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‘Shame on us’, AparnaSen tweets to Mamataover triple murders

NATION | Politics

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THE ASIAN AGENEW DELHI SATURDAY 12 OCTOBER 2019

Taapsee Pannu tries to explain mindset of Mammootty fans

Max: 34OCMin: 20OCRH: 41%Rainfall: Nil

Forecast: Clear sky

WINDOWS

WEATHER

ASTROGUIDE

Jammu: An Army jawan waskilled when Pakistani troops

resorted to firing andshelling along the Line of

Control in J&K’s Rajouri dis-trict on Friday, a defence

spokesperson said. Twojawans were also injured in

the Pakistani shelling inAkhnoor sector of Jammudistrict, officials said. Naik

Subash Thapa was injured inthe firing and shelling, but

later succumbed to injuries. Full report on Page 4

Actress Yami Gautam walksthe ramp during the IndiaFashion Week in New Delhi onThursday. — BUNNY SMITH

Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Mamallapuram on Friday, ahead of their informal summit talks. — ASIAN AGE

Virat Kohli celebrates his double centuryduring the second day of the secondTest between India and South Africa inPune on Friday. Kohli eclipsed Sir DonBradman and Sachin Tendulkar while

smashing a handful of records during his career-best knock of 254 in the ongoing second Test. At stumps, theProteas were reeling at 36 for three. ■ Report on 4 — AP

Hemalaba: UttarayanaTithi: Vaishakha Bahula

Dasami till 4.34 pmStar: Purvabhadra till 11.05

amVarjyam: 8.17 pm to

9.49 pmDurmuhurtam: 4. 56 pm to

5.47 pmRahukalam: 4.30 pm to

6 pmSUNSET TODAY 5.55 PM

SUNRISE TOMORROW 6.19 AMMOONRISE TOMORROW 5.26 PM

MOONSET TODAY 4.45 AM

Army jawan killedin Pak firing along LoC in J&K district

Tehran: Suspected missilestrikes hit an Iranian oil

tanker off the Saudi coaston Friday, its owner said,

the first Iranian vessel tar-geted since a spate of

attacks in the Gulf whichWashington blamed on

Tehran. The shipping firmsaid the ship was hit by twoseparate explosions. — AFP

Full report on Page 5

Missile strikes Iranship off Saudi coast

New Delhi: A day after theCBI requested a Mumbai

court to declare MehulChoksi, the prime accused

in the PNB scam, a pro-claimed offender, the ED isset to attach fresh proper-ties linked to the accused.

Full report on Page 3

ED to attach moreChoksi properties

COUNTERPOINT

RNI No. 57290/94, Regd No: DL-SW-05/4189/15-17 Vol. 26 No. 236 | 32 PAGES | `5.00

19

Kohli surpasses Bradman, Tendulkar

SUNIL THAPLIYALNEW DELHI, OCT. 11

Ahead of the DelhiAssembly elections, theCongress is likely toappoint cricketer-politi-cian Kirti Azad as thenext DPCC president,which is vacant sincethe death of former CMSheila Dikshit, amidintense party infighting.

Mr Azad joined theCongress ahead of theLok Sabha polls thisyear. Before deciding onMr Azad, the party lead-ership considered sever-al other names for Delhiunit chief. Congresspresident Sonia Gandhimet a delegation of stateunit leaders and theAICC’s Delhi in-chargeP.C. Chacko, but a deci-sion couldn’t befinalised.

A fresh crisis eruptedin the Delhi Congresswith Ms Dikshit’s sonSandeep Dikshit, a for-mer Lok Sabha MP, writ-ing a letter to Mr Chackovirtually accusing him ofmentally harassing hismother in her last days.Backing Mr Dikshit, for-mer ministers RamakantGoswami, Kiran Waliaand Mangat Ram Singhalsought an inquiryagainst Mr Chacko viathe party’s internal com-mittee to get into the rootof the matter.

Addressing a pressconference, the trio alsolevelled allegations ofcorruption against MrChacko, and alsoexpressed concern thatwhile others werepreparing for the elec-tions, they were battlinginternal rifts.

■ More on Page 13

VINEETA PANDEYNEW DELHI, OCT. 11

Sending SMSes fordelays in flights andchange of gates, time-ly refunds, promptgrievance redressal,coordination withtravel agents, and bet-ter communicationsare some of the stepsthe Directorate-Gen-eral of Civil Aviationwants all domesticairlines to take imme-diately to reduceinconvenience to pas-sengers.

At a meeting withthe appellate authori-ty and nodal officersof domestic airlines,DGCA Arun Kumarlaid emphasis onadherence to the pro-visions of the CivilAviation Requirem-ents (CAR) and askedthem to be proactivein addressing thegrievances of passen-gers.

Senior officials saidthe DGCA officereceives several com-plaints from passen-gers on a daily basisand the meeting wasan attempt to“improve things anddo away with thechalta hai” attitude inthe aviation sector.

The airlines havebeen asked to sendSMS to passengers incase of flight delaysbeyond 30 minutes ora change in boardinggate, and keep passen-gers regularlyinformed.

“The airlines should■ Turn to Page 4

Send SMSes,provide helpif flights late,airlines told

YUSUF JAMEELSRINAGAR, OCT. 11

The Jammu and Kashmirgovernment admittedFriday that the stalemateover the abrogation ofArticle 370 and splittingthe state into two Unionterritories had continuedto disrupt normal life inthe Valley, with shopsand other businessesshut, public transport offthe roads and no classwork taking place inschools and colleges.

However, it blamed thebleak situation on sepa-ratist militants and saidit were the diktats andthreats by them that werestopping traders andtransporters from resum-ing normal work and stu-dents returning to theirclasses.

Contradicting its ownclaims on normalityreturning to Kashmir,the government, in a paidadvertisement that

appeared in local newspa-pers on Friday, said:“Closed shops, no publictransport? Who benefits?Are we going to succumbto militants? Think!!!”

It alleged for the pastover seven decades, thepeople of J&K had beenmisled, made victim of a“vicious campaign andmotivated propagandathat kept them trapped inan endless cycle of terror-ism, violence, destruc-tion and poverty”.

The government alsosaid while separatistssent their children to■ Turn to Page 4

J&K admits statenot ‘normal’, saysmilitants to blame

Srinagar, Oct. 11: Post-paid mobile services inKashmir are likely toresume from Saturday, 68days after they were shutdown following theCentre’s decision to abro-gate J&K’s special status,officials said on Friday.

They made it clear thatthe subscribers will haveto wait for some moretime for the Internet ser-vices to resume in theValley.

The officials said a deci-

sion has been taken thatpost-paid mobile serviceswill be resumed in thebeginning and the pre-paid services will beresumed later. They havealso stressed that a prop-er verification of cus-tomer be undertaken forpost-paid mobile ser-vices.

The Valley has nearly 66lakh mobile subscribersout of which nearly 40lakh subscribers havepost-paid facilities. — PTI

Post-paid mobile phonesmay resume from today

Kirti tipped forDPCC chief asSheila’s sontargets Chacko

Oslo, Oct. 11: Hailed as avisionary and reformer,Ethiopian Prime MinisterAbiy Ahmed won theNobel Peace Prize onFriday for his efforts toresolve the long-runningconflict with neighbour-ing foe Eritrea.

Abiy was honoured “forhis efforts to achievepeace and internationalcooperation, and in par-ticular for his decisiveinitiative to resolve theborder conflict withneighbouring Eritrea,”the Nobel Committeesaid.

The award is seen as awelcome boost forAfrica’s youngest leader

as he facesw o r r y i n ginter-com-munity vio-lence aheadof a parlia-m e n t a r yelection inMay 2020.

“I was sohumbled and thrilledwhen I just heard thenews,” Abiy told theNobel Committee in aphone call posted onlineon the Nobel Prize web-site.

In a later interview onthe same website, MrAhmed said he thoughtthe prize would invigo-rate regional peace

efforts. “This is greatnews for Africa, greatnews for East Africa. Aplace where peace is avery expensive commodi-ty, and I am sure it willgive us energy to worktowards peace and torealise peace within ourregion,” Ethiopian PrimeMinister said.

This is the second yearin a row that an Africanhas received the award,after Congolese gynaecol-ogist Denis Mukwegeshared the prize withYazidi activist NadiaMurad in 2018 for theirwork combating sexualviolence. — AFP

■ More on Page 12

Ethiopia’s PM receives PeaceNobel for ending Eritrea war

SRIDHARKUMARASWAMIMAMALLAPURAM, OCT. 11

On day one of the secondinformal summit bet-ween Chinese PresidentXi Jinping and PrimeMinister Narendra Modiat Mamallapuram onFriday, the two leadersresolved to work togetherto not let terrorism andradicalisation affect thefabric of their “multi-cul-tural, multi-ethnic andmulti-religious” societies.

The two leaders, whomet for a mammoth fivehours of one-on-one meet-ings, that included two-and-a-half hours of con-versation over dinner,discussed issues of bilat-eral concern, includingterrorism and radicalisa-tion, as well as tradeissues.

The discussions on ter-rorism are being seen asextremely significantgiven India’s stand on ter-rorism emanating fromPakistani soil and China’sconcerns over radicalisa-tion in its north-westernXinjiang province. Thetwo leaders are expectedto have further one-on-one discussions onSaturday apart from dele-gation-level talks on theentire gamut of India-China’s bilateral ties.

Briefing reporters, for-eign secretary VijayGokhale said the discus-sions were “cordial” andreflected the “personalrapport” between the twoleaders. The ChinesePresident conveyed thathe was “overwhelmed”by the welcome hereceived at Chennai andMamallapuram and theexcellent arrangementsfor the informal summit.

While there was no offi-cial word on whether thesituation in Kashmir was

discussed, sources indi-cated that recent strainsin the Sino-Indian rela-tionship followingChinese backing ofPakistan on the Kashmirissue may have figuredduring the hours-longconversation. Much tothe dismay of India,China has been backingPakistan on the Kashmirissue ever since NewDelhi revoked Article 370and announced bifurca-tion of J&K state into twoUnion Territories onAugust 5.

Mr Gokhale said the dis-cussions focused on the“national visions” and“governance priorities”of the two sides. Tradeissues were also dis-cussed along with mea-sures to enhance thetrade volume and reducetrade deficit.

While PM Modi con-veyed that he had got arenewed mandated fromthe Indian people in Maythis year for economicdevelopment, the ChinesePresident said he lookedforward to working withPM Modi, Mr Gokhalesaid.

Another major topic ofdiscussion at the sea-sideresort town of Mamallap-uram — an ancient trad-ing port — was the histor-ical link between southIndia under the ancientPallava and Chola dynas-ties with the East coast ofChina, especially theFujian province. There ■ Turn to Page 4

■ India-China talks focus on ‘national visions’; resolve to boost trade, investment

Modi-Xi discuss terror, but not Kashmir

SRIDHARKUMARASWAMIMAMALLAPURAM, OCT. 11

Visiting ChinesePresident Xi Jinping,accompanied by PrimeMinister Narendra Modi,on Friday evening had aglimpse of the magnifi-cent 7th century ADPallava dynasty architec-ture at the picturesqueseaside resort of Mamall-apuram (Mahabalipuram)near Chennai, with thetwo leaders clasping eachother’s hands and raised

it in a show of solidarity.Sending a strong messageeven domestically, MrModi was dressed in tradi-tional Tamil attire — thatincluded a “veshti” (dhotiworn the South Indianway) and an “angavas-tram” (a South Indian gar-ment draped over theshoulder) — walkingalongside the ChinesePresident, who was cladin a white shirt with blacktrousers, and explainingthe significance of themonuments to him.President Xi gazed in awe

as he faced the “Arjuna’sPenance” sculptures, the“Pancha Rathas” (fiverock-cut temple chariots)and the “Krishna’s butter-ball” (a giant rockperched precariously on ahillock for centuries). Thetwo leaders were laterseated for about 15 min-utes with the historicalsetting as a backdrop asthey conversed throughinterpreters and sippedcoconut during what wasthe first day of the two-day second informal sum-mit here. President Xi was

then taken to the ancientShore Temple on thecoast, after which the twoleaders walked around itin a “parikrama”, as MrModi explained the signif-icance of the splendidarchitecture to his distin-guished Chinese guest.The Chinese Presidentwas then treated to a mag-nificent classical musicand dance performance ofBharatanatyam and Kath-akali by a troupe from thefamed Kalakshetra artand cultural academy in■ Turn to Page 4

Ancient sculptures leave Xi in awe

New Delhi, Oct. 11: TheIndian Navy and IndianCoast Guards are main-taining a strict vigilnear the shores of Mam-allapuram where PMNarendra Modi andChinese President XiJinping are holdingtheir second informalsummit.

To prevent anyseaborne threat, boththe forces have deployedwarships in the area.

Indian Navy is alreadyon high alert to preventany 26/11 type attack byterrorists as a reprisalfor India’s move torevoke article 370 fromJammu and Kashmir.

Chennai, Oct. 11: It’sbecome routine now thatthe anti-saffron brigadein Tamil Nadu triggersthe #GoBackModi hash-tag every time the PMlands in the state andFriday was no excep-tion. There was an“interesting” add-onthis time though; theTamil Twitter alsotrended this hashtag inMandarin to catch theChinese eyes watchingdevelopments relating tothe informal summit.

As of 7 pm Friday, theMandarin hashtag fig-ured in over 32,000tweets.

■ More on Page 2

Navy deploysships, on highalert near site

#GoBackModiin Mandarintrends online

◗ The two leadersare expected tohave one-on-onetalks today apartfrom delegation-level talks on theentire gamut of bilateral ties

◗ The govt allegedfor the past overseven decades, thepeople of J&K hadbeen misled andmade victim of a‘vicious campaignand motivated propaganda’

Abiy Ahmed

Chinese Prez, accompanied by PM in a veshti, gets a classical music, dance treat

AGE CORRESPONDENTCHENNAI, OCT. 11

When the ChinesePresident Xi Jinping calmlywalked down the ladderfrom the Air China specialaircraft- that looked morelike a sky ship- at the oldMeenambakkam airporthere on Friday for the two-day informal summit withthe Indian Prime Minister,Narendra Modi at thecoastal Pallava heritage siteof Mamallapuram, therewas lot more to theConfucian ideal of com-pleteness.

Arguably the most power-ful and quietly assertivepersonality leading China,Xi Jinping, even modest inthe smiles he flashes, isboth a world leader,-asimportant if not more thanthe American President-and a political project in themaking, underpinned bywhat the Facebook founderMark Zuckerberg oncetermed as “socialism withChinese characteristics”.

The once 'cave-dweller'and now general secretaryof the ruling ChineseCommunist Party, XiJinping who succeeded HuJintao to that post in 2012and then became Presidentin 2013, his dream is tomake China “thoroughlymodern socialist” state bythe year 2050, still 30 yearsaway for the CommunistRepublic of China whichrecently celebrated its 70thanniversary.

In October 2017, Xi was re-elected as general secretaryat the 19th NationalCongress of the CommunistParty of China. Almost twoyears later, in October 2019,Xi is in Tamil Nadu today, topossibly rediscover andexplore China's“Kancheepuram route” toSouth Asia, as scholarsunravel the ancient tradeties, going beyond just thestory of Bodhi Dharma tak-ing Buddhism from here toChina. For the simple rea-son, it is Confucianism thatis still the bedrock ofChinese life.

Xi Jinping is alreadybeing compared to the greatrevolutionary leader

Chairman Mao Zedong andthe later pragmatic leaderDeng Xioping who hadplunged headlong into path-breaking economic reformsin the 1980s', for his politi-cal sagacity and vision.None can forget Deng'sfamous quip: It does notmatter whether the cat isblack or white as long as itcatches the mice. And withChina recently amendingits Constitution to removethe two five-year term limi-tation on the post of thePresident, analysts say, thisbeholds the possibility of XiJinping “being Presidentfor life”.

But in what until recentlywas a closed society asChina, Xi Jinping has comeup the political ladder inthe incredibly hard way.That is perhaps one reasonwhy his work in two vol-umes - 'Xi Jinping - TheGovernance of China'-termed by a scholar the 'Bigwhite book' in contrast toMao's 'Little Red book'-, thatspells out his vision for thegrowth and development ofChina by modified form ofSocialism-, is catching theattention of western elitesand leaders at Internationalbook fairs.

Xi's book, as gleaned fromvarious sources, is essen-tially a collection of hisarticles, speeches, lecturesand letters. Mr. JeffreyWasserstrom, in an articletitled 'From the Little RedBook to the Big White one'(Times LiterarySupplement, May 15, 2018),says that while Mao in hiswork took pains to explain

the basic concepts ofMarxism to the poor mass-es, the tool for their social-ist revolution, “Xi ignoresclass struggle” and insteadfocuses on notions like'Clash of Civilizations' and'cloud based computing', atleast in the first volume ofhis work.

One underlying motiveengine to the Chinese quiet-ly but rapidly transformingitself into a global econom-ic power, while retaining itsrigid communist party andstate apparatus, is that “it ispoised to regain its statureas a great country.”Interestingly, the RSS, theideological compass of BJP-ruled India is also seeing arole for a 'new India' in asimilar language, even ifSanskrit is not Mandarin.

In a profile on the ChinesePresident, the BBC saysthat Xi Jinping, born in1953 in Beijing, is the son ofa revolutionary veteran XiZhongxun, “one of theCommunist party's found-ing fathers and a vice-pre-mier.”

In the Communist partyhierarchy, Xi may have beenborn with a silver spoon,yet “in a household steepedin communist ideals ofequality and personal aus-terity” as another lifesketch on him points out.But everything turnedtopsy-turvy for him when“his father was purged in1962 prior to the CulturalRevolution and impris-oned,” says that report.

It was then Xi Jinping suf-fered the ignominy of beingsent to the countryside for

“re-education and hardlabour in a remote and poorvillage of Liangjiahe forseven years.” Despite thishaving a big impact on hislater life, Xi Jinping con-verted a crisis into anopportunity by “embrac-ing” the Communist party.Membership was denied tohim several times, until theComrades accepted him in1974. From then, he“worked hard to rise to thetop”, playing several rolesat different places includ-ing being the party chief ofShanghai, China's financialhub, the BBC adds.

An anecdote from thatChinese version of 'VanVaas' for Xi Jinping in 1969,may be in order here. Sentwith 15 other teenagers toYellow Hills in 'ShaanxiProvince' as part of Mao'scampaign, “to toughen upeducated urban youth dur-ing the chaotic CulturalRevolution”, as anotheraccount describes it, Xi hadto put up with “fleas andhard labour”. He worked ona farm, but was castigatedby fellow workers as“incompetent”. His workwas not even rated “as highas the women.”

Xi spent seven years there,“sleeping on a brick bedand ate raw grain gruel”,records 'The New Yorker'.And Barbara Demick andDavid Pierson wrote in theLos Angeles Times, “fornearly seven years, XiJinping lived there, makinga cave his home. A thinquilt spread on bricks washis bed, a bucket was histoilet. Dinners were a por-

ridge of millet and rawgrain.” 'The Times' in anarticle by Leo Lewis inNovember 2012, speaks ofhow the Liangjiahe vil-lagers recalled Xi as a “gan-gly bookworm who eventu-ally earned their respect.They said Xi spent his daysworking in the fields andhis evenings reading by thelight of a kerosene lamp.They said he was a passion-ate reader who becameannoyed if anyone touchedhis books.”

A chemical engineeringgraduate from TheTsinghua University, XiJinping is married to thefamous folk singer inChina, Peng Liyuan. Theyhave a daughter Xi Mingze,a student of HarvardUniversity. The Xis' aretoday a celebrity couple, aprofile hardly seen aboutChinese Presidents in thepast.

In pursuing the economicreforms and his vision forChina including the 'onebelt, one road trade project',China's continued domi-nance in the South ChinaSea, one thing that is men-tioned in almost allaccounts on Xi Jinping isthe manner in which hecracked down on corrup-tion both within the govern-ment and the ChineseCommunist party. “He haspunished more than a mil-lion, including both high-ranking and low-rankingparty officials,” says theBBC profile.

Combating corruption isseen as a way of doing awaywith one's political oppo-nents, but it is also politicalconsolidation for the rulerand stifling dissent, as seennow in the latest protests inHong Kong, point outobservers. But at the end ofthe day, as of now, XiJinping is a star on theascendant, can talk tough toUSA on trade tariffs, evenwhile embarrassing Indiawith the 'Pakistan card', intop-level UN forums onissues like Kashmir.Whether Xi's second infor-mal summit with PrimeMinister Modi will help'reset' India-China tiesremains to be seen.

YAMUNA CHANDRANCHENNAI, OCT. 11

It’s become routine nowthat the anti-saffronbrigade in Tamil Nadutrigger the #GoBackModihashtag every time thePrime Minister lands inthe state and Friday wasno exception. There wasan ‘interesting’ add-onthis time though; theTamil Twitter also trend-ed this hashtag inMandarin to catch theChinese eye watchingdevelopments relating toPresident Xi Jinping’sinformal summit withPM Modi atMamallapuram.

As of 7 pm Friday, theMandarin hashtag fig-ured in over 32,000 tweets,while 207K (2.07 lakh)tweets figured in the#GoBackModi handle and43,000 mentions for#TNWelcomes_XiJinping. A few poked fun at thePM wearing a veshti,which they concludedwas an act of deceitrather than a gesture totruly identify himselfwith the Tamil people.

“…I checked with myChinese colleague. Thewords #???? actuallymeans Back to Modi”,tweeted Karthikk@karthikk_h.

“Sad to see#GoBackModi trending.The PM is coming to TNas PM of India for a diplo-matic summit. Politicalarmies must stop usingsocial media for narrowagendas. Agree?” tweetedTV journalist and authorRajdeep Sardesai,@sardesairajdeep. And hepromptly got slammed bythe anti-saffron twit-terati.

Reports also popped up

here and there allegingthat the #GoBackModitrending has the backingof “Pakistan-based ele-ments”.

The saffron brigade toogot active on twitter tocounter the hate cam-paign against their leaderand their#TNWelcomesModi alsotrended well with about45,000 tweets by earlyevening. At least sevenhashtags related to theModi-Xi summit weretrending in the top-20 listby this time—such as#MamallapuramSummit,# T N We l c o m e s M o d i ,#TNWelcomes_XiJinping, #GoBackModi and#GoBackSadistModi.

#GoBackModi had firsthit the social media inApril 12, 2018 when thePM came to inaugurate

the Defence Expo andbecame a sensation ofsorts globally, particular-ly among the TamilDiaspora. Since then, itbecame a fad among theTamil twitterati of theanti-saffron class to trendwhatever is opposed toModi during his trips toTamil Nadu. The last timethis happened was whenthe PM was in Chennai onSeptember 30 for the IITConvocation. The hatecampaigners meant toexpress the Tamils’ angerat the PM for allegedlyignoring their interests.

Perhaps the ‘Go BackModi’ slogans, placardsand black balloons influ-enced the PMO decisionto fly Modi by a helicopterfrom the Chennai airportto his hotel at Kovalam,from where

Mahabalipuram is just 10minutes away. That woulddeny the hate-campaign-ers yet another chance toembarrass the PM.Ideally, he should havereceived President Xi atthe airport and taken theroad with the guest so asto present a picture ofbonhomie at this criticaljuncture of Indo-Chinarelations. Many on socialmedia pointed out thatwhile Xi travelled by hiscar, PM Modi had to takethe chopper to avoid the‘hostile’ Chennai roadsand that created a poorimpression, particularlyamong the Chineseguests.

Some on the#GoBackModi hashtagdeclared support for Xicoming but not the IndianPM.

On Saturday, Modi and Xi will have a comprehensive one-on-one meeting to be followed by delegation level talks. Both sides will issueseparate statements on outcome of the summit. “Both sides know that alot is riding on the relationship and this is reflected in the summit being held on schedule despite speculation of its postponementin recent weeks,” said a senior official

SATURDAY I 12 OCTOBER 2019 | NEW DELHITHE ASIAN AGE

PAGE

2MODI, XI@ Mahabs

Beijing, Oct. 11: VisitingChennai for his secondinformal summit withPrime Minister NarendraModi on Friday, ChinesePresident Xi Jinping hasopted to travel to touristtown Mamallapuram byroad instead of a helicop-ter as Chinese leaders, asmatter of policy, shun trav-el by choppers. WhileModi, who landed inChennai earlier, flew toMamallapuram by helicop-ter, Xi covered the 57 kmjourney to Mamallapuramfrom Chennai, where he isstaying in a hotel, by roadtravelling in a speciallyflown in “Hongqi” limou-sine. The “Hongqi” is a lux-ury Chinese car used by

leaders of the rulingCommunist Party of China(CPC) from the time of itsfounder Mao Zedong. InChinese, “hongqi” meansthe red flag. After the dia-logue with Modi, Xi, 66,and his entourage will go asightseeing tour, and thenleave for Chennai at night.“Chinese leaders travel byplanes and cars and don'tuse helicopters,” they said,when asked why the presi-dent chose a long car jour-ney over a chopper rideduring his India visit.Even when attending mul-tilateral meetings, like theG20, Xi shunned the use ofhelicopters, the officialssaid.

— PTI

Tweets in Mandarin worries saffron camp

DC CORRESPONDENT WITH AGENCY INPUTSCHENNAI, OCT. 11

Prime Minister Modi welcomedChinese President Xi Jinping atMamallapuram wearing veshti(dhoti, which drew praise fromPattali Makkal Katchi and others.Modi received the Chinese leaderat Arjuna's penance monument. Attired in a striking Tamil tradi-tional 'karai veshti' (dhoti with aborder in green), angavastramand a half sleeve white shirt, thePrime Minister shook hands withXi as the two leaders exchangedpleasantries. The Chinese leaderwore a full sleeve white shirt andblack trousers.

Pattali Makkal Katchi founderleader S. Ramadoss said the PrimeMinister donning veshti, the tradi-tional dress of Tamils, was a thingof joy. “Let the world know theculture of Tamils,” he said in histwitter handle.

Karnataka culture and toursimminister C.T. Ravi tweeted: “Resp-ecting the Culture and Traditionsof the Land He visits comes natu-rally to PM @narendramodi. He isseen here comfortably movingaround in the traditional attire ofTamil Makkal (meaning people).”

PM in veshtiwins praise

Chennai, Oct 11: Prime MinisterNarendra Modi on Friday chosethe three languages of English,Tamil and Mandarin to wish hissecond informal meet with Chi-nese President Xi Jinping furtherstrengthened bilateral ties. Heused the three languages to welco-me Xi to India. The coastal townof Mamallapuram, fortified andall decked up, will host the twoleaders for their second informalsummit, with Modi and Xi havingearlier met in the Chinese city ofWuhan last year. “Welcome toIndia, President Xi Jinping!,”

Modi tweeted in English, shar-ing similar messages in Tamiland Mandarin. Earlier in the dayalso, he had taken to Twitter toannounce his arrival here to par-ticipate in the meet with Xi. “La-nded in Chennai. I am happy to bein the great land of Tamil Nadu,known for its wonderful cultureand hospitality,” he had said intweets in English, Tamil andMandarin. “It is gladdening thatTN will host President Xi Jinp-ing. May this Informal Summitfurther strengthen ties,” headded. — PTI

Modi tweets inEnglish, Tamil,Mandarin

PM MODI TAKES COPTER RIDE TO AVOID ‘HOSTILE’ CROWD IN CHENNAI

Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Mamallapuramon Friday. — PTI

Prime Minister Modi and Chinese President Xi raisingtheir hands near Krishna’s butterball. — ASIAN AGE

China’s most powerful man steps on TN soil

(Left) Xi Jinping in his youth. Xi Jinping's cave home at Liangjiahe during his years as ayoung city man sent to the Liangjiahe village for hard labour and learning. He worked inthe farm during the day and read books by the kerosene lamp at night. — File photo

Xi opts for Chinese-made‘Hongqi’ over copter ride

PM’S GIFTS TO XIPM Modi later presented a traditionalThanjavur painting ofdancing Saraswati anda traditional TamilNachiarkoil lamp toPresident Xi as a gift.

AGE CORRESPONDENTCHENNAI, OCT. 11

“Ivargalai kandukollaveyillai”, commented a twit-terati about the predica-ment faced by these templepriests waiting by the redcarpet with poorna-kum-bam to welcome ChinesePresident Xi Jinping whenhe arrived at the old Che-nnai airport from Beijingon Friday afternoon.

The traditional ritual wasto be part of an elaboratewelcome that included agrand spectacle of musicand dance to greet Xi on thetarmac before he boardedhis special car for the driveto ITC Grand Chola at near-by Guindy.

The Chinese Presidentstood briefly in front ofeach performing group in

warm appreciation butwhen he moved on towardshis waiting car, the priests'group got left out for hisprecious acknowledge-ment. It appeared that theChinese official interpret-ing the events for his leaderforgot about the priests and

their poorna-kumbam; orperhaps he thought it was abit too complicated toexplain to the boss.

Disappointment writlarge on their faces, thepriests left the place carry-ing back their undeliveredoffering.

‘Priests with poorna-kumbam not acknowledged by President’

Chinese President Xi Jinping walking away from group ofpriests with poorna-kumbam at airport. — ASIAN AGE

Traffic thrown out of gearChennai: In view of PrimeMinister Narendra Modiand Chinese President XiJinping's visit to the tem-ple town ofMamallapuram, trafficalong GST-Kathipara roadwas stalled for about atotal of three hours onFriday. South Chennai, inparticular, was the mostaffected with severe trafficsnarls along the roads ofKotturpuram, SardarPatel Road, Nandanam,Anna Salai and 100 feetroad as well as OMR andECR. There were alsoslight changes in theschedule of the two lead-

ers. PM Modi arrived at10.48 am as against hisscheduled arrival at 11.08am. The GST-Kathipararoad was blocked at 1.30pm for Xi Jinping's com-mute to ITC Grand Chola.The Chinese President tooreportedly arrived earlierthan the scheduled time at1.54 pm. Traffic along Saidapet,Guindy, GandhiMandapam, Adyar,Thiruvanmuyur, Neela-ngarai and ECR too wasstopped once again from2.30 pm to 4.30 pm for theChinese President's com-mute to Mamallapuram.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi sharing details of Pallava monuments with ChinesePresident Xi Jinping at Mamallapuram on Friday. — ASIAN AGE

A traditional southIndian spread, includ-ing the trademarksambhar, was part ofthe menu for PrimeMinister Modi andChinese premier XiJinping on Friday fordinner on their firstday of their secondinformal meet here. Sources said the twoleaders will be treatedto 'arachu vitta samb-har'. The meal willinclude 'thakkalirasam,' besides halwa.The Chinese Presidentis also likely to betreated to a select non-vegetarian delicacies.

SAMBAR, THAKKALIRASAM FOR XI

Bhopal: Vandalism of statuesof B.R. Ambedkar at two

places in Madhya Pradesh byunidentified miscreants hassparked tension, the policesaid on Friday. Dalits in thevillage of Mangraura under

Nadan police station in Satnadistrict took to the streetswhen they found statue of

Ambedkar vandalised in theirarea early on Friday morn-ing. Police forces rushed tothe spot to bring the situa-

tion under control.“Unidentified miscreants

damaged statue ofAmbedkar in the village. We

have registered a case inconnection with the incident.

We are going to installanother statue”, a senior dis-

trict police officer said.In another incident, a bust of

Ambedkar was found dam-aged in district headquarters

of Bhind on Friday.Locals staged demonstration

demanding action againstthe culprits in the incident.

Police registered a caseagainst unknown miscreantsin the incident. A new statue

of Ambedkar is beinginstalled at the same place,

the police said.Ambedkar, was an jurist,

economist, politician andsocial reformer who inspired

the Dalit Buddhist movementand campaigned against

social discrimination towardsuntouchables (Dalits).

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3NationSATURDAY | 12 OCTOBER 2019 | NEW DELHITHE ASIAN AGE

Ahmedabad: Congress leaderRahul Gandhi on Friday

pleaded ‘not guilty’ and wasgranted bail in a criminal

defamation case filedagainst him here for callingUnion Home Minister AmitShah a “murder accused”.

Gandhi also appeared beforea second court here where heis facing another defamation

case, for claiming thatAhmedabad District Coop-

erative (ADC) Bank was invo-lved in a currency swapping

scam post-demonetisation. MrShah is one of the directors of

the bank. Additional chiefmetropolitan magistrate R.B.

Etaliya is hearing the defama-tion suit filed by BJP corpora-tor Krishnavadan Brahmbhatt

against Gandhi for callingShah a murder accused.

— PTI

Jammu: Jammu and Kashmirgovernor’s administration

has began the exercise forfinalisation of the budget for

the Union Territories ofJammu-Kashmir and Ladakh

by next Monday. According toan order issued by the finance

department, the budget forthe current financial year has

to be segregated in two parts i.E., 7 months from 1st

April to 31st October, 2019 asthe state of J&K and for 5

months from 1st November,2019 to 31st March 2020 as

UTs of J&K and Ladakh. TheCentre on August 5 revoked

the state's special statusunder Article 370 and pro-

posed that the state be bifur-cated into two separate Union Territories. — PTI

VANDALISM SPARKS TENSION

IN MP TOWNS

Rahul pleads notguilty, gets bail

PoliticsThe state government will provide legal support to those excluded from the final list of the NRC, says Assam CM Sarbananda Sonowal

PMC customersare on the streets

for their cash— Priyanka Gandhi Vadra,

Congress leader

J&K budget to befinalised by Oct. 14

Ahmedabad: A bailable warrant was issued by

Ahmedabad court againstCongress spokesperson

Randeep Surjewala on Fridayin connection with a criminaldefa-mation suit filed against

him by Ahmedabad DistrictCoo-perative Bank

(ADCB) and its chairmanAjay Patel. Last year in

August, the defamation casewas also filed against former

Congress president RahulGandhi and Surjewala for

their remark that ADCB had exchanged

`745.58 crore in just fivedays during demonetisation

in 2016.— ANI

Warrant issuedagainst Surjewala

AGE CORRESPONDENTNEW DELHI, OCT. 11

Flagging what it called a“trust deficit” in thebanking sector, Con-gress on Friday demand-ed a white paper fromthe finance ministry onthe Punjab and Ma-harashtra CooperativeBank crisis and soughtan immediate stop to thewithdrawal limit put onthe bank’s customers bythe RBI.

Congress spokespersonGourav Vallabh high-lighted six issues in thePMC bank scam and saidthat the governmentshould take immediatesteps such as not allow-ing any of the 12 direc-tors of the bank to leavethe country and ensur-ing that the numeroushousing societies thathave money parked inthe bank are allowed towithdaw the same.

The government shou-ld also ask the bank tocome out with a list ofall those who took outmore than `50,000 beforeSeptember 24 — the datethe withdrawal limit wasput in place, he said at apress conference here.

Cong flaysgovt overbankingsituation

Chandigarh, Oct. 11: TheCongress Friday releasedits Haryana poll mani-festo, promising a farmloan waiver, reservation inprivate companies forlocal people and a slew ofbenefits for women —including job quotas, pen-sions and free bus rides.

It also promised freeelectricity to categories offarmers and domestic con-sumers, and unemploy-ment allowance to collegedegree holders.

In a controversial pollpromise, the Congresssaid 75 per cent of jobs inprivate companies will bereserved for the youth ofHaryana. It did not elabo-rate how this policy wouldbe implemented.

The “sankalp patra” saidloans to farmers will bewaived “within 24 hours”if the party comes topower after the October 21assembly polls.

Ghulam Nabi Azad, theAll India CongressCommittee general secre-tary in charge of the state,said there is a specialfocus on women.

The party promised 33per cent reservation towomen in government

and private jobs in thestate.

Apart from this, aCongress government willreserve 50 per cent of thejobs in Panchayati Rajinstitutions, municipali-ties, corporations and citycouncils for women.

Women who are widows,disabled or unmarriedwill get an allowance of`5,100 per month.Pregnant women will get amonthly stipend of `3,100from the third month oftheir pregnancy.

There will also be a 50per cent rebate on housetax if the property isowned by a woman, theCongress said in the mani-festo released here.Women will also ride freein Haryana Roadwaysbuses.

The 30-page documentpledged to give loan

waivers to farmers “with-in 24 hours”. The benefitsof the waiver will also beprovided to landless farm-ers, it said.

Free electricity will begiven to farmers who ownup to two acres of land, itsaid. Up to 300 unitsof power will also be freefor all domestic con-sumers.

Unemployed postgradu-ates will get an allowanceof `10,000 per month andunemployed graduateswill be given `7,000 permonth, the manifesto said.

If voted to power, theCongress government willoffer annual scholarshipsof `12,000 to students fromclass 1 to 10 and `15,000 forthose in classes 11 and 12 ifthey are from the sched-uled caste or fromextremely backward class-es. — PTI

Cong promises farmersloan waiver, free powerManifesto mentions job quotas, free bus rides for women

AGE CORRESPONDENTMUMBAI, OCT. 11

Bollywood actress andCongress candidate wholost the Lok Sabha elec-tion from the Mumbainorth constituency,Urmila Matondkar, hasdenied being called forcampaigning ahead of theAssembly elections.

Ms Matondkar’s person-al assistant, Payal, toldThe Asian Age, “She (MsMatondkar) was neverasked to campaign by any-one. She has alreadystopped working with theCongress.”

Ms Matondkar’s denialcomes after MumbaiCongress leader EknathGaikwad Sunday told thisnewspaper, “I hadapproached her (MsMatondkar) two days agowith a proposal to cam-paign in Mumbai for theupcoming Assembly elec-tions. She will considerthe proposal and get backto me within the next twodays.”

Asked about MrGaikwad’s statement, MsPayal claimed that it wasfake news. The Asian Agecontacted Mr Gaikwad buthe was not available onphone to give his commenton the issue.

Ms Matondkar, who wasa star campaigner for the2019 Lok Sabha elections,earlier resigned from theCongress citing pettyinternal politics in theparty’s Mumbai unit. TheCongress had fielded herfrom the Mumbai northseat against BJP candi-date Gopal Shetty.However, Ms Matondkarfaced defeat in the LokSabha elections.

■ Actress’ assistant terms Gaikwad’s statement ‘fake news’

Urmila denies being askedto campaign for Congress

Union home minister Amit Shah during his visit to Poharadevi Temple at Karanja inWashim district of Maharashtra on Friday. — PTI

SONU SHRIVASTAVAMUMBAI, OCT. 11

NCP chief Sharad PawarFriday slammed Unionhome minister Amit Shahfor repeatedly using hisname in poll campaign. Ina thinly veiled attack onMr Shah, Mr Pawar said,"As the election is heatingup, a big gentleman fromGujarat has been touringMaharashtra. He hadbeen in jail. Although Iam not contesting theelection, he is continuous-ly taking my name.”

On Thursday, Mr Shah,in Sangli district of west-ern Maharashtra, had hitout at the Congress andNCP for “opposing” theNDA government’s moveto abrogate Article 370 inJammu and Kashmir. Hehad said, "Rahul Gandhiand Sharad Pawar shouldmake it clear if theyfavour the scrapping ofArticle 370”. The BJPpresident had asked MrPawar to spell out what

the formerC o n g r e s s -NCP govern-ment did inMaharashtra.

In retalia-tion, MrPawar saidthat while

they should be speakingabout issues related to thefarmers and the economy,the topmost issue onPrime Minister NarendraModi, Mr Shah and chiefminister Devendra Fadn-avis' campaign agendawas “Sharad Pawar”.

Mr Pawar said, “Thisgentleman (Mr Shah) isasking me to answer onArticle 370. This is a bigjoke. Has my name beenregistered in the house?Did I create any distur-bance in Parliament(when Article 370 was dis-cussed in August)? So whyis he asking me for ananswer? They have noth-ing to say so the issue ofArticle 370 is being taken forward.”

Pawar repeats jailjibe against Shah

RABINDRA NATHCHOUDHURYBHOPAL, OCT 11

The Madhya Pradesh gov-ernment on Friday orde-red a probe into allegedcorruption in a massiveplantation drive carriedout along the banks of theNarmada by the previousShivraj Singh Chouhangovernment.

State forest ministerUmang Singh told repo-rters here that the Econo-mics Offence Wing (EOW)of the MP police has beenasked to conduct a probeagainst Mr Chouhan, for-mer state forest minister

G a u r iS h a n k a rS h e j w a rand civil se-rvice andforest offi-cers con-cerned ofthe state

for their alle-ged invol-vement in the “plantationscam”.

The case pertains toJuly 2017 when Mr Chou-han, as chief minister ofthe state, had undertakena drive to plant 6 croresaplings along the banksof Narmada in a day tomake it to the GuinnessBook of World Records.

MP police orderedto probe Shivraj

RABINDRA NATHCHOUDHURYBHOPAL, OCT. 11

AICC general secretaryJyotiraditya Scindia hastaken potshots at theKamal Nath govern-ment for having failed tofulfil the promise madeby Congress to write offcrop loans of farmers upto `2 lakh each, creatinga ripple in the rulingparty.

Mr Scindia’s attack onMr Nath incidentallycame ahead of October21 byelections to Jhabua(ST) Assembly con-stituency in MP, billedas crucial for the ‘minor-ity’ Congress govern-ment in the state, for avictory for the rulingparty in the bypollswould help it gainmajority in the House.

Addressing partyworkers in Bhind in MPon Thursday, Mr Scindialamented that the stategovernment had failedso far to deliver on thepromise made byCongress to waive croploans of farmers up to`2 lakh each.

“Crop loan up to`50,000 each of the farm-ers could be waivedwhereas we have prom-ised to write off farmloans up to `2 lakh,” hesaid.

Mr Scindia also took

strong exception to the“failure” of the stategovernment to releasecompensation to farm-ers who suffered croploss due to heavy rainsand floods in the state,so far.

Incidentally, MrScindia had a couple ofdays ago called for intro-spection by the top lead-ership of Congress tosave the party frombeing doomed.

PWD minister SajjanSingh Verma, known as

staunch loyalist of thechief minister, pulled upMr Scindia for attackingMr Nath. “Mr Scindiashould know that MrNath is not only ourchief minister but hischief minister too,” heremarked in a veiledsnub to the veteranleader.

M e a n w h i l e ,Opposition BJP onFriday grabbed theopportunity to attackthe Nath government onloan waiver issue.

SONU SHRIVASTAVAMUMBAI, OCT.11

BJP star campaigner andUnion minister SmritiIrani on Friday annou-nced the campaign itiner-ary of Prime MinisterNarendra Modi.

Mr Modi will addressnine rallies across thestate, which goes to pollson October 21. The PrimeMinister would kick-starthis campaign at Jalgaonin northern Maharashtraon October 13. His lastrally will be held inMumbai on October 18.

Addressing the media onFriday, Ms Irani saidthat the Prime Ministerwould also address a rallyat Sakoli in Bhandara dis-trict on October 13.

Mr Modi will addressrallies at Akola, Airoli inNavi Mumbai, and Para-tur in Jalna district onOctober 16. On October 17,he will attend a publicmeeting in Pune, Sataraand Parli in Beed district.

PM campaignitineraryannounced

Pawar

Chouhan

Urmila Matondkar

Bhind, Oct. 11: A posterof Congress leaderJyotiraditya Scindiaalong with PrimeMinister NarendraModi and home minis-ter Amit Shah croppedup here on Thursday.

The poster was put upby the BJP Bhind dis-trict coordinator afterMr Scindia’s support forthe abrogation ofArticle 370 which grant-ed special powers toJammu and Kashmir.

In the banner, MrScindia is seen wavinghis hand and the photo-graphs of Mr Modi andMr Shah are placed nextto his.

The poster lauds MrScindia for supportingthe Centre’s move of therepealing of Article 370and greets the Congressleader saying “welcomeand congratulations,”fuelling speculationsthat the BJP might becosying up to him.

Posters of Jyotiraditya withPM, Shah surface in Bhind

Jyotiraditya Scindia

POLL PROMISES

� 75 per cent of jobs in private companies willbe reserved for the youth of Haryana

� Unemploymentallowance tocollege degreeholders.

� Women who are widows,disabled or unmarried willget an allowance of `5,100per month.

Scindia targets Nath govtover farm loan waivers

AGE CORRESPONDENT NEW DELHI, OCT. 11

A day after the CBI req-uested a Mumbai court todeclare Mehul Choksi,the prime accused in thePunjab National Bank(PNB) scam, a proclaimedoffender, theEnforcement Directorate(ED) is set to attach freshproperties/assets linkedto the accused of themulti-crore scam.

Sources said, “TheCentral probe agency ispreparing a fresh list of

assets linked to theaccused of the PNB scam,including Mehul Choksi.The ED will soon initiatea fresh proceding toattach their properties.”

The CBI, which is alsoinvestigating the scam,on Thursday requested aMumbai court to declareChoksi a proclaimedoffender, saying he hasfailed to respond to a non-bailable warrant.

In an application beforea special judge for CBIcases in Mumbai, V.C.Barde, the agency said

Choksi left the countryeven before the first FIRwas filed in the case to “conceal himself ”.

“Choksi has alreadytaken citizenship of Ant-igua, one of theCaribbean Islands, inorder to avoid executionof a warrant issued bythe court,” it said. TheCBI also opposed Choksi’splea for cancellation ofthe NBW issued againsthim. The court adjournedthe hearing to October 17for further arguments.

The CBI requested the

court to declare Choksi aproclaimed offender andattach his propertiesunder the Code ofCriminal Procedure.

Under section 82 of theCrPC, a court can publisha proclamation requiringthe accused to appear ifthe warrant issuedagainst him cannot beexecuted. According tosection 83 of CrPC, afterissuing such a proclama-tion, the court may alsoorder attachment of theproclaimed offender’sproperties.

ED to attach PNB scam accused’s assets

AKSHAYA KUMAR SAHOOBHUBANESWAR, OCT. 11

: In Odisha, only three percent drivers may have tested

positive after being putunder breath-analyser fol-

lowing an order by statedirector general of police Dr

Bijaya Kumar Sharma.However, the disconcerting

fact is that the state, which ishaving a population of 4.19

crore as per 2011 census, hasrecorded significantly higher

number of deaths on roadsdue to drunken driving in thecountry in comparison to big

provinces Maharashtra andKarnataka. According to data

available with the statepolice, Odisha had recorded

over 900 and 735 deathsdue to drunk driving in the

years 2018 and 2017, respec-tively. The deaths due to

drunken driving account fornearly 17 per cent of total

accident deaths in the statein 2018. Significantly, how

the total prohibition policy inBihar is proving a wondercould well be ascertained

from the fact that the statehas not recorded a single

death due to drunken drivingin 2018 vis-a-vis 890 deaths

in 2014. Gujarat, anotherstate that has a total prohibi-

tion policy, had recordedmere 18 deaths. An analysisreveals that big states haverecorded fewer casualties.

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4NationSATURDAY | 12 OCTOBER 2019 | NEW DELHITHE ASIAN AGE

Gorakhpur: Two rival groupsof prisoners clashed

inside the Gorakhpur districtjail on Friday, in a fight thatofficials said was triggeredover the food served there.

Other versions of the prisonviolence said the inmates had

clashed with some jail per-sonnel in retaliation of an inci-

dent on Thursday, when two prisoners were

allegedly thrashed. But offi-cials did not confirm this ver-sion. It was also not immedi-ately known if anybody wasseriously hurt in the Friday

morning fracas. Officials saidthe situation was soon

brought under control. ADMRakesh Kumar Srivastav said

there was a tussle betweentwo inmates over food. — PTI

Bulandshahr: Seven of a fam-ily, including three

children, were killed in theearly hours of Friday in

Bulandshahr district when abus rammed into a group of

pilgrims who were on their way back from the VaishnoDevi shrine and were sleep-

ing on the roadside, the police said. They said thedriver of the bus was on the

run. Senior Superintendentof Police Santosh Kumar

Singh said the victims, who were residents of

Chandpa in Hathras district,had gone on a pilgrimage to

the shrine along with somerelatives and other villagers.While returning, they got off

from the bus in Narora inBulandshahr. — PTI

ODISHA: DRUNKDRIVING KILLED

900 IN 2018

Rival groups clashin Gorakhpur jail

Kashmir issueShortage of arms in Kashmir forces terrorists to loot weapons, says Northern Army Commander

Support for Indiaon Article 370

shows ourgrowing strength— Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi,

Union minister

7 of family killedin UP road mishap

Mumbai: The ongoingEnforcement Directorate

(ED) probe into money laun-dering activities by opera-

tives of Mumbai underworldled to the arrest of two

henchmen of MohammadIqbal Memon alias Iqbal

Mirchi, a close aide of fugi-tive gangster Dawood

Ibrahim, who died in Londonin 2013. The officials arrestedthe duo from Mumbai in con-

nection with an allegedmulti-crore-property deal,

the money of which waslaundered outside India, offi-cials said. The accused were

identified as RanjitsinhBindra and Harun Aleem

Yusuf, who were being ques-tioned in connection with the

land deal.

ED arrests aidesof Iqbal Mirchi


In a bid to reduce finan-cial burden on states,Union home ministryhas cut down charges fordeployment of CentralArmed Police Forces(CAPF). States have topay for hiring para-mili-tary forces for differentlaw and order arrange-ment like dealing withcommunal clashes,naxal or terror relatedincidents.

As per the new chargesthe normal category,states will have nowhave to pay `13.7 croreevery year to the Centrefor hiring a seven com-pany battalion, whichcomprises about 100 per-sonnel, for the currentfinancial year of 2019-20.This does not includethe cost for deploymentand transportation ofthe para-military forces.For the previous finan-cial year of 2018-19, thecharges for the samewere `52.40 crore.

Similarly, the chargesfor the coming financialyears of 2020-21, 2021-22,2022-23 and 2023-24would be `15.40 crore,`17.36 crore, `19.65 croreand `22.30 crore, respec-tively which again issubstantially less thanwhat was charged dur-ing 2018-19.

The MHA has alreadyinformed the statesabout the new tariffwhich come into effectfrom financial year 2019-20. UTs which do nothave a legislatures havebeen exempted frompayment of the deploy-ment charges.

Govt reduces charges for deployment ofCentral forces

■ Citizens of Bengal your responsibility: Director to CM Mamata

AGE CORRESPONDENTSRINAGAR, OCT. 11

An Army jawan waskilled when Pakistanitroops resorted to “unpro-voked” firing and shellingalong the Line of Control(LoC) in Jammu andKashmir’s Rajouri districton Friday.

Giving the details of theincident, the spokesper-son said that the PakistanArmy fired small armsand also motor guns totarget the Indian forwardposts in Rajouri sector.“This was yet anotherbrazen violation of theceasefire understandingbetween the two sides.One of our jawans suf-fered injuries in theunprovoked action by thePakistanis and after beingevacuated he is receivingtreatment at a militaryhospital,” the spokesper-son said.

The Army jawan, identi-fied as 25-year-old NaikSubash Thapa, suc-cumbed to his injuries atthe Military CommandHospital in garrison townof Udhampur later, thedefence spokesman said.

He added that the Indiantroops gave a “strong andbefitting” reply to thePakistani firing andshelling by using the samecaliber weapons. “Wedon’t know if there havebeen any casualties ontheir side.”

Later, during the day,skirmishes between thefacing border guards tookplace also in Hiranagarsector of Kathua districtalong the InternationalBorder (IB). The officialsclaimed that PakistanRangers resorted to“unprovoked” firing bysmall arms in this sectorand that the BorderSecurity Force (BSF) andthe Indian Army gave“befitting reply” to it.There were no immediatereports of casualties oneither side.

Indian troops give ‘strong and befitting’ reply

Army jawan killed inPak firing along LoC

A shop owner inspects shops which were gutted in a fire,in Srinagar on Friday. Shop owners claimed that theirestablishments were set on fire by miscreants. — PTI

PAWAN BALINEW DELHI, OCT. 11

There has been nearlythree times increase inceasefire violation byPakistan at the Line ofControl (LoC) inSeptember as compared tolast two years, as it triedto build pressure afterIndia revoked Article 370from Jammu andKashmir.

The Indian side raisedthe issue of Pakistan tar-geting civilian areas dur-ing routine brigade level

talks on the hotlinebetween the two armieson 1st October, saidsources. Pakistan Armyhas been mostly targetingareas South of the PirPanjal in Jammu andKashmir.

“There has been 292cease-fire violations in theSeptember in 2019 by thePakistan Army and theyhave been also targetingcivilian population,” saidsources. Out of these 292,only 42 cease-fire viola-tions happened in theNorth of Pir Panjal.

3-time jump in LoCceasefire violations


There were over 330 inci-dents of protests inKashmir in last twomonths after Article 370was revoked, according tointernal security report ofthe government. Most of

these were stone peltingincidents which were fol-lowed by civil protests.

The report said that 67percent of these protestwere held in Srinagar city,Budgam and Pulwama.

However, most of thestone pelting incidentstook place in August.

330 incidents of stirafter 370 abrogation

AGE CORRESPONDENTSKOLKATA/BERHMAPORE,OCT. 11

Soon after the seditioncase against 49 celebritieswas dropped, eminentfilmmaker Aparna Senhas become vocal againstWest Bengal chief minis-ter Mamata Banerjee’srule over the killings ofprimary school teacherBandhu Prakash Pal andhis family at Jiaganj inMurshidabad duringDurga Puja.

Calling Pal an RSS work-er, she not only expressedher shock but also remind-ed the Trinamul Congresssupremo of her responsi-bility to rise above politi-cal affiliations as the CMto ensure justice. Thenational award winningfilm director’s name wasdropped alongwith 48other intellectuals by theBihar police from the FIR

on sedition charge only onThursday.

On Friday morning, MsSen tweeted, “Pregnantwife & child of RSS manslaughtered in our ownWB! Whatever the reasonfor such a gruesome act,shame on us! Madam CM!Pls ensure the perpetra-tors are brought to justice!Irrespective of politicalinclinations, all citizens ofWB are ur responsibility.U are CM to all!” Herchange in stand surprised

the Trinamul and BJPleaders as well.

Within few hours of hertweet, superintendent ofpolice (Murshidabad)Mukesh Kumar ruled outany political angle in thetriple murder. “It is a fam-ily-related murder. Thereis no relation of politicswith the case. An investi-gation has been underway.Some family members andneighbours have beenquestionned,” he said. Thepolice has not been able to

arrest anyone.But state BJP president

Dilip Ghosh confirmedthat Pal was an RSS work-er. “He was a longtimeSwayamsevak of the RSS.He did not stay with hiselder brother. He used tostay elsewhere for his job.The rift between them wassince childhood. He alsowas the supporter of theBJP although he was notan active leader or worker.Like many of us, he joinedthe RSS in childhood, hewas an ordinarySwayamsevak of the out-fit,” he said.

Several school teachersmarched to the SP office atBerhampore in the after-noon. They submitted adeputation to Mr Kumardemanding immediatearrest of the culprits. MrKumar assured the delega-tion of teachers that thepolice was trying hard tocrack the case.

Aparna slams Didi over murders

Bhaderwah/Jammu, Oct.11: Nearly 500 terroristsare waiting in varioustraining camps along theLine of Control in Pak-occupied Kashmir, look-ing for opportunities tosneak into Jammu andKashmir, a top Army offi-cer said on Friday.

He also said 200 to 300terrorists are operating inhinterland of J&K to keepthe region in turmoil withPakistan’s support.

“As far as militants oper-ating within Jammu andKashmir is concerned, 200to 300 terrorists, who havecome here, joined mili-tants here,” NorthernCommand chief Lt. Gen.Ranbir Singh toldreporters here. Gen.Singh said this it in replyto questions about thenumber of militants oper-ating in J&K and those inPoK ready to infiltrateinto the country.

“Like this, nearly 500 ter-rorists are staged in ter-rorists’ training camps inPoK and are ready to infil-trate into J&K,” said Lt.Gen. Singh.

He said these figureskeep changing as per theirtraining schedule.“Whatever be the number,we are capable to stop andeliminate them to ensurepeace and normalcy inthis region,” he added.The Army commandersaid it is always theirendeavour to ensure peace

and normalcy in J&K.“But Pakistan keeps try-

ing to do some mischief todisturb the peace here.Even today terror infra-structure is being runwithin Pakistan (by itsforces and agencies).These include training aslaunching pad for terror-ists to infiltrate into thecountry,” he added.

He said Pakistan contin-ues to keep terroristsarmed to their teeth.

He said deployingdrones to arm terrorists isone of the new modusoperandi of Pakistan, saidLt General Singh in replyto a question over theissue of dropping armsthrough drones in Punjabby Pakistan.

“But I want to ensureyou that Indian Army iscapable and determined tofoil Pakistan’s any unholydesign,” he said.

— PTI

500 terrorists waiting atLoC camps in PoK: Army


The Unnao rape survivorwas allegedly kidnappedand raped for nine days atdifferent places by threepeople in 2017 when shewas a minor, the CBI told aDelhi court on Friday.

The case is differentfrom the alleged sexualassault of the woman byexpelled BJP MLAKuldeep Singh Sengar in2017.

A lawyer who is involvedin the case said District

Judge Dharmesh Sharma,during in-camera proceed-ings, took cognisance of achargesheet filed by theCBI in the gangrape caseand put up the matter forfurther hearing onOctober 15.

Meanwhile, the agencyis expected to file anothercharge sheet in connec-tion with rape victim’saccident case in which twoof her relatives werekilled on Saturday.

The woman, allegedlyraped by BJP MLAKuldeep Singh Sengar in

2017 when she was aminor, battled for life aftera truck rammed into thecar she was travelling inwith some family mem-bers and her lawyer in RaeBareli district of UttarPradesh on July 28. Two ofher aunts died in the roadaccident. She was airliftedfrom a hospital inLucknow and brought tothe AIIMS for better care.

In Friday’s chargesheet,the probe agency hasnamed three people —Naresh Tiwari, BrijeshYadav and Shubham

Singh — as accused for theoffences under sections120B (criminal conspira-cy), 363 (kidnapping), 366(abducting or inducingwoman to compel her formarriage), 376 D (sexualassault by more than oneperson) of the IndianPenal Code and Sections 3and 4 (penetrative sexualassault and punishment)of the Protection ofChildren from SexualOffences (POCSO) Act.The maximum punish-ment for the offences islife imprisonment.

Unnao victim raped for 9 days: CBI■Agency to file another chargesheet linked to accident

◗ Deploying dronesto arm terrorists isone of the newmodus operandi ofPakistan, said LtGeneral Singh inreply to a questionover the issue ofdrones droppingarms in Punjab

Pregnant wife &child of RSS manslaughtered in ourown WB! Whateverthe reason for sucha gruesome act,shame on us!Madam CM! — Aparna Sen,

Filmmaker

New Delhi, Oct. 11: UttarPradesh has not pub-lished a single reportmandatory under theRTI Act since the trans-parency law came intobeing in 2005 whileChhattisgarh is the onlystate which has broughtout all its yearly reports,a voluntary group saidon Friday. TransparencyInternational India (TII)came out with its reporton the eve of RTI Day,when the transparencyregime started in thecountry on October 12,14 years ago. The report

analyses functioning of28 state informationcommissions in thecountry.

“Chhattisgarh is theonly state which haspublished (also available

on website) annualreports from the years2005 to 2018. However,only nine out of 28 states(excluding Jammu andKashmir) have pub-lished annual reports upto the year 2017-18.Publishing annualreport is mandatory asper RTI Act 2005,” TIIsaid. — PTI

U.P. YET TO FILE REPORTSMANDATORY UNDER RTI ACT

■ Continued from Page 1exotic lands to study,work and earn, they insti-gated ordinary Kashmiristo push their childreninto violence, stone pelt-ing and hartals (shut-downs). “They usedthreats of terrorists, coer-cion and misinformationto beguile people,” italleged, adding: “Todaymilitants are using thesame tactic of threats andcoercion”. It then asked:“Are we going to toleratethis?” Acknowledgingthat “we’re at the cross-roads today”, the govern-ment asked will the peo-ple permit the “age-oldtactic of threats and coer-cion” to influence them. Italso asked: “Will threatsand misinformation pre-vail or will we takeinformed decisions onwhat is best for us?”

The ad further reads:“Will we let a few postersand threats push us intonot resuming our busi-ness, not earning ourlegitimate livelihood, notsecuring a rightful educa-tion and secure future ofour children and not let-ting development bloomfor our Kashmir?”

It ends by saying: “Thisis our home... it is for usto think of its well-beingand prosperity. Whyfear?”

The ad is part of a sus-tained campaign spear-headed by the J&K gov-ernment via paid adver-tisements, flyers and

other media representa-tions to convince peoplethey will only benefitfrom the abrogation ofArticles 370 and 35A andto remove the fears intheir minds. Through onesuch ad which appearedin Srinagar dailies a fewdays ago, the governmenthad again sought toassure people that therewill be no threat to theunique culture and lan-guage of Kashmir andKashmiris or to any com-munity or religion, landor property after the abro-gation of these articles.

It also promised that,after the abrogation ofArticles 370 and 35A,development andprogress will trickledown to the grassroots inJammu, Kashmir andLadakh. “Investors willpump in capital andresources, industries andservices will be set up,employment opportuni-ties will multiply, big edu-cational institutes willproliferate, the health sec-tor will grow, the agricul-tural sector will be trans-formed, agro-processingwill take a leap forward,ecological and environ-mental provisions will beenforced and naturalbeauty will be pre-served,” it said. It added:“All fundamental rightsenjoyed by citizens in therest of the country will benow available to the resi-dents of Jammu,Kashmir and Ladakh.”

‘State not normal’■ Continued from Page 1the backdrop of the temple, whichwas lit up. Mr Modi later gave a tra-ditional Thanjavur painting of“Dancing Saraswati” — the Hindugoddess of learning — and a tradi-tional Tamil “Nachiarkoil” lamp toPresident Xi as a gift.

In the afternoon earlier, theChinese President landed atChennai airport shortly after 2 pmand was welcomed with two separatecontingents of folk dancers clad inred and green, after which a group ofBharatanatyam dancers regaled himon the tarmac with a brief perform-ance. President Xi waved to the folkand classical dancers. The ChinesePresident was received at the airportby Tamil Nadu governor BanwarilalPurohit, chief minister Edapaddi K.Palaniswami and deputy CM O.Panneerselvam.

Earlier, President Xi reachedMamallapuram at about 5 pm fromChennai by road and was then takenfor a tour of the monuments for thenext hour before the dance perform-ance. The two leaders settled downfor a one-to-one dinner at about 7pm, with South Indian vegetarianand non-vegetarian delicaciesserved. President Xi then left for anight’s rest back to his hotel inChennai. The two leaders will have aone-on-one meeting on Saturdaymorning at the Taj Fisherman’sCove resort near Mamallapuram forabout 50 minutes, followed by dele-gation-level talks for another hourthat will involve select high-rankingministers and officials. The Kashmirissue may come up during the one-on-one talks, apart from variousbilateral, regional with globalissues. At the delegation-level talks,bilateral issues like trade and theborder dispute are expected to fig-ure, as is usually the case.

Sculptures■ Continued from Page 1make all efforts to send SMSes in casethere is a flight delay beyond 30 min-utes or there is a gate change at theairport. Airlines must send repeatedSMS after every 30 minutes to keeppassengers updated on flight delays/cancellation/ boarding gate change,”the DGCA told the airlines.

In case of delays, the airlines wereasked to arrange for water, refresh-ments and meals as per norms and allhelp should be provided to senior citi-zens and all fliers with reduced mobil-ity. The CAR norms say airlines shallgive these facilities if the passengerhas checked in on time, and if the air-line expects a delay of more than twohours from its original announcedscheduled time of departure.

In addition, the airlines were askedto coordinate closely with travelagents. The travel agents now have toshare the mobile numbers of travel-ling passengers with the airlines forflight information updates and allnecessary assistance has to be provid-ed to the passengers for their connect-ing flights.

The DGCA also said the airlinesmust ensure the refund of airlinetickets through travel agents or por-tals swiftly. The airlines were told thatprompt redressal of passenger com-plaints should be their top priorityand must be attended to as per rele-vant CAR provisions. Complaints onthe social media like Twitter,Facebook, etc., must be promptlyattended to and resolved. Besides, air-lines need to periodically updatedetails of their nodal officers andappellant authority on their website.

The airlines were also asked toensure proper conduct and behaviourof their employees towards passen-gers. “Any laxity in this will beviewed seriously,” the DGCA told theairlines.

Flight delay

■ Continued from Page 1were also references in theconversation to excavationsin China that indicate thatancient Tamil traders hadperhaps built a Hindu tem-ple there in the 12th century.

In the backdrop of the cul-tural extravaganza atMamallapuram, the twoleaders had an “exchange ofviews on deepening of theIndia-China partnership”.

“Concluding a highly pro-ductive day with a pleasantconversation over a longdinner, PM @narendramodi& Chinese President Xi con-tinued their exchange ofviews on deepening of theIndia-China partnershipover a breathtakingKalakshetra

cultural performance fol-lowed by dinner,” MEAspokesperson RaveeshKumar tweeted.

“PM @narendramodi &Chinese President Xi con-tinue their conversation

against the backdrop ofShore temple, the last of themonuments visited by thetwo leaders in#Mamallapuram today…PM @narendramodi &Chinese President Xi have aquiet conversation at the‘five chariots’ at#Mamallapuram,” he hadtweeted before that.

New Delhi expects Beijingto be more sensitive to itsconcerns, especially on theKashmir issue. But so farChina has been completelybacking its all-weatherfriend Pakistan at the UNand other fora on the mat-ter. Earlier this week, indays leading up to the sum-mit, there were fireworksover a reference to Kashmirin a joint Sino-Pakistanstatement. New Delhi hitback, pointing out that J&Kis an integral part of Indiaand made it clear thatBeijing should not interferein India’s internal affairs.

PM, Xi discuss terror

Youth participate in a climate change demonstration as partof Global Climate Strike at Marine drive in Mumbai on Friday.

— PTI

WorldSATURDAY | 12 OCTOBER 2019 | NEW DELHITHE ASIAN AGE

Hopes aliveEU Council president Donald Tusk says he hasreceived promising signals from Irish PM LeoVaradkar that a Brexit deal is still possible

I am writing a bookto help build the

technologies to avoidthe worst impacts of

climate change— Bill Gates

Founder, Microsoft

IN BRIEF

5 killed in Mexicobar shooting

Mexico City: Armed attack-ers have killed five people at

a bar in the Mexican city ofSalamanca in north-central

Guanajuato state. ElUniversal reports that the

assailants burst into the barin the city center around

1.30 am and began shootingat customers and employ-

ees. The Salamanca citygovernment confirms the

killings in a statement, say-ing the victims were shot

dead before dawn onThursday. Guanajuato has

been a largely peaceful statewith farming, industry and

the colonial tourist magnetsof its eponymous capital.

But killings have surged oflate. Until August this year,

2,275 homicides were regis-tered, almost 2.5 times the

number seen in the sameperiod two years earlier.

Leonov, first manto spacewalk, dies

Moscow: Alexei Leonov, aSoviet-era cosmonaut who

was the first man to conducta spacewalk in 1965, died inMoscow on Friday aged 85after a long illness. Russian

space agency Roscosmosannounced the death of ‘cos-

monaut No. 11’ who wastwice decorated with thecountry’s top honour, theHero of the Soviet Union.

Leonov made history whenhe left a spacecraft during

the Voskhod 2 mission for aspacewalk that lasted 12

minutes and nine seconds.The spacewalk was success-

ful but his return to Earthnearly ended in tragedy

when Leonov crash-landed inSiberian woods.

3 dead in Chinabridge collapse

Beijing: Three people werekilled and two injured in

eastern China when a high-way overpass collapsed andcrushed cars below it, localofficials said Friday. Videos

posted online showed alarge section of the bridge in

Jiangsu province swayingbefore falling on top of mov-

ing vehicles on Thursdaynight. One clip posted onWeibo showed the bridge

narrowly missing a smallthree-wheeled car, whose

driver leapt out and ranaway. Other images showedcrushed cars, with only theirfront sections or headlights

visible under a huge block ofgrey concrete. A preliminary

investigation showed thecollapse had been caused by

an overloaded truck, theWuxi city government said in

a statement on Weibo.

THREE INDIANAMERICANSTO BE FETEDWashington, Oct. 11: An

international body of peopleof Indian origin will honourthree Indian Americans for

their contribution in thehealth field as well as for

promoting health awarenessamong the diaspora.

The Global Organisation ofPeople of Indian Origin

(GOPIO) will present theHealth Council Award to therecipients during the HealthCouncil Summit, organised

by it, on Saturday, accordingto a press release. While

Rahul Shukla, CEO of S.S.White Technologies and

Shukla Medicals, will receivethe award in manufacturingof latest medical equipmentcategory, Hitesh Bhatt, CEOof Bhatt Foundation Inc, willget the honour in healthcare

technology category.H.R. Shah, chairman and

CEO of TV Asia, will be hon-oured for promoting health

awareness among the Indiandiaspora. The GOPIO will

also honour US-based firmSabinsa Corporation, found-

ed in 1988 by Indian-originMuhammed Majeed, for itsachievement and contribu-tions in the health supple-

ments sector.— Agencies

Villagers and maritime officers check on whales stranded on Kolo Udju beach on the coast of Menia Village, EastNusa Tenggara on Friday. At least 17 whales were found stranded in Indonesia’s southern East Nusa Tenggaraprovince while seven have died so far. — AFP

Turk forces push deeperinto Syria, hundreds dead

IMRAN TO VISITSAUDI FIRSTBEFORE LANDINGIN IRAN TODAY

Five injured in massstabbings at UK mall

Whales stranded on Indonesia island

Erdogan says Turkey won’t halt military offensiveMEHMET GUZELAKCAKALE, TURKEY, OCT. 11

Turkish forces pusheddeeper into northeasternSyria on Friday, the thirdday of Ankara’s offensiveagainst US-allied SyrianKurdish fighters, as casu-alties mounted, interna-tional criticism of thecampaign intensified andthousands of civilians fledthe violence.According to reports from

various sources, casualtieson the second day of offen-sive have run into hun-dreds. Several Turkishcivilians and one soldierswere confirmed killed onFriday.

Turkey said it capturedmore Kurdish-held vil-lages in the border region,while a camp for displacedresidents about 12 kilome-ters (7 miles) from thefrontier was evacuatedafter artillery shells land-ed nearby amid intenseclashes. Aid agencies havewarned of a humanitariancrisis, with nearly a half-million people at risk nearthe border.

US President DonaldTrump cleared the way forTurkey’s air and groundassault after he pulledAmerican troops fromtheir positions near theborder, drawing swiftbipartisan criticism thathe was endangeringregional stability andabandoning SyrianKurdish forces thatbrought down the IslamicState group in Syria.

Mr Trump has warnedTurkey to act with moder-

ation and safeguard civil-ians, and the Pentagonsaid the operation is athreat to progress in com-batting IS militants and apotential threat to U.S.troops in Syria.

Plumes of black smokebillowed Friday from theSyrian border town of TalAbyad as Turkey contin-ued bombarding the areain an offensive that wasprogressing "successfullyas planned," the Turkishdefense ministry said.

Turkish ForeignMinister MevlutCavusoglu has said themilitary intends to move30 kilometers (19 miles)into northern Syria andthat its operation will lastuntil all "terrorists areneutralised." Nato mem-ber Turkey considers theSyrian Kurdish fighters tobe terrorists linked to aKurdish insurgency insideTurkey and says the offen-sive is a counterterrorismoperation necessary for its

own national security.The defense ministry

statement reported thedeath of two Turkish sol-diers, with three wounded,but did not give details.Defense Minister HulusiAkar said 342 "terrorists"— Ankara’s term forSyrian Kurdish militia-men — have been killed sofar. The figure could not beindependently verified.Syrian activists say onlyeight fighters were killed.

The Kurdish militia hasfired dozens of mortarsinto border towns insideTurkey in the past twodays, including Akcakale,according to officials intwo provinces on theTurkish side. They said atleast nine civilians werekilled, including a 9-month-old boy and threegirls under 15.

Mourners in Akcakalecarried the coffin of theslain boy, MohammedOmar Saar, as many shout-ed, "Damn the PKK!" — AP

London, Oct. 11: A massstabbing at a busy shop-ping centre in the Britishcity of Manchester onFriday left five peopleinjured, prompting thecounter-terrorism offi-cers to take a lead of theinvestigation into theattack.

Greater ManchesterPolice (GMP) said thatgiven the location andnature of the incident,specialist officers are con-tinuing to investigateafter a man was arrestedon suspicion of seriousassault.

The shopping centre isin the vicinity of theManchester Arena, whichwas the site of a terror

attack by an Islamic Stateclaimed suicide bomberin 2017, who killed 22 peo-ple during an ArianaGrande concert.

“We can confirm thatfive people have beenstabbed and taken to hos-pital. Given the locationof the incident and itsnature, officers fromCounter Terrorism PoliceNorth West are leadingthe investigation as wedetermine the circum-stances,” the GMP state-ment said.

However, the policeforce said it is keeping anopen mind about themotivation of the terribleincidents.

— PTI

SHAFQAT ALIISLAMABAD, OCT. 11

P a k i s t a nP r i m eM i n i s t e rImran Khanhas decidedto visit Iranbefore SaudiArabia’s tour, officialssaid.

The Premier is expect-ed to leave for Iran onSunday on a one-day tripwhere he will meet topIranian leadership, theofficials said.

Imran Khan will holdtalks with Iran regard-ing tensions with SaudiArabia and then departfor Riyadh from Iran.

PM Imran Khan willmediate talks betweenIran and Saudi Arabia.The prime minister willalso highlight Kashmirissue in Tehran andRiyadh.

The government andthe Foreign Office havebeen preparing for PMKhan’s visits to SaudiArabia and Iran, accord-ing to the sources.

During his visit to theUS last month, the pre-mier had told reportersthat US PresidentDonald Trump andSaudi Crown PrinceMohammad bin Salmanhad asked him to medi-ate with Iran.

Mr Khan said he hadspoken to IranianPresident HasanRouhani on de-escala-tion in regional tensionsand the possibility ofanother deal.

Pro-Turkish Syrian fighters pray in a deployment area inSyria’s northeastern town of Ras al-Ain in the Hasakehprovince along the Turkish border on Friday. — AFP

AMIR HAVASITEHRAN, OCT. 11

Suspected missile strikeshit an Iranian oil tanker offthe Saudi coast on Friday,its owner said, the firstIranian vessel targetedsince a spate of attacks inthe Gulf Washingtonblamed on Tehran.

The National IranianTanker Company, whichowns the ship, said the hullof the Sabiti was hit by twoseparate explosions off theSaudi port of Jeddah, say-ing they were “probablycaused by missile strikes”.

Oil prices surged morethan two percent on thenews, which raised freshsupply concerns with ten-sions still high after last

month’s attacks on twoSaudi crude facilities.

The International EnergyAgency warned againstmarket complacency afterthe attack, as it noted that aquick recovery of outputand fears of a global eco-nomic slowdown hadalready seen prices recoverfrom the Septemberattacks on Saudi oil infra-structure.

The blasts come justweeks after two of SaudiArabia’s biggest oil instal-lations were hit, wiping outfive percent of global pro-duction.

The National IranianTanker Company said thehull of the vessel was hitby two separate explosionsabout 100 kilometres (60

miles) off the Saudi coast.It identified the tanker as

the Sabiti and said theblasts were “probablycaused by missile strikes”.

“All the ship’s crew aresafe and the ship is stabletoo,” NITC said, addingthose on board were tryingto repair the damage.

Iran’s foreign ministrysaid the tanker wasattacked “from a locationclose to the corridor it waspassing, east of the RedSea,” stopping short ofnaming Saudi Arabia.

Oil was leaking from the

tanker into the Red Sea.“The responsibility of

this incident, including theserious environmental pol-lution, falls on the perpe-trators of this recklessact,” said ministryspokesman AbbasMousavi, adding that inves-tigations are continuing.

According to ship track-ing serviceTankerTrackers, the Sabitiis fully laden with one mil-lion barrels and hasdeclared the Gulf as itsdestination.

According to Iranianstate television, the blastscould have been the resultof a “terrorist attack.”

Pictures published by thetelevision showed theship’s deck without any

outward signs of damage.It comes after a spate of

still unexplained attackson shipping in and aroundthe vital seaway to the Gulfinvolving Iran andWestern powers.

Washington accusedTehran of attacking thevessels with mines, some-thing it strongly denied.

There have also beenseizures of both Iranianand Western-flagged ves-sels and twin attacksclaimed by Yemeni rebelsallied with Iran on keySaudi oil infrastructure.

Both Washington andRiyadh blamed Tehran forthose attacks, which wipedout five percent of globalproduction. Iran againdenied any role. — AFP

Iran tanker hit by missile off Saudi coast

Picture released Iranian state TV IRIB shows the Iraniancrude oil tanker Sabiti sailing in the Red Sea. — AFP

■ The NationalIranian TankerCompany, whichowns the ship, saidthe hull of the Sabitiwas hit by two sepa-rate explosions offthe Saudi port ofJeddah■ Oil prices surgedmore than two per-cent on the news

UK TO ISSUE COIN IN HONOUROF GANDHILondon, Oct.11: The UKg ove r n m e n twill issue acommemora-tive coin tomark the 150thb i r t h d a yanniversary of MahatmaGandhi, British financeminister Sajid Javid said.

The Pakistani-originminister said he hadasked the UK’s RoyalMint to work on the coinso that the world neverforgot what Gandhitaught it.

Javid announced theplan on Thursday at theannual GG2 LeadershipAwards event held here tocelebrate the most influ-ential members of UK’sSouth Asian community.

“Tonight’s awards cele-brate the 150th birthdayof Gandhi — a fittingtime to announce thatI’ve asked the Royal Mintof the UK to propose anew commemorative coinin his honour. We shouldnever forget what Gandhitaught the world,” saidthe British Chancellor ofthe Exchequer.

In 1888, Gandhi left forLondon to attend lawschool. He attended theUniversity College ofLondon and was called tothe bar in 1891.

— PTI

Minneapolis, Oct. 11:President Donald Trumpwas defiant in the face ofan impeachment probe ashe sought to convert thethreat to his presidencyinto a weapon on the cam-paign trail, with bitingand unsupported attackson potential Democraticchallenger Joe Biden.

Confronting an investi-gation provoked by hisunprecedented calls forUkraine and then Chinato assist in digging up dirton his political rivals,Trump continued to layinto Biden and his sonHunter, whom he and hisallies have accused, with-out evidence, of illegallyprofiting off his father’soffice.

"The Bidens got rich,and that is substantiated,while America gotrobbed," Trump said.While the young Biden didhave business interestoverseas while he fatherwas in office, there is noevidence of misconduct.Trump’s adult childrenhave faced congressionalscrutiny for their foreignbusiness dealings whiletheir father is serving aspresident, and Trump stillmaintains ownershipstakes in his family’s busi-nesses.

The rally inMinneapolis, the firstsince Democrats beganproceedings two weeksago to remove him fromoffice, served as a provingground for the presidentas he tries to use theimpeachment inquiry toenergize supporters forhis 2020 campaign by cast-ing himself — and hissupporters — as victimsof WashingtonDemocrats.

The performancerevealed a defense strate-gy largely detached fromthe allegations Trumpfaces. Trump spent littletime defending hisattempt to pressure theUkrainian president toinvestigate the Bidens.Instead, he cast theimpeachment fight in sim-pler basic terms — a bat-tle between him and the"swamp." — AP

Don attacks Biden, slamsimpeachment probe

MahatmaGandhi

Donald Trump

U.S. EX-ENVOY TO UKRAINE TO TESTIFY IN PROBEWashington, Oct. 11: Theformer US ambassador toUkraine arrived atCongress Friday for a dep-osition before lawmakerseager to learn what sheknows about an adminis-tration pressure campaignon Kiev that triggered animpeachment inquiry intoPresident Donald Trump.

The closely-watchedappearance of MarieYovanovitch could be abreakthrough for HouseDemocrats seeking first-hand details about effortsby Trump, includingthrough his personallawyer Rudy Giuliani, topressure Ukraine to inves-tigate his 2020 rival JoeBiden.

Her deposition in closedsession before three Housecommittees had been castinto doubt after the WhiteHouse announced it wouldnot cooperate with theimpeachment process ormake documents or per-sonnel available toDemocratic investigators.

— AFP

ImranKhan

AGE CORRESPONDENTISLAMABAD, OCT. 11

Pakistan military onFriday sacked threeMajors for violating dis-cipline.

The Inter-ServicesPublic Relations (ISPR),

the military’s mediawing, said: “Upon foundguilty of charges levelledagainst them, all threehave been dismissedfrom service while twohave been also awardedrigorous imprisonmentfor two years each.”

PAK MILITARY SACKS THREE MAJORS

Seoul, Oct 11: SouthKorea's Army said onFriday that it will cut itsforce by 100,000 in thenext three years in theface of a shrinking popu-lation.

Seoul, a keyWashington ally, con-scripts able-bodied menfor two years of serviceto defend the countryfrom the nuclear-armedNorth and its much larg-er army, which invadedthe South in 1950 backedby communist alliesChina and the SovietUnion. The war endedthree years later in anarmistice, not a peacetreaty, leaving the South

and North technically atwar.

Troops will be cutdown from the currentlevel of 464,000 by 2022,the Army said in areport to MPs, accordingto the South's Yonhapnews agency.

In line with the reduc-tions, the number ofArmy corps will be downto six from the currenteight by 2022 and divi-sions from 38 to 33 by2025, the Army stated.

S. Korea's combinedforce of 600,000 person-nel is already muchsmaller than the North'snearly 1.3 million strongmilitary. — AFP

S. Korea to shrinkArmy by 100,000

Nearly six years after India faced its last economic crisis because of UStaper tantrums, the economy appears to be witnessing its worst time.Though analysts cite the ill-executed demonetisation, ill-timed intro-duction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and global factors like

subdued global consumption and an increasingly protectionist environment,the government had always refused to admit the reality. Now that it has takennote of the gravity of the problem, it does not seem to have any clue on how toresolve it.

The government did not learn its lessons from a near-crisis in 2013 thatcaused investor pullout in anticipation of the US Fed capping its dollar infu-sion. Instead of using record low oil prices from 2014 to boost consumption, itstruck a blow to consumers with its ill-executed note ban of 2016. Just eightmonths thereafter, it hurriedly rolled out a disruptive GST, apparently in thehope that this indirect tax reform would swell its coffers as the Value AddedTax (VAT) did years ago in 2005. However, it failed to appreciate the changedglobal conditions and did not take into account the impact of demonetisationon the economy.

The effect of this poor judgment is for all to see: The GST collection inSeptember recorded a 19-month-low of `91,916 crores. The growth of the coun-

try’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) declinedto five per cent in the April-June quarter ofthe current financial year. Automobile salesare in decline for several months. The coresector — consisting of eight key sectors ininfrastructure — witnessed a negativegrowth of 0.5 per cent in August. Its rippleeffect could be seen in the Index in IndustrialProduction for August, which shrunk by 1.1per cent — the lowest since 2012. Worryingly,manufacturing has shrunk by 27 per cent.The logical corollary of this is that therewould be no immediate job creation.Consumer durables production has also con-tracted by nine per cent, which means peopleare postponing spending — a developmentthat could discourage companies from spend-

ing on new projects or adding new jobs.After spending years in denial, the government has started taking steps to

put money back in the hands of corporates by slashing corporate tax. There isalso speculation that it could slash income tax rates to leave more money withpeople and thereby start a cycle of consumption, investment, jobs, and againconsumption. This seemed like a well-conceived plan to take India out of slow-down mode. However, the GST Council decided on Friday to appoint a com-mittee to recommend measures to increase indirect collections, includinganti-evasion measures. This appears to be a decision taken in panic because ofa shocking decline in GST collections in September. There are also reports ofthe CBDT asking its officers to increase tax collections. However, while thegovernment should take all steps to collect the tax which is due to it, any hard-ball tactics in the current environment could be counter-productive. Theimmediate task for the government is to have a singular focus on improvinginvestment and inspire confidence among people about their future.

12 OCTOBER 2019

He didn’t start the fire. The Austrian playwright of part-Sloveniandescent was not present in the Balkans during the 1992-95 war whichincluded the genocide of 8,000 Bosnian Muslims and gave the world the

words — “ethnic cleansing” — an abominable term. But Peter Handke, whowas on Thursday awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize for Literature, was cavalierenough to have published his travelogue, A Journey to the Rivers: Justice forSerbia, in 1996, based on his limited observations during his circumscribedmovements in Belgrade and parts of then-conflict-riven Bosnia-Herzegovina.It accused the Western powers of misrepresenting the cause of the conflict.But it also cast the reprehensible killers as helpless victims.

A few years on, Handke had gone on to deny the fact of the genocide. He mis-reported it instead as strife among Muslims. The choice of falsehood to makehis case betrayed a mindset, all too common among far right nationalists.Curiously, although he had been a head of the Communist Party while alsobeing dubbed by some as a political opportunist, former Serbian leaderSlobodan Milosevic who presided over the Srebrenica massacre is in manyways a precursor to the rise of far right nationalism in Europe and the world.

Writing has a moral compass. Quite unlike his brethren, a writer and publicintellectual bears a supreme responsibility of honesty. Among journalists,there is a saying that a reporter is only as good as his last story. Although hehad produced some quality work way back in the seventies, on surrealism andpsychology, since the mid-nineties, Handke’s output has revolved aroundapologising for the Milosevic regime. Has his dishonesty blocked him? AsAlbanian Prime Minister Edi Rama commented, “Given the disgracefulchoice made from a moral authority like the Nobel Academy, shame is sealedas a new value. No, we can't become so numb to racism and genocide.”

In the current climate of impunity, with legions of poseurs and fake icono-clasts waiting in the wings, including in India, to be feted in a quid-pro-quobetween intelligentsia and fascists, can we afford to be?

In 1911, the Swedish Academy had awarded the Nobel Peace Prize toAustrian journalist Alfred Hermann Fried, co-founder of the German Peacemovement. This award marks a departure from that principle.

It is a veritable scandal. And an early warning.

Feting Handke’s inhumanity?

After ignoring warnings,govt can’t play hardball

THE ASIAN AGET. VENKATRAM REDDY

Editor in Chief

Printer & Publisher: T. VENKATESWARLU

THE ASIAN AGE offices are located at:New Delhi: Jawaharlal Nehru National Youth Centre, 219 Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg, New Delhi-110002. Phone: (011) 23211124.Mumbai: Sigma House, # 43, Ground Floor, R. A. Kidwai Marg, Near Wadala Rly Station, Wadala (West), Mumbai -400 031 Phone (022) 24195301 Fax (022) 24195347Kolkata: 4th Floor, Chowdhury Building, 8/1A Little Russel Street, Kolkata 700 071.Phone: (033) 2289 0676/77 Fax (033) 2289 0686Registered as a newspaper at the Post Office in the United Kingdom Air surcharge for Kathmandu and J&K `1Published and Printed on behalf of and for◗ Deccan Chronicle Holdings Limited, Jawaharlal Nehru National Youth Centre, 219 Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg, New Delhi 110 002 at BFL Infotech Ltd., C-9, Sector-III, Noida -201301.◗ Mumbai: Dangat Media Pvt Ltd, Plot No 22, Digha MIDC, TTC Industrial Estate Area, Vishnu Nagar, Digha, Navi Mumbai-400708.◗ Kolkata: Satyajug Employees Cooperative Industrial Society Ltd, 13/A, Prafulla Sarkar Street, Kolkata 700 072. ◗ London: Quickmarsh Ltd, 8th Floor, Block 2, Elizabeth House, 39 York Road, London, SE1 7NQ.RNI Registration number: 57290/94 Postal registration numbers: DL(S)-05/4189/15-17

The government didnot learn its lessonsfrom a near-crisis in

2013 that causedinvestor pullout.Instead of using

record low oil pricesfrom 2014 to boost

consumption, it strucka blow to consumerswith its ill-executed

note ban of 2016.

c m y k c m y k

Love always wins. Killing others is a defeat,to those who tried to divide us

I have come to believe that this is a mightycontinent which was hitherto unknown

ABIY AHMED ALIMIND POWER

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS PAGE

6EditSATURDAY | 12 OCTOBER 2019 | NEW DELHITHE ASIAN AGE

J&K smokescreen won’thide economic spasms

For a change, noone in PrimeMinister Nar-endra Modi’sgovernment or

in the ruling BharatiyaJanata Party (BJP) istalking about makingIndia a $5 trillion econo-my by 2024 any longer.They have rightly fallensilent on the issue. Theeconomy, which was a“sweet spot” during thefirst few years ofNarendra Modi’s firstterm, had turned into atight spot after theemphatic victory in theLok Sabha elections thissummer. No irony isintended because theBJP did not win the gen-eral election on its eco-nomic achievements.The news on the econom-ic front, as it standstoday, is pretty grim, tosay the least.

Union finance ministerNirmala Sitharaman hasbeen bravely grapplingwith the situation, turn-ing back firmly on herfirst Budget and takingwhat can be described asemergency measures topull the economy out ofthe doldrums, creatinglarger public sectorbanks (PSBs) throughmergers and recapitalis-ing some others, reduc-ing corporate taxes inthe hope that things willget better soon.

The declaration by thenewly-chosen managingdirector of theInternational MonetaryFund (IMF), KristalinaGeorgieva, that 90 percent of the world econo-my will have its worstgrowth rate since the2008 global financialmeltdown, the not-so-good rating for India onthe Global CompetitiveIndex of the WorldEconomic Forum, andthe Reserve Bank ofIndia revising the esti-mated growth rate for2019-20 from 6.9 per centto 6.1 per cent only addsto the pain of the coun-try’s stupefied economy.The only silver lining inthe RBI’s assessment isthe good monsoon this

year, which shouldensure a good agricultur-al output, which in itsturn should lead togreater rural demand.But it remains a pioushope at the momentbecause the global tradewars, especially betweenChina and the UnitedStates, and the subduedglobal commodity pricescould make things diffi-cult for the nationaleconomy in 2020-21,though the RBI has pro-jected seven per centgrowth in the next finan-cial year.

It is indeed a point ofdebate whether the post-Budget policy tweaks ofMs Sitharaman wouldprove effective or not.But it is not necessary toprejudge their effective-ness. What is of real con-cern is the fact that thereis a lull in both privateinvestment and privateconsumption. In the firstterm of the Modi govern-ment, what had kept theeconomy clocking a rea-sonable average growthrate of seven per centwas public investmentand private consump-tion. The government’szeal for public invest-ment has cooled down abit. And the people arehesitating to spendenough to create thedemand that will set themanufacturing and ser-vice sectors humming.

Mr Modi and his col-leagues in the govern-ment will have to ponderover the invisible eco-nomic lockdown that isthe cause behind thedecelerated growth rate.

Both big and small busi-nesses are tightlippedabout their venturesbecause they are holdingthemselves back. So,whatever happened tothe improved Ease ofDoing Business rankingof the past few years?Why is it not showing upin economic bustle? Whyis it that Mr Modi had todo a desperate sales pitchfor American businessesto invest in India in NewYork last month in thesame tone that he did inWashington in 2014when he visited theUnited States immediate-ly after taking over asPrime Minister? Therehas been an increase ofabout $60 billion in for-eign direct investment(FDI) in the past fiveyears, but it has notimpacted the growth ratein the same proportion.Foreign portfolio invest-ments have been comingin and going out of thecountry at a brisk pace.

It is not surprising thenthat BJP president andUnion home ministerAmit Shah, who is theparty’s chief campaignerin the Haryana andMaharashtra Assemblyelections to be held onOctober 21, is harpingloudly and clearly andwithout any let-up on theModi government’s deci-sion to abrogate Article370 of the Constitutiongranting a special statusto Jammu and Kashmirand on implementing theNational Register forCitizens (NRC) in allparts of the country. Heis deftly side-stepping theeconomic challenges fac-ing the government. MrShah and the party mustbe happy that they havesucceeded in taking theattention away from thetroubling issue. But thepeople’s sense of uneaseover the stuttering econ-omy remains.

Rashtriya Swayam-sevak Sangh (RSS)sarsangchalak Mohan

Bhagwat dismissing con-cerns over the economicslowdown as exaggerat-ed is of no real value, butit does not have much ofan impact because he isnot a part of the govern-ment or the BJP. It is thesilence of Mr Modi, theman who speaks, overthe economy that isinteresting. He has notreferred to it in hismonthly radio talk,Mann Ki Baat. It indi-rectly reflects the view ofthe government that theslowdown is a temporarything, and there is noneed to lose any sleepover it, and that therewill be a recovery soonerthan later. But the recov-ery looks unlikely in theshort term, and it is theshort term problem thataffects people the most.

The unverified infor-mation that the govern-ment plans to extendimport duties fromonions to many morethings as a way to boost“Make In India” can turnout to be a bad idea.Unlike US PresidentDonald Trump, PrimeMinister Modi andChinese President XiJinping have been argu-ing for a free trade sys-tem because that is theneed of emergingeconomies like India andChina.

So it is finance ministerNirmala Sitharamanwho is left to hold thesquealing economy. Sheis doing what she can. Itwould be helpful if othersin the government,including Mr Modi,stepped out and spokeabout the economic chal-lenges facing the countryin a realistic manner,without any hyperbole,as that would improvethe image of the govern-ment.

The writer is a Delhi-based commentator and

analyst

What is of real con-cern is that there is a

lull in both privateinvestment and pri-

vate consumption. Inthe first term of the

Modi government,what kept the econo-

my clocking a reason-able growth rate was

public investment andprivate consumption.

Prime Minister Modiand Chinese President

Xi have been arguingfor a free trade system

because that is theneed of emerging

economies like Indiaand China. So it is

finance ministerSitharaman who is left

to hold the squealingeconomy.

Both big and smallbusinesses aretightlipped about theirventures because theyare holding themselves back. So, whatever hap-pened to the improvedEase of DoingBusiness ranking ofthe past few years?

RECESSION ALARMUS RATING multinational Moody'sInvestor Services cut its 2019-20growth forecast for in India to 5.8 percent from its earlier projection of 6.8as the Indian economy is experien-cing a pronounced slowdown onaccount of multiple domestic andlong-lasting factors. Rising unemp-loyment, especially among theyoung, will continue to weigh downhousehold consumption and GDPgrowth. This forecast is, however,lower than what the Reserve Bank ofIndia had projected earlier. It is awake-up call for our government.Will they take the right steps?

C.K. RamaniNavi Mumbai

NEW BATTING HEROMAYANK AGARWAL’S stirringcentury on the opening day of the sec-ond Test in Pune shows that his dou-ble ton in Vishakapatnam was noflash in the pan. The Karnatakaopener's appetite for runs has grownby leaps and bounds, and his three-figure knock is just what the doctorordered to address India’s openingwoes. With skipper Virat Kohli (254n/o) and Ravindra Jadeja (91) alsocoming up with stellar knocks, theIndians are in a position to go for thejugular.

N.J. Ravi ChanderBengaluru

LETTERSLET THEM CHEERIn a historic moment forsports, Iran ended a 38-year ban by allowingwomen to watch thecountry's World Cup soc-cer match at a Tehran sta-dium on Thursday.Women had been barredfrom watching men'sgames since shortly afterthe 1979 Islamic revolu-tion. But Fifa stepped uppressure on Iran to allowwomen to attend WorldCup matches followingthe death of a footballfan, Sahar Khodayari, whoset herself on fire protest-ing against a six-monthprison sentence for tryingto enter a stadiumdressed as a man. Wewelcome the accessgranted to women by theIranian authorities andurge them to open upstadiums to women for allgames, not just WorldCup matches.

Khokan DasKolkata

Every Monday the best letter ofthe week wins `500. Email:

[email protected]

Subhani

Parsa Venkateshwar Rao Jr

OpedSATURDAY | 12 OCTOBER 2019 | NEW DELHITHE ASIAN AGE

DOMOTICS JOMOWord SPY

Information technology in the home

The pleasure derived from no longer worrying aboutmissing out on what other people are doing or saying

“Get out of bed my friend The tea is getting cold;To the breach my comradesThe enemy’s getting bold;The legends are exhausted Every story has been told;Look up into the void and seeSpace and time unrolled…”

— From Al Sikander to AsLikander by Bachchoo

Movements take timebefore they becomemass and then theytake time to takeeffect. Indian

Independence, first mooted togrant us a democracy in the lateeighteenth century, became amass movement and came toflawed fruiting fifty or so yearslater.

From the observations of scien-tists and the world’s experience ofstorms, unusual temperatures,floods and furious argumentsbetween climate-change activistsand deniers, a mass movementhas grown, at least in the West,demanding that “something be done”.

This week the centres of Londonand other UK cities have seenhundreds of thousands ofmarchers and campers, protestingin the movement called ExtinctionRebellion or XR. In Londonthey’ve stopped traffic to and inthe centre, have chained them-selves to the bottoms of lorriesand cars stalled in the middle ofroads and bridges to defy thepolice to drag them to their deathsand invaded the airports to pre-vent flights from landing or taking off.

Hundreds of them have been

arrested by the police who are,unlike the police forces of HongKong, been benign but firm. Everyday one witnesses on TV, or inperson if one has ventured out tojoin the XR rebels, men andwomen, young and old beingdragged by a couple of coppersaway from the railings to whichthey had attached themselves. We saw an 83-year-old protestorarrested for the third time this week.

UK’s Prime Minister BorisJohnson (still clinging on whenthis column was written), has incharacteristic prose described therebels as “unco-operativecrusties.” The latter term, in thecontemptuous argot of the Britishbourgeoisie means someone toopoor or callous to have a bath. Hisuse of the word was supposed toconvey connotations far beyondpersonal hygiene. He was imply-ing that these were tramps andpeople on the fringes of productivesociety – hippies, anarchists andhabitual rent-a-crowd protestors.

As usual, Boris, unable to bowl astraight ball, was spinning thetruth. The rebellion is manifestlyand demonstrably supported bypeople from right across the socio-economic spectrum. There weregroups of doctors, teachers, popstars and very famous performerswho are far from poor or unwill-ing to buy soap and shampoo.There were even some policemenand an ex-senior cop on theprotest was interviewed and saidhe was taking action now onbehalf of future generations.

The Rebellion, active in severalcountries, is undoubtedly awarethat there have been hundreds ofdebates at the highest level of thestate, debating climate change.There have been resolutions,resisted by some major offendingcountries, on progressively limit-ing carbon emissions. There havebeen moves in several countriesand in alliances such as theEuropean Union to pass regula-tions to address the problem of

‘global warming’ — a term thatepitomises all the vaunted disas-ters of climate change in onesymptom.

XR says none of this is fastenough or far-reaching enough toaddress the impending disaster.For thousands of years placard-holders and billboard-wallahshave been announcing that “TheEnd of The World Is Nigh”. Theseprophets had biblical or other reli-gious or Nostradamic evidence fortheir predictions and were and aretreated by the general public asfreaks, eccentrics, doom-sayersand possibly objects of derisoryamusement. That’s probablybecause biblical and Nostradamicevidence may convince those withfaith in the bible and inNostradamus, but is regarded bythe rest of us as, at best, unreliableindicators of the planet’s futureand at worst as utter bovine dropping.

And now, gentle reader, comesthe mass movement of XR – thou-sands of people on the streets,vehemently declaring that the endof the world is nigh. These thou-sands protest and insist that theirconviction is based on the discov-eries of the same science and thesame processes of evidence,deduction and projection as thatwhich makes aeroplanes fly, inter-nal combustion engines work,mobile phones communicate andspace travel possible.

Though they don’t put it in so

many words, their claim is tanta-mount to saying that Newton,Einstein, Darwin and gang are theforefathers of the traditionthrough which they deduce theirscientific conviction that humanaction on the planet is threateningto destroy it unless the behaviourand productive and consumptivepatterns of all nations are drasti-cally altered. Whew!

There are counter-argumentswhich those now labelled as“deniers” and vilified as nasty asNazi-sympathising Holocaustexcusers say uses the same sci-ence to attribute global warmingto cyclical planetary change andto changes in nuclear activity onthe sun. This is not, gentle reader,the forum in which to reproducethe arguments and the scientificjustifications of either side.

What’s crucial is whether XRwill ever become a mass move-ment in, say, a country which hasa lot of modern science knockingabout, but whose masses predomi-nantly believe that weather andclimate, rain and thunder arecaused by the will of the gods. XRdepends entirely on the connec-tion between burning fossil fuels,sending carbon dioxide andmethane into the atmosphere,causing a shield called green-house gases… nothing to do withthe will of any rain or sun orstorm-cloud god or the drums andinvocations sent out to plead withhim or her.

One reads that the glacier atGangotri, the source of MotherGanga, is melting — owing to glob-al warming. The shape of the cavi-ty from which the holy river’sfirst source emerges has changed.Will this simple fact get the pil-grims who go there and otherbelievers to amalgamate scienceand urgency with their faith?

Can and will India, through thisamalgamation, generate theworld’s largest XR ever with pray-ing, drumming and chantingcrowds demanding the govern-ment take action?

Seeing the saintly lives ofindividuals, a questioncan crop up in one’smind: “Whether peopleare born saints or do

they achieve it by their ownefforts?” While we have manyself-proclaimed holy men, womenand saints with a huge following,sometimes with the help of publicrelations, there are many othergenuine saints whose holy livesare lived in quiet isolation,prayer and meditation.

There are other saints whoacquire their sainthood livingactive lives, mainly by serving

the poor and the needy.The Catholic Church hasa set of strict criteriathat a person must passbefore the Church woulddeclare him/her a saint,even if, like in the case ofMother Teresa, a largenumber of people already vener-ate them as a saint. In any case,no person, however saintly a lifehe/she has lived, is declared offi-cially a saint either in their life-time or soon after their death.Sometimes the process of declar-ing someone a saint could takedecades.

This Sunday —October 13 —Pope Francis will be declaring inRome five more holy men andwomen from different parts of theworld to be included in theChurch’s calendar of saints. Theceremony is called canonisation.One among them finding a placeof pride is St. Mariam Thresia,hailing from India. The other

four are: John HenryNewman from England;Italian Sister GiuseppinaVannini; Brazilian SisterDulce Lopes Pontes;Marguerite Bays ofSwitzerland.

Born in 1876, MariamThresia as a young child alreadyhad an intense desire to love God.She would fast four times a weekand pray the Rosary severaltimes daily. When her family fellinto poverty, her father andbrother often turned to drink.And sadly, her mother died whenThresia was 12. After completingher schooling, she longed for alife of solitude in contemplation,prayer and penance. But she soonabandoned this plan, turninginstead to serve the poor, nursethe sick, and comfort the lonely.

In 1913, she built a house ofprayer, where she and her threecompanions could live like her-mits, devoting themselves to aus-

tere lives of prayer and penance,while continuing their mission ofservice to the poor and the sick.There were many spiritual expe-riences that characterised herlife. She died in 1926.

Marian Thresia’s life, as alsothe lives of other saints basicallytell us that they were all bornordinary human beings like usbut with God’s grace, and theirresponse to God, like them, wetoo can progress on the path toholiness. Their lives teach us thatdespite worldly distractions andpainful life experiences, if weonly focus on God’s unfailinglove for us, we too can be countedamong His holy ones. God giveseach one sufficient grace to getstarted on this unique journey.

Father Dominic Emmanuel, afounder-member of the

Parliament of Religions, can becontacted at

[email protected]

Gangotri is melting: Will Indiansrespond with world’s largest ‘XR’?

Canonisation after a life of holiness

For the first time in the history ofIndependent India, the IRCTC,although a PSU under the min-istry of railways, but still an

entity on its own, will run two passen-ger trains to begin with. BeforeIndependence, the Indian rail networkand its operations were managed byvarious private entities. The freighttrains have already been operated byprivate players in competition with theIndian Railways. So, strictly speaking,introducing private passenger trains isnot a revolutionary step per se.However, given the fact that the IndianRailways has been operated sinceIndependence as a department (noteven as a PSU) of the Government ofIndia with no scope for private playersto pitch in, this is a much-needed posi-tive change. Since the Indian Railwaysenjoyed the monopoly of running railmode, it cared little for the introductionof state-of-the-art technologies in infra-structure, integrated systems androlling stock on par with the countrieswhich are advanced in rail transport.When private bus operators copycatrail transport in terms of the smoothride by introducing multi-axle Volvoand Scania buses, introduced sleepercoaches in buses and even providedchemical toilets, the Indian Railwaysremained predominantly stagnant interms of quality of service offered to thepassengers on board, except in premi-um trains such as the Rajdhani and theShatabdi. The state road transport cor-porations introduced multi-axle Volvoand Scania buses in their fleet tocounter omni bus operators monopolis-ing premium segment passengers. Thearrival of private players in air travelin the 2000s increased competition,reduced ticket prices and therebyincreased the volume of domestic pas-senger traffic. Had roads and skies notbeen opened for private players, ourroad and air services would haveremained lackadaisical even today.

There is much apprehension aboutprivate trains from some quarters andlet us explore how far they are correct.The first one is that the private playerswill fix the prices too high that commonpeople cannot travel anymore by rail.Before the opening of skies for privateplayers, the monopolised prices of AirIndia never allowed the proliferation ofair travel even among upper middleclass, let alone the middle classes. Onlyafter the entry of low-cost private air-lines, the metamorphosis took place. Asa result, domestic air passengers wentup from 1.4 crore in 2000 to 13.90 croresin 2018, which is a ten-fold increase. It isleft to private train operators to strate-gise how they will achieve profitabilityeven in the presence of a price war andattracting passengers by giving valuefor money. The next apprehension is onthe safety and security of passengerswhile travelling by private trains. Likethe Indian Railways, the private play-ers may also lease trains from theIndian Railway Finance Corporation(IRFC). Or else they can bring theirstate-of-the-art trains which consumeless energy and provide a smooth rideeven at higher speeds with minimalnoise and vibrations. However, theycan operate their trains only after theRDSO certification. The private playersmay hire drivers from anywhere butonly after the certification from theIndian Railways for their fitness to be

loco pilots, they would be allowed tosteer the trains. The high standards ofthe Indian Railways and RDSO withrespect to safety issues is well knownand the Indian Railways or organisa-tions under its aegis never compro-mised on safety standards.

The next apprehension is that theexisting railway employees will losetheir jobs if private trains are intro-duced. The Indian Railways don’t haveexcess running staff and hence thequestion of railwaymen losing theirjobs with the introduction of privatetrains has no basis. On the contrary,the loco pilots and guards who optedeither for volunteer retirement orsuperannuated have no bar in becom-ing loco pilots in private trains if theyare fit enough to do the job. This can bea starter for implementing the sugges-tion by the chief economic adviser inthe recent Economic Survey to increasethe age of retirement. Moreover, withbetter services provided on-board andexpansion of many value-added ser-vices by the private trains, these trainswould generate employment opportuni-ties for youngsters.

Transport is essentially a service,where the operators should continue toinnovate to introduce new value-addedservices to make travel a pleasant expe-rience rather than a chore for passen-gers. This is next to impossible whenthere is a monopoly in running rail pas-senger trains. The travelling ticketexaminer (TTE) of the Indian Railwaysis not answerable to any of the inconve-niences passengers face during railtravel today. If passengers fall ill duringthe journey or there is some serioussetback in a passengers’ health, there isnot even a nurse to administer first aid,let alone getting full medical care. Theprivate players can be very imaginativeand offer services which have neverbeen thought through by the IndianRailways such as assured pick up anddrop services to the railway stations,facilitating senior and super senior cit-izens in boarding and deboardingtrains, spick and span on-board envi-ronments and emergency medical aidand clearly distinguish their servicesfrom that of others and that ultimatelyimproves the travelling experience forthe passengers.

Despite commonalities such asvagaries in climate, congestion in run-ways and flying as per ATC instruc-tions, the punctuality of private air-lines is about 80 per cent, whereas it isabout 60 per cent for Air India. TheIRCTC already announced that if thetrain is delayed by one hour or twohours, the passengers would be givenback `100 and `250 respectively. Havewe ever got such an assurance on punc-tuality from the Indian Railways ever?After the announcement of privatetrains by the IRCTC, the initial publicofferings (IPO) announced by theIRCTC received a tremendous responsefrom qualified institutional buyers(QIB), high net worth individuals(HNI), retail investors and employeesas well. The booking of tickets in theseprivate trains has also been very good.What more proof is required to show-case the reception for private trains bythe people of India?

When Narendra Modi was the chiefminister of Gujarat, he posed a ques-tion in a meeting: “When private busescould run on Indian roads, when pri-vate airlines could fly in Indian skies,what stops private trains from runningon Indian railway tracks?”. The IndianRailways took an enormously long timeto realise what Mr Modi envisaged sixyears back. However, the IndianRailways has come of age and it is bet-ter late than never.

The writer is a public policy analyst

This week the centres ofLondon and other UK citieshave seen hundreds ofthousands of marchers andcampers, protesting in themovement called ExtinctionRebellion or XR. In Londonthey’ve stopped traffic toand in the centre, chainedthemselves to the bottomsof lorries and cars...

DominicEmmanuel

T.S.Ramakrishnan

Why private trains maybe on the right track

FarrukhDhondyCabbages& Kings

The terrifying noises made by the raptors in Jurassic Park (1993) were sourced from recordings of tortoises mating

PAGE

8MoviesSATURDAY | 12 OCTOBER 2019 | NEW DELHITHE ASIAN AGE

ODIE HENDERSON

2019 is becoming the year of the CGI-facedactor. After computer-based de-ageing tech-nology took decades off the cast of TheIrishman, Gemini Man has employed thissame technique to turn Collateral Beauty

Will Smith into Six Degrees of Separation WillSmith. Granted, the F/X folks had to pull fewerdecades off the Fresh Prince, so the effect looks a bitbetter. Plus they gave his younger stand-in muchsharper cheekbones than he had in 1993, anenhancement that wasn’t necessary but was proba-bly welcome. Director Ang Lee’s sci-fi actioner useseven more CGI to pit Young Will against Old Will ina convoluted plot about assassins, corrupt intelli-gence agencies and the old stand-by that’s currentlygetting beaten to death by “Ad Astra,” daddy issues.

Quite honestly, I didn’t know what to think ofGemini Man once the credits started rolling. I hatedone aspect of it.Paramount presentedthe critics’ screeningin the format Ang Leemade it, 120 frames persecond and in 3-D.Lee’s prior film, “BillyLynn’s Long HalftimeWalk,” also used thisframe rate. As a pointof reference using amore familiar movie,“The Hobbit” seriesran at 48 frames persecond. At five timesthe original rate of thefilm running throughthe projector, “GeminiMan” looks radically different than most movies. Italso looks astonishingly bad. Tom Cruise,Paramount’s current bread and butter, made a videoscolding mere mortals like a Southern grandmotherfor using the motion smoothing setting on their tel-evisions. Yet 120 frames per second look exactly likemotion smoothing. In fact, it looks worse, like a hell-ish cross between a video game and a telenovela.

Story-wise, Smith plays Henry Brogan, a highly-skilled assassin working for an intelligence agencyrun by Janet Lassiter (Linda Emond). Brogan is sogood he can hit a target on a moving train from hun-dreds of feet away. A target on a train whose trackscurve wildly toward the screen as it flies by atunimaginable speed. Brogan’s mark takes it in theneck rather than the intended headshot, andthough it’s still a lethal wound, Brogan sees this asthe final nail in the coffin of his career. He retires,returning to a boat dock where his normal boatrenting guy has been replaced by DannyZakarweski (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). As spiesare wont to do, Brogan expresses suspicion aboutthis change. Is she a plant sent to keep tabs on him,perhaps an employee of Lassiter’s frenemy col-league Clay Verris (Clive Owen)?

After colleagues start being murdered and Broganlearns that his last target was merely a scientist andnot a terrorist, he goes on the run with Danny who,as expected, is also an agent. When Lassiter’sattempts to neutralize Brogan fail miserably, Clayoverrides her and executes something called“Gemini.” You don’t have to be an astrologer to knowthat Gemini involves the aforementioned youngerversion of Smith, dubbed Junior. Lee does an excel-lent job with Junior’s reveal and the ensuing motor-cycle battle, the most exciting sequence in the film.The first-person perspective really works here, asdoes the clever way the Smiths use their vehicles asweapons. Lee even throws in homage to John Woo(who would have been a better choice for this mate-rial), though he uses pigeons instead of doves.

“Gemini Man” knows you’re there to see a battle ofWills, so it gives us multiple sequences where 51-year old Brogan goes toe-to-toe with his youngerself. Unfortunately, the second battle takes place in adark catacomb where the effects are so quickly edit-ed that you can’t figure out which version is beatingthe hell out of the other. It also takes forever forBrogan to realize that Junior looks exactly like him.

The screenplay by Billy Ray, Darren Lemke and“Game of Thrones”’ David Benioff is more in serv-ice to the numerous technological aspects Lee isjuggling than any human element. It uses Brogan’sintentionally closed-off, emotionless personality asa crutch to avoid any meaningful fleshing out ofcharacters and relationships. The always-welcomeBenedict Wong shows up to supply his usualhumorous line-readings and jovial nature—he’s afine purveyor of the perfect best friend trope—andWinstead gets to kick some major ass instead ofbeing a stereotypical girl Friday, but neither trulyregisters as a fully realized human being. The rela-tionship between Junior and Clay (which I won’treveal) serves as an attempt at emotional connec-tion, but their entire plotline plays like a Hitler-lessversion of Ira Levin’s “The Boys From Brazil.” Thereasoning behind Junior and the Gemini project isfar more trouble than it is worth.

“Gemini Man” never pretends to be anything but atime-wasting contraption hoping to entertain itsviewer. I can’t reasonably be mad at its honesty, anddespite the horrendous dialogue its actors are oftenforced to speak, I found myself enjoying a fairamount of it. But Ang Lee is the rare director whocan invest an action movie with the same strongemotional heft he brought to his dramas like“Brokeback Mountain.” “Crouching Tiger, HiddenDragon” is a great example of this.

— By arrangement with Asia Features

SUPARNA SHARMA

Ever watched a film whosestory is so tragic, thegrief so heavy that youfeel downright mean say-ing anything bad about

it? Now imagine being told that the

film, about a very young person'stragic death, is based on a truestory.

That’s a serious, deliberate guilttrap, because if it’s mean to call areel tragedy “mediocre”, it’s down-right wrong to call a real tragedycloying and tiresome. Even think-ing it feels like a comment on thetragedy and not the film, and some-one may well turn around and say,“A person died, and you are stillnot satisfied?”

Writer-director Shonali Bose’sThe Sky Is Pink made me feel likethat. But, only for a bit.

The film, written by Bose, alongwith Juhi Chaturvedi and NileshManiyar, tells a powerful, highlyemotional real-life story quitebadly.

I watched the film first at theToronto International FilmFestival last month — it was what’scalled the “festival cut” meant forforeign audience. What we have inour theatres is a desi version withsome scenes deleted, some newones added. But the film’s intentand impact are the same — Bosetells a sad story without much cin-ematic skill, but with a lot of emo-tional blackmail.

The Sky Is Pink opens with avoiceover that stays through-out the film. The camera

descends to a farm house in Delhiand then goes inside to whereNiren (Farhan Akhtar) and AditiChaudhury (Priyanka Chopra) aresleeping. As we watch them lyingaway from each other, their pillowscradling their heads, heavy withthoughts, a child’s cheeryvoiceover begins talking to usabout their sex lives, rather thelack of it.

The voiceover is that of Aisha(Zaira Wasim), Niren and Aditi’sdaughter. Aisha introduces usto her three family membersbefore introducing herself.

There’s her elder brotherIshaan (Rohit Suresh Saraf)whom she calls Giraffe. Papais Panda, and mother isMoose. Everyone calls herAisha, at times Aishu.

Let’s stick with these cutesynames because Aisha suffers froma life-threatening immunity disor-der. SCID. “Google it,” she says.

I did. Aap bhi karo.

The Sky Is Pink is set in fourlocations, each one telling thestory of four different times in thelives of the Chaudhurys.

There’s the aforementionedfarmhouse in Delhi. Several yearsbefore that there was a lovelyhaveli in Chandni Chowk, then aflat in London and the GreatOsmond Street Hospital nearby.

The story of The Sky Is Pink issplit into two — Chaudhurys’ lifebefore the tragedy, and thereafter.

The film follows the Chaudharysfrom Aisha’s birth, shows us howthey struggle to cope with her diag-nosis and treatment, moving fromIndia to London, scroungingaround for money for operations,Moose and Panda separated, fromeach other, and each parent fromone child.

We see the young mother, Moose,spraying everything with disinfec-tant, Panda going on radio to askLondoners to pitch in to help saveAisha.

In these initial parts the film’semotional quotient is high as itmakes us stand with both — withAisha who, in her twinkling voice,is talking of dying while makinglight of it, as well as the quietlysad but determined Panda who isdoing his best to save his daughter,and dogged Moose who will stop atnothing to ensure no harm comesto her child.

In between this tale of medico-procedural involving doctors, hos-pitals, diagnosis, tests, transplantwe get a glimpse of what life waslike for Niren and Aditi beforethey had Aisha.

So there’s a very filmyromance that lets the film airits stars in some sunshine.

Though this is a break fromthe heaviness of a family tryingto save its young one, it feels

like a needless indulgence thestars may have demanded. It is alsoterribly boring.

After interval the film is dullbecause it’s just a string of domes-tic scenes followed by urgent med-ical emergencies.

Throughout all this, the filmshows no crimps anywhere in thelives or personalities of theChaudhurys.

There’s no frustration, nolaments, just determination andlove.

Everyone is always together andfocused and fabulous, like allmodel family members ought to be.

Everyone is always nicelydressed and helpful, everything isalways pretty and manageablebecause everyone is always doingthe right thing and overflowingwith love. Only sometimes they actcutely silly and parental.

Even when the film showsAisha’s frustration at life’s usualdisappointments, The Sky Is Pinksigns off with a pretty, Instagram-ready vacation.

This goodness overdose, and thelack of any complexity, reality,mistakes, missteps doesn’t justmake the real lives of Chaudhurysfeel plastic and fake, but alsomakes for dready, cloying cinema.

Shonali Bose, despite havingaccess to a very powerfulstory, has made very strange

choices - not just of how to tell thestory, but also of what to show, andwhat to keep out. It seems herintent was to make a film thatcould well be titled, The

Chaudhurys: Forever Amazing.We must feel sad for and empow-

ered by the Chaudhurys, but notthrough the power of the film’swriting or Bose’s direction, justthe facts of their life.

At one point in the film, Giraffetells Moose, “Emotional blackmailmein aapka haath koi nahin pakadsakta.”

The same has to be said ofShonali Bose whose MargaritaWith A Straw was similarlyinclined, and only slightly better.

The Sky Is Pink doesn’t just grabour heart strings and plucks atthem gently. It smiles at us whilegrabbing them with both handsand then pulls them hard. So hardthat one point it has to show us afather cradling a small body bag.

Of course, scenes like this havean emotional impact. And thereare, in fact, some powerful scenesin the film, and most of theminvolve Farhan Akhtar.

And if Bose can be complimentedfor anything, it has to be for howher film’s heart throbs because ofFarhan Akhtar’s Niren and hisunconditional love for and submis-sion to Aditi.

She focuses a lot on Niren’s oftenunarticulated grief,and his resolve to embraceand support every deci-sion of Aditi. Hislove for her isaffecting, as istheir bond.

But Bose’schoice of usingv o i c e o v e rthroughout

is the film’s big covert act that triesto but can’t really conceal bad writ-ing and lazy filmmaking.

Aditi is a precocious kid and hervoiceover is always adorable. Butnot for a second does it let us forgetthat death is hovering and there isgrief all around — to goads us tocry, but also laugh at how cool it allis. We are its emotional prisonersand must submit to its command.

This ploy, of a child’s courage tolook death in the eyes and talk tous about it, has some power andfunction at the beginning. Butwhen it goes on and on, it starts tograte.

I felt impaled by the film’s relent-less emotional badgering, constanttelling us, and not showing, howterribly tragic it all is.

Priyanka Chopra the star issparkly, the actress adequate.Sometimes she outdoes her-

self and sizzles, like in BajiraoMastani.

But here, as a mother caring for achild while constantly living withthe fear of losing her, she is mostlyadequate and overacts only some-times.

Farhan Akhtar is mostly good,sometimes very good. His silencein several scenes is very powerful.

Rohit Suresh Saraf is good,while Zaira Wasim

is sweet andadequate.

To g etherthey havecreated a

m o t i v a -t i o n a l

video ofa happyf a m i l ythat is

bearable,but not

believable.

The cloying trappings of tragedy & guilt

NELL MINOW

Fernando Signorini, theman who trained soccersuperstar DiegoArmando Maradona, tellsus that there were two dif-

ferent men inside this now-leg-endary player. There was Diego,sweet, insecure, someone Signorinisays he would do anything for. Andthen there was Maradona, aninvented character, confident to thepoint of arrogance. Him, Signorinitells us, he would not waste timeon. The problem is that it isMaradona who made near-miracu-lous goals, Maradona who was wel-comed to his new team by 85,000cheering Neapolitans, Maradonawhose photograph was hung inhomes throughout Naples, usuallynext to the picture of Jesus. Wemeet Diego the man in this film,but without Maradona the athlete,there would not be a documentaryabout either side of him.

Those divided selves are the realfocus of this film, which has spar-ing voice-over narration and letsus learn the story through observ-ing Maradona himself, hisunguarded face more eloquentthan any commentary. My fathersays that each of us has threeselves: how we want others to seeus, how they do see us, and how wereally are. And he explains that

the more integrated those threeselves are, the happier, strongerand more grounded we will be.Maradona, who was as good as itis possible to be in scoring pointsin soccer games, wanted to beeverything the people around himwanted him to be, a beloved cul-tural hero, a devoted family man,a sophisticated gentleman abouttown who was befriended by thelocal mobsters. He wanted to havesome fun, blow off steam and gethelp with the pain from his sports-related injuries. And so, his selvesbecame more and more splintered.

In fact, this intimate film culledfrom over 500 hours of archivalfootage shows us at least five

sides of the Argentine-bornMaradona, who was born to a poorfamily in a shantytown outside ofBuenos Aires. We see the devotedson who supported his familysince he was a teenager, who sawsoccer as a way to give them acomfortable life. We see the aston-ishingly gifted athlete, combiningspeed, power, coordination, light-ning reflexes, a strategic under-standing of what it took to get theball where it needed to be, and the

ability to inspire his teammates todo their best. We see the poor kidwith no education facing thescrutiny of constant, intenseattention from fans, press, andcompetitors. We see that samepoor kid suddenly wealthy,famous, and surrounded by everykind of temptation—sex, drugs,and a very powerful crime familyknown as the Camorra. And wesee the struggle for identity, theloving father who denies paterni-ty of his son, the team player whoreturns to his Argentinian rootsto play in the World Cup and finds

himself playing against his newcountrymen in their home court.As they used to say on The WideWorld of Sports, Maradonaresponds to both the thrill of vic-tory and the agony of defeat.

He was just so good. The footageof Maradona's early years showshis extraordinary power in racingdown the field and extraordinarydelicacy in handling the ball (doyou say footing if hands are notallowed?). Speaking of handling,the film is frank about one goalthat should have been declared afoul because his hand was clearlyinvolved. But if the refs and eventhe opposing team were so dazzledby him that they let it go, we canunderstand.

Director Asif Kapadia, who alsomade the Ayrton Senna and AmyWinehouse documentaries, letsthe familiar story of a gifted kidwho follows early success withfame and then tragedy unfold. Buthe asks us to think about ourselvesas well. Why do exceptional peoplematter so much to us? Why do weget so emotionally attached to ateam? Is it fair to expect them to benot just talented but honourableand heroic? One of the criticalturning points for Maradona wasin the World Cup, when he wasplaying for the country of hisbirth, against the country of theteam that bought him. There isone kick that will prove to thecrowd which side he is really on. Itis not in him to do anything butgive his best to win. Kapadia's filmshows us that for better or worse,Maradona's loyalty was always tothe game, and that, as much as hisskill on the field, deserved moreloyalty from the fans.

— By arrangement with Asia Features

RATINGOUR CRITIC’S Outstanding ★★★★★ | Great ★★★★ | Good ★★★ | Okay ★★ | Poor ★ | Truly Terrible TT

The Sky Is Pink(U/A) 146 minCAST: Priyanka Chopra, FarhanAkhtar, Zaira Wasim, Rohit SureshSarafDIRECTOR: Shonali BoseRATING: ★★

An ode to a fallen legend

Gemini Man(U/A) 117 minCAST: Will Smith, MaryElizabeth Winstead, CliveOwen, Benedict Wong,Linda EmondDIRECTOR: Ang LeeRATING: ★★

Diego Maradona(A) 130 minDIRECTOR: Asif KapadiaRATING: ★★★

Cutting-edgeCGI can’t savethis dud movie

SATURDAY | 12 OCTOBER 2019 | NEW DELHI

■ Sharp fall in capital goods, consumer durables in Aug

FC BUREAUNEW DELHI, OCT. 11

Reflecting weakness inmanufacturing, miningand power generation sec-tors, factory output, or theIndex of IndustrialProduction (IIP), shrank by1.1 per cent in August, thefirst contraction in morethan two years and theworst in six years.

The IIP had expanded 4.3per cent in July and 4.8 percent in August last year,according to the governm-ent data released on Friday.

The contraction in facto-ry production last hap-pened in June 2017 whenthe IIP shrank by 0.1 percent. But the decline of 1.1per cent is the worst since a4.4 per cent contraction inFebruary 2013.

The manufacturing sec-tor, which contributes over77 per cent to the IIP,showed a decline of 1.2 percent in output duringAugust 2019 as against agrowth of 5.2 per cent inthe same month of lastyear. This was the lowestnumber in five years afterOctober 2014 when the sec-

tor showed a negativegrowth of 1.8 per cent.

The recent slowdown inthe automotive industry isa major reason behind themuted growth of industrialoutput, as it forms a signif-icant portion of the overallmanufacturing sector. Asper the central bankreports, the share of trans-port equipment was 12 percent in manufacturingGVA, or gross value added,and 2.1 per cent in overallGVA in 2017-18.

Capital goods output fell

21 per cent from a year agoand consumer durablescontracted 9.1 per cent.

“Besides manufacturingsector, electricity genera-tion declined by 0.9 per centas against an expansion of7.6 per cent in the year ago,while the growth in themining sector was flat at 0.1per cent,” data released bythe National StatisticalOffice (NSO) showed.

However, experts saidthough the industrial out-put was expected to be we-ak, the actual number of

minus 1.1 per cent for Aug-ust is much weaker thanwhat most have expected.

“If we look at the sub clas-sification one can see thatthe shrinkage in outputhas come from a dismalperformance in manufac-turing, substantial fall incapital goods, consumerdurables and infra, reflect-ing an underlying weak-ness in manufacturing andindustrial activity and itneeds to be addressed with-out much loss of time,”said Dr K Joseph Thomas,Head Research — EmkayWealth Management.

Aditi Nayar, PrincipalEconomist at Icra, saidmost likely the GDPgrowth may not meaning-fully accelerate in the sec-ond quarter of FY20 fromthe multi-quarter low 5 percent recorded in the April-June quarter, despite afavourable base effect.

The extent of pickup inconsumption in the festivemonths and crop produc-tion in the rabi season willsignal whether a materialturnaround in demand andeconomic growth are in theoffing, she said.

AFTAB AHMED &RAJENDRA JADHAVNEW DELHI/MUMBAI, OCT. 11

India is consideringrestricting imports ofsome products from Mala-ysia, including palm oil,according to governmentand industry sources, inreaction to the SoutheastAsian country’s leadercriticising New Delhi forits actions in Kashmir.

India is looking for waysto limit palm oil importsand may place restrictionson other goods from thecountry, said a governmentsource and an industrysource who participated indiscussions led by theMinistry of Commerceand Industry on theplanned restrictions.

The sources asked not tobe named as the proposalwas still under discussion.

The government was an-gered after Malaysian Pri-me Minister MahathirMohamad said last monthat the UN that India had“invaded and occupied”Jammu and Kashmir andasked New Delhi to workwith Pakistan to resolvethe issue. The governmentwants to send a strong sig-nal of its displeasure toMalaysian authorities, thesources said.

India, the world’s biggestimporter of edible oils, isplanning to substituteMalaysian palm oil withsupplies of edible oils fromcountries such asIndonesia, Argentina andUkraine, said the sources.

Palm oil accounts fornearly two-thirds of Ind-ia’s total edible oil imports.India buys more than 9million tonnes of palm oilannually, mainly fromIndonesia and Malaysia.

In the first nine monthsof 2019 India was thebiggest buyer of Malay-sian palm oil, taking 3.9million tonnes, accordingto data compiled by theMalaysian Palm Oil Board.

A Mumbai-based refinersaid it would not create ashortage of edible oils inIndia if buyers therestopped importing palm oilfrom Malaysia.

“Indonesia is eager to sellmore and more palm oil toIndia,” the refiner said, ad-ding that India could alsoincrease imports of soyoilfrom Argentina and sunfl-ower oil from Ukraine tooffset any drop in Mala-ysian palm oil shipments.

Indonesia wants NewDelhi to increase palm oilpurchases and wants tobuy sugar from India inexchange.

Higher Indian importshad helped Malaysia red-uce stockpiles in 2019, butstocks could rise again andprices could come under

pressure if India curtailsor stops imports, said aMumbai-based dealer.

India’s government isalso planning some restric-tions on imports fromTurkey, one of the govern-ment sources said, asAnkara has issued repeat-ed statements on Kashmir,an issue that India consid-ers an internal matter.

There has also been fric-tion between India andMalaysia over Islamic pre-acher Zakir Naik, whomIndian authorities wantextradited from Malaysia.

—Reuters

IEA cuts oildemandforecast by1L bpd

NSE co-location scam:Sebi, probe agencies

issued notice

Factory productioncontracts by 1.1%

SANGEETHA GCHENNAI, OCT. 11

Despite the volatility inprices, investor interest ingold is robust. Global gold-backed exchange tradedfunds (ETFs) as well asETFs traded in the domes-tic market are seeing sig-nificant inflows, indicat-ing bullish sentiments inthe bullion market.

Indian gold-backed ETFsrecorded net inflows inAugust and continued thetrend in September aswell. The ETFs saw netinflows of Rs 145 crore inAugust and Rs 44 crore inSeptember, as per data

from the apex mutual fundbody, AMFI. BySeptember-end, the totalassets managed by goldETFs moved up to Rs 5,613crore.

Gold ETFs had witnesseda net inflow in Augustafter a gap of nine months.They have been seeing netoutflows every month formore than six years sincegold fell into the bearishzone, except in the monthof November 2018.

Meanwhile, holdings byglobal gold-backed ETFsreached their all-time highlevels of 2,808 tonnes,adding 75.2 tonnes inSeptember, according to

data from the World GoldCouncil. Inflows of $3.9billion across all regionsdrove holdings to exceed2012 levels, when the priceof gold was 18 per centhigher.

Positive sentimenttowards gold was alsoreflected in Comex netlongs, which reached all-time highs duringSeptember.

“Against a backdrop of

easy money monetary pol-icy by global centralbanks, continued geopolit-ical uncertainty, includingthe looming Brexit dead-line and tensions in theMiddle East– as well as ris-ing turmoil inCongress–global golddemand remained strongthrough the month,”found the World GoldCouncil.

Among differentregions, gold ETFs sawsignificant inflows in theUS, Europe as well asAsian markets. Gold-backed ETFs in the UShave seen positive flowsfor 15 of the past 16

months and haveincreased their collectiveholdings by 51 per cent sofar this year.

European-listed fundsbrought in 7.7 tonnes inSeptember, with UK-basedfund holdings continuingto see all-time highs,reaching 21 per cent ofglobal gold-backed ETFassets as investors movedcloser to the October 31Brexit deadline. Asianfunds added 3.9 tonnes.

According to analysts,the demand for gold-backed ETFs is an indica-tor of the positive senti-ments in the bullion mar-ket. Amidst macro-eco-

nomic uncertainties,investors are movingtowards safe haven assetsand are confident that goldprices are going to rise,despite recent volatilities,they said.

“Increased inflow intoETFs is a testimony to theslowing pace of economicgrowth. This is likely tokeep gold prices support-ed. Central banks alsohave acknowledged thefuture risks and are diver-sifying from US dollar,”said Himanshu Gupta,Vice President and Headof Commodities andCurrencies Research,Globe Capital.

Gold shines amid global uncertainty; ETF inflows rise

New Delhi, Oct. 11:Passenger vehicle whole-sales in India declined forthe 11th consecutive monthin September as the onsetof the festive season failedto lift buyer sentiment andpull the industry out of aprolonged downturn, autoindustry body Siam said onFriday.

However, with buoyantdemand witnessed duringthis year’s Navratri, theSociety of IndianAutomobile Manufactur-ers (Siam) said, “greenshoots are visible now” andhoped that various stepstaken by the government toboost the economy willhelp sustain it.

According to Siam, pas-senger vehicle (PV) salesduring September droppedby 23.69 per cent to 2,23,317units, down from 2,92,660units in the year-ago peri-od. Similarly, PV salesplummeted by 23.56 per

cent in the April-September period com-pared with the same periodlast year. In September,domestic car sales weredown 33.4 per cent to1,31,281 units last month asagainst 1,97,124 units in theyear-ago month, Siam said.

The month saw motorcy-cles sales dropping to thelowest ever level in overtwo decades while commer-cial vehicle sales alsodeclined the worst sinceJanuary 2009, when thesales had declined by 67.6per cent.

Motorcycle sales inSeptember declined 23.29per cent to 10,43,624 unitsas against 13,60,415 units ayear earlier. Similarly, salesof commercial vehicleswere down 39.06 per cent to58,419 units from 95,870units. —PTI

Car sales slump for 11th month

New Delhi, Oct. 11: TheDelhi High Court on Frid-ay reserved order on whet-her to issue notice to thepolice on former FortisHealthcare promoterMalvinder Singh’s pleaseeking quashing of anFIR against him that alle-ged misappropriation ofReligare Finvest (RFL)funds, causing it a loss tothe tune of Rs 2,397 crore.

Justice Brijesh Sethi res-erved order on the plea aft-er hearing arguments onbehalf of Singh, EconomicOffences Wing (EOW) ofDelhi Police and RFL.Singh had approached thehigh court on Thursday,hours before his arrest.

Meanwhile, a Delhi courton Friday granted the poli-ce four-day custody of Mal-vinder, his brother Shivin-

der and three others,arrested for alleged misap-propriation of funds in thecase. Singh, in his plea inthe high court has contend-ed that only the SFIO,which comes under Minis-try of Corporate Affairs,could have investigated theallegations of fraud andcheating against him.

Singh, represented bySenior Advocate AbhishekManu Singhvi, urged thecourt to issue notice in thematter and also stay theproceedings initiated bythe police, which was opp-osed by the EOW and RFL.

Singhvi argued that theSFIO already investigatingthe issue of diversion of fu-nds on a complaint byReligare and therefore,EOW “could not have jum-ped the gun”. — PTI

Singh Bros sentto police custody

RAVI RANJAN PRASADMUMBAI, OCT. 11

Infosys, India’s secondlargest IT services compa-ny, delivered stronger sec-ond quarter revenuegrowth than its peer TataConsultancy Services.

The Bengaluru-basedfirm saw its revenues rise9.8 per cent to Rs 22,629crore during the July-September 2019 (Q2) quar-ter against Rs 20,609 crorein the year-ago quarter.

Infosys also raised thelower-end of its FY20 rev-enue guidance, and therevised forecast nowstands at 9-10 per cent

growth in constant curren-cy terms, from 8.5-10 percent. However, consolidat-ed net profit declined by 2.2per cent to Rs 4,019 crore inQ2 from Rs 4,110 crore ayear ago.

Infosys declared an inter-im dividend of Rs 8 pershare with record date ofOctober 24.

The cash and cash equiv-alents held by the firmcame down sharply to$2.324 billion as onSeptember 30 from $2.829billion as on March 31.

Commenting on the num-bers, Infosys CEO & MDSalil Parekh said, “Ourperformance was robust on

multiple dimensions —revenue growth, digitalgrowth, operating margins,operational efficiencies,large deal signings andreduction in attrition.”

All these are clear signsthat the company is pro-gressing well in its journeyof client-centricity andmaximising value for itsstakeholders, he added.

Analysts at EmkayGlobal Financial Servicessaid the “results werebroadly in-line with expec-tations as compared to thedisappointment with TCS.A 3.3 per cent quarter onquarter constant currencyrevenue growth with 120

bps improvement in oper-ating margins sequentiallykeeps the faith alive onInfosys’s recovery throughFY20, though we are sur-prised by the fact thatInfosys did not raise therevenue guidance at theupper end.”

Ahead of the results,Infosys shares rallied 4.08per cent on the NSE andclosed at Rs 815.

ICICI Securities said,"The key highlights of thequarter were, strong largedeal wins which were up3.7 per cent QoQ to $2.8 bil-lion and robust growth indigital revenues whichwere up 35.9 per cent YoY.”

J&K stance: India curbs onMalaysian palm oil likely

Infosys clocks 9.8% revenue growth in Q2

quickBITES

INDICATORS %Sensex 38,127.08 +0.65Nifty 50 11,305.05 +0.63S&P 500 2,980.19 +1.43Dollar (`) 71.02 -0.07Pound Sterling (`) 89.65 +1.53Euro (`) 78.48 +0.47Gold (10gm)* (`) 39,160▲126 +0.32Brent crude ($/bbl)* 60.15 +1.78IN 10-Yr bond yield 6.727 +0.048US 10-Yr T-bill yield 1.745 +0.089

* As of 9:30 pm IST

Iffco cuts pricesof non-ureafertilisersIffco has reduced the retailprices of its complex fertilizers,including di-ammonium phos-phate (DAP) by up to Rs 50per bag, amid easing rawmaterials and fertilisers pricesglobally. Iffco has reduced theMRP of DAP to Rs 1,200 per 50kg bag from Rs 1,250, NPK-Icomplex to Rs 1,175 from Rs1,200 and NPK-II complex to Rs1,185 from Rs 1,210.

Baroda, BNPParibas AMCsdecide to merge

Baroda Asset Management andBNP Paribas Asset Manage-ment Asia said they havedecided to merge their busi-nesses in a bid to leverageeach other's strengths to offerproducts for retail and institu-tional investors, subject to reg-ulatory approvals. The twoentities have entered into bind-ing agreements, they said in ajoint statement.

Forex reservesat record$437.83 billionForeign exchange reservessurged by $4.24 billion totouch a record high of $437.83billion in the week to October4, RBI data showed. In the pre-vious week, the reserves hadsurged by massive $5.02 billionto $433.59 billion. Foreign cur-rency assets rose by $3.99 bil-lion to $405.61 billion duringthe week. Gold reserves rose$232 million to $27.17 billion.

IBREL to make`500-croreshare buyback

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Bhawan, Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg,New Delhi-110002.

Editor: T.Venkatram Reddy, RNIRegistration number 30074/09, Air sur-

charge Re 1. © All rights reserved.Reproduction in whole or in part with-out written permission of The Editor,Financial Chronicle ® is prohibited.

Indiabulls Real Estate Ltd(IBREL) announced a buybackof up to 5 crore shares at Rs100 each, which could cost thecompany up to Rs 500 crore.The buyback price of Rs 100 ismore than double the currentshare price, which is ruling atRs 43.40 on the BSE. In a regu-latory filing, IBREL said buy-back represent about 11 percent of its total existing paid-up equity capital.

Mumbai, Oct. 11:Reflecting the deepeningeconomic crisis arisingfrom both structural andcyclical issues and a mas-sive fall in consumptiondemand, bank credit gro-wth rate, for the first timethis fiscal, slowed to sin-gle digit at 8.8 per cent toRs 97.71 lakh crore duringthe fortnight to Septemb-er 27, according the cen-

tral government data.The fiscal year had start-

ed with a 14.19 per centgrowth in credit demandin the first fortnightended April 12 after clos-ing the previous fiscal at13.24 per cent growth.

Throughout this fiscalso far, credit growth hasbeen in the low-double-digit.

— PTI

Credit growth enters single digitSHILPA SHARMANEW DELHI, OCT. 11

The All-India Dal MillsAssociation, an industrybody of pulses, has askedthe government to allowimport of additional 1 lakh tonnes urad in thecurrent fiscal year.

“We have asked the gov-ernment to allow addi-tional import of urad thisyear, as crop has beendamaged in key growingstates of MP, Rajasthanand Maharashtra,” saidSuresh Agarwal, Presi-dent of the body.Incessant rains inSeptember-October in

these growing states havedamaged pulses crops, hesaid. The association hasalso asked the govern-ment to extend the dead-line for import of tur andmoong till December 31from October 31.

Import shipment of turfrom African countrieslike Mozambique, Malawiand Kenya has beendelayed due to late cropcycle there. In Africa, turis harvested in September.

At present, the govern-ment has allowed importof 1.5 lakh tonnes each ofmoong, urad, and 4 LT oftur in the current year.

— TickerNews Service

Extra urad import sought

New Delhi, Oct 11: India’s2019-20 soybean output isseen down at 89.94 lakhtonnes from the earlierestimate due to loweracreage and damage tostanding crops in MP andRajasthan due to untime-ly rains, said the SoybeanProcess-ors Associationof India (Sopa).

This year, Sopa has con-ducted remote sensingsatellite based area sur-vey for finding the correctacreage under soybeanusing scientific methods,

said D. N. Pathak,Executive Director, Sopa.

The acreage based onsatellite survey is 107.61lakh hectares as againstthe government’s figureof 113.98 lakh hectares.

“The soybean produc-tion on all-India basis for2019 has been estimatedat 89.94 lakh tonnes. Soy-bean estimates for kharif2018 have been reviseddownwards from 114.83lakh tonnes to 109.33 lakhtonnes,” said Pathak.

—TickerNews Service

Soybean output seen 17.7% down

New Delhi, Oct. 11: RadhaSoami Satsang Beas(RSSB) head GurinderSingh Dhillon and his fam-ily members on Fridayapproached the Delhi HighCourt saying they do notowe any money to RHCHoldings, promoted byMalvinder and ShivinderSingh. The Dhillons filedthe application followingthe court’s direction todeposit the amount due toRHC Holdings in connec-tion with the execution ofRs 3,500-crore arbitral aw-ard won by Daiichi Sankyo.Dhillons told the court thatRHC Holding has made fa-lse claims that they owemoney to company. JusticeJ. R. Midha sought respon-se of RHC Holding, Singhbrothers and Daiichi on theplea of Dhillons. —PTI

Radha Soamichief deniesowing money

New Delhi, Oct. 11: Theproposed mega trade dealRCEP should not lead tojob losses and hurt thegovernment’s Make inIndia initiative, autoindustry body Siam cau-tioned on Friday ahead ofthe trade ministers’ meet-ing of the bloc inBangkok.

Trade ministers ofRCEP countries will dis-cuss issues related to

investment, e-commerce,rules of origin and traderemedies in a meeting inBangkok on Saturday.

According to Siam, whilegive and take is a part ofsuch deals, imports ofcompletely built units(CBUs) of automobilesmust not be allowed.

The RCEP bloc compris-es 10 Asean nations(Brunei, Cambodia, Indo-nesia, Malaysia, Myan-

mar, Singapore, Thailand,the Philippines, Laos andVietnam) and their sixFTA partners—India,China, Japan, SouthKorea, Australia and NewZealand.

Siam demanded that 28items, including hybrid,electric cars and three-wheelers, be kept out ofthe purview of all suchpacts.

—PTI

RCEP should not hurt Make in India: Siam

Overleaf

SATURDAY | 12 OCTOBER 2019 | NEW DELHI

SANGEETHA GCHENNAI, OCT. 11

Diwali purchases by Indiandiamantaires helpedRussian mining giant AlRosa’s sales move up inSeptember from all-time lowlevels in July and August.However, on a year-on-yearbasis, Al Rosa’s Septembersales were still down 24 percent due to the sluggishdemand from Indian dia-mond industry.Al Rosa Group in September2019 sold rough and polisheddiamonds for a total value of$258.7 million against $338.7million in September 2018 —a decline of 23.6 per cent.

Of this, rough diamondsales amounted to $256.5million while polished dia-mond sales reached $ 2.2million. In September 2018,Al Rosa had sold rough dia-mond worth to $331.6 mil-lion and polished diamondvalued $7.1 million.

The group’s total diamondsales including both roughand polished diamonds forthe nine months of January-September 2019, amountedto $2.422 billion against

$3.662 billion in the sameperiod last year — a declineof 34 per cent.

However, on a sequentialbasis, sales were slightlybetter than that in July andAugust. For Al Rosa, salesthis year reached an all-timelow in July 2019 amountingto only $ 170.5 million.August sales of $ 181.1 mil-lion were only marginallyhigher than July sales.

“September sales werehigher than sales in thethree previous months,”said Al Rosa Deputy CEOEvgeny Agureev.

“It is partly due to the tra-ditional autumn marketrevival after the holidayperiod and a slight increasein demand from Indian cut-ters and polishers ahead ofthe Diwali festival. The mostnoticeably increase (were)sales of small-size roughdiamonds. In addition, somesales from the August ses-sion, which started laterthan usual, moved toSeptember,” he said.

However, Al Rosa is not co-nfident that the Indian mar-ket has made a full recovery.“The market is still facinglow demand for rough dia-monds, though there hasbeen a gradual recovery forsome categories of dia-monds. We still believe thatit will take some time to geta balance between supplyand demand,” he added.

India’s gems and jewelleryexports were down 6.2 percent in September at $3.3 bil-lion as shipments of cut andpolished diamonds slumped.However, it saw some recov-ery from the August levelswhen exports had declined14.44 per cent to $2.8 billionagainst the year-ago month.

GRANT SMITHOCT. 11

The International EnergyAgency cut forecasts forgrowth in global oildemand, noting that fearsof an economic slowdownare overshadowing the lossof supply during lastmonth’s attack on SaudiArabia.

The strike on the kingd-om’s production facilitiescaused the biggestdisruption in modern his-tory, halting about 6 percent of world oil supply,the agency said.Nonetheless, after a briefrally, crude prices have ea-sed back amid concerns ofa global recession. The IEAtrimmed projections fordemand growth this yearand next by 1,00,000 bar-rels a day.

“There should be talk of ageopolitical premium ontop of oil prices,” the Paris-based agency, which advis-es major economies, said ina monthly report. “Fornow, though, there is littlesign of this with securityfears having been overtak-en by weaker demand

growth and the prospect ofa wave of new oil produc-tion” from the US and theNorth Sea.

The IEA warned that,after Saudi Arabia’sAbqaiq and Khurais facili-ties were blasted by mis-siles and drones onSeptember 14, “furtherincidents of this nature”could happen.

It may already have beenproven correct, withreports on Friday that anIranian oil tanker hadcaught fire following anexplosion. Brent crudefutures rose as much as 2.3

per cent to trade above $60a barrel, the highest inmore than a week.

Global markets arepoised to tighten duringthe rest of the year asdemand recovers and theSaudis and other Opecnations keep a lid on out-put, the IEA predicted. Theagency assumes consump-tion may expand by 1.6 mil-lion barrels a day in thesecond half of 2019, fourtimes as much as in thefirst. Still, prices are nohigher than they werebefore the attack on thekingdom, as the trade dis-

pute between Washingtonand Beijing and signs of amanufacturing slowdownstoke fears of a full-blownrecession.

Global oil demand willincrease this year by theleast since 2016, by just 1million barrels a day, whilegrowth in the amount ofcrude processed by refiner-ies worldwide will be thelowest in a decade, at just150,000 a day, according tothe IEA.

Even though demand gro-wth will accelerate nextyear to 1.2 million barrels aday, a further surge in pro-duction from the US andelsewhere could unleashanother surplus, the reportshowed.

While the attacks in SaudiArabia squeezed output inthe Opec to the lowest since2009, the IEA’s report indi-cated that the group is stillpumping more than will beneeded in the first half of2020. Opec’s 14 membersproduced 28.83 million bar-rels a day last month, yetonly 28.2 million a day willbe required in the first sixmonths of next year.

— Bloomberg

Chennai, Oct. 11: Claimingthat the CBI probe into thealleged 4-year-old multi-crore National Stock Excha-nge (NSE) co-location scamis progressing slowly, theChennai Financial Marketsand Accountability (CFMA)has approached the MadrasHigh Court seeking its inter-vention.

The CFMA submitted thatit was shocking to know thatthe Securities and ExchangeBoard of India had absolvedNSE and its officials of allallegations under the Sebi(Prohibition of Fraudulent

and Unfair Trade Practicesrelating to the SecuritiesMarket) Regulations, 2003.

“When there is a seriousfraud and misdemeanourscommitted by top officials ofNSE who were acting handin glove with certain trademembers towards manipu-lating the market and pro-viding unfair trade access,NSE cannot be allowed to goscotfree,” the CFMA, a regis-tered society, contended.

Recording the submis-sions, a division bench ofJustices M. Sathyanaraya-nan and N. Seshasayee orde-

red notices to the NSE,Sebia, CBI, EnforcementDirectorate (ED), SeriousFraud Investigation Office(SFIO) and the FinancialIntelligence Unit (FIU)

returnable by November 11.The co-location facility

allowed brokers to take onrent specific racks and co-locate their servers and sys-tems within the exchangepremises. The primary obje-ctive of co-location servicesof the NSE was to reduce la-tency for connectivity to itstrading systems for directmarket access, algo-tradingand smart order routing.

According to CFMA, NSEhad given preferentialaccessto certain trade members toaccess its trade data at thecost of the entire securities

market comprising one ofthe biggest financial fraudsever taken place.

The petition alleged thatNSE has violated the funda-mental objective inside trad-ing and thereby in the proc-ess given illegal preferentialaccess to trade members toaccess NSE data at the costof entire securities market.

The CFMA further allegedthat the scam has tarnishedthe reputation of a majormarket infrastructure insti-tution and severely chal-lenged integrity of the secu-rities market. — PTI

Financial

OPENING

PROJECTION FOR TODAYBELL

Domestic benchmarkindices Sensex and Niftyclosed for the week withgains of over 0.6 per centon mixed global anddomestic cues.

Market sentimentsturned positive after theUS President DonaldTrump signalled towardstrade truce between USand China, analysts said.Trump hinted at complet-ing part negotiation onday one.

Foreign portfolio inves-tors turned net buyer ofequities worth Rs 749.74crore while the domesticinstitutions were net sell-ers of equities worth Rs703.02 crore.

Sensex closed 246 pointsor 0.65 per cent up at38127.08 after a volatilesession, the Index dippedto a low of 37737 afteropening higher at 37994.48but later touched a high of38345.41 before the finalclose. Broader Nifty-50gained 70.50 point or 0.63per cent closing at11305.05.

The broader marketunderperformed withBSE Mid-Cap Index up0.24 per cent and BSESmall-Cap Index up 0.38per cent.

Technical View

Ruchit Jain, TechnicalAnalyst-Equity, AngelBroking said, “Post themid-week holiday, themarkets witnessed asharp surge in Wednesd-ay’s session and withsome volatility in last cou-ple of sessions, it ma-naged to end the week tadabove the 11300 mark. Onthe higher side, 11400 isthe immediate resistancefor Nifty, but we expect itto be taken out soon andcould then see a trendedmove in the broader mar-kets to resume theuptrend. Above 11400, theNifty could rally towards11560-11630 which will beimmediate target range towatch for.”

“Amongst the sectoralindices, the daily range forthe Bank Nifty haswidened drastically andhas become extremelychallenging for traders toplace their bets. The keysupport for Bank Nifty isseen around 27,500-27,000,”Jain said.

Market View

Jimeet Modi, Founder &CEO, Samco Securitiessaid, “Markets during theweek saw a paradigmreversal of sentiments.Government’s all outefforts in striking theright cords is indeed pay-ing off whether it being inform of increase in dear-ness allowance to 17 percent, corporate tax cuts,interest rate reduction,timely tax refunds as wellas nudging capital expen-diture from PSUs have allreflected in the confidenceof domestic bourses.”

“Steady inflows of SIP inmutual fund at around Rs.8,200 Crs for the month ofAugust 2019 have indeedsupported to build thestrength in our stock mar-ket. On the other hand,FPI data shows that out-flows have also reducednearly by half which in away indicates that theycan soon turn bullish now,given increased optimismin Indian economy,” Modiadded.

11400 isimmediateresistanceto Nifty

IEA cuts oil demandforecast by 1L bpd

■ Agency expects geopolitical premium to oil prices

NSE co-location scam: Sebi, probe agencies issued notice

New Delhi, Oct. 11: TheDelhi High Court on Fridayallowed Indiabulls HousingFinance to withdraw its pleaseeking to restrain BJP lea-der Subramanian Swamyand social media giantsTwitter, Facebook, Instagr-am and WhatsApp from pu-blishing or disseminatingany “false, offending or defa-matory” allegations against

it. Justice Mukta Guptaallowed the application say-ing the suit is “dismissed aswithdrawn”.

The court had in Septem-ber passed an interim orderrestraining Swamy and thesocial media giants from pu-blishing or disseminatingany “false, offending or defa-matory” allegations againstthe company. It had also dir-

ected a web portal and thesocial media platforms to re-move or take down the“offending false messages”from their platforms.

During the hearing,IBHFL counsel sought towithdraw the suit sayingthey hope that there is goingto be quietus now.

When the judge asked thecounsel the reason for with-

drawing or if there was anyother problem, he said hewas also surprised with thismove but he has beeninstructed to close it.

The court had onSeptember 13 issued sum-mons to web portal PGurus,its CEO and cartoonists,Twitter, Facebook,Instagram, WhatsApp, andRajya Sabha MP Swamy,

and sought their responseson a suit by IBHFL.

This, it had said, wasresulting in the company’sshares declining drastically.

It had referred to thealleged defamatory state-ments purportedly made bySwamy and disseminated byPGurus through socialmedia.

— PTI

Indiabulls withdraws plea to restrict Swamy, social media

FC BUREAUNEW DELHI, OCT. 11

In a move to meet its divest-ment target, the govern-ment on Friday invited bidsfrom advisers for sale of itscontrolling stake in threepublic sector units (PSUs) —Container Corporation ofIndia (Concor), Neepco andTHDC India. The aim of thegovernment’s strategic dis-investment exercise is tomeet the fiscal deficittarget of 3.3 per centof the GDP in theyear ending Mar-ch 31, 2020.

The proposalsare invited byNov. 4 from repu-ted entities withrequired experien-ce and eligibility.

“The Government ofIndia is considering selec-tion of transaction advis-er/legal adviser/asset val-uer separately for twostrategic disinvestment ofGovernment of India exist-ing paid up equity share-holding in two CPSEs underthe administrative controlof Ministry of Power,” theDepartment of Investmentand Public AssetManagement (Dipam) saidwhile inviting bids.

As far as this divestmentexercise is concerned, thegovernment has mobilised

Rs 12,357.49 crore so far dur-ing the current financialyear, according to data avail-able by Department of Inve-stment and Public AssetManagement (DIPAM).However, the government istargeting to mobilise Rs 1.05lakh crore from its disin-vestment proceeds.

It has been analysed thatthough achieving this tar-get, the government mayface more critical situation

after it doled out Rs 1.45lakh crore stimulus

by way of a cut incorporate tax.

On the pro-posed bidding,officials, howev-er, said that stra-

tegic sale wouldinvolve two-stage

bidding beginningwith an expression of

interest (EoI) or a prelimi-nary intent showing bid,and a final financial bid.“Pre-bid meetings with like-ly bidders and roadshows toattract potential investorswill form part of the processto provide clarity on everyaspect of the stake sale,”they said.

“Also, a data centre will beset up for bidders to look forinformation on the PSUs upfor sale and the idea is tocomplete the stake sale wit-hin an estimated timeframeof 4-5 months,” they added.

Centre kicks offselloff process

Diwali sales help Al Rosa

SIMON KENNEDYOCT. 11

The hottest topic in globalfinancial markets iswhether the world economyis heading for recession,but defining such a slumpis easier said than done.

The marker for mostdeveloped economies is twosuccessive quarters of con-tracting gross domesticproduct. In the US, it’s thelagging decision of a panel

of academics formed by theNational Bureau ofEconomic Research.

Calling a recession forthe whole world is a lotharder. Once it was a caseof tracking powerhousessuch as the US andGermany, but emergingmarkets now account for abigger share of global GDPand a slump by them toeven moderate expansionrates is a problem. China,for example, would be ring-

ing alarm bells well beforeits economy actually start-ed shrinking.

A decade ago, when theworld was last in a down-turn, the InternationalMonetary Fund sought toredefine a global recessionhaving previously usedgrowth beneath 3 per centas benchmark.

In the April 2009 study, itseconomists decided thatdeclining per-capita GDPwas the main indicator to

monitor along with theglobal rates for unemploy-ment, trade, industrial pro-duction and oil demand.

Applying such criteriapoints to global recessionsin 1975, 1982, 1991 and 2009,the latter being the worstsince the Great Depression.Some economists include2001.

So what’s the current out-look? While the IMF is thisweek set to cut its forecastsfor global growth this year

from 3.2 per cent, which isalready the weakest since2009, it's not declaring arecession is on the horizon.Managing DirectorKristalina Georgieva fornow prefers to warn of a“synchronized slowdown.”

Economists at DanskeBank A/S have thoughdeveloped a traffic-lightindicator based on theIMF's five measures. Asrecently as the first half of2018, all was fine with every

metric on “green.” But as ofthe second quarter, fallingtrade is flashing “red” andthe others “yellow.”

That’s enough for them towarn of a 30 per centchance of a global recessionover the next two years.

“While the momentum inthe global economy hasclearly slowed over therecent year, we still thinkthe risk of a global reces-sion is only about 30 percent over the next two

years,” said Jakob EkholdtChristensen, Danske’sHead of InternationalMacro. “One reason is thatwe still see scope for cen-tral banks and nationalgovernments to stimulatetheir economies to mitigatea possible further down-turn. The biggest risk tothe global economy in ourview is a further escalationof the trade war betweenthe US and China.”

— Bloomberg

Where to look for signs of recession in the world economy

PAGE

10

—RAVI RANJAN PRASAD

—RAVI RANJAN PRASAD

Bandhan up MSCI inclusionShares of Bandhan Bankclosed with gain of 15.08per cent on reports thatthe stock will be added tothe MSCI Index. MSCI is aleading provider of bench-mark indices globally.Reports said BandhanBank will be included inMSCI India Large-CapIndex. Post-completion of

merger with GruhFinance, combined freefloat Market-Cap ofBandhan Bank hasincreased above $2.5 bil-lion which made it eligiblefor Large-Cap Index. OnMSCI inclusion BandhanBank is expected to haveweight of about 0.65 percent in the index.

Shares of TataConsultancy Services fell3.76 per cent in intra-daytrade as analysts and bro-kerages cut its target priceon missing revenue esti-mates. TCS reported sec-ond quarter revenue of Rs32,387 crore and net profitof Rs 8,636 crore. TCSshares opened over 3 percent lower at Rs 1,933 on

the BSE and touched a lowof Rs 1,929 but later onsaw value buying andfinally closed just 0.87 percent down at Rs 1,987.05.

Edelweiss Capital cut thetarget price to Rs 2,104from Rs 2,137 sayingvolatility in BFSI andretail drags overallgrowth and the dip in mar-gin was disappointing.

STREETbuzz

TCS falls 3.76% intra-day

DC CORRESPONDENTHYDERABAD, OCT. 11

In a bizarre turn ofevents, Facebook-ownedWhatsapp went missingfrom the Google PlayStore for a few hours onFriday. However, the rea-son behind the suddendisappearance, whichwas first spotted byWABetaInfo, remainsunclear.

Since then, the hugelypopular messaging plat-form has returned to thePlay Store. But, to thesurprise of many, users,who had previously inst-alled the app, could stillspot the app in their‘Previously installed app’section on the GooglePlay Store. Moreover, us-ers, mainly from UK andNetherlands, could alsospot the sister app, Wha-tsapp for Business, dur-ing the sudden absenceand the main app didn’tseem to have any issue.

The issue appears to belimited to Android, andnot affecting iOS users.In the meantime, it see-ms that WhatsApp is alsonot available on third-party app stores, likeHuawei’s AppGalleryand Samsung’s GalaxyStore.

Whatsappgoes missingfor few hours

Hyderabad, Oct. 11: TheCentre may introducethe Personal Data Prote-ction Bill, 2018 in thecoming winter session,a senior official of theMinistry of Electronicsand InformationTechnology said onFriday.

S. Gopalakrishnan,Joint Secretary, MEITY,also said the ministryhas appointed a commit-tee headed by theInfosys Chief KrisGopalakrishnan tomake recommendationon how to handle non-personal data.

“Possibly the Bill willgo to the Parliament inthis winter session. Thedraft bill is ready. A Reg-ulator will be appointeda few months after theBill is passed,” he toldreporters at an eventorgansied by IndianSchool of Business(ISB). The new law willprescribe some pen-alties and compensa-tions so that people takeit seriously, he added.

The draft of the Bill—restricts and imposesconditions on the cross-border transfer ofpersonal data, and sug-gests setting up of DataProtection Authority ofIndia to prevent anymisuse of personalinformation.

— PTI

Govt may tableData ProtectionBill in House

New Delhi, Oct. 11:Hyundai Motor India onFriday said its compactSUV Venue has becomethe highest selling utilityvehicle in the country inthe May-September peri-od this year.

The company sold42,681 units of the com-pact SUV during theperiod.

“The enthralling resp-onse for Venue with over75,000 bookings and42,681 happy customerswithin five months is atestimony of the cus-tomers’ increasing pref-erence towards the refre-shed design and innova-tive features of themodel,” Hyundai MotorIndia Executive DirectorS. J. Ha said.

Hyundai had launchedthe model, which ispriced between Rs 6.5-11.1 lakh (ex-showroomDelhi), in May this year.

Other vehicles in thecompact SUV segmentinclude Maruti Suzuki’sVitara Brezza, Mahindra& Mahindra’s XUV 3OOand Tata Motors’ Nexon.

— PTI

Hyundai Venuetops UV salesin May-Sep’19

BAIJU KALESHOCT. 11

TPG Capital has paused asale of its stake in pri-vately-held Indian finan-cier Shriram Capital asthe country’s lingeringshadow banking crisishurts valuations, accord-ing to people with knowl-edge of the matter.

The private equity’splan to sell its 10 per centstake has been held back,and will likely resumeonly as soon as the nextfinancial year starting inApril, said one of the peo-ple, who asked not to beidentified as the informa-tion is private.

In August, five foreigninvestors, includingBlackstone Group andCarlyle Group LP, wereshortlisted for talks toacquire a combined 30per cent stake in ShriramCapital from PiramalEnterprises and TPG.The sellers were seekinga valuation of Rs 80 bil-lion ($1.1 billion) for thestake, people familiarwith the matter have said.

The halt came as debtconcerns spread atlenders includingIndiabulls HousingFinance and a regionalbank. Last week, theReserve Bank of Indiahad to reassure investorsthat the banking systemis “safe” after depositorslined up to pull moneyfrom a small Mumbai-based bank.

Deliberations are ongo-ing, and TPG couldrestart a sale when appro-priate, the people said. AMumbai-based represen-tative for TPG declined tocomment.

A stake in ShriramCapital will give thebuyer shares in publiclytraded units, ShriramTransport Finance andShriram City UnionFinance. PiramalEnterprises bought a 20per cent stake in the hold-ing company in 2014,while TPG has been aninvestor in ShriramCapital with a 10 per centstake since 2011.

— Bloomberg

TPG’s ShriramCapital stake

sale stalls overvaluations

Strategicsale would

involve two-stagebidding process

beginning with anEoI and a finalfinancial bid

Oil demand outlook deterioratesIFA cuts forecast again amid economic slowdown

Source: IEA — Bloomberg

Sep -2018 Jan -2019 Apr Jul Oct

Forecast for 2019 oil-demand growth1.50M B/D

1.40

1.30

1.20

1.10

1.00

0.90

Bollywoodacrtess AthiyaShetty walk the

ramp during afashion week in

New Delhi onFriday.

— BUNNY SMITH

SHORT TAKES

Islamabad: Prince Williamand Kate Middleton will

visit Pakistan from October14 to October 18, the first

royal visit to thecountry in 13

years, where thecouple will also

meet the nation’s top leadership,according to amedia report.According to

Pakistan’s foreignoffice sources, theDuke and Duchess

of Cambridge,both 37, will visitPakistan on a four-day offi-

cial trip from October 14 - 18.The royal couple will meetPrime Minister Imran Khanand President Arif Alvi on

October 15 and after meetingthem, they will go to Lahore

on October 16, arriving a daylater in Chitral, Geo news

quoted foreign sources assaying. The royal couple,

after the completion of theirtour to Pakistan, will return

to Britain on October 18,sources said. Foreign minis-ter Shah Mehmood Qureshi

on Friday said that Pakistan is awaiting to welcome the

royal couple. Mr Qureshi metwith UK high commissioner

Thomas Drew on Friday.— PTI

Los Angeles: Hollywood starDrew Barrymore is set

to turn host for a daytimetalk show at CBS. The actorwill also executive produce

the syndicated talk show for CBS. “It is beyond my

wildest dreams to have thisopportunity for a daily

talk show. I’m truly thrilledand honored to be creating

this show with CBS,”Barrymore said in a state-

ment to the HollywoodReporter. “Drew is a huge

star and a breath of fresh air— her show will energize

any station’s lineup,” CBSsaid. The show is set to

launch in 2020. — PTI

Los Angeles: The Hills alumLauren Conrad has wel-

comed her second child withhusband William Tell. The 33-year-old TV personality took

to Instagram to share thenews and also revealed the

name of her baby boy. “Oursweet baby boy, Charlie Wolf

Tell, has arrived,” Conradwrote. Conrad and her

lawyer husband, 39, wecomed their first child, son

Liam James, in July, 2017.The couple got married in2014 after dating for over

two years.— PTI

London: Alicia Vikanderplays a murder suspect

caught in a love triangle inEarthquake Bird, a thriller set

in 1989 Tokyo in which theOscar winner performs in

English as well as Japanese.Based on the novel by

Susanna Jones, the film fol-lows Vikander’s character,

translator Lucy Fly, an expatliving in Japan who begins a

romantic relationship withphotographer Teiji, played byNaoki Kobayashi. But Lucy’s

life is turned upside downwith the arrival of fellow

expat Lily Bridges. — Reuters

Alicia Vikanderplays bilingual role

Published by T. Venkateswarlu for and on behalf of Deccan Chronicle Holdings Limited at Jawaharlal Nehru National Youth Centre, 219 Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg, New Delhi 110 002. and Printed by him at BFL Infotech Limited, C – 9, Sector – III, Noida – 201301. Editor – T. Venkatram Reddy,RNI Registration number 57290/94, Price in Nepal - Nep. Rs. 20.00 per copy.

Conrad & Williamwelcome 2nd child

KATE & WILLIAM TO VISIT PAK

NEXT WEEK

PAGE

11NewsmakersSATURDAY | 12 OCTOBER 2019 | NEW DELHITHE ASIAN AGE

AwarenessOn World Mental Health Day,actor Jameela Jamil revealed howshe tried to kill herself at one point

I have highest regardfor women whochoose to be at

home with their kids— Oprah Winfrey,

American TV show host

William andKate

Drew Barrymore toheadline talk show

Oslo: Ethiopian PrimeMinister Abiy Ahmed hasbeen awarded the NobelPeace Prize for 2019 inrecognition of his effortsto end his country’s long-running border conflictwith Eritrea.

The Norwegian NobelInstitute on Friday alsopraised the “importantreforms” that Abiy,Ethiopia’s leader sinceApril 2018, has launchedat home.

Chairwoman Berit Reiss-Andersen said some peo-ple may consider it tooearly to give him the prize,but “it is now that AbiyAhmed’s efforts needrecognition and deserveencouragement.”

Mr Abiy, 43, took officeafter widespread protestspressured the longtimeruling coalition and hurtone of the world’s fastestgrowing economies.

Africa’s youngest leaderquickly announced dra-matic reforms and“Abiymania” began.

In a move that causedsurprise in the long-turbu-lent Horn of Africaregion, he said Ethiopiawould accept a peaceagreement with Eritrea,ending one of Africa’slongest-running conflicts.

Within weeks, Eritrea’s

longtime leader, visiblymoved, visited

Addis Ababa and com-munications and trans-port links were restored.

For the first time in twodecades people could,long-divided familiesmade tearful reunions.

The improving relationsled to the lifting of UnitedNations sanctions on

Eritrea, one of the world’smost reclusive nations.But Ethiopia’s reformsappear not to haveinspired any in Eritrea,which has since closedborder posts with itsneighbour. At home, Abiyoffered one political sur-prise after another. Hereleased tens of thousandsof prisoners, welcomed

home once-banned opposi-tion groups and acknowl-edged past abuses. Peopleexpressed themselvesfreely on social media, andhe announced thatEthiopia will hold free andfair elections in 2020.

The country has one ofthe world’s few “gender-balanced” Cabinets and afemale President. — AP

Ethiopia PM gets Nobel Peacefor ending conflict with Eritrea

Stalker used image of pupilreflections to locate pop idolLondon: The police hascharged a man in Tokyowith assaulting a pop star,saying he tracked herdown through the reflec-tion in her eyes on a selfieshe posted, the Guardianreported.

The suspect, whodescribed himself as afan of the woman, wasable to analyse cluesabout her whereaboutsfrom images the womanposted to her socialmedia, police said. In oneselfie, a train station signwas reflected in her eyes.He located the station,from which she regularly

commuted, by zooming inon the selfie and thenused Google Street Viewto identify the station,police said.

An investigator toldJapanese newspaperSankei Shimbun, “Peopleshould be fully aware thatposting pictures andvideo on social mediaruns the risk of divulgingpersonal data.”

The 26-year-old man,named Hibiki Sato, isaccused of waiting at sta-tion on September 1before following thewoman home and assault-ing her. — Agencies

‘Aspirinmay reduceharms ofpollution’Boston: Nonsteroidalanti-inflammatory drugslike aspirin may lessenthe adverse effects of airpollution exposure onlung function, a studyclaims.

Researchers fromColumbia MailmanSchool of Public Health,and Harvard ChanSchool of Public Healthanalysed a subset of datacollected from a cohort of2,280 males from thegreater Boston area whowere given tests to deter-mine their lung function.

The average age of par-ticipants in the study,published in theAmerican Journal ofRespiratory and CriticalCare Medicine, was 73years. Lung functiontests include a variety oftests that check how wellthe lungs work.

Researchers examinedthe relationship betweentest results, self-reportedNSAID use, and ambientparticulate matter andblack carbon in monthpreceding test, whileaccounting for a varietyof factors, including thehealth status of the sub-ject and whether or notthey were smokers.

They found that the useof any NSAID nearlyhalved the effect of PMon lung function, withthe association consis-tent across all four week-ly air pollution measure-ments from same-day to28 days prior to the lungfunction test. Since mostof the people in the studywho took NSAIDs usedaspirin, the researcherssaid the modifying effectthey observed was main-ly from the drug. — PTI

BBC HQ onlockdownas activiststarget it London: ExtinctionRebellion climate pro-testers on Fridayblocked the mainentrances at the BBC’sLondon headquarters,with one journalistreporting that the build-ing was on “lockdown”.

The group has car-ried out a wave ofdemonstrations in theBritish capital andaround the world sinceMonday, primarilyattempting to blockadecity centre streets.

In the latest protest,around 50 activists setup camp in front of themain doors at the BBC’sBroadcasting House, incentral London,prompting thereported shutdown.

BBC financial jour-nalist Paul Lewis tweet-ed, “No one in no oneout. Locked down.”Videos of the actionposted on social mediashowed several demon-strators had scaled anawning above theentrance.

“We, the people,have decided to doyour job and Tellthe Truth fromthe BBCBroadcastingH o u s ea b o u tw h e r ewe areh e a d -ed ifw ed on o tchangecourse,”ExtinctionRebellion said ina statement onFacebook. ~ — AFP

Carlsberg is working on paper beer bottlesNew York: Carlsberg isgetting closer to its goal ofselling beer in paper bot-tles, CNN reported.

On Thursday, the Danishbeer company revealedtwo new recyclable proto-types of the sustainably-sourced wood fiber bottleit hopes to eventuallybring to market. One ver-sion is lined with a thinfilm of recycled PET plas-tic to keep beer from seep-ing out. The other uses abio-based lining. The pro-totypes will be used to testthe linings.

For Carlsberg, the inno-vation is a way to lower itsimpact on the environ-ment and present con-sumers with an interest-ing new option.

Fiber bottles are betterfor the environment thanaluminum or glassbecause they are sourcedin a sustainable way, and

because the material has a“very low impact on pro-duction process,”explained MyriamShingleton, vice presidentof group development forCarlsberg.

“The energy and effi-ciency of the technologythat we’re using” reducecarbon emissions com-pared to other productionprocesses, she said.

Carlsberg started work-ing on the new type of

packaging in 2015, and isstill a few years away — atleast — from selling thebottle to customers. Onereason that it’s taking solong to develop an effec-tive paper bottle isbecause Carlsberg needsto make sure that the newpackage doesn’t alter thetaste of its carbonatedbeverage, and because thetypes of materials it’sseeking, like the bio-basedpolymer lining, are notcommercially available.

To move things for-w a r d ,Carlsberg hasbeen part-nering withp a c k a g i n gexperts andother compa-nies. OnT h u r s d a y,Carlsberg saidthat Absolut,Coca-Cola and

L’Oréal are joining itsefforts to develop effectivepaper packaging. Morepartners can help drive upmainstream demand forthe type of materials itneeds. Shingleton notedthat Carlsberg isn’t hop-ing to replace its cans withthe new model. Instead,the company wants tooffer its customers anoth-er option.

Carlsberg is not the onlycompany getting creative

about its packag-ing.Unilever hastried out soap-

like shampoobars, bambootoothbrushes andreusable pack-a g e s .PepsiCo and Coca-Cola have eachshared plans tostart selling waterin aluminum cans.

— Agencies

NEWS NUGGETS

Los Angeles: MichaelJackson bio-musical,titled MJ the Musical,will hit the Broadwaystage in July 2020.

According to theH o l l y w o o dReporter, theshow willbegin pre-view per-f o r m a n c e son July 6with an offi-cial openingset forAugust 13 atthe Neil Simon Theatre.

Directed and choreo-graphed by ChristopherWheeldon, the musicalwill focus on Jackson’sachievements. — PTI

Berlin: Scientists havedeveloped a system com-bining artificial skinwith control algorithms,and used it to create thefirst autonomoushumanoid robot withfull-body artificial skin.

Sensitive synthetic skinenables robots to sensetheir own bodies andsurroundings — a cru-cial capability if theyare to be in close contactwith people.

— PTI

‘AUTONOMOUS HUMANOID ROBOT WITHFULL-BODY ARTIFICIAL SKIN DEVELOPED’

Los Angeles: SpaceXcould launch US astro-nauts to theInternational SpaceStation as early asnext year if tests onthe company’s long-delayed CrewDragon capsuleprove conclusive,

Nasa administratorJim Bridenstine saidThursday.

Bridenstine made the

announcement as hetoured the California

headquarters ofbillionaire ElonMusk’s SpaceX, amajor contractorfor Nasa. The visitcame asBridenstine and

Musk have been engagedin a public spat over themuch-delayed buildingof the Crew Dragonspacecraft. — AFP

NASA AND SPACEX MAY LAUNCH U.S.ASTRONAUTS TO ISS IN EARLY 2020

MJ’S BIO-MUSICALTO PREMIERE ONBROADWAY IN 2020

Addis Abba: PrimeMinister Abiy Ahmed’soffice said on Friday thenation of Ethiopia wasproud of his Nobel PeacePrize win, hailing it as tes-timony to efforts to reformthe country and seekpeace with Eritrea.

“We are proud as anation,” his officewrote on Twitter afterthe announcement ofAbiy’s win. In a state-ment, his office fur-ther praised the deci-sion as “timeless testi-mony to the... ideals ofunity, cooperationand mutual co-e x i s t e n c ethat theP r i m e

Minister has been consis-tently championing”.“Since PM Abiy Ahmedassumed political leader-ship in April 2018 he madepeace, forgiveness and rec-onciliation key policycomponents of his admin-istration,” statement said.

“At a nationallevel, the release

of tens of thou-sands of polit-

ical prison-ers, grantingof amnestyfor politicalp a r t i e sc h a r g e d

under the anti-terrorism law

to returnf r o m

exile and engage peaceful-ly, widening the space forpolitical parties... are somenotable milestones. “At theregional level, ending thetwo-decade stalematebetween Ethiopia andEritrea has opened up anew dimension of possi-bilities for co-operationbetween the two coun-tries.” Statement alsopointed to Abiy’s attemptsto reconcile differencesregionally, among coun-tries across the Horn ofAfrica. However, despiteAbiy’s moves for peace, theEritrea deal is under-mined by lack of tangibleprogress on issues likeborder demarcation.

— AFP

MichaelJackson

People take pictures as workers prepare the statue The Victor (Pobednik) beforetransporting it for restoration work at the Kalemegdan Fortress in Belgrade onThursday. — AFP

‘PROUD AS A NATION’ OF HIS NOBEL WIN, TIMELESSTESTIMONY TO LEADER’S IDEALS OF UNITY: PM OFFICE

‘MOUSE BRAIN TISSUES KEPTALIVE FOR WEEKS IN LAB’Tokyo: Scientists in Japan have successfullykept mouse brain tissue alive for 25 days,much longer than is possible with currentculturing methods. Researchers at theRIKEN Centre for Biosystems Dynamics inJapan developed a new system for keepingtissue viable for long-term study once trans-ferred from an animal to a culture medium.

The new system uses a microfluidic devicethat can keep tissue from both drying outand from drowning in fluid, according to theresearch published in the journal AnalyticalSciences.Experimenting on tissues in cul-ture can facilitate drug discovery becauseresearchers can systematically manipulatethe tissue and test different drugs or drugcombinations.

However, when studying a whole system inwhich many cells must interact with eachother, it has proven difficult to keep the tis-sue “alive” for more than a few days. — PTI

EUROPE’S BUSIEST TRAINSTATION MAY GET BIGGERParis: Europe’s busiest train station,Paris’ bustling Gare du Nord, may get amuch-needed facelift after a governmenttribunal Friday approved part of a $663million plan to enlarge and modernisethe 155-year-old edifice.

A noisy hive of passengers and shop-pers, the station serves as a stop for theEurostar from London, the Thalys fromBelgium, Germany and the Netherlands,four suburban trainlines, and two Parismetros.

Its 35,000-odd square metres, which accommodates about 7,00,000 pas-sengers every day — growing to an esti-mated 8,00,000 by 2024 and 9,00,000 by 2030— will more than tripled to 1,24,000 m2under the project which has been proposed by the national railway operator SNCF and property developerCeetrus. — AFP

Amitabh Bachchanwaves to fans out-side his residence(left) and a fan holdsa painting of him tocelebrate his 77thbirthday in Mumbaion Friday. — AFP

Anne Hathaway(right) admires ababy on red car-pet at an eventin New York on Thursday. — AP

Emmy Rossum at thepremiere party forthe Amazon’sModern Love in NewYork on Thursday.

— AP

Victoria Justice(left) at the

amfAR Gala LosAngeles at Milk

Studios onThursday. — AP

◗ Carlsberg startedworking on the newpackaging in 2015,and is a few yearsaway from sellingbottle to customers.It needs to ensurenew package does-n’t alter taste of itscarbonated bever-age.

Abiy Ahmed

SATURDAY | 12 OCTOBER 2019 | NEW DELHITHE ASIAN AGE

Man gets life termfor raping minor

New Delhi: A speeding truckhit a dumper truck killing itsdriver and a mechanic early

on Friday, police said. Thecleaner of the stationary

dumper truck and the driverof the speeding truck wereinjured in the incident thattook place in Noida Sector

132 around 12.30 am andhave been hospitalised, the

police said. Driver Riyaz andcleaner Mohammad Arshadwere moving from Greater

Noida towards Delhi and hadparked their dumper truckalong the highway after it

broke down midway.“Mechanic Vedpal was calledin for help and the trio wereat the spot when a speedingtruck being driven by Naresh

rammed it from the rearside, leaving all four injured,”

SHO, Expressway PoliceStation, Bhuvnesh Kumar

said. “The impact of the col-lision was such that the

cabin of the speeding truckgot badly disfigured and it

had to be cut using gas cut-ters to rescue the driver,” hesaid. The SHO said no com-plaint has been received bythe police so far in the case

from either side.

New Delhi: Two people, whowere accused of robbing a

woman journalist last month,were arrested on Friday aftera brief shootout in southeast

Delhi’s Nizamuddin area,police said. The accused havebeen identified as Anil (26), aresident of Khanpur and Arun

(24) of Maidan Garhi, theysaid. On Friday, police

received a tip-off that Anil,along with Arun, would come

to Nizamuddin area on awhite motorcycle to commitsome robbery. The accused

were spotted and signalled tostop, but they fired at police

in order to flee from the spot.Police also retaliated and

fired at them. Two pistol andfour live cartridges were

recovered from them.

2 arrested afterbrief shootout

Dutee Chandsmashes recordfor gold medal

SPORT | Athletics

15 16GUIDE TO FORTUNE

SHORT TAKES

■ Tamil Nadu ■Muhammad Ali■Samudragupta

THE ANSWERS TO TODAY’S GUIDE TO FORTUNE

1The world’s largest solarpower plant has been

installed in which state ofIndia?

■ Tamil Nadu■ Rajasthan■ Andhra Pradesh

2Who among the follow-ing will get the first-ever

Jesse Owens OlympicSpirit Award 2016?

■ Paavo Nurmi■ Michael Phelps■ Muhammad Ali

3Which of the followingrulers is known as the

“Napoleon of India”?

■ Ashoka■ Samudragupta■ Skandgupta

NEW DELHI SATURDAY 12 OCTOBER 2019

New Delhi: A Delhi court hassentenced a 29-year-old manto life imprisonment for kid-

napping and raping a 10-year-old girl. Additional sessions

judge Seema Maini convictedRam Singh and imposed a

fine of `10,000 on the con-vict, half of which is to bepaid to the rape survivor’s

family. According to the pros-ecution, in 2015 when the girl

was going to her friend’shouse to play, Singh along

with two others kidnappedher and confined her in a

nearby room. When her par-ents came looking for her and

broke open the door of theroom, the girl said she was

raped by the accused.

DELHI SPECIALTsitsipas sendsDjokovic out of Shanghai

SalmanambushesBoney’sWanted

DELHI AGEMatinee 24

SPORT | Tennis

Speeding truckkills dumper driver

City’s air quality ‘poor’ for 2nd day, may get worse

Tick the answer and checkthem below.

■ Kirti Azad likely to head DPCC amid fresh crisis in party

SUNIL TTHAPLIYALNEW DELHI, OCT. 11

Ahead of the Assemblyelections in Delhi, theCongress is likely toappoint former-cricketer-turned politician KirtiAzad as the party’s cityunit president amidintense infighting withinthe party. The rift withinthe Congress is reportedlycausing a delay inannouncing the name ofits chief in Delhi, the postwhich fell vacant after thedeath of former chiefminister Sheila Dikshit onJuly 20 this year.

Mr Azad joined theCongress ahead of the LokSabha polls in Februarythis year. Before finalisingMr Azad, the Congressleaders had tried hard toselect a name for the Delhiunit chief. Congress presi-dent Sonia Gandhi hadmet a delegation of theparty’s state unit leadersand Delhi Congress in-charge P.C. Chacko but adecision on the final nameof the city unit chief

could not be made.Fresh crisis broke with-

in the Congress withSheila Dikshit’s sonSandeep writing a letter toMr Chacko alleging thatthe party leader had men-tally harassed his motherin her last days. BackingMr Dikshit, former cityministers RamakantGoswami, Kiran Waliaand Mangat Ram Singhaldemanded an inquiryagainst Mr Chackothrough the party’s inter-nal committee to get intothe root of the matter.Addressing a joint pressconference, the trio alsodemanded that the partyshould investigate corrup-tion allegations against

Mr Chacko. Theyexpressed serious concernover the fact that whileother parties were prepar-ing for the coming stateelections, their party wasbusy in battling internaldifferences.

Sources said that MrDikshit had stated in theletter that adverse politi-cal situations were creat-ed by Mr Chacko for hermother. The said letterwhich is still not out inopen has already created amassive political contro-versy. Asked about the let-ter, former Delhi MP saidthat he has written the let-ter to Mr Chacko in personand not as a Congressleader.

Sources said that theCongress’ disciplinarycommittee will look intothe allegations made byMr Dikshit against MrChacko. It is learnt thatMr Chacko has informedMrs Gandhi about the let-ter and its contents, fol-lowing which she hasreferred the matter to thedisciplinary committeecomprising of seniorparty leaders A.K. Antony,Sushil Kumar Shinde andMotilal Vora.

When informed that theletter has been sent to MrsGandhi, Mr Dikshitresponded: “You must goand ask P.C. Chacko aboutthe letter. What has SoniaGandhi got to do with thisletter? I keep on writingletters to Chacko and nowhe has to think how hewill respond to this.”

Asked about the letter,Mr Chacko said: “Only he(Sandeep Dikshit) cananswer why he wrote theletter. I have read the letterand I think the Congressmen should know aboutthis.”

AGE CCORRESPONDENTNEW DELHI, OCT. 11

Three women werearrested, on Friday, fromSouth Delhi for allegedlyrobbing a 1971 war veter-an of `40,000 inside anATM kiosk last week,the police said.

The accused arenatives of Rajgarh dis-trict in Madhya Pradesh,it said.

On October 3, a 76-year-old resident of HauzKhas had lodged a com-plaint stating he foundout that `40,000 had beenstolen from his pocketwhile he was withdraw-ing money from theATM, the police said.

According to thepolice, two womenbarged into the ATMwhile the man was with-drawing money.

During investigation,CCTV footage wasanalysed in which twowomen were noticedstanding near the com-plainant, the police said.

Meanwhile, anotherincident of jewellerytheft was reported inKotla Mubarakpur. Oneof the three accused wasspotted during theanalysis of CCTVfootage of the incident, asenior police officersaid.

“On Friday, the policereceived tip-off that thewomen would come to apark at Sector-5 in PushpVihar for division of thestolen money, followingwhich they were arrest-ed,” said the police.

3 women heldfor robbingwar veteranat ATM kiosk

Sheila’s son alleges Chackoharassed mom in last days

Artists perform at the Saras Aajeevika Mela at Rajpath in New Delhi on Friday. — PRITAM BANDYOPADHYAY

After arrest of IAS’ husband,CISF officer offered her helpNew Delhi, Oct. 11: Soonafter planting drugs in thecar of an IAS officer's hus-band, the accused CISFcommandant tried to con-tact the bureaucrat withwhom he had one-sidedaffection on the pretext ofoffering help, policesources said.

Ranjan Pratap Singh,posted as director ofbureau of security (BOS)in the ministry of exter-nal affairs, and his friendNeeraj Chauhan werecharged with criminalconspiracy and under pro-visions of the NarcoticDrugs and PsychotropicSubstances (NDPS) Act.

On Wednesday, a CISFofficer received a callabout a suspicious car

parked inside the CGOcomplex here, followingwhich he immediatelyalerted CISF security per-sonnel to trace the car'sowner. The vehicle wassearched and 52 smallpouches containing 550gram charas were recov-ered.

Later, they found thatthe car's owner worked asa consultant with the min-istry of information tech-nology, police had said.The car owner, who wasthe husband of an IASofficer, was held by policeand a case was registeredagainst him under theNDPS.

The police sources saidthe accused contacted thewoman officer after her

husband was arrested andacted like he wanted tohelp her. However, duringthe course of investiga-tion, it was revealed thatSingh, along withChauhan, tried to impli-cate the bureaucrat's hus-band.

During interrogation,the accused revealed thathe procured the drug fromhis hometown Aligarhand was in a dilemma forfive days whether heshould implicate the IASofficer's husband.

Raids are being con-ducted in Aligarh toknow the source of thedrug procured by theaccused, a senior policeofficer said.

— PTI

4-day policecustody forformer FortispromotersAGE CCORRESPONDENTNEW DELHI, OCT. 11

The Delhi high court onFriday reserved orderon whether to issuenotice on former FortisHealthcare promoterMalvinder Singh’s pleaseeking quashing of anFIR against him thatalleged misappropria-tion of Religare FinvestLtd (RFL) funds, causing`2,397 crore in losses.

Justice Brijesh Sethireserved order on theplea after hearing sub-stantial arguments onSingh, EconomicOffences Wing (EOW) ofDelhi Police and RFL.

Singh had approachedthe high court onThursday, hours beforehis arrest. Meanwhile, aDelhi court on Fridaygranted the police four-day custody ofMalvinder, his brotherShivinder and three oth-ers, arrested for allegedmisappropriation offunds in the case.

Singh, in his plea inhigh court has contend-ed that only the SFIO,which comes under min-istry of corporateaffairs, could have inves-tigated the allegations offraud and cheatingagainst him.

EOW and RFL ques-tioned maintainabilityof the petition, whileSingh urged the court toissue notice in the mat-ter and also stay the pro-ceedings initiated by thepolice.

AGE CCORRESPONDENTAND AAGENCIESNEW DELHI, OCT. 11

The national capital's airquality remained "poor" onFriday and is likely to slipinto the “very poor” catego-ry by Sunday, officials said.

The overall air qualityindex (AQI) of Delhi wasrecorded at 208, whichfalls in the “poor” catego-ry. The city experiencedpoor air quality for thefirst time this season onThursday, the Centre-runSystem of Air Quality andWeather Forecasting AndResearch (SAFAR) said.

Meanwhile, ArvindKejriwal said that his gov-

ernment will form a spe-cial task force to monitorimplementation of a decla-ration signed during a cli-mate summit in Denmark.

Mr Kejriwal also talkedabout various efforts takenby his government, includ-ing the implementation ofthe odd-even scheme, toclean air quality in Delhi.

“A good news is thatDelhi was strugglingagainst high pollution, butnow it has gone down by 25per cent over the last threeyears,” he said.

However, The CentralPollution Control Board(CPCB) recorded Delhi'sair quality in the “poor”category on Friday, with

an AQI of 216 and PM10 —particulate matter 10micrometers or less indiameter — and PM2.5 asthe prominent pollutants.

Particles narrower than10 micrometres are the

most hazardous becausethey can get deep into thelungs, and some may evenget into the bloodstream.The city's AQI is predictedto slip to 239 on Saturday.The SAFAR said biomassfire counts in Punjab andHaryana have increasedsignificantly over the lasttwo days and will now startinfluencing Delhi’s AQI.

The national capital's AQImay start deterioratingfrom October 13, “towardsvery poor”, it said.

“Late monsoon withdraw-al is not good for air qualityin North India. During thethird and fourth week ofOctober, the temperaturewill also start to cool. The

anticyclone, which persistsas part of the withdrawal,along with clear skies andsinking motion will makethe atmosphere very stablebeneath. Means signifi-cantly calm surfacewinds,” the SAFAR said.

These factors will lead tostagnant weather condi-tions — low wind speed,descending air, and com-pressed boundary layer —which favour rapid fineparticulate matter forma-tion and accumulation ofpollutants. The situationbecomes bad if any addi-tional internal (like fire-crackers) or external (stub-ble burning) emissionsources contribute to it.

� City’s AQI may startdeteriorating fromOctober 13, ‘towardsvery poor’. The situa-tion becomes bad ifany additional inter-nal (like firecrackers)or external (stubbleburning) emissionsources contribute toit.

IRS officer bookedfor fudging identityto clear UPSC test

BJP MPs Vijay Goel, Ramesh Bidhuri and leader ofOpposition in Delhi Assembly Vijender Gupta aftermeeting the chief eletion commissioner in New Delhion Friday. — BUNNY SMITH

New Delhi, Oct. 11: TheCBI has filed a caseagainst an IndianRevenue Service (IRS)officer for allegedly usingthe identity of anotherperson, someone five yearjunior to him, to appearin the UPSC examinationin 2007, officials said onFriday.

The agency has bookedNavneet Kumar, a 2007-batch IRS officer of cus-toms and Central excise,for submitting fake dateof birth and educationalcertificates to qualify inthe Union Public ServiceCommission (UPSC)examination, they said.

Kumar is suspected tobe Rajesh KumarSharma, who becameoverage for the examina-tion in 2007 and used theidentity of the former toqualify the civil servicesexamination, they said.

Born on June 15, 1980,Navneet had passed highschool in 1996 and inter-mediate and graduationin 2003 and 2008 respec-tively, the agency alleged.

The agency alleged thatSharma had passed Class10 in 1991 and Class 12 in1993 from CBSE board inBettiah.

“When Rajesh KumarSharma became overagefor the UPSC exam, hechanged his identity andobtained certificate in thename of Navneet Kumarkeeping his father’s nameand address the same,”the Central Bureau ofInvestigation (CBI) hasalleged.

During the verificationexercise, certificatesissued by the DeputyElectoral Officer ofBettiah and statementsof the village head, for-mer village head, andother inhabitants of thevillage indicated thatNavneet Kumar is anadopted identity ofRajesh Kumar Sharma,they said.

The agency found outthat Kumar has not sub-mitted any birth certifi-cate and intermediateexamination certificate tothe department so far.

“It is prima facie a crim-inal act of use of forgeddocuments as genuine,change of identity forcheating in conspiracywith unknown public ser-vants who might havehelped in the act gettinggovernment job byassuming a new identityto overcome restraint ofbeing overage and againstunknown private per-sons,” the CBI hasalleged.

— PTI

New Delhi, Oct. 11: DelhiAssembly Speaker RamNiwas Goel was onFriday convicted by acourt here for trespass-ing the house of a realtorin an East Delhi colonyin 2015.

Additional chief metro-politan magistrateSamar Vishal held MrGoel and four others say-ing the case against themwas proved beyond rea-sonable doubts.

“To conclude, the prose-cution has been able toprove its case beyond rea-s o n a b l edoubts. . .Accordingly,Ram Niwas Goel, SumitGoyal, Hitesh Khanna,Atul Gupta and BalbirSingh are convicted foroffence under section 448(house-trespass) of theIPC,” the court said.

It also convicted co-accused Sumit Goyalunder section 323 (volun-tarily causing hurt) ofthe Indian Penal Code(IPC), besides the offenceof house-trespass.

The court will heararguments on quantumof sentence on October18.

Mr Goel, through advo-cate Mohammad Irshad,had earlier denied theallegations in the case.

According to an FIRregistered on a complaintby a local builder ManishGhai, Mr Goel and hissupporters had raidedone of Ghai’s houses inVivek Vihar on the nightof February 6, 2015, a daybefore the DelhiAssembly elections.

Mr Goel had allegedlyraided the house of MrGhai accusing him ofstashing liquor, blanketsand other things for dis-tribution ahead of thepolls, the FIR had said.

The AAP leaders hadrefuted these claims, say-ing they had gone to thehouse with a police teamcomprising the local sta-tion house officer andassistant commissionerof police, among othersafter making a PCR callin this regard.

“As per the com-plainant, some labourerswere staying at a housethat was owned by him.He received a call fromone of them at about 9.30pm on February 6, 2015about Mr Goel and hisassociates forcibly enter-ing the building and dam-aging the property,”police had said in achargesheet.

Mr Ghai also allegedthat the group broke acupboard, drawers,kitchen items, window-panes and mirrors in thehouse. When the labour-ers tried to resist, theywere allegedly physicallyassaulted.

A case of rioting, tres-passing, causing mis-chief and voluntarilycausing hurt was lodgedagainst the accused.

— PTI

Delhi Assembly Speakerconvicted for trespassing

� Navneet Kumar issuspected to beRajesh KumarSharma, whobecame overage forthe examination in2007 and used theidentity of the for-mer to qualify thecivil services exam-ination

Ram Niwas GoelP.C. Chacko Sandeep Dikshit

SHORT TAKESUnits to finalise

names on Oct. 13 PPuunnee:: All the affiliated units of

the BCCI will on Sunday finalisethe names of their new office-bearers in an “informal meet-ing” in Mumbai which is also

likely to be attended by formeradministrators.

The new office-bearers will takecharge after the BCCI’s Annual

General Meeting on October 23.It is learnt that former BCCI

president and current Ministerof State finance Anurag

Thakur’s suggestions on decid-ing the names of the office-

bearers will be taken up by theboard members. Five state

units — Tamil Nadu, Haryana,Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and

Manipur — barred from theBCCI AGM are all but certain to

move court. But the moodamong the other members is to

have the AGM as quickly aspossible and take over the

board’s functioning from theCommittee of Administrators

(CoA). It will be interesting tosee if former board presidentand Tamil Nadu strongman NSrinivasan joins this “informal

meeting” in person or on videoconference. Sunday is the pre-ferred date for the meeting asMonday, October 14, is the lastdate for filing nominations for

the office-bearers’ post. — PTI

Virat has givenus time: MayankPPuunnee:: The brisk pace at whichskipper Virat Kohli scored his

double hundred has given theIndian bowlers enough time toget 20 South African wickets,

reckons opener MayankAgarwal. Kohli’s big knock

came at an impressive strikerate of 75.59 as he hammered35 boundaries, including twosixes, in his 336-ball innings.

“Definitely, it has put us in dri-ver’s seat and it’s not just the

amount of runs but at whatpace those runs have come hasmade the huge difference,” said

Agarwal, who got his secondsuccessive Test hundred on theopening day, said. “The double

hundred has given the teamextra session and half, which

becomes very crucial. The part-nership between Virat and

Jadeja was fabulous and almostat run a-ball 230-odd (225),which is fabulous. If you are

looking to win games, then youwant to have that time to get

20 wickets,” said the Karnatakaright-hander.

“To get a 250, it’s no joke andway he is batting is tremen-

dous. The positivity and intentis fabulous. The records and his

scores, prove everything thatwe all need to see (learn).”

— PTI

I mean he (Virat) isa world-classplayer. It was

superb to watch.— Enoch Nkwe, South Africa

coach praised India skipper ViratKohli, who scored a double ton

on Friday

Cricket

PPuunnee,, OOcctt.. 1111:: India captainVirat Kohli blended gracewith determination to raisehis record-breaking seventhdouble hundred whichgrinded down a haplessSouth Africa on the secondday of the second Test, hereon Friday.

With Kohli scoring acareer-best unbeaten 254,India buried the Proteasunder a mountain of runs,putting on board a mam-moth 601 for five. Kohli sur-passed legendary SachinTendulkar and VirenderSehwag, who had scored sixdouble tons each. He alsoequalled Ricky Ponting’srecord of 19 hundreds asTest skipper even thoughrecord belongs to GraemeSmith (25).

Ravindra Jadeja (91) alsohelped himself with someheavy duty hitting beforemissing out on his secondTest hundred as Kohlideclared immediately afterhis dismissal. At stumps,South Africa were reeling at36 for three as India aim towrap the series up insidefour days.

Umesh Yadav got rid ofboth the openers — DeanElgar (6) and AidenMarkaram (0) — whileMohammed Shami saw theback of Temba Bavuma (8).Kohli effortlessly shiftedgears, toying with an attackwhich looked resigned afterthe first session as Indiatook complete control.

In the first session, a beau-tiful straight drive offVernon Philander broughtup Indian captain’s 26thTest and 69th internationalhundred and the muted cel-ebration was more aboutcontentment than elation.

The final boundary countin his innings was an envi-able 33 fours and two sixesin 336 balls. It was amarathon knock as he alonefaced 56 off 156.3 oversbowled in India’s innings.Kohli was an epitome ofconcentration and withdependable vice captainAjinkya Rahane (59) heraised a 178-run fourthwicket stand which brokethe spirit of the Proteas

attack. The partnership of 225

runs with Jadeja in 39.1overs was like adding insultto the injury. Not for oncedid he look in any sort ofhurry to complete the mile-stone as Kohli was ready torespect the good deliveries,slowly trudging his way tothe coveted three-figuremark.

South Africa will certain-ly feel dejected as theirbowlers put up a good showeven though the scoreboardsuggested otherwise. KagisoRabada (3/93 in 26) andPhilander (0/66 in 26 overs),for the second day in a row,bowled a probing morningspell, albeit with little luck.

Credit to the skipper andhis deputy for the mannerin which they negotiatedthe first hour. Kohli, in par-ticular, was leaving any-thing that Rabada bowledon the off-stump channel forthe first few overs. The onlyblemish was fishing at anaway swinger fromPhilander, which a divingwicketkeeper Quinton deKock failed to latch onto.The bowler’s back-drive offRabada came soon after asKohli started opening up.

Anrich Nortje also againtried to bowl short but Kohliplayed his trademark short-arm pull in-front of thewicket. Once the ball gotold, the South African spin-ners neither had the guilenor the big heart needed inadverse conditions to trou-ble a champion batsmanlike Kohli. — PTI

King rules■ Kohlistrikes double tonas India pileon runsagainst SA

MOST DOUBLE HUNDREDS IN TESTS

PPuunnee,, OOcctt.. 1111:: India skipperVirat Kohli says the responsi-bility of leading the team moti-vates him to push his limits intesting conditions which even-tually helped score big Testhundreds.

No Indian batsman has moredouble hundreds in Test crick-et than Kohli, who smashed ahandful of records with hiscareer-best unbeaten knock of254 on the day two of the sec-ond Test against South Africa.He surpassed SachinTendulkar and VirenderSehwag by amassing a recordseventh double hundred, thehighest in Indian cricket histo-ry. The 30-year-old, who nowhas 26 Test hundreds and 43 inODIs, also went past Sir DonBradman’s Test tally of 6,996runs. “Feels great it’s a nice lit-tle thing to get along in yourcareer, to get most number ofdouble hundreds,” Kohli toldBCCI.tv.

“I struggled to get big scoresinitially but then as soon as Ibecame captain then youinvariably just think about theteam all the time, you can’t justthink about your game. In thatprocess you end up batting

more than you can imaginethat’s been the mindset for along time now.”

Talking about his unbeaten254 here, the skipper saidthinking about the team helpedhim play his marathon inningsin hot and humid conditions.

“It’s difficult but if you keepthinking (about the) team thenyou push yourselves in situa-tions you can’t otherwise.That’s the key in hot andhumid, testing conditions youthink about the team and youend up batting 3-4 hours more.”

“That was the only challeng-ing thing and then (Ravindra)Jadeja came to bat and youhave to run fast with Jaddu. Itwas physically and mentallychallenging and but that’s whatyou prepare for as an international player.” —PTI

Batsman I Runs 200+

Don Bradman (Australia) 80 6,996 12

Kumar Sangakkara (Sri Lanka) 233 12,400 11

Brian Lara (West Indies) 232 11,953 9

Wally Hammond (England) 140 7,249 7

Mahela Jayawardene (Lanka) 252 11,814 7

Virat Kohli (India) 138 7,054 7

FASTEST TO 7,000 RUNS IN TESTS

VirenderSehwag Score: 319 Venue: ChennaiSeason: 2007-08

Virat Kohli Score: 254* Venue: Pune Season: 2019-20

MayankAgarwal Score: 215 Venue:Visakhapatnam Season: 2019-20

Rohit Sharma Score: 176Venue:Visakhapatnam Season: 2019-20

IINNDDIIAA’’SSHHIIGGHHEESSTTSSCCOORREESSAAGGAAIINNSSTT SSAAIINN TTEESSTTSS

NNeeww DDeellhhii,, OOcctt 1111:: FormerIndia skipper Anil Kumblehas been appointed as thehead coach of Kings XIPunjab for the upcomingseason of the IndianPremier League (IPL).

KXIP have also broughtWest Indies great CourtneyWalsh on board as talentscount, pretty much likethe long-time associationformer India coach JohnWright has with MumbaiIndians. Former India spin-ner Sunil Joshi andKumble’s longtime nationaland state teammate will bethe assistant coach of thePunjab franchise.

South African great JontyRhodes is set to be theteam’s fielding coach andformer Australian captainGeorge Bailey will coachthe batsmen. Spin legendKumble has been put incharge of “all cricket-relat-ed affairs” of the team andwill be making a presenta-tion to the team manage-ment regarding his planson October 19. It has alsobeen learnt that Kumblewill also take a call onRavichandran Ashwin’sfuture with the team on thesame day.

Ashwin, who captained

the side in the past two sea-sons, is expected to be trad-ed to Delhi Capitals aheadof the next season.“Kumble will decide whoall players will stay andwho all will be released.Walsh will be scouting tal-ent for the team in the SyedMushtaq Ali T20 trophybefore the IPL and will alsowork with our pacers,” aKXIP source said.

Kumble, who had a briefstint with the Indian men’steam as head coachbetween 2016 and 2017, is

currently the only Indiancoach in the IPL. For the 48-year-old, KXIP will be thethird IPL team that he willbe involved with, havingfeatured as a player andlater captain with RoyalChallengers Bangalore in2008.

He had also joinedMumbai Indians in 2013 asa mentor before quitting in2015. He then joined theIndian team as the chiefcoach but it ended acrimo-niously in 2017 after hisrelationship with skipperVirat Kohli became “unten-able”. Kumble is the fifthcoach to join the Punjabfranchise in the last fiveeditions. He will also have ahigh-profile support staffto work with.

Walsh and Joshi wereinvolved with theBangladesh team till theWorld Cup while Bailey hascaptained KXIP. Earlier,Sanjay Bangar (2014-2016),Virender Sehwag (2017),Brad Hodge (2018) and MikeHesson (2019) had served ashead coach of the team,which finished at the bot-tom in 2015 and 2016 beforesigning off in fifth, seventhand sixth place in the lastthree seasons. — PTI

Kumble named as headcoach of Kings XI Punjab

NNeeww DDeellhhii,, OOcctt.. 1111:: FormerIndia captain ShanthaRangaswamy, who is set tobe a part of the powerfulnine-member BCCI apexcouncil, says she neverimagined that any womancricketer will “storm themale bastion” that theIndian cricket board is.

Rangaswamy is set to getelected unopposed in theIndian Cricketers’Association (ICA) electionsand will be its female repre-sentative on the BCCI apexcouncil. “Never ever in mydreams I imagined I wouldbe sitting on the board. Idid not even imagine amale cricketer on theboard, let alone us. Somemay be cursing the Lodhareforms but it is onlybecause of that, we finallyhave a voice in the board. Itis like storming a male bas-tion,” 65-year-oldRangaswamy said onFriday.

Rangaswamy, who playedthe game when women’scricket was neglected andnot recognised by the BCCI,said female representationin the country’s cricketboard is a giant leap forthe sport. She was the firstwoman recipient of BCCI’s

lifetime achievementaward and it was under hercaptaincy that India won aTest series for the firsttime.

After formation of theapex council, Rangaswamywill push her five-pointvision for the growth ofwomen’s cricket which hasnow become a viable careeroption with the support ofBCCI.

She wants the retiredinternational women crick-eters to get the same pen-sion as former RanjiTrophy cricketers, if notmore. She also wantsretired domestic cricketersto get BCCI pension and anincrease in the match fees

of current domestic play-ers who she claims are paidas much the U-19 boys.

“I am not saying the Ranjicricketers don’t deserve thepension they are getting, Ionly want the women inter-national cricketers to comeat par with them. Anddomestic cricketers gettingpaid as much as the U-19boys is unacceptable,” saidRangaswamy.

She also rued that in thelast 15 years, not much hasbeen done to promotecoaching among women.“Many level 2 female coach-es have been deprived ofgraduating to level 3. Theyhave not been able to enterprofessional coaching,” shesaid. — PTI

Never imagined I will bepart of BCCI: Shantha

Some may becursing theLodha reformsbut it is only

because of that, wefinally have a voice inthe board. It is likestorming a malebastion.

—SHANTHARANGASWAMY VVaaddooddaarraa,, OOcctt.. 1111::

Skipper Mithali Raj andPunam Raut smashedimpressive fifties toguide the Indianwomen’s team to aseries-clinching five-wicket win over SouthAfrica in the second ODIhere on Friday.

India first restrictedSouth Africa to a com-petitive 247-6 after elect-ing to field and thenreturned to overhaul thetarget with two overs tospare and take an unas-sailable 2-0 lead in thethree-match series.

Pacer Shikha Pandey(2/38), left-arm spinnerEkta Bist (2/45) and leg-spinner Poonam Yadav(2/42) returned with two

wickets each to keep thevisitors to a below-parscore.

Chasing 248 to win, theIndian women lost open-ers Priya Punia (20) andJemimah Rodrigues (18)early to slip to 66 for twoin 12.5 overs.

However, Punam (65off 92) and Mithali (66off 82) resurrected thechase by sharing a 129-run partnership for thethird wicket.

— PTIBBrriieeff SSccoorreess:: SouthAfrica 247/6 in 50 overs(L Wolvaardt 69, M duPreez 44, S Pandey2/38) lost to India248/5 in 48 overs (PRaut 65, M Raj 66, AKhaka 3/69).

Raj, Raut guideIndia to victory

Virat Kohli celebrates after completing his doublehundred during thesecond day of the second Test matchagainst SA in Pune.

— AFP

Mithali Raj

>>>

Anil KKumble

Boring!Former England skipper Michael Vaughan on Friday criticisedthe Test match pitches in India, terming the tracks as “boring”and heavily loaded in favour of the batsmen

Batsman I TimeWally Hammond (England) 131 18 years & 238 daysVirender Sehwag (India) 134 8 years & 278 daysSachin Tendulkar (India) 136 11years & 353 daysGarry Sobers (West Indies) 138 16 years & 359 daysKumar Sangakkara (SL) 83 9 years & 3 daysVirat Kohli (India) 81 8 years & 113 days

SachinTendulkar Score: 169Venue: CapeTown Season: 1996-97

IInnddiiaa ((11sstt IInnnniinnggss)):: MayankAgarwal c du Plessis bRabada 108, Rohit Sharmac de Kock b Rabada 14,Cheteshwar Pujara c duPlessis b Rabada 58, ViratKohli (not out) 254,Ajinkya Rahane c de Kockb Maharaj 59, RavindraJadeja c de Bruyn bMuthusamy 91. EExxttrraass ((LLBB--66,, NNBB--1111)) 1177.. TToottaall ((ffoorr 55wwiicckkeettss iinn 115566..33 oovveerrss)) 660011ddeeccll..FFooWW:: 1-25, 2-163, 3-198, 4-376, 5-601.BBoowwlliinngg:: Philander 26-6-66-0, Rabada 30-3-93-3,

Nortje 25-5-100-0,Maharaj 50-10-196-1,Senuran 19.3-1-97-1, Elgar4-0-26-0, Markram 2-0-17-0.SSoouutthh AAffrriiccaa ((11sstt IInnnniinnggss))::Dean Elgar b U Yadav 6,Aiden Markram lbw b UYadav 0, Theunis de Bruyn(batting) 20, TembaBavuma c Saha b M Shami8, Anrich Nortje (batting)2. TToottaall ((ffoorr 33 wwiicckkeettss iinn 1155oovveerrss)) 3366.. FFooWW:: 1-2, 2-13,3-33. BBoowwlliinngg:: Ishant 4-0-17-0,Umesh 4-1-16-2, Jadeja 4-4-0-0, Shami 3-1-3-1.

SCORE CARD

Feels great it’s a nice little thing to

get along in yourcareer, to get mostnumber of doublehundreds

—VIRAT KOHLI

Kohli enjoys leadingIndia from the front

THE ASIAN AGE SATURDAY | 12 OCTOBER 2019 | NEW DELHI

14PAGE


SHORT TAKES

MMeellbboouurrnnee:: Defending champi-on Sourav Kothari on Friday

continued his spectacular showto outperform multiple-time

world champion Mike Russell ofEngland in the semifinal andbook his second consecutive

World Billiards (long-up) finalhere.

Such was Kothari’s dominancein the game that with 45 min-utes remaining on the clock in

the four-hour semi-final, Russellconceded the match apparentlydue to not having enough timeremaining for him to overcomethe huge deficit of nearly 600

points.In the end, Kothari prevailed

1090-594 with breaks of 205,195, 175, 128 and 103, whereas

Russell made breaks of 247, 131and 121.

In the quarterfinal earlier in theday, Kothari sailed past Rob

Hall of England 1076-484 withbreaks of 141, 135, 242 and 121.On Saturday, Kothari will meet

Peter Gilchrist of Singapore in arepeat of last year’s world bil-

liards final. — PTI

KKoollkkaattaa:: The injury-inducedabsence of Sandesh Jhingan

may have hurt India’s defencebut Bangladesh head coach

Jamie Day on Friday said theSunil Chhetri-led side will stillstart overwhelming favourites

in the upcoming World Cupqualifier. Jhingan suffered a

tear on his Anterior CruciateLigament tear on his left knee

during their 1-1 draw againstNorth East United on

Wednesday as the defender willhave to undergo a surgery that

may rule him out for sixmonths. Jhingan is the latest

addition to list of injured play-ers in the Indian team which

will also be without RahulBheke but the Englishman

coach remained realistic on histeam’s chances. “I don’t see itany different from before thathe’s injured. India are at home

and expected to win,” Day said.Bangladesh are placed 187 in

FIFA table, compared to India’srank of 104. Bangladesh comehere on the back of a 0-2 loss

to Asian champions Qatar inDhaka on Thursday. — PTI

We are devastatedwith the nature of

the defeat— Michael O’Neill, North

Ireland manager after their 1-3loss against the Netherlands

in the Euro Qualifier

Fitness woesKylian Mbappe ruled out of France’sEuro 2020 qualifiers against Iceland andTurkey on Monday with thigh injury

Sport

MMuummbbaaii:: Legendary MilkhaSingh and star batsmwoman

Smriti Mandhana were amongthe winners during the second

edition of the Indian SportsHonours.

The ISH is an initiative by SanjivGoenka, Chairman, RP-SG

Group and India cricket teamcaptain Virat Kohli.

The second edition of the ISHwas recently held here.

A total of seventeen honourswere presented during the cer-emony, comprising eleven Jury

Honours, including one LifetimeAchievement Honour, and six

popular choice honours, amedia release issued here on

Friday said.Milkha Singh, 92, best known as

the ‘Flying Sikh’ and mostremembered for finishing

fourth in the 400m final in the1960 Rome Olympic Games,

was bestowed with the lifetimeachievement award.

While 23-year-old Mandhana,who was ruled out due to a

fracture in her right toe againstthe ongoing ODI series against

South Africa, got the sports-woman of the year award for

the team category.Mandhana has so far played 50ODIs and 62 T20s, scoring 1,951

and 1,344 runs respectively.Among the other prominent

winners were the IndianCricket’s men team led by Kohli

himself, who bagged the hon-our of the ‘Team of the Year’.

The nominees for the Honourswere shortlisted by over 200

journalists from the SportsJournalist Federation of India

(SJFI). The Jury Honours werethen decided by the ISH jury,which included among others

Sanjiv Goenka, PulellaGopichand, Mahesh Bhupathi,Sardar Singh, Abhinav Bindra,P.T. Usha and Anjali Bhagwat.

— PTI

MANDHANA,MILKHA AMONGWINNERS AT ISH

Kothari in WorldBilliards finals

India favourites,says Bangla coach

WORLD BOXING CHAMPIONSHIP

Belgium on Cloud 9TTHHEE

RREESSUULLTTSSBBeellaarruuss 00 EEssttoonniiaa 00

NNeetthheerrllaannddss 33 (Depay 80, 90+4, L.De Jong 90+1) NNoorrtthheerrnn IIrreellaanndd 11(Magennis 75)

SSlloovvaakkiiaa 11 (Kucka 53) WWaalleess 11 (Moore 25)

CCrrooaattiiaa 33 (Modric 5, Petkovic24, 42) HHuunnggaarryy 00

LLaattvviiaa 00 PPoollaanndd 33 (Lewandowski 9, 13,76)

NNoorrtthh MMaacceeddoonniiaa 22(Elmas 50, 68) SSlloovveenniiaa 11 (Ilicic 90+5-pen)

AAuussttrriiaa 33 (Lazaro 41,Hinteregger 56,Sabitzer 88) IIssrraaeell 11 (Zahavi 34)

RRuussssiiaa 44 (Dzyuba 57, 70,Ozdoev 60, Golovin84) SSccoottllaanndd 00

BBeellggiiuumm 99(Lukaku 28, 41,Chadli 31, Brolli 35-og, Alderweireld43, Tielemans 45+1,Benteke 79,Verschaeren 84-pen, Castagne 90) SSaann MMaarriinnoo 00

KKaazzaakkhhssttaann 11 (Yerlanov 34) CCyypprruuss 22 (Sotiriou 73,Ioannou 84)

SSttuuttttggaarrtt ((GGeerrmmaannyy)),, OOcctt..1111:: US gymnastics super-star Simone Biles admit-ted being bewildered byher own success afterclaiming a record-extend-ing 16th world champi-onship gold medal andfifth all-around title onThursday in Stuttgart.

Biles, 22, earned the22nd world medal of hercareer, backing up teamgold with the USA onTuesday, by producing asuperb display.

“It’s an honour and it’ssuper exciting,” she said.

Chinese youngster TangXijing, 16, took silver,while AngelinaMelnikova of Russiaclaimed bronze.

Biles’ winningmargin of 2.1points was her

biggest at a world champi-onships and was identicalto her winning gap in thesame event at the 2016Olympics.

She extended her ownrecord as the most deco-rated woman in worldchampionships history toleave her just one short ofmale gymnast VitalyScherbo’s all-time recordof 23 medals.

She can breakS c h e r b o ’ smark int h i s

w e e k -end’s fourapparatus

finals.However,

she wass l i g h t l ybewilderedby her

worlds medal tally andamazed by her own dis-plays in Stuttgart.

“I feel like it’s not meand sometimes I wonderhow I do it. I sometimeswish I could have an out-of-body experience to wit-ness it,” she said, laugh-ing.

“I look back at videosand wonder how I did

that.”Biles led from the start,

nailing her first disci-pline with a superb vaultwhich scored 15.223points.

She followed that upwith a solid display on theuneven bars, where sheposted the third-highestscore, to consolidate herlead.

Biles dominated thebeam and sealed goldwith the highest score of14.400 in the floor exercisewhen she had only needed12.300 for the title.

She said the hardestthing was “keeping upwith the music” duringher floor routine.

“I go faster than it, so Ifeel like it’s harder toslow myself down,” saidBiles. — AFP

Martinez’smen blank

San Marino9-0 to bookEuro place,Dutch fight

back todown

N. Ireland

NATIONAL OPEN || ATHLETICS

RRaanncchhii,, OOcctt.. 1111:: Starsprinter Dutee Chandsmashed her own nationalrecord, clocking 11.22 sec-onds in the women’s 100msemifinals on her way tothe gold medal at the 59thNational Open AthleticsChampionships here onFriday.

A fortnight after failingto reach 100m semis at theWorld Championships inDoha, the 23-year-old sur-passed her previous timingof 11.26s which she had setat the AsianChampionships in Aprilthis year.

While she had equalledRachita Mistry’s 11.26-sec-ond effort at the AsianChampionship, Dutee’stime of 11.22 seconds in thesemifinals on Friday final-ly gave her the sole owner-ship of the Nationalrecord.

Dutee later clocked 11.25seconds in the final toclaim the gold, leavingArchana Suseendran andHimashree Roy in thewake.

At Doha, she had man-aged 11.48 to finish a disap-pointing seventh in herheats. “A couple of daysago, I had the wrong beliefthat my body was tired atthe end of the season. Irecovered well to be able tobreak the last nationalmark twice this evening,”Dutee said.

Her statemate AmiyaKumar Malik, who hasbeen struggling to find hisrhythm the whole season,won the bragging rights asthe fastest man in theNational Open.

He won the men’s 100m in10.46 seconds, breaking thebeam a hundredth of a sec-ond ahead of Malaysia’s

Jonathan Anaknyepa.Gurindervir Singh

(Punjab) emerged as thewinner of the bronzemedal by a margin of0.0044 seconds from histeam-mate Harjit Singh.

M.P. Jabir (AFI) rewrotethe men’s 400m hurdlesmeet record, winning thefinal in 49.41 seconds.

He improved on the markof 49.67 seconds set byAyyasamy Dharun (TamilNadu) last year.

Dharun himself, runningonly his third hurdles racesince recovering from aninjury, will be pleased thathe clocked 49.50 secondsfor the second place, leav-ing T Santhosh Kumar(Services) in the thirdplace.

Earlier, in a close finish,Haryana’s Rahul Rohilla,23, won the men’s 20m racewalking ahead of the moreseasoned K. Ganapathi(AFI) and Sandeep Kumar(Services). The Group Bwinner of the event in theNational Race WalkingChampionship in Chennaiin February, he finished ontop of a better field thistime. There was some posi-tive news for long jumperM. Sreeshankar who leaptto 7.93m to lead the 12 qual-ifiers for the final. — PTI

PPaarriiss,, OOcctt.. 1111:: Belgium became thefirst team to qualify for the 2020European Championship finals asRomelu Lukaku scored twice in a 9-0 thrashing of San Marino inBrussels on Thursday, while theNetherlands needed a late come-back to beat Northern Ireland.

Lukaku took his record Belgiuminternational tally past 50 goals asRoberto Martinez’s Group I leadersopened up an unassailable 11-pointlead over third-placed Cyprus withthree games remaining.

The world-number-one rankedside booked their spot at next year’stournament, which will be played at12 venues across Europe, after sevenstraight qualifying wins.

Russia appear set to take the sec-ond automatic slot from the group,after a 4-0 win over Scotland movedthem eight points ahead of Cyprus.

Belgium will be one of thefavourites as they look to lift a firstmajor international title when the

Euros get underway onJune 12.

“In my eyes, ninecountries have the tal-ent to win the Euro,”said coach Martinez.“What will make the

difference is how youface adversity. It’s

necessary to sacri-fice yourself for

your team-mates.”

Their victory at the King BadouinStadium matched their record win-ning margin of nine goals, havingpreviously beaten Zambia andGibraltar 9-0 in 1994 and 2017respectively and hammered SanMarino 10-1 in 2001.

Memphis Depay’s late brace res-cued the Netherlands a 3-1 win overNorthern Ireland which sentRonald Koeman’s men top of GroupC. The Oranje, bidding to reach afirst major finals since finishingthird at the 2014 World Cup, arelevel on points with both Germanyand Northern Ireland, who haveplayed a game more, but lead onhead-to-head record.

Croatia took control of Group E bybeating Hungary 3-0 in Split, whileSlovakia jumped into seconddespite being held to a 1-1 homedraw by Wales.

Elsewhere, Robert Lewandowskinetted a hat-trick, takinghis tally this sea-son to 18 goals forclub and country, asPoland won 3-0at Latvia tos t r e n g t h e ntheir position atthe top of Group G.

They sit threepoints clear of clos-est challengersAustria, who saw off

Israel 3-1.— AFP

UUllaann--UUddee ((RRuussssiiaa)),, OOcctt.. 1111::The medal haul is the sameas last time but four Indianboxers, spearheaded by theindomitable M.C. MaryKom, would be fighting tobetter the colour of thosemedals in the semifinals ofthe Women’s WorldChampionship here onSaturday.

The third-seeded MaryKom (51kg), assured of anunparalleled eighth worldmedal, would be aiming fora seventh gold and stand-ing in her way in the semi-finals is Turkey’sEuropean championBusenaz Cakiroglu.Cakiroglu is seeded sec-ond.

Besides six world titles,Mary Kom’s incrediblecareer is also studded withan Olympic bronze medal(2012), five Asian titles,gold medals at the AsianGames and theCommonwealth Games,besides numerous otherinternational top finishes.

The spotlight will also beon two very impressivedebutants — Manju Rani(48kg) and Jamuna Boro —besides last edition’sbronze-medallist LovlinaBorgohain (69kg).

“All of them have per-formed exceptionally well.We are keeping our fingerscrossed for all of them toreach the final,” nationalcoach Mohammed AliQamar, who also happensto be India’s firstCommonwealth Gamesgold-medallist in boxing,said.

All of them have toughopponents lined up but allof them have shown them-selves to be completelyunfazed by the prospect ofgoing up against a strong

challenger. “One can neverbe satisfied. We are happythat our performance hasnot dipped since the 2018edition but it is a bit disap-pointing that we couldn’tbetter it. We could havehad six semifinalists butfor a couple of close loss-es,” said Qamar.

One of the most outstand-ing performers this timehas been Manju Rani. Theboxer from Haryana, whodidn’t get a break in herhome state, claimed thenational title by competingfor Punjab and came intonational camp only thisyear.

“She has been unstop-pable definitely. She hasmade every one of heropportunity and thatincludes a silver medal atStrandja Memorial (one ofEurope’s oldest boxingtournaments),” Qamarsaid.

Her next opponent isgoing to be Thailand’sChuthamat Raksat, whoupstaged fifth seedYuliyanova Asenova in thequarterfinals. — PTI

MMuummbbaaii,, OOcctt.. 1111:: Indiawere well-placed to pocketa few medals in the WorldYouth ChessChampionship here onFriday, with GM R.Praggnanandhaa all butlikely to lead the chargewith a gold medal.

WIM Vantika Agrawal(Under-18 girls),Candidate MasterAronyak Ghosh (Under-16Open) and L.R. Srihari(Under-14 Open) were in agood position and can eyea silver medal each at theend of the penultimateround.

The first two can hope toconvert it into a gold ifthey win their last gamesand the other matches gotheir way.

Grand MasterPraggnanandhaa assert-ed his supremacy in theUnder-18 Open, trudgingto a crucial victoryagainst IM PauliusPultinevicius ofLithuania to take his tallyto 8.5 points.

The 63-move victorygave him a half-pointadvantage that couldfetch him the gold with adraw in the 11th and finalround on Saturday.

He will, however, bewary of top seed GMShant Sargsyan ofArmenia who thrashedIM Mitrabha Guha for histhird straight victory tobe in the second positionwith 8 points.

Vantika beat China’sTianqi Yan to ease to 7.5points, to be half a pointbehind top seed PolinaShuvalova (Russia), whoshowed great skill toretain her lead (8 points)with another amazingvictory. — PTI

Mary leads India’spursuit of gold

Dutee smashesrecord for gold

Sweet 16 party for Biles!Biles wins 16th world title, fifth all-around gold

PRAGGNAPOISED TOTAKE TITLE

USA’s Simone Biles performs on the balancebeam during the women'sall-around final at the FIGArtistic Gymnastics WorldChampionships inStuttgart, Germany, onThursday. — AFP

●● Biles extendedher own record asthe most decoratedwoman in worldchampionshipshistory to leave herjust one short ofmale gymnast VitalyScherbo’s all-timerecord of 23 medals

●● A fortnight afterfailing to reach 100msemis at the WorldChampionships inDoha, the 23-year-old surpassed herprevious timing of11.26s which shehad set at the AsianChampionships inApril this year

WORLD YOUTH || CHESS

Belgium’sRomelu Lukakucelebrates after

scoring against SanMarino in their Euro

2020 qualifier Group Igame in Brussels,

Belgium, onThursday.

— AFP

Dutee CChand

I feel like it’s not me andsometimes I wonder how Ido it. I sometimes wish I

could have an out-of-body experi-ence to witness it. I look back atvideos and wonder how I did that.

—— SSIIMMOONNEE BBIILLEESS

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