English News Paper | Breaking News | Latest Today News in … · 2019-10-15 · Tushar Mehta, representing the CBI. Citing his attempts to ... Justice R Banumathi headed Bench will

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The trial court on Tuesdaypermitted the Enforcement

Directorate (ED) to interro-gate and arrest, if necessary, for-mer Finance MinisterChidambaram in the INXMedia bribery case. Armedwith the order, the ED isexpected to take Chidambaramin its custody on Wednesday.

After this development,even if Chidambaram’s bailpetition in the Supreme Courtin the CBI case is favourablydisposed, he might end upspending Diwali behind bars.

Trial court judge AjayKumar Kuhar on Tuesdayevening passed the order allow-ing the ED to interrogateChidambaram in Tihar jail onWednesday and arrest him ifnecessary. The court said threeED officials can interrogateChidambaram on Wednesdayafter 8.30 am and asked the jailsuperintendent to makearrangements in this regard.

The former FinanceMinister’s judicial custody inthe INX Media corruptioncase, which was filed by theCBI, ends on October 17. Sincehis arrest on August 21, he hastill Tuesday spent 54 days incustody — both of the CBI aswell as judicial — in ninespells.

After the court passed theorder, Solicitor General TusharMehta and Special PublicProsecutor Amit Mahajan,appearing for the ED, soughtpermission to question

Chidambaram in some spaceavailable on Rouse Avenuecourt premises. The court,however, said, “It’s not in thedignity of this person that youinterrogate and arrest him herein public view.” The court alsorejected Chidamabram’s peti-tion against the productionwarrant.

Chidambaram on Tuesdaysought bail from the SupremeCourt in the INX Media cor-ruption case saying the CBIwants to keep him in custodyto humiliate him. The court

will hear on Wednesday thearguments of Solicitor GeneralTushar Mehta, representingthe CBI. Citing his attempts tomeet to two crucial witnesses,the agency reiterated thatChidambaram should not begiven bail. Justice R Banumathiheaded Bench will resumehearing on this petition onWednesday morning and theED is expected to make arrestearly in the morning.

After the trial court’s per-mission to the ED,Chidambaram’s bail petition in

the apex court has literallybecame useless. The ED will getmaximum 15 days custody ofChidamabaram followingwhich he may be remanded injudicial custody till he gets bailin the ED’s case.

Senior advocates KapilSibal and Abhishek ManuSinghvi, appearing forChidambaram, told a 3-judgebench headed by Justice RBanumathi that there were noallegations against their partycolleague or his family mem-bers of having ever tried to

approach or influence any wit-ness in the case.

Sibal told the Bench, alsocomprising justices ASBopanna and Hrishikesh Roy,that Chidambaram is in cus-tody for last 55 days and theDelhi High Court had rejectedhis bail plea in a “strange way”.

Chidambaram, 74, wasarrested by the CBI on August21 and is lodged in Tihar jailunder judicial custody in thecorruption case.

The CBI had registered anFIR on May 15, 2017 allegingirregularities in a ForeignInvestment Promotion Board(FIPB) clearance granted to theINX Media group for receivingoverseas funds of �305 crore in2007 during Chidambaram’stenure as the Finance Minister.

Thereafter, the ED lodgeda money-laundering case inthis regard in 2017.

Chidambaram moved thetop court challenging the DelhiHigh Court’s September 30verdict denying him bail in the INX Media case lodged bythe CBI.

Sibal told the Bench onTuesday that earlier the ED hadargued before the apex courtthat they want custodial inter-rogation of Chidambaram, butlater they opposed his applica-tion filed in the trial court tosurrender in the money laun-dering case.

“Bail should be granted tohim (Chidambaram). They(CBI) want to keep me in jailto humiliate him,” Sibal arguedbefore the apex court.

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Another senior Ministerfrom the earlier UPA

Government landed in troubleon Tuesday as the EnforcementDirectorate (ED) summonedPraful Patel for questioning onOctober 18 in connection withan alleged property dealbetween him and Hajra Iqbal,the wife of late Iqbal Mirchi, anerstwhile close aide of Karachi-based underworld donDawood Ibrahim.

As it readied itself to arrestformer Union Minister PChidambaram on Wednesdayfor custodial interrogation inthe INX Media case, the EDprepared the ground for thequestioning of former CivilAviation Minister Praful Patelon allegations of quid pro quoin a property deal with lateIqbal Mirchi’s wife Hajra.

Official sources said that atits office in Mumbai onOctober 18, the ED wouldrecord Patel’s statement underthe Prevention of MoneyLaundering Act (PMLA) inconnection with a deal betweena real estate company promot-ed by him, his wife and lateMirchi’s wife.

The ED documents haverevealed that Millennium

Developers Pvt Limited, acompany promoted by Pateland his wife, constructedCeejay House and transferredits third and fourth floors toMirchi’s wife Hajra Iqbal in2007 “towards beneficial inter-est of Mirchi in the land onwhich the structure is built”.Patel and his wife own a sig-nificant number of shares inMillennium Developers PrivateLimited.

However, Patel dismissedthe case, saying, “It is an oldcase and since I am on electiontour, I am not privy to the doc-uments. But I can tell you thatthe allegations against me arefalse and unsubstantiated.”

Talking to mediapersonshere, he said, “Documents mayhave been leaked to media.Obviously, you are in posses-sion of some papers whichmay have never been broughtto my attention.”

The ED is investigatingseveral property deals, includ-ing Ceejay House at Worli insouth-central Mumbai, which

was reportedly owned byMirchi’s first wife HajraMemon. Ceejay House is con-structed on a plot allegedlyowned by Iqbal Mirchi. TheED’s contention is that Patelredeveloped Ceejay House in2005. The ED considers theproperty as “proceeds of crime”.

The ED’s move to questionto Patel comes in the wake ofthe grilling of MukhtarMemon, an alleged key personwho handles various propertiesof Mirchi in Mumbai. Memonis the brother-in-law of Mirchi.

In his interaction with themedia, Patel said that the mat-ter was under investigationand the issue is if the “personat Ceejay House is linked withme”. The building, according toPatel, was there in 1970. “Aftermy father’s death, there was dis-pute in the family among 21 co-owners. The Mumbai HighCourt was asked in 1978 to takecharge and look after the prop-erty,” Patel said.

According to the list ofMirchi’s properties located inIndia and the UK, CeejayHouse was constructed in2006-07 as a joint venture (JV)between Mirchi and MilleniumDevelopers Pvt Ltd.

The ED probe has revealedMirchi had bought/developedseveral properties in India andabroad from the proceeds ofcrime generated through var-ious illegal offences.

The NCP is seeing theaction against its leader as“political vendetta” in the runup to the MaharashtraAssembly polls.

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The bestowal of “BharatRatna” upon social reform-

ers Jyotiba Phule, SavitribaiPhhule, and freedom fighterVeer Savarkar, creation of onecrore jobs in five years, makingMaharashtra “drought-free” infive years and �5 lakh croreinvestment in infrastructuresector are among the promis-es made by the ruling BJP in itsmanifesto for the StateAssembly polls.

In its manifesto “SankalpPatra” released three days afterits ally Shiv Sena released itsmanifesto “Vachan Patra”, theBJP has also promised housesto all the homeless in the Stateby 2022, pure drinking water toeach household, to set up a gridfor Marathwada to solve waterproblem in the region and toprovide job opportunities toone crore women by bringingthem under “Mahila BachatGhatak” scheme.

Releasing “Sankalp Patra”along with the party’s workingpresident JP Nadda, ChiefMinister Devendra Fadnavissaid, “On our return to powerin the State, we will recom-mend to the Centre a propos-al to bestow ‘Bharat Ratna’upon social reformers Jyotiba

Phule, Savitribai Phhule, andfreedom fighter Veer Savarkar.These three great leadersdeserved to be honoured withBharat Ratna as they spenttheir whole lives for socialactivities. The Shiv Sena hasalso for some time beendemanding bestowal of BharartRatna upon Veer Savarkar.”

The promise to bestowBharat Ratna upon the Phulecouple and Veer Savarkar isbeing seen as a move to attractDalit and Hindu votes.

“The focus of our mani-festo is three-fold — to addressdrought, increase availability ofwater and employment,” the

CM said.The project to link various

rivers, uninterrupted powersupply, education, economicdevelopment, health, agricul-ture, social welfare, air trans-port, port development, watersupply for irrigation and ruraldevelopment are the BJP’s otherfocus areas.

In its “Sankalp Patra”, theBJP also promised to seekfinancial assistance from theCentre to invest to the tune of�1 lakh crore on infrastructuralfacilities, to generate solar ener-gy in next five years that isenough to supply electricity tofarmers for 12 hours in a day

and to set up a solar power grid.In a first of its kind imita-

tive, the BJP has promised toset up an independent author-ity to repair all kinds of roads.The ruling party said it wouldconnect the entire Maharashtraby internet through Bharat Netand Maha Net.

“We will register all kindsof labourers at one place andbring them under the ambit ofthe social security... We willundertake a special rehabilita-tion programme for the retiredsoldiers, families of martyredsoldiers and officials who diedduring the call of duty,” the BJPmanifesto said.

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The Reserve Bank of Indiahas not printed a single

�2,000 note from April 1onward this year. The move isseen an attempt to curb stock-piling of black money.

The RBI confirmed this inresponse to an RTI reply inwhich it said that soon after thedemonitisation, the Centralbank printed 3,542.991 million�2,000 notes to match with thedemand after the existing�1,000 and �500 notes werecancelled in October 2016.

As per the RTI reply, thevolume of printing of �2,000notes came down drastically inthe following year as the bank

went in fast gear to print cur-rency notes of other denomi-nations. In 2017-18, only111.507 million notes wereproduced, which was furtherreduced to 46.690 million notes2018-19, said the RBI.

Earlier, the RBI had refut-ed the reports of withdrawal of�2,000 notes but many expertsfeel that the stopping produc-tion in the financial year willlead to withdrawal of the highvalue note in near future.

Continued on Page 7

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The police on Tuesdaydetained a small group of

women led by daughter and sis-ter of National Conferencepresident and sitting MemberParliament Farooq Abdullah inSrinagar when they tried tostage an “unathorised” sit-inprotest against the abrogationof Article 370 and bifurcationof State into two UnionTerritories.

Farooq Abdullah’s sisterSuraiya Mattoo, his daughterSafiya Khan, former J&K HighCourt chief justice BashirAhmad Khan’s wife Professor

Hawa Khan and others weredetained by the police fromPratap Park area.

The women arrived at thebusy Lal Chowk area onTuesday morning wearing

black arm badges and holdingseveral placards.

Safiya Khan was seen car-

rying a banner reading“Kashmiri brides not for sale”,apparently implying to thestatement made by some BJPleaders of Haryana and UPafter the abrogation of Article370. Other protesters were seenholding placards whichdemanded the release ofdetainees and restoration ofcivil liberties.

As they started assemblinginside the Pratap Park, womencops, along with paramilitaryforces, prevented them fromstaging sit-in dharna. The copsalso demanded them to pro-duce permission letter, if any,issued by the office of DistrictMagistrate.

When these womenrefused to call off the dharna,women cops pushed theminside the police vans beforeescorting them to the nearestpolice station.

In a written statement,these women said, “We the

women of Kashmir disapprovethe unilateral decision taken bythe Government of India torevoke Article 370 and 35A anddowngrade and split the Stateof Jammu & Kashmir. We feelbetrayed, humiliated and vio-lated as people.”

“We demand immediaterelease of detainees. We expressour outrage against the nation-al media for their false and mis-leading coverage of groundrealties in Kashmir,” reads thestatement.

Meanwhile SMS serviceswere withdrawan by the Stateadministration barely hoursafter the postpaid mobilephone services were restoredacross the Valley on Monday.The decision was taken afterreview of the prevailing secu-rity situation arising after thekilling of a truck driver hailingfrom Rajasthan by a group ofterrorists in Shopian late onMonday evening.

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Chief Minister YogiAdityanath said that three-

member teams of women officerswould go to districts fromOctober 18 to 20 to spreadawareness among womenregarding government schemes.

All the women nominatedas nodal officers for imple-mentation of various govern-ment welfare schemes related towomen have been asked to visittheir respective districts andreview the implementation ofschemes, take feedback fromwomen and submit a detailedreport to the government beforeOctober 25.

The Chief Minister said thatKanya Sumangala Yojana wouldbe launched on October 25 andbefore that, the women officersshould spread awareness aboutthe scheme among women andinform them about it.

The Chief Minister gavethese instructions during a reviewmeeting at Lok Bhawan onTuesday.

He stressed that govern-ment welfare schemes should notremain confined to offices so thattheir benefits reached the people.

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The Supreme Court Tuesdaysaw sharp exchanges between

the lawyers representing Hinduand Muslim parties during theproceedings in the politicallysensitive Ram Janmbhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case.

A 5-judge Constitutionbench headed by Chief JusticeRanjan Gogoi was hearing argu-ments of former AttorneyGeneral and senior advocate KParasaran, appearing for a Hinduparty.

He was responding to thelawsuit filed by the Sunni WakfBoard and others in 1961 to seekclaim over the disputed site atAyodhya.

Senior advocate RajeevDhavan, who represents Muslimparties, got up and intervenedwhen Parasaran was submittingthat a “historical wrong” wascommitted by Mughal emperorBabur after his conquest of Indiamore than 433 years ago by con-structing a mosque at the birth-place of Lord Ram and it need-ed to be corrected.

Parasaran, along with anoth-er senior advocate C SVaidyanathan, objected that therewere lot of interruptions from the

other side and the court shouldset the things right as this is thecase of public right.

The bench then said it willallow Dhavan to make rejoindersubmissions.

Later in the day,Vaidyanathan, who started argu-ing on behalf of one MahantSuresh Das, took strong note ofsome murmuring of lawyersfrom the other side and said: “Icannot continue with the run-ning commentary going on here”.

The senior lawyer was say-ing that Muslims have arguedthat they have perfected the titleby “long and exclusive use” of thedisputed property. That would bea definite admission that Hindusor the temple or the deity was theprevious owner if Muslims claimbenefit of adverse possessiondoctrine, he said.

As Vaidyanathan said that hecannot argue, Dhavan, in highpitch tone, said, “What is all this.How can he say that I am doingthe running commentary”.

“Stop this,” shouted Dhavanand this led to a sharp reactionfrom Vaidyanathan as well.

“How can he (Dhavan) saythis (stop it) to me,” Viadyanthanretorted and urged the court totake note of all this.

The CJI tried to calm thetempers and said “these are dis-ruptions...you (Vaidyanathan)see, how agitated you are look-ing”.

Vaidyanthan then proceed-ed with his submissions andalleged that the Muslim side cantake benefit of adverse possessiononly if they admit that the deitywas the previous and lawfulowner of the property.

“They have not proved thatthere was a grant from Babur... Ifit was the case of dedication aswakf on the ground of long user,then how can there be a conceptof joint possession as laid downin the verdict of one of thejudges of the Allahabad HighCourt,” he said.

Dhavan again got up andsaid that he was forced to inter-rupt as the lawyer for the otherside was not giving the completepicture.

“You do not have to point outthe obvious to the judges,” thebench told Dhavan.

The bench, which heard thematter on 39th day, said,“...tomorrow will be the 40th dayand we want to conclude it”.

The court had fixed October17 as the deadline to wrap up thehearing in the case.

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NOTICE

Be it known to all that I, Mr.Yash Chhugani, DOB24.08.1985, S/o Mr. NirmalRamchandra Chhugani, MyIndian Passport No. S-6764087issued on 26.09.2018 fromRegional Passport Office,Lucknow, R/o Dr. Pyare LalBuilding, Kamla Nehru Marg,Chowk, Lucknow, havechanged my name to Mr.Yogesh NirmalramchandraChhugani, w.e.f. Dt. 03.08.2019.

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Governor Anandiben Patelurged the students of

Lucknow University to neitheraccept nor offer dowry if theywant to remove this social evilfrom the society. We may saymany good things in the soci-ety, but we do not followthem when it comes to actu-al practice, she said whilespeaking at the 62nd convoca-tion of the university onTuesday. She also directed theuniversity to adopt villages forpoverty alleviation.

Vice-Chairperson of thePlanning Commission ofIndia Rajeev Kumar and ISROscientist Dr Ritu Karidhalwere conferred upon hon-orary DLitt degrees on theoccasion. As many as 91 goldmedals were given away. Abook on the Vice-Chancellor’sthree-year journey at LucknowUniversity and LU’s AcademicCalendar were released onthe occasion.

Addressing the gathering,the Governor said she invitedstudents from a primary gov-ernment school to the convo-cation so that they aspire fora better education and end upstudying at this university.She appreciated the fact thatalmost 80 per cent of the goldmedallists are girls. She saidshe wanted to congratulate theparents of ChandrayaanMission-2 director Dr RituKaridhal for helping her reachthis position. She said womenin all parts of the country weremaking great progress.

“Even the differently-abled daughters are doing wellin the country and a primeexample of this is an IAS offi-cer posted in Kerala. Weshould treat daughters likegoddesses and it is not appro-priate to worship the goddessonly during festivals,” theGovernor said.

With reference to Indian-American economist AbhijitBanerjee, who shared theNobel Prize for EconomicSciences on Monday with hiswife Esther Duflo and a fellowAmerican, Patel said it wasimportant to to alleviatepoverty and every effortshould be made in this direc-tion.

“These Noble Prize win-ners have given answers toquestions on how poverty can

be removed,” she said. Referring to a survey

according to which 70 crorepeople were below the pover-ty line in India, the Governorsaid that in the last decade,India have been able to take 27crore people out of poverty,but 22 per cent were stillbelow the poverty line.

“The need of the hour isfor the government to makepolicies and guidelines. One ofthe best schemes of the gov-ernment has been ‘PMAY’because if slum-dwellers livein clean surroundings, theywill have minimal or no dis-eases, and the governmentwill not have to spend on theirtreatment,” she added.

She pointed out thatLucknow University was oneof the few universities with acentury-year old heritage asso-ciated with the city.

Quoting Nelson Mandela,she said education is a power-ful tool through which you

can change the world. Sheadded that LU is making greatstrides in the progress of edu-cation.

“Tagore Library hereneeds no introduction andeverything from admission tofee payment has been digi-tised. The university alsoboasts of the process of gettingfeedback online. The univer-sity has to keep pace with edu-cation and because of thewonderful work done by LU inputting everything online, thestate government has given itthe responsibility of digitisingall the universities of the state,”she added.

She also appreciated thework of the university in termsof conducting ‘PadheLucknow Badhe Lucknow’ forpromoting a reading culture.

Speaking on the occasion,Deputy Chief Minister DineshSharma said convocation doesnot mean the end of learning.He said the university is doing

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“You all are ready to begina new chapter in your life,

your professors have armedyou with the most powerfulweapon on earth, which is edu-cation. You have graduated andyou are a part of this new glob-al elite, and with this comes asense of great responsibility. Goahead and find your new goals,improve something, changepeople’s lives and the world forthe better.

These views were expressedby ISRO scientist andChandrayaan-2 director DrRitu Karidhal at the 62nd con-vocation of LucknowUniversity. She recalled that shecompleted her post-graduationdegree from LU’s departmentof Physics in the year 1996. “Iwould like to thank my teach-ers from those times. Prof HMBali was the then head of thedepartment. There were Prof JPShukla, Prof NK Mehrotra,Prof Poonam Pandey, ProfManisha Gupta and othersunder whose able guidance, Icompleted my post-gradua-tion. It was the education thattook me to the vast space ofISRO,” she said.

However, she pointed outthat the decision taken by herparents to send her so far some22 years ago, when the distancewas not measured in kilometresbut in hours, was a difficult one.

“It used to take two-and-a-half days, and not hours, inreaching Bangalore. It was notat all an easy decision for myparents. I should thank myparents who took such a toughdecision without fearing aboutany uncertainty in a far-offand unknown place. I am surethey had utmost confidence intheir daughter. My space jour-ney began and I have got theopportunity of being a part ofmany prestigious missions andmany challenging tasks,”Karidhal said. She said onething which she learnt in ISROwas how to tackle complex

and challenging situations andhow to find a solution to a crit-ical problem.

Vice-Chairman of thePlanning Commission RajeevKumar said he was grateful toLucknow University because itprovided him with the oppor-tunity to study when he hadsome problems in Delhi.

Recalling his teachers, hesaid: “I remember my teachersUB Singh, Daljit Singh, Ajit

Singh, Prakash Chandra andShailendra Singh who alwaysencouraged me”. He added thatthis is a great time when great-est attention is being given to theeducation system.

“The Central governmentfocused on higher educationand over 50 universities havingNAAC scores of 3.1 and abovehave been given the freedom todesign their own syllabi. It’s timefor Lucknow University to also

upgrade itself since it alreadyhas a NAAC score of 2.73. LUhas the potential to become thebest,” he said, adding that theywould soon have aAccreditation and AdvisoryCouncil. “The world is lookingat India at this point of time.When in New York, I saw thatseveral schemes and laws suchas GST, Ujjwala were beingwatched by other countries,” hepointed out.

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Don’t give up, just keepconquering whatever you

want to achieve, ISRO scientistDr Ritu Karidhal told the stu-dents of Mahila Vidyalaya PGCollege on Tuesday. She wasfelicitated at her alma materwhere she pursued BSc from1991 to 1994. She was also reg-istered as the first alumna of theAlumni Association formed onthe occasion as a part of the 125years celebration of one of theoldest institutes of the city.

The scientist was welcomedby a huge gathering of studentswho had put up posters andportraits. Walking down mem-ory lane, she said: “I used to getdown from the autorickshawclose by.”

She pointed out that whatone studies from class 9 to class12 becomes the base later. “It isat this time that you have toknow which subject you likeand follow it with full interest.Here what we get are the roots.Whatever subjects I studied —be it Physics, Chemistry orMathematics — I saw them inthe light of space study. I alwayshad a fascination for space andI would wonder why was themoon walking with me at a dis-tance. Curiosity starts at thisstage itself,” she said. About herwork at ISRO, she said what

they did was something mostcountries failed to achieve.“However, we did it in firstattempt where the chances ofsuccess were just 50 per cent.One of the key things that wehad to study was the breakingof the gravitational force tolaunch the Chandrayaan andfor that, what was requiredwas precise planning. This wasvery difficult but the movementhere is not as per the speed oflight. We also had to make asatellite which was self-depen-dent and could diagnose itsown problem and then set itself

right,” she said. She added thatwhen they were given the task,they had only 18 months to finish it.

President of MahilaVidyalaya Alok Ranjan saidKaridhal was an inspirationfor all. He told the students tolearn what she had told themand try to imbibe it in their ownlives. “ISRO is doing great workand we would want Dr RituKaridhal to join us for thelarge-scale celebrations to beheld next year regarding the 125years of Mahila College,” headded.

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Samiya Ikram ofMathematics department,

who bagged 14 gold medals,was the cynosure of all eyesand even got a special hugfrom Governor AnandibenPatel. She bagged the Dr ANSingh Gold Medal, IqbalNarain Srivastava Gold Medal,Madhuri Devi Memorial GoldMedal, Ram Tirtha GoldMedal and Smt Shanti DeviSharma Memorial Gold Medalto name a few. The topper saidshe was passionate aboutmathematics.

About her success mantra,she said one should remaindisciplined in life. “I missed thechance of being a topper inearlier classes and was alwaysleft behind by one or two percent. I am glad I have made itthis time,” she said.

Other gold medallistsincluded Rishabh Tripathi (7),Vibhantika Dwivedi (8),Apoorva Singh (6), TanzilaSiddiqui (6) and NimishaSingh (5). Rishabh Tripathisaid he is the son of a ‘purohit’and faced financial problemsalso, but his passion for Indianhistory kept him going. “Iwant to become a professor. Ilove the subject so much that

I want to take it up as my pro-fession. I want to serve thecountry by highlighting itsculture and tradition existingsince centuries,” he said.

Vibhantika Dwivedi saidthat the challenging part was tochoose between Science andLaw. “I was very good atScience and hence I did BScbecause I wanted to have a sci-entific background. But I wasso much interested in Law that

I took it up. I think everyoneshould study Law,” she said.Asked as to what she wants todo for the country, she said shewants to go abroad to study thepolicies and then implementthe same in India. ShreyaGupta, who bagged a goldmedal in Geography and isdoing PhD in EcologicalFootprint, said she wants towork in the area of climatechange.

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#�$�� %��'�$ �� $�� a lot of research work and mostof the prominent research cen-tres were started here. He said alot of changes have been madeto better the standards of high-er education. He also told thestudents to respect their teachers.

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Lucknow (PNS): TheLucknow divis ion ofNorthern and North-EasternRailways will run festivalspecial trains and increase thefrequency of trains to cater tothe rush during festive sea-son. “We have decided torun four turns (frequency)of the weekly Festival SpecialTrain (82119/82120)between Gorakhpur andLokmanya Tilak Terminus.The train will depart at 5.10am from Lokmanya TilakTerminus from on October19, October 26, November 2and November 9. The trainfrom Gorakhpur will departat 1545 hrs on October 20,October 27, November 3and November 10,” chiefPRO Pankaj Singh said. Thetrain will consist of 22coaches, including four gen-eral, 14 sleeper, two AC-IIIand two SLR coaches.

PRO, Lucknow office ofNER, Alok Srivastava said:“We have started prepara-tions to ease the passengerrush during the festivals. Infact, the festive mood hasalready set in and passenger

volume is witnessing anincrease. We are increasingthe number of coaches inview of the rising demand.”

According to Pankaj Singh,ticketing officials have beenasked to feed the informationin the system regarding aug-mentation of coaches. He saidan additional coach has beenattached with each pair oftrain between Gorakhpur &Lokmanya Tilak Terminus,Gorakhpur & Panvel, andGorakhpur & Kanpur. On theother hand, the Lucknow divi-sion of Northern Railways hasalso braced up to meet the rushthis festive season. NR officialssaid 24 pairs of trains will berunning either with increasedfrequency or with additionalnumber of coaches. “Some ofthese trains will continue torun by November 1 whilesome will run for more days,”they said. Even as the railwaysclaims to have enough groundwork to cater to the need of thepassengers, there are numberof passengers who are forced totake other transport modes toreach their respective destinations.

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Lucknow (PNS): A 20-year-old woman was foundhanging from a tree in a mangogrove in Kakori on Tuesdaymorning. Some villagers spot-ted the woman hanging from atree with a saree tied aroundher neck. They alertedHardoiya villagers and thenews also reached the police. Apolice team reached the place.Investigating officer AjayShukla said the woman wasidentified as Reema Rawat ofHardoiya village and she livedwith her husband Shatrohan ina rented accommodation.

Shukla said the father ofthe deceased had not given anycomplaint as yet. “Reema’sfather demanded autopsy andwe sent the body for the post-mortem. The aggrieved fathersaid he needed a day time tothink about the course ofaction. If he gives any com-plaint, we will register a caseaccordingly,” he said.

The IO termed the incidenta case of suicide and discount-ed villagers’ apprehensions of

foul play. “The woman had noissue from her marriage andshe may have been underdepression. She left her housesometime on Monday nightand reached the orchard whereshe hanged herself,” he said.

Meanwhile, the body of anunidentified man was recov-ered from Gomti river inKakori police station area onTuesday morning. Police saidSarvan Kumar of Saintha vil-lage spotted the body inGulami Kheda village. “Sarvaninformed us and we reachedthe scene. Villagers could notidentify the body. We sent thebody for autopsy while furtherinvestigations are underway,”the police said.

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ants on Monday deprived awoman, identified as AnjaliSingh of Indira Nagar (SectorD). The woman was going topick her daughter from schoolon and was targeted nearAurobindo Park.

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Aday after registering a caseof dacoity and molestation

with a girl during a birthdayparty at a club in VibhutiKhand on Monday, the policehave failed to find the namedaccused.

“The accused are on thelam and police teams are hunt-ing for them. We have formedseveral teams to arrest thosenamed in the case, but withoutany success so far.Mediapersons will be informedwhen the accused are arrested,”police spokesman AK Dwivedisaid. He added that the VibhutiKhand SHO was yet to sharewith him details regardingdevelopment in the case.

When contacted, VibhutiKhand SHO Rajeev Dwivedisaid, “The address of the attack-ers were verified and the teamsraided their houses in Khadra,Hasanganj, but they were

locked”. He said the accused(Mujaddit Alfasani and Aftab)worked as brokers/propertydealers and came from simplefamilies. “They do not belongto any high-profile family, asclaimed earlier,” he said.

The SHO said that thepolice were yet to identify theaides of named accused.Interestingly, Gomti Nagar COAC Srivastava was not evenaware about the incident andsaid he needed some time.The group of miscreants, withsome armed with pistols, hadmolested a girl after gatecrash-ing the party, intimidated herfamily members, and injuredtwo men by attacking themwith knife and a liquor bottle.They had also looted themobile phone from the personon whose complaint the policeregistered a case in this connec-tion. However, sources saidthe police were deliberatelydelaying the arrest of the

accused. “Some of the well-wishers of the accused are intouch with the Vibhuti Khandpolice who are giving a longrope to them so that a compro-mise can be struck with the vic-tims,” the sources claimed.

They said the policemen atthe picket duty near the clubdid not take any preventivemeasures. “It is strange that thecase is being investigated by theVibhuti Khand SHO and heand his team have yet to com-plete the exercise to find evi-dence,” they said.

Police laxity had forcedthe SSP (Lucknow) to call ameeting and direct theSHOs/COs to lodge casesunder strict sections of IPC inissues involving gatecrasherskicking up a shindy in nightclubs and late night parties. Ina hurriedly-called meeting, SSPKalanidhi Naithani hadannounced to set up a cell toaddress such cases.

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Asub-inspector of trafficpolice was accused of abus-

ing a trader and demandingbribe. According to com-plainant Jasveer Singh of IndiraNagar, he was returning fromCharbagh with some bales ofcloths for curtains in his SUVwhen a four-wheeler overtookhis vehicle, forcing him to stopnear Fun Republic crossing onMonday evening. “I deal in cur-tains, cushions and blankets,and the consignment of goodsI had placed the order forreached Charbagh on Mondaymorning. I put the bales in therear portion of SUV and head-

ed for my shop when there wasa little mishap,” he said.

He alleged that the S-Isnatched his mobile phone andswitched it off while usingcuss words for ignoring hisinstruction to stop. “Hesnatched the keys and asked mewhy I was carrying goods in theSUV as it amounts to violationof norms. I showed him all thedocuments, but the S-I and hisdriver lunged at me and forcedme to drive to 1090 crossingwhere he threatened toimpound my SUV if I did notshell out favour money,” Singhalleged.

The businessman alsoalleged the S-I and his driver

him hostage for hours and hewas subjected to mental trau-ma. Singh met the SSP(Lucknow) in the evening andapprised him of the incident.“The SSP heard my case sym-pathetically and summonedthe S-I to his office onWednesday,” he said.

A police spokesman saidhe had no information aboutthe action taken against thesub-inspector in question.Meanwhile, SP (Traffic) PSingh said he was not awareabout the case. “No one cameto me with any such complaint,nor did any officer seek anydetail about the incident fromme,” he said.

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��Bank of India Star Rural Self

Employment Training Institutein Vibhav Khand, Gomti Nagar,conducted an intensive trainingof candle making for SHGwomen at Bhairampur village inMohanlalganj. The traineeswere motivated for self-employ-ment. Various types of candles

prepared in the training likewere demonstrated by thetrainees.

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ing ‘Kisan Pakhwada’ fromOctober 1 to 16 for linkingfarmers with various agricultureschemes provided by it. Bank ofBaroda, Lucknow Region,organised ‘Mega Agri CreditCamp’ at Mars Hall in IndiraGandhi Pratishthan. The aimwas to educate farmers aboutvarious farm-related productsand linking them to activebanking schemes. The camp

was attended by over 1,100farmers. Loans were sanctionedto 2,567 beneficiaries and 1,827sanctions amounting to Rs 47crore were provided underagriculture sector.

��#��(�.�)*�+The Uttar Pradesh

Regional Office of NABARDwill organise a five-day eventcalled ‘Shilp Kumbh – 2019’from October 16 to 20.Artisans from different parts ofUP will be showcasing theirhandloom and handicraftproducts, including GI prod-ucts. The event is aimed at pro-viding market access to theseartisans. The products avail-able for purchase in the fairwill be Banarasi sarees,Azamgarh’s black pottery,Firozabad’s glass work,Baghpat’s home furnishingitems, Bahraich’s wheat stemart, Lucknow’s chikankari,Mau’s handloom sarees, etc.

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The 15th Finance Commission ofIndia will arrive here on October

19 on a four-day visit. The FinanceCommission decides how the rev-enues from the Consolidated Fundof India are to be distributed amongCentre and the states. In addition, theFinance Commission also decides theprinciples on which the grants in aidwill be given to states.

All the heads of the major headsof the state’s economy like physicaland social infrastructure have beenasked to place their demands beforethe commission through power-point presentation. The ministers ofthe departments concerned will alsobe present during the presentation.

The 15th Finance Commission head-ed by former Rajya Sabha MP andbureaucrat NK Singh will also meetChief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

The 15th Finance Commissionset up on November 17, 2017 wasscheduled to submit its recommen-dation by October 30 but its term hasbeen extended to November 30. Therecommendation will be observed forthe next five years and come intoforce from April 1, 2020.

The visit of the 15th FinanceCommission is significant in view ofthe ambitious plan floated by UPChief Minister Yogi Adityanath forturning Uttar Pradesh into a trillion-dollar economy in the next fiveyears. The recommendations of theFinance Commission will be impor-

tant for states and UP in the wake ofstate governments losing autonomyover a large part of their revenues fol-lowing the implementation of theGoods and Services Tax (GST) fromJuly 2017.

The recommendations of the15the Finance Commission haveacquired much greater importancethan before. Unlike the Centre,which can raise cesses and sur-charges at will, states lack an equiv-alent mechanism to raise resources.How far they are able to functionwith financial autonomy in the yearsahead will depend to a great extenton the Finance Commission recom-mendations due later this year.

As per the terms of reference ofthe Commission, it shall review the

current status of finance, deficit, debtlevels, cash balances and fiscal dis-cipline efforts of the Union and theStates. It will recommend a fiscal con-solidation roadmap for sound fiscalmanagement, taking into account theresponsibility of the Central govern-ment and state governments toadhere to appropriate levels of gen-eral and consolidated governmentdebt and deficit levels. This part ofthe Commission’s recommendationwill be important for UP, as the debtlevel is likely to cross �5-trillionmark. The size of the UP budget of2019-20 is �4.89 trillion.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanathmay have called for accepting thechallenge of turning Uttar Pradeshinto a trillion-dollar economy in the

next five years but the target may notbe easy to achieve in that time span.A close scrutiny of the state’s eco-nomic situation indicates that UttarPradesh has a Gross State DomesticProduct (GSDP) of �15.42 lakh croreand it will take much longer than justfive years to become a trillion dollareconomy, according to experts. Infact, the state will have to have aGSDP of �70 lakh crore to achievethe trillion-dollar economy target, ifthe value of a dollar is taken to be�70, according to these experts.

UP has not been able to witnessdouble digit economic growth despiteconsistent attempts over the years,they say. The GSDP is estimated tohave grown 7 per cent in 2017-18 and6.5 per cent in 2018-2019.

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Falling short of required bud-get to pay honorarium to

home guards as per the direc-tive of the Supreme Court, theUttar Pradesh Police, on thedirection of the Chief Secretary,is discontinuing the services ofabout 25,000 home guards.

The move has come as amajor setback for the homeguard personnel especiallywhen the government hasannounced bonus for 14 lakhstate employees as a Diwali gift.The state government is alreadyfacing criticism over lack of jobopportunities in the state.

The order to remove thehome guards was taken lastweek citing budgetary con-straints. With this decision,the strength of home guardsdeployed for law and orderduties would be cut by 32 percent.

Besides, more than 99,000home guards also stand to loseregular employment, as thestate government has cut thenumber of days they arerequired to report on dutyfrom 25 to 15 days.

Earlier, around 40,000home guards had lost their jobsas the police departmentrefused to take their services.

The Supreme Court wasearlier moved to seek equalityin daily allowance of UP homeguard and UP Police constable.

As per the governmentorder dated October 11, the

decision to end the services of25,000 home guards was takenin a meeting headed by theChief Secretary on August 28.

The Home department haddeployed 25,000 home guardsaround a year back to fill up thevacancies in the police force.

The order was issued byAdditional Director General of

Police, Headquarters, BPJogdand giving reference to theAugust 28 meeting.

“There is a certain budgetfor home guards and whentheir daily allowance isincreased, it will definitely havean effect on their duty days. Itmight have some effect asDiwali season is around thecorner. However, I am sure thestate government has taken adecision after thinking over thefinancial constraints. If homeguards are given allowances atpar with constables then theyshould also be trained likethem,” former DGP of UP, AKJain, reacted here on Tuesday.

The home guards earlierreceived daily allowance ofaround �500, which was raisedto �672 following the SupremeCourt order. This is said to haveadded to UP Police’s budgetaryconstraints.

The home guards do nothave any fixed monthly salaryand are paid on the basis ofnumber of days of duty. Tillnow a home guard wasdeployed on duty for 25 days.The government has nowdecreased this to 15 days.

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Hitting out at Congress, ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath saidthat the grand old party was not

finding workers to oppose abrogation ofArticle 370 which was a blot on Kashmir,and no person having self-respect wouldsupport Congress.

Addressing an election rally inPratapgarh in which senior Congressleader and three-time MP RajkumariRatna Singh joined the Bharatiya JanataParty, Yogi Adityanath said that in thepresent scenario, no one would supportCongress for opposing abrogation ofArticle 370 which accorded special sta-tus to Jammu and Kashmir.

The Chief Minister addressed ralliesin Pratapgarh, Chitrakoot and Kanpur insupport of BJP candidates contesting theUP assembly by-elections. He appealedto the people to vote for the BJP.

Yogi Adityanath said that SamajwadiParty, Bahujan Samaj Party and otherparties had done politics on caste andreligious lines and promoted nepotismand casteism and UP bore the brunt ofthis style of politics.

“It is wrong to expect developmentfrom them because development andgood governance is not on the agenda ofthese parties,” he said.

The Chief Minister said that thefarmers of Pratapgarh, with their dili-gence and efforts, had provided a glob-al stage to the cultivation of amla ( Indiangooseberry).

“The BJP government has includedamla in the ‘One District One Product’project and is providing a new market tothe farmers here. The work on themedical college has started in Pratapgarh.In the next session, the process for admis-sions along with the OPD will start in themedical college,” he said.

While addressing a rally inChitrakoot, the Chief Minister said thatit was the holy land where Lord Ramspent around 12 years in exile.

“For the last 15 years, the SP, the BSPand the Congress, in connivance withsome contractors, looted funds allocat-ed for the development of the region. Ourgovernment has stopped that loot. Notonly that, after the formation of the BJPgovernment in the state, the region hasbecome free of dacoits,” the ChiefMinister said.

He said that fighter planes would bemanufactured at the factories to be setup in the defence corridor here and theplanes manufactured in Chitrakootwould give a befitting reply to the ene-mies.

“The tanks made in Chitrakoot willprotect the country’s borders and theywill have Chitrakoot written on them,”he added.

Enumerating the various welfareschemes of the BJP government, theChief Minister said that the state govern-

ment had sanctioned Rs 9,000 crore forproviding pure drinking water to all thehouseholds.

“After the construction of theBundelkhand Expressway, the distancebetween Delhi and Chitrakoot will becovered in five hours. Besides, our gov-ernment is constructing cow shelters forthe protection of stray cattle. If anyfarmer is keeping stray cattle at his homeand taking care of it, the state govern-ment is helping such farmers by givingthem Rs 900 for each animal,” YogiAdityanath added.

The Chief Minister targeted theCongress, the SP and the BSP whileaddressing the rally in Kanpur. He saidthat Pakistan and Congress were painedmost after the abrogation of Article 370.

“Over 41,000 citizens of Kashmirhave died due to Pakistan-sponsored ter-rorism, but the SP, the BSP and theCongress never did anything on the issue.Under the leadership of Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, the BJP governmentabrogated Article 370 and paved the wayfor development in Kashmir,” the ChiefMinister said.

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In a tragic mishap reportedfrom Jhansi, four members of

a family were burnt alive in afire in Sipri Bazaar polices sta-tion area in the wee hours ofTuesday.

Luckily, half-a-dozen othermembers of the family escapedunhurt as they were sleeping onthe terrace and were rescued intime.

Jhansi range DIG SubhashSingh Baghel said it appearedthat the fire was sparked byshort-circuit but the chief fireofficer had been asked to sub-mit his report after a detailedprobe.

Reports said that fire brokeout at a grocery store inDayaram Colony in the weehours of Tuesday when mostof the family members werefast asleep in bedroom, justabove the store.

The deceased were identi-fied as Jagdish Udania (45), hismother Kumud (75), his wifeRajni (38) and their 13-year-old daughter Muskan.

Neighbours alerted the firebrigade and rescued five mem-bers of the family who weresleeping on the terrace of thehouse.

Chief Minister YogiAdityanath expressed grief overthe loss of lives. He directedofficials of the district admin-istration to ensure all possiblehelp to the affected persons.

Meanwhile, half-a-dozen

people were killed in separateroad mishaps.

In Muzaffarnagar, two menwere killed when a vehicle hitthem on Deoband-Muzaffarnagar road nearRohana village on Mondaynight.

The victims, Shahrukh, 23,and Abrar, 45, were waiting fora bus when a speeding vehiclehit them. Both died on the spot.

The duo was part of amusic band and they werereturning to Rohana after per-forming at an event.

In Banda, two people werekilled and one seriously injuredwhen the motorcycle they wereriding was run over by a speed-ing truck in Tindwari area onMonday night.

Suman Nishad (35) andher brother-in-law Rajkishor(24) along with another personwere returning to their villagewhen they were run over by thespeeding truck which hit theirmotorcycle.

Nishad and Rajkishor diedon the spot while the other per-son sustained serious injuries.

The motorcyclists were notwearing helmets.

In Amethi, two men werekilled after their motorcyclecollided with a truck onTuesday.

Santosh Kumar (31) andSunil Kumar (30) were return-ing from a nearby fair whentheir motorcycle crashed intoa truck near Gungwachh turn,killing both men on the spot.

Lucknow (PNS): A high-level team comprising ChiefSecretary Rajendra Kumar Tewari, Additional ChiefSecretary (Home) Awanish Awasthi and Director Generalof Police OP Singh expressed displeasure over the prepa-rations for Deepotsav celebration in Ayodhya on Diwali.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will participate in theDeepotsav celebration in Ayodhya in which over 5.5 lakhdiyas will be lighted together in the temple town. The prepa-rations were reviewed on Tuesday.

According to reports, work at Ram Ki Pauri, where theDeepotsav will be celebrated, is still incomplete and thisannoyed the Chief Secretary and his team members. Theyhave fixed the deadline of October 21 for completing thework. The officers of Rajkiya Nirman Nigam and UP PowerCorporation Limited, the two agencies entrusted with thework, have been issued warning in this regard.

Meanwhile, Principal Secretary (Irrigation) T Venkatesh,who also visited Ayodhya on Tuesday, asked the officials con-cerned to complete the work on remodeling of Ram Ki Paurito ensure free flow of Saryu river water and make it clean.

Venkatesh visited the pump house and remodeling siteand directed the officers to complete the work by October18 while maintaining quality.

The Additional Chief Secretary (Home) also reviewedlaw and order situation along with the DGP and asked thesenior officers to remain on alert to avert any incident dur-ing celebration of Deepotsav or any law and order problemin wake of Supreme Court verdict on Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Mosque dispute expected next month. ADG ZoneLucknow, SN Sabat was asked to discuss the force deploy-ment so that timely allocation and deployment could beensured. The government has already deployed ten com-panies of Central Para-Military force in Ayodhya besidespositioning force from the neighbouring districts.

#!�� Lucknow (PNS): The YogiAdityanath government onTuesday issued order for dis-bursement of bonus to around 14lakh non-gazetted state employ-ees. Chief Minister YogiAdityanath had earlier approvedbonus and additional dearnessallowance for the state employ-ees and the order was issued onTuesday.

The state employees willreceive bonus for 30 days thisyear, estimated to be around�7,000, but actually they will get�6,908. Employees whose gradepay is up to �4,800 will be eligi-ble for the bonus which will alsobe given to employees of govern-ment-aided schools and col-leges, local bodies, panchayatsand even daily wage workers.While 75 per cent of the bonuswill be deposited in the ProvidentFund account of the employees,and rest 25 per cent will be paidin cash before Diwali.

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In a big jolt to the Congress ahead ofassembly bypolls, former MP and

senior leader of the party, RajkumariRatna Singh, joined the Bharatiya JanataParty in the presence of Chief MinisterYogi Adityanath in Pratapgarh during anelection rally on Tuesday.

Rajkumari Ratna Singh, 60, is thedaughter of former external affairs min-ister Dinesh Singh, who was one of theclosest associates of former PrimeMinister Indira Gandhi and other mem-bers of the Gandhi family..

The announcement of Ratna Singhjoining the BJP was made at the electionmeeting held at Gadhwa Inter CollegeGrounds in Pratapgarh, where ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath addressed theelection rally.

Pratapgarh is one of the 11 assem-bly constituencies where bypolls will beheld on October 21.

“Ratna Singh is a big name of thisarea as she has won Lok Sabha elections

in 1996, 1999 and 2009 from Pratapgarhon Congress ticket,” BJP state presidentSwatantra Dev Singh said.

In 2019, Rajkumari Ratna Singh hadcontested election but lost to AkshayPratap Singh ‘Gopalji’, a close aide ofRaghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiyya.

The former Congress MP figures ina long list of Congress leaders consideredclose to Gandhi-Nehru family to haveswitched over to the BJP in UP. Theseleaders include Sanjay Sinh, his wifeAmita Sinh and lawmaker Dinesh PratapSingh, among several others.

In Rae Bareli, two Congress legis-lators, Aditi Singh and Rakesh Singh,have already turned rebels and it is amatter of time before they formally jointhe BJP. Both the legislators had defiedthe Congress whip and participated inthe special session of UP assembly onOctober 2.

Sources say Ratna Singh is annoyedat the style of functioning of Congressgeneral secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadraas she has been sidelined in the party.

4�� &� ��2>'��$� ��;�Lucknow (PNS): On the back foot over the decision to remove25,000 home guards from police duty, Director General of PoliceOP Singh on Tuesday said that these home guards had not beenretrenched but had been kept out of duty on temporary basis dueto financial crunch. “It is wrong to say that these 25,000 homeguards have been removed... it is just a temporary phase and theyhave been kept out of their duties,” he told media persons herebut refused to make any commitment about when these homeguards would be asked to resume their duties.

“We have no budget for the hiked honorarium of the homeguards due to which this decision has been taken. But certain-ly something will be done soon so that they again resume theirduties,” the DGP said while asserting that Home guards were thebackbone of police in controlling law and order and they wereworking at par with the state police.

Sources said that Chief Secretary Rajendra Tewari said inAyodhya on Tuesday that they planned to sort out the problemand would take some early decision so that the home guards alsocelebrated Diwali.

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��"��-<�� (��"��Lucknow (PNS): Close on the heels of the sensational murders ofthree senior leaders of Bharatiya Janata Party in Uttar Pradesh,unknown assailants made an attempt on the life of the ruling party’sdistrict president in Mainpuri early Tuesday morning. Luckily, BJP’sMainpuri district unit president Alok Gupta escaped unhurt afterhe took shelter behind his car to save himself.

According to Superintendent of Police in Mainpuri, AjayShanker Rai, who visited the spot, police are investigating the inci-dent and a manhunt has been launched to nab the assailants. TheSP said the incident occurred at Awadh Nagar area under KotwaliSadar police station when the BJP leader was sitting outside hishouse on Tuesday morning. Suddenly, three motorcycle-bornemen came and opened indiscriminate fire but Gupta took shel-ter behind his car, foiling the murder attempt. After firing, theassailants escaped before the local residents could respond to thealarm raised by Gupta.

Additional police force has been deployed at the residenceof the BJP leader while personnel security has been provided tohim, the SP said. The Mainpuri incident comes just days after aBJP students’ leader, Kabir Tiwari, was shot dead in Basti and twosenior leaders of the ruling party were gunned down inSaharanpur.

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The Lok Sabha Secretariathas sought suggestions

from MPs on changes neededin the present structure of theParliament and the scale ofrenovation required in the newscheme of things whereGovernment is set to remodeland develop the whole area inand around it, to be complet-ed by 2022.

The suggestions weresought in a letter sent to theLok Sabha members onOctober 11. According to theplan, the Government wouldalso redevelop the 3 km-stretchof the Central Vista spanningfrom Rashtrapati Bhavan toIndia Gate.

The letter said, "... There isactive consideration regardingeither renovation of the exist-ing Parliament building orconstruction of altogether anew Parliament building with-in the given premises."

It sought suggestions fromthe members to "rectify thedrawbacks or faulty features"causing inconvenience in theirday-to-day functioning in theexisting building.

They have also been askedto suggest features or facilitieswhich should be provided inthe new building to make it"foolproof ".

The Lok Sabha MPs haveto email their suggestions with-in a week. They have also beenadvised against sending in hardcopies of their responses.

The idea to either constructa new Parliament building or torenovate the present structure,which is over 90 years old, hasbeen floating since UPA 1.The idea was given a fresh pushunder the present Government.

It is also said that the pre-sent dispensation would seek toadd new structures to the exist-ing Parliament building, roundin shape, to make it 'Vastufriendly'.

According to sources in theUnion Housing and UrbanAffairs Ministry, five Indianarchitectural firms have sub-mitted bids for the project to beexecuted by the Central Public

Works Department.Describing the whole exer-

cise as a " dream project" ofPrime Minister NarendraModi, Union Housing andUrban Affairs Minister,Hardeep Singh Puri has maintained that not a singletree will be cut while the rede-velopment takes place until2022.

A committee of expertswill now evaluate the technicalproposals submitted by thefirms. Financial proposals ofonly those bidders whose tech-nical proposals qualify will beopened. As of now there is noestimate as to how much wouldit cost to undertake the entireproject in the area which is thenerve-centre of the powerstructure that controls thecountry.

��

Putting further pressure onVIP squatters, the Lok

Sabha Housing Committeechairman CR Patil on Tuesdayissued directions to cut elec-tricity, water and gas supply inthe accommodation illegallyoccupied by MPs. The com-mittee, chaired by BJP MP CRPatil, decided to approachDelhi Police to ensure that theex-MPs vacate the accommo-dation allotted to them inLutyens Delhi.

According to the rules,former MPs have to vacatetheir bungalows within onemonth of dissolution of theprevious Lok Sabha. As manyas over three dozen formerMPs are overstaying in theirbungalows and flats. Despiteseveral notices, they have notvacated their accommodations.

On May 25, President RamNath Kovind dissolved the 16thLok Sabha with immediate effecton the recommendation of theUnion Cabinet after the ModiGovernment was formed for asecond term. With these formerMPs not vacating their bunga-lows, the newly-elected mem-bers of parliament have beenstaying in transit accommoda-tion such as their respective Stateguest houses or the WesternCourt, sources said.The panelhas been unable to allot housesto the MPs despite their repeated requests, they added.

��

Amit Shah will demit hispost as BJP president by

the year end and is likely to bereplaced by a new one withworking president JP Naddaexpected to succeed him.

Shah, who is holding the cru-cial portfolio of Union HomeMinistry, would only be stressinghis party's dictum of one-man-one-post by demitting the post ofthe party president once organ-isational polls are completed byDecember. In an interview to anews channel, he said that thenew president would take over byDecember and rejected thenotion that he would remain the"super power" running he partyfrom behind the scene.

"BJP is not the Congressparty and nobody can run itfrom behind the scenes," he saidsaying it will be run as per itsconstitution.Nadda, who isalready appointed party's work-ing president, is expected to takecharge from Shah in December.

To another question, hedenied that his party was look-ing at former cricket captainSourav Ganguly as the face ofthe party in West Bengal. Herejected any involvement in theelection of the next BCCI chiefand that there was any deal withGanguly, who was elected ascricket body's Chief.

��

With the BJP inMaharashtra calling for

Bharat Ratna award forHindutva idealogue V DSavarkar, the Congress onTuesday said that if theGovernment considers it on the150th birth anniversary ofMahatma Gandhi, then "Godsave this country".

The opposition party'sresponse came after the elec-tion manifesto of MaharashtraBJP, released on Tuesday, saidthe party will ask the NDAGovernment at the Centre toconfer India's highest civilianaward on Savarkar.

"In a country whereMahatma Gandhi is beingmade to commit suicide inexaminations, anything is pos-sible," Congress spokespersonManish Tewari said at a pressconference, referring to therow over a question in theinternal assessment examina-tion of some schools in Gujarat.

Savarkar had faced criminaltrial in the murder of MahatmaGandhi, Tewari said, adding thathe was later acquitted.

The Congress spokesper-son cited an article whichclaimed that the KapurCommission concluded thatfacts pointed towards a "con-spiracy to murder by Savarakarand his group" in MahatmaGandhi's case.

"If on the 150th birthanniversary of MahatmaGandhi, this Government con-siders any such thing (givingBharat Ratna to Savarkar), thenall I want to say is that God savethis country," Tewari said.

Asked if there was a con-tradiction between the recentpraise for Gandhi by RSS ChiefMohan Bhagwat and thedemand for Bharat Ratna forSavarkar, Tewari alleged that itwas a coordinated and wellthought out strategy "that onone hand keep praisingMahatma Gandhi and on theother hand make such ademand".

"But if what has been writ-ten in the article about the con-clusions of the KapurCommission is correct, thenthe Government should seri-ously think that on MahatmaGandhi's 150th birth anniver-sary, is this step appropriate," hesaid.

��

The Ministry of Food andConsumers Affairs on

Tuesday reviewed the sky-rocketing of retail prices ofessential food items and veg-etables. It was informed thatonion prices have stabilised andshowing declining trend withthe arrival of kharif (summersown) crops.

The 18th meeting of thegroup constituted for moni-toring cartelisation, hoarding,speculative trading etc withrespect to essential food itemssuch as pulses, onion, tomatoand oilseeds was held under thechairmanship of Secretary,Consumer Affairs, Avinash KSrivastava. Representativesfrom Ministry of Agriculture,Intelligence Bureau, DelhiPolice, NAFED, DirectorGeneral of Foreign Trade,Ministry of External Affairs,Delhi Government attendedthe meeting. The Ministry hasalso advised the Ministry ofCommerce to extend theimport licensing deadline forpulses from October 31 toNovember 30 in view of theexpected delayed arrivals.

Retail prices of onion andtomatoes have been ruling highin the country due to supplyconstraints. Tomato pricesreached up to �80 per kg whileonion was costing �60 per kglast week. The representatives

briefed the group about theprevailing scenario with respectto essential food items.

"It was informed by repre-sentatives of agriculture sectorthat arrivals of Kharif onionshave started and prices havesince shown stable to decliningtrend." The group decided thatappropriate policy interven-tions might be recommendedat the appropriate time to aug-ment availability of pulsesacross the nation.

"All the Chief Secretarieswill be advised again to holdregular meetings with whole-salers, traders, importers,exporters etc. Of onions, puls-es, edible oils & oilseeds etc atstate and district levels espe-cially during the festive seasonup to December, 2019," thestatement said.

The Committee of Police ofNCR States should hold regu-lar meetings under the chair-manship of a senior DelhiPolice officer to keep watch onhoarding of stock by the tradersnear the State borders of Delhiand take suitable action againstthem.

��

The abrogation of specialstatus to Jammu & Kashmir

under Article 370 is a "decisivebattle" waged by the NarendraModi Government to end yearsof Pakistan-sponsored proxywar and terrorism, and it willbring long-lasting peace inJammu & Kashmir, UnionHome Minister Amit Shah saidat an event of counter-terrorbody NSG's garrison atManesar (Gurugram).

Speaking at the 35thRaising Day celebrations ofNSG as the Chief Guest here,Shah said the recent decision torepeal special provisions in J &K will help "completely eradi-cate" Pakistan-supported ter-rorism from the KashmirValley.

The Minister asserted thathis government is firm on thepolicy of "zero tolerance" onterrorism and to defeat all itsforms.

The National SecurityGuard (NSG) is an importantinstrument to achieve this goal,he said.

"I believe that with theabrogation of Article 370 byPM Narendra Modi, we haveinitiated a decisive battleagainst years of proxy war andterror acts perpetrated by ourneighbour (Pakistan) and thisstep will ensure long-lastingpeace in Kashmir and theregion," Shah said.

India has been facing ter-rorism for many years andthere would be very few coun-tries across the globe who havewaged such a long battle againstterrorism. Terrorism is a curseon any civilised society and thebiggest impediment to devel-opment, he said.

"Hence our Government isfirm on continuing the zero tol-erance policy on terrorism andensuring victory on terroralways," Shah added.

The recent big step ofrepealing Article 370 taken byModi is aimed at completelyeradicating terrorism fromKashmir and to safeguard thecountry from this scourge,Shah said.

Shah also lauded the elitecommando force saying it hasimpressed the world with itscapability to counter any terrorattack as he recounted its stel-lar operations at Akshardhamtemple in Gujarat and the26/11 attacks in Mumbai in2008.

"This inspires confidencein the minds of the citizens thatthey are in safe hands," headded.

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Indian Scientists have warnedthat a Jamun berries and

seed-eater wasp, scientificallyknown as ‘A. kerrichi’ is fastspreading its wings, threaten-ing to inflict losses on Jamuntree growers.

Commonly found, ever-green Jamun is an economi-cally important tree in India,which also has medicinalproperties. Its berries andseeds are much sought afterfor their antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-microbialand free-radical-scavengingproperties.

However, the tiny but apotential pest of Jamun, A ker-richi, an eulohid seed borerwhich was reported from theagricultural fields in Pune wayback in 1957, has been recent-ly found seriously damagingthe berries in Jamun trees (SCumini) in fields inKarnataka's rural Bangalurutoo.

The result of the studyconducted by the scientistsfrom ICAR-Indian Institute ofHorticultural Research, coun-try's leading institute inBangaluru is published in thelatest journal of the Current

Science.The scientists have called

for spraying botanical pesti-cides as heavy infestation ofjamun fruits by the wasp ren-ders the berries unmarketableand hence loss to the farmers

The authors of the studynoted that A kerrichi was ini-tially reported from Pune,Maharashtra in 1957. "Besidesthis, no reports that highlightthe economic importance andnature of damage of thiseulophid seed borer in Jamunare available, possibly due to itslimited distribution/occurrenceand pestilence.

"However, in the recentpast, several incidences of Akerrichi attacking S. cuminifruits causing extensive croploss have been noticed in farm-ers' fields in rural Bengaluru,"says the study that providesexperimental details of thecritical fruit stages that aresusceptible to the pest for plan-ning management interventions.

"In Jamun both whole fruitas well as seed are economicallyimportant. Considering thevast damage it can cause andthe ability to build up in hugenumbers (85 per fruit) in over-

lapping generations, A ker-richi can become a major prob-lem to Jamun growers. Further,larval feeding affects seed via-bility and rate of germination.As the critical stage for infes-tation is G2, application ofsafe botanical pesticides at thisstage may help reduce seedborer infestation," said the scientists.

They had randomly col-lected A kerrichi infestedjamun fruits in different developmental stages from theinfested trees. The collectedfruits were separated into fivegroups, namely G1-G5 basedon their size, colour and hard-ness. Observations on fruitdiameter, length, mesocarpthickness and seed diameterfrom all the phenological stages(G1-G5) were made andrecorded daily.

It was noted that heavyinfestation of jamun fruits by Akerrichi had rendered the fruitsunmarketable.

The scientists included P DKamala Jayanthi, BR JayanthiMala and AnjanaSubramoniam(Division ofEntomology and Nematology)and A Rekha (Division of Fruit Crops) from theBangaluru based institute.

��

The Indian Council ofAgricultural Research

(ICAR) has developed diag-nostic kits to detect and control'Japanese Encephalitis' (JE)and 'bluetongue' diseases inanimals. These diagnostic kitshave been developed by theIndian Veterinary ResearchInstitute (IVRI) under theICAR. Japanese Encephalitisvirus spreads from pig tohuman.

Talking about JE ELISA kitfor swine, ICAR DirectorGeneral Trilochan Mohapatra,said JE is a re-emerging viralzoonotic disease leading todeath of children every year inthe country." India is import-ing one diagnostic kit for thisvirus at Rs 1,200-1500. Now,ICAR-IVRI have developedthis kit for just Rs 180-200,"Mohapatra said. Earlier thisyear, more than 100 childrendied in Bihar's Muzaffarpurdue to an outbreak of acute encephalitis syndrome(AES).

This diagnostic kit has

been developed as per the 100-day programme of the premi-um research institute, the DGsaid.

The government and ICARwould now work towards mak-ing this kit available in villageand block levels, he said.

Talking about the secondkit to diagnose 'bluetongue',Mohapatra said the disease isfound in cattle and goats and iseven cause of death of theseanimals.

"We are the first country inthe world to develop a diag-nostic kit for bluetongue dis-ease," he said, adding that it canalso provide export opportu-nities in long-term.

Mohapatra, who is alsothe secretary of Department ofAgricultural Research andEducation, said the two kitswould help in controlling thesediseases at very early stageand prevent them from spreading.

The disease is widespreadamong sheep, goats, cattle, buf-faloes and camels in the coun-try and is even cause of deathof these animals.

New Delhi: The SupremeCourt on Tuesday quashed theDelhi High Court's interimorder restraining the IncomeTax (IT) department from tak-ing any action against VVIPchopper scam accused GautamKhaitan, against whom a sep-arate black money launderingcase has been lodged, saying itwas "not sustainable in law".

The apex court set aside theMay 16 order of the high courtwhich had also said that theblack money law cannot beallowed to operate with retro-spective effect from July 1, 2015.

A three-judge bench head-ed by Justice Arun Mishraasked the high court to decidethe petition pending before iton its own merits and unin-fluenced by the observations ofthe top court.

The bench, also comprisingjustices M R Shah and B RGavai, said that the scheme ofthe Black Money Act is to"provide stringent measures forcurbing the menace of blackmoney" and various offenceshave been defined and stringentpunishments have been pro-

vided under the law."It would further be rele-

vant to note that sub-section(3) of section 1 of the BlackMoney Act, itself provides thatsave as otherwise provided inthis Act, it shall come into forceon 1st day of July, 2015. A con-joint reading of the various pro-visions would reveal that theassessing officer can chargethe taxes only from the assess-ment year commencing on orafter April 1, 2016. However,the value of the said asset hasto be as per its valuation in theprevious year," the bench notedin its 13-page verdict.

"As such, we find that thehigh court was not right inholding that, by the notifica-tion/order impugned beforeit, the penal provisions weremade retrospectively applica-ble," the bench said.

It noted that the BlackMoney (Undisclosed ForeignIncome and Assets) andImposition of Tax Act, 2015was passed by the Parliamenton May 11, 2015 and it hadreceived Presidential assent onMay 26, 2015. PTI

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ACongress delegation onTuesday met Chief

Election Commissioner SunilArora and raised the issue ofincome tax raids on some of itsemployees last week. Theyalleged that the tax departmentis behaving like a "departmentof BJP".

The delegation comprisingformer ministers AnandSharma, Kapil Sibal, ManishTiwari and Pranav Jha allegedthat the party was prevented touse its designated bank accountto fund its candidates in theassembly polls in Maharashtraand Haryana. The Congressleaders alleged that the CentralBoard of Direct Taxes (CBDT)officials raiding the oppositionacross the country withoutdocument and warrants.

After the meeting,Congress leader Kapil Sibalsaid "The position is such thatpeople of CBDT have been sit-ting at the homes of ouremployees from Friday toSunday. There is no warrantand no papers. What is this?We know that they are misus-ing ED and other agencies. Ifthis is not an attack on democ-racy then what is it?" TheCongress has demanded to thepoll body to intervene in thematter as their account havebeen paralysed.

"The Congress is required

to transfer, whatever funds ithas, to its candidates inMaharashtra and in Haryana,in their designated bankaccounts by cheque, that iswhat the elections require andwe have been prevented fromdoing that and that is illegali-ty and we have conveyed to theEC that they should inter-vene," Sibal said.

The Congress leader saidthat they have seen it happen-ing in the last elections, it ishappening now brazenly. "Indiacannot be converted into a statewhere democracy is under per-petual seize and the Tax depart-ment of the Government can-not become a department ofthe ruling party, the BJP," Sibaladded.

Party leader AnandSharma said "They have (EC)has the constitutional mandateto ensure free and fair elections.There cannot be targeting usingand abusing. For three daysCongress party's accounts sec-tion was totally paralysed.Whatever meagre funds theCongress party has at its dis-posal considering the BJP is theworld's richest political party."

New Delhi: Army Chief GenBipin Rawat on Tuesdaypitched for greater inclusion ofindigenous technology in thearmed forces and asserted thatIndia will fight and win thenext war with home-grownsolutions.

In his address at the 41stDRDO Directors Conference,he also said the development ofweaponry and other systemsshould be done keeping "futurewarfare" in mind."And, if weare looking at contours of futurewarfare, it may not necessarilybe contact warfare. So, there isrealm of non-contact warfare.We need to start looking atdevelopment of cyberspace,space, laser, electronic warfareand robotics. And, along withthat Artificial Intelligence (AI),"Rawat said."And, if we do notstart thinking on it now, it willbe too late," he said.He praisedthe Defence Research andDevelopment Organisation(DRDO) for its achievements inthe last few decades and saidIndia is making great strides inresearch and development. "Weare confident the services willgreatly benefit from it," he said.

"India is one of the largestimporters of weapons andammunition, and after 70 yearsof Independence, it is not a veryproud statement to make. But inthe past few years, it is changing.DRDO is striving to ensure ourrequirements of services are metwith home-grown solutions,"Rawat said. PTI

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In order to provide bettertravel opportunities to

passengers who travel dailyfrom neighbouring cities mainly to earn livelihood andeducation purposes theRailways has initiated nine new‘Sewa Services’ spread acrosseight States of India.

Minister of Railways PiyushGoyal, Union Minister ofPetroleum & Natural GasDharmendra Pradhan, UnionMinister for Health and FamilyWelfare Dr Harsh Vardhan,MoS Railway Suresh C Angadiand Meenakshi Lekhi, flaggedoff the inaugural run of Delhi— Shamli train service in a cer-emony held at New DelhiRailway station on Tuesday.

Indian Railways has alwaysstrived to provide convenientand comfortable service to itsusers.

To provide better travelopportunities to passengerswho have to travel to neighboring towns and citiesmainly for livelihood and edu-cation purposes the Railwayshas initiated nine new SewaServices spread across eightstates of India. These daily or sixdays a week short distance ser-vices will be a boon to the daily

passengers. According to the statement,

“Inaugural runs of train servicesin the other six states were alsoinitiated with the flagging off bythe dignitaries being receivedthrough video conferencing inthe respective venues.

Speaking on the occasionGoyal said that based on thehub and spoke concept thesetrains will provide better railconnectivity between smallerand satellite towns and impor-tant cities. “Railway is workingon how to be an effective engineof growth in the country. The

common passengers will great-ly benefit from these services,”he said.

He also shared thatRailways is not going to use any

new assets in these trains, withefficient planning and byenhancing operational capabilities the lie-over rakes oftrains are to be used for shortservices during the long stationed time between twoservices.

This will not only increasetrips but also earn revenuefrom the otherwise stationedcoaches, he added. Dr HarshVardhan appreciated the workbeing done in all areas with aspecial mention of the up-gra-dation of stations in theNational Capital Region.

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Twenty days after givingbirth to her first child, a 27

year young mother was killedin heavy mortar shelling inNoona Bandi area of Shahpuralong the Line of Control inPoonch on late Tuesday after-noon.

According to groundreports, “27-year-old ShamimAkhtar w/o Mohd Maqsoodwas standing in front of herkitchen when she was directlyhit by a mortar shell around3.45 p.m”. Due to impact of theblast, her head was reportedlyblown off, local villagers in theforward area, claimed.

Her 20-day-old son,miraculously escaped anygrievous injury, as she hadkept him on the floor inside thekitchen.

As heavy shelling contin-ued in the forward areas,another couple hailing fromQasba village of Poonch sectorreceived injuries and wasrushed to the nearby hospital.The injured were identified as

Mnzoor Hussain and NaseemaAkhtar.

Meanwhile, large numberof children remained strandedfor several hours inside a localschool (seminary) run by SainMiran Baksh Educational Trustin Shahpur area of Poonch.

In the wake of intenseshelling, which started earlyTuesday morning around 9.00a.m the children could not berescued. Local villagers andsome parents, later in the after-noon managed to organise twoambulances and ferried chil-dren from the forward area tosafer locations. “None of thechild received injuries duringheavy mortar shelling”,official

sources said.Defence PRO in

Jammu, Lt-ColDevender Anand said,“Pakistan army initi-ated ceasefire viola-tion in Qasba andKirni sectors at about9.30 a.m. by firingsmall arms and mor-tars”. He said, “theIndian Army retaliat-

ed befittingly”. Late afternoon, the Pak

Army also targeted forwardareas of Shahpur and Karmarain the forward areas forcing thelocal residents to stay indoors.

The local villagers ofShahpur—Upper and Lower,Gountrian and Islamabad inPoonch appealed to the districtauthorities to expedite work onbunkers in the area to ensuresafety of school going childrenand local villagers.

A Local villager, ShabirRathore claimed, “these vil-lagers were regularly targetedby the Pakistan army but so farwork on bunker constructionhas not started in the area”.

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Aw e e ka f t e r

much politi-cal hullabaloothe policehave finallyarrested amason forbrutally mur-dering aJiaganj schoolteacher, his pregnant wife and an eight-year-old son.

The mason called PratikBehera had killed the trio outof personal grudge whenvictim Bandhu Paul refused togive him a receipt of �24,000which he had taken from himfor some insurance policy, heisknown to have confessed tothe police.

“There was grudge andthere was a financial angle,”Murshidabad SP Mukesh saidadding the triple murder hadtaken place in a matter offive

minutes.Earlier the police had

claimed that the victim an RSSworker also dealt in some kindof chit fund business in whichhe used to acceptmonetary deposits from the

people. The mason was one of

such depositors who deposited�24,000 with him but failed toprocure any receipt for theamount.

When Paul refused toprovide with any receipt analtercation followed and themason killed the threesome.

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The National Conference(NC) on Tuesday

condemned the arrest of partypresident Farooq Abdullah’ssister and daughter during aprotest in Srinagar, saying suchmeasures would further alien-ate the people and delayrestoration of normalcy in thevalley.

It sought the immediaterevocation of detention ofpolitical leaders and commoncitizens, including Abdullah’skin.

The police on Tuesdayarrested half-a-dozen womenactivists during a march toprotest the abrogation of pro-visions of Article 370 andbifurcation of Jammu andKashmir into UnionTerritories.

Abdullah’s sister Suraiyaand his daughter Safiya, whowere leading a group of womenactivists, were first detainedand later arrested by the police.

The NC said such harshmeasures would further alien-ate the people and delayrestoration of normalcy in

Kashmir, which was reelingunder “fear psychosis and asense of insecurity” among thepeople.

“Being kin of former ChiefMinisters should not entailpolitical victimisation, leadingto curtailment of liberty andfreedom of movement andspeech,” senior NC leaders saidin a joint statement, issued

from party headquarters Sher-e-Kashmir Bhavan here.

The National Conferenceleaders expressed regret overthe continued detention ofpolitical leaders and commoncitizens, saying the situationhad touched the lowest depthsand even the liberty of relativesof those in public life was under severethreat. “The detention ofSuraiya Mattoo and SafiyaAbdullah Khan, respectivelysister and daughter of Abdullahand the aunt and sister ofOmar Abdullah, reflect thesad state of affairs the State isin for the past over 70 days,” thestatement said.

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The West B engalGovernment is work-

ing for the empower-ment of rural womenthrough various self-helpgroups, Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee said onTuesday. On the occasionof the International Day ofRural Women, Banerjeereferred to the success ofthe ‘Anandadhara’ schemeaiming for poverty allevia-tion through social mobili-sation.

The scheme, initiated in2012, is implemented byorganising women into self-help groups (SHG).

“ Today is#InternationalDayofRuralWomen. Our Govt in #Bangla isworking for the empower-ment of rural women throughself-help groups. The schemeAnandadhara has been verysuccessful in this regard,”

Banerjee tweeted.“We also distribute ani-

mals for rearing by them,ensuring their economicprosperity,” she added.

The International Day ofRural Women was f irstobserved on October 15, 2008to recognise the critical roleand contribution of ruralwomen, in enhancing agri-cultural and rural develop-ment, improving food secu-rity and eradicating ruralpoverty.

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Former President APJ AbdulKalam was remembered

here on his 88th birth anniver-sary with the late scientist’sfamily and the district admin-istration paying tributes at hismemorial here.

The leader’s memorial atPekarumbu was dazzling withelectrical lights and floralarrangements, as there was asteady stream of visitors includ-ing school children who paidhomage to the former president.

Ramanathapuram districtcollector K Veera Raghava Raopaid floral tributes at thememorial while Kalam’s rela-tives led by his elder brother

Muthu MuhammadMeera Maraikkayarheld special prayers.

School childrenalso paid floral trib-utes and took apledge to followKalam’s ideals.

An AmericanIndians Association,

as part of honouring the lateleader’s services, presented aprize for Global Peace, whichwas handed over toMaraikkayar.

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Alleging that Central probeagencies have become

puppets in the BJP’s hands,Congress general secretary KCVenugopal said on Tuesdaythat these agencies were mis-used against party leadersahead of polls.

Venugopal was reacting tothe arrest of Congress MLA DK Shivakumar in a moneylaundering case by the Enforcement Directorate(ED).

“Whenever there are elec-tions round the corner, thedrama of I-T and ED raids arestaged. These agencies havebecome a puppet in the handsof BJP,” Venugopal toldreporters after a meeting withthe party’s election observersfor the December 5 rpt 5Assembly bypolls.

Opposition leader and for-mer Chief MinisterSiddaramaiah, state Congresspresident Dinesh Gundu Raoand senior party functionariesattended the meeting.

Elections are due in 15constituencies after the resig-nation and subsequent dis-qualification of 17 MLAs, com-prising 14 Congress MLAs andthree JD(S) MLAs.

Another Congress MLAand former Deputy ChiefMinister G Parameshwara isunder the Income Tax scanner for alleged irreg-ularities pertainingto medicalseats in the Siddharth Group ofInstitutions linked to him.

IT officials also recentlyraided Jalappa Group ofInstitutions related to Congressleader Jalappa’s son.

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Atotal of 408 people belonging to 88 displaced

Bru families staying in sixrelief camps of Tripura haveleft for their homelandMizoram since the repatria-tion exercise began onOctober 3, officials said onTuesday.

A total of 4,447 Bru fam-ilies, lodged in the relief campsat Kanchanpur and Panisagarsub-divisions of North Tripuradistrict, are scheduled toreturn to the neighbouringstate from where they had fledsince 1997 following ethnicclashes.

The Bru community, alsocalled Reangs, is among the21 scheduled tribes in thecountry. They are scatteredacross Assam, Mizoram andTripura.

Sub-divisional Magistrate(SDM) of Kanchanpur,Abhedananda Baidya, said235 Bru people of 45 familieshave been repatriated.

His Panisagar counterpartN Darlong said 173 peoplebelonging to 43 families haveleft for Mizoram till date dur-ing the ninth round of repa-triation which is termed as the“final” one.

The repatriation is sched-uled to continue till November30. Mizoram officials said 22Bru families from variousrelief camps have been repa-triated on Monday.

The repatriation is beingcarried out though some Bru

organisations are against theexercise.

On October 4, postersopposing the repatriation anddemand for a separateautonomous district councilfor the Bru community werefound in the relief camps.However, no untoward inci-dent was reported then.

Mizoram Bru IndigenousDemocratic Movement leaderPhillip Apeto had said theywere not satisfied with therehabilitation package and adistrict council for the Brus under the sixth scheduleof the constitution must becreated.

A memorandum submit-ted by three Bru organisationsto Mizoram Home MinisterLalchamliana had alsoexpressed apprehension thatthe Bru community wouldlose their identity if theyreturn to Mizoram in the pre-sent situation.

During the eighth roundof repatriation, the Ministry ofHome Affairs had warnedthat the relief camps would beclosed down from Octoberone 2018 and free ration andmoney doled to the displacedfamilies would be discontin-ued.

However, that phase didnot bear much fruit.

While the MHA did stopthe free ration and cash dolefrom October one, 2018, theCentre restarted it apparentlydue to political reasons asMizoram assembly electionwas nearing.

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Rajasthan Deputy ChiefMinister and State

Congress president SachinPilot on Tuesday saidMandawa and KhinwsarAssembly bypolls will be thetest of the work done by hisparty Government andclaimed it will win both theseats with “huge” margins.

The bypolls were necessi-tated after Khinwsar (Nagaur)MLA Hanuman Beniwal andMandava (Jhunjhunu) MLANarendra Kumar (BJP) wereelected to Lok Sabha in Maythis year.

“The bypolls are the testof the work of theGovernment and we are pre-pared for that. We will win theseats with huge margin. Whenthe Congress was in opposi-tion for five years, we won allbypolls and this time, we arein the Government and thereis no reason for not winningthe bypolls,” Pilot toldreporters here.

“The State Government’s

first and foremost priority is tomake the life of people better.We ought to do whatever ispossible to help people at per-sonal, social and administra-tive level,” he said.

Pilot said it is importantfor every public representativeto stay connected with peo-ple.

While Congress has field-ed former MLAs RitaChaudhary in Mandawa andHarendra Mirdha in Khimsar,the BJP has given ticket toSushila Sigra in Mandawa andis contesting the bypolls inalliance with MP HanumanBeniwal’s Rashtriya LoktantrikParty (RLP) on Khimsarwhere Beniwal’s brotherNarayan Beniwal is thealliance candidate.

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Congress leader RahulGandhi on Tuesday called

Prime Minister Narendra Modia “loudspeaker” of certainindustrialists, and said his strategy was like that of a pick-pocket who diverts attention tosteal.

On campaign trail inVidarbha for October 21Maharashtra Assembly elec-tions, he also targeted the Modigovernment for “waiving” cor-porate tax.

Addressing a rally inYavatmal district, Gandhi saidthe Prime Minister speaks ofthe moon mission and abro-gation of Article 370 in Jammuand Kashmir, but is silent onissues such as farmers’ plightand lack of jobs.

“The Goods and ServicesTax (GST) and demonetisationbroke the back of small andmedium enterprises, farmers,labourers and poor people. As

long as the Modi Governmentis in power, the issue of joblessness will continue tohaunt the country. The prob-lem of joblessness will grow inthe next six months,” heclaimed.

Criticising theGovernment’s decision to“waive” (slash the rates of)corporate tax, Gandhi saidsuch benefits were extended tocertain industrialists, but not tothe poor.

The Congress leader alsoalleged that the UnionGovernment was planning toprivatise National assets such asports, coal mines, and publicsector units such as Air India.

“Modi is the loudspeaker of(industrialists) Adani andAmbani. Just like a pickpock-et, who diverts attention of peo-ple before stealing, his (Modi’s)only job is to divert your atten-tion so that he can pass yourmoney to a select few indus-trialists,” Gandhi said.

While the MahatmaGandhi National RuralEmployment Guarantee Act(MNREGA), Right to Food,land acquisition and laws fortribals were being amended,amendment to the GST act wasnot acceptable to theGovernment, he said.

“When the poor persongets money, he starts purchas-ing, when the demand increas-es, manufacturing gets a boost,”he said, adding that the NYAYminimum income scheme,proposed by the Congressbefore the

Lok Sabha elections, would

have jump-started the econo-my.

The annual budget ofMNREGA is �35,000 croreand the Modi Governmentcut corporate tax worth �1.25lakh crore in a single day,Gandhi said.

Referring to DefenceMinister Rajnath Singh’s Francevisit, he said the latter did apuja of the Rafale fighter jet(while taking symbolic deliv-ery of the first aircraft). “But�35,000 crore were stolen fromthe jet deal. The media will notwrite about this because it isbeing controlled by industrial-

ists. Your money is given to the

media so that they publiciseModi,” he alleged.

Maharashtra has theopportunity to solve all theseproblems by voting for theCongress and NCP, he said.

“We will install a govern-ment which will work for thepoor, farmers, labourers, andsmall and medium businesses,”he added. At a rally at Arvi inWardha district, Gandhiaccused the Modi Governmentof weakening all pro-poorschemes of the UPA regime,including the MNREGA, RTIAct, Right to Food and the landacquisition bill.”BJP made funof MNREGA which had givena boost to the economy,” hesaid.

The GST’s purpose was tofinish off small and mediumbusinesses, the Congress leaderclaimed.”Don’t let this happenin Maharashtra. Let’s stop thishere,” he said.

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The All India CongressCommittee women’s wing

president Sushmita Deb calledthe BJP manifesto released onTuesday for the MaharashtraAssembly polls as a repetitionof old promises.

Creation of one crore jobsin the next five years, providing houses for all by2022 and ushering in USD 1trillion economy are the keypromises made in the rulingBJP’s “sankalp patra”.

“It is a classic case of rep-etition of old promises. Thereason is simple. Promises of2014 remain unfulfilled. Thisexplains why after five years,

BJP-Shiv Sena Governmenthas no concrete achievement toshowcase,” she said at a pressconference here.

Deb said agriculture sectorhad worsened, unemploymenthad risen sharply, crimesagainst women had seen asevere spike and promise ofclean drinking water remainunfulfilled.

While the BJP-SenaGovernment promised dou-ble-digit growth in agricul-ture, the actual rate was a mea-gre 0.4 per cent, which had ledto eight farmers committingsuicide every day, she claimed. “The BJP’s manifestopromises one crore jobs overthe next five years. This is yet

another jumla given sharp risein unemployment which hastripled under this Government.In fact every third young per-son in urban areas is today job-less,” Deb said. She said 2000factories had shut down andMaharashtra was no longerthe preferred destination andlagged behind Uttar Pradeshand Jharkhand in ease of doingof business.

Crime against women wererising sharply, including a 300per cent increase in cases ofabduction besides 11 rapes reg-istered every day, Deb stated,adding that the DevendraFadnavis government had notused a single rupee from theNirbhaya Fund.

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Opposition parties inMaharashtra have alleged

that some trees located on thecampus of Sir Parshuram (SP)College in Pune were choppedon Monday for Prime MinisterNarendra Modi’s October 17rally, which will be held on thecollege ground.

The college authorities onTuesday denied the allegationsaying only certain brancheshanging dangerously were cutfor the safety of students whoplay there, which has nothingto do with the PM’s event.

NCP MP Vandana Chavanalleged some ‘subabul’ treesaround the ground, where therally will be held, were felled bythe college administration.

“As per the informationwith us, trees were cut from thestems which is unacceptable,”alleged Chavan.

She demanded stringentaction against those responsi-ble for the “cruel act”.

Maharashtra NavnirmanSena (MNS) leader Rupali Patilalso said the trees were hacked.

“They have cut the trees

because they believed that thetrees would prove hindrancefor the PM rally,” she claimed.

However, Pune BJP unitpresident Madhuri Misal, oneof the trustees of ShikshanPrasarak Mandali (SPM) whichruns the SP College, refuted theallegations saying chopping oftrees had no connection withthe PM’s programme.

“In recent rains, two treesfell near the ground. Since ourstudents from five differentinstitutes of SP Mandali play onthat ground there could havebeen an issue of their safety, sowe sought permission fromthe Garden department of thePune Municipal Corporation(PMC) to cut some trees,” shesaid.

“The trees were cut onMonday after receiving thecivic nod. It has no connectionwith the PM’s rally as the stagefor the event is being set at alocation which is distant fromthe place where some treeswere chopped. These twothings are different,” she added.

A PMC official said thepermission to hack trees wasissued on October 14.

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In what came as a snub to theShiv Sena, the Maharashtra

Swabhiman Party (MSP), head-ed by former Chief MinisterNarayan Rane, merged with theruling BJP, in the presence ofChief Minister DevendraFadnavis.

Undeterred by the stiffresistance from its ally ShivSena to the entry of Rane andhis two sons, the ruling BJPwent ahead and allowed theMSP’s merger with it at an elec-tion rally organised for Sr Rane’sson Nitesh and the BJP candi-date at Kankavli Assembly con-stituency in Sindhudurg dis-trict.

While Nitesh had joinedthe BJP and filed his nomination from his new partyearly this month, Sr Rane, hisanother son and former MPNilesh and their supporters formally enteredthe BJP.

Speaking at Nitesh’s cam-paign rally, Chief Minister

Fadnavis heaped praise on SrRane saying: “Narayan Ranehas a special place inMaharashtra politics. He iswell-versed in many subjects. Inway, he has been a part of theBJP ever since he went to RajyaSabha early last year with theBJP’s support”.

“All were waiting for this(merger) for a long time. It hasfinally happened today.

There is hardly any com-petition here. The BJP willbenefit hugely with the Ranes’entry to the party,” Fadnavissaid.

Meanwhile, the Shiv Senaleadership has not taken kind-ly to the MSP’s merger with theBJP. Sena President UddhavThackeray, who will be campaigning in Kankavliand Savantwadi constituencies,is expected to spell out his standon the MSP’s merger with theBJP. On its part, the

Sena – notwithstanding itsalliance with Sr Rane — has putup its candidate against NiteshRane. In ssence, the fight would

be between the Sena and BJP inKankavli constituency.

Fadnavis said that Niteshwould win the Assembly pollswith a thumping margin. He,however, advised Nitesh,known for his losing his cool onsome pretext or the other, torestrain himself and learn toremain calm.

There had been speculationin the State political circlesthat he would join the BJP alongwith his two son Nitesh andNilesh. His entry to the BJP wasbeing resisted by its ally Shiv Sena for a very long.

He had earlier announcedthat he would join the BJP on October 2. Rane made anannouncement about mergingthe MSP with the BJP, whilecampaigning for his party can-didate Rajan Teli. “The BJP isgetting strong in Konkanregion. My son Nitesh and hissupporters joined the BJP ear-lier. I will merge my party withthe BJP in the presence of chiefminister Devendra Fadnavison October 15,” he said.

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SMS services were withdrawnas a “precautionary mea-

sure” hours after the govern-ment restored post-paid mobileconnections in Kashmir, offi-cials said on Tuesday. Mobilephone services for post-paidsubscribers resumed inKashmir after 72 days onMonday noon, but withoutany internet facilities. By about5 pm, SMS services had beensuspended too, dulling theeuphoria of about 40 lakh sub-scribers delighted at theprospect of their phones com-ing back to life, officials said.

“SMS services werestopped last evening as a pre-cautionary measure,” said anofficial without elaboratingfurther. Two terrorists, includ-ing a suspected Pakistaninational, shot dead the driverof a Rajasthan truck andassaulted an orchard owner inJammu and Kashmir’s Shopiandistrict around 8 pm onMonday.

Police said the deceasedwas identified as Sharief Khanand the terrorists carried outthe attack in Shirmal village indesperation as fruit trans-portation was picking up in theValley. Phones fell silent onAugust 5, when the Centrerevoked Jammu and Kashmir’sspecial status and reorganisedthe state into two union terri-tories. The government kept toits promise of mobile phonesworking by Monday noon, butthe joy was short-lived.Thousands of subscribersfound their services discon-nected by telecom companiesdue to non-payment of bills forthe period of the suspension of

services. Till late Mondayevening and from earlyTuesday, serpentine queuesformed outside the offices oftelecom companies as sub-scribers rushed to clear theiroutstanding bills.

It is a cumbersome processwith online payments not anoption because of internet ser-vices being blocked in Kashmir,many subscribers complained.While landline phones wererestored last month, internetservices on all platforms con-tinue to remain suspended.

Over 25 lakh prepaidmobile phones and other inter-net services, includingWhatsApp, remain deactivatedfor now, officials said. GovernorSatya Pal Malik on Monday saidinternet services would resumevery soon, but officials in thesecurity establishment main-tained the process might takeup to two months. A decisionon pre-paid subscribers couldbe taken next month, they said.

In Jammu, communica-tion was restored within daysof the blockade and mobile

internet was started aroundmid-August. However, after itsmisuse, internet facilities on cellphones was snapped on August18. As Kashmiris in the Valleyhoped their post-paid mobileswould help them reconnectwith the outside world, thedeadlock over the scrapping ofthe special constitutional pro-vision for Jammu and Kashmircontinued. Markets and otherbusiness establishmentsremained closed while most ofthe public transport was off theroads across the Valley. A largenumber of private vehicles andsome private taxis, includingautorickshaws, could be seenplying in many parts ofSrinagar while some roadsidevendors also plied their trade.

The efforts of the stategovernment to open schoolshave not borne any fruit asparents continued to keepchildren home due to appre-hensions about their safety.

Government offices areopen and attendance in mostoffices is near normal, the offi-cials said.

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Pakistan has not yetresponded to India’s pro-

posal on hosting the biannu-al meeting between the BSFand the Pakistan Rangers,another example of whatappears to be the neighbourunilaterally snapping func-tional level contacts, govern-ment sources said onTuesday. The meeting at thelevel of director generals ofboth the border guardingforces is scheduled to be heldthis month.

The biannual meeting hastaken place regularly despiteups and downs in bilateralties between the two coun-tries in the past. “This timethe Indian side has proposedto hold the meet ing inOctober, but the PakistanRangers has so far not con-firmed its intention to par-ticipate in the meeting,” saida source. Another source saidit is yet another instance ofuni latera l measures byPakistan to stop functionallevel contacts.

Pakistan has been unsuc-cessfully trying to drum upinternational support against

India for its decision to with-draw Jammu and Kashmir’sspecial status and bifurcatethe state into two union ter-ritories. After India’s decisionon August 5, Pakistan down-graded diplomatic ties withIndia and expelled IndianHigh Commissioner AjayBisaria from the country.

Rejecting Pakistan’s reac-tion, India has categoricallytold the international com-munity that its move onKashmir is an internal matter.India maintains Kashmir is abilateral issue and no thirdparty has any role in it. In thelast couple of months,Pakistan Prime MinisterImran Khan has stepped uphis attack on India and hasbeen regularly referring toIndia and Pakistan’s status asnuclear powers.

India’s Border SecurityForce (BSF) and the PakistanRangers guard the interna-tional border between thetwo countries. The two forceshave been holding meetingsat the level of director gener-als of the two forces as well as between sector commandersto maintain peace along the frontier.

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From Page 1Recently National Investigation Agency

and Intelligence Bureau reported to Governmentabout the tendency of hoarding the ̀ 2,000 notesfor illegal purposes. The agencies reported thatthe high value notes, especially ̀ 2,000 notes willdefeat the purpose of Government envisaged inthe demonetisation citing many cases of seizure

of such notes during raids. The Income Tax Department and Financial

Intelligence Unit also reported to the authori-ties that in their raids majority of the notes seizedare `2,000 notes, urging for the controlling thecirculation of the high value notes preferred bythose involved in tax evasion and financialcrimes.

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AIMIM presidentAsaduddin Owaisi has said

Bharat is “not a Hindu Rashtra”and they will also not let itbecome so.

His comments came afterRSS chief Mohan Bhagwat lastweek said the Sangh is firm onits vision that “Bharat is aHindu Rashtra”.

Addressing an electionrally on Monday night inKalyan town of Maharashtra’sThane district for party candi-date Aiaz Moulavi, Owaisi said a section of soci-

ety wants to paint the entirecountry in one colour, but “wesee Hindustan in multiplecolours, it is the beauty ofHindustan”.

“Bharat is not a HinduRashtra, and Inshallah, we willnot allow it to become so,” hesaid.

Alleging that the Shiv Senawas against the green colour, hesaid, “Change your spectaclesand you will see the greencolour in the National flagalso.”

He said Bharat is uniquebecause of itssecularism andpluralism. There is no other

country in the world as Bharat and “we are proudof it”. “I want to tell those in theRSS that we are not living hereon your sympathy. If youwant to measure the index ofmy happiness or sorrow, youand we should see what theConstitution has given to us,”Owaisi said.

He also said that the AllIndia Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) hasestablished itself in Aurangabadbecause of its own efforts.

“We will spread to otherparts of the state also. You can-not stop us,” he said.

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Slamming the BJP for mootingBharat Ratna award for V D

Savarkar, Communist Party ofIndia general secretary D Raja onTuesday said the ruling party mayeven propose the honour forMahatma Gandhi’s killerNathuram Godse. The election

manifesto of Maharashtra BJPsaid the party will ask the NDAGovernment at the Centre toconfer India’s highest civilianaward on Vinayak DamodarSavarkar, popularly known asVeer Savarkar. “This is biggestirony of our times that while weare all celebrating the birth cen-

tenary of Gandhiji, the BJP isseeking Bharat Ratna to Savarkar,who was an accused in his assas-sination case,” Raja told PTIhere. “The day may not be far offfor BJP to demand Bharat Ratnato Gandhiji’s assassin NathuramGodse. This is part of their agen-da,” the CPI leader said.

Former Prime Minister of India IKGujral was one of the most schol-arly and well-read leaders we havehad. At a public function organisedby this writer, he mentioned that the

battle of Panipat took place at that locationonly because it was the southernmost loca-tion, which had an open area suitable forwarfare. According to him, right from theKhyber Pass to Panipat, the entire terrain washeavily forested where conventional warfareof that period was not possible.

A recent news report mentioned that theGovernment is planning to build a 1,400kilometre-long “great green wall” of India.If this project receives official sanction andis backed by innovative institutional arrange-ments for its implementation, it would marka remarkable step forward in greeningIndia because we, as a nation, have failed toseize the importance of greening our degrad-ed and deforested land.

The Green India mission was one of theeight key missions included in the NationalAction Plan on Climate Change. The pur-pose of this operation was to protect, enhanceand restore India’s decreasing forest cover andact on the growing extent of climate changethrough a combination of mitigation andadaptation measures. Unfortunately, the mis-sion has been grossly under-funded. Areport by the Parliamentary Committee, titled,‘Performance of the National Action Plan onClimate Change (NAPCC) pertaining toMinistry of Environment, Forest & ClimateChange (MoEFCC)’, quotes MoEFCC as stat-ing that the “budget allocation of �47.80 crorefor FY 2017-18 is grossly insufficient. Thecommitted liability of FY 2015-16 and 2016-17 is �89.53 crore, which is more than the bud-get allocation of FY 2017-18.”

Expansion of population and encroach-ments by humans on forest land and the habi-tat of other species have not only reduced for-est cover since independence but has also ledto poor forest density even in those areas,which are regarded as forest land. The pro-posed “green wall” of India is planned to estab-lish a green belt from Porbandar to Panipatand would help restore degraded landthrough afforestation, particularly along theAravalli hill range, which covers Gujarat,Rajasthan, Haryana and Delhi.

It is well-known that the Aravallis havebeen heavily degraded in several areas, par-ticularly in Haryana, as a result of the nexusbetween politicians and the builders’ lobby.The establishment of the “green wall” wouldprovide an effective barrier for dust comingfrom the deserts in Western India andPakistan. It is now well-established that dustfrom deserts can travel large distances as hasbeen seen with dust from Saudi Arabia trav-elling to northern parts of Europe. This writerhas always advised officials in the Middle East,including a former Saudi Oil Minister,“Please convert your oil wealth to soil health.”

Recently, the Conference of the Parties(COP 14) of the United Nations Convention

to Combat Desertification(UNCCD) was held in India andas a follow-up to that event, Indiacan and should set an example forother countries that are threat-ened with desertification.

The UNCCD is an agree-ment to combat desertificationand mitigate the effects ofdrought, based on long-termstrategies and national pro-grammes, supported by interna-tional cooperation and partner-ship arrangements. It was in2006 that in order to gather sup-port for the convention, the UNdeclared that year as the“International Year of Desertsand Desertification.”

The convention has thus farbeen ratified by 190 States andthe European Union (EU).However, on March 28, 2013,Canada became the first coun-try to withdraw from it butreversed this arrangement onMarch 21, 2017.

In hosting COP14 of theconvention, India made a majorimpact on this expanding prob-lem in different countries of theworld. Prime Minister NarendraModi in his address to this con-ference stated: “I call upon theleadership of UNCCD to createa global water action agenda,which is central to land degra-dation neutrality strategy.”

The IntergovernmentalPanel on Climate Change (IPCC)recently published a specialreport on climate change, deser-tification, land degradation, sus-tainable land management, foodsecurity and greenhouse gas

fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems.The report states, “The level ofrisk posed by climate changedepends both on the level ofwarming and on how population,consumption, production, tech-nological development and landmanagement patterns evolve.Pathways with higher demandfor food, feed and water, moreresource-intensive consumptionand production and more limit-ed technological improvementsin agriculture yields result inhigher risks from water scarcityin drylands, land degradation,and food insecurity.”

It further states: “Many activ-ities for combating desertificationcan contribute to climate changeadaptation with mitigation co-benefits as well as to halting bio-diversity loss with sustainabledevelopment co-benefits to soci-ety...Preventing desertification ispreferable to attempting to restoredegraded land due to the poten-tial for residual risks and mal-adaptive outcomes.”

The UN system, as is wide-ly known, is currently under-funded and is actually facing aserious crisis. For several yearsnow, there has been a growingrealisation that the UN systemneeds to be restructured andreformed, starting, of course,with the composition of thepermanent members of theSecurity Council, of which Indiashould have been admitted as amember years ago.

In the case of the UNFramework Convention onClimate Change (UNFCCC),

the Convention on BiologicalDiversity (CBD) and theUNCCD, there are distinct over-laps. Clearly, actions under oneconvention would have implica-tions for the other two. The dri-vers of change underlying thesethree conventions are common,namely the increase in humansociety’s ecological footprint asGandhiji had warned us aboutall his life. It is to be consideredwhether a comprehensive con-vention, which covers climatechange, loss of biodiversity anddesertification, may be far moreeffective than fragmentedactions being taken under eachof these conventions.

As far as India is con-cerned, the advance of deserti-fication has negative implica-tions for the country as a whole.To that extent, therefore, the“great green wall”, which isbeing considered, would be anexcellent initiative. However,just as in the case of acid rain inNorth America, which crossesnational boundaries and, there-fore, required a regional solu-tion, it would be important forSouth Asian nations to cooper-ate on activities, which involvesimilar initiatives in Pakistan,Afghanistan and Bangladeshas well. Given that naturerespects no political bound-aries, we need to promote com-mon solutions to problems thatare regional in nature. Terrorismshould give way to terra-ism.

(The writer is former chair-man, Intergovernmental Panelon Climate Change, 2002-15)

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Sir — A large number of climatestrikes have recently eruptedaround the world, directing atten-tion to issues such as climatechange and global warming. It isalso interesting to note that manyindigenous tribes have been pray-ing for the protection of theAmazon rainforest as thousands ofwildfires continue to destroy it.People often turn to prayer in dif-ficult times. Such prayers notonly lead to positive results butalso strengthen relationshipsamong people. The prayers for theAmazon and the protests haveattracted the attention of the glob-al population. One hopes that suchadmirable activities continue toinspire people around the world.

P SenthilVia email

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Sir — Economists have foreverbeen negotiating between thetwin poles of wealth and pover-ty. In 1776, Adam Smith postu-lated that the existence of eco-nomic prosperity, more than thepersistence of poverty, must be

paid attention to. An eon wasspent on identifying the condi-tions necessary for wealth cre-ation. Then an era was spent onthe distribution of incomebetween capital and labour.

Finally, Nobel Prize-winningeconomist Angus Deaton delvedinto the cause, spread and mea-surement of poverty. But lookslike Indian-American economistAbhijit Banerjee has analysed

the problem with poverty with anexperimental approach. The ran-domised controlled field trials(RCTs) adopted by him hashelped find out what works andwhat doesn’t to fight poverty.

The traditional way of measur-ing wealth on account of the coun-try’s Gross Domestic Product(GDP) is misleading. It probablyfurther skews the distribution ofwealth and accentuates income dis-

parity. We have journeyed longfrom exploring the creation ofwealth to the distribution of incometo now Nobel prize winner AbhijitBanerjee’s treatise on poverty.

Strangely, it is seen that deep-er the democratic mores, as it is inthe US, the sharper has been theturn to the right wing ideology ofwealth inequality. It may takeages for the socio-economists,much less the Governments, to

move away from a trite GDP toeven grasp the concept of creationand distribution of happiness.

R Narayanan Navi Mumbai

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Sir — This refers to the editorial,“Bangla pride” (October 15). Theappointment of former cricketteam captain Sourav Ganguly asthe head of the Board of Controlfor Cricket in India (BCCI) is wel-come. In fact, he may just be theperson the cricket administrationneeds right now to set thingsright. It’s good to learn that on hispriority list are first class players,who are the foundation for astrong pool of talent for the nation-al team. Other issues like theabsence of an Indian umpire in theelite panel of ICC and reducing thegulf between women and men incricket should be given impor-tance. Ganguly must also ensurethat financial management in theBCCI becomes more transparent.He has his task cut out.

Bal GovindNoida

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Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’sannouncement on offering free publictransport to women has sparked off a

debate across the country about the financial per-formance and pricing of public transport. As citiesacross the world struggle to keep the Mass RapidTransit System (MRTS) and other modes of pub-lic transport financially viable, scholars and oper-ators alike are trying to arrive at an economical-ly sound formula for operations.

According to an estimate by the DelhiTransport Corporation and the Delhi Metro,women constitute around 30 to 35 per cent pas-sengers in both buses and the trains. This comesto about 14 lakh women per day on the busesand 800,000 women per day on the metro. TheDelhi Government is assuming that the schemewill see a rise of 50 per cent in female ridership,resulting in a decrease in the number of vehicleson the city’s roads and improved safety for thosevulnerable sections who cannot afford publictransport otherwise.

Impact studies in cities that have experiment-ed with a free public transport policy indicate tan-gible benefits such as higher ridership, less traf-fic congestion, better air quality, savings on print-ing, ticket-punching technology and the peopleengaged in ticket sales. Free public transportpromises intangible benefits, too, such as astronger democracy, higher citizen participation,better liveability and a vibrant economy.

However, it is easier said than done. Cities likeTallinn in Estonia and Châteauroux and Aubagnein France experimented with free public trans-port in the past and achieved positive results fora while. Sustaining the results beyond a few years,however, proved to be a problem. Also, while thecombined effect of free service and happier com-muters can significantly increase ridership, pub-lic transport can also experience a rebound effect,resulting in crowding and poor service quality dueto a large demand response. Such a response canresult in a higher tax burden for the transportagency.

The key to operating a free public transportis to identify alternate sources of revenue tofinance it. Sustaining a free transport policy in thelong-term, especially during times of economicvolatility, can be highly strenuous. The city ofChâteaurouxin, France could generate returns onpublic transport in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2007.However, 2008 onwards, the returns declined. Thecity of Hasselt in Belgium had to wind up its freepublic transport policy after a few years as theGovernment could no longer support its financ-ing.

So, the big question is, can Indian cities affordfree transport for their citizens, given the burgeon-ing population of the country?

Cities in India face a severe shortage of pub-lic transport. City peripheries and low-incomeneighbourhoods often remain unserved and evenif a network of buses and local trains and so onexists, the frequency of service is low, renderingit ineffective. Free or otherwise, the absence ofpublic transport results in last-mile connectivi-ty problems for the poor. Addressing the inade-quacies of the country’s public transport networkwill require huge capital investments and consid-ering the amount of expenditure it entails, it could

be too much of a burden on the StateGovernments to then generate funds for operat-ing expenses.

However, the good news is that, though itappears impossible at present, there are solutionsworth exploring. Given that State Governmentsare finding it difficult to provide even partial sup-port in the form of subsidies and grants to pub-lic transport agencies, relying on budgetary sup-port to fund a free transport policy seems verydifficult at present. Running free public transportmay or may not be possible but every city musthave at least an affordable transport system. Thereare a few strategies for long-term funding andcost-cutting that could be explored for achievingthis.

Cross-utility subsidy: Although it’s not verypopular in the country, cross-utility financing isprevalent in many parts of the world, includingEurope and North America.

There are many ways to enforce a cross-util-ity subsidy like imposing a levy on utility use orcross-subsidising a loss-making utility by a prof-it-making one. The loss-making transport depart-ment of the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply &Transport (BEST), for instance, was, for a longtime, cross-subsidised by revenues generated bythe profitable electricity department. If imple-mented in a prudent manner, cross-utility sub-sidy can offer a long-term solution for fundingpublic transport.

Targetted subsidy: Grants often fail to ben-efit the desired user groups. So, the solution liesin introducing selective subsidisation for careful-ly identified beneficiaries. It is a difficult thing topull off but one can take heart from the fact thatover 10 million customers in India gave up theirLiquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) subsidy inresponse to the Government’s plea. If people aremade aware about the purpose of a subsidy, therewill be many who will give it up if they don’trequire it. At any rate, the Government shouldexplore targetted subsidies to offer affordable pub-

lic transport to the needy and the vulnerable. Dedicated transport fund: Many experts

have emphasised the need to exempt public bustransport corporations from the motor vehicle tax.For many bus corporations, the operational loss-es are almost equal to what they pay as motor vehi-cle tax. While there is a sound rationale behindtaxing vehicles that generate huge negative exter-nalities like emissions and congestion, imposinga similar tax on public buses is draconian. On a“per passenger kilometre” basis, public transportis more efficient and causes lower emission andcongestion than private vehicles. Moreover, thetax gets directly passed on to the commuters aspart of the fares they pay. Foregoing the tax willalso make fares more affordable and improve thefinancial accessibility of public transport.

New performance indicators: There is alsoa need to develop new performance indicators forevaluating public transport corporations. Theseindicators must mainstream social and environ-mental goals. Currently, public transport opera-tions in the country are guided primarily by finan-cial parameters like earnings and cost-per-kilo-metre. Now, more emphasis needs to be placedon the intangible socio-economic benefits suchas time savings, improved productivity, lower con-gestion and improved livelihood opportunitiesthat public transport enables. Changing the waypublic transport corporations are assessed will alsochange the manner in which they operate and thegoals they prioritise in service delivery.

While financial performance is critical foroperating public transport, increasing the fare isnot the best solution. The approach to the prob-lem will change once it is realised that the objec-tive of operating public transport is not to gen-erate revenue but to offer affordable services tocitizens. The need of the hour is to find innova-tive solutions to make public transport affordablefor all.

(The writer is Area Convenor, Centre forSustainable Mobility, TERI)

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How would the late Sena chiefBal Thackeray have reacted tothe idea of his grandson

Aditya entering electoral politicswhen the Thackeray clan hadscrupulously kept out of it fordecades? He would have chuckled.

So far, the family has run a pow-erful political party in Maharashtrawithout contesting elections. Theyoungest Thackeray, Aditya breaksthat tradition in the forthcomingMaharashtra Assembly elections bycontesting from the Worli seat inMumbai.

Balasaheb had once told me hehad taken three decisions — hewould not contest elections, would

not write his autobiography andwould not take any Government postand he had stuck to them till the endof his life.

After the first Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party Government(BJP) was formed in 1995, Balasaheboften quipped that he ruled theState via “remote control.” Balasaheb’sson Uddhav Thackeray surprisinglynot only kept the party alive but alsofollowed the “remote control” poli-cy of his father.

However, the 29-year-old Adityais different in this sense and he rep-resents the aspirationalMaharashtrian youth. His image-makers are trying to project him asa suave, English-speaking Senaleader. Nine years ago, Balasahebhimself introduced his grandson tothe political world in October 2010and also named Aditya the head ofthe party’s newly-created youth wing.

The timing is perfect for theThackeray scion to make his electoraldebut, with the BJP-Sena alliancepoised to win the Assembly polls thismonth.

Aditya stated the obvious in aninterview recently, “I chose this elec-tion because I thought this was theright time.” There is a vacuum in theyouth leadership in Maharashtra,which he hopes to fill.

As a child, Aditya used to trav-el with his father and grandfather andbecame interested in politics fromthen on. “If you have to do some-thing good for society, politics is theway. I have been thinking of my jour-ney for the last five years. We did sev-eral agitations. How to serveMaharashtra better, Shiv Sena style?I have always thought that I shouldjoin my party legislators”, says Aditya.

Prior to this electoral contest, hehad undertaken a Jan Ashirwad

yatra in July to thank the voters forthe 2019 success but his real inten-tion was to gauge the public moodfor his own debut.

The young Thackeray repre-sents the changing political sce-nario and also the evolving cultureof the Sena. Much has changedsince the days of Balasaheb. Theparty’s clout in Maharashtra politicshas certainly diminished. Politics haschanged, the voters have changedand the Sena, too, has become ajunior partner in the coalition, ascompared to the earlier days ofdominating the Sena-BJP alliance.

Aditya is experimenting with adifferent kind of politics, trying tochange the old narrative. The Sena’simage has been that of a muscularpolitical party and he would have tochange this if he wants to succeed.The Sena is no more a rabble-rous-ing party.

In the past it used to launch agi-tations against the South Indians,Gujaratis, Biharis and Muslims.Today, in a bid to woo non-Maharashtrian voters, his campaign

has multi-lingual posters. He doesnot mention religion or Hindutvaand instead prefers to raise bread andbutter issues like employment anddevelopment.

He talks about the ban on plas-tic, beach cleaning and the environ-ment. Aditya is more cosmopolitan,modern and open to new-age elec-toral politics. He is accused of beingcomfortable with the Page 3 set buthe is also trying to appeal to the ordi-nary youth.

Second, Aditya is emulating hisgrandfather by building a baseamong the youth. The seniorThackeray had a devoted youth fol-lowing all his life. As long as he wasalive, every Vijayadasami day, thou-sands of youth had attended hismeeting at the Shivaji Park. Now,Aditya is targeting the millennial vot-ers. He is being projected as a sen-sitive, modern, young leader, who isflexible and open to new ideas.

Third, it was the family’s consid-ered decision to support Aditya’s elec-toral plunge. Bal Thackeray couldrun the Government through remote

control. Uddhav, too, managed to dothat but Aditya, encouraged by hismother Reshmi, believes that thedays of “remote control governance”are over and one needs to be in thesystem.

Above all, the Sena wants tostrengthen itself on the ground fear-ing that the BJP might subsume theparty. The family feels that thejunior Thackeray’s presence in thenext Cabinet would give them somecontrol.

Aditya is poised to win theWorli seat, if Dame Luck smiles athim, he might even become theDeputy Chief Minister. ThoughUddhav says now, “The first step inpolitics doesn’t mean that you haveto become the Chief Minister of theState. He has just entered politics, thisis just the beginning.” He would pushfor his son when the time comes.

Aditya wants to prove that he isnot just another son of a powerfulpolitical family but a grassrootsleader in his own right. TheAssembly contest will be his acid test.

(The writer is a senior journalist)

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MBA in Information TechnologyBusiness Management is anextensive course with spe-

cialised streams, designed to inculcateand amplify the necessary skills with-in students, which will help themunderstand the business requirementsand devise potential technology solu-tions for the successful execution of thesame. The programme aims at devel-oping professionals with excellent lead-ership, management and entrepre-neurship qualities. MBA in IT BusinessManagement is a two-year post-grad-uate programme. It is one of the mostadvanced courses present in the edu-cation world today.

MBA (ITBM) trains the students tolead their organisations with proficiencyand with caliber. This course gives theman opportunity to transform themselvesinto multifaceted experts in theInformation Security industry. MBA(ITBM) has an extremely comprehen-sive scope as it offers various speciali-sations to the students and lets themselect the field they would like toexplore. This opens a plethora of pro-fessional doors for a fresh graduate toenter. The specialisation streams ofMBA (ITBM) include systems, infor-mation security management, soft-ware solutions management, IT infra-structure management & data science.

The systems specialisation providesinsights, knowledge, and practice on thevital amalgamation of business andtechnology, and builds the mastery itdemands to manage and balance both.This programme focuses on equippingtech into business processes through theapplication of innovative strategies.The industry-centric course contentcovers all the essential aspects, includ-ing enterprise resource planning, ser-vice-oriented architecture, require-ments engineering, enterprise perfor-mance management, six sigma forprocess optimisation and more. Thecareer prospects in this specialisationinclude functional consultancy, require-ments engineering, process optimisa-tion, business development, ERP plan-ning and implementation, businessanalysis, quality management and busi-ness process management.

Information Security Managementspecialisation emphasises on the man-agement of risks associated with oper-ating systems, databases, applications,routers and firewalls and others inorganisations that are evolving andexpanding each day. Alleviating theserisks on each level has become anabsolute necessity of a growing business.The Information Security Managementspecialisation aims at developing pro-fessionals who are capable of under-standing information workflows andthe risks associated with them so thatthey can form strategies for an infor-mation secured business environment.Prospective career profiles for thisspecialisation are information riskmanagement, IT security consulting, ITadvisory services, information securi-ty audit, identity and access manage-ment, BCM & ISMS implementation,HIPAA auditing and implementation,

compliance and due diligence, IT pro-ject advisory.

Software Solutions Managementspecialisation teaches students the artand process of fetching effective solu-tions to the problems concerning thebusiness of an organisation. They learnabout management information sys-tems, principles of marketing, finance,HRM, data warehousing & the conceptsrelated to business intelligence. MBASSM students comprehend how to han-

dle technology, along with possessingstandard managerial skills. They alsogain knowledge about different anddiverse domains like manufacturing orlogistics and banking or finance.prospective career profiles for this spe-cialisation are IT sales and marketing,business process analysis, softwaresolution development, quality verifi-cation, enterprise solutions architecture,techno-functional consultancy, softwarearchitecture and devops.

IT Infrastructure Managementspecialisation gives students a detailedoverview of emerging technologieslike unified communications, enter-prise-wide networks, and next-gener-ation intelligent network solutions,which are needed collectively to fulfillthe growing needs and demands of anorganisation. Professionals who canplan, design, deploy and monitor largeand complex networks, it is a distinc-tive role that demands a strong under-standing of business and technologicaldomains.

Prospective career profiles for ITinfrastructure management are networksecurity and audit, data centre man-agement, IT advisory services, networkinfrastructure sales, IT infrastructuremanagement services, BCP/DR con-sultant, business development IMS, net-work solution and design, infrastruc-ture project management.

Data Science specialisation willprovide intensive training to build therequired skillsets for a successful careerin the big data & business analyticsindustry. Students of this specialisationwill procure the skill needed to offercustomised solutions for the contem-porary data problems surfacing in thebusiness sphere. Prospective careerprofiles for this specialisation are bigdata analysis, market analyst, behavioralanalytics, social network & sentimentanalysis, business development, busi-ness process analysis, consumer ana-lytics, business process management,business analytics.

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With the aim of creating strong strategiesand roadmaps to make school exami-

nations less stressful, the NorthwestAccreditation Commission, USA (NWAC)hosted a conference titled De-stressingExamination organised by Council of Boardsof School Education in India (COBSE) lastweek. The conference was inaugurated by for-mer UGC Chairman Professor Ved Prakash.The event gave special focus on De-StressingExamination on the lines of Draft NationalEducation Policy 2019.

Director General of National TestingAgency (NTA) Vineet Joshi also attended theconference and spoke about the importanceof coordination among all the boards and NTA,

to enable proper verification of students at theapplication stage of exams conducted byNTA.

Dr Sanyam Bhardwaj, Controller ofExaminations, CBSE gave a detailed presen-tation on the way CBSE is bringing about achange in the evaluation and examinationprocess to reduce the stress.

“The biggest challenge in front of educa-tors today is to come up with a curriculum thathas a futuristic orientation. The educationboards do not only have the responsibility ofcertifying students, but they also have theresponsibility to prepare the children fortomorrow’s world. Students must not be edu-cated on age-old patterns rather they shouldbe made future-ready,” Ved Prakash said on theoccasion.

Around 1000 students fromover 10 schools visited the

Techno Blizz, an open house andscience and technology exhibi-tion at the Department ofElectronics and InstrumentationEngineering (EIE) at Tech Parkin SRM Institute of Science andTechnology, KattankulathurCampus.

A total of around 14 labswere set up with various kinds ofinstruments, prototypes andequipment to help studentsunderstand the intricacies ofelectronics and instrumentationengineering. A few of these dis-

plays were developed by the stu-dents and faculty of the EIEDepartment.

This Techno Blizz was donein collaboration with IndiraGandhi Centre for AtomicResearch (IGCAR), Kalpakkam.

A team of scientists and engi-neers from the Nuclear ResearchCentre displayed scientific mod-els and explained to students thebasic functioning of the center.Speaking about the Open House,Head of the Department, Dr AVimala Joseph said: “The two-day event provided informationabout the department andSRMIST at large. The childrenalso got hands-on experience andinsight into the different aspectsof Electronic andInstrumentation engineeringthrough orientation and workingmodels.”

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The 28th IEEE Conferenceon Robot and Human

Interactive Communication(RO-MAN 2019), whichkicked off on Monday here,hosts a series of technical talks,special sessions, workshops,tutorials exhibitions and awardsfunction during the four-day-long event. With the theme“Responsible Robotics and AIfor the Real World” — expertsand delegates underlined theimportance of developingresponsible technology in anera where robotics and AI are

intruding various aspects of oursocial as well as private lives.

The four-day conferencefrom October 14-17, 2019brings in all dimensions ofresearch and development inRobotics and AI.

This is the first time IEEERo-MAN Conference is takingplace in the Indian subconti-nent. The idea is to connect theIndian and international com-munities in the fast-growingsector of Robotics & AI. Nearly205 high-quality papers arebeing presented in 25 oral ses-sions and one poster sessionspread over four days.

Qualifying for the interview ofUPSC engineering services,

which is the final stage of selectionhas always been a dream for its aspi-rants. Everyone wants to performtheir best at this stage. Afterall, theselected candidates are among the0.5 per cent who manage to crackthe IES examination. Nearly 1 lakhstudents compete for around 600vacancies every year for differentengineering branches.While thewritten test evaluates the technicalknowledge of the candidates, the IESinterview gauges their personalitycombined with their field-relatedknowledge. The interview also triesto bring out qualities like intuitivepowers, spontaneity, practicality,soft skills, leadership qualities, con-fidence level and team spirit of thefinalists. That said, it is the 200marks and a set of rigorous ques-tions that ultimately decides the fateof those 0.5 per cent candidateswhether they can manage to getthrough one of the most sought-afterengineering recruitment examina-tions. Sounds gruelling? Fret not! Allyou need is a well-defined plan andsome extra efforts to tackle all yourapprehensions and give your bestshot. Here is a list of preparation tipsand tricks for the upcoming IESinterview:

Pay attention while filling theDetailed Application Form (DAF):

Prior to your interview, the mostcrucial thing is to fill the DAF verycarefully. Because, a lion’s share ofthe interview questions will bebased on your own profile such asyour previous job experience, hob-bies, your hometown, college andothers. You cannot afford to gowrong while answering those ques-tions and stick to the informationwhile you are talking at the inter-view.

Focus on current affairs: Thecandidate must stay updated withthe latest national and internation-al affairs. So flip through the news-

papers, surf the current affairs blogsand news pieces and take quizzes asmuch as possible.

Keeping the knowledge aboutyour subjects and the final year col-lege project in place: The interviewboard pays a lot of attention to acandidate’s technical and subjectknow-how. So make sure you getyour basic concepts right and pre-pare two/three of your favouritetechnical subjects and their practi-cal applications as you will be askedquestions about your understandingof the subjects

Emphasise on the tricky ques-

tions: The interviewer might askquestions related to your state/cityand its historical importance, yourhobbies, your weaknesses, the rea-son behind joining IES and muchmore. These questions should beanswered tactically to avoid creatingany negative impression on thepanel. For instance, while talkingabout your weaknesses, direct youranswers smartly towards yourstrengths.

Never create answers: Not sureabout your answer to a particularquestion? Say it clearly to the inter-viewer. Never try to say anythingnegative or create answers to some-thing you are not sure about. It willonly create a negative impact andconfusion.

Groom yourself well on the D-day: We all must have heard the say-ing, the First impression is the lastimpression. So, make sure you areformally dressed and well-groomedfor the interview as this will createa lasting impression on the inter-viewer from the time you enter theinterview room.

Remember, it is the selection dayso give your best shot at the inter-view with patience, confidence andclarity. This will increase yourchances of getting through theinterview with utmost success.

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Knowledge is believed to be tran-scending international bound-

aries overcoming regional barriersmore widely and quicker than everbefore. People along with their chil-dren are travelling the globe pro-viding the young ones an enhancedexposure to experiences and moreopportunities to learn new things.Educators believe that there is a needto scout for more innovative ways forchildren to gain relevant knowledgeand skills in an easy and impactfulway.

Experiential education is onesuch well-structured methodology oflearning. It enables children toorganise their pattern of thought andtransform it into action more effec-tively. It helps them understandtheir existing environment and bebetter prepared to deal with real-lifescenarios, as they grow older. Beinga parent or guardian, one wouldobserve that when children returnfrom school they are more likely toinitiate discussion about what alltranspired that day rather than shar-ing what was actually taught in theclassroom. Such is the power of anexperience that allows more reten-tion and can leave an ever-lastingimpact on a child’s mind, over andabove any traditional method oflearning.

The benefits of experientiallearning are embedded deep within

the core of a child’s learning process.This methodology helps breakdowncomplex knowledge into simplercontent that is engaging and quick tolearn. As we know, in a traditionalclassroom setup the dominant modeof learning is listening, however, inan experience based environmentlearning goes beyond the classroomand forces a child to use cognitiveabilities in combination with phys-ical skills to take a desired action.This brings out various aspects of achild’s personality to the forefrontand helps them recognise their skillsand interests in unique ways.

When a child is rewarded fortaking a particular action, it encour-ages them to further undertakethose tasks repeatedly, thereforebecoming better with each play.

Experiential education starts

with a basic visit organised by theschool to a Museum, voluntarywork in the local community, or pro-ject oriented visits to National parksand so forth. These experienceswere widely used across the globe asa part of the curriculum to makereal-life scenarios informative andfun for children.

Later we saw that there truly wasa need for more engaging means oflearning for children. This gave riseto digitalisation of classrooms, edu-cational toys, show events, and edu-tainment or theme-based parks withnewer attractions. To complementthese means, technologies likerecorded audio headsets, audiobooks, simulated games can also beused to give on-ground learning anew dimension altogether.

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In a professional world of cut-throat com-petition and performance-based assess-ments, soft skills might appear to be an

understated requirement. However, one can-not do without them. A candidate might beprogrammer, an engineer, a writer or a salesperson, but he is first a human being with anemotional quotient. Human skills are techni-cally not considered a part of professional tal-ent; yet even the best professional talent isfutile without essential soft skills. You mightbe the best developer in the organisation, butif you are insincere, unable to communicatewell with the team, lack the ability to collab-orate and fail to maintain a good equation withyour clients, your technical ability or hard skillsis going to get you only so far.

Increasingly, organisations are realisingthat without the necessary human skills, pro-fessional talent too has its limitations. If anemployee lacks technical skills, training andexperience can help improve it. However,when it comes to attitude and aptitude, theseare soft skills that can’t be taught or ingrained.

Why soft skills matter?Between two employees who are equally

good at their work, which one will you chooseto service a client? One who is approachable,doesn’t lose patience easily, communicatesseamlessly and greets everyone with a smileor the one who often turns irritable?

It is not difficult to understand why softskills are important than hard skills. Soft skillsinclude a series of personality traits that enablean individual better navigate his environmentand handle difficult situations with grace.These human traits include social and com-munication skills, sincerity towards commit-ment, emotional intelligence, negotiation,conflict resolution as well as people to peo-ple skills. Empathy, patience, flexibility, tol-erance and an ability to communicate in dif-ficult situations without arousing tempers arevery important skill sets.

Can soft skills be quantified?It is difficult to quantify or judge soft skills

in an individual at the time of recruiting. Therearen’t many tests to judge skills like commu-nication or even sincerity. However, if youaccord the due important to soft skills, thereare subtle ways in which you can assess theseduring recruitment.

This includes keeping a close eye on theway the individual communicates, the sincerityand maturity he displays throughout theprocess. If a candidate takes more than a weekin responding to your requirement of sub-mitting some documents, you get gauge a lack-adaisical attitude behind it. Also important is

to watch for the written communicationwith the candidate that gives a fair idea aboutthe maturity of expression and sensibility ofthought of the individual.

As a recruiter, nobody wants to be flood-ed with resumes from a job portals listing non-human or mechanical skills like years of expe-rience, this degree or that course. What I amlooking for are the people who are activelysearching jobs in the job position offered andare able to show some passion towards it. Thisis why we have tried to design innovativeTalent Boards that display list more than justthe technical skills of an individual.

Our algorithms do not just rank candidateprofiles based on a series of technical skill testsbut also try to extract exceptional insights intoa candidate’s skills, attitude, pro-activeness andsincerity by analysing the smart data behindthe candidate’s activity on the algorithm.Combining the human element with data cre-ates a smart data pool of talent that is muchmore representative of a candidate's skill setthan a simple resume is.

As there arises a greater shift in organi-sational attitudes towards analysing soft skillsduring recruitment, we will witness a greaterproliferation of similar algorithms and psy-chometric tests that lay equal value on quan-tifying soft skills and aptitude. We will alsohave more organisations investing in buildingsoft skills among their employees through psy-chological skill training and team buildingactivities.

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The Faculty ofEngineering at theUniversity of

Strathclyde, Glasgow has anumber of scholarshipsavailable for new self-funded,international (non-EU) feepaying students with excel-lent academic qualificationsfor the MSc in CivilEngineering with Industryprogramme starting inJanuary 2020.

Value: Up to £3,000Duration: One yearEligibility: The scholar-

ship is available for applica-tion to all self-funded, newinternational (non-EU) feepaying students holding anoffer of study for the MSc inCivil Engineering withIndustry. You must start yourfull-time MSc in January2020. One will need a mini-mum of a 2:1 (or equivalent)in your undergraduate degreeto be considered.

For more information -https://www.strath.ac.uk/studywithus/scholarships/engi-neeringscholarships/faculty-ofengineeringexcellence. Onecan contact: [email protected]

Application deadline:The last date to apply isJanuary 17, 2020.

Fully Funded Doctoral

Scholarships administratedby the Central EuropeanUniversity in Hungary.

The educational programis open for outstanding inter-national students, who wantto study doctoral degreecoursework for the academicyear 2020/21.

Award: Up to €1,350Eligibility: To be consid-

ered for this grant, applicantsmust have a master’s degree(or equivalent) in a relatedfield from a recognised uni-versity or institution of high-er education, or provide doc-umentation indicating thatthey will earn such a degreebefore enrollment in a CEUdoctoral course of study.

Supporting Documents:Academic writing submis-sion, letters ofRecommendation, academicrecords, and curriculum vitaeor resume must be submitted.

AdmissionRequirements: For admis-sion, candidates must have amaster’s degree (or equiva-lent) in a related field from arecognized university orinstitution of higher educa-tion. LanguageRequirement: You shouldcheck all the English lan-guage requirements whenyou come to study at CentralEuropean University.

How to apply: Onlineapplication system for thegrant.

Application deadline:The last date to apply isJanuary 30, 2020.

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The banking and financialservices have always beenthe most preferred

employment sector for the beststudents across the world. Over10 international banks likeGoldman Sachs, JP Morganand American Express and 30-plus Indian banks like ICICI,Yes, Axis, IDBI, Kotak, HDFCand Citi are regularly seenscouting for talent at Indiancampuses. The tradition of IIMsshows that top students havealways had a bias towards work-ing in the banking sector.

A Deloitte survey onPopularity of working in Bankingconducted in 2013 found thatstudents seeking banking jobsare motivated by learning andearning prospects of bankingsector. Top factors that areattached to banking sector jobswhich make it a career of choiceare:

��M��# ��We are living in the knowl-

edge society and the real talentof today values continuouslearning and development.Inherently, finance and bankingare information driven indus-tries. People working here arealways learning and dealing

with new and innovative prac-tices that make the jobs inter-esting for them. Also, being apeople oriented sector, banksput a lot of emphasis on devel-oping professional skills of itspeople. This makes it the fore-most reason why banking sec-tors attracts the best talentacross the world.

/��$��#��The huge capital norms

and the backup of central banksmake banking and financialservice companies very strongand stable.

The fact that they are deal-ing with the public money givesthem a lot of Government pro-tection. Strong regulations blockthe entry of non- serious orweak players in the sectors.These factors put together makebanking jobs a lot more secureand stable.

��/��/��$�A student who once

becomes a banker is able to reapbenefits for his entire career. Abanking job of a few years in thebeginning of an individual’scareer makes it a good careerreference for the future.Experience as a banker helps a

candidate both professionallyand socially.

��Bankers or anyone else

dealing with money have alwayscommanded a higher socialstatus in all cultures and soci-eties, since time memorial. Theprestige that is attached with abanking job both global and

rural. The respect and prestigeof being a banker is therefore astrong intrinsic reason for a lotof talented candidates to seek abanking career.

%��%�##�' ��(�$ ��KThe banking sector is grow-

ing and so are the opportunitiestherein. There is no one size fitsall profile in banking. Banksoffering different types of ser-vices recruit candidates withvarying skillsets. The role of aclerk in a fully computerisedbranch has already becomeredundant.

Most people are recruited inoffice profile and are requiredto have specialised domainknowledge. The curriculumand pedagogy is carefullydesigned to prepare our stu-dents for these profiles. Duringthe course of study, the corpo-rate relations department helpsa student in identifying themost suitable profile accordingto their strengths and aptitude.

%��%�##�' ��% ��KThere are many categories

of Banking Financial Servicesand Insurance companies inIndia where one can work likeWealth Management, Bank &

NBFC, Asset Management,Fintech, Brokerage, Insurance,Accounting & Taxation, andRating Agencies.

Students have many desig-nations like Trade FinanceManager, Trade Desk Manager,NRI Banking Officer, FinancialPlanning, Service Delivery offi-cer, Relationship Manager,Management Trainee, BusinessBanker, Credit officer, ForexOfficer, Credit Analyst, RiskAnalyst and OperationsExecutive to name a few.

��/��The average salary of a

fresher in BFSI sector is �2-�2.5lakh per annum, with three-fiveyears of experience can earn �5-�6 lakh per annum and with 10-plus years experience one canget �10 lakh per annum.

The trends show that aftermaking a ground hold for abouttwo-three years in bankingindustry people tend to growfaster in this sector.

It is notable that good stu-dents are usually forward look-ing and prefer jobs which givethem higher future growth thanimmediate salary.

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Indian equities continuedtheir winning run for a third

session in a row on Tuesday aspositive news on the US-Chinatrade deal front and consumerdemand revival hopes in theupcoming festive seasonenthused investors.

The BSE benchmarkSensex rallied around 421points during the day but paredsome gains towards the fag-endof the session and settled291.62 points, or 0.76 per cent,higher at 38,506.09 — a two-week high for the index.

Similarly, the broader NSENifty rose over 87 points, or0.77 per cent, to settle at11,428.30. The market rallywas mainly driven by auto andmetal stocks.

Top gainers in the Sensexpack were Vedanta, M&M,ONGC, Hero MotoCorp,Maruti Suzuki and HUL risingup to 3.79 per cent.

On the other hand, BhartiAirtel, Infosys, Tata Motors,HCL Tech, Tech Mahindraand Bajaj Finance fell as muchas 2.53 per cent.

Of the 30 scrips on theSensex, 24 shares closed withgains and 6 with losses.

Sectorally, BSE autoemerged as the top gainer with2.36 per cent rise. Other topperformers were metal, bankex,power and FMCG — rising

1.56 per cent.On the other hand, BSE

telecom, teck and IT indices fellup to 2.15 per cent.

In the broader market, BSElargecap outperformed thebenchmark Sensex by rising0.79 per cent. BSE midcapindex also gained 0.72 per centbut smallcap index slipped0.11 per cent.

In the last three tradingsessions, the Sensex has added625.69 points or 1.64 per centand the Nifty has gained 193.75points or 1.71 per cent.

“Green shoots from US-China trade talks added posi-tivity while outperformance indomestic auto stocks in expec-tation of festival demand fur-ther lifted the sentiment. FIIsare net buyers in the last twodays given stability in globalmarket. Start of Q2 results ismixed but some tailwinds onfuture earnings outlook willhelp the market to maintain themomentum,” Vinod Nair, Headof Research, Geojit FinancialServices, said.

Experts are also of theview that the central bank willcontinue with its accommoda-tive policy stance and may gofor further rate cut in the pol-icy review of December 2019,as retail inflation moved up inSeptember.

Retail inflation climbed toa 14-month high of 3.99 percent in September due to cost-

lier vegetables and pulses butstill remained within the RBI’scomfort zone, government datashowed on Monday.

Meanwhile, the Indianrupee tumbled by 31 paise toend at 71.54 against the US dol-lar. Brent crude futures, theglobal oil benchmark, fell 1.75per cent to USD 58.31 per bar-rel.

Elsewhere in Asia, bours-es in Shanghai, Hong Kongended in the red, while those inSeoul and Tokyo ended high-er.

Exchanges in Europe weretrading on a positive note afterEuropean Union’s top Brexitnegotiator hinted at the possi-bility of a deal this week.

Meanwhile, gold witnessedmuted trading on Tuesday, ris-ing marginally higher by Rs 5to Rs 39,105 per 10 gram in thenational capital as a weakerrupee kept the downside lim-ited, according to HDFCSecurities.

“Spot gold prices for 24Karat in Delhi were tradingmarginally up by Rs 5 at Rs39,105 as weaker rupee kept thedownside limited. Spot rupeewas trading 10 paise weakeragainst the dollar during theday,” Tapan Patel, senior analyst— commodities, HDFCSecurities said.

The yellow metal hadclosed at Rs 39,100 per 10 gramin the previous trade here.

Script Open High Low LTPBAJAJCON 230.00 230.05 193.00 195.55FLFL 406.60 423.05 406.60 413.10BANDHANBNK 569.90 638.05 569.90 625.05FEDERALBNK 82.90 85.55 81.75 84.50IBULHSGFIN 189.00 196.30 182.20 189.05MARUTI 6829.00 7015.35 6810.00 6987.70RBLBANK 259.00 274.90 241.75 264.25TATASTEEL 345.50 358.25 338.80 349.10YESBANK 41.00 41.40 39.00 40.60BPCL 491.40 494.50 487.90 490.25HINDUNILVR 2052.00 2077.00 2026.75 2063.35TATAMOTORS 127.50 128.95 123.75 126.95HDFC 2013.00 2030.05 1994.85 2013.20SBIN 256.80 259.90 254.75 258.40M&M 570.00 593.15 565.50 584.60TCS 2028.80 2046.90 2024.20 2037.40RELIANCE 1363.50 1370.00 1345.00 1363.30INFY 773.80 774.75 765.00 767.80INDUSINDBK 1251.55 1276.25 1237.00 1272.05KOTAKBANK 1586.00 1629.65 1577.80 1614.80BIRLACORPN 522.25 534.45 511.10 527.60JINDALSTEL 99.55 104.95 96.25 103.15ICICIGI 1247.45 1272.00 1240.00 1267.25LT 1427.00 1445.10 1421.00 1433.15ZEEL 237.95 253.35 234.85 250.80NCC 48.60 50.25 47.40 49.30VEDL 147.50 155.80 144.60 153.45HEROMOTOCO 2616.85 2699.50 2615.00 2676.00CRISIL 1277.20 1344.75 1257.60 1329.35ICICIBANK 430.00 435.30 428.00 431.70DMART 1830.00 1874.80 1817.80 1837.95HDFCBANK 1210.00 1225.00 1207.30 1222.90JSWSTEEL 221.05 226.90 214.50 219.50BAJFINANCE 3909.00 3916.75 3845.00 3880.30BANKBARODA 88.65 88.75 86.90 88.00ADANIENT 148.00 155.90 146.70 155.05EICHERMOT 18370.00 19288.00 18270.00 19200.20AXISBANK 683.65 694.90 681.80 690.00VARROC 447.45 463.60 439.20 446.60ESCORTS 611.90 632.60 610.00 630.40PEL 1368.00 1396.10 1302.00 1375.60ASHOKLEY 68.00 69.60 67.40 69.05GRUH 304.00 327.05 304.00 317.30SAIL 32.25 34.45 31.65 33.40JUSTDIAL 612.00 612.70 572.30 578.95AUROPHARMA 459.95 467.40 450.20 454.85IDEA 6.40 6.44 6.11 6.16WIPRO 244.00 245.50 239.20 243.70ASIANPAINT 1797.00 1824.15 1797.00 1802.50BAJAJ-AUTO 2959.00 3029.00 2956.50 3009.45TEJASNET 78.00 78.50 77.00 77.70COLPAL 1525.00 1569.45 1525.00 1556.55ONGC 136.60 139.40 135.40 138.75BAJAJFINSV 8108.95 8131.45 8012.90 8035.10OMAXE 190.00 193.20 187.25 187.50ITC 247.40 249.20 245.10 247.50TITAN 1251.00 1274.50 1251.00 1272.20BHEL 43.00 43.50 42.50 42.75MOTHERSUMI 99.00 102.70 97.95 101.85DLF 154.75 159.35 152.00 156.10ACC 1487.00 1504.60 1461.70 1498.85IOC 145.95 148.30 145.20 146.35BHARTIARTL 391.95 391.95 381.65 383.55LICHSGFIN 368.00 368.00 354.00 363.90PVR 1805.00 1835.00 1790.25 1822.15BIOCON 255.00 262.40 250.20 260.20HDFCLIFE 581.95 596.20 581.00 592.25BRITANNIA 3139.90 3192.75 3115.45 3180.50COALINDIA 188.30 192.60 188.10 191.30CROMPTON 253.15 255.60 248.60 252.70NBCC 32.65 33.00 32.05 32.70HINDALCO 188.00 195.35 186.00 192.50ULTRACEMCO 4121.35 4219.25 4121.35 4206.05UPL 585.30 590.95 580.20 583.45EDELWEISS 74.50 78.00 72.50 75.85CANBK 179.75 181.80 176.90 180.60HEG 898.95 912.05 833.75 880.10PGHH 11633.70 11660.90 10855.55 11281.05NESTLEIND 14175.00 14198.00 13711.60 14080.65SUNPHARMA 397.25 400.00 392.50 396.60SIEMENS 1582.70 1595.05 1575.65 1593.15LUPIN 719.50 726.55 699.70 721.15MCX 998.90 1024.80 990.00 1016.65APOLLOHOSP 1460.20 1490.00 1460.20 1485.15TVSMOTOR 401.00 411.90 391.85 410.00BERGEPAINT 480.00 484.80 475.85 478.30HINDPETRO 312.00 315.30 309.80 310.85SRTRANSFIN 1040.40 1054.00 1027.90 1049.75ADANITRANS 232.50 255.35 232.20 238.05CIPLA 444.00 448.70 436.00 446.85STAR 335.20 359.20 334.90 355.45FORTIS 134.30 136.75 133.25 136.20PNB 57.50 58.10 56.70 57.90AMARAJABAT 698.50 698.50 646.85 678.70SRF 2615.00 2669.20 2590.00 2623.30GODREJPROP 1001.00 1001.05 961.10 985.05BOSCHLTD 13445.05 13912.90 13333.95 13868.70GSPL 209.45 210.60 201.00 207.35TATAMTRDVR 56.85 57.05 54.50 56.55NTPC 117.70 119.80 117.35 119.45DABUR 459.85 459.85 443.25 450.05PAGEIND 20951.00 21769.60 20705.00 21073.35CEATLTD 934.50 941.70 909.30 935.05BEL 109.50 111.10 108.20 110.45ADANIPOWER 62.45 62.45 60.95 61.90ADANIGAS 154.95 155.70 150.00 151.60HAVELLS 655.75 675.55 655.70 666.95BBTC 1155.95 1209.90 1148.80 1189.80

ADANIGREEN 79.95 81.30 77.20 79.95PIIND 1337.00 1339.25 1305.00 1314.45TATAELXSI 657.50 657.50 633.10 650.80L&TFH 81.95 83.05 81.00 82.80CONCOR 586.00 597.60 583.00 594.60DELTACORP 168.00 173.10 165.00 170.90SUNTV 481.95 495.00 481.00 490.00UJJIVAN 297.50 302.95 290.25 301.40NMDC 97.90 101.90 96.70 101.30TECHM 721.00 728.00 719.10 720.10HCLTECH 1088.60 1099.00 1081.05 1084.10VOLTAS 673.00 681.00 669.80 675.80ADANIPORTS 409.50 414.40 407.60 413.90WABAG 233.00 233.60 188.45 189.90MGL 947.00 964.20 940.45 949.25RAJESHEXPO 680.00 689.35 667.00 674.70GAIL 126.50 129.05 125.60 128.00GRAPHITE 270.25 273.50 257.25 269.10TTKPRESTIG 6003.70 6003.70 5882.60 5919.30PCJEWELLER 32.70 34.40 32.50 33.40RELCAPITAL 15.20 17.20 14.20 14.30LTI 1491.30 1500.00 1475.35 1491.05ABB 1483.95 1520.00 1445.70 1496.80RVNL 25.40 25.40 23.70 24.20ICICIPRULI 450.55 460.00 449.00 455.30SPICEJET 123.40 123.50 120.00 121.95BANKINDIA 60.20 61.50 59.45 61.20DRREDDY 2663.10 2695.80 2659.80 2683.20ITDC 296.00 304.35 285.60 296.40HDFCAMC 2732.00 2744.15 2700.00 2708.45RECLTD 125.30 125.30 119.10 123.20JUBLFOOD 1320.15 1337.00 1305.00 1316.85BEML 892.80 905.50 848.50 877.60TATAGLOBAL 275.10 278.35 269.35 277.80MRF 62251.00 63386.40 61399.00 63101.05UNIONBANK 50.25 50.35 48.85 50.05M&MFIN 322.00 322.00 312.15 316.35APOLLOTYRE 169.85 173.85 167.85 173.40MUTHOOTFIN 655.00 657.35 632.50 653.85SUDARSCHEM 381.90 383.00 354.15 362.90DHFL 23.05 23.30 21.10 21.25CHOLAFIN 285.75 285.75 276.25 279.80DISHTV 16.65 17.40 16.15 16.90TATAPOWER 59.80 60.30 59.15 59.70EQUITAS 100.95 101.65 99.05 101.40PIDILITIND 1383.00 1389.50 1352.05 1377.45PETRONET 259.00 260.50 256.00 259.05IDFCFIRSTB 38.05 38.50 37.65 38.45BATAINDIA 1730.00 1732.20 1709.40 1716.45OFSS 3119.90 3148.10 3094.45 3139.10PNBHOUSING 471.00 471.00 435.00 437.05KRBL 213.10 216.50 187.30 197.60BHARATFORG 432.00 437.20 426.00 428.35NIITTECH 1395.00 1438.35 1395.00 1424.50OBEROIRLTY 498.60 508.00 496.25 504.60MANAPPURAM 139.40 139.50 135.50 137.70JAICORPLTD 75.25 82.25 74.80 81.20INDIGO 1777.00 1777.00 1748.05 1751.65RELINFRA 19.55 21.80 18.05 18.80AMBUJACEM 194.20 198.50 194.15 196.85RPOWER 2.07 2.14 1.84 2.01TORNTPHARM 1702.00 1741.00 1681.25 1699.20KTKBANK 70.90 71.75 69.10 70.60NATIONALUM 40.60 41.75 40.10 41.50SUNTECK 412.00 421.60 407.75 419.75PFC 93.00 94.70 92.15 94.25GRASIM 699.00 705.90 691.95 703.90GLENMARK 280.65 287.20 277.40 286.45POWERGRID 198.80 201.95 198.45 201.35EXIDEIND 184.90 189.30 183.05 187.80ATUL 4022.70 4029.00 3957.05 3971.90BOMDYEING 70.75 73.50 67.30 71.10NAUKRI 2278.00 2367.45 2253.50 2314.65IGL 377.60 377.60 367.70 368.55OIL 153.20 159.20 152.30 158.50POLYCAB 677.00 708.00 675.00 704.35WOCKPHARMA 255.60 259.80 240.00 253.30VIPIND 451.90 473.60 440.00 463.75DIVISLAB 1686.00 1701.60 1678.65 1692.20IBVENTURES 96.30 96.40 90.30 90.30GNFC 204.20 204.20 192.00 196.85RCF 46.70 49.20 46.65 48.90WHIRLPOOL 2041.00 2134.40 1988.00 2094.35GODREJCP 691.00 694.25 676.15 689.50

STRTECH 139.45 139.45 132.00 135.25ABCAPITAL 77.90 78.45 76.00 77.25DEEPAKNI 303.05 307.05 295.95 299.35AIAENG 1726.00 1730.00 1688.70 1710.90FINEORG 1872.40 1930.50 1851.45 1879.65HSCL 75.00 75.10 65.00 70.60IBREALEST 47.40 47.80 43.75 44.50GAYAPROJ 110.35 111.75 103.00 109.00GSKCONS 8640.00 8812.00 8424.80 8742.40ENGINERSIN 107.90 107.90 103.80 107.35SBILIFE 831.00 843.75 830.20 839.65DBL 384.85 402.75 382.80 388.30CANFINHOME 383.25 386.70 365.00 381.95CASTROLIND 133.90 134.90 132.00 133.75RNAM 267.90 269.00 260.00 261.40RITES 269.85 269.85 260.20 263.30GLAXO 1406.00 1444.35 1355.50 1432.75NHPC 23.80 23.85 23.00 23.80RAYMOND 582.30 594.00 570.05 577.00GMRINFRA 17.35 17.35 17.00 17.30SCI 44.90 45.35 43.50 44.65CYIENT 457.00 463.00 440.00 455.60JUBILANT 484.80 485.00 468.00 480.75SPARC 119.75 123.50 119.10 119.80BALKRISIND 759.10 778.05 756.45 772.35INDIACEM 82.00 82.15 79.05 79.25TATACHEM 592.20 592.20 583.00 588.30UBL 1295.00 1299.00 1265.70 1285.75VENKYS 1599.00 1619.90 1582.00 1588.00RADICO 296.40 297.25 280.90 294.05FRETAIL 381.50 382.35 358.00 380.25INFRATEL 258.25 260.30 255.45 256.85JSWENERGY 60.00 64.00 59.95 63.05MFSL 408.70 421.15 406.95 409.20MARICO 385.30 385.30 379.10 382.95SHREECEM 18726.70 18800.00 18504.75 18574.50BALRAMCHIN 154.95 156.70 152.00 155.05HONAUT 28800.00 29034.00 28675.10 28825.25TRENT 504.00 511.25 485.00 504.75ITI 81.50 83.25 81.00 81.55HINDCOPPER 30.55 32.15 29.00 31.75HINDZINC 207.95 212.00 199.00 209.00SOUTHBANK 10.15 10.16 8.50 9.99GODFRYPHLP 1015.00 1038.00 1008.00 1015.85FORCEMOT 1081.00 1100.00 1041.00 1090.35MAHABANK 10.23 10.23 8.67 9.40BLUESTARCO 816.10 816.40 766.75 789.80SWANENERGY 104.90 105.30 103.50 104.00SUVEN 257.20 271.65 257.20 265.75INTELLECT 183.75 192.45 182.25 185.70DCBBANK 185.40 185.80 174.00 181.00NAVINFLUOR 709.30 737.00 700.00 727.00ABFRL 205.90 205.90 193.00 199.45SUZLON 2.80 2.80 2.45 2.58MINDTREE 733.00 733.00 722.00 725.30CADILAHC 235.00 235.00 231.80 234.25RAIN 86.00 86.35 81.00 84.85LUXIND 1159.15 1177.80 1116.55 1152.15JINDALSAW 82.90 84.25 79.35 83.00AKZOINDIA 1811.20 1943.40 1811.20 1920.25AJANTPHARM 969.80 972.90 950.55 954.65LAXMIMACH 3280.00 3425.00 3147.25 3345.60TV18BRDCST 21.95 23.25 20.85 21.70IDFC 31.35 31.45 30.95 31.20LTTS 1550.00 1561.00 1531.75 1548.80INDHOTEL 152.00 153.40 143.00 148.95IDBI 29.40 29.40 28.90 29.00VBL 621.35 648.00 620.75 629.35PFIZER 3191.00 3210.85 3156.80 3193.60ALBK 25.60 25.65 24.60 24.85FSL 46.35 46.35 45.00 45.65BLISSGVS 106.10 107.85 105.20 107.30JKTYRE 66.00 67.20 63.10 66.00HEXAWARE 370.90 374.00 369.00 370.20GSFC 77.25 77.65 72.10 75.80CUB 218.00 218.65 204.00 214.00SYNGENE 315.00 336.95 309.10 325.05PGHL 4425.30 4475.00 4361.25 4375.45TATAMETALI 575.00 594.45 566.00 584.35MOIL 134.95 134.95 126.00 131.65TORNTPOWER 282.50 282.50 279.35 280.45ABBOTINDIA 11029.00 11029.00 10786.90 10903.60CUMMINSIND 572.00 573.00 564.55 569.20JKCEMENT 1044.05 1066.00 1020.70 1057.80AVANTI 373.00 381.50 373.00 380.50KEC 284.40 285.75 265.50 276.15GREAVESCOT 133.00 133.00 125.00 128.10RCOM 0.71 0.74 0.70 0.72HEIDELBERG 183.70 184.20 174.00 180.90SHANKARA 287.00 296.85 285.00 291.30NATCOPHARM 561.80 567.00 538.75 563.90JISLJALEQS 13.90 14.10 13.10 13.60SYNDIBANK 24.00 24.45 23.00 24.05ORIENTBANK 53.00 53.00 50.15 50.95SUPREMEIND 1208.90 1219.75 1194.50 1216.30WELCORP 128.00 132.00 127.70 131.10GRANULES 101.00 101.00 93.00 96.75TATACOFFEE 75.50 76.45 71.95 75.80INDIANB 110.80 111.85 108.10 108.90CERA 2400.00 2493.20 2342.00 2420.15PRESTIGE 283.15 292.70 282.65 291.50ASTRAZEN 2170.00 2180.05 2105.00 2134.95HUDCO 33.20 33.60 32.50 33.05PTC 54.55 55.00 52.00 54.60SUNDRMFAST 462.05 467.00 438.70 457.703MINDIA 20067.70 20254.00 19906.50 20213.10LALPATHLAB 1340.00 1386.10 1340.00 1371.10GEPIL 711.60 713.65 672.90 696.20BASF 966.25 966.25 896.85 932.60

BAJAJHLDNG 3573.35 3615.50 3565.00 3590.50KAJARIACER 561.00 561.60 551.75 560.15CHAMBLFERT 147.70 147.95 141.00 145.45HFCL 17.50 17.80 17.40 17.65WABCOINDIA 6105.05 6124.05 6061.00 6111.50GUJGAS 172.50 175.35 172.50 175.05INFIBEAM 39.65 39.90 38.90 39.25EMAMILTD 304.50 304.50 287.05 302.00NESCO 567.00 594.90 566.70 587.70MPHASIS 905.75 923.00 899.20 921.50ORIENTELEC 160.20 161.80 152.70 158.25IPCALAB 893.50 893.50 862.20 882.15JAMNAAUTO 34.15 34.65 31.85 33.20GICRE 210.00 221.00 199.00 215.25KANSAINER 512.55 521.50 506.00 517.80RALLIS 175.00 175.00 162.70 169.65REPCOHOME 283.65 294.45 278.60 288.30CHENNPETRO 154.10 157.30 152.00 155.30GHCL 206.60 207.60 195.50 205.15FINOLEXIND 597.70 597.70 573.35 590.00PHILIPCARB 112.60 114.70 112.60 113.70COFFEEDAY 37.00 37.40 36.10 36.10IRCON 371.30 372.95 364.85 365.60REDINGTON 107.10 109.50 107.10 108.95TAKE 100.70 107.65 100.70 104.75GUJALKALI 432.65 435.05 404.40 426.10VGUARD 232.60 232.80 219.00 228.95FCONSUMER 23.55 24.85 23.40 24.55EIHOTEL 176.00 176.40 163.00 170.70IRB 59.80 61.20 59.40 60.85MINDAIND 356.00 361.50 354.55 359.85AAVAS 1699.95 1699.95 1656.15 1671.85MOTILALOFS 634.20 639.70 613.00 626.60AEGISLOG 164.00 173.65 162.35 168.90TIMKEN 777.45 778.75 738.60 769.50MRPL 51.00 51.70 49.00 51.50PERSISTENT 585.20 593.25 570.25 587.25SANOFI 5907.25 5930.00 5806.45 5902.10GODREJIND 388.00 388.00 379.50 382.50J&KBANK 31.80 31.80 31.15 31.65PARAGMILK 153.70 154.80 145.70 153.40LAURUSLABS 321.95 323.00 303.70 319.35UFLEX 207.15 207.85 204.40 205.10SCHNEIDER 71.00 71.75 66.00 67.55DCAL 159.10 163.50 151.40 160.80DEEPAKFERT 89.75 90.80 86.15 89.40JBCHEPHARM 359.65 360.70 344.20 356.35AUBANK 645.30 652.55 634.20 644.65NLCINDIA 53.40 53.65 50.70 53.35ISEC 267.85 276.30 264.70 274.85SONATSOFTW 304.00 304.05 295.00 297.85GODREJAGRO 475.15 486.15 461.75 481.75CENTURYPLY 160.00 161.50 151.00 157.45ALKEM 1944.00 1951.00 1909.65 1912.90METROPOLIS 1282.80 1290.00 1270.55 1275.65THYROCARE 509.85 513.90 500.00 502.55NOCIL 102.50 102.70 101.20 102.25

CCL 236.40 238.50 202.00 233.05ALLCARGO 98.30 100.75 95.00 99.65JSLHISAR 65.20 68.40 63.20 66.35TNPL 189.10 189.85 178.00 186.00BAJAJELEC 382.00 383.20 367.00 381.05VTL 917.35 919.00 885.45 908.55KEI 541.00 544.85 533.50 542.55IFCI 6.51 6.51 6.00 6.23BALMLAWRIE 165.40 167.65 160.00 164.80JKLAKSHMI 281.50 283.25 269.00 276.80THOMASCOOK 141.90 141.90 128.65 132.70UCOBANK 11.89 11.95 11.00 11.69FINCABLES 350.80 352.95 334.95 350.00ASTRAL 1168.10 1180.05 1151.70 1170.95ANDHRABANK 15.60 16.15 15.10 15.65DALBHARAT 806.00 815.00 800.00 806.25APLAPOLLO 1367.40 1400.00 1355.60 1381.60SOBHA 440.00 450.00 432.50 446.10INOXLEISUR 335.80 338.00 328.60 333.20THERMAX 1108.80 1130.05 1092.10 1114.05VINATIORGA 2151.00 2170.00 2120.00 2136.00SJVN 24.30 24.85 24.25 24.80CENTRALBK 17.00 17.15 16.15 16.85RAMCOCEM 725.25 727.15 716.00 723.75GRINDWELL 599.90 599.90 557.00 588.95SHOPERSTOP 414.20 421.00 385.40 395.50ZYDUSWELL 1696.15 1696.15 1630.00 1648.40MAHSEAMLES 354.60 356.10 342.00 354.60COCHINSHIP 333.10 335.00 320.15 331.75MEGH 50.80 50.80 49.15 49.35WELSPUNIND 50.05 50.10 49.10 49.75UNITEDBNK 7.55 7.55 6.50 7.10DCMSHRIRAM 373.00 377.80 364.60 375.80APARINDS 500.00 532.10 493.10 508.70

APLLTD 515.00 536.40 510.00 527.05KALPATPOWR 441.85 448.25 439.35 440.85LEMONTREE 56.55 57.80 55.60 56.00IOB 9.55 9.55 8.75 9.32HAL 706.25 727.50 702.20 724.70IEX 122.05 122.90 120.80 121.85JMFINANCIL 71.30 71.70 68.00 71.50MAHLOG 366.35 366.70 359.00 364.05CREDITACC 617.15 628.50 616.20 617.45SHK 129.40 129.40 120.00 121.60PRSMJOHNSN 77.00 77.00 72.90 76.40GILLETTE 7350.00 7350.00 7200.00 7282.75FDC 161.45 162.00 152.50 159.70MAHINDCIE 145.00 149.95 141.00 143.80NIACL 96.00 96.00 94.15 94.80SKFINDIA 2104.80 2144.55 2087.15 2117.00MMTC 14.80 14.80 14.20 14.25TATAINVEST 785.00 794.10 785.00 786.15ENDURANCE 992.00 1011.00 991.10 1006.25BDL 281.10 283.00 278.25 280.75VSTIND 3790.45 3938.85 3767.70 3914.15JSL 33.90 34.90 33.45 34.35JCHAC 1994.00 2000.00 1909.00 1913.35GESHIP* 292.25 293.00 275.00 288.95CARERATING 536.00 536.50 507.00 528.80GMDCLTD 57.30 58.05 55.00 57.80GDL 95.25 95.40 85.00 92.40ASHOKA 99.35 102.50 99.05 100.80NETWORK18 20.55 20.70 19.25 19.95CGPOWER 12.81 13.56 12.81 13.09SREINFRA 8.00 8.00 7.35 7.68WESTLIFE 321.20 323.00 316.60 319.30BAYERCROP 3450.00 3450.00 3318.00 3326.20GALAXYSURF 1491.40 1499.15 1452.10 1472.65JYOTHYLAB 160.75 161.10 153.00 158.85ITDCEM 40.50 41.10 38.15 38.90SHRIRAMCIT 1338.90 1345.00 1300.00 1322.60MASFIN 691.90 700.00 687.05 699.65ORIENTCEM 84.60 84.60 81.20 82.35TRIDENT 58.80 58.80 55.55 56.15CORPBANK 14.20 14.20 13.60 13.75ZENSARTECH 204.45 211.60 202.10 209.80PNCINFRA 163.20 163.75 158.80 161.80GICHSGFIN 132.50 133.55 128.50 131.95GET&D 168.50 175.00 163.30 172.15MHRIL 209.00 210.45 204.80 208.05LAOPALA 171.50 178.90 167.25 175.00RELAXO 501.00 505.25 495.50 497.35GPPL 80.00 80.45 77.15 79.20MAXINDIA 64.05 65.00 62.00 64.25ECLERX 394.80 397.95 381.05 390.45QUESS 471.00 472.10 466.35 469.60CENTRUM 22.05 23.70 20.65 22.95MAHLIFE 454.15 454.15 432.25 437.80HATHWAY 21.50 21.55 21.30 21.55EIDPARRY 153.45 156.40 153.00 154.55ADVENZYMES 147.15 148.25 146.05 146.45JPASSOCIAT 2.18 2.20 2.09 2.12MAHSCOOTER 4506.25 4514.00 4475.00 4503.85HIMATSEIDE 140.00 140.60 137.40 138.15CAPPL 399.75 403.00 396.35 397.85KNRCON 228.40 236.35 226.25 233.50INDOSTAR 204.00 204.00 190.05 190.80STARCEMENT 93.90 98.65 93.00 93.40TEAMLEASE 3080.70 3170.55 3052.75 3131.55JSWHL 2760.00 2833.50 2735.00 2776.20DBCORP 146.30 148.75 140.00 146.50KPRMILL 554.85 559.30 553.60 558.60SOMANYCERA 194.00 196.00 187.40 191.00BLUEDART 2271.10 2298.00 2267.00 2276.00TVTODAY 306.90 306.90 296.00 297.95CARBORUNIV 286.90 289.40 280.60 285.60NILKAMAL 1173.70 1181.20 1170.40 1177.10ERIS 426.05 430.60 416.00 421.90SHILPAMED 259.55 269.50 256.80 269.50SOLARINDS 1095.50 1105.00 1078.00 1097.70TIINDIA 375.35 375.40 362.40 364.95ASTERDM 116.95 118.65 116.95 118.50TIMETECHNO 58.70 59.05 56.85 57.70IFBIND 670.75 674.65 666.00 666.45NH 235.00 238.00 232.90 232.90HERITGFOOD 321.00 330.00 321.00 325.10LINDEINDIA 513.75 517.15 511.45 514.75PHOENIXLTD 698.95 698.95 686.90 695.20COROMANDEL 403.25 407.40 400.95 405.90TVSSRICHAK 1792.50 1792.50 1745.50 1755.00TRITURBINE 100.00 104.85 100.00 104.10GULFOILLUB 878.00 880.00 870.00 874.75EVEREADY 40.05 40.30 38.10 38.10VMART 2033.00 2033.00 1987.00 2002.35JAGRAN 58.00 58.50 55.25 58.35NBVENTURES 73.35 74.00 72.70 73.30SADBHAV 131.80 132.10 129.80 131.10CHOLAHLDNG 465.00 468.00 461.00 464.80SCHAEFFLER 4101.95 4125.00 4085.00 4125.00MAGMA 47.75 48.50 47.50 47.65MINDACORP 82.45 83.55 80.45 80.95SYMPHONY 1273.40 1284.65 1268.10 1277.25SUPRAJIT 178.15 185.00 175.70 184.10DHANUKA 306.85 306.85 298.50 300.95ESSELPRO 117.05 117.80 115.05 116.10INOXWIND 33.00 33.00 31.55 31.65SIS 840.00 877.05 800.00 874.95LAKSHVILAS 22.10 22.10 22.05 22.05IBULISL 81.85 81.85 81.85 81.85TCNSBRANDS 706.15 706.15 696.30 698.15RATNAMANI 933.00 933.00 921.00 925.80CHALET 322.00 325.00 312.95 315.30

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SCRIP OPEN HIgh LOW LTP CHANGENIFTY 50 11360.85 11462.35 11342.10 11428.30 87.15EICHERMOT 18310.00 19300.00 18285.00 19187.90 859.95VEDL 147.15 155.90 144.50 153.75 5.95ZEEL 236.90 253.70 234.55 250.60 7.70ONGC 137.00 139.15 135.35 138.90 3.65HEROMOTOCO2620.15 2699.95 2610.00 2678.00 68.80MARUTI 6811.00 7019.00 6809.00 6995.00 173.90M&M 568.00 586.55 565.20 582.50 13.85HINDUNILVR 2050.00 2077.30 2025.80 2060.05 45.80BRITANNIA 3129.10 3193.65 3112.35 3176.55 66.90KOTAKBANK 1595.40 1629.50 1577.50 1617.00 31.50HINDALCO 187.90 195.55 185.90 192.20 3.50TITAN 1254.00 1275.15 1253.00 1272.00 23.05BAJAJ-AUTO 2964.00 3029.90 2953.45 3010.60 52.55YESBANK 41.10 41.45 39.00 40.80 0.70INDUSINDBK 1256.95 1277.55 1236.00 1271.55 20.95HDFCBANK 1207.00 1225.00 1206.85 1223.70 19.30ITC 245.05 249.20 245.05 247.80 3.70GAIL 126.00 129.15 125.55 127.75 1.90ADANIPORTS 408.85 414.50 407.45 413.55 6.10NTPC 117.00 119.80 117.00 119.35 1.60IOC 145.00 148.35 145.00 146.70 1.95TATASTEEL 345.05 358.35 338.70 349.20 4.35POWERGRID 198.40 202.00 198.30 200.85 2.45CIPLA 440.00 448.50 435.35 446.30 5.40SBIN 256.45 259.90 254.80 258.50 3.05DRREDDY 2662.00 2696.90 2654.55 2683.00 31.10BPCL 489.95 494.50 487.95 491.15 5.20AXISBANK 682.60 694.85 681.30 689.90 6.40ULTRACEMCO 4194.90 4219.20 4141.55 4205.00 34.70TCS 2032.00 2047.00 2022.70 2037.80 16.80ICICIBANK 430.00 435.45 428.20 432.20 3.35LT 1429.10 1444.80 1420.65 1434.45 10.50COALINDIA 189.00 192.70 188.05 191.25 1.15GRASIM 699.55 706.15 691.10 702.50 3.85RELIANCE 1362.50 1370.00 1354.30 1364.15 6.15SUNPHARMA 397.20 400.00 392.25 396.20 1.55ASIANPAINT 1807.70 1825.00 1796.00 1804.10 5.40HCLTECH 1089.10 1099.15 1079.45 1088.00 1.20BAJFINANCE 3895.00 3916.00 3843.00 3884.30 1.00TECHM 724.00 729.00 719.00 720.90 0.15WIPRO 244.95 245.50 239.25 243.50 0.05HDFC 2019.00 2030.40 2009.20 2013.00 -1.75BAJAJFINSV 8130.00 8130.00 8013.00 8050.00 -32.25NESTLEIND 14152.10 14205.00 14035.95 14085.00 -84.00UPL 585.00 591.00 580.80 583.20 -3.45JSWSTEEL 221.00 226.90 214.25 219.50 -1.95TATAMOTORS 127.10 128.90 123.70 126.55 -1.30INFRATEL 258.50 260.40 255.25 256.15 -3.30INFY 773.10 775.95 765.00 769.00 -17.10BHARTIARTL 390.00 391.95 381.55 382.40 -11.15

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SCRIP OPEN HIgh LOW LTP CHANGENIFTY NEXT 50 26829.75 27052.60 26803.25 27010.60 219.00BANDHANBNK 570.20 638.00 570.20 629.00 60.30GICRE 208.10 221.50 206.15 220.10 10.05NMDC 97.90 102.00 96.65 101.85 3.70BOSCHLTD 13350.00 13947.00 13350.00 13819.90 474.45MOTHERSUMI 99.50 102.75 97.90 101.90 2.90CONCOR 586.95 598.00 582.45 595.20 16.95BIOCON 252.20 262.60 251.25 260.50 7.15HAVELLS 655.20 675.40 655.20 669.15 15.25ICICIGI 1245.50 1270.00 1245.50 1270.00 28.75ASHOKLEY 68.00 69.65 67.35 69.15 1.55COLPAL 1529.80 1569.85 1528.00 1551.05 30.55ACC 1479.00 1505.00 1461.30 1497.90 28.55HDFCLIFE 581.00 595.85 580.60 593.00 10.70OFSS 3095.00 3150.00 3087.65 3145.00 51.45L&TFH 81.70 83.10 81.05 82.75 1.10ICICIPRULI 452.05 460.00 448.75 455.50 5.95SBILIFE 829.00 844.00 829.00 839.00 10.30PFC 93.90 94.85 92.10 94.60 1.15AMBUJACEM 194.90 198.50 194.00 196.40 2.35SIEMENS 1578.70 1595.50 1574.00 1592.00 18.30PIDILITIND 1369.00 1389.55 1351.55 1377.50 15.25PNB 57.30 58.15 56.70 57.90 0.60DLF 154.50 159.40 152.00 156.35 1.50UBL 1277.30 1299.25 1265.50 1285.90 9.55BAJAJHLDNG 3570.00 3620.40 3570.00 3590.00 23.90NHPC 23.70 23.90 23.25 23.85 0.15BERGEPAINT 480.00 484.80 475.45 480.00 2.90CADILAHC 233.00 234.85 232.40 234.00 1.30LUPIN 718.00 726.90 711.50 720.25 3.85DMART 1836.00 1874.90 1817.55 1836.05 8.00PAGEIND 21000.00 21777.00 20800.00 21100.05 90.70DIVISLAB 1685.00 1701.80 1679.05 1690.15 6.45MCDOWELL-N 617.00 625.00 616.95 619.00 2.35SRTRANSFIN 1044.65 1054.95 1028.00 1048.00 3.35HINDPETRO 312.45 315.15 309.65 311.30 0.80PEL 1365.00 1396.40 1356.55 1379.05 2.55PETRONET 258.90 260.50 257.60 259.30 0.45HINDZINC 209.40 212.00 207.10 208.10 0.20GODREJCP 690.70 695.00 684.05 690.00 -0.70BANKBARODA 88.25 88.75 86.80 87.90 -0.40SHREECEM 18750.00 18860.95 18511.05 18599.00 -96.60MARICO 385.50 385.55 379.00 382.75 -2.20HDFCAMC 2730.00 2744.00 2701.60 2711.90 -21.30INDIGO 1769.10 1771.70 1748.00 1752.55 -14.20AUROPHARMA 459.25 467.60 450.00 454.55 -4.70DABUR 458.60 459.05 447.40 450.00 -5.00NIACL 96.00 96.25 94.40 94.75 -1.50IDEA 6.40 6.45 6.10 6.20 -0.20PGHH 11668.00 11729.05 10830.00 11255.00 -513.60IBULHSGFIN 187.00 196.40 182.20 187.50 -10.30

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In the gloomy global economic picturepainted by the International Monetary

Fund (IMF), India retains its rank as theworld’s fastest-growing major economy,tying with China, with a projectedgrowth rate of 6.1 per cent for the cur-rent fiscal year, despite an almost oneper cent cut in the forecast.

However, the IMF’s WorldEconomic Outlook (WEO) released onTuesday projected India’s economy topick up and grow by 7 per cent in the2020 fiscal year.

The WEO cut India’s growth rate by0.9 per cent from the 7 per cent madein July and by 1.2 percent from the 7.3per cent in April.

In contrast to the dark view of theeconomy within India, when viewedglobally, the nation’s picture seemsbrighter despite the cuts.

The world economy is projected togrow only 3 per cent this year and 3.4per cent next year amid a “synchronisedslowdown”, according to the WEO.

Explaining the cut in growth pro-jection for India, the WEO said: “India’seconomy decelerated further in the sec-ond quarter, held back by sector-specificweaknesses in the automobile sector andreal estate as well as lingering uncer-tainty about the health of non-bankfinancial companies.”

It added that “corporate and envi-ronmental regulatory uncertainty” wereother factors that weighed on demand.

IMF’s projected growth rate of 6.1per cent for 2019-20 is consistent withthe Indian Monetary Policy

Committee’s forecast.About the international scenario,

IMF’s Chief Economist Gita Gopinathwrote in the foreword to the WEO: “Theglobal economy is in a synchronizedslowdown, with growth for 2019 down-graded again — to 3 per cent — its slow-est pace since the global financial cri-sis (in 2007-08). This is a serious climbdown from 3.8 percent in 2017, whenthe world was in a synchronisedupswing.” WEO projected China’s eco-nomic growth to slow down to 5.8 percent next year.

In the Euro area, growth is pro-jected to be only 1.2 percent this yearand 1.4 next year, with the Germaneconomy expected to grow by a dismal0.5 per cent this year.

United States is expected to slight-ly better with a 2.1 per cent growth pro-jected for this year and 2.4 per cent forthe next.

Gopinath blamed the global slow-down on rising trade barriers, uncer-tainty surrounding trade and geopoli-tics, and structural factors, such as lowproductivity growth and an aging pop-ulation in developed countries.

WEO said India’s growth in 2019 issharply lower than the 6.8 per cent in2018 “for idiosyncratic reasons, but isexpected to recover in 2020”.

The reduction in India’s growth pro-jection for this year “reflects a weaker-than-expected outlook for domesticdemand”, WEO said.

India’s future “growth will be sup-ported by the lagged effects of mone-tary policy easing, a reduction in cor-porate income tax rates, recent measures

to address corporate and environmen-tal regulatory uncertainty, and govern-ment programs to support rural con-sumption”, it added.

In the medium term, the IMFexpects India’s growth to stabilise atabout 7.3 per cent over the mediumterm, based on continued implemen-tation of structural reforms.

The IMF suggested that Indiashould use monetary policy and broad-based structural reforms to addresscyclical weakness and strengthen con-fidence.

It said: “A credible fiscal consoli-dation path is needed to bring downIndia’s elevated public debt over themedium term. This should be sup-ported by subsidy-spending rationali-sation and tax-base enhancing mea-sures.”

Other measures it suggested includ-ed reducing the public sector’s role inthe financial system, reforming the hir-ing and dismissal regulations that“would help incentivise job creation andabsorb the country’s large demograph-ic dividend”, and land reforms to expe-dite infrastructure development.

The auto sector is one of the areasseriously affected globally, according tothe WEO.

“The automobile industry con-tracted in 2018 for the first time sincethe global financial crisis, contributingto the global slowdown since last year,”it said. Global car sales fell by three percent last year, while the number ofautomobile units manufactureddeclined by 1.7 per cent, in value termsit fell by 2.4 per cent, WEO said.

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The global economy is in a “synchro-nised slowdown” amidst growing

trade barriers and heightened geopolit-ical tensions, the IMF warned on Tuesdayas it downgraded the 2019 growth rateto three per cent, the slowest pace sincethe global financial crisis. “This is a seri-ous climbdown from 3.8 per cent in 2017,when the world was in a synchronisedupswing,” Indian-American GitaGopinath, chief economist of theInternational Monetary Fund (IMF) saidin the foreword to the latest WorldEconomic Outlook. “With a synchro-nised slowdown and uncertain recovery,the global outlook remains precarious. At3 per cent growth, there is no room forpolicy mistakes and an urgent need forpolicymakers to cooperatively deescalatetrade and geopolitical tensions,” she said. Besides supporting growth, suchactions can also help catalyse neededcooperative solutions to improve the glob-al trading system, Gopinath said.

Released ahead of the annual meet-ing of the IMF and World Bank,Gopinath in the World EconomicOutlook said that this subdued growthis a consequence of rising trade barriers;and elevated uncertainty surroundingtrade and geopolitics.

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Protesting Turkey’s militaryoffensive in northeast Syria,

US President Donald Trumphas announced sanctionsagainst Turkish officials, rais-ing of steel tariffs and endingnegotiations on a USD 100 bil-lion trade deal.

Trump has signed an exec-utive order that empowers hisadministration to slap sanc-tions on Turkey.

The treasury departmenthas already placed TurkishDefence Minister Hulusi Akar,Interior Minister SuleymanSoylu and Energy MinisterFatih Donmez on its sanctionslist, while Trump in a letter toSpeaker Nancy Pelosi of the USHouse of Representatives hasdeclared the Turkey issue anational emergency.

On Wednesday, Ankaralaunched a cross-border assaulton Kurdish fighters after the USdecided to withdraw troopsfrom Syria, a move criticised bythe Republicans, with someterming it a “betrayal” of theKurds.

“This (executive) order willenable the US to impose pow-erful additional sanctions onthose who may be involved inserious human rights abuses,obstructing a ceasefire, pre-venting displaced persons fromreturning home, forcibly repa-triating refugees or threateningthe peace, security or stabilityin Syria,” Trump said in astatement.

Turkey’s military offensiveis endangering civilians andthreatening peace, security andstability in the region, he said,adding that he has been per-

fectly clear with his Turkishcounterpart that his action isprecipitating a humanitariancrisis and setting conditions forpossible war crimes.

“I’m fully prepared to swift-ly destroy Turkey’s economy ifTurkish leaders continue downthis dangerous and destructivepath,” the president said.

The order gives the stateand treasury departmentsauthority to consider andimpose sanctions on individu-als, entities or associates of theTurkish government involvedin actions that endanger civil-ians or lead to the furtherdeterioration of peace, securi-ty and stability in northeastSyria.

The order will authorise abroad range of measures,including financial sanctions,the blocking of property, and

barring entry into the US, hesaid, adding that the US willimmediately stop negotiationswith Turkey on a USD 100 bil-lion trade deal.

Steel tariffs will beincreased back up to 50 percent, the level prior to thereduction in May, Trump said.

He asserted that his admin-istration will aggressively useeconomic sanctions to targetthose who enable, facilitate, andfinance heinous acts in Syria.

In addition to the sanctionson the three Turkish ministers,the treasury said people whoengage in certain transactionswith the persons designatedtoday may themselves beexposed to designation.

Furthermore, any foreignfinancial institution that know-ingly facilitates any significantfinancial transactions for or on

behalf of the persons designat-ed today could be subject to UScorrespondent or payablethrough account sanctions, itsaid. The treasury departmentsaid as a result of today’s action,all property and interests inproperty of these persons, andof any other persons blocked byoperation of law, that are in theUS, in the possession or con-trol of US persons must beblocked and reported to thetreasury.

“Turkey must ensure thesafety of civilians, includingreligious and ethnic minorities,and is now, or may be in thefuture, responsible for theongoing detention of ISIS ter-rorists in the region.

“Unfortunately, Turkeydoes not appear to be mitigat-ing the humanitarian effects ofits invasion,” he said.

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EU Brexit negotiator MichelBarnier said Tuesday that a

deal with Britain could bereached this week, but warnedmore tough talks are still need-ed. British and EU officials areracing to reach a deal onBritain’s exit terms before asummit of EU leaders startingon Thursday, as Prime MinisterBoris Johnson seeks to fulfil hisvow to take Britain out onOctober 31.

As he arrived inLuxembourg to brief the other27 EU states on the state of theclosed-door talks, Barnierstruck a cautiously upbeat note.

“This work has beenintense all along the weekendand yesterday because even ifthe agreement will be difficult— more and more difficult tobe frank — it’s still possible this

week,” Barnier told reporters.“Obviously any agreement

must work for everyone — thewhole of the United Kingdomand the whole of the EuropeanUnion. Let me add also that itis high time to turn goodintentions into legal text.”

After weeks of gloom andgrowing fears Britain wouldcrash out of the bloc with nodivorce arrangements in place,the last few days have given aglimmer of hope that an agree-ment can be reached — thoughthere has so far been no deci-sive breakthrough.

More than three years afterBritain’s 2016 referendum voteto leave the EU, talks remainstuck on how to avoid customschecks on the land borderbetween British-ruledNorthern Ireland and Ireland,which is staying in the bloc.

The EU had reservations

about London’s proposed cus-toms arrangements and theproposed role for NorthernIreland’s Stormont assemblyin giving consent to the plans.

London’s Brexit MinisterStephen Barclay will joinBarnier in Luxembourg later inthe morning in what is beinginterpreted as a positive sign forprogress in the talks — whichhave been shrouded in secrecysince the weekend as the twosides seek to avoid potentiallydamaging leaks.

“It’s not done yet but we’retrying. The British want a dealand they have moved on cus-toms and Stormont,” a seniorEuropean diplomat told AFP,referring to the role of theNorthern Irish provincialassembly.

“We’ll have to see if it’senough to be turned into a legaltext. We must be cautious.”

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The pound rallied Tuesdayafter the European Union’s

top Brexit negotiator flaggedthe possibility of a divorcedeal this week, reviving hopesBritain could avoid crashingout of the bloc.

With the exit deadline onOctober 31, Michel Barnier’scomments reinforced hopesfor an eventual agreementbetween the two sides andcame after reports said a com-promise was taking shape.

Ahead of a meeting toupdate EU countries on nego-tiations, he told reporters: “Thiswork has been intense all alongthe weekend and yesterdaybecause even if the agreementwill be difficult — more andmore difficult to be frank — it’sstill possible this week.”

Sterling surged more thanone percent to as high as$1.2698, near levels not seensince June, before easing slight-ly. It also picked up against theeuro.

The currency had alreadybeen rising after Britain’s DailyTelegraph said a divorce agree-ment was forming, with EUand British negotiators hailinga positive day of talks on theNorthern Ireland issue.

The paper quotedunnamed sources as sayingthere was “cautious optimism”,while the BBC said the EU isconsidering holding an emer-gency summit to push througha possible deal. It said there wasnot enough time to get any-thing done before a summit setfor this week.

The pound had comeunder pressure on Monday

after European officials playeddown the chances of an agree-ment that had been aired byBritish Prime Minister BorisJohnson and his Irish counter-part Leo Varadkar last week.

David Kelly at JP MorganAsset Management said theJohnson-Varadkar talks hadsparked a “whirlwind of diplo-macy between the British gov-ernment and the Europeans totry to come up with an agree-ment this week”.

He added in a note: “Whileit is by no means certain thatthe UK and Europe can agreeto a deal or that such a deal canmake it through the UK par-liament, there does appear to berecognition from the Britishside that any Brexit deal willhave to treat Northern Irelandvery differently from the rest ofthe UK.”

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The “unilateral invasion” ofnorthern Syria has resulted

in widespread casualties anddestruction, US DefenseSecretary Mark Esper said onMonday.

This has also underminedthe successful multinational“Defeat ISIS” mission in Syria,he said.

Esper will be visitingNATO next week in Brusselsand he plans to press membersof the alliance to take collectiveand individual diplomatic andeconomic measures in responseto Turkish actions.

“Despite the oppositionand repeated warnings fromthe US and the internationalcommunity, Turkish President(Recep Tayyip) Erdoganordered a unilateral invasion ofnorthern Syria that has result-ed in widespread casualties,refugees, destruction, insecu-rity, and a growing threat to USmilitary forces,” he said.

Turkey launched a cross-border assault on Kurdishfighters on Wednesday after theUS decided to withdraw troopsfrom Syria, a move criticised bythe Republicans, with someterming it a “betrayal” of theKurds.

“This unacceptable incur-sion has also undermined thesuccessful multinational ‘Defeat

ISIS’ mission in Syria, andresulted in the release of manydangerous ISIS detainees,”Esper said in a statement lateMonday afternoon.

Due to Turkey’s irrespon-sible actions, the risk to USforces in northeast Syria hasreached an unacceptable level,he said.

“We are also at risk ofbeing engulfed in a broaderconflict. Therefore, at thePresident’s (Donald Trump)direction, the Department ofDefense is executing a deliber-ate withdrawal of US militarypersonnel from northeastSyria,” the defense secretarysaid.

Turkey’s unilateral actionwas “unnecessary and impul-sive”. President Erdogan bearsfull responsibility for its con-sequences, to include a poten-tial ISIS resurgence, possiblewar crimes, and a growinghumanitarian crisis, he said.

The bilateral relationshipbetween the US and Turkey hasalso been damaged, Esper said.

In a joint statement, SenateDemocratic Leader ChuckSchumer, Senate ForeignRelation Committee RankingMember Bob Menendez, andSenate Armed ServicesCommittee Ranking MemberJack Reed accused Trump of“reckless decision-making” inSyria and Turkey.

They said this has endan-gered American national secu-rity and the security of itsallies around the world.

“To be clear, PresidentTrump’s withdrawal of USforces is contributing to thechaos and havoc Turkey iscausing in northeastern Syria,”the statement said.

The Kurdish partners arealready paying the ultimatecost of this betrayal and tens ofthousands of civilians havealready been displaced, theDemocratic senators rued.

Completely withdrawingUS from northern Syria, at thismoment, with no strategy inplace, is “ceding our interests toPutin, Erdogan, Assad, Iranand to others who are alreadygleefully filling the securityvacuum”, according to the state-ment.

Trump should use thismoment to step up, do the rightthing, and correct course, thesenators demanded.

“He can listen to hisnational security and militaryadvisors, and to the chorus ofbipartisan voices in Congressand across the world whomade it clear that this was agrave mistake worth reversing,”they said in the statement. Leaders are not those who arealways right, but those who arewilling to learn from theirmistakes, they said.

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Syria’s Kurds put up stiffresistance Tuesday around

an ethnically divided bordertown that is a key goal ofAnkara’s nearly week-old inva-sion, a war monitor reported.

The Syrian DemocraticForces, the de-facto army of theKurdish administration innortheast Syria, “launched amajor counterattack overnightagainst Turkish forces and theirSyrian proxies near Ras al-Ain,”the Syrian Observatory forHuman Rights said.

The Britain-based monitorsaid “fortifications, tunnel net-works and a continuous supplyof reinforcements” had enabledthe SDF to hold off Turkishefforts to take the town.

An AFP correspondent inthe area said clashes continuedon Tuesday, despite repeatedclaims by Ankara in recent daysthat it had captured the area.

The Turkish invasion hasalready killed 70 civilians and135 SDF fighters since itslaunch on October 9, accord-ing to the Observatory.

The monitor has put thenumber of pro-Turkish Syrianfighters killed at 120.

The United Nations says160,000 people have fled theirhomes.

Further west, Ankara’sSyrian proxies battled pro-Kurdish fighters around thestrategic city of Manbijovernight, the monitor said.

The Observatory said thatpro-Ankara fighters were bat-tling forces loyal to Manbij’sMilitary Council, a governingbody linked to the Kurdishadministration in northeasternSyria.

This came after Damascussaid it had dispatched troops tothe city as part of an agreementwith the Kurds announced onSunday to contain Ankara’sadvance.

Turkish President RecepTayyip Erdogan has said heexpects Kurdish forces towithdraw from Manbij, whichlies some 30 kilometres (20miles) south of the Turkishborder.

Turkey wants to create a 30kilometre wide buffer zonealong the border to keep awayKurdish forces it regards as“terrorists” and provide a reset-tlement area for some of the 3.6million Syrian refugees cur-rently on its soil.

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Canadian author MargaretAtwood and British writer

Bernardine Evaristo jointlywon the prestigious 2019Booker Prize on Monday afterjudges broke the rules bydeclaring a tie, the first since1992.

British Indian novelistSalman Rushdie’s tragicomic‘Quichotte’ was among the sixbooks shortlisted for the prize.

Atwood, 79, is the oldestever Booker winner, whileEvaristo, 60, is the first blackwoman to win the award sinceits creation in 1969.

The Booker rules say theprize must not be divided, butthe judges insisted they “could-

n’t separate” Atwood’s ‘TheTestament’ and ‘Girl, Woman,Other’ by Evaristo.

The rules were changedafter the last tie in 1992, andorganisers told this year’sjudges that they were notallowed to pick two winners.

But after five hours ofdeliberations, Peter Florence,the chair of the five-memberjudging panel, said: “It was ourdecision to flout the rules.”

The judges said theystrongly wanted both theauthors to split the GBP 50,000award at a gala ceremony atGuildhall here.

“The more we talked aboutthem, the more we found weloved them both so much wewanted them both to win,”

Florence said.Atwood expressed her joy

at sharing the award with ayounger writer.

Atwood joked to her co-winner: “I would have thoughtI would have been too elderly,and I kind of don’t need theattention, so I’m very glad thatyou’re getting some.”

“It would have been quiteembarrassing for me… if Ihad been alone here, so I’mvery pleased that you’re heretoo,” she said.

Evaristo said, “We blackBritish women know that if wedon’t write ourselves into liter-ature no one else will.”

“It’s so incredible to sharethis with Margaret Atwood,who’s such a legend and so gen-

erous,” she said, after the shockjoint win was announced.

The others shortlistedincluded Lucy Ellmann for‘Ducks, Newburyport’,Chigozie Obioma for ‘AnOrchestra of Minorities’, andElif Shafak for ‘10 Minutes 38Seconds in this Strange World’.

Atwood’s ‘The Testaments’had been the bookmakers’favourite to scoop the award.She had also made the shortlistwith ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ in1986, with her latest book set15 years after the end of thatnovel.

The 2019 shortlist hadbeen selected from 151 sub-mitted books published in theUK or Ireland betweenOctober 2018 and September

2019. On Rushdie’s‘Quichotte’ the judging panelcommented, “A picaresquetour-de-force of contempo-rary America, with all itsalarms and craziness. Rushdieconjures a celebration of sto-rytelling and language thatwil l del ight lovers ofCervantes, lovers of daytimetelevision and lovers of life.”

This was the fifth timethat the Mumbai-born novel-ist was shortlisted, includingthe 1981 win where he baggedthe award for “Midnight’sChildren”.

Rushdie’s latest work isinspired by the classic ‘DonQuixote’ by 16th centurySpanish author Miguel deCervantes.

The judging panel saidthis year’s shortlist offered aninsight into different worldsfrom the dystopian setting ofGilead, the monologue of anOhio housewife and the tragi-comic tale of a travellingsalesman in America; tomostly female, mostly Black,British lives across genera-tions, the trials of a youngNigerian man on a quest toimprove his prospects andtrue allegiances within thebrothels of Istanbul.

Florence, founder anddirector of the Hay Festivaland Chair of the Booker Prizejudging panel this year, said:“The common thread is ouradmiration for the extraordi-nary ambition of each of

these books.” “There is an abundance of

humour, of political and cul-tural engagement, of stylisticdaring and astonishing beau-ty of language, “ he said.

“Anyone who reads allsix of these books would beenriched and delighted,would be awe-struck by thepower of story, and encour-aged by what literature can doto set our imaginations free.”

Each of the shortlistedauthors received GBP 2,500and a specially-bound editionof their book.

“The Booker Prize hasbeen jointly awarded twicebefore, to Nadine Gordimerand Stanley Middleton in1974 and to Michael Ondaatje

and Barry Unsworth in 1992,”according to the Booker Prizewebsite.

Last year’s winner wasNorthern Irish writer AnnaBurns for ‘Milkman’, whichhas sold around 546,500copies in all formats since theaward.

The Booker Prize forFiction, first awarded in 1969,is open to writers of anynationality, writing in Englishand published in the UK orIreland.

The prize is supportedfor the first time this year byventure capitalist MichaelMoritz and novelist wifeHarriet Heyman’s charitablefoundation Crankstart, ratherthan the Man Group.

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Britains’ Prince William andhis wife Kate Middleton on

Tuesday visited a girls’ schoolhere and interacted with stu-dents in their first engage-ment on a five-day visit toPakistan.

The Duke and Duchess ofCambridge arrived inIslamabad on Monday, the firstroyal trip to the country inmore than a decade.

The couple visited theModel College for Girls locat-ed in Islamabad. The college isa government-run school fordisadvantaged from four to18-year-olds, benefiting fromthe Teach for Pakistan pro-gramme based on the UK’sTeach First scheme.

Kate arrived at the collegedressed in a royal blue classickurta with trousers and dupat-ta by Pakistani designerMaheen Khan.

The royal couple, both 37,saw different parts of the schooland also inspected a class ofmathematics. They mixed upwith the students of the school.

The school administrationbriefed the royal couple, whoare strong advocates of girls’education, about the schooland they were also apprisedabout education system inPakistan.

During their five-day visithere, the royal couple is sched-uled to visit Northern Areasand Khyber Pakhtunkhwabesides capital Islamabad andLahore.

Later in the day, Willaimand Kate will visit the MargallaHills in the foothills of theHimalayas, Geo News report-ed.

The Duke and Duchesswill also meet President ArifAlvi and Prime Minister ImranKhan and later attend a recep-tion hosted by British HighCommissioner Thomas Drew,the report said.

Kate and William werewelcomed at the Nur KhanAirbase in Rawalpindi, the gar-rison city adjacent to the cap-ital Islamabad by ForeignMinister Shah MahmoodQureshi and his wife.

Last week, KensingtonPalace called the five-day trip

“the most complex tour under-taken by The Duke andDuchess to date, given thelogistical and security consid-erations”.

The visit, which will end onOctober 18, has been organisedat the request of the UnitedKingdom’s (UK) Foreign andCommonwealth Office.

This is the first royal tourto the country since 2006 whenPrince Charles and Camilla, thePrince of Wales and theDuchess of Cornwall, travelledto Pakistan.

In 1990, Princess Diana,William’s mother, visitedPakistan to participate in afund-raising event for a cancerhospital built by Khan.

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Mozambique began voting ina general election on

Tuesday that some fear could testthe country’s fragile peace, aftera heated campaign marred byviolence and allegations of elec-toral fraud.

The Frelimo party, whichhas ruled the impoverishedsouthern African nation sinceindependence from Portugal in1975, is widely expected toagain beat its arch-rival Renamo,a former rebel group turnedmain opposition party.

President Filipe Nyusi, whocast his ballot as polls opened at7:00 am (0500 GMT), called onvoters to show “the world westand for democracy and toler-ance”.

“Mozambique has chosen tomove forward peacefully,” hesaid, adding that more thanmore than 4,000 observers hadbeen deployed in the most-watched election in the country’s

history. “Let’s continue thisprocess in a serene way. Peacemeans that everything must bedone according to the rules.”Nyusi, 60, is forecast to win asecond five-year term despite hispopularity taking a hit fromchronic unrest and a financialcrisis linked to alleged statecorruption.

While the election is expect-ed to see regional wins forRenamo, few think Frelimo willbe unseated from governmentafter 44 years at the helm.

“Frelimo is a machine,” saidCastro Davis, a 42-year-old pub-lic servant in the capital Maputo,predicting a “straight-forwardvictory.”

Elena Jorge, 50, told AFPshe wants Renamo to win “butpeople know that these electionswill not be free, fair or trans-parent — but we have hope.”Around 13 million ofMozambique’s 30 million citi-zens are registered to vote atmore than 20,000 polling

booths, which close at 6:00 pm(1600 GMT).

Renamo is predicted to takecontrol of three to five ofMozambique’s 10 provinces forthe first time following a changeof law allowing voters to electprovincial governors.

“This election will be a testfor democracy,” said Ericino deSalema of the Electoral Institutefor Sustainable Democracy inAfrica. “For the first time, thepolitical geography of the coun-try may change substantially, itmay even lead to confrontation.”Renamo’s candidate OssufoMomade, 58, heads a party offormer anti-communist rebelswho fought a brutal civil warwith Frelimo from 1975-1992,devastating the economy andleaving almost one million peo-ple dead.

Renamo picked up armsagain in 2013 to 2016, but ten-sion continued until Nyusi andMomade signed a peace deal inAugust.

But an armed breakawayfaction of Renamo has rejectedMomade’s candidacy and threat-ened to attack campaign events,raising fears the presidential,parliamentary and provincialpolls could be marred by blood-shed.

The six-week campaign wasone of the most violent in thecountry’s turbulent history, withcandidates threatened, electionmaterial destroyed, and deadlyclashes breaking out betweensupporters.

The opposition has alreadyaccused Frelimo of tamperingwith the vote.

Enrolment has more thandoubled in the southeasternGaza province, a Frelimo bas-tion, and civil society groupshave expressed concern aboutthe size of the increase.

They also estimate that thereare around 300,000 “ghost vot-ers” on electoral rolls — nameson the electoral roll not alignedwith real, potential voters.

“We definitely have someirregularities that put stains onthe whole process,” saidHermenegildo Mulhovo of elec-tion monitoring group Sala daPaz. The situation escalated lastweek, when the head of a localelection observation missionwas shot dead by members of aspecial police unit in Gaza’scapital Xai-Xai.

Lutero Simango, an MP ofthe country’s third biggest partyMDM, accused Frelimo of“using all state means, includingpolice and secret services, tointimidate people”.

Frelimo suffered its worstresult at the ballot box — 51.8percent — in local elections lastyear and has been severelyweakened in recent years.

In 2016 it was revealed thegovernment secretly borrowed$2 billion, sparking the worstfinancial crisis in the country’shistory and uncovering a vastcorruption network with links tothe regime.

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New disruptions toCatalonia’s transportation

network on Tuesday followeda night of clashes betweenactivists and police over theconviction of separatist leaders,as Spanish authoritiesannounced an investigationinto the group organizing theprotests.

Authorities said that threepeople were arrested and morethan 170 others injured, includ-ing about 40 police officers,during the clashes well into theearly hours of Tuesday betweenangry protesters and riot policeat Barcelona’s international air-port and elsewhere across thenortheastern Spanish region.

Thousands of passengerswere stranded at the airport,with many were forced to walkwith their luggage on highwaysand across fields.

The protesters wereresponding to an online cam-paign by Tsunami Democratic,

a loose, leaderless grassrootsgroup that uses encrypted mes-saging apps to call for peacefuldisobedience.

Spain’s caretaker interiorminister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, said that authoritieswere investigating the group.

In a landmark rulingMonday, Spain’s SupremeCourt acquitted the Catalanpoliticians and activists fromthe more serious crime ofrebellion for pushing aheadwith a banned referendum onOct. 1, 2017, and declaringindependence based on itsresults. But judges found nineof them guilty of sedition andhanded down prison terms ofnine to 13 years. Four of themwere additionally convicted ofmisuse of public funds andthree were fined for disobedi-ence.

The court also barred all ofthem from holding publicoffice. That has an immediateimpact in the upcoming Nov.10 election because six of them

were planning to run as can-didates to Spain’s parliament.

The verdict is likely to bea central issue before the voteand politics for years to come,with very different views inMadrid and Catalonia alreadyemerging hours after it wasissued.

While Spain’s caretakerprime minister, Pedro Sánchez,

called for beginning a “newphase” and urged Catalan sep-aratists to abide by the law, theruling invigorated the Catalanindependence movement, withmany of its leaders making newcalls to work toward effectivesecession or repeating the slo-gan “we will do it again”.

“We have to continuedefending the right of

Catalonia to self-determina-tion,” the regional president,Quim Torra, told foreignreporters in Barcelona onTuesday. “A referendum is themost positive solution for solv-ing this situation.”

His regional minister forforeign action, Alfred Bosch,urged the Spanish prime min-ister to change his attitude. “Wedon’t see any proposal, we onlysee 100 years of prison, exileand repression,” Bosch said.

The caretaker Spanish for-eign minister, Josep Borrell,soon due to become theEuropean Union’s top diplomat,said the sentence wasn’t resolv-ing the underlying politicalproblems that only dialogue “inthe framework of theConstitution” could.

Spain’s constitutional lawsays that the country is indi-visible.

“Yesterday, today andtomorrow it is and remains apolitical problem that has to besolved,” Borrell told foreign

reporters, adding that Catalanseparatists shouldn’t ignoreCatalans like him who areagainst independence.

“When one excludes partof the population becausethey don’t think like one,and only considers as thepeople those who think likeone, this is a totalitarian atti-tude,” he said.

More protests took placeTuesday, with on and off block-ades of regional roads andrailway lines. A three-day stu-dent strike begins Wednesday.

Spain’s airport operator,AENA, said that more than1,000 flights were scheduled tooperate normally in Barcelonaon Tuesday, with six flights can-celed compared to 110 onMonday.

The regional emergencyservice, SEM, said that 131 peo-ple had been treated overnightfor injuries, most of them at theairport. Two dozen peoplewere taken to hospitals, onewith serious eye damage.

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India has warned of the inher-ent dangers in “nuclear

brinkmanship” pursued by coun-tries as a cover for cross-borderterrorism, days after PakistanPrime Minister drummed uphysteria over a possible nuclearwar in South Asia after NewDelhi revoked the special statusof Jammu and Kashmir.

Noting that the global secu-rity situation is in a flux,Ambassador Pankaj Sharma,Permanent Representative ofIndia to the Conference onDisarmament (CD), said that asa responsible nuclear power,India’s nuclear doctrine contin-ues to stress a policy of credibleminimum deterrence with aposture of no-first use and non-use against non-nuclear weaponstates.

He made the comments onMonday at the General Debate ofthe First Committee, which dealswith disarmament, global chal-lenges and threats to peace thataffect the international commu-nity.

“The global security situationis in a flux. There is concern overthe demise of some of the land-mark disarmament treaties andagreements and the lowering ofthe nuclear threshold and theinherent dangers in nuclearbrinkmanship, pursued by coun-tries as a cover for cross-borderterrorism,” he said.

Sharma’s comments camedays after Pakistan PrimeMinister Imran Khan deliveredhis maiden speech at the UNGeneral Debate and in his almost50-minute address, devoted halfof his time to India and Kashmir,drumming up hysteria overnuclear war. In a strong reply,India had said Khan’s “threat ofunleashing nuclear devastationqualifies as brinkmanship, notstatesmanship.”

Pakistan has been trying tointernationalise the Kashmirissue after India withdrew thespecial status of Jammu andKashmir on August 5, but NewDelhi has asserted the abrogationof Article 370 was its “internalmatter” and has asked Islamabad

to accept the reality.India has also said that there

is no scope for any third partymediation on the Kashmir issue.

Sharma asserted that thedisarmament machinery has notlived up to expectations, as evi-dent in the deadlock in the CDfor over two decades and theinability of United NationsDisarmament Commission tohold its substantive session thisyear.

“Yet, there is hope and opti-mism due to our underlyingbelief in the value of dialogue andcooperation,” he added.

The Conference onDisarmament had failed in itsefforts throughout the year toadopt a Programme of Work, hesaid, adding that this was theresult of the lack of political willand “fissiparous tendencies” andcould not be attributed to anyshortcomings in the rules ofprocedure.

“We need to preserve the CDas the sole disarmament negoti-ating forum and get back to sub-stantive work as per its mandate.India stands ready to work withfellow members on all the coreitems on CD’s agenda,” Sharmasaid, underscoring India’s com-mitment to the goal of universal,non-discriminatory and verifi-able nuclear disarmament.

New Delhi has also called forcomplete elimination of nuclearweapons through a step by stepprocess, as outlined in theWorking Paper on NuclearDisarmament submitted to theUN General Assembly in 2006.

He said India would like toreiterate its call to undertake thesteps outlined in the WorkingPaper, including negotiation inthe CD of a ComprehensiveNuclear Weapons Convention.

As in previous years, Indiawill be tabling four draft resolu-tions; namely ‘Convention on theProhibition of the Use of NuclearWeapons’, ‘Reducing NuclearDanger’, ‘Measures to PreventTerrorists from AcquiringWeapons of Mass Destruction’and ‘Role of Science andTechnology in the context ofInternational Security andDisarmament’.

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Pakistan on Tuesday con-demned Defence Minister

Rajnath Singh’s remarks that nopower can stop the nation’s“disintegration” if Islamabaddid not mend its ways.

“We condemn the recentstatements made by IndianDefence Minister RajnathSingh during election rallies inHaryana,” Pakistan’s ForeignOffice said.

During a rally in Haryanaon Sunday, Singh askedPakistan to forget Kashmirand instead fight an “honestbattle” against terrorism, warn-ing that no power can stop itsdisintegration if it continuedwith its rant and did not mendits ways.

The Foreign Office said theprovocative statements from asenior minister in the Indiangovernment provide anotherinsight into the BJP mindset,which is a mix of “hegemonicambitions” and “obsession”with Pakistan.

“It is highly irresponsible ofthe Indian Defence Minister tobe threatening the splitting ofa sovereign country. We are

sure that the world communi-ty would take cognisance,” theFO said in a statement.

Pakistan also said thatSingh should have no doubtthat the security forces andpeople of Pakistan were readyto resolutely defend the coun-try against any evil design.

The FO also rejected offerof help to deal with terrorism.

“We also reject his gratu-itous comments on help incounter-terrorism...” the FOsaid.

It further said that it waspart of a well-established pat-

tern that whenever there wereelections in India, the BJPleadership would whip up anti-Pakistan sentiment to rallysupport for its candidates.

The FO urged the BJP notto drag Pakistan for electoralgains. The defence minister’sstatements comes amid ten-sions between India andPakistan following the abroga-tion of the special status ofKashmir under Article 370 inAugust.

Tensions between the twocountries have spiked sinceIndia abrogated Article 370.

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Fiona Hill, a former WhiteHouse adviser on Russia,

told House impeachmentinvestigators behind closeddoors Monday that she hadstrongly and repeatedlyobjected to the ouster earlierthis year of former ambas-sador to Ukraine MarieYovanovitch, according to aperson familiar with the tes-timony.

Yovanovitch testif iedFriday that President DonaldTrump pressured the StateDepartment to fire her.

Hill made the remarks asshe testified for more than 10hours in the Democraticinquiry, which is probingTrump's pleas to Ukrainianofficials for investigations intopolitical rival Joe Biden's fam-ily and into the country'sinvolvement in the 2016 pres-idential election. The personrequested anonymity to dis-cuss the confidential inter-view.

The interview is one ofwhat could eventually becomedozens of closed-door depo-sitions in the impeachmentprobe. There are five more

scheduled this week, mostlywith State Department offi-cials, though it is unclear ifthey will all appear afterTrump declared he wouldn’tcooperate with the probe.

While interviews havefocused on the interactionswith Ukraine, the probe couldbroaden as soon as next weekto include interviews withWhite House budget officialswho may be able to shed lighton whether military aid waswithheld from Ukraine asTrump and his lawyer, RudyGiuliani, pushed for the inves-tigations.

The three committeesleading the probe are seekinginterviews next week withRussell Vought, acting direc-tor of the Off ice ofManagement and Budget, andMichael Duffey, another OMBofficial who leads nationalsecurity programs, accordingto a person familiar with thoserequests. That person wasn’tauthorized to discuss the invi-tations and requestedanonymity.

The packed schedule ofinter views comes asDemocrats are methodicallyworking to pin down the

details of Trump’s pressure onUkrainian PresidentVolodymyr Zelenskiy. OnceDemocrats have completedthe probe, and followed anyother threads it produces,they will use their findings tohelp determine whether tovote on articles of impeach-ment. House Speaker NancyPelosi said she wants the com-mittees to move “expedi-tiously.”

Democrats have alreadyobtained documents and tes-timony that verify parts of anoriginal whistleblower’s com-plaint that launched theprobe.

A cache of text messagesbetween three diplomats pro-vided by one of the inquiry'sf irst witnesses , formerUkrainian envoy Kurt Volker,detailed attempts by thediplomats to serve as inter-mediaries around the timeTrump urged Zelenskiy tostart the investigations into acompany linked to Biden’sson. Yovanovitch told law-makers there was a “concert-ed campaign” against herbased on “unfounded andfalse claims by people withclearly questionable motives.”

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Tamil minority parties fromthe former conflict-torn

north and east regions of SriLanka will meet presidentialcandidates of leading partiesduring the poll campaignahead of the next month’s elec-tions. Leaders of some six dif-ferent parties, including themain Tamil National Alliance,met on Monday in the north-ern province of Jaffna to tryand reach a common accord toserve Tamil interests, partysources said.

However, the parleysorganised by students unions ofJaffna and Batticaloa universi-ties ended in a deadlock as par-ties failed to reach a commonaccord.

CV Wigneswaran, the for-mer Tamil chief minister of thenorthern province, toldreporters that five partieswould consult the main presi-dential candidates on their

concerns.The ultra Tamil nationalist

party Tamil National People’sFront’s (TNPF) demand forTamils to stay away from vot-ing in the election was reject-ed by the other five parties.

The party had alsodemanded abandoning of theconstitutional reform ideas thatcame out in 2017 and droppingof the unitary character of theconstitution to a federal formfor the Tamil regions.

“We could not agree withtwo of the demands of TNPF.We have to move on now andcannot go back to make a newstart from the beginning,”Wigneswaran said.

Both front-runners for thepresidential post SajithPremadasa from the rulingparty and Gotabhaya Rajapaksafrom the main opposition arewooing the Tamils for crucialvotes which would see them gopast the 50 per cent votesneeded to be elected as presi-

dent. The majority Sinhala com-

munity are divided amongthem with perhaps Rajapaksaholding the edge overPremadasa on majority com-munity support.

In the previous presidentialelection held in 2015, the Tamilminority vote played a decisiverole in the victory ofMaithripala Sirisena over theformer president MahindaRajapaksa.

The Tamil parties sup-ported the then oppositionchallenger Sirisena to makehim address Tamil issues.

As a goodwill gesturetoward the community,Sirisena did release some of theland held for military purpos-es. Yet the larger Tamil com-munity remains dissatisfiedwith lack of action to addresspolitical grievances.

Gotabhaya Rajapaksa,while addressing reporters onTuesday, denied Tamil party

claims that a large number ofTamils had disappeared duringthe military campaign hespearheaded which ended incrushing the LTTE’s three-decade-old campaign for aseparate Tamil homeland.

“All LTTErs who surren-dered to the Army were reha-bilitated and released into soci-ety. There is no evidence toback allegations that LTTEcadres who surrendered aremissing,” Rajapaksa said.

He said his governmentwould not honour the UNhuman rights council resolu-tion which the Sirisena gov-ernment had co-sponsored inSeptember 2015.

“We will reject it”,Rajapaksa said.

The resolution had calledfor an international investiga-tion into alleged war crimescommitted by both govern-ment troops and the LTTE dur-ing the final phase of the con-flict which ended in May 2009.

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Indonesian police said theyhave arrested more than two

dozen suspected militants aftermembers of a network linked tothe Islamic State (IS) group triedto assassinate a government min-ister.

The world’s biggest Muslimmajority nation is on high alertahead of President Joko Widodo’ssecond-term inauguration onSunday, with some 27,000 troopsexpected to be deployed in thecapital Jakarta. Authorities havealso banned mass demonstra-tions in the lead up to Widodo’sswearing in, for fear they mightbe used as cover for an attack,State Intelligence Agencyspokesman Wawan Purwantosaid.

Last week two militantsstabbed Security MinisterWiranto, a former general whogoes by one name, during an offi-cial visit to West Java.

The 72-year-old was rushed

by helicopter to Jakarta, where hewas treated for knife wounds tohis stomach. He is recovering inhospital.

Some 27 suspected mili-tants had been arrested since theattack, said national policespokesman Dedi Prasetyo.

Prasetyo also said policeseized sharp weapons, explosivematerials and chemicals duringthe raids. The arrests took placeacross the Southeast Asian arch-ipelago of some 260 millionpeople, including in Bali wherea father and son were brought infor allegedly planning attacks onthe holiday island.

At the weekend, hundreds ofmourners and survivors com-memorated the 17th anniversaryof the Bali bombings that killedmore than 200 people —Indonesia’s deadliest-ever terrorattack. The married couple arrest-ed after Wiranto was attackedwere later identified as membersof Jamaah Ansharut Daulah(JAD).

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Police in northern Nigeriasaid on Monday they res-

cued over 300 young menfrom an Islamic boardingschool where they werechained and sexually abused,the second such operation in amonth.

A police team raided theschool in Daura in Katsina stateafter some students escapedfrom their hostel on Sundayand poured into the streets inprotest.

Katsina police chief SanusiBuba told reporters in Daurathat the young men werechained and tortured.

“We learnt that the inmateshere are over 300 and becauseof the inhuman treatmentsthey are being subjected to theyrevolted yesterday (Sunday),”he said.

“Some of the inmatesescaped while...about 60 ofthem stayed back,” he said, with

most of them found in chains.Buba said the school was

established by 78-year-oldMuslim cleric, Bello MaiAlmajirai, 40 years ago. He latertransferred management of theschool to his son.

He said the school enrolledstudents brought by their fam-ilies to learn the Koran and betreated for drug adduction andother ailments.

Daura which lies 70 kilo-metres (45 miles) from the statecapital and near the borderwith Niger, is the hometown ofPresident MuhammaduBuhari.

The students are from “var-ious parts of Nigeria”, includingKatsina state and neighbouringNiger Republic, said the policechief.

According to Buba, theabused inmates were “subject-ed to inhuman conditions,”with some of the studentsrevealing that they weresodomised by their teachers.

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Democratic presidentialcandidate Elizabeth

Warren has escalated her tiffwith Facebook by running anad — on Facebook — takingaim at its CEO, MarkZuckerberg.

It’s the latest example ofgrowing resentment of BigTech by Republicans andDemocrats alike.

The list of grievances islong: Companies like Google,Facebook and Amazon are toobig and powerful. They’re badfor privacy, public discourse,democracy and small busi-ness. They’re spying on us, con-tributing to economic inequal-ity and hooking us and ourchildren on addictive, uselessservices. The companies, of

course, object to these charac-terizations.

Warren, who in Marchproposed breaking up big techcompanies, began running atext ad on Facebook lastThursday to take aim atZuckerberg.

“Breaking news: MarkZuckerberg and Facebook justendorsed Donald Trump forre-election,” the ad reads. Itthen goes on to say that whilethis isn’t true, Zuckerberg has“given Donald Trump free reinto lie” on Facebook.

Warren’s ad is taking issuewith Facebook’s policy of notfact-checking politicians’speech or ads, the way it hasoutside parties fact-check newsstories and other posts.Facebook has refused toremove a misleading video ad

from President Donald Trump’scampaign targeting DemocratJoe Biden.

Facebook responded toWarren’s move by tweetingSaturday that the FederalCommunications Commission“doesn’t want broadcast com-panies censoring candidates’speech. We agree it’s better tolet voters — not companies —decide.”

Political speech and techcompanies’ role in spreading orstifling it has been an ongoingissue for both sides. Sen.Kamala Harris, a CaliforniaDemocrat, urged Twitter tosuspend Trump’s account forviolating the service’s rules,while Republican Sen. JoshHawley of Missouri is battlingwhat he considers tech com-panies’ bias against conserva-

tives. Hawley has also toldZuckerberg that he should selloff WhatsApp and Instagram.

Reaching out to conserva-

tives, Zuckerberg has held aseries of private talks and small,off-the-record dinners withjournalists and commentators

on the right to discuss freespeech and other concerns.The dinners, starting in July,took place at one ofZuckerberg’s homes inCalifornia, Politico reportedMonday, citing unnamed peo-ple familiar with the meetings.

Spokesmen for SenateJudiciary CommitteeChairman Lindsey Graham,R-S.C., who was said to havemet with Zuckerberg as part ofthe series, didn’t immediatelyrespond to a request for com-ment from The AssociatedPress.

Zuckerberg confirmed thedinners, saying on hisFacebook page that he’s metwith “conservative politicians,media and thinkers.”

“To be clear, I have dinnerswith lots of people across the

spectrum on lots of differentissues all the time,” Zuckerbergwrote.

The big tech companies, ingeneral, are trying to maintaina neutral stance, even if thatdraws the ire of politicians asdivergent as the president andthose trying to impeach him. Inresponse to Warren, Facebooktweeted that voters rather thancompanies ought to be theones weighing candidates’speech.

Social media services are“caught between a rock and ahard place,” said AndrewGuess, a Princeton Universitypolitical scientist who studiessocial media and its effects onpolitical opinion.

Blocking or suspendingaccounts for speech can promptcomplaints of political bias or

censorship, but a hands-offapproach may be viewed as afree pass to politicians likeTrump.

“Anything they do is goingto attract criticism,” Guess said.“That, of course, makes thema target.”

Beyond discourse and pri-vacy, antitrust concerns haveemerged as a major concern forlawmakers and candidates.This wasn’t the case in 2016,when grumbling about theoutsized power of tech waslargely confined to activistsand those on the most liberalend of the spectrum.

Still, while there have beencongressional hearings, inves-tigations and fines, including arecord $5 billion againstFacebook, little has changed forBig Tech.

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Even as Board of Control forCricket in India presidentdesignate Sourav Ganguly

returned to Kolkata amid a grandwelcome the former Cricket Indiacaptain said there was no politicsto be read into his getting nom-inated as the boss of Indiancricket.

Soon after landing at theNSI Airport the cricketing south-paw said, “there was no politicalpressure on me; neither is thereany political deal,” behind his get-ting the priced post. When askedas to whether he saw a shinningpolitical future ahead of himparticularly after the 2021 BengalAssembly elections, he remainednon-committal saying “there wasno talk with anyone on my polit-ical future.”

Incidentally hours beforebeing tipped off to be the firstcricketer to become a BCCI pres-ident Ganguly had a brief meet-ing with Home Minister AmitShah which many critic saw as aprelude to his becoming theBoard president.

On whether there was anyoffer from any political bench for

him he said “there is nothingwrong if any politician wantsgood people to join politics.There is nothing wrong if MrAmit Shah or Mamata Didi wantgood people to join their parties.”

On his future chemistry withBCCI secretary designate JayShah he said “Jay and I have beenvery good friends.

Both of us are young andboth of us have experience andboth of us want to do somethingfor the Indian cricket. So it willbe a great inning for both of us.There will not be lack of any

effort … whether I will be suc-cessful or not I can’t say but I cansay that I will work to the best ofmy capability for the cause ofIndian cricket.”

Dwelling on his priorities asthe BCCI chief he said “my firstpriority is the whole lot of firstclass cricketers. It is this pool ofcricketers from where the toppayers emerge. But the remaininglot of first class cricketers getsvery little for them. So it will bemy first priority to do somethingfor them. We will work collective-ly and change their lives.”

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Injured India opener SmritiMandhana has lost her

number one status after beingtoppled by New Zealand’sAmy Satterthwaite in the bat-ting chart of the latest ICCODI rankings.

Mandhana, who has 755points, slipped to the numbertwo spot after she missedIndia’s recently concludedODI series against SouthAfrica due to injury.

The 23-year-old suffereda fracture in her right toe afterbeing struck by a ball duringa net session before the startof the ODI series againstSouth Africa which India won3-0.

Among others batters,skipper Mithali Raj moveddown to the seventh spotwhile her Harmanpreet Kaurrose in the rankings to theoccupy the 17th place.

In the bowlers’ rankings,Jhulan Goswami, ShikhaPandey and Poonam Yadavmoved down to be placedsixth, eighth and ninth respec-tively.

Among the all-rounders,Deepti Sharma has moveddown to the third place whileShikha Pandey broke into thetop 10.

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The demoralising defeats atthe hands of India in the

first two Tests has forced SouthAfrican paceman KagisoRabada to think if his side canbe put under more pressure.

India’s top-order fired inunison to bury South Africaunder a mountain of runs inboth the Tests, where theyamassed 500 and 600 in the firstinnings in Visakhapatnam andPune.

“We’ve been put underimmense pressure. I don’t knowif we can be put more pressurethan that,” Rabada toldreporters.

The 24-old year old pace-man acknowledged that notonly Indian batsmen but theirbowlers also outsmarted them.

It’s been a long time whenSouth Africa took 20 wickets in

a Test match and Rabada, whois South Africa’s leading seam-er, only has four wickets fromtwo matches in this series.

“They got the ball toreverse and they bowled well asa collective. Their whole attackput pressure on us in every sin-gle aspect. Their spinnersbowled well and when the ballwas reversing their seamerscould exploit that. We didn’treally get the ball to reverse andthat’s a major weapon of ours,”he explained.

Rabada is hoping that thisphase will be over soon.

“It’s never nice to lose,especially in the manner we’relosing right now but we’regoing through a transition peri-od. Our team is fresh andyoung, so the best thing we cando is look at where we canimprove and remember ourstrengths and build on them.”

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Head coach-cum-chief selec-tor Misbah-ul-Haq is

extremely disappointed with theattitude of some Pakistani play-ers, who shy away from propertraining, lack discipline anddon’t adhere to professional stan-dards.

Pakistan recently suffered awhitewash against Sri Lanka inthe three-game T20I series athome and Misbah remains verydisappointed at the way the top-ranked side capitulated to SriLanka in front of home crowds.

“What has disturbed Misbahthe most in his first assignmentas head coach and the chiefselector is the reluctance of someplayers to follow directions of themanagement and do propertraining to keep high fitnessstandards,” one source said.

“He is unhappy that someplayers are just too relaxed andtake training lightly and are notworking on improving theircricket discipline. He has also notbeen encouraged by the attitudeof captain, Sarfaraz Ahmedwhom he feels shies away fromtaking responsibility when thechips are down.”

Another source said thatMisbah was surprised by thebehaviour of three senior play-ers — Wahab Riaz, Imad Wasim,and Haris Sohail.

“Several times he felt theywere making excuses to shyaway from training and propernets. He got the feeling they hadsome sort of excuse ready to goeasy on their training,” the sourcesaid.

“Batsman, Haris Sohail hasdeveloped a painful habit ofmaking excuses for having someniggling problem or pain whenasked to push himself in training.

“Another problem whichconfronts Misbah is that most ofthe players don’t appear to havethe cricket discipline to followand execute plans on the fieldwhich are discussed in the dress-ing room.”

The source said at one stageMisbah even felt that the deci-sion of former head coachMickey Arthur to keep left-armpacer Wahab Riaz out of theteam was understandable.

The long-serving formerPakistan captain is also notpleased that some players are alsonot displaying the required pro-fessional standards.

“Two players bluntlyinformed their team’s headcoaches that they would reachfor the National T20Championship matches inFaisalabad on the morning of thegames. When Misbah came toknow about this he told thehead coaches they should bemore firm with the players andensure they joined their provin-cial team a day before the match-es,” one source said.

Misbah is also surprised thatArthur and the ex-support staffdidn’t pay enough attention todeveloping proper batsmen in allformats and didn’t look beyondBabar Azam.

“It is not a very happy situ-ation now and one can expectMisbah to take some hard deci-sions as chief selector whileselecting the T20 and Test squadsfor the coming tour of Australia,”he said.

Zahid Mahmood, a leg-spin-ner who in the past has beenignored by the selectors andcoaches, is now under the consid-eration of Misbah who is not sat-isfied with the form of currentteam leggies, Yasir Shah andShadab Khan.

Similarly, Misbah is also onthe lookout for some new pacebowlers and youngster NaseemShah is under his scanner for theAustralian tour.

The source said it will also beinteresting to see whether Misbahsupports Sarfaraz Ahmed to con-tinue as a Test captain when theboard meets to decide on the cap-tains for the Australian tour.

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With the VIVO ProKabaddi League Season

Seven entering its penulti-mate phase, the semi-finals,all eyes are on the star athleteswho have pushed their teamstowards the coveted title.Defending championsBengaluru Bulls have rode onPawan Sehrawat’s raidingbrilliance all season but theywill be up against Leaguetoppers Dabang Delhi KC,who have with them anotherbrilliant talent in raiderNaveen Kumar. In the secondsemi-final, Bengal Warriorswill face an in-form UMumba side, who outclasseda strong Haryana Steelersunit in the Eliminators.

-�775��1�,,�.��, For most parts of this sea-

son, Pawan Sehrawat haslooked the best Kabaddi play-er in the country, and he hascarried that form into thecrucial, knockout stages ofthe competition. His 20-pointperformance was vital inBulls’ comeback victoryagainst UP Yoddha in theEliminators and the defend-ing champions will onceagain be reliant on the High-Flyer for the raid pointsagainst Delhi, especially withRohit Kumar still lookingtroubled by his back injury.Pawan has 328 points from 23matches this season, includ-ing 17 Super 10s, but theraider will be facing a famil-iar foe in Delhi’s left cornerRavinder Pahal. Interestingly,the ‘Hawk’ has a better head-to-head histor y againstPawan in duels (8-7), and willtake belief from NiteshKumar’s performances forUP against the raider fromthe same position.

At the other end, NaveenKumar will be keen to launchthe wrecking ball onto a leakyBulls’ defence. BarringMahender Singh, no defend-er looked convincing in theirgame against UP, and inNaveen they will be facing araider of another class. The19-year-old, a produce of the

Future Kabaddi Heroes(FKH) programme, has 19consecutive Super 10s thisseason (268 points from 21matches), and will be a forceto reckon with. With both theraiding departments lookingstrong, the match will mostlikely be won by the defence.

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Bengal Warriors,arguably, have been the mostcomplete side in Season 7,with their defence and attackfiring hand in hand. But theywill be facing a U Mumba,often called a defence-reliantteam, who have discovered anew dimension through twoyoung raiders — AbhishekSingh and Arjun Deshwal.The duo scored 32 points forthe Mumbai side in theirEliminator round, and with UMumba also peaking at theright time, the second semi-final will be a tactical warfare.Baldev Singh (averaging 2.59tackles per match) and RinkuNarwal have been in goodform for the Warriors andthey will be keen to make lifedifficult for Mumbai’s youngraiders. Maninder Singh’sinjury concerns will be aconcern for the Bengal teamthough, especial ly withMumbai corners of FazelAtrachali (top scoring

defender in season seven with81 points so far) and SandeepNarwal in red-hot form. Butin K Prapanjan andMohammad Nabibakhsh, theWarriors have a great raidingunit to support Maninder.

The eliminator roundswere testimony to the factthat there can be no clearfavourites in a Kabaddimatch. Expect nothing shortof fireworks as the mostfiercely competed season ofVIVO PKL enters the finalstages.

The players had a takeon the semi-final match:

Talking about the semi-finals Pawan Hi-FlyerSehrawat, Captain ofBengaluru Bulls, said “It wasa great match yesterday, I

have never played such a highquality match. During myschool days I played a matchwhich ended in a draw andafter that I played a tied gamein the knockout stage yester-day and it was a great experi-ence to be part of it. I had losthope of winning but then ourcoach motivated me and wehad Rohit bhai's support alsothat kept me going. Therewere so many excitingmoments in the match that inthe end turned it turned inour favour. It was a completeteam effort. Our match withDabang Delhi KC is going tobe challenging, they are agood and balanced team withgood quality defenders andraiders and like the previousone it is going to be a close

call. A blockbuster of a RaidFest for sure!”

Talking about the semi-finals Fazel Sultan Atrachali,Captain of U Mumba, said“The last match with Haryanawas very difficult as Haryanahad played us very recentlyand they knew our gameplay.They had strategized accord-ingly to ensure the best result.However, it was a very impor-tant time for me because inthe last season, we qualified tothe playoffs and then could-nt go further so I wanted tonot repeat the same mistake.Yesterday's game was reallygood because we won such atough match so the team isvery motivated and confi-dent. We have strategizedfocusing on defence and whenwe have a controlled defencewe perform really well. EvenBengal Warriors has a gooddefence but I think we canovercome that. We need toconcentrate on team workand not depend on any oneplayer during the match,everyone has to support eachother and play as a unit.”

Talking about the semi-finals Joginder Narwal,Captain of Dabang Delhi,said “The season has beentough and the competitionduring the league stage ishigh. The team worked hardand emerged as table toppers,we wish to continue themomentum and give our bestduring the semi-finals. Wehave always taken one gameat a time and will do so evenfor our match againstBengaluru Bulls. Our aim is topick the cup this year, and weare working towards it.”

Talking about the semi-finals Nabibaksh, BengalWarriors, said “U Mumba putup a good game, they were onpoint with their defence andoffence. We are preparing forthe semi-finals and practicingrigorously to make sure wekeep the pressure on ouropponent from the begin-ning. The match against UMumba will be a neck-to-neck battle and we will giveour best to make sure weemerge victorious and

��3 �N�1 Phil Simmons hasreturned to take charge of theWest Indies three years afterbeing dismissed in controver-sial circumstances, CricketWest Indies has announced.

In a statement CWI said onMonday that Simmons wouldbe head coach for the next fouryears. He led the Windies to the2016 Twenty20 World Cupbefore being booted out amidtensions with his paymasters.

“Bringing Phil Simmonsback is not just righting a pastwrong, but I am confidentthat CWI has chosen the right

man for the job at the righttime,” said CWI presidentRicky Skerritt.

Former West Indies all-rounder Simmons, 56, wassacked in September 2016 for“differences in culture andstrategic approach” betweenwith the cricket hierarchydespite their remarkable T20World Cup triumph.

Simmons’ success in theT20 arena however was notmirrored in Test cricket.During his reign the WestIndies won only one of 14Tests. PTI

�/��

Ireland captain GaryWilson wants his side

to ensure they finish"right at the top again" inthe upcoming 2020 T20World Cup qualifyingtournament, but Nigeriaand Jersey are amongthose chasing a "dream"appearance on the glob-al stage.

Scotland are thehighest-ranked team inthe competition, with 14nations vying for sixplaces in the openinground of next year'sWorld T20 in Australia,where they would joinBangladesh and SriLanka in attempting toreach the 'Super 12s'.

Ireland are the onlyTest team having to gothrough qualifying,which starts on Friday inthe United ArabEmirates, and will beexpected to book a sixthstraight appearance inthe tournament.

"We are here to com-pete at the world stage,"said Irish skipper Wilson."We have a great recordin the Middle East andthe boys are looking for-ward to a great tourna-ment and ensure we fin-ish right at the top again."

The winners of eachgroup of seven will qual-ify automatically, withthe four remaining spotsto be decided in playoffs.

Scotland, 11th in theworld T20 rankings,claimed their first-everwin at a global ICC tour-nament in the 2016 edi-tion by beating HongKong, but will be lookingto put the pain of agonis-ingly missing out on the50-over World Cup ear-lier this year behindthem.

They had twochances to secure a placeduring last year's qualify-ing in Zimbabwe, butlost to Ireland before raincut short their tense runchase against two-timeworld champions theWest Indies.

"We know everyteam is dangerous in thiscompetition," saidScotland captain KyleCoetzer. "It is vitallyimportant not only for usas Scotland but for everyteam here."

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who reached the 'Super10' round in 2014,Oman, Hong Kong andhosts the UAE will all beamong the favourites toqualify.

But the l ikes ofNigeria, Jersey andSingapore insist they arenot going to just makeup the numbers as theybid to give cricket aboost in their countries.

There was already ashock in the Asianregional qualifiers, withSingapore reaching thisstage ahead of Nepal, theworld's 13th-ranked out-fit.

Island team Jerseyare playing in their sec-ond consecutive qualifi-er, having fallen shortfour years ago despitesurprise victories overHong Kong and Nepal.

"For Jersey, it wouldprobably be the biggestthing that has happenedin our sporting history,"admitted captainCharles Perchard.

"It's a dream of oursto potentially play in aWorld Cup next year...

"We're a small island

and in a lot of sports wedo punch above ourweight, especially incricket and qualificationwould be massive forour country."

Nigeria havereached the final stage ofqualifying for the firsttime as cricket continuesto grow in the Africancountry, with their youthside booking a spot atnext year's Under-19World Cup in SouthAfrica.

"It would be a greatthing to be at the WorldCup. It would be a greathistory for Nigeria," saidtheir skipper AdemolaOnikoyi, after his teamtook the place ofZimbabwe followingtheir suspension by theICC.

"Our juniors will beat the World Cup nextyear in South Africa, sowe want to do that aswell."

Singapore, led byAmjad Mahboob, arealso debutants at thequalifying event, whileBermuda will be lookingto repeat the heroics oftheir side who famouslyreached the 2007 WorldCup.

The qualifiers getunderway on Friday,with Scotland facingSingapore in the openingGroup A game, whileIreland take on HongKong and the UAE playOman in Group B.

��

Domestic cricket stalwart andformer India opener Wasim

Jaffer on Tuesday slammed the“unfit” pitches being used inVadodara for the Vijay HazareTrophy.

Jaffer took to Twitter to vent outhis frustration.

“Absolutely unfit pitches to playin ‘List A’ matches in Vadodara,” hewrote.

Later Jaffer, who is the highest-run scorer in Ranji Trophy, said thatthe pitch at the Motibaug ground was“close to being dangerous”.

“Yes, specially the pitch atMotibaug is close to being danger-ous. Two-three players were hit by aball and nobody is scoring more than150-160 runs.

“Our tournament was (sup-pose) to start on 24th (September)but then there was rain for two

weeks. So, I don’t know why theBaroda Cricket Association first of alltook up (the job) to host VijayHazare,” Jaffer said.

All the Group B matches havebeen played in Baroda and Jaffer’steam Vidarbha won only two of theirnine matches, losing four. Three oftheir games had no result. They arelanguishing at the 8th spot in theElite Group B standings and 13th inthe combined Group A and B stand-ings.

“And the matches we are playingon, if you look at the scores, you willget to know what kind of wickets weare playing on. In Bengaluru, Jaipurand Dehradun they are getting goodpitches to play (on), so its just feelsvery sad,” Jaffer said.

A senior member of theVidarbha’s coaching staff believesthat the match-referee should submita detailed report about the conditionof pitches to the BCCI.

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Former India captain SouravGanguly, who is set to be the

new BCCI president, wants theVirat Kohli-led national team toreverse the trend of losing theknock-out games in ICC events.

“India are a good team. Iknow they have not won a bigtournament. But they play well inbig tournaments except the semi-finals and the final. Hopefully,Virat can change it around. He isa champion player,” Gangulytold reporters here on Tuesday.

India have not won an ICCevent since the 2013 ChampionsTrophy. The team finished run-ner-up in the 2017 ChampionsTrophy final after losing toPakistan.

In the World Cup earlier thisyear, India were one of thefavourites to win the title butended up losing the semifinal toNew Zealand.

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Ukraine beat Portugal 2-1 onMonday to clinch a place at Euro

2020 despite Cristiano Ronaldo scoringhis 700th career goal.

Roman Yaremchuk and AndriyYarmolenko put Ukraine two goals upafter 27 minutes.

Although Ronaldo scored his land-mark goal from the penalty spot in the72nd minute and Taras Stepanenko wassent off, Ukraine held on to secure firstplace in Group B.

Ukraine join already qualifiedPoland, Russia, Italy and Belgium at nextsummer’s finals, while second-placedPortugal, who are eight points behind

Ukraine, have Serbia just a point behindthem with two matches remaning afterthey beat Lithuania 2-1.

“There are days like these, when the

ball just doesn’t want to go in,” saidPortuguese midfielder Danilo. “Noneed to do the maths now: we just needto win the next two games to reach Euro2020.”

Yaremchuk pounced from closerange in the sixth minute. The centreforward reacted fastest after Rui Patriciodived to parry Serhiy Kryvtsov’s head-er from a corner, and poke the ballacross the line.

Yarmolenko added the second whenoutpaced the Portuguese defence to fin-ish a swift counter attack with a low,crisp first-time shot.

Portugal dominated the secondhalf and finally achieved a break-through when Stepanenko blocked ashot with his arm, receiving his march-ing orders before Ronaldo blasted homethe penalty to make it 700 goals for cluband country.

The goal was his 95th for Portugal.The 34-year-old is now just 14 goalsbehind the all-time international recordof 109 held by former Iran striker AliDaei.

While the exact number of goalsscored by some of the game’s legends isthe subject of debate, Ronaldo is agreedto be the sixth player to reach 700 afterAustrian Josef Bican, Brazilians Romarioand Pele, Hungarian Ferenc Puskas andGerman Gerd Muller.

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England manager GarethSouthgate said his side

made a statement by decidingto complete a 6-0 Euro 2020qualifying win over Bulgariaafter the match was twice halt-ed by racist chanting.

The visitors led 2-0through early goals fromMarcus Rashford and RossBarkley when play was firststopped and an announcementmade to supporters that thegame could be suspended ifoffensive chanting continued.

Once restarted, Englandquickly made it 3-0 throughBarkley before a second stop-page as Croatian referee IvanBebek held discussions withplayers and coaching staff fromboth sides.

Raheem Sterling then net-ted twice either side of half-time before Harry Kane round-ed off the scoring to takeEngland to the brink of quali-fication.

“We know it is an unac-ceptable situation,” Southgatetold British broadcaster ITV.

“I think we’ve managed tomake two statements really bywinning the game, but also wehave raised the awareness ofeverybody to the situation.

“The game was stoppedtwice and I know for some peo-ple that won’t be enough, but Ithink we were as a group onboard with that process.”

In a statement, The EnglishFootball Association said theirplayers “were subjected toabhorrent racist chanting” andcalled on UEFA to investigateimmediately.

Tyrone Mings was one ofthose targeted on his Englanddebut. The Aston Villa defend-er believed that stopping thegame did have the desiredeffect of reducing racist abusein the second half.

“The correct steps thatwere taken definitely helped,”said Mings.

“We made the decision athalf-time to come out and playthe game which we thought

was the right decision. If any-thing else happened, we wouldhave taken appropriate action.”

A comprehensive victorywas the perfect riposte forSouthgate’s men to their shock2-1 defeat at the CzechRepublic on Friday and opensup a three-point lead at the topof Group A.

However, the focus wasagain on the stands as anotherEngland match blighted byracism from opposition fans.

After several English play-ers suffered racist abuse in aqualifier away to Montenegroin March, Southgate had pre-pared his side to follow UEFA’sthree-step protocol for report-ing racist incidents that canlead to matches being aban-doned.

A section of 5,000 seats atthe Vasil Levski NationalStadium was already closed

for the game after racist inci-dents during games againstKosovo and the Czech Republicin June.

“I have to say the officialswere onto everything veryquickly,” added Southgate.

“We reported everythingimmediately when we heardthings, we had constant com-munication with the fourthofficial and the referee.”

On the field, Southgate’sdecision to make five changesfrom the side beaten in Pragueon Friday was fully vindicated.

Rashford was one of thoserecalled put his ManchesterUnited woes behind him bysmashing the opener into theroof of the net after just sevenminutes before Barkley tappedhome a second at the back post.

The first stage of UEFA’sprotocol followed as the gamewas temporarily stopped and awarning played over the loud-speaker in both Bulgarian andEnglish that the match could besuspended after monkey chantswere aimed at England players.

That warning was notheeded as after Barkley head-ed home Kane’s cross, there wasa second, longer stoppage inplay.

A number of Bulgarianultras were then ejected fromthe stadium.

When play did got backunderway there were six min-utes of stoppage time addedand the visitors used it toincrease their advantage whenKane crossed for Sterling to thistime apply an easy finish.

Southgate’s men could havescored plenty more in the sec-ond-half against the dispiritedhosts on a terrible night allround for Bulgarian football.

Sterling’s second arrivedmidway through the second-half with Kane again the creatorbefore the England captainfinally got on the scoresheethimself five minutes from time.

England now need just apoint from their final two qual-ifiers against Montenegro andKosovo next month to sealtheir place at next year’s Euros.

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World Champion P VSindhu made an

impressive start to hercampaign at the DenmarkOpen, claiming a straight-game win over Indonesia’sGregoria Mariska Tunjung in thewomen’s singles competition hereon Tuesday.

Fifth seed Sindhu, who hadmade early exits in China andKorea, got back her bearing as sheovercame former World JuniorChampion Gregoria 22-20, 21-18in 38 minutes to keep her 5-0record intact against theIndonesian.

The Olympic Silver medallistwill now face Korea’s An Se Youngnext.

World Championships Bronzemedallist B Sai Praneeth also madeit to the second round beating thelegendary Lin Dan 21-14, 21-17 ina 35-minute opening round clash.

The Hyderabad shuttler is like-ly to meet world No 1 and two-timeworld champion Kento Momota ofJapan next. He had lost to Momotaat the World Championships inBasel, Switzerland.

Thailand Open championsSatwiksairaj Rankireddy andChirag Shetty also made a goodstart to their men’s doubles cam-paign, beating Korean pair of KimGi Jung and Lee Yong Dae 24-22,21-11 in 39 minutes.

Former CommonwealthGames champion ParupalliKashyap, who had reached thesemifinals at Korea Open, failed tocross the opening round after los-ing 13-21, 12-21 to Thailand’sSitthikom Thammasin in the men’ssingles.

National champion SourabhVerma, who had clinched theHyderabad Open and VietnamOpen this year, also made an earlyexit after going down 21-19, 11-21,17-21 to Mark Caljouw of theNetherlands.

��

Amaiden BWF World tour title push-ing him closer to top 50, Dutch

Open champion Lakshya Sen says he willlook to put up a good show in theremainder of the season to break into theworld’s top 30.

The 18-year-old on Sunday clinchedhis maiden BWF World Tour title bywinning the Dutch Open title, beatingYusuke Onodera of Japan 15-21, 21-14,21-15 in the summit clash.

“This is the biggest title of my careerso far. I have reached quarters and asemifinals in the past, so it is good tofinally win a super 100 tournament. Itwill boost my ranking and give me achance to play the super 500 tourna-ments,” Lakshya, who rose to world No52 this week said.

“At the beginning of the year, my tar-get was to reach the top 50 and after thiswin I would be close to that. I still havefew events left in the year. If I can do wellthere, I can go further up. Hope I canbreak into top 30 early next year.”

Lakshya will play the SaarlorluxOpen Super 100 (Oct 29-Nov 3) next,before participating in two InternationalChallenge events at the Irish Open(November 13-16) and Scottish Open(Nov 21-24). He will also play the SyedModi International Super 300 (Nov 26-Dec 1).

It was an impressive week for theteen shuttler, who displayed superbtemperament and skills to outwit hisopponents.

“The first round against Nhat(Nguyen) was tough, the second matchwas okay but again playing (Ygor)Coelho was difficult. I had played himbefore so I was ready for a big match,”said the 2018 Asian Junior Champion.

“The finals was also a long matchand I am happy how I performed over-all in the week,” he said.

�/�� (6��6�

Australian captain Tim Painehas addressed speculation

over whether Steve Smith willagain lead the team once a banends in March, saying he wouldbe fully supportive if it happens“one day”.

Smith skippered the teamuntil he was suspended for 12months over a brazen attemptunder his watch to alter the ballwith sandpaper in Cape Townlast year.

Part of his punishmentincluded a further year-longexile from any leadership role.Calls have grown for Smith totake over from Paine when theban is lifted, following battingperformances that helpedAustralia retain the Ashes

against England.Paine, who will turn 35 in

December, on Monday brushedoff questions surrounding theAustralian side’s future leader-ship.

“I’m enjoying having thejob at the moment... And I cer-tainly hope Steve Smith doescaptain Australia again one

day, and if he does, I’ll be fullysupportive of it,” he told theDaily Telegraph.

Paine will not play in thissummer’s Big Bash League,instead joining broadcasterChannel Seven’s commentaryteam. But he will almost cer-tainly retain the captaincy forthe home summer Test series

against Pakistan and NewZealand, despite occasional crit-

icism of his form during theAshes.

�� 5%�5 �

India snatched a 1-1 draw fromthe jaws of defeat against muchlower ranked Bangladesh to

dent their chances of qualificationin a Group E Asian Qualifiers forthe FIFA World Cup tie at thepacked Vivekananda Yuba BharatiKrirangan here on Tuesday.

A first-half strike from SaadUddin in the 42nd minute helpedBangladesh take a shock leadagainst India, who are 83 placesabove them and drew 0-0 againstAsian champions Qatar in their lastgame.

The hosts had a flurry ofchances to peg back with AnasEdathodika's shot headed out byMohammad Ibrahim on thegoalline in the second half. It wasonly in the 88th minute that cen-tre-back Adil Khan headed in a goalto equalise.

Bangladesh too, could havedoubled their advantage asMohammad Ibrahim's shot found

the crossbar in the second-half andAdil made a goalline clearance.

The result means India move totwo points from three games afterlosing their campaign opener toOman. Bangladesh, who prior tothis game had lost both theirmatches against Afghanistan andQatar, logged their first point butremained at the bottom of thefive-team group.

India missed defensive main-stay Sandesh Jhingan and holdingmidfielder Rowliin Borges due toinjury and suspension respective-ly.

Chhetri got a chance to getIndia ahead in the 5th minutewhen his first-time volley afterreceiving a pass from AshiqueKuruniyan went straight to visitinggoalkeeper Ashraful Islam.

India enjoyed the lion's share ofball possession and tried hard toopen up the Bangladesh defencebut the away side held firm as thehosts fluffed their lines in the finalthird.

Bangladesh got their firstopportunity in the 31st minutewhen Biplo Ahamed sneaked intothe box only for Anas to interceptat the right time.

Four minutes later, Bangladeshgoalkeeper Ashraful was forcedinto a fingertip save from ManvirSingh's looping header as India keptknocking at the door.

But against the run of play,Bangladesh nosed ahead three min-utes before halftime. Skipper JamalBhuyan swung in a delectable freekick for Saad to nod in pastGurpreet who failed to catch theball.

After the break, Bangladeshmissed a golden opportunity todouble their advantage when SohelRana cut in from the left to set upMohammad Ziban, whose shotwas saved well by Gurpreet.

India then fluffed two gilt-edged chances at and just after thehour mark as Anas' header was firstsaved on the goalline by Ibrahimand then in the 66th minute,

Manvir mistimed his run to spurna header from close range.

At the other end, Adil made anacrobatic clearance to saveGurpreet the blushes after Zibangot behind the defence and lobbedthe ball past India's tall custodian.

Chhetri wasted wide from sub-stitute Brandon Fernandes' cornerin the 76th minute as India threwthe kitchen sink at their lesser fan-cied rivals.

The effort paid off as Adilpowered in a header fromBrandon's corner at the near postto send the crowd into raptures.

Chhetri dribbled past twodefenders soon after but the 35-year- old's shot was weak as the sta-dium reverberated with his chants.

The packed 65,000 spectatorswere left high and dry in the endas India could not record a winwhich was expected. The resultmeans Bangladesh, ranked 187,remain unbeaten in their last threemeetings against India, ranked104.

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Former Australia skipperRickey Ponting believes

Steve Smith should get anoth-er chance to lead the nation-al team once Tim Paine’s timeis up. “It’s the million-dollar ques-tion: when Steve Smith’s banis up will he go straight backinto the captaincy or will henot?” Ponting told 7NEWS.

“To be honest I think it’sup to Tim how long he plays.

He’s the best keeper in theworld. Whether that’s as cap-tain or not that’s up to the hier-archy at Cricket Australia tomake that decision. I’ve beenon record already — whenTim’s time is up I’d like to seeSteve Smith have another go.

“I think he probably feelslike there’s unfinished businessthere as far as his captaincy’sconcerned. He’s got to want todo it and obviously then theauthorities have to say yes orno,” he added.

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