ˆ ˇ’ 3ˇ(0˛ ˝2˙ 45!, ˚ # ˘ (&8&3˜ (& & 4 &( 384&ˇ48/ 4 3*4( 4 &˜ ˛9&38 … · Town...

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K arnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy staved off what seemed an imminent defeat on the trust motion on Thursday in the State Assembly after Speaker KR Ramesh adjourned the House till Friday, defying Governor Vajubhai Vala’s call to complete the process by the end of the day. The Governor has written a letter to Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy, asking him to prove majority on the floor of the House by 1.30 pm on Friday. Rocked by a spate of resig- nations of its MLAs, the Congress-JD(S) alliance Government lacked the num- ber in the House for the pas- sage of the motion and fielded one after another lawmaker to deliver lengthy speeches and delay the inevitable. Emboldened by the Supreme Court’s ruling that the MLAs cannot be forced to attend the House proceedings, as many as 20 lawmakers skipped the trust vote debate, making it amply clear that the Kumaraswamy Government was not going to survive the motion. But the ruling dispen- sation decided to buy time to explore any last minute possi- bility to win back the rebel MLAs. As part of this strategy, it went for a marathon debate, which will continue on Friday. BJP leader BS Yeddyurappa declared his party members would stay put in the House itself overnight and even till the time the trust vote was decid- ed. “We will stay until the trust vote is decided,” Yeddyurappa said after the BJP, exasperated over the delay in taking up the voting, and also rushed a delegation to the Governor to ask Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar to conclude the trust vote process by the end of the day itself. Acting swiftly, Vala asked the Speaker to complete the process of Vote of Confidence moved by the end of the day. The drama unfolded right from the word go as the Chief Minister moved a one-line motion, saying the House expressed confidence in the 14- month-old Ministry headed by him. The House that barely focussed on the debate on the motion saw three adjourn- ments, acrimony and repeated disruptions by belligerent slo- gan shouting Congress mem- bers before the proceedings were wound up for the day. As many as 16 MLAs — 13 from the Congress and three from the JD(S) — had resigned, while Independent MLAs R Shankar and H Nagesh have withdrawn their support to the coalition Government, putting the Kumaraswamy-led Government in jitters. One Congress member Ramalinga Reddy retracted, saying he would support the Government. The ruling com- bine’s strength is 117 — Congress 78, JD(S) 37, BSP 1, and nominated 1, besides the Speaker. With the support of the two Independents, the Opposition BJP has 107 MLAs in the 225-member House, including the nominated MLA and the Speaker. If the resignations of 15 MLAs (12 from Congress and 3 from JDS) are accepted, the ruling coalition’s tally will plummet to 101, (excluding the Speaker) reducing the 14 month-old Kumaraswamy Government to a minority. BJP leaders said they were mulling moving the Supreme Court in the light of Thursday’s developments. The Congress-JD(S) alliance may have brought time, but there was a slim chance of the survival of the Government. Even as the Congress leaders were trying to win back the rebel MLAs, another party MLA Shreemant Patil skipped the House pro- ceedings amid report that he has been admitted in a Mumbai hospital. At one point, Congress members carrying pictures of Patil rushed towards the Well of the House shouting slogans “down down BJP” and “down down operation kamal (lotus)” to bring down the Government. BSP MLA Mahesh, on whose support the coalition was counting, too did not show up, amid reports he was keep- ing away as he has not received any directions from the party leader Mayawati on the stand to be taken on the trust vote. Seeking the trust vote, Kumaraswamy said the rebel MLAs had cast doubts about the coalition Government across the country and “we have to tell the truth.” “The entire nation is watching the developments unfolding in Karnataka,” he said. As soon as the motion was moved, Yeddyurappa said the trust vote process should be completed in a single day. “The Leader of Opposition seems to be in a hurry,” Kumaraswamy taunted Yeddyurappa. As the Chief Minister sought the trust vote, Congress Legislature Party leader Siddaramaiah pressed for deferring the confidence motion till the Assembly Speaker decided on the issue of whip in the wake of the Supreme Court verdict on the political crisis in the State. Siddaramaiah said the 15 rebel MLAs were influenced by the apex court order that they can abstain from attending the Assembly proceedings and asked the Speaker to give a rul- ing on the fate of whip issued by him as CLP leader. Continued on Page 4 I ncome-Tax Department has attached a “benami” com- mercial plot measuring seven acres and worth 400 crore belonging to BSP chief Mayawati’s brother Anand Kumar and his wife in Noida Sector 94. The IT Department has applied Section 24(3) of the Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions Act, 1988, under which the department can attach an asset if it estimates the asset to be benami. The attached plot bearing number 2A in Sector 94 Noida is located in the vicinity of pro- posed five star hotel and other such luxury infrastructure. Anand and his wife, Vichiter Lata, allegedly used six companies for transactions relating to the acquisition of the attached plot, sources said. The benami transactions were effected through a host of companies, including Vision Town Planners Private Limited, BPTP International Trade Center Pvt Ltd, Euro Asia Mercantile Pvt Ltd, Sunny Cast and Forge Pvt Ltd, Karishma industries Pvt Ltd and Add-Fin Capital Services India Pvt Ltd, sources said. The provisional order for the attachment of the plot “beneficially owned” by Anand and his wife was issued on July 16. Benami properties refer to the instances wherein the real beneficiary is not the one in whose name the property is registered. During probe, the Department detected a “com- plex web of shareholding” by at least six firms, including dummy companies, who were the “benamidars” or the enti- ties in whose name the “bena- mi” property was registered. Continued on Page 4 I ndia’s ambitious second mis- sion to the Moon Chandrayaan-2 will now lift off at 2.43 pm on July 22, space agency ISRO said on Thursday, three days after the launch was aborted due to a technical snag in its GSLV-Mk-III rocket. Chandrayaan-2, which will be launched on board the most powerful GSLV-Mk-III rocket dubbed ‘Baahubali, is ready “to take a billion dreams to the Moon”, the Indian Space Research Organisation said on Twitter. On July 15, the launch was called off 56 minutes and 24 seconds before the scheduled blast off at 1.55 am from the spaceport in Sriharikota fol- lowing a technical problem in the rocket. A fter getting a verdict in its favour in the Kulbhushan Jadhav case by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Wednesday, India on Thursday asked Pakistan to release him and reiterated its commitment to vigorously continue efforts to bring him back. The ICJ had ordered review of death penal- ty to the former Indian Navy officer and directed Pakistan to provide him consular access. Elaborating on the Government’s resolve to secure Jadhav’s release, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said, “Pakistan was found to have deprived India of the right to communicate with Jadhav, have access to him, visit him in detention and arrange his legal representation.” Making a statement first in the Rajya Sabha and then in the Lok Sabha on Thursday, the External Minister said “Kulbhushan Jadhav is inno- cent of the charges made against him. His forced con- fession without legal represen- tation and due process will not change this reality. We once again call upon Pakistan to release and repatriate him forthwith,” he said. The ICJ on Wednesday directed Pakistan to suspend the death sentence given in 2017 to Jadhav on charges of espionage and sabotage. “The Government will vig- orously continue its efforts to ensure his safety and wellbeing, as well as his early return to India,” Jaishankar said as mem- bers cutting across party lines welcomed the ICJ judgment by thumping benches. Jaishankar noted that Jadhav was awarded a death sentence by a Pakistani military court on “fabricated charges”. This was done without pro- viding Indian representatives consular access to him, as envisaged by international law and practice. Continued on Page 4 G ood news for the people residing in unathorised colonies of the national Capital as soon they will have owner- ship rights after the Centre has given nod to a proposal of the Delhi Government to regu- larise 1,797 illegal colonies. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday directed the officers to prepare large scale registry of homes. Kejriwal said, “Congratulations to the people living in unau- thorised colonies. You will soon be owners of your hous- es. The Centre is willing to give its approval to the Delhi Government’s proposal sent by us in November 2015. The preparations to begin registry have started. I would like to thank the Central Government on behalf of the people of Delhi.” It may be noted that Delhi Cabinet had cleared the pro- posal to regularise colonies on November 2, 2015 and sent it to the Centre on tend days after. According to Delhi Government official, the Centre has now sent a com- munication to the Delhi Government stating its in- principle approval for regular- isation of unathorised colonies. Detail report on P3 P Rajagopal, (73), owner of Saravana Bhavan Group of restaurants, breathed his last on Thursday morning at a Chennai hospital where he was undergoing treatment for a series of ailments. The restau- rateur, an accused in the mur- der case of a woman whom he wanted to possess as his third wife, was serving life-term in Chennai’s Puzhal Prison since early this month following the Supreme Court’s refusal to quash the Madras High Court order sentencing him and oth- ers to life for the murder com- mitted by them in 2001. A Chennai court had wit- nessed many dramatic scenes as the apex court refused Rajagopal’s plea to extend his bail to avail medical care in a private hospital in the city. He was brought to the court in an ambulance and was fitted with oxygen masks and a series of tubes to his nostrils and all over the body. The judge refused to entertain Rajagopal’s plea and sent him to jail with a directive to the authorities that medical aid be made available to him in the event of any emergency. Later the Madras High Court, hearing a petition moved by the son of Rajagopal, asked the prison authorities to admit him to Government Stanley Medical College from where he was taken to a cor- porate hospital as his condition worsened. The charge against Rajagopal and others was that they murdered Prince Santhakumar, one of the employees of the Saravana Bhavan eateries, because the latter refused to leave his wife Jeeva Jyothi whom Rajagopal wanted to take as his third wife. It was reported that Rajagopal had been advised by his astrologers to marry Jyothi as she would bring him pros- perity and eternal bliss. Jyothi was against the marriage as the hotelier was old enough to be her “grandfather”. Her father who himself was an employee of Rajagopal married her off to save her from the prowling eyes of his employer. Continued on Page 4 I mages of a fully grown tiger “relaxing” on a bed inside a house-cum-shop in flooded Kaziranga National Park on Thursday created a buzz on social media, bringing under spotlight the plight of animals in Assam battling a deluge. The pictures of the Royal Bengal Tiger on the bed at a shop at Harmoti near Bagori range of the World Heritage Site along NH 37 on Thursday were widely shared on social media after the Wildlife Trust of India posted it on Twitter. “The tiger has entered a house and is relaxing on a bed. #AssamFloods bring in unusu- al guests!” “#JustIn our vet @samshulwildvet is making plans with #AssamForestDepartment @kaziranga_ to tranquilise the #tiger”, the WTI said. “Our vet @samshulwildvet is on a mission to tranquilise this #tiger to get him out of bed!” the organisation, which is cooperating with the State’s forest department in the mas- sive efforts to save wildlife during the flood, tweeted. Locals said the tiger entered the shop of Rafikul Islam around 7 am and was noticed relaxing on his bed. Over 95 per cent of the Park is submerged, rendering animals shelterless and forcing them to look for refuge in human habitations. KNP Bagori Range Officer Pankaj Bora, however, said the tiger was not being disturbed and only its movement was being monitored. Forest offi- cials are waiting for the animal to leave on its own. As the animal refused to leave the safe haven for sever- al hours, foresters burst fire- crackers, forcing it out into the jungle. Several famed one-horned rhinoceros and other animals have reportedly died in the floods that have engulfed vast swathes in Assam’s 29 out of 33 districts.

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Karnataka Chief MinisterHD Kumaraswamy staved

off what seemed an imminentdefeat on the trust motion onThursday in the State Assemblyafter Speaker KR Rameshadjourned the House till Friday,defying Governor VajubhaiVala’s call to complete theprocess by the end of the day.

The Governor has writtena letter to Chief Minister HDKumaraswamy, asking him toprove majority on the floor ofthe House by 1.30 pm onFriday.

Rocked by a spate of resig-nations of its MLAs, theCongress-JD(S) allianceGovernment lacked the num-ber in the House for the pas-sage of the motion and fieldedone after another lawmaker todeliver lengthy speeches anddelay the inevitable.

Emboldened by theSupreme Court’s ruling that theMLAs cannot be forced toattend the House proceedings,as many as 20 lawmakersskipped the trust vote debate,making it amply clear that theKumaraswamy Governmentwas not going to survive themotion. But the ruling dispen-sation decided to buy time toexplore any last minute possi-bility to win back the rebelMLAs. As part of this strategy,it went for a marathon debate,which will continue on Friday.

BJP leader BS Yeddyurappadeclared his party memberswould stay put in the Houseitself overnight and even till the

time the trust vote was decid-ed.

“We will stay until thetrust vote is decided,”Yeddyurappa said after the BJP,exasperated over the delay intaking up the voting, and alsorushed a delegation to theGovernor to ask Speaker KRRamesh Kumar to conclude thetrust vote process by the end ofthe day itself.

Acting swiftly, Vala askedthe Speaker to complete theprocess of Vote of Confidencemoved by the end of the day.

The drama unfolded rightfrom the word go as the ChiefMinister moved a one-linemotion, saying the Houseexpressed confidence in the 14-month-old Ministry headedby him.

The House that barelyfocussed on the debate on themotion saw three adjourn-

ments, acrimony and repeateddisruptions by belligerent slo-gan shouting Congress mem-bers before the proceedingswere wound up for the day.

As many as 16 MLAs — 13from the Congress and threefrom the JD(S) — had resigned,while Independent MLAs RShankar and H Nagesh havewithdrawn their support tothe coalition Government,putting the Kumaraswamy-ledGovernment in jitters.

One Congress memberRamalinga Reddy retracted,saying he would support theGovernment. The ruling com-bine’s strength is 117 —

Congress 78, JD(S) 37, BSP 1,and nominated 1, besides theSpeaker.

With the support of thetwo Independents, theOpposition BJP has 107 MLAsin the 225-member House,including the nominated MLAand the Speaker.

If the resignations of 15MLAs (12 from Congress and3 from JDS) are accepted, theruling coalition’s tally willplummet to 101, (excluding theSpeaker) reducing the 14month-old KumaraswamyGovernment to a minority.

BJP leaders said they weremulling moving the Supreme

Court in the light of Thursday’sdevelopments.

The Congress-JD(S)alliance may have broughttime, but there was a slimchance of the survival of theGovernment. Even as theCongress leaders were trying towin back the rebel MLAs,another party MLA ShreemantPatil skipped the House pro-ceedings amid report that hehas been admitted in a Mumbaihospital.

At one point, Congressmembers carrying pictures ofPatil rushed towards the Wellof the House shouting slogans“down down BJP” and “down

down operation kamal (lotus)”to bring down theGovernment.

BSP MLA Mahesh, onwhose support the coalitionwas counting, too did not showup, amid reports he was keep-ing away as he has not receivedany directions from the partyleader Mayawati on the standto be taken on the trust vote.

Seeking the trust vote,Kumaraswamy said the rebelMLAs had cast doubts aboutthe coalition Governmentacross the country and “wehave to tell the truth.”

“The entire nation iswatching the developmentsunfolding in Karnataka,” hesaid.

As soon as the motion wasmoved, Yeddyurappa said thetrust vote process should becompleted in a single day.

“The Leader of Oppositionseems to be in a hurry,”Kumaraswamy tauntedYeddyurappa. As the ChiefMinister sought the trust vote,Congress Legislature Partyleader Siddaramaiah pressedfor deferring the confidencemotion till the AssemblySpeaker decided on the issue ofwhip in the wake of theSupreme Court verdict on thepolitical crisis in the State.

Siddaramaiah said the 15rebel MLAs were influenced bythe apex court order that theycan abstain from attending theAssembly proceedings andasked the Speaker to give a rul-ing on the fate of whip issuedby him as CLP leader.

Continued on Page 4

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Income-Tax Department hasattached a “benami” com-

mercial plot measuring sevenacres and worth �400 crorebelonging to BSP chiefMayawati’s brother AnandKumar and his wife in NoidaSector 94.

The IT Department hasapplied Section 24(3) of theProhibition of Benami PropertyTransactions Act, 1988, underwhich the department canattach an asset if it estimates theasset to be benami.

The attached plot bearingnumber 2A in Sector 94 Noidais located in the vicinity of pro-posed five star hotel and othersuch luxury infrastructure.

Anand and his wife,Vichiter Lata, allegedly used sixcompanies for transactionsrelating to the acquisition of theattached plot, sources said.

The benami transactionswere effected through a host ofcompanies, including VisionTown Planners Private Limited,BPTP International TradeCenter Pvt Ltd, Euro Asia

Mercantile Pvt Ltd, Sunny Castand Forge Pvt Ltd, Karishmaindustries Pvt Ltd and Add-FinCapital Services India Pvt Ltd,sources said. The provisionalorder for the attachment of theplot “beneficially owned” byAnand and his wife was issuedon July 16.

Benami properties refer tothe instances wherein the realbeneficiary is not the one inwhose name the property isregistered.

During probe, theDepartment detected a “com-plex web of shareholding” by atleast six firms, includingdummy companies, who werethe “benamidars” or the enti-ties in whose name the “bena-mi” property was registered.

Continued on Page 4

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India’s ambitious second mis-sion to the Moon

Chandrayaan-2 will now lift offat 2.43 pm on July 22, spaceagency ISRO said on Thursday,three days after the launch wasaborted due to a technical snagin its GSLV-Mk-III rocket.

Chandrayaan-2, which willbe launched on board the mostpowerful GSLV-Mk-III rocketdubbed ‘Baahubali, is ready “totake a billion dreams to theMoon”, the Indian SpaceResearch Organisation said onTwitter.

On July 15, the launch wascalled off 56 minutes and 24seconds before the scheduledblast off at 1.55 am from thespaceport in Sriharikota fol-lowing a technical problem inthe rocket.

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After getting a verdict in itsfavour in the Kulbhushan

Jadhav case by the InternationalCourt of Justice (ICJ) onWednesday, India on Thursdayasked Pakistan to release himand reiterated its commitmentto vigorously continue effortsto bring him back. The ICJ hadordered review of death penal-ty to the former Indian Navyofficer and directed Pakistan toprovide him consular access.

Elaborating on theGovernment’s resolve to secureJadhav’s release, ExternalAffairs Minister S Jaishankarsaid, “Pakistan was found tohave deprived India of theright to communicate withJadhav, have access to him, visithim in detention and arrangehis legal representation.”

Making a statement first inthe Rajya Sabha and then in the

Lok Sabha on Thursday, theExternal Minister said“Kulbhushan Jadhav is inno-cent of the charges madeagainst him. His forced con-fession without legal represen-tation and due process will notchange this reality. We onceagain call upon Pakistan torelease and repatriate himforthwith,” he said.

The ICJ on Wednesdaydirected Pakistan to suspendthe death sentence given in2017 to Jadhav on charges ofespionage and sabotage.

“The Government will vig-

orously continue its efforts toensure his safety and wellbeing,as well as his early return toIndia,” Jaishankar said as mem-bers cutting across party lineswelcomed the ICJ judgmentby thumping benches.

Jaishankar noted thatJadhav was awarded a deathsentence by a Pakistani militarycourt on “fabricated charges”.This was done without pro-viding Indian representativesconsular access to him, asenvisaged by international lawand practice.

Continued on Page 4

����������� 345��4 0&

Good news for the peopleresiding in unathorised

colonies of the national Capitalas soon they will have owner-ship rights after the Centre hasgiven nod to a proposal of theDelhi Government to regu-larise 1,797 illegal colonies.

Delhi Chief MinisterArvind Kejriwal on Thursdaydirected the officers to preparelarge scale registry of homes.Kejriwal said, “Congratulationsto the people living in unau-thorised colonies. You willsoon be owners of your hous-es. The Centre is willing to giveits approval to the DelhiGovernment’s proposal sentby us in November 2015. Thepreparations to begin registryhave started. I would like to

thank the Central Governmenton behalf of the people ofDelhi.”

It may be noted that DelhiCabinet had cleared the pro-posal to regularise colonies onNovember 2, 2015 and sent itto the Centre on tend days after.According to DelhiGovernment official, theCentre has now sent a com-munication to the DelhiGovernment stating its in-principle approval for regular-isation of unathorised colonies.

Detail report on P3

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PRajagopal, (73), owner ofSaravana Bhavan Group of

restaurants, breathed his last onThursday morning at aChennai hospital where he wasundergoing treatment for aseries of ailments. The restau-rateur, an accused in the mur-der case of a woman whom hewanted to possess as his thirdwife, was serving life-term inChennai’s Puzhal Prison sinceearly this month following theSupreme Court’s refusal toquash the Madras High Courtorder sentencing him and oth-ers to life for the murder com-mitted by them in 2001.

A Chennai court had wit-nessed many dramatic scenesas the apex court refusedRajagopal’s plea to extend hisbail to avail medical care in aprivate hospital in the city. Hewas brought to the court in anambulance and was fitted with

oxygen masks and a series oftubes to his nostrils and all overthe body. The judge refused toentertain Rajagopal’s plea andsent him to jail with a directiveto the authorities that medicalaid be made available to him inthe event of any emergency.

Later the Madras HighCourt, hearing a petitionmoved by the son of Rajagopal,

asked the prison authorities toadmit him to GovernmentStanley Medical College fromwhere he was taken to a cor-porate hospital as his conditionworsened.

The charge againstRajagopal and others was thatthey murdered PrinceSanthakumar, one of theemployees of the SaravanaBhavan eateries, because thelatter refused to leave his wifeJeeva Jyothi whom Rajagopalwanted to take as his third wife.

It was reported thatRajagopal had been advised byhis astrologers to marry Jyothias she would bring him pros-perity and eternal bliss. Jyothiwas against the marriage as thehotelier was old enough to beher “grandfather”. Her fatherwho himself was an employeeof Rajagopal married her off tosave her from the prowling eyesof his employer.

Continued on Page 4

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Images of a fully grown tiger“relaxing” on a bed inside a

house-cum-shop in floodedKaziranga National Park onThursday created a buzz onsocial media, bringing underspotlight the plight of animalsin Assam battling a deluge.

The pictures of the RoyalBengal Tiger on the bed at ashop at Harmoti near Bagorirange of the World HeritageSite along NH 37 on Thursdaywere widely shared on socialmedia after the Wildlife Trustof India posted it on Twitter.

“The tiger has entered ahouse and is relaxing on a bed.#AssamFloods bring in unusu-al guests!” “#JustIn our vet@samshulwildvet is makingplans with#AssamForestDepartment@kaziranga_ to tranquilise the#tiger”, the WTI said.

“Our vet @samshulwildvetis on a mission to tranquilisethis #tiger to get him out ofbed!” the organisation, whichis cooperating with the State’sforest department in the mas-sive efforts to save wildlifeduring the flood, tweeted.

Locals said the tigerentered the shop of RafikulIslam around 7 am and wasnoticed relaxing on his bed.

Over 95 per cent of the

Park is submerged, renderinganimals shelterless and forcingthem to look for refuge inhuman habitations.

KNP Bagori Range OfficerPankaj Bora, however, said thetiger was not being disturbedand only its movement wasbeing monitored. Forest offi-cials are waiting for the animalto leave on its own.

As the animal refused toleave the safe haven for sever-al hours, foresters burst fire-crackers, forcing it out into thejungle.

Several famed one-hornedrhinoceros and other animalshave reportedly died in thefloods that have engulfed vastswathes in Assam’s 29 out of 33districts.

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A33-year-old man supplying ille-gal arms and ammunitions to

gangsters in Delhi and its peripher-als was nabbed by the Delhi Policewhile he was trying to flee thecountry to establish contacts witharms suppliers across the border.

The accused has been identifiedas Arun Mann a resident of villageKhera Khurd in Delhi. Police saidthat for last six years Mann was sup-plying arms and ammunitions to sev-eral gangs including Jitender aliasGogi gang.

According to Sanjeev KumarYadav, the Deputy Commissioner ofPolice (DCP), Special Cell, specificinputs were received that Mann istrying to flee India to contact someinternational arms dealers for thesupply of automated arms to variousgangsters in Delhi and NCR.

“Acting on the tip-off, a trap waslaid and the accused was appre-hended from Indira Gandhi

International (IGI) airport,” said theDCP.

“During interrogation, theaccused revealed that he has madebases in Delhi and adjoining areas forthe convenience of supplying illegalarms to various gangsters in Delhiand NCR area. He came to know thatpolice is looking for him followingwhich he decided to flee to Nepal forestablishing new connections withthe international arms suppliers,” saidthe DCP.

“Interrogation also revealed that

the weapons supplied by accusedMann were used in several recentcriminal incidents in NationalCapital,” said the DCP.

“On instance of the accused,police has also recovered two sophis-ticated Pistols with 10 live car-tridges, three semi-automatic Pistolsalong with 11 live cartridges and onecountry-made Pistol with 02 live car-tridges which he had hidden in dif-ferent locations across city,” said theDCP adding that further investiga-tion is going on.

���**��������� 345��4 0&

Two men allegedly commit-ted suicide in two separate

incidents in northeast Delhi’sHarsh Vihar area. Both theincidents were reported onWednesday.

In the first incident, a 26-year-old labourer, identifiedas Sanjeev Kumar, committedsuicide under mysterious cir-cumstances at Harsh Vihar’sgali number 17. According toAtul Kumar Thakur, theDeputy Commissioner ofPolice (DCP), North-East dis-trict, after receiving the infor-mation, police reached the spotand found the victim lying inhis room.

“Meghawati (60), themother of Sanjeev, said that herson had consumed liquor onTuesday night and when she saw in morning, he was

lying unconsciously anddid not respond,” the DCPsaid.

“The victim wasrushed to GTB hospitalwhere he was declaredbrought dead. Meghawatisuspected that Sanjeevmight have consumed

petrol along with the liquor,”said the DCP.

“The victim was marriedfor around six years and had afight with his wife onWednesday, following which hetook the extreme step. We arewaiting for the post-mortemreport to know the exact causeof death,” said the DCP.

In an another incident, a20-year-old man committedsuicide after hanging from aceiling fan at his house in northeast Delhi’s HarshVihar area. The deceased iden-tified as Suraj Chand was alsoa labourer.

“On Wednesday afternoon,police reached Harsh ViharGali number 9 after receivingthe information and foundSuraj hanging in his roomfrom the ceiling fan,” said asenior police official.

“Ramesh Chand (50), thefather of Suraj, said that his sonhanged himself on Wednesdayafternoon. Preliminary inves-tigation revealed that due tosome family issues, Suraj hadcommitted suicide,” said thesenior police official addingthat further investigation isgoing on.

�������� �0��&����

In a joint operation byGhaziabad police and

Special Task Force (STF) ofNoida, a wanted criminalcarrying a reward of �1lakh over his head wasgunned down in anencounter. The criminalwas cornered by the policeteams on the interveningnight of Wednesday andThursday in Ghaziabad’sBhopura area.

According to a seniorpolice official, the incidentoccurred at 1:00 amThursday in Bhopura areaunder Sahibabad police sta-tion of the city. The crim-inal has been identified asMaharban, a resident ofMohalla Rukan Sarai,Manihar nearBulandshahar. Duringscreening of his crimerecord, 29 criminal cases ofheinous nature were foundregistered against him indifferent police stations ofBulandshahar, GautamBudh Nagar and Ghaziabaddistricts.

“The police said thatthey had received an infor-mation from STF Noidathat a wanted criminal car-rying a reward of Rs onelakh, is loitering inSahibabad area. Acting onthe tip-off, the police inten-sified patrolling in the area.At about 1:00 am, thepatrolling team noticed aSantro car coming fromDelhi side to Ghaziabadside,” said a senior policeofficial.

“When the police teamsignaled the man to stop,

the occupants of the caropened fire at the police teamand sped away. They could notgo far as due to constructionactivity alongside road, theircar was stuck and they couldnot run away. They took theposition and continued firingat the police team,” said thepolice official.

“In retaliation, the policeteam also opened fire and inthe exchange of fire, two policemen and a criminal sustainedbullet injuries. In the mean-time two criminals succeededin escaping by taking advan-tage of darkness but oneinjured was nabbed,” said thepolice official.

“The injured criminal andtwo policemen were rushed toa nearby Narendra MohanHospital where the criminalsuccumbed to his injuries.The policemen HeadConstable Anil Kumar andconstable Hariom from STFNoida team are said to be outof danger,” he said.

The police recovered aSantro car, a country made 12bore gun, seven used car-tridges and 12 live cartridges,two country-made pistols of.315 bore, four used cartridgesand seven live cartridges, threecountry-made revolver of .32bore with 10 live cartridgesfrom the possession of theaccused.

“The ADG (Meerut)Prashant Kumar hadannounced a reward of1,00000 over his head. Hewas found involved in a sen-sation robbery under Jarchapolice station of Greater Noidain May of this year. He hadrobed Rs 65 lakh in this rob-bery”, the official added.

���**���������345��4 0&

Seventeen animals,including 13 buffaloes

and two calves, were killedand five were injured aftera tin shed collapsed due toheavy rain in Delhi’sNajafgarh area on earlyhours of Thursday.

According to AtulGarg, Chief Fire Official,Delhi Fire Services (DFS),the incident happenedaround 2 am in PremNagar area.

“A temporary tin shed,covering around 1,350 sqfeet, was put up for the ani-mals and the terrace of itwas loaded with fodderand grass,” said Garg.

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With an aim to address thestigma associated with

Hepatitis, the city based Instituteof Liver and Biliary Sciences(ILBS) will be organising amajor awareness campaign inthe national Capital on the eveof World Hepatitis Day.

Doctors at the premierehospital dedicated for liver carebelieve the Government has“ignored taking a strong call”over the subject despite repeat-ed demands from InternationalLiver treatment associations ofEurope, Latin America, Asia andalso the WHO. They also urgedthe Centre to enact a law to pre-vent discrimination, social stig-ma faced by patients in India.

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It’s a win -win situation for thepeople residing in unautho-

rised colonies after the Centreappeared to have agreed to aproposal of the Aam AadmiParty (AAP) Government toregularise colonies. “The resi-dents will soon have the own-ership rights of their proper-ties”, said Delhi Chief MinisterArvind Kejriwal on Thursday,adding that UnionGovernment has agreed to theproposal sent by DelhiGovernment in this regard andurged people to prepare forlarge scale registry of homes.

Announcing about theownership rights, Kejriwal saidthe Delhi Government hasreceived a reply to the propos-al it had sent to the Centre inNovember 2015.

“Congratulations to thepeople living in unauthorisedcolonies. You will soon be

owners of your houses. TheCentre is willing to give itsapproval to the DelhiGovernment’s proposal sentin November 2015. The prepa-rations to begin registry havestarted. I would like to thankthe Central Government onbehalf of the people of Delhi,”Kejriwal said.

Welcoming the CentralGovernment’s final nod to reg-ularise unauthorised colonies,Kejriwal said that UnionGovernment has given us verypositive feedback on our pro-posal.

“The Centre has also sentsome technical questions onthe proposal. I have directedsenior officials to immediate-ly prepare responses to the sat-isfaction of the CentralGovernment within the next 2-3 days,” Kejriwal added.

It may be noted that Delhihas 1,797 unathorised coloniesand Delhi Cabinet has cleared

the proposal to regularise thesecolonies on November 2 andsent it to the Centre onNovember 12, 2015. “A long-standing dream of the peopleliving in unauthorised coloniesis going to be fulfilled soon.

Until now, all Central and StateGovernments had betrayed thepeople living in unauthorised colonies,” AamAadmi Party (AAP) nationalconvener said.

The unathorised colonieswas remained hot issue duringelections in the nationalCapital. Kejriwal said thatbefore every election, previousGovernments would promiseregularisation but would notfulfill their promises. But westarted working on thispromise right from day one.”

“I have directed theRevenue department to beginthe preparations for the facili-tation of large scale registriesfor all homes in unauthorisedcolonies across the city.

We will set up camps toensure smooth processing of allregistries and whatever elsethat may be needed to be done.

No person should face anytrouble to complete their reg-istry.

The Urban Development MinisterSatyendar Jain said the cut-offdate for the regularisation ofunauthorised colonies in Delhiwill be January 2015 as mutu-ally agreed upon by the Centraland Delhi Governments. Thismeans that those colonieswhich have applied for regu-larisation before January 2015will be eligible for regularisa-tion.

Delhi Government hasspent ��3500 crore on the con-struction of road and galis.�2,500 crore has also beenspent and is in the process ofbeing spent on laying water andsewer pipeline in thesecolonies. In total, an unprece-dented �6,000 crore have beeninvested into developmentworks for unauthorisedcolonies.

���**��������� 345��4 0&

Atug of war has begunbetween the Centre and

Delhi Government over themembers nominated by theAam Aadmi Party (AAP)Government for the DelhiMetro Rail Corporation(DMRC) board of Directors.Delhi Transport MinisterKailsh Gahlot on Thursdayreplied to the Centre and saidthat Housing and Urban Affairs(HUA) Ministry and DMRChave been caught in their ownweb.

“Delhi and CentralGovernment are 50:50 partnersin DMRC. Therefore, one part-ner has no right to suggest/dic-tate the other partner whoshould be nominated as itsboard members. DelhiGovernment has made nomi-nations taking in account theirbackground and after beingconvinced that they shall beable to protect the interests ofthe people of Delhi as well asthe interests of DelhiGovernment,” said Gahlot in aletter written to the UnionUrban Development MinisterHardeep Singh Puri.

The Delhi Governmenthas nominated AAP leaderAtishi, Raghav Chhaddha,AAP MP Naveen Gupta’s sonND Gupta and Delhi DialogueDevelopment Corproation(DDC) Vice ChairpersonJasmine Shah as representativefrom the State Government forDMRC Board.

While opposing and callingit as against the rules and reg-ulations, the Centre onWednesday asked DelhiGovernment to withdraw thenominees from the AAP asdirectors of DMRC board.Further citing the guidelines ofDepartment of PublicEnterprises (DPE) urged theGovernment to nominatebureaucrats of DelhiGovernment.

However, TransportMinister Gahlot wrote a letterto the HUA ministry saying

“Central Government’s letterrelies upon the guidelinesissued by the Department ofPublic Enterprises i.e issuedvide OM No. 18(6)/91-GMdated 16th March, 1992. Aperusal of these guidelinesshows that these guidelines, infact, say quite the opposite ofwhat Central Governmentwants us to do. While as per theguidelines of the DPE videDPE OM. No. 2(19)/99-GMdated 25.01.2000 instructed allGovernment Departments tobring down the number ofGovernment Directors onBoard of Directors of PSUs totwo,” he said.

The DMRC board of direc-tors comprise of 17 members,out of which, presently thereare six directors who areGovernment officers (5 CentralGovernment nominees andthe MD who is a DelhiGovernment Nominee).

“This is much more thanwhat has been prescribed byCentral Government guidelines. Therefore, nomi-nation of four Non-Government officials by DelhiGovernment is in accordancewith the Central Governmentguidelines,” said Gahlot in his

reply to the HUA. These guidelines clearly

state at para 2(B) (iii) that num-ber of Government directorsshall in no case exceed two. Infact, these guidelines stronglyrecommend that non-Government officials should benominated as Board Members.The induction of Non-OfficialDirectors on the Boards ofPSEs has been consideredessential by variousCommittees and commissionsin order to make the Boardsmore professional, he said.

“Centre has nominated pri-vate individuals on the Boardsof various PSEs such as ShaziaIlmi and Sambit Patra, bothpolitical persons. They aredirectors on the Board ofEngineers India Limited (EIL)and ONGC respectively. Whatdomain expertise do theseindividuals have?, Former CMMadan Lal Khurana wasappointed as a Director andChairman of DMRC by theprevious NDA Government.What domain expertise did hehad? In sharp contrast, two ofour nominees are CharteredAccountants & one of them isan Engineer from IIT(M),”said Gahlot in his letter.

“During the Metro farehike issue, it was observed thatthe officers of DelhiGovernment are much juniorto the HUA Secretary, who isCentral Government nomineeand chairs the DMRC Board.Therefore, Delhi Governmentofficers are unable to speakfreely and fearlessly beforehim”, Gahlot wrote.

���� 345��4 0&

Two men were arrested forallegedly robbing a busi-

nessman of over �3 lakh in eastDelhi's Pandav Nagar area,police said Thursday. Vineet(30) and Sandeep Katia (31), res-idents of Trilokpuri area, wereheld on Wednesday, they said.

The accused had robbed thegeneral store owner of Rs 3.5lakh on July 2 when he wasgoing on a motorcycle to depositthe money in a bank, they said.

While the complainant is aresident of Ghaziabad, his storeis in Mayur Vihar phase-I.

"When he reached nearSupreme Apartment, two mencame on a bike and tried tosnatch his bag. When they didnot succeed, the pillion rider hitthe complainant on the fore-head. The complainant fell downand the accused snatched his bagand fled," a senior police officersaid.

���**��������� 345��4 0&

The Rouse Avenue Court onThursday fixed August 20

and 22 as the dates for hearingthe arguments on framing ofcharges against Shashi Tharoorin the Sunanda Pushkar case.Congress leader Tharoor isaccused of abetting Pushkar’ssuicide and is currently onbail in the case.

Special judge ArunBhardwaj on Wednesdayallowed the application of theprosecution (Delhi Police) toshare the content of thechargesheet and case relateddocuments with the expertswhom it will consult for thearguments on charges.

Though, the court hasbarred the chargesheet to beshared with anyone other thanexperts. Special Public

Prosecutor (SPP) AtulShrivastava is the counsel forthe Delhi Police while senioradvocate Vikas Pahwa andGaurav Gupta are appearing forTharoor.

Pushkar was found dead inher suite at a five-star hotel sit-uated in New Delhi in January2014. Tharoor has beencharged under Sections 306(abetment to suicide) and 498A(husband or his relative sub-jecting a woman to cruelty) ofthe Indian Penal Code (IPC).He has dismissed the charges as“preposterous”.

���**��������� 345��4 0&

The AAP Government hasallotted a piece of land in

south Delhi’s Fatehpur Beriarea to the Delhi University foropening of a girls’ degree col-lege.

Lieutenant Governor AnilBaijal has approved the allot-ment of Gaon Sabha land mea-suring 40 bigha in FatehpurBeri to the university, accord-ing to a letter sent by KSMeena, Director(Panchayat),Delhi to DU’s Vice-ChancellorYogesh Tyagi.

The college will have res-idential facility for staff and fac-ulty, hostel facility for the stu-dents along with sports com-plex, it stated.

According to the termsand conditions, the allotmenthas been made on free of costbasis on lease for 99 years andthe university will have toobtain the prior sanction from

the DDA/MCD before puttingstructures even of temporarynature on the land.

“ It will be the responsibil-ity of the university to protectthe land from any type ofencroachment and will have tosubmit the site plan to theDelhi Government and main-tain open space around theboundary wall by plantingtrees”, an official said.

���**��������� 345��4 0&

The Delhi Police has filed achargesheet against

Apoorva Shukla, who wasarrested for killing her husbandRohit Shekhar Tiwari, the sonof late veteran politician NDTiwari, in Delhi’s Saket Courton Thursday.

According to a seniorpolice official, a detailed 518-page charge sheet has been filedat the Saket Court and there arearound 56 witnesses, includingRohit’s mother Ujjwala Tiwari,in it.

Rohit was killed on theintervening night of April 15and 16 this year. Among thetriggers that led to the killingwere a turbulent and unhappymarried life and Rohit’s plan togive his share of the propertyto his sister-in-law’s son.

The autopsy was done by aboard of five doctors on April17 and the report revealed thatRohit died due to asphyxiationas he was smothered and stran-gulated. Following the autopsyreport, a murder case was reg-istered and transferred to theCrime Branch, which arrested

Apoorva on April 24.According to charge sheet,

a 35-year-old lawyer, Apoorvahas been charged under section302 (murder) of Indian PenalCode (IPC) and the offence ispunishable with death or lifeimprisonment.

“Apoorva suspected thather husband had a son with hissister-in-law and was afraid thatthe property might go to him.She had allegedly smotheredand strangulated RohitShekhar, following an argu-ment with him for drinkingalcohol with his sister-in-law,

whom she did not like,” chargesheet stated.

“Apoorva had politicalambitions, but after she gotmarried to Rohit she realisedthat he did not have any polit-ical standing and found herdreams would not be fulfilled,”the charge sheet mentioned.

Apoorva met Rohitthrough a matrimonial websitein 2017 and got married in Maylast year. Police said that shewas aware he was the son offormer Uttar Pradesh andUttarakhand chief minister ND Tiwari.

Within 14-15 days of themarriage, she started stayingaway from the house,” thecharge sheet stated.

“In July last year, when hewas admitted to a hospital, shehad served him a legal notice,but they had later reconciled.On April 15, Rohit, his sister-in-law, N D Tiwari’s close aide,and two of their other employ-ees were returning fromHaldwani, Uttarakhand aftercasting their votes, andApoorva had made a video callto Rohit Shekhar to ask himwhat he wanted to have for din-

ner,” according to the chargesheet.

“During the course of thevideo call, she might have seenthe woman relative in the carhaving liquor with Rohit, butshe did not say anything. AfterRohit returned home around10 pm, he had dinner alone andwent to his room, and inbetween came out to meet hismother,” the charge sheet stat-ed.

“Around 12.45 am, Shuklawent to Rohit’s room afterwatching TV. While they werein the room, she had an argu-ment with him for drinkingalcohol from the same glass ashis sister-in-law, followingwhich she allegedly killed him,”the charge sheet states.

However, the forensicreports are awaited but theforensic experts had said therewas no outside entry to theroom where Rohit was founddead. “The CCTV footagefrom his house, which showedthat Apoorva was one of thelast persons to access Rohit’sroom, also has been cited asevidence,” said a police officialtasked with the investigation.

���**��������� 345��4 0&

Delhi Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal has written to the

Centre to increase budget allo-cation fund for the nationalCapital Territory of Delhi. In aletter addressed to HomeMinister Amit Shah andFinance Minister NirmalaSitharaman, Kejriwal urged toescalate budget amount forDelhi on the ground of net dis-tributable proceeds, percentageof the divisible pool of the netproceeds of income tax to beassigned to the States and shareof each State in the divisiblepool.

This is not the first timewhen Kejriwal Governmenthas petitioned the Centre toincrease budget allocation toDelhi, Deputy Chief MinisterMansih Sisodia along withKejriwal met Sitharaman forthe same before announce-ment of Union Budget for2019-20.

In his letter to both theMinisters, Kejriwal said that Iwould like to bring to yourattention that the Governmentof NCT of Delhi has a separate

Consolidated Fund w.e.f.December 1993.

“The pattern of funding ofDelhi’s Budget has beenchanged from the year 1994-95and is at par with other States.The financial transactions ofGovernment of NCT of Delhi including servicing ofsmall saving loans are beingmet out of our own resourceslike other States,” the letterquoted.

Importantly, citing the arti-cle 270 (3) of the constitution,Kejriwal mentioned that theshare of the net proceeds ofincome tax “attributable to theUnion Territories” had to beprescribed.

Accordingly, all the Union Finance Commissionstill the Tenth FinanceCommission had been givingrecommendations for resourcesharing not only between theStates and the Union but alsofor the Union Territoriesincluding Delhi.

“However, in the year 2000,the Constitution (EightiethAmendment) Act, 2000 waspassed by the Parliament, pri-marily for the purpose of

including corporation tax withthe personal income tax for the purpose of resource sharing between the States and Union of India,” the letterstated.

Kejriwal in his letter further said that the unfortunate omission of article270(3) resulted in an anomalywhich has adversely affectedthe finances of the NCT ofDelhi.

“The transfer of grants inlieu of share in Central Taxeshas remained stagnant at

�325.00 crore per annum sincethe year 2000 which happenedto be the last year of the dura-tion of the Tenth FinanceCommission. Leaving outUnion Territories out of theambit of Finance Commissions,has only affected the UnionTerritories with Legislaturesince the Budget of the otherUnion Territories is entirelymet from the ConsolidatedFund of India,” he mentionedin the letter.

Attributing the recom-mendations of 10th Finance

Commission, Chief MinisterKejriwal wrote, “Out of the netdistributable proceeds ofincome tax, a sum equal to0.927 per cent shall be deemedto represent the proceedsattributable to UnionTerritories.”

“As regards, the additional duties of Excise, theshare of the Union Territoriesshould be treated as one unit,and their share determined onthe same basis as that of all theStates,” the Chief Ministerwrote in the letter.

��)���������345��4 0

The DelhiGovernment’s flag-

ship scheme to providefree ride for female pas-sengers in Delhi trans-port Corporation (DTC)buses is expected to getCabinet’s clearance asthe Government has readiedmechanism for its implementa-tion. The DTC has planned toissue special free ride passes onmonthly basis for women.

Delhi Chief MinisterArvind Kejriwal hadannounced ‘free ride schemefor women and girls in metroand buses’ in the last monthitself. However, the free ridescheme for Delhi metro has hitthe road block as Delhi MetroRail Corporation (DMRC) hasreportedly conveyed it to the

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) gov-ernment that the scheme willhave to be first placed beforethe Fare Fixation Committee ofDelhi Metro as per the MetroAct before its implementation.

“The DTC has submittedits plan for the free ride schemeproposal for buses to the trans-port minister and it is expect-ed to be get nod from the cab-inet in the next cabinet meet-ing,” said a government official.

The official further addedthat the DTC has decided to

issue special free ridepasses for the womenpassengers on the for-mat of the other DTCmonthly passes such asstudent passes. “Onceapproved, the schemewill be implementedwithin 15-20 days andthe passes will be issuedin the designated bus

depots where monthly passesare issued.”

With the free ride passes,the women passengers cantravel anywhere in the city butthe pass is a must to travel inthe buses. Those not carryingpasses will have to buy tickets,said an official.

A total of 5500 buses both DTC and Cluster ply inthe city and carry around 33lakh passengers every day, outof which 25-30 percent arewomen and girls.

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Embattled liquor tycoonVijay Mallya’s appeal in the

UK High Court against hisextradition order has been list-ed for a three-day hearing from February 11 nextyear, the UK court said onThursday.

The 63-year-old formerKingfisher Airlines boss hadwon a reprieve earlier thismonth when a two-judge panelat the Royal Courts of Justicein London granted him per-mission to appeal against theextradition order of a lowercourt to face fraud and moneylaundering charges amount-ing to an alleged Rs 9,000crore in India.

“The appeal hearing hasbeen listed on 11 February2020 with a time estimate ofthree days,” a UK High Courtofficial said. At a hearing onJuly 2, Justices George Leggattand Andrew Popplewell con-cluded that “arguments can bereasonably made” on someaspects of the prima facie casepresented by the Crown

Prosecution Service (CPS), on behalf of the IndianGovernment.

The ruling on the basis ofthat material by ChiefMagistrate Emma Arbuthnotin her extradition order ofDecember 2018, which wassigned off by UK home secre-tary Sajid Javid earlier thisyear, is therefore now set for afull appeal hearing in the high-er court.

“By far the most substan-tial ground is that the seniorDistrict Judge was wrong toconclude that the governmenthad established a prima faciecase,” noted Judge Leggatt.

Mallya’s counsel, ClareMontgomery, had successfullycontested the basis on whichJudge Arbuthnot had arrived atcertain conclusions.

She claimed the judge hadbeen “plain wrong” in accept-ing some of the Indian author-ities’ assertions that Mallyahad fraudulent intentions whenhe sought some of the loans forhis now-defunct KingfisherAirlines, that he made misrep-resentations to the banks to

seek the loans and had nointentions to pay them back.

Montgomery also ques-tioned the admissibility ofsome of the evidence pro-duced during the extradition trial at Westminster Magistrates’Court in London.

The High Court judgesaccepted the broad argumentsand directed her to submit adraft for the appeal to proceedto a full hearing, a time-framefor which has now been set forFebruary next year.

Mallya had said he felt“vindicated” by the ruling andrepeated his offer to pay back the money owed tothe Indian banks.

“I still want the banks totake all their money, do whatthey have to do and leave mein peace,” he said.

He has repeated this offerof settlement in subsequentTwitter interventions, mostrecently telling social mediacritics to “ask your Banks whythey are not taking 100 per centof the money I have beenoffering”.

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The Government has issuednotices to popular Chinese

social media apps TikTok andHelo along with a set of 24questions regarding the allegedmisuse of their platforms for“anti-national activities” inIndia, official sources said.

The Centre has warnedthese apps that they mightface a ban if they do not sub-mit appropriate responses byJuly 22, the sources added.

The action from theMinistry of Electronics andIT (Meity) follows a complaintby the RSS-affiliated SwadeshiJagran Manch, which had writ-ten to the Prime Minister alleg-ing that these platforms arebeing used for anti-nationaland illegal activities.

When contacted, TikTok

and Helo in a joint statementsaid India is one of theirstrongest markets and theywill fully collaborate with theGovernment to meet theirobligations.

Meity has sought replyfrom TikTok and Helo on alle-gation that these platformshave become “a hub of anti-national activities”, and hassought assurance that the dataof Indian users are not beingtransferred and will not betransferred in future “to anyother foreign Government orany third party or private enti-

ty”, according to sources.Meity has also sought

response on the initiativesbeing taken to check fake newsand steps being taken to becompliant under Indian laws.The IT ministry has askedHelo to reply on allegations thatit paid a huge sum for putting11,000 morphed political adson other social media sites.

Flagging concerns aroundthe violation of child privacynorms, the ministry has soughtexplanation on why the mini-mum entry age has been fixedat 13 years since a personbelow 18 is considered a childin India.

Meity also asked TikTokand Helo about excessive datacollected by them, number andkind of information sought bylaw enforcement agencies,employees and offices they havein India, details of charges andoutcome of investigation by theUK Information Commissionagainst TikTok, and if minorsare prevented from watchingcontent with “risk warning tag”,the sources said.

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The Government onThursday admitted in the

Rajya Sabha that there hasbeen a data leak of unemploy-ment figures and said effortswere being made to ascertainwho was behind it.

Replying to queries duringQuestion Hour, Minister ofState for Planning and StatisticsRao Inderjit Singh termed theissue as “serious” and said datapertaining to unemploymentfigures was leaked ahead of itsannouncement in May this year.

He also informed membersthat the Government haschanged the methodology forascertaining unemploymentrates as a periodic survey isnow being held every yearbased on quarterly data, againstthe five-year surveys earlier.

“It is right that there was adata leak. Our survey result wasto come out on May 30, 2019, butbefore that the data was leaked.We have taken this very seriously.Maybe someone has an agendabehind it and the data was

leaked. We are making efforts toascertain who was behind theleak,” the Minister told members.

He said employment andunemployment rate surveysused to be held once in fiveyears. “This Governmentdeemed it fit to carry out a peri-odic survey every year,” hesaid. Singh said some changeswere also made in the method-ology and technology was usedand that is why there is a dif-ference in previous surveysdone by NSSO.

He said the 2.2 unemploy-ment rate would have beensame as brought out by theNSSO earlier if it was made outfor five years, but this hasincreased both in rural and

urban areas as the methodolo-gy has changed.

“The new model for labouremployment and unemploy-ment is different from earlymethods and you cannot com-pare apples with oranges.

“The new method now is ayearly method taking intoaccount quarterly surveys. Theonly comparability that canhappen is when the next yeardata comes. At present, it wascompared to 6.1 per cent and theyearly data cannot be comparedwith the 5-year figure,” he said.

The Minister said theGovernment takes unemploy-ment very “very seriously” andto alleviate the unemploymentscenario, the Government has

taken a number of steps.Listing out some examples,

he said the Prime Minister’semployment generation pro-gramme itself has catered toemployment of 14.3 lakh tillNovember 30, 2018, the DeenDayal Gramin Kaushal Yojnahas helped 4.73 lakh people getjobs, MNREGA over past 3.5 to4 has helped 972.99 personemployment days.

“Taking into account theseriousness of the matter, theGovernment has set up a cabi-net committee on employmentand skill development to ensurethat more people get jobs,” hesaid. In his written reply, theminister said, this Ministry haslaunched a new regularEmployment-Unemploymentsurvey, namely, Periodic LabourForce Survey (PLFS) during2017-18 with certain changes insurvey methodology, data col-lection mechanism and sam-pling design vis-a-vis the earli-er quinquennial (once in everyfive years) Employment and Unemployment surveys ofNSSO.

New Delhi: A day afterMumbai attacks mastermindHafiz Saeed was arrested byPakistan, India Thursday saidsimilar “drama” has taken placeat least eight times since 2001,and the genuineness of theaction will depend on whetherhe is tried for his terroristactivities.

External Affairs MinistrySpokesperson Raveesh Kumarsaid India hoped that Saeed willgenuinely be brought to justicethis time. “This is not the firsttime that Hafiz Saeed has beenarrested or detained. Thisdrama has taken place at leasteight times since 2001. Thequestion is whether this time itwould be more than a cosmet-ic exercise and whether Saeedwill be tried and sentenced forhis terrorist activities,” he saidat a weekly media briefing.

He said Saeed must be pun-ished as he is a designated ter-rorist, and listed by the UnitedNations Sanctions Committeeunder the UN Security CouncilResolution 1267. “Effectiveaction mandated international-

ly against Hafiz Saeed and histerrorist organisations is anobligation on part of all UoNmember states, includingPakistan,” said Kumar.

Saeed also carries a rewardof USD 10 million under USlaw. “Pakistan’s sincerity totake action against terroristand terror groups will bejudged on the basis of theirability to demonstrate verifi-able, credible and irreversibleactions against terrorists and todisrupt and dismantle terrorgroups operating from theirsoil,” the MEA spokespersonsaid. He said India has longbeen maintaining that the UNSecurity Council provisionspertaining to listing and pro-scription of known terroristentities and individuals must beeffectively and sincerelyenforced by all member states.

“Hafiz Saeed and his frontorganisations LeT and JuDrecruit and train hundreds andthousands of persons andmotivate and indoctrinatethem on a violent agendaagainst India,” he said. PTI

Dhaka: In the first-ever move-ment of its kind, a cargo shipcarrying 1,000 tonnes of stonesfrom Bhutan has arrived inBangladesh via India.

At a ceremony held atNarayanganj on the outskirts ofDhaka on Thursday, IndianHigh Commissioner toBangladesh Riva Ganguly Das,Ambassador of Bhutan toBangladesh Sonam T. Rabgyealong with Vice Chairman ofBangladeshi leading businessconglomerate BashundharaGroup Safwan Sobhan receivedthe first-ever consignmentthrough the Indo-BangladeshProtocol Route.

The ship, MV AAI of theInland Waterways Authority ofIndia, was digitally flagged off byIndian Minister of State forShipping Mansukh Mandaviyaon July 12, said the Indian HighCommission in Dhaka in astatement cited by Xinhua newsagency. The ship sailed fromDhubri in Assam and travelledto Narayanganj in Bangladeshover the Brahmaputra River.Dhubri was declared a port ofcall in October 2018, the reportsaid. IANS

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Ranchi: Three Naxalites havebeen killed and arms andammunition seized in anencounter with security forcesin Jhrakhand's Lohardaga dis-trict Thursday, officials said.

They said the encounterbroke out around 2:45 pmwhen a joint team of 158th and214th battalions of CRPF andstate police was out for opera-tions in Bahegara village.

Bodies of three Maoists, 2AK-47 rifles and some ammu-nition have been recovered bythe security forces. PTI

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The Enforcement Directorate(ED) has attached assets

worth Rs 200 crore under theprovisions of Prevention ofMoney Laundering Act, 2002(PMLA) in a Ponzi Schemecase. The attached assets includelands, flats, factories, hotels,amusement park, tea estate,office spaces, shops, registered

in the name of sixteen differentcompanies of ponzi firm BasilInternational Limited (BIL) inAssam, West Bengal, Odisha,Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh,Tripura, Maharashtra alongwith balances lying in the bankaccounts of the company.

ED had initiated investiga-tion under PMLA on the basisof the Charge-sheet filed by CBIagainst BIL and others for cheat-

ing common public by propa-gating & selling illegal schemesand by promising huge andunsustainable returns (PonziScheme), the agency said.

Investigation under the pro-visions of PMLA revealed thatthe funds were fraudulently col-lected by selling illegal schemesthrough chain of agents locatedin Assam, West Bengal, Tripura,Odisha, Jharkhand.

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Flash floods caused by tor-rential rains in catchment

areas of Nepal have ravaged adozen districts of Bihar so far,claiming 78 lives and affecting55 lakh people, the state's dis-aster management departmentsaid on Thursday.

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Former Madhya Pradeshchief minister Shivraj Singh

Chouhan on Thursday blamedthe uncertainty over theCongress leadership for its leg-islators deserting it.

Rahul Gandhi quit asCongress president when theparty was in trouble, the seniorBJP leader said, terming him as"Ranchhod-das" (one who fleesthe battlefield).

Ten Congress MLAsrecently joined the ruling BJPin Goa, while in Karnatakasome of Congress MLAs haveresigned.

"When a ship sinks, itscaptain stays on till the end,trying to stop it from sinking.Rahul Gandhi was the first tojump off the Congress' ship,"Chouhan said, speaking toreporters here.

"When there is uncertain-ty over the party president,where would MLAs go? Whowould MLAs go to as there isno one to listen to them?"Chouhan said.

"If the Congress is dying, itis because of its sins," he saidto a question about the allega-tion that the BJP was trying tocapture power in non-BJP-ruled states by luring awayother parties' legislators.

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The high-level committee ofChief Ministers (CMs) on

Transformation of Agricultureon Thursday deliberated,among others, the utility of theEssential Commodity Act(ECA), 1955.

The Centre, which is of theview that the ECA, in its pre-sent form, is deterring invest-ment in agricultural marketingas it imposes stocking limits,saw support coming fromOpposition quarters with ChiefMinister of Madhya PradeshKamal Nath favouring scrap-ping the legislation.

Nath’s Gujarat counterpartVijay Rupani underlined theneed for reforms in the agri-culture market mechanismsand relaxing the norms in thelegislation for the benefit ofsmall traders and farmers.

While Uttar Pradesh ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath senthis views in writing, ArunachalPradesh CM Pema Khundustressed on the need for doingaway with the middlemenmenace in the state where localfarm and horticulture pro-duces are bought at throwawayprices but sold at higher pricesoutside the State.

The committee is expectedto look at a policy directive inthis regard so that investorshave enough confidence aboutthe provisions of the Act.

The committee alsoemphasised the need to useappropriate technology plat-forms such as satellites anddrones from sowing to mar-keting and contract farming to

maximise the output and toreach out small and marginalfarmers.

At its first meeting, organ-ised by the Niti AAyog, theChief Ministers also discussedthe reforms in AgricultureMarketing ProduceCommittees (APMCs) andcontract farming and called forradical reforms to transformagriculture with massivethrusts on private investments,technological innovation androbust marketing across thecountry to boost farmers’income.

Maharashtra ChiefMinister Devendra Fadnavis,who was also the convener ofthe committee, said the com-mittee has finalised Terms ofReference (ToR), and Stateshave been asked to give theirfeedback by August 7. Thenext meeting of the committeewill be on August 16. TheMaharashtra Chief Ministerfurther added the terms ofreference also include makingsure that more farmers in theStates get institutional loans.

Agriculture being the Statesubject, the committee has

deliberated upon ways toincentivise States to fully imple-ment the major reforms inagriculture introduced in thepast including some key legis-lations to attract private invest-ments in the sector at its firstmeeting.

According to Fadnavis, thecommittee will come up witha background paper and acomprehensive agriculture pol-icy to transform the sectorafter taking all states on board.“The policy will focus on waysto enhance investment credit inthe sector,” he added.

At the meeting, Fadnavissaid though the credit disbur-sal for the farm sector mayexceed Rs 13 lakh crore in2019-20, the agriculturalinvestment credit is still too low.

Chief ministers ofHaryana, Arunachal Pradeshand Gujarat, Union Minister ofAgriculture and RuralDevelopment Narendra SinghTomar, Niti Aayog memberRamesh Chand and Niti AayogChief Executive OfficerAmitabh Kant attended themeeting.

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With the Oppositiondemanding reversal of

several tax proposals in theUnion Budget, FinanceMinister Nirmala Sitharamanon Thursday said the propos-als are aimed at improving theease of living and reducing painof the citizens.

The Minister did not relaxthe tax proposals with regardsto Foreign Portfolio Investors,TDS on cash withdrawal aboveRs 1 crore from banks and hikein customs duty on newsprintas was being demanded by theOpposition.

While replying to discus-sion on the Finance Bill, 2019,Sitharaman said Budget pro-posals will promote Make inIndia and digital payment. TheBill was later passed by theLower House by voice vote.

With regard to simplifica-tion of tax laws, the Ministryhas already set up a task forceto finalise a new Direct TaxCode (DTC), she said.

The Minister, however, did

not say anything on proposal toincrease customs duty to 10 percent on newsprint. Severalmembers have asked theGovernment to reduce hike incustoms duty on newsprintsaying it would badly hurt thesmall and medium newspapers.

Referring to imposition of2 per cent TDS on cash with-drawal beyond Rs 1 crore, shesaid the tax could be adjustedagainst the liability of theassessees and hence there will beno additional burden on them.

On the proposal to hike taxliability on individuals earningmore than Rs 2 crore, she saidit will not impact FPIs provid-ed they organised themselves ascompany.

Charging that budgetdeficits are underestimated and“Fiscal honesty” is being under-mined, the Congress onThursday said in the Lok Sabhathat several amendments tolaws that are not related tofinance are being proposedthrough the Finance Bill andthere was no road map forachieving the high-sounding

targets. Initiating the discussion

on the Finance Bill, 2019,Leader of Congress in the LokSabha Adhir RanjanChowdhury said there is noroadmap for achieving the tar-get of USD 5 trillion economyand asserted that it was the suc-cessive congress regimes whichbuilt up Indian economy brick-by-brick after it had virtuallybled under the colonial rule.“You should not see the past asa cancelled cheque... Youshould look at from where westarted,” he said and remarkedthat before Independence, thecountry’s growth was less thanone per cent.

Chowdhury also attackedBJP for making high-soundingpromises even as unemploy-ment rate, he said was the high-est in the country. “The coun-try is gasping for employ-ment... (the employment fig-ures) are heart wrenching,”Chowdhury said, emphasiz-ing the need for concertedefforts to build the economy.

The Congress leader said

“Fiscal honesty” is being under-mined and deficits are under-played.

Referring to mismatch incertain figures mentioned inthe Economic Survey and theBudget, Chowdhury said thesanctity of regular Budgetnumbers have been called intoquestion.

Before Chowdhury spoke,NK Pemchandran (RSP) point-ed out that the budget which ismainly the tax statement of thegovernment has included sev-eral issues not related to thefinance bill. In this respect hequoted the rulings of previousspeakers including that ofSumitra Mahajan.

Premachandran objectedto the Finance Bill having theprovisions to amend a numberof laws, including Benami Act,Sebi Act and PMLA Act, andurged Speaker Om Birla to dis-allow it. A Finance Bill can onlyhave taxation proposals,Premachandran said, soon afterthe finance minister stood upto move the bill for considera-tion and passage. He also

accused the Government ofbypassing Parliament to avoiddiscussion and scrutiny foramending existing laws byincluding them in the bill.

Sitharaman said rules andconstitutional provisions citedby Premchandran do not ruleout non-taxation proposals forinclusion in the Finance Bill butonly say that it should be doneonly when imperative.

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Parliament on Thursdaypassed a Bill to set up an

independent and autonomousregime for institutionaliseddomestic and international arbi-tration in India. The New DelhiInternational Arbitration Centre(NDIAC) Bill, 2019, which seeksto replace an ordinance issuedin March this year by the pre-vious Government, was passedby Rajy Sabha. Lok Sabha hadpassed the Bill on July 10.

The Bill provides for settingup an independent andautonomous regime for institu-tionalised domestic and inter-national arbitration and toacquire and transfer undertak-ings of International Centre for

Alternative Dispute Resolutionto the New Delhi InternationalArbitration Centre with effectfrom March 2 this year.

The Upper House alsopassed the amendment in theArbitration and Conciliation(Amendment) Bill Act, 2019that seeks to make changes inthe existing law of 1996. It willnow go to Lok Sabha. The Billwas earlier cleared by LS inAugust 2018 but could not bepassed by RS. The Bill lapsed fol-lowing the dissolution of the16th Lok Sabha.

Law Minister Ravi ShankarPrasad moved both the Billsincluding one that seeks tomake changes in the existing lawof 1996. The amendment billwill facilitate in achieving the

goal of improving, institutionalarbitration by establishing anindependent body to lay downstandards, make arbitrationprocess more friendly and cost-effective, and ensure timely dis-posal of cases. It provides for set-ting up of an independent body— Arbitration Council of India— to frame arbitral institutionand accredit arbitrators by lay-ing down norms.

While the TMC stated awalkout to protest the proposedchanges in arbitration laws,terming them “draconian”, theCongress alleged that the pro-posed Arbitration Councilwould be a “sarkari” Council andaccused the Government ofmaking a “brazen” attempt totake over the process.

New Delhi: In a setback tosocialite Sheetal AtulyaMafatlal, the Supreme Courtdismissed her plea challengingthe Bombay High Court orderwhich had directed her prose-cution for allegedly filing a falsecase regarding theft of 31 paint-ings. A Bench of Justices AshokBhushan and Navin Sinha washearing the case in which ini-tially in 2011, Sheetal’s stepdaughter had lodged a com-plaint with the police that 48paintings were taken awayfrom their home allegedly byher step-mother.

Acting on her complaint,the trial court had ordered reg-istration of FIR and during theinvestigation, it was found thatSheetal had kept 31 paintings ina flat of her friend. PTI

New Delhi: The ongoingSession of the 17th Lok Sabhahas been the most productivein the last 20 years, with thelower house registering 128 percent productivity till Tuesday,according to think tank PRSLegislative Research.

Lok Sabha members dis-cussed the General Budget for17 hours, demands for grantsfor Railways for 13 hours,demands for grants for Roadand Transport for 7.44 hours,Speaker Om Birla informed theHouse Thursday.

He said members dis-cussed demands for grants forthe ministries of RuralDevelopment and Agriculturefor 10.36 hours, and issuesrelated to Sports and YouthAffairs Ministry for 4.14 hours.

PTI

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Gandhinagar: In a major blowto the Congress in Gujarat, for-mer party legislators AlpeshThakor and Dhavalsinh Zalajoined the BJP on Thursday.

Thakor and Zala hadresigned as MLAs on July 5,apparently after voting againstCongress candidates in theRajya Sabha bypolls.

A prominent OBC leaderof Gujarat, Thakor describedthe BJP as a party of "disci-plined workers" and said it wasdifficult for him to work for hiscommunity when he was in theCongress.

"I was feeling suffocated inthe Congress as I could notwork for development of thepoor people of my communi-ty. In that party (the Congress),no work can be done due toinfighting and attitude of itsleaders, said Thakor.

He praised the leadershipof Prime Minister NarendraModi and Union HomeMinister Amit Shah, who isalso the BJP chief.

The 43-year-old ex-MLAfrom Radhanpur in Patan dis-

trict said the BJP is a "disci-plined party" where the voiceof its workers is heard.

Thakor and Zala joined theruling party at a function heldin its headquarters here in thepresence of Gujarat BJP presi-dent Jitu Vaghani.

Zala, a close associate ofThakor, was the MLA fromBayad in Sabarkantha district.In the past, Zala had said hewas not feeling comfortable inthe Opposition party.

Thakor had joined theCongress in 2017 just ahead ofthe assembly polls that year.The opposition party fieldedthe OBC leader fromRadhanpur in the December2017 assembly polls and heemerged victorious from theseat.

During the 2017 assemblypoll campaign, Thakor hadshared the dais with Congressleader Rahul Gandhi on mul-tiple occasions. PTI

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Solapur: Some Congress andNCP MLAs will resign andjoin the BJP within a week or10 days, the saffron party'snewly-appointed Maharashtraunit chief Chandrakant Patilclaimed on Thursday.

The NCP was quick to hitback at Patil over his claim,saying he was making such astatement to create confusionin the opposition camp aheadof the Assembly polls.

"There will be resigna-tions of lot many Congress,NCP MLAs this week," Patiltold reporters at the govern-ment rest house here.

The BJP leader, however,refrained from naming theopposition legislators who arelikely to switch over to the rul-ing party.

"The fun part of it will bemissing if I reveal the names.The fun of life lies in theuncertainty. So, let it remainthat way," he said cryptically.

On Wednesday also, Patilsaid one should not be sur-prised if any of the fiveMaharashtra working presi-

dents of the Congress joinedthe BJP in the coming days.

The Congress lastSaturday appointed BalasahebThorat as its state unit presi-dent.

It also appointed NitinRaut, Basawaraj M Patil,Vishwajeet Kadam, YashomatiChandrakant Thakur andMuzaffer Hussain as its work-ing presidents for the state.

NCP chief spokespersonNawab Malik said Patil's com-ments implied the ruling partylacked enough candidates tofight the state Assembly polls,due in September-October,and therefore, the attempt tocreate confusion.

Malik exuded confidencethat no one from the NCP wasgoing to switch over to the BJP.

"They want to create con-fusion among the oppositionrank and file. Their claims sug-gest they do not have candi-dates and hence, are trying toimport candidates from otherparties. No one from the NCPis going to defect (to the BJP),"Malik said. PTI

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Karachi-based underworlddon Dawood Ibrahim

Kaskar’s nephew MohammedRizwan Iqbal Hasan ShaikhIbrahim (Kaskar) and two of hisaccomplices have been arrestedby the Mumbai police in con-nection with extortion-cum-organised crime.

Rizwan Ibrahim aliasKaskar (30) was arrested at theChhatrapati Shivaji MaharajInternational Airport here onWednesday night, while he wastrying to flee to Dubai in theUnited Arab Emirates (UAE)with his wife.

Based on the informationprovided by Rizwan Kaskar,the police arrested two of hisaides Ahmedraja AfrozWadharia (24) and AshfakRafique Towelwala (34) in con-nection with the same extor-tion-cum-organised crime case.

All the three arrested gang-sters were allegedly involved inorganised crime. Initial investi-gations have revealed that thethree gangsters had handedextortion threats to several busi-nessmen in the city.

The three arrested gangsters

were on Thursday producedbefore a city court, whichremanded them in police cus-tody till July 22.

Rizwan Kaskar’s arrest is afallout of arrest and interroga-tion of Dawood’s gang memberFahim Machmach, in an extor-tion case.

Machmach was arrested atthe city international airportwhen he returned from Dubaion July 15. “During the inter-rogation, Machmach told usthat it was he who introducedAhmedraja Wadharia to RizwanKaskar and also to the membersof the Chhota Shakeel gang,” a

senior police official said.Machmach’s arrest came in

connection with a disputebetween traders dealing withimport goods. In one of thetaped telephonic concerned,Machmach handed out a threatto the complainant in June2019 in an earlier case and toldthe latter not to seek moneyfrom Ashfak Towelwala.

On Wednesday, the policewent to search Rizwan Kaskar’sresidence on Wednesday after-noon. In an effort to avoid hisarrest, Rizwan Kaskar and hiswife attempted to fly to Dubai,only to be arrested at the airport.

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Bengaluru: The Congress onThursday alleged in theKarnataka Assembly its MLAShreemant Patil, who suddenlydisappeared after being withthem at a resort and wentincommunicado, had been 'kid-napped' as part of efforts to 'top-ple' the coalition Government.

As the assembly debated theconfidence motion moved byChief Minister HDKumaraswamy, senior MinisterDK Shivakumar alleged Patilwas kidnapped and admitted toa hospital in Mumbai.

Patil's photographs emergedshowing him lying on a bed inahospital and undergoing ECGrelated tests.

Raising the issue,Shivakumar said "With foldedhands I am requesting theSpeaker of the house, my partyMLAs have been kidnapped.Ihave got a call from the familymembers. I want you to bringthem back sir. We want policeprotection."

The Congress MLAs said inunison that the lawmakers wereliving in fear and Patil was kid-napped, kept in a room, taken bya special flight and then admit-ted to a hospital.

Shivakumar said they wouldproduce documents to show thatPatil was forcibly admitted to thehospital to skip Assembly.

"I have documentary evi-dence. He is being held in a hos-pital... Patil traveled withLakshman Savadi (former BJPMLA) in the flight," he alleged.

Congress state presidentDinesh Gundu Rao alleged Patilwas with him till Wednesday,attended a meetingand was ingood health. However, sudden-ly he disappeared from theresort, where his party MLAswere staying. Rao said, "Whenwe tried to check where he hadgone, we could not find him. Hewas in good health but see thedrama of the BJP."

The remark led to panda-monium with BJP shouting himdown amid acrimoniousexchanges between the trea-

sury benches and the opposition.Intervening, Kumaraswamy

said "In the case of Patil, youmust explain, who sent his pho-tos on WhatsApp, who travelledwith him in the flight. Thespeaker has the responsibility tosafeguard the MLAs since num-bers matter in the vote."

C T Ravi of the BJP told theCongress members Patil was intheir 'custody' only and theywere making the allegationagainst his party as they lackednumbers.

"They don't have the num-bers. They are playing thisgame."

The Speaker then asked"Should I blindfold myself andsay I have no relation with it?Where are we heading?"

He told the House that hegot a letter, not written on theletterhead, purportedly by Patilsaying he had developed chestpain and had been hospitalised.

"Evidence before me is thatit is not natural.... I am dis-turbed," the speaker said anddirected Home Minister M BPatil to get in touch with theMLA's family and enquireabout his condition and reportback to him. PTI

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Thiruvananthapuram: Withthe southwest monsoon set tointensify in Kerala over the nextfew days, the IndiaMeteorological Department hassounded a red alert in Idukki,Pathanamthitta and Kottayamdistricts of the State.

The alarm has been sound-ed for Idukki district from July18 to 20, Pathanamthitta andKottayam districts for July 19.

The red alert has beengiven from July 19 as heavy tovery heavy rainfall would occurin Ernakulam district.

The red alert is a call toimmediately take preventivesteps to evacuate people fromvulnerable areas to sheltercamps and provide others withemergency kits.

The districts are likely toreceive extremely heavy rainfallupwards of 20 cm, an IMD offi-cial told PTI.

The officials said,Alappuzha district receivedheavy rainfall on July 17 with 6cm of rain.

Other districts are predict-ed to get isolated heavy to veryheavy rainfall on these days,though a red alert has not beenissued for them. PTI

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Siliguri (WB): The BSF hasrejected the claims of the BorderGuard Bangladesh that killing ofsmugglers is on the rise alongthe India-Bangladesh frontier,saying it is "completely incor-rect".

The Border Security Force(BSF) maintains that it fires onlywhen a situation turns "ugly"and the lives of its troops are indanger.

The BGB has accused theBSF of killing and torturingsmugglers along the border, anallegation rejected by the BSF.

The BSF implemented thenon-lethal strategy along theIndia-Bangladesh border in2011 which has led to a sharpdecline in the number of smug-glers getting killed along theborder, BSF Deputy InspectorGeneral (DIG) Mridul Sonowaltold PTI in Siliguri.

The usage of pump actiongun and three types of grenadesis one of the many key stepstaken by the BSF to reduce thedeath of smugglers, he said.

Asked about the claim ofBangladesh that the number ofkillings is going up, Sonowaltermed the allegation as "com-pletely incorrect".

"The non-lethal strategyhas been very effective along theborder. The allegations are base-less," the DIG said.

Recently, Bangladesh HomeMinister Asaduzzaman Khan,while speaking in Parliament inDhaka, accused the BSF of hav-ing killed 294 civilians along theborder in the past 10 years.

The issue of smugglerkillings came up during the DG-level talks between the twocountries.

During the 48th bi-annualDirector General-level talksbetween the BSF and the BGB

in Dhaka last month, it wasmutually decided to enhancecooperation to better checkcrime and smuggling of cattleand narcotics across the 4,096-km frontier.

In the meeting, the BSF andthe BGB decided to undertakejoint efforts to reduce incidentsof border killing.

Smuggling of cattle, drugsand narcotics, leather, arms andammunition has been a majorchallenge for the BSF and theBGB — the border guardingforces of the two countries.

According to the BSF, under

the non-lethal strategy, it has 12-bore pump action gun andthree types of hand grenades —stun, chilli and dye.

These weapons scare awaythe smugglers and criminalstrying to sneak into the Indianterritory as well as thoseattempting to cross over toBangladesh, DeputyCommandant of the BSFKunwar Singh Mahto said.

"The pump action gun is avery effective weapon in tack-ling the smugglers as it hardlymisses the target. The pellets hitthe target up to 24 metres,"Mahto said.

The three hand grenadescome handy when it comes toscaring away the smugglers ina large number. Stun grenadehas the ability to suddenlyfrighten the person while chilligrenade, as the name suggests,produces chilli smoke whichdeters the person from movingahead.

"Dye grenade paints blackcolour on the clothes and bodyof the smugglers in close range.It leads to the arrest of the smug-gler as the colour cannot bewashed away for 48 hours," theofficer said. PTI

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Kolkata: Ishrat Jahan, a peti-tioner in the triple talaq case inthe Supreme Court, has filed apolice complaint alleging she was threatened and verballyabused by relatives and community members forattending a Hanuman Chalisarecital in a hijab.

In her complaint atGolabari police station inHowrah, she accused herbrother-in-law and her land-lord of hurling abuses andintimidating her for takingpart in the religious function inher residential area on Tuesdaylast.

Jahan claimed she wasreturning home from her son'sschool on Wednesday whenhundreds of local residents inGolabari area surrounded andintimidated her for attendingthe recital.

"We have started aninquiry into the complaint andnecessary action will be taken,"an officer at the Golabari policestation said.

Jahan has said her life wasin danger and sought protec-tion from the police, the offi-cer said.

"I wish to say that we are

living in a secular country andit is our democratic right totake part in any holy festival,"she wrote in her complaint tothe police, a copy of which iswith PTI.

"I did my duty as a goodcitizen of my country. I am asecular person. However, I amfacing life threats from my

family members due to thesame," she wrote.

Jahan also claimed herbrother in-law and landlordhave threatened to throw herout of her residence.

"My brother in-law andlandlord started threateningme to leave my home and saidget her out of the house. They

also abused me severely andthreatened to kill me," thecomplaint said.

Talking about the sordidepisode on TV channelsThursday, Jahan defended herparticipation in a communityprogramme of another faith inher area, who she said alsoshare pleasantries on religiousoccasions of the Muslim com-munity.

"It (Hanuman Chalisarecital) was not a party eventbut a programme of a com-munity... I do not see anythingwrong in participating in it aspeople of other faiths also joinus in our religious occasions,"she said.

She alleged the purposebehind her harassment was todrive her away from homeand the locality as she chal-lenged the misuse of instant

triple talaq in the apex court.She challenged the

"dharam ke thekedar" (self-styled custodian of religion),saying "why do not they cometo the help of thousands of vic-tims of the triple talaq, fight-ing for justice in Howrahcourt?".

Mother to a 14-year-olddaughter and eight-year-oldson, Jahan is one of the fivepetitioners in the case againstinstant triple talaq. The prac-tice of instant triple talaq wasstruck down by the SupremeCourt on August 22, 2017.

She moved the apex courtafter her husband divorced herover the phone from Dubai byuttering the word 'talaq' thriceconsecutively in 2014.

Jahan received support fromthe Bharatiya Janata Party, whichshe joined last year. PTI

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Chennai: Tamil Nadu SchoolEducation Minister KASengottayan on Thursday toldthe Assembly that there wereno students in 45 schools in thestate and asserted that theGovernment, however, has nointention to shut any of them.

Replying to DMK legislatorThangam Thennarasu, whowanted the State to continue torun 1,248 schools since thesewere intended to be convertedinto libraries by theGovernment (in view of report-ed poor enrolments), theMinister said it was not the case.

Thennarasu, a formerMinister also said libraries setup in over 12,000 village pan-chayats (during the DMKregime), under AnnaMarumalarchi Thittam wereallegedly dysfunctional andwanted them to be revampedand put into effective use.

The Minister said sincethere were no students in 45schools, it is being planned touse them as libraries —as atemporary measure— andefforts will continue to bemade to enhance enrolments inState-run schools. PTI

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Chennai: In a major relief toMDMK chief Vaiko, theMadras High Court onThursday suspended the one-year sentence awarded to himby a lower court in a 2009 sedi-tion case.

Justice PD Audikesavalu,before whom the appeal filedby Vaiko came up, suspendedthe sentence imposed by aspecial court on July 5.

Counsel for Vaiko arguedthat there was no audio orvideo evidence produced by theprosecution to prove the chargeof sedition under Indian PenalCode section 124 A and even

the witnesses produced wereonly police personnel and nopublic witnesses were pro-duced.

Public prosecutor ANatarajan submitted that Vaikohimself has admitted to mak-ing such speech.

Refusing to restrain Vaikofrom giving such speechesagainst the sovereignty of theState, as sought by the publicprosecutor, the court insteadasked the counsel for Vaiko toadvise his client to be respon-sible while making publicspeeches pending disposal ofthe appeal.

In his petition, Vaiko saidthe special court for trial ofMPs and MLAs had erred in itsinterpretation of 124 A (sedi-tion) with regard to the wordshe had spoken in support of thebanned LTTE.

What he had spoken "mustbe judged objectively and fromstandards reasonable to strongminded, firm and courageousmen and not those of weak andvacillating minds," he said.

Vaiko, a Rajya Sabha mem-ber, submitted that the trialcourt erroneously rested itsconclusion based on inadmis-sible evidence. PTI

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In another 'mass migration' tothe BJP, 12 Bengali actors,

including Parno Mittra, joinedthe party here on Thursday inpresence of the party's WestBengal unit head Dilip Ghosh.

Rishi Kaushik, Kanchana

Moitra, Rupanjana Mitra andBiswajit Ganguly are among thefilm and TV stars who joinedthe BJP at its headquartershere.

Political leaders and knownpersonalities have flocked theBJP before and after its LokSabha victory including sitting

MPs from Trinamool ,Samajwadi PArty and TeluguDesam party.

Improving from two LokSabha seats, the BJP had won18 of 42 LS seats in WestBengal.

Leaders from the CPI (M)and the Congress too have

recently moved to the BJP. BJP has wrested number

two status in West Bengal fromthe CPI (M). Leaders from CPI(M) and the Congress too haverecently moved to the BJP.

"It is high time somethingwas done to correct the socio-political degeneration thatBengal has suffered over thepast a few years," one of theactors said, adding he would dowhatever his party wanted himto do.

Another popular actor saidshe was "inspired by Prime

Minister Narendra Modi'swork" while a third actor quitemeaningfully said, "after thedecline of the Left Front anddecimation of Leftist culture inBengal it seems things can beturned around by the BJP onlythough they stand diametri-cally opposite pole ideologi-cally."

Welcoming the actors,Ghosh said "the people fromvarious walks of life are joiningthe BJP because they areinspired by the work and lead-ership of the Prime Minister."��%�������%���� *9 *���

Popular leader, Salt Lake-New Town Mayor and

Trinamool MLA Sabyasachion Thursday resigned from hismayoral post roundly criticis-ing Chief Minister MamataBanerjee for shunning the pathof popular struggle.

Dutta, one of the manyMukul Roy loyalists in the TMCalso joined the anti-GovernmentState primary teachers' move-ment addressing a mass meetingin Kolkata where he said "I havealways been inspired by MamataBanerjee's fighting ways"reminding "she always used tostand by the farmers and work-

ers when she was the oppositionleader." However he rued "todaythings have changed and we donot see her in that combativerole."

Dutta who for all practicalpurposes resigned from hispost in the wake of an alien-ation he suffered in the Boardwith most councilors siding

with the party leadership, toldthe media after his resignationthat he "could not continue inthe wake of corruption andlarge-scale land grab which Itried to stop but couldn't."

On whether he would nowjoin the BJP he said, "time willonly tell," but still he was amember of the TMC.

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Congress General SecretaryPriyanka Gandhi Vadra on

Thursday wrote to Uttar PradeshChief Minister Yogi Adityanathto curtail the State police deploy-ment during her and UPAChairperson Sonia Gandhi'svisit to the State and urged theGovernment to focus more onproviding security to the com-mon man.

She said in the letter thatlarge number of cavalcade pro-vided to them causes a lot ofinconvenience to the citizens.She, however, appreciated theCM for his concerns in provid-ing the security. Priyanka men-tioned a couple of instanceswhen traffic had to be stoppedin the areas she and her moth-er Sonia visited and requestedthe State administration toignore such heavy security. Shestated that such things arewastages of state resources. BothPriyanka and Sonia are SPG pro-tectee.

Congress on Thursday alsodemanded that a judicial inquirybe conducted by a SupremeCourt judge into the killing of 10people, including three women,from the Gond tribe over a landdispute in Sonbhadra district ofUttar Pradesh. CLP leader AjaySingh 'Lallu' and other partyleaders visited the crime scene,and said Priyanka will soon visitthe Ghorawal area to meet thevictims' families.

In a different tweet, callingNelson Mandela her inspirationand guide, Priyanka said theanti-apartheid icon told her thatshe ought to be in politics longbefore anyone else did. His lifewas a testament to truth, loveand freedom, Priyanka Gandhisaid.

"To me, he was UncleNelson (who told me I ought tobe in politics long before anyoneelse did!). He will always be myinspiration and my guide," shetweeted.

New Delhi: The SupremeCourt on Thursday allowed'Koshish', a field action projectof Tata Institute of SocialSciences (TISS), to interactwith the victims of theMuzaffarpur shelter home sex-ual assault case and their fam-ilies to prepare a rehabilitationplan for them.

Several girls were sexual-ly assaulted at an NGO-runshelter home in Muzaffarpur,Bihar, and the issue had cometo light following a report bythe TISS which had conduct-ed a social audit.

The apex court was told bythe Centre that they wouldfinalise within 4-6 monthsthe child protection policyaimed at curbing the inci-dents of sexual abuse of chil-dren. PTI

New Delhi: The SupremeCourt on Thursday agreed toreconstitute a bench for hearingcases on alleged extra-judicialkillings by the Army, the AssamRifles and the Manipur Policein the insurgency-hit State.

A bench headed by ChiefJustice Ranjan Gogoi said it willtry to reconstitute the bench asJustice M B Lokur who washearing the matter has retiredin December last year.

Senior advocate CollinGonsalves, appearing for someof the petitioners, said since theretirement of Justice Lokur thematter has not been heard.

He said he had mentionedthe matter before a bench ofJustice U U Lalit who used tohear the case along with JusticeLokur but he was asked to men-tion it before the bench ofChief Justice.

"We will try to reconstitutethe bench," the CJI-led benchsaid.

The apex court had in 2017ordered CBI probe into thealleged 1,528 extra-judicialkillings in Manipur from 2000to 2012 by security forces andpolice. PTI

New Delhi: The mediationprocess to amicably resolvethe politically sensitive RamJanmabhoomi-Babri Masjidland dispute at Ayodhya willcontinue as the SupremeCourt Thursday sought fromthe panel concerned its “out-come” report by August 1.

The outcome of the medi-ation process undertaken bythe three-member panel,headed by former apex courtjudge F M I Kalifulla follow-ing the March 8 order, wouldbe considered by a five judgeConstitution bench headedby Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoion August 2 to decide thefuture course of action.

"We request the mediationpanel to inform the court theoutcome of the mediationproceedings as on July 31 byAugust 1 to enable us to pro-ceed further in the matter interms of the present direc-tions," said the bench, alsocomprising Justices S ABobde, D Y Chandrachud,Ashok Bhushan and S ANazeer.

The bench, which peruseda report about the progress ofmediation process till July 18,said that its contents willremain confidential as per itsearlier order.

New Delhi: The SupremeCourt on Thursday allowedRajeev Saxena, an approver ina money laundering case relat-ed to the �3,600-croreAgustaWestland chopper scam,to appear before a medicalboard of AIIMS to get exam-ined for blood cancer andother ailments.

A bench of justices AshokBhushan and Navin Sinhasought the report of the med-ical board, to be constituted bythe director of All IndiaInstitute of Medical Sciences(AIIMS), within a week afterexamining Saxena.

"Counsel for the respon-dent (Rajeev Saxena) under-takes that the respondent willappear before the Board ofDoctors to be constituted bythe Director, All India Instituteof Medical Sciences (AIIMS)on August 2, 2019. Let thereport be sent to this Courtwithin a week thereafter," thebench said.

It listed the matter for fur-ther hearing on August 26,2019.

On June 26, the apex courthad stayed a Delhi High Courtorder permitting Saxena to goabroad for treatment of blood

cancer and other ailments.It had sought response

from Saxena on an appeal filedby the Enforcement Directorate(ED) challenging the June 10Delhi High Court order per-mitting him to visit the UnitedArab Emirates, the UnitedKingdom and Europe fromJune 25 to July 24.

Saxena, a director ofDubai-based firms UHYSaxena and Matrix Holdings,was one of the accused namedin the charge sheet filed by theED in the AgustaWestlandscam. Later, he turned approverin the case.

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The US-China vitriol has shift-ed back from the trade tablesto its more familiar turf of theSouth China Sea, where Chinahas provocatively tested anti-

ship missiles from the man-made struc-tures around the intensely contestedSpratly Islands. This area has been hotlycounter-claimed in parts by Vietnam,Philippines and Taiwan; whereas theChinese have brazenly appropriated sov-ereignty over the entire 1.3 millionsquare miles of the South China Sea.

The restive waters of the region haveseen shadow-boxing of global powerswith the US attempting a “balance” withplatforms like the Quadrilateral SecurityDialogue or Quad — potentially poolingstrategic concerns and resources of majorregional powers (US, Japan, India andAustralia) that cannot be coerced likesome others, who are directly affected bythe Chinese belligerence and assertions.This latest escalation has all the hallmarksof a typical Chinese incitement withBeijing reneging on its earlier pledgemade by President Xi Jinping in 2015 thatit would not militarise these outposts.

To rub its symbolism, the Chinesepublicly announced the military exercis-es and missile-testing as an intrinsic partof the agenda, knowing fully well the reac-tion that it would elicit in the wary neigh-bourhood.

The primary stake for the Chinese inthe ongoing war of attrition is to fructi-fy its hegemonic ambitions, which, there-fore, manifest in its trade wars with theUS; unleashing of the gargantuan infra-structural inter-linkages via the Belt andRoad Initiative (BRI); carrot and stick pol-icy of dominating its neighbours andindeed, keeping the kettle boiling for Indiawith “Doklam” or its more ambitious“String of Pearls” approach. It either bul-lies or buys subservience with impunity.For example, the Philippines succumbedto its willful subservience despite havingwon the case of maritime claims againstthe Chinese in the International Court ofJustice, Hague. In the melee, the chess-board of international diplomacy is rifewith moves and counter-moves to check-mate each other, with the brutal play ofrealpolitik overruling any sense of states-manship or morality. To cite an example,the deliberate veto-roadblocks that Beijingcreated in favour of Pakistan while delay-ing the designation of Jaish-e-Mohammadchief Masood Azhar as an “internationalterrorist” in the United Nations.

At the heart of this patented Chinesedefiance is its famed economic juggernautthat is fuelling its ambitions, power andstratagem to continuously push ahead.The Chinese “economic miracle” is pred-icated on the free flow of materials to-and-fro from the mainland, including thesurvival-linked energy resources that

sustain its hyper factories.This explains the Chineserestlessness and militarybuild-up to keep their seawaysfree from any potential block-ade. Beyond flexing its mili-tary muscle, China has alsoinvested in a mammoth baseof approximately 500 millionbarrels of Strategic PetroleumReserves (SPR) as an emer-gency contingency, should theseaways ever get disrupted,deliberately or otherwise.While the Chinese Navy doesnot possess a “Blue WaterNavy” as yet, it has worked onthe idea of “Pearl Ports” inplaces beyond its arc-of-dom-inance in the South ChinaSeas like Sri Lanka, theMaldives to even Bangladeshand Myanmar. The doomsdayscenario of a seaway “block-ade” (even temporary) canbe fatal for the regime and ithas led the Chinese to puntanother $60 billion in theChina Pakistan EconomicCorridor (CPEC) as a possi-ble alternative.

However, amid this calcu-lus of geo-strategic manoeu-vres lies the most vulnerable“choke point” from a Chineseperspective, ie, the ultra-nar-row and practically-unavoid-able Malacca Straits that opens

at the lower tip of the Indiansovereign waters, afforded bythe outpost of Andaman andNicobar Islands, 1,200 kmaway from the Indian main-land. Just 1.5 km wide at itsnarrowest point, this strait isamong the busiest sea trafficin the world with over1,00,000 vessels transiting ayear, positioning an invaluablejugular grip for India. Unlikethe tensions of disputes andthe domineering reach of theChinese military in SouthChina Seas — the watersaround Malacca Straits areundisputed and beyond thedominance zone of theChinese. The Chinese areextremely vulnerable and theyhave tried “investing” inMalaysia, taken unwarrantedinterest in Coco Islands on thenorthern tip of Andaman andNicobar Islands and even“leased” a port in Sri Lanka for99 years. Yet, no major break-through has been achieved bythe Chinese and the jugular ofMalacca Straits exists.

This jugular, among theother scale strengths of India,underlies the strategic logic ofthe US “pivot” against theChinese. In a symbolic ode tothe Indian dimension andinevitability, the US renamed

its unified command for theregion to “United States Indo-Pacific Command (USIN-DOPACOM)” to recognisethe specificity of the Indiantheatre. It is this commandwhich is at the forefront ofcountering the Chinesemachinations and shadow-boxing with its own countermoves.

So far the military movesof the South China Sea havenot been extended to areasproximate to the Andamanand Nicobar Islands, thoughIndia, too, holds a defensiveTri-Services command of itsown here. The Government islooking into adding “firepow-er” by way of infrastructureand wherewithal, given thestrategic stakes and potentiallevers in its vicinity. So whilethe US-Chinese tensions maynot be resonating in our back-yard just as yet, the stakehold-ers, military commands andconcerns of the South ChinaSea tensions have their con-ceptual epicentre and jugularin an area that is looming inthe shadows of Indian territo-rial waters.

(The writer, a military veter-an, is a former Lt Governor ofAndaman & Nicobar Islands andPuducherry)

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Sir — The Indian Railways send-ing water wagons to Chennai res-idents is commendable. TheGovernment should now exten-sively involve citizens in the effortto conserve water. Meticulousplanning, including initiatingsteps for rainwater harvesting, willhelp satisfy every citizen’s need forwater.

Efforts to conserve water atthe micro-level and public aware-ness programmes should increasemanifold. Rainwater harvestingand building dams are someoptions that can help conservewater. Also, charges on watershould be increased to deter peo-ple from wasting it. Chennai’sacute water crisis is a wake-up call to all citizens to use waterjudiciously. The Governmentcould also involve multiple agen-cies to bring efficiency and inno-vation in water conservation. Aneffort should be made to reachout to international water agen-cies to understand and adoptsmarter ways to conserve waterand help citizens consume waterin a judicious manner.

Varun DambalBengaluru

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Sir — It’s shocking that the clos-ing doors of a Metro trapped aman’s hand as he was trying to getin, dragging him almost 60metres along Kolkata’s Park Streetstation to his death. One is forcedto ask how could the train start

if the gap between the doors wasmore than the standard tolerancelimit of 15 millimetres — whichmust have been the case if a per-son’s hand was stuck betweenthem.

A month ago, an inherentfault in one of the new rakesdelivered by the Integral CoachFactory in Perambur – the very

kind which the deceased, SajalKumar Kanjilal, tried to board —developed a snag, throwing thecity’s lifeline out of gear for overfour hours.

It is intriguing that IntegralCoach Factory (ICF) rakes areoperated only in Kolkata. TheMetro authorities must ensurethat the rakes that are piled are

of the highest quality. A life hasbeen lost and responsibility forit needs to be appropriated. Wasthe motorman at fault or was ita technical glitch? Either way,Metro Railways must get to thebottom of this and make suresuch an incident does not occuragain.

Bidyut Kumar ChatterjeeFaridabad

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Sir — The return of the greatdeluge in Assam due to floodsyet again proves the fact that theGovernment has not learnt anylessons from past devastationand losses. It is known thatAssam is susceptible to damageby flood waters every year. Thetopography of the State is suchthat it is extremely difficult totackle the floods. While imme-diate measures should focus onrescue, relief and rehabilitation,the Government should devoteextra focus, given its scale andrecurrence.

SwapnilVia email

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It’s being called the “new McCarthyism”.This spike in media censorship and relent-less demonisation of those considered to be

enemies because they hold different points ofview. It’s gone global. But first, a bit aboutMcCarthyism. The old one.

At the end of World War II, the then USPresident Harry Truman signed an executiveorder, which required all civil service employ-ees to be screened for loyalty. The orderrequired that federal Government employees beinvestigated whether they had had any past linkswith “‘un-American” organisations and whichcould undermine the loyalty of a Governmentemployee towards the US’ interests. Between1949 and 1955, various committees were formedto root out “the enemy within.”

In a 2014 essay, “Creating the IdealisedNemesis,” author and literary critic AlexanderChirila writes that, between 1920 and the begin-ning of World War II, the US had largely followedan isolationist path by refusing to play any majorrole in international politics. However, after itdecided to join the war in 1941, the isolationist pol-icy was abandoned. By the end of the war in 1945,the US had become a major international power.But so did its erstwhile war ally, the Soviet Union.

Chirila wrote that the shift from voluntary iso-lationism to active international interventionismtriggered a suspicious mindset within America’sbody-politic. This resulted in certain policies andnarratives that were constructed by segregatingwhat was “patriotic Americanism” from what was-n’t. So anything that allegedly wasn’t “patriotic”became “communist” and, thus, “dangerous.”

Interestingly, though Truman’s executiveorder was signed in this environment, it was alsolobbied for by those, who believed that during theunprecedented four terms of former President FDRoosevelt (1933-45), “communists” within the UShad already “infiltrated” the American state andGovernment.

Most large businesses had explainedRoosevelt’s economic policies as being “social-ist.” When Truman became President in 1945,a firebrand senator from Wisconsin, JosephMcCarthy, claimed that the federal Governmentwas crawling with socialists and communists,who were working against domestic and inter-national US interests. In 1950, McCarthy bran-dished a list in which he claimed were names of205 state employees who were or had been mem-bers of communist organisations.

Committees sprang up within Governmentagencies and in various private companies to iden-tify possible communists “working to weakenAmerica.” The hysteria spilled over and evenHollywood script-writers, actors and directors sus-pected of having communist links and sympathieswere reined in. E Schrecker, in his 1998 book, ManyAre the Crimes, writes that the Federal Bureau ofInvestigation (FBI) doubled the number of its agentsto help the Government investigate possible “com-munist saboteurs” in various fields.

Dozens of state workers, artists and others wereinvestigated and demonised. Many lost their jobsand could not find any other means of income. Thehysteria was also used by lobbies, who were againstpublic health services. According to an essay in the1994 anthology, Psychiatry in Transition, these lob-bies claimed that forced vaccination, mental care

services and the fluoridation of water were “plansof communist world Government.”

The hysteria began to subside after McCarthylooked more and more like a demented, egotisti-cal demagogue and when the Government ofDwight Eisenhower (1952-61) realised that thecommotion was doing more damage than good tothe American image. McCarthy was increasinglydiscredited by certain journalists and he died in1957 due to alcoholism. But his name became asso-ciated with a tendency that makes unabashed andreckless accusations of treason and unpatriotic actswithout offering any convincing evidence. This ten-dency became known as McCarthyism.

Till the end of the Cold War in 1989,McCarthyism was often seen as a demagogic, right-wing tendency, even though deadlier purges of thisnature took place in the Soviet Union, China andin Cambodia against so-called “counter-revolution-aries.” Recently, the social psychologist Lee Jussimand controversial clinical psychologist ProfessorJordan Peterson have been turning the idea ofMcCarthyism on its head by explaining “newMcCarthyism” as the liberal-left version of oldMcCarthyism.

In an essay for Psychology Today, Jussim citesthe findings of an elaborate 2014 research, whichsay that there has been “a rising tide of leftist intol-erance” on American campuses. It has resulted inharassment, even violence, directed at speakers fromnon-left backgrounds. Speakers who present per-spectives challenging “leftist sacred cows” such asaffirmative action, diversity programmes andfeminism have been subject to aggressive, intoler-ant, “proto-authoritarian” tactics, according to him.

The report concluded that “students andteachers who refuse to hear opposing viewpointswill be less likely to learn critical thinking skills andless able to defend their own beliefs once off-cam-pus.” Professor Peterson blames post-modernismfor the intolerance exhibited by the liberals and newleftists. He describes post-modernists as “cultural

Marxist conspiracy theorists”, who emerged in the1970s after Marxism failed to win the class war. Headds that post-modernists readjusted Marxism’score axiom of class struggle to other frameworksof perceived group power struggles: Race, sex andethnicity among other things.

Whereas post-modernism had already disin-tegrated by the 1990s into meaning nothing morethan empty intellectual kitsch, Peterson says it wenton to create subjects such as sociology, anthropol-ogy, gender and ethnic studies, which he believesuse “unscientific methods” to reach conclusions thathave more to do with peddling ideologies than intel-ligence. He says these create “cult-like behaviour”,which can explain the manner in which the so-called neo-leftists have been reacting to opposingpoints of view. Peterson’s own views have often beencriticised as conspiracy theories.

But in an environment where the far-rightis going mainstream in various countries, it can’tbe effectively challenged by the kind of liberal-left Peterson is critiquing. Simply because, itseems, more than anything else causes beingchampioned by the new liberal-left are a way tojust appease individual existential crises — thatold post-modernist trap. Thus, the reactionarybehaviour and thin-skinned responses, which arecoming from a disposition of misplaced arro-gance, self-righteousness, and an assortment ofintellectual and emotional insecurities.

The response (to the far-right) wouldrequire a more informed (and less reactive)retort which should involve making pragmat-ic alliances. But such alliances cannot be madewhen the new liberal-left too spirals into actsof demonisation and reckless accusations. Infact, Peterson believes that it is this which hasgiven birth to dangerous reactions in theshape of the rise of the far-right and the discred-iting of once-powerful ideas such as democra-cy and socialism.

(Courtesy: The Dawn)

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!����������������������;���������������� ��������B���� ������������K���������� �����)�5�������)�������������������������������

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So much has been said and writ-ten about India’s “demographicdividend” that we have collective-

ly failed to take note of a looming age-ing crisis and its potential conse-quences. As our largely “under 35”population ages, the strength of whathas been touted as India’s “demograph-ic dividend” would gradually turn intoa disadvantage over the next twodecades. According to a 2017 reportby the United Nations PopulationFund (UNFPA), around 12.5 percent of India’s population will be 60years and older by 2030; by 2050 thiswill increase to one-fifth of the pop-ulation. With declining fertility, reduc-tion in mortality and increasing sur-vival at older ages, the shift in the age

structure from young to old is expected to be enormous over the nextfew decades.

Unfortunately, there is a hugedenial of the fact that we are witness-ing a shift towards an ageing popula-tion. The lack of focus on this shiftimplies that we are completely unpre-pared to meet the situation with littleemphasis on improving our elderlycare structure, health structure orbuilding a social support system toaddress this shift.

An inverted pyramidIn many parts of the world,

declining fertility, coupled with an age-ing crisis, has turned the populationstructure into an inverted pyramid. InNorway, Finland and Iceland, birthrates dropped to historic lows in 2017.“Norway needs more children! I don’tthink I need to tell anyone how thisis done”, Norway’s Prime Minister wasquoted as saying earlier this year in acheeky yet desperate appeal that high-lights the ageing problem in that coun-try. In Japan, the population is expect-ed to shrink 16 per cent by 2045 com-pared to 2015. China, which con-trolled its birth rates by imposing a

one-child norm for decades, is alsofacing a similar crisis.

With one of the fastest-growingabove 60 populations in the world,India will be sailing in the same boatin a few years from now. A top-heavypopulation structure implies that alarge elderly population has to dependupon incomes generated by a dwin-dling younger workforce. With ahuge paucity of caregivers expected toarise, it also implies the need for cre-ating avenues of social andGovernment support for the elderly.

Planning for the demographic

transitionAt the policy level, India has

shown recognition of the looming cri-sis. India’s National Policy on OlderPersons (NPOP) was drafted way backin 1999, which envisaged state supportto ensure financial and food security,health care, shelter and other needs ofolder persons. The landmarkMaintenance and Welfare of Parentsand Senior Citizens Bill, 2007, soughtto make it a legal obligation for chil-dren and heirs to provide maintenanceto senior citizens.

Unfortunately, there is little prepa-

ration visible on the ground. Ourhealthcare system is grossly unpre-pared. With an increasingly ageingpopulation, there will not just be a risein physical ailments but also anincrease in the incidence of mentaland neurological conditions such asdepression, dementia and Alzheimeramong other things. This will requirea significant institutional as well associetal preparedness. Most hospitalsour country do not even have dedi-cated geriatric wards while prepared-ness in terms of nursing staff to carefor the elderly is also highly inade-quate.

In terms of preventive healthcare,we as a society are not even focussingon measures to start educating thepeople to prepare for older age byadopting healthy lifestyles and gooddietary habits that will keep themhealthier and fitter for a longer peri-od of time.

Ensuring dignity and comfortfor the elderly

According to estimates by theUNFPA report, only about one-thirdof the older men and women in Indiareceive income from employers or

social pensions. A study published inBMC Geriatrics journal found thatabout 17.93 per cent of the elderly menand 26.21 per cent of elderly womenexperience some form of disability inthree activities of daily living needed fora better quality of life. In India, it is nor-mative for families to take care of theneeds of older people. However, we areincreasingly witnessing the phenom-enon of elderly parents living alone aschildren have to move out, sometimesabroad to pursue their own lives.

Institutional preparedness is need-ed to address these issues if we wantour young citizens of today to lead dig-nified and comfortable lives tomorrow.Apart from developing schemes toensure income security for the elder-ly and building an ecosystem of care-givers, we also need to create mech-anisms that can improve quality of life.The Government must not onlylaunch its own preparatory mecha-nisms but also encourage start ups tocreate technologically-powered solu-tions for the elderly.

(The writer is director and creativestrategist of an advertising and consult-ing agency)

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Ho m eMinister

Amit Shah willhead a recon-stituted groupof Ministers(GoM) on AirIndia disin-vestment andR o a dT r a n s p o r tMinister NitinGadkari hasbeen droppedfrom the panel,sources said.

The panel, which is towork out modalities for sale ofAir India, will now have fourministers — Shah, FinanceMinister Nirmala Sitharaman,Commerce and RailwayMinister Piyush Goyal andCivil Aviation MinisterHardeep Singh Puri.

When the panel, namedAir India Specific AlternativeMechanism (AISAM), was firstconstituted in June 2017, it hadfive members and was headedby the then Finance MinisterArun Jaitley.

The other four were thethen Civil Aviation MinisterAshok Gajapathi Raju, RailwayMinister Suresh Prabhu, Powerand Coal Minister PiyushGoyal and Road TransportMinister Nitin Gadkari.

According to the sources,the GoM was reconstitutedafter the Modi-2.0 government

came to power and Gadkari isno longer part of the panel.

“The AISAM has beenreconstituted. It is now a four-member panel, against fivemembers earlier,” a source toldPTI.

In its first term, the Modigovernment invited bids frominvestors in 2018 to buy out theGovernment’s 76 per cent stakein Air India, along with man-agement control. However, theprocess failed as investors didnot put in their bids. Followingthat, transaction advisor EYprepared a report citing prob-able reasons that led to failureof the sale process.

The reasons cited includethe government retaining 24per cent stake and corre-sponding rights, high debt,volatile crude oil prices, fluc-tuations in exchange rate,changes in macro environmentand restriction on bidding by

individuals.The Department of

Investment and Public AssetManagement (DIPAM) hasalready prepared a fresh pro-posal for Air India sale, incor-porating issues like crude oilprices and exchange ratevolatility, and other issuesflagged by EY last year.

The government, thesources said, could this timearound sell its entire 100 percent stake in Air India as it aimsto conclude the sale process byDecember 2019.

However, a final call on thequantum of stake to be offeredto investors and the right timefor floating the expression ofinterest would be decided bythe newly constituted AISAM,a source said. The AISAMwould be meeting soon, mostprobably after the conclusion ofthe ongoing Parliament sessionon July 26.

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Former auto titanCarlos Ghosn, cur-

rently under house arrestin Tokyo, is suing Nissanand Mitsubishi in aDutch court for“improper termination”of his contract, Frenchnewspaper Le Figaroreported Wednesday.

Ghosn is accusingthe Japanese manufac-turers of breaching his contractas an employee of NMBV, theirjoint subsidiary based in theNetherlands, and seeking up to15 million euros ($16.8 million)in damages, it said.

The big-spending formerchief of both Renault and itsJapanese partner Nissan isawaiting trial in Japan oncharges of financial miscon-duct. He was kept behind barsfor over 100 days before beinggranted bail and sacked fromall his management roles.

Ghosn is accused of under-reporting millions of dollars inincome at Nissan and of ofusing company funds for per-sonal expenses — charges hedenies.

His lawyers argue thatwhile Ghosn resigned fromRenault-Nissan BV (RNBV), hehad not done so from NMBVand “the breach of contract”was unwarranted, Le Figarosaid.

Nissan and Mitsubishiargue that Ghosn’s contractwas invalid as it would not havebeen submitted to NMBV’sboard, according to the daily.

NMBV had thankedGhosn after a meeting of hisboard of directors on March 12,the same day as the announce-ment of its dissolution. Ghosn’sspokesperson and his lawyerboth declined to commentwhen contacted by AFP.

Le Figaro said the manu-facturers were seeking to recov-er some 7.82 million eurospaid to Ghosn by NMBVbetween April and November2018. Renault announced inearly June it was consideringtaking action against its formerboss after it identified 11 mil-lion euros of “questionableexpenses” linked to Ghosn atRNBV.

The 65-year-old Ghosnwas arrested in Japan inNovember as he stepped off hisprivate jet at Tokyo airport.

His dramatic downfallstunned the business worldand laid bare tensions in thealliance between Renault,Nissan and their smallerJapanese partner Mitsubishi.

Ghosn has not beencharged in connection with hisactivities at NMBV.

���� 345��4 0&

The Government hasmerged the Council of

Trade Development andPromotion with the Board ofTrade to bring greater coher-ence in consultation processwith all stakeholders for pro-moting exports and imports.

According to a notificationof the directorate general offoreign trade (DGFT), thenew forum will remain asBoard of Trade and will workwith ten terms of references.

The new board would pro-vide a platform to states andunion territories for articulat-ing their perspectives on tradepolicy and help states to devel-op and pursue export strate-gies in line with the nationalforeign trade policy.

It would also reviewexport performances of vari-ous sectors, identify con-straints and suggest industryspecific measures to optimiseexport earnings and to exam-ine existing institutionalframework for imports andexports.

“To bring greater coher-ence in consultation process,it has been decided to mergeCouncil of Trade Developmentand Promotion (CTDP) withthe Board of Trade and thenew forum will remain asBoard of Trade,” DGFT said.

The board will be chairedby commerce and industryminister. Its members willinclude minister of state forcommerce and industry andstate ministers who are incharge of trade.

���� 345��4 0&

The Government has soughtexplanations from

InterGlobe Aviation on allega-tions of corporate governancelapses raised by co-founderand promoter RakeshGangwal.

In a filing to the stockexchanges, the company onThursday said it received acommunication on Wednesdayfrom the Ministry of CorporateAffairs (MCA) regarding thecomplaint.

The Registrar of Companies(RoC), National CapitalTerritory of Delhi & Haryanahas sought “certain informa-tion/explanations” in relation toGangwal’s complaint.

“The company willrespond to MCA within theprescribed period,” the filingsaid. Explanations have beensought under Section 206(4) ofthe Companies Act, 2013.

Section 26 provides powersfor the Ministry to call forinformation, inspect books andconduct inquiries.

The Ministry’s communi-cation comes less than 10 daysafter Gangwal flagged con-cerns about corporate gover-nance lapses at InterGlobeAviation, especially certainrelated party transactionsentered into by co-founderRahul Bhatia’s InterGlobeEnterprises (IGE) Group.

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FMC Corporation was pre-sented the Corporate

Leadership Award 2019 by theMinister of Agriculture andFarmers’ Welfare, NarendraSingh Tomar at a ceremonyheld in New Delhi.

The annual award, con-ferred by the Agriculture Todaygroup, was presided over by ahigh-level committee headedby the Governor of Kerala,Palanisamy Sathasivam. Raju

Kapoor, Director of Public andIndustry Affairs, received theaward on behalf of FMC India.

The Corporate LeadershipAward recognizes FMC for itssubstantial contributiontowards a sustainable future forIndian agriculture, and fordelivering a market-leadingportfolio of innovative cropprotection technologies toIndian farmers, supported byits global R&D capabilities andmanufacturing presence inIndia.

New Delhi: Padmini Singla, an IAS officer of AGMU cadre (2002batch) has taken over as Chairperson and Managing Directorof Delhi Transco Limited.

Singla is Post Graduate in Commerce from Delhi School ofEconomics. Besides, she has done Executive Masters in UrbanGovernance from EPFL Switzerland.

Singla has worked in various capacities in Delhi, Andamanand Nicobar Islands, Chandigarh and Arunachal Pradesh. InDelhi, her prominent postings include as Director of Education,Additional Secretary to Lieutenant Governor and DeputyCommissioner (Civil Lines) in MCD. PNS

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The central Governmentshould link grants and allo-

cations made by the FinanceCommission to states withreforms in the agriculture sec-tor, said Maharashtra ChiefMinister Devendra Fadnavis.

A proposal to this effectwas discussed at the first meet-ing of a ‘High-PoweredCommittee of Chief Ministersfor Transformation of IndianAgriculture’ on Thursday.

Briefing the reportersabout the meeting, Fadnavis,who is also the convenor of thehigh-powered committee, saidthere should be greater coor-dination between the min-istries of agriculture and com-merce, as the former dealswith production, while the lat-ter with marketing.

“Grants of the central gov-ernment and fund allocation ofthe Finance Commissionshould be linked with the agri-culture reforms undertaken instates,” he said while addingthat it is essential to ensuresimultaneous reforms in states.

Fadnavis further saidunless all states come on board,the country will not witnessmajor transformation in theagriculture sector.

Among other things, somecommittee members also ques-tioned the utility of the

Essential Commodity Act(ECA), 1955, in the food sec-tor.

“Chief Minister of MadhyaPradesh Kamal Nath was infavour of scrapping theEssential Commodity Act(ECA), 1955,” he said.

Fadnavis said that thoughthe credit disbursal for thefarm sector may exceed Rs 13lakh crore in 2019-20, the agri-cultural investment credit isstill too low.

The Maharashtra chiefminister further added thatthe terms of reference (ToR) ofthe committee also includesmaking sure that more farmersin the states get institutionalloans.

“Targeting of subsidies formaximising benefits is alsoToR of the committee,” he said.The committee also pitched forpromoting contract farmingin states.

It also discussed ways topromote the food processingindustry.

“There is a need for boost-ing private investment in theagriculture sector and pro-moting contract farming,” hesaid. Fadnavis said the com-mittee has finalised ToR, andstates have been asked to givetheir feedback by August 7.

The next meeting of thecommittee will be on August 16.

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Expending its operationsthroughout the world, GoAir

has announced that it will com-mence its maiden flights to andfrom Delhi – Abu Dhabi withfares starting at �7,098; Mumbai— Abu Dhabi fares starting at�6,599 and Mumbai — Muscatfares starting at �7,100.

On July 25, 2019 GoAirwill commence maiden flightsto and from Delhi – Bangkokwith fares starting at �8,197 andKannur — Dubai fares startingat �6,200. On 1st August 2019GoAir will commence its maid-en flights to and from Mumbai– Bangkok with fares startingat �8,498.

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Snapping its three-day ris-ing streak, equity bench-mark BSE Sensex slumped

318 points on Thursday assluggish corporate earningsmuted expectations of a swiftpick-up in economic recovery.

Lacklustre global marketsand a depreciating rupee fur-ther sapped investor appetite,traders said.

The 30-share Sensex, whichopened on the back foot,remained subdued throughoutthe session and finally closed at38,897.46, down by 318.18points or 0.81 per cent.

Similarly, the broader NSENifty cracked below the 11,600mark, ending 90.60 points or0.78 per cent lower at 11,596.90.

Yes Bank was the biggestloser in the Sensex pack, tum-bling 12.85 per cent, after thecompany reported a massive92.44 per cent slump in con-solidated net profit for theJune quarter.

ONGC, Tata Motors,M&M, Maruti, Vedanta, BajajAuto, TCS, SBI and HCL Techlost up to 4.24 per cent.

On the other hand, HDFCwas the top gainer, rallying 2.26per cent, followed by KotakBank, HDFC Bank and ITC

that rose up to 0.31 per cent.“Indian equities sold off

on disappointing earnings andconcerns over the US-Chinatrade war. Notably, South Koreaand Indonesia cut rates andmore rate cuts are likely comingin India and emerging markets.

“Indian markets lost almosta percent dragged by weakmacros globally and poor earn-ings performance on theground. All sector indicesended in the red with PSUs,Metals and Autos being theworst performers.

“However, foreign investorshave been heavily investing inIndian debt markets as theyields remain at a steep pre-mium to those offered in devel-oped markets. Yield hungryforeign investors have boughtIndian debt worth almost�6,000 crore since Budget pre-sented earlier this month,” saidSunil Sharma, chief invest-ment officer, Sanctum WealthManagement.

All sectoral indices endedin the red, with BSE auto,metal, energy, oil and gas,industrials, power, consumerdurables and realty indicescracking up to 2.65 per cent.

The broader BSE midcapand smallcap indices plungedup to 1.23 per cent.

FMCG major Colgate-Palmolive India Ltd onThursday reported a 10.76 percent decline in net profit at�169.11 crore for the Junequarter owing to lower growthin rural markets.

In a report, data analyticsfirm Nielsen said the FMCGsector in India will face a slow-down in 2019, impacted by adip in demand, particularly inrural markets.

IT firm Mindtree had post-ed a 41.4 per cent drop in Q1net profit on Wednesday, whileWipro’s profit rose 12.5 percent, though revenue growthremained subdued.

On the global front, stockmarkets struggled as the pro-tracted US-China trade conflictshowed no signs of easing,while investors digested a slewof corporate results.

Elsewhere in Asia,Shanghai Composite Indexended 1.04 per cent lower,Hang Seng fell 0.46 per cent,Kospi 0.31 per cent and Nikkeidropped 1.97 per cent.

Bourses in Europe werealso trading in the red in theirrespective early sessions.

Meanwhile, the Indianrupee depreciated 12 paise to68.95 against the US dollar(intra-day).

The global oil benchmarkBrent crude futures rose 0.33 percent to USD 63.87 per barrel.

���� 345��4 0&

Asian Development Bank(ADB) Thursday lowered

the growth forecast for Indiafrom 7.2 to 7 per cent for thecurrent fiscal, due to modera-tion in growth prospects for theadvanced economies whichcould adversely affect tradableservices. ADB, however, main-tained that India would con-tinue to remain the fastest grow-ing major economy ahead ofChina.

Releasing its update on theAsian Development Outlook(ADO) 2019, it said China willgrow at 6.3 per cent in 2019, andslip further to 6.1 per cent in 2020,mainly on account of continuingtrade war with the US.

India’s economic growth, itsaid, is expected to inch up againto 7.2 per cent in FY2020 (2020-21), helped by recent reforms toimprove the business climate,strengthen banks, and relieveagrarian distress, ADB said in thesupplement.

Notably, the 7.2 per cent eco-nomic growth projection in Aprilthis year was also curtailed fromADB’s earlier projection of 7.6 percent for the current fiscal endingMarch 2020.

Giving reasons for reducingthe growth projection, the update

said it could be owing to mod-eration in growth in advancedeconomies and due to the impactof slowdown in growth in 2018-19.

“The GDP growth forecastfor FY2019 (fiscal to be endingin March 2020) is revised downfrom the ADO 2019 forecast of7.2 per cent to 7 per cent, main-ly reflecting the unexpectedlyweak FY2018 (2018-19) out-turn,” said the ADB supplementto the ADO 2019.

Also, it added, “moderationin growth prospects for theadvanced economies couldadversely affect tradable ser-vices, this drag on growth miti-gated by a more competitive cur-rency and benign oil prices.”

Referring to the slowdown ineconomic growth in the lastquarter of financial year 2018-19,ADB said, the slowdown wasbroad-based with private con-

sumption and investment growthslowing down.

On the supply side, agricul-ture and manufacturing grewmore slowly as services picked upa bit.

ADB said the US decision toend the preferential trade treat-ment will have minimal effect asit benefited only 1.8 per cent ofall Indian exports.

“Agriculture is expected togrow at a healthy rate in 2019-20,as current weather trends indicatea normal monsoon.

The funding agency furthersaid the economic outlook forSouth Asia remains robust.

“Growth is projected at 6.6per cent in 2019 and 6.7 per centin 2020, albeit a tad lower thanforecast in ADO 2019, in linewith downgrades for India,” ADBsaid. For the developing Asia,ADB has maintained a strong butmoderating growth in line withApril forecasts, even as trade con-flict continues between the USand China.

The regional (developingAsia) gross domestic product(GDP) is forecast to expand by5.7 per cent in 2019, as unex-pectedly strong growth in CentralAsia offsets small downgrades forEast, South, and Southeast Asiain 2019, said the ADO 2019Supplement.

���� 345��4 0&

FMCG major Colgate-Palmolive India Ltd (CPIL)

Thursday reported a 10.76%decline in net profit at �169.11crore for the quarter endedJune 30, 2019, owing to lowergrowth in rural markets. Thecompany had posted net prof-it of �189.51 crore in the April-June quarter last fiscal.

Its total income during thequarter under review stood at�1,100.03 crore, up 4.71% from�1,050.46 crore reported in thecorresponding quarter a yearago, CPIL said in a BSE filing.

“The current quarter saw amoderation in demand impact-ed by lower than expectedgrowth in the rural markets.We do consider this trend to betemporary and expect a pick-

up over the coming quarters,”Colgate-Palmolive (India) LtdManaging Director lssamBachaalani said. He said despitethe moderation, the companycontinues to “remain focussedon strengthening the core ofour business and investing inour advertising and brandbuilding activities”.

In a separate filing,Colgate-Palmolive said itsboard of directors has appoint-ed Ram Raghavan as ManagingDirector of the company witheffect from August 1, 2019.

Most recently, Raghavanhas served as Vice-PresidentMarketing of Asia PacificDivision of Colgate-Palmolive.

Shares of Colgate-Palmolive were trading 3.04%higher at �1203.20 apiece onBSE.

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New Delhi (PTI): Reliance Brands, a subsidiary of RelianceIndustries, has completed acquisition of British toy retailerHamleys for GBP 67.96 million (about �620 crore) in an all-cashdeal. In May this year, Reliance Brands had signed an agreementto acquire 100% stake in Hamleys Global Holdings from HongKong-based C.banner International. Reliance Brands has com-pleted acquisition of 100 per cent stake of Hamleys GlobalHoldings (HGHL) through a special purpose vehicle companyset up in United Kingdom for cash consideration of GBP 67.96million, Reliance Industries said in a BSE filing on Thursday.Hamleys, founded in London in 1760, is one of the world’s old-est retailers of toys and has changed hands several times.

Script Open High Low LTPHDFCBANK 2,400.00 2,429.35 2,400.00 2,403.90YESBANK 88.65 90.3 83.7 85.8CROMPTON 230.05 236.25 228.4 232.85SPICEJET 141.5 149 139.2 143.5MINDTREE 695 725.2 675.05 691.3MARUTI 6,087.90 6,087.90 5,859.00 5,883.80LT 1,450.00 1,454.95 1,431.90 1,433.60TORNTPHARM 1,559.90 1,559.90 1,487.45 1,545.05IBULHSGFIN 664 678.2 652 658.75UPL 653.45 670.35 647.85 655.25GODREJCP 644.35 651.6 639 644.05SBIN 372.2 373.7 362.6 363.65INTELLECT 271.5 272.1 255.65 267.05BAJFINANCE 3,460.00 3,518.00 3,445.00 3,466.35ICICIBANK 425.8 425.9 417.7 418.7SIS 834.7 879.8 830 861.2AXISBANK 754.95 754.95 734.75 740.85WIPRO 258 274 258 269.15RELIANCE 1,281.90 1,286.20 1,258.00 1,261.80INDIGO 1,460.00 1,481.45 1,446.55 1,458.65DHFL 55.2 58.5 53 56.25TCS 2,115.00 2,115.00 2,060.00 2,065.60INFY* 792.4 798.6 786.05 793.15COLPAL 1,170.00 1,220.90 1,153.45 1,202.95DCBBANK 201.9 205.45 189.15 201.05TATAMOTORS 167.7 167.7 160.1 160.8BPCL 354.05 355.3 347.85 348.8HDFC 2,288.00 2,357.00 2,285.00 2,343.85HDFCAMC 2,070.00 2,191.00 2,068.00 2,170.15BANKBARODA 127.65 127.65 121.1 121.4ZEEL 353.55 365.1 349.25 359.75SHREECEM 21,550.00 21,565.00 21,350.40 21,430.50HINDALCO 203.2 203.2 199.4 200.65HDFCLIFE 499 510.25 497.9 503.3TITAN 1,107.00 1,107.00 1,056.70 1,080.90ADANIPOWER 64.1 65.95 61.45 62.65JUSTDIAL 748 768 746.85 759.55INDUSINDBK 1,493.00 1,503.20 1,467.90 1,471.55TATASTEEL 475 475 464 466.55TATAELXSI 740 749 722.8 731.65SUNPHARMA 430 432.75 424.75 426.15ASHOKLEY 85.3 85.4 81.05 81.45FEDERALBNK 103.5 103.5 98.8 99.15M&M 615 616.15 595 597.4RBLBANK 599 599 575.5 579.85L&TFH 122.5 122.5 116.8 117.2

SPARC 142 159.1 141 154.75DISHTV 33 34.8 32.7 34.15ULTRACEMCO 4,625.00 4,625.00 4,575.05 4,603.60CANBK 280 280.4 267.4 268.55ACC 1,600.00 1,609.35 1,560.40 1,567.20RELINFRA 48.5 50.7 47.55 48.25RELCAPITAL 53.4 54.6 52.15 52.6BEL 103.75 103.9 96 96.6PNB 75.1 75.75 72.45 73.2HINDUNILVR 1,762.50 1,763.00 1,717.40 1,739.75RECLTD 154.8 154.8 144.45 147.65KOTAKBANK 1,530.00 1,543.30 1,527.15 1,537.60ONGC 150.5 150.6 143.1 143.5BANKINDIA 85 85.35 81.6 82.15COALINDIA 230 231.1 219.7 220.45BHARATFORG 461.05 461.05 438.6 440.85NTPC 130.7 130.9 126.45 127.05ADANIENT 137.45 137.9 133.4 134.15CARBORUNIV 333.15 336.45 330.3 331.1PEL 2,036.00 2,038.00 1,982.00 1,992.05DLF 190 191.4 182.6 183.2POWERGRID 207.15 208.25 205 205.35HEROMOTOCO 2,540.80 2,553.20 2,470.00 2,479.70ITC 273.5 274.9 272.3 272.95JSWSTEEL 271.7 271.7 265 266.25VEDL 167 167.55 162.15 163.1BAJAJ-AUTO 2,670.00 2,703.20 2,625.00 2,632.85ICICIGI 1,071.00 1,099.00 1,028.05 1,092.25BIOCON 264 265.4 260.45 263.05AUROPHARMA 575 577.8 562.15 569.95JINDALSTEL 143.5 145.05 140.6 142.6LTI 1,620.00 1,629.90 1,575.00 1,577.55LTTS 1,654.45 1,664.75 1,640.50 1,661.35SRF 2,713.00 2,755.25 2,636.90 2,646.25HEG 1,166.00 1,192.80 1,110.00 1,113.35

BAJAJFINSV 7,821.00 7,903.10 7,812.15 7,849.10JUBLFOOD 1,252.00 1,270.80 1,231.05 1,245.95DMART 1,460.00 1,464.65 1,434.50 1,441.45MCX 855 877.65 841.6 871OFSS 3,316.00 3,381.05 3,316.00 3,347.75INDIACEM 97.9 99.75 96.4 98.65BHARTIARTL 350 351 338.55 342.3PFC 125.05 125.55 119.35 121.05TECHM 687 694.2 680.65 687.1ABB 1,490.00 1,500.00 1,444.05 1,455.25IDEA 11.97 11.97 11.2 11.3GRAPHITE 302 303.1 281 285.55KAJARIACER 554.05 555.2 529.65 536.75IOC 146.6 148.85 145.3 147.55ESCORTS 538.05 543.5 527 529.05UNIONBANK 77.3 78 74.45 75BRITANNIA 2,804.65 2,844.00 2,787.95 2,818.15GODREJPROP 980 997.85 970.9 976.6BATAINDIA 1,353.00 1,359.15 1,332.85 1,340.85CADILAHC 241.35 242.95 229.2 231SAIL 47.8 47.8 45.45 45.65BEML 916 928 907.35 913.35DRREDDY 2,669.00 2,678.80 2,629.80 2,655.50SRTRANSFIN 1,078.00 1,078.00 1,045.85 1,052.85RAJESHEXPO 698.5 698.5 684.4 684.9NBCC 54.55 54.55 51.9 52.15BHEL 64.25 64.45 63.5 63.95IDFCFIRSTB 43.1 43.1 41.65 41.8LUPIN 774.65 774.65 753 757.25DABUR 429.9 434.85 426.8 429SUNTV 479 482.6 464.45 465.45DIVISLAB 1,655.95 1,662.30 1,638.05 1,641.50STAR 365.7 369.65 361 362.35NCC 83.1 83.1 80.4 80.65EICHERMOT 18,598.00 18,598.00 18,341.65 18,397.00HINDPETRO 297 298.1 290.55 291.25LICHSGFIN 549.5 549.5 532.1 533.85SUDARSCHEM 325.5 350.4 324.1 330.75APOLLOHOSP 1,389.95 1,399.85 1,365.45 1,387.40STRTECH 167.3 169.6 162.1 163.4HCLTECH 1,041.00 1,041.00 1,015.65 1,018.30CHENNPETRO 194.55 196.95 191.9 194.75TATAPOWER 70 70 66.1 66.35NMDC 115.3 116.3 113.4 114.5HEXAWARE 355.05 366.4 350.6 360.65ICICIPRULI 392 392 382.7 383.9OMAXE 201.75 201.75 199.4 199.45TORNTPOWER 312.55 312.85 303.4 304.2CIPLA 560 560.05 545.8 547.05ASIANPAINT 1,400.00 1,400.00 1,377.20 1,383.70TATAMTRDVR 81.15 81.15 76.55 76.85PGHL 4,871.00 4,933.25 4,745.00 4,756.55MANAPPURAM 134 134 128.6 129.2AMBUJACEM 216.1 221.15 215 216.9GAIL 144.1 144.2 141.1 141.95M&MFIN 383.75 386.05 375.7 377.5IBREALEST 115.2 115.7 111.65 112.25PCJEWELLER 37.4 37.4 35.35 36.15SBILIFE 764.35 775 737 741.25HAVELLS 727 727 713.55 717.4OIL 172.1 172.1 162.85 163.25GRASIM 919 926.7 906 908CGPOWER 20.6 21.5 20.3 21.5CHOLAFIN 281.7 281.7 265 270.1UJJIVAN 292.4 294 282.45 285.8IBVENTURES 290.5 294.9 286 290.2NESTLEIND 11,705.70 11,740.00 11,547.45 11,582.75NATIONALUM 47.6 47.6 46.35 46.45SOUTHBANK 13.3 13.35 12.95 13.01CENTURYTEX 952.85 960 930 935.45ORIENTBANK 84.05 84.85 81.4 81.85ADANIPORTS 414.2 419.25 410.7 412.45APOLLOTYRE 185.15 186.25 178.6 179.3RCOM 1.6 1.71 1.57 1.71EIHOTEL 169.3 169.3 167 167.7TVSMOTOR 423.5 423.5 412.8 414.2BLISSGVS 163 163 154.2 156.5EXIDEIND 206.4 206.4 199.05 201.3EQUITAS 131.15 131.15 122.3 122.75FSL 53.5 54.5 52.8 53.4THOMASCOOK 189 190.15 168.65 189.6GSFC 87.15 87.7 86.65 87NIITTECH 1,343.05 1,351.05 1,338.30 1,342.55PVR 1,753.00 1,771.65 1,741.15 1,749.00GLENMARK 445 448.2 438.65 440.65MOTHERSUMI 118.05 118.1 115.2 116.55KTKBANK 100.2 100.2 96.5 96.8TATAGLOBAL 259 259 254.3 254.95SUNTECK 448 452.6 440.65 450.15CEATLTD 889.15 895.5 879.35 883.2WABAG 289.95 310 288 302.3PIDILITIND 1,229.00 1,235.00 1,216.85 1,228.20VGUARD 240.5 240.9 234.25 234.7BALKRISIND 751.45 765.8 746.65 750.65TATACHEM 601.15 615 600 602.3QUESS 470.45 487 465.4 476.15BANDHANBNK 539 543 527 528.65ADANIGAS 175 175 168.75 169.9VOLTAS 590.55 590.55 578 580.45CANFINHOME 382.9 392 379.55 389.9GODREJIND 475.5 486.65 475.45 484.05SIEMENS 1,215.15 1,228.75 1,201.55 1,205.25INDIANB 232.45 233.3 225.15 226.5PETRONET 250.5 251.1 242.75 244TIMETECHNO 85.5 85.5 81 81.5EDELWEISS 163 163.05 156.85 158.55RPOWER 3.97 3.97 3.81 3.83MFSL 429 432.55 418.9 422.25RAYMOND 699 705 692.05 696.25

CASTROLIND 130.9 133 129.75 130WOCKPHARMA 355.4 355.5 345.25 346.35UBL 1,414.00 1,414.00 1,382.70 1,397.95GMRINFRA 15 15.12 14.7 14.83OBEROIRLTY 559.8 579.7 559.8 569.5BOSCHLTD 15,999.00 16,011.90 15,518.00 15,575.20BOMDYEING 98.95 99 95.55 96.25PAGEIND 20,270.10 20,752.20 20,233.85 20,671.75ADANIGREEN 48.45 49.85 47 47.5INFRATEL 263.1 264.7 261.65 262.55IGL 314.2 321.6 314.2 319.05HFCL 20.55 20.65 20 20.05MEGH 59.95 60.1 56.3 56.9ENGINERSIN 106.75 108.75 104.9 105.25KRBL 214.4 216.05 202 210.95BERGEPAINT 316.9 316.9 312.1 313.85ABCAPITAL 90.3 90.35 89 89.15GRUH 283.25 285.4 281.3 282.2DEEPAKNI 313 317.9 308 309.4CONCOR 551.2 551.2 536.6 538.65PHILIPCARB 117 118.85 113 116.15IRB 93.8 93.8 90.35 91.25MGL 804.9 804.9 789.65 792.9MRF 56,057.65 56,173.70 55,472.75 55,601.90TRIDENT 63 63.5 59.7 60.35JAICORPLTD 97.25 97.35 94.4 95.15ALBK 42.8 43.05 41.6 41.85SWANENERGY 104.6 104.65 103.4 104ADANITRANS 221.75 223.65 211.5 213.4COFFEEDAY 216.45 216.8 212.3 213MUTHOOTFIN 633.5 635.7 624 625.65SUZLON 4.43 4.45 4.3 4.32MARICO 373 373 369.25 370.45DBL 421 423.6 411 412.4GNFC 229.15 229.15 223 223.85JSLHISAR 72.75 73.9 68.6 70.15JUBILANT 469 469 452.15 454NAUKRI 2,239.00 2,259.20 2,210.00 2,216.45RAIN 91.5 92.3 88.45 88.95FORCEMOT 1,302.00 1,308.95 1,272.05 1,277.60DELTACORP 161.3 161.5 159 159.5RADICO 292.1 293.5 282 282.8PTC 63.85 64.05 63.1 63.25NATCOPHARM 519 519.25 497 506.4AMARAJABAT 652.5 653.75 637 639.85TATACOMM 484.65 487.35 472.25 475.8NAVINFLUOR 620.9 629.25 602.05 606.15SUVEN 244.4 248.45 243.6 245.4GSPL 210.4 214.2 204.2 208.45PARAGMILK 259.6 260.65 258.45 259.3ERIS 443.15 447.15 438 440.6IDBI 35 35 34.3 34.5WESTLIFE 302.1 311.6 302 307.7VENKYS 1,520.00 1,529.90 1,491.00 1,497.60HINDZINC 230.5 230.5 224.5 225GICHSGFIN 259.1 259.2 247.4 248.65PRESTIGE 280.3 280.5 272.9 275.9AVANTI 335.05 339.05 329 330.4GUJFLUORO 928 952.95 915 939.55CHAMBLFERT 162 164.1 161.7 162.05JISLJALEQS 23.5 23.75 22.55 22.9BBTC 914.55 934 910 912.3PNBHOUSING 753.5 759 748.55 752.7IBULISL 152 157 145.1 149.8RALLIS 153.7 155.25 148.25 151.3MINDAIND 311.85 314 294.5 298.1RITES 289 294.5 286.8 291.3FCONSUMER 36.55 36.85 36 36.1RNAM 227.3 227.35 226.9 227NOCIL 104.7 104.95 100.5 100.95VIPIND 411.5 411.5 404.2 406.1MRPL 58.8 59.35 57.7 57.9WHIRLPOOL 1,619.95 1,620.00 1,570.40 1,578.45DBCORP 176.9 184.75 164.15 175.9GESHIP* 260.3 260.5 255.5 258UFLEX 225.8 230.95 220 221.55BAJAJELEC 463.95 470 456.25 457.95TRENT 448.75 452.3 446.85 450.4HEIDELBERG 199 204.7 196.7 198.9MPHASIS 919.35 940 917.35 934.6ITI 89.6 89.6 85.5 86JSWENERGY 71.9 72.15 70.85 71.6CARERATING 880 881.8 858.75 873.9JETAIRWAYS 49.4 50.3 45.6 45.6JKTYRE 78.4 78.4 75.95 76.2AJANTPHARM 930 930.55 915.1 923.85DCMSHRIRAM 500.1 510.9 491.5 501.3CAPPL 415.45 429.8 412.45 419.35RCF 56.85 56.85 55.55 55.95SOBHA 566.45 573.15 559.65 560.9WELCORP 135.35 135.35 131.7 134.6VINATIORGA 2,180.50 2,189.00 2,150.00 2,170.00HSCL 94.85 94.85 91.05 91.2JINDALSAW 78.1 79.65 76.7 77.1SKFINDIA 1,927.10 1,950.00 1,927.10 1,935.00SCHAEFFLER 4,351.00 4,351.00 4,288.95 4,345.00SHK 127.9 140 126.7 128.15KEC 322.55 323 316.3 318.6TATAINVEST 856 863 851.15 859.95KEI 466 471.6 456.35 457.65NHPC 23.85 23.85 23.3 23.4INFIBEAM 42.1 42.4 41.8 41.95GSKCONS 7,515.00 7,515.00 7,420.00 7,471.80VBL 890 966.25 890 942.6RAMCOCEM 780 780 769.45 770.6EMAMILTD 325 325.2 318.95 320.75ASTRAL 1,343.00 1,343.00 1,292.65 1,297.40INDHOTEL 146.25 149.35 146 147.8GODFRYPHLP 776.55 789 770 782.55

TATACOFFEE 78.05 79 76.85 77.2JBCHEPHARM 371 379.5 368.8 369.5GREAVESCOT 134.45 136.6 134 135.95CENTURYPLY 143 143 136.9 137.25CUMMINSIND 747.9 752 736.2 740.5FINCABLES 384 399.5 383.05 384.75EIDPARRY 167.8 167.8 160.6 161.85ISEC 223.1 226.25 222.75 224.9LAKSHVILAS 63.1 65.25 62.7 63.05IRCON 391.9 391.95 385.75 386.85HINDCOPPER 37.5 37.55 36.65 36.7FRETAIL 429 430.5 421.3 424.05GUJALKALI 484.45 487.8 470.85 473GDL 117.45 119.1 115.6 118.6TV18BRDCST 23.2 23.2 22.55 22.7PIIND 1,138.30 1,148.40 1,117.60 1,124.60APLLTD 525 528.25 520.35 524.3JAMNAAUTO 46 46.15 45.05 45.25IDFC 35.75 36.1 35.45 35.9TAKE 121 121.15 118 118.3HONAUT 22,511.00 22,970.10 22,229.35 22,662.45ABFRL 204 204.65 202.9 203.05LAXMIMACH 4,600.00 4,721.00 4,577.60 4,655.85THERMAX 1,099.00 1,101.75 1,082.25 1,088.90BDL 301.1 307.2 300.5 301.65MAGMA 96 96 86.8 87.65CYIENT 540.5 550 538 544.153MINDIA 22,177.00 22,241.60 21,910.00 21,924.15J&KBANK 39.15 39.3 38.3 38.4REPCOHOME 361.1 365.8 355.7 358.55LUXIND 1,117.25 1,124.70 1,110.50 1,122.15KANSAINER 433.9 435.15 420 423.5JPASSOCIAT 2.74 2.74 2.6 2.62GODREJAGRO 480 493 476.65 487.3GRANULES 94.15 94.9 92.85 93.45NLCINDIA 63.15 63.15 61.15 61.3WELSPUNIND 56.4 57.2 56.1 57.05MAHSCOOTER 4,225.00 4,225.00 4,150.00 4,169.75PGHH 10,800.00 10,934.65 10,700.00 10,816.90BALMLAWRIE 178.95 178.95 176.1 176.5CREDITACC 523.35 532.7 520.7 526.55SUPREMEIND 1,080.15 1,110.00 1,080.15 1,097.40INOXLEISUR 319.5 324.05 312.8 314.25LALPATHLAB 1,115.00 1,130.00 1,055.10 1,118.50IPCALAB 942 948.75 930 932.95GICRE 227.55 228.4 225 225.65SANOFI 5,886.00 5,959.95 5,800.00 5,913.40IFCI 8.53 8.59 8.27 8.34PRSMJOHNSN 94.35 94.8 91 91.75SYNDIBANK 39.85 39.85 38.55 38.7BIRLACORPN 616.35 616.35 594.2 596.8COROMANDEL 383 384.95 366.6 377.1DEEPAKFERT 92 93.05 90.2 91.65GILLETTE 7,026.75 7,140.00 6,984.50 7,041.35SONATSOFTW 350.45 351.65 346.5 350.8SADBHAV 187.5 192.25 184 186.2APLAPOLLO 1,540.00 1,546.30 1,510.00 1,525.10ASTERDM 126.05 127.9 125.2 126.3JKLAKSHMI 350 352.5 348.95 349.45AUBANK 666 673.2 666 668.7HUDCO 38.3 38.6 37.75 37.8TIINDIA 417.45 422 412.8 416.65DCAL 215.4 218.1 213 214.05ASHOKA 126.8 128.55 122.8 126.75MOIL 148.6 148.85 148.05 148.15RELAXO 426.45 426.45 415 420.25ENDURANCE 977.85 1,000.00 963.55 995.8FINEORG 1,468.00 1,500.00 1,459.95 1,463.20GHCL 220.6 221.4 212 212.9PNCINFRA 190.95 193.45 183.7 192.15ABBOTINDIA 8,718.90 8,718.90 8,537.00 8,546.85APARINDS 555.5 559.3 537.25 545.8TTKPRESTIG 6,224.80 6,238.50 6,103.00 6,115.05HIMATSEIDE 159 159 153.05 154.1SJVN 25.8 25.8 25.1 25.4ITDCEM 91.55 91.55 88.55 91.1CUB 209.35 209.35 202.25 204.4FINOLEXIND 512 520.8 512 515.7ATUL 3,798.60 3,836.90 3,790.80 3,797.55ITDC 225 225.95 212 216.15HSIL 234.55 234.55 224.1 224.75FORTIS 129.75 132.3 128.9 129.4JKCEMENT 990.2 1,003.10 974.05 976.15LAURUSLABS 356 356 350 350.05NESCO 553.3 560 552.9 555.8NILKAMAL 1,123.20 1,130.00 1,100.60 1,113.65ALLCARGO 100 100.65 99.25 100.2GPPL 81.2 81.65 80.95 81.1KALPATPOWR 511.7 516.95 509.05 511.25GLAXO 1,183.00 1,183.00 1,166.00 1,170.00MAHINDCIE 219.4 219.4 214.95 217.55MAHLIFE 420 420 398.75 401.85FDC 165.25 167 162.4 165.65NETWORK18 24.55 24.55 22.75 23.15ASTRAZEN 2,001.60 2,001.60 1,944.00 1,953.35MOTILALOFS 649.8 649.8 621.1 627.25CENTRUM 25.95 25.95 24.55 24.9ORIENTCEM 108 108 105.55 106.5AEGISLOG 206.1 210.75 204 205.1ESSELPRO 130 130.1 129.5 129.95LINDEINDIA 503.55 505 501.3 502ALKEM 1,745.50 1,772.00 1,745.00 1,754.90JMFINANCIL 73.35 73.85 71.4 72.05PFIZER 3,168.45 3,222.00 3,157.30 3,193.10AAVAS 1,508.00 1,516.45 1,489.35 1,492.15SHANKARA 359 359 342.3 345.45SREINFRA 16 16.65 16 16.15MMTC 22.45 22.6 22.15 22.2GMDCLTD 72.3 72.8 71.25 71.6

ADVENZYMES 161.6 163 159.6 161.15BASF 1,159.90 1,161.00 1,125.45 1,129.90ASAHIINDIA 200 201.45 200 200TIMKEN 730 732.7 710 719.55TATAMETALI 556.35 557.25 555.3 555.95KNRCON 280 280 270.15 274.95HERITGFOOD 366.85 367 351.35 359.85COCHINSHIP 366.1 371.65 362.8 363.2SUNDRMFAST 454 456.2 449.25 450.95CENTRALBK 19.55 19.65 19.45 19.5JYOTHYLAB 161.75 161.75 158.7 160.1CORPBANK 26.45 26.45 25.95 26.1BAJAJHLDNG 3,539.45 3,539.45 3,515.05 3,518.75SCI 30.7 31.05 30.25 30.3BAYERCROP 3,342.95 3,364.65 3,310.00 3,336.20IFBIND 735.55 744.8 713.5 724.5TEJASNET 136.8 136.8 132.35 133.05REDINGTON 100.3 101.15 98 99.9DHANUKA 398.4 408.8 394.75 396.6MINDACORP 107.7 108.1 101.5 102.8NIACL 133.6 134.15 131.7 132.05BLUESTARCO 737.05 743.3 732.9 733.5ZENSARTECH 242.4 246.7 239.1 242.7ZYDUSWELL 1,364.60 1,385.00 1,364.60 1,377.30GUJGAS 163.6 165.35 162.2 163HAL 677 681 670 674.85JSL 31.4 31.45 30.8 31UCOBANK 18.35 18.45 17.95 18.05MAXINDIA 63 63.2 62.55 63.05SOMANYCERA 424.45 427.85 424.45 425ANDHRABANK 22.5 22.7 22.2 22.3CRISIL 1,425.90 1,425.90 1,388.20 1,393.30

BAJAJCON 312.05 312.35 309 310.5TVTODAY 279.6 281.75 279.6 280HATSUN 704 714.65 688 704.4VARROC 444 445.8 436.6 441.3THYROCARE 460 463 456.5 459.45SCHNEIDER 91.75 91.75 88.35 88.7EVEREADY 70.2 72.6 70 71.9HATHWAY 22 22.05 21.2 21.35CHOLAHLDNG 485.55 498.7 483.1 494.3SYNGENE 324 326 320.95 322.15STARCEMENT 112.75 114 112 112.25VMART 2,039.65 2,060.00 2,023.25 2,043.05MAHABANK 15.8 15.8 15.5 15.55ECLERX 672 680 662.2 665.75VTL 1,005.00 1,005.00 986.35 999.65CERA 2,737.10 2,737.90 2,713.95 2,722.50GET&D 222.9 223.4 215.45 215.9IOB 12.1 12.1 11.97 12.02INOXWIND 66.8 67.4 64.1 64.25GRINDWELL 583 583 575 580.25PERSISTENT 611.15 616 606.95 608.7LEMONTREE 64.55 64.75 64.15 64.55SYMPHONY 1,239.65 1,241.70 1,202.50 1,228.70ELGIEQUIP 269.9 269.9 261 261TRITURBINE 99.7 99.7 97.4 97.65MONSANTO 2,166.95 2,188.20 2,122.55 2,138.70JAGRAN 97.65 98.85 96.8 97.95NH 225.35 225.35 222.45 222.95FLFL 468.5 468.5 453 455.9WABCOINDIA 6,141.50 6,141.50 6,105.00 6,114.60KPRMILL 593.65 593.9 590.4 593ORIENTELEC 158 159.2 156.1 157.1PHOENIXLTD 655.4 659.8 646.05 654.4SOLARINDS 1,160.00 1,169.30 1,140.55 1,169.05AKZOINDIA 1,742.25 1,742.25 1,723.05 1,724.10LAOPALA 197.55 199.05 194.2 194.9INDOSTAR 350.05 355 348.5 349.85MAHLOG 452.8 455.05 446.95 450.15BLUEDART 2,440.00 2,440.00 2,369.70 2,401.00UNITEDBNK 9.9 9.97 9.82 9.87GULFOILLUB 832 832 815 820.2MHRIL 229.15 231.05 226.55 227.6GALAXYSURF 1,223.85 1,243.20 1,221.60 1,230.80SFL 1,285.00 1,309.00 1,266.00 1,297.65GEPIL 852.8 852.8 836.6 842.2SUPRAJIT 199 201.75 199 199.7TEAMLEASE 2,979.45 3,004.00 2,976.25 3,002.10TNPL 176.6 176.6 173.95 174.95MAHSEAMLES 429.25 459.9 429.25 435.35AIAENG 1,755.70 1,770.50 1,746.90 1,751.20JCHAC 1,600.00 1,600.00 1,600.00 1,600.00NBVENTURES* 95.2 95.2 92.8 93.85SHOPERSTOP 461.95 462.5 456.2 456.4SHILPAMED 353.2 356.2 352.45 354.75TCNSBRANDS 784.85 785.9 772.1 783.7SHRIRAMCIT 1,524.95 1,524.95 1,499.55 1,502.30GAYAPROJ 140 144.7 139.25 142.25IEX 145.65 145.85 144.85 145.2CCL 246.6 246.6 245.5 245.5TVSSRICHAK 1,845.00 1,850.00 1,841.15 1,850.00

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SCRIP OPEN HIgh LOW LTP CHANGENIFTY 50 11,675.60 11,677.15 11,582.40 11,596.90 -90.6WIPRO 261 274.15 259.55 267.75 8.15HDFC 2,287.95 2,357.85 2,285.55 2,338.00 51.3ZEEL 353.4 364.95 349.2 360.75 7.5BRITANNIA 2,800.00 2,844.00 2,787.55 2,820.00 22.2HDFCBANK 2,403.00 2,429.00 2,401.90 2,414.75 17.3IOC 146.85 148.85 145.2 147.45 0.6EICHERMOT 18,530.00 18,581.20 18,350.00 18,470.00 36.3KOTAKBANK 1,531.35 1,543.25 1,526.20 1,537.50 2.9ITC 272.95 275.1 272.3 272.95 0.05BAJFINANCE 3,460.00 3,520.00 3,444.00 3,460.00 -3.3ULTRACEMCO 4,612.30 4,621.00 4,575.00 4,604.00 -4.95BAJAJFINSV 7,858.70 7,907.90 7,810.00 7,834.30 -20.25INFRATEL 264 264.75 261.5 263.25 -0.75INFY 789.05 798.5 786.2 791.75 -2.4TECHM 687.35 694.25 680.1 687 -3.8DRREDDY 2,665.25 2,679.85 2,630.00 2,647.00 -19.3UPL 658 670.95 647.4 655 -4.75ASIANPAINT 1,395.00 1,395.35 1,377.20 1,384.50 -11.4ADANIPORTS 416.7 419.3 410.75 413.6 -3.45BPCL 354 355.35 347.85 349.7 -3.1BHARTIARTL 348 351.2 338.6 343 -3.25SUNPHARMA 430.05 432.9 424.65 425.45 -4.6GAIL 144 144.2 141 141.75 -1.65POWERGRID 208.9 208.9 205 205.5 -2.5AXISBANK 754 755 734.6 743 -9.6HINDUNILVR 1,766.00 1,766.00 1,709.00 1,737.50 -23.2RELIANCE 1,282.00 1,286.40 1,258.00 1,264.90 -16.95IBULHSGFIN 664 678.2 651 658.9 -9.3ICICIBANK 425 425.5 417.5 418.65 -6.05NTPC 130.1 130.95 126.4 127.2 -1.9LT 1,444.80 1,454.95 1,432.00 1,433.00 -22.45HEROMOTOCO2,519.90 2,555.00 2,466.65 2,483.90 -39.05TATASTEEL 473 475.35 463.85 468 -7.7HINDALCO 201.9 202.9 199.35 200 -3.45M&M 613.9 616.45 595 598.5 -10.95INDUSINDBK 1,496.05 1,503.00 1,468.35 1,473.00 -28.25HCLTECH 1,033.40 1,037.00 1,016.00 1,020.40 -20.35TITAN 1,105.00 1,106.50 1,056.20 1,088.00 -21.9TCS 2,116.20 2,116.20 2,060.00 2,075.55 -41.7JSWSTEEL 270 270.75 264.9 266.5 -5.4CIPLA 558.85 559 545.5 546.1 -11.45GRASIM 924.95 926.45 905.45 906.5 -20.2SBIN 371.95 373.8 362.55 364.3 -8.1BAJAJ-AUTO 2,700.00 2,711.85 2,621.10 2,625.90 -71VEDL 167.55 167.7 162.1 163.6 -5.05MARUTI 6,054.40 6,055.70 5,857.50 5,875.00 -200.7TATAMOTORS 167.25 167.25 160 161 -6.9COALINDIA 230 230.9 219.5 219.95 -10.05ONGC 149.95 150.8 143.05 143.3 -6.6YESBANK 88.6 90.25 79.15 85.9 -12.5

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Iran’s paramilitaryRevolutionary Guard forces

seized a foreign oil tankeraccused of smuggling oil, Iran’sstate TV reported on Thursday.The vessel appears to be aUnited Arab Emirates-basedtanker that had disappeared offtrackers in Iranian territorialwaters over the weekend.

The seizure was the latestin a series of dramatic devel-opments as tensions mountbetween the United States andIran over the unravellingnuclear deal between Tehranand world powers.

The Panamanian-flaggedoil tanker MT Riah stoppedtransmitting its location earlySunday near Qeshm Island,which has a RevolutionaryGuard base on it, according todata listed on tracking siteMaritime Traffic.

Iran’s state television didnot identify the seized vessel ornationalities of the crew, butsaid it was intercepted onSunday. It said the oil tankerhad 12 foreign crew members

on board and was involved insmuggling some 1 million liters(264,000 gallons) of fuel fromIranian smugglers to foreigncustomers.

The report said the oiltanker was intercepted south ofIran’s Larak Island in the Straitof Hormuz. Larak is a smallerisland just southeast of thelarger Qeshm Island.

Crude prices, which hadbeen falling since last week,ticked higher almost immediately after reports of theincident.

The seizure of the shipdoes not immediately appear todirectly target any one partic-ular country and shows theRevolutionary Guard crack-ing down on illegal smugglingof Iranian oil.

If the MT Riah was indeedthe ship seized, the movedirectly singles out UAE-boundand based vessels. The 58-meter (190-foot) Riah typical-ly made trips from Dubai andSharjah on the UAE’s westcoast before going through thestrait and heading to Fujairahon the UAE’s east coast.

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Going after four Democraticcongresswomen one by

one, a combative PresidentDonald Trump turned his cam-paign rally into an extendeddissection of the liberal viewsof the women of color, derid-ing them for what he paintedas extreme positions and sug-gesting they just get out.

“Tonight I have a suggestionfor the hate-filled extremistswho are constantly trying to tearour country down,” Trump toldthe crowd in North Carolina, aswing state he won in 2016 andwants to claim again in 2020.“They never have anythinggood to say. That’s why I say,‘Hey if you don’t like it, let ‘emleave, let ‘em leave.’”

Eager to rile up his base

with the some of the same kindof rhetoric he targeted atminorities and women in 2016,Trump declared Wednesdaynight, “I think in some casesthey hate our country.”

Trump’s jabs were aimed atthe self-described “squad” offour freshmen Democrats whohave garnered attention sincetheir arrival in January fortheir outspoken liberal viewsand distaste for Trump: Reps.Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ofNew York, Ilhan Omar ofMinnesota, Ayanna Pressleyof Massachusetts and RashidaTlaib of Michigan. All wereborn in the U.S. except forOmar, who came to the U.S. asa child after fleeing Somaliawith her family.

Taking the legislators onone at a time, Trump tickedthrough a laundry list of whathe deemed offensive commentsby each woman, mangling andmisconstruing many facts

along the way.Omar came under the

harshest criticism as Trumpplayed to voters’ grievances,drawing a chant from thecrowd of “Send her back! Sendher back!”

She responded Wednesdaynight with a series of tweets,including one quoting MayaAngelou’s defiant poem, “StillI Rise,” with the words “Youmay shoot me with yourwords... But still, like air, I’llrise.” “I am where I belong, atthe people’s house and you’rejust gonna have to deal!” shewrote in another.

Trump set off a firestormSunday when he tweeted thatthe four should “go back” totheir home countries — thoughthree were born in the UnitedStates. Trump has accusedthem of “spewing some of themost vile, hateful and disgust-ing things ever said by a politi-cian.”

He expanded on his criti-cisms in Greenville.

Among his complaintsagainst Tlaib, Trump correctlyreported that she had referredto the president by the “F-word,” adding, “That’s not nice,even for me.” Trump himselfhad unloaded a vulgarity ear-lier in his speech, denouncingthe Russia probe of his cam-paign and administration as“bulls.” As for Ocasio-Cortez,Trump fumbled over her nameand declared, “I don’t havetime to go with three differentnames.” He then referred to heras just “Cortez” as he chal-lenged her complaints aboutdire conditions at migrantdetention centers at the border.

In a lighter moment,Trump wondered if Pressleywas related to Elvis Presley,then pivoted to more seriouspoints, claiming she thoughtpeople of color should “thinkthe same.”

Brussels: Britain is due toleave the EU in 15 weeks withor without an agreement onfuture ties and officials fromboth sides are trading insultsinspired by a 1970s WWII sit-com. In a BBC documentary tobe screened on Thursday, EUCommission vice presidentFrans Timmermans recallsBritish negotiators behavinglike characters in “Dad’s Army”.

The beloved British seriesfeatures a World War II HomeGuard unit of mainly elderly

volunteers and their madcapadventures as they await aGerman invasion that nevercame. Timmermans, recallingBrexit talks with British min-isters, said, “It’s like LanceCorporal Jones, you know?‘Don’t panic, don’t panic,’ run-ning around like idiots.”

On Thursday, Britain’sjunior Brexit minister MartinCallanan was asked about thecomments as he arrived inBrussels for talks with other EUGovernments. AFP

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Aman screaming “You die!”burst into an animation

studio in Kyoto, doused it witha flammable liquid and set it onfire Thursday, killing 33 peoplein an attack that shocked animefans across Japan and beyond.

Thirty-six others wereinjured, some of them critical-ly. The suspect was hurt andtaken to a hospital. Police iden-tified him only a 41-year-oldman who was not a companyemployee. They gave no imme-diate details on the motive.

Most of the victims wereemployees at Kyoto Animation,which does work on featurefilms and TV productions butis best known for its mega-hitstories featuring high schoolgirls. The stories are so popu-lar that some of the placesdepicted have become pil-grimage sites for fans.

The blaze started in thethree-story building in Japan’sancient capital after the attack-

er sprayed an unidentified liq-uid accelerant, police and fireofficials said.

Japanese media reportedthe fire might have been setnear the front door, forcingpeople to find other ways out.

Firefighters found 33 bod-

ies, 20 of them on the thirdfloor and some on the stairs tothe roof, where they apparent-ly collapsed while trying to getout, Kyoto fire official KazuhiroHayashi said. Two were founddead on the first floor, 11 oth-ers on the second floor, he said.

A witness who saw theattacker being approached bypolice told Japanese networksthat the man admitted spread-ing gasoline and setting the firewith a lighter. She told NHKpublic television that the manhad burns on his arms and legsand that he was angrily com-plaining that something of hishad been “stolen,” possibly bythe company.

NHK footage also showedsharp knives police had col-lected from the scene, thoughit was not clear if they belongedto the attacker. Survivors saidhe was screaming “You die!” ashe dumped the liquid, accord-ing to Japanese media. Theysaid some of the survivors gotsplashed with the liquid.

Kyoto Animation, betterknown as KyoAni, was found-ed in 1981 as an animation andcomic book production studio,and its hits include “Lucky Star” of 2008, “K-On!”in 2011 and “Haruhi Suzumiya”in 2009.

Washington: The US Housevoted to block USD 8.1 billionin arms sales to Saudi Arabiaand other allies, a rebuke ofDonald Trump that will likelylead to a veto by the president.

Lawmakers, many ofwhom are outraged with thekingdom over Riyadh’s role inthe murder of Saudi journalistJamal Khashoggi last year,approved three resolutions thatwould prevent the controversialsales announced under emer-gency measures earlier thisyear by Trump. The resolutionsblocking the sales have alreadycleared the US Senate, andnow go to the White House,where Trump is expected to

issue a veto, the third of hispresidency.

While the House blockedthe sales with a comfortablemajority, it was about 50 votesshy of the two-thirds needed tooverride Trump’s veto.

Trump is seeking 22 sepa-rate sales of aircraft supportmaintenance, precision-guidedmunitions and other weaponsand equipment to Saudi Arabia,the United Arab Emirates andJordan at a moment of height-ened tensions in the MiddleEast. Critics say the arms saleswould aggravate the devastat-ing war in Yemen, where SaudiArabia is leading a US-backedcoalition in a battle against the

London: Boris Johnson, thefrontrunner to be Britain’s nextPrime Minister, suggested theEU would bear some respon-sibility if he took his countryout of the bloc without adivorce deal. The formerLondon mayor has based hiscampaign to replace TheresaMay on a promise to deliverBrexit as planned on October31, with or without an agree-ment with Brussels.

In a final campaign eventin London ahead of theannouncement of the winnernext week, Johnson said that hewould seek to negotiate newexit terms with the EuropeanUnion over the summer.

But he said that if the EUrefused to be flexible or com-promise on the existing with-

drawal agreement, “if theywon’t change a dot or acomma... Then obviously wehave no choice but to get readyto come out on different terms”.

EU leaders have repeated-ly said they will not renegoti-ate the divorce text they struckwith May last year, even thoughit has been rejected by Britishlawmakers three times.

But Johnson and his rival,Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt,insist they will try, notably byremoving the controversial“backstop” plan to keep openthe border with Ireland.

They have threatened towalk away if they fail — toughtalk that caused the pound tofall Wednesday to its lowestlevel against the US dollar inmore than two years. AFP

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� What happened precisely to set youon a confrontationist path with themedia?

Let me clarify that I have never beenat war with them; even now I have noproblems. In fact, I have had a veryhealthy relationship with journalists. Ihave had differences of opinion withscribes, critics and even had a laugh overa cup of tea despite them. I respect theirarea of work, don’t think they are unfairand accept their right to comment. Butthat dynamic has changed over the lastcouple of years as I sense a deliberateattempt to humiliate me as an artist. Thisconsistent slander has indeed affectedme. I can even analyse the changinginterest in me as a subject. I was strug-gling since 2006-7 and till 2013, I wasirrelevant. Then came Queen and themedia was on my side. It’s just that whenI stood up against Hrithik Roshan,Karan Johar and some other biggies thatI noticed that they began taking sides.Of course, I must admit that most ofthem even stood by me for taking a standand daring to speak up about what need-ed to be spoken for a long time. But postthat, things began to change. Some of itwas voluntary and some of it was non-voluntary. That’s when I realised that themovie mafia had got to the media. InMumbai, that is how it is. The parties,press invites, gifts, travel vouchers,everything is controlled by allied net-works of the star, studios and produc-ers. I don’t really mind it so long as itdoesn’t involve me or target me withoutcontext. Besides, I also know that only60 to 70 people working in the entertain-ment media and as film journalists aremovie mafia-friendly and may have theircompulsions, the rest are totally fair.

But over the last two years, there hasbeen nothing but negative Press aboutme. Every morning I wake up with newnonsense like either I have brokensomebody’s head or a set has come to astandstill because I have showed up lateor I am doing this and that. It was justnasty PR. And then there was the rowover my directing, literally taking overManikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi. Allthese seemed vindictive and pre-medi-tated rather than going into the facts.Why don’t people realise that film busi-ness is serious and has rules? How canI take money from the studio as an actorand start directing the project on myown unless I am asked to? It just isn’tallowed. But they made it look like I amthis control freak who’s bending every-thing to suit herself. Everything I did, beit a brand endorsement or attending aparty, was panned through the sameprism.

With nasty trolling day in and dayout, the confrontation was actuallybuilding up; it’s like being abused and notbeing able to share it with anyone. Youmay not like me but don’t humiliate anartiste for the sake of it. And that daywhat was welling inside me came outbecause I don’t meet those people whowrite about me every day. Honestly, I amso happy that I brought this tension out.

� How badly has all this affected yourwork?

It has undoubtedly affected a fairassessment of my work. When I see my

work and when I see somebody else’smediocre work pitched against mine,and they being made to feel a super-brand despite being so basic in theircraft, I wonder “what’s going on here?”In the past, too, many in the media havebeen slapped and abused and somebodyI just confronted became headlinenews? How do you explain this exceptthat there’s a lobby ganging up againstme. What have I done to offend you insuch a way? You can criticise a film, youcan criticise a performance… that isentirely different and your prerogativebut you cannot be personal. But I amhappy that the masks have come off themovie mafia operatives and they standexposed. Their numbers are so few thatthey are actually nothing but a drop inthe ocean.

� You have changed the contours ofthe industry by challenging establishedpractice and questioning status quo.Does it ever feel that it is a lonely fightat the top? Yes you have stardom, youhave recognition of your work, youhave people that will not desert you,you will even survive. But do you gettired?

It’s anything but lonely becausethere are so many people that sup-port me. Even in conflict, there areso many people around me. Idon’t think it’s lonely at allbut, yes, all this has mademy life very hectic. It’s justso draining to be entan-gled in all this mess andthen 10 days down theline, laughing with thesame person. You’llbe like, “God those 20days were so bad.”

You know whatupset me? That theconfrontation storycame as an after-thought. The Press con-ference was fine and ifany mediaperson feltoffended or didn’t like me, he/shecould have just left. But then to goback and escalate a tiff into anissue that necessitated banning anartiste in her own country wasjust too much. Haven’t stars hadrun-ins with the media before?Then when videos began circu-lating on social media, I, too,retaliated with the holistic videoclips. It wasn’t my intention tobegin with. But the ban meantthat the movie mafia wasworking overtime.

� Are you saying the filmindustry is still subject tolobbyists, groupism andset opinions? At one levelthere is creative democra-cy, with so much happen-ing at the content level.Yet, on the other side, youbelieve that women arestill soft targets of chau-vinistic structures?

I would say the gripis loosening and nowwomen make senseeven commercially.

See the spectrum of leading ladies —from Neena Gupta to Tabu to KanganaRanaut and Alia Bhatt. The arc is so dif-ferent. The flesh and blood women dis-

appeared between the 50sand 60s where we had

Nargisji and Waheedaji.The objectification ofwomen began fromthe 1970s and contin-ued for such a longtime that we forgotwhat we once wereand became just apretty face withflowing hair. Iremember when Idid Gangster,everyone told me,“You know too

much acting foryour own good.”

Some of them evencited examples ofmagnificent failures

of capable actors.I don’t want totake names ofrespectful actorsbut they werecertainly notcommerciallys u c c e s s f u lones. I wastold I wouldbe like themif I acted toomuch. To bea newcomerin the indus-try at thattime and see-ing thingschange radi-cally in thecourse of 10-

13 years, hasbeen a revelation.

There is not just a changein the spectrum of leading

ladies but also leading men,be it Rajkummar Rao, Irrfan

Khan and Ranveer Singh.And it is because this band-

width is ever expansive nowthat the coterie is losing its

grip. That is exactly why I amable to survive.

� Film families contin-ue to have a kind of aura like royals.

Do you believe that the industry hastruly been democratised?

Other than film families, even thestudio system has you hostage. If youwork out a contract with a big studio,they take 30-40 per cent of your earn-ings. They promote you in a way thatyou become a milking machine. Theymilk you and when they are done withyou, they throw you. It happened withme post Queen. To be honest I wouldhave preferred a situation like that tobegin with. In 2006, had a studiogroomed and promoted me, put me onall platforms, got me brands and thentaken 30 per cent, even milked me forfive-10 years, I would not have mind-ed. That works for a struggler. Then atleast I could be on my own in my matureyears. For whatever reason, it didn’t hap-pen. The big production houses cameto me only when I was a legitimate starand the highest paid actress. They stillwanted to take 30-40 per cent of myearnings. Then I had to pay 30 per centto the government in taxes. And even-tually I found that I was not left withanything. So I didn’t sign up with anystudio. I became my own entity. Andthen I started to do well... A lot of peo-ple now want to follow this system.

� How are they paying women actorsnow after you and your peers raisedthe issue of parity?

It depends on the individual, thekind of film you do and your contribu-tion to the project. For example,Manikarnika and Dhaakad are verywomen-driven. Then there is the issueof scale and budgets. There are bigaction sequences in some, demandinga greater outlay than something likeJudgementall Hai Kya or Panga. It can-not be seen from the same lens. But Ican speak for myself. Earlier, I wouldbegrudge working 365 days in a year andwonder why my blood and sweat don’thave any value compared to maleactors. It hurt me. It doesn’t anymorebecause I have realised that there is areason why male stars have lasted 25 to30 years. They must have done some-thing right. They have built their brandin such a way that mathematics favoursthem. They have had a far better busi-ness plan and blueprint than womenactors ever had. They became so self-absorbed in creating an economyaround themselves that they actuallystarted pairing themselves opposite

fresh faces. So the model was very clear,always latch on to a new face to reviveyour youthful appeal. That has workedfor them. It’s clever of them. And thatsustainability has given them theirprice. I now understand that.

� Tell us about Judgmentall Hai Kya,does its punchline ‘trust no one’ seemapt for you at the time?

It’s a mad world of Bobby GrewalBattliwala, a Punjabi Parsi, who is verydifferent. She is “mental”, which is nota politically correct term these days, solet’s say she is eccentric. But she is nota psycho for sure. She is struggling witha dissociative identity disorder. Sheidentifies with a situation to an extentthat she really cannot decipher whetherit’s her own situation or that of others.For instance, if you are getting married,she would start involving herself sodeep that she forgets it’s your marriageor that you would have a say. So sherevels in her world and the film is howthat unfolds many things in her life. Itactually gets quite exciting to a pointwhen a murder takes place and wherethat takes her. The good thing about itis the dichotomy of the “normal” and“mental” people. So Raj is playingsomebody who’s normal. She’s mad andhas no benefit of doubt. Normal peo-ple can get away with so much becausethey are presumed to behave in a cer-tain way but these other ones can haveso much insight. We judge people with-out knowing them at all.

� You have trained as a filmmaker inNew York and have filled up somegaps in Manikarnika. What is yournext move?

Actually, my heart lies in film-mak-ing. I want to be a filmmaker.

� Was that always the case? I think so, yes. Just that I wasn’t

aware of it. When I became an actress,I wasn’t really crazy about dancing withheroes. I was like “yeah sure, get lost.”I was not even the kind that would goecstatic with “aaahh, I am living mydream of becoming an actress.” This isnot me, has never been. I was 23 whenI directed a short film and I knew thisis it. I was so comfortable in theroom, panning frames. That comes nat-urally to me, which is actually verystrange. A lot of people say, “You aresuch a good performer, we wouldn’twant to lose you as an actor.” But I amso comfortable in the role of a filmmak-er. An actor is always taking instruc-tions... always. Always feeling unsure...You are just a drop in the ocean. A film-maker has a natural quality of leader-ship. I can set my film under water, inthe sky, in the fire. I have the very free-dom of waking up and writing a scene.I actually prefer to get stories from oth-ers and then develop my own perspec-tive on them. I just want to take a storyand depict it. May be I’ll not be mak-ing money, doing three films a year.May be people won’t remember myface. May be the grey strand will showin my hair. But I don’t mind all of that.The very freedom of doing your ownthing is unparalleled.

Photo: Pankaj Kumar

Over the past few months,there have been quite a few

major vehicle launches by theIndian automotive industrydespite the dramatic decline insales. Some of these new carmodels have established them-selves in the market but just lookat them. Mahindra’s rather niceXUV300, then Hyundai’s newVenue, followed by the first major

Chinese manufacturer to enter theIndian market with the MGHector and in the coming days,the launch of the Kia Seltos. Seea common thread? These cars areall Sports Utility Vehicles, and asI said a few months ago, the copy-writer who came up with the termmust be laughing all the way to thebank, because SUVs are (usually,with some expensive exceptions)

not sporty, definitely not in thesub-20 lakh price segment. Andthey are not really utilitarian.Sure, the two-box body style isuseful when you want to transportsome big items. But you couldconversely ask why estate-carsnever did well if that was such animportant buying criterion.

SUVs are popular for possiblythe sole reason that people sit high

up and that makes us feel a bitsafer, particularly with the chaoson the roads around us. The lovefor SUVs, therefore, is psycholog-ical rather than practical. Theargument that the higher groundclearance will help in navigatingrough roads is a bit facile sincesome sedans and hatchbacks havereasonably high ground clear-ances as well. One reason the fas-

cination with SUVs looks odd tome is that they’re not half as muchfun to drive as lower-set sedansand hatchbacks as they take upmore space, are heavier and con-sequently burn more fuel. Onereason for the SUV rush of the lastdecade in India, in particular, hasbeen because of the ultra-econom-ical diesel engines. But even in theUnited States and China, the twolargest automotive markets in theworld, where petrol-powered carsdominate, SUVs have beenextremely popular as well. This isnot just an Indian thing after all.And manufacturers are shiftingmore and more resources to SUVsand it is telling that the first long-range electric car launched inIndia was, you guess it, a SUV.

What is wrong with SUVs?Frankly, nothing much. But I amnot a fan of “soft road” cars. MostSUVs, particularly smaller ones,are nothing more than hatchbacksor vans on stilts. And despite

excellent engineering work, SUVsstill do tend to roll a bit and do nothave what you would call excellenthandling. Take the Honda Civicand CR-V for example; why onewould want to buy the SUV overthe excellent sedan is mind-bog-gling, unless you really, reallyneeded that third row. And it isthe same case across manufactur-ers but they themselves haverealised they’re onto a good thing.Minimal modifications to theplatform and suspension set-up ofa sedan and a different bodymeans you can price the sameessential car for 20-30 per centmore — case in point the HyundaiVerna and Hyundai Creta. TheVerna is much nicer to drive, looksbetter and as it’s both a long-dis-tance highway cruiser and anurban commuter, it makes moresense than the Creta even beforeyou compare the prices. Sameengines, same transmissions, sameeverything. But the Creta isHyundai’s money-maker.

But then again, who am I toquestion what people like tobuy? In times as rough as thesefor the automotive industry,whatever sells is a good thing. Butmay be it is time that people whobuy cars begin to realise thatSUVs are not really all thatthey’re hyped up to be.

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Often, when you are abroad, youhanker for flavours fromhome. So it is not surprising

that as one walks the streets ofStockton at Union Square in SanFrancisco, the smell of Indian-inspiredfood at Campton Place Restauranttriggers memories and nostalgia,which is bound to exercise an almostmagnetic pull towards itself. It offersa refined version of contemporaryCal-Indian cuisine, which has earnedthe restaurant its second Michelin star,establishing it as the only Indian-influ-enced restaurant in the United Statesand Europe to have got this honour.

The restaurant has changed thearchitecture of Californian cuisine aschef Srijith Gopinathan blends freshingredients with India’s multi-facetedregional dishes, aromatics and tradi-tional spices. Most Westerners oftenconfuse Punjabi cuisine or the vari-ants that have sprouted all overEurope, especially UK, to be the sumtotal of the Indian cuisine. The intro-duction of dishes from other parts ofthe country, which are numerous, var-ied and different, is a gradual andongoing process, of which Srijith toois a part. It is dishes from peninsularIndia with a Californian twist that heserves at his restaurant.

Talking about his Cal-Indianfusion and experiments, he says, “Ilove artfully integrating Californianproduce and Indian cooking tech-niques. The intricacies that I blend ininclude replacing yogurt with yogurtfoam, mint chutney with mint ice,tamarind with tamarind gel andcrunchy puri with a combination ofgrains and dehydrated olives, whichare used for extra texture and flavour-ing.”

The chef believes that consisten-cy is the key to success. “This is thereason I have earned a Michelin starfor eight years in a row for the SanFrancisco dining establishment,including two stars in 2016 and2017,” he says.

Giving an insight about his sig-nature dish Spice pot he apprises us,“It is one of the dishes that is loved byIndian guests. It was invented as aresult of an experiment. I went to agarden shop and bought lots of potsbut then you are not supposed to servefood in them. I just wanted to createthe visual. I was so pleased with theresult that I picked up some food-friendly pots for the restaurant toserve my Californian interpretation of

dahi puri in which vividly-colouredvegetables sit on top. The saucer belowthe pot is filled with pebbles, moss andsome bits of dry ice to replicate thestunning San Francisco fog. (Whenhot water touches the ice, it fumes.)”

The chef, born and brought up inIndia, talks about his roots, “I havealways believed in my homeland andthe kind of cuisines that the countrycan offer to the world. The authenticflavours and spices have helped me increating and innovating some of thefinest dishes at the restaurant. It is veryimportant for a chef to always stick tohis roots and involve those skills andtechniques in food preparations.”

Indian cuisine is spreading itswings and gaining recognition at aninternational level. Talking about thesame, Srijith tells us, “The regionalcuisines of India have been recognisedand admired all over the world.There are several speciality restaurantsin the world that are known for theirauthentic taste and flavours. Everycuisine of India is stellar. The northIndian one has travelled outside thecountry before the one from south. Sothe latter is still new and fresh to thelarger Western world. People appre-ciate change and new things and thatis exactly what is happening right nowwith south Indian cuisine.”

He is witnessing the new food

movements and revolution at a broad-er level. Srijith says, “There has beena significant shift in consumers’ foodchoices and preferences.Vegetarianism and organic cookinghave stood as powerful food tools forchefs and restaurateurs to evolve,innovate and provide more bespokecuisine experiences to the guests.”

As the digital era is the new real-ity, people capture the food andflavours on phone and spread theword about the dishes, which hasturned social media into a vehicle topopularise them. To this, he says,“This is one more reason that chefsspend a lot of time to enhance the aes-thetics of the dish and make it moreappealing for their patrons. I believeit’s one of the best ways to connect,showcase and communicate whatyou are eating and spreading the wordabout different cuisines that one canexperience.”

Sharing his source of inspiration,the chef says, “Everything around meis inspiring. From my grandmother’scooking to my wife’s to farmers’ mar-kets to a guy with his chaat cart on thestreets and of course fellow chefs.”

He elaborates on how it all began,“I grew up being influenced by theexotic spices of southern India thatfilled the air of my home. My back-yard blossomed with ginger andturmeric and my grandmother alwaystasked me to collect these culinarytreasures and bring them into thefamily kitchen, where I observedlessons on utilising every part of aningredient and spice. Since then, Ihave always been passionate aboutcooking. I strive to do better than yes-terday and keep learning and innovat-ing at work. Learning while cookingis an ongoing process in every chef ’sjourney. I have come a long way sinceI started.”

Picture this. A wave of Edison bulbs andgolden lights, layered across the ceiling,form an arch, which creates a vibe of ajazzy pub. The amalgamation of a legionof shades of blue on the walls, paired

with black and white-stripped wallpapers, theplace does look like a fun one to hop into. As Ientered The Lord of The Drinks, Noida, the aurawas relaxed and the crowd was still filtering inslowly.

The place offers a menu of contemporaryIndian, European and Oriental cuisine. The man-ager suggested that I should start with someCheese pao bhaji and at the mere mention of thedairy product, my expectations spiralled to level100. Yes, I wanted to go for it because I absolute-ly love it. But then disappointment was in store.The dish was served with a small ricotta vada,plated with fried chillies and masala onions. Butno matter how hard I looked (or in this case, tast-ed) there was no ‘cheese’ to be found in the so-called ‘cheese pao bhaji.’ Upon inquiry, theyclaimed that it was there. Maybe it was but if thatwas so the quantity was meagre, almost akin toa drop of water in the ocean.

While ordering the next dish, the graph ofmy expectations was already on the brink of aprecipice. So I stuck to the safe option ofBruschetta bars, but decided to stir things up withthe category by ordering Parmesan and Rocket.The basic bruschetta mainly involves rubbing rawgarlic on grilled bread and a topping of choppedtomatoes with basil. But the one that I had wasimaginative — a bruschetta topped with somerocket walnuts. ‘Expect the unexpected’ wasdescription that crossed my mind. The bar, servedwith ricotta, parmesan cheese, rocket walnuts anda few drops of olive oil, left a strong, creamy tex-ture in my mouth.

After munching on the bars, the graphundoubtedly surged. It was the turn for a pizza.I ordered their special one — Lord of Verdure. Itwas a combination of a number of toppings witha super crunchy base. Do you have an answer tothis one — how many toppings on a pizza would

be too many even if you like all of them individ-ually? Clueless, right? It surely left me feeling thesame. The toppings included grilled mix ofaubergines and zucchini, roasted bell peppers,caramelised onions and tomatoes. It was like acelebration of different flavours which bursttogether in my mouth and created one organicwhole that was scrumptious.

To accompany the dishes, I ordered a cock-tail — Orange Cosmo. With a base of vodka andorange juice, it was blended with the triple sec,an orange-flavoured liqueur made from the driedpeels of bitter and sweet oranges. Even thoughthe drink’s base and flavour could have perfect-ly accompanied the pizza, it was too dilutedbecause there was an excess of ice which madeit indistinguishable from chilled water. The man-ager took not more than a minute to replace thedrink with an untitled cocktail, however, “spe-cially curated” by the mixologist for me. With theBowen whisky and lime juice as its base, it tast-ed of strawberry and kaffir lime. The well-blend-

ed ingredients in the drink did compensate forthe earlier disappointment.

Hopping on to the next dish, I orderednachos, which actually turned out to be cheeseones. The anomaly made me dissolve into a fitof giggles. Not writing and specifying cheese inthe menu before nachos while doing so with thepao bhaji, which did not even have a hint wasthe trigger. Of course, the drink too had start-ed taking its effect and made me a bit light-head-ed. The tortilla chips came in a blue and white-stripped plate, overloaded with creamy meltedcheese and topped with sour cream and olives.It was the best combination that one could haveasked for. The initial cheese craving was finallyfulfilled.

The manager then asked me to pick somedesserts to end the meal. However, I was so sati-ated that I decided to give them a miss. Eventhough desserts, I believe, are the best of a meal,I did not fear missing out on anything as I wassatisfied with most if not all the delicacies served.

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Men’s captain ManpreetSingh on Thursday said

the next three months will becrucial for Indian hockeyahead of the final round ofTokyo Olympic Qualifiers inNovember.

“The next three monthsare critical for us and whatev-er we are doing is with focuson sealing our OlympicQualification in November,”Manpreet said on the sidelinesof the on-going nationalcamp.

The team will first travelto Japan for the Olympic testevent starting August 17where India will play againstNew Zealand, Malaysia andhosts Japan followed by thetour of world championBelgium in September.

“Our main priority rightnow is to qualify for theOlympics but at the sametime we don’t want to comeunder pressure and be worriedabout who our opponent isgoing to be. Our focus rightnow is to work on our short-comings and improve collec-tively as a team.”

Manpreet also said new

coach Graham Reid has agood understanding of Indianhockey and continues toencourage India’s counter-attacking play.

“The good thing workingunder Graham Reid is that hehas closely followed India’sperformance over the yearsand he understands our gamewell so in that sense he isn'tchanging our style.

“He continues to rein-force that our attack andcounter-attacks are our biggeststrengths but the focus of ourtraining is to ensure we aredefending and finishing wellwith continued emphasis onspeed and fitness,” Manpreetsaid.

Though the team has beenmarred with injuries includingexperienced midfielderChinglensana Singh’s anklefracture, for ward LalitUpadhyay’s back strain,Manpreet believes there areenough options in the coregroup who can soak up thepressure of internationalhockey.

“These players are missedin the team and we are hope-ful they will be fully fit by theOlympic qualifiers.”

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The Indian men’s and women’steams sailed into the semifinals of

the 21st Commonwealth Table TennisChampionships after convincing vic-tories over their respective opponents,here on Thursday.

The Indian women’s team defeat-ed Wales, Malaysia and Nigeria byidentical 3-0 margin to enter the last-four from Group F of the Super Eightround.

The Indian men too have enteredthe semifinals after defeating SriLanka and Malaysia by 3-0 margin.The Indian male paddlers, however,have a formality to complete as theyplay their last Group F match againstWales.

Anthony Amalraj had an easyouting against Sri Lankan KrishanWickramaratha, cleaning him upwith a 3-0 verdict in the opener. Hestruggled a bit against MalaysianFeng Chee Leong but the Indian over-came the initial hiccups to beat him3-1.

G Sathiyan and Manav Thakkarcompeted against Sri Lanka whileAchanta Sharath Kamal and HarmeetDesai were pitted against Malaysia.

India’s coaches Australian BrettClarke and Soumyadeep Roy gaveample opportunities to all the playersbefore Friday’s semifinal and finals.

In the women’s team, Archana

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Dutch central defenderMatthijs de Ligt, one of the

most coveted young players inworld football, signed onThursday for Juventus from Ajaxfor a fee of 75 million euros ($84.2million) plus add ons.

The 19-year-old agreed afive-year contract with the Italianchampions.

Juventus said in a statementthe fee would be paid over fivefinancial years, with “additionalcosts” of 10.5 million euros.

The combined fee makes DeLigt the world's most expensivedefender, surpassing the 84 mil-lion euros Liverpool paid to signhis Netherlands teammate VirgilVan Dijk from Southampton in2018.

De Ligt is Juventus’ thirdmost expensive signing after the105 million euros they paid to buy

Cristiano Ronaldo from RealMadrid in 2018 and the 90-mil-lion-euro transfer of GonzaloHiguain from Napoli in 2016.

De Ligt had also been linkedwith Manchester United,Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain after his impressiveperformances for a young Ajaxside that reached the ChampionsLeague semi-finals last season.

His Ajax teammate, 22-year-old midfielder Frenkie de Jong,has already joined Barcelona.

In a deal hammered out byhis powerful Italian-born Dutchagent Mino Raiola, De Ligt willearn a basic annual salary of 7.5million euros that could reach 12million euros with bonuses,according to reports in Italy.

“The sporting project proveddecisive” in De Ligt’s decision tochoose Juventus. “For a defend-er, Italy is always an ideal place.”The Turin-based club, now

coached by former Chelsea men-tor Maurizio Sarri, were keen tobring new blood into an ageingdefence that features 34-year-oldGiorgio Chiellini and LeonardoBonucci, 32.

De Ligt played 117 games forAjax in all competitions, scoring13 goals. He scored the winner inTurin as Ajax eliminated Juventusin the Champions League quar-ter-finals.

De Ligt has played 17 timesfor the Netherlands, forming aformidable central defensive part-nership with Van Dijk.

He took over the captain’sarmband at Ajax in March 2018,making him the club’s youngestever captain.

De Ligt said Ronaldo hadurged him to join Juventus afterthe two faced each other fortheir countries in the NationsLeague final in June won byPortugal.

Netherlands coach RonaldKoeman says De Ligt “willbecome one of the best defend-ers in the world in a short time”.

De Ligt is the latest big-money summer transfer follow-ing the 120-million-euro dealthat took France striker AntoineGriezmann from Atletico Madridto Barcelona and the 126 millioneuros that Atletico splashed outon 19-year-old forward Joao Felixfrom Benfica.

After a disappointing 2018-2019 season, Real Madrid havestrengthened with the acquisitionof Belgian playmaker EdenHazard from Chelsea for an ini-tial 100 million euros, with anoth-er 34 million euros in potentialadd-ons.

Premier League championsManchester City bought Spaininternational Rodri for a clubrecord 70 million euros (£63million).

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Top Indian shuttler PV Sindhu fought hard

to progress to thewomen’s singles quarter-finals but it was curtainsfor Kidambi Srikanth inthe men’s singles event ofthe Indonesia Open, hereon Thursday.

Sindhu, seeded fifth,had to dig deep into herreservoir of experience asshe slugged it out for 62minutes to beat unseed-ed Mia Blichfeldt ofDenmark 21-14, 17-21,21-11 in a second-roundencounter.

But later in the day,eight seed Srikanth wasstunned by NG Ka LongAngus of Hong Kong 17-21, 19-21 in a 39-minutesecond round contest.

Sindhu recorded herthird win over the worldNo 13 Dane this year. TheIndian had earlier defeat-ed Blichfeldt in straightgames in the IndianOpen and the SingaporeOpen.

Sindhu will next facethird seeded JapaneseNozomi Okuhara in thelast-eight round of theBWF World Tour Super1000 tournament.

The start was farfrom impressive forSindhu as Blichfeldt tooka 6-3 lead before theIndian got her act togeth-er to draw level.

From that point,Sindhu raised her gamegradually and relied onher long reach and

smashes to pocket thefirst game 21-14.

The second gamewitnessed a tough fightbetween the two shuttlersbut Blichfeldt made astrong comeback to takea 9-5 and then a 10-7lead.

Sindhu then pocket-ed three straight points tolevel the scores at 10-10.

But the Dane meantbusiness as she took fulladvantage of the Indian'sunforced errors to clinchthe second game anddraw parity in the match.

The decider, howev-er, turned out to be a one-sided affair as Sindhu gother composure back andran away with the gameafter some initial resis-tance from Blichfeldt.

However, it was cur-tains for India in themen’s doubles event afterthe pair of SatwiksairajRankireddy and ChiragShetty lost 15-21, 14-21 totop-seeded local hopesMarcus Fernaldi Gideonand Kevin SanjayaSukamuljo in the secondround

It was disappoint-ment for India in themixed doubles as wellafter the pair of PranaavJerry Chopra and N SikkiReddy lost 14-21, 11-21to top seeds Zheng Si Weiand Huang Ya Qiong ofChina.

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Olympic Gold medallist Carolina Marinhas said that she does not know if she

will participate in the upcoming bad-minton World Cup in Switzerland inAugust.

The Spaniard said that her goal, afterrecovering from a knee injury, is to win theTokyo 2020 Olympic Games, reports Efenews.

“I still cannot say whether I'm goingto the World Cup or not, as long as we donot get close to the date, I cannot say any-thing,” she added on Wednesday at theNational Sports Council in Madrid.

“Our goal is the Tokyo Olympics, sowe do not want to take any risks going tothe World Cup or not.

“If we go, we will be there giving every-thing and if not, then we will start the tour-naments circuit in September.”

Marin had ruptured the anterior cru-ciate ligament in her right knee while com-peting in the Indonesian Masters final onJanuary 26 and has since been sidelinedfrom competition.

She is optimistic about her recovery,and said: “I find myself with very good sen-sations, I am going through this period veryquickly because the knee is responding verywell, the requirement in training day by dayis increasing so I am very happy.”

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The national selectionpanel’s meeting to picksquads for the West

Indies tour has been pushed toSunday amid intense focuson skipper Virat Kohli’s avail-ability and veteran MahendraSingh Dhoni’s future.

The meeting was sched-uled for Friday but was post-poned following Committee ofAdministrators’ (CoA) direc-tive that the chairman of thepanel, instead of BCCI secre-tary, will convene it.

“There are some legalmodalities that need to befollowed due to the rulechange and it took some time.Also the BCCI’s cricket oper-ations team needs to apprisethe chairman of the availabil-ity of the captain for the meet-ing. The fitness reports of theplayers will be available onSaturday evening,” a seniorBCCI functionary said.

The 38-year old Dhoni,whose finishing abilities withthe bat has been on the wane,would be the centre of discus-sion amid speculation thatthe Jharkhand player is con-templating retirement eventhough he hasn’t spoken aboutit till now.

Dhoni’s selection or omis-sion would be an indicator ofthings to come in the future.India are set to play T20s, asmany ODIs and two Tests in afull-f ledged tour to theCaribbean islands, startingAugust 3.

Considering next year’sT20 World Cup to be held inAustralia, the selectors mightopt for the young RishabhPant, who is seen as heirapparent to Dhoni.

Dhoni was dropped fromthe T20 series against WestIndies and Australia lastOctober and there is a strongchance that he won't beincluded this time around too.

Pant was recently called upas replacement for an injuredopener Shikhar Dhawan in theWorld Cup, from where Indiawere ousted in the semifinal

stage.Another issue that would

surely be debated is the avail-ability of Kohli, who has beenon the road for a while.

There is a school ofthought that the skipper couldbe rested considering the longdomestic season ahead, whichbegins in September, and inthis scenario Rohit Sharmacould be handed captaincyfor the shorter formats.

However, with the twoTests being part of the ICCTest Championship, Kohlicould be included in the Testsquad. As i m i l a r

approachcould betaken for pacer JaspritBumrah.

The MSK Prasad-ledpanel would also work onrestructuring the middle-order as it was one of the pri-mary reasons for India’s exitfrom the World Cup semi-final. Stabilising the numberfour spot is the need of thehour going ahead.

It is expected that pickingthe middle-order could lead tothe biggest debate as the panelhas a few choices amongKarnataka’s Mayank Agarwaland Manish Pandey andMumbai’s Shreyas Iyer, whohas been knocking the doorsafter scoring heavily indomestic cricket.

Pandey scored a match-winning 100 for India Aagainst the West Indies A inan unofficial third ODI andafter Ambati Rayudu’s suddenretirement and Vijay Shankar’sfailure to nail the numberfour spot, the focus will be onthe trio.

Also, the selectors mayconsider the talented youngPunjab batsman ShubhmanGill and Mumbai’s PrithviShaw. But Shaw’s hip injurycould come in the way of himbeing considered.

A determined Gill hasbeen among the runs in theWest Indies tour for India A.

Gill and Shreyas could makethe cut.

It could also be end of theroad for the experiencedDinesh Karthik andMaharashtra all-rounderKedar Jadhav, who failed toperform in the World Cup.

If Dhawan, who was ruledout of the World Cup owing toa thumb fracture, is deemedfit, he would, in all probabil-ity, open with Rohit.

Other regulars, includingK L Rahul, Hardik Pandya,Kuldeep Yadav and YuzvendraChahal, could retain theirplaces in the limited-overssquads.

Teenage leg-spinner RahulChahar could be among therookies who are at least dis-cussed given the good run heis having with the A team inthe West Indies right now. The19-year-old is a cousin ofDeepak Chahar, a fairly estab-lished first-class name whohas played an ODI and a T20for India.

Among the new faces,Delhi speedster Navdeep Sainicould make the team as he hasimpressed in the ongoingIndia A tour of West Indiesand even picked a fifer.

The selectors could alsolook at the likes of KhaleelAhmed, Deepak Chahar, andAvesh Khan apart from regu-lar pacers Mohammed Shamiand Bhuvneshwar Kumar,who could be retained.

Khaleel being a left-armpacer adds variety to theattack.

The choice of wicket-keep-ers for the Tests would bewatched with interest as Pantdid the job in the last seriesIndia played in Australia.

With a f it-againWriddiman Saha, who is con-sidered the best in the country,it remains to be seen if theselectors bring him back orlook to the future in Pant.

The T20 Internationals arescheduled from August 3 to 6,while the ODIs will take placefrom August 8 to 14. The two-Test series will be played fromAugust 22 to September 3.

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Sam Curran believes England’shistoric World Cup triumph

will inspire the Ashes team asattention turns towards theirattempt to regain the urn.

Sunday's dramatic end tothe 50-over tournament hasovershadowed the build-up tothe five-Test showdown againstAustralia, which gets under wayon August 1 at Edgbaston.

Curran feels the Ashesremains the pinnacle of thecricketing calendar but said theTest team would be galvanisedby the World Cup, irrespectiveof whether they featured or notin the one-day triumph.

“I don’t think I'm alone insaying that it’s probably thegreatest cricket match ever andfor that to be the World Cupfinal was incredible,” said the 21-year-old all-rounder.

"That will provide a buzz foreveryone across English cricketgoing into the Ashes.

"Days like Sunday get every-one, whether they were involvedor not, more excited and desper-ate to do well so I'm sure it willrub off as we head into the Testpart of the summer.

"The Ashes are the biggestthing you can play in as anEngland cricketer, that's whatI've always felt. Hopefully we can

be lifting the urn at the Oval inSeptember."

Curran, whose older broth-er Tom was an unused squadmember during the World Cup,has been drafted into England'sgroups for the one-off Testagainst Ireland next week and apre-Ashes training camp.

The left armer was EnglandLions' standout performeragainst an Australian XI earlierthis week, taking six for 95 andcontributing a pair of half-cen-turies in a drawn first-classmatch at Canterbury.

Curran enjoyed a break-through summer last year, beingnamed England player of theTest series against India after starcontributions with both bat andball, leading to a bumper pay dayin the Indian Premier League.

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����#������� )��������������� �������was the common factor in all thethree matches while the two coach-es rotated other players, includingManika Batra, Madhurika Patkar,Sutirtha Mukherjee and AyhikaMukherjee.

Besides India, England menand women, too, made it to thesemifinals by notching up two winseach.

England men beat Singapore 3-2 and Australia 3-1. The women, onthe other hand, beat Australia 3-1and then trounced Sri Lanka 3-0.

Meanwhile, Sathiyan, Manikaare rated as top seeds in the individ-ual events.

But only one of the two Indiansin men's singles fray, Sathiyan andManav Thakkar, would progress tothe medal round as they were drawnin the same quarter.

The other three Indians werelucky to find themselves evenly dis-tributed into the other quarters.

All the Indian male playerswere among the top eight seeds(based on their ITTF July ranking),while only three women — Manika,Archana and Patkar — were seed-ed and got first-round byes in themain draw.

The remaining two — Sutirthaand Ayhika — will have to make itto the main draw through qualifiers.

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