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RNI No. TELENG/2018/76469

Established 1864Published From

HYDERABAD DELHI LUCKNOWBHOPAL RAIPUR CHANDIGARH

BHUBANESWAR RANCHI DEHRADUNVIJAYAWADA

*LATE CITY VOL. 2 ISSUE 112*Air Surcharge Extra if Applicable

HYDERABADWEATHER

Current Weather ConditionsUpdated january 31, 2019 5:00 PM

ALMANACTODAY

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Time to Avoid: (Bad time to start any important work)

Rahukalam: 09:-40 am – 11:05 am

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PNS n NEW DELHI

Blanket debt waiver "is a badidea", as it does not deliver anymeaningful outcomes for theintended beneficiaries thewhile exchequer faces signifi-cant cost burden, theEconomic Survey 2019-20 saidon Friday.

The survey was tabled in theParliament by Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharaman.

It said that the government''sintervention in credit mar-kets, in the form of full or par-tial, conditional or uncondi-tional, debt relief has becomeincreasingly common at thestate level in India.

The phenomenon has

become widespread after thelarge-scale farm debt waiverannounced by the Union gov-ernment in 2008. This was fol-lowed by announcement ofwaivers in states such asAndhra Pradesh, Telangana,

Uttar Pradesh, MadhyaPradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab,Maharashtra, and others.

"Most importantly, debtwaivers disrupt the credit cul-ture and end up reducing theformal credit flow to the very

same farmers it intends tohelp," the survey said.

"In other words, a waiver canat best be an emergency med-icine to be given in rare casesafter a thorough diagnosis andidentification of illness andnot a staple diet. In most cases,its side effects, the unintendedconsequences, far outweighany plausible short term ben-efits."

According to the survey, ananalysis of debt waivers givenby states or the Centre showedthat full waiver beneficiariesconsume less, save less, investless and are less productiveafter the waiver when com-pared to the partial beneficia-ries.

Economic survey faults croploan waiver schemes in TS, APSays blanket debt waivers disrupt credit culture

WHAT TELANGANA WANTS FROM UNION BUDGET?

Financial condition in doldrums, TSlooks at Union Budget for helpL VENKAT RAM REDDYn HYDERABAD

The fledgling Telangana State,with a wish list tied to itsrecord as 'best performing'State in spite of a precariousfinancial position, has pinnedits hopes on the Union Budgetto be presented in Parliamenton Friday.

The state government'sfinances are highly stretchedon account of dip in revenuecollections attributed to reces-sion, Centre's delay in releas-ing arrears pertaining to GST,inadequate grants-in-aid,state's reduced share in centraltaxes and non-allotment ofcentral funds to state's flagshipschemes like MissionBhagiratha, Mission Kakatiya

and Kaleshwaram project,among others.

The Telangana governmentwants the Centre to prompt-ly address the concerns ofStates with regard to imple-menting GST, thereby justify-

ing the trust that statesreposed in the Centre whileagreeing to the introductionof the new tax regime for thesake of tax harmony in thecountry.

Continued on Page 4

TODAY 11 AM

Punishing signals to come to City NAVEEN KUMAR n HYDERABAD

Hyderabad would soon have attraffic signals a decibel-sensi-tive meter, nicknamed 'ThePunishing Signal', whichwould reset the redlight when the levelexceeds 85dB (deci-bels) forcing com-muters to waitlonger at the junc-tion.

The Mumbai policeinstalled such adevice on Friday,following whichTelangana IT MinisterKT Rama Rao urgedmunicipal and traffic

authorities in Hyderabad toconsider replicating the initia-tive in the city to curb the men-ace of unwanted honking atjunctions.

On Friday, the Minister tookto Twitter with a video of

'The PunishingSignal' uploaded by

Mumbai Police andtagged Telangana

DGP M. MahenderReddy, Hyderabad

Commissioner ofPolice Anjani Kumar

and GHMCCommissioner DS

Lokesh Kumar.'Let's get this thing

done in ourHyderabad too! Need of

the hour' (sic) he tweeted.About the 'Punishing Signal'initiative The Mumbai Policerecently launched the initiativeof 'Punishing Signals' wherespecial decibel meters are con-nected to traffic signals inseveral major junctions inMumbai.

Continued on Page 4

NAVEENA GHANATE n HYDERABAD

Non-veg thali is costliest inTelangana, going by a report inthe Economic Survey that listsaverage prices of veg and non-veg plate meals.

The report, "Thalinomics:The economics of a plate of foodin India", seeks to quantify whata common person pays for athali across India. Apart fromTelangana, Jammu & Kashmir,Bihar and Assam have costliestthali. In Telangana, more thanthe share of what a wage work-er earns is needed to afford twonon-negetarian thalis for ahousehold with five individuals.For a non-vegetarian thali of Rs

40.2 and more, wage workersearning Rs479.6, spends morethan 100 percent of what he/sheearns.

Using the dietary guidelinesfor Indians (NIN, 2011), theprice of thalis are constructed.Average household comprisingfive individuals would have tospend Rs10,887 more on aver-

age per year for eating mini-mum two healthy thalis a day,if the prices of a vegetarian thalihad followed the trend obtain-ing till 2015-16.

Across the four regions -North, South, East and West, itis found that the absolute pricesof a vegetarian thali havedecreased significantly since2015-16, though the price

increased in 2019.A vegetarian thali comprises

a serving of cereals, sabzi and daland a non-vegetarian thali com-prises cereals, sabzi and a non-vegetarian component.

For non-vegetarian dish,prices of eggs, fish (fresh) andgoat meat have been taken,which are generally consumedacross regions as well as reli-gions. In the case of non-vege-tarian thali, dal is replaced bynon-vegetarian component (60grams);

In 2019-20 (April-October,2019), the most affordable thaliwas in Jharkhand; two vegetar-ian thalis for a household of fivein Jharkhand required about 25per cent of a worker's daily wage.

Non-veg thaali most expensive in TSThe report,"Thalinomics: Theeconomics of a plate offood in India", seeks toquantify what acommon person paysfor a thali across India.

PNS n WUHAN

A grey-haired man wearing aface mask lies dead on thepavement at ground zero ofChina's virus epidemic, a plas-tic shopping bag in one hand.

On what would typically bea crowded street in Wuhan, anindustrial city of 11 millionunder quarantine, there areonly a few passersby and theydare not go near him.

AFP journalists saw thebody on Thursday morning,not long before an emergencyvehicle arrived carrying police

and medical staff in full-bodyprotective suits.

The man lay straight on his

back in front of a closed fur-niture store.

Continued on Page 4

A view of a street in Wuhan with a body lying unattended

Virus-hit Wuhan turns a ghost city now

NIRBHAYA CASE

PNS n NEW DELHI

The four death row convicts inthe Nirbhaya gang rape andmurder case will not be hangedon Saturday morning as aDelhi court on Friday post-poned the execution of theirblack warrants till furtherorder.

Additional Sessions JudgeDharmender Rana passed theorder on the plea by the con-victs seeking adjournment ofthe executions "sine die" (withno appointed date for resump-tion). Mukesh Kumar Singh(32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay

Kumar Sharma (26) andAkshay Kumar (31) werescheduled to be hanged onFebruary 1 at 6 am.

This is for the second timethat the execution of the deathwarrants has been deferred.

The first order for execution ofdeath sentence, issued on

January 7 for January 22, wasstayed on January 17. The sec-ond warrant, issued on January17, for February 1 was stayedon Friday.

Advocate A P Singh, thecounsel for the three convicts-- Pawan, Vinay and Akshay -- had urged the court toadjourn the matter "sine die"saying their legal remedieswere yet to be exhausted.

The Tihar jail authoritieschallenged their applicationsaying it was not maintainableand the death row convicts canbe hanged separately.

Continued on Page 4

Additional SessionsJudge DharmenderRana passed the orderon the plea by theconvicts seekingadjournment of theexecutions ‘sine die’

GHMC tax inspectorin ACB netPNS n HYDERABAD

Officials of the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB)caught the GHMC's JubileeHills Circle tax inspector inthe act when he demandedand accepted a bribe ofRs.75,000 at Khairatabad onFriday. Officials said that theCircle 18 tax inspector, iden-tified as P Jagan, accepted thetainted amount from a retiredArmy official. Jagan alleged-ly demanded the bribe forcompleting a process relatedto mutation of the Armyofficial's house title.

Continued on Page 4

PNS n NEW DELHI

President Ram Nath Kovinddid not refer to NRC in hisaddress to the joint sitting ofParliament at the beginning ofthe Budget Session on Friday,seven months after announc-ing that information aboutevery Indian will be collectedfor the database on "prioritybasis".

On June 20, 2019, soonafter the formation of the newLok Sabha, Kovind had saidthat illegal infiltrators posed amajor threat to India's internalsecurity and this was leadingto social imbalance in manyparts of the country as well asputting a huge pressure onlimited livelihood opportuni-

ties. "My government hasdecided to implement theprocess of 'National Register ofCitizens' on priority basis inareas affected by infiltration.Security along the border willbe further strengthened toprevent infiltration," he hadsaid.

Continued on Page 4

No reference to NRCin Prez Kovind's speech

9 out of 15 casestest negative PNS n HYDERABAD

In all, nine out of 15 sus-pected cases of infection dueto the novel coronavirus(nCoV) in Hyderabad testednegative. On Friday, fourpatients with suspected infec-tion due to nCoV were admit-ted to Fever hospital.

Dr.Vijay Kumar, nodal offi-cer, said that all the fourpatients were first contact orsecond contact with Chineseand had case history of travel

to china. The samples of 2patients admitted on Thursdayare awaited, while those of the4 new patients have been sentto Pune for testing.

Dr.Vijay said that testing kitsto detect coronavirus hadarrived in the city. Testing willbegin in Gandhi Hospital intwo days. He said, "We aredoing a test run. It will beoperational within 24-48hours for us to conduct testshere itself."

Psychological counsellingfor students: CBSEPNS n NEW DELHI

The CBSE will provide psy-chological counselling to Class10 and 12 students and theirparents on how to dealwith anxiety andstress due to examsfrom Saturday.

The 23rd edi-tion of the coun-selling programmewill also use socialmedia platforms toconnect with the stu-dents in a proactive way.

"The psychological coun-selling will begin fromFebruary 1, when the stu-dents prepare for exams, andwill continue up to March 30when they appear for exams,"

a senior official of the CentralBoard of Secondary Education(CBSE) said.

The counselling will beavailable free of cost through

IVRS and telephone ontoll free number 1800

11 8004 between 8am and 10 pm.

"People canaccess from ourwebsite the com-

prehensive audio-visual presentations

on 'Knowing ChildrenBetter'. There are videos on

various topics like aggression,internet addiction disorder,depression, exam anxiety, spe-cific learning disability, sub-stance use disorder and lifeskills," the officials said.

Indian-origin technology executive Arvind Krishna has been named ChiefExecutive Officer of American IT giant IBM. Krishna, 57, succeeds

Virginia Rometty, who described him as the "right CEO for the next era atIBM" and "well-positioned" to lead the company into the cloud andcognitive era. "I am thrilled and humbled to be elected as the next ChiefExecutive Officer of IBM, and appreciate the confidence thatGinni and the Board have placed in me," Krishna said in apress statement released by IBM. With his appointment,Krishna joins the club of Indian-Americans at the top of thebiggest multinational companies.

ARVIND KRISHNA NAMED ASEXECUTIVE OFFICER IBM

FARMINGTON VARSITY FRAUD: TELUGUTECHIE SENTENCED TO 6 MONTHS’ JAILAcourt in the United States has sentenced Phanideep Karnati, a Telugu

techie, to six months in jail for recruiting students, in connection withthe University of Farmington immigration fraud case.Thirty six-year-oldPhanideep was one of eight individuals fromaround the US, who were charged withconspiracy to commit visa fraud and ‘harbouringaliens for profit,' following an investigation by theUS Immigration and Customs Enforcement's(ICE) under the Homeland Security Investigations(HSI.)

AIR INDIA PLANE WITH 5 DOCTORS,TO AIRLIFT INDIANS FROM WUHAN Apassenger aircraft left India for Wuhan city in China's Hubei province

Friday to bring back Indians stranded there amid a raging coronavirusoutbreak, sources in the government said. Sources said that over 325Indians are waiting to be picked up at Wuhan, the epicentre of theoutbreak. The Air India flight will return to India by Saturday afternoon.The crew, include five doctors, nurseshave been instructed to only allow non-infected people into the aircraft. Equippedwith masks, gloves and medicines, theywill refrain from de-boarding the aircraft.

India on Friday banned exports of all kinds of personal protectionequipment, including clothing and masks used to protect people fromair borne particles. The move assumes significance as there could be aspurt in demand for such products due to outbreak of deadlycoronavirus that has claimed more than 200 lives in Chinawhile the number of confirmed cases reached near 10,000."Exports of all varieties of personal protection equipment,including clothing and masks prohibited with immediateeffect till further orders," the directorate general offoreign trade (DGFT) said in a notification.

INDIA BANS EXPORT OF ALL KINDS OF RESPIRATORY MASKS

The Mumbai Policerecently launched theinitiative of'Punishing Signals'where special decibelmeters are connectedto traffic signals

NO MORE HONKING

nCoV in Hyderabad

Delhi court postpones hanging

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HYDERABAD | SATURDAY | FEBRUARY 1, 2020 hyderabad 02

Actor Ali called on Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan at the Raj Bhavan in Hyderabad on Friday

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(IN HYDERABAD)

PNS n HYDERABAD

Telangana State PlanningBoard Vice-Chairman B VinodKumar has expressed his dis-pleasure over the unfair inter-State allocation of JawaharNavodaya Vidyalaya schools inTelangana State. He has writ-ten to NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Rajiv Kumar to lookinto the issue and do justice tothe State.

In his letter, Vinod Kumarsaid Navodaya schools areamong the important institu-tions run by the Central gov-ernment and were critical tosupplementing the State effortsin spreading education to tal-ented children from theunder-privileged sections. Hepointed out that ChiefMinister K ChandrashekharRao had repeatedly requestedPrime Minister NarendraModi to allocate newNavodaya schools in all 33 dis-tricts in the State.

"It is disturbing to note theskewed distribution ofCentrally-aided schools infavour of Northern and CentralIndia. With only nine schoolsin 33 districts for its 3.52 crorepopulation, Telangana Statehas been grossly neglected.States with similar or lesser lev-els of population such asChhattisgarh, Haryana,Jharkhand and Assam have

twice or thrice the number ofNavodaya schools in TelanganaState," he asserted.

The TSPB vice-chairmanpointed out that Rajiv Kumarhad earlier emphasised thesignificance of India becominga knowledge economy. Heurged NITI Aayog to recom-mend to the Central govern-ment to build one Navodayaschool in each district.

Govt bats for moreJNVs in state

It is disturbing tonote the skeweddistribution of

Centrally-aided schools infavour of Northern andCentral India. With onlynine schools in 33districts for its 3.52 crorepopulation, TS has beengrossly neglected

VIOND KUMAR TS Planning Board Vice-Chairman

‘ANTAHPRAGNYA 2020'

‘Nirmal district will soon be plastic-free’PNS n HYDERABAD

M Prashanthi, DistrictCollector of Nirmal inaugurat-ed National Level India'sBiggest Rural Technical Festivaltitled 'Antahpragnya 2020' hereat Rajiv Gandhi University ofKnowledge Technologies-Basar(RGUKT-Basar), the templecity, 180 km from Hyderabad.

Speaking at the inaugural,Prashanthi said that when wetalk of Globalisation we talkabout smart cities but notsmart villages. India lives in vil-lages. Rural areas cannot affordto miss the development bus.She urged engineering stu-dents to develop things withhumanitarian aspects. "In thecoming decade, we may haveNano robots conducting oper-ations. In the near future,shops may not even exist.Perhaps we will order every-thing on the mobile and it willbe home delivered," she said.

I consider RGUKT as myprized possession. I am veryproud to have this kind of pres-tigious institution in my dis-

trict. Adding further,Prashanthi described RGUKTstudents as a bunch of brainyand talented youth. Any inno-vations you develop, the dis-trict will be ready to adapt anduse those technologies.

She also announced that theNirmal district would soonban Plastics. On knowing thatTranscend Adventure was con-ducting a recce in Nirmal and

Adilabad Districts, to set up anAdventure Training Centre,Prashanthi assured ShekharBabu of Transcend Adventurefull support from the DistrictAdministration.

But, she urged him after set-ting up the centre here and ifthey take up any expedition,first they must include RGUKTstudents including expeditionsto Mount Everest, for which

Shekhar Babu readily agreed.The three-day technical festfrom 31st January to 2ndFebruary with the theme 'Spotand encourage rural tech inno-vators' will have over 200events viz. Campus Farmingcompetition, Robo Racing,Robo Soccer, Development ofIdeal Villages, National ScienceFair and others attracting near-ly 50,000 people from nearby

places and colleges.Antahpragnya 2020 to show-case 300 plus prototype work-ing models created by 4000rural ignited minds from theRGUKT varsity.

The inaugural ceremony wasgraced by Dr A Ashok, IAS,Vice Chancellor, RGUKT-Basar; M Prashanthi, NirmalDistrict Collector ; Dr YRajeshwar Rao, AdministrativeOfficer, RGUKT-Basar; AkellaRaghavendra, IAS Trainer,Motivational Speaker &Author. The three-day ruraltechnical festival will concludeon Sunday evening.

RGUKT to sign aMoU withTranscendAdventures toexplore AdventureSports, includingexpedition of Mt Everest

‘Corona’ variant on Web, hackers deploy harmful filesPNS n NEW DELHI

Taking advantage of people'scuriosity about the mysteriouscoronavirus that has becomethe talking point across theglobe, cyber criminals havestarted deploying maliciousfiles on people's computers inthe guise of providing infor-mation and safety tips aboutthe coronavirus, securityresearchers warned on Friday.The researchers from cyberse-curity firm Kaspersky havedetected such malicious fileswhich were masked under theguise of pdf, mp4 and docxfiles about the coronavirus.

The names of files implythat they contain videoinstructions on how to stayprotected from the virus,updates on the threat and

even virus detection proce-dures. In fact, these files con-tained a range of threats fromTrojans to worms which arecapable of destroying, block-ing, modifying or copyingdata, as well as interfering with

the operation of computers orcomputer networks.

"The coronavirus, which isbeing widely discussed as amajor news story, has alreadybeen used as bait by cyber-criminals. So far we have

seen only 10 unique files, butas this sort of activity oftenhappens with popular mediatopics then we expect thatthis tendency may grow,"Kaspersky malware analystAnton Ivanov said in a state-ment. "As people continue tobe worried for their health,we may see more and moremalware hidden inside fakedocuments about the coron-avirus being spread," Ivanov

said. The World HealthOrganization (WHO) has declared the Novel Coronavirus outbrea-ka global health emergencyafter the death toll in Chinaincreased to 213 on Friday,with 9,692 confirmed in thecountry's 31 provincial-levelregions. Nearly 100 con-firmed cases have beenreported from 18 countries,outside China.

The researchers from cybersecurityfirm Kaspersky have detected such malicious files which weremasked under the guise of pdf, mp4 and docx files about thecoronavirus

Govt planschopper servicefor MedaramPNS n HYDERABAD

If you have plans to visitMedarm Jatara, now youhave an option to take achopper there. TourismMinister Srinivas Goud saidhelicopter trips to Medaramwill be introduced. TheGovernment has spent aboutRs 20 crore in creating guesthouses and other touristamenities at Medaram, wherethe Jatara will begin on Feb 5.

He asked the real estateindustry to adopt stadiumsand aid in creating betterfacilities. They can also sup-port sport under their CSRactivities. The Governmentwas willing to work them indevelop the required sportinfra, the Minister said atCredai Property Show.

‘AmeenpurUtsav' to kick off todayPNS n HYDERABAD

The Telangana State SpecialProtection Force, in associa-tion with the DistrictCollector, SangareddyDistrict, Hyderabad BirdingPals and Friends of Flora andFauna, is organising a med-ical camp, painting, essaywriting, quiz, singing, danc-ing and skit competitionsfor school children atAmeenpur on the lake bundof Pedda Cheruvu onFebruary 1 from 10 amonwards on the occasion of"Ameenpur Utsav, 2020"being celebrated for the thirdconsecutive year.

The campaign is part of thejoint initiative of the TSSPF,HBP and FoFF in raising thelevel of consciousness andinvolving children, particu-larly school goers, in theefforts to rejuvenate theAmeenpur lake system.

This by making themappreciate nature and bymaking those living in theneighbourhood of the lakeaware of the need to protectit and take up lake conserva-tion measures. This cam-paign is on skill orientedcompetitions for school andcollege children.

Employmentrally todayPNS n NIZAMABAD

South India area ArtilleryCentre and Telangana &Andhra Sub-area ArtilleryCentre, Hyderabad are joint-ly conducting employmentrally at Sri Rama Gardens,Nizamabad, for ex-service-men from Nizamabad,Kamareddy, Nirmal andAdilabad districts onFebruary 1. NizamabadCollector C Narayana Reddysaid officials from Army,Navy and Air Force, wouldattend the event and explainto ex-servicemen aboutemployment opportunities,various welfare schemesbeing implemented byCentre and State govern-ment. The programme willalso have a medical camp,defence pensioner's cell andbanking facilities.

PNS n WARANGAL

CPI Maoists continue to relyon a leadership blend of veter-ans and Young Turk in theirCentral committee. The party,now led by Namballa KeshavaRao alias Baswaraju has got atotal of 21 central committeemembers. The central commit-tee too is supported by a politburo and that, as per the intel-ligence network, would act asa parallel central committee oran alternative central com-mittee, which provides politi-cal education and militaryadvancement through SCOPEand SCOMA.

The new central committeewas reportedly reconstitutedrecently and 12 membersamong these hail from twoTelugu states. Apart fromNamballa Keshava Rao,Akkiraju Haragopal aliasRamakrishna alias RK hailsfrom Andhra Pradesh state.From Telangana, the former

Central Committee secretaryMuppalla Lakshman Rao aliasGanapathi, MallojulaVenugopal alias Vivek, KatakamSudarshan alias Anand, MallaRaji Reddy Alias Sangram ,Thippiri Tirupathi alias Devji,Kadari Satyanarayan Reddyalias Kosa, Modem Balakrishnaalias Manoj, Pulluri PrasadRao alias Chandranna, GajarlaRavi alias Ganesh and PakaHanumanthu alias Uke Ganeshare the members of CentralCommittee.

These members apart four

leaders from Jharkhand, twoleaders each from Maharashtraand West Bengal, and oneleader from Bihar constitute aspart of central committeemembers. The state committeesecretaries of Telangana,Andhra Pradesh, AOB specialzonal commitee,Dandakaranya special zonecommitee and other commit-tees of state level are alsomembers of alternative centralcommittee that is spearhead-ing the Maoist movement inthe country.

Number of DCCBsunlikely to increaseAVINASH DEEPAK PULIn MAHABUBNAGAR

District Co-operative CentralBanks (DCCBs), the autho-rised banks connected to thePrimary AgriculturalCooperative Societies networkin the state are unlikely toincrease in number on parwith the number ofdistricts inTelangana.

With the ReserveBank of Indianorms stipulate cer-tain deposits andbusiness limits foreach district bank, the expan-sion of that network in newareas with new district unitshas not been possible. Till thecarving of 23 new districts inthe state, there were tenDCCBs in Telangana and theyall worked under the aegis ofTSCOB in the newly-consti-tuted Telangana state.

Nine DCCBs are pro activein their banking activities and

since those units catered to theneeds of 970 odd PACS unitsspread across the then ten dis-tricts, the carving of new dis-tricts came subsequently andthe number swelled to 33from the previous ten districts.As the number increased, thecooperative bank officialsexplored the possibility of

expanding and bifurcat-ing the bank in all the33 districts. But thatproposal faced a majorhurdle as the depositloans ratio of a districtbank could not matchthe required limits.

The reserve bank andnational agricultural and ruraldevelopment bank howevercould not give consent for thedivision of existing districtbanks and since the PACSelections are round the corner,those PACS would nowremain with the previous dis-trict banks only, said a seniorofficial of the CooperativeBank.

Massive firebreaks out inthinner factoryPNS n JANGAON

Massive fire broke out inTara Industries' Thinner fac-tory on the outskirts ofKhileshapuram village ofRaghunathapally mandal inthe district on Friday morn-ing. It is learnt that the firebroke out when the staff ofthe factory were trying torecharge the reactors. Noinjuries or causalities havebeen reported. Only twoworkers were present whenthe fire broke out at the fac-tory at around 6 am.

Zaheerabad Municipalityofficials face musicPNS n SANGAREDDY

Finance Minister T HarishRao said that he was disap-pointed with authorities ofZaheerabad Municipality forfailing to spend the sanctionedfunds amounting to Rs 35crore.

Speaking at a review meet-ing in Zaheerabad onFriday, the Ministersaid the officials failedto utilise the amountthough the govern-ment released it longago. He instructedthe officials to take updevelopment worksimmediately to spend thefund efficiently.

Stating that he would nottolerate complacency, Raoasked the officials to make allefforts to supply drinking water

to each and everyhousehold. Healso instructed

them to preparethe list of eligible

beneficiaries for thedouble bedroom house

scheme. Zaheerabad MLA KManik Rao, MLC MdFariduddin and others werepresent.

The officials ofZaheerabadMunicipality failed to

utilise the sanctioned fundsamounting to Rs 35 crore.The officials should take upworks immediately to spendthe fund efficiently

HARISH RAOFInance Minister

12 leaders from TS,AP in Maoist new CC

The new centralcommittee wasreportedlyreconstitutedrecently and 12members amongthese hail fromtwo Telugu states

Dr A Ashok, IAS, Vice Chancellor, RGUKT-Basar gives a memento the District Collector of Nirmal M Prashanthi on Friday

‘MAHA SHIVARATRI'

Rs 1cr sanctioned forVemulawada templePNS n HYDERABAD

Municipal Administration andUrban Development MinisterKT Rama Rao sanctioned Rs1 crore to Sri RajarajeshwaraSwamy temple in Vemulawadafor organising 'Shivarchana' onMaha Shivaratri on February20 and 21. He directed thenewly elected municipal chair-person and vice-chairpersonto make efforts to establishgood-governance initiativesin Vemulawada to make it amodel municipality.

Municipal chairpersonRamatheerthapu Madhavi,vice-chairperson MadhuRajender Sharma and CESSdirector Ramatheerthapu Rajuaccompanied Vemulawada

MLA Chennamaneni Rameshand met the Minister at the lat-ter's camp office here on Friday.

Speaking on the occasion,KTR assured them of all pos-sible support for the develop-ment of Vemulawada townand the temple. He immediate-ly sanctioned Rs 1 crore for'Shivarchana' besides direct-ing the officials concerned tomake arrangements to meet thedevotee rush duringSammakka Saralamma Jataraon a war-footing. The Minister,along with ChennamaneniRamesh, will soon convene ameeting for the developmentfor Vemulawada underVemulawada TempleDevelopment Authority(VTDA).

HYDERABAD | SATURDAY | FEBRUARY 1, 2020 hyderabad 03

RIMEORNERC KTR LOOKS AT ‘GROWTH

IN DISPERSION’ PNS n HYDERABAD

IT Minister KT Rama Rao onFriday said that growth shouldnot be just focused on West,but should be dispersed. Toincrease quality of living andfacilitate less travel to work, thegovernment is going aheadwith 'Growth in Dispersion'.

"We are calling it GRID, weused to call it Look East policybut we decided Look East does-n't make sense. I am saying Lookanywhere but west. We are tak-ing Growth in Dispersion(GRID) policy - for EAST,North, South of Hyderabad. InSouthern Hyderabad, electron-ics manufacturing cluster iscoming up. We are going toannounce big investmentannouncements including a bigChinese maker in February. InNorthern Hyderabad ofPetbasheerabad and Kompally,one IT park is going to come up,bring IT companies there andconsolidate there as well," theMinister said.

He was speaking after inau-gurating CREDAI 9th editionof Hyderabad Property Show atHitex. Speaking on the occa-sion, the Minister said that2020 is going to be very impor-tant year for Telangana. Heannounced that tdr bank willbe launched soon. T-hub Phase2 being built in space shipmodel will be inaugurated inJune-July and would find itsrightful place. HyderabadPharma City in south will belaunched this year.

He said, "Growth should bein clusters. We will try to bringcompanies to other parts of city.In Uppal-Nagole stretch 3important companies haveapplied for developing 20lakhsft commercial space. We willgive permissions soon and facil-itate inflow of more companies".He said that Hyderabadmomentum has just begun andjosh will continue like this for15-20 years. He advised not tobelieve in rumours. KTR said

ts-bpass will be role model forcountry like ts-ipass. He askedreal estate sector to look at tier2 cities. KTR advised CREDAIto partner with associations forskilling labourers instead ofsending them to Gulf. Onrequest of real estate sector toprovide water for constructionactivity, KTR suggested themto use the recycle water fromthe STPs. He said that he willensure that director general firesafety conducts trainings for

builders and rwa.He advised construction

companies to think creatively.Citing a famous Telugu dialog,'manishiki Kalaposhanaundali', KTR said, "buildingcan be done but there needs tobe aesthetics appeal. Thesewill be landmarks which willbe permanent and aestheticsadding value to the assets.Bring new buildings into thecity by employing architectswith proper ascetics and notdabba buildings". He said,"Chief Minister has doneeverything needed for realestate sector. We don't havework, opposition also has nowork. Stable government andable leadership is what telan-gana has."

n SAYS ‘HYDERABAD JOSH’ WILL CONTINUE FOR NEXT 15-20 YRS

We are calling it GRID, we used to call it Look Eastpolicy but we decided Look East doesn't make sense.We are taking Growth in Dispersion (GRID) policy - for

EAST, North, South of Hyderabad.KT RAMA RAO IT Minister

PNS n HYDERABAD

The Telangana State Police, underthe aegis and in compliance of thevision of the State Governmentwith respect to 'Women Safety',flagged-off "Mobile Rest Roomsand Toilets for Women PoliceOfficers on Bandobust Duties" onFriday at the premises of theDGP office at Saifabad. HomeMinister Md Mahmood Ali inau-gurated the facilty in presence ofDGP Mahender Reddy and othersenior officers.

The Telangana StateGovernment has placed specialemphasis on women's safety &health and in cognizance of theinconvenience and health issuesfaced by women police officersduring bandobust duties, the gov-ernment has sanctioned mobilerest rooms and toilets for thewomen police officers on bando-

bust duties. The 17 vehicles havebeen distributed to various districtheadquarters for deployment toMedaram Jatara, and eventuallythe number will increase to 25 indue course.

The vehicles were procured

through e-tender by the TelanganaState Police. The vehicles havestate-of-the-art amenities includ-ing Indian toilets, western type,washroom, changing room andwash-basins fitted with a watertank which can easily be used by

100 individuals per fill. It has well-equipped and effi-

cient high pressure self cleaningsystem. Sun roofs have been pro-vided for natural lighting and ven-tilation, which helps to even ter-minate the bacteria & algae forma-tion. The interior sidewalls andtanks are made of SS304 gradestainless steel, which is corrosion-resistant and known for hygiene.

The floor has been carefullydesigned to make it water stagna-tion free. Motorised disposal of

waste has been designed whereinthe need for manual scavenging iseliminated. The salon is equippedwith cross-flow air ventilation soas to enable fresh air and eliminatebad odour in the cabin. No-smellfilters are fitted into the septictanks which absorb bad odourwhich will keep the surroundingsof the vehicle stench-free.Telangana State Police is commit-ted towards safety of people andwelfare of its personnel and spe-cially women officers.

Women police get mobile toilet vansThe 17 vehicles have been distributed to various district headquarters fordeployment to Medaram Jatara, andeventually the state govt has plans to increase the number to 25 in duecourse

Soon, TS to have S-Hub

PNS n HYDERABAD

Telangana will be hosting anincubator S-Hub for promot-ing startups in sanitation sec-tor. In this regard, Minister KTRama Rao on Fridayannounced that seed fund ofRs 25crore is being earmarkedfor S-Hub for startups in water,sanitation, solid waste manage-ment and waste water recyclingto make our cities livable andhealthy.

The incubator will be host-ed in Administrative StaffCollege of India (ASCI) for twoyears and the Minister declaredthat later a dedicated facility willbe established. Speaking at theValedictory Session of InkWashSummit in Hyderabad he said,"We are in process of buildingCentre for Urban excellencespread over an area of 15-20acres and will be up and readynext year. S-Hub will be recol-lected to COE as and when itgets ready. S-Hub will be the go-to place, a lighthouse forTelangana & for India, thatwould undertake incubationof ideas & build an ecosystemfor innovations knowledge dis-semination, capacity building,in Water, Sanitation andHygiene (WASH) sector," Hedirected Principal SecretaryMA&UD Arvind Kumar tocomplete the modalities of set-ting up the S-Hub.

Speaking about seweragetreatment in the country, theMinister said, "If we look at ourcountry, not just Hyderabad orTelangana, on water, hygieneand sanitation, most certainly weare not doing enough. As a cit-izen personally, I am not happy

with state of affairs in India, inmy state and in city. Out of 2,000MLD of liquid waste, we aretreating only 41 per cent"

He said that the governmentis looking for solutions in PPPMode. "We have 54 nalas in thecity which bring about 90 percent sewerage and want to cre-ate STP to decentralise it. Weare looking at Vertical STPsand welcome to treat our waterand sewerage," KTR added.He stated that the Urban LocalBodies (ULBs) in Telanganahave achieved ODF status andare forging ahead to meet

ODF++ protocols through safemanagement of faecal sludgeand septage at 71 ULBs underthe PPP format.

He asked startups to comeforward as the state is in needof lot more toilets in the citiesof Telangana and aspires tosetup 3,000 toilets in 2.5months. He spoke aboutMission Bhagirtha, T-Fibreand decentralisation of STPs.

Responding to a charge byProfessor Chary of ASCI thatKTR loves his daughter beingIT& Industry more than hisson being MA&UD, KTR said,"Any parent cannot choosebetween daughter and son. Ilove both of them equally. Butthe fact is my daughterIndustries and IT is glam-orous. I get lot more visibilitythere. When I shake handwith James Quincey CEO ofCoco Cola, Susan Wojcicki ofYoutube, it makes to news. Mysons gonna hate me for sayingthis, my son MA&UD unfor-tunately is not as glamorous. Ikeep saying to MA&UD isthankless job as it is operationsand maintenance".

n KTR announces seed fund of Rs 25 cr for the facility

The incubatorwill be hosted inAdministrativeStaff College ofIndia (ASCI) fortwo years andlater a dedicatedfacility will beestablished,said KTR

Newly-wed woman ends life over harassmentPNS n HYDERABAD

A 28-year-old woman, whogot married just two monthsago, allegedly committed sui-cide by hanging herself at herresidence in SrinivasapuramColony at Vanasthalipuram onFriday. She resorted to theextreme step reportedly due toharassment from her husbandand in-laws.

The victim was identified asPallavi, an MBA graduatefrom Malakpet. According tothe police, Pallavi marriedSantosh (30), a businessman,who has his own gas agency,two months ago.

At the time of wedding,Santosh was given Rs onelakh as dowry among othergifts. Pallavi used to have herown job before the wedding.However, after getting mar-ried, she left her job andbegan helping Santosh withhis business, sources said. Thecouple was staying along withSantosh's parents atSrinivasapuram Colony.

According to the police,Pallavi was found hangingfrom the ceiling fan on Friday.The Police registered a suicidecase. However, Pallavi's moth-er alleged that her in-laws andhusband continuously tor-

tured her for additional dowry. According to sources,

Santosh went to another stateon office work. On Fridaymorning, Santosh's parents -Sri Hari and Vijaya Lakshmi,went to a hospital as they were

unwell. From the hospital,they called Pallavi on herphone to talk to her, but shedid not answer. Worried thattheir repeated calls were notbeing answered, they calledthe neighbours and asked

them to check on her.Neighbours broke open thedoor and found Pallavi hang-ing from the ceiling fan.

The Vanasthalipuram Policereached the spot and began aninvestigation. Based on a com-plaint from Pallavi's mother, acase was registered. In thecomplaint, Pallavi's motherstated that Pallavi washarassed right from the dayafter the marriage. Santoshand his parents kept harassingPallavi demanding additionaldowry. The constant harass-ment took a toll on Pallavi'smental health and affected herbadly, said the complainant.

According to thepolice, Pallaviresorted to theextreme stepreportedly due toharassment fromher husband and in-laws

Two missingfrom hostel inMarredpallyTwo teenage girls were

reported missing from ahostel in Marredpally onThursday. The missing girlswere identified as 19-year-oldCh Glory and 18-year-oldYerolla Keerthana. The duowas residing in a hostel atMarredpally. Police said thatthe girls were undergoingtraining at an institute andwere staying at a home run byan NGO. On Thursday, the duoleft the hostel to the traininginstitute but did not attendclasses. When the girls didnot reach their hostel, themanagement lodged acomplaint with MarredpallyPolice, who registered a caseand launched a hunt to tracethe girls.

4 hurt as car turnsturtle on PVNRExpresswayFour people were injured after

a car turned turtle on PVNRexpresswayat Pillar no.248 onFriday.Sourcessaid thatthe driverof the carlost controlover the speeding vehicle. Thepolice removed the car withthe help of a crane clearing theway for traffic. Meanwhile, theinjured were shifted to anearby hospital for treatment.The Police officials haveregistered a case and havestated investigation.

Man fined Rs 15kfor damaging tree PNS n HYDERABAD

A man was slapped a fine of Rs15,000 by the officials fordamaging a Haritha Haramtree on Friday. Using CCTVfootage, officials tracked theprivate bus driver, SatyaNarayan, who had damagedthe tree, causing it to toppleover near SvanubhavaMandapam bus stand at mid-night.

Locals saw the damagedtree in the morning andinformed the Haritha Haramofficials, who went throughthe CCTV footage and foundthat a private bus(TS15UB1328) had hit thetree. The driver was latertraced using the vehicle num-ber and was called upon byHaritha Harama officer ofSiddipet Samalla Illaya. SatyaNarayan appeared in front ofIllaya on Friday and was askedto pay a fine of Rs 15,000 by

the Siddipet MunicipalCommissioner.

Illaya said, "We are in theprocess of converting Siddipetinto green Siddipet so strictaction will be taken againstanyone who is involved infelling of trees or damagingthem." Municipal authoritiesof Siddipet also pointed outthat every month, the stategovernment allots Rs 1 lakhfor maintenance of trees plant-ed under Haritha HaramInitiative.

Haritha Haram is a largescale tree plantation pro-gramme launched by theTelangana government in2015. It aims to increase greencover in Telangana from 24per cent to 33 per cent. Lastyear in December, SiddipetHaritha Haram officials hadslapped a fine of Rs 9,500 ona car driver for hitting anduprooting a tree near SiddipetGovernment Medical College.

Traffic curbs forPresident's visitPNS n HYDERABAD

The Hyderabad CP Anjani Kumar IPSissued orders for traffic diversion inconnection with the visit of Ram NathKovind, the President of India toHyderabad on February 1 and 2. Asper the orders, the public is notifiedthat in order to facilitate proper reg-ulation of traffic in connection withthe visit of the President, the trafficwill either be stopped or diverted onneed basis.

"On Saturday, at 3:20 pm, thePresident will arrive at BegumpetAirport and will proceed to RajBhavan via Begumpet flyover, RajivGandhi Statue and Raj BhavanRoad. On Sunday, at 10:20 am, hewill proceed to Begumpet Airportvia above mentioned route," the CPsaid, adding that the citizens arerequested to take note of the abovemovements and plan their move-ments accordingly.

JBS-MGBSMetro line tobe opened soonPNS n HYDERABAD

Minister of MA&UD KTRama Rao on Fridayannounced that the JBS-MGBS metro line will be inau-gurated in 7-10 days. Speakingat CREDAI property show,KTR said that they are seekingCM’s appointment for theinaugural of the 10-km line.After this, Hyderabad willhave second largest metro lineafter Delhi in India. Referringto a report on Bengaluru top-ping in traffic congestion, hehoped that city’s name nevercomes up in that list.

Woman diesin hit-and-runcasePNS n HYDERABAD

A 36-year-old woman died ina hit and run case atHabsiguda early on Fridaymorning. The deceasedwoman was identified asKalyani, a private employee.According to the police, anunidentified vehicle hit thewoman, causing grievousinjuries that killed her on thespot. According to the police,Kalyani was on her way to atemple on Friday morning ataround 05:45 am, when anunidentified vehicle, rammedinto her and sped away. Dueto the impact of the crash,Kalyani died on the spot. ThePolice shifted the body forpostmortem. A case has beenregistered.

PNS n HYDERABAD

The Commissioner's Task Force,South Zone Team and theFalaknuma Police on Fridayapprehended four personsaccused in a murder case andseized three daggers from theirpossession.

The arrested were identified as19-year-old Mohd Khaled,an auto driver fromFalaknuma, Md KhajaPasha (19), a labour-er fromChandrayangutta,Md. Raheem (23) andMohammed Wajahat(23), both auto driversfrom Falaknuma.

On Sunday, a man, identified asMohd Azam, was found mur-dered and lying in a pool of bloodnear Bibika Cheshma. Azam'sbody had stab injuries on his neckand chest and died on the spot.

Based on a complaintfrom Azam's younger

brother, a case was reg-istered at theFalaknuma PoliceStation. Police were ableto identify the culprits

after analyzing CCTVfootages and human intel-

ligence inputs. According to thePolice, Mohd Khaled and MohdAzam, had a quarrel four daysprior to the murder in whichKhaled received an injury on hishead after a scuffle broke outbetween the two. The duo had the

argument over money relatedissues, the police said.

Khaled then approachedRaheem to settle the issue andavenge himself. The duo thenhatched a plan to kill Azam.They procured three knives fromMohammed Wajahat. Accordingto their plan, on Sunday morning,Raheem, Khaled and Pashapicked up Azam from Charminarauto stand to compromise theissue between Azam and Khaled.

The four were roaming in anauto around Shaheen Nagar andHashamabad. They then tookAzam to a hillock near BibikaCheshma where they consumedmarijuana and alcohol. After awhile, Khaled, Pasha and Raheembrutally murdered the Azam withthe daggers. During the investiga-tion, officials apprehended the fourpersons at Engine Bowli crossroadsand were handed over to SHO,Falaknuma for further action.

According to thepolice, Mohd Khaledand Mohd Azam, thevictim had argumentover money related issues

Four arrested for murder

Minister KT Rama Rao addressing a gathering at the inauguration of CREDAI’s 9th edition of Hyderabad Property Show

WATER, SANITATION AND HYGIENE SECTOR

HYDERABAD | SATURDAY | FEBRUARY 1, 2020 hyderabad 04ECONOMIC SURVEY

TS making strides in services sectorPNS n HYDERABAD

Telangana is witnessing recordgrowth in services sector. Thesector's 5-year Average Growthof Telangana is 11.2 per cent,which is highest in country,according to the EconomicSurvey report. The five-yearaverage growth of Karnatakastood at 10.5 per cent, while allother states recorded below 10per cent growth, the report said.

The Services Sector Share inGSVA in 2018-19 is 64.7 percent for Telangana. In 8 states,services sector account formore than 60 per cent of GSVAin which Telangana stands at6th position. Chandigarh andDelhi stand out with a partic-ularly high share of services inGSVA of more than 80 per centwhile Sikkim's share remainsthe lowest at 26.8 per cent. Asper economic survey report,"Services sector performance atthe state and UT level showsthat the services sector nowaccounts for more than 50 percent of the Gross State ValueAdded (GSVA) in 15 out of the33 states and UTs". Even stateswith relatively lower share ofservices in GSVA, such asJharkhand, Odisha, AndhraPradesh, Uttarakhand, Gujarat,Arunachal Pradesh and Goa,have witnessed strong servicessector growth in the recent

years. Meanwhile, theEconomic Survey Report alsomentioned the State govern-ment's 'Rythu Bandhu' and'One Nation- One RationCard.' The government ofTelangana had come up with anew concept of providingInvestment Support at the rateof Rs 4,000 per acre per seasonto all the farmers (Pattadars) inthe State towards purchase ofvarious inputs like seeds, fertil-izers etc., as initial investmentbefore the crop season.

The scheme is being imple-mented from Kharif 2018onwards. A financial outlay ofRs 12,000 crore has been allo-

cated during 2018-19. DuringKharif 2018-19, 51.50 lakhfarmers were benefitted to thetune of Rs 5,260.94 crore andit was disbursed by way ofcheques. During Rabi 2018-19,the Government has taken adecision to transfer the amountthrough treasury e-Kuber todeposit money into theaccounts of the farmers. Anamount of Rs 5,244.26 crorewas transferred into theaccounts of 49.03 lakh farmers.During 2019-20, Governmentof Telangana has enhancedthe amount under InvestmentSupport Scheme from Rs 4,000to Rs 5,000 per acre per season.

Also, the facility of inter-State portability is enabled in 8States i.e. in four clusters of 2-adjoining States of AndhraPradesh & Telangana, Gujarat &Maharashtra, Haryana &Rajasthan, and Karnataka &Kerala. It is further envisagedthat all four clusters, as above,and a few other States havingalready implemented intra-State

portability shall be integratedtogether into single nationalplatform. Thereafter, rollout ofNational Portability in otherStates/UTs shall be done as andwhen the national de-duplica-tion of all ration cards,beneficia-ries under NFSA is completedand biometric/Aadhaar authen-tication based distribution isenabled in the State/UTs.

n With 11.2 per cent 5-year average growth, TS beats other states across the country

AP REGISTERS SIGNIFICANTGAIN IN FOREST COVERHYDERABAD: Andhra Pradesh has shown significant gain in forestcover. According to economic survey report, 990 sq km of forestcover was added in Andhra Pradesh. It stands second in the gainwhile Karnataka gained maximum of 1,025 sq km, Andhra Pradesh(990 sq km). Telangana gained just about 200 sq km of forestcover. States showing loss in forest cover are Manipur, Meghalaya,Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram. In India, the forest and tree coverreached 80.73 million hectare, which is 24.56 per cent of thegeographical area of the country. The total forest cover of thecountry, as per current assessment 2019 is 7,12,249 sq km, whichis 21.67 per cent of the total geographic area of the country. As pereconomic survey report, a comparison with some other emergingand advanced economies shows that India's growth in forest coverhas been in positive territory. There has been an increase of 3,976sq km (0.56 per cent) of forest cover, 1,212 sq km (1.29 per cent)of tree cover and 5,188 sq km (0.65 per cent) of forest and treecover put together at the national level as compared to the previousassessment 2017. In terms of canopy density classes, area coveredby Very Dense Forest (VDF) is 99,278 sq km (3.02 per cent),Moderately Dense Forest (MDF) is 3,08,472 sq km (9.39 per cent)and Open Forest (OF) is 3,04,499 sq km (9.26 per cent)

PNS n HYDERABAD

Banking operations in publicsector banks come to a stand-still in Telangana on Friday asover 60,000 employees includ-ing officers participated in thetwo-day strike call given byunions pressing wage revision,among other demands. Barringsome private banks, employeesof all banks in Telanganaincluding Regional RuralBanks, cooperative banks andold generation private banksparticipated in the strike. AllIndia Bank EmployeesAssociation (AIBEA) nationalsecretary B S Rambabu saidthat strike will continue tomor-row (February 1) also.

The strike call has been givenby the United Forum of Bank

Unions (UFBU), an umbrellabody of nine bank unions,including All India BankOfficers' Confederation(AIBOC), All India BankEmployees Association (AIBEA)and National Organisation ofBank Workers (NOBW).

Employees of over six thou-sand branches across the stateheld demonstrations in variouscities in Telangana, Rambabu

added. An official of theReserve Bank here said thoughthey did not participate in thestrike, some of the employees,expressing solidarity, took partin the demonstrations held inthe city by the agitatingemployees. With Sunday beinga holiday for banks, normalservices will be restored onlyafter three days, on February3.

Employees of all banks in Telanganaincluding regional rural banks,cooperative banks and old generation pvt banks participated inthe strike; normal services will berestored on February 3

Banking services hit as over60k employees go on strike

Provide quotaon basis ofpopulation:TRPSPNS n HYDERABAD

Tribal Reservation PorataSamithi (TRPS) has demand-ed the state government toprovide ST reservations onthe basis of ST population inTelangana. TRPS alsodemanded Chief Minister KChandrasekhar Rao to con-duct a Cabinet meeting andpass resolution in this regard.

TRPS organised a roundtable meeting at SomajigudaPress Club on Friday underthe chairmanship of SRamulu Naik in which SC,ST, BC, Minorities, students,employees, youth and womenorganisations have participat-ed. The state governmentshould take immediate actionor otherwise state-wide agi-tations will be launched,TRPS warned the state gov-ernment. MPRS founderpresident Manda KrishnaMadiga, R Krishnaiah, GChennaiah, K MaheshwarRaj, B Deepak Kumar, PVRamana, Kuthadi Kumar andCL Yadagiri participated inthe meeting.

PNS n HYDERABAD

Congress senior leaderMalreddy Rangareddy tookpotshots at the State ElectionCommission and accused it ofviolating the norms and work-ing in favour of the ruling partyduring the municipal polls.

Addressing the media atthe Gandhi Bhavan, the seniorleader said that one can win130 out of 130 municipalities,if indulged in 'irregularities'.The TRS president and ChiefMinister K ChandrashekharRao threatened MLAs and'grabbed' other parties winnersinto their party fold, healleged. He found fault withthe TRS working presidentand IT Minister KT Rama Raofor directing the winners ofmunicipal elections not toindulge in corruption.Alleging that the TRS govern-ment's heads destroyed thesystem, he said that the TRSmade the councilors, whowon elections from Congress,as chairmen and mayors inAdibatla, Pedda Amberpetand Badangpet. Malreddyquestioned KTR to tellwhether the latter will dismiss

the Ministers for indulging inirregularities during municipalelections. Reminding that theKCR grabbed the Gajwelmunicipal chairman positionwith the help of indepen-dents, Malreddy alleged thatthe TRS leaders taken awayCongress councilors usingpolice escort.

Cong slams SECfor violating norms

Malreddy Rangareddy

Delhi court postpones ...Continued from Page 1

The argument of the Tiharjail authorities was howevernot accepted by the court.The convicts' lawyer arguedthat rules dictate that whenone convict's plea is pendingthe others cannot be hanged.The judge noted in the orderthat if an appeal or an appli-cation is made by only oneconvict, the execution of sen-tence shall be postponed inthe case of co-convicts also.

The judge said: "Withoutcommenting upon the dilato-ry tactics adopted by the con-victs, suffice it would be tostate that seeking redressal ofone's grievances through pro-cedure established by law isthe hallmark of any civilisedsociety. The courts of thiscountry cannot afford toadversely discriminate anyconvict, including death rowconvict, in pursuit of his legalremedies, by turning aNelson's eye towards him.

"As a cumulative effect of theaforesaid discussion, I am ofthe considered opinion thatthe execution of warrantsissued by this court vide orderdates Januar y 17, 2020deserves to be postponed tillfurther orders."

The court said a copy of thisorder be given to the counselfor convicts and the jail offi-cials present in the court."The jail superintendent isdirected to file the compliancereport by tomorrow," it said.

PNS n RAJANNA-SIRICILLA

District Collector D KrishnaBhaskar on Friday expressedhis ire at Vemulawada TempleExecutive Officer Krishnavenifor poor maintenance of san-itation in the temple premis-es. Based on complaints sentby devotees over poor main-tenance around the shrine,District Collector conducted asurprise check. While on therounds, he found a garbagedump. Enraged over officials'negligence in clearing thegarbage, he ticked off theexecutive officer.

Krishna Bhaskar said hehad come on a surprise visitsince he had received a num-ber of complaints from devo-tees over poor sanitation.During Sammakka-Saralamma Jatara, devoteesfrom various parts of theState visit the shrine, he said,

adding that pilgrims shouldnot face any problem in theshrine and it was the respon-sibility of the temple author-ities to provide all facilities todevotees.

Instructing the authoritiesto take up sanitation works inand around the temple,Collector warned officials totake action if sanitation wasneglected. VemulawadaMunicipal CommissionerPraveen Kumar and others fol-lowed the Collector.

Enraged overofficials'negligence inclearing garbage,Collector Krishnaticked off theexecutive officer

Vemulawada TempleEO faces Collector's ire

Continued from Page 1

However, on Friday, thePresident made no referenceto the NRC.

There have been country-wide protests against theNRC and the Citizenship(Amendment) Act. The CAAwas enacted by Parliament inDecember 2019.

Following the protests,Prime Minister NarendraModi had on December 22,2019, sought to allay appre-hensions on the NRC, espe-cially among Muslims, say-ing his government hasnever discussed it since itcame to power for the firsttime in 2014.It has beendiscussed neither inParliament nor in theCabinet, he had said.

"Since my government firstcame to power in 2014, Iwant to tell 130 crore coun-trymen, there has never beena discussion on this NRC,"Modi said, noting that it wasdone only in Assam due to aSupreme Court order.

"The citizenship law or theNRC has nothing to do withIndian Muslims.

Continued from Page 1

Finance Minister T HarishRao, who participated in thepre-budget meeting of StateFinance Ministers convenedby Union Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharaman in NewDelhi last month, has gone onrecord: "GST has subsumedaround 31 per cent of thegross tax revenue of the Centreand 47 per cent of own tax rev-enue of States. Thus, the Stateshave lost more flexibility".

Besides, Telangana hassought immediate release of Rs450 crore as Central assistancefor backward areas in the State,particularly towards funding itsflagship programmes MissionBhagiratha, Mission Kakatiyaand Kaleshwaram LiftIrrigation Scheme.

The TS government arguesthat under the APReorganisation Act the Centre

is required to support pro-grammes for development ofbackward areas in the succes-sor States, including expansionof physical and social infra-structure. "The new State ofTelangana suffered gross injus-tice in the erstwhile State ofAndhra Pradesh; as a result ofwhich, nine out of the 10 dis-tricts were covered under theBackward Regions Grant Fund

(BRGF)," Harish said. Thestate government has takenup several developmental pro-grammes to make up forneglect in the past, while tak-ing into account present aspi-rations of long-suppressed peo-ple.

The Mission Bhagirathascheme is aimed at providingsafe piped drinking water toevery household in the State.

Mission Kakatiya scheme wasinitiated to restore over 45,000irrigation tanks across the state.The state government also tookup a number of major andmedium irrigation projects toirrigate about one crore acres.These initiatives were com-mended by NITI Aayog aswell as by a number of nation-al and international organisa-tions.

The TS government pointedout that NITI Aayog had rec-ommended the release of Rs19,205 crore as special assis-tance for Mission Bhagiratha

and Rs 5,000 crore for MissionKakatiya over a period of threeyears. However, the UnionFinance Ministry had not con-sidered these recommenda-tions on the ground that theyare long-gestation projects.Maintaining that both wereshort-gestation projects andalmost nearing completion,the TS government urgedUnion Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharaman to appre-ciate the fact that MissionBhagiratha was conceived andinitiated before the 'Har GharJal' programme was launched

by the Union Government."The State should not bedeprived of the benefit for itsearly initiative and I earnestlyappeal that the provisions asrecommended by NITI Aayogbe made in the Union Budget2020-21," Harish said.

The mega Kaleshwaram LiftIrrigation Project was taken upat an estimated cost of about Rs1 lakh crore. However, theexpenditure is being metthrough borrowings, whichwas burdening the State. TheTS government wants theCentre to declare Kaleshwaramas a 'national project' and bearthe project cost.

Stating that the money canbe given back to the declarantin a phased manner after thelock-in period of 10 years, itsuggested that the investmentneeds of States to kick-start thegrowth momentum can thus bemet.

Financial condition in doldrums,TS looks at Union...

Continued from Page 1

When the sound of hornsexceeded 85dB (decibels),the signal timer resets itself,forcing commuters to waitlonger at the signal, thus'punishing' them for theirimpatience.

Responding to his tweet,Aravind Kumar, IAS,Principal Secretary Urban,Telangana & Vice ChancellorOsmania University, replied"Will coordinate with@TelanganaDGP & will try itout at Khairatabad junction"(sic).

In a video made by theMumbai Police, which wasshared by KTR, the digitalhoarding at the signal displaysthe message 'honk more, waitmore!', indicating to the wait-ing commuters on their vehi-cles at the junctions that thesignal would go green only ifthey wait patiently for theirturn and do not unnecessari-ly honk.

Sharing the news of thisconcept in a video format,Mumbai Police informedthat decibel meters (device

used to assess noise or soundlevels by measuring soundpressure) have been con-nected to traffic signal polesat CSMT, Marine Drive,Peddar Road, Hindmata andBandra. If the decibel levelsgo over 85 dB, the signalwould reset and stay red forsome more time.

The more motorists honk,the longer they will have towait at traffic signals as the sig-nal won't turn green unless thedecibel level is less than 85 dB.The police carried out thisexperiment for a day and werenot so surprised with theresults. As expected, the deci-bel level went up to more than85 dB, which put the motoriststo inconvenience.

While the initiative wasappreciated by many vehicleusers, some highlighted thepractical difficulties involvedin the switch.

Replying to MumbaiPolice's tweet, some raisedconcern regarding a situationwhen the sirens of ambu-lances or fire tenders will berecorded by the decibelmetres.

Virus-hit Wuhan turns a...Continued from Page 1

Medical staff in blue overallsgently shrouded his body witha blue blanket. The ambulanceleft, and police stacked super-market cardboard boxes tohide the scene. AFP could notdetermine how the man, whoappeared to be aged in his 60s,had died. AFP contactedpolice and local health officialsafterwards but could not getdetails on his case.

But the reaction of thepolice and medical staff in

hazmat suits, as well as someof the bystanders, highlightedthe fear pervading the city.

A woman standing nearthe man, wearing pink pyja-mas and a Mao cap, said shebelieved he had died from thevirus. "It's terrible," she said."These days many people havedied."

Wuhan is the epicentre ofthe outbreak of the new coro-navirus, which is believed tohave jumped from wild ani-mals at a city market intohumans.

No referenceto NRC in PrezKovind's ...

GHMC tax inspectorin ACB netContinued from Page 1

Sources said that the armyofficial had to change theownership title of his house(mutation) and asked a mid-dle man to get it done. Theman then approached Jagan,the Greater HyderabadMunicipal Corporation'sKhairatabad zone tax inspec-tor.

After Jagan demanded thebribe, the army officialapproached ACB. Officials ofACB then laid a trap andnabbed Jagan red-handed out-side GHMC' office atKhairatabad main road(besides Ganaanka Bhavan). Achemical test was done imme-diately to nail Jagan's culpabil-ity. Jagan has been arrested.He was produced before a spe-cial judge for ACB cases thatremanded him to judicial cus-tody.

Sources said that theGHMC officer initiallydemanded Rs 1 lakh from themiddle man. However, after aseries of negotiations, Jaganagreed to take Rs 75,000.Apart from demanding bribe,Jagan also harassed the person

and forced him to make mul-tiple visits to the GHMC'soffice.

Punishing signalsto come to City

TS has sought immediate release of Rs 450 crore as Central assistance forbackward areas in the State,particularly towards funding its flagshipprogrammes Mission Bhagiratha,Mission Kakatiya and KLIS

The SEC hadviolated the lawsduring municipalpolls by working infavour of rulingTRS, said Cong’sMalreddy

Officials of ACBlaid a trap andnabbed Jagan red-handed outsideGHMC' office atKhairatabad mainroad (besidesGanaankaBhavan)

9 out of 15...Continued from Page 1

Health Minister EtelaRajender said that a 24-hourcall center (040-24651119)had been set up to addresssuspicions of coronavirus. Ina health bulletin, theMinister said, "People shouldnot panic about coronavirus.However, everyone shouldbe careful. Do not go tocrowded places. Always cupwith your hands whilecoughing, and wash handsthoroughly."

HYDERABAD | SATURDAY | FEBRUARY 1, 2020 nation 05SHORT READS

MP: Coach separatedfrom express trainafter technical glitchINDORE: Alert railwaypersonnel averted an accidentby safely separating a coach ofthe Somnath- Jabalpur Expressthat had developed a technicalglitch at Ujjain district ofMadhya Pradesh on Friday, anofficial said. A technical glitchin a wheel caused overheatingin the axle of B-1 coach ofSomnath-Jabalpur Expressbecause of constant friction,senior public relations officerJitendra Kumar Jayant ofRatlam division (WesternRailway) said. "We found outabout the problem at around 2am on Friday and keeping thesafety of passengers in mind,this coach was separated fromthe train at Khachrod station,"he said. Passengers of thiscoach were shifted to othercoaches, he said, adding thatthe train was delayed by twoand half hours.

Army sets upquarantine facility inManesar for 300students returning

Six men includingAfghan national heldby Punjab STF, 188 kgheroin seizedCHANDIGARH: The Special TaskForce (STF) of Punjab has seized188 Kg heroin and othercontrabands from a house inSultanwind area of Amritsardistrict and arrested six persons,including a Afghanistan national,officials said on Friday. Theseized heroin which is worth Rs1,000 crore in the internationalmarket, was smuggled intoIndia from Afghanistan viaPakistan, they said. The SpecialTask Force, Border Range madethe recovery late on Thursdaynight. STF recovered 188 kgheroin, 38 kg dextromethorp-han, 25 kg caffeine powderprobably used to cut and mix theheroin and six drums ofchemical composition weight207 kg, officials said. Sixpersons were arrested from thehouse where preparation,mixing and cutting of drugs wastaking place, officials said. TheAfghan national has come toIndia a few days ago and histask was to dilute the heroinwhich was of very high quality toincrease its quantity, they said.

NEW DELHI: The Indian Armyhas set up a quarantine facilityin Manesar near Delhi to keeparound 300 Indian studentsbeing evacuated from China'sHubei province in view of theoutbreak of coronavirus.Officials said the Indian Armyhas created the facility nearManesar where the studentscan be monitored for any signsof infection for a duration oftwo weeks by a qualified teamof doctors and staff members.An Air India flight was sent toWuhan on Friday to bring backthe Indian students stuck inHubei province, the epicentre ofcoronavirus. The flight isexpected to reach India ataround 2 am on Saturday. Theprocedure of screening andquarantine will comprise twosteps. The first one will be atthe Indira Gandhi Internationalairport followed by quarantineat Manesar, an official said.

PNS n JAIPUR

Rajasthan Chief Minister AshokGehlot on Thursday said Khadiembodies Mahatma Gandhi'sprinciples of truth, non-violenceand simplicity, besides elimi-nating the distinction betweenrich and poor and of caste andreligion.

He was addressing the inau-gural session of the two-dayInternational Conference onGlobalization of Khadi here.

People should come forward,especially younger generationto connect with Khadi and pro-mote it, Gehlot said.

"Khadi is not just clothing buta reason for self-respect andrespect. It eliminates the distinc-tion between rich-poor and

caste-religion and it embodiesMahatma Gandhi's principlesof truth, non-violence and sim-plicity," he said.

The chief minister said that thestate government will make every

effort to implement the sugges-tion that will come in the two-dayconference.

He said that besides being amajor medium of employmentfor rural areas, Khadi is helps in

empowering women.Gehlot said that to promote

Khadi and related institutions,the state government has decid-ed to give 50 per cent discounton Khadi garments in Rajasthan,

which has shown encouragingresults. State Industries MinisterParsadi Lal Meena said this is thefirst time in the state that such adiscount has been given onKhadi textiles.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Tesla and SpaceX CEO ElonMusk is a musician now! Yes,you read it right. Recently theTesla CEO just dropped anelectronic song, "Don't Doubtyour Vibe," on SoundCloud.

The Tesla owner posted aseries of tweets suggesting hehad written a song and alsovoiced it. The tweet read:"Don't Doubt your Vibe." Healso wrote "I wrote the lyrics &performed the vocals!!"

The lyrics are: 'Don't doubtyour vibe, because it's true.Don't doubt your vibe, becauseit's you." In the entire four-minute song, the entrepre-neur plays with different beats,probably testing all his love formusic.

The Tesla CEO also changedhis Twitter display name to "E'D' M" and tweeted photos ofhimself in a studio before

sharing it. Once the post wentviral, social media has beenabuzz with reactions.

A user @Garrett_Wattswrote: "Well now I know exact-ly what my Cybertruck shoulddo when I ask it: "Should Idoubt my vibe?" Another user@Modestep wrote: "I don'teven have time for a haircut yetyou somehow find time tobuild rockets, solar panels,cars, tunnels, brain implants,

satellite internet and now makeemotional bangers too. How?!"

A post read, "You know.That wasn't as bad as I thoughtit would be."

A Tweeple remarked,"Thank you so much for beingwho you are, hands down oneof the most interesting innova-tors and dreamers of our gen-eration. Love the track, sosimple, but catchy and chill.Keep it up Elon!"

Elon Musk is a musician now!

PNS n NEW DELHI

President Ram Nath Kovind onFriday described the centralgovernment's decision to abro-gate Article 370 of the Constitu-tion from Jammu and Kashmiras a historic one and said thatit has paved the way for equaldevelopment of Jammu andKashmir and Ladakh.

Addressing the joint sessionof Parliament here ahead of theBudget Session, Kovind said,"The abrogation of Article 370and Article 35A of theConstitution by Parliament isnot only historic but it has alsopaved way for equal develop-

ment of Jammu and Kashmirand Ladakh."

The President stressed thatrapid development of Jammuand Kashmir and Ladakh, pro-tection of culture and traditions,transparent and honest admin-istration and empowerment ofdemocracy are among the pri-orities of his government.

The government had abro-gated the Article 370 of theConstitution from Jammu andKashmir, that gave special sta-tus to the erstwhile state onAugust 5. The governmentalso bifurcated the state ofJammu and Kashmir into twoUnion territories.

Oppn howls as Prez mentionsCAA as Gandhi's willPNS n NEW DELHI

In a rare but not the first suchoccasion, opposition parties onFriday jointly expressed theirobjection by sloganeering"shame, shame", that reverber-ated in the Central Hall ofParliament when PresidentRam Nath Kovind mentionedthat Citizenship AmendmentAct (CAA) was the will ofMahatma Gandhi which thegovernment had fulfilled.

Kovind made the statementwhile addressing a joint sittingof the Parliament before thebeginning of the Budget sessionwhich is divided into two parts.The first part began on Fridayand go on till February 11, afterwhich the session will beadjourned for a short break. Thesecond half of the session will befrom March 2 to April 3.

The opposition's objectioncame minutes after thePresident started speakingabout the benefits of the CAAmentioning the governmenthad fulfilled the will ofMahatma Gandhi with thepassing of the CitizenshipAmendment Bill, 2019 in boththe houses of Parliament. TheCAA which came into forceearlier this month after it waspassed in the winter session ofParliament last year.

As the opposition's sloga-neering continued, thePresident continued his speechdescribing how the Act wouldbenefit the immigrants ofminorities of six religious com-munities persecuted from

Pakistan, Bangladesh andAfghanistan.

"I am happy that the will ofthe Father of the Nation,Mahatma Gandhi, has beenfulfilled by enacting a

Citizenship Amendment Actby both the Houses ofParliament."

Kovind also condemned theatrocities on the minority com-munities in Pakistan and

"urged the world communityto take cognizance of this andtake necessary steps in thisdirection".

The President stressed thatthe government makes it clearthat the procedures whichwere there earlier for people ofall religions of the world, whobelieved in India and want totake citizenship of India, arethe same today.

"A person of any creed cancomplete these processes andbecome a citizen of India. Thegovernment has made severalprovisions for granting citizen-ship to refugees in any regionand especially in the NorthEast," he said.

The Lok Sabha passed theCitizenship Amendment Billon December 9, 2019 while theRajya Sabha passed the Bill onDecember 12, 2019. The Actcame into force on January 10this year.

PNS n GORAKHPUR

After New Year cards,Congress General SecretaryPriyanka Gandhi Vadra isnow sending out New Yeardiaries to senior party work-ers.

The diaries carry a photo-graph and a quote from lateIndira Gandhi which says,"Zindagi mein mauke aapkepaas chal kar nahin aate,aapko unka nirmaan karnahota hai aura unhe apnehaath mein lena padta hai"(In life, opportunities dontwalk up to you. You have tocreate them and then takethem in your hands).

Uttar Pradesh Congress sec-retary Vishwa Vijay Singhsaid: "Late Indira Gandhi is aninspiraration for all and we aretrying to take her message toall in order to create social har-mony.

Under the leadership ofPriyanka Gandhi Vadra, we

are preparing to battle forcesthat are working against theConstitution."

The diaries are being set outto about 1,000 persons in eachdistrict and those in the listinclude party veterans andold timers.

Singh said that the diarieswill be sent to those Congressleaders who are old and inac-tive. The idea is to reach outto them and their families.

The families of former MPNarsingh Narain Pandey, for-mer union minister MahavirPrasad, former MLAHaridwar Pandey andLalchand Nishad havereceived these diaries.

Former Mayor PawanBarthwal said: "This is a signif-icant message that will revivethose cadres that have becomeinactive in recent years."

Social workers, teachers,farmers and governmentemployees are also being sentthe diaries.

PNS n NEW DELHI

President Ram Nath Kovind onFriday hit out at those whoindulge in violent activities inthe name of protests and saidthat the government is readyfor mutual discussions anddebate on each issue but saidsuch violent activities weakenthe society and the nation.

The President was address-ing the joint sitting ofParliament at the Central Hallhere, before the start of theBudget session. The first partof the session began on Fridayand will go on till February 11,after which the session will beadjourned for a recess. The sec-ond half of the session willcommence from March 2 and

will go on till April 3. "MyGovernment is of the firm viewthat mutual discussions anddebates strengthen democracy.At the same time, any kind ofviolence in the name of protestsweakens the society and thenation," Kovind said.

His remarks came in thebackdrop of violent protestsagainst the CAA. The LokSabha passed the Citizenship(Amendment) Bill, 2019 onDecember 9 last year, while theRajya Sabha passed it onDecember 12. The Act cameinto force on January 10 thisyear.

As per the law, migrants ofsix non-Muslim communities— Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain,Parsi and Christian — whohave come from Pakistan,Bangladesh and Afghanistantill December 31, 2014 will begiven Indian citizenship.

The law sparked country-wide protests and violence atsome places in which about 25people were killed.

Violence in the name ofprotest weakens country: Prez

Obscene contentfound ondisgraced J&Ktop cop's phonePNS n SRINAGAR

Obscene content has beenfound on disgraced Jammu &Kashmir DSP DavinderSingh's mobile phone,sources said.

Davinder Singh's phonewas sent to forensic expertsfor examination by the NIA.A team of NationalInvestigation Agency offi-cials is currently interrogat-ing him in Jammu.

Last week DG NIA, Y.C.Modi, reviewed the investiga-tions in the case.

On January 11, policearrested Davinder Singh onthe Jammu-Srinagar nation-al highway when he wastransporting two HizbulMujahideen militants includ-ing top commander NaveedBabu and his accomplice anda lawyer to Jammu.

After initial investigationsby the J&K police the case washanded to the NIA. Policesources had said that the twoterrorists and the lawyer hadplanned a travel to Pakistanafter reaching Jammu.

Singh was earlier shiftedfrom Srinagar to Jammu ona transit remand where anNIA team questioned him.After his arrest by the J&Kpolice, multiple raids wereconducted at his residence inSrinagar.

Singh was posted with theanti-hijacking wing of Jammu& Kashmir Police in Srinagar,and was part of the securitystaff that had received a groupof foreign diplomats whovisited Kashmir last month.

The opposition'sobjection came minutesafter the Presidentstarted speaking aboutthe benefits of the CAAmentioning the govern-ment had fulfilled the willof Mahatma Gandhi withthe passing of theCitizenship AmendmentBill, 2019 in both thehouses of Parliament

PNS n NEW DELHI

In a dark room at the ongo-ing India Art Fair in thenational capital, one of Indiasbiggest art events, shinesthrough an illuminated figu-rative painting by Raja RaviVarma, the indisputablefather of modern Indian art.What is interesting is that itis the only Raja Ravi Varmapainting in the entire Fair,and the gallery presenting ithas nothing else on display.

Amit Vadehra from thepresenting Crayon ArtGallery said that they chosejust one work to give thepainting the importance itdeserves. "We used speciallighting in a dark space witha bench inspired from the

1700s," he said.Raja Ravi Varma (1848-

1906) is India's most cele-brated classical painter ofthe modern era, best knownfor his fusion between

European academic stylewith mythological themesfrom Puranas and otherHindu texts.

His exhibited paintingeVishnu on Sheshnag' is aniconic and seminal repre-sentat ion of R aja R aviVarma's work, depicting theclassical iconography of thedeity represented here withhis wives, Goddess Lakshmiand Goddess Bhumi oneither side, on the seat of theSheshnag, the snake king.

Also known as Shesha, thesnake king is depicted indelicate fashion, in Varma'srenowned painterly style.

Also on view is the paint-ing's oleograph on paper, amore affordable version ofthe coveted painting.

Raja Ravi Varma: The crownjewel of India Art Fair 2020

Impose President rule, postponeDelhi poll: Hindu MahasabhaSaffron outfit, Hindu Mahasabha, on Friday demanded Presidents

rule to be imposed in the nation capital here in view of the ShaheenBagh protest and the coronavirus outbreak. The outfit chief SwamiChakrapani said: "The Shaheen Bagh blockade has created a law andorder situation. The JNU violence has also contributed to the breakdown. In light of this, postponing the Delhi Assembly electionscheduled for February 8 will be a logical decision." Chakrapani alsocondemned the gun assault at the protest site on Thursday that leftone student injured. This is not the first time, the outfit has lashed outat the Shaheen Bagh president. Earlier, Chakrapani called ShaheenBagh as the "anti-national version of Jallianwala Bagh massacre".Swami Chakrapani had then alleged: "Jallianwala Bagh was acongregation for nationalist cause where patriotic slogans were raised.In constrast, Delhi's Shaheen Bagh protesters are raising anti-Indiaslogans and Hindu-phobic posters. "No wonder, this is the anti-nationalversion of Jallianwala Bagh. Protestors at Shaheen Bagh have blockedthe main road for over a month demanding rollback of the contentiousCitizenship Amendment Act.

Officer stays back in North Blockfor Budget, ignores personal lossPNS n NEW DELHI

There are some people for whomduty comes first. They are alwaysready to make any sacrifice toremain committed to their jobs.

Kuldeep Kumar Sharma,Deputy Manager (Press), hasbeen in lock-in as he is one of thekey staff tasked with printing ofconfidential Budget documents.While he was busy with theassignment, his father passedaway on January 26, 2020.

Despite the colossal loss,Sharma decided not to leave thepress area given the nature of hisduty. He ignored his personal lossand showed extraordinary sin-cerity to his job.

"Informing with regret thatShri Kuldeep Kumar Sharma, Dy

Manager (Press), lost his fatheron 26 Jan, 2020. Being on Budgetduty, he was on job in the lock-in. In spite of his immense loss,Sharma decided not to leave thepress area even for a minute," theFinance Ministry said in a tweet.

As Budget documents aresecret until they are presented inthe Parliament by the UnionFinance Minister, its printingremains a confidential exercise.

The security is quite tight inthe North Block basement where

these documents are printed. Somuch so that the personnelinvolved in the exercise are notallowed to go out for almost 10days, from the day printingstarts till its presentation.

The printing of Budget papersbegin with a customary 'halwa'ceremony. It takes place in thepresence of the Finance Minister.After 'halwa' is distributed amongthe Finance Ministry staff, thoseassigned with the printing ofBudget are locked in the base-ment press area of the NorthBlock.

Till the Budget presentation,fooding and lodging arrange-ments are made inside the NorthBlock. The staff are not allowedto call their family members dur-ing the quarantined period.

The first part of thesession began on Fridayand will go on till February11, after which thesession will be adjournedfor a recess. The secondhalf of the session willcommence from March 2and will go on till April 3

Khadi embodies Gandhi's ideals of truth, non-violence: Gehlot

PNS n JAIPUR

A six-year-old physically chal-lenged boy, Rajdeep, was severe-ly tortured by his teacher andbeaten with an iron stick for notbinding his copy, in Bundi,Rajasthan. The boy was made tohang into a water tank and heslipped into it but was immedi-ately evacuated. Completelydrenched, the boy went to hishouse shivering leaving his par-ents shocked.

Soon after, his father alongwith some villages came toschool and locked the teachersinside.

The innocent boy had asurgery a few months back andhence he cannot even walk

straight. Following the parents'complaint additional districtadministration (ADM) hasassured them to take actionagainst the teacher.

Father Sonu Singh said thatRajdeep told him how brutallyhe was beaten by his teacherwith stick and who then hangedhim into water tank. When hefell into water tank, she howev-er, pulled him out too, he said.

Such a punishment is unac-ceptable and hence we have sub-mitted a complaint at police sta-tion, he said. ASI DurgashankarGautam at Sadar police stationsaid that investigation into thematter is underway as complaintwas received in this perspectiveon late Thursday evening.

6-year-old torturedby Rajasthan teacherfor not binding book

Priyanka sends newyear diaries to party’s‘forgotten' workers

‘Abrogation of Art370 historic decision’ The chief

minister said thatthe stategovernment willmake every effortto implement thesuggestion thatwill come in thetwo-dayconference

The Economic Survey for 2019-20 hasbeen prepared by the Chief EconomicAdvisor, Dr K Subramanian, keeping

the ambitious target of achieving the $ 5 tril-lion economy status by 2024-25, set by PrimeMinister Narendra Modi, at its centre. Therigorous analysis (a lot of it involves runningof “regression equations” — a euphemismin econometric analysis to bring out corre-lation between various economic parame-ters) done by the CEA has to be seen in thebackdrop of deceleration in the GDP (grossdomestic product) growth to its 11-year-lowof five per cent during the current year (firstadvance estimate) and the dire need to res-urrect it without losing much time. Indeed,he projects the growth for 2020-21 at 6.5 percent (pertinently, this is significantly high-er than the projection of the InternationalMonetary Fund [IMF] at 5.5 per cent).

In sync with this pretty ambitiousrebound and keeping the economy on a highgrowth trajectory for the next four years, thedominant focus of the survey is on “wealthcreation” with better distribution, which ina way also reflects Modi’s assertion time andagain that “unless wealth is created, it won’tget distributed.” These prognosticationsthough need to consider a piece of researchreleased by rights group Oxfam ahead of thejust concluded 50th Annual Meeting of theWorld Economic Forum in Davos,Switzerland. According to the study, India’srichest one per cent holds more than four-times the wealth held by 953 million peo-ple who make up for the bottom 70 per centof the country’s population. Further, thecombined total wealth of 63 Indian billion-aires is higher than the total Union Budgetof India for the fiscal year 2018-19(`24,42,200 crore). Between 2014-15 and2018-19, the average growth in GDP wasabout 7.5 per cent, which demonstrates thatwealth was generated at a fast pace but itsdistribution was highly inequitable. So, byrestoring growth to a higher level 2020-21onward won’t assure better distribution.

The survey gives an indication ofdecline in growth having already bottomedout (during the second quarter, it was 4.5 percent) and that during the second half, thepick-up is anticipated in view of increase inFDI, building demand pressure and increasein GST (Goods and Services Tax) collections.The reference here may be to GST collectionduring November/December, 2019 crossing`100,000 crore each (this is likely to touchRs 115,000 crore). But this is more due tointensified efforts to rein in tax evasion,increasing compliance and checking fraud-ulent claims of input tax credit (ITC) ratherthan being indicative of any significantrevival in economic activity.

In any case, in view of the survey itselftalking of five per cent growth for the wholeyear, it is abundantly clear that there is notgoing to be any dramatic turnaround dur-ing the second half.

To see resurrection of growth during

2020-21, Dr Subramanian hasalluded to the need for deviat-ing from the fiscal deficit targetof three per cent set by the Modigovernment for the year. This initself is a substantial slippagefrom the three per cent glidepath recommended by the DrNK Singh committee on reviewof the Fiscal Responsibility andBudget Management (FRBM)Act to be achieved by 2018-19.Any reference to the three percent benchmark is laughablewhen seen in the backdrop ofthe current year (2019-20),which is expected to end with aslippage to at least four per cent(against a target of 3.3 per cent),that too when off-budget liabil-ities and extra-budgetaryresources (EBRs) are not includ-ed. If EBRs are included (thereare some reports pointing to theFinance Minister’s intent tomaking these transparent inthis budget), then the year mayend up with a deficit close to sixper cent.

Therefore, for boostingdemand and investment (theseare the two overarching con-straints on growth), to expect thegovernment to achieve thismerely by deviating from the so-called prudential fiscal norms(read FRBM) is tantamount to“missing the wood for the trees.”Here, it may be pertinent torecap that already, through a

number of mini-budgets pre-sented by the Finance Minister(a spate of policy announce-ments and support measuresmade during August/September2019 subsequent to the mainbudget presented in July 2019),the Government had alreadyinjected a number of demandboosters.

Indeed, a number of thosemeasures had meant huge lossof revenue. For instance, thesteep reduction in the corporatetax (from 30 per cent to 22 percent for existing firms and from25 per cent to 15 per cent fornew companies to be set up afterOctober 1, 2019) meant a loss ofabout ̀ 1,45,000 crore; even afterconsidering many firms notavailing of the lower rates, theactual is still high at about`1,00,000 crore. Taking intoaccount other sops like taxrefund to exporters, special dis-pensation for real estate sector,support to housing finance com-panies and so on, the total sup-port would work out to wellabove `2,50,000 crore.

As stated by the PrimeMinister ad infinitum, the sur-vey, too, reiterates the dire needfor a whopping investment of`100 lakh crore in infrastructureover the next five years. This isto be funded by 39 per cent con-tribution from the UnionGovernment and States each and

22 per cent by the private sector.This will translate to ` 8 lakhcrore annually by the Centre andState each. For the Centre, thisamount is even higher than itsbudget fiscal deficit [or total bor-rowings] for the current year.Likewise for the States, thenumbers look theoretical to saythe least. The official think tankwill really have to look for inno-vative ways, including muchgreater participation of privatesector (foreign investmentincluded) of financing the mam-moth investment in infrastruc-ture. It is not as if the task is notdoable. This requires a completeoverhauling of the Indian bank-ing sector as also the non-bankfinance companies (NBFCs). Inthis context, the CEA needs tobe commended for undertakinga comprehensive analysis of thereforms undertaken in the bank-ing sector since 2015-16, vizcleaning up of the balance sheetsof public sector banks (PSBs),the Insolvency and BankruptcyCode (IBC) and its use forrecovery of NPAs (non-per-forming assets), improvement inthe quality of lending and so on.

He has visibly demonstrat-ed as to how indiscriminatelending during 2008-2013 neg-atively affected investment andincrease in the quality of lend-ing from 2014 onward will pos-itively impact investment and

growth. But one wonderswhether the “bad loan” syn-drome has really bottomed outor more skeletons are yet tocome out. The NBFC crisis inparticular raises serious concern,especially when one looks at twobehemoths in this segment, theInfrastructure Leasing andFinancial Services (IL&FS) andDewan Housing and FinanceCompany (DFCL) going bust.Considering that a sizeablechunk of the funds has report-edly been siphoned off by dubi-ous promoters/management,the concern only gets aggravat-ed.

With the government nowbeing forced to consider andsanction specialdispensation/packages even forNBFC (as the stakeholders con-sider their revival as crucial torevival of credit flows, invest-ment and demand), one won-ders we may not be landing ina situation of the exchequerpouring water (read funds) in abottomless pit. One can onlyhope that we don’t see morecases of willful default or misap-propriation of funds or else anyrevival attempt using tax payersmoney is bound to fail.

The survey rightly empha-sises the need for expeditingreforms particularly in the areaof banking (the recommenda-tion for reducing the govern-ment’s shareholding below themajority mark is pending forlong), land acquisition, enforce-ment of contracts, elimination ofbureaucratic red-tape, removingbottlenecks in transportationand clearances at the ports (thisis particularly relevant for boost-ing exports) and so on as thesemajor bottlenecks come in theway of ease of doing businessand attracting investment. Ithas also guarded theGovernment against too muchof intervention and micro-man-agement of activities (includingimplementation of welfareschemes) which, if left to themarket forces, would delivermuch better results. DrSubramanian has aptly articulat-ed the role of what heeuphemistically describes as therole of “invisible hand” juxta-posed with “public trust” instimulating wealth creation.

Both are crucial pillars ingalvanising Indian economy onto a high growth trajectory,yielding better distributioneffects. Seen from an economist’sperspective, this looks eloquent.But, when it comes to executionwhich has to be done by thepolitical class, one gets into a log-jam as it is prone to controllingmost of the things; in fact,almost all of the essential itemsin the consumer’s basket.

(The writer is a New Delhi-based policy analyst)

Arvind Krishna, an alumnus of the IndianInstitute of Technology, Kanpur, has beenchosen to lead IBM Corporation, one of

the oldest names in American technology. Thisis yet another feather in the cap of engineersfrom India who have taken over the reins atleading American corporations after SatyaNadella at Microsoft and Sundar Pichai atGoogle. It is a matter of immense pride to seeIndia-educated engineers and managers takeleading roles at global corporate behemoths.But there are a couple of points that must be

raised. First is the inability of India to create leading global companies and theopportunities that follow, which effectively forced thousands of young Indian menand now increasingly, women, to go to the US to make their fame and fortune.None of the three men mentioned above holds an Indian passport anymore, hav-ing sworn allegiance to the US.

There is, however, another problem right now, which is India’s declining stan-dards of higher education. While the Indian Institutes of Technology and the IndianInstitutes of Management, at least the older ones, might still make some globalrankings, the plain and simple fact is that most Indian institutes of higher edu-cation are not ranked in the top 1000 universities of the world. One of the sur-prising facts that has emerged from the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan is thatthere are thousands of Indian students studying in China despite medical andengineering seats going abegging in India. Most likely that is because the edu-cation imparted in India has drastically declined, evident in the number of peo-ple who blindly believe WhatsApp posts. China has made it a point of pride tolift its colleges into the global rankings. This particularly hurts given that Indiahas one of the youngest populations in the world. If we are to take advantageof our demographic dividend, we need to ensure we have top-notch centres ofeducation. We must not forget that quality matters just as much as quantity. Sowhile we must celebrate the success of these three men and the countless otherIndians who have become successful in the US and elsewhere, we must askwhat we are doing to ensure that Indians keep climbing to the top across theworld and how we are going to create success inside our shores. Right now,things are plainly not going too well.

The contagion of the coronavirus has beeninstantaneous and intense, enough for usto act pronto rather than waiting for the

World Health Organisation (WHO) to declareit as a global health emergency. Although earlystudies indicate this strain is less fatal than therespiratory syndromes caused by earlier twovariants — SARS and MERS — its spreaddespite containment protocols shows that thevirus, which mutates during species jumps andprobably originated in a market legally tradingwild animals, has already infected a large num-

ber of people. As it incubates in its host for around 10 or more days before man-ifesting symptoms, the deaths are just the tip of the iceberg. Experts say thatany flu virus can extend its reach by not killing its host too rapidly and/or mak-ing the host sick enough to pass it on. Therefore, the outbreak is hardly a mea-sure of the carriers in circulation. No amount of blocking information, which Chinais known to resort to, will help. For just like climate change, the world is undergreater threat from such epidemics than other major diseases. Coronavirus hassickened citizens from every nation in a globalised world that cannot do withoutengaging with each other. Which is why the fightback must also be a coordinat-ed effort beyond borders with a common mechanism set up along the lines ofworld bodies that monitor climate threats and solutions. Every nation should beinvolved in sharing a disease control protocol and pool research for an antidote.As of now, the Chinese are working on one with Alibaba founder Jack Ma promis-ing funds for a rollout. But this is still a post-onset initiative, what we need is athreat preparedness. This will particularly help countries like India where the chal-lenges are many. These include a density of population, low awareness levels,a weak public health delivery mechanism and a compromised infrastructure thatis not geared to emergency responses. In fact, even the Chinese public healthsystem has crumbled in the face of such an attack, exposing the chinks in its“great power” armour. Besides, the current outbreak has had many infected peo-ple displaying no symptoms. If this is more common than an exception, thenchances are that this virus, too, will become endemic with year on year reprisalsand mutations. This is why the world needs to wage a united war on pestilenceor face an evolutionary culling of human lives. What we must also guard our-selves against is using xenophobia to characterise diseases. Just like ebola andthe AIDS virus before it was ascribed to Africa, there’s a perception about theflu virus spreading out of lab leaks in China and the nation is being wrongfullyproscribed as a giant germ factory. The fear and speculation about a new dis-ease tend to get magnified if it originates in the Orient and strengthen prevalentbiases. What we must understand is that whatever be the origin of viruses, inan open world, they become as much of an immediate threat for everybody. Nomatter how advanced the medical facilities, they always fall short in handlingepidemics. We could do without the misinformation and mount a united cam-paign based on surveillance, sharing information and R&D.

It’s early days yet but India is not immune to the coronavirus either as it istrying to contain returnees from China. Pharmaceutical companies are bracingup for a hit as India sources about 70 per cent of bulk drugs and ingredientsfrom China, Wuhan being one of the many source suppliers. Antibiotics like peni-cillin G, tetracycline and supportive pills like vitamins C and D use ingredientsmade using the fermentation-based process, which is dominated by China inthe pharma market. We are heavily dependent on our eastern neighbour for chem-icals-based ingredients that are used for cardiovascular drugs, particularly statins.India also sources components for its own tech products, a secondary sectorwhich might be hit with containment protocols. Besides, the fear psychosis issuch that anything coming out of China is being feared to be smeared with thecoronavirus from factory floor workers there. So there might be a temporary freezeon these supplies. If anything at all, the virus has been a lesson for India. It hastaught us the need to be in continuous deployment mode, something that helpedus combat the deadly Nipah virus in Kerala. It has also awakened us to the needof monitoring the health of farm animals and wildlife. But most importantly, it isalso warning bells for us to focus on drug manufacturing, reduce dependenceon China and keep prices in check. For the inter-connectedness of the South Asianregion as a whole, thanks to China’s Belt and Road Initiative in the neighbour-hood, means that we have to learn to live with threats.

Global scare

Double standards

Sir — Though stand-up comedi-an Kunal Kamra is absolutelyright to feel aggrieved about ArnabGoswami’s style of “journalism”,he shouldn’t have indulged in aforced debate with Goswami with-out direct provocation from the lat-ter on a personal basis. Of course,the TV anchor threatens, insultsand belittles his guest if he/she doesnot dance to “saffron” tunes andinstigates his viewers against the“sickulars” who dare to questionthe series of unilateral intolerantdivisive agenda of theGovernment. Yet eye for an eye isnot the answer. Let Goswami playthe role of a zealous bhakt in theguise of a journalist but whyshould Kamra allow himself toengage in such a heated one-wayconfrontation, thereby “honour-ing” that very bullying act of theanchor which he is opposing? Solet Goswami do his job as he deemsfit! And Kamra should vent hisfully justified anger through hisown civilised way, i.e. comedyshows, which provide himimmense opportunity to protestagainst pseudo-nationalism, intol-erance and muscle-flexing by rid-ing on pun and satire. “Playing vic-

tim” has been a long-time tactic ofSangh sympathisers, which theyruthlessly milk to their politicaladvantage by playing with foolishreligious, caste and ethnic senti-ments. Why allow Goswami to act

as a “victim” of tirades? Though theincident took place on Indigo air-lines, the Civil Aviation Ministryhas promptly suspended Kamrafrom flying until further notice. Butwhat “exemplary action” had the

Ministry taken when Shiv SenaMP Ravindra Gaikwad hit a crewmember on an AI flight in 2017?The ban on flying was revokedafter he offered a token “regret.”Not to speak of awarding clean-chit

to Pragya Thakur when she alsocreated a scene and refused tocooperate with Spice jet crew.These are just double standardsand are reprehensible.

Kajal ChatterjeeKolkata

Stop the hate speeches

Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “A ban too late” (January 31).Mahatma Gandhi was shot by anindoctrinated fanatic on January30, 1948. On the same day after72 years, another fanatic shot atstudents, who were peacefullyprotesting against the citizen-ship law near Jamia Milia, injur-ing one student in the presence ofpolicemen. The country mustrealise what speeches of politicalleaders can do, as this incidentfollowed election rallies in Delhiwhere BJP leaders AnuragThakur and Parvesh Verma madevitriolic speeches. This irrespon-sible behaviour has to stop beforeit is too late and engulfs the nationin hate.

Sujit DeKolkata

P A P E R W I T H P A S S I O N

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op nionHYDERABAD | SATURDAY | FEBRUARY 1, 2020

06

Can invisible hand work?

UTTAM GUPTA

Seen from an economist’s perspective, the Economic Survey looks eloquent. Butexecution could run into a logjam as politicians are prone to controlling the consumer

When people like SharjeelImam, who talk of breakingIndia, are concerned, they should be shot deadin public.

BJP MLA—Sangeet Som

Over the last four years,Abidali helped build a strongexecution mindset, drove key acquisitions and scaled ourdigital business globally.

Wipro Chairman—Rishad Premji

Thank you Indigo... a sixmonth suspension is honestlyvery kind of you... Modijimight be suspendingAir India forever.

Stand-up comedian—Kunal Kamra

S O U N D B I T E

L E T T E R S T O TT H E E D I T O R

Is the virus a bioweapon?

The world has yet another reason to be wary of China.After threatening the West with its economic aggres-sion that re-laid market strategies, where it has tried

to have domestic companies replace foreign companies asdesigners and manufacturers of key technology and prod-ucts first at home, then abroad, it is being seen as a viruscapital. Fears that the real source of the coronavirus is froma laboratory in Wuhan, which is linked to its covert bio-logical weapon programme, give the Communist regimean intimidating aura around its intentions of global domi-nance. Of course, the Chinese Government is yet to admitthe “accidental” pathogen leakage as a probable cause forthe virus outburst. But if the news has even an iota of truthbehind it, then China needs to be castigated and ostracisedby the international community for its unethical ways togain global supremacy.

But with disclosures that it had also developed an “anti-dote” for the SARS virus, which again originated fromWuhan city in China in 2002, it becomes evidently clearthat China is involved in a mad scramble for recognitionas a superpower. A typical arms race where the procure-ment and hoarding of not only traditional but also biolog-ical weapons gives a new meaning to modern warfare isnothing short of an alarming proposition for the whole world.No one in their right sense would want to envisage visions

of another World War. When nations with intentions of secur-ing borders pile up weapons of mass destruction to counterthreats from enemy countries, we should not forget thatwe are inching closer to doomsday. The world can neverbe safe from the effects of these destructive weapons.Meanwhile, novel Coronavirus (nCoV) is gradually spread-ing across the globe. Many countries are taking precau-tionary measures and maintaining a strict vigilance at alllevels to contain the deadly virus. But with China havingbecome a hub of international business activities, thechances of restricting the spread of nCoV appear challeng-ing at the moment.

Pachu MenonGoa

Send yyour ffeedback tto:letterstopioneer@gmail.com

Indians at the foreWatched that super over fromBumrah. He is a fabulousbowler but could use thecrease a little more to createdifferent delivery angles.

Former cricketer—Sanjay Manjrekar

No nation can handle epidemics alone. So there is a need tomount a united campaign on surveillance and sharing R&D

Another Indian leads a global tech company. We must notforget that he, too, had to leave India to achieve success

Iran’s loss, ISIS’ gain

WE HEAR INSTANCES OF HINDU WOMEN PICKED UP BYMUSLIM MEN. NO ACTION IS TAKEN AS TERRORISTS

LIKE KEJRIWAL ARE HIDDEN EVERYWHERE.—BJP LOK SABHA MEMBER

PARVESH VERMA

THE PEOPLE OF DELHI WILL DECIDE WHETHER THEYCONSIDER ME THEIR SON, THEIR BROTHER, OR A TERRORIST.—DELHI CHIEF MINISTERARVIND KEJRIWAL

POINTCOUNTERPOINT

Not very long ago, December 2017 to beprecise, the world was celebrating thedefeat of the Islamic State (ISIS), the dead-

ly face of terror that had compelled the worldpowers with differing strategic interests to cometogether to defeat it and along with it the ideaof a medieval Islamic Caliphate. The ISIS had suc-ceeded in recreating it by capturing swathes ofterritory in Iraq and Syria, including oil fields,refineries and mine fields of strategic minerals.

The aura of the ISIS was such that it not onlyattracted thousands of jihadists from differentparts of the world, including Europe, but alsodared to challenge the might of the United States(US) by executing and beheading American cit-izens. The menace of ISIS grew so fast and rapid-ly that the entire world was unanimous in coun-tering the threat posed by it. Qaseem Soleimani,an Iranian General, was the face of armed resis-tance against the ISIS in Iraq and Syria along withthe USA, Russia, Turkey and its Europeanallies. Soleimani contributed in a big way in thedefeat of the ISIS. The US and Iran, adversariesin the Middle East, identified a common enemyin the ISIS and effectively fought togetheragainst it to eliminate the terror group’s de factostate in Iraq and Syria. However, realpolitik soonovertook the strategic convergence of interestswith Iran and the US almost at the verge of a warwith a renewed Middle East crisis.

The ongoing US-Iran crisis reached the peaklast month with US President Trump authoris-ing the killing of General Qaseem Soleimani, thehead of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard’s eliteQuds Force and an American ally in the fightagainst ISIS while he was on a visit to Iraq. Thisraised the tensions between the US and Iran toa new level with the future of the US forces inIraq in the doldrums.

It also let loose many Shia militias whichSoleimani had carefully raised and groomed tocounter and challenge the ISIS. Their focus allof a sudden shifted from combatting ISIS to theirnewly-emerged enemy, the US assets and troopsin the Middle East. Under the threat of Iranianretaliation, even the focus of Americans and oth-ers has been diverted from the ISIS and other rad-ical Islamist jihadi terror groups for the timebeing. If at all there was a clear winner of theongoing US-Iran conflict, it was undoubtedly theterror organisation. It has provided the ISIS withthe much-needed oxygen as well as time andspace to reorganise and regroup.

As a result, the US and its allies now face thedual threat of Shia militias and the Sunni radi-cal Islamist jihadi terror groups led by the ISIS.The fall of Soleimani has provided them a newopening. The growing demand of ejecting USforces from Iraq has further complicated thesecurity scenario in the region and in theprocess hurt the efforts to counter ISIS whichhave suffered a serious blow.

My assessment when Iraq’s Prime Ministerdeclared a final victory over Islamic State inDecember 2017 was that the “ISIS may have beendefeated but it was not destroyed. It may havebeen disseminated but was not dissolved.”

According to Goldenberg, an Americandiplomat who had served as Special Advisor inthe Middle East between 2009-12, “The ISISretains an underground presence and could take

advantage of the chaos of an Americanwithdrawal or a US-Iranian conflict toimprove its position in Iraq.”

The assessments are seeming to beproving true with increased frequenciesof terror attacks by the ISIS after theelimination of General Soleimani. Theupheaval created by his killing has givenrise to such conditions in Iraq that theISIS is ever-willing to exploit.

The weakening of the Shia militiasas a consequence to absence ofSoleimani’s charisma as well as sterlingleadership qualities will definitely weak-en the Iraqi Government which wouldcreate a space for the ISIS and otherSunni terror groups to stage a comebackin the region.

Moreover, the US focus shiftingtowards defending its bases in Iraq andthe security of green zone, will allow theterror group to manoeuvre more freely.The ISIS fighters, who had dispersedand gone underground are nowrebuilding and re-emerging fully recu-perated as a potent threat in form ofinsurgency, Improvised ExplosiveDevices, bombings, targetted killingssuicide attacks, sniper attacks and lonewolf attacks. It is too early to assess ifthey would continue with this tactics orattempt once again to establish anIslamic Caliphate.

The US is trying to put up a bravefront by denying any surge in the activ-ities of the terrorist organisation due toits own activities. It is also obstinatelyclaiming that most of the recent attacksby the group may have been plannedwell before the killing of Soleimani(because of the time and resourcesrequired to plan and execute such oper-ations, more so when the ISIS is suffer-

ing from a unified command crisis anddispersion of its fighters). But the factremains that with a divided focus it hasbecome increasingly difficult for the USto contain the terror group.

The flare-up in the US-Iran crisishas certainly provided opportunity toAbu Ibrahim al Qurayshi — the newly-appointed successor of the assassinat-ed long-time ISIS leader Abu Bakr alBaghdadi — to strengthen his grip andrevitalise the terror outfit to intensifyits attacks in the region.

Under Qurayshi’s leadership, thegroup may also attempt to regain lostterritories in Syria and Iraq dependingon the resistance it faces, as this wouldgive the new chief an opportunity toestablish his hold more firmly over thegroup and prove his mettle.

The ISIS attacks on US-backedKurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forceshave also intensified during the lastmonth. The group is also trying torestore and rejuvenate its social mediawing, its main source of funding andrecruitment. Disturbingly, the terroristgroup’s propaganda sites are on the riseon various social media platforms andapps.

The re-emergence of ISIS wouldhave a definite impact on theAfghanistan-Pakistan region (Af-Pakregion) with its consequential fallout forIndia and regional peace and stabilityin South Asia.

Soleimani’s successor, BrigadierGeneral Ismail Qaani, is an old hand atfomenting trouble in Afghanistan andPakistan. Solemani himself had playedan active role in Afghanistan by coop-erating with the Northern Alliance tofight the growing might of the Taliban.

In a later turn of events after theAmerican invasion of Afghanistan,Iran courted Taliban to fight theAmericans and other Western troops inAfghanistan. General Qaani, who till aslate as 2018 was the Iranian deputyAmbassador to Afghanistan, wasinstrumental in managing Iran’s Afghanpolicy.

Pakistan has also been accused ofcross-border terror in Sistan-Baluchistan by Iran. Tehran is opposedto the rise of any Sunni-fundamental-ist regime on its eastern border and withPakistan now assisting the US to forgea deal with the Taliban, Iran has furtherbeen angered.

Shia-Sunni violence in Pakistan andpersecution of Shias remains a constantpoint of friction between Iran andPakistan. Thus a US-Iran conflict mayhave an impact in the situation inAfghanistan with Iran turning a blindeye to the rise of ISIS in the Af-Pakregion as a complimentary threat to theUS. In the process, Iran will try its bestto derail the Afghan peace process.While Iran may have its own axe togrind in Afghanistan and sort outPakistan as well for promoting theAmerican interest in the region, rise ofISIS will have adverse impact on India’ssecurity.

ISIS may well use Pakistan andBangladesh as launch pads to renew itsthreat of Ghazwa-e-Hind. India willhave to be cautious and watchful andat the same time strengthen its intelli-gence apparatus to counter the emerg-ing challenges.

(The author is a Jammu-based vet-eran, political commentator, security andstrategic analyst)

The terror group stands to gain much from the assassination of Iranian GeneralSoleimani, who was the face of armed resistance against it in Iraq and Syria

analysis 07F I R S T C O L U M N

Address farmsector woes

DHIRESH KULSHRESTHA

If the Government wishes to grow the economy,then it needs to make an all-out effort to turn

agriculture into a profitable business

ANIL GUPTA

ISIS MAY WELL USEPAKISTAN

ANDBANGLADESH

AS LAUNCH PADSTO RENEW ITS

THREAT OFGHAZWA-E-HIND.

INDIA WILL HAVE TO BE

CAUTIOUSAND WATCHFUL

AND AT THE SAME TIME

STRENGTHENITS INTELLIGENCE

APPARATUS TO COUNTER

THE EMERGINGCHALLENGES IN

THE REGION

As India plans to become a $5 trillion economy by 2024, it can-not ignore the importance of the farm sector in helping it achievethis target. This is because we are an agriculture-based econ-

omy and more than 50 per cent of the population depends on theagri sector for its livelihood. However, the poor state of the rural econ-omy is an area of concern for everyone and is affecting the coun-try’s fiscal health too. The Government would do well to pay atten-tion to some of the predominant problems hampering the growth ofthis key sector in its pursuit of the $5 trillion dream.

Subsidise inputs: India is a consumption-driven market and notan export-driven one like China and Singapore. As per the report ofthe National Statistical Office (NSO), half of the country’s populationlives in rural India. Hence, it becomes a critical consumption mar-ket for the fertiliser industry, seed industry, tractor producing com-panies, other items essential for farm production and a host of con-sumer goods. The Government needs to provide farmers essentialinputs on subsidised rates, especially for those growers who haveholdings that are smaller than five acres.

Small and marginal farmers’ issues: The Government mustfocus on the problems plaguing small and marginal farmers. Accordingto a report by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development(NABARD) small and marginal farm holdings generate meagre incomesand result in farmers accruing major debts and then committing sui-cide due to the inability to pay off those loans. If the Indian econo-my has to be resurgent, the agriculture sector needs more subsidyand easy agri-credit for small and marginal farmers.

Develop the dairy sector: Dairy farmers can earn as much as75-85 per cent of the market price by selling the milk produced ontheir farms to cooperative societies like AMUL and other major milkmarketing companies. India also has the largest bovine populationin the world. However, the milk production per animal is significant-ly low as compared to the other major dairy producers of the world.Moreover, nearly all of the dairy produce in India is consumed domes-tically, with the majority of it being sold as milk. On account of this,the dairy industry holds tremendous potential for value-addition andoverall development and the Government must focus on this to bet-ter the lot of farmers.

Need to develop vegetable and fruit markets: Indian farmersearn scarcely 10 per cent of the market price for their perishable pro-duces like vegetables and fruits. Since a market is the primary medi-um for farmers to exchange their produce for money, lack of con-nectivity to ensure that their harvest reaches buyers in time, resultsin lowering the farmers’ ability to monetise their produce. TheGovernment needs to plug these gaps and provide farmers a wayto get their produce to the markets at the earliest and provide coldstorages and freezer trucks, better road and rail connectivity so thatthe 40 per cent of the produce that is lost now can be saved andthis in turn improves the monetary gains of the growers.

Reduce imports: As we all know, agricultural imports causedomestic prices to fall and this directly hurts the farmers. TheGovernment needs to focus on increasing agricultural production inthe country and review its policy on bumper production. The MinimumSupport Price should be reconsidered for the development of the farmsector as farmers are producers and their interests must also be pro-tected by policymakers, just like that of any citizen of the country.

Need for more agri-NBFCs: Adequate availability of finance isa prerequisite for the growth of any sector and the farm sector is noexception to this rule. However, the difficulties faced by growers inaccessing loans when they need them the most have hampered thegrowth of the sector. Many farmers are either left un-served or under-served due to the lack of timely access to institutional finance viaagri-loans. Without access to credit, most farmers with small hold-ings are restricted to farming, trading, processing practices that resultin low levels of productivity. Although various financial institutionshave come up and have set shops in rural India, the majority of agristakeholders still have limited or no access to them. For the inclu-sive development of agriculture sector, financing is an important ele-ment and the Government must focus on developing this on a warfooting.

Irrigation facilities: Farmers suffer due to floods in one part ofthe nation and drought in another area. The Government needs tofocus on water management through river linkages and also providesubsidy for water conservation in rural areas for agrarian purposes.

If the Government wishes to stem the crisis plaguing the farmsector and grow the economy, then it needs to make an all-out effortto turn agriculture into a profitable business and make major policydecisions to achieve that goal.

(The writer is Associate Professor of Economics, Faculty ofBusiness Management at the Marwadi University, Rajkot)

Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman will present her sec-ond Union Budget today at a

time when the Indian economy isgrappling with the lowest growth insix and a half years, with the GrossDomestic Product (GDP) dipping to4.5 per cent in the July-Septemberquarter. Economists are now more orless in agreement that the currentslowdown has cyclical as well asstructural features.

Also, most economists believe thatit is more of a demand side problemthat needs to be tackled by providingmore disposable incomes in the handsof the people. The fiscal space avail-able to the Government to leverage the

fiscal policy is limited owing to lowerthan expected tax revenues and thecorporate tax cut announced inSeptember 2019 that have constrainedincome.

The Government has alreadycommitted an economic stimulusthrough the National InfrastructurePipeline (NIP), the proposed expen-diture for which in the Financial Year2021 (FY) is `19.5 trillion. Providingsuch funds (the Centre and States arerequired to pitch in 39 per cent each)at a time when the resources of theGovernment have hit rock bottom isa challenge.

Taxes, which are a major sourceof Government revenue, have reachedonly 45.5 per cent of the FY 2020Budget estimates as per the ControllerGeneral of Accounts.

Clearly, the tax collections havenot matched the seven per centgrowth of the economy in the first halfof this fiscal. It is highly unlikely thatthe Government will be able to reachits target tax collection of `24.61 tril-lion by the end of March 2020.Therefore, a larger fiscal hole isexpected in this Budget. The higher

oil prices amid US-Iran tensions havenot helped ease the Government’s fis-cal deficit worries.

When faced with a prolongedslowdown a prescription of fiscalstimulus is normal. When the privatesector is not forthcoming in terms ofconsumption and investment expen-diture, the Government has to step up.The Centre must stretch itself withoutworrying too much about missing thedeficit target. When the fiscal stimu-lus shows its impact, the corporateearnings increase along with that ofretail investors. Also, it directly impactsthe jobs and incomes generated in theprocess.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI)has done its bit by changing its stanceon the monetary policy from “neutral”to “accommodative” and reducing therepo rate by 135 basis points in 2019.Thereafter, it adopted a wait-and-watch approach and kept the repo rateunchanged to a nine-year low of 5.15per cent. This was necessitated by ris-ing inflationary pressures in the econ-omy. The RBI has revised its estimateof retail inflation for the second halfto 5.1-4.7 per cent from 3.5-3.7 per

cent. Under the given circumstances,when pursuing an expansionary mon-etary policy looks dangerous and theGovernment finds its hands tied forfiscal stimulus, the question ariseswhat approach should be adopted thatcan be successful in bringing the econ-omy back on track?

Here are some ways throughwhich the Finance Minister can steerthe economy on the path to recovery.

Boost demand: Economists agreethat a slowdown in consumptionthrough a lack of demand has been amajor contributor in the currentdeceleration as consumption is the“engine” of the economy. Hence, theFinance Minister should ensure anincrease in disposable income in thehands of people who have the highmarginal propensity to consume andlow marginal propensity to save.Schemes like the Kisan SammanNidhi, increasing allocations under theMahatma Gandhi National RuralEmployment Guarantee Act, givingincome tax relief to the lower middleclass and even schemes having thecharacter of the Universal BasicIncome (UBI) like Universal Pension

can go a long way in boosting demand,especially rural demand.

Allow States to borrow more:States can help the CentralGovernment in providing a fiscal stim-ulus and distribution of resources. TheCentre should in fact raise the borrow-ing limits of States so that more moneyflows into all regions, thereby boost-ing demand.

Fill Government posts: If theCentre and State Governments decideto fill vacant posts in their offices ona priority basis, it will not only createpurchasing power but also give a fil-lip to the youth who are living throughthe worst employment crisis thecountry has seen in decades.

Private investment revival:Private investment has not picked uptill now due to stress in the bankingsector, especially in the non-bankfinancial company sector, a weaken-ing demand and falling business sen-timent. The early December quarterearnings indicate that the stimulusthrough rate cuts and lower corporatetaxes has not been able to boost busi-ness growth. Net sales of many BSE-listed companies show a lower year on

year growth of 4.07 per cent from 4.81per cent in the preceding Septemberquarter.

Faster revenue generation: TheGovernment’s tax revenue for April-November 2019 was just ̀ 11.7 trillion,just 0.8 per cent more than collectedlast year. Through disinvestment also,the Government generated revenue of`18,099 crore, which is way below thetarget of `1.05 trillion that it set foritself. In order to meet its expenditure,the Government will have to step uprevenue generated through the disin-vestment route while not giving anyfurther rebates in income tax rates. Amajor relief in personal income taxrates may also not help in boostingconsumption. Given the present cir-cumstances of low business sentiment,uncertainty in the global businessenvironment and deceleration in pri-vate investment — any increases indisposable income will not convertinto spending entirely — it is likely thatmost of it will be saved for emergen-cies. Instead the Government shouldbring more of high income earnersinto the tax net.

Control wasteful expenditure

for fiscal consolidation: During hardtimes, no one, including theGovernment can afford wastages andleakages. The Government needs toseriously plug in leakages from the sys-tem and plan its expenditure in a bet-ter way.

A cautious monetary policy: Atpresent the RBI has to worry aboutinfusing capital into banks that needit, ensure smooth mergers andtakeovers and prevent any furtherbank frauds that have proven detri-mental to the health of the bankingsector in the past. Some reliefannouncements for the non-bankingsector for purchase of bad assetsshould be there. The transmission ofrates must be ensured and at a quick-er pace, while further reductions canonly be done if inflation allows that.Since the fears of “stagflation” grippingthe Indian economy are already there,the RBI can do nothing more than justwait and watch.

(The writer is Professor and Headof Department of Management andCommerce at Trinity Institute ofProfessional Studies, GGSIPU, inDwarka)

It is possible to fix the economy When faced with a prolonged slowdown, a prescription of fiscal stimulus is normal. When the private sector is not forthcoming

in terms of consumption and investment expenditure, the Government has to step up

MEENAL JAGTAP

HYDERABAD | SATURDAY | FEBRUARY 1, 2020

www.dailypioneer.com

HYDERABAD | SATURDAY | FEBRUARY 1, 2020 money 08

CAPSULE

Texmaco Rail &Engineering Q3 netprofit drops 30 pcNew Delhi: Texmaco Rail &Engineering Ltd on Fridayreported a 29.8 per centdecline in consolidated netprofit at Rs 14.75 crore for thequarter ended on December31, 2019. The company hadposted a net profit of Rs 21.02crore in the year-ago period,Texmaco Rail & EngineeringLtd said in a BSE filing.However, total income of thecompany during the Decemberquarter increased to Rs533.31 crore, over Rs 469.90crore in same period last year.Texmaco Rail & EngineeringLtd is an engineering andinfrastructure company withfive manufacturing units in theoutskirts of Kolkata.

India produced 64.3MT crude steel inApr-Oct FY'20NEW DELHI: India produced64.3 million tonne (MT) ofcrude steel and 59.73 MT offinished steel during April-October, 2019-20, said theEconomic Survey tabled inParliament on Friday. TheSurvey also noted that thesteel sector achieved a growthof 5.2 per cent during April-November period of theongoing financial year ascompared to 3.6 per cent inthe year-ago period. "During2018-19, India produced109.2 MT of crude steel and inthe current financial year (FY)till October 2019, crude steelproduction was 64.3 MT,displaying a growth of 1.5 percent over correspondingperiod of last year withutilization capacity of 77.4 percent," the Economic Survey2019-20 said. Similarly,production of finished steelwas 137.2 MT in 2018-19 and59.73 MT during April-October2019, it noted.

Uptick in retailprices in FY20mainly on veggiesNEW DELHI: Consumer priceinflation has been witnessingmoderation since 2014,however, there has been an"uptick" in the prices of fooditems, particularly vegetables,owing to output disruptionsand low base effect, theEconomic Survey said onFriday. The Survey hasrecommended measures tosafeguard farmers throughprocurement under PriceStabilization Fund to helpregulate the price volatility ofimportant agri-horticulturalcommodities and also addedthat Minimum Support Price(MSP) needs to be made moreeffective.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Delhi Police ask for as many as45 documents before giving itsclearance for opening an eateryin the national capital as gainstonly 19 to buy a gun, theEconomic Survey said onFriday while making a case fordoing away with unnecessarycontrols.

According to the NationalRestaurants Association ofIndia (NRAI), a total of 36approvals are required to opena restaurant in Bengaluru, 26in Delhi and 22 in Mumbai.

In contrast, China andSingapore require only fourlicences to open a restaurant.

"Delhi requires a 'PoliceEating House Licence' fromDelhi Police that asks for 45documents compared to just19 needed to buy a gun. Thescope for streamlining is clear,"according to the EconomicSurvey 2019-20 tabled inParliament.

Delhi and Kolkata require a'Police Eating House Licence',it said adding the number ofdocuments needed to obtain

this licence from Delhi Policeis 45 – far more than the num-ber of documents required fora license to procure new armsand major fireworks, 19 and12, respectively.

It also said that large scopefor improvement is in the fourparameters, where India lagsbehind -- Starting BusinessRegistering Property, PayingTaxes, and EnforcingContracts.

The World Bank ranks 190

countries on doing businessindex based on ten parameters.

India has moved 14 places tobe 63rd among 190 nations inthe last World Bank's ease ofdoing business ranking.

It has significantly improvedits performance in remainingsix parameters - resolvinginsolvency, registering prop-erty, construction permits, get-ting electricity connection,getting credit, and tradingacross borders.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Chief Economic Adviser K VSubramanian on Friday saidIndia's GDP is expected togrow at 6-6.5 per cent next fis-cal as the economic slowdownhas bottomed out.

As per the first advanceestimates released by theNational StatisticalOrganisation (NSO), the coun-try's economic growth is like-ly to hit an 11-year low of 5 percent in the current fiscal end-ing March 2020.

The Economic Survey 2019-20, prepared by a team lead bySubramanian, has projectedthe GDP to expand in therange of 6-6.5 per cent during2020-21.

The Indian economy hashit the bottom and it will seean uptick from here, he said ina media briefing post theEconomic Survey.

Amidst a weak environmentfor global manufacturing, tradeand demand, the Indian econ-omy slowed down with GDPgrowth moderating to 4.8 per

cent in the first half of 2019-20,lower than 6.2 per cent in H2of 2018-19.

Based on NSO's firstadvance estimates of GDPgrowth for 2019-20 at 5 percent, an uptick in GDP growthis expected in the second halfof the fiscal, it said.

According to it, the uptick insecond half of 2019-20 wouldbe mainly due to ten positivefactors like picking up of NiftyIndia Consumption Index for

the first time this year, anupbeat secondary market,higher FDI flows, build-up ofdemand pressure, positive out-look for rural consumption,rebound of industrial activity,steady improvement in manu-facturing, growth in merchan-dise exports, higher build-up offoreign exchange reserves andpositive growth rate of GSTrevenue collection.

The survey also emphasisedthat merger of public sector

banks may increase the finan-cial strength of the mergedentities, lower the risk aversionand result in lowering of lend-ing rates.

Further, as the implementa-tion of GST further settlesdown, the increased unifica-tion of the domestic marketmay reduce business costs andfacilitate fresh investment.

Reforms in land and labourmarket may further reducebusiness costs, said the survey,presented a day beforeSitharaman's Union Budget2020-21.

PNS n NEW DELHI

There has been an increase inpassenger volume of IndianRailways by 1.85 per cent anda growth of 5.34 per cent inloading freight in 2018-19, theEconomic Survey 2019-20 saidon Friday.

The survey was tabled inParliament by Union FinanceMinister Nirmala Sitharamanwho will present the UnionBudget on Saturday.

As per the pre-Budget sur-vey, during the year 2018-19,Indian Railways carried 120crore tonnes of freight and 840crore passengers making it theworld's largest passenger car-rier and fourth largest freightcarrier. "Revenue earning

freight loading by railwaysduring 2018-19 was 12,215lakh tonnes as against 11,596lakh tonnes during 2017-18,registering an increase of 5.34per cent," the survey said.

"Passengers originating was

84,390 lakh in 2018-19 as com-pared to 82,858 lakh in 2017-18, registering an increase of1.85 per cent in 2018-19 overthe previous year," it said.

It also said that safety isaccorded the highest priority

by railways and steps are beingundertaken on a continuousbasis to prevent accidents andto enhance safety of the pas-sengers.

During 2018-19, conse-quential train accidentsdecreased from 73 to 59 incomparison to the corre-sponding period of the previ-ous year. In the year 2019-20(April - October 2019), 41

consequential train accidentshave occurred, it said.

Commenting on the clean-liness parameters of the nation-al transporter, the survey stat-ed that for railways which cov-ers over 8,700 stations and car-ries around 230 lakh passen-gers daily with clientele of var-ied socio-economic back-grounds, cleanliness was a con-tinuous process.

Chief Economic Adviser K V Subramanian

Based on NSO'sfirst advanceestimates of GDPgrowth for 2019-20at 5 per cent, anuptick in GDPgrowth is expectedin the second halfof the fiscal, itsaid.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Government interventions toregulate prices of essentialdrugs have led to hike in theircost when compared to unreg-ulated similar drugs instead ofmaking them affordable,according to the EconomicSurvey for 2019-20.

In India, the governmenthas historically relied on pricecontrols to regulate the pricesof pharmaceutical drugsthrough the NationalPharmaceutical PricingAuthority (NPPA) and Drug(Prices Control) Order, saidthe Survey.

The government throughDPCO ensures that the med-icines listed under the NationalList of Essential Medicines(NLEM) are available at a rea-sonable price to the generalpublic, it added.

"The regulation of prices ofdrugs through the Drugs

Prices Control Order (DPCO)2013, has led to increase inthe price of a regulated phar-maceutical drug vis-a-vis thatof a similar drug whose priceis not regulated," theEconomic Survey 2019-20,tabled in Parliament onFriday, said.

It further said: "Our analy-sis shows that the increase inprices was witnessed for moreexpensive formulations thanfor cheaper ones and those

sold in hospitals rather thanretail shops, reinforcing thatthe outcome is opposite towhat DPCO aims to do - mak-ing drugs affordable."

It estimated that the pricesof drugs that came underDPCO, 2013 increased onaverage by Rs 71 per mg of theactive ingredient and for drugsthat were unaffected by DPCO,2013, the prices increased byRs 13 per mg of the activeingredient.

Japanese car maker Lexusbegins local productionPNS n NEW DELHI

Japanese car maker Toyota'sluxury vehicle arm Lexus onFriday said it has commencedlocal assembly of cars in India.

The company said it hascommenced assembly of BS VIcompliant ES 300h luxurysedan at its Bengaluru-basedplant with deliveries expectedto begin in February.

The ES 300h Exquisite ispriced at Rs 51.9 lakh, while ES300h Luxury trim is tagged atRs 56.95 lakh (ex-showroom).

The company also launchedtwo more products -- all newLC 500h coupe priced at Rs1.96 crore and three variants ofNX 300h F Sport tagged at Rs54.9 lakh, Rs 59.9 lakh and Rs60.6 lakh, respectively.

Commenting on commenc-

ing local manufacturing inIndia, Lexus India ChairmanMasakazu Yoshimura said theinitiative is significant for thecompany and for its presencein the country.

"Today's announcement rep-resents our strong commit-ment to not just delivering anexceptional product and expe-rience for our guests here, butsustainably enhancing ourbusiness for greater contribu-tion to the economy and

industry in India," he added.The company continues to

import most of its productsinto the Indian market as com-pletely built up (CBU) units.

Lexus India President PBVenugopal said the launch ofthree products showcases com-pany's dedication to bringingan amazing range of cars tocustomers in India.

When asked if the companywould look at assembling moremodels in India, he said thecompany keeps on evaluatingon such issues.

Lexus India also announcedthe launch of four new guestexperience centres inChandigarh, Chennai, Kochiand Hyderabad.

The company already hassuch centres in Delhi, Mumbaiand Bengaluru.

PNS n HYDERABAD

Coromandel InternationalLimited, India's leading agrisolutions provider has report-ed the financial results for thequarter ended 31st December2019.

Consolidated performancefor the quarter ended 31December 2019 During thequarter ended 31 December2019, the Company's consol-idated Total Income stood atRs. 3,288 crores in comparisonto the corresponding quarterlast year of Rs. 3,059 crores.

Profit before depreciation,interest, taxes and exception-al item (EBITDA) has grownby 42% to Rs. 432 crores vs. Rs.305 crores during corre-sponding quarter of last year.

Consolidated net ProfitAfter Tax for the quarter is Rs.265 crores in comparison toRs. 154 crores for the corre-sponding quarter last year,registering a year on yeargrowth of 72%.

For the nine months ended31 December 2019, theCompany's consolidated Total

Income is Rs. 10,296 crores(corresponding period LY Rs.10,614 crores), EBITDA atRs. 1,341 Crs vs Rs.1,185 Crsof LY growth of 13% andProfit After Tax is Rs. 831crores (Nine months ended 31December 2018 Rs. 610crores) growth of 36% YoY.

Economic slowdown bottomed out,uptick hereafter: Subramanian

During 2018-19, consequential trainaccidents decreased from 73 to 59 incomparison to the corresponding periodof the previous year. In the year 2019-20(April - October 2019), 41 consequentialtrain accidents have occurred, it said.

Sameer Goel

Sensex drops190 pts; Niftyends below 12K

SBI profit jumps41pc to Rs6,797cr in Q3

PNS n MUMBAI

Market benchmark Sensex fell190 points and the Niftyslumped below the 12,000level on Friday after theEconomic Survey suggestedrelaxing fiscal deficit target torevive growth. Witnessing asharp decline at the fag end ofthe session, the 30-share BSESensex settled 190.33 points, or0.47 per cent, lower at40,723.49. It hit an intra-daylow of 40,671.01 and a high of41,154.49. Likewise, the broad-er NSE Nifty finished 73.70points, or 0.61 per cent, downat 11,962.10. ONGC was thetop laggard in the Sensexpack, dropping 5.80 per cent,followed by PowerGrid, HCLTech, TCS, Tata Steel andReliance Industries. On theother hand, Kotak Bank, SBI,IndusInd Bank, Bharti Airteland Tech Mahindra endedwith gains. According toDeepthi Mary Mathew,Economist at Geojit FinancialServices, the Economic Surveyhighlights the difficult fiscalsituation, and possible crowd-ing out of private investors dueto the increased market bor-rowing by the government.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Textile major Arvind Ltd onFriday reported a consolidat-ed net profit of Rs 35.35 crorefor the third quarter endedDecember.

The company had posted anet profit of Rs 40.43 crore inOctober-December quarter ayear ago, it said in a BSE filing.

Its revenue from operationsstood at Rs 1,868.80 croreduring the quarter underreview. It was at Rs 1,680.26crore in the correspondingquarter of previous fiscal.

"EBIDTA margin in Textilesimproved because of baseeffect, and lower input costs.Margins in Denim categorysaw some improvement fromoperating leverage," the com-pany said in a post earningstatement.

"Higher garmenting vol-umes resulted in marginimprovement as well. AMD(advanced material) marginsincreased by over 3 percentagepoints to over 13 per cent aspart of the portfolio matured,"it added.

The results are not compa-rable with the previous year'speriod because of demerger ofcompany's branded apparelbusiness to Arvind FashionsLtd with effect from November30, 2018.

"To the extent current quar-ter and nine months endedDecember 31, 2019 are not

comparable with the quarterand nine months endedDecember 31, 2018 and theyear ended March 31, 2019,"the company said.

The company's total expens-es during October-Decemberstood at Rs 1,819.41 crore.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Deregulating labour laws,encouraging MSMEs, increas-ing female participation inworkforce and higher spend-ing by pubic sector on healthand education would help cre-ate more jobs and increaseemployability in the country,the Economic Survey 2019-20said on Friday.

Besides, the survey alsopointed out that India needs tocreate 55 lakh to 60 lakh jobsannually over the next decade.

The document tabled inParliament on Friday notedthat states like Rajasthan whichwent for deregulation of labourlaws created more jobs thanthose which followed old legalframework.

"Deregulating labour lawrestrictions can create signifi-

cantly more jobs, as seen by therecent changes in Rajasthanwhen compared to the rest ofthe states", it said.

It further stated that iflabour force participation rate(LFPR) remains at about 60per cent in the next twodecades, about 55-60 lakh jobswill have to be created annu-ally over the next decade.

The survey strongly pitchedfor labour reforms for provid-ing flexible labour laws in thecountry to boost job creation,especially among micro, smalland medium enterprises(MSMEs).

There were no major labourreforms initiated by the statesfrom 2007 to 2014. In 2014,Rajasthan was the first statethat introduced labour reformsin major Acts. Thereafter,many states followedRajasthan's path.

PNS n NEW DELHI

The country's largest lenderSBI on Friday reported a 41per cent jump in net profit toRs 6,797.25 crore in theOctober-December quarterthis fiscal compared to Rs4,823.29 crore in the year-agoperiod. Consolidated incomerose to Rs 95,384.28 crore inthe third quarter from Rs84,390.14 crore in October-December 2018-19, SBI said ina regulatory filing.

On asset front, the lendershowed improvement withthe gross non-performingassets (NPAs) falling to 6.94per cent of the gross advancesas at December 31, 2019 from8.71 per cent by same periodin 2018. The net NPAsdropped to 2.65 per cent from3.95 per cent.

On standalone basis, netprofit jumped 41.2 per cent toRs 5,583.36 crore in the thirdquarter of the current fiscalcompared to Rs 3,954.81crore during the correspond-ing October-December periodin the same period a year ago.

Kirloskar OilQ3 net up 14pc at Rs 46 crPNS n NEW DELHI

Kirloskar Oil Engines onFriday posted 14.29 per centincrease in consolidated netprofit at Rs 46.36 crore for thethird quarter endedDecember 31, 2019.

The company had report-ed a net profit of Rs 40.56crore for October-Decemberperiod of 2018-19.

Total income howeverdeclined to Rs 842.8 croreduring the quarter as againstRs 882.90 crore in the year-ago period, Kirloskar OilEngines said in a regulatoryfiling.

Shares of the companywere trading 0.75 per centdown at Rs 146.40 apiece onthe BSE.

It further statedthat if labour forceparticipation rate(LFPR) remains atabout 60 per centin the next twodecades, about 55-60 lakh jobs willhave to be createdannually over thenext decade

The results are notcomparable withthe previous year'speriod because ofdemerger ofcompany's brandedapparel business toArvind FashionsLtd with effectfrom November 30,2018

Drugs price control hasled to increase in costs

ESSENTIAL DRUGS

Coromandel Internationalconsolidated net profitrises 71.40%

45 documents for openingrestaurant, 19 to buy a gun!

Rly passenger volume up by 1.85 pc, freightloading rose by 5.34 pc in 2018-2019

ECONOMIC SURVEY

‘Job creation linked to labourreforms, higher women participation’

Profit beforedepreciation, interest,taxes and exceptionalitem (EBITDA) hasgrown by 42% to Rs.432 crores vs. Rs. 305crores duringcorresponding quarterof last year

Arvind Q3 net profit at Rs 35.35 crore

Follow us on@TheDailyPioneerfacebook.com/dailypioneer

We are very happyto share our stories

with people fromdifferent states. In

this festival, weperformed skits

and plays about theimportance ofsaving the girl

child, childmarriage, dowry

issues and genderequality after

noticing that thesecrimes were on therise. We also wrote

on various issues aspart of the reading

week initiative by theorganisers.

ONE OF THE STUDENTSFROM UTTAR PRADESH

SaturdayFebruary 1, 2020

he NationalChildren’s LiteraryFestival, 2020,turned out to bean eye-opener ofsorts for visitors as

many government school stu-dents from various statesasked people visiting theirstalls to play a game beforethey even revealed the workthey’ve done.

As part of the game theyasked people to select twoslips from a box. The slipscontained questions likename any ‘President’ and/or‘political leader’ of our coun-

try. When people came upwith replies like RamnathKovind, K ChandrasekharRao and so on, they got upsetand asked ‘Why only remem-ber male leaders and notones like Pratibha Patil andMamata Benerjee?’

They then said that theyare conducting this game tobring to light the inequalityfaced by women across allfields. The students, who hadcome from 10 states acrossIndia, came up with theirown stories about variousissues like gender equality,child marriages and more.

The three-day festival con-cluded on Friday at CHAITraining Centre, Medchal.During the fest, studentsinteracted with guests andparticipated in various skitsand acts, which explained theaforementioned societalissues and the need to seewomen as equal to men.

One of the students (theorganisers wanted them to beanonymous) from UttarPradesh, said, “We are veryhappy to share our storieswith people from differentstates. In this festival, we per-formed skits and plays about

the importance of saving thegirl child, child marriage,dowry issues and genderequality after noticing thatthese crimes were on the rise.We also wrote on variousissues as part of the readingweek initiative by the organ-isers.”

Students Uttar Pradesh,Bihar, Delhi, Jharkhand,Maharashtra, Odisha,Rajasthan, Uttrakhand, TamilNadu and Telangana show-cased their work and narrat-ed their stories. Studentsfrom a government school inDelhi told us, “Here, we

showcased our work by rep-resenting the famous placesin Delhi like Parliament,Supreme Court and so onand urged officials to providejustice to victims. Our mainfocus is to inculcate readinghabit in children. We areoverusing technology and areaddicted to our mobiles. Thisis pushing children awayfrom reading. We narratedstories that we heard fromour grandparents. In this fes-tival, we got to know aboutdifferent cultures of otherstates.”

Out of all stalls, the

Telangana stall became high-light of the festival withshowcasing beautiful Bonaluand Bathukamma festivitiesfor the audience. Studentssaid, “Here, we are displayingstories about women safetyand narrating the importanceof festivals like Bonalu andBathukamma. We are veryhappy to showcase our workin such a festival.”

Mohammed Asif,Executive Director, PlanIndia, said, “This is the sec-ond edition of the festivaland the first one was held lastyear in Lucknow. The theme

is dreams and aspirations.This is a festival for the stu-dents, by the students. Thefestival helps children thinkabout various societal issuesand present ways to tacklethem. More than 1,000schools auditioned and about10 were selected for the mainfestival. We are doing the fes-tival in 10 states now andwould definitely expand pan-India soon.”

He said, “This fest encour-ages children to rediscoverthe joy of reading and re-imagine gender in children’sliterature, including texts,

stories and imagery. We arehappy to see the participationof children from differentstates. Coinciding with fiveyears of the Centre’s BetiBachao, Beti Padhao initia-tive, this year’s ChildrenLiterary Festival workedaround those ideologies. Wehope to help children identi-fy, the gender representationin what they read. By meansof the Children’s LiteraryFestival, we hope to traingirls and boys to be able tocreate a gender-neutral worldand express the samethrough various forms of art.”

When kids turn

EYE-OPENER

The secondedition of

the NationalChildren's

LiteraryFestival

concludedrecently inHyderabadand it had

childrennarrating

stories aboutvarious issues

like genderequality, child

marriages,reading habits

and more,reports V

SATEESHREDDY

T

Students from Delhi

Students from Telangana

Students from UP

ASWATHAMA:Shaurya shines, but film falls flatK RAMYA SREEn HYDERABAD

aga Shaurya hasbeen craving for hit,especially after hislast film,Naratanasala,tanked miserably at

the box office. He has nowpinned all his hopes onAswathama.

Speaking of the film, this isShaurya’s first attempt at beinga screenwriter and he has goneall out on the film’s promotions.He has even built abs for hischaracter.

So, does it live up to hisexpectations? Let’s find out.

Aswathama is the story of aman searching for answers ashis life gets entangled with vari-ous issues.

Gana (Naga Shaurya) is ahappy-go-lucky boy until hefinds out about his sister’s sui-cide attempt days before hermarriage. It disturbs him men-tally and he goes on a hunt tofind out the reason why shewanted to end her life. Duringhis efforts to find the culprit, herealises that it’s not just Priya’s(Gana’s sister) problem but ofmany other girls in Vizag city.The story takes off from thereand shows Gana trying to findout the person behind thecrime.

The film begins on a highnote with Pawan Kalyan’s voicethat says ‘The evil will be killed’.

While the first 20 minutes

makes one wonder what isgoing on, the pace picks uponce the hero finds out abouthis sister’s suicide attempt. Thefilm did have its share of lagsand lack of logic, but it man-ages to convey its message,albeit in a dramatic way.

The romantic thread betweenNaga Shaurya and MehreenKaur Pirzada in the first halffelt pointless and the songs toowere placed just for the sake ofhaving melody.

All these put together makethe first half boring. But thesecond half keeps you grippedas Gana tries to find out whothe antagonist, played by JisshuSengupta, is.

He kidnaps women with thehelp of fishermen, impregnatesthem and hands them back tothe fishermen who drop themat nearby hospitals. The climaxis again a drawback to the film.

A lot of questions arise onceyou watch the film. Especiallyon the existence of cops.

For instance Gana beats upall the suspects left right andcentre, but cops are no where tobe seen.

The cops again go missingwhen a group of four men kid-nap multiple women fromstreets and malls. And whenthey do start investigating, theyare unable to find clues, but thehero manages to get all theclues.

Also, is the antagonist theonly doctor in Vizag, that thepolice repeatedly come to his

house and request him to con-duct post-mortems on peoplewhom the former killed dis-cretely? Granted that films dotake a few liberties and throwlogic out the window, butassuming that the audience iswearing blinders and dumb is acompletely different level.

Speaking of acting, there isno one in the film whom wecan speak of except for Shauryaand Jisshu.

Shaurya has given his all andexcelled as a responsible broth-er. Jisshu’s acting, although abonus to the film, makes youfeel like you are watching

Arvind Swamy from Dhruva. Itlooked like he was imitatingArvind. The others were notgiven enough screen time toeven mention.

Music by M. Ghibran wasalso okay. We will surely forgethis songs once we are out of themovie hall.

Although the basic messageof the film was good, the storycould’ve been tighter to notbore the audience. DirectorRamana Teja was good enoughto capture the emotions and thebond between a brother and asister but failed to deliver anall-out thriller as was promoted.

N

VERDICT: Poor screenplay,lacklustre script makethe film boring. ButShaurya navigatingthe twists and turnsin the plot and themessage the crewwish to conveythrough the filmmakes this a one-time watch.

Rating:

2 stars

PARTY

10

Swiss watch brand, Longines, unveiled itslatest collection of watches in a grand

event which was graced by actor VarunTej. The collection titled ‘HydroConquest' is

designed keeping aquatic sports lovers inmind. The accessory is the perfect blend of

performance and elegance. The event was heldat the Longines Boutique, Jubilee Hills.

Trendz, a three-daydesignerexhibition,

was unveiled athotel TajKrishna onFriday. Severalsocialitesattended theexhibitionwhich wasinauguratedby actressRashi Singh.A wide varietyof exquisitedesignerapparel,accessories,kids wear andmore, havebeen put up ondisplay at theexpo which willgo on tilltomorrow.

FASHIONSQUAD

Hyderabad Saturday February 1, 2020

CITY GUIDE

GET YOUR EVENT LISTED: To get your events listed, send your details alongwith a poster and contact number to pioneer.features@gmail.com

EVENTS

lBadlav is an original Hindi psychological playwritten and directed by Amaan Ahmad. Touchingthe core of Theatre of the Absurd, ‘Badlav’ is aone of a kind play that traverses throughmultiple questions concerning humanconsciousness in a twisted manner. Set in anindefinite timeline, the play questions the verynature of ‘change’. The play will be staged onFebruary 6 at 8 pm at Lamakaan.

BADLAV

l Draupadi is a dance drama in Kuchipudi format,with Sravya Manasa playing the lead role asDraupadi. It deals with the less familiar phases ofDraupadi's life along with her inclination towardsKarna. The play will be held today at Pheonix Arenaat 7 pm.

DRAUPADI - A DANCE DRAMA

l Bheem is a Telugu patriotic play written byHarsha Chakilam based on Telangana's freedomfighter Komaram Bheem who fought for hiswater, forest and land. The play is beingorganised by Manch Theatre at Lamakaan onFebruary 8 at 7.30 pm.

l The students of Payal's Dance Academy bringthe second edition of the annual bellydancerecital. Special guest performances includeother dance styles like Ballet, Afro andContemporary by some of the best dancers ofHyderabad. The dance recital will be heldtomorrow at Pheonix Arena at 7 pm.

BELLYDANCE RECITAL

MOSAMBI NARANGI

AN INSPECTOR CALLS

lTaher Ali Baig in association with Rage Productionpresents one-of-a-kind play about hopes and brokendreams, complete with odd ball characters, humourand emotion. The play is all set to be performed atShilpakala Vedika on February 9 at 7 pm.

.

lAn Inspector Calls, is the Telugu adaptationof the original English play by the same name byJ B Priestly written in the year. The play revolvesaround the alleged suicide of a young womannamed Shwetha and an unsuspecting familywhich is visited by a mysterious Inspector. Theplay will be held at Pheonix arena on February 7at 7 pm.

BHEEM

TIMELESSPIECES

what’s brewing?

lRa

ksha

ndaa

lRa

shi S

ingh

l Radhika

l Santhi Kathiravan l Prasuna

l Sana

lPr

eeth

i

FUN

Rules

ARCHIE

GARFIELD

SUDOKU

REALITY CHECK SPEED BUMP CROSSWORD

GINGER MEGGS

NANCY

CALVIN AND HOBBES

l Each row and column cancontain each number (1 to 9)exactly once.

l The sum of all numbers inany row or column mustequal 45.

Yesterday’s solution

Phot

os bb

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Char

y

his year has kickedoff on a successfulnote for Satyadev.His role as anArmy man,although brief, in

Mahesh Babu-starrer SarileruNeekevvaru was received welland he will begin shootingfor debutant director VishvakKhanderao’s period dramedysoon. And now we’ve exclu-sively learnt that he hasgreen-lit another solo project,which will mostly roll inApril. It will be directed bySanjeev Reddy who directedABCD, featuring Allu Sirish,last year. The actor and thedirector have been friends fora long time.

A well-placed source closeto the development tells us,“Sheik Dawood, the screen-play writer of films like

Venkatadri Express,Express Raja andAnanda Brahmo, haspenned the film’s script.He and Sanjeev havebeen working for morethan six months on thescript, which is a crime-drama infused with thrillerelements. Satyadev wasmighty excited with the storyand decided to comeonboard. He felt it was theright project for him afterVenkatesh Maha’s UmaMaheswara Ugra Roopasyaand Vishvak’s untitled perioddrama. Prominent writerLakshmi Bhupala played acrucial role in setting up thiscombination and he is alsoinvesting in the project. Hehas recently started penningthe dialogues.”

The source further adds

thatbesides Satyathe story hasscope for threeother importantroles. Anotherproducertoo is like-ly to jointhe film asa partner, discussions onwhich are going on. “Thestory is completely set inHyderabad and the pre-pro-duction has commenced,”the source concludes.

Hyderabad Saturday February 1, 2020

T

11

CHOOSI CHOODANGAANE: Love from her point of view

KEDARn HYDERABAD

he strength ofproducer RajKandukuri’s lat-est movie,ChoosiChoodangaane,

lies in the non-linearscreenplay — just like theproducer’s previous super-hit movie, Pelli Choopulu.The second half of themovie revisits the firsthalf, throwing new lighton a college romancethat has been done todeath. Even though it isa typical boy meets

girl(s) story, in a raremoment of clarity inTelugu cinema, we get to

see the girl’s unrequited lovestory from her point of view

that is separate from the boy. Even though the three prin-

ciple characters in the film haveinteresting bio-data, the film’sdirector and writer Sesha Sin-dhu Rao, wanted the focus onlyon the chemistry among them.Though this could have been

an advantage if the actors werefleshed out or were capable ofextraordinary performances,but that wasn’t the case here.

Shiva Kandukuri (Sidhu),who debuted with this film,couldn’t readily fit into the filmjust as much as a foot gettingused to a new shoe. Though hisrole required him to experiencea range of emotions, coveringthe joy of first love to the sad-ness in unrequited love, hisexpression more or less staysconstant throughout. Thoughhis acting fell short he playedan important role in highlight-ing the other two characters inthe film.

Varsha Bollamma (Sruthi)

and Malavika Satheesan(Aishwarya) form the core ofthe film as characters withtraits that are polar opposites.While the former is easy going,thoughtful and goal-oriented,the latter is selfish, uptight andmanipulative.

Their acting too comple-mented their personalities andtogether they stand as two pil-lars between which Sidhuswings about seeking love thathe believes is refused to him byboth women.

Even though the charactershad potential to make a mark,shoddy dialogues let themdown. Good dialogues giveinsight into the mind of the

characters and are influencedby the kind of setting the char-acters are placed in. The moviedoesn’t show the characters faceany external hurdles eventhough Sidhu and Sruthi choseoff-beat careers such as photog-raphy and music. The onlyproblems they face are theirown indecisiveness. So themovie limits the characters bygiving them no life beyondtheir relationship to each other.

Music by Gopi Sundarproved to be saving grace forthe film although the filmmak-ers choose to use it mostly formontages that only drag thepace of the movie. The cine-matography by Vedaraman andediting by Raviteja Girijalabring nothing new to the table.The camera work in too shakyand out of focus to registeremotions properly, and theediting separates scenes fromone another instead of joiningthem by a thread.

Choosi Choodangaane hadthe potential to spin somethingfresh from an old yarn, but wasweighed down by clichéd dia-logues and sloppy acting.

CAST: VarshaBollamma, Malavika

Satheesan, ShivaKandukuri, AnishKuruvilla, Pavitra

Lokesh

Rating:2.5/5 stars

VERDICT: Choosi Choodangaanetries to bring freshness to atypical college romance. Itsefforts are fruitful depending onwhat one is looking for. Watchthe movie for good female leadsand an interesting screenplay.Rest can be set aside.

tollywoodSATYADEVsigns ABCDdirector'snext

Satyadev whohad a good run

in 2019 hasmanaged to

bag goodprojects in 2020too. NAGARAJ

GOUD findsout about the

actor's nextprojects

SHEIK DAWOOD, THE SCREENPLAY WRITER OF FILMS LIKEVENKATADRI EXPRESS, EXPRESS RAJA AND ANANDA BRAHMO,HAS PENNED THE FILM’S SCRIPT. HE AND SANJEEV REDDY HAVEBEEN WORKING FOR MORE THAN SIX MONTHS ON THE SCRIPT.

ctor-producer-TV judgeNagababuKonidela gives allfitness goals tohis fans with his

recent post on Facebook.The actor posted series of

pictures of himself trans-forming to a fit body. Hecaptioned the image, “De-cide. Commit. Succeed. It’stotally 6 months of metamo-rphosis Weight loss. (sic)”

His post inspired manypeople with netizens show-ering praises on his hardwork and dedication.

“Your dedication shouldbe appreciable sir. In one of

your interviews you arealready said your dream issix pack.. all the best foryour six pack sir, (sic)" wroteone user.

“Hardwork never failslooking slim & fit,(sic)”wrote another user.

While some called him asa competitor to his son Var-un Tej, others felt he lookedyounger than Pawan Kalyan.

On the work front, theactor is presently a judge toa non-fiction show Adirindi.He has recently quit popularcomedy show Jabardasth cit-ing differences with the pro-ducers of the show.

— K RAMYA SREE

ANagababu givesfitness goals

BIGIL GIRL TODEBUT INTOLLYWOOD

am-starrer Red, whichalready sees NivethaPethuraj and MalvikaSharma as leadingladies, has got anotheraddition. Amrithya

Aiyer, who was seen as a footballcaptain in Vijay-starrer, a recentTamil monster hit Bigil, has beensigned by the makers to play asupporting role. “She will be seenas an innocent girl who is headover heels in love with one of thetwo roles played by Ram. Eventhough she will be making herdebut in Telugu with a two-hero-ine film, the role has its ownimportance. Director KishoreTirumala has extended her partslightly to that of the Tamil ver-sion,” said a source.

Red, an investigativethriller, narrates the confu-

sion that arises whencops find out that the

an accused in themurder of a

youngster hasa look-alike. Ithas been pre-

dominantly shot in Hyderabadand Goa till now. Produced bySravanthi Ravi Kishore, it is setto hit the screens on April 9.Kishore Tirumala is planning towind up the shoot by mid-March.

r

Sriwass' crime-comedywith Danayya's son

lthough Maruthi’s namewas attached to launchproducer D.V.V. Danayya’sson Kalyan Dasari some-time back, the phenome-nal success of Pandaga

Chesko meant that the director islooking at A-listers for his next.

We now hear that Sriwass haslanded the film. Known for his pop-corn entertainers, the untitled filmwill be a departure from the kind offilms Sriwass makes. “He has beentrying to attempt a new genre for along time now and he’s doing thatwith his new film. It will be a con-cept-based crime comedy and thedirector is pumped up about it. Hehas been in frequent touch withKalyan and the discussions betweenthem have been productive. The filmwill go to sets in March and will bepredominantly shot in Hyderabad.Sriwass wants to ensure that Danayyamakes profit even before the film'srelease,” said a source.

The source further added thatKalyan is a trained actor and has alsobeen a regular to his dad’s produc-tions like Bharat Ane Nenu and RRR,monitoring the filmmaking processclosely. “He understands the techni-cal side of filmmaking very well andSriwass believes that his actor is anabsolute natural,” informed thesource further. — NG

a

T

HYDERABAD | SATURDAY | FEBRUARY 1, 2020 sport 12

PTI n NEW DELHI

Former India cricketersRudra Pratap Singh,

Madan Lal and SulkashanaNaik were on Friday appoint-ed members of the CricketAdvisory Committee (CAC)by the BCCI.

The CAC’s immediatetask will be to pick replace-ments for outgoing selectorsMSK Prasad and GaganKhoda.

“The term of appoint-ment will be for one year,”BCCI Secretary Jay Shah said

in a statement.Initially, Gautam

Gambhir was to be one of theCAC members but was noteventually considered as he isa serving Member ofParliament, making way forSingh.

The 34-year-old fromfrom Uttar Pradesh is theyoungest CAC member. Lal is68 and Naik is 41.

CAC is a high-profilebody but its job is limited.However, its seniormostmember Lal is looking for-ward to the challenge.

“Responsibility is aresponsibility. Name of thegame is to take the responsi-bility and do the job honest-ly,” Lal said, adding that he hasno information yet onwhether BCCI is doing awaywith the zonal policy for pick-ing selectors or not.

“I have no idea if the zonalsystem will be followed or youcould pick the selections fromany region. Today, I have gotofficial communication onthe appointment and in thecoming days, we will get toknow more,” he added.

PTI n CHRISTCHURCH

Dane Cleaver smashed anunbeaten century as New

Zealand A put India A in a tightspot by amassing 385 for five intheir first innings on the secondday of the first unofficial Test.

After Will Young (54) com-pleted his half-century, the hostssuffered a mini-collapse, losingthree wickets cheaply but Cleaver(111 off 194 balls) and MarkChapman (85 off 187 balls) res-urrected the innings, adding anunbeaten 209 runs for the sixth

wicket.Cleaver sent the ball across

the fence 16 times, whileChapman smashed eight bound-aries in his innings.

At stumps, the duo was at thecrease with New Zealand takingan overall lead of 169 runs.

On day one, India A were allout for 216 in their first innings.

For India A, SandeepWarrier claimed two wickets,while Mohammed Siraj (1/104),Ishan Porel (1/61), ShahbazNadeem (1/67) accounted forone wicket each.

PTI n CANBERRA

Skipper Harmanpreet Kaurstruck an unbeaten 42 fol-

lowing a fine bowling perfor-mance to set up India’sthrilling five-wicket win overEngland in the first match ofthe women’s triangular T20series on Friday.

Indian spinners —Rajeshwari Gayakwad (2/19),Deepti Sharma (2/30)and leftarmer Radha Yadav (1/33) —restricted England to 147for seven in stipulated 20overs, while right-arm medi-um pacer Shikha Pandey(2/33) accounted for two atthe Manuka Oval.Harmanpreet took the runchase deep after the Indiantop order, including the 15-year-old Shafali Verma (30),Smriti Mandhana(15) andJemimah Rodrigues (26) —squandered good starts.

Veda Krishnamurthy (7)and Taniya Bhatia (11) alsofailed to stay on the crease as

England bowlers struck atregular intervals.

With six needed off thelast over, Harmanpreet,whose innings was studdedwith five boundaries untilthen, hit a towering six totake India to 150 for five andend the match in style withthree balls to spare.

Earlier, put in to bat,England suffered a top orderbatting collapse as openersAmy Jones (1) and DanniWyatt (4) were dismissedcheaply.

Natalie Sciver (20) andFran Wilson (7) soon fol-lowed, leaving England reel-ing at 59 for four in 10 overs.

Skipper Heather Knightthen took charge, hitting abrisk 44-ball 67. Her inningswas laced with eight bound-aries and two sixes.

Wicketkeeper TammyBeaumont supported hercaptain with a 27-ball 37. Theduo helped England post afighting total.

PTI nWELLINGTON

India captain Virat Kohli onFriday said he has learnt animportant lesson in the back-

to-back Super Over finishesagainst New Zealand: To “staycalm till the end” and bounce backwhen the opportunity arises.

A nervous New Zealandthrew it away yet again as a per-severant India prevailed in theSuper Over for the second succes-sive time to take a 4-0 lead in thefive-match T20I series.

“There’s something new I’velearnt in the last couple of games:when the opposition is playingwell, you stay calm till the end andtry to come back,” Kohli said at thepost-match presentation ceremo-ny.

Needing just 11 runs off thelast two overs with seven wicketsin hand, New Zealand dug a holefor themselves yet again, taking thegame to a Super Over two nightsafter doing the same in Hamilton.

New Zealand managed 13runs in six balls and India got thereeffortlessly.

The India skipper said havingcome out victorious in two consec-utive Super Overs for the first timeproves the character of the team.

“We couldn’t have asked formore exciting games, we’ve neverplayed Super Overs before and

now we’ve won two. It shows thecharacter of the team,” Kohli said.

Although Sanju Samson did-n’t make any significant contribu-tion in the match, Kohli said heinitially thought of sending theKerala batsman in the Super Overalong side K L Rahul but eventu-ally changed his mind.

“Initially we thought of open-ing with Samson and KL in theSuper Over, but then KL told meI should bat because of the expe-rience and the options I’ll bring,”he said.

“His (Rahul’s) two strikes

were crucial and then you knockthe ball into the gap and take yourteam over the line. Sanju was fear-less at the top of the order. He triedto take the momentum away, heshould back himself.”

Kohli also lavished praise onyoung pacer Navdeep Saini, whowent wicketless on Friday.

“Saini was impressive with hispace again. We were very proudwith the way we went about it,” hesaid.

New Zealand skipper TimSouthee, who stood in for injuredregular captain Kane Williamson,

said they presented India oppor-tunities and the visitors grabbedthem with both hands.

“It’s very tough especially inthe positions we put ourselves into.We gave them (India) a chanceand they took them with bothhands,” he said.

“We have a young bowlingattack and, it is tough, when youhaven’t won and you play againsta quality opposition in India, givethem a sniff and make it tough foryourselves.”

Man-of-the-match ShardulThakur, who finished with figures

of 2 for 33 and also bowled thecrucial last over in which NewZealand needed just seven runs,said such nail-bitting finishesaugurs well for India ahead of this

year’s ICC T20 World Cup.“I’m feeling good, we play for

such nail-biting finishes, we could-n’t have asked for anything morein these two games,” he said.

IANS n NEW DELHI

Jasprit Bumrah might be consid-ered one of the best in the busi-

ness at present, but former Pakistanpacer Shoaib Akhtar believes thatit is Mohammed Shami who is bestfast bowler in the world at present.Akhtar not only praised the Indianpacer for his brilliant show in thethird T20I against New Zealand,but also said that Shami uses hisexperience really well in tough sit-uations.

“Shami is a very clever bowler.He is the find of India and he is thebest fast bowler in the world.Whatever situation you put him in,he always excels, whether it's aworld cup or a T20 in New Zealand,he’s a very very smart fast bowler.When he got to know that yorkerswon’t work, he immediatelyswitched to length balls and bounc-ers,” Akhtar said on his Youtubechannel.

“When Taylor hit Shami for asix in the first ball, I thought thematch was over but that’s where theexperience of Shami came into play.He realized there was little bit ofdew which will help the ball skid ifhe hits the length.”

New Zealand needed 9 runs offthe last six balls when Kohli hand-ed the ball to Shami and eventhough Taylor started the overwith a six, the pacer kept cool andcame back to dismiss him off thelast ball to tie the game.

“Taylor hit me a lot through themidwicket region in my last matchbut unfortunately he dragged thesame shot onto his stumps on thelast ball. But credit to Shami,”Akhtar pointed.

Earlier Rohit Sharma also cred-ited Shami for bringing the teamback into the game after a master-class from Kane Williamson hadalmost seen the Kiwis stroll home.

“I think Shami’s last over wascrucial, and actually that got us thevictory. Not my two sixes. It wasShami’s over where we defendednine runs. It’s not easy with thedew,” Rohit had said.

AFP n HARARE

Astubborn 80 not out from SriLankan opener Kusal Mendis

frustrated Zimbabwe’s hopes of squar-ing the two-Test series on Friday’s fifthand final day of the second Test inHarare.

Set a challenging 361 to win, SriLanka dropped anchor, scoring just 51runs in the afternoon session, to reach156 for three at tea.

Sri Lanka lost captain DimuthKarunaratne in the morning andOshada Fernando for 47 just afterlunch but Mendis batted though totea, striking 10 fours in his 170-ballvigil.

Zimbabwe gained some renewedhope shortly before the interval whenAngelo Mathews slapped a deliveryfrom Victor Nyauchi straight to CraigErvine at mid-on.

Sri Lanka require another 205 inthe last session although with rain

forecast, any result other than a drawwould now be a surprise.

Instead they batted on briefly toreach 247 for seven before the decla-ration came with Williams, whomade a century in the first innings,picking up the three runs he neededfor another half-century to finish 53not out.

Williams then chose to open thebowling with spinner Raza who tookseven wickets in the first innings.

NEW DELHI: World No 2 TaiTzu Ying edged worldchampion PV Sindhu inthe most-awaited clash totake Bengaluru Raptors tovictory over HyderabadHunters in the showdownbetween the last two years’champions at the PBL. Thiswas the first triumph of theseason for the defendingchampions Raptors aftersuffering three losses on thetrot.

Tai came out as thestronger of the two, makinga fast start to go up to 3-0.It, however, did not take theRio Olympic Silver medal-list long to level matters.Finding her trademarksmashes, she made it 3-3before moving ahead to 8-5 as the Chinese Taipei ace

seemed to be struggling tofigure out Sindhu.

Amid roars of supportfrom the crowd, Sindhulooked to be in control toinch her way ahead to 10-7. The Raptors ace thentried accelerating her gameand used her skilful decep-

tion at the net to take twopoints on the trot. That wasall she could manage to doagainst a determinedSindhu who never faltered.

Running Tai aroundthe court by rotating thedirection of the shuttle,the Indian raced ahead to

12-9 and soon bagged theopening game 15-11.

A highly competitivesecond game ensued whichwitnessed the stamina andhunger of both. Tai keptanswering Sindhu’s powersmashes with her ownattacking game, keepingthe game on par till 8-8.Infusing a little more speedin the exchanges, Tai gotthe better of Sindhu tomove ahead to 12-9. Withthe World No. 2 havingreached game points, theIndian banked on heraggression to close the gapbetween the two to just twopoints before extending therallies in an attempt todraw an error from Tai’sracquet. It did not help hermuch as Tai took the sec-

ond game 15-13.With the momentum

having swung her way, Taidid not make any mistakein the decider to open up abig lead of 6-2, riding onher finesse. Under pressure,Sindhu made unforcederrors which did not helpher cause further.

Having put Sindhu onthe backfoot, Tai kept goingfor her smashes to lead 13-9. With Sindhu’s smashlanding wide, the highlyanticipated match ended inan 11-15, 15-13, 15-9 vic-tory for Tai, sealing the tiefor the Raptors.

Elsewhere in the matchfor home team Verma beatsBrice Leverdez 15-12, 10-15, 15-6 for his first win ofthe fifth season.

PTI n BENONI

Ahalf-century from openerMuhammad Huraira on

debut and a fine bowling per-formance powered Pakistan toa six-wicket win overAfghanistan in the ICC U-19World Cup on Friday, setting upan exciting semifinal againstarch-rivals India.

Afghanistan fought hardafter posting 189 but just didnot have enough runs on theboard. Huraira, playing his firstgame of the tournament, strucka match-winning knock in thefourth quarterfinal.

Qasim Akram (25 not outoff 41 balls)and MohammadHaris (29 not out off 43) saw theteam through in just 41.1 overs.

Tahir Hussain (1/28 in 10overs), Fahad Munir (2/29 in 7)and Mohammad Amir Khan(3/58 in 10) were the pick of thePakistan bowlers.

Defending championsIndia and Pakistan play theirsemifinal in Potchefstroom onFebruary 4. India had beatenAustralia in their quarterfinalmatch.

Talking about the team’sperformance, Pakistan captainRohail Nazir said: “We dropped2-3 early catches and had weheld on, we could have restrict-ed them to a lesser total. Thespinners bowled really well inthe middle overs and bowledthem out for 190. The wicketwas turning a bit and our planwas to rotate strike. The open-

ing partnership was good andwe played sensibly in the mid-dle overs.”

On the India game, headded: “It is another game.India is a good side and we needto play good cricket. The crowdreally motivated us, appreciat-ed us and I hope they turn upfor the semifinal and cheer forus.”

Afghanistan captain FarhanZakhil said 189 was defendable.

“The wicket was good andour batsmen did not takeresponsibility. They bowled welland created the chances. 190was a par score for our bowlers.We expected our fast bowlers toprovide early wickets and theywere not able to do that,” saidZakhil.

‘STAY CALM TILL THE END’

India captain Virat Kohli takes a catch to dismiss Martin Guptill AP

India always find a way

PTI nWELLINGTON

New Zealand threw it awayfrom a winning position in

the last two T20s but openerColin Munro instead gave cred-it to the visitors, saying they“always” find a way to bounceback.

“That’s cricket isn’t it? Weput ourselves in positions to winboth of those games I thought.But India, with the roll they’reon at the moment and thecricket that they’re playing,they always just find a way. Andthen Super Over is a bit of luck

each way. It can go either wayI reckon,” he said.

“We’re all sitting in thesheds now and talking about itand hurting that we have let twogames like that slip. And, I putmy hand up too. We talk aboutrunning quickly between thewickets and then I wasdawdling with that second one,and Kohli picks up and doessome magical work and that’s it.

“There are a few guys thatare hurting. But we are tight inour group and we will bounceback, come Sunday hopefully,”he added.

Mitchel Santer celebrates taking a catch to dismiss Sanju Samson AP

MOST RRUNS AAGAINST IINDIA IIN TT20IBatsman M Runs AVG HS S/R 100/50Colin Munro (NZ) 11 411 41.10 109* 146.78 1/3Aaron Finch (AUS) 13 405 31.15 89 137.28 -/2Glenn Maxwell (AUS) 13 353 35.30 113* 145.86 1/1Kane Williamson (NZ) 11 325 29.54 95 135.98 -/2Evin Lewis (WI) 9 322 46.00 125* 173.11 2/-

FAISEL FEATURES

Kohli says two Super Over finishes taught him to stay calm and bounce back when chance comes

PTI n WELLINGTON

Crediting India’s second successive SuperOver win to the team’s never-say-die atti-

tude, middle order batsman Manish Pandeysaid they will push for an unprecedented 5-0series whitewash in the fifth T20I.

The two sides meet for the final match atMt Maunganui tomorrow.

“It has been our motto, not only for thesetwo matches, that till the time the last ball isbowled, we won’t give up any match. If youplay with that intent you will get match-es like these where you might get a SuperOver, and you win from there,” Pandeysaid at the post-match conference.

“And now we have anopportunity to make it 5-0 and it will be reallyamazing to do that. Comethe fifth match, we willlook to go 5-0 up, that isour plan. Nobody hasdone it before and espe-cially India has not done itbefore. So, I think it will bea great start to do that.”

Asked if the playersbelieved they could pull off aSuper Over win yet again asthey did on Friday, Pandeysaid, “In the middle, it lookedlike we were a little easy onourselves. But since it hadhappened the last game, wethought we had to bowlgood balls and it is possi-ble we push it to a SuperOver. And then, as the ballswent by and we reached the lasttwo balls, we were certain thatthis would go to Super Over.

“We were ready for it in theback of our mind. We havevery good bowlers and Shardul(Thakur) bowled a very good last over. For hiseffort, he deserved it that the game went intoa Super Over,” said Pandey who made 50 notout off 36 balls.

We will go forwhitewash: Manish

TIED MMATCHES IINVOLVED NNZ IN TT20IsOpponent Venue Date WinnerWindies Auckland 16-02-2006 New Zealand**Windies Auckland 26-12-2008 West IndiesAustralia Christchurch 28-02-2010 New ZealandSri Lanka Pallekele 27-09-2012 Sri LankaWindies Pallekele 01-10-2012 West IndiesEngland Auckland 10-11-2019 EnglandIndia Hamilton 29-01-2020 IndiaIndia Wellington 31-01- 2020 India*New Zealand’s win over West Indies at Auckland onFebruary 16,2006 came in bowl-out.

Mohammed Shami in a file photo AP

Shami isworld’s bestpacer: Akhtar

RP, Madan, Sulakshana named in CAC Cleaver, Chapman putNZ A in driver’s seat

Harmanpreet Kaur in action

Harman’s six win 1st T20

Ind-Pak clash in U-19 semis

Pakistan’s players celebrate after the dismissal of Afghnistan’s batsman

Mendis spoils Zimbabwe partyTai beats Sindhu, open Raptors account

Tai Tzu Ying returns shot against PV Sindhu during PBL clash in Hyderabad