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Blessings of 125 crore Indians are with me for my next exam: Modi
Rahul forms panel to work out details for next plenary session
Ranil Wickremesinghe says he will continue as Prime Minister
Kohli cracks unbeaten century as India wins series 5-1
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SC curtails T.N.’s share of Cauvery water
NEARBY
Court awards 14.75 tmc ft more to Karnataka, part of it for Bengaluru
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Karnataka directed to release 177.25 tmc ft at Biligundlu point
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Tamil Nadu advised to tap 10 tmc ft of groundwater available with it ■
‘Show source of income to contest polls’ Legal Correspondent NEW DELHI
Yogi govt. marks 100 cr. for cremation grounds LUCKNOW
The Yogi Adityanath government has allocated 100 crore for the development of cremation grounds and burial places of other communities. The 100 crore would include “such sites of other faiths, sects and religion in rural areas”, said State’s Finance Minister Rajesh Agarwal in his budget speech on Friday. NORTH
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Karnataka hails verdict
krishnadas Rajagopal NEW DELHI
The Supreme Court on Fri day awarded Karnataka 14.75 tmc ft (thousand million cub ic feet) of Cauvery water from Tamil Nadu’s share, reasoning that Karnataka has historically suered “limited access to and use” of the riv er water. A threejudge Bench, led by Chief Justice of India Di pak Misra, who authored the judgment, said there is “con rmatory empirical data” that Tamil Nadu has 20 tmc ft groundwater available with it. The court asked Tamil Na du to tap at least 10 tmc ft groundwater instead of banking on Cauvery water from Karnataka. In fact, the judgment even cites Karnata ka’s submission that ground water, if not extracted regu larly, would run waste. “We are not unmindful of the stand of Tamil Nadu and the aspect that overextrac tion of groundwater in the absence of adequate replen ishment and further in the areas proximate to the coas tal zone is generally avoida ble...” the Supreme Court said, but added that the step is necessary to balance inter ests involved. The remaining 4.75 tmc ft of the 14.75 tmc ft would be diverted to the people of
Special Correspondent Bengaluru
The Karnataka government on Friday welcomed the Supreme Court’s verdict in the Cauvery water dispute. It has come as a relief to the ruling Congress which is gearing up for the Assembly elections in AprilMay. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said: “It is not a victory or defeat for any State in cooperative federalism. The court order has set right injustice meted out to Karnataka.” A PAGE 5 Bengaluru for their domestic and drinking purposes. The judgment said the drinking water needs of Karnataka, especially the burgeoning and global Bengaluru city, was somehow “ignored” in the watersharing agreement reached by the Cauvery Wa ter Dispute Tribunal (CWDT) in 2007. “Drinking water require ment of the overall popula tion of all the States has to be placed on a higher pedestal as we treat it as a hierarchi cally fundamental principle of equitable distribution,” the Bench said. Compared to Tamil Nadu, the court found that Karnata
sed the contempt petition against Mr. Siddaramiah. The 14.75 tmc ft for Karna taka would be taken from the 192 tmc ft supplied by Karna taka from its Biligundlu site to the Mettur dam in Tamil Nadu. This means that Kar nataka would now supply 177.25 tmc ft. So, out of a total of 740 tmc ft available in the 802 kmlong river, the Supreme Court determined that Kar nataka would now get 284.75 (270+14.75) tmc ft, Tamil Na du’s share has been reduced from 419 tmc ft to 404.25 tmc ft, while Kerala and Pudu cherry would continue to be allocated 30 tmc ft and seven
ka, despite being the upper riparian State on the Cauvery basin, has 28 districts still reeling under drought. Plea dismissed “This inability of the State of Karnataka to develop its land for irrigation in the back ground of its persistent cavil of being deprived of its legiti mate share and use of the water of Cauvery cannot be ignored... We consider Kar nataka to be more deserving amongst the competing States,” the threejudge Bench, also comprising Jus tices Amitava Roy and A.M. Khanwilkar, decided. The Supreme Court also dismis
tmc ft, respectively. The court allowed Pudu cherry’s request to grow a se cond crop. However, cultiva tion should be limited to 43,000 acres. It rejected Ker ala’s request for a diversion of the river water for its hy dropower projects. It also maintained the 10 tmc ft allocated for environ mental protection and spared another four tmc ft for “inevitable escapages” into the sea. The judgment, however, does not provide for distress years. CONTINUED ON A PAGE 8 A NATIONAL ASSET A PAGE 5 WATER EQUITY A EDITORIAL
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T.N. will take legal opinion Special Correspondent CHENNAI
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami termed the verdict “disappointing” and said the AIADMK government would consult legal experts to make sure that the State received its rightful share. Rejecting the criticism from the DMK, he said the State’s rights were lost only during the DMK regime in 1974.
In a landmark move in poll reforms, the Supreme Court on Friday ruled that politicians, their spouses and associates must de clare their sources of in come, along with their as sets, in order to qualify for contesting elections. It di rected the government to set up a permanent me chanism to monitor the ac crual of wealth of sitting MPs and MLAs, their spouses and associates. “Their assets and sourc es of income are required to be continuously moni tored to maintain the puri ty of the electoral process and the integrity of the de mocratic structure,” a Bench of Justices J. Chela meswar and S. Abdul Na zeer told the government. The judgment, authored by Justice Chelameswar, said “manifold and undue accretion of assets” by le gislators or their associates by itself becomes a good ground for disqualica tion. “Gold is their God! They [the legislators] are deputed by the people to get grievances redressed. But they become the grie vance,” Justice Chelames war said of the predicament. CONTINUED ON A PAGE 8
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Force out
How did system allow PNB fraud, asks CVC Summons RBI, Ministry, bank ocials for review of regulatory mechanisms Vikas Dhoot MUMBAI
Slip and after: CRPF men return from a gunght site at Palhalan in north Kashmir on Friday. Two militants escaped and a civilian was injured in clashes. NISSAR AHMAD (REPORT ON PAGE 8) *
Campaign ends in Tripura PRESS TRUST OF INDIA
The Central Vigilance Com mission (CVC), India’s apex body for checking corrup tion in the government, has summoned senior ocials of the Reserve Bank of India and the Finance Ministry, along with the Chief Vigi lance Ocer of Punjab Na tional Bank (PNB), early next week to assess how the 11,500 crore fraud reported on Wednesday by the go vernmentowned PNB, slipped past all the inbuilt checks and balances in the
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Brewing higher prots and saving birds on the farm
AGARTALA
The highdecibel campaign ended on Friday in Tripura where the BJP is making a determined bid to demol ish the red bastion of 25 years, with stalwarts like Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah leading the charge. The BJP has never been a major player in Tripura, which hitherto has wit nessed only a battle bet ween the Left Front and the Congress. But the Con gress campaign has not been aggressive this time with party chief Rahul Gandhi addressing rallies only on the last day. Chief Minister Manik Sarkar, who is seeking a fth term from Dhanpur, even stated that the main contest is between the CPI (M) and the BJP in the Fe bruary 18 elections for 60 seats. The BJP had polled just 5.70% votes in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and 1.5% votes in the 2013 As sembly polls. CONTINUED ON A PAGE 8 ‘BJP HAS ALIGNED WITH SEPARATISTS’ A PAGE 8
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Arabica coee helps both farmers and wild birds in the Ghats Aathira Perinchery Kochi
Coee lovers may be discerning about their sweet arabica brews and the bolder robusta ones, but both types help maintain the diversity of wild birds in the Western Ghats. One, a little more than the other. Arabica grows under the deep shade of native trees, with benets for both farmers and birds. The surprise is that Robusta, also grown under native shade, is not far behind in the Ghats, unlike in other parts of the world. These insights from a group of researchers were published in the journal Scientic Reports. Native trees are cut down to grow robusta, in order to give it more sunlight, earning this coee the tag of being inhospitable to wildlife. In Vietnam, for instance, fullsun coee growth occurred at the expense of native trees. India too has leaned towards robusta: between 1950 and 2015, planted area
A velvetfronted Nuthatch in a plantation.
under robusta grew by 840% while arabica grew by 327%. Scientists from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCSIndia) and USA’s Princeton University compared bird diversity in 61 arabica and robusta estates across Chikkamagaluru, Hassan and Kodagu districts in Karnataka. Some surprises What they found is that the plantations supported 79 species of forestdependent birds in all, but arabica estates hosted twice the number of endemic birds than robusta. They also
supported more birds that depend on forests, and eat fruits, insects and other food. Interviews with 344 coeegrowers showed that arabica was more protable, with returns of around 1 lakh per hectare. Yet, surprisingly, robusta plantations also hosted high bird diversity. “To our surprise, robusta agroforests had much higher diversity of birds that are specically adapted to the habitat than we expected,” says scientist Krithi Karanth of WCS India, who led the study. Since robusta farmers in the Western Ghats retain native trees, they have been able to preserve the complex canopy structure, setting them apart from others worldwide, says Ms. Karanth. “Though the current selling rate for robusta is only around 3,000 for a 50kgbag, it is easier to grow,” explains Suresh M. D., who owns a oneacre coee plantation of both coee types.
banking system. An ocial aware of the de velopment said the CVC would like to ascertain if there is a systemic issue that needs to be corrected, as it isn’t convinced by the bank’s claims that junior employees colluded with the fugitive diamond merchant Nirav Modi and other banks were to blame for not carrying out due diligence on the letters of undertaking (LoUs). Three-level audit “Banks are audited at three levels — apart from an inter
Rags and riches: A Nirav Modi luxury diamond jewellery billboard in New Delhi. V. V. KRISHNAN
tem,” said the ocial. The CBI and the Enforce ment Directorate conducted searches on Mr. Modi’s rms and his associates across the country on Friday. The Ex ternal Aairs Ministry sus pended his passports along with that of his relative Me hul Choksi. The Ministry said it would revoke their pass ports if they failed to res pond to the notice of suspen sion within one week. (With Devesh Pandey, Gautam Mengle and Manojit Saha)
nal audit, there is an external auditor and a statutory audit undertaken by the RBI. The CVC is keen to understand
CONTINUED ON A PAGE 8 FRESH CASE A PAGE 9 ‘SBI’S EXPOSURE IN PNB FRAUD IS $212 MILLION’ A PAGE 11
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how none of these audits picked up a red ag on the LoUs that seem to have been issued bypassing the sys
‘Embarrassed’ lawyer quits Kejriwal case Staff Reporter New Delhi
Advocate Anoop George Chaudhari has announced that he will no longer repre sent Arvind Kejriwal in the civil defamation case led against him by Finance Mi nister Arun Jaitley in the Delhi High Court. Mr. Chaudhari is the se cond senior advocate to quit as the Delhi Chief Mi nister’s counsel in the case after Ram Jethmalani, who withdrew in July last year after alleging that his client “lied” when he said he had not instructed him to use the word “crook” while crossexamining Mr. Jaitley. On February 12, the HC had objected to Mr. Chaud hari putting suggestive questions to Mr. Jaitley and asked him to avoid a “sh ing or roving exercise”. In a letter, Mr. Chaudhari said that he was withdrawing “due to inadequate brieng which resulted in an embar rassing situation before Jus tice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw”. “Because of the lacka daisical and casual ap proach in brieng, the de fendant is bound to suer and I most certainly would not like to be a party to it,” the letter reads. A ND-NDE
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Timings
Saturday, February 17
RISE 06:58 SET 18:13 RISE 07:52 SET 19:37 Sunday, February 18
RISE 06:57 SET 18:13 RISE 08:28 SET 20:32 Monday, February 19
100 crore for cremation grounds in U.P. Budget tries to balance the BJP’s core emotive issues with urban infrastructure, rural economy and road expansion Omar Rashid LUCKNOW
RISE 06:56 SET 18:14 RISE 09:04 SET 21:29
IN BRIEF
Two killed after drinking spurious liquor MUZAFFARNAGAR (U.P.)
Two men died allegedly after they consumed spurious liquor at Sunna village in Kandhla police station area of Shamli district on Friday, police said. The deceased were identified as Sompal (40) and Kirpal (60). PTI
The Yogi Adityanath govern ment has allocated 100 crore for the development of cremation grounds and bu rial places of other commun ities in the State. Though there is only spec ic mention of cremation grounds, the 100 crore would include “such sites of other faiths, sects and reli gion in rural areas”, said State Finance Minister Ra jesh Agarwal in his budget speech for the year 201819 on Friday. The construction of gra veyards and cremation grounds had triggered a con troversy during the 2017 As sembly polls when Prime Mi nister Narendra Modi alleged discrimination on religious grounds under the previous Samajwadi Party govern ment. If a kabristan (gra veyard) was being built in a village, a shamshan (crema tion ground) should also be constructed, he had commented. Under the previous go vernment led by Akhilesh Ya dav, 200 crore was allocat ed for the construction of boundary walls of gra veyards. In his nal budget in 201617, Mr. Yadav had in creased the amount to 400 crore. However, the 20172018 Uttar Pradesh budget, the rst after the BJP came to
Money matters: Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath along with Finance Minister Rajesh Agarwal arrives at the Vidhan Sabha to present the State budget in Lucknow on Friday. RAJEEV BHATT *
power in the State, had no mention of boundary walls of graveyards, which was un der the “Minority Welfare” heading in previous budgets. Mr. Agarwal placed the se cond budget of the Yogi Adi
tyanath government, which is pegged at a massive 4,28,384 crore, an 11% in crease from last year. The budget includes new schemes of 14,341.89 crore. Coming in the buildup to
the 2019 Lok Sabha elec tions, the budget tried to ba lance the BJP’s core emotive issues such as Hindu culture and cow, with urban infras tructure, rural economy and road expansion.
‘Betting’ video stops Rajasthan House proceedings PRESS TRUST OF INDIA
Leader of Opposition in Ra jasthan Assembly Ramesh war Dudi was targeted on Friday by the ruling BJP par ty which accused him of be ing involved in betting while referring to a video, purport edly showing him talking about a 3 crore bet.
The video, which has gone viral, allegedly shows Mr. Dudi telling a man that he has done betting worth 3 crore. ‘Charges baseless’ However, Mr. Dudi has de nied all the charges calling them “baseless”. The ruling party legisla
tors created an uproar in the Assembly over the issue which lead to the Speaker adjourning the House twice — for some time — and then for the whole day. It all started after the Question Hour ended, and Parliamentary Aairs Minis ter Rajendra Rathore along with Deputy Chief Whip Ma
dan Rathore demanded a clarication from Mr. Dudi over his involvement in the alleged betting. “The video appeared to be a conspiracy against Dudi by his own people and he should clarify his stand on the matter before the Enfor cement Directorate takes ac tion on it,” the Minister said.
marriage of girls from poor families. Of this sum, 121 crore has been allotted to girls from OBC families and 200 crore to Dalit girls. The government has also focused on infrastructure and road expansion, allocat ing 11,343 crore for con struction of roads and 1,817 crore for bridges. “While maintaining nan cial discipline, this budget is overall good for farmers, youth, women and villages,” said Chief Minister Adityanath. Disappointing, says SP SP chief Akhilesh Yadav said the budget was “lled with hopelessness” and was as disappointing as the Union Budget. “No concrete steps for suering farmers, no ef fective scheme for unem ployed youth. Trade and in dustry also had to face disappointment. Important sectors like health and edu cation were also neglected,” he said. Mr. Yadav also took a dig at the budgetary allocation for cremation grounds. He tweeted: “What kind of an ironic budget is this? For the lives of youth plagued with unemployment only a few crores have been allocated in the name of self employ ment, while 100 crores are given for cremation grounds? What is the govern ment really trying to say?”
Press Trust of India Jodhpur
A ‘sewadar’ living in Asa ram’s ashram here com mitted suicide by hanging on Thursday night, police said on Friday. He had been living in the ashram for several years and used to oer routine services, they added. Suicide note In a suicide note, the sewa dar held nobody responsi ble, saying he decided to end his life out of own voli tion, SHO (Boranada) Raghuveer Singh said. According to the SHO, the sewadar identied as Amit Yadav (23), belonged to Rewari (in Haryana) and had been living at Asaram’s ashram at Pal village for several years. “On Thursday late even ing, he was found hanging in his room in the ashram. He had not come out of the room for quite some time prompting other atten dants to break in. They found his body hanging from the ceiling fan,” Mr. Singh said. The police informed Ya dav’s family members, who reached Jodhpur this afternoon. The body was handed over to them after postmortem, the SHO said.
Russian skier dies in Gulmarg avalanche, four rescued
Video shows Leader of Oppn. Rameshwar Dudi claiming to have bet 3 crore Jaipur
The BJP government has allocated 98.50 crore for the Kanha Gaushala Evam Beshahara Pashu Aashray Yojna, for setting up shelter homes for stray cattle. Apart from this, 75 crore has been set aside for the Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay Mini Dairy Scheme and 27 crore for running 770 mobile cattle hospitals across the State. A provision of 94.26 crore has been made for con struction of the Kailash Man sarovar Bhawan in Ghazia bad, while 1500 crore has been earmarked for the Kumbh Mela 2019. The government has listed 100 crore to develop infras tructure for the Brij Teertha Vikas Parishad which has been set up to promote pil grimage tourism in the Brij circuit; 70 crore has been listed for the Ramayana, Krishna, Su, Buddha, Bun delkhand and Jain circuits as per the new tourism policy. The government has also listed 404 crore for the mo dernisation of ArabiFarsi madrasas, 486 crore for grant to Arabic schools and 215 crore to give grant to 246 permanently recognised ArabiFarsi madrasas of ‘Aa lia Level’. A provision of 200 crore has been made for subsidy for crop loans to farmers at less interest rate. The government has also proposed 403 crore for the
Sewadar ends life in Asaram’s ashram
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A Russian skier died and four others were rescued as an avalanche swept the ski slopes of Kashmir’s Gulmarg on Friday noon. An ocial spokesman of the State Tourism Depart ment said the skier, Stanis lav, and four others came un der an avalanche around 12 p.m. “The vemember group, including the deceased, had moved to Shinmai bowl des pite strict instructions by the department about the zones being avalanche prone area,” said the ocial. A ski patrol team was able to rescue the four others from the avalanche, which is at the altitude of over 14,403 feet.
Tragic end: Paramedics carry the body of the Russian skier who was killed in an avalanche in Gulmarg on Friday. AP *
The Russian group had ar rived in Kashmir on Febru ary 13 and boarded the Gon dola in Gulmarg at around
11:30 a.m. on Friday. The ocial said the skiers had signed an indemnity bond that they would not go
into back country, “where avalanches occur on a regu lar basis”. “However, the group still ventured into the area resulting in the tragic death of the skier,” he said. The State Tourism Depart ment is organising an aware ness talk every Tuesday on risks involved in certain areas. It has also erected sign boards at dierent places in the upper reaches of Gul marg informing the skiers about the avalanche areas. Meanwhile, State Tourism Minister Tassaduq Mufti ex pressed grief over the skier’s death and conveyed his con dolences to the bereaved family. On January 18, a Swedish national was killed by an ava lanche while skiing in Gul marg.
Australian envoy to visit Punjab Focus on cooperation in agriculture SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT CHANDIGARH
Ahead of her threeday visit to Punjab on February 17, the Australian High Commis sioner to India, Harinder Sidhu, on Friday said that Australia looks forward to advancing cooperation in the agriculture sector with Punjab. “Australia and India’s northern region enjoy close ties particularly in educa
tion, agriculture and sport sectors. A large proportion of Australia’s Indian com munity comes from the re gion, and Punjabi is now one of the top 10 languages spo ken at home in Australia,” she said in a statement. “This will be my third o cial visit to Punjab, and I look forward to advancing our cooperation in the agri culture sector,” said Ms. Sidhu.
12 hurt in blast Press Trust of India Jaipur
Twelve people, including three children and ve wo men, were injured in a cy linder blast in Ajmer dis trict’s Beawar town, police said on Friday. The condi tion of one of the injured is stated to be critical.
Correction A photograph accompany ing a story headlined ‘Funds push for project to benet desert areas’ in the edition dated February 15 had wrongly referred to Gharsana as a district. It is a town in Rajasthan. The error is regretted. Published by N. Ravi at Kasturi Buildings, 859 & 860, Anna Salai, Chennai-600002 and Printed by S. Ramanujam at HT Media Ltd. Plot No. 8, Udyog Vihar, Greater Noida Distt. Gautam Budh Nagar, U.P. 201306, on behalf of KASTURI & SONS LTD., Chennai-600002. Editor: Mukund Padmanabhan (Responsible for selection of news under the PRB Act). Regd. DL(ND)-11/6110/2006-07-08 RNI No. TNENG/2012/49940 ISSN 0971 - 751X Vol. 8 No. 41 ●
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Cash for vote: cops to reward whistle-blowers in Odisha 2,000 to be given to anyone providing information about bribing of voters Staff Reporter BHUBANESWAR
As campaigning for the Bije pur Assembly bypoll in Od isha hots up, the Bargarh dis trict police have announced a cash reward for informers who provide concrete tip os about money changing hands for votes. “We have a provision for rewarding informers for in telligence gathering as well as for Good Samaritans who help accident victims. When we decided to extend it to prevent cash for vote in the Bijepur byelection, the higherups in the police de partment immediately gave the green signal,” said Jai Na rayan Pankaj, Superinten dent of Police, Bargarh. Mr. Pankaj said a cash re ward of 2,000 would be gi ven to anyone providing in
The police will also go around dierent localities highlighting the message ‘yes to vote, no to note’. FILE PHOTO *
formation about bribing of voters. The district police will also employ a vehicle to go around dierent localities highlighting the message ‘yes to vote, no to note’. “We aim to touch all villag es of the 59 gram panchayats and a notied area council having 282 booths. Our ef forts will be to sensitise all
voters through the mass campaign,” he said. “The pe ople’s response has been ve ry encouraging. We have seen many noting down the phone number displayed on the vehicle. We have also started getting a good num ber of calls.” Bijepur goes to the poll on February 24. The district
police are apprehending that supporters of dierent can didates would resort to brib ing voters a couple of days ahead of the poll date. “We are not expecting the cam paign to completely root out the unlawful practice, but it would certainly help check the menace,” he said. The police have set up 12 check points and deployed six ying squads. As of now, only 3.20 lakh in cash has been seized by the police. The Bijepur byelection has turned into a highstakes battle. While the Bharatiya Janata Party is trying to shift the momentum in its favour by winning the election, the ruling Biju Janata Dal is leav ing no stone unturned to en sure victory for its candidate which would further consoli date its position in the State.
Assam to set up model Body found in trolley schools in minority areas bag, banker couple held Project planned with Centre’s help Press Trust of India Guwahati
The Assam government, in association with the Centre, would set up 21 model resi dential schools in minority areas for the socioeconom ic and educational develop ment of the people living there. Chief Minister Sarbanana da Sonowal, chairing a meeting on minority deve lopment here on Friday, di rected the Commissioner and Secretary, Minorities Welfare Department, Rajesh Prasad to make the model schools a trendsetter, an of cial release said. The model schools would be set up in 21 districts un der MultiSectoral Develop
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ment Programme for minor ity concentration blocks and towns and the State govern ment has already ear marked land plots for the same. Budget provisions for the programme have already been made through supple mentary demand for the construction of these schools, the Chief Minister added. The districts select ed for these model schools are Kamrup, Nalbari, Barpe ta, Goalpara, Kokrajhar, Chi rang, Dhubri, South Salma ra, Darrang, Biswanath, Morigaon, Nagaon, Cachar, Karimganj, Hailakandi, Bon gaigaon, Dima Hasao, Karbi Anglong, North Lakhimpur, Sonitpur and Udalguri.
Victim was missing since Saturday Press Trust of India Burdwan (W.B.)
A banker couple has been arrested for murder after the decomposed body of a woman was found stued in a trolley bag at their apart ment in Durgapur, the pol ice said on Friday. The deceased, Shilpa Agarwal, used to operate a ‘sahayak kendra’ of a na tionalised bank from her house at Mejia in Bankura district. The arrested man, Rajiv Kumar, was the manager of the same branch, the police said. His wife too is a bank employee. Agarwal had told her fa mily that she was going to visit her aunt’s house at
Asansol in West Burdwan district on Friday. She was missing since Saturday and her family had lodged a complaint with the police. Stench complaint The police said they had re ceived a complaint about stench emanating from the apartment. On searching the at, they found the trol ley bag in the storeroom. Agarwal’s body had been cut into pieces and stued into the bag, the police added. Her family alleged that Kumar had committed the crime as Agarwal had been demanding that he return the 1 lakh that he had taken from her.
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THE HINDU
NATION 5
NOIDA/DELHI
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2018
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‘Cauvery a national asset, no exclusive ownership’ Supreme Court says principle of equality among riparian States does not imply equal division of water; suggests just and reasonable use Krishnadas Rajagopal NEW DELHI
An interState river like Cauv ery is a ‘national asset’, and being in a state of ow, no State can claim exclusive ow nership of its waters or assert a prescriptive right so as to deprive other States of their equitable share, the Su preme Court held on Friday. Basing its judgment on the equitable utilisation of inter State river waters, the court said the precious right should be equally and rea
sonably shared by all States concerned. “While it is common and equal to all through whose land it (river) runs and no one can obstruct or divert it, yet as one of the benecial gifts of Nature, each beneci ary has a right to just and rea sonable use of it,” Chief Jus tice Dipak Misra wrote in the judgment. Fair share This principle of equitable apportionment, as is now in
trinsically embedded gener ally in a pursuit for appor tionment of water of an international drainage basin straddling over two or more States, predicates that every riparian State is entitled to a fair share of the water ac cording to its need, and is im bued with the philosophy that a river has been provid ed by nature for the common benet of the community as a whole through whose terri tory it ows even though those territories may be di
among the riparian States does not imply equal division of water. The apex court said, equality here means “equal consideration and equal economic opportunity of the cobasin States.” “To conceive that equality rests on equal sharing of wa ter within an arithmetical formula, would be funda mentally violative of the esta blished conception of equita ble apportionment,” the Supreme Court observed. The court compared the
Supreme Court
vided by frontiers as postu lated in law. However, the court said the “principle of equality”
sharing of interState river waters in India to the practic es of sharing of international rivers among nations. Helsinki example The Supreme Court referred to the Helsinki Rules of 1966, which recognise equitable use of water by each basin State taking into considera tion the geography and hy drology of the basin, the cli mate, past utilisation of waters, economic and social needs, dependent popula
tion and availability of resources. The judgment also refers to the Campione Rules in the context of the Cauvery dis pute. These Rules hold that basin States would in their respective territories manage the waters of an internation al drainage basin in an equit able and reasonable manner. The court referred to the National Water Policy, which had reiterated time and again that water is a “scarce and precious national asset.”
Injustice corrected, says Siddaramaiah
‘Relief to Karaikal farmers’
Nagesh Prabhu STAFF REPORTER
Bengaluru
PUDUCHERRY
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday said the Supreme Court verdict on the Cauvery water dispute had set right the “injustice meted out to Karnataka.” Taking a nuanced stand, Mr. Siddara maiah said, “It is not a victo ry or defeat for any State in cooperative federalism.” The verdict has come as a major relief to the ruling Congress which is gearing up for the Assembly elections in AprilMay. “The SC has part ly allowed our plea. We have got some relief. We are hap py,” he said.
Expressing satisfaction ov er the Supreme Court or der retaining the Union Territory’s share of 7 tmc of Cauvery water for Karai kal region, Puducherry Chief Minister V. Narayana samy said on Friday that the Centre should consti tute the Cauvery Water Management Board to oversee the implementa tion of its directive. Addressing a press con ference along with Minister for Public Works A. Namas sivayam here on Friday, he said the decision of the court not to change the al lotment of 7 tmc given by the Cauvery River Water Disputes Tribunal in 2007 was a welcome step. The verdict had come as a relief to the droughthit farmers in Karaikal, he said.
Share of Kerala stays unchanged Special Correspondent Thiruvananthapuram
The Supreme Court verdict on the sharing of Cauvery waters has left Kerala neither a gainer nor loser, though the State is worried over the failure to utilise its allocation. The Special Bench head ed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra has upheld the allo cation of 30 tmc. ft. to Ker ala made by the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal (CWDT) in 2007. Kerala’s view Minister for Water Re sources Mathew T. Thomas said the State had nothing to rejoice over the verdict. “It is unfortunate we have not been able to make any progress in projects to be taken up utilising our share under the tribunal award.”
IN BRIEF Ex-JNU prof. appointed Tezpur University V-C TEZPUR (ASSAM)
Former Professor of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) Vinod Kumar Jain has been appointed as the new Vice-Chancellor of Tezpur University. Prof. Jain has been appointed by the President of India, in his capacity as the Visitor of Tezpur University. PTI
Sand mafia beats Sarpanch to death JAIPUR
The ban imposed on riverbed sand mining in Rajasthan took an ugly turn with the sand mafia beating up a sarpanch to death in Sawai Madhopur on Thursday. The deceased has been identified as Raghuveer Meena, 50, sarpanch of Hathdoli. A case has been registered.
CM YK
Siddaramaiah
Water Resources Minister M.B. Patil said, “The SC upholding Bengaluru’s rights over the Cauvery water has come as a major relief for us.” However, he said the go vernment would continue to oppose the Cauvery Water Management Board.
Lack of distress formula worries Karnataka farmers
T. RAMAKRISHNAN
Krishna Kumar Aditya Bharadwaj
Vegetables from Karnataka are being loaded onto trucks of Tamil Nadu at the border in Kakanallah. M. SATHYAMOORTHY *
tion of a body to ensure ef fective implementation of the order. After the publica tion of the nal order in the gazette of the Central go vernment in February 2013, the demand had grown louder. The other aspect that has gone in favour of the State is the court’s unambiguous message with regard to the schedule of release of water. By stating that “we also cate gorically convey that the needbased monthly release has to be respected,” the court has appreciated the position of the Tamil Nadu government, which had, ov
ChandrayaanII to be launched in April Mission will cost about 800 crore Special Correspondent New Delhi
India’s second moon mis sion, ChandrayaanII, which would land a rover on the lu nar surface is expected to be launched in April, Minister of State, Atomic Energy and Space Dr. Jitendra Singh said on Friday. “It is ChandrayaanI which discovered water on the moon. This will be an ex tension of that,” Dr. Singh said. ChandrayaanII would cost about 800 crore. It presented many technologi cal challenges as it had three components: an orbiter, a
lander and a moon rover. Dr. Sivan of the Indian Space Research Organisa tion (ISRO) said the launch window was April to Octob er and they would attempt to launch it in April. The orbiter had a life of one year while the lander and the rover were designed to last a lunar day, which was 14 days, as they worked on solar power. A location had been iden tied at the Moon’s South Pole to drop the lander and rover. “This site had not been explored by anyone before,” Dr. Sivan added.
er the years, complained that Karnataka was not ad hering to the schedule of wa ter release, as worked out by the tribunal in the interim order or nal order. Another feature in T.N.’s favour is the assertion by the court on the issue of irrigat ed area. It not only left intact the extent of irrigated area (24.71 lakh acres), as permit ted by the tribunal in the nal order, but also emphati cally made it clear that “the nal determination of irri gated area arrived at by the Tribunal for Tamil Nadu cannot be declared incor rect or fallacious.”
The Supreme Court decision on Friday to allow an additional supply of 14.75 tmc ft. water for Karnataka is a leaf borrowed from the government’s National Water Policy that drinking water requirements of a State should be placed at the highest pedestal. The Cauvery judgment authored by a three-judge Bench led by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra based the supply of water to Bengaluru on the ground that both the National Water Policy and also courts of different countries hold that drinking water should be given “first priority.” “The States shall first allocate waters to satisfy vital human needs,” the Supreme Court observed, while referring to international law provisions on water.
For a “sophisticated and global” Bengaluru, the Supreme Court admittedly digressed from the iron rule of the National Water Policy that areas outside a river basin should not enjoy the river’s water. Allocating Karnataka 4.75 tmc. ft. water from Tamil Nadu’s share for use in Bengaluru, a threejudge Bench led by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra reasoned that Bengaluru deserves a leeway. The apex court said Bengaluru’s “exclusive attributes” make it “incomparable in many ways not only to other urban areas in the State, but also beyond.” “Bengaluru has burgeoned over the years...its population is daily on the rise, thus, registering an ever enhancing demand for all civic amenities,” the SC judgment read.
‘1892, 1924 pacts not an unconscionable bargain’
Mysuru/Bengaluru
The Supreme Court’s order increasing the allocation of Cauvery water to Karnataka by 14.75 tmc has evoked a mixed reaction among farm ers in the Cauvery basin area and irrigation experts, while the legal team that repre sented the State has called it a “partial victory.” Two key concerns ex pressed by many are over the court’s direction to the Centre to form the Cauvery Management Board within a time frame and lack of a dis tress formula during a lean year. These have tempered the initial euphoria over ad ditional allocation. The Karnataka Goven ment has argued all along that formation of a Board will rob it of its supervisory role over its reservoirs. M. Lakshman, convenor, Cauv ery Technical Advisory Com mittee of the Institution of Engineers, said, “This will go against the interest of Kar nataka in the long run.” There is also concern that the absence of a clear dis
NEW DELHI
NEW DELHI
For T.N., verdict has its share of positive aspects The Supreme Court’s verdict on the Cauvery dispute has its share of positive features for Tamil Nadu, despite the State’s allocation being cut by 14.75 thousand million cubic feet (tmc). From the State’s point of view, the most important as pect of the court order is the recognition of the plea for the establishment of the Cauvery Management Board. The words of the court — “We direct that a scheme shall be framed by the Cen tral Government within a span of six weeks from to day…” and “no extension shall be granted for framing of the scheme on any ground” — carry enormous meaning for Tamil Nadu as it is for the creation of an im plementation mechanism that a scheme has to be formulated. Ever since the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal (CWDT) gave its interim or der in June 1991 and nal or der in February 2007, the State had sought the crea
‘Drinking water should be first priority’
‘Global city Bengaluru deserves a leeway’
#5 6 7 0 0 1
Chennai
IN THE SC
NEW DELHI
Supporters of Kannada Chalavali Vatal Paksha, led by Vatal Nagaraj celebrate the verdict in Bengaluru. G.SAMPATH KUMAR *
tress sharing mechanism will only throw up potential conicts again. Badagalpura Nagendra of Karnataka Ra jya Raitha Sangha (KRRS) said the additional alloca tion was a marginal relief and not a major victory. “The question still re mains as to how to share wa ter when the monsoon fails and we have to await the views of experts on this is sue,” he said. This view is en dorsed by Kurubur Shantha kumar of the Karnataka State Sugarcane Farmers As sociation. But the court removing the ceiling on area of cultiva
tion in the State is seen as a positive. There is a general perception that nearly 1 lakh acres of land – under mixed cropping pattern – could be brought under cultivation with the additional water granted. But concerns of a lean year, the frequency of which is only increasing, re main. In the last ve years only one year had normal rainfall, farmers argue. Brijesh Kalappa, one of the senior advocates, high lighted the other concerns, “There seems to be no clari ty on Mekedatu project, for which we need to see the neprint of the verdict.”
The Supreme Court on Friday junked Karnataka’s longpending grouse that the 1892 and 1924 agreements between Mysore and the Madras Presidency on the allocation of Cauvery river waters was an “unconscionable bargain.” The three-judge Bench led by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, instead, asked Karnataka why it did not rise like the ‘phoenix’ and challenge the agreements after Independence and the coming into existence of the Constitution.“The bargaining power may not have existed in 1892 or 1924, but definitely, the said power to bargain or to choose came alive after the 1947 Act and, undoubtedly, after the Constitution came into being. However, the State of Karnataka chose not to do so. If we allow ourselves to say so, it chose not to rise like a phoenix but, on the contrary, it maintained sphinx-like silence at the relevant time,” the Supreme Court observed.
Focus on your studies and work, Modi tells students
Contempt plea against Mehta’s appointment
Special Correspondent
New Delhi
NEW DELHI
A contempt petition was led by an NGO against the appointment of Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta as the special public prosecutor in the 2G spec trum scam case. The Centre for Public In terest Litigation (CPIL), which had fought the scam in the Supreme Court, al leged Mr. Mehta’s appoint ment as CBI prosecutor was in violation of the apex court orders passed in 2011 and 2014 which made senior advocate Anand Grover as the special public prosecu tor in the case relating to 2G scam.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday that he focussed on his work for 125 crore Indians and believed that election results were on ly byproducts of it. And he believed the blessings of 125 crore Indians were with him for his next examination. He was sharing his views on how to handle examina tions with school students here and used the simile in reply to a question by a Class 11 student, who reminded him that they were both go ing to face “examinations” one year later. Telling the student that
Prime Minister Narendra Modi waves at students at the Talkatora Stadium, New Delhi, on Friday. SHANKER CHAKRAVARTY *
such a question suggested he should be a journalist, Mr. Modi said, “Focus on your studies and work. Make it the dharma of your life. Exams and results should be byproducts of that. I do the
same in politics. For 125 crore Indians, I devote my time, energy and capability. Polls will come and go: they are just byproducts,” the Prime Minister told a gathering.
Legal Correspondent
The apex court had in 2011 appointed then senior advocate U.U. Lalit as the special public prosecutor for the 2G cases. However, due to his ele vation as judge of the Su preme Court, the Supreme Court had appointed Mr. Grover on September 2, 2014. Action sought The plea led by the NGO has sought action against Ajay Mittal, Secretary of the Union Home Ministry’s De partment of Personnel and Training (DoPT), for having allegedly “wilfully dis obeyed” the order of the Su preme Court. A ND-NDE
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6 EDITORIAL
NOIDA/DELHI
THE HINDU
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2018
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Science should have the last word As India continues to be hidebound with tradition and rituals, the need for ‘scientic temper’ is essential as never before
Water equity
Case histories Without reform of the public health system, insurance schemes are but a bandaid solution
T
he government’s intention to launch the world’s largest health insurance programme, the Nation al Health Protection Scheme, raises an important issue. Should the focus be on the demand side of healthcare nance when the supply side, the public health infrastructure, is in a shambles? Experience with insurance schemes, such as the Centre’s Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana and Andhra Pradesh’s Rajiv Aar ogyasri, show how demand side interventions can miss the mark. While the RSBY and Aarogyasri did improve access to healthcare overall, they failed to reach the most vulnerable sections. At times they led to unneces sary medical procedures and increased outofpocket expenditure for poor people, both of which are unde sirable outcomes. These showed that unless the public health system can compete with the private in utilising funds from such insurance schemes, medical care will remain elusive for those who need it most. Policymak ers behind the NHPS, which will cost the government around ₹5,000 crore in its rst year, must take heed. Both RSBY and Aarogyasri are cashless hospitalisa tion schemes. While both beneted people living below the poverty line, overreliance on private hospitals and poor monitoring watered down their impact. Accord ing to one Gujaratbased study, a majority of RSBY in sured patients ended up spending about 10% of their annual income during hospitalisation, because hospi tals still charged them, unsure as they were when they would be compensated. A study in Andhra Pradesh found that beneciaries spent more from their own pockets under Aarogyasri. They spent most of their mo ney on outpatient care, and Aarogyasri didn’t tackle this adequately. Possibly the most problematic fallout was mass hysterectomies done in Andhra Pradesh. Bet ween 2008 and 2010, private hospitals removed the uteri of thousands of women unnecessarily, to make a quick buck. Thus, perverse incentives can drive the private sector to sabotage schemes that are not well monitored. The second problem with overreliance on the private sector is that it limits the reach of such pro grammes. Evidence from RSBY and Aarogyasri shows that as distance from empanelled hospitals grew in Andhra and Gujarat, fewer people beneted from them — most empanelled hospitals are private and urban. Scheduled Tribe and rural households typically missed out, while richer quintiles of the population beneted. There can be much gained from the NHPS if the govern ment views it as the rst step towards universal health care, rather than a panacea to all of India’s healthcare woes. The second, and a longawaited, step is to reform the public health system. Without this, an insurance scheme, no matter how ambitious, will be a bandaid. CM YK
Jayant V. Narlikar
A
few years ago, I was at an in ternational conference in Delhi which dealt with im portant issues arising from chang es brought about by the rapid pro gress of science and technology. As the meeting progressed, with international experts highlighting the action needed in various elds, I began to feel uncomforta ble, much like a diner at a sumptu ous buet searching desperately for that missing ingredient — a pinch of salt. The subject I wanted to hear about but which was being glossed over by the speakers was “scientic temper”. Ultimately, it was left to me to make a case for it, not only for the scientists but also for the common citizen, whatever his or her occupation. What is scientic temper? Let me cite a quote from Jawaharlal Nehru’s book, The Discovery of India: “The impact of science and the modern world have brought a greater appreciation of facts, a more critical faculty, a weighing of evidence, a refusal to accept tradi tion just because it is tradition…” He then went on to say: “But even today, it is strange, how we suddenly become overwhelmed by tradition, and the critical facul ties of even intelligent men cease to function…” Nehru concludes with the hope that, “Only when we are politically and economically free, will the mind function nor mally and critically.” No dierence Alas, what has been the outcome? More than seven decades have elapsed since Nehru’s deadline of Indian independence but where are we vis-à-vis scientic temper? We continue to be hidebound with
tradition and waste precious time and money in rituals which may have been relevant in earlier times but which have no relevance to modern living. An interesting sidelight on su perstitions has been thrown by Jií Grygar, a scientist and science communicator from the Czech Re public. He nds that during the So vietdominated era, no supersti tious ideas were publicly aired as these were feared to be against the beliefs subscribed to by the state. In the ‘free’ thinking times that fol lowed the collapse of the Soviet Union, all pentup superstitions have come up.
Bermuda Triangle did encompass a sinister region. There have also been accounts of pilots losing their way and their lives, and watches stopping for an appreciable time, which, in short, were events that deed a rational scientic explana tion. A few years later, scientic at tempts were made to test the ve racity of the Triangle events. Law rence David Kusche did seminal work in debugging the Triangle stories. His investigations have shown that the stories were either inated, or did not tell the whole truth, or tinkered with the vital part of the evidence. Thus, one can safely say that there is no tan gible evidence to ascribe an alien character to the Bermuda Trian gle. Nevertheless as a scientist, whenever I invite questions from an audience of school or college students, the question inevitably pops up: What is the mystery be hind all that is going on in the Ber muda Triangle? The questioner is visibly disappointed to learn that there are no black holes or dark energy or powerful aliens hiding there. When I asked my host in Arecibo how the locals react to such questions, he laughed and said that the Bermuda Triangle had long ceased to be a matter of concern. It of course serves the purpose of attracting tourists. Harmful rays believed to be pre valent during a total solar eclipse
Superstitions thrive Further, there are new supersti tions that have their origin in the age of space technology. Towards the end of the last century, I had visited the radio telescope at Are cibo in Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico forms one of the vertices of a rath er notorious triangle whose other vertices are at Bermuda and Flori da. Known as the Bermuda Trian gle, it has generated considerable excitement because of a claim that it formed a region within which mysterious (and possibly mali cious) forces were present. A book on the Bermuda Triangle by Char les Berlitz which describes dis turbing and unfathomable events makes for fascinating reading. If those accounts were true then the
From mythology All these are examples of pseudos cience that grow around supersti tions. But there are apparently more serious aspects that have grown around our mythology. Did our Vedic forefathers possess a knowledge of science that was well beyond the level attained by mod ern science? While references in our Puranas to the Pushpak Vi man, Vishwamitra’s counter hea
ven in mid air, and weapons such as the Brahmastra and Indra’s Shakti look persuasive, they do not have the details that would stand the test of scientic scrutiny. If such claims are to have standing, their supporters have to give us their technical details. For exam ple, what was the basic mathemat ical principle that explains how a craft such as the Pushpak is lifted and which propelled it through air? And, if the Brahmastra was a nuclear device, which would indi cate a knowledge of nuclear phys ics, why are there no references to the forces of electricity and mag netism, knowledge of which would be necessary to under standing nuclear physics? In to day’s modern age, the facility of running tap water and electric lighting is considered the basic mi nimum for living and forms a part of the manifestos of all political parties. Yet, as the Mahabharata tells us, the Hastinapur palace of Duryodhana or the Indraprastha abode of the Pandavas did not pos sess this minimal facility. Recently, there was a claim made in India that the Darwinian theory of evolution is incorrect and should not be taught in schools. In the eld of science, the sole criterion for the survival of a theory is that it must explain all observed phenomena in its do main. For the present, Darwin’s theory is the best such theory but it is not perfect and leaves many questions unanswered. This is be cause the origin of life on earth is still unexplained by science. Ho wever, till there is a breakthrough on this, or some alternative idea gets scientic support, the Darwi nian theory is the only one that should continue to be taught in schools. In the nal analysis, scientic evidence is what should have the last say. Jayant V. Narlikar is Emeritus Professor, Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pune
Not a prescription for the poor #5 6 7 0 0 1
With outpatient costs outside its purview, the National Health Protection Scheme is unlikely to help those it wants to
Soumitra Ghosh
T
he National Health Protec tion Scheme (NHPS) is being hailed as the biggest takea way for the aam aadmi in this year’s Budget. Given the noise that is being made around it, one is led into believing that the government has brought the nation into the next generation of health security. Quite expectedly, the Opposition, led by the Congress, has dubbed it “as nothing but a pack of lies”. As there are a few elections this year before the big and major one, the battle lines are being drawn. So, gi ven this impasse in public dis course, how will anyone be able to judge it accurately? The only real way to judge the potential of the NHPS is to review the empirical evidence pertaining to some of the existing publiclyfunded health in surance schemes, particularly the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY). Old scheme At the outset, it should be pointed out that the RSBY was rechris tened the NHPS in 2016. The Bud get promised to provide insurance
coverage to an estimated 50 crore poor beneciaries through the NHPS. There are two problems with this claim. First, the RSBY which was launched in 2008, was initially designed to target only the Below Poverty Line (BPL) house holds. However, even after nine years of its implementation, only half the BPL families have been co vered, according to government data. Further, there is a huge dis crepancy between the coverage gures in government data and esti mates from surveys. In the 71st round of the National Sample Sur vey (NSS), 11.1% of the population was covered by the RSBY and State health insurance schemes in 2014 but according to the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority, the population cover age of these schemes was 16.4%. A key reason for this discrepan cy is the creation of bogus bene ciaries by insurance companies to earn premium subsidies from the government. Another reason is that while insurance companies have been given the premium sub sidy for covering all eligible house holds in the respective States, the insurer reached out to only a frac tion of the eligible population. For example, in 2016, only 2.45% eligi ble families were enrolled under Maharashtra’s Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Jan Arogya Yojana (MJPJAY) in 2016. Enrolment was also found to be very low in the Chief Minis
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Bank fraud The bank fraud could possibly have been avoided had the bank followed one of several important vigilance guidelines applicable to banks. In one, ocers as well as clerical sta in branches are not encouraged to look after the same desk/task beyond a certain period, usually a year. While this ensures sucient sta exposure to various areas in banking, the more important reason is that sta continuing to look after the same task pose a signicant risk in terms of a possibility of manipulating records as it seems to have happened in the present case. Another timetested guideline is not to allow sta with familial links to be
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y upholding the approach of the Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal, while slightly modifying its award, the Supreme Court has boosted the pros pects of a viable watersharing arrangement among the riparian States. That it has reduced the Tribunal’s allo cation for Tamil Nadu and raised Karnataka’s share does detract from the fairness of the decision. It has un derscored that no single State has primacy in accessing water resources and that rivers are national assets. This is a signicant recognition of the principle of equitable distribution of interState rivers. The Supreme Court’s message is that the Centre should get down to creating a legal and technical framework to implement the Tribu nal’s award, as modied by the judgment. This is the strongest armation so far of a basin State’s right to its share of water on a regular basis without having to rush to the court for ad hoc orders to open the sluices of re servoirs during monsoondecit years. It may be possi ble for either side to cavil at the judgment, questioning the reduction in quantum or the obligation to adhere to specied monthly release targets, but these would be exercises in political partisanship rather than legitimate grievances warranting legal redress. Tamil Nadu, as a State that has seen agrarian distress in its delta districts, ought to be satised with any prescribed allocation be ing met as per a schedule. Karnataka can take heart from the reduction in its mandatory release target and the additional share for Bengaluru. Neither State, in any case, should be aggrieved by the stipulation that equity is at the heart of a watersharing arrangement. Resolving an interState water dispute is mainly about balancing the competing genuine demands and interests of each State and coming up with a pragmatic sharing arrangement. Rather than looking at the court’s decision from the narrow prism of the quantum of allo cation, the parties would do well to see this as the cul mination of a fair and scientic adjudicative process. They should pose no further impediment to the smooth implementation of the order and be prepared, for the next 15 years, to share both the bounty and distress caused by nature. By dithering, the Centre has not co vered itself in glory throughout this protracted dispute. It took six years to notify the award, and even in the nal hearing argued it was not obliged to frame a scheme for implementation. The argument was deservedly re jected. It should comply with the court’s direction and set up the Cauvery Management Board and Water Reg ulation Committee as part of the scheme. It will be un fortunate if the States and the Centre are reluctant to accept this verdict and refuse to acknowledge its nali ty. There is ample judicial wisdom in the country to ad judicate complex and emotive interState disputes, but the question is whether there are enough conscientious and cooperative parties to make judgments work.
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States, Centre should accept the nality of the Supreme Court’s decision on the Cauvery
keep many of our citizens behind closed doors. I once saw a total so lar eclipse while in Zimbabwe. Re calling a previous eclipse in India, I was expecting to be greeted with the sight of empty roads and in habitants behind closed doors in their houses, as is the case in In dia. Nothing happened. Perhaps Zimbabweans were blissfully un aware of the evil rays. But in India, we are good at coming up with an tidotes. As a housewife from a welleducated family once ex plained to me, the food in the fridge is supposed to be destroyed after an eclipse as evil rays will have contaminated it. However, the local priest had a solution which would avoid the food being wasted. His solution, the woman proudly told me, was to smear the fridge with cow dung, which would protect the food. Here is another example. An ex ecutive of a rm had to catch a ight on a certain day but found out later that travelling on that par ticular day was inauspicious. He was told that the day prior to this was a “good” day. But he had oth er engagements that day. So what did he do? He stored his bag in his neighbour’s house on the earlier day and picked it up while on his way to the airport the following day. By leaving the bag in the neighbour’s house he was sup posed to have begun his journey the previous “auspicious” day. This trick, known as “keeping prasthan”, is sucient to deceive evil spirits.
ter’s Comprehensive Health Insu rance Scheme, in Tamil Nadu, as shown in the NSS data. The second problem is related to the identication of poor house holds. According to the NSS data for 2014, among the poorest quin tile, 12.7% of households received RSBY coverage, which accounted for 25.9% of all the RSBY enrolled households. On the other hand, about 36.52% of households en rolled in the RSBY were actually drawn from the richest 40% of the sample households. Further, al most half the households enrolled in the RSBY actually belonged to the nonpoor category. The target ing process in RSBY has been fraught with exclusion errors. Access issues It is important to underscore the fact that insurance coverage does not automatically translate into
utilisation. According to the pro gramme data, the hospitalisation rate was found to be as low as 1% among RSBYinsured individuals, compared to a national average of 2.6% for the general population as of 2014. The RSBY is not an excep tion in this regard. The utilisation rate of other insurance schemes is also very low. For example, the MJPJAY recorded a utilisation rate (calculated as the proportion of eligible persons with at least one inpatient claim during the year) of just 0.12% in 201314 and 0.18% in 201415. There is no evidence that the RSBY/NHPS has caused a reduc tion in outofpocket expenditure. Two very recent impact evaluation studies have reported that the RSBY has hardly had any impact on nancial protection. Propo nents of the NHPS might argue that the insurance coverage was li mited in the RSBY, leading to pa tients incurring payments for hos pitalisations. So, in ‘Modicare’, the benet package has increased cov erage substantially. However, the increase in allocations is unlikely to eectively address the problem of outofpocket expenditure. There are two reasons. First, in ternational experience in publicly funded health insurance in unreg ulated private healthcare markets suggests that in countries where the benet package was expanded by raising only the insurance limit,
private hospital care providers res ponded by substantially increas ing the price of services. So, this kind of increase would actually mean a larger transfer of public money into private hands. This was also evident in recent actions by many private hospitals which withdrew from the RSBY as they were apparently not happy with the package rates. Hence, it is just a matter of time before private hospitals empanelled under the NHPS ask for higher package rates as seen in Karnataka or Andhra Pradesh where private network hospitals have threatened to pull out if their demands for higher rates are not met. Second, given the fact that out patient care, the single largest con tributor to outofpocket spend ing, is not included in the benet package of the NHPS, the increase in the insurance limit will not be of much help. Moreover, in the ab sence of strong and eective go vernment regulations for insurers and providers, wellrecognised market failures such as supplier induced demand will ensure that eligible families exhaust full cover age with little improvement in their wellbeing. Soumitra Ghosh is Assistant Professor, Centre for Health Policy, Planning and Management, School of Health Systems Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai
Letters emailed to
[email protected] must carry the full postal address and the full name or the name with initials.
posted in the same branch. During internal inspections, ocials are required to look into these aspects. In spite of sound reasons behind guidelines relating to job rotation, many branches nd it dicult to adhere to them. For example, the domains of credit and foreign exchange are normally considered by bank ocers as dicult to master. It usually takes an ocer at least a couple of years’ handson experience to acquire reasonable expertise in these areas. This sometimes leads to a situation where the branch manager is loathe to shift ocers at these desks for fear of things going wrong. In course of time, such ocers acquire an aura of indispensability. While all
such cases may not result in frauds, the risk of wrong doing happening is denitely high.
At a time when bad loans are impacting the very source of survival for banks, unearthing a fraud to the tune of ₹11,500 crore is a systemic failure that has resulted in a breach of trust between the bank and the employee (Editorial – “Gem of a scam”, February 16). As the fraud was committed by those who were supposed to protect the interests of the bank, it’s time to strengthen the system and put in place stringent procedures that brook no such transgressions in future.
■ Even in a small kirana store, when a small amount goes missing, the owner becomes alert and has in place all checks. When an ordinary trader goes to a bank for a transaction, he is asked to full various formalities and get the approval of various ocers at every level. When such is the case, it is shocking how a massive fraud to the tune of several hundred crores could have been committed in a single branch despite the existence of watchdog agencies to scrutinise accounts and daytoday transactions. The perception is that oender will follow the Mallya way and escape from the law. This should not be allowed to happen.
R. Prabhu Raj,
S. Nallasivan,
Bengaluru
Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu
G.G. Menon, Tripunithura, Kerala
■
Education no priority A major reason why the government of the day in India spends less on education is that the gains from it take a long time to fructify and are mostly intangible (Editorial page, “A deepening crisis”, February 16). This makes investment in education less appealing in a political scenario in which government outlay is directed at quick results encashable at the time of veyear elections. So it is prudent to announce setting up more Indian Institutes of Technology and IIMs and new centres of learning of global standards than providing for teacher education or needed infrastructure. An easy way to determine government attitude is to look at who is appointed as minister for
human resource development. For example, one opened reservation of seats for OBCs in premier institutes, while another did away with the examination system in schools. Y.G. Chouksey, Pune
Human sacrice The report about a couple in Hyderabad having carried out human sacrice is a horric, incredible story that shows the depth of superstitious faith people in India still have. The media is also to blame as there are many TV serials which depict such scenes and misguide people instead of educating them. J. Eden Alexander, Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu
more letters online: www.hindu.com/opinion/letters/
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The silent suerers The children of the farmers who committed suicide do not receive the support or counselling they need to recover from the resulting mental trauma. Jyoti Shelar visits the villages in Maharashtra worst aected by farmer suicide and reports on these minors’ struggle to get their lives back on track
“E
very time I open the door, I see my father’s body,” says 14year old Nikita Surwase, pointing at the iron shaft on the ceiling. In May 2014, Nikita’s father, Ashok, hanged himself to escape the mounting pressure of repaying a loan of nearly 2 lakh that he had taken to grow cotton on his 1.5acre land in Talegaon village, Beed district, Maharashtra. That day, Nikita says, she and her father were home while her mother Sunita (30), grandmother Jaibai (65), and three younger siblings — Ashwini (12), Rohan (9) and Suraj (6) — had gone to visit a relative. Around four in the afternoon, her father asked her to go out and clean the porch. The unsuspecting child, who was 10 at the time, followed his order. Her mother returned around ve and found the door locked from the inside. There was no response to their repeated knocking. A neighbour who was passing by noticed the commotion. He peeped in from the window and saw Ashok’s bo dy hanging lifeless. Everyone rushed to break open the door. Nikita’s father had cut a hammock that used to hang from the ceiling and used the same rope to end his life. ‘I feel very tense’ “Pappa gelya paasun mala khup tension yeta, radu yeta” (I feel very tense since my father passed away, I feel like crying all the time), says Nikita. She uses the word ‘tension’ multiple times during the conversation, unable to articulate more exactly what she feels. For the rst few months, her weeping was seen as the natural reaction of a griefstricken child. “All of us were cry ing,” says her grandmother, Jaibai. But Nikita failed to return to a semblance of her normal self. She stopped communi cating and almost gave up eating. She spoke only a few words throughout the day and slept all the time. “When we would call her for meals, she would eat very little and go back to sleep,” says Jaibai. “She didn’t want to go to school any more. She kept saying she had a headache.” In the following months, Nikita lost weight rapidly. She had fever often. Her crying wouldn’t abate, and she kept having graphic ashbacks of her father’s lifeless body. Nikita’s father could not repay the loan as Maharashtra had one of its worst spells of drought that year, and it ruined his crop yield. To continue repaying the loan, Nikita’s mother took charge of the farm and also started working in other farms, plucking cotton. Two of Nikita’s siblings, Ashwini and Rohan, were sent away to Aurangabad to stay at a residential school that adopt ed the children of farmers who had killed themselves. Nikita, who is now in class nine, continued to battle against her anxieties, her trauma getting little attention from her family. Last year, an Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) who lived nearby took Nikita to the Beed Civil Hospital, where she was diagnosed with extremely low levels of haemoglobin. She was given three units of blood and prescribed sev eral food supplements. Nikita still weighs only 30 kg, way below what’s healthy for a 14yearold. Though she looks slightly better now, the ASHA worker says that the girl is lost in her own world. An alien concept The children of farmers who killed themselves cope with acute mental trauma, but they say very little. Even worse, no one asks. In a place where ‘mental health’ is still an alien concept, the fact that a parent’s suicide can dam age the child remains unrecognised. Senior psychiatrist and World Health Organisation (WHO) consultant Laksh mi Vijayakumar says that Nikita has been experiencing classic symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder. “In chil dren, these mental disorders don’t show up like they do in adults. Children mostly present themselves with contin uous complaints of some kind of body pain (headache, stomach ache) or beha vioural problems such as refusing to go to school, refusing to eat, and temper tantrums. Children who don’t have any of these problems may start bedwet ting,” explains Vijayakumar, adding that when a child loses a parent, there is a growing sense of abandonment and separation anxiety. In Beed’s Arvi village, a dirt track through large cotton elds leads to a re sidential school called Shantivan. The word translates to ‘forest of peace’. Run by a couple passionate about social work, Shantivan is home to 300 chil dren who have lost either one or both of their parents. Of these, 120 are children of farmers (from the Marathwada re gion) who have committed suicide. One of the eight districts of droughtprone Marathwada, Beed has witnessed the highest number of suicides in the region. One resident, 14yearold Mayur Ra sal, lost his father in 2009, a year that saw a great number of farmers end their lives to escape debt. Mayur, his two ol CM YK
Left to cope: “The children of farmers who killed themselves cope with acute mental trauma, but they say very little. Even worse, no one asks.” Kartik Kachre, whose father Prakash Kachre committed suicide, is seen with other children in Shantivan in Beed district of Maharashtra. Shantivan is home to 120 children who have lost either one or both of their parents to farm loan-related suicide. (Below) Nikita, who saw her father’s body hanging from an iron shaft on the ceiling when she was 10, has lived in trauma since. VIVEK BENDRE *
der brothers and their mother, Vaishali, inherited three acres of land and an un paid debt liability of over 5 lakh. Un able to bear the burden, Vaishali left with another man a year later. Mayur and his two brothers became their grandmother’s responsibility. “My grandmother got labourers to plough the eld and grow cotton, jowar and bajra. But she always complained that we did not have enough money, just like my father,” says Mayur. He says his relatives told him that his father had hanged himself from the ceiling fan. “It was June 1. I remember the date be cause I was going to join class 1 from June 15,” says the teenager, eyes turning moist as he remembers his father. Saved by stories Volunteers from Shantivan visit suicide aected families and urge them to send their children to the residential school for a proper education and a better life. Last June, when they visited Mayur’s house in Manjar Sumba village, his grandmother immediately agreed to send him away. “He would cry all the time. He would wake up in the middle of the night, calling for his father,” says Kaveri Nagargoje, who runs Shantivan with her husband, Deepak. “He felt that no one cared for him, and both his fath er and mother had abandoned him. As he gradually opened up to me, I learnt that shortly after his father’s suicide, his mother, unable to manage the three children on her own, had ended up pouring boiling water on him,” Nagar goje says. Nagargoje is not a trained counsellor but she says she does whatever she can to motivate the children. Storytelling brightens up the kids, she says. “I have made up a ctional character named Dheru who has faced similar hardships after losing his father to suicide,” she says. “In my story, he goes on to become a Collector and fullls his mother’s dreams, pays o all debt, and has a peaceful life. Most of these children now aspire to become like Dheru.” May ur, who is now in class 8, wants to ap pear for the civil services examination. Nagargoje observes that most chil dren at Shantivan need constant sup port: “Bedwetting is a common pro blem in children as old as 12 years. Some are reclusive, and it takes time for them to mingle with others. But we closely observe each one of them and monitor their emotional as well as edu cational progress, as it tells us whether the child is getting over her trauma or continues to remain in its grip.” In Wardha district, which falls in the
droughtprone Vidarbha region of Mah arashtra, a village named Kurzhadi has reported eight farmer suicides over the past decade. In 2016, Ganesh Thackrey gulped down a bottle of pesticide that he had kept for use on his threeacre cotton farm. When his wife Archana got home from a village gram panchayat meeting, she saw her husband on the oor, barely breathing. A neighbour helped her put Ganesh on a motorcycle and rush him to a governmentrun health centre 12 km from the village, in Phulgaon. But Ganesh’s condition was critical. So he was transferred to a rural hospital in Sawangi, 35 km from Phulgaon. For nine days, Ganesh battled for life in the Intensive Care Unit of the Sawangi hos pital. But his organs began to collapse one after another, and he eventually succumbed. Archana then started to work on the farm. But with both father and mother away, the two children, Aniket (11) and Sanchita (9), suddenly found them selves on their own. “While the girl was still too young to understand what had hit the family, something changed in the boy after he lost his father,” says Avinash Ghode, a teacher at the Zilla Parishad Primary School in Kurzhadi where the siblings study. Ghode says Aniket always ranked rst in his class. “After his father’s death, he remained absent for a while. About three weeks later, when he rejoined school, he was no longer his chirpy self,” he recalls, adding that he also de veloped a severe problem in paying at tention. Aniket, the teacher says, would stare blankly in class. He would have no clue what was being taught. “We spoke to him several times and told him that whatever had happened was not in his control and that he needs to focus on his education,” Ghode says. Gradually, Aniket managed to get his fo
time I open the door, I < > Every see my father’s body. I feel very tense since my father passed away. I feel like crying all the time. Nikita Class 9 student
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cus back on studies and once again ranked rst in class 5. He is now in Class 6. “But he is not his old self, when he used to be playful and laugh out loud,” says the teacher. Any question about their father brings tears to the siblings’ eyes. When asked what they would like to do when they grew up, Aniket says he wants to be a police ocer, while Sanchita wants to be a ‘madam’, as the teacher is ad dressed in the school. “These children need more than education. Such an upheaval in life is tough even for an adult to cope with,” says Ghode. He feels that the government has to bring in professional counsellors to reach out to such children. A 2010 study led by the Johns Hop kins Children’s Centre found that losing a parent to suicide increases children’s risk of developing a range of major psy chiatric disorders. “Those who have lost a parent to suicide are at a higher risk of committing suicide too,” says Vijayaku mar, who has worked extensively in the farmer suicideaected Kattumannar koil district in Tamil Nadu and with the tsunami aectedchildren from the State. “There is a grave need to evaluate and counsel these children. They should get avenues to vent their emo tions in a nonthreatening manner,” she says, suggesting group painting and art therapy as possible methods. “The pic tures they draw at times reect the emo tions they are going through,” she says. Survivor’s guilt Ann Masten, a professor of child deve lopment in the Institute of Child Deve lopment at the University of Minnesota, says that, in itself, losing a parent is a ve ry stressful event in a child’s life. “Many children experience it as a parent leav ing them for something they may have done. They react with anger at times. Some who internalise their feelings may become sad and silent, and can thus be easily ignored. Some children recover with good parenting and good teacher support, while others may require men tal health support,” says Masten. “Inter vention is needed because it is obvious that these children are silent suerers,” she adds. But hundreds of children from
Marathwada and Vidarbha’s suicideaf fected families are exactly that — silent suerers. Experts say that survivor’s guilt is most commonly observed in those who have lost someone to suicide. They are tormented with either visual memories of the event or auditory memories. “We use the technique of memory distor tion. For example, if it’s a visual memo ry, we get them to reconstruct it and then ask them to farther the body from them and gradually destroy the image. To reduce the guilt, we use the Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy techniques to assure them that it was not their fault,” says Mumbaibased counselling psychologist, Binaifer Sahukar. “With continuous counselling, they are able to become resilient. While the counsellor is not going to be around forever, these strategies are developed for them to use whenever needed,” she says. Sahukar, who has counselled many school and college students, observes that some children may bounce back quickly while others may take time, and a few may never be able to deal with the trauma. “It all depends on the core per sonality and the stress tolerance thresh old. We may have twins going through the same trauma and one of them may recover quickly while the other does not. The time taken to heal varies from person to person,” she says, adding that complete lack of counselling or a sup port system to deal with the trauma may lead to longterm consequences such as alcoholism and wrecked relationships. In 2015, the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) recorded 8,007 farmer suicides across India. Of these, 3,030 were in Maharashtra, the highest num ber for any State. While the NCRB is still compiling the data for 2016, media re ports peg it at around 3,063. In February 2015, the government launched Prerna Prakalp, a mental health programme for farmers from sui cideprone Marathwada and Vidarbha. The programme currently covers eight districts of Marathwada and six of the 11 districts in Vidarbha. A Prerna Prakalp cell theoretically consists of six people — a psychiatrist, a clinical psychologist, a psychiatric so cial worker, a psychiatric nurse, a com munity nurse, and an accountant/case registry assistant. But of the 14 cells that exist in the two regions, only eight have psychiatrists. The programme is largely dependent on ASHA workers, who have been trained to visit houses with a Pa tient Health Questionnaire 12 Somatic Symptom scale (a screening and diag nostic tool for mental health disorders) to assess the family members. But it on ly covers adults. The number of positive replies to the 12 questions classies the person as nor mal, mildly depressed, moderately de pressed, or severely depressed. For the later three, the ASHA worker urges the family members to have a chat with a counsellor on the State’s tollfree men tal health helpline, 104. The counsellor then gauges whether the person needs to be directed to the primary health
would cry all the time. < > Mayur He would wake up in the middle of the night, calling for his father. He felt that no one cared for him, and both his father and mother had abandoned him. Kaveri Nagargoje Founder, Shantivan
centre or a rural or subdistrict hospital. Since 2015, more than 30 lakh house holds have been surveyed, and 15,528 people were found to be suering from various levels of depression — 12,850 mild, 2,089 moderate, and 567 severe. “Prerna Prakalp is not agespecic. But when we mean farmers, we mean adults. We try to reach out to children through our District Mental Health Pro gramme (DMHP),” says Sadhana Tayade, joint director of Directorate of Health Services, who is in charge of mental health. The man of the house The DMHP was started in the 1990s un der the National Mental Health Pro gramme with the aim of upgrading State mental health facilities and reaching out to as many people in need as possible. Its outreach component involves target ed interventions, life skills education, counselling in schools and colleges, and workplace stress management. In Mah arahstra, however, the DMHP’s school intervention programme was rolled out only in November 2016. The State auth orities are yet to collate data on the number of children they have reached through the programme but the rough estimate is 12,000. So there’s still a long way to go for a targeted intervention to help children aected by farmer suicide. For many children, the experience of Pawan Parve from Aurangabad’s Bodh wal village may be typical of the after math of a farmer’s suicide. After his father drank pesticide and died in 2011, Parve, who was only 14, suddenly real ised that he had become the man of the house. Instead of receiving help through counselling, he found himself responsible for an unmarried sister and two younger brothers. “No one cared for me. I became just another farmer who had to pay o the debt,” says Pawan. Somehow, he managed to repay his father’s 1 lakh debt by putting all his ef forts into cotton and maize farming. Pa wan is now in the second year of junior college, but he only appears for exams. He spends the day working on the three acre farm or selling the yield, and stu dies for an hour or two at night. “From the day my father left us, I have never felt like a young boy. Everyone treats me like a grownup,” he says. He has man aged to save up 40,000 for his 18year old sister’s marriage as well. “My rela tives have already started inquiring about her,” says the youngster, who once aspired to join the police force. But now he views the future with little hope. “Nothing has changed,” he says. “Just that I have replaced my father.” A ND-NDE
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INTERVIEW | MANIK SARKAR
FROM PAGE ONE
SC curtails T.N.’s share of Cauvery water
‘BJP has aligned with separatists in Tripura’ Tripura CM says the Left Front rule has ensured qualitative change in the standard of life of common people in the State nism, Leftism ... We feel proud we have been able to develop ideological, political and programmatic resis tance against this antipeo ple, antipoor, prorich, pro corporate political party rul ing our country. That is why they are worried and target ing us.
Rahul Karmakar
It only refers to the 2007 tri bunal award, which had vaguely dealt with the issue by saying that the allocated shares of water would be “proportionately reduced” among Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. The court gave the Centre six weeks’ time to frame a Cauvery watersharing scheme under Section 6A of the InterState Water Dis putes Act of 1956. The scheme has to be in conso nance with the CWDT’s award and the changes in troduced by the Supreme Court though this judg ment. States warned With this, the apex court dismissed the Centre’s claims that it has complete discretion to decide wheth er or not to frame a scheme. The court held that sub ject to the formulation of a
scheme, the water alloca tion arrangement should stand unchanged for the next 15 years. The court warned the States to not de viate from the judgment or use the allotted water for other than the designated purposes. It supported the tribunal’s decision to exact ly apportion lands for irriga tion in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu and determine the wa ter allocation to these lands. The tribunal had allocat ed 250.62 tmc to Karnataka for its irrigated area of 18.85 lakh acres and 390.85 tmc to Tamil Nadu for its irrigat ed area of 24.71 lakh acres. The court backed the tri bunal, while observing that “river Cauvery is decit in its water content compared to the demands of the ripar ian States involved, restric tions and savings in the mat ter of use thereof are not only necessary but also nat ural corollaries.”
Show source of income to contest polls: SC The court made it mandato ry for candidates contesting elections and their asso ciates to declare their assets and source of income at the time of nomination. The obligation of a candi date to disclose both his as sets and the source of in come is a part of the fundamental right of a citi zen to know, under Article 19 (1) (a) of the Constitution. The court said enforcement of a citizen’s fundamental right needs no statutory sanction from the govern ment or Parliament. “A candidate’s constitu tional right to contest an election to the legislature should be subservient to the voter’s fundamental right to know the relevant informa tion regarding the candi date,” the court held. It held that “undue accre tion of assets” is an indepen dent ground for disqualify ing an MP or an MLA. Amassing wealth is a “culpa
ble oence” by itself and a lawmaker can be prosecut ed even without charging him for oences under the Prevention of Corruption Act. The court said the amassment of unaccounted wealth by lawmakers is the mark of a failing democracy. “If left unattended, it would inevitably lead to the des truction of democracy and pave the way for the rule of maa.” The court said India as a “socialist republic” believes in the distribution of mate rial resources and not in the concentration of wealth. If the assets of a legislator increase without bearing any relationship to their known sources of income, the only logical inference that can be drawn is that there is some abuse. The court pointed out how legis lators use their position to secure loans from national ised banks which turn into NPAs.
How did system allow PNB fraud, asks CVC A fresh case has been regis tered by the CBI against three Gitanjali group com panies of Mr. Choksi, Mr. Modi’s uncle, for causing an alleged 4,887 crore loss to the Punjab National Bank. Quoting the FIR, an agency ocial on Friday said the transactions currently un der scrutiny took place in 201718. A highly placed govern ment ocial said the In come Tax Department has also initiated action against Mr. Modi under the Black Money (Undisclosed Fo reign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Income Tax Act of 2015. “The IT de partment has invoked provi sions that allow it to provi sionally attach properties of the assessee and 29 proper ties belonging to Mr. Modi, his wife and their group companies,” the ocial said. Meanwhile, the RBI broke
its silence on the fraud and blamed internal control fai lures for PNB’s woes in a statement on Friday, term ing the incident as a ‘case of operational risk’ due to ‘de linquent behaviour’ by one or more employees. Searches across 5 States “Searches are being con ducted at a total of 32 loca tions in cities across ve States, including Mumbai, Pune, Surat, Jaipur, Hydera bad and Coimbatore. These locations include oces and residences of the accused, and our teams are seizing large amounts of docu ments pertaining to the of fence,” a CBI ocer said. Meanwhile, the ED on Friday conducted searches at 35 locations across 11 States as part of its investiga tions into the money laun dering aspects of the earlier FIR registered by the CBI on January 31 this year.
High-pitched Tripura campaign ends Seeking to expand its foot print in the NorthEast, it has forged an alliance with the Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura (IPFT) and hopes to benet in 20 tribal seats. The BJP has already formed governments in As sam, Manipur and Aruna chal Pradesh. Mr. Modi sounded the party’s poll bugle in Tripura with two rallies on February 8. He had asked the voters to throw away ‘manik’ (Manik Sarkar government) and go for HIRA (H for highways, I CM YK
for Internet way, R for road ways and A for airways). He returned to campaign again in Tripura on Thurs day, a day before the cam paign ended. Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had released the Vision Document for Tripura. Mr. Amit Shah addressed many public rallies and or ganised roadshows. Fire brand Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath al so sought votes for the party nominees.
AGARTALA
Fourtime Chief Minister Manik Sarkar has been the face of the Left Front in Tripura, a Communist bastion for 25 years. The Left Front government under Mr. Sarkar has been a for midable force, bagging 47 to 50 Assembly seats out of the 60 in every election since 1993. Seeking his seventh electoral vic tory since the 1981 byelection and fth from the Dhanpur seat, he is believed to have had an easy electoral run until the BJP burst onto the scene ahead of Mandate 2018. Excerpts from an interview: Why do you think the Left Front can win its sixth successive election?
Our government has been able to combat the extremist onslaught, it has brought back peace and tranquillity in the State and streng thened integrity, on the ba sis of which the State has ex perienced development that has ensured a qualitative change in the standard of life of the common people in Tripura.
How relevant is Marxism at a time when much of the world is taking a rightist or fundamentalist?
But isn’t there a perception that the Left Front is worried because it is facing a strong opposition after an easy run since 1993?
It is very, very relevant. There is a new wave of strug gle among the working class, peasants and youth bursting out, and that’s why they [Sangh Parivar] are facing problems. We have not seen such a reactionary govern ment [at the Centre] since Independence. They have targeted Marxism, Commu
We are not worried at all. They are. That’s why the Prime Minister has brought his Cabinet colleagues, Chief Ministers of BJPruled States, frontal leaders at the nation al level, working here for two years. Despite all these, they are worried. The Left Front government may be very small, but it is able to
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nance Minister and others. The PM has said the Left Front has struck a poll deal with the Congress to keep the BJP out...
< >
To face the people of this small State, they have been mobilising money, muscle and media power under the leadership of Prime Minister
show the alternative path to the struggling people of the country. To face the people of this small State, they have been mobilising money, muscle and media power un der the leadership of Prime Minister, Home Minister, Fi
PM forgets his promises: Rahul Congress chief tells Tripura voters that the party will work for the State’s progress
■ Have you seen any signs of our deal [with the Con gress]? They are saying this because they have an al liance with the IPFT [Indige nous People’s Front of Twi pra], which was created by NLFT [National Liberation Front of Tripura] extremists. The present government at the Centre has continued with declaring the NLFT un lawful. The NLFT demands Tripura’s independence and ouster of socalled foreigners. More than three months ago, the NLFT declared sup port for the IPFT. So the BJP, which claims to be a nation alist party and defender of
Agartala
On the last day of campaign ing in Tripura on Friday, Congress president Rahul Gandhi called upon people to vote for his party, which was committed to working for the progress of the State. Speaking at a rally in Kai lashahar, the constituency of Pradesh Congress Commit tee chief Birajit Sinha, Mr. Gandhi sought people’s sup port for his party in the Fe bruary 18 polls to bring in good governance. He slammed Prime Minis ter Narendra Modi for mak ing false promises. “He [Mr. Modi] came and gave a cou ple of promises, but he has a tendency to forget them af ter the polls,” Mr. Gandhi
Borders sealed “The BSF has sealed the bor der; it has increased vigil along the AssamTripura and TripuraMizoram boundar ies. CCTV cameras have been installed and Central security forces have been de ployed,” Mr. Shukla said. A tollfree number, 15103, had been launched to re ceive information and com plaints from the public, he said. After the campaigning ended at 4 p.m., security forces launched a search in lodges and hotels to track outsiders in compliance with the Election Commission or der.
Campaign stop: Rahul Gandhi is being garlanded by Congress leaders at a rally in Tripura on Friday. PTI *
said. He came down heavily on the Prime Minister for fa vouring his “friend” in the Rafale jet purchase deal. Security has been beefed up to ensure free and fair elections to the 60member
Assembly, DirectorGeneral of Police Akhil Kumar Shukla said. He warned of action against trouble mongers. Even police ocers would not be spared if they were
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AGARTALA
The diamonds of Nirav Modi have taken the shine o Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call to replace ‘ma nik’ with ‘HIRA’ in poll bound Tripura, the ruling Left Front has said, refer ring to the recent banking scam. ‘Manik’, an allusion to Chief Minister Manik Sarkar, means gemstone in Bengali. HIRA, which means dia mond, was the acronym gi ven by the Prime Minister for ‘highways, Iways, road ways, airways’. On Thursday, while the Prime Minister addressed BJP rallies in Shantirbazar and Agartala, Left Front leaders used the diamond allegory to drive home the
ED arrests chartered accountant
2 militants escape in J&K encounter
Special Correspondent
PEERZADA ASHIQ
NEW DELHI
SRINAGAR
The Enforcement Directo rate on Friday arrested S. Bhaskararaman, the al leged chartered accoun tant of Karti Chidamba ram, for not cooperating in the INX Media money laun dering case probe. The agency has got his ve days’ custody for interrogation. Mr. Bhaskararaman was produced before a special court after he was arrested from a vestar hotel. The agency alleged that he had failed to appear before the investigating team even af ter several summonses were issued seeking his presence.
Two militants escaped from an encounter site in the Pal halan area of Baramulla in north Kashmir on Friday morning, while a civilian was injured in clashes near the encounter site. A police spokesman said the trapped militants “red indiscriminately”, and man aged to escape “taking ad vantage of the darkness early in the morning”. “A cordon was being thrown and civilians were being evacuated when the militants escaped,” the spo kesman added. The joint operation of the Army, the police and the CRPF was launched around 5
Joint operation of the Army, police and CRPF failed to nab them In Jammu, the Army car ried out a search operation after residents of the Katli area in Samba reported “some suspicious movement”.
Policemen returning from Palhalan in north Kashmir on Friday. NISSAR AHMAD *
a.m. and two local militants were believed to have been trapped at Tantaray Pora. Police sources said soon after the exchange of re bet ween the security forces and the militants, scores of peo
ple resorted to stone throw ing. At least two civilians were hit by pellets in the clashes. Tearsmoke canisters were used to disperse the protes ters.
The BJP has accused you of corruption when audits say Tripura has been among the better performing States in Central beneciary schemes.
The country has a Prime Mi nister who acts as a party lead er. What can you expect from his party other than a below standard approach? He has been trying his level best to mislead the people of Tripura on the basis of falsehood. The people will give a betting answer on February 18 (polling day), and he will understand this on March 3 (result day).
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Now we know what ‘HIRA’ means, says Left Rahul Karmakar
found violating the model code of conduct, he said.
Syed Sajjad Ali
the country’s integrity, unity, sovereignty, has aligned with the separatist NLFT through the IPFT. That is why the BJP is not in a position to answer questions from the people, and is diverting attention by saying the CPI(M) and the Con gress have made adjustments.
NIA gets custody of ve The special court of the Na tional Investigation Agency (NIA), Jammu, on Friday granted seven days’ NIA re mand for the ve accused in the escape of LashkareTai ba militant Naveed Jutt from Srinagar’s Shri Maharaja Ha ri Singh hospital on February 6. The ve arrested earlier, Shakeel Ahmed Bhat, Tika Khan, Syed Tajamul Islam, Muhammad Sha Wani and Jan Muhammad Ganai, were all residents of Pulwama.
“real meaning of HIRA”. In the Majlishpur As sembly constituency, State Urban Development Minis ter Manik Dey reminded vo ters what they would have in store if a Marxist ‘manik’ — referring to himself — was replaced by Mr. Modi’s HIRA. ‘Defective diamonds’ At CPI(M)’s Tripura head quarters in Agartala’s Melar math, Polit Buro member Brinda Karat took a jibe at the BJP for being “studded with defective hira polished by [BJP chief ] Amit Shah”. “A gem of a scam sur faced after the Prime Minis ter sent most of his gems to campaign in Tripura. We are indeed headed for a spar kling election,” she said.
Plea to ban law practice of MPs, MLAs Legal Correspondent NEW DELHI
The Supreme Court on Fri day decided to examine a plea to ban Members of Parliament and State Legis lative Assemblies from practising law. A Bench led by Chief Justice Dipak Mis ra asked AttorneyGeneral K.K. Venugopal for assis tance. Petitioner, advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, said: “Under Section 21 of the IPC, MLAs and MPs are public servants. Hence, al lowing them to practice as an advocate and restricting other public servants is ar bitrary and irrational and violation of Articles 1415 of the Constitution.”
Rahul forms steering panel to decide on plenary session
Solar alliance biggest win since Paris accord, says PM
‘It will function in place of the Congress Working Committee’
It aims to mobilise $1,000 billion in investments by 2030
could be held before the budget session of Parliament reconvenes on March 5.
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT NEW DELHI
Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Friday formed a steering committee to work out the details for the party’s next plenary session where his elevation as the party chief would be formally rati ed. The steering committee, which right now replaced the Congress Working Com mittee (CWC), would meet on Saturday and include UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, former Prime Minis ter Manmohan Singh and the party’s general secretar ies. Schedule and venue The leaders were expected to discuss the schedule of the plenary session and the venue of the meeting. “Congress president Ra hul Gandhi has constituted a
Rahul Gandhi
steering committee for the forthcoming plenary session as per Article XV (vii) (b) of the party constitution. The steering committee will function in place of the Working Committee of the party,” said Congress gener al secretary Janardan Dwive di in a statement. Sources said the plenary session
To formalise team Insiders said the plenary would also formalise the new party chief ’s team in cluding members of the CWC. “From now to 2019, there are so many important As sembly elections, we can’t aord to have any organisa tional vacuum,” said a Con gress leader. The steering committee also included se nior leaders such as A.K. An tony, Ahmed Patel, Digvijaya Singh, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ambika Soni, Janardan Dwi vedi, Ashok Gehlot, Sushil Kumar Shinde, P. Chidamba ram, Oscar Fernandes, Anand Sharma and All India Congress Committee (AICC) chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala.
more than $1,000 billion in investments by 2030 for “massive deployment” of so lar energy, pave the way for future technologies adapted to the needs of moving to a fossilfree future and keep global temperatures from rising above 2°C by the end of the century.
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT NEW DELHI
The biggest development on tackling climate change since the Paris Accord of 2015 has been the Interna tional Solar Alliance, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the inaugural ses sion of the World Sustaina ble Development Summit. “India and France initiated the International Solar Al liance. It already has 121 mem bers [countries] and is per haps the single most impor tant global achievement since the Paris Agreement of 2015,” he told a crowd of stu dents, Ministers and dele gates from 40 countries. “While the world was dis cussing Inconvenient Truth [a reference to the 2006 doc umentary on global warm ing] we translated it into Convenient Action,” he ad
Narendra Modi
ded. The International Solar Alliance (ISA) that aims at in creasing solar energy de ployment in member coun tries, came into legal, independent existence in December and is the rst treatybased international intergovernmental organisa tion to be based out of India. The ISA aims to mobilise
India’s target India has committed itself to having 175,000 MW of re newed energy in the grid by 2022. As part of the agreement, India will contribute $27 mil lion (175.5 crore approxi mately) to the ISA for creat ing corpus, building infrastructure and recurring expenditure over ve years from 201617 to 202021. The ISA was launched on November 30, 2015 in Paris, on the sidelines of COP21, the UN climate conference. A ND-NDE
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CBI registers fresh case against Choksi’s three rms Issue pertains to alleged 4,887crore loss to Punjab National Bank
293 fraudulent Letters of Undertaking, 224 Foreign Letters of Credit since 2011
Fraud transactions worth 11,500 crore believed to have been initiated in 2011
that Mr. Modi and his rms had been under the scanner of not just the Income Tax Department, the Enforce ment Directorate and of late the CBI. A list of top bank fraud cases that the Reserve Bank of India submitted to the Supreme Court last year contained his name.
Special Correspondent NEW DELHI
The Central Bureau of Inves tigation has registered a fresh case against three Gi tanjali group companies of Mehul Choksi, the uncle of diamond merchant Nirav Modi, for causing an alleged 4,887crore loss to Punjab National Bank. But confusion prevails over when the scam started. Quoting the FIR, an agen cy ocial on Friday said the transactions under scrutiny took place in 201718. Howev er, the CBI spokesperson claried that as alleged by the bank, fraudulent transac tions of 11,500 crore had been initiated in 2011 and the alleged fraud continued till this nancial year. Bank ocials’ role The CBI is also questioning four bank ocials, Chief Manager Bechu B. Tiwari, Deputy General Manager Sanjay Prasad, Chief Manag er (Zonal Audit Oce) Mo hinder Sharma and accused Manoj Kharat, in connection with the latest case. While the FIR against Mr. Choksi involves 4,887 crore, the rest of the transactions are now part of the rst FIR
No entry: Ocials of the Enforcement Directorate sealing a Gili showroom in Thane on Friday.
registered against Nirav Mo di, his wife, brother and un cle on January 31. In all, 293 fraudulent Let ters of Undertaking (LoU) and 224 Foreign Letters of Credit (FLC) were generated since 2011. The Nirav Modi fraud
could end up wiping out at least 8,200 crore of Punjab National Bank nances, ac cording to the latest esti mates made available to the government by bank authori ties on Friday. As estimated now, the bank has almost 8,200 crore of “outstanding
*
VIBHAV BIRWATKAR
buyer’s credits” linked to the accounts of various rms op erated by Mr. Modi and his uncle.
This amount was never cap tured in the core banking software of the bank. The go vernment would have to pro vide a bailout for the payo to ensure that consumer con dence in the nancial sys tem was not shaken, he said. Ocials also disclosed
Not in CBS system A senior ocial said the PNB would have to pay this amount o from its nances.
26 locations searched In the case against Mr. Chok si, the agency on Friday searched 26 locations in Mumbai, Pune, Surat, Jaipur, Hyderabad and Coimbatore. It also seized some diamonds from a Surat factory that were handed over to the ED. The latest FIR names Mr. Choksi, his companies Gitan jali Gems, Gili India and Nakshatra Brand Ltd., their directors and two PNB o cials Gokulnath Shetty (now retired) and Manoj Kharat as accused. Mr. Choksi ew out of the country on January 4, while Mr. Modi, his wife and broth er left by January 6. The CBI has got Interpol diusion notices issued to determine their current whereabouts. The three accused compa nies have 36 subsidiaries — 17 in Mumbai, one in Hydera bad, and the rest abroad.
The Nirav Modi fraud could wipe out at least 8,200 crore of PNB nances
ED seizes assets worth 549 crore Devesh K. Pandey New Delhi
The Enforcement Directo rate on Friday seized assets worth 549 crore in the Pun jab National Bank’s fraudu lent transactions case, tak ing the total value of seizures to 5,649 crore. A money laundering case was also registered against dia mond merchant Nirav Mo di’s uncle Mehul Choksi. The agency searched 35 locations across 11 States. “The searches were con ducted in Goa, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Jalandhar, Kol kata, Delhi, Patna, Luck now, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Chennai,” said a senior ocial. The Central Board of Di rect Taxes has shared de tails of 29 properties linked to Mr. Modi in dierent parts of the country. Be sides, six more properties have been identied for further legal action. The Directorate, through Indian oces of Mr. Modi, has got messages sent to the
A SEBI probe stuttered to a stop
PMO was aware of scam in 2015: Cong.
Member found violation of norms
Special Correspondent
ASHISH RUKHAIYAR MUMBAI
In March 2017, an order is sued by the then wholetime member of the Securities and Exchange Board of In dia (SEBI) found Mehul Choksi, owner of Gitanjali Gems, along with other pro moter entities of the compa ny, prima facie in violation of various security market regulations and advised the capital markets regulator to conduct further investiga tions. The case, however, appears to have ground to a halt. “... this is the t case for investigation and SEBI should employ all the inves tigative powers entrusted to it to unearth the entire truth and to nd out the role of al leged Choksi Group entities visavis the promoter enti ties of Gitanjali Gems,” said a 29page order issued by S. Raman, adding that SEBI should “investigate the mat ter of alleged manipulative trading in the scrip of Gitan jali Gems along with viola tions of the Takeover Regu lations, 1997 read with the Takeover Regulations, 2011.” While the SEBI order also stated that the regulator “shall endeavour to com plete the investigation with in six months”, it is believed that there has been no furth
er progress in the matter. An email query to SEBI regard ing the current status of the matter remained unan swered till the time of going to press. A spokesperson on behalf of Gitanjali Group said that “there has been no update given to the company from SEBI, as regards the status of the same.” Disclosures on shares The order, however, did al lege serious violations by Mr. Choksi and the promo ter entities of the company. The SEBI probe found that the promoter entities bought shares of the compa ny and allegedly did not make the stipulated disclo sures and also submitted false information related to the quantum of shares pledged. In October 2012, the capi tal markets regulator issued a showcause notice to a to tal of 23 entities, including Mr. Choksi and other com panies listed as part of the promoter group as per ex change lings of the compa ny. According to the SEBI probe, some of the entities “furnished misleading de clarations regarding shares of Gitanjali Gems pledged by the promoter and pro moter group”.
Counters claims that Nirav Modi was never a part of the ocial Indian delegation at Davos announcing the gold demo netisation scheme in which Prime Minister Modi is heard referring to Mehulbhai [Chok si] in contrast to a video clip from Law Minister Ravi Shan kar Prasad in which he was asking for the name of the owner of Gitanjali Gems.
New Delhi
Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Friday used sa tire to take a dig at Prime Mi nister Narendra Modi when he tweeted an “escape for mula of scamsters Lalit Modi and Nirav Modi”, while his party said a complaint was made against Mehul Choksi, the business partner of Ni rav Modi, almost three years ago. Starting a hashtag #Modi RobsIndia, Mr. Gandhi tweeted, “The scamster’s es cape formula: La(Mo)+Ni (Mo) —{gt} Bha(Go)”. The Congress produced copies of a complaint by a Delhibased businessman, Varun Khuraniya, on May 7, 2015 where he had men tioned to the Corporate Af fairs Ministry and the Se rious Frauds Investigation Oce (SFIO) how Mr. Choksi and his company — Gitanjali Gems Ltd. — was defaulting on loans to banks such as Punjab National Bank and ICICI Bank.
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Seeking answers: Youth Congress activists protest outside a branch of the Punjab National Bank, in Bhopal on Friday. A.M. FARUQUI *
“Yesterday [Thursday] we had shared copies of a com plaint made on June 2016 but when we probed a little more, we found that a com plaint was made on May 7, 2015. PMO, Ministry of Fi nance, Enforcement Direc torate, SFIO, BJP govern ments of Gujarat and Maharashtra were all aware
of the scam,” Randeep Sur jewala, Congress’s commu nication head, said at a press conference. Countering claims made by government sources that celebrity designer Nirav Mo di was never a part of the of cial Indian delegation at Davos, Mr. Surjewala said, “This photo where he [Nirav
Modi] is seen was tweeted by the Prime Minister Oc e’s handle, it was released by the Press Information Bu reau and the Ministry of Ex ternal Aairs went a step further and said ‘Together we can’ in the photo they tweeted.” The Congress played a 2015 clip of the government
Why the denial? “We are not saying there is anything wrong if the Prime Minister knows him well. But why was Law Minister Mr. Prasad denying it when the PM calls him aectionately. But the government trying to distance itself raises suspi cion,” he said. The Congress claimed the scam has now almost touched 30,000 crore and after the main accused have ed, the government’s low cost ight scheme — UDAN — has acquired a new meaning. “Modi government’s new buzz word ‘Udan’ has found a new meaning — every scam ster can eece and y unde tected and unchecked,” he said.
overseas outlets of the busi nessman in New York, Lon don, Macao and Beijing, in structing them to stop all trade forthwith. “They have instructed that no article should be sold from those outlets,” said the ocial. The agency plans to issue summonses to Mr. Modi and his relatives. ‘More ocials involved’ Investigations have revealed that the bank had not only failed to detect the fraudu lent transactions, which were made without any en try into the Core Banking Software, it was also un aware of the delayed repay ments that were being re ceived on account of the Letters of Undertaking (LoU) issued in favour of the companies involved. Investigating agencies suspect that some ocials of the overseas branches of other Indiabased banks were also involved in con cealing the alleged fraud.
It’s a UPA scandal: Javadekar Special Correspondent NEW DELHI
Labelling the PNB fraud case a “UPA scam”, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar said on Friday that Allaha bad Bank was pressured to sanction a loan to tainted businessman Nirav Modi in 2013, just a day after Con gress leader Rahul Gandhi visited his jewellery exhibi tion. He said that an ocial of Allahabad Bank had op posed the grant of the loan to Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi. “On September 13, 2013, Rahul Gandhi visited Nirav Modi’s jewellery ex hibition at a hotel in Delhi and the very next day, Alla habad Bank approved the loan to him, though it was opposed by one of the bank’s directors, Dinesh Dubey,” Mr. Javadekar said. He alleged that when Mr. Dubey complained to the RBI and the Finance Secre tary in November 2013, he was asked by the latter to put in his papers.
Passports of Nirav, Choksi suspended two diamond traders, the Ministry said the step was ta ken on the advice of the En forcement Directorate. “We will act based on the advice we receive from our agen cies,” Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said.
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT NEW DELHI
The External Aairs Ministry on Friday suspended the passports of Nirav Modi, fug itive billionaire diamond trader, and his uncle Mehul Choksi, and warned them that it would revoke their passports if they failed to res pond to the notice of suspen sion within seven days. The Ministry said further action against the two would be taken after consulting the
Nirav Modi
government agencies pursu ing the case. Setting in motion the con sular procedure to arrest the
‘Not a planned event’ The spokesperson claried that a photograph in which Nirav Modi appeared with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a group photograph
on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos was not preplanned. “The photograph was a very impromptu thing. The Indian CEOs who have been going to the event for many years were present. There was no agenda and no meet ing [between the CEOs and Prime Minister Modi],” said the spokesperson, empha sising that there were no meetings between Nirav and the Prime Minister in Davos.
Choksi cheated hundreds: whistleblower Says the PMO forwarded his complaint to the Registrar of Companies, which, however, sat on it Jay Shankar Bengaluru
Hari Prasad, a whistleblow er in the 11,500crore al leged fraud in Punjab Na tional Bank, said on Friday that Mehul Choksi, manag ing director of Gitanjali Gems and business partner of Nirav Modi, reneged on business agreements, with many investors and him “cheated” of 13 crore. “I am not the only one. All over India, there are hun dreds of people who got cheated by him,” Mr. Prasad, a Bengalurubased investor, said in a telephone inter view. “There is another guy called Digvijay Sinh Jadeja in CM YK
Ahmedabad. He got cheated of 40 crore. There is anoth er guy in Jodhpur called S.K. Jain. He got cheated of 2 crore. There is another guy in Delhi called Vibhav Khura na. He got cheated of 1.5 crore. So many people I know. They cheated so many small investors.” Mr. Prasad, 55, entered in to a franchise business agreement with Mr. Choksi in 2012. “I have no business dealings with Nirav Modi and his company. In my fran chise business, they pro mised so many things and ul timately after taking the investment from me, they did not full any of the
erandi and we realised that there is some big fraud going on in this company and we reported that to the PMO.”
Mehul Choksi
agreement terms and they cheated us,” he said. “And then I decided to le a criminal complaint [in Bengaluru] and we investi gated about their modus op-
PMO acknowledgement The Prime Minister’s Oce acknowledged the complaint and then forwarded it to the Registrar of Companies (RoC) to look into the irregu larities in the balance sheet as alleged by Mr. Prasad. Mr. Prasad also led a complaint with the city pol ice against Mehul for cheat ing. The case was taken over by the CID. Choksi obtained bail and later appeared be fore the CID for questioning, the police said.
“Frankly speaking, if the RoC is not doing its job pro perly, how can you blame the PMO for that? People are taking political mileage out of this subject matter. RoC did nothing. After a few days, I got a letter from the PMO saying that my case has been disposed of. They have done their duty,” Mr. Prasad said. Soon after that, Mr. Pra sad wrote to the RoC in July 2016 wanting to know if any action was taken. “Since I did not get any response from RoC on July 29 I forwarded that copy of acknowledgement [from the PMO] to the RoC again. A ND-NDE
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I am carrying on as PM: Ranil Prime Minister to meet President next week; Cabinet reshue on the cards
Grieving mother demands answers from Trump
Meera Srinivasan
President avoids mention of guns in speech after shooting
Colombo
Romney to run for U.S. Senate from Utah WASHINGTON
Former Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney announced on Friday that he is seeking a U.S. Senate seat in Utah.“I am running for United States Senate to serve the people of Utah and bring Utah’s values to Washington,” Mr. Romney wrote on Twitter. He is running for a seat currently held by Republican Orrin Hatch. AFP
Pakistan to deploy troops in Saudi Arabia ISLAMABAD
In a major policy shift, Pakistan will deploy troops in Saudi Arabia under an existing bilateral security cooperation agreement with its close ally which is involved in a civil war in neighbouring Yemen. “A Pakistan Army contingent is being sent to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) on training and advice mission ,” the Pakistan Army said. PTI
Oxfam unveils plan to tackle sexual abuse LONDON
British charity Oxfam unveiled an action plan on Friday to tackle sexual misconduct following the “stain” of a prostitution scandal. The aid group said it would create a vetting system. This comes a week after allegations that Oxfam staff hired prostitutes while working in Haiti following the 2010 earthquake. AFP
Man, toddler stabbed to death in Missouri MARYLAND HEIGHTS
A man and a toddler were on Thursday night stabbed to death at a suburban St. Louis home in Missouri, and a woman and a child were seriously injured, authorities said. Police Chief Bill Carson said that the suspect was related to the victims and there’s no reason to believe anyone else is in danger. AP
Despite some government MPs threatening to quit if Prime Minister Ranil Wickre mesinghe does not resign, the Sri Lankan premier said on Friday that he would stay on, scotching speculation that he may step down. Following a major setback in a recent local election, le gislators of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), a ju nior coalition partner to Mr. Wickremesinghe’s United National Party (UNP) in the national unity government, asked the Prime Minister to take responsibility for the ruling alliance’s drubbing and resign. “As far as I am concerned, I am carrying on as the Prime Minister under the law and convention. I don’t see any reason why I should not,” he said, in a media brieng at Temple Trees, the ocial residence of the Prime Minister. “This is coa lition politics…it is not easy.” Big setback Citing the “economic situa tion” as one of the main rea sons for the poor showing of the ruling parties in the local polls, he said a severe drought and the delay in im plementing reforms pro mised in 2015 had led to it. The government is read ing the people’s message closely and will take correc tive measures, he said, term ing the midterm polls a “ba rometer” on public sentiment. “It is a big setback for us, for the government parties, but we have time to correct it,” he said, adding that he as Prime Minister took respon sibility. The country’s rst national unity government has two years remaining in its term before the next gen eral election. In the islandwide local polls held on February 10, the UNP and the SLFP lost a
U.S. indicts 13 Russians for role in 2016 polls Agence France-Presse Washington
U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller on Friday an nounced the indictments of 13 Russian nationals and three companies for alleged interference with the 2016 election. According to the un sealed indictment the ac cused conspired — from 2014 until today [Friday] — to interfere “with the U.S. political and electoral pro cesses, including the presi dential election of 2016.” Mr. Mueller alleges that the group posed as Ameri cans and controlled social media accounts that fo cused on divisive social and political issues. Under the management of Yevgeny Pri gozhin, a close ally of Vladi mir Putin, the group reached “signicant num bers” of Americans, accord ing to the indictment. They had a “strategic goal to sow discord in the U.S.
political system” and by mid2016 were supporting Donald Trump’s campaign and disparaging Hillary Clinton. The group was based in Mr. Putin’s home town of Saint Petersburg, but some of the accused traveled to the United States. Stops included Nevada, California, New Mexico, Col orado, Illinois, Michigan, Louisiana, Texas, Georgia and New York. An unnamed Texasbased American political opera tive is said to have instruct ed them to focus on so called “purple states” which swing between Republican and Democratic control. “Hundreds” of people were said to have been involved in the operation, working in shifts and with a budget of millions of dollars. They allegedly targeted social media sites like Face book, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram.
Press Trust of India Washington
Staying the course: Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe speaks during a news conference in Colombo on Friday. REUTERS *
majority of the local bodies to Sri Lanka Podujana Pera muna (SLPP), or Sri Lanka People’s Front, a new party backed by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa. The SLPP won 239 councils of the 341 councils which went to the polls. A political crisis soon gripped the uneasy rul ing coalition, as the two partners traded blame for the poll debacle. Some MPs in the two par ties have since been keen on a split. Claiming that they can form a singleparty go vernment, they have been trying hard over the last few days to muster the majority 113gure in Parliament. Party restructuring However, Prime Minister Wickremesinghe said the coalition government would stay. “I have had discussions with President Maithripala Sirisena, I will be meeting him again next week,” he said, adding that a Cabinet reshue was on the cards. Mr. Wickremesinghe said a “massive restructuring” programme will be underta ken with the UNP. A new lea dership group will play a
Coalition partner JHU seeks ‘urgent’ reforms Agence France-Presse Colombo
A key partner in Sri Lanka’s ruling coalition demanded “urgent” government re forms on Friday after a local election defeat that has sparked calls for the Prime Minister to step down. The National Heritage Party ( JHU) said Saturday’s vote showed the people were unhappy with the go vernment of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, which has struggled to over come internal divisions. “There must be urgent re
forms,” said JHU leader Champika Ranawaka, who is also Minister for Urban Development. “There must be giant changes that will di rectly address the aspira tions of the people,” he added. Mr. Wickremesinghe came to power in 2015 on a pledge to end the corrup tion that took hold under the former regime of Mahin da Rajapakse. But Mr. Raja pakse, whose family wields enormous inuence in Sri Lanka, has staged a come back in the local polls.
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greater role to build the par ty, he added, while political sources indicated that a sec tion of UNP legislators is de manding that Mr. Wickre mesinghe step down from the post of party leader, making way for younger members. Refuting claims that he was being asked to give up
the post, he added: “We want a transition without disruption.” Meanwhile, President Maithripala Sirisena can celled a media heads’ meet ing scheduled for Friday morning, where he was ex pected to make a crucial statement on the current political situation.
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“President Trump, please do something! Do something. Action! We need it now! These kids need safety now!” This is how a grieving mother, who lost her daughter in Wednesday’s school shooting in Parkland, Florida, reacted. In his address to the na tion, President Donald Trump made no mention of the scourge of gun violence plaguing America and in stead blamed mental health issues. Mr. Trump did not men tion the word “gun” or “ rearm” even once. With tears rolling down her face, Lori Alhade screamed into a microphone and begged the President to address the nation’s deadly gun epidemic. Ms. Alhade’s 14yearold daughter, Alyssa, was one of 17 people killed during the school shooting. Security issues “How do we allow a gunman to come into our children’s school? How do they get through security? What se curity is there?” she yelled. “The gunman — a crazy person — just walks right in to the school, knocks down the window of my child’s door and starts shooting. Shooting her! And killing her!” She also spoke about the nightmare of burying a child. “I just spent the last two hours putting [together] the burial arrangements for my daughter’s funeral, who’s 14!” she said. Ms. Alhade challenged the President to put a stop to the terror and heartbreak. “President Trump, you say what can you do? You
Nikolas Cruz, centre, appears via video monitor with his public defender, at a court hearing in Florida. REUTERS *
Teen boy confesses to Florida school shooting Agence France-Presse United States
A troubled teen has con fessed to gunning down 17 people at his former high school in Florida, court doc uments showed on Thursday. Nikolas Cruz, 19, has been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder, ap pearing on Thursday after noon via video link before a judge who ordered him held without bond. Expelled from school for
disciplinary reasons, Cruz was known to be xated on rearms. But U.S. authorities them selves were under scrutiny, after the FBI conrmed it was alerted last September to a message posted on You Tube, in which a user named Nikolas Cruz vowed: “I’m going to be a profes sional school shooter.” The FBI said it had carried out “database reviews and other checks” but was unable to identify the person.
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can stop the guns from get ting into these children’s hands,” she said. “What can you do? You can do a lot! This is not fair to our fami lies and our children [to] go to school and have to get killed!” In his address, Mr. Trump said that a school lled with innocent children and car ing teachers became the scene of terrible violence, hatred and evil. Mr. Trump said that no child, no teacher should ev er be in danger in an Ameri can school. No parent should ever have to fear for
their sons and daughters when they kiss them good bye in the morning. ‘Top priority’ “We are committed to work ing with state and local lead ers to help secure our schools and tackle the di cult issue of mental health,” he said. “Making our schools and our children safer will be our top priority. It is not enough to simply take actions that make us feel like we are mak ing a dierence. We must ac tually make that dierence,” he added.
New dawn for S. Africa: Ramaphosa Agence France-Presse Cape Town
South Africa’s newlyap pointed President, Cyril Ramaphosa, on Friday hailed “a new dawn” for the country in his rst pol icy speech after Jacob Zu ma’s bruising nineyear term came to an end. “We should put all the negativity that has dogged our country behind us be cause a new dawn is upon us and a wonderful dawn has arrived,” Mr. Rama phosa told Parliament in the annual State of the Na tion address. He vowed to revive South Africa’s stagnant economy, tackle the coun try’s dire unemployment rate and control spiralling government debt. “Tough decisions have to be made to close our scal gap, sta bilise our debt and restore our stateowned enterpris es to health,” he said.
‘Dreamers’ in limbo as immigration Bills rejected Agence France-Presse Washington
The U.S. Senate blocked sev eral immigration proposals on Thursday, including a bi partisan compromise op posed by President Donald Trump, dashing hopes that Congress will soon decide the fate of nearly two million migrants brought to the country illegally as children. Mr. Trump had threa tened to veto the bipartisan deal, which would shield the young immigrants from de portation in exchange for $25 billion in border securi ty, because it did not include the restrictions on legal im migration he has sought. The Senate’s Republican leadership had set aside this CM YK
Speaking up: A le photo of a demonstrator at a rally in support of the Dream Act on Capitol Hill in Washington.
week to reach an agreement on putting 1.8 million so called “Dreamers” on a pathway to citizenship, boosting border security, and potentially tightening up existing regulations on immigration.
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NYT
Lawmakers were heading home to their districts for 10 days to reassess, with just weeks to go before a March 5 deadline, after which thou sands could be at risk of de portation. All four proposals put forward failed. A ND-NDE
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market watch 16-02-2018
% CHANGE
Sensex dddddddddddddddddddddd 34,011 ddddddddddddd -0.84 US Dollar dddddddddddddddddddd 64.21 ddddddddddddd -0.47 Gold ddddddddddddddddddddddddddd 31,820 ddddddddddddddd0.54 Brent oil ddddddddddddddddddddd 64.76 ddddddddddddddd1.66
‘SBI’s exposure in PNB PNB fallout: focus back on ‘KYE’ fraud is $212 million’ Proper background verication of sta need of the hour, say experts lenders’ reputations. G. Padmanabhan, the then chief general manager of RBI, had urged the bank ing community to enforce KYE norms, not only prior to sta recruitment, but even more vigorously thereafter.
MANOJIT SAHA Mumbai
NIFTY 50 PRICE CHANGE
Adani Ports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405.45. . . . . . . . -6.25 Ambuja Cements. . . .. . . . . . 257.05. . . . . . . . . 3.65 Asian Paints. . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . 1143.85. . . . . . . . . 8.40 Aurobindo Pharma . . . . . . 589.30. . . . . . . . -3.25 Axis Bank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 537.85. . . . . . . . -5.85 Bajaj Auto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3103.90. . . . . . -39.60 Bajaj Finance . . . . . . . . . .. . . . 1675.25. . . . . . . . -1.80 Bharti Airtel . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 419.70. . . . . . . . -9.25 Bosch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19553.60. . . . . . . 51.15 BPCL. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 465.70. . . . . . . . -9.35 Cipla . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 611.10. . . . . . . . . 5.25 Coal India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303.50. . . . . . . . -4.60 Dr Reddys Lab . . . . . . . .. . . . 2213.55. . . . . . . 17.75 Eicher Motors. . . . . . . . .. 27328.15. -1012.30 GAIL (India). . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 468.30. . . . . . . . -7.60 HCL Tech. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 937.10. . . . . . . . -2.60 HDFC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1815.50. . . . . . -14.00 HDFC Bank. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1878.60. . . . . . . . -3.30 Hero MotoCorp . . . . . .. . . . 3494.20. . . . . . -33.05 Hindalco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247.65. . . . . . . . -3.85 HPCL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386.95. . . . . . . . -3.95 Hind Unilever . . . . . . . . .. . . . 1352.10. . . . . . . . -6.05 Indiabulls HFL . . . . . . . .. . . . 1272.35. . . . . . -39.95 ICICI Bank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321.05. . . . . . . . -7.60 IndusInd Bank . . . . . . . .. . . . 1658.90. . . . . . -27.25 Bharti Infratel . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 327.55. . . . . . . . -3.50 Infosys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1128.05. . . . . . . 13.60 Indian OilCorp . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 375.05. . . . . . . . -1.75 ITC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266.45. . . . . . . . -1.65 Kotak Bank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1050.20. . . . . . . . . 8.05 L&T . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1328.40. . . . . . -21.95 Lupin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 825.10. . . . . . . . . 2.80 M&M . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 743.75. . . . . . . . -5.60 Maurti Suzuki . . . . . . . . .. . . . 8836.95. . . -183.30 NTPC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162.80. . . . . . . . -0.40 ONGC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186.90. . . . . . . . -1.40 PowerGrid Corp . . . . .. . . . . . 195.55. . . . . . . . -2.35 Reliance Ind . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 921.30. . . . . . -14.35 State Bank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271.65. . . . . . . . -7.05 Sun Pharma . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 575.25. . . . . . . . -0.50 Tata Motors . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 370.75. . . . . . . . -5.05 Tata Steel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 689.75. . . . . . -10.80 TCS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2933.05. . . . . . . . . 7.20 Tech Mahindra . . . . . . .. . . . . . 584.35. . . . . . -21.30 UltraTech Cement . .. . . . 4166.35. . . . . . -21.50 UPL. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 703.60. . . . . . -12.50 Vedanta . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319.75. . . . . . . . -4.65 Wipro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291.00. . . . . . . . -1.50 YES Bank. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311.80. . . . . . . . -8.00 Zee Entertainment . . . . . . 569.60. . . . . . . . -1.30
EXCHANGE RATES Indicative direct rates in rupees a unit except yen at 4 p.m. on February 16 CURRENCY
TT BUY
TT SELL
US Dollar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 64.01. . . . . . . 64.33 Euro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 79.86. . . . . . . 80.26 British Pound . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 89.96. . . . . . . 90.41 Japanese Yen (100) . .. . 60.25. . . . . . . 60.56 Chinese Yuan . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 10.08. . . . . . . 10.16 Swiss Franc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 69.29. . . . . . . 69.64 Singapore Dollar . . . . . . .. . 48.86. . . . . . . 49.11 Canadian Dollar . . . . . . . . .. . 51.25. . . . . . . 51.51 Malaysian Ringitt . . . . . .. . 16.43. . . . . . . 16.54 Source:Indian Bank
BULLION RATES
CHENNAI
February 16 rates in rupees with previous rates in parentheses Retail Silver (1g) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41.9. . . . . . . (41.8) 22 ct gold (1 g) . .. . . . . . . . . . . . 2928. . . . . . (2925)
K. Bharat Kumar Kochi
State Bank of India (SBI) has an exposure of $212 million linked to the fraud at Punjab National Bank (PNB), SBI Chairman Rajnish Kumar said, adding that the expo sure was mainly to PNB and that he did not see any liabil ities accruing to SBI as a con sequence of the fraud. “We do not have exposure to (Nirav) Modi. My expo sure is to PNB,” Mr. Kumar told mediapersons before in augurating the Global NRI Center at Kochi on Friday. “We are not worried... the regulator is there, judicial system is there... there is al so a categorical statement by the MD of PNB, that all bona de transactions, they will honour. This is something which will get sorted out bet ween the banks.” PNB, India’s secondlar gest bank, was defrauded of 11,500 crore through letters of undertaking (LoUs) in a scam whose dimensions are still unfolding. ‘No lapse’ Speaking after the press meet, Mr. Kumar said of the SBI group’s $212 million ex posure — relating to the LoU transactions initiated on be half of rms controlled by Nirav Modi — $90 million was made through SBI’s Mauritius subsidiary. “There has been absolutely no slip up or lapse from our side. We have followed standard operating procedure.” He added that the bank was “100% condent” of reco vering the amount. Mr. Kumar separately said SBI had “a small exposure to Gitanjali Gems,” without giv ing any details on the nature or extent of that exposure. The SBI chief observed
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that risk management in banks was a continuous pro cess. “We have to keep up dating it. Operational risk is unknown, while credit risk is a calculated risk. In opera tional risk, what hits and when, is unpredictable. The question is what to do when every level of security is breached. “We have to constantly re view, upgrade, look for gaps in processes, compliance standards, eectiveness of audit systems... banking is a complex business; volumes are large. Risk culture, com pliance culture all need to be good,” Mr. Kumar said. Impact of norms Asked about the impact of recent RBI norms to acceler ate the recognition of bad loans and initiation of insol vency proceedings, he said, “Guidelines have made it ea sier... there are two key ele ments to the new norms: whatever the bank feels is sustainable debt needs a rat ing; two, unless you get back 20% in payment, you can’t upgrade the asset.” Mr. Kumar said, “It is im portant that there are adeq uate number of benches at the NCLT.” A majority of in solvency cases, taken to the NCLT in the rst list shared
Operators may attract up to 50 lakh in disincentive ed after Reliance Jio started operations with a ‘welcome oer,’ giving free voice and data to its subscribers for three months. It later ex tended the oer till March 31, 2017, naming it ‘Happy New Year’ oer. Bharti Air tel, Vodafone and Idea had alleged that Reliance Jio vio lated some tari norms.
Special Correspondent NEW DELHI
ers. “Restrictions may not be in the interest of consumers, apart from possibly hinder ing competition. Promotion al oers are reection of ma turity of competition at most of times and restricting them would amount to inter ference with market forces,” it said. For regular taris, TRAI decided to continue with the cap of 25 plans oered by a telco in each licensed ser vice area at any given point of time. The regulations fol low a controversy that start
Firewall against frauds As early as 2005, when banks were in the initial stag es of adopting technology, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had highlighted the im portance of banks enforcing KYE norms, which would act as a rewall against frauds committed in connivance with employees. The latest scam at PNB in volved the issuance of un authorised Letters of Under taking (LoUs) in favour of companies for availing
State Bank Group Chairman Rajnish Kumar speaks during a press conference in Kochi on Friday. PTI
TRAI to ne ‘predatory’ tari The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) said a “nancial disincen tive” of up to 50 lakh for each service area can be im posed on a telco in case a ta ri oered by the operator is found to be predatory. In its new tari order, aimed at ensuring transpa rency, nondiscrimination and nonpredation, TRAI said in the case of non com pliance with norms to report any new tari to the regula tor, the telco may be “liable to pay ve thousand rupees, by way of nancial disincen tive for every day of delay subject to a maximum of 2 lakh as the Authority may by order direct.” TRAI added there was no need to impose restrictions on the number of promo tional oers that an operator can provide to its subscrib
The 11,500crore fraud in the staterun Punjab Nation al Bank (PNB) has brought back into focus the impor tance of Know Your Em ployee (KYE) norms for banks, according to risk as sessment experts.
Bank has no ‘exposure’ to Nirav Modi, says Rajnish Kumar
Display on website TRAI said all segmented o ers — either for retention or acquisition of new consum ers — are to led with the Authority and be displayed on the operator’s website. “…the issue brought out about the tari plans oered to the individual customers/ consumers and which are not led with TRAI, is a cause of serious concern. Any justication with refe rence to such violation can not be accepted,” said the regulator.
by the RBI, would likely see completion by the rst quar ter of FY19, he added. Recognition of stressed loans at SBI was ‘almost ov er’, he said adding, “From next year onwards, 201819, we will enter into what I call the normal position. Normal for me is 2% or below on gross fresh slippages.” SBI would also look to monetise some of its non banking assets by FY20. “ FY20, we will go for IPO [of some assets], because we be lieve we can add lot more va lue before going for IPO. Three companies are prime candidates... SBI MF, SBI General, SBI Card.” The Global NRI Center will help SBI centralise NRI operations across the coun try. The centre will be a sin glepoint of contact for all NRI banking services. To en hance the experience for its 33 lakh NRI customers, SBI introduced services includ ing wealth management, SBI Intelligent Assist and a re mittance facility for U.S. based customers. As of January, SBI had an NRI deposit base of 1.95 lakh crore. (With inputs from G Krishnakumar. The writer was in Kochi at the invitation of SBI)
ICAI to assess audit role in ‘scam’ Special Correspondent
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RBI had stressed importance of KYE as early as 2005.
buyers’ credit, allegedly in connivance with a former employee and a serving employee. In September 2005, the RBI had cited cases of techn ological mishaps where nancial losses had been in duced by employees or exemployees of banks, which had also damaged the
Background screening Rahul Belwalkar, CEO, Se cUR Credentials — a listed background screening com pany — said proper and sys tematic employee back ground verication is the need of the hour but the number of public sector un its that opt for background checks is low in India be cause human resources practices have not evolved and there is a resistance to change. “We also suspect that there is pushback from un ions as well because of
PNB fraud, a failure of internal control: RBI Denies directing PNB to pay its peers
which HR policies haven’t changed in a while. There has been a rise in number of private sector banks and NBFCs that are not only con ducting background screen ing but are also doing regular credit checks on their em ployees who at the end of the day handle large amounts of clients’ money,” Mr. Belwalkar said. The central vigilance com mission (CVC) has also stressed the importance of KYE, observing that several frauds had been insider jobs or were perpetrated with the help of insiders. “Know your employee is important in all industries, but more so for banks which deal with condential perso nal data and money,” said Tarun Bhatia, MD, Investiga tions And Disputes, Asia Pac ic, Kroll, a risk consultancy.
‘May return to normalcy in 6 months’ SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
New Delhi
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
Mumbai
The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) had asked Punjab National Bank (PNB) as well as probe agencies, including the CBI, Enforcement Di rectorate (ED) and capital markets regulator SEBI to provide it with the details regarding the alleged 11,500 crore scam to as certain whether there was professional misconduct/ wrongdoings by auditors. In a statement, the ICAI said it had set up a highpo wered group to examine whether there were sys temic issues. The group would also suggest reme dial measures and im provements in the banking system to prevent the re currence of such incidents.
Mumbai
Fraudhit Punjab National Bank (PNB) told analysts that it may take six months for normalcy to return, ad ding it has noncore assets that could be sold to strengthen capital. “They said within six months they will come out of this situation…I cannot say what they actually meant…whether in six months they will recover the money or get addition al funds,” an analyst, who was on a conference call with PNB’s management, said on condition of anonymity. PNB also said the exact liability from the fraud was yet to be ascertained but could be about 11,500 crore, the analyst said.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said the failure of in ternal controls was the main reason for the 11,500 crore fraud that occurred in Pun jab National Bank (PNB). ‘Operational risk’ The banking regulator, in its rst reaction since the issue came to light on Wednes day, described the fraud as a case of operational risk aris ing out of delinquent beha viour by the bank’s em ployees. “The fraud in PNB is a case of operational risk aris ing on account of delin quent behaviour by one or more employees of the bank and failure of internal con trols,” the central bank said.
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REUTERS
RBI said it was assessing the situation and would take appropriate supervisory ac tion. “RBI has already underta ken a supervisory assess ment of control systems in PNB and will take appro priate supervisory action,” it said. RBI denied directing PNB to pay other banks.
MSCI urges bourses to share feed Ashish Rukhaiyar Mumbai
MSCI Inc., a leading pro vider of researchbased in dices and analytics, wants Indian exchanges to recon sider their decision of not sharing market feed with foreign exchanges. “... we believe that if the changes are put into eect, the result will be disruptive and harmful to internation al institutional investors in Indian equities whether ac cessing the market on shore or oshore,” stated a release issued by MSCI. On February 9, BSE, Na tional Stock Exchange (NSE) and Metropolitan Stock Exchange (MSE), is sued a joint statement say ing they will not share mar ket data feed with any foreign bourse where de rivative contracts based on Indian indices are oered.
Reserve Bank data shows India’s loan fraud problems extend far beyond PNB ‘PSBs reported 8,670 cases totalling 612.6 billion in the last ve nancial years’ Reuters NEW DELHI/MUMBAI
Investors may have been shocked when one of India’s biggest banks disclosed a $1.77 billion fraud by a billio naire jeweller, but the cen tral bank has recorded data that shows the problem runs far deeper and wider. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data, which a Reuters reporter obtained through a righttoinformation re quest, shows staterun banks have reported 8,670 “loan fraud” cases totalling 612.6 billion ($9.58 billion) over the last ve nancial years up to March 31, 2017. In India, loan frauds typi cally refer to cases where the borrower intentionally tries to deceive the lending bank and does not repay the loan. The gures expose the mag CM YK
Line of no control: The gures expose the magnitude of the problem in a banking sector already under pressure. REUTERS
branch had illegally steered $1.77 billion in fraudulent loans to companies, most of them controlled by billio naire jeweller Nirav Modi. It was India’s biggest fraud ever. “This might be the tip of the iceberg or the middle, and that is the worry,” said Pratibha Jain, partner at law rm Nishith Desai Asso ciates, who advises on bank ruptcy cases. “The fact is we don’t know what else is out there.”
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nitude of the problem in a banking sector already un der pressure after years of poor lending practices. Bad loans surged to a re cord peak of nearly $149 bil lion last year. Bank loan frauds have steadily in creased as well, reaching
176.34 billion in the latest nancial year from 63.57 bil lion in 201213, according to the data, which doesn’t in clude the Punjab National Bank (PNB) case. PNB, In dia’s secondlargest state len der, said on Wednesday two junior ocers at a single
Bank disclosures The RBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But in June 2017 the central bank, in its Fi nancial Stability Report, called frauds in banks and nancial institutions “one of the emerging risks to the nancial sector”. A ND-NDE
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IN BRIEF
Liberty hails U.K. steel sector ‘milestone’ Group restarts electric arc furnace in Northern England that it had acquired from Tata Steel a major step forward in its U.K. strategy, focussed on re cycling U.K. scrap metal us ing renewable energy. The company had made a string of acquisitions in the U.K. in the past couple of years, including Tata Steel’s Scottish assets. In January, the company struck an agreement to acquire Eu rope’s largest aluminium smelter in Dunkerque, France, kickstarting an ex pansion into the European mainland.
Vidya Ram London
RCom shareholders okay asset monetisation plan NEW DELHI
Debtridden telecom operator RCom said its shareholders had approved an asset monetisation plan to repay dues. “The shareholders of the company approved the monetisation of its assets. The company announced the results of postal ballot on February 15, 2018, whereby the shareholders approved the resolution to monetise spectrum, towers, bre, telecom infrastructure and other assets with overwhelming majority of 99.91%,” RCom said in a statement. PTI
Draft auto policy urges trade pacts, duty cuts NEW DELHI
The government’s draft National Auto Policy proposes lowering of import duties on components and machinery, setting up of a ‘technology acquisition fund’ and initiating trade pacts with countries with attractive markets for Indian automotive exports. The policy also calls for mandating a minimum share of green vehicles among those purchased by the government and municipal agencies. pti
IBA calls bankers’ meet in the wake of PNB scam MUMBAI
The major commercial banks impacted by the 11,500 crore fraud in Punjab National Bank (PNB) would meet on Saturday to discuss the future course of action. The Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) has called for a meeting of chief executive ocers of the banks to gauge the situation, said banking industry sources close to the development. The move came after RBI said the fraud was a consequence of operational risk.
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An electric arc furnace in northern England, acquired from Tata Steel by Sanjeev Gupta’s Liberty House Group, was reignited on Fri day, in what the company described as a “major miles tone” in the revival of Bri tain’s steel industry. The NFurnace, the larger of two electric arc furnaces, at Liberty Speciality Steels near Rotherham in South Yorkshire was formally reig nited by the Prince of Wales, Prince Charles, highlighting the symbolic signicance ac corded to the restart, both to the industry and the region. The eight lakh tonnea year electric arc furnace, which turns scrap metal into specialised steel for auto and aviation sectors, was moth balled in 2015 as the British steel sector found itself in the midst of crisis amid over
Tripling capacity Liberty House invested £20 million in the speciality steels business, creating 300 new jobs at Rotherham and a sister plant in Stocksbridge, taking the speciality steel workforce to 2,000. The company said its up grading of the facility would triple the capacity to melt scrap into liquid steel at
Revival of fortune: Liberty House had invested £20 million in the speciality steels business. REUTERS *
capacity and sluggish de mand, exacerbated by the dumping of steel into the Eu ropean Union (EU) from Chi na and other countries, and a high cost base. Last year, Tata Steel agreed to sell its U.K. special ity steel business to Liberty
House for £100 million, as part of eorts by the steel ti tan to turn around its Euro pean steel business, having sold its long products divi sion to Greybull Capital in 2016. Liberty House had then said that the acquisition was
Taj Group to focus on protability Hotel chain unveils 5year plan to keep leash on costs, monetise noncore assets Lalatendu Mishra MUMBAI
Indian Hotels Company Ltd. (IHCL) that owns & operates Taj Group of hotels has un veiled a veyear growth strategy focusing on prota bility as well as retaining its iconic status. With $1.2 billion in reve nue, IHCL has announced plans to improve its EBITDA margin to 25% by 2022 from 17% now by increasing reve nue and keeping tight con trol over costs. Three-pronged strategy “Our strategy is three pronged. Restructure, reen gineer and reimagine our portfolio to achieve 8% point EBITDA margin improve ment. This will be driven by service excellence and im
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plementation of revenue and protdriving initiatives,” said Puneet Chhatwal, MD & CEO, IHCL after unveiling the new business strategy. He declined to reveal the ex act nancials, citing regula tive restrictions. He said while 3 to 4% mar gin improvement would come from revenue enhan
cement, another 3 to 5% will be generated from cost e ciency measures. As part of this plan, the company has decided to monetise its non core assets, which include 100 residential apartments in Mumbai and elsewhere as well its land bank. Though the company is yet to x any target, residen tial ats occupied by em ployees are expected to be sold out while the company will make best use of its land bank which is lying idle in Mumbai and Goa to name a few. These could be deve loped as new hotel proper ties with partners, he said. In a major change to its single brand architecture, the company has decided to opt for a multibrand strate gy in line with the one un
veiled by former MD Ray mond Bickson and vice chairman R.K. Krishna Ku mar almost a decade ago. It has decided to scale up its operations under three brands, including Taj, Vivan ta and Ginger. Decision on other brands such as Gate way and Ambassador in Del hi will be taken in the next three to six months. By 2022, the company has set a target to increase its room inventory by 50% to more than 23,000 rooms in all categories and enhance its geographical footprint in India and abroad. The company also said it would work towards improv ing customer experience and strengthening market leadership in each of the seg ments it operates.
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Rotherham, making the company the largest steel re cycler in the U.K. “Switching this furnace back on today, after it had lain idle for more than two years, is a pivotal moment in the revival of U.K. steel mak ing,” said Mr. Gupta. ‘Very good news’ “The occasion makes a very powerful statement that steel does have a future in Britain and that is very good news for the whole of our manufacturing and engi neering sector.” At a conference last week, industry leaders, politicians and unions came together to discuss the future of the in dustry in the northern city of Redcar, with the consensus that while the industry had moved out of the crisis that had engulfed it and threa tened its future, there was lit tle room for complacency.
Walmart may buy over 40% stake in Flipkart Etailer to be valued upwards of $12 bn Reuters MUMBAI
Walmart Inc. is in talks to purchase a stake of more than 40% in Indian ecom merce rm Flipkart, a direct challenge to Amazon.com Inc. in Asia’s thirdlargest economy, two sources fami liar with the matter said. Due diligence In what would be one of its biggest overseas deals, the U.S. retailer is looking at buying new and existing shares in Flipkart and due diligence is likely to begin as early as next week, the sources said. They declined to be named as the talks were private. Terms under discussion were not immediately avail able, but Flipkart would be valued at more than the $12 billion gure given when Ja
The stake purchase may be one of Walmart’s biggest overseas deals. PTI *
pan’s SoftBank Group Corp’s Vision Fund took roughly a fth of the rm last year for $2.5 billion, they added. A spokesman for Flipkart said the company does not comment on rumours or speculation. An Indiabased representative for Walmart declined to comment.
Zoomcar raises $40 mn from Mahindra, others ‘Funds to be used to accelerate marketplace supply growth’ with its ZAP marketplace in 2017 as these vehicles now accounted for more than 25% of its more than 3,000 total eet.
Special Correspondent BENGALURU
Selfdrive car rental startup Zoomcar said it had closed $40 million (256 crore) in a series C investment round led by automaker Mahindra & Mahindra. It said a variety of existing investors had also participat ed in this round. The company would use the funds for accelerating its marketplace supply growth and improving its lead with in applied Internet of Things (IoT) technologies. It would also expand into additional mobility catego ries across India. “We’re incredibly excited to welcome the Mahindra
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team on board for this next phase of growth within the Indian selfdrive mobility space,” Greg Moran, co founder and CEO, Zoomcar, said in a statement. The company said it had witnessed robust growth
Monthly subscription Recently, Zoomcar intro duced ZAP Subscribe, a monthly subscription based programme for cars. It expects this fresh fund ing would help the company hit more than 15,000 sub scriber vehicles on the plat form before the end of 2018. Last October, Zoomcar unveiled PEDL, a dockless cycle sharing service which now operates across 10 cities with a eet of more than 3,000 cycles.
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Irrepressible Kohli completes hosts’ misery Thakur picks up four in another lacklustre South African batting display as India wraps up series 5-1
Mithali and Mandhana power India to 2-0 lead PRESS TRUST OF INDIA EAST LONDON
INDIA IN SA Press Trust of India Centurion
Skipper Virat Kohli broke a plethora of records en route to his 35th century as India crushed South Africa by eight wickets to win the ODI series by a comprehensive 51 margin here on Friday. Not only was this India’s rst ever series win on South African soil but also its big gest ever in terms of margin outside the subcontinent. Having kept their date with history by sealing the series in the previous en counter, the Indians made short work of a modest tar get of 205, by winning in only 32.1 overs, with Kohli scoring an unbeaten 129 o 96 balls in another eortless chase. This was the Indian captain’s third hundred in the series. Punishing mood Kohli was in a punishing mood as he anchored the Proteas’ biggest humiliation in a bilateral series at home since 200102 when they lost 15 to Australia. The bowlers’ back drive o Chris Morris and a signa ture coverdrive signalled Kohli's intent as he became the rst ever batsman in the history of ODI cricket to score 500 runs in a bilateral series, eclipsing teammate Rohit Sharma's previous best of 491 runs. Kohli also became the fas test to 9,500 ODI runs, com pleting the feat in only 200 innings — 15 less than A.B. de Villiers. A spanking straight drive o Imran Tahir got him to his 35th ODI ton o only 82 balls. His innings had 19 fours and two sixes. While young wristspin ners Yuzvendra Chahal (16 wickets) and Kuldeep Yadav
Two men, one goal: Virat Kohli’s strokelled century, his third of the series, and Shardul Thakur’s fourfor ensured that the nal onedayer was also a nocontest. AP *
(17 wickets) created a web, Kohli added insult to injury with his blazing blade in one of the most onesided away series that India has been a part of in the last two decades. Such has been Kohli’s do minance in the series that af ter his aggregate of 558 runs, the next best was Shikhar Dhawan (323). With the top two pace bowling slots, going into the 2019 World Cup, already grabbed by Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah, Mumbai's Shardul Thakur made a case for himself as the third in the jigsaw puzzle with an impressive four for 52 during the South African innings. Spinners Kuldeep (one for 51) and Chahal (two for 38)
again bowled well. While batting, South Afri can openers Aiden Markram (24) and Hashim Amla (10) made another sedate start. Thakur was impressive in his rst spell, even though Mark ram took him for two boun daries to start o
proceedings. Jasprit Bumrah (two for 24) kept a check on the scor ing with his guile at the other end. The duo added 23 runs for the opening wicket be fore Amla was caught be hind, pulling down legside o a short ball from Thakur.
SCOREBOARD
SOUTH AFRICA VS INDIA, 6TH ODI
South Africa: A. Markram c Shreyas b Thakur 24 (30b, 3x4, 1x6), H. Amla c Dhoni b Thakur 10 (19b, 2x4), A.B. de Villiers b Chahal 30 (34b, 4x4), K. Zondo c Pandya b Chahal 54 (74b, 3x4, 2x6), H. Klaasen c Kohli b Bum rah 22 (40b, 3x4), F. Behardien c Bumrah b Thakur 1 (5b), C. Mor ris c Dhawan b Kuldeep 4 (8b), A. Phehlukwayo c & b Thakur 34 (42b, 2x4, 2x6), M. Morkel c Shreyas b Pandya 20 (19b, 2x6), I. Tahir c Kohli b Bumrah 2 (8b), L. Ngidi (not out) 0 (2b); Extras (w3): 3; Total (in 46.5 overs): 204. Fall of wickets: 123 (Amla, 6.3 overs), 243 (Markram, 9.5), 3 105 (de Villiers, 20.5), 4135 (Klaasen, 30.3), 5136 (Behar dien, 31.2), 6142 (Morris, 33.3), 7151 (Zondo, 36.6), 8187 (Morkel, 43.4), 9192 (Tahir, 45.4).
India bowling: Thakur 8.50 524, Bumrah 81242, Pandya 100391, Kuldeep 100511, Chahal 100382. India: S. Dhawan c Zondo b Ngidi 18 (34b, 2x4), Rohit c Klaasen b Ngidi 15 (13b, 3x4), V. Kohli (not out) 129 (96b, 19x4, 2x6), A. Rahane (not out) 34 (50b, 3x4); Extras (b4, lb1, w5): 10; Total (for two wkts, in 32.1 overs): 206. Fall of wickets: 119 (Rohit, 3.4), 280 (Dhawan, 12.4). South Africa bowling: Morkel 7 0420, Ngidi 81542, Morris 60360, Phehlukwayo 40 270, Tahir 7.10420. Toss: India. ManoftheMatch and Series: Kohli. India wins final ODI by eight wickets with 107 balls remaining to take the series 5-1.
Openers Mithali Raj and Smriti Mandhana hit stylish halfcenturies as India cruised to a ninewicket vic tory over South Africa in the second T20I here on Friday. The Harmanpreet Kaur led side is now 20 up in the vematch series, having won the opening encounter by seven wickets. Chasing 143, India can tered home in 19.1 overs as Mandhana hit a blistering 57 o 42 balls while Mithali scored her second succes sive halfcentury and re mained unbeaten on 76 o 61. Mithali was adjudged playerofthematch again. “The wicket was on the slower side and it wouldn’t have been easy for a new bat ter to come in and start hit ting straightaway. The centu ry partnership (with Mandhana) was really im portant,” said Mithali at the postmatch presentation ceremony. Skipper Harmanpreet was equally ecstatic with the se nior pro’s performance. “We had discussed that if a player gets settled, she would have to bat through. It was a fan tastic eort from Mithali,” she said. Mandhana struck four boundaries and three sixes — one o legspinner Dane van Niekerk and another two o Raisibe Ntozakhe. It wasn’t exactly a awless innings as she was dropped twice dur ing her second halfcentury in the shortest format. Along
with Mithali, Mandhana ad ded 106 for the opening stand in 14.2 overs. Mandhana, who scored a century and a halfcentury in India’s ODI series win, was in her element, attacking the Proteas’ bowling from the word go and reaching her halfcentury o only 37 balls. Mithali, on the other hand, completed her 12th T20 halfcentury o 48 deliv eries. She waited for the loose balls and stroked her customary cover drives. She also rotated the strike well. Only after Mandhana was ad judged legbefore, did she take charge. With 23 needed o the last three overs, Mithali tar geted mediumpacer Aya bonga Khaka, bowling the 18th over, hitting her for two boundaries. She smashed eight boundaries, the last a hoick over midwicket o Shabnim Ismail signalling In dia’s victory. SPSN’s live telecast The third, fourth and fth T20Is will be telecast live by Sony Pictures Sports Net work (SPSN). The matches will be avail able on Sony Ten 1 and Sony Ten 3 from February 18. The third, fourth and the fth T20Is will be played on Feb. 18, 21 and 24. The scores: South Africa 142 for seven in 20 overs (Sune Lu us 33, Nadine de Klerk 26, Poo nam Yadav two for 17) lost to India 144 for one in 19.1 overs (Mithali Raj 76 n.o., Smriti Mandhana 57).
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The NBA’s marquee All-Star weekend
Dimitrov packs o Rublev Federer a win away from becoming the oldest World No. 1 Agence France-Presse Rotterdam
Second seed Grigor Dimitrov advanced to the last four in the Rotterdam Open on Fri day as he dispatched young Russian Andrey Rublev 63, 64 to reach the seminals. The Bulgarian duplicated his 2013 semis at the Ahoy Stadium with a win in an hour and a quarter, sending over a dozen aces and saving both break points he faced against his 20yearold opponent. Dimitrov edged ahead in the series, 21 as he put out the tournament debutant ranked 34th and holding one ATP title from last summer on clay in Umag. Berdych withdraws Sixth seed Tomas Berdych withdrew prior to his quar ternal, with the Czech’s ab sence putting fourth seed David Gon into the seminals. Berdych, the 2014 winner, has reportedly been ill for several days and was unable to compete. Roger Federer Federer could become the oldest top ranked player in ATP history if he gets past Robin Haase. The 36yearold needs to
reach the seminals to over take Rafael Nadal at the top of the rankings and reclaim the World No. 1 ranking for the rst time since Novem ber 2012. Federer would surpass American Andre Agassi as the oldest World No.1 if he wins his next match in Rot terdam and he would also set another record of the lon gest gap (ve years and 106 days) between periods as No. 1. The results: Quarternlas ; Grigor Dimitrov bt Andrey Rublev 63, 64; Da vid Gon w/o Tomas Berdych. Second round: Roger Federer bt Philipp Kohlschreiber 76(8), 75; Robin Haase bt Tallon Griekspoor 64, 60
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Consummate artist: Roger Federer is all poise as he makes a return to Philipp Kohlschreiber. AFP
The NBA’s annual midsea son jamboree, the 2018 All Star weekend, kicks o on Saturday at the Staples Cen ter, the home of the Lakers and the Clippers NBA teams. This weekend, Los An geles will host the 67th NBA AllStar game on February 18. For the rst time, the All Star game features 24 players who were selected based on a new format which will not be based on the traditional conference based teams. Two captains — who were chosen based on the highest
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online votes polled by fans — LeBron James of the Cleve land Cavaliers and Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors went on to pick the rest of their 11 teammates. The best player in the All Star game is awarded an All Star MVP award. The reigning AllStar MVP from 2017 is Anthony Davis of the New Orleans Pelicans. There will be the Slam Dunk and the Three point shooting competitions on Saturday.
In smashing form: Mithali Raj hammered her second successive halfcentury. COURTESY: TWITTER *
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‘I’ve struggled to try and get there’ Press Trust of India Rotterdam
Roger Federer can become the oldest World No. 1 on Friday, a remarkable achievement for the 20 time Grand Slam title winner who admitted he “never imagined” he would get the opportunity. “This is an exciting
challenge, I’ve struggled to try and get there. I had to win a lot of matches last year,” said Federer, who was as low as 17 in the World in January last year before he returned to form with the Australian Open title. “I never imagined this after my (February 2016)
knee surgery. No. 1 is a tough place to get to. “The most important thing is to be healthy, I would have had great regrets if I had not come here this week. “I’m very excited for tomorrows match, I can’t wait for it to come around.”
Topclass: Rival skippers LeBron James and Stephen Curry will once again duke it out in the AllStars weekend. AP *
ISL: Pune and Bengaluru battle out a draw N. Sudarshan BENGALURU
Breaking o: Miku, who scored Bengaluru FC’s equaliser, gets past a Pune defender. K. MURALI KUMAR *
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FC Pune City and Bengaluru FC played out an entertain ing 11 draw at the Sree Kan teerava Stadium here on Friday. Pune, which needed all three points to seal qualica tion for the playos, con trolled a majority of the rst half and deservedly took the lead only to be denied by a spirited secondhalf perfor mance by BFC. But it was BFC which had an encouraging start to the match. Midelders Antonio Dovale and Dimas Delgado made their presence felt with a neat interplay of pass es as early as the second minute.
Then the former played the overlapping rightback Rahul Bheke through with a ne chipped ball. But, sur prisingly, BFC struggled to impose itself from thereon. The pacy Udanta Singh and skipper Sunil Chhetri were largely ineective while Dovale, playing just behind forward Miku, was often guil ty of taking one touch too many. The opener for Pune came in the 22nd minute when Sarthak Goloui turned in a perfectly weighted pass by Emiliano Alfaro who was played in before that by Mar celinho following a mistake by Bheke. Minutes later the excellent Marcelinho almost doubled
the lead but for a last ditch tackle by Juanan which pre vented the Brazilian from racing through on goal. The closest the home side came to scoring was when Miku had a shot from 30 yards out turned away for a corner. BFC, however, piled on the pressure in the second period. Pune barely got out of its own half, with goal keeper Vishal Kaith a busy man throughout. With 20 minutes left, Bal jit Sahni was lucky not to concede a penalty after what seemed like a deliberate handball to thwart a Chhetri cross. The equaliser came not long after. A Saini botched clearance saw substitute
Semboi Haokip cut the ball back for Miku to volley in from close range. Pune could have regained the lead immediately after when a glorious pass by Mar celinho split the BFC defence wide open and found Diego Oliveira only for him to u his shot. On 90 minutes, Miku mis sed a great opportunity when he blasted the ball over from just outside the sixyard box. Pune broke immediate ly and even registered a shot on goal but Marcelinho’s at tempted curl was too close to BFC goalie Gurpreet Singh Sandhu. The result: Bengaluru FC 1 (Mi ku 75) drew with FC Pune City (Sarthak Goloui 22). A ND-NDE
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TV PICKS ILeague: Star Sports 2 (SD & HD), 2 p.m. ISL: Star Sports 2 (SD & HD), 8 p.m.
Rishi Dhawan — HP’s goto man Has served his State with distinction for a decade now
IN BRIEF
HAZARE TROPHY Y.B. Sarangi DHARAMSHALA
Rishi Dhawan, popular as RD among his peers, has daz zled over the years with his consistent performance in domestic cricket. Dhawan, a pace bowling allrounder who has single handedly won and saved matches for his State, has been one of the biggest ser vants of Himachal Pradesh cricket for a decade now. Himachal salvaging draws from hopeless situations in Ranji Trophy matches against Hyderabad in Guwa hati in 2016 and against Ben gal at the Eden Gardens last year were two of the many bright instances where Dha wan shouldered the responsibility. Whether he captains the side or not, he always leads it with his spirited showing. “Dhawan is a hardwork ing cricketer and a team man. He always remains in volved in the game and deliv ers under pressure,” says former Himachal coach and India under19 elding coach Abhay Sharma. Dhawan's ne allround showing that enabled Hima chal upset Delhi by two runs in a Group B Vijay Hazare Trophy oneday tournament at Amtar was another exam ple of how indispensable the 27yearold is for his team. Even though captain Prashant Chopra's 150 pro pelled Himachal to a 300
Woods cards oneover in rst round LOS ANGELES
Tiger Woods has never had much luck at Riviera Country Club, and that trend continued on Thursday as the former World No. 1 carded a one-over-par 72 in the first round of the Genesis Open. Playing just his second US PGA Tour event since spinal fusion surgery in April, Woods was again erratic off the tee, but as at Torrey Pines three weeks ago used a solid short game to limit the damage. AFP
Vermaelen and Dembele resume training BARCELONA
Barcelona’s French forward Ousmane Dembele and Belgian defender Thomas Vermaelen (in pic) on Thursday resumed team training after recovering from their physical issues. Vermaelen had sustained a hamstring injury during Barca’s win over Real Betis. Dembele, meanwhile, recovered from stomach problems. IANS
Team man: Rishi Dhawan always remains involved in the game and delivers under pressure, says former Himachal coach Abhay Sharma. FILE PHOTO *
Kerala Blasters looks to keep momentum Sebastian Coe to meet Lamine Diack PARIS
World athletics supremo Sebastian Coe has agreed to meet disgraced predecessor Lamine Diack who has been accused of corruption following the Russian doping scandal which rocked the sport. Coe was one of Diack’s vice-presidents at the IAAF between 2011 and 2014. AFP
Thakkar & Shah pocket silver HODONIN (CZECH REPUBLIC)
India’s Manav Thakkar and Manush Shah put up an impressive show to secure a silver medal in the Czech Junior and Cadet Open, which is part of the 2018 ITTF Premier Junior Circuit. The second-seeded pair lost to the giant-killing Chinese duo, Yingbin Xu and Heyi Yu 14-12, 11-8, 9-11, 13-11. PTI
Inzamam calls for changes in ODI team LAHORE
Inzamam-ul-Haq, chief selector of the Pakistan Cricket Board, has admitted that there is an immediate need to make changes in the team after his side slumped to a 0-5 defeat to New Zealand in the recently-held ODI series. ANI
ISL Amitabha Das Sharma GUWAHATI
NorthEast United FC’s cele brated coach Avram Grant could not help but recall a 2010 incident as his side prepared to host Kerala Blasters in an ISL xture at the Indira Gandhi Stadium here on Saturday. Grant remembered the time when he guided Port smouth FC to the FA Cup nal with former England goalkeeper and current coach of Blasters, David James, captaining his side. This sets an interesting prelude to the ISL match when two former colleagues turn up against each other in a dierent setting. James will be up against his former coach, but the sweet memories of the past will recede to the back ground when his team em barks on the task of defeat ing Grant’s NEUFC in the quest for points that will keep it in the hunt for a place in the playos. With 21 points from 15 outings, Blasters need to win their remaining three ISL xtures.
The hosts, lying ninth with 11 points from 15 games, is already out of the contest, but Grant insisted on nishing the home en gagements on a bright note. “The coach ( James) was my player. Eight years ago we made it to the nal of the (FA) Cup. We had an unbe lievable achievement. I wish him all the best but we will try to win the game. It will be good for the future that the team does not give in and show a good mentality,” Grant said. Assistant coach Hermann Hreioarsson, who came in for an indisposedJames, said Blasters were on the right track picking up seven points from two wins and a draw in the previous three outings. With former Manchester United forward Dimitar Ber batov showing good form and tness the visitors mo tivation level is on a high. “We were in a position where we needed to win six games. So far we have won two and drawn the last one (against ATK). So, we are still in it now,” Hreioarsson said.
plus total, it was Dhawan who chipped in with impor tant contributions to divert the course of the match. Dhawan, who has donned India colours in only three OneDay Internationals and one Twenty20 International, scored an unbeaten 21ball 29 in the death overs, emerged as the most suc cessful and economical bow ler (three for 38) of the match and took the crucial catch of Pradeep Sangwan and ran out Ishant Sharma in the nal over to spoil Delhi's plans the other day. Himachal's victory, which pushed its tally to 14 points, kept it in contention for a quarternal berth. If Himachal wins its last group match against Bengal at the HPCA Stadium here on Saturday, it will go through to the knockout stage at the expense of Delhi, which has 16 points from six engagements. Last year's runnerup Ben gal, which is already out of the race for the quarter nals, will seek to regain some pride and condence. The contest involving Maharashtra and Kerala at Bilaspur is a virtual prequar ternal. Since both sides have 14 points apiece, the winner of the match will ad vance to the last eight. Saturday's Group B matches: At Dharamshala: Himachal Pradesh vs Bengal; At Amtar: Uttar Pradesh vs Tripura; At Bilaspur: Maharashtra vs Kerala.
Gokulam takes on East Bengal Visitors will be keen to keep championship hopes alive
BENGALURU: China One (Irvan up) won the Pratap Stud Plate, the feature event of the races held here on Friday (Feb 16). The winner is owned by Mr. Saud Ahmed Khan and trained by Parvati. THE RESULTS MAN ‘O’ WAR PLATE (1,100m), maiden 3yo only, (Terms): SUBAH KA TARA (Srinath) 1, De cisive (A. Imran) 2, Candle lightqueen (Shailesh) 3 and An nalease (Yash) 4. 6, 31/4 and 31/2. 1m 07.73s. 12 (w), 10, 13 and 38 (p), SHP: 26, THP: 72, FP: 31, Q: 28, Trinella: 344 and 236, Exacta: 1,182 and 282. Favourite: Subah Ka Tara. Owners: Mr. Samar Singh, Mr. Gautam Sen gupta & Mrs. Smitha Gautam. Trainer: Samar. MANIPAL PLATE (Div. II), (1,200m), rated 15 to 35: IRIS (Anjar) 1, Optimisticapporach (Vivek) 2, Parting Shot (S. Shiva) 3 and Perfectgoldenera (Naveen) 4. Not run: Dauphine. 3, 2 and 1. 1m 14.79s. 22 (w), 13, 125 and 24 (p), SHP: 395, THP: 70, FP: 2,765, Q: 1,132, Trinella: 7,142 and 2,186, Exacta: 34,513 and 14,791. Fa vourite: Iris. Owner: Mr. S. Pathy. Trainer: I. Ghatala. MANDYA PLATE (1,800m), rated 30 to 50, 5yo & over: BALIAN (Allan) 1, Czar Rule (Ar shad) 2, Del Porto (Darshan) 3 and Fresh Start (A. Imran) 4. 3 1/2, 3/4 and Snk. 1m 52.58s. 20 (w), 12, 17 and 14 (p), SHP: 40, THP: 53, FP: 74, Q: 62, Trinella: 250 and 67, Exacta: 766 and 296. Favourite: Balian. Owners: Capt. Jamshed J. Appoo & Poonawalla Racing & Breeding Pvt Ltd rep by. Mr. Zavaray S. Poonawalla and Mrs. Behroze Z. Poonawalla. Trainer: Padmanabhan. PRATAP STUD PLATE (1,200m), rated 45 to 65: CHINA ONE (Irvan) 1, Kvasir (Srinath) 2, Royal Serenity (Khur shad) 3 and Havelock Princess (Rayan) 4. 3/4, Nk and Hd. 1m
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Batshuayi continued his good form with a late brace as Dortmund fought back to beat Atalanta 32 at the Sig nal Iduna Park.
Kozhikode #5 6 7 0 0 1
Limbering up: Gokulam FC Kerala players at practice session in Kozhik0ode on Friday. S. RAMESH KURUP *
could aord to smile when he met reporters here on Friday. “Our strategy of playing a waiting game and launching counterattacks paid o against Bagan,” he said. “We will play for a win against East Bengal too.” He said the recent foreign recruits have made his team stronger and sharper up front. “Mahmood AlAjmi’s contribution has been re
markable, both as a play maker and as a motivator,” he said. “Henry Kisekka too has proved a great signing.” The Ugandan striker scored the winning goal against Bagan. East Bengal coach Khalid Jamil had watched that game and was impressed. “We are not going to take Gokulam lightly,” he said. “But, we will play for a victo ry.”
13.83s. 750 (w), 97, 12 and 45 (p), SHP: 35, THP: 115, FP: 3,267, Q: 1,079, Trinella: 81,029 and 34,727, Exacta: 92,369 (carried over) and 39,587. Favourite: Kvasir. Owner: Mr. Saud Ahmed Khan. Trainer: Parvati.
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DR. C. VITTAL MEMORIAL TROPHY (1,400m), rated 30 to 50: CANTABRIA (Nazerul) 1, Birchwood (A. Ramu) 2, Setaglow (Trevor) 3 and As Time Goes By (Suraj) 4. Not run: Cold Frontier. 11/2, 3/4 and Snk. 1m 26.55s. 47 (w), 16, 47 and 11 (p), SHP: 151, THP: 47, FP: 1,496, Q: 741, Trinella: 2,449 and 685, Exacta: 15,476 and 7,839. Favourite: As Time Goes By. Owners: Mr. Gautam Basapa, Mr. Apana Subaiya P & Mr. Capt. Andrew Anand Bhasin. Trainer: I. Ghatala. MANIPAL PLATE (Div. I), (1,200m), rated 15 to 35: MULHOLLAND (Suraj) 1, Allsettogo (Srinath) 2, Mischief Flyer (A. Im ran) 3 and Hunters Moon (R. Mar shall) 4. 33/4, 11/4 and 21/4. 1m 14.29s. 25 (w), 13, 17 and 50 (p), SHP: 50, THP: 84, FP: 102, Q: 36, Trinella: 1,577 and 558, Exacta: 5,816 and 2,181. Favourite: Mul holland. Owners: Mr. Hemant Dhamidharka, Mr. Neil Darashah & Mr. Arjun Sajnani. Trainer: Neil. BALMURI FALLS PLATE (1,400m), rated 00 to 20, 5 yo & over: NOTOS (Arshad) 1, Perfect Prince (Rayan) 2, Tic Tac Toe (Samson) 3 and Jack Of Hearts (A. Imran) 4. Not run: Ga leno. 13/4, 11/4 and Nk. 1m 28.85s. 51 (w), 19, 26 and 23 (p), SHP: 92, THP: 52, FP: 2,712, Q: 1,721, Trinella: 20,300 and 5,800, Exacta: 81,001 and 34,715. Fa vourite: Jack Of Hearts. Owners: Ms. S. Rohini Iyengar & Mr. Neil Darashah. Trainer: Neil. Jackpot: 2,11,262 (three tkts); Runner up: 6,317 (43 tkts); Treble (i): 3,000 (five tkts); (ii): 1,707 (20 tkts).
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Batshuayi leads Dortmund’s ghtback Paris
P.K. Ajith Kumar
Finding its feet They are up against a side that has nally found its feet in the endgame after a disas trous beginning and middle. The Kerala men have played some sparkling football in their last few matches. The win against another Kolkata giant Mohun Bagan, that too in the lion’s own den, had come just four days ago. The 21 victory is one of the biggest upsets in the his tory of the ILeague. Coach Bino George, therefore,
China One claims Pratap Stud Plate
Agence France-Presse
I-LEAGUE One team is playing for the title, the other, pride. East Bengal, with 26 points, is placed third in the ILeague table, while Goku lam FC Kerala, with 13, is ly ing at the very bottom. Yet, Saturday’s game at the Corporation Stadium could be a fascinating one. Not just because the visitors from Kolkata would be play ing under pressure to win and thus keep their cham pionship hopes alive.
RACING
The results: (round of 32, rst leg): Dortmund 3 (Schurrle 30, Batshuayi 65, 90+1) bt Atalanta 2 (Ilicic 51, 56); Ludogorets 0 lost to AC Milan 3 (Cutrone 45, Rodriguez 64-pen, Borini 90+2); Marseille 3 (Germain 4, 69, Thauvin 74) bt Braga 0; Nice 2 (Balotelli 4, 28-pen) lost to Lokomotiv Moscow 3 (Fernandes 45-pen, 69, 77); Ostersunds 0 lost to Arsenal 3 (Monreal 13, Papagiannopoulos 24-og, Ozil 58); Real Sociedad 2 (Odriozola 57, Januzaj 80) drew with Salzburg 2
(Oyarzabal 27-og, Minamino 90+4); Spartak Moscow 1 (Adriano 60) lost to Athletic Bilbao 3 (Aduriz 22, 39, Rico 45+1); FC Astana 1 (Tomasov 7) lost to Sporting Lisbon 3 (Fernandes 48-pen, Martins 50, Doumbia 55); AEK Athens 1 (Ajdarevic 80) drew with Dynamo Kiev 1 (Tsygankov 19) ;Celtic 1 (McGregor 78) bt Zenit St. Petersburg 0; FC Copenhagen 1 (Fischer 15) lost to Atletico Madrid 4 (Niguez 21, Gameiro 37, Griezmann 71, Vitolo 77); FCSB 1 (Gnohere 29) bt Lazio 0; Lyon 3 (Ndombele 46, Fekir 49, Depay 82) bt Villarreal 1 (Fornals 63);Napoli 1 (Ounas 52) lost to RB Leipzig 3 (Werner 61, 90+3, Bruma 74); Partizan Belgrade 1 (Tawamba 58) drew with Viktoria Plzen 1 (Reznik 81).
Thanking the Lord: Dortmund’s Michy Batshuayi, left, celebrates with Alexander Isak after scoring against Atalanta Bergamo. AFP *
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THE HINDU CROSSWORD 12243
(set by Vulcan)
3 Good to have an almost rm stomach (7)
Garuda, a devoted son
13 Picure of gold placed on the surface (7)
4 Strongly or subtly different! (8)
When snakes were unleashed against Vaishnavite Acharya Vedanta Desika by a snake charmer, the Acharya chanted the Garuda mantra. Garuda captured the snakes and took them all away. So now the snake charmer was left without any snakes, for snakes constituted his livelihood. Desika then requested Garuda to return the snakes to the man. He then composed Garuda Dandakam, to express his gratitude to Garuda, for the latter’s timely help. Those who are bound in samsara are called baddhas. Muktas are those who have got moksha due to Saranagati or through one of the three yogas which Lord Krishna talks about in the Bhagavad Gita. Nityas are those who are never bound by karma. They do appear from time to time on this earth, but it is of their own free will and never due to karma. Garuda belongs to this category of Nityas, said Akkarakkani Srinidhi in a discourse. Garuda is the perfect example of a devoted son. His moth er was enslaved by Kadru, and the only way to liberate her was for him to fetch nectar. But this was not a task that could be easily accomplished, for the pot was wellguarded by In dra. But Garuda brought the nectar, breaking down the hur dles in his path. In his Garuda Panchasat, Desika shows the respect Garuda commanded from everyone. Desika says that Surya was afraid that Garuda would des troy the harness of the horses that drew his chariot. His fear was justied, because snakes were the harness! However, since Aruna was Surya’s charioteer, his fear was diminished a little, because Aruna was Garuda’s brother. Lord Siva was afraid that the string of his bow would be destroyed, for the snake Vasuki was the string! Lord Narayana Himself asked Garuda not to get close to Adisesha — His serpent bed!
15 It's got one foot over a deer (6) 18 Saw agent wearing brown (6) 20 Deny having critical mail on CD (8) 22 New leader working along with Fox (7) 25 Writer, old and tired perhaps (6) 27 Main variable describing an alloy (5) 28 Carpet that's extremely rare, neat also (9)
1 Fault or niggle in a book (4,4) 5 Hungary's capital, a ne city (6) 10 Live in bliss every second — unseen, in disguise and inconspicuous (9) 11 Pain of a sportswoman, one that's knocked out (5)
CM YK
FAITH
12 Marketplaces run in a state on strike (6)
14 One celeb I'm annoyed with, a fool (8)
■ ACROSS
SUDOKU
29 Student is taken into medical department to volunteer (6) 30 The ones he notes? These are not straight (8) ■ DOWN 1 Purchase beef cut (4) 2 It's new in Mumbai, a triangular section that's passable (9)
6 A large book, primarily about a maths subject (7) 7 Wake up in Paris early (5) 8 Aura of a character — with love invariably unconditional — magical primarily (9) 9 Ones trained to provide shelter (4) 14 Club tennis? I have to be serious? (9) 16 Maria, not a bad lover (9) 17 Defenceless one wiped out (44) 19 Attracts each and every user all over (7) 21 Roof covering, say (7) 23 Unusual story (5) 24 Individual with class (4) 26 Rules basically skipped in poems (4)
Solution to puzzle 12242
Solution to yesterday’s Sudoku
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THE HINDU
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IN BRIEF
Mourinho wants FA Cup response MANCHESTER
Manchester United will be desperate to bounce back in the FA Cup fifth round against Huddersfield on Saturday, its first match featuring opinion dividing video assistant referee (VAR) technology. “It’s very difficult to put me in a position where I have to criticise my players,” said Mourinho when quizzed on Pogba’s lack of form. AFP
India static in world football rankings NEW DELHI
The Indian football team remained static at the 102nd position in the latest FIFA rankings released on Friday. Sunil Chhetri and co didn’t have any international fixture throughout the previous month and held on to their spot with 333 points. PTI
Bhambri takes on Thompson
Australia pulls o record chase
Sriram Balaji and Vishnu Vardhan win their fourth ATP Challenger title
Auckland
K. Keerthivasan CHENNAI
In tandem: Sriram Balaji and Vishnu Vardhan on way to winning the doubles crown.
The crucial break in the rst set came in the 11th game when Bhambri pro duced his favourite shot — the insideout forehand — to close out the point at ‘advantage’. Lee did work hard, belt ing out forehand and back hand winners from the base line, but Bhambri was more
Arrows hold Vasco VASCO
Young guns from Indian Arrows showed a lot of heart as they rallied twice holding defending champions Aizawl FC to a creditable 22 draw in an ILeague encounter, here on Friday. Indian Arrows remain at eight position with 15 points from 16 games while Aizawl is sixth with 18 points from 14 games. The result: Indian Arrows 2 (Edmund Lalrindika 48; Amarjit Singh Kiyam 89) drew with Aizwal FC 2 (Masih Saighani 40, Leonce Dodoz Zikahi 54). PTI
D’Arcy Short anchored a highpowered Australian batting order to produce the highest successful run chase in Twenty20 International cricket to beat New Zealand by ve wickets in its trise ries clash at Eden Park on Friday. Short scored 76 o 44
CHENNAI OPEN Jordan Thompson and Yuki Bhambri are in the same boat. Both had a largely suc cessful 2017, both are poised to enter the top 100 in World singles rankings, and most important, are in prime form now. Moroever, they have been injuryfree of late. When the two clash in the nal of the Chennai Open ATP Challen ger tennis championships here on Saturday, it will be a battle between two of the best players on view, who have shown grit and pa tience under tough conditions. Bhambri, the second seed, shut out an early chal lenge from Duckhee Lee, the third seed, to win 75, 62 in the rst seminal while Thompson of Australia, the top seed, tamed Pedro Mar tinez of Spain 61, 76(5) in the other last four clash on Friday.
In ne fettle: Jordan Thompson was hardly pushed for most part of his seminal against Pedro Martinez. R. RAGU *
consistent and had more winners. Bhambri took an early lead in the second set when he broke Lee in the third game, and again in the se venth to script a convincing win in an hour and 25 minutes. Thompson doesn’t have huge weapons to speak of. But, one thing he has in am ple measure is the ability to retrieve, literally everything. Against Martinez, the Aussie was hardly pushed for most part of the contest. After breaking the Spa niard’s serve in the fth game of the second set, it looked like Thompson would thrash Martinez, and close out the contest. But Martinez had other plans. Stroking winners from the baseline, he broke serve in the eighth game and took the match to the tiebreaker, which the Aussie won 75.
Reuters
*
balls as Australia reached 245 for ve with seven deliv eries remaining. The run chase eclipsed the 236 for six the West In dies achieved in beating South Africa in Johannes burg in 2015. New Zealand had scored 243 for six in its 20 overs af ter Martin Guptill (105) and Colin Munro (76) had pro duced a blistering 132run opening partnership in 10.4 overs.
Short and captain David Warner (59), however, put on 121 runs in 8.3 overs to give the visitors the ideal start before Glenn Maxwell, who scored 31 o 14 balls, and Aaron Finch (36 not out) ensured it got home. The scores: New Zealand 243 for six in 20 overs (Martin Gup till 105, Colin Munro 76; Kane Richardson two for 40) lost to Australia 245 for ve in 18.5 ov ers (David Warner 59, D’Arcy Short 76, Aaron Finch 36 n.o., Glenn Maxwell 31).
R. RAGU
Bhambri, who had beaten Thompson in 2015 in the Shanghai Challengers quar ternals, said it would be great to get his hands on the winner’s Trophy. “It will be a big boost and will make the rest of the year a lot easier to plan. If you have a good start to the year, it just helps,” said the In dian, who has already won six Challenger titles. Later in the evening, the Indian pair of Sriram Balaji and Vishnu Vardhan over came a sti challenge from Danilo Petrovic of Serbia and Cem Ilkel (Turkey) 76 (5), 57, [105] to bag a fourth ATP Challenger title. The results: Seminals: Jordan Thompson (Aus) bt Pedro Martinez (Esp) 61, 76(5); Yuki Bhambri (Ind) bt Duckhee Lee (Korea) 75, 62. Doubles: Final: Sriram Ba laji & Vishnu Vardhan (Ind) bt Danilo Petrovic (Srb) & Cem Il kel (Tur) 76(5), 57, [105].
Running riot: D'Arcy Short’s belligerence helped Australia make short work of New Zealand’s huge total. AFP *
Royals’ Short longing for IPL-11 to start Ayan Acharya CHENNAI
D’Arcy Short’s quickre 44ball 76 was the highlight of Australia’s record chase in the T20I against New Zealand at Auckland on Friday. The leading runscorer in this year’s Big Bash League (BBL) with 572 runs, Short was signed by Rajasthan Royals (RR) for 4 crore. The lefthander “can't wait” to embrace the IPL experience. “It feels great to be going to the IPL. It will be
my rst time in India and I am excited to learn about the people, the culture and, of course, playing for Rajasthan Royals. “There will be so many great players to learn from — guys like Steve Smith, Ajinkya Rahane, Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler,” Short told Sportstar. The southpaw knows scoring runs in Indian conditions will be a dierent ballgame. “Obviously, playing in India presents dierent challenges. So I’ll be
talking to my teammates — both local and international — who have played in India and look at ways to make sure I bat deep into the innings,” he said. On whether the hefty price tag brings pressure, he replied: “No, not at all. There’s pressure every time you play. I really wanted the opportunity to play in the IPL. It is such a great tournament with so many great players and I’ll learn a lot from the experience," he added.
Tongan keeps clothes on, nishes 114th WINTER GAMES Agence France-Presse PyeongChang
Tongan hunk Pita Taufato fua, famous for peeling o and baring his chest at the Olympics, hoped he wouldn’t ski into a tree in his Winter Games debut. He al so wanted to nish before it got dark in Friday’s 15km freestyle crosscountry skiing. Well, Taufatofua kept this clothes on for once and ticked both boxes, nishing 114th — almost 23 minutes behind the gold medallist, Swiss legend Dario Cologna,
but crucially avoiding the wooden spoon. The dubious honour of nishing last went to 43 yearold Mexican German Madrazo. Taufatofua and Morocco’s Samir Azzimani (111th) waited for Madrazo at the nish line before hoist ing their comrade into the air. “I’d rather nish towards the end of the pack with all my friends than be somewh ere in the middle by myself,” said the Tongan beefcake, who competed in taekwon do at the 2016 Rio Games but lost in the rst round. “We fought together, we nished together.”
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Male bonding: Tongan Pita Taufatofua and Morocco’s Samir Azzimani, left, who along with Mexican German Madrazo, brought up the rear in the 15km freestyle crosscountry skiing had a whale of time at the Winter Games. REUTERS *
India’s campaign ends Press Trust of India Pyeongchang
India’s Jagdish Singh on Friday nished a dismal 103rd in the men’s 15km free crosscountry skiing race at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics here, bringing down curtains on country’s disastrous show in the quadrennial Games. The 26yearold Jagdish clocked 43.03 minutes.
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Huge turnout at DUTA rally
Black pride
Passion for good stories
Remembering Picasso
Shiksha Bachao Rally sees students and teachers come together to protest new funding formula Page 2
Marvel Studio’s Black Panther is a uniquely poignant take on the superhero genre Page 4
Manoj Bajpayee on his illustrious lmography and why he doesn’t worry about box office numbers Page 5
Bernard RuizPicasso, the Cubist painter’s grandson, on childhood memories and controversies Page 6
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IN BRIEF
FIR against JNU students for Administrators, students ‘laying siege’ to admin block accuse each other of lying Students deny they gheraoed Administration Block
Another woman hurt in snatching bid
JNU Students’ Union president Geeta Kumari, other ocebearers named in FIR
New Delhi
NEW DELHI
A woman suered cuts on her earlobes when a snatcher allegedly tore o her gold earrings near Uttam Nagar bus terminal on Thursday. The incident happened when Kamla Bharti was on her way to buy fruits. This is the second such incident at the spot this week. CITY
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Rajnath lauds Delhi Police for IM operative’s arrest NEW DELHI
Stating that the Delhi Police was capable of handling any challenge, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh lauded the force on the arrest of Indian Mujahideen operative Ariz Khan, who was absconding for nearly a decade before he was nabbed recently. CITY
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registered,” said a senior police ocer. The police said that oc erbearers of JNUSU, includ ing its president Geeta Ku mari, are named in the FIR.
Staff Reporter New Delhi
The Delhi Police on Friday registered an FIR against several students of Jawahar lal Nehru University ( JNU) for alleged wrongful res traint of administrators who were present in the Adminis tration Block on Thursday. The students had formed a human chain around the Administration Block and demanded that ViceChan cellor M. Jagadesh Kumar address them on the issue of compulsory attendance. The JNU Students’ Union ( JNUSU)), however, said the students did not gherao the Administration Block. Additional Deputy Com missioner of Police (South West) Monika Bhardwaj con rmed that an FIR has been registered. A senior police ocer
Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union president Geeta Kumari (2nd from left) and other ocebearers address a press conference at JNU on Friday. SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT *
said that JNU authorities ap proached the police with a complaint alleging that stu dents had ‘gheraoed’ the Ad ministration Block on Thurs day starting 11 a.m., and didn’t allow the faculty and sta to leave the premises. “The authorities alleged that Rectors Chintamani Ma
hapatra and Rana Pratap Singh needed medical atten tion but the protest by the students made the matters worse for them. An FIR un der Section 323 [punish ment for voluntarily causing hurt] and 341 [punishment for wrongful restraint] of the Indian Penal Code has been
JNUSU denies charges The JNUSU, however, denied the charges levelled by the authorities. “JNU students did not gherao the adminis trators on Thursday, and did not prevent any administra tive ocial from leaving the Administration Block. Stu dents gathered peacefully demanding that the VC meet the students,” Ms. Ku mari said at a press confe rence on Friday. The JNUSU added that they did not stop the Rector, or any other administrators or teachers, from coming and going in and out of the Administration Block.
Don’t block oce building, HC tells students ‘University at liberty to request police assistance to maintain law and order on campus’ Staff Reporter
der in the campus.
New Delhi
The Delhi High Court on Fri day directed the students of Jawaharlal Nehru University ( JNU) not to obstruct the ViceChancellor and other sta from entering or exiting the Administrative Block. Justice V. K. Rao ordered the interim order would be in force for the next three days, starting Saturday, and said the university was at li berty to request police assis tance to maintain law and or
Jaideep Deo Bhanj
Hampering functions “The respondents [the JNU Students’ Union’s four oce bearers, including its presi dent] shall not block the in gress and egress of the Vice Chancellor, Pro ViceChan cellor, Registrar and connected sta to the Admi nistrative Block of the un iversity for tomorrow, dayaf tertomorrow and on Monday,” the judge said. The order came on a plea
of the varsity claiming that the protest near the Admi nistrative Block was hamper ing its functioning. The students had on Thursday blockaded the Ad ministration Block demand ing a meeting with the Vice Chancellor on the issue of compulsory attendance and stopped two Rectors from leaving the building. The court, however, made it clear that its order “should not preclude” the students from peacefully protesting at
the Sabarmati lawn on campus. ‘Anarchy on campus’ It also sought response from JNUSU president Geeta Ku mari and three others by Fe bruary 20 on JNU’s plea that the High Court’s order ask ing them not to protest with in 100 metres of the Admi nistrative Block was being violated. Additional Solicitor Gen eral (ASG) Sanjay Jain, ap pearing for JNU, alleged that
the students have created anarchy in the campus. The ASG claimed that the ocials were unable to carry out their duties during the blockade of the Administra tive Block by the “aggressive and violent” students and its leaders. Last year, the court had asked the police to keep away from the university campus unless there was any evidence of disruption of law and order or if the varsity sought its assistance.
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Claiming that students had gheraoed the Administra tion Block for nearly 12 hours on Thursday, Jawahar lal Nehru University ( JNU) is sued a statement on Friday alleging that the students had made an “unjustied” demand that the ViceChan cellor address the “bellige rent” and “agitating” crowd. The JNU Students’ Union ( JNUSU), however, accused the university of spreading lies and said they did not gherao the Administration Block, and did not prevent any ocial from leaving or entering the oces. “Students gathered peacefully demanding that the VC meet the students and address their concerns [on compulsory attendance] instead of ‘shooting’ arbi trary rules and disciplinary notices at them and then ‘scooting’ o,” said JNUSU president Geeta Kumari. A statement issued by the Registrar read: “Can any meaningful dialogue take place in such a disturbing at mosphere?”. The administration, ho wever, said it was willing to meet and discuss any sug gestion from JNUSU but only if the students did not in dulge in “unlawful means”. The university added that the JNUSU was spreading misinformation and false propaganda by saying that the VC does not want to meet the students. “Every month on the rst Monday, between 2.30 p.m. and 5.30 p.m., any student can meet the VC. A large number of students, includ
JNU students during the protest outside the Administration Block on Thursday. SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT *
ing JNUSU ocebearers have met the VC on these days,” said the Registrar. He added that on Febru ary 5, more than 40 stu dents, including JNUSU of cebearers, had met the VC and they discussed the at tendancerelated issues. The Registrar said that there was no need for such a large crowd to gather in protest and violate orders of the Delhi High Court as well as university rules, and create a situation of “fear, and intimidation”. ‘Students were abusive’ The university also accused the students of abusing, and mistreating the Proctor, two Rectors, and several teach ers, who had come to meet the ocials “who had been illegally conned during the protest”. The administration furth er alleged that when an am bulance was called to take an ocial to the hospital, the students blocked the vehicle. The Registrar claimed that a student even tried to run away with the keys of the ambulance.
Refuting the accusations, the JNUSU said that in an academic community, the head of the institution must respect the “overwhelming opinion” of the student com munity and not “dictate” through press releases, ot take matters to court, or in volve the police. ‘Must talk to students’ The JNUSU added that when both students and teachers have boycotted the move to enforce mandatory atten dance, the administration must address their concerns and not “unilaterally issue diktats”. “JNU is a research univer sity. Students attend confe rences, go to libraries and ar chives outside campus and in other cities, for research. It is impossible and un heardof for students in re search programmes to come to school daily to pointlessly sign attendance sheets,” said the JNUSU. It added that sev eral letters written to the VC explaining how unnecessary and damaging compulsory attendance is, have gone un answered.
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Car mows down DU student
Innocent times
Two others seriously injured; accused absconding Staff Reporter New Delhi
A 19yearold student of Delhi University was killed, while a 21yearold student and a police ocer suered severe injuries after a speeding vehicle hit them on Friday morning in north Delhi’s Maurice Nagar. The police have launched a hunt for the accused who ed the spot. The police said that Kapil Ratnu, a rstyear student of Ramjas College, was killed, while Jagriti, a third year student of the same college, and Constable Mu kesh were hurt in the inci dent. Additional Deputy Com missioner of Police (North) Harendra Singh said the
driver of the vehicle was coming from Vijay Nagar to wards North Campus around 10.30 a.m. when the accident happened. The accused, who was al legedly speeding, rst hit the constable, who was rid ing his motorcycle on the left side of the road. The car then hit Kapil followed by Jagriti before coming to a halt. The accused left the car on the spot and ed be fore anyone could catch him, said the police. Meanwhile, a PCR call was made and all the in jured persons were rushed to Hindu Rao Hospital. Ka pil was declared brought dead. “The constable is re cuperating and Jagriti has been referred to the trauma
centre,” said Mr. Singh. The police said the vehi cle’s registration number was checked and the car’s owner was identied as R. C. Vyas, a doctor who is a resident of Kalyanpuri. “Eyewitnesses and preli minary probe suggests that the car was being driven by a younger person. We sus pect it was being driven by the doctor’s son but we’re still investigating,” said Mr. Singh, adding that no one has been apprehended yet. A case has been regis tered under Sections 279 (rash driving), 337 (causing hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of oth ers), and 304A (causing death by negligence) of the Indian Penal Code.
Accident victim gets 47 lakh solatium 30yearold suered 88% disability after truck hit his bike Nirnimesh Kumar New Delhi
A Motor Accident Claims Tri bunal has awarded compen sation of 47 lakh to a 30 yearold clinical audiologist and speech therapist who had suered 88% perma nent disability and lost po tency due to the injuries. The petitioner remained hospitalised for 11 months and spent more than 20 lakh on treatment, which is still continuing. The Tribunal awarded 20.3 lakh for medical ex penses and 1 lakh for loss of marriage prospects. The accident happened in 2014. The victim was pillion CM YK
riding a motorcycle along with his brotherinlaw when a speeding truck hit them from behind in Ghazia bad. In his petition, the vic tim said that his average in come was 60,000 a month. Rash driving The ownercumdriver of the oending vehicle and the insurance company with which the truck was insured opposed the plea for com pensation of 90 lakh. However, the Tribunal dismissed their arguments. “The driver has taken a defence that he has been fal sely implicated in this case but this defence could not
be proved as he was duly ar rested in criminal case dur ing investigation and the vehicle was seized,” the Pre siding Ocer of the Tribu nal, Devender Kumar, said “The oending vehicle was seized along with the ar rest of the driver. As such, it stands proved that the driv er caused the accident by his rash and negligent driving and resulted in injuries to the victim,” Mr. Kumar said. “Petitioner is entitled for compensation of 47 lakh from the insurance rm with interest at the rate of 9% per annum from the date of l ing of the petition till realisa tion,” the Tribunal said.
Hand in hand: Children on their way to a playschool on a cold Friday morning.
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Trains on Yellow Line move at a crawl Services aected for over 30 minutes due to signalling issues at three major stations Staff Reporter New Delhi
Services on the Delhi Metro’s Yellow Line were aected for around 30 minutes on Friday due to signalling issues at three major stations on the line, which connects Samay pur Badli to Huda City Centre. The snag occurred at Rajiv Chowk, Kashmere Gate and
Vishwavidyalaya stations around 11.30 a.m., the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) said in a statement. A senior ocial said that though services slowed down, the trains did not stop. “Due to a signalling is sue at the interlocking sta tions of Rajiv Chowk, Kashm ere Gate and Vishwavidyalaya stations of
Line 2 (Yellow Line), trains were manually given routes from 11.30 a.m. to 12.04 p.m. This caused a little bunching of trains on Line 2 during this period,” the ocial said. The issue has been recti ed and services were res tored to normal, the DMRC added. Rajiv Chowk, an inter change station for the Blue
and Yellow lines, and Kashm ere Gate, an interchange sta tion for Red and Yellow lines, see huge footfall daily. “Trains were stopping longer than usual, causing the delay, but the services weren’t stopped at any point of time,” the ocial added. The halfanhour snag, ho wever, was enough to cause chaos in the interconnecting
stations and it led to massive crowds. Several commuters took to social media to vent their frustration. “We are standing on Rajiv Chowk from last 25 minutes no metro is coming. One side you are increasing the fare twice 2nd time in a year, but you are unable to give prop er service for that fare [sic],” tweeted Hitesh Saini. B ND-NDE
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Urdu festival inaugurated Staff Reporter New Delhi
Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia inaugurat ed the Delhi government’s JashneVirasateUrdu fes tival on Thursday evening. The festival, which cele brates Urdu heritage and culture, has been organ ised by the Department of Arts, Culture and Lan guages, and Delhi Urdu Academy. “It is the sincere endea vour of the Delhi govern ment to preserve and pro mote the collective social and cultural heritage of the city. It is a solemn aspi ration of the government that deeper understand ing and appreciation of linguistic diversity is achieved through such programmes,” the state ment said further. “We are pleased to pre sent the Urdu heritage fes tival in a bigger and better avatar. Urdu is an integral part of Delhi’s cultural and literary history. It is an important marker of Delhi’s composite cul ture,” Mr. Sisodia said at the event.
Huge turnout at DUTA’s ‘Shiksha Bachao’ rally Students, teachers march towards HRD Ministry Staff Reporter New Delhi
The “Shiksha Bachao Rally” organised by the Delhi Un iversity Teachers’ Associa tion (DUTA) saw a large num ber of teachers, students and other sta from various universities march from Mandi House to the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD). Registering their protest against the recommenda tions of the Seventh Pay Commission, the joint rally saw members of Delhi Un iversity Students’ Union, Delhi University and College Karamchari Union and other unions join the protest. “The 30%70% funding formula by which Central universities are expected to generate 30% of the nan cial burden on account of the seventh pay revision, is the most retrograde recom mendations of the Ministry notication on pay revision. It will immediately aect not only disbursement of salar ies but will force universities to raise funds through stu dent fees and introduction of selfnancing courses. This will only lead to ram pant commercialisation,” said DUTA president Rajib Ray.
Speaking out: Protesters seen during the march in the Capital on Friday. SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR *
The protesters, including teachers and students from Jamia Millia Islamia, Aligarh Muslim University, Ambed kar University Delhi and oth ers, objected to reduced al location to the University Grants Commission (UGC) by the Centre. ‘Impact on quality’ “This year’s allocation to the UGC in the Union Budget has decreased further. Grants to publiclyfunded institutions, including universities, IITs and IIMs are being replaced by loans to be disbursed through the Higher Educa tion Funding Agency [HE FA]. The increasing thrust towards commercialisation will make public funded
education expensive and ad versely impact its quality” said the DUTA in a state ment. “Higher fees will increase the economic burden on pa rents and students and put education out of the reach of students from economically and socially marginalised sections of our society as well as women. It will make education of the basic and core areas of humanities and social sciences and sciences unsustainable,” said Mr. Ray. The DUTA further said that the association is plan ning to take the movement panIndia in an eort to protest against the “antipe ople policies” of the govern ment.
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IN BRIEF
‘Deposit 90 crore for purchasing Unitech land’
Another woman hurt in snatching bid New Delhi
The Supreme Court on Friday directed a company, which is negotiating with embattled realtor Unitech Limited to purchase land in Chennai valued at around 400 crore, to deposit 90 crore by March 31 in the apex court’s Registry. PTI
A woman allegedly sus tained cuts on the earlobes when her gold earrings were snatched on a busy street in Dwarka on Thursday after noon. This is the second such incident this week in the same area.
NEW DELHI
A total of 6,495 candidates have been shortlisted for employment by companies participating in the twoday job fair organised by the Delhi government, according to official data released on Friday. The job fair ended on Friday. PTI
Criminal held STAFF REPORTER New Delhi
A criminal who opened re at a policeman during a chase on January 24 was ar rested on Thursday by the Delhi Police. He is a member of the Rajesh Bharti gang from Najafgarh, said the police. The accused, Harsh, had opened re on a police team during a chase on Ja nuary 24 when the police spotted the robbers in a car on Ring Road near Army Medical College and tried to intercept the vehicle. But the occupants, in or der to escape, opened re at the police team and a subinspector suered a bullet injury in his right thigh. A case was regis tered at Naraina police sta tion. A team of Crime Branch raided a hideout in Najafgarh area from where Harsh was arrested. During the raid, he tried to pull out a pistol but the alert team nabbed him before he could open re. Pistol recovered A countrymade pistol with live bullets was recovered from his possession. He is an active member of Rajesh Bharti gang and involved in several cases of robberies, added the pol ice.
DELHI TODAY February 17 Talk: “India and the Islamic World: New Challenges in Turbulent Times”. Speaker: Ambassador Talmiz Ahmad, former Indian Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Oman and the UAE. Chair and Moderator: Vijay Naik, Convener, Indian Association of Foreign Affairs Correspondents (IAFAC) at Seminar Rooms I, II & III, Kamaladevi Complex, India International Centre (IIC), 6 p.m. Music: Hindustani Vocal recital by Rindana Rahasya from Delhi at C.D. Deshmukh Auditorium, India International Centre (IIC), 6:30 p.m. Exhibition: Mela Phulkari V 1469 presents a group exhibition of Punjab and Phulkari art installations, ceramics, jute, & metal at Open Palm Court Gallery, India Habitat Centre (IHC), 11 a.m. – 7 p.m.
< > My wife kept shouting for help
Uttam Nagar The 54yearold woman was allegedly attacked around 2. p.m. on Thursday while on the way to a market in Uttam Nagar. A 47yearold woman had allegedly sustained inju ries on the earlobes on Tues day when a man snatched her gold earrings near Uttam Nagar bus terminal. On Thursday, Kamla Bharti was standing on the divider between metro pil lars no. 639 and 640 when a man in his mid20s ap proached her from behind and snatched her gold ear rings. “I turned immediately and saw him running to wards the Uttam Nagar bus terminal. I chased him but he disappeared. My ears were profusely bleeding. A
Kamla Bharti sustained cuts on the earlobes when her earrings were snatched.
The Enforcement Directo rate (ED) has arrested Tarini Group chairman Vakamulla Chandrashekar in connec tion with a money launder ing case against former Hi machal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh. Mr. Chandrashekar has been accused of laundering 5.9 crore of Mr. Singh, when he was a Union Minis ter. The probe is based on an FIR registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation against Mr. Singh and others in October 2015. The two agencies have al so led charge sheets in their respective cases, alleg ing he had amassed over 10 crore in disproportionate assets. Mr. Chandrashekar had purportedly given 5.9 crore to Mr. Singh and his family members through his three personal bank accounts. “When the source of funds was inquired into, it came to light that the amount was received through a web of rms in dulging in accommodation
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local took me to Uttam Na gar police station, where I asked the police to inform my family about the inci dent,” said Ms. Bharti, ad ding that her son reached the police station and took her to a hospital. Her husband O.P. Bharti Goswami said, “My wife re ceived four stitches.” He added, “My wife kept shouting for help but no one helped her chase the robber. Criminals are fearless in the city and always manage to walk away after committing
O.P. Bharti Goswami Husband of victim Kamla Bharti
such heinous crimes. Ear lier, snatchers used to oper ate on motorcycles but now they simply walk o after the crime.” Ms. Bharti claimed the police asked her to report the case at Bindapur police station as the crime spot fell under that police station’s jurisdiction. A case under Section 394 (voluntarily causing hurt in committing robbery) of IPC has been registered. “We are examining CCTV footage from the area. The incidents are similar in terms of mo dus operandi. A team has been formed to solve the case,” said the police.
Woman found dead in rented accommodation, suicide suspected Husband taken for questioning but not booked as police await postmortem report
into, it came to light that the amount was received through a web of rms indulging in accommodation entry operation ED official
Virbhadra Singh
entry operation,” said an ED ocial. The agency alleged that a majority of these rms were opened in the name of em ployees with meagre salar ies. Most of the entries were given by one Ram Prakash Bhatia, who created fake sale proceed invoices of his various rms to show agri cultural income of Mr. Chandrashekar. The accommodation en tries provided to Mr. Chan drashekar in his personal bank accounts were facilitat ed by Vineet Mishra, the former HDFC branch man ager at Delhi’s Mansrover Garden branch, through va
rious rms and individuals. “Of the total funds, 3.9 crore was shown as loan for renovation of Mr. Singh’s pa lace. But it was used for per sonal use and xed deposits in various banks. The amount was returned only when the Income Tax De partment started a probe. A large part of the sum was mainly infused in Mr. Chan drashekar’s two companies: Tarini International Ltd and Tarini Infrastructure,” said the agency. The ED also found that 1.19 crore in cash was hand ed over by Mr. Chandrashe kar to Mr. Mishra, most of which was further used for investments in shares of Ta rini Infrastructure in the name of Mr. Singh’s family members.
Staff Reporter New Delhi
A 23yearold man was found dead with his throat slit in North Delhi’s Burari on Thursday night, the pol ice said on Friday. They said two persons have been detained in con nection with incident. The police control room received a call regarding a person lying near Pushta Road at 8.48 p.m. A team took the man to the hospi tal, where he was declared brought dead. The police said he died due to exces sive bleeding. Additional Deputy Com missioner of Police (North) Harendra Singh said a mo bile phone and 1,500 were found on his person. “We called his parents using the phone. He was identied as Chand Mohammad, a la bourer who worked and lived in Mukundpur,” said Mr. Singh, adding that the two men detained were known to the victim. “Both the men detained are labourers. A month ago, all three had a ght ov er a moneyrelated matter. We suspect they fought on Thursday, following which the duo killed Chand.”
Delhi, Haryana told to resolve polluted water supply issue NGT asks Chief Secretaries of two govts to meet on Feb 20 Staff Reporter
Staff Reporter Noida
A 22yearold woman was found dead under myste rious circumstances at her residence on Thursday night in Sadarpur village of Noida Sector 45, the police said on Friday. Homemaker Lovely De vi, who belonged to Main puri in Uttar Pradesh, had been living in a oneroom rented accommodation in Sadarpur village of Noida Sector 45 with her husband Dheerpal for the past two years. “Prima facie, it appears to be a case of suicide. Her family members are on their way to Noida. If Ms. Devi’s family mem bers press charges against Mr. Dheerpal related to dowry or harassment, we will arrest him,” said Avnish Dixit, Station House Ocer,
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At 9.45 p.m. on Thursday, one of my tenants informed me that Lovely had committed suicide. Her body was on the bed and I did not notice any injury marks. Her husband was nowhere to be found.
Pawan Kumar Lovely’s landlord
Sector 39 police station. The police added, “We have picked her husband for questioning but have not booked him yet as the postmortem report is awaited.” Married for 2 years The duo got married two years back and Mr. Dheerpal drives a van for a nearby school in Noida.
The police said the couple lived on the ground oor of the threestorey house owned by one Pawan Kumar for the past few years. Mr. Kumar said he was in formed about the alleged suicide at 9.45 p.m. by one of his tenants. Mr. Dheerpal’s sister Anju and brotherin law Rajkumar have been liv ing in the same house for the past ve years, Mr. Kumar said. “Three families live on the ground oor. Mr. Dheerpal and Ms. Devi were one of them. At 9.45 p.m. on Thurs day, I was informed by one of my tenants that Ms. Devi had committed suicide. When I entered the room, I saw her body on the bed. I did not notice any injury marks on the body. Her hus band was nowhere to be found. The tenant told me that he had informed Mr.
BJP protests against ‘corruption in governance’ under Kejriwal Prayers were oered at Mahatma Gandhi’s samadhi
Dheerpal about the suicide,” said Mr. Kumar. ‘Late shift’ The landlord claimed con tacted Mr. Rajkumar, who allegedly refused to come over saying he was busy. “Mr. Rajkumar works as a security guard. He said he would not be able to come as his shift started from 10 p.m. onwards. He claimed his wife and children had gone to a relative’s house in Noida for a party,” said Mr. Kumar. “After a while, Mr. Dheer pal returned home and claimed that his wife had committed suicide. We in formed the police in the meantime,” he added. The police reached the spot around 10.30 p.m. and took the body. They also took Mr. Dheerpal for questioning.
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‘BJP govt, banks, industrialists looting nation’
New Delhi
The National Green Tribu nal (NGT) on Friday direct ed the governments of Delhi and Haryana to convene a meeting and resolve the matter pertaining to pollut ed water, which is allegedly being provided by the Ha ryana government to the Capital. A Bench headed by judi cial member Jawad Rahim directed the chief secretar ies of the two governments to meet on February 20 and settle the issue after the Del hi Jal Board (DJB) had moved an application in the tribunal. The DJB had alleged that the water that was being supplied by the Haryana go vernment had high ammo nia content to the extent that the water could not be treated and supplied as drinking water to the people in the national capital. The green panel passed the directions after both the authorities agreed to an am icable settlement. During the hearing, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) informed the
The DJB had alleged that the water supplied by Haryana had high ammonia content FILE PHOTO: V.V. KRISHNAN *
court that the ammonia content at the Hathnikund Barrage in Haryana was 0.6 mg per litre, and 1.9 mg per litre at the Wazirabad water treatment plant in New Del hi, as on February 14. The NGT, on February 13 had directed the apex pollu tion monitoring body to col lect water samples from four locations, including Tanjewala in Haryana, Wazi rabad water treatment plant, and the ITO and Ok hla Barrage in Delhi, to as certain the level of ammo nia content in the water. The DJB had claimed that while at the source point in
Haryana, the ammonia con tent in the water was neglig ible, the source point in Del hi saw high levels of ammonia. The petition had alleged that the primary cause of pollution appeared to be the addition of untreat ed domestic and industrial waste in some areas, includ ing Panipat and Sonipat. ‘Unsafe water In its petition, the DJB claimed: “There is unsafe le vels of ammonia in the wa ter. The colour of the water being received from Harya na is blackish in colour and has a foul smell.”
Staff Reporter New Delhi
February 18
CM YK
New Delhi
but no one helped her chase the robber... Earlier, snatchers used to operate on motorcycles but now they simply walk o after the crime
Exhibition: “Soul of Delhi” solo photography exhibition by Atul Pandita at Delhi ‘o’ Delhi Foyer, India Habitat Centre (IHC), 11 a.m. – 7 p.m. Exhibition: “Madhyama” a group show of young artists from Madhya Pradesh curated by Akhilesh at Shridharani Gallery, Triveni Kala Sangam, 205, Tansen Marg, Mandi House, 11 a.m. – 7 p.m. Paintings: Solo Painting show by Pritha Somdutt at Convention Centre Foyer, India Habitat Centre (IHC), 11 a.m. – 7 p.m.
Talk: Shankar Narayan on “Sat Darshanam” at Ramana Kendra, Lodhi Road, 5 p.m. Music: Morning Ragas Hindustani classical vocal recital by Shruti SadolikarKatkar. Pt. Vinay Lele on tabla and Dr.Vinay Mishra on harmonium at Amphitheatre, India Habitat Centre (IHC), 10:30 a.m. Exhibition: Crafting Design for Living Spaces Delhi Craft Council presents a group exhibition of crafts by various artisans and designers at Visual Arts Gallery, India Habitat Centre (IHC), 11 a.m. – 7 p.m. Exhibition: “Beyond Transnationalism: The Legacies of Post Independent Art from South Asia” group show curated by Arshiya Lokhandwala at All India Fine Arts & Craft Society (AIFACS), 1 Ra Marg, 11 a.m. – 7 p.m. Exhibition: “Kaleidoscope” – a group show of visual art at Artizen Art Gallery, Pearey Lal Bhavan, 2, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, 11 a.m. – 7 p.m. (Mail your listings for this column at
[email protected])
When the source of < > funds was inquired
Special Correspondent SAURABH TRIVEDI
Man found dead, two detained
Accused of laundering 5.9 crore for former Himachal CM
This is the second such incident this week in the same area
NEW DELHI
6,495 candidates shortlisted at job fair
Virbhadra case: ED arrests Tarini Group chairman
Delhi BJP workers taking out a protest march on Friday. Staff Reporter New Delhi
Senior Delhi Bharatiya Jana ta Party (BJP) leaders on Fri day marched from Rajghat to the Delhi Secretariat in prot est against the allegedly stalled development in the Capital and what they claimed was “corruption and nepotism in gover nance” under Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. The march began from Rajghat, after prayers were oered at Mahatma Gandhi’s samadhi for “good sense to prevail” upon the Kejriwal government. Delhi BJP general secre tary Kuljeet Singh Chahal
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said the party chose to start the march from Rajghat be cause it wished to draw the people’s attention to the fact that Mr. Kejriwal was used to “fooling the people of Delhi” with photographs of him sit ting and praying at Rajghat. ‘Talk to AK’ Citing examples, Mr. Chahal claimed that the social me dia campaign, ‘Talk to AK’, saw the Delhi government hire a consultant to execute the work without any com petitive bidding. “Nikunj Aggarwal, a close relative of the Chief Minister, was engaged as senior resi dent without any vacancy.
Under the chairmanship of Amanatullah Khan, 126 en croachers were allowed to continue possession. In ap pointing a creative team, the Public Works Department [PWD] hired professionals by manipulating the bidding process,” he claimed. Mr. Chahal alleged that the government’s Health De partment saw three security agencies being hired for hos pitals “without call of ten ders in violation of rules.” In the name of a feedback unit, he alleged, the Directo rate of Vigilance engaged 17 retired ocers “without adopting proper proce dure”.
The BJP government, bank administration and indus trialists are looting the county together, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) alleged on Friday in a reference to the Punjab National Bank scam. Senior AAP leader Dilip Pandey and Rajya Sabha MP Narain Dass Gupta, during a press conference at the AAP headquarters at Rouse Avenue, said that such a major fraud could not have happened with out some government hold. “Even if you need a loan of 11,300 from the bank, you have to deposit some papers and documenta tion. Despite having all this, there is no guarantee whether the loan will be sanctioned. However, if you are an industrialist then you can not only take a loan of 11,500 crore but also ee the country with out returning it,” Mr. Pan dey said, on jewellery de signer Nirav Modi leaving the country. He said the Congress and the BJP have been blaming each other for the fraud but the truth is that BJP has left its prede cessor behind as far as cor ruption is concerned. B ND-NDE
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THE HINDU
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IN BRIEF
Rajnath lauds Delhi Police for IM operative’s arrest Union Home Minister was chief guest at 71st Raising Day celebrations
IITD sets up centre for research on clean air LG inaugurates centre set up with help of an alumnus Staff Reporter
Give timeline for rail underpass: HC to Centre
Staff Reporter
New Delhi
New Delhi
NEW DELHI
Stating that the Delhi Police were capable of handling any challenge, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh laud ed the force on the arrest of Indian Mujahideen operative Ariz Khan, who was ab sconding for nearly a decade before he was nabbed re cently. Praising the force for se curity arrangements made during the ASEAN summit, the Union Minister said the Delhi Police is not just seen as State police but the police of the entire nation. Mr. Singh was speaking at the Delhi Police’s 71st Raising Day celebrations at King sway camp on Friday. The Minister, who was the chief guest, was welcomed by Del hi Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik. Besides announcing crea tion of a 5crore Delhi Pol ice ‘Martyr’s Fund’, Mr. Singh also presented medals to police ocers, and the best police station trophy to the Punjabi Bagh Station
The Indian Institute of Tech nologyDelhi has set up a Centre of Excellence for Re search on Clean Air (CERCA) to take up a research to stu dy air pollution issues in Del hi and the National Capital Region. The centre was inaugurat ed by LieutenantGovernor Anil Baijal. It has been set up with help of Arun Duggal, an alumnus of IITDelhi, who has pledged nancial assis tance for research pro grammes at CERCA. The institute said the centre will be a platform for undertaking multidisciplin ary research projects by the faculty of IITDelhi, especial ly focused to study and re solve clear air issues in Del hiNCR. Besides providing scientic information to pol icymakers, it will also give feedback on eectiveness of various pollution manage ment programmes. The initial research activi ties, IITDelhi said, will focus on assessment and predic tion of air quality using dy
With construction of a railway underpass in Karol Bagh pending completion since its approval in 2010, the Delhi High Court on Friday asked the Centre to hold a meeting of all stakeholders and give a timeline within which the work would be finished. A Bench issued the direction to the Secretary of the Ministry of Urban Development after the North Delhi Municipal Corporation informed the court that the cost of the project has to be shared by the Centre also. PTI
Plea in HC challenges levy of additional fee NEW DELHI
The Delhi High Court on Friday sought response of the Centre on a PIL seeking to quash certain provisions of the Central Motor Vehicle Rules, which have revised the fees applicable for various services like issuance of learner’s licence. The Bench has fixed the matter for further consideration on April 23. The pleas was moved by by a trade union of autorickshaws in Delhi. PTI
Will ask visually impaired to examine new notes: HC
Past and present: Former IPS ocer and Puducherry LieutenantGovernor Kiran Bedi greets Delhi Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik as Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh looks on during the Delhi Police’s 71st Raising Day at Kingsway Camp on Friday. SUSHIL KUMAR VERMA *
House Ocer (SHO). Stating that forensic science plays a crucial role in combating crime, the Minis ter said the Delhi Police needed to work on streng thening this front urgently. He also urged the police to
update and upgrade its crime control strategy regu larly for eective policing. The Police Commissioner spoke about a decline in the crime rate. After the parade Delhi Pol ice contingents, including an
impressive show by the dog squad, Mr. Singh inaugurat ed the Police Families Wel fare Society (PFWS) stalls. PFWS president Suchana Patnaik and wives of other senior ocers were also pre sent at the event.
Stall with a dierence at Surajkund mela All items made by persons with speech and hearing impairment
NEW DELHI
The Delhi High Court on Friday said it would consider asking some visuallychallenged persons to examine the new currency notes and coins recently issued by the government to see if they faced problems differentiating between the various denominations. The Bench was hearing PILs filed by three advocates, who had sought a change in the new currency notes to make them easily identifiable and differentiable for the visually impaired. PTI
Staff Reporter FARIDABAD
Beautiful paintings captur ing nature in its various forms, handmade bags, toys and handicrafts at stall number 974 at the ongoing Surajkund International Crafts Fair here are a major attraction for visitors this year. What makes these items unique is that they have been made by students of the Haryana Welfare Socie
ty for Persons with Speech and Hearing Impairment, making use of the “Bag less” days on Saturdays to learn a productive and creative skill as per their interest. Sta and students from the society’s eight centres, including Gurugram, Kar nal, Hisar, Sonepat, Raipur Rani, Panchkula and Me wat, are part of the Suraj kund mela this year. The Haryana Welfare So
ciety for Persons with Speech and Hearing Im pairment, one of the largest and oldest in the country, has been working since to wards education, skill deve lopment and rehabilitation of persons with speech and hearing impairment in Ha ryana and its neighbouring States since 1971 . Society chairperson and vicepresident Sharanjeet Kaur said they had partici pated in the mela for the
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rst time that and that it was a brilliant opportunity to sensitise the community, give visibility to the talent of the speech and hearing im paired, and initiate social integration. Ms. Kaur added that skill development was not sepa rate from education but rather an integral part of it and that every child had the right to access creative ways to bring out their hid den potential.
FILM REVIEWS
These days disclaimers in lms seem to tell their own story, preparing you for what is likely to unfold on screen. Aiyaary has several of them including a ridicu lous one on not supporting riding motorbikes without helmets. But the most cru cial one, right at the start, has the lmmaker going on the back foot about army men and politicians. The lm itself is about Neeraj Pandey’s favourite theme— disenchantment with the system and its subversion and unocial missions which the government would disown the minute they are outed. The corruption portrayed here is in the army, in the arms deals with politicians giving the outside support.
namically downscaled high resolution data from numer ical models. Emphasis will be on studying air pollution reduction programmes, go vernance and its implemen tation issues in China, the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan and South Korea. ‘Need reection’ Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Baijal said all solutions and answers to ght pollu tion need holistic reection coupled with an approach that has strong community
participation. “We are inundated with all kinds of solutions — from zero waste to ozonebased technologies but they have to be sustainable. We are try ing to get pilot projects that are diversied and localised. I am hopeful that the centre will help in nding solutions to the mounds of garbage at the landll sites of Delhi, en umerate viable tech solution for zero waste in a decentral ised manner and manage ment of silt that gets segre gated from the silt waste,” said the LG.
Garden Tourism Festival begins Staff Reporter New Delhi
Deputy Chief Minister Man ish Sisodia on Friday urged the citizens to plant more trees to combat pollution and make Delhi a clean and green city. Speaking at the launch of the 31st Garden Tourism Festival at the Garden of Five Senses here, Mr. Siso dia said the practice of gar dening and planting trees plays a pivotal role in better ing humannature relation ship. The Minister also ap
pealed to Residents’ Welfare Associations (RWAs) to at tend the threeday festival. Grow Garden: Save Delhi “Everyone is concerned about ghting pollution and cleaning the air. It can only be ensured by planting trees,” he said, after plant ing a sapling in the garden on the occasion. The Deputy Chief Minis ter said there was need to organise more garden festiv als at a larger scale to set an examples for developing a sustainable urbanised city.
The theme of the festival, which is organised every year in the spring, is “Grow Garden: Save Delhi”. The 22acre Garden of Five Senses has more than 325 species of plants. A number of sculptures and murals have been used to embellish the place. The festival will remain open to the public from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on all three days. he Delhi Tourism Depart ment will provide free shut tle service to and from the Saket metro station.
A dispirited love story without any spark Kuchh Bheege Alfaaz Onir Zain Khan Durrani, Geetanjali Thapa, Mona Ambegaonkar Storyline: A wrong phone call gets two troubled souls connected Run Time: 116 Minutes Director:
What could have been an engaging tale of Army corruption ends up a convoluted lm with confusing narrative devices The question then, is why get so defensive about things in the lm’s opening dis claimer? There are good and bad people everywhere, in cluding the armed forces. As for politicians, well what is there to defend? The lm itself is a straight forward enough tale: of Co lonel Abhay Singh (Manoj Bajpayee) and his protégé Major Jai Bakshi from the covert Data and System Diag nostic (DSD) team. Despite mutual respect and aec tion, they end up nding themselves on either side of the divide. Dejected by the corruption in the system that he spots while tapping phones Jai decides to turn rogue and disappear, even as the colonel keeps nursing hope for the future of the na tion. The normalisation of surveillance state aside
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A ashback too many Namrata Joshi
Initial research activities of the centre will focus on assessment and prediction of air quality. SANDEEP SAXENA
Cast:
Armed and ready: Actors Sidharth Malhotra and Manoj Bajpayee in a still from the lm *
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Namrata Joshi
(which one would have an axe to grind with) it’s the needlessly protracted and complicated telling of what is a notsodeep tale that grates on one’s nerves. Pan dey keeps taking one back and forth in time, digging up uninteresting stories from his characters’ past that have no bearing on the present. Instead of keeping the view ers on the edge of the seat the narrative device ends up being confusing and convo luted. And to top it all is the climax which seems like an afterthought, a desperate closure for a lm hurtling nowhere. The writing has no sense of proportion or balance. A
character like Baburao (Na seeruddin Shah) is intro duced early left hanging till the very end. If that was to build suspense it’s all ho hum. Most of the other cha racters, including the DSD team, don’t rise above being half baked sketches. In the name of swag the actors are made to wear shades, look deliberately deadpan and perennially walk in slomo, so much that they leave one somnolent with their unhurried ways. You can see Bajpayee trying hard to breathe life in his persona but Malhotra, who is lovely to gaze at, doesn’t have an ounce of the angst that his character should
Aiyaary Neeraj Pandey Cast: Manoj Bajpayee, Sidharth Malhotra, Naseeruddin Shah, Kumud Mishra, Adil Hussain, Rakul Preet Kaur, Anupam Kher Storyline: Mentor Colonel Abhay Singh and his protégé Major Jai Bakshi nd themselves on either side of the ideological divide when it comes to looking ahead at the future of the nation Run time: 160.10 minutes Director:
have ideally had. Bajpayee, the song ‘Lae Dooba’ and some stray canines at the fag end are the lm’s only saving graces.
On paper Kuchh Bheege Alfaaz seems just like what Dr Love would have prescribed. A lonely RJ, Alfaaz (Zain Khan Durrani) with a dark past, a deep baritone, love for strays and stories about unrequited love gets a call by mistake from a bright and chirpy meme creator Archa na (Geetanjali Thapa) who is ghting her own demons. A connect of sorts gets esta blished. However it takes the entire length of a lm and some misunderstandings and complications for it to reach fruition. The characters, their sit uation, dilemmas and pro blems feel plausible but the
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silly little thing between them, called love, lacks spark. Far from displaying depth, passion or melancho ly love remains sappy and limp, feels selfconscious than spontaneous. The lm could have done with some life and energy. Perhaps the issue here is that though Onir places love squarely in a dig ital world—of blind dates and
Black pride with a side of shade
memes and more—love’s protocols remain all old worldly, a bad mismatch. So the lead feels hemmed in and the vivacious Thapa gets saddled with a bad makeup job. It’s Mona Ambegaonkar who shows a spunky pre sence in a relatively smaller role. Trivia take: both the lms this Friday have stray dogs in starring roles.
Black Panther Ryan Coogler Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong'o, Danai Gurira, Martin Freeman, Daniel Kaluuya, Letitia Wright, Winston Duke, Angela Bassett, Forest Whitaker, Andy Serkis. Story line: Killmonger has usurped Wakanda’s crown from T'Challa, threatening to destroy the world. Black Panther must stop him before it’s too late. Run time: 135 minutes Director: Cast:
Marvel continues its successful streak with a uniquely poignant take on the superhero genre Deborah Cornelious
Unlike Wonder Woman, who stole the show in Batman Vs Superman, Black Panther didn’t make much of an impact in Captain America: Civil War. Especial ly since it follows hot on the heels of the hilarious mag num opus Thor Ragnarok. It picks up right after Black Panther aka T'Challa (Chad wick Boseman) loses his father in Civil War. He’s re turned to Wakanda to as sume the throne but his reign is brought to an abrupt CM YK
end by Killmonger (Michael B. Jordon — an oft Coogler collaborator). The antago nist, suering years of racial subjugation, wants to end Wakanda’s isolation by us ing her weapons against op pressors all over the world. When civil unrest breaks out in the peaceful African na tion, T'Challa must ght for the crown. Black Panther is helmed by AfricanAmerican direc tor Ryan Coogler, who’s pre viously tackled race in Fruitvale Station (2013) that chronicled police brutality.
With his superhero venture, Coogler uses Black Panther as a metaphor to celebrate African pride and inclusion. It’s a stark dierence from the Americanaloving skew we’ve been subjected to in the past. For instance, the lm’s tribes revel in their ethnicity, wearing it on their ohsotraditional and vi brant sleeves. And the amount of shade hurled at the white man feels appro priately provocative; from calling them colonisers to snide comments about their apparent inabilities.
Coogler’s protagonist is powerful but only because of the women in his life. Black Panther’s bodyguards are an allwomen special un it and their general Okoye (Danai Gurira), is erce, slaying throughout in style: whether beating up the bad guys in armoured uniform or during a highspeed car chase in a oorlength gown. Then there’s T'Challa’s 16 yearold sister Shuri (Letitia Wright), a tech wiz who powers all of Wakanda. Marvel’s Black Panther seamlessly straddles being a
Tackling social issues: A scene from Black Panther
blockbuster while tackling important issues of gender and race. Like all Marvel out ings, the action is jawdrop ping, the humour is cheeky, and the special eects, top
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notch. The staggering cast comes together to lift the lm with brilliant perfor mances. The score, provid ed by Ludwig Göransson has everything from tribal per
cussive soundscapes to banging tehno tunes, com pletely intensifying everyth ing that’s happening on the screen. Side note: Kendrick Lamar’s curated sountrack
is spectacular as is Run The Jewels’ ‘Legend Has It’ in the lm’s trailer. One viewing la ter, it’s evident Black Panther is a gift that keeps on giv ing and I can’t wait to watch it again. B ND-NDE
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THE HINDU
SHOWCASE 5
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SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2018
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Passion for good stories Manoj Bajpayee on ‘Aiyaary’, his illustrious lmography and why he doesn’t worry about box oce numbers Sayoni Sinha
When we meet Manoj Baj payee at a suburban hotel, the actor is running a tem perature and the toil of his busy schedule is obvious. But as he sits to chat about Neeraj Pandey’s political thriller, Aiyaary, the actor is soon in an upbeat mood as he explains the title of the lm. “Aiyaari means an impos ter, who pretends to be so meone else for fraudulent gain. The lm is not about soldiers ghting for the country on the border, but within the country,” he says. In the past, Bajpayee has worked with director Neeraj Pandey in lms such as Special 26, Saat Uchakkey and Naam Shabana. Despite their close rapport and friendship othesets, he still prefers following his di rector’s instructions to the last detail. “It is his vision. He is the captain of the ship un der whose guidance each and every department has to function. No actor can sur vive in oblivion and isola tion,” he says. Pandey, who has helmed espionage thrillers in the past, has meticulously re searched his subject, set against the army back ground. “Neeraj, (also the writer of the lm) is fastidious when it comes to his script, research, and technique. If we had questions, we would go to him and he would always be available to answer them. He is a person who would love to answer your questions if you have any,” adds the 48 yearold actor. Road to success Bajpayee forayed into the in dustry with Drohkaal (1994) but it was his riveting perfor
believes.
In defence: Manoj Bajpayee says “Aiyaary” is not about soldiers ghting on the border, but within the country
about the < > It’s passion for telling good stories, not just mega-blockbusters, the audiences are now lapping up content-driven cinema in a big way Manoj Bajpayee
mance as a scruy gangland don Bhiku Mahtre, in Satya (1998) that shone the lime light on him. Two decades have passed but the lm still continues to be a benchmark in gangster lms. While the role was much appreciated, it wasn’t the career turning point the
actor had hoped for. “Turning point is someth ing after which there’s no struggle. After Satya, I was sitting at home for a year,” admits Bajpayee, adding that his “story is not of a big star” who has been catapulted to fame with one or two lms. “My story is completely dierent — where you are getting recognised, doing your own thing and trying not to succumb to the pres sure of commercial cinema,” he shares. While his fans would be up for a debate, Bajpayee in sists, that his career is built on his op lms. Harbouring the love for
the craft since childhood, he admits he knew that only hard work and honing his craft could oset his per ceived lack of tting into the mould of a conventional he ro. “The numbers didn’t make our careers, the lms and the roles have. Most of the roles were acclaimed but the numbers weren’t there. If you take the boxoce numbers into account, then my lms don’t stand anywh ere as I have hardly been a part of a lm that has made 100 crores,” says the Nation al Awardwinning actor. His recent powerpacked performance in Rukh and Naam Shabana were much
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appreciated but both failed to set the cash register ring ing. But the actor isn’t both ered by a lm’s boxoce performance anymore. “Had that aected me, I would have gone mad. I have always been very clear that my job is to play the role to the best of my ability, take my money and go home. After that, I forget about it and disasso ciate myself with the out come of it. Whether it makes money or doesn’t, it is not my outlook. It is the concern of my producer and distribu tor. They are the best people to judge and monitor that as pect of lmmaking,” he
Content over commerce The actor who straddles both the worlds of uncon ventional and mainstream ci nema with ease, has always believed that the role mat ters more than the pay pack et which he judges and de cides according to the budget of the lm. “There are lms that are made under four crores. Most often, these lms don’t make money or even break even. My remuneration there is hardly enough to take care of my monthly household ex penditure,” says the Gangs of Wasseypur actor adding that it is the passion for content and being completely chal lenged by the character that makes him sign up for such project. “It’s about the pas sion for telling good stories,” he adds. The actor feels that the corporate formula went downhill because it mostly chose to bank only on star power to ensure footfalls in the theatres. “Not just mega blockbusters, the audiences are now lapping up content driven cinema in a big way,” says Bajpayee as he credits the growth of contentdriven cinema for the attention that actors like him are garner ing. Last year saw such lms gaining momentum and re ceiving critical acclaim. “Whenever people thought a great starcast is go ing to mint money for them, the audience always failed those lms. Nobody can predict how a lm will do on a Friday as there isn’t a win ning formula. It is best to go ahead and make a lm you believe in and after that, you forget about it. It is beyond your control,” he concludes.
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FOOD SPOT
Living up to its name! From Bengali shukto and Alleppey sole sh to vindaloo and daab chingri, the varied options at Jamun satiate the expectations of a foodie RAHUL VERMA
Nice name, I said to myself when my brotherinlaw told me that he had been to a new restaurant in Lodhi Colony. It was called Jamun, and he said it served outstanding food. Then, some days ago, a friend invited us over to Ja mun for lunch. I got a little worried when I landed up there — the restaurant is in the Lodhi Colony Market — and found the place empty. Though crowds are no yard
stick of how good the food in a restaurant is, an empty place can be a cause for con cern. But I needn’t have wor ried — for the place started lling up, and by the time we were done with our lunch, there was even a queue outside. Let me start with the dé cor and the music. It’s a warm place, with dangling lamps that lighten up the room. There is great music playing — blackandwhite music, as I call it, or songs of the sixties.
And now, before I go on to the amazing food, here’s the drawback. The menu is com prehensive — but a lot of what is listed is not available. I had read about its Pandhi Coorg curry, but it wasn’t available. The pork had just come in, I was told, and would take a while to be rea died. One of their very popu lar sh dishes was not there either. I asked the helpful server if there was any pork dish on the menu. There is vindaloo, he said, and I was happy. Unlike the others with me, who gorged on the crispy po tato and sabudana papads that came to the table, I wait ed for the real stu. So by the time the food came, I was raring to go. We ordered a mix of dis hes — a Bengali shukto, a Ker ala sole curry and some daab chingri, apart from the vin daloo. And for starters, we had fried white bait and ten derloin cubes. I thought the food was ex cellent. Some of my compa nions griped a bit, and said their last meal was a lot bet
Flavourful fare: Alleppey sole sh curry; (below) fried white bait
ter, but I had no complaints. The crispy white bait — small sh with a crunchy batter — was excellent, as was the ten derloin, cooked with pepper and curry leaves. The shukto — a mildly bit ter dish of vegetables cooked in a very light sauce — wasn’t quite like the kind cooked in my inlaws’ house, but I en joyed it. The sauce was a bit too sweet, though shukto is meant to be sweet and bitter. I think they tweaked it a bit to cater to the tastes of the large mass of people the Ben
galis refer to as nonBengalis. The Alleppey sole sh cur ry, eaten with red rice, tasted really good. It wasn’t hot, but had the avours of whole spices, and a bright colour and a mild tart taste that may have come from kokum. What I loved was the pork. The pieces were tender and juicy, and the thick masala was just right. I ate this with some Goan poi, which, ho wever, left me a bit cold. I found the bread too hard and dry. For dessert, we had some
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mishti doi — avoidable, I would say — and a nice sor bet called Jamun ki kul. The jamun had been bought while in season, pulped and frozen. And the dessert was shaped like a kul, and tast ed like sorbet. It had cap tured the taste of the jamun, and I loved it. It was a very nice meal and I am glad the restaurant lived up to its name — and my expectations. the writer is a seasoned food critic
Making a point: Manavi Prabha’s “Clean Energy”
Clean message Artist Manavi Prabha talks about her ode to nature Tanisha Sharma
Art occurs when a revela tion meets a realisation; when the things we see out side, resonate with our in sides and insights, and we become conscious and ma nifest that. Such is the de nition of art for Manavi Prabha. The rst ever Inter national Kala Mela, organ ised by Lalit Kala Akademi, in collaboration with, and at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts (IGNCA), is celebrating the world of creativity. Stall number 232 exhibits the artwork of Ma navi Prabha, titled “Con scious Me”. Displaying a set of ve paintings, dedicated to na ture, Manavi is asking the audience to invoke con sciousness towards clean air, water, energy, etc. The rst painting of the series, portraying the artist herself, is a painting depicting the artist from neck down till the knee, showing her back, where the hands are resting, entwined, and the ngers, crossed. “It is simply an at tempt to invoke conscious ness. I have kept my ngers crossed because I am really hoping that people will get my message.” The thirst of Chatak ‘Clean Water’, another of her paintings, displayed at the stall, draws from nostal gia. Her grandmother had once told her about the ‘Chatak’ bird. “It drinks only the rain water and if it does not get it, the bird prays to Lord Indra and he makes it rain.” Manavi has turned that memory into a painting. “We are not privileged enough to drink the rain wa ter, because before reaching us, it becomes polluted. We have to purify it before con sumption.” This painting has been done to invoke consciousness towards clean drinking water. Her third painting depicts a ute, with the dandelions ying around it, to raise awareness towards the re quirement of clean air. In another painting, the artist is celebrating clean energy. The painting shows a broken chair, a dilapidated book and the leftovers of a bitten apple. The primary technique used is chiaroscu ro. “It was a dicult piece.” The apple was added later on. “I ate eleven apples to get one in this shape, to paint.” The tiny seed of the apple is the main subject. “It depicts the idea of another birth, of using energy from
biomass as the primary fuel for most of the things in life.” ‘Deforestation’ has been inspired by the sculptures made by her, and also by pe ople cutting down the for ests. The painting shows a family of trees, a mother, father and child trunk, hold ing each other from behind, tightly. Here, she is asking the public to save the for ests, and to plant more and more trees. The medium used is oil on canvas for all her paint ings. “Acrylic dries up really fast, but oil paints give you time to edit, to make your brush and imagination lin gers a bit longer.” Power of art She really believes that art has power to change the world. “It was there long be fore people even knew how to write. Art, I believe, is the beginning for everything great in this world.” Her in spiration comes from the books she has read and the music she listens to. “Before I start painting, I play my mother's collection of old Hindi songs. Music is indispensable when it comes to the beginning, but after a while, I get so lost in what I am working at, that I forget that it is even playing. Art makes me lose myself and then nd myself.” On being asked about so mething like a writer’s block, she says, “I get pain ter's block all the time,” she laughed. “I have this bril liant imagination in my mind, but when I start painting, I nd myself in capable of copying it down the way it is. Sometimes, I do not know what to paint and sometimes, I have no idea what I will end up mak ing. It is strange. Once I am done, my work surprises me. ‘Has this really been painted by me?,’ I wonder every single time.” Calling her work autobio graphical, she says, the most challenging part about being an artist is to make the audience understand your piece. “If it is abstract work, then the onlooker has a li berty, but if you are making something specic, you have to ensure that they are understanding what you are trying to say.” Currently, she is working on a series of paintings called ‘Heaven on Earth’, in which she is celebrating the unnoticed but simple and the most beautiful moments of life. “I am pretty sure pe ople will love it,” signs o Manavi.
5 EVENTS WORTH-YOUR-WHILE
PERFORMANCE
CUISINE
MUSIC
THEATRE
FILM
Jazz India Circuit
World On A Platter
DJ Nana
The Jazz India Circuit will feature performances by Rhythm Shaw, John Law's Congregation and Alex Johnsson. Shaw is a guitar prodigy, John Law is known for his contemporary jazz projects while Alex is a composer and soloist. Venue: One Golden Mile, Netaji Nagar Time: 6.30 p.m. onwards
BED lounge promises to make your evening full of excitement and entertainment as it presents a musical performance by DJ Nana. Nana B has passion for all genres of music, and his method of live remixing and use of acapellas, instrumentals and samples makes him stand out. Venue: N Block, Greater Kailash 1 Time: 8 p.m. onwards
Khusar Phusar
National Skill Development Corporation is organising the event “World on a Platter”. It is an international food festival that aims to attract food lovers who appreciate exploring the various cuisines from across the world. Apart from this each continent will be showcasing their culture. Venue: Gate No. 2, Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium Time: 11 a.m. to 10 p,m.
Ka’aba-a-Hindostan
Akshara Theatre will stage a comedy play by Atelier Repertory. Directed by Kuljeet Singh, it is about several affluent couples who gather at the residence of a couple to celebrate their hosts’ first anniversary. They discover the hostess is missing, and the host has shot himself. Venue: Baba Kharak Singh Marg, New Delhi Time: 7 p.m. onwards
The film by Beenu Rajpoot, is based upon the journey of Mirza Ghalib to Banaras while he was on his way from Delhi to Calcutta to petition with the British for resumption of his royal pension. This film is based upon his Persian Masnavi “CharagheDair”. Venue: India Islamic Cultural Centre, Lodhi Road Time: 6.30 p.m. onwards
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6 SHOWCASE
NOIDA/DELHI
THE HINDU
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2018
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(Clockwise from far left) La Minotauromaquia, Femme assise sur une chaise at Sotheby's, Picasso with a sculpture of a goat, Bernard Ruiz-Picasso, Le Matador, and Woman Reading GETTY *
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Bernard Ruiz-Picasso, the Cubist painter’s grandson, on childhood memories, controversies and why sometimes you need to see art on cars
‘Picasso was not a cold grandpa’ Elizabeth Kuruvilla
“Pablo Picasso was a great artist, but he was not always an angel.” His grandson, Bernard RuizPicasso, needn’t explain further — everyone knows he’s referring to the Spanish ar tist’s turbulent relationships with the many women he’s been passionate about. Bernard bears a striking physical re semblance to his grandfather, though perhaps without the amboyance of the pioneering artist. He is one of sev eral heirs of the 20th century artist who cofounded the Cubist move ment, but also experimented with dif ferent styles, techniques and medi ums. Fortyve years after his death, Picasso’s inuence over the art world is as undiminished as his popularity and dominance over the art market. The market is currently abuzz with news of the auction début of Le Matador, a 1970 selfportrait of Picasso as a bullghter, in a Sotheby’s London sale later this month. It will be accompa nied at the auction by a 1937 portrait of one of his muses and lovers, Marie Thérèse Walter. Furthering the legacy While the painter largely lived in France — a leftist in exile because of the Franco regime — his heart re mained in Spain. “I had the good for tune to spend time with him in Cote d’Azur and Cannes. I remember my mother telling me a story about when he used to go to a bullght on the beach. If he heard people speaking in Spanish, he would immediately run to talk to them. He would cry that he could not go back to his home coun
try,” Bernard recalls. Fifty eightyearold Bernard was 17 when he became one of Picasso’s prin cipal heirs, and he acknowledges that this “has provided me everything, ma terial things, that people may wish for”. It’s been an enviable situation, freeing him of the burden of making a living. He published some poetry in the early part of his life, but says that while it helps him connect with artists, he no longer has the free time to focus on it. His work is Picasso’s legacy: “I would not call it my profession, it’s what I do with my life”. This has been true, in some ways, for others in the larger family, too. Pi casso’s stepdaughter, Catherine Hu tinBlay, recently acquired a convent in AixenProvence in France which, by 2021, she hopes to convert into a museum that will house the 2,000 works of the artist that she inherited from her mother, Jacqueline Roque, Picasso’s second wife.
Copyrights and controversies For Bernard, the realisation of the res ponsibility that came with the inheri tance arrived slowly. The biggest issue, he says, was to “acknowledge where I was born, and to try and open my eyes to see what I was looking at. I was sur rounded by art all the time. But my ex perience was not sucient to know what I was looking at. That took me a long time, to build not only a percep tion (of who Picasso was and what his art was about), but also the joy of see ing the beauty and intelligence on canvas.” Bernard was in Delhi a few days ago to deliver the keynote address at a con ference marking the Delhi Art Gal lery’s 25th anniversary. Presenting his work — from setting up Museo Picasso in Malaga, Picasso’s birthplace, to the Fundación Almine y Bernard RuizPi casso para el Arte, which holds his personal archive of his grandfather’s works — he was careful to credit the
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Curves and angles: (Clockwise from below) The Molteni Teorema collection, the Bookworm, a chair from the Victoria and Albert (V&A) line, a Molteni Teorema chest of drawers, the pq line of eyewear, a V&A sofa, and Ron Arad
The industrial designer, known for smashing Fiats and being a rebel, talks about London’s new Holocaust memorial and his visit to India
realised in mass production. His retros pectives have been shown at the MoMA in New York, Centre Pompidou in Paris, and the Barbican Centre in London.
Sujatha Shankar Kumar
I am in Chennai, on a WhatsApp call to Ron Arad, 5,099 miles away in his North London studio on Chalk Farm Road, imagining the designerarchitect in his trademark woolfelt Cappal lone hat, baggy trousers and long scarf. Arad will be in India for the rst time this month, for De sign India 2018, follow ing on the heels of his daughter, singer Lail Arad, who toured six ci ties across the South late last year. When I ask him what he’ll speak about in New Delhi, he counters, “I never prepare my talks ahead; I improvise depending on the audience. The title is ‘Whats and Ifs’, as I am al ways asking ‘what if we try that? What if we don’t do that?’.” A whirlwind of energy on Monday morning, he adds with typical restless ness, “I was crushing cars in Holland this weekend for the project In Reverse, and now I’m (at the studio) jumping from one project to another.” He began smashing cars to make art way back in 2013, nding a shipyard in the Nether lands with a special press that com
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pressed Fiat 500s into 12 cm thick me tal. He has always been a rule bender, doing the unexpected. “It’s more that I am curious and excited about everyth ing. It’s about not accepting convention. Even though I am the eldest in my stu dio, I am still considered the rebel that ignores the rules,” he says. Going on 67, Arad is the artful pio neer of rsts; he built Design Museum Holon in Jerusalem, the rst of its kind in the country, which he describes as “the mostloved contemporary building of Is rael”. He wrapped sinuous red bands around the white cube of the museum, rising to the chal lenge of Frank Gehry’s iconic Gug genheim in Bilbao. He is now on the path to complete the tallest building in
Staying relevant What does it feel like to “possess Picas so” the artist who also, in a sense, be longs to the world? “It’s a kind of a pa radox,” Bernard says, giving the example of the publicprivate collabo ration of the Malaga museum. “I expe rienced that with a public administra tion, if you are too generous, they don’t care. If it is unconditional, you don’t count any more.” He says the promise of donation of artworks from his personal collection to the museum was an insurance for the Spanish go vernment to invest in the building’s re novation, a dierent space for educa tion, and the auditorium. “During the dialogue with the pu blic administration, this enabled us to sit at the same rank around the table for the good of art, not for any eco nomic reason. What I am doing is pro viding access to the viewer, through the exhibition organiser, to my collec tion. But to simply donate things doesn’t make sense because then you are not in control, not in charge. It is important to be in that constant dia logue. And you need some ammuni tion to be in that dialogue,” he concludes.
other family members involved, his mother Christine in the rst instance, and his wife Almine, an art gallerist, in the second. This is possibly an instinct borne out of the complications in these last 40odd years, of asserting ownership over many of Picasso’s works, while also sharing the copy right with other family members. Es pecially considering the fact that he gained his inheritance after an ugly, protracted court battle, and that these past years have seen the fami ly as a collective, under the Picasso Administration, engaged in copyright battles, authenticating works as well as selling merchandising licenses. Of the last, they are still facing embarrass ing questions regarding the decision to lend Picasso’s name to a Citroen car in 2006.
Inside Ron Arad’s uid world
Picasso on socks “Picasso is vulnerable,” Bernard says during the talk with art historian Devi ka Singh at the DAG conference, “to people trying to steal his name, imag es and identity, and make money.” In terestingly, he feels that the court bat tles they have fought and won also provide better support for other ar tists. “In a democracy, to better pro tect copyright, you have to sign con tracts,” he adds, presenting a convoluted logic that suggests that to protect an artist’s identity, one has to protect the right to use it in any way one sees t — even on towels, socks and cars.At our interview the next morning, he attempts to explain this again. “In democracy, or in life, you don’t do everything you like to do, but sometimes it’s required because it gives power to what you want to pro tect. Also, it was a family decision. In the beginning I was not very fond (sic) to see Picasso’s signature printed on a car, but, well, why not? People like it,” he shrugs. As family members, Picasso’s heirs have largely had complicated relation ships with him. Bernard, though, re calls childhood memories of visiting an indulgent grandfather during fami ly holidays. “Picasso was a Spaniard, a Mediterranean spirit. He was not an Icelandic, cold kind of grandpa,” he says. He remembers being at a ceramic exhibition, when Picasso took hold of his hand and gave him money to go to the candy store. “He knew children preferred candy to visiting art exhibitions.”
Tel Aviv, called the ToHA, with twin tow ers. On his plate also is the commission for the new National Holocaust Memo rial in London, which he won as part of the consortium with architect Sir David Adjaye. They intend an immersive expe rience with a subterranean learning centre. Metaphorically, the museum is about “architecture with emotion” with its 22 blades slicing into the earth signi fying the 22 countries where Jewish communities suered the Holocaust. Free thinker Israelborn Arad arrived in London in 1973 nding it exotic, and the art and lm scene more cultured than America. He studied at the Architectural Associa tion, attracted to its pluralistic and con
ceptualthinking environment. He re calls, “Arriving as an outsider, I had dierent lenses to see the world.” One O, his studio, took o in 1981 when he walked into a scrapyard and picked up a discarded leather car seat and welded a tubular frame for the base, making his rst piece of furniture. The Rover Chair rocketed him to iconic status. Yet, he makes no pretensions, saying, “I never claimed to be recycling or going green, but I am happy the Rover Chair was on the cover of the Friends of the Earth magazine.” Since then, the inveterate designer — who founded Ron Arad Asso ciates in 1989 — has designed for covet ed brands like Italian furniture majors Moroso and Kartell, and Swiss furniture rm Vitra, among many others, proving that nonconformist approaches can be
Trysts with technology Arad’s career is interspersed with innova tion and cuttingedge thought. In 2004, his concept for a chandelier with Svarov ski crystals displaying messages along its spiral shape inspired artist Moritz Waldemeyer’s Lolita at the Mi lan Design Week. Around six years ago, when Roundhouse Theatre in London approached Arad to do an installation, he won dered why not “do so mething big and round, with a 360degree projection, and al low people to play with it?” The result was Curtain Call — using 5,600 silicone cords, a steel struc ture and 12 projectors streaming video made by ar tists. “You can part the cur tain and walk into it. In Lon don, when we set it up, people came and sat on the oor for hours.” This later went to Je rusalem as 720 Degrees and to Singapore in 2016. Arad was inspired to create the iconic Last Train after see ing a man drawing on the glass windows of a train with his ring. The exhibition, which showed at the 55th Venice Art Bien nale, invited artists to draw on an iPad, which was then con verted into etchings on glass with a mechanised diamond ring, all enabled through Wi Fi and an app. Arad recalls, “The nicest story was Al Wei wei’s, who was in Beijing under house arrest at that time. He made a drawing from there and my diamond ring drew it.”
Arad is most admired for his sinuous and uid forms, like the Big Easy Chair, the moulded Tom Vac chair and the Rip ple, that appear as if they have melted to his will. But he argues otherwise. “The result is always a rapport. The real shape comes from the will of the mate rial, not just the will of the designer. In my Well Tempered Chair, the form was a result of what spring steel could do,” he ex plains. Emotions invigorate his thinking process, too, and these playful provocations are seen in the bond between name and objects: Bookworm is a series of booksh elves that crawl sinu ously on the wall, and the PizzaKobra is a lamp that snakes up and packs at in a piz zatype box. The de signer, who made a name with his furniture and recycled for art’s sake, is now rmly back to architecture. Looking forward to the Holo caust Memorial, he concludes, “It will be ready by 2021. All the usual suspects applied for the competi tion — An ish Kapoor and Nor man Foster — but this time the judg es got it right!” India Design 2018 is on from February 22-25, at NSIC Grounds in Okhla, New Delhi. Details: indiadesignid.com B ND-NDE