˙ ˆ ! ˙ ˆ-1 12-.3 ˝ -/ 4 ˜ˆ˙ ˝!˝#$##˝˙˝%#$˝&’˝()(˙*)+ shortly after the...

16
I ndia has introduced some nuance rephrasing in its lex- icon on engaging Pakistan on terror issues. The Government on Thursday said “though ter- ror and talks cannot go togeth- er, but talks on terror can def- initely go on.” This was the response of the Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar on a recent ‘secret’ meeting between National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and his Pakistani counterpart Nasser Khan Janjua in Bangkok. The Government feels that though terror and talks (Comprehensive Bilateral Dialogue) cannot go together, it will not mind discussing issues pertaining to terrorism through various mechanisms. This will take the wind out of Pakistan’s attempts to blame India on international plat- forms for avoiding talks to de- escalate border tension. Clearing air on the NSA talks, Raveesh said the NSA talks were part of the various mechanisms established between India and Pakistan to talk about specific issues. He said India used the opportuni- ty to raise the issue of cross bor- der terrorism, infiltration and safe sanctuaries for militants along the border with Pakistan. “I am agreeing that talks took place and our issue was eliminating terrorism from the region. While our position remains that terror and talks cannot go together, we believe talks on terror can definitely go ahead. Hence, the focus of the talks between NSAs of India and Pakistan was cross-border terrorism,” Raveesh said while confirming the `secret meeting’ between the NSAs of India and Pakistan. The meeting took place in Bangkok on December 26, a day after ex-Indian Navy offi- cial Commander Kulbhushan Jadhav, who is languishing in Pak custody, met with his mother and wife in Islamabad. The two women were humiliated and harassed by Pakistani diplomats and media. This is the second time in two years the two NSA met in Bangkok, the last time being in December 2015. Raveesh made it clear that the meeting date of the NSAs were pre-decided. At the political level India has maintained that there can- not be Comprehensive Bilateral Dialogue with Pakistan, after the Pathankot air base terror attack. However, the two coun- tries hold regular meetings and talks between the Director Generals of Military Operations, Director Generals of Border Security Force- Pakistan Rangers, Indus Water Commissioners and the NSAs. In fact, the two NSA spoke shortly after the Pathankot attack in January 2016. Thereafter too there have been occasional telephonic engage- ments. In addition the Foreign Secretaries of the two countries have talked as and when need arise, though the formal FS level talks, which were precur- sor to the CBD, too have been put on abeyance. The MEA official made it clear that these mechanisms are not part of the structured CBD that was announced between the two countries during External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj’s visit to Islamabad in 2015. However, the mood for CBD is built up following sim- ilar NSA talks in 2015. Pakistani-based Dawn quoted officials saying the meeting between the two NSAs as ‘good’ and ‘useful’. They added Doval’s tone and tenor was friendly and positive and the interaction might help in restarting some sort of engage- ment at the diplomatic level. AIRQUALITYINDEX JAN 9, 2018 243 JAN 9, 2017 215 T hree paratroopers were injured while practising slithering operations from a rope hanging from a Dhruv advanced light helicopter (ALH) here. The soldiers fell down on ground from a height of nearly 30 feet when the boom (pulley) supporting the rope reportedly gave away. Following the inci- dent, the Army has temporari- ly suspended all such slithering operations. A probe is on to find out the cause of malfunction. The injured are reported to be stable. The mishap took place on Tuesday at the Army Parade Ground in Delhi Cantonment when the soldiers were prac- tising slithering drill. The drill is part of combat demonstra- tion to be held on the Army Day on January 15, officials said here on Thursday. Slithering involves soldiers coming down from a hovering helicopter through a rope. The “insertion” and “extraction” of commandos is generally carried out by the helicopters in special opera- tions. The objective is to carry out the raids on enemy targets in the shortest possible time and then return to safe bases in the helicopters. The drill is practised relent- lessly as stealth and speed is of paramount importance to retain the element of surprise. If detected by the enemy, the helicopters with soldiers dan- gling from the rope, are an easy target and the effort always is to avoid such situations, sources said. A Dhruv twin-engine heli- copter flew the soldiers to the designated ‘drop’ zone and as three soldiers slithered down the rope dangling from the helicopter the boom support- ing the rope reportedly devel- oped snag. It led to the rope breaking away and the para- troopers fell on each other before crashing down on the ground. The troops stationed near the ‘drop’ zone rushed to the spot and ferried the injured to the hospital, officials said. Following the incident, the Army suspended slithering operations involving Dhruv helicopters till a probe was completed, the sources said. This helicopter is an indige- nously developed and manu- factured by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). The Army has more than 100 Dhruv helicopters deployed in all the operational areas including the heights of Jammu & Kashmir and the North-East. F or the first time in the country, the name of a prac- ticing woman lawyer has been recommended for appoint- ment as a judge of the Supreme Court. Sixty-two year old Indu Malhotra, a designated senior advocate practicing in the apex court and High Courts, was picked by the SC Collegium on Wednesday. If the recommendation meets the approval of the Centre, Malhotra will be the sixth woman judge to grace the chair in the Supreme Court. In the past, all women judges served as served as High Court judges before they were ele- vated to the SC. At present, Justice R Banumathi is the lone woman judge in the SC. Her term will end in July 2020. Judges of the Supreme Court retire at the age of 65, which gives Malhotra a maximum tenure of three years. Along with her, the five- judge Collegium has also cleared the name of Justice KM Joseph, the Chief Justice of Uttarakhand High Court, for appointment as a judge of Supreme Court. While eyes are fixed on Malhotra breaking the glass ceiling, the recommendation of the Collegium has also ended the long wait for a woman judge to enter the SC. Justice Banumathi was the last woman judge to be appointed on August 13, 2014. Prior to her, Justice Gyan Sudha Misra was appointed on April 30, 2010, Justice Ruma Pal on January 28, 2000, Justice Sujata V Manohar on November 8, 1994, and Justice M Fathima Beevi on October 6, 1989. Justice Beevi was the first to break into the male bastion in the Supreme Court, ever since its institution in 1950. Malhotra, who hails from a family of lawyers, has had a Continued on Page 4 T he possible blanket ban on the movement of horses due to Glanders disease in the entire national Capital is expected to impact the wed- ding ceremonies in the city in a big way. The marriage season begins from January 14 (Makar Sankranti). One of its most glamorous features of the India wedding is the sight of the groom riding a caparison horse as part of barat procession. But due to the spread of Glanders disease in horses, the wedding band industry is facing a serious financial threat as bookings are getting cancelled. In December last year, the Government already restricted the movement of equines in and out of west Delhi after eight horses at Sanjay Gandhi Animal Care (SGAC) in Raja Garden tested positive for the infectious disease. So far, a total 40 horses have reportedly tested positive for Glanders disease, which can also be fatal for the animal. It can also be contracted by humans. The Ministry of Agriculture has taken a decision to seek Home Ministry’s intervention to “notify” the disease, which will ban the movement of the animal in the notified areas. They cannot also travel across the Delhi border. The decision was taken after an emergency meeting called by the Ministry of Agriculture on reports from the National Research Centre on Equines (NRCE) suggesting that 32 more horses had tested positive for Glanders disease in Hisar. Divisional Commissioner Manisha Saxena of the Delhi Government and senior officials of Animal Husbandry Department have attended the meeting. W hile underlining that the United States has ‘a very ambitious agenda’ for the US- India partnership, Ambassador Kenneth Juster on Thursday said that his country is work- ing closely with other nations to secure India’s membership to the elite Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). During his first speech ever since taking over as the new envoy, at Carnegie-India’s special event, Juster also said that the US is partnering with India on counter terrorism and that President Donald Trump and other US leaders have been clear that they will not tolerate cross-border ter- rorism or terrorist safe havens anywhere. He added that the US will also support India in promoting security and stabil- ity in the Indo-Pacific region. The statement comes days after the US suspended its aid to Pakistan demanding credible action on certain terror groups active in the region. “We feel Pakistan has not done enough for the stability of Afghanistan. We will not tolerate any kind of safe havens and cross border terrorism. We remain in close contact with India on this issue,” Juster said while replying to questions. “Each of our countries has suffered horrific terrorist attacks and continues to be tar- geted. We have a strong mutu- al interest in eliminating this threat to our societies. President Trump and other US leaders have been clear that we will not tolerate cross- border terrorism or terrorist safe havens anywhere. As part of this effort, last month we launched the first-ever US- India Counterterrorism Designations Dialogue. We need to continue to enhance the sharing of information, designations of terrorists, com- bating of financial crimes and networks, and disruption and dismantling of terrorist camps and operations - both region- ally and globally,” Juster said. Talking about India’s NSG aspirations, the envoy said India is celebrating its mem- bership in two of the four multilateral export control regimes -- the Wassenaar Arrangement on dual-use items, which India just joined, and the Missile Technology Control Regime - more might be coming. “We also expect in the very near future India to join the Australia Group on chemical and biological weapons. And we are working closely with India and our international partners to secure India’s membership in the NSG,” Juster said while adding that the US, at the same time, has gone from a restrictive policy regarding the export of dual-use items to India to a much more liberal one. Continued on Page 4 I n the wake of BJD MP Baijayant Panda criticising an officer of the Third Floor (of State Secretariat) on Thursday, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said Panda just repeated “my old words” and it proves that the State is heading towards a Constitutional crisis. Pradhan alleged that the Chief Secretary is working in namesake only. All 550 police stations in the State are being controlled from the Third Floor. The DGP is expressing his helplessness whenever an issue is raised before him. He said the recent assertion of an oust- ed Minister that an officer of the Chief Minister’s Office asked him to resign from the Ministry is a matter of much worry. He said the State Government, if impartial, should give a direction to track telephones, WhatsApp and Telegrams of certain officers to know the truth. F ormer Satyabadi MLA Ramaranjan Baliarsingh on Thursday resigned from the primary membership of the BJD, accusing the party of neglecting him. Baliarsingh, who was an independent MLA from Satyabadi from 2004 to 2009, alleged that though the Chief Minister is a good man, he is not looking into party affairs, for which many leaders have left the BJD. Besides, he also expressed displeasure over inclusion of sitting Satyabadi MLA Umakanta Samantray in the BJD. Baliarsingh as a BJD can- didate had lost to indepen- dent candidate Umakanta Samantray, in the 2014 polls by 1,500 votes. In his reaction, BJD spokesperson Amar Prasad Satpathy refuted the allega- tions of Baliarsingh and said all final party decisions are being taken by BJD supremo Patnaik. “The Chief Minister is taking all decisions; and party programmes are being held in a democratic way. Earlier, the party had given several responsibilities to Baliarsingh on different occasions. As now he made up his mind to leave the party, he is making such baseless statements,” said Satpathy. A pparent BJD rebel Baijayant Panda and for- mer party MLA Ramaranjan Baliarsingh on Thursday lent their voice of support to the opposition BJP’s accusation that an officer at the Third Floor of the State Secretariat (the Chief Minister’s Office) is interfering in the State affairs as an extra- Constitutional authority. Kendrapada MP Panda, who is speculated to be increas- ingly tilted towards the BJP, in fact, reiterated his allegation at a function at Mahanga in his constituency while former Satyabadi MLA Baliarsingh, who resigned from the BJD on Thursday and is likely to join the BJP, vociferously tar- geted the Third Floor bureau- crat. They alleged that the bureaucrat has been virtual- ly running the ruling party BJD, whose president is Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. Significantly, BJP leaders, particularly Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, have been gunning at the Third Floor bureaucrat from time to time on several issues con- cerning the State. No won- der now that BJD spokesper- son and Rajya Sabha member Pratap Keshari Deb, while commenting on the allegation of Baijayant Panda, on Thursday said Panda has once again endorsed Dharmendra Pradhan’s allegation. Reacting to Baliarsingh’s statement, BJD spokesperson Amar Prasad Satpathy also refuted the former’s allegation against the bureaucrat and stated that it is Naveen Patnaik who takes all final decisions regarding party matters. I n yet another fight between doctors and attendants of a patient at the SCB Medical College Hospital here, the local Mangalabag police on Thursday registered two separate cases, one each against both the warring fac- tions. No arrests or any deten- tions were made yet in either of the two cases registered in connection with Wednesday night’s incident that took place in the casualty department of the hospital, informed local police inspector Arun Kumar Swain. Police, however, added that the two attendants of a patient, who were brutally attacked by some junior doc- tors, were rescued and brought to the police station on Wednesday night itself and they were released on Thursday evening after Continued on Page 4

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Page 1: ˙ ˆ ! ˙ ˆ-1 12-.3 ˝ -/ 4 ˜ˆ˙ ˝!˝#$##˝˙˝%#$˝&’˝()(˙*)+ shortly after the Pathankot attack in January 2016. Thereafter too there have been ... court and High Courts,

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India has introduced somenuance rephrasing in its lex-

icon on engaging Pakistan onterror issues. The Governmenton Thursday said “though ter-ror and talks cannot go togeth-er, but talks on terror can def-initely go on.”

This was the response ofthe Ministry of External Affairsspokesperson Raveesh Kumaron a recent ‘secret’ meetingbetween National SecurityAdvisor Ajit Doval and hisPakistani counterpart NasserKhan Janjua in Bangkok.

The Government feels thatthough terror and talks(Comprehensive BilateralDialogue) cannot go together,it will not mind discussingissues pertaining to terrorismthrough various mechanisms.This will take the wind out ofPakistan’s attempts to blameIndia on international plat-forms for avoiding talks to de-escalate border tension.

Clearing air on the NSAtalks, Raveesh said the NSAtalks were part of the variousmechanisms establishedbetween India and Pakistan totalk about specific issues. Hesaid India used the opportuni-ty to raise the issue of cross bor-der terrorism, infiltration andsafe sanctuaries for militantsalong the border with Pakistan.

“I am agreeing that talkstook place and our issue waseliminating terrorism from theregion. While our positionremains that terror and talkscannot go together, we believe

talks on terror can definitely goahead. Hence, the focus of thetalks between NSAs of Indiaand Pakistan was cross-borderterrorism,” Raveesh said whileconfirming the ̀ secret meeting’between the NSAs of India andPakistan.

The meeting took place inBangkok on December 26, aday after ex-Indian Navy offi-cial Commander KulbhushanJadhav, who is languishing inPak custody, met with hismother and wife in Islamabad.

The two women werehumiliated and harassed byPakistani diplomats and media.This is the second time in twoyears the two NSA met inBangkok, the last time being inDecember 2015. Raveesh madeit clear that the meeting date of

the NSAs were pre-decided. At the political level India

has maintained that there can-not be Comprehensive BilateralDialogue with Pakistan, afterthe Pathankot air base terrorattack. However, the two coun-tries hold regular meetingsand talks between the DirectorGenerals of MilitaryOperations, Director Generalsof Border Security Force-Pakistan Rangers, Indus WaterCommissioners and the NSAs.

In fact, the two NSA spokeshortly after the Pathankotattack in January 2016.Thereafter too there have beenoccasional telephonic engage-ments.

In addition the ForeignSecretaries of the two countrieshave talked as and when need

arise, though the formal FSlevel talks, which were precur-sor to the CBD, too have beenput on abeyance. The MEAofficial made it clear that thesemechanisms are not part of thestructured CBD that wasannounced between the twocountries during ExternalAffairs Minister SushmaSwaraj’s visit to Islamabad in2015. However, the mood forCBD is built up following sim-ilar NSA talks in 2015.

Pakistani-based Dawnquoted officials saying themeeting between the two NSAsas ‘good’ and ‘useful’. Theyadded Doval’s tone and tenorwas friendly and positive andthe interaction might help inrestarting some sort of engage-ment at the diplomatic level.

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243JAN 9, 2017

215

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Three paratroopers wereinjured while practising

slithering operations from arope hanging from a Dhruvadvanced light helicopter (ALH)here. The soldiers fell down onground from a height of nearly30 feet when the boom (pulley)supporting the rope reportedlygave away. Following the inci-dent, the Army has temporari-ly suspended all such slitheringoperations. A probe is on to findout the cause of malfunction.The injured are reported to bestable.

The mishap took place onTuesday at the Army ParadeGround in Delhi Cantonmentwhen the soldiers were prac-tising slithering drill. The drillis part of combat demonstra-tion to be held on the ArmyDay on January 15, officialssaid here on Thursday.Slithering involves soldierscoming down from a hovering

helicopter through a rope.The “insertion” and

“extraction” of commandos isgenerally carried out by thehelicopters in special opera-tions. The objective is to carryout the raids on enemy targets

in the shortest possible timeand then return to safe bases inthe helicopters.

The drill is practised relent-lessly as stealth and speed is ofparamount importance toretain the element of surprise.

If detected by the enemy, thehelicopters with soldiers dan-gling from the rope, are an easytarget and the effort always isto avoid such situations,sources said.

A Dhruv twin-engine heli-

copter flew the soldiers to thedesignated ‘drop’ zone and asthree soldiers slithered downthe rope dangling from thehelicopter the boom support-ing the rope reportedly devel-oped snag. It led to the ropebreaking away and the para-troopers fell on each otherbefore crashing down on theground. The troops stationednear the ‘drop’ zone rushed tothe spot and ferried the injuredto the hospital, officials said.

Following the incident, theArmy suspended slitheringoperations involving Dhruvhelicopters till a probe wascompleted, the sources said.This helicopter is an indige-nously developed and manu-factured by HindustanAeronautics Limited (HAL).

The Army has more than100 Dhruv helicoptersdeployed in all the operationalareas including the heights ofJammu & Kashmir and theNorth-East.

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For the first time in thecountry, the name of a prac-

ticing woman lawyer has beenrecommended for appoint-ment as a judge of the SupremeCourt. Sixty-two year old InduMalhotra, a designated senioradvocate practicing in the apexcourt and High Courts, waspicked by the SC Collegium onWednesday.

If the recommendationmeets the approval of theCentre, Malhotra will be thesixth woman judge to grace thechair in the Supreme Court. Inthe past, all women judgesserved as served as High Courtjudges before they were ele-vated to the SC.

At present, Justice RBanumathi is the lone womanjudge in the SC. Her term willend in July 2020. Judges of theSupreme Court retire at the ageof 65, which gives Malhotra amaximum tenure of three

years. Along with her, the five-judge Collegium has alsocleared the name of Justice KMJoseph, the Chief Justice ofUttarakhand High Court, forappointment as a judge ofSupreme Court.

While eyes are fixed onMalhotra breaking the glassceiling, the recommendation ofthe Collegium has also endedthe long wait for a womanjudge to enter the SC. JusticeBanumathi was the last womanjudge to be appointed onAugust 13, 2014. Prior to her,Justice Gyan Sudha Misra wasappointed on April 30, 2010,Justice Ruma Pal on January 28,2000, Justice Sujata V Manoharon November 8, 1994, andJustice M Fathima Beevi onOctober 6, 1989.

Justice Beevi was the firstto break into the male bastionin the Supreme Court, eversince its institution in 1950.

Malhotra, who hails froma family of lawyers, has had a

Continued on Page 4

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The possible blanket ban onthe movement of horses

due to Glanders disease in theentire national Capital isexpected to impact the wed-ding ceremonies in the city ina big way. The marriage seasonbegins from January 14 (MakarSankranti).

One of its most glamorousfeatures of the India wedding isthe sight of the groom riding acaparison horse as part of baratprocession. But due to thespread of Glanders disease inhorses, the wedding bandindustry is facing a serious

financial threat as bookings aregetting cancelled.

In December last year, theGovernment already restrictedthe movement of equines inand out of west Delhi aftereight horses at Sanjay GandhiAnimal Care (SGAC) in Raja

Garden tested positive for theinfectious disease.

So far, a total 40 horseshave reportedly tested positivefor Glanders disease, which canalso be fatal for the animal. Itcan also be contracted byhumans.

The Ministry of Agriculturehas taken a decision to seekHome Ministry’s interventionto “notify” the disease, whichwill ban the movement of theanimal in the notified areas.They cannot also travel acrossthe Delhi border. The decisionwas taken after an emergencymeeting called by the Ministryof Agriculture on reports fromthe National Research Centreon Equines (NRCE) suggestingthat 32 more horses had testedpositive for Glanders disease inHisar. DivisionalCommissioner Manisha Saxenaof the Delhi Government andsenior officials of AnimalHusbandry Department haveattended the meeting.

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While underlining that theUnited States has ‘a very

ambitious agenda’ for the US-India partnership, AmbassadorKenneth Juster on Thursdaysaid that his country is work-ing closely with other nationsto secure India’s membership tothe elite Nuclear SuppliersGroup (NSG).

During his first speechever since taking over as thenew envoy, at Carnegie-India’sspecial event, Juster also saidthat the US is partnering withIndia on counter terrorismand that President DonaldTrump and other US leadershave been clear that they willnot tolerate cross-border ter-rorism or terrorist safe havensanywhere. He added that theUS will also support India inpromoting security and stabil-ity in the Indo-Pacific region.

The statement comes daysafter the US suspended its aidto Pakistan demanding credibleaction on certain terror groupsactive in the region. “We feel

Pakistan has not done enoughfor the stability of Afghanistan.We will not tolerate any kind ofsafe havens and cross borderterrorism. We remain in closecontact with India on thisissue,” Juster said while replyingto questions.

“Each of our countries hassuffered horrific terroristattacks and continues to be tar-geted. We have a strong mutu-

al interest in eliminating thisthreat to our societies.President Trump and otherUS leaders have been clearthat we will not tolerate cross-border terrorism or terroristsafe havens anywhere. As partof this effort, last month welaunched the first-ever US-India CounterterrorismDesignations Dialogue. Weneed to continue to enhance

the sharing of information,designations of terrorists, com-bating of financial crimes andnetworks, and disruption anddismantling of terrorist campsand operations - both region-ally and globally,” Juster said.

Talking about India’s NSGaspirations, the envoy saidIndia is celebrating its mem-bership in two of the fourmultilateral export controlregimes -- the WassenaarArrangement on dual-useitems, which India just joined,and the Missile TechnologyControl Regime - more mightbe coming. “We also expect inthe very near future India tojoin the Australia Group onchemical and biologicalweapons. And we are workingclosely with India and ourinternational partners to secureIndia’s membership in theNSG,” Juster said while addingthat the US, at the same time,has gone from a restrictivepolicy regarding the export ofdual-use items to India to amuch more liberal one.

Continued on Page 4

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In the wake of BJD MPBaijayant Panda criticising

an officer of the Third Floor (ofState Secretariat) on Thursday,Union Minister DharmendraPradhan said Panda justrepeated “my old words” and itproves that the State is headingtowards a Constitutional crisis.

Pradhan alleged that theChief Secretary is working innamesake only. All 550 policestations in the State are beingcontrolled from the ThirdFloor.

The DGP is expressing hishelplessness whenever an issueis raised before him. He saidthe recent assertion of an oust-ed Minister that an officer of

the Chief Minister’s Officeasked him to resign from theMinistry is a matter of much

worr y. He said the StateGovernment, if impartial,should give a direction to track

telephones, WhatsApp andTelegrams of certain officers toknow the truth.

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Former Satyabadi MLARamaranjan Baliarsingh

on Thursday resigned fromthe primary membership ofthe BJD, accusing the party ofneglecting him. Baliarsingh,who was an independentMLA from Satyabadi from2004 to 2009, alleged thatthough the Chief Minister isa good man, he is not lookinginto party affairs, for whichmany leaders have left theBJD.

Besides, he also expresseddispleasure over inclusion ofsitting Satyabadi MLA

Umakanta Samantray in theBJD.

Baliarsingh as a BJD can-didate had lost to indepen-dent candidate UmakantaSamantray, in the 2014 polls

by 1,500 votes.In his reaction, BJD

spokesperson Amar PrasadSatpathy refuted the allega-tions of Baliarsingh and saidall final party decisions arebeing taken by BJD supremoPatnaik.

“The Chief Minister istaking all decisions; and partyprogrammes are being held ina democratic way. Earlier, theparty had given severalresponsibilities to Baliarsinghon different occasions. Asnow he made up his mind toleave the party, he is makingsuch baseless statements,” saidSatpathy.

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Apparent BJD rebelBaijayant Panda and for-

mer party MLA RamaranjanBaliarsingh on Thursday lenttheir voice of support to theopposition BJP’s accusationthat an officer at the ThirdFloor of the State Secretariat(the Chief Minister’s Office)is interfering in the State

af fairs as an extra-Constitutional authority.Kendrapada MP Panda, whois speculated to be increas-ingly tilted towards the BJP, infact, reiterated his allegationat a function at Mahanga inhis constituency while formerSatyabadi MLA Baliarsingh,who resigned from the BJDon Thursday and is likely tojoin the BJP, vociferously tar-geted the Third Floor bureau-crat. They alleged that the

bureaucrat has been virtual-ly running the ruling partyBJD, whose president is ChiefMinister Naveen Patnaik.

Significantly, BJP leaders,particularly Union MinisterDharmendra Pradhan, havebeen gunning at the ThirdFloor bureaucrat from time totime on several issues con-cerning the State. No won-der now that BJD spokesper-son and Rajya Sabha memberPratap Keshari Deb, while

commenting on the allegationof Baijayant Panda, onThursday said Panda has onceagain endorsed DharmendraPradhan’s allegation.

Reacting to Baliarsingh’sstatement, BJD spokespersonAmar Prasad Satpathy also refuted the former’s allegationagainst the bureaucrat and stated that it is NaveenPatnaik who takes al l final decisions regardingparty matters.

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In yet another fight betweendoctors and attendants of a

patient at the SCB MedicalCollege Hospital here, thelocal Mangalabag police on Thursday registered twoseparate cases, one eachagainst both the warring fac-tions.

No arrests or any deten-tions were made yet in eitherof the two cases registered inconnection with Wednesdaynight’s incident that took placein the casualty department ofthe hospital, informed localpolice inspector Arun KumarSwain. Police, however, addedthat the two attendants of apatient, who were brutallyattacked by some junior doc-tors, were rescued and broughtto the police station onWednesday night itself andthey were released onThursday evening after

Continued on Page 4

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Page 2: ˙ ˆ ! ˙ ˆ-1 12-.3 ˝ -/ 4 ˜ˆ˙ ˝!˝#$##˝˙˝%#$˝&’˝()(˙*)+ shortly after the Pathankot attack in January 2016. Thereafter too there have been ... court and High Courts,

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The Sword of Damocles seems hang-ing over a whopping 50 of around

88 private engineering colleges inOdisha for the ostensible reason of hav-ing a mere 30 per cent enrolment forfive consecutive terms from 2012 to2017.

And going by AICTE (All IndiaCouncil of Technical Education) norm,sources in the apex technical body of thecountry hinted of going for a progres-sive closure (means asking the collegesnot to enrol new batches, but earlierbatches could complete the courses) ofsuch a large institution in Odisha from2018-19 post approval by its council.

An acute crisis seems to haveengulfed a vast number of private engi-neering colleges in the State, and theenormity has peaked in 2017-18 whenvacancies rose to a high 75-80 per centfrom around 51 per cent in 2012-13.

Enrolments in private colleges havedipped by as much as 50 per cent tobelow 10,000-mark in 2017-18 vis-a-visover 20,000 in 2012-13. Enrolment fellby around 8 per cent even inGovernment-run engineering colleges,but the vacancies in these collegeswere at around 13 per cent.

Significantly, a fast dip in enrol-ments in private engineering col-leges has a context to it. Reducedplacements over years led to the fall.When around 49 per cent ofenrolled students could find a jobin 2013-14, the proportion dimin-ished to around 36 per cent in 2016-17. Even, placements inGovernment-run colleges dipped toaround 40 per cent of enrolments in2016-17 against 50 per cent in 2013-14.These stats show how reduced place-ments for engineering pass-outs had arole in brewing the current crisis in theState.

According to the National

Employability Report-2016 by AspiringMinds, employability (means having tal-ent to find a job) of engineering grad-uates in Odisha improved during theperiod 2014-2016 as the State hasmoved to the top 25 percentile led byDelhi, Bihar and Jharkhand. But thereport also made it quite clear that when

it comes to employment, only a fractionof employable engineers could make thefinal cut. The report added that in thetop 25 percentile, which includedOdisha, only around 20 per cent couldfind an employment.

Significantly, the report empirical-ly has linked how prospects of employ-

ment and employable was below 10 percent in Tamil Nadu, which has the high-est number of engineering colleges incountry. The report outlined that Stateslike Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra andKarnataka having most engineering col-leges in country also fared poorer inboth employability, employment index-

es. Therefore, the emerging trendsuggests Odisha with around 97colleges going the Tamil Nadu waybecause Delhi, which topped thecountry with most talented engi-neers, have a mere 18 colleges withbelow 10,000 seats compared toover 520 with over 3.1 lakh seatsin TN, the report revealed.

Interestingly, the trend in Odisha’sother technical courses supports theconclusion. Odisha haa fewer MBA col-leges, but the total placements grew by17 per cent and placement to enrolmentwas around 40 per cent.

Similarly, pharmacy with a fewerintakes has higher placements.

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The inter-State bus stand atBaramunda in

Bhubaneswar would be reno-vated and transformed into aninter-State bus terminal(ISBT) by April 2019.

A decision in this regardwas taken at a meetingchaired by Chief MinisterNaveen Patnaik on Thursday.The BhubaneswarDevelopment Authority(BDA) presented the conceptdesign for the bus terminal tothe Government.

The terminal, which isgoing to be developed over aland of more than 15 acres ata cost of over �180 crore,would have a 4-acre patchreserved for commercialdevelopment in future.

The rest of the area (morethan 11 acres), earmarkedfor the prestigious multi-modal transport hub with agreater focus on intra-city,intercity (intra-State) andinter-State bus services, wouldmainly have a terminal areaand a commercial area.

As per the concept design,the terminal area of 9,839

square metres would have aground floor of 4,343 squaremetres and first floor to thirdfloor 1,832 square metres (oneach floor) making it a totalof 5,496 square metres.

Similarly, the design hasal located 21,350 squaremetres to the commercialarea, out of which groundfloor would be 1,850 squaremetres; and there would befive floors (each 3,900 squaremetres) making it a total of19,500 square metres.

The commercial areawould have a basement park-ing with 9,000 square metresspace, which would have acapacity to hold 300 ECS(equivalent car space).

The contractor’s selectionand finalisation of the engi-

neering drawing for the pro-ject would be over by March2018. The construction ofthe ISBT is likely to start byJune and the Phase-I com-pletion of the project wouldbe by June 2019, BDA sourcessaid.

The design componentsfor the project would, how-ever, integrate mixed landuse development with com-mercial office space, retailspace, multi-level car parkingand open public space.

The terminal wouldensure passenger pick-up anddrop-off (PPUDO) facilitiesfor private vehicles, prepaidprivate vehicles, prepaid autorickshaws, taxis, cycle rick-shaws, and taxi-aggregatorvehicles such as Ola and Uber.

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The Institute of Life Sciences(ILS), Bhubaneswar, which

has successfully completed 28years with its endeavourattempt in making a better,healthier and happier society,has set many targets for Vision22, including drug discoveryagainst CHIKV, DENV andJEV viruses.

It is working for immuno-genetic profiling of 62 tribalgroups of Odisha for diseasesusceptibility and epidemiolo-gy, identifying hot-spots andgenerating ‘big data’ for diag-nostic/prognostic markers.

It has targeted to generategenomic and genetic resourcesfor “Minor Under-researchedPulses” for enhancing produc-tivity in rainfed areas with sup-port of the ICAR, DBT andagriculture universities. It hasstarted initiatives for sensitis-ing/eliminating chemo-resis-tant cancer cells and identifyingcandidates/chemotherapy totarget therapy resistant cells.An official release said the ILShas given focus on researches inon infectious and genetic dis-eases. Focus is being given on

pathogen biology, host-pathogen interaction and dis-ease pathogenesis, immune reg-ulation, inflammation andimmune pathology, antibioticresistance and drug discovery.

Focusing on CancerBiology, it follows a multi-dis-ciplinary approach to under-stand and identify novel strate-gies for diagnostics, therapeu-tics and prevention of varioustypes of cancers such as

leukemia, oral, pancreatic,prostate and breast cancer.Among its achievements, it hasdeveloped anti-Chickenguniyavirus compound, anti-CHIKVantibodies, curcumin encapsu-lated chitosan alginate spongefor wound healing, Magneticnanoparticle based cell separa-tion kit and antibodies tomalarial and filarial HighMobility Group Box Protein 1.

It has established the con-trol of cancer cell migration andinvasion by artimisinin and itseffect on mobility and apopto-sis. Besides, it has identified saltand drought tolerant genes,sequenced 15 novel bacteriaspecies and synthesised 22 ver-satile plant expression vectors.

It has conducted summercamp for school students forinculcating scientific temperamong them and giving handson training and exposure toadvanced instrumentations andtechnologies. During the lastyear the ILS has hosted over 600students and 50 teachers.

During the last year, the ILShas conducted two interna-tional conferences onProteomics and Autophagy.

It has plans to work on rel-evant local, regional and nation-al issues with global implica-tions and to continue workingtowards a better, healthier andhappier society.

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The Comissionerate policeon Wednesday night foiled

an attempt to kidnap a youthand nabbed a dreaded criminal,Janmejaya Rout, and two of hisassociates after an encounter.

Sources said whenJanmejaya along with his twoassociates was attempting tokidnap a youth ChintuMohanty from Badagada areain a Bolero, two some localyouths tried to offer resistanceto them. However, the miscre-ants attacked the two youths

with swords following whichthey sustained injuries.

On receiving information,Laxmisagar police along withthe special squad interceptedthe miscreant’s vehicle nearPalasuni and arrested the threeaccused. When Janmejaya triedto flee from the spot towardsthe Cuttack by-pass road, thecops chased and opened fire at

him. Later, injured Janmejayawas admitted to the CapitalHospital. Police seized a pis-tol and live bullets from hispossession. Several criminalcases, including kidnappingand attempt to murder, havebeen lodged against him atvarious police stations,sources said.

Of late, the city policehave carried out a number ofencounters to nab wantedcriminals, who trigger panicamong people through barrelof the gun. A day earlier, theCommissionerate police hadnabbed two notorious dacoitsafter an encounter at Balianta,on the city outskirts.

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Abhoomi puja was per-formed on Thursday for

two international branches ofthe Kalinga Institute of SocialSciences (KISS) in Dhaka andJessore in Bangladesh.

The rituals to dedicate theland for the purpose were con-ducted in the presence of KIITand KISS founder Dr AchyutaSamanta, Chairman, DaffodilInternational University (DIU),Dhaka, Md Sabur Khan and DrAngela Gomes, RamonMagsaysay Laureate andFounder Executive Director,Banchte Shekha, Jessore

The Dhaka KISS branchwould be started in associationwith the DIU, which has pro-vided land and funds for infra-structure development. TheBanchte Shekha, a leading

NGO in Bangladesh, has allo-cated land and funds for theJessore branch. The KISSwould provide technical andmanagerial support for func-tioning of the two branches,which are the first internationalKISS branches.

Both branches would func-tion on fully free and fully res-idential basis and begin admit-ting students from the comingacademic session. While 500poorest of the poorBangladeshi children wouldbe provided free education atthe Dhaka branch, the Jessorebranch would only be for poorgirl children.

Dr Samanta said it is a mat-ter of pride for Odisha thatbranches of an organisation ofthe State with the name‘Kalinga’ is being set up inter-nationally.

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India’s first plant to convertcoal to synthetic gas is to be

set up in Odisha under thesupervision of the GAIL India,Petroleum MinisterDharmendra Pradhan said hereon Thursday.

Addressing the FICCI onthe domestic productionpotential of hydrocarbons,Pradhan said synthetic gas isexpected to be cheaper thannatural gas.

“Till now, we have notbeen able to convert any coalto gas. The GAIL India is intalks with the Ministry ofFertiliser for the same,” hesaid, adding India has a poor

record in this area of devel-oping alternative fuels as away to cut oil imports. The sit-uation is mainly because Indialacks technology to be usedfor converting coal to gas, hesaid.

Pradhan also said a newpolicy on bio-fuels is to beplaced for Cabinet approvalsoon.

“A new bio-fuels policy isgoing to come soon that willdetail things like investments,incentives, the maximumassured price etc for the sec-tor,” he told reporters on thesidelines of the conference,noting the potential of bio-fuels that are mostly pro-duced by recycling agricul-tural and urban waste.

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Vigilance sleuths onThursday caught

Mayurbhanj district’sKaptipada Tehsildar SaratKumar Mallick red handed fordemanding and accepting ille-gal gratification of �1,00,000from Hemanta Kumar Beheraof Kaptipada to allow histhree tractors to transportsand from Sono river for threemonths.

According to the com-plaint, Behera was transport-ing sand from the river Sonousing three tractors registeredin his name, his father’s name

and his son’s name. Mallickdemanded bribe of �1,50,000i.e. �50,000 per tractor for ply-ing for three months. Mallickasked Behera to pay �1,00,000as advance. Accordingly,Vigilance sleuths laid a trap

and caught the Tehsildar red-handed while taking bribe of�1,00,000 from Behera in hisrented residential house atUdala Town. Mallick’s per-manent house at AnantpurSalagaon under Soro police

station in Baleswar district, hisrented house at Udala, officeroom at Kaptipada and his rel-ative’s house at Nalabankaunder Basudevpur PS inBhadrak district were beingsearched, said an officialrelease. Previously, aVigilance case had also beenregistered against Sarat KumarMallick during his stint asNilagiri Tehsildar in Baleswarfor demanding and accepting�1,60,000 for eliminatingMirigini Stone Quarry fromECo Sensitive Zone and togive lease of the same stonequarry in favour of theNilagiri Truck Owners’Association.

After completion of inves-tigation, charge sheet has beensubmitted against Mallick,added the release.

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The Utkal Sammilani onWednesday condemned

the illegal entry of AndhraPradesh leaders and officialsinto Kotia gram panchayatunder Pottangi block inKoraput district and distribu-tion of blankets and pensionsamong villagers by them.Sammilani’s MancheswarIndustrial Estate Branch pres-ident Dillip Dashsharma saidthe Andhra PradeshGovernment had committed

such an offence by construct-ing roads and AnganwadiCentres and providing elec-tricity connection in the areain 2013. The Sammilani alongwith Koraput district admin-istration officials, elected lead-ers and local people hadprotested it then, saidDashsharma.

He urged the districtadministration and local lead-ers to remain alert in the area.

The Sammilani demandedthe State Government open aspecial cell in the RevenueDepartment to solve the bor-der conflict and to immedi-ately implement its 12 pro-posals submitted for Kotia GPfive years back.

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Protesting against what they called the“incompetent” civic body and acute

policy paralysis of the inefficient CuttackMunicipal Corporation (CMC), thou-sands of BJP activists led by severalprominent party leaders gheraoed theCMC office on Thursday.

Alleging poor service delivery andgross failure in providing basic ameni-ties to the citizens, the BJP hadannounced its protest programme lastweek.

The immediate cause of concern ofthe citizens was the inordinate delay incompletion of the city’s ongoing drainageand sewerage works.

Financed by the Japan InternationalCooperation Agency (JICA), the reno-vation works done by local contractorsunder the supervision of the OdishaWater Sewerage Board are now contin-uing for nearly five years, thereby caus-ing extreme hardships to the city com-

muters. The BJP

protest, however,turned violentwhen police,deployed heavilyaround the CMCoffice, came faceto face with theagitators. Whenthe police enteredinto a clash withthe protesters, eggsand tomatoes werehurled towards theCMC office.

A senior policeofficer overseeingthe deploymentwas injured in theclash.

While it was alleged that the police-man was injured due to stone pelting,BJP city president Laxmidhar Pradhansaid BJP workers never pelted stones.

“A handful of BJD activists surrep-titiously joined the crowd from behind

and the stone pelting on police mighthave been done by them, Pradhan said.

Later in the evening, BJP workersgheraoed the Purighat police station protesting against the arrest of aparty worker allegedly for pelting stoneat police.

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Kendrapada BJD MPBaijayant Panda inaugu-

rated an overhead water tankproject at Buhalo inNischintakoili block of Cuttackdistrict on Thursday amid asilent protest by rivals andheavy deployment of policeforces.

More than five platoons ofarmed police personnel weredeployed in the village to wardoff any untoward incidents.Though there was no untowardincident, the members ofNischitakoili Mageila BJD

branch protested the visit of theMP by holding a silent dharnabefore the statue of the BijuPatnaik.

The agitating women saidthey are not opposing the pro-ject’s inauguration but the MPnot taking them into confi-dence. However, the MParrived at Buhalo flanked by hissupporters and police. Duringthe inauguration he took pot-shots at his rivals and thankedBuhalo sarpanch and villagersfor their support.“Some ele-

ments had opposed my visit inMahanga last year and greetedme with tomatoes, eggs andstones. I had then told that evenif bullets are fired at me,nobody can stop me from vis-iting people in my constituen-cy,” said Panda.

Panda further slammedGovernment officers for undu-ly interfering in the affairs andworking of the party. “I meetmany officers and respectthem.

“But there is no need torespect officers who forgettheir service code, start doingpolitics and interfere in partyaffairs and support those whoindulge in anti-people activi-ties. Even Biju Patnaik had toldpeople how to treat such offi-cers,” the MP added.

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Former President PranabMukherjee is scheduled to

release a pictorial biography ofthe late veteran leader and for-mer Chief Minister BijuPatnaik here on December 27.

The book has been writtenby Sudarshan Ganeshan.

Senior BJP leader LKAdvani, Communist Party ofIndia (Marxist) chief SitaramYechury, former PrimeMinister HD Deve Gowda andsenior leaders of a few opposi-tion parties will attend theevent.

The photo biography con-tributed by the Biju PatnaikCentenary Committee con-tains rare photographs ofBijubabu’s life. A message fromPranab Mukherjee’s office hasconfirmed his attendance of theevent.

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Page 3: ˙ ˆ ! ˙ ˆ-1 12-.3 ˝ -/ 4 ˜ˆ˙ ˝!˝#$##˝˙˝%#$˝&’˝()(˙*)+ shortly after the Pathankot attack in January 2016. Thereafter too there have been ... court and High Courts,

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In view of inconveniences dueto coconut water in the ongo-

ing Jagamohan repair work inthe temple, the Shree JagannathTemple Administration (SJTA)has imposed a ban on breakingof coconuts in the Jagamohanpremises.

The temple administrationhas issued a notice in thisregard to all the Nijogas of theshrine, warning that stern actionwould be taken if breaking ofcoconuts is found henceforth inthe Jagamohan.

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The three- day district-levelJunior Red Cross (JRC)

study-cum-training camp-2017-18 organized by theDistrict Education Office,ended on Monday at UllundaPanchayat Samiti high schoolin the district.

More than 110 JRC volun-teers from different institu-tions across the district partic-ipated.

Gracing the valedictoryfunction as chief guest,Birmaharajpur MLAPadmanav Behera said thatthe Junior Red Cross volunteersshould be the responsible citi-

zen of the country being com-mitted to root out the socialevils.

DPM Dr Mausumi Mishrajoining as chief speaker appre-ciated the role of Junior RedCross counsellors and volun-teers in strengthening the RedCross movement in the coun-try.

While DEO KarunakarBhoi presided over the func-tion, Collector DasirathiSatpathy, Sub-CollectorGopinath Sarka,DPCBenudhar Behera, DunguripaliBEO Ramkrushna Purohit,Ullunda Block ChairmanMitali Mahakur were presentand inspired the volunteers.

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An impressive passing-outparade was conducted at

INS Chilka on Thursday. Atotal of 2,707 trainees of theIndian Navy and the IndianCoast Guard successfully com-pleted their 21 weeks of ab-ini-tio training reviewed by AVSMSouthern Naval CommandKochi, Flag OfficerCommanding-in-Chief ViceAdmiral AR Karve.

Karve awarding medalsand trophies to the meritorious

trainees exhorted the traineeson the importance of honingthe skills they have gained atINS Chilka and need for set-ting high standards of profes-sionalism and conduct in theirfuture appointment.

He also asserted that to allsailors “Philosophy of profes-sionalism must be based on theIndian Navy's core values, i.e,Duty, Honour and Courage.”

Rahul Bhuria, NaveenKumar Navik, Gourav Dixit

Navik and Akash Pradhanwere adjudged as the besttrainees in their respectivecategories for meritorious per-formance. The trainees willproceed for cadre specific pro-fessional training at sea and atspecialist training schools ofthe Indian Navy and IndianCoast Guard. A valedictoryfunction was organsied wit-nessed by Karve and other dig-nitaries.

A cultural programme wasalso organsied on the occasion.A bilingual magazine ‘Ankur’encapsulating a host of train-ing activities was also released.Among others, INS ChilkaCommanding OfficerCommodore Manish Misrawas present.

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While the cold wave con-tinues to sweep the State

with the minimum tempera-ture plummeting below 10degree Celsius in most regionsin the past seven days, the coldin Odisha broke the 10-yearrecord on Wednesday.

The bitter cold was notexperienced in the State sinceDecember 2014 when the coldconditions persisted for eightdays with the temperaturedropping below 10 degree inmore than 10 places.

The cold intensified acrossthe State on Wednesday nightwith Phulbani and Daringbadirecording 3.5 degree and 4degree, respectively.

There would be no majorchange in the cold conditionsin the State in the next 10 days.But their might be a marginaldrop of temperature by one ortwo degree, said IndianMetrological Department(IMD) Regional DirectorSharat Chandra Sahoo.

The mercury continues todip from the beginning of theNew Year. While three places

recorded below 10 degree onJanuary 1, seven places hadtemperature below 10 degreeon January 4. Later, 13 citiesrecorded below 10 degree onJanuary 5, 6, and 7. The mer-cury dropped below 10 degreein 15 places on January 8.

While 15 stations recordedbelow 10 degree on January 9,on Wednesday the temperaturefell below 10 degree in 14 sta-tions, the IMD said.

Normal life was thrown outof gear in the regions and peo-ple shivered under intense coldparticularly during eveningand night. After 7 pm most ofthe shops downed the shuttersand streets wore a desertedlook as residents preferred toremain indoors.

While the minimum tem-perature in Sundergarh was 6.5degree Celsius, Hirakud 7.1degree, Angul 7.6 degree,Keonjhar 7.9 degree,Jharsuguda 8 degree,Bhawanipatna and Balangir8.2 degree, Sambalpur 8.3degree, Sonepur 8.4 degree,Baripada 9 degree, Dhenkanal9.1 degree, Baleswar 9.4 degree, Cuttack 10 degree Celsius,Talcher, Koraput and Titilagarh10.5 degree and Chandbali10.6 degree .

Similarly, Bhubaneswarrecorded 11 degree, Paradip12.9 degree, Malkangiri 13.4degree, Puri 14 degree andGopalpur recorded the highesttemperature at 14.1 degree onWednesday night.

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Kandhamal has been shiv-ering in intense cold wave

conditions for over a week asthe temperature dropped toalmost four degree Celsius atseveral places, includingDaringbadi, which is known asOdisha’s Kashmir.

Earlier, the district admin-istration had awarded a workorder to an agency onNovember 22, 2017 for sup-plying 5,000 blankets and fullpants and shirts to the childrenof 35 schools under 12 blocksbut till date the children havenot been given the materials.

Now, the inaction of theadministration has been amatter of discussion amongthe locals. The locals havequestioned about the delay of

the supply of dress materialswhile stating that dresses sup-plied after winter will of nouse.

Besides demanding strin-gent action against the sup-plier, the locals have demand-ed that students be providedblankets and dresses at the ear-liest. In another development,though the administration hasconstructed a rest shed at thebus stand to help passengers toget rid of cold yet it has no sep-arate room for women.

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The Ganjam district admin-istration on Wednesday

sealed three medicine shops inthe MKCG Medical CollegeHospital campus for not main-taining records properly.

Sources said a team includ-ing the Additional Tehsildarand the Drugs Inspector raid-ed the shops and examinedmedicine stocks and docu-ments.

After the administration’smove, the shop owners met theSub-Collector and complainedthat unnecessarily their shopshave been sealed.

After the Niramaya Yojanawas launched, the StateGovernment asked the shopsto close. However, the shopowners moved the Orissa HighCourt and received a stayorder on the Government’sdecision.

Meanwhile, attendants ofpatients complained of diffi-culties in procuring medicinedue to the closure of the shopsby the administration.

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The Brahmapur MunicipalCorporation (BMC)

would facilitate jobs for skilledpeople in both the unorgan-ised and organised sectorsthrough the City LivelihoodCentre (CLC), to be imple-mented under the NationalUrban Livelihood Mission(NULM).

The BMC has installedtoll-free numbers for the pur-pose. Skilled persons likeplumbers, masons, nurses,domestic helps, midwives,cooks, sweepers, painters,tailors, make-up persons,drivers, washer men, electri-cians and data entry operatorscan register their names withtol l-free number180023452297.

Service receivers and ser-vice providers can also usethis number to register forrequirement of manpower.

The BMC would send theskilled people to their firms.

“The service will helpthe unemployed people, whoare searching for jobs and goto other States in search ofwork, get employment,” saidDeputy CommissionerSourindra Kumar Routray.

BMC CommissionerNikhil Pavan Kalyan said theCLC would provide servicesto the people in 16 sectors.The number of the sectorswill increase in future, hesaid.

Likewise, the BMC hasinstalled another toll-freenumber, 18003456796, toreceive grievances from peo-ple. The Commissioner saidthe BMC is planning tointroduce a call-back mecha-nism to inform people whentheir complaints are to beresolved.

Besides, Brahmapur peo-ple can also register theircomplaints online and throughsocial media like WhatsApp.“We have resolved severalgrievances received throughsocial media,” he added.

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Till today, bamboos areincluded under legal defi-

nition of tree under provisionsof Chapter-1 of the OrissaForest Act 1972. Not only theOrissa Forest Act, but alsoother State forest laws of India,including the Indian ForestAct 1927, define the species astree.

Such very legal definitionof tree creates problems fortransiting and bonafied use ofsuch materials by the growersin the own lands. The bambooitself is known as poor man’stimber. Similarly, the palm

(Tal) is widely used in con-struction of mud houses inrural areas like bamboos. Thepeople in rural areas growthese species widely in theirhome lands, agricultural fields,tank bunds and vacant areas.

As the produce is annual-ly required for house building,house repairing and agricul-tural purposes, besides domes-tic appliances, it remains inhigh demand. Virtually, thegrowers of bamboos and palmsface a lot of troubles to cut andremove these produces fortheir bonafide causes. When intransit, the growers of theseproduce are mostly harassed bythe people of the Forest depart-ment.

The writer is a retired for-est officer and served nearlyfour decades in the State ForestDepartment and served inprominent bamboo forest divi-sions of the State. There areonly two types of bambooforests seen in the State. One,hill bamboo forests, which isknown as Salia bamboo forestsand two, Daba bamboo.

The later one is thornybamboo and generally comesin the plain areas and wet

lands such as Nala and riverbanks, especially in fertile landsof valley and deep silt deposits.The volume of a single bambooof “Kanta Baunsa” or thornybamboo is ten times of theweight of Salia bamboo.

The whole body of thebamboo is thorny. The thornsare noticed generally on theposition of each node. This isa solid bamboo. These twotypes of bamboos are com-monly found commercially inthe State forest.

Once upon a time special-ly during pre-merger and postmerger period of States andestates, the bamboos of all for-est divisions of the State weresupplied to paper mills likeBrajraj Nagar Paper Mill, JKPaper Mills, Rayagoda andTitagarh paper Mills etc. forproduction of paper pulps.The bamboos were then thebest raw materials for manu-facture of papers. When thetechnologies were notadvanced for manufacture ofbest papers, the bamboos andSabai grass were only raw-materials then for manufactureof paper pulps.

Subsequently, the timbers

of eucalyptus took the places ofbamboo and Sabai grass. Now,all types of timbers are utilizedfor manufacture of paper pulp.

Besides bamboos beingleased out to State paper mills,the bamboos were also sup-plied to the local tenants fortheir bonafide domestic uses onpayment of nominal royalties.In some princely States andestates, the royalties were alsocollected as annual cess by thelocal Forest Department andRevenue Department in dif-ferent names and practices.

Now these practices are notin vogue; because the bamboosin the forest of the State are

drastically degraded andthinned due to unscientificmanagement of the bambooforests like the annual forestfire, illicit felling and removalof the same. No scientific cul-tural operations are also carriedout for revival of the bambooforests of the State.

There are several races ofartisans throughout the coun-try, who manufacture differenttypes of household propertiesof bamboos for sale and theirlivelihood entirely depends onsuch practices. The paper millswere once encouraged therural people for cultivation ofbamboos and eucalyptus for

their purposes through thevillagers.

Now such demands ofpaper mills of the State do notentertain. Only one paper mill,JK Paper Mill is functioningnow in the State, whichdepends on all types of woodsfor manufacture of paper pulp.The company is learnt to begetting raw materials fromoutside the State also. Anothersetback of natural bambooforests is that the hill bamboosor the Salia bamboos in every10 to 12 years flower gregari-ously and die en masse.

There is also chance ofwild fire in bamboo forestsduring summer. So intensivecare is needed to save bambooforests from fire. Similarly,after flowering of bamboo, thematured seeds gather in theforest floor like carpet andgerminate during rains likeseveral extensive paddy fieldsof the lands and need protec-tion from grazing and fire forrenewals. Such kind of biolog-ical behaviour of the speciesrestricts the continuous supplyof green bamboos to the bam-boo markets, because bamboospecies need 3 to 4 years or

even 5 to 6 years for continu-ous commercial supply ofgreen bamboos.

The biological behaviourof hill bamboo forests needsintensive culture like agricul-tural fields of Kharif crops. Thebamboo itself belongs to fam-ily of rice and needs cultureand care like paddy fields. It isnot only in the case of Odishaalone, but such type of bio-logical and silvicultural prob-lems also happen throughoutthe country and tropical Asia.So the density of bambooforests in our State and coun-try is dwindling very fast.

The writer is a man ofcoastal belt of Odisha and thegrower of “Sundarkania” bam-boo or country bamboo of theState. In coastal tracts, everyhousehold is a bamboo grow-er of Sundarkania.

The financial growth ofrural India depends on variousitems like bamboo and hand-icrafts. The State Governmentand the Union Governmentshould work hard to givefinancial supports to local arti-sans and handicraft families tosurvive and sustain with theirtraditional practices.

It is very much welcomedthat the Government of Indiais very soon going to removelegal restrictions over bambooin general. A Bill in this con-text was also passed in theParliament and very soon theBill is going to be transformedinto a law.

Henceforth, bamboowould not be treated as timber.In general the bamboo tradersand harvesters in rural areasare poor and illiterate who aregenerally victimised by thecunning forest employees. TheGovernment of India realizedthe problems of the bambootransit at right time. Moreover,the bamboo clumps or thebushes are very good “carbon-sinks”.

Forest is a State subject.The State Government shouldease the legal problems intransactions of timbers, bam-boos, palms and other forestproducts. In most of the casesthe laws are misinterpreteddeliberately for raising incomesof unscrupulous forest employ-ees.

(The writer is an environ-mentalist and former forestofficer)

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The NimaparaAutonomous College

Students’ Union held a protestunder the leadership of unionpresident Dipankar Lenka inthe college premises onThursday demanding con-struction of a college maingate.

The students said thateven after 53 years of foun-dation of the college, it does-n’t have a main gate, forwhich the students residing inthe girls’ and boys’ hostel areunsafe.

Later, the col legePrincipal, the local Tehsildarand the Nimapara police sta-tion IIC reached the spot; andan agreement was made for

building the gate with oneSirish Swain, who had beencreating problems for build-ing the gate.

The authorities assuredthat the gate would be con-structed within a short peri-od and the work would startwithin seven days.

Among others, Students’Union VP Gaurav Ghosaland secretary RashmiranjanJena, Priyanka PriyadarshiniMohapatra, Itishree Mallik,Arup Sahoo and HappyMallik were present.

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State Planning Board DeputyChairman Bishnu Das held

a review meeting with sever-al department officials andsenior engineers, includingpolice administration, so as toassess the pace of develop-mental works and law andorder situation ofJagatsinghpur district.

Das wanted to know thedetails pertaining to the RDroads connecting Alipingala toDevi Dola and Alipingala toKapasa. The ExecutiveEngineer replied that the workwas under progress and esti-mated to be completed beforethis year’s monsoon.

Irrigation division execu-tive engineer expressed hisinability to construct differentcanal roads due to funds con-

straint. NH division executiveengineer revealed that afterJagatsinghpur road has beenelevated to NH status, thesurvey works and DPRapproval were underway andthe project would be startedsoon after land acquisition.

The Deputy Chairmaninquired about several SC/STatrocity cases in Jagatsinghpurdistrict in recent past and its

status. SP Jay Narayan Pankajinformed that in most of theSC/ST related cases, theaccused have been charge-sheeted.

Among others, OdishaBuilding and ConstructionWorkers Welfare BoardChairman Subash Singh, district Collector YaminiSarangi and the DRDA PDwere present.

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DGP Dr RP Sharma onThursday inaugurated

the "e-grievance mechanism"of Western Range, Rourkelaalong with Rourkela,Sundargarh and Keonjharpolice districts through video-conferencing at the StatePolice Headquarters here.

For redressal of publicgrievance, a centralised PublicGrievance Redressal andMonitoring System ‘e-Abhijoga’ has been func-tioning at the State level beingan integrated Government-to-citizen application systembased on web technologyworking (24x7).

This State GrievanceRedressal Portal is used by theCMO, Home Department,Chief Secretary's Office, DGP’Office and by all depart-ments. But it was not inte-

grated with police stations ofdistricts.

Now, effort is being madeto integrate all police sta-tions of the Western Range tothis portal, said Sharma.

Gradually, police stationsof all districts would be covered under this mecha-nism, said he, adding that one can directly lodge griev-ance to the concerned organ-isation and it can be inter-linked to the police stationlevel.

The e-grievance links areavailable in the Home Page ofthe Odisha Police website. Incase of any delay, in the pro-cessing of the grievance, a cit-izen can put a reminder forhis lodged grievance.

After inclusion of allpolice stations, it can addressthe grievances of general pub-lic in a much better, faster andeffective way, said Sharma.

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The Gruha Pratistha ofChhatia Brudhhashram

building was held on the occa-sion of the death anniversary ofthe first headmistressJyotsnamayee Hota of the vil-lage school.

Late Hota is mother ofactivist Er Debashisha Hota.She started her career as thefirst headmistress in ChhatiaUP School in 1975. She diedon in 2017 at the age of 65. 68local supporters of Hota ten-dered free labour for con-struction of the old age home.20 friends of Hota during hisEngineering education atBurla donated �1.34 lakh to

purchase materials needed forconstruction of the new build-ing.

Tribal Sudhakar Dehurydonated 20 decimal land fromhis private property for theBrudhhashram. Sabar tribe

leader of Bhuban BasantaDehury and his wife NiraDehury performed the Puja asPurodha. Hota felicitated thededicated workers. Over10,000 supporters of Hotaattended the function.

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The Sambalpur police onThursday seized a huge

quantity of cough syrup,Nitrosum tablet and also adul-terated syrup from four youthsof the town coming from Burlain a car. Looking at their suspi-cious movement on the ring

road, the police stopped themand found the materials used forintoxication by youths at cheap-er prices.

There were frequent allega-tions from public as to the secrettrading of cough syrup in townby anti-socials who make aquick buck out of it. And youthswho can’t afford for costly liquoruse it as substitute and get equalpleasure. “Our staff on patrolling

duty stopped a car no OR 05 N9891 and seized the intoxicantsfrom the vehicles. The youthsalso didn’t get any scope to fleeaway, although they tried, ”saidSambalpur SP Sanjiv Arora.

The youths arrested wereidentified as Baidyanath Padhi(25), Amit Kumar Sahu (30),Rupesh Kumar Munshi (30)and Mahammad Jamil (30), allresidents of Sambalpur town.

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In yet another example of thedeteriorating law and order

situation in the city, someunidentified miscreants on

Thursday opened fire at formerBrahmapur MunicipalCorporation (BMC) MayorSiba Sankar Das while he wason his way near the NilakanthaNagar temple inGosaninuagaon here.

According to sources, Sibahad gone to attend a feast in thetemple and while returningsome unidentified miscreantsintercepted and fired someshots at his vehicle near thetemple. However, he escapedunhurt.

Getting information, thepolice rushed to the spot andhave started an investigation.However, Das has not regis-tered any complaint with thepolice yet.

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Showcasing 41 films from 15countries, the 12th annual

edition of the Festival of Filmson Art and Artists, being host-ed by the city-based Jatin DasCentre of Art (JDCA) andspanning over three days willopen at the IDCOL auditoriumhere on Friday. Chief MinisterNaveen Patnaik is scheduled toinaugurate it.

Launched as a nationalfilm festival, it turned interna-tional last year. The festival thisyear features entries from coun-ties including Germany,Australia, Canada, Iraq,Argentina, India, the USA,France, Iran, Russia,Switzerland and Denmark.

The festival chooses atheme every year as its focus;and literature has been thefocus of this year’s event.

Iconic filmmaker SatyajitRay’s landmark movie‘Shatranj-ke-Khiladi’ (TheChess Players), based on ashort story of the same namewritten by legendary litterateurMunshi Premchand, will beone of the many such screen-ings. The international eventhas a special section for Odisha’s

writers and filmmakers. Filmsmade on literary works of writ-ers like Manoj Das and worksof filmmakers like NiradMohapatra and Raju Mishrawill be screened during the fes-tival.

The event will further com-memorate the legacy left by lateNirad Mohapatra by reflectingon his works.

Five of his films will beshown that would include thelandmark movie ‘Maya Miriga’(The Mirage) apart from‘Ahilyara Bahaghara (Ahilya’sWedding), ‘Chhau Dance of

Mayurhanja’, ‘DhauligiriShantistupa’ and ‘Pata Paintings’.A panel discussion will also beheld on him.

A bunch of French anima-tion short films will be screenedduring the festival as part of theongoing Indo-French culturalfestival at Bonjour India.

Famed film personalityNandita Das, daughter of JatinDas, will deliver an illustratedlecture from ‘Written Words toMoving Images’ based on herforthcoming film ‘Manto’.Similarly, award-winning film-maker Nandan Saxena will lead

a digital film workshop titled‘Cinematography on a Budget’while animation expertManisha Mohan will present anillustrated lecture titled‘Animation and New Media’.

Founded by New Delhi-based eminent Odia painterJatin Das in 1997, the JDCA hasbeen hosting the monthlyMeet-the-Artist series for thepast 15 years apart from this annual film festival.the first of its kind in Asia andthe only of its kind in India,besides building up a museumin the capital.

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When a young girl who is18 years of age is legally

qualified to marry, the same isnot applicable to a male. Themale is required to cross the ageof 21 years so as to be legallyqualified to marry. Why thisdiscrepancy, asked FPI gener-al secretary B RamchandraCST Voltaire.

He demanded that the dis-crepancy must go at the earli-est to ensure human dignity in

India. This is also required topromote the cause of love mar-riage, promote the cause ofexogamous marriage or caste-less marriage.

It is this legal ‘inequality’that has been creating greatdeal of hurdles for lovers tomarry.

The conservative parentsare creating lots of hardships tolovers by filing cases. Loverswho are very much emotionallyattached to each other arebeing separated and put togreat deal of harassments bytheir caste-creed-status-mind-ed parents with the connivanceof police, said Voltaire.

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Athree-day 22nd Refiningand Petrochemicals

Technology Meet is going to beorganised by the Centre forHigh Technology in associationwith the Indian OilCorporation Ltd from January13 in the city, informed Centrefor High Technology Advisor(Technical) R Krishnamurthyin a Press meet held here onThursday. Krishnamurthy said

Union Minister of Petroleumand Natural Gas and SkillDevelopment andEntrepreneurship DharmendraPradhan would inaugurate themeet with the theme ‘EmergingTrends in DownstreamHydrocarbon Sector.’

Around 900 oil industryprofessionals from India and

abroad excluding about 100foreign delegates from 44 glob-al companies are going to par-ticipate and share theirthoughts on various importantaspects of hydrocarbon sector.

Pradhan would also hold ameeting with the CEOs of var-ious companies for initiation ofSkill Development centres atdifferent technical institutes atBhubaneswar.

Among others, Centre forHigh Technology AdditionalDirector U Deka was present.

The energy performanceawards of the Indian oil sector would also be givenduring the meet.

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Aconvention for entrepre-neurs, “Odisha Start Up

Summit 2018” kick-started inthe ITER campus, SOAUniversity, here on Thursday.

Industries DepartmentPrincipal Secretary SanjeevChopra inaugurated the three-day summit.

“I am very happy the wayOdisha Start Up Summit isbeing organized. Now it’s timefor the youth to do businessventures of their own rathersearching for jobs. They should

come out to create new jobopportunities,” said Chopra.

He said the StateGovernment has taken theinitiative of developing a sin-gle window system for allindustries including the startups with the portal Go Swift.All entrepreneurs should gothrough the site and lookoutfor their requirements.

YI, Bhubaneswar ChapterChairman Matrudutta Mishrasaid that the summit is a big

platform for the buddingentrepreneurs. The intendingyouths should utilise facilitiesthrough many schemes andinitiatives of the Central andState Governments.

Summit convenorSakyasingha Mohapatra aseries of inspiring sessionswould be held and attended bysuccessful startup entrepre-neurs with national repute.

Total Start enterprisechairman Dr Suryanil Ghoshsaid failure is the key to suc-cess. So the entrepreneursshouldn’t deviate from theiraim and work to achieve it.

“We need to build entre-preneurs in Odisha for a strongeconomy,” said co-convenorAbanis Nayak.

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The Kendriya VidyalayaSangathan (KVS) organ-

sied the four-day the 63rdNational School Games-RopeSkipping U-14 boys and girls2018 of School GamesFederation of India’s (SFGI) atthe KIIT Campus here.

Nalco CMD Dr TapanKumar Chand andInternational Chess playerAparajita Gochikkar attendedas guests on the concluding dayand awarded the prizes andcertificates to the winners.

A total of 152 participantsand more than 60 officialsfrom 13 States participated inthe event.

In both the category Delhibecame champion, KVS

bagged the second positionboys category and Goa gotsecond and third position ingirls and boys category respec-tively. Chattishgarh became

third in girls category.Among others, Dr Dara

from KVS New Delhi, Murthy and Rai from SGFIwere present.

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Director, IIT BhubaneswarProf RV Rajakumar and

eminent vocalist and chiefexecutive of Guru Kelu CharanMohapatra Odissi ResearchCentre Dr Sangita Gosain willinaugurate the Alma Fiesta,annual socio-cultural fest of IITBhubaneswar on January 12.

Apart from organisingblood donation camps, driveslike Prayatna to help childrenout and merit-seeker competi-tions all over India, the inau-gural ceremony will includeperformances from the spe-cially-abled children ofSwabhiman Foundation. The

three- day fest will includevarious events like android,dance and ethical hackingworkshop and literary events.

A unique attraction ofAlma Fiesta will be a kite-fly-ing festival (on January 13).

The star-nights will includeperformances from the famedKolkata-based band “BodhiRoute” and also international-ly acclaimed, Grammy-nomi-nated Swedish DJ AronChupa(on January 14, the concludingnight).The Alma Fiesta canalso boast of participation fromover 300 colleges in India,footfall exceeding 3,000 peopleand also of being the largestdebutant fest in Eastern India.

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Angul Municipality Vice-Chairman Ramapati

Mandothia along with manyCongress workers joined theBJD in the presence of AngulMLA and district presidentRajanikant Singh at the NaveenNivas here on Thursday.

Welcoming them to theparty, BJD president and ChiefMinister Naveen Patnaik said hisparty is working to protect inter-est of the poor and commonpeople. The Angul unit of the

party would be strengthened fur-ther with joining of these lead-ers, he said. Others who joinedthe party include formerConcillor Ranjit Mandothia,Bhimasena Mandothia, minor-ity community leader SayedAnwar Alli, Seikh AbdulSammad, Abdul Mohid andSayed Soukat Alli, Babaji Bez,Sharat Dalai and Santosh Singh.

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—Naveen Patnaik

From Page 1treatment. Police said the

attendants of the patientbelonging to the city picked upa brawl with the casualty med-ical officer for not attending tothe patient.

The junior doctor on dutysoon alerted his other col-leagues staying in the campus,who rushed to the spot enmasse and thrashed the atten-dants mercilessly.

Anarchy is now prevailingat the oldest teaching hospitalof the State, where the seniordoctors of the referral hospitalhave earned the dubious dis-tinction of beating patientswhile the junior doctors areganging up to thrash thepatients’ attendants at the dropof a hat.

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From Page 1Juster’s statement comes

at a time when India will beonce again pursuing its mem-bership for the NSG during themeeting of the group this sum-mer. China is the only countrythat is opposed to India’s mem-bership citing signing of Non-Proliferation Treaty as one ofthe important clauses. India isnot a signatory to NPT. Chinawants that in case the NPTclause is waived off for Indiathen Pakistan should also beallowed to be a member of the

NSG. However, most of thecountries in the NSG havemade it clear that India andPakistan hold different repu-tations and the two should notbe clubbed together. India in2008 got a waiver from NSGfollowing strong efforts fromthe US. Through its sustainedefforts, the US believes thatIndia may finally get a seat inthe NSG.

Talking about the Indo-Pacific region, the envoy saidthat the US National SecurityStrategy recognises India as a

leading power in region andbeyond.

“The longstanding com-mitment of the US to a free,secure, and open Indo-Pacifichas underpinned the stabilityand remarkable economic riseof this region - to the benefit ofall of us.

The US will remain com-mitted to this region - as we areto the rules-based internation-al order - because our future isinextricably linked to it. Wewelcome India’s leadership withus in this venture - as partners

bolstered by conviction andworking with like-mindednations on a regional architec-ture to ensure that the Indo-Pacific - in the words ofSecretary of State Tillerson - isincreasingly a place of peace,stability, and growing pros-perity, rather than one of dis-order, conflict, and predatoryeconomic policy,” Juster said.

Mentioning defence andmilitary cooperation as animportant pillar of India-USStrategic Partnership, Justerlisted various activities the twocountries are engaged in bilat-erally and pointed that it is nowtime to make sure that the

strategic partnership is adurable partnership. He point-ed out that in little more thana decade, the US defence tradewith India has expanded fromvirtually nothing to over 15 bil-lion dollars, and includes salesof some of America’s mostadvanced military equipment.

“A prominent example ofthis commitment was theTrump Administration’s deci-sion last June to approve thesale of the Sea GuardianUnmanned Aerial System,positioning India to be our firstnon-NATO partner or treatyally to acquire this advancedplatform,” Juster said.

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From Page 1roaring practice at the

Supreme Court. She was des-ignated as a senior advocate bythe Full Court of the SupremeCourt in August 2007. Thisdesignation too was special asshe became only the secondwoman to be given this title, thelast being of Justice Leela Sethin January 1977.

Malhotra did her Bachelorsand Masters in Political Sciencefrom Lady Sri Ram Collegeafter finishing her schoolingfrom Carmel Convent in Delhi.She graduated in Law fromFaculty of Law, DelhiUniversity in 1982.

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Attacking the Centre overChina’s reported attempt

to build a road in the Tutingarea of Arunachal Pradesh,the Congress on Thursdaysaid it happened due to“Intelligence failure” and askedif New Delhi had granted a“franchise” to Beijing to con-struct roads.

AICC spokesperson TomVadakkan wondered whatDefence Minister NirmalaSitharaman and HomeMinister Rajnath Singh weredoing when China “reported-ly built 1.3-km-long road in theIndian territory”. “It was anattempt by China to fosterDokalam 2.0,” he said.

On a sarcastic note, heasked if the Government hadgranted a franchise to China toconstruct road in India. “Mysimple question to theGovernment of India is havethey granted a franchise to theChinese Government to buildroads in India, in our territo-ry? Why is this happening?What was our intelligencedoing? What were our DefenceMinister, Home Ministerdoing? It’s total intelligence

failure,” Vadakkan said at AICCbriefing.

Vadakkan suggested relax-ing a Pradhan Mantri GramSadak Yojana (PMGSY) crite-ria that a village with a popu-lation of at least 100 can havea Government-built road.“Bishing, the village whereChina reportedly constructedthe road, has 16 householdsand a population of 54, whichis why there is no road there,”he said.

“The Congress wants togive a positive suggestion to theGovernment. Taking in accountnational security, PMGSYnorms for remote areas shouldbe relaxed and roads must bebuilt to prevent such cases inthe future,” he added.

Vadakkan alleged that“false bravado, chest thumpingand TV studio warfare” werethe tools the Modi Governmentemployed to manage head-lines when it came to criticalissues of national security. “TheModi Government has dis-played a heedless, incautiousand short-sighted attitude,when it comes to such issues ofnational security...Nationalsecurity is being ignored,” healleged.

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Former BJP MP Nana Patole,who quit BJP following dif-

ferences with Prime MinisterNarendra Modi on agrarianissues on Thursday, rejoinedthe Congress. He won theBhandara-Gondiya parlia-mentary seat in Maharashtraon a BJP ticket defeating NCPheavyweight Praful Patel.

“Yes, I have joined theCongress. I will take whateverresponsibility the party givesme, either at the national or thestate level,” Patole said. He said he would continue towork on farmers’ issues andstrengthen the party.

Patole, who resigned fromthe Lok Sabha last month overthe Centre’s alleged poor han-dling of agrarian issues, had leftthe Congress to join the BJPahead of the 2014 elections.Patole resigned from the BJPon December 8, a day beforethe first phase of the Gujaratelections. He attended a pollrally along with Congress pres-ident Rahul Gandhi, indicatingthat his return to the party wasonly a matter of time.

Party sources added that

the former MP has joined theCongress “unconditionally”.“Patole is back home. He hasreturned unconditionally, with-out seeking any post,” a partyinsider said.

The Congress also posteda photograph of party chiefRahul Gandhi and Patole onTwitter with a message wel-coming him to the party.“Congress President RahulGandhi warmly welcomes MrNana Patole, Ex-MP from BJP,to the Congress family,” thecaption along with the photoread.

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Despite several efforts madeby the Government, onion

prices continue to remain ele-vated amid indication ofreduced availability of the bulbfor the season 2017-18.

Retail onion price haverisen to �50-60/kg in someparts of the country even as theGovernment said it is a “tem-porary phase” and the rates willcool down by the month-endwith improved arrival of thekharif crop.

Onion is being sold at over�50/kg in the national Capital,Mumbai and Kolkata. InChennai, the price is ruling at�45/kg, as per the official data.A similar trend prevails insmall cities as well.

“It is a temporary phase.Traders are taking advantage ofthe temporary ups and downs.But the fundamentals arestrong,” Agriculture SecretarySK Pattanayak told a newsagency. Though the onion cropis estimated to be slightly lowerin the 2017-18 crop year (July-June), the total productionwould be sufficient to meet thedomestic requirement, he said.

Former chairman ofAzadpur Mandi RajendraSharma told The Pioneer thatonion prices will hover around�30-40 a kg in the wholesale

market. “The reason is thatthere supply is less as comparedto the last year during thesame period. Only 70-80 trucksarrive daily at the Azadpurmandi and rates are quitehigh,” Sharma said.

As per the AgricultureMinistry’s data, the country’sonion production is estimatedto decline by 4.5 per cent to

21.4 million tonnes in the2017-18 crop year due to loweracreage as against 22.4 milliontonnes last year.

Pattanayak said the pricesof onion will get correctedwith the increase in arrival ofthe crop in the coming days.Nasik-based NationalHorticultural Research andDevelopment Foundation(NHRDF) acting Director P KGupta said, “The arrival of theKharif onion is less at presentand therefore prices are underpressure. The arrivals areexpected to improve by end ofthe month and the prices will accordingly get corrected.”

The kharif onion output isexpected to be lower as acreagewas down by 20-25 per centbecause of less rains during thesowing period in key growingstates Maharashtra, Karnataka,Andhra Pradesh and TamilNadu, he said. Once the kharifarrival and later rabi onion crophits the market, the retailprice situation will automati-cally improve, he added.

The estimated fall in onionoutput is attributed to the sub-stantial decline in sowing areathis year. Data compiled by theAgriculture Ministry showedtotal sowing area under onioncultivation this year at 1.19 mil-lion hectares, 8.4 per centlower than last year.

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Indoor air pollution is fatallychoking Indians: According

to the latest Global Burden ofDiseases (GBD MAPS) reportby the Boston-based HealthEffects Institute, residentialbiomass burning was behind2,67,700 deaths or nearly 25 percent of the deaths attributableto PM2.5 in 2015.

If no action is taken, thefuture burden of disease from allsources including residentialbiomass burning, coal com-bustion in industries and ther-mal power plants, burning ofcrop residue and vehicular com-bustion will grow substantiallyby 2050, with deaths attributableto ambient PM 2.5 projected torise to 3.6 million, said the

report released on Thursday. And this may only be the

tip of the iceberg as the studydoes not take into accountindoor exposure to biomassburning, especially in ruralareas where charcoal, firewoodand animal dung are used forcooking in the absence ofcleaner fuels.

The study focuses on themajor sources of PM2.5 that arebehind the deaths namely, res-idential biomass burning, coalcombustion in industries andthermal power plants, burningof crop residue and vehicularcombustion.

“Coal combustion, rough-ly evenly split between indus-trial sources and thermal powerplants, was responsible for169,300 deaths (15.5%) in 2015.

The open burning of agricul-tural residue was responsiblefor 66,200 PM2.5-attributabledeaths (6.1%),” the report says.

Transport, distributeddiesel and brick productionwere responsible behind23,100, 20,400 and 24,100deaths respectively, it said.

However, the researchers ofthe study engaged with premierinstitutes in the US, China,Canada and India among oth-ers, noted that the findings maybe underestimating the actualcontribution of transportsources which typically operatein closer proximity to popula-tions than do large stationarysources such as power plantsand industrial facilities.

The burden of disease, interms of the numbers of deaths

attributable to total PM2.5, isexpected to grow in the future,as the population ages andgrows and leaves more peoplesusceptible to air pollution,the researchers have forecast.

The study says that if emis-sion control measures are nottaken, the number of deathscaused by PM2.5 in the coun-try will rise to 1.7 millions in2030 and reach 3.6 million in2050.

Randeep Guleria, AIIMShead, said that they are con-ducting a study to assess thepollution impact on thepatients that are being admit-ted here as it is not only theurban areas but even ruralareas are under the impact ofthe air pollution, resulting inhigher respiratory disease cases.

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Financial condition ofmunicipalities is a “cause of

concern”, Union MinisterHardeep Singh Puri said onThursday and pitched for a“robust financial management”to enhance their revenues andraise funds by tapping capitalmarket through bonds.

He said the combinedreceipts of all municipalities inIndia was estimated to be lowerthan �1.5 lakh crore, with lessthan a third of the amount

coming from their resources,making them dependent onCentral and StateGovernments.

It is also estimated thatnearly �65 lakh crore would berequired as capital investmentand for services in Indian citiesover a 20-year period, theMinister said, adding thereforethe space to raise private fundswas “enormous”.

“Compared to certainother areas of reform, we havebeen relatively slower inmunicipal finance reforms, and

the financial position of ourmunicipalities is a cause of con-cern,” Puri, the Housing andUrban Affairs Minister, said atan event in Vigyan Bhawan.

He said the municipalfinance market faced a range ofchallenges, including weakadministration and politicalinterference by way of waivers.“Municipalities need to lay afoundation of robust financialmanagement for both enhanc-ing own revenues as well astapping the capital marketthrough Municipal Bonds,” he

said.Speaking about adminis-

trative reforms, he said the timehas come to adopt the recom-mendations of the SecondAdministrative ReformsCommission and merge thefunctions of the person chair-ing the municipal council andthe individual exercising exec-utive authority.

“The position of chairper-son/mayor duly created mustbe filled via a direct electoralprocess, and should have afixed five-year tenure,” he said.

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Ahead of elections in fiveStates of Karnataka, Tripura,

Nagaland, Mizoram and Megha-laya, Prime Minister NarendraModi on Thursday held a din-ner meeting with all party gen-eral secretaries to discuss thepolitical situation and strategy tobe adopted by the party for theensuing Assembly polls .

According to sources, thePrime Minister sought all thegeneral secretaries to sharplyfocus on galvanising the cadresfor the coming Assembly pollsand increase party supportfrom the younger generation,particularly those who wouldbe eligible for voting in 2018.

The dinner meeting, withBJP chief Amit Shah in atten-dance, provided an opportuni-ty to party leaders to pick upthe threads from Gujarat andHimachal Pradesh poll cam-paigns and streamline strategiesfor the polls in Karnataka andNorth-Eastern States with theformer offering BJP an oppor-tunity to unseat the Congress-led Siddaramaiah Government.

Tripura is another Statewhere BJP is hoping that it maycreate history by deposing theManik Sarkar-headed Left-front

Government which is ruling theState for two-decades.

The Lok Sabha polls, whichare less than one-and-half yearsaway, also generally figuredduring the interactions withgeneral secretaries who alsohappen to be States-in-charge,sources said. BJP has already set

itself on for general electionswith around 4 lakh “Vistaraks”deployed across the States.

The leaders who attendedthe dinner-meet includedKailash Vijayvargiya, Bhupen-der Singh, Ram Lal, Arun Singh,Ram Madhav, Saudan Singhand Anil Jain . A total of eightgeneral secretaries were presentat the dinner that lasted twohours, according to sources.

The high-level interactionhas come close on the heels ofindications that there may besome changes in the party.The reshuffling in the party islong overdue, according to asection in the party while oth-ers in the BJP feel that the partywas “in any way winning all theelections”.

Earlier during the day,Shah attended the core groupof Karnataka to review party’scampaign in the State whichwitnessed heated exchangesbetween the Karnataka ChiefMinister and the BJP chiefthis week. The meeting wasattended by BJP’s Karnataka-in-charge Murlidhar Rao.

Besides the five States oth-ers like Rajasthan, MadhyaPradesh and Chhattisgarh arescheduled to go to polls duringthe latter half of the year.

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The Supreme Court onThursday set up a three-

member special investigationteam (SIT) headed by retiredDelhi High Court judge JusticeSN Dhingra to probe into 186cases involving the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in the Capital andother parts of north India. TheSIT will present the first statusreport of its probe in twomonths, latest by March 19, thenext date of hearing. JusticeDhingra had also headed aCommission to probe into theland deals of Robert Vadra, theson-in-law of former Congresspresident Sonia Gandhi.

An apex Bench of ChiefJustice Dipak Misra, JusticesAM Khanwilkar and DYChandrachud passed the orderfollowing a suggestion made

unanimously by the Centreand the PIL petitioner S GurladSingh Kahlon, a member of theDelhi Sikh GurdwaraManagement Committee.Besides Justice Dhingra, theother two members of SITinclude Abhishek Dular, a 2006batch IPS officer of HimachalPradesh cadre who is current-ly posted with Central Bureauof Investigation (CBI), andRajdeep Singh, a retired SpecialDirector General of BSF whoretired in 1979.

The Court clarified that thepresent SIT will no way affect thefunctioning of the previous SITcurrently seized of some casesrelated to the 1984 riots. Thedecision to reopen 186 cases wastaken by the Court after it cameto light how the existing SITclosed these cases without con-ducting any investigation.

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If you thought that dialing theGovernment’s toll-free

QuitLine 1800-11-2356 will bea sheer waste of time and nothelp you quit smoking or chew-ing tobacco, then think again.

According to a one-year-data analysis of more than3,000 people who calledQuitLine, the national tobaccocessation helpline launched onMay 31, 2016, almost 40 percent people, who signed up forthe cessation programme, quitsmoking or chewing tobacco.

The data, gathered fromMay 30, 2016 to May 31, 2017,also revealed that majority ofthe registered callers were edu-cated adults of age 25-64 years,which points to the fact that

they were well aware of theharmful effects of tobacco usebut still chose to indulge insuch delirious habits.

“Interestingly, we alsofound that that maximumnumber of callers, ie 73.4 percent, had no family history oftobacco use.

“Majority of adults andyouth are using tobacco underpeer pressure, status symbol, tofit in group, work pressure,stress, imitation, family con-flicts, relationship issues, anx-iety, social conformity etc,”said Prof Raj Kumar, Head,Department of National Centerof Respiratory Allergy, Asthmaand Immunology (NCRAAI),Vallabhbhai Patel ChestInstitute.

Prof Raj Kumar heads thetobacco cessation program,

which is funded by the HealthMinistry.

Interestingly, 46.45% regis-tered callers were from UttarPradesh who were seeking coun-seling to help them quit; secondhighest was Delhi. The tobaccocessation program is headed byProf Raj Kumar of VallabhbhaiPatel hospital, Delhi.

“Tobacco quit-line servicesare the telephone-based free ofcost services, with primaryobjective to provide counselingfor tobacco cessation. Theseservices include supportthrough educational material,in the form of sms, e-mail andwebsites,” he said adding thatthe results are motivating thatpeople are coming around andseeking help. The quit line hasbeen recommended by theWorld Health Organisation as

one of the population-wideapproaches to support tobaccousers in quitting.

According to experts, thebenefits of quitting are wide-ranging and almost immediate.Within 20 minutes blood pres-sure drops and within 24 hoursa person’s chance of heartattack decreases. Long- termbenefits include reduced risk oflung cancer, stroke and heartdisease, they say.

Using any type of tobaccoputs a person at an increasedrisk of cancer. “Avoiding orstopping the consumption oftobacco is one of the foremoststeps in cancer prevention,”said Dr K K Aggarwal,President Heart CareFoundation of India (HCFI)and ex President of the IndianMedical Association (IMA).

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As part of the celebrations tomark 25 years of bilateral

relationship, Israeli PrimeMinister Benjamin Netanyahuwill be visiting India fromJanuary 14-19 during which hewill undertake a multi-city tourand also hold discussions withPrime Minister Narendra Modion a range of bilateral and inter-national issues besides strength-ening their strategic partnership.

India and Israel have adeep cooperation in severalareas including defence, secu-rity ties, agriculture and tech-nology. Netanyahu’s four-dayvisit is expected to furtherboost the strong ties as the twosides explore new avenues forcollaboration and increasingtrade relations.

In New Delhi, Netanyahuwill hold talks with Modi onJanuary 15 at the HyderabadHouse where the PM will host alunch for him. The two leaderswill then travel to Ahmedabadon January 17 where they will

hold a roadshow and visit theSabarmati Ashram. Netanyahuwill also travel to Mumbai onJanuary 18 for a meeting withbusiness heads and other events,including a visit to NarimanHouse, also known as ChabadHouse, which was targeted by theterrorists during an attack on26/11/2008.

Netanyahu along with hiswife and 2008 terror attack sur-vivor Moshe Holtzberg, hisnanny Sandra Samuel and bothmaternal and paternal grand-parents are expected to visit theNariman House. Modi hadmet Moshe during his maidenvisit to Israel last year and invit-ed them to visit Mumbai.

“The Prime Minister’s visitto India is the grand finale to thecelebrations of 25 years ofGrowing Partnership betweenIndia and Israel. The visit willfocus on the progress madebetween India and Israel sincePrime Minister Modi’s visit toIsrael last summer,”IsraeliAmbassador to India DanielCarmon said.

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India on Thursday askedMaldives that its “India First”

policy should be visible on theground and efforts should bemade to strengthen bilateral tiesin all aspects. New Delhi’sassertion came against thebackdrop of its sagging ties withMale and the growing clout ofChina in the island country.

During her talks with thevisiting Maldives ForeignMinister Mohamed Asim,External Affairs MinisterSushma Swaraj conveyedIndia’s commitment to achiev-ing the full potential of the rela-tionship with Maldives in linewith India’s “NeighbourhoodFirst” policy.

On his part, Asim reiterat-ed his Government’s commit-ment to the “India First” poli-cy, and assured Sushma that hisGovernment will not do any-thing that goes against the inter-est of India. Asim also said thatMaldives will keep India’s sen-sitivities into account while for-mulating its policies. Asim lateralso met Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and repeatedhis Government’s commitmentfor maintaining good relationswith India while emphasising

that Maldives attached the high-est priority to its ties with India.

The Maldives Governmenthas hurriedly pushed through aFree Trade Agreement withChina even as negotiations onthis with India continue. Also,three local councilors wererecently suspended in Maldivesfor meeting the IndianAmbassador following a prohi-bition on diplomatic meetings.

Maldives President AbdullaYameen too has maintainedthat India remains its closest allyand important partner. Asim,who is also the Special Envoy ofthe President of Maldives, is ona visit to India to rejuvenate theties and smoothen the roughedges that have developed in therelationship.

During the review of theIndia-sponsored developmen-tal projects in Maldives, Indiaraised the issue of delay andsought to know the reasons forroadblocks. Asim assured thathis Government will ensureearly progress on all the pend-ing development projects thatIndia is supporting in Maldives.Issues pertaining to strength-ening development partner-ship and enhancing Defenceand security cooperation werealso discussed.

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Just the day after BJP presi-dent Amit Shah blasted the

Congress Government led byChief Minister Siddaramaiah asanti-Hindu, the All IndiaCongress Committee (AICC)general secretary KCVenugopal has ruled out theState Government putting anyban on Popular Front Of India(PFI). The BJP has beendemanding a ban on PFI foralleged murder of 21 Hinduactivists in Karnataka.

Addressing a Press confer-ence at Vijayapura in Karnatakaon Thursday Venugopal said, asthe State Government was tak-ing all necessary steps to nabthe culprits indulged in violenceand murder, especially in thecoastal districts, there was noneed to ban PFI. He saidalready five people have beenarrested in connection withmurder of BJP activist DeepakRao near Suratkal in MangaluruDistrict recently. Venugopalalleged that the BJP and RSSleaders were inciting violence inCoastal districts in the State.

Addressing a Parivarthanarally of the BJP led by BSYeddyurappa at Holalkere town

on Wednesday in KarnatakaAmit Shah had a scathing attackon Congress Government forthe failure of law and order. Hehad also said that after BJPcomes to power all the perpe-trators (who had killed Hinduactivists) of the crime will besent to jail. Shah had warnedthe Congress Government thattime had come for them to go.

In another developmentKarnataka Home MinisterRamalinga Reddy made a seri-ous allegation of telephone tap-ping of the State Congress lead-ers against Central Governmentled by Prime Minister NarendraModi ahead of Assembly polls.Reddy said he had received sev-eral complaints from partyleaders and Ministers in thisregard. “Earlier also I hadreceived similar complaints andhad informed it to Union HomeMinister,” he added.

In August 2017, the BJPleaders had alleged thatCongress Government in theState had indulged in phonetapping of its party leaders.However, he refused to namethe leaders whose phone werebeing tapped.

Meanwhile the majorOpposition BJP had said thatthey would launch a State-wide‘jailbharo’ agitation on Friday inprotest against Chief MinisterSiddaramaiah’s remarks thatBJP RSS and Bajrang Dal haveterrorists. But Chief MinisterSiddaramaiah on Thursday inMysuru clarified and said hehad only referred to Hindutvaextremism when speaking ofterrorists.

“What I said is BJP and RSSare spreading Hindutva terror-ism for political gains. In myopinion, whoever spread hateand incites violence is a terror-ist,” said Siddaramaiah. BJPpresident Amit Shah termedCongress Government led bySiddaramaiah as ‘anti-Hindu’for allegedly being soft onIslamic extremist groups. Fewweeks back Siddaramaiah andhis Uttar Pradesh counterpart,Yogi Adityanath, engaged in awar of words on Twitter.

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Uttar Pradesh Shia WaqfBoard Chairman Wasim

Rizvi, who had chargedmadrasas with teaching terror,is increasingly coming underattack from within the BJP.

After the most renownedMuslim face of the party ZafarSareshwala, another minorityleader of the BJP fromTelangana has also lashed out atRizvi. Haneef Ali, member ofthe party’s executive has claimedthat Rizvi has lost his mentalbalance and was conspiring tocreate differences between Shiaand Sunni Muslims.

The blistering attack cameafter Rizvi wrote a letter toPrime Minister demanding theclosure of all Madarsas. “Rizvihas no relation withthe BJP orthe RSS”, Haneef Ali said. “Hehas the habit of earning fame bysuch cheap tactics,” he added.

Haneef Ali said that afterBJP came to power in UttarPradesh the Shia Waqf Boardwas dissolved because of cor-ruption charges but WasimRizvi was continuing by brin-ing a stay order from the court.

He said the Shia communitycondemns Rizvi’s letter toPrime Minister. He also deniedthat the BJP had any plans toclose down the Madarsas. “Wewill expose the conspiracybehind the letter to create dif-ferences between Sunnis andShias,” he said. “Such elementsare trying to defame the BJPand disturb the peace in thecountry,” he added.

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The controversy arisingout of an additional

judge’s warning against theuse of loudspeakers inmosques in Nizamabad dis-

trict was resolved after thedistrict judge held discus-sions with the additionaljudge concerned, top policeofficials and leaders of theminority community.

The controversy erupt-ed in Armoor town, 25 kms

away from the district head-quarters Nizamabad whenthe additional judge BhaskarGoud issued a warning to allthe mosques in the town ofbooking cases against themif they continue to use theloudspeakers.

The threats of ajudge caused a stir inthe entire district andthe office-bearers ofseveral mosque com-mittees and leaders ofvarious organisationsincluding Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeenand Jamiatul Ulemalodged a complaintwith the PoliceC o m m i s s i o n e rKartikya. MIM’s leg-islator Ahmad PashaQuadri also spoke tohim over phone andapprised him of the

concern of the communityover the unusual action of thejudge of visiting the mosquesand issuing warnings.

Amid the growing ten-sion Nizamabad district KSujana, along with othermagistrates and Kartikyavisited Armoor town andheld discussions with theadditional judge. They alsoheld talks with the repre-sentatives of the localMuslims and recordedtheir statements.

Later G Sujana assuredthe minority communitythat the judiciary had nointention of interfering inreligious matter of anycommunity and the instructions against loud-speaker was not aimedonly at mosques but for allthe religious places as partof efforts to curb the noisepollut ion. The PoliceCommissioner alsoassured that such incidentswill not recur.

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With lakhs of people head-ing to their respective

native places to celebrate thefestival of Sankranti or Pongalthis weekend, the roads ofHyderabad city will be free ofthe usual mad rush.

Traffic was thin in all partsof city as the vehicular traffic felldrastically on Thursday.However, there was a hugerush at all the major railway sta-tion and two main bus termi-nals as the families joined thelong queues to head towards thenative places, mostly the dis-tricts of Telangana as well asAndhra Pradesh.

In the annual tradition theSouth Central Railway wasrunning special trains to dealwith the rush. Similarly, theTelangana State Road TransportCorporation was running hun-dreds of special buses to easethe congestion. In an unusualmove the SCR authorities havedoubled the platform ticketfrom �10 to �20 to discouragelarge number of people comingto see off their relatives.

With many families travel-ling by their own vehicles there

also rush on all the roads lead-ing out of Hyderabad and therewere long queues at all the tollplazas.

Authorities say that theywere also getting ready for thereturn rush from evening ofJanuary 16. Schools have col-leges have declared holiday tillTuesday.

Government and privateemployees including the work-ers of IT companies have alsotaken leave to extend theirholidays to spend more timewith their families back home.According to the IT industrysource of more than 4 lakh soft-ware engineers, 30 to 40 per-cent have gone on extendedleave.

The rush for Sankranti hasnot only made life easy for thetraffic on the roads but offices

and other public places werealso appearing deserted.

On the other hands the res-idents of Hyderabad were alsogearing up for the colorful fes-tival of kites and the shops in theold city and the Begum Bazarwere buzzing with the kitelovers. Telangana Governmenthas organised not only a KiteFestival but also a Sweet Festivalwhere more than three hundredoutlets have come up servingdifferent sweet dishes andsavories of local varieties.

Meanwhile, the police inHyderabad and neighboringCyberabad and Rachakondacommissionerates have increasedtheir patrolling specially in thoseareas where large number offamilies have gone to their nativeplaces for the festival.

The police have issuedwarning to such families thatthey should fully secure theirhomes and properly lock thembefore leaving the city. In someareas they also asked the peo-ple to inform the local policestation about their travel plans.The precautionary measureswere taken in view of manyinstances of burglars targetingsuch houses in the past.

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Gujarat police arrested anaccused in 2002 Gulberg

Society massacre case after heremained absconding for about16 years.

The accused AshishPandey, one of the fiveabsconding in the case, was arrested from Aslali locality on Wednesday eveningby crime branch official after atip off.

Pandey had been abscond-ing after being named in theFIR registered in the GulbergSociety massacre case. A resi-dent of Naroda area, Pandeylived in different cities to evadearrest, the police said.

On February 28, 2002 amob had attacked a pre-dom-inantly Muslim colony —Gulberg Society — inAhmedabad a day after infa-mous Godhara carnage. Asmany as 69 people, includingformer Congress MP EhsanJafri, were killed in the attackon society. The incident wasrecorded to be one of the worstviolent incident during thecommunal conflaguration witnessed by the State postGodhra train burning a dayearlier.

A special court had in June2016 convicted 24 people in theGulberg case, awarding lifeimprisonment to 11 peopleand 10-year term to one of theaccused, seven-year jail termfor 12 and acquitting 36 others.Five of the accused weredeclared absconding. With thearrest of Pandey, four moreaccused still remain at large.

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Bengal Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee who had

“dropped” her doctorate degree— reportedly earned from analleged non-existent Universityin the United States in the1980s — following large-scalecriticism from the Oppositionparties finally earned a genuineone on Thursday when theCalcutta University conferredon her an honorary D.Littdegree.

While the Thursday’sdegree came not without politi-co-judicial ruckus with chal-lengers moving the High Courtand critics seeing “boot-lick-ing” of some “so-called educa-tionists”, in the whole drama amoved Chief Minister exhibit-ed great degree of humilitywhen she said “I know I am notworth it but still I am happythat I have been given it.”

She said she would not usethe degree, with tears wellingup in her eyes, even as she rem-inisced how she had to faceterse remarks for her inabilityto carry forward her studiesdespite tremendous desire.

“I am a beggar of love andam overwhelmed at this ges-ture,” she said even as stalwartsin Calcutta University said the

degree was a tribute to hersocial work and struggle.Banerjee also said that she hasalways been publicly deridedand was in two minds about tothe occasion “but then theEducation Minister ParthoChatterjee persuaded me tocome here and I am over-whelmed by the honour.

“I am deeply touched bythe recognition the Universitygave to my creativity, art, literary activities, social service

and public work. Glory and heritage of CalcuttaUniversity transcends bound-aries,” she said.

Meanwhile a PublicInterest Litigation was stillpending in Calcutta HighCourt where the PetitionerRanjugopal Mukherjee, a former Professor of the university, claimed that thedecision to confer the award onthe Chief Minister was arbi-trary and opaque.

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New Year has given a good beginningto Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister

Chandrababu Naidu. On Friday, he willmeet Narendra Modi at the PrimeMinister’s Residence in New Delhi.

Naidu will discuss about theAmaravati Capital RegionDevelopment and support requiredfrom the Government of India, issuesarising out of State bifurcation andother development activities inAndhra Pradesh.

On Wednesday, Naidu wrote a let-ter to the Union Finance Minister,Arun Jaitley about cuts in CentrallySponsored Schemes and Central ShareIn Externally Aided Projects sanc-tioned to Andhra Pradesh for 2015-

16 to 2019-20 years. As ExternalAgencies are taking long procedure tosign agreements and consuming longtime to release funds, Naidu said,Andhra Pradesh is not in a positionto absorb the time loss happeningEAP. He further requested to convertall EAP projects as NABARD projectsby releasing �16,447 crores as the spe-cial dispensation amount instead ofloans through External Agencies.

“The special assistance measuresannounced to Andhra Pradesh andCentral Assistance In 90:10 ratio onpar with Special Category States willenable to put the residuary State’sfinances on a firmer footing as envis-aged by the Parliament while passingthe Bifurcation Bill”, Naidu added inhis letter.

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Purushothaman means thebest among men. But B

Purushothaman (57) residentof Kanakalakshmi Nagar inCoimbatore is an antithesis tothat name. Tamil Nadu policehas registered 15 cases againsthim, all under white collarcrimes. He was once detainedunder the Goondas Act.

Despite the cases regis-tered against him,Purushothaman continues tohoodwink people throughnewly devised modus operan-di. Coimbatore Police is in thelook out for him and variousteams have been constituted to

somehow nab him. The latestinitiative is a fallout to com-plaints filed againstPurushothaman by threewomen who were cheated bythe him.

Purushothaman is on awedding spree now. His latesttargets are middle-agedwomen, especially spinsters,widows and divorced women.He selects only women fromaffluent families.

The women who filed thecomplaints against him weremarried by him and robbedcrores of rupees from themconcealing the fact that he wasalready married. The latestvictim is a Professor working ina Chennai college, who was

zeroed in by Purushothamanwith the help of an on-line mat-rimonial bureau.

“The spinster wasimpressed by the sweet talks of

Purushothaman and she read-ily agreed for the marriage.After the marriage ceremonyand the honeymoon days,Purushothaman told theProfessor that he was not com-fortable in Chennai. Since hisbusiness was centered aroundCoimbatore, he made the newbride agree to sale her proper-ty in the metropolis for �1crore,” said an officer inCoimbatore City Police.

The professor agreed to hisdemand and Purushothamanwent to Coimbatore in searchof a property for both of themto stay. “That was the last shesaw of Purushothaman,” saidthe officer.

M e a n w h i l e ,

Purushothaman had managedto marry another spinster androbbed �3 crore from her andmade the disappearing act.

Inspector Masutha Begumof Podanur All Women’s PoliceStation said that initial probesby the police revealed thatPurushothaman had marriedeight women.

“He has a transport com-pany in the city and is a habit-ual cheat. We have deployedteams to all over in pursuit ofPurushothaman. The chargesagainst him range frompolygamy, suppression of mate-rials and cheating,” said Begum.She said the proprietor of theon-line matrimonial servicehas been taken into custody.

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Upset with the Indian Navy’sWestern Naval

Command’s “objection” to thesetting up of a floating jetty inthe Arabian Sea off southMumbai, Union ShippingMinister Nitin Gadkari onThursday hit out at the Navyfor “blocking” developmentalworks and said that the Navyhad nothing to do withMalabar Hill, two nauticalmiles off which a floatel withfive star facilities was to be pro-posed to be anchored.

Giving his peace of mindto the top brass of the WesternNaval Command for exceed-ing its brief and blocking adevelopmental project insouth Mumbai, a miffedGadkari said that “not aninch of land” would be givenfor Navy housing in southMumbai, after wondering asto why all the Navy personnelwanted to live in the upmar-ket area when their role was tosecure the country’s bordersfrom terrorists.

Speaking at a function afterlaying foundation stone for anInternational Cruise Terminalat the Mumbai port, Gadkarisaid: “I heard yesterday that theBombay High Court stayed aproposal to set up a floatingjetty at Malabar Hill. I was told

the reason for this was the Navyobjected to the project. Whereis the Navy in Malabar Hill?Navy has nothing to do withcoast along Malabar Hill. But,it has become a habit for theNavy to stop all kinds of works”

“You bring such proposalsto us. We are the Government.Neither the Navy nor theDefence Ministry is theGovernment. The PrimeMinister has appointed a com-mittee under my chairmanshipfor infrastructural clearances.Even if we agendas, we clear theproposals. You bring the pro-posals to me. There is no needto take the proposals to theNavy. The Navy’s role is in theborders where terrorists try toinfiltrate. Why do all the Navypersonnel want to live in southMumbai,” Gadkari said.

Revealing that the Navy hadcome to him for a plot of land insouth Mumbai for a housingproject, Gadjkari said: “Whydoes everyone (in the Navy)want to stay in South Mumbai?They (Navy) had come to me,asking for a plot (of land). I willnot give even an inch of land.Please don't come to me again….We do respect you (Navy), butyou should go to the Pakistanborder and do patrolling."

Significantly enough,Gadkari made the remarks at apublic event here in presence of

Western Naval Command chiefVice-Admiral Girish Luthra.

Gadkari’s remarks came inthe backdrop of the BombayHigh Court rejecting a petitionfiled by a private firm seekingpermission to construct a float-ing hotel and a jetty nearNariman Point in SouthMumbai.

A division bench of justicesAS Oka and PN Deshmukhhad on January 8 dismissed thepetition filed by RashmiDevelopment Pvt Ltd, chal-lenging an order passed by the

Brihanmumbai MunicipalCorporation (BMC) and ahigh-court appointed commit-tee denying permission for theconstruction of the floatinghotel, jetty and ramps abuttingthe Marine Drive promenade.The rejection of the privatefirm’s petition essentially meansthat it will have to look for anew location to build floatingjetty to ferry passengers to itsfloatel – floating hotel with fivestar facilities in the Arabian seaproposed to be anchored twonautical miles off Raj Bhavan.

Gadkari said that a fewimportant and senior officialscould stay in Mumbai, but theland on the eastern seafrontbeing jointly developed by thestate-run Mumbai Port Trustand the Maharashtra govern-ment would be utilised only forthe benefit of local citizens.

Incidentally, southMumbai’s Colaba is home to alarge number of Navy person-nel. It houses the headquartersof the Western NavalCommand (WNC) and thenaval residential quarters at

Navy Nagar.Estimated to cost �300

crore, the international cruiseterminal at the Bombay Portwill have all facilities like an air-port with separate arrival anddeparture lounges and cater toaround 700,000 tourists annu-ally arriving or departing bycruise liners, and is expected tobe ready by December 2019.

Spread over 4.15 lakh sq.feet, the terminal will beequipped to host cruise shipswith a capacity of around 5000passengers, with restaurants,shopping, recreated and leisureactivities, which would also beaccessible to the local population.

“The Arabian sea and seafront is a speciality and strengthof Mumbai and Maharashtra.Eighty cruise ships came toMumbai this year and 950cruise ships will come in thenext 5 years, Gadkari said.

Gadkari said that therewas a huge tourist potential inMumbai. Speaking aboutVarious projects of MbPTworth �6,500 crore, theMinister said; “Of these pro-jects, 27 projects are in pipelineand will be inaugurated inupcoming year”.

Gadjari said that SagarMala project for Maharashtrawas worth of 2.41 lakh crore.“Twenty four applications havebeen received for Special

Economic Zones (SEZ). Ofthese, only in JNPT SEZaround 1.5 lakh youth will getemployment in the next 3years, they all should be fromRaigad and Konkan areas,” theMinister said.

Maharashtra chief ministerDevcendra Fadnavis said thatthe proposed internationalcruise terminal was part of thegovernment’s four-prongedpolicy to develop Mumbai onwater, sky, ground and under-ground with water transport,new international airport,roads and flyovers, and theunderground Mumbai Metro.

“This will make Mumbai aglobal cruise destination, cre-ate huge employment oppor-tunities, increase the number oftourists and contribute to theGDP growth of Mumbai andMaharashtra,” Fadnavis said.

Earlier, Gadkari andFadnavis laid the foundationstone for the swank new international cruise terminalwhich will come up in theMumbai port.

Slated to cost �300 crore, itwill have all facilities like an air-port with separate arrival anddeparture lounges and cater toaround 700,000 tourists annu-ally arriving or departing bycruise liners, and is expected tobe ready by December 2019.

Fadnavis said that this inter-

national cruise terminal is partof the government’s four-pronged policy to developMumbai on water, sky, groundand underground with watertransport, new international air-port, roads and flyovers, and theunderground Mumbai Metro.

“This will make Mumbai aglobal cruise destination, cre-ate huge employment oppor-tunities, increase the number oftourists and contribute to theGDP growth of Mumbai andMaharashtra,” Fadnavis said.

Spread over 4.15 lakh sq.feet, the terminal will beequipped to host cruise shipswith a capacity of around 5000passengers, with restaurants,shopping, recreated and leisureactivities, which would also beaccessible to the local population.

In fact, in 2016-2017,around 55 international cruiseships carrying over 60,000 pas-sengers touched Mumbai,which is now expected to grow10 fold to around 700 vesselsannually.

With Mumbai aloneexpected to handle nearlythree-fourths of this estimatedhuge growth in cruise liner traf-fic, the government plans todevelop other ports (besidesMumbai) like Goa, Mangalore,Kochi and Chennai to cater tobig and small internationalcruise ships.

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Ayoung ruling party legislatorrepresenting Wachi

Assembly segment from SouthKashmir district of ShopianThursday stirred up a hornets’nest by labeling terrorists killedin Kashmir as ‘martyrs’ and‘brothers’.

He also advised Centre’sinterlocutor Dineshwar Sharmato hold parleys with the HurriyatConference members and ter-rorists in order to resolve theissue of Kashmir.

An Advocate by professionPDP MLA Aijaz Ahmed Mir'sown house was attacked by ter-rorists on October 19, 2017 bylobbing a grenade. At that timehe was away and his familymembers escaped unhurt.

On Thursday he toldreporters on the footsteps of theState legislature complex,"Terrorists who are fromKashmir are martyrs, they are

our brothers. They are our chil-dren. Some of them are minorswho don't even know what theyare doing." He said they shouldbe counselled and brought backto the mainstream to end thisbloddshed.

Referring to the killing ofover 200 militants during year2017 Mir told reporters, "Thekilling of terrorists should not becelebrated.”

"We should not celebrate thekillings of terrorists, it is our col-lective failure, we feel sad whenour security forces are martyredas well, we should sympathisewith parents of security jawansand with parents of terrorists aswell," Mir said.

“Nearly one lakh peoplehave been killed due to militan-cy in all these years. We mustfocus on dialogue as only dia-logue is the way forward," Aijazclarified before entering the Statelegislature complex.

He also urged the Centre's

special representative forKashmir Dineshwar Sharma totalk to everybody in the State."He should talk to separatists andterrorists in Kashmir too," hesaid.

Reacting to the statement ofPDP MLA Congress legislativeparty leader Nawang RogzinZora said, "On one hand BJP topbrass remain busy in issuing cer-tificates of 'Nationalism' and onthe other hand their own alliancepartner PDP MLA is labelingmilitants as 'martyrs'. Ask BJP

Chief Amit Shah and PrimeMinister Narendra Modi what ishappening in Jammu andKashmir. Zora said, while addingthat the double standard of boththe alliance partners BJP-PDPhas been exposed before theirown electorate as they are issu-ing confusing statements.

Senior National ConferenceMLA Ali Mohd Sagar said, "ThePDP is a party of contradictions.”On the one hand, they said, ter-rorists are killed under theirwatch, and on the other, they

make statements claiming ter-rorists are 'martyrs'. He toldreporters to ask Deputy ChiefMinister to clarify their partystand on the issue.

Meanwhile, State BJPspokesman strongly condemnedthe statement of PDP legislatorAijaz Mir.

Chief spokesman Sunil Sethisaid, "It seems PDP legislator haslost his mental balance. He istalking in the language of mili-tants and separatists while underoath of constitution as legislator.”

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Hours after they were arrest-ed in connection with the

December 29 Kamala Millscompound blaze in which 14persons were killed and 55 oth-ers injured, the three co-own-ers of restaurant 1Above wereremanded in police custody bya city court till January 17.

The police obtained thecustody of three accused —Kripesh Sanghavi, JigarSanghavi and Abhijeet Mankar— till January 17, after pro-ducing them before a Bhoiwadacourt at around 3 pm.

Kripesh Sanghvi and hisbrother Jigar Sanghvi who hadbeen on the run since theDecember 29 fire tragedy froma hotel in Bandra late onWednesday, while the thirdpartner of 1Above restaurantAbhijeet Mankar, was arrestedfrom Marine Lines in the earlyhours of Thursday. The citypolice had issued look-outnotices for these three abscond-ing accused.

While seeking custody ofSanghvi brothers and Mankar,the Prosecution told the courtthat the three were responsiblefor the loss of lives in theDecember 29 blaze, in which13 of their patrons were killedin the mishap.

The investigators told thecourt that they wanted to con-front the three accused with thearrested accused Yug Pathak,son of a retired IPS officer andPune's former PoliceCommissioner and one of theco-owners of Mojo's Bistro,

where the fire originated andspread top two pubs-cum-restuarants.

On their part, AdvocateKiran Jain – representing thethree accused – said that clientswere not responsible for themishap as the fire originated atMojo’s Bistro as per the inquiryreport submitted by theMumbai Fire Brigade.

Jain claimed that his clientswere being framed by theinvestigators who had not evennamed Mojo’s Bistro’s ownersin the initial FIR till the firebrigade report was releasedand that Mojo’s Bristo co-owner and accused Yug Tullihad still been been absconding.

It may be recalled that 14persons were killed and 55 oth-ers were injured in the massivefire that ripped Mojo's Bistrolounge, neighbouring 1Abovecasual dining restaurant andLondon Taxi Gastro pub atTrade House.

With the latest develop-ment, the total numbers ofarrests made in the KamalaMills compound fire has goneup to seven.

The persons arrested ear-lier were: wo managers of1Above pub – Kevin Bawaand Gibson Lopez, two rela-tives of the abscondingSanghavi duo – uncle RakeshSanghavi and cousin AdityaSanghavi for giving shelter tothe currently absconding co-owners of 1Above pub and YugK. Pathak, son of a retired IPSofficer and Pune's formerpolice commissioner and oneof the co-owners of Mojo's

Bistro. However, the uncle-cousin

— Rakesh Sanghavi and AdityaSanghavi – were subsequentlyproduced before the BhoiwadaCourt which released them ona bail of Rs.25,000 each.

Apart from issuing lookout notices for Sanghvi broth-ers and Mankar, the policehad announced a cash rewardof Rs 1 lakh for those givinginformation about the where-abouts of the key abscondingaccused.

Meanwhile, the matterrelating to the December 29blaze has reached the BombayHigh Court.

Mumbai’s former PoliceCommissioner and Punjab’sex-Director General of PoliceJulio Riberio on Tuesdaymoved the Bombay HighCourt, seeking a court-moni-tored probe by a SpecialInvestigation Team (SIT) intothe December 29 fire in theKamala Mills compound tofix responsibility for the inci-dent and also to make fireaudits compulsory for all pubs,restaurants, hotels and eateriesacross the metropolis.

In a PIL filed before thehigh court, 88-year-old Riberiomade a strong case for the set-ting up of a HC-monitored SITto look into the role of the seniorofficials of BrihanmumbaiMunicipal Corporation (BMC)in the circumstances leading theDecember 29 blaze and fixresponsibility for the mishap. Healso urged the court to make fireaudit mandatory for liquorjoints and eateries in Mumbai.

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Page 8: ˙ ˆ ! ˙ ˆ-1 12-.3 ˝ -/ 4 ˜ˆ˙ ˝!˝#$##˝˙˝%#$˝&’˝()(˙*)+ shortly after the Pathankot attack in January 2016. Thereafter too there have been ... court and High Courts,

The world has seen a series ofextreme events in recentmonths, with three successivehurricanes hitt ing theCaribbean and North

American region; unprecedented forestfires in California; and now parts ofEurope and the east coast of the US in thegrip of a severe cold wave.

It is no surprise that US PresidentDonald J Trump, the high priest of cli-mate sceptics and someone who is sur-prisingly immune to scientific knowl-edge, tweeted, “In the East, it could be theCOLDEST New Year’s Eve on record.Perhaps we could use a little bit of thatgood old Global Warming that ourcountry, but not other countries, wasgoing to pay TRILLIONS OF DOL-LARS to protect against. Bundle up!”.

It was in 2011 that theIntergovernmental Panel on ClimateChange (IPCC) brought out a specialreport on Managing the Risks of ExtremeEvents and Disasters to Advance ClimateChange Adaptation (SREX). Climatechange must be understood as not mere-ly an increase in temperature but amajor disruption of the climate system,which has been relatively stable foralmost a million years.

Some have described the current eraas anthropocene, since human activitiesare now the major determinant of thegeological, ecological and climatic con-ditions of this planet. Thomas LFriedman, the distinguished columnist ofthe New York Times, rightly refers to glob-al warming as “global weirding”.Essentially, what he is trying to conveyis the fact that globally, the climate isbecoming weird.

President Trump’s sarcastic com-ment through the well-established eru-dition of his tweet can easily be demol-ished with a very simple scientific expla-nation. With increase in surface temper-ature on land and bodies of water, thereis an increase in evaporation. This resultsin much heavier quantities of waterbeing held in the atmosphere in the formof clouds. When it rains or snows, there-fore, the quantity of precipitation issubstantially higher than would havebeen the case if there was no warming ofthe earth’s surface.

In other words, if we go back to pre-industrial times, when the quantity ofcarbon dioxide in the atmosphere wasaround 280 parts per million (ppm) andnot in excess of 400 ppm as is the casetoday, temperatures would have beenlower. Consequently, the extent of evap-oration would also have been lower. Theblizzards which have currently hit theeastern parts of North America and partsof Europe have occurred on account of

extreme precipitation. The fact that this has come in the

form of snow, and with much lower tem-peratures can also be explained by the factthat warming is taking place across theglobe and this has a major impact on themovement of air from one region to theother. The current cold spell in NorthAmerica and Europe is the result of coldair moving from the Arctic region south-wards, which would normally not havehappened with the stability of air currentsin the Arctic region.

Of course, any single extreme weath-er event cannot be attributed to humaninduced climate change, because there areseveral other factors which can accountfor extreme weather conditions.However, the increase in atmosphericmoisture content would be expected tolead to an increase in extreme precipita-tion when other factors do not change.

The IPCC in the Special Reportreferred to the above concluded that since1950, it is very likely that there has beenan overall decrease in the number of colddays and nights, and an overall increasein the number of warm days and nightsat the global scale, that is, for land areaswith sufficient data. There is evidence ofthe likelihood of such changes havingoccurred at the continental scale inNorth America, Europe and Australia.

There is also a warming trend in dailytemperature extremes in much of Asia.Very reliable climate models, which arevalidated on the basis of past records of

climate, project substantial warming intemperature extremes by the end of the21st century. It is virtually certain thatincreases in the frequency and magnitudeof warm days and nights and decreases inthe cold days and nights will occurthrough the 21st century at the globalscale. This is mostly linked to meanchanges in temperatures, although changesin temperature variability can play animportant role in some regions. It is verylikely that the length, frequency, and/orintensity of warm spells or heat waves(defined with respect to present regionalclimate) will increase over most land areas.

For a set of plausible emission scenarios of the future a one-in-20 yearannual hottest day is l ikely to become a one-in-two year annualextreme by the end of the 21st centuryin most regions, except in the high lati-tudes of the Northern Hemisphere whereit is likely to become a one-in-five yearannual extreme.

There are major equity considera-tions in the current reality of climatechange and projections for the future.Typically, developing countries are themost vulnerable to these extreme impactsof climate change, but, unfortunately, theyalso lack the capacity and infrastructureto be able to withstand them.

In very simple terms, a cyclone inBangladesh causes much greater havocthan a hurricane with the same intensi-ty which hits the state of Florida. Thatpart of the US, which receives several

hurricanes, just as Bangladesh is subject-ed to a large number of cyclones, hasextremely reliable and timely early warn-ing systems, and it is not uncommon tosee large numbers of people just nailingboards of wood on their windows andescaping to safer areas away from Florida.Such a possibility does not exist inBangladesh, and the risk to life and prop-erty is, therefore, substantially higher.

Another aspect of human inducedclimate change and its impacts in theform of higher frequency and intensityof extreme events is the possibility of thesame location being subjected to two ormore dissimilar extreme occurrences.

The same place, therefore, couldsuffer from drought conditions duringsome period of a year and then heavy pre-cipitation during another period in thesame year. This would compound theproblem of steady water supply andstorage. California has just suffered froma tragic mudslide, which is the result ofextreme precipitation and recent loosen-ing of soil with trees having burnt downdue to prolonged forest fires, aided by dryweather and high temperatures.

It is sad that leaders across the worldremain so insensitive to the huge risksfrom climate change faced by the weak and the poor and their own chil-dren and grandchildren wherever theywould be on this planet.

(The writer is former chairman,Intergovernmental Panel on ClimateChange, 2002-15)

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Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “Good sense prevai ls”(January 11). By making itmandatory to play the nationalanthem in cinema halls beforethe screening of films, theSupreme Court had stirred a hor-net’s nest, with some peoplefavouring the ruling and someopposing it. People who wereopposed to the playing of nation-al anthem made an issue out ofnon-issue. They fought toothand nail to rescind the decisionof the apex court. Lack of con-sensus among the people even inmatters of national anthem israther intriguing. Finally, thetop court also toed the line of thepeople opposed to playingnational anthem in cinema halls.This is nothing but a triumph ofanti-nationals over nationals.

KV Seetharamaiah Hassan

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Sir — This refers to the report,“Rahul washes dirty linen inpublic on foreign ground”(January 10). Basking in thereflected glory of his ‘allied’ elec-toral success in Gujarat, Congresspresident Rahul Gandhi isemboldened to get back to theold Congress game — of blam-ing the BJP of communalism.This, from the member of aparty which has the dubiousdistinction of being the progen-itor of divisive vote-bank politics,of minority-appeasement andallying with communal elements.

Astonishingly, Rahul Gandhi

is of the view that his partyknows how to defeat the BJP,since the former has the experi-ence of defeating the British! Likethe Leftist falsehoods about RamMandir-Babri Masjid, maybe theCongress scion thinks that suchhalf-truths will go unnoticed.

In his book, ‘History of theFreedom Movement in India’ Vol3, renowned historian RCMajumdar quotes a conversationbetween PB Chakraborty (theacting Governor of West Bengalin 1956) and Clement Attlee(England’s Prime Minister whenIndia was free) who was visitingCalcutta in 1956, when he wasasked by Chakrabothy what madethe British leave in such a hurrywhen the Quit India movementhad died out long before 1947.

Chakrabothy said, “...Attleehad cited several reasons, themost important of which were theactivities of Netaji Subhas ChandraBose, which had weakened thevery foundations of the attachmentof the Indian land and Navalforces to the British Government.”Hence, let not Rahul Gandhi har-bour any illusion about his party’srole in ending the British rule,when the colonialists themselvesreveal the names of the personsbehind their hasty retreat.

Instead of Goebbelsian com-munal propaganda against theBJP, which is not only provingcounter-productive but alsowhich we are tired of, RahulGandhi should question the rul-ing party on jobs, agriculture,poverty and environment.

CV Krishna ManojHyderabad

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Page 9: ˙ ˆ ! ˙ ˆ-1 12-.3 ˝ -/ 4 ˜ˆ˙ ˝!˝#$##˝˙˝%#$˝&’˝()(˙*)+ shortly after the Pathankot attack in January 2016. Thereafter too there have been ... court and High Courts,

India’s Gross Domestic Product(GDP) is estimated to grow at6.5 per cent during the financial

year 2017-18 as per data released bythe Central Statistical Organisation(CSO). This growth is, perhaps, thelowest in the last four years.

As soon as the growth estimateswere released, leaders from theOpposition were quick to seize themoment: Congress President RahulGandhi accused the Government of“ignoring economic wisdom” anddealing a “catastrophic” blow toIndia’s growth.

Senior Congress leader PChidambaram remarked that theworst fears of an imminent eco-nomic slowdown have come true.Such reactions do not surprise as

leaders from the Opposition haveall along been critical of the UnionGovernment’s two major structur-al reforms: Demonetisation andthe roll out of the Goods andServices Tax (GST) last year.

While Opposition leaders arecautioning the Government aboutdark clouds hovering over India’seconomic space, the Government isseeing a silver lining in those darkclouds. Indeed, vice chairman of theGovernment’s think-tank, NITIAayog, Rajiv Kumar, was quick topoint out an upward movement inquarterly growth rates, indicating apickup in India’s economic activi-ty, which promises a robust growthin 2018-19.

Similarly, the agriculturalMinistry was quick to cite reasonswhy agricultural growth is expect-ed to be higher than what the CSOput in its estimates.

Both, demonetisation and theGST have been two major structur-al reforms of the ModiGovernment. It would be naïve toexpect these reforms to not lead to

any short-term economic costs interms of economic growth, jobcreation and credit uptake, even asthe reforms promise huge mediumto long-term gains.

If the effect of demonetisationis viewed narrowly, in terms of theextent to which it could flush outillicit currency from the system, itwill surely appear to be an utter fail-ure. But this is not a correct view.Demonetisation is expected to havefar reaching ramifications.

The fact that almost the entirequantum of banned currency notesmanaged to find its way back intothe banking system indicated thatpeople outsmarted theGovernment. This fact not only sur-prised the Government but alsosome experts. It became clear thatthe success of demonetisation lay inthe follow-up measures.

To this end, the Governmentdidn’t shy away from taking thosemeasures: It gave a strong push todigital transactions, used data ana-lytics to track large deposits inbanned currency notes, promoted

Aadhaar-linking of bank accountsand so forth.

It also saw a merit in the speedyroll out of the GST, which is aimedat simplifying the tax system andalso fixing one major avenue for thecreation of black money.

However, the roll out of a sin-gle tax system nationwide is boundto have some problems. What mat-ters the most is how speedily theissues being faced in GST imple-mentation are tackled. Frequentreviews and adaptations of the sys-tem by the GST council is a proofof how quickly the body has beenfine-tuning the system and will con-tinue tweaking it in near future too.

However, there is one lesserknown and little appreciated effectthat these twin structural reformshave unleashed. It has jolted thepeople out of their usual thoughtprocesses. In some ways, it haschanged the way people and busi-nessmen view their business, con-duct and practice the same.

What had once become widelyaccepted business practice in our

society — paying and acceptingbribe, transacting in black money,evading taxes and launderingmoney — the twin reforms haveforced the people to rethink on the way they conduct theirbusinesses.

As a result, the people arebeginning to realise that it is far bet-ter to do clean business, to earnwith dignity and respect, and to livewith confidence than to bribe one’sway and live in constant fear. Theyare beginning to realise that it is farbetter to play by the rules than tocut corners.

This psychological effect has thepotential to play out in terms ofboth robust and cleaner economicgrowth over medium to longerperiod. However, to realise thispotential, the Government willneed to constantly educate the people of the several advantagesof clean business, conduct andpractices.

Social media campaigns similarto what we’ve seen in other contexts,such as making India open defeca-

tion free or waging war againsttuberculosis need to be designed forpromoting business norms andpreferences for cleaner conduct.

Such messaging will also reas-sure the public of the Government’santi-corruption resolve, which assome fear, may get compromised inthe run-up to the next GeneralElection in 2019.

As for now, the lower-than-expected growth estimates of theCSO has put the Finance Ministryfolks in a tight spot. As they givefinal touches to the next UnionBudget, they have an arduous taskof balancing multiple objectives ofsustaining consumption, encourag-ing private investment, energisingagriculture, giving stimulus toexports and much more.

And all of this at a time whenthe fiscal situation of the country istight and political imperatives ofGeneral Election looms large.

(The writer is a developmenteconomist, formerly with the Bill &Melinda Gates Foundation and theWorld Bank)

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No re-plastering, thestructure is broken’, is aslogan from the May1968 revolt in Francethat echoes the senti-

ments of today’s Indian youth inmany ways. This is because present-ly India identifies more with intoler-ance and radicalism and less withinclusiveness and geniality. Thenation though seemingly a meltingpot of cultures is actually burdenedwith cultural differences and ideolog-ical clashes from within and these arepossibly just waiting to explode likein the France of 1968-69. Forty yearson, the social and political upheavalthat shook France is still fresh in peo-ple’s’ memory and not without a validreason. A non-threatening movementthat started with students seekingsexual freedom eventually tookeveryone in its fold and became aclassic example of the power that theyouth have always had.

Back in May ‘68, the above slo-gan reflected the disenchantment ofthe young as they openly went anti-establishment and put forth theirdemands that were neither outra-geous nor unjust. What they wereasking was probably the basic tenetof freedom: ‘Be what you want to beand let others do the same.’ Theyouth back then was simply reactingto the ‘daddy knows best’ attitudethat had always set the dos and don’tslist for the younger generation tillthen. With globalization attaining itsearly form in the 1970s, the May ‘68events in France also set the stage forirrevocable changes in societies andthe mind-sets of people. The 1968revolution of France was a trendset-ter in its own right. A stark reminderof the strength of the youth and howit could bring the whole nation to astandstill. The movement brought tothe fore the fact that it is impossibleto suppress the aspirations of theyoung generation for long. World over, they yearn for libertyand would retaliate if their freedomis at stake. The sentiment to be freeto make one’s choices is the sameirrespective of country, religion,caste or culture.

Boredom at times becomes apowerful catalyst for revolt. It was a‘no action-no fun’ sentiment amongyoung men and women that pavedway for the student agitation inFrance. What began as a simplerevolt 40 years ago in Franceengulfed the whole nation and shookthe very framework of society andpolitics. The coincidental occur-rence of the workers’ strike for high-er wages magnified the agitationmany fold and in the end, the Frenchgovernment had to accede to all thedemands. Had the two events notcoincided with each other, none of

them would probably have acquiredthe enormity that they attained atthat time. With a feeble educationsystem to rely on and little enthusi-asm in the job arena, the Indianyouth of today is also a bored andfatigued lot. Even the once strongsocietal threads of India are increas-ingly becoming fragile. The youngare constantly being judged on thebasis of their performance both aca-demically as well as professionally.Add to this the constant culturalhammering and moral policing andyou have a brigade of disgruntledand angry youth that is ready toexplode at the slightest provocation.

Today, India is fast becoming acountry where personal freedoms areperceived to be gravely compro-mised. The list of restrictions andbans is becoming incredibly long.When the Uttar PradeshGovernment constitutes an Anti-Romeo Squad to put a curb on so-called promiscuity among the youth,there is no pushback to stop this bla-tant breach of people’s fundamentalright to freedom. If only the systemhad paid more attention to otherproblems that plague the lives ofyoung people in modern times...even strolling in a park with friends,especially if of the opposite gender,is looked upon with suspicion now.That is the sad reality. Sunny Leonewas not allowed by the KarnatakaGovernment to perform at a new

year’s bash as the authorities feareda law and order problem in the Statein the wake of threats of agitation bysome radical groups. These fringeelements were, of course, “merely”trying to protect the “culture” of theState. According to them, watchingthe actor groove to raunchyBollywood numbers will corruptyoung minds. And moral policingdoes not stop at that. The SouthDelhi civic body recently proposeda ban on display of non-vegetarianfoods by restaurants and eateries asit hurts the sentiments of vegetari-ans. In a multicultural, liberal coun-try like India, these are outrageousmoves. Of course, if restrictions arethe norm today across political dis-pensations and seemingly with thesupport of those who elect them,how can condoms be left behind? Acountry set to become the most pop-ulous one in the world by 2022 is stillapparently embarrassed to watch acondom advertisement on TV from6 am till 10 pm. But the authoritiesare absolutely fine with Bollywoodheroes urging people to eat panmasala for instant success duringthese hours. Such a display ofhypocrisy is possible only in a cul-tured country like India.

India seems poised for a dicta-torship of the people with heft on theground in the near future, whereincitizens will probably have to livetheir lives according to a rule-book

devised by the not-so-friendly neigh-bourhood goon. The recent contro-versy surrounding the release ofBollywood flick Padmavati is prob-ably the last nail in the coffin. It can’tget more dictatorial than this wheneven creativity and freedom ofexpression are being curbed by self-proclaimed protectors of cultureprotesting about a film before it isreleased. Bigots of all descriptionshould remember that the nation’syoung are not just the backbone ofthe economy but also the torch-bear-ers of our culture. They look forwardto living free, with an open mind andin a progressive environment. Ifthey are denied free will for too long,they are capable of snatching it byforce like their brethren did inFrance 40 years ago.

Interestingly though, after theMay 1968 revolt in France, many ofthe student leaders went on tobecome journalists, politicians, writ-ers and eminent personalities in anumber of other fields. Will India’syouth of today similarly transforminto tomorrow’s responsible adults orwill they wither into oblivion due toa lack of purpose or direction? AsA.E. Stevenson, the American politi-cian, once said, “A free society is onewhere it is safe to be unpopular.”

Will India ever attain freedom inthe real sense? Time will tell.

(The writer is Associate Editor,The Pioneer)

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With a robust demandfor utility vehicles andconsistent strong per-

formance during the first threequarters of the current fiscal,passenger vehicle sales in Indiacrossed 3-million mark for thefirst time in 2017, showing afive-year high healthy growth of8.85 per cent.

The data released by theSociety of Indian AutomobileManufacturers (SIAM), onThursday, said that passengervehicle sales in 2017 stood at32,29,109 units as against29,66,603 units in 2016, agrowth of 8.85 per cent. Withsales remaining in the positiveterritory during the first threequarters of the current fiscal,SIAM has pegged the segmentto grow by 9 per cent against aprevious forecast of 7-9 percent in 2017-18.

Besides sales of passengervehicles, a record 1,91,76,905two-wheelers were sold last year,up 8.43 per cent from1,76,86,685 units sold in 2016.

“In 2017, for the first timemore than 3.2 million passengervehicles were sold in the domes-tic market. Last year also sawrecord sales of 19 million twowheelers,” SIAM DeputyDirector General Sugato Sentold reporters here.

In terms of growth rate, pas-senger vehicles' sales in 2017were the fastest since 2012 when

it rose by 9.77 per cent. SIAM,however, said vehicle sales acrosscategories, including CVs andtwo-wheelers, grew by 8.39 percent to 2,37,39,780 units in2017 as compared with2,19,01,703 units in 2016.

On the back of strong per-formance during the first threequarters of the current fiscal, Senhas said SIAM has zeroed in on9 per cent growth for the PV seg-ment. For the commercial vehi-cles, he added, “It has beenrevised upwards to 13 per cent

from an earlier estimate of 4-6per cent, while for two-wheelersit has been pegged at 12 per centagainst a previous forecast of 9-11 per cent.”

In 2017 year, although carremained the mainstay of thepassenger vehicles segmentgrowing by 5.13 per cent at21,68,151 units as against20,62,357 units in 2016, it wasthe growth of utility vehicles(UV) that stood out last year.UV sales stood at 8,70,060 unitsin 2017 as against 7,24,522 units

in 2016, up 20.09 per cent.In 2016-17 fiscal, sales of

passenger vehicles had grownby 9.23 per cent, CVs by 4.16per cent and two wheelers by6.89 per cent. Commenting onthe market environment, Sensaid the auto industry, exceptfor CVs, has now been nowbeen able to recover fromdemonetisation.

“While some memberswere having some issues withregards to the GST, SIAMexpects them to be settled by

March,” he added.In December, passenger

vehicle sales rose 5.22 per centto 2,39,712 units from 2,27,823units in December 2016.Domestic car sales, however,declined marginally to 1,58,326units as against 1,58,617 unitsin December 2016.

Market leader MarutiSuzuki India posted a growth of11.44 per cent at 1,18,560 units,while rival Hyundai MotorIndia was up marginally at40,158. Mahindra & Mahindrasaw sales drop by 6.99 per centat 15,531 units. Homegrownrival Tata Motors saw a growthof 33.94 per cent at 16,089 unitsin December 2017.

Total two-wheeler sales inDecember rose 41.45 per centto 12,87,592 units compared to910,276 units in the year-agomonth. Motorcycle sales lastmonth rose 40.31 per cent to7,88,156 units as against5,61,710 units a year earlier.Market leader Hero MotoCorpposted domestic sales of3,98,816 units as against2,79,448 units in the year-agomonth, up 42.71 per cent.

Rival Bajaj Auto saw its bikesales rise 5.87 per cent to1,12,930 units as against1,06,665 units in the samemonth last year. HondaMotorcycle and Scooter India(HMSI) saw its sales rise by 133per cent to 124425 units asagainst 53,400 units inDecember 2016.

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Benchmarks spurted tofresh life-time highs on

Thursday on optimism sur-rounding corporate earnings,with IT and realty countersleading the charge.

The BSE Sensex jumped70.42 points to end at34,503.49, while the broaderNSE Nif ty f inished at10,651.20, up 19 points.

Investors were optimisticthat blue-chip companies willpost encouraging third quar-ter results, brokers said.

The 30-share Sensex, aftera cautious start, gatheredmomentum and rallied to34,558.88, before ending at34,503.49, a rise of 70.42points, or 0.20 per cent. Itbroke its previous closinghigh of 34,443.19 hit onJanuary 9.

The 50-share Nifty, afterrange-bound morning trade,soared to touch an all-timehigh of 10,664.60 on a flurryof buying deals.

It finally settled 19 points,or 0.18 per cent higher at10,651.20, surpassing its pre-vious closing record of 10,637hit on January 9.

“Market continued to stayon the positive side on trac-tion in IT, realty and small-cap stocks but some volatili-ty was seen in banks.Investors are focusing onearnings growth in Q3 tosupport the premium valua-tion. Friday's CPI inflationdata is expected to rise, which

may influence investors toremain cautious,” said VinodNair, Head of Research, GeojitFinancial Services.

Domestic institutionalinvestors bought shares wortha net �600.24 crore onWednesday, while FPIs netsold shares worth �572.26crore, as per provisional data.

Infosys was the top per-former among the Sensexconstituents, rising 2.28 percent ahead of its Q3 earnings,while Bharti Airtel jumped1.66 per cent.

Other gainers were KotakBank, HDFC Ltd, AsianPaints, HUL, M&M, YesBank, Sun Pharma, TataMotors, SBI, HDFC Bank,Adani Ports, ITC Ltd, DrReddy's and ONGC, gainingup to 1.61 per cent.

However, shares of privatelender IndusInd Bank fell themost at 2.08 per cent despitethe bank posting a 24.72 percent increase in net profit to�936.25 crore for the quarterended December 31, 2017.

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The Government is looking at settingup a database of independent direc-

tors, who form the fulcrum of corporategovernance framework, Union MinisterPP Chaudhary said on Thursday.

He also emphasised that independentdirectors should exercise special care inissues of conflict of interests in relatedparty transactions as well as those relat-ed to managerial remuneration as they arethe watchdogs of companies.

The Minister of State for CorporateAffairs said, “In the best interest of thecompany, the issue of conflict of inter-est in related party transactions needs tobe looked at judiciously. Independentdirectors have to exercise special carewhile looking into such related partytransactions.”

He noted that caution must be exer-cised by independent directors while eval-uating issues related to remuneration ofthe management.

Chaudhary was speaking at the inau-gural function of the two-day orientationprogramme for newly-appointed inde-pendent directors of public sector banksand undertakings organised by the IndianInstitute of Corporate Affairs (IICA) atits campus in Manesar, Gurgaon.

He said that Section 150 of theCompanies Act mandates theGovernment to maintain a database ofindependent directors.

“Now, the government is seriouslyconsidering implementing the mandate

of Section 150 for maintaining the data-base and utilising the institute (IICA) forthis purpose,” he noted.

As it continues efforts to curb illic-it fund flows, the ministry has alreadyderegistered more than 2.26 lakh firmsfor being inactive for long apart fromdisqualifying over 3 lakh directors.

Many of these firms are into ille-gal activities, Chaudhary said, addingthat “if the independent directors withrespect to public companies are vigi-lant then such type of happenings willnot be there”.

There is an urgent need to carry outconcerted efforts for continually sup-porting and strengthening the institu-tion of independent directors in thecountry, he said.

IICA DG & CEO GyaneshawarKumar Singh said independent directorsare supposed to be the custodians of cor-porate governance.

NEW DELHI: The UniqueIdentification Authority of India(UIDAI) has granted a tempo-rary extension to India's largesttelecom operator, Bharti Airtel,to conduct Aadhaarbased re-verification ofits mobile subscribers,till March 31.

The Aadhaar-issu-ing body has, however,not lifted the ongoingsuspension on AirtelPayments Bank's eKYClicence, said sourcesprivy to the development.

The extension is “subject tocompliance of activation con-ditions laid down by theUIDAI”, said a source.

A further view would betaken on the matter onFebruary 10 after taking intoaccount the final report of theauditor, Department ofTelecom, and Reserve Bank ofIndia (RBI) as well as the com-pliance status report.

An Airtel spokesperson, inan email response, said: “We canconfirm that the UIDAI haspermitted Bharti Airtel to con-tinue Aadhaar based e-KYC tillMarch 31, 2018, subject to

compliance to guidelines laiddown by the authority.”

Both Airtel and AirtelPayments bank drew flak afterthe Sunil Mittal-led firm

allegedly opened pay-ments bank accountsof its mobile phonesubscribers withoutseeking their“informed consent”,and LPG subsidyworth crores wasdeposited into theseaccounts.

In a strong action onDecember 16, the governmentand the UIDAI temporarilybarred the company from con-ducting Aadhaar-based SIMverification of mobile customersusing eKYC process, and e-KYCof payments bank clients. OnDecember 21, it allowed Airtelto use Aadhaar for re-verifica-tion of its mobile customers tillJanuary 10 with stiff riders.

The reprieve was givenkeeping in mind the conve-nience of customers and alsothe impending March 31deadline given by theSupreme Court for mobileSIM re-verification. PTI

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The Income Tax Department(ITD) on Thursday said it

has attached more than 900benami properties includingflats, shops, jewellery and vehi-cles worth over �3,500 crore.

ITD said in a statement thatit has stepped up action underthe Prohibition of BenamiProperty Transactions Act,which came into force fromNovember 1, 2016.

The Act provides for pro-visional attachment and subse-quent confiscation of benamiproperties, whether movableor immovable.

It also allows for prosecu-tion of the beneficial owner, thebenamidar and the abettor tobenami transactions, whichmay result in rigorous impris-onment up to 7 years and a fineof up to 25 per cent of fair mar-ket value of the property.

The department had setup 24 dedicated BenamiProhibition Units (BPUs) underits Investigation Directoratesall over India in May, 2017 toensure swift action in respect ofBenami properties.

“Due to intensive effortsundertaken by the Department,provisional attachment has beenmade in more than 900 cases ofproperties under the Act. Theseinclude plots of land, flats,shops, jewellery, vehicles,deposits in bank accounts, fixeddeposits etc,” the statement said.

The value of propertiesunder attachment is morethan �3,500 crore includingimmovable properties ofmore than �2,900 crore, thedepartment said.

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Country's largest IT firm Tata ConsultancyServices (TCS) on Thursday said its net

profit fell 3.6 per cent to �6,531 crore in theDecember 2017 quarter.

The Mumbai-headquartered companyhad posted a net profit of �6,778 crore in theOctober-December quarter of the previous fis-cal, the company said in a BSE filing.

Its income from operations during thequarter under review stood at �30,904 crore,up 3.9 per cent from �29,735 crore in the year-ago period, as per Indian Accounting Standard(Ind-AS). The company has declared a divi-dend of �7 per share.

“We wrapped 2017 with a strong perfor-mance in the December quarter. As lagging partsof our portfolio turn around, and areas of soft-ness reduce, we are well placed for strongergrowth ahead,” TCS CEO and MD RajeshGopinathan said. He added that the companysigned its first over $50 million deal in 'Digital'this quarter.

New deal ramp-ups, increasing tractionin Digital, robust demand pick up in Retailand continuing momentum in most of TCS'industry verticals gave the company strongvolume growth in a seasonally weak quarter,TCS COO and Executive Director NGanapathy Subramaniam said.

TCS' digital revenue saw an increase of about40 per cent year-on-year and accounted for 22.1per cent of the company's revenues.

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The 10-member Law ReviewCommittee (LRC) has rec-

ommended against inclusion ofall services, barring restaurants,under the ambit of compositionscheme in the Goods andServices Tax (GST) regime.

A Government-appointedcommittee, comprising repre-sentatives from both the Centreand States, also suggested thatthe limit of services provided bya composition dealer should belimited to 10 per cent of the tax-able turnover or �5 lakh,whichever is higher.

The panel suggested a sep-arate composition rate notexceeding 18 per cent for ser-vices supplied by compositiondealer by way of job work,sources said. The recommen-dations by the Law ReviewCommittee is based on the sug-

gestions made by the advisorypanel, comprising representa-tives from trade and industry,which wanted compositionscheme to be extended to all ser-vice providers.

Over 15 lakh businessesopted for composition scheme,which allows them to pay taxesat a concessional rate andmakes compliance easy underthe GST which was rolled outfrom July 1. Under the scheme,

traders and manufacturers canpay taxes at a concessionalrate of 1 per cent while restau-rants pay 5 per cent GST.

The composition schemeis open for manufacturers,restaurant owners and traderswhose turnover does not exceed�1.5 crore. The Council in itsNovember meeting increasedthe threshold for the composi-tion scheme to �1.5 crore andalso decided to amend the GSTlaw to raise the statutory thresh-old to �2 crore.

The law review committee,which has 5 members eachfrom Centre and states, havesuggested that GST Council

should limit the compositionscheme threshold limit at �1.5crore for the time being.

According to sources, thecommittee is not in favour ofraising the threshold further to�2 crore immediately. The lawreview committee also sug-gested that the compositionscheme should not be extend-ed to businesses which areengaged in inter-state supply ofgoods and services.

The recommendations ofthe law review committee is like-ly to be taken up for considera-tion by the GST Council, com-prising Centre and states, in itsnext meeting on January 18.

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The Department of Telecom(DoT) will seek to move

quickly and take a view on mostof sector regulator Trai’s rec-ommendations pending with it,including on net neutrality andinternet telephony, by March31, a senior Government offi-cial said on Thursday.

Some of the major recom-mendations of the TelecomRegulatory Authority of India(Trai) which are with the DoTinclude proposed measures onease of doing business, keepinginternet open and free (net neu-trality), creation of telecomombudsman for complaintredressal, and internet telephony.

Speaking at a BroadbandIndia Forum event, DoT SpecialSecretary N Sivasailam said:“The Government is keen andthe Telecom Minister andSecretary have also put a time-line on consideration of Trai rec-

ommendation issued up toDecember 31, 2017 and wehope to address most or all ofthem by March.”

Trai proposals would beprocessed and placed before‘competent authorities for con-sideration’ within the stipulatedtimeline, he asserted. Moreover,Trai is also expected to give its

inputs for the new telecom pol-icy by the end of this month.The telecom department iscrafting the new policy in con-sultation with stakeholders andexpecting to finalise it by March.

“We are examining all therepresentations. Trai itself hasmade a presentation on whatthey consider to be their first list,and they have also asked us towait till the end of the month fortheir formal consultation paper(on NTP) to conclude,”Sivasailam said.

Broadband India Forumon Thursday also released areport highlighting the chal-lenges faced by the mobilehandset manufacturing sector.The report highlighted three sig-nificant issues impacting India'sindigenous mobile telephonyand telecom equipment sectorgrowth. It noted that mobiletelephony growth in the coun-try is largely being driven anddependent upon imports.

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Commerce and IndustryMinister Suresh Prabhu on

Thursday made a case for increas-ing investments in research anddevelopment activities in the areaof energy storage. Addressing theEnergy Storage India 2018 meet,organised by India Energy StorageAlliance (IESA),the minister saidit is a criticalcomponent inglobal energystrategy.

“We shouldbe the leaders,we should invest in R&D,” IESAsaid in a statement, quoting Prabhu.The storage process involves cap-turing of energy produced for usingit later through an accumulator orbattery. It converts energy into con-veniently storable forms. About1,000 industry experts, 100 speak-ers, 50 exhibitors and partners areparticipating from over 25 coun-tries in the event, IESA said.

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The Securities AppellateTribunal (SAT) on

Thursday quashed insuranceregulator Irdai’s direction ask-ing ICICI Prudential to takeover the life insurance busi-ness of the embattled SaharaGroup and asked it to pass afresh order after hearing thecompany.

But the tribunal upheldthe insurance watchdog(Insurance RegulatoryDevelopment Authority) deci-sion to appoint an administra-tor to run Sahara Life in theinterim. Irdai on July 28, 2017had ordered the transfer of thelife insurance portfolio ofSahara India Life to ICICIPrudential Life with a view toprotect the interests of policy-holders of the embattled lifeinsurer.

The tribunal quashed thisorder and asked Irdai to hearthe matter afresh as it observedthat the regulator did not pro-vide a copy of the report of theadministrator which recom-mended sale/transfer of SaharaLife's assets to another player.Accordingly, the tribunal hasasked Irdai to complete theprocess and pass an order with-

in three months of the receiptof the company's reply to theadministrator's report.

“The report and its out-come have potentially andadversely affected Sahara Life.Irdai should have supplied acopy of the report to the appel-lant before passing the July 28,2017 order transferring its busi-nesses to ICICI Prudential Life,so as to enable it to make a rep-resentation on the report,” SATsaid in a 43-page order.

“This Irdai action is clear-ly in breach of the principles ofnatural justice...The impugnedJuly 28 order therefore, deservesto be quashed,” the SAT said onThursday.

The tribunal accordinglyasked Irdai to issue a freshdirection on the matter afterhearing the appellant in con-

sonance with the principles ofnatural justice. However, the tri-bunal upheld Irdai orderappointing an administratorto manage the affairs of SaharaLife. Irdai counsel SomasekharSundaresan said the regulatorwill study the order and takethe next course of action as thisa question of a policy stance.

“A view will be taken onlarger policy issues, as forIrdai this is not just a situationin one case but a stance thatwill have implications in allfuture cases,” he added.

Terming the SAT order asa ‘major respite’ for the com-pany, Sahara Life said, “we hadalways contended that the Irdaiaction was illegal had hadmalafide intention as it wasdone without affording anyopportunity of hearing us.”

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Oil Minister DharmendraPradhan on Thursday vir-

tually ruled out giving statutorypowers to upstream oil and gasregulator DGH, saying the sec-tor has not fully developed andneeds government support.

There are two regulatorybodies in the oil and gas sector- the Petroleum and NaturalGas Regulatory Board, which isa regulator for the downstreamactivities like laying of pipelinesand fuel marketing but withoutpowers to review pricing.

The Directorate General ofHydrocarbons (DGH) is a tech-nical arm of the oil ministrywhich overseas upstream oiland gas exploration and pro-duction activities. Various com-mittees have suggested creationof an independent, statutoryregulator for the upstream oilsector.

At a seminar organised byFICCI, McKinsey in a presenta-tion reiterated the demand, call-ing for DGH to be made a statu-tory body like market regulatorSebi. Responding to this,Pradhan said the sector has notdeveloped fully and still looks atthe government for reforms.“Does a sector which has notdeveloped fully, a sector which

expects Government to doreforms, should be talk of that,”he said. He said it was not rightto put ‘jargons’ like statutory reg-ulator for the sector.

In 2013, a committee, head-ed by former finance secretaryVijay Kelkar, had recommendedhiving off the DGH's financialoversight function and vesting itwith the income tax authorities.It recommended that the min-istry and the DGH shouldrestrict themselves to the tech-nical oversight of contractors.

The DGH currently man-ages petroleum resources besidesmonitoring production sharingcontracts (PSCs), and assists theGovernment in auctioning oiland gas exploration fields.

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MUMBAI: Private sectorlender Indusind Bank onThursday reported a 25 percent growth in Decemberquarter net profit at �936.25crore boosted by higher coreincome. The city-based lender,promoted by the HindujaGroup, saw a 20 per cent risein the key net interest incomeat �1,894.81 crore ona 25 percent growth in advances, whileits deposits grew 23 per cent.

Fee income grew 22 per centto �1,076.51 crore, while thespike in yields over the past fewmonths resulted in a 17 per centdecline in the treasury incomeat �110 crore. Managing direc-tor and chief executive RameshSobti said the bank saw a surgein demand for term-loans,which is indicative of a turn-around in the corporate sector.

He said while working cap-ital demand continues to dom-inate corporate loan growth,there are brownfield expansionshappening for which funds arebeing sought. “There is realgrowth. We can sense it and wefeel demand is reviving,” hesaid, pointing out to a doublingof credit growth for the indus-try at over 10 per cent as beingevident of this trend. PTI

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NEW DELHI: Scores of listedcompanies will soon have toscout for new auditors with mar-kets regulator Sebi banning firmsin the Price Waterhouse networkfrom issuing audit certificatesfor two years in the multi-croreSatyam case. A major player in theauditing space, Price Waterhousehas a total of 11 network firmsand employs around 3,000 peo-ple in India.

In a significant order onWednesday, Sebi barred PriceWaterhouse network firms fromissuing audit certificates to anylisted company in India for twoyears after finding the audit majorguilty in the multi-crore Satyamscam that came to light in January2009.

Besides, the watchdog hasdirected the audit major and itstwo erstwhile partners whoworked on the IT firm's accountsto disgorge wrongful gains worthover �13 crore. Currently, PWnetwork firms carry out auditingactivities for about 75 listed com-panies, an official in the knowsaid. These companies wouldsoon be required to look for newauditors in the wake of the Sebiorder even though the regulatorhas made it clear that the ruling

would not impact audit assign-ments relating to the financial year2017-18 undertaken by the PWnetwork firms.

While there would be nodirect impact, Sebi’s ruling couldalso raise questions about PW net-work entities’ auditing of unlistedand other entities. A senior char-tered accountant said impact ofthe Sebi ruling on auditing busi-ness of PW network firms andothers cannot be assessed imme-diately.

It needs to be seen whether itwould benefit the smaller firms ornot, he added. Sebi has imposeda two-year ban on entities/ firmspracticing as chartered accoun-tants in India under the brand andbanner of PW from directly orindirectly issuing any certificate ofaudit of listed companies, com-pliance of obligations of listedcompanies and intermediariesregistered with the regulator.

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President Donald Trump,who continues to be under

unremitting attacks fromDemocrats over his “cosy” rela-tionship with Russian coun-terpart Vladimir Putin, hasdefended his efforts to improveties with Moscow.

“Working with countries,whether it’s Russia or China orIndia, or any of the countriesthat surround this world andencompass this world, is a verygood thing. That’s not a badthing,” Trump said at a jointWhite House news conferencewith visiting Norwegian PrimeMinister Erna Solberg.

Given that the UnitedStates regards India as a closefriend and partner, but viewsboth Russia and China asadversaries, it was not imme-diately clear why PresidentTrump mentioned all threecountries in the same vein,except perhaps for the factthat all three are large nationsand

Washington should beworking with each of them.

Trump’s broad defence ofhis approach towards Russia, incontrast to that of his prede-cessor Barack Obama, came ona day when Democrats onCapitol Hill kept up their pres-sure on him over what they seeas soft-pedalling of the allegedRussian meddling in the USpresidential election.

Senate Democrats alsoreleased on Wednesday anextensive report, alleging thatthe Russian interference in the2016 White House race fit intoa two-decade pattern of med-dling with governmentsarounds the world, and criti-cizing Trump for what theyregard as his kid-glove treat-ment of Moscow.

“Never before in Americanhistory has so clear a threat tonational security been so clear-ly ignored by a US president,”the Democrats’ report charged.Senior Democratic SenatorBen Cardin attacked Trump forhaving “barely acknowledgedthe threat posed by Putin’srepeated attacks on democra-

tic governments and institu-tions”.

Trump, while replying toquestions at his news confer-ence, appeared to discount thepossibility of being interviewedby Special Counsel RobertMueller in the ongoing probeto determine if there was any“collusion” between the Trumpcampaign and Russia in therun-up to the presidential elec-tion.

Trump, who has repeated-ly and vehemently denied anycollusion of the sort, said:“Certainly I’ll see what hap-pens. But when they have nocollusion, and nobody’s foundany collusion at any level, itseems unlikely that you’d evenhave an interview.”

“It’s a Democrat hoax thatwas brought up as an excuse forlosing an election,” Trumpcommented, adding: “I’ll speakto attorneys. I can only say this:There was absolutely no collu-sion. Everybody knows it.”

Dealing with another sub-ject – a Bill to protect some8,00,000 young illegal immi-grants from deportation –Trump appeared to modify hisearlier statement that he wouldsign a “clean DACA (DeferredAction on Childhood Arrivals)Bill” if it were to emerge fromCongress.

Trump, who has been facedwith criticism from theRepublican base over softeninghis stance, told a questionerthat the Bill must include bor-der security features, includingfunding for his pet project tobuild a wall along the Mexicanborder.

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The increase in work of theInternational Court of

Justice shows that various coun-tries are reposing much greaterconfidence in the world court'sfunctioning, Indian ICJ JusticeDalveer Bhandari has said.

A reception in honour ofJudge Bhandari — who was re-elected as ICJ judge recently fora fresh term from 2018-2026 —was hosted by Venu Rajamony,India's Ambassador to theNetherlands yesterday at theiconic Peace Palace here,according to an official state-ment issued today.

Bhandari was re-elected inNovember to the InternationalCourt of Justice with more thantwo-thirds of the UN membersbacking him, forcing Britain towithdraw its candidate, in thehard-fought race to the worldcourt.

During his address at theevent, Judge Bhandari con-veyed gratitude for the whole-hearted support received in theelection and emphasised on theneed for greater mutual coop-eration and goodwill withincreased global interdepen-dence.

He said the work of thecourt is increasing day by daywhich shows that memberstates are now reposing muchgreater confidence and faith inthe functioning of the courtthan ever before, the statementby the Indian Embassy said.

Bhandari urged all coun-tries to make serious efforts inensuring that peace is not dis-turbed in any part of the worldand appealed to UN membernations to accelerate its effortsin ensuring peace and amityworldwide.

Rajamony on behalf of thegovernment of India thankedeverybody for the overwhelm-ing support extended to thecandidature of Bhandari.

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Brussels: European Unionpowers on Thursday urged USPresident Donald Trump toendorse a key nuclear agree-ment with Iran insisting thatthe deal is essential for inter-national security.

The foreign ministers ofBritain, France and Germanythrew their weight behind thepact limiting Iran's nuclearambitions and insisted that theIslamic Republic is respecting it.

“There is no indicationtoday that could call into doubtIranian respect of the agree-ment,” French Foreign MinisterJean-Yves Le Drian toldreporters in Brussels, after ameeting between the Europeansand their Iranian counterpartJavad Zarif. Le Drian called onall parties to uphold the agree-ment, noting that “our

American allies should respectit as well. There is no particu-lar reason for any rupture.”

Under the accord, Iranslowed its nuclear program inexchange for an easing of inter-national economic sanctions.Trump is expected to decide byFriday whether to extend thesanctions relief or re-imposethe restrictions his predecessor,President Barack Obama, sus-pended two years ago.

British Foreign SecretaryBoris Johnson also noted thatno one has put forward a planthat might be as effective incurbing Iran's nuclear ambi-tions.

“It's incumbent on thosewho oppose the (deal) really tocome up with that better solu-tion, because we haven't seen itso far,” he said. AP

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Anew Bill, introduced byRepublican lawmakers in

the US House ofRepresentatives as part of thelegislative fix to protect about8,00,000 young illegal immi-grants from deportation, alsoproposes a substantial increasein allotment of Green Cards forlegal immigrants waiting foryears for permanent residency.

The Bill, if passed, willhelp reduce to some extent thelong wait of Indians who arefaced with the maximum back-log under the per-countrynorm.

The Bill follows a call fromPresident Donald Trump toincorporate in the DACA Billcertain other immigrationissues, including boosting bor-der security and putting an endto visa lotteries and “chainmigration”.

Called “Securing America’sFuture Act”, the legislation pro-poses increasing the overallnumber of green cards from120,000 to 175,000 per annum.

However, given that someestimates put the number ofIndians waiting for green cards

at over 5,00,000, only a removalof the country-wise quota sys-tem may be of help to Indianapplicants, a good chunk ofwhom have been waiting forover 10 years.

Overall, the Bill seeks toreduce America’s immigrationlevel from the current averageof 1.05 million to 260,000 ayear.

While the Bill in its presentform can possibly clear theHouse of Representatives, giventhe Republican majority, itcannot pass muster in the USSenate, where it will needDemocratic support to clear the60-vote threshold. Republicanshave just a bare majority of 51in the 100- member Senate.

House Homeland SecurityCommittee chairman MichaelMcCaul asserted that the Bill“offers common-sense solu-tions that will finally secure ourborders, better support ourfrontline defenders, strengtheninterior enforcement, and gettough on those who break ourimmigration laws”.

“With this president at thehelm, we have the opportuni-ty to provide the security andrule of law our founding fathersintended,” McCaul said.

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Celebrated filmmaker Anurag Kashyap, whocounts himself as a social commentator and

attempts to capture the complex reality of theIndian society in his films, says he wantsthought-provoking films to help the audiencestart a conversation on issues.

His forthcoming sports film Mukkabaazdeals with the struggle of a boxer and withsocial issues like caste system, youthpolitics and the power play ofpeople.

Known for his socio-politi-cal dramas like Black Friday,Ugly and Gangs Of Wasseypur,what made him make a filmon boxing?

“I intend to start a dia-logue through my films. I ama social commentator as afilmmaker and (believe in)capturing the complexity ofthe society as it is. The ideais that after watching thefilm Mukkabaaz, if peoplestart talking about the affect-ed area of a sportsman’s lifeand who is responsible forthat, I will be happy,” saidKashyap.

“The fact is, in our coun-try, people join sports to get agovernment job and once theyget that, they do not want to do thatand rather want to play the sport. As a result, neither do they becomea good officer, nor a sportsman.Ultimately, the result shows on our achievement of medals in international tournaments,” heexplained.

Kashyap, who is keen on explor-ing the old storytelling traditionthat infuses music and poetry,believes in adding entertainmentvalue to any serious topic.

“This is the first time that I havethought about the story as in ‘Howwould Rajkumar Hirani do it’because as a filmmaker, he under-stands the pulse of a common manvery well. He took on the educa-tion system in 3 Idiots, religionin PK and a subject likeMahatma Gandhi in Munna

Bhai.“Raju proved the fact that if you can add

a value of entertainment, you can reach outto the largest audience with the most seri-ous subject of the country. I think I have triedeverything in this one — whether addinghumour, use of music and poetry... I have

tried them all,” added Kashyap.He believes in the existing fine linebetween a lyricist and a poet,

and so, has used poetry pennedby Hussain Haidr y forMukkabaaz.

Being vocal on issues pertaining to the entertain-ment business, the film-maker said that he prefersto stay as an independentindividual. However, hehopes better times prevail

for the industry.“I think the larger issue

in the business of cinema isdifferent. Things like censor-

ship, forced rule of the intervalby exhibitors, difficult distribu-tion of a film in different states

are some of them. I think we areliving in a country where people wanteverything free, without responsibili-ty. And they are certainly not ready topay for entertainment.”

Kashyap said, “My film is a sportsdrama inspired by a real-life story andis not based on caste. There is no movie

in Bollywood where the cast of the pro-tagonist is not mentioned. I am not try-ing to do anything that has not been donebefore and doesn’t want the film to hog thelimelight for wrong reasons such as casteissue.

“Cinema’s work is not to give a socialmessage or bring a change. Peoplesearch for moral points in it, there have been numerous films brimmedwith messages. Has anybody learnt to love through films? The audience watch-es the film, praises it and forgets the mes-

sage as soon as they leave the theatre. Ibelieve that the film that impacts us the

most is the one which shakes the core andleaves an indelible impression on ourmind.”

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The Audi Q5, the first generation Q5 was almost like the per-fect Sports Utility Vehicle, the perfect porridge for Goldilocks.

It was neither too big or too small, with standard trim it had allthe modern conveniences and even the standard two-litre dieselit was sold with had the right amount of power for the city andenough for the highway. There was a sporty version internation-ally, the SQ5 but even that wasn’t an ‘off the charts’ sort of car.So how do you improve the perfect bowl of porridge? It was sucha good bowl of porridge that Audi sold 1.6 million Q5’s in thefirst generation and in 2014, one in every three Audi’s that fea-tured the Quattro all-wheel drive system were Q5’s.

Well, the second generation Q5 is longer, wider and tallerthan the outgoing model, although when you look at it, you willnot be able to tell. The new car shares the design language wefirst noticed on the second-generation Q7, so it actually lookssleeker, almost like an Estate. Inside the car, these changes makeit seem larger and at the back, it is certainly more comfortable.The infotainment screen is now raised, to be in line-of-sight, buton the face of it, the overall layout of the Q5 is more or less thesame. That said, it now has Audi’s ‘Command Centre’ display onthe instrument panel. So everything feels updated rather thanbeing massively different, and that is a good thing as Audi’s over-all driver and cabin ergonomics are very good. The Q5, at leastin launch specification in india will come with a touch panel,something which is a slightly pointless idea in right-hand drivemarkets because you need to operate these panels with yourleft hand, and unless you’re a southpaw or train yourself tobecome ambidextrous, they’re a bit pointless, as they are onmodern Mercedes’ cars as well. Especially if you have voice-activated controls.

Anyhow, despite being slightly larger, the second-generationQ5 is 65 kilograms lighter. The engine, while being the same two-litre diesel is now tuned to deliver 190 horsepower and thanksto a combination of lower weight and better overall stance, Audiclaims that this car is far more economical. And the work Audihave put in making this car feel a lot more driver friendly shows,in Dynamic drive mode, the car feels almost fun to drive, noth-ing excessive, but it can put a smile on your face. The hills sur-rounding Pushkar were a great place to drive this car, it was-n’t a sporty sedan by any stretch of imagination but it keepsyou engaged.

Honestly, the best compliment you can pay the Q5 is thatif it was porridge in the Goldilocks fairy tale, it is better thanbefore. With honey and nuts, the perfect porridge is better now.Better in terms of space, economy and power. But the prob-lem the Q5 will face now is that the segment is a lot morecrowded with new competitors, there is the new Volvo XC60and new BMW X3. But the Audi Q5 has great brand heritageon its side and the second-generation car ticks all the boxesand is sure to be a best-seller.

There is a point in life whereyou decide what you want to

do. Do you want to make yourown path or will you give up,conform and follow the lifethat was made for you by oth-ers. Life is too precious for thedesires of others to influenceyou. For the author, KalliaPapadaki, nothing else makesher feel the way writing does.Said she, “there is somethingineffaceable and deep rootedabout art. There are no criteriaor norms to follow.”

Kallia Papadaki, arenowned author from Greecewas in India representing theEuropean Union at the WorldBook Fair. “It is a great oppor-tunity to reveal our work toanother nation, speak aboutthe ways of writing and the storyand struggles behind our nov-els. The inquisitive and interac-tive readers were respondingwell and the feedback they gavemattered the most,” said she.

Born in Didymoteicho, shehas written short story collec-tion, The Back-Lot Sound and acollection of poems, Lavender inDecember. Her third book,Dendrites has won the Young

Author’s Award and EuropeanUnion Prize for literature. It isa story about the quest for ameaningful life amidst the ruinsof lost second chances, failedmarriages, and broken careers.The emphasis is on how bigdreams, small gestures, andunspoken words can createminute cracks that bring downwalls, buildings and lives.

The life stories of strangershave stimulated an immensepassion for writing in the author.The ability to understand anddwell into the depths of theirsouls gives a unique essence tothe narration. The stories youhear and make up are based onwho you are as a person, yourexperiences and the way youview and perceive the world. Awriter breathes life into a char-acter the way we do with our-selves and our future. “Everyindividual has several versions ofwho they want to be, who theymight have been in the past andwhat they think about others.Also, every story has a dynamicperspective which makes thereader ponder about their aware-ness of the reality. It is theminute details and intricacies

that are great material to build upa story”, she said.

The idea to write profession-ally was a gradual decision. Shewas inspired by American writ-ers like John Updike and ELDoctorow. “In my graduateschool, I read books by Indianauthors like Jhumpa Lahiri,Anuradha Roy and SalmanRushdie. The Indian novelistshave a great tradition when itcomes to literature. They createa world with various cultures,history and rituals and evoke asense of belongingness withvivid imaginative portrayal.

“Men of certain age like toread non-fiction but there is awider audience for fiction. Withthe constant crisis in Greece,there is a lot of literature aboutthe aftermath effects and theways to deal with the crisis,” saidPapadaki, a person of routine,who likes to write in her office.When she isn’t writing, she usu-ally takes long walks to think andlet her mind wonder. There areno shortcuts to become anauthor. “Reading is the first andforemost requirement. Read asmuch as you can and maybe youwill become a writer.”

Ballet has come of age with thedanseur not being restricted tothe background or seen as a

mere accessory, who comes into foreto lift the Ballerina. ContemporaryBallet allows him to be at the samelevel with the girl by providing themale dancer with a crucial role.Muriel Zusperreguy, PremiereDanseuse, Opera de Paris said,“Contemporary ballet has revolu-tionised the way we view it as themale ballet dancers are given equalimportance — treatment and movesas ballerinas encouraging moredanseurs who are passionate for thiscraft to consider it as a fine careeroption.”

Paris Ballet Legend artfully pre-sented eight performances based onhistoire d’amour, all duets, to paytribute to the city of love, and thewriters and artists who consideredit as their muse. Frederic Fontan,artistic director exclaimed, “I amexcited to bring classical and con-temporary ballet from my homelandto India. I tried to create a showwhich depicts evolution of ballettechnique, coupled with Paris —each piece is linked to it be it thecomposers, choreographers or thesaga — from Marius Petipa to ÉdithPiaf, Georges Bizet to JacquesPrévert. We picked diverse love sto-ries encapsulating various moods oflove from dramatic to sensual totragic and funny.” The alluring per-formance was staged at Siri Fortaudience and was organised byBonjour India.

Children Of Paradise, adaptedfrom the film directed by MarcelCarné and Singer Edith Piaf ’s Non,Je Ne Regrette Rien were some of theinfluences for the pieces of narrativeballet. Added he, “We have tried tocreate ambiance of the Opéra deParis, used classical scores in thepieces, but for our Indian audiencewe have brought certain fantasy talesfrom European point of view whichcan seamlessly blend with their cul-

ture, sensibilities, vibrancy and cos-tumes.

One of the danse duo was per-formed by Muriel Zusperreguy andBenjamin Pech and is based onPetipa’s La Bayadere (The TempleDancer), is set in India and is thestory of the temple dancer Nikiyaand a prince named Solor. She is abeautiful lady with a pure soul butbelong to the lower class of the soci-ety. The prince is supposed to getmarried to another girl whom he isnot in love with. Her father, king ofGolconda releases snake in thepremises where Nikiya was dancingduring the court ceremony. She getsbitten by the snake and dies. Thprince, unaware of the treacherousscheme, goes in search of her, onlyto realise that she is already gone.

Zusperreguy asserted, “Balletallows me to be free, use my bodyto express myself in a way no otherform allows. On stage, I forgetmyself and become the character Iam playing. It’s a kind of undressing.Not many men opt for this profes-sion so I take pride in being one.”There are three duets, inspired byclassic tales. There are three pedidoin ballet — seduction, resistance andabandon.

Dance has always been a part ofZusperreguy’s life and his associationwith ballet is three decades old. “Iwas introduced to this dance formwhen I was 11-year-old, beforewhich I was inclined towards jazzdance.”

The 43-year-old emphasisedthat it’s a difficult profession to be in,not everyone is gifted, its also phys-ically draining at times, the very rea-son young girls and boys enroll inballet classes every year but only atiny proportion of them make it asprofessionals. “I have met some real-ly talented dancers but they could-n’t keep up with this profession dueto weak body or serious injuries dueto which their journey came to a halt.It all depends on the kind of profes-

sional training one has been underand their bodily as well as mentalresistance.” Fontan added that thereare some competent dancers butthey remain as part of the ensembleas they are not motivated enough togrow and become principal dancers.

Zusperreguy also talked aboutperils of being a mature danseur andsaid that this is the pity of this worldthat when one reaches a certain agethey can understand things theywish they could know in their 20’s.As at that age they are preoccupiedby techniques or the physical aspectof it. “I feel that maturity made mebeautiful as a dancer as I carry yearsof experience in my performances.The cons are that I am not as strongor agile as before.”

On traditional ballet’s evolve-ment with time, he noted, “The cred-it to reform the artform should begiven to the dancers who make itappealing to the present-day audi-ence. They take mimic and pan-tomime out of it that we used to doin earlier times. It’s developing grad-ually, I believe that we have to keepthe traditional school alive butshould also modernise it with pas-sage of time. Now, the onus lies onme to bring contemporarity to myperformance.”

Benjamin Pech, Etoile, Opera deParis said, “I am here to offer some-thing different to the Indian audi-ence which they are not used to. I amexcited to see how they will react toit, hoping that it will be positive asit will be our debut act here followedby a performance in Mumbai. Suchopportunity is a rare occurrence sowe want to do our best.”

Said Etoile: “The challenge to dosomething different, get into theshoes of various characters andoffer something fresh to the audienceeach time I go on stage keeps memotivated to continue being a bal-lerina.” She was attracted to balletdue to the beautiful costume, tutu ata young age.

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The food and drinks last yearwere magical with rainbowcoloured food shots, and edi-

ble glitter dusted food, induced witheasy to hold burgers, munchingpopcorns or crunchy nachos andinky desserts to detoxifying drinksand breads. Yet cleansing and lowin cholesterol.

It’s the season’s moods thatkicks one to have amazing food —with fizzy drinks and easy rolls, theyear lensed out a dramatic shift inthe chef ’s mindset that startedtowards an infusion of indigenousingredients. The growing food con-sciousness in 2017 is evolving withan approach on food and palatesthis year. A focus shift on thechef ’s dishing around with moregreens.

This year, we will be concen-trating on culinary storytelling asmore restaurants are reviving theold world culture of organic food inorder to procure pure ingredientsand eat pure. In terms of food, con-venience food continue to trend fol-lowed by workouts along withvegan food options. The promotionon values of eating smart based onfood tricks will triumph as wemove further into the year.

Looks like switching to health-ier options is the New Year resolu-tion for many. The indulgence ofeating and dining out for celebra-tions will see a rise along with anaddition of smaller quantities offoods and specialised micro-greensalads. A strong shift on a healthi-er menu will be more trending withvegan, gluten free, organic otherthan usual carb-loaded menus.Especially, in a country, where dia-betes is rampant; the chefs arelooking out to have a completemake-over of the menu.

Food trends like — zerowastage, abundant use of seaweed,healthy smoothies and vegan icecreams have been the talk of the

town for long but with the veganheadcounts increasing, they arenow gaining more visibility onyour dinner tables.

The culinary experiments of theWest have now slowly started tohave an impact on the local com-munity, making vegetables moreinteresting. But this will be chal-lenged by the traditional Indiancuisines. The menus will see anoverload of High teas, cuisinesfrom Japan and Spain, along with a

massive presence of wine.A return to the roots is wit-

nessing an upsurge as it is all aboutauthentic native cuisines. Due atten-tion is being given to the native foodculture, and the inclusion ofMeghalayan cuisine should nottake you by surprise when you lookat the à la carte.

With the youth looking formore experimental cuisines, MiddleEastern appetisers such as hummusand shawarma with distinct palate

tastes are creating a buzz. Steadyinnovations like spicy lamb, seafood,masala chicken pizzas are adding onto spiced yet complex dish menus.This year will be about specialisedcuisines such as Japanese,Cantonese, Syrian, Moroccan,Persian, Israeli and Lebanese in themenu pages.

Also, an alternative vegan foodis majorly preferred in a country likeours. Hence, people will surelyenjoy as new vegan inventions will

prevail — from plant based Sushi tofoods rich in tomatoes and manymore strategically planned fooddominated with greens. Mushroomsare going to top them all in yourpalates along with Panatone shadefood that are red cabbage, redonions, eggplant, purple sweetcorns, purple sweet potatoes, plums,purple cauliflower, acai and figs, asthese are associated with loweringblood pressure, anti-cancer andanti-viral properties. Also they are

high in antioxidants with highnutrient density.

Treating breakfast as a big meal,waffles, pancakes, healthy salads,cheesy pastas, juices, detox waterand mouthwatering smoothies arebecoming a must. With a change inthe consumer attitude, the restau-rants are reframing the breakfastmenus to bring out more picky chefspreparations. From waffle sticks tosandwiches and more variations willbe managed to hitch the tantalisingappetite.

Beverage trends are lookingtowards fruity and fizzy with a greatdeal of mixology. From turmericshots to cold pressed juices, sparklingcoffee and more water based drinkswill have artistic tonics to be served.The growing beer cafes and brew-eries influenced by west will be moreinfluential. The homemade syrupsand shrubs will be a big surprise inthis year.

Apart from the subject of food,drinks are also an inevitable part ofa complete food. Marked to behappy high, the drink trends arepopularising in the restaurant withwines from old world and newworld along with unheard classiccocktails.

Lengthways with healthy food,savoury desserts will be incorpo-rated to your dessert offering thisyear. With new inventions, a lookout of bread in ice cream and cau-liflower in chocolate mousse are get-ting ready to complete your mealsas sweet is necessary after everycount of meal.

2018 is full of food treats andsurprises you can look forward to.It’s time to welcome the new foodcharts along with breathtaking bev-erages.

(The author is the executivechef, PVR The Luxury Collection)

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India couldn't have hoped for a worst start toa long South African sojourn but pacer JaspritBumrah on Thursday asserted that if one

debacle dents the team's confidence then it "doesnot deserve" to play Test cricket.

South Africa outplayed India by 72 runsinside four days in the opening Test in CapeTown to claim a 1-0 lead in the three-matchseries. The second Test is scheduled to start hereon Saturday.

"Confidence is not dented after one match.If it happens, then you don't deserve to play.Learn from the mistake you made and go for-ward. There is not a single cricketer who has notmade a mistake," asserted Bumrah, who tookfour wickets in the match.

"It was a first good Test and a good learn-ing experience for me because I have neverplayed over here in South Africa. So I had a lotof things to learn from it. Now it is time to moveforward and focus on the second Test," Bumrahsaid on Thursday.

Bumrah said he would rather pick the pos-itives, including getting AB de Villiers as his firstTest wicket.

"It was not a dream debut. I was happy withwhatever I learnt from that match. As a bowleryou look to get the first wicket early and I gotAB de Villiers.

"It was a happy moment, and from there on,we took a lot more wickets. As a bowler, mymotto is not to get too excited and not to get toodown after every match. I want to take confi-dence in to the next match," he added.

Bumrah had a mixed first outing atNewlands. He was taken for runs in the firstinnings at a time when India needed to keepSouth Africa quiet, but roared back to form inthe second innings and triggered the hosts' 8-65 collapse on day four.

He outlined the differentiation in his per-formance was down to understanding thenature of the pitches here.

"It's always challenging whenever you cometo a new country. The wickets are different andthe weather is different. So it's always good toface new challenges. As you play more and more,you get to know a lot about the wickets.

"You get a fair idea about where to bowl andwhat kind of lines to bowl. It's been good so far.I am still learning and hopefully in the furthermatches, I will be able to do better," said Bumrah.

Bumrah said he prefers to not have anynotions about the surfaces he bowls on. He alsoacknowledged that Indian bowlers erred in read-ing the bounce in the South African first innings,which yielded 286 runs for the hosts.

"We realized what mistakes we made in thefirst innings, so (on day four) we were trying tocreate pressure from both ends and focus on ourlengths which were wrong in the first innings.

"We just tried to correct them and not over-do things because over here when there is help

from the wicket, you try to do extra butthat won't help. So we were just tryingto be disciplined and stick to basics," hesaid.

When asked about the moment hewas made aware of his Test debut,Bumrah said, "There was a general dis-

cussion that I would play the match. SoI started talking to our bowling coachwhat kind of things I should do, whatkind of wickets are over here and whatshould I expect."

The Gujarat pacer said he was notnervous when his debut cap was hand-

ed to him."It's not like I was playing a first

First-Class game in my life. I haveplayed a lot of four-day games. So mybasic plan was to go inside, get a feel ofthe wicket and make changes accord-ingly."

Bumrah has spent a lot of time withbowling coach Bharat Arun even in thejunior days and he highlighted theinputs he has received. "He knows mybowling and as a player it is good tohave a coach who knows my strengthsand weakness," he said.

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South African opener AidenMarkram is of the opinion

that the pitch at SupersportPark, although aiding more paceand bounce, will also be good forbatsmen. The second Test beginshere on Saturday with the hostsleading 1-0 in the three-matchseries.

"Generally, it's a good bat-ting wicket here although I amnot sure how they have preparedit this time. But there have beena lot of high scores here.

“I would like to think it willbe a good wicket. I am prettysure it will be similar to last week(Cape Town), maybe not asextreme," Markram said on onThursday.

"It is incredibly exciting toplay here because it is a placewhere I grew up watching andplaying cricket. It's a wicketwhere if you set yourself up asa batsman there are runs to behad.

"But as a bowler, with the

pace and bounce, you alwayshave a shout as well. It's going tobe an exciting match," he added.

It will be a homecoming forthe 23-year-old Markram who isslated to play only his fifth Test.He has made the leap from ajunior prospect to Under-19World Cup winning captainand now to a dependable Testopener so far.

"It's been a bit of a roller-coaster the last couple of yearsbut an enjoyable one. I learnt alot about my game and myself,

which is important. I am fortu-nate to rub shoulders with leg-ends of the game at a young age,which does help. Most impor-tantly I have kept learning,which is great," he said.

Markram admitted thatplaying India was completelydifferent from being pittedagainst minnows likeBangladesh and Zimbabwe.

"Playing against India is amassive step up (as compared toBangladesh and Zimbabwe). Itwas a massive step up. There's areason why they are the No 1team in the world - they havequality players in all depart-ments.

"They tick all the boxes andthey have come here to compete,which is great. For me as a youngguy, it is awesome. Every day youare learning something new,and to be exposed to challengeslike that is great. You learn yourbest lessons at this level. So it wasvaluable and going into this Testit's something I'll be more awareof," he added.

Talking about learning fromthe Newlands' Test where hescored 5 and 34, Markramsaid:"We got an insight intohow the pitches are going to bein this series. It's about forminga game plan according to that.

"We have had a couple ofdays off now to think about that.That's the direction we want togo in, to feel that as batters it'snot that we can't score runs here.And look to score, according tohow the wicket is going to play."

The covers came off theSupersport Park pitch in theafternoon for a little time. Onfirst glance, it looked a hard andbouncy surface with an evensprinkling of grass as well.

In keeping with coach OttisGibson's licking for pace, thereis talk of pacer Lungi Ngidi -another local boy - being includ-ed in place of injured DaleSteyn.

At the same time, KagisoRabada will take the field as theTest No 1 bowler after displac-ing England's James Anderson

with his performance in the firstTest.

"KG (Rabada) has fitted(taken) like a duck to water ininternational cricket. He's put hishand up for the side and healmost sees his role as a seniorone even though he is so young.

"He has adopted a greatmindset. He is obviously a verycompetitive guy. He has got a lotof x-factor about him and what'slovely is he likes to compete withbatsmen - he never likes a bats-man to get up on him. It's a greattrait for him to have," saidMarkram.

He was all praise for LungiNgidi.

"I am incredibly happy forLungi. We have played for quitea few years both with andagainst each other. I am happyto see him getting a chance andhe really does deserve it. He putsin a lot of hard work behind thescenes and he has the perfectmindset for an up-and-comingplayer. It filters onto the rest ofus," he added.

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The 24th seed GM ZiaurRahman of Bangladesh

defeated Vietnamese GM TranTuan Minh to emerge as the newsole leader after the end of thefourth round of 16th DelhiInternational Chess tournament.At the end of three rounds,eleven players had shared thelead.

More than 2000 chess play-ers from across India are par-ticipating in this mega eventwhich is being organised byDelhi Chess Association underthe aegis of All India ChessFederation. Players from 29countries from around the worldare playing in the tournament,breaking the previous record of28 countries set by the 2017 edi-tion of the same tournament.

The 'A' category of the tour-nament has managed to betteritself in terms of cash prize andstrength as for the first time inIndian history, a 2700+ elo ratedplayer will be playing in aClassical GM Open. The total

prize money is �77 lakh. Thepremier event has 27 GrandMasters and 24 InternationalMasters.

Rahman showed immensediscipline and skill to beat TranTuan. It was a TrompovskyOpening from Rahman whohad the white pieces but TranMinh played pretty accuratelyand was having a better position.Early in the middle game, Blackhad stifled the position on thekingside where Rahman hadswung his rook. Meanwhile,Rahman had expanded on the

queenside. But Tran Minh madea very strange move when hecastled kingside where Rahmanwas able to break open theposition and swiftly drum up anattack on black's king.

All other co-leaders couldonly draw their games andhence, the Bangladeshi grand-master leads alone with 4.0/4.

In the B-category with 783players being held simultane-ously, 8 rounds of play have beencompleted and with two roundsto go, Shubham of Haryanarated 1915, and Subhra Saha, ofWest Bengal, rated 1727, leadtogether with 7.5/8.

"This is a historic momentfor Indian chess as we welcomethe 16th edition of the Delhi GMOpen. We started small back in2003, but now it is alreadyboasting a record prize fund.This tournament has proved tobe a boon to every chess playerin India. It is our honor to serveIndian chess and Indian chessplayers," said Bharat SinghChauhan, president of DelhiChess Association.

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Indian Arrows, the youngest outfit in the ILeague, desperately need their top players to

fire as they take on depleted hosts GokulamKerala FC at the EMS Corporation Stadium hereon Friday.

Odafa Okolie who has 100-odd I-Leaguegoals under his belt is the newest recruitmentto them but he did little justice to his name onhis debut for the Keralites.

The hosts are yet to find their combinationright and unwell players have added to theirheadache.

Coach Bino George didn't hide his frustra-tion.

"Balwinder has chicken pox. He is admit-ted to the hospital. I have no idea what is hap-pening", he said.

Meanwhile, he reiterated that the foreignsignings should contribute more to churn outsome positive results.

"The problem with us is the lack of foreignplayers. We signed Odafa because it was easy tocomplete the paperwork. He has scored a lot ofgoals."

He further added that Arrows boys have agreat future ahead as they have their age on theirside.

"Indian Arrows are showing a lot of promisefor the future. Their possession and passing areall really good. The small mistakes they are com-mitting is due to their age. They will threaten

if given space."However, the young guns who have taken

everyone by surprise until now were on thereceiving end during their last outing againstShillong Lajong FC.

The Kerala-based side also had the last laughagainst the young guns in the first leg played atthe Ambedkar Stadium in New Delhi.

Indian Arrows coach Matos recalled thatmatch as 'a strange game.'

"The match against Gokulam in Delhi wasa strange game. They scored the first goal froma corner. Their second goal was from a free-kick.At the end, they got the three points."

He informed that the team is travelling con-stantly and it might take a toll on the boys interms of giving their 100% on the field.

"For us, tomorrow will be difficult. We arenot in the best shape. Since December 19, wehave played so many matches, so very short timeto recover. It was a Lot of travelling. These arenot excuses but reality. It is not easy for theseyoung boys." Meanwhile, coach Matos tested anew defence setup last day having rested BorisSingh, Sanjeev Stalin and Anwar Ali. Asish Rai,Roshan Singh completely justified their selec-tion with a special mention for goalkeeperPrabhsukhan Gill who was only playing his thirdmatch for the Matos-coached team in the HeroI-League 2017-18.

Matos further informed that Sanjeev Stalinis still nursing the injury and he's unlikely to playhis part on Friday.

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Chelsea wasted a chance totake control of their League

Cup semi-final against Arsenalas the misfiring Blues wereforced to settle for a 0-0 draw inWednesday's first leg.

Antonio Conte's side dom-inated possession for long peri-ods at Stamford Bridge — wherethe Video Assistant Referee sys-tem (VAR) was in operation —but lacked the killer instinctrequired to take a step towardsthe final.

They had 21 shots to justeight from Arsenal, yet the tieremains on a knife-edge head-ing into the second leg at theEmirates Stadium on January 24.

"We are not so clinicaldespite creating chances. If youwant to win you have to score,"Conte said.

"We didn't concede a goal,but we know we play away atArsenal and we must be readyto fight if we are to play thefinal."

While it was a frustratingevening for Chelsea as they

chase a first League Cup finalberth since 2015, the stalematewas a welcome tonic for theirLondon rivals.

Arsenal, who also drewboth Premier League encounterswith Chelsea this season, suf-

fered one of the most chasten-ing defeats of Arsene Wenger'sreign on Sunday as second tierNottingham Forest won 4-2 inthe FA Cup third round.

While Arsenal were wellbelow their best once again, incontrast to their surrender inNottingham, the Frenchmanwill be encouraged that theyshowed enough spirit to keepChelsea at bay.

"I felt there was great togeth-erness. I am pleased with thespirit and determination,"Wenger said. "You want first tobe solid, but ideally you want toscore as well."

Conte had mostly fieldedfringe players en route to the lastfour, but Eden Hazard, backfrom a calf injury, N'Golo Kanteand Thibaut Courtois werecalled upon with a Wembleyshowdown against Manchester

� � ����With techinal direc-tor Avram Grant at helm,NorthEast United finally gotback into the groove by defeat-ing FC Goa in the last match buttheir task will be cut out as theytake on Teddy Sheringham'sATK in the Hero Super Leagueat the Indira Gandhi AthleticStadium, Guwahati on Friday.

The Kolkata outfit havewon just twice in eight gamesand can cut the gap to the play-off spots to just two points witha victory.

Their assistant coach BastobRoy likened the situation to thatof Real Madrid in the La Liga -saying that this was how footballwas and that they would nowhave to create their own luckrather than rely on the rub of thegreen. "Have you seen the situ-ation of Real Madrid? This isfootball, it's part of the game andwe are trying to come out of thissituation. We still think we canmake the playoffs. The table isvery unpredictable and withtwo wins in a row, we may beable to achieve it. Chance factorhas been against us. We are notlooking behind but looking for-ward. The only thing we can dois hard work. Luck is not in ourhands. In football you have toscore and not concede. That'swhat we work," he said. PNS

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Roger Federer found himself in aslightly awkward position beforethe Australian Open draw.

Just being there.A few minutes later when the formal-

ities were completed, Federer found outhow difficult defending his title could beafter landing in the same half as six-timechampion Novak Djokovic.

"This is not normal," Federer told acrowd of hundreds of fans before the drawon Thursday at Margaret Court Arena. "Idon't like usually going to draws becausethey freak me out. I don't want to knowwho I play other than just seeing the sheetat the end and knowing who my first-round opponent is."

First up, the 36-year-old Swiss will playAjaz Bedene of Slovenia. He also has No7-ranked David Goffin, Juan Martin delPotro, Sam Querrey, and Milos Raonic inhis quarter.

There's a potential semifinal againstDjokovic, who is aiming for a record sev-enth Australian Open title but is seeded14th as he returns from six months on thesidelines with a right elbow injury.

Djokovic is in the same quarter as theZverev brothers — fourth-seededAlexander could meet older brother andNo 32-seeded Mischa in the third round— 2014 champion Stan Wawrinka, and No5 Dominic Thiem.

Federer beat Rafael Nadal in the finalhere last year on his return from six monthson the sidelines and is seeded No 2 as hebids for a 20th Grand Slam singles title.

Djokovic had a contrasting 2017,starting at No 2 but losing in a second-round upset at the Australian Open and notplaying again after Wimbledon. It was thefirst year since 2009 that Djokovic didn'treach at least one Grand Slam final. Hedelayed his return until two exhibitionappearances this week.

Top-ranked Nadal will open againstVictor Estrella Burgos, has a potentialfourth-round match against John Isner, andNo 3 Grigor Dimitrov in his half of thedraw. He followed his run to the final inMelbourne by winning the French Openand US Open, splitting the Grand Slamhonors with Federer for the year.

Serena Williams has opted not todefend her title four months after givingbirth to her first child, leaving the women'sdraw open.

Her sister Venus, who lost the all-

Williams Australian Open final last year,has a tough opener against Belinda Bencic— who combined with Federer to win theHopman Cup for Switzerland last week —and is also in the same quarter as US Openwinner Sloane Stephens.

Top-ranked Simona Halep opensagainst Australian wild card DestaneeAiava, has a potential second-round matchagainst 2014 Wimbledon finalist Eugenie

Bouchard, and is in the same half asGarbine Muruguza, the Wimbledon cham-pion.

Third-seeded Muguruza is in a diffi-cult quarter containing former AustralianOpen champions Maria Sharapova andAngelique Kerber, and US Open finalistMadison Keys.

Sharapova, who won the 2008Australian title and reached three other

finals at Melbourne Park, missed lastyear's tournament during a 15-month sus-pension after a failed doping test here in2016.

The five-time major winner finished2017 ranked No 60, meaning she missedout on a seeding for the Australian Openand could face 2016 champion Kerber inthe third round.

"There's no easy way to get to the top,"Sharapova told the crowd at MargaretCourt Arena before the draw. "You alwayshave to beat the top players in order to getto the top."

Organizers defended the decision toinvite Sharapova to appear as the repre-sentative for the women's draw, withtournament director Craig Tiley sayingthe sanction was over and the 30-year-old Russian was there as a former cham-pion.

Sharapova said after a long time out shehad to be patient coming back to the tour,but was still confident of returning to thetop ranking and winning major tourna-ments.

"The drive, I still have it. I certainly willhope I put myself in that position,"Sharapova said. "I put a lot of expectationson myself because I have been there, andI have delivered in those moments. I expectto continue to do so."

B� �����������������D�������CSerena Williams tells Vogue that she

dealt with a medical scare right after thebirth of her daughter.

In a story in the magazine's Februaryissue and posted Wednesday on Vogue.com,Williams discusses developing severalsmall blood clots in her lungs while in thehospital after Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jrwas born in September.

According to the article, the tennissuperstar "spent the first six weeks of moth-erhood unable to get out of bed."

When Williams originally announcedher baby's arrival, via social media post-ings in September, she said in a video, "Wehad a lot of complications, but look whatwe've got."

Days after winning Wimbledon in2010, Williams cut both feet on brokenglass while leaving a restaurant, leading totwo operations on her right foot. Then shegot clots in her lungs and needed to injectherself with a blood thinner. Those shotsled to a pool of blood gathering under herstomach's skin, requiring another hospi-tal procedure. In all, she was off the tourfor about 10 months at the time, return-ing in 2011.

The 36-year-old Williams, who ismarried to Reddit co-founder AlexisOhanian, has not competed since winningher 23rd Grand Slam singles title at theAustralian Open in January 2017. Williamsis skipping this year's Australian Open,which begins next week.

Williams said in the Vogue story thatshe has her sights on getting to 25 majortitles, which would break the all-timerecord of 24 held by Margaret Court.

������������ ��������� ����Former World No 1 AngeliqueKerber continued her strong start to the sea-son by advancing to the SydneyInternational semifinals with a 6-3, 6-1 winover Dominika Cibulkova on Thursday.

Kerber, who began last year at the topof the rankings before finishing at No 22,won her seventh straight match of 2018,including four singles at the Hopman Cuplast week.

"This start is not bad, for sure," Kerbersaid.

Kerber will play Camila Giorgi in thesemifinals. Giorgi beat defending champi-on Agnieszka Radwanska 6-1, 6-2.

Ashleigh Barty also advanced, 6-3, 6-2 over Barbora Strycova.

She will play fellow Australian DariaGavrilova, who had a walkover win overWimbledon champion Garbine Muguruzawhen the Spanish player withdrew from herquarterfinal with a right thigh injury.

In men's quarterfinals, fourth-seededFabio Fognini beat No 5 Adrian Mannarino6-7 (4), 7-6 (4), 6-2, Daniil Medvedevdefeated Paolo Lorenzi 6-3, 6-3, and BenoitPaire beat second-seeded Gilles Muller 6-4, 6-4.

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City or Bristol City in sight.Wenger surprisingly left

Alexis Sanchez on the benchamid talk of the unsettled Chileforward joining ManchesterCity, while Mesut Ozil missedout with a knee injury.

Wenger was watching fromthe press box as he serves histouchline ban and the Gunnersboss was shifting anxiously in hisseat early on when Hazard's passgave Alvaro Morata an oppor-tunity that he drove into the

side-netting.After a tepid opening from

Arsenal, Alexandre Lacazetteescaped the Chelsea defence tocollect Jack Wilshere's pass, butthe French striker wasted thechance as he scuffed a hurried

shot wide. Chelsea wing-backVictor Moses forced DavidOspina into action with a sting-ing drive that the Arsenal goal-keeper fumbled before recover-ing to snatch the ball awayfrom Morata.