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A fter former French President Francois Hollande’s reported sensation- al comments that India pro- posed Reliance Defence as off- set partner for the 59,000 crore Rafale fighter jet deal, the French Government on Saturday said it is in no man- ner involved in the choice of the Indian partner. It added French companies have the full freedom to select Indian firms and Dassault Aviation, manufacturer of Rafale jets, said it is the com- pany’s “choice” to partner with Reliance Defence. “Dassault Aviation has decided to make a partnership with India’s Reliance Group. This is Dassault Aviation’s choice,” the company said. Reacting to the French Government’s claim and Dassault Aviation’s admission, the Indian Defence Ministry said “unnecessary controver- sies” are being created and reiterated that the Indian Government had had no role in the selection of Reliance as an offset partner in the deal. The French Government and Dassault company’s clari- fications came after Hollande in an interview to a French pub- lication Mediapart said on Friday, “It was the Indian Government that proposed this service group, and Dassault negotiated with Ambani. We had no choice, we took the interlocutor who was given to us.” Reacting to Hollande’s comments, the Indian Defence Ministry had said on Friday, “It is reiterated that neither the Government nor the French Government had any say in the commercial decision.” On Saturday, the Defence Ministry said, “Unnecessary controversies are being sought to be created following media reports regarding a statement purportedly made by the for- mer French President, Francois Hollande, concerning the selec- tion of Reliance Defence as the offset partner by Dassault.” The reported statement perhaps needs to be seen in its full context — where the French media has raised issues of conflict of interest involving persons close to the former President. His subsequent state- ments are also relevant in this regard. For a rounded appreci- ation of this matter, it may be partinent to dwell upon why and how Offset Policy came into play. The Offset Policy was for- mally announced for the first time in 2005 by the then UPA Government and has been revised several times. To lever- age its huge arms imports in order to develop a strong indigenous industry, a flow- back arrangement is made in the defence contracts, which is widely known as offsets, and constitutes a certain percentage of the contract value. The key objectives of the Defence Offset Policy is to leverage the capital acquisitions to develop Indian Defence industry by fostering development of inter- nationally competitive enter- prises; augmenting capacity for research and development in Defence sector and to encourage development of syn- ergistic sector like civil aero- space. The offset can be dis- charged by many means such as direct purchase of eligible products/services, FDI in joint ventures and investment towards equipment and trans- fer of technology. As per Defence O f f s e t Guidelines, the for- eign Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) is free to select any Indian company as its off- set partner. I n a chilling incident, a 60- year-old woman and her 40- year-old differently-abled daughter were found mur- dered brutally at their residence in West Delhi’s Mianwali Nagar on Saturday. While Shashi Talwar the mother’s throat was slit, her daughter Nidhi was blud- geoned to death with a blunt object. The hands of both vic- tims were tied and their mouths gagged, the police said. The incident came to light on Saturday morning when the victims’ maid came for her daily chores. The police said the help rang the doorbell several times, but when there was no response, she entered the house from the other door and found the mother-daughter lying in a pool of blood. “She informed the police about the incident at around 10 am,” said the police. Their bodies have been sent for post-mortem. The police have ruled out robbery angle as jewelleries were found intact on the persons and two teacups were lying in the draw- ing room insinuating a “friend- ly entry”. According to the police, initial probe indicated that the murder occurred on Friday evening or night. The police suspected per- sonal animosity behind the murders. At the same time, some people suspect property dispute could have led to the murder of the woman and her daughter. The police are sifting footage of eight CCTV cameras in the area to identify the accused. The Police have also recovered three mobile phones from the crime scene and are checking the call details. “Investigation is on,” the police said. Shashi was dependent on the family pension of the late husband. She had two sons. While one lives in Canada, another is in Mumbai. I n a move to provide more coverage area to shop own- ers for commercial activities, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (HUA) has allowed the Delhi Development Authority’s (DDA) proposal to modify the Master Plan for Delhi 2021, allowing retail trade, office space / commer- cial office, service apartments and related activities up to maximum 40 per cent of the floor area. As per modification, hotel space / rooms shall be mini- mum 60 per cent of floor area, including exhibition space, banqueting, convention and meeting space. Service apart- ments shall be non-saleable with all services as per the Hotel Facility Management System. The maximum 10 per cent additional ground coverage shall be allowed for providing atrium. In case, the permissible additional ground coverage for atrium is utilised, 25 per cent of the utilised ground coverage shall be counted towards floor area. A gainst the backdrop of for- mer French President Francois Hollande’s reported comments on the controversial Rafale deal, Congress presi- dent Rahul Gandhi on Saturday launched a fresh attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said “for- mer French president Francois Hollande is calling the PM of India a thief ” and that the PM needs to break his silence. Addressing a Press con- ference here, the Congress president said it is “obvious that PM Modi is corrupt.” Rahul said the Prime Minister has “betrayed India’s soul.” Calling the Rafale deal 1.3 lakh crore surgical strike on the Indian Defence forces, Rahul said Modi “dishonoured the blood of our martyred soldiers.” “Former French president calls our PM a thief... What is staggering is that the Prime Minister is still silent on it. Not a single word from him,” Rahul said. It is consid- ered to be the sharpest attack by Rahul on Modi on the Rafale deal. “It is very important for the Prime Minister now to either accept Hollande’s statement or state that Hollande is lying and tell the truth,” he said. Rahul alleged that Modi got the contract for his indus- trialist friend Anil Ambani to bail him out. “The Prime Minister himself has given a contract of 30,000 crore to Anil Ambani. Anil Ambani had a debt of 45,000 crore and was bailed out by PM Modi,” he said. “The PM and Anil Ambani jointly carried out a One Hundred & Thirty Thousand Crore, SURGICAL STRIKE on the Indian Defence forces. Modi Ji you dishon- oured the blood of our mar- tyred soldiers. Shame on you. You betrayed India’s soul,” Rahul tweeted. “We are absolutely con- vinced that the Prime Minister of India is corrupt. D escribing Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a sym- bol of honesty after Congress president Rahul Gandhi threw the “thief ” barb at him, the BJP on Saturday rejected former French president Francois Hollande’s sensation- al claim on the Rafale deal, say- ing it does not know under what compulsion Hollande said so. The BJP condemned as “shameful and irresponsible” Rahul’s remarks against Modi over the Rafale deal, saying no president of any party has ever used such language against a Prime Minister. Hours after Rahul’s Press conference, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad hit back at Rahul saying that the Congress chief is “playing into the hands of Pakistan and China” by seeking the details of the Rafale fighter jets. The Union Minister also said that Dassault Aviation, the manufacturer of the fight- er aircraft, and Reliance had entered into an agreement as early as 2012 when the Congress-led UPA was in power and refuted the allega- tion that the Modi Government had favoured the Anil Ambani- led company. P rime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said the Government is committed to enhancing ease of living of peo- ple. Addressing a Kisan Sammelan in Janjgir of Champa district of Chhattisgarh after laying the foundation stones for Bilaspur- Pathrapali four-lane road pro- ject and Bilaspur-Anuppur third railway line, he said the Government is moving ahead with the mission of Sab Ka Saath Sab Ka Vikas. He remarked that the only objective of the BJP-led Governments at the Centre and in States is the welfare of the poor and the common people. Prime Minister on Saturday heaped praise on Chief Minister Raman Singh for unleashing development in State and said Chhattisgarh has created its own place among States. “Chhattisgarh was known for violence by Naxals, explo- sion and bloodshed, and the BJP Government has over- come all these challenges. Chhattisgarh has created its own place among the States which are on the path of devel- opment, BJP wants to create a new, modern Chhattisgarh and we are moving ahead with the mission of Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas”, PM said at the heavily attended farmers’ convention at Janjgir-Champa. “Despite allegations, rumours and misinformation, people of Chhattisgarh have been giving stable Governments," the Prime Minister stated in presence of Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari, Chief Minister Raman Singh and entire frontline BJP leaders of Chhattisgarh. The BJP is in power in the State since late 2003 and the party is eyeing to pull off the fourth successive victory in 90-member State Assembly election which is expected by later this year. Hitting out at the Congress, Prime Minister said unlike earlier times, there is no cor- ruption in his Government and every rupee meant for development is reaching the desired end. He said after coming to power, the BJP Government ended the system of giving ben- efit of social schemes selectively to those who voted for a par- ticular party, or those close to some politicians. He said more roads were constructed in Chhattisgarh in the last four years than built since Independence. He added that his Government also decided to fulfil the long-time demand of farmers to get fair price for their produce.

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Page 1: English News Paper | Breaking News | Latest Today News in ... · Urban Affairs (HUA) has allowed the Delhi Development Authority’s (DDA) proposal to modify the Master Plan for Delhi

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���� #91�9:,!

After former FrenchPresident Francois

Hollande’s reported sensation-al comments that India pro-posed Reliance Defence as off-set partner for the �59,000crore Rafale fighter jet deal, theFrench Government onSaturday said it is in no man-ner involved in the choice ofthe Indian partner.

It added French companieshave the full freedom to selectIndian firms and DassaultAviation, manufacturer ofRafale jets, said it is the com-pany’s “choice” to partner withReliance Defence.

“Dassault Aviation hasdecided to make a partnershipwith India’s Reliance Group.This is Dassault Aviation’schoice,” the company said.

Reacting to the FrenchGovernment’s claim andDassault Aviation’s admission,the Indian Defence Ministrysaid “unnecessary controver-sies” are being created andreiterated that the IndianGovernment had had no role inthe selection of Reliance as anoffset partner in the deal.

The French Governmentand Dassault company’s clari-fications came after Hollande inan interview to a French pub-lication Mediapart said onFriday, “It was the IndianGovernment that proposedthis service group, and Dassaultnegotiated with Ambani. Wehad no choice, we took theinterlocutor who was given tous.”

Reacting to Hollande’scomments, the Indian DefenceMinistry had said on Friday, “Itis reiterated that neither theGovernment nor the FrenchGovernment had any say in thecommercial decision.”

On Saturday, the DefenceMinistry said, “Unnecessarycontroversies are being soughtto be created following mediareports regarding a statementpurportedly made by the for-mer French President, FrancoisHollande, concerning the selec-tion of Reliance Defence as theoffset partner by Dassault.”

The reported statementperhaps needs to be seen in itsfull context — where theFrench media has raised issuesof conflict of interest involvingpersons close to the formerPresident. His subsequent state-ments are also relevant in thisregard. For a rounded appreci-ation of this matter, it may bepartinent to dwell upon whyand how Offset Policy cameinto play.

The Offset Policy was for-mally announced for the firsttime in 2005 by the then UPAGovernment and has beenrevised several times. To lever-age its huge arms imports inorder to develop a strongindigenous industry, a flow-back arrangement is made inthe defence contracts, which iswidely known as offsets, andconstitutes a certain percentageof the contract value.

The key objectives of theDefence Offset Policy is toleverage the capital acquisitionsto develop

Indian Defence industry byfostering development of inter-nationally competitive enter-prises; augmenting capacityfor research and developmentin Defence sector and toencourage development of syn-ergistic sector like civil aero-space.

The offset can be dis-charged by many means suchas direct purchase of eligibleproducts/services, FDI in joint

ventures and investmenttowards equipment and trans-

fer of technology.As per

D e f e n c eO f f s e t

Guidelines, the for-eign Original Equipment

Manufacturer (OEM) is freeto select any Indian company as its off-

set partner.

������������� #91�9:,!

In a chilling incident, a 60-year-old woman and her 40-

year-old differently-ableddaughter were found mur-dered brutally at their residencein West Delhi’s Mianwali Nagaron Saturday.

While Shashi Talwar themother’s throat was slit, herdaughter Nidhi was blud-geoned to death with a bluntobject. The hands of both vic-tims were tied and theirmouths gagged, the police said.

The incident came to lighton Saturday morning whenthe victims’ maid came for herdaily chores. The police said thehelp rang the doorbell severaltimes, but when there was noresponse, she entered the house

from the other door and foundthe mother-daughter lying in apool of blood. “She informedthe police about the incident ataround 10 am,” said the police.

Their bodies have beensent for post-mortem. Thepolice have ruled out robberyangle as jewelleries were foundintact on the persons and twoteacups were lying in the draw-ing room insinuating a “friend-ly entry”. According to the

police, initial probe indicatedthat the murder occurred onFriday evening or night.

The police suspected per-sonal animosity behind themurders. At the same time,some people suspect propertydispute could have led to themurder of the woman and herdaughter. The police are siftingfootage of eight CCTV camerasin the area to identify theaccused. The Police have alsorecovered three mobile phonesfrom the crime scene and arechecking the call details.

“Investigation is on,” thepolice said.

Shashi was dependent onthe family pension of the latehusband. She had two sons.While one lives in Canada,another is in Mumbai.

�(���� ��� #91�9:,!

In a move to provide morecoverage area to shop own-

ers for commercial activities,the Ministry of Housing andUrban Affairs (HUA) hasallowed the Delhi DevelopmentAuthority’s (DDA) proposal tomodify the Master Plan forDelhi 2021, allowing retailtrade, office space / commer-cial office, service apartmentsand related activities up tomaximum 40 per cent of the

floor area. As per modification, hotel

space / rooms shall be mini-mum 60 per cent of floor area,including exhibition space,banqueting, convention andmeeting space. Service apart-ments shall be non-saleablewith all services as per theHotel Facility ManagementSystem.

The maximum 10 per centadditional ground coverageshall be allowed for providingatrium.

In case, the permissibleadditional ground coverage foratrium is utilised, 25 per centof the utilised ground coverageshall be counted towards floorarea.

���������� ������������������������� �����������������������������������������������������������

���� #91�9:,!

Against the backdrop of for-mer French President

Francois Hollande’s reportedcomments on the controversialRafale deal, Congress presi-dent Rahul Gandhi onSaturday launched a freshattack on Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and said “for-mer French president FrancoisHollande is calling the PM ofIndia a thief ” and that the PMneeds to break his silence.

Addressing a Press con-ference here, the Congresspresident said it is “obviousthat PM Modi is corrupt.”

Rahul said the PrimeMinister has “betrayed India’ssoul.” Calling the Rafale deal�1.3 lakh crore surgical strikeon the Indian Defence forces,Rahul said Modi “dishonoured

the blood of our martyredsoldiers.”

“Former French presidentcalls our PM a thief... What isstaggering is that the PrimeMinister is still silent on it.

Not a single word from

him,” Rahul said. It is consid-ered to be the sharpest attackby Rahul on Modi on theRafale deal.

“It is very important for thePrime Minister now to eitheraccept Hollande’s statement or

state that Hollande is lying andtell the truth,” he said.

Rahul alleged that Modigot the contract for his indus-trialist friend Anil Ambani tobail him out. “The PrimeMinister himself has given acontract of �30,000 crore toAnil Ambani. Anil Ambanihad a debt of �45,000 crore andwas bailed out by PM Modi,”he said.

“The PM and AnilAmbani jointly carried out aOne Hundred & ThirtyThousand Crore, SURGICALSTRIKE on the Indian Defenceforces. Modi Ji you dishon-oured the blood of our mar-tyred soldiers. Shame on you.You betrayed India’s soul,”Rahul tweeted.

“We are absolutely con-vinced that the Prime Ministerof India is corrupt.

���� #91�9:,!

Describing Prime MinisterNarendra Modi as a sym-

bol of honesty after Congresspresident Rahul Gandhi threwthe “thief” barb at him, the BJPon Saturday rejected formerFrench president Francois Hollande’s sensation-al claim on the Rafale deal, say-ing it does not know underwhat compulsion Hollande saidso.

The BJP condemned as“shameful and irresponsible”Rahul’s remarks against Modiover the Rafale deal, saying no

president of any party has everused such language against aPrime Minister.

Hours after Rahul’s Press

conference, Union MinisterRavi Shankar Prasad hit backat Rahul saying that theCongress chief is “playing intothe hands of Pakistan andChina” by seeking the details ofthe Rafale fighter jets.

The Union Minister alsosaid that Dassault Aviation,the manufacturer of the fight-er aircraft, and Reliance hadentered into an agreement asearly as 2012 when theCongress-led UPA was inpower and refuted the allega-tion that the Modi Governmenthad favoured the Anil Ambani-led company.

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Prime Minister NarendraModi on Saturday said the

Government is committed toenhancing ease of living of peo-ple. Addressing a KisanSammelan in Janjgir ofChampa district ofChhattisgarh after laying thefoundation stones for Bilaspur-Pathrapali four-lane road pro-ject and Bilaspur-Anuppurthird railway line, he said theGovernment is moving aheadwith the mission of Sab KaSaath Sab Ka Vikas.

He remarked that the onlyobjective of the BJP-ledGovernments at the Centreand in States is the welfare ofthe poor and the commonpeople.

Prime Minister onSaturday heaped praise onChief Minister Raman Singhfor unleashing developmentin State and said Chhattisgarh

has created its own placeamong States.

“Chhattisgarh was knownfor violence by Naxals, explo-sion and bloodshed, and theBJP Government has over-come all these challenges.Chhattisgarh has created itsown place among the Stateswhich are on the path of devel-opment, BJP wants to create anew, modern Chhattisgarh andwe are moving ahead with themission of Sabka Saath, SabkaVikas”, PM said at the heavilyattended farmers’ convention atJanjgir-Champa.

“Despite allegations,rumours and misinformation,people of Chhattisgarh havebeen giving stableGovernments," the PrimeMinister stated in presence ofUnion Minister for RoadTransport and Highways NitinGadkari, Chief Minister RamanSingh and entire frontline BJPleaders of Chhattisgarh.

The BJP is in power in the

State since late 2003 and theparty is eyeing to pull off thefourth successive victory in90-member State Assemblyelection which is expected bylater this year.

Hitting out at the Congress,Prime Minister said unlikeearlier times, there is no cor-ruption in his Governmentand every rupee meant fordevelopment is reaching thedesired end.

He said after coming topower, the BJP Governmentended the system of giving ben-efit of social schemes selectivelyto those who voted for a par-ticular party, or those close tosome politicians.

He said more roads wereconstructed in Chhattisgarhin the last four years than builtsince Independence.

He added that hisGovernment also decided tofulfil the long-time demand offarmers to get fair price fortheir produce.

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Page 2: English News Paper | Breaking News | Latest Today News in ... · Urban Affairs (HUA) has allowed the Delhi Development Authority’s (DDA) proposal to modify the Master Plan for Delhi

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The power of Manto, as a writer,personality and self-destruct modecarries the power of an atomic bomb and

most of it gets translated into this sepia shadedmovie by Nandita Das.

The power of this film and its subjectSaadat Hasan Manto lies in the gentleunfolding of the life and times of the writerwhose cutting-edge pen was the toast of mostBollywood scripts at one time.

He loved Mumbai as much as he lovedhimself and yet decided to quit everything dearto him, including the graves of his parents andson, to leave for Lahore because he was “itnatoh musalmaan hoon ki maar diya jaoon.”Those were violent and divisive Partition daysand Nandita does well to bring up one of themajor faultlines in Manto’s personality bytelling us of his inherent fear of things.

He loved with passion, had immense angerissues over intangibles like the state of societyand lived life as a smouldering ember in a timeand place where almost everything and anyonewas somehow struggling to survive the firstwave of independence.

Manto, being the volatile writer who sawthe wrongs, especially on women, much morethan others, made brevity as much his virtue asrevelling in the painful times his vice.

A film on a personality like Manto isbound to be powerful unless the director gets itentirely wrong. The power of Das’ Manto liesin the fact that it interestingly captures all thenuances of the times and the people in a gentle

unfolding of explosive events in the life of itsmain protagonist. The ambience and theatmosphere of those smoky times whenintellectuals like Ismat Chughtai and Mantointermingled with the glamorous world ofcinema and powered scripts with theirliterature, thoughts and philosophy over liberalround tables splashed with whiskey andcigarettes, are aptly captured on camera.

The dialogues, pithy and cutting, get to youwith one-liners that unfold an entire life andtime in a stunning frugality of words. Dascompels you to question why Manto wouldself-destruct in such a manner. Brilliantly, shetells you that the only reason why such abrilliant short story writer with immensepower of thought could die at 42 was his beliefthat he had the artistic licence to do so.

The other high point of the film is thestunning way in which Das inserts thedramatisations of Manto’s most loved storiesThanda Gosht, Khol Do and Toba Tek Singh,never once deviating from Manto’s unfoldinglife story. Cameos by Rishi Kapoor, JavedAkhtar, Vinod Nagpal, Divya Dutta, RanvirShourie are impactful and rounded.

Nawazuddin Siddiqui loses himselfcompletely in Manto and proves his versatilityand brilliance as an actor yet again.

Manto was a meteoric writer who died ameteor’s death — a fire of brilliance burningout brightly in the literary sky, oftenquestioned and defiled for speaking the uglytruth of people and society with no punchesspared. He was the badshah of brevity — bothin writing and death, 42 being no age to die asan alcoholic who desperately wanted to livewithout alcohol but the realisation came toolate in life and too close to death.

A rare movie on a rarest of rare writer!

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Denzel Washington hasbeen missing from the bigscreen for a very long time

and it is his presence that savesthis slow thriller some blushes.

Other than him, it is all verycommonplace here, be it roguesleuths, rogue situations or roguevillains. Washington returnsfrom the dead quite literally inthis one to unravel the brutalmurder of his one-time friendand FBI agent Susan who isstabbed to death in her hotelroom while on an assignmentwith Washington’s formerpartner Dave.

Washington keeps a pokerface most of the time, killing,spotting and getting into the casewith ease. Not an expressiongenerally means an actor is eithergood for nothing or too good tobe true. Washington, we allknow, is a specimen of thesecond category and he uses thistrait to the hilt in Equaliser 2wherein he swears to kill thegoons and does so in slowmotion.

On the whole, will stick onlyfor Denzel Washington fans. Therest would want some kind ofurgency in the proceedings.

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�Tell us about yourexperience as KBCKaramveer?

My experience on Kaun

Banega Crorepati 10 waswonderful as I had neverimagined coming to thisplatform. KBC Karamveer is a

good way of educating themasses and community tobecome aware about thesufferings of the people. It

gives an opportunity to theconcerned people to thinkabout the happenings in thesociety, community or worldand understand ourcontribution towards the same.

Why is thesituation sonegative andoppressive forwomen, why aret h e ymarginalised?There is ahidden worldthat suffers fromi n j u s t i c e ,discriminationand issues thataffects theirlives. It is a goodinitiative andthese kind ofcampaigns andepisodes willhelp in

changing the attitude towardsinjustice.

�Tell us about Nari Gunjan.The organisation is for the

women who are mostmarginalised and are left outfrom the society. We are still atthe growing stage but now I cansee small changes comingbecause of the education. Now,I can feel that we are notfrightened to take issues relatedto women. We need morepeople to go out and helpmore and more women.

�How was your experienceplaying KBC with AmitabhBachchan?

Amitabh Ji, he alwaysmaintains the charm, keep thevibe lively and the nation ontheir toes in the show. I likehow heartily he was trying to

understand what was beingshown and shared. He is veryencouraging, sensitive andsupporting. He catches andunderstands issue people facedeeply.�What do you plan to do with�24 lakh?

Our focus for the neediestwomen. The women who werelandless, had no assets andtoday they have dared to followone or the other livelihoodoptions and are trying tobecome economicallyempowered and because ofthat they could send theirchildren to study and are takingchallenges to go into newavenues. We’ve 350 womendoing agriculture and foodprocessing or started someshops, selling food or fruit.Great ambition and desires arealways needed to go ahead.

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Page 3: English News Paper | Breaking News | Latest Today News in ... · Urban Affairs (HUA) has allowed the Delhi Development Authority’s (DDA) proposal to modify the Master Plan for Delhi

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Thirteen people, includingthree couples, died after a

vehicle veered off a road andfell into a deep gorge inHimachal Pradesh's Shimladistrict on Saturday. GovernorAcharya Devvrat and ChiefMinister Jai Ram Thakur havecondoled the death.

The accident happened atSanail, three kilometres fromKuddu on Tiyuni Road. The ill-fated Trax vehicle (bearing reg-istration number HP 02 0695)was on its way to Tiyuni fromSwara.

All the thirteen occupantswere killed in the accident,Shimla Superintendent ofPolice Omapati Jamwal said.While 10 of them died on thespot, three succumbed toinjuries at Rohru hospital,Jamwal said.

The deceased includedeight members of three fami-lies. Three couples were amongthe deceased.

The deceased have beenidentified as Matvar Singh (48),

his wife Basanti Devi (44),their son Munish (24), PremSingh (38), his wife Poonam(30), their daughter Ridhima(6), Attar Singh (44), his wifeMunna Devi (40), Bittu (42),Bandi Devi (48), Ner Singh(35), Manoj (35) and Anil (28).

A police team led by JubbalStation House Officer andSwara police post in-chargereached the site shortly aftergetting information about theaccident. The team rescuedthree injured people and sentthem to Rohru hospital butthey died, Jamwal added.

In his condolence mes-sage, the Governor prayed tothe Almighty to grant peace toall the departed souls andstrength to the bereaved fam-ily members to bear thisirreparable loss.

Jai Ram Thakur has alsoexpressed grief over the deathof 13 persons in the roadaccident. He expressed hisdeep sympathies with thebereaved family members andprayed for the peace of thedeparted souls.

Chandigarh: Widespreadrainfall across Punjab,Haryana and Chandigarh onSaturday brought miseries tofarmers as untimely showershave affected the standingpaddy crop in the agrarianstates.

The maximum tempera-ture at most places has beenbelow normal due to thedownpour, weather officialssaid here.

Farmers in both Punjaband Haryana said the rainduring this period was notgood as the harvesting of thepaddy crop was on.

"The harvesting is on andthe rain will increase the mois-ture content in the crop thatwill get damaged if the rainpersists," farmer Ajaib Singh ofFatehgarh Sahib told IANS.

Reports said that thepaddy crop, which is almostready for harvest, was dam-aged in some areas.

Procurement of paddy inPunjab and Haryana is sched-uled to begin from October 1.

Officials from Agricultureand Food and SuppliesDepartments are expecting abumper paddy crop in boththe states this year.

An official spokespersonsaid elaborate arrangementshave been made to procure the

expected 200 lakh metrictonnes of paddy in Punjab.

In Chandigarh, traffic wasaffected as water accumulatedat many places in the city.Complaints of water-loggingwere also received by author-ities in the adjoining towns ofPanchkula in Haryana andMohali in Punjab.

Traffic on highways inPunjab and Haryana was slowdue to the rain.

The Punjab governmenton Friday issued an alert forheavy rains across the state tillSeptember 24.

As per informationreceived from the Ministry ofEarth Sciences, the state is like-

ly to experience widespreadrainfall from late Saturday toMonday, a governmentspokesman told IANS.

He said many districts inDoaba, Majha and Malwawere very likely to get veryheavy rains, even more than 12cm, during this period.

IANS

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After keeping an eye on the suspectsfor a few days, the Food Safety

teams of Punjab finally nabbed a topbrands replica manufacturing racket inMansa.

In a statement, KS Pannu,Commissioner Food Safety and DrugAdministration Punjab on Saturdaysaid a raid was conducted around mid-night by food safety team along with thepolice officials at a house in Mansa.

"The domestic premise was beingused to prepare the ‘fake branded prod-ucts’. The accused were caught prepar-ing fake brands of Verka, Amul andMilkfood ghee. Besides, fake Tata Salt,Good Day Salt , Tide Detergent andother fake products under the label offamous brands were found on thespot," the statement said.

The official said that the accusedmade desi ghee from vegetable fatmixture and stamped and labelled thepackets at their house. Five brands ofvanaspati were being used alongwiththree brands of desi ghee of low cost toconcoct a mixture to fill in the packag-ing similar to top brands in the market.

A crude "chulha cylinder" wasinstalled to mix vanaspati, cookingmedium and mixture of oils to make

ghee . A large number of labels of var-ious products were recovered, indicat-ing the involvement of other people sta-tioned at different places for preparingand selling the fake products under thegarb of famous brands.

About 700 printed packets of TataTea Gold filled with low quality tea werealso found. Entire stock includingwrappers and packets was seized andFIR has been registered under relevantsections against the accused.

Similarly, a case of fake labeling casepertaining to mustard oil was detectedin Sangrur where in a mustard oil pack-er by the name of Ganesh TradingCompany was found labeling the ricebran oil as pure mustard oil.

The owner confessed the crime.Sampling was done and the unit wassealed.

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Haryana Chief MinisterManohar Lal on Saturday

dedicated development worksworth �54.54 crore to the peo-ple of Nalwa assembly con-stituency.

These works include KisanSewa Kendra to be set up byHaryana State AgriculturalMarketing Board (HSAMB) atvillage Chaudharywas at a costof �35 lakh and the road uptoShahpur Gaushala in villageHindwan will be widened at acost of �107 lakh. Apart fromthis, HSAMB will constructroad from Chirod Road toDevesar Head at a cost of �66lakh and �101 lakhs will bespent on strengthening of roadfrom village Harita to Boora.Apart from this, HSAMB willset up road from BaadyaBrahman to Boora at a cost of�66 lakh, road from Balaawasto Baadya Brahman at a cost of�173.90 lakh, road from villageDaahima to Sultanpur at acost of �224 lakh abd from vil-lage Maatri shyam to Mingrikhera at a cost of �83 lakh, 2

km road from Sarsana MinerBridge located on MuklanaAryanagar road at a cost of �92lakh, road from Mangaali Jharamain road to Harikot at a costof Rs 41 lakh, road fromMangaali to Kaimri at a cost of�60 lakh, road from Chrod toBarwa at a cost of �215 lakhand pucca road from the fieldof Jagdish Patwari of villageGorachhi Sarsana miner chowkto Dhani of Mahender singh ata cost of �150 lakh.

Animal HusbandryDepartment would developveterinary hospital in villagePanihaar Chakk at a cost of�35.83 lakh.

A Shok sabha Bhawan willbe constructed at Ghat situat-ed on Patan Road in AryaNagar at a cost of �25 lakh bythe Urban Local BodyDepartment.

Irrigation Departmentwould clean the canal in villageTalwandi Rukka throughGaushala and lift pump houseat a cost of Rs 600 lakh so as torun the canal smoothly.

Likewise, park-cum-gym-nasium would be constructed

by Development and PanchayatDepartment in village Boora ata cost of �35 lakh. It would alsomake pucca roads in MahatmaGandhi basti in in villageGorchhi at a cost of Rs 12 lakh,construction of road fromGaawad Mor to Sati Dadi tem-ple in village Gorchhi at accostof �15 lakh, construction ofpark-cum-gymnasium in vil-lage Baadya Rangraan at a costof �49 lakh. Besides construc-tion of park-cum-gymnasiumin village Panihaar Chakk, vil-lage Chaudhrywas and villageMingaani Kheda at a cost of�32 lakh each, a park-cum-gymnasium in village Harita ata cost of �17 lakh and park-cum-gymnasium in villageBhojraj at cost of �35 lakh.

Department of ElementaryEducation would rebuilt thewall behind the girls' Middleschool at a cost of �15.55 lakh.New rooms in lieu of old andobsolete rooms and maingatein Government school villageBasda at a cost of �10.34 lakh,construction of boundary wallof Government school in vil-lage Boora at a cost of �18.72

lakh.The Public Health

Department will construct anew water works in villageGujaar at a cost of �175 lakhand repair the water works invillage Gorchhi at a cost of �88lakh. It would also construct anew water works at BalawasGunjar at a cost of �301 lakh.

Public Works (Buildingand Roads) Department willconstruct road from villageGorchhi to Mehriya at a cost of�325 lakh, road from AryaNagar to Hindwan at a cost of�135 lakh, construction of 33feet road from village Gorchhito Bhiwani Rohilla at a cost ofRs. 183 lakh, road from Patanto Hindwan at a cost of �99lakh , road upto ganwa andKaimri at a cost of �190 lakh,road from Kirtaan to Siswala ata cost of �85 lakh and widen-ing of road from villageGorchhi to Balasmand at a costof �495 lakh.

In addition, the ChiefMinister has announced a grantof Rs 10 crore for rural devel-opment in this assembly con-stituency.

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Himachal Governor Acharya Devvrat andChief Minister Jai Ram Thakur will

launch Prime Minister Jan Arogya Yojna(Ayushman Bharat Yojna) from Shimla onSunday.

Health Minister Vipin Singh Parmar willalso be present on this occasion.

The Ministers will simultaneously launchthis scheme in the districts. Irrigation andPublic Health Minister Mahender SinghThakur and MP Ram Swroop Sharma willlaunch the scheme from Mandi, Food andCivil supplies Minister Kishan Kapoor atDharamshala, Education Minister and MPVirender Kashyap from Solan, MPP andPower Minister Anil Sharma at Bilaspur,Urban Development Minister SarweenChaudhary from Chamba, Rural Developmentand Panchayati Raj Minister Virender Kunwarand former Chief Minister Prem KumarDhuaml at Hamirpur, Industries MinisterBikram Thakur and MP Anurag Thakurfrom Una, Forest Minister Govind SinghThakur at Kullu, Social Justice andEmpowerment Minister Rajiv Saizal inSirmaur district.

In Kinnaur and Lahaul-Spiti districts, thescheme will be launched by the deputy com-missioners concerned.

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Leader of Opposition inPunjab Assembly, Harpal

Cheema on Saturday allegedthat the Capt Amarinder Singhgovernment has "looted"Panchayat Samiti and ZilaParishad elections with "unbri-dled use of muscle power andgovernment machinery".

Cheema alleged that Police,administration and electioncommission has worked forCongress as if they were itscadre. "It is not the loss ofopposition parties rather peo-ple and democracy have lostthe battle," he said in his state-ment.

The Leader of Oppositionsaid perhaps this is firstinstance in the history ofPunjab when goons of the rul-ing party have unleased a ter-ror right from the beginning ofPanchayat Samiti and ZilaParishad elections upto theannouncement of results. It isundoubtedly left a blank spoton the democracy of Punjab.

"Inspite of all this AamAadmi Party is thankful to all

those Punjabis who showedcourage to keep the lamp ofdemocracy alight amid theanti-democracy stormlaunched by the ruling partyand gave a befitting reply toCongress by defeating its can-didates at many places," he said,adding the governmentmachinery worked alikeCongress workers and at manybooths 60 to 70 votes wererejected.

Cheema said that had theCapt Government fulfilled itspromises made to the publicthere would have been no needto highjack the democraticsystem.

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The Congress on Saturdayemerged as the clear win-

ner in the Punjab Zilla Parishadand Panchayat Samiti polls,winning the most number ofseats against its rival ShiromaniAkali Dal.

Counting of votes for thelocal polls took place onSaturday after the state went tovote on September 19.

A total of 354 zila parishadand 2,900 panchayat samitimembers are to be electedthrough these polls. There are22 zila parishads and 150 pan-chayat samitis in the state.

33 candidates were earlierelected unopposed to variouszila parishads and 369 nomi-nees were elected unopposed tothe panchayat samitis.

There are a total of1,27,87,395 registered voters inPunjab, comprising 60,99,053women and 97 third-gendervoters.

Earlier, Opposition partyShiromani Akali Dal (SAD)accused the ruling party ofelectoral fraud. Former chiefminister Parkash Singh Badalat Muktsar claimed a largenumber of Congress workers,brandishing swords, wereinvolved in booth capturing.

He accused the police of being"mute spectator".

"Booth capturing is takingplace and as an MLA I will nottolerate this in my area. Policewas not performing its duty.What kind of elections werethese, where booths were cap-tured and nomination papersof Akalis rejected," he asked.Further, the SAD alleged bogusvotes were polled at some loca-tions.

Clashes between Congressand Akali workers were report-ed from Rajasansi in Amritsar,Jhoke Harihar in Ferozepur,Lodhi Gujjar in Ajnala andSohia Kalan in Majitha.

During the clashes mem-bers of both factions peltedstones at each other and usedsticks as weapons causingminor injuries to a few.

In Bathinda, former min-ister and Akali leader SikanderSingh Maluka accusedCongress workers of boothcapturing at Kangar, Bhai Rupaand Salabatpura. Akali workersled by Maluka blocked BhagtaBathinda Road to register theirprotest against the ruling party.

A total of 17,268 pollingbooths were set up, 35observers appointed andaround 50,000 police personneldeployed for the polls in

Punjab.The Congress was tout-ed as the favourite to win thezila parishads and panchayatsamitis after a gap of 10 years.

)�������������)�������������)�������������������������������)���Chandigarh: Soon after theresults, Punjab Chief MinisterCapt Amarinder Singh onSaturday hailed the Congressvictory in the Zila Parishadsand Block Samitis poll resultsclaiming it to be an endorse-ment of his government’s poli-cies and programmes, and atotal rejection of the

Opposition’s malicious cam-paign against the ruling dis-pensation.

In a statement issued here,Capt Amarinder congratulatedthe people of Punjab for stand-ing firm against theOpposition’s attempts to swaythem, and to thwart the freeand fair democratic pollprocess, with its cheap pressuretactics and false propaganda.

He also lauded the StateElection Commission, Civiland Police administration, andall the poll officials for ensur-ing smooth conduct of ZilaParishads/Block Samitis elec-tions in a free, fair and trans-

parent manner.Pointing out that this was

the fourth consecutive humil-iating defeat of the SAD-BJPcombine, after back to back vic-tories for the Congress in theState Assembly, Urban LocalBodies, GurdaspurParliamentary and ShahkotAssembly by-polls, the ChiefMinister termed it a vindica-tion of his party’s efforts tobring the state out of the quag-mire of devastation into whichit had been plunged by the pre-vious SAD-BJP government.

Capt Amarinder trashedthe Akali allegations of boothcapturing by the Congress,

saying that it was the SAD, onthe contrary, which hadstooped to all kind of hooli-ganism to try and derail thepoll process, particularly inSri Muktsar Sahib. He cited thevideo of SAD president SukhbirSingh Badal, which had goneviral and which showed himordering his party men tointimidate voters.

These last ditch efforts bythe Akalis to stall theGovernment’s efforts to ensurefree and fair polls was a clearsign of their growing frustra-tion and dejection over theirrepeated electoral defeats, headded.

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The New Delhi MunicipalCorporation (NDMC) has

launched a “Plogging Drive” asa part of its Swachchhta-hi-Sewa Pakhwada, wherebyawareness is generated amongthe people about the habit ofpicking up the litter from roadside while walking or jogging.

While launching the plog-ging drive Secretary, DurgaShankar Mishra, Secretary,Ministry of Housing and UrbanAffairs (MoHUA) said thatwhile walking is good for thehealth of individual picking uplitter is good for the health ofthe city, country and planet. Hefurther said that the ideabehind plogging is new envi-ronment-conscious fitnesstrends where people pick uprubbish while they are on thewalk, jogging or run.

The plogging drive coveredthe route of Janpath, TolstoyMarg, Sansad Marg, Patel

Chowk, Rafi Marg, RajenderPrasad Road and culminated atAmbedkar Vatika oppositeNational Archive, AmbedkarBhawan, Rajender PrasadRoad.

A dedicated team wasflagged off by Secretary.“Plogging is an eco-friendly fit-ness trend, it should makeIndia as a Swachh Bharat toSwasth Bharat,”, he added.

NDMC Secretary, RashmiSingh said that if people can do

something different that's goodfor their health and also goodfor our environment, it gives allof us an motivation to get outof our homes and walk forcause. She added that whilejogging helps our body to stayfit in this activity collecting thetrash from the ground helps tokeep our environment clean.

Secretary, NDMC Singhinform that 4th anniversary ofSwachh Bharat Mission is beingcelebrated by NDMC from 15

September to 2 October as“Swachhta-hi-Sewa Pakhwada”in which NDMC is creatingawareness amongst the citizenfrom all walk of life through thevarious activities like ploggingdrive.

She further said thatNDMC ensured the commu-nity participation in the plog-ging drive-by involving thestudents, residents, shopkeep-ers, traders, visitors, tourists,caretakers of the government,non-government or privatebuildings etc.

The drive was attended bySecretaries, AdditionalSecretaries, Financial Advisors,Joint Secretaries, Directors,Deputy Secretaries and seniorofficials of the Ministry ofHousing and Urban Affairsand its organizations likeCPWD, NBCC, HUDCO,DUAC, DDA and NDMC.They participated in differentteams for different roads forplogging.

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The much awaited 1.2 kmJagatpur flyover on Outer

Ring Road, connectingMukarba Chowk to Wazirabadin North Delhi, was thrownopen to the public by theMinister of Public WorksDepartment, Satendar Jain onSaturday.

“The Flyover is part of sig-nal free scheme in which gradeseparators at Bhalswa,Mukundpur and Burari havealready been opened for traffic.To work in marshy land was achallenge near Jagatpur Village.Marshy land on village side wasstabilised and strengthened byusing construction waste gen-erated from the project.

Approximately 1000 cum ofConstruction and Demolition(C&D) waste has been utilised,”said a senior PWD official.

According to the officials,the stretch will reduce carbondioxide emissions and will pro-vide smooth and uninterrupt-ed movement of traffic on thisjunction by which around 2tons of carbon dioxide emissionwill be curbed per day.

Further the three waygrades separator will facilitateeasy movement for the peopleliving nearby the dense popu-lated areas of Jagatpur Village,Sangam Vihar, WazirabadVillage, Jharoda, Nathupuraand Sant-Nagar to Outer RingRoad.

“This was considered

essential in view of the fact thatthe Jagatpur Village Road(ROW 100m as per MPD2021) is an important connec-tivity considering the futuredevelopment of the area whichis part of Zone P2 in the zonalDevelopmental Plan of DDA.Further, the Flyover will pro-vide unhindered movement toCC Parallel Road,” added theofficial.

The budget of this 1.2 kmstretch is Rs 72 crores. Theconstruction was started in2014 and completed within aperiod of three years in Augustthis year. The two lane sepa-rators are Jagatpur Village,Sangam Vihar, Jharoda,Wazirabad, Nathupura, Burari,Sant Nagar.

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Delhi Police on Saturdayarrested two more people

in connection with the death offive workers who were force-fully sent to clean the septictank in Phase 2 section of DLFCapital Greens residentialcomplex in Moti Nagar onSeptember 9.

Both the persons arrestedare employees of Jones LangLaSalle (JLL) Company whichhave a contract for managingthe faculty services at the com-plex. Earlier Delhi Police havearrested three people in con-nection with the case.

“We have arrested D NMishra who is the seniorManager cum property man-ager for JLL and he was thehead for this site from JLL side.Another person arrested isBharat Raj Verma who is theAssistant Manager (technical)in JLL. Both had close super-vision on the operationsregarding septic tank and site,”said Monika Bhardawaj,Deputy Commissioner ofPolice (DCP), west district.

Earlier, Ajay Chaudhary,employed as an engineer withJLL, Digambar, the supervisorwho had ordered the men to gointo the sewer while the other,Pravin Kumar, owned the firmnamed Unnati that was incharge of housekeeping at theapartment complex were alsoarrested by the police.

According to police sources

Pravin was also related to Raja,who was one of the victims of thetragedy, while Digambar hadbeen evading arrest by changinga dozen locations.

The fatal accident hadoccurred on September 9.Apart from Raja, others whodied were Sarfaraz, Pankaj,Umesh and Vishal. All five hadgone inside a sewer for the firsttime.

They were housekeepingstaff with Unnati and had beenforced down the sewer by thecompany, which wanted tosave money by not bringing inprofessional sewer cleaners.All five were put in harm's waywithout any safety gear. Whenthey were pulled out, onlyVishal was alive, but he too diedduring treatment.

A case under sections304A/304 of IPC , 7 & 9 ofProhibition of Employment asManual Scavengers and theirRehabilitation Act 2013, 3(1)(j)& 3(2)(v) of The ScheduledCastes and the Scheduled Tribes(Prevention of Atrocities) Actwas registered by the police.

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The Indian Institute ofTechnology-Delhi (IIT-D),

organised its second IndustryDay 2018 - “AcceleratingInnovation in Science &Technology” on Saturday. TheIIT-D flagship program is aplatform that brought togeth-er academic researchers andbusiness houses from acrossthe board.

With the aim for promot-ing innovation and researchdone by the institute at theflagship programme “IndustryDay 2018” a range of innova-tions, start-ups and productsdeveloped by the students ofIIT-D were displayed. IIT-D isfocusing on commercializa-tion of technical solutionsthrough patents and start-ups.

“The event broughttogether over 350 industryexperts to discuss major col-laborations and build rela-tionships between industryand academia based on currentsocietal requirement,”informed IIT-D.

The Industry Day focusedon five themes - Healthcare forall, smart manufacturing, arti-

ficial intelligence andBlockchain Technologies,Sustainable Habitat andStrengthening the Start-upEco-system under which theevent highlighted IIT Delhi'sarray of cutting-edge workand research capabilities.

Prof. Ramgopal Rao,Director, IIT Delhi said,“Industry Day presents anideal way to identify mean-ingful collaborations that willboth enhance industry andresearch needs. This year'sevent has been a stimulating

one for the attendees and weare happy that we will be mov-ing towards bringing excitingnew developments to market.”

A host of innovative solu-tions were on display, such asPesticide-based treatment forsnake bites, the advancementof recombinant DNA technol-ogy, Ultra Precision Machiningfor Strategic ManufacturingCapability, Air PollutionMonitoring from Space andPhase Change Material (PCM)incorporated bricks for com-posite climate.

NEW DELHI:A Delhi court onSaturday discharged DeputyChief Minister Manish Sisodia,AAP MLAs Amanatullah andSanjeev Jha and others in a caserelated to a protest held by themoutside the Tihar jail in2014.Additional ChiefMetropolitan Magistrate SamarVishal granted relief to theaccused saying there was adelay of four years in filing thecharge sheet against the accused“without any valid reason.”The matter relates to the proteststaged by them after AAP con-vener Arvind Kejriwal wastaken into judicial custody whenhe refused to furnish a bail bondin a defamation case filed by BJPleader Nitin Gadkari.The court took note of thesubmissions made by advocateMohd Irshad, appearing for theAAP leaders, that there was noallegation that any of theaccused person was abscondingor hiding in the case.The court also noted that as perthe police record itself the pri-mary investigation was com-pleted within a few days of theincident itself.The final report had accused 59persons, including some AamAadmi Party (AAP) lawmakersand workers, of joining or con-tinuing in unlawful assembly,knowing that it has been com-manded to disperse, and dis-obedience to the order duly pro-mulgated by a public servant. A Delhi court had sentKejriwal to two-day judicialcustody in May 2014 after herefused to furnish the bailamount of Rs 10,000. Withtheir leader in Tihar, partymembers and AAP supportersgathered outside the high-security jail to protest againstthe arrest and clashed with thepolice. SR

������������ � #91�9:,!

Water supplies would beaffected in parts of

national Capital on Mondayand Tuesday as the Delhi JalBoard (DJB) will do the main-tenance of its pipeline. Theareas where supply would beaffected are Darya Ganj, LNJPHospital, National ZoologicalPark, Pragati Maidan KakaNagar, CGO Complex, LodhiRoad, Nizammudin and

adjoining areas.DJB in a statement said

that due to interconnectionwork for shifting of 900 mmdiameter pipelines at HanumanMandir to Samta Sthal, RingRoad, Bhairon Marg, NationalZoological Park to OberoiFlyover and Mathura Road thesupply will not be available oravailable at low pressure onMonday and Tuesday.

The board has advised res-idents to store sufficient quan-

tity of water in advance as pertheir requirement in order toavoid any inconvenience.

It informed that watertankers would be made avail-able on request on the tele-phone numbers 1916,23527679, 23513073,1800117118 (Central ControlRoom), 22370911, 23378761(IP Pumping Station),23810930 (Chandrawal WaterEmergency), 29819035 (JalSadan).

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Prime Minister NarendraModi on his visit to Janjgir-

Champa district also famouslyknown as ‘Kosa Town’ receiveda unique gift on Saturday.

A couple gifted the PM ajacket and shawl made from thethreads of banana plant.

The PM was in Janjgir-Champa to launch differentprojects and address theFarmers’ Convention’. He saidin his address making clothfrom the stem of banana provesthat how farmer can utiliseunwanted materials to make auseful material.

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New Delhi: Delhi police have busted an international drug car-tel and arrested three foreign nationals from capital's Saket area.Heroin worth Rs 25 crore has been seized from the accused, policesaid on Saturday.

The accused have been identified as Esmatullah (40),Khalilullah (22), from Afghanistan and Victor Osondu (37) fromNigeria.

Deputy Commissioner of Police P.S. Kushwah said they arethe key members of an international drug cartel.

The three were arrested on Tuesday at 1.15 a.m. from Saketwhen Esmatullah and Khalilullah came to deliver a consignmentof heroin to Osondo, Kushwah said.

"Apart from heroin, Osondo handed $4,200 to Esmatullah.The amount has been seized," the officer said.

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The disclosure by MahindaRajapaksa, the former President

of Sri Lanka that the then UPAGovernment was kept informed bythe then Government of the islandnation about each and every stage ofthe final phase of the civil waragainst the Liberation Tigers ofTamil Eelam in May 2009 has left theDMK and Congress leaders per-plexed.

Rajapaksa, during his recent visitto New Delhi to address the delegatesof the Virat Hindustan Sangham ledby BJP MP Subramanian Swamy hadsaid that a team of officials from Indiaand Sri Lanka were in the know ofthings about the progress of the warwhich led to the annihilation of theLTTE and its leader Prabhakaran.The former Sri Lankan president alsosaid that India had cooperated withhis country in the last stage of thecivil war.

This led to the AIADMKGovernment in Tamil Nadu todeclare on Friday that the partywould organise public meetings all

over the State on September 25 toinform the people how the DMKplayed a crucial role in the murderof Tamils in northern Sri Lanka.

The AIADMK Government gota shot in the arm as World TamilForum, an outfit floated by theLankan Tamils based In Chennaideclaring its support to theSeptember 25 public meetings againstthe Congress-DMK axis. “We knowthat the DMK leaders were hand inglove with the Congress and the SriLankan military in murdering Tamilsin northern Sri Lanka. The Tamilsextend our support to the publlcmeetings to be held in Tamil Naduon September 25,” said Agni, coor-dinator of the Forum.

“The DMK has no role in thatincident. What the AIADMKGovernment is trying to do is todivert the attention of the peoplefrom the corruption charges faced bythe Edappadi PalaniswamyGovernment,” said TKS Elangovan,the official spokesman of the DMK.

Pon Radhakrishnan, UnionMinister of State for Shipping,Highways and Finance said inNagercoil that the disclosure by

Rajapaksa exposed the hypocrisyand double standard of the Congressand the DMK towards the Tamils inSri Lanka and Tamil Nadu. “TheCongress should not be allowed to setits foot in Tamil Nadu. It is a partyof cheats and crooks. What weshould understand from Rajapaksa’sstatement is that the Congress andthe DMK were in secret alliance withthe Sri Lankan military in the anni-hilation of 1.5 lakh Tamils in the May2009 civil war,” said Radhakrishnan.

The Congress in Tamil Nadu,facing factionalism and group war,found it difficult to clear the doubtsamong the people about the approachof the party towards the LankanTamils. S Thirunavakarassar, presi-dent, TNCC, stated that theannouncement by the AIADMKgovernment to hold public meetingsagainst the DMK was to create con-fusion in the Congress-DMKalliance. “A wave of anti-AIADMKstatement has begun sweeping theState. Hence protest meetings on thesri Lankan Tamil’s issue will neverhelp the party save its Governmentor come back to power,” saidThiruvanakarassar.

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In a first, the CRPF has inducted five Mahilacompanies (500combatants) for anti-terrorist

operations in Jammu & Kashmir and will helpin containing women stone-pelters and areasgheraoed by women during cordon and searchoperations by the security forces.

The companies operate from a base atBemina in Srinagar and dispatched to locationsbased on operational requirements. The womenpersonnel are equipped with assault rifles likeAK-47 for operations in the hinterland and 9 mmpistol for close combat in urban settings besidesbullet-proof vests.

As part of pre-induction training, the com-panies were initially deployed in guard duties atvarious places including the Srinagar airport. Thewomen personnel have also been exposed to riotcontrol and mob control. The companies havebeen trained in counter-insurgency and anti-ter-rorist operations for operational requirement inthe Valley.

The CRPF has already deployed Mahila com-panies for anti-Naxal operations in Chhattisgarhand Jharkhand.

A senior CRPF officer handling training inthe paramilitary said, “The decision to put trainedwomen on the ground in the Valley was takenas part of tactical requirements as the separatistgroups and terror- sympathizing outfits oftenbring women to the fore to disrupt cordon and

search operations and often engaged for throw-ing stones on the security forces. In such a sit-uation, our boys (jawans) are at receiving end andthe terrorists escape after taking advantage of thedisturbance. The Mahila companies will now takecare of the stone-pelting women and those dis-rupting anti-terrorist operations.”

The separatist and terrorist groups oftenmade a huge issue when protesting women wereinjured even inadvertently by security forces dur-ing operations or for controlling violent stone-throwing mobs. The human rights groups alsoused to make a huge issue out of such lawfuloperations by the security forces against the ultraswho were readily backed by local women andchildren, a source said.

The CRPF has deployed over 60 battalions(60,000 personnel) in Jammu and Kashmir forlaw and order and anti-terrorist operations in theinsurgency-hit State.

Earlier, the Indo-Tibetan Border Police thatguards the Indo-China border had deployed fivecompanies for combat operations in the high-altitude frontier.

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The Ministry of HomeAffairs (MHA) has come

out with a draft of ‘microdotsystem’ to curb incidents ofmotor vehicle thefts in thecountry. Under this, thousandsof small dots laser etched willbe sprayed with a vehicle iden-tification number on all overthe vehicle’s body including itsengine. As the dots are less than1mm in diameter it is impos-sible to locate and removeeveryone. This makes it verydifficult for a car thief to con-ceal the vehicle’s true identity.It also allows usually untrace-able parts to be linked to a par-ticular vehicle, thereby aidingin the recovery of stolen com-ponents. The technology isbeing used in countries likeSouth Africa, Australia, NewZealand, Chile, Taiwan,Canada, the US and theEuropean Union (EU), amongothers to prevent and reducemotor vehicle theft.

Officials of Home Ministrysaid that a microdot is text oran image substantially reducedin size onto a small disc to pre-vent detection by unintendedrecipients. It involves sprayingthousands of the small dotslaser etched with a VehicleIdentification Number (VIN),throughout the vehicle.

The dots, which are lessthan 1 mm across, are carriedin an adhesive that fluorescesunder Ultra Violet light. It’s asimple matter then to identifya treated area and recover oneof the dots for viewing undera special magnifier, whichreveals the dot’s number.Because the dots are spreadthroughout the vehicle, it isimpossible to find and removeevery one. “The microdots arebrushed or sprayed onto thekey parts of an asset to providecomplete parts marking,” offi-cials said. “All the text on everymicrodot shall be legible withequipment that magnifies the

text at least 60 times.Characters on the microdotshall be consecutive and notseparated by spaces,” the draftsaid.

According to officials, theministry discussed the tech-nology with several industryexperts before arriving at thefinal conclusion.”

The use of marking vehi-cles with microdots is calledWhole of Vehicle Marking(WoVM),” officials added. InSouth Africa it is a legalrequirement to have microdotfitted to all new vehicles soldsince September 2012.

As per Home Ministry’sNational Crime Record Bureau(NCRB) data, as many as 2.14lakh vehicles are stolen acrossIndia annually. According toNCRB, Delhi is top in the listof vehicle theft as many as38,644 cases were reported in2016 followed by Uttar Pradeshwith 34,480 automobile thefts.Maharashtra reported thirdhighest 22,435 thefts of vehiclesfollowed by Rajasthan 17,544and Madhya Pradesh 15,878.

As per Delhi police data, in2018, an average of 110-120vehicles being stolen in the cap-ital every day has been report-ed. What is more shocking isthe fact that less than 8 per centcases are solved by the police.Motor vehicle thefts accountfor nearly one-fifth of the totalnumber of cases registeredunder the IPC in Delhi. Lastyear, cops recovered only 10 percent of the stolen vehicles. TheDelhi Police report states that41,000 vehicles were stolen inthe last year of which around30 vehicles a month wererecovered.

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As the political war andblame game escalates over

controversial Rafale fighter jetdeal, the Defence PSU HALheadquartered in Bengaluruis worried over the impact ofthe deal on its existence.Hindustan AeronauticsLimited with over 29,000employees spread across thecountry has very much cashstrapped and now looking at ableak future. HAL in it’s over 70years of existence has suffereda huge financial crunch andmight affect some of the ongo-ing projects.

A senior executive who ispart of HAL’s many projects onthe condition of anonymityfeels the cancellation RFQ forproduction of 106 Rafale fight-ers and technology transferhas hit the PSU very badly. Hesaid “ because of the faulty RFQwe have lost the production of

Rafale fighters in our facility. Asthe impact we are cashstrapped. We have only �1,500crore and have to pay �400crores as salaries per monthapproximately for the employ-ees.”

“The SU-30 production iscoming to end and the finan-cial crunch has hit the designand development of new pro-jects in the pipeline. We haveto stop IMRH( IndianMultirole Helicopter), two aeroengine development and newUAV projects apart from oth-ers’, he said and added that gov-ernment should come to therescue of HAL to bring backits glory by reviving projects inthe pipeline.

Another senior retired offi-cial who has seen the RafaleRFQ from the beginning saidfor the first time in the histo-ry of HAL, MoD wanted to signa contract with OEM andaccordingly introduced new

clauses in the RFP which were,unfortunately, not workable.

He said “ I feel there was noother option for the MoD butto cancel the proposed contractdue to the defective RFP issuedby the them. He said “1.Onlyone contract will be signed byMoD with the OEM. HAL willsign a separate contract withOEM. 2. OEM has to take theresponsibility of warranty anddelivery of all the aircraft pro-duced by him as well as the 108jets assembled by HAL. 3.OEM has to include the cost ofaircraft assembled at HAL inthe overall quotation and 4. Lifecycle cost to be included in thequote”.

“We all know the result ofnegotiation with Dassault. It’snot higher man hours claimedby HAL or perception ofNirmala Sitharaman aboutHAL, it’s the defective RFPwhich pulled the curtain beforethe show could begin” he

added.Another official said the

buyback share has affectedthe financial position to agreat extent. He said recentlythe employees union demand-ed a pay hike and companycould not give them any hikebut rejected their demandbecause of the the financialposition.

HAL has the experience ofworking with Dassault whereover 60 Mirage 2,000 fighterswere maintained and upgrad-ed recently. Only they haveorders for 73 Advanced LightHelicopters (ALH) andsources say so far there is noconfirmation about 83 LCAand waiting for the confirma-tion.

HAL which is the back-bone of Indian defence forcesis struggling for its existenceand became an easy prey to thepolitical slugfest of the Rafaledeal.

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Veteran journalists andfamous TV personality

Karan Thapar has said that thestatement of former Presidentof France, François Hollande,that Indian Government hadsuggested the name of AnilAmbani’s company for theRafale deal and Dassault wasnot given any choice possiblycould be “Bofors moment” ofthe BJP and Prime MinisterNarendar Modi.

It has not only exposed thelies of the Defence MinisterNiramala Sitaraman and ArunJaitely that it was the decisionof Dassault but also showedthat the Modi Governmentinsisted that a particularorganisation should be givenoffset making mockery of therules.

Participating in an inter-action with the journalists andjournalism students under theaegis of Press Club, Hyderabadhere on Saturday, Karan Thaparrecalled that Modi can notquestion the integrity of ex-French President as he hadinvited him at the chief guest ofthe Republic Day celebrationsin 2016.

“This (Rafale deal episode)has higher profile than Bofors.While there was a smoking gunand money trail in Boforsscandal, here thre was a suspi-cion of a smoking gun now”,Karan said.

He recalled that whenSwedish Radio had exposedBofors, the Opposition led byVP Singh had effectively usedit and members of all the par-ties barring Congress hadresigned from Parliament.

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Trouble seems to be deepening for the AzanInternational school as another minor girl

has complained to the police that she and herclassmates were also subjected to sexualabuse in the school.

According to the complaint lodged atGolkonda police station the incident occurredon the same day as the incident of rape of afour year old girl came to light leading to theclosure of school last week.

The parents of the second victim told thepolice that they came to know when theirdaughter spoke of the abuse, she and her classmates were subjected to by an unknown“uncle”.

The girl told the parents that the “uncle”pushed her and other class mates into a dark-room and after beating sexually abused herand others. He also threatened to kill them ifthey told anybody about it.

The fresh case came to light even beforethe students of the school and the parentscould recover from the shock of the first inci-dent a week ago. After the complaint of therape was lodged last week the school educa-tion department ordered the closure ofschool.

Nayyara Feroz, correspondent of theschool said that they were yet to receive anyofficial information about the second com-plaint.

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Army Chief General BipinRawat said on Saturday,

stern action is needed toavenge the barbarism by ter-rorists and Pakistan Armyagainst Indian soldiers.

The comment comes aftera BSF jawan was shot and histhroat slit recently, followed bythe brutal killings of threepolicemen in Jammu &Kashmir.

“We need to take sternaction to avenge the kind ofbarbarism that terrorists andthe Pakistan Army have beencarrying against our soldiers. Itis time to give it back to themin the same coin but not byresorting to similar kind ofbarbarism. I think the otherside must also feel the same

pain,” the Army chief said at apress conference here. He saidtalks and terrorism could notgo hand in hand, and Pakistanneeded to curb the menace ofterrorism and not allow ter-rorist to use their soil againstIndia.

Rawat insisted that actionagainst Pakistan was needed

but not in a barbaric manner.“We have carried out similaractions against them whenev-er they did something againstIndia on the border. Pakistanhas suffered many casualtiesand we have been able to takeon their defence system to alarge extent but we neverresorted to barbarism,” he said.

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Sitting BJP MLA from BithariChainpur here, Rajesh

Mishra, his son and supporterswere booked on Saturday foropposing a Muharram proces-sion, police said.

Five cases were registered atCantonment and BithariChainpur police stations againstMishra and others for opposinga Muharram procession in vil-lage Khajuria, they said.

The village lies at the bor-der of the limits of the twopolice stations. “Five cases per-taining to rioting, disturbingpeace and obstructingGovernment officials from per-forming their duty were regis-tered against Rajesh Mishra, BJPMLA from Bithari Chainpur, hisson, three aides and 25 uniden-tified persons,” InspectorCantonment police stationDevendra Kumar Singh said.

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West Bengal Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee on

Saturday blamed the RSS andthe BJP for the death of two stu-dents during a protest againstappointment of Urdu teachers ina school and accused them oftrying to create communal dis-turbance.

Banerjee, who is in Milan,Italy, on an official tour, alsocame out in support of provid-ing Urdu teachers to DaribhitaSchool in Islampur in NorthDinajpur where a clash betweenprotesters and police claimed thelives of the two students.

The BJP has called a 12-hour shutdown in the state onSeptember 26 to protest againstthe death of the two students.

Warning the saffron organ-

isations “not to play with fire bydoing politics on the issue”, sheappealed to the people of thestate not to pay heed to the pol-itics of the BJP and the RSS andfoil the shutdown.

“The BJP and the RSSshould say why the two studentswere killed,” she said whileinteracting with journalists fromthe city who were accompany-ing her.

“They (BJP, RSS) are likevultures waiting for a death andthen start doing politics over it.They do politics even with deathof students. First they commit amurder and then play holi withthe (dead person’s) blood.

“The BJP and the RSS haveto answer why the two studentswere killed. And until they givetheir answer I ask my partyactivists to conduct peacefulmeetings and rallies in theirrespective areas without fightingover the issue,” the TrinamoolCongress supremo, who is cur-rently on an official tour ofEurope to invite investors, said.

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Thousands of people took to the streets here onSaturday demanding the inclusion of the Khasi

language in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.The rally came a day after the Meghalaya cab-

inet approved a proposal to pass an official reso-lution in the on-going Assembly session to seekinclusion of the language in the Schedule of offi-cial languages and the same will be forwarded tothe Home Ministry for consideration.

Organised by the Khasi Authors Society (KAS)and backed by social organisations, the rally alsosaw participation of political leaders from the stateand representatives of the local parties.

KAS president DRL Nonglait informed thegathering that there are over 14 lakh people (1.4 mil-lion) speaking Khasi according to the Census 2011while only 4 lakh is the criteria for a language tobe spoken to be included in the schedule of offi-cial languages.

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Calling Rahul Gandhi a “bechara”(helpless), Uttar Pradesh Chief

Minister Yogi Adityanath onSaturday said the Congress presi-dent was not aware of facts and onlyreads the scripts given to him.

Adityanath’s reaction comesafter the Gandhi scion threw the“thief ” barb at Prime MinisterNarendra Modi in the wake of for-mer French president FrancoisHollande’s sensational claim on theRafale deal.

“Rahul Gandhi is a bechara(helpless) as he is not aware of factsand only reads the given script,”Adityanath told reporters here at theGorakhnath temple.

The UP chief minister saidafter more than 70 years ofIndependence and successive

Governments headed by theCongress party and the family ofRahul Gandhi, the poor were stillneglected.

“The benefits of governmentschemes have not reached the ben-eficiaries. If poor people were awareof the schemes, they wouldnt havebeen deprived,” he said.

“Congress and Rahul Gandhishould apologise (to the people of

India). Everyone knows who thethief is,” he added.

He further accused theCongress of playing with the “secu-rity of the nation”.

“They (apparently referring tothe Congress) divided the countryon the lines of caste and geograph-ical area and also surrenderedbefore terrorism, separatism andcommunalism,” he said.

Showering praises on Modi, theUP chief minister said, the countrywas “moving on the path of devel-opment” under the prime minister’sleadership.

“Prime Minister NarendraModi has provided houses, toiletsand gas connections to the people...These families were deprived andfor this Rahul Gandhi’s Congressand his family are responsible,” headded.

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Page 6: English News Paper | Breaking News | Latest Today News in ... · Urban Affairs (HUA) has allowed the Delhi Development Authority’s (DDA) proposal to modify the Master Plan for Delhi

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Jack Ma, the pioneer ofChina's Internet industry,

termed the speculation aroundhis retirement as a “sea gossip”,saying he would rather die onthe beach than in his executiveoffice at Alibaba.

On 10 September, Chinesebillionaire Ma, on his 54thbirthday, announced that hewould step down as Alibaba'sexecutive chairman in one yearto make way for the next gen-eration of leaders at the $420billion e-commerce giant. Henamed the company's ChiefExecutive Officer Daniel Zhangas his successor who wouldtake charge in September nextyear, while he would continueto be a director.

His retirement reportsparked off speculation that hecould be stepping down due tothe prevailing business envi-ronment in China. The NewYork Times in its report saidMa was retiring as China'sbusiness environment hadsoured, with Beijing and state-owned enterprises increasing-ly playing more intervention-ist roles with companies.

Speaking about his retire-ment at the concluding sessionof the Summer Davos Forumin China's Tianjin city onThursday, Ma said “gossip hasbeen around us every day forthe last 19 years. For someone

who has a dream for the future,gossips, rumours, hardshipsand frustrations will always bepart of your life.”

Reporting on Ma's speechat the forum, China's state-runXinhua news agency reportedthat sceptics said he was forcedto step down, while othersclaimed he had already shifteda large number of assets toother countries, and was plan-ning to leave China.

Ma said he did not careabout rumours. “To friends,you don't need to explain. Tonon-friends, the more youexplain, the worse the situationbecomes,” he said. “At the ageof 54, I am a bit old in theInternet industry, but quiteyoung for many other sectors,”he said. “In the next 15 to 16years, there's still a lot of thingsI can do. I know it would bedifficult for people at the age of55 or 56, say 60, to leave. Bythen you would no longer besure about your future, and youwould hang on.”

The retirement decisionwas not a retreat, but actually“a step forward” for himself andthe company, Ma said.

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Google has tweaked the pri-vacy policy of its Indian

digital payments mobile appli-cation, days after local rivalPaytm complained that the UStech giant's platform alloweddisclosure of customer data foradvertising and other purposes.

The row has erupted amidheightened debate about userprivacy and how technologyfirms treat data in India andabroad. The Government isdeveloping a new data protec-tion law which could forcecompanies to change how theytransfer or store customer data.

In a letter to the NationalPayments Corporation of India(NPCI), dated 13 September,Paytm complained that GooglePay's privacy policy amountedto “clear disregard for a con-sumer's need for privacy”.

Google Pay's privacy policyhad said it could “collect, store,use and/or disclose” personaldata and “any communicationsmade through Google Pay”.

A Reuters review ofGoogle's privacy policy thatwas updated on Thursdayshowed the company haddropped the word “disclose”from its privacy clause.

Google told Reuters in astatement that the changes weremade to make it easier for cus-tomers to understand their mon-etisation and data usage policy.

It declined to comment on

whether they were made due toPaytm's letter or any subsequentcommunication from the NPCI.

“These changes are donefrom time to time and arebased on product features anddevelopment,” a Googlespokesman said.

Dilip Asbe, the chief of theNPCI which oversees the pay-ments services in India,declined to comment.

Paytm, which is backedby China's Alibaba andJapan's SoftBank, a lsodeclined comment.

Paytm's letter to NPCIindicates the increasingly fiercecompetition in India's digitalpayments market, which isexpected to grow five-fold to$1 trillion by 2023. Othercompanies vying for a biggershare of the market includePayPal and Facebook'sWhatsapp.

Paytm gained traction afterthe government banneddemonetised �500 and �1,000currency notes in November2016, boosting digital pay-ments. It has 95 million activemonthly users, compared toGoogle Pay's 22 million.

Washington: President DonaldTrump's China tariff policy ishaving a devastating impact onthe US polysilicon manufac-turing industry, which couldsoon force the closure of RECSilicon in Washington State, agroup of top American law-makers said Saturday.In a letter to Trump, the groupof five lawmakers fromWashington State urged him tofind an immediate resolution to

the trade dispute over Chinesesolar panels and Americanpolysilicon, noting that hun-dreds more highly skilledworkers could lose their jobs ifa solution was not found.The issue of immediate con-cern is the possible closer of theREC Silicon manufacturingfacility, they said. “The closurewill result in the loss of 150-200highly skilled manufacturersand will severely impact the

economy of EasternWashington,” said the letter,signed by Senators PattyMurray and Maria Cantwelland Congressmen DanNewhouse, Dave Reichert andDenny Heck.”We stronglyencourage your trade negotiatorsto raise the issues facing the USpolysilicon industry, and werequest a progress report onthese negotiations as soon as pos-sible,” the letter reads. PTI

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The Indian rupee remainedunder intense selling pres-

sure and witnessed a free fallfor the fourth straight week,plunging to hit a fresh life-timelow against the US dollar beforemanaging a small recovery.

Overall, the forex moodbroadly undermined on theback of increasing impact ofgeopolitical threats and con-cerns on macro-economicfront.

The Government's confi-dence building measures tocurb the currency volatilityalso fell short of many investors'expectations, causing heavysell-off and the local stocks totake a massive plunge.

Trading in an extremelyvolatile market environment,the bruised rupee ended at72.20, showing a steep loss of 36paise.

Panic dollar demand fromimporters and speculativetraders sent the home currencysinking to a historic low of72.99.

It lost a whopping 229paise in its four-consecutiveweekly slide. Although, thedomestic currency managedregain some lost ground,trimming its weekly decline.

The crash came despitethe governments recentannouncement of a slew ofmeasures to attract more for-eign fund inflows into thecountry.

The Asia's third-largesteconomy - India is facingsevere macro challenges andgoldilocks economic condi-tions are now changing fast.

A sharp spike in interna-tional crude oil prices weighed

on the trading front towardsthe tail-end session even as theUS dollar fell to seven-weeklows after Donald Trumpannounced fresh 10 per centtariffs on Chinese imports

The stubbornly high glob-al crude oil prices are openingup a can of worms to height-ened inflation risks and likelyto disrupt government's fiscalmaths along with deterioratingglobal financial conditions.

Considering that India is anet importer of crude oil, theimpact of this imported infla-tion is expected to be signifi-cant.

The upcoming week willbring a Fed's monetary policymeeting, with rates expected tobe rising by 25 bps.The bench-mark 10-year sovereign yield,however fell by 5bps to 8.08 percent from 8.13 per cent.

In the meantime, crudeprices pared gains, following areport that OPEC and its alliesare considering a coordinatedincrease in crude production.

The OPEC meeting withallies in Algiers is expected tofocus on production gains asIranian sanctions and depletionrates in Venezuela look to force

the hand of OPEC.Benchmark brent crude

futures settled at $ 78.80 a bar-rel for the week.

Meanmwhile, India's for-eign exchange reserves rose by $1.207 billion to $ 400.489 billionin the week to September 14 onaccount of increase in foreigncurrency assets, according to RBIdata. In the previous week,forex reserves had declined by $819.5 million to USD 399.282billion.

Foreign investors andfunds pulled out a massive Rs9,400 crore ($ 1.3 billion) fromthe capital markets inSeptember so far, on wideningcurrent account deficit due toa surge in oil prices and depre-ciating rupee.

The latest outflowcomes following a net infusionof close to � 5,200 crore in thecapital markets, both equityand debt, last month and�2,300 crore in August.

Fitch Ratings has upward-ly revised its forecast for India'seconomic growth to 7.8 percent from 7.4 per cent for thecurrent fiscal.

Backtracking a brief week-end recovery trend, the rupeeopened with a sharp 66 paisefall to 72.50 against the US dol-lar at the inter-bank foreignexchange (forex) market.

It quickly extended lossesdue to heavy speculative sell-off and crashed to hit an all-time low of 72.99, forcing RBIintervention in the currencymarket and restricting thelocal unit from breaching the73-mark.

Anyway, the domestic unitrecovered some ground andextended to subsequent tradingbreakouts.

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.���3�>�������������������������.-#�����>��New Delhi:Anil KumarChaudhary Saturday tookcharge as chairman of state-owned Steel Authority of IndiaLimited (SAIL), an officialstatement said.

Prior to this, he was direc-tor (finance) of SAIL since2011. SAIL is the largest steel-making company in India andone of the seven Maharatnas ofthe country's Central PublicSector Enterprises. “A graduatefrom the University of Delhi,Chaudhary joined SAIL in 1984as junior manager (F&A).PTI

Walmart India, the sub-sidiary of Walmart Inc, on

Saturday announced the open-ing of its 22nd business-to-business Cash and Carry storein the country, making it thesecond Best Price ModernWholesale store in Ludhianaand the sixth in Punjab.

The new store simultane-ously got integrated with the B2Be-commerce platform, making itthe 22nd Best Price store to goonline, a release said here.

"I am very excited aboutopening the 22nd Cash andCarry store in India. It reiter-ates our commitment to India

and our growth plans. Settingup a second store in Ludhianaand sixth one in Punjab rein-forces our belief in the ease ofdoing business here in thestate," Walmart India Presidentand CEO Krish Iyer said.

The Best Price ModernWholesale Store stocks over5,000 items, including a widerange of fresh, frozen andchilled foods, fruits and veg-etables, dry groceries, person-al and home care items, hoteland restaurant supplies, appar-el, office supplies, electronicgoods and other general mer-chandise items. PTI

New Delhi: Tata Steel onSaturday announced it willacquire the steel business ofUsha Martin Ltd for �4,300-4,700 crore.

The sale of steel business toTata Steel will help the compa-ny in “significant reduction” ofits debt, Usha Martin said in afiling to the BSE. The deal isexpected to be completed in 6-9 months, it added.

Tata Steel, in a release, saidit has executed definitive agree-ments for the acquisition ofUsha Martin’s steel businessthrough a slump sale on a goingconcern basis. “It is proposedthat the steel business of UshaMartin Ltd will be acquiredsubject to transaction closing,for a cash consideration ofbetween �4,300 and �4,700crore (subject to various trans-action adjustments),” therelease said.

The closing of the acquisi-tion is subject to fulfilment ofvarious conditions under theagreements.

Usha Martin’s steel businesscomprises the specialised 1million-tonnes-per-annum(MTPA) alloy based manufac-turing capacity in the longproducts segment based inJamshedpur, a producing iron-ore mine, a coal mine underdevelopment and captivepower plants.

The transaction and acqui-sition structure would be deter-mined shortly, Tata Steel added.

Tata Steel had an annualcapacity of 27.5 MTPA as onMarch 31, 2018. PTI

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The West Bengal govern-ment is the process of

comissioning floating solarpower plantsby next year,s t a t eMinister forPower andNon-renew-able EnergySobhandevChattterjeesaid.

The twoplants wouldcome up at Sagardighi andMukutmanipur with generat-ing capacities of five MW and100 MW respectively.

Speaking to reporters onthe sidelines of a seminar

organised by MCCI andWBSEB Officers Assoctaionhere on Saturday, Chatterjeesaid detailed project report(DPR) of the projects has been

already pre-pared.

Cost forconstructingt h eSagardighiplant wouldbe Rs fivecrore, hesaid addingthat the costof installa-

tion reduces with the increasein generating capacity.

Chatterjee said that in thelast seven years, industrialdemand had increased 27.22per cent.

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Passengers travelling in econ-omy class of Jet Airways

flights can choose a travel planwith or without complimenta-ry meals, according to the air-line. The full service carrier hasintroduced "unbundled fares in'Light' and 'Deal' categories" foreconomy class journey indomestic flights. In a releaseissued on September 19, theairline said it is introducing"options for lowest fare cate-gories, enabling guests tochoose between flight plusmeal or flight only option".

"From September 25, 2018,guests travelling in the economyand booking 'Light/ Deal' faresfor travel from September 28,2018, on its flights within Indiawill not only be able to availcompetitive low fares but havethe opportunity to buy mealsfrom a specially curated on-board menu," the release said.

The airline would contin-ue offering complimentarymeals across 'Light/ Deal' fare

choices who have made book-ings before September 24. "Onflights within India, all featuresand benefits, including com-plimentary meals will contin-ue for Economy fare optionsviz. 'Saver', 'Classic' and 'Flex'and for all fare options inPremiere," the release said.

Currently, there are fivefare options in economy class-- 'Light', 'Deal', 'Saver', 'Classic'and 'Flex'. On all domesticflights, all features and benefits,including complimentarymeals will continue for theeconomy fare options of 'Saver','Classic' and 'Flex and for allfare options in Premiere.

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Page 7: English News Paper | Breaking News | Latest Today News in ... · Urban Affairs (HUA) has allowed the Delhi Development Authority’s (DDA) proposal to modify the Master Plan for Delhi

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Militants shot dead at least29 people including

women and children in anattack on Saturday on anIranian military parade claimedby the Islamic State group, asTehran accused a US ally in theregion of the assault.

The attack in the south-western city of Ahvaz came asthe country marked theanniversary of the start of its1980-1988 war with SaddamHussein’s Iraq and promptedPresident Hassan Rouhani towarn of a “crushing response”.

“The response of theIslamic Republic of Iran to thesmallest threat will be crush-ing”, Rouhani said on his offi-cial website. “Those who giveintelligence and propagandasupport to these terrorists mustanswer for it.” Foreign MinisterMohammad Javad Zarif said ina tweet that the attack near theIraqi border was carried out by“terrorists recruited, trained,armed & paid by a foreignregime”.

“Iran holds regional terrorsponsors and their US mastersaccountable for such attacks,”he wrote. IS jihadists said viatheir propaganda mouthpieceAmaq that “Islamic State fight-ers attacked a gathering ofIranian forces” in Ahvaz.

The city lies in Khuzestan,a province bordering Iraq thathas a large ethnic Arab com-munity and has seen sepa-ratist violence in the past thatIran has blamed on its region-al rivals.

State television gave a casu-alty toll of 29 dead and 57wounded, while official newsagency IRNA said those killedincluded women and childrenamong spectators at the rally.Many of the wounded were in

critical condition.Armed forces spokesman

Brigadier General AbolfazlShekarchi said the dead includ-ed a young girl and a formerserviceman in a wheelchair.

“Of the four terrorists,three were sent to hell at thescene, while the fourth whohad been wounded and arrest-ed went to hell moments agodue to his severe wounds,”Shekarchi told state television.

Khuzestan deputy gover-nor Ali-Hossein Hosseinzadehtold the semi-official ISNAnews agency that “eight tonine” troops were among thosekilled, as well as a journalist.

Zarif did not specify whichregional government he heldresponsible for the shooting,but Iran’s elite RevolutionaryGuards said the attackers werefunded by Sunni arch-rivalSaudi Arabia.

“Those who opened fire oncivilians and the armed forceshave links to the Ahvazi move-ment,” Guards spokesmanRamezan Sharif told ISNA.

“They are funded by SaudiArabia and attempted to cast ashadow over the Iranian armedforces.” Zarif vowed Iran would“respond swiftly and decisive-ly in defence of Iranian lives”.

In a message of condolenceto Russia’s close regional ally,President Vladimir Putin saidhe was “appalled by this bloodycrime”.

“This event once againreminds us about the necessi-ty of an uncompromising bat-tle against terrorism in all of itsmanifestations.” Khuzestan wasa major battleground of the1980s war with Iraq and theattack on the anniversaryparade in Ahvaz had significantsymbolic value.

The province saw unrest in2005 and 2011 but has since

seen been largely quiet. Attacksby Kurdish rebels on militarypatrols along the border furthernorth are relatively common.But attacks on regime targetsinside major cities are far rarer.

On June 7, 2017, 17 peoplewere killed and dozens wound-ed in simultaneous attacks inTehran on the parliamentbuilding and on the tomb ofrevolutionary leader RuhollahKhomeini -- the first insideIran claimed by the SunniMuslim extremists of theIslamic State group. In April, 26alleged IS jihadists went on trialon charges connected with thattwin attack.

The attack in Ahvaz cameas President Rouhani wasamong dignitaries at the mainanniversary parade in Tehran.

In a keynote speech,Rouhani vowed to boost Iran’sballistic missile capabilitiesdespite Western concerns thatwere cited by his US counter-part Donald Trump in Maywhen he abandoned a land-mark nuclear deal with Tehran.

“We will never decrease

our defensive capabilities... Wewill increase them day by day,”Rouhani said at a militaryparade. “The fact that the mis-siles anger you shows they areour most effective weapons,” hesaid, referring to the West.

Iran has ballistic missileswith a range of up to 3,500 kilo-metres, enough to reach bothIsrael and US bases in theMiddle East.

The United States reim-posed crippling sanctions onIran last month, and a newround of even harsher sanc-tions targeting Iran’s vital oilsector is set to go back intoeffect on November 5.

Washington has said it isready to open talks on a newagreement to replace the July2015 accord, but Tehran hassaid repeatedly it cannot nego-tiate under the pressure of thesanctions.

Trump and Rouhani willboth be in New York nextweek for the United NationsGeneral Assembly. But Iran hasrepeatedly ruled out any meeting.

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The Trump administrationhas told a federal court that

its decision to revoke work per-mits to H-4 visa users, a sig-nificant majority of whom areIndian-Americans, is expectedwithin the next three months,a move which will have amajor impact on Indianwomen as they are the majorbeneficiary of the Obama-erarule.

H-4 visas are issued by theUS Citizenship andImmigration Services (USCIS)to immediate family members(spouse and children under 21years of age) of the holders ofH-1B visa, the most sought-after among Indian IT profes-sionals.

The Department ofHomeland Security (DHS) inits latest court filing Friday toldthe US District Court inDistrict of Columbia that it was“making a solid and swiftprogress in proposing toremove from its regulations oncertain H-4 spouses of H-1Bnonimmigrants as a class ofaliens eligible for employmentauthorisation”.

The DHS said the newrule would be submitted to theOffice of Management ofBudget (OMB), White House,within three months.

Till then, the departmenturged the court to keep inabeyance its decision on a law-suit filed by ‘Save Jobs USA’,representing a group of USworkers who claim that theirjobs have been hit by such apolicy of the government thatwas promulgated during theprevious Obama administra-tion.

The Trump administra-

tion is currently reviewing theH-1B visa policy that it thinksis being misused by companiesto replace American workers.

The administration hassaid publicly and also in itscourt filing that it wants torevoke work permits to H4 visaholders, a significant majorityof whom are Indian-Americansand women.

The move will have a majorimpact on Indian women asthey are the major beneficiaryof the Obama-era rule.

This is for the third timethat the Department ofHomeland has informed thecourt about the delay in issueof Notice of ProposedRulemaking (NPRM).

The DHS has filed threestatus reports - on February 28,May 22 and August 20. Thenext status report is due onNovember 19.

Explaining the reasons fordelay, the US attorney saidsince the filing of the mostrecent status report, the DHS’ssenior leadership reviewed theproposed rule and returned itto the USCIS this month forrevisions.

“Senior leadership reviewand the request for revisions isstandard practice within the

DHS. When the necessary revi-sions are incorporated, theUSCIS will return the proposedrule to the DHS for final clear-ance and submission to OMB,”he said.

However, ‘Save Jobs USA’has sought an early decisionfrom the court, arguing that thelonger the case remains inabeyance, the greater the pos-sible harm to the US workers.

As of December 25, 2017,the USCIS had approved1,26,853 applications foremployment authorisation forH-4 visa holders. These countall approvals since May 2015when the rule was implement-ed. This number includes90,946 initial approvals, 35,219renewals, and 688 replace-ments for lost cards.

“Ninety-three per cent ofapproved applications for H-4employment authorisationwere issued to individuals bornin India, and five per centwere issued to individuals bornin China. Individuals born inall other countries combinedmake up the remaining two percent of approved applications,”the Congressional ResearchService said in its recent report,based on information obtainedfrom the USCIS.

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Rouhani vowedon Saturday toboost Iran’s bal-listic missilec a p a b i l i t i e sdespite Western concerns thatwere cited by his US counter-part Donald Trump in Maywhen he abandoned a land-mark nuclear deal with Tehran.

“We will never decreaseour defensive capabilities... Wewill increase them day by day,”Rouhani said at a militaryparade.

“The fact that the missilesanger you shows they are ourmost effective weapons,” hesaid, referring to the West.

Iran has ballistic missileswith a range of up to 3,500 kilo-metres (2,200 miles), enough toreach both Israel and US basesin the Middle East.

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India’s decision to cancel theForeign Minister-level meet-

ing in New York was “arrogant”,Pakistan Prime Minister ImranKhan said on Saturday, assert-ing that he was “disappointed”by the New Delhi’s “negative”response.

India on Friday cited the“brutal” killing of three police-men in Jammu and Kashmir aswell as the release of the postalstamps “glorifying” Kashmirimilitant Burhan Wani for call-ing off the meeting betweenExternal Affairs MinisterSushma Swaraj and herPakistani counterpart ShahMehmood Qureshi on the side-lines of the United NationsGeneral Assembly (UNGA) inNew York this month.

Announcing the cancella-tion of the meeting, ExternalAffairs Ministry SpokespersonRaveesh Kumar said in NewDelhi that the incidents“exposed” the “true face” of

Pakistan’s new Prime MinisterImran Khan to the world aswell as Islamabad’s evil agendabehind the proposal for talks.

“The latest brutal killings ofour security personnel byPakistan-based entities and therecent release of a series of 20postage stamps by Pakistanglorifying a terrorist and ter-rorism confirm that Pakistanwill not mend its ways,” Kumarsaid.

“Disappointed at the arro-gant and negative response byIndia to my call for resumptionof the peace dialogue,” PrimeMinister Khan said in a tweet.

“However, all my life Ihave come across small menoccupying big offices who donot have the vision to see the

larger picture,” he said in asharp reaction to India’s can-cellation of the meeting.

Kumar said talks withPakistan after the “two deeplydisturbing” developmentswould be “meaningless”.

“In view of the changed sit-uation, there will be no meet-ing between the ForeignMinisters of India and Pakistanin New York,” he said.

Reacting to india’s remarks,Pakistan Foreign Officespokesman Mohammad Faisalsaid on Friday that the “so-called ‘disturbing develop-ments’” alluded to in the Indianstatement predated the Indianagreement to hold the bilater-al meeting in New York.

He said the alleged killingof a BSF soldier took place twodays prior to the Indianannouncement of its agree-ment to hold the bilateral meet-ing.

When the allegations ofPakistan’s involvement firstappeared, Pakistani rangers

clearly conveyed to BSFthrough official channels thatthe country had nothing to dowith it, he said.

“Pakistan...Categoricallyreject these allegations...Ourauthorities would be preparedto conduct a joint investigationto establish the truth,” Faisalsaid.

On the issue of the postagestamps, he said they wereissued before the July 25 elec-tions and before PrimeMinister Khan assumed officeon August 18.

“We choose not to furthercomment beyond saying thatthese comments are against allnorms of civilised discourseand diplomatic communica-tion,” Faisal said.

“We believe by its ill-con-sidered cancellation of themeeting, India has once againwasted a serious opportunity tochange the dynamics of thebilateral relationship and putthe region on the path of peaceand development,” he added.

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Combat won out over cau-tion. White House aides

and congressional allies workedall week to keep PresidentDonald Trump from unloadingon the woman who has accusedSupreme Court nominee BrettKavanaugh of sexual miscon-duct.

But as Kavanaugh’s nomi-nation hung in the balance,Trump couldn’t contain hisfrustration any longer andunleashed a direct Twitterattack on the credibility ofChristine Blasey Ford, whosays Kavanaugh sexuallyassaulted her decades ago dur-ing a high school party.

Friday’s tweet landed witha splat in the noxious brew ofgender and politics that hastaken over a high-stakes con-firmation battle playing outagainst the backdrop of the#MeToo movement.

In keeping with Trump’snatural instinct to fight backwhen under attack, as well ashis long pattern of defendingpowerful men against theclaims of women, the presi-dent’s tweet reflected growinganger over all the focus onFord’s accusation.

Trump initially believedhe could support his nominee

without wading into the spe-cific allegations againstKavanaugh since they did notinvolve him.

But that began to change asTrump watched ongoing cov-erage of the accusations, par-ticularly on Air Force OneTVs tuned into Fox News onhis long flight Thursday fromWashington to Las Vegas,according to a White Houseofficial and a Republican closeto the White House.

Both spoke on condition ofanonymity because they werenot authorized to discuss pri-vate conversations. Trumpbegan to view the allegations asa scheme to undermine his pickand told one confidant that hedoubted Ford’s credibility. The“fake” attack on Kavanaughreminded him of the broad-sides launched against himduring his presidency and theclaims of sexual misconductthat dogged him at the end ofhis campaign.

Increasingly convinced theaccusations were a Democraticplot being advanced by themedia, Trump tweeted that ifthe attack was really so bad,“charges would have beenimmediately filed with localLaw Enforcement Authoritiesby either her or her loving par-ents.”

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Russian officials had deviseda covert plan to help

Wikileaks founder JulianAssange escape to Russia fromhis Ecuadorian embassy hide-out in London, a UK mediareport claimed on Friday.

The 47-year-old Assangeremains in hiding in a backroom of the central Londonbuilding six years after losinga legal battle against extraditionto Sweden for questioning onallegations of rape and sexualassault.

The Australian nationalhad sought asylum fromEcuador over fears of furtherextradition to the US for sedi-tion and espionage for leakingsecretive documents onWikileaks.

‘The Guardian’ has nowclaimed that Russian officialswere involved in a “basic” planto extract the Wikileaksfounder from the embassy onChristmas Eve last year and flyhim to Russia. The plot, said tohave been abandoned at the lastmoment, was thought to haveinvolved a diplomatic vehicle.

The newspaper said thatdetails of the Assange escapeplan are “sketchy”.

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ARussian model at the cen-tre of a poisoning scare in

the UK town of Salisbury, whohad triggered speculation thatthe incident may have been anelaborate hoax, has assertedthat her fears were genuine.

Anna Shapiro, 30, and herpartner Alex King, 42, hadbeen rushed to a hospital onSunday following the suspect-

ed poisoning scare at an Italianrestaurant in Salisbury, thetown where former Russiandouble agent Sergei Skripaland his daughter Yulia werefound collapsed after beingpoisoned with the deadlyNovichok nerve agent earlierthis year. Shapiro blamed themedia for casting doubt overher account that she and Kinghad been targeted by theRussian state.

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Sri Lanka’s economic andpolitical stability has been

affected due to infightingbetween President MaithripalaSirisena and Prime MinisterRanil Wickremesinghe, for-mer president MahindaRajapaksa claimed on Saturday.

“This is because the presi-dent and prime minister areclashing. They clash in theopen. As long as instability pre-vails no investor will come,”Rajapaksa said.

He was referring to the SriLankan rupee hitting an all-time low this week against theUS dollar, reaching near the170 mark.

“When we left (in 2015)the dollar was 131.40,” the for-mer president said.

As a result of the rupee’sdepreciation, Sri Lanka’s exter-nal debt had jumped, he said.“In 2014 (his last year) theexternal debt was Rs 7,391 bil-lion or 71 per cent of the GDP.Now it has risen to 87 per cent.Interest payment was Rs 443billion and now it has risen toRs 820 billion, almost doubled”.

Rajapaksa said if he was inpower he would have bettermanaged the currency issue.

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Russia will be the elephant inthe room as Pope Francis

begins a four-day visit to theBaltics amid renewed alarmabout Moscow’s intentions inthe region it has twice occu-pied.

Francis arrived early onSaturday in Vilnius, theLithuanian capital, for a four-day trip that also takes inLatvia and Estonia to mark the100th anniversaries of theirindependence and to encour-age the faith in the Balticnations, which saw five decadesof Soviet-imposed religiousrepression and state-sponsoredatheism.

“Fifty years of occupationleft their mark both on thechurch and on the people,” saidMonsignor Gintaras Grusas,archbishop of Vilnius.

“People have deep woundsfrom that period that take timeto heal.”

The trip will feature meet-ings with political leaders aswell as the Catholic, Lutheranand Russian Orthodox faithful.

Grusas notes that all threedenominations suffered duringcommunist rule but said thosepersecutions strengthened theirbonds.

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China on Saturday sum-moned the US ambassador

to lodge an official protestover sanctions imposed byWashington on a Chinese mil-itary unit for purchasingadvanced fighter jets and mis-sile systems from Russia,according to a media report.

Also, China has cancelleda reported move to send Vice-Premier Liu He to Washingtonfor talks to end the escalatingtrade war between the world’stwo largest economies, follow-ing imposition of tariffs onChinese goods by the Trumpadministration.

The Chinese ForeignMinistry summoned the USambassador to protest againstUS sanctions on the equipmentdevelopment department ofthe Chinese military and itsdirector, the official mediareported on Saturday.

The US State Departmentsaid on Thursday that it would

immediately impose sanctionson the equipment develop-ment department of theChinese military and its direc-tor, Li Shangfu, for engaging in“significant transactions” withRussia’s main arms exporter.

The US said the purchas-es of Russian Sukhoi Su-35fighter jets and S-400 surface-to-air missiles by China’sEquipment DevelopmentDepartment (EDD) of Ministryof Defence has violated USsanctions on Russia.

It was the first time theTrump administration target-ed a third country with itsCountering America’sAdversaries Through SanctionsAct of 2017 (CAATSA),designed to punish Russia forits seizure of Crimea and otheractivities.

While the Chinese ForeignMinistry spokesman, GengShuang on Friday expressedoutrage and asked Washingtonto revoke the decision or faceconsequences, China’s military

today expressed indignationover the move.

“The Chinese militaryexpressed strong indignationand opposition to US sanctionson the equipment develop-ment department of theChinese military and its direc-tor,” the state-run China Dailyquoted a military spokesman assaying.

Col Wu Qian, a spokesmanfor the Ministry of NationalDefence said that the militarycooperation between Chinaand Russia is within the normalrange of cooperation betweensovereign states in accordancewith international laws, and theUS has no right to interfere.

The US move has trampledon the basic norms of interna-tional relations in a full embod-iment of hegemonism, seri-ously damaging relationsbetween the two countries andtheir armies, he said.

The Chinese military urgedthe US to correct its mistakeand withdraw sanctions, or

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AUS district court has sen-tenced a Pakistani-origin

businessman to three years ofprobation for procuring andunlawfully exporting materialand equipment to Pakistan forits military.

Imran Khan of NorthHaven in Connecticut was sen-tenced in Bridgeport to threeyears of probation, the first sixmonhs of which the 44-year-oldKhan must serve in home con-finement for violating US exportlaw. Khan has also been orderedto perform 100 hours of com-

munity service and pay a $3,000fine. First six months of thethree-year probation is in homeconfinement, John Durham,US Attorney for the District ofConnecticut, said Friday.

According to court docu-ments and statements made incourt, from at least 2012 toDecember 2016, Khan and twoof his family members engagedin a scheme to purchase goodsthat were controlled under theExport AdministrationRegulations (EAR) and toexport those goods without alicense to Pakistan, in violationof the EAR.

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UN chief Antonio Guterreswill travel to India early

next month, his first trip to thecountry as head of the worldbody that coincides with thecommencement of eventsmarking the 150th birthanniversary of MahatmaGandhi.

The Secretary-General willarrive in New Delhi on October1. His visit coincides with thebeginning of events to celebratethe 150th birth anniversary ofMahatma Gandhi on October2 next year, Deputy Spokesmanfor the UN Secretary-GeneralFarhan Haq told reporters hereFriday. On October 1, Guterreswill formally open the new UNHouse in New Delhi and onOctober 2, the Secretary-General will participate in theclosing session of the MahatmaGandhi InternationalSanitation Convention.

During the visit, he willmeet President Ram NathKovind, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and ExternalAffairs Minister Sushma Swarajon October 3. He will alsomeet with Speaker of the LokSabha Sumitra Mahajan beforegiving a lecture at the IndiaHabitat Centre on GlobalAffairs on the theme ‘Globalchallenges, global solutions’.

Page 8: English News Paper | Breaking News | Latest Today News in ... · Urban Affairs (HUA) has allowed the Delhi Development Authority’s (DDA) proposal to modify the Master Plan for Delhi

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Favourites India have nogrounds for complacencyas they wait to see 'which'

Pakistan turns up in the AsiaCup here on Sunday, well awareof the unpredictable arch-rivals'penchant for surprising not justopponents but themselves, too.

India are eyeing a place inthe final after three wins in asmany matches, while Pakistanwill look to step up their gamein the Super Four match, aftera scare against Afghanistan.

India walloped Pakistan byeight wickets in the group gamethree days ago but if history isany indication, the Men in Bluewill take their traditional rivalslightly at their own peril.

After being made to workhard by minnows Hong Kong intheir tournament opener, Indiagot their act together in themuch-awaited group gameagainst Pakistan and produceda clinical display to make shortwork of Sarfraz Ahmed's team.

Chasing a small target,India were hardly tested as ahalf-century from skipper RohitSharma ensured that the teamwas home with as many as 21overs to spare.

Even without theirtalismanic captain Virat Kohli,the Indian batting lookedformidable and lived up to thebilling by scoring freely onsurfaces that are not reallyperfect for stroke-play.

Opening the innings, Rohitwas at his fluent best againstPakistan and followed that upwith another fine knock of 83 inthe seven-wicket win overBangladesh, more than makingup for the failure against HongKong.

Rohit's opener partner,Shikhar Dhawan found himselfamongst the runs after a torridtime in England's seamingconditions, scoring in all threematches, including a centuryagainst Hong Kong.

The middle-order duo ofAmbati Rayudu and DineshKarthik will again look to grabthe opportunity with bothhands by making usefulcontributions in the big game.

Rayudu missed out againstBangladesh after making anunbeaten 31 in the group gameagainst Pakistan.

Veteran Mahendra SinghDhoni managed to spend sometime in the middle on Friday,remaining unbeaten on 33 off 37balls. Then there is KedarJadhav, who has often proved hisworth with the bat besides hisbowling.

Coming back to the ODI

side after more than a year,Ravindra Jadeja marked theoccasion with a fine four-wickethaul against Bangladesh, and heseemed hungry for more.Pakistan will be wary of thethreat posed by the left-armspinner, who is also a handy batlower down the order.

India will look to the paceduo of Bhuvneshwar Kumarand Jasprit Bumrah to make theinitial breakthroughs and putPakistan on the backfoot beforethe spinners are introduced.

Yuzvendra Chahal andKuldeep Yadav are the twomainline spinners, but it wasKedar, who picked up the mostnumber of wickets among theslow bowlers in the last gameagainst Pakistan.

Pakistan will look up totheir seasoned campaignerShoaib Malik for inspiration.All-rounder Malik made 43against India and saved histeam the blushes with a crucialknock against a spiritedAfghanistan on Friday night.

Opener Fakhar Zaman,who made a name for himselfwith a match-winning hundredagainst India in the final ofChampions Trophy last year,flopped in their first game here.

Fakhar will look to makeamends and so will be the likesof batsmen Babar Azam, Sarfrazand Iman-ul-Haq.

Pakistan's another cause ofconcren is the form of theirstrike bowler MohammadAamir, who has not beenamong the wickets in recenttime.

While the left-arm pacerfailed to deliver against India inthe group game, he was notplayed against Afghanistan.The likes of Hasan Ali andUsman Khan will have to stepup their game if their team is todo well.

�B �India: Rohit Sharma(captain), Shikhar Dhawan,Ambati Rayudu, DineshKarthik, MS Dhoni, ManishPandey, Kedar Jadhav,Bhuvneshwar Kumar, JaspritBumrah, Khaleel Ahmed,Siddharth Kaul, KuldeepYadav, Yuzvendra Chahal,Ravindra Jadeja, DeepakChaharPakistan: Fakhar Zaman,Imam-ul-Haq, Babar Azam,Shan Masood, SarfrazAhmed(captain), ShoaibMalik, Haris Sohail, ShadabKhan, Mohammad Nawaz,Faheem Ashraf, Hasan Ali,Junaid Khan, Usman Khan,Shaheen Afridi, Asif Ali,Mohammad Amir.

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Young Jemimah Rodriguesscored a power-packed 40-

ball 57 as Indian women wonthe third T20 Internationalagainst Sri Lanka by five wickethere on Saturday.

India now enjoy anunassailable 2-0 lead in thefive-match series with thesecond encounter being awashout.

Opting to field, Indiarestricted the islanders to131/8 with ShashikalaSiriwardene (35) and Nilakshide Silva (31) being the chiefcontributors. Indiacomfortably chased down thetarget in 18.2 overs.

For India, rookie mediumpacer Arundhati Reddy keptthings tight with figures of2/19 in four overs. SkipperHarmanpreet Kaur also

chipped in with a couple ofwickets in the penultimateover.

In reply, Rodriguesanchored the chase with sixboundaries and two huge sixesadding 53 runs for the fourthwicket with Harmanpreet (24).

The two sixes came offpacers -- one off UdeshikaPrabodhani and other offSreepali Weerakoddy.

Rodrigues had scored 36in the first T20 International.

While Harmanpreet andRodrigues were bothdismissed in the same over byChamari Atapattu, India didn'tpanic with only 19 runs to get.

Veda Krishnamurthy (11no) and Anuja Patil (8 no)completed the chase withoutmuch difficulty.

It was Patil, who hit aboundary off Prabodhani, tobring up their second win inthe series.

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You credit a lot of your early influ-ences to the way they have shapedyou, but obviously, as a person andthen the actor you have become.What were those influences?

Growing up in Press Enclave, I was surroundedwith journalists, intellectuals and their families,so there was a certain culture vibe. I was quite anaughty kid and very spoilt by my grandparentsas I used to live with them. I was very close tomy maternal grandfather and my strongestmemories are of him dropping me off to school(Gyan Bharati) every morning and the conver-sations we had. I don’t remember a single daywhen he didn’t walk me to school. He was anextremely learned man and I was very attachedto him, imbibing my fundamentals. So whenev-er I come to Delhi, it reminds me a lot of mygrandfather. In that sense, this city is my influ-encer.

I think the times that you have spent in lifebefore you became an actor, when you havebeen living life just as anybody else has, make avery big part of whatever it is that you portraylater because those are the associations, memo-ries and experiences that help you interpret dif-ferent kinds of situations and scenarios. Forexample, Batti Gul Meter Chalu is a very grass-root film, a very heartland film. It’s a film aboutsimple people, their problems and their inter-personal relationships and to be able to recreatethat as an actor convincingly, you have to drawfrom certain real life experiences that I havehad first-hand.

Is this film a satiric comedy? How would you classify it?I would say that the film is very quirky andentertaining. I actually feel that there are twofilms in one film because the first half of thefilm is about friendships, their inter-currents,dreams and aspirations, and the second half ofit is the reality of life as it challenges them, thesocial issues and electricity being the funda-mental human right to access. How power sup-ply sets the everyday tenor of life and howfaulty meters and power thefts besiege the com-mon man as he cannot identify the facelessenemy are the big questions. Where will theaam aadmi (common man) go and raise his

voice, who will hear him? Sitting in the comfortof a couch, power pilferage might seem verysmall and not even make the headlines of themorning newspaper, especially when we readthat rural electrification is 100 per cent, but thekind of impact power distribution patterns andtheir abuse have on ordinary people is huge.There’s actually a three-and-a-half minutespeech in the climax of this film, which is amonologue delivered by me and we did it in asingle shot. It was a four-page content and itmade me cry because it spoke about the prob-lem from a common man’s perspective withfacts and logic. India needs to hear this voice. Iwas very emotionally moved by that speechwhen I read the script and it stayed with me inmuch the same manner that certain chaptersleave an imprint when you are reading a book. Ifelt this is the reason why this film should bemade. So I signed up.

Haider and Udta Punjab dealt with sociallyrelevant issues. Haider spoke about the issue ofhuman rights in a disturbed area, a very sensi-tive subject. Tommy Singh revealed the uglyface of youth trapped in the menace of drugabuse. But the issue that really bothers me thesedays is that of farmers’ suicides. The agrariancrisis is real and pan-India.

How did you process the requirements of these twin roles?It was very difficult. Shooting Haider, I cameacross locals, students and others up close andgot to know their perspectives. We shot inplaces that were restricted and where we hadjust an hour’s permit from the Army. There wasa time when our shooting was cancelled and wewere told to go back to the hotel and were notexplained why. The next day, we were told therewere two known terrorists who had been seendoing a recce of our crew site. Udta Punjabagain dealt with a taboo subject. When I heardthe script, I was in shock because my under-standing of Punjab was very different till then. Iwas like really, is this happening? And I wastold it’s a massive problem. Your perceptionmight be something and that might be eventrue but this is a growing menace and if youwant the rosy perception to stay, then the drugproblem has to be addressed, accepted and

dealt with. Till the time you don’t accept there’sa problem, how will you solve it? Batti Gul... isnot as dark as intense. The format is entertain-ing, accessible and easy to absorb.

There was a time when issue-based films wereconsidered arthouse and then there was themainstream which dealt with the cliché of therich-poor divide. Now the lines have blurredand issue-based commercial films havegained commercial credibility. How difficulta job it is to walk the line as an actor? I find it much easier. Honestly, I used to find itvery troublesome when I had to participate infilms which were too flighty for my liking. Iwas 21, so I guess people thought being in col-lege was the only thing I could pull off at thattime and that was a huge psychological barrier.My age and my boyish looks were like animpediment in my career because they restrict-ed the offers that came my way. Yeh to dancekarta hai, cute lagta hai. I have struggled withthat perception for a good 10 years and it isonly in the last five years or a bit more that Ihave been able to reinvent myself. During thattime, I have pushed myself very hard to searchfor and take up offers which weren’t run-of-the-mill or expected of me, which weren’t puttingme in a box. I may have lost out on mainstreamwork in the process but I needed these roles. Ithink as an actor it is very claustrophobic toinhabit a confined space, though as a star itmight be satisfying. There are many caseswhere people have loved stars for what theyhave done in a certain space and the latter havedone exceedingly well for many years, but that’snot my call.

I have always understood cinema as a wayof representing life, telling stories about differ-ent people, having different experiences, feelingenriched by those experiences, learning fromthem and somewhere being impacted by themas a human being. I saw acting as a very enrich-ing opportunity to participate in somethingthat can help you understand life at a really dif-ferent level. I mean, how many people would beable to do so many different things in one life?So as a profession, acting really excited mebecause I could get closer to the depth of life’smyriad experiences.

What was the film which changed yourimage?It started with Kaminey but I guess the mouldstarted cracking with Jab We Met. I rememberthere was such a big conversation whether, as ahero, I should wear glasses or not. It used to beso hard to convince everybody back then thatglasses would not emasculate the hero. Or thatthey didn’t signify tragedy or depression. I’mfortunate that Imtiaz (director Imtiaz Ali) wasforward thinking and we could do things inthat film that might sound so stupid today. Yet,it was a big deal then. I am eternally grateful formy role in Kaminey because it provided me anopportunity to surprise and shock people at thesame time and that, as an actor, but happensonce in a while. However, it also raised my bar.For me to surprise people that much today ismore difficult because they have a certainexpectation and reference point. So I have toconsistently rediscover myself like I did inHaider or Udta Punjab. The idea is to do differ-ent films and be an Indian character fromacross its geographical sweep. Now, I haveArjun Reddy to explore.

How challenging is Batti Gul after those two intense performances? This one is also a complex character?He’s the kind of guy you would come acrossvery often in life and most of the time, youwouldn’t like him. I don’t think I’ll be very like-able in the first half of the film because I’m notsuch a nice guy; I’m pretty self-absorbed and alittle full of myself, bit oversmart, cocky, veryjugaadu, not necessarily doing the right thing,but obviously very entertaining. The kind ofvoice used is not very nice to the ears; it’sslightly sharp, roguish, raw with a hard texture.I have tried to make the character what he is.But at some level, he also has to be relatable asa human who fights when he has to.

How do you reconcile the star and the actorwithin you? I don’t address the star so much within a film.

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But you have become a starover time. So you cannotcompletely ignore or dis-

regard it either.I am not disregarding it. I havea huge amount of respect for myfans. I am very grateful forbeing in that category and Iwanted to get there, it’s not likeI didn’t. But now I have grownout of the infatuation of being astar. You know an actor is fasci-nated by this whole concept ofbeing a star and then that kindof becomes his/her guidingforce. That’s somehow not thebest thing though. I think it’snice to not take yourself seri-ously or carry the tag becauseit’s a baggage that will overloadwhatever it is that comes yourway. I think it’s nicer to knowthat you happen to be a star butnot function on the basis ofthat. You ought to be an artiste.At least that’s who I am.

Eventually, you have to findyourself. And whatever successyou get will be truly relevantwhen you become original andsay something that is different. Ihave seen people also connect toyour truth. Our audience isactually so accepting and sensi-tive. And the camera never lies,so you’ve got to be honest.

Have you, therefore, eased your position in the fraternitybecause, let’s face it, there areindustry pressures of beingseen with the right set of people or circuit. Have youbeen accepted more than the initial years?I think fundamentally I see twothings that are different. First, Ihave never been somebody whohas been in the centre of thespotlight or wanting to be the

most popular person in theroom. Having said that, I’d loveto know people and them toknow me more but that has tohappen organically and natural-ly. I have tried at different timesin my career to be someonewho I am not and honestly Ihave not enjoyed it. I think Ihave my own unique personali-ty, good or bad. And I think 15years into the fraternity, peoplemay like it or not but havecome to terms with it.

Second, I think I am com-fortable in my skin and that’s themost important facet for everyhuman being. You are happywith yourself only when you’rehappy with what you’re doing.

What has been your actor’sworkshop? What were yourfirst film inspirations?There are so many films and somany actors like Dilip sa’ab toBalraj Sahni. But my first filmexperience was at Anupam the-atre, now PVR Anupam. It was adocumentary on white elephants(laughs). That was my strongestmemory though not very excit-ing. I have subsequently watchedserious classics. For example,Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam has beenone of my favourites. At thesame time, I loved Jackie Chan.Yes, the Sherlock Holmes serieson TV, with Jeremy Brett, had adeep impact. There were allkinds of stuff but as you growolder, obviously you need tounderstand cinema and do take

it a little more seriously. Myfather was also somebody whohugely inspired me as an actorand even though he workedlargely in television, his roleswere so fine and well-crafted.

The same goes for my moth-er, especially when it came toclassical dance. During her performances, she has beenexponentially at another level.So what started inspiring mewas the skill that they had andthe refined movement of thatskill. It became something that I aspired for, the fact that theyare so good at it.

I remember attending anacting workshop at NSD con-ducted by Naseer sir(Naseeruddin Shah) for only aweek where I met RandeepHooda too. I had, at that time,already become an actor andwas getting some work, so Ithought ki thoda better kar letehain skills apne aap before kisiko pata chale ki bohot kharab haiyeh (laughs). As I said, I saw myparents work really hard to beexceptional. It is never justabout popularity but about theskill and drill of the craft.

So how do you go with thatdrill and process your actingskills? Do you research? I am good with my instincts. Ireally feel that these days, a lotof research is done by writersand filmmakers. The material isin front of you, you just have toabsorb and interpret and that

happens once I start shooting. I stay within that character’sdefined zone for that time.Because I feel that you canspend six months doing a filmand after you’re out of it, youdon’t really know what it was.That happens. So concentratedtime works for me.

How do you balance your family and work, now thatyou’re a hands-on father? As someone who is transitingthrough changing times, bothsocietally and in cinema, howdo you keep it real?First, I want to express very can-didly and honestly that individ-uality is a huge part of being ayoungster today and I have gonethrough this phase. I have beenliving alone since I was 22. Eventhough I was close to my par-ents, I was living alone. So I amused to this phase of wanting tofind myself and being my ownperson. But it is because of thisthat I also feel a family is thebedrock of society. You trulyunderstand that when you haveit. So that is something I woulddefinitely want to say openly. Ican see that people are afraid,unsure and sometimes not evenprepared to give so much tosomething as marriage and ahome, but I feel that what yougive to it is nothing compared towhat you get from it. Whoever Iam and what I think is largelygoverned by my personal lifeand the space that I have today.Even the actor that I am drawsitself from my personal space.My family is my nucleus. Evenwhen there are bits of my life,my daughter Misha, on socialmedia, it is an organic extensionof this fundamental truth.

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Why all these flies, why allthese gliding ghosts, whybirds and beasts, fromquality and kind, whyold men, fools and chil-

dren calculate; why all these thingschange from their ordinance, theirnature, and pre-formed faculties, tomonstrous quality — why, you shall findthat heaven hath infused them with thesespirits to make them instruments of fearand warning unto some monstrous state,”asks Cassius in William Shakespeare’sJulius Caesar. He tries to suggest thatwhen all the things around us cease toexhibit their regular or inherent qualitiesand take some horrible shape and form,it is a warning from heaven — the unnat-ural state of things warns us that some-thing untoward is likely to happen.

In Julius Caesar, these were projec-tions used to unnerve a gullible Cascainto believing that Caesar’s rise to glorywas what the heavens did not approve of.However, it can apply even to the worldwe live in today. The screaming head-lines, the scary news reports full of spine-chilling details that we wake up to everymorning suggest that something is rot-ten in our seven-decade-old democracy.

There are recurrent signs of oursociety going awry. Recently, threegirls died of hunger in the nation’sCapital. In the same National Capital,members of one family were found deadunder suspicious circumstances.Reports suggested that they were underduress. And why just the Capital? InJuly, Jharkhand saw six members of afamily end their lives over similar rea-sons. And just two weeks later, in thesame State, seven members of a familycommitted suicide, leaving a note whichsaid that they were taking the extremestep because they were in debt. Theyhad been unable to repay a substantialamount of money they had borrowedfrom different sources for the medicaltreatment of their child. Are we grad-ually drifting towards an orderlesssociety? Has it become normal for us toread about people dying for such rea-sons or to find out about mobs lynch-ing people in broad daylight?

The Nirbhaya case of December2012 was, it now seems, just a precursorto the horrors that are now unfolding.Reports of gang rapes continue toappear, that too at a nauseating frequen-cy. This tendency to treat women withviolent contempt has brought India thekind of infamy that will take some timeto be wiped off. Nirbhayas are wrongedacross the country on a daily basis — beit in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur or Haryana’sJind. If the global opinion finds Indiaamong the most unsafe places forwomen, we have only ourselves toblame. Reports about sexual exploitationof more than 30 minor girls at a State-supported shelter home in Bihar screamof a collective failure for us as a societyand a country. For how long and to whatextent will this go on?

Rise in population and the resultantcrowding that social scientists havebeen warning India against for quitesome time, still continues. The fact thatit is the cause of many evils has becomecommon knowledge. And still, it persiststo threaten us with more mind-numb-ingly dreadful incidents in store.

There is another aspect to the storythat throws up a contrast. It is to do withthe rise in the Gross Domestic Productand the growth prospects of a trilliondollar economy. Whether it is financialjugglery or fuzzy logic is besides thepoint. Because the fact is that even theseseemingly promising statistics are hard-ly reassuring when one looks at the socialevils staring us in the face. Because thequestion is, how is this kind of progressever going to help us?

Governments have become the

favourite whipping boy of all and sundryfor any kind of problem that societyfaces. Maybe it provides some kind ofcatharsis, a vent for pent-up feelings thatmount year after year. The frustrations,the angst, the failures, the lapses and ofcourse the wasted opportunities — theyall pile up and reflect in our statementsabout our Government. However, weneed to introspect to find out if our ireis directed right. An honest evaluationwill reflect that it is not. Had it been so,we would have rid ourselves of the prob-lems that continue to bother us todayat the same nagging pace even after wehave had 16 Parliament Elections andchosen 14 Prime Ministers. We could notget the redressal of our grievancesbecause we have been barking up thewrong tree. The Government is not theproblem. The problem is somewhere

else. In the society, which seems to havelost the fundamental human qualities ofcompassion, love, camaraderie and con-cern for fellow beings, a society that hasturned paranoid, it is important tothink hard about what it is that we arereally angry about. We must try to findout the reasons for this derailment insociety. It is a job cut out for social sci-entists. Why does even advancement inscience and technology, or growth ineconomy, or improvement in school edu-cation fail to curb these basal tendencies?

The one word that can define thestate of our society today is ‘anomie’. Asself-interest gains precedence overnational interest, the situation onlyworsens at every stage. Problems thatearlier affected smaller areas and forshorter duration have acquired gargan-tuan proportions. For instance, floods

used to be a regular feature in variousareas of several States as swollen riverswould run amok. But with every pass-ing year, boundaries of the areas affect-ed by such a calamity keep expanding.There are areas where people have start-ed to dread the rainy season. And thesame applies to droughts. Only a coupleof months ago, parched farm landsforced farmers to end their lives. Comewinter and long duration of widespreadfog affects life in many regions. We havenot improved our handling of theseproblems. We have become more vulner-able. Because our standard response tothis is complaining about the aid in theform cash and kind. It’s simply conve-nient to talk about the role of theGovernment, write some angr yFacebook posts, and eventually forgetabout what happened. We fail to talkabout the role of individuals in creatingan environment for sustainable develop-ment, in identifying ways through whichwe can help our society and our econo-my progress simultaneously.

Commercialisation and commodifi-cation of everything has brought oursociety to an impasse. Posts on Facebook,Twitter, and WhatsApp do indicate thatpeople at least understand that some-thing wrong has happened and that theywant to create awareness about it. But itshould not stop at just that. Our duty asindividuals should not begin with read-ing those posts and end with forward-ing them with one or two added com-ments. There is a need to think of theremedies to reinvent society. The firstthing that is needed is ‘renovision’ — adifferent, perhaps more rational way, tolook at the problems that face our soci-ety. We have been playing the blamegame for far too long.

When we invoke the Constitution,our focus should not be on just the fun-damental rights. It is about time we gavea thought to our fundamental duties, too.Our emphasis on technology-based edu-cation has, at some instances, come at theexpense of inculcating the right valuesand inspiring interest in the social sci-ences. Progress cannot be guaranteed bytechnological advancement alone. Itcomes from a proper attitude. The atti-tude that guides one to think right anddrives one to act right.

For decades, our focus has been onfunctional literacy. Computer literacy,too, quickly acquired a place of impor-tance in our scheme of development. Butin this process, we might have made theblunder of neglecting ethical literacy. Itis time for us to go back to the basics.Ethics will form the very core of ourdevelopment as a society. As individu-als, we clearly and urgently need to getmuch better at being able to discriminatebetween right and wrong. As SwamiVivekananda once said: “So long as themillions live in hunger and ignorance, Ihold every person a traitor who, havingbeen educated at their expense, pays notthe least heed to them!”

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Naturally given to offer-ing his readers slice-of-life tales, bureaucrat-

author Mukul Kumar seems tobe on a quest to solve possiblymankind’s oldest puzzle —marriage. The result is his sec-ond novel, Seduction by Truth,which will be released byBloomsbury, India just beforeDussehra in October.

Belonging to the IndianRailway Traffic Service, Mukulis a civil servant of the 1997batch. In his successful careerof 20 years, Kumar distin-guished himself from otherswith his dedication to servicein the Indian Railways. He hasbeen honoured with theNational Award for outstand-ing performance by theMinistry of Railways. The offi-cer takes pride in and drawsimmense satisfaction from hisservice. He fondly shares,“Individual efforts, even thesmall ones, that are aimed atkeeping the wheel moving,and helping the huge popula-tion reach their destinationsfill me with a thrilling sense ofservice.” Kumar holds a seniorand an important position inNorthern Railway, Delhi.

Passion and love for liter-ature is something that he hasinherited from his father, aprofessor of English Literature.He would often talk to Kumarabout accomplished authorsand introduce him to theirworlds of imagination whenhe was enjoying his earlyschool days in Bihar. Poetrycame naturally to this littleauthor, then. He started com-posing poems as early as whenhe was in Class VIII. His cre-ative sensibilities were firstembodied in an anthology ofEnglish poems — TheIrrepressible Echoes, which waspublished in 2012 at Nagpur.Kumar had lots of stories to

share with the world — storiesof young minds, old people,and couples in love. Now, heshares stories of couples strug-gling with dwindling passionin marriage. Kumar has a pen-chant for going into the seem-ingly inaccessible recesses ofhuman psyche, reading thehuman behaviour and craftinglifelike characters that readerscan instantly relate to. Hiswritings show the conflictbetween individual and soci-ety. Philosophy, mythologyand poetic style complete thepackage of Kumar’s writing.

Seduction by Truth is abold and unorthodox take onmarriage. It deals with the dipin passion when the initialgloss of attraction between thespouses dries up after a fewyears of marriage. It spins astory about what happens afterthat. Can desire be renewed oris overstepping the bounds ofmarriage the only panacea forpassion? Daringly yet honestly,Kumar has captured the sensi-tive truths about marriage,adultery, society, and tradition,which many couples grapplewith in the modern world.

Dark realities like maritalrape and deprivation of sexhave been portrayed in a sub-tle and sensitive manner inthis narrative. The author hasvery diligently tried to studythe matrix of sex, love andtrust in marriage through theprotagonist’s extramarital rela-tions with many women.While writing about adultery,the author adds complexity tothe narrative as ideas aboutrevenge, religion, and genderroles also creep into theaccount. Shiva, the protago-nist, calls his journey an act of“intellectual masculinity” evenas he struggles with handlingthe complex emotions emerg-ing in the course. It’s a unique

journey which has to do withShiva’s attempts at ‘winning’against his adulterous wife andat fulfilling the void of sex inhis life. It also deals withShiva’s need to study thebehaviour of other couples inorder to understand marriageas a social institution.Eventually, Shiva’s journeytakes a spiritual turn when he

begins to seek redemption.The novel tries to understandthe complexities of marriage,studying the bond between ahusband and a wife as distinctindividuals. It rethinks accept-ed ideas and analyses adulteryin fresh light. Since the settingof the story involves manycountries, the readers get apeep into Hindu, Islamic, andChristian traditions andbeliefs about marriage andsex. The narrative travelsthrough the posh suburbs ofDelhi, the land of Baku inAzerbaijan, and then throughthe Renaissance country, Italy.

Through this novel,Kumar has tried to distinguishthe woman from a wife, a manfrom the husband, the extraor-dinary from the tradition, andthe absolute truth fromdeduced truth. He concludesthat there is no absolute truth.Seduction by Truth gives thewoman the centre stage. Itargues that she can unapolo-getically choose to be awoman first, and a wife later.

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You never know what thevoter will do. Will have towait till 2019,” says KapilSibal in the conclusion to hisnew book titled Shades of

Truth: A Journey Derailed. As he penshis ideas and thoughts in his latest liter-ary presentation, he is quite vociferouswhen talking about the current politicalsituation and what the upcoming LokSabha Elections might bring along. Asthe reader moves along the writer’s lineof thought in this comfortably sizedbook spanning around 250 pages, hisdetailing of how the Indian society hasdeveloped fault lines in the past fouryears since the installation of the ModiGovernment in 2014 comes acrosssharply and unabashedly.

Through his book, Kapil Sibal haspresented his case on why the ModiGovernment should not be voted backto power. The Congressman’s antagonistModi becomes the protagonist in hisbook. He recounts how Modi, by way ofhis mesmerising and magical speechesand tongue-in-cheek acronyms, has suc-ceeded in misleading the voter into dis-trusting the Congress. He furtherexplains how Modi has created a poorimage where the Congress has beeninefficient and corrupt not only in the

past few years but all through the 60years of its rule at the Centre.

The reader is duly escorted throughIndia’s journey from being hailed as aculturally and socially diverse country inthe past to being called a dubious anddeviant society that has little or norespect for peace and harmony. Thisbipolarity is evident in all spheres of lifein modern India. India, as the largestdemocracy in the world, has been wit-ness to some of the most tempestuoustimes in its history, either on account ofnumerous invasions and attacks thattime and again convulsed the nation oron account of its own dogmas and preju-dices that left an indelible impression onthe cultural and social canvas of India.

History is also witness to the factthat we as a race are quite resilient andhave mostly responded positively tochange during upheavals and vicissi-tudes alike. Be it the two decades ofcolonial suppression or the aftermath ofa painful Partition, India has alwayspicked up the pieces and managed toreconstruct itself.

After all, we are a country of 1.3 bil-lion with a diverse culture and an envi-able heritage to back us. Despite the ten-sions and turmoil that accompaniedIndia’s struggle for Independence, new-

found freedom in the post-Independenceera presented a tabula rasa with enor-mous potential to create a safe, secularand sustainable model of a nation forothers to envy and replicate.Unfortunately, over the past four years,the BJP seems to have missed the busand has afflicted the nation with intoler-ance, boorishness and bigotry. India isgrappling with issues such as caste-based reservation and politics, gau rak-sha, women safety and gender equality,corruption and religious fanaticism.

Lucid and simple in its style ofwriting, the book also captures theevents leading up to the Congress’sdebacle in 2014. It starts with scamslike 2G and Coalgate and ends withAnna Hazare’s Arab Spring, which had

people convinced that the CongressGovernment had to go. Sibal alsoblames the CAG (Comptroller andAuditor General of India) for havingacted in a partisan manner. However,he does not make any effort to admitthat corruption did take place inSpectrum and Coal allocations whiledismissing them as false propaganda bythe BJP and CAG. According to him,Modi rule has compromised on each ofthe three pillars of democracy — judi-ciary, executive, and media.

Normally, a book written by apolitician is reviewed critically andconsumed with a pinch of salt, takinginto consideration the bias that thewriter might have. But, besides being apolitician, Kapil Sibal is also an astute

lawyer and a Harvard graduate. That’swhy his claims in the book are accom-panied by convincing arguments. Butstill, the fact that he’s a Congressmancannot be fully ignored.

Personally, it would have been adelight to read about the good thingsthat the Modi Government has doneduring its tenure as well because thatwould have made the book a more bal-anced read. Just like it would be inter-esting to hear Modi saying that whatev-er happened in the country in the past70 years was not all that bad. From thepoint of view of the anti-Modi brigade,the book is a must-read, although onedoes get a feeling of déjà vu at points asthe book progresses. For die-hard Modibhakts, it’s a serious no-no.

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During the fourth innings ofthe first Test in Cape Town

against South Africa earlierthis year, India was set a mod-est target in challenging con-ditions. Part of the commen-tary team for the series, formerSouth African great JontyRhodes commented, “HowIndia bat in this innings willdefine how they bat in the restof the series and on the tour toEngland and Australia later thisyear.” His words have turnedout to be profoundly prophet-ic so far.

Good beginnings are cru-cial in Test cricket. Only thegreat West Indies team of the1970s and 1980s were mastersof winning from being behindthe curve in a series. But evenwith them it was an exception.The great Australians of the1990s and 2000s invariablywon series by making a strongimpression in the first Test ofmost series they played. Greatvictories in the first gameswere enough to deflate opposi-tions for the rest of the series.By the middle of most series,the Aussies had done and dust-ed most oppositions. Firstgames define a series moreoften than not. Good teamsrealise it, great teams capitaliseon it. India, though, have want-ed to prove Jonty Rhodes right.

Behind both series losseslies the fact that perhaps theBoard of Control for Cricket inIndia (BCCI) is working tomaul Indian Test cricket per-formances overseas. India

began the South Africa tourwithout a practice game andthe one before the first Test atEdgbaston was a token. Thisshowed utter lack of serious-ness and how low in impor-tance Test cricket was in theIndian mindset. It is somethingeven the usually pro-IndiaSunil Gavaskar criticised.

India lost some unques-tionably winnable gamesagainst a team that was a bas-ket case with issues on and offthe field: Openers in poorform; a captain in iffy touch; anall-rounder with a pendingcourt appearance; an ageing

seam bowling unit and untest-ed second-in-line bowlers.Could one have asked for an easier opposition? As forIndia, one may have reckonedthey’d have consolidated thebiggest problem area after the Test series in SouthAfrica: top order batting. Butdid it happen?

After this series, though,there is a greater credibility cri-sis over the InternationalCricket Council’s Test rankings.Number one teams are sup-posed to have at least an edgeover their rivals. It is the oppo-site now. India is still the num-

ber one side after a 2-1 defeatin South Africa and a 4-1defeat in England. This is atravesty of the sport’s rankings.Midway in the series India’shead coach Ravi Shastri hadthe gall to say that Indian hadwon three series abroad. Hedidn’t mention those wereagainst weak teams like SriLanka and the West Indies:This is poor mental form.

Indian Test batting indemanding overseas conditionsis the worst casualty of theIndian Premier League. InEngland (and South Africa),almost every batsman barring

Kohli was called out for histechnique and temperament.The two losses in South Africaand the two out of the four loss-es in England happened whenthe Indian team were in win-ning positions. They chokedexactly like they have in the pastand like their batting ancestorsof yore. They don’t have thebloody-mindedness to guts itout when it matters. But battingmasterclasses don’t happen inEngland even for their homebatsmen without preparation.

Kohli spoke much about“intent” like he did in SouthAfrica, but it now sounds mis-

placed. While he may have thegame, skill and mental strengthto mould his batting accordingto the opposition, the condi-tions and the game situation,his peers are mortals. Has hebeen unfair in assessing theindividual capacity of his bats-men to perform under pres-sure? The way they battedwhen set a target, one doubtsthey’d even be able to chase 100runs in the fourth inningsunder straining circumstances.

The bowlers got greatpraise for their sustainedaggression. However, they toofailed to deliver the killer blow

twice at critical junctures in theseries. Sean Curran and AdilRashid made them pay withthe bat. This pattern too is wellestablished in Indian Test crick-et history. During crunchmoments, they have not pro-duced yorkers they bring out inthe shorter format. All this nowmakes Ishant Sharma a playerwho has been part of three con-secutive Test tours to Englandwhere he has bowled very welland the series has been lost.

Ravi Shastri has now spo-ken of having proper tourgames before the Test match-es in Australia. It has taken twoseries to figure that basic factan armchair cricket viewer willknow. But even without theirfrontline batsmen like StevenSmith and David Warner, theAussies have a bowling attackto rattle any batting line-up inhome conditions. Except forKohli, there is no assurance inIndia’s batting.

Therefore, prepare foranother series loss in advance.Like they’d have had in the past,India will have their chances.And like they have in the past,the best way to watch them losewill be to put them in a winningsituation. For it now seems theyfear success more than failure.The former is new and scary;the latter is old and estab-lished. India’s Test cricketers arerespectful of tradition.

(The writer teaches at theJindal School of Liberal Arts &Humanities)

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Recently the Ministry of Power (MoP)issued a notification to set temperature

of air conditioners (ACs) as default at 24degrees Celsius in all major commercialestablishments such as airports, hotels,shopping malls, offices and Governmentbuildings to save electricity and reduce emissions.

Manufacturers of ACs are asked tomaintain default temperature and are alsoadvised to set a label on ACs indicating theoptimum temperature as part of consumerawareness which can help consumers tomake informed decisions. This announce-ment by the Ministry drew huge publicresponse from various sectors. A few appre-ciated the move and others simply raisedquestions about attempts by the Governmentto control the personal choice of service.

Understanding defaultsIn the case for ACs, default temperature

is the temperature which is automaticallyassigned by the company or maker when themachine is switched on. It is a setting or posi-tion that has been pre-selected but can bechanged by the users if they wish to do so.This is a mass default as it applies to all con-sumers of a product or service, without tak-ing consumers’ individual characteristics orpreferences into account.

In setting default, policymakers take ini-tial decision for consumers without theirknowledge (occasionally) but also keep ascope of changing that decision if they want to.

Many of us fail to acknowledge thatdefaults have become part of our lives. Takean example of wallpaper of laptops or mobileswhen we unpack it for first time. That wall-paper is a default; it will stay unchanged untilwe change it. Similarly we have lot of defaultsetting in MS office which will not change untilwe do it. Research in various fields e.g. deci-sions to buy insurance, organ donation,breaking unhealthy food habits, improvingenvironmental concerns, addressing privacyconcerns in various countries have shown thatpolicymakers made decision as a reference onbehalf of users and set a default for users’ wel-fare which resulted in positive outputs.

An experimental study was conductedby Danieal Pichert and Konstantinos VKatsikopoulous in 2008 in which theynoted that consumers use more of greenelectricity (electricity generated from renew-able resource) given to them as default ascompared non-green electricity. In otherstudy named “Can indifference make theworld greener”, Johan Egebark and MathiasEkstrom in 2013 conducted a natural fieldexperiment in which they changed thedefault setting of printers from “print on one

side” to “print on both sides” at a universi-ty and noticed 15 per cent reduction of paperconsumption for printing.

From the above studies, it is evident thatwhen people are provided with environmentfriendly options as default, they tend to stickto it and do not take decision to opt out ofit until their intention changes or theirrequirement of the service changes.

Faulty defaults or restricting choiceDefaults are portrayed as mechanism to

ensure welfare of society but there is scep-ticism around their adoption as it is seen asauthoritarian and paternalist move by theGovernment to make choice for the con-sumers. But, these settings are usually basedon libertarian paternalism (the term wascoined by Richard H Thaler and Cass RSunstein in 2003) which suggests that it ispossible and legitimate for private and pub-lic institutions to affect the behaviour of con-sumers along their freedom of choice. Thelibertarian aspect insists that people shouldbe free to opt out of a specified arrangementand should be able to make their decision,whereas paternalistic aspect emphasised onthe autonomy of private and public institu-tions to make attempts to influence con-sumers’ choice for the welfare of society.

The libertarian paternalism is consid-ered as a weak and non-intrusive type ofpaternalism as choices are not blocked anddoes not impose huge sum of cost for devi-ating from the policymakers’ option.

But what is the extent of paternalism andliberalism used in devising defaults? Is it 50-

50? The answer may depend on the condi-tions on which defaults are set. Defaults areset because users are not always rational intheir decision making and bound by theirhabits, intentions and lack of enough infor-mation. If consumers are overloaded withinformation which is complex and difficultto understand, then they don’t tend to choosethe best available option rather they opt forfirst available option or option that satisfiesthe minimum requirements (known as sat-isficing) at less effort and cost.

In general, defaults are for welfare of soci-ety and therefore sticking to default can beconsidered as a rational decision as it can savetime, effort and money.

Default setting remained unchanged bythe consumers when it is completely unob-served by the users or when it is not affect-ing the users adversely. But, if the defaultgoals are unrealistic i.e. if they are too lowor too high as compared to self set goals, thenthey will detrimentally affect behaviour ofusers and the impact can be negative or pos-itive depending on the reason of default.

It is observed that unrealistic and extremedefaults are less likely to stick for long peri-od of time and can be rejected by consumersespecially when they do not trust the policymakers who are devising default setting.

Way ahead: Smart defaultAir conditioning technology is one of

the technologies which is predicted to bewidely adopted in coming days especiallywhen the temperature is expected to increasedue to change in climatic conditions. When

the temperature of air conditioners is pro-posed to be set at 24 degrees Celsius asdefault for major establishments, then themajor point to keep in consideration is thatall establishments don’t have similar con-sumers and these consumers require dif-ferent services.

The temperature in an InformationTechnology (IT) firm will have differentrequirement as compared to an office or alibrary. The IT firms may require keeping theACs at 16 degrees Celsius as they want themachines to be maintained properly eventhough this temperature is highly uncon-formable for the employees. But a library caneasily maintain the temperature of 24 degreesCelsius. In this case, default setting for librarycan be successful but for an IT firm it mayfail. Therefore, it would be better if the massdefault can be more of smart default.

It can be a smart strategy in which var-ious defaults can be set for various sectorsdepending on their requirements of servicekeeping in consideration various factors i.e.demographic variables or climatic variablesetc. It would be relevant to observe and under-stand the behaviour of consumers and iden-tify the factors which nudge them towardssticking to default and saving electricity.

This shift towards smart default will have better chances for sticking for long time.

(Vandana Maurya is a PhD scholar atCentre for Studies in Science Policy, JawaharlalNehru University, New Delhi; ProfessorMadhav Govind teaches at the same centre)

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While a good education systemcreates values among pupils,

ultimately becoming the fabric ofsocial and political lives, the presenteducation system in India is devoid ofsuch characters. Aping the West,Bharat graduated into India only tohave a lopsided education systemthat is a means to an end — to lead aluxury lifestyle at the cost of the valuesystem which is already at a low ebb.

And therefore, sports and musicare considered antidote to education.The overall development of a child isnot possible without a proper set ofsports system. One-third problems ofthe country are related to physicalweakness of the youth, Vivekanandhad said.

To address the issues, the ModiGovernment is leaving no stoneunturned to refurbish the educationsystem that empowers people througheducation. Under “Khelo India”scheme, the Government is trying toimprove sport infrastructure in villages.

“One Bharat Shresth Bharat” aimsto bridge the regional disparity. TheGovernment is keen to synergies theingenious knowledge system andmodern technology. “Technology isthe biggest driver in improving thequality of education,” said HRDMinister Prakash Javedekar. The dig-ital black board is one of the top pri-orities of the Government. And effortsare on to use technology to enhanceteachers’ skills as well.

There are several other initiativesthat aim at improving the overall con-dition of the education system. Morethan hundred new KendriyaVidyalayas and 62 new NavodayaVidalayas have been opened duringthe last four years. Ekalavya ModelResidential schools will be opened inthe tribal areas.

Despite these praiseworthy ini-tiatives, higher education is smittenwith many ills. The scheme of upgrad-ed autonomy is bound to create fur-ther problems in education system. “Iam a Stephenian, a JNUite or a LSRite”will only widen the chasm. The exist-ing apartheid system in educationalsystem will further deepen if theGovernment policies are not imple-mented in toto.

The debate on the need for foreignfaculty members is picking up, even asthe concept of “Gurukul” has beenpigeonholed as traditional. Rubbingsalt into the wound is the exodus ofbrains from quality educational insti-tutions in India to the US and the EU,indeed for greener pastures. To addressthis burning issue, the CentralGovernment is trying to reverse thebrain drain into brain gain through thescheme of Prime Minister Schemes offellowships. Though it is not enough,well begun is half done.

One of the fundamental aims ofthe education is to identify the corevalues. The core values of India areworld peace and betterment of thehumanity. It flows from the culturalheritage of India. There is need to con-nect children with Indian heritagealong with the western tips.

(The writer is Head of theDepartment of Political Science, CentralUniversity of Haryana)

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The British Government,Brussels and the Brexiteersagree that a free trade agree-

ment coupled with customs tech-nology can prevent a hard borderin Ireland after Brexit — but can’tagree how, in what legal frame-work, or where, on the island ofIreland or in the Irish Sea, thosesolutions can be employed.

Theresa May’s Chequers planis unpopular with Brexiteers andBrussels alike but while the likesof Boris Johnson want to chuckthe proposals, the EU (EuropeanUnion) is intent on cherry-pick-ing from them. The impasse canonly be resolved by a fudge, U-turns and climbdowns or thecollapse of negotiations.

)��B ���The Prime Minister insists theonly choice is Chequers or nodeal Brexit. May’s plan calls forthe creation of a free trade areain goods buttressed by a com-mon rulebook on standards andby technology that smoothstrade and reduces customs clear-ance time. There would be noborder checks between mainlandBritain and Northern Ireland oron the Irish border because thewhole of the UK would bealigned with EU standards ongoods through the commonrulebook. Britain would reservethe right to move away fromBrussels’ rules on services,which has been criticised by theEU as cherry-picking access tothe Single Market.

���B �������Did Northern Ireland wantBritain to leave the EU? Northern Ireland voted 55.8 per

cent in favour of the UK remain-ing in the EU, while the overallUK vote was only 48.1 per cent‘remain’. The Northern Irelandvote was split on political lines.

‘Who wanted to stay and whowanted to leave?The Democratic Unionist Party,the country’s largest party, sup-ported Brexit. Sinn Féin, theSDLP, the Ulster Unionists,Alliance and the Green Partywanted to remain in the EU. TheIrish Government also support-ed a ‘remain’ vote.

How might Brexit impactNorthern Ireland?Northern Ireland faces theunwelcome prospect of a hardland border between the EU andUK. Without careful negotiationthis may once again put North-South relations under strain.

On some models Brexitmight also have a disproportion-ate impact on Northern Ireland’seconomy, which is heavily relianton exports to the EU. The foodand agriculture sectors could behit hard if the UK ends up pay-ing EU tariffs.

What about the Irish border?Both British and IrishGovernments have stated theircommitment to preserving freemovement and trade betweennorth and south. Difficultiesarise from the fact that Irelandwill be the UK’s only land bor-

der with the EU trade bloc. TheEU and the Irish Governmentswould prefer for the Irish Sea tobe the border between theUnited Kingdom and Ireland,avoiding the prospect of a landborder. However, unionist politi-cians fear regulation that wouldin any way drive a wedgebetween Northern Ireland andthe mainland UK.

Will Brexit lead to NorthernIreland leaving the UK?

Almost certainly not. However,EU ministers have concludedthat Northern Ireland wouldautomatically rejoin theEuropean Union if it reunifiedwith Republic of Ireland.

���������Chequers is anathema toJohnson and the ERG’s JacobRees-Mogg, who have declaredthat would turn Britain into arule-taking vassal state. Theyprefer a “Canada plus” trade

deal with the EU that wouldleave scope to diverge fromBrussels regulation and gain acompetitive advantage but alsonecessitate stricter checks. TheERG says trusted trader schemesand controls away from the Irishborder would help solve theissue. Technology could be usedto prevent the need for physicalchecks, the ERG has argued. Italso wants Brussels to recogniseUK agricultural rules as equiva-lent to EU rules.

2� �����Brussels has warned that fric-tionless trade is impossible out-side of the Single Market.

Michel Barnier, the EU’schief negotiator, believesChequers would compromise theintegrity of the Single Marketand argues that any alignment ofstandards can only apply toNorthern Ireland and not thewhole of the UK — putting aborder in the Irish Sea.

The ERG’s technologicalborder claims were long ago dis-missed by EU officials as “magi-cal thinking”. Its agriculturalrules proposal has also beenruled out by Brussels, whichargues standards can only bemet under the jurisdiction of theEuropean Court of Justice.

The EU has called for a“backstop” that would keepNorthern Ireland in the EU’scustom territory and alignedwith its rules on goods, if theUK Government’ and theBrexiteers’ preferred options of afree trade agreement and tech-nological solutions fail. Withouta backstop, there will be noBrexit deal at all, Brussels warns.

However, writing for TheTelegraph, Johnson branded thata plot to annex Northern Irelandbecause it would introduce cus-toms checks between mainlandBritain and Northern Ireland.The commission denies it wantsto create a new border, insisting

the checks are simply controls.

������ ����GBarnier wants to “de-drama-tise” the issue of the Irish bor-der by combining a promisedtrade agreement with techno-logical solutions but these solu-tions, reminiscent of Chequers’“maximum facilitation”, wouldbe employed in the Irish Sea orin British ports, rather than onthe Irish border.

At a recent meeting of EU-27 Ambassadors, the commis-sion pointed to British data thatshowed that only half of goodsdestined for the island of Irelandgo through Northern Ireland.

If product standards werealigned, those goods could bechecked by simply scanningbarcodes on containers whilethey were in transit rather thanchecking each individual con-tainer. This could be done byUK officials, it has been sug-gested, and would take care ofVAT, if the tax is levied at theend of the chain.

There are already controlson animal, plant and animalproducts from Britain toNorthern Ireland, which has aseparate island of Ireland vet-erinary regulatory oversight.After Brexit, the current systemof spot checks will have to bereplaced with checks on everyanimal or product, one EUdiplomat said.

The commission toldAmbassadors the process couldbe smoothened by striking facili-tation agreements in the futureUK-EU free trade agreement forgoods, which the EU supports.

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The polio eradicationcampaign’s mostanguished and difficultyears in India werefrom 2005 to 2011.

This was a period when polioexploded in large, periodicoutbreaks in Uttar Pradesh andBihar, even though the WHO andits partners had thrown theequivalent of the kitchen sink atthe virus, with some of the mostintensive polio vaccinationcampaigns the world had seen.Children in parts of western UttarPradesh and Bihar were being fedpolio drops once a month asopposed to the two times a yearthat was supposed to be thenorm. A new monovalent OPVhad been introduced in theseStates in the hope that at least oneof the two polio virus serotypescould be stamped out. But it wasnot at all clear that any of this wasworking. In 2005, after anintensive vaccination campaignwith the new monovalent Type 1vaccine, the number of cases ofpolio in India had been broughtdown to a low of 54. This led tooptimistic predictions that thedisease could be wiped out thefollowing year. But between 2006and 2008, the numbers had shotup again to nearly 900 cases.

Vaccinators and theirsupervisors in Uttar Pradesh andBihar were being stretched totheir limits by these repeatedcampaigns. Some went on strikedemanding better pay. Parentswere becoming increasinglyirritated and suspicious aboutthese repeated knocks on theirdoors by health workers forcingpolio drops on their children.

Could polio actually bewiped out from India? Should theGovernment continue to spendmoney on eradicating polio, orshould it use the money to focuson other diseases, officials asked.Was OPV as effective as theWHO claimed it was? All thequestions and doubts that hadbeen raised since the 1960s aboutthe right strategy to eradicatepolio surfaced again. Should thepolio campaign use IPV insteadof OPV? Should a combination ofthe two be tried? Should thepolio campaign get involved instrengthening routine childhoodimmunisation instead ofconcentrating solely on deliveringpolio vaccine through house-to-house campaigns? Shouldimproving sanitation and hygiene

be seen as part of the polioeradication mission?

It was not just the Governmentthat was sceptical. A group ofIndian doctors and epidemiologistsalso felt that the strategies theWHO was pursuing would leadnowhere. The Indian Academy ofPaediatrics, an umbrellaorganisation for the country’spaediatricians, felt that WHO’sreliance on OPV alone was unwise,given that efficacy of the vaccinewas low in the environmental andsocial conditions that existed in theheavily populated States ofnorthern India. Some decadesearlier in the 1990s, there had beena proposal to start manufacturingIPV in India, but that never got offthe ground. However, thereremained a strong body ofprofessional opinion that favouredusing IPV as well as OPV.

It was in India that thedebates over the dangers of theSabin vaccine and its propensityto provoke paralysis in somerecipients, or VAPP, was broughtback under the spotlight. Thepolio programme and the IndianGovernment never publicly talkedabout OPV’s known propensity tocause paralysis, at the rate ofroughly one child being paralysedper million doses of vaccinedistributed. This rate of paralysiswas small, but given the scale ofIndia, where around 150 to 160million doses were administeredat each national immunisationday, as well as the additional dosesthat children were given duringsubnational immunisation rounds,several hundred children weredeveloping polio from the vaccine.

The WHO and the polioprogramme justified use of the

vaccine on the grounds that therisk of the virus reverting to adisease state needed to bebalanced with the benefit of apolio-free world. The IndianGovernment had no interest inpublicising these risks because itcould lead to claims ofcompensation from children whowere affected by the vaccine (ashad happened in the UnitedStates). IPV did not have theseside effects, and the IndianAcademy of Paediatrics urged theIndian Government to introduceIPV in addition to the OPV inorder to reduce risks.

It was also in India that aquestion that ticks like a bombbeneath every global healthinitiative surfaced again: Whomwas polio eradication a priorityfor? Was it a priority for Indiawhere so many other diseases

demanded greater attention? Orwas it a greater priority for thewealthy developing countries thathad eliminated the disease, butdid not want to face the threat ofit being reimported fromcountries where it still circulated?This was a question that publichealth experts in the West criticalof the concept of eradication hadraised decades earlier. Thisargument had more or lessdisappeared from the discoursein the West, but it re-emergedwith new vigour from Indianacademics, who found theemphasis on polio questionable.A ‘Memorandum on Pulse Polio’submitted to the WHO andUNICEF in New Delhi by agroup of academics fromJawaharlal Nehru University inNew Delhi claimed that the polioeradication initiative had been

thrust on India by the WHO,UNICEF, the US Centers forDisease Control and RotaryInternational. It contended that a“disease of lower public healthimportance in the country hasbeen justified on the grounds ofsome small saving for developednations”.

A group of Indian doctors andacademics, dubbed the ‘dissenters’by the historian William Muraskin,subjected the polio campaign tothe kind of critical scrutiny that itwas not accustomed to anywhereelse in the world. The poliocampaign blamed the healthauthorities in the problem States ofUP and Bihar for notimplementing immunisationcampaigns with sufficient care andrigour. Yet Indian critics wrote “thefailure of the eradication campaignis not because of a lack of properimplementation (as they so oftenclaim) but because of a flawedstrategy itself.” Many of theseobjections were valid, and othersless so. But it is to the credit of thepolio programme that it persisted,and mobilised the political supportit needed from the Central andState Governments to bulldozeahead until polio disappeared fromIndia. Despite often valid criticismof the campaign, the eradication ofthe polio virus from India will godown as a magnificent chapter inthe history of public health. It wasachieved by meticulousimplementation of a vaccinationprogramme that reached childrenin some of the most physically andepidemiologically challengingenvironments that the polioprogramme had ever encountered.

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Police in Washington stateshared three photos of

creative carpool lane cheats —including one who used aHalloween skeleton as apassenger. The WashingtonState Patrol shared threephotos this weekshowing the faux-passengers thatHOV (high-occupancy vehicle)lane users used inunsuccessfulattempts to ward offscrutiny from police.

One of the photosfeatured a Halloweenskeleton dressed in a jacketand a baseball cap.

“This driver NB I5 atI405 in Sno County wasdying to not get caughtwith this passenger, there’sno bones about it!Another HOV violatorstopped by WSP,”Trooper H Axtman, the

Washington State Patrol’s District 7public information officer, tweeted.

Another example tweeted byTrooper Rick Johnson of District 2shows a pillow dressed in a hoodie andholding a cup of coffee and a tablet.

Axtman also shared a photo of a“creepy” dummy that appears to be

composed of a mannequinwearing a surgical mask, a

hoodie and a pair of glasses.HOV lane violations are

punished by a $136 fine inWashington state.

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An Australian man whowon a lottery prize worth

$3.5 million said it wasn’t entirely asurprise — he had dreamed the winjust three weeks earlier.

The Sydney man told NSWLotteries officials when he and hiswife claimed the prize that thedream left him with a strong feel-ing that he was going to win theSet for Life drawing, which car-

ries a top prize of $14,374 every

month for 20 years.“Three weeks ago I had

a dream where I won Setfor Life,” the man said.“Then when we were sittingon the beach relaxing, I lookedat my wife, grabbed her hands andI said to her, ‘We are about to winsomething, you just wait.’” The couplesaid they plan to use the money toretire early, do some traveling, fix uptheir home and give to charity.

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Asarcastic sign in the window of aConnecticut restaurant asking peo-

ple not to let their dogs pee on theeatery’s outside flower pot has earned theowner a $250 fine.

Duc Nguyen, owner of Duc’s Place inNew Haven, said that he was disgustedwith people allowing their dogs to uri-nate on his pot. He thought a humoroussign was a good way of discouraging dogwalkers from letting pets relieve them-selves there. It read: “Attn: dog owners.This is a pay-per-pee flower pot. (Payinside or leave your address and we’ll

kindly return the favor.)”Honda Smith, the city’s

public space enforcementofficer, said Nguyen broke

two city ordinances for being apublic nuisance and issued the

fine. Nguyen says he plans to appeal.����

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Aman accused of kicking a seagullthat tried to eat his cheeseburger at

a New Hampshire beach has been fined$124. Police investigated the reportfrom a bystander at Hampton Beachearlier this summer.

Reports suggest that the man, NateRancloes, said he had just returnedfrom getting a cheeseburger and friesand was sitting on the sand. He saidseagulls got to the burger, and he spunaround with his leg to shoo one away,but struck the bird. He said it was a sim-ple mistake. A witness said it appearedthe bird’s leg was injured and that itstruggled to fly away. New HampshireFish and Game Lt Adam Cheeney saysseagulls are protected under federal law.

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Animal rescuers in London said acorn snake is recovering from

minor injuries after being foundstuck in a mousetrap. The RSPCAsaid an animal collection officer wasdispatched earlier this month when asnake was spotted stuck in a mouse-trap in London’s Station Square.

“The poor snake couldbarely move and was welland truly stuck in themousetrap. The snakehad an abrasionwhere he was stuckbut his injuries donot seem to be toosevere,” AnimalCollection OfficerJoe White said.

“Unfortunately,an owner could not befound so the reptilewas transferred to the SouthEssex Wildlife Hospital for veterinarytreatment. If we can not trace anowner then the snake will berehomed,” he said.

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Ohio organisers are hoping to gatherat least 500 people to break a

Guinness World Record for most peopledoing paddle ball at the same time.

The record attempt, will be organ-ised by LAND studio and the GordonSquare Arts District, a public art organi-

sation in Cleveland, and host-ed by the Superelectric

Pinball parlour. It willinvolve a period ofpaddle ball practicebefore the officialrecord attempt.

LAND studiosaid it is hoping to

gather at least 500 peo-ple for the attempt, and

each participant will bepresented with their own

paddle ball to keep after theevent. The attempt is timed tocoincide with the installation ofa 14-foot paddle ball public artsculpture to be installed in theGordon Square Arts District bySuperelectric artists.

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The BBC (British BroadcastingCorporation) insists it has still notchosen a new host for The Radio

2 Breakfast Show, despite press specula-tion that Zoe Ball is set to take over thebiggest programme in UK radio.

Chris Evans announced thismonth that he was leaving the pro-gramme for Virgin Radio. Thisprompted speculation over who wouldinherit the slot, which reaches morethan nine million listeners a week.

Ball, a former host of the show whopresents a weekend show on the station,has been linked to the job. On Monday,the Sun reported that she was inadvanced negotiations to take over theprogramme but no contract had beensigned. The newspaper said a key con-cern was how she would handle herfamily commitments in Brighton, whereshe lives and has two sons with her for-mer husband Norman Cook.

“We are considering and talking toa number of people,” a BBC spokesper-son said. Sara Cox, a longtime friend ofBall’s and a former host of the show, hasalso been linked to the job. She current-ly presents a late night show on Radio 2.

The station is under pressure to

appoint a woman to the job, which hasonly ever been held by men.

Cook was coincidentally beinginterviewed on Monday morning’sRadio 2 breakfast show by Evans, whosaid: “I’m going to ask you a question,then you’re going to say: ‘I’m sworn tosecrecy’, and then we’re going to moveon. So, what do you know of this front-page story in the Sun today about Zoebeing offered this show come 2019?”

Cook replied: “I couldn’t possiblycomment on that, Christopher.”

More than three-quarters ofmuseums, galleries and otherattractions in the UK are giving

£65m of ticket-price concessions to theover-60s every year, while in many casesyoung people are charged full-pricetickets, according to a study.

People over 60 are offered conces-sions regardless of their ability to payand even when they are below the statepension age, according to theIntergenerational Foundation (IF), acharity that researched 35 of the UK’sleading attractions’ ticketing policies.

The giveaway to older people isexpected to fuel concerns that Britainhas failed to adjust to growing pension-er incomes and wealth. With millions ofpensioners boasting incomes above theaverage wage, the IF said it was con-cerned that charging policies developedin previous decades were out of date.While they all offer the over-60s seniordiscounts apart from RHS organisa-tions, only four — Chester zoo,Stonehenge, Canterbury Cathedral andBristol zoo gardens — have raised theticket-price concession threshold in linewith the state pension age (SPA) of 65.

Only one out of the 35 organisa-tions offers a young person discount —the Royal Shakespeare and Swan the-atres in Stratford-upon-Avon —although 27 offer student discounts.

Among the worst offenders areScottish attractions Edinburgh Castle,the National War Museum inEdinburgh, Stirling Castle and UrquhartCastle, all of which offer an over-60sconcession but no student or youngperson’s discount.

Archaeologists believe they haveidentified the exact site of HenryVII’s birth in 1457 after excava-

tions in the grounds of Pembroke Castlein Wales uncovered the remains of amassive medieval mansion worthy ofone of the most famous kings ofEngland. Just days into an initial dig,archaeologists have uncovered up tohalf a metre of the building’s walls —and they are yet to reach the main floorlevels. One wall is a metre thick.

They have also unearthed so manyslates and tiles that they are concludingit had a slate roof. Green-glazed ridge

tiles have also been found, which sug-gest a particularly imposing building,while other finds include a curving stairfrom a spiral staircase. James Meek,who is heading the excavation for theDyfed Archaeological Trust, said suchfinds suggest “a fairly showy building”inside of the outer walls of the castle. Itis about the size of two tennis courts,while the scale of the walls suggests astructure of a considerable height.

Pembroke Castle dates back to the11th century. Henry VII was believed tohave been born in its 13th-centurytower, which is named after him.

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Life as a Year 1 parent is verydifferent to life as the motherof a child in reception. BryonyGordon, 38, married to a verypatient husband Harry, and

mother to Edie, five, says, “When Ediestarted school last year, I thought I wasa proper grown-up (at last!) but thatwasn’t really the case given that: a) Ihad just started in rehab and had yet tolearn how to be a functioning adult;and b) reception is basically extendednursery school.

Now, stuff has got serious. ‘Is it truethat for the rest of school we are notallowed to play in our classroom?’ asksEdie one evening, as I am putting her tobed. ‘That all day we have to do learn-ing?’ she looks horrified. ‘Well,’ Irespond, attempting to choose mywords carefully, ‘You can play in breaktime. And after school.’ ‘I want to goback to being in reception,’ she says.‘But then you wouldn’t see your friendsany more,’ I respond. And then shesays, ‘They want to go back to receptiontoo. We are all going to go back toreception together.’ I have a vision of 30five- and six-year-olds storming downthe corridors shouting, ‘What do wewant? Play-Doh! When do we want it?Now!’ This amuses me, briefly, until Iam berated by Edie for ‘not payingattention’; apparently I am ‘always awaywith the fairies’ and need to ‘con-trate’more. It strikes me that the only prob-lem Edie has with her new class is thatshe isn’t doing the teaching.

Is this how it goes, I wonder? Doeschildhood really whizz by, as everyonewarned me? ‘Savour it,’ I was told againand again — but only during the seem-ingly never-ending newborn stage,when a day feels like a week and aweek feels like a month and so on. NowEdie is using words like ‘con-trate’ andtelling me off for ‘interrutting’ (yes,that is how she spells it), while I keepnoticing crow’s feet on my face andcrinkles between my breasts. It is hap-pening. I am getting older. We all are.And frankly, after the year we’ve had,it’s a kind of relief.”

Jane Gordon, age unknown, moth-er, grandmother and 24/7 childminder,shares, “Years ago — back when I was amadly busy mother of three and wife toone — I used to joke about the daywhen I’d finally be free of parentingand would move to a cottage in thecountry that I would name notDunroamin but Dun-nurturing.

I fancifully imagined that aftersuch a protracted period as a mum(bear in mind that my third child wasborn some 12 years after Bryony,meaning that my life as a parent hasspanned four decades and two cen-turies) I would be grateful for thechance of lots and lots of ‘me’ time.

But nothing ever quite works out asyou imagined, does it? And now that Ihave far, far too much time withmyself, I realise that there is absolutelynothing I like doing more than a bit ofnurturing. So, the idea of slipping back

into my term-time routine with Edie —whereby for at least one day (andnight) a week I would be able toindulge my need to nurture — wasreally, really exciting.

And there I was, last Wednesday, atthe school gates clutching her (Ithought) favourite treat (a KinderSurprise), full of anticipation for anenthusiastic greeting and a lovely Edie-and-me afternoon/evening. I wouldcook her (I thought) favourite tea andwe would play with her (I thought)favourite Sylvanian Family toys and Iwould read her (I thought) favouritebedtime books.

But from the moment Edieemerged, I sensed something hadchanged. Was it my imagination or didshe seem slightly less pleased to see methan she used to be this time last year?And did I really see her roll her eyeswhen I gave her the treat and tried togive her a huge hug?

Back home, I realised that whiletime had virtually stood still for meover the summer holidays, it had donethe very opposite for my granddaugh-ter. She had grown taller (I am shrink-ing), lost her first tooth and moved onfrom the little girl in reception class tothe big girl in Year 1. ‘ANNIE,’ she saidwhen she was trying to teach me toplay her new favourite game, GuessWho? ‘It’s your turn! KEEP UP!’

My worry now is that, at just fiveand a half, Edie is Dun-with-Granny…”

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Page 15: English News Paper | Breaking News | Latest Today News in ... · Urban Affairs (HUA) has allowed the Delhi Development Authority’s (DDA) proposal to modify the Master Plan for Delhi

We may in our ignorance eitherthink that God doesn’t exist orthat He is living somewhere

above us, not much involved in whateveris going on here. This is far from truth.He is the owner of the whole creation.(Gita 5.29) How can God not be con-cerned about His creation? Rather, God isvery much involved and has manyresponsibilities. This must be so becausewe, souls, are rather small and quite help-less to say the least. We need God’s help atalmost every step if we wish to exist well.Yes, we have free will and can choose toignore God, but, then, we more or lesscondemn ourselves. We keep on strug-gling till we drop dead. There is neitherpeace nor happiness. Material achieve-ments do not satisfy us.

Therefore, God must help whoeverchooses to turn to Him. Four kinds ofpersons do so. These are: Distressed,seekers of wealth, inquisitive, and wise.(7.16) God has to respond to all thosewho deserve, individually. Imagine whatthis means in terms of responsibility. Howmany of us are here on this planet? Even asmall portion of us will be a very bignumber. But God handles it; He has to,because this is what He has chosen to do.

Yes, God does delegate some of Hisresponsibilities to His many forms. Godalso uses many of us as His mediums(11.33); God empowers us. Classical

examples of mediums of God are spiritu-al preachers and writers. Then, there arethose involved in social welfare activi-ties. Researchers, scientists engaged infinding what can help the mankind aresimilarly empowered by God. These aregreat uses of the human life.

Still, God has to be very active.(3.22) Otherwise, godlessness will spreadand there will be unwanted progeny.(3.24) God has to keep encouraging abelief in dharma and goodness. Heincarnates; He sends His representativeslike Adi Shankaracharya; and He keepson doing miracles in various parts of theworld. It is also God’s responsibility tosee that no one misuses his/her power toharm others; He punishes such personsas He punished Ravana. Let us remem-ber that we, souls, have been given justenough power to exercise our free will. Ifwe gather more either by gaining itthrough tapasya or collecting a lot of

people like Hitler did and then misuse it,God must intervene as He did in case ofHitler through His material nature.

This is just one way God is active.There are several other ways. A famousexample is of Nostradamus. This man

desired to know the future. It is saidthat He meditated for very long periodsover a brass bowl filled with water. Godresponded and allowed Him to knowabout the future selectively about whichNostradamus wrote. Mother Teresa

wished to serve the humanity, and sheneeded money for this purpose. Godprovided her with that and in plenty. Itenabled her to serve the poor, thedying, and the destitute.

God is active vis-à-vis all those souls,who aspire to connect with Him and seekHis help. God responds to our prayers inthe way He deems fit. God alerts Hisdevotees of likely dangers in what theyare doing or are thinking of doing. Godgives precious intuitions to those who arelinked to Him. How does one make spiri-tual progress? God gives those aspiring todo so through realisations, which cementone’s faith in God. Yes, we have limitedpower intrinsically as souls but we don’tlack anything if we are connected withGod, who is unlimited. He takes theresponsibility of all those who do so andresponds to them individually.

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Be it popular discussion to extant literature, stressand its effect on human health is often talkedabout. It’s not because stress is a new problem. It’s

because now there is more awareness about how stresscan or is having an impact on human beings. Stress hasbeen talked about right from the ancient days whenhuman beings were cave dwellers and the fear of theunknown created anxiety leading to stress. But thequestion is why, even with so much advancement inscience and technology coupled with some people’sability to predict the future, stress still manages to bogus down? Is it that ignorance was bliss and awarenesshas made us more fearful, more paranoid? It’s a press-ing question that needs to be answered. There is a lot ofinformation on the ill-effects of stress on health. Forresearchers, new areas like Psychobiology andPsychoneuroimmunology have emerged in Behaviouraland Medical sciences. Yet, the problem remains. Thesimple reason is that the thought process of humanbeings in the evolutionary cycle has still remained pro-grammed for the same basic instinct of survival.Interestingly, it is not just the human beings, but theanimals too that worry about survival. The basic emo-tion of fear still continues to haunt humanity. Stress, wemust understand, is not a cause. It is an effect that aris-es out of an emotional state. Psychologists talk abouttwo kinds of stress — eustress and distress. Whileeustress is good stress that doesn’t lead to negative con-sequences, it is distress that is harmful. However, attimes, even too much of eustress may lead to negativeconsequences resulting out of euphoria. Nevertheless,we have to understand that stress is a serious issue inthe present day society, causing several psychologicalproblems including some that lead to suicide. Theimportant thing that must be borne in mind is thatstress is a reaction of an individual, a deliberate act.Thus, controlling stress depends on an individual’s cop-ing skills. The same emotional state can have a widerange of outcomes depending on how it is tackled. We,therefore, must focus on the stress tolerance capacity ofthe individual. The important question is how to raisethis stress resilience. The first step lies in identifyingthat state. Since stress is a non-specific response, manya time it may not be possible for an individual to evenrealise that he is stressed. It is an outcome of thethought process and the remedy lies in changing thethought process. Since thought processes are condi-tioned mental states, it may require a lot of mentaltraining for that to be reoriented. But it is certainly pos-sible. Just like for training the body there are physicalexercises, for shaping the mind, too, there are mentalexercises. The basic step is changing the thought pat-tern. Rather than being skeptical about the intention ofGod, it is important to have full faith. This is the essen-tial first step. Every day, you need to spend some timewith God, praying to him, thinking about his kindness.The second step is talking to yourself. That means, beon your own sometimes every day. Talk to yourself.What have you been doing, what do you need to do?The third step is talking to genuine well-wishers whogive positive vibes. Though all three steps are impor-tant, the last one is perhaps the most significant as it’sdifficult to identify such persons.

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That moment when youreyes close and yet it feelslike you are all-seeing,the moment when youare surrounded by peo-

ple, and yet your solitude is themost powerful presence around, themoment when your physical selfceases to exist and the essence ofyour life harmoniously resets to itsraw, innate form; that is themoment when your consciousnesspeaks, and absolute mindfulnesswashes over, terrifying and liberat-ing you at the same time.

It is truly fascinating to have anexperience so intense. There are anumber of ways in which people tryto be a part of something so exhila-rating. Adventure sports is one ofthe unconventional ways whichopens the gates to the spiritual worldfor you. With an increasing pile ofhassles all around you and anextremely busy schedule where oneneeds to take care of a giganticworkload, stress, depression, andanxiety are rampant today. Naturally,people feel the need to look for waysin which they can beat the stress andmake life more enjoyable. Thissearch often leads to adventuresports as it is seen as a tool forimproving mental health.Surprisingly, the quality of experi-ence that these sports offer is, inessence, quite similar to the experi-ence of meditation. If you have evergone for an adventure sport, youcertainly know what kind of experi-ence is being talked about. It isempowering to feel like a daredevil.

Indulging in something thatseems so crazy helps one experienceeach moment completely and appre-ciate life. It directs one onto the pathof self-awakening and makes themfeel alive. It is while standing at theedge and indulging in an ‘extremeexperience’ that one gets a taste ofspirituality. One push, and a wholenew realm opens up — spiritualityleads man to the harbour of happi-ness, satisfaction, calmness, andserenity. India has been the spiritualleader of the world throughout theevolution of civilisations. Today,adventure sports have created a newpath for the Indian youth and globalsports enthusiasts to witness thisnew, ‘cool’ form of spirituality.

There are four life lessons that one

can learn while standing on the edge:● Dare to open your eyes: Only you

know that you have suffered. Youknow what it has cost you butinstead of dealing with it, youhave learnt the trick of blockingout the pain. But it can’t serveyou for long. All it will do isblock out the gorgeous view thatis right in front of you. A lot ofpeople, while taking on adven-ture sports, try to shut their eyesand desperately try not to let thefear creep up on them or to takecontrol of them. But it does notwork that way. Strength is inacknowledging the presence ofthe darkness within, and choos-ing to move forward and onwardsanyway. Open your eyes, take inthe thunderous moment and youwill find the strength to take onestep at a time.

● You are all you’ve got: In thefinal moments before you takethe leap of faith, when you’reabout to take on a challenge,you are amazed, terrified andexcited, your heart poundinglouder, adrenaline rushingthrough your body, and breathcoming in short and fast. That’swhen you suddenly realise thatwhat lies ahead of you is a jour-ney that is yours alone. In thosemoments, as scared as you are,there is a moment of absoluteclarity. Suddenly you find your-self conscious to every thoughtwithin you. You find yourselfrooting for yourself, and youfind yourself consciously draw-ing out your inner strength.Within that fraction of a second,lies a profound lesson — you’reall you’ve got, and somehow,that is enough. You were alwayscomplete and whole, all by your-self. It’s a rare moment that isdeeply empowering.

● Let go: That moment whenyou’ve accomplished your adven-ture sport marks a lot of changeswithin you. It’s the act of lettinggo of your apprehensions, inhibi-tions and all that has been hold-ing you back. It’s the time forsoaring and diving into theunknown. It’s re-instilling faith inthe magic of taking risks. It’sstumbling upon the realisationthat even in your own solitude,you are whole and complete.Freedom, you realise with a jolt,is a state of mind that was alwayslatent within you. You realise thatthe only thing actually keepingyou caged was your own mindand your own thoughts. You areengulfed in the realisation thatyou just broke free from all thechains pulling you down, and youare now ready to fly.

● Re-centre you mind, body andsoul: As you finish your dare, youfind yourself amazingly alive inthe present moment. It’s deeplycalming and brings the conscious-ness back into what is. This is nei-ther the future nor the past; this isjust ‘now’. All the frustrations,chaos, the triviality of daily life,stress, and depression is just exter-nal ‘noise’ that we end up carryingas baggage. The calm within getslost, and we forget the beauty ofsilence. One attempt at overpow-ering your fear, and overcomingan unsurmountable challenge andpositivity gets restored withinyourself and you find yourselfthrowing away the negativity intothe depth below. Becoming awareof every little moment is a beauti-ful gift. Every now and then, yourealise, you need to get out of ourown head and just live. Live in thejoy of being alive.

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Mind and matter are both rootedto a common pool of energiesflowing through the cosmos,

and are therefore, inter alia connected.So, no wonder, when mind is understress for whatever reasons, it has relat-ed bearing on the person’s health status.In the same vein, if physical healthcomes under strain, it disturbs one’smind-state. It simply implies that in theevent of ailment, a holistic approach isneeded to get over the problem.

The other day, worried parents of aman suffering from ulcerative colitiscame asking: “What lies in store of ourson’s destiny in so far as his health statusis concerned?” “Well, it is unfair tochart out your son’s health profile infinite terms,” I suggested. For, it dependson so many factors. If he has healthissues, it certainly needs medical help,and I am sure he must be undergoingtreatment. Medicine will play its part.But simultaneously, he has to workupon his thought process. Otherwise,medicine may suppress his suffering fora while, but problem may keep arisingagain and again.

Explaining further, I suggested thatif your son is suffering from ulcerativecolitis, it would mean that the fire ele-

ment is higher than the desired level.That leads to excessive bile secretion inthe body, which has been corroding hisintestine. If there is excess of fire ele-ment, it will find reflection in the per-son’s usual conduct also.

A look into the man’s chart revealsthat mind signifying Moon occupies amovable sign Aries marked with fire,which is ruled by Mars. That speaks ofa hot headed person. He would beimpulsive, aggressive, intolerant,impatient, and judgmental. He wishesto be at the head of things, not opento listening or counsel of others. Infact, it is difficult for him to digest anycontrarian views. A person with highambitions and desires may jump intoaction targeting his dream destinationwithout applying proper forethought.Evidently, for lack of the required levelof preparedness, he remains vulnera-ble to be caught unaware when con-fronted with challenging situations. Itis only when put to difficult situations,that he applies his mind. But thensuch characters carry the potential tobe the best crisis managers also.

The Sun, the planet identified withhis individuality, occupies another mov-able sign Capricorn. It speaks of a being

armed with leadership abilities, keen tomove in an organised way, but on hisown exclusive terms, as would his lagnasign Gemini imply. Gemini born carrythe tendency to have only ‘yes-persons’around. So long you agree with theirviewpoints, you remain their bestfriend. The moment any contrarianview is offered, they can’t take it kindly,and feel offended. If that was notenough, the lagna-lord Mercury occu-pies the nakshatra owned by erraticRahu, which is conjunct fiery Mars in awatery sign Pisces. That leaves him boil-ing when confronted with an advisorythat would be at variance with his per-ceptions. He may then lose his sense oforder and direction, and misdirect hisenergies towards unproductive ends.

The Sun is posited in the lunar con-stellation owned by Moon. It, therefore,carries the fiery streaks of Moon. Notsimply that, the two are placed adverseto each other. That makes him vulnera-ble to a lot of stressful situations. Whatfurther compounds his problem is hisvolatile emotionality. For, emotions sig-nifying Venus is placed adverse to boththe luminaries. That makes him tootouchy and sensitive, who may get overexercised even on trivial issues. He maykeep unnecessarily mulling over them

for long. In a way, it can be said thatfrom within, he remains a live boilingpot. Evidently with dissipation of somuch fire within, his gross-body has tocome under strain.

Now, in terms of his specific ail-ment, the lagna lord Mercury occupiesthe nakshatra owned by Rahu, which isconjunct Mars, the sixth lord identifiedwith ailment. So, his health profile isfragile. Placement of eighth lord Saturnin the sixth house implies long drawnailment. The sixth cusp sub-lord Venusoccupies the fiery sign Sagittarius, andis posited in the nakshatra owned byKetu, which occupies Virgo sign identi-fied with lower intestine. That makeshim vulnerable to long drawn problemof bowel genesis.

Now to get over his problem, it isimportant that the man works uponhis thought process as much as he hasto follow medical prescription.Remember, a healthy mind facilitates a healthy body chemistry.

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