16
I nstilling confidence in aam aadmi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said a fine balance can be struck between privacy and national security. “Surely we can walk the fine balance between privacy and openness on one hand and national security on the other,” Modi said, while addressing a mega event on cyber security here. Amid intense debate over privacy concerns and Aadhaar issues, the Prime Minister list- ed out three factors that have helped the NDA Government reduce corruption and bring transparency in the country. “Three factors — first financial inclusion through Jan Dhan Bank accounts, second Aadhaar platform and third mobile phone — have greatly helped reduce corruption and bring transparency,” Modi said in his address after inaugurat- ing the fifth edition of the Global Conference on Cyber Space (GCCS) which is one of the world’s largest conferences on cyber space. The theme of the two-day GCCS is ‘Cyber4All: A Secure and Inclusive Cyberspace for Sustainable Development’, drawing over 10,000 delegates and witnessing a virtual par- ticipation from over 2,800 loca- tions globally. Referring to recent con- troversies on Aadhaar privacy and all digital issues, Modi fur- ther said, “It must be ensured that digital space doesn’t become a playground for forces of terror and radicalisation. Through better targeting of subsidies, the JAM trinity (Jan Dhan Yojna, Aadhaar and Mobile trinity) has prevented leakages to the tune of nearly $10 billion so far.” “It had also helped the Government save $10 billion in leakages with direct transfer of Government’s benefits by using technology, bank accounts and the biometric identifier,” he added. As of today, digital technol- ogy, he said, has emerged as a great enabler. “It has paved the way for efficient service delivery and governance. It is improving access, in domains from educa- tion to health,” he added. On cyber terrorism, the Prime Minister has also said that it often leads to vulnerabilities like cyber attacks, and a major focus area should be training of well-equipped professionals to counter cyber threats. “Stories of hacking and defacement of websites are the tips of an ice- berg. They suggest that cyber attacks are a significant threat, especially in the democratic world. We need to ensure that vulnerable sections of our soci- ety do not fall prey to the evil designs of cyber criminals. Alertness towards cyber security concerns should become a way of life,” Modi warned. Global cyber attacks in May-June this year infected more than 3 lakh computers, disrupting work at banks and multinational firms and shut- ting down port operations. “We need to ensure that cyber protection becomes an attractive and viable career option for the youth,” Modi said. Boasting digitisation and the Government’s ‘Digital India’ initiative as the world’s largest and technology-led transfor- mative programme in the country, Modi said digital tech- nology has become a great facilitator, giving farmers access to expert advice and good price, enabled small entrepre- neurs to supply goods to the Government, removed the requirement of pensioners to present themselves before the bank officer and given women jobs. “We shall be happy to share our experiences and suc- cess stories with the global community,” Modi said, pitch- ing the global community to invest in Indian startups. The Prime Minister also made the point that digital technology provides the less- privileged sections of society a more level-playing field and on a macro-scale has contributed to emergence of a flat world, where a developing nation like India can compete on a level footing with developed nations. T he Supreme Court on Thursday struck down a stringent provision of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act 2002 (PMLA) that required an accused to prove his innocence for avail- ing bail. The order came as a big blow to the Centre which sought to defend the provision claiming that it was a useful tool to punish black money hoarders. Under the existing law, the special court trying PMLA cases granted bail only if there are no reasonable grounds for believing that the accused is not guilty of such an offence or that he is not likely to com- mit any offence while on bail. Brushing aside the Centre’s objections, a Bench of Justices Rohington F Nariman and Sanjay Kishan Kaul declared Section 45(1) of PMLA as “unconstitutional” as it felt that the twin condi- tions imposed by this Section was an infringement of Article 21 (right to life and liberty) and Article 14 (right to equality). Section 45(1) is applied to those charged for money laun- dering as well as scheduled offences under Part A of the Act which are punishable with more than three years of prison sentence. Originally, Part A covered cases involving waging of war against the Government of India and offences under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. There was a Part B to which these bail conditions did not apply. T he Supreme Court on Thursday dealt a severe blow to medical colleges adopt- ing unscrupulous techniques to admit students and set a tough precedent by cancelling admis- sion of 150 MBBS students who took admission in a Lucknow medical college last year. Not stopping at that, the apex court directed the college to deposit a fine of 25 lakh with the court and compensate each of 150 students 10 lakh in addition to refund of fees. The college in question run by GCRG Memorial Education Trust had been debarred by the Centre and the Medical Council of India (MCI) from admitting any students in the academic session of 2017-18 and 2018-19 after it was found severely lack- ing in infrastructure, faculty, and adopting unethical practices by admitting fake patients to get a favourable order of approval from the MCI. Notwithstanding these glaring loopholes, the college in question approached the Lucknow Bench of Allahabad High Court and got a favourable order on September 1, 2017 where the HC judges allowed the college to admit students and even directed MCI to allot students to the col- lege from this year. Setting aside the HC order on an appeal filed by MCI, the Bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud hinted at the possibility of judicial mal- practice as it observed that it may take up the matter con- cerning the HC judges on the administrative side. According to the MCI which filed the appeal, the case had an uncanny similari- ty with another medical col- lege run by Prasad Education Trust which is facing probe from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) after the person managing the trust hatched a criminal conspira- cy with a retired HC judge IM Qudussi and a middleman to pay a bribe to swing an order in their favour. F ood Supplies and Cooperation Minister Surjya Narayan Patro and Agriculture and Farmers’ Empowerment Minister Damodar Rout, who are often at loggerheads over different issues, on Thursday, again locked horns. This was after Patro slammed the Agriculture Department officials alleging that they are not going to the field to assess crop loss due to pest attack and untimely rains, leading to the delay in sub- mission of crop damage reports despite the Chief Minister’s instructions. “Since the Chief Minister has instructed that November 25 is the deadline for submit- ting the detailed crop damage report, I reviewed the matter in this connection in Chhatrapur on Wednesday. But I found that Agriculture Department offi- cials have not carried out field visits in Ganjam district. I received several complaints from local people,” Patro said. “I took the senior agricul- ture officials to task in the meeting and asked them to ensure submission of the dam- age report by November 25. Besides, I have written a letter to the Agriculture Department apprising it of the issue,” Patro said. However, Agriculture Minister Rout said that as Patro had handled the Revenue Department earlier, he should know that crop loss assessment reports are prepared by Revenue Department officials like RIs, Tehsildars in the pres- ence of agriculture officials. “But I do not want to aggravate the matter as it would only help you (media) and put the ruling party in difficulty,” Rout added. T he consumers, who have been repeatedly assured by the Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Minister that onion price is going to come down soon, now have to shell out more for the essential commodity. Earlier, Minister Surjya Narayan Patro after the onion price soared from 12 to 22 had said the district Collectors have been asked to keep a strict vigil on hoarders and black-marketers and raids were being carried out in different parts of the State. Then, the Minister said onion would be sold to con- sumers at the Maitri fair price shops at 20. Then again, he said an agreement has been made with farmers in Andhra Pradesh and 15 trucks of onion would arrive, after which the price would come down drastically. And now on Thursday, he said onion would be available through e- marketing. In the meantime the price has sky- rocketed to 45. A person, who used to purchase one kilogram of onion, now has to manage with 250 grams. Traders said onion which was mainly procured from Nashik in Maharashtra is in short supply and selling at 40 to 43 there. So, if fresh stocks are not received, the price is bound to reach 50 or more. C ontinuing raids on differ- ent heads of amassment of wealth by SCB Medical College Clinical Haematology HOD Dr Rabindra Kumar Jena, Vigilance sleuthson Thursday searched a locker maintained at the UCO Bank Bajrakabati Road Branch in the joint name of Jena and his wife and found 400 gram gold ornaments worth Rs 12 lakh. From the records seized from the SCB Medical College Principal’s office, it was found that Jena had undertaken for- eign tours to various countries of Europe, USA and South-East Asia between 2005-2015 at his own expenses. He had visited Berlin (Germany), Nicosia (Cyprus), Amsterdam (Netherlands), Atlanta GA (twice), San-Francisco, New- Orleans, Las-Vegas, Florida (twice), San - Diego CA and Minnesota Minneapolis (All seven places in USA), Singapore and Hong-Kong. Jena had also applied for permission to visit Madrid (Spain), San-Diego (USA), Copen Hagen (Denmark), Manila (Philippines) , Vienna (Austria), San-Francisco (USA) and Zurich (Switzerland), but permission was not given by the Government to him for such visits. Whether Jena had actual- ly undertaken such visits are under verification, said an offi- cial release. The Passport and Immigration Authorities are being contacted to find out the details of foreign tours under- taken by Jena. It is also being investigated to know whether Jena had availed the hospitali- ty of any pharma companies for the above journeys and during foreign visits is under scrutiny. S ocial activist Anna Hazare, who attended late Odisha Chief Minister and renowned freedom fighter Nabakrushna Choudhury’s birth anniversary and addressed a farmers’ gath- ering ‘Jai Kissan Samabesh’ organised by the Nabanirman Krushak Sangathan (NKS) here on Thursday, said the country needs a second freedom move- ment for gaining farmers’ lib- erty and rights. The Gandhian also offered his support to the NKS and urged the farmers to resort to peaceful protests to ascertain their rights. He said the post- Independence scenario of the country lacks “Loktantra”. Gandhiji had fought for obtain- ing Loktantra. His appeal had inspired countrymen so strong- ly that the freedom movement dethroned the British regime. Now, the country’s peasants should come forward for a similar movement to establish their rights. Hazare backed the NKS’s movement in Odisha for “price, prestige and pension” for farm- ers. Stating that he has toured eight States and studied the problems of peasants, he said he is going to hold an agitation in New Delhi soon to renew his demand for Jan Lok Pal and farmers’ rights. The Padma Bhusan awardee said Nabakrushna Choudhury was a true Gandhian, who had initiated several programmes for devel- opment of agriculture and farmers in Odisha, for which he is proud of launching a farm- ers’ movement on the late leader’s birth anniversary in his native town. Hazare was earlier wel- comed by NKS activists at College Square here before he proceeded to the meeting place at the Collectorate Parade Ground. The public meeting was attended by NKS advisors Soumya Ranjan Patnaik and Rabi Das and State convener Seshadev Nanda. NKS national con- vener Askhya Kumar presided over the meeting. Thousands of NKS activists from across Jagatsinghpur dis- trict and farmers also from other districts participated in the gathering. Y et another farmer of Nuapada district commit- ted suicide by consuming pes- ticide on Thursday. The deceased Jharpod Sabar (60) belonged to Kotamal pan- chayat of Khariar block. “He was very much dis- turbed due to loss of his crop. Paddy crop failed earlier due to lack of water followed by loss of cotton due to rain in October,” said his son. Jharpod was taken to the Mission Hospital at Khariar, where he was declared brought dead. Following the incidence, a road block at Khariar staged by the BJP demanding compen- sation to the deceased farmer’s family. The district adminis- tration paid 10,000 from the Red Cross fund and 2,000 under the Harishchandra Yojana. This was the sixth case of farmers’ suicide in Nuapada district during the current Kharif season. I n good news for the State Government’s employees and pensioners, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Thursday approved a one-per cent hike of dearness allowance (DA) for them. Patnaik approved the release of the increased DA would be implemented with retrospective effect from July 2017, following which the DA would be five per cent. The pensioners drawing pension at the pre-revised rate would get a hiked DA of three per cent on the existing rate of 136 per cent. The DA is a cost of living adjustment allowance paid to Government employ- ees, public sector units’ employ- ees and pensioners. It is calcu- lated as a percentage of a citi- zen’s basic salary to mitigate the impact of inflation on people.

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Instilling confidence in aamaadmi, Prime Minister

Narendra Modi on Thursdaysaid a fine balance can bestruck between privacy andnational security. “Surely wecan walk the fine balancebetween privacy and opennesson one hand and nationalsecurity on the other,” Modisaid, while addressing a megaevent on cyber security here.

Amid intense debate overprivacy concerns and Aadhaarissues, the Prime Minister list-ed out three factors that havehelped the NDA Governmentreduce corruption and bringtransparency in the country.“Three factors — first financialinclusion through Jan DhanBank accounts, secondAadhaar platform and thirdmobile phone — have greatlyhelped reduce corruption andbring transparency,” Modi saidin his address after inaugurat-ing the fifth edition of theGlobal Conference on CyberSpace (GCCS) which is one ofthe world’s largest conferenceson cyber space.

The theme of the two-dayGCCS is ‘Cyber4All: A Secure

and Inclusive Cyberspace forSustainable Development’,drawing over 10,000 delegatesand witnessing a virtual par-ticipation from over 2,800 loca-tions globally.

Referring to recent con-troversies on Aadhaar privacyand all digital issues, Modi fur-ther said, “It must be ensuredthat digital space doesn’tbecome a playground for forcesof terror and radicalisation.

Through better targeting ofsubsidies, the JAM trinity (JanDhan Yojna, Aadhaar and

Mobile trinity) has preventedleakages to the tune of nearly$10 billion so far.”

“It had also helped theGovernment save $10 billion inleakages with direct transfer ofGovernment’s benefits by usingtechnology, bank accounts andthe biometric identifier,” headded.

As of today, digital technol-ogy, he said, has emerged as agreat enabler. “It has paved theway for efficient service deliveryand governance. It is improvingaccess, in domains from educa-tion to health,” he added.

On cyber terrorism, thePrime Minister has also said thatit often leads to vulnerabilitieslike cyber attacks, and a majorfocus area should be training ofwell-equipped professionals tocounter cyber threats. “Stories ofhacking and defacement ofwebsites are the tips of an ice-berg. They suggest that cyberattacks are a significant threat,especially in the democraticworld. We need to ensure thatvulnerable sections of our soci-ety do not fall prey to the evildesigns of cyber criminals.Alertness towards cyber securityconcerns should become a wayof life,” Modi warned.

Global cyber attacks inMay-June this year infectedmore than 3 lakh computers,disrupting work at banks and

multinational firms and shut-ting down port operations.

“We need to ensure thatcyber protection becomes anattractive and viable careeroption for the youth,” Modi said.

Boasting digitisation andthe Government’s ‘Digital India’initiative as the world’s largestand technology-led transfor-mative programme in thecountry, Modi said digital tech-nology has become a greatfacilitator, giving farmers accessto expert advice and goodprice, enabled small entrepre-neurs to supply goods to theGovernment, removed therequirement of pensioners topresent themselves before thebank officer and given womenjobs. “We shall be happy toshare our experiences and suc-cess stories with the globalcommunity,” Modi said, pitch-ing the global community toinvest in Indian startups.

The Prime Minister alsomade the point that digitaltechnology provides the less-privileged sections of society amore level-playing field and ona macro-scale has contributedto emergence of a flat world,where a developing nation likeIndia can compete on a levelfooting with developed nations.

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The Supreme Court onThursday struck down a

stringent provision of thePrevention of MoneyLaundering Act 2002 (PMLA)that required an accused toprove his innocence for avail-ing bail. The order came as abig blow to the Centre which sought to defend theprovision claiming that it wasa useful tool to punish blackmoney hoarders.

Under the existing law, thespecial court trying PMLAcases granted bail only if thereare no reasonable grounds forbelieving that the accused is notguilty of such an offence or thathe is not likely to com-mit any offence whileon bail.

Brushing aside theCentre’s objections, aBench of JusticesRohington F Narimanand Sanjay KishanKaul declared Section45(1) of PMLA as“unconstitutional”

as it felt that the twin condi-tions imposed by this Sectionwas an infringement of Article21 (right to life and liberty) andArticle 14 (right to equality).

Section 45(1) is applied tothose charged for money laun-dering as well as scheduledoffences under Part A of theAct which are punishable withmore than three years ofprison sentence. Originally,

Part A covered casesinvolving waging of waragainst the Government

of India and offencesunder the Narcotic Drugs

and PsychotropicSubstances (NDPS)Act. There was a PartB to which these bailconditions did notapply.

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The Supreme Court onThursday dealt a severe

blow to medical colleges adopt-ing unscrupulous techniques toadmit students and set a toughprecedent by cancelling admis-sion of 150 MBBS students whotook admission in a Lucknowmedical college last year.

Not stopping at that, theapex court directed the collegeto deposit a fine of �25 lakhwith the court and compensateeach of 150 students �10 lakhin addition to refund of fees.

The college in question runby GCRG Memorial EducationTrust had been debarred by theCentre and the Medical Councilof India (MCI) from admittingany students in the academicsession of 2017-18 and 2018-19after it was found severely lack-ing in infrastructure, faculty, andadopting unethical practices byadmitting fake patients to get afavourable order of approvalfrom the MCI.

Notwithstanding theseglaring loopholes, the college inquestion approached theLucknow Bench of AllahabadHigh Court and got a

favourable order on September1, 2017 where the HC judgesallowed the college to admitstudents and even directedMCI to allot students to the col-lege from this year.

Setting aside the HC orderon an appeal filed by MCI, theBench of Chief Justice DipakMisra, Justices AM Khanwilkarand DY Chandrachud hinted atthe possibility of judicial mal-practice as it observed that itmay take up the matter con-cerning the HC judges on the

administrative side.According to the MCI

which filed the appeal, thecase had an uncanny similari-ty with another medical col-lege run by Prasad EducationTrust which is facing probefrom the Central Bureau ofInvestigation (CBI) after theperson managing the trusthatched a criminal conspira-cy with a retired HC judge IMQudussi and a middleman topay a bribe to swing an orderin their favour.

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Food Supplies andCooperation Minister

Surjya Narayan Patro andAgriculture and Farmers’Empowerment MinisterDamodar Rout, who are oftenat loggerheads over differentissues, on Thursday, againlocked horns.

This was after Patroslammed the AgricultureDepartment officials allegingthat they are not going to the

field to assess crop loss due topest attack and untimely rains,leading to the delay in sub-mission of crop damage reportsdespite the Chief Minister’sinstructions.

“Since the Chief Ministerhas instructed that November25 is the deadline for submit-ting the detailed crop damagereport, I reviewed the matter inthis connection in Chhatrapuron Wednesday. But I found thatAgriculture Department offi-cials have not carried out fieldvisits in Ganjam district. Ireceived several complaints

from local people,” Patro said.“I took the senior agricul-

ture officials to task in themeeting and asked them toensure submission of the dam-age report by November 25.Besides, I have written a letterto the Agriculture Departmentapprising it of the issue,” Patrosaid.

However, AgricultureMinister Rout said that asPatro had handled the RevenueDepartment earlier, he shouldknow that crop loss assessmentreports are prepared byRevenue Department officialslike RIs, Tehsildars in the pres-ence of agriculture officials.

“But I do not want toaggravate the matter as it wouldonly help you (media) and putthe ruling party in difficulty,”Rout added.

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The consumers, who havebeen repeatedly assured by

the Food Supplies andConsumer Welfare Ministerthat onion price is going tocome down soon, now have toshell out more for the essentialcommodity.

Earlier, Minister SurjyaNarayan Patro after the onionprice soared from �12 to �22 hadsaid the district Collectors havebeen asked to keep a strict vigilon hoarders and black-marketersand raids were being carried outin different parts of the State.

Then, the Minister said

onion would be sold to con-sumers at the Maitri fair priceshops at �20. Then again, he saidan agreement has been madewith farmers in Andhra Pradeshand 15 trucks of onion wouldarrive, after which the pricewould come down drastically.

And now on Thursday, hesaid onion would be availablethrough e- marketing. In themeantime the price has sky-rocketed to �45. A person,who used to purchase onekilogram of onion, now has tomanage with 250 grams.

Traders said onion whichwas mainly procured fromNashik in Maharashtra is inshort supply and selling at �40to �43 there. So, if fresh stocksare not received, the price isbound to reach �50 or more.

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Continuing raids on differ-ent heads of amassment of

wealth by SCB Medical CollegeClinical Haematology HODDr Rabindra Kumar Jena,Vigilance sleuthson Thursdaysearched a locker maintained atthe UCO Bank BajrakabatiRoad Branch in the joint nameof Jena and his wife and found400 gram gold ornaments

worth Rs 12 lakh.From the records seized

from the SCB Medical CollegePrincipal’s office, it was foundthat Jena had undertaken for-eign tours to various countriesof Europe, USA and South-EastAsia between 2005-2015 at hisown expenses. He had visitedBerlin (Germany), Nicosia(Cyprus), Amsterdam(Netherlands), Atlanta GA(twice), San-Francisco, New-Orleans, Las-Vegas, Florida(twice), San - Diego CA andMinnesota Minneapolis (Allseven places in USA),Singapore and Hong-Kong.

Jena had also applied forpermission to visit Madrid(Spain), San-Diego (USA),

Copen Hagen (Denmark),Manila (Philippines) , Vienna(Austria), San-Francisco (USA)and Zurich (Switzerland), butpermission was not given bythe Government to him forsuch visits.

Whether Jena had actual-ly undertaken such visits areunder verification, said an offi-cial release.

The Passport andImmigration Authorities arebeing contacted to find out thedetails of foreign tours under-taken by Jena. It is also beinginvestigated to know whetherJena had availed the hospitali-ty of any pharma companies forthe above journeys and duringforeign visits is under scrutiny.

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Social activist Anna Hazare,who attended late Odisha

Chief Minister and renownedfreedom fighter NabakrushnaChoudhury’s birth anniversaryand addressed a farmers’ gath-ering ‘Jai Kissan Samabesh’organised by the NabanirmanKrushak Sangathan (NKS) hereon Thursday, said the countryneeds a second freedom move-ment for gaining farmers’ lib-erty and rights.

The Gandhian also offeredhis support to the NKS andurged the farmers to resort topeaceful protests to ascertaintheir rights.

He said the post-Independence scenario of thecountry lacks “Loktantra”.Gandhiji had fought for obtain-ing Loktantra. His appeal hadinspired countrymen so strong-ly that the freedom movementdethroned the British regime.Now, the country’s peasantsshould come forward for asimilar movement to establishtheir rights.

Hazare backed the NKS’smovement in Odisha for “price,prestige and pension” for farm-ers.

Stating that he has touredeight States and studied theproblems of peasants, he saidhe is going to hold an agitationin New Delhi soon to renew hisdemand for Jan Lok Pal andfarmers’ rights.

The Padma Bhusanawardee said Nabakrushna

Choudhury was a trueGandhian, who had initiatedseveral programmes for devel-opment of agriculture andfarmers in Odisha, for which heis proud of launching a farm-ers’ movement on the lateleader’s birth anniversary in hisnative town.

Hazare was earlier wel-comed by NKS activists atCollege Square here before heproceeded to the meetingplace at the CollectorateParade Ground. The publicmeeting was attended by NKSadvisors Soumya RanjanPatnaik and Rabi Das and

State convener SeshadevNanda. NKS national con-vener Askhya Kumar presidedover the meeting.

Thousands of NKS activistsfrom across Jagatsinghpur dis-trict and farmers also fromother districts participated inthe gathering.

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Yet another farmer ofNuapada district commit-

ted suicide by consuming pes-ticide on Thursday. Thedeceased Jharpod Sabar (60)belonged to Kotamal pan-chayat of Khariar block.

“He was very much dis-turbed due to loss of his crop.Paddy crop failed earlier dueto lack of water followed byloss of cotton due to rain inOctober,” said his son.

Jharpod was taken to theMission Hospital at Khariar,where he was declared broughtdead.

Following the incidence, aroad block at Khariar staged bythe BJP demanding compen-

sation to the deceased farmer’sfamily. The district adminis-tration paid �10,000 from theRed Cross fund and �2,000under the Harishchandra

Yojana.This was the sixth case of

farmers’ suicide in Nuapadadistrict during the currentKharif season.

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In good news for the StateGovernment’s employees and

pensioners, Chief MinisterNaveen Patnaik on Thursdayapproved a one-per cent hike ofdearness allowance (DA) forthem.

Patnaik approved therelease of the increased DAwould be implemented withretrospective effect from July2017, following which the DAwould be five per cent.

The pensioners drawingpension at the pre-revised ratewould get a hiked DA of three

per cent on the existing rate of136 per cent. The DA is a costof living adjustment allowancepaid to Government employ-ees, public sector units’ employ-ees and pensioners. It is calcu-lated as a percentage of a citi-zen’s basic salary to mitigate theimpact of inflation on people.

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Page 2: 3,#34+56˛˚ +2 7 - News Headlines India subsidies, the JAM trinity (Jan Dhan Yojna, Aadhaar and Mobile trinity) has prevented leakages to the tune of nearly ... ering ‘Jai Kissan

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Amobile van called ‘FoodSafety on Wheels’ has

arrived here to examine foodquality and prevent adulter-ation.

In view of the rising num-ber of street vendors offeringdelicious fast food and theneed to check food adulterationin the city, the Food Safety andStandards Authority of India(FSSAI) has provided the vanto Odisha to test the foodstandard.

The ‘Food Safety onWheels’ would move in otherlocations in the State apartfrom Bhubaneswar within afew days.

With the launch of thevan, people need not go to anylaboratory for quality check;rather, the vehicle would collectthe samples of edible oil, milkand other food items from

people and immediately pro-vide reports. People can exam-ine food samples at a cost ofonly �10.

The van would not onlyexamine the food samples butcreate awareness among people

about food adulteration. Thevan comes up with an LCD anda mike, through which messagewould be sent out to people,who can ask their queries to theofficials present in the van.There would be a laboratory

technician, a food security offi-cial and other staffs in the van.

The van would examinethe food qualities available incrowd areas, small hotels andmarkets.

As a food testing lab is notavailable everywhere, theFSSAI has decided to set upmobile food testing labs in theStates, including Odisha, said asenior food security officer.

There is a provision toprovide two vans to smallStates and four to large States.Odisha may get another van ifrequired in future.

The FSSAI would provide�5 lakh per year for next threeyears for operation of the van.The State Government wouldbear the maintenance andtransport expenses.

The van would examinethe food qualities in a distancebetween 100 and 150 meterevery day.

Sir,

Odisha’s villages after a longtime are witnessing devel-

opment. This could be due tothe MNREGA effect. Althoughthe local MLAs did chip in byLAD funds, yet the MLALADroads lasted one season while theMNREGA roads are still hold-ing up. The Government shouldmotivate people from the vil-lages not move to the city wherejobs are now scarce. By provid-ing strong financial assistanceand technical knowhow throughvarious training, the village peo-ple can be made employable.

Thanks to the MNREGAand a bunch of honest

Government officials and thevillage authorities who per-formed their task diligently, thevillagers are getting wage worksat door step. People need tounderstand that if they work todevelop their area, the ones whowill reap the benefit are their chil-dren and grandchildren and thefuture generations that follow.

Now, it all depends on therespective village authoritiesand members concerned todecide on how the scheme is tobe utilized. Villagers now needclean and honest officials to exe-cute the schemes properly.

K Ravi, E-237, GGPColony, Bhubaneswar-751025

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Everything on the universe,dead or alive, has a purpose

of existence. Human beings canthink; but that does not meanthey are only worth living andothers are useless. Each indi-vidual has a purpose and viewof life; no two people have sim-ilar ideas about the philosophyof life. No one takes a view ofan engine driver or a grave dig-ger about the philosophy of life.

It’s all been described bylearned people about famousand successful people wholived on this earth. Somephilosophers have broughtsuper power and God in totheir discussions about purposeof life which is wrong.

Though one is born with apurpose in life, it’s his/her des-tiny and place of birth whichdrag him or her to an unknown

destination which the personunknowingly follows. The pur-pose of life may end with a cat-astrophe or with success. Man’sthought process, friends, ene-mies and setbacks in life havea role to play in his success andfailure. If everyone runs afterGod and truth of life, then thisworld would be a sick place andnot worth living. God is a cre-ation of human beings with apurpose where as philosophy oflife is a different matter. Majorityof successful person believes inGod because they cannot beatheists. They forget about thecontribution of their familymembers, friends and otherliving beings on earth to theirlife and go on praising God.

No one can say his life issuccessful because he hasmoney, half a dozen of wivesand property. If earning moneyis the philosophy of life then

prostitutes, dacoits, criminals,terrorists, Maoists and mur-derer have a successful life?Successful life is matter of indi-vidual perception and there isno yardstick to measure it.Some would say living for 90

years without any contributionto society is also a successfullife! Some would say having adozen of children is also a suc-cessful life. Living for livingsake is not the philosophy oflife, not living to eat is either.

Those who say I do notenvy anyone are great liars.Another uncontroversial ele-ment of the sense of “mean-ingfulness” is that it connotesa good that is conceptually dis-tinct from happiness or right-ness. If happiness and moneyare two sides of purpose of lifethen many rich and famouspeople would not have com-mitted suicide or would nothave run after more money asa philosophy of life.

Friends, live as you please;do not compare with others,not even with your siblings.Then you would realize thephilosophy of life. No oneknows the true meaning of phi-losophy of life; its purpose andmeanings, all a bundle of con-fusion and lies.

(Dr Satpathy is a formerHealth Director, SAIL)

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The Director of the CentralInstitute of Mining and

Fuel Research (CMFRI) hastendered an apology to theShree Jagannath TempleAdministration (SJTA) ChiefAdministrator for posting ofphotos of inner parts of theGarvagriha (sanctum santo-rum) in the social media.

CMFRI Director PradeepKumar Singh in a letter to SJTAChief Administrator PradeepKumar Jena mentioned that thephotos should not have beenmade public as that hurt thesentiments of the devotees,Sevayats and people at large.

It all happened due toimprudence of CMFRI SeniorTechnical Officer SadanandSharma, who was part of theteam of the ArchaeologicalSurvey of India (ASI). Sharma,who was to advise on improv-ing the ventilation systeminside Garvagriha, has postedsome photos of inside parts ofGarvagriha, hurting the senti-

ments of devotees and raisingquestions relating to safety andsecurity of the 12th Centuryshrine.

Singh has assured that thatCMFRI would take utmostcare so that such acts don’t

recur in future.Besides, he has also said

that he has personally visitedseveral times to the ShreeJagannath Temple to worshipand has big faith in LordJagannath.

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Even as the Orissa HighCourt on Thursday

deferred hearing of BJD MLAPravat Ranjan Biswal’s bailplea, BJP youth activists stageda road blockade here protestingBiswal’s extended stay at theSCB Medical College Hospitalon the ground of health prob-lems.

The saffron party activistsholding placards and shoutingslogans staged a demonstrationand blocked the NationalHighway near MadhupatnaSquare demanding immediateshifting of Biswal from the hos-pital to jail.

Vehicular communicationwas disrupted for over an hourdue to the road blockade cre-ating hardships for the strand-ed commuters. Later, policereached the spot, pacified the

protestors and got communi-cation restored.

The CBI had earlier arrest-ed Biswal on September 19 forhis links with the scam-taint-ed Seashore chit fund compa-ny.

The MLA had been admit-ted to the Capital Hospital inBhubaneswar after he com-plained of nausea and otherhealth problems. Later, he wasshifted to the SCB MedicalCollege Hospital in Cuttack onSeptember 22.

The High Court deferredthe hearing on Biswal’s bail pleato Friday. The court has alsosought a report on Biswal’shealth condition from the CBI.

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The division of taxpayersbetween the State and

Central tax authorities so far asOdisha is concerned has beenput in place.

Accordingly, ChiefCommissioner of Central Tax(Central GST) Rakesh KumarSharma and CommissionerState Tax (State GST) SaswatMishra have jointly issued acommon administrative orderin this regard.

This is a move aimed atbringing clarity and effective-ness in the administration ofthe new indirect tax regime.The guidelines for the divisionof the taxpayer base betweenthe Centre and the States willensure that a taxpayer faces

only one GST authority - eitherthe Centre or the State.

“The list of taxpayers willbe made public,” said an official,adding that this would clear theair for not just the taxpayers, butalso the tax authorities.

The division has also clear-ly fixed the responsibility forraising awareness about theGST, with bulk of small tradersfalling within the jurisdictionof the State.

According to the rulesissued, 90 per cent of theassesses with a turnover ofless than Rs 1.5 crore are underthe administrative control ofthe State and the balance 10 percent will be under the Centre.In the case of all taxpayers withturnover of over �1.5 crore, thedivision is made 50:50.

Accordingly out of 1,31,791GST migrated taxpayers, thetaxpayers assigned to theCentral GST administrationare 20,032 and those assignedto the State GST administration

are 1,11,759.The division of taxpayers at

each State level is done ran-domly by a computer usingstratified random sampling toensure there is no cherry-pick-ing or selection or exclusion forsomeone, said sources.

However, the selection wasdone taking into account geo-graphical considerations andthe type of taxpayer as may bemutually agreed.

Now the taxpayers, tradeand industry as well as taxpractitioners and other stake-holders may ascertain the juris-diction either by visiting thenearest GST Seva Kendra or itcan be ascertained by contact-ing GST Seva Kendra atBhubaneswar (0674-2 5 8 9 4 2 2 / 0 6 7 4 - 2 5 8 9 9 4 3 )Cuttack (+919437636774)Rourkela (+91943728866) orby visiting nearby Central orState GST offices, said JointCommissioner Central GSTVishnu Kumar.

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After the pictures of theJagannath Temple’s

Jagmohan went viral on thesocial media much to the chagrinof the devotees, another inci-dence on Thursday triggeredresentment among the visitors tothe temple after they foundGoddess Lakahmi’s goldencrown missing from her head.

Sources said a large num-ber of devotees, who hadthronged the shrine of GoddessLakshmi in the main templecomplex, noticed that her gold-en crown was missing.

Initially it was suspected

that the golden adornmentwas stolen. But later, ShreeJagannath TempleAdministration (SJTA) offi-cials clarified that it was notstolen but broken for the lastone month and is lying in thestoreroom of the temple. Theyinitially wanted to repair it, butthe sevayats wanted it to bereplaced by a new one.

The officials said they havealready contacted some jew-ellers to make a new crown.Nearly 800 grams of goldwould be required for the pur-pose, and it would take two tothree months to get the newone.

The official said that earli-er, a similar crown had beenstolen by a servitor, for whichhe was penalised. But later, hisfamily members replaced thecrown at their own cost.

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The Health Department incollaboration with the

Bhubaneswar MunicipalCorporation (BMC) wouldsoon launch a JapaneseEncephalitis (JE) vaccina-tion drive to cover around 2,24, 264 children in the agegroup of 1-15 years in thecity.

The vaccination wouldbegin on November 27 andcontinue for three weeks.Students of all Government,pr ivate, Shishu Mandir,Madrasa , play school ,

orphanage and other placeswould be vaccinated.

Anganwadi workers ,ASHA, AWWs and HealthWorkers would carry out thecampaign for which a sensi-tisation meeting has arreadybeen conducted.

Social organidations likeNGOs and Lions Club wouldprovide support.

It may be noted that JEvirus affects the brain andsymptoms are headache,vomiting, fever and seizures.This happens after 5 to 15days of infections.

JE virus is generallyspread by mosquitoes, specif-ically of the culex type. Pigsand wild birds serve as areservoir for the virus.

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Odisha is ahead of manyStates in execution of rural

housing schemes and, hence, itwould get more houses in com-ing days, said Union RuralDevelopment SecretaryAmarjit Sinha here onThursday.

Sinha said this attending areview meeting held underchairmanship of ChiefSecretary AP Padhi at the StateSecretariat here on Thursday.Panchayati Raj Secretary DeoRanjan Kumar Singh was pre-sent. Padhi directed the depart-ment to provide houses tohomeless on a priority basis.

It was revealed that a totalof 13.50 lakh houses under var-ious rural housing schemeslike PMAY and BPGY have

been constructed during thelast three years in the State. Outof a target of 3.27 lakh housesset for the current year, 2.17lakh have been constructed sofar.

It was also revealed thatmore than 88 per cent benefi-ciaries have been linked withAadhaar Cards. They are beingsupported to earn livelihoodthrough various State andCentral schemes like MGN-REGS, Odisha LivelihoodMission, National LievelihoodMission and SkillDevelopment programme.Odisha’s success in maintain-ing transperncy and coordi-nation with various schemes is‘Best Practice’ at the nationallevel, viewed officers.

Among others, RuralDevelopment SecretaryBishnupada Sethi, SpecialProject Director SN Girish,Livelihood Mission DirectorPranab Jyoti Nath and WorksSecretary Nalinikant Pradhanwere present.

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The AMOFOI in associationwith the Freethought Party

of India (FPI) celebrated birthanniversary of former PrimeMinister Indira Gandhi as“Simple Love Marriage Day”and “Citizens’ FundamentalDuties Day” here recently.

AMOFOI founder secre-tary B Ramchandra CSTVoltaire said Indira Gandhihad put an end to the problemof Khalistan Movementintended to split Indiathrough the Operation BlueStar that cleared theSwarnamandir Campus inAmritswar of the violentextremists owing allegiance toJarnail Singh Bhindranwale.Still she did not doubt theintegrity of her two Sikh

bodyguards who latter killedher. This shows how secularshe was.

He said though Gandhiwas defamed for declaringEmergency in June, 1975, yetshe deserves to be remem-bered for putting the 10-fold“Fundamental Duties” in theConstitution in 1976.

Besides, she had stoodfor the “simplest way of sol-emnizing love marriage” ofher two sons, Rajiv and Sanjay.

They married their respectivebeloveds in the possible sim-plest way. Hence, Gandhi’sbirthday should be observednot only as the “NationalIntegration Day” but also as“Simple Love Marriage Day”and “Citizens’ FundamentalDuties Day”, argued Voltaire.

AMOFOI co-founderSwapna Bijayini presented“AMOFOI Love Marriage”certificates to couples whogot married on the day.

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Odisha is a lead performerin implementation of the

Pradhan Mantri Gram SadakYojana (PMGSY), remarkedUnion Rural DevelopmentSecretary Amarjit Sinha at ahigh-level review meetingheld at the State Secretariathere under the chairmanshipof Chief Secretary AdityaPrasad Padhi on Thursday.

Earl ier, State RuralDevelopment Secretar yBishnupada Sethi outlinedthe administrative, technicaland financial issues relatingto the PMGSY for discussion.

Padhi directed officials tosubmit the balance DPRsagainst all feasible projectswithin 15 days . UnionSecretary Sinha advised toenhance the current years’target to 10,000 km. Sethidrew his attention of Sinha tothe pending 265 DPRs at thelevel of Government of India.Sinha assured to communi-cate the sanction order soon.

It was revealed that so far,around 42,058 km of road hasbeen completed under thePMGSY connecting 13,063habitations.

The field-level work isgoing on in full swing forcompletion of another 14,800km of roads that would con-nect 3,492 habitations more.Sethi appraised that theseprojects would be completed by March 2019.

Notably, the PMGSY isbeing implemented withfunds from both Central andState Governments on a60%:40% basis. It was decidedthat the DPRs for connecting 92habitations in Malkangiri dis-trict would be submitted forapproval after completion of theGurupriya Bridge which isscheduled to be completed byMarch 2018.

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Bhubaneswar : The StateCouncil of Ministers onThursday approved aSupplementary Budget of�9,829 crore to meet fundsrequired for continuing sever-al welfare schemes

Finance Minister SashiBhusan Behera informed thisto the Media after the meetingheld under chairmanship ofChief Minister Naveen Patnaikat the State Secretariat here.

Behere also informed thatthe Supplementary Budgetwould be placed in the upcom-ing winter session of theOdisha Assembly startingNovember 18. Notably, theState Government has passed aGeneral Budget of whooping�1.06 lakh crore for the current2017-18 fiscal year.

Meanwhile, CongressMLA Prafulla Majhi said hewould bring a privilege motionagainst the Minister as he revealedthe amount of the SuplementaryBudget outside the Assembly. “Itshould have been presented inthe State Assembly first. TheCongress would bring a privi-lege motion against theMinister,” he said. PNS

�����'�&����"��������3���������Bhubaneswar: The unseason-al rains in the past week mighthave blocked the intensity ofcold during this winter, but acold wave is expected to grip theentire State from December 1.

Following continuous rainsdue to a low pressure, peopleare now experiencing little bitof cold in western, interior andcoastal parts of the State.Intense cold would be felt fromDecember first week.

As per the prediction bythe MeT, the mercury is expect-ed to drop by 3 degree Celsiuswithin next two to three days.

The State experienced coldin the past two days after a coldbreeze blew from north direc-tion on Tuesday and north-eastdirection on Wednesday. Thecold wind is likely to blow fromthe north-west direction in nextone or two days. Currently, thetemperature is recorded lowwith the mercury plummetingto 4.5 degree Celsius in mostparts of Rajasthan. The entireOdisha may come under gripof an intense cold if the windis blown from the north-west direction, the MeT pre-dicted. PNS

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The lands of forest dwellersin the State of Odisha are

governed now by various laws,which hinder scientific man-agement and protection of eco-logical systems.

The forest, environmentand the climatic change are inthe State list, but it is practicallygoverned by the Governmentof India with the objective ofsmooth climate management ofthe country. But application ofseveral laws for management of

one biological complex createsproblems.

The physical and physio-logical management of an eco-system or a climatic complexentirely depend on faultless andtransparent planning and itsexecution. When every plan-ning and execution is hin-dered by different laws andrules, the very objectives of theplanning fail. That is whatnow a common man is experi-encing in Odisha forest

management. The management policy

of our ecological complex iscommonly governed by thefollowing laws of the State andthe union. (1) The OrissaForest Act 1972 (2) The Forest(Conservation) Act 1980, (3)The Orissa Communal, Forestand Private lands (Prohibitionof Alimentation) Act 1948, (4)The Orissa Forest Produce(Control and Trade) Act 1981(5) The Orissa Kendu leaves(Control of Trade) Act 1961 (6)The Orissa Preservation ofPrivate Forest Act 1977 (7) TheOrissa Protection of ScheduledTribes (Interest in Trees) Act1981 (8) The Orissa Saw Hillsand Saw Pits (control) Act

1991 (9) The Wild Life(Protection) Act 1972 (10) TheWild Birds and Animals(Protection) Act 1912 and (11)The Elephants’ PreservationAct 1879.

Similarly, the Central andState rules are (1) The OrissaSaw Mills and Sawpits (control)Rules 1993, (2) he Orissa ForestSaw Pits and Saw Mills (controlRules 1980), (3) The OrissaCommunal, Forest and PrivateLands (Prohibition ofAlienation) Rules 1949, (4)The Orissa ElephantPreservation Rules 1953, (5)The Orissa Forest ContractRules 1966, (6) The OrissaForest (Detection, Enquiry andDisposal of Forest offences)Rule 1980, (7) The OrissaForest (Fire Protection) Rules

1980, (8) The Orissa Forest(Grazing of cattle) Rules 1980,(9) The Orissa Forest(Management CoastalShelterbelt Plantation Raisedon Private Lands) Rules 1980,(10) The Orissa Forest Produce(control of trade) Rules 1983,(11)The Orissa Kendu leave(Control of Trade) Rules 1962,(12) The Orissa Excise (MahuaFlowers) Rules 1976, (13) The

Boards Excise (Fixation ofFeesm Mahua Flowers) Rules1976, (14) The OrissaPreservation of Private Forests1963, (15) The schedule ofRate for (Forest Produce inOrissa) Rules 1977, (16)TheOrissa Timber and other ForestProduce Transit Rules, (17)The Supply of Bamboos toArtisans including 1980 co-operative societies (Orissa)Rules 1980, (18) Orissa VillageForest Rules 1985. (19) TheWild Life Protection (Orissa)Rules 1974, (20) The Wild Life(Stock Declaration) Rules 1974,(21) The Wild Life(Transactions and Taxidermy)Rules 1974.

All the Acts and 21 Rules,other than the Forest RightsAct like Schedule Tribe,Schedule Caste and otherForest Dwellers Act and Rules2008, are now operating in ourbio-spheres. In spite of pro-mulgation of all such Acts andrules, the ecological density andquality of our biosphere aredegrading fast.

The forest dwellers are apart and parcel of the bios-phere. No scientific manage-ment of any biological complex

is possible without proper plan-ning and scientific analysis oftheir problems. It is a fact thatthe forest dwellers are exploit-ed heavily by the so-called civ-ilized people due to their sim-plicity and illiteracy. Althoughthe State Government is awareof this, no remedial measure istaken to help the forestdwellers.

The Central Governmentis now going to promulgateanother new law for raisinglarge scale plantations in for-est areas under the scheme ofcompensatory afforestationmanagement programme offorest lands. This programmeis now being taken up inAdivashi populated areas infull swings without any con-siderations of livelihood offorest dwellers.

There will be an expendi-ture of Rs 3,548 crore in fivemining districts of Odishasuch as Angul, Jajpur,Jharsuguda, Keonjhar andSundergarh. Further, 30 percent of total revenue out ofState revenue annually comesfrom mining districts. Therevenue will be spent on devel-opmental works of these dis-

tricts in sectors like health,education, women and childempowerment, food security,drinking water, irrigation,electrification and village wel-fare. These five districts arethickly populated by forestdwellers.

The Government of Indiahas revised the laws applicableto mining lands of the States.Annually our State gets Rs1,800 crore for developmentalworks. Basing on the directionof the Government of India,plans of expenditures withinthese districts will be made forthe benefits of the people.

The plans and the projectscovering all such developmentactivities should be preparedand sanctioned with manage-ment maps. The people onfield who are very much awareof topography and specificproblems of the locality shouldprepare the project includingthe map of execution. The sec-ond important factor is theindigenous people of theselocalities should get the max-imum opportunities ofemployments in all such pro-jects to earn their livelihoods.It is invariably seen that the

downtrodden people of thesociety are cheated by theGovernment officials.

The writer served manymore years in tribal lands ofthe Odisha and is quite expe-rienced on the real troublesthere. Again our forests arecategorically divided into sev-eral blocks, which are shownin the topographical maps,revenue maps and manage-ment maps, with fixation ofboundary marks in the field.Similarly, the lands allotted inthe field to forest dwellersshould be shown in the respec-tive block maps for perfectmanagement purposes. TheGovernment being in a man-agerial position should insistits people for perfect manage-ment of forest resourcesthrough proper planning. Butin reality, it is not followed inthe field as well as in therecords. As it is learnt, someofficials of the Forest depart-ment, who are after self inter-est, are planting trees in thelands of tribal people. Thewriter attended a conferenceby forest dwellers inBhubaneswar recently wherethe allegation was raised. Our

planning, objectives, progressof works and budget should bedisplayed in the website forgeneral information. This iscalled transparency. Withouttransparency, no developmentis possible. We have crores ofrupees in the budget to spendto raise plantations. We are notexpected to spend moneywithout proper and efficientplanning.

We have lost most of thelocal flora and fauna in everytribal land due to extensivemining operations, which pre-vents the economic progress ofthe forest dwellers. Similarly,the habitats of wild animals arelost due to mining operations.The conflict between man andanimal is going on due to lossof habitats. So the indigenousspecies, especially those hav-ing economic importance andthe herbaceous flora, shouldbe raised under the plantationschemes implemented in themining lands to prevent man-animal conflicts.

(The writer is a formersenior forest officer and an

environmentalist. Tel no9937460649)

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Out of the ancient SaivaPeethas in India, the one of

Lord Tumbeswar located atPratappur underPurushottampur block, 25 kmfrom here and close to the bankof river Rushikulya, has aunique history and is a touristplace in Ganjam district fromtime immemorial.

Hardly 500 meter awayfrom the temple is the famousBaruni Kshetra spread over aradius of 3 km on the sand bedof the Rushikulya where the

sacred Baruni Yatra, popular-ly known as Buda SnannaYatra, takes place on a Tuesdayof the auspicious month ofChaitra every three years withlakhs of devotees from differ-ent parts of the country con-gregating to take a holy bath inthe river and have darshan ofLord Tumberswar to get nir-vana.

But such a place of historic,religious and tourist impor-tance associated with Hindumythology has been neglectedowing to non-availability ofadequate financial assistancefrom the Government. Some

well-known social workers andGandhian leaders of 1960s likeNatabara Panda of villageAlladigaon and theRangabhatla family of villageHatasasan and other families’members of Pratappur used tomake personal contributionsfor Prasad and development ofthe Shiva temple, which theSevayat community stillremembers.

Keeping the importanceof the Saiva Peetha and theadjoining Baruni Kshetra,some leaders and social work-ers of the region have come for-ward to develop the area for the

upcoming Buda Snanna (dipbath in the holy riverRushikulya).

According to mythologicalbeliefs coupled with evidencesavailable, Lord Rama Chandraafter taking a holy bath in theriver had worshipped LordTumbeswar. The significance ofthe Baruni Peetha, according tohistorians and mythologists,is that the holy Rushikulya byslanting towards north is flow-ing in the west, for which thisplace is considered as mostsacred and known as BaruniPeetha.

State Planning Board

Member Rama Chandra Pandasaid he has written a letter tothe Engineer-in-Chief of theWater Resources Departmentrequesting him to take neces-sary steps to strengthen theriverbank so as to protect itfrom further decay. TheGovernment is likely tofavourably consider the requestsoon, sources said.

Panda, who is also advisorof the Baruni Ghata UrnayarnaParishad, along with two oth-ers of the Parishad KhallikoteMLA Purna Chandra Sethiand Pandit Simanchal Tripathyhas taken initiative for

strengthening the riverbank,development of the Ghat,repair and renovation of theGhat, lighting and other infra-structure of the spot for smoothconduct of the upcomingBaruni Snnana.

The Parishad members arehopeful that they will get assis-tance from the MPs’ andMLAs’ funds for developmentof the area, said Parishad pres-ident Sanat Kumar Panda.Among others, Parishad sec-retary Gouri Shankar Roulaand vice-president ProfSurendra Panda are in theParishad’s core team.

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Excise Department officialsseized 150 gram of brown

sugar worth �15 lakh during araid at a house here onThursday morning.

The sleuths arrested awoman identified as SuhelaBibi for possessing the brownsugar, which was found duringthe raid at her house at AradaBazaar in Baleswar town.

According to reports, theExcise Department was track-ing the woman’s movements inthe past few days following

information of illegal brownsugar trade in the Arada Bazaararea.

On the basis of information,the Excise Department officialsraided Bibi’s house located onMasjid Street at Arada Bazaar.The brown sugar seized from thehouse had been brought fromthe Jaleswar area, sources said.

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Aherd of 15e l e p h a n t s

has unleashed areign of terror in

villages under the Birmaharajpur Forest Rangein Subarnapur district. The herd has stormedinto the villages and damaged crops.

The jumbos on Wednesday night damagedcrops in Puipan and Sahajalatha villages underKhandahata gram panchayat and Jhamakarei vil-lage of Bharatapur GP in bordering Rairakholblock.

While a farmer, Pradeep Biswal, of Puipanvillage lost crops in two acres of land, crops overten acres belonging to Besikeshan Pradhan,Kunja Pradhan, Bhaskar Pradhan, Nala Bighilaof Sahajalatha village were damaged by the ram-paging jumbos.

Earlier, the same herd is said to have dam-aged four acres of crops in Puipan, over 20 acresin Sahajalatha and eight acres at Kundapal vil-lage under Bahalpadar panchayat.

The villagers reported the matter to ForestDepartment officials but in vain. “The ForestDepartment is neither compensating our croploss nor is it taking steps to drive away the ele-

phants,” alleged a farmer, Pradeep Biswal.After suffering from scanty rainfall and pest

attacks, the jumbos have compounded thewoes of the farmers. Locals demanded imme-diate steps to assess the crop damage and driveaway the elephants.

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Adistrict-level programmeon women rights was

organsied by the WomenRights Forum and the socialorganisation, Seheda, here onWednesday.

State Social Welfare BoardChairperson Latika Pradhangracing as chief guest calledupon the women to continuefighting for protection of theirrights and for empowerment.

State human r ightsactivist Manoj Jena expressedconcern over the increasing

violence against women andstressed on their day-to-daysafety.

As per the NationalCrime Records Bureau(NCRB), rape cases haveincreased to 2,251 in 2015from 1,978 in 2014 in Odisha.Similarly, the figure of assaultagainst women was 5,553cases and dowr y deathreached the figure of 556 in2015 as against 441 in 2014.Sexual torture cases were7,933 in 2014 and 9,359 in2015 in the State.

Discussions were held onthe girl children being killingat the embryo stage after sexdetermination, women legalassistance, women traffickingto other States, women illit-eracy and others.

Speakers mentioned that156 cases of violence againstwomen were reported everyyear in the district. Womenshould take the advantage ofthe Government schemes,speakers said. State WomenMovement VP Dr RinaRoutray highlighted the prob-lems of women in the society.

Among others, Sub-Collector Alamani Sethi,Gitika Nayak,

District Social WelfareOfficer Nirupama Behera,Women Safety Off icerBrundabati Panda, DistrictChild Safety Off icerSundanda Maharana andDIPRO Ajay Jena were pre-sent. Hundreds of womenfrom five blocks and thetownship area participated.

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Gramya Suraksha Samiti(GSS) leaders on Thursday

threatened to take to the streetsagainst the ESSAR Steel's apa-thetic attitude in fulfiling var-ious demands of land losers ofHandia village under Nuagadagram panchayat here.

GSS president AkshyaMohanty and general secretaryRanjan Swain told a Pressconference here that prob-lems of people could not beresolved even after nine years.

They said though severalrounds of talks were held withthe company, district author-ities and local administration,no result has been yieldedyet.

They further alleged that

the ESSAR authorities haveflouted the directives of thedistrict administration. Theland losers are also not gettingassistance from either the Stateor the Central Governments.Even the benefits of theSwachha Bharat are out ofreach for them.

Informing that anothermeeting would be with the dis-trict authorities and companymanagement soon, the GSSleaders said, if nothing mate-rializes this time, the villagerswould adopt agitation paths,including indefinite hungerstrike.

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Afamily is running frompillar to post to get ex-gra-

tia after death of the headmember in lightning strike.

Although the StateGovernment has declared that�4 lakh would be given to thenext of kin of the deceased inlightning as per relief code, yetthe family could not get thesame although more than threemonths have elapsed, thanks to

the apathy of the administra-tion.

Jhadeswar Mallik (50) , asharecropper of Kalabuddhuunder Saratha panchayat dieddue to lightening strike onAugust 17 while working in anagricultural field . He is sur-vived by wife and two sons.While the family is encounter-ing financial difficulties tomeet the ends, yet they have gotno relief by way of compensa-tion so far.

Following death of Mallik,while the postmortem reporthad confirmed that it was dueto lightening strike, the villagerevenue officer (RI) had alsosubmitted a report assigning thesame reason. Yet, it was learntthat the Sadar tehsildar whois supposed to submit the reportto the district emergency offi-cer has not submitted even thepreliminary report as yet.

"I am running from pillarto post and every day I am

coming to Baleswar for thismatter. Yet I am getting no help.The other lightening caseswhich occurred elsewhere afterour cases have been settled.Unfortunately my case is pend-ing for no reason. I am a dailylabourer and every day comingto office is causing loss ofwages. In this regard I havesubmitted a memorandum tothe Collector," said RaeshMalik, the eldest son of thedeceased.

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Page 4: 3,#34+56˛˚ +2 7 - News Headlines India subsidies, the JAM trinity (Jan Dhan Yojna, Aadhaar and Mobile trinity) has prevented leakages to the tune of nearly ... ering ‘Jai Kissan

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The Sargiphula festival of thestudents of ashram schools

run by the State SC/STDevelopment Department herewas inaugurated by RajyaSabha MP N Bhaskar Rao aschief guest.

He advised the students toinculcate leadership so thatthey became good bureaucrats,political representatives andultimately good citizens.

“The State is concernedabout the education of thetribal children and for thisreason, residential hostels for56,000 children have been con-structed for holistic develop-ment,” said Rao.

Collector Guha PunamTapas Kumar, who joined asguest of honour, applaudedthe study atmosphere in theschools like ancient Gurukul.To supplement the readinghabits and strengthen the sys-tem, she declared that libraries

will be established in each highschool and higher secondaryschool.

Former SSD Minister andRayagada MLA Lal BihariHimirika reminisced theimportant events of last sevenyears journey of Shargiphula.Muralidhar Swain, PA, ITDA,Rayagada and in chargeDistrict Education Officerdescribed the agenda for thecoming three days. He also saidhow the students, who tookpart in the cultural activitiesduring yesteryears, had excelledin the field of traditional dance,folk songs, tribal painting, one

act plays, sports, life skills, etc.Shargifula is a strong mediumwhere creativity by the tribalchildren can be showcased totheir peer students and gener-al public of the outer world.

Among others, BissamCuttack MLA JagannathSaraka, the DWO, Rayagada,and the Principal, EkalabyaModel ResidentialSchool(EMRS) spoke.

The district level eventheld in the EMRS nearBarijhola village also saw a hostof events like a science, sandart, photo and painting exhi-bition.

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Afirst-ever two-dayInternational Conference

on Rural Management (ICRM)of the Xavier School of RuralManagement at the XavierUniversity kicked off here onThursday.

The ICRM 2017 isdesigned to link the differentthematic areas of rural man-agement with the UnitedNations’ seventeen aspirationalSustainable DevelopmentGoals (SDGs). It facilitates acongregation of scholars andpractitioners from across theworld to deliberate and con-tribute towards consolidationof the field of rural manage-ment and how it can dovetailinto the efforts towardsachievement of the SDGs.

The conference has UnionMinistry of Rural DevelopmentSecretary Amarjeet Sinha aschief guest. Senior practition-ers and academics of ruralmanagement such as SaurabhGarg, Principal Secretary,Agriculture & Farmers’Empowerment, Odisha, JugalKishore Mohapatra,Independent Director, NationalHydroelectric PowerCorporation Ltd, Dr SankarDutta, ProfessionalDevelopment Activist, Pradan,Sanjay Panigrahi, President(Rurban and Special Projects)at Pidilite Industries, Prof KV

Raju, Director, DMI, Patna,Prof Vivek Bandari, DirectorIRMA, Tripathy,Commissioner, RuralDevelopment, Ranchi,Jharkhand, Liby Johnson,Executive Director, GramVikas, Prerit Rana, Co-Founder& CEO, Agrasar and NVRamana, ex-CEO, Basix wouldpresent their perspectives onthe focus and trajectory ofrural management.

The ICRM focusses onexploring the field of ruralmanagement and how its the-matic areas intersect with andunderpin the efforts towards

sustainable development.Clearly, effective managementof programmes and organisa-tions is crucial to attainment ofthe SDGs; but as the organisa-tional landscape for ruraldevelopment transforms,established ways are increas-ingly giving way to innovativeand emergent strategies andpractices. A systematic andcritical consideration of allthis is necessary.

Papers and cases are alsoinvited on innovative initiativesand practices in all functionalareas and sectors of ruraldevelopment management.

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The Rourkela Smart CityLimited (RSCL) organized

an “Innovation Workshop forSmart Solutions” on November21 and 22 as part of initiationof implementation of varioussmart solutions projects con-ceived under the Smart CityPlan.

The objective of the work-shop was to understand fromexperts /industry leaders onvarious innovative technologysolutions relevant to RourkelaSmart City and key require-ments for successful imple-mentation of the proposedprojects.

Around 28 solutionproviders, product compa-nies/OEMs and system inte-grators participated in theworkshop. Key participantsincluded L&T, Honeywell, HP,Dell, Amazon and TCS among

others. The solution providershave relevant expertise andsmart solutions in areas likesolid waste management, intel-ligent traffic management sys-tem(ITMS), smart parking,GPS based bus tracking andmonitoring system, PIS at facil-itation centres, mobile app,telemedicine/ E-health cen-tres, environment monitoring,command and control centre,etc.

The unique platform willprovide an opportunity tounderstand the technicalexpertise of the various solu-tion providers and the envis-aged benefits of implementa-tion of smart solutions.

Rourkela ADM MonishaBanerjee, Rourkela MunicipalCorporation DeputyCommissioner Sushma Bilungand other officials of RourkelaMunicipal Corporation andRSCL were present.

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Bhaktiswarup DamodarSwami Srila Guru Maharaj

of Iskcon was a scientist, spir-itualist, philosopher and greatKrishna preacher.

He was born in 1937 inBishnupur district closer toImphal. He belonged to a puretraditional Baishnab family.His childhood name wasThoudam Damodar Singh. Hecame with thousands of prob-lems in his childhood. Afterdeath of his father, his teacherThoudam Karen Singh tookcare of him.

He was a brilliant studentand became a Masters inChemical Engineering withfirst class distinction in 1964.Then he joined as AssistantDirector in IndustriesDepartment of Manipur. Later,he got overseas scholarshipand joined at the CaliforniaUniversity. He became PhDholder in physical organicChemistry in the year of 1976.

Here he was influenced by

Iskcon ideology. He joined themission in 1970. SrilaPrabhupad, founder of Iskcon,initiated him on June 13, 1971at Los Angeles-based NewDwarika temple (United Stateof America) and he becameidentified as “SwampDamodar”.

He was personal secretaryof Srila Prabhupad from 1970to 1977. Srila Prabhupad taughthim about deeper relationbetween Krishna conscious-ness and science and philoso-phy. He became director ofBhaktivedanta Institute in 1974.He was promoted to chiefauthority of the institute in1976. He took Sannyas in 1979.

He undertook BaishnabVedanta studies and higherresearch under SrilaPrabhupad. He was instru-mental in organising fourinternational conferences onscience and religion. Hepreached Krishna conscious-ness philosophy throughoutthe world in the medium of sci-ence. He established “Youth

Forum” organisation of theIskcon.

He established theBhaktivedanta Institute at

Manipur and the RangaNiketan, a cultural unit, there.He was very fond of Kirtan. Alldevotees praised for his niceKirtan.

He published many booksrelating to science, philosophyreligion and Krishna con-sciousness. He became theGBC of the Iskcon,Bhubaneswar temple, in 1996after the departure of GurudevSri Srimad Gour GovindaGoswami Guru Maharaj. Heame to Bhubaneswar temple 3-4 times in a year for preachingKrishna consciousness.

Gajapati Maharaja of Purilikes him very much. He inau-gurated the BhaktivedantaBook Trust unit atC h a n d r a s e k h a r p u r ,Bhubaneswar and laid the foun-dation stone of Iskcon GundichaMandir, Bhubaneswar and ofBrahmapur, Bahanaga,Kamakshya Nagar and Burlaunits.

(Das is State PRO, Iskcon,M:9861391342)

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The last day of OdishaTennis Premier League saw

an epic battle between theKendrapara Contenders andthe Sambalpur Shooters hereon Thursday.

The KendraparaContenders with an astonish-ing performance won the firstOdisha Tennis Premier Leaguebeating the SambalpurShooters by 3-1.

Bharata Rakhya Manchnational convener MuraliSharma, former IAS officerPramod Kumar Patnaik andindustrialist Trilokya NathMishra attended the event asguests and distributed prizes tothe winners.

A prize of �1 lakh wasgiven to the winner team,Kendrapara Contenders, whilethe runners up team,Sambalpur Shooters, weregiven �50,000.

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Treading cautiously onPakistan’s “humanitarian”

offer to allow ex-Indian Navyofficer Kulbhushan Jadhav tomeet his wife, India has soughta guarantee from Islamabad onher safety and security. India hasalso made it clear that Jadhav’swife will be accompanied by hismother too, whose request fora visa is still pending with thePak Foreign office. India hasalso said that a diplomat willaccompany the two women.

Earlier this month,Islamabad handed over a noteverbale to India saying it canfacilitate a meeting betweenJadhav and his wife on human-itarian grounds. India has saidthat the request to allowJadhav’s mother meet him isstill pending with PakGovernment and that shouldalso be considered.

Responding to Pakistan’soffer, India has written backthat Jadhav’s wife and mother,if allowed, should not be ques-tioned, harassed or interrogat-ed during their visit and stay inPakistan. India had put a con-dition that these two womenshall be allowed to be accom-panied by an Indian diplomat,including the time when thewife and mother meet Jadhav.

“There was a longstandingrequest from the mother ofKulbhushan Jadhav to visitPakistan and meet her son.Although this request waspending, India still respondedpositively to the offer made by

Pakistan to arrange meeting ofKulbhushan Jadhav with hiswife. In our response, we haveconveyed that the wife ofJadhav would like to travelalong with her mother-in-lawfor the meeting. We have alsosought sovereign guaranteefrom the Government ofPakistan to ensure the safety,security and wellbeing of thewife and the mother of Jadhavand that they shall not bequestioned, harassed or inter-rogated during their visit andstay in Pakistan. We havefurther asked that a diplomatof the Indian HighCommission in Islamabadshall be allowed to accompa-ny them at all times, includ-ing during the meeting,”Ministry of External AffairsSpokesperson Raveesh Kumarsaid on Thursday.

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Expressing “outrage” overPakistan’s decision to release

Hafiz Saeed from its detention,India on Thursday questionedIslamabad’s commitment tofight terrorism by freeing suchinternationally proscribed ter-rorists. The Ministry ofExternal Affairs said Pakistanshould take credible and effec-tive action against terroristslike Hafiz Saeed, who was thebrain behind the Mumbai 26/11attacks in 2008 in which 166

persons were killed. “We have seen reports on

the release of the leader ofbanned terrorist organisationLashkar-e-Tayyeba and inter-nationally proscribed terroristHafiz Saeed from house arrestby Pakistan. He was the primeorganiser of the Mumbai ter-ror attacks in which manyIndians and nationals of sev-eral other countries werekilled. He is also responsiblefor unleashing numerous otherterror attacks against Pakistan’sneighbours.

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In a blow to the All IndiaAnna Dravida Munnetra

Kazhagam (AIADMK) factionled by the now jailed VKSasikala and her nephew TTVDinakaran, the ElectionCommission (EC) on Thursday

has been recognised as the“real” party and allotted the“two leaves” symbol to the fac-tion led by Tamil Nadu ChiefMinister K Palaniswami andDeputy Chief Minister OPanneerselvam. The decisioncomes as a shot in the arm forTamil Nadu’s ruling party ahead

of crucial local body electionsexpected to be announcedsoon, as it battles internal fis-sures and wranglings. Also, theMadras High Court has ruledthat by-elections must be heldbefore the end of the year for JJayalalithaa’s RK Nagar con-stituency in Chennai.

6!�,����������������� ������������ ��������������������7�Mohali: Punjab Governmenthas directed all District andBlock Development andPanchayat Officers to preparea list of Mining at Panchayatilands in villages ‘positively’ byNovember 30.

The directions, issued bythe state Rural Developmentand Panchayat Department’sSecretary Anurag Verma, wereaimed at preventing illegalmining in the villages besidessupplementing to the income

of panchayats.“Time to time, various

complaints are being receivedin the Department regardingillegal mining in village's pan-chayat lands. In this regard, aDO letter from Director ofMining, Department ofIndustry and Commerce, hasalso been received. As such,directions to identify the min-ing panchayati lands in eachvillage have been issued,” hesaid. PNS

Page 5: 3,#34+56˛˚ +2 7 - News Headlines India subsidies, the JAM trinity (Jan Dhan Yojna, Aadhaar and Mobile trinity) has prevented leakages to the tune of nearly ... ering ‘Jai Kissan

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The CPI (M) has demandeda high-level judicial probe

to look into the circumstancesleading to the death of CBIcourt judge Brijgopal HarkishanLoya in 2014. Judge Loya washearing the SohrabuddinSheikh encounter killing case in2005, at the time of his death.

The Left party, in a state-ment on Thursday, said manyrecent media reports have high-lighted the anomalies in the

judge’s death. Family membersof the deceased judge had in arecent media interview claimedthat attempts were made tobribe and intimidate Loya dur-ing the course of the trial.

“The whole matter hasraised disturbing questions ofmurder, bribery, subversion oflaw and manipulation of insti-

tutions of parliamentarydemocracy at the highest level,which must be seriously inves-tigated,” said CPI(M).

“The exposure in sectionsof the media raises seriousissues over the circumstances ofthe death of the CBI courtjudge, HP Loya, in November2014. Justice Loya was hearing

the case regarding theencounter killing ofSohrabuddin Sheikh in 2005.

The family members ofJustice Loya have alleged thatattempts were made to bribeand intimidate him during thecourse of the trial. These haveraised disturbing questions ofmurder, bribery, subversion oflaw and the manipulation ofinstitutions of our parliamen-tary democracy at the highestlevel, which must be seriouslyinvestigated,” said the Politburo.

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In the wake of allegations thata Gurgaon-based private hos-

pital, Fortis Memorial ResearchInstitute billing the family of adengue patient �16 lakh, UnionHealth Secretary Preeti Sudanhas asked all the States to issuestrict warnings to hospitals,including private ones, againstindulging in malpractices suchas overcharging.

In a letter to the States onThursday, she said that allegedmalpractices by clinical estab-lishments not only compromisepatient safety but also raise con-cerns about accountability inhealthcare costs.

She also asked the states toensure implementation of theClinical Establishment(Registration and Regulation)Act, 2010 under which all hos-pitals can be regulated.

“It is time to learn lessonsfrom such incidents and Iadvise that a meeting with allimportant healthcare estab-lishments, including privatehospitals, of your state be takenand they be clearly sounded notto indulge in such practices,failing which strict action willbe taken.

“I request you to kindly getthe clinical establishment actadopted/implemented by yourstate also,” Sudan said in theletter.

Referring to the recentincident in which a 7-year-oldgirl died of dengue at Fortishospital, Sudan said it wasalleged that the patient wasgrossly overcharged and stan-dard treatment protocols werenot followed.

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The Congress on Thursdayapproached President Ram

Nath Kovind requesting him tosummon the Winter Session ofParliament at the earliest as itaccused the Centre of delayingit “without ascribing any justi-fication for doing so”. TheCongress Parliamentary Party(CPP) in its letter to thePresident claimed that not con-vening the Parliament sessionon time would set an“unhealthy precedent”.

“We seek to draw yourattention to the inordinatedelay by the Government inconvening the Winter Sessionof Parliament without ascribingany justification for doing so,”they said in the letter. In amemorandum to the Presidentthe party claimed that the

apparent reason informallymentioned by the governmentfor “delaying” the session is theGujarat Assembly election.

The letter was signed byLeader of Opposition in RajyaSabha Ghulam Nabi Azad,Congress’ leader in Lok SabhaMallikarjun Kharge, party’sdeputy leader in Rajya SabhaAnand Sharma, its chief whipin the Lower House JyotiradityaScindia and whip DeependraHooda.

The Congress argued thatthe session was convened “asper the established practiceand convention” and not thepoll schedule. They also reit-erated the party’s allegationthat the government was avoid-ing facing Parliament andanswering questions on its“flawed and unpopular” poli-cies an “rampant corruption”.

The leaders said the 2012Assembly polls in the statewere held on December 13 andDecember 17. Parliament ses-sion, however, was duly con-vened on November 22 “as per

practice” and adjourned onDecember 20 of that year.

“It is also pertinent to men-tion, that Winter Session is pre-ceded by the longest inter-ses-sion break after the MonsoonSession vis-à-vis all other inter-session breaks. Thus, not con-vening of Winter Session ontime will set an unhealthyprecedent,” they added.

Claiming the governmentwas avoiding facing questionson floor of the Houses, theleaders said it was a “matter ofserious concern” that the mem-bers of Parliament wereallegedly being denied timelyopportunity to discharge theirduties. “It also undermines theinstitution of Parliament itselfand calls for honourable pres-ident’s urgent intervention asthe custodian of theConstitution,” they said.

New Delhi: The Supreme Courton Thursday sought to knowfrom Chhattisgarh Governmentwhether it had material to dis-pel the allegation of “fraud” inthe purchase of Agusta Westlandhelicopters and gave time to theState to file an affidavit produc-ing material in this regard.

With the deal to procureVIP helicopters from AgustaWestland by the StateGovernment in 2006-07 underchallenge by NGO SwarajAbhiyan, the Bench of JusticesAdarsh K Goel and UU Lalit had

summoned the original filescontaining the decision that ledto finalisation of this deal.

As senior advocate MaheshJethmalani began to present thecase of the State on why Agustawas superior to the other heli-copter manufacturers in the fray,the bench stopped him and sa-id, “The petitioner is not on thechoice of the helicopter but hasraised doubts that there was fra-ud in the process of acquiring it.”

Advocate PrashantBhushan, who appeared for thepetitioner claimed that Chief

Secretary of the State hadadvised tender of the deal thatwas given a go-by.

The bench told Jethmalani,“We only want to know if therewas any fraud or hanky pankyon part of the public exchequer,”in which case it would direct anenquiry. In this regard, thecourt even wished to knowabout the opening of foreignbank account by son of the CMat the time of bidding processwhich was subsequently closed.The matter is next listed forJanuary 18. PNS

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In a major revenue-savingachievement, the Indian Rail-

ways has been able to save awhopping �5,636 crore towardspower bills between April 2015and October 2017. With thisfigure, it has projected a cumu-lative saving of �41,000 crore inthe next 10 years.

“The Indian Railways (IR)has succeeded in achieving acumulative saving of �5,636crore from April 2015 toOctober 2017 against theBusiness As Usual (BAU) modeby procuring power directlyunder Open Access arrange-ments. This cumulative figureis likely to further go up to�6,927 crore by the end of thecurrent financial year which is

around �1,000 crore more thanthe stipulated target,” theRailway Ministry said in astatement.

The railways consumearound 2.8 billion litres ofdiesel a year, costing Rs 18,000crore, and 17.5 billion units ofelectricity. Currently, nearly 30per cent of the fuel bill goes intopaying state taxes.

The Open Access policyunder the Electricity Act, 2003,allows consumers with elec-tricity load above One MW toprocure power directly frommarkets. The railways cur-rently sources power throughopen access route in sevenstates--Maharashtra, Gujarat,Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand,Rajasthan, Haryana andKarnataka--and Damodar

Valley Corporation area.Five more states namely

Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, WestBengal, Tamil Nadu andTelangana have also agreed topermit the railways for flow ofpower though open accessroute which is likely to start bynext year, said the ministry.

“The estimated savings onthese accounts indicates that in

ten years (2015-25), these ini-tiatives can generate a cumu-lative saving of about �41,000crore,” the statement said.

As of now out of totalrequirement of about 2,000 MWof the IR for electric tractionpower more than 1,000 MW isflowing under open access. Thishas reduced the average cost inthese states, where power is

flowing under open access, toabout �5 from earlier cost ofmore than �7 per unit.

These savings, the state-ments said, will be utilised fortaking up electrification of therail network as part of MissionElectrification. This will furtherreduce the diesel bill and mul-tiply the savings in energy bill,taking it to about �10,500 croreper annum in the next fewyears on 100 per cent electrifi-cation of the IR network, theministry said.

The Central ElectricityRegulatory Commission hadallowed the railways to under-take transmission and distrib-ution of electricity as a deemedlicensee under the ElectricityAct through an order inNovember 2015.

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External Affairs MinisterSushma Swaraj will travel to

Sochi in Russia next week forthe Shanghai CooperationOrganisation (SCO) ForeignMinisters’ Summit. The

Summit will be held onNovember 30 and December 1.

India and Pakistan wereadded as new members of theSCO this year that has now eightmembers including Kazakhstan,China, Kyrgyz Republic, Russia,Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Apartfrom the meeting at SCO, theminister will also hold bilateralmeetings with some of her coun-terparts. She will also attend thereception hosted by the RussianPM Dmitry Medvedev.

Swaraj will later host herChinese and Russian counter-parts in Delhi on December 11at the RIC Foreign Minister’smeeting. The meeting will takeplace in the backdrop of Chinaearlier refusing to hold DefenseMinisters level meeting of theRIC in Russia in order to protestthe visit of Dalai Lama toArunachal Pradesh.

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The National Commissionfor Safai Karamcharis

(NCSK) has approached theNITI Aayog seeking to widenits ambit from monitoring toimplementation of the welfareschemes for the sanitationworkers as well.

In a meeting held withRattan P Wattal, PrincipalAdvisor, NITI Aayog, ManharValji Bhai Zala, Chairman,National Commission forSafai Karamcharis along withthe members of theCommission Manju Diler,Dilip K Hathibed and SwamiSadanand Maharaj recentlyurged the Aayog to handover

some of the welfare schemesfor the safai karamcharis andmanual scavengers to it forbetter implementation.

Expressing its dismay at theslow pace of implementation of“The Prohibition ofEmployment as ManualScavengers and theirRehabilitation Act, 2013” par-ticularly the survey of manualscavengers, the Commissionalso called for making it aconstitutional body and bestowit with the powers of a civilcourt so that it can discharge itsmandate effectively.

The NCSK is a statutorybody with the mandate tomonitor measures for the wel-fare of sanitation workers and

keep the Government focusedon the delivery of its responsi-bilities.

The Commission sug-gested the NITI Aayog for get-ting the survey of manualscavengers done through anindependent third party having adequate representa-tion of volunteers/activistsfrom communities tradition-ally engaged in manual scav-enging.

It also pointed out that,presently, the role of theCommission is merely of mon-itoring the implementation ofthe Central Government’sschemes for welfare of safaikaramcharis and manual scav-engers. It has no scheme of its

own. In this background, theCommission suggested thatsome of the welfare schemes forthe sector may be broughtunder its purview.

Zala said that Wattal tooknote of the suggestions given bythe Commission and assuredthem that it would shortlyconvene a meeting of all thestakeholders on the subject todiscuss and finalise a roadmapto achieve the ultimate objec-tive of ending the inhumanpractice of manual scavengingin the country.

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With the objective ofimproving road infra-

structure along the Line ofActual Control (LAC) facingChina to ensure faster move-ment of troops, the Army istaking measures like procuringexcavators and short spanbridges for speedy constructionof roads. China has betterinfrastructure along the LACthereby providing logisticalsupport throughout the year toits troops.

The move to speed up pro-curement of specialised roadconstruction for enhancinglogistical support to forward

posts comes in the backdrop ofrecent 73-day-long Dokalamstandoff across Sikkim. TheCorps of Engineers is nowworking round the clock tobuild roads in vulnerable areason the LAC especially in theeast, officials said here onThursday.

They said the Corps ofEngineers has taken steps likeplacing orders for latest ver-sions of various mountain cut-ting and road laying machinesand equipment besides procur-ing assault tracks for fast move-ment of troops. Moreover, theArmy headquarters orderedover 1,000 dual track minedetectors to enhance Corps ofEngineers’ mine detectioncapability.

The Army is also procur-ing nearly 100 excavators withlatest features to increase theexisting capability of the engi-neers to lay operational trackalong mountainous regions.Over 50 short span bridges and

a sizeable number of assaulttracks for quick movement arealso being procured to increasetroop mobility, they said.

The Corps of Engineerswill lay the initial roads in theinaccessible terrain and theBorder Roads Organisation

(BRO) will then take over thestrengthening of these tracksfor movement of heavy artilleryguns and tanks besides ferry-ing troops to forward posts.

India and China have a4,000 km long LAC fromLadakh in the north to

Arunachal Pradesh in the east.The LAC is divided into threesectors namely western(Jammuand Kashmir), middle(Himachal Pradesh andUttarakhand) and eastern(Arunachal Pradesh andSikkim). The Corps of

Engineers provides key combatengineering support and main-tains connectivity in key bor-der regions for speedy move-ment of troops and artillery.

Appreciating the fact thatChina has far superior roadconnectivity on its side across theLAC thereby posing a challengeto India’s security interests, thegovernment in 2005 identified 73strategic roads connecting LACwith the hinterland and asked theBRO to construct them.However, the project is yet to becompleted due to delays andhampering the operational pre-paredness of the Army.

Moreover, China has nowlinked its mainland with theTibetan plateau across the LACwith rail link of more than7,000 km. Also, it has built atleast six airfields in the plateauto improve its logistical backup. These developments nowput the Indian armed forces ata distinct disadvantage in termsas it lacks infrastructure.

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As the poll campaigning forthe first phase of Gujarat

poll on December 9 picks upheat, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi will againreturn to his home State onMonday to address the elec-tion meetings in Saurashtraand south Gujarat, giving aleg-up to the party’s high-pri-ority electoral battle vis-à-visthe Congress.

While the BJP head AmitShah is heavily ‘micro-man-aging’ party’s election at alllevels, Modi is now expectedto raise the scale of BJP’s win-ning target for the 182Assembly seats. The BJP isstepping up its campaigningeven as Congress which hasstuck a seat-sharing deal withPatidar leader Hardik Patelhopes ‘very good dividends’in the poll with Hardik’s back-ing as well as that of the OBCleader AlpeshThakor.

BJP, however,estimates thatOBC leaderThakor’s joining handswith the Congress would grav-itate Patel community towardsit despite Hardik’s backing tothe Congress. It was in 2015that Hardik started agitationfor job quota in favour ofPatels which was instantlyopposed by the OBCs in thestate. BJP sources also claimthat Hardik does not carrymuch backing of the corePatel community.

The nominations for thefirst phase have come to anend with over 2000 candidatesfiling papers, a large numberof them being independentcandidates. According tosources, BJP has putup several indepen-dent candidates forthe purpose of elec-toral strategies.

Modi willaddress eight rallieson November 27 and29 in different parts ofSaurashtra and southGujarat, where pollingfor the first phase ofAssembly polls will beheld on December 9.

On the morning ofNovember 27, Modiwill address people inBhuj town of Kutch dis-trict and later in the dayin Jasdan town of Rajkot,Dhari in Amreli andKamrej in Surat district.

On November 29,Modi will address poll ral-lies in Morbi and Prachi

villages near Somnath,Palitana in Bhavnagar and atNavsari in south Gujarat.

Each rally has been organ-ised in such a way that peoplefrom five to six surroundingconstituencies can also attend it,” said BJP GeneralSecretary and State-in-chargeBhupendra Yadav atAhmedabad.

The polling for the two-phase elections in the state willtake place on December 9 and14 and votes will be countedon December 18.

While 89 seats ofSaurashtra and South Gujaratregion will go to polls in thefirst phase, the election in theremaining 93 constituencies incentral and northern regions will be held in the sec-ond phase.

On November 26 and 27,other top BJP leaders willaddress rallies in differentparts of State where the firstphase of polling is scheduled

to be held.Party’s star

c a m p a i g n e r s ,among others,include Union

Ministers RajnathSingh, Nitin

Gadkari, Arun Jaitley andSushma Swaraj, ChiefMinisters of BJP-ruled States— Yogi Adityanath andVasundhara Raje — as well asseveral Gujarat BJP leaders.

These Ministers apart,other Central BJP leaders arecamping in the State to assistthe poll management in theState which has been underthe BJP rule for 22 years with

three terms under Modi.

From Congressside, Congress pres-ident Sonia Gandhi,

its vice-presidentRahul Gandhi,former PrimeM i n i s t e rM a n m o h a nSingh and for-mer test playerand PunjabMinister NavjotSingh Sidhuand Tahkorare among 40star cam-

paigners for theparty.

This apart,UP Congresschief and actor

of yesteryear RajBabbar and actress-

turned politician Nagmawill add to the glao-

mour value of theCongress cam-paign line up.

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Even as brisk preparationswere on for the Global

Entrepreneurship Summit 2017in Hyderabad to bring 1,500entrepreneurs and delegatestogether, the lone start up fromGaza invited to the event wasunlikely to make it.

Reham Abuolwan, a 27 yearold Palestinian whose WalkingTech is a rare hard ware basedstart up in Gaza, was disap-pointed that paper work for herIndian visa was delayed and shewas unlikely to make it in timedue to the travel restrictions.

Reham told the local mediafrom Gaza over phone that shewill not be able to pass throughRafah crossing between Gazaand Egypt as priority was givenonly to the sick people, studentsand people with residency per-mits of other countries. Hervisa process was delayed due toerror in documentation and itwas unlikely to be cleared intime for her travel.

To travel through the Erezcrossing between Palestinianterritory and Israel she needspermission from Israeli author-ities. “I have not received thepermission from Israel”, shesaid. She was required to applyfor the permission two monthsin advance.

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The mystery behind the deathof J Jayalalithaa, the former

Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu gotmurkier on Thursday with thedeposition of a medical doctorwho told the Commission ofEnquiry probing her death thatthere were enough evidencessuggesting that she could havedied by early October 2016.

There are glaring discrep-ancies in the medical bulletinsand discharge summary issuedby the corporate hospital inChennai where J Jayalalithaa, thelast Chief Minister was undertreatment from September 222016 till her demise onDecember 5 2016, according toa leading oncologist Dr P

Saravanan. His deposition onThursday before the AArumughaswamy Commissionhas added further fuel to thearguments that there are a num-ber of mysteries associated with

the demise of the former CM.Dr Saravanan told the

Commission that the medicalbulletin issued by the ApolloHospital on September 23, 2016had stated that Jayalalithaa wasadmitted to the hospital at 10 pmon September 22, 2016 due tofever and dehydration and hercondition was stable and she wason normal diet. “But the dis-charge summary issued by thesame hospital stated thatJayalalithaa was admitted to thehospital in a semi-consciousState and she was on non-inva-sive ventilation since then,” saidDr Saravanan.

He also produced a letterreportedly written by Jayalalithaathe same day, September 232016 to the then Governor CVidhyasagar Rao thanking his

for his well wishes. The letter heshowed the media bore the sig-nature of Jayalalithaa. “The issueis how a semi-unconscious per-son in non-invasive ventilationcould write/draft a letter to a dig-nitary like the Governor and alsosign the same? There is mysterybehind this letter,” Dr Saravanantold The Pioneer after deposingbefore the Commission.

Dr Saravanan, who was theDMK candidate in the by-elec-tion held fromThiruparankundram Assemblyconstituency in November 2016,told the Commission onWednesday, the thumb impres-sions in the Forms A and B of thenomination papers submitted bythe AIADMK candidate shouldbe thoroughly screened andexamined by finger print experts.

������������ �) )6

Several films in India haveattracted controversy and

opposition irrespective of anyparty being in power, NationalAward winning director MadhurBhandarkar said on Thursday,while slamming a section of filmindustry for being selectivelysupportive of films, filmmakerswho are in a state of crisis.

Bhandarkar, who wasaddressing the media on thesidelines of the ongoing 48th

International Film Festival ofIndia, also said that films hadto be presented as fiction,even if they were based on fac-tual realities, in order to beable to release in India, con-sidering the socio-culturalclime in the country.

“Whatever the administra-tion, these things happen.

Censor said you call the moviefiction, so I added a big dis-claimer. Then no one has aproblem,” Bhandakar said, whenasked about controversies whichcome movies trigger, even beforetheir release.

Bhandarkar said that suchOpposition is not new and thatit had been going on for sometime now, even citing examplesin the past, where attempts weremade to derail films, because ofa controversial title, song, etc.

“There was a lot of difficul-ty and this has been happeningfor some time now. You haveseen in the past, in ‘Atish’ 1994,when there was chaos over thesong Mustafa Mustafa, theychanged it to Dilruba Dilruba.Nana Patekar’s film Mustafa,film’s name was changed toGhulam-e-Mustafa. These thingshave been happening for years.There was furore over Singh isKing, Da Vinci Code, Kerala,Andhra Pradesh, Nagaland, Goathe film was banned… SaddaHaq also the same things hap-pened,” Bhandarkar said.

He also spoke at lengthabout the personal battle he hadto face while releasing his film‘Indu Sarkar’ loosely based on theEmergency and the role of thenPrime Minister Indira Gandhi.

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Former Gujarat Chief MinisterShankersinh Vaghela led

third frond Jan Vikalp has field-ed 69 candidates for the firstphase of ensuing State Assemblypolls. Vaghela who quit theCongress party earlier this yearhas also decided to support fiveindependent candidates. Thecandidates from Vadhela’s campwill represent All IndiaHindustan Congress Party head-quartered at Jaipur. All the can-didates will contest on the sym-bol of Tractor. In the first phaseof Gujarat, 89 seats in Saurashtra-Kutch and South Gujarat regionswill go to polling.

Known for keeping rela-tions over political interest,Vaghela has decided not to putcandidates against Gujarat ChiefMinister Vijay Rupani, State BJPpresident, Jitu Vaghani, Amreli

Congress legislator PareshDhanani and senior Congressleader Shaktisinh Gohil.

Talking to media persons,Vaghela said that unlike otherpolitical outfits his party wouldnot fund its candidates for pollcampaigning.

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The Election Commission ofIndia is making voting

arrangement for the lone voterat Banej village situated deepinside the Gir Sanctuary, the onlyabode of Asiatic lions.

60-year-old MahantBharatdas Darshandas is thepriest at Baneshwar temple atBanej village which is having his-torical connection with epicMahabharata. The Gir-Somnathdistrict administration will set upa polling station for Mahant.

“If the booth is no set forhim, Mahant ji will have totravel 20 km that too on forestroads to exercise his franchise. Asthe temple is inside the worldfamous Gir Sanctury, the Stateforest department does not allowanyone to reside here. Being apriest, Mahant is having specialpermission to take care of the pil-

grimage,” said an election staffdeployed for setting a polling sta-tion near Banej.

The priest is taking care ofthe temple since past 15 years. Hecast votes in 2007 and 2012assembly polls as well as 2009and 2014 Lok Sabha elections.On the day of polling, just forhim two policemen and five elec-tion officials pay visit to himinside the abode of Asiatic lions,so that the Mahant could cast hisvote. The polling staff will reachsharp 8 am on December 9, 2017there for the lone elector.

Even if the priest wouldcast his vote early in the morn-ing, the staff to be deployed atBanej polling station will have tokeep functioning till pollinghours end at 5 pm in the eveningas per the Election Commission’srule! The polling station for thelone voter will be party of UnaAssembly constituency.

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The Kerala Police have putthe forest regions in the

northern districts of the Stateunder tight security cover in thecontext of the Intelligencereports that Maoists may launcha surprise attack from the jun-gles on the occasion of the firstanniversary — on Friday — ofthe killing of two senior Leftextremists in what the policeclaim was an encounter in theforests of Malappuram district.

The Central IntelligenceBureau (IB) and the Intelligencewing of the State police alsoexpect pro-Left human rightsorganisations to hold meetingsin towns and villages near theforest region where the twoMaoists were killed but no for-mal announcements have comeso far from such groups in thisregard.

Special security arrange-ments including deploymentof commandos armed withmodern weapons have beenmade at seven police stations inthe region in the wake of warn-ings about possible Maoistattack on the anniversary of theencounter. Sources in the policesaid that all necessary measureshad been taken to thwart anykind of Maoist attack.

Commandos ofThunderbolt, the elite anti-Maoist wing of Kerala Police,have formed what the policetermed as a leak-proof human-

weapon security fence aroundthe forests of Malappuram,Palakkad, Kannur and Wayanaddistricts to prevent the Maoistsfrom entering or leaving thejungles which agencies expectthe Maoists to use as theirbases for launching revengestrikes.

However, protests came upfrom the Forest Department onthe eve of the anniversary of theencounter after the withdrawalof the police security for theForest stations in the regionwhere the encounter took placelast year despite the Intelligencereports that the Maoists mightattempt to attack unguardedForest stations.

The security cover forPadukka and VaniyambalamForest stations in the Maoist-infested region in Malappuramdistrict was reportedly with-drawn on Tuesday morningallegedly without the knowledgeof even the Divisional ForestOfficer. Sources said the DFOhad sent a complaint to theDistrict Collector regarding this.

In an encounter the con-troversies over which are yet tosubside, Thunderbolt com-mandos had shot dead topMaoist leader Kapu Devaraj(61) and senior woman activistAjitha alias Kaveri (42), bothhailing from Tamil Nadu, in theKarulai jungles under thePadukka Forest Station limits inNilambur in Malappuram dis-trict on November 24, 2016.

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Think of a herd of wild ele-phants waiting and watching

anxiously but patiently as humanbeings rescue one of their calvesfrom a man-made pit into whichit had fallen accidentally at a timewhen stories of human-animalconflict abound. A story of suchhuman-animal emotional con-nect came fromKothamangalam, some 50 kilo-meters of east of Kochi, onThursday morning.

A six-year-old male calf thathad set out from the jungles toexplore the human habitat atUrulanthanni village nearKothamangalam outside theKuttambuzha forest region in

Ernakulam district onWednesday night along withhis mother and five others of thefamily had fallen into a 12-feet-deep abandoned well.

The mother and others inthe family of pachyderms, somesix of them including anothercalf, were unable to do anythingbut painfully and helplesslywatch the unsuccessful but per-sistent struggle of the frightenedcalf to climb away from themuddy well throughout the restof the night.

Villagers and personnelfrom the police and Forestdepartments reached the spot inthe night itself but they wereunable to do anything till dawn-break. “We were certain that we

could rescue the calf,” saidBineesh, a Forest officer, addingthat that the response of the herd,which moved away a bit tomake space for the humans, wasreassuring.

When sound of the humansreached the bottom of the pit, thecalf, surprisingly showing nosigns of annoyance, resumed hisefforts to climb up but he wasable only to flail the loose mudwith his weakening limbs. “It wasas though he knew for sure thatthe people were there to helphim,” said Yohannan, a villager.

The humans moved fast,bringing an earthmovingmachine to dig a slanted path outof the well so that the calf couldclimb walk up and away.

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Anzar, a top AnsarullahBangla Team terrorist and

one of his senior cronies —Tauheed — responsible forcarrying out daring attacks inBangladesh are roaming freelyin India — most probably inBengal, two ABT modulesarrested on Tuesday by theSpecial Task Force of KolkataPolice have disclosed to theirinterrogators.

According to sources,Anzar “a dangerous cold blood-ed fellow” who is perhaps thechief of the ABT and an “effi-cient planner” of terror attackshas himself done recces of var-ious sites in Kolkata. ABT a for-mer partner of the ISIS is cur-rently an active collaborator ofAl Qaeda and is trying to fill in

the void created by the steadydepletion of IS influence in thispart of the country followingthe recent reverses suffered byit in West Asia.

Anzar has visited Kolkatatwice and held meetings withthe local modules, Tanveer oneof the arrested terrorists havetold the STF. Tanveer an engi-neer by profession is the chiefof ABT’s explosives wing andcan produce a highly powerfulIED in little more than an hour.As a proof of his expertise theterrorist has given a livedemonstration to his inter-rogators at Lal Bazar policeheadquarters in Kolkatasources said.

“He took about an hourand a half to produce a gen-uinely powerful electronic IEDfor which he made use of some

copper wires, battery, a moth-er board and a welder,” sourcessaid reminding such explo-sives are made by the Talibanfor use against the US Armyoperating in Afghanistan.

Tanveer has himself trainedabout 26 people during his stayin India and had met Manotosh,alias Monada alias Giarul Gazian international arms supplierresiding at three residences inBasirhat in North 24 Parganasfor procuring arms. The grouphad “dangerous designs” fortargets in Kolkata and was car-rying out recce upon instructionfrom Anzar, police said.

The STF was looking forAnzar who was currently atlarge. A team of Kolkata STFwas going to Uttar Pradesh tofather clues from UP Policewhich had earlier arrested ABT

terrorists. Similarly, officialsfrom Hyderabad Police andNational Investigation Agencyon Thursday landed up at LalBazar to gather informationabout Tanveer and his associ-ate, sources said.

Meanwhile, the police arealso looking for agents who hadprovided the terrorists withfake Aadhar cards. Accordingto the arrested Bangladeshiterrorists the agents who madethem the fake Aadhar cards didso in a matter of 10 minutesand for �10,000.

As the terrorists repeated-ly frequented places like Bihar,Jharkhand, Hyderabad andBengaluru the police are tryingto ascertain whether the fakeAadhar cards were procuredfrom any of these places,sources said.

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Blaming the media and few‘political desperados’ for

blowing his statements linkingsins of past life and cancer outof proportion, Assam HealthMinister Himanta BiswaSarma on Wednesday apolo-gised to those who were hurtby these ‘absolutely mindlesscontroversy’.

Sarma today said that hisspeech on divine justice andKarmic deficiency was quot-ed out of context. “In their bidto trivialise and sensationalise,no one is looking at content ofmy whole speech and intent.It was said in the context ofhelping poor students ofGovernment schools andrequest to teachers not toneglect them. It was also amessage to instruct districteducation officers not toharass teachers,” said theMinister in a statement issuedon Thursday.

The statements of Sarmawhere he had stated thatyoung people suffering fromof cancer and dying of roadmishap are actually divinejustice for sins committed inpast life drew flakes from dif-ferent sections nationwideand several political leaderscommented negatively on thisespecially the social mediawent abuzz over this through-out the day.

“But the way a section ofnational media, local mediaand few in congress party isnow playing the story, I ampained to say, will cause agonyamong cancer patients andtheir relatives. I lost my father,best friends and relatives tocancer,” he said.

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With process of filing nom-inations for the first phase

of polling for the ensuing GujaratAssembly polls completed,Prime Minister Narendra Modiand top Congress leader RahulGandhi are set to re-start theirpoll campaign in the poll boundState.

Prime Minister is visiting theState next week on two differentdays — 27th and 29th Novemberand address total eight public ral-lies in Suarashtra-Kutch as wellas South Gujarat regions.

Gujarat BJP inchargeBhupendra Yadav on Thursdaysaid that PM Modi will begin hispoll campaign from the districtheadquarters of bordering Kutchdistrict Bhuj on Monday ataround 11 am. On the same dayhe will address another two ral-lies in Saurashtra region at Jasdanand Dhari at 1:20 pm and 3:03pm. Last and final public meet-ing will be at Kamrej in SouthGujarat commercial CapitalSurat at around 5:15 pm.

Modi who is the star BJPcampaigner for the Gujarat pollswill again visit on Wednesday,November 29. On the day he willaddress four rallies at Morbi,Somnath, Palitana and Navasaritowns. According to the venue ofthe rallies were selected careful-ly as each public meeting ofModi would cover at least sixnearby Assembly seats. He saidthat in the coming day, venuesfor more such public rallieswould be announced.

On Friday All IndiaCongress Committee (AICC)vice-president Rahul Gandhi isbeginning his two day visit toGujarat from Porbandar. At thebirthplace of Mahatma Gandhi,he will interact with members offisherman community.

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Election staff in Gujarat willhave some geographical chal-lenges to ensure every voterscast their vote during the StateAssembly polls to be held onDecember 9 and 14 this year.EC will set up a polling stationfor 40 electors residing at AjadIsland In The Middle OfArabian Sea. The 139 hectorisland spread across 139hectares off Okha coast inDevbhumi Dwarka district. Aselectricity is not available here,battery operated EVM will beinstalled there that too in a tent.The nearest village from theisland coming underKhambhalia assembly con-stituency is Nana Asota, around8 km into sea.

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0�������������32#�����������������������<�222The returning officer for theNavsari seat in South Gujaratforced to deploy as many asseven staff members to countdeposit of �5000 paid by theBahujan Samaj Party candidateGunvant Rathod! In fact, theBSP candidate came to file hisnomination papers carryingcoins. When the officer askedfor the reason to pay the depositin small coins, Rathod said itwas his way of protesting againstdemonetisation of high valuecurrency notes. According tohim, the coins were given to himby his supporters, who are alsohis voters.

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been addressed satisfactorily. Also,we have appointed 300 eminent cit-izens who go to the department toget the grievance redressed. Eachgrievance related information goesto the complainant and the eminentcitizen of the area.

What are the measures to improveand increase industry?

We have divided Haryana intofour different categories A to D. ‘A’category is where industry is estab-lished and ‘D’ where there is no indus-

try. For industries being set up in theD category areas, we have waived-offthe electricity duty. Also, we arethinking of giving them concession-al rates in power tariff.

The MSME in C and D categoryareas which give employment to peo-ple from Haryana, will be given

incentives like a sum of �3,000 per person per month willbe given when the industry is in C and D areas. We areencouraging local employment and so that they wouldset up industry in these areas.

Additionally, we are also trying to develop skills.People are unable to meet the expectations of the pri-vate industries and so we are setting up skill develop-ment centres. A full scale university was established inPalwal for skill development where the infrastructure isbeing developed. But some courses have already start-ed and youngsters are already studying there so that thatthey develop skills which are better suited to the indus-try. Some soft skills, IT and entrepreneurial skills arealready being taught

What can we look forward to in this year’sSurajkund Mela?

UP is the partner State and Kyrgyzstan, the coun-try partner. The footfall is increasing every year andlast year it was 1.2 million. This year we have decid-

ed upon dates so that the 15 days of the Mela wouldbe spread over three weekends.

Last year, 24 countries had participated and we arehoping the participation will go up this year. There are

lots of facilities for the craftsperson and artisan who arethe focus of the crafts Mela. They are given shops at nom-inal rates and logistical arrangements are made. Languishingarts are also being revived where the States and the UTshave been asked to any skill any product which is fadingaway and we promote it here.

Manushi Chhillar has madeHaryana proud by becoming theMiss World. What are the wayswomen are being empowered andencouraged to move ahead in theState?

We started the Beti BachaoBeti Padhao campaign in 2015 withthe focus that women participationshould increase and the attitudetowards them in families shouldchange. The first step that we tookin this direction was to open Mahilathana in which women who were introuble could approach and talk toabout their problems without anyhesitation.

We tried to create social aware-ness and many social organisationsas well as the khap panchayats cameforward to emphasise that daugh-ters are as important as sons.Gradually a perception is takingroot that daughters are no longer aburden on the family. Earlier cele-brations like beating a thali wererestricted to the birth of a son butnow take place even when a daugh-ter is born. And this has had theeffect of improving the sex ratiofrom 850 to 937.

When it comes to Beti BachaoBeti Padhao, all the departments areinvolved in it whether it’s Women,Child Development, Health orHome department. Under thePNDT Act, 234 FIRs were regis-tered in cases of sex selection andfemale foeticide.

Another way to encouragewomen is the promotion of sports.We have plans to set up 525 nurs-eries for it. Out of these, 440 havealready started functioning. Theidea is to catch them young. Whilethese are accessible to both sexes atnursery level, this sends out a pow-erful signal towards womenempowerment. More than 1,000yogashalas will be established in theState this year.

What is the status of OpenDefecation Free?

ODF has been completed in vil-lage as well as city areas. Now we areheading towards ODF plus. Liquidwaste management and sewagewaste management projects havestarted. In Faridabad andGurugram a big project in

Banthwari will start. Five other ten-ders have been done and another 11stations have to come up acrossHaryana. Garbage is being used tocreate energy and also compost insome places.

In irrigation, the water hasreached the tail end.

In Haryana water did notreach several tails for 39 years. Wehave managed water so that itreaches the tail end. The waterquantity has not increased substan-tially but is being effectively man-aged. Water reached 293 tails whereit was stored and used till monsoon.Some places had become darkzones because of water extractionand these too were recharged dur-ing this time.

What is the e-portal for mandis?Out of 108 mandis, 54 have

been linked and online and theywork online.

What is the pension scheme?Through Samajik Suraksha

Yojana we give pension to 24 lakhpeople. We are targeting to give anamount of �2,000 every month.From 1 January, it will become1,800. Every year the target is toincrease �200. This is the highestamount in the country and enableswidows, old people, differently-abled are able to live a normal life.

There is emphasis on e-gover-nance. How has it helped especial-ly in eliminating nepotism in theGovernment?

There is an emphasis on trans-parency. For instance, among theteachers, there is the issue of trans-fers which are now being done atthe single click of button. Teacherscan list their posting preference and,63,000 teachers have been trans-ferred and 96 per cent of teachershave got first, second and thirdchoices through this scheme. Theteachers get a placement close totheir residence which is turn affectsthe students positively.

For helping to address thegrievances of people we have cre-ated a Chief Minister Window. Wehave got 3.5 lakh grievances andmore than 70 per cent of these have

In a mission to fight corruptionand fixing the irregularities,the Bharatiya Janata Party

(BJP) politician, the first time leg-islator Manohar Lal Khattar, whotook over the top post in Haryanaon October 26, 2014, is leaving nostone unturned to make Haryanathe best State of India. Haryana ison the path towards makingHaryana ek, Haryanvi ek (unitedHaryana, united people ofHaryana) — the Government’sinclusive development slogan —a reality.

Keeping up the promises, theState Government saw the incep-tion of new schemes, initiatives,development programmes, andwent digital to ensuring trans-parency, corruption-free system,welfare of all, including farmers,labourers and development ofthe rural sector. The State gener-ates annual milk production of89.75 lakh tonne, ranking it in thesecond position in the countrywith milk availability of 878 gramsper person. The State Governmentis making efforts to promote

Periyarban farming as it iswith Haryana that theNCR has a large marketof 40 million consumers,in which more and moregoods of Haryana farm-ers can be sent. Thepresent Governmenthas run 14 irrigationprojects, includingmicro irrigation.Some areas of theState have beenincluded in theDark John and ifthe farmers of thearea adopt microfi-nance irrigation, thenthey can be negotiated togive connection to tube-well.

To get water to SouthHaryana, the Government hasspent �225 crore and now thewater has reached the tail of theareas, where water has not reachedbefore. Referring to an area ofLoharu, the Government isworking to cure distribution ofirrigation system.

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AGita Jayanti Mahotsava is beingcelebrated at Kurukshetra,

where the war of Mahabharatawas fought.

The aim of Gita Jayantiis to increase the values inthe society and the pride ofthe people. The unique-ness lies in the fact that the

Mahabharata was foughthere and Arjun was given the mes-

sage of Gita by Lord Krishna here. Theintention of this Jayanti is thateveryone gets to know themessage of Gita. People from

India and abroad come for GitaJayanti. Earlier the programme

was for five days and now it has beenextende tenders have been done and

another 11 stations have to come up acrossHaryana. Garbage is being used to createenergy and also compost in some places.

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Page 8: 3,#34+56˛˚ +2 7 - News Headlines India subsidies, the JAM trinity (Jan Dhan Yojna, Aadhaar and Mobile trinity) has prevented leakages to the tune of nearly ... ering ‘Jai Kissan

Justice delayed is justice denied,” is anold English adage which rings just astrue today. For some like Machang

Lalung, who spent 54 years in prison with-out trial, it’s a poignant reminder of ourfailure as a society.

The numbers: According to the reportpublished by Amnesty International Indiatiled Justice Under Trial: A Study of Pre-trialDetention in India which examined data avail-able with the National Crime RecordsBureau and data that was available with theorganization, for the past ten years the per-centage of under-trials compared to the totalnumber of prisoners in Indian jails has almostconsistently been over 65 per cent. This is afrightening statistic, with our numbers onlymarginally better than Pakistan but signifi-cantly worse than countries such asUzbekistan. A breakdown of the individualsthat make up this astonishing figure is evenmore worrisome and warrants examination.It cannot be ignored that the same AmnestyInternational report states that of the totalnumber of undertrials in India, 53 per centare Dalits, Muslims or Adivasis. This is a stag-gering figure considering that these commu-nities only make up 39 per cent of India’s totalpopulation. Another number that caught myattention was that 42 per cent of the under-trials have not completed their secondaryeducation. This is not particularly surprisingas the communities mentioned are some ofthe poorest in India. Cold statistics, thoughrevealing, have a tendency to dehumanise thesuffering that each of these individuals goesthrough for years on end.

Numbers don’t lie and there seems to beoverwhelming evidence that people from cer-tain communities and from poorer back-grounds tend to be on the receiving end ofthe inefficiencies of our judicial system. Thissentiment is echoed in the 268th report of theLaw Commission, which states that “it hasbecome a norm than an aberration in mostjurisdictions including India that the pow-erful, rich and influential obtain bail prompt-ly and with ease, whereas the masses/the com-mon/the poor languish in jails.” The reasonsmooted behind the exceptionally high num-ber of undertrials in our country are numer-ous such as a dearth of legal-aid lawyers whoare extremely poorly paid and are, therefore,unwilling to undertake bail cases on behalfof the marginalized or a lack of understand-ing of the law by police officers on the groundwho actually enforce the laws. I have attempt-ed to examine some of these issues later inthis article but it is without doubt that we asa country need to examine the ethos that gov-erns our penal system.

Theories of Punishment: Theories ofpunishment are the rationale behind puni-tive action against an individual in a partic-ular manner. There are a variety of theoriesof punishment, however broadly they maybe classified as:

� The deterrent theory which primari-ly believes that severe punishments can helpensure that criminals don’t repeat the crime;

�� The retributive theory which ispremised on vengeance and seeks to punishan offender and ensure suffering;

��The preventive theory which focus-es on preventing crime rather than deterringan offender or ensuring vengeance; and

��The reformative theory which seeksreform the offender through individualtreatment and seeks to make the individuala law-abiding member of society.

The essential aim of any theory of pun-ishment however is or should be to reducecrime in a society. Ideally, a modern societyseeks to not only reduce crime but also toensure that individuals are transformed intocontributing members of a society. However,the Indian Penal Code, which is the prima-ry penal statute in our country, was draftedat a different period of time in our history.It was a legislation that sought to enforce theauthority of a brutal Government rather thanto ensure the well-being of its oppressed sub-jects. Therefore, punishment under the IPCand the judicial interpretation that has fol-lowed primarily seems to be heavily influ-encedby the retributive theory and thedeterrence theory but has been found lack-ing in terms of the reformative theory. Thisis unfortunate as more and more countriesare realizing that the way forward is not a the-

ory that isolates an individual from societybut one that helps the individual become acontributing member of it.

What can we do? Smarter men than Ihave spoken about what steps can be takento help reduce the severity of the issue at handand there is no doubt that structural reformsare required. However, even if the cure treadsa long and trying path, there are a few pal-liative measures that could be considered.

Prosecute laddering: An issue thatplagues the policy system is that of lad-dering. This is whenpolice ‘inflates’charges in a particular case. For exam-ple, a charge of assault (which is not avery serious charge) is twinned alongwith an attempt to murder charge (whichis much more severe charge). Such prac-tices need to be discouraged and it isimportant police forces are audited on thegrounds of whether the charges that havein reality been placed on the accused werewarranted. Currently, the superintendentof police and the deputy superintendentof police are the individuals who areresponsible for ensuring that such prac-tices are not taking place while chargesare being drawn up. Therefore, in theevent police officers are found guilty ofengaging in such practices, it is impera-tive that the guilty officers and thesupervising officers should be heldaccountable for their misconduct.

Investigation techniques and a focuson career criminals: Criminals are typical-ly of two types: career criminals who arerepeat offenders and have made crime a wayof life such as dacoits etc. and non-profes-sional criminals who typically do not havea history of violent conduct or of breakingthe law. The Indian police system howev-er treats both such offenders the same way.This leads to a situation where most of thecrime which is carried out by career crim-inals is not given adequate focus and alsounfortunately leads to a situation where acriminal who has committed a one-offoffence is forced to spend most of his or herlife in prison. Granted that there are certainoffences that may warrant this treatmentsuch as certain offences against the body;however, to treat all these criminals the sameis counterproductive and harmful to soci-ety. In my opinion, the police should focusa greater percentage of its resources oncareer criminals rather than the odd per-son accused of a crime. The bail system inIndia should reflect this approach as well.Furthermore, there is an overreliance in oursystem on oral evidence as opposed to sci-entific and forensic evidence. This is a mas-sive problem as judges cannot rely on objec-tive, scientific evidence that is placedbefore them to adjudicate on a case andinstead they are forced to rely on oral tes-timony, which is more often than notseverely contested. This leads to a longertrial period for the accused. There must bea much greater focus on teaching policeforces modern investigating techniquesand encouraging police to build its case andframe charges by placing a greater relianceon scientific and forensic evidence ratherthan mere oral statements.

Compulsory bail: Currently the man-ner in which the bail system works underIndian law is that in the case of bailableoffences, bail is required to be given to anoffender as a matter of right. In the case ofnon-bailable offences there is an impressionthat bail is to be granted as an exceptionrather than as a rule. However, the law pre-scribes that bail in the case of non-bailableoffences may be granted unless, inter alia,certain circumstances as prescribed by thelaw have occurred. One such exception isif the person has been convicted previous-ly for an offence which is punishable bydeath or imprisonment for life or if suchperson has been convicted on two or moreoccasions of a non-bailable or cognizableoffence. Therefore, even the letter of the lawseems to intend that bail should be grant-ed as a matter of right. In reality, this is notthe approach that has been followed. It maythen be useful to further clarify the law andexplicitly state that bail must be compulso-rily given unless there are certain exception-al circumstances or if the accused in a repeatoffender or a career criminal.

I have carried some of these issues withme since my time with the Indian PoliceService and later as a citizen of the country.I hope some of these concerns resonate withyou as much as they did with me.

(The writer, Jharkhand PCC president, isa former MP and IPS officer. Views expressedare personal)/

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Sir — This refers to the report,“Finally, it’s Rahul” (November21). With the Congress taking abold decision to anoint RahulGandhi as the party presidentahead of the crucial GujaratAssembly election, it has gambledin putting him in the venerableleague of Congress stalwarts suchas Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi,Rajiv Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi.Surprisingly, Rahul Gandhi seemsto have turned a corner in the lastfew months. Ever since his addressat Berkeley two months ago, heappears to have re-invented himself.

He has mastered the art ofbarking and biting on social mediaspaces, pitting himself headlongagainst Prime Minister NarendraModi. Rahul Gandhi will nowhave to fill the shoes of his moth-er who has boasted of a brillianttrack record in managing partyaffairs. Will he be able to play themediator with the same finesse asher? Only time will tell.

JS Acharya Hyderabad

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Sir— This refers to the editorial,“Cure medical mentality”(November 22). We know howpoor children were made to work aschimney sweepers in the UK afterthe industrial revolution. It bears tes-timony to the fate of the poor whena State leaves the general people tothe mercy of the market players.

Similarly, when Gurugram’sFortis Memorial Hospital charged aseven-year-old girl Adya Singh’sparents �18 lakh for 15 days of treat-

ment, and that too after her death,it clearly shows the results of allow-ing profiteers to hijack the healthsector without any control. Lack ofGovernment’s participation, involve-ment and control in the health sec-tor is responsible for what is happen-ing in Gurugram and in many otherhospitals in our country.

Sujit De Kolkata

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Sir — This refers to the report,“Dalveer wins his spurs at the inter-national court” (November 22). Ina major diplomatic victory, one thatalso cements India’s growing clouton the world stage, Justice DalveerBhandari’s re-election to theInternational Court of Justice makesthe win more significant, is the factthat his opponent, ChristopherGreenwood of the UK, withdrewfrom the contest, at the proverbiallast minute. India’s new-foundassertiveness in foreign councilshad paid off yet again. It will be thefirst time in the ICJ’s 70-year-old his-tory that the UK, a permanentmember of the Security Council, willnot have a judge on the ICJ bench.

Once the case of Navy officerKulbhushan Jadhav had been takenup by the ICJ, it had become a mat-ter of grave political consequencethat Justice Bhandari should contin-ue to occupy a post there. For himto do so, it was necessary for JusticeBhandari to secure a majority inboth the UN General Assembly andUN Security Council.

KS JayatheerthaBengaluru

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Page 9: 3,#34+56˛˚ +2 7 - News Headlines India subsidies, the JAM trinity (Jan Dhan Yojna, Aadhaar and Mobile trinity) has prevented leakages to the tune of nearly ... ering ‘Jai Kissan

With India’s gross domesticproduct (GDP) growthplummeting from around

nine per cent to about six per cent injust six quarters between 2016-2017,economic mismanagement hasbecome a hot-button issue, which theOpposition is trying to capitalise onin electoral terms, especially withrespect to demonetisation.

But to understand the deeperimplications, we need to go beyondjust the numbers. First, some contextabout what the critics are really say-ing: Jobs are scarce, consumer confi-dence is eroding, the manufacturingsector has been hard-hit and percep-tions about low GDP exist. To top itall, there has been a refusal to acknowl-edge the fact that we inherited a weakeconomy in 2014 — a economy thatwas plagued by rising fiscal and cur-rent account deficits and inflation,besides policy paralysis and high-scale

corruption. These are structural constraints

that won’t go away easily, especiallywhen tough reforms are introduced.Yet, the slowdown effect of demoneti-sation and GDP is being made to lookas a permanent handicap. That the sit-uation is not permanent was madeclear by latest economic data, whichshowed a cooling of inflation, arebound in exports and in capitalgoods production.

In any case, investments have beenfalling since 2011-12; exports havebeen weak since 2012-13; agriculturehas been hit by successive droughtssince 2014; industrial growth andmanufacturing have been non-con-tributors since the last several years.

Similarly, it is well-known that thecontribution of the agriculture sectorto our GDP has been extremely weaksince the last two decades, and ruraldistress has been a permanent feature,alleviated only by temporary, season-al scenarios and pushes like MGNRE-GA — rural growth witnessed areversal in 2013-14, not to be revivedagain. This is set to get worse witherratic weather patterns due to climatechange and the inefficacy of best cush-ioning policies to address farm distress.

Economic uptick, due to

favourable crude prices during 2014-15 and 2015-16, despite all these fac-tors, was an exception. Yet, a slowdownin economic growth from the tempo-rary state of exception — after thetapering of good oil prices — is beingset as a standard of judgement by dis-counting everything, right from the‘temporary’ effects of the Goods andServices Tax (GST) and demonetisa-tion and permanent structural con-straints that have held back econom-ic growth since the last six years.

At the same time, our service sec-tor has grown consistently since the1960s and constitutes about 70 per centof the economy. What sustainedIndia’s growth in the post-2008 crisisperiod (2010-14) was growth in theservice sector, which grew at a com-pound annual growth rate of 8.6 percent, clubbing India with other fortu-nate emerging economies like Braziland China during post-crisis period.

This sector has not been a driverof employment in India and China,even though it contributed to two-third of employment in the top 15 ser-vice sector economies. Informal econ-omy largely sustains our employ-ment. It is, therefore, confounding thatfor political reasons, ‘job creation’ issuddenly being touted as the imme-

diate ‘single biggest challenge’ beforethe Government. How can it sudden-ly be an ‘immediate’ challenge, whenstagnation in jobs has been a part ofthe economy for nearly two decades?

It was as much a challenge thenas it is now. Change of time orGovernment does not take away fromthe necessity of jobs. To now frame theissue politically, as an emergency,reeks of something amiss. Small andmedium enterprises, which generatemost jobs, have been hit by the tem-porary effects of demonetisation andGST — obviously some effects on jobswill be visible. But it is too early to blowan already deteriorating condition outof proportion.

The economy has many cogs andcannot work through the good wish-es of top leaders alone — account hasto be taken of everyone right from thetop leadership to the local-level offi-cer, and of course, the pervasive prob-lem of underhand deals and corrup-tion at all levels, which cannot be con-trolled unless there is micromanage-ment or change in people them-selves. ‘Project execution’ under bigticket reforms like Make in India, Skilldevelopment and defence deals hasbeen stuck because of lethargy ofentrenched bureaucracies, politics

over land acquisition and anentrenched psychology of moral andmaterial corruption in small sarkarioffices and the people alike. Public util-ities, mining and defence procurementhave, after all, always been plagued bycorruption and bureaucratic whims.

When the victim does not get theexpected share or fruits out of thismutually endorsed arrangement ofcorruption, there are loud complaints,otherwise everyone is ready to goalong with the flow. The economy isdependent on expectations and sen-timents and these, in turn, are inclinedtowards the most selfish way out. Anyreform that can disrupt such a tenden-cy or ask for even miniscule sacrificeon the part of the selfish economicagent is naturally decried — althoughpeople’s support for demonetisation,last year, confounded the economistsby thwarting this instinct. Obviouslythen, companies are not investing andare adopting a ‘wait-and-watch’approach — after all, most of theirsources of illegal and easy financeshave been throttled.

Poor private investment growth— with its un-rebounding slowdownsince the last so many years — is a tes-tament to this psychology. A lot of itsthriving contribution to the economy

has come from illegal, cross-borderflows or financed through shell com-panies within the country or by over-invoicing. In 2010-11, it was speculat-ed that nearly $40 billion of suchmoney came to the aid of big compa-nies in India.

With the Government cancellingregistrations of lakhs of shell compa-nies, making the tax structureunfriendly, reforming the corruptprocess of natural resources auctions,making the banks hawkish to lend totroubled promoters and leading a bru-tal crackdown on illegal flows in gen-eral, many of the traditional avenuesof private investment have been wipedout in one go, compelling private cap-ital to stick to ‘normal’ routes of mak-ing profits. Of course, we can alwaysdebate the details of whether theGovernment did this prudently or irra-tionally, but the larger picture is diffi-cult to fault.

Temporary fixes that are beingdebated can range from hikingGovernment spending, to reducinginterest rates, to providing leeway toprivate investment, but these are nopanaceas for deep-rooted systemic cor-ruption, which had been contributingto the economic growth till now.

When the system itself was based

on corruption at every level — call itthe survival instinct of the commonman — due to its endemic moralturpitude, the results will be bad andpainful. This is especially so when easyfactors of survival are suddenlyremoved, while corruption — aninherent moral turpitude that cannotgo away till a change in human con-sciousness — continues to persist indifferent forms. This is what theeconomy is witnessing today, butpolitics and sweeping expert judg-ments have led to an even more jumbled diagnosis.

From all available evidence, itappears that the state of the economyhas been going down since the last twodecades, people are becoming worse-off and an artificial bubble seems tohave powered fashionable GDP num-bers. Temporary hard-hitting reformsbeing tried by this Government —though laudable in intention — can-not take us very far. Yes, they havethrottled illegal avenues to a greatextent, but corruption at every level stillcontinues, despite best efforts — cor-ruption that is deeply rooted in victimsand aggressors like.

(The writer is with the Institute forPeace and Conflict Studies and writesfor The Resurgent India Trust)

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Ahuge ruckus has cropped up inrecent times about how the socialmedia played a damaging role in

the US election and adversely influencedpublic opinion in other countries. SiliconValley-based social media and technol-ogy giants are now facing intense glob-al scrutiny. Given its unbridled power,social media has helped fuel the spreadof unverified information and lies. It hasbecome a weapon in the hands of per-petrators. We seem to have graspedsocial media’s virality in a way that wedon’t really understand the mechanicsand forces operating from behind.

The term ‘social media’ is a ratherinteresting innocuous sounding word.It first created technology addictionamong its users, dismantled tradition-al or old media bastions and contin-ued to undo institutions and socialorder, perhaps unwittingly. To makematters worse, people running themdon’t seem to fully understand whatthey have designed.

Attention economy: Apart fromtechnology addiction, there is also agrowing concern that we are all turn-ing into a generation that is sufferingfrom relentless distractions, almost allthe time. We are now living in whatis being termed as the ‘attention econ-omy’ mediated by digital platforms. Wehave all become attention-mongers,vying for each other’s attention.Attention economy breeds on impulsereactions, outrages, exploits, sensation-alism to entertain and survive.

We are surrounded by gadgets andscreens spewing information and con-tent incessantly. The continuous tread-mill of information ‘updates’ ifunchecked, leaves us guilt-stricken. Itforces us to constantly refresh and stayhooked to our devices. None of the infor-mation seems to hold our attention forlong. Compulsive mindless scrollingumpteen number of times in a day keepsus busy. No wonder, our society todayis afflicted by an epidemic of ‘continu-ous partial attention’. The social mediaseems to have dominated our lives. Wehave never witnessed such levels of inti-macy with any other mass medium inthe past. Social media is severely affect-ing our focus and cognitive abilities.

Outgrown purpose: Has the socialmedia outgrown its initial stated pur-pose? It started off as a harmless platformto create community and make friends.It was instantly popular among the youthconsidering its universal appeal. Itbrought in a new youth culture. Afteramassing audience globally, technologistsbehind the platforms went on to ‘inno-vate’ and add newer features to increasethe ‘stickiness’ of the medium.

Features such as news feeds werethrown-in to create the mother of all

platforms. You could unknowinglyspend a good part of the day living inyour own bubble and consume what-ever information is being dished out toyou and feeds you received from peo-ple you know. There was no need forveracity of information. Message posts,forwards and likes are endorsementsenough to believe and consume infor-mation. In the process, tech giantsamassed both the audience and theirrapturous attention globally, and soldthese as commodities to advertisers. Anew business model emerged. Big dig-ital gold rush had begun.

It coincided when the so-called ‘oldmedia’, like newspapers, publicationswere on the decline in the West.Established newspapers went broke,local newspapers and newsrooms werebeing shut. In the enthusiasm to dig goldon digital platforms, the print media wasasphyxiated and starved of funds andinvestments moved to alluring digitalplatforms. Democracy and serious jour-nalism began to take a knock.

Digital gold rush: A viable businessmodel around the digital still alludes,however, in the process, the core prod-uct, Print journalism and newspapersnearly got killed and along with it wentthe gate-keeping mechanism, whereinformation is put out for public con-sumption only after a thorough and rig-orous fact-checking process. The oldmedia unwittingly became the cheerleader of the digital forces, perhaps forthe lack of confidence in their own lega-cy institutions, and in the process,ended up doing a lot of self-harm. Thesame digital gold rush happened in theIndian media scenario too.

This tragic decline of old mediacame as a great deal of help for the dig-ital forces to consolidate and overpow-er the old media’s established, painstak-ing, organised and orderly way of cre-ating and disseminating news and infor-mation with checks and balances andaccountability intact.

A parallel world came into existence.Technologists were busy playfully script-ing (should we say coding) the newworld information order and re-wiringour lives. They were redrawing the con-tours of our own perceptions andengagement with the outside world.

After all, the social media plat-forms, primarily created to give themuch-needed trivial touch to life, hadno space in their lexicon for high-minded words and bombast, such asaccountability, societal implications,regulations, check and balances, fact-checking and verification.

Fragmentation: Evidently, theworld is becoming toxic, polarised,fragmented, divisive and unstable. Theseare social problems that social mediaplatforms and technology have unwit-tingly heaped on us. It is a scenario ofdeadly mix of poor civics knowledge andpoor information literacy. Erosion oftrusted sources and responsible journal-ism is turning out to be one of the biggestchallenges of this century.

Can we, as media consumers, sitby the side and merely watch this phe-nomenon? How do we negotiate withdigital technology-fueled new worldinformation ‘disorder’? If technologyis eroding old structures, what is atstake? One must realise, technologycan do good, it can also do insur-

mountable harm. There is no escape from adapting to

the new technology and we must.However, like we are watchful about sev-eral things going on in our society, suchas crime, we also need to be vigilant andconstantly adjust to this new reality ofmisinformation and disinformationthat is being purveyed with impunity.

On the other hand, social mediaplatforms will need to bring in moretransparency and be open to scrutiny. Associal media is playing an outsized rolein providing news and information, weneed a better categorisation/classificationof these platforms and demarcation oftheir roles in the overall informationecosystem. Like any other institution,there is a need for governance structureand regulatory and policy frameworkunder which they shall operate and beheld accountable. Consumer and medialiteracy assumes even more impor-tance in these times.

To be an informed citizen and par-ticipant in civic life, we need a depend-able, trust worthy source of news,views and information. The old mediasuch as Print publication, has been ful-filling this role over decades in further-ing the cause of public discourse in astructured and responsible manner.We need to repose our faith and trustin time-tested institutions and stem theunwarranted erosion of our owndemocratic ideals and values.

Like spam emails, the era of fakenews may not entirely go away. Weneed to set our own cognitive filtersand make wiser choices while choos-ing our information sources.

(The writer is a freelance writer)

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It is certainly bad news for thedefaulting promoters who seek

to reclaim their firms that areunder insolvency proceedingsas the Government, on Thursday,promulgated an ordinance tobar wilful bank loan defaulters aswell as those with non-perform-ing asset or NPA accounts frombidding in auctions being done torecover loans.

The ordinance aims atputting in place safeguards toprevent unscrupulous personsfrom misusing or vitiating theprovisions of the Insolvency andBankruptcy Code (IBC), thecorporate affairs ministry said ina statement.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley,however, said, “The ordinance dis-entitles the big defaulters andmakes it difficult for them to bidfor distressed assets which was oftheir own making.” Citing anexample, he said, “You can't saymy account is NPA (non per-forming asset) but I have to bid.This is ethically completely unac-ceptable to the Indian political sys-tem. “I also have a political costto pay. You can’t be a stressed assetand you want to join the processfor bidding,” he added. He furthersaid one solution could be that theNPA holder at least comes for-ward and services the interest by�10-15,000 crore in an asset of,say, �1 lakh crore.

The amendments would beapplicable to cases where the res-

olutions are yet to be approved.President Ram Nath Kovind onThursday signed the ordinancethat amends the IBC 2016 whichwas sent to him by the UnionCabinet on Wednesday.

The amendments to the insol-vency law need to be approved byParliament in its next sessionwhich is likely to begin onDecember 15. The changes essen-tially mean that certain promot-ers would not be allowed to bid fortheir own assets under the insol-vency proceedings initiated torecover overdue loans.

In the first phase, as many as12 companies with over �5,000crore of overdue loans each,including Bhushan Steel, EssarSteel, Lanco Infratech, MonnetIspat and Electrosteel, werereferred by the RBI for resolutionunder this law. In several of thesecases, the original promotersthemselves are among the bidders.Amid rising concerns that adefaulting promoter could wrestback control of the company thatis under insolvency even as bankstake a hit on the loans, the gov-ernment on Wednesday approvedpromulgating an ordinance toamend the Insolvency andBankruptcy Code. President RamNath Kovind has given assent tothe ordinance, the ministry saidon Thursday.

“The amendments aim tokeep out such persons who havewilfully defaulted, are associatedwith non-performing assets, or arehabitually non-compliant and,

therefore, are likely to be a risk tosuccessful resolution of insolven-cy of a company,” it said.

As per the ordinance, thosewho have their accounts classifiedas non-performing assets (NPAs)for one year or more and areunable to settle their overdueamounts include interest thereonand charges relating to theaccount before submission of theresolution plan would be ineligi-ble. Corporates, promoters, hold-ing companies, subsidiaries, andassociate companies or relatedparties undergoing insolvencyresolution or liquidation underthe IBC would not be eligible forbidding for the stressed assets.Under the amended code,Committee of Creditors (CoC)has to ensure the viability and fea-

sibility of a resolution plan beforeapproving it.

The CoC should “reject a res-olution plan, which is submittedbefore the commencement of theOrdinance but is yet to beapproved”, the statement said.Besides, the Insolvency andBankruptcy Board of India (IBBI)-- which implements the Code -- is being given additional pow-ers. The IBBI would now havepowers to impose penalty of up to�2 crore on those violating pro-visions of the IBC. The ordinanceamends six sections besidesinserting two new sections in thebankruptcy code, which has beenoperational for less than a year.

Over 300 cases have alreadybeen approved by the NationalCompany Law Tribunal (NCLT)

to be taken up under the law.Commenting on the ordinance,an Essar Steel spokesperson saidthe company is not a wilfuldefaulter. Bhushan Steel Ltd andBhushan Steel and Power CFONitin Johri also said ‘we are not awilful defaulter... We will bid forassets if permitted’.

When asked to comment, aLanco Infratech official said thecompany is not a "wilful" default-er but has NPA of �8,800 crore.On whether they would be bid-ding in the auction process, theofficial said as per the currentnorms, "the promoters' proposalmay not find a place in the finalselection." Monnet Ispat andElectrosteel officials could not bereached for comment despiterepeated attempts. JSW SteelChairman Sajjan Jindal said theGovernment's move towardsstreamlining the IBC process willfacilitate healthy competition.

“Happy to see the govern-ment's intent in moving swiftlytowards streamlining and bring-ing credibility and transparencyin the IBC process,” he said intweet. Manish Aggarwal, Partnerand Head Resolutions, SpecialSituations Group, KPMG inIndia, said the ordinance “signalsthat resolution process willensure that existing sponsorswho are covered by these amend-ments directly or indirectly can-not retain control of their com-panies at the cost of lenders byseeking huge hair cuts and beingback in business”.

0��*�< ���������������������� �� �����������������NEW DELHI: Several companies whoseassets are facing insolvency proceedings onThursday said they were not wilful defaultersand would like to participate in the biddingprocess if permitted. Legal experts were ofdiverse opinion, with some saying that barringcompanies from bidding would furtherdepress the price of such assets resulting inmore losses to the banking sector,while others stressed that it wouldamount to a setback to credibleinsolvency process if existingpromoters are allowed to re-acquire assets with a haircut.

The comments come inthe wake of the Governmenton Thursday promulgating anordinance to bar wilful bankloan defaulters as well as thosewith NPA accounts from bid-ding in auctions being done torecover loans. Commenting onthe ordinance, Bhushan SteelCFO Nitin Johari said, “We arenot a wilful defaulter. We will bidfor assets if permitted.”

However, he did not elaborate on thefuture plans of the company. An Essar Steelspokesperson also said the company is not awilful defaulter. Essar Group had earlier sub-mitted expression of interest for Essar Steel andsaid it will submit a resolution plan to the insol-vency resolution professional (IRP) within thescheduled time frame.

Asked about the rationale for bidding,the spokesperson said the Insolvency andBankruptcy Code (IBC) allows promotersto bid for their company at the NCLT andthere are no limitations. Essar Steel wasamong the initial 12 companies identified

by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for insol-vency proceedings. Essar Steel owes about�45,000 crore to lenders. A Lanco Infratechofficial said the company is not a wilfuldefaulter but added that its current NPAstood at �8,800 crore. Asked whether thecompany is bidding for its own assets, theofficial said, “As per the current norms, the

promoter’s proposal may notfind a place in the final selec-tion.” JSW Steel ChairmanSajjan Jindal said theGovernment’s move towardsstreamlining the IBC processwill facilitate healthy compe-tition.

“Happy to see theGovernment’s intent in mov-ing swiftly towards streamlin-ing and bringing credibility andtransparency in the IBCprocess,” he said in tweet.Monnet Ispat, Electrosteel andABG Shipyard did not respond

to repeated calls. Legal expertssaid a cursory reading indicates that the ordi-nance purports to disqualify a whole cross sec-tion of people from making resolution applica-tions under IBC which will reduce the pool of res-olution applicants, which will in turn depress thevalue of assets put on the block and ultimately causea loss to the banking sector itself. Nishit Dhruva,Managing Partner, MDP & Partners said,“The need of the hour is to amend the law toensure that only deserving candidates areallowed to bid for stressed assets under theCorporate Resolution Plan. Otherwise itwould be a setback to the credible IBC processif the existing promoter is allowed to re-acquire the asset with a haircut.” PTI

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Telecom czar and Chairmanof India’s largest mobile

company Airtel, Sunil Mittal,on Thursday said the Bhartifamily has pledged about�7,000 crore to philanthropyand will open a new universi-ty to offer free education tomeritorious but underprivi-leged students.

The Bharti family’s com-mitment to give away 10 percent of their personal wealth,also includes three per cent oftheir stake in telecom firmBharti Airtel.

The pledged amount,totalling �7,000 crore wouldmostly go into setting up of anew technology-oriented uni-versity in North India, whilesome part of it would also beused for expanding the exist-ing Satya Bharti SchoolP r o g r a m m e - B h a r t i

Foundation’s flagship initiative.“We are not in this for busi-ness,” said Sunil Mittal, whowas flanked by his brothersRakesh and Rajan at a confer-ence to announce the family'sphilanthropic plans.

The proposed universitywill come up on a 100-acreland and ‘active discussions’are on with various Statesincluding Punjab and Haryanato finalise the location. Mittalsaid he expected the groundbreaking ceremony to takeplace by early next year andthe first academic sessionwould commence by 2021.

The proposed Satya BhartiUniversity for Science andTechnology would focus onadvanced technologies likeArtif icial Intelligence,Robotics, Augmented Realityand Virtual Reality andInternet of Things in additionto offering degrees in electri-

cal and electronics engineeringand management.

“Given our attachment totechnology we would like it tobe very significantly focussedon technology on the lines ofMIT (Massachusetts Instituteof Technology), Stanford,Berkeley..,” said Sunil Mittal,Chairman of BhartiEnterprises and BhartiFoundation.

Mittal’s philanthropicmove comes just days afterInfosys co-founder and techtitan Nandan Nilekani andhis wife Rohini Nilekani com-mitted half of their wealth tophilanthropy by joining the‘The Giving Pledge’, a move-ment spearheaded byMicrosoft co-founder BillGates and Warren Buffett.

The new university willseek partnerships and indus-try linkages with tech giantslike Facebook, Microsoft,

Google and Apple, amongothers. Over a period of timethe fully-residential universi-ty will have 10,000 students,Mittal said.

“About 10 per cent of ourfamily wealth is being ear-marked and pledged to BhartiFoundation, the Group’s phil-anthropic arm. There are cer-

tain structuring and restruc-turing that are right now beingundertaken by lawyers andaccountants (in this regard),”Mittal said.

The setting up of the uni-versity will require �1,000crore initially and a ‘largeamount’ will be needed torun it thereafter, he noted. “InSatya Bharti School pro-gramme there is zero fee, wedo not charge anything, andeven here, the idea is to bringmeritorious underprivilegedstudents to give them educa-tion... it will require a lot ofmoney,” Mittal said.

While courses will be freefor meritorious students whobelong to economically weak-er sections of the society - thatbeing the prime focus of theinstitution - in case of anyunfilled vacancies, only nom-inal amount will be charged inline with the Government fee.

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Sebi has ruled that curbsimposed on Pearls

Infrastructure Projects, majori-ty owned by PACL, will contin-ue as it has rejected the plea todefreeze bank accounts ongrounds that proceedings torecover over �60,000 crore fromthe parent entity is going on.Besides bank accounts, the reg-ulator has refused to defreezePearls Infrastructure ProjectsLtd's (PIPL) demat account andmutual fund holdings.

The move comes after theSecurities and AppellateTribunal (SAT) directed Sebi topass fresh directions in the mat-ter. In a fresh order passed onWesnesday, the regulator said, “ithas set aside the contentions ofthe appellant and direct that thedirections as passed onSeptember 2016 that no debitshall made in any bank accounts,lockers, demat accounts andmutual fund folios etc of PIPLshall remain in force”.

According to Sebi, PACLholds 94.82 per cent sharehold-ing of PIPL directly and indi-rectly through its associate orsubsidiary companies. Sebi hadinitiated recovery proceedingsagainst PACL, its promotersand associate firms, includingPIPL, to recover investors’

money on September 7, 2016. Ithad ordered freezing of bankaccounts as well as demat andmutual fund holdings of asmany as 640 group entities. In adirective to various banks,depositories and mutual funds,Sebi had asked them to ensurethat ‘no debit’ is made withimmediate effect in any of thebank accounts, lockers, demataccounts and mutual funds ofthese entities, to which thePACL Group is suspected tohave transferred money, includ-ing for purchase of properties.

The regulator found that thegroup, which had raised moneyfrom the public in the name ofagriculture and real estate busi-nesses, had collected these fundsthrough illegal collective invest-ment schemes over a period of

18 years. Pursuant to a SupremeCourt order, Sebi had set up ahigh-level committee to ensurethat refunds are made to thegenuine investors after sale ofattached PACL assets, includingvehicles.

The panel, chaired by for-mer Chief Justice of India R MLodha, is overseeing the processof disposing of assets to refundmoney to investors after verify-ing their genuineness. TheSecurities and Exchange Boardof India (Sebi) had already puton the block real estate proper-ties of the group across 192 dis-tricts.

Also, it had auctioned top-end vehicles of PACL Group. InDecember 2015, Sebi hadordered attachment of all assetsof PACL and its nine promotersand directors. PACL had raised�49,100 crore from nearly 5crore investors that it needs torefund along with promisedreturns, interest payout andother charges, which took thetotal amount due to over�60,000 crore.

The regulator had askedthem to refund the money in anorder dated August 22, 2014.The defaulters were directed towind up the schemes, andrefund money to the investorswithin a period of three monthsfrom the date of the order.

NEW DELHI: Merger andacquisition deals involving pub-lic sector oil and gas companieshave been exempted from seek-ing the CompetitionCommission of India (CCI)approval, says a notification.The corporate affairs ministry’sdecision to exempt such dealsfrom the ambit of the CCIcomes against the backdrop ofthe proposed consolidation andstake purchases among state-owned oil and gas companies.

In July, the CabinetCommittee on Economic Affairs(CCEA) approved sale of theGovernment’s 51.11 per centstake in oil refiner HPCL to thecountry’s largest oil producerONGC. The ministry has said allcases of combinations involvingthe central public sector enter-prises (CPSEs) operating in oiland gas sectors under the

Petroleum Act, 1934, have beenexempted from the CCI approvalrequirement for five years.

The exemption will also beapplicable to their “wholly- orpartly-owned subsidiaries oper-ating in the oil and gas sectors,from the application of the pro-visions of sections 5 and 6 of the(Competition) Act, for a periodof five years”, the notificationissued on November 22 said.Sections 5 and 6 pertain tocombinations.

Under the norms, combi-nations or deals beyond a cer-tain threshold compulsorilyrequire approval from the CCI.Earlier this year, the ministryexempted mergers of nation-alised banks from seekingCCI's approval. The regulatorkeeps a tab on anti-competitiveways across sectors to ensurefair practices are followed. PTI

NEW DELHI: Retirement fundbody EPFO on Thursdayapproved a proposal for credit-ing exchange traded fund (ETF)units to provident fund accountsof its 4.5 crore members. EPFOsubscribers would be able to seeETF units in their PF accountsby March- end next year.

EPFO’s apex decision mak-ing body Central Board ofTrustee (CBT) has approved anaccounting policy for valuationand accounting of equity invest-ments which was prepared inconsultancy with IIM Bangalore,Labour Minister SantoshGangwar told reporters aftertrustees’ meet here. Gangwar,who also heads the CBT, said theobservations of the Comptrollerand Auditor General (CAG)were also incorporated in theaccounting policy. PNS

MUMBAI: In a major boost to theasset reconstruction companies(ARCs) the RBI on Thursdayrelaxed norms capping their share-holdings at 26 per cent in the bor-rower firm under reconstruction,provided their net-owned funds aremaintained at �00 crore. EarlierARCs could convert a portion ofthe debt into equity of the borrowerfirm to the extent of 26 per cent ofthe revamped equity capital.However, RBI in a notification said,‘ARCs with net-owned fund of�100 crore on an ongoing basis areexempted from the shareholdingcap at 26 per cent of post- convertedequity of the borrower firm.’. PTI

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NEW DELHI: The citizens’ right of accessing the Internet is‘non-negotiable’ and the Government will not allow any com-pany to restrict people’s entry to the worldwide web, ITMinister Ravi Shankar Prasad said on Thursday. Speaking atthe Global Conference on Cyberspace Security, he said theGovernment did not allow social networking giant Facebook’sFree Basics programme because it offered access to selectInternet services. “When I was handling communicationsdepartment. My friend Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook CEO) metme a number of times with the idea of Free Basics,” he said.Facebook had introduced its Free Basics programme in Indiain 2015 to offer free basic Internet access to people in part-nership with telecom operators. PTI

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Havmor Ice Cream Ltd (HIL)on Thursday said it will sell

the business to South Korea’sLotte Confectionery for �1,020crore. Lotte has decided toacquire 100 per cent shares ofHIL, the company said in a state-ment. Post acquisition, Lottewill start its ice cream businessin the Indian market. “It’s a brandthat we have nurtured with ourteam for over 73 years. But webelieve that Lotte Confectioneryis the right brand to take thecompany to the next level,” HILChairman Pradeep Chona said.

Ahmedabad-based Havmor

has a significant parlour networkacross 14 states in India. Itmakes 150 kinds of productsfrom two plants and sells via30,000 dealers. The $80 billion

Lotte Confectionery enteredIndia in 2004 and has establishedchoco-pie factories in Chennaiand Delhi. Last year, its marketshare reached 90 per cent in theIndian choco-pie market.

Lotte plans to expand its mar-ket power from the northwestregion to all across India with thisentry into the Indian ice-creammarket, the company said.Havmor, however, will continue tooperate its signature chain ofrestaurants and eateries acrossGujarat as well as its signaturebrand and concept cafe – Huberand Holly. KPMG, Veritas Legaland Dhruva Tax consultants werethe financial advisers for the deal.

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The Commerce and Industryministry is chalking out a

‘proper’ business plan based onmarket research in its bid topromote exports of goods andservices, Union MinisterSuresh Prabhu said onThurday. The Commerce andIndustry Minister said a prop-er market segmentation is theneed of the hour to understandthe potential of domestic goodsand services.

Taking note of the poten-tial of regions such as Russiaand Latin America, he said “weare working on a strategy foreach of the markets. I am in theprocess of preparing a properbusiness plan based on marketresearch”. The segmentationwill shed light on the possibil-

ity of increasing penetration ofproducts and services, he saidat the India luxury summithere. Prabhu pointed to thehuge demand in luxury itemsin the international market.

“We are working on quitea few interesting steps. Myministry is making a newindustrial policy and we arealso trying to create new mar-

kets for Indian products glob-ally,” he said.

He made a case for Indianplayers taking a shot at the lux-ury goods sector to ramp upexports to different markets.India's merchandise exportshave entered the negative ter-rain after over an year, con-tracting 1.12 per cent to $23billion in October.

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Stocks on Thursday sailed past manyhiccups as IT and technology shares

ensured the benchmarks ended in sta-ble waters for the sixth day running.Early on, the 30-share Sensex hadslipped to 33,468.30, but some last-minute buying saved the day as theindex settled up 26.53 points, or 0.08 percent, at 33,588.08.

The gauge had rallied over 801points in the past five straight sessions.After oscillating between 10,374.30 and10,307.30, the 50-share NSE Nifty endedthe day flat at 10,348.75, but still up 6.45points, or 0.06 per cent, from its previ-ous close. Persistent buying by domes-tic institutional investors (DIIs) cameagainst the background of a recovery inthe rupee.

“Proposals to change the direct taxcode. Raised fears of more disruption,but ongoing reforms and Fed minutes

showing slower than expected rate hikeslent support at lower levels,” said AnandJames, Chief Market Strategist, GeojitFinancial Services Ltd. Global market

indicators were mixed. Domestic insti-tutional investors (DIIs) mopped upequities worth a net �837.22 crore whileforeign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold offshares worth a net �441.46 crore Tuesday,provisional data showed.

IT bellwether Infosys was on the topof the heap, jumping 2.60 per cent. SunPharma, Reliance Industries, PowerGrid,Axis Bank and Hero MotoCorp addedup to 1.78 per cent. However, Dr Reddy's,Adani Ports, Bajaj Auto, Asian Paints andNTPC all succumbed to profit-bookingand ended lower by up to 2.10 per cent,holding up the gains.

Broader markets turned out to bebenchmark beaters, with small-capand mid-cap indices surging by up to0.51 per cent. The BSE IT index wasthe investors' favourite, with a jump of1.30 per cent, followed by technology,capital goods and consumer durables.Japanese financial markets were shuttoday for a public holiday.

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German heavy industrygiant ThyssenKrupp on

Thursday defended its dis-puted merger with India’sTata Steel, saying its restruc-turing plan and the tie-upwould help to secure tens ofthousands of jobs.

The tie-up, announcedend-September to formEurope’s second biggest steelworks after ArcelorMittal, hassparked fears for 4,000 jobs inproduction and administra-tion that hang in the balance.

Today, thousands of work-ers, some holding up signssaying ‘We are the future’,answered a call by metal worksunion IG Metall to protest atthe group's Andernach site inwestern Germany.

But ThyssenKrupp chiefexecutive Heinrich Hiesingerdefended the merger andplanned overhaul at the con-glomerate, saying: “We willperhaps cut thousands of jobs,but we will also secure tens ofthousands of jobs with this co-enterprise.”

“The problem of overca-pacity in Europe's steel prod-uct remains unsolved, and weare convinced that this merg-er plan is the best solution toprovide the means to becomethe number two in steel inEurope, and to generate syn-ergies that we would not havebeen able to achieve on ourown,” he said.

The merged holding com-pany will be headquartered inthe Netherlands and the dealshould be completed by theend of 2018, added the Germangroup. Hiesinger's commentscame as the group posted anannual loss of 649 millioneuros for the year endingSeptember, due mainly to aone-off charge related to thesale of Brazilian steel mill CSA.

ThyssenKrupp, whichmakes products ranging fromsubmarines to car parts to ele-vators, had issued a profit warn-ing in May about the exceptionalcharge. Nevertheless, its annu-al loss was wider than the 554million-euro loss predicted byanalysts from the financial ser-vice Factset. AFP

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NEW DELHI: State Bank ofIndia (SBI) will unveil thecountry’s first integratedlifestyle and banking digitalplatform on Friday to belaunched here by FinanceMinister Arun Jaitley, accord-ing to a statement from thepublic sector bank.

YONO, the acronym for‘You Only Need One’, will bethe first digital banking plat-form to offer customisedproducts and offers from over60 e-commerce players byleveraging analytics, besides arange of banking and finan-cial services, the SBI releasesaid here.

“In addition..., YONOwill also allow customers tomeet their lifestyle needs

across 14 categories includingbooking and renting cabs,entertainment, dining expe-rience, travel and stay, med-ical needs and so on,” it said.

To provide the cus-tomised offers and discounts,SBI has partnered with e-commerce players includingAmazon, Uber, Ola, Myntra,Jabong, Shoppers Stop, Cox &Kings, Thomas Cook, Yatra,Airbnb, Swiggy and Byjus, itsaid.

The SBI said the productemploys the latest digitaltechnologies such as artificialintelligence (AI), predictiveanalytics and machine learn-ing, and can be accessedthrough a mobile applicationand web portal. IANS

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The finance ministry onThursday said there is no

proposal to withdraw the bankcheque book facility as part ofexercise to promote digitaltransaction. The clarificationcomes in the backdrop ofreports in a certain section ofmedia that there is a possibili-ty that the Central Governmentmay withdraw bank chequebook facility in the near future,with an intent to encourage dig-ital transactions.

This has been denied bythe government and reaf-firmed that there’s no suchproposal, it said in tweets.“The Government of Indiahas reaffirmed that there isNO proposal under consider-ation to withdraw the bankCheque Book facility,” saidone of the tweets.

NEW DELHI: Telecom majorBharti Airtel on Thursdaysaid its non-executive directorRashed Fahad Al-Noaimi hasresigned from the company’sboard of directors. The movefollows sale of 5 per centstake by Qatar Foundation inAirtel for �9,600 crore earlierthis month.

“...We wish to inform thatRashed Fahad Al-Noaimi, non-executive non-independentdirector has resigned from theBoard of Directors of the com-pany with effect fromNovember 22, 2017,” BhartiAirtel said in a BSE filing. Al-Noaimi is the Chief Executivefficer of Investments at QatarFoundation for Education,Science and Community

Development. He is responsi-ble for Qatar Foundation'sinvestment portfolios and long-term investment policies thatinclude Qatar FoundationEndowment, Qatar FoundationInvestments as well as theorganisation’s other joint ven-tures and initiatives, accordingto information available onBharti Airtel's website.

Earlier this month, QatarFoundation offloaded its entire5 per cent stake in Bharti Airtelvia an open market sale. QatarFoundation had said the pro-ceeds of the stake sale would bere-invested across its globalportfolio. Shares of BhartiAirtel closed 0.53 per centlower at �496.05 apiece on theBSE on Thursday. PTI

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Pakistan’s Supreme Court onThursday flayed the gov-

ernment for failing to protectthe sacred pond in the historicKatas Raj temple complex andordered to fill it with water ina week even if water has to becarried in water-skins.

The sacred pond in the his-toric Katas Raj temple complexin Chakwal district of Punjab isreceding as the undergroundaquifer feeding it is under stressdue to industrial activity.

Chief Justice Saqib Nisarordered the government andthe Chakwal district adminis-tration to fill the sacred pondwith water within a week.

“The pond should be filledin a week even if water has tobe carried in water-skins to fillit,” Justice Nisar ordered.

Asserting that the courtwould go to any length to pro-tect the rights of Hindus inPakistan, the chief justiceordered setting up of a high-levelcommittee to probe the matter.

The issue was taken up byJustice Nisar on the basis ofmedia reports that the KatasRaj pond was drying upbecause cement factories near-by were drawing a largeamount of water through anumber of borewells, severelyreducing the sub-soil waterlevel.

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Bangladesh and Myanmarwill start repatriating

Rohingya refugees in twomonths, Dhaka said tonThursday, as global pressuremounts over the crisis that hassent more than half a millionpeople fleeing across the border.

Around 620,000 Rohingyahave poured into Bangladeshsince August to what is now theworld’s largest refugee camp,running from a Myanmar mil-itary crackdown thatWashington said this weekclearly constitutes “ethniccleansing”.

The statement fromSecretary of State Rex Tillersonis the strongest US condemna-tion yet of the crackdown,accusing Myanmar’s securityforces of perpetrating ‘horren-dous atrocities’ against thegroup.

Following talks betweenMyanmar’s civilian leader AungSan Suu Kyi and Dhaka’sForeign Minister AHMahmood Ali, and after weeksof tussling over the terms ofrepatriation, the two sidesinked a deal in Myanmar’scapital Naypyidaw today.

In a brief statement, Dhakasaid they had agreed to startreturning the refugees to main-ly Buddhist Myanmar in twomonths.

It said that a working groupwould be set up within threeweeks to agree the arrange-ments for the repatriation.

“This is a primary step.(They) will take back(Rohingya). Now we have tostart working,” Ali toldreporters in Naypyidaw.

However, it remainsunclear how many Rohingyawill be allowed back and howlong the process will take.

Rights groups have raisedconcerns about the process,including where the minoritywill be resettled after hundreds

of their villages were razed, andhow their safety will be ensuredin a country where anti-Muslimsentiment is surging.

The stateless Rohingyahave been the target of com-munal violence and viciousanti-Muslim sentiment inmainly Buddhist Myanmar foryears.

They have also been sys-tematically oppressed by thegovernment, which strippedthe minority of citizenship andseverely restricts their move-ment, as well as their access tobasic services.

Tensions erupted intobouts of bloodshed in 2012 thatpushed more than 100,000Rohingya into grim displace-ment camps.

Manila: Philippine PresidentRodrigo Duterte has called onpolice to once again take thelead role in his deadly drug war,having twice demoted them inresponse to criticism of thecrackdown.

The fiery leader, who rightsgroups say may be orchestrat-ing a crime against humanitywith his bloody anti- drugscampaign, said the PhilippineDrug Enforcement Agency(PDEA) with 2,000 officerswas incapable of doing thejob.

“Whether I like it or not, Ihave to return that power to thepolice,” he said in a speech lastnight. AFP

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Cuba, one of North Korea’sfew allies, called on on

Thursday for ‘peace and stabil-ity’ in the Korean peninsula andstressed the need for dialogueto reduce tensions betweenPyongyang and Washington.

Upon receiving his NorthKorean counterpart Ri Yong-Ho in Havana, foreign affairsminister Bruno Rodriguez saidCuba is ‘in favour of peace andstability,’ adding that ‘only afterdialogue and negotiations cana lasting political solution beachieved,’ according to Cubanmedia.

In the wake of PresidentTrump’s declaration of NorthKorea as a state sponsor of ter-ror on Monday, Rodriguez alsorejected what he called theUnited States’ ‘unilateral certi-fications and dictates’ on NorthKorea — insisting they servedas a basis for “the application ofcoercive measures contrary tointernational law.”

Meanwhile, Ri blamed the‘increased use of imperialistmilitary force’ for the worsen-ing situation in the Koreanpeninsula, and stressed theimportance of Cuba-NorthKorea relations as ‘two social-ism-building countries.’

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Russian President VladimirPutin said on Wednesday

that the breakdown of Syria hasbeen prevented, and that anew stage has been reached forthe possible transition to apolitical settlement in the war-torn country.

The leaders of Russia, Iran,Turkey held a trilateral summitin the Russian city Sochi, dis-cussing the current situation inSyria and further joint steps torestore peace and security inthe country.

“Large-scale military oper-ations against terrorist gangs inSyria are coming to an end. Ishould note that thanks to theefforts of Russia, Iran andTurkey, it was possible to pre-vent the disintegration of Syriaand conquest by internationalterrorists, as well as to avoid ahumanitarian catastrophe,”Putin said at the summit,Xinhua news agency reported.

According to Putin, theregime of the cessation of hos-tilities is observed in Syria, fourde-escalation zones are func-tioning in key regions of thecountry and hundreds of thou-sands of refugees have begunreturning to their hometown.

“It can be stated with cer-tainty that we have reached anew stage that opens the doorto a real political settlementprocess,” he said.

Underlining that the polit-ical settlement must be for-

malised within the frameworkof the Geneva process, Putinsuggested developing a long-term ‘comprehensive systemfor the revival of Syria.’

He said the success of thereforms largely depends onthe solution of the social andeconomic problems of Syria, aswell as the restoration of indus-try, agriculture, infrastructure,health and education systems.

In particular, the presidenthighlighted the importance ofspeeding up the implementationof the Syrian National DialogueCongress and proposed to dis-cuss the parameters of the forumwith the other two heads of state.

“It is obvious that theprocess of reform will be diffi-cult, will require compromisesand concessions from all itsparticipants. I hope Russia,Iran and Turkey together willmake the most active efforts tomake this work as productiveas possible,” he said.

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Zimbabwe’s former PresidentRobert Mugabe and his

wife Grace have been grantedimmunity from prosecution,the military said on Thursday,allowing the couple to remainin the country.

Colonel Overson Mugwisi,a spokesman for theZimbabwean Defence Forces,told CNN that an agreement hadbeen reached with the 93-year-old former leader that includedimmunity and a guarantee ofsafety for him and his wife.

Mugabe resigned onTuesday in a historic momentthat ended his 37 years of rule.The former leader has beenaccused of ordering a string ofmassacres in the early to mid-1980s in opposition strong-holds to consolidate his powerin which up to 20,000 peoplewere killed.

He has also long beenaccused of corruption andcriticized for living a lavishlifestyle while the once-pros-perous nation plunged intoeconomic ruin.

Mugabe had spent a weeknegotiating his departure withthe military since the Armyseized control in Harare andplaced him under house arrest.

In a long, drawn-outprocess, military officials gaveinto the demands for immuni-ty and allowed Mugabe to keepseveral of his properties beforehe stepped down, media

reports said.Mugabe’s former right-hand

man, Emmerson Mnangagwa,returned to the country onWednesday to take the reins asinterim President, promisingto take the country into a ‘newand unfolding democracy’. Hewill be sworn in on Friday.

Upon his return to Harare,Mnangagwa — known as ‘TheCrocodile’ — told supporters:“The people have spoken. Thevoice of the people is the voiceof God.”

“I pledge myself to be yourservant. I appeal to all genuinepatriotic Zimbabweans to cometogether. We work together. Wewant to grow our economy. Wewant peace, jobs in our country.”

Mnangagwa’s dismissal ear-lier this month plunged thecountry into a political crisis andprompted military chiefs to takecontrol of the capital and placeMugabe under house arrest.

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Nearly two million adults experienced domes-tic abuse in England and Wales, a major new

report on Thursday from the Office for NationalStatistics (ONS) revealed.

The report brings together data on domes-tic abuse and its consequences from across policeforces, the Government and victim supportorganisations, reports Xinhua news agency.

Figures for the year ending in March 2017revealed that 1.2 million women and 713,000men reported being the victims of some form ofdomestic abuse in the previous year.

A large proportion of the victims would nothave reported their abuse to the police, said ONS.

There were 1.1 million reports of domesticabuse that were recorded by the police over thesame period, with 488,000 of the reports record-ed as crimes.

Of the domestic abuse cases referred to theCrown Prosecution Service by police, just underthree quarters resulted in a decision to charge theabuser with a crime offence, with 76 percent con-victed by the courts.

Women were the victims in around three-quarters of domestic abuse-related crimes record-ed by the police, and were overwhelmingly themajority of victims in cases of murder ormanslaughter related to domestic abuse, account-ing for 70 percent of cases between April 2013and March 2016.

The highest level of domestic abuse of 10.5percent over the three years between 2014 and2017 was among teenage females aged 16 to 19,and the lowest female rate of 5.9 percent wasamong women aged 55 to 59.

The highest level of males, 6.9 percent, wasamong teenagers aged 16 to 19.

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At least eight people werekilled and another 17

wounded on Thursday in a sui-cide attack on a group ofdemonstrators gathered in sup-port of a former police chief inAfghanistan’s Jalalabad city,officials said.

The attack occurredaround 2.30 p.m. in front of thehouse of the former policechief in the capital ofNangarhar province, saidprovincial governor’sspokesperson AttaullahKhogyanai. Several of the vic-tims were children.

No insurgent group hasclaimed the attack. InNangarhar, the Taliban as wellas the ISIS Wahhabi terrorgroup are known to be active.

A week ago, 15 people —including eight policemen andthe attacker — were killed in asuicide attack at the entrance ofa hotel in the northwest ofKabul.

Since the end of NATO’scombat mission in January2015, Kabul has been losingground to insurgents and nowcontrols only 57 per cent of thecountry, said Special GeneralInspector for Reconstruction ofAfghanistan of the USCongress.

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Cars in the ‘press fleet’ of an automobile man-ufacturer tend to be driven very hard

indeed, and while I'm not going to name andshame some in the industry, very often they arenot just driven hard, they are driven badly. Oftenin the name of grabbing a ‘dramatic picture’ ora short video, vehicles are made to do thingsthey really should not unless they are the testmule being put through its paces. With somecompanies, the press cars are immaculatelymaintained and the companies don’t just handout their cars willy-nilly to all and sundry. Othercompanies, well not so much, usually the mass-market manufacturers. So when you get a presscar that has done around 5000-odd km, youknow you are getting a car that would have doneat least 20,000 km in the real world. And thatreally is not a bad thing, because when you drivea brand new car, you have no idea whatsoev-er how living with that car will be, Worse youdo not know how that car will age.

That was the case with the Tata Nexon Irecently drove. It had, quite clearly, beenthrough its paces. Not that you could make outanything externally, it still looked quite immac-ulate. In fact, I must admit that the Nexon isthe best-looking vehicle Tata Motors have evermade. The top-end XZ+ variant that I drove didnot just have a dual-tone colour scheme, butwith the addition of a white stripe on the win-dow line does make this car stand out from thesudden charge of dual-tone cars ever since theBrezza came. Yes, if there is an issue I have withthe Nexon’s looks it is the tires that look com-ically small inside those massive wheel arches,maybe 18-inch tires would be a better bet.

But when you are not buying a sportscaror supercar where you are more likely than notshowing off, you buy a car for its day-to-day dri-ving performance and how easy it is to live with.Before we get to the drivability, there are a cou-ple of other aspects. The interiors are fairly good,the seats are comfortable although I was neverfully satisfied with my driving position, becauseI felt the seat did not go back far enough. Theinfotainment system, which is the Tata-Harmann ‘ConnectNext’ system, now supportsAndroid Auto and navigation through theGoogle system. There is no native navigationsupport nor support for Apple CarPlay. Thetouchscreen is not as responsive as some sys-tems on other new cars, and on this front theupdated Ford EcoSport sets the benchmark.

But as the saying goes, the proof of the pud-ding is in the eating, and well, the taste is a bitinsipid to say the least. Let me give you an exam-

ple. I wear a fitness band, and sometimes whiledriving over bad patches of road can be set offa few ghost steps on the monitor. On the Nexonon the other hand, it appeared I had walked athousand steps during my 40-minute morningcommute. In the driving seat of a car. Now, theNexon was not a flouncy car, far from it, in factif anything the suspension was a bit on the hard-er side. I do not know if this is the standard con-dition of the car or whether this was a car thathad fixed in the workshop.

Of course, hard suspensions do have onebenefit and that is they handle very well. Theproblem was that the six-speed gearbox thatTata Motors have mated to the new three-cylin-der 1.2 litre Revotron engine might have onegear more than you need but is also irritatingto operate. Another example, often when I testa car, from a standstill I drop the clutch andaccelerate. I’m not trying to do a 0-100 time,just shift from first to second and onto third wellwithin highway speed limits. You rev a car tothe red line and shift. While the Nexon instru-ment panel does not have a defined limit line,the hand itself starts glowing red. Anyhow, whenI upshifted to second, there was a loud 'thunk'from the engine bay. I do not know about youbut unexpected loud thunks from cars are a bitworrisome. I won't carry one, and didn’t mindthe the engine at all. Indeed at the end of a fewdays, I had figured out the sweet spot for gearchanges, but the car mechanically just does notfeel as refined as its competitors.

And that in essence is the Nexon'sbiggest problem. While Nexon has a fabulousprice for the entry-level model starting at just6.36 lakhs ex-showroom New Delhi for thebase Petrol, the top-end car that I was dri-ving here cost 9.66 lakhs. While the VitaraBrezza does not have a petrol engine, theHonda WR-V and Ford EcoSport do, andtheir top petrol variants (manual in the caseof the EcoSport) cost 9.98 lakhs and 10.31lakhs respectively, not a big enough price dif-ference in my opinion to go in for the Tata.No doubt that this is a very good-looking andone must admit that while all modern Tatacars have got their design right, mechanical-ly they still have a bit to go. Either that or Igot to drive a car that had been through thewringer.

Film Bazaar, the business andliaison hub of the internation-al Film Festival of India, has

been buzzing with activity, more sowith an unprecedented boom ofyoung Indian filmmakers findinga platform to showcase and findbuyers for their mounts whichrarely find multiplex openings inIndia and, thus, take to the Track2 route of film festival buys andindividual distributor interest fromacross the world.

It is quite a revelation to attendthe Film Bazaar’s unique conceptevent called Film BazaarRecommends (FBR) where theyoung guns of world class Indiancinema, far away from Bollywood,show their independent moviesand documentaries to prospectivebuyers and personally present acompelling pitch for their effort inthree-minute talk slots attended byprospective buyers.

The second day of this uniqueactivity celebrated the burgeoningindie cinema movement withgusto. Celebrating the Asian Indiecapsule under the KnowledgeSeries looked at the scope of pro-motion and monetisation of Indiefilms through sales agents, who playa critical role in choosing, acquir-ing, promoting and cultivatingbusiness opportunities for suchfilms.

The session came wrapped inan eye-opening conversationbetween acclaimed Canadian artis-tic director and film critic CameronBailey and Michael Werner, aknown Media Strategic Consultant.It was also a celebration of Michael’sglorious career of 20 years as aworldwide sales agent and he gavegreat insights into the Indian,Asian and World Cinema throughhis talk.

Bailey, on the other hand,brought in his perspective onreaching out to Asian content and

Asian filmmakers, a job he did wellas the Artistic Director of theToronto International Film Festival(TIFF).

As many as 12 FBR filmsshowcased their clips followed bya pitch by each filmmaker. The ses-sion was packed by industry exec-utives and each project was wellreceived. The FBR section of theViewing Room plays a crucial rolein promoting films seeking gapfinancing, world sales distribu-tion, buyers and other businessopportunities.

The Open Pitch culminatedin 121 meetings between filmmak-ers and potential collaborators onthe first day while 167 meetingstook place on Wednesday. Even theScreenwriters’ Pitch witnessed a fullhouse with writers getting a plat-form to meet and sell their scriptsto industry professionals througha structured group and one-on-onemeetings.

One of the simple, humorousbut full of meaning film TheSummer of Miracles, centredaround a child obsessed withbecoming invisible got a hugeround of applause from the buyers.

Director Prashant and producerNikhil are both in their 30s but havebeen dreaming about films sinceage eight. The film was a star attrac-tion at the MAMI with its layeredbut subtle presentation. “People aregetting the nuances and observa-tions right nowadays. I wish mysmall little film initiates conversa-tions and I need your help to powerthat wish,” Prashant said with a lotof humility.

Similarly, young Bangladeshidirector Humana Bilkis was at theBazaar all the way from Dhaka ped-dling her complex film Baganya.The film takes you through threeentrapped generations of a teagarden family through a 150-yearspan. “The grandfather, father andson are all entrapped but in theirown kind of ways,” Bilkis explains.“It is an observational documentarymoving between the hope of escapefrom entrapment and I am lookingfor a sales and distribution push formy humble effort,” she said.

Indeed, the themes are unique,alluring and everyday but findingbuyers is still a challenge as theaudience is still emerging andpopular openings difficult to find.That’s where the Film Bazaar comesin for films like The Bangle Sellerwhich is the second project ofemerging writer B Gowda whobrings in his new mount on life asit unfolds in his rural patriarchalvillage in Karnataka.

“It is a small but moving filmabout their desires and secrets,inner and outer lives and dysfunc-tional sex within their marriage.Sanjay Mishra is at the helm withhis brilliant acting,” he tells you.

This is the same productionhouse which boasts of the unprece-dented success of the muchacclaimed, international festivalsfeted Marathi film Court, directedby a very young ChaitanyaTamhane. “We are looking for

sales and distribution partners anda good film festival run. I have notseen sexuality in such a measuredmanner. Writer-director Gowdasays, “the film is about my place andpeople I grew up with.”

The toast of the documentarysection, meanwhile, is Bird of Duskby filmmaker Sangeeta Dutta. Itcaptures rarest of rare moments ofRituparno Ghosh through verymany years of his filming careerbefore he passed away. “It is a doc-umentary. Ritu was a friend fromthe varsity. I was an associatedirector and had a memorablejourney with the great. This is acapsule of 28 months work on thisfilm. It has wonderful conversationswith his crew, his personal mem-oirs and a complex story on a com-plex man,” she tells you.

The 110-minute documentarywas at the Film Bazaar looking for

an international premier withhopes that her documentary gets atheatrical distribution, somethingwhich does not or very rarelyhappens in Indian markets.

The list goes on. Be it Chumbakby Sandeep Modi on a bipolarity ofa 14-year-old Bali having the smalldream of opening a ganne ka juiceshop and stitches up a scam on hisown in the process or Dhuh (duf-fer) by Manish Saini about two kidswatching a magic show looking forsolution of their problems — theFilm Bazaar is, indeed, activelyhelping in pushing small but goodcinema to its most important seg-ment — buyers and audiences.

No wonder then, this Bazaarhas emerged as the largest SouthAsian film market encouraging cre-ative and financial collaborationbetween South Asian and interna-tional film communities.

Violence against children is one ofthe most widespread, persistent

and devastating human rights viola-tions in our world today. Childabuse is clearly a vital issue and inorder to put an end to it there is aneed to develop a strategic approach.

Violence against children andeducation have emerged as key wor-ries faced by children today, says aUNICEF survey. Access to healthcare,poverty, bullying or mistreatment andnatural disasters emerged as theother prime worries.

The survey is part of a multi-country survey to draw out children’sawareness of and engagement withthe issues affecting them and revealtheir own assessment of how muchthey are being listened to. A samplesize of 1000 children were part of thisonline survey, the results of which areeye-opening.

��� �������Indian children worried aboutviolence

96 per cent of Indian childrenworry about violence against chil-dren.

51 per cent of 9-12 year olds wor-ried that violence will personallyaffect them.

43 per cent of 13-18 year olds alsoworried about being personallyaffected by violence.

Acts of terrorism, such as bombsexploding in public places and killingpeople, worries 95 per cent of thechildren surveyed. 48 per cent of chil-dren expressed worry that they may

be personally affected by ter-rorism.

Mistreatment or bullying isa major concern, with 94 per centof children saying they were wor-ried about it. 52 per cent said they areworried about being personallyaffected by it.

�Education, health and povertybig worries for children in India

96 per cent children worry aboutaccess to quality education, that is,having little or no access to schools.53 per cent of them worry that thiswill affect them personally.

Teachers, an archaic curriculumand lack of infrastructure.

An overwhelming majority - 97per cent worry about poverty (fam-ilies with little or no money). 50 percent worry about it affecting thempersonally.

94 per cent of children worryabout access to quality healthcare (lit-tle or no access to medicine or doc-tors), and more than half - 54 percent worry about it affecting thempersonally.

�Children have faith in world lead-ers

Faith in world leaders is high with70 per cent saying they trust theseleaders to make good decisions forchildren across the world.

Children want world leaders totake action on terrorism (24 percent), poverty (16 per cent), poor edu-cation (16 per cent), violence againstchildren (10 per cent) and threats to

nature (10 per cent).

�Listen to us: children’s message toworld leaders

91 per cent of Indian childrenbelieve the world would be a betterplace if world leaders listened to chil-dren's voices.

Children want world leaders totake action on terrorism, poor edu-cation and poverty, in that order.

Less than half — 48 per cent ofIndian children believe that theiropinion is appreciated by the govern-ment.

Similarly, less than half - 45 percent of Indian children believe thattheir opinion is appreciated by worldleaders.

Children feel that their opinionsare appreciated most by their families(96 per cent) and friends (95 per cent),with 87 per cent feeling that theiropinions are appreciated by theirteachers.

Only 39 per cent felt that theiropinions were appreciated by religiousleaders. Of particular note is the factthat 67 per cent of 13-18 years old girlsfelt that their opinions were notheard or appreciated by religiousleaders. 53 per cent of boys in thesame age group also felt the same way.

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On a cozy winter evening, a whole-some bowl meal warmed my handsand hearts. All of us have a special

dish that we turn to when we crave some-thing soul-satisfying, filled with flavoursand remind us of our mothers’ kitchens.If you are like me and want to gorge on abowl of nostalgic comfort food, don’tthink twice and head to Monkey Bar forappetising one bowl meals. From thescrumptious rajma chawal to exotic vari-ations such as wild mushroom khichdibowl or Moroccan Vegetable Tagine,they have it all.

Without much ado, we started ourfeast with a glass of virgin copper mon-key and starters while waiting patientlyfor the bowl of goodness. True to itsname, the drink was served in a copperglass and had the tanginess of orange, apunch of lime and sweet yet slightly tarttaste of passion fruit. Then came in themighty starters- Chilli Cheese Dragons andFlutterfly. The spring roll was bursting withcream cheese and mozzarella. It had sub-tle taste owing to creamy goodness andmild spices. It was accompanied by a tangyand spicy sauce with a strong taste ofginger. It could have been crispier.Fried paneer and cheese cubes tossedwith a mix of chilli, secret herbs,onion and ginger were stuffed incrisp butterfly shaped shellsmade with a blend of maidaand rice flour. The icingon the cake was theambience — green-house inspired ceilingdone in white anddecked with pottedsucculents.

Indulging mysense of taste andmemories attachedto flavours, I foundmyself digging intoa Rajma Bowl hap-pily. The dressed toimpress platter hadpiping hot Rajma andbasmati rice, which wasaccompanied with chillipickle, papad, vinegaronions, spicy yoghurt, spinachpakoda and tawa aloo. I saved thebest meal bowl for the last, MoroccanVegetable Tagine with a generous amount

of flavouful veggies tossed in tomatosauce and spices. It was garnished withalmonds, prunes chickpeas and olivesserved on couscous. The bowl was deco-rated with pita chips with sesame seeds.Barring the slightly overpowering taste ofza’atar and sweetness of prunes I liked thegenerous portion of the flavourful dish.The experimental bowl might not appealto all but risk takers can definitely give ita shot as it won’t disappoint.

The boozy Old monk(ey) ChocolateCake was topped with caramel, crunchynuts and praline. The outer layer wassmeared with a chocolate spread while theinner layer was gooey. It had the rightamount of sweetness.

The concept of meal in a bowl is quick-ly picking up among Delhiites. It’s eco-nomical, innovative as well as filling.Monkey Bar’s special winter menu can besavoured until January 15, and there are 12bowl combos including Nagarjuna inspiredChilli Chicken, The Korean Bibimbapand The Prawn Pad Thai Noodles to tick-le your palate. My suggestion is to go inwith company to relish this uncomplicat-ed dining experience and get the best ofthis winter.

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Ginger was used in ancient times asa food preservative and to help treat

digestive problems. To treat digestiveproblems, Greeks would eat gingerwrapped in bread. Eventually ginger wasadded to the bread dough creating thatdelectable treat many around the globelove today– gingerbread! Christmas cel-ebrations are incomplete without gin-gerbread.

Ginger is a popular ingredient incooking, and especially in Asian andIndian cuisine. It can be addedto juices, salads, fish recipeet al. However, there’smore to this herb.Ginger root is char-acterised by it’sstrong sweet, yetwoodsy smell. It is tanin color with whiteto creamy-yellowflesh that can becoarse yetstringy. Gingerale stemmedfrom a ginger beerand is used as a remedy for diarrhea,nausea and vomiting.

����������� ���� ������It has been found to reduce the

symptoms of the severe pain that somewomen experience during a menstru-al cycle.

It has been found to be “modestlyefficacious and reasonably safe” fortreating inflammation associated withosteoarthritis.

It can help to prevent colon cancerand constipation.

Taking ginger for motion sicknessreduces feeling of nausea, but it does notprevent vomiting. It can cure severenausea from pregnancy.

During cold weather, drinkingginger tea is good way to keep warm.It is diaphoretic, it promotes sweating,working to warm the body from with-

in.It aids in

digestion as itrelaxes the

smooth muscle ingut lining and

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out the system.E a t i n g

whole ginger,drinking fresh

ginger juice and inhalingdiffused ginger essential oil are

highly effective ways to curb stomachdisorders.

It helps in reducing cholesterol,lowering the risk of blood clotting, andhelping to maintain healthy bloodsugar levels.

Ginger, garlic and onion have ananti-blood-clotting ability. Whenthey’re eaten together, they can help toprevent heart attacks and stroke

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Denied by the 'Weather Gods' inthe opening Test, a supremelyconfident India are set to make

some strategic changes to ensure thattheir dominance of Sri Lanka continuesunchallenged in the second match start-ing here on Friday.

Having earned the psychologicaledge by blowing the Sri Lankan top andmiddle order during the final session ofthe drawn first Test, the hosts will onceagain play on a green track at theVidarbha Cricket Association (VCA)Stadium in Jamtha.

The hint of grass on the pitch is inkeeping with the team's preparation forthe gruelling South African tour whichstarts next month.

A decent cover of green on thematch strip is a marked departure fromwhat has been a traditionally low andslow batting belter over the years.However, till the first ball is bowled, itwill be difficult to presume the kind ofbounce that will be on offer. "It seemsto be a good pitch. It will be helpful forthe fast bowlers at least on the first twodays," said India skipper Virat Kohli.

For India, the challenge will be toproduce an improved performance intrying conditions even though it isexpected that the challenge to score runson this track will be a wee bit less thanwhat it was at the Eden Gardens underovercast conditions.

Kohli has shown how to take a bullby its horn with the magnificent ton ina pressure situation and his men will beitching to do the same against SurangaLakmal and company.

India's most technically equippedopener Murali Vijay will be making acomeback into the playing XI as ShikharDhawan has taken a break for person-al reasons.

Experts felt that Vijay's compacttechnique was missing during the first

two days as Dhawan is known to be abit edgy early on. The Delhi left-handerdid score 94 in the second innings butit was when batting had become easierduring the fourth afternoon.

Vijay's ability and clarity on wherehis off-stump is makes him a valuableasset in the longest format as he has thepatience to leave a lot of deliveries.

Another certainty in the playing XIis Ishant Sharma - the most capped play-er in the current Test squad with 77matches in whites.

With Bhuvneshwar Kumar gettingmarried, the lanky speedster is expect-ed to get two shots to keep the other pacebowling contenders in the playing XI forSouth Africa tour on tenterhooks.

Ishant has done his hard yards in thedomestic circuit with 20 wickets fromfour Ranji Trophy games. He has bowled116 overs in all, which has been a com-mendable effort as he was leading theside in all those games.

But it will be interesting to see ifIndia persist with two spinners - espe-cially Ravindra Jadeja, who made verylittle contribution with the ball and hada lukewarm match as a batsman.

If it's a case of variation in spin bowl-ing, chinaman Kuldeep Yadav is anoption but in case there is good carry,rookie Vijay Shankar could be handedhis maiden Test cap.

Shankar's bowling is still not men-acing - he is at best a military medium

pacer with a speed of nearly 120 kmphas his 27 wickets in 32 first-class gameswould suggest. But it is his batting aver-age of 49.16 with five hundreds and 10fifties that makes him a contender.

With Hardik Pandya missing fromthe set-up, Shankar has a chance of fit-ting into the jigsaw puzzle, bringing therequired stability that comes with a No.6batsman. A total of 118 runs (with a cen-tury) and six wickets from three RanjiTrophy games will not warrant an Indiacall-up unless someone is summoned fora specific role.

While KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujaraand skipper Kohli will come into thegame brimming with confidence,Ajinkya Rahane will be looking toquickly hit the straps after his twin fail-ure in Kolkata.

Sri Lanka on their part will be happythat they have not lost the first Test afterinitially dominating the home team forthe better part of first four days.

There is a high chance that pacerLahiru Gamage will lose his place in theplaying XI after an indifferent perfor-mance on a seamer-friendly EdenGardens track, where he went for 156runs in two innings with only a wicketto show for his efforts.

If Sri Lanka continue to play threepacers, then left-arm pacer VishwaFernando could be an option. And incase they want to go with extra slowbower, then chinaman LakshanSandakhan is waiting in the wings.

�=����INDIA: Virat Kohli (captain), KLRahul, Murali Vijay, CheteshwarPujara, Ajinkya Rahane, WriddhimanSaha (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin,Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami,Umesh, Yadav, Ishant Sharma, VijayShankar, Kuldeep Yadav and RohitSharma.SRI LANKA: Dinesh Chandimal (cap-tain), Angelo Mathews, DimuthKarunaratne, Niroshan Dickwella,Dhananjaya de Silva, Suranga Lakmal,Dasun Shanaka, Viswa Fernando, LahiruGamage, Lakshan Sandakan, SadeeraSamarawickrama, Dilruwan Perera andRoshen Silva.

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Indian captain Virat Kohli on Friday lamentedthe lack of preparatory time for the upcoming

tour of South Africa, saying the "cramped" sched-ule left him with no choice but to seek bouncytracks in the ongoing series against Sri Lanka tobe ready for the challenge ahead.

India would be leaving for South Africa for aseries of three Tests, six ODIs and three Twenty20Internationals, just a couple of days after the homeseries against Sri Lanka gets over on December24. The second Test between the hosts and theislanders starts here on Friday.

Asked if he had specifically asked for boun-cy tracks, Kohli gave a direct answer, saying: "Yes(I had), because unfortunately we get only two daysbefore we fly to South Africa after this series getsover. So we have no choice but try to be in a gamesituation and think of what's coming ahead of us.

"Had we got a month off ideally, we wouldhave done a proper preparation in a camp sort ofscenario but we have to sort of make do with whatwe have."

The Indian team will finish their limited oversengagement against Sri Lanka on December 24(final T20) before they fly off to South Africa onDecember 27. Kohli stressed on the necessity tospace out series as at times the team needs to doits preparation differently for a bigger series.

"As usual cramped for time, which I think weneeded to assess in future as well because we veryeasily assess the team when go abroad but we don'tlook at how many days we have got to preparebefore we go to a particular place to play," the skip-per said ahead of the second Test against Sri Lanka,starting here tomorrow.

"And everyone starts judging players whenresults come after Test matches. It should be a fairgame, where we get to prepare the way we wantto and then we are entitled to be criticised. So wethought this is an ample opportunity for us to chal-lenge ourselves, put us in a situation (which theyexpect to encounter in South Africa)," he added.

The skipper also made it clear that he can'tguarantee permanent first XI slots forRavichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja when

the team travels abroad, where in all probability,a single spinner will be in operation.

"I can't commit to that 100 per cent when weplay abroad that we will be playing with two spin-ners, to be honest. It is because we need to havea look at the balance of the side as well. Obviously,those two guys with their batting abilities are bothcontenders to start a Test match depending uponthe batsmen we are up against in the opposition,"Kohli said.

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Hardik Pandya is India'sfirst- choice seam bowling

all-rounder and the team man-agement is looking at youngVijay Shankar as a back-up all-rounder with same skill sets fortough overseas assignments,skipper Virat Kohli said today.

With Pandya being restedfor the Sri Lanka Test series,Shankar was called as replace-ment of Bhuvneshwar Kumarfor the second match but Kohlidropped hints that the 26-year-old may be a contenderfor a slot in the national teamfor the South African tour,early next year.

"Well, he (Shankar) hasbeen very consistent and hasearned his spot. We wanted tohave a look at another all-rounder keeping in mind thisaspect (batsman who bowlsmedium pace) of the teamgoing forward," Kohli saidwhen asked about his take onthe Tamil Nadu cricketer.

"Obviously, Hardik is inour scheme of things as first allrounder but we need to findout more people with thatkind of ability whom we can

groom and make as back upsfor all- rounder's spot when wetravel abroad."

The skipper made it clearthat he wants Shankar to get afeel of the Indian team's set-upand know what he needs to doto become a top notch inter-national player.

"The whole mindset ofbringing him and keeping himin the set-up is to make himfamiliar with what's going onhere and so that he under-stands what all he needs towork on his game as well," thecaptain said.

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England's James Vince wasspectacularly run out with a

century beckoning on his Ashesdebut as Australia hit back toleave the first Test finely balancedafter day one on Thursday.

Captain Joe Root andAlastair Cook both fell cheaplybefore the tourists reached 196for four when bad light ended anattritional, rain-affected day atthe Gabba ground in Brisbane.

Vince top-scored as thetourists scored slowly, butAustralia loosened their hard-earned advantage when theydismissed him along with the keywicket of Root late on.

Vince, on 83, scampered fora quick single off JoshHazlewood but a brilliant off-balance throw from Nathan Lyonprowling in the covers caughthim well out of his ground.

It was a moment of triumphfor the spinner, who is normal-ly taciturn but gained notorietyfor telling the tourists thatAustralia aimed to "end careers"in the Ashes series.

Vince, who was earlier putdown by recalled wicketkeeper

Tim Paine off Lyon, led a fight-ing English rearguard with MarkStoneman after the early loss ofCook.

It took a special piece offielding from Lyon to end Vince's170-ball, four-hour vigil andgive the Australians hope on arugged first day on an unre-

sponsive Gabba pitch.Eighteen runs later, Root

fell leg before wicket to PatCummins for 15 off 50 balls aftera review, in a another huge scalpfor the toiling Australians.

At stumps, Dawid Malanwas batting on 28 along withMoeen Ali, whose 13 includedthe day's only six.

Australia have a formidablerecord at the intimidating'Gabbatoir', where they have notlost a Test match since 1988, andwhere England haven't won in 31years.

But Vince and Stonemanhad few problems masteringAustralia's vaunted fast bowlingtrio before Stoneman, the Surreyopening bat, was bowledbetween his bat and pad by PatCummins for 53 nearing tea.

It looked as though Vincewould go on and crown hisresilient innings with a centuryafter passing his previous high-est Test score of 42.

Vince survived a bigmoment nearing tea when he

edged Lyon on 68, only for thedeflection to bounce away off thetop of the gloves of recalled wick-etkeeper Tim Paine, much to theAustralians' anguish.

Vince put on a 125-run sec-ond-wicket stand with Stonemanas the Australian bowling attackstruggled on a slow-paced Gabbapitch. It was a spirited recoveryafter the early wicket of Cook inthe third over. The formerEngland captain only lasted 10balls before he edged pace spear-head Mitchell Starc to PeterHandscomb at first slip for justtwo.

It continued an uncertainstart to the Ashes tour for Cook,who amassed 766 runs inEngland's 3-1 series victory in2010-2011 but who has just onehalf-century in five innings onthe current visit.

Stoneman continued hisprolific form following his cen-tury and three half-centuries inthe four innings of the warm-upgames.

Opener David Warner(neck) and lower order batsmanShaun Marsh (back) were bothpassed fit to play after injury con-cerns.

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In a unique collaboration betweenUnited States of America and India,

and under the leadership and vision ofAditya Satsangi, founder and CEO ofNitai Partners, along with taekwondoexpert Abhai Singh Rathore, KalariProwas launched here on Thursday torevive the ancient martial art of India:Kalaripayattu. Satsangi said thatKalaripayattu is the origin of all mar-tial arts.

"We want to revive the ancientmartial art of India and that isKalaripayattu. People don't know thatour country is origin of all martial arts.It came from the south region of ourcountry. It's an amalgamation of allmartial arts and it is believed thatfather of Kalaripayattu is Karthik (sonof lord Shiva). What we aim to do isbringing the professional martial artculture into our tradition martial art.In Korea, in all their martial arts, theypay homage to India. They respectIndians like anything because they areaware of the fact that it's the originplace for martial arts," said Aditya.

Chief guest at the event, MP ofRajya Sabha, Subramanian Swamy

said he was happy to see thatKalaripayattu was getting the much-needed economic push.

Satsangi also explained that theywould be setting up schools in variousregions of India and providing inter-national standard trainer to teach theart.

"As I run many software compa-nies in USA, it was easy for me to pickthe kalari trainers, as many come toUS. I picked the best of the lot and Ithen got them trained in TaekwondoSchool as it was important for them toknow how they made the art so pop-ular among masses in the country.Now we are completely focused oncurriculum for Kalaripayattu. ThroughKalariPro, we are opening up schoolsin Karnataka, Kerala and Punjab."

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After a hard-fought goal-less draw intheir opening match, Indian Super

League club Jamshedpur FC travel toKochi to play their second away matchagainst Kerala Blasters at JawaharlalNehru Stadium on Friday. Club's mid-fielder Mehtab Hossain said his side isfeeling confident at the moment and areall prepared for Kerala Blasters.

"The morale is high at the moment.We showed others in the first game thatdespite being a new club, we can't betaken lightly; we are capable of match-ing others. We are looking forward togetting the first three points for us thisseason. It will be tough but we are allgeared up for the challenge," said theformer India international.

It will also be homecoming forMehtab, who played for Kerala Blastersfor the past three seasons in ISL. Hefondly remembers the time he had atthe club. "I had three memorable andsuccessful years with Blasters; togeth-er we made it to the final twice. Theyhave marvelous set of fans and the fanshave always shown great love andrespect for me. I hope they will continueto do so tomorrow (on Friday)," said theformer Kerala player.

Despite keeping a clean sheet in thefirst game, the Tata-owned club strug-gled to create opportunities in the firstgame. Mehtab said they are workinghard on improving that. "It's a new unit,playing together for the first time, ittakes a bit of time for the players to set-tle in and play more fluid football. Aslow start is something which happensand we will try to put in a good per-formance, the team has been preparinghard for this game," said the 32-year-old.

Aware of the presence of star foot-baller Dimitar Berbatov in the opposi-tion line-up, Mehtab expects to face-offthe Bulgarian on the field and is look-ing forward to the duel. "He (Berbatov)is a great player, he likes to drop in themidfield to help his team build attack,I am looking forward to the challenge.It will be an interesting one," said thedefensive midfielder.

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Barcelona and Chelsea pro-gressed to the ChampionsLeague last 16 on Wednesday,

but Jose Mourinho's ManchesterUnited must wait to seal their spotafter a last-gasp 1-0 defeat in Basel.

Barcelona coach ErnestoValverde rested Argentina star LionelMessi in Turin, later introducing himas a second-half substitute as a 0-0draw against Juventus sent the five-time European champions throughas winners of Group D.

Willian scored twice and won apair of penalties as Chelsea thrashed10-man Qarabag 4-0 in Baku toguarantee Antonio Conte's side atop-two finish in Group C.

First-half goals from EdenHazard and Willian put Chelsea incontrol, with Cesc Fabregas addinga third before Willian netted againto cap the rout and knock Qarabagout of the competition.

"We did everything well. Weshould have scored more. It is easyto play with these good players,"Hazard said.

Atletico Madrid, runners-uptwice in the past four years, retainedan outside chance of pipping Romato a place in the knockout stage asAntoine Griezmann snapped aneight-match goal drought in a 2-0win in Spain.

The French striker broke thedeadlock with a spectacular acro-

batic effort on 69 minutes, beforecompatriot Kevin Gameiro added alate second to seal a first win of thecampaign for Atletico.

However, they must beatChelsea at Stamford Bridge in theirfinal game and hope Roma droppoints at home to Qarabag to avoidparachuting into the Europa League.

United, who hit the woodworktwice in the first half throughMarouane Fellaini and Marcos Rojo,looked on course to secure thepoint required to punch their tick-et to the last 16 in Switzerland beforeMichael Lang popped up with an89th- minute winner.

"It's like a dream. Right now Ican't believe we won against such astrong team," Swiss internationalLang told RTS.

"We always thought we couldwin this match and in the end it wasa victory like I had never seenbefore."

Mourinho blamed United'sinability to convert their first-halfdominance into goals after watchinghis side lose their perfect record inthe group.

"We lost because in the first halfwe should be 5-0 up but we couldnot score one goal after being sodominant," Mourinho said.

The result left United on 12points, three ahead of both Basel andCSKA Moscow, and still almostcertain of advancing, barring a hugedefeat against the Russians at Old

Trafford on December 5.

����������������������%���Russia goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev

recorded a first clean sheet in thegroup stage since 2006 — ending astaggering run of 43 matches con-ceding a goal — as CSKA con-

demned Benfica to a fifth straightloss in Group A.

Georgi Schennikov's cool finishsteered CSKA into a 13th-minute

lead in Moscow before the hostsgrabbed a second through an owngoal from Brazilian defender Jardel.

Paris Saint-Germain dismantled

Celtic 7-1 as the French giants reg-istered their biggest win in thecompetition, despite falling behindwhen Moussa Dembele scored insidethe first minute at the Parc desPrinces.

A brace from Neymar soonturned the game around, beforeEdinson Cavani and Kylian Mbappeadded goals of their own before theinterval.

Marco Verratti made it fivewith quarter of an hour left, beforeCavani got his second and a sensa-tional Dani Alves hit wrapped up arecord-breaking night as PSG shat-tered the previous mark of 21 group-stage goals set last year by BorussiaDortmund.

Unai Emery's team have nowscored 24 times in five matches andconceded just once, although theymust avoid a heavy reverse at BayernMunich next month to ensure theyfinish top of Group B.

Robert Lewandowski andCorentin Tolisso scored in Brusselsas Bayern overcame Anderlecht 2-1 to retain their 100 percent recordsince 72-year-old Jupp Heynckesreturned for a fourth spell at the club.

Two goals from Dutch strikerBas Dost propelled Sporting to a 3-1 victory over Olympiakos, but thePortuguese outfit must beatBarcelona at the Camp Nou in theirfinal fixture to have a chance ofoverhauling Juventus for a last-16berth.

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Antoine Griezmann was gettingincreasingly tired of all the

missed opportunities.The jeers were becoming loud-

er and the criticism was growingtougher.

He desperately needed to turnthings around, and it took a stun-ning overhead kick for him to getgoing again.

Griezmann regained his scor-ing touch when Atletico Madridneeded him, finding the net witha remarkable volley to lead theSpanish club to a 2-0 win overRoma on Wednesday, keeping alivethe team's hopes of advancing inthe Champions League.

"What a goal," Atletico coachDiego Simeone said. "The type ofgoal by someone of his talent.Hopefully it will be the first ofmany other goals to come."

Griezmann hadn't scored ineight games with Atletico, adrought that had been costly for theteam as it endured a streak of onlytwo wins in 10 matches in all com-petitions.

"We all have to improve, andI'm the first one who needs to doit," said Griezmann, who enteredthe match on Wednesday withonly three goals in 14 matches.

He was jeered by some fans atWanda Metropolitano Stadiumwhen he was substituted in the sec-ond half of the 0-0 draw againstReal Madrid in the Spanish leagueon Saturday. He was also replacedin the last-minute win at DeportivoLa Coruna in the previous round.

"I had been trying my best butthe ball just wouldn't go in,"Griezmann said.

The France forward also set upKevin Gameiro's goal against Romaat the Metropolitano, sending aperfect pass to his teammate insidethe area. "We hadn't scored muchearly in the season but we are work-ing to get better," Gameiro said. "Itwas a great goal by Griezmann andit should give him more confi-dence."

Only victory could have keptAtletico from being eliminated onWednesday, although the club stillremains in a difficult position tomake it to the knockout stages forthe fifth straight season. It mustdefeat Chelsea in England on Dec.5 and hope that Roma doesn't beatlast-place Qarabag in Italy.

The team's poor campaign inGroup C is mostly blamed on itsoffensive struggles. The defense hasbeen working as usual, but theoffense has not produced the goalsneeded for victories.

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Germany's biggest derby will be a bigday for Borussia Dortmund coach

Peter Bosz.Hanging onto his position tenu-

ously with his team in crisis, Bosz willlead his players against Schalke onSaturday knowing that a loss in theRuhr derby could spell the end of hisstay.

Dortmund hasn't won in the leaguesince September, and Tuesday's 2-1 lossto Tottenham in the ChampionsLeague extended a spiraling feeling ofhelplessness under the former Ajaxcoach.

The match against Tottenham wassymbolic of Dortmund's season: Agood start full of promise followed bya rude awakening and then collapse.After Harry Kane equalized, SonHeung-min took advantage of lack-

luster defending to earn the win.Despite the home loss, Dortmund's

players lined up together in front oftheir fans, who already had theirminds on Saturday's showdown. Theydisplayed a large banner stressing theimportance of the game.

"On Saturday it counts: Everythingfor the derby win!" it said.

Schalke arrives at theWestfalenstadion full of confidenceafter five wins in seven unbeatengames, including the German Cup. Inits last five league games, Schalke hascollected 12 points more thanDortmund and is now second behindBayern Munich.

"The table isn't that importantafter 12 match days. We're not con-cerned with it," said Schalke coachDomenico Tedesco, who has formed asolid if unspectacular side based on astrong defense.

Schalke's 10 goals conceded in 12league games is bettered only byBayern's eight.

Bayern, which visits BorussiaMoenchengladbach for the late gameon Saturday, was five points behindDortmund last month but is now ninepoints clear. Dortmund hasn't wonsince losing its 41-game unbeaten runat home against Leipzig.

"We need to step it up, and we havea big chance to do that this weekend,"said Dortmund midfielder ChristianPulisic, who will face his friend,Winston McKennie.

The 19-year-old McKennie hasbeen playing an important role underTedesco, making nine Bundesligaappearances already and playing thefull games in his last two. "It's a goodfeeling being in front of them," the mid-fielder said of Schalke's three-point leadover Dortmund.

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It was around two years ago thatEden Hazard was dropped from the

Chelsea team, with the defensivework demanded by then-managerJose Mourinho not coming natural-ly to a flair winger.

Hazard was the footballer of theyear in England at the time and wasenduring a mystifying slump in form,clearly uncomfortable at being placedin such a tactical straitjacket.

There's no danger of that underAntonio Conte.

One of the big benefits of switch-ing last season to a 3-4-3 formation,which sparked Chelsea's relentlessmarch to the Premier League title,was the freedom it gave to Hazard.The need to track back - "tactical dis-cipline," as Mourinho called it - waslargely a thing of the past for theBelgium international, who couldfocus his energy on hurting theopposition with his skill and aware-ness.

Conte has gone one step furtherthis season. In his latest tactical shift,the Italian coach has recently turnedto a 3-5-1-1 formation, handingHazard license to roam behind strik-er Alvaro Morata as a drifting No. 10.Hazard even played as a lone strikeragainst Qarabag in the ChampionsLeague on Wednesday, while Moratawas rested.

It is bringing the best out ofHazard, now aged 26 and a more

mature player.Liverpool had better watch out on

Saturday, when Chelsea visits Anfieldfor the standout game in the 13thround of the Premier League.

Since returning from a brokenankle that caused him to miss theearly part of the season, Hazard has

six goals in his last seven games,including two against West BromwichAlbion last weekend. It was a breath-taking performance that West Brommanager Tony Pulis, fired two dayslater, could have done without.

Hazard is playing with a smile onhis face again and is likely back on the

radar of the big Spanish clubs whohave been linked with him for so long.During the recent international break,Hazard, while stressing his happinessat Chelsea, said it would be a "dream"to play under Real Madrid coachZinedine Zidane, who is openly anadmirer of the Belgian.

Barcelona, meanwhile, is likely toagain target a move for Liverpoolplaymaker Philippe Coutinho overthe next transfer windows after miss-ing out on signing him during the off-season. If they fail again, Hazardwould not be the worst fall-backoption.

For the moment, Hazard's remitis to help keep Chelsea on the tail ofManchester City, which leads theleague by eight points overManchester United. Chelsea is apoint further back in third after fourstraight league victories, amid a runof six wins in its last seven matchesin all competitions.

The switch to a 3-5-1-1 has CescFabregas regaining his place in abulked-up midfield alongside fit-again N'Golo Kante and summersigning Tiemoue Bakayoko. Withthese three players behind Hazard,who is developing an increasinglyimpressive understanding withMorata, Conte seems to have landedon another reliable formation.

Liverpool's defenders, back underthe microscope after the team's col-lapse from 3-0 up to draw 3-3 withSevilla in midweek, could have their

hands full again on Saturday.

���� ��%���������<After two substitute appearances

following his return from sevenmonths out injured, ZlatanIbrahimovic is pushing for a start forManchester United against Brightonon Saturday.

Romelu Lukaku was signed dur-ing the offseason as United's first-choice striker but Ibrahimovic'squicker-than expected recovery froma knee injury means the two are fight-ing for the lone striker berth.

Or perhaps United manager JoseMourinho could pair them up front,with Ibrahimovic just behind in theNo. 10 role.

When he entered as a second-halfsubstitute against Newcastle lastweekend, the Swedish striker's firstactions were to tell Lukaku to moveout to the right wing. Ibrahimovicmight still be the king of Old Trafford.

������������%��Manchester City goes looking for

its 18th straight win in all competi-tions — a run that includes a penal-ty-shootout triumph in the LeagueCup — when the unbeaten leadertravels to Huddersfield on Saturday.

Huddersfield beat Man United 2-1 last month for its biggest victorysince returning to England's topdivision after a 45-year absence. Itwould be some double to topple City,too.

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France and Belgium reachedthe Davis Cup final by quite

different routes, but both cap-tains face similar decisionsahead of the draw in Lille.

The biggest question forboth Yannick Noah, the Frenchskipper, and his Belgian coun-terpart, Johan van Herck, is thedoubles pairing.

In the singles on Friday,Noah will no doubt open withJo-Wilfried Tsonga (rankednumber 15 in the world) andLucas Pouille (18). RichardGasquet (31) seems too farbehind to risk.

In the doubles, Noah hasgenerally preferred the special-ist pairing of Nicolas Mahut andPierre-Hugues Herbert, whowon the 2015 US Open and the2016 Wimbledon doublestogether. But "P2H" has a backinjury which caused the pair toforfeit their last group match atATP Finals in London onNovember 16.

"All the players are in goodshape, without exception," Noahsaid.

Nevertheless, JulienBenneteau, a former FrenchOpen doubles winner who isback to his best at the age of 35,could still rejoin Mahut in thedoubles on Saturday. Theyplayed together in the quarter-final in April.

Belgium will be led by sev-enth-ranked David Goffin, whoshowed his form by beatingRoger Federer to reach the finalin London last week.

"France are clearly thefavourites because they're play-ing at home, have won theDavis Cup several times beforeand have a very consistent teamwith very good players," Goffintold AFP. "Obviously beingranked in the top 10 I'm expect-ed to win two points in the sin-gles," he added. "We're con-

vinced we can win otherwise wewouldn't step on the court."

Barring a major surprise,the other Belgian singles play-er will be Steve Darcis. But whowill partner Ruben Bemelmans(118) in the doubles?

Joris de Loore (276) missedthe last match against Australiabecause of a knee operation. VanHerck has named him in thesquad but has kept open theoption of retaining Arthur deGreef (181).

�������������� ���The Belgians are trying to

win their first Davis Cup title.They reached the final in 2015but lost to a Britain team con-taining Andy Murray. They hadto work hard to return this time.

France are trying to wintheir tenth silver salad bowl.They had an easy route to theirfirst final since losing to Federer,Stan Wawrinka and the Swiss in2014.

Belgium were taken to thethird day in all of their match-es.

They won 4-1 in Germanyin the first round despite restingGoffin, although he returned forthe quarter-final victory over anItaly team that was withoutFabio Fognini.

In the semi-final, againstAustralia in Brussels, Belgiumentered the last day trailing butGoffin fought back to beat NickKyrgios before Darcis beatJordan Thompson in straightsets to stay perfect when play-ing last. Meanwhile fortunefavoured the French. They faceda Japan team without KeiNishikori, Britain withoutMurray and Serbia withoutNovak Djokovic, JankoTipsarevic and Viktor Troicki.

Yet that semi-final victoryover Serbia, also in Lille, was notwithout some strange elementswhich raise questions ahead ofthe final.

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