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monday, march 5, 2018
Delhi City Edition
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P r i n t e d at . C h e n n a i . C o i m b ato r e . Be n g a lu ru . H y d e r a b a d . M a d u r a i . No i da . V i s a k h a pat n a m . T h i ru va n a n t h a p u r a m . Ko c h i . V i j ayawa da . M a n g a lu ru . T i ru c h i r a pa l l i . Ko l k ata . H u b b a l l i . M o h a l i . M a l a p p u r a m . M u m b a i . Ti ru pat i . lu c k n ow . cu t tac k . pat n a
NEARBY
Congress outsmarted in Meghalaya BJP-backed coalition to form government; NPP’s Conrad Sangma to be sworn in CM tomorrow Shiv Sahay Singh Shillong
Disability rights activist Javed Abidi passes away NEW DELHI
Disability rights activist Javed Abidi passed away here on Sunday. He was 53. Initial reports indicated that he succumbed to a chest infection. He is survived by his mother, a younger brother and a younger sister. NATION
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SSC for CBI probe into paper leaks NEW DELHI
Sta Selection Commission (SSC) chairman Ashim Khurana on Sunday said that the Commission has decided to recommend a CBI inquiry into the alleged paper leaks in one of its tests held on February 21. The SSC conducts examination for clerical jobs in government departments.
A number of regional par ties, with support from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), outsmarted the Congress, which had emerged the sin gle largest party in the recent Assembly elections, in the race for government forma tion in Meghalaya. After a day of frantic polit ical activity in the State, the National People’s Party (NPP), led by its leader Con rad Sangma, staked claim to form the government in the State. Mr. Sangma on Sunday evening paraded 34 MLAs before Governor Ganga Pra sad. Letter of support “We have given a letter of support of 34 MLAs to the Governor. We think this is what stability is all about,” Mr. Sangma, who is also the
Lok Sabha member from Tu ra, told journalists outside the Raj Bhavan. The Gover nor invited Mr. Sangma to form the government. He will be sworn in as Chief Mi nister on March 6. Till the af ternoon, the coalition was claiming the support of 29 MLAs, but the numbers grew by the evening. The NPP, with 19 MLAs, claimed the support of six MLAs of the United Demo cratic Party (UDP) as well as two from the Hill State Peo ple’s Democratic Party (HSPDP) and two BJP legisla tors. At the Raj Bhavan, four MLAs of the newly formed People’s Democratic Front (PDF) and one Independent joined the nonCongress coa lition led by the NPP. CONTINUED ON A PAGE 10 SMALL ARENA, BIG WIN A EDITORIAL
Zeliang, Rio given time to prove majority
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AGARTALA
Uncertain future: Chief Minister Manik Sarkar at the CPI(M) headquarters in Agartala on Sunday. RITU RAJ KONWAR *
Manik Sarkar resigns plab Kumar Deb, the fron trunner for the Chief Minis ter’s post, said the swearingin would be held on March 8, two days after the legislature party leader is elected here.
special correspondent AGARTALA
Manik Sarkar resigned as Chief Minister of Tripura on Sunday but was told to o ciate until the new govern ment, led by the Bharatiya Janata Party, takes charge. State BJP president Bi
MODI LIKELY TO ATTEND SWEARING-IN A PAGE 11
Legend passes on
AAP to contest all 7 Lok Sabha seats in Delhi NEW DELHI
Nagaland Governor P.B. Acharya gave time to the Naga People’s Front (NPF) and the Bharatiya Janata PartyNationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) formation to prove their majority as both staked claim to form the government. T.R. Zeliang refused to resign as Chief Minister even as the BJP and its regional ally NDPP staked claim on Sunday. STABILITY MY PRIORITY, SAYS ACHARYA; ALLIANCE GATHERS STRENGTH A PAGE 11
Merkel gets support for a fourth term
#5 7 3 0 1 9
The Aam Aadmi Party has started preparing for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Party sources conrmed on Sunday that the AAP would be contesting on selected seats across the country. In Delhi, it will ght in all seven Parliamentary constituencies. DELHI METRO
Agence France-Presse BERLIN
Germany’s second biggest party said on Sunday that its members have in their highstakes referendum approved a plan to join Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition, clearing the last hurdle to her fourth term. But the Chancellor, in pow er for 12 years, will go into her fourth term with weak er cards than before, as she had to pay a high price to coax the Social Democratic Party back into another loveless “grand coalition.”
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MERKEL HAILS MOVE A PAGE 12
EDGE A 4 PAGES DELHI METRO A 6 PAGES
Running into history: Sir Roger Bannister, the rst man to run a mile in under four minutes, passed away aged 88 in Oxford on Saturday, according to a statement from his family. This iconic photograph shows the British athlete breasting the tape in 3 minutes 59.4 seconds during the recordbreaking run at Iey Road, Oxford, on May 6, 1954. ALLSPORT UK/GETTY IMAGES (PAGE 15) *
Mamata backs KCR’s call for a national alternative Telangana Chief Minister said Bharatiya Janata Party, Congress have failed the people Special Correspondent HYDERABAD
A day after he pitched for a nonBJP, nonCongress alter native at the Centre, Telanga na Chief Minister K. Chandra sekhar Rao levelled allegations against the Naren dra Modiled government at the Centre and the previous Congressled UPA govern ment, claiming they had failed “miserably” to address core issues. He also hinted at taking on an active role at the national
Mamata Banerjee
level to bring together like minded parties to form the next government at the Centre. The Chief Minister’s speech attracted a urry of
support, with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Ba nerjee, the former Jharkhand Chief Minister, Hemant So ren, and several other leaders welcoming the suggestion for an alternative, according to an ocial release. In her telephone call, the Trinamool Congress chief conveyed her complete sup port and said she agreed on the need to bring a qualitative change in the country’s polit ics, the release said. “Ham aap se ekmat hain.
Aap ke saath rahenge (I am in agreement with you. I will work with you),” the release quoted Ms Banerjee as having told Mr. Rao. Mr. Rao said he was sur prised by the response to his call. “I received calls from all corners of the country. Some MPs from Maharashtra want ed to rally behind me once the modalities of the alterna tive are worked out,” he said. Extending support, actor turnedpolitician and Jana Se na founder Pawan Kalyan al
so welcomed Mr. Rao’s state ment at a press conference on Sunday. AIMIM in favour Earlier in the day, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi also welcomed the Chief Minis ter’s comments. Mr Owaisi said regional parties will be the key to go vernment formation after the next parliamentary polls and the Telangana Chief Minister will play an important role. CONTINUED ON A PAGE 10
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Shared bikes move Bengaluru’s gated communities Dockless bicycle-sharing attracts residents who live in apartment blocks spread across several acres Sarumathi K. Bengaluru
Until recently, Rohan Kapoor, a Class XI student staying in Adarsh Palm Retreat on Outer Ring Road (ORR) in Bengaluru, had to be picked up and dropped at the exit gate within his own apartment complex. That was because the gate is 2.5 km away from home. Now, he uses his phone to unlock one of the many bicycles in his sprawling complex and pedals to the gate, where he leaves the cycle and hops on to a bus. In another part of the city, Shraddha Arun has CM YK
stopped going to the gym in her apartment complex. Instead, she bikes. She too picks up a bicycle from one of the docking points at the ETA Star The Garden Apartments on Magadi Road. It helps not just with exercise, but also lets her do the groceries a few blocks away. App-based bicycles Bicycles are keeping gated communities, with footprints across acres, moving. Residents are turning to appbased bicycles for the internal commute.
Bike idea: Dockless bicycles at a large residential community in Bengaluru. SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT *
All that they need is a mobile phone application. They locate a bike, scan the QR code on it, and unlock it
Interest rates go through the roof
Rahul Karmakar
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DELHI METRO
PNB scam hits buyers’ credit
automatically. And then they are o. At the destination, the bicycle can be parked and locked. The
system is run using communications technologies like GPRS, GPS and Bluetooth, which allow the maintenance crew to locate and return the bikes to parking stations. The residential communities are the newest market for bicycle sharing platforms, beyond IT parks, universities and colleges. Ofo, a dockless bike sharing platform, is testing the waters at an apartment complex and a college here since January, with 100 bikes oered free at the ETA Star complex, which has 900 houses in 10 blocks.
MANOJIT SAHA Mumbai
The $85billion buyers’ cre dit market has come to a grinding halt with Indian banks reluctant to provide guarantees through letters of undertaking (LoUs). This has resulted in the interest rates on such instruments going through the roof, making business dicult for small importers. According to bankers in the trade nance business, the interest rates for buyers’ credit spiked 30 ba sis points (100 basis points=1 percentage point) after the LoU scam at the Punjab National Bank came to light. Transaction tenor According to multiple bank ers The Hindu spoke to, in terest rates on LoUs were earlier 2030 basis points (bps) above the London In ter Bank Oered Rate (LI BOR). Following the PNB scam, they have become 5060 bps above the LIBOR. The tenor of LIBOR is based on
the underlying transaction tenor, which is typically three months or six months. On February 14, the Pun jab National Bank, the se condlargest lender, in formed the exchanges about fraudulent transac tions worth $1.8 billion or 11,500 crore, in which un authorised LoUs were is sued by one of its branches that helped the fraudsters secure overseas credit. La ter, PNB said the amount in fraudulent transactions could go up by another $204.25 million or 1,130 crore, taking the total amount involved in the scam to $2 billion. The interest rate on buyers’ credit is the lowest among all credit products in India. “This is a rate that no other credit product o ers. If you take a rupee loan, it comes to around 9 10%, but buyers’ credit in terest rate is around 2.5%,” said a senior executive from a private sector bank. CONTINUED ON A PAGE 10
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Timings
Monday, March 05
RISE 06:42 SET 18:23 RISE 21:49 SET 08:57 Tuesday, March 06
RISE 06:41 SET 18:24 RISE 22:46 SET 09:34 Wednesday, March 07
RISE 06:40 SET 18:24 RISE 23:41 SET 10:12
Three extensions of Kolkata Metro to be over in three years: Lohani
BJP will bring change in Bengal: Ghosh
Railway Board chairman was in the city on a routine inspection visit
Press trust of india
Staff Reporter Kolkata
The Indian Railways is aim ing to complete three exten sion projects of the Kolkata Metro Rail in the next three years, Railway Board chair man Ashwani Lohani said on Sunday. Mr. Lohani was in Kolkata on a routine in spection visit. “We are aiming to com plete the three extension projects of the Kolkata Me tro Rail Kavi Subhas metro
Ashwani Lohani
station to Salt Lake Sector V, Joka to Majherhat and Noap ara to Kolkata airport in
the next three years,” he said. The 13.9 kmlong stretch extends from Kavi Subhas metro station in South Kol kata to Salt Lake Sector V on the eastern fringes of the ci ty. The 9kmlong route runs from Joka in southwest Kol kata to Majherhat on the southern fringes of Kolkata. The third extension is from Noapara in North Kol kata to Kolkata airport on
the northern fringes of the city. It is part of the about 18 kmlong Noapara to Barasat (North 24 Paraganas) Metro Route. Mr. Lohani also said the two extensions of the 16.55 kmlong EastWest Metro project from Salt Lake Sec tor V to Salt Lake Stadium and from the Stadium to Phoolbagan (NorthCentral Kolkata) will be completed in October 2018 and March 2018, respectively.
Five juveniles apprehended Staff Reporter
‘No place for violence in politics’ Canning (WB)
The West Bengal Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday said the party will eect a change in Bengal, much like it did in Tripura, where it scripted history by ending 25 years of uninterrupted rule of the CPI(M)led Left Front. “When some BJP suppor ters were killed in Tripura, people changed the man date in that State. In Bengal, many more of our suppor ters have been killed and in
jured, and their properties destroyed. The BJP will bring a similar change in this State,” West Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh told a press conference here. Corruption rampant Mr. Ghosh said “nepotism, corruption and political vio lence” is rampant in the State, and there is no place for violence in politics. The West Bengal BJP pre sident was addressing party workers in Aamtala in South 24 Parganas district.
BERHAMPUR
Five juveniles who were al legedly planning a robbery have been nabbed by the police. According to the inspec tor of the Berhampur town police station, Nihar Ran jan Pradhan, these young sters were involved in ve case of thefts in dierent parts of the city. All the ve were pro duced before the Juvenile Justice Board and were sent to the Government Special Observation Home for Boys in Berhampur on Saturday night.
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No early polls, says Khattar
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On the beaten track
‘One nationone election concept cannot be implemented without consensus’ SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
< > Those found abandoning their
CHANDIGARH
Putting an end to the specu lation of an early Assembly polls in the State, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Sunday said that the next elections to the State Assembly would be held on time and not simul taneously with the parlia mentary (Lok Sabha) elections. “Although Prime Minister Narendra Modi had pro posed ‘one nationone elec tion’ concept at the allparty meeting, which I also sup ported, yet this concept can not be implemented unless all political parties arrive at a consensus,” Mr. Khattar said. Mr. Khattar added that the issue of simultaneous elec tions is being discussed by all the stakeholders and could be implemented in 2024 and not in 2019.
cattle would have to pay a ne of 5,000
Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar
*
FILE
PHOTO
“Holding elections simul taneously would require constitutional amendments and changes and this re quires time,” he said. On the controversial issue of the SutlejYamuna Link (SYL) canal, Mr. Khattar said that the Opposition should refrain from politicising it. He said political parties in the State had always politi
Dalit pushed into Holi bonre in M.P.
cised the issue for their petty interests and were at it again. “Due to the eorts made by the present government, the apex court has given a decision in favour of Harya na. We have full faith in the Supreme Court and the State would soon get its share of water through the canal which should be constructed at the earliest,” he added. Mr. Khattar said to protect cows, the State government would soon enact a stringent law to punish those found abandoning them. “We have already enacted the Gauvansh Sanrakshan and Gausamvardhan Act for the protection of cows. Also,
the State government has tagged cattle in ‘Gaushalas’ as it would help in knowing their location. Similarly, domestic cattle would also be tagged so that these are not abandoned. Those found abandoning their cat tle would have to pay a ne of 5,000,” he said. Mr. Khattar added that since his government as sumed oce, employment had been provided to 2.03 lakh persons in the private sector, including 1.24 lakh in micro, small and medium enterprises. “Apart from this, invest ment of 45,000 crore has been made and as a result of the MoUs inked during the Happening Haryana Sum mit, as many as 136 projects have already been set up with an investment of 18,000 crore,” Mr. Khattar said.
For a CBI probe: Jan Adhikar Party MP Pappu Yadav being arrested in Patna on Sunday during the party’s ‘Rail Chakka Jam’ over the SSC paper leak case. RANJEET KUMAR *
Manjhi’s absence will be felt: Kushwaha
Press Trust of India
However, the RLSP would not leave the BJPled coalition, says Union Minister
Victim suers 15% burns; one arrested were feeling “uneasy” in the coalition and planning to leave. He had mentioned Mr. Manjhi and Mr. Kushwaha. Mr. Manjhi left the NDA a month later claiming that ‘faulty’ sand mining policy of the Nitish Kumar govern ment had stalled construc tion activities and thereby badly hit workers from the Mahadalit section. To a question on whether the RLSP too would leave the NDA, the Union Minister of State for Human Resources Development said, “This is completely baseless and ab surd. If people like Raghu vansh Prasad Singh say so, it is not good for him also.” He said the NDA would
Press Trust of India Press Trust of India Sagar
A Dalit man was allegedly pushed into a Holi bonre by an upper caste couple at Futera village in Madhya Pradesh’s Sagar district on March 1, the police said on Sunday. According to the police, the couple got angry fearing the bonre lit by the victim and others would engulf their house. The victim, identied as Balram Ahirwar, survived with 15% burn injuries, an ocial said, adding that the police arrested one Raje Raj put (38) in the incident on Thursday night while eorts are on to trace his wife. The incident occurred during the Holika ‘dahan’ (burning) ceremony in the village, said Rahatgarh pol
ice station inspector Anil Singh. He said Mr. Rajput and his wife got angry after Mr. Ahirwar and others lit the bonre, which they feared would engulf their house. In a t of rage, they caught hold of Mr. Ahirwar and pushed him into the bon re, Mr. Singh said. Mr. Ahirwar was rescued by others and taken to a hospital. When contacted, district SP S. Shukla said that Mr. Ahirwar also accused the Rajput couple of passing casteist remarks during an argument with him. Mr. Singh said the ac cused have been booked un der relevant sections of the IPC and the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Pre vention of Atrocities) Act.
Student drowns in abandoned pool Press Trust of India Bhopal
A 17yearold speech and hearing impaired student drowned in an abandoned swimming pool here. The District Collector sus pended two staers of the government hostel in which the student stayed. Sohanlal Chadar, hailing from Tikamgarh district, on Saturday drowned in the Sanjay Tarun Pushkar Swimming Pool, an aban doned facility in Pari Bazar
area, Shahjahanabad police station inspector Upendra Chhari said on Sunday. Mr. Chadar scaled the 10 12foothigh boundary wall of the pool premises, he said. He said that Mr. Cha dar was studying in Class VII of a government school for the speech and hearing im paired at Idgah Hills. Bhopal DC Sudam Khade has suspended hostel war den Pramod Mishra and watchman Kisanlal Raikwar for neglecting their duties.
Suspended on graft charges
Patna
Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP) chief Upendra Kush waha on Sunday said that Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) chief Jitan Ram Manjhi’s absence would be felt in the NDA but his party would not leave the BJPled coalition. Former Chief Minister and HAM (S) president Mr. Manj hi had on February 28 walked out of the NDA and joined the RJDled Grand Alliance. “It is quite natural to feel the absence of any person if he goes out (of the alliance),” Mr. Kushwaha, also a Union Minister, said.
RLSP chief Upendra Kushwaha FILE PHOTO *
However, he termed re ports that his party too would leave the National De mocratic Alliance (NDA) as “absurd and baseless”. Senior RJD leader Raghu vansh Prasad Singh had on January 29 that some senior leaders of the NDA in Bihar
win bypolls in the two As sembly seats, Bhabhua and Jehanabad, and Araria Lok Sabha constituency to be held on March 11. Mr. Kushwaha would cam paign in Bhabhua and Araria on March 6 and 8 respectively. The RLSP chief an nounced the party’s pro gramme “Shiksha Sudhar Pustak Upahar programme” in which NCERT books would be gifted to all Kastur ba Gandhi Vidyalayas in Bi har on April 11 on the occa sion of Mahatma Jyotiba Phule’s birth anniversary. He said the party would collect funds from the people from March 24 for the purpose.
#5 7 3 0 1 9
Naidu exhorts universities to reform, perform, transform SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT CHANDIGARH
Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu on Sunday said for un iversities to become centres of excellence, the need of the hour was to reform, per form and transform. Speaking at the 67th an nual convocation of Panjab University here, Mr. Naidu urged the students to master the mother tongue and to work hard to scale new heights. “There is no substitute for ethics and value system. Each discipline is valuable, if pursued with intellectual ri gour and integrity, and each has its own methods of in
Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu FILE PHOTO *
vestigation. But each disci pline is also connected with another,” he said He pointed out that the di vision between the areas of science and humanities was an articial one, made for
convenience sake, which we have adopted in the process of creating the institutions of academia. “How can science not be human, if it is an activity car ried on by human beings? How can humanities not be scientic if it has to properly observe its subjects? In the words of Swami Vivekanan da, it is in the balanced mind that understanding comes, ‘it is the calm, forgiving, wellbalanced, equable mind that does the greatest amount of work’,” he said. Mr. Naidu said that ‘goo gle can never replace guru’ and urged the youth to res pect them.
Gujjars seek recognition of Gojri Press Trust of India Jammu
The Gujjar community of Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday launched a nation al campaign via social me dia to include their mother tongue Gojri in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitu tion of India. “We will be using social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, You Tube, WhatsApp, Insta gram and other media to spread our longpending demand across India,” Tri bal Research and Cultural Foundation founder Javaid Rahi said.
Lucknow
A tehsildar and a revenue clerk posted in Sitapur dis trict were suspended on the directives of U.P. Chief Mi nister Yogi Adityanath on graft charges, a spokesper son said on Sunday. The ac tion was taken in response
to a video showing the two Sanjay Gupta and Subhash Mani Tripathi accepting bribe. The video was aired on some news channels on March 3, he said. Both were suspended with immediate eect, and action was taken against both.
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Sawant may face breach of privilege motion from BJP
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Marching in celebration
Leopards let loose in Bondla zoo Special Correspondent
Congress leader had said CM must resign over river video Staff Reporter Mumbai
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will move a breach of privilege motion against Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant for allegedly defaming Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis by rais ing questions over his parti cipation in a river conserva tion video produced by a private company. The video also features Mr. Fadnavis’s wife, Amruta, and senior IAS and IPS oc ers. On Saturday, Mr. Sawant had said that Mr. Fadnavis should resign and action must be taken against the senior government ocials for participating in a private video, violating the All India Service (discipline and conduct) Rules.
“Sachin Sawant has been constantly making allega tions against the Chief Minis ter and is trying to defame him. We will move a breach of privilege motion against him,” said BJP MLA and spo kesperson Ram Kadam. He said Mr. Fadnavis had agreed to help the NGO Riv er March to support the cause of saving rivers. “He has always helped similar in itiatives in the past. Despite clarications, [Mr. Sawant] has been raising questions about it, purposely trying to link it with the TSeries com pany and defaming the CM,” Mr. Kadam said. ‘Won’t stop’ Mr. Sawant said he will conti nue to ask dicult questions of Mr. Fadnavis, even if he
Panaji
was sent to prison. “This threat is nothing but an attempt to oppress the Opposition’s voice. The video clearly violates the rules, and it is my duty as an Opposition member to ask questions,” he said. The allegation Mr. Sawant had said that as per Section 13(2)(d) of the All India Service Rules, govern ment ocials can attend programmes organised only by registered organisations with prior permission. “This organisation called River March is not registered under the Societies Registra tion Act, 1860, or any other act. It is clear that the oc ers have violated the rules and should face disciplinary action,” he said.
Remembering Shivaji: A procession to celebrate the birth anniversary of Chhatrapati Shivaji was organised in Pune on Sunday. Ocially celebrated on February 19 every year, Shiv Jayanti was on Sunday this year as per the Hindu calendar. MANDAR TANNU *
Over 1,300 HSC answer sheets gutted
‘Faulty valves caused AI ight incident’
Press Trust of India
Mumbai
Mumbai
An investigation report by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on the midair cabin pressure fai lure in an Air India ight from Mumbai to Kochi last year, has blamed faulty ow control valves which led to alarm bells going o at 39,000 feet and oxygen masks being deployed.
DGCA investigation into midair cabin pressure failure says crew not to blame Aditya Anand
More than 1,300 answer sheets of the Higher Secon dary Certicate (HSC) ex am kept in the oce of the Block Development Ocer in Kaij, Beed district, were burnt in a re on Saturday, the police said on Sunday. Most of the answer sheets were for three sub jects, but those for Mathe matics and Urdu were damaged the most, said M.V. Naik, subdivisional ocer of police, Kaij. The re was spotted by employees, who informed the police. An ocial said answer sheets are collected and sent to the BDO oce, from where they are distri buted for checking.
Emergency landing The incident on February 27, 2017, saw the aircraft with 58 passengers and crew under take an emergency landing in Mangaluru. This was followed by an investigation by the DGCA’s Air Safety Directorate for lessons that may help prevent such future incidents.
decision to < > The divert and land the aircraft at Mangaluru was appropriate. The pilot made a safe emergency landing The DGCA report
The report said the pilot declared an emergency dur ing cruise when there was a rapid increase in cabin alti tude due to cabin pressurisa tion failure. “The decision to divert and land the aircraft at Man galuru was appropriate. The pilot made a safe emergency landing. There was no injury to any of the aircraft occu pants and also there was no damage to the aircraft. Thus ight crew qualication and
operations of the aircraft is not considered a contributo ry factor to the incident,” the DGCA report said. The report added that weather did not contribute to the incident either. No pre-departure snag The report said there was no predeparture snag and the cabin pressurisation failed during cruise, which led to declaration of emergency and deployment of oxygen masks. It explained that upon inspection, ow con trol valve no.2 was found to be sluggish and was con rmed to be faulty. “The aircraft was being served by only one pack for air conditioning. There was also a fault message for ow control valve no.1. The snag
on this ow control valve could however not be con rmed on inspection. This anomaly in serviceability of ow control valve is possible as environmental conditions are not the same at higher al titude (39,000 feet) and on ground. Flow control valve no. 2 malfunctioned and [bled] through ow control valve no.1, which was not sucient to maintain pres surisation in the cabin at higher altitude. Insucient bleed led to depressurisation of the cabin,” the report concluded. Following the incident, Air India carried out detailed checks and snag rectication procedures, replacing con trol units and ow valves that were tested again and found to be satisfactory.
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Three adult leopards and two cubs were let loose in Bondla zoo in South Goa af ter unknown persons opened their cages on Sa turday, forcing the zoo authorities to close the zoo to visitors for a day. Ocials said in a state ment that all three adult le opards were found and ta ken back to their cages. An operation was on to cap ture the two leopard cubs, who are still missing within the zoo premises. The zoo is run by the State Forest Department. “A police complaint has been led in the matter and necessary steps are being taken by the Ponda police station. The zoo was closed to visitors on Satur day,” the statement issued by the zoo said.
BJP oers ministerial post to Congress MLA Nitesh Rane Narayan Rane undecided over Rajya Sabha oer Alok Deshpande Mumbai
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah has of fered former Congress lead er Narayan Rane’s son, Con gress MLA Nitesh Rane, a ministerial post during a meeting held between the two last week in Delhi. A source also said that Na rayan Rane has not decided on the Rajya Sabha seat that the BJP has reportedly of fered him, as the former chief minister is not interest ed in leaving the State. On Saturday, Nitesh tweeted, “Wellwishers like us want Rane Saheb to be in state politics for longer time ..Maharashtra needs him
Rane family is in < > The two minds, since Nitesh is the only family member currently holding a legislative post An aide of Narayan Rane
more..We want to see him in The Vidhan sabha n not the Rajya sabha..hope he consi ders!Fingers Crossed!!” The Hindu has learned that Mr. Shah, in his meeting with Mr. Rane, oered a mi nisterial post for his son on the condition that Nitesh re signs as MLA rst. An aide of Mr. Rane said, “The Rane family is in two minds, since Nitesh is the
only family member cur rently holding a legislative post and if he should sacrif ice it for a possible ministe rial post.” Nitesh refused to comment when asked about the BJP’s oer. The Congress, mean while, is unlikely to take any action against its MLA, as this will result in the party losing its claim to the post of Leader of Opposition to the Nationalist Congress Party. Sources close to Mr. Rane said, “He is not interested in Delhi politics and wants to ensure that he plays the next political innings in the State.” The sources said the decision will be taken within a day or two.
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THE HINDU
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IN BRIEF
Kanam re-elected Kerala CPI secretary MALAPPURAM
Kanam Rajendran was unanimously reelected Communist Party of India Kerala secretary for yet another term on the final day of the party State conference here on Sunday. The fourday meet was held ahead of the 23rd party congress scheduled for the last week of April in Kollam.
Tension in Kadapa district as TDP, YSRCP clash KURNOOL
Tension gripped Pulivendula town in Kadapa district on Sunday as activists of the ruling TDP and the Opposition YSR Congress pelted stones at each other. This follows the recent war of words between the leaders of the parties claiming to have developed Pulivendula during their rule and challenging each other to a public debate.
Kerala PSC bats for transgenders
Modi lauds willpower of youth ‘People of Nagaland, Tripura and Meghalaya have totally rejected the Congress’ Staff Reporter
Seeks govt. directive to include them in recruitment process
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N.J. Nair THIRUVANANTHAPURAM
The Kerala Public Service Commission is set to write a new chapter in its recruit ment history by attempting to carve a space for transgen ders in the State government service. After deciding to bring the community within the ambit of the State civil service, the commission has sought a go vernment directive to ac commodate them in its re cruitment process. The commission would be able to act only on the basis of the government’s decision. Chairman M.K. Sakeer said the commission had ta ken a number of pathbreak ing initiatives as part of the yearlong diamond jubilee celebrations that concluded this week. The most signi cant was the decision to ad
We are getting applications from transgenders, but do not have a provision to accommodate them
M.K. Sakeer State Public Service Commission Chairman
dress the job aspirations of transgenders. Unlike other State commissions that re cruit candidates to select posts, the Kerala commis sion is the sole appointing authority to all arms of the State civil service from pol ice to teachers. Rules have to be amended “At present, all application forms of the commission have only two columns, for male and female candidates. We are getting applications from transgenders, but do not have a provision to ac
convention was held) of Kar nataka.” The Prime Minister started his speech by oering his “pranam” to the 110yearold seer of Siddaganga mutt, Shi vakumara Swami. Saying that the day he met the seer was unforgettable, he prayed for the seer’s good health and long life.
Tumakuru
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday described the Tripura election result as historic and attributed the Bharatiya Janata Party’s vic tory in the northeastern States to “youth and women power.” He was speaking after in augurating a convention tit led ‘Youth power — A vision for New India’, organised by the RamakrishnaViveka nanda Mutt in Tumakuru as part of its silver jubilee cele brations, via videoconfe rencing on Sunday.
commodate them. The grow ing requests for jobs from this section is a natural co rollary of the eorts made by the State to bring them to the mainstream of society. Now the commission wants to provide a space for transgen ders and has already written to the government in this re gard,” said Mr. Sakeer. The government will have to amend the Kerala State and Subordinate Service Rules, 1958, and identify the posts in which transgenders could be placed. This calls for a thorough scrutiny of each job prole and their re quirements. Secretaries and heads of departments would have to discuss and identify the posts suited for them and report to the government. The government would take a nal call on the basis of such reports, sources said.
Pep talk: PM Narendra Modi addressing a youth convention in Tumakuru via videoconferencing. SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT *
‘New India’ “The fortress of the Left was impenetrable. But today, we have conquered the Left bas tion, thanks to youth power, women power and the tri bals of that region,” he said. He said the people of Na galand, Tripura and Megha laya had totally rejected the
Congress, “voting against corruption, insecurity and disharmony” and electing the BJP to build a “new India.” Freedom struggle “We can see in the present generation of youngsters the
same willpower that was present in the youth during the time of the freedom struggle. That amazing will power came to the fore dur ing the elections in the three northeastern States, and it can be experienced in the stadium (where the youth
Speech in Hindi Mr. Modi also spoke about the various youth welfare pro grammes of the Union go vernment, including the go vernmentemarket, the establishment of skill centres across India, and selfemploy ment schemes. The Prime Minister began his speech by addressing the gathering in Kannada. He spoke in Hindi, which a majority of the students failed to understand. Around 12,000 students from the dierent districts at tended the convention.
‘Cave shrine will retain syncretic nature as a dargah’ Maoist killed in encounter laid to rest near Kazipet Karnataka opposes demand to declare Bababudan Dargah as an exclusive Hindu place of worship Special Correspondent
tion in the State. The govern ment had constituted the committee on July 13, 2017.
Chikkamagaluru
The Karnataka government has opposed the demand to declare the Sri Guru Datta treya Bababudan Swamy Dargah near Chikkamagalu ru as an exclusive Hindu place of worship, accepting the report submitted by an expert committee headed by Justice Nagamohan Das. With this, the government has maintained that the cave shrine will retain its syncret ic nature as a dargah vener ated by both Hindus and Muslims. The State Cabinet decided to accept the report on Sa turday. According to sources
Caught in a row: A le photo of the Sri Guru Dattatreya Bababudan Swamy Dargah. PRAKASH HASSAN *
privy to the content of the re port, the committee main tained that no rituals based on the Agama tradition could be allowed in the shrine. Any change in the nature of the shrine would be a vio
lation of the Places of Wor ship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991. Regarding the administra tion of the shrine, the com mittee said the government could treat it on the lines of any other religious institu
Terms of reference The terms of reference is sued while appointing the committee stated that it would go through the En dowment Commissioner’s recommendations about the rituals to be followed at the shrine, which were submit ted to the Supreme Court on March 10, 2010. Besides that, the commit tee would consider the ob jections to the recommenda tions and petitions led before the government fol lowing the apex court’s nal
order pronounced on Sep tember 3, 2015. In its nal or der, the Supreme Court had directed the State govern ment to take a call on the En dowment Commissioner’s recommendations. The committee conduct ed hearings in Bengaluru. The controversy began in 1975 when the State govern ment decided to transfer the shrine from the Muzrai De partment to the Wakf Board. Till then this had been a pil grimage visited by both Hin dus and Muslims. Hindus treated it as the abode of Dat tatreya Swamy, while Mus lims considered it the place of Dada Hayat Mir Qalandar.
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Dadaboina Swamy joined the banned outt in 2001 Special Correspondent WARANGAL
The last rites of Dadaboina Swamy alias Prabhakar, who was killed in the encounter which took place on Friday on the border of Chhattis garh and Telangana, were conducted on Sunday at his native village in Rampet, near Kazipet in Warangal Ur ban district. Family members, rela tives and villagers took part in the funeral. Swamy had joined the banned naxal outt in 2001. He had been in contact with
his family members till 2007 and left Warangal after the police began focussing on his activities. He had not been in con tact with his family mem bers since then. Family claims body “We came to know of his death only after the police revealed his identity,” said Sammaiah, elder brother of Swamy. The family members then rushed to Bhadracha lam to claim the body from police custody. They re turned with the mortal re
mains on Saturday night. Several naxal sympathis ers took part in the funeral. Leaders of the Telangana Revolutionary Writers’ Asso ciation, the Telangana De mocratic Front, and the Hu man Rights Association condoled the death of Swamy. Telangana Revolutionary Writers’ Association mem ber Basith alleged that the encounter was fake and de manded that the Chief Minis ters of Chhattisgarh and Te langana take responsibility for the incident.
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IN BRIEF
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Weather Watch
Humanity sans borders
Rainfall, temperature & air quality in select metros yesterday
No politics in meeting Sri Sri: Adityanath A rhino killed by poachers inside the Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary in Morigaon district of Assam.
LUCKNOW
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday said no political angle should be imputed to his meeting with Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, who is trying for a solution to the Ayodhya dispute through mediation. “No politics should be seen behind the meeting,” he said at a press conference here. PTI
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FILE PHOTO: RITU RAJ KONWAR
Rhino killed by poachers Press Trust of India Tezpur (Assam)
Woman pilgrim from Bihar dies in J&K JAMMU
A 58-year-old woman pilgrim died of cardiac arrest after paying obeisance at the shrine of Mata Vaishno Devi in Reasi district of Jammu and Kashmir, a police official said on Sunday. Ramakashi Devi, a resident of Rampur in Bihar, complained of chest pain and uneasiness late on Saturday night and was taken to a dispensary near the shrine by her family members, he said. PTI
Mentally unsound woman commits suicide MUZAFFARNAGAR
A 35-year-old woman, believed to be mentally unsound, allegedly committed suicide by hanging herself from the ceiling of her house in the district, the police said. Sangita committed suicide at her residence in Khatoli town on Saturday, they said, adding that the body has been sent for a post-mortem. PTI
Man arrested with over 8 kg of cannabis CHAMBA
The Chamba police on Sunday arrested a man on charges of drug peddling from Nakrot here and over 8 kg of cannabis was seized from him, an official said. Mahesh Kumar was arrested from Nakrot in the Churah subdivision. The police seized 8.570 kg of cannabis from him. PTI
Citizens form a human chain at Connaught Place in Delhi on Sunday to condemn the ongoing war in Syria.
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SUSHIL KUMAR VERMA
BSP to back SP in U.P. bypolls Mayawati says that it doesn’t amount to a formal alliance between the two parties Omar Rashid LUCKNOW
The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) on Sunday indicated that it would extend support to the Samajwadi Party in the Phulpur and Gorakhpur Lok Sabha bypolls scheduled for March 11. The party had not elded its candidates for the two seats. However, BSP president Mayawati claried that the decision did not amount to a formal alliance between the two parties. She said reports suggesting that the SP and the BSP had entered into an al liance for 2019 were “baseless and wrong” and being spread by mischievous elements. She said she had only ap pealed to her supporters and party workers to vote for the “opposition party candidates in the strongest position” to
defeat the BJP in Phulpur and Gorakhpur. The former Chief Minister though hinted that her party did not rule out a strategic transfer of votes with the SP in the upcoming Rajya Sabha and Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council elections to keep out the BJP's extra nominees.
the Rajya Sabha. It is not yet clear if she will contest the election to the Upper House. Though SP president Akhi lesh Yadav has gone all out to ensure a united opposition front, including the BSP and the Congress, in the bypolls, he has not yet reacted to Ms. Mayawati's fresh remarks.
‘Final decision’ “Except in Karnataka [where she has alligned with Dewe Gowda's Janata Dal (Secular)] the BSP has not entered into any alliance or understanding in any other State. A nal decision will be ta ken when 2019 Lok Sabha elections are declared,” Ms. Mayawati said. As per the strategy, the BSP will support the SP getting its MLCs elected in U.P., while the SP will help Ms. Mayawa ti's party send a candidate to
No threat: Yogi Chief Minister Yogi Aditya nath dismissed the idea that a combined force of the SP and BSP would be any threat to the BJP. Though he did not say it di rectly, he cited the incompat ibility and bitter rivalry of the two parties through a cou plet: “Kah Rahim kaise nibhe, ker ber ko sang.“ Ms. Mayawati's clarica tion came hours after her Go rakhpur and Allahabad oce bearers declared support to
the respective SP candidates. A combined SP and BSP force, if resonated on the ground, has the potential to stretch out the BJP, at least in Phulpur, the seat it won for the rst time in 2014 under the Modi wave. That year, the BJP won both Phulpur and Gorakhpur, securing over 50% votes on each seat, 13% more than the combined vote of the SP and the BSP. However, in the 2017 As sembly elections, while the BJP and its allies won all 10 Assembly segments in Phul pur and Gorakhpur, the SP and the BSP combined defeat ed the BJP candidate on six of them. In addition, in Gorakhpur Rural the combined vote of the SP and the Nishad Party, which is this time directly al ligned with Akhilesh Yadav, was more than the BJP’s tally.
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An adult rhino, which strayed away from the Kazi ranga National Park, was killed and its horn taken away by poachers in Majuli district, a forest depart ment ocial said on Sunday. The carcass of the female rhino with its horn missing was recovered on Sunday morning at Lohore Chapori situated northwest of Shankarghat at Dergaon by villagers who informed lo cal forest ocials, Division al Forest Ocer of Kaziran ga National Park Rohini Ballav Saikia said. 9 round of bullets Stating that the rhino was killed on Saturday night by poachers taking advantage of heavy rain, Mr. Saikia said the animal hunters shot nine rounds from a .303 rie to kill the rhino as evident from the empty car tridges recovered from the spot. The rhino reached Majuli district walking over the sandbar of the river Brah maputra after it had strayed away from the Agaratoli Range of the Kaziranga Na tional Park on February 22 last, the DFO said. This is the third rhino killed by poachers since Ja nuary this year with the earlier two rhinos killed in Kaziranga and this one out side the Park area.
Temperature Data: IMD, Pollution Data: CPCB, Map: Skymet (Taken at 17.00 Hrs)
Forecast for Monday: Thunderstorm accompanied with squall likely at isolated places over Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura. city rain max min Agartala.................. -.... 34.5.... 23.8 Ahmedabad............. -.... 35.2.... 19.8 Aizawl .................... -.... 30.0.... 14.0 Allahabad ............... -.... 34.3.... 16.4 Bengaluru ............... -.... 34.4.... 18.3 Bhopal.................... -.... 34.5.... 19.1 Bhubaneswar .......... -.... 39.7.... 21.6 Chandigarh ............. -.... 27.5.... 14.6 Chennai .................. -.... 34.7.... 21.5 Coimbatore............. -.... 37.0.... 20.6 Dehradun................ -.... 28.7.... 14.0 Gangtok...............0.1.... 16.2.... 11.0 Goa ........................ -.... 31.0.... 22.0 Guwahati ................ -.... 29.8.... 17.0 Hubballi.................. -.... 34.0.... 18.0 Hyderabad .............. -.... 36.9.... 20.3 Imphal.................0.2.... 27.2.... 14.4 Jaipur ..................... -.... 34.4.... 18.0 Kochi...................... -.... 33.0.... 25.2 Kohima................... -.... 21.7...... 8.0 Kolkata................... -.... 35.6.... 23.6
city rain max min Kozhikode ................ -.... 34.5.... 24.7 Kurnool .................... -.... 38.5.... 22.1 Lucknow................... -.... 33.7.... 17.0 Madurai.................... -.... 36.8.... 21.4 Mangaluru ................ -.... 34.2.... 23.6 Mumbai.................... -.... 34.8.... 22.6 Mysuru..................... -.... 34.3.... 14.8 New Delhi ................ -.... 33.1.... 17.1 Patna ....................... -.... 33.5.... 16.6 Port Blair ................. -.... 31.0.... 22.7 Puducherry............... -.... 33.2.... 19.5 Pune ........................ -.... 35.7.... 18.4 Raipur ...................... -.... 37.0.... 23.0 Ranchi...................... -.... 34.2.... 16.9 Shillong.................... -.... 22.1.... 10.0 Shimla...................5.8.... 14.7...... 5.0 Srinagar ................2.6...... 8.4...... 4.5 Trivandrum .............. -.... 34.3.... 24.2 Tiruchi ..................... -.... 35.9.... 20.6 Vijayawada ............... -.... 36.7.... 20.0 Visakhapatnam .......... -.... 32.8.... 21.8
Pollutants in the air you are breathing
Yesterday
CITIES
SO2 NO2 CO PM2.5 PM10 CODE
Ahmedabad..... Bengaluru ....... Chennai .......... Delhi .............. Hyderabad ...... Kolkata ........... Lucknow ......... Mumbai .......... Pune............... Visakhapatnam
81 ..5 12 24 19 .....7 23 80 38
101 .31 .15 127 .69 .....70 .46 .34 .74
39 44 35 51 23 ..41 83 51 39
... 59 ... 49 ... 90 . 214 . 133 ....... 140 ... 95 . 126 ... 51
...................223 .137 .............131 .117 .108
....* ....* ....* ....* ....* .........* ....* ....* ....*
In observations made at 4 p.m., Talcher recorded an air quality index (AQI) score of 388, indicating high levels of pollutants in the air. In contrast, Panchkula recorded a healthy AQI score of 40.
Air Quality Code: * Poor * Moderate * Good (Readings indicate average AQI) SO2: Sulphur Dioxide. Short-term exposure can harm the respiratory system, making breathing difficult. It can affect visibility by reacting with other air particles to form haze and stain culturally important objects such as statues and monuments. NO2: Nitrogen Dioxide. Aggravates respiratory illness, causes haze to form by reacting with other air particles, causes acid rain, pollutes coastal waters. CO: Carbon monoxide. High concentration in air reduces oxygen supply to critical organs like the heart and brain. At very high levels, it can cause dizziness, confusion, unconsciousness and even death. PM2.5 & PM10: Particulate matter pollution can cause irritation of the eyes, nose and throat, coughing, chest tightness and shortness of breath, reduced lung function, irregular heartbeat, asthma attacks, heart attacks and premature death in people with heart or lung disease
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IN BRIEF
Royal Bengal Tiger in Lalgarh proves elusive KOLKATA
The Forest Department’s effort to capture the Royal Bengal Tiger spotted at Lalgarh in West Bengal is yet to see any success as it remained elusive till late on Sunday. The presence of the tiger was confirmed on Friday when photographs showed it roaming.
IndiGo Airbus grounded at Pune airport MUMBAI
Another IndiGo Airbus A320 Neo aircraft with Pratt & Whitney engine was grounded on Sunday at the Pune airport prior to its departure for New Delhi due to an oil chip detection in one of its engines, a source said. IndiGo later operated the flight with another aircraft but in the process it was delayed by more than four hours. PTI
Police gun down murder suspect in U.P. encounter MEERUT
The Meerut police on Saturday gunned down an alleged criminal, Sujeet Singh Jat. He was a prime suspect in the murders of three people from the same family, and carried a reward of 50,000. The State police have gunned down 41 alleged criminals in over 1,200 encounters so far.
‘Be ready to ght your own battle’
TB drugs policy to be discussed at meet
Javed Abidi had urged people with disability to stand up for their rights
Limited access to newer therapies in focus
Garimella Subramaniam Chennai
Sitting in his oce in Delhi’s Hauz Khas in the summer of 1998, Javed Abidi was for thright about how people with disability could help themselves: by standing up for their rights under the Constitution with dignity and a sense of equality. This simple truism had a ring of profoundness to it be cause it was the clearest ar ticulation of the challenge by any activist in the movement. Pragmatic strategy The clear conviction of Abi di, who passed away on Sun day aged 53, that the dis abled must ght their own battles, combat injustice and discrimination with support from fellow travellers pre sented a new vision. His un derstanding that such a mis sion could only be carried out under the democratic constitutional scheme of things bore evidence of a clearsighted, realistic and pragmatic strategy. During the past two decades, he ex ecuted this agenda in every campaign that he spearhead
‘208 cr released for salaries on Feb. 28’ Prasar Bharati CEO refutes media reports
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ed, under the banner of the National Centre for Promo tion of Employment for Dis abled People (NCPEDP) and the Disability Rights Group (DRG). The rstever comprehen sive law for dis abled people, the Supreme Court ruling on equal ac cess to passengers in wheelchairs, the census enumeration of disability in 2001, recruitment under the allIndia services and the po tentially transformative 2016 law testify to the ecacy of that approach. The NCPEDP, which Abidi led, is an unusual entity both within the NGO community
New Delhi
much a lobby group, press ing the government, public institutions and the private sector on policies. Indeed, his fundamental premise was that no area of socioeconomic, cultural and political life fell outside the purview of disability. Above partisan politics When the new disability rights Bill did not get passed under the UPA, he made no secret of his disappoint ment, including the lack of initiative of the Left parties. Yet, even with strong politi cal conviction, he scrupu lously kept disability rights above partisan politics. He worked closely with the cur
Special correspondent
DRI allows prosecution of Nirav Modi, rms
Special Correspondent
Mr. Vempati tweeted that attempts to create panic were mala de.
the Prasar Bharati had not signed an MoU with it as re quired by autonomous bo dies getting grantsinaid by the government. Mr. Vempati tweeted, “Noticed reports in sections of media on nondisbursal of salaries to DD & AIR sta. 208 cr towards salaries were released on the 28 Feb 2018. Attempts to create panic malade.”
New Delhi
Asian News International
The Central Bureau of Inves tigation on Sunday arrested a chartered accountant and three executives of the Nirav ModiMehul Choksi group of companies in connection with the Punjab National Bank fraudulent transac tions. The agency has so far arrested 18 accused in two cases. Among those arrested are Manish K Bosamiya, then as sistant general manager (op erations) and Miten Anil Pandya, the then nance manager of Mr. Modi’s ag ship company Firestar Inter national Limited. They were allegedly in volved in preparing the ap plications that were submit ted to the bank for raising
New Delhi
Fair inquiry into Kathua rape case, says J&K Deputy CM He discounted any CBI inquiry for the time being Peerzada Ashiq Srinagar
Senior BJP leader and Jammu & Kashmir Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh on Sunday said a “fair inquiry” will be held in the Kathua rape and murder case, and discounted any CBI inquiry for the time being, as a senior leader from coa lition partner Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) threatened to snap ties over the issue. “The murder of the [eight yearold] girl is shocking. No sane person will support such criminal acts. A fair inqui ry will be held in the case and no unne cessary harassment to anyone would be allowed,” said Mr. Singh, while respond ing to questions on handing over the case to the CBI in Jammu. ‘Defusing tension’ On the presence of the two BJP Minis ters in the recentlyheld rally by the Hin du Ekta Manch, a body formed to de fend the three accused held in the case, Mr. Singh said, “The Ministers had gone to defuse the tension. Agitators there were also demanding justice but op posed any excesses during the investiga tion. The Ministers were not there to take sides but to assure that the culprits will be punished.” Mr. Singh refused to comment on the viral video where BJP Minister Choud hary Lal Singh questions the govern ment’s move to hand over the case to a Valleybased police ocer in the Crime Branch. “Criminals have no religion. All com munities are concerned by what hap pened to the girl.,” said Mr. Singh. CM YK
and among institutions working in the area of dis ability. The organisation’s unique identity derives from its singleminded focus on advocacy for the rights of pe ople with all types of impair ments. Ever since its inception, the organisation steered clear of as suming any role in the delivery of rehabilitative, educational and other ser vices. What it did was to ll the vacuum in terms of poli cy and legal advocacy for dis abled people. What marked Abidi’s high ly visible, intense leadership was to reject the NGO strait jacket. The NCPEDP is as
Vidya Krishnan New Delhi
Global public health agen cies will discuss the Union Health Ministry’s policy on rationing new tuberculosis medicines at a forthcoming meeting in New Delhi. The Hindu had reported on Sunday that advanced medicines to treat Drug Re sistant Tuberculosis (DRTB) were available for only about 1,000 patients. Policy concerns Reacting to the report, Dr. Lucica Ditiu, executive se cretary of the Stop TB Part nership — a Genevabased nodal agency that recom mends policy interventions — said on Twitter: “We take note & serious discussions will take place in #Del hiEndTB. People with TB in India to have access to new drugs and regimens as re commended by WHO guide lines — when & whom can use. Currently, not for all — check @WHO recommendations.” Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to deliver the keynote address at the March 1217 ‘End TB Sum mit’ in the capital. The con ference, hosted by the go
Advanced medicines are available for only about 1,000 patients.
vernment, The Stop TB Partnership and the World Health Organisation (WHO) will discuss commitments from global heads of state ahead of the UN HighLevel Meeting (HLM) on TB in September. By conservative estimates, a third of the DR TB patients need the newer therapies, Bedaquiline and Delaminid. Case for control Arun Jha, Economic Adviser to the Health Ministry, said on Twitter that tighter con trol of new drugs was neces sary to ensure patients do not become resistant to the newer therapies also. Prof. Jennifer Furin, who teaches at Harvard Medical School, said, “Patients seek ing treatment for MDRTB are not oered these drugs, with public health ocials priding themselves on sav ing the drugs.”
Chartered accountant, three Papers on Aryan migration theory, Netaji at ICHR meet others held in PNB case CBI has so far arrested 18 people in the case
Press Trust of India
The Information and Broad casting Ministry released 208 crore for the salary of the employees of Doordar shan and All India Radio (AIR) on February 28, Prasar Bharati CEO S.S. Vempati said on Sunday. Mr. Vempati’s remarks came two days after news website The Wire quoted Prasar Bharati Chairman A. Surya Prakash as saying that the public broadcaster had to pay sta salary for Janu ary and February out of its contingency funds as the Ministry had not released the funds. The Wire had claimed that the delay in release of funds was due to the alleged stando between the Prasar Bharati and the I&B Ministry. Reacting to the news re port, the I&B Ministry had issued a statement saying
Leading from the front: A le photo of the convenor of Disabled Rights Group, Javed Abidi, centre, leading a protest in Delhi S. SUBRAMANIUM
rent and past NDA govern ments, though. Abidi internalised the idea that the perfect is the enemy of the good. Many sections of disabled people rejected the new 2016 law, the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, but he argued that under the circumstances, this was the best that could be done. He saw the recognition given to 21 disability conditions as major progress, considering that the 1995 law dened on ly seven types. Abidi welcomed the new law also because it provided for penalties, which the 1995 Act did not. His sta were despatched to lobby with ev ery Ministry, including Bud getmaking in Finance, the Transport and Urban Deve lopment Ministries, and even the formulation of smart city programmes. His leadership and advo cacy won him a second term as the global chair of the Dis abled People’s International in 2016. He would have been happier if the Centre had created a dedicated Ministry to protect the rights of the large number of disabled pe ople in India. Initial reports indicated that Javed Abidi succumbed to a chest infection. He is sur vived by his mother, a youn ger brother and a younger sister.
2 separatists shifted from Srinagar jail Two separatist leaders, including Deeni Mahaz chief Dr. Muhammad Qasim Fakhtoo, have been shifted from the Srinagar Central Jail to Jammu’s Hiranagar Subjail. This follows recommendation from security agencies after LeT militant Naveed Jutt escaped on February 6.
One militant killed in Shopian: Army The Army said it killed one local militant, Shahid Ahmad Dar, after a patrol vehicle came under re in Shopian district on Sunday evening. The Army said a check post was red upon by militants near Pohan in Shopian. “In retaliatory ring, one terrorist was killed,” said an Army spokesman. The ruling PDPBJP coalition wit nessed a widening gulf over the kidnap ping, rape and murder of the nomad tribe girl in January earlier this year. Senior PDP leader and J&K Education Minister Altaf Bukhari on Saturday threatened to “end the alliance with the BJP if it fails to deliver justice”. On Sunday, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti hailed the people of Jammu “for upholding the tenets of tolerance”.
The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence on Sunday sanctioned the prosecution of Nirav Modi and his three rms in connection with billion dollar Punjab National Bank fraud case.
The decision was taken as per the guidelines of the Central Board of Excise and Customs on the prosecution of persons in duty evasion cases. The trial in the said case is expected to be launched shortly.
Letters of Undertaking. “Sanjay Rambhia, a partn er in the Mumbaibased chartered accountancy rm Sampat and Mehta, has also been arrested. He audited Mr. Modi’s company, but failed to ag the irregulari ties,” said a CBI ocial. Ani yath Shiv Raman Nair, the then director of Mr. Choksi’s company Gili India Limited, has been arrested as part of
the ongoing investigation. “It was alleged that be sides being a director of the Gitanjali group of compa nies, he was an authorised signatory for the applica tions made to the PNB for is suance of LoUs and Foreign Letters of Credit (FLC),” said the ocial. The agency may arrest more accused in the two cas es involving the companies.
#5 7 3 0 1 9
NEW DELHI
Research papers ranging from those seeking to ques tion the Aryan migration theory to claiming that Brit ish and Indian governments suppressed information on the disappearance of free dom ghter Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose will be pre sented at a threeday confe rence being organised by the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR), beginning on Monday.
Newly appointed ICHR chairman Arvind Jamkhed kar will deliver the presiden tial address at the confe rence, titled ‘Indian History: Emerging Perspectives’. A perusal of the pro gramme of the conference suggests that papers seeking to question the Aryan migra tion theory — that cites phil ological evidence to claim that Aryans came to India from outside around 1,500 BC — constitute a crucial part of the programme.
Another paper claiming that governments had con cealed information on Neta ji’s “disappearance” will be presented by Purabi Roy, an ICHR member. The conference will also have papers on science in In dian history, with Amartya Dutta presenting a paper on ‘Mathematics Gems in Vedic and Sutra Literature’ and K. Ramasubramanian present ing a paper, ‘The Kerala School of Astronomers and their Discovery of Calculus’.
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8 EDITORIAL
NOIDA/DELHI
THE HINDU
MONDAY, MARCH 5, 2018
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The saron breeze in the Northeast Most regional parties prefer the BJP as their national partner, but managing contradictions won’t be easy
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here is a reason that the Bharatiya Janata Party is disproportionately pleased with its performance in Tripura, which sends only two members to the Lok Sabha. From zero to 35 seats in the 60member As sembly in ve years is unarguably no mean electoral ac complishment. But having done this by beating the Left Front, its strongest ideological opponent, even if not the biggest political threat nationally, has given Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah a special satisfaction. Mr. Modi wanted a victory in Trip ura to be celebrated as much as the victory in Uttar Pra desh, which sends the largest number of members to the Lok Sabha. Mr. Shah saw in Tripura a reason for his party workers in West Bengal and Kerala to be extreme ly happy. The BJP likes to imagine that the Left has wielded a disproportionate inuence on political dis course, resulting in pushing the entire Sangh Parivar in to a place of political isolation and unacceptability. It is true that the BJP’s diculties in nding allies for much of the eighties and the nineties had a lot to do with the Left, particularly the Communist Party of India (Mar xist), which propped up an eective secular platform for regional parties opposed to the Congress. If the BJP kept its core Hindutva issues on the back burner during the Vajpayee years in government, then it was in no small measure due to pressure from its allies who were earlier part of a Leftbacked grouping that treated the Congress as the biggest enemy and the BJP as beyond the pale. The real story in Tripura is of course the col lapse of the Congress votebank. Clearly, the antiLeft, antiincumbency vote, which includes the tribal vote, has moved completely to the BJP. A tieup with the Con gress, therefore, would not have been the answer to the Left’s loss in Tripura, where it ruled for 25 years. What it needs to do is win back some of the tribal votes that the Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura spirited away to the BJP. The BJP has something to cheer about in Nagaland as well: it won 11 seats and is in a position to form a govern ment with the support of its ally, the Nationalist Demo cratic Progressive Party, a breakaway group of a former ally, the Naga Peoples Front. The smaller northeastern States, heavily dependent on the Centre for funds, have a tendency to back the party ruling at the Centre. Like the Congress earlier, the BJP is currently the beneci ary. In Meghalaya, the Congress managed to emerge as the single largest party, but the BJP, with two members, is helping the National People’s Party form the govern ment. After being denied in Manipur and Goa last year, when it could not form the government despite being the single largest party, the Congress actively pursued alliances, but with little luck. The Northeast is in no po sition to help any party win the battle for the Lok Sab ha, but the winner of the battle for the Lok Sabha is in the best position to win the Northeast.
Avoid trade wars Throwing free trade out of the window will make Americans and everyone else poorer
W
orld leaders did well to avoid protectionist trade policies in the aftermath of the Great Recession of 2008. After all, they had learned their lessons from the global trade war of the 1930s which deepened and prolonged the Great Depression, or so it was thought. American President Donald Trump last week announced that his administration would soon impose taris on the import of steel and aluminium into the U.S. for an indenite period of time. The European Union, one of the largest trading partn ers of the U.S., has since vowed to return the favour through retaliatory measures targeting American ex porters. The EU is expected to come out with a list of ov er 100 items imported from the U.S. that will be subject to scrutiny. For his part, Mr. Trump has justied the de cision to impose protective taris by citing the U.S.’s huge trade decit with the rest of the world. He ex plained his logic in a tweet on Friday which exposed a shocking ignorance of basic economics. He likened his country’s trade decit to a loss that would be set right by simply stopping trade with the rest of the world. In ternational trade, like trade within the boundaries of any country, however, is not a zerosum game. So the trade decit does not represent a country’s loss either, but merely the ip side of a capital account surplus. This is not to deny that there are denitely some losers — for example, the U.S. manufacturing industry which lost out to competition from countries such as China due to increasing globalisation. But throwing free trade out of the window would only make Americans and everyone else poorer. Despite the global backlash, it is unlikely that Mr. Trump will walk back on his decision, especially given its populist resonance. Steelworkers in key States in the U.S. played a signicant role in Mr. Trump’s election win in 2016. In fact, these are the only people who will benet from the steel and aluminium taris while American consumers as a whole will pay higher prices for their goods. Mr. Trump’s desire to appeal to populist sentiment also explains why his protectionist turn comes in the midst of steadily improving economic growth. With Mr. Trump’s taris not going down well with the EU, it will be important to see how China and other major trading partners respond to his opening salvo. They can take a leaf out of the books of major glo bal central banks which have shown enough maturity to avoid using currency wars as a means to settle dis putes. Instead of retaliating with more taris, which could cause the current dispute to spiral into a full edged global trade war, the U.S.’s trading partners must try to achieve peace through negotiations. CM YK
Subir Bhaumik
O
f the three States whose As sembly election results were declared on March 3, Tripura’s was doubtlessly the most stunning. Tripura has been the saf est Left bastion since the Commu nist Party of India (Marxist)led Left Front rst swept to power in 1978. Only once since then, in 1988, did the Left Front lose to the CongressTUJS (Tripura Upajati Ju ba Samity) alliance, but it returned to power in 1993. Since then it has been in power, with Manik Sarkar as Chief Minister since 1998. So for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to emerge out of nowhere and score a spectacular victory by getting a majority in the Assembly on its own is nothing short of a miracle. Beneath this surprise lies a cob web of contradictions that the BJP’s election managers, especial ly Sunil Deodhar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s poll manager in Varanasi, seem to have managed so well. The Tripura manoeuvre By striking an alliance with the tri bal Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT) which demands a separate tribal State of Twipraland it wants carved out of the autono mous district council of the State, the BJP assured itself of a sweep in the 20 seats reserved for Sche duled Tribes. The IPFT has close
That explains the BJP sweep in Agartala and other urban areas. So with the tribal vote and the middle class urban Bengali vote swinging its way, all that the BJP needed was a small swing in the rural Bengali vote. While much of that remained with the Left (which is marginally behind the BJP in overall vote share), in the deep interiors domi nated by the IPFT’s militant cadre, the Bengali settlers seem to have voted against the Left, as it was seen to be no longer capable of de fending them in the event of a re surgent tribal insurgency. Fear of the unknown always haunts the rural Bengalis who have borne the brunt of tribal in surgency since the violence of 1980 — and a dominant BJP with a majority of its own was their best bet to tame the IPFT and nip the Twipraland demand in the bud. Politics is the art of managing the
A bid for all three The BJP parliamentary board has expressed the hope that despite not getting a clear majority in Na galand and also the Congress emerging as the single largest par ty in Meghalaya, the BJP will form the government in both these Christianmajority States. Again, the BJP seems to have managed the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (IsakMuivah) — NSCN (IM) — to back its bid for power with its new found ally and the Na ga People’s Front (NPF) may join in as well, all apparently to pave the way for a nal settlement of the Naga imbroglio. Failure to de liver a nal settlement more than two years after signing the Frame work Agreement would have nor mally jeopardised the poll pros pects of the BJP, especially after it fell out with the ruling NPF, but party general secretary Ram Mad hav’s political engineering in trig gering a successful split and then taming the main NPF and the NSCN is something that would have done Kautilya proud. But now the challenges. In Trip ura, the BJP has to deliver on its development promise — the new Chief Minister may do well to go for roadshows to attract big ticket investments to leverage the IT ga teway and may consider, for in stance, decommissioning the 10MW Gumti hydel project to re claim thousands of acres of fertile tribal land that the project sub
merged nearly four decades ago. While IT investments would ap peal to the young, both tribals and Bengalis, the dam decommission ing may open the path for ethnic reconciliation which the Marxists overlooked at their own peril by trying to play the wild card of Ben gali chauvinism. In Nagaland, the BJP has to de liver a nal settlement in a way that pleases most, if not all, rebel and political factions. This is no easy task in a very divided tribal society. In Meghalaya, where the BJP ap pears to have managed to deth rone Chief Minister Mukul Sangma (who led the Congress to emerge as the single largest party), it would have to hold together a coa lition of disparate regional players; ensuring the survival of such a coa lition will not be easy in Megha laya’s ‘aya ram gaya ram’ politics. Message for West Bengal Most regional parties in Northeast now prefer the BJP as their nation al partner, and not the Congress which has a tribal base, but ma naging the contradictions will be a a fulltime task. Meanwhile, the Tripura results will denitely wor ry one Chief Minister in particular — Mamata Banerjee in West Ben gal. It is easy to see why she spoke of Left arrogance and Congress missteps in not aligning with her party in Tripura. She seems to know that she will be the next to face the saron re. Subir Bhaumik, a former BBC bureau chief for East and Northeast India, is editorial consultant with Myanmar’s Mizzima Media
New star in a crowded sky? For all his challenges, Kamal Haasan appears to be in tune with Tamil Nadu’s historical preoccupation with welfarism haps but one who has never be fore occupied the Chief Minister’s seat. In this regard, Mr. Haasan has timed his entry well, as he stood virtually no chance of winning while these titans of the Dravidian movement reigned. Had he de layed his entry further, however, he would have risked losing ground to another inimitable chal lenger, fellow actor and the mega superstar, Rajinikanth. Mr. Rajini kanth, who announced his politi cal entry at the turn of the New Year, carries the hopes of millions of his fans but may have ceded a palpable advantage to Mr. Haasan by not outlining a concrete policy agenda, identifying party mem bers or charting a political strategy in terms of alliances. #5 7 3 0 1 9
Narayan Lakshman
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he timing of cinema super star Kamal Haasan’s entry in to politics can be considered brilliant or too little too late, de pending on the prognosis for Ta mil Nadu’s troubled polity. The death of former Chief Mi nister and head of the All India An na Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), Jayalalithaa, in Decem ber 2016, on the one hand and the stepping back from active politics of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) supremo, M. Karunanidhi on the other have produced a lea dership vacuum that has shaken the very foundations of gover nance in the State. This has been manifested in the meltdown of the AIADMK into bit ter factionalism and in the un leashing of a cycle of power strug gles to control the reins of the party. At one point, three separate vectors of power vied for the party crown, led by Edappadi K. Palanis wami, O. Panneerselvam, and T.T.V. Dinakaran, respectively. Si multaneously, the fortunes of the DMK have slipped into uncharted territory, with the party’s mantle going to Mr. Karunanidhi’s son, M.K. Stalin, a capable leader per
Reforming governance While this much is in Mr. Haasan’s favour, the secular decline in go vernance quality that began at least as far back in time as the 1990s has accelerated. This places limits on how much transforma tion his potential campaign could aspire for. Essentially, the past few decades have witnessed the rise of a massive rentseeking and extor tion network built on a culture of goonda politics. This has permeat ed every corner of the government and led to capital ight, with numerous foreign companies choosing neighbouring States for their ventures. This collapse in governance, re
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Setting foot in the NE For a party that continues to ride on the unabated popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, together with its focus on the development agenda, the election results from northeast India are bound to be a shot in the arm for the BJP, especially as it has now extended its dominance into hitherto new territory (“BJP stuns Left in Tripura”, March 4). The results will also end the politics of negativity engaged in by political adversaries of the BJP, as it is now clearly a panIndian party. Instead of engaging itself in thorough self introspection over its failure, the Left’s statements attributing the BJP’s victory to “money and muscle power” and “foul play by the BJP and RSS” are most unfortunate. The underlying lesson of the verdict is that in the end, what matters to the common man is the ability of political parties to help
ected in the failure of the ruling party to execute government pro grammes eciently and deliver re lief to a State that has suered mul tiple natural and manmade calamities, has been driven in large part by a patronclient rela tionship that governing elites en joy with the governed. The result of last December’s byelection in the R.K. Nagar Assembly consti tuency, which is acknowledged to have turned entirely on cash pay ments made to its electorate, is on ly one recent and disturbing illus tration of how the polity has eectively been marketised. Yet, while Jayalalithaa was alive and Mr. Karunanidhi was in charge, the two Dravidian parties had little trouble securing the mandate of the people in election after election. In part this was achieved through the sheer mo neymuscle combination. To a considerable extent the weight of 20th century history has been the wind beneath these parties’ wings. The Dravidian movement was quintessentially an ethnic mobili sation of common Tamil men and
Dravidianism redux Mr. Haasan lacks a living, histori cal connection to this movement, unlike some of his potential rivals. It is true that Dravidianism no lon ger exists in its prior radical form. It has, at least since the 1990s, shed its antiBrahmin, antiHindu, antiHindi and antiNorthIndia undertones in favour of a broad, inclusive strand of political accom modationism for all Tamils. Yet, there is a residual feeling of Tamil exceptionalism which motivates voting behaviour, and continues to present an opportunity to politi cally mobilise. Despite this lacuna, Mr. Haasan does enjoy one inherent advan tage that could yet help him pro ject a close tie to the needs of the Tamil person: his worldview ap pears to be in sync with those of the forbears of the Dravidian movement such as Periyar. First, he considers himself an atheist and a rationalist, which is the cor rect philosophical leaning for Ta mil Nadu. Second, his apparent leaning to ward leftofcentre politics and a distaste for Hindutva suggests that he is in tune with Tamil Nadu’s his torical preoccupation with mass welfarism and that he has moved past his own Brahmin origins —
not unlike Jayalalithaa herself. Finally, being equally comforta ble in Tamil and English, he has left open the option to straddle the worlds of the elites and the masses in this State, an important asset for an aspiring leader. Between these countervailing forces that could either boost Mr. Haasan’s bid for power or bring it crashing down, the ultimate out come would hinge upon his ability to answer this: what are the most urgent needs of the common Ta milian today, and how can he sig nal that he is the best candidate to deliver on that need? Secondary questions that he will have to answer revolve around the nature of the party organisation that he will build up to make such political action a reality — in particular, whether it will have sucient ca pacity in terms of resource alloca tion and if he will be able to esta blish an organisational culture that eschews rentseeking. From Mr. Haasan’s perspective, Tamil Nadu must appear to be im bued with a Dickensian hue — the best of times and the worst of times — for political entry and as piration. Yet, if he can adroitly ma noeuvre through the inescapable obstructionism that the Dravidian incumbents will thrust onto his path, he may yet turn out to be the jolt of political uprightness that the Tamil Nadu ecosystem so des perately requires.
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him with his basic needs and aspirations. The resentment against the Left Front government was mainly because of rising unemployment. Both the Congress and the Left need to strengthen themselves at the grassroot level if they are to remain politically relevant; castigating the BJP on ‘secularcommunal’ lines has outlived its utility. B. Suresh Kumar, Coimbatore
The Left appears not to have learnt any lessons from experience. The use of phrases such as “money and muscle power” and “fascist communal Hindutva” show that those in the Left have not stopped repeating the same argument, election after election. People cannot be fooled always by the claim that all except the BJP are saints, free of corruption, criminalisation and communalism. The Left should ponder over why it has been relegated to the present position; perhaps its
■
women who, in 1967, uprooted and overawed the Congress par ty’s political networks that were based relatively more on patron age allocation through local elites. S. KRISHNAMOORTHY
For the BJP, the import of its victory in Tripura goes beyond numbers
contradictions. It now seems those who swear by Kautilya seem to handle it better than those who preach Marx and Engels, at least in India.
RITU RAJ KONWAR
Small arena, big win
connect to the separatist National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT), and the CPI(M) cadre is no match for the armed guerrillas who back the IPFT’s young mili tant cadres in the remote hill inte riors. But by not endorsing the Twipraland demand and by not giving the IPFT the majority of the ST reserved seats (11 contested by the BJP, nine by the IPFT), the BJP sent a clear message it would not be a junior partner to its ally, as in Jammu and Kashmir. That got the BJP much of the tribal backing, and also of Bengalis in rural re mote interiors who saw support to the BJP as their safest security op tion. Then by absorbing almost the entire Congressturned Trinamool Congress leadership in its fold, the BJP ensured that it ran away with the 30% Congress votebank. In Tripura, the ght has always tend ed to be between the Left and the antiLeft. With the Congress deci mated and seen as the Bteam of the Left, with Congress president Rahul Gandhi avoiding any attack against Mr. Sarkar, the antiLeft vo ter had no option but to go with the BJP as it was seen as the only viable option to dethrone the Left. The middle class Bengali vote swung the saron way because of the Left’s poor track record in em ployment generation, forcing Trip ura’s best brains to seek jobs in Pune, Bengaluru and Hyderabad. Mr. Sarkar’s refusal to meet the captains of IT industry during a 2015 Tripura Conclave organised to leverage Agartala’s emergence as India’s third Internet gateway did not go down well with Gen Next, tribals and Bengalis alike.
ideology and practices are no longer relevant. To start with, it should learn to support peoplefriendly policies. For the BJP, the party must not assume the victories to be the “people’s mandate for anything and everything”. P.R.V. Raja, Pandalam, Kerala
■ In the front page report, “BJP stuns Left in Tripura” (March 4, 2018), the last paragraph reads: “Among the factors that worked in favour of the BJPIPFT alliance were anti incumbency, alleged corruption by the Left front government, and allegations that the CPI(M) worked for the benet of only its workers and leaders.” To my knowledge, during its coverage of the election, The Hindu has not provided any evidence of corruption. Readers expect the daily to adhere to fair and even handed reportage. The correspondent cannot simply source his statements
about Left Front “corruption” to generalised “allegations.” Madhura Swaminathan, Bengaluru
Adivasi lynching The lynching of an Adivasi youth, Madhu, in Kerala, dees parallel in terms of its savagery and crudity (Editorial page, “The Adivasi in the mirror”, March 3). In Kerala, the Adivasis are not treated as human beings but as a lesser species. They would have been selfreliant by now had the thousands of crores spent on their uplift since Independence been distributed to them directly. The discourse around Adivasis needs a sea change especially from the one about holding out alms to them. Ayyasseri Raveendranath, Aranmula, Kerala
Being liquor-free Like the enlightened women in villages in Rajasthan who are bravely leading the battle against liquor consumption,
there are also sporadic reports of women elsewhere in India who are ghting back (‘Ground Zero’ page – “Voting against alcohol”, March 3). One does not need to be a scientist to know the illeects of alcohol and alcoholism and the ruin it causes. It is disturbing that many in the middle classes are now drinking. Celebrations on the imsiest grounds where alcohol is served have become a social norm. Pushpa Dorai, Nurani, Kerala
Still a height Our country is so obsessed with cricket that we are turning a blind eye to other sports (‘Weekend Sport’ page – “Leap of faith”, March 3). Recently, much of India was cheering its U19 cricket team. But did anyone spare a thought for our equally talented jumpers? They too deserve a chance. If India wants to emerge as a sporting nation, it should encourage and nancially
support forms of sport where there is potential. High jump is one. Vidhya B. Ragunath, Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu
Food for thought As data in the Global Hunger Index show, our country has ‘a serious hunger problem’ and ranks 100 out of 119 countries. Many young children die as there is inadequate food available to them. Given such a situation, it was upsetting that thousands of litres of milk were used in rituals around the Gomateshwara statue at the Mahamastakabhisheka Mahotsav, in Karnataka recently. Perhaps the milk could have been distributed to poor children rather than being allowed to ow away. My intention is not to hurt religious sentiments. Certain traditional customs and rituals need to be looked at again. Himanshu Gaur, Faridabad, Haryana
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THE HINDU
OPED 9
NOIDA/DELHI
MONDAY, MARCH 5, 2018
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Righting wrongs in land acquisition
FROM THE READERS’ EDITOR
A requiem for certitude
A Supreme Court Bench will decide whether the law has to be interpreted expansively or in a narrow sense
In July 2011, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government em barked on an ambitious project to rewrite the law on land acquisition. How the government acquired land from private parties had long been the subject of heated dispute, often resulting in violent conict. Several previous governments had made attempts to amend the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, but none had met with much success and the Act continued as an instrument of state oppression and forced displacement. It was a milestone achievement of the UPA government when the his toric Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act was passed in September 2013 with the full support of all political par ties, including the Bharatiya Janata Party. In fact, amendments suggest ed by the then Leader of the Opposi tion in the Lok Sabha, Sushma Swa raj, were readily accepted and made part of the law. The opening speaker in the debate was Rajnath Singh who welcomed the new law. The law pro vided for greatly enhanced compen sation, consent of those whose land was sought to be acquired, and de tailed rehabilitation and resettle ment provisions (including employ ment, land for land, and other benecial schemes). In other words, it changed the relationship between the state and the individual by empo wering the latter against the former. Returning land It also included a retrospective clause. Section 24 of the new Act pro vided that under certain circum stances, acquired land could be re turned to aected families. Data are being compiled, but it would be cor rect to say that thousands of families who had previously given up all hope had their acquisition proceedings set aside and their land returned under Section 24. This Section was upheld and imbued with substance by sever al judges of the Supreme Court and various High Courts. But in a stun ning volteface, the Narendra Modi
“If a land owner has refused compensation, should that land be forcibly acquired by the government in the name of ‘development’?” Those displaced by the Vamsadhara Phase II project in Hiramandalam, Andhra Pradesh, demand compensation. K. SRINIVASA RAO *
government brought in a draconian ordinance on January 1, 2015 to ren der this Section inoperative along with many other progressive and profarmer provisions in the 2013 law. However, in the face of over whelming nationwide protests led by the Congress and other likeminded parties, on August 30, 2016 Mr. Modi announced in a ‘Mann ki Baat’ speech the withdrawal of the amend ments proposed by his government. Now, the Supreme Court, in Indore Development Authority v. Shailendra (February 2018), has eective ly implemented the provisions of the lapsed ordinance with regard to the retrospective clause. Given that it is at variance with other Benches on the issue, this has now led to the con stitution of a vejudge Bench of the Supreme Court to decide whether the Section has to be interpreted ex pansively or in a narrow sense. As the Supreme Court gets ready to decide on the fate of this Section in a law that has positively impacted the lives of several farmers/ land owners, it would be appropriate to revisit the legislative intention that existed at the time of its drafting. It was clear at the draft stage itself that a new law on land acquisition would necessarily have to address the cases of those who had suered (and continued to suer) due to the unacceptable provisions of the 1894 law. There were still conicts sur rounding acquisitions that had been initiated decades earlier and where the acquired land was lying unused, bringing no benet to the state or the former owner.
A test had to be laid down to deter mine in which cases land could be re turned to the original owners. After much deliberation, including with leaders of the then opposition, a for mula was arrived at. There would be three categories. The rst category would comprise of those for whom the land acquisition award had been made less than ve years prior to the coming into force of the new law (be fore January 1, 2014 and after January 1, 2009). In such cases, the new law would not apply; the proceedings would continue under the old law. The second would be where the award had not been made (on the date of the new law coming into force) but the acquisition proceed ings had been initiated. In such cas es, the land owners would be entit led to enhanced compensation and all other rehabilitation and resettle ment benets as provided under the new law, but the acquisition process would continue under the 1894 Act. The third category would comprise of the cases of those for whom the land acquisition award had been made ve years (or more) prior to the new law coming into force and where either compensation had not been paid or there had been no phys ical possession of the land. It was rea soned that ve years was enough time for the acquiring authority to resolve all disputes, failing which it made no sense to hold on to the land. The Supreme Court decision in the Indore case does two things: one, it relaxes the existing denition of compensation paid from the active requirement of oering the compen
A.S. Panneerselvan
Journalists tend to focus more on the content of their reports rather than meditate on the craft of journalism. Experience in the profes sion sharpens one’s skills, helps to quickly separate the wheat from the cha, and ena bles one to intuitively compress the develop ments of the day in a report, with a sense of what is important for the public. However, this experience also lulls one into a world of certitude. It is not an everyday occurrence to have this certitude scrutinised by conscien tious objection. Cancer as a metaphor A front page report, “We will remove this cancer, says bank head Sunil Mehta” (Feb. 16, 2018), was read widely as the response of the MD and CEO of the Punjab National Bank to the 11,500 crore fraud that took place in one of the bank’s Mumbai branches. Neither the bank ocial nor the journalists who re ported and processed the copy saw any pro blem with the use of cancer as a metaphor to explain the crime. As a reporter, I have been guilty of using cancer as a metaphor to denote various ills: corruption, hatred, bad governance, inequality and social discrimination. It seemed to be an evocative metaphor. A powerful letter from the legendary cancer specialist and Chair of the Cancer Insti tute (WIA), Chennai, V. Shanta, blew this cer titude to smithereens. She was disturbed to read that “cancer” was being used in the context of a scam. She wrote: “Corruption is a crime and something to be ashamed of; cancer is not. Thousands of patients with cancer cross the portals of our hospital every year; we are proud and happy to say that ma ny of them are leading productive lives to day. We do not want the word ‘cancer’ to be associated with guilt, hopelessness or dread. And denitely not with shame.” The unintended harm caused by the use of cancer as metaphor was troubling. I want ed to understand the world of empathy re presented by physicians and oncologists and met Dr. Shanta at her spartan living quarters at the Cancer Institute. She explained the
Land owner versus the state This interpretation stands in contrast to a majority of the Supreme Court’s earlier judgments that upheld the Section and applied it expansively in favour of the land owner. In those judgments, the Section was (correct ly, in our opinion) interpreted in fa vour of securing the land owners’ in terests over those of the state. This was in sync with the foundational premise of the 2013 Act that it was never meant to help the state hold on to its land banks or to deny return of land on the basis of narrow techni calities. The question is simple: If a land owner has refused compensa tion, should that land be forcibly ac quired by the government in the name of ‘development’? The Supreme Court of India has often been at the forefront in the ght for the rights of the individual visàvis the state. It has on several occasions secured farreaching pro tections for the individual and made legislative safeguards stronger. We hope that the new vejudge Bench will continue in this ne tradition.
GETTY IMAGES/ ISTOCK PHOTO
Jairam Ramesh & MUhammad Khan
The unintended harm caused by the use of cancer as a metaphor is troubling. Journalism needs constant inquiry
sation and depositing the same in court (laid down by a threejudge Bench of the Supreme Court in a his toric 2014 decision). Now, an oer followed by deposit in the govern ment’s own treasury is sucient to qualify as compensation paid. Two, on the subject of physical posses sion, it lays down that the period where the government is prevented from taking possession of the land due to the operation of a stay order or injunction shall not be counted to wards the stipulated veyear re quirement. The 2013 Act had no such caveats or qualications because (i) the compensation would have to be oered in a meaningful fashion rath er than the passive act of mere depo sit in the treasury where it anyway resides; and (ii) stay or no stay, ve years was sucient time for a go vernment to resolve any pending liti gation on the subject. Having studied the ground reality for over three years, we can safely say that these new requirements (laid down by the Bench in the Indore case) will likely render the Section inoperable.
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Jairam Ramesh is an MP, and Muhammad Khan is an advocate and National Media Panelist of the Congress. Both were intimately associated with the drafting and passage of the 2013 land acquisition law
long journey of the institute to treat this ill ness that knows no barriers — caste, class, gender, or nationality. She said: “There are too many myths and stereotypes about can cer. These add to the confusion and dilem mas of a cancer patient. It extends to the fa mily and friends of the patient. The mindless use of the word cancer to denote a wilful act of crime is unfair to the patients because it tends to induce guilt where none is required. The irrelevant use of the term perpetuates myths about this illness. Isn’t it the media’s job to dispel myths?” What is the remedial measure for journal ists for our use of cancer as a metaphor? I spent the next three days reading Siddhartha Mukherjee’s The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer and Susan Sontag’s Illness as Metaphor. While the former is a Pu litzer Prizewinning work written by a physi cianresearcher who was moved by his patients, the latter is a reection by a ne es sayist who was a cancer patient. Journalistic lessons Mukherjee’s book not only explains the va rious facets of cancer but also the multiple metaphors associated with it, and their inhe rent limitations. He writes: “We tend to think of cancer as a “modern” illness because its metaphors are so modern. It is a disease of overproduc tion, of fulminant growths — growth unstoppable, growth tipped into the abyss of no control. Modern biology en courages us to imagine the cell as a molecular machine.” According to him, cancer lives “desperately, inventive ly, ercely, territorially, can nily, and defensively — at times, as if teaching us how to survive.” Sontag’s searing introduction is also a journalistic lesson: “My point is that illness is not a metaphor, and that the most truthful way of regarding illness — and the healthiest way of being ill — is one most puried of, most resistant to, metaphoric thinking. Yet it is hardly possible to take up one’s residence in the kingdom of the ill unprejudiced by the lurid metaphors with which it has been land scaped.” Her inquiry was aimed towards “an elucidation of those metaphors, and a libera tion from them.” Sensitive journalism demands the wisdom of constant inquiry and not the comfort of certitude.
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FROM
Plodding reforms
FIFTY YEARS AGO MARCH 5, 1968
Ceylon ready for talks on Kachathivu
Saudi Arabia has to do a lot more to begin a new journey in liberalisation
The Ceylon Prime Minister, Mr. Dudley Senanayake, is agreea ble to discuss the future of Kachathivu with the Indian Govern ment, Mrs. Indira Gandhi announced in the Rajya Sabha to day [March 4, New Delhi]. Making a statement in response to a callattention notice by Mr. N.R. Muniswamy (Cong.) on the re ported occupation of the island by Ceylon, the Prime Minister said she had received a communication from the Ceylon Prime Minister to the eect that matters concerning the island could be discussed between the two Governments in accordance with the procedures laid down during Mrs. Gandhi’s visit to Ceylon last September. “This appears to be adequate to deal with the situation,” she added.
Stanly Johny
AFP
In the latest in a series of steps aimed at enhancing women’s rights, Saudi Arabia has invited women to join its military. Saudi nationals aged between 25 and 35 were given the opportunity to apply for positions with the rank of soldier in Riyadh, Mecca, alQassim and Medina. Earlier this year, women were allowed to attend football matches. Last year, King Sal man issued a decree ending the ban on women driving. Supporters of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, King Salman’s 32yearold son, say these steps are part of the Prince’s broader reform agenda. After consolidating power, he had reined in the infamous Saudi religious police, the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, which is empowered with enforcing the kingdom’s strict morality code. Last month, a member of the country’s top clerical body said Saudi women need not wear the abaya, a fulllength, loosetting robe. Local reports from Ri yadh suggest that social life in the capital has now become more pleasant with the religious police, which often patrols the streets in large SUVs, hardly seen. Prince Mohammed, whose ambition for the throne is hardly a secret, is hardselling a new narrative about Saudi Arabia. He’s presenting himself as a reformer and modernis er who could change the way Saudi Arabia lives. Besides these tentative reform measures, he had also arrested sever al of the kingdom’s princes and senior ocials in what the government calls a crackdown on corruption. Some have bought into this narrative, including The New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, who called Prince Mohammed’s power grab “Saudi Arabia’s Arab Spring”. The changes introduced by Prince Mohammed are indeed a big deal by Saudi Arabia’s standards. Lifting the ban on women driving has been a longstanding demand by women acti vists in the kingdom and abroad. But if Prince Mohammed wants to go down in history as a champion of social liberalisation, he should take radical steps. For example, Saudi Arabia’s discriminatory male guardianship system, which requires adult women to get permission to travel, work, marry, or even get access to health care, remains intact. Women are also separated from unrelated men. Though the top cleric has said abayas are not mandatory now, the law requiring women to wear the robes is still in place. While the government has taken some steps in the realm of women’s rights, its dealings with dissent are the same as those of any authoritarian regime. Last year, there were coordinated crackdowns on government critics. More than a dozen prominent activists were convicted on vague charges and sentenced to lengthy prison terms during the same pe riod, according to Human Rights Watch. The kingdom also executed 133 people between January and early December 2017. Saudi Arabia has to do a lot more to ensure basic rights for its women and end its repressive policies against political and social dissent if it really wants to begin a new journey in liberalisation. CM YK
ARCHIVES
A HUNDRED YEARS AGO MARCH 5, 1918.
A Full Bench Decision.
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CONCEPTUAL
SHELF HELP
Decoy eect
Moveable feasts and memory
Psychology
Also known as the asym metric dominance eect, this refers to the pheno menon wherein people tend to change their origi nal preference between two choices when they are presented with an asym metric third choice. Con sumers, for instance, might increase their prefe rence for a product that is of better quality over a cheaper product that is of lower quality when they are presented with a third choice that is worse than the rst product in terms of both quality and price. The decoy eect, postulat ed by American marketing professor Joel Huber, is employed by marketing companies to inuence the choices of consumers in a subtle manner. CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC
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Oscars trivia: setting the records straight http://bit.ly/oscarstrivia
The ties that bind a city and its people, resident or visitor Sudipta Datta
Explaining his relation ship with the “wearying, selfrenovating” metropo lis that is Calcutta, poet and novelist Buddhadeva Bose wrote in his epony mous poem: “Whatever is deposited as memory’s gold, Whatever gives meaning to the past,/ friendship, love, strug gles, the joy of keen toil,/ my work, my vocation, my life — all, all I have had/be cause I had you, Calcutta.” A writer’s interpreta tion of a city lived in or vi sited can be many things. It can sometimes read like an ode (think of Peter Ack royd’s London: The Biography, published in 2000) or a critique (The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs, 1961) to guide future ur ban planners to take care not to kill the inherent vi tality of a place where pe ople converge to create ideas. In Askew: A Short
Biography of Bangalore (2016), T.J.S. George was “struck by man’s unceas ing struggle to make order out of chaos and the way he ends up making chaos out of order.” In a chapter on the “lure of Bangalore — and the perils” he rued that “Bangalore in its youth began in gladness but thereof came in the end despondency and madness,” the haphazard urban growth “triggered by the phenomenon known as information technology” transforming the city. “Should Banga lore, now askew, be right ened or allowed to keel ov er?” As Ernest Hemingway began to write a book on Paris in 1957, looking back at his years in the French capital from 1921 to 1926 as a budding writer, he was grateful for the memories. As he wrote in the epi graph of A Moveable Feast (1964), “If you are lucky enough to have lived in Pa
ris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast.” He talked of a time he was poor, when he discovered his vocation, sharing Paris with literary stars like James Joyce, Scott Fitzger ald and Ezra Pound. It’s dicult to forget Heming way’s disclaimer in the preface: “If the reader prefers, this book may be regarded as ction. But there is always the chance that such a book of ction may throw some light on what has been written as fact.” Fact and ction blurred as Haruki Murakami walked around Kobe, in May 1997, two years after a massive earthquake. As he wrote in A Walk to Kobe (Granta, 124): “Not that there aren’t still sea and mountains here… What I’m talking about is a die rent sea, and dierent mountains.”
Their Lordships disposed of a reference yesterday [March 4] on a question of Malabar Law. The facts are: Under a family ‘Karar’ the Karnavan of a Malabar Tarawad entrusted the man agement of practically all properties of the Tarawad to the se nior Anandharavan reserving to himself only the management of a certain family temple. The senior Anandharavan who thus become manager of the Tarawad misconducted himself in the management and a suit was brought to remove him from man agement. The Lower Courts found him guilty of mismanage ment and decreed his removal. On appeal to the High Court it was argued on his behalf that as he became manager by ap pointment he could not be removed by Court, but only by a decision of all the members of the family and in support of this argument reliance was placed on a decision in 32 Madras Law Journal to which Sadasiva Iyer J was a party. CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC
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How to make sense of a China-India encounter
FROM PAGE ONE
Congress outsmarted in Meghalaya
Documentary tracks ties through memos and notes of MEA, and a brief encounter between Mao and Brajesh Mishra Amit Baruah New Delhi
Senior BJP leader Himanta Biswa Sarma, who played a crucial role in bringing to gether the regional parties, said the BJP would be part of the government. “With a government of the National Democratic Al liance (NDA) in Meghalaya the BJPNDA will be in pow er in seven out of eight States,” Mr. Sarma said. He said both the NPP and the UDP are a part of the BJPled North East Demo cratic Alliance (NEDA) and the Congress only humiliat ed its senior leaders by sending them to Meghalaya when the mandate was against the party. In an indication of defeat the three senior Congress leaders, Ahmed Patel, Ka mal Nath and Mukul Wasnik
left Shillong in the after noon. Earlier in the day the Congress also tried to con vince the UDP to come to gether and “share the go vernment” in Meghalaya. Mr. Mukul Sangma who led the Congress govern ment in the State for the past ve years also reached out to UDP president Don kupar Roy. It was Mr. Roy’s UDP whose support turned out to be crucial in tilting the balance for the NPPled coalition. “We have supported a nonCongress government for the sake of stability,” Mr. Roy, also a former Chief Mi nister of the State, said after meeting several BJP leaders including two Union Minis ter Kiren Rijiju and K.J. Al phons.
PNB scam hits buyers’ credit When an importer ap proaches a domestic branch of bank, say AB Bank, seek ing overseas credit, the branch issues a letter to another Indian bank located in overseas territory, say YZ Bank, for buyers’ credit with a guarantee to repay YZ bank on the due date. Then, the overseas branch of YZ Bank transfers the fund in the NOSTRO account of AB Bank. “The importer typically enters into a forward con tract with the buyer promis ing supply at a particular rate. However, now that the cost of the import has gone up, after the buyers’ credit interest rate increase, the
person will not be able to pass on the hike to the cus tomer,” said a senior ocial from a large foreign bank. The scam in the PNB has also made foreign lenders cautious in their dealings with Indian banks for trade nance. According to bankers, not many foreign banks are showing interest in funding buyers based on letters is sued by Indian banks. This is because the PNB has been reluctant to ho nour its commitment to oth er Indian banks which had released funds overseas on the basis of PNB’s LoUs is sued to the Nirav Modi group of companies.
Mamata backs KCR on national alternative Following his announce ment, a large number of leaders and cadre thronged Pragati Bhavan, the Chief Minister’s camp oce, on Sunday to greet him. Mr. Rao said the people had voted the BJP to power as they were unhappy with the Congress’ inability to re dress their grievances. But the BJP, too, had failed to de liver four years after it came to power. “No qualitative change is seen by people even after 70 years of democracy....China developed in less than three decades. What both the Congress and the BJP did all these years,” Mr Rao had said. “People are looking for change. Can we expect so mething new to happen if the Congress comes to pow er after the BJP? It can be a third front or any front...Are we not part of the country? Discussions are going on. There is no secret about it,” he said when asked if he was
in talks with other nonCon gress, nonBJP leaders The Chief Minister’s com ments follow his criticism of the Narendra Modi govern ment during recent public meetings in Adilabad and other districts. The issue appeared to have triggered a major con troversy with Defence Mi nister Nirmala Sitaraman said to have inquired about the exact context of the Chief Minister’s remarks. State Industries Minister K.T. Rama Rao, who inter vened in the matter, report edly explained to her that it was slip of the tongue. The response, Mr. Rama Rao said, was indicative of the displeasure among peo ple over the failure of suc cessive governments to ad dress their needs. Opposition parties in the State including the Con gress, the TDP, however, re mained cautious in their reactions to Chief Minister’s claims on an alternative.
Diering Indian interpreta tions of a brief May Day ex change between China’s Chairman Mao Zedong and India’s charge d’aaires Bra jesh Mishra in 1970 delayed the return of an Ambassador to Beijing by six years. The diplomatic opening to India from the Chinese came after years of noncontact and has been the subject of much analysis in both countries. In a note for Prime Minis ter Indira Gandhi, Natwar Singh — posted in the PMO at the time — said the encoun ter was “not an earth shatter ing event”. Mr. Singh, who went on to become India’s External Aairs Minister, felt it would be wrong to dismiss the meeting as a “casual en counter”, but at the same time one should not “read
Mao and Nehru. After years of friendly engagements, bilateral ties were in deep freeze for long. THE HINDU ARCHIVES *
too much into it”. This note is among hun dreds of documents collated by Avtar Singh Bhasin, for merly with the Ministry of External Aairs (MEA), in a vevolume documentary study of IndiaChina rela tions, published in associa tion with the policy planning division of the Ministry. After his encounter at the
Sandeep phukan staff reporter
New Delhi
NAGPUR
Opposition parties are all set to raise the issue of nancial scams involving public sec tor banks to corner the go vernment in Parliament when the Budget session res umes on Monday for its se cond part after a monthlong break. Amit Shah
The BJP president’s visit to the RSS headquarters as sumes signicance as it came on the eve of the Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha (ABPS) meeting scheduled in Nagpur later this week. The ABPS is considered the highest decisionmaking body of the RSS. It meets in Nagpur after every three years to elect a new RSS general secretary and appoint other key of cebearers for the next three years.
Border passes To give it shape, the Centre had asked four States — Aru nachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram — that share the unfenced border with Myanmar to distribute CM YK
ISTOCK
Myanmar has indenitely deferred signing an agree ment with India to stream line the free movement of people within 16 km along the border. India is keen to sign the agreement but Myanmar — citing “domestic compul sions” — has asked for more time for the agreement to be sealed. On January 3, the Union Cabinet approved the agree ment between India and Myanmar on land border crossing to enhance eco nomic interaction between people of the two countries.
“border pass” to all the resi dents living within 16 km from the border. The memorandum of un derstanding (MoU) has been deferred twice in the past se ven months. It was to be signed in Sep tember last year when Prime Minister Narendra Modi vi sited Nay Pyi Taw for a bilat eral visit. India tried to again push the agreement in Janu ary when Myanmar’s State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi was in New Delhi with nine ASEAN leaders as chief guest
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‘Chhota Modi scam’ Parliament could see disrup tions if the government does not agree to the Opposition demand calling for an expla nation from Prime Minister Narendra Modi on how dia mond trader Nirav Modi and his business partner Mehul Choksi defrauded the public sector Punjab National Bank (PNB) and other banks to the tune of 22,000 crore under his watch. Calling it the Chhota Modi scam, the Congress said the government’s claim of being an anticorruption crusader
was in a shambles and that is why it arrested Karti Chi dambaram, son of former Fi nance Minister P. Chidamba ram. Speaking to The Hindu, Deputy Leader of the Con gress in the Lok Sabha Anand Sharma said, “The government will have to answer serious questions on the bank scams.” Fresh regulatory law To counter the criticism, the government will introduce a new law — the Fugitive Eco nomic Oenders Bill —that allows the authorities to at tach the properties of oen ders who are declared fugitives. The moraleboosting re sults of the Assembly elec tions in three northeastern States will also help the go vernment take on the Oppo sition. “In a democracy, the best answer to all those who
Anand Sharma
spread rumours, fear and lies are given by the voters. And democracy had given its answer,” Mr. Modi said on Sa turday after the results of the Assembly polls. No strategy meeting The Opposition is yet to hold a joint strategy meeting, but Derek O’Brien, Trinamool Congress’s leader in the Ra jya Sabha, said it wanted answers on a range of issues. “The BJP still has to answ
er serious questions on the economy, jobs and on a cer tain namesake absconding in New York. Or is it Antwerp? Wherever he is, it is certainly a long way from Agartala,” said Mr. O’Brien, indicating that the election victory in Tripura will not make things easy for the BJP. CPI leader D. Raja said the issue of the PNB fraud and subsequent revelations of other bank frauds had put a question mark on the sector. “The banking sector is in a deep crisis and its credibility is under stake,” he said. Opposition parties are likely to hold a meeting soon to work out a joint strategy for the session. Apart from the alleged nancial sector scams, issues of rising crimes against Da lits and women, the agrarian crisis, the economy and un employment are also likely to be raised by the Opposi tion.
ED ags more invoices in Karti case Not a single riot in Says they have enough proof to establish his link with Advantage Strategic
Accused quizzed in Mumbai
Special Correspondent NEW DELHI
The Enforcement Directo rate (ED) has shared more details with the CBI on pay ments said to have been made by various companies to Advantage Strategic Con sultancy Private Ltd., alleg edly controlled by Karti Chi dambaram. “We have enough proof to establish his link with Advantage Strateg ic,” said a senior ocial. According to the ED, Ad vantage Strategic raised an invoice dated March 29, 2006, for 25 lakh plus taxes on Aircel Televentures Ltd., which got a Foreign Invest ment Promotion Board
Special Correspondent NEW DELHI
The CBI on Sunday confront ed Karti Chidambaram with former INX Media director Indrani Mukerjea, who is lodged in a Mumbai jail. Mr. Karti was taken to the Mum bai jail around 11.15 a.m. and questioned along with Ms.
for the Republic Day parade. “Myanmar has been drag ging its feet on the agree ment. They have asked for more time and are reluctant due to domestic compul sions. They fear that if they sign the pact, the interna tional agreement will have to be adhered to,” a senior go vernment ocial said. India raised issue An ocial said as per the proposal, there would have been no restrictions on the movement of people across the borders. The domiciles were to be allotted border passes and those going across for agri culture, work or to meet re latives should carry the pass at all times. The ocial said both the countries intend to put a sys tem in place after India raised the issue of move ment of extremists and
Mukerjea for over three hours.After that, he was brought back to Delhi. As alleged by the CBI, Ms. Mukerjea has told the agen cy that he had demanded and received $1 million to settle a possible probe against INX Media for violat ing FIPB conditions.
Karti Chidambaram
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(FIPB) approval for sale of its shares in Aircel Ltd. to Ma laysiabased Maxis on March 20, 2006. It allegedly paid about 26 lakh to Advantage Strategic through cheque on
April 11, 2006. Advantage Strategic raised an invoice dated August 20, 2005, for 10 lakh plus service taxes on Katra Holdings Private Ltd. and received 9.39 lakh.
India keen on signing agreement to streamline free movement along border New Delhi
cretary, said Mrs. Gandhi was inclined to support sending an Ambassador but Mr. Hak sar “turned the meeting around”. Mr. Mishra suggests in the interview that negotia tions for an IndoSoviet friendship treaty were at an advanced stage at the time. The late diplomat also said in the interview that in early 1971, Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai conveyed his congratu lations through him in Beijing to Mrs. Gandhi for her elec tion victory, suggesting conti nuity in Chinese policy of making up with India from the May 1 conversation. It would be further ve years before External Aairs Minister Y.B. Chavan an nounced in the Lok Sabha on April 15, 1976, that K.R. Na rayanan, who rose to be Presi dent, would be India’s new ambassador to China.
Opposition to seek explanation from Prime Minister on Nirav and Choksi
Visit comes ahead of nationallevel meet A day after his party per formed exceptionally well in the Assembly elections in three northeastern States, the BJP national president Amit Shah on Sunday visit ed the Rashtriya Swayamse vak Sangh (RSS) headquar ters here to meet senior RSS leaders, including the Sara sanghchalak (chief ) Mohan Bhagwat. Mr. Shah reached the RSS headquarters in the Mahal area of Nagpur at around 3 p.m. and was with Mr. Bhag wat and RSS Sarkaryavaha (general secretary) Bhaiyya ji Joshi for over three hours. Senior RSS functionaries Dattatreya Hosbale and Su resh Soni were present in the closeddoor meeting. Mr. Shah also visited Un ion Minister Nitin Gadkari at his new residence in the Ramnagar area of Nagpur.
Guiding principle On May 6, a Chinese Foreign Ministry ocial, Yang Kung Su, told Mr. Mishra after re peated queries, “Our great leader, Chairman Mao, has talked to you personally. That I think is the greatest concrete action on our side and it is the principle guid
ing the relations between China and India.” During the meeting, Mr. Mishra lamented the fact that there had hardly been any contact between the two countries in the past 1112 years and suggested “con crete action” to improve re lations. “There is no trade between us. Even our Em bassies are not full edged.” In June 1970, Mr. Mishra came to Delhi and met Mrs. Gandhi and her trusted o cials including P.N. Haksar and T.N. Kaul. He suggested that India should send an Ambassador to Beijing since G. Parthasarathy had com pleted his term and Delhi did not appoint a replacement. In a 2006 interview to the Indian Foreign Aairs Jour nal, Mr. Mishra, who went on to become Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee’s Principal Se
Parliament set to be stormy
Amit Shah meets RSS chief in Nagpur
Myanmar puts o border pact Vijaita Singh
Tiananmen Square, Mr. Mis hra sent a “most immediate” cable to Mrs. Gandhi and Ex ternal Aairs Minister Di nesh Singh, the same day qu oting Mao: “‘We cannot keep quarrelling like this. We should be friends again. In dia is a great country … we will be friends again some day.’ I replied ‘We are ready to do it today’.”
“In anything connected with Chinese leaders it is dif cult to say whether it [the conversation] was premedi tated or not. My judgment is that Mao was fully briefed before arriving on the [Tia nanmen] rostrum [where other diplomats were also present]. In any case, ex pression as above of friend ship by Mao himself should be given the most weighty consideration,” Mr. Mishra informed New Delhi in a fourparagraph cable.
smugglers freely across the border. Naorem Premkanta Singh, a militant arrested by the Na tional Investigation Agency (NIA), who was part of the group that attacked an Army convoy in 2015 in Manipur’s Chandel district killing 18 personnel, has said in his in terrogation that they were in India for ve days after the attack before crossing over to Myanmar on foot. He is alleged to have said the ambush party moved to gether and were able to walk to Myanmar, though an In dian Army helicopter ho vered above to look for the suspects. India and Myanmar share a 1,643km unfenced border along Arunachal Pradesh (520 km), Nagaland (215 km), Manipur (398 km) and Mizo ram (510 km), and permit a “free movement” regime up to 16 km beyond the border.
Advantage Strategic raised an invoice dated July 1, 2005, on Diageo Scotland Ltd. The company got an FIPB approval the next year.
U.P., says Adityanath special correspondent LUCKNOW
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday said that it was a “glimpse of good governance” that “not a single riot” had taken place in the State in the 11 months since he took charge. Mr. Adityanath made the comment at a rally in Phul pur in Allahabad. A Lok Sab ha bypoll will be held here on March 11. While targeting the pre vious Samajwadi Party (SP) government for poor law and order, Mr. Adityanath said that the people of U.P. “bore the blazes of riots”
under it, with two commu nal areups taking place ev ery week. He alleged that former Chief Minister Akhi lesh Yadav had provided pa tronage to rioters. “Nobody can engage in riots now because rioters know the costs they will have to bear if they commit the audacity,” he said. Campaigning for the BJP’s Kaushalendra Patel, Mr. Adi tyanath said that his govern ment had not only shut down “illegal slaughter houses” but also curbed cow smuggling and allocat ed funds for the building of gaushalas at the district, tehsil and block levels.
Why this prerelease outrage, asks Smriti
Constable shoots self at Jaya memorial
Says lm industry must introspect on it
No suicide note recovered: police
Special Correspondent
Special Correspondent
MUMBAI
CHENNAI
Hitting out at Bollywood producers for “manufactur ing outrage” ahead of a lm release to spur greater box oce interest, Information and Broadcasting Minister Smriti Irani on Sunday said the lm industry must in trospect on the issue. She was reacting to a qu ery on the lm industry’s woes by lmmaker Karan Johar, who referred to her as an industry ‘insider’, and said Indian lms, a part of the country’s soft power, were also at times a “soft tar get”. “My issue is this — now that you have recognised me as an insider … Honestly, put your hands on your heart and say how many of us manufacture that outrage because we don’t have a lm that is that good … but we
A 26yearold police consta ble attached to the Armed Reserve battalion, Arunraj, who was on duty at the me morial of former Chief Mi nister Jayalalithaa, allegedly committed suicide by shoot ing himself early on Sunday. His father has demanded
Smriti Irani
know that we will get the eyeballs if we create some controversy,” the Minister said. When a ustered Mr. Jo har tried to steer the conver sation away and said their interaction at industry body FICCI’s annual media and entertainment conclave must remain ‘strictly non controversial’, the Minister said in jest: “I don’t mind controversies. I thought my second name was contro versy.”
a detailed investigation. No suicide note has been recov erd till now, a senior police ocer has said. According to the police, Arunraj was a native of Pe rungudi in Madurai and the youngest son of Malairajan and Ponnazhagu. He joined the Tamil Nadu police as a constable in 2013.
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THE HINDU
NEWS 11
NOIDA/DELHI
MONDAY, MARCH 5, 2018
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IPFT rode on the back of BJP to post its best show Party won eight of the nine seats it contested at a strike rate of almost 89, and received 7.5% of the votes, higher than the share of nine parties
BJP-NDPP alliance gathers strength
Rahul Karmakar AGARTALA
The vote share of the Bhara tiya Janata Party in the As sembly elections has risen from 1.54% in 2013 to 43% in 2018. But the biggest gainer has been its ally, the Indige nous People’s Front of Tripu ra (IPFT), a tribal party. The IPFT, led by Narendra Chandra Debbarma, former Director of the All India Ra dio centre here, was one of the worst performers in 2013, getting a paltry 0.46% of the votes and all its 17 can didates forfeiting deposit. The alliance with the BJP has paid dividends for the IPFT this time; it won eight of the nine seats contested for a strike rate of almost 89. The IPFT received 7.5% of the votes, which is about 2% more than the vote share of nine parties, including the Congress, the CPI and the Trinamool Congress. In the process, the IPFT has left a more seasoned tri bal party and former Con gress ally — Indigenous Na tionalist Party of Twipra (INPT) — far behind. Fine balancing act “The BJPIPFT partnership was a ne balancing act. While the BJP managed to sell its ‘one Tripura’ commit
Special correspondent AGARTALA
To power: BJP Tripura president Biplab Kumar Deb with supporters celebrating the party’s victory in the Assembly elections, in Agartala on Sunday. PTI *
ment to appeal to the Bengali majority voters, the IPFT toned down its separate statehood (Twipraland) de mand depending on where it campaigned,” Pranab Sar kar, a political analyst, said. By winning 35 of the 50 seats it contested, the BJP re gistered a strike rate of 70. This is slightly better than its strike rate of 60 in Nagaland, where it won 12 of the 20 seats contested.
Few expected the party with a Hindutva image to perform as it did in Chris tianmajority Nagaland. The BJP also outshone its stronger regional ally, the Nationalist Democratic Pro gressive Party, that won 18 seats for a strike rate of 45. Among the other parties that performed fairly well are the Naga People’s Front, winning 26 of 58 seats con tested, and the National Peo
BJP managed < > While to sell its ‘one Tripura’ idea, the IPFT toned down its statehood demand Pranab Sarkar Political analyst
ple’s Party, which won 19 of the 53 seats contested. NOTA fares well The none of the above, or NOTA, option on EVM ma
chines fared better than at least two political parties in the three northeastern States where Assembly elec tions were held on February 18 and 27. In Tripura, 23,735 voters opted for NOTA. This works out to 1% of the total votes polled. NOTA scored higher than eight political parties in the State. They include the Com munist Party of India,the Tri
namool Congress and the INPT. In Meghalaya, 0.9% of the voters chose NOTA. This is more than double of what the Trinamool Congress man aged and fractionally more than what the Khun Hynniew trep National Awakening Movement, a regional party, got. The scene was no dierent in Nagaland where NOTA notched up 0.6% of the votes.
Stability my priority: Acharya
CPI(M) complains of BJP violence in Tripura
Nagaland Governor says BJP must come clean on its 15-year-old tie-up with NPF liance,” Mr. Acharya said. The Governor gave time to the NDPPBJP too to prove they have majority to form the government. The delega tion that met him included BJP national general secre tary Ram Madhav.
Special correspondent AGARTALA
Delegation meets DGP, demands the arrest of culprits Syed Sajjad Ali Agartala
Top BJP leaders appealed for calm in Tripura on Sunday amid reports of sporadic vio lence after the Assembly election results were de clared on Saturday. The BJP IPFT alliance ended the 25 years of uninterrupted rule of the CPI(M)led Left Front by winning 43 of the 59 seats. A CPI(M) delegation on Sunday met the Director General of Police Akhil Ku mar Shukla to complain of “largescale attacks and threats across Tripura”. The delegation, led by Shankar Prasad Datta, MP, said sever al party cadres were injured and many party oces razed. The team demanded
Post-election disturbance: A CPI(M) worker injured in a lathi-charge amid clashes in Agartala on Saturday. PTI *
adequate deployment of se curity forces in disturbed areas, frequent patrolling and arrest of culprits. Mr. Shukla assured the delega tion of swift action for main tenance of law and order. Sporadic incidents were reported from dierent plac es after BJP workers and sup porters started celebrating
the stunning victory of their coalition, which unseated the CPI(M) from its bastion. The police conrmed that a few people sustained mi nor wounds in stray inci dents.Top BJP leaders, in cluding the party’s State president, Biplab Kumar Deb, made repeated appeals for calm.
With power shift comes new street names
Nagaland Governor P.B. Acharya said on Sunday he had given 48 hours’ time to the NPF, which “is in a mi nority” with 26 elected members, to get a letter of support from BJP president Amit Shah, even as he de clared that a stable and strong government in the State is his priority. The BJP needs to come clean on its 15yearold alliance with the NPF, he added. The Election Commission on Saturday declared 29 seats for the NDPPBJP com bine and 30 for Mr. Zeliang’s NPF and two of its allies. But a tabulation error was recti ed on Sunday, which led to the NPF losing the Tenning seat to NDPP. Around noon, the three time CM and former Lok Sabha member, Neiphiu Rio, and his team met the Gover
PM to attend swearing-in in Agartala Special Correspondent
BJP says it will rename roads in Tripura Rahul Karmakar AGARTALA
There is a lot in a name, especially if it is of roads in the capital city of Tripura, which is in the middle of a power shift. Barely hours after defeating the Left Front comprehensively on Saturday, the Bharatiya Janata Party has said it will be the “end of the road” for Communist gures such as Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin in Agartala and elsewhere in the State. This is in reference to roads and establishments that the CPI (M)led government led by Manik Sarkar had renamed after those icons in the past 20 years. Marx-Engels Sarani Prime on the BJP’s list is Marx Engels Sarani, a lane leading to the ocial residences of the Chief Minister and his Cabinet colleagues. This lane is opposite Umakanta Academy, a landmark school that former Tripura king Radha Kishore Manikya had named after the kingdom’s Prime Minister Umakanta Das in 1904. “The Leftists have never found local leaders to immortalise by naming public places after them. They did not even think of some of their own, such as Nripen Chakraborty [Chief Minister from 1978 to 1988] who died a lonely man at 99 years,” Sunil Deodhar, the brain behind the BJP’s CM YK
meteoric rise in Tripura, told The Hindu. National, local icons He said the BJP would choose from national and local icons to rename MarxEngels Sarani, named after Marx and Friedrich Engels. Another lane likely to be renamed is Lenin Sarani, a stretch from the busy Orient Choumuhuni to the Agartala Press Club. The State capital also has landmarks named after Communist leaders such as Ho Chi Minh, the Vietnamese revolutionary, which the BJP is not comfortable with. The BJP and its ally, the Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura, ended 25 years of Communist rule in Tripura by winning 43 of the 59 seats. The CPI(M) won 16. The election for the Charilam seat, deferred after the death of the CPI(M) candidate there, is scheduled for March 12.
The number of MLAs of the People’s Democratic Al liance comprising the Bha ratiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) of Nagaland could increase with the National People’s Party, a constituent of the BJPled coalition in Mani pur, expected to join it. The NPP won two seats. Earlier in the day, the al liance gained one more seat after the Election Commis sion reversed the result of the Tenning constituency. The order took the alliance’s tally to 32 in the 60member House. An order signed by Elec tion Commission Secretary Arvind Kumar said a tabula tion error on Saturday led the returning ocer to de clare N.R. Zeliang of the Na ga People’s Front (NPF) as the winner instead of Namri Nchang of the NDPP. Mr. Zeliang, who polled 6,850 votes, was wrongly declared winner in place of
AGARTALA
BJP leaders said Prime Mi nister Narendra Modi is ex pected to attend the oath taking ceremony in Tripu ra on March 8. “[Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin] Gadkariji is scheduled to arrive here on March 6 for electing the legislature par ty leader. The swearingin will be done a couple of days later,” State BJP presi dent Biplab Kumar Deb told journalists. The BJP won 35 of the 59 seats where the elections were held on February 18. Its ally, Indigenous Peo ple’s Front of Tripura, won eight seats taking the tally to 43. The CPI(M) had to be satised with 16. Manik Sarkar, who reigned as Chief Minister for 20 of the Left Front’s 25 years in power in the State since 1993, met Governor Tathagata Roy in the after noon to tender his resigna tion. Mr. Roy accepted the resignation, but asked him to hold charge until the for mal transfer of power. “The cooperation from the people and the admi nistration helped us run the government for 20 years. I cannot thank them enough,” Mr. Sarkar said. Mr. Deb met Mr. Sarkar at the CPI(M) headquarters and sought his blessings.
#5 7 3 0 1 9
T.R. Zeliang
Neiphiu Rio
nor with a list of 32 MLAs. A 16member NPF team led by Mr. Zeliang, too, met the Go vernor to stake claim. The BJP, an ally of the NPF in Nagaland since 2003, opt ed to strike a prepoll deal with the NDPP that was formed last year by a group of leaders allegedly sidelined in the NPF. Neiphiu Rio, who reigned as Chief Minister of an NPFled alliance for 11 years, joined the NDPP
ahead of the Assembly polls. “Mr. Zeliang and the other MLAs said the BJP would support them. They said their earlier alliance with the BJP stands because two BJP Ministers did not resign from the NPFled government. I told them to get a letter of support from the BJP chief within 48 hours, though (NPF president) Shurhozelie Liezietsu had written to Mr. Shah long ago about al
Seeks fresh list “They submitted a list of 32 people but did not have the signatures of most of the MLAs. So I told them to bring a fresh list with signatures,” Mr. Acharya said. The major ity mark in the 60member Assembly is 31. The list had the names of 18 newly elected members of NDPP, 12 of BJP, one of JD(U) and one Independent. The Independent candidate is Tongpan Ozukum and the lone JD(U) legislator is G. Kai to Aye. The Governor specif ically asked Mr. Aye to get a letter from his party presi dent “to set things right.”
Mr. Nchang who polled 7,018 votes, the order said, citing Article 324 to cancel the declaration of result in favour of Mr. Zeliang. The error had occurred after the fourth round of counting with the returning ocer entering 824 votes in the tabulation sheet instead of 624. Mr. Zeliang is the brother of Nagaland Chief Minister T.R. Zeliang, who won from the Peren constituency. A delegation of the Peo ple’s Democratic Alliance met Nagaland Governor P.B. Acharya on Sunday after noon to stake claim to form the next government. “We took a list of 32 new ly elected members to the Governor,” NDPP leader Neiphiu Rio said. Mr. Rio is likely to be the Chief Minis ter again, with the govern ment likely to be sworn in by March 7. On Saturday night, the People’s Demo cratic Alliance gained the support of an Independent and the lone winner from the Janata Dal (U).
Cong. must be in secular front: Raja Sobhana K. Nair New Delhi
CPI leader D. Raja on Sun day underscored the need for all secular democratic parties to come together to stall the further expansion of the BJPRSS combine. Reacting to the defeat of the Left Front in Tripura, he said: “It warrants a se rious introspection. All sec ular democratic forces should come together to counter the BJPRSS combine.” The Congress, Mr. Raja said, could not be kept out of the combine of the “sec ulardemocratic” forces. “With all its limitations, the Congress is a panIndian secular party. But it needs to amend its antipoor eco nomic policies.” Mr. Raja’s statement is signicant given that the CPI(M) is divided on this very question.
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12 WORLD
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THE HINDU
MONDAY, MARCH 5, 2018
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Merkel welcomes SPD move for another grand coalition
Pakistan’s legislature gets its rst Dalit woman Senator PPP candidate Krishna Kumar Kohli, 39, hails from Sindh
I look forward to working with them for the good of our country, says Chancellor
Press Trust of India Reuters
Karachi
Berlin
Krishna Kumari Kohli, a hu man rights activist elded by the Pakistan Peoples Party, became on Saturday the country’s rst Dalit woman Senator. Kohli, 39, who hails from the remote village of Dhana Gam in Nagarparkar, Sindh, was elected to a reserved seat for women. Ms. Kohli said she was happy that the PPP had re posed faith in her and in her work. “I am a human rights activist and try to highlight the problems faced by the minorities especially Hin dus. PPP could have nomi nated any other woman for the seat but they showed they have regard for minori ties as well,” she said. Known as Kishoo Bai, Ms. Kohli said she knew that a lot of work needed to be done
Germany’s Social Democrats (SPD) voted decisively for another coalition with Chan cellor Angela Merkel’s con servatives on Sunday, clear ing the way for a new government in Europe’s lar gest economy after months of political uncertainty. Two thirds of the mem bership voted “yes” to the deal — a wider margin than many had expected — mean ing that Ms. Merkel could be sworn in for a fourth term as early as the middle of the month in a repeat of the grand coalition that has go verned since 2013. Five months since polls The challenges are piling up for Ms. Merkel, who has been acting Chancellor for more than ve months since an inconclusive election, with the European Union (EU) looking for leadership on economic and security is sues and France seeking a partner for President Emma nuel Macron’s ambitious EU reform plans. Mr. Macron hailed the de velopment as “good news for Europe”. A statement from his oce added: “France and Germany will work to gether on new initiatives in the coming weeks to bring the European project forward.” Acting SPD leader Olaf Scholz announced the result to applause from activists lining the balconies around the atrium of the party’s Ber lin headquarters early on Sunday. “We now have clarity: the SPD will join the next Ger man government,” Mr. Scholz said. The party had initially planned to go into
Finally, a government: Olaf Scholz, interim leader of Germany’s Social Democratic Party, speaks during a press conference at the party’s headquarters in Berlin on Sunday. AFP *
Opposition after its worst election result since Germa ny became a federal republic in 1949. Ms. Merkel, in power since 2005, took to her par ty’s Twitter feed to congratu late the SPD. “I look forward to working with the SPD again for the good of our country,” she said. The SPD ballot pitted the leadership of the centreleft party against the radical youth wing, which wanted the SPD to rebuild in Opposi tion after a disastrous elec tion showing. “I’m happy it worked out this way,” said Andrea Nahles, the SPD’s likely next leader. Mr. Scholz declined to comment on reports that he would be Finance Minister, saying only that the SPD would appoint three men and three women to the fed eral Cabinet. As part of the price for its support, the SPD will take the helm at key Mi nistries, including the Fi
nance Ministry. The outcome means the farright Alternative for Ger many (AfD) will be the lar gest parliamentary Opposi tion party. In a tweet, it labelled the SPD’s decision a “catastrophe” for Germany, promising erce opposition to the government. Youth wing disappointed Kevin Kuehnert, head of the SPD’s youth wing, said he was disappointed but that the “Jusos” (youth wing) would keep up their criti cism, signalling that, after bringing in a ood of new members, they would be a thorn in the leadership’s side. “Criticism of the grand coalition remains. The SPD needs to be more like it has been in recent weeks and less like it has been in recent years — the Jusos will ensure this,” he tweeted. The party, already one of Europe’s largest, has seen
tens of thousands of new members join this year. Tur nout in the poll was over 78%. German business greeted with relief the news that Ger many would get a govern ment after its longestever postelection interregnum. “While the United States are starting a trade war and China is challenge our indus trial leadership, we have been unnecessarily selfab sorbed,” engineering trade union VDMA’s managing di rector Thilo Brodtmann said. The SPD was forced to re visit its original plan to go in to Opposition after the fai lure of Ms. Merkel’s initial attempt to form a coalition with two smaller parties. With her conservatives, they thrashed out a coalition agreement which SPD lead ers hailed for its commit ments to strengthening the EU and giving them key go vernment roles.
Reuters Washington
U.S. President Donald Trump praised Chinese Pre sident Xi Jinping on Satur day after the ruling Commu nist party announced that it was eliminating the two term limit for the presiden cy, according to audio aired by CNN. “He’s now President for life, President for life. And he’s great,” Mr. Trump said, according to audio of ex cerpts of his remarks at a closeddoor fundraiser in Florida aired by CNN. “And look, he was able to do that. I think it’s great. Maybe we’ll have to give that a shot so meday,” he said to cheers and applause from suppor
ELSEWHERE
ters. It is not clear if Mr. Trump was making the comment about extending presidential service in jest. The White House did not respond to a request for comment late on Saturday. Democratic Representa tive Ro Khanna said on Twit ter that “talking about being President for life... is the most unAmerican senti ment expressed by an American President.” During the remarks, Mr. Trump praised Mr. Xi as “a great gentleman” and ad ded: “He’s the most power ful (Chinese) President in a hundred years.” He said Mr. Xi had treated him “tremen dously well” during his visit in November.
U.S. President jokes on holding talks with Kim Agence France-Presse Washington
U.S. President Donald Trump traded playful digs with the Washington press corps late on Saturday at an annual gathering of politi cians and members of the media. Speaking at this year’s traditional Gridiron Club Dinner, Mr. Trump let loose oneliners on themes, in cluding North Korea and his own revolvingdoor White House sta. Talking to ‘a madman’ Assuming a jovial tone, the President said he would not rule out direct talks with Kim Jongun — but warned it was the North’s leader who
faced “the risk of dealing with a madman”. Mulling over who the White House might next bid adieu to, Mr. Trump joked about whether it might be his own wife Melania. “She’s actually having a great time,” he said. Mr. Trump also said Jared Kushner — who recently lost his toplevel security clea rance — was late to the din ner “because Jared couldn’t get through security”. Mr. Trump also brought up his controversial deci sion to slap hefty taris on steel and aluminium im ports, saying they would help “dying industries”. But it might be too late, he said, for “print media”.
Bangladeshi writer Zafar Iqbal now out of danger Attacker called him an ‘enemy of Islam’, say police
Seoul to send envoys to N. Korea for two-day visit SEOUL
South Korea will dispatch a delegation for a twoday visit to the North starting on Monday, the presidential Blue House announced on Sunday. National Security Oce head Chung Euiyong and National Intelligence Service chief Suh Hoon will be among the 10member delegation. (Picture shows South Korean President Moon Jaein.) Reuters
Man shoots himself outside White House WASHINGTON
Authorities said a man shot himself to death outside the White House on Saturday. The District of Columbia Police Department said in a tweet that an “adult male has been declared deceased. We are working to notify next of kin.” That tweet came about two hours after the Secret Service rst reported that it was responding to reports of a selfinicted shooting. AP
CM YK
Haroon Habib Dhaka
Bangladeshi writer Mu hammed Zafar Iqbal, who was attacked with a knife in northeastern Sylhet on Sa turday, is now out of danger, said the authorities of the Combined Military Hospital (CMD) in Dhaka. The noted science ction writer suered injuries to his head, back and left hand when the attacker made a desperate attempt on his life. According to doctors in the CMD, where he was shift ed from Sylhet’s MAG Osma ni Medical College Hospital on Saturday night following a directive by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Mr. Iqbal will have to stay in the hospital for some more days. The attacker was identi ed as Faizur Hasan, 21, a former madrasa student. Co lonel Ali Haider Azad Ahmed from the Rapid Ac tion Battalion unit said Ha san told investigators it was
Multiple injuries: Muhammad Zafar Iqbal at a hospital in Sylhet following the attack on Saturday. AFP *
“his duty as a Muslim to re sist those who work against Islam”. “He has said Dr. Za far Iqbal was an enemy of Is lam,” said Mr. Ahmed. Mr. Iqbal, 64, is a bestsell ing author and celebrity speaker who regularly ap pears at campuses nationwide. ‘They are fanatics’ Prime Minister Hasina strongly condemned the at tack and ordered ocials to take quick action to identify the assailants and bring them to justice. Terming
those who commit such crimes as “fanatics”, she said on Sunday: “They be lieve they can gain access to heaven through murder. But they will never be able to reach heaven. Instead they will burn in the res of hell, because no person who kills an innocent person can go to heaven.” Suspected Islamist radi cals have in recent years killed around a dozen such writers and bloggers, includ ing an American blogger of Bangladeshi origin. (Inputs from AFP)
*
AFP
for the upliftment of the op pressed and the poor in the interior areas of the country Recalling the childhood incident that motivated her to ght for minority rights, Ms. Kohli said: “I, my family members and relatives were held as bonded labourers in a private jail owned by an in uential landlord in Umer kot district and we were only freed during a police raid.”
Reuters Rome
Italians went to the polls on Sunday in a vote that could bring political gri dlock after an election campaign marked by anger over the listless economy, high unemployment and immigration. Pollsters have predicted that former Prime Minister Silvio Ber lusconi’s centreright party and his farright allies will emerge as the largest bloc in Parliament but fall short of a majority. The antiestablishment FiveStar Movement looks set to be the biggest single party, feeding o discon tent over corruption and growing poverty, while the ruling centreleft Demo cratic Party is likely to take the third place. The vote is being held under a complex new elec toral law that could mean the nal result will not be clear until late on Monday.
“India’s Christians, Sikhs face discrimination” Vidya Ram London
The British government was asked to raise concerns on the treatment of Christian and Sikh minorities in India when Prime Minister Naren dra Modi visits London for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in April. During a debate in the House of Commons on ‘free dom of religion or belief’ last week, Scottish National Par ty (SNP) MP Martin Docher tyHughes highlighted gures which showed that India had risen to the posi tion of ‘the 11th most danger ous country for Christians’. “Wellknown people... continue to call publicly for #5 7 3 0 1 9
Trump praises Xi, the ‘President for life’
Krishna Kumari Kohli.
Ms. Kohli, who got mar ried to Lal Chand, a student of the Sindh Agriculture Un iversity, when she was in Class IX but continued her studies and received a post graduate degree in sociology from the University of Sindh. Her activism began in 2005 when she started orga nising seminars following which she was selected for the third Mehergarh Human Rights Youth Leadership Training Camp, Islamabad, in 2007, Dawn reported. Following the pro gramme, she worked active ly on issues related to bond ed labour, women’s rights and sexual harassment at workplace. Also, the Pakistan Muslim LeagueNawaz, won 15 seats in Senate and became the largest party in the upper house, according to the pro visional results.
Italy votes under new electoral law
the country to be free of Christians by 2021. So far, there have been 23,000 inci dents of physical and mental abuse against Christians of all denominations, and 6,35,000 Christians have re portedly been detained without trial or unfairly ar rested...” he said. Mr. DochertyHughes also referred to the situation of Sikhs in India, arguing that a debate on the push for self determination needed to be separated from religious per secution issues. Jagtar Singh Johal, a citizen from the SNP legislator’s constituency, was detained by Punjab authorities during a visit last year. “The number of Sikhs de
SNP MP Martin Docherty Hughes. WIKIMEDIA COMMONS *
tained for very long periods by state authorities conti nues to rise across all the States that make up the In dian nation... That is a mat ter not only for those who practise the Sikh faith in In dia, but for every U.K. citizen
— including many consti tuents of Members here — who wishes to travel to the Punjab to visit holy sites and/ or their families,” he said. He called on the government to raise questions on both is sues during CHOGM. Mark Field, Minister for Asia and the Pacic, accept ed that Mr. DochertyHughes had raised “profound” points and pledged to call Parliament’s attention to the issue. MPs would “appre ciate that diplomacy some times needs to be done be hind closed doors, rather than with megaphones,” he said, during the Westminster Hall debate, a forum for Members of Parliament to debate topical issues.
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THE HINDU
BUSINESS 13
NOIDA/DELHI
MONDAY, MARCH 5, 2018
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IN BRIEF
Cashrich PSU general insurer ‘Discrete norms for new and replacement parts a threat’ may buy out smaller ones Dual certication is a burden on small units, say ocials
Share swap could also be considered, according to a Finance Ministry ocial
the policy ingredients in a couple of months,” accord ing to ocials.
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA NEW DELHI
“Cashrich insurers may be asked to buy out the smaller ones where there is operational synergy. A share swap could also be consi dered,” the ocial told PTI.
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA NEW DELHI
LG eyes India as a manufacturing hub NEW DELHI
Consumer electronics major LG is expecting India to be one of its global manufacturing hubs to cater to the markets of South Asia, Africa and West Asia, a top ocial said. LG Electronics India is considering a unit in the next 45 years to cater to the fastgrowing eastern region of India. It said it would continue to invest to upgrade its existing manufacturing facilities at Pune and Noida. PTI
‘Extend deadline to link Aadhaar, bank account’
Taking cue from ONGC’s buyout of HPCL, the govern ment may look at replicating the same in the insurance sector by asking a cash rich PSU general insurer to buyout the smaller ones. A Finance Ministry ocial said apart from buyout by cashrich general insurers, a shareswap could also be considered for smaller insurers. In the 201819 Budget, Fi nance Minister Arun Jaitley proposed merging three pu blic sector general insurance companies — National Insu rance Co. Ltd., United India Insurance Co. Ltd. and
War chest: In March 2017, Oriental India Insurance had 2,357 cr. in cash while United India had 1,916 cr. GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCK *
Oriental India Insurance Co. Ltd. — into a single insurance entity. The merged entity would be subsequently listed on
the bourses. The ocial said if an insurer buys stake in another, the government will get some money in re turn of its stake.
Cash, bank balances As on March 31, 2017, Orien tal India Insurance Co. had cash and bank balance of 2,357 crore compared with 1,916 crore held by United India Assurance Co. and 1,587 crore by National In surance Co. In the current scal, which ends in March, two other PSU insurers — Gener al Insurance Corp. and New India Assurance Co. Ltd. — got listed on the bourses.
The dierent standards in place for original equipment and replacement auto parts can cause major issues relat ed to safety, emissions and performance of the vehicle, the government has said in the new draft National Auto motive Policy. Currently, automotive components being supplied to original equipment manu facturers in India must con form to Automotive Industry Standards guidelines, whe reas those being sold through the aftermarket channel need to be certied as per Bureau of Indian Stan dards. “Discrepancies bet ween the standards of new and replacement parts can
cause major issues in safety, emissions, and performance of the vehicle. Also, the dual certication requirements lead to higher cost of com pliance for smaller manufac turers. The Department of Heavy Industry had sought stakeholders’ comments on the draft policy by February 26, and expects to nalise
Shift to cleaner vehicles Besides, poor domestic cap ability for producing compo nents used in green vehicles will be a major bottleneck for shifting to cleaner vehi cles, the government said in the draft policy, observing there is a “critical need” to improve technology access, capability and skill levels of component manufacturers. According to the draft pol icy, technology transfer and domestic capability building has potential growth oppor tunity in auto components sector after the entry of sev eral international compo nent manufacturers.
NEW DELHI
Industry body Assocham urged the Centre to relax the deadline for linking bank accounts, particularly those in the public sector banks (PSBs), with Aadhaar, saying postPNB scam, PSBs were reghting to protect their core business. The economy had just about come out of the impact of demonetisation and GST and was not ready for another challenge by way of any bank account becoming inoperative after March 31, Assocham said. PTI
‘4.4 lakh homes unsold in 7 major cities in 2017’ NEW DELHI
About 4.4 lakh housing units were unsold in seven major cities at the end of 2017 with DelhiNCR contributing the maximum at over 1.5 lakh ats, property consultant JLL India said. Kolkata had the lowest volume at about 26,000 units. The consultancy expects the high level of unsold inventories to result in stable housing prices. Its survey said of the total unsold stock, 34,700 units are readytomovein apartments. PTI
Vietnam renery: IOC bids for stake PRESS TRUST OF INDIA
GMR submits bid to revamp Manila airport Consortium’s proposal to cost $3 bn
NEW DELHI
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA
Stateowned Indian Oil Corp (IOC) has bid for a stake in Vietnam’s Binh Son Rening and Petro chemical Company as it looks at the southeastern nation to expand business beyond Indian shores. IOC is among at least four companies that have evinced interest in becom ing strategic partner in Binh Son Rening and Pe trochemical Company (BSR) by taking 49%, o cial sources said. Indone sian stateowned oil rm Pertamina, Vietnam’s big gest petrol dealer Petroli mex and Thailand’s Bang chak Corporation Public Company Ltd. are the oth er rms which have put in an expression of interest.
HYDERABAD
The GMRMegawide consor tium that manages the Mac tanCebu International Air port in the Philippines has submitted a $3billion pro posal to decongest and rede velop the Manila Ninoy Aquino International Air port in Manila. According to a ling by Megawide with the Philip pines Stock Exchange in Ma nila, the redevelopment proposal involves increasing the capital city’s airport’s capacity to 9501,000 air craft movements a day from the present 730 and take the overall passenger handling capacity to 72 million per annum. The MactanCebu International Airport is the second largest airport in the
Pacic island nation and is operated by the GMR Group and Megawide in a 40:60 joint venture. ‘37 million passengers’ According to the Manila In ternational Airport Authori ty, the city’s aerodrome handled almost 37 million passengers (domestic and international) in 2017. “As an experienced priv ate operator, we have a deep understanding of the pro blem experienced by the Manila airport and we would like oer our solu tion. Our team has trans formed the New Delhi inter national airport as one of the top ve in the world to day,” said Louie Ferrer, a re presentative of the consortium.
GST absolutely necessary for India, says Suresh Krishna
Modi, Choksi cannot sell assets: NCLT
‘New Zealand’s GDP grew four times after levy was imposed’
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA NEW DELHI
K.T. Jagannathan N. Anand CHENNAI
The implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST) is absolutely neces sary for the country as it has the potential to double the GDP, according to Suresh Krishna, chairman and ma naging director, Sundram Fasteners Ltd. (SFL). “There is nothing wrong in it (GST),” Mr. Suresh Krishna said in an interview to The Hindu. “You will understand the benets of it after ve or 10 years. After the implementa tion of GST, the gross domes tic product (GDP) of New Zealand grew by four times. I will be happy if the GDP grows by two times in India,” he said. After GST took eect, check posts at State borders had vanished, paving the way for easy movement of goods, he said. “For want of C form, vehicles used to block way for other vehicles. It resulted in huge amount of wastage [of fuel] and time. Now, all these have gone. The savings is great,” he added. Queried about the scam at the Punjab National Bank (PNB), Mr. Krishna cau tioned the Centre against taking any kneejerk action just because a few industrial ists had duped public sector banks. “What happened in the case of Punjab National Bank is unfortunate. [But] even Lehman Brothers Inc. collapsed despite strict con trols, in the U.S.,” he said. He said public faith in the banking system had been dented in the wake of the fraud as defaulters had ed India. “There will be certain ap prehension in the minds of the public. There is no doubt,’’ he said. He felt that the govern ment should not go in for CM YK
Barrier-free: GST has enabled easy goods movement, leading to enormous savings, says Suresh Krishna. V. GANESAN *
any kneejerk action similar to the one taken in Satyam Computer Services’ scandal. He said one should not lose faith in the banking system just because of one [PNB] failure. “It will be a great er ror. You have to trust the In dian banks. You have public sector banks, private sector banks and reputed banks in the country. It is up to you to make your own judgement. We need to carry on,’’ he added. Having experienced a challenging period for the manufacturing sector from ‘60s to ‘90s, Mr. Krishna said he had always remained op timistic. Asserting that India was capable of producing quality products of interna tional standard, he said he was against levy of taxes in the guise of protectionism. Imports to be hit Referring to the recent an nouncement by U.S. Presi dent Donald Trump on tari on steel and highend bike imports from India, he said: “It is not good for any econo my to put higher import du ty. It will denitely aect im ports. After the U.S., China will do it. “One should have an open economy to be the best in the world. Or else, it will be come uncompetitive. And, you will not be able to com pete in the other markets,”
he said. Pointing out that In dia was doing well in auto mobile and auto compo nents, Mr. Krishna said: “We are becoming one of the lar gest producers of auto vehi cles in the world by produc ing three million cars and 1516 million motorcycles ev ery year. “We are in a sunrise in dustry. We will be number three or four very quickly. It is only a matter of time. [The] same may apply for bus, trucks, oroad vehicles and excavators.” He felt that the country could absorb 10 million cars and 50 million twowheelers. Personal tran sportation was a common aspiration of the middle class in India, he said. To a question, he said it would take more than 2025 years for the country to real ise its dream of fully moving over to electric vehicles. The industry and the users, he said, had to deal with three vital issues — type of battery, its disposal mode and infras tructure such as charging stations. “The battery technology has to improve. We have to see whether the industry opts for lithium or cobalt,’’ he said. Battery should not be viewed just a component of cost of vehicle alone. Its impact on the cost of owner ship also mattered, Mr. Su resh Krishna added.
Amid the ongoing multi agency probe into the 11,500crore Punjab Na tional Bank scam, the NCLT has restrained more than 60 entities, including Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi, various individuals, com panies and limited liability partnership rms, from selling their assets. The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) gave the directions against Mr. Modi and Mr.Choksi, the al leged main perpetrators of the fraud, as well as their rms and relatives, among other entities, as per a pu blic announcement by the Corporate Aairs Ministry. The exparte order was passed on a petition led by the Ministry under va rious sections of the Com panies Act, 2013.
IiAS ags ONGCHPCL transaction Press Trust of India New Delhi
Proxy advisory rm IiAS has questioned the state run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd. (ONGC) seeking exemption from taking shareholders’ nod for the acquisition of the government’s stake in Hin dustan Petroleum Corpo ration (HPCL), saying such leniency with regard to pu blic votes is not warranted. ONGC bought the go vernment’s 51.11% stake in HPCL for 36,916 crore. IiAS said Sec. 188 of the Companies Act states ‘prior approval’ is required for rms to enter into RPTs (related party transac tions). Where such approval was not taken, the Act al lows for ratication till a period of three months.
‘Defaulting promoters must be barred from bidding’
Tighter PSL norms for MNC banks
Axis Bank’s Shikha Sharma also bats for stronger NCLTs
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA MUMBAI
would have kept such a re quirement in mind already.
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA MUMBAI
#5 7 3 0 1 9
Axis Bank chief Shikha Shar ma has called for creating a better credit culture for longterm benets and opined that one way to achieve it is to debar default ing promoters from bidding for their assets during insol vency proceedings. With the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) doing away with all the past dispensations to resolve the bad loan pro blem, and voting for initia tion of insolvency proceed ings against erring borrowers, there is a need to strengthen the National Company Law Tribunals (NCLTs), she said. “Certainly, a lot more cas es are going to go to the
Shikha Sharma
NCLT; so it is important that their capacity is expanded so that they can deal with all cases,” the managing direc tor and chief executive of the third largest private sector lender told PTI. Ms. Sharma said there is “some conver sation” on this aspect alrea dy and added that the RBI
‘Longterm benet’ She said the promoters of companies against whom banks had initiated insolven cy proceedings should be kept out of the bidding pro cess for the same assets for the longterm benet of im proving credit culture. A shortterm goal for banks would be to look at maximising the value from the assets which are being put up for bidding and that can happen by allowing the promoters to bid for the as sets, while from a longer term perspective getting the right credit culture where every borrower repays is more important, she said.
The Reserve Bank of India has further tightened the priority sector lending (PSL) norms for foreign banks by directing them to mandatorily create subtar gets so that they lend a por tion of their loans to small and marginal farmers as well as micro enterprises, from April. The move is directed at foreign banks with over 20 branches and will impact the likes of Standard Char tered, Citi and HSBC. The norms will come into force from next nancial year. The norms mandate fo reign banks to eventually lend 40% of their total loan book to priority sector areas, such as agriculture, from April 2020.
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14 BUSINESS REVIEW
NOIDA/DELHI
THE HINDU
MONDAY, MARCH 5, 2018
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Solar goal for 2022 too hot to handle A regulator to oversee the GUEST COLUMN
Uncertainty on duties, sluggish rooftop sector make 100 GW a dicult target to meet: industry players purchase agreements due to lower taris being disco vered subsequent to the sign ing of their PPAs.
TCA Sharad Raghavan NEW DELHI
India had been on track to meet its target of 100 Giga watt (GW) of solar energy ca pacity by 2022 but momen tum has been severely eroded in the last few months, according to indus try players. Issues such as uncertainty around import duties and future tax rates on existing power purchase agreements have dampened investor sentiment. “If you look at the trajec tory India is on, [with] re gard to solar capacity addi tion, real volumes have started to come and it’s ac celerating too,” Andrew Hines, cofounder and head of business development (South India), Cleanmax So lar, told The Hindu. “If that trajectory is to continue over the next few years, it will cer tainly be possible to get to that number.” “A valid question is wheth er we are still on that trajec tory or not, or whether we can expect volumes to grow at the same speed or not,” Mr. Hines added. “In the last 34 months, people’s con dence in that trajectory has weakened somewhat be cause of trade issues, to do with antidumping duties and safeguard duties” The Director General (Sa feguards) had earlier this year recommended impos ing a 70% safeguard duty on imported solar cells, panels and modules for a minimum period of 200 days. No deci sion has been taken yet on this, but the proposal is caus ing a lot of uncertainty in the industry because of the high er costs this would result in. “The 70% safeguard duty proposed will also inate project costs by 25% and crank up the viable tari to 3.75 per unit from 3 esti mated earlier, making solar power less attractive to dis coms,” Subodh Rai, senior director, Crisil Ratings, said in a release. “That would al so be more than the average power purchase cost [for] 10 out of 14 discoms last scal.” “It will obviously impose signicant costs on develop ers,” Mr. Hines said. “Already the goal looks dicult and then you’re looking at im
EXPLAINER
Mirage of a target: ”In the last 1012 years, we have come from 10 MW to 20 GW. Now, we have to do 20 GW every year to achieve the target,” says Gyanesh Chaudhary. GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCK *
posing import duties on the primary materials of these projects, so of course that’s going to have an impact. The uncertainty around that is a concern for industry.” ‘GST is a dampener’ “[In the latest] Budget, we were hoping for a lot of things to happen, which did not take place,” Gyanesh Chaudhary, MD and CEO of Vikram Solar said. “In the preGST regime, we had zero tax on solar panels. Now it is 5%. There is a lot of confu sion surrounding the GST on project execution. We need clarity on that. In a VUCA [volatility, uncertainty, com plexity and ambiguity] envi ronment, what do investors and nanciers need? They need some sort of certainty.” “With the advent of anti dumping and the prospect of safeguard duties, and so ma ny changes, it becomes that much more uncertain.” Ashish Khanna, CEO and ED, Tata Power Solar said, “While I agree that FY18 has been a good year as far as the installation of largescale projects and the focus to wards solar pumps are con cerned, this recent pheno mena of the last few months with regard to uncertainties of customs duty, and certain investigations taken by the government especially re
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Post NFRA formation, what is ICAI’s role?
garding the safeguard duty, I think, are not helping the en vironment.” Last year, the global ca pacity addition in solar stood at 105 GW, according to Mr. Chaudhary, who added that India was in third place in terms of how much its mar ket has grown over the year. “What’s lacking is an ef fective ecosystem to make this happen in a speedy and timebound manner,” Mr. Chaudhary said. “It’s riddled with a lot of complications and a lot of noise from the in dustry as well, where every
< > Of the 20 GW solar capacity installed, only 2 GW has come from the rooftop segment Andrew Hines Cofounder, Cleanmax Solar
body wants protectionism. China has done nothing like that. It has created a bottom up approach where 6070% of the global manufacturing in solar is from China.” “They have built this huge ecosystem that is fuelling the growth,” he added. “Out of 105 GW last year, 52 GW came from China, so you can imagine the kind of installa tion that is happening there.” The problem in India is that uncertainty surround ing taris coupled with a
large target means that the road ahead to 2022 will be a tough one. Industry players across the board have said that they are waiting for more certainty before they bid for more projects or ex pand their existing projects. “The installation base in solar in India has touched 20 GW,” Mr. Chaudhary said. “Our targets are 100 GW of solar by 2022. So, that gives us eectively four years. In the last 1012 years, we have come from 10 MW to 20 GW. Now we have to do 20 GW ev ery year to achieve the tar get, so it’s pure maths. Un less there is some serious might behind this, the target looks unlikely to be met.” “We need to go into the details of what has hap pened,” Mr. Khanna said. “In the case of bids, certain ta ris are decided upon but there was uncertainty over the incidence of future taxes and how they would aect the taris. Developers are not in a position to take a guess regarding the future statutory changes that are beyond their control. “And, they cannot miti gate that risk by keeping a margin in the bid.” Another major issue that is causing in dustry players to slow their investments is the incidence of State governments trying to renegotiate past power
Renegotiation by States “The renegotiation of renew able power purchase agree ment (PPA) taris by quoting high taris is not an appa rent option available with State discoms,” India Ratings and Research said in a re port. “Although there is no anecdotal evidence of can cellation of renewable PPAs in contravention to possible exit clauses available in PPAs, there have been in stances of lowerthancon tracted payments or grid curtailments. There is no di rect evidence of PPA cancel lation due to higher taris, except in Uttar Pradesh… However, additional clarity will attract investments in the sector.” The report added that anecdotal experience shows high power cost (that States had signed o on) as the sole reason for the proposed re negotiation or cancellation of PPAs. Solar power taris plunged to 2.44/kWh in May 2017 from 5.10 in June 2015. “It did hurt investor sentiment,” Mr. Chaudhary said. “There were a couple of cases where this was tried, but it didn’t y with the courts. If something like that were to happen, it would crush the industry because there would be no surety.” The other aspect that will likely hold up India’s achievement of the 100 GW target for solar is the rooftop solar component within this target. Out of the total, utility scale capacity is to make up 60% of the target and roof top solar is to make up the remaining 40%. “If the total achievement in solar is 20 GW today, then about 18 GW of that is proba bly from utility scale. On the rooftop side, I think the vol umes installed today are modest. It’s less than 2 GW,” Mr. Hines said. In other words, the utility scale segment has achieved 30% of the 2022 target with four years to go. The rooftop segment has achieved less than 4%.
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CA institute is necessary ICAI ought to have acted quickly to clean up the system TCA Ramanujam
The Union Cabinet has at last approved the proposal for establishment of the Na tional Financial Reporting Authority as envisaged un der section 132 of the Com panies Act, 2013. For well over ve years, the section has neither been notied nor implemented. Since 1948, India’s nances and audit have been left to the care of the The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. The JPC indicted char tered accountants for their role in the stock market scam of 1992. Fourteen lead ing rms were to have been proceeded against. The pro fession was not brought to book and the very same rms continued to get the patronage of the CAG, RBI and the Ministry of Finance. Responsibility of CAs Harshad Mehta, Ketan Pa rikh, the Satyam imbroglio and the latest scam involving our secondlargest public sector bank — all exploded in public view, proving that all was not well with the way audits were being conduct ed. The Companies Act casts a responsibility on auditors to see that corporate ac counts are in order. Auditors can choose not to sign the accounts if their concerns are not addressed by the management. This is what happened in the case of Fortis Health care. That is rare. The Com panies Act also allows audi tors to report to the Centre if they believe an oence in volving fraud is being com mitted by the company, by its ocers or employees. The Audit Committee of PNB included not only char tered accountants but also an IAS ocer. Despite ICAI Guidelines, the CAs did not tally entries made in the Swift (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Tele communications) software with those made in the core banking solution. The Insti
Acting tough: Auditors can refuse to sign o if their concerns are not addressed by the management. GETTYIMAGES/ISTOCK *
tute’s Guidelines specically required auditors to check the records independently. However, chartered ac countants can turn out to be a charming lot. The Econo mist once referred to them as the “party with the deep est pockets.” On occasion, a deviant CA can come up with ingenious devices to circumvent the law. He or she can help windowdress numbers and camouage it as creative accounting. Un der his or her watch, debt can be disguised as equity. O balance sheet nanc ing can come in handy. Dou ble accounting is now well known — one for the share holder and one for the In come Tax Ocer, which practice had led to the intro duction of the minimum al ternate tax (MAT). It may be recalled that Dr. Raja Chelliah had held the profession responsible for the failure of the presump tive tax scheme. The National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA) was brought into the Com panies Act on the specic re commendations of the Standing Committee on Fi nance. It will oversee the functioning of the ICAI and ensure credibility in nan cial reporting. Its jurisdiction will cover investigation of chartered accountants and their rms covering both listed and un
listed public companies. The inherent regulatory role of the ICAI as provided for in the Chartered Accountants Act, 1969 will continue. Threshold limits will be modied. Oversight provisions Enron exploded onto the in ternational nancial scene and this led to the creation of the Public Companies Ac counting Oversight Board (PCOAB) under the Sar benesOxley Act, 2002. American auditors are subject to external and inde pendent oversight in order to protect investors and pu blic interests by promoting informative, accurate and in dependent audit reports. After the Enron and the Worldcom scandals, the U.K. used an independent regula tor, the Financial Reporting Council (FRC), transforming a system of self regulation in to a mixed system in which FRC and professional bodies have major responsibilities. The setting up of the NFRA has been delayed beyond time. The govern ment is answerable for not having notied the law since 2013. The Bourbons, it is said, learnt nothing and for got nothing. Will this maxim apply to the situation pre vailing in India? (The writer is a former Chief Commissioner of Income Tax and an advocate)
INTERVIEW | LORD MARLAND
‘Seeing unprecedented connectivity in business’ Governments will have to understand how to work with connectivity rather than prevent it, says CWEIC chairman
K.T. Jagannathan CHENNAI
Vidya Ram
What is the proposal?
J The Centre last week ap proved the proposal to set up the National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA), intended to serve as an independent regulator for the auditing profession. The basis for the move
J Section 132 of the Com panies Act, 2013 gives the Centre the power to set up such an authority. A Parlia mentary Standing Commit tee had also recommended that the National Advisory Committee on Accounting Standards proposed in the Companies Bill, 2009 be institutionalised. What does Section 132 say?
J It says the NFRA can do, among other things, the fol lowing: recommend to the Centre formulation of ac counting and auditing stan dards and polices to be adopted by companies and auditors; monitor and en force such standards and policies; and oversee quali ty of services of the profes sions associated with the compliance of these stan dards and policies What are NFRA’s powers?
J It can investigate into professional matters or mis conduct of any member or a rm of chartered accoun tants; it can issue summons and examine on oath; it can also inspect any book, regis ters and documents of any professional/rms probed; it may impose penalties and even powers to debar a member of a rm. CM YK
Who is on the NFRA?
J It will comprise a chair person, three fulltime members and a secretary. What is ICAI’s role now?
J ICAI’s role will continue in respect of its members, in general, and, specically, with respect to audits per taining to private limited companies and public un listed companies below the threshold limit to be noti ed in the rules. ICAI will continue with its advisory role on accounting and auditing standards and policies by making its re commendations to NFRA. Why bring in NFRA now?
J
The discovery of the multicrore fraud allegedly committed at the Punjab Na tional Bank appears to be a trigger. Add to it earlier she nanigans reported in the system — Satyam, Enron, Ketan Parikh et al. What does the setting up of the Authority imply?
J
In a way, it indicates a certain lack of trust in ICAI to eectively address mal practices indulged in by re calcitrant members.
High hopes are being pinned on the forthcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in London, for its potential in reviving the community of 53 nations as a political and economic force on the world stage. Crucially, India has indicated its interest, with Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu recently suggesting that the country could play a leadership role in its renewal. With closer ties in business and trade seen as key to this, a Commonwealth Business Forum will precede the gathering in mid-April, organised by the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council established just three years ago with a view to increasing intra-Commonwealth trade and investment, which, in the view of many, currently lags behind its potential. In an interview, the CWEIC’s Chairman Lord Marland of Odstock spoke about what he hopes will emerge from the two gatherings, particularly given the renewed interest from India and beyond. Intra-Commonwealth trade is projected to rise substantially, from $525 billion in 2015 to $1 trillion in 2020. How achievable do you think this is?
Of course. The Common wealth is on the cusp of so mething quite remarkable, though we are not anywhere near there at the moment. It’s on the cusp largely due to the engagement of India. What is so exciting about the CHOGM is the interest that Prime Minister Modi is tak ing… and the encourage ment he’s given to Indian bu siness through FICCI and CII. The reason I cite this ex ample is because till now In dia has been kind of sitting on the sidelines, it’s not en gaged, particularly from a trade point of view. So, it’s an exciting time. We had also previously had no engagement from South Africa, but with [Presi dent] Cyril Ramaphosa [former deputy chair of the Commonwealth Business
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Council], and add to that the new outward looking atti tude from Canada, and of course you have the U.K. and Brexit — the way the plates are moving around, I can see real activity being generated out of it. Does the situation require a particular country to take the lead?
Like any club, unless peo ple commit to using the facil ities and commit to making an eort towards it, nothing happens. Many people want to see the U.K. government take a leadership role, they want India to engage… I am pretty hopeful that the Com monwealth will not only sur vive but become stronger. ■
What role will Brexit play? Is it an advantage or a distraction? ■ Curiously, the light hasn’t gone in with the U.K. govern ment which is entirely fo cussed on Brexit. Yes, they
are making arrangements postBrexit but they haven’t yet at this moment worked out how they are going to lead the Commonwealth for the next two years. Is it a distraction? I think there is the possibility the U.K. might miss the oppor tunity but I don’t think the others will. Is a formal Commonwealth trade agreement the route ahead? ●It’s going to be very dicult to have a formal common wealth trade agreement, but there is no reason why a group of countries that share similar views on free trade, business practices and the rule of law should not sta blish a trade agreement — the start of a com monwealth trade agreement and as other countries de velop their econo mies, they can sign up to that agreement.
What are the key objectives for the forum? ■ We are an enabling organisation. The Busi ness forum is [meant] to bring together eminent business gures to un derstand the benets of free trade, common business practices and the rule of law and within that, opportuni ties. They can learn and benet from other coun tries’ involvement in cer tain sectors such as
< > It’s going to be very dicult to have a formal, Commonwealth trade agreement technology. The other aspect is that we have the Chinese with tentacles everywhere. We need to nd a way of compet ing with them and I would hope out of this comes a view on cooperation. Why can’t the U.K. cooperate with
India, with Malaysia, with African countries in compet ing with the Chinese? There is so much talent in these countries — they are a third of the world’s population. If we can harness it, we can be come quite a signicant force. This is all part of a process of 53 nations, the bulk of which are reengaging with each other to form a strong alliance and coming up with some serious building blocks — this is the very early start of the process. We are not at the point [where] we could have a Commonwealth Trade agree ment but we can ask the questions: Why aren’t we working together? How can we work together more closely? This is totally die rent to what has been hap pening in the past 1012 years. This is happening at a time of rising protectionism in some parts of the world…
What you have in the world at the moment is con nectivity like you’ve never seen it at a human level and a business level. And you have disconnectivity at a political level and our event is here to help ■
< > Why can’t U.K. cooperate with India, Malaysia and others to compete with China?
connectivity, not to hinder it. And if governments want to take an independent view as to frustrating connectivity, they have to understand this is a powerful typhoon of con nectivity sweeping across the world and they are going to have to understand how to work with it rather than pre vent it. Connectivity is of course about physical movement too. How much of an obstacle are tough immigration policies? ■ I don’t see a huge barrier to entry for businesses coming to visit countries selling pro ducts, doing trade — the mi gration issue is much more longterm and from the busi ness point of view, there aren’t the same barriers to entry.
What would you like to see from India?
Indian business people are very entrepreneurial and constantly looking at oppor tunities to see how they can cooperate — India has to car ry more people with them, recognise they haven’t got the full skillset — as every country should recognise — and work with countries to compete in a world where there is China, and we are in danger of losing out to them… India working with other countries giving, rath er than taking, is going to be a really transformative thing for the Commonwealth and we are grateful to the Indian government for their ap proach.
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Vihari’s blitzkrieg leaves IndiaA dazed His unbeaten 95 helps India-B register a convincing eight-wicket win in the opening game DEODHAR TROPHY Vijay Lokapally DHARAMSHALA
Beginning the innings in sun ny environ, the IndiaA team lost the momentum early and failed to confront In diaB with a challenging total in the opening xture of the Deodhar Trophy here. A target of 175 in 43 overs was always going to be tough to defend since IndiaB boasted of substance in its batting lineup and the end result was on predictable lines. The eightwicket win for IndiaB came with 100 balls to spare, with G. Hanuma Vi hari ve short of a century. Injudicious shot selection caused early havoc in the In diaA camp when Prithvi Shaw, Ishan Kishan and Shubhman Gill made unwise attempts to collar the attack before studying the condi tions. Presented with easy pick ings, IndiaB struck decisive blows by removing skipper
Guiding force: G. Hanuma Vihari’s knock was the highlight of IndiaB’s chase.
Ankeet Bawane and Suryaku mar Yadav, the latter may count himself unlucky to be ruled legbefore. At 92 for six, it appeared a mismatch
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Lanka-bound
before Andhra batsman Ricky Bhui gave the contest a semblance of competition with a 107ball 78 (5x4, 4x6). It took Bhui’s Andhra
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teammate Vihari to put things in perspective. He just tore into the opposition with his clinical shots, the drives especially, square and in
front. Vihari for long, has been rated for his natural ability to pick the line early and here he was spotting too early, much to the discom fort of the IndiaA seamers. Rain interrupted the match in the 14th over of the IndiaA innings. IndiaB could pat itself for the deci sion to eld since a lot de pended on the pair of Shaw and Kishan as they had the potential to decimate the op position. Their dismissals set the trend and if not for Bhui’s facesaving knock, IndiaA would have faced greater embarrassment. Forceful drives and silken timing showcased Vihari’s knock as he targeted Mo hammed Shami and Nav deep Saini, two newball bowlers of repute. His 50 in cluded 11 fours and reected his mindset at the crease — not to allow the bowlers time to settle. Thanks to Vihari’s knock (76b, 16x4, 1x6), In diaB, which meets Karnata ka on Monday, was a runa way winner.
The scores: India-A: Prithvi Shaw c Ahmed b Jadeja 28, Ishan Kishan c Bharat b Kaul 2, Shubhman Gill c Tiw ary b Umesh 5, Ankeet Bawane lbw b Kaul 5, Suryakumar Yadav lbw b Jadeja 11, Ricky Bhui b Jayant 78, Krunal Pandya st Bharat b Jadeja 10, Shahbaz Na deem lbw b Jayant 6, Mo hammed Shami b Umesh 3, Ba sil Thampi b Jadeja 10, Navdeep Saini (not out) 0; Extras (lb3, nb1, w16): 20; Total (in 41.2 overs): 178. Fall of wickets: 116, 221, 327, 442, 570, 692, 7104, 8133, 9178. India-B bowling: Umesh 90 282, Kaul 80392, Dharmen drasinh Jadeja 90364, Kha leel 80470, Jayant 7.20252. India-B: Abhimanyu Easwaran c Kishan b Pandya 43, K.S. Bharat b Shami 8, G. Hanuma Vihari (not out) 95, Shreyas Iyer (not out) 28; Extras (lb1): 1; Total (for two wkts. in 26.2 overs): 175 (by VJD method). Fall of wickets: 113, 2111. India-A bowling: Shami 60 491, Saini 30310, Nadeem 7 0540, Thampi 4.20190, Pandya 60211. Toss: IndiaB.
Shubhankar stays two clear Sinks a par-saving putt on last hole WGC-MEXICO Agence France-Presse Mexico City
India's Shubhankar Sharma survived some shaky mo ments to maintain his two shot lead at the WGC Mexico Championship after the third round on Saturday. Shubhankar, the 21year old Asian Tour Order of Me rit leader, carded a twoun der 69 at Club de Golf Cha pultepec, where his 13under par total of 200 put him clear of vetime
Focused: Shubhankar Sharma lines up a putt during the third round on Saturday. ROB CARR/GETTY IMAGES *
Australia closing in on a win
Karthik to lead KKR
Aiden Markram carves out a gutsy century for the hosts
Wants to continue the legacy G. Viswanath
AUSTRALIA IN SA Agence France-Presse DURBAN
Here we come: The members of the Indian team before boarding a ight to Colombo for the Nidahas Trophy triseries which begins on March 6. COURTESY: BCCI
Aiden Markram led a stirring South African ghtback but could not prevent Australia from closing in on victory on the fourth day of the rst Test at Kingsmead on Sunday. Opening batsman Mark ram made 143 (218b, 19x4) but South Africa was hang ing on at 293 for nine, still
124 runs short of a target of 417, when bad light stopped play. Desperate situation South Africa was in desper ate trouble at 49 for four but Markram shared stands of 87 with Theunis de Bruyn (36) and 147 with Quinton de Kock (81 not out) which gave the host hope that it could pull o a miracle victory. His dismissal, though, opened the door for Austra lia to rip through the tail.
Mitchell Starc took three wickets in ve balls to have South Africa nine down. That caused the umpires to tell Steve Smith that play could continue if he used slow bowlers. Deteriorating light de Kock and Morne Morkel survived nine overs in ever deteriorating light against Smith and Nathan Lyon be fore the umpires took the players o ve minutes be fore normal close.
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Anuja to lead IndiaA PRESS TRUST OF INDIA NEW DELHI
Ospinner Anuja Patil was named captain of the In diaA women’s team which will play two warmup matches against the visiting Australian side next week. The warmup games will be played on March 6 and 8 in Mumbai.
Prasad is KXIP bowling coach Press Trust of India MOHALI
Venkatesh Prasad was on Sunday appointed bowling coach of Kings XI Punjab, barely a couple of days af ter he resigned as the chief of junior national selection panel. Former Australia player Brad Hodge is the team’s head coach.
Karun’s advice to Mayank Special Correspondent Dharamshala
Even as Karun Nair ex plores avenues to make a comeback to the Indian team, he felt for colleague Mayank Agarwal not being able to make it to the squad for the Nidahas Trophy to be held in Colombo from March 6. “I have only tried to tell him that all you can do is score runs. Anything else is not in your control. You have to be patient and keep doing what you are doing now, which is scoring runs. “If you keep doing that there will be a time when you get an opportunity and that is when you make the most of it,” said Karun here on Sunday. Mayank, prior to the De odhar Trophy, aggregated 2141 runs in three formats this season, and was tipped to don the National co lours. CM YK
Anuja is a T20 specialist who has played 27 matches for India. The squad: Anuja Patil (Capt.), Priya Pu nia, Sarika Kohli, Dayalan He malatha, Neha Tanwar, Ta nushree Sarkar, Nishu Choudhary, Kavita Patil, Megh na Singh, Shanti Kumari, Nuz hat Parween, T.P. Kanwar, Preeti Bose, and S. Asha.
SOUTH AFRICA VS AUSTRALIA, FIRST TEST
Australia — 1st innings: 351. South Africa — 1st innings: 162. Australia — 2nd innings: C. Bancroft st. de Kock b Maharaj 53, D. Warner c sub b Rabada 28, U. Khawaja c de Kock b Ma haraj 6, S. Smith lbw b Elgar 38, S. Marsh c de Villiers b Morkel 33, M. Marsh c Amla b Rabada 6, T. Paine c de Villiers b Maharaj 14, P. Cummins b Maharaj 26, M. Starc c Elgar b Morkel 7, N. Lyon c Amla b Morkel 2, J. Hazle wood (not out) 9; Extras (lb5): 5; Total (in 74.4 overs): 227.
Fall of wickets: 156, 271, 3 108, 4146, 5156, 6175, 7185, 8203, 9209. South Africa bowling: Morkel 154473, Philander 144 350, Maharaj 29.441024, Rabada 136282, Elgar 31101. South Africa — 2nd innings: A. Markram c Paine b M. Marsh 143, D. Elgar c Paine b Starc 9, H. Amla lbw b Hazlewood 8, A. de Villiers run out 0, F. du Plessis b Cummins 4, T. de Bruyn c Paine b Hazlewood 36,
#5 7 3 0 1 9
Q. de Kock (batting) 81, V. Phil ander c Paine b Starc 6, K. Ma haraj b Starc 0, K. Rabada b Starc 0, M. Morkel (batting) 0; Extras (b2, lb3, nb1): 6; Total (for nine wkts. in 89 overs): 293. Fall of wickets: 129, 239, 3 39, 449, 5136, 6283, 7290, 8290, 9290. Australia bowling: Starc 161 744, Hazlewood 141572, Lyon 327860, Cummins 153 471, M. Marsh 72211, Smith 5330.
Barcelona inches closer to title City does the same in the Premier League with a similar 1-0 result
Agence France-Presse BARCELONA
Barcelona has one hand on the La Liga title after Lionel Messi’s sensational freekick earned it a deserved 10 vic tory over Atletico Madrid on Sunday. Atletico arrived at the Camp Nou on the back of eight consecutive wins but Barca halted the surge and instead restored its own lead at the top to eight points, with 11 games left to play. Messi proved the die rence again, his bending rsthalf strike worthy of winning any contest and tak ing his own career tally to an astonishing 600 goals, 539 for Barca and 61 for Argentina. Iniesta injured The only blot on a dominant Barcelona performance was an injury to Andres Iniesta, who had to be substituted af ter 34 minutes with what the club conrmed was a strain in the back of his thigh. Diego Simeone’s strategy of absorb and counter failed to pay o here. Atletico strik er Antoine Griezmann, meanwhile, who came in with seven goals in two games, was largely anonymous. Even Messi hit the wall with a poor freekick and then sent a crosseld switch straight into the advertising boards. For all Atletico’s discipline and defensive rigour, one
Moment of magic: One mistake and Lionel Messi made Atletico pay the price with a wonderful curling freekick that beat the defensive wall and the goalkeeper. DAVID RAMOS/GETTY IMAGES *
mistake in the 26th minute was all it needed. Thomas Partey clipped the back of Messi’s foot 25 yards out and the forward whipped the freekick beyond the scram bling Oblak and into the top corner. Relentless run Manchester City’s relentless run towards the Premier League title continued as it opened up an 18point lead by inicting more damage on Chelsea’s chances of a topfour nish with a 10 home win on Sunday. Bernardo Silva scored the only goal of the match 35 se conds into the second half at the Etihad Stadium when he prodded home at the back post from midelder David
Silva’s low cross. Chelsea’s fourth defeat in ve league games left Anto nio Conte’s reigning English titleholders ve points adrift of the Champions League places. Astori passes away The Italian league post poned all seven Serie A matches scheduled for Sun day after the overnight death of Davide Astori, the Fioren tina captain. Astori, who was 31, died in his hotel room in Udine. The results: La Liga: Levante 1 (Morales 55pen) drew with Es panyol 1 (Baptistao 90+1); Bar celona 1 (Messi 26) bt Atletico Madrid 0. Premier League: Brighton 2 (Dunk 7, Murray 26) bt Arsenal 1
(Aubameyang 43); Manchester City 1 (Bernardo 46) bt Chelsea 0. Bundesliga: Cologne 2 (Pizarro 7, Jojic 87) lost to Stuttgart 3 (Gomez 45, 45+2, Beck 57). Saturday: La Liga: Villarreal 0 lost to Girona 2 (Stuani 16, Lo zano 80); Sevilla 2 (Muriel 27, Vazquez 32) bt Athletic Bilbao 0; Deportivo La Coruna 1 (Dmi trovic 33og) drew with Eibar 1 (Inui 11); Leganes 2 (Eraso Goni 55, Amrabat 62) bt Malaga 0; Real Madrid 3 (Bale 24, Cristia no Ronaldo 45+1, 78) bt Getafe 1 (Portillo 65pen). Serie A: SPAL 1 (Grassi 48) bt Bologna 0; Lazio 0 lost to Ju ventus 1 (Dybala 90+3); Napoli 2 (Insigne 6, Mertens 90+2) lost to AS Roma 4 (Under 7, Dzeko 26, 73, Perotti 79). Premier League: Liverpool 2 (Salah 40, Mane 55) bt Newcas tle 0.
MacLeod’s knock stuns Afghanistan
MUMBAI
After playing 152 matches for ve IPL teams in the last ten years, Dinesk Karthik will play for a sixth team — Kolkata Knight Riders and lead it as well! He was named skipper by the franchise’s CEO and MD Venky Mysore in the TV pro gramme Knight Club — KKR Ka Captain Kaun aired on Sunday morning. The 32 yearold India wicketkeep er batsman, who was bought for ₹7.4 crore, will have Robin Uthappa as his deputy. When asked if his recall to the National side in uenced KKR to name him captain, Karthik said: “Maybe. Let’s be fair to them. They did not pick the captain and then the team. They picked the team in the hope that they will nd the right captain in that mix. “The good thing was that they had a few (in the bas ket) to pick from. They had some players who have been with them for ten
Goa books playo spot ISL Press Trust of India
EURO LEAGUES
Major winner Phil Mickel son, reigning Masters cham pion Sergio Garcia, Tyrrell Hatton and Rafa Cabrera Bello. Shubhankar had three birdies in his rst six holes. He bounced back from a bo gey at the eighth with a bir die at 11, but surrendered a shot at 13. He rolled in a 16foot bir die putt at 14 to reclaim sole possession of the lead and was two clear even after a bogey at 16. He nished with a tremendous par, calmly rolling in a 15foot putt.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE BULAWAYO
Calum MacLeod smashed an unbeaten 157 (146b, 23x4, 1x6) as Scotland rout ed Afghanistan by seven wickets in their World Cup qualier here on Sunday.
Dinesh Karthik.
years, some internationals stars and me, who has been around for some time, but who has never been part of their squad. “The important thing for them was to check if I would t into their culture and mindset. They had their op tions, weighed the pros and cons and probably decided thinking ‘this guy is playing international cricket and he is at a stage of his career where he will give a lot as a player and as a leader.’ Prob ably this feeling made them tilt towards me.”
British athletics great Bannister no more Ran a mile under four minutes in 1954
Jamshedpur
Agence France-Presse
Spanish forward Ferran Corominas struck twice as FC Goa blanked Jamshed pur FC 30 to seal a last four spot in an eventful In dian Super League match which saw both the rival goalkeepers being red carded here on Sunday. Goa needed at least a draw to seal its spot in the nal four, but the win at the JRD Tata Sports Com plex took it to third, one above FC Pune City.
London
Goa vs Chennaiyin Goa will take on Chennaiy in FC in the last four, while Bengaluru FC faces Pune. Jamshedpur will look forward to the Super Cup after nishing fth in the league. Goalkeeper Subrata Paul handled the ball outside the area and was sent o in the seventh minute, ruin ing JFC’s chances. At Kolkata, defending champion ATK downed NorthEast United FC 10. Ir ish World Cupper Robbie Keane cut through a couple of NUEFC defenders to ick home a long ball from Conor Thomas in the 10th minute. ATK nished ninth with 16 points while NEUFC ended last with 11 points. The results: At Jamshedpur: FC Goa 3 (Corominas 29, 51, Lanzarote 69) bt Jamshedpur FC 0. At Kolkata: ATK 1 (Robbie Keane 10) bt North East Unit ed FC 0.
The scores: Afghanistan 255 in 49.4 overs (Mohammad Nabi 92, Najibullah Zadran 67, Brad Wheal three for 36, Ri chie Berrington three for 42) lost to Scotland 256 for three in 47.2 overs (Calum MacLeod 157 n.o., Berrington 67). UAE 221 in 49.4 overs (Ro han Mustafa 95, Ashfaq Ahmed 50, Norman Vanua four for 39) bt Papua New Guinea 113 in 25.5 overs (Mo hammed Naveed ve for 28). Ireland 268 for seven in 50 overs (William Portereld 47, Andy Balbirnie 68, Timm van der Gugten three for 59) bt Netherlands 149 in 32.2 overs (Tim Murtagh three for 28). Zimbabwe 380 for six in 50 overs (Sikandar Raza 123, Brendan Taylor 100, Solomon Mire 52) bt Nepal 264 for eight in 50 overs (Sharad Ve sawkar 52, Aarif Sheikh 50, Si kandar Raza three for 48).
Recordbreaking British ath lete Roger Bannister, the rst man to run a mile in un der four minutes, has died aged 88, his family an nounced on Sunday. “Sir Roger Bannister died peacefully in Oxford March 3, aged 88, surrounded by his family who were as loved by him, as he was loved by them,” his family said. Bannister gained global sporting glory on May 6, 1954, when he ran a mile (1.6 kilometres) three minutes 59.4 seconds at the Iey Road track in Oxford. Half a century later, the Royal Mint celebrated Ban nister’s record by issuing a 50 pence coin showing an athlete’s running legs against a stopwatch. But despite being famed for breaking the fourminute barrier, Bannister said he felt a greater sense of achievement winning gold at the 1954 Commonwealth
Games in Vancouver, beat ing his great rival Australian John Landy in a race later dubbed the “Miracle Mile.” . “I think that racing in the Olympics and Common wealths is more important than breaking records,” Bannister said in 2014. “Vancouver was the pin nacle of my athletics career. It is very dicult to break re cords during Olympic com petition, but winning races was better than holding world records,” he had said. The current onemile re cord since 1999 has been held by Morocco’s Hicham El Guerrouj (3:43.13s). But Bannister’s achieve ment has continued to in spire athletics enthusiasts, with the shoes he wore to break the fourminute bar rier selling for a record. The blackleather pair of shoes sold for £266,500 in September 2015 — about $409,000 at the exchange rate at the time.
A legend: Sir Roger Bannister displays the stop watch used to time the famed race during the 50th anniversary celebrations at Oxford in 2004. FILE PHOTO: REUTERS *
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IN BRIEF
England holds misring India Marijne’s men make a mess of nine penalty corners
Perera wins his sixth PGTI title K. Keerthivasan
AZLAN SHAH CUP
Sneijder takes international retirement
Press Trust of India
THE HAGUE
IPOH
Dutch midfielder Wesley Sneijder has decided to end his international football career after 14 years and a record 133 caps during a golden era for his country. Alongside Arjen Robben, Robin van Persie and Mark van Bommel, Sneijder propelled the Netherlands to the 2010 World Cup final. The Netherlands recently appointed Ronald Koeman as the new national coach. “I understand that Koeman wants a fresh start with younger players. We spoke openly about it and I respect his decision,” said Sneijder.
India wasted chances galore to settle for a 11 draw against England in its second match at the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup hockey tournament here on Sunday. It was India’s rst point in the tournament af ter having lost 32 to Olympic champion Argentina on Saturday Young Shilanand Larka scored his rst international goal in the dying minutes of the rst quarter (14th mi nute) to give India the lead, which the men in blue main tained till the 53rd minute, when Mark Gleghorne con verted a stroke. The young and inexpe rienced team under Sardar Singh’s leadership only had itself to blame as it wasted as many as nine penalty cor ners besides a few great scoring chances from the eld.
AFP
Drall nishes best Indian at T27 in NSW Open COFFS HARBOUR (AUSTRALIA)
India’s Amandeep Drall shot a final round of twounder 69 to finish a creditable tied27 at the Women’s New South Wales Open, here on Sunday. Drall shot a final round of twounder 69, her best of the week, to finish at twoover 286. Sharmila Nicollet (72) was tied44th, while Gaurika Bishnoi (70) was tied49th. England’s Meghan MacLaren held her overnight lead to win the Women’s New South Wales Open and claim her first Ladies European Tour title in Australia. PTI
RiyaOz duo loses in seminals ANTALYA
Riya Bhatia and Ipek Oz of Turkey lost 64, 62 to Gabriela Pantuckova and Magdalena Pantuckova of the Czech Republic in the quarterfinals of the $15,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament. Other result: $15,000 ITF women, Antalya, Turkey: Doubles (prequarterfinals): Ipek Oz & Riya Bhatia bt Eunhye Lee (Kor) & Viktoria Ljungman (Swe) 62, 60.
Squash coach El Karargui ies back home NEW DELHI
India’s foreign coach Achraf El Karargui has flown back home, raising doubts over his return with less than a month to go for the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast. Sports Authority of India (SAI) had extended Karargui’s contract last year to continue till July 2019 but his move has left medal contenders Joshna Chinappa, Saurav Ghosal and Dipika Pallikal in a spot ahead of the April 415 Games. Speaking to PTI, a SAI official confirmed that the Egyptian has left for his country. “It was 10 days ago that he wished to resign due to personal reasons. However, he is expected to continue till the Commonwealth Games,” the official said. PTI
England pressed hard for the equaliser and in the pro cess secured a penalty cor ner, which was wasted. The Indians secured their ninth and nal penalty cor ner in the 48th minute but they failed to utilise the op portunity and it proved cost ly for Sjoerd Marijne’s team. Paying the penalty Seven minutes from the nal hooter, England was award ed a penalty stroke for a stick infringement inside the circle and Gleghorne con vert with ease past goalie Krishan Pathak. India will next play un beaten Australia on Tuesday. Marksman: Shilanand Lakra celebrates with Talwinder Singh after slotting in India’s goal.
India was slow to get o the blocks as England put pressure on the citadel with continuous raids upfront. But India took the lead against the run of play a mi nute before the rst quarter when Shilanand pounced on
a rebound after Talwinder Singh’s initial shot was saved by England goalkeeper Har ry Gibson. The Indians were on top in the second quarter and earned eight penalty cor ners with close succession,
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but the dragick battery of Varun Kumar and Amit Rohi das failed to breach the En gland defence led by substi tute goalkeeper George Pinner. The third quarter wit nessed a mideld slugfest as
The results: India 1 (Shilanand Larka 14th min.) drew with En gland 1 (Mark Gleghorne 53); Argentina 5 (Gonzalo Peillat 20, 23, 47; Lucas Vila 22, Juan Gi lardi 30) bt Ireland 3 (Shane O’ Donoghue 12, Sean Murray 17, Magee 62); Australia 3 (Corey Weyer 10, Dylan Wotherspoon 30, Aron Kleinschmidt 43) bt Malaysia 1 (Marhan Jalil 53).
CHENNAI
Mithun Perera couldn’t con trol his emotions, how ever much he tried. After a par on the 465yard 18th hole — he also nished the day at par70 — the 31yearold Sri Lankan dropped a tear or two at the Madras Gymkha na Club Annexe here on Sunday, before being con gratulated by a handful of followers. The hardearned one stroke win (fourday total of 14under 266) ended a four year winless streak. His sixth PGTI title didn’t come easy as Mithun had to ward o a tough challenge from his Sri Lankan friend N. Thangaraja, defending champion Mukesh Kumar and Digvijay Singh. Mukesh and Digvijay nished joint second at 13under 267 while Thangaraja had to set tle for fourth. The scores (nal day): 1. Mith un Perera (SL) 266 (68, 63, 65,70); 2. Digvijay Singh 267
Mithun Perera.
*
M. VEDHAN
(70, 66, 69, 62), Mukesh Ku mar (66, 66, 69, 66), 4. N. Thangaraja (SL) 268 (61, 70, 68, 69), 5. Shamim Khan 270 (64, 69, 68, 69); 6. Sujjan Singh 271 (67, 6670, 68); 7. Ranjit Singh 272 (70, 66, 67, 69), Vikrant Chopra (66, 65, 70, 71); 9. Feroz Singh Garewal 273 (68, 66, 69, 70), Veer Ah lawat (70, 67, 63, 73).
ATHLETICS
All eyes on Thingalaya and Tejaswin Most of the top athletes will be missing the Federation Cup Uthra Ganesan PATIALA
The fourday Federation Cup starting here on Monday would be the last chance for 30odd athletes to board the ight to Gold Coast, Austra lia, but some big names would not be on that list. In fact, there is little possibility of India lling up its quota of 37 for the Commonwealth Games. The biggest to miss out would, undoubtedly, be dis cus thrower Vikas Gowda, the lone Commonwealth Games gold medallist for the country from Glasgow four years ago. But he won’t be the only one. Gowda, who trains in the United States, had earlier indicated quit ting after the 2018 CWG but the 34year old has not sent his entry and the Athletics
Federation of India (AFI) has professed ignorance about his whereabouts. “We have no information about him, or Nirmala Sheo ran for that matter. All we know is that those who do not participate here won’t be considered for CWG,” AFI se cretary C.K. Valson declared. Sheoran, India’s fastest quar termiler, was last seen in ac tion during the Asian athlet ics championships 2017 when she won gold. Since then, the AFI is clueless about her activities or location. There are others who would be absent too. Tintu Luka and Jisna Mathew, both trainees of PT Usha, are, ac cording to AFI sources, con centrating on the Asian Games and SAF Games with Jisna also targeting the junior
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Winners
Tejaswin Shankar. *
FILE PHOTO: V. RAJU
World Championships later this year. In fact, three of the four relay teams are unlikely to make the cut given the strict AFI qualication guidelines. “We had hoped for four relay teams, which means 24
#5 7 3 0 1 9
athletes. But it looks highly unlikely, the timings are not satisfactory at all. Only the men’s 4x400m team is strong enough to go. See, three of our strongest wo men quartermilers are not participating. The others are struggling with poor timings. In the 4x100m, there is even lesser hope. Let’s see, we will take a call depending on how the relay teams perform here,” a senior AFI coach commented. Lalita Babar, too, would be missing in the steeple chase 3000m due to tness issues. Among those who would be in action are hurdler Sidd hanth Thingalaya — ying in after a disappointing sixth place nish at the IAAF World indoor champion ships in Birmingham — and
highjumper Tejaswin Shan kar, who recently equalled the National record of 2.28m in Kansas. The two, however, have already expressed their disappointment at being forced to participate despite their hectic schedule and travel. Qualiers so far India has only seven athletes who have qualied so far — four race walkers, Neeraj Chopra (javelin), Navjot Kaur (shot put) and Nayana James (long jump). Of the other two Indian medallists from Glas gow, discus thrower Seema Punia would fancy her chances along with triple jumper Arpinder Singh, who holds the National record of 17.17m but has struggled to breach the 17m mark in re cent times.
With CSK and RR back, it’s business as usual: Mysore G. Viswanath Mumbai
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) CEO and MD Venky Mysore said it is fantastic to see Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Rajasthan Royals (RR) back in the IPL. When asked if other teams would look at CSK and RR as tainted teams, Mysore said: “It’s fantastic to see both the teams coming back. They have been brilliant franchises. Everybody has welcomed them back. What has happened is beyond anybody’s control and it has gone through the process it had to. They are back and it’s business as usual as we see it.” The eight IPL teams will
not pay participation money to the BCCI from this season and, additionally, will receive upwards of 200 crore each from the central pool revenue. “From a business standpoint, it’s fantastic; this league is entering a new phase,” he said. On whether Sourav Ganguly has left a vacuum which is preventing KKR from nding a home player to lead the team, Mysore explained: “It’s not necessarily the case. The dynamics of the IPL comes into play. KKR has its catchment areas and maybe someone will emerge in the next few years who can be groomed for captaincy.”
Juan Martin del Potro wins 21st career title Roberto Bautista-Agut downs Lucas Pouille to reign in Dubai AFP, Reuters ACAPULCO
All smiles: Maharashtra beat Delhi 20 in the nal of the National interState women’s tennis championship in Bhilai. SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT *
Battlescarred Argentine Juan Martin del Potro clinched his 21st career title with a 64, 64 win over Ke vin Anderson in the Mexican Open nal here on Sunday. One break in each set was enough to give del Potro his rst title of the year and the World No. 9 did not face a single break point as he im proved his perfect career re cord against the bigserving South African to 70. In the women’s nal, Uk raine's Lesia Tsurenko bat
tled back from the brink of defeat to defend her crwon with a 57, 76(2), 62 victory over Stefanie Voegele. Meanwhile, Roberto Bau tistaAgut doubled his tro phy haul for 2018 when he defeated Lucas Pouille 63, 64 in the Dubai Duty Free nal , preventing the French man from reaching the World top 10 for the rst time. The Spaniard, ranked 23rd, now owns eight career titles after starting this sea son with success in Auckland.
In doubles, Leander Paes and Jamie Cerretani ended runnerup after going down to JeanJulien Rojer and Ho ria Tecau of Romania 62, 76(2). The results (nals): At Acapulco: ATP and WTA Mexican Open: Men: Juan Mar tin Del Potro bt Kevin Anderson 64, 64. Women: Lesia Tsuren ko bt Stefanie Voegele 57, 76 (2), 62. At Dubai: ATP Dubai Duty Free: Roberto BautistaAgut bt Lucas Pouille 63, 64. Doubles: JeanJulien Rojer & Horia Tecau bt Leander Paes & Jamie Cerre tani 62, 76(2).
Easily done: Juan Martin del Potro just needed a break in each set to take out Kevin Anderson and claim the Mexican Open title on Saturday. AP *
DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD
THE HINDU CROSSWORD 12256
(set by Anon)
15 Apes destroyed projection (4) 16 Weird nerd owning evening clothing (6,4) 18 Mean criminal’s bad attitude loses odd aide (10) 20 Foxlike animal behind last stone (4) 23 Decorative object in torn bible, Old Testament (7)
■ ACROSS 1 Food rst woman learner presided over was messy (11) 9 Conspicuous foreigner in Surat’s outskirts (7) 10 Attempt to trap one pound in hat (6)
Hill of re
5 Spears from English county missing half lace handles at last (8)
Goddess Parvati once playfully closed the eyes of Lord Siva, when the Divine Couple were in Kailasa. As a result the world was plunged into darkness. In order to atone for this, Parvati decided to do penance. She went to Kancheepuram, and fashioned a Linga out of sand and began to worship it. Lord Siva then appeared before Her and advised Her to go to do penance in Thiruvannamalai, elaborated Malayaman, in a discourse. In accordance with Siva’s instructions, Parvati went to Thiruvannamalai and did penance there. Lord Siva, pleased with Her penance, gave Her the left half of His body, thereby assuming a half female and half male form, and be came Ardhanareeswara. It is said that sages like Viswamitra, Agastya, Patanjali, Vyagrapada and Durvasa have wor shipped here. Lord Siva here is called Annamalai and the Goddess is Unnamalai. The Lord is also known as Arunacha leswara. Aruna means red, and is a reference in this context to re; achala means a mountain. So, Lord Siva here is re ferred to as a mountain of re. Fire is one of the panchabh utas — ve basic elements, and Thiruvannamalai is identi ed with re, showing its signicance. Since the hill itself is the embodiment of Lord Siva, circumambulating the hill is considered auspicious. The most important festival here is the lighting of the deepam on top of the hill. A huge caul dron is lled with several litres of ghee, and stout wicks, spe cially made, are lit exactly at 6 p.m., using a few kilo grammes of camphor. The resulting ame can be seen for miles around. Thiruvannamalai is one of the 275 temples praised by the Nayanmars in the Thevaram. It is said that worshipping in Chidambaram, being born in Thiruvarur, dy ing in Varanasi are all guaranteed to grant moksha. But merely thinking of Thiruvannamalai can give one moksha.
6 Ban half of them who go beyond tavern (7) 7 Security of wild sanctuaries losing it (9) 8 Embraces son in strikes (6) 13 Spill tonic in journal’s glossary (10)
26 Mexican herbs found in tacos, meatloaf (6)
14 Provokes English male, for one, to start singing (9)
27 Babble on son’s question (7)
17 Banner, initially raunchy, aboard ship (8)
■ DOWN
19 Offensive din envelopes chant (7) 21 Arrests returning maniacs on back alley (6)
2 Imagine one Asian overwhelmed by boyfriend (6)
22 Administrative region with love of sound (6)
3 Alleviate royal leader from injuries in shacks (4)
25 Starts inspecting some light elephants on landmass (4)
11 Distress increases for alien (5) 12 Bed at emergency room in ship for ducks (7)
CM YK
FAITH
4 Foretell the future wrongly, invite a cat (10)
24 Demarcation of vault (5)
28 Payment from Spanish battle, of men at Thames border (11)
SUDOKU
Solution to puzzle 12254
Solution to yesterday’s Sudoku
A ND-NDE
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https://t.me/TheHindu_Zone
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THE HINDU
SPORT 17
NOIDA/DELHI
MONDAY, MARCH 5, 2018
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Determined Kangra takes the bragging rights
Coleman sizzles Dibaba produces another solo tour de force to win 3000m Agence France-Presse BIRMINGHAM
Thingalaya disappoints India’s Siddhanth Thinga laya nished a disappointing sixth in his 60m hurdles heat, clocking 7.93 seconds and failing to qualify for the
Speed merchant: Christian Coleman takes the 60m ahead of Su Bingtian. JUSTIN SETTERFIELD/GETTY IMAGES
seminals. The results: Men: 60m: 1. Christian Coleman (USA) 6.37s, 2. Su Bingtian (Chn) 6.42, 3. Ronnie Baker (USA) 6.44; 400m: 1. Pavel Maslak (Cze) 45.47, 2. Michael Cherry (USA) 45.84, 3. Deon Lendore (TTO) 46.37; 800m: Adam Kszczot (Pol) 1:47.47, 2. Drew Windle (USA) 1:47.99, 3. Saul Ordonez (Esp) 1:48.01. Shot put: 1. Tomas Walsh (NZ) 22.31m, 2. David Strol (Ger) 21.44, 3. Tomas Stanek (Cze) 21.44; Triple jump: 1. Will Claye (USA)17.43, 2. Almir Dos Santos (Bra) 17.41, 3. Nelson Evora (Por) 17.40;
Women: 400m: Courtney Oko lo (USA) 50.55s, 2. Shakima Wimbley (USA) 51.47, 3. Eilidh Doyle (GBr) 51.60; 1500m: Genzebe Dibaba (Eth) 4:05.27, 2. Laura Muir (Gbr) 4:06.23, 3. Sifan Hassan (Ned) 4:07.26; 60m hurdles: 1. Kendra Harri son (USA) 7.70s, 2. Christina Manning (USA) 7.79, 3. Nadine Visser (Ned) 7.84. Triple jump: Yulimar Rojas (Ven) 14.63m, 2. Kimberley Williams (Jam) 14.48, 3. Ana Peleteiro (Esp) 14.40; Pole vault: Sandi Morris (USA) 4.95, 2. Anzhelika Sidorova (ANA) 4.90, 3. Katerina Stefanidi (Gre) 4.80.
Breaking away Following an even break, Kangra assumed command and the daughter of Western Aristocrat led them away from the stands at a sensible pace. Meanwhile Neeraj Ra wal had positioned Temerity immediately behind the
ground, she recorded an out standing time of 2:27.54, a new track record. The winner, owned by Marthand Singh Mahindra, Mrs. Rina Mahindra & P. Prabhakar Reddy, was bred by Broadacres Stud Farm at the Nanoli Stud and was turned out in great shape by the Bangalorebased Sulei man Attaollahi, who was re cording his rst victory in this race. Like in 2017, a run ner in the United Racing silks (Salazaar) nished third. Great eort Forty ve minutes earlier, the Maj. P.K. Mehra Memo
rial Super Mile saw the book makers pull one back as the oddson Castlebridge was toppled by the gamenish ing eort of Whomakesthe rules, with Suraj Narredu up. New England was a fastn ishing third. A leading member of his generation, the winner mis sed the rst half of last year due to injury and Mallesh Narredu has done a great job of bringing him back to his best. This was the veyear old’s rst win since annexing the Calcutta 2000 Guineas over course and distance in December 2016.
Kangra unleashes record-breaking run in Invitation Cup KOLKATA: Kangra (A. Sandesh astride) clinched the Indian Turf In vitation Cup in a record time here on Sunday. The winner is owned by Mr. Marthand Singh Mahindra, Mrs. Rina Mahindra & Mr. P. Prabhakar Reddy and trained by Attaollahi. ORIGINAL VEL PLATINUM JUBILEE TROPHY (DIV. II), (1,200m), rated 41 to 66, 21 to 46 eligible: PIERCE ARROW (Srinath) 1, Multiple (S. John) 2, Carralisa (B. Mahesh) 3 and Jacknife (D. S. De ora) 4. Not run: Naumee. 21/2, 1 and 11/4. 1m, 12.59s. 42 (w), 14, 11 and 53 (p), SHP: 29, FP: 111, THP: 114, Tanala: 1,362. Favourite: Mul tiple. Owner: Mr. Sourav Chhaw charia. Trainer: Manavendra. ORIGINAL VEL PLATINUM JUBILEE TROPHY (DIV. I), (1,200), rated 41 to 66, 21 to 46 eligible: VICTORIANA (Suraj Narredu) 1, Shy Belle (S. Kamble) 2, Highland Prin cess (R.S. Bhati) 3 and Tiberon (Hindu Singh) 4. 2, 31/4 and 11/4. 1m, 10.95s. 21 (w), 12, 17 and 15 (p), SHP: 59, FP: 128, THP: 69, Tanala: 279. Favourite: Victoriana. Owners: Dr. Ram Shroff & Mr. Raj H. Shroff rep. Stride Livestock Pvt.Ltd & Mr. Chetan Shah. Trainer: Vijay Singh. HYDROPLANE CUP (1,400m), rated 21 to 46,1 to 26 eligible: RESPECT (P. Trevor) 1, Spallanzani (B. Mahesh) 2, Demonstrate (Shezad Khan) and Aquaticaa ( J. Chinoy) deadheat 3. 31/4, shd and dht. 1m, 25.64s. 15 (w), 11, 29, 10 and 10 (p), SHP: 65, FP: 97, THP: 23 and 25, Tanala: 158. Favourite: Re spect. Owner: Mr. Feroz Khan. Trainer: Shafiq Khan. CALCUTTA CUP (1,400m), rated 61 to 86, 41 to 66 eligible: GLOAMING (Neeraj) 1, Storm Front (Dashrath Singh) 2, Arakawah (Hindu Singh) 3 and Multivalue (P. Trevor) 4. 11/2, 11/4 and 2. 1m,
Sports Bureau
Shahzar Rizvi won the men’s air pistol gold with a world record score of 242.3 in the rst World Cup of the season here on Saturday. Jitu Rai and Mehuli Ghosh, who shot a junior world record of 629 in the women’s air rie, n ished with a bronze each.
7
1
3
The results:
Shooting for glory: Shahzar Rizvi is anked by Christian Reitz and Jitu Rai after the 10m air pistol nal. SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT *
Georgeta Coman (Rou) 251.5 (626.8); 2. Xu Hong (Chn) 251.0 (627.0); 3. Mehuli Ghosh
danwalla. Trainer: M. Narredu. INDIAN TURF INVITATION CUP (2,400M), 4-Y-O & OVER (TERMS): KANGRA (WESTERN ARISTOCRATGEORGINA) A. SANDESH 1, TEMERITY (Intense FocusNarmina) Neeraj 2, SALAZAAR (Burden Of Proof Saddle Star) P. Trevor 3 and LADY IN LACE (Chinese Whis perSea Spray) Suraj Narredu 4. Lnk, 51/2 and 11/4. 2m, 27.54s. (record time). 108 (w), 28, 17 and 31 (p), SHP: 58, FP: 1,126, THP: 53, Tanala: 9,414. Favour ite: Lady In Lace. Owners: Mr. Marthand Singh, Mahindra, Mrs. Rina Mahindra and Mr. P. Prabhakar Reddy. Trainer: At taollahi.
2
Guadalajara (Mexico)
Women: 10m air rie: 1. Laura
With a masterful display of judgement of pace, jockey A. Sandesh scored a pillarto post victory aboard Kangra in the 56th running of the In dian Turf Invitation Cup here on Sunday. It was a closerun thing as the triumphant lly had just the length of her long neck to spare over another of the same sex in the shape of last year’s winner Temerity. The latter was conceding 2 kgs. by virtue of being a year ol der and that might have made the dierence. While the prerace con
leader and the pair broke away from the other eight runners, with Lady In Lace far behind, followed only by Alaindair. There was no change in the order for a while, except that Alaindair lost his rider around 800m from home. As they straightened up, Kangra still led Temerity and the two racemares indulged in a battle royale up the straight with the rest already beaten. Try as she might, Temeri ty just could not get up as Kangra prevailed with a de termined display of courage and grit. On very rm
*
Incredible start for India
Men: 10m air pistol: 1. Shahzar Rizvi 242.3 (WR) 579; 2. Chris tian Reitz (Ger) 239.7 (588); 3. Jitu Rai 219.0 (578); 4. Om Pra kash Mitharval 198.4 (576). MQS: Tinjit Dhanota 580.
sensus held that a female would win, few expected it would be the 10 to 1 Kangra who would y home in front. Lady In Lace was all the rage as the 7 to 4 choice at the bet ting windows and there was support also for Temerity (11 to 2) and Manifold (6 to 1) from amongst the dista set.
Anil Mukhi KOLKATA
WORLD INDOORS Christian Coleman con rmed his status as the most exciting young sprinter in the postUsain Bolt era when he stormed to 60m glory on Saturday as Ethiopian track legend Genzebe Dibaba bagged a golden world in door brace. Starting in lane four, Cole man enjoyed an electrifying start and powered through the line in a championship record of 6.37sec ahead of Su Bingtian of China, who lo wered the Asian record to 6.42sec when he took silver. Coleman’s US teammate Ronnie Baker claimed bronze. Serial world record hol der Dibaba once again de monstrated her imperious form in winning her second indoor 1500m title, just two days after winning her third consecutive 3000m gold.
Sandesh pilots the lly adroitly in the Invitation Cup; Whomakestherules wins Super Mile Cup
228.4 (629.1 WRJ); 4. Anjum Moudgil 208.6 (626.7); 7. Apurvi Chandela 144.1 (626.8).
4
#5 7 3 0 1 9
HAZARA STUD CUP (1,400m), rated 81 & above, 61 to 66 eli gible: ALISHAS PET (A. Sandesh) 1. The Talisman (S. John) 2, Oc citan (Sweeney) 3 and Interstel lar (Hindu Singh) 4. 21/4, nose and shd. 1m, 23.48s. 24 (w), 14, 19 and 13 (p), SHP: 58, FP: 268, THP: 55, Tanala: 556. Favourite: Alishas Pet. Owner: Mr. Sanjay Ramniklal Goyani, Mr. Divya Chawcharia & Mr. Sourav Chhaw charia. Trainer: P. Quinn.
8
Exciting nish: Kangra (A. Sandesh astride) staves o Temerity (Neeraj Rawal up) to win the coveted Indian Turf Invitation Cup in Kolkata on Sunday. DEBASISH BHADURI *
23.91s. 28 (w), 11, 18 and 17 (p), SHP: 47, FP: 156, THP: 48, Tanala: 1,378. Favourite: Gloaming. Own ers: Mr. Vikram Bachhawat rep. Bachhwat Farms Pvt. Ltd. Mr. Shanti Kumar Surana, Mr. Madhu Raj, & Mr. Anand Chopra rep. Spee dex Livestock Pvt.Ltd. Trainer: Javed Khan.
5
SURESH MAHINDRA MULTI MILLION TROPHY (1,400m), 4yo & over (Terms): TUTANKHAMUN (Suraj Narredu) 1, Your Royal Majesty (Neeraj) 2, Multitude (S.
John) 3 and Yanna Rascala (David Probert) 4. 21/2, 2 and 11/4. 1m, 22.60s. 21 (w), 12, 17 and 15 (p), SHP: 44, FP: 72, Q: 59, Tanala: 180. Favourite: Tutankhamun. Owners: Mr. & Mrs. Shapoor Mistry, Mr. D.R. Thacker & Mr. Madhav G. Patankar rep. Manjri Horse Breeders Farm Pvt.Ltd. Trainer: S. Narredu.
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MAJ. P. K. MEHRA MEMORIAL SUPER MILE CUP (1,600m), 4 yo & over (Terms): WHOMAKESTHERULES (Suraj Narredu) 1, Cas
tlebridge (P. Trevor) 2, New Eng land (Srinath) 3 and Mauritania (David Allan) 4. 21/2, nk and 1/2. 1m, 34.80s. 64 (w), 13, 12 and 29 (p), SHP: 40, FP: 137, THP: 57, Tanala: 737. Favourite: Castlebridge. Owners: state of Late Mr. Janak Ram Jethmalani, Mr. Tariq D. Vaidya, Mr. Mohit Lalvani, Mr. Farokh D. Pandole, Mr. Hiroo Melwani, Mr. Ismail Nazir Shakoor, Mr. Prem Vazirani, Mr. Pradeep Vora & Mr. Saleem A Jas
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ARION HORSE TROPHY (1,400m), maiden 3yo only (Terms): HOME OF THE BRAVE (A. Sandesh) 1, Lumenac (Dashrath Singh) 2, Fireburg (D.S. Deora) 3 and Viareggio (David Allan) 4. 4, snk and 23/4. 1m, 25.60s. 19 (w), 12, 18 and 68 (p), SHP: 41, FP: 60, THP: 105, Tanala: 1,093. Fa vourite: Home Of The Brave. Owners: Mr. Jitendra Singh & Mr. Suchit Jayraj Shah. Trainer: Rutherford. Treble (i): 253 (113 tkts.), (ii): 597 (68 tkts.), (iii): 945 (152 tkts.), Jackpot: 28,921 (14 tkts.), Runnerup: 5,258 (27 tkts.).
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18 LIFE
NOIDA/DELHI
THE HINDU
MONDAY, MARCH 5, 2018
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IN BRIEF
‘Smartphone tech most Hollywood braces for best picture photo nish at Oscars damaging to environment’ The Shape of Water, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri & Dunkirk are in the race
Meghan to be baptised in London this month
Agence France-Presse
LONDON
Hollywood
Meghan Markle, fiancee of Britain’s Prince Harry, is to be baptised and confirmed as an Anglican Christian by the Church of England at a ceremony at the Kensington Palace in London this month. She was raised as a Protestant Christian. PTI
Hollywood is set for a real life clihanger at the Oscars — the race for best picture is coming down to the wire to cap an awards season over shadowed by scandal over sexual misconduct in showbiz. Dark crime comedy Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri has begun to pull away in late betting for the industry’s biggest prize, but Oscarologists believe fairy tale romance The Shape of Water and sociallycon scious horror movie Get Out will make it a photo nish. “I don’t remember a year with so much uncertainty. There are at least four strong
M.A.S.H. actor David Ogden Stiers dies at 75 LOS ANGELES
David Ogden Stiers, a prolific actor best known for playing a surgeon on the “M.A.S.H.” television series, has died. He was 75. Stiers died after battling bladder cancer. No additional details were provided.
85% of emissions impact comes from their production
fessor at McMaster. “For ev ery text message, for every phone call, every video, there’s a data centre making this happen,” he said.
Press Trust of India
few months during which the industry has declared war on the pervasive culture of sexual impropriety un earthed by the downfall of alleged serial sex attacker Harvey Weinstein.
Big prize: An Oscar statue outside the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. REUTERS *
possibilities to win,” Varie ty’s awards editor Tim Gray said, adding Christopher No lan’s war epic Dunkirk to the mix. “I’m guessing that The Shape of Water will win, but that’s just a guess.” The 90th Academy
Awards — hosted for the se cond straight year by late night funnyman Jimmy Kim mel — will be beamed live around the world by ABC from Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre. The show caps a dicult
#MeToo campaign With the #MeToo and Time’s Up campaigns against sexual misconduct dominating the 2018 awards circuit, this year’s Oscars gala is seen as an opportunity for tinsel town to support female lm making. Greta Gerwig is only the fth woman in Oscar his tory to be nominated for best director, but faces tough competition from Guillermo Del Toro for The Shape of Water.
Toronto
Smartphones and data centres will be the most da maging information and communications technolo gies to the environment by 2040, a study has found. Researchers from the McMaster University in Ca nada studied the carbon footprint of consumer devic es such as smartphones, lap tops, tablets, desktops as well as data centres and communication networks as early as 2005. Not only did they discover that software is driving the consumption of information and communications tech nology, they also found that ICT has a greater impact on emissions than we thought,
ICT will account for 14% of carbon footprint by 2040. *
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and most emissions come from production and operation. “Today it sits at about 1.5%. If trends continue, ICT will account for 14% of the global footprint by 2040, or about half of the transporta tion sector worldwide,” said Lot Belkhir, associate pro
Mukesh Ambani’s son likely to tie the knot soon Akash is getting engaged to diamantaire Russel Mehta’s daughter Shloka; families keep dates under wraps Piyush Pandey Mumbai
Allowing kids to taste alcohol may prove risky WASHINGTON
Allowing your children to occasionally sip alcohol may increase their risk for drinking related problems in late adolescence, a study has found. It contradicts common belief that letting kids taste alcohol is harmless. PTI
Akash Ambani, son of India’s richest man Mukesh Amba ni, is likely to be married to his school friend Shloka Mehta, the youngest daught er of diamantaire Russel Mehta, according to sources in Reliance. Mr. Russel Mehta, the owner of Rosy Blue Dia monds, one of the world’s leading diamond rms, is said to have cordial relations with the Ambanis.
now. I know both of them studied together at DAIS [Dhirubhai Ambani Interna tional School]. But, the fami ly has to decide.” Mr. Akash Ambani, 26, the eldest son of Mr. Mukesh Ambani, is on the boards of Reliance Retail and Reliance Jio along with his twin sister Isha Ambani. He has known Ms. Shloka since school days. Mr. Akash Ambani, an alumnus of Brown Universi ty, heads strategy at Reliance Jio, India’s fastest growing
The engagement is likely to happen later this summer while the marriage is slated to happen this yearend, ac cording to sources. “As we speak, no dates have been nalised yet,” said a Reliance source. A Reliance spokesperson declined to comment saying it was a family aair. Akash Ambani
Met in school Asked about talks of engage ment on March 24, a close condant of Mr. Mukesh Am
Brisk walking may cut heart failure risk in women
bani told The Hindu, “March 24 is just 20 days from now. We would have known by
telco that disrupted the In dian mobile telecommunica tions market since its launch in September 2016. Shloka’s career Ms. Shloka studied anthro pology at Princeton Universi ty and did her Masters in Law from the London School of Economics and Political Science. She now serves as the ex ecutive director of Rosy Blue Foundation, the philan thropic arm of the Rosy Blue
Group. She conceived the idea of ConnectFor — a vo lunteering platform — in mid2015 and has been res ponsible for its growth. Ms. Shloka is youngest of three children of Mr. Russell and Mona Mehta. Ms. Mona is said to be a relative of Nirav Modi, the fugitive diamond jeweller involved in the $2 billion PNB scam. A mail sent to Rosy Blue Diamonds seeking a com ment failed to get any res ponse.
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Race to the nish #5 7 3 0 1 9
40 minute sessions several times a week will be helpful Press Trust of India Washington
Brisk walking for at least 40 minutes several times every week may signicantly re duce the risk of heart failure among older women, a stu dy has found. The benet appears to be consistent re gardless of a woman’s body weight or whether she en gages in other forms of exer cise besides walking, re searchers said. About 6.5 million adults have heart failure, a condi tion in which the heart be comes too weak to pump enough blood to meet the body’s needs. The risk of
The risk of heart failure rises with age. GETTY IMAGES *
heart failure rises with age; women 7584 years of age are three times as likely to have heart failure compared with 6574 years old. “We al ready know that physical ac
China to recruit civilian astronauts Plans to increase crewed missions Associated Press Beijing
China will begin recruiting civilian astronauts for its militarybacked space pro gramme and plans to in crease the number of crewed missions to around two a year, a top ocial with the country’s space pro gramme said. China’s third batch of as tronaut trainees will include recruits from industry, re search institutions and un iversities who will help build and crew China’s inde pendent space station, Yang Liwei, deputy director of the China Manned Space Engineering Oce, told re porters on the sidelines of the annual session of Chi na’s ceremonial parliament. New astronauts will in clude maintenance engi neers, yload specialists and pilots, Mr. Yang, who be came China’s rst man in space in 2003, said. China selected 14 astro nauts, or yuhangyuan in Chinese, in the late 1990s and another seven in 2010, including two women. A to tal of 11 have been sent on six missions. China now op erates the Tiangong 2 pre cursor space station facility, while the permanent sta tion’s 20ton core module CM YK
Aiming for the sky: Astronauts will be recruited from industry, institutions and universities. AP *
will be launched this year. The completed 60ton sta tion is set to come into full service in 2022 and operate for at least a decade. China was excluded from the 420ton International Space Station mainly due to U.S. legislation barring such cooperation and concerns over the Chinese space pro gramme’s strong military connections. Since China conducted its rst crewed missions be coming only the third coun try after Russia and the U.S. to do so, it has staged a spa cewalk and landed its Jade Rabbit rover on the moon. A mission to land another rov er on Mars and bring back samples is set to launch in 2020.
tivity lowers the risk of heart failure, but there may be a misconception that simply walking isn’t enough,” said Somwail Rasla, who con ducted the study while at Brown University, U.S. “Walking is not only an accessible form of exercise but almost equal to all other types of exercise that have been studied before in terms of lowering heart failure risk,” said Mr. Rasla. “Essentially, we can reach a comparable energetic ex penditure through walking that we gain from other types of physical activity,” he said.
Head start: Steve Watkins team during the ceremonial start of the Iditarod dog sled race at Anchorage, U.S., on Sunday.
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Energy consumption “Telecommunications net works and data centres con sume a lot of energy to serve you and most data centres continue to be powered by electricity generated by fos sil fuels,” he added. According to the study, published in the Journal of Cleaner Production, while smartphones consume little energy to operate, 85% of their emissions impact comes from production. Smartphones also have a short life which drives pro duction of new models.
Skin bacteria may prevent cancer growth Press Trust of India Los Angeles
A skin bacteria — common ly found on healthy human skin — may help protect against skin cancer, scien tists say. “We have identied a strain of Staphylococcus epidermidis, common on healthy human skin, that exerts a selective ability to inhibit the growth of some cancers,” said Richard Gal lo, professor at University of California San Diego in the U.S. “This unique strain of skin bacteria produces a chemical that kills several types of cancer cells but does not appear to be toxic to normal cells,” said Mr. Gallo. The team discovered the S. epidermidis strain produces the chemical compound 6Nhydroxya minopurine (6HAP). Mice that received intra venous injections of 6HAP every 48 hours over a two week period experienced no apparent toxic eects, but when transplanted with melanoma cells, their tumour size was sup pressed by more than 50% compared to controls. “There is increasing evi dence that the skin micro biome is an important ele ment of human health. In fact, we previously report ed that some bacteria on our skin produce antimi crobial peptides that de fend against pathogenic bacteria,” he said.