62%7˝ ˛2% 6 ˆ$%&’˚& (˝) *+ˆ - dailypioneer.com the Orissa Minor Mineral Concession Rules,...

16
W hile debate on demon- etisation has been derailed in Parliament, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday decided to have a first-hand interaction with peo- ple on the issue through ‘Narendra Modi App’. He asked public to partic- ipate in a survey where a num- ber of questions have been posed with regard to scrapping of old 500 and 1000 curren- cy notes. “I want your first-hand view on the decision taken regarding currency notes. Take part in the survey on the NM App. http://nm4.in/dnldapp “, he tweeted. I n the 145th State-Level Bankers’ Committee (SLBC) meeting held here on Tuesday, Development Commissioner and Additional Chief Secretary R Balkrishna advised the banks to strengthen the business cor- respondent mechanism with micro ATMs having interop- erable facility in the unbanked gram panchayats. All banks must ensure that their branches are active and are provided with required cash to meet the cash require- ment in this demonetisation situation, said Finance Principal Secretary TK Pandey. RBI General Manager (Officer-in-Charge) PK Dash requested all banks to imple- ment one-day off line transac- tion by the business corre- spondents where data connec- tivity is a problem. SLBC Chairman Charan Singh requested the RBI to ensure adequate supply of new 500 notes to overcome the present cash crunch crisis. He also urged all stakeholders to continue their efforts in the forthcoming days. It was ascertained at the meeting that the banks in the State as on September 30, 2016 have total deposits of 2,31,253 crore and total advances of 1,67,534 crore. The CD ratio of banks as a whole in the State was 72.45 per cent. The percentage of Priority Sector advances to total advance is 64.42 per cent against the national parameter of 40 per cent. As on September 30, 2016, 113.59 lakh savings bank deposit accounts have been opened under Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana. Total deposit balance in PMJDY accounts was 1744.69 crore as on 30.09.2016. Percentage of zero balance account to total no of accounts opened is 23.84 per cent. As on September 30.2016, 32.40 lakh Pradhan Mantri Surakshya Bima Yojana, 8.83 lakh Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana and 1.46 lakh Atal Pension Yojana enrol- ments have been done by banks in Odisha under Jeevan Surakshya Yojana. Total number of branches in Odisha increased to 4,959, out of which 54.71 per cent branches are in rural areas. Commercial banks in Odisha has achieved the major mandatory national parameters. In all banks in the State, on year to year basis, the deposit increased by 13.27 per cent whereas the advance growth is 16.01per cent. Share of agri- culture credit to total advance as on 30.09.2016 is 34.87 per cent against the national para- meter of 18 per cent. UCO Bank General Manager-cum-SLBC Convenor Anil Kumar reiterated proac- tive role played by the SLBC towards achievements of vari- ous parameters by the banks. T he Oppositions’ claim of the State Government fur- nishing untrue information regarding the Mahanadi water share issue in the State Assembly was on Tuesday sub- stantiated by none other than ruling BJD spokesperson Pratap Keshari Deb. “Government departments at times present false informa- tion in the Assembly as has been the case many times before,” said Deb, a former Minister, while responding queries of mediapersons about the discrepancy in the data pre- sented in Assembly in 2010 and the data submitted to the Union Government recently for formation of a tribunal on the Mahanadi water dispute with Chhattisgarh. He, however, asserted that the data furnished in the peti- tion are conclusive and there is no scope for doubts. “I want to make it clear that the data furnished in the peti- tion are conclusive, and there is no scope for doubts Departments give wrong infor- mation in the State Assembly,” said Deb. Leader of Opposition Narasingha Mishra, “We all consider the Assembly as a sacred place. The Chief Minister, however, lied to the House time and again, even on an issue as sensitive as the Mahanadi water sharing dis- pute. The BJD spokesperson exposed his lies. We condemn it.” BJP State president Basanta Panda said the departments never provide false informa- tion. “The Chief Minister only tells lies; and as a representative of the Chief Minister, Raghunath Mohanty had pro- vided false information in the Assembly on the Mahanadi issue in 2010. This is an insult to democracy,” said Panda. I n an apparent reference to Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president Prasad Harichandan’s alleged monopoly activities, senior party leader and Leader of Opposition Narasingha Mishra on Tuesday said the party MLAs would work at the com- mand of AICC president Sonia Gandhi in the ensuing pan- chayat elections. Mishra after chairing the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) at his official residence here said the meeting was aimed at drawing strategies for the upcoming polls and since it was a meeting of MLAs there was no need of the PCC chief’s presence. “The meeting focused on panchayat polls. If party high command wants we will work in the ensuing elections. We will work at the command of Sonia Gandhi,” said Miahra. Out of 16 MLAs, 13 law- makers attended the meeting. The timing of the meeting raised many questions as the Winter Session of the Assembly is nearly eight days away. The CLP meeting was also con- vened just a day after the PCC chief chaired a meeting of District Congress Committee (DCC) chiefs to discuss on the forthcoming polls. Prior to the meeting, Opposition Chief Whip Tara Prasad Bahinipati said there was no need of PCC chief attending the CLP meeting exposing the split between the PCC and CLP. T he State Government on Tuesday formed a corpus fund of 250 corre under the name Odisha Renewable Energy Development Fund for imple- mentation of the State Renewable Energy Policy 2016, which covers solar, small hydro, wind, biomass and waste to energy sources. The State Cabinet which met under chairmanship of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik at the State Secretariat approved the fund. The Government would provide 50 crore per annum over a period of five years. The fund will be utilised for development of transmission network, roads and training centres required for accelerated development of renewable ener- gy for which guidelines would be issued soon. The Cabinet gave its nod for implementation of the State Handloom Policy which is aimed at increasing handloom production by improving pro- duction chain management and induction of new looms. The Cabinet too approved the Pharmaceutical Policy 2016 for implementation. The policy provides grants of 50 per cent of the total cost or ceiling of 10/5 crore whichever is less, for development of gree field phamceutical clusters and pro- vides environmental protection infrastructure subsidy of 50 per cent. The proposal to amend the Odisha Education (Tribunals) Rules, 1977 was approved by the Cabinet. After amendment , Government Advocates would be able to get copies of memo- randum/petition in GIA cases. The Cabinet gave its nod for formulation of the Odisha Sandalwood Possession and Transit Rules, 2016. The rules would strengthen the hands of forest officers to control threat and illegal felling of sandal- wood. The Food Processing Policy 2016 was also approved. It pro- poses to set up emga/State food parks at strategic locations in the districts of Deogarh, Bhadrak, Bargarh, Nabarangpur, Sambalpur, Ganjam, Balangir, Kandhamal and Kalahandi. The policy provides for capital investment subsidy of 25 per cent of the capital investment. To accelerate growth of industries in the MSME sector, the Government approved the Odisha MSME Development Policy 2016. The policy will replace the existing MSME Development Policy 2009. As per the new policy, the capital investment subsidy to new micro and small enterprises has been enhanced from 10 per cent to 25 percent in plant and machinery subject to the upper limit of Rs 1 crore. The Cabinet decided to incorporate some new rules in the Odisha Agricultural Produce Market Act 1956 to bring Odisha into the Nationa Agricultue Market (NAM) fold so that farmers can get better marketing facilities to sale their produces. The Cabinet also approved the proposal for implementation of the Odisha Tourism Policy 2016 to place Odisha promi- nently on the domestic and international tourism map. Besides, the State Government decided to replace the Orissa Minor Mineral Concession Rules, 2004 with a new set of rules called Odisha Mineral Concession Rules 2016. As per the new rules, minerals under Sairat sources such as sand morrum, stone quarries are proposed to be counued to be covered under Quarry leas- es. Besides, the Cabinet also approved to frame a separate statutory rules fopr the officers of the Official Language Branch of the Law Department to expe- dite the process of recruitment to the base level posts and fill- ing up of the higer posts and threby translation work would be done smoothly and expedi- tiously. After framing of such rules, Language Officers posts would be filled up through the OPSC. The Cabinet too approved the Odisha Apparel Policy 2016 for implementation. A proposal of the Gridco for sanction of Government gurantee of 1,100 core was also approved by the Cabinet. The guarantee was approved in favour of the Gridco for term loans already availed to tide over the revenue deficit situation. T he bloodshed along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu & Kashmir continued on Tuesday as three Indian Army soldiers were killed by terrorists backed by Pakistani troops in Machil sector of north Kashmir’s Kupwara dis- trict. The body of one of the soldiers was mutilated by the attackers, evoking sharp resent- ment from the Indian Army. “Three soldiers killed in action on LoC in Machil. The body of one soldier was muti- lated. Retribution will be heavy for this cowardly act,” said the Northern Command in a state- ment after the incident. Two terrorists were killed in Bandipora district of north Kashmir in a gunfight and two Rs 2,000 denomination notes, recently introduced by India after the demonetiza- tion drive, were recovered, compelling security forces to launch a probe. In another incident, the Border Security Force foiled an infiltration bid along the International Border in RS Pura sector by killing one suspected militant guide who had intruded inside the Indian territory, taking advantage of the fog and thick grass, in the wee hours of Tuesday. Swift action by a BSF jawan guarding one of the forward sentry posts prevented a pos- sible strike by the heavily- armed terrorists who immedi- ately retreated into Pakistani territory following the incident. Sources said that a patrolling party of 57 Rashtriya Rifles was ambushed by ter- rorists backed by Pakistan Army. The attackers killed three soldiers and mutilated one body before fleeing. Sources said that the ter- rorists they had the full support of the Pakistan Army which carried out firing and shelling to provide them cover. Sources said the ambush site was not less than 500 to 700 metres from the LoC with the Pakistan Army firing relent- lessly on the Indian posts to ensure that the militants were able to infiltrate successfully. There have been 286 inci- dents of firing and shelling along the LoC and the IB in J&K that have resulted in the death of 26 people, including 14 security personnel, since September 29. T he Indian Army is prepar- ing for a massive retaliation after Pakistan-supported ter- rorists killed three jawans and mutilated the body of one of them on the Line of Control in Machli sector on Tuesday. As many as 12 soldiers have been killed in ceasefire violations and encounters with terrorists after the surgical strikes against terrorist launch pads in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir in September. Army Vice-Chief Lieutenant-General Bipin Rawat briefed Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar here on the killing of the three soldiers. This is the second such incident of mutilation of the body of an Indian soldier on the LoC after a similar barbaric incident on October 29. Maintaining that “retribution will be heavy for this cowardly act,” the Army said the reprisal will be “at a time and place of our choosing.” Officials however said the punitive action will be against Pakistan Army posts along the LoC as it gives covering fire and provides arms to militants sneaking into Kashmir. Sources said that the attackers, suspected to be the members of Pakistan’s Border Action Team (BAT) were behind the attack. Incidentally, one Indian Army soldier was killed in the same sector a month back and his body too was mutilated by BAT. This team comprises Pakistan Army commandos of Special Services Group and terrorists and one such team also beheaded at least three sol- diers in Poonch sector in 2012 in two separate incidents in January and June respectively. The Pakistan Army was determined to seek revenge for the Indian Army’s surgical strikes on September 29 in PoK in which at least seven terror- ist launch pads were destroyed and 35-40 terrorists were killed, sources said.

Transcript of 62%7˝ ˛2% 6 ˆ$%&’˚& (˝) *+ˆ - dailypioneer.com the Orissa Minor Mineral Concession Rules,...

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While debate on demon-etisation has been

derailed in Parliament, PrimeMinister Narendra Modi onTuesday decided to have afirst-hand interaction with peo-ple on the issue through‘Narendra Modi App’.

He asked public to partic-ipate in a survey where a num-ber of questions have beenposed with regard to scrappingof old �500 and �1000 curren-cy notes.

“I want your first-handview on the decision takenregarding currency notes. Takepart in the survey on the NMApp. http://nm4.in/dnldapp “,he tweeted.

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In the 145th State-LevelBankers’ Committee (SLBC)

meeting held here on Tuesday,Development Commissionerand Additional Chief SecretaryR Balkrishna advised the banksto strengthen the business cor-respondent mechanism withmicro ATMs having interop-erable facility in the unbankedgram panchayats.

All banks must ensure thattheir branches are active andare provided with requiredcash to meet the cash require-ment in this demonetisationsituation, said FinancePrincipal Secretary TK Pandey.

RBI General Manager(Officer-in-Charge) PK Dashrequested all banks to imple-ment one-day off line transac-tion by the business corre-spondents where data connec-tivity is a problem.

SLBC Chairman CharanSingh requested the RBI toensure adequate supply of new

�500 notes to overcome thepresent cash crunch crisis. Healso urged all stakeholders tocontinue their efforts in theforthcoming days.

It was ascertained at themeeting that the banks in theState as on September 30, 2016have total deposits of �2,31,253crore and total advances of�1,67,534 crore.

The CD ratio of banks as awhole in the State was 72.45 percent. The percentage of PrioritySector advances to totaladvance is 64.42 per centagainst the national parameterof 40 per cent.

As on September 30, 2016,113.59 lakh savings bankdeposit accounts have beenopened under Pradhan MantriJan Dhan Yojana. Total deposit

balance in PMJDY accountswas �1744.69 crore as on30.09.2016. Percentage of zerobalance account to total no ofaccounts opened is 23.84 percent.

As on September 30.2016,32.40 lakh Pradhan MantriSurakshya Bima Yojana, 8.83lakh Pradhan Mantri JeevanJyoti Bima Yojana and 1.46 lakhAtal Pension Yojana enrol-ments have been done by banksin Odisha under JeevanSurakshya Yojana.

Total number of branchesin Odisha increased to 4,959,out of which 54.71 per centbranches are in rural areas.Commercial banks in

Odisha has achieved themajor mandatory nationalparameters.

In all banks in the State, onyear to year basis, the depositincreased by 13.27 per centwhereas the advance growth is16.01per cent. Share of agri-culture credit to total advanceas on 30.09.2016 is 34.87 percent against the national para-meter of 18 per cent.

UCO Bank GeneralManager-cum-SLBC ConvenorAnil Kumar reiterated proac-tive role played by the SLBCtowards achievements of vari-ous parameters by the banks.

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The Oppositions’ claim ofthe State Government fur-

nishing untrue informationregarding the Mahanadi watershare issue in the StateAssembly was on Tuesday sub-stantiated by none other thanruling BJD spokespersonPratap Keshari Deb.

“Government departmentsat times present false informa-tion in the Assembly as hasbeen the case many timesbefore,” said Deb, a formerMinister, while respondingqueries of mediapersons aboutthe discrepancy in the data pre-sented in Assembly in 2010 and

the data submitted to theUnion Government recentlyfor formation of a tribunal onthe Mahanadi water disputewith Chhattisgarh.

He, however, asserted thatthe data furnished in the peti-tion are conclusive and there isno scope for doubts.

“I want to make it clear thatthe data furnished in the peti-tion are conclusive, and thereis no scope for doubtsDepartments give wrong infor-mation in the State Assembly,”

said Deb.Leader of Opposition

Narasingha Mishra, “We allconsider the Assembly as asacred place. The ChiefMinister, however, lied to theHouse time and again, even onan issue as sensitive as theMahanadi water sharing dis-pute. The BJD spokespersonexposed his lies. We condemnit.”

BJP State president BasantaPanda said the departmentsnever provide false informa-tion.

“The Chief Minister onlytells lies; and as a representativeof the Chief Minister,Raghunath Mohanty had pro-vided false information in theAssembly on the Mahanadiissue in 2010. This is an insultto democracy,” said Panda.

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In an apparent reference toPradesh Congress

Committee (PCC) presidentPrasad Harichandan’s allegedmonopoly activities, seniorparty leader and Leader ofOpposition Narasingha Mishraon Tuesday said the partyMLAs would work at the com-mand of AICC president SoniaGandhi in the ensuing pan-chayat elections.

Mishra after chairing theCongress Legislature Party(CLP) at his official residencehere said the meeting wasaimed at drawing strategiesfor the upcoming polls and

since it was a meeting of MLAsthere was no need of the PCCchief ’s presence.

“The meeting focused onpanchayat polls. If party highcommand wants we will workin the ensuing elections. Wewill work at the command of

Sonia Gandhi,” said Miahra.Out of 16 MLAs, 13 law-

makers attended the meeting.The timing of the meetingraised many questions as theWinter Session of the Assemblyis nearly eight days away. TheCLP meeting was also con-vened just a day after the PCCchief chaired a meeting ofDistrict Congress Committee(DCC) chiefs to discuss on theforthcoming polls.

Prior to the meeting,Opposition Chief Whip TaraPrasad Bahinipati said therewas no need of PCC chiefattending the CLP meetingexposing the split between thePCC and CLP.

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The State Government onTuesday formed a corpus

fund of �250 corre under thename Odisha Renewable EnergyDevelopment Fund for imple-mentation of the StateRenewable Energy Policy 2016,which covers solar, small hydro,wind, biomass and waste toenergy sources.

The State Cabinet whichmet under chairmanship ofChief Minister Naveen Patnaikat the State Secretariat approvedthe fund. The Governmentwould provide �50 crore perannum over a period of fiveyears. The fund will be utilisedfor development of transmissionnetwork, roads and trainingcentres required for accelerateddevelopment of renewable ener-gy for which guidelines would

be issued soon.The Cabinet gave its nod for

implementation of the StateHandloom Policy which isaimed at increasing handloomproduction by improving pro-duction chain management andinduction of new looms.

The Cabinet too approvedthe Pharmaceutical Policy 2016for implementation. The policyprovides grants of 50 per cent ofthe total cost or ceiling of �10/5crore whichever is less, fordevelopment of gree fieldphamceutical clusters and pro-vides environmental protectioninfrastructure subsidy of 50 percent.

The proposal to amend theOdisha Education (Tribunals)Rules, 1977 was approved by theCabinet. After amendment ,Government Advocates wouldbe able to get copies of memo-randum/petition in GIA cases.

The Cabinet gave its nod forformulation of the OdishaSandalwood Possession andTransit Rules, 2016. The ruleswould strengthen the hands offorest officers to control threatand illegal felling of sandal-wood.

The Food Processing Policy2016 was also approved. It pro-poses to set up emga/State food

parks at strategic locations in thedistricts of Deogarh, Bhadrak,Bargarh, Nabarangpur,Sambalpur, Ganjam, Balangir,Kandhamal and Kalahandi. Thepolicy provides for capitalinvestment subsidy of 25 percent of the capital investment.

To accelerate growth ofindustries in the MSME sector,the Government approved theOdisha MSME DevelopmentPolicy 2016. The policy willreplace the existing MSMEDevelopment Policy 2009. Asper the new policy, the capitalinvestment subsidy to newmicro and small enterpriseshas been enhanced from 10 percent to 25 percent in plant andmachinery subject to the upperlimit of Rs 1 crore.

The Cabinet decided toincorporate some new rules inthe Odisha AgriculturalProduce Market Act 1956 tobring Odisha into the NationaAgricultue Market (NAM) foldso that farmers can get bettermarketing facilities to sale theirproduces.

The Cabinet also approvedthe proposal for implementationof the Odisha Tourism Policy2016 to place Odisha promi-nently on the domestic andinternational tourism map.

Besides, the StateGovernment decided to replacethe Orissa Minor MineralConcession Rules, 2004 with anew set of rules called OdishaMineral Concession Rules 2016.As per the new rules, mineralsunder Sairat sources such assand morrum, stone quarriesare proposed to be counued tobe covered under Quarry leas-es.

Besides, the Cabinet alsoapproved to frame a separatestatutory rules fopr the officersof the Official Language Branchof the Law Department to expe-dite the process of recruitmentto the base level posts and fill-ing up of the higer posts andthreby translation work wouldbe done smoothly and expedi-tiously. After framing of suchrules, Language Officers postswould be filled up through theOPSC.

The Cabinet too approvedthe Odisha Apparel Policy 2016for implementation.

A proposal of the Gridcofor sanction of Governmentgurantee of �1,100 core was alsoapproved by the Cabinet. Theguarantee was approved infavour of the Gridco for termloans already availed to tide overthe revenue deficit situation.

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The bloodshed along theLine of Control (LoC) in

Jammu & Kashmir continuedon Tuesday as three IndianArmy soldiers were killed byterrorists backed by Pakistanitroops in Machil sector ofnorth Kashmir’s Kupwara dis-trict. The body of one of thesoldiers was mutilated by theattackers, evoking sharp resent-ment from the Indian Army.

“Three soldiers killed inaction on LoC in Machil. Thebody of one soldier was muti-lated. Retribution will be heavyfor this cowardly act,” said theNorthern Command in a state-ment after the incident.

Two terrorists were killedin Bandipora district of northKashmir in a gunfight andtwo Rs 2,000 denominationnotes, recently introduced byIndia after the demonetiza-tion drive, were recovered,compelling security forces tolaunch a probe. In anotherincident, the Border SecurityForce foiled an infiltration bidalong the International Borderin RS Pura sector by killing onesuspected militant guide whohad intruded inside the Indian

territory, taking advantage ofthe fog and thick grass, in thewee hours of Tuesday.

Swift action by a BSF jawanguarding one of the forwardsentry posts prevented a pos-sible strike by the heavily-armed terrorists who immedi-ately retreated into Pakistani

territory following the incident. Sources said that a

patrolling party of 57 RashtriyaRifles was ambushed by ter-rorists backed by PakistanArmy. The attackers killedthree soldiers and mutilatedone body before fleeing.

Sources said that the ter-

rorists they had the full supportof the Pakistan Army whichcarried out firing and shellingto provide them cover.

Sources said the ambushsite was not less than 500 to 700metres from the LoC with thePakistan Army firing relent-lessly on the Indian posts to

ensure that the militants wereable to infiltrate successfully.

There have been 286 inci-dents of firing and shellingalong the LoC and the IB inJ&K that have resulted in thedeath of 26 people, including14 security personnel, sinceSeptember 29.

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The Indian Army is prepar-ing for a massive retaliation

after Pakistan-supported ter-rorists killed three jawans andmutilated the body of one ofthem on the Line of Control inMachli sector on Tuesday. Asmany as 12 soldiers have beenkilled in ceasefire violationsand encounters with terroristsafter the surgical strikes againstterrorist launch pads inPakistan-occupied-Kashmir inSeptember.

Army Vice-ChiefLieutenant-General BipinRawat briefed Defence MinisterManohar Parrikar here on thekilling of the three soldiers.This is the second such incidentof mutilation of the body of anIndian soldier on the LoC aftera similar barbaric incident onOctober 29. Maintaining that“retribution will be heavy forthis cowardly act,” the Armysaid the reprisal will be “at atime and place of our choosing.”

Officials however said thepunitive action will be againstPakistan Army posts along theLoC as it gives covering fire andprovides arms to militantssneaking into Kashmir.

Sources said that the

attackers, suspected to be themembers of Pakistan’s BorderAction Team (BAT) werebehind the attack.

Incidentally, one IndianArmy soldier was killed in thesame sector a month back andhis body too was mutilated byBAT. This team comprisesPakistan Army commandos ofSpecial Services Group andterrorists and one such team

also beheaded at least three sol-diers in Poonch sector in 2012in two separate incidents inJanuary and June respectively.

The Pakistan Army wasdetermined to seek revenge forthe Indian Army’s surgicalstrikes on September 29 in PoKin which at least seven terror-ist launch pads were destroyedand 35-40 terrorists were killed,sources said.

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The demonetisation hascaused more than the

expected quantum of misery toa large section of the Indianpopulation. From the so-calledsenior citizens to the youths,nobody has been spared fromthe tortuous experience ofusing or not being able to useone’s hard-earned money.Deaths have taken place in thequeues and the number was atseventy on Sunday. Food hasbecome a problem on accountof the non-availability of per-missible currency. Thedhabawalla, the pan shopwal-la and the kirana shopkeeper,etc., are not expected to acceptplastic money. Wages in a largesector are disbursed in cash andany other form is impractica-ble and inconvenient. The

small vendor and even smallshopkeepers have a drastic fallin business on account of aforced austerity.

By an executive fiat, notesof the denominations of �1000and �500 were declared illegaltenders whereas they hadinscribed on them a solemnpromise of the Governor of theReserve Bank to pay the req-uisite amount as a matter oftrust. Whether the executivefiat could have been used in themanner in which it has been,even in exercise of any subor-dinate delegation, is a separatelegal issue to be independent-ly examined. But given theunhindered roughshod imple-mentation, a more intrusivestudy of the unusual feature ofabout 86.4 per cent of the cur-rency in circulation (being ofthe denominations of rupees1000 and 500) being renderedillegal tender is unavoidable.Inflation can provide a marginalcushion. But beyond that, itrequires an investigative studyas to how this large quantum ofcurrency of high denomina-tions came to be printed andpumped into circulation by theReserve Bank / Government ofIndia. See the box

This table would indicatethat during 2014 to 2016, thereis a quantum jump in theprinting and pumping in of Rs500 notes into the system. The

percentage of increase is fromMarch 2014/March 2015 (14.7per cent to 15.7 per cent inquantity terms in the range of44.4 per cent in value terms.The situation in the case ofnotes of the denomination of�1000 reveals interesting fea-tures. The quantum jump from6 per cent to 7 per cent in quan-tity terms in 2014-16 to a gal-loping figure of about 39.6 percent in value terms. If one com-pares this picture with theprinting and pumping in ofnotes of the denomination ofRs 100, more than interestingfeatures would be manifestingthemselves. During 2014 to2016, the notes of denomina-tion of �100 did not increaselike those of denominations of�500 and �1000. This percent-age increase is substantiallybelow the high percentageincrease of notes of denomi-nations of �500 and �1000.The volume in crores of piecesof �500 notes put into circula-tion increased from 1,141 crorepieces in March 2014 to 1,571crore pieces in March 2016.This pushed up the percentageof such notes from 14.7 to 17.4.In the case of �1000 notes, thevolume in crore pieces was 508in March 2014 and increased to633 in March 2016. In valueterms of rupees lakh crore,accordingly indicated anupward increase, pushing a

total to a figure of �500 notesfrom 17.4 in March 2014 to47.8 in March 2016. In the caseof �1000 notes, in terms of per-centage share, the number ofcrores of pieces increased from6.6 per cent in March 2014 to7 per cent in March 2016. Invalue terms of lakh crores, thepercentage of �1000 notesstood at 38.5 per cent in March2016. The total number ofshare of such currencies of�500 and �1000 stood at 86.4per cent in value of lakh crorein March 2016 whereas it was24.4 per cent in March 2016 involume terms of crore pieces.

Obviously, as a matter ofpolicy, it was decided by theReserve Bank to print thehigh denominations and moreor less freeze the situationregarding denominations of Rs100 and below. This is a baf-fling feature that as a measureof policy, high-denomination

notes are printed and put intocirculation and the causethereof would reveal manyuntold stories. There is a hid-den cause providing incentiveto making notes of higherdenominations more easilyavailable to the general public.Both in the case of notes of thedenomination of �500 and�1000, the increase is unusu-al in terms of day-to-dayrequirements. In the case ofnotes of denomination of �500and �1000, the supply hasbeen aggressive and stimulat-ing to such a demand inalmost in a mechanical man-ner does not indicate adequateprecautionary study and thecausative analysis of the rea-sons behind such a demand-supply situation. It almostlooks as though a facilitator isnow finding fault with what itfacilitated and fed to growwithout demur. If one tries to

analyse any dominant reasonfor a policy oriented towardsincreasing the availability ofhighest-value notes, one can-not justify the action by anyeasy means.

The unplanned measurehaving been implemented, itsadverse impact on the econo-my in general and the indi-vidual or groups of individu-als in particular has been veryharassing, depriving anddemeaning. A huge operationwas to take in terms of trans-actions and cash economybeing a substantial section foreconomic activity, the theo-retically-designed measuresand facilities were irksome,inadequate and choking. Theconditions of senior citizenswere pitiable. Pensioners hadto undergo avoidable torturein having access to the bareexistence. Many had to forgomeals, and nutritional level

definitely had an adverse trendduring the last 12 days or so.

All this was avoidable ifreasonable flexibility was pro-vided through adequatepreparatory measures. Theagro and cooperative sectorswere totally ignored and madeinoperative leading States likeOdisha complaining of thecash crunch in a vast chunk ofthe economy. Currency hasnot reached post offices, banksor ATMs. This is not a situa-tion of financial emergency. Byan executive f iat, theConstitutional right to prop-erty and livelihood cannot betrampled over in this mannerby the so-called “surgicalstrikes” and illegal intrusioninto the right to propertymaking persons literally begfor their bare existence. Theemergency situation largelyremained uncared for. Trade,transport and other cash-based activities have suffereda great deal. It is time theGovernment provided morefree play at the joints so thatnormalcy is restored and thetorture is not perpetrated.

In this hour of man-madecrisis, the youths have to learntheir own lesson. Their smallsavings and their wages turnedinto scrap of paper by thestroke of a pen. There is nolegislation holding the field,but the change, however, has

been permitted in an unthink-ing, unsystematic, insensitiveand uneconomic manner. It isfor the youths to formulatetheir opinion about the lack ofrural credit facility for weekstogether during a crucial agri-cultural operational season.

The upper middleclassdownwards, up to the poor, allhave been maulled by the ille-gal brutality. The “rich” willhave no less problems becausethey have the resources tocommand their experts tomanage their affairs. They donot need �2,000 and �4,000 forsurvival for a day and, that too,in cash. There is an infra-structure looking after them.Let the vast majority, who arebonafide and honest, not bethe victims due to the pro-fessed “surgical strikes”allegedly aimed at the over-opulent. But this storm shouldwake up all of us and involveus in a movement to bring eco-nomic sanity with adequateprotection to individual dig-nity, an inviolable right. And,surely this concerns us all!

(The writer, a SeniorAdvocate, is a former All IndiaService officer, a former diplo-mat, a former editor, a formerPresident of Orissa High CourtBar Association and a formerAdvocate General of [email protected])

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With the death of one morechild, the death toll due

to Japanese Encephalitis (JE)mounted to 118 in Malkangiridistrict on Tuesday.

Two-year-old KasiMadkami of Korakonda suc-cumbed to the vector-bornedisease while undergoing treat-ment at the Malkangiri DistrictHeadquarters Hospital. Threemore kids are also currently inthe ICU of the hospital in crit-ical conditions while around 15others are being treated in thegeneral ward.

All preventive efforts of thedistrict administration and theState Government seem to

have little impact as the tollcontinues to rise by the day.

Meanwhile, the survey ofchildren of six months to 15years was completed onTuesday. The survey was carriedout for vaccination to check theoutbreak of the killer virus.

In another development,the district administration hasstarted raiding the dal godownsafter the expert panel revealedthat many children have dieddue to Encephalopathy whichis mostly caused due to con-sumption of seeds of ‘BanaChakunda’ (CassiaOccidentalis) seeds.

A team of officials from thedistrict administration and theCivil Supplies Departmentheaded by the Malkangiri Sub-Collector is raiding the dal out-lets and godowns and collect-ing samples.

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BJD MP BhartruhariMahtab is in trouble for

his seeming over-smart pro-Congress statements last weekcontrary to the avowed standof the State’s ruling party.

As if as a reminder to himover his indiscipline in theparty, BJD president andChief Minister NaveenPatnaik has said he has not yetreceived from Mahtab a replyto the letter of explanationregarding his controversialstatement.

Patnaik has four days agoserved a letter to Mahtab forhis alleged antiparty state-ment on the BJD’s relation-ship with other national par-ties.

Mahtab seems to beapologetic as before replyingto the virtual show-causenotice he has said, “Naveen

Patnaik is my leader, and Iwill reply his letter afterreceiving it.”

The letter issued to theCuttack MP has two charges:one, he has given statementsregarding a possibility of theBJD forging an alliance withthe Congress which is againstthe BJD’s stand.

Two, the five-time MPhas been giving antipartystatements to the media with-out permission of party supre-mo Patnaik.

Patnaik’s added angerwith Mahtab is his claim thathe made the statement at theformer’s behest. More impor-tantly, to Patnaik’s ire, Mahtabstated that the BJD is resort-ing to doublespeak whiledealing with the ModiGovernment at the Centre.

In fact, Mahtab, who isthe BJD leader in Lok Sabha,has made back-to back state-ments that run against theBJD’s stands. On October 31also, he had come out withsimilar statements vis-à-visthe national political parties.

However, polit icalobser vers wonder howMahtab, given his vast expe-rience, made such statementswithout any reason.

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Artha Tatwa (AT) Groupchit fund scam main

accused Pradeep Sethy wasproduced before a SpecialCentral Bureau of Investigation(CBI) Court on Tuesday. Sixother accused persons alsoappeared before the court.Sources said it was their routineappearance.

On November 11, theOrissa High Court had grant-ed conditional bails to fiveaccused of the scam. They areManoj Das, Bikash Swain,Vineet Lalani, Sandip Khuntiaand Manoj Patnaik.

All the five accused per-sons were earlier denied bail bythe CBI court, and the KhurdaDistrict and Sessions JudgeCourt. Sethy is now lodged at theJharpada Special Jail here afterbeing nabbed by the EconomicOffences Wing (EOW), whichinitially probed the chit fundscam before the CBI took overthe investigation in 2014 fol-lowing a Supreme Court order.

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Family members of severaldeceased employees of the

School & Mass EducationDepartment staged a protestand attempted self-immola-tion in front of the official res-idence of the departmentMinister Debi Prasad Mishrahere over their variousdemands on Tuesday morning.

Police caught hold of twen-ty of the agitators when theywere trying to set themselveson fire by pouring kerosene ontheir bodies near the Minister’sresidence. They were laterdetained by the police.

Notably, as per the OdishaCivil Service RehabilitationRules, from 1990 onwards one

of the family members of anyState Government employeepossessing similar educationalqualification as that of theemployee would get aGovernment job if the employ-ee dies during the period of hisservice.

In 2013, the School & MassEducation Department had

sent the names of 595 personsto the Government forapproval regarding theirappointment.

It was then promised toprovide them regular appoint-ments in Group C and D posts.However, the agitators allegedthat they were only providedcontractual appointments.

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The arrest of a groom justbefore leading marriage

procession to his would-bebride’s house under theDaspalla police limits inNayagarh district on Mondayhas become the talk of thenearby areas.

According to reports, theDaspalla police arrested thebridegroom, identified asPankaj Sahoo ofKrushnachandrapur Patanavillage, in the evening forallegedly cheating a youngwoman on the pretext of mar-rying her.

According to police, theduo was in a relationship andthe accused had developed aphysical relation with the girlhailing from Brahmapur,making her pregnant.

However, the familymembers of Pankaj had cho-sen a girl in their village to tiethe knot on Monday nightwith his consent.

While both the familieswere in a hurry and delight-ed for the marriage ceremo-ny with gathering of rela-tives and guests, the arrestcame as a complete surpriseafter the victim filed a com-plaint with the police narrat-ing her ordeal in the evening.

The bride’s family mem-bers got shocked after thenews broke out. With noother options lef t , theyarranged another groom tomarry the girl on the samenight.

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The central action commit-tee (CAC), a body of the

lawyers western Odisha spear-heading a campaign for estab-lishment of permanent benchof Orissa High Court in theregion, has decided to hold

dharana in New Delhi to pressits demands.

“Meeting different digni-taries including the PrimeMinister apart, the members ofthe CAC will also sit in dhar-na at Jantar Mantar onNovember 28 to highlight thedemand of the bench,” saidNiranjan Tripathy, a seniormember of the CAC.

On the basis of the reportof the Joshobant Singh

Commission and the clear cutrecommendation of the StateGovernment for establishingHC bench in western Odisha,the CAC will put forth thedemand in the national capi-tal.

About 500 lawyers from allover western Odisha, apartfrom common people, NGOactivists, political leaders,elected representatives of allpolitical parties staying in

Delhi, will take part in thedharna to build up pressure onthe Government at Centre.

Following a 42- day longagitation in Sambalpur in2013, the Chief Minister hadwritten to the CentralGovernment for establishingthe HC bench in the region.The then Union Law MinisterKapil Sibbal also had accept-ed the proposal, consideringits genuineness.

The State Governmentalso had sent a reminder forthe bench o the Centre. “Butthere is no satisfactory head-way,” the CAC memberslamented.

During this time, mem-bers of the CAC will alsomeet Prime Minister NarendraModi, the Union Law Ministerand other officials of the LawDepartment to expedite theprocess.

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Cuttack: The Orissa HighCourt on Tuesday issuednotices to the Chief Secretary,the Health Secretary, the DG ofFire Services and the Khordhadistrict Collector to file theircounters in the form of affi-davits in response to a PIL filedin the court pertaining to grossviolation of fire safety norms inthe private hospitals and nurs-ing homes of the State.

In the backdrop of therecent fire tragedy at the SUMHospital in Bhubaneswar,advocate Shivsankar Mohantyof the High Court in his peti-tion has stated that severalprivate hospitals and nursinghomes are not adhering to theprovisions of the Orissa FireServices Act of 1993 and theOrissa Clinical Establishment(Control and Regulation) Actof 1990.

Stating the specific exam-ple of 2014 fire mishap in

another hospital inBhubaneswar, the petitionerhas maintained that the hospi-tal is running without a validcertificate of registration fromthe District Magistrate as perthe requirement of the ClinicalEstablishment Act of 1990.

Annexing various letters ofcommunication between himwith that of the districtCollector, the DMET and theDG of Fire Services in hispetition, the petitioner hasurged the court for an imme-diate intervention and directionto the concerned authorities toseal all those private hospitalsand nursing homes that arerunning without proper firesafety measures.

Issuing notices to therespondents, a Division Benchof the court headed by theChief Justice has posted thematter to be heard again onDecember 15. PNS

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The uncontrolled use ofantibiotics, growth-pro-

moting hormones, pesticidesand other disinfectants used forcontrolling diseases andpathogens in aquaculture in theseven districts, such as Ganjam,Puri, Khurda, Jagatsinghpur,Kendrapada, Bhadrak andBaleswar have serious healthhazards on cultured prawns,fishes, human beings, besidesthe flora and fauna at large.

Antibiotics and disinfec-tants were found to be usedcommonly by the farmers. Thechemicals used in the culturesystems as antibiotics or disin-fectants for the culture water,tanks and other utensils haveserious health hazards for boththe cultured prawns andhuman beings.

Polyculture in freshwaterfish-prawn farms, prawn farms,and rice-prawn farming is thetradition of Odisha coast, espe-cially in the delta regions. Withthe growing demand in domes-tic markets as well as in foreignmarkets, the culture of fresh-water prawn has proved its eco-nomic importance and becomeburgeoning business in Odisha

coast. The freshwater prawnplays an important role in theeconomy of Odisha by earningvaluable foreign exchange, gen-erating employment, improv-ing the socioeconomic condi-tions of the backward people.Nevertheless, the biggest prob-lem faced by the farmers everyyear in this sector is due to theviral, bacterial, or parasiticaldiseases. The bacterial diseasesare treated by different antibi-otics to avoid the outbreak ofdeadly diseases. The quality ofthe water and soil is alwaysmaintained by using disinfec-tants. A variety of drugs arebeing used predominantly indifferent farms of the districtsto reduce the attack of the dif-ferent pathogens, to improvethe survival rate and to increasethe intensity of feeding leads tobetter growth rate. The com-mon antibiotics oxytetracy-cline, erythromycin, chloram-phenicol and nitrofurans arecommonly used to control thebacterial pathogens success-fully. Most of the farms usechloramphenicol followed byoxytetracycline and ery-thromycin. Besides theseantibiotics, the farms use dis-infectants, such as formalin,malachite green, potassiumpermanganate, and methyleneblue (MB), to disinfect thewater and for parasitical dis-eases caused by petrichous

protozoan ciliates, and somebacterial pathogens.

The antibiotics chloram-phenicol (mostly used in thefarms) and nitrofurans arebanned worldwide for use inthe production of foodsbecause of their serious sideeffects. Chloramphenicol maycause fatal aplastic anemia andnitrofurans are classified ascarcinogens. The use of antibi-otics for treatment arise variousantibiotic-resistant bacteria.The antibiotics used in theprawn farms create health haz-ards when exposed on the skinor inhaled.

Nirmal Sarkar, a workerworking in a aquaculture pondat Sunduripal of Rajnagar told,“We are suffering with skin irri-tation and respiration prob-lems. But still we have to work

there for our bread and butter.”Similarly, malachite green

is a respiratory poison. It is notvery soluble in water and bindsto sediments. It accumulates inbiota but mostly in simpleorganisms. In fish, malachitegreen can be found in allorgans in great quantities,including kidney. In water,potassium permanganate isquickly transformed into non-toxic manganese dioxide. It istoxic for phytoplankton.

MB has the potential toaffect a wide variety of physi-ologic reactions. Its affects thered blood cells adversely.Paradoxically, at higher doses,this equilibrium is destroyedand an excess of methemoglo-bin is produced. The formationof hydrogen peroxide as a byproduct can lead to oxidation

of the red-cell membranes,denaturation of haemoglobin,haemolytic anaemia, and heinzbody formation.

Disinfectants are drainedin the local water bodies lead-ing to pollution. The control-ling authorities have ignoredthe laws to control the haz-ardous drugs. The farms arenot using procedures to avoidthe introduction of diseases inprawns by regular water qual-ity management, probiotics orother herbal medicines withfewer side effects.

“The export of Vannameishrimps has grown by leapsand bounds in the past fewyears. However, there isunregulated growth of aqua-culture in Odisha coast whichare not following the guide-lines,” told Ranjeet Pattanaik,

a social evaluator of YARR. “The use of antibiotics as

feed additives in food animalshas been cited as one of thereasons for the developmentof antibiotic resistant bacteria(ARB) in the environment.The use of antimicrobialdrugs for treating aquaculture(fish, shrimp etc) is unregu-lated; antibiotics can be pur-chased in pharmacies, gener-al stores, and even marketstalls .Antibiotic resistanceand possible treatment fail-ures in production arebecoming a fast growing pre-occupation involving diverseagricultural industries andspecies. The problem is acutein aquaculture industry whereresistance development hasbeen reported in freshwaterand marine environments,”told environmentalist DrSaraswat Mishra.

“The consequences ofantimicrobial resistance inbacteria causing human infec-tions include increase numberof infections, frequency oftreatment failures and sever-ity of infection, and finallyincreased costs to societyassociated with disease.Increased severity of infectionincludes prolonged durationof illness, increased frequen-cy of bloodstream infections,hospitalization and mortality,”said Dr Sudhi Ranjan Dash.

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After the CentralGovernment banned the

old �500 and �1,000 currencynotes on November 8 in a bidto curb black money and ter-ror funding in the country,local residents are facing a lotof problems but have appreci-ated the steps taken by PrimeMinister Narendra Modi.

The residents of the townare frustrated as most of theATMs ran out of cash withincouple of hours of beingloaded. Many of the ATMs hereare yet to be functional. Thepeople are complaining thatthere are facing problemsgalore due to shortage of cashneeded for meeting their dailyexpenses, sources said.

People were also seenqueuing up near the ATMsfrom as early 7 am to avoid thetorrid sun and swelling crowds.As the ATMs are running outof cash people had to stand in

serpentine queues to avail cashfrom the banks. But despitethat they put up a brave faceand welcomed PM Modi’sdemonetisation policy, thesources said.

“It is a very good step forour nation. Those having blackmoney are the biggest losers.The problem might continuefor some days. But we have tobear it for growth of our nation,said a local resident of the townMitabrata Mishra.

Due to lack of preparation,people are suffering a lot. Butthe policy is good for us in thelong run, said a lawyer ShibNarayan Mahapatra.

If people could get even

limited quantity of cash fromthe ATMs, they wouldn’t beworried. But that is also notpossible as most ATMs are stillnot functional. But what theopposition parties are saying isrubbish, said social activists BBBagarty. A local residentUpendra Sahu and AESCollege president Amrut Naik,who had queued up near anATM for cash said “this is a sur-gical strike by Narendra Modiagainst black money.

Demonetisation has largerbenefits for the nation’s econ-omy in the long term and weall are with the PM for brighterfuture of our nation,” they said.

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All parties have stepped uptheir poll preparedness

in Subarnapur district as pan-chayat elections are drawingnear.

In the three-tier pan-chayat elections between 1997and 2012, while JD and BJPhave occupied the Zil laParishad Chairman post onceeach, BJD occupied it twice.Congress has never headedthe ZP.

In 1997 Zilla Parisad elec-tion, Janata Dal had won sixseats, Congress four, BJP twoand independent had got oneseat. JD’s Anil Kalayat hadbeen elected as Zilla ParisadChairman. In 2002 elections,Congress had increased itsshare by two more and got sixseats, BJP by two and got fourseats while BJD had got three

seats. BJP’s Anand Barik waselected as ZP Chairman. In2007 election, BJD won nineseats, BJP three, Congresshad got one seat. BJD’sPuspanjali Kanta was electedas ZP chief. In 2012 election,the BJD kept up its winningstreak and got 12 seats, whileCongress had got one seat.Again, BJD’s HimansuShekhar Biswal headed theZilla Parisad.

BJD wants to maintainthe same winning spree in2017, while BJP and Congresshave prepared to increasetheir tallies. This time, the ZPChairman seat is reserved forSC. Similarly, Ullunda zone-2, Birmaharajpur zone-1 andTarbha zone-1 are reservedfor SC. There are a total of 13ZP seats in the district.

Now all eyes are on twopowerful leaders such as for-mer Minister PadmanavBehera and Sonepur MLA-cum- Speaker NiranjanPujhari, who would leave nostone unturned for a toughfight.

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Gajapati District andSessions Judge Durga

Shankar Mishra onTuesdaydelivered the judgmentin the rape case of a minor girland sentenced the accused to10 years rigorous imprison-ment and asked him to pay afine of �10,000.

A resident of DakarpankaVillage under Mohana block,Dinesh Majhi, had allegedlyraped the minor girl of the vil-lage in the nearby jungle onOctober 4, 2013.

A case in this connectionwas lodged in the Adaba PS.Later, the police had arrestedthe accused Majhi and for-warded him to the court.

As his bail petition wasrejected, he was sent to jail. Forthe accused, lawyer S Muraliconducted the case, and fromthe prosecution side VSN Rajuappeared in the case.

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The user trial of the nuclear-capable, surface-to-surface

Agni-1 ballistic missile wascarried out successfully onTuesday from the Abdul KalamIsland here by the specially-raised India’s Strategic ForcesCommand at around 10.10 amas a part of training exercise.

Under the supervision ofthe Defence Research andDevelopment Organisation(DRDO) scientists the single-stage, solid-propelled missilewas launched by the personnelfrom a mobile launcher ofLaunch Complex (LC) -IV.

The trajectory of the trialwas tracked by a battery ofsophisticated radars, telemetryobservation stations, electro-optic instruments and navalships from its launch till themissile hit the target area withaccuracy, said sources.

The last trial of the Agni-Imissile was successfully carried

out on March 14 from the samebase.

Agni-1 weighs 12 tonnesand is capable of carrying anuclear warhead up to onetonne. The 15 metre long mis-sile carried a dummy warheadand the flight duration wasabout 10 minutes when the mis-sile reached its target in the Bayof Bengal.

.The indigenous missiledeveloped by advanced sys-tems laboratory, the premiermissile development laboratoryof the DRDO in collaborationwith Defence ResearchDevelopment Laboratory andResearch Centre and integratedby Bharat Dynamics Limited,Hyderabad. The missile whichhas been already inducted intothe armed forces has provedworthy in terms of its range andaccuracy. The home grownmissile having a range about 700km was randomly picked upfrom the production lot for theuser test.

Bhubaneswar: Labour and ESIPrincipal Secretary and CrisisGroup Member Secretary GSrinivas on Monday emphasisedon holding mock drills on pos-sible accidents at regular inter-vals in all high-risk factories.

Holding of mock drills arerequired to get ensured thatemergency plans for fightingvarious possible accidentswould work at the time of needand to sensitize all stakehold-ers, including communities liv-ing in the vicinity, he saidwhile attending a mock drill

held recently at the HPCL’sLPG Bottling Plant at Jatni.

The mock drill was carriedout involving bottling plantstaffs, other stakeholders andfire, health, police, transport,Directorate of Factories andBoilers personnel and DistrictCrisis Group (DCG) and StateCrisis Group members.

This was done as part ofthe regional conference onChemical (Industrial) DisasterManagement with the theme“Disaster Risk Reduction inChemical, Metallurgical, Gas

and other Industries”.The conclave was jointly

organised by State’s Labor andESI Department, NationalDisaster ManagementAuthority (NDMA), Petroleumand Natural Gas RegulatoryBoard (PNGRB), Federation ofIndian Chamber of Commerceand Industry (FICCI) fromNovember 17 to 19 here.

Nearly, 200 delegates, whoattended the conference fromOdisha, West Bengal,Chhatisgarh and Jharkhand,were associated in the mock

drill. The emergency pre-paredness of HPCL bottlingplant in terms of personal pro-tective gears, fire tenders, skillof personnel to act duringemergency was assessed.

The mock drill was con-ducted under the supervisionof Khordha Collector NiranjanSahoo.

Among others, Factoriesand Boilers Director P C Das,NDMA Brigadier BK Khannaand senior officials of theUnion Government witnessedthe mock drill. PNS

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AZilla Parishad meeting washeld under the presi-

dentship of Zilla ParishadChairman Himanshu ShekharBiswal here on Sunday.

Attending the meeting,Assembly Speaker-cum-localMLA Niranjan Pujari directedthe officials to come withenough homework as someofficials could not provide sat-isfactory data required in themeeting. He also was not happywith the tardy progress of someprojects.

The meeting took up issueslike execution of differentschemes. It was told to the meet-ing that 91,584 families have gotBiju Krushi Kalyan Yojana(BKKY) cards in four phases and587 cards were corrected.Besides, progress in food supply,

health service, lift irrigation,textile sector was discussed.

Collector DasirathiSatpathy, PD DRDA BiswanathSahu, Sub Collector SuryaNarayan Dash, CDMO SaratChandra Majhi, Water andSanitation Executive EngineerBasanta Mohanty, Public Works

Executive Engineer PradiptaNath, DEO Laxman Bhoi, DPCBenudhar Behera, DDAPrasanna Samantara, DWOBasanta Manjari Pahi, DPMMausimi Mishra, LDM JagdishPrasad Mahapatra, DIPROAshok Kumar Mishra and PRImembers were present.

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Jharsuguda: JharsugudaCongress MLA Naba KishoreDas recently held discussionswith Railway Minister SureshPrabhakar Prabhu in NewDelhi and Airport Authority ofIndia (AAI) ChairmanGuruprasad Mohapatra regard-ing construction of rail over-bridges and development of theairport at Jharsuguda.

During the discussion onconstruction of three rail over-bridges at Chowkipada,Sarbahal and Balijori, theRailway Minister assured tospeed up all the projects.Further, Das requested theMinister to give permission forconstruction of a road on therailway land from Sarbahal toMangal Bazar. Das also dis-cussed about early opening ofcommercial flights to and fromJharsuguda with the AAIChairman and stressed that earlyopening of commercial flightswould be helpful for developmentof Jharsuguda as a whole. TheChairman assured to completethe developmental work of theairport within the time schedule.

The MLA’s son Bisal Daswas also present during thesediscussions. PNS

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Police detained over 80activists of Congress and

BJP before Chief MinisterNaveen Patnaik visitedSambalpur district for inaugu-ration of some projects onTuesday.

The police took activists ofthe two opposition parties,including former MLAJayanarayan Mishra, appre-hending that they might showblack flags and hurl eggs at the CM cavalcade, sources said. During his visit, Patnaik

flagged off a pilgrimage traincarrying senior citizens ofsouth Odisha at the Khetrajpurrailway station. The train car-rying more than 1,000 seniorcitizens left for Rishikesh andHaridwar, sources said.

Patnaik too visitedSundargarh district. he inau-gurated around 20 projectsand laid stones for some pro-posed ones. He distributedassistances to beneficiariesunder various Governmentschemes during the visit.

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The Supreme Committee forDelivery and Legacy, the

organisation responsible fordelivering infrastructurerequired for the 2022 FIFAWorld Cup, signed aMemorandum ofUnderstanding (MoU) withBuilding and Wood Workers’International (BWI), globaltrade union for constructionworkers, to conduct jointlabour and accommodationinspections on World Cup pro-jects in Qatar from January

2017.The MoU will cover con-

struction site and accommo-dation inspections, trainingand a review of the SC’s currentgrievance mechanisms.

The joint inspections willinitially focus on projects thatare being built by multinationalcompanies that are headquar-tered in countries where BWIcurrently has representation. Todate the companies that fallunder the agreement are fromAustria, Belgium, Italy, India,and Cyprus - companies allemployed on SC projects.

The SC and BWI will forma Joint Working Group (JWG)that will manage the inspec-tions and reporting obliga-tions. The JWG will meet toreview the work that has been

done to date and produce anindependent report that will bereleased to the public afterevery JWG meeting.

Drawing upon expertisefrom its 340 affiliates within130 countries, the BWI will alsoconduct health and safety train-ing for the SC and its contrac-

tors working on World Cupprojects that fall under theagreement. The BWI will alsoreview and assess the SC’s cur-rent Workers’ Welfare Forums- a mechanism developed toallow workers to express andresolve their grievances andother issues that are mandated

by the SC as part of theWorkers’ Welfare Standards(WW Standards).

The SC currently has eightconstruction sites underwayacross Qatar and just under10,000 workers on-site at anygiven time. The number ofworkers engaged on World

Cup construction projects isexpected to rise to 36,000 in thenext 12 months as various pro-jects approach completion orthe main works stage, withKhalifa International Stadiumexpected for completion inJanuary 2017 and the AlWakrah and Qatar Foundationstadiums both rapidly headingtowards their completion datesin 2018.

Secretary general ofSupreme Committee forDelivery legacy of QatarGovernment Hassan AlThawadi, Ambet Yuson, gen-eral secretary of BWI Per-OlofSjoo, president of BWI DietmarSchafers, deputy president ofBWI, former MP, INBCWFpresident Dr RC Khuntia fromIndia were present.

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The Odisha PrimaryTeachers’ Association

(OPTA) on Tuesday met theFitment Committee constitut-ed by the State Government fordrawing modalities to imple-ment the 7th Pay Commission.

The OPTA demanded thecommittee to sort out the dis-parity in the 6th PayCommission for primaryteachers before implementingthe 7th Pay Commission rec-

ommendations.They threatened to boycott

the oncoming panchayat elec-tions if they fail to get justice.

They strongly demandedfor implementing the recom-mendations of the 7th PayCommission with pay rangestaring from �35,400, old pen-sion scheme to the teachers asbefore January 1, 2005 and �10lakh to the families of thedeceased teachers

OPTA president RajeshMohanty said according to theCentral Government’s 7th PayCommission a primary teachershould get �13,500 (pay- �9,300and grade pay- �4,200) alongwith other incentives.

According to the Central

Government rules, thePrimary Teachers of WestBengal, Jharkhand, Tamilnadu,Haryana, Delhi, Punjab andother States are getting gradepay of �4,200 in pay-band 2but in Odisha the PrimaryTeachers are getting grade payof �2,200 in pay-band 1 and itis against the rule, Mohantyadded.

If the demands are not ful-filled the association willprotest against the StateGovernment by taking to thestreets and threatened to boy-cott the upcoming panchayatelections.

Among others, OPTA gen-eral secretary Khagendra NathPal was present.

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The Industrial police arrest-ed a 24-year-old man on

the charge of committing bur-glary and recovered stolenornaments worth about �4.5lakh from his possession.

The accused, identified asRabindra Dalei of Berhampurvillage under Rupsa policestation limits, was forwardedto court on Tuesday afterbeing booked under Sections457 and 380 of IPC.

The accused was engagedas sweeper in Birla Tyres res-idential area. He committedthe offence in the house of oneRanjit Naskar, a native ofSouth 24 Pargana and workingas an engineer in the plant atChhanpur.

On Sunday evening, when

Naskar had come to Baleswartown along with his wife formedical treatment of theirminor son, the accused com-mitted the crime. After return-ing, the Naskar couple foundtheir locked doors wereopened and all their jewelleryitems stolen. The matter wasreported to the local police sta-tion. The police during inves-tigation suspected the culpritand after sustained interroga-tion, Dalei confessed to theoffence.

"The accused confessedto the guilt and the entirestolen articles, including fivegold bangles, Bahuti, Pala, earring, chain, bracelet, ear toppieces etc were seized from hispossession," told IIC PareshRout of the Industrial policestation.

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Paddy procurement inNuapada district has been

deferred for about a week dueto fund problem of the coop-erative societies.

Procurement was sched-uled to start from November 21as decided at the procurementmeeting held on November10.

"The cooperative societiesare not able to draw moneyfrom their banks due to RBIrestrictions; they may take aweek to settle the things," saidthe Nuapada ACSO.

The farmers in the mean-time are forced to sell their pro-duce at distress rates to brokersappointed by millers. In mostplaces, the farmers are beingpaid in old one-thousand andfive hundred-rupee notes.

The district has set a pro-curement target of 45,000 MTof Kharif paddy in the firstphase of procurement. "Thetarget will increase, and itdepends on the online regis-tration of farmers," said theACSO.

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Three days after controver-sial trade unionist and

Congress leader Bapi Sarkhelwas sent to the Alipingal Jail inconnection with Seaways steve-doring company GMMahendra Swain murder case,his wife Monideepa Sarkhel onTuesday met him at the jail.

The meeting lasted for afew minutes after whichMonideepa returned and metlocal mediapersons. She reit-erated her claim that Bapi hasbeen falsely implicated in themurder case at the behest ofExcise Minister and ParadipMLA Dr Damodar Rout. Shedescribed it as political vendet-ta against her husband anddemanded an impartial probeinto the incident.

Moreover, she explainedafter meeting with PCC pres-ident Prasad Harichandan inBhubaneswar on Monday that

the latter has instructed her tocarry out party works inParadip Assembly constituen-cy in the absence of Bapi. As aresult, she would campaign ineach panchayat and villagecoming under Kujang andErsama blocks during the pan-chayat elections in Februarynext, she informed.

Meanwhile, a motorcyclerally was taken out in Paradipby a section of Congress work-ers demanding ouster of Bapifrom the party for his connec-tion in the murder case.

To counter the move,Bapi’s supporters organised asimilar rally at Kujang andRahama Bazar and set ablazeeffigies of Minister Rout, MLAChiranjib Biswal and MPRanjib Biswal. Meanwhile,reports said that the ParadipCongress has been dividedover the Bapi arrest.

Meanwhile, the judicialremand of Rakesh Chaubey,the hired killer involved in themurder case who was taken inremand since November 19,ended on Tuesday. Chaubeywas presented in the Kujangcourt on Tuesday afternoonand the court sent him to theSamagola Jail.

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Police on Tuesday arrestedand court-forwarded five

persons for allegedly rapingand looting a married womanof Biramitrapur in Sundargarhdistrict a week ago.

The police seized threemobiles and Rs 290 from theaccused.

Sources said, the womanalong with her husband hadgone to visit Pitamahal damunder the Kalunga police out-post on November 16. Whilethey were sitting on a culvertnear the dam, the five camenear them and forcibly took thewomen to the nearby jungle.They beat up her husband as heopposed them. While persons

caught hold up her husband,the test two raped her in turns.They snatched away Rs 2,000from them.

The couple lodged a com-plaint at the Kalunga policeoutpost on Thursday after-noon.

The arrested were identi-fied as Suresh Dungdung(40)of Balanda colony, KaliaOram (23) of GarjanSukratola, Biranchi Majhi (25)and Santosh Sethi (21) andMotu alias Prakash Lakra(20)of Juna Balamda, all inRourkela.

According to police,Suresh and Kalia had raped thewoman while other three hadhelped them and looted thecouple.

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In yet another setback to theMaoists, as many as 222

Maoist sympathisers surren-dered before the Red rebels-dominated Malkangiri policeon Tuesday.

According to reports, 222Maoist supporters, including 19militia and 72 women, fromTelkunda village under theKalimela police station sur-rendered before districtSuperintendent of PoliceMitrabhanu Mohapatra at thedistrict headquarters.

It may be recalled that asmany as 101 Maoist supporters,including 24 militia and 26women, had surrendered beforethe police in Malkangiri onMonday. The villagers hailedfrom Badigeta and Gandhigaonunder Kalimela block.

Prior to that, 145 Maoistsupporters, hailing from Kuruband Marigata villages under theKalimela police limits in thedistrict, had surrendered beforepolice three days ago.

The series of surrenders inthe recent past clearly indicatesthe Reds are losing ground inthe district.

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Bhubaneswar: A 60-year-oldman was arrested on Tuesdayfor allegedly raping a minor girlmany times at a slum here.

The incident came to lightafter locals brought the accusedto police after beating himblack and blue.

According to reports, theshameful incident happened atthe Radhakrushna slum underthe Chandrasekharpur policestation. The accused identifiedas Barsaha Murmu, a tribalman, and with his wife SalmaMurmu are staying in the slum.Police said the elderly tribalman had molested the 11-year-old girl in his home onMonday evening. What is evenmore shocking is that the wifeof the accused had helped intaking the hapless girl into theirroom; after finding her alone inthe area, police added. Theirate locals even beat the hus-band and wife by tying their legsand hands on the road. PNS

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The immensely popularopen air festival Kalinga

Baliyatra held fromNovember13 to 20 held onParadip sea shore endedonSunday night.

Organised by the KalingaBaliyatra Committee underpatronage of the DistrictCouncil of Culture, severalindustrial houses and manyculture loving people badefarewells to this year fest whichis believed to be the secondmost famous in the State afterthe internationally popularCuttack Baliyatra.

Former Chief Minister lateBiju Patnaik had started theyearly fest at Paradip sea shorein the year 1992. For remem-bering the legendary leader,the ground was named afterBiju. The growth of popularityof the festival has been increas-ing each passing year.

As many as 200 stalls of allvarieties had been erected dur-

ing the fest this year. TheBaliyatra too was used as a plat-form by the Government agen-cies, private enterprises, indus-trial houses and commercialorganizations to showcase theirproducts and ideas. TheORMAS stalls made brisk busi-ness, while district self-helpgroups also had a good business,the DRDA sources said.

National and State levelreputed artists along with folkdancers and local culturaltroupes performed cultural pro-grammes every evening thatdrew huge footfalls. This yearwas the silver jubilee celebration.

According to BaliytraCommittee chairman andCollector Yamini Sarangi, allMLAs and MPs of the districtand several Ministers had beeninvited but a few did not turn upowing to personal engagements.She described this year fest assuccessful and incident free.

The closing day festival wasattended by State ExciseMinister Damodar Rout whohad inaugurated the fest earli-er. The Paradeep MunicipalityChairman, the DeputyChairman, PPT and the ADM,Paradip, among others, werepresent.

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Jajpur Road: The BJP Koreiunit held a preparatory meet-ing here for the proposed MahaSamabesh to be held atBhubaneswar onNovember 25and attended by national pres-ident Amit Shah.

Former Korai MLA andsenior BJP leader SanchitaMohanty presided over themeeting in which all cell pres-idents, general secretaries,mandal presidents and otheroffice bearers participated.Mohanty urged for a remark-able participation of workers inthe Maha Samabesh from theKorai Assembly segment.

Vyasadev Mandal presi-dent Nityananda Mahalikrequested all booth and wardcommittee heads to take asmore as activists and public tothe ‘Samabesh’. Among others,Amulya Kumar Das, HemantaMallick, Uday Kumar Sahoo,Arun Das, Biswa RanjanPattanaik, Ayodhyanath Jena,Binay Rout, Dushmanta Rout,Kalpataru Sahoo, UmeshMallick, Bramhanidevi Mandalpresident Prasanta Mallick,Baitarani Mandal presidentKartick Sahoo, KharasrotaMandal president Dr SureshChandra Panda and Tultul Jenawere present. PNS

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People maybe having a toughtime due to scrapping of

high value currency notes, butthe cash-strapped municipalbodies across the country havehad the last laugh with theirproperty tax coffer swelling by268 per cent to �13,192 crore tillNovember 22, 2016 compared to�3,607 crore last month in 2015.

People paid property tax inold denomination notes of �500and �1,000 following demoneti-sation of the two legal tendersannounced by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi on November 8.

Urban DevelopmentMinister Venkaiah Naidu termedit as a positive impact of thedemonetisation and said thaturban local bodies have beenbenefitted a lot due to the move.

“This is the reformative stepundertaken by the Prime Min-ister that has financially stren-gthened the local bodies,” he saidat a Press conference here on Tu-esday. The figure is likely to jackup further as residents are allo-wed to pay taxes in demonetisedcurrencies till November 24.

According to the data pro-vided by the UD Ministry,NDMC in Delhi netted over�30 crore in form of propertytax and conversion charge paidby property owners in demon-etised high value bank notes.Last year, the NDMC had gar-nered �21 crore.

The three corporations ofSouth Delhi, East Delhi andNorth Delhi which have beenalways struggling to collect out-standing taxes is witnessing longqueue of tax payers. The munic-ipal bodies are accepting prop-erty tax dues and conversion cha-rges in defunct notes, as directedby the Central Government.

North MCD collected �18.8crore (�1.7 crore in November2015), East MCD �7 crore (�2.6crore) and South MCD garnered�16.5 crore against �2.2 crore lastyear in November. Amid dem-onetisation of high value cur-rency, Mumbai MunicipalCorporation saw multifoldincrease in its tax revenue to

�11,913 crore from the people asproperty tax in a span of just 13days. Last year during Novemberthe collection was �3,185 crore.

The municipal bodies inthe Southern parts of the coun-try too fared well because of thedemonetization. The propertyand professional tax collection

for Chennai municipal bodyrose to �80 crore post demon-etisation against Rs 24 crore dur-ing November last year. Almostall the municipal corporations inGujarat reported hike in propertytax revenue. The NagpurMunicipal Corporation, collect-ed property tax of �25 crore tillNovember 22, 2016 as against theLast year November collection of�4.9 crore. Rajkot MunicipalCorporation reported �34.27crore while Vadodra has netted�19.2 crore (4.9 crore).

Lucknow Municipal Corpo-ration too reported huge surge intax income at �27.5 crore tillNovember 22, 2016 against �2.5crore in November last month.

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The Opposition stalled pro-ceedings in both the

Houses of Parliament for thefourth consecutive day onTuesday over demonetisationissue and demanded PrimeMinister Narendra Modi’s pres-ence. The Government, how-ever, charged the Oppositionwith shying away from adebate, claiming it had run outof logical arguments and there-fore disrupting Parliament.

Stepping up the heat onthe Government, theOpposition also demanded acompensation of �10 lakheach for 70 people who diedwhile waiting in the queues inthe last few days following thedemonetization of �500 and�1,000 currency notes. Boththe Houses witnessed din withthe Opposition membersrepeatedly running into thewell and the BJP membersraising slogans from the aisles.

Seeking Modi’s presence,the agitated Opposition saidwhile the Prime Minister wastalking about the demonetisa-tion issue in public rallies andfunctions, he was yet to addressParliament on it. TheGovernment maintained it wasready to answer to all queriesposed by the Opposition. Itwas also accused of runningaway from the ongoing debateon the issue in the Rajya Sabhawhich started on November 16

and Finance Minister ArunJaitley will reply at the end ofthe discussion.

Unwilling to give any quar-ter to the Government, SitaramYechury(CPM) said in theRajya Sabha the decision todemonetise was announced bythe Prime Minister and there-fore should be present in theHouse when members speakabout the plight of commonpeople.

Even as Deputy ChairmanPJ Kurien said he cannot ask

the Prime Minister to come tothe House, Leader ofOpposition and seniorCongress leader Ghulam NabiAzad said the Opposition wasready for resumption of the dis-cussion on the condition thatModi come to the Rajya Sabhato listen to hardships faced bypeople standing in lines all overthe country.

Rejecting the Oppositiondemand for Modi’s presence,Minister of State forParliamentary Affairs Mukhtar

Abbas Naqvi said theOpposition was coming upwith new excuses every day toavoid the stalled discussion onthe issue and appealed to theChair to begin the debate.

Calling for a compensationof �10 lakh each to those whodied in the last few days report-edly due to hardships caused bydemonetisation, SharadYadav(JD-U) said these deathstook place following theGovernment’s decision. Similardemand was made by

Mayawati(BSP) who also saidsituation was bad while NareshAgrawal(SP) sought a com-pensation of �50 lakh each. Healso charged the PrimeMinister with behaving like anautocrat not willing to listen toanyone.

The Upper House saw sixadjournments due to pande-monium as the Oppositionmembers including Congressand TMC time and againstormed into the well raisingslogans. The ruling BJP raisedcounter slogans from the aislesforcing Kurien to admonishthem as they were not sup-posed to do as sitting on thetreasury benches.

In the Lok Sabha, theOpposition, which was joinedby AIADMK in targeting theGovernment, continued to pressfor a debate under a rule whichentails voting even as the rulingside vehemently resisted it.

Amid noisy Oppositionprotests, Parliamentary AffairsMinister Ananth Kumar main-tained that the governmentwas willing to debate everyaspect of the issue.

Congress leaderMallikarjun Kharge andTrinamool Congress leaderSudip Bandhopadhyay saidthey wanted a debate butdemanded the PrimeMinister’s presence. Due tothe uproar, the House wasadjourned for the day, justafter noon.

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The Supreme Court onTuesday failed to give any

relief to Delhi Chief MinisterArvind Kejriwal who soughtstay of criminal defamationproceedings initiated againsthim by Finance Minister ArunJaitley for leveling allegation ofirregularities during Jaitley’stenure as president of Delhi andDistrict Cricket Association(DDCA).

Already, Jaitley had filed a�10 crore civil suit againstKejriwal in the Delhi HighCourt. In December 2015, acriminal defamation case waslodged by Jaitley againstKejriwal and five other AAPleaders in a local Delhi court.

Appearing for the DelhiCM, senior advocate RamJethmalani submitted before abench of Justices PC Ghose andUU Lalit that the SupremeCourt is yet to decide on thequestion whether civil andcriminal defamation trial canproceed simultaneously. Hepointed to a catena of decisionsby several High Courts wheremajority view prevailed infavour of stay of criminal pro-ceedings. However, there wasno fixed rule since the SupremeCourt has not given an author-ititative pronouncement onthis question. Jethmalanirequested the court to consid-er laying down this law in thepresent case.

Dismissing Kejriwal’s peti-tion, the court repeatedly askedJethmalani to show a singlejudgement to demonstrate thata trial court order will have nobinding effect on the HighCourt in such a simultaneousproceeding. He said that anorder by the HC will commandmore respect and confidence inthe mind of the public than averdict by a trial court.

Jethmalani said that thereal fight was between a ChiefMinister of a small State andthe Finance Minister of thecountry. “This is a case wherethe court must protect a ChiefMinister of a State. You knowthe situation that is going onnowadays…does a person nothave the freedom to commenton the misadministration of acricket body,” Jethmalani said.

The bench replied, “Wewill not enter the merits of thecase. Even in your petitionyou have challenged the orderof the Magistrate refusing tostay the criminal proceeding.You are not challenging theproceedings per se that nooffence is made out.”Jethmalani responded by say-ing that the stage for doing sohad not arrived yet. But thebench quipped, “We do notthink it is a fit case for us tointerfere in the facts and cir-cumstances of this case.”

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Aman who approached theSupreme Court alleging sex-

ual harassment against a womanduring a court proceeding wasmade to withdraw his com-plaint after the Supreme Courtdismissed his allegation as scan-dalous and restrained him fromraising this grievance in any pro-ceeding or court. The courtexpunged all remarks made bythe man against the woman inquestion and imposed a blanketban on media from publishingthe name of the allegationsagainst her.

The man, a resident ofKerala, claimed that the inci-dent occurred inside the court-room on October 4, 2016 whenhe was arguing a petition seek-ing culling of stray dogs fol-lowing the menace caused by

the canines in Kerala. He fileda petition challenging theAnimal Birth Control (Dogs)Rules of 2001 and sought hear-ing on the same along with abunch of similar petitions beingheard by the apex court.

Though no mention of theincident was made inside theCourt, the alleged victim went tothe Registrar the same day tolodge his complaint. He said thathe was advised to file an appli-cation and circulate it in the casein which he is appearing.

Taking strong exception tothe petitioner’s attempt to circu-late the application prior to itshearing, the bench of JusticesDipak Misra and Amitava Roysaid, “He (petitioner) shouldhave been well advised that suchkind of allegations are not madein an application which hasnothing to do with the subject

matter of the lis, but may havesomething to do with a partic-ular individual. It is also dis-cernible that the allegationsmade are scandalous, unwar-ranted, indecent and absolutelyuncalled for.” The benchrestrained him from “makingslightest effort to file such appli-cation before this Court or anycourt relating to this incident.”

Ironically, earlier in the day,a bench headed by CJI TSThakur took a different view onthe allegation by the man whenit heard his application alongwith the petition challenging the2001 Rules. The CJI-headedbench said, “We will require anenquiry into the matter. If he isright, it has to be dealt with andif he is wrong, he will face pros-ecution. It is not as though sex-ual harassment can go onlyagainst women.”

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Amid concern over spurt intiger deaths this year,

Environment Minister AnilMadhav Dave informed LokSabha on Tuesday that 29 tigershave been poached tillNovember 16 this year, in com-parison to 14 last year.

On controversies overGenetically Modified (GM)mustard crops, Dave informedthe Lok Sabha that the Ministryis examining health concernslooked into by country’s toporganisations.

The Government has pre-pared a Detailed Project Report(DPR) for undertaking planta-tion and associated activitiesalong Ganga and its majortributaries, informed theMinister to Lok Sabha in areply to another question onTuesday.

Giving further details ontiger mortalities, Dave said

that 32 big cats have died dueto natural causes while 37other cases are under scrutinyto ascertain the cause of thedeath. Among the legal steps toconserve tigers, Dave saidamendment of the Wild Life(Protection) Act, 1972 in 2006was done. While the NationalTiger Conservation Authority(NTCA) is the nodal agency tolook into such cases, a multi-disciplinary Tiger and OtherEndangered Species CrimeControl Bureau is also at its job,to check poaching and wildlifetrafficking.

He said financial andtechnical help is provided toStates under various central-ly-sponsored schemes, includ-ing Project Tiger andIntegrated Development ofWildlife Habitats for enhanc-ing the capacity and infrastructure for providingeffective protection to wildanimals.

On the issue of the use ofGM Mustard, Dave saidGenetic EngineeringAppraisal Committee (GEAC)and its sub-committeesinvolve representatives ofNational Institute of Nutrition(NIN), Bio-Medical Group ofBhabha Atomic ResearchCentre (BARC), Ministry ofHealth and Indian Council of

Medical Research (ICMR).NIN an institute of ICMR wasengaged in undertaking com-positional analysis, aller-genicity and toxicity assess-ment and animal studies ofGE Mustard.

In a written response toyet another question, theEnvironment Minister saidthat 6197 sites have been

identified in the five states ofUttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh,Bihar, Jharkhand and WestBengal for raising the planta-tions by the banks of Ganga.The DPR envisages planta-tions on sites located withinfive km on both sides of riverGanga and two km on bothsides of its major tributaries,said Dave.

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The NIA and State securityagencies have so far arrest-

ed 68 supporters of dreadedterror outfit ISIS in variousparts of the country, Lok Sabhawas informed on Tuesday.“The National InvestigationAgency and State securityagencies have so far arrested68 ISIS supporters/sympa-thisers,” Minister of State forHome Hansraj Ahir said reply-ing to a written question.

The Minister said a total of50 people have been arrested bysecurity agencies during cur-rent year of whom 11 belongedto Maharashtra, 11 belonged toTelangana, 7 belonged toKarnataka, 4 fromUttarakhand, 6 from Kerala, 1from Delhi, 2 from WestBengal, 1 from Rajasthan, 2

from Uttar Pradesh, 1 fromMadhya Pradesh, 1 fromJammu and Kashmir, 1 fromBihar and 2 from TamilNadu.Ahir said ISIS is usingvarious platforms to propagateits ideology and to attractrecruits from across the world.

“The intelligence andsecurity agencies maintain aclose watch to identify thoseengaged in such anti-nation-al activities and persons orpreachers misguiding theyouth and action is initiatedagainst such persons underthe relevant laws,” he said

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The Defence Ministry willexamine cases of black-

listed firms as it prepares anew list of such entities fol-lowing the new policy onblacklisting unveiled onTuesday. The liberalised pol-icy to help the armed forcesmaintain their tempo of mod-ernisation is a mixture ofheavy fines and graded ban-ning. The Defence AcquisitionCouncil(DAC) chaired byDefence Minister ManoharParrikar had cleared the newpolicy a fortnight back.

Parrikar said here theDirector General (Acquisition)will draw up a list as requiredunder the new policy andhence old cases will also belooked into. “That does notmean they will be taken out.Don’t interpret... They will beexamined. What is the status,how many years they havebeen blacklisted for and whythey were blacklisted,” he saidadding as per the new policy,there has to be a new list.

The review will includeabout a dozen firms that were

blacklisted during the UPAregime and the Services were ofthe opinion that such a ban willhamper rapid modernization.Under its new liberalised black-listing policy for arms compa-nies, India will now be open todoing business even with abanned firm if there is noalternative available to itsweapon system or equipmentin the market.

This can be done on thegrounds of national security,operational military readi-ness and export obligations,after the vice-chief of theService concerned, the chief ofthe integrated defence staff orthe additional secretar y(defence production) signs acertificate to that effect andgets permission from the“competent authority”, whois the Defence Minister.

Another key element ofthe new policy is that unlikethe blanket ban of 10 years,the Government has saidthat ban on serious default-ers will be for minimum fiveyears. The policy does notmention the maximum timeperiod for ban.

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Railway Ministry onTuesday took action

against seven officials, trans-ferring the Divisional RailwayManager Jhansi region andplacing six others under sus-pension, for the Indore-PatnaExpress derailment.

An FIR has also been regis-tered against unidentified rail-way employees under Section304A (causing death by negli-gence), 337 (causing hurt by actendangering life or personalsafety of others) and 338 of IPCat the GRP police station atBhimsen railway station. Therailways also formed a 12-mem-ber team of GRP personnel toinvestigate the Indore-Patnatrain accident as the death toll

reached 150 on Tuesday. A senior railway official said

that Jhansi DRM has been trans-ferred to Ranchi and suspendeddivisional heads of coaches &tracks and their subordinates.

A high-level probe wasordered on Monday by RailwayMinister Suresh Prabhu, whopromised “strictest possibleaction” against the guilty. Makinga suo motu statement in the LokSabha, he said a separate inves-tigation will be held aided by lat-est technical and forensic analy-sis. Railway officials maintainedthat prima facie the cause of theaccident which led to death of150 passengers could be due totrack fracture. On Tuesday, thedeath toll climbed to 150 in themishap , making it the deadliesttrain accident in the last 17 years.

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ACAG report tabled onTuesday in Parliament has

found several cases in which bigcorporate houses were involvedin misusing the provisions ofIncome Tax deduction in infra-structure projects, leading to atax effect of �2,716.79 crore. Thereport also blamed Central Bo-ard of Direct Taxes (CBDT) fornot assessing properly when su-ch wrong tax deduction claimswere made by corporate houses.

The audit report tiled as“Performance Audit onAllowance of deduction to theassessees engaged in infrastruc-ture development” detailed theserious misuse and frauds inclaiming tax deduction by indus-trialists, conducting a randomchecking 229 infrastructure pro-jects across the country.

Some major cases of misuseand malpractices were found in

Reliance Ports and TerminalsLimited and Idea CellularLimited. “The Income TaxDepartment irregularly alloweddeduction to assessees in eightcases in two states in respect ofthe profits derived from RailwaySidings/Jetties constructed andoperated by the assessees fortheir private purposes, which didnot qualified to be treated asinfrastructure facilities in termsof explanation to section 80IA(4). Irregular allowance ofdeduction attracted tax effect of�2,066.70 crore,” said the CAGreport detailing the tax deduc-tion allowed to Reliance Portsand Terminals Limited.

“The Income Tax Depar-tment irregularly allowed deduc-

tion to assessees in six cases infour States for the period beyondthe permissible limit of 10 con-secutive assessment years, start-ing from the declared initialassessment year. Incorrectallowance of deductions result-ed in underassessment of incomeinvolving tax effect of �859.47crore,” said the report detailingthe tax deductions allowed toIdea Cellular and RelianceInfrastructure Limited.

The report also detailedhow corporate suppress profitsby amalgamation and demerg-er of their firms in claiming taxdeductions and underassess-ment of income tax. Findingfault with CBDT, the CAG saidthere CBDT did not have any

establishment mechanism tocurb such malpractices. “Thereis no existing system to ascer-tain from the sponsoring min-istries as to whether the tax hol-idays have had the desiredimpact on the growth of theeconomy. Therefore, the audit isunable to ascertain whetherthe very purpose of introducingthe deductions in the Act hasbeen achieved,” said CAG out-lining the failures of CBDT incurbing misuse and frauds inclaiming IT deductions by cor-porate houses. In its recom-mendations, the apex auditorsaid the CBDT should addressthe systemic failures and find-ing faults and rectifying faults inassessing tax liability. It sug-gested that CBDT should crosscheck the deduction claimswith concerned infrastructureministries and departmentsincluding the computerisationof the information network.

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Despite the absence of their starcampaigner J Jayalalithaa from

the ‘battlefield’, the AIADMK woncomfortably all the three Assemblyconstituencies in Tamil Nadu whichwent to the polls on November 19.In the results announced onTuesday, the AIADMK candidatestrounced their DMK rivals inTiruparankundram, Aravakurichiand Thanjavur while the BJP andDMDK fared poorly.

While the AIADMK candidateswon Tiruparankundram andThanjavur with a margin of 42,000and 27,000 votes respectively, theparty candidate wrested Aruvakurichifrom the DMK by a margin of23,000 votes. With Tuesday’s victory,the strength of AIADMK in the 234member Tamil Nadu legislativeAssembly has gone up to 136.

Elections to Aravakurichi andThanjavur could not be held in May2016 along with the rest of TamilNadu following seisure of largeamount of cash and gift articlesmeant for bribing the voters. TheElection Commission of India haddeferred the elections in these twoconstituencies following the seisure of

cash and allegations that voters werebeing bribed by the major contestants.SM Seenivel, the AIADMK candidatewho won from Tiruparankundram inthe May election passed away evenbefore he could take the oath of officewhich necessitated the by poll.

While the AIADMK retainedTiruparankundram and Thanjavur,it wrested the Aruvakurichi con-stituency hitherto held by the DMK.The DMK had fielded a billionairebusinessman KC Palanisamy, the sit-ting MLA from the constituency totake on Senthil Balaji of theAIADMK, a rank outsider.

Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, whohas been hospitalised since September22 could not campaign and this hadinitially dampened the spirit of theAIADMK cadre. But a signed state-ment issued by Jayalalithaa from herhospital bed days before the electionmade them active resulting in theparty sweeping all the three seats.

“The results prove thatJayalalithaa is heads and shouldersabove all other politicians in theState though she is not active. TheDMK has to sit together and reworkits strategy if it is serious of defeat-ing the AIADMK,” N

Kalyanasundaram, veteran politicalcommentator, told The Pioneer.

CR Saraswathi, spokesperson ofthe AIADMK, said the results are areiteration by the people of TamilNadu that Amma (as Jayalalithaa isaddressed by the cadre) is the oneand only leader of the people ofTamil Nadu. “Her selfless servicesto the State has been recognised bythe people. She has dedicated her lifeto the people of Tamil Nadu and theresults are a reflection of this fact,”said Saraswathi.

But MK Stalin, the DMK’s heirapparent, described the AIADMKwin as the fall out of money andmuscle power. “The electionCommission chose to look theother way despite the open violationby the AIADMK leaders of all lawsgoverning the election process,”charged Stalin while speaking toreporters at Chennai on Tuesday.

The BJP, which got lost in theintensive fight between theAIADMK and the DMK blamed thehigh handed behaviour of the rul-ing party for its poor show.Tamilissai Sounderarajan, the stateBJP chief, rushed to the chief elec-toral officer Rajesh Lakhoni and sub-mitted a petition about the irregu-larities in the three constituencies.

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Janata Dal(United) the erstwhileally of the BJP, and the ruling party

of Bihar has said there is no changein its position towards the BJP andthey are against the saffron party.JD(U) said that no inferences shouldbe drawn from the support extend-ed to the withdrawal of high valuecurrency notes as legal tenderextended by the Bihar Chief MinisterNitish Kumar.

“There are no bickering withinthe ruling grand alliance of Biharand it’s a canard that Bihar ChiefMinister Nitish Kumar is gettingcloser to the BJP after supporting thedemonetisation move of the Centre’’,said the JD(U) general secretary andspokesperson KC Tyagi, here in aPress conference on Tuesday.

“Nitish Kumar was demandingban on the �500 and �1,000 cur-rencies since he took oath of officeas the Chief Minister of Bihar in

November 2015 to eliminate theblack money and corruption. As hisdemands were accepted by NarendraModi, thus he supported the moveand nothing more should be read inhis statement” said the JD(U) leader.

“We were against the BJP in thepast and will continue to remain thesame in future. Our electoral battlein UP is only against the BJP and willdo our best to prevent it from com-ing to power’’. He however clarifiedthat “We are not against SP or BSPin UP.”

Tyagi reiterated that they wereinterested in forging alliance withSamajwadi Party, but MulayamSingh Yadav ditched them evenafter holding talks while Congresswere yet to show their inclinationtowards this front comprising ofJD(U), RLD and BS-4. The RajyaSabha member, who was present onMonday during the announcementof JD(U), RLD and BS-4 forcing analliance in UP to contest the com-ing Assembly elections, said that fivesmaller political outfit-PragitisheelManav Samaj Dal, RashtriyaSamanta Dal, Rashtriya Kranti Party,Janwadi Party (socialist) and Jaihind

Party have joined the alliance whileBharatiya Samajik Naya Morchamerged the party with JD(U).

This smaller outfit under thebanner of Ati Pichara Chetna Manchwill organise a most backward rallyin Lucknow on December 17 whichwill be addressed by Bihar CM andJD(U) president Nitish Kumar. “Thealliance would concentrate on theissues relating to the most backwardsin the state and will go for empow-ering this section of the society byholding series of rallies in UP dur-ing December-January. These rallieswould be addressed by leaders ofJD(U), RLD and other smaller par-ties,” he stated.

He said in Bihar, the NitishKumar Government had a lot for thewelfare of the most backwards by giv-ing them 20 per cent reservationwithin the 27 per cent quota for theOBCs. He said the Bihar Governmenthas also created a separate depart-ment for implementing the specialwelfare schemes like increasing thescholarships of the students by threetimes and construction hostels forMBC students in all the districts forthe uplift of the MBCs.

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The BJP onT u e s d a y

swooped theCongress in thebypolls to theLakhimpur LokSabha constituen-cy as well as theBaithalangso leg-islative Assemblyconstituency inAssam, polls towhich were heldon Saturday last.

While the BJP’s PradanBaruah won the by election toLakhimpur Lok Sabha con-stituency with a margin of closeto 2 lakh votes, party’s candidatefor the Baithalangso legislativeAssembly constituency alsodefeated his Congress rival witha margin of over 16,000 votes.

Election department offi-cials in Guwahati said that whilePradan Baruah polled 5,51,663votes in Lakhimpur constituen-cy, Congress’ Dr. Hem HariPegu could poll only 3,61,444votes. Besides, CPI(M)’s Amiya

Kumar Handique polled42,667votes followed by SUCI’s Hemkanta Miri with 12,402 votes andIndependent candidate DilipMoran polled only 20613 votes.

It may be mentioned herethat the BJP is in power in eightof the nine Assembly segmentsunder the Lakhimpur LokSabha constituency. While thesaffron party polled good num-bers of votes in all the Assemblysegments, Congress candidatecould manage to get somevotes only in Naoboicha assem-bly segments under LakhimpurLok sabha constituency.

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The ruling TrinamoolCongress once again did

the erstwhile Left Front notmerely by sweeping polls but bydefeating the Marxists intheirown art — craftingimplausible records of elec-toral victory — even as theBengal ruling party wonCoochbehar and Tamluk par-liamentaryconstituencies andMonteshwar Assembly seat inthe just concludedby-elections.

TMC’s invincibilityreached an all-time high inCoochbehar where the partywon by 4.13 lakh votes defeat-ing nearest rival BJP. While theTrinamool got almost 8 lakhvotes the BJP garnered 3.8lakh leavingthe Left behind inthird position. The BJPincreased its vote share by 16per cent in this North Bengalconstituency.

Down south in Tamlukseat once held by MamataBanerjee’s Nandigram spear-head Subhendu Adhikary wholeft his the Lok Sabha seat forhis younger brother Divyendu

to become the State TransportMinister the Trinamool polled7.89 lakh votes defeating thenearest rival of theCPI(M) byabout 5 lakh votes.

The highlight of Tamlukbypolls was a phenomenal risein Trinamool’s vote — in thepast six months. The party reg-istered a five-foldincrease in itsvote that it polled in the April-May Assembly elections.

Curiously at Haldia seatwhere the Trinamool had lostto the Left by more than 1.4lakh votes the party registereda lead of more than one lakhvotes thus winning back 2. 4lakh votes in a matter of sixmonths.

Despite finishing third theBJP registered a 10 per cent risein its vote share in Tamluk andcame second in NandigramAssembly seat.

At Manteshwar Assemblyseat where the Left was defeat-ed by 700 votes in May 2016 theTrinamool registered a fantas-tic victory forcing all the fourparties: CPI(M), BJP and theCongress to forfeit theirde-posits. Here Saikat Hazra the

TMC candidate alone polled 77per cent votes winning this seatby 1.27 lakh votes.

Resisting Trinamool wavein 2011 the Left had wonManteshwar in 2011 by fivethousand votes.

Reacting to the Monday’sphenomenal result ChiefMinister MamataBanerjee —who left for Delhi to stage apan-Indian movement againstNarendra Modi Government’sdemonetisation policy — said:“the result only signifies a massrevolt by the people againstModi’s demonetisation. This isa symbolic show of protestagainst the Centre’s anti-peoplepolicy that has left the peopleon the verge of bankruptcy andstarvation.”

The BJP would get a befit-ting reply from the peoplewho will throw the party out ofpower, Banerjee said.

However, the BJP Statepresident Dilip Ghosh saiddespite his party’s defeat theresult showed that the BJP hadincreased its vote share three-fold. “We have increased ourvote three-fold.”

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Veteran Carnatic musicexponent Balamuralikris-

hna, who enthralled musiclovers for more than fourdecades, passed away here onTuesday.

The 86-year-old veteranwas not keeping well for sometime and breathed his lasttoday at his residence here, hisfamily sources told PTI.

A highly respected figurein the field of music,Balamuralikrishna featured inthe popular national integra-tion song Miley Sur MeraTumhara in which he ren-dered Tamil lyrics.

A crowd-puller in Carnaticmusic concerts, musician wasalso popular among Tamil audi-ences for his hit number “OruNaal Pothuma” in the 1965 SivajiGanesan starrer “Thiruvilayadal”,a mythological film.

He even starred in a num-ber of films in Tamil andTelugu. Balamurali Krishnawas a Padma Vibhushan recip-ient and was also honouredwith a number of state awards.

Leading lights of Carnaticmusic condoled his death.

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Alert jawans of BorderSecurity Force (BSF) on

Tuesday foiled an infiltration bidalong the International border inRS Pura sector after killing oneof the suspected militant guideas he had intruded inside theinternational boundary takingadvantage of the foggy weatherconditions and thick growth ofgrass in the wee hours.

Swift action by the jawanguarding one of the forwardsentry post prevented a possi-ble strike by heavily armed mil-itants who were able to retreatinside the Pak territory fol-lowing high alert sounded inthe region.

Senior officers fromJammu frontier includingInspector General, BSF DKUpadhyay rushed to the spot topersonally assess the situation.

Meanwhile, the situationalong the Line of Control inJammu region remained peace-ful in the first half of the day. Nomajor report of exchange ofcross border firing was reported

from any where in Naushera andKrishna Ghati sectors of Poonch.The sector was witnessing heavyexchange of fire for past sevendays. Indian troopers have beenretaliating the fire with full forceand has successfully demolishedseveral Pak posts.

According to BSFspokesman,” an Infiltration bidwas successfully foiled in RS PuraSector by alert troops of BSFaround 4.20 a.m on Tuesday.

The BSF spokesman said,“one person from Pakistan sidesuspiciously crossed theInternational Boundary and fur-ther taking advantage of deadground, thick growth, dark hoursand fog etc at border movedahead. On observing a suspicious

movement at close to forwardBSF sentry post ahead of fence,the alert BSF sentry challengedthe intruder. Instead of surren-dering, the intruder tried torush towards one of the culvertsunder the fence. As the intrud-er had covered his face and bodywith a shawl, the sentry got sus-picious and shot at him”.

During the same time, asuspicious movement of a twomore persons was observednear Pak bundh where at leasttwo persons were waiting forsome signal from the intruder.Immediately after intruderbeing fired by BSF sentry, bothof them were seen hidingthemselves behind Pak sidebundh.

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Gujarat Chief Minister VijayRupani on Tuesday met

leading industrialist ofMaharashtra in Mumbai invit-ed them to participate in theupcoming 8th edition ofVibrant Gujarat Global Summit2017.

While addressing to morethan 450 businessmen repre-senting top companies Rupanielaborated upon the inclusivegrowth and sustainable devel-opment that Gujarat hasachieved. The Gujarat CM fur-ther said that the state wouldcontinue to lay emphasis onease of doing business andproactive investor facilitation inline with the vision set forth byformer Gujarat CM and nowPrime Minister of India,Narendra Modi.

Thanking PM Modi for the

betterment of the centre-staterelations, he said that Modi’sidea for creating co-operativefederalism has ensured thatstates are partners in thegrowth of the country. Statesare a focal point for the imple-mentation of many of the his-toric schemes launched by thePrime Minister especially‘Make in India’ initiative haspropelled India as an emergingmarket for businesses to set up.

He also highlighted thetremendous opportunity for

the industry to invest in GujaratInternational Finance Tec- City(GIFT-City), Mandal BecharajiSpecial Investment Region(SIR), Dahej, PCPIR andDholera SIR, which is one ofthe biggest investment zones onthe Delhi Mumbai IndustrialCorridor (DMIC).

The GIFT City will beIndia’s first multi-functionalSpecial Economic Zone whichwill be a hub to the share mar-ket, capital markets and thebanking sector. This will be ahuge boost to the banking sec-tor. The Bombay StockExchange will be setting upinternational operations at theGIFT City.

Speaking about employ-ment opportunities, the CMstressed on defense and aero-space as key sectors of growth,with the intention of setting upmanufacturing facilities.

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The Karnataka Assembly wasinformed on Tuesday that

283 illegal BangladeshiImmigrants are residing inKarnataka. Replying to a ques-tion of V Sunil Kumar, a BJPmember at the ongoing wintersession of the Assembly atBelagavi in north Karnataka,Government said only 283 ille-gal immigrants fromBangaladesh were staying in theState. Replying to BJP memberHome Minister G Parameshwaratold the Assembly thatBengaluru accounted for high-

est number of such illegal immi-grants from Bangladesh - 197 -followed by Mysuru City (25),Mandya (16), Bengaluru Urbandistrict (14), Mysuru District (13)and Ramanagar (11). KGF (3),Shivamogga (2) and DakshinaKannada and Chickmagaluru(one each).

In all, there were 748Bangladesh citizens residing inthe State. However, only 283 ofthem were illegal immigrants, hesaid. Home Minister said theyhad managed to enter the coun-try through illegal means, andsaid it was mainly the responsi-bility of the Centre to curb the

entry of such persons as it wasan issue related to internal secu-rity of the country. He alsoinformed that out of 283 illegalimmigrants, 25 were involved invarious incidents of crime andcases too had been bookedagainst them. The OppositionBJP members expressed dissat-isfaction with the Minister’sreply and argued that the num-ber of illegal immigrants fromBangladesh residing in the Statewas in thousands. They urgedthe Government to ensure thatsuch persons do not get access toration cards and electors photoidentity cards.

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Appalled over the indiffer-ence of the authorities over

the murders of social activistsin the State hundreds of activistsbelonging to various Hinduorganisations staged a one-dayfast in all district headquartersin Tamil Nadu on Tuesday.

“Since 1989, Tamil Naduhas seen 138 people gettingmurdered by terrorist outfits.This includes two jailors and apolice constable. The rest wereall Hindu social activists, work-ers and Sangh Parivar leaders,”said Ramagopalan, founder,Hindu Munnani. The octoge-narian leader had recently sub-mitted a memorandum tounion home minister RajnathSingh stating concern over theunabated murders of Hinduactivists in Tamil Nadu.

Speaking to The Pioneer,Anantharaman, RSS leaderbased at Tiruchirappalli saidAjit Doval, the NationalSecurity Advisor to theGovernment of India should

take note of this development.“The Tamil Nadu administra-tion is looking the other waywhen Hindus are butchered inthe State. The police in the Stateis indifferent to the murders ofHindu activists who are work-ing in the upliftment of thedowntrodden in the Hindusociety,” said Anantharaman.

The fast was held underHindu United Forum, anumbrella organisation formed tobring together all outfits whichare being targeted by the extrem-ists. Ramakrishnan Gautaman,director, Vedic Science StudyCentre, a think tank based inChennai, said that the police wasfabricating stories to make themurders look like the fall out ofbusiness rivalries. “Till date theycould not establish any businessrivalries to these murders. Allthose who got murdered wereRSS and Hindu Munnani work-ers and leaders,” said Gautaman.

He said the police were notallowing the Hindu organisa-tions to stage peaceful demon-strations to protest the mur-ders.

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Police in port city ofVisakhapatanam in Andhra

Pradesh have solved the mysteryof the death of a HIV affectedman which was initially believedto be a case of suicide but thediligent work by the sleuthsproved it to be a murder.

A senior police official inVisakhapatanam said that theyhave arrested five persons includ-ing a couple related to the victim22 year old Kadiri Venkateshwho was found dead on railwaytracks in August last year.

As the person was known tobe a HIV positive case, there wasa belief that he had committedsuicide. But in the subsequentinvestigation the police startedsuspecting a foul play and keptvictim’s cousin K Madhuri andher husband K Nagendra underwatch as they were the sole ben-eficiary of around �69 lakh

rupees insurance money.Deputy Commissioner of

Police Naveen Gultati told themedia that it was a well plannedmurder carried out by the cou-ple along with their threefriends to inherit the hugeamount of money through theinsurance policies purchased inthe name of Venkatesh.

“As part of the plan firstthey purchased single premi-um insurance policies inVenkatesh’s name knowing thathe was suffering with HIVand he will die soon and theywill get the benefit of insurancebenefits”, Gulati said.

However as the days wentby and the couple became des-perate for money. “They tookhelp of the three people andmurdered him and threw hisbody on the tracks nearSamarlakota in the neighboringEast Godavari district onAugust 12 last year”, he said.

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The Samajwadi Party chiefMulayam Singh Yadav will

kick off the election campaignof the party from Ghazipur onWednesday. The stakes are highfor the ruling party as it strug-gles to retain its strongholdfrom the onslaught of the BJPfollowing the offensive of cur-rency withdrawal. The rulingparty is under tremendous pres-sure to out shadow the rally ofthe BJP in Ghazipur town onNovember 14 addressed by thePrime Minister Narendra Modi.PM had also laid the foundationof a key infrastructure project-the road and rail bridge on riverGanga pending for the last overfive decades.

Samajwadi party supremoMulayam Singh Yadav willlaunch the poll campaign of hisparty from the Ghazipur rally,a day after celebrating his 78th

birthday. Though the first fam-ily of the ruling party had pre-sented a united look during theinauguration of the Luck now—Agra expressway on Monday,the participation of the chiefminister Akhilesh Yadav in therally is still to be confirmed.

Mulayam was scheduled tolaunch the poll campaign froma rally in Azamgarh on October6. The rally was however can-celled due to the ongoing fami-ly feud. The Ghazipur rally is sig-nificant for the Samajwadi partyas will send clear signals to itstraditional social coalition ofYadav and muslims . This will bethe first major political eventafter the merger of the MukhtarAnsari’s Quami ekta Dal (QED)with the Samajwadi party. TheAnsaris are the natives ofMohammadi town in Ghazipurdistrict. Chief minister AkhileshYadav is also likely to attend therally in Ghazipur.

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The Bharatiya Janata Partyhas started feeling heat

over people’s outcry overdemonetisation of high valuecurrency notes as it has post-poned the much-publicisedpublic rally of Prime MinisterNarendra Modi in Lucknow onDecember 24.

The rally held importancefor BJP as the four Parivartanyatras that had started fromNovember 5 onwards is expect-ed to culminate on December24 in Lucknow. This rally wasdeemed to the final ParviartanRally.

A senior leader said thatinitial assessment is that gath-ering would not be on expect-ed lines. PM is addressingParivartan Yatras in differentlocations and crowd is comingbut we want something extra inLucknow, he said.

BJP’s Chief SpokesmanHridaya Narain Dixit said thatthe rally has been postponed tobring workers from the boothlevel to Lucknow. Earlier direc-tives were that leaders andworkers from districts shouldattend the rally.

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Lucknow: Governor Ram Naikand Chief Minister AkhileshYadav have condoled the deathof former Madhya PradeshGovernor and ex-UP ChiefMinister Ram Naresh Yadav,who passed after prolonged ill-ness here at SGPGI hospital onTuesday morning. Yadav wasrecently in the news after hisname cropped up during probein the Vyapam scam.

Both Naik and Akhileshclaimed that the death of RamNaresh Yadav is a big loss to theState and entire country. Naikalso visited the official resi-dence of the ex-CM at MallAvenue here to pay floral trib-ute. The Chief Minister in hismessage said Ram Nareshjeeworked with Raj Narain andChoudhury Charan Singh andalways worked for the ruralpopulace, poor and the farm-ers. “We have lost a leader ofsweet words and a person whowas directly linked with the vil-lage,” the CM said. ���

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The Kerala Assembly onTuesday passed a resolution

against the Central policies thatwere allegedly intended atdestroying the State’s coopera-tive sector. All parties except theBJP joined hands to pass the res-olution which asked the Centreto allow the cooperative banksto exchange demonetised cur-rency notes and accept depositslike commercial banks and towithdraw the policies that theyclaimed would lead to creationof anarchy in the country.

“The Government herebyassures that those who havedeposited money in coopera-tive banks will not lose even apenny of their deposits,”Marxist Chief MinisterPinarayi Vijayan said in theAssembly which held a specialsitting to discuss the crisis thecooperative sector was facing inthe wake of the demonetizationof large-denomination curren-cy notes. He said an all-partydelegation would visit Delhi onThursday to discuss the issue

with the Centre.“There is every reason to

suspect that the currencydemonetisation was part of asecret move to lead the coun-try into economic slavery…This State cannot accept movesto disallow the operation of thecooperative banks in the nameof black money. The efforts todestroy the cooperative sector,which had started much earli-er, are part of implementing theso-called liberal economic poli-cies,” the Chief Minister alleged.

The resolution was passedwith the dissent note of ORajagopal, the lone BJP mem-ber in the Assembly. Rajagopalwanted an amendment to theresolution but the Speaker dis-allowed this by agreeing withMinister Mathew T Thomaswho pointed out that the noticefor amendment had the natureof negative vote. The BJP mem-ber alleged that cooperativeinstitutions in the State werebeing misused for convertingblack money into white.

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Miffed apparently by plainspeaking indulged in by

Narendra Modi during hisinteractions with his party’sMPs who met the former onthe demonetisation issue, ShivSena President UddhavThackeray said ironically hereon Tuesday that while he wasgrateful to Modi for the respecthe had shown to his late fatherBal Thackeray, the late Senachief would be happy if thePrime Minister took measuresto reduce the inconveniencecaused to common man.

After news reports trickledinto Mumbai from the ShivSena sources claiming that thePrime Minister told the partyMPs curtly that as and when hewould go to heaven, he wouldtell respond directly to lateThackeray and tell him that hehad done an excellent job, theSena interpreted the PrimeMinister’s remarks that he wasnot answerable to the NDA con-stituent on the after-effects of hisdemonetisation decision.

Talking to media persons at

his residence “Matoshri” laterin the day, Uddhav took a potshot at Modi, saying: “From thetone and tenor of the PrimeMinister’s remarks, you cangauge as to how much of respecthe has for my late father. Oneexpects a satisfactory from thePrime Minister on the issuesaffecting the common people. Ifthe common people get a prop-er response from the PrimeMinister and if the hardshipsbeing faced by the commonpeople are eased, then my latefather will be really happy”.

Though it has announcedthat it would not join theOpposition’s protests againstdemonetisation, the Sena isextremely upset with the treat-ment its MPs received at thehands of the Prime Ministerearlier on Tuesday.

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After the reported deaths ofseveral people in unending

queues of banks and ATMsacross the country sinceNovember 9, here is a report ofdowry death due to demoneti-sation in Bihar.

Husband, father-in-law andother relatives killed a womanSeema in a village in ruralPatna on Monday. Reason: thenewly wed woman had brought�8,000 in demonetised cur-rency notes from her parents asdemanded by her in-laws.

Married a few years backwith Dharmendra Kumar ofNarayanpur village, Seema, amother of two, was alwayscoerced to bring more dowryevery time she visited her par-ent’s home at Chhitnawa villagein Maner block of rural Patna.

This time when she came

back with �8,000 in old notesshe was ordered to bring theamount in new notes of �2,000.When she expressed her inabil-ity to fulfill their demand herhusband and in-laws startedthrashing her brutally and lefther unconscious. Profuselybleeding she breathed her last.When the neighbours heardher cries they rushed to rescueher but by then it was too lateand Seema’s husband and in-laws fled.

The neighbours informedher father Rqamavatar Rai andbrother Sudhir Kumar whorushed to the village andreported the matter to thepolice. The police sent thebody to Danapur for post-mortem and registered an FIR.“Since her marriage Seemawas being tortured to bringmore dowry. She was regular-ly beaten up by her husband

and in-laws and many timesshe would go back to herhome,” said Sudhir.

Sudhir said since the mar-riage they managed to giveabout three lakh rupees asdowry still they continueddemanding more. On severaloccasions the villagers heldpanchayat for reconciliationand on Seema’s parents promiseto pay dowry they allowed herto live in her sasural.

After the incident therehad been controversy over thejurisdiction of the spot of crimeand police wondered if it fell inthe jurisdiction of Maner orBihta police stations. Finally atthe intervention of the localmukhiya the Maner policeacted and filed the FIR at thecomplaint by Ramavataragainst Dharmendra, his fatherMisri Rai and a few other relatives.

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While everybody else in thecountry appears to be

adversely affected by the sud-den ban on the �500 and�1,000 currency notes, thefamous Sri Venkateshwara tem-ple atop the Tirumala Hills inAndhra Pradesh, the richestHindu temple in south Indiadoes not seem to be hit by thedemonitisation at all as far asthe cash f low in to its coffers.

However the number ofpilgrims visiting the famoustemple has come down con-siderably. Against the norm ofwaiting for several hours, thepilgrims reaching the townwere now able to completetheir rituals in less than twohours. “The pilgrims were ableto get the Sarva Darshan in intwo hours and special Darshan

in one hour as the rush of thepilgrims has come down con-siderably”, a senior official ofTirumala Tirupati Devsthanamsaid adding that the cashcrunch has affected the num-bers of pilgrims coming to thetemple.

However there was noaffect on the offerings of cashand other valuables made at thetemple. On Monday the Hundiof the temple received theofferings of �4.18 crore, con-siderably higher compared tothe average offerings of �3crore per day.

“Most of the offerings werein the old currency notes of�500 and �1,000”, the officialsaid on the condition ofanonymity. “The offeringsreceived on Monday were thehighest since the demonetiza-tion announced on November8”, he added.

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An order notifying renamingof the temple of Lord

Ayyappa at Sabarimala, Kerala’sfamous pilgrimage centre, hastriggered a controversy withDevaswom MinisterKadakampally Surendran ofthe CPI(M) questioning thelegal validity of the order andclaiming that he was kept in thedark about the decision.

The TravancoreDevaswom Board (TDB)administering the shrine stat-ed in the order that theSabarimala temple wouldhenceforth be known as SreeAyyappa Swami Temple insteadof Sree Dharmasastha Temple,the name by which it wasknown so far. Though theorder was dated October 6, ithad come to public knowledgeonly the other day.Kadakampally said an expla-nation would be sought fromthe TDB over the matter.

According to the TDBorder, Sabarimala is the onlyplace in entire world that has atemple dedicated to SreeAyyappa Swamy and hence itwould be known in that deity’sname. The order said that the

Sabarimala shrine had becomeSree Ayyappa Swamy templeafter Ayyappa Swamy becameone with the then deity of theshrine, Sree Dharmasastha, fol-lowing the fulfillment of hisdivine mission in the world“centuries ago”.

Reports have appeared tothe effect that the TDB hasissued the order perhaps withthe goal of effectively resistingthe CPI(M)-led LDFGovernment’s position in thecase in the Supreme Court onthe issue of women’s entry atthe hill shrine. As per the pre-sent system, women between10 and 50 years of age are notallowed to enter the temple.

Devaswom MinisterKadakampally complainedthrough a Facebook post thathe, the Minister in charge of theGovernment Department thathandles the affairs related tobodies administering the tem-ples in the State, had learnedabout the TDB decision on therenaming of the Sabarimalashrine through media reports.TDB president PrayarGopalakrishnan and the LDFGovernment have not been ingood relationship for the pastseveral months.

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Within a fortnight of intro-duction of �2,000 denom-

ination currency notes by theReserve Bank of India (RBI), apan shop owner in Ahmedabadreceived a fake �2,000 note.

The incident is being seenas alarming as one of themotives for demonetisation of�500 and �1000 denominationcurrency notes was to curbmenace of fake currency notesparalysing the nation’s economy.

Vansh Barot, who runs aswanky pan shop in

Ahmedabad’s upmarket local-ity Judges Bungalow area, saysthat the note had perhaps beenexchanged by an unknowncustomer at his shop over theweekend. Though he did gothrough entire video footage oflast 3-4 days, he could notascertain which of his cus-tomer had slipped in the fakenote.

“I never thought that any-one would possibly pass on afake currency of `2,000 sosoon after introduction of anew currency. Moreover, thenote had close resemblance to

the original one, includingwatermark and thread. Therewas little for me to doubt itsauthenticity,” Barot said. Barotrealized the fake nature of thenote when one of his supplierspointed it out to him. PNS

“When I placed it againstother similar notes, I could seethe difference. Not only was itslightly smaller in size, thequality of paper used in fakecurrency appeared inferior.Even the seven raised angularbleed lines on both sides of thenote were not consistent as invalid currency note,” he said.

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In one of the major seizure ofbanned currency post

demonetisation, the securityforces in Nagaland’s commercialtown Dimapur has recovered�3.5 crore in �1000 and �500denominations on Tuesday.

Police said that based on atip off, the CISF guarding theDimapur airport seized theamount from a chartered planesoon after it landed in the air-port around 10.07 am onTuesday. One person, whoidentified to be a businessmanfrom Hisar, in Haryana wasapprehended by the forces for

bringing the currencies.“The Dimapur based offi-

cials of the Income Tax depart-ment took over the case andthey have been probing the ori-gin of the money and whetherit has got some legal authenti-cation,” police said adding thatlater a local businessman ofDimapur claimed the money tobe his own.

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The AAP in Goa has said that thetourism industry has been majorly

affected by Prime Minister NarendraModi’s decision to demonetise highvalue currency notes earlier this month,claiming a 70 per cent drop in business,due to acute currency shortage.

AAP has also demanded that theBJP in Goa should come clean on itspolitical funding, accusing the BJP of“hiding” 80 per cent of the poll fundingbehind legal loopholes.

“The backbone of the Goan econ-omy today is Tourism. The Goa gov-ernment needs to take bold and proac-tive steps to ensure that the livelihoodsof tourism dependent Goans are nottrampled by the disastrous decision ofdemonetising �500 and �1000 notes,without even basic planning for itsimplementation,” AAP spokespersonOscar Rebello said in Panaji on Tuesday.

“Just as farmers in some agriculture-dependent states have been allowed totake old currency to buy seeds and fer-tilisers, the Goa Govt should come outwith a plan to ensure that the entiretourist season, which already started latedue to the government’s failure to allot

shacks on time, does not get washed out,which will increase the economic andsocial chaos,” he also said.

Goa’s famed beaches and nightlifeannually attract more than four milliontourists, half a million of which are for-eigners, every year and the revenuesgenerated by the tourism industryaccounts for more than 15 per cent ofthe coastal State’s gross domestic prod-uct.

The demonetisation drive has alsoaffected beach shacks on Goa’s beach-es nearly 300 of which dot the State’scoastline and are popular with tourists,both foreign and domestic. Speaking toThe Pioneer, Cruz Cardoso, president ofthe All Goa Shack Owners Association,said that business has drop significant-ly, because tourists themselves are fac-ing a cash crunch as local banks, do nothave legal currency.

“We are suffering because there isjust not enough cash available withlocals or with tourists. We also cannotuse card swiping machines becauseshacks are a seasonal business,” Cardososaid.

The AAP meanwhile also said thatthe BJP in Goa opens up on its politi-cal funding.

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Demonetisation has given sleeplessnights to a legislator in

Meghalaya. Congress legislator fromPynthorumkhrah constituency inMeghalaya, AL Hek has filed an FIRwith the police against some unknownpersons for spreading the rumoursthat he would distribute his ‘blackmoney’ among the people of the con-stituency. Hek’s move came after largenumbers of people from his con-stituency and others were seen queu-ing near his house in the last coupleof days.

“People have been queuing up infront of my house in last couple ofdays. When I asked them they saidthat they heard that I am going to dis-tribute my black money among thepeople of the constituency. Someoneis spreading the rumour and innocentpeople of the constituency believed therumours to be true,” said Hek whiletalking to The Pioneer on Tuesday.

“It seems some people have toldthem that I am going to distribute�5,000 to each of them who come tomy house and meet me,” he said

adding that the people, however,could not point out to anyone specif-ic who spread the rumour.

“It has been getting difficult tomake the people understand. Besides,my daily work is getting affected bythis rush of people,” he said.

It may be mentioned here that thehouse of Congress legislator havebeen frequented by large number ofpeople in the past few days. Some ofthe people even come during the nightand queue before his house.

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“This is not good. I do nothave any black money andsomeone is trying to malignmy image in the constituencyand among the people of thestate. I have filed an FIR in thisregard and I hope police wouldsurely find out the culpritbehind the rumours,” he said.

Hek, who is a seniorCongress leader had alsoserved as the health and fam-ily welfare minister of thehilly state earlier. At present,he is the vice president of theruling Congress party in theState.

Two historic events are inthe making in Pakistan.First, next week, andsecond, next year. After20 years, the orderly

retirement of the Chief of ArmyStaff (COAS) and an electedGovernment completing a full-term a second time. These develop-ments were confirmed last week ata chance meeting at Dubai with agroup of Pakistanis, among them,two retired Generals.

The interaction turned out tobe illuminating given the continu-ing three-month long high-voltagepyrotechnics along the Line ofControl (LoC). Incidentally, the sur-gical strikes were dismissed as a badjoke. That was not a good start tothe conversation though they werequick to realise that living in denialin perpetuity was not a good idea.

Not only does Dubai have thesecond-largest expatriate Pakistanicommunity and workers afterIndia, but it is also a haven forexiled and failed Pakistani leaders.Troubled by a bad back and nolonger by Prime Minister NawazSharif, former President, GenPervez Musharraf is re-envisioninghis new role in Pakistan, still har-bouring political ambitions.

In a high-rise condominiumhe was enjoying an evening of the1950s Indian film songs withthree-and-a-half stiff ones. Thenext day, former President Asif AliZardari ex-London had called inDubai, a conclave of his PakistanPeople’s Party (PPP) after his sonBilawal Bhutto had done his bit inpledging ‘leke rahenge Kashmir’ inMirpur, Pakistan-occupiedKashmir (PoK).

Pakistan in the month ofNovember is in the thrall of twodomestic issues: The PanamaPapers and the battle of successionfor the new COAS whose name hasto be announced before November29. Gen Raheel Sharif ’s Dining Outis planned in the GHQ Mess inRawalpindi for next Monday with-out an announced successor.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ’soff-shore assets case is likely to bedecided on November 30, a dayafter the good General’s retire-ment. He is expected to squeakthrough thanks to a Qatari Princeand his late father, MiyanMohammad Sharif. In Sharif ’s firstterm, Pakistan was said to be ruledby four A’s: America, Allah, Armyand Abbajan (Miyan Mohammad).

The biggest event of the month,year and the decade was whetherGen Raheel Sharif was on his wayout or if he would dig in. Not manyCOASs have ridden into the sun-set at the appointed hour, at least not

for the last two decades since GenJehangir Karamat was eased outprematurely by Nawaz Sharif in hissecond term in 1998 for advocat-ing the formation of a NationalSecurity Council.

The six names in the waitinglist to become COAS are all fromthe same batch with the front-run-ners being Lt Gens Iqbal Ramdayand Javed Bajwa. Within the pow-erful Corps Commander’s club,unanimity has come about overthe Chief exiting on time anddiminished appetite for an Armytakeover. Still civil-military rela-tions are at their usual tense bestespecially under Sharif who hastwice invited military interventionin 1993 and 1999.

More information was madeavailable on the Dawn story brokenby Cyril Almeida over whichInformation Minister PervaizRashid was forced to resign. It isbelieved that Foreign SecretaryAijaz Chaudhary told the Army toeither rein in or act against the ter-rorist groups operating againstIndia as this was giving Pakistan abad name. Director General Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) RizwanAkhtar, in the presence of GenRaheel Sharif is supposed to have

told him: “What is the differencebetween you and India? They’re alsosaying the same thing”. At this civil-military meeting, there was rareagreement that Pakistan (militaryand non-state actors) will not ini-tiate a fresh attack on India.

Curiously this story was notleaked, but the other was. If true, itwould suggest that the retributionforecast after the surgical strikesmay not, after all, come beforeNovember 29 as widely expected.

The dip in India-Pakistan rela-tions is at its worst since 2010. NewDelhi’s threat to re-write the IndusWater Treaty, withdraw MostFavoured Nation treatment andsupport the oppressed inBalochistan, PoK, including Gilgit-Baltistan and orchestrating thecancellation of Saarc, have rattledPakistan. There is now bigger trac-tion in Pakistan about allegations ofIndia training Baloch insurgents inDehradun and Research andAnalysis Wing (R&AW) linkageswith TTP in Afghanistan.

The apprehension of theIndian Naval officer on charges ofespionage have added fuel to fire.Further, Pakistanis are convincedthat New Delhi will sabotage theChina-Pakistan Economic

Corridor (CPEC). They seePakistan’s economic redemptionfrom this great Chinese act ofendowment as not palatable toIndia. Pakistanis are also con-cerned about the evolving US-India-Afghanistan partnership inPakistan’s backyard. But the bigworry is the Trump factor: How itwill affect South Asia and partic-ularly all the nasty things Trumphas said about Pakistan,Islamabad-sponsored terrorismand its nuclear arsenal.

As before, New Delhi has tobalance its engagement with thedemocratic forces and the elect-ed civilian Government withbelow-the-radar contact with themilitary leadership and its power-centres which are not institution-alised. This leads to the groundreality of dual power centres — anestablishment Pakistan and ademocratic Pakistan. For India,there is the perennial conflictbetween the choice to strengthendemocratic forces versus dealingwith the ruling military establish-ment. Any change in this will hap-pen only when the people ofPakistan make it happen.

The structured dialogueprocess severed in January 2013after the beheading of an Indian sol-dier on the LoC has come close toresuming a few times but wasaborted by spoilers and is unlikelyto be resurrected till after state elec-tions in India by mid-2017.

Rawalpindi will soon have anew COAS but that won’t changethe dynamics of the bilateral rela-tionship. While he will hold the keyto a breakthrough, the Heart of AsiaIstanbul meeting at Amritsar onDecember 3 and 4 could open awindow of opportunity to at leastlowering the temperature on theLoC after both sides have deliveredto each other a befitting response.

Pakistan’s de facto ForeignMinister Sartaj Aziz will not missthe opportunity to attend theAmritsar conference which will beinaugurated jointly by PrimeMinister Modi and AfghanistanPresident Ashraf Ghani.

This is one opportunity forPakistan to demonstrate that it hasnot been isolated and is in factattending a multilateral meeting —in India! Afghanistan is far tooimportant for Pakistan to allowIndia to steal the lead. Even GenSharif ’s expected retaliation forthe surgical strikes was given a goby. Yesterday’s Machil killings ofIndian soldiers are part of tit-for-tatLoC dynamics.

(The writer is a retired LtGeneral of the Indian Army andstrategic affairs analyst)7

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Sir — This refers to the editor-ial, “Learning from tragedy”(November 22). The UnionGovernment may be keen tointroduce bullet trains in thecountry, but they are no substi-tute for modernisation of theexisting tracks.

That said, even though thecosts of living and medical treat-ment have shot up manifold inthe last two decades, the ex-gra-tia amount given to the kin ofthose killed in rail accidents, hasnot changed much. An ex-gra-tia of four lakh rupees was fixedway back in 1997, and it contin-ues to be the same today. This isin sharp contrast to the previouspractice of upward revision ofthe amount every 10 years.

Padmini RaghavendraSecunderabad

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Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “Learning from tragedy”(November 22). The train acci-dent near Kanpur has once againraised serious doubts on the safe-ty of rail travel and the generalhealth of the railway network.

Prime Minister Narendra

Modi had asked the railways totransform and focus on “newspeeds, progress and new capac-ity”, alongwith gaining financialstrength. But the question is: IsIndian Railways equipped forthe Prime Minister’s vision?

Indian Railways requires mas-sive resources. These resources aresimply not there. The railwaysmust radically re-think itsapproach to reducing accidentsand beefing up its infrastructure.

J Akshay Bangalore

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Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “Learning from tragedy”(November 22). Perhaps we areaccustomed to getting wise onlyafter the occurrence of an event— in this case, the train accidentnear Kanpur. What follows nextafter the accident is a number ofinquiries which is often con-signed to oblivion. The need ofhour is to revamp the railways’outdated system by replacing itwith state-of-the-art technology.And this is not an uphill task,given that the railways is a high-ly lucrative department of theUnion Government.

Azhar A KhanRampur

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Sir — There can be no secondopinion that bankers have playedand continue to play a crucial rolein the effective implementation ofdemonetisation. The banking staffis working beyond working hours,even on holidays, to mitigate theproblems of the common man.

However, it is sad to learn thatsome employees have indulged inmoney laundering with an ulteri-or motive. Two bank officershave been arrested for attemptingto launder demonetised curren-cies to the tune of �25 lakh forpecuniary benefits. This is con-demnable, as these officers, onefrom a public sector bank andanother from a private bank,have betrayed the trust theGovernment and enforcementauthorities had on them.

Moreover, with their nefariousactivities, they have tarnished theimage of the banking sector. Onehopes the arrest will serve as awarning to those bankers whomight be tempted to make somequick buck during the transitionperiod of demonetisation.

Tharcius S FernandoChennai

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What was once a person-al pain for Rohtak busi-nessman Ashok B

Verma, a hemophilia patient, hisempathy transformed it into acommunity initiative that haschanged the lives of many likehim for the better.

It was sometime during1979, Ashok B Verma had severebleeding in his leg, and it wasuntreatable in India. He had tofly to Italy where professor PMMannucci, a prominent hematol-ogist, treated him free of cost andsuggested him to reach out topeople with hemophilia (PwH),in need in India.

Ashok remembered his sav-iour’s words. On November 24,1983, the Hemophilia FederationIndia (HFI) was set up in Delhiin the presence of Prof Mannucciand Rev Allen Tanner, thenchairman of World Federation ofHemophilia, and other PWHand family members from India.

Thanks to Ashok B Verma’s

vision, so much has changed forthe younger generations of PwH.Still, the insurmountable strug-gles of living with the disease ina developing country such asIndia, having no adequate treat-ment, or expensive care, contin-ue to affect us in many ways.

For those who are not famil-iar with hemophilia, it is a hered-itary bleeding disorder that pre-vents blood from clotting prop-erly. Being a genetic disorder, itlasts a whole lifetime. People withhemophilia lack a protein inblood that controls bleeding.

There are more than 18,000registered PwH across the coun-try, but this number is only thetip of the iceberg. Given the inci-dence rate of one in 10,000 malebirths, more than one lakhpatients are estimated to be suf-fering from different types ofhemophilia across the country,according to the WorldFederation of Hemophilia. Thisfigure by itself means that more

people are suffering becausethey have not been diagnosedproperly and effectively.

Even those of us who havebeen diagnosed, are still suffer-ing because of inadequate treat-ment. Only effective access totreatment will ensure pain-freeand productive lives to us, espe-cially our younger generation.

Hemophilia patients gettreatment on demand from mostStates, but lately, there has beena scarcity of anti-hemophilicfactor (AHF) concentrates acrossthe country. This becomes verydifficult for most patients, partic-ularly coming from the poor stra-ta, as they are dependent onGovernment support.

One of the long-term solu-tions that has been proposed isfor the Government to establisha hemophilia programme underthe National Health Mission.There has to be a comprehensiveprogramme to address the needsof hemophilia patients and the

hemophilia community in gen-eral. The Union Government hasto look at it with a more holisticapproach and view its advantagesin the longer term vis-à-vis apiecemeal approach.

For example, the inclusionof hemophilia in the DisabilityBill, which is yet to be tabled inParliament, is of paramountimportance to hemophiliapatients. Its endorsement byParliament can address manyissues, such as discrimination atthe workplace and lack of ben-efits for those suffering from disabilities.

Other important pro-grammes that we, in the HFI, arepursuing, include sensitisationwith the National AIDS ControlOrganisation (NACO) to comeup with a scheme to supporthemophilia patients with clottingfactor concentrates, followingHIV infection of many patientswho used blood products.

Local manufacturers need to

be engaged to ensure that theydevelop factor concentrates local-ly that strictly adhere to interna-tional safety standards and pro-tocols, which is again a vision ofMake in India.

Alongside with ensuringample supply and safety of fac-tor concentrates, should be theestablishment of HemophiliaTreatment Centres (HTCs) andCoagulation Laboratories inGovernment-run medical col-leges in each district equipped toidentify new children/personswith hemophilia. These diagnos-tic facilities will also help manyother medical and surgicalpatients as well as reduce mor-bidity and mortality related tobleeding after child-birth in thesehospitals. The HTCs must havethe capability of carrier detectionand pre-natal diagnosis ofwomen who have a history ofhemophilia in their families.

Moreover, we would like tosee the institutionalisation of

prophylaxis treatment, especial-ly among children 15 years oldand below. Prophylaxis is the pre-ventive infusion of factor concen-trates to reduce the risk of bleed-ing and prevent joint damage.

Many adult hemophiliapatients experience permanentdamage in joints because of lackof treatment. Giving prophylax-is treatment to children will pre-vent the new generation ofhemophilia patients from havingsuch permanent damage.

But even those with perma-nent joint damage have hope.Under the Central GovernmentHospital Scheme, some hemo-philiacs who have been bedrid-den from joint damage for 15-16 years, received correctivesurgeries and have now recov-ered completely. This schemeshould be made available all overthe country.

(The writer is vice president,development, HemophiliaFederation-India)

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More than 15 billion piecesof �500 notes and six bil-lion pieces of �1,000(March 31, 2016 figures)got cancelled due to

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s surprisedemonetisation announcement onNovember 8. They constituted a quar-ter of the notes in circulation, accordingto the Reserve Bank of India, but worth86.4 per cent of the currency basket.India is one of the ‘cash heavy’ nations.Its cash-in-circulation to GDP ratio is 13per cent, one of the highest in the world.

Therefore, the economy is down toprosthetic limb of 14 per cent. While cash-less economy remains a pipedream, theimmediate challenge for the Governmentis to replenish the cash. Otherwise the liq-uidity crush might hurt the GDP.

Now to print back 15 billion notesof �500 may take a whole year. Thereare four currency printing presses inIndia. The ones at Dewas (MadhyaPradesh) and Nashik (Maharashtra),which come under Security Printing &Minting Corporation of India Limited(SPMCIL) produced 8.3 billion piecesof currency notes in FY 2015-16. Thoseat Mysore (Karnataka) and Salboni(West Bengal), coming under BharatiyaReserve Bank Note Mudran PrivateLimited (BRBNMPL), have a produc-tion capacity of 16 billion pieces acrossall denominations — if they work in twoshifts. These, however, produced 14.75billion pieces last financial year.

Thus, in FY 2015-16 around 23 bil-lion pieces of currency (across denom-inations) were produced, slightly morethan the total number of pieces can-

celled by demonetisation. Therefore, tosay the current shortfall in currency cir-culation will be made good in six toseven weeks, is statistically untenable.

But speed is not the only problemwith re-monetisation. The �2,000 note isa good economic decision — but only forthe REserve Bank of India. They wantedto economise on cost and time while dou-bling and quadrupling monetary worthof cancelled notes in print. But for the cur-rency users, the �2,000 note comes witha set of complications. It’s a pity if theGovernment had not foreseen it. In theshort run, when the demand is muted, the�2,000 will perform worse. People wouldlike to save money rather than spend.

With connecting denominations like�1,000 is out, and the new �500 in shortsupply, the �2,000 note could be a liabil-ity rather than an asset. The new curren-cy configurations and correspondingavailability will severely reduce the ‘veloc-ity of money’. Velocity is defined as the rateat which money changes hand for pur-chasing goods and services. A reducedvelocity indicates poor vibrancy of theeconomy. A significant part of the casheconomy might be severely hit.

Does the Government have a credi-ble ‘cash doctrine’? The Prime Minister,in his November 8 message, said, “Themagnitude of cash in circulation is direct-ly linked to the level of corruption.Inflation becomes worse through thedeployment of cash earned in corruptways. The poor have to bear the brunt ofthis. It has a direct effect on the purchas-ing power of the poor and the middleclass.” Is this merely his personal musing,or will it be adopted as a policy?

If it were a new policy statement,one is interested in knowing details itsthereof. What is the level of cash thatthe Government thinks optimal for thenation? In what ratios should the dif-ferent denominations like �10, �20, �50,�100, �500 and �2,000 be printed?There seems to be a complete policyvacuum on cash.

I see the demonetisation as a depar-ture from the policy pursued until now.Here is why. Until now, the focus was onpushing the growth rate up, through easyavailability of liquidity. The Governmentwanted the RBI to cut rates at the firstavailable instance. The object had beento infuse more cash into the system toinvigorate industry and business. TheRBI did oblige several times, includingwith the repo rate cut by 50 bps inOctober to kick start economic activities.But savings got dis-incentived. Thegrowth rate of saving deposit in publicsector banks stood at 4.6 in March, 2016down from 13.1 in March 2014.

There is much talk on shifting toa cashless economy. But has the NDAGovernment been hostile to cash? Notreally. The RBI in the last two years ofthe NDA indented significantly morenumber of currency notes in �500 and�1,000 denominations with the SPM-CIL and the BRBNMPL. Some 4,839million pieces of �500 had been indent-ed during FY 2013-14. It rose to 5,400million pieces during FY.2014-15, 5,600million pieces during FY 2015-16 and5,725 million during FY 2016-17.

The now abolished �1,000 notesalso followed a similar trend. It impliesthat until November 8, the NDA

Government’s cash policy was a linearextension of the UPA’s. But suddenly itdiscovered the virtues of a having lesscash in circulation. There is no prob-lem with this view either. But it mustbe backed up by a policy document.

Is cashless economy the solution?Only a fortnight before the demonetisa-tion announcement, there was this newsof massive ATM hacking as a result ofwhich 32 lakh cards of SBI, HDFC, ICICIand Yes Bank were compromised. Thereare only about 2.6 million credits cards inIndia. But debit cards (or ATM cards) aresurprising high in number — at 712 mil-lion. However, there is a catch. My analy-sis of RBI figures reveals that while onedebit card on an average was used at leastonce in a month to draw money fromATM, these cards were used at POS (pointof sale) only one-sixth of the time.

For 712 million debit cards, therewere 756 million ATM transactions inAugust, 2016, whereas the numbers ofPOS transactions were only 130 million.Therefore debit cards are actually beingmore often used to reinforce cash ratherthan to promote cashless transactions.

But has one ever wondered what thebiggest casualty of the demonetisationdrive is? It is the idea of ‘ease of doingbusiness’. We have not heard that oft-repeated phrase in the last 10 days sincethe Prime Minister’s address to thenation. The Government should shareits roadmap on re-monetisation with thepeople. ‘Show me the cash’ — thus goesa phrase. Show me the ‘cash doctrine’, isthe demand of the hour.

(The writer is a freelance commentator)

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Amid Tata-Mistry ongoingbattle, ousted Chairman

Cyrus Mistry on Tuesday hitback at the Tatas, rejecting thecharges of not contributinganything to the group’s cash-rich firms - Tata ConsultancyServices (TCS) and Jaguar LandRover (JLR). He also allegedthat Ratan Tata once tried to sellthe IT giant to IBM and his ‘ego’led to bad business decisionslike Corus acquisition at a dou-ble price than that of its origi-nal cost. Adding more allega-tions against the Tatas on thebusinesses of both the compa-nies, Mistry also said that Tata’scontribution to the success ofTCS and JLR is an ‘illusion’.

Meanwhile, Nusli Wadia,who was an independent direc-tor at Tata Steel for nearly 40years, also hit back Tata Sons,threatening that he might ini-tiate civil and criminal pro-ceedings if Tata Sons did notwithdraw its November-11notice or failed to prove itscharges. He demanded TataSons to prove its ‘false anddefamatory’ allegations in thenotice, one of which claimedthat he was acting with CyrusMistry against the Tata Group.

In a series of statementsissued by Cyrus Mistry’s officeon Tuesday, the letter said,“Ratan Tata had pitched for sell-ing TCS to IBM, a ‘near deathexperience’ for group’s crownjewel. Ratan Tata’s ‘ego’ led toCorus deal at a high price.”

“Ratan Tata’s decision toacquire steelmaker Corus formore than $12 billion, when ayear earlier it was available athalf the price, went against thereservations of some boardmembers and senior execu-tives,” it added.

Without giving the time-

lines, the letter also claimed thethen chief FC Kohli’s illness hadprevented JRD Tata from goingahead with Ratan Tata’s pro-posal. “Ratan Tata was thenheading Tata Industries’ jointventure with IBM and hadapproached JRD Tata with aproposal from IBM to buyoutTCS. JRD refused to discuss thedeal because Kohli was stillrecovering in the hospital,” itsaid.

However, Kohli, consid-ered the doyen of the domesticsoftware industry, flatly refusedthe proposal saying TCS has abright future and the groupshould not sell the company.“JRD turned down the offer,demonstrating true vision. Butit was also a near-death expe-

rience for TCS at the hands ofRatan Tata,” the letter claimed.

Tatas and IBM had startedthe joint venture with equalholding in 1992, and dissolvedit in 1999, while TCS wasfounded in 1968 and was takenpublic in 2004. JRD steppeddown from chairmanship of thegroup in 1991, while Kohlistepped down from TCS in2000.

The letter, which is third ina series of clarifications issuedby Mistry’s office, also lamedRatan Tata’s ‘ego’ for bad busi-ness decisions, including thebuyout of British steelmakerCorus at a high cost and alsosticking to the CDMA tech-nology for its telecom businessimperiling thousands of jobs.

In the telecom business, Tatamade a strategic decision to enterCDMA space as against the pop-ular GSM, despite advised to thecontrary, Mistry said calling it acase of one person’s judgmentadversely affecting jobs of thou-sands.

In its earlier two clarifications,Mistry camp had focused on theallegations of the group driftingaway from the Tata values duringhis tenure, independence of direc-tors in group companies, expla-nations on a surge in expensesand the huge write-offs, which thegroup had to take under his lead-ership.

In a nine-page letter onNovember 10, Tata Sons hadaccused Mistry of not really con-tributing to the success of JLR and

TCS, saying these assets wereinherited by him from Ratan Tatawho had nurtured them and thatthe ousted chairman could nottake credit for their stellar per-formance.

In the statement issued onTuesday, on the contrary theMistry camp gave credit for thesetwo companies’ success to theirleadership under Kohli and NChandrasekaran at TCS, andRalph Speth and Ravi Kanth atJLR. “Mistry, being the non-executive Chairman, gave thema strategic direction, ensured afuture proofing of the business-es and also gave them time,” theletter said.

“As the Chairman of TataSons and TCS, Mistry’s access tosenior stakeholders across theworld was an enabling platform,”the letter said, while claiming thathe met at least 60 global chiefexecutives to help TCS. To but-tress the point, Mistry’s letterenlisted training of 1.35 lakh peo-ple in digital area, the Japanesejoint venture, industry leadinggrowth in Europe and a surge inhigh revenue clientele during histenure.

As per the letter, Mistry’sfour-year tenure betweenDecember 2012 and October2016 saw TCS’ cash and equiva-lents doubled to Rs 20,500 crorewith a surge in cash conversion,which helped it declare a specialdividend last year.

“The best is yet to come forTCS. JLR is at a critical juncturewhere decisions taken on Tuesdaywill decide its future resilience.JLR strategy under Mistry’s chair-manship has been to achieve scaleas well as minimise currency andsupply chain risks by investing innew facilities,” it said, whileunderlining that it is now astronger company that willreward the shareholders moreconsistently in future.

���('�'��Bakery and dairy prod-ucts major Britannia Industries Ltd,which is aiming to double itsturnover in next four to five years,would expand offshore presence asit aspires to become a global com-pany.

Britannia, which would pri-marily target the developing coun-tries, is expecting that exports wouldcontribute around 14-15 per cent ofits turnover in next 4-5 years.

Besides this, the companywould invest a capex of �300-350crore every year for the next 3-4 yearsto ramp up its capacity and roll outnew categories which would befunded internally.

“In the next 5 years, I would seethis going from eight per cent to 14-15 per cent,” said Britannia IndustriesManaging Director Varun Berry.

Asked about the region whichwould lead growth, Berry said: “Itwould all be developing countries.We are not going to developed coun-tries as it does not make sense.”

Presently, export contributeseight per cent to the turnover of the

company.Part of the strategy would be

expanding to countries which havesimilar business environment asIndia. It may also go for acquisitionsif it gets the right candidate.

Britannia, which is currentlylimited to bakery and dairy segment,would venture into new categoriesto be a complete food company.

“Our first step would be thecountries, which has environmentsimilar to ours. The strategy wouldbe to seed in our products in thesecountries, establish a little bit of spaceand then start to think of a manu-facturing facility there. In the mean-time, if some good opportunities(acquisitions) comes up in somecountries, then we would look at thatas well,” Berry said.

He further added: “Today, weare not a food company. We arebroadly a bakery company onlywhich also does dairy. We truly wantto be a food company as we go for-ward. Its our vision to makeBritannia not just an Indian foodcompany but a global food compa-

ny. We want our footprint across theglobe and made some move in thatdirection and a lot more would becoming in future.”

Britannia clocked a revenue of�7,947.90 crore in FY 2015-16 andplans to double it in next 4-5 yearswith growth in current business andnew categories in which it plans toenter.”We would like to double theturnover in next 4-5 years...

Bulk of the growth would

come from the current categoriesand all the new categories would addto the growth as well,” said Berry.

He further added: “We areworking on multiple categories. Weare establishing our right to succeedand we are testing with con-sumers”.

The company has capex plansto ramp up production capacity.

“I would think of �300-350crore every year in capex for next

3-4 years,” said Berry adding, “Ifthere is a return then we have gotthe money to fund it. The criticalthing would be that the projectshould be giving us right returnsand should be paying off in certainperiod of time. If it fulfils that, thenmoney is sitting in the bank andwe have enough money to invest.”

As part of growth strategy,Britannia Industries would have amix of in-house and contractmanufacturing.

“Presently, it is 60:40 for in-house and contract manufactur-ing,” he said adding, “It could be70:30 in next two years”.

Britannia is currently presentin 70 countries across the globe butits manufacturing facilities areonly in India and the Middle East.

The company is putting up afacility in the exports zone inGujarat, which would be readysoon.

Britannia today inaugurated its�200 crore R&D centre atBengaluru, adjacent to its manu-facturing facility in Bidadi. � �

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����(����Seeking to tighten itsgrip over the $103-billion group,Tata Sons asked Tata Power tocall a meeting of shareholders toconsider removing CyrusMistry as director of the com-pany even as another groupfirm, Tata Chemicals, fixed thedate for the same.

Tata Sons, the holding com-pany of the salt-to-softwareconglomerate, had last monthousted Mistry as its chairmanand has since then sought toremove him from the group’slisted companies, a few of whichhe heads and is on board of oth-ers.

Tata Power in a regulatoryfiling said it has received anotice from its principal pro-moter Tata Sons seeking con-vening of an extraordinary gen-eral meeting of shareholders to

oust Mistry as director on thecompany board.

On the other hand, theboard of Tata Chemicals, wheresuch a request had previouslybeen made by Tata Sons, fixedDecember 23 as the date for call-ing the EGM for removingMistry as well as friend-turned-foe independent director NusliWadia as directors of the com-pany. Mistry is chairman of TataChemicals.

The board of Tata GlobalBeverages, the Indian partner ofStarbucks Coffee, last weekvoted him out as the chairman.But he continues to be on itsboard as well as other firms andcan be removed only by a share-holder vote.

Tata Sons used its com-manding 73.26 per cent stake inthe group’s most successful

company, Tata ConsultancyServices (TCS), to removeMistry as its chairman. AnEGM has been called onDecember 13 to remove him asdirector.

Indian Hotels Co Ltd, thefirm that runs the Taj Group ofhotels, has called a meet onDecember 20 to consider TataSons’ proposal to removeMistry as director of the com-pany.

Tata Sons holds 28.01 per centof share capital of IHCL.

In a sudden and dramaticturn of events last month, Mistrywas unceremoniously removedas the chairman of Tata Sonsand replaced by his predecessorRatan Tata in the interim, trig-gering a confrontation betweenthe single-largest shareholderand the Tatas. � �

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��� �(��7� To woo cus-tomers post demonetisation,auto makers Renault, Nissanand Honda have tied up withbanks and e-wallets firms tooffer cashless facilities andfully financed car loans.

Renault India hasannounced cashless transac-tion for customers makingvehicle purchases and avail-ing after-sales services.

In order to facilitatebookings and cashless pay-ments, the company, whichsells models like Kwid andDuster, is offering customersan option of paying thebooking amount throughPayTM and HDFC PayZappe-wallets.

“This is a strategic moveby Renault to leverage thegrowing preference for cash-less transactions in India. Inaddition to this, RenaultIndia is offering 100 percent on-road funding acrossRenault’s product range to itsprospective customers,” thecompany said in a state-ment.

Renault is also extendingcashless options such as useof cheques and demanddrafts, e-wallets, debit orcredit cards and instant fundtransfers for all after-salesservices.

“All these facilities willbe available without chargingany additional transactionfee,” it added.

Similarly, Japanese carmaker Nissan and its brandDatsun’s dealers are accept-ing cashless transactionssuch as cheques, debit orcredit cards, and e-Wallets topurchase parts or services.

In addition, the compa-ny provides free towing ofNissan and Datsun vehicleswhich are under warranty orextended warranty, ensur-ing customer comfort in caseof emergencies.

“We want to ensure adelightful customer serviceexperience for every Nissanand Datsun customer whenthey enter a dealership byproviding the best possiblesupport and convenience,”Nissan Motor IndiaManaging Director ArunMalhotra said.

Honda Cars India toohas announced a tie-up withHDFC, Axis B ank andICICI Bank to provide up to100 per cent loan to prospec-tive customers.

The Japanese car maker’sarrangement with the threeleading banks includes ex-showroom and on-roadfinancing for its variousmodels.Terming the demon-etisation initiative of thegovernment a bold and pro-gress ive decis ion, HeroMotoCorp Chairman, MD

and CEO Pawan Munjal saidit will provide a significantboost to the economy andwill create a transparent andinclusive financial system.

“The agility reflectedwith subsequent steps is alsoaiding the public both inurban and rural areas. I ampersonally very enthused bythis decision.”Terming thedemonetisation initiative ofthe government a bold andprogressive decision, HeroMotoCorp Chairman, MDand CEO Pawan Munjal saidit will provide a significantboost to the economy andwill create a transparent andinclusive financial system.

“The agility reflectedwith subsequent steps is alsoaiding the public both inurban and rural areas. I ampersonally very enthused bythis decision.” � �

�'�����Hit by adverse curren-cy movements, India’s householdwealth has fallen by $26 billionto $3 trillion in the current year,shows the latest report by glob-al financial services major CreditSuisse.

According to the ‘GlobalWealth Report’ compiled byCredit Suisse Research Institute,wealth in the country in dollarterms went down by 0.8 per cent($26 billion) to $3.099 trillion in2016 compared to last year.

The report noted that whilewealth has been rising in India,not everyone has shared in thisgrowth.

“There is still considerablewealth poverty, reflected in thefact that 96 per cent of the adultpopulation has wealth below

$10,000,” the report said.“At the other extreme, a

small fraction of the population(0.3 per cent of adults) has a networth over $1,00,000,” it added,noting that due to India’s largepopulation, this translates into2.4 million people.

As per the report, the coun-try has 2,48,000 adults in the top1 per cent of global wealth hold-ers, a 0.5 per cent share.

“By our estimates, 2,260adults have wealth over $50million, and 1,040 have morethan $100 million,” it added.

Overall, the Asia Pacificregion in 2016 saw wealthincrease by 4.5 per cent to near-ly $80 trillion.

“China and India were hit byadverse currency movements

and as a result, their householdwealth fell by 2.8 per cent and 0.8per cent to $23 trillion and $3trillion, respectively,” the reportnoted.

Among other majoreconomies in the region, wealthin Australia remained largelyunchanged (decline of 0.2 percent) and South Korea saw anincrease of 1 per cent.

Globally, the wealth stood at$256 trillion -- a rise of 1.4 percent from a year ago.

The report noted that rise inglobal wealth is in line with theincrease in the world’s adultpopulation with average wealthper adult remaining constant atUSD 52,800.

According to Credit Suisse,while developing economies

are likely to outpace the devel-oped world in terms of wealthgrowth, they will still onlyaccount for just under a third ofgrowth over the next five years.

“They (developing nations)currently account for around 18per cent of global householdwealth, against just 12 per centin 2000,” it added

“China is expected toaccount for more than halfofthis growth, with over 7 percent coming from India,” itadded.

Credit Suisse noted thatthe United States is likely toremain the engine of globalwealth growth in coming years,with the total tally reaching $112trillion by 2021 -- $28 trillionmore than in 2016. � �

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RBI on Tuesday relaxed oneof several conditions for

withdrawal of �2.5 lakh fromtheir own accounts by makingdeclaration for paymentsbeyond �10,000 only.

Earlier, the drawee had todeclare all payments he had tomake out of the �2.5 lakh with-drawal from the account.

Also, RBI asked banks toensure adequate funds are pro-vided to rural cooperative banksfor disbursal to farmers so thatthey can have enough valid notesfor purchase of seeds, fertiliser andother inputs during the ongoingrabi season.

Parallelly, RBI doubled thelimit to �20,000 for semi-close pre-paid instruments with a view tomeeting the transactional needs ofthe public through digital means.

“A detailed list of persons to

whom the cash withdrawn is pro-posed to be paid, together with adeclaration from such personsthat they do not have a bankaccount, where the amount pro-posed to be paid is �10,000 ormore. The list should indicate thepurpose for which the proposedpayments are being made,” RBIsaid in a notification.

“It is estimated that about�35,000 crore would be requiredby DCCBs (District Co-operativeBanks) for sanction and dis-bursement of crop loans to farm-ers at the rate of �10,000 crore perweek,” an RBI notification said.

National Bank forAgriculture and RuralDevelopment (Nabard) will beutilising its own cash credit lim-its up to about �23,000 crore toenable the DCCBs to disburse therequired crop loans to PrimaryAgricultural Credit Society(PACS) and farmers, it said.

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����(����Paucity of new cur-rency notes has forced80 percent trucks to stop plying,Delhi Transporters Associationsaid on Tuesday, urging thegovernment to extend limit fortoll collection and use of oldnotes at diesel pumps.

“Whereas we supportdemonetisation, it has beencausing complete disarray tothe goodstransportation/trucking busi-ness across the country,” theassociation said in a state-ment.

Trucking business is large-ly cash-reliant for en-routeexpenses like purchase of fuel,toll payments, payment ofGreen Tax, driver’s boardinglodging, repairs, payments toloaders/unloaders etc, it added.

“80 per cent of truckshave already stopped plyingdue to crunch of new cur-

rency. Remaining 20 percent are also on the verge ofstopping plying if these lim-its are not extended till thecurrency position eases andis normalised,” DelhiTransporters AssociationPresident Jaspal SinghKumar said.

Present suspension oftoll collection and accep-tance of old currency up toNovember 24, 2016 isrequired to be extended andthe limit of withdrawal of�50,000 from currentaccount per week is alsoinsufficient, he added.

In case these limits are notextended, the transportationbusiness shall come to a haltas we cannot meet drivers’salary, expenses on purchaseof fuel, drivers’ boarding andlodging, payments to load-ers/unloaders, � �

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����(����As many as 82,500ATMs, which account forabout 40 per cent of cashvending machines in the coun-try, have been recalibrated todispense new high securitycurrency notes of 500 and2,000 rupees.

Out of 2.2 lakh ATMs,82,500 were recalibrated tilllast Monday evening.

These ATMs have beenreset as per the direction oftask force set up by theGovernment to expedite theprocess, Rituraj Sinha,President Cash LogisticsAssociation of India, told PTI.

These have been recalibrat-ed in such a manner that region-al balance is maintained whilegiving priority to rural areas,Sinha, also a member of the taskforce headed by RBI DeputyGovernor S S Mundra, said.� �

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With an aim to deepen cap-ital markets, regulator Sebi

may consider allowing ForeignPortfolio Investors (FPIs) toinvest in unlisted non-convert-ible debentures and securitiseddebt instruments in its boardmeeting on Wednesday.

In a slew of proposed reformmeasures, the regulator alsoplans to tighten corporate gov-ernance rules on profit-sharingagreements between promotersand private equity funds as partof its efforts to safeguard minor-ity shareholders in markets. Sebialso plans to reduce minimumangel fund investment for ven-ture capital firms to �25 lakhfrom the current �50 lakh toboost the early-stage startupecosystem.

The regulator may allow theangel funds to make overseasinvestments up to 25 per cent oftheir investible corpus, in linewith other Alternative InvestmentFunds (AIFs). The move willmake such funds to spread theirrisk by investing across geogra-

phies. These proposals are like-ly to be discussed in the boardmeeting of Securities andExchange Board of India (Sebi)on Wednesday, sources said.

The regulator plans to allowForeign Portfolio Investors (FPIs)to invest in unlisted non-con-vertible debentures and securitiesdebt instruments. RBI has alsorecently relaxed its rules forallowing such investments byFPIs. The move comes afterSebi’s board, in September,allowed well-regulated FPIs todirectly trade in corporate bonds,without going through any bro-

ker or other intermediary. Prior to that, FPIs could

trade in Indian markets onlythrough brokers (registered withexchanges as their members). Themove is aimed at boosting foreigninflows in Indian markets anddeepening and widening the cor-porate bond market. Sebi is plan-ning to make it mandatory forpromoters and top executives offirms entering into special prof-it-sharing deals with private equi-ty funds to obtain prior approvalfrom the company’s board andshareholders. It plans to add a pro-vision to listing agreement that

will require disclosures and priorapproval of shareholders.

In case of existing profitsharing agreements, such agree-ments would need to beinformed to the stock exchangesfor public dissemination. Also,Sebi plans to align its definitionof startups with other regulations.As per Sebi guidelines, angelfunds can invest in startups thathave been incorporated duringthe preceding three years fromthe date of such investments.

This may be changed to fiveyears. Investment by an angelfund in a venture capital islocked in for three years. This islikely to be changed to oneyear. There are plans to amendthe upper limit of number ofangel investors in a scheme to200 from the current 49. Angelfunds, a sub-category of AIF,encourages entrepreneurshipin country by financing startupsat a stage where such firms findit difficult to get capital frombanks and financial institu-tions. Currently, 266 AIFs areregistered with Sebi. Of which,85 are registered as angel funds.

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NEW DELHI: Telecom oper-ators will make short codemessages used for bankingservices free till December 31,a move aimed at fuelling cash-less transactions following theGovernment move to scraphigh value notes of �1000/500.The development came soonafter telecom regulator Traicut the charges to 50 paise,down from �1.50.

“At present, a charge isbeing levied by telecom oper-ators for mobile banking,which is commonly known asUSSD charge,” Telecom

Minister Manoj Sinha said ina tweet. To facilitate use ofelectronic banking facility andreducing difficulty for thecommon man, telecom oper-ators have decided to waivethe charges for mobile bank-ing services till December 31,2016, he added.

“This move will help peo-ple with feature phones toaccess electronic bankingfacility without incurring any

additional cost till December31, 2016,” he said.

The Government isaggressively pushing con-sumers to adopt digital pay-ment methods to bring intransparency and tide over theongoing liquid cash crunchfollowing the demonetisationof high value currency ascrack down. Short code mes-sages are used by consumersto avail banking services like

checking balance, with-drawals, deposits and peer-to-peer-transfer. After the cut-offdate, the short code text mes-sages will be charged at a max-imum of 50 paise, from theearlier �1.50, as per today’snotif ication by TelecomRegulatory Authority of India.

Industry players havebeen of the view that at�1.50, the cost was steep andthis inhibited the widespreadadoption of mobile-basedtransactions, especially inrural areas that see highusage of feature phones. PTI

NEW DELHI: As many as 73 cardholders of thecountry’s largest bank State Bank of India (SBI) hadreported fraudulent withdrawals aggregating �39.18lakh till November 4 following data breach that hitmillions of debit/ATMs. SBI has informed that ithas blocked about 6 lakh cards, Minister of Statefor Finance Santosh Kumar Gangwar said in a writ-ten reply in Rajya Sabha. “SBI has also informed that73 cardholders have complained about claims aggre-gating to �39.18 lakh up to November 4, 2016,” hesaid. The SBI said however that its ‘systems’ arerobust and its debit cards are not at risk.

The RBI had earlier said it came to its notice onSeptember 8 that details of certain cards issued by somebanks had been possibly compromised at ATMs linkedto the ATM Switch of one of the service providers.About 32.14 cards of public and private sector bankswas breached. Following the data breach, 19 banks hadrecalled the compromised cards. Replying to severalrelated questions, Gangwar said that RBI has informedthe matter was under investigation. Independentinvestigation by a forensic auditor approved underPayment Card Industry Data Security Standard(PCI-DSS) framework is under process. PTI

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NEW DELHI: There are asmany as 2,071 industrialistswhose loan accounts with anexposure of �3.89 lakh crorehave turned into NPAs,Parliament was informed today.All these industrialists had takenloan of �50 crore or more. As ofJune 30, 2016, NPA accountsabove Rs 50 crore were 2,071with outstanding amount of�3,88,919 crore, Minister ofState for Finance, SantoshKumar Gangwar said in a writ-ten reply to the Rajya Sabha.

“In terms of instructions ofRBI, every bank has to have itsown recovery policy, includingthe manner and procedure ofwrite-offs,” he said. Loans arewritten off after appropriateprovisions have been made totake advantage of tax benefitsand capital optimisation, hesaid. In respect of technical

write-offs, RBI has permittedwrite-offs at the head officelevel while recovery efforts arestill continued at the branchlevel, he added. In reply toanother question, Gangwar saidthe government has not orderedany enquiry against any bank forallegedly depositing �1 in largenumber of Jan Dhan accountspurportedly to minimise zerobalance account.

As many has 25.45 crorePradhan Mantri Jan DhanYojna (PMJDY) accounts havebeen opened till November 2.With a view to increasingbanking penetration and pro-moting financial inclusion andwith the main objective ofcovering all households with atleast one bank account perhousehold across the country,PMJDY was formally launchedon August 28, 2014. PTI

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MUMBAI: Fitch Ratings onTuesday said the demonetisationof old �500, 1,000 notes will raiserevenue for the Government butwarned that the positive effects ofthe move are unlikely to be strongand long-lasting to support cred-it profiles. It said the demonetisa-tion of notes has caused short-term disruption in the economybut if it continues for longer peri-od, there would be impact on thecountry’s GDP growth.

“The move has the potentialto raise Government revenue andencourage bank lending, but webelieve the positive effects areunlikely to be strong and suffi-ciently enduring to support cred-it profiles,” Fitch said in a report.The Centre on November 8announced to demonetise old�500 and �1,000 notes in a fightagainst black money, fake curren-cy and corruption. It said thewithdrawal of bank notes, account-ing for 86 per cent of the value ofcurrency in circulation, has creat-ed a cash crunch, and seems to beholding back economic activity.

“Consumers have not had thecash needed to complete purchas-es, and there have been reports ofsupply chains being disrupted andfarmers unable to buy seeds andfertilisers for the sowing season.Time spent queueing in banks isalso likely to have affected generalproductivity,” Fitch said. PTI

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NEW DELHI: Maldivian VicePresident Abdulla Jihad, who is ona visit to India, on Wednesday saidthe country will sign its first freetrade agreement early next year toboost trade and cooperation withother countries. However, he didnot name any country for the FTA.

“Maldives has embarked uponrevising its key legislation andintroduction of new laws toincrease trade and ease of doingbusiness to attract investment.The government is also working onsigning bilateral investment treatiesin respective countries. I would liketo note here that our first free tradeagreement will be signed early nextyear,” Jihad told the third MaldivesInvestment Forum here. Maldiveshas grown from being one ofthe poorest island nations aswell one of the least developedcountries during 1970s. PTI

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NEW DELHI: Reliance MutualFund has filed draft offer docu-ments with capital marketswatchdog Sebi to garner over�3,000 crore for the Governmentthrough second tranche of CPSEExchange Traded Fund. CPSEETF, which functions like amutual fund scheme, comprisesscrips of 10 PSUs -- ONGC, CoalIndia, IOC, Gail India, Oil India,PFC, Bharat Electronics, REC,Engineers India and ContainerCorporation of India.

The fund-raising will help theGovernment inch towards �56,500crore disinvestment target for the

current fiscal. As per draft docu-ments filed with Securities andExchange Board of India (Sebi),Reliance MF has applied for secondtranche of CPSE (Central PublicSector Enterprises) ETF (ExchangeTraded Fund).

According to sources, gov-ernment is expected to raise morethan �3,000 crore it had raked infrom the first tranche of CPSE ETF.The Government had firstlaunched a CPSE ETF in March2014 under which retail investorshave to invest a minimum of �5,000to buy units. It had raised � 3,000crore through the ETF then. PTI

/��.<� ���� ������������� �%:*4�4�<N��������� �����D;0� NEW YORK: Facebook CEO

Mark Zuckerberg has soldanother $95 million from hiscompany’s stock, keeping hispledge to give away 99 per centof his shares to make the worlda ‘better place’. The ChanZuckerberg Foundation and CZIHoldings LLC, the two entitiesthat Zuckerberg and his wifePriscilla Chan created for theirphilanthropy and public advo-cacy last year, sold the sharesbetween November 17 andNovember 18, according to reg-ulatory filings, quoted by Forbes.

The sale follows $190 millionin Facebook stock sold by thesame entities in October andanother $190 million sold inSeptember. Zuckerberg, 32, sayshe will not sell or give away morethan $1 billion in Facebookstock per year through 2018, thefiling reported.

In December 2015, Zuckerburgand Chan had first announced togive away 99 per cent of theircompany’s stake, which was thenworth about $45 billion, in a let-ter to their baby to make theworld a ‘better place’, for ‘philan-

thropic, public advocacy andother activities for the publicgood’ over their lifetime. Some ofthe funds will go into for profitcompanies that fit with the cou-ple’s goals. Following these sales,Forbes estimates Zuckerberg’snet worth at $52 billion. His networth has increased over the pastyear despite the stock sales as aresult of the rise in Facebook’sstock price. Chan and Zuckerbergannounced one big goal inSeptember, when they pledged tospend $3 billion over the nextdecade to fight disease. PTI

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Global steel production rose by ahealthy 3.3 per cent to 136.5 mil-

lion tonnes (mt) last month againstOctober 2015 aided by growth inmajor producers like India, China andJapan, data from World SteelAssociation showed.

“India’s crude steel produc-tion was 8.3 mt in October 2016,up by 12.3 per cent on October2015,” the association (WorldSteel) said. China’s crude steel pro-duction for October 2016 was 68.5mt, a rise of 4 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y), while Japan pro-duced 9 mt of the metal, up 0.6per cent, it added.

“The crude steel capacityutilisation ratio of the 65 countriesin October 2016 was 69.6 per cent.It was 68.2 per cent in October2015. The October 2016 capacityutilisation ratio is 0.6 percentagepoints lower than the September2016 ratio,” World Steel said. In theEU, Germany produced 3.5 mt ofsteel in October 2016, a decreaseof 3.7 per cent y-o-y, whileItaly produced 2.1 mt of crudesteel, up 11 per cent. PTI

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Amajor portion of the installedcapacity of 71 GW of private

coal-based independent powerplants is under operational stressmainly due to absence of fuel sup-ply agreement and power pur-chase pact, industry body Ficcisaid on Wednesday. “46 GW outof installed capacity of 71 GW ofcoal-based IPP plants are in oper-ational stress attributable largelyto absent FSA and PPA, but alsoto financial and regulatory issues,”the industry body said.

Ficci said it conducted aunit-wise analysis to examinethe business environment inwhich the commissionedplants are being opera-tionalised and the new capac-ities in pipeline are to bemainstreamed. Constraints ofpower purchase agreements (PPA)as well as fuel supply agreements(FSA) are majorly restricting theseplants from approaching the powermarket and finding buyers, thestudy showed. Taking together thecommissioned and pipeline projects

of private developers as on August2016, aggregate coal-based capac-ities without FSA and PPA are seento be in the range of 26–28 GW and41–43 GW respectively.

“Government has been pro-actively addressing the refinanc-ing options of the stressed assetsin the economy and new guide-lines have been recently issued byRBI to recast the debt restructur-ing schemes and repaymentschedules based on asset-liabilitymanagement risk,” Ficci SecretaryGeneral A Didar Singh said.

For coal-based IPP generatingplants, however, the eco-system offuel tie-up and market access for sell-ing power will have to concurrent-ly improve if financial re-engineer-ing is to have any effect, Singh said.While the demand for power will bemuted till private investments andindustrial activity pick-up momen-tum, an immediate measure is to lib-eralise the regime of open access byremoving the tariff and non-tariff bar-riers so that large consumers, whenfaced with unreliable and high-costpower supply, can procure directlyfrom generators, he added. PTI

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NEW DELHI: Government hasissued show cause notices to 496companies for not complyingwith CSR norms while about4,195 companies have not spenta single penny on corporate socialresponsibility activities, Parliamentwas informed on Wednesday.

The reasons for not spend-ing included companies notfinding suitable implementingagency, delay in formation ofCSR committee and inability toformulate a well conceived CSRpolicy. Under the CompaniesAct, 2013, certain classes of prof-itable entities are required to shellout at least 2 per cent of three-year annual average net profittowards CSR activities. Theyhave to provide reasons for notspending on such projects. PTI

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Apowerful 6.9-magnitudeearthquake hit northeast

Japan on Tuesday, sparkingpanic and triggering a tsunamiincluding a one-metre wavethat crashed ashore at the strick-en Fukushima nuclear powerplant.

National broadcaster NHKurged residents to "flee imme-diately" to higher ground,reminding viewers to heed thelessons of the "Great East JapanEarthquake".

A massive undersea quakewith a magnitude of 9.0 thatstruck in March 2011unleashed a tsunami that leftmore than 18,500 people deador missing. It sent three reac-tors into meltdown at the

Fukushima Daiichi power plantin one of the world's worstnuclear disasters.

An official from plantoperator TEPCO told a newsconference that a one-metrewave had hit the coast at thefacility, but a companyspokesman told AFP therewere no reports of damage.

About a dozen other waveswere recorded elsewhere on thenortheast coast, according tothe Meterological Agency, butthey were smaller than initialwarnings of waves as high as3.0 metres. The biggest, mea-suring 1.4 metres, hit the portat Sendai north of Fukushima,but officials said there were noreports of damage there.

NHK aired rolling cover-age of the earthquake, with the

words "Tsunami! Flee!" in whitelettering over a bright red bandon the screen.

The Meterological Agencylifted its final tsunami warningnearly seven hours after theearthquake struck.

TEPCO earlier reportedthat a water cooling system ata reactor in the separateFukushima Daini facility hadbriefly stopped, in an automaticresponse, but that it was backup and operating.

"The biggest risk now is acase whereby contaminatedwater is carried away with thetsunami, which pollutes theenvironment," TEPCO's chiefdecommissioning officerNaohiro Masuda told reporters,of the situation at FukushimaDaiichi.

Washington/London: In anunprecedented move,President-elect Donald Trumpon Tuesday caused diplomaticripples when he indicated thathe would like to have far-rightleader Nigel Farage, the fig-urehead of the Brexit move-ment, as the next BritishAmbassador to the US.

"Many people would like tosee @Nigel_Farage representGreat Britain as theirAmbassador to the UnitedStates. He would do a greatjob!" Trump said in a tweettoday.

Trump and Farage, theleader of the UK IndependenceParty (UKIP), have very goodrelationship.

Farage was often seen byTrump's side during the elec-tion campaign and was amongthe first to fly out to the US tomeet the President-elect after

the election.It is one of the rarest occa-

sion that a foreign leader hasindicated his favourite pictureof a diplomatic envoy fromother country.

While Farage said he was"very flattered", Downing Streetin London issued a statement dismissing any suchpossibility. "There is no vacan-cy. We have an excellent ambas-sador to the US," the statementsaid in reference to Sir KimDarroch.

Darroch, formerly theUK’s national security adviserand permanent representativeto the European Union, tookover the role in January.

Farage said he had not beenexpecting Trump’s tweet, butdescribed it as a signal thatDowning Street needed tochange its thinking about him.

PTI

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Amid rising Indo-Pak ten-sions, Pakistan on Tuesday

said "credible minimum deter-rence" was needed for region-al stability and warned thatinstability has consequenceswith "far more dangers".

Pakistan Prime Minister'sAdvisor on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz said theimperative of strategic stabili-ty was an important dimension of Pakistan-Indiarelations.

"There is need for credibleminimum deterrence as insta-

bility has consequences with farmore dangers," he said whileaddressing an internationalconference on 'StrengtheningPeace and Cooperation inSouth Asia: Incentives andConstraints' organised byIslamabad Policy ResearchInstitute.

Ankara: Turkey on Tuesdaydismissed over 15,000 morecivil servants, police officersand military personnel withinthe state of emergency imposedafter the July failed coup, in apurge that shows no sign ofslowing.

More than 100,000 peoplewithin the military, police,judiciary and education sectorhave been arrested, suspendedor sacked so far in a crackdownon those alleged to have linksto coup-plotters.

In the latest Governmentdecree published on Tuesday,7,586 personnel working inthe police, including policechiefs and commissioners, weredismissed.

Meanwhile 1,956 soldiersand personnel in the air forceand navy were sacked whileanother 403 were removedfrom the gendarmerie, whichlooks after domestic security.

Thousands more were dis-missed in government min-istries and state institutions,including nearly 3,000 offi-cials in the interior ministryand its linked institutions.

In total, 15,726 people havebeen dismissed under the lat-est decrees.

The dismissals are allowedunder the state of emergency,which was extended by anoth-er three months in October,and was originally imposed inthe wake of the coup. AFP

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At least 17 people were killedand 37 others injured after

56 vehicles were involved in amassive pile-up due to snow ona major expressway in northChina's Shanxi Province.

The accident took place onBeijing-Kunming expresswayyesterday due to snow and

rainy weather. The injuredpeople are in stable conditionafter treatment, local officialssaid on Tuesday.

Local police, firefighters,doctors and officials wereinvolved in the rescue opera-tion, state-run Xinhua newsagency reported.

Most of the vehiclesinvolved in the collision, that

killed 17 people and injured 37,were large trucks, the reportsaid.

Around 200,000 people dieon Chinese roads each year, theWorld Health Organisationsays.

In a bid to improve roadsafety, the government recent-ly cracked down on the over-loading of trucks.

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The US State Departmenthas issued a travel alert

warning in the run-up to theend-of-the-year holiday season,warning Americans of a"heightened risk of terroristattacks throughout Europe."

US citizens "should exercisecaution at holiday festivals,

events, and outdoor markets," itsaid late on Monday, in an alertthat expires on February 20.

Extremist groups "contin-ue to plan terrorist attacks inEurope, with a focus on theupcoming holiday season andassociated events," it added.

"US citizens should also bealert to the possibility thatextremist sympathisers or self-

radicalised extremists mayconduct attacks during thisperiod with little or no warning."

It gave no further details.The Islamic State group hasclaimed a string of terrorattacks in France and Belgiumsince January 2015 that haveleft more than 250 dead andhundreds injured.

London: In sickening propa-ganda, ISIS school books havebeen found which reportedlyinstruct children to make sen-tences from words like bomband explode while also featur-ing a vocabulary list of nationssuch as Pakistan and the UKthat are a source of fighters forthe terror group.

ISIS school textbooks havegiven an insight into jihadists'efforts to brainwash youngchildren dubbed "Cubs of theCaliphate", The Mirror report-ed. The daily posted pictures ofpages from school textbookswhich it obtained from Mosul,Iraq.

One exercise in the"English for the Islamic State"textbook for 11 year-old chil-dren instructs pupils to tell thetime, but the clocks are pic-tured attached to sticks ofdynamite with wires protrud-ing from them.

An Arabic grammar bookfor children aged 7-8 instructsstudents to construct sentencesout of groups of words such asbomb, vest, martyr andexplode.

The books were discoveredin the eastern Mosul neigh-bourhood of Hay Al-Intasarduring an ongoing militaryoffensive to free hundreds ofthousands of residents fromISIS' grip in its last strongholdin Iraq , the report said.

In the textbook for gradefive pupils, an exercise asks stu-dents to fill in missing words insentences such as "I can shoot,__I?" and "He can bomb, __he?".

Another exercise instructspupils to choose the correctword to complete the followingsentence: "Usaamah is a fight-er. He is shooting in the __".The options listed are -- 'Battle,Park, Suq (market)'. PTI

Ankara: Turkey's State-runnews agency says authoritieshave issued arrest warrants for48 Kurdish militants, includingthe leader of a US-backedSyrian Kurdish group.

Anadolu Agency says thewarrants were issued today inconnection with a suicidebomb attack in February inAnkara. The attack whichkilled 29 people was claimed bya Kurdish militant group linkedto the outlawed KurdistanWorkers' Party, or PKK.

Anadolu said those want-ed include two alleged PKKleaders currently in exile inEurope, three PKK comman-ders who are believed to bebased in northern Iraq, andSaleh Muslim, the leader of theSyrian Kurdish DemocraticUnion Party, or PYD. AP

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Libyan authorities saidTuesday that they have

arrested a wife of the one-eyedmilitant leader MokhtarBelmokhtar, once consideredthe most dangerous man in theSahara and a veteran al-Qaida-linked figure.

A Libyan anti-terrorismforce said that one ofBelmokhtar's wives, AsmaKadousi, was arrested Saturdayalong with a female companion.

It said she had recentlygiven birth in the militantstronghold of Darna, in easternLibya. It said Belmokhtar isbelieved to be in southernLibya.

A witness told TheAssociated Press earlier thismonth that he had seenBelmokhtar in the southerntown of Sabha, where a drone

attack reportedly killed a mil-itant leader linked toBelmokhtar, along with sixothers, last week.

The witness asked not to benamed for security concerns,and it was not possible to con-firm the report.

The Algerian militant, oncethe leader of al-Qaida's NorthAfrican affiliate, is one of themost-wanted militants in theregion, with a $5 millionreward for information leadingto his capture. He escaped aU.S. Drone strike in easternLibya last year.

Belmokhtar led the January2013 attack on Algeria's AinAmenas gas complex, in whichat least 35 hostages, includingthree Americans, were killed.Believed to be 43 years old, hewas dubbed "the one-eyedsheikh" after losing an eye incombat.

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Karachi: Pakistan discouragesany arms race in the region,Prime Minister Nawaz Sharifsaid on Tuesday, underliningthat the country is exploringthe way forward for peace andstability in South Asia.

Addressing at the inaugu-ration of the ninthInternational DefenceExhibition and Seminar(IEEAS), Sharif said Pakistanwas committed to discouragingarms race and promoting "themotto of arms for peace, whichhas always been the tagline ofIDEAS".

He expressed Pakistan'scommitment to peace, sayingthat, "we will explore the wayforward for peace and stabili-ty in the world".

Sharif said the environ-ment for foreign investmentwas encouraging in the coun-try in view of improved law andorder situation, besides powerprojects being completed on time. PTI

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The European Parliament'sBrexit negotiator warned hisBritish counterpart on Tuesdaythat there is an "intense" win-dow of just 15 months to com-plete talks for the country's exitfrom the EU.

Guy Verhofstadt said hehad also told Brexit ministerDavid Davis that Europeanlawmakers would not acceptBritain trying to keep access tothe single market while limit-ing freedom of movement forEU citizens.

Former Belgian primeminister and leading Europeanfederalist Verhofstadt hadtweeted that it would be a"hell of a meeting" after Davisjokingly compared him toSatan earlier this year.

"We agreed on somethings, on the need for thisprocess to start as early as

possible and need to be fin-ished in any case before thenext European elections" inMay 2019, Verhofstadt saidafter the talks in Strasbourg,France.

"So the window for thenegotiations is more or less 14,15 months," he added. "It'sgoing to be a period that is veryintense."He said if Britain trig-gers the two-year divorceprocess in March 2017 as PrimeMinister Theresa May haspromised, then formal negoti-ations are unlikely to startuntil May 2017.

MEPs must then formallygive their consent for any dealand that would take severalmonths from late 2018, hesaid.

Verhofstadt added that itwas "impossible to find solu-tions where we destroy the so-called four freedoms" includingthe freedom of movement.

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Hanoi: Vietnam scrapped plansfor $2billion nuclear powerplants on Tuesday, citing envi-ronmental and financial rea-sons after the cost of the pro-jects skyrocketed. The twoplants in central Ninh Thuanprovince had a combinedcapacity of 4,000 megawatts andwere to be developed withassistance from Russia'sRosatom and the Japanese con-sortium JINED. AFP

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Cairo: An Egyptian appealscourt on Tuesday quashed oneof two life sentences handeddown against ousted Islamistpresident Mohamed Morsi sincehis 2013 overthrow, his lawyerand a judicial source said.

It is the second appeals vic-tory in a week for Morsi, whoseMuslim Brotherhood move-ment has been blacklisted andsubjected to a crackdown thathas killed hundreds of his sup-porters and seen thousandsjailed or sentenced to death.

Last week, the same courtoverturned a death sentencehanded down against him oncharges of taking part in prisonbreaks and violence againstpolicemen during a 2011 upris-ing that toppled longtime

strongman Hosni Mubarak.The courts' handling of

the cases against Morsi and hissupporters, many of whomhave been convicted after masstrials lasting just days, hasdrawn criticism from theUnited Nations, Western gov-ernments and human rightsgroups. Today's ruling by theCourt of Cassation alsoquashed the sentences againstseveral Brotherhood officialswho stood trial alongside himon charges of spying for Iranand Palestinian militant groupHamas, lawyer Abdel MoneimAbdel Maqsoud told AFP.

The court ordered a retri-al, Abdel Maqsoud said,adding: "The verdict was full oflegal flaws." AFP

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The World Robot Olympiad(WRO), the biggest robotics

competition for schools and colleges,is being held in India for the first timeon November 26 and 27, 2016 from10am to 5pm at India Expo Centre,Greater Noida. WRO is an event forscience, technology, math and edu-cation that brings together the youngpeople all over the world to developtheir creativity and problem-solvingskills through challenging and edu-cational robotics competitions.

WRO 2016 is being jointly orga-nized by India STEM Foundation

and National Council of ScienceMuseums (NCSM) under theMinistry of Culture. The theme forWRO 2016 is ‘Rap the Scrap’ and stu-dents would come up with innova-tive solutions using robotics tech-nology to reduce, manage and recy-cle waste. Over 2000 participantsfrom 55 countries would be pre-senting their innovative ideas onreducing, managing and recyclingwaste with robots in this internationalchampionship. Aspirants can regis-ter free of cost atwww.wroindia.org/visitors.

2� ��.�"��!�$�����The National Basketball Association (NBA) recently announced plans to

launch NBA Academy India, an elite basketball training center in DelhiNational Capital Region (NCR) for the aspirant men and women basketballplayers throughout India. NBA Academy India, the first of its kind in thecountry and the NBA’s fifth elite training center globally, will be fully fund-ed by the NBA and will open in April 2017. The NBA will conduct a nation-al scouting programme beginning later this month to identify the inaugur-al pool of 24 elite prospects who will receive scholarships and training at NBAAcademy India. The 24 prospects will be selected by February 2017. Eachelite training center will be staffed with NBA-trained coaches to foster thedevelopment of prospects on and off the court, both during and after theirbasketball careers. Each center will house under-16 and under-18 teams thatwill compete against top competition throughout the year. The top studentsat each center will have an opportunity to be selected for travel teams thatwill play in international tournaments and exhibition games.

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You should always take the bestfrom the past, leave the worstback there and go forward into

the future,” says Rajeev Suri, CEO,Nokia, quoting Nobel laureate BobDylan.

Addressing the 3000 studentsand their parents at his alma mater’s23rd convocation ceremony, Surisaid: “It is nostalgic to be back and agreat honour to be awarded a doc-torate. I got an opportunity to learnfrom some of the best professors inthe world, like Dr TGS Murthy, ProfK Kamlaksha, Dr HarishchandraHebbar, Dr SJ Bhat and Dr NiranjanUC. The lessons from Manipal wentwell beyond the classroom,” he added.

The chief guest on the first dayof the convocation was Dr AnilDattatraya Sahasrabudhe, chairman,All India Council for TechnicalEducation, Delhi. Over a thousandstudents received their degrees by thedignitaries including president andchancellor of Manipal University, DrRamdas M Pai; Pro chancellor Dr HSBallal; vice chancellor Dr H VinodBhat; pro vice chancellors Dr AbdulRazzak and Dr V Surendra Shettyand registrar Dr Narayana Sabhahit.

Opened by TMA Pai in 1953 asIndia’s first private medical campus,the Manipal University has nowexpanded to 19 colleges and eightdepartments and has given notablealumni like Satya Nadella, CEO,Microsoft; Dr Sheikh MuszapharShukor, Malaysian astronaut &Michellin starred celebrity chef VikasKhanna, to name a few.

Suri graduated from the ManipalInstitute of Technology in 1989.Born in Delhi and brought up inKuwait till 1985, Suri came to Indiafor his graduation. “In Class XI, I haddecided to pursue my Engineeringdegree from the Manipal Institute ofTechnology. It is a place of diverseideas, experiences, people and muchmore. Those days, I was an introvertand talked minimally. I was short andused to carry a briefcase to school. Iwas so nervous that my father decid-ed to give me company at Manipal fortwo days but had to stay back for twoweeks,” he recalls.

A hosteller, Suri made greatfriends who helped each other bet-ter themselves. “Having lived withseven friends in D-16 in my third andfourth years, it was like my secondfamily. A place of early lessons inleadership, being founder and secre-tary of our private canteen Sheetal andsupporting friends in student elec-tions, all this helped me to becomewho I am today. Great roommatesmake you a better person,” he said.

As a student, Suri kept a balancein studies and leisure and often vis-ited his favourite hang-outs. “It was

an extraordinary mix of hard work,all-day studies in the reference libraryduring exam time, all-nighters in the5th block, pushing to graduation withdistinction on one hand and eveningsat Big Daddy on the other. Then therewere those lovely walks at SunsetPoint, weekend movies at Diana’s, fil-ter coffee at Shanty’s and having amidwork midnight bun masala at thecarts at Tiger Circle,” Suri recalled.

After passing out of college, Suriwas clueless about what to do next.“Like many others, I too wonderedwhat to do after graduation. I used tohave a nagging feeling that no onewould hire me. And if somebody did,why would he pay me because I justhad a degree with no experience,” hesaid.

His dream to do something bigstarted shaping up when his wifeNina pushed him to do better. “Ialways wanted to do something bigand everyone must too. I was alwaysambitious and a dreamer but I did-n’t dream of becoming a CEO of largemultinational company. At the age of25, I put some life goals in my planand said this is what I should be ableto do within that time,” Suri said.

Throughout his journey, Suriencountered tough leaders underwhom he learnt managerial andleadership skills. “In your career, youfind leaders who are tough to workwith. But you will always learn, be itfrom a good boss or bad boss. WhenI was in Nigeria, I had a difficult boss,but I learnt things from him that ifyou believe in something you shouldfight really hard for it and go up thehierarchy to get that done. I learntfrom another boss how to developvalues and cultures that are alignedto the broader mindset and goals ofthe company,” he said.

Suri switched to managementand changed many job profiles. “Ifyou stay in a profile for a very long

time, you will start getting bored andthe excitement to innovate will fizzleout. So I switched from one profileto another. From electronics to man-agement and then to sales, productdesigning and much more. It mademe learn and understand how everydepartment works. I became moredecisive and inquisitive. Switchingprofiles was a big risk but I decidedto go out of my comfort zone andlearn,” he recalled.

As the UN’s BroadbandCommissioner, Suri knew that thetelecom industry would grow by leapsand bounds. “The UN has 17 sus-tainable development goals for theworld and society. Some of them aimto eliminate poverty and give bettereducation and health care.Technology is the centre of all that.Everytime a broadband connectiongrows in a country, you get higherGDP growth, better education andhealthcare. How do we make surethat we continue to increase the ben-efits with broadband but also maketechnology more human? For me, it’sall about using technology to betterhuman potential and experiences,”Suri said.

Talking about the next generationrevolution in mobile networks, hesaid: “In the coming years, the worldwill become more connected.Connections will be counted in tensof billions and rise to 100 billion by2025. Most of these new connectionswill come from devices, machines,sensors and robotics. What’s impor-tant is how these connections willmake lives better and help innovation.If you follow the mobile industry, weare moving from 4G to 5G technol-ogy in mobile phones which willdrive our cars, remote connect inhealthcare and boost industrialInternet. All this will help people toshrug mundane tasks and focus onmore important matters,” Suri said.

ReNew Power Ventures, India’sleading Renewable energy

company exchanged aMemorandum of Understandingwith the Indian Institute ofTechnology, Delhi (IITD) to setup a research facility on renewableenergy. This exchange took placein the presence of the Presidentof India Dr Pranab Mukherjee atthe Rashtrapati Bhavan. The MoUis aimed at encouraging and nur-turing talent in the field of renew-able energy at the IIT Delhi cam-pus thereby encouraging oppor-tunities for academic research toadvance India’s fast growingrenewable energy sector.

Under the MOU, ReNewPower and IITD will establish aChair in the area of RenewableEnergy and Storage with repre-sentatives from both the entities.The collaboration will jointlypropose research and trainingprogrammes for representatives ofboth ReNew and IIT Delhi to leador participate in.

Several activities aroundresearch and policy advocacy areplanned under the initiativewherein the centre will be pro-viding advice papers and status

reports for the Government ofIndia and multilateral organisa-tions on renewable energy poli-cy matters as a part of its objec-tive. Academic programmes forundergraduate, graduate andPHD students from a leadinginstitute such as IITD throughReNew’s research centre will notonly provide numerous opportu-nities for prospective renewableenergy scholars but also developa thought process around India’sposition as a rising renewableenergy nation worldwide.

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'������������The University

of Brit ishColumbia (UBC),Canada, invitesapplication for allits undergraduateprogrammes forSummer and Wintersession 2017. At UBC,students from India optfor Engineering, BusinessStudies and Liberal Arts inlarge numbers.

Among the new age pro-grammes, UBC’s Faculty ofLand and Food System,Faculty of Forestr y andFaculty of Kinesiology arealso seeing a lot of tractionconsidering their potentialand the scope they offer intoday’s time.

As per the report, Indianstudents are increasinglychoosing Canada as their pre-ferred destination. UBC hasseen applications from Indianstudents rise by over 80 percent in the last five years. Inthe current Canadian gov-ernment’s plan that outlinespublic policy objectives until

2022, India was identified asa specific target source ofinternational students. TheIndian ethnic group alreadyforms the fourth largest fromalmost 12,000 internationalstudents at UBC.

Deadline: The last datefor submission of the appli-cation is January 15, 2017.

Scholarship: Students cansimultaneously apply for thescholarship worth 15 millionCAD scholarship that UBCoffers to the f irst t imeentrants.

How to apply: Studentscan apply by visiting on the websitehttp://you.ubc.ca/applying-ubc.

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Rajeev Suri shares a few life-long lessons whichhe learnt in Manipal University that have served

him well to this day

�������'����� *��)���(��� *�In time, your marks and grades lose relevance.

In time, many things that you learned during yourgraduation days will fade into the recesses of yourmind. As the years pass by, I find that the recessesof my mind have their own recesses. But, one thingI learned at Manipal is how to be a lifelong learn-er. I hope you commit to the same. Never stop. Staycurious. Stay engaged. Question. Learn.

��������)��� *��)��'������� *One of the many things I learnt is how all the

wonderful differences of our world make us a rich-er and better person, how embracing diversity andbeing inclusive makes us stronger, how wallsbetween us diminish us all.

���������������)��������(���In my world of big business, discipline mat-

ters. It makes a difference between average andgood results. But, getting stellar requires more andthat ‘more’ is passion. People, who care and arecommitted, go the extra mile. People, whobelieve in what they do, always want to do bet-ter. Those are the people who make a difference.You should be one of them.

����������'���)���'�����As you proceed in life, you will see people who

look like winners, but aren’t. Do not ever mistakethe trappings of success for the real thing.Doping athletes, business people who bribe andcheat, individuals who lie and abuse, fancy cars,Olympic Gold medals, strong business perfor-mance — none of it means anything if acquiredthe wrong way. Never succumb to temptation. Itnever lasts.

�������'���� *��)�� ����(��*A simple truth: Technology by itself is mean-

ingless. Technology that serves people is what mat-ters. The connectivity that we have today is extra-ordinary as it brings people together. But, it will geteven better. In the coming years, technology willautomate and simplify mundane tasks. By doing so,it will give you the most precious resource, i.e. thegift of time. Use that time wisely. Not for anotherhour in the office, or another scan of social media,but to talk to the person next to you, to share yourexperiences and help others. To be human and tobe part of humanity is the true promise.

���������(�����(��Having a work-life balance is extremely impor-

tant. One should be passionate about work but notto the exclusion of the fullness of a life well lived.Socialise, have quality time with friends and fam-ily and do things which make you happy.

In today’s uncertain times, what makesan employee and his organisation

stronger is the work culture. Here are afew work ethics that Suri adopted asCEO:

�Encourage people to dreamI used to work for a person called

Simon who was Nokia’s country man-ager for India in 2000. When the glob-al CEO of Nokia came to India, he said‘one day Rajeev Suri will be in myplace.’ This was 16 years ago. That wasnot my dream back then. But this manhad a bigger dream for me. He dreamtsomething beyond my wildest expec-tations when I was just a middlemanagement guy. He saw a spark in meand you should do the same. When youbecome a leader, the biggest joy is todevelop other people to achieve theirwildest dreams and potential.

�Encourage risk-takingRisk is ok, it makes you nervous

but you also improve while devisingways to tackle the risks. It requires a lotof guts, conviction and analytics.

�Encourage innovation You need to encourage innovation

from the top. Nokia is a 151-year-oldcompany which started off with verti-cals like paper, rubber boots, TV andmobile phones. You will continue to seeinnovation. For this, you need youremployees to embrace change. One ofthe things I take pride in is that peo-ple at Nokia have continuously adapt-ed to change. We have changed somany times that people are not afraidof uncertainty anymore.

�Tolerate failuresYour culture should have tolerance

for failure. One should accept failuresbecause you learn through your mis-takes. If the company doesn’t take risksand doesn’t accept failures, then youcan’t innovate. There are parts of mycompany that do research and devel-opment and I want to develop a FailFast Culture. I want them to failquickly on some projects and thenachieve great success eventually. Wetalk about it every weekend and weshould agree to celebrate failure everynow and then.

�Encourage leadershipOne of the most important things

that leaders require is strong emotionalintelligence. Leadership is about beingunderstanding, developing a connec-tion with people and being able toguide and make the right decisions. Allsmall experiences that we have in ourdaily life are the foundation of devel-oping a leader in you.

�Ask the right questionsWhenever we have review meet-

ings, I emphasise on asking the rightsearching question. You don’t learn byalways giving your answers but by ask-ing searching questions. For me, ask-ing questions is the best way to learnand that’s how I got my financial ori-entation.

A company is all about creatingshareholder value, especially a publiccompany. For me, it was about learn-ing from my colleague. As an entre-preneur, you need to understand theaspirations at the top-line and bottom-line of the company.

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The Azim PremjiFoundation has announcedits annual FellowshipProgramme. Applications forthis programme are invitedfrom people having three to10 years of work experience,with a postgraduate or a pro-fessional degree in any disci-pline and the desire to con-tribute to quality and equity ineducation.

Eligibility: Proficiency inthe local language is a mustand candidates should beopen to relocate to the dis-tricts where Azim PremjiFoundation operates. Themonthly stipend offeredwould be �28,800 (all inclu-sive). The selection is based onan online assessment followedby personal interviews. Theprogramme aims to give agrounded experience of theeducational and social spaceto a broad range of peopleacross sectors. It is a two yearfull-time programme wherethe first year will involveteaching in Governmentschools and participating inthe activities of the FieldInstitutes of the Foundation.The second year would befocused on capacity buildingof the Fellows, preparing themfor roles they can play in theField Institutes after complet-ing the fellowship.

After an induction of two

weeks in Bengaluru,Fellows will be posted in the

blocks of the districts ofBihar, Chhattisgarh,Karnataka, MP, Puducherry,Rajasthan, Telangana andUttarakhand, where the foun-dation currently worksthrough its field institutes.

Application deadline:Last date for submitting theapplication is November 30,2016 (email: [email protected]). Formore details and to applyonline please log ontohttp://www.azimpremjifoun-dation.org/fellowship. You canalso write to us at [email protected] or call toll freehelpline: 1800 274 0101(Monday to Friday.

Applications are invitedfor Whiter InternationalFellows and ScholarsProgram available for USapplicants to study abroad(except US or Canada).Fellows (pre-doctoral) goabroad for one academic year(nine-12 months) while schol-ars go abroad for one semes-ter or up two academic years(24 months).

How to apply: Applicantsmust submit all applicationmaterials online. Transcriptsand letter(s) of support mustbe submitted in hard-copyonly. Hard copy materialsshould be mailed.

Application deadline:The application deadline isJanuary 24, 2017 for the 2017-18 academic year.

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�What are the courses that SpeedJetAviation Academy is offering?

The academy at present, offersmultiple flying and ground trainingcourses in the aviation sector includ-ing Pre-Pilot Programme, Cabin CrewProgramme, Ground HandlingProgramme and Type RatingProgramme. We have recentlyannounced our tie up with GulfAviation Academy (GAA), part ofBahrain Mumtalakat HoldingCompany, the investment arm for theKingdom of Bahrain, to offer our stu-dents comprehensive range of struc-tured training programs and a com-petitive advantage in the aviationindustry that is at par with interna-tional norms.�What are the modules like?

The CPL course lasts almost a yearwhere we provide three months ofground training in India and eightmonths of training with our partnertraining academy in Florida, US. Thecadet obtains 252 hours of flyingexperience on single engine as well asmulti-engine aircraft in US and isawarded a US Federal AviationAuthority CPL License on successful-ly clearing all exams.

Our A320 Type Rating course isconducted at GAA facilities in Bahrainand is as per the DGCA requirements.We cover a total of 115 hours of groundschool-plus 84 Hours of Flight Schoolin this short-duration course of 45-55days. Our Cabin Crew course is recog-nised by the Civil Aviation AuthorityInternational (CAAi) of the UK and,on completion of this course, studentsobtain a certificate that is recognisedby CAAi and other aviation regulatorsworldwide. We also take care of stu-dents’ stay, air tickets, visa and groundtransportation for the full courseduration in Bahrain (Stay includes a 3-5 star hotel accommodation withbreakfast). We are the only companyto offer this type of training in India.�What are the eligibility and selec-tion criteria for each of the course?

The minimum eligibility criteriafor each course is as follows:

For CPL: Education-HSC withPhysics & Mathematics, Age — 18 (fly-ing can be started earlier, licence isgiven at 18), Medically Fit – Class 2Medicals followed by Class 1 Medicals

For Airbus A320: Type Rating:Valid CPL license, Valid Multi-engineInstrument Rating, Valid Class 1Medical Certification, English Level 4,At least 18 years of age

Cabin crew: Education (HSC)

from any recognised Board or uni-versity, At least 18 years of age, Height-155 cm (ladies) and 170 cm (men)

Ground staff: Education (HSC)from any recognised Board or uni-versity, At least 18 years of age�What is the fee structure?

The fee structure for the courseranges from as low as �25,000 for anintroductory course to �35 lakh forCPL training in the US.�Tell us about the faculty?

Our state-of-the-art course equip-ment and latest simulator technologyenables us to offer a comprehensiveand modern aviation training infra-structure and set new standards in avi-ation training. Students also get accessto various training facilities around theworld through our global affiliates andour training module caters to require-ments across APAC, Middle-East andAfrica.�What is the scope?

The industry is on a high-growthtrajectory with India likely to becomethe third-largest aviation market by2020. With over 700 aircraft orderedby scheduled carriers, India will needat least 7,000 pilots and 1,500 cabincrew over the next few years. As of now,Indian airlines are reporting increasedprofitability, low-cost carriers haveplaced heavy orders for new aircraft,there are multitude of new airportscoming up and FDI flows into domes-tic airlines have surged. All these fac-tors combined will lead to a sharp spikein demand for trained aviation per-sonnel.�What about pay packages?

A pilot typically starts at �2 lakhin India and that figure goes well over�3.5-�4 lakh internationally. Cabincrew salaries start around �40,000-�50,000 in India and scales past �1.5lakh for international airlines. Thestarting salary for ground staff isaround �12,000-�15,000 in India andranges from �60-�80,000 if you areworking for an international airline.

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The Manipal University signed an Memorandumof Understanding (MoU) with STEERLife, creator ofcutting edge, proprietary continuous processingtechnology to establish a Centre of Excellence locat-ed at the Manipal College of Pharmaceutical Sciences(MCOPS) campus.

The centre will combine industrial expertise, aca-demic prowess coupled with collaborative in-depthresearch to develop solutions in highly diversifiedareas of life sciences that can effectively help the indus-try battle problems related to regulatory burden, rejectrates, time and cost inefficiencies as well as limita-

tions of working with sensitive and valuable mate-rials.

Dr H Vinod Bhat, vice-chancellor, ManipalUniversity said: “We have long been distinguished forexcellence in education. We strive to provide our stu-dents with world-class facilities and real-time expe-riences that can help develop them into global lead-ers. This centre is one such initiative.”

The centre will also engage students pursuingtheir masters, doctoral and post-doctoral studies onresearch based projects and mentor them in specif-ic areas.

AasaanJobs an online recruit-ment marketplace that connectsentry-level job seekers withemployers, announces the launchof its latest service in IT recruit-ment as part of its plan to expandits verticals in job search andemployment. Through this offer-ing, AasaanJobs will cater its ser-vices in IT staffing for both per-manent and contractual job roles.

It is providing job roles in ITsectors across multiple cities in

India. The job profiles that areincluded under the new IT recruit-ment service are: Java developer,Dot net developers, network engi-neers, hardware engineers, etc.

Commenting on the launch,Siddharth Gupta, Head ofMarketing & PR, AasaanJobs.comsaid: “IT is one of the fastestgrowing markets in india and wesee a big opportunity in entry levelIT, Software and hardware roles.Presently, we provide IT staffing

solutions to more than 10 clientsand counting. With our latest ITrecruitment vertical, we hope tomaximise this company’s reachacross a wider spectrum, and gainmore clients within a short span oftime.”

The latest recruitment verticalwill enable recruiters to fulfill allof their IT staffing requirements.Companies looking for top candi-dates in the field of IT can simplyregister with AasaanJobs.

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Eli India, part of Eli Global, adiversified information andfinancial services group,announces its association withNASSCOM to enhance andpromote skill developmentwithin the country.

This association will enableNASSCOM and Eli India to

hone skills required in individuals andmake them industry ready; therebyturning ordinary individuals into skilledprofessionals.

“We are immensely delighted

and proud to join hands withNASSCOM which is partneringwith various colleges to providecourses; candidates who enrollwill receive an additional skillcertificate with their college degree,providing them an edge over oth-ers. In other words, candidates willget a better chance of employment,”Ajay Gupta, country head andpresident, Eli India said.

It has signed the QP Adoptionand Declaration Letters to adoptand deploy job roles/qualification

packs designed and developed bythe IT-ITeS Sector Skills CouncilNASSCOM which is an educationinitiative at NASSCOM and is theauthorised body to set standardsfor capacity building of the IT-ITeSIndustry by National SkillDevelopment Corporation.

The tie-up is calculated tomake individuals more productiveand proficient by imparting formaltraining, which will help in pre-senting India as a source of qual-ity manpower.

From highly specialised home health-care to remote disease management,healthcare startups today are meticu-

lously using technology, innovation andimagination to revolutionise healthcareservices.

In fact, experts believe that intelligententrepreneurship is the way forward to solveIndia’s complex healthcare challenges.Factors like changing demography and ris-ing awareness combined with the fact thatthis is the golden age for startups haveprompted many budding entrepreneurs todive into healthcare business.

However, a good business idea and afavourable environment are not enough toguarantee success. Often, brilliant businessideas are undone by patchy execution andmisguided planning.

So if you are an entrepreneur lookingto start your own health startup, here is asmall checklist for you.�Conduct effective market research: Neverunderestimate the importance of a thoroughmarket research. Many business ideas thatmay look good on paper and might havebeen highly successful in some other mar-kets might fall flat when executed in yourenvironment.

Lack of market readiness, market sat-uration and population preferences are just

some of the factors that need to be studiedeffectively before venturing out with an idea.For instance, if your medical startup is offer-ing low cost treatment for Hepatitis C, itstands to be most successful in a regionwhere HCV infection is most prevalent. Totake another example, before rolling out adigital startup it is not just Internet pene-tration that needs to be checked, other relat-ed factors such as the age and type ofInternet users and their behavioural patternsalso need to be studied. Take the help of pro-fessional market researchers to make sureyou meet the requirements for your intend-ed market. �Look for partners: Healthcare is a porousfield where a large number oforganisations work alongsideeach other. A large numberof hospitals, pharma com-panies, Governmentbodies and NGOsworking in the fieldhave established pres-ence and market base.Therefore it makessense to partner withsuch organisations thatcan help you more easilyreach out to their userbase.

Learn to work in tandem with othersand jump into collaborations wherever pos-sible. A diagnostic facility can benefit frompartnering with a hospital chain, an onlineplatform for doctors will benefit fromhaving reputed hospitals on board in returnfrom giving greater visibility to their doc-tors. �Be ready for a long haul: You may haveheard and read stories about unicorn com-panies that entered the big league within ayear or two of starting up. However, it isimperative to remember that returns do notcome so quick in the healthcare sector.

A number of factors like regulatory hur-dles, behavioural patterns of the population

which need time to change, and lessamenability of investors towards

healthcare make the salescycle longer in this field. So,

make sure you are in witha lot of patience and areready for a long haulbefore your successchart scales up. �Make sure investorsare on the same page:

When it comes to health-care, profitability is not

the only agenda on yourtable; an urge to bring about a

positive change in the lives of people is aparallel driving force.

A successful medical startup has thepotential to impact millions of lives in a pos-itive way. Therefore, it is essential to haveinvestors who understand this aspect ofyour business ambition. It is essential to findsomeone who shares your vision, both forprofitability as well as social responsibility.Bringing on board investors who possess-es some knowledge of your medical field isan added bonus as it avoids unnecessaryfriction of values. �Hire people who know healthcare: You donot need a doctor on board, but you defi-nitely need some people who have knowl-edge about healthcare, regulation and rulesas well as pertinent health issues. Bear inmind that hiring for a health startup is dif-ferent from hiring for other businesses.

Every aspect of a healthcare startup —from completing regulatory formalities toconducting social media outreach —requires specialised knowledge of thehealthcare domain. Even marketing ahealthcare service is dramatically differentfrom marketing other products. Therefore,it is advantageous to hire people who havesome knowledge of the field or a previousbrush with it.

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Having completely recovered froma back injury, seamerBhuvneshwar Kumar was on

Tuesday recalled to the 16-memberIndian team for the final three Testmatches against England, while veteranopener Gautam Gambhir was shown thedoor.

Bhuvneshwar, who produced a game-changing five-wicket haul against NewZealand in Kolkata, has been out ofaction for more than six weeks due to aback injury.

Post recovery, he played a RanjiTrophy match against Mumbai as perteam protocol. He took wickets in thematch and bowled a total of 36 overs (13in 1st innings and 23 in the 2nd innings).

While spinners have dominatedIndia's bowling composition,Bhuvneshwar's variations and his recentmatch winning exploits in Test cricketgives skipper Virat Kohli another optionwith four specialist pacers in the squad.

For the 35-year-old Gambhir, a vet-eran of 58 Tests, it could well be the endof the road as far as his internationalcareer is concerned.

While KL Rahul did not set the stageon fire at Visakhapatnam, his recent formbefore injury prompted the team man-agement to invest in his immense talent.

Murali Vijay is an assured presenceat the top of the order and a fit ShikharDhawan means the reserve opener's slotis for Rahul. Also Dhawan is still animportant fixture in the limited overs for-mat where he has an impressive record.

All the permutations and combina-tions do indicate that Gambhir, who hasplayed a key role in two World Cupfinals (World T20 in 2007 and WorldCup 2011) may well have ran his lastlap as far as the national team is con-cerned.

S q u a d : Vi r a t Ko h l i(Captain) , Aj inkya R ahane(Vice- Captain), KL Rahul,Mura l i Vi jay, CheteshwarP u j a r a , K a r u n Na i r,Wriddhiman Saha (WicketKe e p e r ) , R av i c h a n d r a nAshwin, Ravindra Jadeja, JayantYa d av, A m i t M i s h r a ,Mohammed Shami, UmeshYa d av, I s h a nt S h a r m a ,Bhuvneshwar Kumar, HardikPandya.

���(������ ��'�� ����'� ��'����India captain Virat Kohli reacheda career-high fourth position in the ICCPlayer Rankings for Test Batsmen afterproducing a man of the match perfor-mance in the second Test againstEngland which India won by 246 runsto take a 1-0 lead in the five-match series.

Kohli is currently top-ranked inTwenty20 Internationals and has alsoheld the top position in One-DayInternationals, but has never movedabove 10th place in Tests.

However, his sublime knocks of167 and 81 in Visakhapatnam havehelped him jump 10 slots and cross the800-point mark for the first time, becom-ing only the 11th India batsman to doso.

For his efforts in Visakhapatnam,Kohli has earned 97 points. The 28-year-old from Delhi now trails second-ranked Joe Root of England by 22points. Another strong performance inthe Mohali Test, which begins onSaturday will mean he will edge closerin his quest to top the batting table.

Middle-order batsman CheteshwarPujara has gained one place to reachninth rank after scoring 119 and one,while the England pair of wicketkeeper-batsman Jonny Bairstow and all-rounderBen Stokes have also made significantgains.

Bairstow has moved up four placesto reach 12th position after scoring 53and 34 not out, while Stokes has movedup five slots to 28th position after scor-ing 70 and six.

In the MRF Tyres ICC PlayerRankings for Test Bowlers, India fastbowler Mohammad Shami has gainedfive places to reach a career-high 21strank and left-arm spinner RavindraJadeja has moved up one position tosixth place. For England, Stuart Broad(up one place) and Moeen Ali (up fourplaces), have achieved fifth and 23rdpositions, respectively.

New Zealand's eight-wicket win overPakistan in a low-scoring first Test inChristchurch did not result in muchupward movement for batsmen. NewZealand's Bradley-John Watling has gainedtwo places to take 36th place, HenryNicholls has moved up three slots to reach79th position and debutant opener JeetRaval has entered the rankings in 60thposition after knocks of 55 and 36 not out.

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Crisis-torn Australia will attempt toprevent rampant South Africa from

an unprecedented series clean sweep inThursday's day-night third Test inAdelaide after a team shake-up of historicproportions.

Stung by two humiliating defeats inPerth and Hobart, the Aussies have madesix changes in a bid to stop the rot andfight off the Proteas' quest to become thefirst touring team to sweep a series inAustralia.

It is a seismic selection switch inthe wake of last week's sudden res-ignation of chairman of selectorsRod Marsh and intensifyingpressure on the game's top offi-cials and coach Darren Lehmann.

Not since only two players from thefifth Test against England in August 1977made it into the team for the first Testagainst India three months later, afterWorld Series Cricket rebelled against theestablishment, has there been such aclean-out of the Australian side. The lasttime there were as many as five changesmid-season — which is likely given eitherpacemen Jackson Bird or Chadd Sayers islikely to be 12th man in Adelaide— wasin the 1977-78 series against India after aninnings defeat in Sydney.

Selectors, with Trevor Hohns takingover from Marsh as interim chairman,

named three young batsmen —English-born Matt Renshaw, Peter Handscomb andNic Maddinson — to make their debutsand recalled Sayers, Bird and wicketkeeperMatthew Wade.

It was a decisive and drastic inter-vention by the under-fire selection panelin the wake of Australia's fifth straightheavy Test defeat, including the 3-0 seriesdrubbing in Sri Lanka last August.

"I'm not for one minute going to sug-gest an immediate turnaround," Hohnssaid.

"Patience will be required but we areobviously hopeful that these players can geltogether and ultimately stop the downwardlosing momentum we are currently expe-riencing. It's no secret that our Test teamhas not functioned or performed to thelevel we expect.”

The reinforcements will be aiming tobolster Australia's insipid batting, whichwas routed for 85 by South Africa inHobart after suffering a humiliating 10 for86 collapse in the first innings at Perth.

Despite this, the South Africans, withtheir pace trio Vernon Philander, KagisoRabada and Kyle Abbott dominating theAustralian batting, will fancy their chancesbowling with the pink ball in swinging con-ditions under lights at Adelaide Oval. It willbe only the second day-night Test inAustralia after the home side thrillinglybeat New Zealand by three wickets on onlythe third day in Adelaide last year.

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South Africa skipper Faf du Plessis was foundguilty of ball-tampering on Tuesday but

cleared to play in this week's third Test againstAustralia, who are fighting to avoid their firstever home Test series whitewash.

Du Plessis was fined his entire match feeafter he was caught on camera sucking a sweet,or mint, and rubbing the ball with his saliva,in an attempt to alter its flight, during last week'ssecond Test in Hobart.

Match referee Andy Pycroft found duPlessis guilty at an International CricketCouncil (ICC) hearing in Adelaide whichviewed video footage of the incident in Hobart.

"The decision was based on the evidencegiven from the umpires, who confirmed thathad they seen the incident they would havetaken action immediately," an ICC statementsaid.

"And from (Marylebone Cricket Clubhead of cricket John) Stephenson, who con-firmed the view of MCC that the televisionfootage showed an artificial substance beingtransferred to the ball."

The row, dubbed 'Mintgate', has proveddivisive and an Australian TV reporter scuffledwith South Africa's team security when he triedto question du Plessis on Monday.

It is the second time du Plessis has beenfined for ball-tampering, after he was docked

50 percent of his match fee in 2013 in the sec-ond Test against Pakistan.

But Pycroft said it was treated as a firstoffence under the version of the ICC's Code ofconduct that came into force in September.

As well as the fine, du Plessis had threedemerit points added to his disciplinary record.If he collects another point within 24 months,they will be converted to suspension points andhe will be banned.

Two suspension points equate to a ban fromone Test or two ODIs or two T20Is, whatevercomes first for the player.

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It was another Ranji Trophymatch at Bansi Lal Stadium

that turned out to be farcicalcontest as Baroda beatBengal by 21 runs with 40wickets falling well insidetwo days.

Baroda went home happydefending a target of 155 asBengal were all out for 133 intheir second innings. This wasafter Baroda also scored anidentical 133 in their secondessay.

Ironically, the difference of21 runs in the first inningsturned out to be the turningpoint for Baroda.

Young seamer Atit Seth(10/94) would remember thismatch for his performance butwill certainly not be an indi-cator of his capabilities in con-ditions loaded in favour of

bowlers. With six inch grass atthree quarter length and damppatches made the life hell forthe batsmen.

The highest score in theentire match was Tiwary's 39 inthe second innings.

The defeat dented Bengal's

chances of qualification forknock outs as they are placedfifth now with 16 points.

���(����'��2&/-�����'���Tamil Nadu closed inon Punjab's first-innings totalof 284 all out in their Group A

Ranji Trophy cricket matchhere on Tuesday.

At stumps on the secondday, Tamil Nadu were 218/4 in75 overs, trailing by 66 runs atVidarbha Cricket AssociationGround. Resuming on 241/6,Punjab added 43 runs for theloss of four wickets. In reply,Tamil Nadu lost skipperAbhinav Mukund andLaxmesha Suryaprakash with44 runs on the board.

But an 85-run partnershipfor the fourth wicket betweenKaushik Gandhi (75 not out)and the experienced DineshKarthik (54) steadied the TNinnings. After Karthik's depar-ture made it 156/4, Gandhi puton 62 runs for the fifth wicketwith Vijay Shankar, who wasbatting 32 at close of play.

��� �����(��* ��������*������ Rishabh Pant's

dream season continued as hesnatched the limelight fromIndia internationals GautamGambhir and Shikhar Dhawanwith a breathtaking 75 off 59balls that had nine boundariesand three sixes in a RanjiTrophy encounter againstRajasthan.

In the second innings,Rajasthan were 19 for 1 andwith two days left, the GautamGambhir led side will be aim-ing for full points to stay incontention for the knock-outstage. In the morning, Gambhir(10) was cleaned by left-armseamer Aniket Chaudhary.

Dhawan started the day on29 and hit two more bound-aries as both openers fell at theidentical score of 52. Thestocky Pant came in at the fallof Nitish Rana's (24) wicketand started carting the bowlerswith utter disdain.

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NorthEast United FCbreathed new life into

their dying Hero IndianSuper League campaignwith a dramatic 1-0 victoryover FC Pune City here onTuesday.

NorthEast United hadgone six matches without awin, losing four of them.With just two points fromtheir last six matches theywere on the verge of exituntil Ivory Coast midfield-er Romaric scored from astunning free-kick in the81st minute. The victoryhelped NorthEast Unitedaccumulate 14 points from11 matches and move to thesixth spot. With three

matches still left to be playedcoach Nelo Vingada willfeel more confident. PuneCity on the otherhand have15 points from 12 matchesand will have to win theirnext two games to beassured of a place in theplay-offs. The battle was acagey affair particularly inthe first session when nei-ther team enjoyed clear cutchances.

NorthEast United gotthe match winner out ofnowhere. The hosts won afree-kick just outside thebox and Romaric stepped upto take it. He used his leftfoot to devastating effect ashis curling free-kick foundthe top corner of the net,past a diving Edel Bete.

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Allegations of ball tamperinglevelled against Indian Test

captain Virat Kohli by a Britishtabloid do not hold much groundas per the specific clauses in theICC's Rules and Regulations aboutplaying conditions.

A British tabloid on Tuesdayaccused that some footages indi-cated that Kohli appeared to shinethe ball using residue from asweet during the first Test inRajkot.

The report claimed that TVcameras indicated Kohli puttinghis right hand towards his mouth

and then appeared to shine oneside of the ball. However, there hasbeen no complaint filed by the vis-iting team and they declined tocomment on the issue.

As per ICC regulations on balltampering, if a team wants to lodgea complaint about ball tamperingby a rival team or its player, it hasto be done within five days of thecompletion of the Test match.

The match in question is theRajkot Test which ended onNovember 13 and if England teamhad any complaints, they neededto make it official by November 18.

All the ICC clauses, thus, putto rest media reports surroundingthe incident.

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Former Germany player andcoach Jurgen Klinsmann

was fired Monday as coach ofthe United States after losingtwo 2018 World Cup qualify-ing matches.

The 52-year-old, who wonthe World Cup as a player withGermany in 1990, had been incharge of the US since 2011.

US Soccer Federation pres-ident Sunil Gulati announcedthe "difficult decision" withoutnaming a replacement. TheUnited States does not faceanother World Cup qualifieruntil March.

"While we remain confi-dent that we have quality play-ers to help us advance to Russia2018, the form and growth ofthe team up to this point left usconvinced that we need to goin a different direction," Gulatisaid.

"With the next qualifyingmatch in late March, we haveseveral months to refocus thegroup and determine the bestway forward to ensure a suc-cessful journey to qualify forour eighth consecutive WorldCup."

Klinsmann went 55-27with 16 drawn in a coachingtenure that began on July 29,2011, when Gulati named himto replace sacked Bob Bradleyon a team where Bradley's sonMichael was a star midfielder.

"We want to thank Jurgenfor his hard work and com-mitment during these last fiveyears," Gulati said. "He tookpride in having the responsi-bility of steering the programand there were considerableachievements along the way."

Klinsmann guided theAmericans on a team record12-match win streak in 2013and his 16 triumphs and .761win percentage that year set UScalendar-year records.

But the Americans were adisappointing fourth in the2015 Gold Cup and also lost aplayoff to Mexico for a berth inthe 2017 Confederations Cup.

Earlier this month, the USstumbled badly in opening thefinal round of North American(CONCACAF) qualifying forthe 2018 World Cup in Russia,falling 2-1 at home to arch-rivalMexico and 4-0 at Costa Rica.

In a New York Times storypublished Monday, Klinsmanndismissed much of the criti-cism as "a lot of talk from peo-ple who don't understand soc-cer or the team" while sayingcritics were "ignoring the facts"and "being disrespectful."

Klinsmann has tinkeredwith lineups and formationsbut dismissed calls his moveshurt the squad, saying "we arecoaching a team through atransitional phase."

Gulati addressed the futureof US Soccer, which manyfans saw as bleak underKlinsmann's guidance, saying"we look forward to continuedprogress."

Bruce Arena, a five-timeMajor League Soccer champi-on coach now with the LosAngeles Galaxy, is thought to

be a prime candidate to replaceKlinsmann. The 65-year-oldAmerican coached the USteam to the 2002 World Cupquarter-finals and guided a2006 US lineup that exited inthe group stages.

Sports Illustrated reportedthat Arena was set to take overand an announcement couldcome as early as Tuesday, whenGulati plans to speak withreporters.

Under Klinsmann in 2014,the Americans matched their2010 World Cup showing byreaching the last 16 at Brazilafter Klinsmann left long-timeUS striker Landon Donovanoff the roster.

"Never want to see some-one lose their job," Donovantweeted Monday. "I have nodoubt that this talented groupof players will qualify for Russia'18."

Gulati sang Klinsmann'spraises even as he swung theaxe, saying the German leg-end's legacy will have a long-term impact on the squad.

"Many are aware of the his-toric victories, including lead-ing us out of the Group ofDeath to the round of 16 in the2014 FIFA World Cup, butthere were also lesser publi-cized efforts behind thescenes," Gulati said.

"He challenged everyone inthe US Soccer community tothink about things in newways and thanks to his effortswe have grown as an organi-zation and expect there will bebenefits from his work foryears to come."

Eight US matches remain inthe North American (CONCA-CAF) "hexagonal" round-robinqualifying, the next being athome to Honduras on March 24and four days later at Panama.The three top teams in the six-nation field advance to the WorldCup while the fourth faces a play-off against an Asian team for oneof the last berths in Russia.

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Manchester United's ZlatanIbrahimovic said today he was

eyeing the possibility of a move to thethe United States.

"I can see myself conquering theUS, just as I have (conquered)Europe," the 35-year-old Swede tolddaily newspaper Aftonbladet in aninterview.

"People stay in one place through-out their entire career, but I have trav-elled around like Napoleon in Europeand conquered every country I'vearrived in," Ibrahimovic said.

"So maybe I could cross theAtlantic and conquer the US as well,"he said after winning the SwedishGolden Ball award for the 11th timeon Monday.

In honour of the country's mostprolific goal-scorer, the Swedish foot-ball association announced that a stat-ue of Ibrahimovic would be erected atthe Friends arena in Stockholm with-in one year.

Acknowledging that United is

not in as strong a position as his for-mer team Paris Saint-Germain,Ibrahimovic said he's trying to deliv-er the same results.

"I had it good at PSG; it's nosecret. We had a strong and good teamthat got better and better every year,"he said.

"But that's passed now... This is anew chapter now and I'm trying tocreate the same feeling here,"Ibrahimovic said, referring to United.

Noting that United coach JoseMourinho was one of the reasons hedecided to join the Premier Leagueteam, Ibrahimovic said: "I checked theteam (United) a little bit before I cameand it wasn't like the team I camefrom."

"This is something I was preparedfor... The team is not the same as(PSG)," the superstar said.

"But after speaking withMourinho, it wasn't a difficult deci-sion. If he calls then I have no prob-lems showing up," Ibrahimovic added.

After a dismal showing at Euro-2016, Sweden's all-time high scorer in

June put an end to his 116-cap inter-national career, in which he scored 62goals.

�)�(���������� ����������� ��� Some people will doanything to watch Manchester Unitedplay at Old Trafford.

Even sleep overnight in the sta-dium's bathroom.

Two United supporters took anofficial tour of the English club's icon-ic ground on Friday, the day beforeUnited played Arsenal there in a high-profile Premier League game. Insteadof leaving with the rest of the group

at the end of the tour, the two fans hidin the bathroom and were found thefollowing morning during a securitysweep before the lunchtime kickoff.

Police decided not to arrest thetwo fans. United said they, and theirbelongings, had been thoroughlysearched before entering the stadium,so was "confident there was no risk tosafety."

"We realize people will go to anylengths to watch a game at OldTrafford," United said, "but thesepeople went too far."

United said it will look into theincident.

United's Premier League matchagainst Bournemouth at Old Traffordon the final weekend of last season wascanceled after what police describedas an "incredibly lifelike" device wasfound taped inside a toilet cubicle,leading to an evacuation of the stadi-um. It turned out the device was a fakebomb inadvertently left behind dur-ing a training exercise involving snif-fer dogs that was undertaken by a pri-vate company days earlier.

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On the cusp of their first-ever entry intothe Indian Super League play-offs,

Mumbai City FC would be keen to put itacross defending champions Chennaiyin FCin their second leg clash at the MumbaiFootball Arena here on Wednesday.

Mumbai City can make the semi-finalsif they beat Chennaiyin, with whom theyplayed out a 1-1 draw in the first leg.

The hosts would be going into the clashwith their confidence boosted significant-ly after the 5-0 demolition of Kerala Blastersin their previous game, riding on marqueeplayer Diego Forlan's magnificent hat-trick of goals.

Mumbai are sitting pretty at the top ofthe table with 19 points from 12 matchesand three points should be good enough forthem for a top-four finish.

"We are on the way. We know that toachieve the first goal is to get to the play-offs. It's good to have these points with twogames to be played but we have to get more.19 points are not enough. We must have(more) good performances," said MumbaiCity coach Alexandre Guimaraes today.

Mumbai would conclude the league

phase with their final game at home againstDelhi Dynamos on December 3, but wouldbe eager to seal their semifinal spot beforethat.

The home team would expect anothersizzler from their star striker and skipper

Forlan who became the first marquee play-er to score a hat-trick in ISL and also con-tinued with Mumbai's record of having ahat-trick scorer in each of the edition.

But Guimaraes is aware about the bat-tle ahead. "We will have to play better than

the last game to try and win to be in a verygood position. We saw the game Chennaiyinplayed against ATK and they are still oncourse. They are very tough. They are cham-pions and champions always like to fight tillthe end," said the Costa Rican.

Chennaiyin, looking far from champi-on material this season, are placed sixth with14 points from 11 matches.

They have shown only glimpses of theform that gave them the crown last seasonbut head coach Marco Materazzi is confidentthat his team finds the magic touch to booka semifinal spot. "May be we need a little bitof luck. We are still confident of making theplay-offs. Except against Delhi (Dynamos),in every other game we have shown goodattitude and spirit," said Materazzi.

Chennaiyin have won just a match awayfrom home this season. Much will dependon the goal-scoring prowess of Italian strik-er Davide Succi, especially with DuduOmagbemi out of form and Jeje Lalpekhluainjured. "Football is not science or mathe-matics. All we can do is collect as manypoints as possible. What matters is gettingto the play-offs and once you are there, thewhole thing starts all over again," saidMaterazzi.

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Lewis Hamilton may face "impossi-ble odds" but has vowed to "give

everything" to stop Nico Rosberg win-ning the Formula One drivers' worldchampionship at the season-endingAbu Dhabi Grand Prix on Sunday.

Hamilton has won the last threeraces to move to within 12 points of hisMercedes teammate Rosberg. ButRosberg only needs a top three finish thisweekend to clinch his maiden title andstop Hamilton from becoming the firstBritish driver to be crowned a four-timeFormula One world champion.

Hamilton, who drove superbly in thewet to finish first at the Brazilian GrandPrix, was in no doubt of the scale of thetask he faced, telling the formula1.Comwebsite: "It's not been a perfect seasonand I'm faced with pretty impossibleodds no matter what I do this weekend.

"I can't and won't give up. You neverknow what might happen — howeverunlikely it may seem," added Hamilton,

plagued by reliability issued earlier thisseason.

"I'll be proud of myself and what I'veachieved as long as I feel I've given myall and performed at my best. Whateverhappens, I'm proud of everyone who'sbeen a part of the success we've sharedover the past few years,” said the reign-ing champion.

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First place in Group A isthe prize when Arsenalhosts Paris Saint-Germain

in a meeting between the toptwo.

Both teams have 10 pointsand are guaranteed to advanceto the knockout stage, but stillto be determined is which clubfinishes at the top - most like-ly earning an easier game in thelast 16.

They drew 1-1 in Paris, sothe winner in the return matchin London will secure firstplace based on their head-to-head record.

Ludogorets Razgrad is athome against FC Basel in thegroup's other game.

Meanwhile, Lionel Messi isback, and that's the best news

Barcelona could have ahead ofits Champions League match atCeltic.

Messi practiced with theteam on Monday, after missingthe match against Malaga in theSpanish league because of ill-ness. With Luis Suarez alsoabsent through suspension,Barcelona could not managemore than a 0-0 draw. Both for-wards will be in squad to faceCeltic on Wednesday.

What Messi means forBarcelona is easy to see just bylooking at numbers, even with-out considering the inspira-tional things he can do on thefield.

Messi had hat tricks againstCeltic and Manchester City inearlier Group C matches andhas a total of 90 ChampionsLeague goals, including seven

hat tricks.Perhaps surprisingly,

Barcelona still has not sealed aspot in the last 16, but could doit with one match to spare.With nine points, Barcelonaneeds a win or a draw toadvance, depending on otherresults.

After winning 7-0 at homeagainst Celtic, Barcelona mayhave the mental edge.But Celtic will havesomething toprove after itsb i g g e s tE u r o p e a ndefeat.

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group is stillwide open andeven last-place

Dynamo Kiev can advance tothe last 16, although it has onlyone point ahead of visitingNapoli.

Napoli's campaign hasstalled with one point from thelast two matches. But the Italianside will advance with a win,provided Benfica also wins.

Benfica leads the groupwith seven points and visits

Besiktas, which hassix. Benfica goes

through with awin. Besiktasadvances if itwins andNapoli does-n't.

Dynamocan only stay

in contentionwith a win and

Besiktas fails to do so.Otherwise, Dynamo cannotfinish higher than fourth.

���'���Yaya Toure inspired City to

a 2-1 win over Crystal Palacein the Premier League onSaturday, but the former IvoryCoast midfielder will be backout of the team againstBorussia Moenchengladbachbecause he is not a member ofCity's Champions Leaguesquad for the group stage.

Ilkay Gundogan is likelyreplace Toure in midfield afterthe Germany international wasrested over the weekend, alongwith John Stones and DavidSilva.

City only needs a draw toprogress, provided Celtic does-n't beat Barcelona. Celtic stays

in contention with a win, aslong as City fails to take threepoints. Moenchengladbachneeds to win to retain a chanceof reaching the knockout stagefor the first time.

���'���Atletico Madrid and

Bayern Munich are throughand Atletico will take firstplace in the group if it beatsPSV Eindhoven at home andBayern draws or loses inRostov.

Atletico has beaten Bayernand has 12 points, while Bayernhas nine.

Bayern slumped to its firstBundesliga defeat at BorussiaDortmund over the weekendand will be without goalkeep-er Manuel Neuer, who has acalf injury.

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