16
M assive protests erupted across Maharashtra on Tuesday as Dalits took to streets, blocked traffic and hurled stones at buses in Mumbai and various other parts of the State in protest against the killing of a youth at Koregaon Bhima during the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Koregaon in Pune. The protests turned violent at many places with at least 25 vehicles burnt down. Dalit organisations have called for a Statewide bandh on Wednesday. Dalits were cele- brating the January 1, 1818, vic- tory of British troops over Peshwa Bajirao II’s army in Koregaon Bhima in Pune on Monday when the youth was killed by miscreants. Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis ordered a judicial into the murder. Fadnavis told the media, “A sitting judge of the Bombay High Court will head the enquiry into the incident. At the same time. I am order- ing a State-CID enquiry into the death of 28-year-old Rahul Phatangale, who was killed in the incident. The State Government would pay an ex- gratia of 10 lakh to the next of kin of Phatangale. We will ini- tiate stern action against those spreading rumours on social media. I appeal to political par- ties not fuel tensions, and peo- ple not to believe rumours”. Senior Dalit leader and Bharip Bahujan Mahasangh president Prakash Ambedkar called for as “Maharashtra bandh” on Wednesday. He accused Hindu right-wing leaders Milind Ekbote and Sambhaji Bhide, who head Hindu Ekta Aghadi and Shivraj Pratishthan respectively, of inciting attacks on the Dalits at Koregaon-Bhima. In a related development, the Pimpri police registered an FIR against Ekbote and Bhide. Based on a complaint registered by a Dalit woman, they have been booked under under the Atrocities Act and other sections of the IPC. There was a major back- lash of the Koregaon-Bhima incident in Mumbai, where thousands of Dalits staged intense protests in various north-eastern suburbs like Sion, Chembur, Mankhurd, Ghatkopar, Bhandup, Mulund and other strongholds and dis- rupted traffic for several hours on Eastern Express highway demanding stringent action against the culprits behind Monday’s attack in Pune. The Dalit protesters also staged “rail roko” at Chembur and Govandi and brought the train traffic to a halt on the Central Railway’s Harbour net- work between Kurla and Panvel for more than five hours from 11.45 am. The CR authorities cancelled 84 trains on Tuesday. Protesters staged “autorickshaw roko” at Mulund. Similarly, there were protests in various parts of the State, including Aurangabad, Jalgaon,Ahmednagar, Dhule, Beed, Nashik, Pune, Solapur, Thane and Palghar as Dalits expressed their angst. A massive stone pelting was witnessed at Aurangabad, where several State-run MSRTC buses were damaged. The Ambedkar Marathwada University can- celled all the examinations scheduled for Tuesday. Most schools and colleges remained closed during the day. Not wanting to take any chance, police imposed restric- tions under section 144 of the IPC in Aurangabad and parts of Western Maharashtra, including Koregaon Bhima and areas surrounding it in Pune. The police bandobast hase been intensified at all sensitive areas, said an officer. Meanwhile, NCP president Sharad Pawar said that the Koregaon Bhima disturbances expose the failure of the Devendra Fadnavis Government in Maharashtra. Rooting for a comprehen- sive probe into the Koregaon Bhima incident, Pawar said the Government should have taken cognizance that it was 200th anniversary of the war and should have made arrange- ments. “Why did the State Government not take adequate precautions to ensure peaceful conduct of the event. We have never witnessed such a violence at the event. The event was being celebrated peacefully for 200 years? Owing to its Government’s lapses, there was confusion and rumour-mon- gering, resulting in the vio- lence,” the NCP leader said. On his part, Fadnavis said the attendance at the Koregaon Bhima event was more than it was at any previous event in the past. “Nearly 15,000 to 20,000 people go there to observe the anniversary of the battle. This year being the 200th year, near- ly 3.5 lakh people came. Continued on Page 4 A retired Army captain, believed to be mentally ill, on Tuesday allegedly blud- geoned six persons to death with a rod in a killing spree here that lasted about two hours, police said. The accused, Naresh Dhankhad (45), went on the rampage between 2 to 4 am in a two-km stretch between Agra Chowk and Camp Colony, tak- ing advantage of low visibility due to dense fog. He killed his first victim in the second floor of a private hospital, before hitting the streets to kill five others and injure one. A resident of Macchgar near Ballabhgarh, Dhankhad also attacked the policemen when they tried to nab him. He had joined the Army in 1999 as a Lieutenant and taken retirement on medical grounds in 2003. He then joined the Haryana Agriculture depart- ment as an assistant develop- ment officer in 2006, a police spokesperson said. He was working as a sub- divisional officer with the Health Department. His first victim was a woman named Anjum who was an attendant of a person admitted in the ICU of the hospital. She was sleep- ing on the second floor where the accused managed to gain entry, Palwal Superintendent of Police Sulochana Gajraj said. The incident was recorded on a CCTV camera and the accused can be purportedly seen coming inside the doors wearing trousers and a sweater and carrying the rod. He then went to Agra Road intersection where he killed three more people. Then a little farther, he killed two others by repeated- ly hitting them on the head. Gajraj said as soon as the police received the information, they started sending people, who were either sleeping or working outside, indoors. She said checkpoints were set up in the town, which is 80- km from Delhi. “When we zeroed-in on him, he was searching for another target and almost had his seventh victim as he had injured him,” she added. He was arrested around 7 am when he was roaming in a street near a private hospital in Palwal, the SP said, adding that thick fog in the town had reduced visibility making it easy for the accused to target the victims. Continued on Page 4 T he Political Affairs Committee (PAC) of the Aam Aadmi Party is likely to finalise three Rajya Sabha can- didates on Wednesday. Only Sanjay Singh is believed to have emerged as the sole con- sensus candidate while a num- ber of prominent names with- in the party are vying for the other two slots. According to a party func- tionary, chartered accountant ND Gupta and businessman Sushil Gupta’s names are in the reckoning as well while empha- sising that a final call will be taken by the PAC on Wednesday. “There are capable leaders like Ashutosh, Atishi (Marlena), Pankaj Gupta, Meera Sanyal and Ashish Khetan in the party. It is quite natural that there will be some heart burn if one name is picked over the others. So nothing can be said for sure even at this point,” the AAP functionary said on condition of anonymity. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his deputy Manish Sisodia, who came back from the Andamans after a short break, are likely to meet party MLAs to seek their views before the PAC meeting. Singh, Marlena, Ashutosh are full-time members of the PAC while Pankaj Gupta and Raghav Chadha are its ex-offi- cio members. Meanwhile, Gujarat Patidar agitation leader Hardik Patel added twist to the tale by publicly batting for dis- gruntled AAP founder Kumar Vishwas’ candidature, saying he was best suited to take on “fake nationalists”. “If there is someone who can silence the fake nationalists in Parliament, then it is Kumar Vishwas but wonder who in the party is so insecure of his standing that he is hell bent on destroying the party,” Patel tweeted. Vishwas, who is also a leader of the AAP’s PAC, had openly expressed his desire for a nomination to the Upper House of Parliament but sub- sequently had a bitter fall out with the party’s top leadership. Earlier, the party had con- tacted around 18 eminent per- sonalities from different walks of life including former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan, former Union Minister Arun Shourie, ex-Chief Justice of India TS Thakur and names from the world of cinema. “But they are hesitant due to the political atmosphere in the country. They fear vindic- tive action by the Centre upon associating with the AAP,” another leader said. Elections to three Rajya Sabha seats from Delhi would be held on January 16. The AAP, which enjoys a brute majority in the 70-mem- ber Delhi Assembly, is set to win all the three seats. The last date to file nomi- nations for the three Rajya Sabha seats is January 5. T he triple talaq Bill is likely to face hiccups in the Rajya Sabha after the Congress on Tuesday kept the Government guessing on its stand following demands by several Opposition parties to send the Bill to a Select Committee for review. The Government urged the Congress not to press for amendments to the Bill, which seeks to criminalise the practice of instant divorce among Muslims. The Lok Sabha passed the Bill last week. A meeting chaired by Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu in this regards saw num- ber of Opposition parties advo- cating for a Select Committee review of the ‘Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill. A major NDA ally, Shiv Sena, which in recent times have been vocal about the BJP Governments both at the Centre and States, too demand- ed the Bill be sent to a select committee. The Opposition parties, including the SP, the BSP, the AIADMK, the DMK, the CPI, the CPI(M) and the BJD, have demanded detailed delibera- tions on the criminality clause, under which a man can be sen- tenced up to three years in prison for abandoning his wife through talaq-e-biddat or instant triple talaq. AIADMK and the BJD opposed the leg- islation in the Lok Sabha. Rejecting the Opposition demand, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said there is no need to go to any committee because the issue has been debated. Union Minister for Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi attacked the Congress for flip-flopping over its stance on the triple talaq Bill. “There is a greater con- sensus within the country that there should be a stringent law, preventive mechanism to give protection to Muslim women. I am confident that all parties will cooperate in the Rajya Sabha,” Pradhan said. The Congress has, howev- er, played it safe and did not open its card during the course of consultation with other political parties. The Congress had moved amendments to certain provisions of the Bill in the Lok Sabha but did not press for a vote. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar said that the Government would like the Congress to maintain the stand it took in the Lok Sabha by not pressing for amendments. “We are having continuous talks with the Opposition parties -- including Congress. We have told Congress that since they have not pressed for any amend- ments in the Lok Sabha, they should do the same in the Rajya Sabha,” Ananth Kumar told the media while announcing the Government may table the Bill in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday. Congress MP Renuka Chowdhury said her party always stood for empower- ment of women, right since Independence, but the party needs to see what has been actually included in the Bill. Continued on Page 4 T he Government on Tuesday outlined the details of the electoral bonds, which has been pitched as a tool for cleaning up the election funding. The bonds will be alternative to cash donation to political par- ties and can be purchased by the donors from only specified branches of the State Bank of India for ten days each in January, April, July and October. The win- dow will be for 30 days in the year of general election. Only registered political parties which secured at least 1 per cent vote in last election will be eligible for receiving donation through electoral bonds. Any Indian citizen or a body incorporated in India will be eligible to purchase the bond. Though the identity of the door will not be made public, the banks will have his details since the purchaser will have to fulfil the KYC norms. The bonds will not carry interest. Giving the details in the Lok Sabha, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the bonds, which would be valid for 15 days and will not carry the donor’s name. Jaitley had first announced the idea of electoral bonds in his Budget 2017-18 speech made on February 1, 2017, to make political funding more transparent. On a question from Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge as to what purpose the bonds would serve when the name of the donor is not disclosed, Jaitley said bonds would get reflected in the balancesheet of the donors. Continued on Page 4 H ours after President Donald Trump’s stinging attack on Pakistan’s “lies and deceit” over harbouring ter- rorists for many years, the United States has effectively blocked for now its proposed $255 million military aid to Islamabad. “The United States does not plan to spend the $255 million in FY 2016 Foreign Military Financing for Pakistan at this time,” a National Security Council official told media out- lets on Monday in what turned out to be the Trump adminis- tration’s first pronouncement of for the new year. Tying any future security assistance to hard counter-ter- rorism measures by Islamabad, the official said, “The President has made clear that the United States expects Pakistan to take decisive action against terror- ists and militants on its soil.” “Pakistan’s actions in sup- port of the South Asia Strategy will ultimately determine the trajectory of our relationship, including future security assis- tance,” the official stressed. Trump, in what was his first tweet of 2018, declared ear- lier on Monday that the United States will no longer put up with its “lies & deceit”. Detailed report on P12 T he decomposed body of a 40-year- old man was found hanging in the forest on the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus on Tuesday evening. The deceased has been identified as one Rampravesh Singh, a labourer or security guard on the university campus, police said. Police sus- pect that Rampravesh, a resident of Saraswati enclave in Najafgarh, commit- ted suicide six-seven days ago. Police received a call around 5.45pm that a man has been found hanging on the Nelson Mandela road inside JNU forest, said a senior police officer. Police have found a Samsung phone, Aadhaar card, voter ID card, driving licence, and a purse containing 90 and a badge from his clothes. The body has been sent to All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) for post-mortem. Police further said that investigation has been initiated under sec- tion 174 of the CrPC (Inquest Proceedings).

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Massive protests eruptedacross Maharashtra on

Tuesday as Dalits took tostreets, blocked traffic andhurled stones at buses inMumbai and various otherparts of the State in protestagainst the killing of a youth atKoregaon Bhima during the200th anniversary of the Battleof Koregaon in Pune. Theprotests turned violent at manyplaces with at least 25 vehiclesburnt down.

Dalit organisations havecalled for a Statewide bandh onWednesday. Dalits were cele-brating the January 1, 1818, vic-tory of British troops overPeshwa Bajirao II’s army inKoregaon Bhima in Pune onMonday when the youth waskilled by miscreants.

Maharashtra ChiefMinister Devendra Fadnavisordered a judicial into themurder. Fadnavis told themedia, “A sitting judge of theBombay High Court will headthe enquiry into the incident.At the same time. I am order-ing a State-CID enquiry intothe death of 28-year-old RahulPhatangale, who was killed inthe incident. The StateGovernment would pay an ex-gratia of �10 lakh to the next ofkin of Phatangale. We will ini-tiate stern action against thosespreading rumours on socialmedia. I appeal to political par-ties not fuel tensions, and peo-ple not to believe rumours”.

Senior Dalit leader andBharip Bahujan Mahasanghpresident Prakash Ambedkarcalled for as “Maharashtrabandh” on Wednesday. Heaccused Hindu right-wingleaders Milind Ekbote andSambhaji Bhide, who headHindu Ekta Aghadi and ShivrajPratishthan respectively, ofinciting attacks on the Dalits at

Koregaon-Bhima. In a relateddevelopment, the Pimpri policeregistered an FIR againstEkbote and Bhide. Based on acomplaint registered by a Dalitwoman, they have been bookedunder under the Atrocities Actand other sections of the IPC.

There was a major back-lash of the Koregaon-Bhimaincident in Mumbai, wherethousands of Dalits stagedintense protests in variousnorth-eastern suburbs likeSion, Chembur, Mankhurd,Ghatkopar, Bhandup, Mulundand other strongholds and dis-rupted traffic for several hourson Eastern Express highwaydemanding stringent action

against the culprits behindMonday’s attack in Pune.

The Dalit protesters alsostaged “rail roko” at Chemburand Govandi and brought thetrain traffic to a halt on the

Central Railway’s Harbour net-work between Kurla and Panvelfor more than five hours from11.45 am. The CR authoritiescancelled 84 trains on Tuesday.Protesters staged “autorickshaw

roko” at Mulund. Similarly, there were

protests in various parts of theState, including Aurangabad,Jalgaon,Ahmednagar, Dhule,Beed, Nashik, Pune, Solapur,

Thane and Palghar as Dalitsexpressed their angst.

A massive stone pelting waswitnessed at Aurangabad, whereseveral State-run MSRTC buseswere damaged. The AmbedkarMarathwada University can-celled all the examinationsscheduled for Tuesday. Mostschools and colleges remainedclosed during the day.

Not wanting to take anychance, police imposed restric-tions under section 144 of theIPC in Aurangabad and partsof Western Maharashtra,including Koregaon Bhima andareas surrounding it in Pune.

The police bandobast hasebeen intensified at all sensitiveareas, said an officer.

Meanwhile, NCP presidentSharad Pawar said that theKoregaon Bhima disturbancesexpose the failure of theDevendra FadnavisGovernment in Maharashtra.

Rooting for a comprehen-sive probe into the KoregaonBhima incident, Pawar saidthe Government should havetaken cognizance that it was200th anniversary of the warand should have made arrange-ments. “Why did the StateGovernment not take adequateprecautions to ensure peacefulconduct of the event. We havenever witnessed such a violenceat the event. The event wasbeing celebrated peacefully for200 years? Owing to itsGovernment’s lapses, there wasconfusion and rumour-mon-gering, resulting in the vio-lence,” the NCP leader said.

On his part, Fadnavis saidthe attendance at the KoregaonBhima event was more than itwas at any previous event in thepast. “Nearly 15,000 to 20,000people go there to observe theanniversary of the battle. Thisyear being the 200th year, near-ly 3.5 lakh people came.

Continued on Page 4

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Aretired Army captain,believed to be mentally ill,

on Tuesday allegedly blud-geoned six persons to deathwith a rod in a killing spreehere that lasted about twohours, police said.

The accused, NareshDhankhad (45), went on therampage between 2 to 4 am ina two-km stretch between AgraChowk and Camp Colony, tak-ing advantage of low visibilitydue to dense fog.

He killed his first victim inthe second floor of a privatehospital, before hitting thestreets to kill five others andinjure one.

A resident of Macchgarnear Ballabhgarh, Dhankhadalso attacked the policemenwhen they tried to nab him.

He had joined the Army in1999 as a Lieutenant and takenretirement on medical groundsin 2003. He then joined theHaryana Agriculture depart-ment as an assistant develop-ment officer in 2006, a policespokesperson said.

He was working as a sub-divisional officer with theHealth Department. His firstvictim was a woman namedAnjum who was an attendant of

a person admitted in the ICUof the hospital. She was sleep-ing on the second floor wherethe accused managed to gainentry, Palwal Superintendent ofPolice Sulochana Gajraj said.

The incident was recordedon a CCTV camera and theaccused can be purportedlyseen coming inside the doorswearing trousers and a sweaterand carrying the rod. He thenwent to Agra Road intersectionwhere he killed three morepeople. Then a little farther, hekilled two others by repeated-ly hitting them on the head.

Gajraj said as soon as thepolice received the information,they started sending people,who were either sleeping orworking outside, indoors.

She said checkpoints wereset up in the town, which is 80-km from Delhi. “When wezeroed-in on him, he wassearching for another target andalmost had his seventh victim ashe had injured him,” she added.

He was arrested around 7am when he was roaming in astreet near a private hospital inPalwal, the SP said, adding thatthick fog in the town hadreduced visibility making iteasy for the accused to targetthe victims.

Continued on Page 4

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The Political AffairsCommittee (PAC) of the

Aam Aadmi Party is likely tofinalise three Rajya Sabha can-didates on Wednesday. OnlySanjay Singh is believed tohave emerged as the sole con-sensus candidate while a num-ber of prominent names with-in the party are vying for theother two slots.

According to a party func-tionary, chartered accountantND Gupta and businessmanSushil Gupta’s names are in thereckoning as well while empha-sising that a final call will betaken by the PAC onWednesday.

“There are capable leaderslike Ashutosh, Atishi (Marlena),

Pankaj Gupta, Meera Sanyaland Ashish Khetan in the party.It is quite natural that there willbe some heart burn if onename is picked over the others.So nothing can be said for sureeven at this point,” the AAPfunctionary said on conditionof anonymity.

Delhi Chief MinisterArvind Kejriwal and his deputyManish Sisodia, who cameback from the Andamans aftera short break, are likely to meetparty MLAs to seek their viewsbefore the PAC meeting.

Singh, Marlena, Ashutoshare full-time members of the

PAC while Pankaj Gupta andRaghav Chadha are its ex-offi-cio members. Meanwhile,Gujarat Patidar agitation leaderHardik Patel added twist to thetale by publicly batting for dis-gruntled AAP founder KumarVishwas’ candidature, saying hewas best suited to take on“fake nationalists”.

“If there is someone whocan silence the fake nationalistsin Parliament, then it is KumarVishwas but wonder who in theparty is so insecure of hisstanding that he is hell bent ondestroying the party,” Pateltweeted.

Vishwas, who is also aleader of the AAP’s PAC, hadopenly expressed his desire fora nomination to the UpperHouse of Parliament but sub-sequently had a bitter fall outwith the party’s top leadership.

Earlier, the party had con-tacted around 18 eminent per-sonalities from different walksof life including former RBIGovernor Raghuram Rajan,former Union Minister ArunShourie, ex-Chief Justice ofIndia TS Thakur and namesfrom the world of cinema.

“But they are hesitant dueto the political atmosphere inthe country. They fear vindic-tive action by the Centre uponassociating with the AAP,”another leader said. Electionsto three Rajya Sabha seats fromDelhi would be held on January16. The AAP, which enjoys abrute majority in the 70-mem-ber Delhi Assembly, is set towin all the three seats.

The last date to file nomi-nations for the three RajyaSabha seats is January 5.

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The triple talaq Bill is likelyto face hiccups in the Rajya

Sabha after the Congress onTuesday kept the Governmentguessing on its stand followingdemands by several Oppositionparties to send the Bill to aSelect Committee for review.The Government urged theCongress not to press foramendments to the Bill, whichseeks to criminalise the practiceof instant divorce amongMuslims. The Lok Sabhapassed the Bill last week.

A meeting chaired by RajyaSabha Chairman M VenkaiahNaidu in this regards saw num-ber of Opposition parties advo-cating for a Select Committeereview of the ‘Muslim Women(Protection of Rights onMarriage) Bill. A major NDA

ally, Shiv Sena, which in recenttimes have been vocal about theBJP Governments both at theCentre and States, too demand-ed the Bill be sent to a selectcommittee.

The Opposition parties,including the SP, the BSP, theAIADMK, the DMK, the CPI,the CPI(M) and the BJD, havedemanded detailed delibera-tions on the criminality clause,under which a man can be sen-tenced up to three years inprison for abandoning his wifethrough talaq-e-biddat orinstant triple talaq. AIADMK

and the BJD opposed the leg-islation in the Lok Sabha.

Rejecting the Oppositiondemand, Union MinisterDharmendra Pradhan saidthere is no need to go to anycommittee because the issue hasbeen debated. Union Ministerfor Minority Affairs MukhtarAbbas Naqvi attacked theCongress for flip-flopping overits stance on the triple talaq Bill.

“There is a greater con-sensus within the country thatthere should be a stringent law,preventive mechanism to giveprotection to Muslim women.

I am confident that all partieswill cooperate in the RajyaSabha,” Pradhan said.

The Congress has, howev-er, played it safe and did notopen its card during the courseof consultation with otherpolitical parties. The Congresshad moved amendments tocertain provisions of the Bill inthe Lok Sabha but did not pressfor a vote.

Parliamentary AffairsMinister Ananth Kumar saidthat the Government wouldlike the Congress to maintainthe stand it took in the LokSabha by not pressing foramendments. “We are havingcontinuous talks with theOpposition parties -- includingCongress. We have toldCongress that since they havenot pressed for any amend-ments in the Lok Sabha, they

should do the same in the RajyaSabha,” Ananth Kumar told themedia while announcing the Government may table the Bill in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.

Congress MP Renuka

Chowdhury said her partyalways stood for empower-ment of women, right sinceIndependence, but the partyneeds to see what has beenactually included in the Bill.

Continued on Page 4

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The Government on Tuesday outlined the detailsof the electoral bonds, which has been pitched as

a tool for cleaning up the election funding. The bondswill be alternative to cash donation to political par-ties and can be purchased by the donors from onlyspecified branches of the State Bank of India for tendays each in January, April, July and October. The win-dow will be for 30 days in the year of general election.

Only registered political parties which secured atleast 1 per cent vote in last election will be eligible forreceiving donation through electoral bonds. AnyIndian citizen or a body incorporated in India will beeligible to purchase the bond. Though the identity ofthe door will not be made public, the banks will havehis details since the purchaser will have to fulfil theKYC norms. The bonds will not carry interest.

Giving the details in the Lok Sabha, FinanceMinister Arun Jaitley said the bonds, which would bevalid for 15 days and will not carry the donor’s name.Jaitley had first announced the idea of electoral bondsin his Budget 2017-18 speech made on February 1,2017, to make political funding more transparent.

On a question from Congress leader MallikarjunKharge as to what purpose the bonds would serve whenthe name of the donor is not disclosed, Jaitley said bondswould get reflected in the balancesheet of the donors.

Continued on Page 4

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Hours after PresidentDonald Trump’s stinging

attack on Pakistan’s “lies anddeceit” over harbouring ter-rorists for many years, theUnited States has effectivelyblocked for now its proposed$255 million military aid toIslamabad.

“The United States does notplan to spend the $255 millionin FY 2016 Foreign MilitaryFinancing for Pakistan at thistime,” a National SecurityCouncil official told media out-

lets on Monday in what turnedout to be the Trump adminis-tration’s first pronouncement offor the new year.

Tying any future securityassistance to hard counter-ter-rorism measures by Islamabad,the official said, “The Presidenthas made clear that the UnitedStates expects Pakistan to takedecisive action against terror-ists and militants on its soil.”

“Pakistan’s actions in sup-port of the South Asia Strategywill ultimately determine thetrajectory of our relationship,including future security assis-tance,” the official stressed.

Trump, in what was hisfirst tweet of 2018, declared ear-lier on Monday that the UnitedStates will no longer put upwith its “lies & deceit”.

Detailed report on P12

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The decomposed body of a 40-year- oldman was found hanging in the forest

on the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU)campus on Tuesday evening. The deceasedhas been identified as one RampraveshSingh, a labourer or security guard on theuniversity campus, police said. Police sus-pect that Rampravesh, a resident ofSaraswati enclave in Najafgarh, commit-ted suicide six-seven days ago.

Police received a call around 5.45pmthat a man has been found hanging on theNelson Mandela road inside JNU forest,said a senior police officer. Police havefound a Samsung phone, Aadhaar card,voter ID card, driving licence, and a purse containing �90 and a badge fromhis clothes.

The body has been sent to All IndiaInstitute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) forpost-mortem. Police further said thatinvestigation has been initiated under sec-tion 174 of the CrPC (InquestProceedings).

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Atotal of 393 children whowere found begging at rail-

way stations, bus stations andreligious places in various dis-tricts of the State were handedover to their families. AntiHuman Trafficking unit ofState police had conductedspecial drive from December11 to 25, 2017, in Haridwar,Dehradun, Nainital andUdham Singh Nagar districtsfrom where the 300 plus chil-dren were rescued from beg-ging, said State AdditionalDirector General of police (lawand order) Ashok Kumar onTuesday.

Observations and com-plaints were received from var-ious organisations about chil-dren begging at different pub-lic places in Dehradun, UdhamSingh Nagar, Nainital andHaridwar districts. It was alsoreported that many such chil-dren had been forced into beg-ging by their parents or gangs.

With an aim to preventsuch children from begging, aspecial campaign was launchedin the plain districts of theState. Teams were formed atdistrict level and police officerswere also directed to identifygangs involved in forcing chil-dren to beg and take necessaryaction accordingly.

The police team memberslaunched drives at intersec-tions, railway stations, bus sta-tions and religious placesamong other public places. Atotal of 393 children including

177 girls were rescued andhanded over to their families orjuvenile home with NGOs alsobeing contacted to facilitatetheir education.

The family members werestrictly directed to ensure thattheir children do not beg. Legalaction will be taken against par-ents if their children are foundbegging, he warned, addingsuch children should be sent to

school for their education. Outof 393 children rescued frombegging, 288 children werehanded over to their families.One child was found ill and wassent to the Government Doonmedical college hospital inDehradun.

The children found beg-ging were mostly aged 14 yearsand below.

Four of the rescued chil-

dren were enrolled inDehradun based governmentschool. Twenty one such chil-dren were enrolled in UdhamSingh Nagar basedGovernment school while 35children in Nainital districtwere handed over to a day carecentre run by a self help group.This group would provide shel-ter, food, and education daily tothese children.

In this drive, child helpline,Aasra Trust, Dharohar self helpgroup and Kumaon Seva Samitialso provided assistance. Total57 children including 41 girlswere rescued in Dehradun dis-trict while 93 including 37girls were rescued in Haridwar,154 including 67 girls inUdham Singh Nagar and 48including 32 girls were rescuedin Nainital district, he added.

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Looking for talent inUttarakhand in the world of

beauty and honing it to performat the world stage, participantof World Skill event held in AbuDhabi recently came toHaridwar. The founder ofMumbai based beauty school,Vaishali K Shah shared herexperiences with the local beau-ty experts. A week after gettingfelicitated by Union MinisterDharmendra Pradhan forcoaching Indian contestant inworld skills competition in AbuDhabi, Vaishali is on a skillingmission conducting seminarsall over the country.

Speaking to this corre-spondent she said, “A famousadage used in earlier times was-padhogey nahin to hajjam banjaoge (If you dont study youwill become a barber) but nowhair styling is a dignified pro-fession.” She said one muststart planning in the firstmonth of the year and by July15 when the India Skill com-petition is held one is ready tocontest.

Notably, World Skills Indiais an initiative of the NationalSkill Development Corporation(NSDC) under the Ministry ofSkill Development andEntrepreneurship. NSDC,through its World Skills India

initiative, has been leading thecountry's participation atWorld Skills International com-petitions acting as a globalplatform where youths, educa-tors, industries and govern-ments can meet, learn anddevelop skills together.

Looking for manufacturingindustries who make beautyproducts, Vaishali visited someof the industries in SIIDCULand asked those in the cosmet-ics line to download modulesfrom the Skill India website andstart applying from the firstmonth of the year. Regardingthe prospects in Skill India ini-tiative she said, “Applicationsare sent at state level too.

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Dehradun police have bust-ed a gang of ATM frauds

by arresting two persons fromRishikesh on Tuesday. Theaccused were allegedly involvedin defrauding people by chang-ing ATM cards or securingpassword of the ATM card onthe pretext of helping the card-holders withdraw money fromthe ATM. The police haverecovered 12 ATM cards,�60,000 and a car from theirpossession. The accused havebeen identified as Imran andMohammad Saddam, nativesof Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh.

According to informationprovided by the police,Rishikesh resident MohanKumar Dobhal had registereda complaint on December 8and stated that his wife hadgone to ATM for withdrawingmoney at Dobhal Ghat,Rishikesh. He stated that twopersons were also at the ATMat the same time and thattheyduped his wife, replacingher ATM card with anothercard. Using the card, the fraudshad then withdrawn �75, 000from his bank account fromvarious ATMs in Rishikesh.

In another incident, anoth-er Rishikesh resident RakeshChandra Maithani had regis-tered a complaint onNovember 26 and stated that hehad gone to ATM at HaridwarRoad, Rishikesh. Here again,

there were two persons at theATM who had defrauded him,replacing his ATM card with-another card on the pretext ofhelping him. The frauds hadthen gone on to withdraw�49,500 from his bank account.

Taking note of these com-plaints, two separate casesunder appropriate sections ofIPC were registered againstunidentified persons inRishikesh Police Station.

Acting on the complaints,Dehradun SeniorSuperintendent of PoliceNivedita Kukreti had formed ateam led by assistant SP/CO,Rishikesh Manju Nath TCunder the supervision of SPRural Sarita Dobhal and thisteam began investigating theseATM fraud cases.

Team members reviewedCCTV footage from the areasaround the ATMs and foundsome clues. Police received a tip

off about two suspects were dri-ving in a car towards RailwayRoad from Tehsil Chowk inRishikesh. Acting on the tip offthe police conducted vehiclechecking drive. The policestopped a car for check andapprehended the suspects afterthey failed to satisfactorilyreply to the questions of thepolice.

The complainants whowere called to the police stationalso identified the two personsas the ones who had dupedthem of their ATM cards.During interrogation by thepolice, the two are reported tohave confessed to their crimes.The police recovered 12 ATMcards and � 60, 000 cash fromtheir possession.

The accused will be sent toSuddhowala jail after beingproduced in the court saidRishikesh police state in-chargePraveen Singh Koshyari.

PAURI: The Uttarakhand copswill start skill developmentprogramme in the near futurein the Pauri and Almora dis-tricts. The step will be on thelines of the programme startedfor youth by the Delhi police.Under the Pradhan MantriKaushal Vikas Yojana, theunemployed youth will be pro-vided training in various skillsfree of cost.The Govt will bearthe expense of the trainingunder PMKVY. The selectedunemployed youth will have toundergo a 60 to 90 day training.

The Pauri SSP Jagat RamJoshi said that the Ntl SkillDevelopment Corp will appointits training partner in the disttto train in the different cours-es. The training partner agencythrough the medium of experttrainers will impart training inthe different courses at thetraining center. In Pauri district,the training centers will be inSrinagar and Kotdwar. Joshisaid that the Srinagar andKotdwar police stations willselect the unemployed youth forthe training with the help of thenearest local police stationsaccording to their qualificationand talent. The minimum qual-ification of the youth will behigh school. The unemployedyouth applicants have to fill thecandidate enrollment form forskill development in order to beselected for the training. TheSSP informed that under thescheme training will be pro-vided in computers (data entryoperator and assistant softwaredeveloper), hospitality, touristguide, automobile mechanicsand driving and salesmantraining course. PNS

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The public express dissatis-faction at the local drinking

water supply scheme beingclosed for about 20 days nowwhile addressing the PauriDistrict Magistrate at the JanataDarbar held in the premises ofthe Satpuli Tehsil on Tuesday.The public raised slogansagainst the Jal Sansthan andsaid that the people of the areaare facing acute shortage of

drinking water due to indif-ferent attitude of the depart-ment concerned. Theydemanded that the regularwater supply be restored with-out further delay. The PauriDistrict Magistrate SushilKumar directed the officerconcerned to conduct physicalverification of the water supplysystem and to resume the sup-ply of water.

Majority of the complaintsreceived at the Janata Darbar

registered in presence ofDistrict Magistrate wereaddressed at the spot. Manypeople of the Satpuli Tehsilcomplained about problemsbeing faced in the drinkingwater supply. They said that thedrinking water supply facilityhad been damaged due to theconstruction of a road underPMGSY by the Public WorksDepartment due to which thepeople were not getting regularwater supply even for drinking.

Taking cognisance of thepublic dissatisfaction, the dis-trict Magistrate instructedPublic Works Department torepair the damaged pipe line.The disabled people’s welfarecommittee’s Manish demand-ed demanded medical facilitieslike X-ray and pathology pro-cedures at the joint hospital ofSatpuli.

Sushil Kumar instructedthe chief medical officer tomake the necessary arrange-ments to facilitate this. Thewomen of the different organ-isation complained about meatshops being run near the tem-ple creating a civic sanitationissue and affecting public sen-timents. The district magistrateordered the Satpuli police sta-tion in charge and food secu-rity officer to remove thesemeat shops immediately. Manycitizens also raised their indi-vidual problems regarding elec-tricity and non payment ofpending dues from the subtreasury.

The District Magistratealso instructed the policeadministration to be vigilantagainst illegal mining and totake stern action against foundinvolved in illegal mining.

�����+*'��+!�

Plain clothes police women would be deployed in public trans-port vehicles to put a check on eve teasing in the provision-

al State capital. In addition to this, City Patrol Unit personnelhave also been directed to conduct checking of public transportvehicles randomly from time to time to put check on eve teas-ing in the city. CPU personnel would ask women about their trav-elling experiences followed by action against eve teasers, said Stateadditional director general of police (law and order) Ashok Kumarwhile presiding over a meeting with police officers at police head-quarters on Tuesday. Kumar directed police officers to take mea-sures to prevent eve teasing in public transport and act againsteve teasers in the city. Kumar said that the police officers weredirected to convene a meeting with city bus and Vikram driversregarding the same.

Efforts should be taken to ensure eight seats are kept reservedfor women and separate entry and exit points are maintained incity buses. The mobile phone numbers of city police control room,women help line, CO traffic, SP Traffic and SSP should be dis-played at four places in Vikrams and city buses so that womencan approach them in case of emergency.

Deputy inspector general (DIG) of police and Traffic direc-torate in-charge director Kewal Khurana, Dehradun SSPNivedita Kukreti, SP Traffic DS Gunjyal and others were presentin the meeting.

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Residents of Haripur Kalanand Pathri villages who are

living on the boundary ofRajaji National Park and TigerReserve have struggled foryears fighting for their safetyfrom the elephants that regu-larly raid the farm lands anddestroy their crops. Apart fromthe elephants, the leopards alsotend to maul or prey on thedomesticated animals of thevillagers. On Tuesday morningsome morning walkers fromHaripur Kalan village had torun for their lives when theyspotted a wild elephant stand-ing in front of a house on theroad. The pachyderm enteredthe residential locality anddemolished the boundary wallto enter the farm where thewheat crop was standing. Aleopard had mauled a villagerin this same village a monthago.

Even the townships in

Pathri area under Laksar tehsilhas the jumbos visiting themquite often in search of foodresulting in crushing of plan-tations and ornamental plants.The sugarcane crop which hasbeen harvested is being guard-ed by the villagers these days.

More efforts are needed tofind ways of protecting wildlifeand the villages bordering theRajaji tiger reserve forest area.The measures taken by the parkauthorities to increase the ele-phant fodder in the park areaseem to be insufficient, sincethe number of elephant raidshas increased in the past fewyears. Speaking to The Pioneer,a resident of Haripur Kalan,Madan Mohan said, “Whilestrolling in the morning, wesaw an elephant standing infront of a house and steppedback silently but it trumpetedand started marching towardsus. We were scared but it thenentered the residential com-pound and we were saved.” Theelephant kept on trumpeting

for long outside the house dueto which others in the localityalso became concerned fortheir safety, said another localSunil Kumar.

In Pathri village, an ele-phant destroyed severalhectares of crop a fortnight ago.A farmer from that areaKhursheed Ali told this corre-spondent, “We haveapproached the forest depart-ment to save our crops fromthe raiding elephants. We saveour harvested crops by switch-ing on tractor lights and beat-ing drums to keep elephants atbay. Many a time leopardshave also been spotted in thearea where they prey on ourgoats and cattle.”

There has been a spurt inthe cases of jumbos raidingpaddy crop and sugarcanefields in several villages inHaridwar, Bahadrabad,Jagjeetpur, Misserpur, Dhanoriand Laksar areas. Nine peoplehad been reportedly killed inthe Haridwar-Rishikesh region

in the year 2010 by pachy-derms. In 2011, five peoplewere killed in Khanpur andLaldhang area of Haridwardistrict. A 50 year old manfrom Van Gujjar communitywas trampled to death by anelephant Kotavali range atLaldhang village in Haridwardistrict last year. This year aman sustained seriously injury

at Baswali village nearHaridwar range in SIIDCULarea during a chance encounterwith an elephant.

“The problem began whenthese forest areas were con-verted into farmlands,” saysenvironmentalist BrijeshUpadhyay. “More and morenew settlements by villagers arepushing right up to the park

boundary and some have evenencroached into the forestreserve. The population densi-ty in the areas on the bound-aries of park has become veryhigh. As a result the competi-tion for resources betweenhumans and wildlife has inten-sified,” says the environmen-talist. Many incidents ofhuman-wildlife conflict have

come to fore in the past andforesters have not been able tofind a permanent solution tocurb this conflict problem.

Regarding this issueHaridwar range officer DineshNaudiyal said, “Dispersal of

seeds of mix variety of flora inthe park area is done during theclosure period of the park sothat elephants get enough offodder inside the park. Thisyear more fodder is beingplanted for the elephants. ”

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People suffered inconve-nience as outpatient and

elective facilities in privatehospitals of the State wereclosed for 12 hours in proteston Tuesday. This agitation ofIndian Medical Association(IMA) from national to districtlevel was observed in variousdistricts of the State against theproposed Natinonal MedicalCommission Bill- 2017 whichis to be tabled in this winter ses-sion. The IMA Uttarakhandsecretary Dr DD Chaudharysaid that this bill is anti poorand pro- rich and does not suitthe medical structure of thecountry. This bill is pro privatemanagements and after impo-sition of this bill theGovernment shall have controlover only 40 per cent seats inprivate medical colleges.Furthermore, the Governmentshall have no control over theconstant improvement of med-ical facilities in private medicalcolleges because this bill allowsprivate players to open theirown medical colleges by ownwill and wish without any let-ter of intent (LoI) from NMC.

These medical collegesshall also have right to have asmany seats as they want inunder-graduate and post-grad-

uate courses. This will further deterior-

iate the standards of medicaleducation in this country. Thestructure of NMC only pro-vides representation of fivestates at one point of time.

The rest 24 states shall beunrepresented at that point oftime. This bill promotes prac-tice of Cross Pathy betweenAyush and Modern Medicine

which has been restricted byseveral High Courts of thiscountry and even the SupremeCourt.

The practice of cross pathyshall cause decline in healthcare standards. The control ofNMC will be in the hands ofnon technical people who haveno idea about medical practiceand education. This again will erode the

already declining standards ofmedical practice and education.

The IMA office bearersfurther opined that the NMCpromotes low quality and cost-ly medical education to peoplewho are not fit to get qualifiedas doctors and serve the soci-ety.

This shall increase the costof medical services to the poorin a nation like India.

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Dehradun residents experi-enced cold conditions over

the past 24 hours on Tuesday.The minimum temperaturewas recorded at around sixdegrees Celsius in the provi-sional State capital and it isexpected to dip further by a fewdegrees in the next few days.Snowfall at higher reaches ofwas also reported in the past 24hours and the minimum tem-peratures at many places ofmountainous parts have dippedto sub-zero levels in the State.Meteorological centre officialsstated that frost is likely tooccur during the morninghours at a few places in moun-tains while fog is likely tooccur at isolated places inplains especially in Haridwarand Udham Singh Nagar dis-tricts of Uttarakhand onWednesday.

Dehradun residents expe-rienced cold conditions withmild wind during morningand evening hours. Sunshineduring the day provided somerelief from the cold to the res-idents.

The State MeteorologicalCentre Director Bikram Singhsaid that a fresh western dis-

turbance is very likely to affectWestern Himalayan regionsfrom January 4, 2018 onwards.Very light to light rain/snowhas been forecast at isolatedplaces especially in higherreaches of Uttarkashi, Chamoliand Pithoragarh districts ofUttarakhand while dry weath-er is likely to prevail in rest ofthe state on January 5.

He further said that fogoccurred in some parts ofplains while was frost report-ed at isolated places in themountains on Tuesday. Themaximum temperaturesremained normal in plains andappreciably below normal inthe mountainous regions. Theminimum temperaturesremained normal to apprecia-bly above normal in plainsand below normal in themountainous parts, he said,adding the highest maximumtemperature 23.1°C was record-ed in Dehradun while lowestminimum temperature -2.8°Cwas recorded at Matela inAlmora.

He said that the weatherforecast for Uttarakhand onWednesday is mainly clear topartly cloudy sky and dryweather.

On Tuesday, the maximum

temperature and minimumtemperatures were recorded at23.1 degree Celsius, four notch-es above the normal, and 6.0degree Celsius, normal, respec-tively in Dehradun. InPantnagar, the maximum andminimum temperatures wererecorded at 17.1 degree Celsius,two notches below the normal,and 9.7 degree Celsius, fournotches the normal respec-tively. In Mukteshwar, the max-imum and minimum temper-atures were recorded at 10.3degree Celsius, two notchesbelow the normal, and 0.3degree Celsius two notchesbelow the normal.

In Tehri, the maximumand minimum temperaturesrecorded were 12.4 degreeCelsius and 2.2 degree Celsiusrespectively. Singh said that theweather forecast for Dehradunon Wednesday is clear sky. Themaximum and minimum tem-peratures are likely to bearound 21 degree Celsius and6 degree Celsius respectivelyhere on Wednesday. It hasbeen witnessed and experi-enced that many homeless andorphan people have huddledtogether just to get warmthfrom uncontrollable condi-tion.

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On the first day of the year2018, the Union Home

Minister Rajnath Singh onMonday visited the forwardareas in the Himalayan regionof Uttarakashi district. He metthe Indo-Tibetan Border Police(ITBP) Force jawans deployedat the Nelong Border Out-Post (BOP) located at an alti-tude of 11,636 feet. The HomeMinister had personal interac-tion with the jawans deployedat the Himalayan heights of theregion.

While addressing the ITBPjawans during a Sainik Sabha,Singh lauded their dedicatedservice done in tough circum-stances at high altitudes ofHimalayas in sub-zero tem-perature.

He said that the Himveersare working with high morale

and that the Ministry of HomeAffairs is aware of the invalu-able services rendered by theITBP personnel to the nation.He assured them that the min-istry is trying to extend all pos-sible support to the force tomake it stronger.

The ITBP Director GeneralRK Pachnanda and senior offi-

cers accompanied Singh onthe visit. Earlier, on New Year’seve, the home minister had metthe families of ITBP jawansresiding in the family quartersof the unit premises at Matli inUttarkashi and greeted them onthe occasion.

This was the first ever visitby Singh to Nelong valley in

Uttarkashi. In September-October last year, the unionhome minister had visitedMana, Lapthal and RimkhimBOPs besides various other for-mations of ITBP-Mountaineering and SkiingInstitute at Auli near Joshimathand Gauchar and had celebrat-ed Dussehra with ITBP jawans.

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Asixty year old man sus-tained serious injuries on

Tuesday morning in a chanceencounter with an elephantnear the BHEL township here.He has been shifted to the dis-trict hospital where his condi-tion is said to be critical.

The incident took placewhen Manzoor Ahmed, a res-ident of Jwalpaur area went tocut fodder grass from the

BHEL land near sector-1 whichis close to Rajaji tiger reserve.Range officer of Haridwar for-est range VP Naudiyal said,“Locals informed us about theincident and by the time wereached they had taken theman to the hospital. His con-dition is stable now.”

Despite the protection wallmade on border of Haridwar for-est range elephants are fre-quently moving into the resi-dential areas, complain the locals.

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The State’s appeallate tri-bunal has rejected the

appeal submitted by PatanjaliAyurved Ltd against the deci-sion of the Haridwar ADM toimpose penalty on it for itsmustard oil failing sampling.

The Haridwar municipalcorp food security officerYogendra Pandey had con-ducted the sampling of thePatanjali food products at itsPadarth unit. When the casereached the court of the ADM

finance and revenue, LalitNarayan Mishra, he imposed afine of �2.50 lakh for mis-branding and packaging issue.The tribunal has reduced thepenalty by �50k bringing it to �2L while also considering theallegations to be valid.

The ADM finance and rev-enue’s court had given its deci-sion in a letter dated December1, 2016 that the plaint onPatanjali’s items being ‘mis-leading’ and ‘misbranding’ hadbeen accepted and a fine wasimposed on the firm.

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Chief Minister TrivendraSingh Rawat opened vari-

ous works and madeannouncements after inaugu-rating the Krishi Mahotsav-2018 and Vikas Mela at theRamlila Ground in Uttarkashion Tuesday.

Addressing the gatheringon the occasion, the ChiefMinister said that problemsbeing faced in the health ser-vices in Uttarakhand were takenup as a challenge by the StateGovernment. Focusing first onthe appointment of doctors in

Government hospitals, theGovernment took the stern stepof discontinuing the attach-ment system which had beencontinuing so far. With thisdecision, the doctors have beensent to the places where theyhad been posted in the past.Further, notices had been issuedto doctors asking them to jointheir duties in the district hos-pitals by December 31, 2017.Many of the doctors haveresponded to the notice byjoining their posts. The ChiefMinister said that doctors willbe posted in all the district hos-pitals of the state within the next

two months. Regarding the all-weather road project, he said

that the Government’s target isthat work under this project

should reach its final stage by2019-20. The pace of executionof work in this project will bepicked up during February-March this year. Referring toagriculture and animal hus-bandry, he asked the farmers tocalculate how much they couldprofit by taking up animal hus-bandry along with traditionalagriculture. Referring to bee-culture, he said that there is highdemand in the States for honeyharvested in mountainousregions. The farmers will be ableto derive maximum benefit ifsuch honey is supplied to largecities. Rawat said that to gener-

ate employment, the state gov-ernment will open growth cen-tres in 670 Nyay Panchayats ofwhich 15 centres will be forreadymade garments.

Speaking on the eve, theState Agriculture Min SubodhUniyal said that the State had sofar taken more than 70 decisionsin the interests of the farmers.Agriculture will have to beencouraged in order to stopmigration, he stressed.

The local MLA Gopal SinghRawat, District Panchayat headJashoda Rana, DM AshishChauhan and others were alsopresent

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Impressed by the Kankarialake in Ahmedabad,

Uttarakhand Chief MinisterTrivendra Singh Rawat direct-ed officials to draft a plan fortourism development scopefocused on the lakes inUttarakhand. The CM inspect-ed the Kankaria lake inAhmedabad, Gujarat alongwith the chief secretary UtpalKumar Singh and tourism sec-retary of Uttarakhand onMonday.

The Chief Minister saidthat the Kankaria lake inAhmedabad is popular amonglocals and tourists. There is anactivity centre with variousfacilities for tourists while a BalVatika has also been main-tained here specifically for

entertaining children. He saidthat developing similar facili-ties at lakes in Uttarakhand cannot only become educationalattractions for children butalso attract tourists. Rawat fur-ther said that in Uttarakhand,similar measures for tourismdevelopment can be undertak-en in Uttarakhand with focuson Tehri dam reservoir, Nainilake, Nanksagar reservoir,Kalagarh reservoir, Suryadharlake project and other suchwater bodies. He directed theofficials concerned to drafted adetailed plan for this purpose.

During his visit toAhmedabad, the chief ministeralso visited a flower show heldon the Sabarmati riverfront. Healso visited the local Sudarvanreptile park, said to be thebiggest of its kind in Asia.

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The State Education MinisterArvind Pandey seems to be

worried about poor basic infra-structure in Governmentschools. Pandey said that hewould give his one month’ssalary to the education depart-ment for improving basic infra-structure in the governmentschools while education officershave expressed their willing-ness to give one day salary forthe same purpose. School prin-cipals may also give their oneday salary for the same.Moreover, education ministerPandey said that in order toimprove quality of education inschools and students to getmaximum marks in their classX and class XII board exami-nations, the education depart-ment would conduct boardexaminations in classes V andVIII.

Primary education directorRK Kunwar said that level ofeducation in schools has beendeteriorating and many of thestudents are getting pass marksin their annual examination.The central government is alsoconsidering the introduction ofexaminations below Class VIII

to judge the education level ofenrolled students. The stu-dents’ standard at school levelwill be improved if examina-tion is being conducted regu-larly. As under the Right toEducation Act, children fromclass I to Class VIII cannot befailed. They are promoted tillClass VIII. On the direction ofeducation minister, boardexams in Class V and ClassVIII would be implementedafter central governmentdirects the state educationdepartment regarding thesame.

Kunwar said that thou-sands of government primaryand junior schools are facingshortage of furniture. Buildingsof some government schoolsare in dilapidated state. Most ofthe education officers haveexpressed their willingness togive one day salary for the pur-pose of addressing these issues.School principals may alsogive their one day salary for thesame and funds would beutilised for improving infra-structure in governmentschools, he said, adding sever-al other steps are being takento improve level of education inGovernment schools.

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Himachal Chief MinisterJai Ram Thakur on

Tuesday blamed the previousCongress Government forpushing the State to a financialdebt of around �46,500 crore.

Addressing his first publicgathering after becoming ChiefMinister in Municipal Groundat Bilaspur, he said that it wasshameful that the party whichruled for decades in Himachalhad done very little for thedevelopment except borrow-ings loans and creating finan-cial mismanagement.

He said the Governmentwould spend every single piereceived from the Centre forthe development of the Stateand welfare of the people

Thakur said he met UnionFinance Minister and the

Prime Minister who assuredhim to provide all possibleassistance to overcome thedebt and to provide bailoutpackage from the Centre."Officers have been asked toprepare proposals to overcomethe debt”, he said, adding thatthe major challenge beforehim was to steer out theGovernment from financialcrisis.

The Chief Minister said itwas due to the people ofHimachal Pradesh that theparty was in absolute majori-ty. He also praised efforts offormer Chief Ministers of theState Shanta Kumar and PremKumar Dhumal for victory ofBJP.

“Today I am a satisfied tosee ‘Congress Mukt’ Himachaland it was the Mandi District,where 9 out of 10 seats were

won by BJP and one by anIndependent,” he said. Thakursaid that the Governmentwould not follow the revenge-ful attitude as was the traditionof the previous Government.

He thanked the peoplewho gathered in numbers toconvey their warm blessings.

JR Katwal, MLA Jhanduta,urged for an early solution toBhakra Dam oustees. MLAGhumarwin Rajinder Garg,MLA Bilaspur, ShubhashThakur, also welcomed theChief Minister and addressedthe gathering thanking thepeople for bestowing faith innew leadership of BJP.

Irrigation and PublicHealth Minister MahenderSingh Thakur, MLA DoonParamjit Singh Pammi andother BJP leaders were alsopresent on the occasion.

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Heading towards the inte-gration of fire services,

Haryana Government hasdecided to resolve late paymentissues in fire stations by dele-gating the powers of Drawingand Disbursing Officer (DDO)to fire officers at district level.

This will put an end to theproblem of employees in newlyestablished Fire ServiceDirectorate, said Urban LocalBodies-cum-Fire ServiceDepartment Minister, Kavita Jain.

The Minister said thatChief Minister Manohar Lal hasaccorded approval to a proposalconcerning giving DDO pow-ers to fire station officer (non-gazetted) at district level.

She said that since the for-mation of the Directorate ofFire Brigade in the State, theGovernment is constantlyworking to bring fire servicesunder a roof. There are 89 fireofficers and employees workingin 19 fire stations in munici-palities and 555 in 59 fire sta-tions in market committees inthe State.

So far, the maintenance offire brigade and vehicles wasdone by the municipalities andthe market committees. Due tointegration of services, theGovernment has to bear the

expenses pertaining to employ-ees' salaries, firearms vehiclesand maintenance of fuel, she said.

In order to strengthen theDirectorate, she said that 2779posts have been created forfire-fighting training centersand various 69 fire stations.After adjusting the fire officersand employees working in themunicipalities and marketcommittees, the requisitionhas been sent to the HaryanaStaff Selection Commissionand the Haryana PublicService Commission to fillthe remaining vacanciesthrough direct recruitment,the Minister said.

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Haryana Government haswon the Central Board of

Irrigation and Power Award for2018 for optimum and efficientutilisation of water resources.

The award will be pre-sented by Nitin Gadkari, UnionMinister for Water Resourcesand Clean Ganga Mission, inNew Delhi on Wednesday.

The award has acknowl-edged the efforts made byHaryana Government led byChief Minister Manohar Lal,who also holds the portfolio ofIrrigation Department. TheState made history in carryingwater to the villages right up tothe Rajasthan border, after aspan of more than 25 years,said an official spokesman.

He said that the vast net-work of canals built by BansiLal, former Chief Minister,was on the verge of extinctionwhen Manohar Lal took thereins and turned the whole sys-tem around.

The efforts made by thepresent government since 2014have resulted in the JNL Feedercarrying over 150 per centwater as compared to 2014;MGC carrying over 200 percent water compared to 2014;and JLN Canal Carrier carry-ing 300 per cent as comparedto 2014, the spokesman added.

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From page 1Dhankar tried to resist

arrest and even assaulted thepolicemen before being over-powered, she said.

The SP said Dhankarappeared to be mentally ill.However, doctors will be ableto throw more light on this, sheadded.

“He seemed to be mental-ly-ill and looked highly aggres-sive. Preliminary investigationshave revealed that he hadstrained relations with his wifeand two children,” she said.

She said the accused, who

has been booked on murdercharge, was referred to thecivil hospital at Faridabad. Hispsychological evaluation wouldbe carried out.

DSP Abhimanyu Lohansaid prima facie it seemed thathe carried out the killings with-out a reason.

A high alert was soundedin the city, the policespokesperson said.

The spokesperson saidDhakhad got married 10 yearsago and separated from his wifefour years later. Dhankad wasthe youngest of five brother.

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Haryana Chief MinisterManohar Lal on Tuesday

directed to implement the inte-grated solar based micro irri-gation scheme in all districts ofthe State. A committee underChairman, Haryana RenewableEnergy Development Agency(HAREDA) has been consti-tuted to chalk out a strategy inthis regard.

At present, such scheme isbeing implemented on pilotbasis in commands of 14 dif-ferent canal outlets spread over13 districts of the State at a costof �24.65 crore.

Manohar Lal presided overa meeting regarding solar basedmicro-irrigation system here.Agriculture and Farmers’Welfare Minister, Om ParkashDhankar was also present inthe meeting.

While Chief Engineer,

Command Area DevelopmentAuthority (CADA) would beMember Secretary of the newlyconstituted committee,Director GeneralHorticulture,Superintending Engineer(Commercial) PowerDepartment, SuperintendingEngineer HAREDA and repre-sentative from AgricultureDepartment would be the othermembers of the committee.

The Committee wouldwork out a comprehensivestrategy for the implementationof solar based micro irrigation

system in all districts of thestate and submit a report in thisregard.

The Chief Minister alsoissued directions for the imple-mentation of integratedscheme for providing waterthrough solar pump sets in twoblocks namely Salahwas, dis-trict Jhajjar and Indri, districtKarnal.

He said that solar basedmicro irrigation system wouldnot only save electricity andwater considerably but alsoprove to be economical for the

farmers. Farmers’ association ofthe respective areas should beencouraged for communityirrigation, he said adding thatthe State Government wouldmade available infrastructure inthose areas which would switchover the micro irrigation andsolar water pumps.

The farmers would not berequired to install tubewells attheir own level instead they justhave to pay a nominal amountfor water according the crops,said the Chief Minister.

Manohar Lal also directed

that the ponds lying unused inthe villages should be utilized forthe setting up of solar panels forthe micro irrigation systems.

He directed the IrrigationDepartment to initiate a solarbased project for utilizing thesurplus water from overflowingponds in the villages. To beginwith, 50 overflowing ponds invarious districts of the statecould be taken up.

The Chief Minister wasapprised that HAREDA hasprepared a scheme for provid-ing 2300 solar water pumps inthe state and these would beprovided to those farmers whowould adopt micro irrigation.

Agriculture and Farmers’Welfare Minister, OP Dhankarsuggested that apart from therural ponds, the natural pondsin the agriculture fields shouldalso be utilized under the solarbased micro irrigation scheme.

Among those present inthe meeting included RKKhullar, Principal Secretary toChief Minister, AdditionalPrincipal Secretary, RakeshGupta, Additional ChiefSecretary Power PK Das,Principal Secretary IrrigationAnurag Rastogi and othersenior officers of the StateGovernment.

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Athick blanket of fogenveloped several areas of

Punjab and Haryana, adverse-ly affecting, air, rail and roadtraffic even as most areas in thetwo States shivered underintense cold on Tuesday.

The minimum tempera-tures hovered between threedegrees above normal to onenotch below normal in mostparts of the States, the MeToffice said here.

Bathinda at a low of 2.7degrees Celsius was the coldestin the two States.

Dense fog engulfed mostparts of Punjab and Haryanareducing visibility to upto 200meters, the MeT official said.

Officials said on account ofpoor visibility several flightsand trains from the regionwere either cancelled or delayedby hours.While Faridkotbraved a low of three degreesCelsius, Narnaul settled at 3.5degrees Celsius. Amritsar shiv-ered at 4.2 degrees Celsius fol-lowed by Sirsa at 4.8 degrees,Pathankot at 5.7 degrees,Adampur 5.8 degrees Celsius,Bhiwani at 6.5 degrees andHisar 7.3 degrees Celsius.

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With the mercury levelfalling and foggy condi-

tions prevailing, school timingsin various districts of Punjabhave been changed while somedistrict authorities have decid-ed to close down the schools forfew more days.

Schools in Punjab have re-opened on Tuesday after wintervacations from December 25.

In the wake of intense coldconditions in this part of theregion, the Shaheed BhagatSingh Nagar (Nawanshahr)Administration has issued direc-tions to keep all the schools, both

Government and private, in theregion to remain closed fornext four days.

As per the decision, theschools will reopen on January8. “The schools will remainclosed from January 3 toJanuary 6 due to dense fog in theregion as it decreases the visi-bility on roads, leading toincrease in road mishaps,” saidSBS Nagar administrator AmitKumar in an official statement.

Due to decrease in visibil-ity on roads owing to fog, theJalandhar and KapurthalaAdministration have alsodirected the school authoritiesto change the morning timing.

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Punjab Governor VP SinghBadnore will unfurl the

national flag on the 68thRepublic Day at the State-levelfunction at Pathankot whileChief Minister Capt AmarinderSingh will hoist the tricolour atPatiala.

Capt Amarinder had alsodeputed his Cabinet colleaguesto preside over the RepublicDay celebrations at variousdistrict headquarters, said thespokesperson of the ChiefMinister's Office.

Punjab Vidhan SabhaSpeaker Rana KP Singh will hoistthe national flag at Jalandhar,Health and Family WelfareMinister Brahm Mohindra atBathinda, Local GovernmentMinister Navjot Singh Sidhu atSangrur, Finance MinisterManpreet Singh Badal atLudhiana, Forests MinisterSadhu Dharamsot at Amritsar,Rural Development andPanchayats Minister Tript SinghBajwa at Hoshiarpur, Irrigationand Power Minister Rana GurjitSingh at Faridkot, and TechnicalEducation Minister CharanjitSingh Channi at Gurdaspur.

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From page 1We had deployed six police

companies to control the situ-ation. Some vehicles weretorched and stone were pelted,but we succeeded in preventingthe violence from turning intoa riot-like situation,” said theChief Minister.

Distancing his party fromthe incident, Shiv Sena RSmember Sanjay Raut chargedthat there appeared to be “pre-meditated” conspiracy behindMonday’s incident to incitecaste riots in the State. “TheState Govt should investigateand expose the hidden handbehind the incident.

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“Let me clear misconcep-tions, if any. I had announcedin the Budget speech that polit-ical funding needs to becleansed up. A very large partof donation coming to politicalparties by the donors, quantumand source is not known...Electoral bonds substantiallycleanse the system,” he said.

That party will have togive one bank account to theElection Commission and itwill have to be cashed within 15days, Jaitley said.

“The donor will knowwhich party he is depositingmoney. The political party willfile return with the ElectionCommission. Now, whichdonor gave to which politicalparty, that is the only thingwhich will not be known,” hesaid.

In the Budget for 2017-18,Jaitley had also announcedcapping cash donation at Rs2,000 instead of Rs 20,000 andallowed parties to receive dig-

ital donations.Jaitley said the electoral

bond, which will be a bearerinstrument, will not carry thename of the payee and can bebought for any value, in mul-tiples of Rs 1,000, Rs 10,000,Rs 1 lakh, Rs 10 lakh or Rs 1crore.

Jaitley said the purchaser,whose name will not appearon the bonds, would have tomake KYC (know your cus-tomer) disclosures to the SBI.

Later talking to reporters,Jaitley said the 15 days timehas been prescribed for thebonds to ensure that they donot become a parallel curren-cy.

On why the name of thedonor is being kept secret, hesaid the past experience hasshown that once the names aredisclosed, there is a tendencyto shift to cash donations.

Jaitley said the bonds willhelp a lot of Opposition par-ties because in case a disclo-sure is made it will always bein favour of ruling party.

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“There is no question of usnot standing by anything thatempowers women, but thereblack and white solution to this.We have to see how the debateevolves... What is actuallyincluded and how is it imple-mentable... And until it is equi-table for all women under allclauses of talaq. This is onlytalaq-e-biddat (triple talaq)”,Chowdhury said.

CPI leader and Rajay Sabhamember D Raja said the Leftwas in favour of referring theproposed legislation to theselect committee but the Centrewas deliberately blocking suchattempts to prevent closerscrutiny of the Bill. “The BJP-led NDA Government isbypassing the committee sys-tem. They are saying ‘don’tsend Bills to the StandingCommittee for closer scrutiny’.When it comes to the RajyaSabha, we will demand that itshould be sent to the SelectCommittee,” said Raja.

The Muslim Women(Protection of Rights onMarriage) Bill, 2017, makestriple talaq -- the practice bywhich Muslim men divorcetheir wives by saying talaqthree times -- a criminaloffence punishable by up tothree years in jail. The LokSabha passed the Bill onDecember 28 without any dis-ruption as the ruling BJP hasthe numbers to push legisla-tion. The Lower House passedthe Bill after Law MinisterRavi Shankar Prasad tabled itand Speaker Sumitra Mahajanheld a voice vote for eachclause.

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The Government has pro-vided incentives for inter-

caste marriages but does nothave plan to do the same forinter-religious marriages.

Responding to queriesfrom Opposition members inLok Sabha, Union MinisterVijay Sampla said, “As of now,there is no plan to extend thescheme (Dr Ambedkar Schemefor Social Integration) to inter-religion marriages.”

Under the centrally-spon-sored scheme for implementa-tion of the Protection of CivilRights Act, 1955 and theScheduled Castes and theScheduled Tribes (Preventionof Atrocities) Act 1989, incen-tives for inter-caste marriages,where one spouse is a memberof SC is provided.

The marriage has to be reg-istered under the HinduMarriages Act, 1955, theMinister of State for social jus-tice and empowerment said.

Sampla said as per thescheme, the incentive of �2.5 lakh is shared on 50:50basis between the Central andthe State Governments, whilethe Union Territory adminis-trations get 100 per cent cen-tral assistance.

“There is no proposal toincrease the existing incentiveamount of �2.5 lakh to an eli-gible couple,” he said.

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The Supreme Court has awarded �15 lakhcompensation to a rape victim who is deaf

and dumb and who secured an order from theHimachal Pradesh High Court directing theState Government to award her a compensationof �30000 every month for life.

Making it a one-time payment, the apexBench of Justices J Chelameswar and SanjayKishan Kaul said, “In the circumstances, we deemit appropriate to modify the order of the HighCourt (on June 29, 2016) insofar as it pertains tothe payment of compensation to the victim bydirecting the State to deposit an amount of �15lakh in an interest bearing fixed deposit in thename of the victim in any nationalized bank inconsultation with the Member-Secretary of the

Himachal Pradesh State Legal Services Authority.”The Court took note of the fact that the vic-

tim suffered 80 per cent disability and on accountof the rape also gave birth to a child, whoseresponsibility came upon her. The Bench felt thatthe interest accrued in the fixed deposit couldbe withdrawn each month and given to the par-ents of the victim who will ensure that theamount is spent on the welfare of the victim.

The order came on an appeal filed by theHimachal Pradesh Government stating thatthere existed no scheme to pay compensation torape victims for their entire life. The HC, whiledismissing the appeal of convict Rajneesh aliasVicky, had said that the victim was in a doublydisadvantageous position since she had to main-tain her and the baby. The incident occurred onDecember 26, 2013 in Hamirpur, HP.

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As some MPs in the RajyaSabha on Tuesday

expressed concern over risingnumber of atrocities againstwomen and children,Chairman M Venkaiah Naiduurged the media to refrainfrom glorifying and glamoris-ing such incidents and perpe-trators. He also said the needof the hour was to have achange of mindset amongst themasses on such cases.

The Chair made theseobservations after some MPsincluding KumariSelja(Congress) flagged theissue of crimes against womenand children in several statesincluding her home stateHaryana. She also expressedconcern over the role of socialmedia in glorifying such inci-dents and claimed this was alsoa reason for inciting youths tocommit such crimes. TheCongress leader also called fora check on social media.

Terming the matter as“important and serious,” Naidusaid the media including socialmedia and cinema had a greatresponsibility in not glorifyingsuch incidents. “We have tothink,” he remarked and calledfor a change in mindset in soci-ety.

Earlier, he sought a reportfrom the Haryana Governmenton the killing of Ashok Kumar,

a Rajya Sabha chamber atten-dant, in Bahadurgarh onDecember 30. He was report-edly shot at around 8 PM whenhe was returning home on hismotorcycle in the Arya Nagararea after buying milk. KumariSelja too mentioned the incident.

Among other issues thatfigured in the Rajya Sabha wasa demand to frame a strict lawto discourage begging wasmade by Shwait Malik (BJP).Ram Nath Thakur (JD-U)asked the Centre to give Bihar�7,636 crore it had demanded

for flood relief and also waivefarm and cattle loans.

Raising the issue of the“disastrous” move to someGovernment of India Pressesand all the Indian Railwayprinting presses, Tapan KumarSen (CPI-M) said the move rancontrary to the ‘Make in India’campaign of the government asit destructs domestic manu-facturing.

Rajeev Shukla (Congress)raised the issue of electoralreforms and said the ElectionCommission should come outwith clear-cut guidelines oncounting of paper slips of VoterVerifiable Paper Audit Trail

(VVPAT) and the EVMs. SMuthukaruppan (AIAMDK)demanded that the Centreshould raise the supply of sub-sidised sugar to Tamil Nadu, asa recent reduction had led thestate to cough up �1,300 croreannually to enable the supply ofthe sweetener at below marketprice levels.

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The Rajya Sabha set a recordof sorts on Tuesday by

taking up all the listed businessin the pre-lunch sessionincluding Zero Hour, SpecialMentions and Question Hour,the first time in the last 15years.

While lauding the Eldersfrom all parties for the accom-plishment, Chairman MVenkaiah Naidu, however,lamented the fact that six of the15 questions could not betaken up as the MPs supposedto ask them were absent. TheChair urged the members totake this responsibility seri-ously.

As soon as the Zero Hourand Special Mentions endedbefore the Question Hour,Naidu said a record was set asall the issues mentioned in theproceedings were taken upadding “I can only operatewith your co-operation.”

“The Rajya Sabha todaymade history. For the firsttime, all Zero Hour submis-sions, all Special Mentionswere fully completed,” saidNaidu. His observation comesin the backdrop of the ongoingwinter session starting on

December 15 on a stormynote with no business con-ducted for some days due tofrequent disruptions.Moreover, the record onTuesday came about after 15years with at least 18 membersspeaking on issues of publicimportance during Zero Hour.

During the QuestionHour, six questions in the last end of the list were not taken up as the MPs con-cerned were not presentthough Naidu called out thequestions as per the norm.He then quipped that “some-thing special is happening” inapparent reference to missing MPs. Naidu then urged the members to be present.

“They have the liberty. Idon’t question them. At thesame time, we have a respon-sibility. If you file a question,so much time, energy andresources are spent. Not com-ing to the House is not a goodpractice. Keep that in mind,”he said. As many as 11 mem-bers were allowed to speak onissues of public importanceduring Zero Hour, whileanother eight were allowed toread out the text of their spe-cial mentions.

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Defence Minister NirmalaSitharaman on Tuesday

gave the final approval for twodeals worth over � 1,714 croresfor procurement of 131 Barakmissiles for the Navy and 240KAB-1500 Precision GuidedMunitions (PGM) for the IAF.While the PGMs to be fitted infrontline fighter jet SU-30 willcost about �1,254 crores, theBarak missile contract is�460crores. These missileswill be fitted on all the mainwarships of the Navy.

Explaining the need forthe minister’s clearance for thePGMs, officials said here thismissile is a variant of the KABPGMs the IAF has in serviceand employed by SU-30 fight-er jets. It is a regular procure-ment through the revenueexpenditure. Due to the valueof the contract, the approval ofDefence Ministry was required,they said.

These precision guidedbombs will be procured fromRosoboronexport of Russiaand the induction of these

bombs will address the defi-ciency of Precision GuidedMunitions in the IAF arsenal,besides enhancing the offensivecapabilities of the IAF, officialssaid.

The second proposal wasthe final contract for 131 BarakSurface to Air Missiles (SAM).Last April, the DefenceAcquisition Council (DAC)chaired by then DefenceMinister Arun Jaitley had giventhe nod for procurementunder “Buy Global” category ofprocurement procedure underoptional clause from RafaelAdvance Defence Systems Ltd.of Israel at a cost of �460crore.

These missiles are surfaceto air missiles designed to beused as a ship-borne anti-mis-sile defence system againstanti-ship missiles, officials said.The procurement is beingmade as part of the govern-ment’s efforts to bolster oper-ational capability of the armedforces considering the evolvingsecurity situation in the region,the Ministry said in a state-ment.

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In a bid to give India’s Act EastPolicy a further boost,

External Affairs MinisterSushma Swaraj will undertakeher first visit of the year to threeSouth East Asian countries —Thailand, Indonesia andSingapore — from January 4-8.All aspects of bilateral relationswill be discussed with specialfocus on political, defence andeconomic ties and on furtherenhancing India’s engagementwith ASEAN countries.

EAM will also share withher counterparts informationabout the forthcoming ASEAN-India Commemorative in NewDelhi Summit where the PrimeMinisters of the ten ASEANcountries will also be the chiefguest of the Republic Dayparade. Thailand will take overas the role of coordinator coun-try, from Vietnam, for India-ASEAN relations in the middleof 2018.

During her visit toThailand on January 4-5,Swaraj will hold meeting withher counterpart DonPramudwinai. In Indonesia,EAM will co-chair the 5thmeeting of India-IndonesiaJoint Commission with hercounterpart Retno Marsudi onJanuary 5-6. The ministers willalso inaugurate the secondmeeting of ASEAN-IndiaNetwork of Think Tanks.

“As the biggest country inthe ASEAN region with thelargest economy, Indonesia is animportant partner for Indiaincluding in trade and strategicmatters. In recent times, therehas been intensive engagementbetween the two countries bilat-erally, as well as plurilaterally.The Joint Commission meetingand other engagements of EAMwill enable the two countries tochart out the course of part-nership during the year 2018,”Ministry of External Affairs saidin a statement.

During her visit to Singaporeon January 6-8, EAM will inau-gurate the Regional PravasiBharatiya Divas (PBD) ofASEAN countries. The theme ofthe event is “Ancient Route,New Journey: Diaspora in theDynamic ASEAN-IndiaPartnership”. She will have bilat-eral meetings with the leaders inSingapore and also interactionswith PIO delegations fromASEAN countries, who are par-ticipating in the PBD. TheRegional PBD is a large scaleevent covering a wide range ofsectors including political rela-tions, economic and investment,tourism and culture, connectiv-ity, start-ups, science and tech-nology etc. PIO delegations fromall ASEAN countries, includingministers, eminent personali-ties, business and socio-politicalleaders are participating in theevent.

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Nine proposals to renamedifferent airports in the

country are being looked intoby the Centre, Civil AviationMinister Ashok Gajapathi Rajusaid on Tuesday. After ademand to name the MaduraiAirport after MuthuramalingaThevar was raised in the RajyaSabha during the QuestionHour, BJP memberSubramanian Swamy said theinvaluable contribution ofThevar was largely ignored,probably because he was aclose associate of NetajiSubhash Chandra Bose.

Replying to the question,Raju said that airports arerenamed based on recommen-dations by the StateGovernment supported by aresolution passed in the respec-tive Assembly. He said that withregard to Tamil Nadu, the statedid not favour naming of build-ings and other places afterpublic figures.

Rajya Sabha Chairman MVenkaiah Naidu said the deci-sion may have been taken inTamil Nadu as there is a ten-dency among political partiesto name buildings or airportsafter their leaders or thoseclose to them. The nextGovernment then begins theprocess of changing them, he

added, supporting Swamy’sdemand.

Naidu said that Thevarwas a figure who was abovepolitical lines and was an icon-ic freedom fighter. As Swamyand some other members per-sisted, the Minister saidenquiry can be made from theState Government on the issue.

Congress member AmbikaSoni raised the issue of renam-ing the Chandigarh Airportafter Bhagat Singh, even asSAD’s Naresh Gujral said thatthe matter had the endorse-ment of the Assemblies ofPunjab and Haryana. Ademand regarding renaming ofthe Aurangabad airport wasalso raised. The minister saidthere were nine such proposalswhich were being examined bythe civil aviation ministry.

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The 12-hour nation-widestir called by the Indian

Medical Association (IMA) toprotest a proposed legislationseeking to replace the MedicalCouncil of India (MCI) with anew body, was called off onTuesday after the NationalMedical Commission (NMC)Bill was referred to aParliamentary standing com-mittee.

Parliamentary AffairsMinister Ananth Kumar, whosaid the Bill had been referredto the Standing Committee inthe Lok Sabha, requested theChair to ask the panel to giveits recommendation prior tothe Budget session.

The IMA has described theBill, which was tabled in theLok Sabha last week by UnionHealth Minister JP Nadda, as“anti-people and anti-patient”.Acclaimed cardiac surgeonDevi Prasad Shetty hailed theproposed NMC bill, but saidthe provision of Ayurvedicdoctors being allowed to pre-scribe Allopathic medicinesneeds clarification.

More than 2.9 lakh doctorshad gone on a 12-hour nation-wide strike (6 a.m. to 6 p.m.) inprotest against the Bill, whichseeks to allow those practicingalternative and traditional

medicine to practice allopathyafter completing a “bridgecourse”.

The Bill proposes aGovernment-nominated chair-man and members, who will beselected by a committee underthe Cabinet Secretary. Themedical fraternity led by theIMA is opposing the clausefearing the body would effec-tively be run by the govern-ment.

Earlier in the day, the issueof doctors’ strike was raised inboth Houses of Parliamentduring Zero Hour.

Senior Congress leaderJairam Ramesh had written toVice-President M VenkaiahNaidu and the Union HealthMinister demanding that the

Bill be referred to a standingcommittee for examination.

Besides seeking to replacethe MCI, the Bill also propos-es allowing practitioners ofalternative medicines, such ashomoeopathy and ayurveda,practise allopathy after com-pleting a “bridge course”.

“We called off our strike asthe Bill has been referred to aParliamentary StandingCommittee which has mem-bers from diverse fields andthere should now be a fruitfuldiscussion. We are thankful toall the Lok Sabha members forsupporting us,” IMA’s KKAggarwal said.

“The NMC Bill in the pre-sent form is not acceptable,”newly-appointed IMA nation-al president Dr RaviWankhedkar.

IMA has already written toPrime Minister Narendra Modiand the Union Health Ministerurging them to redraft the Billand rectify some of its provi-sions to protect the interest ofmedical practitioners.

The NMC Bill proposesreplacing the Medical Councilof India with a new body and“possibly” Section 15 of theIMC Act, which says that thebasic qualification to practisemodern medicine is MBBS, DrAggarwal, the former presidentof the IMA, said.

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The Lok Sabha on Tuesdaypassed amendments to the

Bill on protection of monu-ments to allow the Governmentto take up infrastructure pro-jects within prohibited areasaround protected archeologicalsites. “Moving away from theparty lines, the members havesupported the Bill,” CultureMinister Mahesh Sharma saidwhile replying to the concernsraised by the members duringthe debate on AncientMonuments and ArchaeologicalSites and Remains(Amendment) Bill, 2017.

The bar on new construc-tion within prohibited areas ofa protected monument wasadversely affecting various pub-lic works and developmentalprojects of the CentralGovernment, the bill’sStatement of Objects andReasons said.

Addressing the concerns ofShashi Tharoor (Congress),Sharma said the change whichis being brought about was inthe national interest. He said noindividual or private entityshould be benefited and thisbill should be used only in the

interest of the nation.He said the need was felt to

amend the law to allow “con-struction works related to infra-structure financed and carriedout by any department or officeof the central government forpublic purposes which is nec-essary for the safety or securi-ty of the public at large”.

There are more than 3,600monuments and sites that areare centrally-protected underthe jurisdiction of theArchaeological Survey of India,which is responsible for theirmaintenance.

Manoj Tiwari (BJP) sup-

ported the bill and claimed thatit will help in preservation ofcultural monuments and sites.As a member of a standingcommittee dealing with mon-uments, he came to know that24 such sites are only on paperand do not really exist due toencroachment, he said. AdhirRanjan Chowdhury(Congress) asked theGovernment to reconsider thebill and send it at the least toa standing committee. “Whomare you trying to benefit,” heasked and added that suchrelaxations will “open aPandora’s box”.

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As the Congress on Tuesdayaccused the Government

in the Lok Sabha of failing toprotect military installationsfrom cross-border terror strikesand questioned Prime MinisterNarendra Modi’s ‘silence evenafter five soldiers were killed inSunday’s Pulwama attack, theGovernment sought the oppo-sition to not to play politicsover the sensitive issue.

The Opposition party alsoasked why the Governmentfailed to prevent the attackwhen there was intelligenceinput about it.

Congress leaderJyotiraditya Scindia, whoraised the issue during thezero hour , also lashed out atthe government over NationalSecurity Adviser (NSA) AjitDoval meeting his Pakistanicounterpart in Bangkok lastweek, notwithstandingPakistani authorities ill-treatingthe family of Indian death rowprisoner Kulbhushan Jadhav inIslamabad.

“What is the Government’sPakistan policy? The NSA metthe Pakistani NSA in Bangkokafter the family of KulbhushanJadhav was ill treated byPakistan. On the other hand,cross- border attacks are goingon,” Scindia said while attack-ing the Government over itsalleged failure ward off terrorstrikes from across the border

.On the Pulwama attack,Scindia accused theGovernment of failing to put inplace security measures to pro-tect sensitive defence installa-tions even though there weresimilar terror strikes on mili-tary bases in the recent pastincluding in Uri, Udhampurand Pathankot.

“When people were cele-brating (the new year),Pakistan- sponsored terrorist

attacked a CRPF camp inPulwama. Five soldiers laiddown their lives. The soldiersare sacrificing their lives pro-tecting the country but the gov-ernment does not look seriousin protecting them,” Scindiasaid.

He also wondered why thePrime Minister was maintain-ing “total silence” over it.

Scindia also attacked BJP’sMP from Rampur, UP, NepalSingh for his reported com-ments that army jawans shouldexpect death because of theprofession they are in.

Parliamentary AffairsMinister Ananth Kumaraccused the Congress of tryingto play politics over a sensitiveissue. “We had carried out thesurgical strikes. We killedaround 200 terrorists in the lastthree years. The Congressshould not play politics over asensitive issue,” Kumar said. Healso said 80 terrorists werekilled last year itself.

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Two days after sulkingDeputy Chief Minister

Nitin Patel was placated byallotting him Finance portfolio,Minister of State in newlyformed Vijay RupaniGovernment ParshottamSolanki – a Koli communityleader in Saurashtra regionshown displeasure on Tuesdayover ‘insignificant’ Fisheriesportfolio allocated to him.

The five times MLA fromBhavnagar district has alsoexpressed annoyance for keep-ing him junior Minister anddemanded Cabinet rank.Talking to media personnel atthe sprawling Gujarat StateSecretariat Solanki demandeda Department through whichhe could work for the people.

“Unlike previous govern-ments, I have been margin-alised with a singleDepartment. In the lastGovernment I had charge ofAnimal Husbandry also. WithFisheries department, I wouldbe able to give my services topeople who stay in coastalareas and not those who are liv-ing in other parts,” said the 57-

year-old strong Koli leader.According to him he had

met Chief Minister VijayRupani before he came in frontof media but he couldn’texpress his feelings beforeRupani as he was surroundedother people also. He went onto say that with only oneDepartment, he wouldn’t beable to even pass time at hisoffice in the State Secretariat.

“I don’t mind even with asingle Department, but peopleof Koli community are nothappy and they want partyleadership to do something,” headded. It is worth mentioningthat as many as 45 seats out of182 are Koli influenced in theState. The population of Kolicommunity in the State is morethan 15 per cent althoughthere are many sub-castes with-

in the community. Immediately after Solanki’s

controversial remarks beforethe media, BJP leadership cameinto damage control mode anddeputed senior MinisterBhupendrasinh Chudasama forthe purpose. It was Chudasamawho played crucial role totroubleshoot to resolve NitinPatel episode.

Within an hourChudasama told media thatcontribution of Solanki tomake the saffron party accept-able in Koli community could-n’t be ignored. He said that theMoS Fisheries had put forth hissentiment before the CM andthe party would do somethingin next 3-4 days. Solanki whowas present at that time reiter-ated that his community mem-bers want him to take morenumber of portfolios.

The way Patel created in thename of Patidar communityand succeeded to get Financeportfolio, Solanki too resortedto same technique using hisKoli community which is inlarge number in Gujarat. Patel’sissue was resolved only afterBJP president Amit Shah puthis foot down.

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Strongly opposing the Billcriminalising the instant or

triple talaq, which was passedby Lok Sabha recently, the AllIndia Muslim Personal LawBoard has decided to challengeit before the Supreme Court.

Prominent scholar andSecretary of AIMPLB MoulanaKhalid Saifullah Rahmani hassaid that the Board had doneeverything possible to per-suade the Government againstgoing ahead with the Bill.

“If it is passed in the RajyaSabha too, then the Board willchallenge it in Supreme Courtas it is a blatant intervention inthe Shariah law, against thespirit of the Constitution ofIndia and was against the inter-est of women”, he said.

He expressed confidencethat the judiciary will agreewith the views of AIMPLB onthe issue. He urged theMuslims to remain united andnot to fall prey to propagandaaimed at creating differencesand confusion in the commu-nity. “Muslims should remainunited and foil any attempt toweaken the Board, which is abody representing the entirecommunity”, he said.

Moulana Rahmani alsoadvised Muslims against takingany action on their own andwait for the guidance of theBoard in the matter. He reject-ed the criticism that the Boardhad failed in effectively dealingwith the Bill and said thatBoard had approached all theOpposition parties and MPsincluding the Muslim MPs andpresented its views beforethem.

“What happened onDecember 28 in Lok Sabha wasmore painful than the tragedywhich happened on December6, 1992 in Ayodhya”, he said. “In

Ayodhya a mosque was demol-ished but now in Lok Sabha astupid attempt was made toweaken the foundation ofShariah”, he said.

He cautioned that the Billwas against the interest ofwomen as it will lead to aban-doning of wives.

“It will be more problem-atic for women as a wife willhave to first prove in the courtthat her husband had given hertriple talaq to send him to jail.And a jailed husband will notgive her divorce leaving her fatehanging in balance and she willnot be able to remarry”, he said.

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Islamic seminary of DarulUloom Deoband has con-

demned and termed Muslimgirl Aliya Khan ‘unislamic’ fordressing up as Lord Krishna andreciting Gita. Aliya of Meerutrecently stood second in a com-petition for recitation ofBhagwad Gita.

“Her act is shirk (opposed tomonotheism) and Islam strict-ly prohibits such acts. Donningthe dress of Lord Krishna is alsostrictly prohibited in Islam asthis is transvestite where awomen cannot take on thedress of a male and vice versa,’’said Chairman of Online FatwaDepartment of Darul UloomDeoband Mufti ArshadFarooqui.

On December 30, ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath hadfelicitated Aliya Khan and givenher a prize of �25,000 during aconvention in honour of BalGanghadahar Tilak in Lucknow.Aliya had received the prizefrom the Chief Minister dressedas Lord Krishna. Responding toDarul Uloom’s criticism, Aliyasaid, “I am an Indian first. I havenot shunned Islam by recitingshlokas from Bhagwad Gita and

donning the attire of LordKrishna does not affect religiousbelief and identity of any per-son.’’ “I read Gita for knowledgeand this can be obtained fromscriptures of any religion. Thescriptures tell us about human-ity and human values. I havedone that by reading and recit-ing from Bhagwad Gita. Its isnot a religious book, it teachesyou about the philosophy of lifeand Karma.”

Rejecting Darul Uloom’sobjections, she said, “Please donot drag me into politics. I ama student, allow me to pursuemy studies. All those who wantto politicise this issue shouldfirst express their opinion aboutSalman Khan, Shahrukh Khanand others.’’

Alia had beaten thousandsof children across the State towin the second prize for Gitarecitation competition organ-ised by the State. Alia assertedthat no one discouraged herfrom learning the scriptures ofa different religion. “Even ifsomeone says anything, I havea straight-forward answer. I donot read Gita for religion. I readGita for knowledge and we canaccess knowledge from any-where,” she said.

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The permanent synod of theErnakulam-Angamaly Archdiocese

of Kerala’s Syro-Malabar CatholicChurch has instructed the bishopsand priests under it to put an end to thewar of words over a controversial landdeal in which Major ArchbishopCardinal Mar George Alencherry isallegedly involved even as the Cardinaladmitted that there had been sometechnical lapses from his side in theland deal.

The synod issued the instructionafter an emergency meeting held onNew Year Day in a desperate bid to sal-vage the reputation and credibility of theArchdiocese, its leadership and theentire Syro-Malabar Church after thewar over the land deal between oppos-ing sections within the clergy and laityspilled over to the streets.

The synod asked the bishops andpriests in the Archdiocese to abstainfrom making public statements aboutthe issue of the land sales, which had ledto the loss of several crores of rupees.It instructed Auxiliary Bishops Sebastian

Adayanthrath and Jose Puthenveettil totake the initiative for establishing unityamong priests and bishops. As per thedecisions taken at the meeting of thesynod, the concerned council of theArchdiocese and critics of the Cardinalwould jointly inform the media that theissue that had been rocking the Churchhad been settled. It also said that the pas-toral council of the Archdiocese coulddecide on matters like petitioning thePope against Cardinal Alencherry.

The controversy pertains to the saleof over three acres of prime landbelonging to the Archdiocese in Kochicity worth tens of crores of rupees to pri-vate persons. The lands were sold in twoschedules to 36 persons in September,2016 and between January and Augustlast year and Cardinal Alencherry him-self had signed in all the land sale doc-uments.

The Archdiocese had suffered a lossof a minimum of �18 crore throughthese land sales for which a middleman,whose credibility has now come undersuspicion, had been engaged allegedlyunder instructions from the MajorArchbishop himself.

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The DMK which was mauled inthe recently held RK Nagar by-

poll has dissolved all its units in theAssembly constituency following areport submitted by the three-mem-ber committee which probed the fac-tors behind the debacle of the partycandidate Marudu Ganesh. TTVDhinakaran, the independent can-didate who contested with pressurecooker as his symbol had humbledall his 58 rivals. All barring theAIADMK candidate forfeited theirsecurity deposits.

But H Raja, the national secre-tary of the BJP, came out on Tuesdaywith a new finding which may act asa deterrent for other major politicalparties in the State. “The DMK suf-fered a rout at RK Nagar because ofits alliance with the VCK,” saidRaja. To substantiate his findingsabout the VCK, Raja pointed out thevoting pattern and results of variousAssembly and Lok Sabha electionsheld in Tamil Nadu.

“The general public in Tamil

Nadu do not like the VCK, a mili-tant caste outfit led by TholThirumavalavan. Whoever alignswith the VCK is sure to loss badly inthe elections,” said Raja.

The DMK had aligned with theVCK for the 2001 Assembly election.“Though there was no visible anti-incumbency feeling against theDMK Government which had ruledthe State from 1996 to 2001, theparty lost badly in the election,” saidRaja. Since both the AIADMK andthe DMK were reluctant to forge anykind of alliance with the VCK, theparty had floated People’s Alliancewhich drew a blank in the 2004 LokSabha election, said Raja.

Thirumavalavan managed toget into the good books of AIADMKleader J Jayalalithaa who included theVCK in her front for the 2006Assembly election. But the AIADMKcame a cropper in that election.“Thirumavalavan crossed over to theDMK camp in time for the 2009 LokSabha election and he managed towin from the seat he contested. Hestayed on with the DMK and con-

tested the 2011 Assembly election asan ally of the Dravidian major. TheDMK and its allies were mauled inthat election,” said Raja.

The DMK had continued its tieswith the VCK for the 2014 electionsand the party was defeated by theAIADMK. “The DMK failed to winat least a single seat in the 2014 LokSabha election,” he said.

The VCK and five other partieshad launched the People WelfareFront for the 2016 Assembly electionin their bid to form a third alterna-tive in Tamil Nadu. “The PWF wasobliterated on the election. Sadlyenough, Vijayakanth, whose DMDKhad 10 per cent of the popular votes,lost his security deposit in the hus-tings,” said Raja.

The moral of the RK Nagarresult is that those who align with theVCK do so at their own peril, point-ed out the BJP leader.

The VCK which had cam-paigned for the DMK candidate hasstarted exploring the possibilities ofaligning with the TTV Dhinakarancamp of the AIADMK.

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Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s prop-erty’s value has been reduced from

�16.40 lakh to �16.23 lakh in 2017. Thisis the second consecutive year that thevalue of his assets has decreased.

But the value of his only sonNishant’s has increased. Nitish hasalready transferred entire assets underhis name in favour of his son who is nowowner of assets worth over �1.88 crore.Nishant also owns 30 grams of gold andfive kg of silver.

The CM still has a debt of �43,458which was earlier �3.79 lakh that hetook from bank to purchase a car. Hehas three bank accounts in which alto-gether �44,627 are deposited.

On the last day of the year, all theMinisters foiled details of their movableand immovable properties, assets andcash.

The details have been uploaded onGovernment website. Deputy CM SushilKumar Modi has assets worth �94.92lakh including 105 grams of gold. Modialso has a debt of �16 lakh.

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PUBLIC NOTICEMy clients Sh. Mahipal Singh & Veenaboth R/o 848, Gali No. 14, UttranchalColony, Loni, Ghaziabad, U.P. have dis-owned their son Ankur Singh Tomar andhis wife Pooja Chauhan from all their mov-able-immovable properties and have sev-ered all their relations with them as theyare out of control, disobedient, disre-spectful. Anyone deals with them, will doso at his own risk and cost, my clients willnot be responsible for their acts.

ANIL KR. SHRIVASTAVAAdvocate

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The BJP-led AssamGovernment has made a

history on the interveningnight of the New Year by pub-lishing the first draft ofNational Register of Citizens(NRC) that includes the namesof 1.9 crore people out of total3.29 crore people of the State.

Registrar General of India,Sailesh made the first draft ofthe NRC public on the strokeof midnight on December 312017 and said that while 1.9crore names have been includ-ed in the first draft, the namesof rest of the people are at dif-ferent stages of verificationand that those will be includ-ed in the final NRC after prop-er verification.

The NRC authorities hadreceived 3.29 crore applica-tions accompanied by six croredocuments, for inclusion oftheir names in the NRC. TheRGI also announced that thefinal NRC will be published

within the year 2018.The publication of the draft

NRC has created a mixed reac-tion in the State as many peo-ple found their names in thehistoric document while someothers did not found theirnames in the NRC. There arealso reports that while namesof some members of one fam-ily were included in the NRC,

names of some of the membersof the same family did notappear in the document.

“It is a positive develop-ment that finally the first draftof the NRC was published onMonday. This is a result ofAssam movement and the his-toric Assam Accord. I thankSupreme Court for its consis-tent monitoring all these

months. There are some com-plaints about non inclusion ofnames of some genuine citizensin the NRC but I think the finalNRC will include the names ofall genuine citizens,” said AASUadviser SamujjalBhattacharyya.

Partner of the BJP led rul-ing alliance in Assam andregional political party AsomGana Parishad (AGP) alsoexpressed their happiness overthe publication of the NRC andsaid that the people of the Statemust keep a strong vigil till thefinal NRC is published.

Assam’s Opposition leaderDebabrata Saikia, on the otherhand, said lamented the factthat the updated draft NRClacked names of many genuineIndians despite the fact thatthey had submitted valid doc-uments fort inclusion of theirnames in the NRC.

“This should not have hap-pened as this is going to dis-hearten many citizens.Everyone had applied for inclu-

sion of their names in theNRC but did not find theirnames in the document onMonday. I hope theGovernment takes urgent stepsto correct the same,” he said.

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Hyderabad city policeTuesday arrested the

famous singer Ghazal Srinivason charges of sexually harass-ing a woman. AssistantCommissioner of Police,Panjagutta Division VijayKumar told the media that hewas taken into custody onTuesday after investigation intoa complaint filed by a womanRadio Jockey last week.

After taking him into cus-tody on Tuesday morning, thepolice produced him in theNampally court which remand-ed him to judicial custody tillJanuary 12. He was later shift-ed to Chanchalguda CentralJail. The court rejected thebail petition of Srinivas. Thepolice moved a petition for hiscustody for questioning and itwill come up for hearing later.

“We found substantial evi-dence that the woman was

harassed by the singer”, hesaid. The police investigationsrevealed that there was a truthin allegation that he had sum-moned the lady to his roomand behaved in an uncivilisedmanner the ACP said.

The police said that thelady provided them the videoclips of the incident whichtook place in the office of a webradio in the city.

The woman, whose identi-ty was being kept secret by thepolice had lodged complaint onDecember 29 alleging that the

accused was stalking andharassing her and forced her togive him a body massage. Shetold the police that the accusedwas harassing her for the lasttwo months and when thethings became unbearable sheapproached the police.

However Ghazal Srinivasdenied the allegations. “I don’tknow why this lady is targetingme and leveling this sort of alle-gations against me”, he said. “Ihave always saw the girl as mydaughter and I respect hervery much”, he said.

Denying any body messagehe said that he had suffered aninjury and despite his refusalshe had applied medicine to hishead.

Meanwhile on the com-plaint of the lady, the police alsobooked a case against anotherwoman, an attender at theoffice of the Web Radio forallegedly helping GhazalSrinivas.

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Guwahati: One person identi-fied as one Hanif Khan haveallegedly committed suicide atSilchar in Cachar district ofAssam’s Barak Valley onMonday morning after he didnot find his name in the NRC.

Police said that the persontried to find his name in theNRC on Monday morning.“However, he did not find it andpanicked,” said the police whilequoting some local people. “Weare still investigating if there issome other reason behind hissuicide,” said the police. PNS

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The Central Bureau ofInvestigation has alleged

that Bengal Police was destroy-ing vital evidences in Sharadaand other chit fund cases.

In a written complaint filedin the Supreme Court theAgency has complained thatsome senior State police offi-cers — who probed the multi-crore chit fund fraud until theCalcutta High Court and theSupreme Court handed overthe case in 2014 to the CBI —had acted beyond their brief,connived with the accused per-sons and destroyed evidence.

Not only this, in an appar-ent act of intimidation theState Police even summonedthe CBI officials handling theprobe to share the details ofinvestigations.

The CBI has also allegedthat despite repeated remindersthe State Police has failed totransfer to it the call details oftwo most powerful Sharadamasterminds Sudipto Sen and

Debjani Mukhejee. The inves-tigation had hit a wall for thewant of the stated call detailsbetween Sen and Mukherjeeand the top politicians whosename had repeatedly appearedin the chit fund fraud.

It has also been alleged thata top IPS officer also got a sub-altern official to summon thesenior CBI officers in a separatecase during which he was evenasked to share probe details inthe chit fund case. This hap-pened after the CBI summonedthe said senior officer for ques-tioning.

The stated senior IPS offi-cer — who led the Sharadaprobe before court gave it to theCBI — had chosen to look rightthrough the repeatedreminders of appearance by theCentral agency, the complaintsays.

Curiously the same officerwas subsequently rewardedwith priced postings for hisfavourable service rendered tohis political masters and wascurrently heading a branch of

the State Police, experts say.It was only after repeated

failure of the State Police tocomply with the CBI directivesthat Central agency lodged thecomplaint with the Apex Courtearly last month sources said.

Bengal had been thehotbed of chit fund fraud sincepast one decade with a host ofcompanies including Sharada,Rose Valley, Angel, Tower,Sumangal etc together alleged-ly doing a business in excess of�50,000 crore.

After the name of Stateruling party TrinamoolCongress got entwined withthe chit fund case followingallegations of active destruc-tion of evidences by the policethe Opposition parties movedthe judiciary following whichthe High Court and theSupreme Court directed theprobe to be handed over to theCBI rejecting the StateGovernment’s stubbornOpposition against the inves-tigation taken off the policehand.

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Is Kochi, disputably the mosthappening city in South

India, turning into an impor-tant transit point in the nar-cotics trade network of LatinAmerican drug cartels?

The seizure of a huge quan-tity of cocaine that originatedfrom Brazil’s Sao Paulo, thelargest city of South America,at the Kochi InternationalAirport on New Year Day froma young Philippine womanand the arrest in the past twomonths of a Venezuelannational and a Paraguayan cit-izen with large quantities of thesame substance are seen asindications of this possibility.

The 36-year-old Filipino,arrested at the Kochi airport bythe Narcotics Control Bureau(NRB) on Monday while tryingto smuggle out 4.75 kilos ofcocaine valued roughly at �25

crore in the international mar-ket, has told the sleuths that shewas getting her instructionsfrom Sao Paulo from where shehad flown to Kochi throughAddis Ababa and Muscat.

The authorities believe thatthe cocaine was not intendedfor customers in Kochi, whichhas of late become a destinationfor new-generation high-inten-sity psychotropic drugs, but tobe forwarded to other placeslike Goa. They have learnedthat the Filipino, Jhonna DeTorres, was only a carrierwhose job was to deliver the‘consignment’ to an agent onground in Kochi.

The NRB officials foundthat the huge quantity ofcocaine was hidden in a falsechamber in the bottom of hercheck-in baggage when shelanded in Kochi from Muscatby an Oman Air flight onMonday afternoon. She told the

officials that her job was todeliver the contraband to anagent, of whom she had noidea, for which she was to bepaid �300,000.

The sleuths, with the helpof interpreters and from themessages recovered from theFilipino’s mobile phone, foundout that an accommodationhad been booked online for herat a star hotel in Kochi city. Theroom was booked online fromSao Paulo by unknown per-sons. The officials have alsolearned that the agent based inKochi was to take the deliveryof the drug at the hotel.

As per the instructionsconveyed to Jhonna from SaoPaulo on her mobile, she wasto wait at the Kochi hotel. Shewas to be given the contactdetails of the agent once shewas in the hotel where theagent was to take delivery.Sources said it was not known

whether the agent had alreadyvisited the hotel as Jhonna didnot have the opportunity toreach the hotel.

“This is not the first timecocaine is seized at the Kochiairport. Even the volume – thiswas the biggest seizure of

cocaine in Kerala – is not whatis causing concern. What ismore disturbing is the point oforigin of and control on thestuff – Sao Paulo. It may meanKochi has got a place on theactive map of South Americandrug cartels,” said an official.

The NCB had last montharrested a Venezuelan nation-al from Kochi airport withone kilo of cocaine. InNovember, a Paraguayan citi-zen was arrested in this airportitself with 3.6 kilos of the samesubstance.

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The Budget session of theJammu & Kashmir State

Assembly started on a stormynote on Tuesday. Soon after theGovernor NN Vohra arrived inthe central hall of the State leg-islature complex to addressthe joint session of both thehouses opposition membersfrom National Conference andCongress disrupted the pro-ceedings to register theirprotest against the alleged fail-ure of BJP-PDP allianceGovernment on all fronts.

As pandemonium contin-ued Governor waited patient-ly amid loud sloganeering bythe members. After Oppositionmembers exhausted their ‘lungpower’ they decided to stage awalk out from the central halland staged another sit in on thefoot steps of the State legislaturecomplex.

Wearing black badges sev-eral Opposition members wereseen displaying placards withslogans, “Murderers ofDemocracy answer the people”,“Panchayat ki taaqat ko waapaskaro” and “Choti Kaatne walisarkar haaye haaye”, “RSSsarkar haaye haaye”, “stop inno-cent killings, human rightsviolations” inside the central

hall.Speaking to the media after

staging a walkout from the

legislature, Ali Mohd Sagar,legislator and senior NC leadersaid: “We have walked out ofthe central hall against the fail-ure of the State Government.

The National Conferenceleaders also submitted a mem-orandum to Governor NNVohra here, seeking a politicaldialogue to resolve the situationin Jammu and Kashmir.

The memorandum’s releasecoincided with the start of theBudget session. It claimed thatunder the BJP-PDPGovernment the identity ofJammu and Kashmir and itsconstitutional status was underthreat.

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The police was suspecting theinvolvement of two mentally

disturbed persons in two dif-ferent incidents of attacks onmosques in Andhra Pradeshand Telangana. Andhra Pradeshpolice has arrested onManiratnam in connection withthe murder of the priest ofNoorani Mosque in Lalachervunear Rajahmundry on the nightof last Thursday. Assistant Imamof the mosque MohammedFarooq was brutally murderedand the holy Quran was burntby the unknown miscreantscausing tension in the area.

In another similar inci-dent in Mallapur village ofJagtiyal district, the police havedetained a mentally disturbedperson for questioning. In theincident the miscreant haddesecrated the mosque andburnt the copies of Holy Quranon the night of December 29.

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For the CRPF, the new year inKashmir started on a bad note.Three Jaish-e Mohammad fidayeen-

including, surprisingly, two locals, infil-trated their camp in Pulwama killing fiveand wounding three troopers. This is oneof the several attacks on security forcesin Kashmir in 2017 and perhaps relatedto the killing of the Jaish leader NurMohammad Tantray. It could also havebeen a revenge attack for Indian Army'saction for a Pakistan BAT attack againstIndian soldiers in Poonch. The tit-for-tatcross LoC raids are a relic of the insur-gency started three decades ago, perhapseven earlier, since my days on the CeaseFire Line in the early 1960s. The fiday-een squad has once again demonstratedits motivation, capability and reach tostrike at will targets in the heart of theKashmir Valley invoking the demoralis-ing ritual of coffins draped in the nation-al flag.

Here is a snapshot of the insurgencyin the year gone by. Pakistan is known tohave maintained around 250 terrorists,60 per cent being local, in the Valley. Inhis briefing to the media followingSunday’s fidayeen attack, DG Police SPVaid attributed the success of OperationAll Out to the elimination of the top ter-rorist leadership including 206 terrorists.Against this, 75 security force personneland 24 civilians were reported killedwhile 117 local youth, the highest in adecade, joined the insurgency. Around 60local boys were weaned away from thestrife including some who surrenderedtheir arms. Infiltration and ceasefireviolations hit a new high. Despite thesemixed developments including an end tostone-pelting, support for the insur-gency has not diminished even as theCentre’s interlocuter Dineshwar Sharmadoes his routine rounds without attract-ing any significant hope.

Last week, in a collective display ofcompeting nationalism, most TV studioshad created models of Kashmir centredaround Poonch where Indian soldiers hadavenged the ambush of their comrades.

The noteworthy feature of thesereprisals is that while Pakistan employsits Army of jihadists for plunder andmayhem deep inside Indian territory, theretaliatory action, varying from crossinga few hundred meters across the LoC toat best three to five kilometers inside PoKis conducted by our Special Forces. Asduring the surgical strikes last year, thedepth of the Indian punitive strike lastweek was hamstrung by the operationalimperative to retrieve troops launchedacross LoC before dawn to avoid beingdaylighted. Following the Indian revengeattack, Pakistan’s Maj Gen Asif Ghafoorsaid last week that no attack had been

launched from the Indian side againstPakistani soldiers, that it was a lie, andadded: “Even the surgical strikes of 2016were a lie”. Denial is Pakistan Army'scredo. After Kargil, they refused toaccept the bodies of hundreds ofNorthern Light Infantry soldiers whowere killed in battle.

The ruling NDA Government hascoined the term ‘befitting response’which shows up in TV studios as jaw-for-tooth and instant publicity for the oper-ation. In the past, such operations werecovert and seldom claimed. Central to theobjective of defeating Pakistan’s cross-border terrorism (CBT) under a nuclearshadow has to be a pragmatic strategythat goes beyond the one-time, rathermodest, multiple raids against ‘terroristlaunch pads’, as DGMO Lt Gen RanbirSingh categorically (and in hindsightmysteriously) stressed that the surgicalstrikes were not against the PakistanArmy. Typically, Pakistan denied any sur-gical strikes on its soil and has consistent-ly maintained that position. The cardi-nal issue to emerge 18 months after thesurgical strikes is that it has had little orno coercive effect on Rawalpindi todeter CBT. Last year’s statistics post-sur-gical strikes on infiltration, cease-fire vio-lations, encounter killings and so onshowed no decline, rather the other wayaround. So, the hurried claim by theGovernment that surgical strikes (whichwere highly politicised during the elec-

tions) was the strategic panacea to teachPakistan a lesson and/or stop CBT hasnot been realised as it is not the answer.That does not detract from the excellentplanning, conduct and retrieval of spe-cial forces employed with the twin rid-ers of: a) no own casualties; b) no esca-lation.

Back in the TV studios, military vet-erans and super-charged anchors go totown advocating punishment for Pakistan— light up the LoC with artillery as in2003, destroy Pakistani posts from wherejihadists are launched, retake PoK, breakup Pakistan, blow up Balochistan… theretributive tirade continues. India, unfor-tunately, has not developed covert capa-bilities and skills to successfully conductsome of these options. Even the space forsurgical strikes has shrunk though themessage from the operation remains:India is able and willing to cross the LoCto conduct modest operations (in whichNew Delhi must control the escalationladder). A rising India does not want tobe side-tracked into the unintendedconsequences of a war. At the operationallevel surgical strikes have awarded agreater degree of decentralisation ofmatching fire with fire and with com-pound interest on the LoC. The bottomline remains tit-for-tat.The taunt of ourtime by Pakistani commanders that toreturn their fire “you will have to ask NewDelhi” has thankfully disappeared.

So, for how long will India stay at the

receiving end of CBT? To start with, theGovernment has to be proactive and notreactive. Till India operationalises thevintage doctrine repackaged by formerDefence Minister Manohar Parrikar — tocatch a terrorist, use a terrorist — and tilla counter jihadist force is created (theidea was first mooted in 2003 in the lastNDA regime), New Delhi will continuelosing its soldiers while combatingjihadists and fidayeen. Four years into histerm and following volumes spoken ondefusing CBT, National Security AdvisorAjit Doval has not found the antidote. Tillsuch a doctrine is in place a futurejihadist crisis (like Uri or Pathankot) mayrequire escalating the response beyondsurgical strikes. Or at least that is whatvociferous TV anchors will be clamour-ing for.

Is a rising India willing to be distract-ed in its growth trajectory by the fiday-een rather than opting for recommenc-ing dialogue with Pakistan backed byactive defence and deterrence includinga new force of counter jihadists? Anyonewho thinks President Donald Trump willcome to India’s rescue in times of crisisis living in LaLa land. The US can't coercePakistan to rein in the jihadists killingtheir soldiers in Afghanistan. So, aim andarm wisely.

(The writer is a retired Major Generalof the Indian Army and founder memberof the Defence Planning Staff, currently therevamped Integrated Defence Staff) �

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Sir — This refers to the editori-al, ‘Don’t look back in anger(January 1). You have nicelysummarized whole of the outgo-ing year leaving us with the sagesuggestion to not recall the caus-tic memories gone by but insteadlook forward to ameliorationduring the year ahead.

Of course, the world hasundergone a revolutionarychange with state-of-the-art tech-nologies working in every walkof life for the better.

Simultaneously, the misuseof sophisticated technology hascaused the wild spread of pseu-do information resulting in hugesocial as well as political deca-dence at home while the attackson the media culminating, insome cases, in murders of jour-nalists and lynching of commonmen, have left an adverse impacton the country's liberal ethos.However, following the adage ‘letbygones be bygones’, we muststrive to work unitedly fornation-building sans traces ofdoom and gloom or acrimony.Let us remain hopeful that theyear2018 will bring us moreopportunities and a level playingfield for all citizens.

Azhar A KhanRampur

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Sir— The decision of Rajinikanthto enter politics and contestpolls in Tamil Nadu is a goldenopportunity for him to show hisgreatness and bravery throughexcellent governance in the state

if elected. It is t ime forRajinikanth to show his mettleand win the political-electoralbattle.We hope for a real changein politics under his leadership.

M Rustam ParwezHyderabad

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Sir — Prime Minister NarendraModi in his 39th Mann Ki Baatradio programme praised theefforts of Jammu and Kashmirstudent Anjum Bashir KhanKhattak who cracked State civilservices examination. He saidKhattak “It is an inspiration notonly for the State but to thewhole nation. He lost his hometo militancy but despite all oddshe cracked the civil service exam-ination.” Militancy, verily, couldonly break his home but not hisfighting spirit. Bravo.

In the same programme helater express his concern overMuslim women. He said, theGovernment has upheld a lawwhich restricts Muslim womento perform Haj alone. Kudos tothe Government of India forphasing out a tradition whichwas there for years — if a Muslimwoman wants to go on Haj, shemust have a ‘Mehram’ or a maleguardian, otherwise she can notgo on Haj. Indian women havecome a long way in every sphereof life — assuming combat rolesin armed forces, going on spacemissions, then why this discrim-ination?

TS KarthikChennai

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Page 9: 1 ˇ! /2 ˝ & ˆ ’()˜ (* +,- ),˝˚( )*˚+’ -˚ ˚+ )˜ ˚˜˝* 3$ the same time. I am order- ... cancelled 84 trains on Tuesday. ... Beed, Nashik, Pune, Solapur, Thane and Palghar

Tamil superstar Rajinikanth'spunch line in his hit film Kabaaliis “Naan vandthttenuchollu (Tell

them I have come.)” On Sunday, wear-ing a spotless white kurta, Rajnikanthor Thalaivar as he is known to his mil-lions of fans, announced: “My entryinto politics is certain,” thus ending atwo-decade long suspense.

He is not the first mega star whohas chosen to enter politics; there aremany others, like MG Ramachandran,JJayalalitha and Captain Vijayakant.Even former DMK chief ministers CNAnnadurai and M Karunanidhi werefrom the film world. Tamil Nadu, astate driven by personality politics,currently lacks a charismatic leader.The political landscape has changedsignificantly with Jayalalithaa and

Karunanidhiout of the picture, but it'sstill a tough game. Rajinikanth knowsthis; he had said recently: “I am hes-itant in entering politics, as I am awareof the pitfalls. I am not new to poli-tics. I know its depths. I have beenwatching politics closely since 1996. IfI enter politics I will have to win.”

The question is, will Rajini be asuccess in politics? While some believethat he will bring in a revolution andbecome the Chief Minister after thenext election, there are others whothink that he might burn his fingersthe same way other superstars likeSivaji Ganesan, Amitabh Bachchan,and Chiranjeevi have. 1996 wouldhave been the right time for him toform a party and sweep the polls tobecome Chief Minister as he wasyounger and much healthier then, andwould arguably have been able to takeon the challenges of politics. At themoment, he is a political novice andis untested. Plus, his age may becomea factor going forward.

It is hard to keep count of thenumber of times Rajinikanth has“indicated” that he would enter poli-

tics. It is perhaps due to the pressurefrom his fan clubs and also from theBJP, which wants to ride piggyback onhis influence, that he announced hisdecision on Sunday. Secondly, what ishis vision? He has not spelt it out sofar. He has used a strange phrase -"Jaadhi madham illaadha aanmigaarasiyal (Spiritual politics withoutcommunalism or casteism.)” In a Statedominated by Dravidian politics,Rajini's over-emphasis on religionand spirituality, both on and offscreen, makes one wonder whether hemight lean towards the BJP. If notDravidian ideology, what does he rep-

resent? Tamil Nadu is known for itsidentity politics, with several caste-based parties existing in the State likePattali Makkal Katchi (PMK). Also,the DMK and AIADMK are estab-lished parties with committed cadresand committed vote banks of about 30per cent each.

Thirdly and more importantly,Rajini is talking of contesting all 234seats in the next Assembly poll, thusmaking it clear that his aim is not the2019 Lok Sabha poll. Elections are acostly affair, involving millions ofrupees spent on electioneering. Doeshe have the capacity to raise money

not only for running his party, but alsofor the elections and that too againstthe DMK and the AIADMK whichhave huge funds? Perhaps the BJPcould come to his aid if there is a pollalliance.

Fourthly, what kind of people willjoin his new party? So far, no credi-ble politician has even hinted at giv-ing him support except another polit-ical novice: Superstar Kamal Haasan,who also wants to join politics. Heneeds a group of efficient and politi-cally savvy people around him. Rightnow, Rajini has only his fan clubs, andeven they lack organization. Cadreshave to be raised, offices have to setup, and a million other tasks need tobe done. All this will have to be donewithout any older foundations tobank upon other than his films. Heneeds good candidates if he is look-ing to succeed in the elections. Hemust learn a lesson or two from whathappened to the AamAadmi Party(AAP), which was a big electoral suc-cess, but did not attract credible faces.

Fifthly, hardly anything is knownabout his intellectual capacity and his

understanding of crucial social andpolitical problems. No one knows hisviews on economic and foreign poli-cy. What will be his new narrative toget votes? Sixthly, Rajini has noproven ability for administration. So,on what basis can one expect that hewill be able to meet the challenge ofgovernance? He needs to find a goodteam to bridge this gap like theOdisha chief minister Naveen Patnaikhas done for the past two decades.Rajini has declared “We will resign ifwe do not deliver on our promiseswithin three years.”

Seventhly and most importantly,while he has mass appeal and animmense crowd pulling capacity, canhe convert these into votes? This is themillion-dollar question. But despite allthese, Rajini might prove to be a suc-cess like MGR and Jayalalithaa ifDame Luck smiles at him. After all, hehas become a superstar from hishumble beginning as a bus conductorin Bengaluru!

(The writer is a senior politicalcommentator and syndicated colum-nist)

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One can decidedly differentiatebetween an ordinary CEO anda great one. Great CEOs are

exemplary visionaries, with superbmanagerial and leadership skills. Theyare admired by colleagues and commonpeople alike, and are considered idolsby millions of young leaders-to-bedreaming of making it big in the cor-porate world. Their greatness lies in thefact that they have not only created prof-itable enterprises; they have also creat-ed brands that are etched forever in theimagination of the consumers. So,what are the leadership principles andmanagement philosophies that drivethese icons and enable them to taketheir organizations to such stellarheights?

Brad Feld, an American entrepre-neur and venture capitalist said, “Don’tbe afraid to have a big vision, but makesure it’s a clear one.” Clarity of vision isone of the main traits of great CEOs.Let us take the example of Steve Jobs:An unconventional leader whodemanded excellence from his staff andwas controversial for his blunt deliveryof criticism. However, his sheer genius,his amazing ability to articulate hisvision, and his tendency to take hisinvestors and customers with him onhis journey made him an exceptionalleader. Jobs had exceptional clarity ofvision, and excelled at designing min-imalist devices that broke barrierswhen it comes to computer speed. Hecreated an ecosystem that could standalone or work together in an intercon-nected way-like an iPod connected toa Mac connected to an iTunes store.Apple could manage vast amounts ofinformation through division of labouramong the systems. For example, theMac controlled system administrationwhile iTunes fetched content fromcloud storage, freeing the device to con-centrate on playing music. Bill Gates,listed as the richest person on this plan-et for 12 consecutive years, is also a manof colossal vision. He envisioned thatevery person on this planet would havea computer and every computer, a pro-gramme designed by Microsoft. Sincethen, he has worked tirelessly to achievehis vision. In this process, he has beeninstrumental to the IT revolution thatthe world has witnessed.

Great CEOs, apart from adding tothe bottomline of the company, alsocontribute to society in a big way.Itwould be hard to talk about the life ofBill Gates and not discuss his philan-thropy and humanitarianism. Heedinghis mother's advice before she passedaway due to breast cancer, Gates hasalways displayed a selfless approach tohis leadership, spending considerablemoney and time in philanthropicefforts to give to others. The Bill andMelinda Gates Foundation has donat-ed billions of dollars to causes all overthe world, making significant differ-

ences in the lives of children and adults.This process of giving back illustratesGates' character, and his focus onsocial responsibility as a global corpo-rate citizen. It also shows that his pur-suit of solutions and making lives bet-ter goes beyond just making a profit.Instead, it is about driving significantchange in the world, thus making a dif-ference for those who need itmost.Indra Nooyi, an iconic leader con-sistently ranked among the world’s 100most powerful women, is, since 2006,the CEO of Pepsico, the world's secondlargest food and beverage company.Nooyi manages employee strength of30,000 workers, and her company sellsin around 200 countries. She believesin developing two balance sheets: oneis to provide returns to shareholders,and the other is to provide returns tothe environment. Under the leadershipof Nooyi, Pepsico is focusing on peo-ple and the planet, in addition to prof-it. Nooyi has worked tirelessly toreduce the use of energy, water andpackaging, and simultaneously to pro-vide a great workplace for Pepsico’semployees and associates.Jobs’s prima-ry motive was to feel as if he had madea solid and positive impact on the worldduring his lifetime. Since he had suchhigh expectations set for himself, he wasable to achieve excellence.

Great CEOs show that great worksare performed not by strength but byperseverance. “It’s not where you start outin life that matters, but where you endup.” This adage fits Ursula Burns perfect-ly. Born in a poor neighbourhood ofManhattan to immigrant parents andraised by a single mother, she rose tobecome the first female AfricanAmerican CEO of a Fortune 500 com-

pany, Xerox. She also holds the honourof being the first woman to succeedanother woman CEO, Anne Mulcahy.Having joined Xerox in 1980 as amechanical engineering summer intern,Burns progressed through the corporateechelons to become the CEO from 2009to 2016. At present, she is theChairperson of Xerox. She did not useher underprivileged background as anexcuse, instead persevering to reach thetop of the corporate world. Burnsworked hard to return Xerox to prof-itability. NR Narayan Murthy, a rolemodel for every Indian, is an apt exam-ple of the adage ‘simple living, highthinking’. He is a billionaire with a networth of about USD 1.8 bn, but still flieseconomy and drives around in a simplecar. Murphy's life gives a strong messagethat world-class businesses can be cre-ated based on transparency and goodgovernance.Born in a middle-class fam-ily in Sidlaghatta, Karnataka, the oddshe faced in life were no match forMurphy's brilliance and enthusiasm.Through discipline and determination,NR Narayan Murthy created an IndianIT success story. Infosys, today, is one ofthe most respected IT companies in theworld with footprints all across the globe,and is also the second largest IT com-pany in India by revenue. One of the ini-tial challenges faced by Murthy was hisinability to take admission in the pres-tigious Indian Institute of Technology(IIT), even after earning a high rank anda scholarship, as the scholarship was notenough to cover his studies. Since hisfather was unable to fund his education,he enrolled in a local engineering col-lege but later secured admission in postgraduation in IIT, by dint of hard work.Similarly, the failure of his first entrepre-

neurial venture, Softronics, did notdeter him from going on to establishInfosys.Murthy follows the path ofMahatma Gandhi by practicing what hepreaches. He has always led by example,and believes that the primary responsi-bility of a leader is to give hope and con-fidence in the face of adversity.

Taking care of people is one of themajor attributes of great CEOs. NarayanMurthy has been most generous inrewarding employees with stockoptions. He has given away stocksworth �50,000 crores to his employees,saying that performance should berewarded suitably. In Infosys, drivers,electricians and secretaries walkamongst millionaires due to their stockoptions.Indra Nooyi is a caring,humane CEO who takes care of heremployees by being in touch with themand understanding their concerns. Sheeven writes thank-you letters to the par-ents of her employees in order to showher appreciation for the latter.KenChenault, CEO of American Express,believes in reaching out to each employ-ee of the organisation. He makes it apoint to reply to each and every emailhe receives from any of his employees.He travels around the world to meetemployees at different locations aroundthe globe.To further connect personal-ly with his staff, he runs an open oper-ation where anyone can talk to him.

Great CEOs, because of their innatequality of perseverance and their con-tribution to society, ensure the stabili-ty and growth of their organisations.They live by their principles and leadby example, making them exemplaryleaders of the corporate world.

(The writer is Assistant Professor,Amity University)

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Regulator Trai has tightened thenetwork connectivity rules by

mandating a 30-day deadline for tele-com companies to ink interconnec-tion pacts on non-discriminatorybasis and also fixed a daily penaltyof up to �1 lakh per service area forviolations.

The ‘Telecom InterconnectionRegulations 2018’ of the TelecomRegulatory Authority of India (Trai),come into force from February 1 andassume significance as newcomerReliance Jio and incumbent telecomoperators have, in the past, clashedover network connectivity issuesand inadequate ports.

At the time of launch of its ser-vices in 2016, the new entrant hadaccused large and established oper-ators like Airtel, Vodafone and IdeaCellular of not giving it sufficientPoints of Interconnect (PoIs) leadingto massive call failures on its net-work, even as the incumbents hadblamed free calls offered by Jio for‘tsunami’ of network traffic.

The telecom regulator has nowstipulated a penalty of up to �1 lakhper day per service area for opera-tors who violate its latest intercon-nect rules. Trai has also said that“every service provider shall, with-in thirty days of receipt of requestfrom a service provider, enter intointerconnection agreement, on non-discriminatory basis, with such ser-vice provider”.

The regulator has fixed five daysfor service providers to respond tointerconnection seekers with a draftinterconnect pact. So far, there wasno explicit timeline for inking of

interconnect agreements. Trai, has also laid down a 'for-

mula' that would act as a ceiling for‘bank guarantees’ in case of inter-connection, instead of the currentpractice of such guarantees beingworked out through mutual negoti-ation between operators.

For provisioning of ports at thePoints of Interconnect (point ofexchange of network traffic), the reg-ulator has fixed 30-day time-frameinstead of the 90 days earlier.

“The interconnection chargessuch as set-up charges and infra-structure charges may be mutuallynegotiated between service providerssubject to the regulations or direc-tions issued by theAuthority...Provided that suchcharges are reasonable, transparentand non-discriminatory,” Trai said inits interconnect regulations.

For disconnection of the ports,a service provider would have to nowgive a show-cause-notice of 15 work-ing days to the other telco clearly dis-closing the ‘reasons’ for the proposeddisconnection. If not satisfied by thereply or in case no reply is received,the operator will give a notice of 15days specifying the disconnectiondate for points of interconnect.

At a broad level, the regulationscomprise rules for crafting networkconnectivity agreements, initial pro-visioning of such connectivity, aug-mentation of Points of Interconnect,applicable rates or charges, discon-nection of ports, and financial dis-incentive on interconnection issues.

The regulations will apply to allthe service providers offering tele-com services in India, Trai said in astatement. A mail sent to operators,

including Bharti Airtel and RelianceJio, seeking their views on the latestinterconnect rules went unanswered.

The telecom watchdog has alsooutlined a framework for provi-sioning and augmenting of inter-connectivity ports, laying down astep-by-step process in this regard.The rules issued on Tuesday comesafter a detailed consultation processby Trai that started in October 2016and included open house discussionsand written comments by stake-holders. The strengthening of therules follows a firestorm of contro-versy in the past over provisioning

of points of interconnect, withReliance Jio and incumbent opera-tors trading charges over call connectissues. At one point, Jio had allegedthat up to 75 per cent of calls fromits network to that of other operatorshad failed due to inadequate PoIs.

Taking note of issue, the regula-tor in 2016 recommended a cumu-lative penalty of �3,050 crore onBharti Airtel, Vodafone and IdeaCellular for violating norms bydenying adequate interconnectionpoints to Reliance Jio and held thattheir actions were anti-consumer andagainst public interest.

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As the Chairman’s post forInsurance Regulatory and

Development Authority (IRDA) willfall vacant on February 21, 2018, theGovernment has already started hunt-ing for the coveted post. The FinanceMinistry has received applicationsfrom public sector insurance firms aswell as top bureaucrats as the last dateto apply for the post ended onDecember 27, 2017.

According to sources from theFinance Ministry, names of the appli-cants include most of serving headsof the state-owned insurance firms,whereas a few of them are top bureau-crats who have also been reported tohave applied for the key position.IRDAI's serving Chairman TS Vijayanwill demit office in the third week ofnext month after completing his five-year terms.

“It is learnt that some big guyssuch VK Sharma, Chairman, LifeInsurance Corporation (LIC) and GSrinivasan, CMD, New IndiaAssurance are among the insurerswho have applied for the post,” saidthe sources. Besides, the other insur-ers, it added, include K Sanath Kumar,CMD, National Insurance, HemantBhargava, MD, LIC, Sunita Sharma,MD, LIC, B Venugopal, MD, LIC,Rajesh Kandwal, CEO & Managingdirector, LIC, Bahrain. Nilesh Sathe,member (life), IRDA, is also in thefray. Sources further said that sever-al serving and retired bureaucrats,including Anjuly Chib Duggal, formerSecretary in the Department ofFinancial Services of the FinanceMinistry, have become strong con-tenders for the top IRDAI post. Thebuzz is also doing the round that that

this time, the Government may alsoconsider a person from the bureau-cratic circle for the post. Vijayan wasappointed in 2013 as the then FinanceMinister P Chidambaram had strong-ly recommended for an insuranceprofessional over bureaucrats to leadthe industry into growth path.

Cabinet Secretary PK Sinha headsthe committee while AdditionalPrincipal Cecretary to the PrimeMinister PK Mishra - a permanentGovernment nominee in the panel-Rajiv Kumar, Secretary, Departmentof Financial Services and Ajay Mittal,Secretary, Department of Personneland Training along with Bimal N Patelfrom Gujarat National Law Universityare other members on the panel.According to the InsuranceRegulatory and DevelopmentAuthority (IRDA) Act, 1999, thechairperson of the authority will holdoffice for a term of five years, and isentitled to a consolidated salary of Rs4.5 lakh per month without housingand car facilities.

A notification issued by theDepartment of Financial Servicessays that an applicant should have atleast 30 years of work experience, andhe/she should have worked asSecretary to the Government of Indiaor in its equivalent position either at

a Central or State institution.However, the Ministry had

amended the initial notification so thatthe CMDs public sector general insur-ance companies and MDs and evenEDs of LIC who are in the rank ofAdditional Secretary could apply forthe post. The post is also open to theprivate sector experts who haveworked as CEO in a large financialinstitution. In November 2017, theFinancial Sector RegulatoryAppointments Search Committee hadinterviewed a few candidates to selecttwo members (Life and Finance) of theIRDAI. Some of the senior officials ofthe insurance industry who hadappeared for the interview for the postof member(non-life), IRDAI, are KSanath Kumar, CMD, NationalInsurance Company, Suresh Mathur,Executive Director, IRDAI, SegarSampathkumar, former Director, GICRe and Vinay Sah, CEO, LIC HousingFinance.

Similarly, among the candidates,PH Kutumbe, Executive Director(Finance and Accounts), LIC, ChiefFinance Officer V Chandrasekaran,former Executive Director LIC, PullaRao, ED, IRDAI, Ashwin Kumar, for-mer CMD, Dena Bank, were inter-viewed for the post of member(Finance & Accounts) of IRDAI.

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As the Opposition onTuesday tried to corner

the Government in the RajyaSabha over rising number ofnon-performing assets (NPA)of banks in the last few years,Finance Minister Arun Jaitleysaid bulk of such cases came upbefore April 1,2014. He said the

situation arose due to aggressivelending by banks without prop-er risk assessment and evenwithout being backed by secu-rities.

Fielding questions, theminister also said the govern-ment and banks have not writ-ten loans by willful defaulterswhen the Elders claimed somecorporate houses got away after

their loans were waived off.Jaitley said the liability of the

borrower remains. Raising theissue, Neeraj Shekhar(SP) askedthe government to spell outsteps taken to initiate probeagainst NPAs and said theamount now had risen morethan Rs nine lakh crore.Associating himself with theissue, P

Chidambaram(Congress) askedJaitley to reveal the amount ofNPAs after the NDAGovernment came to power inMay 2014. He was apparentlyclaiming that the NPAs rose inthe last three years and askedwhether performing loans as onMarch 31, 2014, have becomenon-performing later andwhether that is a scam.

Taking on record the min-ister's claim that earlier the reg-ulation was lax and the assetregulation value has now beenmade stricter, Chidambaramasked whether the minister hasthe data now or will he furnishit to the House later as to howmany loans given by banks afterApril 1, 2014 have become NPAtoday. Jaitley shot back and said

most of the NPA cases came upbefore April 1, 2014.

As regards spike in theamount of NPAs in the last threeyears, Jaitley clarified that in2015, the RBI reviewed assetquality of all banks and foundmany such assets shown as per-forming assets in the accountshad been non- performing andshould be accounted as NPAs.

NEW DELHI: TheGovernment on Tuesdayreplaced its GOI SavingsBonds, 2003, scheme earn-ing eight per cent interestper annum by another which hasa lower rate of interest at 7.75 percent. On Monday, theGovernment had announcedthat its GOI Savings Bonds,2003, will cease subscriptionfrom the close of banking busi-ness on January 2.

“The 8 per cent SavingsBonds Scheme, also known asRBI Bonds Scheme, is not beingclosed. 8 per cent Scheme is beingreplaced by 7.75 per cent SavingsBonds Scheme,” EconomicAffairs Secretary SC Garg tweet-ed on Tuesday. The bonds -- witha tenure of six years, a minimuminvestment of ̀ 1,000, no limits onmaximum investment and theoption to receive interest on a

half-yearly basis -- areavailable in physical formonly and are not listed ortradable on stockexchanges. The interest

received from these bonds is tax-able at the marginal rate ofincome tax the investor is liablefor.

These became a preferredchoice for investors seeking fixedincome like senior citizens andpensioners after the Governmentcut interest rates on fixed depositsand small savings schemes likethe post office monthly incomescheme and public providentfund (PPF) to below eight percent in April 2016. Last week, theGovernment cut the interestrates on small saving schemes,including NSCs, PPF and KVP,by 0.2 percentage point for thefourth quarter of the fiscal(January-March). IANS

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The Government on Tuesdaysaid the proposed Financial

Resolution and DepositInsurance (FRDI) Bill, 2017seeks to protect and enhancedepositors’ ‘existing rights andbring in a comprehensive andefficient resolution regime forfinancial firms’. According to theMinistry of Finance, there ispresently no comprehensive andintegrated legal framework forresolution, including ‘liquidation,of financial firms in India’.

The ministry said that cur-rent resolution instrumentsavailable under respective leg-islations are ‘limited, and so isguidance on the process lead-ing up to the resolution’. “Thecurrent resolution regime isespecially inappropriate for pri-vate sector financial firms in thelight of significant expansion ofprivate financial firms and manyof these acquiring systemicallyimportant status in India,” theministry said in a statement.

“The Insolvency andBankruptcy Code, 2016 hasintroduced in the country acomprehensive resolutionregime for mainly non-financial

firms, but such a regime is notavailable in the country forfinancial firms.” The ministrysaid the FRDI Bill proposes toestablish a ‘ResolutionCorporation’ and a comprehen-sive regime to enable timelyand orderly resolution of a fail-ing financial firm.

“It provides for detectingincipient insolvencies in finan-cial firms by introducing a five-stage health classification offinancial firms and stepping into appropriately nurse a financialfirm at the stage when its healthbecomes weak and it is classifiedin the category of material riskto viability,” the statement said.

HYDERABAD: Salil Parekh tak-ing over as CEO is hugely posi-tive for Infosys as he is a teambuilder who understands thebusiness and changing marketenvironment, says the company’sformer chief financial officer T VMohandas Pai.

Parekh being based inBengaluru, the NASDAQ-listedcompany's headquarters, wouldalso make a huge difference asmost clients visit the campusesbefore they sign the deals and theteams working on their projectsthere, Pai told PTI. “It (Parekh asCEO) is hugely positive for Infy.They will have a CEO who

understandsthe servicesb u s i n e s s ,who under-stands thechanges thatare happen-ing and whatneeds to be done,” he said.

“He is a customer-facingperson and that’s exactly thekind of talent that's required.Working in a services company(in Capgemini where he workedearlier), he understands, he knowshow to deal with people and howto carry teams along with him,”Pai said. Taking a dig at Parekh's

predecessor Vishal Sikka, whomostly operated out of the US, Paisaid, “Locking yourself in PaloAlto (in the US) did not serve anypurpose for the earlier CEO; itonly created barriers between theCEO and the teams. So, it’simportant for the CEO to be inthe location, which is the head-quarters, wherever it is.”

He said, “Parekh has demon-strated good leadership atCapgemini where he seems tohave lost out on the CEO raceonly because of his origin whichis what happens in mostEuropean companies (which pre-fer Europeans at the helm).” PTI

NEW DELHI: Bitcoins orsuch crypto-currencies arenot legal tender and thoseindulging in such transactionsare doing it at their own risk,Finance Minister Arun Jaitleysaid on Tuesday as MPsexpressed concern over trad-ing on these platforms.

During the QuestionHour in Rajya Sabha, DMKmember Kanimozhi sought toknow whether theGovernment was consider-ing regulating crypto-curren-cies like Bitcoin and Ethereum,as India ‘accounts for morethan 11 per cent’ of such tradeglobally.

Jaitley emphasised thatthe Centre’s consistent posi-tion was that such currencieswere not legal tender. “The

Government is examiningthe matter.

A committee under thechairmanship of secretary,department of economicaffairs, is deliberating over allissues related to cryptocurren-cies to propose specific actionsto be taken,” he said. While arepeated message was beinggiven that such currencies werenot legal tender, more detailedsteps would be taken once thereport of the committee issubmitted, he said.

Independent memberAmar Singh wanted to knowwhat action was being takenin regard to the names whichhave figured in the Panamapapers and Paradise papers,even as trading in bitcoinswas also going on. PNS

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NEW DELHI: Finance MinisterArun Jaitley on Tuesday said theGovernment has entered into anunchartered territory as far asbankruptcy and insolvencyCode is concerned and wouldcontinue to modify the lawdealing with the issue.

“Insolvency and bankruptcy isan area in which it is only in therecent years that we have charteredinto. It is a learning experience,” theMinister said while winding up adebate on the Insolvency andBankruptcy Code AmendmentBill, which was later approved by theRajya Sabha through a voice vote.

The Insolvency andBankruptcy Code (Amendment)Ordinance, 2017 Bill was passed bythe Lok Sabha last week. TheGovernment, Jaitley said, has beenencountering situations which werenot anticipated earlier and assuredthe House that it would continueto take corrective action. PNS

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Reliance Industries onTuesday said it has com-

missioned the world’s largestrefinery off-gas cracker (ROGC)complex at Jamnagar whichwill use refinery process residueto produce feedstock used tomake petrochemicals.

The ROGC is part of the$11 billion capital expenditureRIL had announced in one ofthe largest brown- field expan-sion of energy and petrochem-ical projects globally.

In a press statement, RILsaid it has “successfully com-missioned and achieved designthroughput of the world’s firstever and largest ROGC complexof 1.5 million tonnes per annumcapacity along with downstreamplants and utilities.”

ROGC uses off-gases fromRIL's two refineries at Jamnagaras feedstock. “This innovative

approach of integration withrefineries provides a sustainablecost advantage, making ROGCcompetitive with respect to thecrackers in the Middle East andNorth America which havefeedstock cost advantage,” thestatement said.

ROGC design is highlyflexible and energy efficient. Itis the latest addition to RIL’s

existing cracker portfolio, con-sisting of cracker facilities atNagothane in Maharashtra andHazira, Dahej and Vadodara inGujarat.

There are nearly 270 ethyl-ene plants globally with a com-bined capacity of over 170 mil-lion tonnes per annum. RIL'scombined ethylene capacity isnow close to 4 million tonnes a

year at five of its manufacturingsites. Ethylene from ROGC isused in downstream plants toproduce Mono-Ethylene Glycol(MEG) and Polyethylene(LLDPE and LDPE). Similarly,Propylene from ROGC hasenhanced output of the existingPolypropylene (PP) plants atJamnagar complex to producehigh-value co-polymers.

“The commissioning ofMEG plant marks completion ofall- round expansion of thepolyester value chain post suc-cessful commissioning of Para-Xylene (PX), PurifiedTerephthalic Acid (PTA),Polyester filament and PolyEthylene Terephthalate (PET)plants over last 3 years,” RILsaid.

With the commissioningof LLDPE and LDPE plants atJamnagar along with its existingPE plants at other manufactur-ing sites, RIL has capability to

produce entire range of PEgrades covering all end-uses inthe Indian market. RIL said theROGC complex was built in arecord time with about 40 percent lower capital cost comparedto the similar projects globally.

RIL Chairman MukeshAmbani said: “The world’s firstROGC and downstream plantsmarks a paradigm shift in theprofitability and sustainability ofRIL’s petrochemicals business.”The ROGC complex is built oncore philosophy of deep feed-stock integration to establishindustry leading cost and effi-ciency benchmarks.

“This world scale petro-chemicals expansion, onceagain showcases RIL’s uniquecompetitive advantage in effi-cient execution of complexprojects and flawless com-missioning capabi l it ies ,adding yet another jewel to itscrown,” he added.

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Union Minister Shiv PratapShukla on Tuesday said no

proposal regarding merger ofPublic Sector Banks (PSBs) isunder consideration of theGovernment. However, theGovernment has put in place anapproval framework for pro-posals to amalgamate nation-alised banks, the Minister ofState for Finance said in a writ-ten reply to Rajya Sabha.

The Banking Companies(Acquisition and Transfer ofUndertakings) Acts of 1970and 1980 provide that the cen-tral government, in consultationwith RBI, may make a schemefor amalgamation of any nation-alised bank with any othernationalised bank or any otherbanking institution, he said.

To facilitate consolidation inthe public sector banking space,the Cabinet in August gave in-

principle approval for PSBs toamalgamate through anAlternative Mechanism (AM).Subsequently in November, apanel under the chairmanshipof Finance Minister Arun Jaitleywas set up to examine propos-als from banks for in-principleapproval to formulate schemesof amalgamation.

A report on the proposalscleared by it will be sent to theCabinet every three months.Last year, five associates andBharatiya Mahila Bank mergedwith State Bank of India (SBI),catapulting the country’s largestlender to among the top 50banks in the world.

With the merger, SBI joinedthe league of top 50 banksglobally in terms of assets. Thetotal customer base of the bankwill reach 37 crore with abranch network of around24,000 and nearly 59,000 ATMsacross the country.

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Toyota Kirloskar Motor(TKM) on Tuesday report-

ed a 15.32 per cent decline indomestic sales at 10,793 unitsin December 2017. The com-pany had sold a total of 12,747units in the same month pre-vious year in the domesticmarket, TKM said in a state-ment. TKM exported 812 unitsof the Etios series in December2017 compared to 1,346 unitsin December 2016, a decline of39.67 per cent.

In 2017, the company solda record 97,000 units in thedomestic market, a growth of 5per cent over 2016. “With max-imum utilisation of Plant Icapacity to 97 per cent wewere able to cater to theincrease in customer demand ofInnova and Fortuner,” TKMDirector and Senior VicePresident Sales & Marketing NRaja said. He added that salesof Camry Hybrid were nega-tively impacted with the steeprise in price post applicable taxas per GST framework.

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MUMBAI: The bench-mark BSE Sensex closedflat as investors turnedcautious ahead of corpo-rate results amid soaringglobal crude prices and asubdued trend inEuropean markets. Aftera higher opening at33,913.55, the Sensexadvanced to hit the day’shigh of 33,964.14. Butprofit-booking towardsthe middle of the sessionerased gains, draggingthe index to a low of33,703.37.

The 30-share barometerclosed at 33,812.26, down by just0.49 points. The gauge had lost244.08 points in the first tradingsession of 2018 on Monday. TheNSE Nifty, however, ended ashade higher by 6.65 points or 0.06per cent at 10,442.20 after mov-ing between 10,495.20 and

10,404.65.“ M a r k e t

remained sub-dued despite pos-itive momentumin Asian marketamid concern onintroduction oflong-term capitalgain tax andahead of Q3 earn-ings season,”Vinod Nair, Headof Research,Geojit FinancialServices Ltd, said.Mid and small

cap underperformed due to cur-rent excessive valuation whilepositive December auto salesnumbers attracted investors to thesector, Nair said. The upcomingcorporate result season, beginninglater this week and the approach-ing Union Budget kept investorson their toes, who indulged in sell-

ing activity.“On Monday’s choppiness

did dominate early proceedings,and supports seemed to be givingaway, but healthy core sector andmanufacturing PMI growth, alongwith decent auto sales numbersrejuvenated. The approach of Q3earnings season should mean thatinvestors are less likely to rush intomass liquidations,” Anand James,Chief Market Strategist, GeojitFinancial Services Ltd, said.

Stocks failed to hold ontogains after positive core industrydata. Infra sector grew at the fastestpace in more than a year at 6.8 percent in November 2017 on theback of robust performance in seg-ments like refinery, steel andcement. Also, the Nikkei IndiaPMI data showed that Indianmanufacturing activity improvedat the strongest rate in five yearsin December driven by significantincrease in new orders. PTI

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NEW DELHI: PunjabNational Bank (PNB)Managing Director SunilMehta has said about 5 largestressed asset accounts arelikely to be resolved bilateral-ly while the remaining twodozen cases out of 28 identifiedby RBI in the second list willhave to go through the NCLTprocess. RBI's deadline toresolve these identified caseswith a total loan exposure ofabout �4 lakh crore by banksended two days ago.

“In the 2nd list there were28 cases of which our bank isparticipating in 20. For these,the exposure is �6,500 croreand incremental provisioningrequirement is �800 crore. Ofthis, the bank has already pro-vided �75 crore till September.The remaining �725 crorewould be provided in this quar-ter,” he told PTI.

As per RBI guidelines,

banks will have to make a pro-vision of 50 per cent on thecases referred to NationalCompany Law Tribunal(NCLT) by March 2018. “Itake a worst case scenario thatnothing will be resolved. Allwill go to NCLT, then my addi-tional provisioning is �725crore which I can very well takecare of,” he said. Asked if he ishopeful of resolving some casesout of NCLT, Mehta said: “Yes,few of the cases we may be ableto settle down bilaterally. So the

number will be very few...Maybe 4-5.” Out of 28 spottedcases, PNB has exposure in 20accounts, he said without nam-ing any account. He also clar-ified that PNB is not a leadbanker in any of the cases.When asked about how muchhaircut the bank is ready totake, Mehta said, “It will hap-pen as per the process.Whatsoever decision comeseverybody has to go with it.

So for a right estimate, itwould be very difficult becauseevery case is unique. But byand large general assessment isthat in first 12 cases we arerepresenting in 9 with expo-sure of �11,000 crore.” Out ofthis, �9,000 crore is locked upin 5 steel companies, he said,adding, all these 5 steel assetsare already under theadvanced stage of expressionof interest (EoI) and biddingshave been received. PNS

��$ �@���-, ��,�.-�� �� E;(��/� ��� ����. -, ���-���NEW DELHI: Markets regulator

Sebi plans to appoint a full-timechief vigilance officer (CVO) pri-marily to keep a check on its offi-cials and their dealings. The posi-tion of CVO will be equivalent tothat of an executive director interms of pay and benefits.

He would be responsible fordetecting and punishing mal-practices within the organisation.The board of Sebi has alreadyapproved a proposal in this regard,officials said. Besides, ChiefVigilance Commission has alsoadvised that considering the deal-ing of Sebi with sensitives cases, afull-time CVO may be appointed.

According to officials, Sebias a regulator is different and ismore likely to be exposed to vig-ilance related issues in future.The markets watchdog wouldsoon come out with an adver-tisement inviting applicationsfor the position of CVO. Externalcandidates would be consideredfor the post. PNS

NEW DELHI: The Indianmanufacturing sector endedthe year on a strong note, withoperating conditions inDecember improving at thestrongest rate in five years dri-ven by significant increase innew orders, a monthly surveysaid. The Nikkei IndiaManufacturing PurchasingManagers’ Index (PMI) rose to54.7 in December, from 52.6 inNovember as growth wasrecorded across all three mon-itored categories -- consumer,intermediate and investment.

This is for the fifth consec-utive month that the index hascome in above 50-point markthat separates expansion fromcontraction. “Strong businessperformance was underpinnedby the fastest expansions in out-put and new orders sinceDecember 2012 and October2016 respectively,” said AashnaDodhia, economist at IHS Markitand author of the report. PNS

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Iran’s supreme leader blamedthe country’s “enemies” on

Tuesday for days of unrest thathave seen 21 killed and hun-dreds arrested in the biggest testfor the Islamic regime in years.

“The enemies have unitedand are using all their means,money, weapons, policies andsecurity services to create prob-lems for the Islamic regime,”Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said ina speech carried on state tele-vision.

Iranian officials have saidonline accounts in the UnitedStates, Britain and Saudi Arabiaare fomenting protests.

A fifth night of unrest sawsix protesters killed during anattack on a police station inQahderijan in the centralprovince of Isfahan, state TVsaid today.

At least three other townsnear the cultural hub of Isfahanalso saw violence overnight,causing the deaths of a youngmember of the RevolutionaryGuards, a policeman and abystander.

The estimated death toll isnow 21 since protests began insecond city Mashhad andquickly spread to become thebiggest challenge to the Islamicregime since mass demonstra-tions in 2009.

“The enemy is always look-ing for an opportunity and anycrevice to infiltrate and strikethe Iranian nation,” Khameneisaid.The unrest appears lead-erless and focused on provin-cial towns and cities, with onlysmall and sporadic protests inTehran last evening where aheavy police presence wasreported.

As violence has spread,authorities have stepped uparrests, with at least 450 peo-ple detained in the capitalsince Saturday and 100 morearound Isfahan on Monday,officials told local media.

A Revolutionary Guardsspokesman said they had notbeen requested to intervenedirectly, but they requestedthe public to report “sedition-ist elements”.

“We will not permit inse-curity to continue in any wayin Tehran. If it continues, offi-cials will take decisions to fin-ish it,” said Esmail Kowsari, adeputy commander for a localbranch of the Guards, on statetelevision.

Ali Shamkhani, secretaryof the Supreme NationalSecurity Council, describedthe unrest as a “proxy waragainst the Iranian people”.

“Hashtags and messagesabout the situation in Irancome from the United States,Britain and Saudi Arabia,” hetold local media.

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Hours after President DonaldTrump’s stinging attack on

Pakistan’s “lies and deceit” overharbouring terrorists for manyyears, the United States haseffectively blocked for now itsproposed $255 million militaryaid to Islamabad.

“The United States doesnot plan to spend the $255 mil-lion in FY 2016 ForeignMilitary Financing for Pakistanat this time,” a National SecurityCouncil official told media out-lets on Monday in what turnedout to be the Trump adminis-tration’s first pronouncement offor the new year. Tying anyfuture security assistance tohard counter-terrorism mea-sures by Islamabad, the officialsaid: “The President has madeclear that the United Statesexpects Pakistan to take decisiveaction against terrorists andmilitants on its soil.”

“Pakistan’s actions in sup-port of the South Asia Strategywill ultimately determine thetrajectory of our relationship,

including future security assis-tance,” the official stressed.

President Trump, in whatwas his first tweet of 2018,declared earlier on Monday thatthe United States will no longerput up with its “lies & deceit”.

“The United States has fool-ishly given Pakistan more than33 billion dollars in aid over thelast 15 years, and they have givenus nothing but lies & deceit,thinking of our leaders as fools,”Trump tweeted, adding: “Theygive safe haven to the terroristswe hunt in Afghanistan, with lit-tle help. No more!”

The first indication of theUS plan to block the aid camewith a New York Times reporton Saturday, citing officials assaying that such a move is afoot“as a show of dissatisfaction withPakistan’s broader intransigencetoward confronting the terror-ist networks that operate there”.The Trump administraton hadfirst put the $255 million aid ontemporary hold last August. Apart of the $1.1 billion aidpackage that the US Congresshad authorized for Pakistan in2016, the administration hadsaid that the aid tranche wouldbe held in abeyance untilPakistan agreed to do more tocombat terrorist networks.

Trump’s hard-hitting tweetis being viewed here as only the

climax of a steadily deteriorat-ing relationship, marked byWashington’s increasingly fre-quent warnings in recent weeksover Islamabad’s failure to actdecisively against terrorists andmilitants on its soil.

“We have made clear toPakistan that while we desirecontinued partnership, wemust see decisive action againstterrorist groups operating ontheir territory,” Trump saidwhile unveiling his NationalSecurity Strategy on December18, adding: “We make massivepayments every year toPakistan. They have to help.”

Lauding Trump’s offensiveagainst Pakistan, RepublicanSenator Rand Paul tweeted: “Icouldn’t agree more. I havebeen fighting to end aid toPakistan for years and willagain lead the charge in theSenate. Let’s make this happen.”

And Congressman Ted Poefrom Texas, who for long hasdemanded that Pakistan shouldbe declared a State sponsor ofterrorism, hailed Trump forrecognizing Pakistan for “whatit is”, adding: “If Pakistan doesnot stop aiding terrorists, wemust cut all aid to Islamabad,revoke their privileged status asa major Non-NATO ally & des-ignate Pakistan as a StateSponsor of Terrorism.”

Trump’s own eldest son,Donald Trump Jr., hailed hisfather’s push, tweeting: “Greatstart. Why give millions tocountries who would harborour enemies.”

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President Donald Trumppraised Iranian protesters

on Tuesday for acting againstTehran’s “brutal and corrupt”regime after days of unrest thathave seen 21 people killed andhundreds arrested.

“The people of Iran arefinally acting against the bru-

tal and corrupt Iranian regime,”Trump tweeted, a day after call-ing for regime change in theIslamic republic.

“All of the money thatPresident Obama so foolishlygave them went into terrorismand into their ‘pockets.’ Thepeople have little food, biginflation and no human rights.The US is watching!”

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Islamabad: Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi will chairCabinet and the National Security Committee meetings to dis-cuss Pakistan’s response to US President Donald Trump’s accu-sation that Islamabad deceived America by sheltering terroristsin return for $33 billion aid.

Trump on Monday tore into Pakistan accusing it of givingnothing to the US but “lies and deceit” and providing “safe haven”to terrorists in return for aid over the last 15 years thinking ofAmerican leaders as “fools”.

In his strongest attack against Pakistan yet, Trump in his firsttweet of the year on New Year’s day also appeared to suggest hecould cut off foreign aid to Pakistan.

Beijing: China on Tuesdaydefended Pakistan saying theworld community shouldacknowledge its all-weather ally’s“outstanding contribution” tocounter terrorism, a day after USPresident Donald Trump lashedout at Islamabad for providingsafe havens to terrorists.

In a scathing attack onPakistan, Trump had accusedit of “lies and deceit” and offooling US leaders while shel-tering terrorists.

“The United States hasfoolishly given Pakistan morethan 33 billion dollars in aidover the last 15 years, andthey have given us nothing butlies & deceit, thinking of our

leaders as fools,” Trump hadtweeted on Monday.

“They give safe haven to theterrorists we hunt inAfghanistan, with little help.No more!”, he said in a scathingcriticism of Pakistan. China, onexpected lines, praised Pakistan’scounter terrorism record.“Pakistan has made enormousefforts and sacrifice for the fightagainst terrorism and has madevery outstanding contribution tothe global cause of counter ter-rorism. The international com-munity should acknowledgethat,” Chinese foreign ministryspokesman Geng Shuang saidhere when asked about Trump’scriticism of Pakistan. PTIIslamabad: Pakistan has sum-

moned US Ambassador DavidHale to register its protest afterPresident Donald Trumpaccused the country of lyingand deceiving America by shel-tering terrorists while receivingbillions of dollars in foreign aid,a media report said on Tuesday.

The Pakistan ForeignOffice (FO) summoned Halelast night. Foreign SecretaryTehmina Janjua sought anexplanation from Hale overTrump’s remarks, The ExpressTribune reported.

There was no immediateresponse from foreign officeofficials. PTI

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Jerusalem: Israel has extended the detention without trial of a promi-nent Palestinian politician by another six months, the Army saidon Tuesday, meaning she will spend at least one year in custody.Khalida Jarrar was arrested on July 2 for being a senior memberin the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a movementconsidered a terrorist organisation by Israel, the US and the EU.

She had been released from prison only a year before. Detailsof the accusations against her are secret, as is customary withIsraeli administrative detention orders, which allow detentionwithout trial for renewable six-month periods. A legislator in thelargely defunct Palestinian parliament, she was given a six-monthadministrative detention order in July. AFP

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Sulaimaniyah(Iraq): Iran onTuesday reopened the last twoborder posts with IraqiKurdistan that it closed inresponse to an independencevote rejected by Baghdad andneighbouring countries, offi-cials said.

The Iranian consulate inthe Kurdish autonomousregion’s capital Arbilannounced the Parwezkhanand Haji Omran posts werebeginning work again “fromTuesday”.

A Kurdish spokesman atParwezkhan confirmed thepost had “reopened officially at0900 (local time)” after notifi-cation was received from theIranian side. AFP

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�What were the objectives and the changesthat you brought about during yourtenure as the president of The Institute ofCompany Secretaries of India (ICSI)?

The idea was to move from the realmof corporate governance to national gover-nance; and somehow by the end of thetenure and the year, I feel satisfied with asense of accomplishment of having comethis far but not contentment since the roadahead is a long one. The institute whileunderstanding the need for holistic gover-nance rolled out codes like the ModelGovernance Code for Meetings of GramPanchayats, Code for Charity Governanceand Corporate Anti-Bribery Code. Whilefoundation stones were laid and chapterswere inaugurated in various cities, a com-pletely research-oriented Centre ofExcellence was inaugurated at Hyderabadby the Vice-President of India, VenkaiahNaidu. The year also evidenced not just theadoption of a motto from the IndianScriptures but its development into a full-fledged song. A large number of publicationswere rolled out in our attempt to aid the cor-porate and economic world. �How was the Golden Jubilee Year cele-bration?

The inaugural ceremony witnessed thepresence of Prime Minister Narendra Modiwherein he was presented with the ‘Shaheed

ki Beti’ certificate, another unique initiativeof ICSI to fund the education of the daugh-ters of the martyrs of the nation. �How are the secretarial standardsimpacting the companies?

The adoption of Secretarial Standardsby the corporate sector whether as a legalmandate (SS-1 and SS-2) or on a voluntarybasis (SS-3) will have a substantial impacton the quality of compliances required to befollowed by the companies, making themcomparable with the best practices in theworld. Not only will it ensure strengthen-ing of Board processes, but will also beinstrumental in building investor confidenceand better monitoring of compliances,thereby achieving the common goal of bet-ter corporate governance. �How has the role of Company Secretaries(CS) evolved over the years?

The past 50 years have been witness tothe altering roles of CS from a legal boun-

dation to becoming the keymanagerial personnel. TheInsolvency Professionals, theIPR professionals, theRegistered Valuers are just afew of the roles played by CS.It goes without saying that thedevelopment of any economyis sustainable only when thebackbone is formed by asound governance frame-work. It is only befitting thatthe task of strengthening andmaintaining such frameworkis entrusted upon dedicatedprofessionals and CS fit in thisrole perfectly. CS as a governance profes-sional is vital to nation building.�What are some of the responsibilities?

A lot of activities by CompanySecretaries fall within the ambit of theresponsibility structure. From ensuring

compliance with the applic-able laws and secretarial stan-dards to guiding the direc-tors, from conducting secre-tarial audits to representingthe before Regulators, fromobtaining requisite approvalsfrom designated authoritiesto assisting the Board, theIndia Inc surely witnesses aplenty occasions where ser-vices of CS are solicited. A lib-eralised economy giving equalstanding to a variety of busi-ness organisations havingplethora of laws encasing

them needs to be supported by such pro-fessionals at a higher level to keep the gov-ernance intact and the issues under control.�How has ICSI expanded across India?

With around 69 chapters, four region-al offices and research centres, we are pre-

sent pan India in guiding our budding pro-fessionals in prospective students. We’veopened around 57 study centres, even inplaces like Andaman Nicobar, Nagar Haveliand many more alike. Institute is regularlyconducting career awareness programmepan India and even focusing to being in linethe students of remote area also. �What are the objectives of the institute?

Regulation and Development of theprofession of CS. In terms of Section 15Aof the Company Secretaries Act, 1980 thefunctions of institute includes the exam-ination of candidates for enrollment, theregulation of training of students,themaintenance and publication of a Registerof persons qualified to practice as CS andcollection of fees from members, exami-nees and other persons. It also subject tothe orders of the appropriate authoritiesunder this Act, the removal of names fromthe Register and the restoration to the

Register of names which have beenremoved. We are also responsible for themaintenance of a library and publicationof books and periodicals relating to man-agement of companies and allied subjects;the conduct of elections to the Council ofthe Institute and the granting or refusal ofcertificates of practice as per guidelinesissued by the Council.�Which are the universities from wherea student can pursue PhD programme?

There are 55 universities that haverecognised the CS qualification as equiv-alent to post graduation for the purposeof pursuing PhD. Some of them are: Thelist of such universities is as under: SardarPatel University, South Gujarat University,Maharshi Dayanand University, GuruNanak Dev University, University ofPoona, Punjab University, NagpurUniversity, Chaudhary Charan SinghUniversity, University of Mysore, CochinUniversity of Science & Technology,Bangalore University, Shivaji University,University of Bombay, Algappa University,Pondicherry University, NorthMaharashtra University, KarnatakUniversity, Dr Babasaheb AmbedkarMarathwada University, National LawSchool of India University, North GujaratUniversity, University of Kashmir, andmany others.

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The New Year will bring in growth inemployee recruitment and 10-15 percent increase in salary hike. Services

sector will create 70 per cent employmentopportunities in the country. Artificial intel-ligence, Internet of things, analytics, social,mobile, cloud services, machine learning,E-commerce, food processing, health ser-vices, ayurveda, yoga, accounting, banking,financial and insurance services will showrobust growth in the country. The GST anddemonetisation will create opportunities inmany fields like accounting, logistics, sup-ply chain management, retail manage-ment, e commerce, digital marketing, e-banking and mobile banking in the coun-try. Net employment outlook is two per-centage points higher than the previousquarter. In 2018, employees will be ratedbased on talent analytics or people analyt-ics with the use of big data.

�����������Retail sector in Tier2 and 3 cities in

India will witness higher investment thanmetro cities. Lack of space, increase inrentals and high land price affect retail sec-tor in metro city malls. India will contin-ue to emerge as the third largest start-upecosystem in the world. There will be sub-stantial growth in entrepreneurship, start-ups and fin-techs in the country. Studentswill try to become employers after estab-lishing start-ups in ICT, agri allied, food pro-cessing, education and other services sec-tors.

New start-ups will emerge in agricul-ture, fintech, logistics, supply chain man-agement, analytics, allied agri sectors, e-health, e-commerce and other services sec-tors in the country. At a time whenprospects for ready to eat and ready to cookproducts are emerging across the world,food processing sector will exhibit annualgrowth rate of 25 percent in the country.Food outsourcing will improve and foodmarket will emerge as 60 per cent of retailmarket in the coming year.

��������������Lot of transformations are taking place

in the career sector. Nature and future ofworks are changing. International labourorganisation realised these facts and is work-ing for sustainable strategies in this system.Talent and technology tuned jobs areemerging. Automation started replacing thetraditional sectors.

Recent FICCI, NASSCOM and EYreports suggest that by 2022 job scenariowill undergo total transformation. Due toglobalisation, digitalisation, change indemographics and advancement of tech-nologies, by 2022 nine per cent work forcewould be in new jobs which do not existtoday. 37 per cent would be in jobs whichwill radically change the skill sets.Twentyone per cent of workforce will faceexistential threat. Around 20-25 per centjobs will be in organised sector will reach10 per cent from the current eight per centlevel. Thus, organised workforce will bearound 46-48 million by 2022.

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During 2017, Make in India, DigitalIndia and Skill India can’t create envisagedemployment opportunities inManufacturing, Information andCommunication technology and skill devel-opment in the country. Realising the short-fall, Government of India will facilitate tocreate more employment opportunities

during 2018 as part of pre-election home work. Skilldevelopment will be thearea of focus during thecoming year. There is a hugeskill gap between availableand required skills in thecountry.

Manufacturingsector, which is pro-viding only 12 per cent employmentopportunities, can create up to 20 per centemployment opportunities in 2018.Construction and infrastructure sectors willcreate more employment opportunitieswhich can facilitate Architecture, Civil,Mechanical, electrical and electronics, elec-tronics and Communication, Computer, ITand Biomedical engineering in the comingyears. Core engineering graduates will bebenefited when compared to specialisedcadres. Graduate programme will emergeas benchmark qualification and studentsrequire post graduation, post diploma orskill development programmes as valueadded courses to succeed in the career mar-ket.

Globally skill development will emergeas the cardinal for recruitment. Moreover,potential employers may give due weigh-tage to soft skills of the prospective employ-ees. Social, mobile analytics, cloud services,artificial intelligence, internet of things,machine learning, deep learning andautomation will emerge as advanced IT ser-vices and create more employment oppor-tunities. Future business is going to be social.

Internet of things (IoT) may acquiremore security issues during 2018 andCyber security and Ethical hacking cours-es will create more employment in the coun-try. IoT will face cyber security issues in thecoming year. Green technology will emergeas one of the potential sectors in India giv-ing due initiatives to improve quality of airwe breathe and clean, affordable and reli-able sources of energy.

��������*(���D��� �Hospitality, Tourism, Retail, Supply

chain, logistics and agri business manage-ment sectors will exhibit increased growthrate. There will be more takers for hospi-tality management, hotel management,airline and airport management and trans-port management courses. Art and designwill be the area which can create lot ofemployment opportunities globally.Number of students aspiring for foot weardesign, fashion technology and IndianInstitute of Technologies will increase dur-ing the year 2018.

Campus recruitment will increase over40 per cent during the year 2018. There willbe emergence of smart cities which will cre-ate more employment opportunities forsmart courses. Smart cities envisage for sus-tainable, high quality of life in terms of infra-structure, mobility, connectivity, technolo-gy, environment, availability of resourcesand overall living conditions and experi-ence. It is an urban renewal and retrofittingprogramme to develop 100 smart cities inIndia which will focus on urban infra-structure, planning, transportation andshared services.

Global move to reduce the use of fos-sil fuels like petrol and diesel will pave wayfor electric, solar or hybrid vehicles whichin turn facilitate spectacular growth in auto-mobile design and engineering. Hybrid andIntegrated courses like mechatronics, bio-medical sciences, bio informatics, devel-opmental sciences, climatology, humanities

and social sciences, English etc will acquiremore importance. There will be increase innumbers of students aspiring for integrat-ed post graduate courses and inter disci-plinary research in the country.

������������There will be great prospects for

Science, Technology, Engineering,Agriculture, Mathematics (STEAM) andhealth related courses. Demand for STEAMstudents from India will increase in US.Physical and Biological sciences will acquiremomentum as a sequel to research oppor-tunities existing in developed countries.Chartered Accountant, ICWAI, charteredinstitute of Management accountant pro-gramme, Chartered management accoun-tant, CIMA global, asset management,risk assessment, financial analyst, actuari-al science, project management and ACCAprogramme will attract more students.

Combined accounting course withGST compliant courses will evolve whichcan create more employment opportunities.Prospects for commerce, Business studiesand management programmes will increase.International business and trade relatedcourses; intellectual property rights andpatent law will attain more importance atpost graduate and doctoral level studies.

Journalism courses under new mediaand research will create more employmentopportunities. Courses related to per-forming arts, dance, music, film production,visual media, visual communication, busi-ness economics, business communication,animation and mobile gaming will createmore job opportunities. Genomics,Connectomics, embedded systems, drugresistance, Internet of things, etc will be thefocus of research.

R u r a linternet users

will increase by 22per cent per year

whereas urban internetusers by 7 per cent per year

reaching 263 million in the coun-try. One -third youth in the world are not

online which will be around 346 million.Skills to meet corporate challenges willincrease.

Management education will become anadded edge to every academic discipline. E-commerce, technology, healthcare man-agement, retailing, corporate communica-tion, digital management and business ana-lytics will emerge as the potential sectors inthe year to come. Right management pro-gramme with competent faculty will pro-vide right education, industry academiainterface, field work and better employmentprospects.

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Interdisciplinary research will be morefocussed on sustainable development,multi-drug resistance, tuberculosis, publichealth, developmental studies, climatology,food safety etc. New regulations will cre-ate more opportunities for studies in foodsafety, food security, goods and services tax,value addition, etc in the country.

As part of AYUSH, Ayurveda, Yoga,Unani, Sidha and Homeopathy courses willattract more number of students. Ayurvedawill globally emerge as one of the mostwanted courses in the years to come.

� �D������������Agribusiness, veterinary science, fish-

eries technology, dairy technology, foodtechnology, poultry product technology,post harvest technology, high value agri-culture, environmental science, logistics,courses related to export import policies,courses related to packaging, nanoscience,nano technology, high value agriculture,organic farming will be the focus areas dur-ing 2018. Students aspiring for MBBS andBTech in IIT and NIT programmes willincrease but steady decline in studentnumbers will continue among Bachelor ofDental Surgery (BDS) aspiring students.

Courses like English, foreign lan-guages, public administration, media stud-ies, paramedical courses like physiothera-py, optometry, nursing, pharmacy andlaboratory techniques will attract more stu-dents. Humanities, social sciences, eco-nomics, developmental science, political sci-ence, philosophy and history will be someof the most wanted courses for studentsaspiring to write civil services examination.

���������:���Students aspiring for National eligibil-

ity cum Entrance Test for medical cours-es, Joint Engineering Entrance Exam(Main), Birla Institute of Technology and

Science-BITSAT National Institute ofFashion Technology, National Institute ofDesign, English and Foreign languageUniversity courses, Humanities and SocialSciences Courses of IIT, Chennai, NationalCouncil for Hotel Management’s Hospitalityand Hotel administration programme,CLAT for admission to National lawUniversities, State Medical, Agricultural andEngineering entrance test will graduallyincrease during the year 2018. NationalTesting Centre for all the professionalcourses entrance test will emerge during2018. Moreover, there will be unifiedentrance examination for Engineering atNational level similar to NEET.

At the post graduate level examinationslike CAT, GATE, , ICAR JRF, CSIR SRF,Civil services examination, NIFT PG exam-ination, GRE, TOEFL, IELTS and GMATwill attract students aspiring for educationin India and Abroad respectively. UnitedStates, Canada, UK, China, Japan, Australia,Singapore, European Union will attain themajor destinations for Indian students tostudy abroad. Students aspiring for undergraduate programme abroad will increaseand they will prepare for SAT and Englishproficiency examinations.

����*�;������� ������2018 will be a promising year across the

world. Britain will anxiously wait to seewhether its exit from European Union isto happen smoothly or traumatically.World economy and Indian economy willmove at a faster pace. November 2018 willwitness election to House of Representativesin United States which will affect Trumpreforms if Democrats win the election as asequel to Alabama results. In CubaPresident Raul Castro will retire andEmperor Akihito’s era will be terminated inJapan. Brazil and Mexico will move forPresidential elections. Techlash, progres-sivism and changing attributes to China willbe the trends during 2018.

Across the World politicians will turnon technology giants with fines, regulationsand tougher interpretation of rules. Lot ofbasic research will take place in biologicalscience. It will provide the fuel for new dis-ease treatments, improvements in agricul-ture and biotechnologies. Healthcare spend-ing will increase by 4.5 percent globally.Employers in Australia, Japan, Norway,Poland, Romania and the US reported theirstrongest hiring plans in the coming years.

UK’s new higher education and skillsbill will favour international students. Dueto increasing cost of education and absenceof post study work (PSW) visa, Indian stu-dents are compelled to pursue higher edu-cation from countries other than the UK.Large number of science, technology, engi-neering and Mathematics students areeagerly waiting for revoke of PSW visa inorder to get higher education from UK sinceUK excels in cutting edge technology andworld class institutions globally. Technology,Entrepreneurship, start-ups and skill devel-opment are some of the areas where Indiais exhibiting spectacular growth. There arechances of implementing one-year poststudy work visa in UK. Brexit reforms willfavour Indian students since more careeropportunities will be available after exit ofBritain from EU.

United States, Canada, Australia andSingapore will also emerge as the poten-tial destinations for Indian students.United States recently increased the paystructure of employees working under H1Bvisa. This will affect Indian IT companiesworking in United States. Some of the EUcountries like Ireland, The Netherlands,New Zealand, France, Germany andIreland started implementing liberal poststudy work visa up to three years. As perthe recent UK regulations, the minimumsalary for a Tier II migrant should be 20800pounds. This will also affect Indian ITcompanies since 90 per cent of IT profes-sionals are working in UK under skilledworker category.

The year will see a steady increase innumbers of students aspiring for educationin US, Canada, UK, Australia, Singapore,China and European countries likeGermany, France, New Zealand,Netherlands and Georgia. More numberof students will try for medical educationin China, Philippines, Georgia and Russia.Students interested to pursue pre medicalcourses in US, Australia, New Zealand, UKand Canada may increase. They requireSAT and TOEFL/IELTS scores for admis-sion. More number of Indian students willbe interested to pursue graduate pro-grammes from US, Canada, UK, Australiaand Singapore when compared to undergraduate programmes. Students aspiringfor Canada immigration from India willincrease this year.

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Applications are open forMurdoch UniversityScholarships to pursue under-graduate and postgraduatedegree programme. MUAEA’sare awarded to commencinginternational students with anaverage grade of 75% or high-er or equivalent GPA.International students canapply for these scholarships.

Eligibility: Be commencingfirst Semester at MurdochUniversity; Give permission forimage and name to be used bythe university in their media andpublications. English languagerequirements: In order to gainadmission to Murdoch, stu-dents must satisfy Englishrequirements by demonstratingcompetency in the EnglishLanguage. IELTS overall score of6.0 with no band below 6.0;Cambridge Advanced English:Score of 60 or better; CambridgeCertificate of Proficiency inEnglish: Score of 60 or better;TOEFL Internet Based: 80 (noband less than 20); TOEFLPaper Based: 550 (with the testof written English 5).

Scholarships are availablefor pursuing UG and PG degreeprogramme at the MurdochUniversity. The scholarship isvalued at $5,000 and will becredited in two equal install-ments of A$2,500 directlytowards the successful recipi-ent’s tuition fees after the firstcompleted semester of study,

and completed con-secutive semester thereafter

(subject to the terms and con-ditions of the award being met).

Application deadline:March 5, 2018.

The St Catharine’s College,Cambridge is offering up to 5scholarships worth £10,000.Scholarships are available forthe MBA, MFin and EMBA.

Eligibility: Applicantsmust meet the following eligi-bility requirements: First classdegree, GPA of at least 3.7 (outof 4) or equivalent from arecognised university.Minimum GMAT score of700. Three years’ full-time PGwork experience (MBA andEMBA only). Nationality:Citizens of all nationalities areeligible to apply. Applicantsmust have UG degree.Minimum GMAT score of 700(MBA only). All internationalapplicants for whom English isnot the native tongue mustprovide proof of competence inthe English language.

How to apply: Send a cov-ering letter with their applica-tion form explaining in nomore than 300 words the con-tribution they expect to maketo business and society in thefuture. Send your completedapplication (including two aca-demic references, supportingdocuments and covering letter)so that it is received by theJudge Business School byFebruary 27, 2018. Awardswill by end of March.

Application deadline: Theapplication deadline isFebruary 27, 2018.

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With the advent of technology,Internet penetration andincreased adoption of smart

devices the way children learn have start-ed to change and this sector will see big-ger changes in the coming years. There hasbeen a shift in the way learning isapproached by children, parents, teachersand institutions today.

In the recent years, the Indian edtechecosystem has been using technology asan enabler. Here are few trends for thecoming year.

TECHNOLOGY has played a keyrole in disrupting this sector and willcontinue to shape the teacher — student

relationship by offeringbetter accessibility, dis-

tribution and formats of delivery. It isonly through technology that we cansolve the three core issues of the Indianeducation sector at scale; issues being -access to quality education, effectivelearning and personalization. Also, techenabled learning offers the scope ofinstant interactivity which further opensup the route for quality learning for stu-dents irrespective of their geographicallocation. The use of technology hasalready shown some early signs of thetraditional classroom teaching modelgetting transformed into digital learning

programs which is highly self-driven andbacked by active learning

INNOVATIVE TECH TOOLS. Wewill see a host of innovative tech poweredlearning products being launched in theIndian market which will empower andpromote better learning experiences rightfrom the formative years. Children are pri-marily visual learners and explaining con-cepts with visual representations makeslearning exciting and easier. Case inpoint, new technologies like VirtualReality (VR) and Augmented Reality(AR) will be playing a major role in mak-

ing learning more of an immersive expe-rience and extremely engaging. Whileboth VR and AR are used extensively bythe gaming industry, and early indicationsare that they can show great results in edu-cation too. AR and VR can engage stu-dents in a completely new way that is morefun and experiential. There are severalcompanies working on technologicalinnovations in this space; and that is agood sign of things to come

PERSONALISED LEARNING. Thecombined power of artificial intelligence,machine learning and data analytics willenable personalisation of learning based onsize and style of learning of every student

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QUERY: Hi, my name isAshita Shorya. My date of birthis March 22, 1996. Please suggestthe right career options for me,so that I can be successful in mylife.

BHATT: You are born underthe sign of Aries and your elementis Fire. People born under this signare competitive, quite physical andborn leaders. Eager and enthusi-astic, you are the alpha female ofthe pack, always at the front of thequeue and kick-starting every-thing from projects to company.A fearless and natural leader, youare charismatic, energetic anddynamic. The literal andmetaphorical beginners of thezodiac, you hate losing and thususually win.

The true Fire element in youraises its head whenever you areconfronted with a challenge, anadversity or some real pressure.You have all the energy andenthusiasm to take on the world,but because you are indisciplined,you tend to lose out on lucrativeopportunities. Channelising theenergy in the right direction is anart and you should learn that toget what you deserve. Being a go-getter, you are not well suited forrepetitive jobs. You will easily getbored and restless if not given achallenge. Needing constantchange in life, you would do wellas a doctor, dentist, lawyer, stockbroker, or even a professional ath-lete.

Entrepreneur: Having ambi-tious nature and eagerness totackle new challenges, you woulddo very well as an entrepreneur.Hence, doing own business is agood option for you.

Manager: Leadership isanother prominent quality, mak-

ing you a potential CEO,or at least managementmaterial. Even if you start fromexecutive level you are destined toreach at management level.

Finance: Ruled by the planetVenus, you can do very well asbankers, capitalists, financiersand money lender. Strong condi-tion of Mars in you kundali isshowing signs of getting in toIncome Tax department. Hencewould recommend you to applyfor All India Level competitiveexam either online or offline forIncome Tax Department

PR & marketing communi-cation: With your kind of creativ-ity, you can also take up assign-ments in advertising, PR or mar-keting communication becauseother combinations are also sup-portive. There is also a talent forpromotion and sales within you.

Sports: You could be an excel-lent physical education teacher,outdoor guide, personal trainer orprofessional athlete. You couldeven work for a sports organisa-tion, helping to organise teamsports or a league.

Fitness Trainer: Anythinghaving to do with competition orphysicality is right up your alley.You can be a good renownedFitness and personal trainer.

Most important quality thatyou need to learn is the ability tothink through. If you imbibe thislearning, you can avoid takingregrettable career decisions.Another lesson to learn is to fin-ish the task you begin. However,whatever path you will choose tofollow, it will lead to success.=���������*��������������������� ����

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As more and more organisa-tions undertake the processof digital transformation to

offer tech enabled products or ser-vices, IT roles and skills is under-going radical shifts, somethingwhich we are already observing.This will affect the tech job scenarioas we move into 2018. Following assome of the key job roles companiesrequire as they transform theirbusinesses and processes for thefuture:

Cybersecurity analyst: Thisindividual will manage risk fororganisations through use of rele-vant tools and techniques to gath-er vital end-point and networkhost data with the goal of identify-ing vulnerabilities.

Network engineer: This rolewill encompass coordinatingbetween cloud and traditional net-working resources to make a busi-ness’s communicate efficiently. Theywill need to know how to map tech-nical network elements to a compa-ny’s business needs.

Vulnerability assessment man-ager: The role of a penetration testerhas matured. Today’s pen testerdoes more than hack a server or usefancy security tools. The testertakes a responsible approach andconducts strong, comprehensive

tests to identify and correct andunacceptable risks.

Technical support specialist:The world needs more tech supportspecialists than ever before. Today’stech support engineer helps manageincreasingly complex issues involv-ing data management, authentica-tion and network troubleshooting.

Machine learning engineer:Machine learning use sophisticatedprograming like R and Python todevelop AI machines and systemsthat can learn and apply knowledgeto perform tasks. These profession-als will also work with complexdatasets and algorithms to convertmachines to intelligent machines.

Network analysts: A growingnumber of things need to be con-nected in an efficient way, and that’sgoing to be a major driver ofdemand there. Network analysts inthe coming years will combinetechnical skillsets with an under-standing of how to apply it to pro-vide real-time trending informationon network traffic, and what thoseinsights means for the business.

Cloud engineer: They willneed to create solutions which aremix of multiple technologies.

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2018will be a critical year to look at. Afew HR trends to see this year:

Inside-Out instead of Outside-In: All HRpractices are hinged on external market prac-tices. We tend to benchmark every policy or pro-gram that we have or want to have. But the timeto introspect is coming. So in 2018, organiza-tions are likely to look inside, when it comes tounderstanding what practices will work intheir context. Instead of the outside environmentdictating its policies, organizations will focus oninternal requirements that need the right kindof support.

Active and constant learning: Learning willno longer be a function of what isneeded or when it is needed.It will no longer dependon when a specifictraining program isavailable. It dependson what the employ-ee wants to learn andwhen. Learning willbe more of an active,e m p l o y e e - d r i v e nprocess which is constantrather than as per a trainingcalendar.

Personalised work arrangements: With ahigh level of diverse workforce, all organizationsare looking to understand how they can creatework arrangements that suit the employee’s needsand life-situation. This awareness will becomehigher in the coming year.

HR Chatbots: The time for HR Chatbots iscoming soon. 2018 might be the year when thistrend picks up! It could involve chatbots whoguide employees on career moves or even do pre-liminary interviews. There are already portalswhich have chatbots that help people in their jobsearch. So this is an HR technology trend thatwe are likely to see.

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Salaries in India are projected to rise 10% in 2018,according to the Q3 2017 Salary BudgetPlanning Report released by Willis Towers

Watson, the leading global advisory, broking andsolutions company. The report looks at a range ofjob grades across various industry sectors and isdesigned to provide companies with guidance fortheir annual salary forecasting for the year ahead.

Although salaries in India are seeing a decreas-ing pattern in the year-on-year salary increases,India’s projected salary for 2018 is still the highestin the Asia Pacific region.

The report highlights that executive salaries haveplateaued and in some cases show a downward trend.However, in the mid-management level, the salaryincrease range is wide – from a 2-3% for average per-formers to 15% for top performers. The junior man-agement salary increases will average around 10%but may have a wider range.

Among the industries covered in the report, themost notable projected salary increase is seen in theenergy, FMCG and retail sectors. At 10.5%, these sec-tors are expected to do better than the overall pro-jected salary of 10%. This is reflected in the focuson reforms in the renewable energy sector and con-vergence in online and offline in the retail sector.Whereas, the significant change in the projectedsalaries is expected in the pharmaceutical sector(from 11% in 2017 to 10.3% projected for 2018).Notably, at 9.1% the financial services is the only sec-tor where the projected salary is less than the over-all projection.

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Spurring a bunch of underdogs to India's biggestprize in domestic cricket is no small task but

so confident was Vidarbha coach ChandrakantPandit that he had made inquiries about rewardsfor the improbable feat at the very start of the Ranjiseason.

After winning their maiden Ranji Trophy fol-lowing five decades of trying, Vidarbha CricketAssociation (VCA) vice-president Prashant Vaidyarecalled the time when Pandit, after being signedup last season, asked what they would do with theprize money.

Surprised, the VCA official had asked Panditwhat prize money was he referring to? "The onefor the Ranji Trophy winners", replied the mul-tiple-time winning coach.

"That was so confident of him, that this manwas already thinking of winning the trophy, so Ithought Vidarbha is definitely going to have a goodseason. I started believing on the first day he(Pandit) came to Nagpur," Vaidya said after thenine-wicket win over Delhi in the title clash here.

Seated beside Vaidya was Pandit, who has anenviable record as coach in first-class cricket. Theformer India player, as coach, has won the titlethrice, reached the final four times. The lonedefeat, to Gujarat in last season's final, was enoughfor Mumbai to show him the door.

Mumbai's loss turned out to be Vidarbha'sgain. Having been a part of so many of Mumbai'striumphant campaigns -- both as a player andcoach, Pandit knew what it would take to win.

"I have always been thinking about theachievement. Everybody wants to win the title, butI think, this win will not only change the team,it will also have an impact on the youngsters. Theplayers of 14 or 16 years can also raise their handsand say that I can win. That's the kind of cultureI would be happy to achieve in Vidarbha," the 56-year-old Pandit said.

A hard taskmaster, Pandit has his own waysto operate and doesn't like interferences.

"We have been following our routine and that'sthe best part, we have done. All credit goes to theplayers as they have put in the hard work. I amvery happy with the way they have respected me,and the players have never ignored the system wehave followed.

"That is one of the major things. The team istogether, they have started enjoying the sessions.We stayed together all the time and there were cer-tain kinds of activities in the team. That's a fan-tastic thing."

Pandit praised the support staff for helpinghim immensely in the endeavour.

"When you don't do well, people say there isno unity in the side. That's not the case. Supportstaff is equally helping. Bowling coach SubrotoBanerjee has been of great support.

"See the performance of fast bowlers -- espe-cially (Rajneesh) Gurbani -- that has helped.

Wasim Jaffer, Satish have been role models."Today, youngsters like (Akshay) Wadkar have

performed because players like Faiz (Fazal) havepassed on positive energy in the dressing room.We are grooming them also. We have been talk-ing to Prashant regularly about team combination,"he emphasised.

Pandit said some performances took him bysurprise. "Look at Aditya Thakare. I was not tooconvinced initially but Prashant convinced me. Iwas thinking whether VCA will make or breakhim. But now the U-19 boy is now a part of his-tory and he will always remember it," he said.

Making his first-class debut, Thakare, who isa stand-by in India's U-19 World Cup squad,picked up a wicket in the match's first over.

������(�������������<��������*��Turning 40 in less than two months, Wasim

Jaffer has already achieved more than what manycould in first-class cricket, but the batting creaseremains the place where he feels most at home,most at peace with the world.

As one of the three seasoned professionals inthe side, Jaffer played a pivotal role in Vidarbha'smaiden Ranji Trophy triumph -- astonishingly hisninth overall.

The years of experience he gained repre-senting Mumbai benefitted Vidarbha greatlyand he willingly played mentor to the young play-ers besides scoring nearly 600 runs.

Though he concedes he doesn't have manyyears left in him, the former India opener says hewill continue to play as long as fitness allows him.Jaffer has nearly 18,000 runs in first-class crick-et.

"Nobody probably believed that I'd play anoth-er Ranji final but here I am with my ninth RanjiTrophy title," he says.

But being the exemplary team-man, Jafferdoesn't forget to acknowledge the others behindthe concerted effort that made for Vidarbha's fairy-tale campaign.

"Vidarbha had the talent but I think (coach)Chandrakant Pandit brought a lot of discipline,a lot of strictness, he brought the players out oftheir comfort zone — which was required I feel,"says the veteran.

"These players have the talent but sometimesyou need to push them; they don't know their lim-

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Cheteshwar Pujara, a vital cog inIndia's batting wheel, today stressedon the importance of leaving the

ball on the bouncy pitches of South Africaduring the three-Test series beginninghere on Friday.

India lost the series 0-1 on the pre-vious tour of South Africa four years agobut Pujara was amongst the runs along-side Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane.

"It is important to leave the ball well,especially overseas. Once you move outof Asia, there is enough bounce in thepitches and that is the reason one shouldbe able to leave the ball," said Pujara aftera practice session here.

The gritty 29-year-old has gainedvaluable experience from his two trips toSouth Africa, and goes into his third serieshere in a positive frame of mind.

"It (the adjustment) is both technicaland mental. The good thing is that mostof the players have been here before.Personally, I have been here twice (2010-11 and 2013-14). It is about knowing yourgame, knowing the conditions and youjust need to apply yourself."

India arrived here four days ago andgo into the first Test without playing awarm-up match.

Asked if the players feel rusty, Pujarareplied in the negative.

"See, when we were playing at homeagainst Sri Lanka, we had the South Africaseries in our minds. We had prepared fewthings even in India. I don't think we arein any rush, there is plenty of time to pre-pare."

Indian batsmen struggled in the SriLanka series when they played on bowl-ing friendly tracks in Kolkata andDharamsala.

The moving ball is not so much a fac-tor in South Africa, it is the bounce.

"Yes, there will be some bounce andthat is always a challenge. But this timewe have have enough preparation and wewould like to back ourselves and try andexecute the things which we have doneover the past one and a half months."

Pujara said majority of the squadmembers have played here and thatexperience will come handy.

"I think the experience is mostimportant. You know what to expect fromthe pitch, what to expect from the oppo-sition. Nothing can match the experienceof scoring on such pitches. You knowwhat you want to do as a batsman andeven as a team," said India's number three.

The team has been training intense-

ly at the Western Province Cricket Club.Pujara was pleased with the preparationso far.

"Preparation has been fantastic. Wehave had three net session so far and twicewe had two sessions in a day. We are veryconfident of our chances," he said adding

the team is determined to win their maid-en series in South Africa.

Considering the unusual droughtCape Town is experiencing, the Newlandspitch might not get the amount of waterneeded to have a fast and bouncy trackover five days.

However, Pujara is not losing sleepover the kind of pitches Indian batsmenwill get to play on.

"We are not bothered about the kindof pitches they will prepare. We will justtry to focus on our processes. We have aclear gameplan, if it is a flat wicket or agrassy one," he said.

He refused to speak on the opposi-tion's strengths and weaknesses, saying histeam is well balanced for the challenge.

"It is up to South Africa how theywant to prepare. It doesn't matter whoplays for them. As a unit we are well pre-pared. Our pace attack is also much bet-ter this time. They are quick. We have thatadvantage this time," said Pujara.

India have picked five specialist pac-ers for the series with all-rounder HardikPandya being the sixth fast bowingoption.

Pujara backed the pace departmentto do the job for the team. "I can men-tion the Australia Test series at home. Ourpacers picked so many wickets eventhough the pitches were flat. There willbe lot of assistance here and I am sure theyhave made their gameplans by now."

India will also tour England andAustralia over the next 18 months, giv-ing the current team a great opportuni-ty to become one of the greatest Indiansides of all time. Pujara acknowledged thatprospect. "Yes, we have that opportunity.If we do well here and in England andAustralia. We have a team which can dom-inate overseas and it will be one of the bestteams India have ever had (if we do wellin South Africa, England and Australia),"he added.

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Roger Federer continuedpreparation for his

Australian Open title defensewith a 6-3, 7-6 (8) win overKaren Khachanov at theHopman Cup, helping giveSwitzerland a 2-0 win overRussia.

Federer's playing partnerBelinda Bencic beat AnastasiaPavlyuchenkova 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 ina later women's singles matchTuesday to give Switzerland itssecond consecutive win inGroup B.

The 36-year-old Federerhad his service broken by the 21-year-old Khachanov in theopening game, but rebounded tobreak back immediately andwon the opening set in 29 min-utes.

Khachanov matchedFederer impressively with back-hand winners in the second setbefore a back-and-forthtiebreaker. Federer saved a setpoint in the tiebreaker and wonon his third match point after asuccessful challenge.

"I had to work hard, expe-

rience helps sometime," saidFederer, who beat Rafael Nadalin the Australian Open final lastyear. "It's good to be free-swing-ing and young, like he is. Iremember those days ..."

The win came before arecord crowd of 13,943 at PerthArena, an attendance whicheclipsed one of Federer's match-es last year in the WesternAustralia state capital.

Earlier, the United Statesbeat Japan 2-1 after an illnesswithdrawal by one of theJapanese players. But the winmay come at a cost after JackSock injured his hip.

Sock slipped on the courtduring the first set of his matchagainst Yuichi Sugita, grabbinghis hip. He was forced to retireat 1-1 in the second set after los-ing the first set 7-6 (1).

Hopman Cup director PaulKilderry said he thinks Sock willbe OK for the unbeaten U.S.team's important third game.

"He has had some treatmenton it and he feels he'll be goodto go," Kilderry said. "He said iffelt uncomfortable out there, soI think he was just a little ner-vous about doing more dam-age."

The U.S. team had alreadyled 1-0 after Japan's femaleplayer, Naomi Osaka, withdrewwith an unspecified illness,handing CoCo Vandeweghe a6-0, 6-0 win.

The Americans were alsoawarded the Fast4 mixed dou-bles match 4-0, 4-0 becauseOsaka was not able to compete.

Osaka's place in bothmatches was taken by 19-year-old local player Maddison Inglis,who was woken up at 8:30 a.m.by tournament officials whotold her she would be requiredto play.

The U.S. and Switzerlandplay on Thursday in a matchthat will decide which teamadvances from the group toSaturday's final.

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Andy Murray's long-term hip injury hasforced him out of the Brisbane

International, cast serious doubts over hisparticipation in the Australian Open andhas him contemplating surgery.

Former No 1-ranked Murray pulledout of the Brisbane event after failing topractice Tuesday, two days ahead of hisscheduled return to competitive tennis forthe first time since July.

"I came here with every intention ofmaking a strong start to the year, but sadlymy team and I don't feel that I'm where Ineed to be just yet to compete at the high-est level," the two-time BrisbaneInternational champion said in a statement.

His withdrawal was confirmed hours

after Garbine Muguruza, the Wimbledonchampion and women's top seed, retiredfrom her opening match because of legcramps.

Muguruza fell to the court behind thebaseline and had treatment on her legsbefore retiring from her opening matchagainst Aleksandra Krunic while leadingin the third set

Krunic rallied from 5-2 down in thesecond set, forcing the third in a tiebreak-er, and earned a spot in the quarterfinalswith a a 5-7, 7-6 (3), 1-2 retired result afteralmost 2 ½ hours in humid conditions onPat Rafter Arena.

Fifth-seeded Johanna Konta reachedthe quarterfinals with a 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 winover Ajla Tomljanovic and Alize Cornetadvanced with a 6-1, 7-5 win over MirjanaLucic-Baroni.

The Brisbane International had beenMuguruza's only scheduled tuneup eventbefore the first major of the season getsunder way in Melbourne on Jan. 15.

The 30-year-old Murray is also unde-cided, planning to stay in Brisbane for afew days before deciding whether or notto contest the Australian Open or fly home.

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Asublime performance bymidfielder Mahmoud Al

Amna against Indian Arrows atthe Dr Ambedkar Stadium onTuesday helped I-league table-toppers East Bengal triumph 2-0. The Syrian attacking mid-fielder scored and assisted (toYusa Katsumi) a goal each for theKolkata giants on the day toincrease their gap at the top tofour points — ahead of MinervaPunjab, who are placed secondwith 13 points and have playedtwo matches less.

Starting as the favourites,East Bengal took control of the

match from the first minute asmuch of the action took place inArrows' half. They managed topenetrate into the box on coupleof occasions from both the flanksbut lack of quality delivery failedto perturb the Arrow defenders.

But the persistence soonpaid off in the 13thth min whenKatsumi was taken down byAbhishek Halder at the edge ofthe left-side of the box. A well-taken shot from the resultingfreekick to the near post byAmnah caught PrabhsukhanGill by surprise — who wasexpecting an in-direct set-pieceand left the first post unguard-ed — as the ball sailed into the

net for the opening goal."I am happy with my perfor-

mance today as it helped us feel morecomfortable at the top of the table,"said Amna. "For a big club like EastBengal, it is always important to chal-lenge title and hopefully we will con-tinue doing that."

Before Arrows could recoverfrom the first goal blunder, things gotworse in the 16th minute for the homeside as Katsumi doubled Red andGold's lead after receiving Amna's

cross from the right flank. Shot-stop-per Gill seemed again at fault as hewas caught way off his line by theJapanese midfielder, who struck theblow with a finesse shot.

This was Katsumi's fifth goal ofthe season, which also made him topscorer in I-league so far. The formerMohun Bagan player said result mat-tered more than his goal.

"I was happy to score again but itis not more important than the threepoints we earned today. They man-aged to draw against Bagan in Kolkata,so this is a big result for us," he said.

Arrows tried and push back intothe game for the remaining 30 min-utes but were dwarfed by the impos-ing defenders of East Bengal. Theteenagers enjoyed bulk of possessionbut the presence of robust defensivemidfielder Bazie Armand negated anyattack from developing. Arrowscouldn't manage a single shot on tar-get and won just one corner in the firsthalf.

In order to change things, Arrows'

coach Luis Norton de Matos sent inSuresh Singh Wangjam instead ofmidfielder Halder at the beginning ofthe second half. The move addedimpetus in their attack as the blue-cladboys came close to finding their firstgoal in the 50th minute. Arrows' strik-er Edmund Lalrindika managed tosneak away from two East Bengal'sdefenders inside the box but wasclosed down by goalkeeper LuisBarreto. Another glorious opportunityarrived six minutes later. Wangjam'scorner kick was headed by Anwar Alitowards Abhijit Sarkar, whose side-heeled but weak effort on target waseasily saved by Barreto.

Both the sides had sniffed the goalfor the remainder of the match butthey failed to convert those chancesas the referee blew final whistle afterthree minutes of injury time.

This was Arrows' last homematch in the national Capital as theywill play remaining home matches inGoa — at the same venue where theyplayed their first two home matches.

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South Africa head coachOttis Gibson on Tuesday

hinted that Dale Steyn mighthave to wait longer to make hiscomeback as it would be a riskto field the rusty pacer in thefirst Test against India, begin-ning here on Friday.

"Dale Steyn is fit again.But I don't know just yetwhether we will see him thisweek," Gibson told reporterson Tuesday.

Steyn is coming backfrom an injury and played hislast Test in November 2016.He is fit but faces stiff com-petition for a playing elevenspot.

"He has had a year's lay-off. I don't think if we were topick a three-man seam attackplus a spinner that you wouldwant to put him in that three-man attack, in case somethinghappens and that leaves theteam vulnerable if he can't fin-ish the game," Gibson said.

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its. So with me around, (bowl-ing coach) Subroto (Banerjee)around and Chandu around,you can see what they can do,"he adds.

Jaffer made his first-classdebut in 1996-97 and twodecades on, he shows no signof slowing down. In the inter-national arena, he has nearly2000 Test runs with five cen-turies, including a double tonagainst the West Indies in 2006.

Into his 20th season infirst-class cricket, Jaffer'shunger for playing the sport isas incredible as ever. "I thinkjust about playing, to be hon-est. I don't know anythingother than playing cricket. Iknow I can do a bit of coach-ing and a bit of commentating,but it won't give me as much joy.”

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For all the recent talk about themoney Jose Mourinho has — orhasn't — spent at Manchester

United, his best player at the momentmight be one who cost the club nothing.

United prides itself on the blossom-ing of its youth-team graduates and JesseLingard is the latest to flourish on the bigstage.

Lingard scored his seventh goal in hislast nine Premier League games to wrapup United's 2-0 win at Everton onMonday, which ended the team's run ofthree draws that might have fullyknocked it out of title contention.

At age 25, the forward is finally estab-lishing himself as a first-team regular atUnited, proving much more influentialand clinical than the dropped HenrikhMkhitaryan in the position just off thestriker.

Lingard signed professional termswith United in 2011 before spending peri-ods on loan at Leicester, Birmingham,Brighton and Derby in England's lowerleagues from 2012-15. Much like HarryKane at Tottenham, Lingard - a locallyborn player - has taken a circuitous routeto his current position as one of the formplayers in the Premier League.

"These boys, they jump or they don'tjump," United manager Jose Mourinhosaid. "One thing is to be a talent, anoth-er thing is to be a very good player. Someplayers are not capable of making thatjump, some players go from that ... to nor-mal players.

"I think Jesse has made that jump. Hehas been more consistent, adaptable, heunderstands the game, the differentpositions. He is going in a good direction."

It is not just the number of goalsLingard is scoring that is impressive, it'sthe quality of his strikes, too. His latestwas a curling 25-meter (yard) shot thatfound the top corner in the 81st minute,adding to Anthony Martial's goal forUnited in the 57th.

A difficult festive period for Unitedhad threatened to get worse on Monday.With Liverpool edging past Burnley 2-1earlier thanks to an injury-time winner,a defeat for United at Everton hours laterwould have dropped Mourinho's teambelow its arch rival to fourth place.

Instead, United climbed to secondplace, 12 points behind ManchesterCity, whose game in hand is against

Watford on Tuesday.Here's what else happened in the

Premier League on Monday:

����� �����Ragnar Klavan headed home from

close range in the fourth minute ofstoppage time to earn Liverpool a thirdstraight win and cement fourth placeat the end of the busy four-game fes-tive period.

Liverpool had conceded an equal-izer in the 87th minute to Johann BergGudmundsson, which canceled out theopening goal by Sadio Mane - the onlymember of Liverpool's so-called "Fab4" attack to start at Turf Moor.

Roberto Firmino was on the bench,while Philippe Coutinho andMohamed Salah were out injured.

Liverpool is six points clear of fifth-place Arsenal.

������������ ���Mark Hughes is the latest Premier

League manager in danger of gettingfired after his Stoke side lost 1-0 athome to Newcastle, two days after a 5-0 defeat at Chelsea when Hughes rest-ed his frontline players.

There were boos from Stoke fans atthe final whistle, while a "HughesOut" banner was on display inside thestadium.

"Who else is going to do it?"Hughes said, when asked about hisfuture after 4 1/2 years at Stoke. "Interms of the knowledge of the groupand the progress in my time here, I'mthe best person to do it."

Stoke has won only two games inits last 12 and dropped to 16th place,two points clear of the relegation zone.

Ayoze Perez scored the 73rd-minute winner for Newcastle.

���*�����������Leicester hardly missed the injured

Jamie Vardy in a routine 3-0 win overHuddersfield.

The striker had a groin problemand wasn't risked by manager ClaudePuel. Vardy's replacement, IslamSlimani, scored as did Riyad Mahrezand Marc Albrighton.

In the other game, Callum Wilsonscored a late equalizer forBournemouth in a 2-2 draw at Brightonin a match between two mid-table teams.

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Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho hashit back at club great Paul Scholes for his crit-

icism of midfielder Paul Pogba.While working as a TV pundit, Scholes said after

United's 0-0 draw with Southampton on Saturday thatPogba was "just strolling through games" and "does-n't look fit."

"I think the only thing Paul Scholes does is crit-icize," Mourinho said after United beat Everton 2-0in the Premier League on Monday. "I don't think hecomments, I think he criticizes, which is a differentthing.

"Not everyone of us has to be phenomenal likehe was as a player. That does not mean that we allhave to be phenomenal."

Mourinho said he thought Scholes was jealousof Pogba, who joined United in the summer of 2016for 105 million euros (then $116 million) - a world-record fee at the time.

"Paul (Pogba) tries to do his best all the time,"Mourinho said. "Sometimes he plays very well,sometimes he plays well, sometimes he doesn't playso well. It's not Paul's fault that he made much moremoney than Paul Scholes. It's just the way footballis.

"I think Scholes will be in history as a phe-nomenal player, not as a pundit. I prefer to look athim as a phenomenal player that gave so much tothe club that I am proud to represent."

Scholes, who made 718 appearances for United,is one of many former United stars who are nowpundits or commentators for British broadcasters.Gary Neville, Ryan Giggs and Owen Hargreaves havealso been critical of the team in recent weeks, withUnited having drawn three straight games in thePremier League over the festive season to drop outof realistic contention for the title.

Asked if he was frustrated by the number ofhigh-profile ex-United players working in themedia, Mourinho said: "I think they would love tobe here, in the club. That's a problem that I cannotresolve."

On Scholes, Mourinho added: "If Paul one daydecides to be a manager, I wish that he can be 25percent as successful as myself. Fifty percent of thatis 12.5 silverware, 25 percent is around 6. If he's 25percent, he'll be quite happy."

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Upbeat after registering the sea-son's maiden home victory,

defending champions ATK wouldlook to continue their winning runwhen they face FC Goa in an IndianSuper League match, here onWednesday.

The most successful ISL franchisehad kicked off their title defence ona shaky note after being winless fromfour matches.

But the two-time champions havebrought their title campaign back ontrack with successive victories overMumbai City and Delhi Dynamos,the last coming at their home groundSaltlake Stadium in their last roundfixture.

ATK are now at seventh placewith eight points from six matches.

The season's maiden home vic-tory only turned sweeter when starIrish captain Robbie Keane firedhome the winner in a sheer momentof brilliance.

The hosts broke the deadlock 12minutes from time when Keane chest-ed the ball from substitute BipinSingh's headed pass, brought it down,and turned his marker before placingthe ball exquisitely into the bottomright corner of the goal.

While ATK appeared to be find-ing their mojo back, fancied Goa havestarted slipping after securing fourwins from five outings. They are nowplaced fifth in the standings with 12points from six games.

The Gaurs will be smarting froma 0-2 defeat against FC Pune City atJawaharlal Nehru Stadium - theirmaiden home defeat of 2017-18 sea-son.

This was also the first time of theseason that the Goans failed to findthe back of the net and they would be

under pressure to score against aKeane-bolstered ATK attack.

Goa's defence is not as strong astheir attacking unit and the TeddySheringham-coached side would behoping to take the early advantage toput pressure on the visitors.

"Like I have said before, we loseand win as a team. Had we taken ourchances, the game would have beencompletely different. When we movedup the field, we left a bit of spacebehind, and they took advantage ofthat. But I don't see it as a problem

with the defence today," Goa'sSpaniard head coach Sergio Loberasaid.

The 40-year-old, however, wantsto take the positives into count aheadof the big match.

"The loss made sure that our feetare grounded. It tells us that we stillhave a lot of work to do. We have toimprove our mistakes, and we have tobe capable to grab our chances,"Lobera said.

It's not only Keane but the inclu-sion of former Newcastle Unitedplayer Ryan Taylor, who was broughtin as a replacement for the injuredCarl Baker, that has benefited the red-and- whites.

In his debut for ATK against atMumbai, Taylor ran the show fromthe midfield and also created oppor-tunities in their win over Delhi.

"He (Taylor) has been very good.We lost Carl Baker to injury, and I wasvery lucky to pick up the phone andcall Ryan to come over at the drop ofa hat," Sheringham said.

"He could not wait to get overhere, and I am delighted with his reac-tion. He has been fantastic in the mid-field. He has played at the top level inthe Premier League. He knows thegame and he has great qualities aswell."

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Sumit Nagal's unbeaten streak of seven matches washalted by fellow qualifier Ilya Ivashka as the Indian

bowed out of Tata Open Maharashtra following a tamedefeat, here on Tuesday.

Nagal, ranked 223, came into the match after win-ning the Bengaluru Open and two qualifying match-es here for his maiden ATP World Tour event but suf-fered a 3-6, 3-6 defeat in the opening round againstthe Belarusian, placed seven places below him.

It was second meeting between 20-year-oldNagal and Ivashka with the Indian losing the firstmatch at the same venue during the 2015 Challengerevent.

There were no easy points for Nagal as Ivashkanot only played aggressive but had good control overhis strokes. His measured game meant that there werenot many unforced errors, forcing Nagal to rethinkhis strategy.

Realising that Ivashka was having problem in tack-ling high bounce, Nagal tried to feed such balls con-sistently but the Belarusian was up to the task and racedto a 4-1 lead following a break of serve in the fourthgame.

Ivashka kept Nagal under the pump by movinghim side to side with his superior stroke-play. Evenholding serve became tough for the young Indian.

Serving to stay in the set, Nagal was up 30-0 buta flurry of unforced errors, including a double fault,meant that he was soon facing a set point. He man-aged to save that but unrelenting Ivashka closed theset in his favour by serving the next game at love.

Nagal tried very hard but could not find a way toovercome his opponent. He lost serve in the very first

game of the second set when he hit a forehand wide.While Ivashka maintained the intensity, Nagal was

again facing a break point in the third game.Desperate to save the point, he even argued with thechair umpire who overruled the wrong call from a lines'umpire and asked to replay the point.

Nagal did save that point but was soon facinganother. Egged on by the little crowd, the 20-year-oldHaryana lad finally got on board.

Trailing by a set and a break, Nagal did not do anygood to his cause by dropping serve in the fifth. Thematch was as good as over however Ivashka droppedserve while serving for the match.

Nagal's struggle to put the ball in the court andwas down 0-40, facing three match points. He lost witha double fault on the first.

In an all-Indian clash, India's top singles playerYuki Bhambri will be up against Arjun Kadhe laterin the evening. In another match of great interest isthe doubles first round encounter between defendingchampions Rohan Bopanna and JeevanNedunchezhiyan and Leander Paes and Purav Raja.

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Women hockey team's chief coachHarendra Singh has set his sights on

achieving positive results against higherranked sides as India embark on an"important" 2018 season.

After a short two-week break, 33women players will report for the nation-al camp starting in Bengaluru's SportsAuthority of India campus on Wednesday.

"It is an extremely important year forus. It was a satisfying 2017 where weended the year with a career high worldranking of 10, but the team has self-beliefof achieving bigger goals.

"The girls know they are capable ofdoing well against higher ranked teamsand getting good results against theseteams will be one of our top prioritiesgoing into a new season. It is importantto play these major tournaments in 2018with the fittest team," said Harendra.

With important tournaments likeCommonwealth Games and Asian Gameslined up, 2018 is extremely crucial forIndian hockey.

The 21-day camp that concludes onJanuary 24 will lay the foundation for acrucial year for the women.

The Indian girls will take part in the

Gold Coast Commonwealth Games inApril, fifth women's Asians ChampionsTrophy in Korea in May where they willdefend their title followed by an exposuretour to Spain in June ahead of thewomen's World Cup in London startingin July and the 18th Asian Games inJakarta in August which is also anOlympic Qualifying event.

In their previous camp, the team's

focus was on improving their strength andfitness, agility and speed apart from skill-driven training.

"It was a gruelling camp and apartfrom these aspects we also worked on alot on mental conditioning. In this camptoo we will continue with our fitness pro-gram along with tactical training," thecoach said.

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The ICC has giventhe Melbourne

Cricket Ground pitch apoor rating for lastweek's drawn Ashestest, giving CricketAustralia two weeks torespond to the criti-cism before determin-ing a sanction.

Players and com-mentators criticized thelifeless drop-in pitchused for the Boxing Daytest between Australiaand England inMelbourne, andInternational CricketCouncil match refereeRanjan Madugalle fol-lowed up in his officialreport to the sport'sgoverning body whenhe gave it a poor rating.

It was the firstAustralian test venueto be rated with such alow rating.

Under existingrules, the ICC sanctioncan range from an offi-cial warning to a fine.But under regulationsset to come into effecton Thursday, pitchesofficially rated as pooror unfit will be givendemerit points whichcould ultimately lead

to suspensions.The ICC also rated

the Indian venue Puneas poor last year afterAustralia's victory thereover India.

The MCG is one ofthe sport's most iconicvenues, becoming a testfixture for the annualBoxing Day test in

Australia and havinghosted the most recentWorld Cup final.

The opening day ofthe test drew more than88,000 spectators lastweek, despite Australiahaving already clinchedthe five-match serieswith victories inBrisbane, Adelaide and

Perth.But in his report,

Madugalle outlined theconcerns of the matchofficials over the per-formance of the pitchon which Australiascored 327 and 263-4declared, and Englandscoring 491 in its onlyinnings.

"The bounce of theMCG pitch was medi-um, but slow in paceand got slower as thematch progressed,"Madugalle said in thereport. "The nature ofthe pitch did not changeover the five days andthere was no naturaldeterioration. As such,the pitch did not allowan even contest betweenthe bat and the ball as itneither favored the bats-men too much nor itgave the bowlers suffi-cient opportunity totake wickets."

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