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Two militants, four civilians killed in Shopian gunght
NEARBY
Amid conicting versions, widespread protests and a security clampdown
Chief Secy. assault row: police quiz AAP MLA
Peerzada Ashiq
NEW DELHI
Srinagar
The Delhi Police on Monday questioned Aam Aadmi Party MLA Nitin Tyagi for two hours at the Civil Lines police station in connection with the alleged assault on Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash by two legislators at the CM’s residence two weeks ago.
Two LashkareTaiba (LeT) militants and four civilians were killed in “a ring inci dent” in Shopian district of Jammu and Kashmir on Sun day evening. Amid conicting versions from the Army, Chief Minis ter Mehbooba Mufti and the victim families on Monday, there were widespread prot ests, a clampdown by securi ty forces and a shutdown.
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100% hike in JNU mess fees, students enraged NEW DELHI
In yet another controversial move, the JNU administration has hiked the mess charges by 100%. A circular to this eect has been issued by the oce of Dean of Students and is applicable retrospectively from January 1. DELHI METRO
Mamata initiates talks for regional front NEW DELHI
Trinamool Congress leader and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee on Sunday spoke to the working president of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, M.K. Stalin, stressing the need for all federal parties to work cohesively inside and outside Parliament. NEWS
ED probes Karti’s fund transfers to PC
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Vehicles agged down According to Brigadier Har bir Singh and Colonel N.S. Negi, two speeding vehicles were asked to stop near Sho pian’s Pohanu village around 8 p.m. on Sunday by the Ar my’s mobile vehicle checkpost. “However, both vehicles continued to move. When a search light was ashed, hea vy ring came from the veh icles. In the gunght, one terrorist was hit and fell o. The vehicles sped o,” said the Army ocials. The Army said the bodies of two local LeT militants, Amir Ahmad Malik and Ash iq Hussain Bhat, were found at two spots. While Malik died at the encounter site, Bhat’s body was found in an apple orchard in Saidpura village on Monday morning. “During the search, three bodies were found in one vehicle. The second vehicle was spotted at Pinzura vil lage, with a person dead in side. These individuals were accompanying the terrorists and were overground work
REPORT: PAGE 18; data point: page 9
‘They were just loan repayments’
Protests derail Parliament Special Correspondent
Devesh K. Pandey B. Kolappan New Delhi/Chennai
Sources in the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said they were looking at the bank details showing a transfer of 1.8 crore from an account of Karti Chidambaram to one belonging to his father and former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram. This is part of the ED’s in vestigation against Mr. Karti, who is also being probed by the CBI in the INX Media case. However, sources fa miliar with the transaction
and its purpose said it was part of the repayment of a loan advanced by Mr. Chi dambaram to his son for the construction of a house. They said a total of 2.8 crore was loaned through three cheques in 2004 to Mr. Kar ti, of which 1.8 crore was repaid in ve instal ments. This was an arrangement between a father and a son; the transactions were reec ted in the balance sheet and had nothing to do with the INX media case, they added. SC HEARING TODAY A PAGE 10
NEW DELHI
The rst day of the second half of the Budget session of Parliament was washed out on Monday as Opposi tion parties in both Houses protested over a range of issues, from the Punjab Na tional Bank scam to the de mand for a special package for Andhra Pradesh. Relentless sloganeering on the 12,800 crore PNB scam and the issue of a spe cial package for Andhra Pradesh forced adjourn ments in both the Lok Sab ha and the Rajya Sabha. CONTINUED ON A PAGE 10 ANDHRA MPS BACK AT PROTEST A PAGE 10 #4 4 6 6 0 1
Expressing solidarity: Militants displaying guns during the funeral procession of a Lashkare Taiba militant at Rakh Kapran in Shopian district on Monday. NISSAR AHMAD *
ers,” the Army said. Two weapons were recovered from the slain militants. JeM leader killed Meanwhile, the Army claimed to have killed the JaisheMohammed ( JeM) mastermind of the Sunjuwan camp attack at Awantipora in Pulwama. “JeM’s opera tional commander Mufti Wa qas has been eliminated in a surgical attack,” Army spo kesman Colonel Rajesh Kalia said. Waqas, a Pakistani, was killed in a joint operation “based on specic intelli gence.” “This has caused a major dent in the JeM,” the Army said. CONTINUED ON A PAGE 10
‘Don’t pursue probe against Army ocer’ Legal Correspondent NEW DELHI
The Supreme Court on Monday ordered the Jammu and Kashmir government not to pursue any investigation against Major Aditya Kumar in connection with the killing of three persons after Army personnel allegedly opened re on protesters in Shopian district. AttorneyGeneral K.K. Venugopal said the State should not have led an FIR against Major Kumar without taking prior
sanction from the Centre. The Centre agreed with the Army ocer’s father that such criminal action demoralised soldiers ghting for the country. The Mehbooba Mufti government said Major Kumar was not named as an accused in the FIR, but only mentioned as the ocer leading the convoy. Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, leading a threejudge Bench, was not convinced by the State’s explanation. CONTINUED ON A PAGE 10
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DELHI
Timings
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
Cooperative Election Authority in Haryana soon
Thursday, March 08
RISE 06:39 SET 18:25 RISE 00:00 SET 10:52
Action plan to tackle genderbased violence also getting nal touches clearly delineate the respon sibilities of various stakehol ders on the steps to be taken by them in a timebound manner. The government is committed to empowering women so that they may live with dignity and contribute as equal partners in the de velopment process in an en vironment free from vio lence and discrimination,” the Governor said.
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT CHANDIGARH
IN BRIEF
SAD seeks DSP post for wrestler Navjot Kaur
The Haryana government on Monday announced that a Cooperative Election Auth ority would be set up in the State for supervising the election process in coopera tive bodies. Haryana Governor Kaptan Singh Solanki, addressing the Assembly on the rst day of the budget session, said that the government believes in strengthening the cooper ative sector to enable people to capitalise on their collec tive strength. “The government has ta ken a historic step by ap proving establishment of a Cooperative Election Auth ority for superintendence, direction and control of the election process in the coop erative organisations,” he said. He said that during this year, cooperative banks had
Grand assembly: Governor Kaptan Singh Solanki being welcomed by Speaker Kanwar Pal and Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar as he arrives to inaugurate the budget session of the Assembly in Chandigarh on Monday. AKHILESH KUMAR *
extended loans amounting to 5,414.01 crore to the State’s farmers up to January 2018; 1.23 million Kisan Cre dit Cards have also been is sued till December 2017. Mr. Solanki said that the State government was giving
nal touches to a compre hensive State action plan on sexual and genderbased vio lence to address all major components of crime aict ing women and children in the State. “The action plan would
SYL canal issue On the controversial issue of the SutlejYamuna Link ca nal, Mr. Solanki said the “concerted eorts” of the go vernment have resulted in a favourable verdict from the Supreme Court on a presi dential reference and since then has been vigorously pursuing the matter for in itiation of the longpending construction work on the re maining portion of the ca nal.
BJP for CBI or judicial probe into Kathua rape case Expresses shock over alleged harassment of people Press trust of india Jammu
Jammu and Kashmir’s ruling coalition partner BJP on Monday expressed shock and anguish over alleged ha rassment of people during the investigation into the rapeandmurder of a minor girl in Kathua, and demand ed a CBI or judicial probe in to it. In a statement, State BJP spokesperson Virender Gup ta claimed that the way in vestigating agencies were conducting the probe has led to a mass exodus in the area and deterioration in the law and order situation. The body of the eight yearold girl was recovered from Rassana forest on Janu ary 17, a week after she had gone missing while grazing horses. On January 23, the go vernment handed over the case to the State police’s crime branch which arrest ed a Special Police Ocer
A protest in Srinagar against the rape and murder in Kathua. FILE PHOTO *
(SPO) in February for his al leged involvement in the ab duction and killing of the girl. Earlier, a special investi gation team (SIT) had arrest ed a 15yearold boy and claimed the accused had strangulated the victim after she resisted his rape attempt. Endorsing the demand of the people of Kathua for a CBI probe, the BJP spokes
person said the culprits had to be strictly dealt with and punished. He alleged that atrocities were being committed on the villagers compelling them to flee. If the law and order authorities continue to spread the reign of terror, this would result in serious repercussions, making the situation out of control, he said and appealed to the go vernment to immediately or der a CBI or judicial inquiry into the incident. The BJP leader also ap pealed to the general public and leaders of the area not to get swayed by emotional rhetoric of various agencies. He also warned the authori ties against any sort of com munal overtones in handling the situation. The BJP leader’s appeal came a day after Deputy Chief Minister and senior BJP leader Nirmal Singh as sured the people of a fair probe into the crime.
CHANDIGARH
The Shiromani Akali Dal on Monday urged the Punjab government to offer a DSP post to wrestler Navjot Kaur, who scripted history by becoming the first Indian woman to win gold at the Asian Wrestling Championships. PTI
Govt. colleges to have dress code in Rajasthan JAIPUR
The Rajasthan government has decided to implement a dress code in State-run colleges from academic year 2018-19, drawing protest from Congress which dubbed it as a bid to “saffronise” the institutions. PTI
Prisoner dies of alleged heart attack DHOLPUR
A 64-year-old undertrial prisoner lodged at the district jail here died on Monday allegedly after suffering a cardiac arrest, a jail official said. PTI
Bid to check illegal sale of liquor
Hailstorm damages rabi crops
Haryana government to set up enforcement wing
Accompanied by unseasonal rain, it hits farmers in ve districts of Rajasthan
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT CHANDIGARH
In an attempt to clamp down on illegal sale and smuggling of liquor in the State, the Ha ryana government has decid ed to set up an enforcement wing which will be headed by the Excise and Taxation Commissioner. State Additional Chief Se cretary (Excise and Taxation Department) Sanjeev Kaush al said on Monday that though the department along with the police has been carrying out enforce ment activities throughout the State, the setting up of an enforcement wing would go a long way in keeping a check on illegal sale and smuggling of liquor. Under the State’s excise
policy for the year 201819, Mr. Kaushal announced an increase in the basic quota of country liquor from 950 lakh proof litres to 1,000 lakh proof litres and of Indian Made Foreign Liquor from 550 lakh proof litres to 600 lakh proof litres. Retail outlets “The number of retail outlets for CL and IMFL would re main the same as 201718,” he said. Mr. Kaushal said under the new policy, a licencee has been allowed to convert a maximum of 10% of his CL quota to IMFL quota. “The excise duty on CL has been increased from 28 to 44 per PL this year, whereas on IMFL it has been increased
from 44200 per PL to 49 210 per PL. However, there is no hike in the annual fee of bar licences in the form of L4 and L5 granted to restau rants and hotels of threestar ratings and above,” he added. Terming the year 201718 successful in terms of excise revenue, Mr. Kaushal said the State is expected to earn a revenue of 5,682 crore, in cluding VAT, up to February this year. “The excise revenue of the State for the year 201617 was 11.71%, which has been in creased to 13% in the year 201718,” he said. Mr. Kaushal added that the number of liquor vends has been brought down to 2,323.
from cooperative banks and have demanded a blanket farm debt waiver. Chief Minister Vasundha ra Raje has expressed con cern over the situation and ordered a survey of crops at the earliest in order to assess the extent of damage. The District Collectors and Disas ter Management Depart ment will shortly submit a report to the State govern ment in this regard.
Special Correspondent JAIPUR
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Unseasonal rain and hail storm have damaged rabi crops in some parts of Rajas than, while the harvest of wheat, mustard and barley is barely a fortnight away. The showers and hailstorm have hit the farmers in Jaipur, Si kar, Jhunjhunu, Alwar and Sawai Madhopur districts. The harvested mustard crop lying in the open elds in Neemrana region of Alwar district was also damaged in the rains on Sunday. The rainfall led to decline in tem perature, with a dip of 4 de grees Celsius in the mini mum and maximum temperatures, while cloudy conditions prevailed in Jai
Nature’s fury: Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje has ordered a survey of crops to assess the extent of damage. FILE PHOTO *
pur and elsewhere. The unseasonal rainfall has caused losses to the farmers in the Shekhawati region, who have been prot esting against discrepancies
in the State government’s o er for loan waiver an nounced in the 201819 bud get. Farmers have rejected the onetime relief restricted to those who obtained loans
Congress walkout The Congress MLAs staged a walkout in the State Assemb ly on Monday, while accus ing the government of ignor ing the plight of farmers whose standing crops have been damaged.
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Calcutta HC lawyers’ strike enters 15th day
Odisha govt. launches ‘Ama Gaon, Ama Bikas’ rural programme
Staff Reporter
Naveen Patnaik’s bid to reach out to people in rural areas, involve them in the development process
Kolkata
The ‘cease work’ by la wyers at the Calcutta High Court entered the 15th day on Monday. Nearly 10,000 members of three lawyers’ associations of the High Court began the protest on February 19 against the shortage of judges in the court. The Calcutta High Court currently has only 29 judg es against the scheduled strength of 72. The cease work protest has caused severe inconvenience to thousands of litigants. More than 2.20 lakh cases were pending before the court as of January 31 this year. Speaking to The Hindu, a senior lawyer said that his client, a resident of north Kolkata, had led a case against some illegal construction work near his residence in 2013. “The case has been pending in the court for nearly ve years now. Due to the cease work protest, the hearing could not take place twice since February 19,” the lawyer said. He said that the shortage of judges was a key reason behind the increasing number of pending cases in court. “The judges are overburdened here and it is extremely dicult for them to dispose of such a large number of pending cases,” the lawyer said. Another such case was led towards the end of 2015 by an elderly resident of Uluberia in Howrah dis trict regarding alleged de lay in providing electricity connection. “The hearing of the case got delayed twice ,” the lawyer said. The cease work has also led to severe discontent among a section of lawyers at the High Court.
the need for their early completion. The panchayats were se lected on the basis of perfor mance of the Panchayati Raj institutions and the need for development work in those areas. Video vans were sent in advance to the panchayats concerned to facilitate the programme. According to ocial sources, Mr. Patnaik will hold such interactions twice a week to discuss with the people at the panchayat level about development of villag es and pass orders as necessary.
Special Correspondent BHUBANESWAR
In a new initiative, Chief Mi nister Naveen Patnaik on Monday launched the ‘Ama Gaon, Ama Bikas’ (Our vil lage, Our development) pro gramme from the State Se cretariat to reach out to people in rural areas and in volve them in the develop ment process. The programme was launched on the occasion of the birth anniversary of former Chief Minister Biju Patnaik, which is observed as Panchayati Raj Day in the State every year. Mr. Patnaik reminded the people about Biju Patnaik’s contribution to strengthen the Panchayati Raj institu tions in the State.
Participants at the mini-marathon in Bhubaneswar on Monday organised by the Odisha government on the occasion of Biju Patnaik’s 102nd birth anniversary. BISWARANJAN ROUT *
2 crore sanctioned He interacted with people of four gram panchayats Na rayanpatna panchayat in Ko raput district, Khairabad
panchayat in Jajpur district, Sasana panchayat in Sambal pur district and Sanakuda panchayat in Ganjam district
– through videoconferencing during the inaugural session. During his interaction with Panchayati Raj repre
sentatives, Mr. Patnaik sanc tioned a sum of 2 crore for as many as 32 projects in the four panchayats and stressed
Tributes paid A series of minimarathons and meetings were organ ised by dierent government and voluntary organisations as well as the ruling Biju Ja nata Dal in Bhubaneswar and other places during the day to pay tribute to the me mory of Biju Patnaik.
Six more Bengal districts to become ODF soon Of the 23 districts in the State, the Centre has already announced eight as ‘Nirmal Zila’
BJP, RSS inciting communal tension, says Mamata ‘Will reward those who help police’ Staff Reporter Kolkata
The West Bengal govern ment will provide jobs to those who help the police in apprehending miscreants trying to incite enmity bet ween communities, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said on Monday. She was ad dressing an administrative meeting at Durgapur in Pas chim Bardhaman district. “Police have to set up community development committees to reach out to the common people. We will reward those who help in apprehending such ele ments either with cash or job,” Ms. Banerjee said. The Chief Minister alleged that the Rashtriya Swayam sevak Sangh and the BJP were manipulating local youths to incite communal tension. “Recently another conspi racy has started. They (RSS
Kolkata
Six more districts in West Bengal are likely to be de clared open defecation free (ODF) by the end of this month, an ocial said. Of the 23 districts in the State, the Centre had already announced eight districts as ODF. March 31 deadline Howrah, Paschim Medini pur, Birbhum, Murshidabad, Malda and Dakshin Dinajpur districts are likely to be de clared ‘Nirmal Zila’ or ODF by March 31, the State Pan
chayat and Rural Develop ment department ocial said. “We have set a deadline of March 31 for completing the construction works for indi vidual household latrines (IHHLs) in these six districts. Construction work is almost over in Howrah and Malda districts. In the other four districts, we are hopeful of achieving the target before the end of this month,” he said. A district is certied ODF only after the Union Ministry of Drinking Water and Sani tation representatives con
duct a review there to check whether all the households have IHHLs and give their nod. “For Howrah and Malda, we are waiting for the repre sentatives from the Ministry to conduct a review. Once it is completed we will an nounce them as ‘Nirmal Zi la’,” the ocer said. The Ministry has, so far, declared eight districts Na dia, Hooghly, Purba Medini pur, Purba Bardhaman, Pas chim Bardhaman, North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas and CoochBehar in West Bengal as ODF.
Nadia was the rst district in the country to be acknow ledged as ODF by the Centre, which has named the scheme Swachh Bharat Mission.
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53 lakh more IHHLs “In 201718, over nine lakh IHHLs were constructed and by next October we are tar geting to completing 53 lakh more,” he said. According to the ocial, funds from the Centre, meant for this project, were not “fully coming to the State”. “Funds from the Centre
are not coming fully to us. And the State government is spending much for the pro ject and that is why we are not using the name Swachh Bharat Mission,” he said. Around 12,000 is re quired to construct one IHHL, of which 60% was to come from the Centre and the rest to be given by the State government. So far, around 1,200 crore has been spent in West Bengal for the scheme, he said. The government is aiming to make the entire State ODF by October 2019, he said.
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FILE PHOTO
and BJP) are paying local youths to throw meat (at reli gious places). They are incit ing riots between two com munities,” Ms. Banerjee alleged. Recently, in such a case at Habra in North 24 Pa raganas district, workers of the BJP and the RSS were ar rested, she said Denying the allegations, BJP State president Dilip Ghosh said: “TMC is resort ing to communalism and the CM has no moral right to speak on the issue.”
Arunachal to focus on crime against women Press Trust of India
Press Trust of India
Mamata Banerjee
Itanagar
Arunachal Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Chowna Mein has asserted that the State government will fasttrack cases of violence against wo men and children, a release said here on Monday. His statement comes a day after a delegation of Arunachal Pradesh Wo men’s Welfare Society (APWWS) met him in his of ce, urging him to ensure provisions for quick justice for women victims. Responding to their plea, Mr. Mein said his depart ment would consider the
suggestions for inclusion in the budget and may also place it before the Cabinet for consideration, the re lease said. The budget session in the State is set to commence on March 9. The delegation, led by APWWS president Dipti Bengia Tadar, also request ed the government to in volve women in major poli cy decisions of the State, it said. The APWWS also sub mitted a memorandum to the government, seeking sa fety and security measures for children and women of the State.
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IN BRIEF
‘No truck with JD(S) for Karnataka RS polls’
Gang held for train robberies
The Hindu’s volume on Padmanabhaswamy Temple
Staff Reporter
Ninth in a series on southern Indian religious centres
VIJAYAWADA
Bidar MLA Ashok Kheny joins Congress BENGALURU
Businessman Ashok Kheny, Karnataka Makkala Paksha MLA from South Bidar, joined the Congress on Monday, amidst reservations within the party. He is the MD of Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise Ltd., the implementing agency of the Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor project that is facing allegations of irregularities.
VACB clean chit for Mani in bar case again THIRUVANANTHAPURAM
The Vigilance and AntiCorruption Bureau (VACB) on Monday gave a third successive reprieve to former Kerala Finance Minister K.M. Mani in the bar bribery case. The agency told a court here that it had no evidence to indict the KC(M) leader on suspicion of having demanded and accepted bribes from the Kerala Bar Hotel Association for the restoration of invalidated two-star bar licences in 2014.
We don’t need any party’s support in State: Siddaramaiah also advocate that < > Ithe secular vote
Special Correspondent MYSURU
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Monday ruled out the possibility of the Congress coming to an understanding with the Janata Dal (Secular) for the Rajya Sabha elections from Karnataka. Speaking to reporters in Mysuru, Mr. Siddaramaiah said the Congress “does not need the support of any par ty in Karnataka.” The Chief Minister said he was leaving for New Delhi, where a decision would most likely be taken on Tues day on the candidates to be elded in the Rajya Sabha polls from the State, sche duled for March 23. Vote equation While 45 votes were needed for the victory of a candi date, the Congress, which has a strength of 123 mem bers in the Assembly, is in a position to win two seats on its own.
In a joint operation, the Government Railway Pol ice (GRP) and the Railway Protection Force (RPF) of Telangana and Andhra Pra desh conducted a raid at the Vijayawada railway sta tion and arrested a ve member gang. They recovered gold or naments worth 60 lakh from their possession. The gang was wanted in about 12 cases which took place on dierent trains in And hra Pradesh and Telanga na, said GRP Vijayawada Superintendent of Police K.V. Mohan Rao at a press conference here on Mon day. On a tipo that the gang was travelling on a train, the RPF personnel of Telangana and the GRP ar rested the robbers — four hailing from Haryana and one from Delhi. The modus operandi of the gang was to travel in airconditioned coaches and rob the valuables when the victims were as leep during the night.
should not be divided Siddaramaiah Karnataka Chief Minister
Siddaramaiah
JD(S) State president H.D. Kumaraswamy had sought the support of the Congress to send party general secre tary B.M. Farooq to the Rajya Sabha. The JD(S) currently has command over 30 members, with seven having been ex pelled, two having resigned and one deceased. Mr. Siddaramaiah, howev er, said he favoured secular parties coming together at the national level to defeat the “communal BJP, which is
disturbing the social fabric” of the country. “I also advo cate that the secular vote should not be divided,” he said. He claried that the Left parties had not approached the Congress for seat sharing in Karnataka. “Nobody has spoken to us. No discussion has been held,” he said. Rahul’s visit Congress president Rahul Gandhi would visit the Mysu ru region later this month, said Mr. Siddaramaiah. Mr. Gandhi would hold rallies and roadshows in dif ferent parts of Mysuru divi sion on March 20, 21, and 24. He would hold a public meeting in Mysuru on March 25, Mr. Siddaramaiah said.
Staff Reporter THIRUVANANTHAPURAM
Kerala’s Devaswom and Tou rism Minister Kadakampally Surendran released a special volume on the Sree Padma nabhaswamy Temple brought out by the special publications division of The Hindu here on Monday morning, presenting a copy to Aswathy Thirunal Gouri Lakshmi Bayi. The simple function, organised in the fo recourt area of the Padma nabhaswamy Temple, was witnessed by a clutch of morning visitors to the icon ic temple standing tall in the heart of Kerala's capital city. Titled ‘Wealth of Herit age’, the special volume has articles, accompanied by an array of pictures, on the tra ditions associated with the temple, its rich history, its amazing architectural splen dour and the many rituals and festivities associated with it. The collector’s item also has a portfolio of photo graphs, including a few rare
Devaswom Minister Kadakampally Surendran hands over a copy to Aswathy Thirunal Gouri Lakshmi Bayi on Monday. *
BIJU KARAKKONAM
ones, from The Hindu Photo Archives. Releasing the volume, the Minister said that the special volume from The Hindu would further spread the fame of the temple. “Any work on the temple and the royal family of erstwhile Tra vancore is a matter of pride for us. The fame of the tem
ple has now crossed the oceans and spread across the world. Now, the world wants to hear about the tem ple. The Hindu has to be lauded for taking up this work, which will spread the fame across the world,” said Mr. Surendran. Aswathy Thirunal Gouri Lakshmi Bayi of the erst while royal family of Travan core said that there is much more yet to be written about the Padmanabhaswamy temple, even after all these years. “This volume looks quite beautiful to me. But my over possessiveness about the temple prevents me from saying anything more, until I read each and every line of this book. Let more and more people write about the temple and pay their tribute to the lord with their words,” she said. The cover price of the 108 page volume, the ninth in a series on southern Indian re ligious centres brought out by The Hindu, is 200.
Centre invites Cauvery basin States for talks
SIT on trail of right-wing extremists
Chief Secretary-level meet to be held in Delhi on March 9 to discuss SC verdict
Group suspected to have killed Gauri Lankesh is planning to target rationalist
Cauvery Management Board would be set up within six weeks as per the verdict of the apex court.
Special Correspondent CHENNAI
The Union Water Resources Ministry has invited Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Puducherry to participate in a Chief Secretarylevel meet ing scheduled in Delhi on March 9 to discuss the Su preme Court’s recent verdict in the Cauvery water dis pute, Tamil Nadu Fisheries Minister D. Jayakumar said here on Monday. Chief Secretary Girija Vai dyanathan and Secretary of the Public Works Depart
D. Jayakumar
ment S.K. Prabhakar would represent Tamil Nadu at the meeting, Mr. Jayakumar said and hoped that the
‘Board is mandatory’ Flanked by Ministers hailing from the Cauvery delta re gion — R. Kamaraj, O.S. Ma nian, C. Vijaya Baskar and R. Doraikkannu — Mr. Jayaku mar told reporters on the Se cretariat premises here that it was “mandatory” to set up the Cauvery Management Board as per the Supreme Court’s judgment.
Asked whether such meetings were only tactics to delay the implementation of the apex court’s order, Mr. Jayakumar maintained the hope that the Board would be set up within the time frame. When the State govern ment sought an appoint ment with the Prime Minis ter’s Oce, it was asked to meet with the Union Minis ter for Water Resources. Meanwhile, the information about the meeting was re ceived, the Minister said.
Staff Reporter Bengaluru
Multiple groups of the Spe cial Investigation Team (SIT) probing the murder of jour nalistactivist Gauri Lankesh have reached Maharashtra and Goa to track down a group of four “highly motiv ated rightwing extremists”. Ocials say the group linked to K.T. Naveen Kumar, a rightwing activist whom the SIT has taken into custo dy as they suspected he had a role in the Gauri Lankesh #4 4 6 6 0 1
Gauri Lankesh
murder, had visited Karnata ka. They said the group was in a “very advanced stage of its plot” to target Mysuru
based rationalist K.S. Bhaga van. They suspect that the same group could be behind Gauri’s murder as well. Sources said the group had conducted an arms training camp in the forests of Chamarajanagar and had even done a recce of Mr. Bhagavan’s house. Naveen Kumar, who had founded the Hindu Yuva Sene in 2015, and was ped dling rearms, was on the ra dar of the SIT in the Gauri case, like many others. But
his alleged involvement in the plot to target Mr. Bhaga van raised a red ag, leading to his arrest, they added. Ho wever, the SIT has little ma terial evidence linking him to the Gauri murder, sources said. “Naveen Kumar has proved to be a tough nut to crack. He knows a lot more than what he is letting out, we suspect. The interroga tion is on,” said M.N. Anu cheth, investigating ocer in the Gauri case.
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IN BRIEF
Reject unholy SP-BSP deal: Adityanath
Weather Watch Rainfall, temperature & air quality in select metros yesterday
U.P. Chief Minister says the two rivals have been forced to come together to save themselves messed with the future of the youth, pushed farmers to despair and defamed the State," the Chief Minister said. Ms. Mayawati, however, has already claried that her support to the SP in the by polls or Rajya Sabha elections did not amount to a formal al liance with the party and the nal decision in that regard would be taken after the 2019 Lok Sabha elections are de clared.
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT LUCKNOW
Nitish: Fencing of 5,000 graveyards complete PATNA
Fencing has been completed at 5,000 out of the nearly 8,000 graveyards identified across the State by the Bihar government, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said on Monday. “If there are any more graveyards left beyond those already identified, their fencing work would also be undertaken in due course,” he said in the Assembly.PTI
Doctor arrested while ‘taking bribe’ in M.P. PANNA (M.P.)
A government doctor was on Monday allegedly caught redhanded while accepting a bribe of 1 lakh for tweaking a postmortem report in a dowry death case at Shahnagar in the district. Dr. Nirmal Jasuja (55), working with a community health centre, allegedly demanded 2 lakh from Mahesh Singh Thakur, resident of Chhattarpur district. PTI
Pak. intruder killed near India-Pakistan border CHANDIGARH
A 40yearold Pakistani intruder was shot dead by BSF troops near the IndoPak border in Punjab’s Gurdaspur sector on Monday, an official said. Pakistani Rangers has been contacted for handing over the body, he said. PTI
Two killed in accident DHOLPUR
A 45yearold man and his nephew were on Monday killed when a vehicle hit them on DholpurJaipur State highway here, the police said. A vehicle hit two bikeborne men who were returning home after attending a marriage function, Additional SP Rajendra Verma said. The deceased were identified as Kedari and his nephew Tapendra (22). PTI
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday appealed to voters in Gorakh pur to reject the “unholy and corrupt alliance” of the Sa majwadi Party and the Bahu jan Samaj Party in the up coming Lok Sabha bypolls to two seats. His remark came a day af ter BSP chief Mayawati said that though her party was not contesting the bypolls, her workers and supporters would vote for the “strongest candidate” in a position to defeat the BJP. The SP is the prime opponent of the BJP in the bypolls, and Ms. Mayawa ti's call would mean that the BSP workers would support the SP candidates in Gorakh pur and Phulpur. Addressing a rally in Go rakhpur city, Mr. Adityanath
Taking on: U.P. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath addressing a campaign rally near Allahabad. FILE PHOTO: PTI *
legedly humiliated her]”. In another rally in Cam pierganj, Mr. Adityanath said the two rivals had been forced to come together to save themselves “just like the snake and the molerat take shelter in the same place to survive the oods”. "I pity them. But in reality, they are looteras (plunder ers). They looted the State,
said the SP and BSP had agreed on a "deal" to throw the State back into anarchy and corruption. Mr. Adityanath said the BSP was supporting the SP despite "the SP in the past promising to destroy the Am bedkar memorial in Lucknow if it came to power, and the State guest house incident [of 1995 in which SP leaders al
Holi celebrations In his election rallies, Mr. Ad ityanath is also emphasising that on Holi festival, Muslims shifted their timings for Fri day prayers so that the Hindu festival could be celebrated without any glitches. "Friday prayers come 52 times in a year, the timing can be changed. They changed it
from noon to 2 p.m. And we gave full freedom to celebrate Holi with all the fun and frol ic," said Mr. Adityanath. The ruling BJP has picked its Gorakhpur region head Upendra Shukla, a Brahmin, to defend the political bas tion of the Chief Minister, who held the seat from 1998 and exerts considerable in uence in the region through the Gorakhnath temple of which he is head priest. The Gorakhnath Peeth has held the Gorakhpur Lok Sabha seat since 1989, with Mahant Avaidyanath, Yogi Aditya nath's guru, winning till 1998. If Mr. Shukla wins, Gorakh pur would get its rst BJP MP in 28 years who is not directly from the temple. He faces a challenge from Praveen Nish ad, the son of Nishad Party founder Sanjay Nishad. He is ghting on an SP ticket.
Former Union Minister Maoists abducted missing Kashmiri boy, claims poster alleges bribe demand PRESS TRUST OF INDIA
Odisha police looking into its authenticity PRESS TRUST OF INDIA Bhubaneswar
The disappearance of a Kashmiri medical student from here took a new turn after a handwritten poster was found claiming that he was kidnapped by Maoists. The Odisha police, inves tigating the disappearance of AIIMSBhubaneswar stu dent Suhail Aijaj, said on Monday that they are verify ing the authenticity of the poster. The poster, written on a piece of plain paper, was found on the wall of the Ba ramunda overbridge here in the morning and local peo ple informed the police.
“We are examining the authenticity of the poster and have started investiga tion. The police have seized the poster,” Bhubaneswar DCP Satyabrata Bhoi said. ‘Release leader’ It demanded that Odisha Maovadi Party chief Sabya sachi Panda be released within a week, failing which Mr. Aijaj would be killed. While the subject matter of the poster is written in blue ink, the name of the CPI (Maoist), Odisha State Com mittee, is in red. The poster also threa tened to “blast police sta tions and the railway station
Bhopal
Former Union Health Minis ter and senior BJP MLA in Madhya Pradesh Sartaj Singh alleged on Monday that some ocials at the State Secreta riat demanded bribe to reim burse his medical expenses. “One of my aides recently went to Vallabh Bhawan (the Secretariat) to get my medi cal bills reimbursed. He rang me up saying the ocials there were demanding ‘com mission’. I asked him to throw the le containing the bills there and come back. I don’t know what happened afterwards,” Mr. Singh said. “If this is the situation of an MLA, what would be the plight of common people,” the 78yearold leader rued.
in Bhubaneswar on March 11 and kill hundreds of people”. Maoist leader Panda’s wife Subhashree Panda said the disappearance of the Kashmiri student has noth ing to do with her husband. “Sabyasachi Panda is no longer a member of the CPI (Maoist). Therefore, this pos ter must be a fake one to mis lead police,” she told reporters. Mr. Aijaj, a secondyear MBBS student, had left the hostel on February 9, in forming his friends that he was leaving for a wedding ceremony in Chandigarh and would return in a week. #4 4 6 6 0 1
“My medical reimburse ment claim was of last month. I was treated at Na tional Hospital here for a week from February 14,” he said. Serious issue “This is a serious issue. Mo ney exchanging hands (at go vernment oces) has be come common. The situation has come to such a pass that people say take the money but do our work,” the MLA said. “The administra tion needs to tighten up,” he added. Madhya Pradesh Health Secretary Kavindra Kiyawat said MLAs send their bills for reimbursement to the As sembly Secretariat and not to Vallabh Bhawan.
Temperature Data: IMD, Pollution Data: CPCB, Map: Skymet (Taken at 18.00 Hrs)
Forecast for Tuesday: Thunderstorm accompanied with gusty winds is likely at isolated places over Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura city rain max min Agartala................. —.... 33.2.... 24.0 Ahmedabad............ —.... 35.0.... 18.8 Aizawl ................... —.... 29.9.... 15.0 Allahabad .............. —.... 33.2.... 17.0 Bengaluru .............. —.... 34.4.... 18.3 Bhopal....................1.... 32.9.... 18.7 Bhubaneswar ......... —.... 38.8.... 21.8 Chandigarh ............ —.... 26.7.... 12.3 Chennai ................. —.... 32.0.... 21.0 Coimbatore............ —.... 36.0.... 20.2 Dehradun............... —.... 27.4.... 11.9 Gangtok...............0.6.... 17.2.... 10.5 Goa ....................... —.... 32.1.... 23.0 Guwahati ............... —.... 29.2.... 16.6 Hubballi................. —.... 34.0.... 19.0 Hyderabad ............. —.... 37.3.... 19.1 Imphal................... —.... 28.8.... 11.6 Jaipur .................... —.... 30.3.... 16.3 Kochi..................... —.... 32.6.... 25.4 Kohima.................. —.... 22.2...... 8.6 Kolkata.................. —.... 34.5.... 24.0
city rain max min Kozhikode ............... —.... 35.4.... 25.0 Kurnool ................... —.... 37.1.... 22.0 Lucknow.................. —.... 31.0.... 15.3 Madurai................... —.... 37.2.... 21.6 Mangaluru............... —.... 34.7.... 24.8 Mumbai................... —.... 32.6.... 20.0 Mysuru.................... —.... 34.6.... 11.9 New Delhi ............... —.... 28.8.... 14.5 Patna ...................... —.... 33.0.... 20.1 Port Blair ................ —.... 30.3.... 21.7 Puducherry.............. —.... 31.3.... 18.4 Pune ....................... —.... 34.7.... 18.0 Raipur ..................... —.... 35.1.... 22.6 Ranchi..................... —.... 34.2.... 18.4 Shillong................... —.... 23.9...... 9.8 Shimla...................1.4.... 17.0...... 5.1 Srinagar .................. —.... 16.2...... 4.1 Trivandrum ............. —.... 35.3.... 23.5 Tiruchi .................... —.... 34.9.... 20.2 Vijayawada .............. —.... 36.3.... 20.4 Visakhapatnam ......... —.... 31.0.... 24.0
Pollutants in the air you are breathing CITIES
Ahmedabad ...... Bengaluru ......... Chennai ............ Delhi ................ Hyderabad ........ Kolkata............. Lucknow........... Mumbai ............ Pune................. Vishakhapatnam
Yesterday
SO2 NO2 CO PM2.5 PM10 CODE
106 ...8 .15 .20 .13 ...— .11 .22 .72 ...—
125 263 .20 165 .53 ...— .45 .37 .29 .64
32 63 29 30 26 .— 40 83 60 55
... 52 .....— . 106 . 164 . 101 .....— . 181 ... 83 ... 87 ... 86
.....— .136 .....— .206 .119 .....— .....— .109 .117 .123
....* ....* ....* ....* ....* ....— ....* ....* ....* ....*
In observation made at 4.00 p.m., Talcher, Odisha recorded an overall air quality index (AQI) score of 357 indicating an unhealthy level of pollution. In contrast, Panchkula, Haryana recorded a healthy AQI score of 47
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 (Individual pollutant data for various cities are averages for the previous day)
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IN BRIEF
Threat of new malware looms over cyberspace Saposhi can take over electronic devices and use them for DDoS attacks
Kalyan Singh wrongly diagnosed with swine u JAIPUR
Rajasthan Governor Kalyan Singh, who was diagnosed with swine flu at the Sawai Man Singh Government Hospital here on Sunday, was declared medically fit on Monday after his influenzaA virus subtype H1N1 test came negative at the Apollo Hospitals in Delhi. The Raj Bhavan has conveyed Mr. Singh’s displeasure to the State government and asked for a highlevel inquiry into the “circumstances in which he was diagnosed as a swine flu patient” at the SMS Hospital here.
Police gun down murder suspect in U.P. MEERUT
A day after the Meerut police killed a murder suspect in an encounter, the Bulandshahr police on Monday gunned down Amit, an alleged criminal who had a reward of 50,000 on his head, in yet another encounter in Uttar Pradesh. Bulandshahr SSP Muniraj told the media that Amit was wanted in several cases of murder and loot.
Centre invites inputs to improve school curriculum
Gautam S. Mengle Mumbai
A new threat looms large on the horizon of cyberspace. After Mirai and Reaper, cy bersecurity agencies have detected a new malware called Saposhi, which is cap able of taking over electron ic devices and turning them into ‘bots’, which can then be used for any purpose, in cluding a Distributed Denial of Service attack which, with enough repower, can crip ple entire industries.
currently keeping tabs on it to get a better idea of what it is capable of,” he said. In October last year, the Computer Emergency Res ponse Team (CERT), a Cen tral government body that deals with cyberattacks, had issued an alert about Reap er, a highly evolved malware capable of not only hacking devices like WiFi routers and security cameras, but also hiding its own presence in the bot — a device taken over by a malware. Sources said that while the CERT has not yet issued any alert regarding Saposhi, guidelines for protecting devices from Saposhi are likely to be issued in the days to come. “We need to rst ensure that the information we have is indeed substan tiated before raising alarm bells. Right now, what we know for sure is that Saposhi exists, and is highly capable.
Fraudsters fake calls from Indian embassy Ask people to pay for consular services Varghese K George Washington
Factors like whether it is aimed at any particular kind of device, or has a specic purpose are still being veri ed,” another ocer said. Malwares like Saposhi, Reaper and Mirai are prima rily aimed at DDoS attacks, in which the malware rst creates a network of bots — called a botnet — and then uses the botnet to ping a sin gle server at the same time. As the number of pings are
far beyond the server’s ca pacity, the server crashes and denies service to its con sumers. For example, if a large botnet attacks the ser ver of a eet cab provider, its server will crash, and scores of consumers will be unable to avail of its services, caus ing chaos in daily commut ing as well as massive losses to the company. In July 2016, small and medium internet service
‘CBI to probe SSC paper leak’
SC poser on building code violations
SC bristles at counsel’s remark in Loya case
Legal Correspondent
‘One man is controlling the entire judiciary’
Being monitored A senior cyberpolice ocer told The Hindu that Saposhi was detected around 15 days ago, and is currently being watched and studied. “Saposhi is similar in its intensity to Reaper, which was taking over millions of devices at the rate of 10,000 devices per day. Various cy bersecurity agencies are
Rajnath Singh urges candidates to stop their agitation
NEW DELHI
The Ministry of Human Resource Development has invited suggestions on rationalising curriculum for Classes 1 to 12. “The suggestions can be made from March 5, 2018, till April 6, 2018 at the link: http://164.100.78.75/DIGI,” said a release of the Ministry. The form invited suggestions for any Class from 1 to 12, in any subject, in relation to syllabus, textbooks, activities and pedagogy.
Special Correspondent NEW DELHI
The Central government has ordered a CBI probe into the alleged paper leak in a test conducted by the Sta Selec tion Commission (SSC) last month, Union Home Minis ter Rajnath Singh said on Monday. The instructions were is sued a day after the SSC wrote to the Department of Personnel and Training re
questing a CBI inquiry into the allegations that ques tions of the Combined Grad uate Level (TierII) Examina tion2017 were leaked. It has been alleged that questions of PaperI held on February 21 were leaked. “We have accepted the demands of protesting can didates and have given or ders for a CBI inquiry. The protests should stop now,” Mr. Singh told the media.
The SSC candidates have been protesting outside the Commission’s oce in the national capital since Febru ary 27, demanding a CBI probe into the alleged paper leak. Delhi BJP chief and MP Manoj Tiwari had met SSC Chairman Ashim Khurana along with a delegation of the candidates on the issue. They also met the Home Mi nister, raising related issues.
NEW DELHI
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Flight of fury #4 4 6 6 0 1
Youth Congress workers staging a protest in New Delhi on Monday against the NDA government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the Rafale aircraft purchase deal. SUSHIL KUMAR VERMA *
’Brain-dead’ man found alive on autopsy table Kin demand action against doctors
Cong. MLA raises banner of revolt Amarnath Tewary
Press Trust of India
Patna
Chhindwara
Days after former Bihar Congress chief Ashok Choudhary and three par ty MLCs joined the ruling JD(U), other party MLAs on Monday raised the banner of revolt against legislature party leader Sadanand Singh, and said they would soon visit Delhi to “apprise the high command of the situation in the State unit”. “I suspect that personal consideration was behind elding the party candi date for the Bhabhua As sembly bypoll by CLP lead er Sadanand Singh... there was no logic behind eld ing an OBC candidate (Shambhu Patel) in a Brah mindominated seat,” said Congress MLA from Buxar Assembly constituency, Sanjay Tiwari alias Munna Tiwari. Sources said that other Congress MLAs like Anand Shankar (Auranga bad) and Sudarshan (Bar bigha) too have supported Mr. Tiwari. State Congress president (incharge) Kaukab Quadri said each and every MLA is “solidly with the party.”
A 24yearold “braindead” man taken for autopsy in a government hospital in Madhya Pradesh on Monday was found alive, a medical ocer said. Himanshu Bharadwaj suf fered head injuries after his motorcycle skidded o the road in Chhindwara city on Sunday, following which he was referred to Nagpur in Maharashtra for treatment, said Dr Sushil Dubey, senior medical ocer, Chhindwara District Hospital. He said the doctors at the Nagpur hospital declared Mr. Bharadwaj brain dead and sent him back to Chhindwara. “Bharadwaj’s family members then brought him back to the Chhindwara Dis trict Hospital where doctors later declared him dead as his pulse was missing and he was showing no signs of life,” said Dr Dubey. Bharadwaj was shifted to the mortuary of the hospital for postmortem on Monday afternoon. “However, when the mor
Fraudsters impersonating its ocials have been asking people to pay for consular services, the Indian embas sy in Washington warned in an advisory. The embassy said its o cials would never contact applicants on the phone for anything. It has reported the matter to the American authorities and the MEA headquarters in New Delhi. The embassy got wind of the fraud as it received calls from people who claimed that they were called by o cials in recent weeks. O cials said the calls had gone to people who were seeking some consular service, pointing to the possibility
that the fraudsters had ac cess to that information. “These fraudsters either seek personal information like credit card details, etc. or try to extort money from Indian nationals by inter alia claiming that there are er rors in their passports, visa forms, immigration forms, etc. which could be rectied by paying money, and at the same time warning that the so called errors, if not recti ed, could result in deporta tion of the individual to In dia or their imprisonment in USA,” the embassy said in its advisory. Ocials said phone spoong was a fairly easily accessible technology, that can be used from anywhere in the world.
A mortuary sweeper noticed movement in the body. *
GETTY IMAGES
tuary sweeper was prepar ing the ‘body’ for postmor tem, he suddenly noticed movement in Mr. Bharad waj’s body. He immediately informed doctors who rushed to the mortuary and shifted Mr. Bharadwaj. He responded positively to the medical treatment,” said Dr Dubey. Mr. Bharadwaj regained consciousness and his all vi tals are stable, he said, ad ding that he was again re ferred to Nagpur for better treatment. Alleging medical negli gence, Mr. Bharadwaj’s rela tive Santosh Rajput de manded stern action against the doctors concerned.
Agreeing that lax imple mentation of re safety measures led to tragedies like the Uphaar theatre blaze and Mumbai's Kamla Mills re, the Supreme Court on Monday directed the Centre to respond to the apparently poor imple mentation of the National Building Code by “specula tive” developers and builders. A threejudge Bench, led by Chief Justice Dipak Mis ra, admitted a petition led by United Human Rights Federation, represented by senior advocate Parag Tri pathi and advocate V.K. Bi ju, which argued that the nonimplementation of the amended Code violated the fundamental right to life of gullible citizens. The petition noted that precautions in the Code of 2016, such as provision of re lifts in high rise build ings, rescape stairs for remen, heavy static water storage, automatic sprin klers in basement car park ing, etc, were usually given a miss by developers. Top court not safe The petitioners submitted that a Central Information Commission order in 2014 had even noted that the Su preme Court building and the Parliament had not re ceived re safety certicates.
providers in Maharashtra fell prey to a DDoS attack, which caused disruption in the services of several Inter net Service Providers (ISP) in the State. Another malware, Mirai, using a botnet of 5 lakh dev ices, had caused the servers of Dyn, a leading domain name service provider, to crash, aecting services of popular websites like Twit ter, Netix and Reddit.
Krishnadas Rajagopal NEW DELHI
The Supreme Court on Mon day took oence when a se nior counsel claimed that “one man was controlling the entire judiciary.” Senior advocate Dushyant Dave, arguing for the Bom bay Lawyers Association seeking an independent probe into the death of Judge B.H. Loya, said “I have not seen a situation where the entire judicial service is backing one man.” By “one man” Mr. Dave was referring to BJP national president Amit Shah. “It is a very broad state ment. Please don’t repeat it,” Justice A.M. Khanwilkar, part of the Bench led by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, told Mr. Dave sternly. Mr. Dave submitted how a Bombay High Court judge, who repeatedly questioned the CBI for not appealing the discharge of Mr. Shah in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh en counter case, was changed. But Justice Chandrachud reasoned that this may have been part of an established practice of change of roster of judges. Mr. Dave also pointed out how Justice Jayant M. Patel, who ordered a CBI probe into the Ishrat Jahan encounter case, was
K.M. Joseph is ‘senior-most High Court Chief Justice’ He is at least two years senior to the other CJs Legal Correspondent NEW DELHI
As reports gain currency about the government’s re luctance to elevate Uttarak hand Chief Justice K.M. Jo seph to the Supreme Court citing the seniority princi ple, a highly placed source in the apex court has point ed out that Justice Joseph is indeed the seniormost High Court Chief Justice now. Justice Joseph was ap pointed Chief Justice of Utta rakhand High Court on July 31, 2014. In seniority, from the date of his appointment as Chief Justice, he leads the rest of the High Court Chief Justices by at least two years. The Law Ministry’s own statistics show that though Justice D.B. Bhosale, Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court, was appointed High Court judge in January 2001, he was made a Chief Justice on July 30, 2016. Justice T.B. Radhakrishnan, Chhattis
K.M. Joseph
garh High Court Chief Jus tice, and Justice Joseph were appointed High Court judges on the same day — October 14, 2004. However, Justice Radhakrishnan was appoint ed Chief Justice only on March 18, 2017. Unanimous Ideally, the Supreme Court Collegium selects apex court judges from the pool of Chief Justices of High Courts. Many times, the Collegi um has followed the seniori ty of the Chief Justices of High Courts for appoint ment to the Supreme Court, sources said. It has been almost two months since the Supreme
Court Collegium, led by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, unanimously recom mended Justice Joseph’s name along with senior ad vocate Indu Malhotra for ele vation to the Supreme Court on January 10. The Collegium Resolution of January 10, signed by the CJI, Justices Jasti Chelames war, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B. Lokur and Kurian Joseph, noted that they had recom mended Justice Joseph’s name after taking into con sideration the “seniority on allIndia basis of Chief Justic es and senior puisne judges of High Courts, apart from their merit and integrity.” “The Collegium considers that at present Mr. Justice K.M. Joseph, who hails from the Kerala High Court and is currently functioning as Chief Justice of Uttarakhand High Court, is more deserv ing and suitable in all res pects than other Chief Justic es and senior puisne Judges of High Courts for being ap pointed as Judge of the Su preme Court of India,” the Collegium recorded in its signed resolution.
The court said the “slightest suspicion” would lead to ordering of an investigation.
transferred. “It is troublesome, how judge after judge is pun ished. It seems one man is controlling the entire judici ary,” he contended. When Mr. Dave indicated that the Supreme Court should not “wish away eve rything” in the Loya case, Justice Chandrachud said the court had no intention to “wish anything away”, but at the same time it did not want to pass any “bad faith judgments” on Bombay High Court judges and dis trict courts’ judges for their media interviews and state ments that Mr. Loya died a natural but untimely death due to heart failure in 2014. Chief Justice Misra said the “slightest suspicion” about the death would lead to ordering of an investigation. But Mr. Dave asked what prompted the two Bombay High Court judges to give “tellall” interviews to a new spaper days after the High
Court allowed the State go vernment to carry a “dis creet enquiry” three years after the death in 2017. The State had swung into action after a magazine arti cle raised suspicions about Loya’s death. Mr. Dave asked, “Why all the judges are saying Loya died of cardiac arrest. They should instead ask for an in vestigation. Why is there re sistance all around?” “Why is he [Dave] talking about the conduct of High Court and district court judges? We are not here to decide that. Either you [SC] order an investigation or dis miss this case,” senior advo cate Mukul Rohatgi, for the Maharashtra government, said. Additional Solicitor Gen eral Tushar Mehta, who was present in the courtroom, objected to Mr. Dave’s com ments about the judiciary. “I protest these remarks as an ocer of the court,” Mr. Mehta told the Bench. “You are not an ocer of the court. You are Amit Shah’s [BJP party national president] lawyer. You have been his lawyer for 15 years,” Mr. Dave countered. When senior advocate Harish Salve, also for Maha rashtra, said it was unfortu nate that Mr. Dave was in dulging in such “broadside” comments, Mr. Dave retort ed that Mr. Salve too had ap peared for Mr. Shah.
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8 EDITORIAL
https://t.me/TheHindu_Zone NOIDA/DELHI
THE HINDU
TUESDAY, MARCH 6, 2018
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It’s time to reimagine South Asia IndiaChinaPakistan cooperation can transform the subcontinent — joining a renamed CPEC would be a good start
The next best
High noon
Sudheendra Kulkarni
A
few months ago, Anjum Al taf, former dean of the pres tigious Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), wrote an article in the Dawn new spaper, making a strong case for mutually benecial economic cooperation between Pakistan and India. He also gave a revealing example of how this has become impossible because of “blind na tionalism” in Pakistan. “At the time,” he wrote, “when tomatoes were selling for Rs300 a kilo in Lahore, they were available at Indian Rs40 a kilo in Amritsar a mere 30 miles away. But a visceral Indophobia, shared by many of our inuentials, stood in the way of consumers beneting from the lower priced supply.” Many Pakis tani politicians want nothing to be imported from India, the enemy nation. This kind of blind nationalism is by no means Pakistan’s monopoly. Those who watch Indian TV chan nels debating IndiaPakistan rela tions routinely hear similar Pak phobia. Result: despite being neighbours, India and Pakistan are among the least integrated na tions in the world. Because of their unending mutual hostility, South Asia too has become the least inte grated region in the world. The South Asian Association for Re gional Cooperation (SAARC) is in a coma. Sadly, the most populous region in the world has also re mained home to the largest num ber of poor people in the world.
So near, so far A few striking examples will show how our two countries, which were part of a single seamless so cioeconomic and cultural entity before 1947, have now completely drifted apart. There are no direct ights between their capitals — New Delhi and Islamabad. The fre quency of DelhiLahore and Mum
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China, part of the solution In other words, can China become a part of the solution, rather than being perceived as a part of the In diaPakistan problem? A three way IndiaChinaPakistan cooper ation is not only necessary but in deed possible, and Chinese President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) provides a practical framework for such part nership. Unfortunately, Mr. Modi has allowed himself to be misled by his advisers on the BRI. The go vernment’s opposition to the BRI is based, among other things, on
#4 4 6 6 0 1
Interdependence vital A no less seminal benet for India is that by joining the renamed CPEC, it would gain land access, through Pakistan, to Afghanistan, Iran, Central Asia and western Chi na. And if our leaders show vision, ambition and resolve, the CPEC plusIndia can be linked to the BangladeshChinaIndiaMyanmar
Corridor, thus creating a grand garland of connectivity and inte gration for the whole of South Asia. If 1947 divided our subconti nent, here is an opportunity for In dia, Pakistan and all other coun tries in the region to come together and rise in shared pro gress and prosperity. Regrettably, the same short sighted advisers who have misled Mr. Modi on the BRI and CPEC are selling India the pipe dream of an alternative connectivity project by the “Quadrilateral” of the U.S., Ja pan, Australia and India. This is unlikely to take o. Even if it does, its developmental benets to India will be limited since it will seek to keep China and Pakistan out. We are also told that India does not need the CPEC since it has already partnered with Iran in building the Chabahar port. India’s gains due to Chabahar are modest, and nowhere comparable to those that would accrue by India having a di rect land access to Afghanistan through Pakistan, courtesy a re named CPEC. The latter is also in dispensable for the success of two other mega projects that are criti cal for India’s energy security and accelerated economic growth — the TurkmenistanAfghanistanPa kistanIndia (TAPI) and IranPakis tanIndia gas pipelines. Here is another huge potential gain for South Asia. The proposed connectivity initiative, which would create strong new bonds of regional cooperation and interde pendence, could also help resolve three longstanding geopolitical problems in the region, in which countless people have been killed — terrorism, Kashmir and Afghanistan. To realise this vision of a resur gent South Asia, two obstacles will have to be removed blind national ism and the unfriendly designs of extraregional powers. As Karl Marx would have said: peoples of South Asia and China, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains; you have a bright new fu ture to win. Sudheendra Kulkarni served in the Prime Minister’s Oce during Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s tenure
Opacity in the banking sector A wellinformed public can serve as a watchdog more eectively than existing banking regulatory bodies
Governments must ensure locallevel interventions to deal with heat stress he India Meteorological Department’s forecast of abovenormal maximum and minimum tempera tures across the country during the premonsoon MarchMay period is a timely alert for State authorities to review their preparedness. Even a marginal rise above the normal will lead to enormous heat stress for millions of Indians, given the deprived conditions in which they live. Moreover, there are distinct groups at particular risk for healthrelated problems during a heat wave, such as senior citizens and people with pre existing disease, mental illness or disability, which pre vents them from being able to care for themselves. It is the responsibility of governments to ensure that com munitylevel interventions are taken up to help vulner able groups. The advent of hot weather this year is marked by temperatures rising between 1.6° Celsius and 5° C above normal in States such as Rajasthan, Jam mu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Hima chal Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh; other northern, central and eastern States also show a small increase from March 1. Of course, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and parts of Rayalaseema have begun the season with a slight decrease in minimum temperatures, and will pos sibly have less oppressive temperatures in coming weeks. For most other States, though, the summer of 2018 may pose a public health challenge, for which they must prepare with the experience gained during the many previous heat waves. One scientic estimate of annual mortality attributable to heat waves between 2010 and 2015 ranges between 1,300 and 2,500. A spike in summer temperatures in India is not new, but some scientists contend that a halfdegree rise in av erage temperature in recent decades has resulted in a higher probability of extreme heat waves and caused a lot of deaths. A heat event thus has serious implications for public health: it can lead to fatal heat stroke in a small percentage of people, while many more could en counter exhaustion, cramps and fainting. It is vital for governments to ensure that all stakeholders, including the healthcare system, are prepared to deal with the phenomenon. The World Health Organisation recom mends that countries adopt heathealth warning sys tems, including daily alerts to ensure that people are in a position to deal with adverse weather, starting with reduction of exposure. Water stress is a common and often chronic feature in many States: arrangements should be made to meet scarcity. There is some hope that the southwest monsoon this year will benet from an expected moderate La Niña condition in the equato rial Pacic, marked by coolerthanaverage sea surface temperature. Taking the longterm view, India has to pursue mitigation of greenhouse gases vigorously, since there is a perceived link between increases in average temperature caused by climate change and the frequen cy and intensity of extreme weather events.
new factor inuencing India’s ne gative attitude towards Pakistan, both among policymakers and the common people. Our Army chief, General Bipin Rawat’s egre gious remark last year about India being ready for a simultaneous twoandahalf front war with Pa kistan and China (the “half front” being our own alienated people in Kashmir) has helped solidify an impression that our two large neighbours can never be friendly towards India. If India’s foreign and defence policies proceed on this belief, South Asia is surely heading towards a future of inten sied hostilities and conicts. Arms manufacturers and distant destabilisers will prot by this at the cost of common Indians and Pakistanis, who need employ ment, education, health care and foodandenvironmental security. These needs can be met only through regional cooperation, not regional rivalry.
baiKarachi ights have become minimal. The MumbaiKarachi fer ry service (the two port cities, once part of a single province, are closer to each other than either Mumbai and Delhi or Karachi and Islamabad) was stopped after the 1965 war. In this age of information revo lution, the number of phone calls between Indian and Pakistani citi zens (including calls between close relatives of divided families) is negligible, mostly out of fear of being questioned by their respec tive security agencies. At less than $3 billion annually, trade with Pa kistan accounts for a meagre 0.4% of India’s growing global com merce. Those who are happy with this status quo have set responses. On the Indian side, it will be said that terror and trade cannot go togeth er. The Narendra Modi govern ment has raised the bar higher — terror and talks cannot go togeth er. On the Pakistani side, resolu tion of the Kashmir issue has be come a precondition for any substantial bilateral cooperation. But is the status quo beneting either country? The answer is ob vious, except to those arrogant ul tranationalists who think India now has a seat on the global high table and hence need not care for Pakistan, and to those narrow minded Pakistani patriots who think they need not care for India since they now have two protec tors — China and the Muslim Ummah. China, of course, has become a
Sharat Sabharwal
T
he Nirav Modi case, of bank fraud, has once again brought into focus the de ciencies in procedures and super visory and regulatory controls in the banking sector. However, an equally important aspect that war rants a closer look is the opacity around the functioning of our banks that keeps the public in the dark about the extent and details of wrongdoing.
Under the RTI In 201112, the Central Information Commission (CIC) considered ap peals from applicants concerning bank regulatory functions after they had been denied informa tion, under the Right to Informa tion (RTI) Act, by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural De velopment (NABARD) about these functions. The information sought comprised copies of their inspec tion reports on banks, details of action taken against banks in
breach of the relevant laws and regulations, and advisory notes is sued by the RBI to banks and non performing asset accounts. The denial of information was on the ground that disclosure would pre judicially aect the economic in terests of the state by causing loss of public faith in some banks, and that it had been received from the banks concerned in a duciary ca pacity and could not be disclosed to third parties. Overruling this, the CIC ordered the disclosure of a good deal of information. Howev er, its decisions were stayed by High Courts. These decisions by the CIC were considered and upheld by the Su preme Court on the basis of transf er petitions led by the RBI and NABARD, in its landmark judg ment in Reserve Bank of India v. Jayantilal N. Mistry and 10 other cases, which was delivered in De cember 2015. The court ruled that the regulatory bodies were not in a duciary relationship with the banks that had provided the infor mation to them and that by attach ing a “duciary” label to the statu tory duty, they had “intentionally or unintentionally created an in terrorem eect”. The Supreme Court also rejected the ground of information disclosure hurting the economic interest of the country
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Three down The Congress has emerged as the single largest party in Meghalaya but it is unfortunate that it will not be a part of the state executive for perhaps the next ve years (“Congress outsmarted in Meghalaya”, March 5). This is a clear case of a fractured mandate being engineered in favour of the most powerful party. However, this is not the rst time that we are witness to such a “power grab”; the same thing happened in the Manipur Assembly elections. Can proportional representation solve this conundrum of coalition politics?
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Utkarsh Agrawal,
R. Narayanan,
Allahabad
Navi Mumbai
GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO
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f politics is the art of the next best, then Bahujan Sa maj Party chief Mayawati is slowly becoming adept at it. She has been averse to prepoll alliances, opting instead for postpoll tieups with either the Bharatiya Ja nata Party or the Samajwadi Party, depending on the nature of the electoral outcome. For her to now extend support to the SP in the byelections to the Phulpur and Gorakhpur Lok Sabha constituencies in Uttar Pradesh is therefore a serious departure from practice. True, the support comes with riders. She made it clear this does not amount to a formal alliance and is no pointer to a tieup for the 2019 Lok Sabha election. But implicit in her declaration of support is a recognition that the BJP is the party to beat, and that the BSP needs to back the strongest opposition party in elections where it is not a contender. If the Lok Sabha election in 2014 and the Assembly election in 2017 are any indication, the BSP has shrunk to its core, unable to win support out side the Dalit caste of Jatavs. Earlier, with the backing of an assorted group of Dalits, nonYadav backward class es and minorities, the BSP was able to win a substantial number of seats in the rstpastthepost system. Ms. Mayawati’s reasoning against entering into any prepoll electoral pact with other parties is not hard to under stand: It is not a desire to guard against ideological com promises or the arrogance of an undisputed leader of a dominant party, but a tactic to force a multipronged contest and make the most of a fragmented vote. This worked most spectacularly in the 2007 Assembly elec tion, when her outreach to social groups outside the BSP’s core support base, especially the upper castes, combined well in a multicornered contest. Since then, however, the BSP has been on the decline, failing to win even a single Lok Sabha constituency in 2014, a loss of 20 seats in Uttar Pradesh. The BSP’s shrinking votebank now leaves Ms. Maya wati with little option but to make new alliances, and consolidate the antiBJP vote. The same pragmatism that made the most of a fragmented vote will likely sug gest to her that she take the prepoll alliance route in the changed situation today. The SP has always been open to poll pacts, positioning itself as the principal op ponent of the BJP. If the BSP takes a step forward, the SP will surely take two towards it. The Congress, with a ge ographically limited area of inuence in Uttar Pradesh, would gladly try and replicate the grand alliance of Bi har 2015. Ms. Mayawati might be testing the benets of an alliance with the SP in Phulpur and Gorakhpur. If the SP does well, the endresult might be more than an ad ditional two members in the 16th Lok Sabha. It could be the beginning of a political churn.
AP
Mayawati is testing BSP’s alliance options by supporting the SP in UP byelections
the myopic argument that the Chi naPakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a agship project under the BRI, violates India’s sovereign ty since it passes through Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK). Not only does this argument hold no water but it also under mines India’s longterm develop ment and security interests. First, CPEC does not recognise PoK to be Pakistan’s sovereign territory. Arti cle VI in the 1963 ChinaPakistan boundary agreement clearly states in that “after the settlement of the Kashmir dispute between Pakistan and India, the sovereign authority concerned will reopen negotia tions with the Government of the People’s Republic of China....” Se cond, there is little possibility of India ever getting PoK, or Pakistan ever getting the Indian side of Kashmir, through war or by any other means. Therefore, connec tivity, cooperation and economic integration are the only realistic bases for any future IndiaPakistan settlement of the Kashmir dispute. Third, and most important, both China and Pakistan have stat ed that they are open to India join ing CPEC. China has also ex pressed its readiness to rename CPEC suitably to both address In dia’s concerns and to reect the project’s expanded regional scope. Already, Iran, Afghanistan and several Central Asian repu blics have agreed to join this ambi tious regional connectivity pro ject. Will it help or hurt India if it joins this renamed initiative as an equal partner? Will it not connect Lahore and Amritsar (also Delhi and the rest of India), the two sides of Kashmir (which all Kash mirbased political parties want), Sindh and southern Punjab with Gujarat and Rajasthan, and Kara chi with Mumbai?
and observed, “RBI’s argument that if people, who are sovereign, are made aware of the irregulari ties being committed by the banks then the country’s economic se curity would be endangered, is not only absurd but is equally mis conceived and baseless.” Stop the opacity The judgment has guided subse quent decisions of the CIC in such matters. The CIC has also directed disclosure of information (amount disbursed, grounds underlying the decision, rate of interest, collater als obtained, the outstanding amount and steps taken for recov ery, etc.) in respect of wilful de faulters and absconders, overrid ing the ground of the duciary relationship of banks with their customers, which is one of the grounds for denial of information
under the RTI Act. These decisions are based on Section 8(2) of the Act, which provides that notwith standing the exemptions from dis closure provided in it, the informa tion can be disclosed if public interest in disclosure outweighs the harm to the protected interest. Once a fraud on a nancial insti tution has been established or a borrower declared a wilful defaul ter (one who fails to honour his re payment commitments despite having the capacity to do so), or absconds, complete transparency concerning the amount involved as well as the factors and persons responsible for the loss become a matter of larger public interest. In stitutions that take the responsibil ity of managing public funds have to be answerable to the people. The argument that information concerning such matters is the ex clusive preserve of those in the go vernment and regulatory bodies, and that people do not have the ability to comprehend and ap praise it smacks of elitism. It could not be anyone’s case that the con dence of people in nancial insti tutions should be sustained by hid ing information concerning their wrongdoings. On the contrary, pe ople ought to have all the informa tion, good or bad, concerning such institutions so that they can
make informed decisions about dealing with them. Above all, well informed people can discharge the role of a watchdog far more ef fectively than all the regulatory bo dies put together. Opacity de prives them of that role. Notwithstanding the gains men tioned, transparency in the bank ing sector is still work in progress. While submitting a list of defaul ters who owe more than 500 crore each in the course of hearing in the Supreme Court in Centre for Public Interest Litigation v. Housing and Urban Development Corpora tion Ltd., the RBI’s counsel argued that it need not be made public for the present as it was likely to aect third parties and claimed certain amount of condentiality about the information under the RBI Act. The law on the issue would be claried further as a result of fu ture judicial pronouncements. Ho wever, the goal should be com plete transparency in such matters. If there are indeed any le gal provisions that prevent disclo sure of full details of loans of wilful defaulters and absconders, they ought to be suitably modied. Sharat Sabharwal is a former diplomat and a former Central Information Commissioner. The views expressed are personal
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The northeastern States have for eons had an ethos distinct from that of the plains in the rest of India, and national politics has remained distant (“The saron breeze in the Northeast”, March 5). The Congress initially served as a core around which regional entities twined themselves, but over time the party has allowed its core to fray. The Left with its blinkers has been no better. With the BJP now a part of the active political mix of this region, fresh winds could blow. However, equanimity and pragmatism must take over now that its ambition has been sated. A steep climb lies ahead.
As a metaphor I am surprised that the use of the word “cancer” as a metaphor by journalists and laymen should have caused disquiet in medical circles (From the Readers’ Editor – “A requiem for certitude”, March 5). As a matter of fact, there are quite a few diseases which are used as metaphors to describe various undesirable practices and social evils. The relatively innocuous “headache” (which is not so uncommon) is often used pejoratively to describe something as rampant as bureaucratic delays (the red tape), but there is no public outcry against it, given that nearly every second person experiences it. And “migraine” too has gained
some currency to describe various undesirable practices and evils. And even “cold” is not uncommon as a phrase to describe certain unpleasant situations: “if the bureaucracy sneezes, the citizenry catches a cold”. And how about “plague”, used to describe corruption or some unpleasant socio economic problems such as ination or unemployment? Therefore, I nd it a bit hard to empathise with those who have agged the use of “cancer” as a metaphor to refer to the bank scam. I certainly nd the legendary cancer specialist, Dr. V. Shanta’s solicitude for her patients eminently admirable, but I am unable to share her resentment to
the use of the disease as a metaphor to denote various social ills and evils. M. Jameel Ahmed, Mysuru
Four-minute mile The splendid black and white photograph on the front page, “A legend passes on” (March 5), brought back a ood of memories, on the signicance of Roger Bannister and his wonderful achievement. His timing of three minutes, 59.4 seconds, to run a mile, will be an indelible record in athletics history. Set in 1954 — though it lasted for just under 50 days — it was an achievement that mattered a great deal. I would even call it as signicant an event as the
moon landing in 1969 when Neil Armstrong uttered the words, “that’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind”. Looking back at such events, an oldtimer like me can only lament about how much the world has changed since then. The mechanical life of today glosses over simple yet remarkable and joyful milestones such as these. Does the generation today even care to think about such things? The blank look this morning on my grandson’s face, a rst year university student, when I mentioned the name Roger Bannister to him said it all. L. Krishnan, Bengaluru
more letters online: www.hindu.com/opinion/letters/
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OPED 9
TUESDAY, MARCH 6, 2018
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Diary of a tough week
A gathering storm
Prime Minister Theresa May is nally focussing on Brexit details, but the path ahead remains thorny
With the assault on freedoms intensifying, it is crucial to engage more with international human rights law
The past week has arguably been one of the most challenging for the Brit ish government since the 2016 refe rendum. It began with the momen tous call by Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn to push for a customs union with the European Union, which rmly claried the party’s standing as a supporter of a “soft Brexit” and one that has a pragmatic answer to avoiding a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. A week full of developments It was telling that the proposal from a party led by an avowed socialist, committed to returning large sectors of services to state ownership, was welcomed by the Confederation of British Industry as oering a “real world” solution, while Martin Don nelly, who was permanent secretary at the Department of International Trade until last year, compared Brex it to “giving up a three course meal... for the promise of a packet of crisps.” Then came the EU’s draft Withdra wal Agreement which translated into legal terms the progress of negotia tions so far. It highlighted how far apart positions remained 20 months on from the referendum. Among its suggestions was that should no other agreement be reached, Northern Ire land would remain in the customs union, creating, in eect, a border within the U.K. between the main land and Northern Ireland. This pro posal was welcomed by the Republic of Ireland and rejected outright by the Theresa May government. The government was also forced into a damage limitation exercise, as details emerged of a leaked letter from Foreign Secretary Boris John son in which he suggested that even a “hard border” in Ireland would have limited impact on trade. And if that wasn’t enough, in an extraordinary intervention, former Prime Minister John Major lambasted the current direction of government policy. He urged that a free vote be gi ven to parliamentarians on the nal deal along with the possibility of al
Reality check: “The Prime Minister may have outlined the details of the niche deal she hopes to conclude, but it does little to change the EU’s view on ‘cherry-picking’.” An anti-Brexit bus in central London. AP *
lowing for a second referendum, giv ing voice to the sizeable backing within the Conservative Party for a softer stance. He said in the highly acclaimed speech: “Of course, the ‘will of the people’ can’t be ignored but Parliament has a duty also to consider the well being of the peo ple... The emerging evidence sug gests Brexit will hurt most those who have the least. Neither Parliament nor government wish to see that.” This was a reference to the ofttrot ted out retort in the rightwing ta bloids (and among some politicians) against those who sought to suggest that Brexit entail anything other than a clear break with the European sin gle market and customs union. Then there was a bombshell from the U.S., which plans to slap a 25% ta ri on steel and 10% tari on alumini um exported there, and belatedly on cars from the EU. This appeared to make the U.S. President’s suggestion that the U.K. and the U.S. could strike a “great” trade deal after Brexit rath er questionable. The British govern ment has signalled such deals — from the U.S. to India and Australia — would be key to its future success as a “great trading nation”. Theresa May’s speech With all these developments it was little wonder that Ms. May appeared nervous ahead of her key Brexit speech on March 2. With EU leaders and industry awaiting details on Bri tain’s stance, which has largely fo cussed on vision rather than sub stance so far, it would have been a
particularly challenging time for a politician who was opposed to Brexit before the referendum. Following her speech, when asked by a journal ist whether she regretted Brexit, Ms. May simply said that it was incum bent on Britain’s politicians to deliv er on the results of the referendum. Given the trying circumstances, and the competing positions of se nior gures within her own party, Ms. May’s speech was arguably as good as it could have been. Facing ac cusations that her previous key speeches were more focussed on vi sion than detail, this one got down to the nittygritty and belied the rose tinted vision of the future served up by some of her cabinet colleagues. Both the EU and the U.K. would have to face some “hard facts”, she said, and life would inevitably “be dierent”. Access to each other’s markets would be less than it is now. “This is a negotiation and neither of us can have exactly what we want,” she said. Ms. May spelt out the details of what Britain would be willing to agree to. She said Britain may choose to commit some areas of regulations like state aid and competition to re maining in step with the EU’s, and guaranteed that Britain would not “engage in a race to the bottom on workers’ rights or the environment”. U.K. law would not necessarily be identical to EU law but would at tempt to “achieve the same out comes”. Britain and the EU should explore ways in which the U.K. could remain part of EU agencies such as those critical for chemicals, medi
Little time left The carefully crafted speech with reality checks appeared to oer so mething to a spectrum of views. While Tory MP Jacob ReesMogg, a staunch advocate of a hard Brexit, welcomed the “statesmanlike” speech, Anna Soubry, a vocal Con servative rebel pushing for a modest move away from Europe, said it was an “honest and conciliatory speech”. Europe’s chief negotiator on Brexit, Michel Barnier, welcomed the “clari ty” and recognition of “tradeos”. Yet, there will be little time for Ms. May’s government to rest on its lau rels. Her speech oered a glimpse of the complexity ahead, following 20 months of bombastic, fuzzy vision. There will be fewer opportunities to fall back on trite references (“taking back control” and a “global Britain”) when the reality suggests that these objectives are only partly achievable. Ms. May may have outlined the de tails of the niche deal she hopes to conclude, but it does little to change the EU’s view on “cherrypicking”. The European Parliament’s lead on Brexit, Guy Verhofstadt, said: “While I welcome the call for a deep and spe cial partnership, this cannot be achieved by putting a few extra cher ries on the Brexit cake.” Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar sug gested that even the details present ed left many fundamental questions about the customs union and single market challenge for the island of Ire land unresolved. With just over a year to go before Britain ocially leaves the EU, time is not on its side. #4 4 6 6 0 1
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Priya Pillai
A few weeks ago, the World Justice Project released its Rule of Law Index 201718 report, which measures the extent to which 113 countries have adhered to the rule of law in that period. (India’s rank was 62, better than China, Pakistan, Myanmar and Bangladesh; Denmark occupied the top spot.) Every country’s performance was assessed in eight areas, including fundamental rights, which is measured by “absence of discrimination, right to life and security, due process, free dom of expression and religion, right to pri vacy, freedom of association, and labour rights.” The survey found that 71 out of the 113 countries have dropped in score. This re port, along with others such as the Amnesty International Annual Report 201718, indi cates the serious erosion of international hu man rights law in recent times. Story across the world Even a cursory glance at the world is worry ing. In Turkey and China, the assault on civil liberties and freedoms has intensied. There is increasing hostility towards civil society organisations and hardening of attitudes towards minorities in Poland and Hungary. The hu man rights of refugees are rou tinely negated, including in Aus tralia and the U.S. The rise of majoritarian attitudes, hate speech and hate crimes is a growing concern, including in India. Mass atrocities (genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity) are or have been committed in Iraq, Myanmar, Central African Republic, and Burundi. It is not just the erosion of human rights but the normal isation of it that is of concern. The Second World War and the horrors of the Holocaust were the impetus for the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Hu man Rights (UDHR), which celebrates its 70th anniversary this year. The ideals of jus tice, equality, and human rights for all, en shrined in the UDHR and other international treaties, are the building blocks of interna tional human rights law. The articulation of fundamental rights and freedoms, their im plementation, and accountability for viola tions is a continuum. It is sometimes not ea sy to connect the dots between seemingly innocuous restrictions and a broader clamp down on rights, with potentially catastroph GETTY IMAGES/ ISTOCK
Vidya Ram
cines and aerospace, she said. Ho wever, the EU would also need to in troduce exibility in its approach, she insisted. It had continually sought a tailored approach in its rela tionship with other nations, making Britain’s insistence on a specically tweaked deal, with sectorbysector considerations, not unreasonable. “If this is cherrypicking, every trade deal is cherrypicking,” she said. The Prime Minister also sought to oer specic solutions on the Irish question, such as an agreement to waive the requirements for entry and exit declarations for goods moving between the U.K. and the EU and a “trusted traders” scheme to reduce delays at the border.
ic eects. Taken to the extreme, the commis sion of mass atrocities do not happen in a vacuum. An environment in which rights are minimised or discarded provides fertile ground for a more concerted assault on rights. Allowing hate speech to ourish is one example. For instance, in Rwanda, judg ments of the UN tribunal detail how radio stations facilitated the demonisation and ‘othering’ of Tutsis, in the buildup to geno cide. As a precursor to the Holocaust, Jewish populations across Europe were deprived of basic rights including that of citizenship and the right to practice a livelihood. These high light the perils of complacency in the current environment.
Reducing engagement In the international arena there are concert ed eorts to advocate the inclusion of inter national human rights provisions in the local laws of countries and more eective imple mentation and monitoring. Treaty bodies as sess states’ obligations to incorporate these norms into national laws, review com pliance, including with main human rights treaties, and provide recommendations. Re gional and supranational courts such as the InterAmerican, African and European courts of human rights oversee the full ment of obligations of regional treaties. In ternational and mixed judicial tribunals have been established to provide justice in mass atrocities, culminating in the es tablishment of the International Criminal Court. These interna tional fora buttress crucial local eorts for greater accountability. However, in many instances, engagement with these mechan isms has reduced. The Philip pines, for instance, imposed con ditions on the UN Special Rapporteur who was to investigate the alleged extrajudicial killings of suspected drug dealers since Presi dent Rodrigo Duterte took oce. In Myan mar, the UN Special Rapporteur who was to investigate the claims of persecution against the Rohingya was denied all access to the country. The UN system may not be perfect, but it helps sustain international human rights law, and there must be greater engage ment with such institutions. The gradual erosion of rights can result in a landslide unless eorts are made to halt and reverse this process. While not a pana cea, eective engagement with international human rights law is necessary in an era where rights are increasingly being stied in many countries. Priya Pillai is a Manila-based legal consultant with expertise in international law
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Rolling back free trade?
FIFTY YEARS AGO MARCH 6, 1968
No take-over of British plantations
The EU will have to show leadership to defend the current open trading system
The Government today [March 5, New Delhi] rejected a sug gestion in the Lok Sabha for taking over British plantations in India to compensate Indians forced to leave Kenya. The sug gestion was made by a Congress member Mr. M.A. Khan. The Deputy Minister of Commerce and Industry, Mr. Mohammed Sha Qureshi replied: “No action can be taken in that direc tion.” The supplementary arose out of a question tabled by Mrs. Suseela Gopalan whether the Government was consider ing the question of bringing plantations under the purview of the Industries (Development and Regulation) Act of 1951 in or der to take over closed plantations. The Commerce Minister, Mr. Dinesh Singh, answering questions on “mismanaged” plantations, said: “We (the Centre) do not have any power to take over any plantation. We are not also proposing to bring in any legislation to take over the plantations.”
Garimella Subramaniam
AFP
Contrary to his apparently concilia tory tone at the World Economic Fo rum in Davos, last Thursday’s an nouncement of steep metal taris leaves no one in doubt about the meaning of U.S. President Donald Trump’s “America rst” agenda. A 25% duty on steel and 10% on aluminium imports for an un specied period comes close on the heels of the safeguard taris imposed in January on solar panels and washing ma chines. These blanket taris are the most comprehensive of the recommendations by the U.S. Commerce Department, compared to the targeted levies and quotas against specic countries that were overruled by an instinctively protection ist President. In justifying the measure, the administration invoked a national security law, departing from an international con sensus not to impose trade barriers. Countries are allowed recourse to that means under the General Agreement on Ta ris and Trade in times of war and other emergencies. Mr. Trump reportedly did not heed suggestions that the nation al security argument should exempt member states of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. This break with conven tion could prove a potent tool for populist forces that hold sway in many countries. Ominously, it could once again re vive protectionist sentiment which has been on the wane following the recovery from the global economic meltdown. Against this backdrop, Washington’s traditional allies, who will be hit the most from the taris, have warned of bi lateral retaliation on U.S. goods, besides mounting a chal lenge at the WTO. A concern for the European Union would be to deal with the fallout from the U.S. levy on the bloc’s bloated steel industry. Hopes that the current escalation could be defused depend on the chances that countries can negotiate their way out of the taris, and corporations can win exemptions for their products. In the U.S., the latest levy is expected to put at risk mil lions of manufacturing jobs that rely on these metals. Con versely, it is unlikely to create signicant new employment in these two sectors given that current U.S. steel and alumi nium production remain close to a 10year average. Para doxically, imports of steel and aluminium surged substan tially in anticipation of higher prices, ever since investigations were launched last spring into their impact on domestic industry. Experts have opined that the spike may have contributed to Washington’s 2017 trade decit, which widened to its highest level since the global nancial crisis. Republicans opposed to Mr. Trump’s approach worry that the hefty taris could undermine recent tax initiatives to lure investment. But the punitive levies, as with the xa tion over the U.S. trade imbalance, underscore the Presi dent’s penchant for unilateral action, rather than seek re dress through rulesbased institutions. Seeking to roll back the U.S. liberal trade regime is hardly the way to inuence other economies to open their markets. Instead, Brussels would have to show leadership to defend the current open trading system.
ARCHIVES
A HUNDRED YEARS AGO MARCH 6, 1918.
Deck Passengers’ Convenience.
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CONCEPTUAL
ABSTRACT
Babe Ruth eect
It pays to be a crony
Investing
This refers to the observa tion that those who focus on investing in opportuni ties that could potentially yield extraordinary gains eventually outperform those who focus only on investments that yield nor mal returns. Although bet ting on highyield invest ments can lead to a number of losses, the huge prots on successful bets can easily compensate for these losses as long as the losses are cut short imme diately. It is named after the legendary American baseball player Babe Ruth who, despite conceding a lot of strikeouts, managed to achieve a high batting average by hitting enough home runs.
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Making the workspace equal bit.ly/EqualWorkspace
Demonstrating the politicianbusinessman nexus in the U.S. Prashanth Perumal J.
Access to politicians gives big businessmen the chance to inuence go vernment policy in a man ner that is benecial to them. For instance, govern ment regulations are often framed to serve the inter ests of certain companies that are close to the go vernment and harm com petitors. Even govern ment contracts, which are worth many billions each year, are handed out to parties who oer the high est kickbacks to politi cians. So, it is no surprise when corporate execu tives rush to the corridors of power to donate mas sive sums of money to get what they want. Yet, ex cept perhaps after a mas sive fraud that gets ex posed by a whistleblower, it is often hard to nd solid evidence to prove the nex us between politicians and businessmen. To help us get closer to
the truth, a 2017 paper cir culated by the National Bureau of Economic Re search, titled “All the Pre sident’s Friends: Political Access and Firm Value”, tries to oer some empiri cal evidence. The authors, Jerey Brown and Jiekun Huang, studied data on visitors to the White House from 2009 to 2015 and found in the database the names of several cor porate executives from S&P 1500 companies. After meetings They then studied the per formance of the stocks of the companies whose ex ecutives frequented the White House. This was to see if executive visits to the White House had any positive impact on stock prices. It was found that stock prices indeed showed abnormal returns just around the time when their company executives visited the White House. This, the authors argue, is likely because these com
panies received political favours after meeting the President’s sta. In fact, they say, the companies received relief from strin gent regulations just after meeting White House ocials. Brown and Huang also found that executives be longing to companies that contributed heavily to former U.S. President Ba rack Obama’s election campaign were more like ly to be granted access to the White House during his tenure. Interestingly, stocks of companies that did well after receiving favours un der the Obama presidency began to underperform the stocks of similar com panies after the surprise election victory of Donald Trump in November 2016. This probably suggests that investors expected these rms, which benet ed under the rule of Oba ma, to lose out on such fa vours under the Trump presidency.
Correspondence has passed between the Municipality, the Police and Rangoon Agents of the B.I.S.N. Company regarding the necessity for camping ground and shelters in Rangoon for Coromandel and Madras coolies and native passenger trac. It is pointed out by the Police Commissioner [of Rangoon] that congestion and nuisance of the last two years to public re quires such ground and shelters. The B.I.S.N. agents pointed out that the Government had since provided temporary camp ing ground but police insisted shelters from rain and neces sary sanitary conveniences. CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC
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10 NEWS
https://t.me/TheHindu_Zone THE HINDU NOIDA/DELHI
TUESDAY, MARCH 6, 2018
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FROM PAGE ONE
2 militants, 4 civilians killed in Shopian
Andhra MPs back at protest TDP members say the party is warning the Modi govt. to settle their demands ed Chandrababu Naidu, but the interest he showed in in creasing the number of seats in the State Assembly, did not reect in getting the spe cial status for the State.”
Special Correspondent New Delhi
Waqas, a category ‘A plus plus’ militant, was behind the Sunjuwan and the Leth pora attacks in Jammu and Kashmir. Ten people, in cluding six jawans and one civilian, were killed in the Sunjuwan attack last month. As for the Shopian kill ings, family members said the four deceased youths in the two vehicles — identied as Gowhar Ahmed Lone, Su hail Khaleel, Mohammad Shahid Khan and Shahna waz Ahmad Wagay, all resi dents of Shopian — were “civilians.” “My son is not an over ground worker. He is a Class 12 student. It’s a coldblood ed murder,” said Khan’s father Bashir Ahmad. Wa gay’s brother said he had spoken to him “halfanhour before the incident,” and contested the Army’s
claims. Contrary to the Ar my’s views, Ms. Mufti ex pressed “distress over the deaths of civilians caught in the crossre.” Ruling Peoples Demo cratic Party (PDP) vicepre sident Sartaj Madni called the Shopian incident “outra geous” and condemned it. “We will investigate if the killed youths had any alia tion with militant outts,” said DirectorGeneral of Pol ice S.P. Vaid. The killings in Shopian, where ve civilians had died in security forces’ opera tions in the past two months, sparked fresh vio lent protests in Srinagar, Anantnag, Pulwama, Bud gam and Kulgam. A complete shutdown was observed in the entire Valley on the call of the separatists.
‘Don’t pursue probe against Army ocer’ The Chief Justice observed that the Major may at any time be named an accused. “There is no allegation against him in the FIR. The proceedings are infructu ous,” the State government, represented by senior advo cate Shekhar Naphade, submitted. “But he can be roped in any time... Do not proceed against him. He is an Army ocer and not a common criminal,” Chief Justice Mis ra said. To this, Mr. Naphade re plied that “soldiers do not have a licence to kill.” He said there were res ponsible police ocers in volved in the case and they “knew the dierence” bet
ween the guilty and the innocent. Incensed by the State’s remarks, Mr. Venugopal in tervened to ask, “A licence to kill? Many soldiers have been killed there... that is not something?” “The staying of the probe against the Army Major des pite an FIR being lodged is a travesty of justice,” said a joint statement issued by separatist leaders Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Fa rooq and Yasin Malik. MLA Engineer Rashid said the Supreme Court judgment, “further streng thens the perception that Central institutions treat Kashmiris as their enemies and deny them justice.”
Protests derail Parliament Lok Sabha was adjourned for the day after relentless protests by the Congress ov er the 12,700crore PNB scam, and demands by NDAally TDP for a special package for Andhra Pradesh. Just after the obituary re ferences to former mem bers Rudolph Rodrigues, Kamla Prasad Singh, Kha gen Das and Kumari Farida Topno, Speaker Sumitra Ma hajan adjourned the House till 12 noon because of noisy sloganeering. On Nirav Modi As soon as the House reas sembled, Congress mem bers trooped into the Well with placards, demanding a reply from the Prime Minis
ter on alleged PNB scam kingpin Nirav Modi’s whe reabouts. AllIndia Trina mool Congress members al so protested on the PNB scam issue. Amid the sloganeering, Lok Sabha Speaker Smitra Mahajan accepted the resig nation of Neiphiu Rio from the Lok Sabha following the Nagaland Assembly election results. Threetime chief minister of Nagaland, Mr. Rio is likely to become the chief minis ter again. Proetsts were echoed in the Rajya Sabha also which was adjourned for the day amid opposition uproar ov er the PNB scam and NDA ally TDP’s demands for a special package.
The rst day of Parliament, af ter a recess in the Budget Ses sion, began on a rough note, with protests outside by the Trinamool Congress, the Te lugu Desam Party (TDP) and the YSR Congress Party. TDP MP N. Siva Prasad, dressed as Lord Krishna and anked by his colleagues, continued his protests for Special Category status for Andhra Pradesh. In the ear lier phase of the session, Mr. Siva Prasad was dressed as a tantrik during the protests. Explaining his choice of outt, Mr. Prasad said that like Lord Krishna in the Ma habharata who warned the Kauravas of the ill eects of the impending war and plead ed with them to settle with the Pandavas by giving them ve villages, he too was warn ing the Narendra Modi go vernment to settle the dispute. “I had dressed like Lord Krishna at the time of bifurca
Telugu Desam Party MPs protest outside Parliament demanding special status for Andhra Pradesh. SANDEEP SAXENA *
tion [of Andhra Pradesh] too and had pleaded with then Congress president Sonia Gandhi. I want to warn Mr. Modi that he should not mis take Chief Minister Chandra babu Naidu’s patience for in eciency. If he gets angry, then the BJP will have to face the ire of entire Andhra Pra desh,” Mr. Prasad said. MPs of the YSR Congress too staged protests. Five YSR Congress MPs, along with some MLAs, were detained by the Delhi Police
Naidu blamed Speaking to PTI, before be ing taken by the police, Me kapati Rajamohan Reddy, party MP, said, “We all trust
Sobhana K. Nair Nistula Hebbar New Delhi
Setting the ball rolling for a front of regional parties, Tri namool Congress leader and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday spoke to M.K. Stalin, work ing president of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), stressing the need for all fed eral parties to work cohe sively in Parliament and outside. Sources said that in a con versation that lasted 10 to 12 minutes, Ms. Banerjee told Mr. Stalin that she expected the DMK to do well in Tamil Nadu in the Lok Sabha elec tions in 2019. She reportedly told him her party was fairly con
Special Correspondent NEW DELHI
The Enforcement Directo rate will question Peter Mu kerjea, former director of INX News, on Tuesday in connection with the money laundering case against INX Media. “We have got permission from the court for question ing Mr. Mukerjea, who is currently lodged in a Mum bai jail in the Sheena Bora murder case,” an ocial said. The ED plans to question the then ocials of the Fo reign Investment Promotion
Congratulates Rao Ms. Banerjee also spoke to Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, with whom she has been in touch for several months, and also to Telanga na Chief Minister K. Chan drashekhar Rao. She congratulated Mr. Rao for his speech in which he had pitched for a nonBJP, nonCongress government at the Centre.
Board (FIPB) who were in volved in processing and clearing a proposal for an in ux of 4.62 crore in INX Media from three Mauritius based companies during 2007. Although INX Media got permission for 4.62 crore in foreign investments, it re ceived 305 crore by selling its shares at a premium of 800 per unit. The company made a downstream investment of 26% of the funds in INX News allegedly without prior permission from the FIPB.
Committee members will be selected from them. “There will be a combina tion of hardliners and soft liners in the State Commit tee,” said the party insider. Senior leader and Polit Bu reau member Mohammed Salim may be entrusted with new responsibilities, party sources said.
Suvojit Bagchi
Mamata Banerjee
bine won. “The Congress, in its wisdom or compulsions, decided not to accept the suggestion. We are disap pointed with their decision,” Derek O’ Brien, Trinamool leader in the Rajya Sabha, said. He said that in August 2019, Prime Minister Naren dra Modi would not deliver the customary address to the nation from the ramparts of the Red Fort.
The last time Ms. Banerjee spoke to Congress president Rahul Gandhi was to recom mend an overarching al liance in Tripura to counter the BJP in the recently con cluded elections, which the BJPIPFT (Indigenous Peo ple’s Front of Tripura) com
Reprimands Congress Ms. Banerjee reprimanded the Congress on Saturday, saying the Congress supplied the BJP with “oxygen” by re fusing to accept her sugges tion to form an alliance with the Trinamool and other hill parties.
dent of a good performance in the elections. “She told Mr. Stalin that, together, the DMK and the Trinamool control 70 to 75 seats and need to work cohe sively,” a senior Trinamool functionary said. West Ben gal has 43 Lok Sabha seats, while Tamil Nadu has 39.
ED to question Peter Mukerjea today
Kolkata
#4 4 6 6 0 1
New Delhi
Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday as sured the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) that announce ments would be made soon on a special package for the State and four of the other 19 demands of the party. The assurance came at a lateevening meeting bet ween a TDP delegation, led by Union Minister Y.S. Chowdary and State Fi nance Minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu, and BJP president Amit Shah and Fi nance Minister Arun Jaitley in North Block. BJP State president Hari Babu was present. Railway zone According to sources, apart from the commitment on the special package, assu rances were given for forma tion of a railway zone, esta
On time: CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury with party leaders Biman Basu and Prakash Karat in Kolkata. PTI *
the party also feels the need to promote “new faces”, a party insider said. “Out of 96 State Commit tee members, some 20 may get replaced. The new mem bers may be promoted from the district level,” he said. About 300 new faces were recently inducted in the dis trict committees, and State
Divided on alliance The other issue to be debat ed at the veday conference is an alliance with the Con gress. The State Committee is still divided with the majori ty backing an understanding with the Congress. But six out of 23 district committees — including the Kolkata dis trict committee — are against the move. Inaugurating the 25th State conference, party gen eral secretary Sitaram Ye chury said he was “hopeful” about the objective to form “new and alternative policy” to counter the BJPled go vernment in the Centre.
Reacting to the parleys between the regional par ties, Union Law and Justice Minister Ravi Shankar Pra sad said that in a democracy, every political party had the right to reach out to allies to form “federal fronts, sub fronts and super fronts”. “Having said that, the number of allies that the NDA has is also formidable, including two parties in Na galand that want to ally with us now. The idea of a Third Front is not new. We have seen it since 1989 and the consequences [of it], and I believe Indian polity has moved beyond these forma tions,” the Minister said. The Trinamool has been jockeying for the lead posi tion in Opposition.
Arun Jaitley
blishment of a greeneld crude oil renery and petro chemical complex in Kaki nada and a steel plant in YSR Kadapa district. While Mr. Jaitley has not given a denite timeline, he said they could be made be fore the end of the Budget Session on April 6. “We will brief Chief Minister tomor row [Tuesday] about Mr. Jaitley’s plan and he will take a nal call about wheth er we need to continue our protests,” a TDP leader said.
KCR draws up plans for new front Special Correspondent HYDERABAD
Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao is drawing up elaborate plans for forging eective coordi nation between stakehol ders from dierent sec tions after announcing his intentions to play a proac tive role in the formation of a nonBJP, nonCongress al ternative at the national le vel. His initiative to usher in qualitative dierence in governance continued to receive more support. The latest was former Chhattisgarh Chief Minis ter Ajit Jogi who contacted the Chief Minister over phone on Monday and ex pressed his solidarity with his announcement.
SC to hear Karti plea today Application says his arrest was in 'gross contempt' of Madras High Court order Krishnadas Rajagopal NEW DELHI
The Supreme Court on Mon day agreed to urgently hear Karti Chidambaram, who ac cused the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) of acting in contempt of Supreme Court and Madras High Court decisions by arresting him at the Chennai airport and whisking him away to Delhi. A Bench, led by Chief Jus tice of India Deepak Misra, agreed to schedule Mr. Kar ti’s application for hearing on Tuesday. Mr. Karti, who is now in CBI custody under order of remand by a Delhi court, said he had not “till now” been informed about the grounds for his arrest. He said the denial of infor mation about the grounds of his arrest was in violation of
Karti Chidambaram
his fundamental right under Article 22 of the Constitution. HC caveat on travel Mr. Karti said he had left for the U.K. after the Madras High Court, in an order on February 16, 2018, allowed him to travel. One of the con ditions imposed by the court was that he should appear before the CBI immediately on his return and cooperate
with the investigation. In his application. Mr. Kar ti said he was “shocked” when the CBI arrested him at the Chennai airport on his return. “The arrest is in gross con tempt of the Madras High Court order of February 16, 2018, which directed the pe titioner [Karti Chidamba ram] to appear before the CBI immediately on his re turn and on dates that might be xed by the CBI for inves tigation, if any, after the tra vel period. But before the pe titioner could appear before the CBI on a summons, he was arrested,” Mr. Karti submitted. He referred to a 2014 judg ment in the Arnesh Kumar case to argue that ocers who fail to comply with a court’s order are liable for departmental and contempt
UPA derailed banking system: Law Minister
of court action. The application asked the Supreme Court to intervene and restrain the Enforce ment Directorate from conti nuing any investigation un der the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 or is sue summons to Mr. Karti in connection with the INX Me dia FIPB approval case until the CBI has completed its in vestigation and led a report under Section 173 of the Code of Criminal Procedure concluding that a predicate/ scheduled oence had been committed and proceeds of crime are identied. He said the ED was on a “shing and roving enquiry” to malign the reputation of his father, P. Chidambaram. He said all documents sought in the summons had already been seized during multiple searches by the ED.
Karti not cooperating in probe: CBI Special Correspondent
Nistula Hebbar NEW DELHI
‘New faces’ Several State and Central Committee members from West Bengal are likely to be dropped. While many are unwell,
Special correspondent
Speaks to DMK’s Stalin, calls for all federal parties to work cohesively inside and outside Parliament
Younger members to be inducted; issue of tieup with Congress to be discussed
told The Hindu. He added that Mr. Bhattacharjee may stay on as an invitee, rather than a regular member.
‘Four of other 19 demands will be met’
Mamata starts talks for regional front
Revamp likely in Bengal CPI(M) A key objective of the CPI(M) West Bengal State Commit tee meeting on Monday for the triennial State confe rence was to convince form er Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee to stay on as a member of the party State Committee and Secretariat. The task is “dicult”, said senior leaders, as Mr. Bhatta charjee has repeatedly re quested the party to relieve him. A senior State Secretariat member told The Hindu that the party wanted Mr. Bhatta charjee to remain a member of the highest decisionmak ing body in the State as he was “active.” “He is reading and writing a lot. The party unanimously wants him in the State Com mittee. But he is the only person in the committee who is not willing to stay, lar gely due to his chronic lung inammation [COPD] and some eyerelated issues,” a State Secretariat member
when they tried to march to wards the Parliament com plex to protest against the Centre’s denial of Special Ca tegory status to Andhra Pra desh. Scores of party cadres squatted in front of the pol ice van to thwart attempts to detain their leaders.
‘Will continue this’ Another detained MP, Vijay Sai Reddy, said, “We took all permissions [for the prot est], but despite that we are being detained. Even in 2015, our party chief Jagan Mohan Reddy held a similar protest at the same venue for the same cause. Such at tempts to detain us will not deter us. We will continue this.” A TDP delegation met Tri namool Congress and Biju Ja nata Dal leaders, while another delegation, led by Union Minister Y.S. Chow dary, met BJP president Amit Shah. Meanwhile, 33 Trinamool MPs sat on a dharna in front of the Gandhi statue de manding an investigation in to the bank scams.
Jaitley promises special package
Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Monday hit out at the Congress, say ing that under the UPA go vernment, the entire bank ing system was allowed to be derailed because of “inter ventions, pressure and patronage”. At a press conference in New Delhi, Mr. Prasad raised questions over exceptions granted under the 80:20 scheme of gold imports. He especially agged ex ceptions granted by then Fi nance Minister P. Chidamba ram on May 16, 2014, which helped the Gitanjali group whose founder, Nirav Modi, is now on the run following
Ravi Shankar Prasad
the PNB scam. “On May 16, 2014, it was already clear that the UPA government was on its way out. I want to ask Mr. Chi dambaram why these excep tions to seven private com panies, including the Gitanjali group, allowing them to import gold, was done. Is this a jumla or cor
ruption? Was it ethical to do it,” he asked. Criticising the Congress for “running a campaign of fear, confusion and concoc tion against the Modi govern ment” which it blamed for the rising nonperforming assets (NPAs) of public sector banks, he said, “... it was the economist Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the super economist Finance Mi nister P. Chidamabaram who were responsible.” The exceptions were like ly used for the round trip ping of money via gold, the Minister said and added that the NDA government, realis ing this, had scrapped the scheme in November 2014 it self.
NEW DELHI
The CBI on Monday said that Karti Chidambaram was still being evasive in his replies and was not cooperating in the INX Me dia case probe. The agency may seek ex tension of his remand, ar guing that he has not been forthcoming in sharing in formation on the case. The CBI had taken Mr. Karti to Mumbai to confront him with former INX Media di rector Indrani Mukerjea, who is in judicial custody. Ms. Mukerjea has claimed that Mr. Karti had demanded and accepted $1 million to scuttle a probe into alleged violation of FIPB rules.
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IN BRIEF
Conrad tipped to be Meghalaya CM Swearing-in likely today, though HSPDP not happy with choice; allies drive a tough bargain for berths Shiv Sahay Singh
stand, the NPP, which is the largest party in the alliance with 19 MLAs, will get only onethird of the ministerial positions, including that of the Chief Minister.
Shillong
I want to revive MGR’s rule: Rajinikanth CHENNAI
Actor Rajinikanth said on Monday that he wanted to revive MGR’s rule in Tamil Nadu and that he entered politics only to fill the leadership vacuum in the Dravidian heartland. “MGR’s rule took care of the poor and the middle class. I have faith that I too can provide that rule,” he said.
Iraq is top crude oil supplier to India NEW DELHI
Iraq has overtaken Saudi Arabia to become India’s top crude oil supplier, meeting more than a fifth of the country’s oil needs in the current financial year, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan told the Lok Sabha on Monday. Saudi Arabia traditionally has been India’s top oil source but in the AprilJanuary period of 2017 18, Iraq dethroned it, supplying 38.9 million tonnes. Iran continued to be the third largest supplier, selling 18.4 million tonnes during AprilJanuary. PTI
India-U.S. team test-fires howitzers in Pokhran NEW DELHI
A group of officials from India and the United States were at the Pokhran firing range on Monday to testfire M777 ultralight howitzers in the wake of an accident during its trial in September last year. In May 2017, the Army took delivery of two M777 ultralight howitzers made by the BAE Systems US under a contract signed in 2016. During trial firing, a projectile had burst in the barrel. After the accident, the two sides formed a joint team to examine the issue. The team will review Monday’s results.
Computer firm director grilled in bank fraud case NEW DELHI
The CBI on Monday questioned R.P. Info Systems director Shivaji Panja, accused of cheating a Canara Bankled consortium of 10 banks of 515.15 crore, along with others. It is alleged that the company that manufactured computers with the brand name Chirag, took loans from 2012. However, they turned into nonperforming assets as repayments were not made. The banks have alleged that the company manipulated its financial statements and did not route the sales proceeds through the loan account.
The lion’s share of Cabinet berths in the Ministry to be led by Conrad Sangma, Na tional People’s Party (NPP) chief, in Meghalaya is likely to go to the allies. A day be fore the swearingin of the Ministry, the smaller parties are believed to have struck a tough bargain. Making things more com plicated, the Hill State Peo ple Democratic Party (HSPDP) expressed its reser vation to the decision to name Mr. Sangma the Chief Minister. Its chief, Ardent Miller Basaiawmoit, said that a government could have been constituted without al lying with the BJP. Busy day Busy with meetings and ne gotiations, Mr. Sangma visit ed the house of United De mocratic Party (UDP) leader Donkupar Roy. The UDP with six MLAs supporting the NPP made it clear that it would not settle for anything fewer than three Cabinet berths. Rumours were rife in pol itical circles in the hill State
At the helm: A le photo of Conrad Sangma meeting supporters.
that the UDP was consider ing a change of allegiance, but the party leaders quickly dispelled such reports saying they were very much part of the NPP alliance. The People’s Democratic Front (PDF), a party with four MLAs, demanded two berths and one each will go to the HSPDP and the BJP,
Rules out alliance with NPF, says tie-up with NDPP will help solve the Naga issue have advised < > We Zeliang to resign as
Rahul Karmakar AGARTALA
Lastditch eort The BJP took this stand as Chief Minister T.R. Zeliang made a lastditch eort to meet BJP president Amit Shah for a possible deal to share power. Both the NPF and the NDPPBJP combine are short of the majority mark of 31 in the 60member House. The NDPPBJP combine and the NPF met Governor P.B. Acharya on Sunday, staking claim to form the go
Rio is a widely accepted leader Himanta Biswa Sarma Assam Health and Finance Minister
mously elected the BJP Le gislature Party leader. T.R. Zeliang
vernment. Mr. Acharya set them a 48hour deadline to get the signatures of at least 31 MLAs to justify their claim. “We have decided not to have any truck with the NPF any more and have advised Mr. Zeliang to resign because Mr. Rio is a widely accepted leader. There can be a solu tion to the Naga political pro blem only if Mr. Rio is in Na galand and [Prime Minister] Narendra Modi in Delhi,” As sam Health and Finance Mi nister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who held a meeting with the 12 newly elected BJP MLAs in Dimapur, told presspersons. In the meeting attended by Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda, Y. Patton was unani
To meet Governor Mr. Sarma said the BJP lead ers would meet the Gover nor on Tuesday with a letter in favour of the formation of an NDPPBJP government under Mr. Rio’s leadership. “The decision to honour our prepoll alliance with the NDPP will in no way aect the BJP’s alliance with the NPF in Manipur. This is be cause the Manipur unit of the NPF is registered as a separate entity,” he said. The current political dra ma in Nagaland and the tug ofwar between the two re gional parties are the out come of a clash of personalities. Mr. Zeliang and Mr. Rio have joined forc es and fallen apart in their bids to head the State in re cent years.
Modi-Xi summit is set to follow two high-level ministerial meetings China building helipads in Doklam area: Nirmala
Suhasini Haidar Atul Aneja NEW DELHI/BEIJING
Ocial olive branch In signs that the two sides are also setting the stage for more harmonious dealings ahead, China agreed to Pa kistan’s nomination to the FATF grey list on terror nance last month, while New Delhi has reportedly asked ocials to be careful of Chi na’s sensitivities.
RITU RAJ KONWAR
on Monday that the party was only playing the “role of a facilitator”, and the allot ment of Cabinet berths was the prerogative of the Chief Minister. Sources said the Chief Mi nister and 11 Ministers would be sworn in at the Raj Bha van on Tuesday. If the re gional parties stick to their
which has two MLAs each. The Independents support ing the NPP are demanding at least one Cabinet berth. The NPPled coalition has claimed the support of 34 MLAs in the 60member As sembly. The BJP, which brought the regional parties together to form a government, said
India, China step up engagement India and China are seeking to step up the pace of im proving ties, with two high level ministerial meetings this month leading to a sum mit meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinp ing, and a slew of engage ments through the year, o cials in Delhi and Beijing conrmed to The Hindu. “The leaders had decided during their [postDoklam] Xiamen meeting in August last year that they must heighten the frequency and level of meetings, and we hope to see many more en gagements in 2018 than be fore,” a senior diplomat told The Hindu. He referred to 2017 as a “dicult year” for ties, with the 73day Doklam stando and dierences over Masood Azhar and the Nuclear Sup pliers Group membership raising temperatures.
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BJP rejects Zeliang’s overture The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday ruled out the possibility of forging an al liance with the Naga People’s Front (NPF), and said the tie up with the Nationalist De mocratic Progressive Party (NDPP) would help solve the vexed Naga political issue. “Political issue” is a term used for nding an honoura ble end to the peace initia tive with Naga extremist groups, primarily the Isak Muivah faction of the Nation al Socialist Council of Naga land, started 21 years ago.
NEW DELHI
Looking ahead: Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the 2017 BRICS Summit in Xiamen. PTI *
Sources said the Defence Ministry had put o its Insti tute of Defence Strategic Analysis (IDSA) Asian Securi ty Conference scheduled from March 6 to 8, which was expected to take a more hawkish line on Chinese se curity policy and the Belt and Road initiative (BRI). “It appears India doesn’t want hard opinions on China aired from the government’s most prominent defence thinktank,” a source privy to the decision said. Later this month, the go vernment will host Guo Yez hou, Vice Minister of the In ternational Department of the Communist Party of Chi na (CPC), a key gure in the party overseeing foreign pol icy formulation. The dates of Mr. Guo’s vi sit, who will be part of a highlevel delegation, have not been conrmed yet, pri
BJP, CPI(M) spar over attacks
marily because of the ongo ing session of the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s parliament, which will continue till March 20. Trump’s trade threat Meanwhile, Chinese Com merce Minister Zhong Shan or his deputy are expected to visit for talks with Com merce Minister Suresh Prab hu aimed at improving trade imbalances. Ocials hope they will at tend an informal ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) organ ised by the Commerce Minis try on March 19 and 20. The WTO ministerial meeting is being seen as a signicant platform of coun tries worried by the U.S.’s tough position on taris and President Donald Trump’s threats of a “trade war”, even as he called the WTO a
Indian and Chinese troops have “redeployed” themselves away from the faceoff site in Doklam, and China has undertaken construction of helipads, sentry posts and trenches there to “maintain its troops during the winter,” Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told the Rajya Sabha on Monday. PTI DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD
“disaster for America”. The next important en gagement will be the India China strategic economic dialogue, held between o cials of the NITI Aayog and China’s top planning body, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). Meeting at SCO Mr. Modi is expected to meet President Xi in June at the Shanghai Cooperation Or ganisation (SCO) summit in Qingdao. But at least two ocials did not rule out the possibil ity of an “informal summit” before that. All eyes are also on India’s participation at the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) meeting in Beijing from April 8 to 11, which is China’s equivalent of the World Economic Forum. (With Kallol Bhattacherjee)
No one had deed the Na ga rebels and ruled Nagaland with as much authority as S.C. Jamir until his protege, Mr. Rio, replaced him as Chief Minister in 2003. Mr. Jamir had been Chief Minis ter for more than 15 years. Mr. Rio and Kewekhape Therie, now the chief of the Nagaland unit of the Con gress, fell out with Mr. Jamir and went on to revive a re gional party, renaming it the Naga People’s Front. But the friendship did not last and Mr. Therie quit the party to return to the Congress. There was no room for a second rung in the NPF as long as Mr. Rio held control. His decision to become an MP after 11 years as CM, ho wever, opened a window of opportunity for others. The rise of Mr. Zeliang in State politics saw Mr. Rio be ing sidelined. The latter, ho wever, was back in conten tion after Mr. Zeliang was forced to quit in February 2017 following violence over the NPF government’s bid to hold civic polls with 33% qu ota for women.
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Governance issues Amid the negotiations and bargaining, Mr. Sangma said the focus of his government would be on governance and transparency. “We will pro vide a good, clean and tran sparent government which has been lacking in Megha laya for the past few years,” he said. Mr. Sangma said the new government would focus on improving infrastructure and formulating new social sector schemes. The NPP chief told press persons that the announce ment of his name as Chief Minister was sudden and he hardly expected it. “I came here just with a bag and two shirts and was planning to go to Delhi to attend the Parlia ment session,” he said. Mr. Sangma represents the Tura Lok Sabha seat in Garo Hills. The NPP had projected Prestone Tynsong as its chief ministerial candidate.
Poll fury: A CPI(M) oce burnt down allegedly by BJP men on the outskirts of Agartala on Monday. RITU RAJ KONWAR *
Syed Sajjad Ali Agartala
The BJP on Monday said a section of ocers and police personnel in Tripura were working at the behest of the CPI(M) despite the party’s rout in the recent Assembly elections. The CPI(M) has been al leging attacks on its party of ces and workers ever since the results were declared. BJP State vicepresident Subal Bhowmik said 49 par ty workers and supporters were assaulted by CPI(M) cadres and policemen at va rious places over the past two days. But the CPI(M) countered the charge and blamed the BJP for the polit
ically motivated violence across the State. Mr. Bhowmik, who lost to the CPI(M) candidate in So namura, said 17 injured BJP workers were hospitalised. One supporter whose condi tion was critical was re ferred to a hospital in Kolka ta. He said the party had received information of CPI (M) cadres in the guise of BJP supporters creating chaos under cover of dark ness, and warned them of stern action. He alleged that a police team led by a commandant attacked people at Dhalabil in Khowai district on Sun day night, leaving 11 injured, including women.
Choose a tribal CM for Tripura, says BJP ally IPFT demands ‘honourable sharing’ of portfolios Special Correspondent AGARTALA
The Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT) has said that its ally, the Bharati ya Janata Party, should ho nour the support from the indigenous communities and choose a tribal to lead the 60member Assembly on Tuesday. The IPFT also wants an “honourable sharing” of portfolios after the swear ingin later this week. The BJPIPFT combine won 18 of the 19 seats re served for the State’s tribes where Assembly elections were held on February 18. Polling in another seat was countermanded after a CPI (M) candidate died of heart attack. ‘Hardwon victory’ The IPFT won eight of the nine seats it contested across areas under the Trip ura Tribal Autonomous Dis trict Council. Of the BJP’s 35 seats, 10 are in the tribal
United colours: The BJPIPFT combine won 18 of the 19 seats reserved for the tribes of Tripura. RITU RAJ KONWAR *
belt. “We have made no de mands because this has been a hardwon victory to gether. We have just said we should honour the people in the tribal areas who voted spontaneously for the al liance. They want to see an indigenous person to lead the State,” Narendra Chan dra Debbarma, the 81year old leader of IPFT, told The Hindu on Monday.
BJP usurping people’s mandate, says Rahul
“We have also not sought a specic number of berths. It is for them [BJP] to oer us. Their Central leaders are arriving tomorrow [Tues day] for a meeting of the newly elected MLAs. If they desire, they can have a meet ing with us too,” Mr. Debbar ma said. The IPFT chief rejected reports of any dierences between the two allies.
Remarks of D. Raja are sad: Brinda Special Correspondent
Promises to win back the trust of the people of Northeast the Modi government/ BJP to address both issues. Does it stand for the demand for di vision of Tripura? Would it reject the demand for a tri bal CM,” he asked.
Special Correspondent New Delhi
Promising to win back the trust of the people of the northeast, Congress presi dent Rahul Gandhi accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of “usurping the man date through proxy and us ing big money to create an opportunistic alliance”. Back from an overseas trip, Mr. Gandhi tweeted on Monday that the BJP was ob sessed with grabbing power. “With just 2 seats, the BJP has usurped power in Megh alaya, through a proxy, like in Manipur & Goa, showing utter disregard for the man date of the people. Obsessed instead with grabbing pow er, using big money to create an opportunistic alliance,” he said with the hashtag #DemocracyDemonetised. Earlier, breaking his si lence over the results, he had said, “The Congress par ty respects the mandate of the people of Tripura, Naga land and Meghalaya. We are committed to strengthening our party across the north east and to winning back the trust of the people. My sin cere thanks to each and ev ery Congress worker who toiled for the party.” His subsequent tweet, ho wever, reected the aggres
Rahul Gandhi
sive stance the Congress had taken after being outsmart ed by the BJP. ‘Dangerous game’ In a series of tweets, Con gress’s communication chief Randeep Surjewala accused the BJP of playing the “dangerous game of destabi lising the northeast region through its blind quest for power”. Mr. Surjewala said:“Telltale signs of the BJP’s blind quest for power, superseding the stability of the region, propagation of democracy, nipping separa tist tendencies and ignoring core issues of region are al ready visible.” “In Tripura, the BJP aligned with the IPFT, whose election plank is division of the State, and now demands a tribal CM. [It is] time for
Predicts instability Mr. Surjewala said that in Na galand, the BJP was in go vernment with the Naga Pe ople’s Front (NPF) but fought the election in an al liance with an Opposition party, the Nagaland Demo cratic Progressive Party (NDPP). “With both the NPF and the NDPP staking claim to form the government, is Nagaland headed for anoth er round of instability, like in the last ve years? And the Naga Accord?” he asked. He said the BJP govern ment in Manipur survives on the support of three NPF lawmakers. “Would the for mation of a government in Nagaland by the BJP with the NDPP (18 MLAs), ignoring the NPF (26 MLAs), only in the eort for a larger share of the pie of power, not put the stability of the govern ment in Manipur under a cloud?” he asked. The Con gress asked the NDA’s chief ministerial candidate in Meghalaya, Conrad Sangma, if he believed in creating a separate Garoland.
New Delhi
CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat termed unfortunate CPI leader D. Raja’s call for a secular front, comprising the Congress and regional parties, to stall the expan sion of the BJP. Mr. Raja had said the de feat of the Left Front in Tripura “warrants a se rious introspection. All sec ular democratic forces should come together to counter the BJPRSS com bine.” He had said the Con gress and regional parties could not be excluded from such a front. “It is unfortunate that comrade Raja, a senior leader of the CPI, should publicly seek to draw les sons from the Tripura re sults, which distort the reality, before waiting for a review by the Left Front. He has said the results un derscores the need for a national alliance against the BJP, which should in clude the Congress,” Ms. Karat said. Drawing such a conclusion was awed. “Since it is Tripura he has cited, it is needed to re call that the Congress has been the main Opposition party in the State for the past four decades. It has headed the antiLeft and anticommunist forces,” she said.
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12 WORLD
https://t.me/TheHindu_Zone THE HINDU NOIDA/DELHI
TUESDAY, MARCH 6, 2018
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China hikes military budget by 8.1% Prime Minister Li says Beijing will target a GDP growth of 6.5% this year, and lift 10 million from poverty
Antiestablishment wave sweeps Italy Far-right party emerges as major player
Atul Aneja
S. Korean ocials meet Kim Jongun Reuters
Beijing
Reuters
Seoul
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said on Monday that Beijing will raise its defence budget this year by a hefty 8.1% over 2017, signalling the country’s intent to build worldclass armed forces. He also said the country will target a growth rate of around 6.5% in 2018 that would lift 10 mil lion people out of poverty. Presenting his work re port — a stocktaking of achievements of the past ve years as well as the unveiling of a development road map for another year — Mr. Li told lawmakers assembled at an annual session of the Nation al People’s Congress (NPC) that China intended to raise its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by around 6.5%. Un employment rate would be cut to below 5.5%. The total amount allocat ed to the military this year is $174.6 billion, Xinhua report ed, citing a report available to the media ahead of Mon day’s NPC opening. China has been steadily in creasing its military spend ing, dovetailed to its eco nomic rise.
Rome
A South Korean delegation met North Korean leader Kim Jongun on Monday, a South Korean ocial said, after arriving in the North on a visit aimed at encou raging North Korea and the United States to talk. The 10member South Korean delegation, led by National Security Oce head Chung Euiyong, was greeted by North Korean ocials after landing in Pyongyang, said Kim Eui kyeom, a spokesman for South Korea’s presidential oce. The North Koreans at the airport included Ri Songwon, chairman of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunication, and Kim Yongchol, who heads the North Korean oce res ponsible for handling inter Korean aairs. The delega tion was later invited to join Kim Jongun for din ner. The ocials are the most senior personnel from the South to meet Kim Jongun since he took power in late 2011.
Use of technology Mr. Li stressed that China would now focus on building strong naval and air defenc es, bolstered by the infusion of high technology, derived though greater collaboration between domestic military and civilian industry. China has already induct ed the fth generation J20 stealth ghters into its arse nal. There have been media reports that China could be building a third aircraft car rier, using a nuclearpo wered engine. Amid concerns about a spiralling trade war with the United States, Mr. Li said Chi na’s national security envi
Two antiestablishment leaders made early plays to govern Italy on Monday, sending ripples across the eurozone after voters rele gated mainstream parties to the sidelines in delivering a hung Parliament. With the bloc’s thirdlar gest economy seemingly facing prolonged political instability, the antiimmi grant League claimed the right to rule after its centre right alliance won the lar gest bloc of votes. “We have the right and duty to gov ern,” its leader Matteo Salvi ni told a news conference.
Chinese President Xi Jinping with Zhang Dejiang, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress.
ronment was undergoing fundamental changes. He added that China’s as piration to build worldclass armed forces would cover “all aspects of military train ing and war preparedness”, so that “national sovereign ty, security and develop ment interests” could be rmly safeguarded. Cutting troop numbers Mr. Li underscored that Chi na had fullled its earlier goal of cutting troop num bers by 3,00,000, as part of a road map to build a modern, technologydriven military force. He stressed that major advances had been recorded in developing military equip
ment with the help of greater civilianmilitary industrial integration. Mr. Li also underscored that during the phase of mo dernisation, the military must fully observe the lea dership of President Xi Jinp ing and the Party. Under Mr. Xi, who is also the general secretary of the CPC and head of the apex Central Military Commission (CMC), the People’s Libera tion Army (PLA) has already transformed itself into a strong, worldclass military force that has proven its met tle in safeguarding China’s maritime rights, combating terrorism and ensuring so cial stability.
Extension for President Xi applauded
But Mr. Li did not refer to the CPC’s recommendation made more than a week ago that the Chinese presidency should not be limited to two consecutive terms, allowing Mr. Xi to remain President indenitely. Mr. Li said that China aims to lift 10 million people out of poverty, as part of eradicat ing it by 2020. He also said that China plans to shift 2.8 million people living in rural areas to urban settlements.
Agence France-Presse Beijing
Chinese legislators erupted into applause on Monday over plans to give President Xi Jinping a lifetime mandate. As Mr. Xi looked on, a constitutional amendment to scrap the twoterm limit for the presidency was read out to the chamber, prompting applause. The text said that the change “will be conducive to safeguarding the authority and the unied leadership of the CCP Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core and to strengthening and perfecting the national leadership system”. The amendment was presented after Premier Li Keqiang delivered his report on Monday.
‘Made in China 2025’ He pointed out that the bud getary allocations were in tune with China’s transition to a innovationbased econo my that would leverage Artif icial Intelligence, Big Data and Internet of Things to produce worldclass pro ducts under the ‘Made in China 2025’ plan. On the international plane, Mr. Li said that China stood for sustainable globali sation and opposed protec tionism. He said China should step up the building of a Free Trade Area Asia Pacic trade bloc. #4 4 6 6 0 1
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Curfew in Kandy after anti-Muslim attacks Meera Srinivasan Colombo
French Minister arms support for Iran deal TEHRAN
France’s Foreign Minister JeanYves Le Drian visited Iran on Monday on a delicate mission to arm Europe’s support for a nuclear deal. France says Iran must address concerns over its ballistic missile programme or risk new sanctions. Reuters
Indianorigin U.K. ocer is new antiterror chief LONDON
Neil Basu, a senior Indian origin Scotland Yard ocer, was appointed as the counterterrorism chief. He will take charge as the force’s National Lead for Counter Terrorism and the Head of the Met Police’s Specialist Operations after the resignation of Mark Rowley on March 21. PTI
Toll from Papua New Guinea quake rises to 55 SYDNEY
Strong aftershocks rocked Papua New Guinea’s remote and rugged highlands on Monday, as the death toll climbed to 55 from a 7.5 magnitude earthquake a week ago. Three aftershocks of magnitude greater than 5 shook the mountainous Southern Highlands, about 600 km northwest of the capital Port Moresby early on Monday, the U.S. Geological Survey said. Reuters
WTO sets up panel for IndiaU.S. dispute GENEVA
The World Trade Organization agreed to set up a panel to determine whether India has complied with its ruling in a case about domestic content requirements for solar modules. In 2016, India lost a case after the WTO stated that power purchase agreements signed with solar rms for its National Solar Mission did not meet international norms. PTI
Sri Lankan authorities on Monday imposed a curfew in the town of Kandy, following a series of antiMuslim at tacks targeting mosques, shops and homes. At least two mosques and four shops were attacked and set on re, according to police sources. The curfew, imposed until Tuesday morning, came in the wake of violent incidents that followed the death of a 41yearold man, who suc
cumbed to injuries sustained during a clash some days ago. “We have so far arrested 24 suspects. Additional se curity has been deployed in the area, the situation is un der control,” police spokes man Ruwan Gunasekera told The Hindu, even as images of violence, which users claimed were from Kandy, ooded social media. In a stronglyworded tweet on Monday evening, Finance and Media Minister Mangala Samaraweera said: “Enough is enough. Inciting
racial violence must be made a nonbailable oence & pol iticians who give leadership should have their civic rights revoked. #lka”. Last week, the Muslim majority town of Ampara in the east witnessed a series of antiMuslim attacks. A mos que and several shops run by Muslims were targeted. Five persons were arrest ed and police said investiga tions are on. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who re cently assumed additional
U.S. trying to interfere in our presidential election: Russia Putin says Moscow thwarted more than 400 spies last year Reuters Moscow
Russian President Vladimir Putin boasted that Moscow had thwarted more than 400 foreign spies last year and on Monday called on the FSB, the domestic intelli gence agency, to act to block further foreign attempts to obtain political, economic and military information. Mr. Putin, who polls show should be comfortably re elected on March 18, made the comments in a speech to FSB employees in Moscow where he also spoke of the need to step up Russia’s cy berdefences and strengthen the security of condential communications systems used by Russian ocials. ‘Foreign activity’ Mr. Putin once ran the FSB himself and his comments played into one of his core narratives which depicts Russia as a fortress besieged by hostile foreign powers. “In recent years, as you know very well, there has been an increase in foreign intelligence agency activity,” he said. “They are working diligently on Russia, using the most modern methods, spy craft and technical es pionage means. During the course of last year alone, the
Easy favourite: A woman in Nizhny Tagil walks past a billboard with picture of President Vladimir Putin. AP *
activities of 72 career intelli gence ocers and 397 agents of foreign spy servic es was thwarted,” he said. Earlier on Monday, Depu ty Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Moscow had evidence that the U.S. was trying to interfere in Russia’s presidential election, but did not say what that evi dence was. U.S. intelligence agencies have accused Rus sia of hacking and meddling in the 2016 presidential elec tion, while European politi cians have accused it of try ing to interfere in several elections. Russia denies those allegations. Mr. Putin last week an nounced an array of new nu clear weapons, in one of his
most bellicose speeches in years, saying they could hit almost any point in the world and evade a U.S.built missile shield. On Monday, he thanked the FSB for what he said was its successful counterintelli gence work in keeping the arms projects secret. He said Russia had pre vented 25 acts of terrorism last year and 68 terrorist crimes, and told the FSB he wanted it to protect young people from extremism. “Radicalism, whatever polit ical or ideological nature it has, is in essence destruc tive, and we’re obliged to protect the country and peo ple’s future from this threat,” said Mr. Putin.
charge as Law and Order Mi nister, visited Ampara and ordered a probe. On Monday, President Maithripala Sirisena called for an impartial investigation into the violence in Kandy. The developments have sparked concern among ma ny Sri Lankans over the growing religious intole rance that earlier came to the fore in 2013, when hard line SinhalaBuddhist groups openly engaged in hate speech, sparking violent clashes.
Coalition talks Minutes later, the head of the biggest single party, the antiestablishment FiveStar Movement that won 32.3% of votes, said it was ready to take on a responsible lea dership role. “We’re open to talk to all the political forces,” Luigi Di Maio, 31, said in a statement. With the vote count well advanced and full results
Luigi Di Maio, whose 5Star Movement was the single largest party. REUTERS *
due later on Monday, it looked almost certain that none of the three main fac tions would be able to gov ern alone, and President Sergio Mattarella is not ex pected to open formal coali tion talks until early April. The rightist alliance that also includes former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia (Go Italy!) was on course for around 37% of the vote — but for the rst time the League emerged as the senior partner. Despite overseeing a modest recovery, the Demo cratic Party's centreleft coa lition trailed on 22%.
U.S. aircraft carrier makes a historic visit to Vietnam Reuters Danang
A U.S. aircraft carrier arrived in Vietnam on Monday for the rst time since the end of the Vietnam War, dramati cally underscoring the grow ing strategic ties between the former foes at a time when China’s regional in uence is rising. The imposing grey sil houette of the USS Carl Vin son could be seen from the cli tops just outside the central Vietnamese city of Danang, where the 1,03,000tonne carrier and two other U.S. ships begin a veday visit. “The visit marks an enor mously signicant milestone in our bilateral relations and demonstrates U.S. support for a strong, prosperous and independent Vietnam,” said Daniel Kritenbrink, the U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam. Deepening military ties The arrival of the vessel marks the biggest U.S. mili tary presence in Vietnam since 1975 — but it also illus trates Hanoi’s complex and evolving relationship with Beijing. Vietnamese envoys
Foesturnedfriends: The arrival of the USS Carl Vinson marks the U.S.’ biggest military presence in Vietnam since 1975. AFP *
had been working for months to ease the concerns of China over the visit and the prospect of broader se curity cooperation between Hanoi and Washington. U.S. carriers frequently cross the South China Sea in a rising pattern of naval de ployments, and are now rou tinely shadowed by Chinese naval vessels, naval ocers in the region say. “We’ve met with numer ous international entities. We’ve seen several, so yes, we’ve seen Chinese ships,” Rear Admiral John Fuller,
Commander, Carrier Strike Group 1, told reporters in Danang. “We’ve seen other ships out there, so nothing extraordinary. It’s been a routine deployment and everything we’ve seen has been exceptionally professional.” While some Chinese com mentators have used the Vinson's presence to de mand an even greater Chi nese military buildup in the South China Sea, ocial reaction from Beijing has been muted since the stop was announced in January.
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BUSINESS 13
TUESDAY, MARCH 6, 2018
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market watch 05-03-2018
% CHANGE
Sensex dddddddddddddddddddddd 33,747 ddddddddddddd -0.88 US Dollar dddddddddddddddddddd 65.12 ddddddddddddddd0.08 Gold ddddddddddddddddddddddddddd 31,450 ddddddddddddd -0.16 Brent oil ddddddddddddddddddddd 64.60 ddddddddddddddd0.99
‘Services PMI contracts to 47.8’ 6,000 sta unpaid: Aircel Activity in Feb. lowest since August due to decline in new orders : Nikkei report output,” the report said. “Business condence was underpinned by expected improvements in demand, according to anecdotal evi dence. Nonetheless, the le vel of positive sentiment fell slightly in February and was below the series average.”
Special Correspondent NEW DELHI
NIFTY 50 PRICE CHANGE
Adani Ports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403.95. . . . . . . . -2.15 Ambuja Cements. . . .. . . . . . 246.10. . . . . . . . -7.05 Asian Paints. . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . 1105.95. . . . . . -12.95 Aurobindo Pharma . . . . . . 600.75. . . . . . -23.35 Axis Bank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 524.55. . . . . . . . -1.20 Bajaj Auto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2943.55. . . . . . -77.35 Bajaj Finance . . . . . . . . . .. . . . 1636.95. . . . . . -22.40 Bharti Airtel . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 421.45. . . . . . . . -6.30 Bosch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18348.00. . . -359.50 BPCL. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 434.30. . . . . . . . -7.60 Cipla . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 579.25. . . . . . . . -2.45 Coal India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305.80. . . . . . . . -7.10 Dr Reddys Lab . . . . . . . .. . . . 2180.80. . . . . . -50.70 Eicher Motors. . . . . . . . .. 27548.35. . . -194.00 GAIL (India). . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 443.60. . . . . . -10.65 HCL Tech. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 932.10. . . . . . -10.70 HDFC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1789.60. . . . . . -24.55 HDFC Bank. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1869.95. . . . . . . . -4.40 Hero MotoCorp . . . . . .. . . . 3556.45. . . . . . -20.45 Hindalco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229.60. . . . . . -11.20 HPCL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366.75. . . . . . -10.00 Hind Unilever . . . . . . . . .. . . . 1299.75. . . . . . -24.50 Indiabulls HFL . . . . . . . .. . . . 1238.25. . . . . . -18.05 ICICI Bank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303.35. . . . . . . . -1.60 IndusInd Bank . . . . . . . .. . . . 1689.20. . . . . . -11.15 Bharti Infratel . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 339.15. . . . . . . . -6.05 Infosys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1155.90. . . . . . . . -4.85 Indian OilCorp . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 379.25. . . . . . . . -2.25 ITC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260.25. . . . . . . . -3.75 Kotak Bank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1100.00. . . . . . . . . 4.30 L&T . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1300.70. . . . . . -14.50 Lupin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 790.15. . . . . . -13.75 M&M . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 739.60. . . . . . . . . 7.05 Maurti Suzuki . . . . . . . . .. . . . 8795.10. . . . . . -78.35 NTPC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163.30. . . . . . . . . 0.30 ONGC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185.55. . . . . . . . -4.15 PowerGrid Corp . . . . .. . . . . . 196.95. . . . . . . . -0.45 Reliance Ind . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 924.10. . . . . . -24.30 State Bank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263.50. . . . . . . . . 1.35 Sun Pharma . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 548.55. . . . . . . 13.15 Tata Motors . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 352.05. . . . . . -18.70 Tata Steel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 655.90. . . . . . -19.15 TCS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3105.85. . . . . . . 68.15 Tech Mahindra . . . . . . .. . . . . . 630.85. . . . . . . 18.95 UltraTech Cement . .. . . . 4095.40. . . . . . -57.90 UPL. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 720.90. . . . . . . . . 6.65 Vedanta . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315.90. . . . . . . . -7.35 Wipro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290.95. . . . . . . . -1.55 YES Bank. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312.95. . . . . . . . -8.10 Zee Entertainment . . . . . . 551.85. . . . . . . . -3.55
EXCHANGE RATES Indicative direct rates in rupees a unit except yen at 4 p.m. on March 05 CURRENCY
TT BUY
TT SELL
US Dollar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 64.91. . . . . . . 65.23 Euro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 79.79. . . . . . . 80.20 British Pound . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 89.65. . . . . . . 90.10 Japanese Yen (100) . .. . 61.42. . . . . . . 61.73 Chinese Yuan . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 10.24. . . . . . . 10.29 Swiss Franc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 69.14. . . . . . . 69.50 Singapore Dollar . . . . . . .. . 49.18. . . . . . . 49.43 Canadian Dollar . . . . . . . . .. . 50.19. . . . . . . 50.46 Malaysian Ringitt . . . . . .. . 16.61. . . . . . . 16.70 Source:Indian Bank
BULLION RATES
CHENNAI
March 05 rates in rupees with previous rates in parentheses Retail Silver (1g) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41.7. . . . . . . (41.6) 22 ct gold (1 g) . .. . . . . . . . . . . . 2918. . . . . . (2922)
Business activity in the ser vices sector contracted in February due primarily to a decline in new orders, ac cording to a survey. The Nikkei India Services Business Activity Index came in at 47.8 in February compared with 51.7 in Janu ary. A reading above 50 im plies an expansion while one below 50 denotes a contraction. “Business conditions in India’s service sector dete riorated modestly in Febru ary,” the report said. “Activi ty and new work declined for the rst time since No vember, with rates of con traction the fastest since August. “The seasonallyadjusted Nikkei India Services Busi ness Activity Index fell from
Steep decline: The fall in the services index outweighed the upturn seen in manufacturing, says the report. REUTERS *
51.7 in January to 47.8 in Fe bruary, its lowest level since August,” the report added. “The headline gure sig nalled the rst fall in output for three months, but one that was modest. Panellists commented that poor un derlying demand conditions had weighed on activity.” The fall in the services in
Committee to regulate ntech sector set up Aim is to ‘enhance entrepreneurship’ Special Correspondent NEW DELHI
The Centre has set up a steering committee under the chairmanship of the Economic Aairs Secretary to look into the develop ment and regulation of the ntech sector in India, it said on Monday. The move follows an an nouncement by Finance Mi nister Arun Jaitley in the Budget. The objective of the panel is “to consider various is sues relating to develop ment of ntech space in In dia with a view to make ntechrelated regulations more exible and generate enhanced entrepreneurship in an area where India has distinctive comparative
strengths visàvis other emerging economies”.
dex outweighed the upturn seen in the manufacturing index, according to the re port, which meant that the seasonally adjusted Nikkei India Composite PMI Output Index fell from 52.5 in Janu ary to 49.7 in February. “Service providers re mained optimistic towards the 12month outlook for
Reliance Infrastructure has served an arbitration notice on founderpromoters of Pi pavav Defence and Engi neering Limited (PDEL), seeking indemnity of 5,440 crore for breach of warran ties under a purchase agreement. “Notice is issued for breach of warranties under purchase agreement by founderpromoters for ac quisition of Pipavav Defence shares,” said a Reliance In frastructure statement. To claim loss “The company has disco vered that there have been serious breaches of warran
Metal scrips drop after U.S. tari threat
Repo rate operation to damp volatility
The benchmark equity in dices lost ground for the fourth consecutive session on Monday amidst a weak global trend following con cerns around trade barriers as the U.S. mulls import ta ris on steel and aluminium to protect its local industry. The 30share Sensex de clined 300.16 points or 0.88% to 33,746.78. In the last four sessions, the benchmark has lost almost 700 points. The broader Nif ty of the National Stock Ex change (NSE) fell 99.5 points or 0.95% to 10,358.85. The market breadth was negative as more than 2,000 stocks on BSE ended in the red as against only 701 gain ers. Most sectoral indices lost ground with the BSE Metal index ending the day
as the worst performer shedding 3.3% or 496 points. Trade war “It was the fear of possible trade war, as the U.S. Presi dent plans to impose new taris on steel and alumini um imports, [which] rattled global markets including ours,” said Jayant Manglik, president, Religare Broking. Though Indian metal ma jors do not have a signicant exposure to the U.S. , overall bearish sentiment saw stocks such as National Alu minium Company, Hindal co, Jindal Steel and JSW Steel all losing more than 4%. Among Sensex stocks, Tata Motors, Tata Steel, Ba jaj Auto, Reliance Indus tries, Coal India, Yes Bank and ONGC all lost more than 2% each.
Press Trust of India Mumbai
The Reserve Bank on Mon day said it would inject addi tional liquidity of 1 lakh crore in banks through lon ger tenor instruments to en able exibility towards meeting their fund needs. The RBI said in order to address additional demand for liquidity and with a view to providing exibility to the banking system in its liquid ity management towards Marchend, it was “pre pared to inject adequate ad ditional liquidity using a combination of appropriate instruments.” This will be in addition to normal Liquidity Adjust ment Facility (LAF) opera tions. “After reviewing the current and evolving liquidi ty conditions in the banking system, it has been decided
to conduct additional varia ble rate repo operations for longer tenors to provide ad ditional liquidity support to banks in March 2018,” it said. The RBI will conduct four variable rate term repo auctions of 25,000 crore each in March 2018. Karthik Srinivasan, ICRA, said the proposed injection of additional liquidity “should help cap the short term rates and also aid in lo wering the rate volatilities” for the rest of the month.
Go digital ‘hype’ pushing rms to become ecient, responsive
Infosys CEO, top team get stock units
Technology dislodging traditional players: Infosys report
Special Correspondent Chennai
ogy research, to conduct re search for the report. In Oc tober and November 2017, the study was carried out, interviewing 1,000 senior IT and business decisionmak ers in organisations that use digital technologies. Res pondents from Australia, China, France, Germany, In dia, UK and the U.S. were in terviewed.
Special Correspondent Bengaluru
Companies are facing an “everincreasing” pressure to be more open, responsive and ecient with more ‘hype’ and emphasis being placed on becoming digital, according to a report on dig italisation by India ’s second largest software exporter, Infosys. “The rules of the game are changing and traditional players are being dislodged from positions of comfort and familiarity,” the report, titled ‘How digital enterpris es are steering through digi tal disruption,’ stated. Industries are increasing ly being disrupted by new entrants with digital tech nology at the heart of their business. With digital tech
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nologies becoming more commonplace in organisa tions, and “more hype and emphasis being placed on ‘becoming digital,’ there is an everincreasing pressure on organisations to be more responsive, more open, and more ecient.” Infosys com missioned Vanson Bourne, a rm specialising in technol
Dicult for many “For many, the journey will prove dicult, but for those that can adapt, the benets will be signicant,” it stated. Rapid advancements in digital technologies are al lowing corporations to col lect and analyse data and new ways of improving exi bility and eciency are emerging within the rms.
Salaries for more than 6,000 employees of Aircel have re mained unpaid since the be ginning of February. The te lecom operator does not have funds to pay its em ployees, or water and elec tricity bills. The debtladen rm has approached the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), seeking to appoint an interim resolution profes sional (IRP) at the earliest to ‘ascertain economic safeguards’. ‘Serious urgency’ Janak Dwarkadas, senior counsel appearing for Aircel told The Hindu, “There is se rious urgency to hear the matter as the company wants to continue essential services. We need certain
economic safeguards as the company’s employees [have been] unpaid since Febru ary. One [also] needs to pay electricity and water bills to continue services.” Aircel Ltd., along with Air cel Cellular Ltd. and Dishnet Wireless Ltd. had led for bankruptcy at the NCLT on February 28, citing high un sustainable debt, price wars, and legal and regulatory challenges. Justice M.K. Sawant ad
Top managerial personnel of Infosys, including the CEO, have been granted stock incentives. In a ling with stock ex changes, the information technology major said the stocks had been given un der the 2015 stock incen tive compensation plan ap proved by the board and the nomination and re muneration committee of the company. Infosys chief executive ocer (CEO) Salil Parekh, who succeeded Vishal Sik ka, will get 1,13,024 restrict ed stock units. The personnel had been granted these stocks on Fe bruary 27, 2018. “The exercise price will be the par value of shares,’’ Infosys said.
Ties gone sour: Nikhil Gandhi, left, and Anil Ambani in happier times.
#4 4 6 6 0 1
ties and representations made by the founderpro moters. As per the share purchase agreement, we are entitled to claim the loss caused, in an arbitration,” a source in the legal fraternity told The
Hindu. On March 4, 2015, Reliance Infrastructure, its subsidiary Reliance Defence Systems (RDSPL) and the founder promoters of Pipa pav Defence and Engineer ing (Nikhil Gandhi and Bha vesh Gandhi) entered into an agreement for acquisition of shares of Pipapav Defence and Engineering, which was being named as Reliance Na val and Engineering Ltd (RNEL). Mr. Nikhil Gandhi, also a promoter of SKIL Infrastruc ture Limited, could not be reached for his comment. A spokesperson of Re liance Infrastructure, ho wever, declined to share more details about the arbi tration notice.
journed the matter to March 8, for further hearing. Loss of subscribers resulting in an operating loss for the com pany has come in the wake of Reliance Jio entering the market in 2016 with an ag gressive pricing strategy. Aircel has outstanding debt of 50,000 crore, of which 15,000 crore is due to nancial creditors, while 35,000 crore is to be paid to operational creditors in cluding tower companies, system integrators, IT rms and telecom equipment makers. The telco also owes dues to vendors such as the security agency, housekeep ing sta and distributors. Aircel, majority owned by Malaysia’s Maxis Communi cations, had earlier planned to merge with Reliance Com munications but the merger fell through.
COAI seeks apology from Reliance Jio Says telco making ‘false imputations’ Special Correspondent
Piyush Pandey
RBI to inject extra liquidity of 1 lakh cr.
MUMBAI
MUMBAI
Firm claims breach of warranties under purchase pact MUMBAI
MSME focus The panel will also focus on how ntech can be lever aged to enhance nancial inclusion of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises. The panel will also in clude among its members the Electronics and Infor mation Technology Secre tary, the Financial Services Secretary, the MSME Secre tary, the Chairperson of the Central Board of Excise and Customs, Chief Executive Ocer of the Unique Identi cation Authority of India, a Deputy Governor of the Re serve Bank of India, and a Joint Secretary Department of Economic Aairs.
Piyush Pandey
Reliance Infra slaps 5,440 cr. notice on Pipavav founders
Global concerns pull down Sensex, Nifty SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
‘Decline transitory’ “Both activity and new work declined for the rst time since November, with rates of contraction the strongest since August,” Aashna Dod hia, economist at IHS Markit, and author of the report, said. “However, rms seem to believe that the decline is transitory as they raised their stang levels at the jointfastest pace since June 2011, in line with positive projections of activity growth,” Ms Dodhia added.
‘No money for water, electricity either; IRP needed quickly’
NEW DELHI
The Cellular Operators’ As sociation of India (COAI) has hit back at the Mukesh Am baniled Reliance Jio, de manding an apology for “at tacking, belittling and making false imputations” against it, while also threa tening of “legal action.” This follows a similar warning issued by Reliance Jio, which demanded a pu blic apology and threatened to pursue defamation pro ceedings against the COAI, for “callous and defamatory statements.” Within rights As an industry body, the as sociation was “well within its rights” to voice its views
or ag concerns over regula tory decisions that were “detrimental to the growth and development of the te lecom sector,” said Rajan Mathews, director general, COAI, in a letter to Jio. COAI argued that mere voicing of its views “does not form and cannot form a case of defamation” as al leged by Reliance Jio in its recent defamation notice. “Merely because Reliance Jio (RJIL) happens to dis agree with the position that the COAI has taken in the press release, does not and cannot imply, as your cap tioned notice has sought to, that the COAI harbours any malicious intentions against RJIL,” COAI said in a letter dated February 28.
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14 BUSINESS
https://t.me/TheHindu_Zone THE HINDU NOIDA/DELHI
TUESDAY, MARCH 6, 2018
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IN BRIEF
Essar arm to double gas production
Data leak issues push rms to WorkApps
Essar Oil and Gas to invest 900 cr. in West Bengal coal bed methane block Despite being the rst CBM block to cross the 1 mil lion scm of production per day, about 400 crore worth of gas had to be ared over the last few years for want of buyers.
Special Correspondent KOLKATA
Essar Oil and Gas Explora tion and Production Ltd. (EOGEPL) , the upstream ex ploration and production arm of Essar, would invest 900 crore to increase its CBM (coal bed methane) production at Ranigunj in West Bengal, according to a top ocial. “We will now focus on production, which we plan to double within the next three to four years, from one million standard cubic metre (scm) daily now. In addition to the 350 wells, 150 more would be sunk”, said Vilas S. Tawde , CEO, EOGEPL. Only 0.6 scm of the 1.5 million scm CBM gas pro duced has found buyers with most of the balance produc
‘Privacy is high priority; WhatsApp substitute ts the bill’ ASHISH RUKHAIYAR
Tata Motors unveils ZEST Premio car MUMBAI
Tata Motors has introduced ZEST Premio, a special edition car, after selling 85,000 units of the compact sedan. The car comes with 13 new features and is on sale at a starting price of 7.53 lakh for the diesel version (ex showroom Delhi) across Tata Motors’ sales outlets. “With this special edition, we expect to strike a new chord with young customers,” said Mayank Pareek, president of the Passenger Vehicle Business Unit.
Nicca Chemical, Resil ink marketing agreement MUMBAI
Nicca Chemical Co. Ltd. of Japan has signed a longterm business alliance agreement with India’s Resil Chemicals for joint development and marketing of products. As per the pact, Resil would get exclusive distribution rights for Nicca products in India and Sri Lanka. Resil has granted Nicca exclusive distribution rights for its products in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, China, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia and U.S.
Aurobindo facility under USFDA scanner HYDERABAD
Aurobindo Pharma shares fell 3.73% on Monday, to close at 600.80 each, in the backdrop of the USFDA issuing a Form 483 with nine observations to the rm's formulation manufacturing facility in Pashamylaram, Hyderabad. The regulator had inspected the company’s Unit IV from February 1220. “This is a scheduled inspection and at the end... we were issued a Form 483 with 9 observations,” the rm informed the exchange.
MUMBAI
With messaging software WhatsApp becoming the quintessential mode of com munication for ocial chats in companies, concerns re lated to data leaks are mak ing organisations adopt new applications that have high er privacy standards and still oer the ease of instant messaging. Companies such as Hero Motors, Edelweiss, HDFC, Piramal Swasthya, Essel Fo rex and Vega Helmets have implemented an Indian ap plication called WorkApps Chat that is similar to the popular social messaging service but one which comes with restrictions in copying and forwarding the messages and even bars tak ing screenshots. Incidentally, recent or ders by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SE BI) against Axis Bank and HDFC Bank also highlighted the issue of unpublished price sensitive information being allegedly leaked to outsiders over WhatsApp. “WorkApps Chat allows the company to secure the whole fort in terms of data security and privacy,” said MVS Murthy, cofounder and COO, WorkApps Pro duct Solutions. Restricted features “Users on our app cannot forward any le or attach ment nor can copypaste any content to any external app,” he added. The company was started in August 2016 and went live with WorkApps Chat in No vember. The application al lows user companies to house the server in their pre mises and have complete
No free ow: Information conveyed through publicly available tools can compromise client data, says a CIO.
control on the data and the group. Other than the ease of use, WorkApps Chat has many security features such asadmin approved access, disabling le download, de leting data when a particular employee exits. Salil Datar, CEO, Essel Fo rex switched to WorkApps Chat about six months ago when he was looking for a secure mode of communica tion with his sales team while dealing with sensitive data on money exchange rates and foreign currency. ‘No access to exsta ’ “Chat groups are the most common mode of communi cating nowadays but when a person leaves, he still has ac cess to all the information that has been shared in the group before he left,” said Mr. Datar adding he needed a secure communication ap plication that oered com plete control of the data and also ownership of the trail. While six companies cur rently use WorkApps Chat, another ve are in talks to implement the tool. One of the largest private sector banks, along with a ‘Big Four’ consultancy rm, is al so in discussions. “Given
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AFP
that we deal with sensitive information related to our clients, nances, etc., a se cured communication chan nel/application is the need of the hour,” said the chief information ocer of one of the large consultancy rms that is using WorkApps Chat on a pilot basis. “If such information is in tentionally or unintentional ly passed on publicly availa ble chat messengers, it can compromise the company or client’s data. Hence, we are evaluating a solution that is relatively safe and secure from a data perspective. The server will be on our premis es so we have better control on the data,” he added. The application also al lows companies to know the location of their employees, which helps in mobile work force management. Rajiv Rai, chief digital of cer, Edelweiss Group, which started using Wor kApps about a year ago, said while currently niche teams within the organisation are using the app, they plan to extend the use to not only all the employees but also the distributors who deal with customer KYC (Know Your Customer) documents.
Nomura sells BSE shares worth 111 cr. PRESS TRUST OF INDIA NEW DELHI
Nomura Asset Manage ment on Monday offloaded almost 14 lakh shares of stock exchange BSE for a little more than 111 crore through an open market transaction. BSE, which got listed on the rival bourse NSE last year, provides a host of ser vices to capital market par ticipants, including risk management, clearing, set tlement, market data ser vices and education. Depository services It also provides depository services through its arm Central Depository Servic es Ltd (CDSL). According to bulk deal data available with the NSE, Nomura Asset Man agement Singapore Ltd. sold a total of 13,89,657 shares of BSE — formerly known as the Bombay Stock Exchange. The shares were dis posed of at an average price of 799.99, valuing the transaction at 111.17 crore, the data showed. Meanwhile, IDFC Impe rial Equity Fund picked up 6.54 lakh shares of BSE and IDFC Sterling Equity Fund purchased four lakh scrips of the bourse.
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tion being ared. However, for EOGEPL, at least this pro blem may not be a source of worry with GAIL recently winning a bid to buy the block’s entire production for the next 15 years. The Staterun gas rm had won the rights to buy up to 2.3 million metric scm per
day of CBM from Ranigunj. “We expect to sign this contract in midMarch,” Mr. Tawde told The Hindu, ad ding that GAIL would also get to use the existing facili ties like pipelines and meter ing. Essar had already invest ed 4,000 crore in this project.
Facility soon to check Aadhaarmobile ‘link’
RBI nes Axis Bank, Indian Overseas Bank
UIDAI sets Mar. 15 deadline for telcos
For violation of NPA and KYC norms
Special Correspondent
Special Correspondent
New Delhi
CHENNAI
The Unique Identication Authority of India (UIDAI) has asked all telecom opera tors to work on a system that allows subscribers to know the mobile numbers linked to their Aadhaar. The system, which can either be SMSbased or IVR based, needs to be put in place by March 15, UIDAI CEO Ajay Bhushan Pandey told The Hindu.
The Reserve Bank of India imposed a penalty of 3 crore on Axis Bank for non compliance of Income Re cognition and Asset Classi cation (IRAC) norms. Besides, the central bank also imposed a penalty of 2 crore on Indian Overseas Bank for noncompliance with Know Your Customer (KYC) norms. These penal ties were imposed on Febru ary 27.
‘Inspiring condence’ The move to “inspire con dence” among mobile phone users follows a series of reports about multiple mobile numbers linked to the same Aadhaar without the knowledge of the Aad haar numberholder. “We have requested the #4 4 6 6 0 1
Capping ares: With GAIL set to buy the entire gas output, aring excess gas may become a thing of the past. AFP
Gas grid However, Essar is also await ing the completion of the Ur ja –Ganga gas grid which would enable pipeline con nectivity from Phulpur in Ut tar Pradesh to Durgapur via Jamshedpur, Dhanbad, Kol kata and Haldia. Essar currently has explo ratory blocks in West Ben gal’s Rajmahal and Sohagpur and Ib and Talcher Valley in Odisha. It also has shale gas asset in Ranigunj where an exploratory and production programme is in place.
telecom operators to pro vide a service for users to check which all mobile numbers are linked to their Aadhaar. For this, the cus tomer will need to contact the service provider with their Aadhaarlinked num ber,” Mr. Pandey said. Almost 85.7 crore mobile phone subscribers have linked their numbers to Aadhaar, Mr. Pandey added.
Statutory inspection An RBI statement said a stat utory inspection of Axis Bank with reference to its nancial position as on March 31, 2016 revealed, violations of various regula tions issued by RBI in the as sessment of nonperforming
assets. Based on the inspec tion report and other rele vant documents, a notice dated November 16, 2017, was issued to the bank ad vising it to show cause as to why penalty should not be imposed. In the case of IOB, the central bank said a fraud was detected in one of IOB’s branches. The examination of documents, including the bank’s internal inspection report, revealed noncom pliance with KYC norms. After considering the bank’s reply and oral sub missions made in the perso nal hearing, RBI came to the conclusion that the charges of noncompliance with RBI directions and guidelines were substantiated and war ranted imposition of mone tary penalty.
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IN BRIEF
Chance for India’s GenNext to grab the spotlight A young side led by Rohit meets host Sri Lanka in the T20 triseries opener NIDAHAS TROPHY
..and the Oscar goes to Kobe Bryant! LOS ANGELES
Five-time NBA champion Kobe Bryant is a winner in retirement, too. The former Lakers star won an Oscar on Sunday in the animated short category for Dear Basketball, a poem he wrote after ending his 20-year career on the court in 2016. As executive producer, Bryant, who shared the award with Disney animator Glen Keane, accepted the statuette from Star Wars star Mark Hamill. AP
Leander Paes back in top50 in doubles NEW DELHI
Leander Paes returned to top-50 with a six-place jump following his runner-up show at the ATP Dubai event while India’s top singles players slid in the latest rankings, issued on Monday. Paes jumped to 46, two places behind Divij Sharan (44). Rohan Bopanna was unchanged at 20. PTI
Sony acquires ECB media rights for five years MUMBAI
Sony Pictures Networks (SPN) India has acquired exclusive media rights from the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) for the Indian subcontinent for a period of five years from 2018 to 2022. A press release said that SPN will telecast 80 men and women’s international matches during these five years.
Press Trust of India Colombo
The aim would be to stay on the selectors’ radar for next year’s World Cup when In dia’s secondstring team, led by Rohit Sharma, begins yet another Sri Lankan sojourn by taking on the islanders in the opening match of the Tri Nation Nidahas Trophy, here on Tuesday. Bangladesh is the third team in this series. A bunch of youngsters, who will get to wear the India blues with as many as six top players being rested, would consider this a godsent opportunity. Enter the Rishabh Pants, Deepak Hoodas and the Mo hammed Sirajs, who other wise would have been cool ing their heels back home and waiting for their respec tive IPL camps to start. For all those who are likely to get a game, there will be just one target — to make the most of their chances as some of them might not get too many with just about 16 months left for the ICC World Cup. Upbeat skipper Indian has mauled Sri Lanka on many recent occasions and standin captain Rohit Sharma will have plenty of reasons to remain upbeat about taking the trophy back home.
On a personal front, Rohit will be itching to get back to form after a poor South Afri ca tour where he managed only a single hundred in the onedayers. In the familiar territory of Premadasa Stadium, Rohit will love to come out all guns blazing in the company of Shikhar Dhawan. Suresh Raina is slowly get ting back into the groove at No. 3. K.L. Rahul may have to miss out if he is not allowed to open. With Raina back in the team, Rahul can only bat at No. 4, where Manish Pandey has been staking claim for quite some time now. Dinesh Karthik is expect ed to bat at No. 5 and don the big gloves which would leave
as the night progresses. Shar dul Thakur is expected to share the new ball with Jay dev Unadkat. It will be interesting to see if India opt for an extra pacer or an allrounder. In case the team wants an extra pacer, then Mo hammed Siraj will come in or else it could be Tamil Nadu allrounder Vijay Shankar. If the need is an extra spinner, then Axar Patel is the option at hand. Last time when India played in the island nation, it pulled o a complete white wash — 90 across formats — but this time, it may not be that easy. Sri Lanka has recently won a trination ODI tourna ment in Bangladesh and it will take a lot of condence from the fact.
Deepak Hooda and Rishabh Pant ghting out for special ist batsman’s place at No. 6. Washington Sundar and Yuzvendra Chahal are the two spin bowling options at the oodlit Premadasa, where the wicket gets slower
‘T20 is like the Premier League’ PRESS TRUST OF INDIA COLOMBO
Rohit Sharma played down the perception that India is the overwhelming favourite, saying anything can happen in the ckle T20 format. “T20 is such a format where any team can win on that particular day. The game can change in a span of one over. It’s like the English Premier
The teams (from): India: Rohit Sharma (Capt.), Shikhar Dhawan (vc), K.L. Rahul, Suresh Raina, Manish Pandey, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Deepak Hooda, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Vijay Shankar, Shardul Thakur, Jaydev Unadkat, Mohammad Siraj, and Rishabh Pant (wk).
League. Some teams may be stronger, but anyone can win on a given day.” However, Sri Lanka coach Chandika Hathu rusingha called India the “favourite” despite enter ing a secondstring side. “If you go by rankings, India is the top team in the tournament, so they start ahead of the others,” said Hathurusingha.
Sri Lanka: Dinesh Chandimal (Capt.), Suranga Lakmal (vc), Upul Tharanga, Danushka Gunathilaka, Kusal Mendis, Dasun Shanaka, Kusal Janith Perera, Thisara Perera, Jeevan Mendis, Isuru Udana, Akila Dananjaya, Amila Aponso, Nuwan Pradeep, Dushmantha Chameera, and Dhananjaya de Silva.
Joined at the hip: Manish Pandey and Yuzvendra Chahal train furiously with a game of football on the eve of the opening match against host Sri Lanka in the Nidahas Trophy. AP *
‘India denitely has a chance against England’
Karnataka squeezes out a narrow win
But it depends on how well the players adapt to the conditions, McGrath says
Tiwary and Lad put up a gutsy ght for IndiaB; Samarth showcases his class
S. Dinakar Chennai
Glenn McGrath, back here for another stint at the MRF Pace Foundation, was pleased with the progress made by the young seamers. The Aussie legend said here on Monday, “The boys from MRF have been doing well. This year we have had Basil Thampi, Kamlesh Na garkoti, K.M. Asif, Khaleel Ahmed, Ankit Rajpoot, Ani ket Chowdhary and Avesh Khan picked up by the IPL franchises.” McGrath added, “And dur ing the season, Basil Thampi was selected in the Indian team and Rajpoot and Chowdhary played for India A. The hard work put in by
Meeting a legend: CSK recruit K.M. Asif, right, is greeted by McGrath as Senthilnathan looks on. R. RAGU *
head coach M. Senthilnath an and the boys has paid o.” Talking about the perfor mances of the Indian pace men in South Africa,
McGrath said, “If you are able to get 20 wickets in a Test, you give your team a good chance of winning. “India has a good attack in Mohammed Shami, Bhuv
‘Kohli could pass Sachin’s records’ McGrath, however, says it isn’t fair to compare the two S. Dinakar Chennai
Glenn McGrath has witnessed Virat Kohli destroying attacks and duelled it out with another great marauder from the past — Sachin Tendulkar. How does the Aussie pace ace compare Kohli with Tendulkar? McGrath replied to The Hindu, “I don’t like to compare eras. Every era makes it own demands and the pitches, generally, are better for batting these days. Sachin, on his day, could decimate
attacks. Kohli is a very attacking batsman too.” On what would be his methods against Kohli, McGrath said, “Kohli is a quality batsman, a condence player, and as a bowler, I will cut o his scoring areas and build pressure. He is good through the oside, I would block him there. He is good o his legs too and again I would deny him runs in that area.” McGrath added, “Kohli is solid technically, has an aggressive attitude, goes
about his cricket with passion and I would like to play on his mind, prevent him from scoring freely.” The great Australian elaborated. “And I would bowl an inbetween length at Kohli, neither too full nor too short and cramp him for room.” On how far Kohli could travel in his extraordinary journey, McGrath answered, “If he continues to bat the way he is doing now, he could well go past Sachin’s records.”
neshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya.” About Bumrah’s selection for Tests, McGrath opined, “He bowls with a lot of con trol in the onedayers and the Twenty20 games. If you have that quality, you will do well in Tests too.” On the smallmade un der19 lad, Nagarkoti, being able to generate so much pace, McGrath said, “Bow ling with speed is a lot about good rhythm, powering through to the crease, good wrists, good action. You don’t have to be a body buil der to bowl fast.” McGrath felt India had a reasonable chance to win the Test series in England the coming summer. “India denitely has a chance, but it depends on how well the players adapt to the English conditions.” On some players picking oneday and Twenty20 cricket over Tests, McGrath said, “It is an individual deci sion. Not all cricketers are suited for the longer for mats. And not all countries pay their cricketers as well as Australia, India and England does for playing for the country.” Good avenue He said Test cricket, still pro ducing quality fare, would survive, and added day/night games was a good avenue to bring in the crowds. “In Australia, day/night Tests are popular. We have had the pitch and the ball worked out.”
DHARAMSHALA
the most gifted youngsters in Karnataka, gave a glimpse of his batsmanship with an aes thetic performance.
Karnataka survived a Manoj Tiwary and Siddhesh Lad scare before scampering home by six runs in its open ing Deodhar Trophy match here on Monday. Confronted with a target of 297, IndiaB, cruising at 241 for four, ran out of breath when the seasoned Tiwary, after a brilliant 120 (110b, 10x4, 4x6), was stumped. It allowed the opposition to come back into the game even as Lad (70 o 78 balls, 6x4) made a desperate eort towards the end. Karnataka, which opted to bat, owed it to R. Sa marth’s 117 and legspinner Shreyas Gopal’s crucial wick et of Tiwary. Samarth, one of
Innovative batting The IndiaB bowlers had to toil to make an impact and had no answer to the innova tive approach by Samarth and Mayank Agarwal. The onus was on the bowlers to induce errors from the bat smen, who were unwilling to concede an inch. Excellent footwork ena bled Mayank and Samarth to tackle all the good deliveries that Umesh Yadav and Sidd harth Kaul attempted. Kaul was especially impressive even though Umesh erred in length. Leftarm spinner Dhar mendrasinh Jadeja, who loves to tease the batsmen with his ight, struggled to
DEODHAR TROPHY Vijay Lokapally
#4 4 6 6 0 1
In ne nick: R. Samarth was at his brilliant best while making 117.
command respect and was handled with ease. It was to the credit of Samarth and Mayank that they did not re lent and maintained their positive approach until the latter got out playing a cut o an innocuous ball. Responsible innings Samarth, 25, shouldered Karnataka with the touch of a professional. His wide range of shots allowed him the freedom to guide the in nings and give his partners space to take measure of the situation. He took charge with some excellent drives in front and then opened up to explore the eld as the IndiaB bow lers found it hard to contain his aggression. Timing was the essence of his 115ball as sault that contained 13 fours and one six.
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R.V. MOORTHY
Seema hurls it long, books Commonwealth Games berth Lakshmanan betters 5000m mark; Siva Subramani sets new National record in pole vault
His thirdwicket partner ship of 86 with Pavan Desh pande put the Karnataka in nings on the right course and eventually set up the sti target for IndiaB. The scores: Karnataka: Mayank Agarwal c Bharat b Harshal 44, Karun Nair c Bharat b Kaul 10, R. Samarth b Harshal 117, Pavan Deshpande c Vihari b Jayant 46, Stuart Binny c Bharat b Jayant 2, C.M. Gautam c Bharat b Kaul 28, Sreyas Gopal b Umesh 1, K. Gowtham b Kaul 20, A. Mithun (not out) 9, T. Pradeep (not out) 6; Extras (b-5, lb-1, nb-1, w-6) 13; Total (for eight wkts. in 50 overs): 296. Fall of wickets: 1-33, 2-82, 3-3168, 4-179, 5-233, 6-236, 7279, 8-281. IndiaB bowling: Umesh Yadav 9-0-58-1, Siddharth Kaul 9-049-3, Dharmendrasinh Jadeja 10-0-61-0, Harshal Patel 10-059-2, Jayant Yadav 10-0-48-2, Manoj Tiwary 2-0-15-0. IndiaB: Abhimanyu Easwaran c Pradeep b Prasidh 5, K.S. Bharat c Gautam b Prasidh 13, Hanuma Vihari b Pradeep 4, Shreyas Iyer c Shreyas b Binny 33, Manoj Tiwary st. Gautam b Gopal 120, Siddhesh Lad b Gowtham 70, Jayant Yadav lbw b Gopal 0, Harshal Patel run out 0, Umesh Yadav c Mayank b Gopal 13 , Dharmendrasinh Jadeja (not out) 19, Kaul (not out) 1; Extras (b-1, lb-2, nb-9) 12; Total (for nine wkts. in 50 overs): 290. Fall of wickets: 1-6, 2-23, 3-23, 4-108, 5-241, 6-241, 7-247, 8263, 9-288. Karnataka bowling: Prasidh Krishna 9-0-45-2, T. Pradeep 10-0-54-1, A. Mithun 9-057-0, K. Gowtham 9-0-58-1, Binny 7-0-44-1, Gopal 6-0-29-3. Toss: Karnataka.
SC admits plea to clean up BAI Legal Correspondent
crossed the qualifying mark and two came close to it (58.71 and 58.52).
FED CUP Uthra Ganesan PATIALA
Navjeet Kaur Dhillon, who also managed to qualify at the Indian Grand Prix at the same venue last week, was a distant second with 57.75m.
Out of action for a while, a mediocre outing in 2017 with a best throw of 54.11m at the Asian Championships and out of the government’s Tar get Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS), veteran discus thrower Seema Punia put it all behind to win gold at the 22nd Federation Cup here and book a ticket for the 2018 Commonwealth Games next month.
Letting rip: Seema threw the discus 61.05m.
Consistent Her winning mark of 61.05m was two metres more than
AFI’s guideline of 59m but it was her consistency that would give her condence
going into the home stretch of preparations. There was just one foul throw, two
“We will discuss with the federation and decide where to continue preparations now. I have to go to Delhi to morrow to get injections for my knee pain. The mark could have been better today but I am struggling with my technique and it will take some time to sort it out,” See ma told The Hindu after her event. She added that this
was only her second 60m+ throw in India after her per sonal best of 64.84m way back in 2004. “I am only now beginning to get back after injuries. No one can guarantee anything in sports but I hope to change the colour of my me dal this time around. My main target though is to come back with a medal, any medal,” said the threetime CWG medallist — one bronze (2010) and two silvers (2006 and 2014). Day One of the competi tion also saw a new national record being set though none came close to the CWG mark. Govindan Lakshma
nan managed to better Kheta Ram’s 2014 mark with a tim ing of 13:47.28 in the men’s 5000m but fell short of the AFI requirement by 22 se conds. Lakshmanan, though, has another chance when he takes to the track in the 10000m. His sister L. Suriya also took gold in the women’s 5000m with a timing of 15:46.96, almost 37 seconds slower than the required timing. In men’s pole vault, Siva Subramani set a new nation al record clearing a height of 5.15m — also a new meet re cord — bettering his own
mark of 5.14m set at the same venue last year, but it was way below the 5.45m mark set for the CWG. The results: Women: 5000m: 1. L. Suriya 15:46.96s, 2. Swati Gadhave 16:07.63, 3. Aarti Patil 16:27.39; Discus: 1. Seema Punia 61.05m, 2. Navjeet Kaur Dhillon 57.75, 3. Kirandeep Kaur 46.08; High jump: 1. Jyoti 1.76m, 2. Angela P. Devasia 1.76, 3. Jinu Maria Manuel 1.76; Hammer throw: 1. Sarita R. Singh 63.80m, 2. Gunjan Singh 56.50, 3. Sarbjeet Kaur 55.65m. Men: 5000m: 1. Govindan Lakshmanan 13:47.28s, 2. Suresh Kumar 13:49.51, 3. Gavit Murli 14:03.04; Pole vault: 1. Siva Subramani 5.15m, 2. Anuj 5.10, 3. Kundan Singh 5.00.
NEW DELHI
The Supreme Court, on Monday, admitted a peti tion to oust Assam minister and BJP leader Himanta Biswa Sarma and other “active politicians” from the helm of Badminton As sociation of India (BAI). A threejudge Bench led by Chief Justice of India Di pak Misra issued notice to the Centre, BAI and Sarma on the petition led by Del hi resident, Kamlesh Ver ma, to make badminton free of political interfe rence. It asks the apex court to take a leaf from the Justice Lodha panel reform in the BCCI case.
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TV PICKS Sultan Azlan Shah Cup: In dia vs Australia, Star Sports 1 (SD & HD), 6 p.m. Nidahas Trophy: India vs Sri Lanka, DSport, 7 p.m. ILeague: Star Sports 2 (SD & HD), 8 p.m. Champions League: Sony Ten 2 (SD & HD), 1.15 a.m. (Wednesday). New Zealand vs England: 4th ODI, SS Select 1 (SD & HD), 3.30 a.m. (Wednesday).
IN BRIEF
Fognini dedicates Brazil Open title to Astori SAO PAULO
Italy’s Fabio Fognini clinched his sixth career title with a 16, 61, 64 win over Chile's Nicolas Jarry in the Brazil Open final here and dedicated his win to Fiorentina footballer Davide Astori who died earlier on Sunday. AFP
Nandini overcomes Olga’s challenge
Nervous Shubhankar falters Makes four bogeys in his last six holes to nish ninth; Mickelson wins in a playo WGC-MEXICO
Personal insults believed to be at the root of the row
Press Trust of India
Reuters
MEXICO CITY
Overnight leader Shubhan kar Sharma struggled with his putts on the decisive nal day to fall short of scripting history but the rapidlyrising Indian managed a creditable tied ninth nish at the 10 million WGC Mexico Cham pionship, here on Sunday. Going into the nal day with a twoshot lead, Shub hankar, playing his rst PGA Tour and WGC event, posted a threeover74 to end the week with a total score of 10 under274. He made four bogeys on the last six holes. With his top10 nish at the event that featured an elite eld of 64 and the who’s who of international golf, the European and Asian Tour Order of Merit leader has now moved up from 75 to 66th in the world rankings.
DURBAN
Agony and ecstasy: Shubhankar Sharma’s game came unstuck when it mattered while veteran Phil Mickelson, his playing partner in the nal round, prevailed in a shootout. AFP *
American star Phil Mickel son (66), playing alongside Shubhankar in the leader group, went on to win after defeating compatriot Justin
Thomas (64) in a playo. Mickelson and Thomas were tied at the top with totals of 16under268 after the regu lation 72 holes.
Shubhankar now returns home for this week’s Indian Open, a tournament co sanctioned by the European and Asian Tours.
SOLARINO (ITALY)
Nandini Sharma beat Olga Helm of Denmark 46, 63, 64 in the first round of the $15,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament in Italy. Sriram Balaji won a round in the $75,000 Challenger in China, but gave a walkover in the second qualifying round to Maverick Banes of Australia after feeling a ‘catch’ in his back during the warmup session. He said he was feeling much better after treatment and was looking forward to partnering Yasutaka Uchiyama of Japan.
Bradley Wiggins vows to hit back LONDON
British cycling great Bradley Wiggins said it was “sad” after he and his former team were accused by MPs of manipulating drug rules before major races, including Wiggins’ 2012 Tour de France victory. “I find it so sad that accusations can be made; I strongly refute the claim that any drug was used without medical need. I hope to have my say in the next few days and put to my side across.” AFP
Brazil team to camp in luxury resort SOCHI
Brazil’s squad of superstars will spend the World Cup in luxury staying at the fivestar Swisshotel Sochi Kamelia built by Stalin for the Communist Party elite in the “Soviet Riviera”. It is hidden from fans and reporters by the Black Sea on one side and a lush private park with firs and palm trees on the other. The entrance is protected by armed guards in fatigues. AFP
Levante res coach MuAiz, hires Lopez VALENCIA
Spanish football club Levante has sacked chief coach Juan Ramon MuAiz shortly it played a 11 draw with Espanyol in the La Liga action. Francisco Jose Lopez Fernandez would replace Muniz. IANS
Hanuma Vihari has upped the ante ‘I have made a conscious eort to express myself’ Vijay Lokapally
has become very < > He mature after
DHARAMSHALA
His hitting was very pur poseful. Each shot that came o his bat exuded Hanuma Vihari’s intent in his knock of 95 against IndiaA. He was keen to come up with anoth er classy show in keeping with his potential even though he got out for just four on Monday against Karnataka. It has been a splendid sea son for the Andhra stroke maker who made 752 runs in Ranji Trophy including a tri ple century. An aggregate of 378 runs in Vijay Hazare tournament conrmed his form and the aggression that marks his batting now. “In the past, I was restrict ing my shots a little bit, but this year, I have made a con scious eort to express my
captaining First Class sides. He loves responsibility and playing under pressure V.V.S. Laxman
Hanuma Vihari.
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game. Even if I fail a few times, my intent and strike rate has to go up. Maybe, the IPL snub was one of the rea sons I realised that if I don’t take my strike rate up, peo ple won’t recognise my ef forts,” he said here. Being ignored for the IPL hurt the 24yearold Vihari. “It does hurt a bit, to be hon est. If I say it doesn’t hurt, it
Zeel back with a bang BHOPAL: Zeel Desai returned to the professional circuit on a winning note, progress ing in both singles and dou bles on the opening day of the $15,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament at the Ar era Club courts on Monday. The 19yearold Zeel, who had retired owing to an inju ry during her last tourna ment in Pune in December, beat Natasha Palha for the loss of just ve games. In the doubles prequar ternals, Zeel and Rutuja Bhosale got past Prerna Bhambri and Natasha Palha in straight sets.
The results: First round: Kanika Vaidya bt Abhilasha Mehra 60, 61;
Warnerde Kock fracas overshadows Australia’s win
Sowjanya Bavisetti bt Deeksha Prasad 61, 60; Freya Christie (GBr) bt Nidhi Chilumula 62, 64; Bunyawi Thamchaiwat (Tha) bt Vanshita Pathania 60, 62; Zeel Desai bt Natasha Pal ha 62, 63; Dhruthi Venugopal bt Ganeshi Aniya 60, 62; Sai Samhitha bt Muskan Gupta 60, 62. Doubles (prequarternals): Tereza Mihalikova (Svk) & Ana Veselinovic (Mne) bt Nudnida Luangnam & Bunyawi Tham chaiwat (Tha) 63, 64; Freya Christie (GBr) & Albina Khabi bulina (Uzb) bt Aastha Dar gude & Pareen Shivekar 61, 61; Rutuja Bhosale & Zeel De sai bt Prerna Bhambri & Na tasha Palha 63, 75; Sowjanya Bavisetti & Rishika Sunkara bt Adrija Biswas & Arthi Muniyan 75, 62.
won’t be coming from ‘in side’. However, some things are not in my control, so I keep it that way,” he added. Crucial shift The decision to shift from Hyderabad to Andhra was a crucial one for Vihari. “I wasn’t getting much expo sure there. I made my debut for Hyderabad at 16. I have to thank them, but I wanted to play at a higher level, and I was not getting that push from Hyderabad, for some
reason. It has been a good change so far for me.” It has worked well for Vi hari. “I enjoy that. When I played for Hyderabad it was the same. Although I was ve ry young, the batting de pended on me. I used to bat at No. 3 there. I really en joyed that challenge, be cause you know that the team is depending on you. It gives me real satisfaction if I can make Andhra win. Most people call us underdogs, but we actually enjoy that tag. We know we are a team which can play good crick et,” he says. A key factor in Vihari re gaining his condence was the tour to South Africa last year with the IndiaA team. “I got a good experience there playing alongside some international players.”
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Manish overcomes Lopez’s challenge Manish Sureshku mar rallied to beat Manuel Pena Lopez of Argentina to enter the second round of the ITF Futures event at the Bengal Tennis Association (BTA) courts here on Monday.
KOLKATA:
The results (rst round): Men: N. Vijay Sundar Prash anth bt Abhinansu Borthakur 62, 60; Siddharth Vishwakar ma bt Anurag Nenwani 62, 64; Manish Sureshkumar bt Manuel Pena Lopez (Arg) 36, 64, 61; Sasi Kumar Mukund bt 63, 63. Doubles: Arjun Kadhe & N. Vi jay Sundar Prasanth bt Bogdan Bobrov (Rus) & Sami Reinwein
(Ger) 63, 64; Nicholas Bybel (USA) & Karunuday Singh bt Yu Hsiang Chiu (Tpe) & Kazuma Kawachi (Jpn) 61, 63; Kunal Anand & Anvit Bendre bt LancePierre du Toit (RSA) & Luka Pavlovic (Fra) 63, 75; Abhinav Sanjeev Shanmugam & Dhruv Sunish bt Suraj Pra bodh & Hardeep Singh Sandhu 36, 64, [119]; Carlos Boul daPurkiss (Esp) & Nam Hoang Ly (Vie) bt Ishaque Eqbal & An urag Nenwani 26, 61, [104]; Sidharth Rawat & Manish Su reshkumar bt Ankit Chopra & Lakshit Sood 63, 63; Mohit Mayur & Kaza Vinayak Sharma bt JuiChen Hung (Tpe) & Fran cesco Vilardo (Ita) 76(3), 76 (7).
Australia needed just 22 balls and 20 minutes of play on the fth day at Kingsmead to secure a 118run triumph ov er South Africa in the rst of the fourmatch series on Monday. The visitors re quired a single wicket to se cure success after South Afri ca resumed on 293 for nine, chasing an improbable victo ry target of 417. Five runs were added by the home side before Quin ton de Kock was trapped leg before wicket by Josh Hazle wood (three for 61). Mitchell Starc earlier had a chance to complete a hat trick with the rst ball of the day but bowled down the legside to de Kock, who was eventually out for 83 after adding two to his overnight tally. Australia’s win was over shadowed by a heated o eld exchange between players at the tea interval on the fourth day, which the In ternational Cricket Council (ICC) are investigating, as well as a charge for spinner Nathan Lyon. Argument CCTV footage from the players tunnel showed Aus tralia vicecaptain David Warner and home wicket keeper de Kock involved in a ery exchange as players climbed the stairwell to their dressing rooms during the break. Personal insults are be lieved to be at the root of the row, their captains said on Monday. “What was said and done during that interval
Quinton de Kock.
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David Warner.
AFP
was regrettable on both sides,” said Australia skipper Steve Smith. “Quinton got personal and evoked an emotional response from Da vey. Those things are not on from both sides. Getting per sonal on the eld is crossing the line, in my opinion.” Smith’s version was dis puted by South African man ager Mohammed Moosajee, who blamed Warner. “There were words said out on the eld. If you are saying so mething you’ve got to take it and that’s the opinion of Quinton. Let the investiga tions begin and let the match ocials decide,” said Moosajee.
SCOREBOARD
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AP
South African captain Faf du Plessis said the umpires needed to ensure proper be haviour on the eld. “From what I’ve heard there was a lot of personal stu being said, to and from. Who start ed it, I don’t know. If it was happening on the eld it should have been nipped in the bud. The fact that it spilled over after the eld shouldn’t have happened.” In a separate incident, Lyon dropped a ball on prone batsman A.B. de Vil liers after he was run out. Lyon faced an ICC sanction after being charged by match referee Je Crowe, ocials said on Monday.
SOUTH AFRICA VS AUSTRALIA, FIRST TEST
Australia — 1st innings: 351. South Africa — 1st innings: 162. Australia — 2nd innings: 227. 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, Q. de Kock lbw b Hazlewood 83, V. Philander c Paine b Starc 6, K. Maharaj b Starc 0, K. Ra bada b Starc 0, M. Morkel not
out 3; Extras (b2, lb3, nb1): 6; Total (in 92.4 overs): 298. Fall of wickets: 129, 239, 3 39, 449, 5136, 6283, 7290, 8290, 9290. Australia bowling: Starc 182 754, Hazlewood 15.42613, Lyon 327860, Cummins 15 3471, M. Marsh 72211, Smith 5330. Manofthematch: Mitchell Starc. Australia won by 118 runs to lead four-match series 1-0.
Neymar heads to villa to recover
Ruhaan ‘shunted’ out of podium
Agence France-Presse
SPORTS BUREAU
Belo Horizonte
JESOLO (ITALY)
Brazilian superstar Neymar left hospital by helicopter on Sunday, a day after a successful foot operation, to begin his recovery ahead of a possible World Cup return. The 26yearold Paris SaintGermain forward went to the airport here by helicopter and then on a private jet to his luxury villa at the Mangaratiba beach resort around 100km from Rio de Janeiro. According to Brazilian website Uol, Neymar’s entourage has already prepared his recovery ‘headquarters’ at his villa, which includes a gymnasium and a machine capable of producing 300kg of ice a day, similar to those used by modern football clubs. His recovery will be
A shunt when in line for a possible podium spot end ed Ruhaan Alva’s debut race in the junior category of the Easykart Italia cham pionship here on Sunday. Having moved up to the junior category after nish ing second runnerup in the Cadet class last season, the rst round of 2018 was an acid test for the 11year old schoolboy from Benga luru. The race weekend saw Ruhaan qualifying fth for the prenal where he n ished eighth. He was fourth quickest in the warmup session preceding the 20 lap nal where he started sixth. Ruhaan quickly climbed three places to move to third by the seventh lap. However, he got entangled in an incident and was bumped o the track.
Rest time: Neymar preparing to board the aircraft en route to his villa. REUTERS *
monitored by Brazil and PSG physiotherapist Rafael Martini, who has been working alongside Neymar since he started his career at Santos in Sao Paulo.
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THE HINDU CROSSWORD 12257
(set by xChequer)
10 High praise turning ugly, one losing name (6)
3 Arrive with cracking report at university (3,2)
11 Soldier, rapper and rover (5)
4 Defeat on pitches when not reading them right? (44)
SUDOKU
FAITH
Essence of karma yoga
12 Pictures came in rolls (6) 14 Groom kept this song for horse racing (3,5,2,5) 17 The last to start coming through in style (6)
6 Point when one moves away from prehistoric period (5)
18 Language of love — music — cut off (5)
8 Faraway look? Hint: thus got diverted (4,2,7)
22 Not many shout loudly and fuss (6)
13 Character primarily on a mega 'I' trip? (9)
23 Welcome girl writing about boy (44) 24 Artist entering high society seen rst in line (8)
■ ACROSS 7 Resident, possibly having income abroad, departs for Norway (6)
5 Boil okra for old husband, mixing cabbage (8)
25 Coarse variety keeps swelling in the middle (6) ■ DOWN
15 Problem child, completely left out of everything (3,5) 16 Public broadcast of system override (8) 19 Sustained by foreign help, sunk South American currency gained (6)
8 Guards in castle switching sides, son without escape route (8)
1 Prehistoric stones might seal cracks (9)
20 Rather silent with progress of time (5)
9 Cooler to join small groups for support (3,5)
2 Deliberate sound in eld event (6)
21 Kind of bluecollared very unskilled worker (5)
Solution to puzzle 12256
Solution to yesterday’s Sudoku
The concept of renunciation or sanyasa is repeatedly stressed in the Gita with reference to the life and acts of ev ery individual as a lot of confusion prevails about its real im port. Being endowed with the karmendriyas and jnanendriyas, all are compelled to act and cannot refrain from it. Krishna makes it clear that renouncing action and adopting sanyasa or a hermit’s life is not the true import of renunciation. Re nunciation is a state of mind that is attained by continuous striving towards understanding the true purpose of one's ex istence, pointed out Srimati Sunanda in a discourse. The mind and intellect are powerful instruments capable of con ferring the knowledge about the nature of existence, or real ity or Truth against what is always subject to change. Hence development of one's mind, intellect and attitude, is crucial, whatever may be one’s calling in life. Each one has the option of either focusing on worldly joys that are anyway short lived or renouncing these for someth ing permanent. It is a matter of xing one’s priorities in life, between the ephemeral and the eternal. This is the only way to be relieved of the stress of life that is commonly spreading as a disease, sapping the mental and physical energies of be ings; and in addition, by using the mind and intellect in a wise manner that looks at the heart of existence and seeks to understand the meaning of existence, one gradually gets re leased from the bondage of samsara. This is after all the aim of human existence. All actions performed with sincerity and with no desire for the fruits is the essence of karma yoga prescribed in the Gita. By this, it is possible to rise above actions that bind.
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SPORT 17
TUESDAY, MARCH 6, 2018
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Lavillenie vaults to a ‘crazy’ treble Hurdler Pozzi hails Bannister as inspiration behind his win
Dominant: Renaud Lavillenie made the pole vault all his own as he claimed his third World indoors gold with an eort of 5.90m. REUTERS *
WORLD INDOORS Agence France-Presse BIRMINGHAM
France’s Renaud Lavillenie displayed all his experience to bag a “crazy” third world indoor pole vault title on Sunday as Briton Andrew Pozzi hailed the late Roger Bannister as the inspiration behind his hurdles triumph. In a bold show of games manship, the Frenchman came into the competition at 5.70 metres — which six of the 15strong eld failed to make passed at 5.80 and went clear at 5.85 and 5.90 after one failure at the latter. “The competition was ve ry long and very intense as you can see with seven ath letes trying to jump 5.90m. To be able to secure one more gold medal in the world championships is a crazy feeling,” said Lavillenie.
American Sam Hendricks (5.85) eventually took silver from Poland’s Piotr Lisek on countback as a host of rivals fell by the wayside. Fittingly on the day Ban nister died aged 88, British team captain Pozzi said his victory in the 60m hurdles had been inspired by the rst man to run a mile in un der four minutes. “Roger Bannister was an unbelievable athlete and un believable person,” said Poz zi, whose winning 7.46s edged American Jarret Ea ton to silver. In a slow tactical race, Ethiopia’s Yomif Kejelcha produced a devastating last lap spurt to defend his 3000m title with some ease, the 20yearold crossing the line in 8:14.41 ahead of teen age teammate Selemon Barega. There was no holding back in the women’s 800m as Burundi’s Francine Ni
yonsaba also successfully defended her title in 1:58.31, the fastest time this season. The results: Men: 60m hurdles: 1 Andrew Pozzi (GBr) 7.46s, 2. Jarret Ea ton (USA) 7.47, 3. Aurel Manga (Fra) 7.54; 1500m: 1. Samuel Tefera (Eth) 3:58.19s, 2. Marcin Lewandowski (Pol) 3:58.39, 3 Abdelaati Iguider (Mar) 3:58.43; 3000m: 1. Yomif Kejelcha (Eth) 8:14.41, 2. Selemon Barega (Eth) 8:15.59, 3. Bethwell Ki protich Birgen (Ken) 8:15.70; 4x400m: 1. Poland 3:01.77, 2. USA 3:01.97, 3. Belgium 3:02.51; Pole vault: 1. Renaud Lavillenie (Fra) 5.90m, 2. Sam Kendricks (USA) 5.85, 3. Piotr Lisek (Pol) 5.85. Women: 800m: 1. Francine Ni yonsaba (Bdi) 1:58.31, 2. Ajee Wilson (USA) 1:58.99, 3. Shelay na OskanClarke (GBr) 1:59.81; 4x400m: 1. USA 3:23.85, 2. Po land 3:26.09, 3. Great Britain 3:29.38; Long jump: 1. Ivana Spanovic (Srb) 6.96m, 2. Britt ney Reese (USA) 6.89, 3. Sos thene MoguenaraTarou (Ger) 6.85.
Gold for Manu in exciting nale Keeps her nerve to beat Alejandra in women’s air pistol Sports Bureau Guadalajara (Mexico)
The young Indian shooters, making their debut in a World Cup, continued to shock the world, as the 16 yearold Manu Bhaker red a 10.6 last shot to clinch the gold in women’s air pistol in Guadalajara, Mexico. It was a dramatic twist to the tale, as Manu trailing by 1.7 point before the last two shots in the 24shot nal against Mexico’s Alejandra Zavala Vazquez, kept her cool after a 8.5 on the penul timate shot and won the gold with a 0.4 point margin. After qualifying with 572, a junior world record, owing to the new format of 60 shots for women as com pared to 40 earlier, Manu as serted the strength of her steely nerves in a gripping climax. It was the second air pis tol gold for India, following the men’s title by another debutant Shahzar Rizvi. Yashaswini Singh Deswal
Having the last laugh: Manu, centre, rallied to pip Alejandra, left. Celine won the bronze. SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT *
placed fourth, while Mahi ma Turhi Agrawal shot 568 and missed the nal by two points. Bronze for Ravi In men’s air rie, Ravi Ku mar, who had qualied in the second place with a score of 626.9, clinched the bronze, after beating com patriot Deepak Kumar in the shooto. With a total of two gold and three bronze in the rst two days, out of the 12 on o
er, India stayed on top of the medals table. The results: Men: 10m air rie: 1. Istvan Pe ni (Hun) 249.5 (625.5); 2. Alex ander Schmirl (Aut) 248.7 (627.1); 3. Ravi Kumar 226.4 (626.9); 4. Deepak Kumar 205.8 (625.2); 20. Arjun Babu ta 619.6. Women: 10m air pistol: 1. Ma nu Bhaker 237.5 (572); 2. Ale jandra Zavala Vazquez (Mes) 237.1 (579); 3. Celine Goberville (Fra) 217.0 (575); 4. Yashaswini Singh Deswal 196.1 (571); 13. Mahima Tuhi Agrawal 568.
East Bengal manages Anand clinches title a draw against Lajong Press Trust of India MOSCOW
get to push the visitors to the brink. Dudu found the equaliser in the 88th minute. East Bengal has 30 points, the same as third placed Mohun Bagan, and behind Minerva (32) and Ne roca (31).
I-LEAGUE Press Trust of India Shillong
Shillong Lajong gave East Bengal a scare before set tling for a 22 draw on Mon day, leaving the ILeague tit le race tantalisingly poised with one round to go. Nigerian striker Dudu Omagbemi scored on either side of Lajong’s two goals to keep East Bengal aoat in the race for the top spot. Dudu gave East Bengal the lead in the 20th minute before a second half ght back by the home team saw Aibanbha Kupar Dohling (49th) and Samuel Lalmuan puia (69thpenalty) on tar
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Match rescheduled In an attempt to prevent matchxing, the AIFF has moved the Gokulam Kerala FCMohun Bagan clash, scheduled to be played on Tuesday, to Thursday, the nal day of the league. It will kick o simultane ously with the matches at Panchkula (MPFC v Chur chill) and Kolkata (EB v Ne roca).
World rapid champion Vis wanathan Anand continued his ne run in the faster ver sion of the game and an nexed the Tal Memorial ra pid chess title here after an easy nal round draw against Boris Gelfand of Is rael. The win was worth $25,000 to the Indian GM. Anand nished with six points out of a possible nine, scoring four wins and four draws. Anand defeated Ian Nepomniachtchi, Alex ander Grischuk, Daniil Du bov and Hikaru Nakamura while his solitary loss came at the hands of Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan in the third round. Mamedyarov, Sergey Ka rajkin and Nakamura n ished in a tie for second spot
Lalremsiami gives India a 1-0 lead Press Trust of India SEOUL
with ve points apiece. For Anand this was another ne victory to add to his world rapid title won in Riyadh just over two months ago.
The Indian women’s hock ey team defeated South Korea by a solitary goal in the opening match of the vegame series to make a positive start to their tour here on Monday. India scored through Lalremsiami (fth minute) and then defended stoutly to hold on to the lead for a moraleboosting win. The second match is on Tuesday.
Final standings: 1. Anand 6; 24: Mamedyarov, Karjakin, Nakamura 5; 56: Grischuk, Gelfand 4.5; 78: Kramnik, Du bao 4; 910: Svidler, Nepom niachtchi 3.5.
Rani’s 200 India captain Rani Rampal completed 200 interna tional caps while Monika reached a century.
Viswanathan Anand.
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18 LIFE
https://t.me/TheHindu_Zone THE HINDU NOIDA/DELHI
TUESDAY, MARCH 6, 2018
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IN BRIEF
The Shape of Water wins top honours at Oscars It won four awards, including the best picture and best director; war thriller Dunkirk also took home three statuettes in technical category Agence France-Presse Hollywood
Irrfan Khan suering from a ‘rare disease’ MUMBAI
Irrfan Khan on Monday said that he is suffering from a rare disease and will share details when there is a conclusive diagnosis. In a Twitter post, the 51yearold actor said he and his family were jolted by the knowledge of his illness, and requested his fans and followers not to speculate about his health. PTI
Ed Sheeran to work with The Shires LONDON
Grammywinning singer Ed Sheeran is collaborating with country music act The Shires. The country duo Ben Earle and Crissie Rhodes met Sheeran in Nashville at the afterparty for his concert. The British singer offered them his track Stay The Night, Contactmusic reported.
The Shape of Water on Sun day won top honours at the Oscars, including the covet ed best picture statuette, bringing the curtain down on a Hollywood awards sea son overshadowed by scan dal over sexual misconduct in showbiz. Guillermo del Toro’s fairy tale romance led the charge going into the show with 13 nominations, and took home best picture — the top prize of the night — as well as best director and statuettes for production design and best original score. In an night of honours be ing shared fairly evenly among several candidates, Martin McDonagh’s dark crime comedy Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri had to settle for best ac tress for Frances McDormand and best sup porting actor for Sam Rockwell. Christopher Nolan’s World War II thriller Dunkirk also picked up three awards, but in the less glitzy techni cal categories, while several movies ended the evening with two trophies.
Starstudded show: Actor Rita Moreno, left, and director Sebastian Lelio, winner of the best foreign language lm award for A Fantastic Woman; Guillermo del Toro kisses the best director and best picture trophies for the lm The Shape of Water; and extreme right, Lee Unkrich, director of Coco, which won the best animated feature. AFP & REUTERS *
“I am an immigrant,” Mr. Del Toro said in collecting his rst prize of the night, prais ing the power of lmmaking to “erase the line in the sand” between people of dierent countries and cultures. “I want to dedicate this to every young lmmaker — the youth that is showing us how things are done,” he said. In Del Toro’s native Gua dalajara exuberant fans eve rywhere from swanky par
ties to street parades celebrated their hometown hero, with one ecstatic crowd chanting, “Ole, ole ole ole! Toro, Toro!”
straight year by late night funnyman Jimmy Kimmel, the 90th Academy Awards capped a dicult few months during which the in dustry has declared war on the pervasive culture of sex ual impropriety unearthed by the downfall of movie mo gul and alleged serial sex at tacker Harvey Weinstein. Mr. Kimmel set the tone by targeting Weinstein in his opening monologue, de
Tributes to Sridevi Meanwhile, the Academy of Motion Pictures remem bered many talents that were lost during the previous year, including Indian actors Shashi Kapoor and Sridevi. Hosted for the second
scribing the disgraced pro ducer’s downfall following dozens of allegations of sex ual harassment and assault as “long overdue.” Setting an example “We can’t let bad behaviour slide anymore. The world is watching us. We need to set an example,” he said. Ms. McDormand, a winner throughout the awards sea son for her scintillating turn
Wells, rail tracks turn death traps for Gir lions rapet walls often became death traps for the lions, which fell into them and drowned. There are 27 open wells in Amreli district near the sanc tuary, Mr. Vasava said, ad ding that parapet walls would be built around these wells “as soon as possible”.
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT AHMEDABAD
Villagers gut organs of Sumatran tiger MEDAN
Villagers in a remote Indonesian community disemboweled a critically endangered Sumatran tiger and then hung the big cat from a ceiling after it attacked a pair of locals. Humananimal conflicts are rampant in the archipelago, especially in areas where the rainforest is being cleared for palm oil plantations. AFP
As many as 32 lions died due to “unnatural causes”, like falling into wells or being run over by trains in 2016 and 2017 in Gir Wildlife Sanctu ary in Gujarat. In 2016, 12 lions died, while in 2017, 20 lions, in cluding cubs, died due to un natural cases, State Forest Minister Ganpat Vasava in formed the State Assembly on Monday. According to him, a total of 184 lions died in the State
A total of 184 lions have died in the past two years in Gujarat.
in two years: 104 in 2016 and 80 in 2017. Replying to a question by
France seeks to rebuild cultural ties with Iran
Congress legislator Gyasud din Sheikh, the Minister ad mitted that wells without pa
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Preventive measures Several open wells near the sanctuary have been now se cured by constructing para pet walls, and walls would al so be built around the
remaining wells, Mr. Sheikh said. Other preventive mea sures include construction of fences along the railway tracks passing through Am reli district and building speed breakers on roads passing through the sanctu ary area. Incidents of lions getting mowed down by trains or vehicles on the road were of ten reported from the area. As per the 2015 census, there were 523 lions in and around the Gir sanctuary.
French Foreign Minister JeanYves Le Drian, left, at the exhibition at the National Museum in Tehran. AFP
Among the items shipped over by a cargo plane were a 2,400yearold Egyptian sphinx, a bust of Roman em peror Marcus Aurelius and drawings by Rembrandt and Delacroix. “Some were denitely ea sier to transport than oth ers,” said Judith Henon, one
‘Deepfakes’ a concern The video, which appeared on the online forum Reddit, was what’s known as a “deepfake” — an ultrarealis tic fake video made with ar ticial intelligence software. It was created using a pro gramme called FakeApp, which superimposed Oba
Tehran
Journalists ooded Iran’s Na tional Museum on Monday for the arrival of more than 50 artworks from the Louvre — the rst major show by a Western museum in the country’s history. The show reects Franc e’s determined use of cultu ral diplomacy as it seeks to rebuild traditional ties with Iran, even as their ocials hold tense talks over politi cal and security issues. 2,400-year-old sphinx The doors were unsealed for journalists at the National Museum in central Tehran, which is currently celebrat ing its 80th anniversary, a day ahead of the public opening.
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of the experts sent by the Louvre. The show marks the cul mination of two years of work since a cultural ex change agreement was signed during a visit by Iran’s President Hassan Rou hani to Paris in January 2016.
Agence France-Presse Paris
Nearly a fth of Europe’s wood beetle species face ex tinction because the old, de caying trees they depend on have been cleared from for ests, scientists warned on Monday. Eighteen per cent of the 700 beetle species surveyed were found to be at risk, but the percentage is likely high er because there was not enough data to classify a
FakeApp programme makes it free and relatively easy to create realistic face swaps The scene opened on a room with a red sofa, a potted plant and the kind of bland modern art you’d see on a therapist’s wall. In the room was Michelle Obama, or someone who looked exactly like her. Wearing a lowcut top with a black bra visible under neath, she writhed lustily for the camera and ashed her unmistakable smile. Then, the former rst lady’s dop pelgänger began to strip.
Agence France-Presse
Beetles face extinction due to loss of old trees
Now, AI that makes fake videos free and relatively easy to create realistic face swaps and leave few traces of ma nipulation. Since a version of the app appeared on Reddit in January, it has been down loaded more than 120,000 times, according to its creator.
KEVIN ROOSE
The Louvre transported over 50 artworks for exhibition
as a grieving, ragelled mother in Three Billboards, took home her second Oscar, 21 years after winning for “Fargo”. Best actor went to runa way favourite Gary Oldman, who sat in makeup for three hours a day to disappear en tirely into the role of British wartime Prime Minister Win ston Churchill for Darkest Hour. Allison Janney won best
Imitating expressions: A screenshot from FakeApp.
ma’s face onto the body of a pornographic lm actress. The hybrid was uncanny — if you didn’t know better, you might have thought it was really her. Until recently, realistic computergenerated video was a laborious pursuit avail able only to bigbudget Hol lywood productions or cut tingedge researchers. Social
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media apps like Snapchat in clude some rudimentary facemorphing technology. But in recent months, a community of hobbyists has begun experimenting with more powerful tools, includ ing FakeApp — a programme that was built by an anony mous developer using open source software written by Google. FakeApp makes it
supporting actress for her turn as the cold, sardonic mother of disgraced gure skater Tonya Harding in “I, Tonya” — capping a sparkling awards season which saw her sweep the major prizes. Greta Gerwig, only the fth woman in Oscars histo ry to be nominated for best director — for comedy/drama Lady Bird — went home emptyhanded, despite oth er nominations for best pic ture and best screenplay. There was also the rst nod in history for a female ci nematographer — Rachel Morrison, who shot Dee Rees’s racial drama “Mud bound” — although the award ended up going to Roger Deakins on his 14th at tempt, for Blade Runner 2049. Other winners included Pixar’s Coco for best animat ed feature and A Fantastic Woman — a love story from Chilean director Sebastian Lelio with a muchpraised star turn from transgender actress Daniela Vega — in the foreign lm category. And Jordan Peele won the award for best original screenplay for his debut lm, horror satire Get Out.
Smearing politicians Deepfakes are one of the newest forms of digital me dia manipulation, and one of the most obviously mischief prone. It’s not hard to ima gine this technology’s being used to smear politicians, create counterfeit revenge porn or frame people for crimes. Lawmakers have al ready begun to worry about how deepfakes could be used for political sabotage and propaganda. Even on morally lax sites like Reddit, deepfakes have raised eyebrows. NY TIMES
quarter of those examined, said a report by the Interna tional Union for Conserva tion of Nature. The 3,000 known species of saproxylic beetles need dead and de caying wood at some point during their life cycles. “Eorts need to focus on longterm strategies to pro tect old trees across die rent landscapes in Europe,” said Jane Smart, director, IUCN’s Global Species Programme.
‘Queen bee syndrome at work worse’ Press Trust of India Washington
“Queen bee syndrome” — the phenomenon of wo men discriminating against other female coworkers as they rise in seniority — may be getting worse, a study has found. As women have in creased their ranks in the workplace, most will admit to experiencing rude beha viour and incivility. “Stu dies show women report more incivility experiences overall than men, but we wanted to nd out who was targeting women with rude remarks,” said Allison Ga briel, assistant professor at the University of Arizona. “We found consistent evidence that women re ported higher levels of inci vility from other women than their male counter parts,” Ms. Gabriel said.
Nepal’s marathon monks trade robes for running shoes They hope the sport will put their remote village on the map, which will help in getting funds to rebuild homes destroyed by an earthquake nearly three years ago Agence France-Presse Sindhukot
Swapping their maroon robes for running shoes, se ven Buddhist monks take o at a sprint across the hills sur rounding their remote village in the foothills of Nepal’s Himalayas. They are aspiring ultra marathon runners, hoping the sport will put their re mote village on the map and provide the funds needed to rebuild homes destroyed by a massive earthquake nearly three years ago. Running with hope “We found out that we can get many opportunities through running and hope to do something from our monk team — make a name for our village and bring de velopment here. That is why we are running,” says Man
Test of endurance: Buddhist monks warming up in front of their monastery before a training session at Sindhukot village in Nepal. AFP *
Bahadur Lama, 21, the fastest of the group. The monks — most of them in their early twenties — follow a strict regime, pray ing in the morning before
disappearing into the hills to run up to 40 kilometres (25 miles) each afternoon. Life is tough in Sindhukot village, which lies just 80 ki lometres from Kathmandu
but like many rural commun ities in impoverished Nepal feels totally cut o from the rest of the world. The nearest school is a twohour walk and the only
shops are in a neighbouring village. Many Buddhist families in Nepal send at least one son to join the local monastery, where they are usually fed, clothed and educated — re lieving their parents of the nancial burden. Lama was sent away when he was just eight, but is cur rently living back at home as the village monastery was destroyed in the 2015 earthquake. Fellow monk Mingma La ma is matteroffact about his new pursuit, which he says his monastic duties in the community have prepared him for. “Every day we go up and down the hills. We often have to walk far... So running wasn’t too hard for us,” he said. These Himalayan monks
are not the rst to take up running. The socalled ‘ma rathon monks’ of Mount Hiei in Japan are known for their superhuman feat of running 1,000 marathons in 1,000 days — but they are seeking enlightenment not prize mo ney. Need support Mingma Gyalbo, a member of the monastery who also organises races nearby, said the monks are talented but need more support to excel. “They don’t have the tech nical knowhow, like for their diet, or even proper shoes for running,” Mr. Gyalbo said. Trail running and ultra marathons are gaining popu larity in Nepal, where the Hi malayan terrain lends itself to extreme tests of human endurance.
Nepal now hosts a handful of races each year, including the world’s highest marath on that starts at Mount Ever est base camp at a breathless altitude of 5,364 metres (17,598 feet). A few Nepali runners have made their mark internation ally, like former child soldier Mira Rai who recently won the gruelling 52 km Ben Ne vis Ultra in Scotland and was named National Geographic Adventurer of the Year in 2017. The Sindhukot monks’ rst race was two years ago, a 30 kilometre trail run in a neighbouring village. But they are yet to win any me dals. The fastest monk The fastest monk, Man Baha dur, came tenth in their rst major marathon earlier this
month, missing out on the coveted prize of 100,000 ru pees ($964) — more than the average annual income in Nepal. He said running in at and hot Lumbini, Buddha’s birth place in southern Nepal, was very dierent to their hilly home terrain. “I was quite amazed when I rst learned that these monks were running,” said race organiser Shekhar Pan dey. “They are very selfmotiv ated and hardworking, they are training by themselves. They are very young and if they train well they have good potential.” Chuldim Sampo, 24, said the monks were excited. He explained: “We want to show people that even monks are capable of run ning.”
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