest hinges on the twin-pollplanks of corruption and development.

Both sides have fielded million-aires as data shows that out of the338 candidates in the fray, 158 (47per cent) are crorepatis. Dhumal isalso battling the party’s decision tofield more than two dozen candi-dates with criminal cases.

A confident Dhumal believesthat the wind is favour of the BJP.The BJP has also launched the“Hisab Mange Himachal” cam-paign, in which it is seeking answersfrom Congress MLAs. The BJP isalso upbeat because it has won themunicipal corporation elections inShimla for the first time, which isconsidered to be the stronghold ofthe Congress.

The ruling Congress inHimachal Pradesh has made manypromises in its manifesto. It haspledged to strengthen the farmsector by granting interest-free

loans to farmers, creation of 1.50lakh jobs in the Government sectorand free laptops to 50,000 collegestudents. It also claims to have hadfulfilled 95 per cent of poll promis-es and would implement theremaining promises and freshpromises in the next term, if votedto power.

But the Congress faces anti-incumbency, internal fights,lack of development, lack of funds.The BJP has promised a ‘Gudiya’fund, on the lines of the NirbhayaFund. It has also promised a 24/7helpline, apart from a safety app anda women’s police force. Both partiesare, however, silent on the intermit-tent network connectivity in rural areas.

On balance, if the BJP wins, itwould be the 20th State in its kitty.Polls are always unpredictable andHimachal Pradesh is no exception.It all depends on whom DameLuck favours.

(The writer is a senior politicalcommentator and syndicated columnist)

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China has once again throwna ‘technical’ spanner in theglobal effort to banPakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) mili-

tant Maulana Masood Azhar. This isthe fourth time in a row that China hasblocked sanctioning of terrorists by theAl Qaeda Sanctions Committee of theUnited Nations Security Council(UNSC). Not just Azhar, Beijing hasalso been shielding Hizbul Mujahideenchief Syed Salahuddin at the UNSC.Salahuddin was recently designated asa global terrorist by the United States.The US has also prohibited its citizensfrom engaging in financial transactionswith Pakistan-based terror groups —Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT), JeM andtheir frontal groups.

China claims that there is no con-sensus on the listing of Azhar andSalahuddin, as there is not enough evi-dence against them. However, there issufficient evidence for those who havean open eye. As for China, it does notwant to see the obvious in order to pro-tect its ‘all-weather friend’ despiteknowing fully that Pakistan is the‘mothership’ of terror attacks in notonly in India and Afghanistan but alsoacross the entire world. Azhar himselfhas been constantly giving statementsabout his role in the terror attack inIndia. There is an Interpol Red CornerNotice against him. The IndianGovernment has submitted dossiersagainst him at the UN and to Pakistan.

There is ample proof available. Butby remaining in denial mode, China isnot only siding with the rogue but isalso undermining itself and its inten-tion to join global efforts to combat ter-rorism. Sooner or later, the heat mayturn on China and it may be left aloneto fend for itself. Already, the IslamicState (IS), in a first direct threat toChina, has pledged to “shed blood likerivers”. China’s hope of using the goodoffice of Pakistani friends in pacifyingterror groups against it may not work,as it did not help when two Chinese cit-izens were killed in Pakistan.

Already from Paris to Riyadh,Rome to New York, and London toBarcelona — Pakistani hands in terroris getting proved beyond doubt. Lastyear, French authorities filed terrorcharges against two men, including onePakistani, Mohammad Usman, whowas suspected to be a member of theIS group that massacred 130 people inParis in November 2015.

This came around the time whenSaudi Arabia too had zeroed onPakistan nationals for terror attacks onthe US Consulate in Jeddah in July2016. Saudi Arabia had detained threePakistanis in this connection. In a state-ment, the Saudi Ministry of InteriorSecurity said, “The suicide bomberwho blew himself after the mid-nightof Sunday (July 4, 2016) in Jeddah was

expatriate Abdullah Gulzar Khan, aPakistani national. He was born inPakistan on September 15, 1981, andresided in Jeddah with his wife and herparents. He came to the Kingdom 12years ago to work as a private driver.”

The US is currently fighting anextradition battle with Pakistan over19-year-old terror suspect TalhaHaroon, accused of planning to carryout Paris-style attacks on “heavilypopulated areas” in New York City in2016. Besides, in May 2010, a Pakistaniimmigrant in the US, Faisal Shahzad,accused of planting a car bomb inTimes Square, confessed to his crime.

In September this year, police inSpain arrested a Pakistani man sus-pected of “promoting terrorism andmilitant propaganda” on social medianetworks. According to Spain’s InteriorMinistry, this 25-year-old Pakistaniwas part of a cell that also had threemore Pakistanis who were arrested inLleida in 2016.

In June this year, the Londonpolice shot dead a Pakistani-bornBritisher, Khuram Butt, who went ona rampage, killing several near theLondon Bridge. In 2015, the Italianpolice arrested more than 18 foreignnationals, many of whom werePakistanis, on the charge of involve-ment in jihadi activities in the coun-try and were planning an attack on theVatican. It was suspected that themoney to the jihadis were sent throughhawala channels and funds were col-lected under the garb of ‘religious pur-poses’ in Pakistan.

The terror attack in December2016 in Berlin’s Christmas market toohad its threads connected to a Pakistani

national, who was later released for lackof evidence. However, the attackbrought under radar the possibleinvolvement of Pakistanis in the terrorattacks taking place worldwide.

“Incident in Berlin has once againbrought into focus the alarmingprospect of men of Pakistani originrepeatedly perpetrating acts of terrorworldwide, and the fear among nationsin Europe that they are extremely vul-nerable to being exposed to 2008Mumbai-style terror attacks byPakistan-based terrorist outfits such asthe LeT, whose tentacles have beenfound to have spread across the conti-nent by security agencies. In Europe,security agencies in countries likeFrance, Germany Austria and Italy areincreasingly unearthing the presence ofterrorists with links to Pakistan,” AFPwrote in its report after the Berlin attack.

The report added that groups likeLeT and its front organisation Jamaat-ud-Dawa’h (JuD), which carry out theiractivities unhindered in Pakistan,instruct Muslim youth in extremist ide-ology to carry out jihad against theWest, and that these youth are then ille-gally pushed into different countries totake forward the objectives of the groupto radicalise European Muslims anduse them for terror attacks.

With several terror threads con-necting with Pakistan, countries theworld over are alarmed by the presenceof Pakistanis. In fact, Pakistani nation-als were recently attacked in Greece, acountry which has already starteddeporting illegal Pakistani migrants forthe fear of spreading terrorism.

The US has already tightened itsnoose over Pakistan. The Donald

Trump Administration has retainedPakistan’s name in its list of nationswhich provide “safe havens” to terror-ists and has directly blamed Pakistan-based terror outfits like LeT and JeMfor conducting attacks against Indiawho “continue to operate, train, organ-ise and fundraise inside Pakistan.”

According to a report in TheDawn, the US recently shared withPakistan a list with details “beyond justnames” of 20 terrorist groups like LeT,JeM, and Harkat-ul-Mujahideen(HuM), Hizbul Mujahideen, HaqqaniNetwork, that US believes are operat-ing from its soil to target India andAfghanistan.

The Indian security forces recent-ly gunned down Azhar’s nephew TalhaRashid. Sooner or later, Azhar too willmeet the same fate. Till that happens,designation of Azhar and Salahuddinby the UNSC is important to controltheir activities. Many countries havealready started banning these men andtheir outfits. In such a scenario, Chinashielding Pak terrorists may not workmuch beyond mere ego satisfaction.Such a step by Beijing only underminesits own commitment to terrorism.Already there are questions about itsintention after fugitive ULFA leaderParesh Barua was spotted living com-fortably within Chinese the territory.

China has to go beyond makingspeeches and signing joint declarationscondemning terrorism or soon it mayfind itself isolated as Pakistan is today.Beijing may be an expert in ChineseCheckers but with Pakistan, it mustkeep in mind its chequered history.

(The writer is Senior Editor, The Pioneer)

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India’s demand for gold in the thirdquarter (July-September) 2017 fell

24 per cent to 145.9 tonnes as com-pared to overall demand for the cor-responding quarter in 2016, a WorldGold Council (WGC) report showedhere on Thursday. In 2016 Q3 thedemand for gold was 192.8 tonnes.

“India's gold demand was down...as the newly introduced Goods &Services Tax (GST) and anti-moneylaundering legislation (AML) aroundjewellery retail transactions deterredgold buyers,” said SomasundaramPR, Managing Director, India, WGC.

After three consecutive quartersof growth, jewellery demand fell by25 per cent to 115 tonne y-o-y in Q3and bar and coin demand fell by 23per cent to 31 tonne. “The drop canbe attributed partly to some advancebuying in Q2 (April-June) to pre-empt the introduction of GST inQ3,” he said.

“However, with the industry'sgradual transition to GST proceed-ing on expected lines, and theremoval of AML legislation, demandduring the festive season seems toshow clear signs of recovery in Q4.

This is also underpinned by thefaster growth in imports ahead ofdemand, and price factors in themarket,” Somasundaram added.

Global gold demand in Q3 2017was 915 tonnes, a drop of 9 per centcompared with the same period in2016, according to the World GoldCouncil's latest Gold Demand Trendsreport. This decline was led by two keyfactors: a softer quarter in the jewellerysector and significantly lower inflowsinto exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

India's Q3 2017 gold demandvalue was �38,540 crore, down by 30per cent in comparison to Q3 2016(�55,390 crore). The report said thetotal investment demand for Q32017 was down by 23 per cent at 31tonnes in comparison to Q3 2016(40.1 tonne).

Total gold recycled in India in Q32017 was 26.7 tonne, as compared to25.7 tonne in Q3 2016. In 2017, fullyear market expectations of golddemand in India is in the range of650-750 tonnes.

“Headwinds for demand contin-ue though, following various mea-sures since early 2016 to boost trans-parency, and therefore we expect fullyear demand in 2017 to be wellbelow the 5-year average, our estimatebeing between 650 to 750 tonnes, thelower end of the range being morelikely,” Somasundaram added.

NEW DELHI: The ED is inves-tigating over 3,700 cases ofmoney laundering and hawalatransactions, involving taintedassets worth �9,935 crore, aspart of its action against blackmoney generated post demon-etisation, an official report saidon Thursday.

The central probe agencyalso carried out a “risk assess-ment” of these cases, regis-tered post the note ban onNovember 8 last year, andfound that a majority of (43 percent) the financial crimes werecarried out by perpetratingbank frauds and cheating finan-cial institutions through a mazeof shell firms.

The other category ofpost-note ban financial crimesbeing probed by theEnforcement Directorate (ED)include cases of corruption (31per cent), drugs and narcoticstrade (6.5 per cent), arms andexplosives (4.5 per cent) andothers (8.5 per cent).

ED Director Karnal Singhsaid that the agency was “com-mitted to working against themenace of black money andcorruption and to bring pro-

fessionalism in its working”.The agency had registered

and was probing a total of 3,758cases (3,567 under forex lawsand 191 under the anti- moneylaundering act), issued 777 showcause notices and attachmentorders and has conducted 620searches since November 8 lastyear to September.

The total value of assetsand forex violation amountinvolved in these cases standsat �9,935 crore with theagency attaching assets worth�5,335 crore under thePrevention of MoneyLaundering Act (PMLA) andissuing notices under the FEMAinvolving an amount of �4,600crore, the report said. PTI

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The GST Council maytoday consider reducingitems in the 28 per cent tax

slab and slash rates for daily useitems, plastic products and hand-made furniture as it looks to pro-vide relief to consumers.

Four months after theGoods and Services Tax (GST)was rolled out, the panel head-ed by Union Finance MinisterArun Jaitley will look at themost comprehensive overhaulof rates, easing returns filingand providing more relief tosmall and medium enterprises,official sources said.

The 23rd meeting of theCouncil, being held here, willalso deliberate on the suggestionsmade by Assam FinanceMinister Himanta Biswa Sarma-headed GoM to cut tax rates forthe composition scheme busi-nesses to 1 per cent and lowerrates for non-AC restaurants.

The Council, comprisingstate finance ministers, is alsoset to review the GST returnsfiling cycle and make it tax-payer friendly.

The Council may todayrationalise rates in sectorswhere the total incidence oftaxation has gone up because

the goods were either exemptfrom excise or attracted lowerVAT rates under the previousindirect tax regime.

As the Council tries toaccommodate industry concernson tax rates, after estimating theimpact on revenue, a rationali-sation of items in the 28 per centtax bracket is expected.

“Most of the daily-use itemslike shampoo could be loweredto 18 per cent. Tax rate on itemslike furniture, electric switchesand plastic pipes could berelooked at,” an official said.

Besides, making the com-position scheme more attractiveis on the agenda and as per theGroup of Ministers (GoM) rec-ommendations, the Councilmay decide to allow business-es in inter-state trade to opt forthe arrangement.

The GoM had also sug-

gested slashing tax rate to 1 percent for manufacturers andrestaurants opting for the schemefrom 2 per cent and 5 per cent,respectively.

It was in favour of doingaway with the tax rate distinc-tion between AC and non-ACrestaurants, those which arenot covered under the compo-sition scheme and tax them ata flat 12 per cent.

Current ly, non-ACrestaurants are taxed at 18per cent. It also suggestedthat eating out at hotels thathave room tariff of morethan �7,500 should attract auniform 18 per cent rateinstead of any separate cate-gory for 5-star hotel, whichcurrently falls under the 28per cent bracket.

With regard to traders, theGoM came up with a two-

pronged approach for taxationunder the composit ionscheme. It suggested thattraders who want to excludesale proceeds of tax-free itemsfrom turnover can pay 1 percent GST. However, for thosewho pay tax on total turnover,the tax rate has been proposedat 0.5 per cent.

While a regular taxpayerhas to pay taxes on a month-ly basis, a composition sup-plier is required to file onlyone return and pay taxes ona quarterly basis.

With a view to easing com-pliance burden of taxpayers,the Council is also going toreview the requirement of fil-ing three returns every monthunder the GST set-up.

Businesses have to filereturns in GSTR-1, GSTR-2and GSTR-3 forms for everymonth. These forms detail out-ward supplies of taxable goodsand/or services, inward sup-plies for claiming input taxcredit and monthly returns.

The review follows busi-nesses complaining about prob-lems in matching invoiceswhile filing July returns.Businesses have also complainedof trouble in invoice matchingwhile filing GSTR-2.

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Aparliamentary panel onThursday sought to know

from finance ministry officials ifthe objectives of note ban couldhave been achieved by othermeans, and also decided to callrepresentatives of union min-istries and states to assess theimpact of demonetisation,sources said.

The ParliamentaryStanding Committeeon Finance, headedby former ministerand senior Congressleader M VeerappaMoily, has beenlooking into demon-etisation, which wasannounced by thegovernment onNovember 8 lastyear, and its impacton the economy.

Economic AffairsSecretary SubhashChandra Garg, FinancialServices Secretary Rajiv Kumarand CBDT Chairman SushilChandra today apprised thecommittee on various aspects ofthe note ban, sources said.

The ministry officials havebeen asked to give opinion on

alternative ways to meet theobjectives of demonetisation,which included checkingblack money, curbing terrorfunding and promoting digi-talisation of payments.

Members expressed con-cerns over demonetisation'simpact on ‘Brand India’ as thecountry has now ceased to be theworld's fastest growing majoreconomy, they said.

GDP growth inthe first quarter ofthe fiscal slowed toa three-year low of5.7 per cent.

Sources furthersaid members feltthat more inputs wereneeded to study theimpact of demoneti-sation. It was decidedto call representativeof various ministries,like agriculture andcommerce.

Further, the panelhas decided to seek view of stategovernments on ramificationsof note ban. While briefing thepanel earlier, RBI GovernorUrjit Patel had said the coun-try's infrastructure is not fullygeared for handling digital pay-ments, sources added.

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Public sector oil major HindustanPetroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) on

Thursday posted its second quarter netprofit with a significant jump of 147 percent to �1,735 crore due to higher refin-ery margins and inventory gains. Thecompany had its net profit of �701crore in the same period a year ago,according to HPCL Chairman andManaging Director Mukesh K Surana.

The company earned $7.61 onturning every barrel of crude oil intofuel in the quarter as compared to $3.23per barrel gross refining margin in thesame period a year ago. “Throughputat both our refineries totalled 4.64 mil-lion tonnes as compared to 4.04 mil-lion tonnes last year,” Surana said.

Also, the company had an inven-tory gain of �792 crore in the quarteras compared to an inventory loss of�550 crore. The firm’s gross salesincreased to �54,153 crore duringJuly-September from �47,750 crore inthe same period last year. “The increasein profit is due to higher crudethroughput, better refinery margin,higher domestic market sales andinventory gains against inventory losscompared to the corresponding peri-od of last year,” he added.

During July-September 2017, thedomestic sales of petroleum productsincreased 4.6 per cent to 8.37 milliontonnes with petrol sales rising 7.1 percent and diesel 4.4 per cent. “HPCLcontinues to be No. 1 lube marketer ofIndia and has become the first oil com-pany from India to mark its presencein the lubricant market in Myanmarwith launch of HP lubricants in twomajor cities of the country,” he said.

Surana said as petrol, diesel and jetfuel (ATF) have been kept out of theGST, the company suffered a loss of�90 crore as it was unable to takecredit of tax paid on input. He alsosaid the expansion of Mumbai andVizag refineries are on track.

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The Government onThursday said it has asked

state-owned SAIL and theworld's largest steelmakerArcelorMittal to expedite set-ting up of their proposed jointventure for a �5,000-croreauto-grade steel plant.

“I think they (both the par-ties) have set certain timelines.They are moving on thosetimelines. We have asked themto expedite it (the proposedjoint venture),” Steel JointSecretary Sunil Barthwal saidhere. He was speaking toreporters on the sidelines ofIndia Steel Summit 2017organised by Assocham.

When asked about theproposed joint venture,Barthwal said, “Both the par-

ties are negotiating the finalagreement. So, as soon as thatis finalised they should comewith it”, Steel Authority ofIndia (SAIL) and ArcelorMittalin May 2015 entered into amemorandum of understand-ing (MoU) to explore the pos-sibility of setting up an auto-grade steel manufacturingfacility under a joint venture inIndia.

There were some technical

issues with regard to the JVwhich the Government is try-ing to sort out, the official said.

The much-awaited jointventure will also focus on pro-ducing specialised grade steelproducts for defence, space andautomobiles. The proposed JVwill construct a cold rollingmill and other downstreamfinishing facilities in India,touted as one of the fastest-growing automotive markets in

the world with productionexpected to double between2014 and 2020, from 3.6 mil-lion units to 7.3 million units.

A task force team com-prising representatives fromboth SAIL and ArcelorMittalhas been working on detaileddue diligence and prelimi-nary feasibility study and allother issues for setting upthe joint venture company.

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Stocks got back to consolidationmode in a see-saw session on

Thursday as the Sensex closedhigh after two sessions of fall,ahead of the outcome of the GSTCouncil meet amid a good set ofearnings from Tata Motors.Expectations that the GSTCouncil may offer relief to somesectors through reduction in taxrates at its meeting on Friday sup-ported the rebound, traders said.

The 30-share Sensex,which had lost 512.38 points inthe previous two sessions,edged up 32.12 points, or 0.10per cent, to close at 33,250.93after trading between 33,463.80and 33,111.54. During the day,the benchmark swung almost350 points (both sides). The50-share NSE Nifty ended flat,up 5.80 points, or 0.06 per cent,at 10,308.95. Intra-day, ittouched a high of 10,368.45

and a low of 10,266.95.“Renewed buying in con-

sumer durables restricted fur-ther fall in the market onexpectations of reducing taxesfor products coming under 28per cent GST tax bracket.Albeit, investors are watchfulahead of key domestic macrosCPI inflation and IIP data andglobal oil price fluctuation toget the direction,” said VinodNair, Head of Research, GeojitFinancial Services.

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State Bank of IndiaChairman Rajnish Kumar

on Thursday said that thereis limited space for furthereasing of the lending rate. Itseems so, he said in reply toa question if the rate cut cycleis over for now.

“If you look at the bondyields, they have gone up inthe recent past. So, I thinkthe headroom available forcutting down the interestrates, both deposit and lend-ing (seems limited). Depositrate unless you cut you can-not cut lending rate ... Fortime being we are in formuch more stable interestrate,” he said.

Last week, the country'slargest lender State Bank ofIndia (SBI) reduced its lend-ing rate for home and autoloans by 0.05 percentagepoint. To a question, if recap-italisation in public sectorbanks by Government couldlead to increase in interest

rate, he said, ‘quite possible’.There may be 10-15 basis

point spike following theissuance of recapitalisationbonds leading to an increasein yield, he said on the side-lines of an event organised bythe Bhartiya Yuva ShaktiTrust (rpt) Bhartiya YuvaShakti Trust here.

Last month, the govern-ment unveiled �2.11 lakhcrore two-year roadmap forstrengthening NPA-plaguedpublic sector banks, whichinclude recapita l i sat ionbonds, budgetary support,and equity dilution.

The programme entails

mobilisation of capital, withmaximum allocation in thecurrent year through bud-getary provisions of �18,139crore, and recapitalisationbonds to the tune of �1.35lakh crore over the next twoyears.

The balance wi l l beraised by banks from themarket by di lut ingGovernment equity. The gov-ernment’s equity dilutionwould help banks raise about�58,000 crore.

The Government equity,as per the current policy,can come down to 52 percent in state-owned banks.

NEW DELHI: SAIL registered21 per cent growth in net salesrevenue which stood at �13,442crore for the 2nd quarter ofFY17-18 (Q2FY18) as against�11,080 in CPLY. It ’s emphasison increasing the share of highvalue products in its basket hasbegun to positively influencerevenue earnings.

SAIL recorded 4 per centgrowth in domestic sales inH1FY18 (Apr-Sept'17) with 21per cent improvement in sales ofhigh value products like ColdRolled and galvanised products.There has also been a sizeable 30per cent improvement in sales ofrailway products duringH1FY'18.

Registering positive EBITDAfor the sixth consecutive quarter,SAIL achieved EBITDA of �967crore before exceptional expens-es in Q2FY'18, recording agrowth of more than 400 per centagainst an EBITDA of �192crore during CPLY, and postinga cash profit pre-depreciation andexceptional items of �323 crorein Q2FY18. Notably, the EBIT-

DA for Q2FY18 is higher than ofthe entire fiscal 16-17. SAIL'sEBITDA margin to net sales rev-enue ratio stands at 7.1 per centin Q2FY18 as against 1.7 per centin CPLY, indicating higher effi-ciencies across the productionprocesses and value chain.

Reiterating the need tochange product mix to make wayfor more value added and dif-ferentiated products, Chairman,SAIL, PK Singh said, “Our focuson reducing operating cost ofassets, prudent finance manage-ment, efficient productionprocess and increased share ofvalue added and branded prod-ucts is beginning to show results.

The products from our mod-ernised mills will continue toclaim a large share of steel usagein several national infrastructureprojects. In line with theGovernment's strategies forimproving infrastructure, SAIL isaiming to supply large quantitiesof steel in prestigious projectsincluding Sagarmala, upcomingBharatmala project and railwayexpansion etc,” he added. PNS

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NEW DELHI: Established telcoslike Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellularhave asserted that there can be nocase for holding spectrum auctionsor even its consultation process inthe prevailing scenario where theindustry has been bruised by fallingrevenue and high levies. NewcomerReliance Jio, however, said the auc-tion schedule may be drawn up atthe discretion of the regulator andthe Government, but that long-termvisibility is imperative for advancedplanning to be undertaken by telcos.

Jio said the telecom depart-ment should provide a forward-looking timeframe for availabilityof spectrum for the next 10 yearsacross multiple bands. The MukeshAmbani company has also strong-ly argued in favour of doing awaywith the 50 per cent in-bandspectrum cap, saying it has lost rel-evance as auctioned spectrum isnow technology neutral. PTI

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MUMBAI: Flagging concernsabout corporate governance laps-es, Sebi chief Ajay Tyagi onThursday advocated equal voice forindependent and shareholder direc-tors on a company's board even ashe emphasised on the need foreffective enforcement of rules. Heasserted that the need of the houris to have ‘a back to basics recon-ceptualisation of what sound cor-porate governance means’ and adebate away from vested interests.

His remarks assume signifi-cance at a time when the UdayKotak panel has suggested sweep-ing changes to the corporate gov-ernance structure at listed firms. Sebichief said shareholders would expectproactive measures from the firm’sboard to further the interest of thefirm. “While doing so, the directorsmay have to be creative, take chancesand may make mistakes as well. Inthe context of taking these decisions,one important aspect is to ensure thatno reasonable suspicion exists thatthe mistakes made by the board aremalafide,” he noted. PTI

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MUMBAI:Senior citizens of morethan 70 years of age and the differ-ently-abled can look forward to avail-ing of basic banking services, rightfrom the comfort of their home. TheRBI on Thursday asked banks toprovide doorstep banking facilitiesto senior citizens of more than 70years of age and differently-abled per-sons by December this year.

Banks have been directed thatsenior citizens and specially-abledpersons, including the visually-impaired, should be provided basicservices like pick-up and delivery ofcash, chequebooks and demanddrafts at their residence. Issuing anotification in this regard, the RBIsaid ‘it has been observed’ that thereare occasions when banks discour-age or turn away senior citizens anddifferently-abled persons from avail-ing banking facilities in branches.

“... In view of the difficultiesfaced by senior citizens of more than70 years of age and differently-abledor infirm persons (having medical-ly certified chronic illness or dis-ability) including those who are visu-ally impaired, banks are advised tomake concerted effort to providebasic banking facilities...,” the RBI saidin a communication to banks,

including small finance and pay-ments banks.These facilities shouldinclude pick-up of cash and instru-ments against receipt, delivery of cashagainst withdrawal from accounts,

delivery of demand drafts, submis-sion of Know Your Customer(KYC) documents and LifeCertificates at the premises or resi-dence of such customers. PTI

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MUMBAI: The RBI onThursday asked NBFCs toensure that no coercive actionis taken against borrowers dur-ing recovery of loans by theiragents and said senior man-agement will be responsible forbreach of norms. The normsare part of the directions issuedby the RBI on ‘Managing Risksand Code of Conduct inOutsourcing of FinancialServices by NBFCs (Non-Banking Financial Companies)’.As per the directions, the out-sourcing of any activity byNBFC does not diminish itsobligations, and those of itsBoard and senior manage-ment, who have the ‘ultimateresponsibility’ for the out-sourced activity. PTI

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MUMBAI: The RBI onThursday came out with sim-plified norms for hedgingexchange rate risk underwhich companies can takeexposure of up to $30 millionon gross basis. The scheme ofsimplified hedging facilitywas first announced by theReserve Bank of India (RBI)in August 2016 and the draftscheme was released in April2017. "The facility is beingintroduced with a view to sim-plify the process for hedgingexchange rate risk by reduc-ing documentation require-ments, avoiding prescriptivestipulations regarding prod-ucts, purpose and hedgingflexibility, and to encourage amore dynamic and efficienthedging culture," said a RBInotification. PTI

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US President Donald Trumpon Thursday urged all

countries to stop arming,financing and trading with the“murderous” North Koreanregime even as he claimed thatChina had a solution to theKorean nuclear crisis.

Addressing a joint Pressconference with President XiJinping at the Great Hall of thePeople, Trump, on a three-dayvisit that began on Wednesday,said he and Xi had agreed notto replicate failed approaches toresolve the growing crisis.

North Korea figured major-ly on the agenda when Xi andTrump held talks at the GreatHall of the People. Trump indi-cated that he wanted China topressure North Korea to give upits nuclear designs.

While Xi promised coop-eration and coordination,Trump said China had thesolution to the problem.

“Our meeting ... was excel-lent, discussing North Koreaand I do believe there is a solu-tion to that, as you do,” Trump

told Xi. “We have the capacityto solve world problems formany years to come.”

Xi said, “China is ready towork with the US to enhancecooperation and properly man-age the differences in a spirit ofmutual benefit.” He said the US

and China had “more coordi-nation and cooperation inNorth Korea nuclear issue andother world challenges. Rightnow China and US relations areat a new starting point”.

At the Press conference,Trump said all responsible

countries must join together tostop arming and financing andeven trading with the “mur-derous North Korean regime”.

“Today, we discussed ourmutual commitment to thecomplete denuclearisation ofNorth Korea. “We agreed on

the need to fully implement allthe Security Council resolu-tions on North Korea and toincrease economic pressureuntil North Korea abandons itsreckless and dangerous path.”

China is the North’s allyand its biggest trading partner.Washington believes thatBeijing has influence overPyongyang because of the closeties. Mao Zedong’s son diedfighting in Korea against theUS in the 1950s.

China says it will do what-ever possible to rein in Northwithin the regulated frameworkof the UN but is not in favourof unilateral sanctions againstthe reclusive country.

“As long as we stand togeth-er with others, if necessary

against those who threaten ourcivilisation, that threat willnever happen. It doesn’t evenhave a chance,” Trump said.“The entire civilised world mustunite to confront the NorthKorean menace and the entireworld is watching us right now.

“Together we have enoughpower to finally liberate thisregion and the world fromthis serious nuclear menace.But it will require a collectiveeffort, collective strength andcollective devotion to winningthe peace,” Trump added.

Tensions betweenWashington and Pyongyanghave escalated after NorthKorea’s test firing of missiles andconducting its most powerfulhydrogen test in September.

Trump said, “I don’t blameChina. Who can blame a coun-try that is able to take advan-tage of another country for thebenefit of its citizens? I giveChina great credit.”

The two countriesannounced memorandums ofunderstanding to increase tradeby $253 billion, which the lead-ers said was a sign of greatercooperation. The deals includepurchases of Boeing aircraft,Ford automobiles, US soybeansand joint development of liqui-fied natural gas in Alaska.

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Syria and its close ally Russiafaced harsh criticism on

Thursday at a meeting of theOrganisation for theProhibition of ChemicalWeapons following an investi-gation that blamed SyrianPresident Bashar Assad’s regimefor a sarin attack that killedabout 100 people in April.

At a closed-doors meetingof the chemical weaponswatchdog’s executive council,US representative Kenneth DWard said that Russia “contin-ues to deny the truth and,instead, collaborates with theAssad regime in a deplorableattempt to discredit” the jointUN-OPCW investigation.

The text of Ward’s state-ment was posted on the OPCWwebsite. Russia has denouncedthe results of the investigationinto the Khan Sheikhoun attackand vetoed a UN SecurityCouncil resolution to renew the

mandate of the JointInvestigative Mechanism,known as the JIM, whichexpires this month.

The OPCW has a teamcalled Fact Finding Mission,which investigates whetherchemical weapons have beenused in Syria. The JIM was setup by the Security Council toapportion blame for suchattacks.

Britain’s representative tothe OPCW, Peter Wilson, saidthe UN Security Councilshould renew the JIM’s man-date. “No ifs, no buts and noskimping on the mandate. Itmust be able to do its job,”Wilson said.

Ward, meanwhile, said themeeting in The Hague also hadto send a strong message con-demning the use of chemicalweapons.

“Let me be clear — inactionby this council is unacceptable,as it would severely damage thecredibility and effectiveness of

this organisation and theChemical Weapons Convention,and undermine the broaderframework of arms control andnon-proliferation,” he said.

Statements issued by the

OPCW’s Executive Council arenormally adopted by consen-sus, but that appears unlikely, given Russia’s criticismof the investigation and itsfindings.

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After months of lobbyingNATO allies to increase

their troop contributions andsupport to the war inAfghanistan, the alliance cameup short on Thursday, meetinga bit more than 90 per cent ofthe military requirementsmapped out by commanders,according to NATO officials.

US military leaders, how-ever, said they have beenencouraged by the continuing

discussions with severalnations, who may eventuallyagree to increase their com-mitments.

“Coming out of today, itwon’t be at 100 per cent today,”said US Army Gen. CurtisScaparrotti, NATO’s top mili-tary officer. “We’re still in dis-cussion with more than a fewnations that are looking at anincrease above the initial onegiven at the force generationconference. So, I’m encour-aged.”

Vatican City: Pope Francis is saying “Just Say No” to cigarettes.The Vatican announced on Thursday that it will no longer sell

cigarettes to employees in its duty free shop and supermarket —giving up an estimated 10 million euros ($11 million) a year in prof-it. Francis made the decision because “the Holy See cannot con-tribute to an activity that clearly damages the health of people,” theVatican said. A statement cited the WHO, which says smoking caus-es more than 7 million deaths annually around the globe.

A 2015 book based on leaked Vatican documents, “Avarice,”reported that cigarette sales bring in an estimated 10 million eurosa year to the Vatican City State and are the second-most impor-tant source of income after tax-free gas sales.

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Globalisation has pressedthe brightest workers from

poor Southeast Asian countriesto move overseas in a braindrain that must be reversed ifreal development is to beachieved, Philippine PresidentRodrigo Duterte said.

In an impassioned appealby a leader better known forexpletive-flecked outbursts,Duterte said the efforts ofpoorer countries to rise up thevalue chain are being undercutby mass migration of skilledworkers. “Globalisation to acertain extent has really dam-aged poor economies,” he saidin a speech to CEOs gatheredin Danang, Vietnam, ahead ofthe Asia-Pacific EconomicCooperation (APEC) summit.

By way of example he said,“the best of our young(Filipinos)... Tend to go to theplaces where the economy isthriving,” such as the US.

Brussels: The European Union’schief Brexit negotiator warnedBritain again that time is run-ning out to reach an agreement,as officials from the two sidesmet Thursday for an abbreviat-ed round of divorce talks.

While EU officials watchwith concern as crises overBrexit, sexual harassment andother issues rattle the UKGovernment, EU negotiatorMichel Barnier said “time ispressing.” In a speech in Rome,Barnier said EU leaders want-ed to keep up the dynamic oftalks “and I’m in the sameframe of mind. But the momentof real clarification is coming.”

Technical talks were beingheld on the first day of the two-day round, as the sides look tomove forward on the key issuesof Britain’s financial commit-ments, the status of Irish bor-ders and the future of citizenshit by Britain’s departure fromthe bloc.

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Lara Dutta, last seen as a lawyer in Azhar, isn’t afraidof trying something new. She charted out her career

on her own terms and created a niche for herself in thefilm industry. The former Miss Universe, actress and pro-ducer, whose credits include Housefull, Chalo Dilli andSingh is Bling, says that the reason she picks comediesis simple, “I love making people laugh! I am good at it.”

On surviving in Bollywood on her own terms, shesays, “I took the opportunities as they came and triedto do whatever best I could do with them. You learnsomething new everyday in this business.”

With all talk of sexual predators and harassment inthe film industry, Dutta says she has never faced thehazard herself but doesn’t deny its existence in the filmindustry. “I haven’t faced it ever in my career. It’s alsobecause I don’t think I have ever given the impressionto anybody that they could talk down to me or takeadvantage of me. I never wanted any project that badlyto be willing to compromise and take rubbish from any-one. I have been fortunate that I didn’t have to face itbut I do know that it exists very much even inBollywood the same way it exists in Hollywood.”

And she adds that it is long overdue that women takea stand against it. “I feel glad that today women are talk-ing about it. It will ensure that the change starts com-ing in, like it has already in Hollywood. Men can’t andshouldn’t be allowed to get away with doing such shame-ful deeds as they could before.”

Dutta and Mahesh Bhupathi’s production compa-ny, Bheegi Basanti Entertainment, drew eyeballs with thecritically acclaimed Chalo Dilli. Their next venture isan untitled film that will have an NRI single mother(essayed by Dutta) in search of an anonymous donor.It is being helmed by National Award-winning directorSushil Rajpal and stars Vinay Pathak opposite her. “Asa producer I pick content-driven films as they work wellfor me whereas as an actor I go for entertaining films.”

On forthcoming projects, she says, “I have just fin-ished filming an untitled movie with Sonakshi Sinha,Diljit Dosanjh, Boman Irani and Karan Johar. We haveanother one with Vinay Pathak on the floor.”

Dutta, who was in town to endorse a real estate bro-kerage service along with her husband and ace tennisplayer Mahesh Bhupati, says that she is particular whendeciding upon being the brand ambassador for anygroup. She says, “It’s really important for us to find brandsthat mirror the values that we want to have as a couple.It’s a good fit to associate with a leading brand in theworld.”

The Indo-Russian film exchange,which has gathered momentum

with the Moscow festival, is now man-ifesting itself through the Russian FilmDays, a showcase of contemporaryand classical Russian cinema that willtravel from Delhi to Mumbai and Goa.

Now in its third edition, organis-er Maria Lemesheva told us, “We’reexpecting to attract as much of theIndian audience as possible.Beginning today, we will be screeningfilms that traverse a melange of gen-res like comedy, thriller, drama, sci-fi and so on.”

The two-day extravaganza willbegin with a theatrical performancededicated to Raj Kapoor and his leg-endary film Mera Naam Joker.Lemesheva divulged the reasonbehind it: “We wanted to celebrate the45th anniversary of the screening ofMera Naam Joker in Russia. And that’swhy we decided to dedicate our per-formances to this movie and the leg-endary actor Raj Kapoor. The filmcontinues to be a brilliant example ofcooperation between our countriesand in its time was known for its cin-ematography.”

The event will highlight a science-fiction drama film Attraction and thehistorical drama Anna Karenina.Talking about the filtration processbehind the selection of films, she said,“During our selection process, themost important thing was the quali-

ty of the movie and the variety of filmviewers. So we didn’t try to find anypatriotic movie which hailed Russia.We wanted to show the best of con-temporary Russian cinema.”

Such cultural interactions betweenthe two countries enable an exchangeor free flow of ideas. “We’re expectingthat our festival will boost co-produc-

tion activities between Russia andIndia in the movie industry,” saidLemesheva.

Actors and directors will alsointeract with the audience, hold pressconferences and professional discus-sion during the festival.

Such interactive and live sessionsinculcate knowledge and awareness.“We’re doing our best to explain to theRussians as well as the Indian produc-ers and directors that together theycan achieve great success in both themarkets.”

On the changing trends in cine-ma in both the countries since the1970s, she said, “A lot has changedover the years, be it the technology oreven the way of distribution. This yearwe watched this fantastic movieBahubali, that was screened twice inMoscow. For India, we’ll also bring abrilliant Russian blockbuster calledAttraction that has new technology,actors as well as a new way of shoot-ing. But the emotions that we get incinema are the same.”

The films of the two countries dif-fer in certain aspects as well as sharea similar thread. “Indian and Russianfilms have different traditions, emo-tions, way of presentation but thethemes of all are common — love andhatred, pride and fear, striving for abetter world and overcoming difficul-ties. If one looks at the essence, thenwe are very similar.”

You might think that the life of an autowriter is pretty awesome right? Driving

fancy cars and travelling to exotic places.Well, it is pretty awesome but here are somefacts. First, you spend far too much timeinside a plane and running around airportstrying to make connections. Racial profil-ing at airports abroad? Well, I have a beardso that shit happens. Second, fancy hotelsin fancy places sure. But for one night usu-ally coupled with a wake-up call at five inthe morning, and if it is a Maruti drive, fourin the morning. And third, you usually endup driving an endless stream of mediocrity.I mean, they’re not bad cars you drive. Well,sometimes, yes, they’re horrible, but most-ly they’re ordinary. I mean, what can youdo to make a small diesel hatchback fun?Nothing.

But this past weekend I drove some-thing truly good fun, the new SkodaOctavia vRS. Oh, my God, this car was fun.I mean I’ve driven other Volkswagengroup cars with the same engine and powercombination, the Audi S3 primarily, but notin India. Yet this was something else. I’vealways had a soft spot for the SkodaOctavia, not just because I like its liftbackshape but because since its first generation,through the Laura and now third genera-tion car, it has been a superbly engineeredvehicle. I drove the current generation vehi-cle through 2,000 km in Uttar Pradeshahead of the 2014 general election and itis a wonderful long distance cruiser. I dohave some minor issues with the facelift,as the twin headlights are a bit too remi-niscent of the previous-generationMercedes E-Class, but when you have suchan engine, and you’re sitting inside, you for-get such niggles.

Let us come to the engine. You can geta lot more power from a lot of other carsbut I have a belief that for India, 250 horse-power or thereabouts is more than enoughpower. Now, the vRS has “just” 230 PS.

It is not always about power but the wayan engine delivers the power. And on thiscar the engine is sublime, because, thanksto the brilliant DSG automatic gearbox, thepower comes through whenever you needit. Put your foot down and the rev counteralmost skips to the high-end. It reallymakes you wonder just how strong themechanism behind the counter is, becauseyou really worry that it might breakone day. When you are pushedback in your seat and trav-elling at a rate of knotsthat seems scarcelybelievable, you

really don’t care. This car puts a smile onyour face.

The other changes make a differencetoo. A slightly adjusted suspension set-up,while harder than the regular Octavia, issuperbly adept, but it also allows you thatlittle bit of wiggle room when you throwthe car into a corner. The slightly wider reartrack, shorn with wider tires which protesta slight bit when you pull off such a stunt,lets you have supreme confidence in the car.There are some cosmetic changes as well,for example the blacked out alloys and radi-ator grille. Of course, like the first-gener-ation vRS, you get a rear spoiler, which sur-prisingly looks smart on the car, especial-ly if it is the red vRS that I drove.

Now usually with such power comesnot just great responsibility but great cost.Other cars with similar amounts of powerwould be cars like the BMW 330i GT,which have an on-road cost of close to �50lakh. So the shocker here is the cost of thevRS, which has an ex-showroom price ofjust above �25 lakh, putting it on the roadat a shade under �30 lakh. That is unbe-lievable value in my opinion, for a car thatis so much fun to drive. Sure, if you driveher hard, the vRS will return just 6-7 kmper litre, but on my regular commute a cou-ple of days, it returned a respectable 9.5 kmper litre. Had I been a bit softer, I’m surethat the vRS could easily manage 10 pluskm to the litre in daily use. You might endup spending a bit on tires though, althoughthe Hankooks she came with are a nice softcompound, grippy and quiet.

Frankly put, this is a car I could con-sider buying, now that Skoda India havelaunched a series of service packages fortheir vehicles and a four-year warranty. Andthe folks at Skoda assure me that theywould replace the springs on the revcounter and speedometer if they breakfrom overuse. Good then, that’s decided.

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You have heard of honey-moon but the latest in trav-el trends is that of a baby-

moon, which is a brief vacationtaken by would-be parents to relaxand bond before their baby isborn.

A recent survey has revealedthat 82 per cent of our pregnantwomen wish to go on a babymoonin their second trimester.

A leading tour operator hasreleased a survey on the newtrend. Around 1,000 women dis-cussed their requirements andwhat they would like during ababymoon across metro cities,including Mumbai, Delhi,Bengaluru and Kolkata. For 72 percent of expectant mothers, relax-ation is the primary reason to gearup for the big moment.

Given a choice, 65 per cent ofwomen wish to take an interna-tional babymoon. The would-bemothers are quite clear about whothey want to accompany themwith 77 per cent voting to go withtheir husbands only and not theentire family.

Beach destinations are themost preferred for 88 per cent ofthe women as they offer leisurewalks and languid scenic views.

The topmost priorities forthe couple while planning thebabymoon trip are safety, durationof travel and medical help.

Goa, Jodhpur, Maharashtraand Kerala have topped the list ofmost preferred domestic baby-moon destinations, whereasSeychelles, Thailand, Dubai and

Sri Lanka top the list of most pre-ferred international destinations.

Cuisine remains one of themost important aspects of thevacation with 65 per cent of thebabymoon takers wanting to tastelocal food over carrying packagedfood or even taking a chef along.

Naturally given the delicatecondition, 97 per cent of therespondents said that they wouldnot want to embark on an adven-ture trip. A majority of pregnanttravellers choose custom-madetours over group tours.

All-inclusive resorts are thefavourites with 75 per cent of theparticipants feeling it is best to

relax at one place. Hence multi-destination holidays are a strict no-no for the majority.

Close to 82 per cent of therespondents say they would opt fora vacation that stretches betweenfive and seven days with the restchoosing less than five days.Irrespective of the location, 85 percent would consider opting for atravel insurance.

Parenting is a huge responsi-bility which leaves couples with lit-tle time for themselves. Whilepregnant, parents are both excitedand nervous. A babymoon is thebest option to relax and unwind asit is their last child-free getaway.

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While smog-hit Delhiites shop for masksand air purifiers, little do they realisethat eating a healthy diet and certain

food items can help reduce the adverse effectsof toxic pollutants. One can have plenty offruits, vegetables, fish, whole grains and nutswhich protect the body against the ravages ofair pollution. Increase the intake of vitamin C,vitamin E and beta-carotene as they will helpin increasing immunity.

JAGGERY: We can have jaggery to flush outpollutants from lungs and toxins from the liver.Just replace processed sugar with jaggery in allhome-made preparations or consume jaggeryas it is. Consume it with sesame seeds and seethe combination work wonders for the respi-ratory system. Regular consumption can pre-vent problems like asthma and bronchitis.Jaggery mixed with onion juice is said to havean expectorant effect, useful during both wetand dry cough.

Mix turmeric and ghee to relieve cough andaid during asthma. During an asthmatic attack,turmeric with jaggery and butter may betaken to relieve symptoms. Haritaki along withjaggery, taken before bedtime and in themorning, is good for relieving phlegm.

Jaggery is a rich source of instant energy,as it is loaded with iron. Iron-rich foodimproves the haemoglobin level in blood,which in turn increases the oxygen-carryingcapacity of the blood. This cuts down the acuteeffects of pollution.

OLIVE OIL: It is said that the vita-min E in olive oil improveslung function. The fatty acidsin it are also helpful for reduc-ing inflammation. To getmaximum benefits, youcan include it in yourdiet through saladsas exposure toheat duringcooking couldchange its chem-ical compositionand make it losesome of its healthproperties.

FL AXSEED:Flaxseed is rich in anti-oxidants. It has high lev-els of phytoestrogens andomega 3 fatty acids. The anti-oxidant properties help to reduce

the symptoms of asthma and other allergic reac-tions. One can take flaxseed daily in smooth-ies, salads, yoghurt or add it to baked foods.

AVOCADO: Consuming foods such asavocado and spinach, both of which are highin vitamin E, can help counteract the effects ofcertain types of particulate pollution.

BROCCOLI: Consuming broccoli candecrease the ill effects of exposure to air pol-lution. Eating this vegetable cleanses the bodyof polluting substances. A research has shown

that some of the active ingredients foundin this vegetable can help

expunge some types of airpollutants

TOMATOES:Tomatoes have

lycopene, anantioxidant thatprotects againstrespiratory ill-

nesses, a super-food to combat

air pollutionC I T R U S

FRUITS: Citrusfruits such as oranges,

guava, kiwi, grapefruitand lemons are rich in

Vitamin C and boost immu-nity. An adequate quantity of

them in our daily diet is crucial for reducingthe harmful effects of smog as well as main-taining lung health.

GREEN TEA: It is known as a health bev-erage and its anti-oxidants can help rid yourbody of toxins.

Nihari is traditionally had on an empty stomach ornihaar muh. It is a slow-cooked stew that tosses in

all kinds of meats and bone marrow together. Till someyears ago, nihari was called garibon ka khana or poorman’s food and considered inappropriate for being servedto guests. Over the years, it has come to be treated as adelicacy and is even served at weddings.

According to popular legend, the workers who wereengaged in the construction of Shahjahanabad begantheir early mornings with this protein-rich breakfast sta-ple. This slow-cooked wholesome dish provided themsustenance for the day’s hard work. Over the centuries,various herbs, spices and chillies were added to it to giveit notable accents.

Nihari is traditionally made in a degh or cauldronfitted into a clay enclosure that uses coal or wooden logsfor fuel. The degh is sealed and the broth left to simmerovernight. It is said that a little leftover Nihari is mixedwith the fresh lot. This is called taar, believed to beresponsible for the unique flavour of the dish. I doubtif it is true but family elders would say that some Niharieateries boast of an unbroken taar going back to morethan a century!

In the old days, Nihari was never cooked at homeand was brought from famous eateries from the old city.However, over the years, it is now made at home. It isbest enjoyed with khamiri roti, the thick round yeastbread baked in a tandoor.

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He is expected to play amajor role during nextyear's tour of South

Africa and Cheteshwar Pujara isconfident that the upcoming SriLanka series will give him a"good opportunity" to prepare forthe tough assignment ahead.

"Obviously, next year's SouthAfrica series is something that isthere at the back of my mind.The upcoming Sri Lanka serieswill be a good opportunity toprepare for the South Africaassignment. I am confident ofdoing well," Pujara said during aninteraction.

Asked if he had startedpreparing for the South Africaseries, which starts with first Testin Cape Town on January 6,Pujara said: "The main prepara-tion will certainly start closer tothe series. But I believe once weassemble to play the Test seriesagainst Sri Lanka, there will besome serious discussions on theSouth African tour. There will bestrategies and plans in place."

Asked if he is keen doingsome special preparations for thebouncy pitches of South Africa,Pujara replied:"Like every series,I will be doing my own home-work. There are a a few areas thatI will like to work in the netsbefore the series. Those are veryspecific things but it will beunfair to reveal them as that's apart of the strategy."

Pujara had a fantastic outingagainst Sri Lanka few monthsback with scores of 153 and 133in the first two Tests at Galle andColombo.

Sri Lanka's bowling attack

wasn't upto the mark during thatseries but the Saurashtra right-hander will not like to be com-placent ahead of a new series.

"I agree that during the lastseries, Sri Lanka's bowling attackmay not been one of the best butTest runs never come easy. Youhave to fight for every run thatyou score in longer format.

"Also every series is a newseries. Your intensity does notchange according to the opposi-tion you play. Sri Lanka is also aninternational side and you haveto give them the same respect likeany other team," said the 29-year-

old, who has scored 4107 runs in51 Tests with 13 hundreds.

Recently, Pujara wentthrough a lean patch in first-classcricket -- nine successive inningsin first-class cricket (whichincludes four County matches forNorthamptonshire) without ahalf-century -- but not for oncewas he worried as he felt goodwhile batting.

"I always knew that a biginnings is just round the corner.When you know that you are bat-ting well, you can feel it. It wasabout one good innings and itcame against Jharkhand," added

Pujara.The 204 against Jharkhand

made him the Indian batsmanwith most number of doublehundreds (12) in first-class crick-et surpassing the legendary lateVijay Merchant (11). Late VijayHazare (11 double tons), SunilGavaskar and Rahul Dravid (10each) are behind him now.

"Actually, I didn't know aboutthe record while I was batting. Ionly came to know about it oncesecond day's play was over. I gota few text messages and came toknow that it was a nationalrecord. It was a good feeling

indeed knowing that there aresome great players on that list."

Along with Virat Kohli andAjinkya Rahane, Pujara has beena pillar of the Test squad, givingthe batting order much-neededsolidity.

Ask him if he can copyKohli's flamboyant style of bats-manship, Pujara said that it is notthe best thing to do.

"Each and every batsmanhas his own distinct style ofbatsmanship. It's of no use tryingto copy anyone else. Each andevery player has his ownstrengths and builds his gameaccordingly," concluded Pujara.

��8����������� ������������8�� ��Cheteswar Pujara scoredhis 43rd first-class hundred andSnell Patell his first, guidingSaurashtra to a comfortable 311for one at stumps on day one oftheir Ranji Trophy Group A matchagainst defending championsGujarat.

Pujara (115) and Patel (156)shared an unbeaten 252-run standafter new recruit Robin Uthappafell in the 24th over.

It was good match practice forPujara ahead of the Sri Lankaseries that begins with the first Testat the Eden Gardens fromNovember 16. The gritty right-hander faced 188 balls and hiseffort included 15 fours. Pujarahad broken Vijay Merchant'srecord of most double hundredsin first-class cricket by an Indianafter scoring 204 againstJharkhand last week.Patel too was impressivein his eighth first-classgame and played 277balls.

� ��� DC?D���

Sri Lanka skipper DineshChandimal dropped hints that

unlike five-pronged bowlingattack, which yielded resultsagainst Pakistan in the humid con-ditions in the UAE, he may revertto four-bowler theory againstIndia.

"Against Pakistan, we playedsix batters and five bowlers thatworked really well especially in theheat (in UAE). It was never easy toplay four bowlers and win a game.But India have got some reallygood bowlers, so we need to thinkabout that all-rounder position.We will see the pitch and come upwith our plans," Chandimal saidduring a media interaction.

It was a clean sweep for India(9-0 across formats) when theytravelled to Sri Lanka but sincethen the island nation beatPakistan 2-0 in an 'away' Test seriesbut lost 0-5 in the ODIs.

"We all know India are No 1team at the moment. They haveplayed some really good cricket inlast two years. We have done real-ly well against Pakistan. We didwell as a team. I am sure guys arelooking forward to take this chal-lenge," Chandimal said.

Chandimal accepted that play-ing India in India is a big challengebut he does not want to dwell onpast results and would rather lookforward.

"This will be a challengingseries for us. It's nice to be herewith the spectators, we love to playhere. I don't want to look back butlook forward. We have done wellversus Pakistan. The boys are in agood shape and we look forwardto take the challenge against India,"said the stylish right- hander.

Chandimal said that he hassome plans in place to tackle

Ravichandran Ashwin andRavindra Jadeja but he will not dis-close them.

"As a team, we have some-thing up our sleeves, we need toexecute that on the field then wecan compete with the Indianteam," he said as the visitors hadtheir first net session on the day.

Sri Lanka has been touringIndia for official Test matches since1982 but till date have not beenable to win a single Test matchleave alone series. Chandimalwants to change that knowing howbig a task that is.

"We have never won a Test inIndia, it's a dream for everyone.This is a first game we are playingin Kolkata. It's always a pleasureplaying in front of Kolkata spec-tators. We need to start well as ateam and looking forward."

����������������� �9�����7�Sri Lanka captain Dinesh

Chandimal was on Thursdayasked whether he sought anyblessing from "meyni" (sorcerer)ahead of their gruelling India tour

as team manager AsankaGurusinha promptly came to hisdefence to avoid any furtherembarrassment.

The Sri Lankan skipper hadstunned everyone last monthwhen with his witchcraft confes-sion that he had received a specialblessing from a "meyni" ahead oftheir surprise series sweep againstPakistan in UAE.

Team manager and former SriLankan batsman Gurusinhaplayed down the controversy andsaid they believe in performing onthe ground as they begin the serieswith the Eden Test fromNovember 16.

"He has answered some ques-tions back there. In cricket, yougot to get out there and performon the field... Each player has todo that. That's the way the SriLankan team believe.

"Yes, we have our own reli-gious beliefs like all of you. But atthe end of the day, you go thereand just play," Gurusinha saidputting an end to the issue.

Sri Lanka's selectors haveaxed top-order batsman KusalMendis who went through a leanpatch since making a hundredagainst India in the second Test atSSC.

Gurusinha who is also a selec-tor however backed him and saidhe would return stronger.

"We know he's one of ourfuture players. It's up to us to pro-tect and guide him through. If webrought him here and he failed, hewould have been out of the teamfor nearly one and half years.

"We didn't want to do that.We have some plans for him. Wewant him to play domestic crick-et. I believe he will come strong."

Sri Lanka will take on India inthree Tests, three ODIs and anequal number of T20Is.

� ��� DC?D���

Sri Lanka head coach Nic Pothas says thedebacle against India taught them a few

lessons and they will not be awestruck by thefancied hosts since they are a much betterteam now, united by a culture and discipline.

India had whitewashed Sri Lanka in allformats — three Tests, five ODIs and oneT20I — when they toured the Island nationin July-September.

"Thanks for reminding us now (thedefeats). It's always a pleasure to come hereand challenge ourselves against a very verygood team," the South African said.

After their forgettable India tour, SriLanka showed character to bounce back andbeat Pakistan 2-0 in UAE in the Test series.

"We learnt how Indian team does welland the areas we needed to improve."

Asked what changed in such a short spanof two months, he said: "It's internal — thediscipline, the culture and how the teamsstick together. When we took on India, wewere all pretty new from the support staffand the players involved."

Stressing the need to focus on theirstrengths, Pothas urged his players not to getenamoured by India.

"We focus on ourselves. The mistake youcan make here is come and be infatuatedwith the Indian side and concentrating too

much on them. We know they are a goodside. But we played them months ago.

"We are concentrating on our strengthsand jobs. If we execute them well, it will bea challenging series. Not many teams havecome here and won. Sometimes you can gethung up on weaknesses. We go the other wayand focus on what we do well."

They managed to humble Pakistan in theUAE and the coach said the conditions cou-pled with Misbah-ul-Haq and Younis Khan'sabsence made their job easier.

"It was a completely different seriesagainst Pakistan. We were there in 41degrees heat and they had lost two legends.That probably made a little bit easier for us."

�!��� 2<�>:<

England paceman Stuart Broad has pinpointed DavidWarner as Australia's danger man in the Ashes series,

while admitting a begrudging respect for his aggressivementality.

The pugnacious opener fired up the tourists last monthby comparing playingagainst England to "war"and said he planned totake "some sort of hatred"into the Tests, which startin Brisbane onNovember 23.

"I think someone likeWarner you've got to trybowl a lot of balls at himwith the new ball, because it's your best chance of gettinghim out," he told the Sydney Morning Herald on Thursday.

"(But) you have to have a plan B, and with someonelike Warner you have to go to plan B quicker than a lot ofother batters."

While captain Joe Root said before leaving Englandthat Warner's comparison to war was "extreme", veteranBroad acknowledged teams needed characters like him tomake them great.

"He's someone that drives teams forward," Broad saidof Warner.

"He's one of those blokes who is not that enjoyable toplay against, but if he's in your team you love him.

“You have characters like that in most successful sportsteams, don't you? Someone who if he's in the field, willstay in the battle, looking someone in the eye all the time,keep his bowlers moving ... Someone who can take thegame away from you quickly."

He said these were the type of players he likes to face,"the sort of guys who spur you on".

"You know that if you get it wrong to him he can hurtyou, but it's also extremely exciting if you get him out."

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The much-vaunted Mumbai bat-ting line-up came a cropper ona lively track against the Baroda

pace bowling duo of Atit Sheth andLukman Meriwala as the hosts wereshot out for a paltry 171 on day oneof their 500th Ranji Trophy game hereon Thursday.

In reply, Baroda made 63 for 1 in26 overs in their first innings in theGroup C match at the WankhedeStadium.

It was a combination of impres-sive swing and seam bowling fromright-arm Atit (5 for 50) and left-armMeriwala (5 for 52), aided by poorshots attempted by the Mumbaibatsmen that sent the home team tothe doom.

For Mumbai skipper Aditya Tare,who opened the innings, stood tall inmaking 50 before being bowled offthe inside edge by Atit.

Inserted in, Mumbai plungeddeep into trouble to be 5 for 2 by thethird over, with Atit sending back in-form opener Prithvi Shaw andAjinkya Rahane for ducks, and neverfully recovered from these early set-backs.

Tare was fifth out just beforelunch, taken with the hosts and 41-time champions tottering at 103 forfive. The wicketkeeper-batsmanstayed at the wicket for 143 minutes,played diligently in contrast to someof his teammates when facing 82 ballsand struck 8 fours.

Mumbai lost three more wicketsto be 131 for eight after lunch beforea 40-run stand between DhawalKulkarni (17) and Vijay Gohil (16)revived the innings for a brief whilebefore both were dismissed at thesame score as Mumbai were shot outat the stroke of tea.

Among the batsmen who disap-pointed and was out before lunch wasShreyas Iyer, fresh after playing in theT20 International series against NewZealand, who made 28.

Atit, a former India under-19player who has a ten- wicket haul tohis credit against Bengal at Lahli lastseason before this game, did the earlydamage in his 8th first class match,while Meriwala cut through themiddle and later ensured that the taildid not wag for too long.

He used the short ball to goodeffect to send back Shardul Thakurand Gohil.

Baroda, who began their replyafter tea, played out 11 overs andadvanced to 25 before they lostopener Nur Ahmed Pathan for 14,caught by Tare behind the stumps offleft arm pacer Roystan Dias.

��8��������� ������������ ����� Opener Murali Vijaywarmed up in style for the upcom-ing Test series against Sri Lanka byscoring a century to help TamilNadu reach 292 for 3 against Odishaon the opening day of the RanjiTrophy Group "C" match here onThursday.

Electing to bat, the visitors lostskipper Abhinav Mukund (12), whowas run-out following a mix-upwith Vijay.

However, the Test opener wasinvolved in two century partner-ships, first with wicket-keeper NJagadeesan (88) and B Indrajith (41batting), which put Tamil Nadu inthe driver's seat.

After a cautious start, Vijaycame into his own, playing a seriesof beautiful shots and reached hishundred in a hurry from the mid-80s with a huge six.

Vijay took over after

Jagadeesan's exit and dominated a118-run stand with Indrajith.

He hit three fours and a six inthe space of two overs as TamilNadu appeared to gain the initiativeagainst the rival attack on a docilepitch.

���������������->�������������I����� ���J��Mayank Agarwalcontinued his dream run in RanjiTrophy smashing a hapless Delhibowling attack into submission ashosts Karnataka cruised to 348 for4 on the first day of the Ranji Trophygroup A encounter.

Agarwal, known for his exploitsin shorter formats, has been in goodform having struck a career-best 304in the last game againstMaharashtra. His two back to backthree-figures have come after hebagged a pair against Hyderabad inan earlier match of the season.

On Thursday, he treated theDelhi bowlers with utter disdainremaining unbeaten on 169 off 235balls.

Agarwal hit 23 boundaries andthree huge sixes, treating the twospinners Manan Sharma and VikasMishra with little respect.

����� >:0�:?'�

The organisers of Airtel Delhi Half Marathon on Thursdayasserted that the race will take place as per schedule despite

reports of the title sponsors threatening to withdraw their sup-port on account of poor air quality in the national capital.

Speaking at a press event here on Thursday, Vivek Singh,Joint Managing Director of Procam, the organisers of the event,stated that they are very much conscious of the environmentalissues. "There is no running away from the issue of environment,but we would like to encourage people to use this race as a plat-form for raising this issue and get their message across. If therace doesn't happen, it's not going to improve things in anywayand would be a big loss for the city. This half-marathon is aninherently green event as there is no traffic on the road duringthe race and it serves as a voice of the society," Singh said.

He also allayed fears about the sponsors and participatingathletes reconsidering their involvement in the event. "Airtel isvery much with us. Yes, they have expressed their concerns aboutthe air quality this year but we had a similar situation last yearalso before the race. The environment is not static and expertspredict that it will get better in the coming days. The foreign ath-letes are very much going to take part in the event," he stated.

But crucially, Singh accepted that there has to be a reassess-ment of the timing of the race after the current edition is over.

"Indeed after the 2017 edition, we will reassess the timingand schedule of the race. We will examine whether measuresbeing taken to improve air quality have or have not kicked inas well as whether there is a better window of time for havingthe half-marathon."

On the efforts being made to improve the air quality, he fur-ther added: "The roads which will be used for the race wouldbe emptied so that would improve the air. Also, water especial-ly treated with other substances would be sprayed along the pathof the runners to ensure that dust is not flying around."

This is the 10th edition of the Delhi half-marathon will takeplace on 19th November and would feature many big names fromthe world of distance running like 2016 Olympic 10,000m goldmedallist and world-record holder Almaz Ayana and worldchampion Geoffrey Kirui. Olympics 100m gold medallist LinfordChristie would also be supporting the event with his presence.

� ��� >:0�:?'�

Seasoned shuttler Ashwini Ponnappa is impressed with theprogress made by India's doubles players on the Pro circuit

but says they will take some time to develop into world beat-ers.

Of late, doubles players have produced some good resultswith new pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Sen enter-ing the quarterfinals in Super Series tournaments in Korea andFrance and mixed combo of Pranaav Chopra and N Sikki Reddyreaching the semifinals at Japan Open.

"I think doubles is on the right track. But it will take time.Doubles takes time," said Ashwini, who won two titles at thejust-concluded Senior National Championship.

"Doubles have to train together, have to see how two play-ers combine, while as a single player doesn't have to gothrough so much change. But doubles are on right track,Chirag and Satwik are doing well, Pranaav and Sikki doingwell. It gives confidence and motivates all the players," sheadded.

It was double delight for Ashwini on Wednesday as shewon the mixed doubles title with Satwiksairaj Rankireddy andwomen's doubles trophy with N Sikki Reddy.

"It feels good (to win). For a long time not all the top play-ers were playing. This time we had all playing, so it was oneof a kind Nationals. For me, it was special because I had neverwon a mixed doubles title before," Ashwini said.

"I won women's doubles with Jwala (Gutta) in the pastbut I never had a mixed doubles partner, so it was a first forme and it really felt good especially because Sikki and Pranaavare more experienced than we are right now.

"They are in good shape, they had some good results inlast one year, so it was a confidence booster. It was a Nationalwhich everyone wanted to win since all top players were thereand it was nicely hosted," added Ashwini, who had baggedthe women's title twice with Jwala in 2009 and 2013.

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