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Karnan to file petition in Calcutta High Court on his appeal for parole
Modi, Shah to meet BJP Chief Ministers today for stock-taking
Dhawan, spinners help India crush Sri Lanka in first ODI
Jerry Lewis, legendary actor, comedian and director, has died aged 91
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Did Sasikala go out of Bengaluru prison?
NEARBY
CCTV footage shows her entering jail in civilian clothes; former DIG (Prisons) Roopa hands over evidence to ACB Another worker dies while cleaning sewer NEW DELHI
One worker died and three others fell unconscious on Sunday after inhaling toxic gas while cleaning a Public Works Department (PWD) sewer tank at the government-run Lok Nayak (LNJP) hospital. This is the tenth such death in the Capital in just over a month. DELHI METRO A PAGE 1 DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD
S. Vijay Kumar CHENNAI
Video footage that shows AIADMK interim general secretary V.K. Sasikala and her relative Ilavarasi, convicted by the Supreme Court in the disproportionate assets case, walking into the main entry area of the Parappana Agrahara Central Prison in Bengaluru in civilian clothes, has been given to the Anti-Corruption Bureau of the Karnataka police.
EXCLUSIVE
JEE (Advanced) will now be an online examination CHENNAI
From the next academic year, the Joint Engineering Examination (Advanced) will be an online test. The decision to this effect was taken at a meeting of the Joint Admission Board of the Indian Institutes of Technology on Sunday. NATION A PAGE 7 DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD
EDGE A 4 PAGES DELHI METRO A 6 PAGES
Former DIG of Prisons D. Roopa, who blew the lid off the special treatment meted out to prisoners including Sasikala, on Saturday submitted the footage taken from the CCTV recording of the central prison complex, as part of her statement to the ACB. The fresh evidence raises suspicion on whether the two convicts went out of the prison in connivance with top prison officials.
74 enclosures submitted After being summoned by the ACB, the whistleblower IPS officer, who had given details of her reports to then DGP of Prisons H.N. Sathyanarayana Rao, submitted 74 enclosures as evidence to substantiate her charge. According to police
Caught on camera: Sasikala and Ilavarasi entering the prison from the main gate. SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT *
sources, Ms. Roopa received summons from the ACB on July 31, 2017, the day Mr. Sathyanarayana Rao retired. When she appeared before the investigating officers a couple of days later, they gave her a questionnaire. On Saturday, she gave her version in writing, along with photographs and video footage. Ms. Roopa was shifted out to the Traffic and Safety wing after she exposed the scam. When The Hindu, which has accessed the CCTV footage, contacted Ms. Roopa, she confirmed that she had given evidence to the ACB on Saturday. The enclosures included video footage — taken from the prison CCTV — showing Sasikala and Ilavarasi, each carrying a bag,
entering the prison from the main gate in the presence of male guards. The Superintendent of the Women’s Prison is seen escorting them into the campus. “Male guards are not allowed inside the women’s prison complex. Their deployment is outside the women’s prison premises at the main gate… it has to be investigated where she (Sasikala) is coming from and who permitted it,” Ms. Roopa said. Parrying questions on whether the enquiry committee, led by retired IAS officer Vinay Kumar, was aware of the footage, Ms. Roopa said all the footage was in the prison database. CONTINUED ON A PAGE 10
Railway Board member sent on leave 4 local officials suspended; ‘lapses in maintenance work led to Khatauli accident’
Blame game begins
Somesh Jha NEW DELHI
The Railway Ministry on Sunday sent three top officials on leave, suspended four local level officials and transferred another official after prima facie finding lapses in the maintenance work that led to the derailment of the Puri-Haridwar Utkal Express in Uttar Pradesh on Saturday and claimed at least 24 lives. Secretary-level officer and Railway Board Member (Engineering) A.K. Mittal, General Manager (Northern Railways) R.N. Kulshrestha and Divisional Railway Manager (Delhi) R.N. Singh were sent on leave. The divisional engineer and the senior divisional engineer of the railway section were suspended while the central track engineer of the Northern Railway was transferred. According to a former Railway Board Chairman,
In full swing: A mangled coach of the Utkal Express being lifted by a crane at Khatauli on Sunday. PTI *
this is one of the rare instances when a Railway Board Member has been sent on leave.
No laxity: Suresh Prabhu The action comes after Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu said on Sunday that he “will not allow laxity in operations by the Board” and
ordered the Railway Board Chairman to fix responsibility within a day of the accident. Senior Railway Ministry officials told The Hindu that welding work was under way near the Khatauli railway station in Uttar Pradesh, leaving a portion of the track without rails when the Utkal
Railway officials suggested that precautions were not taken during the repairs at the site of derailment of the Utkal Express. Employees of the Railway Engineering Department in Khatauli maintain that they had informed Khatauli station officials of the repairs on Saturday, but Station Master Rajendra Singh said he was not aware of it. A PAGE 11 DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD
Express ran over it and derailed, as per the prima facie investigation. There were lapses at multiple levels in the track maintenance work, which was being carried out without taking due permission, before the accident on Saturday evening. CONTINUED ON A PAGE 10
‘Note ban has starved Maoists of funds’
Dip in stone-throwing in J&K, says Rajnath
Firm on ending J&K militancy: Jaitley
‘Due to NIA action on terror funding’
Staff Reporter
Vijaita Singh
MUMBAI
New Delhi
Union Minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday said security forces, with their resolute action, had established dominance over terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir, and the Centre was firm that armed militancy must end there. He added that demonetisation left Maoists and separatists in Jammu and Kashmir “fund starved”, and it has greatly reduced the number of protesters taking part in stone-pelting in the border State. “Stone-pelters used to gather in thousands on the streets of Kashmir before demonetisation was announced, but now not even 25 come together for such agitations. After demonetisation, separatists in Jammu and Kashmir and
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said on Sunday that incidents of stonethrowing have reduced in Jammu and Kashmir due to the arrest of separatists and crackdown on terror-funding in the Valley by the NIA. However, government data show 60 incidents of stone-throwing against security forces are still being reported every month. A majority of these incidents were reported from south Kashmir, an official said.
CM YK
also Maoists in States like Chhattisgarh have become fund-starved,” said Mr. Jaitley. He was speaking at a function organised by Mumbai BJP president Ashish Shelar. Mr. Jaitley said the Kashmir issue had become complicated because of cross-border and local support to terrorists. CONTINUED ON A PAGE 10
At encounter sites Security agencies have killed over 115 members of various terrorist organisations this year and an official claimed that most incidents of stone-pelting were being reported from en-
counter sites. Till August 10 this year, 437 incidents of stone-throwing were reported. In 2016, from January to June, 71 incidents were reported. The incidents, however, spiked post July 8, 2016 when Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani was killed in an encounter. CONTINUED ON A PAGE 10
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DELHI
Timings
Monday, August 21
RISE 05:54 SET 18:55 RISE 05:11 SET 18:424 Tuesday, August 22
RISE 05:54 SET RISE 06:14 SET
18:54 19:26
Wednesday, August 23
RISE 05:55 SET RISE 07:15 SET
Lucknow Metro gets safety clearance Commissioner for Metro Rail Safety last week accorded clearance for commercial operation of the first phase between Transport Nagar and Charbagh (8.50 km).
Sobhana K Nair New Delhi
18:53 20:05
Sex test racket busted
Decks have been cleared for Lucknow Metro, with safety clearances coming through last week. By March 2019, the country’s operational metro network will nearly double. Other than Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad and Nagpur will join the club. India got its first metro in 1984. In next 33 years, 370 km of metro rail became operational. But in next 20 months — by March 2019 — 313 km will be added to this.
Lucknow Metro was one of the key poll planks of Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav. FILE PHOTO RAJEEV BHATT
258% hike “In last three years there has been 258% hike in budgetary provision for metro projects, which has enabled this speed in construction. So if between 2012-2015 we were spending only ₹16,565 crore, between 2015-18 we have
spent ₹42,696 crore,” said a senior Urban Development Ministry official. Currently, metro runs only in eight cities — Delhi (217 km), Bengaluru (42.30 km), Kolkata (27.39 km), Chennai (27.36 km), Jaipur (9 km), Kochi (13.30 km), Mum-
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bai Metro Line 1 (11.40 km), Mumbai Mono Rail Phase 1 (9 km) and Gurugram Rapid Metro (11.60 km). The Commissioner for Metro Rail Safety (CMRS) last week accorded clearance for commercial operation of the first phase of Lucknow Metro
Key plank Lucknow Metro was one of the key poll planks of Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav. His successor Yogi Adityanath will now be inaugurating it in the next few days. Last week, the Union Cabinet announced a new Metro Rail Policy making private investments mandatory. In turn, the Central government will cut back on monetary help it provided for the projects. The State governments will have far more share of the responsibility financially as well as about the operational details. Cautious approach Interestingly, while the metro rail network has doubled, the Metro Policy
suggests a more cautious approach. “The policy says, that the Metro Project should be last option and should be opted only if all the others have been explored, including mono rails, trams and so on,” a senior UD Ministry official added.
100-year life It can carry 40,000-80,000 passengers per hour per direction, the highest that any transport system can do. And a metro line has 100year life on an average. “While it has its advantages, it comes at an exorbitant cost. It could be anything between ₹200 crore per km to ₹ 500 crore per km. So unless there is enough justification in terms of passenger traffic, it simply should not be constructed,” the official added.
Press Trust of India Chandigarh
A health department team from Haryana’s Panchkula on Sunday busted an alleged sex determination racket being run at a private hospital in Punjab’s Fatehgarh Sahib district. The raid at the hospital was conducted after coordinating with the Fatehgarh Sahib DC and CMO , Panchkula DC Gauri Prashar Joshi said.
Shivanand Tiwari returns to RJD He had left the party in 2016 Press Trust of India Patna
Shivanand Tiwari on Sunday returned to the RJD, a party he had left in 2006 to join the Janata Dal (United). Mr. Tiwari, a former Rajya Sabha member, was seen at a press conference of party chief Lalu Prasad here. Mr. Prasad announced that Mr. Tiwari would be party’s national vice-president along with Raghuvansh Prasad Singh. Mr. Tiwari had resigned
Shivanand Tiwari from the primary membership of the RJD in November 2006. He then joined the JD (U) but was expelled from it in February 2014 for “antiparty activities”.
HP monsoon session from August 22
Australian found dead in Udaipur
Press trust of India Shimla
Press trust of India
The four-day monsoon session of the Himachal Pradesh Assembly will be held from August 22 where the government is expected to bring a Bill for setting up a medical university in the State. This would be the last session of the current Assembly as State elections are due in October or November this year. The Congress and BJP Legislature parties would hold their respective meetings here on Monday to finalise their strategies.
Jaipur
A 59-year-old Australian was found dead under mysterious circumstances in Udaipur today, police said. The body was found near Shilpgram area and the deceased was identified as Michael James, ASI Ram Singh Chundawat told PTI.
Phone bill “The man had stayed at a hotel for a day on July 28 and we have recovered a
bill of a mobile phone that he purchased on the same day,” he said.
No injury marks Prima facie, there are no injury marks on the body. “Whether it is a road accident case or if he died of some ailment is a matter of investigation,” the police said. The body has been kept in a mortuary and postmortem will be conducted when family members reach Udaipur, the police added..
Amarinder’s acquittal manipulated: AAP Closure report filed in city centre case SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT CHANDIGARH
A day after the Punjab Vigilance Bureau filed a closure report in the multi-crore Ludhiana City Centre scam case in a local court in which Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh was among others an accused, the leader of Opposition in the Punjab Assembly and Aam Aadmi Party MLA, Sukhpal Khaira, on Sunday termed it as “manipulated and procured”' acquittal even as the Congress hit back sharply.
Closure report “The submission of closure report explains the bonhomie between both Capt. Amarinder and Badal families..It's a manipulated and procured acquittal,” he said. Mr. Khaira said the case was filed in 2007 and 36 people were named in the case including Capt. Singh and his son, but after spending 10 years and huge amount of rupees from the public exchequer suddenly the prosecution says that no irregularity has been found in the case. “If this is not the mockery of judicial system then what is it?” Mr. Khaira asked. He alleged said that there is a deep understanding between Capt. Singh and the Badals to ruin the State collectively and then get clean chits from each others. “Both families have now established the fact that they file cases against each other just to befool the people of State. Notably, the Vigilance Bureau on Saturday filed
Sukhpal Khaira closure report in the alleged multi-crore Ludhiana City Centre scam case at a court in Ludhiana.
FIR filed in 2007 The Bureau had in 2007 filed FIR against Captain Singh, his son Raninder Singh and son-in-law Raminder Singh among other for alleged corruption by favouring a Delhi-based company for the proposed city centre project. This project was announced by Capt. Singh in 2003, while he was the Chief Minister. Khaira flayed Meanwhile, Punjab's Irrigation and Power Minister Rana Gurjeet Singh lashed out at Khaira for opposing the clean chit given to the Chief Minister.. Mr. Rana said that Mr. Khaira should remember his statements between 2007 and 2015, where he always defended Capt Singh, saying the case was registered by the Badals out of sheer vendetta. “Facts do not change with the changeover of fences”, said Mr. Rana, adding that Khaira had crossed all the limits of doublespeak and double standards.
Ready to tackle any situation: Haryana DGP Maximum alert ahead of Dera verdict Press Trust of india Chandigarh
Ahead of verdict in a case involving Dera Sacha Sauda chief, likely to be delivered on August 25, the authorities have sounded a maximum alert in Haryana and prohibitory orders have been imposed in Fatehabad district. Haryana DGP B. S. Sandhu was in Hisar district on Sunday to take stock of the security arrangements. He was in Sirsa district on Saturday. He said that stringent security arrangements have been made for maintaining law and order situation in the State ahead of verdict to be delivered by the CBI court in sexual exploitation case against Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh on August 25. “The Haryana police is on alert and fully prepared to
tackle any situation. The Centre has also provided 35 companies of paramilitary forces,” the DGP said. He said that their focus is on Sirsa, Fatehabad and Panchkula districts where heavy deployment of paramilitary forces has been especially done. The DGP said social media is also being closely monitored and senior officers have been asked to not ignore even minor incidents. The DGP said talks were being held with officers of neighbouring states of Punjab, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh for cooperation in maintaining law and order situation. Apart from Haryana and Punjab, the Dera also has followers in many other states including Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.
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IN BRIEF
Adhir Chowdhury’s car hit by container KOLKATA
West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury had a close shave on Sunday when his car was hit by a container in Murshidabad district. Mr Chowdhury and his driver were unhurt, Murshidabad SP Mukesh said. The accident took place near Rejinagar check post around 3.10 pm when the former Union Minister was going to Raghunathganj. PTI
‘Economic ties with S-E Asia improved’ IMPHAL
Union Commerce and Industries Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday said that steps have been taken to strengthen economic ties with several South-East Asian countries, especially Myanmar. The Centre will be working together with the Manipur government to improve international trade relations, Ms Sitharaman said. She said efforts are on to establish border haats at the Indo-Myanmar border town of Moreh. PTI
NSG to check Jagannath Temple security
Two cases filed against GJM 88 more die in Assam, Bihar, UP flood-hit areas leadership under UAPA With showers taking a break in West Bengal, the situation has
Gorkha Janmukti Morcha denies involvement in the blasts Staff Reporter Kolkata
The police have filed two cases against Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) president Bimal Gurung and several other GJM leaders under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in the past 24 hours.
One killed The GJM leaders were booked on Saturday night over a grenade attack on the Kalimpong Police Station. One policeman was killed in the attack while one was injured, Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Anuj Sharma said. They were also charged over a bomb attack earlier in the day in Darjeeling’s Chowk Bazar area. Apart from Mr. Gurung, GJM leaders Prakash Gurung, Praveen Subba, Barud Thapa, Dawa Lepcha and others have been charged. GJM leader Swaraj Thapa denied the allegation and said “those who are against the demand of Gorkhaland are behind the incident”. Meanwhile, GJM president Bimal Gurung has written to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and denied the
Marooned: A boy wades through flood waters as he takes animals to a safer place in the floodhit Balimukh village in Morigaon district of Assam on Sunday. PTI *
Officials investigating the blast site after an explosion in Darjeeling on Saturday.
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PTI
Press Trust of India
allegations made against him and other leaders in the Chowk Bazar incident.
‘Rush to file FIR’ The GJM leader questioned the State police’s intention in “having rushed” to file an FIR. He also wondered how was it possible to file an FIR so early in such a “serious matter, while the investigation has not yet begun”. “In filing the FIR this early, without any proper in-
vestigation, the Bengal government has revealed their own hidden agenda of entrapping the GJM leadership on another series of trumped up charges,” Mr. Gurung alleged and claimed that the State government has “repeatedly tried to paint the movement as being anti-national in some way or the other”. “The blast,” the GJM leader suspects, “is the handiwork of the Bengal government to bring disrepute
to the Gorkhaland cause and our leaders and to portray our movement as being antinational”. Denying Mr. Gurung’s allegations, the Trinamool Congress Darjeeling district president Rajen Mukhia said that “Mr. Gurung’s claims are utterly false and baseless”. "It is the GJM who are resorting violence in the hills and attacking government offices and houses of TMC cadres," Mr Mukhia said.
BHUBANESWAR
The elite National Security Guard is all set to examine the security arrangements at Sri Jagannath Temple in Puri for chalking out an action plan against any possible terror threat. Senior NSG officials are slated to visit Puri soon, a senior official said. PTI
Heroin seized; two from Myanmar arrested AIZAWL
The police seized heroin worth ₹25 lakh at the Mizoram-Myanmar border town of Champhai and two Myanmarese nationals were arrested. The heroin weighing 700 gm and reportedly smuggled from Myanmar, was seized on Saturday, the police said on Sunday. The Myanmarese nationals, Lalengliana (19) of Tahan and Vansuihhmung (30) of Falam, were booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985, the police said. PTI
Naveen gets a rousing welcome by party Received the Best Administrator award in New Delhi on Friday Siddaramaiah. On his way to his residence from the airport, Mr. Patnaik also paid floral tributes at the statue of his father, late Biju Patnaik.
Special Correspondent BHUBANESWAR
Thousands of Biju Janata Dal workers and leaders gave Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik a rousing welcome as he arrived here on Sunday after receiving the Best Administrator award from a leading news magazine in New Delhi on Friday. Holding placards with slogans such as ‘Our CM, Our Hero’ and ‘Naveen Babu, Our Hero’, the party workers raised slogans hailing the Chief Minister as policemen had a difficult time to make way for his carcade from the Biju Patnaik International Airport to his residence, Naveen Nivas. Mr. Patnaik, who was presented the award as the
Naveen Patnaik paying tributes to late Biju Patnaik after his arrival in Bhubaneswar on Sunday. BISWARANJAN ROUT *
best administrator in the country by former President Pranab Mukherjee, was chosen from among six Chief Ministers. The other contenders were Bihar Chief Minister
Stone laid for world-class cricket stadium in Tripura To be built at a cost of ₹200 crore in Agartala Syed Sajjad Ali Agartala
Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar on Sunday unveiled the foundation stone for a world-class cricket stadium at Narsinghgarh in Agartala. The unveiling followed Hindu rituals on the behest of the construction company contracted by the Tripura Cricket Association (TCA) to build the stadium at a cost of ₹200 crore. When the Marxist Chief Minister of almost 20 years unveiled the stone, the base was full of ritual articles such as sacred lamp, incense sticks, coconut and other items. There have been times when the Chief Minister and Ministers faced an ‘uneasy situation’ owing to religious conduct of agencies or com-
Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar and TCA office-bearers at the foundation stone laying function in Agartala. *
panies. No religious activities are allowed at government programmes in Tripura where the CPI(M) led Left Front had been in power since 1978, except a break between 1988 and
1993. In December 2014, Tripura CPI(M) brass asked party leaders to refrain from participating in religious ceremonies and rituals.
Ethno Medicinal research centre inaugurated in Manipur Press Trust of India Imphal
A North-East Centre for Ethno-Medicinal Research has been inaugurated at Hengbung village in Kangpokpi district of Manipur. Speaking at the inaugural function on Saturday, Deputy Chief Minister Yumnam Joykumar Singh said that such a centre will be a milestone for the region, especially Manipur, as the State has plenty of medicinal plants. He said, “We have so many CM YK
traditional ways of healing by using various medicinal plants, though proper codification for treatment of diseases by using medicinal plants is yet to be done.” “If we have the knowledge of plants’ medicinal value by analysing its ingredients and chemicals, it will be more helpful in the treatment. The research centre would play an important role in this regard,” he added. He urged the centre to coordinate with institutes like ICAR, IBSD and Central Agri-
cultural University to undertake research work in fields that are productive and useful for the people. State Commerce and Industries Minister Th Bishwajit Singh said that ethno-medicinal treatment has been a long tradition for healing ailments in our society. Dr H. B. Singh, principal scientist, North-East Institute of Science and Technology, also spoke on the importance of utilising local resources and manpower to create certain products.
Nitish Kumar, Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Karnataka Chief Minister
‘Award for Odisha’ Talking to presspersons at his residence, Mr. Patnaik dedicated the award to the people of Odisha and said that he will continue to strive to make Odisha the number one State in the country. Asked about speculation over early Lok Sabha polls, Mr. Patnaik said that the BJD is always prepared for elections. On possibility of alliance between BJD and BJP, he reiterated that the BJD will continue to maintain equidistance from both BJP and Congress.
Patna/Guwahati/Kolkata/ Lucknow
Floods continued to wreak havoc in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Assam which reported 88 more deluge-related deaths on Sunday, while West Bengal heaved a sigh of relief in the absence of major rainfall. The death toll in Bihar floods rose from 202 to 253. About 1.26 crore people are grappling with the flooding in 18 districts of the State. Araria accounted for 57 deaths, Sitamarhi 31, West Champaran 29, Katihar 23, East Champaran 19, a Disaster Management department release said.
Over 1,000 relief camps A total of 4.21 lakh people have been shifted to 1,358 relief camps in different parts of the State, it said. Meanwhile, four more persons lost their lives in Assam and nearly 19 lakh people were suffering in 15 districts of the State. At present, 18.65 lakh people are affected in Dhemaji, Lakhimpur,
Biswanath, Barpeta, Bongaigaon, Chirang, Kokrajhar, Dhubri, South Salmara, Goalpara, Morigaon, Nagaon, Golaghat, Jorhat and Majuli districts. The third wave of floods has claimed 67 lives so far in Assam. The total number of deaths in this year’s floodrelated incidents has gone up to 151. In Morigaon, which has been hit hardest, 5.21 lakh people have been marooned. About 4.67 lakh people are affected in Barpeta. About 1,493 villages are under water and 1.15 lakh hectares of crop area is inundated.
33 deaths in U.P. Officials said 33 more deluge-related deaths had been reported in Uttar Pradesh over the last two days. The figure of flood casualties in the State now stands at 69. Over 20 lakh people have been marooned in 24 districts. The Relief Commissioner’s office said 39,783 people had taken shelter in relief camps in the affected dis-
tricts of eastern Uttar Pradesh where there was no let up in flood fury. The raging waters of the rivers emanating from Nepal have caused havoc in vast swathes of human habitation in the region. Army choppers, NDRF and PAC (flood) jawans continued relief and rescue operations. The release of water in rivers in Nepal and incessant rains impeded rescue work and evacuation. The situation has improved a lot in six flood-hit districts of north West Bengal as there has been no major rainfall over the past three days. There has been no report of any flood-related deaths in the last 24 hours, a senior official of the West Bengal Disaster Management department said. So far, 55 people have died in the floods since July 21. Nearly 55 lakh people have been hit by the deluge in Cooch Behar, South Dinajpur, North Dinajpur, Jalpaiguri, Alipurduar and Malda.
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IN BRIEF
3 youths drown in Ashtamudi lake KOLLAM
The bodies of three youngsters were found floating on the Ashtamudi lake, near Kandachira, on the outskirts of the city early on Sunday morning. The three went for fishing in a fibre boat which might have capsized, according to police.
Hashish oil worth ₹20 cr. seized in Kerala IDUKKI
In a major narcotic haul, the police on Sunday seized 18 kg of hashish oil estimated to cost ₹20 crore in the international market and arrested three persons from Kattappana in Idukki. One of the arrested, Anchumon, is a former organising secretary of the State unit of the Shiv Sena.
FIRs against Yeddyurappa misuse of power, says BJP To petition Governor today seeking dismissal of the Congress government Bengaluru
The filing of FIRs against former Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) in connection with land denotification has triggered a political tussle between the principal Opposition BJP and the ruling Congress. The matter is now set to go to the Raj Bhavan. The BJP, which has described this as a “misuse of power” by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, will petition Governor Vajubhai Vala on Monday. The CM on Sunday said there was no political vendetta behind the action. BJP leader R. Ashok announced that a delegation of party leaders would meet the Governor and seek the
400 arrests made in Nellore in 2 weeks NELLORE
The ongoing investigation into the large-scale cricket betting and gambling activities is throwing up many surprises, including the fact that bookies have cast their net on the non-literate and innocent people in rural areas as well. The officials are surprised at the massive scale that these betting and gambling activities have spread in Nellore district, which is something not being witnessed in any other district in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. In the past two weeks here, the total number of arrested bookies, subbookies and punters has
Urge parents to monitor Internet usage of children Tanu Kulkarni Bengaluru
Special Correspondent
Cricket bookies spread their web to rural A.P. Special Correspondent
Bengaluru schools issue advisories on ‘Blue Whale’’
come to nearly 400. A sizeable number of these bookies and punters hail from rural areas here such as Kavali, Atmakur, Gudur and Buchireddypalem.
Increasing raids It is learnt that many people from rural villages in the district are frequenting Nellore to take part in gambling activities carried out illegally at different places here. Eventually, they become victims of the cricket betting organisers. Considering this menace, the officials have increased raids on the gambling dens and started taking organisers as well as gamblers into custody.
There is no political vendetta behind the action, says CM Siddaramaiah
dismissal of the Siddaramaiah government for allegedly misusing power to target leaders of the Opposition. “The FIRs were hurriedly filed against Mr. Yeddyurappa within 30 minutes of receiving the complaint. Why is the gov-
Cigarettes worth ₹4 cr. looted
ernment singling him out? Let it file FIRs against all the Chief Ministers who took up denotification of land in the past 20 years,” he said, pointing out that Mr. Siddaramaiah himself was facing allegations of denotification. Referring to a complaint by a Karnataka Administrative Service officer that he was being pressured by the ACB to give a statement against Mr. Yeddyurappa, Mr. Ashok alleged that FIRs have been filed against the BJP State president only to prevent him from becoming the next CM.
political vendetta, how would one describe the Income Tax raids against Congress leader and Energy Minister D.K. Shivakumar. He asked why Mr. Yeddyurappa had approached the Karnataka High Court against the FIRs if there was really no substance in them. Meanwhile, Janata Dal (Secular) national president H.D. Deve Gowda argued that it was not proper to project the filing of FIRs as politically motivated. He told reporters in Vijayapura that the matter should be left to people to take a call. Mr. Gowda maintained that the BJP State unit’s opposition to the filing FIRs goes against its national unit’s resolve to build a “corruption-free India”.
Several city schools affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) have sent circulars and advisories to parents asking them to monitor their child’s internet usage, and offering them the support of school counsellors if required. The circulars were issued in the wake of reports of teenagers committing suicide allegedly as part of the ‘Blue Whale Challenge’, an online game that encourages players to kill themselves after a series of challenges.
An endgame: Online game encourages players to kill themselves after a series of challenges.
Dakshayani Kanna, principal of Harvest International School, which issued a circular last week, said they were conducting a workshop for parents the coming weekend on ‘games’ such as the Blue Whale Challenge, online gambling sites, etc.
“As a school, we believe that we cannot and should not stop students from using the Internet. “But it becomes imperative to monitor the activities of our children and also to make them aware of the dangers,” Ms. Kanna wrote in the circular.
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Disrespect to anthem: 3 arrested
Raids on Shivakumar However, Mr. Siddaramaiah dismissed the BJP’s charges and wondered that if this was considered an act of
Safe use of Internet Earlier this week, CBSE had issued a circular on guidelines for safe and effective use of Internet and digital technology in schools and schoolbuses.
Ghantasala to get 70-ft Buddha statue The ₹1.5 crore project will help develop A.P. village as tourist destination
Staff Reporter
Staff Reporter
HYDERABAD/YADADRI
P. Sujatha Varma
A gang of robbers waylaid a truck loaded with cigarettes worth ₹4 crore just outside the city and made away with the goods, after assaulting the driver on Sunday. According to a police complaint by Akhilesh Kumar Yadav, the truck driver, nearly 30 people chased his truck in two vehicles as he neared Pedda Amberpet. About half a dozen men boarded the truck and threatened to kill Yadav if he did not cooperate, the police said. The robbers then took the truck to Choutuppal where they moved the goods from the truck onto another truck.
VIJAYAWADA
elbow, supporting his head with his hand.
The decks have been cleared for a ₹1.5 crore project to develop Ghantasala village in the Krishna district as a major Buddhist tourist destination in the State. “The new facility will be themed around the Mahaparinirvana of the Buddha. A two-storied structure in Buddhist architecture, resembling a pedestal, with a 100-ft wide and 70-ft high Buddha in the Mahaparinirvana posture, will be a major highlight,” said the Andhra Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation’s (APTDC) Executive Director Mallikarjuna Rao. Mr. Rao has worked on
Greco-Buddhist art This pattern seems to have emerged at the same time as other representations of the Buddha in the GrecoBuddhist art of Gandhara. The structure will also house a Buddhist library, a meditation centre, an auditorium for spiritual classes, an exhibition hall for digital replicas of Buddhist antiques exhibited in the Paris museum, and a monastery. The project is coming up in 2-and-half acres of donated private land. Tenders have been finalised. Work may begin in a couple of weeks.
Major highlight: A sketch of the proposed project, which will develop Ghantasala as a major Buddhist destination.
the design and architecture of this project, which was released by the Krishna District Collector B. Lakshmikantham on Saturday. On top of the two-storey structure will be an imposing statue of the reclining Buddha.
This is a major iconographic and statuary pattern in Buddhism. It represents the historical Buddha during his last illness, about to enter the Mahaparinirvana. It shows Buddha lying on the right flank, his head resting on a cushion or on his right
HYDERABAD
Three engineering students hailing from Kashmir were arrested by the police on Saturday for allegedly disrespecting the National Anthem, by not standing up when it was being played at a cinema hall. According to the Rajendranagar police, the students — Omer Fiaz Luney, Mudabir Shabbir and Zaminugal — were booked under Section 2 of the Prevention of Insult to National Honour Act, which carries an imprisonment of up to three years, if convicted, a police official said. The police action came after a complaint made by the manager of the Attapur mall.
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6 NATION
NOIDA/DELHI
THE HINDU
MONDAY, AUGUST 21, 2017
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IN BRIEF
Sushil fires fresh salvo against Lalu
Weather Watch Rainfall, temperature & air quality in select metros yesterday
‘RJD chief’s wife Rabri Devi acquired land worth over ₹2 crore in lieu of favours allegedly granted’ Press Trust of India Patna
Amarinder likely to meet Modi, Jaitley today CHANDIGARH
Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh is likely to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in New Delhi on Monday and urge them to increase the State’s borrowing limit to enable it to implement the farm debt waiver scheme, officials said on Sunday. PTI
100 open-sky schools to get buildings in Jammu JAMMU
Nearly 100 open-sky schools in Jammu district, which often face closure due to bad weather, will get buildings by this year-end under the Jammu and Kashmir government’s ‘TAMIER’ project. Sub-divisional magistrates have been assigned the job of supervising the construction of these buildings by the rural development department. PTI
Punjab to have PoS at fair price shops CHANDIGARH
Punjab’s food and civil supplies department is in the process of acquiring Point of Sale (PoS) machines for fair price shops to bring transparency in distribution and check pilferage under the PDS. The machines are handheld devices which will allow Aadhaar authentication at the moment of distribution, ensuring that beneficiaries receive their allocated ration. PTI
Three labourers killed, one injured in accident BEGUSARAI
Three labourers were killed and another was injured on Sunday in a road accident in Bihar’s Begusarai district, a police officer said. The mishap took place near Harpur village on NH-31 as a passenger jeep collided with a vehicle coming from the opposite direction. PTI
Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi on Sunday came out with a fresh allegation against Lalu Prasad and his family saying that the RJD chief ’s wife had acquired land worth over ₹2 crore in lieu of which favours were allegedly granted. The senior BJP leader alleged that one Ramashray Prasad Yadav was made chairman of Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) besides one Mohammad Shamim was nominated as an MLC from the governor’s quota when the RJD was in power. Ramashray Prasad Yadav was the chairman of BPSC from January 1991 to January 1997 when Mr. Prasad was the Chief Minister while Mohammad Shamim was nominated as MLC from the governor’s quota in 1998 when Rabri Devi was the Chief
No Love lost: Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi and RJD chief Lalu Prasad addressing separate press conferences in Patna on Sunday. PTI & RANJEET KUMAR *
Minister, Sushil Modi told a press conference here. The Deputy Chief Minister was flanked by the State BJP vice-president Devesh Kumar, party chief whip and MLA Arun Kumar Sinha and Nitin Navin, also an MLA. Mr. Modi alleged that Ramashray Prasad Yadav, first of all, registered a plot of land measuring 6726 sq ft, around 6 cottah, at Saguna Mor area in Patna worth over ₹2 crore to one Mohammad Shamim and his wife Sofia
Tabbasum in 1993-94. On May 13, 2005, Shamim and his wife Tabbasum gave the “power of attorney” to Rabri Devi who in her election affidavit showed the property as her own asset, Sushil Modi said. He asked as to why did Rabri Devi mention in her affidavit that it was her asset when she was just given power of attorney of the said property? “We have come across the various innovative ways and
means of acquiring properties by Lalu Prasad...So far we have seen that Mr. Prasad and his family have been acquiring properties through shell companies, gifts, direct registry of land but now he has devised a new and innovative way of acquiring land through ‘power of attorney’,” Mr. Modi said.
Innovative ideas Taking a jibe at Lalu Prasad, the senior BJP leader said that he (Lalu) must be rewarded for coming out with new and innovative ideas of acquiring land, the ideas which even agencies like Income Tax department cannot think of. Sushil Modi wondered as how can Rabri Devi, a former chief minister, be made the caretaker of the land of one Mohammad Shamim as it is the other way round that people normally become caretakers of the
property of former CMs. Meanwhile, the RJD chief dodged a query about Sushil Modi’s allegations at a press conference here.
Public domain Mr. Prasad, however, said that all the documents about his property are in public domain. RJD Bihar unit spokesman and MLA Shakti Singh Yadav said that: “Sushil Modi’s allegations vis-a-vis Lalu Prasad’s family is concocted. He has not said anything new as everything is in the public domain.” The spokesman said that: “We have been demanding independent probe into the charges levelled by RJD against Sushil Modi’s relatives - Mahavir Modi and R K Modi - who have acquired benami properties through shell companies. The Centre should conduct investigation.”
Rajasthan ICDs being made industry-friendly
BJP running on directions of capitalists: Mayawati
Will be equipped with better infrastructure, more facilities
Press Trust of India
Special Correspondent JAIPUR
The inland container depots (ICDs) in Rajasthan are being made industry-friendly to promote imports and exports from the State. The four ICDs situated in Jaipur, Jodhpur, Bhilwara and Bhiwadi will be equipped with a better infrastructure and more facilities for temporary storage of containerised cargo as well as empty containers. Rajasthan Small Industries Corporation chairperson Meghraj Lohia said here on Saturday that the ICDs at Bhilwara and Bhiwadi would be revived as industrial hubs before the India International Trade Fair to be organ-
ised in New Delhi in November this year. “The performance of the Jodhpur ICD has been adjudged the best. The ICDs have helped importers and exporters in Rajasthan to save their time and money by enabling them to handle their shipments near their location,” said Mr. Lohia at a board meeting of the Corporation.
Smooth handling A combination of services of Customs Department, carriers, freight forwarders and customs brokers are carried out at ICDs to facilitate exporters and importers for smooth handling of cargo. Marble, handicraft, agricultural and textile industries
are the main beneficiaries of ICDs in the State. The Small Industries Corporation has also decided to diversify its activities and launch efforts to get a new recognition to the handicrafts sector of the State, in addition to finding new avenues for marketing of these products. Mr. Lohia said the Corporation would function with a professional outlook and use modern technology for its operations. Principal Secretary (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises) Subodh Agrawal, who was among those present, said preparations had started for an impressive display of the State's products in the IITF-2017 in Delhi.
Shows her frustration, says BJP Lucknow
The BJP is running on the directions of capitalists and funding data released by an NGO recently has proved it, BSP supremo Mayawati alleged on Sunday, a charge that was rebuffed by the saffron party.
‘Proven by data’ “There was an impression among the common man that the BJP is a party of capitalists and is being run on their directions. Now it has been proved true by the data released by an organisation,” Ms. Mayawati said in a statement issued here. Referring to data released by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), Ms. Mayawati said that according to it the BJP got ₹708
Temperature Data: IMD, Pollution Data: CPCB, Map: Skymet (Taken at 18.00 Hrs)
Forecast for Monday: Heavy to very heavy rain likely at isolated places over Konkan, Goa, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andaman & Nicobar islands, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Marathwada and Kerala. Thunderstorm accompanied with gusty winds and lightning likely at isolated places over West Bengal, Odisha, Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura. city rain max min Agartala.............26.6.... 33.6.... 25.4 Ahmedabad..........9.4.... 33.0.... 25.3 Aizawl .................3.0.... 29.3.... 14.0 Allahabad ............... -.... 34.0.... 27.0 Bengaluru ..........13.3.... 28.6.... 20.3 Bhopal...............15.3.... 29.3.... 23.9 Bhubaneswar .......5.0.... 32.4.... 24.6 Chandigarh ........53.1.... 29.5.... 26.5 Chennai ...............2.1.... 34.9.... 25.3 Coimbatore............. -.... 32.0.... 22.7 Dehradun.............4.8.... 32.8.... 24.2 Gangtok...............1.2.... 21.8.... 18.2 Goa ........................ -.... 26.0.... 24.0 Guwahati .............3.3.... 34.3.... 25.6 Hubballi.................. -.... 26.0.... 21.0 Hyderabad ...........8.6.... 25.7.... 21.1 Imphal.................0.4.... 32.6.... 20.6 Jaipur ..................... -.... 33.3.... 25.0 Kochi.................31.4.... 29.6.... 23.6 Kohima................... -.... 26.0.... 15.0 Kolkata..............23.4.... 33.0.... 26.7
city rain max min Kozhikode ...........27.7.... 27.9.... 24.0 Kurnool .................1.1.... 29.1.... 23.4 Lucknow................... -.... 32.8.... 27.0 Madurai.................0.1.... 32.6.... 25.2 Mangaluru ...........31.3.... 27.3.... 23.5 Mumbai...............54.0.... 27.8.... 23.7 Mysuru..................1.0.... 27.7.... 19.8 New Delhi .............2.6.... 29.6.... 26.5 Patna ....................... -.... 34.2.... 26.6 Port Blair ............23.0.... 26.3.... 24.0 Puducherry............7.1.... 34.5.... 24.2 Pune ...................29.4.... 22.1.... 21.3 Raipur ...................8.8.... 31.1.... 24.7 Ranchi...................7.0.... 26.0.... 22.4 Shillong.................... -.... 23.5.... 15.2 Shimla.................57.2.... 22.6.... 16.4 Srinagar ................... -.... 30.6.... 18.9 Trivandrum ...........8.0.... 29.3.... 24.7 Tiruchi ..................... -.... 33.6.... 26.0 Vijayawada ............3.2.... 29.1.... 24.6 Visakhapatnam .....17.7.... 29.3.... 25.2
Particulate matter in the air you are breathing CITIES
BSP supremo Mayawati
*
crore from 2012-13 to 201516 from capitalists, which was 92% of the political donations it received. Refuting the charges, BJP spokesman Shalabh Mani Tripathi said that the BJP was the biggest party on the country and Mayawati’s statement only “showed her frustration.”
Yesterday
SO2 NO2 CO PM2.5 PM10 CODE
Ahmedabad ....... .....-......-.....-......... - ........- ........Bengaluru...............8 ...19 ..32...... 22 ........-.......* Chennai ..................7 ...13 ..75...... 74 ........-.......* Delhi ....................19 ...23 ..40...... 88 ........-.......* Hyderabad............12 ...19 ..23...... 26 ........-.......* Kolkata.................25 ...48 ..32......... -......48.......* Lucknow.................2 ...19 ..45...... 82 ........-.......* Mumbai ................15 ...15 ..40...... 23......46.......* Pune ....................42 .....3 ..78...... 17......32.......* Visakhapatnam .....27 ...16 ..71...... 67......70.......*
In observations made at 4 p.m., Jodhpur recorded an air quality index (AQI) score of 117, indicating relatively high levels of pollutants in the air. In contrast, Muzaffarpur recorded a healthy AQI score of 28.
Air Quality Code: * Poor * Moderate * Good SO2: Sulphur Dioxide. Short-term exposure can harm the respiratory system, making breathing difficult. It can affect visibility by reacting with other air particles to form haze and stain culturally important objects such as statues and monuments. NO2: Nitrogen Dioxide. Aggravates respiratory illness, causes haze to form by reacting with other air particles, causes acid rain, pollutes coastal waters. CO: Carbon monoxide. High concentration in air reduces oxygen supply to critical organs like the heart and brain. At very high levels, it can cause dizziness, confusion, unconsciousness and even death. PM2.5 & PM10: Particulate matter pollution can cause irritation of the eyes, nose and throat, coughing, chest tightness and shortness of breath, reduced lung function, irregular heartbeat, asthma attacks, heart attacks and premature death in people with heart or lung disease
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THE HINDU
NATION 7
NOIDA/DELHI
MONDAY, AUGUST 21, 2017
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IN BRIEF
Goa’s Ganpati festival: ecological concerns linger The State led the way when it came to banning plaster of Paris idols, but how successful has it been? Prakash Kamat Panaji
BJP MLA asks deprived classes to unite JAIPUR
BJP MLA Ghanshyam Tiwari has said that the Rajasthan government will provide reservation to deprived classes of the society, only if they unite. “The day forward classes join hands, the government will issue a reservation notification.” PTI
Three killed, 7 injured in Assam road mishap TEZPUR
Four persons, including three members of a family, were on Sunday killed and seven others injured when a van and a truck collided at Ghoramari Tiniali area of Sonitpur district in Lower Assam, police sources said. While two persons died on the spot, two others succumbed to their injuries on way to hospital. PTI
Bangladeshi national residing illegally held LUCKNOW
A Bangladeshi national allegedly residing illegally in Meerut was arrested on Sunday by the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force, according to an official statement. “The arrested has been identified as Abu Hannan, a resident of Dharampur in Banglasdesh’s Rajshahi district,” it said. PTI
HC order on Zakia’s plea likely today
Ganesh Chaturthi is a festival celebrated on a grand scale, particularly in western India, and increasingly in other parts of the country as well. But one part of the festival’s rituals has those of a greener mindset worried about environmental impact: the immersion. Unlike in olden times, when idols were made of clay, today’s Ganeshas are usually made of plaster of Paris (PoP). PoP does not require the kind of hard-won skill that clay requires. It is easy to cast in a mould, yields a smooth surface, dries quicker than clay, is friendlier to paint, and is much lighter (an important consideration when statusconsciousness leads to larger idols) and the idols made with it are cheaper. But PoP does not dissolve readily, and it turns water hard. Aside from the base material, the bright paints and dyes most artisans use contain toxic chemicals which poison water bodies and aquatic life, and — when they make their way back via the seafood we eat or the water we drink — us. Organisations and individuals have been working to promote clay idols and natural dyes. The government of Goa is ahead of them,
A small beginning: An artist giving shape to a Ganesha idol made of clay at Bicholim in Goa. Despite the ban on plaster of Paris idols, they are available and preferred as they are cheaper and lighter (second photo). This year, authorities hope to minimise the pollution caused by the immersion of plaster of Paris idols. SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT *
though: its Department of Science, Technology & Environment banned the manufacture, import and sale of PoP idols in 2008. Former Chief Minister Digambar Kamat recalls that there was “some movement” by environmentalists after Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB) reports indicated that pollution of water bodies after the Ganesh festival was on the rise, but insists that the prime mover was his Environment Ministry. Krishna Karapurkar, Deputy Manager, Marketing, Goa Handicrafts, Rural and Small Scale Industries Development Corporation (GHRSSIDC), says that his or-
ganisation was one of the agencies that brought the issue to the government’s notice. The ban is implemented via a multi-agency approach and uses the carrot-and-stick approach.
Incentives on offer The state-owned GHRSSIDC incentivises Ganesh chitrashallas (as the manufacturing units are called) to not use materials harmful to the environment by giving them a subsidy of ₹100 per clay idol. Demand has been growing every year, Mr. Karapurkar said, with the number of subsidies going from around 37,000 (to 364 chitrashallas) in 2008, to over 53,000 (to around 500
chitrashallahs and artists) last year. He expects this year’s figure to cross 60,000. At the enforcement end, the Commissioner of Excise is empowered to check vehicles or attach them with the help of police. And GHRSSIDC and GSPCB officials inspect registered chitrashallas and withdraw subsidies and licences consent if they flout the ban. Natalia Dias, senior legal officer in GSPCB’s Environment department, says that even if there is a suspicion of small quantities of insoluble material being mixed with clay, it is immediately reported to a District Magistrate, who directs collection of samples which are tested in
GSPCB laboratories. The evidence indicates that the ban has worked. GSPCB’s annual report for 2014-15 says that results of analysis of samples from rivers and water bodies revealed no increase in pollution. Citizens, though, are sceptical. Pandurang Nadkarni, a former chairman of Goa Board for Secondary and Higher Secondary Education, told The Hindu that the ban is a big joke. “Much ahead of the festival, around May, June, PoP idols come to Goa from neighbouring districts across the border in huge numbers.” Prerna Pawaskar, an envir-
Cow deaths: Chhattisgarh suspends 9 officials 173 bovines allegedly died in one week at three government-aided shelters; one gaushala owner held
onmental activist who, through her organisation Kalakriti, runs workshops teaching children to make clay idols, also dismisses the official claims. Manoj Naik, from Madkai village, on the banks of the Zuari river, in Ponda, central Goa, has been making Ganesh idols since he was 10, apprenticing under his late grandfather. His family was among the first to switch totally to clay. He complains that it takes a long time to get the government subsidy. Other artists echo this, and say the paperwork required is tedious. And then there are the bootleg PoP idols taking business away. Mr. Naik says that
T-90 battle tanks to get an upgrade Special Correspondent
Press Trust of India
Press Trust of India Raipur
Ahmedabad
The Gujarat High Court is likely to pronounce its order on Monday on a petition filed by Zakia Jafri, widow of Congress leader Ehsan Jafri, challenging a lower court’s order upholding a clean chit to then Chief Minister Narendra Modi and others in the 2002 riots cases. The matter was listed for pronouncement of order on August 9, but Justice Sonia Gokani, who heard the case, had deferred it to August 21. The hearing concluded on July 3. The court heard a criminal review petition moved by Ms. Jafri and activist Teesta Setalvad’s NGO Citizens for Justice and Peace, challenging the order upholding the clean chit given by the Special Investigation Team on the alleged larger criminal conspiracy behind the riots. The petition demanded that Modi and 59 others be made accused on charges of criminal conspiracy behind the riots.
Nine officials, including two deputy directors, of the Chhattisgarh animal husbandry department have been suspended amid allegations that 173 cows have died in about one week at three government-aided shelters. The police have also arrested the owner of one of the cow shelters, who belongs to the BJP, and are questioning office-bearers of the other two. The chairpersons of the other two shelters are absconding. Chhattisgarh Rajya Gau Sewa Ayog chairman Bisheshar Patel on Sunday claimed that 52 deaths had taken place at Shagun gaushala (cow shelter) in Rajpur vil-
lage in Durg district, 106 at Phoolchand gaushala, and 15 at Mayuri gaushala in Godmarra and Rano villages respectively of the Bemetara district.
Show cause notice Taking cognisance of the statement, State Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Minister Brijmohan Agrawal has suspended nine officers of the department for “negligence in discharging their duties”, and issued a show cause notice to the Gau Sewa Aayog secretary, a government statement said. Those suspended include the department’s deputy directors in Durg and Bemetara, and seven veterinarians. The action was taken based on
the preliminary findings that indicated grave negligence on the part of these officers, the statement said.
Official tour The minister, who is on an official tour of Israel, had sought a report on the incident from animal husbandry director S.K. Pandey by August 19. He has also sought a report within three days on the condition of all cow shelters in the State, the statement added. Shagun gaushala owner Harish Verma, who belongs to the BJP and is the vicepresident of the Jamul municipality, was arrested on Friday. The Chhattisgarh Rajya Gau Sewa Ayog had lodged a
Special Correspondent CHENNAI
From the next academic year, the Joint Engineering Examination (Advanced) will be an online test. The decision to this effect was
taken at a meeting of the Joint Admission Board of the Indian Institutes of Technology on Sunday. A release said, “The Apex Body for conduct of JEE (Advanced), at its meeting today
(August 20, 2017), has decided that JEE (Adv) will be conducted in online mode from 2018. Further information regarding the examination will be provided by the JAB in
Death penalty stayed in sacrifice case
Press Trust of India
New Delhi
Legal Correspondent
A foreign court does not have the jurisdiction to decide matrimonial matters of a couple who have Indian domicile and are governed under the Hindu Marriage Act even if the parties were at the time residing in a foreign nation, the Bombay High Court has observed. A Division Bench of Justices A.S. Oka and Anuja Prabhudessai last week quashed and set aside a
Dubai court’s order allowing a divorce petition filed by an Indian man residing there.
Maintenance claim The High Court was hearing an appeal filed by the man’s wife challenging an order passed by a family court here that dismissed her plea seeking maintenance for herself and her two children. The family court, while dismissing her plea, observed that the Dubai court had already adjudic-
ated the matter. However, the High Court, after perusing the case, opined that both are Indian citizens and there was no material to endorse the husband’s claim that they have domiciles in Dubai. “Under the circumstances, we are unable to hold that the Dubai court was a court of competent jurisdiction to decide the matrimonial dispute between them,” Justices Oka and Prabhudessai ruled.
SC bats for personal liberty Legal Correspondent NEW DELHI
Personal liberty cannot be compromised at the altar of what the state may perceive as justice, the Supreme Court has said while granting bail to former Assam Public Service Commission (APSC) chairman Rakesh Kumar Paul in a case of alleged corruption. A three-judge Bench headed by Justice Madan B. Lokur, in a majority ruling of 2:1, said Mr. Paul was entitled to ‘default bail’ and the trial judge should release him on such terms as may be CM YK
‘Lack of facilities’ According to Mr. Patel, lack of management and proper facilities at the cow shelters led to the bovine deaths. The cattle from these shelters were being shifted to others, he said. An official from the animal husbandry department, meanwhile, said teams of senior veterinarians had been deployed in these shel-
ters to provide treatment to the ailing animals and to monitor them. In the past two days, 152 cows were provided treatment, he said. Besides, several cows from Shagun gaushala were being shifted to the nearby shelters, the official said. The shelter was overcrowded, with 599 bovines housed there. Mr. Verma, booked under relevant provisions of the Chhattisgarh Agricultural Cattle Preservation Act, 2004; Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960; and Section 409 (criminal breach of trust) of the Indian Penal Code, was produced in a Durg court on Saturday, which remanded him in judicial custody, a police official said.
JEE (Advanced) will now be an online examination
Foreign court can’t rule on Indians’ divorce plea: HC Mumbai
police complaint alleging lack of proper facilities and management at his facility. The police on Sunday took into custody two office-bearers of Phoolchand gaushala and one of Mayuri gaushala in Bemetara. They are being questioned, an official at Parpodi police station said.
reasonable. In the majority verdict, concurred by Justices Lokur and Deepak Gupta, the court said that “in matters of personal liberty, we cannot and should not be too technical and must lean in favour of
personal liberty”. The apex court was hearing the plea filed by Mr. Paul after his bail pleas were rejected by the Gauhati High Court twice. He was arrested in November last year after an FIR was lodged against him under the Prevention of Corruption Act and a charge sheet was filed this January. In his dissenting verdict, Justice P.C. Pant held that the allegations did not disclose merely an economic offence but it showed a transgression of the constitutional rights of the victims of the crime.
The Supreme Court has stayed the execution of a couple, sentenced to death in a case of sacrificing a two-year-old boy. A Bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra admitted the appeal filed by the condemned prisoners, Ishwari Lal Yadav and his wife Kiran Bai, whose death penalty was confirmed by the Chhattisgarh High Court in the human sacrifice case. “Let the lower court records be called for. There shall be stay of the execution of the death sentence. Let the matter be listed before the appropriate bench in the week commencing November 28,” the Bench, also comprising Justices Amitava Roy and A.M. Khanwilkar, said. The case dates back to November 23, 2010 when Chirag, the two-year-old son of Poshan Singh Rajput, went missing. It was alleged that the two main accused, Yadav and his wife, used to practise black magic. Kiran Bai had allegedly asked her husband to get a child for sacrifice and the boy was kidnapped and killed in a gruesome manner.
due course.” Bhaskar Ramamurthi, IITM’s director and chairman of the Joint Admission Board ( JAB) 2017 said, “Now we are going online like the GATE (Graduate Aptitude Test in
Engineering). The test would be held for all the two lakh candidates together. We were not confident until now but we now have enough capacity to hold it simultaneously.”
while the ban is enforced strictly on the Goa-Karnataka border, most idols come in from Maharashtra, particularly from Kolhapur. The entrepreneurs involved avoid being caught by simply bringing them in around June. Unscrupulous artisans in Goa just add a thin layer of clay to camouflage the idols, something laypersons wouldn’t be able to spot. One more factor this year is the new Goods and Services tax regime. Mr. Karapurkar of GHRSSIDC says that there is no GST on the idols. But the creators say that there is 28% GST on the price of paints, which they will have to pass on to consumers.
NEW DELHI
The Army is looking to upgrade the T-90 main battle tank to enhance firepower and mobility. They are going to be equipped with a new missile system and a new more powerful modular engine. “As the design of the existing INVAR missile has been maximised, both in
terms of range and Depth of Penetration (DoP), it is imperative to upgrade it to next-generation missiles with enhanced capability,” according to PTI. The thirdgeneration missile should achieve a DoP of 800-850 mm and be capable of hitting targets up to a range of 8 km against mobile as well as static targets. (With inputs from PTI)
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8 EDITORIAL
NOIDA/DELHI
THE HINDU
MONDAY, AUGUST 21, 2017
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Patriot games at Attari-Wagah Seventy years after 1947, it’s time to wind down the choreographed hostility at the India-Pakistan border
Separate ways
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ouder,” the tough-looking Border Security Force (BSF) guard gesticulated to the cheering, flag-waving Indian audience at Attari on the IndiaPakistan border as the shouts of “Jio jio Pakistan” from the Wagah side of the border, barely 100 metres away, briefly dominated the air. The hyper-charged crowds were only too happy to comply and shouted back, “Bharat Mata ki Jai”, drowning out the Pakistani “attack”. The older we become as nationstates, the less mature we seem to have become — the retreat ceremony at the Attari-Wagah border testifies to that. Over the past 70 years, the display of respective nationalisms at the border has become far more aggressive, dramatic, and hateful. The well-choreographed hurling of the slogans “Bharat Mata ki Jai” and “Jio jio Pakistan” at each other not only reduces the India-Pakistan relationship to a juvenile shouting match but, more importantly, encourages people to belittle and disrespect each other’s sense of nationhood in praise of one’s own. The retreat ceremony today is less of a celebration and more about denigrating the other. Does belittling each other’s nationhood make our respective nations any greater? ‘No’ should be the ideal answer, but not everyone would agree.
A choreography of hostility Following Partition, and the creation of the two states in 1947, the Wagah-Attari border, a short drive from Lahore and Amritsar, remained a trade and transit point between the two countries. During the heydays of India-Pakistan relations in the mid-2000s, it was de-
I
t has been about five years since the Supreme Court ordered the Sahara Group, led by Subrata Roy, to refund money that it borrowed from investors without sufficient regulatory clearance. But the Securities and Exchange Board of India, which was tasked by the Supreme Court to oversee the actual transfer of money from the Sahara Group to investors, is clueless about where to find those investors. The total amount, including interest on the initial principal, that needs to be refunded to investors has bulged to about ₹40,000 crore now. Of this, SEBI has received an aggregate amount, including interest earned on deposits, of about ₹14,487 crore from the Sahara Group. But according to SEBI’s latest annual report, as on March 31, 2017 only about ₹85.02 crore, including interest of about ₹38.05 crore, of this amount has actually been returned to investors. As a background to the case, it is notable that Sahara India Real Estate Corporation Ltd. and Sahara Housing Investment Corporation Ltd., entities that come under the Sahara Group, were directed by SEBI in 2011 to return about ₹24,000 crore that they had raised through the issue of optional fully convertible debentures. The entities had collected the money without seeking SEBI’s approval, which led the regulator to order the money to be returned to investors with appropriate interest. The Sahara Group argued that it had sufficient approvals from the Ministry of Corporate Affairs for the issue. But the Supreme Court, on August 31, 2012, upheld the 2011 SEBI order. The fact that very few investors have come forward to reclaim their money is bizarre. SEBI has been requesting genuine investors in Sahara to step forward and claim their money since at least May 2013. This obviously raises questions about the authenticity of Sahara’s investor base, which needs to be investigated thoroughly. The Sahara Group earlier claimed that it had already returned 95% of the capital that it borrowed from investors even before the Supreme Court’s 2012 decision — it says this is the reason much of the refund money remains unclaimed. But the Group failed to satisfy the Supreme Court’s request to provide evidence of the source of funds used to make the claimed return payments. It was always clear that the Sahara case was hardly about investor protection, one that could be handled by SEBI. Yet, even as crores of rupees remain unclaimed from SEBI, investigations into the case from the angle of possible money laundering have been slow. The Enforcement Directorate began proceedings in 2014 against the Sahara Group under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, but has had very little to show for its efforts. The government must step in to expedite a probe into what could be a massive money laundering exercise. This will yield better results than waiting for millions of missing investors to turn up. Finally, the Ministry’s rationale for approving Sahara’s initial fundraising efforts should not be left uninvestigated either. CM YK
tion of Kargil. Given that Kargil was India’s ‘first televised war’, it also brought about several changes in the way we relate to war, peace and of course the ‘enemy’, Pakistan. Post-Kargil, the ceremony started reflecting carefully choreographed elements of hostility and resentment towards the enemy ‘other’ across the white line at Attari. A quick glance at post-Kargil films such as Gadar: Ek Prem Katha (2001), The Hero: Love Story of a Spy (2003), and LOC Kargil (2003) demonstrate how Kargil has influenced our notions of nationalism and the sources and definitions of national security threats. Over the years, the ceremony has become hostile and dramatised with the guards displaying intimidating gestures, stomping their feet and exchanging angry glares across the large iron gates, much to the delight of the cheering crowds. In 2010, BSF and Pakistan Rangers agreed to do away with some of the overt aggression, yet the angry gestures of stomping, thumping and glaring nonetheless remain an integral part of this theatrical ceremony.
Some niceties “Your excellency” is the salutation officers on either side use when addressing each other, irrespective of rank, and junior officers salute senior officers from the ‘enemy side’ if they happen to meet. There are ritualistic exchanges of sweets
The commerce of patriotism The retreat ceremony today is not just a daily exercise in the display of nationalism and military vigour. Over the years, it has become a heady cocktail of Bollywood music, businesses flashing their tri-coloured advertisements, souvenir shops selling patriotic memorabilia, and LCD screens displaying the sponsors of the event. Nationalism is good business too. The whole event is electrifying. Hordes of school students enthusiastically waving the tricolour, BSF guards dressed in white sportswear getting around the venue and sloganeering over the loudspeaker, and men and women dancing to the tune of patriotic songs from Bombay cinema — ‘Kandhon se milte hain kandhein’, ‘Yeh desh hai veer jawaanon ka’, ‘Dushman ke chakke chudade hum India walle’, ‘Desh nu chalo desh mangta kurbaniyan’. The drill on the Pakistani side is no different, only the songs and flag are. The Bollywood connection to the retreat ceremony doesn’t end there. Popular film actors are often seen at the venue promoting their films and connecting with the
crowds, besides adding to the nationalistic atmosphere. Then there is Sarhad, the highway restaurant close to the AttariWagah border that serves both Pakistani and Indian cuisine, reminding you of the common architectural, cultural and culinary heritage of pre-Partition Punjab. Sarhad also displays murals narrating the story of pre-Partition bonhomie, Partition and its aftermath, and a potential future of borders without barriers. For those returning from the war of words at Attari, Sarhad plays soothing Coke Studio songs such as Gurdas Mann’s ‘Ki Banu Duniya Da’ (what will become of the world) — ‘O Wagah de border te, raah puchdi Lahore’an de haye, raah puchdi Lahore’an de’ (at the Wagah border, I look for roads that once took me to Lahore). War and peace, after all, is also a state of mind and it’s in our minds that both the retreat ceremony at Attari and the Sarhad restaurant seem to be persuasively engaging in radically different ways.
Seventy years on Seventy years after the violence of Partition, the India-Pakistan relationship today has been reduced to this: jointly-choreographed shouting matches and threats of apocalyptic nuclear wars. The retreat ceremony at the Attari-Wagah border, a well-rehearsed exchange of insults, is a constant, daily, reminder of our hostility towards each other as against the idea of each other’s nationhood, and the inhabitants of the two nations. Seventy years may not be a long time in the lives of two post-colonial nations, but the 70th anniversary of freedom is a good time to start accepting each other’s existence as sovereign independent entities. India needs to accept Pakistan’s tryst with its destiny and what it does with it, and vice-versa. Happymon Jacob is Associate Professor at the School of International Studies, JNU, New Delhi. Kaveri Bedi recently completed her PhD thesis on “Films as Sites of National Identity Formation: Exploring the Portrayal of India-Pakistan in Mainstream Hindi Films”
Moby addiction The uproar over ‘Blue Whale’ highlights our uneasy adjustment to a hyper-connected world
Missing investors The Sahara case calls for a thorough probe to reveal all its money laundering dimensions
cided to allow trucks to go to designated points on either side of the border for unloading cargo. Today, there is more formalised trade between the two countries than there is transit thanks to severe visa restrictions. The Attari border was managed by the Indian Army in the first few years after Independence and later managed by the Punjab Armed Police before the BSF eventually took over after its creation in 1965. When the retreat ceremony began in 1959, the joint Check Post was marked by a few painted drums, two flag masts and a rubble of stones astride the Grand Truck Road that stretches from Calcutta to Peshawar. During the early decades, the flag-lowering ritual was a low-key affair that had an almost negligible audience and spartan seating arrangements, a far cry from the grand infrastructure and pavilions that can accommodate as many as 10,000 people today. India’s 1999 victory over Pakistan in Kargil made all the difference, as well as the opening up of the Indian media space in the preceding years. Since Kargil, the Attari-Wagah border has become a tourist destination and consequently led to the expansion of infrastructure on both sides. Unlike the India-Pakistan wars of 1965 and 1971, when the ceremony was temporarily halted during the conflicts, it continued during the dura-
jacob koshy
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arents, state legislators, the courts and the police in India seem to be having a harrowing time with an elusive enemy. Blue Whale — an online ‘game’ that supposedly prods teenagers into undertaking a sequence of bizarre, dangerous tasks which include lacerating their skin and jumping off buildings — seems to be as ominous and mysterious as Moby Dick. For now, it even seems as fictional. It is claimed that some boys who have lost their lives played this online but not a single police investigation in either Kerala or in Maharashtra has conclusively linked the game with their deaths. While everyone from Microsoft to Facebook has been instructed by the government to “disable” links to Blue Whale, there is no clarity on where these are, who its creators are, and how this game is run. Unlike a flu virus running amok, catching an online link to ‘Blue
Whale’ isn’t easy. That’s why it is not clear if the government, in its mission to ‘ban’ Blue Whale, will invoke some of its trusty armoury in the Information Technology Act — akin to the purge on pornography — to clear search term combinations of “blue”, “whale” “game” “death” and “suicide.” Why something as amorphous as Blue Whale has so quickly captured a chunk of public murmur (it’s already an Amul cartoon) has less to do with the nature of the game and more with our unease of adjusting to an exponentially hyper-connected world.
Turning the mirror on us Mundane objects circulating and systematically killing those who come in contact with them is a favourite trope of fiction. From the glowing briefcase of Pulp Fiction to the killer video cassette of the Ring, few things are more terrifying than the ubiquitous becoming sinister. While video games, Internet chat rooms and now, virtual-reality headsets, have over the decades been blamed by befuddled parents as the body snatchers who have turned their outdoorsy children into inmates of an alternate-reality prison, it’s the vast difference
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR China’s hostility It is not unexpected that in the middle of a charged border stand-off, China, our neighbour, has not been sharing hydrological data with us (“No data from China on Brahmaputra this year”, August 19). What is surprising though is that we are still dependent on China to provide us with the necessary hydrological data during the flood season despite all the technological progress we have made and a range of satellites launched to boost remote sensing. This shows that we need to reorient our scientific and technological research to meet these practical requirements. With hostility around us, we should not be caught on the back foot. Kosaraju Chandramouli, Hyderabad
There seems to be no limit to China’s belligerent attitude which now almost borders on growing and open hostility (“Video shows troops trading kicks, ■
That human beings, young or old, are primed towards irrational thrill-seeking is a biological fact. Wise people, with doctorates in medicine, continue to smoke despite incontrovertible evidence of the toxic effects of tobacco. Pilgrims and trekkers sign up, on faith, to trudge on swaying bridges and brave inhuman weather to visit homes of mythical gods and for views from mountain peaks that can be bought with a plane ticket.
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n the credit side of his long political ledger, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has been able to carry with him most of his party’s State legislators through his flip-flops. Whether he made or broke alliances, whether with the Bharatiya Janata Party or the Rashtriya Janata Dal, a majority of the Bihar unit of the Janata Dal (United) stayed with him. The only blot in his drama-filled copybook so far is the revolt of senior leader Sharad Yadav, who took some of the moral sheen away from the attempt to portray the break-up of the ‘grand alliance’ with the RJD and the Congress as a principled stand against corruption. Indeed, Mr. Yadav, in describing the dissolution of the alliance as a betrayal of the people’s mandate of 2015, has pressured Mr. Kumar into dropping all pretence and formally joining the National Democratic Alliance of the BJP. The prospect of ministerial berths at the Centre might have persuaded some of the JD(U)’s Members of Parliament to go along with Mr. Kumar, but Mr. Yadav appears to have generated some political momentum on his own. With the formalisation of the split, the JD(U) could be in danger of losing its election symbol, the Arrow. Mr. Yadav has made it clear he is not leaving the party he helped found, and led for some time. A BJP-JD(U) electoral alliance is formidable, but if the 2015 Assembly election proved anything, it was that the RJD retained its core support base. Mr. Yadav knows he can retain his relevance in Bihar’s politics by siding with the RJD’s Lalu Prasad. The series of corruption cases against him and his family members notwithstanding, Mr. Prasad, with his own brand of backward class identity politics and wooing of the minority community vote-bank, remains a vote-catcher in Bihar. The present turn in the State’s politics presents an opportunity for Mr. Yadav to strike out on his own, and find a niche for himself. To go along with Mr. Kumar at every turn would have cramped the political space for Mr. Yadav at the national level. Also, in spite of what he likes to believe, Mr. Kumar might have played into the hands of the BJP. At the time of the next Lok Sabha election, the BJP will most likely call the shots in seat apportioning and constituency selection. Mr. Kumar needs the BJP more than the BJP needs him. Without an alliance partner, Mr. Kumar might just sink; the RJD-Congress combine is sure to take the anti-BJP political space. Thus, in making his decision Mr. Yadav seems to have factored in a possible souring of Mr. Kumar’s relations with the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah duo. The prospect of an immediate ministerial berth was probably weighed against the possibility of long-term political marginalisation.
happymon jacob & kaveri bedi LIGHTROCKET VIA GETTY IMAGES
Sharad Yadav has adopted a long-term view in deciding to part with Nitish Kumar
and occasional hugs between the BSF and Pakistani Rangers on special days such as August 14-15 and Diwali/Eid (ironically, there are often reports of increased firing on the Line of Control on such days). During times of tensions, this practice is often suspended. A BSF officer pointed out that not all gestures are as aggressive as they are perceived to be but are sometimes indications to the other side about the conduct of the ceremony and what to do next. If you travel to the other side on foot, what surprises you is not just the seamlessness of life on either side of the border but also the chit-chatting and familiarity between the ‘adversaries’ that one gets to see. Behind the stomping and angry glares then, there is a certain cordiality that exists on the Attari-Wagah border, and that in a sense is what makes it even more ironical, and a theatre of the absurd.
between our dependence on communication devices and how little we ‘understand’ the inner workings of these objects such as mobile phones, websites, apps, Internet protocol that makes them objects of terror. A few decades ago, parents could ban prurient books, music and movies because as a rule of thumb anything with sexual innuendo or graphic violence could be recognised and categorised as such and locked away. Now the dilemma that adults face is that they are as hooked to mobile phones as their children. The relative addictiveness of Candy Crush vis-à-vis Snapchat can no longer be easily classified and therefore condemned.
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punches in Ladakh”, August 20). It is high time that India takes an extremely serious note of the situation and acts accordingly. As a first step towards launching an offensive, but in a peaceful manner, our foreign policy makers should accord diplomatic recognition to Taiwan.
for a plot of barren land must strike a chord. “Peace and friendship with all mankind is our wisest policy, and I wish we may be permitted to pursue it” is what Thomas Jefferson said. It must be tried out without delay. K. Jayanthi, Chennai
Arun Malankar, Mumbai
I wonder how many will pay heed to the wish expressed in the Open Page article — “Why we are friends, and should remain so”, August 13 — by a Chinese youth who travelled in India and penned his memorable experiences here. His genuine wish that the two Asian giants attempt conciliation over confrontation is quite appealing. When there has been tension for over 60 days at Doklam, his point that a piece of land is just a piece of land and that it is pointless in sending young people to their death just ■
A case for investigation There have yet been no government diktats to ban bungee jumping, adventure rides and wildlife safaris, all of which carry the small possibility of ensuring certain death. It’s in fact the delicate balance between danger and safety that makes them alluring unlike the online game which, if you don’t move from your seat, can never kill you. The young and old — again by the fact of being primates — are irrevocably drawn to being part of group hierarchies and their attendant peer pressure. On an average, we as a species only differ in the kind and not degree of activities that we choose to obsess over. Why, for instance, should a devo-
tion to prime numbers and weekend long binge watching be considered noble and tolerable but a quest to the point of sleep- and food-deprivation to complete Civilizations be considered ‘unhealthy?’ These priorities essentially boil down to cultural quirks. Inducing anyone to commit suicide — online or offline — is an act that merits criminal investigation and must be viewed by authorities from the lens of trafficking and stalking rather than viewing the Internet as a uniquely potent cauldron of evil. Cetology has it that whales have been beaching for a variety of reasons for millions of years. This could be due to algal poisoning, disorientation by sonar, the tendency of some species to unquestionably follow a “leader” and, sometimes, an awry instinct to swim closer to shores when they get older and weaker and less confident of staying in the deep. It’s news when pods of whales get stranded en masse on beaches but the overwhelming majority of whales die silently in the oceans. Blue whales included.
On Charlottesville When we talk about the U.S., we tend to think of it in terms of equality for all, great freedom and a tolerance towards every religion. The appalling violence in Charlottesville belies these. What we witnessed in the U.S. is akin to some of the social turmoil in India. While the root cause of the violence in the U.S. is linked to white supremacy, the factors here are religious jingoism and parochialism. The parallels do not end here. The leaders of both nations share a somewhat similar stance as far as the minorities are concerned. Both leaders share an
extreme ideology and come up with exaggerated rhetoric laden with fancy promises. They have also failed to be vigilant and take the required steps needed to stem extreme tendencies in their respective countries. The notions of bigotry, racism, hatred, fascism, parochialism and communalism are antithetical to equity and are evils which pose a strong threat to a wellfunctioning democracy. Deepti Jain, New Delhi
Surprise checks Puducherry Lt. Governor Kiran Bedi’s act of checking measures for women’s safety in Puducherry by going on a midnight motorbike inspection, and incognito, should prompt authorities across India to conduct surprise inspections at all hours to check the functioning of essential services and government establishments (“Kiran Bedi plays cop again, polices streets”,
August 20). Such a step gives officials true information about the functioning of various departments and paves the way for good governance. We can learn a lot from our ancient kings who disguised themselves as ordinary people and kept a eye on administration. K. Manasa Saanvi, Hyderabad
■ Going viral seems to be the trend today. Kiran Bedi’s intentions may have won appreciation, but how does a picture evolve “without being noticed”? Examples of other “inspections” going viral are of Kerala Road Transport Corporation MD M.G. Rajamanikyam spending time in the workshop assisting in repairs; the Health Minister of Kerala on a ‘surprise visit’ to the Thiruvananthapuram General Hospital and taking errant staff to task; and a sitting judge of the Kerala High Court clearing a clogged storm water drain. How the press came to
know about these is anybody’s guess. The show must go on. T.V. Sreekumar, Bengaluru
Corporate rumblings Happenings in the corporate world in the form of the resignations of Vishal Sikka from Infosys and Cyrus Mistry from the Tata group once again highlight the issue of ‘unwanted interference’ from supposedly retired ‘mentors’. There is no doubt that these stalwarts have given their life and blood in bringing their respective companies to their present stature but at the same time find it difficult to ‘let go’. Their all-pervasive personality looms large over the company stifling the working style of the incumbent heads, ultimately paving the way for their destruction. Sharada Sivaram, Kochi
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THE HINDU
OPED 9
NOIDA/DELHI
MONDAY, AUGUST 21, 2017
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Providing food to the poor or targeted groups at subsidised prices is fully WTO-compatible
ports, faster clearance procedures, and improved appeal rights for traders are to be addressed by countries. They shall notify various provisions to bring in the facilitation, over three years or more. Only the basic set of provisions will be implemented within one year. The Trade Facilitation Agreement allows for consultations before any new trade rules are notified. A WTO study indicated that when the Trade Facilitation Agreement is fully implemented, trade costs for member countries will decrease by an average of 14.3%. It is also estimated that the time taken to export and import will come down drastically. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has made budgetary allocations for bringing in single-window clearance and improving customs clearance at the ports. A high-level committee chaired by the Cabinet Secretary will monitor logistics and efficiency at ports and related issues. Thus, it can be seen that the Trade Facilitation Agreement is not about market access but inter alia about facilitating and bringing trade transparency. By ratifying the Trade Facilitation Agreement, India has not forgotten the developmental agenda lying unfulfilled at the WTO.
though agreed on in Bali in 2013 and reiterated in Nairobi in 2015, that a permanent solution for Public Stock Holding be found by 2017, it is still a ‘work-in-progress’. The existing WTO rules would have allowed a legal challenge to our Public Stock Holding and minimum support pricebased procurement programme in case we breached ‘the limit’ on procurement. ‘The limit’ is defined as 10% of the value of production of the particular grain being procured. WTO rules classify procurement and holding of public stocks for food security purposes as ‘Green Box’ or non trade-distorting. However, if foodgrains for the public stocks are procured through an administered price/minimum support price and if this minimum support price is higher than the archaic fixed reference price (calculated on base period 1986-88), then it is considered as trade-distorting agriculture support. Such trade-distorting support should be within ‘the limit’, which is 10% of the value of production of the particular grain being procured. One of the first things that this government did in 2014 was to intensely engage with the WTO to obtain a ‘peace clause’ so that even if we did breach ‘the limit’, no one shall challenge our programme till such a time a permanent solution is found, agreed on, and adopted by the WTO membership. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on this matter, personally engaged with global leaders, and by November 2014 we obtained an open-ended peace clause from the General Council of the WTO, which was later reaffirmed at the Nairobi Ministerial. So Prime Minister Modi has safeguarded the interests of the farmer and ensured that India’s sovereign right to protect them is not diluted. Providing food to the poor or targeted groups at subsidised prices is fully WTO-compatible. This does not figure at all in the WTO calculations. We have not undertaken any commitment in the WTO for any kind of limit on the food supplied under the NFSA . An informed discourse based on facts is welcome and I believe such a discourse shall strengthen public policy.
Protecting the farmer The Public Stock Holding issue remains unresolved at the WTO. Al-
Nirmala Sitharaman is Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Commerce and Industry, Government of India
Nirmala Sitharaman
Transformational changes are taking place in India currently, improving the way we live. These changes are impacting all our lives in small or significant ways. It is gratifying to know that the citizens at large are happy with these changes. However, for some who have fed themselves on the fodder that such changes are not for the near future, there is consternation. Even worse, these people find it difficult to comprehend that technology and policy are working together to remove discretion and opaqueness. The ongoing discourse, particularly in Tamil Nadu, on the Public Distribution System (PDS), the procurement of grains/pulses from farmers, public storage in Food Corporation of India godowns, commitments made in the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Direct Benefit Transfer, etc. is interesting. However, there are strands in this discourse which are impressionistic and not based on data. They create a populist narrative and distract from the core issues. It is necessary, therefore, to infuse facts into the discourse.
Facts in Tamil Nadu The PDS in Tamil Nadu is intact and continues to retain the feature of universal coverage even after implementation of the National Food Security Act, 2013 (NFSA). Although the guidelines under the NFSA prescribe identification of priority households, there is no denial of any benefit under the PDS. There is no reduction even in the total coverage from the earlier Targeted Public Distribution System, which was effective till Tamil Nadu joined the NFSA in November 2016. The average annual offtake or the annual allocation has remained 36.78 lakh tonnes. The major part of the subsidy for the distribution of foodgrains (90.81% for rice and 91.70% for wheat) is borne by the Government of India. The implication of this subsidy allocation to Tamil Nadu alone on the Government of India is approxim-
“The PDS in Tamil Nadu is intact and continues to retain the feature of universal coverage even after implementation of the National Food Security Act, 2013.” A PDS outlet in Coimbatore. M. PERIASAMY *
ately ₹843 crore per month and approximately ₹10,120 crore per year. Since the central issue price under the NFSA is much lower compared to the erstwhile Targeted Public Distribution System, the burden on the State government has come down. On implementing the NFSA, the savings for the State exchequer on account of this subsidy, thanks to the lower central issue price, is approximately ₹436.44 crore per year. Union Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan on August 1 stated in a series of tweets the data for Tamil Nadu and also highlighted the fact that Tamil Nadu gets the highest allocation in the country as ‘tide over’ allocation of 12.52 lakh metric tonnes of foodgrains. The narrative in Tamil Nadu cannot be devoid of these facts.
Ensuring trade transparency Another disturbing strand in this narrative in Tamil Nadu is that the Indian government has callously sold away the interests of our farmers at the WTO by agreeing to the Trade Facilitation Agreement. Nothing can be further from the truth than this! The Trade Facilitation Agreement was agreed on in 2013 in Bali and came into force from February 2017 after two-thirds of the WTO’s 164 members ratified it. Several trade-related issues such as transparency, predictability and efficiency at the
Social media’s phantom Is it a myth that trust in mainstream media is sinking?
A.S. PANNEERSELVAN We are witnessing a series of man-made tragedies. Apart from the deep psychological wounds and the human toll of these disasters, there is a tragicomedy that is taking place on social media. One would assume that the focus would on the losses, the factors that led to these tragedies, and on creating a system that would effect course correction so that these cruel events do not recur. However, some of the criticism on social media is aimed at the mainstream media. When children died allegedly due to lack of oxygen supply at Baba Raghav Das Medical College in Gorakhpur, the media was attacked vociferously by some on social media for pointing out that the current Chief Minister was the MP representing that constituency for five consecutive terms since 1988. Again, when the media drew attention to the fact that Charlottesville is a university town not far from Washington, D.C., to explain the tacit complicity of the ruling regime in fuelling the violence, similar groups landed another avalanche of abuses on the media. The question of trust in the news media is invoked rather easily, leading to a spurt in the number of surveys to quantify trust. Reputed organisations like the Reuters Institute for the Study in Journalism at the University of Oxford, the Pew Research Center in Washington, D.C., and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) in Geneva have all come up with extensive surveys. The EBU survey asserts that at this time of information abundance, trust in the media seems to be an important factor in determining the relationship between the media and its audience, and so measuring trust is essential to track the evolution of citizens’ perceptions of media organisations. It is true that digital disruption has impacted the business models of news organisations, but all the findings reiterate that people not only trust but also rely on respectable news organisations to get information. Why then this lacerating self-induced doubt?
Some key findings Let us first look at some of the key findings of these surveys. The Reuters Institute’s study read: “The Internet and social media may have exacerbated low trust and ‘fake news’, but we find that in many countries the underlying drivers of mistrust are as much to do with deep-rooted political polarisation
and perceived mainstream media bias.” The most important component of this survey is the role of mainstream media and social media in separating fact from fiction. The number of people trusting mainstream media is twice the number of those who trust social media.The Pew Research Center figure is interesting as it disaggregates the figure based on political affiliation of the citizens. For the Republicans, the trust in national and local news organisations is 35%; it is 3% for social networking sites. In the case of the Democrats, it is 70% for news organisations and 6% for social media. The EBU survey reads: “The gap between broadcast and new media is widening: while traditional media increased their levels of trust compared to last year, new media (Internet and social networks) lost even more trust.”
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Safeguarding the interests of farmers
FROM THE READERS’ EDITOR
These figures indicate that the problem with credible news media organisations is not the trust factor. Emily Bell, a former editor of The Guardian’s digital platform and now director of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University, said in an interview to Andrew Harrison of The Guardian: “We should be careful about exactly who is telling us that mainstream media is less trusted and why that narrative is circulated… It’s often politicians like Trump or new media outlets seeking to establish their own credibility or propagandists or PR companies. It’s people with a vested interest. That doesn’t mean the media isn’t having problems. But is trust really declining or are we just being told that it is?” Her argument is that with the multiplication of media outlets, the phrase ‘the media’ has become meaningless. She asserts that news coverage is better in many ways now compared to earlier times. She makes a crucial distinction between reasonable scepticism and total cynicism. In my straw polls, I ask people who are critical of the media to list the stories they found disagreeable. Most list reports from news outlets that are not known for their quality, values, or principles. The yardstick of social media — to judge the entire profession based on the worst practitioners — is no yardstick at all.
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The foreign façade
FIFTY YEARS AGO AUGUST 21, 1967
Federal reverses in Nigeria
The notion that anything foreign is taboo to our economy is flawed thinking
Radio Enugu claimed to-day [August 20] that several Soviet fighters had been destroyed on the ground in an air raid yesterday at an airport in Northern Nigeria. In a broadcast monitored here [Cotonou (Dahomey)], the radio said the Soviet aircraft had been delivered to the Federal Government a few days ago. It also said nine Czech fighters had been delivered to the federal forces at the request of the Russians, with maintenance crews. The radio reported a Biafran air-sea attack on Friday [August 18] on the federal-occupied oil terminal on Bonny Island in the south. It said the “enemy” had suffered considerable losses and “panicky” Nigerian troops had been evacuated by helicopters to federal ships anchored off-shore.
SRIRAM BALASUBRAMANIAN
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The incoming head of the NITI Aayog, Rajiv Kumar, recently said in a column in Dainik Jagran that India is subject to “foreign influences”, especially in the economic sphere. He said we must overcome the impact of the Macaulay and AngloSaxon world view. It’s important to analyse this statement and the sweeping generalisations that come with it. The aim of the NITI Aayog is to develop as a think tank which can make India competitive and self-reliant in a globalised world. However, the notion that anything “foreign” is taboo to our ecosystem is flawed thinking in an integrated modern economy. And despite Mr. Kumar’s assertions of “foreign influence” fading away, it is a fact that many prominent and competent people in economic policy in the Modi government have been educated or have worked abroad, including Mr. Kumar himself! This indicates that many Indians who have excelled abroad want to contribute to the economy. In a modern economy like ours, we need people with international exposure (to learn from the world’s mistakes) rather than armchair unaccountable pseudo-economists giving lectures, under the cover of political ideology, on what has to be done.
A HUNDRED YEARS AGO AUGUST 21, 1917
Mr. Montagu’s annoucement.
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CONCEPTUAL
SHELF HELP
Abilene paradox
Reading list from San Marino
Management
Armchair travel with a difference
An alternative model The second problematic notion is of foreign-bound economists being “Anglo-Saxon” in thought and process. While there are several economists with a western world view of economic theory, there are also a substantial number who agree with the negative impact of the theoretical influences of Anglo-Saxon economic thought on our policymaking and want it to be replaced with something more indigenous. But what is the alternative? While there are pockets of ideas which glorify our small and medium-sized enterprises, we haven’t really established a robust alternative model like what Singapore and China have done to suit their sociocultural tendencies. To establish a model like that is possible only when we have competent people with a broader global understanding of policies and ideas and yet have a unique approach to integrate Swadeshi qualities. Third, barring one or two Indian institutes, the academic quality of economists is no match to global standards. For example, India was plunged into an economic crisis in 1991 largely due to the flawed policies of home-grown economists who were abiding by the defunct socialist model of the 1970s and ’80s. The International Monetary Fund, for all its flaws, provided financial support to India to get out of the crisis. So what’s the point of criticising multilateral institutions when our own policies had neither the scale nor the vision to take us forward? Should we not pick up useful recommendations from these multilateral institutions? The focus needs to be on making calculated judgments on what suits us and what doesn’t rather than on shutting out opportunities. By adapting such narrow-minded views, we are isolating talented Indians who are willing to contribute to the country. The NITI Aayog needs to recruit Indian talent to suit the new ideas that they think are good for India.
This is a phenomenon where a group agrees to do something despite the fact that privately most, or even all, members of the group disagree on doing it. The Abilene paradox is seen whenever people who disagree think that their private opinion is in deep contrast to the overwhelming opinion of the group, which it is in fact not. Thus, even when a group privately agrees on something, it might decide to do something that is contradictory. The term was coined by management professor Jerry B. Harvey in his 1974 article “The Abilene Paradox: The Management of Agreement”.
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Sriram Balasubramanian is an economist and author. Email:
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The Infosys timeline: $250 gamble to $10 billion sweepstake
It’s no surprise that most of the reading lists compiled in this column are tips on how to know other parts of the world better — so perhaps there could be nothing more ambitious than having a list with a book apiece from every single country in the world. Ann Morgan’s Reading the World: Confessions of a Literary Explorer was published just in 2015, but is already a favourite — though I must confess that this is more because of her rousing round-up of the issues that beset publishing and the world of ideas in a global context. But to periodically scan her list of books, one each and each read by her, from or set in 196 countries plus one (she does the political thing, by picking one to represent Kurdistan) is to be inspired into making sure I read at least one book a year from a country I had read nothing from so far. Determining how many
countries there are in the world, for the purpose of such a reading list, is no easy matter. Do you go by the United Nations’ list of recognised states, by the number of delegations at the Olympics, or some other categorisation? Morgan, for instance, lists the United Kingdom as one entry (book: Martha, Jack and Shanco, by Caryl Lewis, translated from the Welsh by Gwen Davies). And finding a book from each territory is not easy. She had to have a book from Sao Tome and Principe translated (from the Portuguese original) just for herself. And for San Marino, she finally had to settle on a pamphlet issued by “The Governmental Tourist Body Sport and Spectacle of the Republic of San Marino”. The book from India, incidentally, is Kaalam, by M.T. Vasudevan Nair, translated from the Malayalam by Gita Krishnankutty. And the title from Brazil is House of the Fortunate
Buddhas, by Joao Ubaldo Ribeiro, translated from the Portuguese by Clifford E. Landers. I mention Brazil because Morgan gives the example of the country to show how unequal the translation exchange is. In 1987, she reports, national publishers in Brazil put out 15,000 volumes of translated works by anglophone writers, but only 14 books by Brazilians were released in English translation. It may appear that such an equation would render readers in Brazil all the more spoilt for choice, but as she notes: “A literary world defined by the writers and thinkers of a few nations is inevitably a space in which the work and influence of many important writers is diminished comparatively.” Maybe the rest of us can start by making our own variations of this list, no matter with how many blanks. Or as a start, a list of books from each State and Union Territory in India.
The Government of India published last evening, in a Gazette of India Extraordinary, the text of a statement made in the House of Commons by Mr. Montagu, the Secretary of State for India, on the question of Indian reforms. It is an insipid, uninspiring and disappointing declaration which will cause keen dissatisfaction throughout the country. The Congress and the Moslem League last December demanded, and the Indian public since then have been asking, a definite announcement by His Majesty that it was the aim and intention of British policy to confer self Government on India at an early date, and that a definite step should be taken by granting the reforms contained in the scheme accepted by those bodies. The frigid and cautious statement of Mr. Montagu, if it is a reply to that united demand, must be pronounced to be a highly unsatisfactory declaration which cannot be expected to allay public discontent, much less to excite any enthusiasm among the people of India. The language employed is extremely vague. CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC
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FROM PAGE ONE
Did Sasikala go out of Bengaluru prison? It was clear that the convicts were given special treatment apparently for pecuniary gains. This was abuse of official position and a punishable offence under Section 13(1) (c) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, Ms. Roopa said. “Inside or outside the women barracks, there is no male guard. So this appears like main gate of the prison on the road from where anybody enters…I have written this in the report and attached this video, requesting the ACB to check to which camera the footage belongs to and enquire whether they (the convicts) are coming from outside,” Ms. Roopa said.
Access to visitors In her 12-page report, Ms. Roopa has pointed to the special facilities extended to Sasikala while meeting visitors in an exclusive private room. Other prisoners meet visitors in a gallery where a mesh separates inmates and others. “There is a CCTV
Justice Karnan to petition Calcutta HC on parole plea
Modi, Amit Shah to meet BJP CMs today
To seek a direction to the government to make its recommendation soon
Special Correspondent
Coimbatore by a West Bengal police team in June. Justice Karnan’s lawyers argue in the petition that the State Home Department is “duty bound to process the memorandum” of Justice Karnan to the Governor.
Staff Reporter KOLKATA
D. Roopa
camera covering the visitors gallery…I don’t think you can find the convict meeting any of her visitors there. I have suggested that the visitors who met Sasikala should also be examined,” she told The Hindu. Meanwhile, sources said Ms. Roopa also gave evidence to the Vinay Kumar committee that might probe more into the irregularities than the corruption angle. The committee submitted its interim report to the Karnataka Chief Minister recently and sought more time to submit the final report.
Former Calcutta High Court judge C.S. Karnan will file a petition before the Calcutta High Court on his appeal to the Governor for parole. Pointing out that Justice Karnan’s petition to West Bengal Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi seeking parole was filed in June, the former judge’s lawyer, Mathews J. Nedumpara, told The Hindu that they “will plead before the Calcutta High Court to direct the State government to make its recommendation on the issue to the Governor within a reasonable time”. The petition will be filed by the end of August, his
BSF begins drive to curb suicides
C.S. Karnan lawyers said. The former judge is serving a six-month prison sentence awarded by the Supreme Court for contempt of court. He was lodged in the the Presidency Jail following his arrest from
Quick action The petition further states that the State government should “communicate to His Excellency the Governor of West Bengal its view on the memorandum of the petitioner objectively, fairly and with utmost expedition and dispatch”. The petition also seeks that Justice Karnan be released on bail till the State
Stock-taking on governance issues NEW DELHI
The Chief Ministers and Deputy Chief Ministers of BJP-ruled States will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah here on Monday for a stock-taking exercise on governance issues. This is the third in a series of quarterly meetings organised by the BJP. The last meeting was held in April. Besides the 13 Chief Ministers and six Deputy Chief Ministers, a few Cabinet ministers are also likely to attend the meeting, party sources said. The discussions are expected to revolve around implementation of the Centre’s flagship schemes in
government makes the related recommendation to the Governor and the Governor takes a call on the matter. It urges the Calcutta High Court to “declare that the petitioner is entitled to be enlarged on bail pending communication of the views/ recommendations, either way to His Excellency the Governor of West Bengal and its consideration by His Excellency the Governor in exercise of his extraordinary unfettered sovereign power”. Justice Karnan has appealed for parole under Article 161 of the Constitution, under which the Governor can grant pardon.
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Fond remembrance
Press Trust of India
Railway Board member sent on leave The track maintenance work was routine and could have been carried out even a day later, according to a top Railway Ministry official. “It is prima facie found that there was a routine maintenance work going on related to welding of track joints near the Khatauli railway station. It was a normal maintenance work where you cut out a piece of track, put another one and weld it. The welding process takes about an hour,” the Railway Ministry official explained. The divisional engineer, in consultation with the divisional operating manager, is required to take written consent from the stationmaster to get the ‘traffic block’ during which maintenance work related to the
rail track is to be conducted. “Nobody is authorised to open the rail track without taking a (traffic) block and that too in the face of a running train — it is criminal. They started maintaining the track without the block,” the official claimed. The Government Railway Police have filed a case under Sections 151, 154 and 427 of the Railways Act 1989 for causing damage to railway property, endangering safety of persons travelling by rail by an act of rash or negligence and mischief causing damage, respectively. Commissioner of Railway Safety, Northern Circle, Shailesh Kumar Pathak will begin an inquiry on Monday.
‘Stone-throwing down post NIA action’ In July alone last year, 475 incidents were reported. August, September and October reported 490, 402 and 181 incidents, respectively. The frequency of incidents fell considerably in November and December with 86 and 37 incidents respectively of stone-throwing. The government attributed the fall in incidents to its decision to demonetise ₹500 and ₹1,000 currency notes on November 8, claiming that the move choked the funding of terrorists.
Blow to terrorism The Home Minister was speaking at the inauguration of the office and residential complex of the NIA in Lucknow. Mr. Singh said, “You have seen role of the NIA in
Jammu and Kashmir, where incidents of stone throwing have come down …. If we plug sources of fake currency and terror funding, it will be a big blow to terrorism. NIA is doing a great job here. Its name sends fear down the spine of those indulging in terror funding.” The NIA had first registered a Preliminary Enquiry (PE) against Kashmiri separatist leaders including Syed Ali Shah Geelani, for allegedly receiving funds from Lashkar-e-Taiba’s chief Hafiz Saeed to create unrest in the Valley on May 19. The PE was converted into an FIR on May 30. The first arrests were made on July 24 when NIA arrested seven second-rung separatist leaders, which included Geelani’s son-in-law Altaf Ahmad Shah.
‘Note ban has starved Maoists of funds’
Domination of forces The Modi government was firm in its conviction that CM YK
armed militancy in the state bordering Pakistan must end, Mr. Jaitley said. “Today, a time has come where all forces — local police, central forces and the Army — are dominating terrorists. There is a clarity in our decision and stand that the armed military has to be ended,” he said. Elaborating on benefits of demonetisation, Mr. Jaitley said money which was earlier getting circulated outside the economy had come into the formal banking system. On the BJP’s vision of building a ‘New India’, he said, “We want to spend funds on defence, rural development and infrastructure. We should have worldclass public institutions so that shameful incidents such as the Gorakhpur tragedy do not recur,” he said.
Focus on elections Mr. Shah had asked party leaders to focus on about 120 winnable seats which the party lost in the 2014 elections. The BJP is aiming to win more than 350 seat in 2019. The Chief Ministers are likely to give presentations of schemes and models undertaken by their respective governments at the meeting.
Modi revived economy, says Shah Press Trust of India
New Delhi
Bhopal
In a first-of-its-kind step, the Border Security Force (BSF) has launched two ambitious projects to curb suicides and depression amongst its jawans and has introduced a ‘wellness quotient assessment’ test in their annual medical check-up. The about 2.65-lakh personnel strong force has earmarked select troops locations, men and women for the conduct of the maiden and scientifically prepared pilot projects. BSF director general K.K. Sharma, in an interview, said he has initiated the projects with a concern to reduce such instances in the force on a priority basis.
BJP president Amit Shah said here on Sunday that India’s economy had become the fastest growing in the world since Prime Minister Narendra Modi took over and that it was in a state of paralysis during the previous UPA regime. He said that recognising the potential of the youth of the country, the government has launched schemes such as Start-Up India, Stand-Up India and Skill India. After Mr. Modi came to power in 2014, the country started developing rapidly, while in the 10 years prior to the NDA rule, development was stranded and the economic system had got paralysed, Mr. Shah said.
Floral tribute: Congress president Sonia Gandhi pays homage to her husband and former Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, on his 73rd birth anniversary at Vir Bhumi in New Delhi on Sunday. Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi is seen R.V. MOORTHY *
BRO gets more financial powers For speeding up strategic projects Special Correspondent NEW DELHI
As part of efforts to improve the functioning of the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) and speed up works, the Defence Ministry has delegated administrative and financial powers right up to the level of Chief Engineer and task force commander.
Powers revised “In line with the aim to bring in transformational changes in the BRO, various powers of delegation have been revised … Enhancing the powers at all levels in the BRO, the Ministry of Defence has now approved that for both departmental and contractual mode of execution, a Chief Engineer of BRO can accord administrative approval up to ₹50 crore, Additional Director-General (ADG) up to ₹75 crore and Director-Gen-
eral (DG) up to ₹100 crore,” the Ministry said in a statement on Sunday. Earlier, a Chief Engineer in the BRO could give administrative approval of works up to ₹10 crore and ADG up to ₹20 crore for departmental works. For contractual works, all administrative approvals were given by the DGBR, who had powers only up to ₹50 crore. The BRO, engaged in road construction to provide connectivity to difficult and inaccessible regions, was brought under the control of the Defence Ministry in 2015. Completion of strategic border roads has been delayed as was highlighted on various occasions by the Comptroller and Auditor-General and the Parliamentary Standing Committee.
Army to get only six Apaches Defence Ministry scales back proposal for 11 as IAF is acquiring 22 of them Higher Committee (SCAPCHC), a high-level body with service representatives, the Vice-Chief of the Army Staff had said the optional clause for 11 helicopters should be exercised as the “capability is required by the nation”.
Dinakar Peri New Delhi
The Army’s request for 11 Apache attack helicopters was cut down to six by the Defence Ministry after objections from the Finance Division, sources say. “The MoD Finance had red-flagged the proposal for 11 [helicopters]. They said if these helicopters go to the Army, it will be a duplication of assets as the Indian Air Force is already in the process of acquiring 22 of them,” a senior defence source said.
Jaitley’s nod Last week, the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), chaired by Defence Minister Arun Jaitley, had approved the procurement of six Apache helicopters along with associated equipment at a cost of ₹4,168 crore. These would be procured under optional clause in the $3-billion deal signed with
Striking fleet: A file photo of Apache helicopters flying over Rajpath in New Delhi . S. SUBRAMANIUM *
Boeing of the U.S. in November 2015 for 22 AH-64E Apache attack helicopters and 15 CH-47F Chinook heavy-lift helicopters. The optional clause is for 11 helicopters, which would be available at the same price. However, the validity of the clause expires next month. “MoD Finance was not in favour of going for the option clause,” the source added. The Army has for long
Reading President Kovind’s guest list Congress leaders stayed away, though other Opposition leaders called on him
pitched for its own dedicated attack helicopter fleet integrated with its Strike Corps and has expressed a need for 39 Apaches. It had even sparred with the Air Force for control of the 22 helicopters which was rejected by the government. However, the government had stated that future acquisitions would go to the Army. Speaking at July 21 meeting of the Services Capital Acquisition Categorisation
NEW DELHI
President Ram Nath Kovind has had a diverse bunch of visitors during his first month in office — from beekeepers to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Chief Ministers of 11 States, including West Bengal and Delhi. Notable absentees have been Congress leaders, though party president Sonia Gandhi attended the “At Home” hosted by the President on Independence Day. Of the Chief Ministers of Congress-ruled States, only Virbhadra Singh of Himachal Pradesh and V. Narayanasamy of Puducherry paid a courtesy call. Though Congress leaders have not been to the Rashtrapati Bhavan, those of other Opposition parties, especially West Bengal
Gracious host: President Ram Nath Kovind with his daughter and guests at the ‘At Home’ on Independence Day. PTI *
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her Delhi counterpart, Arvind Kejriwal, both of whom had supported Meira Kumar as their choice for Rashtrapati Bhavan, had come calling. Mr. Kejriwal and his deputy, Manish Sisodia, were, in fact, one of the earliest guests, meeting Mr. Kovind on July 28, barely three days after his swear-
ing-in. Ms. Banerjee called on August 10, advancing her Delhi trip by a day for the appointment, Trinamool Congress sources say . “Mamatadi was to be in Delhi on Friday, August 11, for a joint meeting of major Opposition parties in Delhi. She brought forward her visit to Delhi by a day to call on President Kovind before
Early callers Senior leaders of the Nationalist Congress Party, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam were early callers, as were the former Prime Ministers H.D. Deve Gowda and Manmohan Singh. Ms. Gandhi’s omission from the list of callers is only bolstered by the absence of calls from other senior party MPs and leaders. In a protocol-driven place like Delhi, each ceremonial photo-op tells its own story.
Push for more copters The Army had pushed for the 11 helicopters as they can be procured quickly, but the Ministry has cleared only six. Army sources said they would continue to push for more helicopters. “After next month, any negotiations would begin afresh and there would be a price escalation,” another source said. Presently, India operates a mix of Russian Mi-25 and Mi-35 attack helicopters which are with the IAF. The Boeing-built AH-64E Apache helicopter is the most advanced, multi-role, heavy attack helicopter in the world.
Hawala dealer sent to judicial custody PRESS TRUST OF INDIA
the meeting, to keep a distance between the political aim of her visit and the courtesy call, between the tough political rhetoric and the bipartisanship of Rashtrapati Bhavan,” a senior party MP said.
Nistula Hebbar
“The Kashmir issue had become complicated because of cross-border support (to terrorism) and (also) our own groups supporting the armed militants. Mass civil protests were seen in the form of stone-pelting and sometimes this was used to help terrorists escape,” the Minister said. Mr Jaitley criticised the erstwhile Congress-led UPA government, saying it had no firm policy to solve the decades-old Kashmir issue. “The earlier government did not solve the Kashmir issue then what right do they have to question us? There was a leadership which was not taking action and only finding excuses to delay taking any decision,” he alleged.
the States and development works being done there, they said. The meeting is being organised just days after Mr. Shah unfolded the blueprint for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, which may also feature in the discussions.
NEW DELHI
Mohammad Aslam Wani, an alleged hawala dealer arrested in a money-laundering case involving Kashmiri separatist Shabir Shah, was on Sunday remanded in judicial custody by a court here till August 31. Duty Magistrate Jasjeet Kaur allowed the Enforcement Directorate’s plea,
made by its advocate N.K. Matta, that he be remanded in judicial custody. Mr. Wani, 36, was produced before the court at the end of two-week custodial interrogation, the maximum the ED could be granted under the law. He was arrested on August 6 after a sessions court issued an open-ended, nonbailable warrant against him.
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NOIDA/DELHI
MONDAY, AUGUST 21, 2017
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Yawning gaps in communication and track safety Senior officials suggest derailment could have been caused by the work on the rail line; stationmaster insists he was not informed about any maintenance Mohammad Ali
We acted on our own: NDRF chief
KHATAULI
While senior Railway Ministry officials suggested on Sunday that a likely reason for the derailment of Utkal Express here was the repairs taken up on the track when the train arrived, employees of different railway wings in the Khatauli-Muzaffarnagar area have started a blame game. Employees of the Railway Engineering Department in Khatauli maintain that they had informed the station officials about the repairs on Saturday evening, but stationmaster Rajendra Singh told The Hindu that he was not aware that the work had been on. “We had informed senior officials of the Khatauli station that the tracks were unsafe because repairs were on. We had obviously informed them about the repairs, and that is why the two trains that passed Khatauli before Utkal Express were run at extremely slow speeds,” an official of the Engineering Department said on condition of anonymity.
Cracked plate “We had asked for 20 minutes for blocking the track because one joint plate was cracked,” the official added, without elaborating if the workers doing the repairs were told that the requested time had been granted. Mr. Rajendra Singh, however, insisted that nothing was on record to prove that the station officials were informed of the repairs. Jagat Colony, the exact place where 14 coaches of the train jumped off the track, is about 400 metres from the Khatauli station. By railway rules, no train can pass a station without its stationmaster giving the green signal. “There was no question of
Says ‘local leaders’ impeded rescue
NEW DELHI
President Ram Nath Kovind on Sunday condoled the loss of lives in the Utkal Express accident, which left at least 24 people dead. He asked U.P. Governor Ram Naik to convey his “heartfelt condolences” to families of the deceased. IANS
Vijaita Singh New Delhi
The National Disaster Response Force rushed to Khatauli on watching television news flash about 14 coaches of the Puri-Haridwar Utkal Express derailing there on Saturday evening. NDRF chief Sanjay Kumar told The Hindu that two teams, stationed at Ghaziabad, reached Khatauli in Muzaffarnagar district of Uttar Pradesh an hour-and-ahalf after the accident that took place at 5.46 p.m. The NDRF is a central police force trained for rescue and relief operations during natural disasters and accidents.
Tragic incident: A mangled coach of the Puri-Haridwar Utkal Express being hauled off the railway track using a crane at Khatauli, near Muzaffarnagar, on Sunday. PTI *
not giving the go-ahead to the train because we were not in the know of the repairs. In this case, I must say clearly that it is no fault of the stationmaster or any of the station staff,” he said.
‘Not informed’ Suggesting that the repairs were carried out without informing the station officials, Mr. Singh said, “The repairs cannot happen without prior permission for blockage of traffic. The Engineering Department has to inform the Station Manager and also get the go-ahead for the blocking from senior officials in the
24 dead, many in critical condition
Delhi division because I do not control the traffic. Senior officials need to be informed so that the routes and timings of trains are better supervised and monitored.” Additional Director-General, Government Railway Police, Vijay Maurya, who was on the accident site for rescue work and clearing of tracks, told The Hindu that initial investigations suggested the repairs had led to the accident. “Many eyewitnesses and local residents are saying that repairs were going on at the track when the accident happened,” Mr. Maurya said.
Staff Reporter Muzaffarnagar
The death toll in the PuriHaridwar Utkal Express accident rose to 24 on Sunday. The Uttar Pradesh government said many of the 156 injured were in critical condition at the Muzaffarnagar Medical College and the Meerut Medical College. P.K. Agarwal, Chief Medical Superintendent of Muzaffarnagar district hospital,
told The Hindu that 59 injured passengers were brought to the hospital. Six of them were declared brought dead. The Railways deployed four cranes, 12 PAC companies, four NDRF teams and 90 ambulances for the rescue operations. The mangled coaches were removed by Sunday afternoon. Traffic is expected to resume soon.
Probe team to look into audio clip
Flying coaches ram houses Eyewitnesses recall hazy smoke, cries for help, destruction, shock and disbelief
Press Trust of India
Mohammad Ali
New Delhi
MUZAFFARNAGAR
An 15-minute audio clip of what is said to be a conversation between a railway employee and a mediaperson on alleged “negligence” that caused the train accident in Khatauli, has gone viral on social media. Mohammed Jamshed, Member, Traffic, Railways, said the inquiry team would look into the clip. In the clip, the employee, apparently posted at a crossing near the accident site, says a reason for the tragedy was “poor patrolling” on the track where maintenance work was under way. “Welding work was under way at a section of the railway track ... but the workers did not fix the block of the track and left it loose. Gates near the crossing were closed. A piece [of the track] was not fixed ... and when the Utkal Express arrived, 14 of its coaches got derailed,” he is heard saying. “Neither the line, on which the work was under way, was fixed nor had they put any flag or a signboard as a stop signal. The accident occurred due to negligence. It seems all employees concerned will be suspended.” He talks of how workers had left equipment between the tracks after work. “At least, they could have removed the machine and put a red flag there. Perhaps then the tragedy could have been averted,” he says.
It was a normal, breezy evening when Chaudhary Jagat Singh, a man in his early 70s, was doing what he loves most — sitting in the front porch of his house and watching trains pass by at extremely slow speeds barely 10 metres away. On Saturday, this resident of Jagat Colony was not expecting anything out of the ordinary to happen. But then, to his horror, stones suddenly began flying around everywhere. And then he saw a train hurtling towards him at an extremely high speed, its coaches jumping off the tracks and apparently hanging 30 feet high in the air. Before he could run inside, a coach
CM YK
President mourns death of passengers
we thought it would. In fact, before we realised what was happening, it just rammed into my house,” he said. He said that immediately after the accident, a smoky haze lasted for over 10 minutes.
When adversity strikes: A damaged house at the Utkal Express accident site on Sunday. PTI *
rammed into his house, demolishing its walls. “It just banged on this side of the house, pinning me down,” said Jagat Singh. The septuagenarian is yet to come out of the shock of being a witness to an accident that killed at least 24
people and injured over 200. “It was unbelievable because just about half an hour before the accident, we had seen two trains passing by at very slow speeds because of the repairs. This train came and it did not slow down as
All dark Pintu Chaudhary, Mr. Jagat’s son, said,“We had to find our way in the dark, guided by the cries of the people who had fallen out from the S2 coach that had crashed inside my house. There was this old man and a woman with her small daughter, all injured and screaming in pain,” he recalled. He added that he would file a case against the Railways, demanding compensation for the destruction of his house.
When a pilgrimage turned fatal Many were travelling to Haridwar for a dip in the Ganga on Somvati Amavasya Staff Reporter Muzaffarnagar
Rajbala, a woman from Satna in Madhya Pradesh, had barely started a conversation with her husband who was travelling with her to Haridwar when their coach seemed to jump into the air near Khatauli. They were making plans about the things they would do after taking a dip in the Ganga in Haridwar on Monday on the occasion of Somvati Amavasya. Suddenly it was all dark and she passed out. She remembers being pulled out of the coach
Lucky ones: Survivors from Rajasthan wait for the bodies of two fellow travellers, who died in the accident. PTI *
by someone. On regaining consciousness, her first thought was about her husband who was missing. All
she could hear were cries and there were bodies all around. Rajesh Das from Kolkata
was also travelling to Haridwar with a group of 40 women from his colony to take a dip in the Ganga on the occasion of Somvati Amavasya. The local residents of Khatauli cut open the window of coach S1 and pulled him out. Amid noise and fear all around, he managed to pull out some of his fellow travellers. Like Mr. Das and Ms. Rajbala, there were hundreds of passengers who were going to Haridwar on the occasion of “Somti Amavasya,” an auspicious day to take a dip in the Ganga.
Timely action “We received neither a message from anyone nor a request for NDRF teams ... it was a suo motu decision when we saw the news flash. Our teams in Ghaziabad, which are always ready to move, rushed to the site. When we saw on television that more than six coaches had derailed, we sent two more teams,” Mr. Kumar said. He said “local leaders” and NGOs who visited the site were impeding the rescue. “Though we are equipped with the best of machinery for rescue, so many other agencies are working at the site. So co-
got no message < > We or request ... It was a suo motu decision when we saw the news flash Sanjay Kumar NDRF chief
Condemnable man-made tragedy, says Yechury
ordination is a huge challenge, for everyone wants to take credit. Local leaders and NGOs come under the pretext of extending help… We are restraining them to the extent possible so as to carry on the operation without hindrance.”
NEW DELHI
Rescue mission Mr. Kumar said the NDRF had pulled out 20 bodies from the overturned coaches and rescued 100 injured passengers. “We have called off the operation as there was no chance of finding any more survivors. Our dog squads ensured no people was buried alive under the mangled coaches,” he said. Railway officials brought in a crane to clear the damaged coaches off the railway track.
CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury on Sunday slammed the Centre over the Muzaffarnagar train derailment, saying it was a condemnable man-made tragedy for which the Railways is responsible. ANI
Rail Minister must accept responsibility: Congress NEW DELHI
Terming the Utkal Express derailment “criminal negligence”, Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala on Sunday said Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu must accept responsibility since he “failed to perform his primary duty to secure passenger safety”.
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ELSEWHERE
Spain terror cell had 120 gas canisters
10 sentenced to death over plot to kill Hasina
Police find them in a house where the suspects were believed to have been building bombs Agence France-Presse
marked by a minute of silence for the victims. The Islamic State (IS) group claimed responsibility for the attacks, believed to be its first in Spain. The terror cell was reportedly made up of at least 12 men, some of them teenagers. Police also confirmed that an imam, Abdelbaki Es Satty, was among the suspects.
Barcelona
‘Protecting nuclear deal is Iran’s top priority’ TEHRAN
Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said on Sunday the top foreign policy priority for his new government was to protect the nuclear deal from being torn up by the U.S.. "The most important job of our Foreign Minister is first to stand behind the JCPOA, and not to allow the U.S. and other enemies to succeed,” he told Parliament. AFP
Grace Mugabe returns to Zimbabwe HARARE
Zimbabwe’s first lady Grace Mugabe, accused of assault in South Africa, returned home from a visit there on Sunday, public broadcaster ZBC reported. Ms. Mugabe, who is being sought by police after allegedly attacking a model at a Johannesburg hotel last weekend, flew home with her husband in the early hours of Sunday morning. AFP
N. Korea slams joint military exercises
Spanish police said on Sunday that the Moroccan man suspected of driving the van used in one of the devastating twin attacks that claimed 14 lives could be at large outside Spain, as griefstricken Barcelona mourned victims of the vehicle rampage. “We don’t know where he is,” said regional police chief Josep Lluis Trapero, referring to 22-year-old suspect Younes Abouyaaqoub, as officials confirmed that the cell behind the carnage had been preparing “one or more” assaults in Barcelona. More than 120 gas canisters have been uncovered in a house where the suspects were believed to have been building bombs, Mr. Trapero said. But the jihadists had accidentally detonated an explosive at the house on the eve of Thursday’s attack in Barcelona, an error that likely forced them to modify their plans. Instead, a vehicle was used to smash into crowds on Barcelona’s Las Ramblas boulevard as it was thronged
Invoking the divine: The Sagrada Familia basilica in Barcelona held a mass on Sunday commemorates victims of the two devastating terror attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils. AFP *
with tourists, killing 13 people and injuring about 100. Several hours later, there was another attack in the seaside town of Cambrils in which one woman was killed. Police shot and killed the five attackers in Cambrils, some of whom were wearing fake explosive belts and carrying knifes. In Barcelona, locals and tourists turned out in force on Sunday to mourn victims at the Sagrada Familia
church designed by Gaudi, as snipers were posted on surrounding rooftops of the landmark building. King Felipe, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and Catalonia’s President Carles Puigdemont led the 90-minute ceremony, while heavily armed police stood guard outside. Later on Sunday, nearly 1,00,000 people were expected at Barcelona’s Camp Nou stadium for their team’s first game of the season, to be
Imam’s role Investigators are seeking to unravel the role of the imam, who is believed to have radicalised many of the youths in a small town called Ripoll at the foot of the Pyrenees. Several of the suspects — including Abouyaaqoub — grew up or lived in the town of about 10,000 residents. On Saturday, police raided the imam’s apartment in Ripoll, his flatmate, who would only identify himself as Nourddem, told AFP. Investigators were looking for DNA traces to check if he had been blown up in an explosion at the house in Alcanar, about 200 km south of Barcelona, where the gas canisters were found. The imam was reportedly
known to police, with Spanish media saying he had spent time in prison. El Pais and El Mundo, quoting anti-terror forces, said the imam had met prisoners linked to the al-Qaedainspired bombing of Madrid trains that killed 191 people in March 2004 in what remains the worst terror attack in Europe. Moha, 46, who lives in Ripoll, said the imam was initially part of the only mosque in town, but “later left and (set up) his own prayer hall in a garage”. He said the youths used to frequent a Moroccan café near the first mosque where they would watch football matches but had stopped doing so more than a year ago. In the Moroccan town of M’rirt, relatives of Abouyaaqoub also accused the imam of radicalising the young man, as well as his brother Houssein. Most of the suspects are children of Moroccan immigrants, including Ripoll-born Moussa Oukabir, 17, one of five suspects shot dead in Cambrils. His older brother Driss is among the four arrested.
SEOUL
North Korea warned on Sunday that the U.S. will be “pouring gasoline on fire” by conducting an annual war game in the South next week and called the joint exercise “the most explicit expression of hostility against us”. AFP
Protests in Hong Kong against activists’ jailing
‘298 Indians got Pak. nationality since 2012’ Interior Ministry issues statement Press Trust of India
HONG KONG
Islamabad
Thousands of supporters of the three jailed young democracy activists — Joshua Wong, Nathan Law and Alex Chow — took to the streets on Sunday to protest their sentences. People streamed from the eastern district of Wan Chai to the Court of Final appeal in the heart of Hong Kong Island. AFP
Pakistan has granted nationality to at least 298 Indian emigrants in the last five years, according to the Interior Ministry. “From 2012 till April 14, 2017, a total number of 298 Indian emigrants have been granted Pakistani citizenship,” the Interior Ministry said in a statement on Saturday. The statement was issued in response to a question by Pakistan Muslim LeagueNawaz (PML-N)’s lawmaker Sheikh Rohail Asghar in the National Assembly, The Express Tribune reported. In 2012, 48 Indian emigrants were granted Pakistani nationality; the numbers rose to 75 in 2013 and 76 in 2014. While only 15 were given nationality in 2015, 69 got it
Netanyahu to discuss West Asia with Putin JERSUALEM
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will discuss the situation in West Asia with Russian President Vladimir Putin when they meet in Sochi next week, his office said on Saturday. Israel is concerned that Iran is trying to establish a permanent military foothold in Syria. REUTERS
in 2016 and, until April 14 this year, 15 Indians got nationality, the statement said. Getting nationality in Pakistan is believed to be a difficult task, but innumerable illegal immigrants from many countries, especially India, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Burma, are living here, it added. There is one well-known case of Pakistani nationality being awarded to an Indian national. An Indian woman, whose husband died years ago, was granted Pakistani citizenship at the orders of former Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan in March last year. Her citizenship application had been pending with the Ministry since 2008. Following the husband’s death, her stepsons had allegedly deprived her of her inheritance.
Iraqi forces begin offensive to retake Tal Afar from IS Located 80 km west of Mosul, the city has 2,000 militants Baghdad/Erbil Reuters
Iraqi security forces launched an offensive to take back the city of Tal Afar on Sunday, their next objective in the U.S.-backed campaign to defeat Islamic State (IS) militants, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said. “You either surrender, or die,” Mr. Abadi said in a televised speech announcing the offensive, addressing the militants. A long-time stronghold of the IS, Tal Afar, 80 km west of Mosul, experienced cycles of sectarian violence between Sunnis and Shias after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, and has produced some of the IS’s most senior commanders. The city was cut off from the rest of IS-held territory in June. It is surrounded by
40,000 attend Boston anti-racism march
Popular Mobilisation Units on their way to fight the IS in Tal Afar last year. AP *
Iraqi government troops and Shia volunteers in the south, and Kurdish Peshmerga fighters in the north. Hours before Mr. Abadi’s announcement, the Iraqi air force dropped leaflets over the city telling the population to take precautions. “Prepare yourself, the battle is imminent and the victory is coming, God willing,” the
Attempt on her life happened in 2000 Haroon Habib Dhaka
A Dhaka court has sentenced 10 people to death over a plot to kill Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in 2000. In its verdict given on Sunday, the Speedy Trial Tribunal-2 of Dhaka also sentenced nine others to 20 years in prison. The convicts had hatched a plot to kill Ms. Hasina by planting a high-powered explosive device at an open ground at her village home in southwestern Gopalganj where she was scheduled to address a public rally. Security officials, however, detected the bomb ahead of the rally. Under the Bangladesh law, the death sentences would require to be endorsed by the High Court following an automatic death reference hearing. The convicts are allowed to file an appeal as well.
Executed in April Of the 25 accused, Harkatul-Jihad-al-Islami chief Mufti Abdul Hannan was executed in another case in April this year following his conviction in a case concerning a grenade attack on former British envoy Anwar Choudhury in Sylhet. The court also sentenced one to life imprisonment and three others to 14 years in prison in the attempted murder case. They were
Agence France-Presse
Thousands of anti-racism demonstrators flooded the streets of Boston on Saturday, dwarfing a gathering of white nationalists in the city and triggering scuffles with police but avoiding the serious violence that marred a similar event a week earlier in Virginia. A so-called “free speech” rally by far-Right groups had been scheduled to run until 2 p.m. (1800 GMT), but a half-hour before that police escorted its participants — whose numbers appeared to be in the dozens — to safety past a throng of anti-racism protesters.
27 arrests Officials estimated that the turnout came to about
Need to talk post-Brexit ties with EU Reuters
Taking a stand: Counter-protesters demonstrating in Boston on Saturday. AP *
40,000 demonstrators. Authorities said there were a total of 27 arrests, mostly for assault and battery against the police, and disorderly
conduct. Aerial photos showed the latter group filling one of Boston’s main streets for several blocks, in a huge outpouring of anti-ra-
cist sentiment in this strongly Democratic northeastern city. While Boston saw no repeat of the violence that erupted last weekend in Charlottesville, Virginia, isolated scuffles between police and protesters prompted U.S. President Donald Trump to weigh in, with a tweet intoning against the “many anti-police agitators in Boston”. As protesters began departing central Boston without a major incident, the President followed up on his first tweet with a more positive tone. “I want to applaud the many protesters in Boston who are speaking out against bigotry and hate,”he wrote on Twitter. “Our country will soon come together as one!”
Kabul
U.K.’s Brexit Minister David Davis called on the European Union (EU) on Sunday to relax its position that the two sides must first make progress on a divorce settlement before moving on to discussing future relations with each other. “Both sides need to move swiftly on to discussing our future partnership, and we want that to happen after the European Council in October,” wrote Mr. Davis in The Sunday Times newspaper, saying that the clock was ticking. CM YK
The Afghan singer and pop star Aryana Saeed can sell out any stadium in Afghanistan. However, that does not necessarily mean she can perform in them. Saeed’s latest concert in Afghanistan was to be held in Ghazi Stadium in Kabul on Friday, and despite heavy security and secrecy until just before the event, all 30,000 tickets sold quickly at hefty prices, according to Saeed’s manager. She chose the date, she said, because it was the eve of Afghanistan’s Independence Day, and she wanted to
Agence France-Presse Damascus
Countries that want to reopen embassies in Damascus or resume ties with the Syrian government must end their support for Syria’s rebels, President Bashar al-Assad said on Sunday.
Not isolated “We are not isolated like they think, it’s their arrogance that pushes them to think in this manner,” Mr. Assad said in a speech to members of Syria’s diplomatic corps broadcast on state
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Childhood displaced
Sharifs fail to appear before NAB, again Karachi
Need for aid: Children affected by the mudslides and flooding in Sierra Leone last week at a camp on Saturday, in the town of Regent. More than 450 have died and 20,000 displaced in one of Africa’s worst natural disasters, while 600 remain missing. REUTERS *
Song of freedom: Aryana Saeed at a concert last week to commemorate Afghanistan’s Independence Day. AP *
identity in a city where she is instantly recognisable and quickly draws a crowd. For security reasons, she lives in London with her mother and sisters, usually returning to Afghanistan only to perform.
television. “There will be neither security cooperation, nor the opening of embassies, nor a role for certain states that say they want to find a way out [of Syria’s war], unless they explicitly cut their ties with terrorism.” Syria’s government refers to all those who oppose it as “terrorists”. The United States and most European countries had shut their embassies in Damascus after the government’s bloody crackdown on protests that erupted in the year of 2011.
Mubashir Zaidi
highlight that Afghan women were still not free 98 years later. She chose the stadium because it was a place made notorious by Taliban executions of women in the late 1990s.
‘Enemies of happiness’ As soon as word about the concert got out, though, the mullahs denounced it, and authorities cancelled it. “I’ll perform in the street if I have to,” Saeed said. “The mullahs are the enemy of the Afghan people, the enemy of happiness.” Saeed, 32, has long been a sensation here. She refuses to wear a headscarf, except when trying to protect her
Another attempt Ms. Hasina, Prime Minister in 2000, later survived another assassination plot on August 21, 2004, as an Opposition leader, following a grenade attack in Dhaka which killed 23 party leaders and workers. One of the key suppliers of the grenades used to attack Ms. Hasina, Maulana Tajuddin, fled the country after the attack and is currently staying in South Africa. The Bangladesh government is trying to conclude a treaty with South Africa to expedite Maulana’s extradition. However, the process of extradition may face complications as South African law does not support death penalty.
In an exhausted state They are expected to put up a tough fight, even though intelligence from inside the city indicates they have been exhausted by months of combat, aerial bombardments, and by the lack of fresh supplies. “Intelligence gathered shows clearly that the remaining fighters are mainly foreign and Arab nationals with their families and that means they will fight until the last breath,” said Iraqi Colonel Kareem al-Lami. Residents who left Tal Afar last week told Reuters that the militants looked exhausted.
When Afghan singer Aryana Saeed’s concert was cancelled at the last moment due to protests, she just shifted venues
London
also fined Tk10,000 each, in default of which they will have to serve an extra year in prison. The court acquitted 10 others.
No ties with states backing rebels: Assad
The Mullahs can’t put brakes on her singing Rod Nordland Fatima Faizi
*
leaflets read. About 2,000 battle-hardened militants remain in the city, according to U.S. and Iraqi military commanders.
Gathering dwarfs far-Right’s ‘free speech’ rally; President Trump tweets applause Boston
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. FILE PHOTO
Her music is a combination of traditional and folk songs, rendered as Afghan pop, overlaid occasionally with a bit of hip-hop. She sings in both Dari and Pashto, the country’s two
main languages. Women’s issues feature prominently in many of her songs, and she does not mince words, as in “Lady on Fire”: Afghan officials, perhaps wary of Saeed’s popularity, insisted that they had not ordered the concert cancelled, and had only warned that the crowd was bigger than expected, making security impossible to ensure. Mullah Attaullah Faizani, the chief of Kabul’s Ulema Council, the highest local religious body, said the council had demanded that the Kabul Garrison cancel the concert at Ghazi Stadium. In the end, the singer held
her concert Saturday at the Intercontinental Hotel, announcing that the proceeds would benefit people from the village of Mirza Olang, which the Taliban overran this month. The alternate venue had a much smaller capacity, but the attendees made up for it with noisy enthusiasm. A young woman named Bahar Sohaili said she had come to make a statement. “Many women say that they fight for their rights, but after a time they get tired and stop,” she said. “Aryana Saeed never gets tired. She came here to show the mullahs that we women aren’t afraid of them anymore.” NYT
Former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his children, who are accused of money laundering and corruption, on Sunday again failed to appear before the country’s top anticorruption body, which is conducting preliminary investigation in the case. A team of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) stationed in Lahore had summoned the ousted Prime Minister, his sons Hassan and Hussain, daughter Maryam and sonin-law Captain Safdar. But none of them appeared before the probe team. The Sharifs had earlier skipped another session on Friday, fuelling speculation that Mr. Sharif may get arrested if he refuses to appear before the NAB.
Hearing on August 24 An NAB official said that it would apprise the Supreme Court of the Sharifs’ non-appearance before the probe team. The court will hold a hearing on August 24 to examine the progress made in the investigation. Mr. Sharif was ousted as Prime Minister last month and was disqualified from holding office in the future by a five-member Bench of the Supreme Court. The court also ordered the NAB to carry out its investigation. Mr. Sharif, who reached Lahore, his hometown, after addressing rallies across central Punjab, asked his supporters to back his call for constitutional amendments to restore sanctity of the ballot process. A ND-NDE
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IN BRIEF
Corporate governance: focus on SEBI Post Infosys spat, market participants moot a 3-tier system for firms, with supervisory board on top Market participants said that the Infosys issue too should be considered in detail by the committee.
Oommen A. Ninan Thiruvananthapuram
‘Infra projects see cost overrun of ₹1.71 lakh cr.’ NEW DELHI
As many as 322 infrastructure projects worth ₹150 crore or above each have seen cost overrun of ₹ 1.71 lakh crore due to delays and other reasons by March 2017, according to a report. “Total original cost of implementation of the 1,231 projects was ₹15,59,571.06 crore and their anticipated completion cost is likely to be ₹17,31,162.47 crore, which reflects overall cost overruns of ₹1,71,591.41 crore,” a report by the MoSPI said. PTI
FPIs pull out ₹7,344 cr. in equity in August NEW DELHI
Foreign portfolio investors (FPI) have pulled out more than ₹7,300 crore from the equity markets this month so far as they shift to safe haven assets amid geopolitical tensions and domestic concerns. However, FPIs have invested about ₹9,364 crore in debt markets during this period. The latest depository data shows the FPIs withdrew a net sum of ₹7,344 crore from stock markets from Aug. 1-18. PTI
Essar Oil is now part of Rosneft-led consortium MUMBAI
Essar Group has completed the sale of Essar Oil to Russia’s Rosneft-led consortium for an enterprise value of ₹86,000 crore.The announcement is likely to be made on Monday. The proceeds may be used to retire Essar Group debts, according to the firm’s senior management. The deal will help Essar promoters transfer Essar Oil’s $5 billion debt to the Rosneft-led consortium.
The exit of Vishal Sikka as the chief of multinational IT giant Infosys brings forth the issue of corporate governance yet again. Market participants said the capital markets regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), needed to intervene in such matters to protect the interest of investors, especially the retail segment. “Our regulator should install a three-tier governing system for companies where a supervisory board is constituted and should lay down the framework for the functioning of the board of directors,” said Deven R. Choksey, MD, KRChoksey Shares & Securities. The board of directors, in turn, would oversee the functioning of the executive management. “Multinationals like Google and Microsoft are
Visionary concern: One quarter, versus a quarter of a century, is reason for friction, says Geojit’s George. GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCK *
governed in this manner,” he added. “Infosys has a strong pedigree. ... Promoters’ intentions were good but their approach was wrong.” “The supervisory board, comprising eminent personalities, will monitor performance as well as the value system for the company and
this alone will create wealth for the company and keep it on the tracks,” he added. SEBI had constituted a committee on corporate governance under the chairmanship of Uday Kotak in June this year. The committee is expected to submit its report within four months.
‘Subjective views’ “In India, corporate governance continues to see subjective interpretation,” said Dilip Bhat, Joint MD, Prabhudas Lilladher. “While India is moving towards internationally accepted norms of corporate governance, we are bound to see this kind of volatility. Particularly in this instance, extreme positions have been taken in terms of interpreting what corporate governance is,” he said. “Unfortunately, this had degenerated into an ugly battle played out with the media and as a result we are seeing whatever has happened,” said Mr. Bhat. Another view is that differences between stakeholders
on the vision for the company caused the turmoil. “This has turned out to be a fight between a CEO who delivers financial performance quarter after quarter; and founders who have nurtured the company for more than three decades and are passionate about the founding values and ethics that they consider paramount,” said C.J. George, MD, Geojit Financial Services. “This is a fight between modern, freemarket capitalism on the one side and the forces of ‘compassionate capitalism’ on the other,” he said. The governing board or a supervisory board, he said, would be an important top layer setting the direction for such companies. According to Mr. George, “The founders, perhaps, look at a quarter of a century while the market looks at the next quarter.”
‘SBI, PNB account for 40% of bad loans’
Institutions need to outlive founders, say HR experts
Defaulters owe ₹92,376 crore to PSBs
Infosys turmoil raises questions about succession planning
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA
NEW DELHI
NEW DELHI
The country’s largest lender State Bank of India accounts for over 27% of the total amount owed to public sector banks by wilful defaulters. As many as 1,762 wilful defaulters owed ₹25,104 crore to SBI as on March 31, putting pressure on its balance sheet. Punjab National Bank (PNB) is next on the list with 1,120 wilful defaulters having outstanding non-performing assets of ₹12,278 crore. Together these two banks account for ₹37,382 crore or 40% of the total outstanding loans. Total outstanding loans due to PSU banks by wilful
Leadership pipeline is critical for blue-chip corporates to evolve into institutions that outlive their founders, said human resources consultants, as the sudden exit of Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka raised questions over succession planning at India Inc. While succession planning, as a concept, does exist in India, experts opine that some large corporations seem to be “struggling” when it comes to putting their act together. According to experts, a few companies in sectors such as banking, financial services and insurance are on par with organisations
defaulters amounted to ₹92,376 crore, according to the Finance Ministry data. The total outstanding loans by wilful defaulters rose to ₹92,376 crore at the end of financial year 2016-17, from ₹76,685 crore at the end of last fiscal 2015-16, up 20.4%.
Vishal Sikka
globally in succession planning.
‘Leadership pipeline’ “Building a deep leadership pipeline is a priority for any progressive and growthdriven organisation as it is a
critical element towards building a lasting institution which outlives its founders,” staffing services firm TeamLease Services co-founder and executive vice-president Rituparna Chakraborty said. Others noted that Indian firms’ succession planning rates poorly as against their global peers, who often start months in advance to find a proper replacement. “It is absolutely necessary for corporates to adopt succession planning; having said that, it does exist in India although many of the new large corporates may seem to be struggling,” global executive recruitment firm Antal International India MD Joseph Devasia said.
Talking trade: Ahead of the meeting, a U.S. delegation will visit New Delhi in September. GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCK *
India to raise visa issue in trade policy meet Meeting to take place in October ARUN S New Delhi
The Centre will, during the India-U.S. Trade Policy Forum (TPF) meeting likely in October, raise Indian industry’s concerns over the U.S. visa ‘curbs’ and the ‘delay’ in inking a bilateral social security pact (or totalisation agreement). In the TPF meeting, the premier forum to resolve bilateral trade and investment issues, the U.S. is expected to table its worries over India’s ‘restrictions’ on e-commerce as well as the ‘challenges’ faced by American innovative industries due to India’s ‘weak’ Intellectual Property Rights regime. In addition, New Delhi would take up the ‘non-tariff barriers’ by the U.S. that are hurting Indian agriculture, pharmaceuticals and other industrial exports, while Washington is likely to raise its concerns over India’s ‘excessively high tariffs’ on imports of many manufactured products as well as the $24.3 billion goods trade deficit that the U.S. had with India in 2016.
Discussions next month Ahead of the TPF meeting that will be held in Washington DC, Assistant U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) for South and Central Asia, Mark Linscott, will lead a
U.S. official delegation to New Delhi in September for discussions on the TPF agenda and on framing the contours of the proposed ‘comprehensive review’ of bilateral trade relations, official sources told The Hindu. Prior to that, Mr. Linscott, Tanya Menchi, Deputy Assistant USTR for South and Central Asia, and Brendan Lynch, Director for India at the USTR Office, will participate in a roundtable discussion on August 23 being organised by the advocacy body U.S.-India Business Council to take inputs for the TPF meeting and the comprehensive review of bilateral trade ties. There were doubts about the future of the TPF, especially following a U.S. government statement on August 15 mentioning that U.S. President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had decided to ‘establish a new 2-by-2 ministerial dialogue that will elevate their strategic consultations.’ However, official sources said this meant that the ‘commercial’ track will be taken out of the India-US ‘Strategic and Commercial Dialogue’ (S&CD), and from now on take place independently. They said the TPF will be held as usual in October, as happens every year.
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Will promoters block the path? As efforts are on to solve the NPA issue expeditiously, the promoter’s role assumes importance Lalatendu Mishra MUMBAI
There is widespread apprehension that company promoters who have led, or will lead, their firms to bankruptcy may try to manipulate the system to retain control directly or indirectly. The concern has risen among experts even as as the provisions of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) have kicked in. The Centre had brought in the IBC to resolve India’s significant nonperforming assets (NPA) problem. The RBI had said that 12 large NPA accounts be recommended to the the National Company Law Tribunal under the IBC. Forensic consultants also said lenders, aided by the resolution mechanism, must go after promoters to recover as much monies as possible, including through unmasking of corporate veils, searching for assets globally and establishing proof of funds diversion and initiating criminal proceedings to create deterrence. Forensic audits are being undertaken to establish any fund diversion and identification of benami properties of promoters in India and abroad, confirm investigators involved in the process. Efforts are also underway to trace fund transfers through shell companies. This comes at a time when wilful defaulters reportedly have dues worth ₹92,376 crore, which is about an eighth of the total ₹8 lakh crore NPA.
‘60% haircut’ Crisil, in a recent report with Assocham, said banks may have to take 60% haircut worth ₹2.4 lakh crore to settle 50 large NPA accounts. While firms may have genuinely run into problems due to market conditions, there are also wilful defaulters. There are also defaulters who try to take advantage of the current situation and slow recovery environment to get away without repaying banks. Since the Indian business environment is typically promoter-driven, it will not be easy to achieve resolution without involving him/her in some way, said industry watchers and consultants. “Can one incentivise the promoter to really step aside and let the insolvency pro-
EXPLAINER
Promoting non-resolution? There are defaulters who take advantage of the slow recovery environment and try to get away without repaying banks, say consultants. GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCK *
fessional take control of the business?”asks Reshmi Khurana, MD Kroll India, which provides intelligence, investigation and advisory service. “No promoter would like to lose control. So, these 12 cases are going to be very important test cases of how the insolvency professionals and promoters and creditors behave with each other,” she said. As more cases are being referred to National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), some questions that have been raised include: will Insolvency Resolution Professionals (IRP) remain independent and not be influenced by promoters; should the promoter be allowed to go scot free; and, should he/she be roped in by the IRP to ensure business continuity. As the clamour to penalise defaulters grow, forensic consultants said there was no single solution to make promoters accountable.
‘Fine balance needed’ “A fine balance needs to be worked out,” said a professional involved in the process. “A number of these ambitious borrowings were led by promoters who may have misjudged the market and hence borrowed too much and defaulted wilfully. At the end of the day, the promoters were running the company and if they have today led to the poor environment, then they have to
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Zip past toll barriers What is FASTag? J It is a device that uses Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology for making toll payments directly from the prepaid account linked to it. It is affixed on the windscreen of your vehicle and enables you to drive through toll plazas without waiting as you would for a cash transaction. The tag has a validity of 5 years and after purchase, it only needs to be recharged or topped up. The service is applicable to all kinds of vehicles but use of the service is currently voluntary. The tag can be linked to the MyFastTag mobile app. Purchase and top ups can be done through the app. If your car manufacturer has prefixed an RFID sensor, the same can be linked to the app for use at toll plazas. All lanes in 371 toll plazas in the country will be FASTag-enabled by October 1. All these plazas will have a dedicated FASTag lane by September 1. How is it beneficial? J It helps quicken your passage through toll barriers and helps avoid use of cash. Long queues of vehicles waiting while cumbersome cash transactions happen at the counter can be avoided. Here, it helps reduce use of fuel and pollution due to high waitingtimes at the barriers. It can also help the government identify the quantum of road use and types of vehicles passing through, aiding budgets for road widening and other infrastructure expenses. Theoretically, it could help increase accruals to the government as some operators managing toll plazas CM YK
have, in the past, have been suspected of under reporting their revenues.
be held accountable,” “This is why these 12 cases that have been referred to NCLT are so important in terms of setting a precedent. Will all the promoters get a free pass and get more money and be allowed to continue? I don’t think so,” the professional said, requesting anonymity. In case of fraud where promoters have siphoned off money, consultants suggested strong action, including a jail term. In case of genuine distress and mismanagement, the cases must be dealt with separately. As the (NPA resolution) process has gained momentum, banks have hired the services of investigators to get complete details on all the assets held by the promoters in case of personal guarantees or assets of the companies, affiliates and related parties in other cases. The process also includes lifting the corporate veil whereby an offshore entity can be located. This, they said, would help give the complete picture of the promoters’ assets.
‘New buyer, a front?’ “We typically work with banks and other creditors to understand the background of potential buyers. One of the key concerns of banks today is that the potential buyers should not be linked to the promoters in a way that presents a conflict of interest,” said Ms. Khurana. “The banks want to un-
How do I buy, recharge? J Initial purchase of and top-ups for FASTags is through the mobile app or from the websites of the issuer banks, NHAI and IHMCL. The device will be delivered home by courier. Offline purchase is also possible through Common Services Centres near toll plazas. Starting from the pilot phase that started last year, more than 6 lakh FASTags have been sold. (Compiled by K. Bharat Kumar)
Personal guarantees He said promoters could be made responsible to the extent that they had given personal guarantees. If it was established that the promoter, who was also managing the affairs of the company, had wilfully taken action to harm the company for personal benefit, then, potentially, action could be taken against such promoters, he said. Sanjay Doshi, partner, KPMG in India, said the entire intention behind the IBC was to try achieve resolution in a time bound manner and not let the company close unless a workable resolution was not available. “This is a process aimed to get all stakeholders to work in a time bound manner and the resolution [which] will benefit all. Initiation of the process does not mean the company is going for liquidation. The approach is to solve the problem,” Mr. Doshi said. He said the promoter had the responsibility to support the resolution process. “Management turning hostile was the biggest challenge in one or two cases. Earlier, we did not have any strong resolution mechanism. The law will take time to settle down,” he said. Kunta Sur, partner (risk & regulation), PwC said lenders had lost the art of evaluation of credit. “The lack of depth in the methodology of credit approvals has led to this situation.”
Data show new tax regime widely adopted Transport and logistics sector has seen benefits
Guide, facilitator: The legacy image of the taxman is changing for the better. S. Mahalingam
The Goods and Services Tax (GST) is one of the biggest tax reforms in India. Though only a few weeks old, the latest tax is now firmly embedded in the millions of transactions happening all over the country every day, since the historic first of July, 2017, a watershed in Indian taxation history. The key to the successful implementation of the GST was through a consultative forum which worked towards consensus among States with diverse interests in a federal structure. The goal of GST, which is ‘one nation, one tax, one market,’ a shot-in-the-arm for the country’s ease-of-doing-business initiatives, is laudable. Disruptions are inevitable in the short term, but in the long term, GST is likely to achieve improvements in the system efficiency, simplification and rationalisation of taxes, and the shift of business activity from the unorganised to the organised segment. The resultant widening of tax base, along with traceability of transactions, is bound to add to the exchequer despite reduction in tax burden on the consumption of common goods.
Uniform interface, a first GSTN or the GST Network, cutting through traditional silos, has established for the first time a uniform interface for the taxpayer and a common and shared IT (information technology) infrastructure between the Centre and the States. A complex exercise involving the integration
of the entire indirect tax ecosystem, the tax regime has brought all the tax administrations (Centre, State and Union Territories) to the same level of IT maturity with uniform formats and interfaces for taxpayers and external stakeholders. Commendable and unprecedented handholding has been seen, with the taxman engaging in conversation with enterprises, chambers of commerce and industry bodies such as the CII, right through the transition, and more continually through social media responses. The legacy image of the revenue officer or taxman is gradually shifting from being intimidatingly adversarial to being a persuasive guide and facilitator. Initial data streaming indicated widespread adoption of GST by trade and industry. New registrations approved in GST crossed a million before the end of the initial month, and about two lakh applications were in process. GST has impacted the transport and logistics sector: movement of trucks has increased; time required to cover distances has come down drastically, and pollution levels have come down with increased truck speeds. However, to reap the advantages of GST, concerns of business enterprises and industry sectors would need to be addressed. To name a few, the healthcare industry has sought that services be zero-rated rather than exempt so that providers can avail of input tax credit; hybrid vehicle manufacturers
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ask for 28% without cess; power distribution projects under various government programmes, earlier quoted inclusive of taxes as applicable then, are now subject to higher costs, and so these should be brought aligned to previous rates; and urgent intervention of the GST Council is requested towards huge losses to be suffered by units located in the exemption areas on account of non-availability of credit of excise duty which is inbuilt in the manufacturing cost of the opening stock of goods in the GST regime. Indian industry is hopeful that the Centre will look into the problems flagged by different sectors of industry and work to quickly resolve the same, ironing out interpretational issues. More important and imperative, even as we celebrate 70 years of Independence, is to leverage GST to effect ‘social reformation’, a transformation that would usher in greater transparency of supply chain, inclusiveness of MSMEs in business, wider dispersed development, accelerated employment and affordable quality living for economically weaker sections of the population. (The author is chairman, Economic Affairs & GST SubCommittee, CII Southern Region) This is the first instalment of a six-part series on GST implementation but across industries. The series has been facilitated by the Confederation of Indian Industry
Artificial intelligence imperils India Inc. jobs The IT services industry alone is set to lose 6.4 lakh low-skilled positions to automation by 2021, according to reports Peerzada Abrar BENGALURU
How do I use it? J At the toll plaza, get into the FASTag lane (the FASTag logo or symbol would be evident) at an approximate speed of 25-30 kmph and maintain at least a 10-metre distance from the vehicle ahead of you. Allow the vehicle ahead to pass through the boom barrier. If the RFID Tag in your vehicle is read by the reader installed in the designated lane and authenticated adequately, you will see a green traffic light, allowing you to pass through, as the barrier stays open. Don’t stop your vehicle once you reach the canopy/reader and after the green signal appears and the boom barrier opens. Taking too much time may lead to the barrier lowering before you pass through. If the RFID tag is not validated for some reason, the traffic lights will turn red and the toll plaza staff shall help validate the tag with a handheld reader. If the tag is not valid or is blacklisted, the vehicle owner shall pay in cash.
derstand the link between the new buyer and the promoters.” She said banks can flex their muscle to find out about assets which had been diverted out of India. “They should not limit their world to India only. Promoters may have diverted funds intentionally. They may be running companies internationally that are not in distress. It’s important to link the application of the funds diverted to their source.” “Banks can treat recovery of assets as they would in any commercial dispute and must go after [them] in full force,” she said. Analysts said courts should make it clear that their forum will not be misused by promoters trying to manipulate the system. The NCLT should be the sole adjudicating authority, they said. Since there is apprehension that promoters would drag the cases on for years so that the other party would lose interest, ‘the timeliness of this process is very important.’ The challenge, consultants said, was to find out assets which were not attached or known. In many instances, the assets are outside the country and under others’ names. “How do we create deterrence that sets an example so that promoters do not turn hostile and don’t manipulate the system?” asked a consultant. Similarly the independence of the Insolvency Resolution Professional is very im-
portant. Confirming the apprehension, a Crisil-Assocham report said, “The challenges include intercredit conflicts, and the ability of large corporates to delay the recovery process.” Asked if all the monies can be recovered from the promoter, Rajeev Suneja, partner, Deloitte India, said, “It is very important to differentiate between the promoter and the company and differentiate between a wilful defaulter and a defaulter.” “The promoter’s liability is limited to the capital he has infused in the company unless he has agreed to give personal guarantees. While the resolution professionals work towards finding a resolution for the company, the personal guarantees of the promoters remain to the extent as agreed... in the resolution plan,” Mr. Suneja said.
GUEST COLUMN
When Vishal Sikka, the then CEO of Infosys and now vicechairman, arrived in a driverless golf cart at the firm’s Bengaluru Campus recently, it showed the world how artificial intelligence or AI may become the new world order in the years to come. The software, ‘driving’ the cart, had been developed by Infosys together with IITDelhi. The vehicle can be used on a pre-determined route. “This is an example of the kind of things we are using to teach our employees,” said Mr. Sikka. “We built the autonomous systems in the cart to teach our employees to build autonomous driving technology.”
Impact on IT Technology leaders are drumming up the thought that the emergence of new technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and automation are going to be the new drivers of employment, especially for India’s $150 billion information technology (IT) industry that now employs about four million people. Over the past two years, Bengaluru-based Infosys, which crossed a revenue of $10.2 billion in the 2016-17 fiscal, has revamped the way it trains staff. Last quarter, the company completed training 3,000 people in AI technologies.“We are training our existing employees for these new skills,” said Mr. Sikka. He said with the advances in automation technology, more ‘commoditised’ jobs were going away and one had to move towards next-generation jobs
and new areas of opportunities. In April, the firm also released next generation AI platform, Nia which, it said, tackles business problems such as forecasting revenues and understanding customer behaviour. The other applications include deeply understanding the content of contracts and legal documents, understanding compliance and fraud. Several miles away from the Infosys campus in Electronics City, former U.S. chief data scientist D.J. Patil, along with tech entrepreneur Nandan Nilekani, expressed concern over the impact of AI and automation on the jobs in the country, during a fireside chat event. Mr. Patil said in India, though there were large IT players, certain types of coding jobs were specially developed towards software testing or heavily around small, added features such as upgrading. “I am very concerned that those are the jobs that are going to be replaced by automated processes,” said Mr. Patil in an interview. The first chief data scientist to the U.S. Government, appointed by the Obama Administration, advised young professionals to prepare and train themselves in new technologies in areas such as artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and healthcare. Mr. Nilekani, who spearheaded India’s massive unique identification project, emphasised that young professionals needed to prepare for life-long learning and not be dependent on just getting a degree for the sake of employment. “Things are changing and... changing very rapidly,” said Mr. Nilekani. “The future is
life-long learning, anytime, anywhere learning.”
Job losses Automation threatens 69% of the jobs in India, while it’s 77% in China, according to a World Bank research. “If it (automation) is not planned well and addressed holistically, it is a disaster in the making,” said K.R. Sanjiv, chief technology officer of IT services firm Wipro, during a discussion on the ‘rise of machines and future of human labour’ at a recent event organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in Bengaluru. “There is no doubt about that. It is going to affect 60%70% of the current jobs. They will either get marginalised or totally eliminated,” he said adding the transition will happen in a decade and not in 50 or 100 years. This month, the company revealed that its strategic investment arm, Wipro Ventures, had invested an undis-
closed amount in Vienna, Austria-based firm Tricentis. The firm offers a range of products and services to help companies automate testing of their software. Indeed, India’s IT services industry is set to lose 6.4 lakh low-skilled positions to automation by 2021, according to U.S.-based HfS Research. It said this was mainly because there were a large number of non-customer facing roles at the lowskill level in countries like India, with a significant amount of “back office” processing and IT support work likely to be automated and consolidated across a smaller number of workers. According to online professional training company Simplilearn, the era of digitisation and automation will create newer career choices for IT professionals. The new job roles that will dominate the IT workforce are within digital domains such as big data, artificial intelligence,
Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing and cybersecurity, according to the report “How Automation is Changing Work Choices: The Future of IT Jobs in India” released this month by Simplilearn. “While there is a risk to jobs due to these trends, the good news is that a huge number of new jobs are getting created as well in areas like cybersecurity, cloud, big data, machine learning and AI,” said Kashyap Dalal, chief business officer,Simplilearn, in a statement. “It is clearly a time of career pivot for IT professionals to make sure they are where the growth is.”
Drones, robots The impact of automation is not just limited to the country’s information technology industry but other areas as well such as agriculture. Tata Group is exploring use of automation to improve the lives of the work-
force and bring in efficiency. Piyush Mishra, technology leader — food security, Tata Services, said that the group was working on a precision agriculture technology where an unmanned aerial vehicle or a drone can be used for aerial spraying on farms. “We wanted to see the challenges faced by farmers,” he said. “In addition to labour, it (spraying) has multiple impacts on farmer life — from health to efficiency and productivity,” said Mr. Mishra at the CII event. He said that Tata was also working in the area of soft-robotics, where, instead of using traditional robots, wearables and other techniques can be leveraged not to replace the workers on the factory floor but to assist them. “For example, enabling labourers to do more strenuous jobs with fewer energy inputs,” said Mr. Mishra. Companies like Skylark Drones, a Bengaluru-based startup is providing its unmanned aerial vehicles to enterprises for services such as land surveying, power line inspection and monitoring of construction, pipelines and crop health. “You can access places which you couldn’t enter earlier. You don’t have to put humans in situations which are life threatening,” said Mrinal Pai, co-founder,Skylark Drones, at the CII event. His co-panelist Arati Deo, managing director, Artificial Intelligence at professional services company, Accenture, said the need of the hour was planning ahead and making sure the talent pool has the skills that would be needed “as these systems (AI, automation) evolve.” A ND-NDE
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Imperious Dhawan powers India home Spinners and Kohli chip in too INDIA IN LANKA Agence France-Presse Dambulla
Opener Shikhar Dhawan’s blazing century and a disciplined effort by the spinners powered India to a ninewicket win over Sri Lanka in the first ODI on Sunday. Chasing 217 for victory, India rode on an unbeaten 197run partnership between
Going big: Shikhar Dhawan was in marauding form, hammering 20 fours and three sixes. REUTERS *
Brathwaite’s action reported West Indies’ Kraigg Brathwaite has been reported for suspect bowling action during the defeat by England in the first Test. An opener and occasional offspinner, Brathwaite bowled just six wicketless overs for six runs. “The match officials’ report cited concerns about the legality of the 24-year old’s bowling action,” said an ICC statement on Sunday. Brathwaite remains free to bowl in international cricket ahead of the results of a test on his action, which must take place within a fortnight.
MUMBAI
Ajay Jayaram trained at the Goregaon Sports Club here in preparation for the Total BWF World badminton Championships beginning in Glasgow on Monday. The World No. 17 spoke to The Hindu recently about the state of Indian badminton. Excerpts. Four Indians figure in a World Championships men’s singles draw. How did it happen?
It’s no surprise. Over the past few years, the Indian presence in the men’s singles has been growing steadily. Initially, women players hogged the limelight due to Saina Ne-
hwal and P.V. Sindhu winning titles. Now Srikanth, Prannoy, Sai Praneeth and I are doing pretty well on the world stage. A huge Indian team, men and women, will be at the Worlds this time...
Indian badminton is a force to reckon with. We cannot be taken lightly any more. Seven players figuring in men’s top-50 is the highest for any nation — ahead of even China. Only four qualify, and that’s why Prannoy, Kashyap and Sourabh Verma are not in the main draw. What did it take to make the top-20?
I have been training for the longest time with Tom John
Star Power: Pankaj Advani greets Kelly Fisher after their match. SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT *
Ahmedabad
With Pankaj Advani and Vidya Pillai raising their level of play, Chennai Strikers scored an emphatic 4-1 win over Delhi Dons in the Cue Slam Indian Cue Masters League on Sunday. Advani won his icon 6Red snooker match against the Dons’ Kelly Fisher to bring the Strikers its first win. After an interesting first frame that the Strikers won 22-18 in the opening mixeddoubles 6-Red snooker, Advani and Vidya quickly won the second and the match against Manan Chandra and Kelly to take a 1-0 lead and Dharminder Lilly made it 2-0, winning his 9-ball pool against the Dons’ Malkeet Singh. Then after a short break Advani closed out the icon game singles against Kelly in two straight frames, while the Strikers’ mixed pair in 9-ball pool Vidya and Dharminder got the better CM YK
Ashwin Achal Bengaluru
The Indian women’s cricket team has no international commitments until the second edition of the ICC Women’s Championship — the dates for which has not been made official yet — and skipper Mithali Raj says her side could do with more fixtures. “It will be good if we can increase the number of international matches. Our immediate focus is on the domestic season, which begins in December,” Mithali said at a Zeven event here on Sunday. “The ICC Championship might start next year. There are also talks about a bi-lateral series with South Africa some time next year, but this has not been confirmed yet,” she said. Mithali also called for a longer domestic season. “The domestic games go on for only about two months. This should be extended, which will encourage more girls to take up the sport. Seasoned players will also be able to stay matchfit,” she said. She also spoke of the need for a larger talent pool. “Women’s cricket is not as big as men’s, in terms of the number of players available for selection. The men’s game is spoilt for choice in this aspect. The women’s second string is
Dhawan
Dhawan, who hit his 11th ODI century, and Kohli made sure India faced no more hiccups.
Marauding form Dhawan was in marauding form, hitting 20 fours and three sixes, but Kohli also attacked the opposition during his 70-ball stay at the crease. New limited-over captain Upul Tharanga rotated his bowlers at Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium but failed to stop the onslaught. It was a forgettable 200th ODI for veteran paceman Lasith Malinga, who was not only stuck on 298 wickets but was carted for 52 runs in his eight overs. Earlier Axar claimed three wickets while fellow-spinners Yuzvendra Chahal, Kedar Jadhav and paceman Jasprit Bumrah took two each.
of Laura Evans and Pushpinder Singh 2-0. Iranian Amir Sarkhosh played a big part in Hyderabad Hustlers’ 4-1 win over Gujarat Kings by winning his 6-Red snooker icon match against Welshman Andrew Pagett and defeating Alk Kumar in the 9-ball pool match. The results: Chennai Strikers beat Delhi Dons 4-1 (6-Red snooker: Pankaj Advani & Vidya Pillai bt Manan Chandra & Kelly Fisher 2-0 (22-18, 26-11); Advani bt Kelly 2-0 (31-19, 3626), Faizal Khan lost to Manan Chandra 19-32; 9-ball pool: Dharminder Lilly bt Malkeet Singh 2-0; Lilly and Vidya by Laura Evans and Pushpinder Singh 2-0. Hyderabad Hustlers bt Gujarat Kings 4-1 (6-Red snooker: Kamal Chawla & Amee Kamani bt Andrew Pagett & Daria Sirotina 2-0 (36-29, 25-19); Amir Sarkhosh bt Andrew Pagett 31-22, 41-28; Kamal Chawla bt Brijesh Damani 44-4; 9-ball pool: Amir Sarkhosh bt Alok kumar 2-0; Anuj Uppal and Amee Kamani lost to Alok Kumar and Daria Sirotina 0-2.
in Portugal (national coach there), and when he moved to Bengaluru, I joined him there. I was earlier with the Prakash Padukone Academy. From 2010 onwards, I started working with John, and found a lot of changes in my game, I became much more aggressive. I am continuing with the same sort of training regimen. For me to reach this level has not been easy. Initially there were injuries and other roadblocks. Looking back, I am happy to have made it to the men’s top-15 (his career-best ranking is 13). There is still some distance to go.
Agence France-Presse Cincinnati
and No. 11 Grigor Dimitrov advanced to the men’s title clash. Dimitrov dispatched 19thranked John Isner 7-6(4), 7-6 (10) while Kyrgios eliminated David Ferrer 7-6(3), 7-6(4). Kyrgios, 22, jumped ahead 4-1 in each tiebreaker, closing out the first set with a forehand winner and the last when Ferrer hit a backhand long. The Aussie saved the three break-points he faced in the fifth game of the second set.
Any specifics you are working on?
At 35, Ferrer was the oldest Cincinnati semifinalist since 1970 champion Ken Rosewall. Dimitrov, seeking his sixth career title and third of 2017, won a dramatic final tiebreaker on his fourth match point. The results (semifinals): Men: Grigor Dimitrov bt John Isner 76(4), 7-6(10); Nick Kyrgios bt David Ferrer 7-6(3), 7-6(4). Women: Garbine Muguruza bt Karolina Pliskova 6-3, 6-2; Simona Halep bt Sloane Stephens 6-2, 6-1.
Purav and Divij part ways The former will play the US Open with Leander Paes Press Trust of India New Delhi
After failing to defend their Los Cabos title last month, Purav Raja and Divij Sharan fell 15 places each in the ATP doubles rankings. With a combined ranking of 137 — with Divij at 68 and Purav at 69 — the pair decided to part ways heading to the US Open, where the cut-off for the main draw last year was around 130. Purav will now partner the 59th-ranked Leander Paes at Flushing Meadows, and the Winston-Salem Open before that.
Divij partners Begemann Divij, meanwhile, has paired up with No. 66 Andre Begemann. However, with a lot of players opting to focus on their singles campaigns at the US Open, the eventual cut-off turned out to be 155. “We could have entered together but we would’ve
They have a history: Leander Paes and Purav Raja have played together once before: in the 2013 Davis Cup tie against Korea in New Delhi. FILE PHOTO: SANDEEP SAXENA *
known (of our main draw spot) only at the last minute. If we could not get in together, we would have struggled to find partners because everyone would
have [paired up by then]. So we had to make a call early,” explained Divij, who said a split was the only sensible option under the circumstances.
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FILE PHOTO
not as strong,” Mithali said. “If we have more India-A and under-23 tours, more players will be exposed to different conditions. This will make them ready for international cricket when they get picked.” Asked if she would like to compete in the Women’s Big Bash League in Australia, Mithali said: “If I play the Women’s BBL, foreign players will get the chance to see my game and make plans to counter it when I play the ICC Women’s World Twenty20 (to be held in November 2018). I don’t mind featuring in the Women’s BBL after the T20 World Cup.” The 34-year-old said she believes she has a few more years of top-quality cricket left in her. “I’m fit, and I’ve been in good form. I will play as long as I contribute to the team. I want to play for as long as I can,” she said.
Ghosh and Sathiyan lose (Bulgaria):
Soumyajit Ghosh and G. Sathiyan lost 13-11, 7-11, 4-11, 11-6, 5-11 to the top-seeded Japanese pair of Jin Ueda and Maharu Yoshimura in the men’s doubles final of the ITTF World Tour Bulgaria Open TT on Sunday. The pair’s second-place finish marks India’s best performance in men’s doubles in nearly a decade.
This season — the successes in the PBL and at the Malaysian Open notwithstanding — I’ve faced knee injuries which affected my training a bit. I am hoping my fortunes will change at the Worlds.
I need to be more patient. I tend to be hasty when it comes to winning rallies. The moment someone retrieves I struggle a bit. I am trying to work on that aspect. I am getting my fitness back, and will take it one round at a time.
Mithali Raj.
Panagyurishte
How do you expect to do in Glasgow?
No. 1 spot in Halep’s sights Simona Halep has her third chance of the season to claim the World No. 1 ranking after beating Sloane Stephens 6-2, 6-1 to reach the Cincinnati Open final. The Romanian will try to become the 24th different woman to get to No. 1 by winning the final against Garbine Muguruza, who ousted the incumbent No. 1 and defending champion Karolina Pliskova 6-3, 6-2. World No. 23 Nick Kyrgios
Special Correspondent
they are in a transition phase. They are young and will get better
After Saina and Sindhu, the men are making an impact, says Ajay Jayaram
Advani and Vidya do it for Strikers
CUE SLAM
Also on wishlist: a bigger talent pool
‘Indian badminton is now a force to reckon with’ Nandakumar Marar
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA BIRMINgHAM
Dhawan, who smashed 132, and skipper Virat Kohli (82), to canter home in 28.5 overs. But it was the spinners, led by Axar Patel, who set up India’s win in the five-match series after bowling out Sri Lanka for 216 in 43.2 overs. India, which last week achieved its first clean sweep in an overseas three-Test series, lost an early wicket after Rohit Sharma was run out for four. The partnership between
is a young Sri < > This Lankan side and
Mithali calls for more intl. fixtures
TV PICKS BWF World Championships, STAR Sports 1 & HD1, 3.30 p.m.
Cue Slam, Sony ESPN & HD, 6 p.m.
Premier League, SS Select 1 No looking back: Ajay Jayaram says he hopes to build on his successes over the last couple of seasons. *
FILE PHOTO: NATHAN STIRK/ GETTY IMAGES
& HD1, 12.20 a.m. (Tuesday) La Liga, Sony TEN2 & HD 2, 1.30 a.m. (Tuesday).
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THE HINDU
MONDAY, AUGUST 21, 2017
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IN BRIEF
England completes an innings win West Indies dismissed for 137 in second dig; Broad surpasses Botham’s tally of 383 Test wickets
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Agence France-Presse
Holder tells Windies to look in the mirror BIRMINGHAM
West Indies captain Jason Holder challenged his side to “look themselves in the mirror” after its humiliating defeat to England in the first Test. “We just weren’t up to scratch,” said Holder. “The series is not lost... I have to believe. (But) each player has to look themselves in the mirror and see where they can improve.” AFP
Nanavati is vice chairman of FINA’s committee RAJKOT
Virendra Nanavati, CEO of the Swimming Federation of India and senior vice-president of the Indian Olympic Association, has been named vice chairman of FINA’s swimming committee. PTI
Sandeep & Denim lose in the semis LONDON
V.M. Sandeep and Denim Yadav lost 3-6, 6-3, [10-8] to Louis Davey and Alexander Knox-Jones in the semifinals of the ‘Road to Wimbledon’ UK under-14 tennis championship, at the AELTC on Saturday, marking the end of the Indian challenge at the competition. The ‘Road to Wimbledon’ project was conducted in India, Hong Kong and China, with the top-two boys and girls from each leg making it to the UK under-14 championship.
Faiaz stars in Mohammedan win KOLKATA:
Sheikh Faiaz’s brace set up Mohammedan Sporting’s 3-0 win over Southern Samity in the premier division-A Calcutta Football League here on Sunday. The result: Mohammedan Sporting 3 (Sheikh Faiaz 20, 55, Jiten Murmu 90) bt Southern Samity 0.
London
Stuart Broad starred as England thrashed the West Indies by an innings and 209 runs to ensure the inaugural day/night Test in Britain ended inside three days at Edgbaston on Saturday. West Indies, following on, lost 19 wickets for 261 runs in the day’s play as England surged to a 1-0 lead in this three-Test series. Having been bowled out for just 168 in its first innings, after England had piled up 514 for eight declared on the back of Man-of-the-Match Alastair Cook’s 243 and captain Joe Root’s 136, the West Indies collapsed to 137 all out second time around.
Devastating spell Broad took three wickets for 34 runs in 10 overs, including a spell of three for four in 11 balls that saw him surpass England great Ian Botham’s tally of 383 Test wickets. Broad is now second in England’s list of all-time leading Test wicket-takers, with
Quick work: Jermaine Blackwood fails to regain the crease as Jonny Bairstow stumps him off Moeen Al. only new-ball colleague James Anderson ahead of him. It was Anderson who did the initial damage in both West Indies innings. Anderson struck when Kieran Powell edged to former captain Cook at first slip. West Indies was 42 for two when Test debutant Kyle Hope (12) was lbw to seamer Toby Roland-Jones. Shai Hope hung in for more than 30 minutes but
then nicked Ben Stokes to second slip Root. Kraigg Brathwaite (40) resisted for 107 minutes. He hit seven fours before he was lbw on review to offspinner Moeen Ali, playing in front of his Birmingham home crowd to leave West Indies 76 for four at tea. Blackwood was then stumped by wicket-keeper Jonny Bairstow off Moeen Ali before Broad struck, hastening the end of a miserable game for the visitors.
Y.B. Sarangi KOLKATA
Intriguing: Vikas Krishan had forfeited his 75kg semifinal bout at the Tashkent Asian championship in May. REUTERS *
served a warning came as a surprise. While one BFI official confirmed that Vikas had been issued a ‘warning’, another
well-placed BFI source said: “No report has been made public till now.” A query to BFI secretary General Jay Kowli remained
SQUASH
SHOOTING
India wins three silver and seven bronze medals
Shapath wins bronze
Sports Bureau AMMAN
India ended its campaign with three silver and seven bronze medals in the Asian junior individual squash championships here on Saturday. In the boys’ section, Neel Joshi (u-15), Yuvraj Wadhwani (u-13) and Tushar Shahani (u-17) finished runners-up. Paarth Ambani (u-13), who lost in the semifinals to Yuvraj, won a bronze. The girls won the rest of the bronze medals, all losing in the semifinals. The results (Indians unless mentioned): Boys: Finals: u-13: Joachim
SCOREBOARD
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REUTERS
ENGLAND VS WEST INDIES, 1ST TEST
England — 1st innings: 514 for 8 decl. West Indies — 1st innings: 168. West Indies — 2nd innings: K. Brathwaite lbw b Moeen 40, K. Powell c Cook b Anderson 10, K. Hope lbw b Roland-Jones 12, S. Hope c Root b Stokes 4, R. Chase lbw b Broad 24, J. Blackwood st. Bairstow b Moeen 12, S. Dowrich b Broad 5, J. Holder c Cook b Broad 0, K. Roach b Anderson 12, A. Joseph c Stokes b Roland-Jones 8, M. Cummins
(not out) 0; Extras (b-9, lb-1): 10; Total (in 45.4 overs): 137. Fall of wickets: 1-15, 2-41, 360, 4-76, 5-102, 6-104, 7-104, 8-115, 9-137. England bowling: Anderson 72-12-2, Broad 10-4-34-3, Roland-Jones 6.4-3-18-2, Stokes 9-4-9-1, Moeen 13-2-54-2. Man-of-the-Match: Cook.
Alastair
England won by an innings and 209 runs.
Vikas gets warning for skipping semifinal bout The Boxing Federation of India was caught in a web of confusion over the reported ‘warning’ served to boxer Vikas Krishan Yadav for skipping a semifinal bout in the Tashkent Asian championship in May. The BFI had set up an enquiry committee to look into the reasons that prompted Vikas to forfeit his 75kg semifinal bout against Korean boxer Lee Dong-Jin, and the committee submitted its report on July 5. A day after the Indian boxing team’s departure for the Hamburg World championship, the news of Vikas being
Chuah Han Wen (Mas) bt Yuvraj Wadhwani 11-9, 11-9, 11-8. U-15: Mohammad Amir Amirul Bin Azhar (Mas) bt Neel Joshi 11-8, 9-11, 12-10, 11-9. U-17: Siow Yee Xian (Mas) bt Tushar Shahani 11-7, 11-4, 11-7. Girls (Semifinals): U-13: Aira Azman (Mas) bt Yuvna Gupta 11-7, 11-3, 11-2. U-15: Jessica Keng (Mas) bt Ananya Dabke 11-8, 11-1, 11-1; Kiroshanna Manoharan (Mas) bt Yoshna Singh 11-1, 11-4, 1113, 5-11, 11-8. U-17: Lui Hiu Lam (HKG) bt Navmi Sharma 11-7, 11-5, 11-0. U-19: Satomi Watanabe (Jpn) bt Sunayna Kuruvilla 9-11, 11-3, 9-11, 11-7, 11-8; Ho Ka Wing (HKG) bt Ashita Pranaya Bhengra 8-11, 11-3, 11-9, 11-3.
Germanicus fancied HYDERABAD: Germanicus appeals most in the Nizam’s Gold Cup (2,000m), the main event of the races to be held here on Monday (Aug. 21). There will be no false rails. CAPE KNIGHT PLATE (Div. I), (1,100m), maiden 3-y-o only (Cat. II), (Terms), 1.10 p.m.: 1. Aerofoil (14) K. Mukesh Kumar 56, 2. Golden Aliza (10) Sai Kumar 56, 3. Kohinoor Prince (13) Rafique Sk. 56, 4. Lord Gift (2) Ajeeth Kumar 56, 5. Blue Angel (9) Akshay Kumar 54.5, 6. Cannon Dear (12) Kunal Bunde 54.5, 7. Flying Ebony (6) N. Rawal 54.5, 8. Halo’s Princess (8) C. Umesh 54.5, 9. New State (11) P. Trevor 54.5, 10. Plain Jane (5) Aneel 54.5. 11. Royal Dancer (7) Ajit Singh 54.5, 12. Soaring Sensex (4) Hannam 54.5, 13. Takisha (3) Deep Shanker 54.5 and 14. Tough Sussex (1) Deepak Singh 54.5. 1. TAKISHA, 2. NEW STATE, 3. HALO’S PRINCESS K. BHAGVAN DAS MEMORIAL CUP (Div. I), (1,200m), 4-y-o & over, rated 42 to 62 (Cat. II), 1.40: 1. Dancing Leaf (11) P. Trevor 60, 2. Atlas Star (7) K. Mukesh Kumar 59.5, 3. Breezeofthesouth (4) A. Sandesh 59, 4. Dream Girl (6) Rafique Sk. 58.5, 5. Seven Colours (10) Ajeeth Kumar 58, 6. Gayle Force (5) Md. Sameeruddin 56.5, 7. Sweet March (3) Deepak Singh 55.5, 8. Rebellion (2) Sai Kumar 54, 9. Pentagon (8) K. Sai Kiran 53.5, 10. Manogamini (9) P. Gaddam 53 and 11. Strengthandbeauty (1) N. Rawal 52.5. 1. PENTAGON, 2. DANCING LEAF, 3. BREEZEOFTHESOUTH CAPE KNIGHT PLATE (Div. II), (1,100m), maiden 3-y-o only (Cat. II), (Terms), 2.10: 1. All The Best (7) Ajeeth Kumar 56, 2. Indian Aristocrat (11) Deep Shanker 56, 3. Reach The Heights (5) Sai Kumar 56, 4. Shivalik Class (3) Hannam 56, 5. Breaking News (12) Shailesh 54.5, 6. Cymbal (2) Aneel 54.5, 7. Island Queen (6) K. Sai Kiran 54.5, 8. Kohinoor Lucy (9) Rafique Sk. 54.5, 9. News O’ Star (10) P. Trevor 54.5, 10. Rose Petal (13) G. Naresh 54.5, 11. Royal Gift (1) N. Rawal 54.5, 12. Royal Green (8) A. Sandesh 54.5 and 13. Tough Princess (4) C. Umesh 54.5. 1. CYMBAL, 2. ALL THE BEST, 3. NEWS O’ STAR BYERLY BRIGADE CUP (Div. II), (1,400m), 4-y-o & over, rated 26 to 46 (Cat. III), 2.40: 1. Market Leader (10) A.S. Pawar 60, 2. Princess Of Dreams (8) Deepak Singh 59.5, 3. Kiss N Chase (3) Gopal Singh 58.5, 4. Time Is Luck (4) Rafique Sk. 57.5, 5. Citi Colors (2) A.A. Vikrant 57, 6. Olympic Hero (7) Hannam 57, 7. Queen To Rule (9) Zulquar Nain 56, 8. Valee Tiger (6) Akshay Kumar 55, 9. Abracos (1) P. Trevor 53.5 and 10. Surprise Party (5) Nakhat Singh 51. 1. PRINCESS OF DREAMS, 2. MARKET LEADER, 3. SURPRISE PARTY K. BHAGVAN DAS MEMORIAL CUP (Div. II), (1,200m), 4-y-o & over, rated 42 to 62 (Cat. II), 3.15: 1. Legend (10) Rafique Sk. 60, 2. Dandy Girl (1) K. Mukesh Kumar 59.5, 3. Khoshgel (4) Akshay Kumar
SPORTS BUREAU PORPETTO (ITALY)
Shapath Bharadwaj bagged the double trap bronze medal in the junior Shotgun World Cup on Sunday. The 15-year-old from Meerut, who qualified in the second spot with a total of 131, finished behind James Dedman of Britain and Miki Ylomen of Finland. He pipped Eraldo Apolloni and Marco Carli of Italy and Qi Ying of China to the bronze medal. Shapath had a series of 26, 25, 27, 28 and 25, ending two points behind Eraldo Apolloni of Italy in the qualification phase. Ahvar Rizvi shot 124 and lost the tie-shoot for the last berth in the final 1-2 to Miki Ylonen. Shardul Vihan (121), Bhowneesh Mendiratta (117) and Anwer Hasan Khan (112) placed 10th, 11th and 15th in
a field of 17 shooters. In junior women’s skeet, Areeba Khan (61), Ganemat Sekhon (60) and Simranpreet Kaur (53) were placed 15th, 17th and 26th respectively.
Lakshya & Manisha bag bronze In the mixed trap team event, Lakshya and Manisha Keer won the bronze, beating Sevin Edward Layer and Emma Lee Wiliams of the United States 34-33. Italians Emanuele Buccolieri and Maria Lucia Palmitessa beat compatriots Alberto Belluzzo and Erica Sessa 41-37 for the gold. The results: Junior Men: Double trap: 1. James Dedman (GBr) 70 (WRJ) 129; 2. Miki Ylonen (Fin) 66 (124)2, 3. Shapath Bharadwaj 48 (131).
unanswered. Notwithstanding whether the BFI has taken the final decision on Vikas, the enquiry panel has held him ‘guilty’ of skipping the semifinal bout. The panel said, due to Vikas’ ‘non-participation’ in the semifinal and ‘negligence’, the overall grading of the Indian boxing team went down and it brought ‘disrespect’ to the country. Even while taking note of the fact that Vikas, who landed a bronze medal by reaching the semifinals in Tashkent, was advised to sign an agreement to participate in the World Series of Boxing (which was sched-
uled close to the Asian championship), the committee said “that does not mean that he should have abdicated his duties and responsibilities in such a reckless manner without permission from superior authorities.” The committee recommended that Vikas “deserves to be warned/cautioned to be more careful and disciplined in future.” It said, if he repeated his mistake, he might be debarred from future competitions. The panel also advised “better communication and transparency at all levels” from the BFI to prevent occurrence of such incidents in future.
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59, 4. Legacy Machine (11) Deepak Singh 58.5, 5. Princess Hina (8) Md. Sameeruddin 57.5, 6. Ans Ans Ans (9) Aneel 56, 7. Act In Time (5) B.R. Kumar 54.5, 8. Island Bird (6) K. Sai Kiran 53.5, 9. The Blue (3) N. Rawal 53.5, 10. Manoveg (7) A. S. Pawar 53 and 11. Scooby Dooby Doo (2) Ajit Singh 50.5. 1. ISLAND BIRD, 2. LEGEND, 3. KHOSHGEL
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BASALAT JAH MEMORIAL CUP (1,200m), 3-y-o & over, rated 58 to 78 (Cat. II), 3.45: 1. Preciosa (11) Deepak Singh 60, 2. Vallee Secrete (5) Akshay Kumar 59.5, 3. Commanding Boy (10) N. Rawal 59, 4. Oh Dear (8) Rohit Kumar 58, 5. O Ms. Akilah (4) Rafique Sk. 57.5, 6. Poll Promise (6) C.P. Bopanna 57, 7. Dream Vision (9) Deep Shanker 55.5, 8. Without Makeup (2) P. Trevor 54.5, 9. Sketch Of Beauty (7) B.R. Kumar 54, 10. Aakash Vani (3) Ajeeth Kumar 53.5 and 11. Chase Your Dreams (1) A. Sandesh 53.5. 1. CHASE YOUR DREAMS, 2. O MS AKILAH, 3. VALLEE SECRETE
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NIZAM’S GOLD CUP (2,000m), 4-y-o & over (Terms), 4.15: 1. Germanicus (1) A. Sandesh 58, 2. Azzurro (3) R. Marshall 55, 3. Booker Jones (4) P. Trevor 55, 4. Aika Aika Aika (6) Akshay Kumar 53.5, 5. Mahathi (2) Aneel 52 and 6. Western Wind (5) C. Umesh 52. 1. GERMANICUS, 2. AIKA AIKA AIKA
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BYRLY BRIGADE CUP (Div. I), (1,400m), 4-y-o & over, rated 26 to 46 (Cat. III), 4.45: 1. Charming Beauty (5) Akshay Kumar 60, 2. Penumatcha’s Pride (8) Koushik 60, 3. Ruby’s Gift (7) N. Rawal 59, 4. Dhool Ka Phool (2) P. Trevor 58, 5. Gunner (4) C. Umesh 58, 6. Silver Dollar (1) A.A. Vikrant 58, 7. Golden Xanthus (9) Sai Kumar 57, 8. Sher Afgan (6) K. Mukesh Kumar 55, 9. Vijays Wonder (3) Hannam 55 and 10. Rose Eternal (10) S. S. Tanwar 54.5. 1. DHOOL KA PHOOL, 2. ROSE ETERNAL, 3. CHARMING BEAUTY
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SUBRAMANYA BHARATI PLATE (1,200m), 4-y-o & over, rated upto 30 (Cat. III), 5.20: 1. Ikigai (11) Hannam 60, 2. Penthesilea (6) Akshay Kumar 59.5, 3. Space Ship (5) C.P. Bopanna 59.5, 4. Pamella (7) P. Gaddam 59, 5. Wild Heart (1) C. Umesh 58.5, 6. Brioni (3) Zulquar Nain 56, 7. Dawning Hope (16) Md. Ismail 56, 8. Divine Heights (13) N. Rawal 56, 9. Super Grey (15) Kuldeep Singh 56, 10. Monte Rosa (8) A.A. Vikrant 55.5, 11. Pride And Joy (2) Kunal Bunde 54.5, 12. Old Faithful (9) K. Sai Kiran 54, 13. Mastaani (12) Rafique Sk. 53.5, 14. Royal Striker (14) Deepak Singh 52.5, 15. Carnival Express (4) K. Mukesh Kumar 50.5 and 16. Touch Of Gold (10) Sai Kumar 50.5. 1. PENTHASILEA, 2. SUPER GREY, 3. MASTAANI Day’s best: GERMANICUS Double: TAKISHA — CHASE YOUR DREAMS Jkt (i): 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5; (ii): 5, 6, 7, 8 & 9; Tr (i): 1, 2 & 3; (ii): 4, 5 & 6; (iii): 7, 8 & 9; Tla: All races.
Denny Crane clinches Governor’s Cup HYDERABAD: Denny Crane ( J. Chinoy up) won the Governor’s Cup, the main event of the races here on Sunday (Aug. 20). The winner is owned by Mr and Mrs Mehernosh H Deboo and Mr Rakesh R Jhunjhunwala and trained by Shroff. THE RESULTS:
(Deepak S) 1, ZELUS (Kuldeep S) 2, SEVEN ELEVEN (Akshay Kumar) 3, ET VOICI (Hannam) 4. All ran. 11/4, 4-1/4, 2. 1m 27.40s. ₹53 (w), ₹9, ₹6 and ₹7 (p), FP: ₹313 SHP: ₹18, Q: ₹85, Tanala: ₹763 (189 tkts.). Favourite: Zelus. Owners: M/s P. Ranga Raju, C. Nanda Kumar and K. Ramakrishna. Trainer: D. Netto.
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MANCHIRYALA PLATE (Div. I), Cat. III, (1400m), 5/y/o & over: WONDER STAR (Shailesh) and ICING ON THE CAKE (Akshay Kumar) are dead heated, DEAR FRIEND (Kunal Bunde) 3, IN COMMAND (Md. Ismail) 4. All ran. Dead Heat, Nk, 1-1/4. 1m 29.56s. ₹21 (for Wonder Star) and ₹7 (for Icing On The Cake) (w) , ₹10, ₹5 and ₹21 (p), FP: ₹64 (for Wonder Star and Icing On The Cake), ₹43 (for Icing On The Cake and Wonder Star), Q: ₹57, Tanala: ₹524 (97 tkts.) (for combination of Wonder Star, Icing On The Cake and Dear Friend), ₹343 (148 tkts.) (for combination of Icing On The Cake, Wonder Star and Dear Friend). Favourite: Forever Bullish. Owners: Mr Zoheb Shaikh (Wonder Star) and Mr M.P. A. Vatsalya (Icing On The Cake). Trainers: Zoheb Shaikh and A. Vatsalya.
DECCAN QUEEN PLATE (Div. I) (1400m), Cat II, Maiden 3/y/o only: WILD WINGS (K. Mukesh) 1, TURF LEGEND (G. Naresh) 2, LIMOUSINE (Deepak S) 3, EXCLUSIVE STRIKER (P. Ajeeth Kumar) 4. All ran. 2, 1/2, 3/4. 1m 29.07s. ₹63 (w), ₹11, ₹14 and ₹5 for (p), FP: ₹801, SHP: ₹48, Q: ₹354, Tanala: ₹1807 (42 tkts.). Favourite: Limousine. Owners: M/s Sriram Uppaluri, Chitturi Krishna Kannaiah & Thimmaraja Yelamarthi. Trainer: Satyanarayana.
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CHARMINAR TROPHY, (1400m), Cat II, 3/y/o & over: MIRFIELD (S.S. Tanwar) 1, JUNEAU (G. Naresh) 2, OPTIMUS COMMANDER (Akshay Kumar) 3, GAYLE FORCE (P. Saikumar) 4. Not run: NAUTANKI. l, 3-3/4, Hd. 1m 28.55s. ₹8 (w), ₹5, ₹8 and ₹6 (p), FP: ₹30, SHP: ₹21, Q: ₹25, Tanala: ₹62 (1426 tkts.). Favourite: Mirfield. Owner: Mr Teja Gollapudi. Trainer: Laxman S.
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DECCAN QUEEN PLATE (Div. II), Cat II, (1400m), Maiden 3/y/o (Terms): PHENOMENAL CRUISE
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OWN OPINION PLATE (Cat. II) (1600m), Cat. II, 3/y/o & over: HANDY MAN (Nakhat Singh) 1, SUPREMO (Md Ismail) 2, KALINDA (Rohit Kumar) 3, AL SADR (B.R.
Kumar) 4. All ran. 3/4, 2, Head. 1m 42.62s. ₹11 (w), ₹7, ₹7 and ₹11 (p), FP: ₹26, SHP: ₹13, Q: ₹15, Tanala: ₹169 (586 tkts.). Favourite: Handy Man. Owner: M.A.M. Ramaswamy Chettiar of Chettinad Charitable Trust rep. by A.C. Muthiah. Trainer: Satheesh.
6
ASTRONOMIC CUP (Div. I) (1100m), Cat. III, 3/y/o & over: ASTERIA (Md Ismail) 1, AMAZING RESPONSE (Deepak S) 2, KHAN SAHIB (Akshay Kumar) 3, CASH LANDING (Rafique Sk) 4. Not run: RAAJNEETI. 1-1/2, 2-1/2, 1-1/2. 1m 07.89s. ₹36 (w), ₹10, ₹7 and ₹10 (p), FP: ₹131, SHP: ₹17, Q: ₹39, Tanala: ₹757 (153 tkts.). Favourite: Amazing Response. Owners: M/s Anil Kumar Venkat Epur, Bharat Venkat Epur and M. Goutam Reddy. Trainer: L. D’Silva.
7
GOVERNOR’S CUP (1200m), 3/ y/o & over (Terms): DENNY CRANE ( J. Chinoy) 1, RAHULS PET (Deepak S) 2, CASTLE KEY (Mudassr) 3, VIJAYS JOY (Hannam) 4. All ran. 1-3/4, 1-1/4, 3/4. 1m 12.38s. ₹31 (w), ₹12, 11 and ₹15 (p), FP: ₹489, SHP: ₹41, Q: ₹288, Tanala: ₹3436 (38 tkts.). Favourite: Adam. Owners: Mr and Mrs Mehernosh H Deboo and Mr Rakesh R Jhunjhunwala. Trainer: Shroff.
8
ASTRONOMIC CUP (Div. II) (1100m), Cat. III, 3/y/o & over: TOP LINK (Kuldeep S) 1, CLETIC QUEEN (P. SaiKumar) 2, PRIME
TIME (Akshay Kumar) 3, PROUD WARRIOR (N. Rawal) 4. Not run: Lucky Nicky. 1-1/4, 1, 1-3/4. 1m 07.56s. ₹49 (w), ₹10, ₹13 and ₹7 (p), FP: ₹835, SHP: ₹33, Q: ₹389, Tanala: ₹2897 (55 tkts.). Favourite: Arc Of History. Owners: Mr Mir Firasath Ali Khan, Mrs Bindu Laxman Singh and Mr Mir Saqafath Ali Khan. Trainer: Laxman S.
9
MANCHIRYALA PLATE, (Div. II), (1400m), Cat. III, 5/y/o & over: SIR LEGEND (Akshay Kumar) 1, PRETTY STAR (B.R. Kumar) 2, WINE N DINE (Nakhat Singh) 3, ZENSATIONAL (Md Ismail) 4. All ran. 1/4, Nk, 1. 1m 30.38s. ₹14 (w), ₹6, ₹9 and ₹6 (p), FP: ₹57, SHP: ₹22, Q: ₹30, Tanala: ₹122 (1376 tkts.). Favourite: Sir Legend. Owner: Mr S.A. Shehzad Abbas. Trainer: S. Abbas. Treble (i): ₹3830 (7 tkts.); (ii): ₹361 (81 tkts.) on combination of Wonder Star, Handy Man and Asteria. ₹152 (192 tkts.) on combination of Icing On the Cake, Handy Man and Asteria.; (iii): ₹1054 (117 tkts.). Consolation Jackpot (1): ₹8,448 (3 tkts.) on combination of Wild Wings, Mirfield, Phenomenal Cruise and Wonder Star. and ₹938 (27 tkts.) on winning of combination of Wild Wings, Mirfield, Phenomenal Cruise and Icing On The Cake.; (ii): ₹1321 (134 tkts.). Jackpot (i): ₹11,828 (10 tkts.); (ii): ₹12,155 (34 tkts.).
DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD
THE HINDU CROSSWORD 12091
(set by Spinner)
13 Quotes by nearly forgotten wise men (8)
5 Pressurised, making a dent there! (10)
15 Obliterated legal document to hide problematic story (9)
6 Changed sexes to overcome primarily chauvinistic overindulgence (6)
16 Leave out classroom items/ bottles (4)
8 One upside down container having ring around (5)
21 Emerging software destroyed in rage (9)
9 God protects disheartened nuns, giving solidity (7)
24 Aroused by gyration done kinkily (6,2)
14 Cop’s memoir altered to get deal (10)
26 Unending onslaught with hard strap (6)
17 Adult drinks a bit of Indian native intoxicant, becomes baby (9)
29 Almost overwhelmed by course (5)
■ ACROSS 1 THOSE WHO PUT UP GROUP OF HOUSES FOR RENT? (5,7) 10 Pan graduate’s mistake (5) 11 Utter curse ceaselessly to change shape (9) 12 University’s top lady kidnapped by two knights? That’s rough! (6)
CM YK
30 She caters to arrangement with the heart of a soprano, scores music! (12) ■ DOWN 2 Frolicking, less inert audience (9) 3 Shows firms taking over Indian Educational organisation (8) 4 Final bomb fails to take off (4)
Prthu’s advice
7 Hurt, upset, crazy girl! (5)
20 Keep quiet about you and me in hotels! (4)
28 Renovate crumbling dome’s surface with resin, at last (9)
FAITH
SUDOKU
18 Extremely rubbish myths busted by recurring patterns (7) 19 Note practice bringing up voice standards (8) 22 Spinner’s endless deception — The standard to compare against! (6) 23 Perhaps, there’s a crowd? (5) 25 Commercial appearing in city’s broadcast medium (5) 27 Make a crossword about cool community (4)
Solution to puzzle 12090
Solution to yesterday’s Sudoku
King Prthu, whose story is told in Srimad Bhagavatam, rules in accordance with dharma and earns the blessings of Lord Mahavishnu, who appears before him and offers him any boon of his choice. Prthu, however, wants nothing but moksha, said P.T. Seshadri in a discourse. The Lord, pleased with Prthu’s choice of moksha over everything else, tells him to rule keeping to dharma. Prthu performs a yaga, and then he addresses his subjects. He tells them that they have to do their duty always and that to do this, they first have to get rid of hatred towards others. They should not find fault with others, Prthu says. The Supreme One gives results to everyone for their actions. The Lord is known by the name of Yagnanarayanan and there are many places on earth that are prosperous, because He makes them so. Where rulers and subjects do their duty, the Lord blesses such a land with all kinds of wealth. Prthu mentions those who have jnana about the Supreme One and in this list he includes Swayambhuvamanu, Priyavrata, Uttanapada, Dhruva, Siva, Prahlada, and Mahabali. All of them say that only Lord Mahavishnu can give all four Purusharthas — artha, kama, dharma and moksha. Prthu then says that he who has bhakti crosses the samsaric ocean in a second. The mind of a person who seeks the Lord’s feet becomes pure. He will have vairagya and he will understand the truth about the Supreme One. The mind, words and body will act in unison and such a person will cease to be tempted by worldly pleasures. Prthu says the Supreme One is in grains, in the quality of colours, in mantras recited at yagas, in the result of yagas. Whether a log of wood or a small twig is lit, we get fire from both. Similarly, like the fire, the Lord is in everything, big or small. A ND-NDE
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THE HINDU
SPORT 17
NOIDA/DELHI
MONDAY, AUGUST 21, 2017
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Title defence up and running
Puneri Paltan sinks Pirates PKL
Alonso scores a double in Chelsea’s 2-1 win; Huddersfield makes it two out of two
Uthra Ganesan
although the Spurs keeper should have saved. The three points and the fact it ended the match with all 11 men on the pitch will be encouraging for Conte.
EURO LEAGUES Agence France-Presse London
Premier League champion Chelsea got the boost it badly needed on Sunday as a double from Marcos Alonso gave it a 2-1 victory over last season’s runner-up Tottenham Hotspur in Antonio Conte’s 50th game in charge. The 26-year-old Spaniard struck the winner with less than three minutes remaining in an impressive show of character by Chelsea, after it had been pinned back when substitute Michy Batshuayi headed into his own net eight minutes from time. While the three points gets Conte’s side off the mark — the perfect riposte to its shock opening 3-2 defeat at home to Burnley — promoted Huddersfield Town made it two wins from two to sit just below leader Manchester United on six points. The Terriers — only the third promoted side to ever win its opening two games — beat a disappointing Newcastle United side 1-0 with impressive Australian Aaron
Stunner: Marcos Alonso whips the ball over the wall and into the top right corner. *
DAN ISTITENE/GETTY IMAGES
Mooy scoring the only goal, a delightful curling effort in the second half. Alonso had opened the scoring with a brilliant freekick in the 24th minute, and while Tottenham pressed hard for the equaliser,
SPORTS REPORTER
Local racer Karthik Tharani, driving a Volkswagen Ameo, and V. Jayant, in a Maruti Esteem, topped the Unrestricted and Indian Open categories in the third round of the MMSC FMSCI Indian drag racing championship at the MMRT track here on Sunday. Tharani clocked 14.130s and Jayant 14.049. The results (provisional): Unrestricted: 1. Karthik Tharani (Volkswagen Ameo) (14.130secs); 2. D. Vidyaprakash (Maruti Zen) (14.210); 3. Siddharth Singh Jhala (Maruti Zen) (14.210); Esteem Cup: 1. Fahad Kutty (16.394); 2. Imran Majid (16.478). Indian Open: 1. V. Jayant (Maruti Esteem, 14.049); 2. D. Vidyaprakash (Maruti Zen, 14.345); 3. Siddharth Singh Jhala (Maruti Zen, 14.760). Indian Touring Cars: 1. Sivaramakrishnan (Maruti Esteem, 15.845); 2. Tharun Kumar (Maruti Zen, 15.957). Super Stock: 1. Imran Majid
(Honda City) (16.410); 2. Swajit (Honda City) (16.498); 3. Kashif Kapadia (Honda City) (16.550). Indian Junior Touring Cars: 1. Kamlesh Parmar (Honda Jazz) (17.718); 2. Imran Majid (Honda Brio) (18.014); 3. Kashif Kapadia (Honda Brio) (18.177). MMSC support races — ProStock (petrol, Up to 1150cc): 1. Fahad Kutty (16.737); 2. Arjun Zaveri (16.771); 3. Mohammed Ali (17.122). 1151-1650cc: 1. Mikhail Merchant (16.463); 2. Fahad Kutty (16.499); 3. Swajit . Petrol (2051-3060cc combined): 1. V. Jayant (Maruti Esteem, 14.613); 2. Kasha Sai (Honda Accord, 17.014); 3. Sanjay Madhavan (Mazda Miata, 18.960). Pro-Stock (diesel, 11511450cc): 1. Mikhail Merchant (Ford Figo) (17.995); 2. Uday Nerulkar (Hyundai Getz) (18.384); 3. Arjun Zaveri (Ford Figo) (18.475). 1651-2051cc: 1. Vivek Ramachander (Skoda Laura) (15.010); 2. Rayomand Banajee (Volkswagen Vento) (17.575).
Lalith joint second Chithambaram shares fourth spot RAKESH RAO
Karminder stamps his authority in Volkswagen Ameo Cup Sports Reporter Chennai
It was double delight for Hyderabad’s Anindith Reddy as he extended his dominance in the MRF FF1600 class while Arjun Narendran did the same in the Indian Touring Cars (ITC) category in the MRF MMSC FMSCI Indian National Racing Championship (INRC) at the MMRT track here on Sunday. With the fifth and concluding round to be run on September 16 and 17, Anindith, who leads Chennai’s Sandeep Kumar by 29 points, is well placed in the championship with the winner earning a ticket to the Mazda Road To Indy shootout in the USA later this year. It was smooth sailing for Anindith in both races on Sunday as he put in a flawless performance to destroy the opposition. He more than made up for a disappointing outing on Saturday
Shardul in joint fifth Sports Bureau
AHMEDABAD
ABU DHABI
With the home-stretch in sight, the leading contenders headed by Swapnil Dhopade are gearing up for a powerful finish in the National Challengers chess championship here. For the nine qualifying spots at stake for the next National championship, 24 players fancied their chances after the 10th round. In the remaining three rounds, each aspirant will adopt varying strategies to seal a place among the first nine finishers. Dhopade (nine points) and second-placed Himanshu Sharma (8) chose to save their energies for the harder battles ahead by drawing their games on the first two boards on Sunday. As anticipated, Dhopade and S. Satyapragyan belted out the minimum-stipulated 25 moves for a draw, exactly the modus operandi adopted by Railway teammates S. Ravi Teja and Himanshu. M.R. Lalith Babu matched Himanshu’s tally after a fivehour battle, spread over 85 moves, with the Indian Oil teammate Mary Ann Gomes. In another engaging battle of wits, involving Indian Oil colleagues, former National champion Abhijit Kunte failed to break the defences of the reigning National women champion Padmini Rout and settled for a draw after 58 moves. A victorious top seed Aravindh Chithambaram was part of a seven-player group sharing the fourth spot at 7.5 points. Fellow Grandmasters Debashis Das, Deepan Chakravarthy, International Masters S. Nitin and Ar-
GM Shardul Gagare shared the fifth spot with 4.5 points after six rounds of the Abu Dhabi Masters chess on Saturday.
CM YK
M.R. Lalith Babu.
*
been on the pitch for a few minutes, headed Christian Eriksen’s free-kick past Thibaut Courtois. Alonso, though, once again rescued his team by latching onto Pedro’s pass and firing past Hugo Lloris,
Coming into Sunday’s game, there was little to choose between Puneri Paltan and Patna Pirates, both in terms of results or individual performances. But, all that changed as Pune defeated Patna 47-42 in the Pro Kabaddi League here. It was a one-sided affair from the beginning and as Pune tightened its control on the proceedings as the match progressed, Patna came undone. The only player standing between the two-time defending champion and a humiliating loss was captain Pardeep Narwal, who scored 19 points in 24 raids, but there was only so much even he could do. Patna also suffered its first loss of the season in the process even as Pune got its first-ever win against Patna in five seasons. Pardeep was one of the two players to manage a decent score for Patna along with Vinod Kumar. The latter had to be carried away towards the end after getting injured. Pune raced to a 14-point lead in the first 13 minutes
Double delight for Anindith, Arjun
Tharani, Jayant win CHENNAI
Conte’s side was unfortunate not to get a second when Willian struck the post in the second half. It looked as if Conte would have to read more negative headlines on Monday as Batshuayi, who had only
The results: Premier League: Huddersfield 1 (Mooy 50) bt Newcastle 0; Tottenham 1 (Batshuayi 82-og) lost to Chelsea 2 (Alonso 24, 88). Saturday: Stoke 1 (Jese 47) bt Arsenal 0. La Liga: Athletic Bilbao 0 drew with Getafe 0. Saturday: Celta Vigo 2 (Gomez 22, 51) lost to Real Sociedad 3 (Oyarzabal 32, Juanmi 80, Willian Jose 87); Girona 2 (Stuani 22, 25) drew with Atletico Madrid 2 (Correa 78, Gimenez 85); Sevilla 1 (Lenglet 26) drew with Espanyol 1 (Leo Baptistao 35). Bundesliga: Freiburg 0 drew with Eintracht Frankfurt 0; Borussia Monchengladbach 1 (Elvedi 49) bt Cologne 0. Saturday: Schalke 04 2 (Bentaleb 44-pen, Konoplyanka 73) bt RB Leipzig 0. Serie A: Atalanta 0 lost to AS Roma 1 (Kolarov 31). Saturday: Juventus 3 (Mandzukic 12, Dybala 45+1, Higuain 66) bt Cagliari 0; Verona 1 (Pazzini 83-pen) lost to Napoli 3 (Souprayen 32-og, Milik 39, Ghoulam 62).
Lucknow
RAKESH RAO
ghadip Das also won their games to join Satyapragyan and Teja. In all, 14 players were on seven points. Those who reached the tally with a victory were second seed S. L. Narayanan, K. Ratnakaran, Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury, Akash Iyer, Sammed Shete, Sameer Kathmale and Baivab Mishra. The results: 10th round: Swapnil Dhopade (9) drew with S. Satyapragyan (7.5); S. Ravi Teja (7.5) drew with Himanshu Sharma (8); M.R. Lalith Babu (8) bt Mary Ann Gomes (7); Fenil Shah (6.5) lost to Aravindh Chithambaram (7.5); Abhijit Kunte (7) drew with Padmini Rout (7); Niranjan Navalgund (6.5) lost to Debashis Das (7.5); Koustav Chatterjee (6.5) lost to Deepan Chakkravarthy (7.5); P. Shyamnikhil (7) drew with Sriram Jha (7); Udit Kamdar (6.5) lost to S. Nitin (7.5); Arghyadip Das (7.5) bt S. Jayakumaar (6.5); R.R. Laxman (7) drew with E. Arjun(7). Leading 11th-round pairings: Babu-Dhopade; HimanshuChithambaram; Debashis-Arghyadip; DeepanSatyapragyan; Nitin-Ravi; Arjun-Narayanan; Kunte-Saptarshi; Padmini-Shyamnikhil; Kathmale-Laxman; Jha-Akash; Ratnakaran-Shete and Mary-Baivab.
Important results (sixth round): Shardul Gagare (4.5) drew with Ahmed Adley (4.5); Sethuraman (4) lost to Firouzja Alireza (Iri, 5); N.R. Vignesh (4) lost to Levan Pantsulaia (Geo, 5); Aryan Chopra (4) drew with Alexander Indijic (Srb, 4); Abhimanyu Puranik (4) drew with Iani Pouya (Iri, 4); Eesha Karavade (3) lost to MirceaEmilian (Rom, 4); Alexander Fier (Bra, 4) bt Tania Sachdeva (3); David Eggleston (Eng, 4) bt M. Karthikeyan (3); Ivan Rozum (Rus, 4) bt P. Iniyan (3); Tsegmed Batchuluun (Mgl, 4) bt P. Saravana Krishnan (3); Antonio Pazos Porta (Esp, 3.5) drew with D. Harika (3.5); Max Illingworth (Aus, 3) lost to Rahul Sangma (4); Al Muthaiah (3.5) bt Abhijeet Gupta (2.5).
India makes strong reply SPORTS BUREAU POTCHEFSTROOM
India-A made a strong reply to South Africa-A’s 322, finishing day two on 181 for three, in the second ‘Test’ here on Sunday. Shreyas Iyer was unbeaten on 56 at stumps. The scores: South Africa-A 322 in 124.4 overs (Stephen Cook 98, Aiden Markram 74, Omphile Ramela 51, Shaun von Berg 38, Shahbaz Nadeem four for 118, Navdeep Saini three for 66) vs India-A 181 for three in 53.1 overs (R. Samarth 77, Sudip Chatterjee 46, Shreyas Iyer 56 batting).
On the podium: FF1600 race winner Anindith Reddy, centre, second-placed Sandeep Kumar, right, and Chetan Korada. *
SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
when he finished fifth after being forced to pit early in the race for repairs on the nose cone. Delhi’s Karminder Singh stamped his authority in the Volkswagen Ameo Cup by winning both the races on Sunday to enjoy a 104-point lead going into the concluding round next month. The results (Provisional): MRF FF1600, race two (15 laps): 1.
Anindith Reddy (14: 57.509); 2. Sandeep Kumar (15: 01.399); 3. Chetan Korada (15:15.305). Race three (15 laps): 1. Anindith (14: 58.193); 2. Sandeep (14: 58.410); 3. Chetan (15:10.826). ITC, race two (15 laps): 1. Arjun Narendran (16:52.608); 2. Ashish Ramaswamy (16:58.568); 3. Deepak Paul Chinnappa (17: 08.741). Saloon Cars - Super Stock (race two, 12 laps): 1. R.P. Rajarajan (14:30.913); 2. Varun V. Anekar
(14: 31.640); 3. B. Bala Vijay (14: 49.918). Race three (12 laps): 1. Varun (14:25.775); 2. Rajarajan (14:37.434); Bala Vijay (14:40.081). Indian Junior Touring Cars (race two, 12 laps): 1. Mikhail Merchant (15:27.157); 2. E.K.P. Hisham (14:27.335+1 lap); 3. Kamlesh Parmer (14:28.859+1 lap). Race three (12 laps): 1. Merchant (15:20.098); 2. Hisham (14:17.583+1 lap); 3. A.S. Prabu (14:28.191+1 lap). Esteem Cup (race two, 12 laps): 1. Narendran Sankaran (14: 19.391); 2. Sidharth Balakrishnan (14: 24.264); 3. Anant Pithawala (14:25.896). Race three (12 laps): 1. Raghul Rangasamy (14:15.558); 2. Pithawalla (14:22.634); 3. Narendran (14:29.254). Volkswagen Ameo Cup (race two, 15 laps): 1. Karminder Singh (17:05.639); 2. Jeet Jhabakh (17:19.305); 3. Dhruv Mohite (17:20.487). Race three (15 laps): 1. Karminder (17:06.047); 2. Saurav Bandyopadhyay (17:08.962); 3. Mohite (17:15.446).
Gotcha! Ziaur Rahman of Puneri Paltan collars Monu Goyat of Patna Pirates. RAJEEV BHATT *
that saw Patna getting all-out twice in five minutes. Pune had a 12-point lead at half time. Patna tried to fight back and every time Pardeep clawed out some crucial points, the others squandered it with shoddy tackling. After a point in the second half, he was practically the only one going out for raids and coming back with points. Pune’s win, on the other hand, was a complete team effort. If Deepak Hooda, Rajesh Mondal and Sandeep Narwal raided successfully, Zia-ur-Rahman, Dharmaraj and Sandeep shone in defence. Monu did both. It wouldn’t be wrong to say the game was a Pardeep versus Pune contest and the
team outplayed the lone warrior. With three minutes to go, Pardeep’s threepointer saw the margin reduce to five points for the first time in the game and he got another in the final few seconds, but it all in vain. The day's other game saw host UP Yoddha suffer its third straight defeat at home, going down 24-22 right at the end despite leading for most of the game. The results: Puneri Paltan 47 (Rajesh Mondal 10, Deepak Hooda 9, Ziaur Rahman 6, Sandeep Narwal 5, Monu 5) bt Patna Pirates 42 (Pardeep Narwal 19, Vinod Kumar 7, Vikas Jaglan 5). Jaipur Pink Panthers 24 (Tushar Patil 5, Nitin Rawal 5, Jasvir Singh 4) bt UP Yoddha 22 (Nitin Tomar 5, Rishank Devadiga 4).
Farah bids victorious adieu to home crowd Agence France-Presse Birmingham
British athletics legend Mo Farah began the day taking a lap of honour in an open top Bentley and ended it by giving the crowd what they wanted in his final race on home turf — a victory. The 34-year-old Farah, who is quitting track to focus on marathon running, won in 7 minutes, 38.64 seconds. “Emotions have been high coming into this
event — not as much as (the 2012 Olympics in) London but it is my last time at home and I really enjoyed it,” said Farah. Despite his presence the meeting was not a sell out. “It’s been an amazing week,” said Farah. “I have been tired but had a little downtime with family. A hobby has become a job which is what you want. Going to the road will be a new game and I am excited.”
Glorious finish: A delighted Mo Farah after winning the men’s 3,000m at the Birmingham Diamond League. AFP *
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18 LIFE
NOIDA/DELHI
THE HINDU
MONDAY, AUGUST 21, 2017
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IN BRIEF
Jerry Lewis, high prince of Studying the Sun’s corona low-brow comedy, dies at 91 IISER-Kolkata prepares for the ‘great American solar eclipse’ Shubashree Desikan CHENNAI
Wreck of Second World War-era cruiser found
Fund-raising powerhouse delivered several hits with Dean Martin
Civilian researchers said that they had located the wreck of the USS Indianapolis, the Second World War heavy U.S. cruiser that played a critical role in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima before being struck by Japanese torpedoes. The sinking of the Indianapolis remains the United States Navy’s single worst loss at sea. AP
Reuters LOS ANGELES
Dick Gregory, U.S. satirist and rights activist, dies WASHINGTON
Dick Gregory, the pioneering black satirist who transformed cool humour into a barbed force for civil rights in the 1960s and then veered from his craft for a life devoted to protest in the name of assorted social causes, died on Saturday in Washington. He was 84. NYT
Jerry Lewis, the high prince of low-brow comedy on stage and in movies as well as a fund-raising powerhouse with his annual Labour Day telethon, died on Sunday of “natural causes” at the age of 91, his family said. “Famed comedian, actor and legendary entertainer Jerry Lewis passed away peacefully today of natural causes at 91 at his home in Las Vegas with his family by his side,” a statement from the Lewis family said. His spokeswoman, Candi Cazau, said by phone that he died around 9.30 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time. Lewis rose to fame as goofy foil to suave partner Dean Martin (who died in 1995). He once summed up his career by saying “I’ve had great success being a total idiot” and said the key was maintaining a certain child-like quality. “I look at the world through a child’s eyes because I’m 9,” he told
Udaipur boy in Limca book for JEE feat
squealing, grimacing and flailing his way through situations beyond his control. He starred in more than 45 films in a career spanning five decades. His cross-eyed antics often drew scorn from critics but he was for a time a box-office hit who commanded one of the biggest salaries in Hollywood.
A barrel of laughs: Jerry Lewis during the 66th Cannes Film Festival in 2013. REUTERS *
Reuters in a November 2002 interview. “I stayed that way. I made a career out of it. It's a wonderful place to be.” Lewis was 87 when his last movie, Max Rose, came out in 2013, playing a jazz pianist, who questions his marriage after learning his wife of 65 years may have been unfaithful. The son of vaudeville entertainers, Lewis became a star in the early 1950s as Martin’s spastic sidekick in nightclubs, on television and
in 16 movies. At their height, they set off the kind of fan hysteria that once surrounded Frank Sinatra and the Beatles.
Over 45 films Their decade-long partnership ended with a bitter split and Lewis went on to star in his own film comedies. Lewis’ movie persona, like the character he created in the act with Martin, varied little from film to film. He was zany and manic, forever
Popular in France Long after his celebrity faded at home, Lewis was wildly popular in France, where he was hailed as “le Roi du Crazy” (the king of crazy) and inducted into the Legion of Honuor, France’s highest award, in 1984. He received a similar honour in 2006. He explained his popularity in France, by saying: “The French are very visually oriented even though they are cerebral. They enjoy what they see and laugh. Then, later, they ask why.” Lewis acknowledged that he elicited either love or hate from audiences — and little in between.
A solar eclipse is set to take place, which will be visible across all of continental United States. It will begin at the Oregon coast (at 9.36 p.m. IST on Sunday) and end at the South Carolina coast (at 1.36 a.m. IST on Tuesday). About 16% of the U.S. territory will witness a total eclipse, which will last longest at Carbondale, Illinois, for 2 minutes and 41.6 seconds. Since this eclipse has the special feature of lasting for so long over the mainland, scientists across the world are trying to use it to verify their theories on the Sun. This can help them model “space weather” and predict solar storms that can affect the operation of satellites and even electric power grids on Earth.
Computer simulations The “great American solar eclipse” is keeping scientists at the Centre for Excellence in Space Sciences India (CESSI) in the Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISER), Kolkata, busy even before begins. Using computer simu-
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Taking the plunge
Star of the show: An artist’s conception of the synthetic coronal structure prediction of the solar eclipse . CESSI/IISER *
lations, they have predicted the shape that the outer layer of the Sun — its corona — will take during the total eclipse. If their prediction is correct, their model of the Sun will be validated and they can then fine-tune it to make predictions of space weather, for one, which is CESSI’s eventual mandate. Space weather impacts modern day technologies such as satellite operations, telecommunications, GPS navigational networks and electric power grids. So, astronomical events such as an eclipse, which offers a
chance of diagnosing the coronal magnetic field, are an opportunity for solar physicists to test their theoretical ideas and models to be able to refine them.
Verifying theories “Once the event takes place, they [the research groups] can judge how close to reality they are and even if they are not close, they can go back to the drawing board and refine their theories,” said Niruj Mohan Ramanujam, Chairperson of the Public Outreach and Education Committee of the Astronomical Society of India.
Indian-origin TV star crowned ‘Child Genius’
Kalpit Veerwal scores a perfect 100%
12-year-old wins popular U.K. quiz show
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The first-ever student to have scored 100% in the prestigious Joint Entrance Examination — Mains, Udaipur boy Kalpit Veerwal has made it to the Limca Book of Records for his feat. Veerwal scored 360 out of 360 in the JEE-Mains this year and is now studying Computer Science at Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. His record of the perfect score will feature under the ‘Education Achievements’ category of the 2018 edition, an official from the Limca Book of Records said.
A 12-year-old Indian-origin boy has been crowned as the U.K.’s ‘Child Genius’ in a popular television quiz competition, days after he became an overnight sensation after answering all questions correctly. Rahul Doshi won the Channel 4 show ‘Child Genius’ by beating his nineyear-old opponent, Ronan, 10-4 in the programme’s finale on Saturday night. He had become an overnight sensation earlier this week after he answered all questions correctly. The schoolboy from north London clinched the title by answering a question on 19th century artists William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais. “It didn’t sink in straight away, but it was really nice,” Rahul said after winning the title.
Consistency helped “I was confident of cracking the examination but didn’t expect a perfect score. Similarly, making it to the Limca Book of Records was not something I ever dreamt of,”
Kalpit Veerwal
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Mr. Veerwal said over phone from Mumbai. His home city of Udaipur is not more than 300 km from Kota, which is referred to as the country’s “coaching hub” because of a large number of medical and engineering aspirants who go there for their exam preparations. “I did not study for 15 hours a day, I did not go down the usual ‘Kota route’ for IIT preparations but consistent studies helped me a lot,” Mr. Veerwal said.
Derring-do: A man performs a BMX bicycle stunt as he jumps into the East Lake in Hubei Province, China, on Sunday.
‘New state of matter’ discovered
Two separate initiatives drive in succour for asylum seekers stuck in Greece
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Scientists have discovered a potential new state of matter that may help explain phenomena like superconductivity. Superconductivity is extensively used in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), particle accelerators, magnetic fusion devices, and microwave filters. Researchers from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in the U.S. showed that among superconducting materials in high magnetic fields, the phenomenon of electronic symmetry breaking is common.
The brightly coloured minivan that pulls into Athens’ food market, drawing a group of refugees around it, is not carrying something edible. The contents — hundreds of books — are there to satisfy a different sort of hunger. For tens of thousands of refugees stuck in Greece for the past two years after European states shut their borders in rapid succession, survival is no longer an issue. Instead, boredom and creeping despair about their future are their new enemies as they wait for months, even years, for their applications to relocate elsewhere in Europe to be processed. Now, at least two separate initiatives have emerged to help refugees fill the long hours of their day. One of them is Echo Refugee Library — a minivan fitted with shelves carrying over 1,000 books that does a weekly round of refugee camps in the greater Athens area, plus poorer districts of the capital where many refugees live in UN-rented flats. The goal of the initiative is to “make culture accessible to all,” says Esther Ten Zijthoff, 25, the Dutch-American coordinator of the project. The books, in English, Greek, French, Arabic, Kurdish and Persian, have been provided by benefactors in Greece, Belgium, Britain and Lebanon or purchased with money donated online.
Essential ingredients The ability to find similarities and differences among classes of materials with phenomena such as this helps establish the essential ingredients that cause novel functionalities such as superconductivity. The high-magnetic-field state of the heavy fermion superconductor CeRhIn5 revealed a state in which the material’s electrons aligned in such a way to apparently reduce the symmetry of the original crystal, something that now appears to be universal among unconventional superconductors. Unconventional superconductivity develops near a phase boundary separating magnetically ordered and magnetically disordered phases of a material. The study was published in the journal Nature. CM YK
Books lend these refugees catharsis
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Rahul Doshi
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In the final, Rahul impressed with knowledge of his chosen subject — Edward Jenner’s medical innovation and methodology in 18th century England. “I was bursting with pride,” said his father Minesh, who had entered his son into the competition. The final followed an intense competition — aired through the week — which saw the candidates showing off their maths, English, spelling and history skills as well as memory powers.
Finger length may predict athletic ability
AI system can decode brain signals
‘Digit ratio tied to muscular strength’
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Press Trust of India Washington
In good books: People sit outside a library van in central Athens. Reading provides some refugees in Greece a platform for escape from boredom and despair about their future.
Ali, a 26-year-old Syrian, is among those who never misses a delivery at the food market. “I really love having something to read. It does me good,” he says, an Agatha Christie novel under his arm. The English mistress of the whodunit is proving a top draw for refugees, says Mr. Zijthoff. “The mystery and romance present in her stories are well-liked by Arab speakers. We would like to have her whole collection,” Mr. Zijthoff adds.
Language dictionaries Language dictionaries are also in demand, with many readers borrowing them to photocopy and keep close at hand. In another part of the city
centre, a similar initiative draws Syrian and Afghan refugees to the offices of We Need Books, a volunteer group formed last year that also gives language classes in Arabic and French.
‘Escape via literature’ We Need Books has the largest collection of Persian books in Athens, including over 150 sent directly from Afghanistan, says co-founder Ioanna Nissiriou. Here, the most popular book is Arabian Nights. The sole copy in Persian, delivered in June, is already in tatters, she notes with pleasure. “Initially our goal was to help refugees escape through literature. But now we also seek to educate the
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children and help them integrate,” says Nissiriou, a 38year-old former journalist.
‘It’s a new culture’ Seated on a brightly-coloured pouffe, 16-year-old Zahra from Afghanistan has just discovered the works of iconic Greek writer Nikos Kazantzakis, author of Zorba the Greek and the Last Temptation of Christ. “I like this book because it’s a new culture for me,” she says while poring through Nikos Kazantzakis’s Odyssey, a sequel to Homer’s classic opus. “However, my favourite [book] is the Tales of the Brothers Grimm, which is similar to faerie tales I used to read as a child,” the young Afghan says.
Your hands may predict how good you are at sports, say scientists, who found that athletic prowess could be related to the length of your fingers. Researchers explored the difference in length between one’s index finger and ring finger, and a possible link to muscular strength. They found that the ratio of the length of the index finger and the length of the ring finger — called the “digit ratio” — is favourably related to muscular strength in boys. The ring finger in males is typically longer than the index finger, whereas the fingers are about the same length in females, said Grant Tomkinson, a professor at the University of North Dakota in the U.S. “There is some indirect evidence that this digit ratio of the length of the fingers, is determined during early foetal development by testosterone — the more testosterone the foetus produces, the longer the ring finger, so the smaller the digit ratio,” he said.
Steroid hormone Testosterone is the natural steroid hormone that enhances sport, athletic and fitness test performance. In general, people with smaller digit ratios are better athletes, researchers said. “Our study shows that boys with lower digit ratios have better hand-grip
Researchers explored the difference in length between one’s index finger and ring finger. AP *
study shows < > Our boys with lower digit ratios have better hand-grip strength Grant Tomkinson A professor
strength, irrespective of their age or body size,” Mr. Tomkinson said.
Health indicator Since muscular strength is important for success in many youth sports and athletic events, the finding suggests that the digit ratio may predict performance in youth sports and athletic events requiring high strength, researchers said. Muscular strength is also an important indicator of good health, and those with lower digit ratios probably have better general health and well-being, Mr. Tomkinson said. Researchers also found that females with lower digit ratios are better basketball players. The study was published in the journal Early Human Development.
Scientists have developed a new artificial intelligence system that can decode brain signals, an advance that may help severely paralysed patients communicate with their thoughts. Artificial intelligence has far outpaced human intelligence in certain tasks. Researchers from the University Hospital Freiburg in Germany showed how a self-learning algorithm decodes human brain signals that were measured by an electroencephalogram. It included performed movements, but also hand and foot movements that were merely thought of, or an imaginary rotation of objects.
Early detection The system could be used for early detection of epileptic seizures, communicating with severely paralysed patients or make automatic neurological diagnosis. “Our software is based on brain-inspired models that have proven to be most helpful to decode various natural signals such as phonetic sounds,” said Robin Tibor Schirrmeister from the university. “The great thing about the program is we need not predetermine any characteristics. The information is processed layer for layer, that is in multiple steps with the help of a non-linear function,” said Mr. Schirrmeister. A ND-NDE
