16
A day after Chief Economic Adviser (CEA) Krishnamurthy Subramanian ruled out a major stimulus package for the economy trig- gering a massive sell-off in the equity market, the Government did just the opposite on Friday. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday announced a slew of measures to perk up the economy and address the concerns of foreign portfolio investors , who pulled out nearly $3 billion from the India stock markets ever since the Budget imposed surcharge on their investment. Relentless selling by the foreign portfo- lio investors (FPIs) and con- cerns about the health of econ- omy saw sensex losing more than 4,000 points in less than two months. The stimulus package included rollback of super- rich surcharge on FPIs, domes- tic investors on gains from stock market, frontloading of already announced 70,000 crore of recapitulation package for PSU banks, CSR violation not to be treated as criminal offence, reduction on EMIs for housing loans, vehicle and other retail loans and provid- ing protection to honest deci- sion-making by bankers for boosting lending. Also it included additional liquidity support to HFCs raised to 30,000 crore, pending GST refunds to MSMEs to be paid within 30 days, amendment to MSME Act to move towards single definition to be consid- ered, issue of IT orders, notices, etc through a centralised sys- tem to cut harassment, etc. Besides, the Government said it will set up an inter- Ministerial task force to short- list infrastructure projects for its ambitious target of spending 100 lakh crore in the sector. With several major com- panies reporting sinking prof- it and announcing job cuts, the Government had a few option, but to come out with some relief for both the equity mar- ket and corportates as well as commoners. The Finance Minister did try to cover all the key stakeholders within the constraints of not too rosy tax revenue scenario. The reveral of FPI sur- charge shows that the people engaged in the Budget making completely failed to under- stand the mindset of foreign investors. It is also baffling why someone like the CEA made such a comment about no stimuls, the news was one of the prime reason of sail-off in the market and estimated loss of nearly 2 lakh crore of investors’ wealth in a single day. “In order to encourage investment in the capital mar- ket, it has been decided to with- draw the enhanced surcharge levied by Finance (No.2) Act, 2019 on long/short term capi- tal gains arising from the trans- fer of equity shares/units,” Sitharaman told reporters here. The move will dent Government revenues by 1,400 crore. Sitharaman had in her maiden Budget hiked the sur- charge on income tax paid by super-rich individuals. The surcharge, levied on top of the applicable income tax rate, was hiked from 15 per cent to 25 per cent for those with taxable income of 2-5 crore and to 37 per cent for those earning more than 5 crore. This increased the effective tax rate for these two groups by 3.12 per cent and 7 per cent to 39 per cent and 42.74 per cent, respectively. Some 40 per cent FPIs automatically came under the higher tax rate as they have been investing as a non-cor- porate entity such as trust or association of persons (AOPs), which in the Income Tax law are classified as an individual for the purpose of taxation. Sitharaman also announced exempting start-- ups from the so-called angel tax. “To mitigate genuine dif- ficulties of start-ups and their investors, it has been decided that section 56(2)((viib) of the Income Tax Act shall not be applicable to a start-up registered with DPIIT,” she said. The Government also announced several relief mea- sures, including deferring one- time registration fee, lifting ban on purchase of petrol/diesel vehicles and allowing higher depreciation, but it remained non-commit- tal on the demand for a reduc- tion in GST rates. T he South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) on Friday announced that only those commercial vehicles which have radio-frequency identification tags (RFID) will be allowed to enter the nation- al Capital after three weeks. With the RFID system coming into force at 13 busy border points from August 23 midnight, non-RFID vehicles will have to pay penalties in order to enter the city. However, after three weeks, non-RFID vehicles will not be allowed to enter the city, SDMC authorities said. “After three weeks, those without RFID will not be allowed to enter the city,” a senior corporation official said. The 13 entry points receive 85 per cent of the incoming traffic in Delhi. Once a person buys an RFID tag and it is past- ed on his registered vehicle, the environment compensation charge will be deducted at the 13 toll plazas automatically. The sale of tags will con- tinue on the points-of-sale (POS) installed at 13 RFID toll plazas. Additional six points have been set up in satellite towns of UP and Haryana. The SDMC had earlier extended the last date for pre- registration and subsequent issuance of RFID tags from August 16 to August 23, con- sidering difficulties being faced by owners of commercial vehicles and taxis in getting pre-registered and subse- quently obtaining RFID tags for entry into Delhi from 13 toll plazas. Additional Commissioner of SDMC Randhir Sahay said after Friday midnight, non- RFID vehicles will have to pay twice the basic amount of envi- ronment compensation charge in the first week. It will become four times in the second week and six times in the third week. “After three weeks, the entry of non-RFID commercial vehicles will be completely banned,” he added. P rime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said the resounding mandate to the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls was for building a “new India”, and asserted corruption, nepo- tism, loot of people’s money, and terrorism have been reined in like never before. Addressing the Indian community at the UNESCO headquarters here, Modi also talked about “major decisions” such as banning of practice of triple talaq, taken by his Government. In a veiled reference to abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu & Kashmir, Modi said, “There is no scope for tempo- rary in India. You would have seen that a country of 1.25 bil- lion people, the land of Mahatma Gandhi, Gautam Buddha, Ram, Krishna, took 70 years to remove what was tem- porary. To remove temporary it took 70 years, I dont know whether I should laugh or cry...Reform, perform, and transform and with perma- nent systems, the country is moving forward to achieve its goal.” Modi, who was in France on the first leg of his three- nation tour, said there have been a number of constructive changes in the last five years. “India is racing ahead not because of Modi...It is because of the stamp of approval that the people of India have given in the form of their votes,” the Prime Minister said amid loud cheering of “Modi hai toh mumkin hai” (it is possi- ble if Modi is there) from the crowd. He also asserted “in ‘new India’, corruption, nepotism, dynasty, loot of people’s money, and terrorism have been reined in like never before.” I n a relief to former Union Minister P Chidambaram in the INX media scam, the Supreme Court on Friday granted him protection from arrest by the Enforcement Directorate till August 26. Chidambaram is in the CBI custody in the INX case till August 26. In real term, the SC’s deci- sion does not matter much for Chidambaram as her is already in the CBI custody till August 26. However, his legal team sees the order as the first victory since the ED vehe- mently opposed Chidambaram’s plea for inter- im protection. Meanwhile, a Delhi Court on Friday refused to adjourn the Aircel-Maxis case against Chidambaram and his son Karti on the pleas by the CBI and the ED, which sought the adjournment saying that another case pertaining to INX Media involving them was pending before the Supreme Court. Special Judge OP Saini took strong objection to the agencies seeking repeated adjournments, saying “things have become very embarrass- ing for me”. The court then reserved order on Chidambaram’s antic- ipatory bail plea for September 3 and extended the interim protection from Chidambaram’s arrest by the agencies till then. C ongress leaders Abhishek Singhvi and Shashi Tharoor on Friday came out in support of party colleague Jairam Ramesh, saying demon- ising Prime Minister Narendra Modi was “wrong” and he should be praised for doing the right things. While Singhvi said Modi’s acts must be judged issue- wise, not person-wise, Tharoor said praising the PM for doing the right things would lend credibility to the Opposition’s criticism of him. “Always said demonising Modi wrong. Not only is he PM of the nation, a one-way oppo- sition actually helps him,” Singhvi tweeted while echoing Ramesh’s views. “Acts are always good, bad and indiffer- ent — they must be judged issue-wise and not person- wise. Certainly, Ujjawala scheme is only one amongst other good deeds,” he said. Tharoor also joined him saying, “As you know, I have argued for six years now that Narendra Modi should be praised whenever he says or does the right thing, which would add credibility to our criticisms whenever he errs. I welcome others in Opposition coming around to a view for which I was excoriated at the time.” When asked to comment on the views expressed by these leaders, Congress spokesman Manish Tewari said they are best placed to clarify or amplify, add or sub- tract to what they have said. “As the Congress party, we believe the country is facing a grim economic situation that will affect the lives of millions and we are extremely worried about it,” Tewari said at a Press briefing. T he Supreme Court on Friday agreed to examine the validity of a newly enacted law which makes the practice of instant triple talaq a pun- ishable offence entailing jail for up to three years. A Bench of Justices NV Ramana and Ajay Rastogi issued notice to the Centre on a batch of petitions seeking to declare The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act 2019 as “uncon- stitutional” on grounds that it allegedly violates the provi- sions of the Constitution. “We will examine this,” the SC told senior advocate Salman Khurshid, who was appearing for one of the petitioners. Khurshid said there were many dimensions, including making the practice a pun- ishable offence and jail term of up to three years, which need to be examined by the top court. He said the petitioners were concerned about making triple talaq an offence as the SC had already declared it to be null and void. “If there is no such thing as triple talaq then what are they making an offence,” he told the SC and referred to a five-judge Constitution Bench verdict which had declared the practice of triple talaq null and void. D onald Trump is “ready to assist” India and Pakistan on the Kashmir issue if both sides ask for it, a top White House official has said, under- lining that the US President is “very focused” on the situation in the Valley in view of its “broader implications”. Tensions between India and Pakistan spiked after New Delhi abrogated provisions of Article 370 of the Constitution to withdraw Jammu & Kashmir’s special status and bifurcated the State into two Union Territories on August 5. “The United States is watching the situation in Kashmir very closely. We are continuing to call for calm and restraint, including on rhetoric,” a senior adminis- tration official said on Thursday ahead of the bilateral meeting between Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the G7 Summit in France over the weekend. India has categorically told the world that the scrapping of Article 370 is an internal mat- ter and also advised Pakistan to accept the reality. “We note the broader implications of the develop- ments in Kashmir and the potential for increased insta- bility in the region. So the pres- ident is very focused on this sit- uation,” the official said.

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Page 1: English News Paper | Breaking News | Latest Today News in ... · time registration fee, lifting ... Supreme Court on Friday ... Marriage) Act 2019 as “uncon-stitutional” on grounds

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Aday after Chief EconomicAdviser (CEA)

Krishnamurthy Subramanianruled out a major stimuluspackage for the economy trig-gering a massive sell-off in theequity market, the Governmentdid just the opposite on Friday.

Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman on Fridayannounced a slew of measuresto perk up the economy andaddress the concerns of foreignportfolio investors , who pulledout nearly $3 billion from theIndia stock markets ever sincethe Budget imposed surchargeon their investment. Relentlessselling by the foreign portfo-lio investors (FPIs) and con-cerns about the health of econ-omy saw sensex losing morethan 4,000 points in less thantwo months.

The stimulus packageincluded rollback of super-rich surcharge on FPIs, domes-tic investors on gains fromstock market, frontloading ofalready announced �70,000crore of recapitulation packagefor PSU banks, CSR violationnot to be treated as criminaloffence, reduction on EMIsfor housing loans, vehicle andother retail loans and provid-ing protection to honest deci-sion-making by bankers forboosting lending. Also itincluded additional liquiditysupport to HFCs raised to�30,000 crore, pending GSTrefunds to MSMEs to be paid

within 30 days, amendment toMSME Act to move towardssingle definition to be consid-ered, issue of IT orders, notices,etc through a centralised sys-tem to cut harassment, etc.

Besides, the Governmentsaid it will set up an inter-Ministerial task force to short-list infrastructure projects forits ambitious target of spending�100 lakh crore in the sector.

With several major com-panies reporting sinking prof-it and announcing job cuts, theGovernment had a few option,but to come out with somerelief for both the equity mar-ket and corportates as well ascommoners. The FinanceMinister did try to cover all thekey stakeholders within theconstraints of not too rosy taxrevenue scenario.

The reveral of FPI sur-charge shows that the peopleengaged in the Budget makingcompletely failed to under-stand the mindset of foreigninvestors.

It is also baffling whysomeone like the CEA madesuch a comment about nostimuls, the news was one ofthe prime reason of sail-off inthe market and estimated lossof nearly �2 lakh crore ofinvestors’ wealth in a single day.

“In order to encourageinvestment in the capital mar-ket, it has been decided to with-draw the enhanced surchargelevied by Finance (No.2) Act,2019 on long/short term capi-tal gains arising from the trans-fer of equity shares/units,”Sitharaman told reporters here.

The move will dent

Government revenues by�1,400 crore.

Sitharaman had in hermaiden Budget hiked the sur-charge on income tax paid bysuper-rich individuals. Thesurcharge, levied on top of theapplicable income tax rate, washiked from 15 per cent to 25per cent for those with taxableincome of �2-5 crore and to 37per cent for those earningmore than �5 crore. Thisincreased the effective tax ratefor these two groups by 3.12per cent and 7 per cent to 39

per cent and 42.74 per cent,respectively.

Some 40 per cent FPIsautomatically came under thehigher tax rate as they havebeen investing as a non-cor-porate entity such as trust orassociation of persons (AOPs),which in the Income Tax laware classified as an individualfor the purpose of taxation.

Sitharaman alsoannounced exempting start--ups from the so-called angeltax. “To mitigate genuine dif-ficulties of start-ups and their

investors, it has been decidedthat section 56(2)((viib) ofthe Income Tax Act shall notbe applicable to a start-upregistered with DPIIT,” shesaid.

The Government alsoannounced several relief mea-sures, including deferring one-time registration fee, liftingban on purchase ofpetrol/diesel vehicles andallowing higher depreciation,but it remained non-commit-tal on the demand for a reduc-tion in GST rates.

��##��� ������ (:&�;:,<

The South Delhi MunicipalCorporation (SDMC) on

Friday announced that onlythose commercial vehicleswhich have radio-frequencyidentification tags (RFID) willbe allowed to enter the nation-al Capital after three weeks.

With the RFID systemcoming into force at 13 busyborder points from August 23midnight, non-RFID vehicleswill have to pay penalties inorder to enter the city.However, after three weeks,non-RFID vehicles will not beallowed to enter the city, SDMCauthorities said.

“After three weeks, thosewithout RFID will not beallowed to enter the city,” asenior corporation official said.

The 13 entry points receive85 per cent of the incomingtraffic in Delhi. Once a personbuys an RFID tag and it is past-ed on his registered vehicle, theenvironment compensationcharge will be deducted at the13 toll plazas automatically.

The sale of tags will con-tinue on the points-of-sale(POS) installed at 13 RFID tollplazas. Additional six pointshave been set up in satellitetowns of UP and Haryana.

The SDMC had earlierextended the last date for pre-registration and subsequentissuance of RFID tags fromAugust 16 to August 23, con-sidering difficulties beingfaced by owners of commercialvehicles and taxis in gettingpre-registered and subse-quently obtaining RFID tagsfor entry into Delhi from 13toll plazas.

Additional Commissionerof SDMC Randhir Sahay saidafter Friday midnight, non-RFID vehicles will have to paytwice the basic amount of envi-ronment compensation chargein the first week. It will becomefour times in the second weekand six times in the thirdweek. “After three weeks, theentry of non-RFID commercialvehicles will be completelybanned,” he added.

��� �2 7

Prime Minister NarendraModi on Friday said the

resounding mandate to theBJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha pollswas for building a “new India”,and asserted corruption, nepo-tism, loot of people’s money,and terrorism have been reinedin like never before.

Addressing the Indiancommunity at the UNESCOheadquarters here, Modi alsotalked about “major decisions”such as banning of practice oftriple talaq, taken by hisGovernment.

In a veiled reference toabrogation of Article 370 inJammu & Kashmir, Modi said,“There is no scope for tempo-rary in India. You would haveseen that a country of 1.25 bil-lion people, the land of

Mahatma Gandhi, GautamBuddha, Ram, Krishna, took 70years to remove what was tem-

porary. To remove temporaryit took 70 years, I dont knowwhether I should laugh or

cry...Reform, perform, andtransform and with perma-nent systems, the country ismoving forward to achieve itsgoal.”

Modi, who was in Franceon the first leg of his three-nation tour, said there havebeen a number of constructivechanges in the last five years.

“India is racing ahead notbecause of Modi...It is becauseof the stamp of approval thatthe people of India have givenin the form of their votes,” thePrime Minister said amidloud cheering of “Modi haitoh mumkin hai” (it is possi-ble if Modi is there) from thecrowd.

He also asserted “in ‘newIndia’, corruption, nepotism,dynasty, loot of people’s money,and terrorism have been reinedin like never before.”

���� (:&�;:,<

In a relief to former UnionMinister P Chidambaram in

the INX media scam, theSupreme Court on Fridaygranted him protection fromarrest by the EnforcementDirectorate till August 26.Chidambaram is in the CBIcustody in the INX case tillAugust 26.

In real term, the SC’s deci-sion does not matter much forChidambaram as her isalready in the CBI custody till

August 26. However, his legalteam sees the order as the firstvictory since the ED vehe-mently opposedChidambaram’s plea for inter-im protection.

Meanwhile, a Delhi Courton Friday refused to adjourn

the Aircel-Maxis case againstChidambaram and his sonKarti on the pleas by the CBIand the ED, which sought theadjournment saying thatanother case pertaining to INXMedia involving them waspending before the SupremeCourt.

Special Judge OP Sainitook strong objection to theagencies seeking repeatedadjournments, saying “thingshave become very embarrass-ing for me”.

The court then reservedorder on Chidambaram’s antic-ipatory bail plea for September3 and extended the interim protection fromChidambaram’s arrest by theagencies till then.

���� (:&�;:,<

Congress leaders AbhishekSinghvi and Shashi

Tharoor on Friday came out insupport of party colleagueJairam Ramesh, saying demon-ising Prime Minister NarendraModi was “wrong” and heshould be praised for doing theright things.

While Singhvi said Modi’sacts must be judged issue-wise, not person-wise, Tharoorsaid praising the PM for doingthe right things would lendcredibility to the Opposition’scriticism of him.

“Always said demonisingModi wrong. Not only is he PMof the nation, a one-way oppo-sition actually helps him,”

Singhvi tweeted while echoingRamesh’s views. “Acts arealways good, bad and indiffer-ent — they must be judgedissue-wise and not person-wise. Certainly, Ujjawalascheme is only one amongstother good deeds,” he said.

Tharoor also joined himsaying, “As you know, I haveargued for six years now thatNarendra Modi should be

praised whenever he says ordoes the right thing, whichwould add credibility to ourcriticisms whenever he errs. Iwelcome others in Oppositioncoming around to a view forwhich I was excoriated at thetime.”

When asked to commenton the views expressed bythese leaders, Congressspokesman Manish Tewarisaid they are best placed toclarify or amplify, add or sub-tract to what they have said.“As the Congress party, webelieve the country is facing agrim economic situation thatwill affect the lives of millionsand we are extremely worriedabout it,” Tewari said at aPress briefing.

��� (:&�;:,<

The Supreme Court onFriday agreed to examine

the validity of a newly enactedlaw which makes the practiceof instant triple talaq a pun-ishable offence entailing jail forup to three years.

A Bench of Justices NVRamana and Ajay Rastogiissued notice to the Centre ona batch of petitions seeking todeclare The Muslim Women(Protection of Rights onMarriage) Act 2019 as “uncon-stitutional” on grounds that itallegedly violates the provi-sions of the Constitution.

“We will examine this,” theSC told senior advocate Salman

Khurshid, who was appearingfor one of the petitioners.

Khurshid said there weremany dimensions, includingmaking the practice a pun-ishable offence and jail term ofup to three years, which needto be examined by the topcourt.

He said the petitionerswere concerned about makingtriple talaq an offence as the SChad already declared it to benull and void. “If there is nosuch thing as triple talaq thenwhat are they making anoffence,” he told the SC andreferred to a five-judgeConstitution Bench verdictwhich had declared the practiceof triple talaq null and void.

��� &�7< ( �6(

Donald Trump is “ready toassist” India and Pakistan

on the Kashmir issue if bothsides ask for it, a top WhiteHouse official has said, under-lining that the US President is“very focused” on the situationin the Valley in view of its“broader implications”.

Tensions between Indiaand Pakistan spiked after NewDelhi abrogated provisions ofArticle 370 of the Constitutionto withdraw Jammu &Kashmir’s special status andbifurcated the State into twoUnion Territories on August 5.

“The United States iswatching the situation inKashmir very closely. We are

continuing to call for calm andrestraint, including onrhetoric,” a senior adminis-tration off icial said onThursday ahead of the bilateralmeeting between Trump andPrime Minister NarendraModi on the sidelines of theG7 Summit in France over theweekend.

India has categorically toldthe world that the scrapping ofArticle 370 is an internal mat-ter and also advised Pakistan toaccept the reality.

“We note the broaderimplications of the develop-ments in Kashmir and thepotential for increased insta-bility in the region. So the pres-ident is very focused on this sit-uation,” the official said.

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The issue of demolition of atemple in the national cap-

ital figured in the HimachalPradesh Assembly on Friday,with Chief Minister Jai RamThakur saying "we will dowhatever we can" in the mat-ter.

The Delhi DevelopmentAuthority (DDA) had demol-ished the temple in Delhi'sTughlaqabad area on August 10on the orders of the SupremeCourt.

Responding to the issueraised in state Assembly by theleader of Opposition MukeshAgnihotri, Thakur said, “Theissue is very sensitive as itconcerns religious sentimentsof a section of the society. Wewill do whatever we can in thisregard.”

Earlier Agnihotri said thestate government should write

to the Centre to provide landfor reconstruction of the tem-ple.

NO GOVT VEHICLE AVAIL-

ABLE TO CONTROL FOR-EST FIRE

Himachal Pradesh ForestDepartment has no govern-ment vehicle to control forest

fire, Forest Minister GovindSingh Thakur told the stateassembly on Friday.

The minister gave thisinformation in reply to a ques-

tion by BJP MLA JawaharThakur and Congress MLARam Lal Thakur. “No govern-ment vehicle is available to con-trol forest fires, tree felling ormining in any of the 198 for-est ranges of the state,” said theminister.

As per a remote sensingstudy conducted by the ForestSurvey of India, Himachal'sforest cover has increased by2.67 percent (393 square kilo-metre) in two years from 2015to 2017, he added.

The Forest Survey of Indiadoes forest mapping throughremote sensing system in thecountry in every two years, headded.

There are 37 forests andsix wildlife divisions in thestate, he added. Further a totalof 198 forests ranges exist inthe state and 39 of them aresensitive forests ranges, headded.

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Haryana Police has receivedtwo Smart Policing

awards-2019 instituted byFederation of Indian Chambersof Commerce and Industry(FICCI) in a function held inNew Delhi on Friday.

A spokesperson said oneaward is given in recognition ofbest practices under ‘DigitalInvestigation, Training andAnalysis Centre (DITAC)’ inthe category of training andcapacity building, the secondaward presented to HaryanaPolice for best practices under‘Apki Sangini’ in the category ofcommunity policing.

Appreciating the officers,Director General of Police,Manoj Yadava said that it isproud moment for the entirepolice force as it has got recog-nition at national level. Healso congratulated the team ofDITAC and Apki Sangini fortheir excellent performanceand receiving this award.

On behalf of HaryanaPolice, Additional DirectorGeneral of Police, CID AnilKumar Rao received the FICCI

Smart Policing Award forDITAC, whereas DCP EastGurugram, Sulochna Gajrajreceived the Smart PolicingAward-2019 for the initiativeApki Sangini.

DITAC was establishedunder the aegis of CIDHaryana in collaboration withNational Technical ResearchOrganization (NTRO) inGurugram. The MoU wassigned in August 2016. Withthe efforts of CID Chief, AnilKumar Rao, the DITAC wasestablished in a record time andwas inaugurated by the ChiefMinister, Haryana, onDecember 28, 2016. ThisCentre is equipped with high-

ly sophisticated tools and soft-ware. It has three wings name-ly Social media MonitoringCell, Cyber Lab and TrainingLab.

Project Apki Sangini, aninitiative of the then SP Palwal,Sulochna Gajraj under com-munity policing category.Under this, four day awarenesssessions module twice in amonth was conducted whichcomprised of POSH/POCSOand cyber-crime awarenesssessions alongwith self defencetraining to grils and women.These awareness sessions wereconducted in selectedGovernment schools and col-leges and villages in Palwal dis-trict.

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The state bench of Goodsand Services Tax Appellate

Tribunal will be set up in Hisarfor speedy settlement of mat-ters related to the tax regime,Haryana Finance Minister CaptAbhimanyu said on Friday.

Earlier, the state govern-ment had sent its request to thecentral government for consti-tution of the bench in Hisar."The state bench of GSTAppellate Tribunal will comeup in Hisar," Capt Abhimanyusaid in a statement.

There are nearly 4.5 lakhregistered GST taxpayers in thestate.

Last month, Abhimanyuhad said that Haryana wasmaking healthy contribution tothe national kitty in GST col-lection. "Haryana has added anew record as despite havingjust 1.8 per cent of the geo-graphical area of the countryand 2.09 per cent of the nation-al population, its contributionto the national kitty of GST hasbeen 4.7 per cent," he hadsaid.

The state's per capita GSTcollection stands at Rs 21,745,whereas the national per capi-ta GST collection is Rs 9,370,he had said.

The collections under GSTare made under four differentActs, namely, Haryana Goodsand Services Tax Act, 2017,Central Goods and ServicesTax Act, 2017, IntegratedGoods and Services Tax Act,2017, and the Compensation toStates Tax Act, 2017.

After the implementationof GST with effect from July 1,2017, as many as 2,47,814new taxpayers have beenadded to the pool of taxpayerbase of 2,02,013 under VATregime.

The total number of regis-tered GST taxpayers in the stateare at 4,49,827.

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Himachal Governor KalrajMishra on Friday said the

complaints related to pensionof ex-servicemen should beresolved in a practical mannerso that the moral of the soldiersremains high.

Speaking on the occasionof 170th Defence PensionAdalat at Paonta Sahib inSirmour District, Mishra saidthat more than 31 lakh pen-sioners were drawing pensionthrough various pension dis-bursing agencies across thecountry and around 85 thou-sand pensioners were beingadded to the pensioner'sstrength every year.

He said that the defence

pension budget for the year2019-2020 has been pegged at�1,12,079.57 crores whichaccounts for 60 per cent of totalpension budget of the govern-ment of India.

He said that ex-servicemanpopulation in HimachalPradesh was approx. 147,963,adding that Defence PensionAdalat was a good effort toreach out to the ex-servicemen,which was specifically aimed atresolving their pension relatedcomplaints near to their resi-dences.

IDAS, CGDA Sanjiv Mittalsaid that the aim of the DefencePension Adalat was to take thegrievance redressal mechanismand the authorities associatedwith it, to the doorstep of the

defence pensioners to resolvethe pension related grievanceson the spot and also to educatethem about latest governmentorders. GoC Maj GeneralSanjeev Chaudhary said that itwas an effective platform toresolve pension related prob-lems of ex-servicemen besidesgiving information of welfareoriented schemes for ex-ser-viceman being implemented bythe Government.

He lauded the efforts ofcontroller General of DefenceAccount to organise PensionAdalats.ADG, AHQ, NewDelhi Vibha Sood said that itwas the best opportunity forVeer Nari to get resolved thegrievances related to pen-sion.

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The union territory ofChandigarh has been

awarded with four nationallevel awards by the UnionMinistry of Women & ChildDevelopment for exemplaryperformance and successfulrollout of the POSHANAbhiyaan.

POSHAN Abhiyaan, thecountry’s flagship programmewas launched to reduce stunting,under nutrition, anemia, lowbirth weight and to intensifyawareness on the importance ofnutrition for good health.

The Union Ministry hadorganized the incentive basedawards ceremony at New Delhion Friday.

Chandigarh has bagged firstposition in ICDS-CAS imple-mentation and is given incentiveaward of Rs one crore. Anincentive award of Rs 1.5 croreand first position is also baggedby the city in overall excellencein programme implementation,said an official spokesman.

The spokesman said thatfield level leadership awards(national level) were alsobagged by the city for bestblock level leadership.

At the block level, UshaKiran, CDPO, ParminderKaur, BDPO and Dr AshokKumar, medical officer werehonoured with certificates andmedals. Supervisor ParvinderKaur, AWW Jyoti Sharma,ANM Parwati Joshi, AWHSandhya Devi were each hon-oured with Rs 2.5 lakh reward.

The spokesman said thatthe awareness programmes onall the themes prescribed underPOSHAN Abhiyaan were con-

ducted throughoutChandigarh. Lastyear, POSHANMaah was cele-brated and later,P O S H A NPakhwada was cel-ebrated.

More than25000 activitieswere conductedwith participation

of more than 10 lakhs personsduring POSHAN Maah andmore than 5 lakhs in POSHANPakhwada which resulted inproper education and awareness about good nutrition and health to thetargeted beneficiaries inChandigarh, the spokesmansaid.

The aim of this program isto reach every household withthe message of good nutritionso as to reduce malnutrition,stunting, wasting, Anaemia by ensuring regularAntenatal and Postnatal check-ups, the spokesman added.

Last year also, Chandigarhwas given the status of “BestUT in the country" and washonoured with eight awards bythe Union Ministry.

The spokesman furthersaid that Chandigarh has beenthe first union territory in thecountry to implement real timemonitoring of data of benefi-ciaries of all AnganwadiCentres here. ICDS-CommonApplication Software (CAS)has been implemented for thismonitoring in all theAnganwadi Centres. GrowthMonitoring Devices i.e.Infantometer, Stadiometer,Infant Weighing Scales andAdult Weighing Scales havebeen procured to monitorheight and weight of all thebeneficiaries at the AnganwadiCentres.

For real time entries of thedata, 496 smart phones havebeen procured and distributed to all theAnganwadi workers, ladysupervisors and block levelhelp desk in the city.

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Haryana Additional ChiefSecretary, Finance

Department, T.V.S.N Prasadon Friday directed all theDeputy Commissioners to sendthe list of pending pensionrelated cases at the earliest, sothat such cases can be disposedoff immediately.

Addressing all the DeputyCommissioners in PensionAdalats organised in all dis-tricts, through video confer-encing here, Prasad said thatthe Accountant General (AG)of Haryana had received 64,000pension revision cases, out ofwhich 50,000 cases have beenrevised and the remaining14,000 cases would be revisedwithin two months by AG,Haryana.

The programme was aimedat quick redressal of griev-ances of all pensioners in thestate. On this occasion, the duesof 369 pensioners of the State,

were paid.During the videoconferencing, Prasad said thatofficers would be deputed fromthe headquarters to resolve thepending pension cases in Jind,Kaithal and other districts.

He said that Haryana gov-ernment is soon going tolaunch 'Mukhyamantri ParivarSamridhi Yojana' to providesocial security to every family,having annual income uptoRs 1.80 lakh, in the form of lifeinsurance and accident insur-

ance. Under this scheme, theeligible family would get anamount of Rs 6,000 annually.

Out of this amount, underthe Pradhan Mantri JeevanJyoti Bima Yojana, the lifeinsurance premium of eachfamily member in the eligibleage group of 18 to 50 years willbe paid automatically fromtheir account. Under this, aninsurance cover of Rs 2 lakhwill be provided in case ofdeath of the beneficiary.

Apart from this, under thePradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima

Yojana, the accident insurancepremium of each family mem-ber in the eligible age group of18 to 70 years will also be auto-matically paid from theiraccount. Under this, an insur-ance cover of Rs 2 lakh will beprovided in case of accidentaldeath of the beneficiary, headded.

Principal AccountantGeneral (A and E) Haryana,Vishal Bansal said that the e-post system has been started byhim, under which all the pen-sion related information is sentto the online post offices in thedistricts, which download thesame information from theirservers and send it to the ben-eficiary immediately.

He said that earlier infor-mation was sent to the benefi-ciaries through post offices andcorrespondence, which alwayshad a possibility of gettingdelayed and sometimes was noteven received by the beneficia-ry. Therefore, for the conve-nience of pensioners, the e-postsystem has been introduced.

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Himachal Pradesh has wonthree national awards

under the Poshan Abhiyan,the awards of which were givenby Women and ChildDevelopment Minister SmritiIrani on Friday at a function inNew Delhi.

The award is given to theStates, Districts, Blocks andAnganwadi Workers for theircontributions in scaling up thePoshan Abhiyaan and ensuringthat it reaches every householdin the country.

Social Justice &Empowerment Minister RajivSaizal received the awards fromthe Union Minister along-withDirector, Women and ChildDevelopment Kritka Kulhariand other senior officers.

Himachal Pradesh wasselected for three nationalawards including convergenceand community mobilization,ICDS-CAS and overall excel-lence in Poshan Abhiyan. The

state has received total awardmoney of Rs. 2.25 crore forthese awards.

Chief Minister Jai RamThakur has congratulated thedepartment of Women andChild Development for win-ning three national awards forthe state under PoshanAbhiyan.

He said the state govern-ment is implementing PoshanAbhiyan with utmost dedica-tion to achieve the goal ofhealthy society and a strongnation.

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As a part of its modernisa-tion drive, the expansion of

Elephant Rehabilitation andResearch Centre (ERRC), locat-ed at Ban Santour inYamunanagar district ofHaryana is on the cards.

The Haryana departmentof Forests and Wildlife hasdecided to draft a master planinvolving Wildlife Institute ofIndia (WII), Dehradun and anNGO called Wildlife SOS toupgrade ERRC with infra-structure and modern equip-ments, including boundarywall, Elephant shade, installa-tion of CCTV cameras amongothers, said Panchkula Forestand Wildlife Forest officer ShivSingh. The number of ele-phants in Haryana is quiteless. But there are encouraging

signs as this year their popula-tion has gone to nine, he added.

Singh further said, “A pro-posal on its expansion, includ-ing the new layout master plan,is being made by the depart-ment officials concerned alongwith the agencies concerned.The drafted master plan will besent to Centre Zoo Authorityfor its approval", he said.

ERRC, Ban Santour inYamunanagar was set up in 83-acre patch of land in 2008.Four jumbos (female) are rest-ing and roosting in the forestprotected land here.

Haryana Principal ChiefConservator of Forests(Wildlife) VS Tanwar said,“ERRC at Ban Santoor is asanctuary to rehabilitate therescued, abused, exploited andsick elephants. It was set up bythe Haryana Forests andWildlife department in associ-

ation with an NGO calledWildlife SOS, with the help ofGovernment of India’s grantunder the Project Elephant.ERRC has now elephant shel-ters, veterinary services, ele-phant husbandry and fodderservice, elephant walking andexercise trails among others.”

Panchkula Forest andWildlife Forest officer ShivSingh further said that thedepartment has four rescuedfemale elephants, namelyChanchal, Junglee, Laxmi, andLilly. These elephants were res-cued from persons who hadillegally possessed them.

Chanchal and Laxmi wererescued from Karnal whileLilly from Sirsa and Jungleefrom Kurukshetra. In 2018,Delhi Forests and Wildlifedepartment had rescued anelephant named Moti whichwas illegally possessed by a per-

son and sent to Kalesar WildlifeSanctuary in Haryana.

The number of "migrantwild elephants" is changingeach year. A couple of ele-phants from the RajajiNational Park had been fre-quently visiting the KalesarNational Park, spread over11570 acres every year. Thenumber of "migrant wild ele-phants" has gone to four. WildElephants roam Kalesar andadjoining Rajaji National Parkand Tiger Reserve spreadacross the Uttarakhand andHimachal Pradesh.

Out of four wild elephants,two are permanently living inKalesar National Park whiletwo migrate periodically toRajaji National Park inUttarakhand and SimbalbaraNational Park in Himachal.After receiving informationabout the migration of the ele-

phants, the employees of thedepartment were pressed forkeeping a close watch on theherd's movements. The teamtakes photograph of the wildmigrants from a long dis-tance. The Kalesar WildlifeSanctuary was declared aNational Park in December,2003, Shiv Singh added.

He said that a herd of eightwild elephants was spotted in2016-17 and they camped foraround three months. As forthe steps taken to ensure pro-tection of wildlife and envi-ronment, he said the foreststaff have been given weaponsby the state government totackle the menace posed bypoachers. The State had alsoset up two special environ-ment courts in Kurukshetraand Faridabad to deal withcrimes related to poachingand illicit felling of trees from

the area.The forest officer said that

to spread awareness on cruel-ty against elephants, a pro-gramme was held on the occa-sion of World Elephant Day onAugust 12. About 60 studentsof Navodaya Vidyalaya,Yamunanagar participated inthe programme and pledgednever to take joy rides on ele-phants.

The f irst timeInternational Elephant Daywas observed on 12th August2012. This day dedicated to thepreservation and protection ofthe world's elephants, he said,adding the goal of WorldElephant Day is to createawareness about the plight ofelephants and to share knowl-edge and positive solutions forthe better care and manage-ment of captive and wild ele-phants.

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The pro-Khalistan outfit —Sikhs for Justice — has

been issued a show cause noticeby the Tribunal, constituted bythe Central Government tolook into the material factswhether or not the separatistorganization be declaredunlawful.

Notably, the CentralGovernment had declared thefringe group SFJ — the pro-Khalistan outfit which hasbeen pushing the SikhReferendum-2020 — as anunlawful association and anotification was issued on July10, 2019, in this regard.

“Now, a show cause noticehas been issued to SFJ as to whythe association declared unlaw-ful, be not adjudicated to be soand why an order confirmingthe declaration be not made,”said the official spokesperson.

Spokesperson said that theassociation has been given 30days to respond from the dateof service of the notice. Theobjections or reply affidavitsmay be filed before the nextdate of hearing.

The Central Governmenthas constituted the Tribunal,comprising of Delhi HighCourt Chief Justice DN Patelon August 7, 2019, for adjudi-cating as to whether there is

sufficient cause for declaringSFJ as an unlawful association.

The Union Ministry ofHome Affairs (MHA) consti-tutes a tribunal every time itbans an organisation underthe Unlawful Activities(Prevention) Act (UAPA) togive the outfit a chance to pre-sent its case. But the exerciseusually remains a no-show asthe tribunal mostly endorsesthe government’s move. At thetime of declaring SFJ an unlaw-ful outfit, the MHA had saidthat the group’s primary objec-tive was to establish an “inde-pendent and sovereign countryin Punjab and it openly espous-es the cause of Khalistan”.

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Under attack for his absencein his flood-hit con-

stituency, Congress’ MP fromLudhiana Ravneet Singh Bittuon Friday met the Union JalShakti Minister Gajendra SinghShekhawat to find a permanentsolution to the problems relat-ed to around 14-kilometerstretch of Budha Nullah — apolluted stream.

Seeking the CentralGovernment’s cooperation forthe project, Bittu said that thecleaning of Budha Nullah isone of his dream projects andhe has also made this promisewith the people of Ludhiana.

He said that this was hissecond meeting with the UnionMinister in the last threemonths time. Earlier on July 27,Bittu along with Punjab Food,Civil Supplies and ConsumerAffairs Minister BharatBhushan Ashu had held ameeting with the UnionMinister.

“Budha Nullah, earlierknown as Budha Dariya, is anold tributary of river Satluj andonce had more than 50 speciesof fish but unfortunately itstarted losing its glory with thepassage of time,” said Bittu.

“The Union Minister wasapprised about the recentdevelopment related to over-flowing of

Buddha Nullah inLudhiana, which caused prob-lems for the residents,” saidBittu while also apprisingShekhawat about the currentsituation of the Dhussi Bandhof Sutlej river along theLudhiana district.

Bittu requested the UnionMinister to ensure that thisproject is handled on a priori-ty basis as a proper plan needs

to be worked out for imple-mentation.

“Union Minister hasassured full cooperation and

has offered maximum funds forthis project. The UnionMinister would be himself vis-iting the Budha Nullah in thefirst week of September alongwith a team of experts fromTata Sons, who have showninterest in � 900 crore projectrelated to cleaning of BudhaNullah,” he said.

The same company hascleaned a similar Nullah fallingin the constituency of theUnion Minister, he said.

Notably, on February 21, ateam of senior officials fromTata Group had shown interestin the cleaning and beautifica-tion of Budha Nullah and evengave a presentation in MCZone D office, here, in thisregard. The presentation wasgiven in the presence ofLudhiana MP, Mayor BalkarSingh Sandhu, Senior DeputyMayor Shyam SunderMalhotra, MC CommissionerKanwal Preet Kaur Brar, amingothers.

During the hour-long pre-sentation, Tata Group vicepresident Manish Tripathi hadstated that their company hasbeen associated with severalsuch projects including reju-venation of Dravyavati River inJaipur, besides upcoming pro-ject for cleaning and beautifi-cation of Badi Nadi and ChhotiNadi in Patiala.

The company officialsclaimed that they would notonly ensure cleaning of theBudha Nullah, besides con-struction of embankments,construction of paths forcyclists and morning orevening walkers, beautifica-tion, tree plantation, develop-ing green belts or parks alongthe Budha Nullah and re-use ofthe water for agriculture andhorticulture purposes.

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The issue of Punjab SchoolEducation Board’s (PSEB)

“high-priced” golden chancehas reached the ChiefMinister’s office (CMO).

Finding fault with thePSEB’s decision to give ‘golden’chance to the students, whohave failed in the Class X or XIIboard examinations in the past15 years, to reappear in the testsby paying exam fee of whop-ping � 15,000, a senior officialof the CMO has decided toraise the matter with the ChiefMinister Capt AmarinderSingh.

The official, who did notwish to be named, told ThePioneer that the decision to fixsuch high charges for reappearexamination is wrong, andusing Guru Nanak Dev’s namefor the same is disrespect to theSikhs’ first master.

“PSEB’s decision to offerthe golden chance to its stu-dents to reappear or improvetheir result is fine, but thenusing Guru Nanak Dev ji’sname and fixing such a highamount as examination fee iscondemnable,” said the official.

The official pointed thatearlier the exam fee has to be� 3000 or � 5000. “To mark the550th birth anniversary, itwould have been right if thePSEB would have offered moreby taking less. It is like robbingpeople in the name of Guru,”added the official.

Notably, the PSEB, to markthe 550th birth anniversary ofthe founder of Sikhism, hasdecided to give a “golden”chance to the students, who gotreappear or compartment intheir exams after March 2004onwards, to reappear in the

tests. For the same, it has fixed� 15,000 as an exam fee.

The move has also beencondemned by the PunjabDemocratic Teachers’ Frontalleging that the Board wasfund-starved and trying toraise money from the people torun its functions.

Front’s secretary generalDevinder Punia said that theBoard was charging five-timemore than what it used tocharge for giving special chanceearlier to students. “How can apoor student afford to pay �15,000? Most of the students ingovernment schools eitherbelong to lower-middle class orare economically backward.Moreover, the number of suchstudents who got reappear orcompartment would be inthousands,” he added.

State’s principal oppositionparty, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)has also dubbed the exorbitantfee fixed for the exam as “anopen loot by the government”.

AAP MLA fromKotkapura Kultar SinghSandhwan said that the PSEB’sdecision amounted to ‘selling’education in the name of reli-gion, while demanding that the“golden chance be offered tothe students for free”.

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Atorrent of measures onFriday gushed out of the

Chief Minister’s office forensuring effective relief oper-ations for the people in floodof tears after three-day inces-sant rains washed away thenormal state of affair in Punjab.In full flow, the Chief MinisterCapt Amarinder Singh madehis ministers responsible forpulling the people of the Stateout of deep waters.

Reviewing the progress ofrescue and relief operations, theChief Minister has assignedresponsibilities to his five cab-inet ministers to oversee work.

“The state’s IndustriesMinister Sundar Sham Aroraand the state TechnicalEducation Minister CharanjitSingh Channy has been askedto oversee operations in Ropardistrict, while Revenue andRehabilitation MinisterGurpreet Singh Kangar, and theFood and Civil SuppliesMinister Bharat Bhushan Ashuwill oversee operations inJalandhar and Kapurthala,” saidthe spokesperson.

Spokesperson informedthat the Chief Minister hasexpressed concern over theslow pace of resumption ofelectricity supply in certainflood-affected areas. “TheChief Minister has asked thestate Rural Development and

Panchayats Minister TripatRajinder Singh Bajwa and thePSPCL (Punjab State PowerCorporation Limited) chair-man-cum-managing directorBaldev Sran to tour the areasand ensure early resumption,”added the spokesperson.

Earlier, the Chief Ministerhad tweeted that he had direct-ed all the officials to be “ontheir toes”, while maintainingthat the State Government,National Disaster ResponseForce (NDRF), Indian Army,

and Indian Air Force are work-ing collectively to carry outrelief work.

“@PunjabGovtIndia alongwith @NDRFHQ, @adgpi &@IAF_MCC are working withurgency to carry out reliefwork. I will again appeal toeveryone to move to speciallycreated camps because savinglives is of prime importance. Ihave directed all the officials tobe on their toes,” he had tweet-ed on Friday.

In another tweet, the Chief

Minister informed that abreach in Mau Sahib village hasbeen plugged. “Good newscoming in from Phillaur, wherethe local administration hasplugged a 165 feet breach inMau Sahib village with thehelp from MGNREGA workersand volunteers from variousorganisations. Relief work isbeing carried out on war foot-ing to ensure normalcy returnsat the earliest,” he said in histweet.

Meanwhile, to help out the

flood victims, all IPS Officersof the Punjab cadre have unan-imously decided to contributea day’s salary each to the CMFlood Relief Fund, according toDGP Dinkar Gupta.

Earlier, DeputyCommissioner Kapurthalainformed the Chief Ministerthat out of the 82 flood affect-ed villages in the district, 20were inundated.

A dedicated team com-prising a MBBS doctor, alongwith staff and requisite medicalkits, had been pressed intoservice in each of these villages.In addition, a veterinary doc-tor with staff, a food inspector,full dry ration for three daysand a police constable hadalso been deputed in these vil-lages.

Apart from providing ade-quate medical assistance to thepeople and veterinary care tothe livestock, two kg feed percattle per day was being dis-tributed for livestock, in addi-tion to adequate medical assis-tance to the people and live-stock.

The Chief Minister wasapprised by Jalandhar DeputyCommissioner that thedrainage wing of the WaterResources Department hadbeen asked to complete thework of plugging the 350 feetwide breach at village Meowalin Phillaur Sub-Division bySaturday.

He also told the ChiefMinister that volunteers andMGNREGA workers wereengaged in filling sand bags forplugging of this breach.

Capt Amarinder was fur-ther informed by RoparDeputy Commissioner that

the relief and flood protectionworks in affected areas weregoing on in full swing as thewater level was graduallyreceding.

Punjab Vidhan SabhaSpeaker Rana KP Singh visit-ed the flood hit areas and

interacted with the local resi-dents during the day. He askedthe Deputy CommissionerRopar to ensure adequate sup-ply of feed and fodder for thecattle, besides providing thebest medical assistance to thepeople in the region.

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The floodwater from thedeluged areas of Punjab,

particularly Jalandhar, Roparand Ferozepur districts beganreceding on Friday, givingrise to the threat of an out-break of epidemic diseases.

With no rains in the pasttwo days, the water in flood-ed areas has started receding,officials said.

The Army and NDRFpersonnel, however, continueto work overtime to shift peo-ple out of the flooded areas tosafety, officials said. The primeconcern for the state healthauthorities is the possible out-break of epidemic diseases inthe flood-hit areas once thewater vanishes, JalandharMedical Officer A S Duggalsaid.

Many people are alreadyaffected by diarrhoea, gas-troenteritis, fungal infectionand skin disease and are beingtreated at different camps, hesaid. Apprehending the out-break of various diseases, hesaid the cases of water-borneailments would increase indays to come.

After recent rains and therelease of excess water fromthe Bhakra Dam, the Sutlejriver and its tributaries hadflooded villages in Ludhiana,Jalandhar, Ferozepur andRupnagar in Punjab, causingdamage to the crops and hous-es in low-lying areas. With nofresh rains in the last two days,the water has started recedingin swollen rivers of Punjaband Haryana but the farmingfields over hundreds of acresand several villages remain

inundated, officials said.Heavy rains a few days

ago caused extensive damageto crops and property at manyplaces in Punjab, submergingaround 400 villages with thestate government estimatingloss worth Rs 1,700 crore bythe deluge in the state, officialssaid. People are struggling toget their dwellings rid of slushand garbage to get on with lifein the flood-ravaged villages.

Punjab Local BodiesMinister Brahm Mohindraissued strict directions toensure comprehensive mea-sures to keep a check on theoutbreak of any disease in thestate, especially in the lowlying areas. Notably, Punjabhad faced the worst floods in1988.

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For implementing PoshanAbhiyan (National

Nutrition Mission) at the grassroot level and fighting againstmalnutrition, Punjab’s Mansadistrict was conferred with thenational award for best per-forming district in PoshanAbhiyan for the second con-secutive year.

Mansa DeputyCommissioner Apneet Riyaitreceived the award from theUnion Minister for SocialSecurity, Women and ChildDevelopment Smriti Irani at aspecial ceremony held at Delhion Friday. The previous yeartoo Mansa district was con-ferred with the same award forsuccessfully implementingnutrition campaign and chang-ing lives of people in a health-ier way. The state’s SocialSecurity and Women and ChildDevelopment Departmentdirector Gurpreet Kaur Saprasaid that the main motive ofPoshan abhiyan is to put mal-nutrition to an end.

“The campaign is beingrun successfully under theUnion Minister Smriti Iraniwhose main motive is to ensurebetter health for children up tosix years of age suffering fromlow birth weight, lack of nutri-tious food, lack of physicaldevelopment and to treatanaemia,” she said adding thatwomen and children weremainly included under thisprogram.

Making Poshan Abhiyan awidely run campaign in the dis-trict, activities such as babyshower for expecting mothers,campaign on breast feedingand information regardingmalnutrition and its effectswas widely circulated.

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Tibetan spiritual leader theDalai Lama will be among

a host of dignitaries who will beinvited to join the 550th birthanniversary celebrations ofSikhism's founder Guru NanakDev, Punjab MinisterSukhjinder Singh Randhawasaid here on Friday.

Randhawa also said aPunjab government's delega-tion is awaiting the Centre'snod to visit Pakistan later thismonth to assess the progress ofthe Kartarpur Corridor project.

He said the Punjab dele-gation of state ministers andMLAs are also supposed tomeet Pakistan Prime MinisterImran Khan and the chiefminister of the Punjab provinceof the neighbouring country.

In an informal interactionwith reporters here, JailsMinister Randhawa said theDalai Lama,83, a globallyrevered figure and recipient ofthe Nobel Peace Prize, will beamong a host of religious andspiritual leaders who will beinvited to join the celebrationsin November.

"The Dalai Lama has beenrequested to join the celebra-tions. Besides, other top reli-gious leaders from variousfaiths will also be invited," hesaid.

Asked how soon will thePunjab government delegationvisit Pakistan, Randhawareplied, "As soon as our gov-ernment gives us the permis-sion. The day we get permis-

sion from the Centre we willgo."

Commenting on the ongo-ing work on the KartapurCorridor, Randhawa said, "Thework is still slow on our side. Ihad met secretary, BorderManagement in the Ministry ofHome Affairs, and told himthat we need to speed up workon our side. He assured thatmanpower will be doubled andwork will be expedited."

In a major initiative lastNovember, both India andPakistan agreed to set up theKartarpur Corridor to link thehistoric Gurdwara Darbar

Sahib -- the final resting placeof Guru Nanak Dev -- to DeraBaba Nanak in Gurdaspur.

Kartarpur Sahib is locatedin Pakistan's Narowal districtacross the Ravi river, about fourkilometres from the Dera BabaNanak shrine.

Pakistan is building thecorridor from the Indian bor-der to the Gurdwara DarbarSahib in Kartarpur, while theother part from Dera BabaNanak in Gurdaspur up to theborder is being constructed byIndia.

The corridor will beopened in November on theoccasion of 550th birthanniversary of Guru NanakDev.

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Continuing with his ongoing'Jan Ashirwad Yatra' ahead

of the assembly elections,Haryana Chief MinisterManohar Lal Khattar on Fridayconducted a roadshow inPanipat and some other placesas well.

Sitting in a bus, Khattarwaived at the people gatheredon roads cheering for him. Thebus had pictures of Khattaralong with Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and other BJPleaders on left and right sides.

A speaker atop the bus wasalso blasting slogans of "Abkibaar 75 paar, fir ek baarManohar sarkar" (This timeabove 75, once again Manohar

government).The Haryana polls are like-

ly to be held in October. "I

started the 'Jan Ashirwad Yatra'on August 18 and in the last 4days, I have held events in 26

assembly constituency areas,"he said in his address.

"I did not have any experi-ence in the government somany people were critical of myleadership. Nepotism and cor-ruption are the qualities ofCongress. My Government hasfocused on public welfare,"Khattar added. This election,the party is banking upon theclean image of Khattar keepingin view the 'outstanding per-formance' by his government inthe last 5 years, state BJP chiefSubhash Barala had said. Withopposition divided andCongress in shambles, the statechief claimed that there areleaders across the parties whoare in touch with BJP andwould want to cross over.

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Ahigh-level probe by theIAF into the crash of a MI-

17 helicopter on February 27this year in Budgam in Jammu& Kashmir has held five offi-cers guilty as it was found outthat the helicopter went downafter getting hit by an Indianmissile, generally known as‘friendly fire.’ The incidenttook place on the day when the

Pakistani jets intruded intoIndia leading to a dog fight. Allthe six crew members and acivilian on the ground werekilled in the crash.

These findings are part ofthe mandatory court of inquiryand its report is now with theAir Force headquarters for fur-ther action. The officers foundguilty of negligence and not fol-lowing procedures include oneGroup Captain, two WingCommanders and two FlightLieutenants, sources said hereon Friday.

They also said the officersmay face severe punishment asper provisions of the militarylaw adding the IAF top brass

will decide on the quantum ofpunishment to those heldresponsible for the incident.

They also said the IAF willinitiate action based on thereport of the court of inquiryheaded by an Air Commodoreand the officers may facecharges of culpable homicidenot amounting to murder.

The inquiry found that the‘Identification of Friend orFoe’ (IFF) system on-boardthe helicopter was switched offand there was a “vital gap” incommunication and coordi-nation between the groundstaff and the crew of the ill-fated helicopter.

The IFF helps air defence

radars identify whether an air-craft or helicopter is friendly or hostile.

In early May, the IAF trans-ferred the Air OfficerCommanding (AOC) ofSrinagar base to ensure a thor-ough probe into the incident.

The helicopter crashed inBudgam on February 27 whenIndian and Pakistani fighter jetswere engaged in aerial combat,a day after India’s air strike ona Jaish-e-Mohammed terroristtraining camp in Balakot inPakistan. The Pakistani jetsunsuccessfully attempted totarget various Indian militaryinstallations in Rajouri andPoonch sectors.

Officials said the Court ofInquiry was also specificallyfocusing on examining the roleof various people, includingthose controlling the airdefence system when the heli-copter was hit by a surface-to-air missile.

Incidentally, the helicopterwas shot down around thesame time when Indian andPakistani fighter jets wereengaged in the aerial battle.Moreover, the incident tookplace when the Indian forces ontheir highest alert following thePakistani aerial raid. The heli-copter crashed within ten min-utes of take off after getting hitby own missile.

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The decline in the kharifcrop sowing presents grim

grim sitaution for economy.The sowing of rice and pulseshas declined sharply due tofloods and heavy rainfall in sev-eral parts of the country.

The Union AgricultureMinistry’s latest data showsthat planting of kharif cropssowing area has slipped belowlast year’s cultivated area ofJuly and August. There hasbeen decline of 20 lakhhectare in rice cultivationand 5 lakh hectare in pulsesin the country.

According to NationalDisaster Relief Force (NDRF),it is estimated that 6-7 lakhhectare under kharif cropshave been affected due to floodand incessant rainfall. Thefinal assessment is yet to bemade by the inter-State min-isterial group. Due to shortageof pulses, prices of arhar,moong and tur have beenincreased from Rs 50-60 per kg

to Rs 100 per kg. Flood has alsoaffected the cultivation of teathis year as most of the teaplantation have been dam-aged in Karnataka, Kerala andWest Bengal. This may impactthe prices of tea in the retailmarket in the coming days.

India has seen large scalefloods in several parts of thecountry this month. States likeAssam, Bihar, Gujarat,Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh,Karnataka and Kerala havebeen grappling with devastat-ing floods.

The Agriculture Ministry’sdata shows that kharif cropplanting has covered 975.16lakh hectare land as comparedto 997.67 lakh hectare a yearearlier from June up to August23, a decline of 22.51 lakhhectare so far.

Rice was planted on 334.92lakh hectares as compared to355.42 lakh hectare a year ear-lier, a decline of 23.03 lakhhectare. Bihar, Jharkhand,Tamil Nadu, Kerala, ArunachalPradesh, Maharashtra and

Assam have reported less iscovered under Rice due toflood and rainfalls. In someStates, rice cultivation wasbadly impacted due to flood.

The area of pulse cultiva-tion also dropped from 128.54lakh hectare last year to 124.56lakh hectare, a decline of 3.97lakh hectare so far.Maharashtra, Gujarat,Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu,Sikkim, Andhra Pradesh havereported less cultivation thisyear. Due to shortage of puls-es, the prices is expected toincrease further in the comingdays. Currently, the rate ofArhar, Moong and Urad havebeen touched Rs 100 per kg.

The area of coarse cereals cul-tivation is also less by 3.66 lakhhectare this year so far.

A good monsoon is crucialfor the country’s economy asfarming sector accounts formore than 15% of the country’sGDP but nearly half of thecountry’s workforce is depen-dent on the agriculture sector.As many 1500 people diedand over 60,000 villages areaffected from flood in 14 states.It is estimated that 6 to7 lakhhectate of agriculture land and5 to 6 crore poultry destroyedin the flood.

With less than 37 days to goin the 2019 monsoon season,most regions across have record-

ed normal or above normalrainfall till August 23. Indiarecorded surplus rainfall 658.5mm as against the normal of652.2 mm so far. Only east andnortheast India, especiallyJharkhand and Gangetic WestBengal, have recorded significantbelow-normal monsoon rain.

The countrywide averagerainfall accumulation stood 10percent more than usual in thethird week of August. In the firstand second week of August,India received 28% and 45 per-cent above normal monsoonrainfall. As many as 28 sub divi-sions have recorded normalmonsoon while eight receiveddeficient rainfall.

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The CBI is likely to confrontall the six signatories on the

Foreign Investment PromotionBoard (FIPB) file relating toalleged irregular clearance ofFDI to the tune of Rs 300 croreby INX Media with formerFinance Minister PChidambaram who is current-ly undergoing custodial inter-rogation by CBI in the case.

The agency is also mullingwhether to take Chidambaramto Mumbai to confront himwith approver in the caseIndrani Mukherjea or bring herhere for confrontation withthe former Finance Minister.

In view of the high profilenature and vast experience ofChidambaram as a lawyer, theinvestigators are grilling himunder direct supervision ofagency director RK Shukla,sources said.

Chidambaram has so farbeen denying the allegationsduring the questioning andhas largely been evasive to thequeries put forth by the agencysleuths, they said, adding, he isa tough nut to crack.

Meanwhile, the CBI iswaiting responses to LettersRogatory (judicial requests)

sent to five countries---UnitedKingdom, Switzerland,Singapore, Mauritius andBermuda.

Through the LRs, theagency has sought to establishthe money trail of the allegedproceeds of crime throughshell companies, bankingtransaction details and bankaccounts.

The LRs are not only relat-ed to the INX Media case butto a number of other clearancesby the Foreign InvestmentPromotion Board (FIPB) dur-ing Chidambaram’s tenure asFinance Minister in the UPAregime.

Meanwhile, Karti alongwith his mother metChidambaram at the agency

headquarters as permitted bythe designated CBI court onThursday sending him to four-day CBI custody.

After the meeting, Kartitold reporters that his father isin very good spirits andenquired about his daughterwho is vacationing in DownUnder (Australia).

Karti further said, (He(Chidambaram) is enjoyingthe hospitality of theGovernment of India.

On a question on PrimeMinister Narendra Modi’sassertion in France that corruptshould not be spared, Kartiasserted even he believes thatcorrupt should be punished,adding neither he nor his fatheris corrupt.

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Former Prime MinisterManmohan Singh on Friday

took oath as a member of theRajya Sabha for his sixth term.Rajya Sabha Chairman MVenkaiah Naidu administeredthe oath in his chamber to 86-year-old Singh.

Leader of the HouseThaawar Chand Gehlot,Congress president SoniaGandhi and Rahul Gandhi werepresent during the oath-taking.Leader of the OppositionGhulam Nabi Azad, deputyleader of Congress in RajyaSabha Anand Sharma, andAhmed Patel were also presentin the chairman’s chamber.

Rajasthan Chief MinisterAshok Gehlot and his deputySachin Pilot, besides some BJPleaders were also present. Singhreturned to the Upper Houseunopposed after getting elect-ed from Rajasthan.

“Administered oath toFormer Prime Minister DrManmohan Singh as Rajya

Sabha MP in my Chamber inRajya Sabha today,” Naidu latertweeted along with pictures ofthe oath-taking in whichSingh’s wife Gursharan Kaurwas also seen.

In the August 19 by-elec-tion, necessitated by the deathof BJP MP Madan Lal Saini, theseat went to the Congress whichis in power in Rajasthan afterlast year’s state polls. Singh’s

tenure in the Upper Househad ended on June 14. He hadearlier represented Assam inRajya Sabha for around 28years.

He was elected to the RajyaSabha in 1991, 1995, 2001,2007 and 2013. He was also theLeader of the Opposition inRajya Sabha during 1998-2004and Leader of the House as thePrime Minister during 2004-14.

Singh is the fourth oldestamong the sitting members ofthe House of Elders after the 96-year-old Ram Jethmalani, 91-year-old Motilal Vora and 88-year-old C P Thakur. While 79-year-old Mahendra Prasad isserving his seventh term inRajya Sabha, Jethmalani is in hissixth term and Vora is servingfourth term in the UpperHouse, officials said.

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Levels of microplastics—tinyparticles smaller than about

one-fifth of an inch— in drink-ing water don’t appear to be ahealth risk. However, moreresearch is needed to assesshow microplastics may impacthuman health and the envi-ronment, the World HealthOrganisation (WHO) haswarned.

Following the release of ananalysis of current researchrelated to microplastics indrinking-water recently, theUN health agency has alsocalled for a reduction in plas-tic pollution to benefit theenvironment and reducehuman exposure.

“We urgently need to knowmore about the health impactof microplastics because theyare everywhere - including inour drinking-water,” said DrMaria Neira, Director,Department of Public Health,Environment and SocialDeterminants of Health, atWHO.

“Based on the limitedinformation we have,microplastics in drinking waterdon’t appear to pose a healthrisk at current levels. But weneed to find out more. We alsoneed to stop the rise in plasticpollution worldwide.”

“We are not alarmed,”WHO technical officer Jennifer

de France said. “With the datathat we have, we can say that webelieve the risk to be low, butat the same time, we can’t ruleout conclusively that theremight never be a risk in thefuture.”

According to the analysis,which summarizes the latestknowledge on microplastics indrinking-water, microplasticslarger than 150 micrometresare not likely to be absorbed inthe human body and uptake ofsmaller particles is expected tobe limited. Absorption and dis-tribution of very smallmicroplastic particles includingin the nano size range may,however, be higher, althoughthe data is extremely limited.

Further research is neededto obtain a more accurateassessment of exposure tomicroplastics and their poten-tial impacts on human health.These include developing stan-dard methods for measuringmicroplastic particles in water;more studies on the sourcesand occurrence of microplas-tics in fresh water; and the effi-cacy of different treatmentprocesses.

The WHO has recom-mended drinking-water sup-pliers and regulators prioritizeremoving microbial pathogensand chemicals that are knownrisks to human health, such asthose causing deadly diarrhoealdiseases.

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CBI Joint Director AjayBhatnagar has flagged

concerns over agency officialsbeing posted at a particularbranch for longer periodwhich is “severely” affectingthe conduct and work cultureas also discipline of theagency.

“All HOZs (Heads of

Zones) are requested toreview the posting particularsof each individual individualposted in their Zone andsend a list of officers rankwise … who are to be con-sidered for rotation due tolong tenure,” Bhatnagar saidin a letter on August 21 to hiscolleague Anurag.

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The number of tigers in thecountry has increased but

the manpower manning themhas not. As per the latest tigercensus, the number of thepredators in the country hasrisen by 33 per cent in last fouryears to 2,967,however, on anaverage the tiger reserves arereeling under shortage of staffwith 30 per cent posts lyingvacant.

A senior Government offi-cial from the UnionEnvironment Ministry saidthat vacancies pertain to forestguards, forest rangers, forestsection officers who are essen-tial for wildlife conservation,grassland management andrigorous protection frompoaching and illegal tree-fellerslying vacant.

According to the recentdata available from the

National Tiger ConservationAuthority (NTCA), numberwise, there are just 11,500 staffprotecting manning the 2,967big cats in the 50 tiger reservesacross the country.

The tiger reserves are just

not the home of big cats butalso the habitat of rich bio-diversity and a considerablewildlife population, includingbig predators like leopards andfaunas such as swamp deer,neel gai, hispid hare and stag,

to name a few, which needsconservation and protectionfrom wildlife smugglers, theofficial pointed out.

Tiger reserves such asSundarbans in West Bengal,Anamalai in Tamil Nadu,

Pakke in East Kameng districtof Arunachal Pradesh in north-eastern India, and Kawal tigerreserves in Telangana havereported acute shortage of staffwith half of the total sanctionedposts lying vacant.

Valmiki tiger reserve inBihar which has 31 tigers andten cubs is grappling withacute shortage of vacancy with86 per cent posts yet to be filled,speaking volumes of existinggaps in the management.

Sources said that most ofthe employees at VTR are dailywagers and not permanentemployees. They also lack therequired skill and interest. Infact, the contractual staff arebeing deployed at most of thetiger reserves.

Vivek Menon, CEO ofWildlife Trust of India (WTI)said: “Forest guards are thebackbone of India’s wildlifeand habitat protection system.

They are the guardians of itsnatural heritage and at thefrontline of the fight againstpoachers and timber smugglerswho are sometimes far betterarmed and equipped.

It is thus important thatthis force remains trained andhighly motivated to tacklediverse threats it is being facedwith. From time to time wehave been conducting work-shops with the StateGovernments to strengthenstaff morale and sharpen their skills.”

Interestingly, between 2012and 2018, 657 tiger deathswere reported in India, most ofthem (48% or 313) due to nat-ural causes and 21% or 138 dueto poaching, NTCA data says.Of the 138 poaching deaths,Madhya Pradesh reported themost (22% or 30), followed byKarnataka (24) andMaharashtra (18).

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New Delhi: The Supreme Court,hearing the politically sensitiveRam Janmabhoomi-BabriMasjid land dispute matter, tolda lawyer for a Hindu party onFriday to be “pin-pointed” and“precise” in his submissions.

“Mr (Sushil) Jain, we lookforward to your pin-pointed,crisp and precise arguments,” thefive-judge Constitution benchheaded by Chief Justice RanjanGogoi said as soon as the seniorcounsel for the Nirmohi Akharastarted advancinghis submissions.

T h eAllahabad HighCourt, in its 2010judgment on fourcivil suits, had par-titioned the 2.77-acre disputed landin Uttar Pradesh’s Ayodhyaequally among the three parties-- the Sunni Waqf Board, theNirmohi Akhara and Ram Lalla.

The Supreme Court bench,also comprising justices S ABobde, D Y Chandrachud,Ashok Bhushan and S A Nazeer,had on Thursday asked Jain toexplain as to how the Akharacould claim title over the dis-puted land in the capacity of a“shebait” of the deity.

Friday was the eleventh dayof the hearing in the matter

before the apex court.So far, the Akhara’s argu-

ments were contrary to the caseit had built in the high court, thebench observed and asked Jainto “build” his case “on merits”.

“While arguing, always keepin mind that we have alreadylooked at large part of the doc-uments,” it told Jain.

On being told by the lawyerthat a note was prepared and hewould take around a week toconclude his arguments, the

bench said, “You don’tneed a week, take aday and try your bestto put forward thecase.”

The bench said ithad perused manydocuments and askedJain to supplement

the arguments advanced byother Hindu parties.

“You say that you will dothis, you will do that, but you donot start,” the bench told thesenior lawyer.

Jain said the Akhara wasvery poor, it had no money andits temple was taken away,adding that the Hindu body wasentitled to put forward its case.

“Mr Jain, still you have notstarted the submissions,” thebench said, leading to com-mencement of arguments. PTI

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After failing on the diplo-matic front, Pakistan is

bent upon escalating tensionsalong the Line of Control inJammu & Kashmir.

On Friday, Pakistan Armyinitiated 'unprovoked' ceasefireviolation in which one IndianArmy jawan attained martyr-dom in Nowshera sector offrontier Rajouri district.Pakistan Army is regularly tar-geting civilian pockets alongthe Line of Control to disturbpeace in the region.Traumatised local residentshave been staying back insidetheir houses to ensure theirsafety but are worried a lot ason going work on completionof bunkers, sanctioned by theUnion Government is going onat snails' pace.

Since August 17, threeIndian jawans and one civilianhave lost their lives in Pakistanfiring along the Line of Controlin frontier districts of Rajouriand Poonch.

Defence PRO in Jammu,Lt-Col Devender Anand said," Pakistan Army resorted tounprovoked ceasefire violationalong the Line of Control in

Nowshera sector of Rajouridistrict on Friday morning".

He said, in the exchange offire, Naik Rajib Thapa attainedmartyrdom". Hittingback,"Indian Army respondedstrongly and effectively.

Defence PRO claimed,"Heavy damage was caused toPakistan Army posts and casu-alties to Pakistan soldiers havebeen inflicted by the Indianarmy".

Defence PRO said,NaikRajib Thapa, aged 34 yearsbelonged to Village Mechpara,District Jalpaiguri, West Bengaland is survived by his wife,Khusbu Mangar Thapa.

Meanwhile, to take stock ofthe prevailing security situationon ground zero, Lt Gen RanbirSingh, Army Commander,

Northern Command, accom-panied by the White KnightCorps Commander, Lt GenParamjit Singh Sangha visitedforward bases in Poonch andAkhnoor Sector to review theoperational preparedness.

Defence PRO said, "Duringthe visit to the sectors, theArmy Commander was briefedby the commanders on pre-paredness of their formations".

Army Commanderexpressed satisfaction on mea-sures adopted to strengthencounter infiltration posturewith increased alertness anduse of high-end technology. Healso appreciated the aggressivedomination of Line of Controladopted to give befittingresponse to adversarie's CFVsand tactical actions.

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Peaceful protests after theFriday prayers in Soura area

of Srinagar have once againturned violent after a largenumber of local residentsattempted to block entry ofsecurity personnel via bylanesto quell their protests.

According to eyewitness’reports, "after the Fridayprayers, a large number of peo-ple started shouting pro-Azadislogans while passing throughthe streets of Soura area ofSrinagar". To contain them,when security forces attemptedto move in the area, theyoffered strong resistance andstarted pelting stones. Securityforces had to resort to the useof teargassing, pepper grenadesand pellet guns to contain theprotesters. It could not be ascer-tained how many protestersreceived injuries during theprotest demonstrations whichcontinued for about 2 hours inthe area.

According to unconfirmedreports, "large number of resi-dents in the area also joined thesmall group of protesters whowere pelting stones. Those whocould not step out of theirhouses registered their protestby beating empty utensils and

joining the chorus of anti-Indiaslogans".

A twitter handle of KashmirZone police late evening post-ed a message claiming, "situa-tion in the valley has beenpeaceful. No untoward incidentwas reported today".

Meanwhile, worshippersspread across different parts ofSrinagar and other districtheadquarters of Kashmir couldnot offer prayers for third weekin succession inside historicmosques in their respectiveareas. Only small gatherings of

worshippers was permitted invulnerable pockets in downtown areas of Srinagar.

Elaborate security arrange-ments were made to preventmass assembly of people inand around local mosques.Posters had also surfaced in

several areas, urging the localresidents to march towards theoffice of United Nations to reg-ister their protest peacefully.The security forces had raisedbarricades blocking all theroads leading to the office ofUnited Nations.

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Golaghat (Assam): An assis-tant sub- inspector of theBorder Security Force fromAssam and his wife weredeclared foreigners by a tri-bunal without their knowl-edge, his family claimed onFriday.

Muzibur Rahman, the BSFman who is now posted inPunjab, and his wife weredeclared foreigners by theJorhat Foreigners' Tribunal inDecember last year but thefamily was informed aboutthis only last month, theyclaimed.

Talking to reporters atMerapani in Golaghat district,Rahman's father Bapdhan Alisaid except the two, everyonein his family have been includ-ed in the National Register ofCitizens (NRC), the final ver-sion of which will be publishedon August 31.

"I request the governmentto take steps so that he contin-

ues to be an Indian," Ali told anews channel.

He claimed that their fam-ily members have legacy dataand land documents to estab-lish their Indian citizenship.

Ali said, "We are Indians.The name of every member ofmy family is in the NRC butnot of Muzibur who is workingin the BSF in the service of thenation, and his wife."

One person identified asthe lawyer of the family saidRahman was declared a 'D'(Doubtful) voter in July 2018 ofwhich he was not aware andthen the Foreigners' Tribunaldeclared him a 'foreigner' inDecember.

But he did not get anysummon to appear for hearingto present his case, the lawyerclaimed.

The family said their villageheadman informed them onJuly 29 that Rahaman and hiswife were summoned to pre-

sent themselves in the JorhatCircuit House.

As he was away in Punjab,his father and brother-in- lawwent there and they were toldby Government officials thatthe two were declared 'for-eigners' in December 2018.

"Probably those engaged in

the NRC updating exercisehave not done their duty prop-erly. We want an error-freeNRC and will always cooper-ate with the process. I urge thegovernment to ensure that gen-uine Indian citizens are notharassed," Rahman told thechannel over the phone from

Punjab.Earlier, Kargil war veteran

Mohammad Sanaullah andCentral Industrial SecurityForce jawan Mamud Ali werealso declared foreigners by theForeigners Tribunal.

Soon after the Sanaullahincident, Army chief Gen BipinRawat had said no jawan willbe allowed to face any diffi-culties if his name does notcome in the NRC and that theforce will extend all assistancein this regard.

Names of over 40 lakhpeople were not included in thecomplete draft of the NRCpublished last year.

Assam, which had faced aninflux of people fromBangladesh since the early 20thcentury, is the only state hav-ing an NRC which was firstprepared in 1951.

It is being updated nowunder the supervision of theSupreme Court. PTI

9)$� ���� ���)�+��������� ���������������*�� �Kota: Two women fell victim tothe outlawed custom of tripletalaq on the same day in thisdistrict with their husbandsallegedly divorcing them withthe oral diktat.

Kota's Waqf Nagar residentAnisa Khan on Thursday allegedher husband Usman, a residentof Nagar area in Bharatpur dis-trict, divorced her for not bring-ing more dowry and turned herout of her matrimonial home,said police.

In her complaint to Kota'sCity Superintendent of PoliceDeepak Bhargav, Khan said herhusband divorced her after rais-ing the demand and beating herup.

On the SP's direction, anFIR was lodged under theMuslim Women (Protection ofRights on Marriage) Act, 2019against Usman at the Dadabari

police station and the investi-gation was started, said SHOTarachand Bansiwal.

In the second case, a 55-year-old woman, Rehana allegedher husband Sarwar Ansari, aformer employee of Kota'sCommand Area Developmentproject, divorced her by utteringtalaq thrice earlier in the day.

On the woman's compliant,an FIR was registered at theKunhari police station. PTI

Ahmedabad: The Gujarat StateCommission for Women hasasked IAS officer Gaurav Dahiyato appear before it after receiv-ing a complaint from a Delhi-based woman who has accusedhim of bigamy and cheating.

Chairperson of the com-mission Leelaben Ankoliya saidon Friday that the summonswas issued two days ago.

"There is no response fromhim yet," she said.

She did not specify when hewas supposed to appear.

Meanwhile, the com-plainant woman, who had metAnkoliya on August 20 to makea representation, on Friday metGujarat Chief Secretary JNSingh in Gandhinagar.

Addressing a press conferencelater, she reiterated her demandof DNA test of her eight-month-old daughter to establish thatDahiya is her biological father.

Dahiya, a 2010-batchGujarat-cadre officer, was sus-pended by the state governmenton August 14 after the womanaccused him of marrying her in2018 by concealing the factthat he was already married.

"I have all the evidence toprove that Dahiya married meand we have a daughter togeth-er. If he claims he is innocent,he should come forward for aDNA test," she said.

Dahiya has denied that heevery married her, and accusedher of blackmailing him. PTI

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Jaipur: The fourth accused hasbeen arrested in connectionwith the lynching of RakbarKhan on the suspicion of cowsmuggling in Rajasthan's Alwardistrict last year, police said.

Vijay Kumar was caught inMurtikala colony of Jaipur onThursday and taken to Alwar.The fifth accused, Naval Kishore,is still absconding, police said.

The police have alreadyarrested Dharmendra Yadav,Paramjeet Singh and Naresh inconnection with the case andfiled a charge sheet againstthem.

Rakbar alias Akbar wasbeaten severely by a group ofpeople on suspicion of cowsmuggling in Alwar's Ramgarharea in July last year. On thenight of July 20, Khan and hisfriend, Aslam, had allegedlypurchased the cows fromLadpura village and were takingthem to their village in Haryanathrough a forested area nearLalawandi in Alwar when theaccused attacked them.

Aslam managed to flee, butan injured Akbar died at a hos-pital in Alwar. PTI

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Muzaffarnagar (UP): A casehas been registered hereagainst a dentist for allegedlygiving instant triple talaq to hiswife over dowry, police said onFriday. Saira Bano, a residentof Mustafabad village inMuzaffarnagar area, was giveninstant triple talaq by her hus-band in April 16 after thedowry demands were not met,according to a complaint.

A case was registeredagainst Tahir Hasan underthe Muslim Women(Protection of Rights onMarriage) Act at the NewMandi police station onThursday, the police said. Thecouple, who got married inDecember 2015, are dentistsand have a clinic in Deobandtown of Uttar Pradesh'sSaharanpur district. PTI

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Chennai: A group of advocateshas come out in support ofMadras high court judge JusticeS Vaidyanathan who recentlywithdrew his observation thatco-education in Christian insti-tutes was "highly unsafe" for thefuture of girl children and direct-ed the court registry to deletecontroversial paras in his order.

In a representation to theChief Justice, the Advocates ForReform, Chennai, comprisingabout 82 advocates, said while itis open to the legal fraternity tocriticise a judgment on its mer-its, lawyers cannot claim anyright to criticise judges in theirpersonal capacity for the pro-nouncements made by them inthe judgment.

A delegation of 64 lawyersled by senior advocate R Vaigaihad earlier submitted a repre-

sentation urging the chief justicenot to post any cases onChristian missionaries as well aswomen before JusticeVaidyanathan. The delegationhad also requested the chief jus-tice to counsel the judge to recallthe order and delete some moreparas in it. The Advocates ForReform said "When it is alwaysopen to to the aggrieved partiesto file an appeal if they areaggrieved by the judgment, theadvocates have no right todemand the judges to recall theorders passed by them."

Such "unwarranted criti-cism" of the judges for the viewstaken by them in the judg-ments would undermine theindependence of the judiciary,the representation said.

It would clearly amount togross interference in the admin-

istration of justice and "is anattempt to virtually browbeat thejudges for the judgments pro-nounced by them."

Senior advocate Vaigai hadon Wednesday made a mentionbefore the judge in the court tohear the case again for removalof some controversial paras inthe order. When the mattercame up on Thursday, the judgesaid, "The High Court Registryis directed to issue a fresh ordercopy after removing theexpunged paras."

The judge had made theobservations recently whenrefusing to quash a show-causenotice issued to a MadrasChristian College professor fac-ing sexual harassment chargefrom at least 34 girl students pur-suing third-year Zoology courseat the college. PTI

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Aday after its president RajThackeray was grilled by the

Enforcement Directorate offi-cials for more than eight hoursfor his alleged financial involve-ment in M/s Kohinoor CTNL,the MNS on Friday retaliated inan unusual manner by servinga “notice” on the ED for its fail-ure to put up a name board inMarathi in front of its BallardPier Office in south Mumbai.

In a tweet put out throughits official handle, the MNSstated: “The name boards ofGovernment departmentsshould be in Marathi. Perhaps,the ED office has forgotten it. Wehave made a complaint in thisregard to the district collector’soffice. We have sent a copy of thenotice to the ED office. Will theMarathi language departmentcompel the ED office to put itsname plate in Marathi?”.

Raj was grilled for more

than eight hours on Thursdayfor his financial involvement inM/s Kohinoor CTNL which isbeing investigated for allegedirregularities in the IL&FS’sloans-cum- investments case.

Raj, whose questioning bythe ED officials began around 12noon and continued till well past8 pm, emerged out of the EDoffice at around 8.15 pm onThursday.

Raj was responding to sum-mons issued to him last week inconnection with the invest-ments that he had made in M/s

Kohinoor CTNL, a companyfunded by former MaharashtraCM Manohar Joshi’s sonUnmesh Joshi.

After his questioning bythe ED in a loan default involv-ing M/s Kohinoor CTNL, Rajhad said that notwithstandingthe inquiry launched againsthim by the central investigatingagency, he would not shut hismouth but keep speaking againstthe Government.

“You may investigate me asmuch as you can, but I wouldnot shut my mouth. But, Iwould continue to speak (againstthe Government),” Raj had said.

The ED is investigating thealleged irregularities in theIL&FS’s loans and investmentsworth over �860 crore in M/sKohinoor CTNL.

M/s Kohinoor CTNL hasbeen under ED scanner forbeing a prominent defaulter ofIL&FS, amounting to an esti-mated �135 crore.

Unmesh along with sonalong with IL&FS and RajThackeray-owned MatoshreeConstruction had in 2005 joint-ly had made a bid and boughtfor the NTPC’s Kohinoor Mill’s4.8-acre property for �421 crore.

In 2008, the IL&FS renegedfrom the deal and surrenderedits shares for only �90 crore, asagainst an investment of �225crore made in M/s KohinoorCTNL. Following the IL &FS’sexit, Raj also exited from theventure after selling his shares.

In 2017, M/s KohinoorCTNL entered into an agree-ment to sell some commercialand residential properties inthe upcoming Kohinoor SquareTowers to IL&FS to settle out-standing of around �500 crorein loans. Following this, IL&FSextended another �100 crore toKohinoor CTNL on which itdefaulted. Jr Joshi’s company isnow under control of anothercompany.

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Lucknow: BSP presidentMayawati Friday appealed tothe Centre and the Delhi gov-ernment to find a way to recon-struct the Ravidas templewhich was demolished by theDelhi Development Authority(DDA) on the direction of theSupreme Court recently.

Mayawati's appeal came aday after a Delhi court sent BhimArmy chief ChandrashekharAzad and 95 others, arrested oncharges of rioting and unlawfulassembly following violentprotest in Tughlakabad area, to14-day judicial custody.

They were detained onWednesday night after theprotest against the demolitionof a Ravidas temple.

The BSP president, whohad distanced herself from theviolent Dalit protest in

Tughlakabad area, Fridayappealed to both the Centreand the Delhi Government tofind a way to reconstruct thetemple and asked followers ofSaint Ravidas not to take law intheir hands. "Making thedemand yet again from theCentral and Delhi govern-ments to find a middle path toexpedite the reconstruction ofthe temple with governmentexpenditure so that proper jus-tice can be done . It should beremembered that the BSP gov-ernment in UP had done manyhistorical works in honour ofSanit Ravidas," she tweeted. OnAugust 14, Mayawati had askedthe two Governments to find amiddle path to get the templeconstructed with their ownresources.

In another tweet, Mayawati

also appealed to the followersof Saint Ravidas not to take lawin their hands. "It is an appealto the followers of the great saintRavidasji that they should notget angry and take law in theirhands for reconstruction of theancient temple which wasdemolished in Tughlakabad,Delhi. The followers of SaintRavidasji should follow the legalway and path shown by TathagatGautam Budh to serve theirinterests," she said.

On Thursday, she had said,"The incidents of vandalismthat have taken place in Delhi,especially in Tughlakabad, areunfair and the BSP has nothingto do with it. The BSP alwaysrespects the Constitution andthe law. The struggles of theparty are carried out well with-in the ambit of law." PTI

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Vadodara: A lioness gave birthto four cubs, three females andone male, in a wildlife sanctuaryin Gujarat, but two of them diedlater, a forest official said onFriday.

The lioness, Sarita - kept atthe Barda Wildlife Sanctuary inPorbandar district under a liongene pool project - gave birth tothe cubs in the wee hours ofAugust 21, D T Vasavada, chiefconservator of forest(Saurashtra), told PTI over thephone. However, the male cuband one of the female cubs dieddue to weakness on Thursday, hesaid. "Sarita was found to beweak and was not in a positionto feed her newborn cubs for 12hours," Vasavada said.

Veterinary doctors and offi-cials from the Sakkarbaug Zooat Junagadh checked their health

and gave them powdered milk,he said. However, two of themcould not survive, the officialsaid, adding their carcasses havebeen sentto the zoo's hospital forpostmorterm.

The other two cubs are ingood health, he said.

The chief conservator offorest said this was secondtime in less than five monthsthat Sarita has given birth tocubs in the sanctuary. Thelioness had given birth to twocubs on April1, but both ofthem later died, Vasavada said.The sanctuary currently hastwo lions — Avon and Nagraj— and as many lionesses —Sarita and Parvati, he said.Sometime ago, Parvati had alsogiven birth to a cub which waslater shifted to the SakkarbaugZoo, Vasavada said. PTI

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Kolkata: At least three personswere killed and over 25 injuredin a stampede near a temple inWest Bengal's North 24Parganas district on Friday,Chief Minister MamataBanerjee said.

The mishap occured ataround 2.15 am near LoknathDham (temple) at Kachua,around 50 km from the city.

A senior police officer toldPTI that three persons havesuccumbed to injuries andanother three are in a very crit-ical condition and 10 critical-ly injured have been brought toKolkata for treatment.

The three dead have beenidentified as Aparna Sarkar,Tarun Mondal and PoornimaGorai, another senior officer ofWest Bengal Police said.

Lakhs of devotees gather atthe temple every year on thisday to celebrate the birthanniversary of Baba LokenathBrahmachari, an 18th centuryBengali saint who has follow-ers in West Bengal andBangladesh.

Banerjee, who rushed toNational Medical College andHospital in the city wheresome of the injured wereadmitted, told reporters thatthere was a large crowd at

Kachua Loknath temple thisyear and the devotees tried totake shelter in the makeshiftbamboo stalls lining the narrowapproach to it when it rainedheavily in the early hours.These bamboo structures col-lapsed after the heavy rain.

"In the rush to escape fromthe place, a few people fell intothe pond near the stalls. Thiscreated confusion leading to astampede-like situation there,"she said.

Senior ministers have beensent to Barasat Hospital, R GKar Medical College and ahospital at Basirhat, where the

injured are being treated, shesaid.

"The mishap at Kachua isunfortunate and tragic.Occurred after heavy rain. I vis-ited CNMC and SSKM hospi-tals to meet families of thedeceased and injured. Everydeath is a tragedy. But what wecan do is stand by the familiesin their moment of grief,"Banerjee tweeted.

She expressed her displea-sure over the existence of themakeshift bamboo and poly-thene stalls in the the narrowlane leading to the temple.

"They (shopowners) set up

stalls using bamboos and poly-thenes. You will not be able todrive them away because if youdo, it will lead to problems," shesaid.

The senior police officersaid that some pilgrims visitingthe temple in Basirhat policedistrict had slipped due to theslush caused by the heavy rains.

The police rescued themand took them to a health campat Kachua and then to a pri-mary health centre, he said.

"The situation was imme-diately brought under con-trol," he said.

Banerjee announced com-pensation of Rs five lakh to thenext of kin of those killed in themishap, �1 lakh to the critical-ly injured and �50,000 forthose with minor injuries.

State Food and SuppliesMinister Jyotipriya Mallickheld a meeting with the templeauthorities later in the day anda decision was taken to erecttwo entry and exit points to theshrine.

On the stalls, he said thesewere built by locals.

BJP state president DilipGhosh criticised the state gov-ernment for not setting upproper infrastructure to dealwith the rush of pilgrims and

demanded immediate probeinto the mishap.

"There is no point in (theCM's) running from one hos-pital to another now ... Whyshould the CM be going to hos-pitals? ... The state governmentshould have put properarrangements in place keepingin mind the huge turnout onthis occasion. There must be aninvestigation into the mishap,"Ghosh said.

The state government hadprovided adequate securitycover for the Haj pilgrims butwhen it came to providingsecurity and services for Hindupilgrims it turns indifferent. "Ithink there was some laxity inthe arrangements which led tothe loss of lives," he told news-men.

Alleging that the accidentoccured due to indifference andcasual approach of the stategovernment, he said had thestate government providedenough security cover the acci-dent could have been averted.

"We have no problems inHaj pilgrims getting securitycover. But it is absurd that onlyHaj pilgrims get it and otheramenities and the Hindu pil-grims are deprived of it," hesaid. PTI

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Mirzapur (UP): A video ofchildren being served salt androtis in their mid-day meal ata Government-run primaryschool here has gone viral onsocial media, prompting theCongress to attack the UttarPradesh Government.

The video is of SiyurPrimar y School underJamalpur block and it shows awoman distributing rotis andanother woman giving salt tochildren as the mid-day meal.Authorities suspended twoteachers, apparently in animmediate damage controlexercise.

It was shared widely onsocial media on Thursday.

Congress leader PriyankaGandhi Vadra hit out at theState Government on theissue, terming the incident"condemnable" and said thefacilities provided by it werebecoming very poor.

Basic Shiksha Adhikari(BSA) Pravin Kumar Tiwarisaid on Friday, "Report aboutthe incident was taken fromthe Block Shiksha Adhikari,Jamalpur, and two teachersfound to be prima facieresponsible were suspended."

Tiwari said instructionswere to provide the mid-daymeal as per the prescribedmenu and efforts are on toascertain whether seniorswere informed that salt androtis were being served.

Those who have been sus-pended are teacher inchargeMurari and Arvind KumarTripathi, he said, adding thatthe incident could be an out-come of a local rivalry.

Priyanka Gandhi, theCongress general secretary,tagged the video on Twitterwhich showed the children,sitting having roti and salt.

"Students are being servedsalt and rotis in mid-daymeals in a school in Mirzapur.This is the state of affairs of

BJP Government in UttarPradesh. The facilities pro-vided by the Government arebecoming poor and suchtreatment towards children ishighly condemnable," shesaid.

As per norms under theFlagship Nutrition Scheme,pulses, rice, rotis, vegetableswith fruits and milk on certaindays are to be served to school-going children to ensure nec-essary nutrition to them.

The mid-day meal schemeis designed to provide a min-imum of 450 calories perchild per day, which shouldinclude at least 12 grams ofprotein as well. These mealsshould be served to each childat least 200 days a year. PTI

Lucknow: Suheldev BhartiyaSamaj Party chief Om PrakashRajbhar on Friday metSamajwadi Party presidentAkhilesh Yadav here, ahead ofthe impending bypolls to 12Assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh.

Donning the trademarkyellow scarf associated with hisparty, Rajbhar, a former UP cab-inet minister, drove to the SPoffice and had a meeting withthe Yadav for over half-an-hour,but neither of the sides divulgedthe nature of the talks.

The Assembly by-electionsare due in 12 seats in UttarPradesh as sitting MLAs gotelected to the Lok Sabha in the2019 parliamentary polls.

The 2022 Assembly elec-tions in the state might havecropped up during the discus-sion between the two leaders,an SP leader said.

Rajbhars account foraround four per cent of the totalelectorate in the state. The

community has a sizablestrength in Azamgarh, Mau,Ghosi, Ballia, Salempur,Jaunpur, Lalganj Ghazipur,Deoria and some other seats inthe state.

Rajbhars constitute 20 percent of the Purvanchal popula-tion and are regarded as the sec-ond-most politically dominantcommunity after Yadavs in the

eastern UP.A leader from the Rajbhar

caste — Anil Rajbhar — waselevated as a cabinet ministerfrom minister of stat (indepen-dent charge) during theWednesday's reshuffle of the UPcouncil of ministers.

He was allocated theBackward Class Welfare andDivyangjan Empowerment

ministry -- a portfolio held byOm Prakash Rajbhar earlier.

The SBSP had won fourseats in the 2017 UP assemblyelections, though the partycould not open its account inthe 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Om Prakash Rajbhar wasdumped from the UP ministryby Chief Minister YogiAdityanath just a day after theLok Sabha polls ended for mak-ing embarrassing statementsagainst the BJP. PTI

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Mumbai: The MaharashtraGovernment said on Friday thatit has appointed experts to pre-sent its case before a local coun-cil which has sought to closedown a memorial of Dr BRAmbedkar in north London.

The Chief Minister's Office(CMO) said the Governmentwas taking all the steps toaddress the council's objections.

The Government hasappointed a solicitor and twoplanning experts to present itscase before the council, it said.

The matter will be heard bythe council authorities inSeptember, the CMO said in astatement.

Ambedkar House, a memo-rial of the Dalit icon, is part ofa four-storey residential build-ing at 10 King Henry's Road.

Dr Ambedkar had livedthere in 1921-22 during his stu-dent days at the London Schoolof Economics.

The local council recentlyrejected an application by theIndian authorities to convert theproperty into an official muse-um or memorial.

The property does not havethe permission to be used as amuseum and must be returnedto residential use, the councilofficer's report with reference tothe application said.

"Singhania & Co Solicitorshave been appointed to present

Maharashtra government'scase....Mr Steven GasztowiczQC and planning expert MrCharles Rose have been namedin the committee formed to pre-sent the government's case," theCMO statement said.

"...Efforts will be made at alllevels to complete the memori-al work addressing the issuesraised by the council," it added.

Leader of Opposition inthe Maharashtra Assembly VijayWadettiwar termed the Londoncouncil's decision as "unfortu-nate". "This structure which wasmade holy by Ambedkar's stayis a matter of faith for all. Thegovernment should speak to theUK government to ensure thatthe (building's) memorial tagremains intact," the Congressleader said. PTI

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Expressing his confidence thatthe BJP-Shiv Sena alliance

would recapture power inMaharashtra in the October2019 Assembly with a hugemajority, Chief MinisterDevendra Fadnavis said onFriday that if voted back topower, his Government wouldmake the State drought-free inthe next five years.

Talking to media persons atDhule in north Maharashtra,Fadnavis said: “During myMahajansandesh Yatra, the peo-ple are expressed confidence andlove in their our government. Iam confident that the rulingBJP-Shiv Sena alliance will get ahuge majority in the forthcom-ing Assembly polls under theleadership of Prime MinisterNarendra Modi. We will makeMaharashtra drought-free inthe next five years”.

Fadnavis, who launched thesecond phase of“Mahajansandesh Yatra” from

Dhule on Thursday, said:“During the first phase of theyatra, we reached out people in10 districts. During the yatra, weare experiencing overwhelmingresponse from the people. Wehad to suspend the first phase ofyatra owing the flood situationin western Maharshtra”.

“The people believe thatour government has workedfor their welfare and hence theywant us to come back to power.The popular mood is that onlyBJP led alliance should be inpower at the Centre and in thestate. Hence, under the leader-ship of Prime Minister NarendraModi, Mahayuti will get a hugepublic mandate in the stateagain. We will do more workthan we have done in the last fiveyears and will makeMaharashtra drought free,” thechief minister said.

Maintaining that SulwadeJamfal irrigation scheme wasvery important for solvingdrinking water crisis and takingcare of irrigation needs in Dhule

and Sindhkhed talukas ,Fadnavis said that the Centrehad allocated a fund of Rs 2400crore for this scheme. “By com-pleting various irrigation pro-jects alongwith this project, wewill make North Maharashtradrought free and prosperous in

the upcoming days,” he said.According to the chief min-

ister, 504 village water worksunder Jalyukt Shivar had beencompleted. “This year rainshave replenished the waterreserves sufficiently. In Dhuledistrict, 84,000 farmers have

received a loan waiver collec-tively amounting to �471 crore.Nearly 2.12 lakh farmers havebenefitted from PradhanmantriKisan Samman Yojna. One lakhwomen in the district have gotcooking gas connection underUjjwala Scheme”.

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Aday after entering a sub-middleclass household in

the beach town of Digha whereshe personally prepared tea forthe inmates as a part of her out-reach exercise, Bengal ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjee hasscribbled a poem on what shecalls a “depressing state” ofIndian democracy.

In the poem titled “Thikana”or “Address” where the poetapparently labours hard to findout the lost address of democracythat India used to be, Banerjeewrites how the address ofdemocracy has become unrecog-nisable. Incidentally, the poemcame a day after the arrest of for-mer Union Home Minister PChidambaram.

Though the poet herself hasnot translated the lines intoEnglish, the basic import of theverse is somber as she sadlywrites how “cawing crows havegone dumb and how the spar-rows have stopped pecking at the

grains of rice.”The Chief Minister goes on

to rue how in a forlorn democ-racy “justice has been nimblycurdled like sour milk” won-dering why the “storm that hasrisen is not stopping.” Rights, thepoem says has been “crammedinto a sack” and those whoprotest are in jail.

Despondency creeps in thepoet’s mind even as she helplesslytries to find out her address (readthe address of democracy).“…Can’t find my address”though “everything around is sofamiliar” they seem much“unknown.”

And she ends with an appealsaying, “heart, find my address.”

Incidentally, the ChiefMinister had on Thursday react-ed to the arrest of former FinanceMinister P Chidambaram saying“I am depressed, I am sad” athow things have been done.Without delving much into thelegality of the senior Congressleader’s arrest she said “theprocess of his arrest is sad. It is

bad. It makes me depressed.”Hours after giving her reac-

tion the Chief Minister whoseown party colleagues includingsenior Trinamool leaders arefacing graft charges and CBIprobe wrote the poem.

Meanwhile, in an apparentbid to counter TrinamoolCongress’ reach-out measureslike “Didi ke Bolo” throughwhich the people are asked todial a specific number to let theChief Minister know about theirwoes for immediate reddressalthe State BJP has devised aseries of programmes called“Cha Chakra.”

State BJP president DilipGhosh on Friday said “we aregoing to launch Cha Chakra asa part of our mass outreach pro-gramme.” He said that earlieronly he used to involve people inCha Chakra through which thepeople were engaged in brief teasessions so that they could maketheir problems known. “Butnow the other leaders too willtake part in Cha Chakra.”

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Condemning the blacken-ing and glarlanding shoes

to Veer Savarkar’s bust,installed at the DelhiUniversity’s north campus,Chief Minister DevendraFadnavis on Friday said thatthe miscreants behind theincident would be prosecuted.

Talking to media personsat Dhule in northMaharashtra during the

course of his MahajansandeshYatra, Fadnavis said:“Swatantryaveer Savarkar wasthe Guru and inspiration ofmany revolutionaries. Thesacrif ices made by theSavarkar family for the inde-pendence of the country areunparalleled. They should berespected”.

“Those involved in theincident at Delhi University’snorth campus should cer-tainly be prosecuted. No one

should try to create the issueof law and order in this caseand disturb the social har-mony,” the chief ministersaid.

It may be recalled that apillar with busts of V DSavarkar, Bhagat Singh andSubhas Chandra Bose atopwere installed by the ABVP-led Delhi University Students’Union (DUSU) at theUniversity’s north campus onTuesday.

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Chief Post Master General ofMaharashtra Circle HC

Agrawal on Friday released aspecial postal cover to markthe completion of 130 years ofBandra railway station, in thepresence of Bollywood actorShah Rukh Khan.

Also present on the occa-sion were MaharashtraMinister for School EducationAsish Shelar, WesternRailway’s General Manager AK Gupta, senior Western

Railway, Postal departmentofficials and local corpora-tors.

Western Railway chiefspokesperson Ravinder Bhakarsaid that Bandra Railway sta-tion was notified as a grade Iheritage structure and “ it isone of the finest suburbanrailway stations of Mumbai”.

The century old railwaystation, an excellent architec-tural blend of Victorian Gothicand the Vernacular style,stands out as a prominentlandmark on its site.

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The security agencies onFriday beefed up security

both inside and outside theMumbai Airport, following asecurity breach on Thursdaywhen a ‘mentally ill’ personjumped over a wall and took astroll under a a Spicejet aircraft.

As the Spicejet flight SG-634 Boeing 737 aircraft waitedon the taxiway N1 to enter therunway for a take-off toBengaluru, passengers and crewof the aircraft and others noticedan unauthorized person movingaround on the ground below.

The man in question hadon Thursday afternoon scaledthe perimeter walls of theMumbai Airport, jumpeddown, strolled nonchalantlyaround 50-metres to the taxi-

way, looked at the engine,touched the huge wheels andwent around the undercarriageof the aircraft.

He waved at an airportjeep that reached the place tokeep an eye on him. However,the security personnel did notstep out of the vehicle to avoidgetting too close to the aircraftengine.

Not satisfied, the man inquestion walked to the tail-endof the aircraft. He was laterarrested by the security per-sonnel present, minutes after hecame on the scene. The incidentwas captured on CCTV camerasinstalled in the vicinity, whilesome passengers also shot theevent through mobile phones.

Upon questioning, theapprehended intruder told thesecurity personnel that he had

entered the restricted zone “onlyto see the airplane” at closequarters. He was later identifiedas a ‘mentally ill person aged 24years from Sion in north-centralMumbai. He had been caughtclaimbing atop a stationeryBEST bus at Sion.

His family members toldthe police that he indulged insuch questionable acts when hedoesn’t take his medicines ontime. He is suspected to haveentered the airport by climbingon the mobile toilets lining theairport wall.

The security breach involv-ing the “mentally-ill” personcame two weeks after theCentre’s stringent directives onsecurity matters in the wake ofthe scrapping of Article 370 ofthe Constitution which willremain in force till August 31.

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Page 8: English News Paper | Breaking News | Latest Today News in ... · time registration fee, lifting ... Supreme Court on Friday ... Marriage) Act 2019 as “uncon-stitutional” on grounds

In a democracy, citizens enjoy the priv-ilege of casting their vote to elect rep-resentatives. In India, we elect leadersright from the panchayat level to theParliament. The right to vote is prized

and all of us are taught about it in our schoolsand universities. We are also reminded aboutthis by politicians of all hues before every elec-tion. It is also a well-established fact that theIndian voter is far more mature now andknows about the “power” of his/her vote. Thiswas proved beyond any doubt to one and all— nationally and internationally — in 1977when the citizens unseated Indira Gandhifrom her traditional family fiefdom in UttarPradesh and simultaneously threw her out ofpower at the national level by decimating herpolitical party. A very interesting interlude fol-lowed her defeat. People had high hopes fromthe next Government as it was supposed towork under the astute guidance of JayaprakashNarayan. Those, who inherited power, couldnot manage the Government. They wereassessed unfit by the people and IndiraGandhi was brought back to power withinthree years. People not only pardoned her butalso taught a lesson to those who could notrise above petty personal feuds as they hadnot “learnt to live and work together.” All this,experts say, is the essence of democracy.

Democracy shines when a humble per-son, setting aside all his/her woes, concernsand stress of providing the next meal, entersthe polling booth and puts his/her finger onthe EVM button. Who can read or visualisewhat clouds their minds in the shape of a bet-ter tomorrow for him/her, the family and forthe little world that deserves outside supporton many counts. The voter is still far from thepromises made in the Constitution of India.One more election opportunity and expec-tations soar again. The Indian voter has alsowitnessed how elected representatives haveoften let them down on several counts. Mostof them vanish for five years, take more inter-est in their own welfare than that of the elec-torate, show little concern and connectivityto their electors, give no dignity to them andafter five years, return with folded hands,pleading for “one more chance.” But if oneweighs the performance of elected represen-tatives on Gandhian expectations, one wouldmostly be disappointed.

Winston Churchill never expected thatIndia could manage its independence. He wasconvinced that Indians were unfit to governthemselves and, hence, the British had to stayon to look after them. It was not easy for himor those of his ilk to see beyond the cobwebsof the much-publicised altruistic perceptionthat the British essentially travelled to Indiato “salvage the souls of the savages.” One couldclaim with a sense of pride and achievementthat whether Churchill liked it or not, Indiahas established its credentials in “how to makeits democracy operational in its minutestnuances.” We could do it as it was not newto democratic practices of governance.

The Ganrajyas of Licchavi and Vaishaliare well-known historical instances. Even atthat time, education for preparing young ones

with a focus on “lot learn to livetogether” began in joint familiesthat accommodated four gener-ations under one roof. It was alsoa ground to teaching them torespect different viewpoints andaccommodate the likes and dis-likes of everyone. Respect fordiversity and the realisation howessential it was, were inherent inthe Indian tradition. Indian cul-ture prepares its children for aduty-bound society that respectsrelationships within the familyand beyond.

It will be worthwhile toremember what Churchill said:“Democracy is the worst form ofGovernment, except for all oth-ers”, which invites learned andinformed deliberations even now.He viewed democratic politicsnot only as an “insurance” forfuture, against external dangers,but also against threats “scarce-ly less grave and much more nearand constant” that threaten us all.India, like every other function-al and dynamic democracy, mustremain conscious of the dangersto its democracy that are emerg-ing within the system from thevery functionaries that areentrusted with the task of sustain-ing and strengthening democra-tic values.

We are all aware how tradi-tional democratic values haveconfronted difficult situationsin the era of globalisation andcommercialisation. They standovershadowed by emergingmaterialist values. On severaloccasions, elected representa-

tives, including those holdingpositions of greater politicalpower, find it difficult to main-tain the right balance betweenIndian perception of democrat-ic public life and the lure of powerand pelf — glamour and glitz ina globalised free-market world.

The chinks emerging in theIndian democracy are not unex-pected. Mahatma Gandhi couldenvision in April 24, 1922, that“As we become independent, allthe defects of the system of elec-tions, injustice, the tyranny of thericher classes as also the burdenof running administration, arebound to come upon us. Peoplewould begin to feel that duringthose days, there was more jus-tice, better administration andpeace and there was honesty toa great extent among the admin-istrators compared to the daysafter Independence.”

When I came across this partof Gandhian writing some fourdecades ago, my simplistic queryto eminent Gandhian personal-ities was: How could Gandhijicultivate such serious apprehen-sions about elections when wehad no such experience in India?They were kind enough toenlighten me that Gandhiji hadstudied the British election sys-tem in-depth and could visualisewhat impact the taste of powerproduces on the majority ofelected representatives.

Having elected 17Parliaments and innumerableState Assemblies, district andpanchayat level bodies, the Indian

voter has seen it all. They are wor-ried and are struggling with theincreasing erosion of credibilityof elected representatives, whounfortunately — exceptions apart— could not live up to expecta-tions. They have seen how rep-resentatives coming from hum-ble backgrounds become bil-lionaires. They know for sure thattheir Minister, Chief Minister orDeputy Chief Minister couldspend anywhere from �5 crore to�50 crore to refurbish their offi-cial bungalows. Former ChiefMinisters are given huge bunga-lows for life with support staff.When the High Court ruledagainst this practice, the MadhyaPradesh Government found anew way to bypass the court’sorders. Using discretionary quota,it reallotted the same houses.Such instances could be aplenty.

The youth of today mayfind it difficult to believe that themembers of the ConstituentAssembly did not get any salary,let alone pension. They got anallowance of �45 per day for thedays of sitting. And they were theones who got it reduced to �40per day in consideration of thetough economic condition of thecountry.

An eminent expert on thenuances of parliamentarydemocracy and an internation-ally acknowledged scholar andauthor of Our Constitution,Subhash Kashyap brilliantlyanalysed the “rise” of the Indianparliamentarian at the nation-al level in his latest outstanding

treatise, State of the Nation:Democracy Governance andParliament. Members of theConstituent Assembly weremostly freedom fighters andmen and women knownthroughout the length andbreadth of the country for thesacrifices they made. Theyworked tirelessly to give Indiaits Constitution. They gavethemselves a sitting allowanceof �40 per day. Contrast thiswith their successors. Thesalaries and allowances ofMembers of Parliament Act,1954, fixed a salary of �400 permonth for an MP and a dailyallowance of �21.

After this, there have been29 upward revisions to the Act.There were members, whoseconscience was pricked but theirviewpoint was overlooked by themajority. Nanaji Deshmukh wasone such exception. He raisedthis issue in 2004 and pointedout that “salaries and allowancesof members had gone up 90times during the first 50 years”.But his words made no impact.These upward revisions invari-ably got a full-throated fast-trackapproval from the MPs. Kashyapdescribes the position in itstotality: “At a time when thesalary of a member was only�12,000 per month, Nanaji hadestimated that the direct month-ly expenditure on an MP was atleast �3 lakh per month. Himselfan MP, he knew first hand. Onthat basis, the present monthlycost of an MP must work outclose to �10 or15 lakh permonth or more, which could befew hundred times the per capi-ta income of an Indian.”

Whenever issues related toMPs or State legislatures comeup during discussions, I aminvariably reminded of theGandhian vision that defects ofelections would weigh heavilyon our people. The resilience ofelectors in democracy may haveits upper limits. It is publicknowledge that each candidateis supposed to submit a detailedstatement of the expenditureincurred during election cam-paigns. They also know that itshould always be within the lim-its prescribed by the ElectionCommission of India.

Every Indian voter would bewilling to say “every one spendsmuch more than what they claimto have spent”, exceptions apart.Is this situation acceptable? Maybe, someday, some young elect-ed representative will launch acampaign against this routinepractice and be hailed as a “hero”striving to restore democratic val-ues. This could be done by someyoung person, who remains hon-est, humble and humane as therepresentative of people.

(The writer is the IndianRepresentative on the ExecutiveBoard of UNESCO)

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Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “Chidambaram in a spot”(August 22). Hitherto, hardenedcriminals were known only toplay a cat-and-mouse game withthe law enforcement agencies.Now, a leading politician, who notlong ago was India’s HomeMinister, P Chidambaram, wasallegedly running away from thelaw. But the spectacle surround-ing him finally climaxed with hisarrest by sleuths who hopped overhis plush bungalow’s walls to getto him.

Meanwhile, it is ironical thatChidambaram used to taunt theGovernment how the likes ofVijay Mallya and Nirav Modimanaged to evade the authoritiesand flee abroad. Now, it is theGovernment’s turn to ask himhow he could manage to send theCentral Bureau of Investigation(CBI) and the EnforcementDirectorate (ED) on a wild goosechase.

While politicians are knownto have gotten away with murdergiven their ability to “influence”witnesses, the case againstChidambaram appears to be rel-atively watertight. A key accused

in the INX Media case, firmdirector Indrani Mukerjea hasdeposed against Chidambaramand his son Karti for floutingrules for approval of up to 26 percent foreign investment in hercompany. The reaction ofOpposition parties was on expect-ed lines.

JS AcharyaHyderabad

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Sir — This refers to the editor-ial, “Chidambaram in a spot”(August 22). The spectacle,where officials from the CBI andED arrested former FinanceMinister P Chidambaram fromhis residence, has raised seriousquestions about the conduct of

the investigative agencies.Officials scaled the walls of hisJorbagh residence to arrest him.In a def iant mode,Chidambaram, who is accusedof money laundering and receiv-ing kickbacks in the INX Mediacase, put up a strong defence ofhimself and his family members,saying none of them have beenaccused of any offence by the

probe agencies. Perhaps, it’s best to leave the

matter to the courts. No person,even if he/she has held or isholding a high office, is abovethe law. The investigative agen-cies as well as the courts mustnow follow due processes andensure transparency in the case.

TK NandananChennai

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Sir — It is surprising that despiteIndia having made it amplyclear that no third party inter-vention is needed as far asresolving the Kashmir issue isconcerned, US President DonaldTrump has again offered assistance. He may have therequisite skills to convert a busi-ness deal but when it comes toresolving intractable issuesbetween sovereign countries,it’s a different matter altogether.His negotiations with Kim Jong-un is an example. They haveyielding no results.

ManishaVia email

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When we flip through the world’s busi-ness history, we find that all large mer-cantile communities were great patrons

of the art of philanthropy. They regarded it adivine tradition. The world today is witnessinga growing realisation in enterprises of theimportance of altruism. Hence, a great deal ofmoney has been flowing into the social sector.Like individual citizens who have moral andsocial responsibilities, businesses are being per-ceived as corporate citizens who need to com-mit time, talent and resources for welfare of soci-ety as they draw their sustenance from it. Thisidea has now been corporatised under the appel-lation, Corporate Social Responsibility, betterknown as CSR.

A social responsibility: CSR is a conceptwhereby firms integrate social and environmen-tal concerns into their business operations andis generally understood to be a tool for achiev-ing a balance between economic, environmen-tal and social imperatives, while addressingexpectations of shareholders and stakeholders.

In the global economy, stakeholders includecustomers, suppliers, employees, communities,and financiers — shareholders, bondholders plusbanks and other sources of capital — and theyare all intertwined

CSR is a very broad concept that aims atmanaging a business in a way that it contributestowards sustainable development by deliveringsocial, economic and environmental benefits toall stakeholders. It addresses issues like humanrights, corporate governance, health and safe-ty, environmental effects, working conditionsand contribution to economic development.Whatever the definition is, the purpose of CSRis to drive change towards sustainability.

We are seeing the emergence of a new cropof mega donors who are upending long-estab-lished norms in philanthropy. Not only are theyincreasingly willing to take on hot-button socialand political issues, they also have a problem-solving and impact-making mindset. CSR is nowbeing recognised as a critical component to anorganisation’s values, its operating ethos, its busi-ness strategies and its purpose. Businesses arebeing measured on financial and social metrics.

CSR is often used interchangeably forCorporate Citizenship and is also linked to theconcept of Triple Bottom Line Reporting(financial, social and environmental), which isused as a framework for measuring an organi-sation’s performance against economic, socialand environmental parameters. In essence,CSR is about building sustainable businesses,which need healthy economies, markets andcommunities.

Over the years there have been many voic-es within the business community who believethat companies must break out of convention-al preoccupation with profit and do more toaddress the world’s pressing social needs. Thechorus has been joined by leaders from civil soci-ety, governments, policy think tanks and worldbodies on education, health and rehabilitation.Business leadership has acknowledged thedemand for enlarged corporate responsibility inways which can reflect a profound attitudinalchange individually and collectively.

It is now widely acknowledged that CSR

should be a critical component to an organisa-tion’s operating ethos, its values, and its purpose.CSR existed earlier also, however, well-mean-ing but inappropriate programmes were foist-ed on communities without any dialogue. Thatwas replaced by the writing of blank cheques tofavoured groups, often without an accompany-ing structure. Today, however, enlightenedcompanies engage in extensive dialogue andplanning and are forming partnerships with gov-ernments, NGOs and communities to push awider and deeper agenda.

For a long time, the general sentiment wasthat for businesses, earning a profit should takeprecedence over ideals like acting responsiblyand ethically. Even today, many companies arepaying just lip service.

A legal mandate: India is the first countryto mandate that firms expend at least 2 per centof their net profits on special development pro-jects. Its unique law, Corporate SocialResponsibility Rules in the Companies Act, 2013,came into effect on April 1, 2014.

However, there is a crucial differencebetween the way CSR is implemented in theWest and in India. A generally accepted goldstandard for CSR in the Western world is thatit must be closely integrated with a firm’s busi-ness strategy so that the programmes create ashared value for the company’s shareholders. InIndia, this linkage is explicitly prohibited forCSR; the focus is restricted solely to contribu-tion towards societal welfare.

Experience the world over shows that CSRis more socially relevant when it is driven byaltruistic motives rather than being a mandat-ed policy commanding philanthropy. It is verydifficult to legislate since moral obligations haveto be inculcated, not legislated. Laws can set theminimum standards, but they cannot create anenvironment or ambience for a philanthropicmindset. This is why we see marked aberrationsin the CSR agenda of most corporations. Manybusinesses harbour a variety of secondary aims

and often use CSR for boosting their social pro-file and business markets. Such lack of well-intentioned commitment has been detrimentalto this noble philosophy.

Companies are trying to dress up CSR as abusiness discipline and expecting that every ini-tiative deliver business results. That is asking toomuch of CSR and distracts from what must beits main goal: to align a company’s social andenvironmental activities with its business pur-pose and values. If in doing so, CSR activitiesenhance reputation, mitigate risks and contributeto business results, it is acceptable. But for manyCSR programmes, those outcomes are becom-ing a spillover, not their reason for being.

Challenges for socially responsible com-panies: It is true that since there are so manycauses competing for attention, it may not bepossible for organisations to have a universal-ly inclusive mission. Studies suggest that char-ity leaders have a geographic bias with corpo-rations homing in on projects closer to theirheadquarters. Consequently, more remoteregions where development aid is acutely need-ed are being ignored. Politics can also skew pri-orities, with companies looking to gain politi-cal goodwill by funding government-led projectsrather than initiating more socially relevant ini-tiatives which are thirsty for funds.

Even as annual CSR expenditure is on therise, the impact on the ground remains a mat-ter of debate. CSR has usually been peripheralin most organisations and it is not woven intothe texture of business. Further, it is not alwaysnecessarily transparent or mission-oriented. Itmay be used for enhancing the brand reputa-tion or to provide a cover of moral counterbal-ance for brushing off a besmirched public imageor for camouflaging dark acts. There is alwaysa creative tension between social mission andbusiness goals.

Moreover, a significant amount of any CSRexpenditure comes with strings attached. Thereare terms that dictate exactly where and how

funds must be used. While this may be appro-priate in some cases, it reflects a serious lack oftrust in the non-profit entities and hinders theirability to operate effectively. When donors insistthat their money should go exclusively to thepeople served, there is not enough money leftfor the non-profit entities to focus on buildingtheir own organisations. They are, therefore,unable to invest in talent, technology, systems,or reporting. Reporting requirements are oftenan onerous administrative burden on these smallorganisations which have to devote their scarceskills to educated, English-speaking personnelfor writing reports for the donors rather thanrunning the programmes.

These development agents are the right con-duits for reaching the deeper backwaters whichhave tougher geographical terrains and are cen-tres of social schisms and extremist ideologies.In such regions donors also need to go beyondthe sacred trimurti—sustainability, replicabili-ty and scalability —which should be restrictedto mainland organisations. Too much insistenceon technicalities leaves genuine developmentwork out of the CSR net. A worm’s eye view isas critical as a bird’s eye view to ensure that pro-jects deliver visible and lasting outcomes andleave a larger and lasting imprint.

A more important aspect of CSR thatneeds greater attention is the need for embed-ding CSR values in employees. It is only whenemployees align their social philosophy with thatof their employers that the real benefits of CSRcan materialize. A sincerely and honestly prac-ticed charity always delivers rich dividends inthe long run. That is the lesson we learn fromboth philosophers and business leaders. It is wiseto remind ourselves again of the advice of HenryFord, “A business absolutely devoted to servicewill have only one worry about profits. They willbe embarrassingly large.”

(The writer is Member, NITI Aayog’s NationalCommittee on Financial Literacy and Inclusionfor Women)

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As digital marketing becomesincreasingly important for busi-nesses, they need to start think-

ing about stepping up their strategiesby going beyond conventional SearchEngine Optimization (SEO) tech-niques.

Artificial Intelligence (AI), holdsthe key to the future of digital market-ing. When Google unveiledRankBrain in 2015, users noticed thatthe results to their queries in the searchengine became more useful and rel-evant. The algorithm, which uses AIto analyse and respond to user querieslike a human being would, alsoreturns identical questions asked byother users. With the ability to collect,analyse and learn from data, AI has the

potential to transform your digitalstrategy.

So what exactly is AI? A simplis-tic explanation is that AI is a branchof computer science that deals withbuilding intelligent machines thatcan think and respond like a humanbeing. The trailblazing English math-ematician, Alan Turing, proposedthe Turing test in 1950 to determinethe intelligence of computers and iden-tify if a computer can achieve human-level performance in cognitive tasksthat are sophisticated enough to foolan interrogator.

Although no AI programme hascome close to passing the undilutedTuring test, cognitive and computerscientist John McCarthy observedthat Turing’s philosophy of AI isunlikely to have an effect on the prac-tice of AI research, which has grownby leaps and bounds in the last twodecades.

This brings us to the question ofhow an enterprise can use AI to mar-ket its business. The fact remains thata fifth of all the searches done usingGoogle are voice based. It’s a big num-ber, and digital marketers should

understand its significance and startplanning their marketing strategies tooptimise websites to make the mostuse of voice search, along with tradi-tional text search.

Some of the ways in which digi-tal marketing can be pumped up usingAI are predicting customer behavior,using Accelerated Mobile Pages(AMPs) to reduce load time and AIchatbots to enhance user experience.

Let’s look at how AI helps in pre-dicting customer behaviour.Advancements in predictive analyticsallow marketers to extract more infor-mation from data, and use it to pre-

dict the behavior of customers. Theycan then apply cluster models to groupthem and predict purchase trends.Predictive analysis also helps the salesand marketing divisions with leadscoring, making it possible to scoreleads based on their readiness to pur-chase. Businesses can upsell andcross-sell based on existing data.

If your website’s mobile browserpages are not loading quickly, it canspoil the user experience. That’s whereAMPs come in. The AMP plugin takesweb pages and makes them load fasterby stripping them down to the basics.RankBrain has enabled Google to

understand better what its users arelooking for, and AMP content auto-matically shows up in the top storiescarousel. If you are a business with anAMP page, then you have betterchances of showing up in the top threesearch results in Google.

A lot of businesses already usechatbots, making it possible for theuser to interact with the bot viainstant messaging.

The time is ripe for companiesto start using AI-based chatbots,which are significantly better. Theycan retain customer data, and cus-tomers do not have to repeat them-selves every time. They can handlemultiple customer requests at thesame time, eliminating the waittime. They can also track the pur-chase patterns of customers, allow-ing businesses to revamp their mar-keting strategy and boost sales.

Last, but not the least, companiesneed to scale up content marketing.Content marketing refers to the prac-tice of marketing a brand or a busi-ness by sharing educational, insight-ful, or entertaining articles that addvalue to the lives of readers. Research

has shown that the strategy is moreeffective in attracting and retainingcustomers as it isn’t purely promotion-al. The Natural Language Generation(NLG) engine, Wordsmith, was ableto create more than a billion humansounding articles in 2016. AlthoughAI is still not advanced enough towrite natural sounding articles onevery topic, it is still useful for data dri-ven content such as quarterly reports,market data, and sport matches. Oncethe content is ready, you can scale itup with an influencer marketing plat-form to ensure that it reaches the tar-get audience.

Embracing AI technologies willbenefit your digital marketing strate-gy in many ways. AI will not replacethe jobs of advertisers and marketers,but help them unleash their creativeand strategic potential. Business own-ers need to identify the roadblocksfaced by their marketing campaign orcompany and use insights derivedfrom AI-based marketing to solve theissues.

(The writer is founder, CEO andsearch scientist at a leading AI-powereddigital marketing firm)

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The rollback of enhancedsurcharge on foreign port-

folio investors is a shot in thearm for the sagging equitymarket and a sentiment boost-er for the Indian economy, ana-lysts said following announce-ment of a slew of measures bythe government.

The decision to levyenhanced surcharge,announced in the Budget, hadspooked the stock markets.

In a post-market confer-ence, Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharamanannounced various measuresto prop up the slowing econ-omy.

Giving in to the demandsof overseas investors, the gov-ernment rolled back enhancedsurcharge on foreign portfolioinvestors levied in the Budget.

“Withdrawal of enhancedsurcharge on FPI, is a big pos-itive for Indian markets as itcould reverse the outflowsseen since post budget. Itshould also help INR appreci-ation. Overall a good senti-ment booster for the Indianeconomy,” Rusmik Oza, Headof Fundamental Research,Kotak securities said.

Surcharge on long andshort-term capital gains arisingfrom transfer of equity shareshas been withdrawn, the min-ister said.

“The measures are wideranging and include short termas well as long term remedies.Instant removal of FPI tax is avery short term measure with

long term impact,” BSE MDand CEO AshishkumarChauhan said.

The measures will lead toa change in trend and the out-flows from the equity marketwould be reversed, VKVijayakumar, Chief InvestmentStrategist, Geojit FinancialServices said.

“Withdrawal of the sur-charge on FPIs is a shot in thearm for the sagging market.One can now expect reversal ofthe FPI selling. The market islikely to look up from now on,”Vijayakumar said.

Mustafa Nadeem, CEO,Epic Research said this is a verypositive move for the market.

“The rollback of highersurcharge on FPI as well asdomestic investors is a wel-come move since it was one ofthe factors that put a lot of denton investors sentiment, specif-ically FII and FPIs,” Nadeemadded.

The government’s move isaimed at encouraging invest-ment in the capital market, thefinance minister said.

“These are just the kind ofmeasures which were requiredto boost the economy. In theimmediate term, we can expectthe markets to bounce back onMonday with a gap up open-ing, and continue the rally fora few sessions to come,” AmitGupta, Co-Founder and CEOTradingBells said.

However, AmitMaheshwari, Partner AshokMaheshwary & Associates LLPsaid that FPIs having businessincome would still be impact-

ed.“Surcharge will no more be

charged on short-term capitalgain (Section 111A) and long-term capital gain (Section112A) from the sale of listedequity shares and equity ori-ented mutual funds. However,surcharge chargeability willcontinue to impact the taxa-bility on the income fromderivatives and from unlistedshares,” he said.

“Also it has to be noted thatthis surcharge goes only forcapital gains generated on list-ed shares and not on unlistedshares,” he added.

The government alsounveiled various measures toaddress the slowdown in theauto sector.

The measures to supportauto sector include lifting banon purchase of vehicles bygovernment departments, andallowing additional 15 per centdepreciation on vehiclesacquired from now till March2020.

The revision of one-timeregistration fees has beendeferred till June 2020.

Garima Kapoor,Economist, Elara Capital saidthe main takeaway of today’sannouncements by the FinanceMinister is that they are aimedat restoring confidence andtackle the challenges of weakdemand.

“Withdrawal of surchargeon FPIs and domestic investorswould help in alleviating thetax burden on investors incapital markets. Likewise,quicker transmission of rate

cuts, faster recapitalisation ofbanks and external bench-marking of rates are likely toaid credit off take,” Kapooradded.

She further said that mostimportantly, recognition ofissues in the economy and themeasures to address them isitself a positive signal and willhelp ease concerns on growthslowdown.

“Finally the governmenthas taken measures to boostthe economy and also addressconcerns raised by the taxpayers and investors.Specifically to address theweakness in auto sector, thereare number of steps taken toprovide financing at lowerinterest rates and tax benefits.This should help the saggingauto sector,” Gaurav Dua,Senior VP, Head – CapitalMarket Strategy, Sharekhanby BNP Paribas noted.

Though this will aid thesentiments, it is too early totake a call on the impact of themeasures announced on con-sumer demand, corporateearnings and equity markets,he added.

“In an attempt to providea stimulus to the economy andin turn to the automobile sec-tor. Revision of one-time reg-istration fees deferred till June2020 — This according to us isa very important boost to thesector as this would have hada significant impact ondemand in the short term,”Ashwin Patil, Senior ResearchAnalyst (Auto Sector), LKPSecurities said.

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In a major relief to the MSMEsector facing liquidity short-

age, the government on Fridayannounced that all their pend-ing GST refunds will be paidwithin 30 days.

Also, in future, all GSTrefunds of micro, small andmedium enterprises (MSMEs)will be paid within 60 daysfrom the date of application,Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman said whileannouncing a slew of measuresto boost growth.

Reacting to the announce-ment, MSME Minister NitinGadkari said clearing GSTdues within 30 days will behighly beneficial for the MSMEsector and will also be instru-mental in increasing job oppor-tunities. The amount of pend-ing GST refunds owed toMSMEs is ‘significant’, he toldreporters here.

A top government officialsaid the average amount of GSTrefund related dues at anygiven point in time is aroundRs 7,000 crore. However, he didnot share the exact amount ofpending GST refunds forMSMEs.

“I would like to thankNirmala Sitharaman. The mea-

sures taken by her will be quitebeneficial for the MSME sec-tor,” Gadkari said.

In a tweet, he welcomedthe decisions taken by theFinance Minister and said “thiswill boost the MSME sectorand will be instrumental inincreasing job opportunities”.

The government wouldalso consider amending theMSME Act to move towards asingle definition.

Gadkari said this wasunder “serious consideration”and a decision will be taken inthe next 10-15 days.

Speaking earlier at a pressconference to announce mea-sures to boost growth,Sitharaman said the decision onrecommendations of the U KSinha Committee regarding easeof credit, marketing, technologyand delayed payments to MSMEswill be taken within 30 days.

She further said that to takeadvantage of liquidity with thepublic sector banks (PSBs) andlast mile customer connect ofNBFCs, the state-run lenderswill fast track collaborationfor loans to MSMEs.

The MSME sector, whichaccounts for about 29 per centof the gross domestic product(GDP), is one of the largest jobcreators in the country.

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The Government on Fridaysaid it will set up an inter-

ministerial task force to short-list infrastructure projects forits ambitious target of spendingRs 100 lakh crore in the sector.

Announcing a raft of mea-sures to boost the economy,Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman said the issue ofdelayed payments from centralpublic sector enterprises(CPSEs) to project developerswill be monitored by theDepartment of Expenditureand the entire process will be

reviewed by the CabinetSecretariat.

Regarding contractual dis-putes by government/CPSEs,the government has decided topay 75 per cent of the dueupfront, provided arbitration isin favour of the claimant.

On the government’s plansto invest �100 lakh crore fordeveloping modern infra-structure over five years,Sitharaman said “an inter-min-isterial task force is beingformed by Department ofEconomic Affairs to finalise thepipeline of infrastructure pro-jects.”

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India Inc on Friday cheeredthe slew of measures

announced by the Governmentencompassing a broad range ofsectors and said the impactfulinterventions will shore upconfidence and revive the ani-mal spirits in the economy thathad started showing signs of a‘deep slowdown’.

Addressing a press confer-ence here, Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharaman said allpending GST refunds to micro,small and medium enterprisies(MSMEs) till date shall be paidwithin 30 days, while futurerefund matters will be sortedout within 60 days.

She also said that all old taxnotices will be decided byOctober 1 or will be uploadedagain through the centralisedsystem.

The finance minister alsoannounced withdrawal ofenhanced surcharge levied onFPIs, restoring the pre-Budgetposition.

“The most importantannouncement was theremoval of the surcharge onFPI & DI profits. Because thiswas strong evidence of a lis-tening capacity&the humility tocourse-correct. More than any-thing else, that should regen-

erate spirits,” Mahindra GroupChairman Anand Mahindratweeted.

He added that holding apress conference and announc-ing a slew of measures insteadof a ‘trickle of tweaks’ wassmart communication.

It garnered global attentionand signalled government’srecognition of the gravity of thesituation and an intent toreignite sentiment and growth,he said.

CII Director GeneralChandrajit Banerjee said the“excellent package” would helpthe economy to leapfrog to thenext level.

The Government alsoallowed an additional 15 percent depreciation on vehiclesacquired from now till March2020 and said it will come outwith a scrappage policy for oldvehicles.

It also said CSR rule viola-tions will only be treated as civilmatter and not as criminalmatter.

“While the increaseddepreciation from 15 per centto 30 per cent and deferment ofincreased registration fees tillJune 2020 will have a positiveimpact, moderation of GSTbase rate from 28 per cent to 18per cent for all categories asbeing requested by the auto

industry for sometime nowwould have been the realdemand stimulant!,” JaguarLand Rover India LimitedPresident and MD Rohit Surisaid.

Assocham President B KGoenka said it is clear that thegovernment is concerned withcurrent economic situation andadded that the industry willrespond very enthusiastically tothese praiseworthy moves.

Ficci President SandipSomany said the measures willgive a major boost to the econ-omy that had started showingsigns of a deep slowdown. Asthese measures take effect, weare sure that these will lift theconfidence of businesses andinvestors alike, he added.

“We thank FM Smt.@nsitharaman Ji for announc-ing key measures which willgive a boost to demand, indus-trial activity&overall growthof the Indian economy.Eagerly wait ing for theHousing industry announce-ments,” CREDAI ChairmanJaxay Shah tweeted.

PNB Housing FinanceManaging Director SanjayaGupta said the measures willsupport growth and ease liq-uidity crunch in the housingfinance sector.

Economists and experts

too said the announcementsmade by the government willhave a positive impact on theeconomy.

MS Mani, Partner atDeloitte India said expeditingGST refunds would signifi-cantly benefit businesses hav-ing refunds in improving theirworking capital in the shortterm.

“Removal of angel tax willgo a long way in buildingtrust and confidence in thestartups and the investors, andshows government’s resolvetowards ease of doing businessin India and encourage entre-preneurship,” Vikas Vasal,Partner & National Leader —Tax, Grant Thornton IndiaLLP said.

“The slacking economyand the slump in various sec-tors including automobiles,housing and MSMEs was agrave concern not just forindustry stakeholders but alsofor the government.

“In a major boost to theslowing economy that comesliterally in the nick of time, theFM today has hit a sixer witha slew of announcements forthe banking and financial sec-tor including NBFCs, HFCsand even MSMEs,” ANAROCKProperty ConsultantsChairman Anuj Puri said.

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Moody’s Investors Serviceon Friday revised down-

wards India’s GDP growthforecast for the current year to6.2 per cent, saying the econ-omy remains sluggish due toa combination of factors suchas weak hiring, distress amongrural households and tighterfinancial conditions.

The GDP growth forecastfor 2019 calendar year wasrevised downwards from itsprevious estimation of 6.8 percent. The same for 2020 wasalso lowered by a similar 0.6percentage points to 6.7 percent, Moody’s said in a state-ment.

Announcing revision inits growth forecast for 16Asian economies, it said weak-er trade and investment weighon GDP growth, despite sta-ble private and public con-sumption in the region.

“While not heavilyexposed to external pressures,India’s economy remains slug-gish on account of a combi-nation of factors, includingweak hiring, financial dis-tress among rural households,and tighter financing condi-tions due to stress amongnon-bank financial institu-tions,” it said.

Stating that domestic fac-tors have had a greater influ-ence on growth in India,

Moody’s said the moderationin business sentiment andslow flow of credit to corpo-rates have contributed toweaker investment in thecountry.

“Cooler business senti-ment and slow flow of creditto corporates contribute toweaker investment in India,”it said.

Indian economy hadexpanded by 6.9 per cent in2017 and 7.4 per cent in 2018,according to Moody’s.

GDP growth rate had hita five-year low of 5.8 per centin the January-March quarterand the government is slatedto announce the first quarter(April-June) growth numberon August 30.

The Reserve Bank of India(RBI) too had earlier thismonth lowered GDP growthestimate for the current fiscalthat began on April 1 to 6.9per cent from previous esti-mate of 7 per cent citingdemand and investment slow-down.

Moody’s said inflation wasexpected to rise to 3.7 per centthis year and 4.5 per cent inthe next from 2.9 per cent in2018.

“Reserve Bank of Indiahas been most active in cut-ting rates in support ofgrowth, but lingering financialsector issues may blunt theeffectiveness of the monetary

stimulus,” it added.Moody’s said of the 16

Asian economies, Hong Kongand Singapore have shownparticularly weak expansionsthis year, with very large dete-riorations in real GDP growthwhen compared to the firsthalf of 2018.

It explained that exter-nally-oriented economies sawa sharper slowing during thefirst six months of 2019, whiledomestic factors have had agreater influence on growth inJapan, India and thePhilippines.

“The weaker global econ-omy has stunted Asian exportsand the uncertain operatingenvironment has weighed oninvestment,” it said. “In par-ticular, softer capital forma-tion has mirrored the weak-ening in exports, especially fortrade-reliant economies suchas Korea and Hong Kong.”

As for the Philippines,the delay in the passing of thegovernment budget has dis-rupted its infrastructure build-out, while in Malaysia and SriLanka, fiscal tightening hasposed drags.

Moody’s also said that theslower overall GDP growth inthe region has not yet weighedsignif icantly on broaderemployment conditions, whilegenerally benign inflationsupports purchasing poweracross the Asia Pacific.

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The rupee spurted 15 paiseto close at 71.66 against

the US dollar on Friday onhopes that the governmentwill roll back the FPI sur-charge and unveil measuresto boost growth.

The rupee, which hadearlier in the day breachedthe 72-mark for the firsttime this year, stabilised fol-lowing an announcementthat Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharaman willaddress a press conference inthe evening.

Easing crude oil pricesand a recovery in the domes-t ic equity markets a lsopropped up the local cur-rency, forex traders said.

At the interbank foreignexchange market, the rupeeopened weaker at 71.93 adollar. It fell further to theday’s low of 72.05, beforerecouping losses to touch ahigh of 71.58. The local unitfinally settled at 71.66, up 15paise against its previousclose.

The rupee had plungedto an over eight-month lowof 71.81 on Thursday amidtumbling equities and inces-sant foreign fund outflows.

“Rupee has taken some

breather in the second halftoday after the report sched-uling FM’s conference todayat 5 pm. There is an expec-tat ion that governmentshould rollback FPI sur-charge,” said V K Sharma,Head PCG & C apita lMarkets Strategy, HDFCSecurities.

The Indian currency haswitnessed heavy selling in therecent past, and has beendepreciating against the dol-lar for the last seven consec-utive weeks. There could bea pullback in the rupee as itlooks extremely oversold inthe short term, Sharmaadded.

Meanwhile, the globalcrude benchmark BrentFutures fell 0.10 per cent totrade at $59.86 per barrel onFriday.

The dollar index, whichgauges the greenback’sstrength against a basket ofsix currencies, rose 0.28 percent to 98.44.

Meanwhile, the 10-yearIndian government bondyield was up at 6.58 per cent.

FPIs, which have beennet sellers for the past manyweeks, of f loaded sharesworth Rs 902.99 crore onThursday, provisional datawith the exchanges showed.

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The Delhi High Court onFriday allowed Naresh

Goyal, the founder of thenow-grounded Jet Airways,to withdraw his petition forpermission to travel abroad.

Justice Navin Chawla saidthe plea is “dismissed as with-drawn”.

In a fresh application to thecourt, Goyal said the SeriousFraud Investigation Office(SFIO) has started its probeinto a case of alleged fraud ofRs 18,000 crore and he wasextending full cooperation tothe agency in the investigationand accordingly, was and notpressing for the permission togo abroad at this stage.

The Central government’sStanding Counsel AjayDigpaul, however, told thecourt that Goyal was not coop-erating in the investigation.

Besides seeking permis-sion to travel outside India,Goyal had also challenged alook out circular (LOC) issuedagainst him on the ground thatas on May 25, when he wasoff-loaded from a flight toDubai, no ECIR/FIR was reg-istered against him.

In his plea, Goyal said hecame to know of the LOC onMay 25 when he and his wifeAnita were off-loaded from aflight to Dubai with an onwardconnection to London.

He said when he had filedthe petition in July, he was inan urgent need to travel

abroad andthereafter, her e c e i v e ds u m m o n sfrom SFIOfor recordingof statementr e g a r d i n gthe investi-gation whichhas been ini-tiated.

“ T h ep e t i t i o n e r(Goyal) isparticipatingand fullycooperating in the investiga-tion and has appeared beforethe authorities on three occa-sions.

“As the investigation hascommenced and since thepetitioner is extending fullcooperation, he is not pressingthe present writ petition at thisstage for permission to traveloutside India,” it said, addinghe be given liberty to availappropriate remedies in future.

Earlier when Goyal hadmoved court seeking permis-sion to go aborad, the judgehad observed that if he want-ed to go abroad, he should firstdeposit Rs 18,000 crore as asguarantee that his companyowes to lenders.

Denying him permission tofly aborad, the court had soughtthe Centre’s reply to his plea.

The court was informedby the Centre that it was a seri-ous fraud involving Rs 18,000crore and the investigation

was being carried out by theSFIO.

Goyal has sought quashingof the LOC as well as severaloffice memorandums whichlay down the guidelines forissuing the travel ban.

According to the Ministryof Corporate Affairs, the LOCwas issued after the ministryfound in an inspection large-scale irregularities in JetAirways, which shut its oper-ations in April due to acutecash crunch.

The ministry subsequent-ly ordered a probe by theSFIO into the affairs of JetAirways.

Naresh and Anita Goyalhad resigned from the boardof Jet Airways, which the for-mer founded 26 years ago, inMarch following a debtrestructuring plan. He hadalso resigned as the airline’schairman. Jet Airways is fac-ing insolvency proceedings.

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Irish aircraftleasing firm

Fleet Ireland,which hadleased thei m p o u n d e dBoeing B777plane to thedefunct JetAirways, Fridaymoved theNCLT seeking a recall of thetribunal’s July 5 order thatdirected DGCA not to dereg-ister the aircraft on the groundthat it is an affected party andthus needs to be heard.

The aircraft was seized bya European cargo operator atthe Amsterdam airport endMarch for non-payment ofdues. Following this, a Dutchcourt had ordered bankruptcyproceedings against the airlinein May.

The tribunal adjournedthe matter to September 3.

The bankruptcy tribunalhad on July 5, prevented theDirectorate General of CivilAviation from deregisteringthe Boeing 777 plane, whichhas been under the possessionof a Dutch cargo provider sinceApril.

After the airline was taken

to NCLT on June 17, the Dutchcompany had moved an appli-cation to the DGCA seeking tode-register the aircraft.

When the NCLT resumedhearing the case on July 5, theRP sought a direction toDGCA against de-registrationof the plane citing the morato-rium under the bankruptcyprocess.

Meanwhile, the RPinformed the tribunal thatabout 200 employees have con-sented to the terms of theagreement on salary payments.The RP also sought a directionto the lenders on interimfinancing so that a portion ofthe pending salaries could bepaid.

The tribunal comprisingVP Singh and Rajesh Sharmadirected the RP to file a freshapplication in this regard.

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As part of its strategy to exitnon-core businesses, L&T

Finance is selling its wealthmanagement arm to IIFLGroup for around �250 croreand the deal is set to be inkedearly next week, say three peo-ple aware of the development.

Once concluded, this willbe the fourth acquisition byIIFL Wealth, in which GeneralAtlantic holds 21.8 per cent, inthe past three years after theChennai-based WealthAdvisors in October 2018,Ashburton India EquityOpportunities Fund inDecember 2017 andBengaluru-based AltioreAdvisors in 2016.

With over 10,000 clients,IIFL Wealth is the third largestplayer with an asset undermanagement (AUM) of close to�1.7 trillion, or around $24.5billion, in the around $170-bil-lion-strong domestic wealthmanagement business, that isdominated by Kotak Wealthwith an AUM of around $36billion, followed by ICICI at$27 billion, according to indus-try estimates.

IIFL Wealth reported a netincome of �384 crore on a feeincome of around �1,060 crorein the year to March 2019when it closed the fiscal with anAUM of �1,69,312 crore.

L&T Wealth has an assetunder management of �25,600crore as of June and employsaround 100 people. The com-pany entered the wealth man-agement segment in 2012 byroping in the Indian team ofthe Swiss private bank EFG.

“IIFL Wealth is set to snapup L&T Financials’ wealthmanagement business for closeto �250 crore. The negotiationsgot delayed over valuation, asL&T was demanding highervaluation at over �300 crore,”two people aware of the dealtold PTI Friday.

Another person confirm-ing the deal said, “a formalannouncement is expectedearly as early as in the first halfof next week.”

Normally, the valuation inwealth management deals isaround 1 per cent or thereaboutof the AUM.

The sources, however, didnot say whether IIFL willabsorb the employees of LarsenWealth who number around100.

The deal will be inkedbetween India Infoline FinanceWealth and Asset Managementand the wealth managementunit of L&T Financial Services.

Both the companiesrefused to confirm the deal.

In an email Larsen Financesaid, “as a policy we don’tcomment on market specula-

tion”, while an email sent to theIILF spokesperson did not elic-it a response.

The move by the NirmalJain-promoted group, which ismajority owned by theCanadian NRI Prem Watsa’sFarifax Holdings, will help itclose the gap with the segmentleader Kotak, say industryobservers.

IIFL Wealth has beengrowing through organic routeand had acquired WealthAdvisors India, a Chennai-based firm, for a �235 crore inOctober 2018.

In December 2017, it hadacquired Ashburton IndiaEquity Opportunities Fund foran undisclosed amount, and inthe previous year it had alsobought Altiore Advisors basedin Bengaluru, helping it growthe AUM.

One of the sources said forL&T Finance, the deal is goodas it has been trying to parenon-core businesses to focus onits core areas of consumer andinfra lending.

There are also rumoursthat Larsen Finance is lookingto exit mutual fund business.

In the June quarter earn-ings, Larsen Finance had saidit was looking to focus on corebusinesses likes rural lending,housing finance and infrafinance, and may enter con-sumer loans.

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Commerce ministers of 16countries including India

and Japan, which are negotiat-ing mega free trade agreementRCEP, will hold a crucial meet-ing in Bangkok on September8 to iron out differences andpush the negotiations forward,an official has said.

The negotiations for theRegional ComprehensiveEconomic Partnership (RCEP)has reached at a fundamentalphase as the member countriesare targeting to conclude thetalks, according to the official.

“This will be most likelythe last meeting at ministerslevel,” the official said.

This meet assumes signif-icance as several sectors haveraised serious concerns overthe impact of the agreement ondomestic industry.

So far 27 rounds of talkshave been held, but the mem-ber countries are yet to arriveat the number of goods overwhich import duties will beeliminated or significantlyreduced.

Similarly, talks on liberal-ising rules for trade of services,a key area of interest for India,too are moving slowly.

Indian industry has raisedconcerns over the presence ofChina in the grouping withwhich India has a trade deficitof over $50 billion. Various sec-tors, including dairy, metals,electronics, chemicals, and tex-tiles, have urged the govern-ment to not agree on duty cutin these segments.

Amul, which contributesabout 4 per cent to India’s totaldairy production, has soughtexclusion of all dairy and dairyproducts from any liberalisa-tion. Australia and NewZealand are among the largestplayers in the dairy sector.

RCEP bloc includes the 10ASEAN members (Brunei,Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos,Malaysia, Myanmar, thePhilippines, Singapore,Thailand, and Vietnam) andAustralia, China, India, Japan,Korea and New Zealand.

India has registered tradedeficit in 2018-19 with as manyas 11 RCEP member countries,including China, South Koreaand Australia.

The trade agreement aimsto cover issues related to goods,services, investments, eco-nomic and technical coopera-tion, competition and intellec-tual property rights.

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Financially crippled power companies cannot be revivedor resolved under the provisions of the existing bank-

ruptcy laws, but asset reconstruction companies can bet-ter deal with them, a senior government official said Friday.

Crucial agreements on the power purchase and fuelsupply come apart if an asset goes for bankruptcy by send-ing it to NCLT as required under the law now, leaving onlythe plant and machinery, Union power secretary SC Gargsaid.

The power sector is one of the worst performing froman asset quality perspective for banks and Garg pegged theoverall stressed portfolio at around Rs 4 trillion or over65,000 mw of generation capacity.

“Not every kind of industry or every kind of asset canbe best reconstructed through the IBC,” Garg told an eventon ARCs organised by industry lobby Assocham.

If a power sector asset goes to NCLT, “practically noth-ing will survive, except the plant”, he said, adding PPAsand FSAs will come off. Any new buyer will lose interestasset because of this, he said, recommending the ARC routeto resolving the stress in the sector.

He said the dozen-odd ARCs, which have beenaround for over a decade now, can collaborate with anindustry expert, to help in resolution.

However, absence of strong homegrown power com-panies which can team up with financial investors to resolvean asset, is delaying the resolution process.

Meanwhile, Garg also pitched for an amendment in thepowers of ARCs, underlining that they need to beempowered to act like an asset manager, much beyond thecurrent limited role of being a debt manager.

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In a major admonition to State-run Air India, Delhi High

Court has directed national car-rier to present its reasons behindits decision to shift domesticticket-booking business “exclu-sively” on Travelport, andabdruptly discontinuing usingthe services of global ticket dis-tribution firm Amadeus.

In it’s order dated July 25 theHigh Court ruled, “Time issought to file counter affidavit.Let the counter affidavit be filedwithin four weeks. Rejoinder, ifany be filed within four weeksthereafter”. The HC is slated tohear the case on September 26.

The court has given AirIndia four weeks’ time torespond to the judgement withrelevant documents.

In October last year,Travelport had announced thatit had “won competitive tenderprocess undertaken by Air Indiafor the sole provision of distri-bution of its domestic flightcontent in the airline’s homemarket”.

The national carrier haddecided to shift to Travelportdespite several senior officialsraising objections against themove. Joining hands withTravelport meant giving access todetails of AI’s flyers to Interglobe

Technologies Quotient, a strate-gic business unit of InterGlobeEnterprises which is the parentcompany of IndiGo, India’slargest airline by market shareand Air India’s biggest competitor.

GDS is a globally connectedcomputerised reservation net-work offering a one-point accessto airline bookings, hotel reser-vations as well associated travel-related areas including carrentals.

A GDS also connects travelagents and other such serviceproviders with large corpora-tions. Such networks are usual-ly operated in partnership with,either through joint ventures oras supporting business partners,major airlines, hotel chains ortransnational travel serviceproviders.

Taking strong stance againstthe allocation made to Travel Port, the Punjab and Haryana HighCourt in January noted thatunder Article 12, the national car-rier was “duty bound” to invitebids before giving “exclusiverights to any agency for GDS”.

“It is further contended thatAir India was duty bound to callbids in the form of tenders andthat Amadeus could not be arbi-trarily excluded from sale of tick-ets for domestic flights,” it hadsaid.

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Korean automobile makerKIA Motors India on

Friday said the current slow-down in the industry is a tem-porary phase, and customersentiments will revive again.

“There is some industryslowdown. We believe that theslowdown in the automobileindustry is temporary.Customer sentiments willrevive again,” said Yong S Kim,ED and CSO of KIA MotorsIndia.

Kim was talking toreporters here at the launch ofthe SUV ‘Seltos’, manufacturedat its plant in Andhra Pradesh.

He said the companyentered the Indian market withan SUV, as it is the fastest grow-ing segment in the automobileindustry in the country.

“For a new entrant, there isno good time. We are con-findent of our product...”, hesaid.

The company claimed tohave received around 33,000bookings in the last five weeks.

The Andhra Pradesh facil-ity has a capacity of three lakhunits per annum, Kim said.

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The Government will allowAadhaar-based KYC for

domestic retail investors, andnecessary amendments to therules under the Prevention ofMoney Laundering Act will beissued.

Announcing a slew of mea-sures to boost the economy, theGovernment said theDepository Receipt Scheme2014 is expected to be opera-tionalised soon by Sebi. “Thiswill give Indian companiesincreased access to foreignfunds through AmericanDepository Receipt (ADR)/Global Depository Receipt(GDR),” she said.

In order to improve marketaccess for the domestic retailinvestors, Aadhaar-based KYCwill be permitted for openingof demat account and makinginvestment in mutual funds. Inthis regard, necessary notifica-tion for amendments in PMLArules would be issued

“To bring offshore rupeemarket to domestic stockexchanges and permit tradingof USD-INR derivatives inGIFT IFSC, Ministry ofFinance is working with RBI tointroduce this measure short-ly,” the government said.

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India is in the midst of a silenthealth crisis as illicit ciga-

rettes, with dangerous impli-cations for lungs and throats,are beginning to find their wayin large swathes of India. Otherthan hundreds of illegal unitsmanufacturing illicit cigarettes,there are 12134 units registeredunder the Ministry of Micro,Small and MediumEnterprises, which are engagedin tobacco products includingcigarette manufacturing units.These units are registeredunder a special 2015-notifiedscheme Udyog AadharMemorandum (UAM),according to an RTI reply bythe ministry.

The RTI reply says that the“Ministry has notified theUdyog Aadhar Memorandum(UAM) on 18th September2015, a one page online regis-tration system for MSMEsbased on self-certification andno additional document isrequired to be uploaded at thetime of filing of UAM.

“Any entrepreneur eitherin manufacturing or serviceoriented enterprise can regis-ter as MSME online atwww.udyogaadhar.gov.in only

after establishing the unit,obtaining all regulatoryapprovals and starting com-mercial operations. Any activ-ity defined in the certificate isvalid provided the activity isunder purview of the law,except the activities not cov-ered under MSMED Act 2006,for registration of UAM,”explained a senior govern-ment official.

The reply goes on to givethe break-up of number of“tobacco products includingcigarettes manufacturing units”registered under UAM - Micro11611, Small 490, Medium 33.According to experts, thisdefeats the tobacco controlpolicy of the Health Ministryaccording to which no freshlicenses have been issued toany cigarette manufacturingunit after 1999.

Licensing for manufactur-ing of cigarettes are issued byDepartment of IndustrialPolicy & Promotion (DIPP) ofMinistry of Commerce as perIDR Act 1951. However, evenin this Act, there are clauseswhich have loopholes exploit-ing which companies are man-ufacturing cigarettes.

According to another RTIReply by Tobacco Board of

India, which supplies virginiatobacco used in cigarettes,“Four companies are regis-tered with Tobacco Board asmanufacturer of virginia tobac-co and are manufacturing cig-arettes based on the certificateissued by Ministry of Micro,Small and MediumEnterprises, using the exemp-tions available under IDR Act1951 for the units engaging lessthan 50/100 laborerswith/without the aid of thepower.”

Such manufacturers notonly evade taxes causing rev-enue losses to the govern-ment, but also pose severehealth risks to smokers giventhat hazardous substances aremixed with tobacco. Otherthan manufacturing illicit andcounterfeit products, suchunits are also exploiting theirstatus to manufacture popularforeign brands.

Recently Police, DistrictTobacco Control Units andNGOs across Delhi-NCR haveconducted several raids andfound such units manufactur-ing illicit and counterfeit ofpopular foreign brands, packsof which do not contain themandatory Health Warning, asmandated by law.

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Page 12: English News Paper | Breaking News | Latest Today News in ... · time registration fee, lifting ... Supreme Court on Friday ... Marriage) Act 2019 as “uncon-stitutional” on grounds

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US officials have confirmedthat Israel was responsible

for the bombing of an Iranianweapons depot in Iraq lastmonth, an attack that wouldmark a significant escalation inIsrael’s years-long campaignagainst Iranian militaryentrenchment across theregion.

The confirmation comes asIsraeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu is strong-ly hinting that his country isbehind recent airstrikes thathave hit bases and munitionsdepot belonging to Iran-backedparamilitary forces operating inIraq.

The mystery attacks havenot been claimed by any sideand have left Iraqi officialsscrambling for a response,amid strong speculation thatIsrael may have been behindthem.

Earlier this week, thedeputy head of the Iraqi Shiitemilitias, known collectively asthe Popular MobilisationForces, openly accused Israeli

drones of carrying out theattacks, but ultimately blamedWashington and threatenedstrong retaliation for any futureattack.

Such attacks are potential-ly destabilizing for Iraq and itsfragile Government, which hasstruggled to remain neutralamid growing tensions betweenthe United States and Iran.

There have been at leastthree explosions at Iraqi Shiitemilitia bases in the past month.American officials now con-firm Israel was responsible forat least one of them.

Two American officials

said Israel carried out an attackon an Iranian weapons depot inJuly that killed two Iranian mil-itary commanders. The U.S.Officials spoke on condition ofanonymity because they werenot authorized to discuss thematter with the media.

The July 19 attack struck amilitia base in Amirli, in Iraq’snorthern Salaheddin province,causing a huge explosion andfire.

A senior official with theShiite militias at the time toldThe Associated Press that thebase hit housed advisers fromIran and Lebanon — a refer-

ence to the Iranian-backedLebanese Hezbollah group. Hesaid the attack targeted theheadquarters of the advisersand a weapons depot.

On August 12, a massiveexplosion at the al-Saqr mili-tary base near Baghdad shookthe capital, killing one civilianand wounding 28 others. Thebase housed a weapons depotfor the Iraqi federal police andthe PMF.

The most recent of theexplosions came Tuesday night,at a munitions depot north ofBaghdad.

There have been weeks ofspeculation in Israel that thearmy is attacking targets inIraq.

In an interview with aRussian-language TV stationon Thursday, Netanyahu indi-cated the speculation is true.

“I don’t give Iran immuni-ty anywhere,” he said, accusingthe Iranians of trying to estab-lish bases “against us every-where,” including Syria,Lebanon, Yemen and Iraq.

Asked whether that meansIsrael is operating in Iraq,

Netanyahu said: “We act inmany arenas against a countrythat desires to annihilate us. Ofcourse I gave the security forcesa free hand and the instructionto do what is needed to thwartthese plans of Iran.”

Early Friday, the New YorkTimes, citing Israeli and U.S.Officials, reported that Israelbombed an Iranian weaponsdepot in Iraq last month.

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Sri Lanka has ended the four-month-long state of emer-

gency imposed in the countryfollowing the Easter Sundayattacks that claimed 258 lives.

Officials sources said agovernment gazette whichshould have been issued onThursday to extend the state ofemergency by a further monthwas not issued.

“The president did notissue the gazette to extendemergency,” they said.

President MaithripalaSirisena has been extending theemergency through a gazettenotification every month sincethe bombings on April 21.

Sri Lanka initially imposedthe emergency on April 23 tocrack down on the nine suicidebombers who attacked threechurches and as many luxuryhotels, killing 258 people andinjuring 500 others.

The ISIS terror groupclaimed the attacks, but thegovernment blamed the localIslamist extremist group

National Thawheed Jammath(NTJ) for the Ester Sundaybombings.

The state of emergencygives sweeping powers to thesecurity forces to arrest anddetain people in the aftermathof the attack.

Over 1,000 people werearrested for their links to theNTJ, including five people whowere extradited from SaudiArabia.

The tourism industry hasbeen lobbying extensively to liftthe state of emergency as it sawa surge in tourist cancella-tions.

The government initiatedseveral high level probes toinvestigate the security lapseswhich led to the attacks despiteprior intelligence warnings.

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The fires raging in theAmazon rainforest amount

to an “acute emergency” andChancellor Angela Merkelbelieves it should be discussed byworld leaders when they meet forthis weekend’s G7 summit, herspokesman said on Friday.

“The extent of the fires inthe Amazon area is shockingand threatening and not onlyfor Brazil and the other affect-ed countries, but also for thewhole world,” Steffen Seiberttold journalists in Berlin.

“When the G7 comestogether this weekend, thenthe chancellor is convinced

that this acute emergency of theAmazon rainforest belongs onthe agenda,” added Seibert,saying that Merkel backs FrenchPresident Emmanuel Macron’scall on the G7 to address theissue at the summit in Biarritz.

Macron’s bid at rallyingworld leaders on the issue hadbeen immediately blasted byBrazilian President JairBolsonaro, who accused the G7summit host of having a “colo-nialist mentality”.

Bolsonaro is facing grow-ing criticism over his anti-environment rhetoric, whichactivists blame for embolden-ing loggers, miners and farm-ers in the Amazon.

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Russian President VladimirPutin said on Friday he has

ordered the military to preparea “symmetric response” afterWashington tested a formerlybanned missile.

Putin said he had orderedan analysis of “the level ofthreat for our country createdby the actions of the US and totake comprehensive measuresto prepare a symmetricresponse”.

The US Department ofDefense said Monday it hadtested a type of ground-launched missile that wasbanned under the 1987 INFagreement, which limited theuse of nuclear and conventional

medium-range weapons.Moscow and Washington

ripped up the pact early thismonth after several months ofaccusing one another ofbreaching its conditions.

Russia and China haveboth warned that Sunday’slaunch of the nuclear-capableTomahawk cruise missile witha MK-41 launcher had height-ened military tensions andrisked sparking a new armsrace.

Tokyo: Japanese PrimeMinister Shinzo Abe said SouthKorea’s decision to cancel a dealto share military intelligence,mainly on North Korea, isdamaging mutual trust andvowed Friday to work closelywith the US for regional peace.

Abe also accused SouthKorea of not keeping pastpromises. The intelligenceagreement started in 2016.

“We will continue to close-ly coordinate with the US toensure regional peace andprosperity, as well as Japan’ssecurity,” he said ahead of hisdeparture for the Group ofSeven summit.

South Korea announcedThursday it would terminatethe intelligence deal becauseTokyo’s decision to downgradeSouth Korea’s preferential tradestatus had caused a “grave”change in the security cooper-ation between the countries.AP

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Malta says it will disembark356 migrants aboard a

humanitarian ship in the cen-tral Mediterranean Sea after sixEuropean countries agreed toaccept all of them.

In a series of tweets Friday,Maltese Prime Minister JosephMuscat said the migrants willbe transferred from the OceanViking to vessels of the coun-try’s armed forces before takingthem on shore.

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China and Pakistan were tar-geted for their persecution

of religious minorities, withwestern powers such the US andUK calling out both nations ata UN Security Council meetingfor the oppression faced byChristians, Ahmadis, Uighursand other ethnic minorities.

The Arria-FormulaMeeting of the SecurityCouncil on ‘Advancing theSafety and Security of PersonsBelonging to Religious

Minorities in Armed Conflict’was organised by Poland, theCouncil President for August,to mark the first InternationalDay Commemorating theVictims of Acts of ViolenceBased on Religion or Belief.

Addressing the meeting,US Ambassador at Large forInternational ReligiousFreedom Samuel Brownbackon Thursday said religiousfreedom is essential for achieving peace and stabilitywithin nations and amongnations.

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Ablast from a homemadebomb killed one Israeli

and seriously wounded two ofher family members in anattack near a Jewish settlementin the occupied West Bank onFriday, officials said. Israelisecurity forces were deployedthroughout the area of theattack near the settlement ofDolev, northwest of Ramallah,in a search for suspects.

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Government have taken fullcontrol of a key southern cityafter overnight clashes withseparatists there, Yemeni secu-rity officials said on Friday.

Clashes over Ataq, the cap-ital of oil-rich Shabwa provinceerupted late Thursday nightand lasted until Friday morn-ing, said the security officials,speaking on condition ofanonymity because there werenot authorised to talk to themedia.

The city of Ataq was pre-viously divided between thegovernment forces of Saudi-backed President Abed RabboMansour Hadi and a sepa-ratist militia, trained and armed by the United ArabEmirates.

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Do you remember the lasttime you saw actor RajeevKhandelwal being the pro-tagonist in a love story?Kahin Toh Hoga was the

only show you could recall, isn’t it? Well,a role like Sujal Garewal’s certainly wasnot one to be forgotten. Even after don-ning a number of versatile hats as anactor, his image of a boy next door hasbeen the most favourite one. And whenone watches the trailer of his forthcom-ing ALTBalaji web series, Coldd Lassi aurChichen Masala, one can surely recall hissimilar avatar in his previous such roles.

He tells us that it’s the very reasonwhy he chose this role too. “I am doinga love story after a very long time. I real-ly liked and appreciated how the storywas written so powerfully. So when lovestories are written well, it’s great fun towork and perform on them. It’s premisewas also very different. I really liked howthe love story proceeded in the backdropof food as well as the back and forth ofthe characters within a span of eightyears. Also, because it is a web series, itwould come to an end after a certainamount of episodes rather than going onfor months on TV,” says the actor, who

had initially refused to be part of theshow as he found the script to be very“superficial” in its first narration.However, after reading the first fourchapters later, he agreed with the “beau-tifully-written script.”

The show features Rajeev as Vikram,a two-star Michelin chef, who is chefNitya’s (played by Divyanka Tripathi)senior and ex-lover. The story revolvesaround the couple as they move back andforth between love and conflict in a‘gourmet-licious’ world. The two lovershad separated after a tiff eight years ago.And in the present day, as they face eachother in the same kitchen again, theirpast makes a comeback. Nitya’s focus ondetailing and perfection makes her looklike a stubborn and short-tempered per-son among her colleagues, whereas,Vikram believes in experimentation andis not very approving of Nitya’s idea oftraditionality.

A title like that is, for a fact, intrigu-ing. It certainly generates some level ofcuriosity among the audience if one has-n’t watched the trailer to know what itactually tries to showcase. Why would alove story be named on a food item andan ingredient after all? Rajeev laughs and

says that even he had questioned thesame. “When I was told that the title ofthe series would be Coldd Lassi aurChicken Masala, I was perplexed. I neverexpected a love story to be named likethat. I thought it would be a very roman-tic title and something new and differ-ent. But then, Ekta (Kapoor) usually hasa knack for coming up with very inter-esting titles. She would always thinkbeyond the clouds and come up withsomething unique. And then, after goingon with it for a few days, I also came toterms with it, especially after knowing thecomplete script. It’s not just the dishesthat we are talking about but also hassomething to do with the characters. Ifone person matches with the nature ofa cold lassi, the other matches with the

chicken masala. Somewhere, you’ll noticeit even in the characters too. So I find itapt now.”

There have been a plenty love stories,especially when it comes to shows and adramatic universe created by EktaKapoor, but this one appears like a firstof its kind to have been airing under herproduction. With an interesting andnew pairing, the trailer makes it evidentthat the show would promise an addedculinary experience with the rightflavours and spices in a love story. Onecan see Divyanka and Rajeev dealingwith everyday issues in a hotel kitchenand the challenges chefs face. However,not even once would one point out thatthey are not professional cooks. We cansee them preparing dishes with the

same body language and style souschefs have. So was there any specific kindof training that went into making the castlook like professional kitchen experts?Absolutely. And Rajeev tells us how. “Notjust me and Divyanka, but even the otherpeople in the kitchen were trainedunder head chefs everyday for sometime. We were taught the basics ofcooking. We were taught how to hold thebutcher’s knife and cut, chop and toss.There was a chef always present on thesets who would point out if we weremaking mistakes in performing a partic-ular act related to cooking. They wouldtell us, ‘No, you’re holding it wrong. Youshould pour the sprinkles like this.’ Butof course, the dishes which are shown arenot prepared by us. They are justprompts that we use,” he says and addsthat even though the story has cookingelements in it, it’s a love story, so akitchen is just a place.

Rajeev believes that the essence of alove story always remains the same. It’sactually the storytelling that changes thegame. He says, “Stories can always besimilar or can have similar elements butstorytelling is different in every plot.Which is the reason why even twosame stories would look different whentold through different perspectives.”

Be it Table No. 21, Reporters, Sach KaSaamna, Aamir, Shaitan or evenSoundtrack, Rajeev is known for hisroles that have might not been commer-cially acclaimed, but definitely critically.Talking about how he selects a role andhow the approach has changed with time,the actor says that he doesn’t think a lotwhile making a selection. It just comes tohim spontaneously. He tell us, “Nothinghas really changed. My approach is stillthe same. I am very instinctive as a per-son. If something excites me, I want to doit. I say yes, instantly. I have never had aparticular way of picking up my projects.I don’t give them too much of a thought.”All these listed above, he adds, wereinstinctive decisions. “I have sealed all ofmy projects with the first meeting itself.If I like it, it’s a yes, and if I don’t, it’s ano. Simple!” However, Shaitan would beout of the list here and even Cold Lassi...,scripts of which, he says, hadn’t convincedhim in the first meetings.

Though he always convinces, nomatter what. Laughs.

(The show releases on September 3 onALTBalaji and ZEE5.)

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When the Indian textileindustry stood at the sec-ond position from 2014 to

2017, it certainly seemed that itwould top the ladder in the comingyears. However, it’s only two days agothat the Confederation of IndianTextiles Industry (CITI) revealedthat the industry is losing its edge inthe international market as it slippedto rank five last year. SaileshSinghania, who happens to be thesixth-generation textile conserva-tionist and designer from Hyderabad,whose forefathers joined the Nizam’slegacy in 1881, points out its reason.“Indian textile industry was earlieravailable to the people globally. Weare very well known for our prints forthe past 3,000 years. When we sayprints, it is always India that comesto everybody’s mind. When you sayKalamkaari prints, it’s India again.And how can we forget Khadi, ofcourse. Because of a lot of competi-tion today, there is a lot of produc-tion of power looms. So the produc-tion cost has become a major factorfor shrinking of the Indian textileindustry,” says he and adds thatwhen you talk about the internation-al market, it only consists of the vol-ume of sales, they never check uponany other measures. “The volumeneeds to be more reasonable.”

One of the solutions to sustainthe industry, he shares, could be if thegovernment starts to provide themtax holidays just like textile countrieslike China do. “If you compare thetextiles of India, in terms of the costand pricing turnovers, the handloomindustry is hardly 10 per cent of themarket. The major market is coveredby power looms,” he says.

The designer has always beenpassionate about Khadi as he feels thatit is the most “luxurious” fabric.Though Indians feel that silk is themost luxurious one but Singhaniasays that the hand-spun Khadi takesmore time than spinning the silk andthe concentration level needs to be atextreme while we are at it. And thatis the reason why the designer’s lat-est collection features a combinationof Khadi and age-old techniques likethe Jamdani and embellishing it withintricate motifs inspired by modernJapanese art, thereby bringing a

plethora of cultures and traditionstogether and culminating them intoone final creation.

“That’s why I wanted to dosomething with Khadi with the fineraccounts. Jamdani technique wasstarted 1,000 years ago. It is very time-consuming but yes, there is no limi-tation to the designs. A four to fivemetre saree can be of a single designand that’s its beauty,” says Singhania.

Though Jamdani has enjoyedimmense popularity right from thebeginning, the art form bloomed dur-ing the Mughal period. However,colonisation by the British saw adecline in the production of it.Export of cheaper yarn fromEuropean countries in the 19th cen-tury was one of the primary reasonsfor the decline. Also, with the decline

of Mughal rule in India, producers ofJamdani were deprived of their mostinfluential patrons. Villages likeMadhurapur and Jangalbadi in Bihar,once famous for the intricate Jamdani

industry, faded into oblivion. Post thePartition, many weavers had migrat-ed to present-day West Bengal, whichmarked the beginning of the art formin India. He shares about its tediousprocess. The making of it involves thesupplementary weft technique alongwith the standard weft technique.With the latter, the base sheer mate-rial is made on which thicker threadsare used to create designs. Each of thesupplementary weft motif is thenadded manually by interlacing theweft threads with fine bamboo sticksusing individual spools. This processresults in the vibrant patterns thatappear to float on a shimmering sur-face, which is a feature unique toJamdani sarees.

So why can’t we use the age-oldtechniques as they are — raw and rich

— rather than blending it with newerapproach? He says, “We are using theold techniques only. The new tech-nique is like power looms, whichgives you the price-effective produc-tion cost, which is the differencebetween handloom and power loom.Handloom has its limitation of pro-duction and the cost, which is meantto be high. Power loom reduces thecost and enhances the efficiency ofthe production.”

The fabric Khadi, now 100-years-old, has taken decades tobecome a global fashion statement.Does Singhania think that age-oldthings just like Khadi should be givenequal exposure? And that there is aneed to revive them as well to makethem recognise globally? He says,“Khadi is something you need toexperience first. Once people startwearing and experimenting, theyunderstand the difference betweenKhadi and other products. Brandshave started promoting it very well.It was earlier majorly done by ourgovernment only, which never had aproper channel to manage it. Khadihas been brought into highlightthrough better branding. Indian gov-ernment is not great at branding andmarketing the products, it is alwaysdone better by private companies. Ofcourse, other things should be givenan equal exposure. And I think, thetopic must be inculcated in the syl-labus of school children.”

Comprising opulent whites andenigmatic gold threads, each saree inhis collection has been wovenpainstakingly over a labourious peri-od of over eight months to match theunparalleled beauty of his muses. “Wehave used different types of silk likeAssam silk, Mulberry silk fromBangalore, Muga silk and Ahinsa silk,its so much in fashion today,” he says.

There exists in nature, a certaintype of harmony, beyond the confinesof human belief and within those ofthe spirit. Singhania’s royal Banarasisilk, is assiduously woven with motifsinspired by the sun and the moon, thenatural forces upon which life sustainsand the society thrives. The motifsembody nature and its interactionwith the human race, like an orches-trated symphony of life in the weave.The Kanjeevaram silk sarees that have

remained a constant in every closetsince the Chola and Pallava dynasty,are also revisited through his collec-tion, celebrating the identity of thefabric with a modern outlook, tappinginto its potential without tamperingwith its ethnicity.

Singhania has worked with 700handloom weavers belonging to 22different clusters from areas likePochampally, Gadwal, Uppada, Kota,Pranpur and others to curate his col-lection. “We need to fulfill theirrequirements. We need to teachthem how to mend the looms andhow to get perfection in their designswith the graphs. I agree, ultimatelyweaving is done by the weavers. Butit’s not like all the 700 weavers wouldcome to the industry daily. It is doneat homes. So in the local villages wehave master craftsmen and weavers.We coordinate with them and theysupport the local people there becauseevery local cluster has their local lan-guage and culture. So the mastercraftsmen bridge that gap. It’s a

chain. It’s like an organised industryworking in a semi-organised pattern,”he says as he chuckles a bit.

Regional weavers are actuallykeeping the traditional style craftalive from different states. Being atextile conservationist, what doesSinghania thinks of how can theseweavers from small towns andcities could be given a platform tobe recognised in the global forum?“Our efforts lie in creating a sus-tainable world, wherein our artisanscan thrive and are celebrated. Thiscollection is a testament of ourefforts and we strive to bring to thefore the sheer talent that ourweavers possess. However, smallweavers generally know the tech-nique quite well but designersneed to help them for latest designsand innovation so that it stays rel-evant in today’s contemporaryworld. Without that, it is really dif-ficult as they need help in variousthings. And things have also gotvery expensive. Just a weaver to runa handloom, they need an invest-ment of more than �2-3 lakh forone loom. They also need helpfrom master weavers or designersto educate them about innovation,latest colours, designs, patternsand price,” he says.

The designer is determined topromote sustainable fashion, crafts-manship with a commitment to‘Make in India’ initiative. So whatdrives his passion for this? “I real-ly love sustainable fashion becausethe old things goes and the newthings comes, it has to move on andit’s not like a polyester but a process.Sustainability was practised frommany years and it defines luxury. Ifit’s not perishable, then it’s plastic,”he says and adds that there are onlypre-forms of natural yarns — cot-ton, silk and woolen. These thingsare quite skin-friendly and also suitthe Indian weather since we sweata lot, and skin feels more comfort-able in cotton or Khadi.

“I really wanted to do some-thing for the textile industry. Torevive the textile and give it aglobal recognition and showcase theIndian heritage globally. You sim-ply cannot find the Indian crafts inother places,” says Singhania.

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Whether it is Krishna’sjoyous years of child-hood or the antics heplayed while grow-ing up, his romance

with nature and his compassion foreverything that had life or eventual-ly attaining the stage of human ado-ration, classical dancer ShobhaDeepak Singh brings his journey onstage through scenes which will takeyou back to his various folk lores. Andwhat better an occasion thanJanmashtami for this? The perfor-mance begins with the celebrationthat takes place at midnight withdevotional songs, dances, aartis androcking the cradle of baby Kanha.

In the show, which is the 43rdedition of the story of Krishna,Shobha tries to couple Indian tradi-tions with newness and dynamism sothat the audience can relate to it as perthe current scenario. It is woven withan array of tales, beliefs and myths.The essence of the show remains thesame, she says, but it has been blend-ed with various things in order tomake it appealing and different fromits previous versions. Shobha says,“The audience wants to see some-thing new every year while keeping

the traditionality intact. So, we playin terms of the choreography, cos-tumes and characters.” She has triedto make the choreography morevibrant and technologically advanced.She shares that this year LED screenshave been used for projection and anew audio and video-visual screen,which enhances the video quality ofthe show. This will give a more real-istic element to the show and theaudience will connect closely.

Shobha breaks the story intoindividual passages and then tries toset the sequence. She then checkshow each sequence is different fromthe previous one. She is a keenbeliever of learning from each phaseof the show and tries to improviseconsistently. “As soon as the show isover, we see and analyse our perfor-mances, we check what could havebeen done better and then work onthat,” she says. This helps them torefine their performance and become“better versions” of themselves.There are specifically some editionsof the show that are loved more bythe audience. She says, “I am some-one who won’t stick to an idea evenif it works. I start thinking aboutnewer concepts that can enhance my

show instantly after one perfor-mance is done.”

Initially, she used to do simpleshows and performances as therewere not much facilities or technol-ogy but the stage has travelled too farfrom then and evolved with eachshow. Shobha recalls, “When I lookback, I could only remember fewfamous episodes of Krishna butnow we have a series depicting all his

stages.” She further shares that theresearch on Krishna shows him intwo different avatars. One, where hisnatkhat activities are highlighted andthe other, in the batt le ofKurukshetra. Shobha has tried toshow the same. She says, “The firsthalf is completely devoted to his mis-chiefs and shows the popularepisodes like makkhan chori, hisfight with Kaliya, Govardhan parvatwhereas the second half is based onthe Mahabharata and the message ofKrishna on the battlefield in the formof traditional dance forms likeMayurbhanj, Chhau andKalaripayattu.”

Shobha agrees that along withthe evolution of the story, there hasbeen a growth in her journey too.“Initially, I didn’t know a lot of thingsabout Krishna. But I read a lot andspent time at the Sahitya Akademiand came across new interpretationsof his story. This has helped addmore elements to the story andenrich my performances,” she says.The artist is all set for the 63rd edi-tion of Ramayana starting onSeptember 27 and 28.

(The show will be staged today at6.30 at Kamani Auditorium.)

What did you think of the Riviera’sscript when you first read it?I thought it was ambitious. We onlygot the first two episodes to read anda gentle overview of where thingswould go after that so you base yourappreciation on those two things. Butit was a very intriguing series and aworld full of art that I haven’t seenbefore on television so I was glad tojump in and be a part of it.

How do you go about preparing fora role and do you build up a back-story to your character?When you’re doing a TV project ofthis nature, you can replace yourbackstory with front one because youdon’t know where the character’sgoing to end up. Also, the informa-tion about their backstory containedin the first couple of scripts youreceive is very minimal, so youinvent it to make sure you have a realworking connection with the otheractors to move forward. But whatmight happen then is you readepisode three, which you didn’t getbefore and suddenly find out thatyou were orphaned. So you might say“I’m going to do loads of backpreparation” when actually you haveto just jump in and play. Then whenyou reach to episodes five and six,those scripts will have been writtenby writers, who have watched yourperformances in episodes one andtwo, so they will be working fromwhat you’ve already brought to thecharacter. So you have to change thebackstory for front story and theystart to create the character in linewith what you’re playing already.

Is it becomes a collaborativeprocess? It feels collaborative because you getthe script and might say “well thiswouldn’t happen and that wouldn’thappen,” and then they can shift andchange the whole script.

Tell us about your character,Robert? He’s an art dealer, who trained in thesame class as Georgina. They bothknow a lot about art, although theywork on different sides of it.Georgina is a curator and she fells inlove with him. Robert, on the otherhand, has used his knowledge to starttracking where paintings are beingsold, where they are being kept andwho has them. It’s quite common forpeople, who buy a piece of art, toactually have a really good reproduc-tion on their wall while the original

is locked away in a vault somewhere.

The explosion sets off a huge chainof events for many people. Howdoes Constantine’s death specifical-ly change Robert’s life? It changes Georgina’s life and thatchanges Robert’s life. It brings some-one who was very close to him backinto his life.

Are you an art lover yourself?What kind of art do you prefer?I have some original pieces. Somecarvings, but not conventional artand there are triptych that I got fromdifferent countries. There’s nothingmajor that falls in line with the clas-sics that people pay millions for.

As an actor, what do you ideallywant from a director? Is it free-dom? Is it guidance? Or does theanswer vary from project to pro-ject? It varies because if you don’t relate

to the character, you need to have anexpert eye watching you as youclimb towards it. Or if the characteris close to you, is very emotional andis quote private, then you want free-dom and the security that it brings.Every actor works in different ways.Some actors might be brilliant andamazing on their first two takes.Other actors really need to warm up.

They get into the skin slowly. So youhave to see who’s bringing what inrehearsal and work from that.

You directed episodes seven andeight of this series. How did thisunderstanding of your fellow actorsfeed into your work as a director?It’s something you have to read. Asan actor who is also directing, I knowexactly how the other actor couldfeel. So when you shout ‘action’, whatgoes down the lens is brutally realand convincing and they can do thatin a very safe environment.

How did you find the experience ofdirecting Riviera given it has sucha distinctive cinematic look?You’ve got set design by 18th-centu-ry France and lighting by God, soyou just have to point the camera onit at the right time of day, havingbeen given these things for nothing.But having said that, you do requirethe time, energy, budget and a good

crew so that you can capture all thesemoments and make them as expres-sive as they could be. The charactersare very rich, so we had to put all ofthat on screen and make people feellike they were watching a very lush,almost voluptuous world of art. Andyou can’t do a drama set in that worldand present it in a picture box framewithout treating that frame like it’sa piece of art.

Did you have fun while making theshow with such a great ensemblecast?There were people there from allover the world — Germans, French,Russians, Americans, Britishers. Wewere all there, speaking all of thoselanguages. Everyone has a slightlydifferent method of working. As adirector you step in line with theways everyone chooses to work andon this series they all brought theircultural influences with them, whichwas really great.

What did you make of the Rivieraitself? There’s a lot of money there and youcan see the part of that world, whenyou go to Monaco Harbour and seethe massive yachts there. They juststay there empty for most of the year.If you have that kind of money, whynot just rock up and hire one for fivedays?

What’s your most extravagant pur-chase? Me and my family go so practicallythrough life. We never buy things wecan’t see or feel the value of. Peopletelling me something is worth ‘x’doesn’t sway it for me. I have to seethe practical value of something Ibuy. Therefore, we haven’t reallysplashed out on anything ridiculous-ly expensive. If there is anything thatI truly wanted to keep precious, it ismy kids and the best way of lookingafter them is making sure I don’tspend loads of money on train kits.

(Riviera seasons 1 and 2 arestreaming on SonyLIV.)

Actress SonamKapoor and actorDulquer Salmaan-

starrer The Zoya Factorhas been in the newsrecently owing to a storywhere luck proves to be thegreatest factor. It is basedon the eponymous book byAnuja Chauhan. On thef i lm front, the latestrumour circulating iswhether the film is inspiredfrom the life of actress andpresenter Mandira Bedi.

As per a source, thebook is inspired by the lifeof a woman who gainedmassive traction after the2003 World Cup. Mandira,who was originally anactor, started her stint as apresenter for the IndianCricket team in 2003 and itwas her compering andthe luck that followed forthe team, which is stillremembered.

The source said,“Mandira Bedi’s associa-

tion with the cricket teamas their compere some-how had proven to be luckyfor the cricket team.Whenever the team’s daystarted with a greetingfrom Mandira, they won.And therefore, it wasbelieved that she is indeedthe lucky mascot for ourcricket team. In the earli-er days of reading sessionsbetween the author(Anuja), director and theactors, they often discussedhow the book is hugelyinspired from her life andSonam hence drew refer-ences from the same.”

Zoya Factor is about aRajput girl named ZoyaSingh Solanki (played bySonam Kapoor) who meetsthe Indian Cricket Teamthrough her job as an exec-utive in an advertisingagency and ends upbecoming a lucky charmfor the team in the 2010Cricket World Cup.

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There is now a “RollingStones Rock” on Mars,and it’s giving Mick, Keith

and the boys some serious sat-isfaction.

NASA named a little stonefor the legendary rockers afterits InSight robotic lander cap-tured it rolling across the sur-face of Mars last year, and thenew moniker was made publicat the night’s rolling stones’ con-cert at the Rose Bowl. “NASAhas given us something wehave always dreamt of, ourvery own rock on Mars. I can’tbelieve it,” Mick Jagger told thecrowd, “I want to bring it backand put it on our mantelpiece.”

Robert Downey Jrannounced the name, takingthe stage just before the band’sset at the Southern Californiastadium that is only a stone’sthrow from NASA’s JetPropulsion Laboratory, whichmanages InSight. “Cross-polli-nating science and a legendaryrock band is always a goodthing,” the actor said. He toldthe crowd that JPL scientistshad come up with the name “ina fit of fandom and cleverassociation.”

“Charlie, Ronnie, Keith andMick were in no way opposedto the notion,” Downey said,“but in typical egalitarian fash-ion, they suggested I assist inprocuring 60,000 votes to makeit official, so that’s my mission.”He led the audience in a shoutbefore declaring the deed done.Jagger said, “I want to saythank our favourite action manRobert Downey Jr, that was avery nice intro he gave.”

The rock, just a little biggerthan a golf ball, was moved byInSight’s own thrusters as therobotic lander touched downon Mars on November 26. It

only moved about three feet(0.9 meters), but that’s the far-thest NASA has seen a rock rollwhile landing a craft on anoth-er planet. “I’ve seen a lot ofMars rocks over my career,”Matt Golombek, a JPL geologistwho has helped NASA land allits Mars missions since 1997,said in a statement. “This oneprobably won’t be in a lot of sci-entific papers, but it’s definite-ly one of the coolest,” he added.

The rolling stones andNASA logos were shown sideby side in the run-up to theshow as the sun set over theRose Bowl, leaving many fansperplexed as to what the con-nection was before it wasannounced. The concert hadoriginally been scheduled forspring, before the stones post-poned their No Filter NorthAmerican tour because Jaggerhad a heart surgery.

The 76-year-old showedno signs of poor health oreven his age as he danced,pranced and boogied up anddown a long catwalk thatextended to the middle of thestadium’s field. He did poke funat his advanced years. “It’s greatto be back at the Rose Bowl inPasadena,” Jagger said. “At leastI think we’ve been here before.”(They have, in 1994.) He added,“We walked up and downHollywood Boulevard lookingfor the rolling stones star butcouldn’t find it.” (The banddoesn’t have one.)

And he took a dig atPresident Donald Trump’srecent talk of acquiringGreenland when introducinghis bandmates. “On the drums,”Jagger shouted, “Greenland’snew economic adviser, CharlieWatts”

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Early Premier League leadersLiverpool and Arsenal face-

off, while Frank Lampard isunder pressure to deliver hisfirst win as Chelsea boss atNorwich today.

One of the only tworemaining 100 percentrecords in the PremierLeague will go at Anfieldwhere the Europeanchampions will hope tocontinue a fine recentrecord against the northLondoners.

Jurgen Klopp has neverlost in seven previous PremierLeague meetings againstArsenal and his side have beat-en the Gunners 4-0 and 5-1 athome in the past two seasons.

However, Unai Emery’soutfit are hoping a busy summerin the transfer window, whileLiverpool did not strengthen,will have significantly narrowedthe 27-point gap between thesides last season.

Emery could hand a firststart to £72 million ($87 mil-lion) club record signing NicolasPepe, while on-loan RealMadrid midfielder DaniCeballos earned ravereviews by creating bothgoals on his full debutagainst Burnley lastweekend.

However, it isat the backArsenal need adrastic improve-ment and there isan early opportu-nity for veterancentre-back DavidLuiz to make hismark by halting thefree-scoring trio ofSadio Mane,Roberto Firminoand MohamedSalah, who com-bined for all fiveLiverpool goalswhen the sides lastmet.

Arsenal havesome outstanding fin-ishers of their own.P i e r r e - E m e r i c kAubameyang, whoshared the PremierLeague Golden Bootwith Mane and Salahlast season, has scoredhis side’s winner in thefirst two games of thecampaign.

And on the evidenceof Liverpool’s first fourgames of the season acrossall competitions, a defence

that registered 20 PremierLeague clean sheets last seasonlooks far less solid.

Alisson Becker remainssidelined with a calfinjury, meaning Adrian— whose calamitousattempted clearance gift-ed Southampton a goallast weekend — will keephis place in goal.

Whilst Liverpool andArsenal have taken

advantage of a couple of kindfixtures to get their campaignsoff to a bright start, ManchesterCity, Manchester United andTottenham all dropped pointson matchday two.

The roles are reversed thisweekend as United host CrystalPalace, who have yet to scorethis season at Old Trafford, Citytravel to Bournemouth andSpurs seek to dismiss Newcastlewith the ease newly-promotedNorwich did last weekend.

PUKKI TO PILE PRESSURELampard was not handed

an easy start to life asChelsea boss with a trip to

Old Trafford followedby Liverpool in theUEFA Super Cup and

the visit of an ambi-tious Leicester side

to StamfordBridge lastweekend.

However,Lampard, who

had just oneyear’s managerialexperience at Derbyprior to taking overhis old club, needs awin at Norwich toease the questioningof his tactics.

The formerEngland interna-tional has been

accused of being toogung-ho in hisapproach as bothUnited and Leicestercut Chelsea openrelentlessly on thecounter-attack and ifhe cannot tailor hisapproach, Norwichhave a striker in formready to take advan-tage. Teemu Pukki hasscored four times inhis first two PremierLeague appearances,including a hat-trickagainst Newcastle lastweekend.

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Juventus begin their Serie A cam-paign at Parma today looking to

push their record Scudetto run tonine but with a different style of foot-ball under new coach MaurizioSarri, who will miss the opening fix-tures with pneumonia.

Behind, Napoli and Inter Milanare waiting in the wings hopeful thatSarri’s arrival can lead to turmoil inTurin and a changing of the guard inItaly.

Carlo Ancelotti’s Napoli have notwon the title since 1990 and open atFiorentina Saturday with AntonioConte’s Inter at home to promotedLecce on Monday.

Like Sarri, Conte last coached atChelsea, and along with three-timesChampions League winner Ancelotti,Serie A have a world class coachingsetup this season.

Juventus start the season withoutSarri however who will miss theParma game and his former clubNapoli in Turin on August 31 withpneumonia. The 60-year-old is stilloverseeing training.

Juventus are targetting a 36th

Scudetto but their main objec-tive remains the ChampionsLeague which they have notwon since 1996.

After splashing out onCristiano Ronaldo last seasonJuventus have again reinforcedwith midfielders Aaron Ramsey andAdrien Rabiot and Dutch defender

Matthijs De Ligt.

'RAISED THE BAR'In Milan, Conte, who led

Juventus to the first three intheir series of eight titles, hasalso been given money to spend

to give Inter a first Serie A title since2010.

Chinese-owned Inter paid 65million euros ($72 million) forManchester United’s Belgian for-ward Romelu Lukaku.

Atletico Madrid defender DiegoGodin has also arrived along withItalian midfielders Stefano Sensi andNicolo Barella.

Behind are Atalanta, a surprisethird last season, followed by ACMilan, Lazio and Roma.

The side from Bergamo play atSPAL with AC Milan at Udinese withRoma hosting Genoa.

Lazio start at home againstSampdoria, now coached by formerRomer boss Eusebio Di Francesco.

Promoted Brescia head forCagliari with new signing MarioBalotelli sitting out a four-match ban,with Verona at home againstBologna.

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New loans i g n i n g s

Ivan Perisic and PhilippeCoutinho both hope tomake their Bundesligadebuts as championsBayern Munich attempt toreboot a rocky start to the season at Schalketoday.

Perisic and Coutinho, both of whomarrived in Munich on loan this month, willbe in the squad for the first time as Bayernlook to pick up their first win of the newseason against David Wagner’s Schalke.

Coutinho, 27, has been the talk ofGermany since Bayern announced hisarrival on a one-year loan deal fromBarcelona last week.

Bayern sporting director HasanSalihamidzic said the Brazilian would pro-vide “a touch of the spectacular”, and hopesthe former Liverpool player can sprinklesome much-needed stardust on theGerman top-flight.

Bayern announced record engagementfigures on their social media accounts fol-lowing Coutinho’s arrival, but fans mayhave to wait to see him in action.

Coach Niko Kovac confirmed onThursday Coutinho was not yet fit enoughto play the full 90 minutes, and would starton the bench against Schalke.

The Croatian coach said his compa-triot Perisic had better chances of makinga first start for Bayern.

Perisic, 30, joined Bayern on a one-year loan from Inter Milan earlier thismonth, but was forced to sit out the sea-son opener against Hertha Berlin due toa suspension carried over from Serie A.

That game confirmed a bumpy startto the new season for Bayern, as they wereheld to a 2-2 draw and immediatelyslipped two points behind title rivalsDortmund, who had beaten them in theGerman Supercup two weeks previously.

�# �� +�;2 ;

Zinedine Zidane has chal-lenged Gareth

Bale to show why heis still one of theworld’s best playersas he continues hisreintegration at RealMadrid.

Bale was a sur-prise inclusion inthe starting line-upagainst Celta Vigolast weekend, whenMadrid opened withan impressive 3-1win in La Liga andBale was arguablyman of the match.

Zidane said inJuly it would be“best for everyone”if Bale left Madridthis summer but theWelshman has beeneager to stay andappears to be regaining the confidence of his coach.

“What has changed is that the player is going to stay,nothing more,” Zidane said in a press conference onFriday, ahead of today’s game at home to Real Valladolid.

“The important thing is the player wants to stay. It’strue that a lot was said about him, by me as well, but heis going to stay.

“He is a great player, he has shown that before andhe has to show it again. He has to be the player we knowthat he is.”

Bale’s start in Vigo came after Eden Hazard sustaineda thigh injury in training and it remains to be seen if hecan keep his place when the Belgian returns after theinternational break.

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Drag-flicker Harmanpreet Singh is aproud man after having led India to suc-

cess in his maiden stint as captain of thenational team in the just-concluded OlympicTest event in Tokyo.

World No 5 India rested some seniorplayers and fielded a relatively young teamfor the Olympic Test event but still managedto lift the crown, defeating New Zealand 5-0 in the final on Wednesday.

“It was a fantastic opportunity foreveryone involved in the team to showcasewhat they can do. With some experiencedplayers rested for the tournament, we hada fairly younger squad, but it was a greatchance for the youngsters to do well and Iam really pleased with the way everyonestepped up.

“The team performed well against teamslike Japan, Malaysia and New Zealand, andit was an immensely proud moment for meto have led the Indian men’s hockey team forthe very first time,” said the 23-year-oldHarmanpreet, who captained India in theabsence of Manpreet Singh.

Harmanpreet scored two goals in thetournament and both his strikes cameagainst New Zealand — the first in the 1-2loss in round-robin match, while the otherwas in the final.

“Scoring is something that I have real-ly worked on since the junior days. To beable to help the team in scoring some impor-tant goals at crucial junctures in a match issomething that motivates me even further,”Harmanpreet said.

“I have worked on my drag-flicking withthe coaches, and finally it is showing on thefield as well and I am really pleased, but Iwill continue to keep working.”

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PV Sindhu secured her fifthWorld Championships medalfollowing a stunning come-

back while B Sai Praneeth becamethe first Indian male shuttler in 36years to grab a podium in the pres-tigious event here on Friday.

On a day of double delight forIndia, Olympic Silver medallistSindhu staged a come-from-behindvictory over Chinese Taipei’s TaiTzu Ying, before Praneeth ended anagonising wait with a straight-game win over Indonesia’s JonatanChristie.

Sindhu, who won back-to-backSilver medals in the last two edi-tions of the tournament to go withher two Bronze, edged past worldnumber 2 and Asian Games Goldmedallist Tzu Ying 12-21, 23-21,21-19 in a pulsating contest thatlasted 71 minutes, inching closer toan elusive gold medal at the worlds.

World No 19 Praneeth, who gotthe Arjuna Award this year,notched up a 24-22, 21-14 win overAsian Games Gold medallistJonatan in a 51-minute battle, join-ing Prakash Padukone in the medallist at the tournament.

Padukone was the first Indianto win a men’s singles WorldChampionships medal — a Bronze— in the 1983 edition.

In the women’s singles, Sindhushowed tremendous grit after beingblown away in the opening game,edging past her fancied rival, whoenjoys an upper hand (10-4) after14 career meetings.

“I think in the first game, I hadgiven a huge lead and I couldn’tcover. I was prepared for her decep-tion but my shots were going tomid court. But the second gamewas anybody’s game and I keptfighting and won the second. The

third game went same way, she wasleading but I had hope. At 18-18,I had to be patient and keep theshuttle inside, there were long ral-lies ad I am happy to win this,”Sindhu said after the win.

“We keep playing each other, sowe know each other’s game. Ineeded to be positive. It was a real-ly good match and taking out suchclose matches gives a big boost tothe confidence and I hope I canprepare well and come backstronger tomorrow."

The 24-year-old Indian willtake on the winner of the matchbetween China’s Chen Yu Fei andDenmark’s Mia Blichfeldt onSaturday.

“I don’t know whom I will play.Chen Yufei is doing well in recenttimes and Mia has beaten Sainayesterday. I will be playing themafter a long time. Anything canhappen, I just have to be there andfocus on tomorrow’s match,”Sindhu said.

In the men’s singles quarterfi-nals, Praneeth, who had won theSingapore Open in 2017 and fin-ished runners-up at Swiss Openearlier this year, came into the tour-nament with a 1-2 head-to-headcount against the Indonesian.

But the past record didn’t mat-ter as the Indian came out attack-ing to stave off a stiff challengefrom Jonatan in the opening gameand then blew him away in the sec-ond to find his place in history.

“It feels awesome. It feels greatand I am happy to win today. I stillhave matches, so I have to focus onthat and be fitter for tomorrow. Wecan talk about what medal later on,”laughed Praneeth after the match.

Talking about the match,Praneeth said: “In the first game,

the rallies were going on really longand I was attacking a lot and therewas a lot of pressure and it mademe tired. It was crucial because ifhe would have won then it couldhave been different.

“Later Gopi sir told me not toattack and that changed the rhythmand I think those inputs helped me

a lot.”Praneeth will take on World No

1 Kento Momota of Japan in thesemifinals on Saturday.

“I think everybody is trying tofind a way to beat him. It is not easyhe being the world No 1. You haveto put him under pressure, so letssee how it goes. I will give my best.”

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Indian badminton ace SainaNehwal on Friday slammed

the standard of umpiring in herBWF World Championshipspre-quarterf inal loss toDenmark’s Mia Blichfeldt,terming it “very sick”.

Her husband ParupalliKashyap, who often sits by thecourtside during her matches,also lashed out at the umpire fol-lowing the narrow defeat.

“Still can’t believe 2 matchpoints which the umpire over-ruled in the second game. Andthe umpire tells me in the midof second game ‘let the lineumpires do their job’ and Idon’t understand suddenly howthe umpire overruled the matchpoints..Very sick,” the LondonOlympic Bronze medallisttweeted.

Saina, who had won a Silverat the 2015 World

Championships and a Bronze in2017, put up a gritty perfor-mance before losing 21-15, 25-27, 12-21 to Blichfeldt, seeded12th, in the women’s singlesmatch that lasted an hour and12 minutes on Thursday.

There was no video referralin place for Saina’s match as itwas not held in one of the twocourts with live streaming facil-ity.

“2 match-points snatchedaway by bad umpiring. Andnumerous wrong decisions,”Kashyap, a 2014Commonwealth Games cham-pion, wrote on his Twitter han-dle.

“Unbelievable that there areno reviews on other courts atthe WORLD CHAMPI-ONSHIPS. When will our sportget better ? SICK @bwfmedia@HSBCBWF @NSaina #feel-ingcheated #totalbwfworld-championships2019.”

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Australia's Josh Hazlewoodtook five wickets as England

collapsed to just 67 all out on thesecond day of the third Ashes Testat Headingley on Friday.

Australia, who will retain theAshes with victory in this Test,then strengthened their grip byreaching tea in their secondinnings on 82-3 — a lead of 194.

Marnus Labuschagne, whosefirst-innings 74 was seven morethan England managed betweenthem, was 13 not out and TravisHead 17 not out.

England, 1-0 down in the five-Test series, had dismissedAustralia for a seemingly modest179, with fast bowler Jofra Archertaking 6-45 on Thursday.

But thanks mainly toAustralia quick Hazlewood's fig-ures of 5-30, England were bowledout inside 28 overs.

Joe Denly, with 12, was theonly England batsman to reachdouble figures.

But whereas Labuschagne, infor concussed star batsman SteveSmith, and David Warner (61)fought hard during their first-innings partnership of 111, fewEngland batsmen were as pre-pared to sell their wickets asdearly.

Indeed, several played keyroles in their own dismissals, forall that Australia bowled well.

By staging both the World

Cup and the Ashes with a shortturnaround between the twoshowpiece events, England haddenied several batsmen properfirst-class preparation for the very

different demands of Test crick-et. By contrast, a number ofAustralians had played for Englishcounty sides — Labuschagne, theonly batsman to so far score

1,000 first-class runs this seasonwas with Glamorgan — or fea-tured on the Australia A tour ofEngland that preceded the Ashes.

But England's batting woes

predate this season.Friday's slump was the latest

in a line of recent Test collapsesthat have seen England dismissedfor 58 by New Zealand (Auckland2018), 77 by the West Indies(Bridgetown 2019) and 85 byIreland at Lord's last month.

But what made this woefuldisplay all the more troubling wasthat the blue and sunny skiesabove Headingley on Friday oughtto have made conditions for bat-ting easier than the gloom ofThursday, when England captainJoe Root won the toss.

Opener Jason Roy took guardhaving made just 40 runs in fourinnings this series.

He fell for nine in familiarfashion when he edged a drive offa wide Hazlewood ball to Warner,holding the first of four catches atfirst slip.

Root walked out to applausefrom his Yorkshire home crowdbut was out for a second ballnought — his second straight zeroafter a golden duck in the secondinnings of the drawn second Testat Lord's — when nicking astraighter Hazlewood deliverythat seamed away to Warner.

Hazlewood had taken twowickets for no runs in three balls,with England 10-2.

All-rounder Ben Stokes cameinto this match following anunbeaten 115 in the secondinnings at Lord's.

But he all but gave his wick-

et away when he carved at a widehalf-volley from fast bowler JamesPattinson he could barely reach,with Warner holding a fast edgehigh above his shoulder.

Denly fought hard only for his49-ball stay to end when caughtbehind following an inexplicablyextravagant drive off Pattinson.

And 45-5 became 45-6 whenJonny Bairstow disappointed hishome crowd by edging a good-length Hazlewood ball, withWarner holding another finecatch.

England were 54-6 at lunchand 54-7 off the very first ballafterwards when Chris Woakeswas caught behind off Cummins(3-23).

Archer hooked a four offCummins before his 'up periscope'attempt to duck a Cumminsbouncer also saw him caughtbehind.

Hazlewood ended the inningswhen he clean bowled No 11 JackLeach.

England did then reduceAustralia to 36-2.

Stuart Broad had Warner lbwfor nought and left-arm spinnerLeach struck with his first ball ofthe match when a sharply turningdelivery out of the rough bowledMarcus Harris.

The struggling UsmanKhawaja was caught in the slipsfollowing a loose drive off Woakesbut Labuschagne kept Australia incommand.

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Trent Boult and Tim Southee ledNew Zealand’s charge against Sri

Lanka on day two of the rain-hit sec-ond Test in Colombo.

The pacemen claimed two wick-ets each as Sri Lanka reached 144 forsix at lunch when rain came down andno further play was possible.

Skipper Dimuth Karunaratnemoved from his overnight 49 to score65 and provided the only bit of resis-tance in the morning session, whichsaw 29.3 overs bowled.

Boult took two early wickets inone over after Sri Lanka resumed theday at 85 for two.

Dhanajaya de Silva on 32 andDilruwan Perera on five were at thecrease.

Southee, like Boult, also delivereda double-wicket maiden as the duo puton a superb display of seam bowlingunder overcast conditions.

Boult got overnight batsmanAngelo Mathews caught behind fortwo to reach a landmark of 250 Testwickets — only the third Kiwi bowlerto achieve the feat.

He trapped Kusal Perera lbw fornought after just three balls as Sri

Lanka slipped to 93-4.Karunaratne also got a lifeline on

61 when Kane Williamson could notgrab a tough chance at short mid-wicket off Ajaz Patel.

But the left-hander, who complet-ed his 23rd Test fifty after resumingthe day on 49, soon fell, caughtbehind off Southee for 65.

Southee struck again in the sameover to send Niroshan Dickwellatrudging back to the pavilion fornought.

Perera then played out the rest ofthe session with de Silva.

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Gujarat Fortunegiants snapped asix-match losing streak in the Pro

Kabaddi League Season 7, with a nar-row 29-26 win over Patna Pirates at theNehru indoor stadium in Chennai onFriday.

In the second match of the night, UMumba defeated Tamil Thalaivas 29-24,ensuring that the latter finished thehome leg without a win (with only a tiegame to show). U Mumba jumped tofourth in the points table with the winwhile Thalaivas slipped to eighth.

Jaipur Pink Panthers sit on top ofthe table with 7 wins from nine match-es for 36 points followed by BengalWarriors and Delhi Dabang KC.

In the Fortungiants-Piratesencounter, Rohit Gulia’s Super 10 turnedout to be the gamechanger as PardeepNarwal’s early heroics went in vain.

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Former South Africa all-rounder Lance Klusener

was on Friday appointed asthe assistant batting coach ofthe national team for thethree-match Twenty20series against India inSeptember.

Cricket South Africa(CSA) also announced thatformer pacer VincentBarnes will serve as theassistant bowling coach.While Justin Ontong willretain his position as theassistant fielding coach inEnoch Nkwe’s Proteas man-agement.

“In terms of the newteam structure the TeamDirector appoints his threeassistant coaches who havespecific skills focus in thethree key disciplines of bat-ting, bowling and fielding,”CSA Acting Director, Corrievan Zyl, said in a statement.

“Former Proteas all-rounder Lance Klusenerwill fill the role of assistantcoach (batting) for the T20

Series only as he is current-ly not available for all for-mats.”

Klusener, consideredone of the best all-roundersof his generation, has col-lected 1906 runs and 80wickets in Tests, as well as3576 runs and 192 wicketsin ODIs.

He took up coachingwith domestic sideHollywoodbets Dolphinsfrom 2012-2016 beforebeing appointed as battingcoach for the Zimbabwe

national team.In July this year, he was

appointed as the head coachof the Glasgow Giants forthe cancelled inaugural edi-tion of the Euro T20 Slamcricket tournament.

“His record as one ofthe best all-rounders in theworld, particularly in whiteball cricket, during his play-ing career speaks for itselfand he also has extensivecoaching experience both atfranchise and internationallevel,” van Zyl said.

Barnes has a long histo-ry with the Proteas, havingserved as the bowling andthen assistant coach from2003 until 2011.

Ontong, who has repre-sented the national side inall three formats, also servedas South Africa's fieldingcoach under Ottis Gibsonbefore the restructuring.

South Africa will trav-el to India for a three-matchT20 series startingSeptember 15. The two sideswill then compete in athree-match Test series.

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Ganguly on Friday hopedthe reappointment of the

familiar Ravi Shastri as headcoach will help India prevail inthe “big games” and break thejinx of not winning a major ICCtournament in recent years.

“Ravi has been around for awhile, five years he’s completedso he’s got an extension for twomore years. Hopefully nowIndia can go all the way in thetwo upcoming tournaments thatare coming up, which is the T20World Cup and the ChampionsTrophy which has now becomea T20 format,” Ganguly said.

“So I hope they do well,they’re doing well, they get to thesemi-finals.

“In 2015 in Australia theystruggled, in 2017 (2016) inMumbai, West Indies got thebetter of them and even in thisWorld Cup. So, hopefully, theywill get to the next step and cre-ate a winning combination.”

India’s last ICC tournamenttriumph was the win in the 2013Champions Trophy.

“Hopefully they can get pastthe big games and win trophiesin the next two years,” said theformer captain who is not thebest of friends with Shastri.

Ganguly urged captain ViratKohli to continue giving the newplayers a longer run to provetheir mettle.

“This is one area whereVirat (Kohli) needs to just be a

bit more consistent — pickplayers and give them a bitmore opportunities consistent-ly — for them to get that confi-dence, rhythm.

“I have said that before.You saw how Shreyas Iyer playedin that ODI series (against WestIndies), you pick him and yougive him the freedom to playthose matches and I think thatneeds to happen with a lot ofplayers and I am sure Virat willdo that,” added Ganguly.

Ganguly was surprised tosee chinaman Kuldeep Yadavand off-spinner RavinchandranAshwin being left out of theongoing first Test against WestIndies.

“Yes, I was also surprised tosee Kuldeep Yadav left outbecause the last Test he playedagainst Australia, he got fivewickets, if you remember inSydney on a good flat pitch, hepicked up five wickets againstAustralia.

“But (Ravindra) Jadeja alsohas been in good form, the sur-face on Thursday at Antiguaneeded three fast bowlersbecause we saw the seam move-ment the fast bowlers got and itwas a question of the spin.

“Ashwin’s record is phe-nomenal to leave him out in theWest Indies, so it’s a decisionwhich Kohli has made and wewill find out in next couple ofdays whether how far Jadejagoes on to pick wickets on thissurface.”

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Ravindra Jadeja and IshantSharma frustrated West Indieswith a timely 60 run-stand for

the eighth wicket, helping India to 297all out at lunch on day two of the firstTest here on Friday.

Jadeja (58 off 112) and Ishant (19off 62) were able to negotiate the threatposed by the potent pace duo of

Shannon Gabriel and Kemar Roachafter losing Rishabh Pant (24) in thesecond over of the day.

Jadeja's innings comprised sixfours and a maximum before hebecame the last man to be dismissedin the Indian innings, leading tolunch.

India resumed the day at 203 forsix with Pant (20) and Jadeja being theovernight batsmen.

While Jadeja justified his inclusionin the playing XI ahead ofRavichandran Ashwin with a grittyeffort, Pant could not deliver for theteam.

Roach got his fourth wicket of theinnings when he dismissed Pant witha beauty from around the wicket thatmoved away enough to get the edgeof the young wicketkeeper-batsman.

Pant was guilty of playing the ballwith hard hands as skipper JasonHolder took a regulation catch at sec-

ond slip, leaving India at 207 for seven.It seemed India's brittle tail will

not put up much of a fight yet again,but Jadeja and Ishant batted sensiblyin their 116-ball stand, defying theWest Indian pacers.

While maturity was expectedfrom Jadeja, Ishant impressed with theway he dealt with the express pace ofRoach and Gabriel. He was not afraidto come on to the front foot and wasequally comfortable at tackling the ris-ing ball.

The lanky India pacer, whosehighest score is 31, was finally dis-missed in the 90th over, playing on toa full slower ball off Gabriel.

Mohammad Shami joined Jadejain the middle but his stay lasted onlyone ball as he offered a return catchto off-spinner Roston Chase.

Running out of partners, Jadejashowed urgency to collect some vitalruns and brought up his 11th half-cen-tury with a slap to cover for four. Thefollowing ball, he swept Chase for a sixover deep midwicket, giving theIndian innings a welcome flourishtowards the end.

Vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane hadmade a crucial 81 on the opening dayto help India recover from a poor start.

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It’s been two years since he last gota Test hundred but Ajinkya

Rahane didn’t want to be “selfish”thinking about his own milestonewhen the priority was to get histeam out of the woods.

Coming in at a precarious 25 for3 on the opening day of the first Testagainst West Indies, Rahane scored81, an innings he values more thana hundred.

In fact, he knew a questionwould pop about missing out on ahundred, having last scored oneagainst Sri Lanka back in 2017.

“I knew this question was com-ing and I was ready,” he smiledwhen asked at the day end mediaconference.

“As long as I am at the crease, Iam thinking about my team, I amnot a selfish guy. So yes, I am nottoo concerned about the hundred asI thought 81 on that wicket was real-ly crucial as we are now in a decentposition,” said Rahane.

A century would have been nicebut what mattered more was play-ing according to the demands of thesituation.

“See, as long as I am contribut-ing for my team is what matters. Yes,I was thinking about my hundredbut the situation we are in — 25 for3 was tricky. As I have said, I justthought if I could contribute for myteam. I am not too concernedabout my hundred as that willcome automatically,” the 31-year-oldsaid.

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