http://everexam.com/ Delhi friday, august 19, 2016

www.thehindu.in Regd. DL(ND)-11/6110/2006-07-08 RNI No. TNENG/2012/49940 ISSN 0971 - 751X Vol. 6 No. 198 CITY EDITION 24 Pages Rs. 8.00 ●

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Printed at Chennai, Coimbatore, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Madurai, Noida, Visakhapatnam, Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi, Vijayawada, Mangaluru, Tiruchirapalli, Kolkata, Hubballi, Mohali, Allahabad, Malappuram and Mumbai

Machhli, star attraction of Ranthambore, dies

Jaitley withdraws tweet on Netaji after uproar

Image of injured boy from war-torn Syria triggers outrage

Many LTTE cadres were poisoned, say Tamil politicians

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BRIEFLY Toll in Bihar hooch tragedy rises to 15

Sakshi takes bronze, Sindhu in the hunt for gold Thanks to the Rohtak grappler, India wins its first medal at Rio; podium finish assured in badminton too

PATNA: The death toll in the

hooch tragedy at Gopalgunj in Bihar reached 15 on Thursday. Seven persons have been arrested in connection with the incident while FIR has been lodged against 15 persons.

KAMESH SRINIVASAN

쐍 NEWS | PAGE 9 Amnesty cautions employees in India BENGALURU: Amnesty International shut its office here and asked its staff to work from other locations, following police advice. The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad has been protesting against Amnesty for organising an event on Kashmir.

쐍 NEWS | PAGE 12 Centre funding yoga research NEW DELHI: The Department of

Science and Technology is funding research institutions, including the AIIMS and Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali Research Foundation, to study the efficacy of yoga and if it can alleviate stroke, type-2 diabetes and schizophrenia.

쐍 NEWS | PAGE 13 Raid at DCW office NEW DELHI: The Anti-Corruption Branch on Thursday carried out a search at the office of the Delhi Commission for Women after two complaints were filed against the women’s body over appointments and one against misuse of office. CITY | PAGE 4

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Govt. drops move to appoint Alphons NEW DELHI: The Centre on

Thursday appointed V.P. Singh Badnore, the Governor designate of Punjab, as the Administrator of Chandigarh, and dropped its move to appoint retired IAS officer K.J. Alphons. to the post.

FRIDAY REVIEW 4 Pages

GO GIRL, GO! P.V. Sindhu exults after winning a point during the women’s badminton singles semifinals against Nozomi Okuhara of Japan. (Right) Sakshi Malik celebrates with coach Kuldeep Singh after clinching the bronze in Rio.— PHOTOS: GETTY IMAGES & AFP

BJP worker killed by cow vigilantes

RIO DE JANEIRO: India’s women power came to the fore in the Rio Olympics as P.V. Sindhu entered the final of the badminton tournament with a 2119, 21-14 victory over the higher-ranked Nozomi Okuhara of Japan at the Riocentro Pavilion on Thursday. After an intense battle in which the short-built Japanese brought the best out of the tall Indian, Sindhu accelerated to the finish, producing some superb winners and racing away with the last 11 points. Coming on the heels of the historic first-ever woman’s wrestling bronze by Sakshi Malik in the 58kg freestyle event the previous day, there was something to cheer about for the Indian contingent after a long barren spell.

1.3 million pellets used in 32 days, CRPF tells High Court

After Saina Nehwal’s bronze medal in the 2012 London Games, Indian badminton was expected to march forward; it did, on Sindhu’s young legs, after Saina was forced to limp away with a knee injury. It was no surprise that Sindhu, coached diligently by the former All England champion P. Gopi Chand, rose to the occasion. She put out the London Games silver medallist and second seed, Wang Yihan of China, in the earlier round with a solid exhibition of all-round game. Sindhu, who has won the World Championship bronze twice, was ready for the big push as she had been beating the top players regularly. She has peaked at the right time. Sakshi (23) from Rohtak, Haryana became the toast of the nation with a hard-fought

win against Asian champion Aisuluu Tynybekova of Kyrgyztan. The Indian was 5-0 down in the first three minutes before pulling of a sensational upset. Women achievers After weightlifter Karnam Malleswari (Sydney 2000), boxer Mary Kom and Saina Nehwal (both London 2012), Sindhu and Sakshi are the latest to join the list of woman medallists from India. With Aditi Ashok joint second in golf after two rounds, there is still a lot to fight for in Rio!

쐍 SAKSHI MALIK, CHAMPION |

EDITORIAL

SHE DISPELS GLOOM WITH A BRONZE | PAGE 17 CONFIDENT BUT CAUTIOUS |

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Vacate PoK, India tells Pakistan

GANESH PRABHU PEERZADA ASHIQ UDUPI: A BJP worker, Praveen

Poojary (29), was beaten to death allegedly by activists of the Hindu Jagrana Vedike (HJV) for transporting cattle at Karjike in Udupi district on Wednesday night. Poojary was a former president of the BJP committee of Kenjur village. Akshaya Devadiga (20), who was helping him transport the cattle, was injured. Police said they were transporting four cows from a house at Muddur in a van towards Udupi when they were stopped by a group of 20 HJV activists. Despite Praveen’s pleadings that he was only hired to transport the animals, the attackers did not relent, claiming he was taking the cows to an abattoir.

SRINAGAR: The Central Reserve

Praveen Poojary One of the attackers is believed to have taken the van with the cattle and abandoned nearby. The local police, who were informed of the incident, rushed the two to a hospital, where Praveen succumbed to his injuries. Eighteen persons have been arrested. Among the accused is Aravind, local convener of the HJV.

Police Force (CRPF) told the Jammu and Kashmir High Court on Thursday that it used 1.3 million pellets in 32 days in Kashmir to control street protests. In response to a public interest litigation seeking a ban on pellet guns that has left more than 400 injured in their eyes, the CRPF in its aidavit admitted that “it was diicult to follow the standard operating procedure (SOP) given the nature of the protests.” It said 3,000 pellet cartridges, or around 1.3 million pellets, were fired from the pump action guns. While informing the High Court that “pellet guns were introduced in 2010 as an accepted weapon of riot control,” it said: “In case this (pellet shotgun) is withdrawn, the CRPF would have no recourse in extreme situations but to open fire with rifles, which may cause more fatalities.”

A security man with a pellet gun. – FILE PHOTO The CRPF said it has used 14 types of “less lethal and nonlethal” munitions to control crowds, including oleoresin grenades, pepper balls, stun grenades and electric shells. According to the CRPF Inspector General, 8,650 tearsmoke shells were used from July 8 to August 11. ”Around 2,671 plastic pellets have been used too,” he said. The CRPF, while admitting that the weapon should be aimed below the waist, argued that “the situation prevailing on the streets during the ongoing law and order incident is

dynamic and mobile.” The use of pellet guns has come under sharp focus both from political class as well as human rights bodies. In another development, the body of a youth, Shabir Ahmad Mir, who was killed in firing by security forces, was exhumed on Thursday morning on the directions of the Supreme Court. The police claim Mir died when security forces fire from non-lethal weapons. However, the family alleged that Deputy Superintendent of Police Yasir Qadri shot dead their son in the house “in cold blood.” The body was exhumed under the supervision of the District and Sessions Judge, Srinagar, Rashid Ali. The family members of Mir were also present. The body was later shifted to Government Medical College, where scan and X-ray was conducted. Last week, the SC ordered the exhumation to “ascertain cause of death”.

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT NEW DELHI: The war of words

between India and Pakistan intensified on Thursday with Delhi demanding that Islamabad address “more pressing” issues related to cross-border terrorism and Pakistan saying that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had “crossed a red line” by talking of Balochistan during his August 15 speech. The Ministry of External Afairs (MEA) said the latest ofer of dialogue on Kashmir from Pakistan could progress only if Islamabad stopped the export of terror that hit Kashmir, as well as Mumbai on 26/11, and demanded the “earliest possible vacation of PoK [Pakistan-occupied Kashmir].” Releasing the contents of the letter that Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar wrote to his Pakistan counterpart Aizaz Ahmad

Lecturer dies in ‘Army raid’ SRINAGAR: Shabir Ahmad Mongoo, a 30-year-old college lecturer, died early on Thursday after soldiers allegedly raided a village in Pulwama district following protests. The Army has ordered a probe. Page 12

Chaudhry on August 16, the MEA demanded the “cessation of cross-border terrorism”, the “closing down of terrorist camps”, and denial of “safe havens for terrorists.” The terror-specific demands came a day after India rejected Pakistan’s proposal for “Kashmir dispute-specific talks” and demanded that the proposed Foreign Secretary talks focus on “cross-border terrorism.”

VIOLATION OF U.N. CHARTER, SAYS PAKISTAN | PAGE 12

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Kerala takes liquor sales online K.A. MARTIN KOCHI: Those who find it embarrassing to stand in serpentine roadside queues in Kerala to buy liquor can now take heart. The Kerala State Cooperative Consumers’ Federation (Consumerfed) is planning to start selling Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) online, ahead of Onam. For those unable to access the Internet, a phone order is possible. The cooperative runs 36 hard liquor shops and three beer and wine outlets. The shops will now open special counters for online and telephone customers. The purchase would have to be paid for physically because Consumerfed’s online payment portal is still some six months away. Premium liquor brands are on the list and Consumerfed will add 59 more varieties, its managing director M. Ramanunny told The Hindu. Kerala accounts for about 14 per cent liquor consumption nationally, but volumes have dipped. Sales stood at 201 lakh cases worth Rs.11,577 crore in 2015-16, down from 220 lakh cases worth Rs.10,013 crore the previous year. Gross sales in the first three months of this year were around Rs.4,000 crore. Excise Minister T.P. Ramakrishnan said the government is yet to grant formal approval for

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ILLUSTRATION: DEEPAK HARICHANDAN

online sales, and has not received a formal application, but Consumerfed sources said they foresee no hurdles. Consumerfed thinks online liquor sales will solve the problem of ‘gentlemen’ having to queue up. “A lot of people are embarrassed to be seen before liquor shops,” said Mr. Ramanunny. The queues lengthened with the closure of bars in hotels rated below five-stars, as ordered by the erstwhile UDF government last year. The decision shuttered around 730 bars, many of which then populated around 800 beer and wine parlours. Around 60 of more than 370 retail liquor outlets of the Kerala State Beverages Corporation and Consumerfed also shut down. There is, however, pressure on the LDF government to reconsider its approach to liquor, with tourism revenue plummeting. Tourism Minister A. C. Moideen has demanded the reopening of shops in tourism spots. ND-ND

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Weapons smuggled in from Pak seized

Metro breaches the 33 lakh mark

Sophisticated weapons of German and US make, allegedly smuggled into India from Pakistan via Bangladesh and Nepal, were seized by the Delhi Police after a shootout Page 4

Nearly 14 years after it began its operations, ridership in the Delhi Metro breached the 33 lakh-mark on Wednesday, the eve of Raksha Bandhan Page 5

Delhi University to release three more cut-of lists STAFF REPORTER NEW DELHI: It has been a month since the new term at Delhi University started in July, but the university has still not completed the process for its new undergraduate admissions.

Vacant seats At the end of the process, which went online for the first time this year, the university found that colleges still had seats vacant and decided to release three more cut-of lists. It had been decided

earlier that the university will release only five cut-of lists, after which individual colleges will fill vacant seats by bringing out a merit list. Reserved seats A consolidated list of vacancies in individual colleges was released by the university on Thursday. While most general category seats have been filled, students applying for reserved seats will have a good shot at seeking admission under the new phase of admissions. According to the

schedule released by DU, the sixth admission list will be released on August 20. The document verification process and approval of admission will take place on August 20 and 22. Subsequently, the seventh and eight lists will be declared on August 24 and August 29 respectively. DU portal All candidates registered online with the DU portal for the undergraduate course (merit-based) are eligible for admission through these cut-ofs.

MOVIE REVIEW

Chariots of boredom While its budget overtakes William Wyler’s opus, will this Ben-Hur remake pack the same punch? DEBORAH CORNELIOUS

★★★★★

Why are we so obsessed with remakes? Especially of those incredibly ambitious projects that when unsuccessful will burn some serious holes in pockets? This year’s Ben-Hur is one such example, made on a whopping $100 million budget. The epic biblical drama is largely a borefest save for a few redeeming sequences, but more on that later. In 1959, William Wyler had every reason to remake BenHur. After all, the previous adaptation of Lew Wallace’s 1880 novel was a silent film made in 1925. The 2016 remake retains the book’s plotline of a prince, Judah BenHur (Jack Huston), who’s accused of sedition by his friend Messala (Toby Kebbell), an oicer of the Roman army. After years of being a galley slave, Judah manages to escape and returns to avenge the betrayal by challenging Messala to a chariot race. But chance encounters with Jesus of Nazareth change Judah forever. Wyler’s magnum opus was

Ben Hur Director: Timur Bekmambetov Starring: Jack Huston, Morgan Freeman, Toby Kebbell, Nazanin Boniadi, Haluk Bilginer and Rodrigo Santoro Runtime: 124 minutes

A FEW REDEEMING QUALITIES: A visual spectacle, but Ben-Hur is not enough to hold the audience’s attention. — PHOTO: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

universally lauded, earning a record 11 Academy Award wins, including Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor. With such massive shoes to fill, how on earth could Timur Bekmambetov (who made Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter) do the film justice? It’s not for want of trying, though. Despite BenHur’s period setting, the film is a visual spectacle with perfectly captured Judean landscapes and lush costumes. But

it’s not enough to hold the audience’s attention. The 2016 film has been dubbed a reinterpretation of the book. As proof, there are several diferences: this time, Messala is an adoptive brother, thus making the betrayal worse; Judah’s journey, from slave to participating in the chariot race is entirely altered, albeit stretched out. But perhaps, the most glaring variation has to be the end of the film. The script by John

Ridley (known for 12 Years a Slave) chooses a happier ending, excepting of course the inevitable crucifixion of Jesus. The film also gave the ‘son of god’ a lot more screen time, showing the audience his face several times (the glorious mug of a tannedto-perfection Rodrigo Santoro). Then there are those irksome moments, when eyes will roll. Judah’s spotted wearing a pair of jeans while riding a horse. And what was up with Morgan Freeman’s American accent, even though he’s supposed to play the Nubian Sheik Ilderim?

Now for those redeeming factors. There are a few times when the film genuinely soars. For instance, the sequence in the galleys just before Judah makes his escape is a numbing experience. It reiterates this writer’s belief that humans are the worst…they hurt other creatures and even themselves. The whips on the slaves’ backs, the claustrophobic cramped space, the stripping away of human dignity will strike a chord of empathy with all. Then there’s the chariot race, an adrenaline rushfuelled sequence of men trying, and mostly succeeding, in eliminating the competition. Every casualty, both man and animal, induces wincing. But even the cinematic feat of evoking pathos cannot make up for Ben-Hur’s failure to resonate with its viewer. Judah’s victory in the race would have been an apt way to end to the film. Yet, Bekmambetov tortures us with scenes of reconciliation and a forced promise of a happy future to provide closure to — at this point — an uncaring audience.

CINEMA ENGLISH: BEN-HUR: PVR (Anupam, Shalimar Bagh, Vasant Kunj, Prashant Vihar, City Walk, Naraina, Sangam, Vikaspuri, Mahagun), DT (Saket, Noida), Movie Time (Raja Garden), Satyam (Patel Nagar, Janankpuri, Nehru Place), Wave (Raja Garden, Kaushambi, Noida), BIG (Odeon, Kaushambi), SRS Cinemas, Spice (Noida).

HINDI: HAPPY BHAG JAYEGI: (New Release: Diana Penty, Abhay Deol, Ali Fazal, Jimmy Shergill): Liberty, Delite, Batra Reels, Eros One, Gagan G3S (Rohini), PVR (Plaza, Priya, Anupam, 3C’s, City Walk, Naraina, Vikaspuri, Vasant Kunj, Prashant Vihar, Opulent, EDM), Movie Time (Pitampura, Raja Garden), M2K (Pitampura, Rohini), FUN (Moti Nagar, Pitampura), DT (Noida, Saket), Satyam (Janakpuri, Nehru Place), Wave (Raja Garden, Noida), BIG (Odeon, Kaushambi, Greater

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Noida), JAM Shipra, Spice (Noida), SRS Cinemas. MOHENJO DARO: (Hrithik Roshan, Pooja Hegde, Kabir Bedi, Arunodaya Singh): Delite, Liberty, Samrat, Gagan, Golcha, Eros One, Cinemax, G3S (Rohini), PVR (Plaza, Rivoli, Priya, 3C’s, Saket, City Walk, Naraina, Vikaspuri, Prashant Vihar, Mahagun, EDM, Opulent), DT (Saket, Shalimar Bagh, Vasant Kunj), M2K (Rohini, Pitampura), Movie Time (Pitampura, Raja Garden), FUN (Pitampura, Moti Nagar, Laxmi Nagar, Karkardooma), BIG (Vaishali, Kaushambi, Noida), Satyam (Patel Nagar, Nehru Place, Janakpuri), Wave (Raja Garden, Noida, Kaushambi), JAM Shipra, M4U, Galaxie, Star X (Vaishali), Movie Palace, Movie Magic, Chaudhary (Ghaziabad), Movie World and Silver City (Ghaziabad), Q Cinemas and Inox (Faridabad). RUSTOM: (Akshay Kumar, Ileana D'Cruz, Arjan Bajwa, Esha Gupta ): Delite, Delite Diamond, Batra Reels,

Eros One, Shiela, G3S (Rohini), Cinemax, PVR (Plaza, Rivoli, Priya, 3C’s, Saket, City Walk, Naraina, Vikaspuri, Prashant Vihar, Mahagun, EDM, Opulent), DT (Saket, Shalimar Bagh, Vasant Kunj), Movie Time (Pitampura, Raja Garden), FUN (Pitampura, Moti Nagar, Laxmi Nagar, Karkardooma), M2K (Rohini, Pitampura), Satyam (Patel Nagar, Nehru Place, Janakpuri),BIG (Vaishali, Kaushambi, Noida), Wave (Raja Garden, Noida, Kaushambi), SRS Cinemas, JAM Shipra, Galaxie, Star X (Vaishali), Movie Palace, Movie Magic, Chaudhary (Ghaziabad). DISHOOM: (John Abraham, Varun Dhawan, Jacqueline Fernandez): G3S (Rohini), PVR (Anupam, Mahagun), Movie Time (Raja Garden), DT (Saket). (BOOKING ENQUIRIES: PVR 51513391; Spice Gold 012043890000; Satyam Cinemas 25797385; Delite 23272903; Wave 51832222)

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Aug 19, Fri

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RISE 19 40 SET 06 36

RISE 20 22 SET 07 39

RISE 21 04 SET 08 42

DEADLY EXPLOSION

Bakery blast claims 3 lives Two injured after oven blows up in East Delhi's Jagatpuri on Thursday morning STAFF REPORTER NEW DELHI: Three workers were killed and two others injured after an oven exploded at a bakery in East Delhi’s Jagatpuri early on Thursday morning. The impact of the explosion was such that two of the victims died on the spot while the third succumbed to injuries minutes after reaching a hospital. Around eight employees of the bakery were present at the time of the explosion. Locals say the casualties could have been higher had the blast taken place later during the day when more employees come in.

Case registered Workers, meanwhile, allege that the oven had not been functioning properly for some days, but that the bakery owner did not get it

We attempted to fix it, but it exploded suddenly. We were thrown away because of the impact

NEGLIGENCE? Workers at the bakery have alleged that the oven had not been functioning properly for some days, but that the owner did not get it fixed. PHOTO: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT fixed. It stopped working hurt by act endangering the around 4.30 a.m. on Saturday. personal safety of others and “We tried to get a repair- negligent conduct with reman, but no one was sent. We spect to machinery has been attempted to fix it, but it ex- registered at the Jagatpuri ploded suddenly. We were police station,” said Rishi Pal, thrown away because of the DCP (East). impact,” said a survivor on Cramped spaces condition of anonymity. “A case of causing death The bakery, which operdue to negligence, causing ates out of rented premises,

is owned by three partners, said locals. Specialising in rusk, the bakery operates out of a cramped first-floor flat in a residential locality of Khureji Khas area. “During the day, anywhere between 15 and 20 people are employed at the bakery. The bakery functions continuously, which could have caused the blast,” said Saleem Ahmed, a local businessman. The explosion occurred around 5.30 a.m. when most people in the neighbourhood were still asleep. “I was returning home after namaaz when I heard a loud blast. Believing it to be a cylinder blast, I rushed to help,” said Roshan Lal, a local. However, nobody could enter the bakery because of the blaze. The locals then called the police and the fire department. It was the three survivors who took turns to pull the injured out. “Two of the workers had died even before the police came,” Muatz, another local. The deceased, Zainul, Sajid and Lifakat, were between 20 and 22 years of age. The two injured men have been to Dr. Hedgewar Hospital. All five are natives of Farrukhabad in UP.

A disaster waiting to happen STAFF REPORTER NEW DELHI: The explosion at an

East Delhi bakery was a disaster waiting to happen, thanks to the mushrooming of many such units in the area, say residents of Khureji Khas.

DELHI TODAY Talk: Women In The Mahabharata: Discussion on “Indraprastha: the poetic work of Upendra Kumar” Discussants: Dr. Ganga Prasad Vimal, Dr. Vishwanath Tripathi and Madan Kashyap; Chair: Manager Pandey at Conference Room - I, IIC, 6.30 p.m. Talk: “Resolving Breakdowns. On toxicity in relationships and antidotes” Panelists: Paromita Bardoloi - Writer & Human Rights Activist, Dr. Nisha Khanna - Marriage & Family Counsellor, Dr. Kamal Khurana -Marriage Counsellor. Moderated by Suzzy Singh, Relationship Counsellor, IHC, 7 p.m. Exhibition: “Shahar-e-dilli”, show of sketches on Delhi’s architectural ruins by Yajanika, IHC, 10 a.m. - 8 p.m. Exhibition: “Cynosure”, photographs by Sara Wadhwa, IHC, 10 a.m. - 8 p.m. Exhibition: “Today”, exhibition of paintings and ceramics at Visual Art Gallery, IHC, 10:30 a.m. - 7:30 p.m. Exhibition: “Panorama”, group exhibition of paintings by various artists at IHC, 11 a.m. - 7 p.m. Screening: Travelling Film South Asia 2016 – A Festival of South Asian Documentaries. “Drawing the tiger” (Nepal) (92 min; 2015; with English subtitles), 6 p.m.; “Accesex” (India) (52 min; 2013; English and with subtitles), 7:40 p.m. at IIC Screening: “Brooklyn” English movie screening at American Center, 6 p.m. Screening: “The Face of Jizo” Japanese film screening at The Japan Foundation, 5-A Ring Road, 6:30 p.m. (Mail your listings for this column at [email protected])

“There are at least 500 unauthorised bakeries in Khureji area alone. We have written to the authorities against them, but got no response,” alleged Saleem Ahmed, a local. Most of these bakeries have been here since years, but had

shifted to diesel and kerosene oil instead of wood as fuel. Some even resorted to electric ovens, but these were few in number because of frequent power cuts in the area. “Gas forms in these ovens because of the use of diesel and

kerosene as fuel, which is dangerous,” explained an employee at another bakery. Most of these ovens are six feet tall and four feet wide. An explosion can hurt many people as most employees sit around the oven, said another bakery worker.

8 held as woman returns years after abduction STAFF REPORTER NEW DELHI: Days after a

young girl returned home after 10 years of her abduction, the Delhi Police cracked down on the traicking chain, arresting eight persons who were allegedly involved in her kidnapping, buying and selling. The arrested persons include two women and a 33-year-old man, Jagshir alias Jaggi, who had allegedly tortured her after forcibly marrying her, said Dr. A.K. Singla, DCP (North-East). “I was physically abused almost everywhere, but the most severe and brutal of all my buyers was Jaggi who not only raped me and pushed me into prostitution, but would torture me at the slightest

protest,” the girl, now 22, said after returning home. Her mother said that Jaggi would insert burning firewood, livewire and cigarettes into her private parts. The marks on her body bear testimony to her allegations. Mr. Singla said the girl was sold at least nine times over the last 10 years, for as little as Rs. 12,000, and forcibly married at least twice. “She would be raped and tortured for weeks or months before being sold to someone else,” said the DCP. She has two sons born of one such forced wedlock. The children were taken away by her sister-in-law, but police said they are working to have the boys restored to her. The girl, who was abducted when she was

Among those arrested are two women and a man who allegedly tortured her after forcibly marrying her. PHOTO: SUSHIL KUMAR VERMA

only 12, finally walked into her home in Khajuri Khas on July 25 this year. Thereafter, her mother’s attempts to get a case registered were allegedly met with a rude response by the local police, but once the DCP stepped in, the police conducted several raids in Punjab and

Haryana. The subsequent crackdown has also led to the rescue of two other kidnapped women. The probe so far has revealed that the unsuspecting girls were kidnapped mainly to be sold as brides in areas of Punjab and Haryana that have a poor sex ratio. These kidnappers scout for their victims in places like railway stations and bus stands where girls often wander after quarrels with family. The kidnappers approach them on the pretext of ofering moral support before selling them for as little as Rs 40,000. But in this victim’s case, she was drugged with a handkerchief while she was walking to her sister’s home in North-East Delhi’s Welcome area.

Metro cash collection agent runs away with Rs. 50 lakh STAFF REPORTER NEW DELHI: A cash collection agent hired by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) allegedly made of with Rs. 50 lakh that had been collected as fare from seven metro stations on Tuesday afternoon. While the accused, Neeraj, is on the run, a case has been registered at the Rajouri Garden police station.

Family clueless Preliminary investigations suggest that the man boarded the metro at Udyog Vihar and deboarded at Malviya Nagar. A police team was sent to Neeraj’s house in Delhi and Bihar, but his family too seemed to be clueless. A senior police oicer said that Neeraj worked for a com-

pany hired by a nationalised bank where the DMRC has its accounts. The cash management has been outsourced to the bank, which in turn, had hired a private company. The company deploys agents like Neeraj to gather daily collections from stations and deposit them in the bank. The amount Neeraj was carrying on Tuesday was more than usual owing to Independence Day, when the bank was also closed, said the oicer. “His colleagues became suspicious after his phone was found switched of for a long time. They reported the matter to the company, the bank and DMRC. We received a complaint from the DMRC after which a case was registered,” said the police.

Couple held for murder STAFF REPORTER NEW DELHI: A 45-year-old woman and her boyfriend have been arrested for the murder of her former lover in North Delhi’s Timarpur a week ago. Police said the deceased was killed as he

had allegedly been harassing the accused duo, Mohd. Wasir and Shiv Kumari, after suspecting them of being in a relationship. The deceased, Rahul, learnt of the relationship after he got his hands on the woman’s mobile phone.

Published by N. Ram at Kasturi Buildings, 859 & 860, Anna Salai, Chennai-600002 and Printed by S. Ramanujam at HT Media Ltd. Plot No. 8, Udyog Vihar, Greater Noida Distt. Gautam Budh Nagar, U.P. 201306, on behalf of KASTURI & SONS LTD., Chennai-600002. Editor: Mukund Padmanabhan (Responsible for selection of news under the PRB Act).

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DIGGING FOR TRUTH

Raid at DCW oice over charges of ‘favouritism’ Kejriwal slams PM over move; Maliwal says Centre trying to scare the women’s body

Ex-DCW chief demands FIR against Maliwal, CM

STAFF REPORTER NEW DELHI: The Anti-Corrup-

tion Branch (ACB) on Thursday carried out a search at the oice of the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) after two complaints were filed against the women’s body over appointments and one against misuse of oice. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal lashed out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the “raid” by the Centre-controlled ACB. In his tweet in Hindi, he said: “Modiji did not even leave DCW, which is doing such commendable work. Modiji has done a very bad thing.” Former DCW chief and Congress leader Barkha Shukla Singh, former Delhi Chief Secretary Omesh Saigal and Leader of the Opposition in the Delhi Assembly Vijender Gupta had filed separate complaints with the ACB, the police and the Lieutenant-Governor against DCW chief Swati Maliwal alleging nepotism and favouritism by appointing AAP volunteers and supporters, and misusing her position. “The AAP supporters who work in the DCW were appointed without following any procedure. It is a scam,” said Mr Gupta. DCW oicials said their entire oice was locked down while ACB oicials searched the premises. They said copies of the files pertaining to the recruitments were taken away. As a Gandhigiri measure, the female staf of the DCW tied rakhis to the ACB oicials. “Modiji made ACB oicials work on Raksha Bandhan. So we ensured that their ‘sisters’ tied them rakhis,” said a member of the DCW. Scam Later, addressing a press conference, Ms. Maliwal said the raid was conducted to deter DCW oicials from “aggressively” working towards women’s safety. Slamming Ms. Singh, Ms. Maliwal said during her nine-year tenure as the DCW chief, Ms. Singh had disposed of only one case while in the past one year (after

STAFF REPORTER NEW DELHI: With the Anti-

CRACKDOWN: Officials of the Anti-Corruption Branch during the raid at the DCW office in New Delhi on Thursday; (below) DCW chief Swati Maliwal addressing a press conference on the issue. PHOTOS: V. SUDERSHAN

Corruption Branch raiding the oices of the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) on Thursday, the former chairperson of the panel, Barkha Shukla Singh, demanded that an FIR be filed against current DCW chief Swati Maliwal and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. Ms. Singh, a Congress leader who had served as the chairperson of the DCW till 2015, was one of the complainants who had raised concerns about the way Ms. Maliwal had been running the Commission. In her complaint to the ACB, Ms. Singh had cited an RTI reply to say that Ms. Maliwal had appointed 85 people who had been associated with the AAP to the DCW. Violating norms On Thursday, Ms. Singh said it had “become clear” that the DCW had not advertised vacancies and hired consultants and legal counsellors without following the procedures. She said the DCW had not conducted interviews,

Former DCW chief Barkha Singh. FILE PHOTO: MONICA TIWARI either. “This was done to ensure people like Prabhsahay Kaur, who is the daughter of AAP leader H.S. Phoolka, Raj Mangal, who was a child rights activist associated with Mr. Kejriwal’s NGO, and other associates of the AAP were given monetary benefit,” said Ms. Singh, who is the president of the Delhi Pradesh Mahila Congress. She demanded that the ACB complete the investigation and take action against Ms. Maliwal, Mr. Kejriwal and Delhi Minister for Women and Child Development Sandeep Kumar. Speaking to The Hindu, Ms. Singh refuted the allegation made by Ms. Maliwal that she had not

BJP moots panel to look into appointments Ms. Maliwal took charge), more than 400 cases had been taken up. “In nine years, just one case. Isn’t this a scam?” She said that earlier 42 people were working with DCW but due to increased work, now around 80 people work. “Among those appointed in the DCW are three acid attack survivors and women from Nari Niketan. We had to hire more people as a lot of cases are pending. On an av-

erage, a case is disposed of in a week’s time, and for this, the DCW has been working on Saturdays as well for the past five months,” the DCW chief said. Recently, the DCW also took over the 181 helpline for women in distress, and augmented its resources. “We are trying to make this city a safer place, even as the L-G and the Home Ministry are not holding any meeting on women safety with us,” she claimed.

STAFF REPORTER NEW DELHI: BJP legislators on Thursday urged Lieutenant-Governor Najeeb Jung to set up a judicial commission to look into “arbitrary” appointments being made by the Delhi government, including the Delhi Commission for Women. Leader of the Opposition in the Delhi Assembly Vijender Gupta and two other BJP MLAs also alleged that

Delhi government oicials had been going abroad on oicial tours without taking approval from the competent authority. “Oicial visits have been undertaken by Ministers and HODs along with oicers of diferent departments without seeking the approval of the L-G. This has resulted in substantial expenditure to the exchequer,” he added. They further criticised the AAP government for as-

Weapons smuggled in from Pak seized CAT quashes order indicting

Shocking revelation Given that each of these weapons cost between Rs. seven to eight lakh, and the fact that the consignment came in through a complex route, the police suspect that the duo had plans to attack the Capital. Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) P.S. Kushwaha said more arrests were likely to be made. Two .30 pistols, considered one of the most lethal weapons in that category, are among the firearms seized. Traditionally, weapons are sent from Pakistan to Bangladesh through the sea route from where they are smuggled into Nepal. The consignment is

PHOTO: SUSHIL KUMAR VERMA

pushed into India from Nepal. “In this case, we are questioning the duo who are small players linked to the network through their relative, who is connected to the suppliers’ main agent in India. Once we make more arrests, we can firmly establish the route,” said Mr. Kushwaha. He, however, did not reveal the names of the people based in Delhi-NCR to whom the weapons had to be delivered. “To avoid detection, the duo had been carrying out deals through internet communication platforms like WhatsApp and other An-

droid-based apps,” the DCP added. According to the police, information had been coming in about Mohd. Qurban Ansari, his brother Mohd. Rehan Ansari, and his family members smuggling in sophisticated foreign weapons from Pakistan and supplying these to associates in DelhiNCR. On Wednesday, the police was informed that Mohd. Qurban and his brother would come near Indraprastha Park around 11.30 p.m. to deliver the weapons to their associates. Acting on this information, a team of the Special Cell laid a trap near Gate

No.4 of Indraprashta Park. “They arrived in a Duster car and waited. After 10 minutes, an Ertiga car came and slowed down near the Duster. The police team moved towards them, prompting Qurban and Rehan to open fire. The police personnel escaped the gun shots that shattered the window of their gypsy. The two were arrested after a chase,” said Mr. Kushwaha.

Former Councillor, husband get clean chit NIRNIMESH KUMAR NEW DELHI: A Special court for CBI cases here has acquitted a former Councillor of Nangloi East Ward of the then Municipal Corporation of Delhi and her husband in a corruption case of 2007. CBI had arrested then Councillor Veena Saini’s husband Naresh Saini for accepting bribe money at his oice. It had later arrested Ms. Saini. The complainant alleged

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The orders were passed by AIIMS, and approved by J.P.Nadda AKANKSHA JAIN

STAFF REPORTER

Sanjiv Chaturvedi had moved CAT saying the order had been issued without giving him a hearing

NEW DELHI: The Central Ad-

BIG CATCH: The accused in police custody; (right) the firearms seized, the most lethal among them being two .30 pistols.

that the couple had demanded Rs. 50,000 for permitting constructions and Rs. 50,000 for laying sewer lines to one-storey houses. The Councillor’s husband had also threatened the complainant that if he did not pay the money, he would disconnect the sewer connections and demolish the constructions on the plots of his cousin, the complaint said. Later, Mr. Saini had agreed on Rs. 51,600. The investigating agency had ar-

rested him while accepting the first instalment of Rs. 25,000. Charges cleared But Special Judge Sanjay Garg dismissed the case of the CBI saying that “in view of contradictory versions of the incident ( talks with the Councillor regarding the demand of bribe by her husband) which have come the complainant and two other witnesses, the verification conducted by the CBI on May 22, 2007, has come un-

der a shadow of doubt.” The court also rejected the transcript of a conversation recorded with the Councillor’s husband at the time of laying traps to catch him. Regarding the demand of sewer charges, the court said: “The only suspicion which arises from the evidence is that the Councillor’s husband might have demanded more money than he used to from other residents of the area on account of sewer charges.”

signing important responsibilities to “ineligible” people. Citing the case of the DCW, Mr. Gupta said, “The Delhi Commission for Women Act, 1994, has been grossly violated on matters pertaining to the appointment of its members. Appointments have been made without giving fair opportunity to all eligible candidates, as well as without considering academic qualifications and experience.”

Now, use of metal-coated manjha a criminal ofence

Sanjiv Chaturvedi for indiscipline

STAFF REPORTER NEW DELHI: Sophisticated weapons of German and US make, allegedly smuggled into India from Pakistan via Bangladesh and Nepal, were seized by the Delhi Police on Thursday following a shootout. Two brothers, Sheikh Sahiban and Mohammad Qurban Ansari from Khurja, have been arrested with as many as 10 foreign-made weapons and 157 cartridges, the Special Cell said.

done her job as the chairperson of the DCW. Ms. Maliwal said on Thursday that Ms. Singh had only taken up one case in her nine-year tenure. “That’s a joke. The chairperson doesn’t have cases assigned, but rather assigns cases to the members of the commission and then oversees the work,” she said. She added that she had taken up several highprofile cases, including ones against AAP MLA Somnath Bharti and the one of the former model who was found living on the streets, Geetanjali Nagpal. “There are so many cases that people remember, and countless others that I had taken up. Ms. Maliwal has nothing to say when faced with the ACB, so she is trying to change the topic,” said Ms. Singh. The AAP government’s decision to replace Ms. Singh, whose term had ended, with Ms. Maliwal had led to allegations of favouritism. Mr. Maliwal’s husband, Naveen Jai Hind, is an AAP leader.

ministrative Tribunal (CAT) has quashed orders passed by the AIIMS administration, which were approved by Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda in his capacity as AIIMS president, accusing the institute’s former Chief Vigilance Oicer Sanjiv Chaturvedi of “insubordination, indiscipline and lack of work ethic”. The tribunal held that the orders violated basic principles of natural justice while arriving at these conclusions about Mr. Chaturvedi and did not even ofer him an opportunity to be heard. The order by the tribunal’s Principal Bench member P.K. Basu struck down a January 7, 2016, memorandum issued to Mr. Chaturvedi recording the “displeasure” of the AIIMS Director at his alleged conduct and “lack of work ethic during winter session of Parliament 2015”. Another order quashed The tribunal also quashed a subsequent order of the institute administration on March 30, upholding the displeasure felt by the AIIMS Director at Mr. Chaturvedi’s alleged conduct. The March 30 order had said the decision to reject Mr. Chaturvedi’s plea to withdraw the ‘displeasure memorandum’ was taken after consultations with the Union Health Ministry. The March 30 order also recorded that the reiteration of the AIIMS’ stand against Mr. Chaturvedi was approved by Mr. Nadda in

Former AIIMS CVO Sanjiv Chaturvedi. FILE PHOTO: V. SUDERSHAN

his capacity as AIIMS President. “Admittedly, the orders dated January 7, 2016 and March 30, 2016 passed by the respondents (Centre, Secretary of Health Ministry, AIIMS director and Mr. Nadda and others) to the applicant with copies to other concerned ministries including Chief Secretary, Uttarakhand, is without issuing a show cause notice to him. This being against the principles of natural justice, both the orders are quashed,” CAT observed in its order on August 17. On another application filed by Mr Chaturvedi, CAT said its order dated June 1, 2016, would remain in force as per which “any entry made in his ACR for the year 2015-16 shall be subject to the outcome of the application pending before the Tribunal.” The January 7 displeasure memorandum titled “non-observance of discipline by Sh Sanjiv Chaturvedi…” stated, “The Director, AIIMS, places on record its displeasure with his insubordination, indiscipline and lack of work ethic...”

A copy of the memorandum was directed to be kept in Mr. Chaturvedi’s personal file for consideration for his Annual Performance Appraisal Report (APAR) for 2015-16. Mr Chaturvedi then made a representation to Director, AIIMS against the memorandum on January 11 but the same was rejected after consultation with the Ministry of Health by an order issued with approval of Mr Nadda on March 30. ‘Threatened’ The March 30 order said Mr. Chaturvedi had “threatened the administration that the memorandum may be withdrawn failing which he would resort to appropriate legal proceedings...” “The President AIIMS (Mr. Nadda) has upheld and reiterated the displeasure memorandum of Director, AIIMS...,” the March 30 order said. The March 30 order carried Mr. Nadda’s directions that this order be sent to Secretary, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare and Cadre Controlling Authority. A copy of the order was then sent to Chief Secretary, Uttarakhand. Mr. Chaturvedi had then moved CAT saying the memorandum and order had been issued without giving him a hearing and without recording any specific orders defied by him to make him guilty of indiscipline or insubordination.

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Police

on Thursday declared the storage, sale and use of metal-coated manjhas a criminal ofence. The order came into effect from Thursday, and will be into force till October 16, said Rajan Bhagat, the Delhi Police PRO. “For kite-flying, various types of threads, commonly known as manjha, are used. Of late, a new type of manjha with metallic powder coating is available. This type of manjha is not only very strong but also a good conductor of electricity,” said the PRO. Such manjhas pose threat of electrocution to kiteflyers and passers-by, apart from causing disruption to power supply. Over the last few days, three persons have died and at least five seriously injured after they got entangled in manjhas. Two of these incidents involved children who had stuck their heads out of the sunroofs of their cars while travelling in the city. They later died due to injury to their necks. Meanwhile, the Delhi government on Thursday also banned the manufacture and use of manjhas in the city. Earlier, the government had banned only Chinamanufactured manjhas. In an order issued on Thursday, the Delhi government said that to prevent danger to humans, manufacturing, trading and use of any string coated with powdered glass, metal or any other substance to enhance the sharpness or any nylon string is banned in Delhi under Section 142 of the CrPC. ND-ND

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THE HINDU FRIDAY, AUGUST 19, 2016

Metro breaches the 33 lakh mark August clocks nine ridership records

L-G nod for govt’s proposal on change in luxury tax STAFF REPORTER NEW DELHI: Even as the Aam

Aadmi Party government and Lieutenant-Governor Najeeb Jung are constantly at loggerheads, the latter has given his approval for the Delhi government’s proposal to do away with luxury tax on hotels having a tarif up to Rs.1,500. Bill in Assembly soon The Delhi government is all set to introduce a Bill in the upcoming Assembly session, which begins from August 22. As per the Delhi Tax on Luxuries Act (1996), any person staying in hotel room costing Rs.750 per day or

STAFF REPORTER NEW DELHI: Nearly 14 years af-

ter it began its operations, ridership in the Delhi Metro breached the 33 lakh mark on Wednesday, the eve of Raksha Bandhan. Not just that, August so far has clocked nine of the 10 daily ridership records of the Delhi Metro. On Wednesday, 33,61,911 people availed the metro, with the ever-busy Blue Line (Dwarka Sector-21 to Noida City Centre/Vaishali) recording the highest ridership with 12,03,915 passengers. On Thursday, 21.66 lakh passengers used the mass rapid transit system till 8 p.m. The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) revealed that the Yellow Line (Samaypur Badli to HUDA City Centre), recorded the second highest number of commuters at 11,68,410 on Wednesday, while 4,56,427 people

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above had to pay a luxury tax. However, the new proposed limit is Rs.1,500. “The L-G has given his nod to the proposal and the amendment in the Act will be tabled in the Assembly,” confirmed a Delhi government oicial. If the Assembly passes the Bill, staying at the city’s budget hotels will become cheaper, a move aimed at ensuring ease of business and attracting tourists. Hotels, particularly in Paharganj, Karol Bagh, Mahipalpur and the Walled City will benefit from the move. Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia had announced this while presenting the budget in March.

Building plan sanction in South Delhi gets easier STAFF REPORTER NEW DELHI: Getting a building plan sanctioned in parts of Delhi near the Indira Gandhi International Airport has become easier, with the criteria for approval from the Airports Authority of India (AAI) being relaxed. Residents and builders in Vasant Kunj, parts of Dwarka, Janakpuri, Kapashera, Rang-

puri and even some parts of Lutyens’ Delhi will benefit from the move, a senior South Delhi Municipal Corporation oicial said on Thursday. Starting with the trial run on July 15, the SDMC rolled out online applications for building plans in the first week of August, said the oicial. The application process went online across Delhi on March 30. SDMC Commissioner Pu-

neet Kumar Goel said the civic body had sanctioned 1,080 building plans from the applications received online from April 8 till July 31. He added that 730 applications had been approved within an average span of 13 days. While the time taken to sanction a building plan was reduced to one month, for those in areas near the airport the approval took longer. All

buildings over 18 metres tall required an NOC from the AAI before a building or layout plan could be sanctioned. Recognising that, the AAI prepared a colour-coded map with diferent zones reducing the area in the “red zone”, which is the closest to the IGI Airport. Earlier, the “red zone” covered 129 square kilometres, or 8.69 per cent of the area of Delhi.

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took the Red Line (Dilshad Garden to Rithala). The Airport Express Line, which surpassed the daily ridership mark of 50,000 for the first time last Friday, saw a ridership 48,160 on the eve of Raksha Bandhan. The previous year’s ridership record of 3,204,756 on August 28 was broken on August 8 this year, when 3,269,413 commuters hopped on to the metro. The DMRC’s network currently spans around 213-km. It ran 106 extra trips on Wednesday in anticipation of this expected increase in number of users due to the festival. “Besides, we are already running extra trips on Saturdays and Sundays during the month to account for the annual trend of an extra rush around this period,” said a metro oicial, attributing the surge in August to festivities, beginning of a new academic session in colleges and the monsoon.

Two arrested STAFF REPORTER NEW DELHI: A man and a woman have been arrested for allegedly honey trapping a hospital lab technician from East Delhi with help from two others and then kidnapping him for ransom.

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THE HINDU FRIDAY, AUGUST 19, 2016

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Muslims take dip at Pushkaram

Kerala CM moots daily darshan at Sabarimala Joined by Hindus on the A.P.-Telangana border, they celebrate a tradition RADHAKRISHNAN KUTTOOR

P. SAMUEL JONATHAN

SABARIMALA: The Travancore

TANGEDA (GUNTUR DIST.): For the

Devaswom Board (TDB) should explore the possibility of facilitating daily darshan at Sabarimala Ayyappa Temple with a view to avoiding overcrowding at the holy hillock, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said. Mr. Vijayan suggested the importance of introducing a ropeway system for transportation of pilgrims between Pampa and the Sannidhanam, besides a paid ‘fast-track darshan’ facility at the temple.

Muslim families of Dachepalli, the Krishna Pushkarams are a part of culture, where they take a traditional dip in the free-flowing waters on the occasion. On Thursday, nearly 1,000 families gathered at Tangeda ghat for the ceremony on the banks of the river, as it passed Dachepalli mandal. Men, women and children savoured the dip in the cool waters, with other communities joining them. The ghat is on the border between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, and the village is among the few that have a significant Muslim population.

Review meeting The Chief Minister was addressing an oicial review meeting at Anjaneya Auditorium at Pampa on Thursday. Mr. Vijayan said facilitating daily holy darshan at the temple was a pragmatic approach to address many development issues as well as overcrowding problems. Introducing a modern ropeway system which could carry at least 20 people in a cabin and transport as many as 10,000 to 15,000 pilgrims between Pampa and the Sannidhanam during an hour would be of great help to pilgrims. The Chief Minister said VIP darshan at Sabarimala should be stopped. Instead, a ‘fast-track’ and ‘super-fasttrack’ system for darshan should be introduced at a fee of Rs. 250 and Rs. 1,000 respectively, on the lines of the darshan system at Tirupati Devasthanam. ‘Against custom’ Taking on the Chief Minister at the meeting, TDB president Prayar Gopalakrishnan said the proposal for daily darshan was against the custom and tradition at Sabarimala. There were attempted incursions on the unique customs and traditions at Sabarimala, directly and indirectly, which could never be permitted.

‘Curative properties’ “It has our village tradition to take bath here as we believe the river has curative properties,” said Ch. Hasan Ahmed, member of the water distribution committee at

THE HINDU FRIDAY, AUGUST 19, 2016

Evangelist beaten up in Bengaluru SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

A.P. gets Rs. 1,976 cr. special assistance SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

A 26-year-old evangelist from Manipur was allegedly assaulted by five men in Lakshmipura, Indiranagar, in Bengaluru on Thursday. The alleged attack on Evan Mamang Kipgen took place around 1 a.m. as he left his friend’s house. Mr. Kipgen is from Manipur and works in Bengaluru as an evangelist with the Thadou Christian Fellowship Church. In his report to the police, he said that he had visited his friend to conduct a prayer service. After the gathering, he headed toward his bike that was parked outside. “That was when I was attacked,” he told The Hindu. The men kicked and punched him. The fled when his friends rushed out on hearing his cries for help. Mr. Kipgen registered a complaint of assault. He told the police that the attackers seemed to be speaking in Kannada. BENGALURU:

HARMONY FLOWS: Muslim families gather at Tangeda Pushkar ghat on Thursday. Gurazala MLA Yarapathineni Srinivasa Rao was also present. — PHOTO: T. VIJAYA KUMAR Dachepalli. The MLA for Gurazala, Yarapathineni Srinivasa Rao, who was at the ghat, said Hindus and Mus-

lims always celebrate festivals together here. “Hindus take part in Muslim festivals and vice versa.

Kilimanjaro conquerors receive hero’s welcome RAHUL DEVULAPALLI HYDERABAD: Before she en-

tered her teens, she conquered the highest peak of Africa. G. Narsamma encountered many firsts on that trip: her first journey by flight, her first sighting of Africa and, most importantly, her first major efort to scale a very high-altitude mountain. But the 12-year-old student of Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya in Medak district pushed herself to conquer Mt. Kilimanjaro along with 14 other students of the Social Welfare Residential Schools and Tribal Welfare Residential Schools of Telangana. The team of 21 members got a rousing reception upon

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ALL SMILES: The team of 21 youngsters created history by scaling Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. — PHOTO: NAGARA GOPAL their return from Tanzania. A number of friends, family members and staf of social welfare residential school society welcomed the “achievers.” The team, under the mentorship of mountaineer Sekhar Babu, started

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trekking on August 10. The young team reached the highest point on August 14 and unfurled a 20-foot Indian flag. The members also sang the national anthem after their successful expedition.

The two communities have lived in harmony in Dachepalli,” the Gurazala MLA said.

NEW DELHI: The Centre on

Thursday announced a ‘special assistance’ of Rs. 1,976.5 crore for residual Andhra Pradesh to help it tide over the financial impact caused by the bifurcation of the erstwhile undivided State. MPs from the State had raised the issue in the recently-concluded session of Parliament and the State Finance Minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu had taken it up with the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. Of the amount, Rs. 1,176.50 is for resource gap, Rs. 350 crore for the development of the seven backward districts covering Rayalaseema & the North Coastal region and Rs. 450 crore for the capital city. “Thus, with the current sanction of funds, the Central government has so far provided an assistance of Rs. 8379.50 crore to the State of Andhra Pradesh, which includes Rs. 4,403 crore released during 2014-15 and Rs.

2,000 crore released during 2015-16 in terms of the provisions under the Andhra Pradesh Re-organisation Act, 2014,” the Centre said. The Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014 laid out the provisions for the Centre to make grants in the form of special assistance to the backward areas of the successor States and provide assistance for the creation of a new capital and to bridge the resource gap arising post-bifurcation. Panel meeting In July, Mr. Ramakrishnudu had met Mr. Jaitley during an Empowered Committee meeting of Finance Ministers and requested him to release Rs. 7,269.46 crore Central sales tax compensation pending since 2012-13. The grant from the Centre also comes at a time when MPs from Telangana have been staging protests demanding separate High Courts in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

T.N. to file interlocutory plea on Cauvery water SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Thursday told the Legislative Assembly that she had ordered filing of an interlocutory petition in the Supreme Court seeking release of Cauvery water as per the final award of the Cauvery Water Tribunal. The petition has been necessitated as Karnataka had refused to release the water. “The interlocutory petition will be filed in a couple of days. I have confidence that we will get appropriate orders from the apex court and will get our share of water as per the final award of the tribunal,” she said in a suo motu statement in the House. Ms. Jayalalithaa said the combined storage of major reservoirs of Karnataka —

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release water in June and July, the Chief Secretary, as per my direction, wrote a letter to the Karnataka government and the Centre on July 30,” she said.

Petition in SC is necessary as Karnataka has refused to release water: Jayalalithaa Harangi Hemavathy, Krishnarajasagar and Kabini — was 114.575 tmcft and as on August 17, 2016, these reservoirs had 64.849 tmcft of water. “Karnataka is releasing water from these reservoirs for its own irrigation. But in Mettur, the water level is only 27.560 tmcft,” she explained. Irrigation period As per the final award of the Cauvery Water Tribunal, the annual irrigation period is between June of a year and May of the next year. “Since Karnataka failed to

Letter to Karnataka In his letter, the Chief Secretary had urged the Karnataka government to release water to make up the shortfall between June 1 and July 27, 2016. “But neither the Karnataka government nor the Centre had responded to the letter,” she said. The Chief Minister said even though the Cauvery Water Tribunal delivered its interim order in 1991 and final order on February 5, 2007, it was not published in the gazette of the Central government. “It was published in the gazette on February 19, 2013, following a legal battle

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waged by my government in the Supreme Court. Tamil Nadu cannot get its share of water since the Cauvery Management Board and the Cauvery Water Regulatory Authority are not yet constituted. My government filed a petition in the apex court seeking a direction to constitute these bodies in 2013 and the case is still before the court,” she said. Special Benches Ms. Jayalalithaa said the Supreme Court had constituted Special Benches to hear long-pending cases including the Cauvery Water dispute. “It came up for hearing on March 28, 2016 and the court ordered it for listing on June 19, 2016. Subsequently the case was adjourned to October 18 for further hearing,” she recalled.

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THE HINDU FRIDAY, AUGUST 19, 2016

Iconic tigress Machhli walks into history Also referred to as T-16, it got the name because of marks on its face which resembled a fish MOHAMMED IQBAL

Machhli played a key role in populating Ranthambore, as she was blessed with 11 cubs

JAIPUR: Legendary tigress Machhli, who was the world's oldest tigress in the wild, died in Ranthambhore National Park in Sawai Madhopur district of Rajathan on Thursday after a prolonged illness. She had stopped eating for the last five days. She was 19 years old, while the average age of a tiger is 14 to 15 years. Also referred to as T-16, the tigress was named Machhli because of marks on her face which resembled a fish. The celebrity tigress was also the world's most-photographed big cat and had a postage stamp and several documentary films on her name. Wildlife lovers used to track her movements through several Facebook pages dedicated to her. Machhli played a significant role in populating the Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve, as she was blessed with 11 cubs, including seven females and four males.

Major revenue earner According to some estimates, she was contributing Rs. 65 crore a year as tourism revenue to the National Park for the last 10 years. She was cremated after post-mortem at Ama Ghati check-post on the periphery of the park, which had become her territory since 2014. Deputy Field Director Sudarshan Sharma told The Hindu that the post-mortem performed by a veterinary surgeon had confirmed Machhli's natural death due to old age. The tigress was found in Ama Ghati area on the park’s western periphery, close by

CHAMPION HUNTER: Machhli, the famed tigress of the Ranthambore National Park, even had a Facebook page.— PHOTO: DHARMENDRA KHANDAL human settlements and adjacent to some luxury resorts, in a feeble condition five days ago. The forest staf, which cordoned of the area, was monitoring her condition and trying to feed her, but she only consumed water and her condition did not improve. She breathed her last

at 9:52 a.m. on Thursday. As Machhli was lying over a grassy patch and was incapable to stand up or walk, one of her legs developed a hole which lured maggots to swarm over and attack the wound. Noted environmentalist and honorary secretary of

Bihar hooch toll rises to 15 riously…the Chief Secretary, the State DGP and the Principal Secretary of the Excise Department are taking action and even my oice is constantly monitoring the situation,” he said.

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT PATNA: The death toll in the Bi-

har liquor tragedy reached 15 on Thursday while Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said spurious liquor could be “one of the reasons” for so many deaths in Gopalgunj. “Though the post mortem reports have no evidence of alcohol, my hunch is that spurious liquor might be one of the reasons for so many deaths in Gopalgunj. Only after the viscera reports come in can anything be said,” the CM told journalists in Patna. He also appealed to the family members of those who died in the tragedy to come forward with their statements without any fear as “no action will be taken against them”. “Action will be taken against those who were manufacturing [spurious] liquor

Nitish Kumar and selling it,” asserted Mr. Kumar. The Bihar Chief Minister added that if it was proved people had died due to the consumption of spurious liquor, the State government, as per the new excise law, would give Rs. 4 lakh compensation to their family members. “Besides, we’re keeping track of this incident very se-

‘Will not backtrack’ He also asserted that the government, “Will face such challenges come what may, but will not backtrack on total prohibition in the state.” However, expressing deep concern over the hooch tragedy in his home town Gopalgunj, the ruling alliance partner and RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav asked the state government to, “Ensure stern action against those who were responsible for it.” Meanwhile, the death toll of the Gopalgunj hooch tragedy on Thursday reached 15 as two more people died in a government hospital.

Cow protection, with insurance

Tourism and Wildlife Society of India, Harsh Vardhan, said Machhli remained a champion hunter and displayed her wits, whether lying in lake water or by the side of a stone ‘chhatri’, ofering innumerable opportunities to visitors in jeeps or open trucks to photograph

CHENNAI: The Hindu Playwright Award 2016 went to Thomas Manuel for his play Hamlet and Angad. The award, which carries a prize of Rs. 2 lakh for the best unpublished and unperformed play script, was presented during the launch of the 12th edition of The Hindu Theatre Fest at the Taj Coromandel hotel on Thursday. Mr. Manuel was one of three shortlisted playwrights, the other two being Meera Sitharaman for The Cut and Anuradha Marwah for Ismat’s Love Stories. The winning entry, a mythical and historical retelling of the histories and crises of Hamlet and Angad, was chosen by a panel of three judges. The panel consisted of Mumbai-based playwrights Ramu Ramanathan and Irawati Karnik and Associate

KOLKATA: The controversy regarding Netaji Subhas Chanda Bose’s death following an air-crash on August 18, 1945 in Taiwan continues to rage and surface in political spheres from time to time, even 71 years later. Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s tweet paying tributes to Netaji on “his death anniversary” on Thursday caused a fresh uproarin West Bengal. With the issue snowballing on social media, hours later Mr. Jaitley withdrew the tweet.

Mamata’s tweet Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was among the first to issue a tweet condemning Mr. Jaitley’s statement on the social media. “Today is Raksha Bandhan I don’t want to hurt anybody. But shocked with Arun Jaitley Ji's hurtful tweet this morning on Netaji. We are all hurt,” Ms. Banerjee said using the mictroblogging site. Over the past one year more than 200 secret files relating to Netaji (64 of Bengal government and more than 150 of Union government) have been declassified on the repeated demands of the family members and a section of academicians. The documents, however failed to throw any light on Netaji’s disappearance — as was expected earlier — and Mr. Jaitley’s tweet indicated that the declassification of the Netaji files in India has not put an end to the controversy. In fact the BJP’s State level leaders and family members of Netaji also were disap-

pointed with Mr. Jaitley’s tweet. “It was a mistake and I pointed out to the oice of Shri Arun Jaitley in the morning,” Netaji’s grand nephew and now a BJP leader Chandra Kumar Bose told The Hindu. Anuj Dhar, who has written a book on Netaji, welcomed the Chief Minister for her tweet. “Thank you didi for pitching in. We already protested on social media, wrote emails to & got it removed,” Mr. Dhar wrote on twitter. Panel report He also put up clipping on social media, claiming it to be conclusion of Justice Mukherjee Commission report, stating that “Netaji’s death was a creation of Japanese Army authorities.” However, Harvard Historian and Trinamool Congress MP Sugata Bose, also a grand nephew of Netaji, said that the “fruitless controversy” over Netaji should end. “Any reasonable historian will say that Netaji met his mortal end on August 18, 1945. We should focus on the life

and works and follow his ideals,” Mr. Bose told The Hindu. He also expressed surprise on why Mr. Jaitley withdrew his tweet and said that he should have remained true to his conviction. Mr. Bose also pointed out that former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee went to Renkoji temple in Tokyo where Netaji’s ashes are kept. ‘Declassify records’ Even as the mystery over Netaji’s disappearance continues after two committees, Mukherjee Commission and declassification of over 200 files, certain family members of Bose demanded declassification of records in countries like Russia, U.K, Germany and Japan. Chandra Kumar Bose, who contested the last Assembly elections in West Bengal on a BJP ticket said he was aware that Union External Afairs Ministry is already in the process of writing to these countries asking them to declassify the secret files related to Netaji.

Vinita Bali, Independent Director, Kasturi & Sons Ltd, presents The Hindu Playwright Award 2016 to Thomas Manuel in Chennai. — PHOTO: R. RAVINDRAN Professor at Venkateswara College, New Delhi, Rina Ramdev. Ms. Ramdev, who was present at the event, described the 25-year-old Mr. Manuel’s play as “complicated with a rich narrative that takes on the unusual theme.”

The award was presented by Vinita Bali, independent director, Kasturi & Sons Limited. The citation described the play as a “prolonged meditation about power and the precarious hold we have over destiny.” It went on to

commend Mr. Manuel for adroitly weaving in “a dark suspense and drama, which in a less accomplished or edgy hand could have resulted in a work that was wearyingly flaccid or flat.”

Launching The Hindu Theatre Fest 2016, Mukund Padmanabhan, Editor, The Hindu, said: “This is the first time we have three fullfledged Tamil plays — something we should have done years ago.” The theatre festival will run in three cities — Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad. “I hope the play does get produced and I hope you come and watch it,” said Mr. Manuel as he accepted the award at an event attended by city theatre fraternity. R. Ravichander, YES Bank (title sponsor) group president and director South, spoke about the brand’s initiative to promote cultural endeavours. The associate sponsors for the event are Kauvery Hospital, Hindustan International School, and Telangana Tourism.

Manipur ILP activist arrested

ALOK DESHPANDE

IMPHAL: Khomdram Ratan, former convener of the joint committee campaigning for the implementation of the Inner Line Permit (ILP) in Manipur, was arrested late on Wednesday when he arrived to join a relay hunger strike. He was produced in the court of the chief judicial magistrate, Imphal west, under tight security on Thurs-

CM YK

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

STAFF REPORTER

IBOYAIMA LAITHANGBAM

MUMBAI: Maharashtra’s

her as many times as they could. Though age dawned over her and she lost her canines, she managed to prowl on smaller animals to feed herself. The park management organised regular feeding to Machhli for long and at times drove her away from periphery into the well-wooded park habitat so as not to come in conflict with the villagers. It is presumed that Machhli’s father was the dominant male, having territory in Chiroli range, who was given the name of Bamboo Ram. Her mother was the original ‘Machhli’ named by an overseas film cameraman who had observed a spot looking like a fish over her cheek. After her death, the park oicials and naturalist-guides unanimously decided to call her daughter as Machhli. Nine of Machhli’s cubs are surviving and have commanded a long range of about 10 km. Two of her female cubs were sent to Sariska Tiger Reserve, where the tigers had become extinct. In one of the most memorable incidents, a Ranthambhore-based artist had photographed Machhli in a combat with a 14-foot-long marsh crocodile across the bed of Raj Bagh lake. She emerged the ultimate victor and finally tore the reptile's throat and dragged it away amidst shrubs to devour the soft portion of its neck.

Jaitley’s tweet triggers fresh row on Netaji’s death

The Hindu Playwright Award 2016 for Thomas Manuel

Maharashtra scheme to care for cows if they stop yielding milk

non-milking cows will soon have a new destination where farmers can send them, and the State government will bear the entire cost of transporting, feeding and treating them until they start yielding again. Maharashtra’s Minister for Animal Husbandry, Dairy and Fisheries does not want them left dying and has a solution for farmers who cannot aford to care for non-lactating cows. “The government will take care of cows of those farmers who cannot aford them when they don’t produce milk. Bring them to us, we will feed them, care for them and once the lactation begins, they can take cows back to their farm,” said the Minister, Mahadev Jankar, to The Hindu. The scheme will start working within the next two months. Dabcheri in Dahanu in Palghar district is the preferred place for such cow shelters. The Minister said funds won’t be a problem. “We will give whatever amount is required. Protecting a cow is our priority,” he said. Farmer activists welcomed the move but

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day and remanded in police custody for nine days. Police had registered an First Information Report against Mr. Ratan on June 2 after a Facebook post purportedly showed him at an oath taking function of an insurgent group. Rs. 5 lakh reward Mr. Ratan was declared an absconder and a reward of Rs. 5 lakh was ofered for information leading to his ar-

rest. He had not been seen in public since then. On Wednesday, however, he joined the relay hunger strike for the implementation of ILP. Police arrived at the venue at 11 p.m. and arrested him. The activists have called a 48-hour general strike beginning Thursday midnight to protest his arrest. Women vendors closed down shops in Bishnupur district.

A farmer will be eligible for a Rs. 1 lakh payout for loss of a big animal. Small animals can also be insured. — PHOTO: AP questioned its practicality. “It’s a welcome step, but why only one faraway shelter? There should be one in every district. It shouldn’t be just another BJP government announcement with nothing on the ground,” said farm activist Vijay Javandhiya. The Minister however slammed ‘anti-social’ gau rakshaks who in recent incidents targeted men, mostly Muslims and Dalits, for transporting cows. “I will show no tolerance for such men. Our eforts are purely from the farmers’ point of view as we know the economic burden a household sufers while taking care of nonmilking cows,” he said. It is not just ‘gau-seva.’ The State’s cows, bufaloes, sheep, goats, horses and even rabbits

will be insured to protect owners from financial disaster if they perish. The government has deposited Rs. 8.5 crore with New India Assurance Company as premium under the plan. Accordingly, the government will pay 75 per cent of the premium for Scheduled Castes and Tribes, and 50 per cent for the open category. Each household can insure a maximum of five cows, bufaloes or horses at total premium of up to Rs. 410 a year. For goats, sheep and rabbits, around 100 can be insured per household at Rs. 60 to Rs. 70. “The claim would be around Rs. one lakh for big animals and for others, to be decided by oicers based on market value,” said Mr. Jankar. ND-ND

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EDITORIAL

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THE HINDU FRIDAY, AUGUST 19, 2016

The cost of political interference A new paper on the eighth anniversary of the Lehman failure carries a larger message: decisions in such financial crises must be thoroughly documented and subject to scrutiny by parliament loan it would require. His answer is ‘yes’ on both counts.

F R I D AY , A U G U S T 1 9 , 2 0 1 6

T.T. RAM MOHAN

Death by liquor

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f prohibition were merely a matter of decree, India would have been free of liquor by now. But strict enforcement is almost impossible, and as a result prohibition has been counterproductive in States that have adopted the policy for any length of time. Instead of bettering living standards and improving public health, liquor bans have only led to a spurt in the consumption of illicit brews. After 15 persons died this week following consumption of illicit alcohol in Bihar’s Gopalganj district, the Nitish Kumar government is forced to confront the question whether prohibition as a cure is worse than the malady. Incidence of hooch tragedies tends to be higher when prohibition is in force as the trade is driven underground: the black market grows and production becomes unregulated. The debilitating efect of indiscriminate consumption of liquor is definitely a challenge before state policy, but decreeing lifestyle choices is always tricky. Even solutions that are good in principle may not work in practice if implemented without suicient care or administrative back-up. Of late, political parties have resorted to the prohibition card, sensing the growing support for such a move among large sections of women, especially in the lower income groups, who have had to deal with financial neglect and physical abuse by drunken family members. However, the States starved of revenue from the liquor business have been hesitant to invest adequately in prohibition enforcement. The end result is that bootleggers and illicit brewers just replace liquor shops. The State government seems acutely conscious that the deaths speak to the total failure of the prohibition policy. Families of the dead have been asked to testify that the deaths had nothing to do with consumption of illicit liquor. In any case, Bihar seems to have gone too far with its prohibition legislation, even providing for capital punishment for those trading in illicit liquor. Provisions for punishing family members above the age of 18 in case of consumption of alcohol at home, and the top management of companies in case of consumption within their company premises, are draconian to the point of being absurd. Also, district magistrates can impose fines on whole villages or communities in case of repeated violations of the prohibition regime. But other than changes to the law, the government seems to have done nothing to facilitate enforcement on the ground. The liquor trade appears to have gone underground, thus increasing the risks for the most vulnerable sections of the population. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will have to necessarily rethink the prohibition policy, choosing pragmatism over starry-eyed idealism, and matching good intentions with hard work on the ground.

On September 15, 2008, Lehman Brothers, one of the big five investment banks in the U.S. at the time, filed for bankruptcy. The failure caused widespread panic and chaos in the financial markets. Many believe that it worsened the financial crisis and the Great Recession that followed. Indeed, the expression ‘Lehman moment’ has entered the lexicon as a byword for any event that spells calamity for the financial system. Commentators were asking recently whether Brexit — Britain’s exit from the European Union — would constitute a ‘Lehman moment’ for the world economy. Each anniversary of Lehman’s demise — the eighth is due a month from now — is remembered religiously, much like the anniversary of 9/11. A political, not financial, call? The oicial position on the Lehman failure — expressed by Ben Bernanke, then Chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, and Henry Paulson, then Treasury Secretary — is that the authorities knew that letting Lehman fail would devastate the markets but couldn’t do anything about it. There was no way that the Fed could have saved Lehman while staying within the laws governing the Fed. Wrong, says Laurence Ball, chairman of the economics department at Johns Hopkins University. In a paper titled ‘The Fed and Lehman Brothers’ — prepared for a meeting of the U.S. non-profit research organisation National Bureau of Economic Research’s Monetary Economics Program on July 14 — Mr. Ball dissects the Lehman failure at length and comes to damning conclusions. The Fed did have the necessary legal authority to save Lehman. The decision not to save the firm was a political decision taken by Mr. Paulson. The authorities did not fully anticipate the disastrous consequences that followed their decision. Bad judgment on the part of people at the highest levels of decision-making may have deepened and prolonged the agony wrought by the worst financial crisis of the last century. This is a serious indictment of those at the highest levels of decision-making in the U.S. Banks can face a run on their deposits in

It was a political decision by the Treasury Secretary ‘even though he had no legal authority...’ So much for central bank freedom in the world’s biggest economy situations of panic even when they are solvent (that is, the value of their assets exceeds the value of their liabilities). If they do not get access to funds, they will be forced to resort to distress sales of their assets. This can push even a solvent bank into insolvency. To prevent this, central banks act as lenders of last resort. They lend to financial institutions in distress after they have satisfied themselves on two counts: (i) the bank is solvent; and (ii) the bank can ofer enough collateral against the loan. This facility is typically ofered only to banks. However, the Fed is empowered by law to lend to other financial institutions as well in exceptional situations. In 2008, the situation in the U.S. was undoubtedly exceptional. The crucial questions that Mr. Ball addresses are whether Lehman was solvent at the time and whether it could ofer adequate collateral against the

The question of solvency On August 31, 2008, Lehman had assets of $600 billion and liabilities of $572 billion. This meant that it had a positive net worth of $28 billion. This was on paper. In reality, most analysts thought that Lehman had overvalued its assets by anywhere between $15 billion and $30 billion. This meant that its net worth was in the range of –$2 billion to $13 billion. Thus it was somewhere on the border between solvency and insolvency. Mr. Ball emphasises that this valuation was based on market values. In times of panic, asset values tend to fall way below their true or fundamental values. If Lehman was on the border line based on market values, it would have been quite solvent on the basis of fundamental values. Others are sceptical of Mr. Ball’s calculations. They say that Lehman’s net worth was negative to the tune of as much as $100 billion to $200 billion. They also make the point that Lehman could not find a buyer although it tried hard — proof, they say, that the markets did not see the firm as having any value. It’s hard to be sure who’s right. But Mr. Ball makes a valid point: the Fed has failed to back its claims that Lehman was insolvent with any analysis of the balance sheet. It should have substantiated its decision with figures that showed that Lehman was a hopeless case. Given that the decision to let Lehman fail has proved hugely controversial, it is surprising that the Fed has not done so. Mr. Ball then tackles the second crucial question: did Lehman have adequate collateral to ofer against loans required from the Fed? As we have seen above, Lehman had assets roughly equal to its liabilities. The liabilities included $115 billion in long-term debt. This meant that, in an extreme situation in which Lehman had to meet all short-term liabilities, it would have needed $455 billion in liquidity support ($570 billion of total liabilities minus $115 billion in long-term liabilities). This was covered by $570 billion in assets, which meant that Lehman’s collateral (its assets) exceeded its maximum liability needs by $115 billion, or about 25 per cent. This is an extreme scenario. On a realistic basis, Mr. Ball estimates that Lehman would have needed $88 billion in liquidity support for which it had acceptable collateral of at

CARTOONSCAPE

Sakshi Malik, champion

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t may be tempting to put in comparative perspective Sakshi Malik’s bronze medal in women’s 58-kg freestyle wrestling at the Rio Olympics, and to caution against over-celebrating her feat. There is relief, no doubt, that with her gutsy manoeuvres in the closing minutes of the bout, she finally opened India’s account in Rio. Memories of medal-less Games for India are still raw, and it does not take much for the country to collapse into both self-criticism and open-ended rants against the System. Malik’s triumph on August 17 took the edge of any such chorus, but it would be missing the essence of her achievement if her bronze is taken to be only about getting an Indian athlete on the medals podium. Malik’s win must be celebrated for her particular life story; we must celebrate her as much as the bronze. Her story must remind us of the sites where aspiration resides, and the validation victories like hers bring to sport. She joins the ranks of the Phogat sisters as another icon for women wrestlers in this country. Theirs is a cinematic story of a rural Haryanvi patriarch’s repudiation of gender stereotypes, and systemic obstructions. Malik’s is the story of a young girl working through the system, of being drawn to wrestling after accompanying her grandfather to the akhara, of knowing that dedication would take her places, to tournaments whose names she didn’t know initially. Haryana has outdone the rest of the country in getting its sportspersons to the greatest competitions: Malik’s Rohtak-to-Rio journey must nudge the authorities to accept that it is the state’s responsibility to provide its young the opportunity to train and compete. Malik’s journey also validates wrestling at a time when it is struggling to ensure its continuance as an Olympic sport. In 2013, the International Olympic Committee had actually initiated the process to discontinue it from the 2020 Games onwards. The IOC votes on considerations such as television ratings, popularity and anti-doping measures. But one of the things wrestling did in the wake of that scare was to increase the number of medals on ofer to women at the Olympics. From the older breakdown of seven medals each for men in freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling, the number came down to six each; women now got to compete for six medals instead of the earlier four (women don’t compete in Greco-Roman at the Games). If anyone still thought that wrestling, with its ancient connect, should cease to be in the Olympics, Malik’s victory celebration must surely have melted them. CM YK

least $131 billion. Why, then, did the Fed not do the obvious thing, which was to provide liquidity that would have enabled Lehman to keep going for weeks or months? The facts that Mr. Ball presents are fascinating. Diferent strokes for diferent folks In his initial testimony to the U.S. Congress on September 23, eight days after the collapse of Lehman, Fed Chairman Bernanke said that “the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Treasury had declined to commit public funds” because “we judged that investors and counterparties had had time to take precautionary measures”. He made no mention about collateral or legal barriers to assisting Lehman. This seems to suggest that the Fed believed did not want to save Lehman because it had judged that the impact of a Lehman failure could be managed. Later, in 2010, while testifying before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, Mr. Bernanke said he regretted having given the impression earlier that Lehman could have been saved. He said he had not been straightforward in the matter for fear of undermining confidence at a time of tremendous stress in the system. Mr. Ball underlines that the Fed was coy about lending to Lehman when it opened its tap readily to other investment banks. In lending to two other investment banks, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, the Fed was happy to accept types of collateral that Lehman had in ample measure. In saving the investment bank, Bear Stearns, and the insurance giant, AIG, the Fed took bigger risks than it would have had it rescued Lehman. Lehman only required overnight, collateralised loans. Bear Stearns was given long-term finance for illiquid assets. AIG was provided finance against collateral that included equity in privately-held insurance companies, the value of which was highly uncertain. Catastrophic consequences So, if the Fed could have saved Lehman while operating within its legal framework, why did it not do so? Mr. Ball’s view is that the decision to let Lehman fail was a political decision taken primarily by the Treasury Secretary “even though he had no legal authority over the Fed’s lending decisions”. So much for central bank independence in the world’s biggest economy. Mr. Ball contends that Mr. Paulson was influenced by the strong political opposition to financial rescues. He didn’t want to go down as “Mr. Bailout”. Secondly, neither Mr. Paulson nor Mr. Bernanke fully anticipated the damage that a Lehman failure would cause. The damage was of catastrophic proportions. Confidence in financial institutions completely evaporated and asset prices plunged even further following the Lehman failure, not just in the U.S. but in other parts of the world. Bank losses increased and so did the fiscal costs of bank bailouts everywhere. The Lehman failure thus exacerbated the cost of the financial crisis and led to economic recovery stretching out longer than otherwise. Preventing financial crises should, of course, be a priority for economies. However, given that such crises cannot be wholly avoided, transparent mechanisms for handling the ones that erupt are of the utmost importance. If the Lehman failure illustrates anything, it is that decisions in such crises must be thoroughly documented and subject to oversight by parliament. Financial crises are far too important to be left to the whims or predisposition of particular individuals. T.T Ram Mohan is a professor at IIM, Ahmedabad. E-mail: [email protected]

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters emailed to [email protected] must carry the full postal address and the full name or the name with initials.

Talking about Balochistan Kashmir is “disputed” as per international conventions while Balochistan is not (“Avoiding the ‘Copycat Trap’ on Balochistan”, Aug.18). However, this doesn’t mean that India can’t take up the issue. We were responsible for the liberation of Bangladesh and saving ethnic Bengalis from a “complete whitewash”. At this stage, India should focus on internationalising the issue of Balochistan and giving access to ousted Baloch leaders. The situation in Jammu and Kashmir needs to be handled swiftly by involving leaders from the Arab world who are close to India. The real test for Indian diplomacy has started. Naveen Rattu, Chandigarh

Mr. Modi’s stance on Balochistan was not too facile. He was provoked by the continuous and insidious provocative postures by Pakistan. One might view it as a case of interference in the internal matters of another country, forgetting the Indira Gandhi days when the Indian Army helped create an independent Bangladesh. Balochistan would not be on a diferent footing. Let’s not forget that the people there have acknowledged the speech. At any rate, Pakistan’s erratic approach to India is bound to create hurdles for India. K. Rajendran, Chennai

The reference to Balochistan is nothing short of interference in

another country’s internal afairs. After Pakistan’s abortive attempt to internationalise Kashmir at the UN, India’s raising the issue of atrocities in Balochistan now is unfortunate. In spite of past failures to achieve peace and re-establish bilateral ties, the two nations hardly seem to reconcile to the fact that there exists a fair amount of diplomatic and political possibilities to resolve the issue. R. Prabhu Raj, Bengaluru

On the western front It is quite obvious that the issues that crop up on India’s western and eastern borders are due to unsettled frontiers that are an unwelcome legacy of history (“Disquiet on the western front”, Aug.18). India and Pakistan are the victims of British attempts to escape from India with minimal losses for which they appointed Sir Cyril Radclife, who had absolutely no clue about India. The 2003 ceasefire agreement has been accepted by both nations to a large extent. Formalising it will not only help both sides in reducing ceasefire violations but also give them time to negotiate a final settlement. Another problem is the morale of our soldiers guarding the border in return for practically little gains. The BSF has more or less become a general border agency while the real thrust must be on giving its personnel specialised training and adequate support. Akshay Viswanathan, Thiruvananthapuram

Britain abolished sedition only because it curtailed the freedom of speech and expression (Editorial, Aug.18). Many of those accused of sedition sufer in silence. As we are advancing towards modernity, we should revisit our draconian laws. However, an outright abolition cannot be justified in the light of recent events that took place in liberal countries such as France. We should actually refrain from impulsive censorship and analyse why sedition has a stronghold in penal laws. Incitement of hatred towards the state should be the yardstick for charging someone with sedition rather than towards any particular government. Shivam Dwivedi,

the Home Minister with some illthought-out remarks, and now by the stand of the Finance Minister indicating that he is likely to skip the SAARC meet (“Jaitley likely to skip SAARC meet”, Aug.18). Additional remarks by the Defence Minister are not going to help matters either. The situation in Kashmir is getting out of control and the trust deficit between India and Pakistan is only widening. The casualty in this sad episode is the SAARC cause. It will not be an exaggeration to say that the very ideology of SAARC has been hit. In contrast, China is on a mission to improve relations with almost all its neighbours, in short the SAARC family. New Delhi needs to take a broader perspective and be balanced. A.V. Narayanan,

Lucknow

Tiruchi

’External agencies’ such as Amnesty International should not be allowed to run roughshod over India in the name of upholding human rights. We must reject their allegations forthwith. One also wonders why the media portrays Jawaharlal Nehru as a selfless preacher of liberties. The unabashed admiration for the decadent Congress party shows the media in poor light. T.M. Ranganathan,

Cleaning the BCCI’s stables

Sedition row

Srirangam, Tamil Nadu

Skipping SAARC? The good work done by the Prime Minister in smoothening ties with Pakistan — one can think of his surprise visit to Pakistan as one example — has been undone, first by

As India’s representative body of a sport which is akin to a religion, the BCCI has no choice but to abide by the directions of the Supreme Court (“BCCI files review petition in SC”, Aug.18). The Supreme Court has broached the serious matter of cleaning up the muck in cricket rather cautiously. It has not trespassed into the BCCI’s jurisdiction over the normal running of the game, given India’s clout in world cricket. Thus, the commercial interests of the BCCI and its sponsors have been protected. Nothing stops the top court from banning the BCCI and appointing an ad hoc body to run cricket in India, were it to not implement the Lodha

Committee recommendations by January 2017. Through its balanced approach, the court has ensured that all get to enjoy the game. The BCCI should grab this opportunity with both hands and efect a clean-up. Saurabh Sinha, Bhilai, Chhattisgarh

Finally, a bronze A pall of gloom that descended on the country following our gifted gymnast, Dipa Karmakar, losing out on an Olympic medal by a whisker a few days ago has now lifted with Sakshi Malik winning a bronze medal in the 58 kg category of women’s freestyle wrestling at Rio. That a nation of more than a billion people has had to wait with bated breath for an Olympic medal speaks volumes about the sorry state of sport in the country. There is no dearth of sporting talent in the country. The problem lies in our abysmal failure to create an enabling environment for sporting talent to emerge as a force to reckon with. Jeyaramachandran Murugesan, Sholavandan, Tamil Nadu

In a nation where sport unfailingly takes a backseat, Sakshi Malik’s bronze medal, and India’s first medal at Rio, is no less than a miracle. She truly inspires all women in India, having taken up a sport long tagged as a men’s domain. However it is disheartening that the general performance of our other athletes is largely due to a lack of proper facilities and funding. Syeda Amena, Hyderabad ND-ND

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THE HINDU FRIDAY, AUGUST 19, 2016

WORLD VIEW

A permanent address for the greatest show on earth? Another Olympic Games are drawing to a close, their wake turbulent with euphoria and despondency. Not unlike the universe of athletes, who spend years in painfully rigorous preparation for terrifyingly elusive medals, the losses arising from the Rio spectacle far outnumber winnings for Brazil, a develLALITHA oping nation with a recessionary economy left with a $20 bilSRIDHAR lion bill by some estimates. Before Rio, the British tried to spin an afterglow for the London Games, but their numbers were widely questioned. In Circus Maximus: The Economic Gamble Behind Hosting the Olympics and the World Cup, Andrew Zimbalist, a professor of economics, documents case studies to find “no net economic gains for the countries that have played host to the Olympics or the World Cup” and points to the indefensible costs paid by poor and middle income groups of these nations for such “exhibits of excess”. Surely, there is a way out? The merry-go-round The proposal of a permanent address for the Olympics is as old as the Games themselves. In fact, back in 1896, when the first modern Olympics were held, Greece’s King George suggested situating the Games in Athens permanently, and the American delegation supported him, but Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the French educator and founder of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), demurred. In Olympic Memoirs, a frank firstperson account of what it took to cobble together support for the physical and philosophic origins of the Games as we know them now, he objected to Athens “... acting as host every four years to this flattering and profitable influx of visThere are no net itors”. He went on to add, “No one could seeconomic gains for riously believe for a moment that Athens countries that have would be able to go on indefinitely every four years making the supreme efort rehosted the Olympics quired for the periodic renewal of the orgaor the World Cup nisation and the financing [of the Games]”. Only 241 athletes from 14 countries participated in this event; about 11,000 athletes from over 200 nations compete at Rio. Moreover, in an essay, ‘The Olympic Games of 1896’, published in The Field, the world’s oldest country and field sports magazine, de Coubertin noted that when delegates of athletic associations of “all countries” assembled in Paris for the IOC’s first session in 1894, “it was there agreed that every country should celebrate the Olympic Games in turn”. This session saw 78 delegates from nine countries (France, Belgium, Great Britain and Ireland, Greece, Italy, Russia, Spain, Sweden and the U.S.) representing 37 sports organisations. Note that the rest of the world, possibly because vast swathes of it remained colonised at the time, was conspicuously absent. Largely responsible for persuading recalcitrant local sporting bodies under powerful imperialist dispensations to give up their individualistic outlook for a grand vision of universal sporting excellence (he authored the ‘swifter, higher, stronger’ motto as well), de Coubertin did, however, have a stated belief in racial equality. Yet, not coincidentally, after the Second World War the Olympics have mostly been hosted by developed or non-democratic states. Nobody could have fully foreseen the crippling costs modern ambitions would place on host countries, or the seismic socio-cultural efects of a dynamically complex world connected by the Internet, live TV and jetliners. Human nature, on the other hand, appears to have remained unchanged. Like de Coubertin, it’s as if modern planners cannot admit to the damaging socio-economic correlation between “the supreme efort” and the “flattering and profitable influx of visitors”, nor find ways to create a consortium of contributing nations for one permanent address for the Olympics, a single venue with the best of facilities, factoring for expansion and upgrading, with the opportunity to lead or organise the quadrennial event shared among all participating nations by roster. An idea whose time has time? The last time the idea found genuine currency was in 1980, when reports emerged that the IOC was considering a 1,250-acre span of land south-west of ancient Olympia, in the Peloponnese peninsula, which Greece was willing to ofer as a site with extra-terrestrial rights and a neutral identity like, say, Vatican City. A five-man committee was to have presented its ‘top secret’ review at the IOC’s Baden-Baden meeting of 1981, and Lord Killanin, the Irish peer then heading the IOC, was quoted as saying that the earliest year by which such a venue could come to fruition was 1988. It never did. Sporadic reports suggest a revival of interest in the subject. Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, appeared to support Greece as the permanent location for the Olympics at the Aspen Ideas Festival earlier in June, but described it as “a great out-of-the-box idea”, which suggests an absence of mainstream heft. The Olympic Agenda 2020 — adopted unanimously at the 127th IOC Session in Monaco in December 2014 following “a year of discussion and consultation” in which 14 Working Groups sifted through 40,000 submissions generating about 1,200 ideas from the public — does not speak of it. A permanent venue for the Olympics is not an original idea but its execution calls for a sustained groundswell of popular support that translates into a formal campaign, the leadership of which would require endless stamina and political acumen to prevail. It is the deficit of consensus, and the will to find it, which seems more insurmountable than acting upon a logical solution to a massive and recurrent problem that needs one imperatively. [email protected]

FROM THE ARCHIVES (dated August 19, 1966)

Plan outline unchanged The Union Cabinet to-day [August 18, New Delhi] concluded its discussion on the draft outline of the Fourth Plan which goes unchanged before the National Development Council on August 20. If it makes any significant alterations in the outlays or targets, the presentation of the outline to Parliament, fixed for August 26, may be delayed. An overall outlay of Rs. 23,750 crores has been proposed — Rs. 16,000 crores in public and Rs. 7,750 crores in private sectors.

All 14 languages for UPSC exam The Deputy Home Minister, Mr. V.C. Shukla, assured the Lok

Sabha to-day [August 18, New Delhi] that the Government would introduce all the 14 languages in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution as media of UPSC examinations. He further assured the House that the Government would introduce all the 14 languages as examination media simultaneously and that Hindi alone would not be introduced as a medium of UPSC examination. Mr. Shukla, who was replying to a half-hour debate raised by Mr. Era Sezhiyan (D.M.K. – Madras), said no fresh legislation was needed for the introduction of these languages as media. The introduction would be efected as soon as the UPSC had finalised arrangements for moderation and other connected matters.

CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS >>A paragraph in “Tamil Nadu’s next Governor: who will it be?” (August 18, 2016, some editions) read: “Mr. Rosaiah was the lone Governor appointed by the erstwhile UPA government to survive a change of regime in New Delhi. When the BJP-led NDA took over the reins at the Centre in 2014, Governors appointed during the previous UPA regime were forced to resign – except Mr Rosaiah.” It should have read: “Mr. Rosaiah was among the few Governors appointed by the erstwhile UPA government to survive a change of regime in New Delhi. When the BJP-led NDA took over the reins at the Centre in 2014, most Governors appointed during the previous UPA regime were forced to resign.” The Readers’ Editor’s oice can be contacted by Telephone: +91-44-28418297/28576300 (11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to Friday); E-mail:[email protected] CM YK

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PERSPECTIVE

NOIDA/DELHI

Why EPW matters Over the past 50 years, the Economic and Political Weekly has provided a unique platform for intellectual engagement and the fertilisation of ideas

ANIKET ALAM

C. RAMMANOHAR REDDY

In early 1966 more than 50 of India’s leading commentators, academics and senior government oicials appealed for contributions of Rs.500 each to establish a trust that would publish a new journal of economics and politics. Tomorrow (August 20) marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of the first issue of Economic and Political Weekly (EPW). EPW has become something of a global phenomenon over the past half century. Week after week it has presented informed commentary on the important issues of the day as well as research papers on a wide range of social science disciplines. Its authors have included everyone from political activists to Nobel Laureates, from lecturers in colleges in small towns to professors in the leading universities in the world, from members of non-government organisations to government oicials. Actually 67 EPW is actually now 67, and not 50. The Economic Weekly (EW), conceived and edited by Sachin Chaudhuri (an economist from what was then Dacca who had moved to Bombay), had begun publication in 1949 in the western metropolis. It quickly made a name for itself as a much sought-after platform for publishing opinion and research about India’s development policies and the politics around it. But that weekly, financed by the Sekhsarias, a group of cotton merchants, closed at the end of 1965 after differences between the editor and the publishers. Within a few weeks some of India’s leading academics and thinkers made the appeal to launch a new journal that would be edited by Chaudhuri and build on the legacy of the very influential EW. The new weekly, with “Political” added to its moniker in acknowledgement of its widening intellectual mandate, was published by the new Sameeksha Trust. In this new, revitalised avatar the weekly blossomed. Within a decade EPW had grown in the range of disciplines and themes it published. EPW’s pages hosted some of the most important debates, about economic strategies, change in village societies, foreign policy, political representation and ever expanding fields such as secularism and the politics of the Left. Then and later, some of India’s best gave their best work to EPW and EPW, in turn, helped launch many a career by publishing the first works of young writers.

ILLUSTRATION: DEEPAK HARICHANDAN

The journal has never been shy of publishing the new, unusual or offbeat argument. Its defining identity is its independent stance on issues What explains this success of the EPW, when world over independent “little magazines” rarely, if ever, manage to survive for a few years? One reason surely is the thriving intellectual climate in India of the first few decades after Independence when everyone put their shoulder to “nation building”. Later, the cross-disciplinary open-ended nature of the journal helped it grow and prevent being painted into a corner. The editor has always been crucial in making EPW what it is. Krishna Raj, who took over as editor a few years after Chaudhuri passed away (after a brief interregnum when R.K. Hazari was editor), opened the pages of the weekly to an even wider range of authors, gave it its trademark left-wing flavour without closing it to other viewpoints. He went out of his way to encourage young scholars, got activists to write academically rigorous articles and got academics to sustain a public-political purpose to their work By the 1970s, EPW became a journal which a large number of people identified with, looked forward to reading each week and hoped to contribute

to. Krishna Raj built up a team of EPW staf who worked to produce a veritable book-size publication every week, and of ever widening circles of contributors and subscribers who felt a sense of fraternal bonding with the journal. Together, these circles of committed authors, readers and employees provided the support which sustained the EPW even when conditions were hard. Perhaps Krishna Raj’s greatest contribution lay in building up and nurturing this world of the EPW where everyone felt ownership of the journal. The legal form in which it has been published may be of a trust but it has really worked like the best of the cooperatives, with everyone a trustee. What lies ahead? EPW has never been shy of publishing the new, unusual or ofbeat argument. And, of course, its defining identity is its independent and critical stance on issues. EPW has always looked for new fields to cover. In the 1980s, EPW added gender to its pages, and later health, education, the environment and much more were included in its portfolio. (Like much of academia, EPW “rediscovered” caste in the 1970s.) Another remarkable feature is that EPW has been produced all these years without any commercial backing, depending entirely on its income from circulation sales and whatever limited ad-

vertising comes by. It has as a policy never taken any grants from abroad. At home, other than the occasional donation to its corpus, it has received only three generous one-time grants from institutions/individuals, all in the first decade of the 21st century. Diicult as it has been, this way of functioning has helped EPW maintain its independence. The world of publishing, the world of academia and the world of public debates have all changed dramatically over the last decade or so. EPW has ridden the waves of these changes and we feel a sense of satisfaction that at our time at the journal we managed to steer its course where today the number of article submissions and the circulation have both doubled over the past dozen years, the finances are better than they ever were in its history even when staf salaries are at their best and EPW is ready to meet the demands of digitisation and growing specialisation. Yet, success brings forth new challenges. EPW may be reaching the limits of its ability to cater to the needs and demands of India’s intellectual life. The widening range of commentary and research that EPW receives every week has already been testing the limits of editorial capabilities and the space available for articles. How can the massive numbers of new students, researchers and teachers who have come into the social sciences in India over the past few years be socialised into the old world charms of the EPW? How can the hundreds and thousands of commentators who are turned away from mainstream publications find a place in EPW? Can the digital world provide answers? How will EPW’s financial security be ensured when everything comes for free on the Internet? Strengthening the EPW community There are no set answers to these challenges, yet the only way to meet them is to strengthen the community which is the EPW. In these testing times, with the forums for debate under threat and intellectual activity frowned upon by the ruling elite, EPW is needed more than ever before. Fifty years after EPW started publication, today the country perhaps needs fifty more such journals publishing from all parts of the country, from all viewpoints and in all forms. EPW has survived and grown over the last half century on the backs of successive teams of dedicated staf and a closeknit community. Its very success has created conditions where future growth and survival may well depend on the growth and spread of an entire ecosystem of independent publications hosting varied research, debates and readership. The authors were until earlier this year Executive Editor and Editor of EPW, respectively.

‘Time for a National Water Commission’ Mihir Shah on the importance of an integrated policy for groundwater and surface water recommended an integrated water commission…

JACOB KOSHY

Mihir Shah, water policy expert, member of the erstwhile Planning Commission and in recent months head of several committees tasked with reforming India’s water laws, says existing institutions are inadequate to address our water needs. Which is why, he says in an e-mail interview, India needs an overarching water commission. Excerpts:

I think this kind of fundamental change takes time to be fully understood and get actualised in policy. In actual fact, professionals involved in CWC and CGWB will get an even better chance to improve their technical capabilities and career prospects within the NWC.

Water is frequently a political issue in several States. Why should States listen to an NWC?

The proposed National Water Commission (NWC) subsumes the Central Water Commission (CWC) and Central Ground Water Board (CGWB). How specifically does it improve national water management? The CWC (set up in 1945) and CGWB (set up in 1971) were created in an era when India faced a very diferent set of challenges. Then it was crucial to create irrigation capacity to ensure food selfsuiciency. But today the challenge is diferent. At huge cost (around Rs.400,000 crore) we have created 113 million hectares of irrigation potential. But is this water reaching the farmers? No. As the Chief Minister of Maharashtra has said, the State has 40 per cent of the country’s large dams, “but 82 per cent area of the state is rainfed. Till the time you don’t give water to a farmer’s fields, you can’t save him from suicide. We pushed large dams, not irrigation. But this has to change.” Our report is trying to address this challenge. We also highlight the fact that groundwater is the main source of water in India. This means we cannot go on endlessly drilling for groundwater through tubewells, which is what CGWB has promoted thus far. This has actually aggravated India’s groundwater crisis, as water tables fall and water quality declines, with arsenic, fluoride and even uranium entering our drinking water.

What are the key shifts in water management your report recommends? One, we must take a multidisciplinary view of water. We require professionals from disciplines other than just engineering and hydrogeology. Two, we need to adopt the participatory approach to water management that has been suc-

As a Committee, we took great care to get views of States on board. We have suggested that appraisal must become a demand-based exercise, done through a partnership between the Central and State governments, as also institutions of national repute. This is a key part of the reform we are proposing. We are not for a monolithic NWC. The NWC will be a knowledge institution providing solutions to water problems faced by State governments, farmers and other stakeholders, on demand, in a truly user-friendly manner.

IDEA WITH FLAWS: “Scientists fear that the humongous river interlinking project could even endanger the integrity of India’s monsoon cycle, which depends crucially on fresh river water flowing into the sea.” — PHOTO: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT cessfully tried all over the world, as also in Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh. Three, we must view groundwater and surface water in an integrated, holistic manner. CWC and CGWB cannot continue to work in their current independent, isolated fashion. The one issue that really highlights the need to unify CWC and CGWB is the drying up of India’s peninsular rivers, the single most important cause of which is overextraction of groundwater. If river rejuvenation is the key national mandate of the Ministry of Water Resources, then this cannot happen without hydrologists and hydrogeologists working together, along with social scientists, agronomists and other stakeholders. Four, we need to focus on river basins which must form the fundamental units for management of water. We have carefully studied the regional presence (or absence) of the CWC and CGWB and proposed a way forward whereby the NWC is present in all major river basins of India.

‘We must take a multidisciplinary view of water. We require professionals from disciplines other than just engineering....’ The Central Water Commission has opposed the NWC on the grounds that several reform measures are already in place. Are you throwing the baby out with the bathwater? Not at all. We have taken great care to ensure that all existing functions and personnel of the CWC find their appropriate place in the eight divisions of the NWC, which include Irrigation Reform, River Rejuvenation, Participatory Groundwater Management, Urban and Industrial Water, Water Security (including droughts, floods and climate change) and Water Quality.

This isn’t the first time that you have

Your report doesn’t encourage interlinking of rivers, one of the most vocal commitments of Water Minister Uma Bharti. Our report contains a summary of all the scholarly work available on interlinking of rivers (ILR). This work demolishes the engineering myth that water must not be allowed to flow “wastefully” into the sea. Scientists fear that the humongous ILR project could even endanger the integrity of India’s monsoon cycle, which depends crucially on fresh river water flowing into the sea. However, our report is not centrally concerned with this question and is not really into the pro- versus anti-big dam debate. It is much more concerned with the challenge of ensuring that the water stored in dams, present or future, actually reaches the farmers. This is low-hanging fruit that can give us an increase of millions of hectares of irrigated area at much less than the cost of the ILR and in much less time, avoiding all inter-State conflicts, land acquisition problems, as also corruption that has become a big issue in irrigation projects over the years. ND-ND

http://everexam.com/

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NEWS

NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU FRIDAY, AUGUST 19, 2016

Gen. V.K. Singh victimised me: Army chief tells SC

Amnesty shuts oice on police advice

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

HUBBALLI/BENGALURU: As a preventive measure, police have asked the Amnesty International India to keep its oice in Bengaluru closed till the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) protests subside. The ABVP had lodged a complaint against Amnesty after its event on highlighting the plight of Kashmiri families had ended in slogans of ‘Azaadi’ (freedom). The police have filed a sedition case against the rights group. With the possibility of protests outside its headquarters in Bengaluru, Amnesty closed its oice there and asked employees to work from other locations on Thursday. A spokesperson for Amnesty said the 86 employees working in the city had been asked to work from their homes. “The police are also gauging the situation, and will inform us when it would be safe to go back to our

NEW DELHI: In an unusual development that could cause severe discomfort to the Union government, Chief of Army Staf (COAS) General Dalbir Singh has accused Minister of State General V.K. Singh of levelling “false, baseless and imaginary” allegations against him when the latter was heading the Army. With his aidavit before Supreme Court filed earlier this week, the COAS has not only revealed the appalling power struggle within the Indian Army but also placed the Narendra Modi government in a quandary since his serious allegations are made against a member of the council of ministers.

Allegation of favouritism Ministry of Defence sources said Gen. Dalbir Singh had filed an aidavit in his individual capacity as a respondent in a complaint filed by Lt. Gen. (Retd) Ravi Dastane in the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) in 2012. Mr. Dastane had alleged favouritism in the appointment of Gen. Dalbir Singh as the eastern army commander. Mr. Dastane pointed out that the present COAS was placed under a vigilance ban from further promotion by the then army chief and BJP MP Gen. V.K. Singh. After the AFT rejected Mr. Dastane’s claim, he filed a case in the Supreme Court. “In the instant case, since the Supreme Court hearing is to commence, Gen. Dalbir Singh, as a respondent, has resubmitted the aidavit earlier filed in the AFT by him, in personal capacity,” Army sources said. The file was signed by Gen. Singh last month and it was submitted to the apex court this week. Sources pointed out that when the AFT case came up, Gen. Dalbir Singh was not the Army chief and Gen. V.K. Singh was not a minister, insisting that the present controversy is a “non issue.” In his aidavit, Gen. Singh

Gujarat oicer discharged in fake encounter cases

General Dalbir Singh has accused his former boss of victimising him for “extraneous reasons” to stall his promotion as Army Commander in 2012. In a bare-all aidavit filed in the apex court, the Army Chief condemned the BJP Minister of illegally issuing show-cause notice for alleged “failure to command and control” and of imposing on him a disciplinary and vigilance ban in connection with an operation conducted by the 3 Corps Intelligence and Surveillance Unit conducted at Jorhat on 20-21 December 2011. Gen. Dalbir Singh was in command of the Corps based in Dimapur during that period. ‘No material provided’ “I was sought to be victimised by the then COAS [Gen V.K. Singh] with the sole purpose of denying me promotion to the post of Army Commander. False, baseless and imaginary allegations of lapses were levelled against me in the show-cause notice. No material, whatsoever, of attendant circumstances was provided to me. The show-cause notice that was issued, besides sufering from vagueness, was premeditated and is also against the principles of natural justice,” the Army Chief has claimed in his aidavit. The COAS has pointed out that when the so-called Jorhat operation took place, he was on his annual leave and rejoined duty only on December 26, 2011.

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

MHA blocked Amnesty’s foreign funds four times SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

nataka Director-General and Inspector-General of Police Om Prakash on Thursday. “There is no evidence yet against the organisers. But in the first information report [FIR], the complainant has

workplace. It may take until Monday to get a clearer picture,” said the spokesperson. Meanwhile, there is no clear evidence yet of sedition or “anti-national activities” by Amnesty, said Kar-

not mentioned any specific name. We are still examining the video footage,” he told reporters on the sidelines of an event, organised by the Hubballi-Dharwad Police Commissionerate.

Stick to ideology, Modi tells BJP workers SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Na-

rendra Modi on Thursday declared that the party had “faced more adversities than the Congress would have under British rule” and exhorted cadres to stick to ideology rather than cleave to populism. Earlier he laid the foundation stone for a new headquarters for the BJP on Deendayal Upadhyaya Marg. The function was attended by BJP presidents past and present, including senior leaders L.K. Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi and current president Amit Shah. Mr. Modi lamented that “every efort” of the party was made to be seen in a “bad light.” “The BJP will be the only party which has faced adver-

AUSPICIOUS START: Narendra Modi and senior BJP leaders at the ‘bhoomi pooja’ in New Delhi on Thursday. — PHOTO: PTI gone through in 50-60 years,” he said, after a nearly two-hour bhoomi pooja ceremony. He asked cadres to present to the country and the democratic world an example of how a party “devoted to ide-

sities since its birth. It faced diiculties at every turn and its every efort was seen in bad light. Even during the British times, the Congress party would not have faced so much adversity that we, our dedicated workers have

als and devoid of dynasty” functions; the world knows the safron outfit “not the way it is but based on hearsay.” “During the recent West Bengal Assembly polls, it was diicult for the BJP candidates to even hire an oice in Kolkata as anybody willing to give them space would face trouble,” he said in an apparent attack on the ruling Trinamool Congress. “Anybody can collect a crowd by talking about populist issues but what is more important is to stick to ideology”, he said. In a lighter vein, he said election candidates of no other party would have forfeited more deposits than those of the BJP as they kept fighting for their ideology irrespective of the results. He said the BJP’s ideology became an object of study,

sold even in the hours when Hurriyat announces relaxation. By countering the Hurriyat calendar, the government is only deepening the crises,” Mr. Khan said. He alleged that the police were ransacking shops and hawkers who try to open their outlets during the relaxation period. “The trader community is being pushed to the wall,” added Mr. Khan. The Opposition National Conference too condemned the move to ban supplies. “The curbs on fuel are outrageous and will pose enormous diiculties to Hajjis, patients and attendants as well as doctors who have to reach hospitals.”

PEERZADA ASHIQ SRINAGAR: Traders and locals

here on Thursday discharged senior Gujarat police oicer Narendra K. Amin in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh and Tulsiram Prajapati fake encounter killing cases. Special CBI judge M.B. Gosavi, while discharging Mr. Amin, observed that there was no suicient evidence against him. According to the CBI, the doctor-turned-policeman, who is now serving as Superintendent of Police, Mahisagar district in Gujarat, was involved in the conspiracy. The court has so far discharged BJP president Amit Shah, Rajasthan Home Minister Gulabchand Kataria, Rajasthan-based businessman Vimal Patni, former Gujarat police chief P.C. Pande, Additional DirectorGeneral of Police Geeta Johri, Gujarat police oicer Abhay Chudasama, besides Yashpal Chudasama and Ajay Patel, both senior oicebearers in the Ahmedabad District Cooperative Bank in the case. Sohrabuddin, a gangster whom the Gujarat police claimed had links with the Pakistan-based Lashkar-eTaiba, and his wife Kausar Bi were allegedly abducted by the Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad from Hyderabad on their way to Sangli in Maharashtra. He was killed in a fake encounter near Gandhinagar in November 2005 after which his wife disappeared and was believed to have been done to death. Tulsiram, an aide of the gangster and an eyewitness to the encounter, was killed allegedly by the police at Chapri village in Banaskantha district in Gujarat in December 2006. The Sohrabuddin killing case was transferred to Mumbai in September 2012 at the CBI’s request for a fair trial. In 2013, the Supreme Court clubbed Tulsiram Prajapati’s encounter killing case with that of Sohrabuddin. — PTI

have accused the government of stopping the supply of eatables and petrol in parts of Kashmir, stoking a fresh wave of anger among residents, as curfew, shutdown and restrictions continued to afect normal life for the 41st day on Thursday. Bilal Ahmad, spokesman of the Petrol Dealers Association, Kashmir, alleged that since Wednesday morning Hindustan Petroleum, Bharat Petroleum and Indian Oil “have stopped distributing fuel to dealers in the Valley.” State Consumer Afairs and Public Distribution Minister Choudhary Zulfikar Ali denied any such direction has been issued. “We have not asked oil depot owners to stop supplying fuel.” Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, Baseer Khan said the oil dealers’ concern that tankers were coming under attack was being looked into. Contrary to the government position, a police party on Thursday raided pet-

NEW DELHI: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had on four occasions denied permission to Amnesty International India to receive foreign funds through the “prior-permission” category. The human rights organisation, which is at present facing sedition charges, is not registered under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act. A senior Home Ministry official said that Amnesty International India had registered itself as non-profit organisation in the name of Amnesty International South Asia Foundation on May 8, 2015, and had sought permission to open a regional headquarters in Delhi. The Hindu had reported that the Home Ministry was unlikely to give them the

Police stand guard outside the Amnesty office in Bengaluru on Thursday. — PHOTO : BHAGYA PRAKASH K

‘Supply of petrol, eatables halted in J&K’

MUMBAI: A special CBI court

CM YK

No clear evidence yet of sedition or anti-national activities by the human rights organisation, says Karnataka DGP

Security personnel patrolling a street at Lal Chowk in Srinagar on Thursday. — PHOTO: NISSAR AHMAD rol pumps in the old city. “The police chased vehicle owners at the Mill Stop petrol pump near Nowshera and stopped sale of petrol,” said a local. Besides petrol supplies, locals alleged that in the garb of night curfew the authorities have stopped supply of eatables from villages into the towns and

Srinagar city. Locals alleged that movement of eatables, particularly of vegetables and milk, that would move before sunrise were halted by the security forces in north and south Kashmir. A police oicer told The Hindu that the security forces were only implementing strict curfew.

Violation of U.N. charter: Pakistan SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT NEW DELHI: India divulged the details of the letter from Foreign Secretary Jaishankar on Thursday even as Pakistan hit back saying that the latest statements on Balochistan from India “crossed a red line.” “The statement by the Indian Prime Minister [on Balochistan] includes elements that are indeed a violation of the U.N. charter,” Nafees Zakaria, spokesperson of the Pakistan Foreign Ministry, said during his weekly briefing in Islamabad.

MEA’s response The MEA responded sharply to the comment with the oicial spokesperson saying, “I find this an extraordinary remark from a senior functionary of Pakistan that recog-

nises no red lines in its own diplomacy. Pakistan’s record of cross-border terrorism and infiltration is at the heart of the problems in the region today. And this is not just India’s view. You can ask some other countries in the region too.” He explained that India has been concerned about the developments in Balochistan for sometime and oicials have been expressing concern. However, what prompted the comments from the Indian Prime Minister at the all-party meeting of August 12, as well as on Independence Day, was that he had received “various messages” from Balochistan that had “suiciently moved him to share it with the people of India.”

Kashmir Economic Alliance (KEA) chairperson Mohammed Yasin Khan said, “The curfew and blocked supplies is neither Insaaniyat [Humanity] nor Jamhooriyat [democracy] but Yazidiyat (oppressing force). From milk to vegetables to medicines and oil, nothing is being allowed to be

Wrong tactic “Mass repression against civilians will worsen the situation and comes with the risk of a public revolt that goes beyond the scope of the traditional operational containment — which is the only policy of this government as well as the Central government,” said NC spokesman Junaid Mattu.

Army orders probe into lecturer’s death PEERZADA ASHIQ SRINAGAR: A college lecturer died in the early hours of Thursday after soldiers allegedly raided a village in Pulwama district following protests. The Army has ordered a probe. Family members of Shabir Ahmad Mongoo, 30, a resident of Pulwama district’s Khrew area, accused the Army of raiding Shaar Saali village around 10.30 p.m. on Wednesday and thrashing residents till 2 a.m. “The soldiers raided more than a dozen houses and picked up several youths. In the morning, his body was handed over to a hospital,” alleged Mongoo’s family. A Srinagar hospital confirmed that it received 15 injured civilians from the area. Police claimed stones were pelted at

Police claim stones were pelted at the soldiers, but said the Army’s role will be under the scanner

when in its previous avatar of the Jan Sangh it came to power in Madhya Pradesh in 1969. “The world was surprised again over how much we had grown when the government of [former prime minister] Vajpayee ji was formed. The world’s curiosity has arisen again now,” he said. Archival material He said it was necessary to collect archival material related to the party and its organisational activities. “This party has not grown due to some leader, prime minister or chief minister but due to its lakhs of dedicated workers,” he said. Mr. Amit Shah said the Modi government at the Centre, “remains as popular as it was when it took oath. It is our responsibility to lend permanence to the support the party has received.”

go-ahead for the regional headquarters. On December 19, 2000, Amnesty India was granted permission for the first time to bring £1,30,629 and again on November 14, 2003, £2,21,428 under prior permission category. The Ministry again granted permission to the human rights organisation to receive Rs. 54,40,000 on July 14, 2009, and it received foreign funds of Rs. 1,69,59,226 on March 28, 2012. However, Amnesty India’s applications on March 29, 2010 to allow it to receive Rs. 32,72,000 and on November 2, 2012, for Rs. 1,69,59,226 was rejected by the Ministry. Two other such applications for receiving of Rs. 2,65,76,204 and Rs. 80,00,000 were also rejected on November 9, 2012, and March 19, 2013 respectively.

Sonia readmitted to hospital for minor procedure SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT NEW DELHI: Two days after she was discharged, Congress president Sonia Gandhi has been admitted to Sir Ganga Ram Hospital “for a minor treatment procedure,” the hospital said on Thursday. She was earlier under treatment for fever, dehydration and a shoulder injury at the hospital. Dr. S.P. Byotra, vice-chairman (Board of Management) of the hospital, said: “Ms. Sonia Gandhi was admitted on Wednesday for a minor treatment procedure as per previous plan. She is doing well and undergoing physiotherapy and rehabilitation.” She is likely to stay at the hospital for a couple of days, hospital authorities said.

‘NAM principles more relevant now’ SUHASINI HAIDAR NEW DELHI: Venezuela is count-

ing on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s attendance at this year’s Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) meeting in September, despite reports he is unlikely to, said visiting Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez on Thursday. “India is a founder of the Non-Aligned movement, so, for Venezuela, it would be really important to have Prime Minister Modi there. We are hopeful he will come,” Ms. Rodriguez told The Hindu, while in Delhi for one day to hand over the invitation letter from President Nicolas Maduro to the government. “The Non-Aligned principles are today more relevant than ever. So we are sure that India will attend NAM and attend at the highest level,” the Venezuelan Foreign Minister said. Pharma products On Thursday, Ms. Rodriguez met with Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on the government’s offer of supplying Venezuela much needed pharmaceutical products in exchange for oil. Later in the evening, she met External Afairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to discuss preparations for the summit. Senior oicials say a decision has not yet been made on who will represent India at the summit scheduled for

Delcy Rodriguez. — PHOTO: V.V. KRISHNAN

September 17-18 in Margarita Island, Venezuela. “The External Afairs Minister underlined the importance India attaches to NAM,” said spokesperson Vikas Swarup, although Ms. Swaraj confirmed India’s participation, he said the details would be “worked out and intimated soon.” Wrong signal Opposition leaders say that if Mr. Modi skips the NAM summit, it would send out the wrong signal. “If Mr. Modi doesn’t wish to honour NAM, it will just show that the government is dumping all former foreign policies,” former External Afairs Minister Salman Khurshid told The Hindu.” (With inputs from Kallol Bhattacherjee)

the soldiers, but said the Army’s 50 Rashtriya Rifles’ role will be under the scanner. “It is regrettable. It was a joint patrol. One death has taken place. We are looking into it and due process of investigation will take place,” said General Oicer Commanding (GOC) 15 Corps Commander Lt. Gen. Satish Kumar Dua. Thursday’s incident comes in the wake of numerous allegations levelled by residents in Bandipora, Pulwama and Kulgam districts that the Army was raiding villages and beating up residents where pro-freedom protests are being held. ND-ND

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NEWS

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THE HINDU FRIDAY, AUGUST 19, 2016

Centre funding 16 yoga research projects

Cong. ticket to success via U.P. Brahmin votes?

Department of Science & Technology supports studies employing hi-tech tools on efficacy in treatment of illnesses JACOB KOSHY NEW DELHI: The Department of

Science and Technology has funded a wide range of research institutions — including the All India Institute of Medical Sciences and the Haridwar-based Patanjali Research Foundation, promoted by yoga proponent Baba Ramdev — to study the eicacy of yoga and whether it has a role in alleviating stroke, type-2 diabetes, Parkinson’s and schizophrenia. After it advertised for research proposals last August, the department got over 700 which it shortlisted to 16 for the first year. “We’ve had a tremendous response,” said Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary, Department of Science and Technology, “but we’ve been highly selective and made it clear that [results] should be publishable in the top international journals.”

SATYAM, an acronym for Science and Technology of Yoga and Medicine, has been conceived to develop good science around yoga and has nothing to do with religious beliefs, say associated oicials. “We can’t say it [yoga] will cure everything, say 4th stage cancer but we want good science based on analytical rigour that tests it,” Mr. Sharma said. Measuring brain activity The bulk of the studies, as a review of the approved proposals seen by The Hindu, are about measuring brain activity using electro-encephalography and functional magnetic resonance imaging — standard tools that are used to check what kind of electrical activity takes place and which regions of the brain are most active — when the brain is involved in a variety of cognitive tasks.

Medical Sciences and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram (SCTIMST); Centre for Academic Research, Bengaluru; Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, New Delhi; Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore and SKN Medical College and General Hospital, Pune.

IN MIND AND BODY: A yoga performance by Baba Ramdev at Ramlila ground in New Delhi. — FILE PHOTO: SANDEEP SAXENA “There’ve been studies that suggest Pranayam [a yoga breathing exercise] can influence attention and arousal [the state of being alert],” said Dr. Shirley Telles, Director of Research, Patanjali Foundation. “We are measuring this ac-

tivity. This is an extension of work that we’ve been working on for some time.” Other researchers funded under SATYAM belong to the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences, Bengaluru; Sree Chitra Thirunal Institute of

Checking use in therapies Some say they are checking if certain yoga practices may be plausibly used in therapies. Dr. Ramshekhar Menon, a psychiatrist at SCTIMST, told The Hindu that his group will investigate if certain yoga tasks could be used to help people who show the initial symptoms of Alzheimer’s. This would be done by observing brain activity in expert yoga practitioners and comparing them with those who were taught certain exercises and if these actually

led to improved alertness. Independent scientists said India needed to catch up with the West where several groups were studying various aspects of yoga and meditation and its relationship to the brain. “We are already about 3040 years behind…but it’s time Indian scientists jumped in,” said Dr. Narayanan Srinivasan, who leads the cognitive science programme at the University of Allahabad and was among the committee members screening proposals. “We were conscious of all aspects around yoga and some proposals were really bad. But I think a good beginning has been made.” H.B. Singh, who coordinates funding for the programme at the DST said those who vetted the proposals included yoga experts, neurologists and were “critical” with their selections.

Army’s carbine plan hangs fire

With love, from sister

DINAKAR PERI

BOND OF PROTECTION: Schoolgirls tie rakhi to BSF jawans on the occasion of Raksha Bandhan at Attari-Wagah international border on Thursday. — PHOTO: PTI

NEW DELHI: Uncertainty hangs over the Army’s six-year-old quest to procure modern carbines for its infantry units, with commercial bids set to expire next month even as some have raised questions over the field trials. In 2010, the Army began the process for procuring a Close Quarter Battle (CQB) carbine, and sometime in 2011 it began the process of procuring assault rifles. The assault rifle tender was cancelled last year. Four global companies responded to the CQB tender for 44,618 guns and 3.6 million rounds of ammunition and more to be manufactured domestically.

The trials were completed in 2014 following which only Galil Ace carbine of Israel Weapon Industries Ltd. (IWI), the Israeli small arms manufacturer, successfully cleared them. This created a resultant single vendor situation and the process has not moved ahead since. Close quarter combat Carbines are rifles with short-range barrels and more suitable for close quarter combat. The Army has put out a requirement for a gun with an integrated sight and laser designator. IWI sources told The Hindu that they had been asked to repeatedly extend their price bid. “We have done so every time without increasing the price in anticipation

of a decision,” one source said. The results of the trials have not been declared yet, he added. With allegations of deviations during the trials, the government in September 2015 constituted a high-power committee headed by Air Marshal P.P. Reddy (Retd.), then Chief of Integrated Defence Staf, to look into any deviations in procedure. However, the committee did not find any deviations and made some broad recommendations which include: A separate RFP for the sights and the weapon but it is not legally tenable, continue as per Army recommendations which means going ahead with the resultant single vendor situation and evaluate sights again.

HIGH ON HOPE: Sheila Dikshit and Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Raj Babbar in Lucknow last month. — PHOTO: RAJEEV BHATT SMITA GUPTA NEW DELHI: Faced with a lack of

committed support from any one numerically strong community in Uttar Pradesh, the Congress, party sources confirmed, is planning to give as many as 100 of the 403 seats to the powerful Brahmin community: this is in addition to projecting former three-time Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit as its chief ministerial candidate. The Congress that has not been in power for the last 27 years in the State is, after all, taking on a field that includes competitors who can individually count on one or other community. The Samajwadi Party can depend on the Yadavs who constitute around 9 per cent of the population, while the Bahujan Samaj Party has a committed vote base of close to 20 per cent: a majority of the Dalits here belong to the Jatav community, to which BSP supremo Mayawati belongs. And since 2014, the BJP has been successfully wooing non-Yadav OBCs; add to this, the Banias who have been traditional voters of the party. The Congress, on the other hand, had become dependent on the vote-pulling power of individual candidates: it has a paltry 28 MLAs

in the U.P. Assembly. The Congress’ calculation in fielding around 100 Brahmins, therefore, party sources said, is to capitalise on the Brahmins’ “natural identification” with it and their desire to “rule again”. N.D. Tiwari, the last Brahmin chief minister, lost power in 1989, and his caste fellows, Congress sources said, know that none of them can aspire to be the chief minister in a dispensation headed by the SP or BSP; as for the BJP, the party to which the community shifted its allegiance from the Congress in the wake of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement, it is focussing these days on OBCs. Capacity to influence Brahmins in U.P. account for around 11 per cent: their position at the top of the caste hierarchy has meant that their capacity to influence others has always been greater than their numbers would suggest. Indeed, as recently as 2007, when the BSP won a majority in the state, Ms. Mayawati’s successful wooing of Brahmins had ensured her not just a sizeable share of their votes — community leaders had used their position in society to influence other castes, too, to back the BSP.

‘Students can access 73% of Law Ministry budget goes for poll work answer sheet under RTI’ LEGAL CORRESPONDENT DEVESH K. PANDEY NEW DELHI: Almost 73 per cent

of the Rs. 5,011 crore budgetary allocation to the Ministry of Law and Justice for the current financial year has been earmarked for electionrelated expenses. According to the Financial and Outcome Budget released by the Law Ministry, it has been allocated about Rs. 4,112 crore under the nonplan and Rs. 900 crore under the plan revenue heads. The Organs of State Elections have been granted Rs. 3,649.29 crore. While Rs. 1,761.43 crore is given for Lok Sabha elections and Assembly elections in States or Union Territories, Rs. 1,847.86 crore has been earmarked for other electionrelated expenses. This financial year, the government has to spend Rs.40 crore for the issuance of voter identity cards. The budget also provides Rs. 140 crore for the National Legal Services Authority, which extends free legal services to the weaker sections and also organises Lok Adalats for dispute settlement. The income tax appellate and national tax tribunals have been allocated Rs. 73.48 crore. The Law Ministry has

been given Rs. 256 crore for the implementation of the ecourts’ second phase. In the first phase, sites for all the 14,249 courts have been readied for computerisation and local-area networks installed at 13,643 courts. ‘Access to Justice’ project The “Access to Justice” project is being implemented in the eight North-Eastern States, and Jammu and Kashmir, at a total cost of Rs. 30 crore for five years (2012-17). “The objectives of the project are to address the legal needs of the marginalised and vulnerable sections of society, particularly women, children, and Scheduled Castes and tribal communities, who do not have the requisite means to ensure that their rights are guaranteed,” according to the Outcome Budget. It also aims at supporting justice delivery systems in improving their capacities in order to serve the people, in empowering ordinary people to demand improved services, and to access their rights and entitlements, besides encouraging innovative activities to enhance legal awareness of vulnerable populations, and their ability to seek redress.

DELHI: The Supreme Court has asked the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to “scrupulously” follow its 2011 judgment that it is a student’s “fundamental and legitimate right” to access his answer sheets under the Right to Information Act. The recent order by a Bench led by Justice Ranjan Gogoi came on a plea by two students, Kumar Shanu from Noida and Paras Jain from Delhi, seeking the court’s permission to initiate contempt proceedings against the Board for charging Rs.700 per copy of an answer sheet. Over and above this, students are compulsorily required to go through the process of verification of marks for which they have to pay another Rs. 300 as fee. Only then, would they be eligible to apply for a copy of their answer sheets. In short, they contended that a student ends up coughing up Rs. 1,000 to the CBSE to obtain a physical copy of his answer sheet. The information came out in a reply from the CBSE to an RTI application made by the petitioners. The CBSE, however, contended that the charges levied were inciden-

NEW

tal and not for profit. The petitioners contended that the practice was in contempt of a 2011 judgment — CBSE & Anr. Vs. Aditya Bandhopadhyay & Ors — of the Supreme Court, which held that an “answer sheet is an information under Section 2(f) of the RTI Act and therefore, examinees/students have a fundamental and legal right of having access to their answer sheets under RTI Act.” Fiduciary relationship The 2011 judgment had held that there existed a fiduciary relationship between the examining body and the student. The petitioners contended that the CBSE was levying these charges when the RTI Act had intended students to access answer sheets, which qualify as ‘information’, for Rs. 2 a page along with Rs. 10 for the RTI application. It had argued that students falling under the Below Poverty Line category were guaranteed free access to their answer sheets under the law. “It is ironical and astonishing that the CBSE, being an educational institution responsible for educating a large section of the society, is blatantly flouting the law laid down by the Supreme Court,” the petition said.

Can’t avoid pesticides, say farm experts ter human blood by the process of bio-magnification and through the food chain.

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT NEW DELHI: Parliament’s Standing Committee on Agriculture may have expressed concern at the unscientific and excessive use of pesticides in agriculture that pose a threat both to the environment and human health. But experts say their judicious use, combined with safe agricultural practices, is the only way out as the country’s growing demand for food cannot be met through organic farming. In its recently presented report in Parliament for 201516, titled “Impact of chemical fertilizers and pesticides on agriculture and allied sectors in the country,” the panel said fertilisers and pesticides changed the face of agriculture by enhancing

CM YK

The growing demand for food cannot be met through organic farming, they say. production and productivity, but excessive and unscientific use of pesticides caused tremendous harm to the environment and afected human population indirectly. The report says since pesticides are mostly non-biodegradable and persist in the environment, there is the possibility that they will en-

Need for scientific use “Human health and food safety, both are important, and therefore there is an imperative need for promoting scientific use of pesticides in agriculture. Relying entirely on organic farming is not a practical solution, as we need to feed a growing population,” agriculture expert and member of the Uttar Pradesh Planning Commission, Sudhir Panwar, told The Hindu. There must be eforts therefore to create awareness among farmers about the scientific use of pesticides. The report points out that the use of pesticides has been an integral part of the

green revolution strategy. They not only enhanced food grain production by reducing losses to weeds, diseases and insects, but also helped improve the quality of the crops. However, unscientific use of pesticides such as organochlorine and pyrethroids can cause cancer, besides neurological and endocrine system disorders. “Heavy use of pesticide in agriculture has contaminated soil, water, air and the food chain... Remedies are many... The most important among them is to ban pesticides whose bad efects are well known and are already banned in the western world,” said Lakhwinder Singh, professor with the Punjabi University, who has been extensively working on agricultural issues. ND-ND

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WORLD

‘104 LTTE cadres poisoned to death’

‘Hillary video’ being used to send malware

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s Tamil

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

politicians have alleged that over 100 LTTE cadres at rehabilitation centres were injected with poison leading to their deaths, prompting the government to reject their claims on Thursday. Politicians of the main Tamil coalition, Tamil National Alliance, and the Tamil media claimed that 104 excombatants had been given poisonous injections. They had claimed physical disability due to the injections being given to them. Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran has said a U.S. Air Forces medical team, currently in the Tamil-dominated North, will examine the former rehabilitated LTTE cadres. State Minister of Defence Ruwan Wijewardene rejected the claims as “false allegations“. “It is sad to hear some politicians in the North making false allegations when the government is making a genuine efort to resolve the issue of the Northern people.

NEW DELHI: Cybercriminals are

C.V. Wigneswaran “Anyone, including those from the international community, can visit the rehabilitation camps after obtaining permission from the government and see for themselves the work that is being done,” he said, referring to claims by members of the Northern Provincial Council. Government spokesman and Minister of Health Rajitha Senaratne also dismissed the claims on Wednesday and said local doctors can be asked to examine them. — PTI

using the bait of a ‘video’ — claiming to show U.S. Democratic Party’s presidential nominee Hillary Clinton exchanging money with an Islamic State leader — to distribute malicious spam e-mails, according to cybersecurity solutions provider Symatec. While the e-mail’s subject says “Clinton Deal IS Leader caught on Video”, there is no video in it, just malware. “Adding to the enticement, the e-mail body also discusses voting, asking recipients to ‘decide on who to vote [for]’ after watching the nonexistent clip,” the company said. Attached in the e-mail is a malicious Java file. If executed, it infects the computer with a remote access trojan (RAT). While a majority of the recipients targeted are in the U.S. (85 per cent), the message has been delivered to other countries as well.

12 dead in Turkey bombings blamed on Kurdish insurgents ANKARA: Twelve people were killed in a spate of bombings against Turkish security forces blamed on Kurdish rebels who appear to have ramped up their campaign of attacks in the aftermath of the failed coup. Turkish oicials accused the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) of carrying out three bloody attacks in less than 24 hours that for the first time struck areas in the east that are not predominantly Kurdish. “This nation will never surrender to any terrorist organisation,” Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Thursday on a visit to the scene of one of the bombings.

PKK-Gulen nexus? The bloodshed comes in the week that the PKK — regarded as a terrorist organisation by Ankara and its Western allies — marks what is considered to be the 32nd anniversary of its armed rebellion against the Turkish state. In the deadliest strike, five soldiers and a village guard were killed when a homemade bomb blew up in the path of a military convoy in the southeastern town of Bit-

F

or the first time since a cholera epidemic believed to be imported by UN peacekeepers began killing thousands of Haitians nearly six years ago, the oice of Secretary-General Ban Kimoon has acknowledged that the United Nations played a role in the initial outbreak and that a “significant new set of UN actions” would be needed to respond to the crisis. The deputy spokesman for the Secretary-General, Farhan Haq, said in an e-mail this week that “over the past year, the UN has become convinced that it needs to do much more regarding its own involvement in the initial outbreak and the sufering of those afected by cholera”. He added a “new response will be presented publicly within the next two months, once it has been fully elaborated, agreed with the Haitian authorities and discussed with member states.” Significant shift The statement comes on the heels of a confidential report sent to Mr. Ban by a long-time UN adviser on August 8. Written by Philip Alston, a New York University law professor who serves as one of the experts advising the organisation on human rights issues, the draft language stated plainly that the epidemic “would not have broken out but for the actions of the United Nations”. Mr. Ban’s acknowledgment, by contrast, stopped short of saying that the UN specifically caused the epiCM YK

THE HINDU FRIDAY, AUGUST 19, 2016

Syrian, Russian jets pound rebels 25 people, including 15 civilians, killed in Idlib; Kurdish towns targeted for the first time BEIRUT: Syrian and Russian aircraft have launched intense air strikes on opposition strongholds in northern Syria to prevent rebels sending reinforcements to a crucial battle in Aleppo, a monitor said on Thursday. Air strikes on Idlib city, 60 km southwest of Aleppo, killed 25 people, including 15 civilians on Wednesday, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Regime aircraft continued to pound rebel positions across Idlib Province on Thursday as well as parts of Aleppo Province, it said. “Regime and Russian aircraft are carrying out dozens of raids every day on Idlib Province and the west of Aleppo Province to prevent reinforcements reaching rebel positions,” said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.

Regime siege Idlib is dominated by the same alliance of rebels and jihadists that is fighting in Aleppo, including the former al-Nusra Front, which has renamed itself Fateh alSham Front after renouncing its status as al-Qaeda’s Syrian ailiate. Southern Aleppo has been the scene of intense fighting since July 31, when the “Army

LIFE IN ALEPPO: A child identified as Omran Daqneesh (5), injured and rescued from the rubble on Wednesday following an air strike on the rebel-held district of Qaterji, Aleppo. — PHOTO: REUTERS of Conquest” alliance launched a major ofensive to break a regime siege of opposition-controlled districts in the city’s east. It took the southern district of Ramussa on August 6, linking up with oppositionheld neighbourhoods. But neither side has achieved a decisive victory despite hun-

dreds dead on both sides. Each side is now trying to cut of the other’s supply routes. Despite its air power, the regime has been unable to gain headway in street-tostreet battles, said Abdel Rahman. "The rebels have put all their forces into this battle and regime forces have been

exhausted," said Abdel Rahman. Aleppo has been roughly split between opposition control in the east and government forces in the west since mid-2012. Meanwhile, Syrian government aircraft bombed Kurdish positions in the divided northeastern city of Hasakeh on Thursday, the

China, Myanmar jostle over dam project ATUL ANEJA

Turkish rescue workers and police inspect the blast scene after a car bomb attack in Elazig on Thursday. — PHOTO: AFP lis on Thursday, Turkish media reported. Just a few hours earlier, three police oicers were killed and more than 200 people injured in a car bombing against police headquarters in the eastern city of Elazig, leaving the building largely in ruins. The city, a conservative nationalist bastion, had been spared much of the violence that has rocked the Kurdishdominated southeast since a two-and-a-half year ceasefire collapsed in 2015. The rebels appear to have

U.N. admits to role in Haiti cholera epidemic JONATHAN M. KATZ

NOIDA/DELHI

The admission comes after 5 years of denial of any role in the outbreak that killed 10,000 people demic. Nor does it indicate a change in the organisation’s legal position that it is absolutely immune from legal actions, including a federal lawsuit brought in the U.S. on behalf of cholera victims seeking billions in damages stemming from the Haiti crisis. But it represents a significant shift after more than five years of high-level denial of any involvement or responsibility of the UN in the outbreak, which has killed at least 10,000 people and sickened hundreds of thousands. Cholera victims sufer from dehydration caused by severe diarrhea or vomiting. In the 19-page report, obtained from an oicial who had access to it, Mr. Alston took issue with the UN’s public handling of the outbreak, which was first documented in mid-October 2010, shortly after people living along the Meille River began dying from the disease. The first victims lived near a base housing 454 UN peacekeepers freshly arrived from Nepal, where a cholera outbreak was under way, and waste from the base often leaked into the river. Numerous scientists have since argued that the base was the only plausible source of the outbreak but UN oicials have consistently insisted that its origins remain up for debate. — New York Times News Service

intensified their attacks since the failed attempt on July 15 to overthrow President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. One senior Turkish politician suggested that the PKK was collaborating with supporters of U.S.-based preacher Fethullah Gulen, accused by Ankara of orchestrating the coup bid. “Once again, the attacks in Van and Elazig show how PKK and FETO [Fethullah Terrorist Organisation] work together,” ex-Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu wrote on Twitter. — AFP

BEIJING: The stalled Myitsone dam project — widely seen as a litmus test of a new phase of ties between China and Myanmar — came under sharp focus on Thursday during talks between the visiting leader Aung San Suu Kyi and Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang. A senior Chinese oicial, briefing the media after the talks, signalled that the Myanmar government was reconsidering its position on the $3.6 billion project, and hoped to arrive at a resolution that suited both sides.

NEW PHASE: Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang at the Great Hall of the People on Thursday. — PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

Frozen in 2011 “Aung San Suu Kyi said the Myanmar government has already set up an investigation committee to look for an appropriate resolution to the Myitsone dam issue,” said Liu Zhenmin, China’s Vice Foreign Minister. The mega project, which has been criticised by envi-

ronmental groups, was frozen in 2011 by Myanmar’s previous government led by President Thein Sein. Analysts say Myanmar is expected to balance its ties between China and its other neighbours including India. China is Myanmar’s foremost foreign investors, with investments of $15.4 billion

already in the bag. Apart from the Myitsone project, the government commission will also review other proposed hydroelectric dams along the Thanlwin River. It is expected to submit its report by November 11. In Myanmar, a blog in the newspaper The Irrawaddy

speculated whether a grandbargain could be in the oing regarding the Myitsone project during Ms. Suu Kyi’s China visit. It said the questions raised by the visit include whether “China is ready to accept a likely adjustment to the terms of the agreement — perhaps the complete stopping of the project in exchange for the One-China policy, South China Sea dispute or its One Belt, One Road undertaking?” The two sides have also decided to build a bridge at Kunlong, 32 km from the border in northeastern Myanmar, as part of counterinsurgency exercise. The bridge will be close to the Kokang region, where an ethnic Chinese group battled the Myanmar’s troops last year. The Irrawaddy noted that Myanmar’s “main and immediate concern is how to make use of Chinese influence on the ethnic armed organisations along the Sino-Burma border”.

first such strikes against a Kurdish-held area of Syria. The strikes hit three Kurdish-manned checkpoints and three Kurdish bases, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The strikes follow clashes between Kurdish fighters and regime loyalists that left 11 people dead. — AFP

Hindu Marriage Bill tabled in Pak. Assembly ISLAMABAD: After decades of delay and inaction, the much-debated Hindu Marriage Bill 2016 has finally been tabled in Pakistan’s National Assembly. The report of the Standing Committee on Law and Justice on the Hindu Marriage Bill 2016 was presented in the National Assembly on Wednesday and is just one step away from being approved as the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party is supporting it. Ramesh Lal, Member of the National Assembly and one of the bill’s movers, said it took around 10 months for the committee to clear the bill and another six months for its report to be presented. The bill is expected to put an end to the practice of abduction of married Hindu women and to curtail forced conversions. — PTI

14 years, 2 wives, 2 honour killings KARACHI: Fourteen years after he killed his first wife, a Pakistani man has murdered his second wife by repeatedly stabbing her before slitting her throat with a knife. Rahim Daad killed Farzana (35) inside their home in Sindh’s capital Karachi early on Wednesday, police said. Daad has been arrested and a knife was seized from him. He repeatedly stabbed Farzana before slitting her throat, Dawn reported, quot-

Biden’s remarks on Japanese constitution raises eyebrows TOKYO: A recent remark by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden that America wrote Japan’s Constitution is raising eyebrows in Japan. A popular front-page column in the national Asahi newspaper said this week that the comment “was unprecedented in its insensitivity” and “could even be considered arrogant”. Mr. Biden attacked Republican candidate Donald Trump on Monday for saying that Japan might need to consider obtaining nuclear weapons in the future. Mr. Biden said “Does he not understand we wrote Japan’s Constitution to say that they could not be a nuclear power?” The Constitution was drafted by U.S. forces occupying Japan after World War II, though Japan modified the draft somewhat before adoption. Some speculate Mr. Biden’s comment could embolden those who want to revise the charter. — AP

ing a top police oicial. During interrogation, Daad confessed to the murder of his wife in the name of honour, the oicial added. The couple had an argument following which Farzana wanted to leave the house. In an ensuing scule, Daad took out his knife and stabbed Farzana in the abdomen following which he slit her throat. The suspect had killed his first wife, a mother of three,

citing that she too had shamed the family, the police said. In Pakistan, the victims of “honour killings” are overwhelmingly women, with hundreds killed each year. The crime came under the international spotlight after celebrity Qandeel Baloch was killed by her brother. Rights groups have for years called for tougher laws to tackle perpetrators of violence against women. — PTI

‘Indians score above other minorities’

LONDON: The Indian-origin

population in the U.K. tends to be more-educated and less-unemployed when compared to other ethnic minorities, a new report released on Thursday said, even as it warned that Britain must tackle the problem of

an “entrenched” race divide in the country. In some cases, Indians outperformed even the white British population with a higher percentage increase in those with degree level qualifications. The report titled ‘Healing a divided Britain: The need for a comprehensive race equality strategy’ warned that the U.K. must tackle the problem of an “entrenched” race divide up and down the country. — PTI

Ex-South Sudan V-P flees to Congo NAIROBI: South Sudan’s former

rebel leader and ex-VicePresident Riek Machar has escaped to the capital of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) following violent clashes last month, an official said on Thursday. “Riek Machar is currently in DRC, in Kinshasa, and wants to go as soon as possible to Ethiopia,” an aide told AFP. Mr. Machar’s whereabouts had been unclear since the fighting flared in Juba between July 8 and 11 and led

to his outgunned and outnumbered forces being chased from the city by government troops. — AFP ND-ND

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THE HINDU FRIDAY, AUGUST 19, 2016

SENSEX

The Centre should ensure that the (Realty) Act is implemented in a manner that it doesn’t curb the growth of projects K.P. Singh, Chairman, DLF

Wipro invests $1.5 mn in Israeli cybersecurity company STAFF REPORTER

18-08-2016 17-08-2016

28,006

118

points

Panel suggests corporate bond index, easier norms for FPIs Suggestions include making it mandatory for large companies to tap debt

Multiple acquisitions PTI reports: In the past few quarters, Wipro has announced a string of investments, including acquisition of companies like HealthPlan Services ($460 million), Cellent of Germany (for $77 million) and U.S.-based Viteos Group for $130 million. However, it later called of the buyout of U.S.-based Viteos Group, citing inordinate delays in completion of closing conditions. Wipro’s net profit for the June quarter declined 6.7 per cent to Rs.2,059 crore.

The panel observed there is a total lack of liquidity in credit risk protection instruments like Credit Default Swaps (CDS), while stamp duties on corporate bonds across various states have not been standardised.

NEW DELHI: With an aim to de-

velop corporate bond market in India, an expert panel today suggested easing of norms for foreign investors, a corporate bond index on the lines of Sensex or Nifty, and making it mandatory for large corporates to tap this market for funds beyond a threshold. The panel, comprising nominees from Reserve Bank, Finance Ministry, markets watchdog SEBI as also insurance and pension regulators IRDAI and PFRDA, also wanted tightening of norms for credit rating agencies by mandating them to strictly adhere to timely public disclosure of defaults. The ‘Report of the Working Group on Development of Corporate Bond Market in India’ has been submitted to RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan in his capacity as Chairman of the FSDC (Financial Stability and Development Council) Sub Committee, which comprises members from various regulators . The report was released today by SEBI, whose Chairman U.K. Sinha is a member of the FSDC Sub Committee. September deadline The group was constituted in September 2015 under chairmanship of the then RBI Deputy Governor H.R. Khan and has now submitted its report after taking into account various structural issues impinging on the development of a deep corporate bond market in India. The panel has said, “Large corporates with borrowings from the banking system above a cut-of level may be required to tap the market

STRUCTURAL ISSUES: Panel wants rating agencies to adhere to timely disclosure of default.— FILE PHOTO: REUTERS for a portion of their working capital and term loan needs. Necessary guidelines may be issued by RBI taking into account market conditions by September 2016.” It has recommended amendments in FEMA regulations to allow investments by FPIs (Foreign Portfolio Investors) in unlisted debt securities and pass through securities issued by securitisations. In a rare case of suggesting specific timelines for its various suggestions, the Working Group has sought necessary notification with regard to allowing FPI investments in these segments by August-end 2016. It also wanted amendments in both FEMA notification and SEBI guidelines to facilitate direct trading in corporate bonds by FPIs in the OTC segment and on an electronic platform of a recognised stock exchange.Banks may be encouraged to submit loan overdue information to credit information companies (CICs) on a weekly basis to start with.

“RBI may consider whether CRAs (credit rating agencies) may be allowed access to Central Repository of Information on Large Credits database based on legal feasibility and other relevant factors,” it said. Some of the preliminary recommendations of the Working Group were earlier made to the government and they were included in the Union Budget 2016-17. Private placement Corporate bond issuance in India is dominated by private placements as bonds account for more than 95 per cent of the total issuance of corporate debt. Besides, a majority of the issuances are concentrated in the 2-5 year tenor, while the investor base is limited as the investment mandates of large investors such as insurers, pension funds and provident funds provide limited space for going down the credit curve as the investments are made in fiduciary capacity to protect the interests of subscribers.

Investor interest The tax regime for financial instruments remains one of the key drivers of investor interest, while there are inherent structural incentives for borrowers to prefer bank financing, such as cash credit system and absence of any disincentive for enjoying unutilised working capital limits. “As the corporate debt market cannot be looked as totally detached from the sovereign bond market, this market may get a fillip as the interest rates come down with the inflation and fiscal consolidation targets being achieved,” the panel said. Many large non-financial corporates who should normally be the preferred issuers of bonds are leveraged and hence cannot access either loan from banks or bond financing through market mechanism. Among its various recommendations, it said the issuers coming out with frequent debt issues with the same tenor during a quarter may club them under the same umbrella ISIN (a unique code to identify a specific securities issue) to increase the float in the market. The group has recommended that SEBI and stock exchanges operationalise market making in corporate bonds. — PTI.

Centre unveils Internet portal India Post Payments Bank set for 2017 start for online tracking of mines SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT NEW DELHI: India Post Pay-

ments Bank has received the certificate of incorporation from the Registrar of Companies, paving the way for the postal department’s bank to begin operations in 2017 as announced. This will be the first public sector undertaking under the Department of Posts.

NEW DELHI: The Ministry of

Mines unveiled a web portal for the easy access to information regarding the mining sector in India, including a framework for rating mines. “The Ministry, through the Indian Bureau of Mines, has developed a template for the star rating of mines,” Mines Secretary Balvinder Kumar said at the launch function. “The web portal will have all the ratings of the mines and will also have information of the Sustainable Development Framework (SDF) for the mining sector.” The star rating system, which rates mines out of five stars, is a two-layered system based on a self-evaluation by the mine operator, which is then validated by the Indian Bureau of Mines under the Ministry of Mines. “There will be random third-party checks to see whether the information

SELF APPRAISAL: A star rating system, which rates mines out of five stars, has been introduced. — FILE PHOTO: REUTERS provided by the operators is correct, and there should be penalties for those providing false information,” Mines Minister Piyush Goyal said, also speaking at the event. The star rating system will be based on parameters such as eforts taken to mitigate environmental impact of the mines and to resettle and rehabilitate the people afected and the adoption of international standards for mining operations and reporting. “The main objective of

India Cements net rises 16.3% as utilisation jumps SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT CHENNAI: The India Cements’

net profit rose 16.3 per cent to Rs.43.98 crore for the first quarter ended June 30, 2016 against Rs.37.80 crore for the year-ago period. On a standalone basis, total income from operations fell Rs.1,225.70 crore to Rs1.205.72 crore. “The net plant realisation per tonne of cement for this quarter dropped to Rs.3,461 per tonne from Rs.3,920 per tonne,” N. Srinivasan, India Cements Ltd., (ICL) Vice Chairmand Managing Director said. “Despite this, we were able to enhance capacity utilisation and sales volume and post improved operating performance and earnings before interest depreciation taxation and amortisation (EBIDTA) of Rs.205 crore against Rs.200 crore.” A reduction in international fuel prices and reducCM YK

N. Srinivasan tion in logistics and finance costs also enabled the company to post better results, he said. During the first quarter, ICL sold 23.07 lakh tonnes of cement against 20.81 lakh tonnes. It marked a 10 per cent growth in production at a capacity utilisation level of 65 per cent. “This achievement has to be viewed in the light of the softening in the selling price of cement in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana,” said the vice-chairman.

this system is to bring all mines to minimum 4- or 5star rating in the shortest possible time,” Mr. Kumar said. Mr. Goyal also asked Ministry oicials to ensure that by March 31 mine operators also upload all relevant permissions from the government onto the portal. Iron ore duty Mr. Goyal added that the Ministry of Steel was still looking into relaxation of export duties on iron ore.

BRENT OIL

RUPEE 28,124

BENGALURU: India’s third large-

st software services provider Wipro has invested $1.5 million to acquire minority stake in Tel Aviv based cyber security platform provider Insights Cyber Intelligence Limited. Through the investment the IT major has acquired stake of less than 20 per cent in the Israeli start-up, said Wipro in a regulatory filing on the Bombay Stock exchange. “Insights ofer a threat intelligence driven security platform employing cyber intelligence, rapid mitigation and one-click remediation,” according to the filing. The transaction would be completed on or before August 31. Insights Cyber Intelligence Limited was founded in 2015. Wipro, a global information technology, consulting and outsourcing company employs more than 170,000 professionals serving more than 175 cities across six continents. The company posted revenues of $7.7 Billion for the financial year ended Mar 31, 2016.

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BUSINESS

NOIDA/DELHI

Hiring imminent “With the incorporation, the Board of the India Post Payments Bank Limited is likely to be constituted soon. The incorporation of the IPPB Ltd is a significant step forward as this also paves the way for the bank to begin hiring of banking professionals to set up the bank and begin its operations in 2017,” according to an oicial statement. The Department of Posts is expected to complete the roll out of its branches all over the country by Septem-

The Department is expected to roll out branches across the country by September 2017 ber 2017. The government said this could be the fastest roll out for a bank anywhere in the world. The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had in January approved the proposal to set up IPPB with total project cost of Rs.800 crore. The new bank is expected to commence operations by March 2017 and will set up 650 branches and 5000 ATMs across the country. “Coupled with the physical presence across 1.55 lakh post oices and the reach of “The Dakiya,” the India Post Payments Bank aims to become a powerful and efective vehicle of real financial inclusion in the country,” the statement said.

18-08-2016 16-08-2016

66.81 66.76

Centre imposes $380 million additional penalty on RIL NEW DELHI: Government has

slapped an additional penalty of $380 million (around Rs.2,500 crore) on Reliance Industries and its partners for producing less than targeted natural gas from eastern ofshore KG-D6 fields. With this, the total penalty, which is in form of disallowing recovery of cost incurred, for missing the target in five fiscal years beginning April 1, 2010, now stands at a cumulative $2.76 billion. The Production Sharing Contract (PSC) allows RIL and its partners BP Plc of the U.K. and Canada’s Niko Resources to deduct all capital and operating expenses from the sale of gas before sharing profit with the government. Disallowing costs will result in government’s profit share rising. “Up to FY 2013-14, the cost recovery proposed to be disallowed was $2.376 billion and consequent demand of Government of India share of additional profit petroleum of $195.3 million on cumulative basis,” RIL said in a regulatory filing. “On June 3, 2016, the company received a revised claim up to year 2014-15 with a disallowance of $2.756 billion on cumulative basis and consequent demand of Government of India share of additional profit petroleum of $246.9 million, also on cumulative basis.” Gas output from Dhirubhai-1 and -3 gas fields in the KG-D6 block was supposed to be 80 million standard cubic meters per day but actual production was only 35.33 mmscmd in 2011-12, 20.88 mmscmd in 2012-13 and 9.77 mmscmd in 2013-14. The output has been around 8 mmscmd in subsequent years. — PTI

0.05 ₨/$

18-08-2016 17-08-2016

50.08 49.99

0.09 $/bbl

Jaitley meets PM over Rajan’s successor at RBI NEW DELHI: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday held an hour-long discussion with Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the appointment of a new RBI Governor, a post that will fall vacant on September 4. The meeting, which took place at the Prime Minister’s residence here, is believed to have deliberated on various names for possible successors to Raghuram Rajan, who demits oice early next month on completion of his 3-year tenure. Asked about the announcement of next Governor, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said: “We will let you know when we decide. You will come to know about the conclusion, not the process.” Traditionally, the Prime Minister picks the RBI Governor after consultation with the finance minister. In June, Rajan surprised

the markets when he in a letter to the RBI staf announced that he would return to academia and not seek a second term. Top contenders Top contenders for the RBI Governor’s post are current Deputy Governor Urjit Patel and former deputy governor Subir Gokarn. Gokarn is currently an Executive Director at the International Monetary Fund while Patel was given a 3year extension as the RBI Deputy Governor in January. Others who are said to be in the fray include World Bank Chief Economist Kaushik Basu, Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das, SBI chief Arundhati Bhattacharya and Finance Ministry’s Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian. — PTI

Income scheme rules on property value amended SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT NEW DELHI: The Centre has amended the rules of the Income Declaration Scheme to allow declarers to peg the value of their property to the stamp duty value of the property, incorporating inflation into the valuation, following representations made to it. “After due consideration of the representations, the Rules have been amended to provide that where acquisition of an immovable property is evidenced by a registered deed, an option shall be available with the declarant to declare the fair market value of such property by applying the cost inflation index to stamp duty value of the prop-

Valuation of immoveable property on basis of registered value was sought in the Scheme erty,” according to a government statement. The latest edition of Frequently Asked Questions on the Scheme said, “Where loans, creditors, advances received, share capital, payables etc. are disclosed in the audited balance sheet but are fictitious in nature and cannot be directly linked to acquisition of a particular asset, then such fictitious liabilities can be disclosed under the Scheme as such.”

Singtel adds stake in Bharti Airtel parent SINGAPORE: Singapore Telecommunications is investing S$2.47 billion ($1.8 billion) for bigger slices of the top mobile operators of Thailand and India, as Southeast Asia’s largest telecoms firm raises its bet on emerging markets to spur growth. Singtel said on Thursday it is buying 21 per cent of Thai telecom firm Intouch Holdings for S$1.59 billion and 7.39 per cent of India’s Bharti Telecom for S$884 million. The stakes are being bought from Singapore state investor Temasek, which owns more than half of Singtel. Intouch is the largest shareholder in Advanced Info Services, Thailand’s biggest mobile operator, in which Singtel already holds 23.3 per cent. Bharti Telecom is the holding company of Bharti Airtel, India’s largest telecoms firm and Singtel’s existing partner. The stake purchases will increase Singtel’s exposure to the high growth telecom sectors in Thailand and India that are being driven by rising mobile data usage. India

GLOBAL REACH: Overseas businesses now contribute 75% to Singtel’s revenues and core earnings. — FILE PHOTO: REUTERS is the world’s second-biggest mobile phone market by customers, after China. “Strategically, they are positioning to be a natural buyer of any other stakes that could potentially come into play,” said Daiwa analyst Ramakrishna Maruvada. Singtel has assembled, over more than a decade, stakes in regional mobile associates outside its small home market. Growth pace Overseas businesses now contribute 75 per cent to its revenues and core earnings. The new deals will help

boost its growth pace. Singtel’s economic interest in AIS will rise to 31.8 per cent and in Bharti Airtel to 36.2 per cent. The deals will be funded by issue of 386 million Singtel shares to Temasek totaling S$1.605 billion. “This is a package deal we have negotiated with Temasek that gives us the additional exposure to India and Thailand, financed in a way that allows us to maximise our capital structure,” Singtel group Chief Executive Oicer Chua Sock Koong told reporters. — Reuters

Exchange Rates Indicative direct rates in rupees a unit except yen at 4 p.m on August 18

Currencies U.S. Dollar Euro Pound Sterling Jap Yen (100 Units) Chinese Yuan Swiss Franc Singapore Dollar Australian Dollar Canadian Dollar Swedish Kroner Danish Kroner New Zealand Dollar Hongkong Dollar Malaysian Ringgit Kuwaiti Dinar UAE Dirham Bahraini Dinar Qatari Riyal Saudi Riyal Omani Riyal

TT TT Buying Selling 66.61 66.93 75.41 75.78 87.56 88.00 66.44 66.76 10.04 10.09 69.50 69.84 49.63 49.89 51.14 51.39 51.94 52.19 7.96 8.00 10.13 10.18 48.46 48.70 8.59 8.63 16.66 16.76 220.20 222.73 18.13 18.22 176.59 177.53 18.35 18.36 17.81 17.82 172.92 173.84

Source: Indian Bank

Bullion Rates August 18 rates in rupees with previous rates in brackets

Chennai Bar Silver (1 kg) Retail (1 g) 24 ct gold (10 g) 22 ct gold (1 g)

47,120 50.50 31,960 2,988

(47,190) (50.50) (31,930) (2,985) ND-ND

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BUSINESS

16 | SNIPPETS IRDAI proposes outsourcing norms for insurers NEW DELHI: Regulator Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority

of India (IRDAI) on Thursday proposed outsourcing norms for insurance companies under which they can take services of individuals for activities such as medical examination, claim investigation, and recovery. As per the exposure draft, every insurer should put in place a comprehensive board approved outsourcing policy. In considering or renewing an outsourcing arrangement, an insurer should subject the agency to appropriate due diligence, the regulator said in the proposed IRDAI (Outsourcing of Activities by Indian Insurers) Regulations, 2016. “The insurer shall satisfy itself that the outsourcing agency’s security policies, procedures and controls will enable the insurer to protect confidentiality and security of policyholder information,” according to the draft. — PTI

TCS wins contract extension from JetBlue MUMBAI: Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. (TCS) has won an extension on

its three-year contract with U.S.-based airline JetBlue and will expand its innovation centre in Pune in the next two years to support JetBlue’s digital initiatives, the software services provider said in a statement. As part of the pact, TCS will now manage several additional programs, including modernisation of the airline’s IT Foundation platform to enhance data analytics and operational agility, and developing innovative tools for customers and JetBlue crew members. “This strategic agreement is a reflection of our confidence in TCS as the right partner for our global talent and technology transformational needs,” said Eash Sundaram, EVP and CIO, JetBlue. — Special Correspondent

Alibaba unveils Mission Million Books campaign BENGALURU: Alibaba Group, China’s biggest e-commerce company

unveiled its Mission Million Books, inviting Indian citizens to donate textbooks and educational material for the benefit of the underprivileged. Alibaba said that Mission Million Books is a pan-India initiative aimed at providing the underserved with access to quality educational materials for their growth and advancement. In association with Crossword and Ratna Nidhi Charitable Trust, Alibaba will work with its partners to solicit donations, collect and deliver textbooks to schools and colleges across India. The firm said the collected material would be distributed to over 2,500 educational institutions across India. Alibaba will also donate over 50,000 books to the campaign, according to the company. — Special Correspondent

L&T Infotech ties up with Coupa MUMBAI: Larsen & Toubro Infotech (LTI) has entered into a partnership

with Coupa, a leader in cloud-based spend management and procurement software platform to enable enterprises to rationalise spends, achieve savings, control costs and improve cash management. As part of this partnership, LTI will establish a Coupa Center of Excellence (CoE) to strengthen its Coupa practice, according to a company statement. The CoE will develop spend management solutions to help companies control and regulate all forms of spend in the organisation and streamline the procurement process by opportunity identification, proposals, requisitioning, contract management, invoicing and settlement. — Special Correspondent

Altico Capital invests Rs.200 cr. in Legacy group NEW DELHI: Altico Capital said on Thursday it had invested Rs. 200 crore

in real estate firm Legacy Group. “Altico Capital has entered into a portfolio based funding with Bangalore-based real estate developer Legacy Group,” the company said in a statement. The portfolio includes several projects spread across Central and North Bengaluru, at various stages of execution, including those at late-stage nearing completion, providing multiple and diversified sources of cash flows for debt servicing. The funding would be made in tranches and is proposed to be used by the developer towards re-financing existing debt and for construction funding across projects. — PTI

SBI sets swap ratio for merger with associates SBI’s market share will increase from 17% to 23% SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT MUMBAI: The board of State

Bank of India (SBI) approved a swap ratio for the merger of its three listed associate banks and the Bhartiya Mahila Bank. The deal involves allotting 28 shares of SBI (of Re 1 each) for every 10 shares in State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur (Rs 10 each) and 22 shares of SBI for every 10 shares held in State Bank of Mysore and State Bank of Travancore. The other two associate banks, that is, State Bank of Hyderabad and State Bank of Patiala, are unlisted entities, which are fully owned by the SBI. For Bharatiya Mahila Bank, which is also an unlisted entity but owned by the government, SBI fixed the swap ratio at 4.42 crore shares of SBI for every 100 crore share of BMB. “Barring State Bank of Mysore shareholders, the share allotment ratio is broadly even for all the holders. In our view, even if the allotment ratio is favourable / unfavourable for shareholders of associate banks, it is unlikely to make any diference since SBI holds 75-90% in these banks,” said Parag Jariwala, VP – Institutional Research, Religare Capital Markets. Merger process SBI had earlier said that the merger process will be completed by the end of the current financial year. SBI chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya had said that while all the six mergers will not happen on the same day, but it will be done in close order. The merged entity will have a business of around Rs.40 lakh crore, and SBI will aspire to be in the top 50

MEGA COMBINATION: The merged entity will have a business of about Rs.40 lakh crore. — FILE PHOTO: P.V. SIVAKUMAR global banks, going ahead. SBI’s market share will increase from 17 per cent to 22.5-23 per cent, it staf strength will increase by 3540 per cent and branch network will grow by 6,000. At present, SBI alone has more than 15,000 branches. Analysts said asset quality of SBI — which is better than its peers — is not expected to improve post the merger. This is because the three listed entities gross non-performing asset ratio is 6.2 to 9.4 per cent while SBI’s gross NPA is 6.5 per cent. “The (balance sheet) clean-up exercise should continue for associate banks in Q2FY17 since their Asset Quality Review list is substantially diferent from SBI. This would further deteriorate their asset quality,” Mr. Jariwala said. While the capital adequacy ratio is not expected to be impacted much, but the management had said there could be some impact on profitability parameters that will not stretch beyond 2017. Widespread opposition Special Correspondent adds from Chennai: Bank employees have staged demonstrations

throughout the country to protest against the merger. The demonstrators have also got support from the Kerala Government which registered its protest against the merger of State Bank of Travancore with the State Bank of India. On Wednesday, it was the turn of Telangana Finance Minister to oppose merger of State Bank of Hyderabad with State Bank. Representatives of All India Bank Employees’ Association (AIBEA) and All India Bank Oicers’ Association (AIBOA) said State Bank of India was proceeding ahead with the merger unilaterally without addressing the basic questions raised by the unions. AIBEA General Secretary C. H. Venkatachalam said: “To show five associate banks in poor health, performing loans are declared as bad loans. Associate Banks are compelled to show them as bad loans, whereas State Bank, which is saddled with huge bad loans, is not addressing these issues.” “It has to be set aside in the country’s interest. Till then, we will intensify our action and struggle opposing the merger.” he said.

NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU FRIDAY, AUGUST 19, 2016

Oicials meet industry representatives on GST SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT NEW DELHI: With the recent

passage of the GST Constitutional Amendment Bill in Parliament, the Centre is working on mission mode to ensure the rollout of the Goods and Services Tax by its self-imposed target of April 1, 2017. These eforts include holding meetings with industry representatives to address their concerns and apprise them of the new rules. Towards this, Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia, along with senior oicials of the Department of Revenue and Central Board of Excise

The meetings are aimed at apprising the industry representatives of the new rules and Customs (CBEC), began a three-day session from Wednesday comprising meetings with various industry representatives. Mr.Adhia held meetings with representatives of the IT and ITES and transport sectors on Wednesday, and representatives of e-commerce and communications sectors on Thursday. “The interactive sessions

underline the endeavour of the Government in order to understand and address the apprehensions and concerns of the various stakeholders about GST and also provide a platform for business to express their views on important aspects of GST,” according to a release from the government . “The outcome of the interactions has been very fruitful and productive so far and will help the Government to fine tune and improve the GST law,” the release added. “More such sessions with trade and industry stakeholders are also being planned in near future.”

Russia keen to tap India as global aeronautics manufacturing base SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT NEW DELHI: Russia is ready to tap India as a global aeronautics manufacturing base and is willing to partner local firms in developing their technological and production capabilities in the aviation sector, an oicial representing a delegation from the country said during bilateral talks held here. India, on its part, expressed eagerness to jointly develop iron ore and coal mines in Russian territory and sought technical inputs on producing high-grade cold-rolled, grain-oriented steel, typically used in power transmission equipment. Ramesh Abhishek, secretary, department of industrial policy and promotion in the ministry of commerce and industry, led the bilateral talks held under the aegis of an India-Russia working group on modernization and industrial co-operation. The Russian delegation was headed by the deputy minister of industry and trade Alexander Potapov. While both sides acknowl-

AVIATION TIES: Russia is willing to partner local firms in developing their technological capabilities. — FILE PHOTO edged their mutual interest in expanding bilateral cooperation between Russian and Indian companies in diferent sectors, more focused discussions were held on modernization, mining, fertilisers and civil aviation. Civil aviation “In the civil aviation sector, Russian side declared its readiness to participate in the Make in India program in order to develop technological and production capabilities of the Indian side in this field and potential supplies

of the jointly produced equipment to third countries,” according to a statement issued by the commerce and industry ministry. The Russians also reiterated their interest in the possible participation of Russian companies in the DelhiMumbai Industrial Corridor. In mining and metallurgy, the two sides agreed to exchange information on potential areas for co-operation in view of India’s request to develop coal fields and iron ore mines in Russia, according to the statement.

Chinese firm to invest in Uttam Group ’s project NEW DELHI: Uttam Group has signed an investment agreement of up to $150 million with Chinese firm Tidfore Heavy Equipment Group Co Ltd. The investment will be in the form of equity for Uttam Group’s Wardha Expan-

CM YK

sion Project undertaken in conjunction with POSCO. The pact was inked in the presence of Sun Yin Sheng, Secretary, Hunan State and senior oicials from steel giant POSCO and SBI, according to a statement. — PTI

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SPORT

NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU FRIDAY, AUGUST 19, 2016

Games Telecast

And the light shone brightly!

Chill, maan!

The clinching factor

STAR Sports 1, 4, HD 1 & HD 4, 4 p.m.; STAR Sports 2, 3, HD 2 쑺 & HD 3, 5 p.m. onwards

My school motto was ‘let the light shine’ and I let my light shine tonight. It’s a big surprise to me because I have had a hamstring injury. You must overcome these 쑺 things and tonight I am standing here with a gold medal. — Elaine Thompson after her 200m win.

He (Andre De Grasse) was supposed to slow down. I said ‘What are you doing, it’s a semifinal’. I don't know what he was trying to do. He had something to prove I 쑺 guess. — Usain Bolt on his conversation with the Canadian as they crossed the line in the 200m semifinals.

The bobsled was all about acceleration. So with that repetition, I was able to come back to the long jump because I had reacquired that muscle memory. — Tianna Bartoletta believes a spell with the US bobsled team helped her.

Path-breaking Sakshi dispels the gloom with a bronze The 23-year-old wins two repechage rounds in the women’s freestyle 58kg event to gladden Indian hearts It was the biggest achievement for Sakshi and Indian women’s wrestling. She had won the Asian Championship bronze (Doha, 2015), the Asian Games bronze (Incheon, 2014), and the Commonwealth Games (Glasgow, 2014) silver.

KAMESH SRINIVASAN RIO DE JANEIRO: It required a gutsy woman, after 12 days of a barren run, to win the first medal for India at the Rio Games.

Sakshi Malik, the 23-yearold from Rohtak, Haryana, re-

Silencing critics For a woman who had faced objections when she started

wrestling in 2004, Sakshi has indeed silenced many a critic with her deeds on the mat. “It is my dream of 12 years that has come true. It was after a lot of pressure,” said Sakshi, who was grateful to coach Ishwar Dahiya for guiding her to the goal and keeping her morale high all the time. It is the beginning of a new era. Maybe Sakshi’s medal will

strengthen the resolve of the rest of the Indians, still fighting for a medal, to dig deep and compete hard. The 58kg section became unforgettable not only because of Sakshi’s medal, but also owing to the fact that Kaori Icho of Japan became the first woman in history to win four individual gold medals in four Olympics.

inforced the toughness of Indian women as she turned her bronze medal bout around in the last nine seconds in the women’s freestyle 58kg event

WRESTLING to trigger wild round of celebrations at the Carioca arena on Wednesday. “I knew I would be the first Indian woman wrestler to win an Olympic medal for India. Even when I was trailing, I was confident that if I fight through the six minutes, I will win,” said an emotional Sakshi after the triumph. She thanked everyone and the whole country for all the good wishes that stood her in good stead in the moment of reckoning. It was a courageous per-

FROZEN, FOR HISTORY: Sakshi Malik erupts in joy after clinching the bronze, India's first medal at Rio. — PHOTO: AFP formance by the pocket powerhouse. After trailing 0-5 in the first round of three minutes against Aisuluu Tynybekova of Kyrgyzstan, Sakshi kept inching closer to the medal by bridging the gap. When it became 5-5 there were only nine seconds on the clock in the second round. Thrust and aggression In a final thrust of power

and aggression, not to forget clarity of intent, Sakshi pounced on her opponent and turned her around for the clincher, which won eight technical points in all for her. Her exasperated opponent drew a blank in the second round after such a flying start. Sakshi was declared a 3-1 winner on points and it was diicult for her opponent, to accept the verdict. She ap-

pealed for a video referral but it was turned down. She was reluctant to shake hands. The referee had to drag her by the hand to declare the winner and complete the formalities on the mat. Sakshi’s coaches had already jumped onto the arena to celebrate the historic moment for Indian women’s wrestling. She was carried on the shoulders by her coach and

she then ran around with the National Flag much to the joy of the Indians present. After losing the quarterfinals to the eventual silver medallist, Valeria Koblova Zholobova of Russia, Sakshi won two repechage rounds in a short time — first in comprehensive fashion, with 12 technical points, against Orkhon Purevdroj of Mongolia and then against Tynybekova.

‘It’s an honour for the country’ Several young girls will now take up our sport: Geeta Phogat UTHRA GANESAN

ROHTAK: Sakshi Malik’s victory

at Rio was a display of grit and determination. More than 14000 km away, House No. 45, Sector 4, Rohtak had had a busy day after a sleepless night. “I don’t think we will be able to sleep before 11.30-12 at night. I have done about 20-25 interviews and mummy-papa must have done maybe double that so far,” admitted elder brother Sachin Malik. Sakshi’s mother Sudesh, who refused to crib at the number of people walking in and out of her house, said: “there is no irritation, it’s an honour for the country what she has done and if people want to congratulate us, it’s an honour.” Starting from Sir Chotu Ram stadium under her first coach Ishwar Dahiya, the medal was a culmination of 12 years of hard work from a girl who was never the favourite to get one at Rio; compatriot Vinesh Phogat was, before she had to be stretchered of after injuring her knee in the quarterfinal.

No easy journey It wasn’t an easy journey but being in a city did make things easier, as compared to the rest of the State. Haryana has one of the worst sex ratios in the country, is among the most conservative and patriarchal and yet, it has given the country

Coach heaps praise Y.B. SARANGI KOLKATA: Wrestling coach Ishwar Chand Dahiya recalls being impressed with Sakshi Malik’s strong physique and sincerity when she joined his academy in Rohtak in 2004. “Shakshi was one of the first students to join my academy. She was well-built and was

CM YK

regular at the training sessions,” Dahiya said when The Hindu contacted him in the context of his pupil winning a bronze medal at the Rio Olympics. “She was a very good student . She picked up things very promptly and that fast-tracked her progress.” In the 58kg, life was not easy for Sakshi as Geeta Phogat was the queen of the category. Sakshi got her chance at the 2014 CWG due to an injury to Geeta. The youngster landed a silver medal. “She grabbed the opportunity with both hands,” said Dahiya. The Pro Wrestling League was another confidencebooster for Sakshi, who turned out for Mumbai Garuda. “I told her that she had been hired to beat Geeta and she said, ‘I will try’”, said Dahiya. “I told her nobody has ever won by saying ‘I will try’. You have to believe in yourself.” Sakshi went on to upset Geeta in the PWL. “I always believed that she was capable of an Olympic medal. Now I am sure she can achieve even better results,” said Dahiya.

ASHWIN ACHAL Wrestler Geeta Phogat believes that Sakshi Malik’s historic bronze medal at Rio is bound to break the gender stereotypes associated with the sport in India. Geeta, Sakshi and other women wrestlers have often spoken about the diiculties involved in being accepted in this traditionally male bastion, but things are set to change. “Usually, it is the men who are given importance. But now, people view women wrestlers as equals. We have been winning international medals in events like the Commonwealth Games for a few years now.

BENGALURU:

SWEET AND PROUD MOMENT: Sakshi Malik’s brother Sachin (centre) offers sweets to mother Sudesh and father Sukhbir at their residence in Rohtak on Thursday. — PHOTO: SHANKER CHAKRAVARTY

most of its sporting champions. In fact, of the four Indian women medallists at Olympics, three have a Haryana connection — Saina Nehwal, Karnam Malleswari (married into a Haryanvi family in Faridabad) and now Sakshi. “There were questions raised on allowing a woman to wrestle, there were a lot of objections both from relatives and neighbours. But we supported her and now we are proud of what we did,” her family said. The support is visible less obviously in other things as well. Like her brother’s married with a kid, at 25. At 23,

Sakshi is yet to even think about marriage. Her own sacrifices also helped. Despite a sweet tooth, Sakshi hasn’t had sweets or fried food or ghee for more than 7-8 years. Wednesday was also one of the most important days in North India which was celebrating rakshabandhan, when brothers promise to protect their sisters who tie the rakhi on their wrists. Sakshi’s rakhi was tied by her cousin. “Her rakhi to me is the medal, which is priceless,” Sachin added. He was also the first person she spoke to after the win.

Praise for Sakshi “And, with Sakshi becoming the first female wrestler from India to win an Olympic medal, we will surely get our due now. A lot of young girls will now take up our sport,” Geeta, the 2010 Commonwealth Games champion, told The Hindu on Thursday. “I hope Indian parents will allow girls to choose their own destiny. If Sakshi can be successful in her field, so can any other woman in our country.”

Geeta praised Sakshi for overcoming the odds. “I’m an aam larki (common girl). Sakshi too is from an ordinary family. We had to establish ourselves without any sponsors or facilities. Yes, JSW Sports has come on board to support the both of us of late, but we have worked hard to get this,” she said. Tears for Vinesh While Sakshi scaled a new high, her compatriot Vinesh Phogat — Geeta’s cousin — fell short in heartbreaking fashion. She was forced to quit after suffering a knee injury during her 48kg quarterfinal bout. “I started to cry when I saw her sufering on television,” said Geeta. There is no doubt that Geeta, 27, would prefer to be in the thick of action herself, rather than watching from the sidelines. A few months ago, the Wrestling Federation of India suspended her for “indiscipline”, which dealt a severe blow to her chances of grabbing a Rio spot. Sakshi, who competes in the same weight category as Geeta, took the ball and ran with it.

Thompson completes the sprint double

Athletics: Men’s 50 km walk, Sandeep Kumar, 4.30 p.m. Women’s 20 km walk, Khushbir Kaur, Sapana, 11 p.m. Women’s 4x400m relay, round one, Poovamma Raju, Anilda Thomas, Jisna Mathew, Ashwini Akkunji, Debashree Mazumdar, 5.15 a.m. (Saturday). Men’s 4x400m relay, round one, Arokia Rajiv, Kunhu Muhammed, Dharun Ayyasamy, Mohankumar Raja, Lalit Mathur, 6.10 a.m. (Saturday). Badminton: Women’s singles final, P.V. Sindhu vs Carolina Marin (ESP), 7.30 p.m. Golf: Women’s individual, round three, Aditi Ashok, 4 p.m. Wrestling: Men’s 74kg freestyle, qualifications, Narsingh Yadav, 6 p.m. onwards. Men’s 57 kg freestyle, qualifications, Sandeep Tomar, 6 p.m. onwards.

22 gold medals will be decided on day 15 of the Rio Games. FRIDAY (August 19) Athletics: Men’s 50km walk,

KAMESH SRINIVASAN

4.30 p.m.

RIO DE JANEIRO: Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson became the sprint queen of the Games as she beat World champion Dafne Schippers of the Netherlands in the 200m to add to her 100m gold, at the Olympic Stadium on Wednesday. With this double she emulated the iconic Florence Griith-Joyner, who did the same in Seoul (1988). The 24-year-old clocked a season best 21.78 seconds to beat the Dutch favourite by

Badminton: Women’s singles, 7.30 p.m. Men’s doubles, 8.20 p.m. Synchronized swimming: Women’s team, 8.30 p.m. Equestrian: Individual jumping, Round B, 10 p.m. Athletics: Women’s 20km walk, 11 p.m. Cycling - BMX: Women’s individual, 11.30 p.m. Men’s individual, 11.40 p.m. SATURDAY (August 20) Water polo: Women’s tourna-

ATHLETICS one-tenth of a second. USA’s Tori Bowie won the bronze to add to the silver in the 100m. Thompson said it was only her fourth 200m race of the season and it felt amazing to win as she had struggled with a “lot of lactic pain” that forced her to lie down before the celebration. ‘‘I came for gold. I was in good form. It is heavy to run six races. I felt that I was nearly passing her, but then I broke down. I am not happy with the

Badminton: Women’s singles: semifinals: P.V. Sindhu bt Nozomi Okuhara (Jpn) 21-19, 21-10. Golf: Women’s individual (round one): Aditi Ashok, Tied 7th, 68. Wrestling: Women’s freestyle 58kg, bronze medal, repechage: Sakshi Malik bt Orkhon Purevdorj (Mgl) 3-1; women’s freestyle 53 kg (qualifications): Babita Kumari lost to Maria Prevolaraki (Gre) 5-1.

TERRIFIC TRIO: Gold medal winner Brianna Rollins (centre), bronze medallist Kristi Castlin (left) and runner-up Nia Ali, put up a show for the lensmen after leading the USA to a sweep of the 100m hurdles medals on Wednesday. — PHOTO: CAMERON SPENCER/GETTY IMAGES silver,” said Schippers. The evening also witnessed the sweep of the Americans in women’s 100m hurdles. Brianna Rollins won the gold in 12.48 seconds, ahead of Nia Ali (12.59) and Kristi Castlin (12.61). USA’s Tianna Bartoletta, with a leap of 7.17m, dethroned

compatriot Brittney Reese by 2cm in the women’s long jump. ‘‘When I won, I realised that I have to be back in the morning for the relay. I can’t wait until I can eat a pizza,” said Tianna. Bolt cruises, Gatlin out There was shock in store in

the semifinals of men’s 200m which Usain Bolt topped with a season-best time of 19.78 seconds. Justin Gatlin of the United States failed to make the cut after he was beaten by Alonso Edward of Panama and Churandy Martina of the Netherlands in his semifinals.

ment, 12 a.m. Boxing: Women’s light 60kg, 12.30 a.m.; Field hockey: Women’s tournament, 1.30 a.m. Football: Women’s tournament, 2 a.m. Wrestling: Men’s freestyle 74kg, 2 a.m. Modern pentathlon: Women’s individual, Run & shoot, 2.30 a.m. Wrestling: Men’s freestyle 57kg, 3 a.m. Athletics: Women’s pole vault, 5 a.m.; Men’s hammer, 5.35 a.m. Women’s 5000m, 6.10 a.m. Taekwondo: Women’s 67kg, 6.30 a.m.; Men’s 80kg, 6.45 a.m.; Athletics: Women’s 4x100m relay, 6.45 a.m.; Men’s 4x100m relay, 7.05 a.m. ND-ND

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18 |

SPORT

NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU FRIDAY, AUGUST 19, 2016

Sindhu sets up gold clash with Carolina Marin The Indian reels off 11 straight points in the second game to ease past Okuhara World No.1 Carolina Marin of Spain had earlier revelled while beating Li Xuerui of China with a 21-14, 21-16 victory. The Chinese was bothered by a painful knee towards the end, but the Spaniard had gained a stranglehold over the match by then. Sinchu will look to set the record straight against Carolina, who has a 4-3 win-loss re-

KAMESH SRINIVASAN

cord against her. Sindhu had won the first two times, before the Spaniard won the next three. Sindhu beat her the last time — at the Denmark Open in three games — before Carloina asserted herself in Hong Kong last year. Past records will count for nothing when the two players fight for gold.

Confident, but cautious RIO DE JANEIRO: It was a sprint to the finish by P.V. Sindhu as she confirmed a place in the gold medal round with a 21-19, 21-10 victory over Nozomi Okuhara of Japan in the women’s singles semifinal at the Riocentro Pavilion on Thursday.

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

BADMINTON In a thrilling climax, in which she was at her brilliant best, the 21-year-old Sindhu produced a flurry of winners — a backhand winner standing out — and reeled of 11 points on the trot after the two were tied 10-10 in the second game. After the intense battle all along, when Sindhu managed to keep her nose in front against the probing Japanese, it was an unexpected bonanza

SCALING NEW HEIGHTS: P.V. Sindhu became the first Indian to reach an Olympic badminton final. — PHOTO: DAVID RAMOS/GETTY IMAGES for the spectators who were chanting India, India, India… as if it were a mantra! Sindhu has the good habit of playing the shuttle on its merit rather than playing the reputation of her opponent. She made a confident start and kept the lead for long, be-

fore the short-built Japanese caught up in the first game. At the crunch, Sindhu unleashed ferocious strokes that made the diference. Even though she did tend to make a few mistakes, Sindhu stuck to her gameplan, answering all the questions

Germany takes gold RIO DE JANEIRO: The German

beach volleyball duo of Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst took gold in the early hours of Thursday, beating Brazil 21-18, 21-14 in gusty conditions to win its country’s first female Olympic medal in the sport and silence a partisan Copacabana crowd.

GENERAL

J

apanese wrestler Kaori Icho became the first woman to win an individual gold medal in four straight Olympic Games in any sport. By winning the 58kg freestyle event on Wednesday night, Icho also became the first wrestler in Olympic history to win four gold medals. With the historic feat, Icho, a 10-time World champion, equalled the record held by four others: Paul Bert Elvstrom (Denmark) in monotype yachting (class change - firefly to finn class) from 1948 to 1960, Al Oerter (USA) in discus from 1956 to 1968, and Carl Lewis (USA) in long jump from 1984 to 1996, and finally by Michael Phelps in the 200m swimming medley from 2004 to 2016. Icho, who started her historic run at Athens 2004, came from 2-1 down to win 3-2 with less than five seconds remaining, to beat Russia’s Valeriia Koblova Zholobova 3-2 in the final.

Saina hospitalised BENGALURU: Saina Nehwal was

admitted to a hospital in Hyderabad to undergo treatment for her knee injury which affected her progress at the Rio Olympics. “Saina has been hospitalised for the last two days and is undergoing treatment for her injury,” said her father Harvir Singh. — PTI

It was the second Brazilian team to lose on a night of heartbreak for the home crowd after America’s Kerri Walsh Jennings and April Ross beat Larissa Franca and Talita Antunes to take bronze. USA semifinals The United States reairmed

its status as gold medal favourite with a devastating 105-78 defeat of Argentina to storm into the semifinals of the basketball tournament. It will now face Spain, a 92-67 winner over France, on Friday for a place in the final. The other semifinal will see Australia, which dumped Lithuania 90-64, take on Serbia which edged out Croatia 86-83. American spikers in semis A less experienced U.S. men’s volleyball team demolished Poland 25-23, 25-22, 25-20 to set up a semifinal showdown against Italy, which got past Iran 31-29, 25-19, 25-17. Current Olympic champion Russia eliminated Canada 25-15, 25-20, 25-18 and goes on to face Brazil, which beat Argentina 2522, 17-25, 25-19, 25-23, in the other semifinal. — Agencies

posed by the Japanese, before stepping up on the gas and mowing down her opponent. Sindhu did well to remain alert as she could have easily got carried away after the memorable win over Olympic silver medallist and World No.2 Wang Yihan of China in

Brazil to meet Germany in final RIO DE JANEIRO: Neymar scored a

brace, including the fastest goal in Olympic history, Gabriel Jesus got two more and Marquinhos and Luan added one each as Brazil swept past Honduras 6-0 into the final of the men’s Olympic tournament on Wednesday. The home side, desperately seeking the only international title it is yet to win, will face Germany in the final on Saturday after the Germans overcame Nigeria 2-0 in Sao Paulo. The results : Brazil 6 (Neymar 1, 90+1 pen, Gabriel Jesus 26, 35, Marquinhos 51, Luan 78) bt Honduras 0; Germany 2 (Klostermann 9, Petersen 89) bt Nigeria 0. — Agencies

the earlier round. With P. Gopi Chand providing the right guidance, pepping her up all the time and ensuring that she retained intensity and focus throughout, there was no doubt that Sindhu was easily the best player on view.

ATHLETICS Women’s 200m final: 1. Elaine

Thompson (Jam) 21.78s, 2. Dafne Schippers (Ned) 21.88, 3. Torie Bowie (USA) 22.15. Women’s 100m hurdles: 1. Brianna Rollins (USA) 12.48, 2. Nia Ali (USA) 12.59, 3. Kristi Castlin (USA) 12.61. Women’s long jump: 1. Tianna Bartoletta (USA) 7.17m, 2. Brittney Reese (USA) 7.15, 3. Ivana Spanovic (Srb) 7.08. Men’s 3000m steeplechase: 1. Conseslus Kipruto (Ken) 8:03.28s OR, 2. Evan Jager (USA) 8:04.28, 3. Mahiedine Mekhissi-Benabbad (Fra) 8:11.52. BADMINTON Mixed doubles: Gold medal match: Tontowi Ahmad & Liliyana

Natsir (Ina) bt Chan Peng Soon & Goh Liu Ying (Mas) 21-14, 21-12. Bronze: Zhang Nan & Zhao Yunlei (Chn) bt Xu Chen & Ma Jin (Chn) 21-7, 21-11. BEACH VOLLEYBALL Women’s team: Gold medal

RIO DE JANEIRO: It is a fight for the gold, and P.V. Sindhu says she is focused and prepared to give her 100 per cent on court. Not overtly happy about her execution, and underplaying the flurry of the last 11 points in a dream climax against Okuhara Nozomi of Japan in the semifinals, the 21-year-old Sindhu maintained that every match was different, and every strategy based on the player across the net. “It is my first Olympics, and the target is to win the gold,” declared Sindhu, with assurance. “I don’t think it was an easy match. We had long rallies and I managed to win the two crucial points from 19-19 in the first game. In the second game also, it was equal at 10-10 and I took a break at

match: Laura Ludwig & Kira Walken-

horst (Ger) bt Agatha Bednarczuk & Barbara Seixas (Bra) 21-18, 21-14. Bronze: Kerri Walsh Jennings & April Ross (USA) bt Larissa Franca & Talita Rocha (Bra) 17-21, 21-17, 15-9. BOXING Men’s welterweight (69kg): Gold medal bout: Daniyar Yeleussi-

nov (Kaz) bt Shakhram Giyasov (Uzb) 3-0. Bronze: Souleymane Diop Cissokho (Fra) & Mohammed Rabii (Mor). EQUESTRIAN Show jumping: 1. France (Roger-

Yves Bost, Philippe Rozier, Penelope. Leprevost, and Kevin Staut), 2. USA, 3. Germany. TABLE TENNIS Men: Gold medal match: China

(Long Ma, Xin Xu, Jike Zhang) bt Japan (Jun Mizutani, Koki Niwa, Maharu Yoshimura) 3-1. Bronze: Germany (Bastian Steger, Dimitrij Ovtcharov, Timo Boll) bt South Korea (Youngsik Jeoung, Saehyuk Joo, Sangsu Lee) 3-1. 

11. I was tapping into the net, but my coach told me not to worry and keep going,” said Sindhu. Happy to ensure the second medal, Sindhu praised Sakshi Malik for the bronze medal in women’s wrestling. “I congratulated her. I had watched the match on television. She fought well. It was a great thing for us,” said Sindhu, happy that someone had at last opened the medal tally for India. “I didn’t think this far at the start. The immediate target was to just look at the next match,” said Sindhu, with a disarming smile. Appreciating left-hander Carolina Marin for her fluent performance against Li Xeurui of China, Sindhu said she would discuss the strategy with coach P. Gopi Chand, and attempt to execute it on court.

HEAD-TO-HEAD Marin leads 4-3 앫 Nov. 2015: Hong Kong Superseries, Marin. 앫 Oct. 2015: Denmark Open Superseries, Sindhu . 앫 Jan. 2015: Syed Modi International GP, Marin . 앫 Aug. 2014: World Championships, Marin. 앫 June 2014: Australian Open, Marin. 앫 June 2011: Maldives Challenge, Sindhu . 앫 April 2010: World junior championships, Sindhu .

Chinese men triumph RIO DE JANEIRO: China completed

its sweep of the table tennis gold medals on Wednesday after the men’s team defeated Japan 3-1 in the final. China has now won 28 out of 32 golds awarded since table tennis became an Olympic sport in 1988. — Reuters

TAEKWONDO Men’s 58kg: Gold medal bout:

Zhao Shuai (Chn) bt Tawin Hanprab (Tha). Bronze: Luisito Pie (Dom) & Kim Tae-hun (Kor). Women’s 49kg: Gold medal bout: Kim So-hui (Kor) bt Tijana Bogdanovic (Srb). Bronze: Patimat Aba-

karova (Aze) & Panipak Wongpattanakit (Tha). WRESTLING Women’s 48kg: Gold medal bout: Eri Tosaka (Jpn) bt Mariya Stadnyk (Aze) 3-1. Bronze: Sun Ya-

nan (Chn) and Elitsa Atanasova Yankova (Bul) Women’s 58kg: Gold medal bout: Kaori Icho (Jpn) bt Valeriia Koblova Zholobova (Rus) 3-1. Bronze:

Marwa Amri (Tun) & Sakshi Malik (Ind) Women’s 69kg: Gold medal bout: Sara Dosho (Jpn) bt Natalia Vorobeva (Rus) 3-1. Bronze: Elmira

Syzdykova (Kaz) & Anna Jenny Fransson (Swe).

Cleared, finally

N

arsingh Yadav finally got the nod from the Court of Arbitration for Sport to compete in the Rio Olympics. WADA had appealed the clean chit given to Narsingh by the NADA to the CAS.  He successfully had his weigh-in, and will now compete in the 74kg bout on Friday.

Elaine Thompson (Jam): Athlet-

Babita crashes out

ics: Women’s 200m Brianna Rollins (USA): Athletics:

Women’s 100m hurdles RIO DE JANEIRO: Wrestler Babita

Kumari lost her opening bout in the women’s 53 kg category against Maria Prevolaraki of Greece, and with the latter’s defeat in the quarterfinals, was eliminated from the competition in the Olympic Games here on Thursday. . The 26-year-old Indian could not breach the tight defence put up by Prevolaraki, and lost points in both the periods of their pre-quarterfinal bout, to lose 5-1. And when Prevolaraki lost to Venezuela’s Betzabeth Angelica Arguello Villegas in the quarterfinals, it spelt curtains for the Indian’s slim hopes of going through by via repechage. In both three-minute periods, Babita got a leg hold on her rival but Prevolaraki somehow managed to extri-

cate herself and turn the tables on the Indian grappler. Prevolaraki took a 3-0 lead in the opening period — throwing Babita out of the safety zone to log her first point and then taking two for eluding the one-leg hold and getting behind the latter. Babita got on the board thanks to the 30-second passivity rule coming into play against Prevolaraki, but that was all she got. Babita then had the Greek in a double-leg hold but Prevolaraki wriggled out of that too and got behind Babita to bag two more points. Trailing by four points, Babita needed to flip her rival down from a standing position to level scores. She made a brave attempt to pull it of but failed, and Prevolaraki won the bout to move into the quarter finals. — PTI

Tianna Bartoletta (USA): Athlet-

ics: Women’s long jump Conseslus Kipruto (Ken): Ath-

CRICKET

Rain hits play, West Indies makes 62 for two

letics: Men’s 3000m steeplechase

PORT OF SPAIN: Rain played

Tontowi Ahmad & Liliyana Natsir (Ina): Badminton: Mixed doubles Germany (Laura Ludwig & Kira Walkenhorst): Beach volleyball: Women Daniyar Yeleussinov (Kaz): Boxing: Men’s welterweight

spoilsport on the opening day of the first Test between India and the West Indies as only 22 overs were bowled, during which the visitors struck twice before play was called of on Thursday. India removed Leon Johnson and Darren Bravo before rain forced early lunch, and play didn’t resume after that. The hosts were 62 for two with Kraigg Brathwaite (32) and Marlon Samuels (4) at the crease. Intermittent rain ended any chance of resumption of play even as the ground staf struggled to keep the ground play-ready. Play will start 30 minutes early on Friday, with a maximum of 98 overs to be bowled. Murali Vijay and Cheteshwar

(69kg) France (Roger Yves Bost, Penelope Leprevost, Philippe Rozier, Kevin Staut): Equestrian: Team

show jumping China (Ma Long, Zhang Jike, Xu Xin): Table tennis: Men’s team Zhao Shuai (Chn): Taekwondo:

Men’s 58kg Kim So-hui (Kor): Taekwondo:

Women’s 49kg Eri Tosaka (Jpn): Wrestling:

Women’s 48kg Kaori Icho (Jpn): Wrestling:

Women’s freestyle 58kg Sara Dosho (Jpn): Wrestling:

Women’s freestyle 69kg

EARLY STRIKE: Ishant Sharma celebrates the dismissal of West Indies's Leon Johnson. — PHOTO: AP

Pujara were called in as replacement for opener Shikhar Dhawan and all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja. For the Caribbean side, Alzarri Joseph was asked to warm the benches while Devendra Bishoo comes in as a replacement. — Agencies

SCOREBOARD West Indies — 1st innings: K.

Brathwaite batting 32 (78b, 5x4), L. Johnson c Rohit b Ishant 9 (30b, 1x4), D. Bravo b Ashwin 10 (10b, 2x4), M. Samuels batting 4 (15b); Extras; (lb-6, nb-1) 7; Total (for two wkts. in 22 overs): 62. Fall of wickets: 1-31 (Johnson), 2-48 (Bravo). India bowling: Bhuvneshwar 6-113-0, Shami 6-2-14-0, Ishant 5-3-7-1, Ashwin 5-1-22-1. Toss: West Indies.

VARIETY THE HINDU CROSSWORD 11781 1

2

3

7

4

Exa 5

6

8 9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19 20

21

22

25

23

24

abuses right away (6) 23 Source of beautiful aroma is possibly this (8) 25 Contacted Harry's buddy by telephone to know where potions are brewed (8) 26 Way a jerk is resting (6) 27 British Party head's being audacious (9) 28 Crazy about electronic rhythms (5)

26

Down 27

28

Across

7 Progress made by club member (5) 8 Fashion diva's fit and proper (9) 10 Failure in business after film actor retires (6) 11 Got into bed with a criminal (8) CM YK

12 Kid is bound to find something to slide on (8) 13 Attain heroin in slum area (6) 14 Snake correctly named by the charmer at last (7) 16 Endless longing for drug (7) 20 Messages them

1 Extremely useful cooking item purchased at last (8) 2 Release energy on purpose (8) 3 Well-read journalists welcome to stay (7) 4 Very unusual seating times (8) 5 Ridicule father outside a bar (6) 6 Right time to go after cocaine user (6)

9 Very upset after start of big fire (4) 15 Cherish being in her pants (8) 17 Tale I'd spread about child forgetting name is unusual (8) 18 Train set in motion (8) 19 Dedicated trainees losing interest in work (7) 21 Small male bird changing direction (6) 22 One racy novel showing intimacy (2,4) 24 Book hotel to hold a small party (4)

Solution to puzzle 11780 WE I G M Q A A D U L T R I H S U P P E H M R C E L E C N D R A T E Y C S E A S O T T M A U T OM L I O C E N

H T I M E R P B R O S T R N A C A T O T R

L I N Y S P S E C A T I A N G L E I C H E O

F T R T E A N T Y E B D A T S H R O O F M

E R E A R I E S G P E N C E C F I S T N S R D S I U O C K S A I F T E N E G A S S

FAITH

SU | DO | KU

Sage Ushasti instructs Sage Ushasti learnt that the king was performing a yaga and went to meet him because he knew a priest would be needed to perform the yaga. But by the time he arrived, the yaga had already commenced and there were already three priests there. Three priests are necessary for performance of the yaga: prastota — initiator, udgata — chanter and pratiharta — concluder. Ushasti asked the priests if they knew to which deity they were chanting their respective mantras, said M.K. Srinivasan in a discourse. If they chanted the mantra without knowing this, their heads would fall of, warned Ushasti. The rule is that if a vidwan is present and the priests chant without knowing the name of the deities, then their heads will fall of. So now the three priests could not chant the mantras, because Ushasti, a vidwan, was present. The king asked Ushasti who he was and the sage introduced himself. The king said that he had in fact been looking for Ushasti to conduct the yaga, but had been unable to locate him. That is why he had started his yaga with the other three priests. He then requested Ushasti to perform the yaga. But Ushasti declined the ofer. He said: “Let them perform what they have started. I will inform them about the deities they are addressing.” The prastota requested Ushasti to instruct him. Ushasti said that the deity to whom his mantras were addressed was Prana. Ushasti told the Udgata that the mantras he chanted were addressed to Aditya. He told the pratiharta that the deity he was addressing was food (anna). All these deities are pervaded by Paramatma. Though he taught the three priests, Ushasti generously accepted the same fee that was paid to them.

A mind game and a puzzle that you solve with reasoning and logic. Fill in the grid with digits in such a manner that every row, every column and every 3x3 box accommodates the digits 1 to 9, without repeating any. The solution to yesterday’s puzzle is at left. ND-ND

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THE HINDU FRIDAY, AUGUST 19, 2016

Dipika-Saurav pair loses MELBOURNE: India’s leading mixed doubles pair Dipika Pallikal and Saurav Ghosal went down to New Zealand’s Joelle King and Paul Coll 11-8, 11-8 in the final of the WSF World doubles squash championship here on Thursday. Notwithstanding the loss, this championship has been historic for India with three medals won for the first time in the history of the championship. Aside from Dipika and Saurav winning the silver, the other mixed pair of Joshna Chinappa and Harinder Pal Sandhu as also the doubles pair of Joshna and Dipika won a bronze medal each for being the losing semifinalists. The men’s doubles pair of Harinder and Ramit Tandon finished fifth at the end of the play-ofs. “Whichever way one viewed it, this has been a fabulous show overall by the Indians. Returning with three medals is something to be proud of and the players surely need a pat on their backs for this,” said national coach Cyrus Poncha, who had accompanied the squad. — Sports Bureau

Mae Frayna breaks free P.K. AJITH KUMAR BHUBANESWAR: After being in

CONSOLIDATING HER POSITION: Janelle Mae Frayna of the Philippines moved into the sole lead after beating India's Michelle Catherina in the 10th round. — PHOTO: P.K. AJITH KUMAR ond-seeded American now has a full point lead over his nearest rival, top seed Vladislav Artemiev of Russia. Important results (10th round): Jeffery Xiong (USA) 8.5 bt

Grzegorz Nasuta (Pol) 7; Bozidar Ivekovic (Cro) 7 drew with Xu Yunglun (Chn) 7; Vladislav Artemiev (Rus) 7.5 bt Irakli Beradze (Geo) 6; Karthikeyan Murali 6 lost to Parham Maghsoodloo (IRI) 7; Rasmus Svane (Ger) 6.5

FOOTBALL

Vulnerable South Africa faces Kiwi test

Mourinho confirms Pogba to make Man United return

the world’s top batsmen, started his reign as New Zealand Test captain with two easy wins in Zimbabwe in recent weeks. The teams (from): South Africa : Faf du Plessis (capt.), Hashim Amla, Stephen Cook, J-P. Duminy, Chris Morris, Vernon Philander, Kagiso Rabada, Stiaan van Zyl, Kyle Abbott, Temba Bavuma, Quinton de Kock (wk), Dean Elgar, Wayne Parnell, Dane Piedt, Dale Steyn. New Zealand : Kane Williamson (capt.), Martin Guptill, Ross Taylor, Tom Latham, Jeet Raval, Henry Nicholls, Luke Ronchi, B-J. Watling (wk), Mitchell Santner, Tim Southee, Neil Wagner, Trent Boult, Doug Bracewell, Ish Sodhi, Mark Craig. — Agencies

MANCHESTER: Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho confirmed on Thursday that record-signing Paul Pogba will make his second debut for the club in Friday’s Premier League home game with Southampton. Pogba, 23, returned to United from Juventus in a worldrecord £89 million transfer last week, four years after leaving the club. He has not played competitively since France’s defeat by Portugal in the final of Euro 2016 on July 10, but Mourinho says he is ready to return to action at Old Traford. “Yes, he is ready to play,”

Mourinho told journalists at United’s Aon Training Complex in Carrington, west of Manchester. “Ninety minutes, I don’t believe. Super performance, I don’t believe. But in conditions to accelerate his process of integration in the team, that’s for sure. “Paul is training for more than a week, around 10, 11 days. The adaptation is really easy because he’s a boy from here. He knows the club, he knows everybody — (there is) no need of time to adapt. He needs time to build his condition and his understanding of the way the team plays or tries

Kaushal, Vishnu dominate HYDERABAD: Kaushal Kumar Ya-

drew with Aravindh Chithambaram 6.5; Christoph Menezes (Aut) 6.5 bt Kirill Alekeseenko (Rus) 5.5; Dennis Wagner (Ger) 5.5 lost to Paulo Bersamina (Phi) 6.5. Cristobal Villagra Henriquez (Chi) 6 drew with Srijit Paul 6; N.R. Visakh 6 drew with S.L. Narayanan 6; Patrik Grandadam (Swi) 6 drew with Shardul Gagare 6; Xu Yi (Chn) 6 drew with Shahin Lorparizangeneh (IRI) 6; Masoud Mosadeghpour (IRI) 6.5 bt Stefan Beukema (Bel) 5.5. Girls: Alina Bivol (Rus) 7.5 drew with Paula Rodriguez Rueda (Col) 7; Janelle Mae Frayna (Phi) 8 bt Michelle Catherina 6.5; Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova (Uzb) 6.5 drew with Dinara Saduakassova (Kaz) 7; R. Vaishali 7 bt Dinara Dordzhieva (Rus) 6.5; Nataliya Buksa (Ukr) 7 bt Gu Tianlu (Chn) 6. M. Mahalakshmi 6 lost to P.V. Nandhidhaa 7; Teodora Injac (Srb) 6 drew with Mobina Alinasab (IRI) 6; Uurtsaikh Uuriituya (Mgl) 6 bt Saina Salonika 5.5; V. Varshini 6 bt Anna Styazhkina (Rus) 5; Srija Seshadri 5 lost to Parnali Dharia 6; Harshita Guddanti 5.5 drew with K. Priyanka 5.5; Shania Mae Mendoza (Phi) 4.5 lost to P. Bala Kannamma 6.

CRICKET

DURBAN: Two successive series defeats, the loss of its captain and a dramatic drop from the top of the Test rankings leave South Africa vulnerable as it prepares to host New Zealand in a two-match encounter. South Africa, the top-ranked Test nation before defeats by India and England saw it slide to sixth, returns to the five-day format at Kingsmead on Friday after a seven-month hiatus without injured skipper A.B. de Villiers and pace bowler Morne Morkel. In their absence the host faces a tough examination against a youthful and confident New Zealand side. Kane Williamson, who has blossomed into one of

SAILING

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

CHESS / Xiong continues his winning ways, keeps sole lead the joint lead all through, Janelle Mae Frayna finally broke free on Thursday. The ninth seed from Philippines moved into the sole lead at the end of the 10th round of the World junior girls’ chess championship after beating Chennai girl Michelle Catherina here. She won in 55 moves from the white side of a Catalan Opening to take her tally to eight points. She is followed half-a-point behind by fellow overnight joint leader Alina Bovil. The second-seeded Russian lost the lead after drawing with Paula Rodriguez Rueda of Chile on the top board. As many as five girls, including P.V. Nandidhaa and R. Vaishali, are on seven points. In the boys’ championship, Jefrey Xiong continues to be on song. He defeated Poland’s Grzegorz Nasuta in a knight-andpawn ending after 67 moves to move on to 8.5 points. The sec-

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SPORT

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to play.” Victory over Southampton, in the first of 10 Friday night games in the Premier League this season, will enable United to provisionally go three points clear at the top of the table. Southampton won 1-0 on both its most recent visits to Old Traford, with Charlie Austin’s 87th-minute header securing victory last January, but it is also a team in transition. Sadio Mane, Graziano Pelle and Victor Wanyama have left and Claude Puel has succeeded Ronald Koeman as manager.— Agencies

dav and Vishnu Prasad put their new craft and distinct blue and pink sails to good use. The pair from Artillery Centre, Golconda clinched five of the six races, often by thumping margins, in the seventh Inland Hobie Cat sailing championships at the Hussain Sagar on Thursday. The Artillery Water Sports Association (AWSA) duo adopted a diamond shaped path in their assault on the three-loop course, hitting the left or right extremes most of the way. Their gamble paid handsome dividends as their boat beat back the competition by several hulls. Such was the degree of separation from the rest of the fleet that in the second race, the top guns trounced a set of stragglers by an entire loop. While most of the fleet fol-

lowed in their wake, Aman Kumar and Yasin Ali Dhaluj steered to the right, when the rest turned left in the second. The said twosome enjoyed a short reign in the front when they completed the first loop ahead. On the second upwind leg, riding winds averaging 12 knots and gusting to 18, Kaushal and Vishnu surged ahead to circle the windward mark first and never let go of the lead thereafter. The results: Race 1: Kaushal Kumar Yadav & Vishnu Prasad; 2. Jaspreet Singh & Nitesh Kumar (both AWSA); 3. Nagen Behra (EMESA). Race 2: 1. Yadav & Prasad; 2. Dilip Sarma & Darshan Dixit; 3. Aman Kumar & Yasin Ali Dhaluj (all AWSA). Race 3: 1. Patel & Behera; 2. Yadav & Prasad; 3. Aman & Yasin. Race 4: 1. Yadav & Prasad; 2. Jaspreet & Nitesh; 3. Ashish & Behera. Race 5: 1. Yadav & Prasad; 2. Ashish & Behera; 3. Sarmah & Dixit. Race 6: 1. Yadav & Prasad; 2. Sarmah & Dixit; 3. Aman & Yasin.

TENNIS

Manish stuns Adil Kalyanpur

Telecast schedule South Africa vs New Zealand :

First Test, TEN 3, 1.30 p.m. West Indies vs India : Fourth Test, TEN 2, 3 & TEN 1 HD, 7.30 p.m. Premier League, Manchester United v Southampton , STAR Sports 4 & HD4, 12.30 a.m. (Saturday)

Stif competition expected SPORTS REPORTER CHENNAI: With just 36 points

separating the top five contenders, the stakes could not be higher in the MRF Formula 1600 class, the marquee category, in the fifth and final round of the MRF MMSC FMSCI Indian National Racing Championship commencing at the MMRT track near here on Saturday. The winner of the MRF F1600 championship is eligible for the Mazda Road to Indy Shootout in the United States in December. The weekend will see three races each in the MRF F1600 and the Volkswagen Vento Cup while the premier Indian Touring Cars, the Indian Junior Touring Cars, the Super Stock and the F1300 Rookie Championship are all doubleheaders. — Sports Reporter

Saran scores winner for Bagan KOLKATA: Mohun Bagan held on

GIANT-KILLER: Manish Sureshkumar beat top seed Adil Kalyanpur in the quarterfinals.— PHOTO: M. VEDHAN CHENNAI: Local favourite and

10th seed, Manish Sureshkumar ousted top-seeded Adil Kalyanpur of Karnataka 5-7, 7-5, 6-3 in a boys’ quarterfinal match of the adidas-MCC junior National tennis championships here on Thursday. Other results (quarterfinals) : Boys : B.R. Nikshep (Kar) bt Sanil Jagtiani (WB) 6-3, 6-3; Manish SureshKumar (TN) bt Adil Kalyanpur (Kar)

5-7, 7-5, 6-3; Dhruv Sunish (Mah) bt Muthu Adithya Senthilkumar (TN) 6-4, 6-3; Nitin Kumar Sinha (WB) bt Aditya Vashisht (Raj) 2-6, 6-4, 7-5. Girls : Ramya Natarajan (TN) bt Harsha Sai Challa (AP) 6-3, 7-6(3); Shivani Swarup Ingle (Mah) bt Shaikh Humera (AP) 6-4, 7-5; Lalita Devarakonda (AP) bt Tanisha Kashyap (Asm) 6-1, 6-2; Shivani Amineni (TS) bt Advaita Saravanan (TN) 6-1, 6-1. — Special Correspondent

to Saran Singh’s sixth-minute goal to down Bhawanipur FC 1-0 in a Calcutta Football League’s premier division match at its home ground here on Thursday. Bagan fielded two foreigners in Scottish striker Darryl Dufy and newly-recruited Afghan midfielder Haroon Amri but just managed to score one while missing a string of chances. The win took Bagan to the top of the current league standings with 12 points from four wins. — Special Correspondent

RACING

It’s Coldstream vs. Sea Fairey BENGALURU: Coldstream and Sea Fairey may fight out the finish of the Independence Trophy (1,400m), the feature event of the races to be held here on Friday (Aug. 19). The races were postponed from Saturday (Aug. 13). There will be no false rails. 1 PARSIANA STAKES (Div. III), (1,400m), rated 15 to 35, 1-30 p.m.: 1. Red Admiral (5) Kiran Rai 60, 2. Fire Rainbow (6) Arshad Alam 58.5, 3. Hit Again (3) Raja Rao 58.5, 4. Ninon (7) Noornabi 57.5, 5. Wear The Hat (8) Srinath 57.5, 6. Braveheart (10) A. Imran Khan 57, 7. Legal Legacy (1) Mallikarjun 57, 8. Ravelnation (9) Janardhan P 57, 9. Rigelray (2) Vivek 57, 10. She Loves It (11) S. Lalit 57 and 11. Desert Gold (4) D. Patel 56. 1. Fire Rainbow, 2. She Loves It, 3. Wear The Hat 2 BELMONT PARK STAKES (1,600m), rated 00 to 20, 2-00: 1. Galino (6) Noornai 60, 2. Granada (9) S. John 59.5, 3. Remington Steel (4) Neeraj 59, 4. Active Grey (12) Kiran Rai 58.5, 5. Extremelydangerous (2) T.S. Jodha 58.5, 6. Slightly Blonde (11) Adarsh 58.5, 7. Raziel (5) Prashanth 58, 8. Bolts Colt (10) Ashok Kumar 57.5, 9. Campfire (7) A. Imran Khan 56.5, 10. Tic Tac Toe (1) Arshad Alam 56.5, 11. Kings Kid (3) Jagadeesh 55 and 12. Thalassa (8) A. Ramu 50. 1. Galino, 2. Campfire, 3. Granada 3

PARSIANA STAKES (Div.

II), (1,400m), rated 15 to 35, 2-30: 1. Sairani (4) S. Babu 60, 2. Hidden Deal (8) K. Raghu 58.5, 3. Indian Legend (10) Arshad Alam 58.5, 4. Jack Of Hearts (9) A. Imran Khan 58.5, 5. My King (2) Ramesh Kumar 58.5, 6. Sponge Bob (11) Selvaraj 58.5, 7. Raw Gold (6) T.S. Jodha 58, 8. Shivalik Girl (1) Srinath 58, 9. Bold Runner (3) Praveen Shinde 57.5, 10. Florencia (7) Chetan Kalay 57.5 and 11. Meezaaj (5) Darshan 55.5. 1. Shivalik Girl, 2. Raw Gold, 3. Indian Legend 4 DUPONT TROPHY (1,400m), maiden 3-y-o only, (Terms), 3-00: 1. Grecian Light (5) Neeraj 56, 2. Skybound (2) Arshad Alam 56, 3. Super Smart (1) Suraj Narredu 56, 4. Tax Free (8) Anjar Alam 56, 5. War Envoy (10) Srinath 56, 6. Cape Cross (6) Jagadeesh 54.5, 7. Glamorous Approach (7) T.S. Jodha 54.5, 8. Rule Of The World (3) A. Ramu 54.5, 9. Talladega (9) S. John 54.5 and 10. Vasuki (4) P.S. Chouhan 54.5. 1. Cape Cross, 2. Grecian Light, 3. Talladega 5 USHA STUD STAKES (1,200m), rated 45 to 65, 4-y-o & over, 3-30: 1. Super Success (4) Suraj Narredu 60, 2. Downton Abbey (3) S. John 59, 3. Jersey Shore (12) Srinath 59, 4. Wise Guy (8) Chetan Gowda 59, 5. Countrys Crown (10) Kiran Naidu 58, 6. Royal Rein (11) Syed Imran 57, 7. Wings Of Fortune (9) Rajesh Kumar 56.5, 8.

Frizbee (6) Neeraj 56, 9. Fresh Start (7) A. Imran Khan 55.5, 10. Rakshitha (1) Malliikarjun 55.5, 11. Life Awaits (5) P.S. Chouhan 54.5 and 12. Blues Legend (2) Arshad Alam 52. 1. Frizbee, 2. Super Success, 3. Life Awaits 6 INDEPENDENCE TROPHY (1,400m), rated 75 & above, 4-00: 1. Royal Salute (9) M. Naveen 61, 2. Brilliant Cut (8) A. Qureshi 60.5, 3. Ace Bucephalus (2) Anjar Alam 58, 4. Mickey Mouse (7) Kiran Rai 57.5, 5. Coldstream (6) S. John 55.5, 6. Sea Fairey (5) Suraj Narredu 53, 7. Super Force (3) Neeraj 52, 8. Force Ensign (1) P.S. Chouhan 51, 9. Bonfire (10) P.P. Dhebe 50 and 10. Speed Hawk (4) Arshad Alam 50. 1. Coldstream, 2. Sea Fairey, 3. Mickey Mouse 7 BEAUTIFUL BABE STAKES (1,200m), rated 30 to 50, 4-30: 1. I Smile (9) M. Naveen 60, 2. Antananarivo (4) S. John 59, 3. Game Guy (10) Rayan Ahmed 59, 4. Justice Angel (1) A. Imran Khan 59, 5. Amazing Redd (5) Arshad Alam 58.5, 6. Blue Blazer (7) P.P. Dhebe 58, 7. Termsandconditions (6) Neeraj 58, 8. Flame’s Fury (2) Rajesh Kumar 55.5, 9. Perfectebony (3) P.S. Chouhan 55.5 and 10. Colossal Moments (8) B. Nayak 53.5. 1. Justice Angel, 2. Blue Blazer, 3. Perfectebony 8

PARSIANA STAKES (Div.

Light Of Magic claims Winner’s Circle Trophy BENGALURU: Light Of Magic (Jagadeesh up) won the Winner’s Circle Trophy (Div. I), the main event of the races held here on Thursday (August 18). The winner is owned by M.A.M. Ramaswamy Chettiar of Chettinad Charitable Trust represented by Mr. A.C. Muthiah and trained by S. Ganapathy. The results: 1. UDHAGAMANDALAM STAKES (Div. II), (1,200m), rated 00 to 20, 4-y-o & over: Croziet (S. John) 1, Sudha (Chetan Gowda) 2, Thejaguar (Rayan Ahmed) 3 and Atlantic City (A. Ramu) 4. Not run: Criquette. 5-3/4, Hd and 2. 1m 14.68s. Rs. 21 (w), 12, 25 and 36 (p), SHP: Rs. 78, FP: Rs. 168, Q: Rs. 108, Trinella: Rs. 1,033 and Rs. 630, Exacta: Rs. 3,480 and Rs. 909. Favourite: Croziet. Owners: M/s. M.N. Nambiar & B.N. Nataraj. Trainer: Prasanna Kumar. 2. ANGEL DUST TROPHY (Div. II), (1,200m), maiden 3-y-o only, (Terms): Gypsy (P.S. Chouhan) 1, Storm (S. John) 2, Brunesco (Anjar Alam) 3 and Siyouni (Kiran Naidu) 4. Not run: Kudla Punch. 3-3/4, 2-1/2 and Lnk. 1m 13.98s. Rs. 16 (w), 12, 17 and 36 (p), SHP: Rs. 35, FP: Rs. 42, Q: Rs. 28, Trinella: Rs. 355 and Rs. 198, Exacta: Rs. 1,134 and Rs. 462. Favourite: Gypsy. Owners: M/s. Daulat Chhabria, Sunil K. Vasant & Pradeep Lala. Trainer: Irfan Ghatala. 3. UDHAGAMANDALAM STAKES (Div. I), (1,200m), rated 00 to 20, 4-y-o & over: Flying Bullet (Prashanth) 1, Power And Strength (K. Raghu) 2, Emancipation (S. John) 3 and Veda (Chetan

CM YK

Gowda) 4. Not run: Dancing Princess. 1/2, 1-1/4 and 1-1/4. 1m 15.71s. Rs. 96 (w), 20, 107 and 12 (p), SHP: Rs. 452, FP: Rs. 3,142, Q: Rs. 1,839, Trinella: Rs. 3,667 and Rs. 491, Exacta: Rs. 13,182 and Rs. 5,649. Favourite: Emancipation. Owner: Mr. N. Krishna. Trainer: B. Prithviraj. 4. NOBLE PRINCESS STAKES (1,400m), rated 30 to 50: Emidio (P.P. Dhebe) 1, Lightning Strikes (P.S. Chouhan) 2, Amazing Skill (Suraj Narredu) 3 and Duke Of Clarence (S. John) 4. 3-3/4, 2-1/4 and 2. 1m 26.35s. Rs. 49 (w), 15, 30 and 22 (p), SHP: Rs. 72, FP: Rs. 350, Q: Rs. 162, Trinella: Rs. 1,707 and Rs. 518, Exacta: Rs. 2,694 and Rs. 821. Favourite: Duke Of Clarence. Owner: Mr. Ajith Vittal Shetty. Trainer: B. Prithviraj. 5. WINNER’S CIRCLE TROPHY (Div. I), (1,200m), rated 60 & above: Light Of Magic (Jagadeesh) 1, Sir Majestic (Suraj Narredu) 2, Ace Badraan (A. Qureshi) 3 and Topspot (P.S. Chouhan) 4. Not run: Ungoogleable. Nk, 2-1/2 and 1. 1m 13.27s. Rs. 44 (w), 16, 15 and 21 (p), SHP: Rs. 41, FP: Rs. 123, Q: Rs. 61, Trinella: Rs. 443 and Rs. 242, Exacta: Rs. 1,249 and Rs. 330. Favourite: Topspot. Owners: M.A.M. Ramaswamy Chettiar of Chettinad Charitable Trust rep by. Mr. A.C. Muthiah. Trainer: S. Ganapathy. 6. MAMMA’S MINK STAKES (1,800m), rated 45 to 65: Pallas (Neeraj) 1, Sagrada (Srinath) 2, I’ve Got Clout (T.S. Jodha) 3 and Czar Rule (P.P. Dhebe) 4. 3, 1-3/4 and Shd. 1m 52.97s. Rs. 51 (w), 19, 15 and 27 (p), SHP: Rs. 45, FP: Rs. 235, Q:

Rs. 88, Trinella: Rs. 1,073 and Rs. 606, Exacta: Rs. 8,944 and Rs. 3,833. Favourite: Sagrada. Owners: Cairnhill Stud Farm Pvt Ltd rep by. Mr. Subir Dasgupta & Mr. Chandrakanth Kankaria. Trainer: Arjun Mangalorkar. 7. ANGEL DUST TROPHY (Div. I), (1,200m), maiden 3-y-o only, (Terms): Fire Glow (A. Imran Khan) 1, Romantic Helen (Arshad Alam) 2, Carinosa (S. John) 3 and Reference (Srinath) 4. Not run: Nijlon. Nose, 5-1/4 and 1-3/4. 1m 14.13s. Rs. 23 (w), 14, 24 and 16 (p), SHP: Rs. 67, FP: Rs. 94, Q: Rs. 156, Trinella: Rs. 325 and Rs. 147, Exacta: Rs. 1,102 and Rs. 380. Favourite: Fire Glow. Owners: M. R. Stud Farms Pvt Ltd rep by. Mr. N. Chandrashekar Rai & Manjri Horse Breeds Farm Pvt Ltd rep by. Mr. Pallon Shapoor Mistry. Trainer: Prasanna Kumar. 8. WINNER’S CIRCLE TROPHY (Div. II), (1,200m), rated 60 & above: Albertino (Selvaraj) 1, Taqdeer Ka Badshah (Arshad Alam) 2, Good Fortune (P.P. Dhebe) 3 and Ayrton (S. John) 4. Snk, Shd and /2. 1m 13.95s. Rs. 130 (w), 31, 27 and 16 (p), SHP: Rs. 68, FP: Rs. 643, Q: Rs. 240, Trinella: Rs. 1,514 and Rs. 973, Exacta: Rs. 5,765 and Rs. 2,571. Favourite: Good Fortune. Owner: Mr. Gamini Jayaratne. Trainer: Irfan Ghatala. Jackpot: Rs: 1,31,960 (two tkts.); Runner up: Rs. 1,469 (77 tkts.); Treble (i): Rs. 2,474 (seven tkts.); (ii): Rs. 2,197 (15 tkts.).

I), (1,400m), rated 15 to 35, 5-00: 1. Firing Line (10) Rayan Ahmed 60, 2. Mystical Shadow (3) Rajesh Kumar 59, 3. Noble Sapphire (4) Srinath 59, 4. Blazing Faith (6) Chetan Kalay 58.5, 5. Love Is Life (7) A. Ramu 58, 6. Trojan (9) Neeraj 58, 7. Irish Prince (2) P.P. Dhebe 57.5, 8. Able Master (5) Arshad Alam 57, 9. Tree Lounge (1) S. John 57, 10. Dagobert (8) Janardhan P 56.5 and 11. Golden Success (—) (—) 56.5. 1. Noble Sapphire, 2. Irish Prince, 3. Tree Lounge 9 GOOD-BYE STAKES (1,200m), rated 15 to 35, 4-y-o & over, 5-30: 1. Brunaldo (3) A. Qureshi 60, 2. Dignified (4) Manesh K 59, 3. Feet On Fire (6) Srinath 59, 4. Rare And Famous (11) Prashanth 58.5, 5. Candice (1) Kiran Rai 57.5, 6. Neymar (12) Arshad Alam 57.5, 7. Galway Girl (8) S. John 57, 8. Scorching (2) Rajesh Kumar 56.5, 9. What A Nice Man (10) T.S. Jodha 56.5, 10. Custom Built (9) Raja Rao 55, 11. Ramon (7) A. Ramu 54 and 12. Sea Of Stars (5) Ramesh Kumar 53.5. 1. Feet On Fire, 2. Brunaldo, 3. Neymar Day’s best: Justice Angel Double: Cape Cross — Noble Sapphire Jkt: 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9; Tr (i): 1, 2 and 3; (ii): 4, 5 and 6; (iii): 7, 8 and 9.

Chennaiyin signs John Riise as marquee player CHENNAI: Indian Super League

champion Chennaiyin FC on Thursday announced the signing of Norwegian defender John Arne Riise as its marquee player for the 2016 edition. The former Liverpool player had a spell at Delhi Dynamos in ISL 2015 and inspired it to the semifinals, making 15 appearances and scoring one goal. After that spell in last year’s ISL, Riise had a short stint at Norwegian club Aalesunds FK earlier this year. He made 10 appearances there between March and May and now joins Chennaiyin on a free transfer. “We are delighted to have signed John as our marquee player for the 2016 ISL,” team co-owner Vita Dani said. “He is a player with exceptional quality and experience. We look forward to having a great season from him,” she added. Chennaiyin FC head coach Marco Materazzi added, “John has had a fantastic career already and was very consistent in last year’s ISL. He will be a very important player for us both on and of the pitch.”— Special Correspondent ND-ND

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LIFE

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NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU FRIDAY, AUGUST 19, 2016

New e-books soon on the Harry Potter world LONDON: Author J K Rowling is bringing out a series of ebooks, which will be launched beginning September 6, to give deeper insights into the world of Harry Potter. The ebooks will be available on the Pottermore website as well as via digital booksellers. Translations will be available in French, German, Italian, Japanese, Dutch, Brazilian Portuguese, and Spanish. The series called ‘Pottermore Presents’ “is intended to supplement the Harry Potter book series with

short-form content that is entertaining and thematically curated by the Pottermore editorial team,” Susan L. Jurevics, chief executive oicer, Pottermore, said in a statement. Most of the stories have already been published on the Pottermore website. One of the books is titled Hogwarts: An Incomplete and Unreliable Guide. The other titles are Short Stories from Hogwarts of Power, Political and Pesky Poltergeists and Short Stories from Hogwarts of Heroism, Hardship and Dangerous Hobbies. — PTI

Giant helium-filled hybrid airship completes its maiden flight in U.K. The aircraft has been nicknamed the “flying bum” because of its bulbous front end LONDON: A blimp-shaped, he-

lium-filled airship — considered the world’s largest aircraft — has flown for the first time with a short but historic jaunt over an airfield in central England. Engines roaring, the 302foot Airlander 10 rose slowly into the air on Wednesday from Cardington airfield, 73 kilometres north of London. A hybrid of blimp, helicopter and airplane, it can stay aloft for days at a time and has been nicknamed the “flying bum” because of its bulbous front end. The stately aircraft performed a circuit of the area watched by hundreds of local people who had parked their cars around the perimeter of the airfield before touching down about half an hour later as dusk fell. Can carry heavy loads The Airlander is designed to use less fuel than a plane, but carry heavier loads than conventional airships. Its developer, Hybrid Air Vehicles, says it can reach 16,000 feet, travel at up to 148 kmph and stay aloft for up to two weeks. “It’s a great British innovation,” said chief executive Stephen McGlennan. “It’s a combination of an aircraft that has parts of normal fixed-wing aircraft, it’s got helicopter, it’s got airship.” The aircraft was initially developed for the U.S. military, which planned to use it for surveillance in Afghanistan. The U.S. blimp program

BRITISH INNOVATION: The Airlander 10 hybrid airship makes its maiden flight at Cardington Airfield in Britain on Wednesday. — PHOTO: REUTERS was scrapped in 2013 and since then Hybrid Air Vehicles, a small British aviation firm that dreams of ushering in a new era for airships, has sought funding from government agencies and individual donors. The vast aircraft is based at Cardington, where the first British airships were built during and after World War I. That program was abandoned after a 1930 crash that killed almost 50 people, including Britain’s air minister. That accident and others including the fiery 1937 crash in New Jersey of the Hindenburg, which killed 35 dashed the dream of the airship as a mode of transportation for decades.

Unlike hydrogen, the gas used in the Hindenburg, helium is not flammable. Wednesday’s flight came days after a test flight planned for Sunday was scrapped because of an unspecified technical issue. The successful journey was a milestone in the development of a vehicle that remains untested as a commercial proposition. Mr. McGlennan is confident there will be plenty of customers, both civilian and military, for Airlander because of its potential to gather data and conduct surveillance for days on end. It can also carry up to 10 metric tons of passengers or cargo. The company hopes to have an even bigger air-

craft, capable of carrying 50 metric tons in service by the early 2020s. Mr. McGlennan said Airlander has many of the assets of a helicopter. It can “provide air transportation for people and goods without the need for a runway. But this thing can take more over longer distances, it’s cheaper and it’s greener.” Chris Pocock, defense editor of aviation magazine AIN, said the jury is still out on whether the craft is commercially viable. “Airships and hybrids have still got a credibility gap to cover,” he said. “Technically I think they are there now, but economically I’m not so sure.” — AP

Sachin Tendulkar adopts a village in Maharashtra MUMBAI: Cricket icon and Rajya Sabha MP Sachin Tendulkar has selected Donja village in Osmanabad district, Maharashtra, for development under the Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojna.

“We are happy that Tendulkar has picked Donja. We are sure this will inspire other villages in the region to emulate this model of development,” Osmanabad Zilla Parishad CEO Anand Rayate

said. The rural development programme focuses on improvement of facilities and envisions bringing the village together for community growth. Osmanabad has been reel-

ing under a severe drought over the last few years and has also recorded a rise in farmer suicides. The village of Donja has 582 families, according to the 2011 census. — PTI

Love Story director Hiller is dead

Arthur Hiller LOS ANGELES: Arthur Hiller, who received an Oscar nomination for directing the hugely popular romantic tragedy Love Story during a career that spanned dozens of popular movies and TV shows, died on Wednesday. He was 92. Love Story, with Ali MacGraw and Ryan O’Neal as star-crossed Ivy League lovers, was one of the most popular movies of 1970. The film, based on the popular novel of the same name by Erich Segal, reduced thousands of moviegoers to tears. Love Story kicked of a busy two decades of work for Hiller, who had gotten his start directing such television shows as Gunsmoke, Perry Mason and The Rifleman in the 1950s. In 2002, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences — where he served two terms as president — presented him with its Jean Hersholt award for humanitarian service. — AP

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