CMYK

CM

YK

GUJARAT’S OWN ENGLISH DAILY FOUNDED IN 1967

Founder Editor : Ramubhai Patel PHONE : 079-2640 2880 (Advertisement : 2640 2881 mail : advt@westerntimes.co.in)* Fax : 2640 2882

www.westerntimes.co.in

CMYK

Pages 8

1/-

Ahmedabad Page 1

Printed & Published by Nikunj R. Patel on behalf of Western Times Publications Pvt. Ltd. Printed at Western Times Survey No. 1315P, Opp. Ramapir Temple, Shilaj-Thol Road, Shilaj, Ahmedabad andPublished at Western Times Pub. Pvt. Ltd. 301, 3rd Floor, Gala Argos, B/h. Hari Krupa Tower, Nr. Ladies Hostel, Ellisbridge, Ahmedabad-380 006. (Gujarat). Editor : Nikunj R. Patel

RNI Reg. No.GUJ/11172/67. Postal Reg. No.

G-GNR-321valid upto

31-12-2020Posting at RMS

Ahmedabad

News Brief

VOL. 53 * NO. 17* AHMEDABAD *SATURDAY 3/8/2019

President Ram Nath Kovind inspecting the Guard of Honour at Conakry Interna-tional Airport, Conakry at Republic of Guinea on Thursday UNI.

A girl wearing a traditional costume waits fordivers to return from the Pearl Diving Trip in KuwaitCity, Kuwait, on Aug. 2, 2019. The 31st Pearl DivingTrip concluded in Kuwait City on Thursday. At least195 young Kuwaitis participated in the event andcame back with their harvest of pearls UNI.

Patients wait for treatment outside OPD at Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sci-ence Hospital in Patna on Friday, as Resident doctors went on strike against NationalMedical Commission (NMC) Bill UNI.

Panel recommendsNGT to fine Agra,Mathuramunicipalities

Agra, A state-level Solid

Waste Management Moni-toring Committee in UttarPradesh has recommendedto the National Green Tribu-nal (NGT) that a penalty ofRs 2.14 crore be imposed onthe Agra and Mathura Mu-nicipal Corporations fortheir failure to dispose offsolid waste in accordancewith prescribed scientificnorms.

The Committee includesretired judges and scientistsfrom the Uttar Pradesh Pol-lution Control Board(UPPCB) and the Central Pol-lution Control Board (CPCB)and inspected landfill sitesin the two cities in early July.

In a comprehensive re-port submitted by the Com-mittee to the NGT, the panelhas suggested charging afine of Rs 1.7 crore from theMathura Municipal Corpo-ration for failing to disposeoff solid waste.

Video of crocodileon Vadodara streetgoes viral

New Delhi, A video of a crocodile

trying to attack a dog on awater-logged street inVadodara in Gujarat hasgone viral on social media.

Twitter is flooded withpeople narrating howcrocodiles have taken oversome streets of rain-bat-tered Gujarat.

In one video, a crocodilecan be seen swimming on aflooded street of Vadodarabehind two dogs. It tries toattack one of them but fails.Officials of the Wildlife Res-cue Trust, an animal welfareorganisation based inVadodara, said the crocodilewas later rescued.

The crocodile probablyentered the urban space af-ter the Vishwamitri riveroverflowed due to heavyrains. Teams have beenworking to rescue othercrocodiles which wouldhave entered the city, theofficial said.

Healthcare serviceshit in Telanganaover NCM Bill

Hyderabad, Healthcare services at

government-run hospitalsin Telangana were affectedon Friday as junior doctorsboycotted all emergencyservices to protest againstthe National Medical Com-mission (NCM) Bill 2019.

On a call given byTelangana Junior DoctorsAssociation (TJUDA), 3,500junior doctors at govern-ment-run teaching hospi-tals intensified their protestby boycotting emergencyduties.

Outpatient and emer-gency services atHyderabad’s Osmania Hos-pital and Gandhi Hospital,two biggest government-run healthcare facilities,came to a halt.

The services also cameto a standstill at NiluoferHospital, the biggest gov-ernment-run facility for chil-dren. A similar situation waswitnessed at MGM Hospitalin Warangal. Poor patientscoming from various partsof the state suffered as jun-ior doctors stayed awayfrom their duties. The regu-lar staff proved insufficientto cater to a large number ofpatients. Many waited forhours and with no optionleft they had to approachprivate hospitals for emer-gency treatment.

Some junior doctorscontinued indefinite hun-ger strike at the Gandhi Hos-pital, demanding the with-drawal of the NMC Bill.

Junior doctors had beenboycotting elective or non-emergency services for thepast two days. TJUDA said itintensified the protest aspart of the ongoing nation-wide strike called by the In-dian Medical Association(IMA).

Srinagar,Citing intelligence in-

puts of terror threats, theJammu and Kashmir gov-ernment on Friday issued anadvisory asking Amarnathpilgrims and tourists to "cur-tail" their stay in the valleyand leave "as soon as pos-sible".

The advisory was issuedby the Home Department ofthe Jammu and Kashmir

J&K govt cites terror threat;Asks Amarnath yatris,

tourists to leave at earliestgovernment after top offi-cials of the Army, CRPF andstate police said there werespecific inputs that Paki-stan-backed terrorists wereplanning to target the on-going Amarnath Yatra.

"Keeping in view the lat-est intelligence inputs of ter-ror threats, with specific tar-geting of the Amarnathyatra, and given the prevail-ing security situation in theKashmir Valley, in the inter-est of safety and security ofthe tourists and Amarnathyatris, it is advised that theymay curtail their stay in thevalley immediately and takenecessary measures to re-turn as soon as possible,"

the advisory said.The annual yatra to the

holy Amarnath cave in themountains of south Kash-mir began on July 1 and isscheduled to end on Au-gust 15. Prior the advisory,Commander of the Army'sSrinagar-based 15 Corps LtGen K.J.S. Dhillon, CRPF Ad-ditional Director GeneralZulfikar Hassan and stateDirector General of PoliceDilbag Singh held a jointpress conference here andsaid Pakistan-backed ter-rorists were planning todisturb peace in Kashmirand were particularly plan-ning to target theAmarnath yatra.

Dhillon said the securityforces had recovered ananti-personnel mine of Paki-stan Ordnance and a sniperrifle during raids at terrorhideouts.

Hassan, whose Force ismainly deployed for secur-ing the yatra route, said theterrorists have been makingserious attempts to disruptthe pilgrimage but have notsucceeded because of themeticulous work by the se-curity forces. The authoritieshave already rushed over10,000 additional paramili-tary personnel to Kashmir inthe wake of intelligence in-puts that the yatra could betargeted by the terrorists.

Lucknow, The Unnao rape

survivor’s mother, on Friday,said that she does not wantto shift her daughter toDelhi for treatment becauseshe is satisfied with thetreatment at Lucknow’sKing George’s Medical Uni-versity (KGMU) hospital.

The Supreme Court had,on Thursday, offered totransfer the 19-year-oldrape survivor from theLucknow hospital to AIIMSin Delhi after consulting herfamily. The medical bulletinissued by the KGMU on Fri-day noon, said that the con-dition of the rape survivorand her lawyer was ‘stable’.

The bulleting said thelawyer had been removedfrom the ventilator but atracheostromy was per-formed on him on Thursdaynight and he was on oxygensupport. Tracheostromy is amedical procedure — eithertemporary or permanent —that involves creating anopening in the neck in orderto place a tube into aperson’s windpipe. The tubeis inserted through a cut inthe neck below the vocalcords. This allows air to en-ter the lungs.

The condition of therape survivor continues tobe stable though she is stillon ventilator support. Shehas developed fever sinceThursday night.

The rape survivor’smother told reporters onFriday that she would wantto fight the accused BJPMLA Kuldeep Sengar fromLucknow.

“The cases have beentransferred to Delhi and that

New Delhi, The Supreme Court ap-

pointed mediation commit-tee on the Ayodhya dispute,consisting of eminent per-sons reckoned as stalwartsin facilitating a consensus,failed to get going in its bidto resolve the temple-mosque row.

A five-judge Constitu-tion bench headed by ChiefJustice Ranjan Gogoi on July18 asked the three-membermediation panel led byformer apex court judge F.M.Kalifulla to inform the courton the outcome of the me-diation proceedings by Au-gust 1.

The report claimed that

Mediation in Ayodhyadispute never got going Unnao rape survivor to

remain in Lucknow: Familyis fine, but I would like tofight against Sengar fromLucknow,” she said.

The rape survivor’suncle, who is lodged in RaeBareli jail, is also beingshifted to Tihar Jail on theSupreme Court’s orders.

The Supreme Court had,on Thursday, also trans-ferred all five cases relatedto the Unnao rape out ofUttar Pradesh to the na-tional capital.

The urgent hearing washeld as the family of therape victim alleged mishan-dling of the case and thattheir lives were in danger

from Sengar’s henchmen.Sengar has been lodged

in prison since 2018 for al-legedly raping the victim.

Chief Justice (CJI) RanjanGogoi had not only directedthe Yogi Adityanath-ledUttar Pradesh governmentto offer speedy compensa-tion to the victim but alsoslammed concerned au-thorities for possible slip-ups in the manner in whichthe case was being handled.

The UP government hasalready delivered a chequeof Rs 25 lakh to the rapesurvivor’s family as directedby the Supreme Court.

mediation has failed toreach substantial conclu-sion.

“The parties were neverready for mediation. In fact,mediation was imposed onthem. Many proposals werefloated but none was ac-cepted by the parties to de-velop a consensus converg-ing on a common point ofinterest,” said an informedsource. “Efforts to stream-line mediation also failed. Infact, everything was triedbut with no success,” saidthe source familiar with thedevelopments on the me-diation.

The other two memberson the panel are spiritual

guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar andsenior advocate SriramPanchu, who have a reputa-tion on developing consen-sus on contentious issues.

“Since the mediationhas failed, the court shoulddecide the matter. Manyjoint sittings were alsoorganised but to no avail,”added the source. A total of14 appeals have been filedin the apex court against the2010 Allahabad High Courtjudgment which was deliv-ered on four civil suits.

It suggested that the2.77 acre land in Ayodhyabe partitioned equallyamong the three parties.

The Supreme Court is

slated to take up matter forhearing on the report on Fri-day at 2 p.m.

This is expected to be acrucial hearing as it will de-cide on the future of litiga-tion on the Ayodhya dis-pute. Initially, the apex courthad extended the media-tion till August 15 citingpositive progress on thematter, but the party repre-senting the Hindu sidemoved the court in July say-ing mediation was inconclu-sive.

The court then sought areport from the mediatorson August 1 and fixed thematter for hearing for Au-gust 2. —IANS

Mumbai, All Maharashtra Oppo-

sition parties on Fridayunanimously demanded aban on the Electronic VotingMachines (EVMs) and a re-turn to the ballot paper vot-ing for the upcomingMaharashtra Assembly elec-tions.

Addressing a joint pressconference here top leadersof the Congress, the Nation-alist Congress Party (NCP),the Maharashtra NavnirmanSena (MNS) and othersmaller parties alleged thatthere were many discrepan-cies in the EVMs in the lastLok Sabha elections whichhave raised serious doubtsin the minds of the people.

In the interest of bring-ing in transparency to thepeoples’ mandate, it wasimperative to bring back theballot paper system of vot-ing, the leaders added.

However, Chief MinisterDevendra Fadnavis, who ison a state-wide‘Mahajanadesh Yatra’, hit outat the Opposition parties fortheir demand and askedthem to “introspect” insteadof attacking EVMs.

The Opposition partiesalso announced a massivepeoples’ procession on Au-

Opposition seeks ban on EVMs for Maharashtra pollsgust 21 in support of theirdemand to the ElectionCommission of India (ECI).

Congress state Presi-dent Balasaheb Thorat saidthe results of the last LokSabha elections were shock-ing and the anti-EVM agita-tion was to bring back hon-esty and transparency in theelectoral process.

Former deputy chiefminister and NCP leader AjitPawar said developed coun-tries in the world hadstopped using EVMs and re-

turned to ballot paper vot-ing, and so should India.

“Let the people decidewhom to vote for and letthem know whom theyhave actually voted for with-out having any doubt intheir minds. But this is not soin the case of the EVMs. Eventhe common masses andthe NGOs are making thesame demands,” Pawar said.

MNS President RajThackeray said “US-madechips are used in the IndianEVMs” but even the US Presi-

dent has expressed reserva-tions over the EVMs.

“On August 21, peoplewill fill up forms opposingEVM, which will be submit-ted to the Maharashtra StateElection Commission. Wehave appealed to theBharatiya Janata Party andthe Shiv Sena to also join theanti-EVM movement in theinterest of democracy,”Thackeray said.

Another NCP leader andex-deputy chief ministerChhagan Bhujbal said thatthe election process mustremain “completely trans-parent, but to ensure this,return to ballot paper wasimperative”. “When ad-vanced democracies like theUS and Japan have dis-carded this technology, whymust we stick to it? Peoplehave lost faith in EVMs, so itmust be changed,” Bhujbalurged.

Swabhiman ShetkariSanghatana President RajuShetti said that a return tothe ballot paper was im-perative for bringing totaltransparency in the elec-toral process. “We appeal toall village panchayats topass a resolution on August15 for banning EVMs and re-introducing the ballot papersystem,” Shetti said.

Chandigarh, Ending the week-long

deadlock between strikinglawyers and the state gov-ernment over setting up theHaryana Administrative Tri-bunal, the Punjab andHaryana High Court on Fri-day deferred the implemen-tation of its relevant notifi-cation.

Consequently, forredressal of their grievances,employees will continueapproaching the high courtdirectly, and not the tribu-nal.

The suspension of workcalled by the Punjab andHaryana High Court Bar As-sociation to protest the tri-bunal, which entered theeight day on Friday, wascalled off.

The three-judge benchled by Chief Justice KrishnaMurari took the decision todefer, for the time being, theimplementation of the noti-fication for setting up theadministrative tribunal .

The Chief Justice inter-vened on the representa-tion of the High Court BarAssociation.

Justices Rajiv Sharmaand R.K. Jain were the otherjudges on the bench.

A decision in this regardwas arrived when HaryanaAdvocate General Baldev

‘I support KuldeepSengar’ pagesurfaces onFacebook

Lucknow, Beleaguered Uttar

Pradesh lawmaker KuldeepSengar, who is in the eye ofstorm after being accusedof rape and murder, has fi-nally found support on thesocial media.

His supporters on Fridayhave created a Facebookpage titled “I supportKuldeep Sengar” which hasgot 166 likes and 167 follow-ers within hours.

Most of the posts on thepage are from people inUnnao who have an-nounced their support forthe local MLA.

One such follower,named Dhiru Singh Rathaur,has written, “Satya pareshanho sakta hai, parajit nahin(Truth can be troubled, butnot defeated),” and thenchronicled the entire “con-spiracy” to defame the leg-islator.

HC defers tribunal in Haryana,striking lawyers resume work

Raj Mahajan and AdditionalSolicitor General of IndiaSatyapal Jain informed thebench that the governmentwas ready to defer theimplementation of the tri-bunal.

Last week, the Centrehad issued a notification forsetting up the tribunal foradjudication of the servicematters of employees.

According to the pro-testing lawyers, setting up aquasi-judicial body like thetribunal encroached uponthe judicial independence

and powers of the highcourt. On the other hand,the government claimedthe tribunal will help lessenpendency of cases in thehigh court and lead to thetimely redressal of the em-ployees’ grievances.

The Bar Council ofPunjab and Haryana in astatement on Thursday said:“Tribunalisation” has “playedhavoc with the Indian judi-cial system by considerablydiluting the constitutionalremedies available underthe Constitution of India”.

RS passes UAPA Bill to tagindividuals as terrorists

New Delhi, A Bill amending the Unlawful Activities (Prevention)

Act, 1967 that allows the government to tag individuals asterrorists was passed by the Rajya Sabha on Friday after anattempt by opposition parties to send it to a House panelwas defeated.

After a division was called for by some members, 147members voted in favour of the Bill and 42 against.

The Lok Sabha has already passed the Bill, under whichthe government can designate individuals as terrorists ifthey commit or participate in acts of terrorism, prepare foracts of terror, promote terrorism or are otherwise involvedin terrorism. Replying to the debate on the Bill, Home Min-ister Amit Shah said it was important to name terrorists in-dividually as it had been seen that when terroristorganisations were banned, the terrorists floated anotheroutfit. Many opposition parties opposed this provision, say-ing this could be misused.

Doctors continue strike for2nd day against NMC Bill

New Delhi, Resident doctors at various government hospitals in

Delhi continued their strike for a second day on Friday, shut-ting down OPD and emergency services in protest againstthe National Medical Commission (NMC) Bill.

Patients who thronged the hospitals from both withinand outside the capital were forced to wait outside theemergency wards or the hospitals as doctors were not avail-able. Doctors at Safdarjung Hospital in south Delhi blockedthe Out Patients Department and shouted slogans againstthe NMC Bill which was passed by the Rajya Sabha on Thurs-day. “I came here all the way from Bareilly (Uttar Pradesh)to get my daughter-in-law operated but the hospital re-fuses to even hear my case due to the strike,” complained adespondent Rajini.

Like her, there are many who either squatted outsideor waited on stretchers, praying that the strike would endsoon.

Ahmedabad, Page 2

EditorialFromEditor’sDesk

2 AHMEDABAD SATURDAY 3/8/2019

What suitsTrump

Facing a furore in Parliament over the issue, the gov-ernment has clarified in no uncertain terms that PrimeMinister Narendra Modi did not request U.S. PresidentDonald Trump to “mediate or arbitrate” on the Kashmirissue, as Mr Trump claimed on Monday. AddressingParliament, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar saidIndia remains committed to its policy of discussing alloutstanding issues with Pakistan only bilaterally, and as-sured the House that Mr. Modi did not raise this withMr Trump at their recent meeting in Osaka during theG-20 summit. In making the claim that has been roundlydenied by New Delhi, Mr Trump breached several well-laid diplomatic protocols, including one against discuss-ing privileged conversations with a leader, during apublic conversation with another. Mr Trump also said a“lot” on his talks with the Pakistan Prime Minister wouldfocus on India and Afghanistan, an odd departure fromthe precept of putting bilateral issues to the fore, andbeing more discreet when discussing sensitive relationsinvolving other countries. For New Delhi, it may be timeto recognize that Mr Trump’s comments are a sign ofnew realities in international diplomacy, where leaderscare less about niceties and more about open commu-nication. Mr Modi will have to prepare accordingly forsome plain-speaking when he visits the U.S. and meetswith Mr Trump, as he is expected to, in September thisyear.

In the short term, the Government’s decision to ad-dress the claim by mr. Trump will have nipped any re-percussions in the bud. The Government should pur-sue the issue through diplomatic channels with the U.S,Government, and determine whether Mr Trump madethe comments out of confusion or deliberately. Indiahas always opposed any suggestion of third-party me-diation on Jammu and Kashmir; both the 1972 ShimlaAgreement and the 1999 Lahore declaration includedIndia’s and Pakistan’s commitment to resolving issuesbetween them. It is unlikely that Mr Modi would havespoken out of line with this policy, and the most chari-table explanation for Mr Trump’s new contention is thathe mistook India’s appeal to the international commu-nity to hold Pakistan accountable for terror groups onits soil that carry ut attacks in Kashmir, for a general de-sire for mediation. Mr Trump’s comment in March thatthe U.S. successfully mediated for the release of cap-tured fighter pilot Abhinandan by Pakistan may haveeven given him some hope that the U.S. could play alarger role on the Kashmir issue, and New Delhi wouldneed to address that. A more worrying proposition isthat Mr Trump took the line favoured by his Pakistaniinterlocutors on Kashmir as a way of enhancing his ownhelp on security and talks with the Taliban. While thedamage from Mr Trump’s words may not have a verylasting impact on India-U.S.

A Royal Air Force Chinook helicopter has been sent into a Peak District market townto stop a reservoir collapsing after it was 'badly' damaged during heavy rain and policetold up to 6,500 inhabitants to flee. Thousands of residents from Whaley Bridge inDerbyshire spent the night away from their homes due to what police described as 'anunprecedented, fast-moving, emergency situation' caused by five days of downpours.Emergency service workers were scrambling to save the dam which could be set toburst any minute, with teams laying sandbags in order to prevent the water breakingthrough and wiping out the picturesque town. Officers spent hours going door-to-dooraround homes in the Derbyshire village, as residents fled the area in case the 1.3milliontonnes of water contained in the huge Georgian-era Toddbrook Reservoir starts to es-cape.

Anne Hathaway's recent Instagram post caused a stir after she wrote: 'For everyonegoing through infertility and conception hell, please know it was not a straight line toeither of my pregnancies. Sending you extra love'. To say it is uncommon for celebritiesto admit to any great struggle in their lives - let alone that most 'fundamental' femalefunction of getting pregnant - is an understatement. In this interview, the Devil WearsPrada star, pregnant with her second child, admits that on both occasions, she had sub-stantial difficulty conceiving.

Dr Phillip Lee, who supports a second EU referendum, suggested he will 'spend thesummer' deciding whether to cross the floor. Mr Johnson suffered a hammer blow lastnight when the Conservatives lost the Brecon & Radnorshire by-election, slashing hiseffective majority to just one. But Dr Lee switching sides would reverse the numbers -meaning that Opposition parties have one more MP than the government. .

Washington, The US Senate has

passed a bill that will in-crease the federal budgetand lift the debt ceiling forthe next two years, follow-ing a House passage lastweek.

The bill, now awaitingPresident Donald Trump’ssignature, passed 67-28 onThursday, with 23 Republi-cans and five Democratsvoting against it. The bill hadpassed 284-149 in theHouse earlier, reportsXinhua news agency.

“Budget Deal is phe-nomenal for our great mili-tary, our vets (veterans), andjobs, jobs, jobs! Two yeardeal gets us past the Elec-tion. Go for it Republicans,there is always plenty oftime to cut,” Trump tweetedahead of the Senate voting.

Maya MacGuineas, Presi-dent of the Committee for aResponsible Federal Budget,a non-partisan watchdoggroup, said in a statementthat “today’s budget votecaps a shameful period offiscal recklessness in Wash-ington that is unprec-edented in the context ofour current fiscal state”.

Congress and the Presi-dent have added $4.1 tril-

US Senate passes two-yearbudget bill to boost spending

lion to the debt since Trumptook office, MacGuineassaid.

“As a result, deficits aremore than double whatthey would have been with-out fiscally irresponsible taxcuts and spending in-creases.

“With the national debtrising to historic levels —soon to overtake the size ofour entire economy and be-yond — and with our larg-est programs, Social Secu-rity and Medicare, spinningtoward insolvency, ournation’s answer is to makethe problem worse at everyturn,” she added. The agree-ment, struck between theWhite House and Congres-sional leaders, suspends thefederal debt ceiling untilJuly 31, 2021, and raise over-all spending levels by $320billion above the limits set inthe Budget Control Act of2011, which establishedstrict spending caps andstipulated automatic across-the-board spending cuts.

It will lift the budget capfor discretionary spendingto $1.37 trillion in 2020 and$1.375 trillion in 2021, ex-panding defence outlays,demanded by Republicans,and boosting domestic

spending, including healthcare for veterans, sought byDemocrats.

The White House hasprojected a $1 trillion bud-get deficit for the fiscal year2019, the highest since 2012,Office of Management andBudget said in its recentlyreleased Mid-Session Re-view.

The federal budget defi-cit reached $747 billion inthe first nine months of thefiscal year, up 23 per centfrom the previous year.

The debt ceiling waspreviously set at $20.5 tril-lion, and expired on March1 this year.

Since then, US TreasurySecretary Steven Mnuchinhas urged congressionalleaders to raise the federaldebt limit as the TreasuryDepartment began ac-counting maneuvers toavoid a default.

House lawmakers left forthe summer break on July26, and the Senate is set toresume on Friday.

In an earlier statement,MacGuineas had urgedmembers of Congress to“cancel their summer recessand return to the negotiat-ing table for a better deal”.

—IANS

Islamabad, The economic situation

in Pakistan seems to be get-ting all the more worse dayby day as revealed by thenew inflation figures re-leased by the Pakistan Bu-reau of Statistics.

Inflation, measured bythe Consumer Price Index(CPI), rose to 10.34 per centin July this year from 8.9 percent the preceding month.During the same month lastyear, inflation stood at 5.84per cent, reports Dawnnews.

The last time inflationentered the double digitswas in November 2013 andrecorded at 10.9 per cent.

The upward adjust-ments in prices of petro-leum products over the pastfew months, followed by anincrease in electricity andgas tariffs fuelled the totalinflation.

The government had in-troduced certain tax mea-

Inflation hits double digitsin Pakistan after six years

sures, the cumulative im-pact of which dragged theoverall inflation to doubledigits.

The rupee’s depreciationalso led to an increase inprices of imported con-sumer and non-consumeritems, especially raw mate-rial used in manufacturingof industrial products, overthe past few months.

The Imran Khan-ledgovernment has projectedan inflation target of 11 percent to 13 per cent for thefiscal year 2019-20, com-pared to 7.3 per cent re-corded in 2018-19.

Price levels, perked up inthe first month of the cur-rent fiscal year, appeared tohave been driven by a spikein non-food inflation in July,reports Dawn News.

The CPI tracks the pricesof around 480 commoditiesevery month in urban cen-tres across the country.

The food inflation was

up 9.2 per cent on an annualbasis, but surged 1.5 percent on a monthly basis.Prices of non-perishablefood items rose by 7.85 percent and those of perishableproducts by 8.06 per cent inJuly. On the other hand, non-food inflation increased 11.1per cent on a yearly basisand 2.8 per cent on amonthly basis.

On July 16, the StateBank of Pakistan has raisedits main policy rate by 100basis points to 13.25 percent, citing increased infla-tionary pressures and alikely near-term rise in pricesfrom higher utility costs.

Average inflation mea-sured by the Sensitive PriceIndex crawled up 12.16 percent in July as against 3.58per cent the previous year,while the Wholesale PriceIndex was up 13.46 per cent,compared to 10.50 per centin 2018-19.

—IANS

Washington, US President Donald

Trump has said that hewould impose a fresh 10 percent tariff on another $300billion of Chinese goodsthat will take effect Septem-ber 1, in a sharp escalationof a trade war between thetwo countries.

“Our representativeshave just returned fromChina where they had con-structive talks having to dowith a future Trade Deal. Wethought we had a deal withChina three months ago, butsadly, China decided to re-negotiate the deal prior tosigning,” Trump tweeted onThursday.

“Trade talks are continu-

Trump escalates trade warwith more China tariffs

ing, and during the talks theUS will start, on September1, putting a small additionaltariff of 10 per cent on theremaining $300 billion ofgoods and products comingfrom China into our Country.This does not include the$250 billion already tariffedat 25 per cent.”

The new tariffs will effec-tively tax all Chinese importsto the US. The duty is likelytarget a wide range ofgoods, from smartphones toclothing.

The announcementcomes after a team led byUS Trade RepresentativeRobert Lighthizer and Trea-sury Secretary StevenMnuchin spent Tuesday andWednesday negotiating inShanghai with a high-levelChinese delegation headedby Vice Premier Liu He.

According to the WhiteHouse, the latest round oftrade talks did not result inan agreement, but the ne-gotiations were positive.

On Friday however,China’s Foreign MinisterWang Yi slammed Trump’sdecision to impose the ad-ditional tariff, the BBC re-ported. “Adding tariffs isdefinitely not a constructiveway to resolve economicand trade frictions, it’s notthe correct way,” Wang saidon the sidelines of a meet-ing of South East Asian min-isters in Bangkok.

The move jolted finan-cial markets. On Wall Street,the Dow Jones share index

closed down 1.1 per cemt,and Asia markets weresharply lower on Friday. Oilprices also tumbled.

The US Chamber ofCommerce, which repre-sents more than three mil-lion US companies, said thelatest tariffs on China “willonly inflict greater pain onAmerican businesses, farm-ers, workers and consumers,and undermine an other-wise strong US economy”.

It urged the two sides toremove all tariffs.

Over the past year, Chinaand the US have imposedtariffs on billions of dollars ofone another’s goods.

In May, Trump increasedfrom 10 per cent to 25 percent a tariff on Chinese im-ports worth $200 billion.China retaliated by slappingtariffs on US imports worth$60 billion.

Trump later threatenedto impose tariffs of up to 25per cent on another $325billion of Chinese imports,causing concern in financialmarkets and the businesscommunity due to the pos-sible effect on consumerspending, which accountsfor about two-thirds of theUS economic activity.

Despite several roundsof talks, the world’s two larg-est economies have failed toreach an agreement to endthe trade war which hasrattled investors and cast ashadow over the globaleconomy.

—IANS

Islamabad, Pakistan Prime Minister

Imran Khan has backed theneed for an inclusive intra-Afghan dialogue to “evolvea roadmap for future of Af-ghanistan”.

Khan’s statement comesafter US Special Representa-tive for Afghanistan Recon-ciliation AmbassadorZalmay Khalilzad on Thurs-day wrapped up his day-long visit to Pakistan. He met

Imran Khan backs intra-Afghandialogue for future roadmap

the Prime Minister and alsoheld talks with Foreign Min-ister Shah MahmoodQureshi, reports Xinhuanews agency.

“The Prime Minister reit-erated Pakistan’s commit-ment to remaining engagedwith the United States andother stakeholders in facili-tating the peace and recon-ciliation process in Afghani-stan,” a statement fromKhan’s office said.

Khan emphasized that apeaceful and stable Af-ghanistan is in the interestof Pakistan as well as of thebroader region.

He also expressed satis-faction over the evolving in-ternational consensus andinterest in fully supportingefforts to achieve long-termpeace and stability in Af-ghanistan.

Earlier, Khalilzad calledon Qureshi in which the USpeace envoy shared the out-comes about the seventhround of US-Taliban peacetalks in Doha, Qatar, and hisrecent engagements in Af-ghan capital Kabul.

Khalilzad arrived inIslamabad on Thursday af-ternoon after his nearly 10days of visit to Afghanistanwhere he met senior gov-ernment leaders, politicians,members of the peacecouncil, civilian society andwomen activists to briefthem on his peace mission.

The Foreign Ministry ofPakistan said Qureshi wel-comed the progressachieved in the talks and theIntra-Afghan peace confer-ence in Doha in which allparticipants agreed upon abasic road map.

“It was noted that ulti-mately the intra-Afghan dia-logue would be vital toreach an agreement whereAfghanistan becomes astable..

Pyongyang fires unidentifiedshort-range projectiles: Seoul

Seoul, North Korea on Friday

fired unidentified short-range projectiles off its eastcoast, South Korea’s militarysaid, the third such launch inabout a week.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff(JCS) said the projectileswere fired at 2.59 a.m. and3.23 a.m. from Yonghung,South Hamgyong Province,into the East Sea, reportsYonhap News Agency.

Both projectiles flew

around 220 km at an alti-tude of about 25 km, accord-ing to the JCS, adding thatthey flew at a top speed ofMach 6.9.

What the North fired ap-pears to be a new type ofshort-range ballistic mis-siles, but more analysis isneeded, the presidential of-fice Cheong Wa Dae said.

Earlier in the day, Ameri-can media also reported, cit-ing US officials, that NorthKorea fired two short-range

ballistic missiles Friday.“We are monitoring the

situation in case of addi-tional launches and main-taining a readiness posture,”the JCS said.

In Washington, a seniorUS official said he is aware ofthe North’s latest launches.

“We are aware of publicreports of additional missilelaunches from North Koreatoday,” the official toldYonhap News Agency.

“We continue to moni-tor the situation and areconsulting closely with ourSouth Korean and Japaneseallies.”

Last week, North Koreatest-fired two short-rangeballistic missiles off its eastcoast, saying it sent a “sol-emn” warning to South Ko-rea over its planned militaryexercises with the US thismonth. On Wednesday,North Korea fired two moresuch missiles, according tothe JCS. Pyongyang dis-puted the assessment, say-ing it had tested a newrocket launch system.

The UN Security Councilresolutions ban North Koreafrom launching ballistic mis-siles of any kind.

—IANS

Saudi Arabia allows womento travel independently

Riyadh, Saudi Arabian women

will no longer require a per-mission from a “male guard-ian” to travel or obtain apassport, according to aroyal decree signed by KingSalman bin Abdulaziz.

The decree, issued threedays ago, clearly stresses theright of every Saudi citizento obtain a passport, andlimits the need for aguardian’s approval to mi-nors only, Arab News re-ported late Thursday.

The decree is written ina gender-neutral manner,and does not state any re-strictions specific to women.

Until now, Saudi womenhave had to seek permissionfrom a male guardian - ahusband, father or othermale relative to obtain apassport or travel abroad.

Since the launch ofSaudi Vision 2030, theKingdom’s authorities haveaddressed all flaws in thesystem that preventedwomen from living theirlives securely and free fromunnecessary hassles.

Princess Reema bintBandar, Saudi Arabia’s Am-bassador to the US, on Fri-day morning said she was“elated” to confirm the newchanges to the country’slabour and civil law.

In a series of tweets, shesaid the amendments were“designed to elevate the sta-

tus of Saudi women withinour society, including grant-ing them the right to applyfor passports and travel in-dependently”, Arab News re-ported.

“These new regulationsare history in the making.They call for the equal en-gagement of women andmen in our society. It is aholistic approach to genderequality that will unques-tionably create real changefor Saudi women.

“Women have alwaysplayed an integral role in ourcountry’s development, andthey will continue to do somoving forward on equalfooting with their malecounterparts,” she tweeted.

A number of interna-tional media outlets re-

ported earlier this year thatthe decision to remove allrestrictions on women trav-elling was being discussedat the highest levels of gov-ernment and was due to beimplemented before theend of this year.

Saudi Arabia’s rulerCrown Prince Mohammedbin Salman has eased re-strictions in the countrysuch as a ban on womendriving as part of a big pushto open up the country, theBBC reported.

In 2016, he unveiled aplan to transform theeconomy by 2030, with theaim of increasing women’sparticipation in theworkforce to 30 per centfrom 22 per cent.

—IANS

Tokyo, Japan on Friday decided to remove South Korea from

a list of nations entitled to simplified export control proce-dures.

The cabinet of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe approvedplans to remove South Korea from a “white list” of coun-tries, raising the stakes in a bitter diplomatic row betweenthe neighbours, reports Xinhua news agency.

The removal of South Korea from the list will take ef-fect on August 28 after going through necessary domesticprocedures, Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade and In-dustry Hiroshige Seko said at a press conference.

Japan has already tightened regulations early lastmonth on its export to South Korea of three materials vitalto make memory chips and display panels, which are themainstay of the South Korean export.

Under the preferential deals which also simplified pro-cedures, Japanese exporters can ship products and tech-nology to 27 white listed countries including Argentina,Australia, Britain, Germany, New Zealand and the US, amongothers.

South Korea is the first country to be excluded onJapan’s white list after gaining the status in 2004. Now Japa-nese companies will need to obtain case-by-case approvalfrom Tokyo’s Trade Ministry to be able to export to SouthKorea.—IANS

Japan decides to revoke Seoul’spreferential trade status

Nawaz Sharif’s nephewsoffloaded from Haj-bound flight

Lahore, Two nephews of former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz

Sharif were offloaded from a Haj-bound flight at the re-quest of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), themedia reported on Friday. The incident took place on Thurs-day at Lahore’s Allama Iqbal International Airport, Dawnnews reported. Yousuf and Abdul Aziz Abbas, sons of thelate Abbas Sharif, Nawaz Sharif’s younger brother, wereoffloaded by officials of the Federal Investigation Agency(FIA) who said their names were on the Provisional NationalIdentity List (PNIL). The PNIL is a new Exit Control List (ECL)-like cata passenger can be stopped from leaving the coun-try on the request of a government department.

Ahmedabad, Page 3

A H M E D A B A D * M A R K E T * G U I D E

In the news 3AHMEDABAD SATURDAY 3/8/2019

RICHARD LITTLEJOHN: The summer holidays are supposed to be the most relaxingtime of the year, a couple of weeks' respite from the daily grind. Instead, they're oftenthe most stressful. Hundreds of thousands of people booked on British Airways flightsare worrying about whether they'll get away. And if they do, whether they'll make itback again.

New Delhi,The number of Indians

studying in the UK has al-most doubled in the lastthree years, with over 21,000student visas issued to Indi-ans till March 2019. A whitepaper on extending the du-ration students can stay andwork post study is also in theworks in an effort to makeBritain an attractive destina-tion for Indian students, of-ficials said.

With Australia andCanada attracting interna-tional students in droveswith their easier work andstudy norms and overtakingthe UK as preferred studentdestination, the new Britishgovernment is giving seri-

UK working to extend post-studywork rights for foreign students

ous thought to giving edu-cation cooperation the at-tention it deserves.

The number of Indianstudents in the UK regis-tered a 40 per cent increaseover the last year. Of the In-dian students who appliedfor visas, 96 per cent weresuccessful, said British HighCommissioner DominicAsquith.

The Ministry of ExternalAffairs said in Parliamentthat as many as 7,52,725 In-dian students are studyingabroad, with the US the pre-ferred destination for highereducation. Canada and Aus-tralia take the second andthird spots. The US has2,11,703 Indian students.

Canada introduced itsPost-Graduation Work Per-mit Program (PGWPP) in2006 to allow students togain work experience whichqualifies for permanent resi-dency. Australia’s point-based immigration policieswere also aimed at encour-aging international stu-dents to pursue permanentresidency in Australia.

However, after the UKannounced the abolition ofpost-study work rights in2011, the number of Indianstudents went downsharply from a peak of38,677 in 2011 to 16,655 in2016.

R.N. Ravi sworn-in asNagaland Gover

Kohima, Former Deputy National Security Advisor R.N. Ravi, who

is also the government’s interlocutor for the ongoing talkswith various Naga insurgent groups, on Thursday tookcharge as the Governor of Nagaland.

Chief Justice (Acting) of Gauhati High Court, Arup KumarGoswami, administered the oath of office to Ravi at a briefceremony attended by Chief Minister Nephiu Rio and hiscabinet ministers, Assembly Speaker Vikho-o Yhoshu,Leader of Opposition T.R. Zeliang and a host of legislatorsat the Raj Bhavan here.

Senior government officials including senior Army, AirForce and Central Armed Police Force officers also attendedthe function. The swearing-in ceremony was followed by aState Guard of Honour presented by Nagaland Police.

Rio said he was looking forward to working with Ravi.Ravi, who had worked closely with National Security

Advisor Ajit Doval during the latter’s stint in the IntelligenceBureau, was appointed as Nagaland Governor on July 20by President Ram Nath Kovind, replacing P.B. Acharya, whosetenure ended on July 19.

New Delhi,SuperStartUps (SSU)

Asia, a platform to recognisethe most loved start-ups inAsia, today honoured topeleven startups as winners atthe third edition ofSuperStartUps Asia 2019Awards in a partnership withTiE Singapore. In a first, thewinners will fly to Singaporeto meet potential investorsat an event organised by TiESingapore. SSU Asia 2019is abadge of honor to recogniseexcellence in the Asian start-up world. This year, the win-ners were chosen through arigorous 3-tier selection pro-cess. The SSU Asia process isa mix of quantitative andqualitative research.

SSU Asia 2019 receivedan overwhelmingresponse.Over 2000 startupswere voted in by netizensand were asked to partici-

Top Eleven Innovative StartupsWinSuperStartUps Asia 2019 Awards

pate in the programme. 211startups agreed to enteracross 18 categories.

The 100shortlisted en-tries were further evaluatedvia a qualitative evaluation,by joint force startup taskteam on the basis of the en-try form, research scores,startup idea, businessmodel and future growthpotential. The final list of 10Gold and 20 Silver winnerswere shortlisted by qualita-tive research amongst rel-evant target audiences.

Speaking on the occa-sion, Mr.Shivjeet Kullar,Council Leader ofSuperStartUps Asia Awards,said, “With the startup eco-system rising and shining inIndia and across Asia, SSUAsia Awards add value tothe upcoming and existingstartups by recognisingthem and providing the ul-

timate seal that the winningcompanies are customerapproved.”

He further added, “SSUAsia’s partnership with TiESingapore will play an impor-tant role in the growth ofwinning companies by offer-ing them with with hands-onguidance, mentorship andnetworking opportunitiesthat will enable their longterm success.”

Mr. Puneet Pushkarna,Chairman, TiE Singapore,said, “This collaboration be-tween SuperStartUps Asiaand TiE Sinagpore is to iden-tify and encourageemergingand existing innovatorsacross Asia. The event givesa big boost to startups toreach their goals by openingdoors to investors, VCs, incu-bators and thought leadersfrom the Global startup eco-system.”

Ahmedabad,Dassault Systèmes

(Euronext Paris: #13065,DSY.PA), showcased the thirdedition of 3DEXPERIENCE onWheels in Gujarat. Under thenomenclature of3DEXPERIENCE on Wheels-Connected Value Network,the campaign is designed toenable suppliers in automo-tive, aerospace and industrialequipment sector to scale upproduct engineering andmanufacturing ecosystemby meeting current OriginalEquipment Manufacturers(OEM) requirements and fu-ture industry norms.

At the showcase,ArunRao - Senior Director,Value Solutions, IndiaDassaultSystèmessaid, “TheIndustry Renaissance isemerging worldwide andit’s encompassing new cat-egories of processes, ser-vices and technology: newsolutions are being createdto meet the growingconsumer’s demands, newonline ecosystems are beingformed to connect indus-trial services with suppliers.In this context in India, en-gineers and manufacturersneed to be future ready byenhancing their designthinking, introducing manu-

Dassault Systèmes showcases SMEcampaign 3DEXPERIENCE on Wheels

facturing innovations andbe ready to CREATE in IN-DIA.”

Flagged off in Pune inMay 2019, the campaign willrun over a period of sixmonths and focus on theindustrial hubs inMaharashtra, Gujarat,Rajasthan, Haryana, Delhi,Uttarakhand and UttarPradesh. 3DEXPERIENCE onWheels- Connected ValueNetworkis equipped withdemonstrations based onthree Industry Solution Ex-periences on the3DEXPERIENCE platform;viz- Bid To Win, SingleSource of Speed and Engi-neered to Fly that are solu-tions tailored for the re-quirement of automotive,industrial equipment andaerospace suppliers respec-tively.

Connected Value Net-works are emerging more inpart due to the new types ofcompanies – or divisions ofexisting companies. Theseenterprises are not boundto an existing set of suppli-ers or traditional supplychain, and as part of theiroverall business model theyare approaching everythingabout their new businessventures with a blank slate.

New Delhi,The dignitaries from

Batam, and the IndonesianGovernment met withdClinic to sign, what is argu-ably, the largest Blockchainproject for the South EastAsian region: a USD$140milcontract which will greatlyinfluence the roleBlockchain will play inHealthcare, especially forproviders and consumers.dClinic has engagedDeloitte & Touche FinancialAdvisory Services Pte Ltd asits key advisor for thisproject.

BP Batam Hospital, BPBatam and dClinic have of-ficially signed contracts todeliver a number of projectsin Batam, Indonesia. This willinclude the delivery of BMB(Batam Medical Blockchain)leveraging dClinic’s PHB(Private HealthcareBlockchain) to be hosted atthe upgraded BP BatamData Centre.

As part of the aboveprojects, dClinic and BPBatam will also engage in apartnership to deliverdClinic’s program forWellness and Vitality at anumber of retreats aroundBatam. The overall goal is to

Largest Blockchain Project signedbetween BP Batam, Indonesia and dClinic

roll this technology acrossthe whole of Batam andeventually, Indonesia.

Dr Sigit Riyarto ( Directorof RSBP Batam ) proudly an-nounced, “RSBP Batam hasalready won a number ofawards for its innovation.Working now with dClinicwe aim to introduce theBMB to Batam and then tothe greater Indonesia. Whatwe can achieve throughbetter communication withour patients will only assistthe healthcare system andhelp bring change to waywe communicate and en-courage our consumers”.

“For too long,organisations and govern-ments have pursued staticElectronic Health Records astheir preferred solution toanswer the complexities of

their patient’s healthcarejourneys.

Dr Edi Pambudi (DeputyAssistant Ministry of Mon-etary and Balance of Pay-ments) added, “Indonesia isbold and mature enough topursue its position as theleader of Blockchain excel-lence in this region and tobring leadership and digitalinnovation to rest of theworld. This agreement be-tween RSBP Batam anddClinic is another major steptowards our plans to openup Batam and Indonesia toco-investment projects inBlockchain”.

Edy Putra (Chairman ofBP Batam) agrees, “BP Batamwants to develop new regu-lations to enable BP Batamto develop a special MedicalEconomic Zone.

Ahmedabad, Page 4

City-State4 AHMEDABAD SATURDAY 3/8/2019

Husband leaves woman, herfamily alleges triple talaq

Ahmedabad,A 23-year-old woman

from the Karanj area of thecity on Tuesday tried tocommit suicide by poisonand later by dousing herselfablaze. She was preventedfrom doing so by hermother. The woman madethe attempt after her hus-band allegedly abandonedher after she refused to askhe family for Rs 24,000 andgiven it to him.

Family members of thewoman, Sana Shaikh, al-leged that her husband,Maheboob Hussain Shaikh,a resident of Patwa Sheri, onRelief Road, had left her af-ter her giving triple talaq(divorce). He allegedlyabandoned her as thecouple did not have a boy inthe four years of their mar-riage, they alleged.

The FIR filed with Karanjpolice station states thatSana married MaheboobHussain in 2015, after whichhe and his family membersbehaved well with her. Oneyear after their wedding, shegave birth to a girl, afterwhich their behaviourchanged drastically andthey began harassing herfor not bearing a boy, statesthe FIR.

After a year, the womangave birth to another girlwhich irked her husbandand in-laws more, the FIRstates, adding thatMaheboob Hussain begantorturing Sana even-more.

On Tuesday morning,Maheboob Hussain askedSana to get money from herparents to pay the EMI of hishousing loan. When Sana

refused to do, MaheboobHussain angry at her andassaulted her. When he wasbeating Sana, their two-year-old daughter tried tosave her mother, but shewas also beaten by her fa-ther, the FIR states.

Maheboob Hussainthen left her at her father’splace and went away. Afterthis, Sana first ingestedsome poisonous substanceand then poured keroseneover herself. Before shecould light a match, hermother saw her andstopped her. The immedi-

ately took her to SVP Hospi-tal near Ellisbridge, the FIRstates.

Sana’s cousin AmirShaikh said that MaheboobHussain uttered the worked‘Talaq’ thrice in her presence.He alleged that the policedid not register this in theFIR.

Inspector F M Nayab ofKaranj police said that thewoman had told police thatshe was just threatenedwith talaq (divorce). “If po-lice get evidence of tripletalaq during the investiga-tion, then the charge will be

mentioned in the chargesheet,” said Nayab.

Parliament on Tuesdaypassed a bill making instanttriple talaq among Muslimsa criminal offence after thecontentious legislation waspassed by the Rajya Sabha.

The Lok Sabha hadpassed the Muslim Women(Protection of Rights onMarriage). Bill last week andonce it is granted assent bythe President, the practice oftriple talaq practice will be-come a criminal offence,punishable by a jail term ofupto three years.

Ahmedabad,A division bench of the

Gujarat high court onWednesday stayed the or-der of a single judge quash-ing the Governmentscheme mandating thatmedical students serve inrural areas for three years atthe end of postgraduatecourses.

The HC stayed the singlejudge’s order passed in Aprilwhich had quashed thestate Government’s resolu-tions adopted in 2013 and2015 These resolutionsmandated that medical stu-dents at Government col-leges had to furnish a bondof Rs 10 lakh in the form of abank guarantee or solvencycertificate for propertyworth Rs 12 lakh, as a secu-rity to ensure they wouldserve in rural areas for threeyears after obtaining theirpost-graduate degrees. Ad-mitting an appeal filed bythe state Government chal-lenging the single judge’sorder cancelling thescheme for furnishingbonds, the HC stayed theearlier order and issued no-tice to the students who hadchallenged the requirementfor service in rural areas andfurnishing of a bond. A fur-

HC stays single judge’s orderquashing med bond: System

ther hearing has beenposted for October. Thestate Government has beendefending the bond systemby arguing that much ex-penditure is incurred ontraining doctors and asqualified doctors are notavailable in rural areas. It isthe duty of the students topay back to society.

Since 2014, medical stu-dents of each batch havechallenged the bond sys-tem contending that onlymeritorious students whosecured admission in gov-ernment colleges are forcedto sign these bonds, whilestudents at private collegesand those in the manage-ment quota are exempted.The government also ex-empted medical studentsfrom non-clinical disciplinesand diploma courses.

While quashing thebond system, the singlejudge criticized the stategovernment and said thatthe bond agreement andthe conditions stipulatedwere opposed to publicpolicy. The HC had alsoemphasized the students’right to education and heldthe bond practice illegal be-cause students do not signit of their “Free Will”.

Empty booze bottle found, FIR filedAhmedabad,

Karanj police on Tuesday registered a case of hurt-ing religious sentiments after it was alleged that anempty liquor bottle had been thrown inside a mosquein Gheekanta. The complainant, Mohammed YusufPathan, 63, a resident of Gheekanta, stated in his FIRthat on Tuesday evening when he had gone to themosque to offer namaz, he saw an empty bottle on theroof. He said that the bottle, which may have beenthrown by someone, had fallen near the toilet. Pathancalled the police control room about his discovery.Karanj police registered a case under IPC Section 295.Inspector F M Nayab of Karanj police said cops wereyet to get CCTV footage from the areas.

Arora made Jaishankar’s PSGujarat cadre IAS officer and Bharuch collector Ravi

Kumar Arora has been appointed as the private secre-tary to external affairs minister S Jaishankar, accordingto a Government order passed n Wednesday. Arora is a2006 batch IAS officer of Gujarat cadre.

Jaishankar, a former foreign secretary, became theexternal affairs minister in May.

“The competent authority has approved the pro-posal for appointment of Ravi Kumar Arora as privatesecretary top the minister for external affairs Dr SJaishankar in the ministry of external affairs at the levelof deputy secretary for a period of five years or on co-terminus basis with the minister, whichever is earliest,”according to the order by the department of person-nel and training (DoPT).

Cops nab man for extortionAhmedabad,

A marble trader, resident of Satyagrah Chhavani inSatellite, had filed a complaint of extortion against anunidentified caller on Tuesday evening. Acting on thecomplaint, a city crime branch team nabbed a man onWednesday, when he’d come to collect the protectionmoney.

Kiran Jitendra Trivedi, 63, had stated in his complaintthat the caller had demanded Rs 15 lakh and threat-ened to kill his son if Trivedi didn’t pay the money.

Officials of Satellite police station said they hadquestioned the accused but failed to get any concreteinformation. In charge inspector of Satellite police, S JBaloch and DCP Zone-7 K N Damor said they were notaware of the case. The FIR was filed on Tuesday. Thename of the man who has been held was not disclosedby police.

According to Satellite police station records, Trivedion Monday wee hours got a call from an unknown per-son who demanded Rs 15 lakh. Later on Tuesday night,the man called up Trivedi again.

Sources in police said that the man nabbed nWednesday was an old employee of Trivedi and heldsome grudge against him. But the cops did not revealwhy he was making ransom calls. The cops also sus-pect that the man, who went to receive the cash, wasan accomplice of the man making calls to Trivedi.

Celebration planned to mark Rupani’sthree years as CM

Gandhinagar,A slew of scheme are expected to be announced

on August 7 to mark the completion of chief ministerVijay Rupani’s three years in office. An event will be or-ganized at Mahatma Mandir in Gandhinagar at whichthe achievements of the Government over the pastthree years will be showcased.

Rupani took over from Anandiben Patel as CM onAugust 7, 2016, and led the BJP to a win in the 2017assembly election. At Wednesday’s cabinet meeting,Rupani directed ministers and officials to plan events.R C Faldu, the agriculture minister said: “The agricul-ture department will announce pro-framer measures.The energy department will announce a new rooftoppolicy initiatives.” He said that the education depart-ment will distribute tablets and laptops to a group ofstudents. Beneficiaries of various government schemeswill be invited to the event.

Kathiriya gets bail from HCJustice V M Pancholi on Wednesday granted con-

ditional bail to Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAQS)leader from Surat Alpesh Kathiriya in a sedition casefiled in 2015. He will have to stay out of Gujarat fornext six months as bail condition. The HC also warnedKathiriya of not entering into confrontation with po-lice or other authority. Kathiriya was granted bail inthe sedition case by a Surat court in December lastyear, but this bail was cancelled in January followinghis repeated confrontations with police.

Undertrial prisoner gives police escortthe slip

Ahmedabad,An undertrial prisoner, who is accused in a cheat-

ing and forgery case, on Tuesday gave police escort theslip when he was being taken back to the SabarmatiCentral Jail after a hearing in the metropolitan court.The prisoner, Saifullakhan Pathan, 40, was produced inthe cur ton Tuesday afternoon. He was escorted bythree cops, including an armed LRD jawan. After thecourt procedure was over, the three cops asked him tosit in an autorickshaw. When the autorickshaw waspassing through the Subhash Bridge Circle, Pathan toldthe cops that he had a full bladder and wanted to re-lieve himself. The cops asked him to wait till be reachedthe jail. But Pathan said that he has a stone in his kid-ney so he would not tolerate the pressure, the FIR said.

Near the old Sabarmati jail entrance, Pathan beganpleading with the cops. The cops then unlocked hishandcuffs. At that point, he pushed the cops andstarted running towards the railway tracks, the FIR said.The cops tried to chase Pathan down but he managedThe three cops returned to the Sabarmati Central Jailand waited for the accused till late on Tuesday nightbut Pathan did not return, the FIR said.

Three held with drugs worth Rs 15LSurat,

The crime branch sleuths arrested three personswith methamphetamine (known as MD) worth Rs 15lakh on Wednesday.

The accused were nabbed from Variav village onthe outskirts of the city when a peddler from Mumbaicame to sell the drug to a local buyer. A local courtremanded the accused in police custody till August 5.

The police arrested Mohammad Bilal alias Bilal BidiIqubal Bhola (45), a resident of Variav, Noorjahan aliasNoori alias Mastani Haji Jumma Siddi (40) of Dhastipuraarea and Ibrahim alias Rauf Taklo Sarvar Saiyed (45) ofAhdheri West in Mumbai. The accused were nabbedfrom Siddat Maholla opposite Sarvajanik Clinic in Variavbased on specific information.

2,549 counterfeit notes found at banksAhmedabad,

A total of 2,549 counterfeit currency notes and 54demonetized currency notes have turned up at about13 banks in Ahmedabad over the last three months. Acomplaint lodged by the special operations group(SOG) states mentions these numbers include notesreceived as torn or worn out notes.

According to FIR lodged on Tuesday, the banksfound 161 counterfeit Rs 2,000 notes, 264 notes of Rs500, 174 of Rs 200, 1,656 notes of Rs 100, 224 of Rs 50, 5monetized Rs 1,000 notes and five demonetized Rs 500notes were also found.

GoI sent two letters toIIM-A over Rai: Lawyer

Ahmedabad,The central government

has written a second letterto the Indian Institute ofManagement-Ahmedabad(IIM-A) objecting to its hir-ing of suspended IPS officerRajnish Rai as an associateprofessor.

Rai’s advocate RahulSharma informed the divi-sion bench headed by Jus-tice S R Brahmbhatt onWednesday about theUnion human resource de-velopment ministry writingto IIM-A again. Earlier thismonth, the Centre had senta letter to the managementinstitute questioning how itcould hire an officer who isunder suspension.

Upon intimation about

the Centre’s interference inRao’s fresh employment, thecourt had said, “Is the Gov-ernment of India writingsuch letters?”

Advocate Sharma, how-ever, did not divulge muchon the second letter dashedoff by the Centre to themanagement institute reit-erating its objection againsthiring the IPS officer.

Citing the government’sobjection to Rai’s employ-ment with the IIM-A, the ad-vocate urged the court fortemporary intervention inthe issue. The advocateasked the court to ensurethe government does notdisturb the officer with re-gard to his new job, at leasttill the time the Centre andstate government respond

to Rai’s petition pending incourt. Rai, has challengedthe government’s stand thathe can not be allowed to beretired. The advocates rep-resenting the Governmentsough tan adjournment,and the HC will hear thematter on August 5.

The 1992-batch GujaratIPS officer had sought vol-untary retirement in No-vember 2018, while servingat the Counter Insurgencyand Anti-Terrorism Schoolof the Central Reserve PoliceForce at Chittoor. But theCentre rejected his applica-tion and asked him to joinduty. As Rai did not join theduty after resigning , he wassuspended.

Rai moved the CentralAdministrative Tribunal(CAT) and the high courtover his retirement. The cen-tral Government too filedpetitions in the tribunal andthe high court objecting toRai’s actions and litigations.

During his career, Raihad handled various high-profile cases, but he hadhost to limelight when hearrested three IPS officers --DG Vanzara, RajkumarPandian and Rajasthancadre officer Dinesh M N --in April 2007 in connectionwith the SohrabuddinSheikh encounter case.

Govt starts process toframe new industrial policy

Gandhinagar,The Gujarat government

on Wedenesday announcedits decision to set up ten taskforce committees to provideinputs on the new state in-dustrial policy. The tenure ofthe present industrial policy,which came into force onJanuary 1, 2015, will end inDecember this year.

The task force commit-tees will examine and re-view the existing policy andsuggest changes to incor-porate into the new policy.They will seek representa-tions from all stakeholdersbefore making their recom-mendations, and will haveto send their respective re-ports to the industries com-missioner within threemonths.

The committees willlook into aspects like MSME

sector development, indus-trial infrastructure develop-ment, environmental pro-tection, pollution control,skill upgradation and devel-opment of large industries.

A sate-level task forcecommittee will also beformed to oversee function-ing of these sub-commit-tees. Chief secretary J NSingh will head the sate-level committee. Additionalchief secretaries of the fi-nance, environment and for-ests and revenue depart-ments will also be membersof the state level committee,apart from officials of otherdepartments. This commit-tee will also have non-gov-ernment representativesfrom GCCL, FICCI, CII, IIM-A,PDPU and EDI.

The state government

said that the purpose of anextensive consultationmechanism, and inclusionof all stakeholders in theprocess, was meant to en-sure a pro-people, proactiveand transparent policy thatwill boost balanced indus-trial growth in the state.

Court orders fresh hearingof defamation plaint

Ahmedabad,A city sessions court has ordered the metropolitan court

to hear afresh the defamation complaint filed by CongressMLA Himmatsinh Patel against social activist and ardentsupporter of Narendra Modi, Madhu Purnima Kishwar.

Patel had lodged a defamation complaint againstKishwar and publisher of her book -- Modi, Muslims andMedia --for her statement on the 2002 riots andCongressmen’s alleged involvement in the violence. Shewrote, “The most notable among Congressmen involvedin (former Congress MP) Ehsan Jafri’s murder is HimmatsinhPatel who was the mayor of Ahmedabad at that time. It istravesty of justice that he has escaped punishment.”

Patel had also taken exception to Kishwar’s statementsduring a press conference held in Ahmedabad. He de-manded action against the writer publisher under section499 and 500 of the IPC. In September 2014, the metropoli-tan court rejected Patel’s plaint with observation that therewas no substantial evidence to establish his defamation.

Patel had challenged dismissal of his plaint before thesessions court. His advocate and now the Rajya Sabha mem-ber Amee Yagnik argued before the court that the lowerpassed the rejection order. Patel was not even a witness inthe Gulbarg Society massacre case. After hearing the case,additional sessions Judge, A M Memon, said, “... I am of theconsidered opinion that trial court has not considered thedocumentary evidence.”

25,000 docs join nationwide strikeAhmedabad,

Nearly 25,000 doctors inGujarat joined a nationwidestrike against the NMC bill,called by the Indian MedicalAssociation (IMA). The Na-tional Medical Commission(NMC) Bill 2019 was passedin the Lok Sabha on Monday.Doctors across the state sus-pended all nonessentials

services from 6am onWednesday and will con-tinue to do so till 6am onThursday to mark their op-position tot he Bill. Medicalstudents didn’t attendclasses at some colleges.

Resident doctors fromhospitals too joined thestrike call on Wednesdayand suspended all non-es-sential services includingtrauma and ICU wards, how-ever, remained operationalin hospitals.

According to estimatesby the IMA Gujarat statebranch (IMA-GSB), some8,000-9,000 doctors fromacross Ahmedabad partici-pated in the strike. Doctorsalso held demonstrations atAhmedabad Medical Asso-ciation (AMA). INA-GSBmembers also submitted

memorandum to the addi-tional collector ofAhmedabad. Giving theirreasons for the protest, DrMehul Shah, vice-president,IIM-GSB, said,. “The NMC Billis anti-people and anti-poorand anti-student.” Shahsaid, “Section 32 of the billhas a provision for licensingof some 3.5 lakh unqualifiednon-medical persons topractice modern medicine.Moreover, the term, ‘com-munity health provider’ isalso vaguely defined,” Shahsaid. “This clearly meansthat persons without anymedical background will beeligible to practice modernmedicine and prescribethem.” The bill will escalatethe cost of medical educa-tion sharply, Shah claimed.“If the Government doesn’t

roll back the bill, protestsmay be intensified,” said an-other senior doctor. Somegeneral hospitals inAhmedabad did not join thestrike call. “OPD was func-tional at our hospital and nodoctors went on strike,” saidM M Prabhakar, medical su-perintendent, Civil Hospital,Asarwa. In Rajkot, some1,700 doctors includingthose employed with theRajkot Civil Hospital as wellas the municipal corpora-tion, joined the strike call.The strike disrupted medicalservices in the Saurashtraregion. In Surat, some 3,300doctors joined the strike. DrGirish Modi, president, IMA-Surat Chapter, told, “Thestrike against the NMC bill2019 was total and success-ful in Surat.”

Surat,A trial court hereon

Wednesday awarded deathpenalty to 22-year-old AnilYadav for rape and murderof a three-year-old girl inLimbayat area in Octoberlast year.

Additional sessionsjudge P S Kala while pro-nouncing the verdict ob-served “the convict (Yadav)had committed crime hat isworse than heinous crimeand serves nothing lessthan death penalty.”

On Tuesday, the courthad convicted Yadav forrape, murder, unnatural sexand attempt to destroy evi-dence.

Trial against Yadav wascompleted within fivemonths of framing ofcharges against him. Thewithin five months of fram-ing of charges against him.The offence took place onOctober 14, 2018.

Yadav was also con-victed under various sec-tions of Protection of Chil-dren from Sexual Offences(POCSO) Act.

According to case de-tails, the three-year-old girlevening of October 14, 2018and her body was found onthe next day morning fromhouse of Yadav. The boy waspacked in a plastic bag.

Yadav had initiallyjoined the search for the girlwith her parents but laterdisappeared. He live donground floor of the buildingwhere the minor lived withher family on upper floor.Yadav had fled to his nativevillage in Bihar. Policenabbed Yadav from Maniyavillage of Buxar district ofBihar on October 19, 2018.

Arguments over quan-tum of punishment startedat around 1 pm on Wednes-day and lasted for over anhour. The court later took a

Man gets death penalty for rapemurder of three-year-old girl

break and resumed pro-ceedings before pronounc-ing the verdict in theevening.

In his argument districtgovernment pleader NayanSukhadwala, presented thehistory of capital punish-ment since 1750 BC. “Deathpenalty is constitutional and68 countries consider it le-gal. I told the court that thiscase should be consideredrarest of tare consideringage of the victim and bru-tality of the convict,” saidSukhadwala.

The girl’s father withtears in his eyes said, “Mydaughter got justice today.I was supported from thepeople and police through-out the trial. The convictdeserved only to behanged.”

City police commis-sioner Satish Sharma ex-pressed satisfaction overthe verdict. “The case wasinvestigated in record timeand prosecution also expe-dite the trial. The judgementwill prove as a deterrent,”said Sharma.

Two pilots suspended foraircraft overshooting runway

Surat,Directorate General of

Civil Aviation (DGCA) hassuspended two pilots ofSpiceJet for one year in con-nection with the incident ofaircraft overshooting therunway at Surat airport onJune 30.

The DGCA had orderedinquiry into the incident. Atthe end of the inquiry, it wasfound that the approach offlight SG-3722 that landedfrom Bhopal to Surat to-wards runway was unstableand the aircraft toucheddown late with high speed,leading to a runway excur-sion.

Earlier, the SpiceJet had

grounded the pilots of SG-3722 flight on July 2, pend-ing inquiry.

A total of 43 and fourcrew members were onboard the SpiceJet flightfrom Bhopal to Surat whohad a narrow escape afterthe aircraft overshot fromthe Vesu-end of the runwayand came to a grinding haltat the Runway End SafetyArea (RESA) on June 30. Allthe passengers and crewmembers were safe andthey were brought to theterminal area unhurt.

The aircraft landed fromthe Vesu-end-22 and the pi-lots could not apply brakeson time to stop the aircraft

due to low-visibility, result-ing in the aircraft overshoot-ing the RESA. The runwaylength at Surat airport is2,905 metres. However, theDGCA had displaced 615metres of runway last yeardue to the building heightissue.

While the issue of thebuilding height obstacleshas been going on for thelast two and a half years, theAirports Authority of India(AAI) and the DGCA are notmaking serious efforts en-sure that the height ob-stacles are cleared on warfooting for the safety of theaircrafts and the passengersat Surat airport.

Beggar with golden heartloses battle to cancer

Palanpur,Khimji Prajapati (72), the beggar from Mehsana town

who gifted girls with gold earrings to encourage theireducation and donated for various other causes, diedafter prolonged illness in Rajkot on Monday, his familymember declared on Wednesday.

He was suffering from cancer for the last four years,said son Hitesh Prajapati, who lives in Rajkot.

Over the last 15 ears, Prajapati had donated thou-sands of rupees that he had collected in alms, for vari-ous causes like buying books, school uniforms and pay-ing fees of poor girls. He has donated for girls of 12 pri-mary schools, including Disha Day School for the dis-abled. Prajapati, was in 2017 given ‘Literacy Hero Award’by Rotary Club of India. The award consists of prizemoney of Rs 1 lakh and a citation for philanthropy ac-tivities towards society. Last year Prajapati had donatedRs 5,000 for Kerala floods.

The phif poor girls. He has donated for girls of 12primary schools, lanthropist, who begs outside theSimandhar Swami Jain Temple in Mehsana, always cher-ishes the satisfaction he got by donating gold earringsto 10 school girls to encourage them to study in Febru-ary 2016. Looking at his devotion to help others, theRotary Club of India had awarded him the ‘Literacy HeroAward’ the next year. Khimji used to accumulate hisentire yearf poor girls. He has donated for girls of 12primary schools, ’s collection of alms and use it for theneedy school children to help them purchase books,pens, uniforms and other stationery. Underprivilegedgirls have been the largest beneficiary of his philan-thropic activity that comes with a bag full of love anddevotion. “My father was a unique example of selflesslove, sacrifice and supreme devotion,” Prajapati’s sonHitesh said.

Surat,Two dozen village in

Navsari district were put onalert as rain continued topound South Gujarat for thefourth consecutive day re-sulting in heavy inflow inthe local rivers on Wednes-day.

Both Juj and Keliya damsin Vansda taluka were over-flowing on Wednesdayprompting the district au-thorities to issue alert in 24nearby villages.

The authorities were

Alert sounded in two dozenvillages of Navsari district

also recovered bodies oftwo fishermen who wentmissing on Tuesday inDungra police station areaof Valsad district. All fivedistricts of Valsad, Navsari,Dang, Tapi and Surat re-corded heavy rains onWednesday. The deceasedwere identified as ViralTandel (32) and HemangTandel (18).

Navsari district collec-tor of Navsari M D Modiyasaid, “With heavy rains inupper catchment area of

Waghai in Dang, Keliya andJuj dams on Ambika andKaveri rivers respectivelyhave been overflowing. Wehave alerted people of 24surrounding villages to becautious and stay awayfrom gushing river waters.”

He said alert has beensounded anticipatingheavy rains duringWednesday night whichcould lead to waterloggingin low-lying areas of Vasadand Chikhli talukas ofNavsari.

Ahmedabad, Page 5

International 5AHMEDABAD SATURDAY 3/8/2019

British tourists at a popular resort in Portugal were pinned to the floor with ba-tons held across their necks, and were left in no doubt about the desire of the Portu-guese police to crack down on any sign of trouble in Albufeira. The men, each in theirown group of friends, had been drinking into the early hours in the resort last Fridaywhen they appeared to start trading insults. But before a fist could be raised, and inthree swift moves, officers grabbed the men and threw them to the ground (bottomleft). Female friends (centre) who ran to help them were unable to get close as thepolice shouted and struck out with batons. But no arrests followed. After being left onthe pavement for a few minutes, the men were told to go home to bed. Visibly shakenby their ordeal, they left the strip at 4am - one in tears - questioning what their crimehad been.

Brigitte Macron (left and right on July 14, three days before her surgery), who is 25years older than her husband President Emmanuel Macron, was placed under generalanaesthetic before the procedure. It allegedly took place at the world-famous Ameri-can Hospital (inset) in the French capital, which is hugely popular with celebrities andwhich has a Plastic Surgery Unit offering 'cutting-edge techniques' including onesdevoted to 'facial rejuvenation procedures'. Mrs Macron, who has spoken in the pastabout looking much older than her boyish second husband, was seen heading for aconsultation on July 16.

DNA testing and genealogy data helped identify the bones of a suspected vam-pire from the early 1800s as those most likely belonging to a 51-year-old farmer namedJohn Barber. Barber's body was to have been ravaged by tuberculosis, the highly con-tagious disease which at the time of his death sparked a so-called vampire scare inNew England.

Bangkok, US Secretary of State

Mike Pompeo on Friday jus-tified the announcement offresh US tariffound of bilat-eral talks between Washing-ton and Beijing concludedwithout any ags on Chineseproducts and criticizedBeijing for backing down onan agreement reached inprinciple in the latest roundof negotiations.

On Thursday, a day aftera round of bilateral talks be-tween Washington andBeijing concluded withoutany agreement, US Presi-dent Donald Trump an-nounced the imposition offresh 10 per cent tariffs onChinese imports valued at$300 billion from Septem-ber 1.ound of bilateral talksbetween Washington andBeijing concluded withoutany ag

“For decades China hastaken advantage of trade...It’s time for that to stop.President Trump has said weare gonna fix this. And to fixit requires determination,”said Pompeo, who is in

Pompeo justifies freshUS trade tariffs on China

Bangkok to attend a meet-ing of ASEAN nations withworld powers.

“What we are asking foris really easy and the Chi-nese had agreed to it at onepoint and then they walkedaway from the deal,” headded.

Pompeo said the nego-tiations seek to define howtrade will develop aroundthe worlound of bilateraltalks beound of bilateraltalks between Washingtonand Beijing concluded with-out any agtween Washing-ton and Beijing concludedwithout any agd and ques-tioned countries like Chinaimposing tariffs on US com-panies that invest in theAsian country while the USremains open.

“Do you want from oth-ers fairness, evenness, reci-procity? When that hap-pens, Asia will thrive, South-east Asia will thrive, the USand global trade system willthrive. But it can’t be thecase that a nation uses pro-tectionism to protect itsown goods and use preda-

tory tactics to deny othereconomies the chance togrow,” he said

Pompeo said that the USwelcomed foreign invest-ment as long as it did notcompromise national secu-rity and followed the rules offree competition.

The recent round of in-teractions in Shanghai werethe first high-level talkssince Trump and ChinesePresident Xi Jinping agreedto a truce in their trade warat the G20 summit in June,by which the US stoppedimposing ound of bilateraltalks between Washingtonand Beijing concluded with-out any agnew tariffs andagreed to allow the sale oftech firm Huawei’s products.

Tensions between theUS and China have roots ina trade balance in favour ofChina, which exports $419billion worth of goods morethan it imports from theNorth American country,which Trump says is on ac-count of Beijing’s unfairtrade practices.

—IANS

By Arul LouisUnited Nations,

Citing the shattering oftemperature records in NewDelhi, UN Secretary-GeneralAntonio Guterres has saidthe world is in “the race ofour lives and for our lives” toavoid a climate change ca-tastrophe. “If we do not takeaction on climate changenow, these extreme weatherevents are just the tip of theiceberg,” he said on Thurs-day at a news briefing. “Andthat iceberg is also rapidlymelting.” According to theWorld MeteorologicalOrganisation, New Delhibroke the July heat recordwith 48 degrees Centigradeand the month “has re-writ-ten climate history books asrecord heatwaves havebeen seen across the globe”.Record temperatures wererecorded in several placesaround the world.

World in race to avoid climatecatastrophe, says Guterres

Guterres said: “July atleast equalled if not sur-passed the hottest month inrecorded history. This fol-lows the hottest June ever.

“All of this means we areon track for the period from2015 to 2019 to be the fivehottest years.

“Preventing irreversibleclimate disruption is therace of our lives and for ourlives. It is a race we can, andmust, win.”

For this, the Secretary-General said he was conven-ing the Climate Action Sum-mit, in which Indian PrimeMinister Narendra Modi isexpected to participate.

Guterres said that hehad told the leaders fromgovernments, businessesand civil society not to comewith “beautiful speeches”,but with concrete plans toenhance nationally deter-mined contributions to re-ducing carbon emission by

2020 and strategies for car-bon neutrality - removingan equivalent amount ofcarbon dioxide for any emit-ted - by 2050.

Guterres said: “Theworld’s leading scientists tellus we must limit tempera-ture increases to 1.5 degreesCentigrade if we are to avoidthe worst impacts of climatechange. We need to cutgreenhouse emissions by 45per cent by 2030. We needcarbon neutrality by 2050.”

However, he also saidthere were optimistic devel-opments in battling climatechange.

Because of technologi-cal developments, solar andonshore wind are now thecheapest sources of newpower in virtually all majoreconomies, he said.

Businesses are also tak-ing the lead in dealing withclimate change, he said.

—IANS

By Arul LouisUnited Nations,

With trade and geopo-litical tensions heating up,UN Secretary-General Anto-nio Guterres has warnedthat the world could frac-ture into two competingblocs - led by the US andChina - with their ownInternet, currency, trade sys-tem and military strategy.

“I am troubled by thegrowing friction among thetwo largest global econo-mies,” he told reporters hereon Thursday, referring to thetensions between Chinaand the US and its allieseven though he did notname them. “We need tolearn the lessons of the ColdWar and avoid a new one.”

In his exposition of thethreats from hotspotsaround the globe, Guterrespromised to “intensify oursurge in diplomacy forpeace”. Describing a pos-sible return to a Cold Warscenario, he said: “Lookinginto the not so distant fu-ture, I see the possible emer-gence of two competingblocs - each with their owndominant currency, tradeand financial rules, their ownInternet and Artificial Intel-ligence strategy, and theirown contradictory geopo-litical and military views.

“We still have time toavoid this... With leadershipcommitted to strategic co-operation and to managingcompeting interests, we can

Guterres warns of world fracturinginto 2 competing systems

steer the world onto a saferpath.”

The emerging threat tothe global system is seen inthe US-China faceoff onmany fronts: a trade war oftariffs and counter-tariffsamid stalled negotiations,with US President DonaldTrump announcing a 10 percent tax on Chinese importsworth $300 billion on Thurs-day; the US trying to stopthe adoption of Chinesetechnology like Huawei’s 5Gcommunication systemsamid fears of possible espio-nage; allegations of intellec-tual property thefts; militaryconfrontations betweenChina and democracies inthe Indo-Pacific area; Beijingcutting off access to vastswathes of the Internet forits citizens creating a self-contained system, andChina’s expanding tradeand development system,One Road, One Belt, alongwith the Asian InfrastructureInvestment Bank, and theInternational MonetaryFund (IMF) recognising theyuan as a Special DrawingRights (SDR) currency.

During a virtual tour ofglobal hot spots, Guterresalso said he was concernedabout the growing tensionson the nuclear front as theIntermediate Nuclear ForcesTreaty (INF) ends on Fridaywhen the US withdrawalfrom the pact with Russia iscomplete. “The world willlose an invaluable brake on

nuclear war. This will likelyheighten, not reduce, thethreat posed by ballisticmissiles.

“Regardless of whattranspires, the partiesshould avoid destabilizingdevelopments,” he said.

The Secretary-Generalasked the US and Russia toextend the 2010 New Stra-tegic Arms Reduction Treaty(New START) that expires in2021 “to provide stabilityand the time to negotiatefuture arms control mea-sures”. Guterres also urgedall nations to work togetheron the review of the NuclearNon-Proliferation Treaty(NPT) next year. (India is nota signatory to the treaty asit considers it discriminatorygiving special rights to theoriginal five nuclear weaponstates.) He said that he wasworried about rising ten-sions in the Persian Gulfwhere “a minor miscalcula-tion could lead to a majorconfrontation” with “devas-tating implications on glo-bal security and the globaleconomy”. He called for“maximum restraint” by allcountries and added, “Istress the need to respectthe rights and duties relat-ing to navigation throughthe Strait of Hormuz and itsadjacent waters in accor-dance with internationallaw”. The US imposed sanc-tions on Iranian ForeignMinister Mohammad JavadZarif on Wednesday.

Bangkok, US Secretary of State

Mike Pompeo said on Fridaythat Washington was con-tinuing North Korea dialog,just hours after Pyongyangfired unidentified short-range projectiles off its eastcoast, the third such launchin about a week.

Pompeo was speakingon the sidelines of the 52ndAssociation of SoutheastAsian Nations Foreign Min-isters’ Meeting here wherehe was questioned aboutNorth Korea’s recent weap-ons launches and how pa-tient the US should beamong the amount of “facetime” given to Kim Jong-unby President Donald Trumpfor apparently no return, re-ports Efe news. “You shouldnever doubt what we maybe communicating to theNorth Koreans. There areconversations going oneven as we speak,” Pompeosaid.

“The diplomatic path isoften fraught... tos and fros,forward and backward... Weare still fully committed toachieving the outcome thatwe have laid out - fully veri-fied denuclearization ofNorth Korea through theuse of diplomacy,” he added.

At the prospect of a thirdsummit between Kim andTrump, Pompeo said: “Staytuned.”

US continues Pyongyang dialogamid weapons launches: Pompeo

“There are lots of con-versations taking place,” hesaid, adding that the lastmeeting between Trumpand Kim at the inter-Koreanborder in June didn’t givethe US leader “a darn thing.”

Over the past eight days,Pyongyang has launchedthree rounds of weaponstests, thought to be short-range ballistic missiles androckets, with the latest onearly Friday morning.

Last week, Kim also un-veiled a new submarinethought to be capable oflaunching missiles.

These actions are widelyperceived as protestsagainst upcoming joint US-

South Korea military exer-cises and impatience withWashington over denucle-arization talks.

Pompeo said he wanted“very much” for dialog toproceed with North Koreaand to “really get past thesediscussions and get the ex-ecution on the ground”.

As well as with NorthKorea, there are wider USdiscussions taking placeabout the non-proliferationof nuclear weapons withother countries such as Iran,with Washington “workingto engage in a strategic se-curity dialog with the Rus-sians”, he said.

—IANS

Up to PM Modi to accept mediationoffer on Kashmir: Trump

Washington, US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that

“it is up to Prime Minister Modi” to accept his offer tointervene in the Kashmir issue — without referringto his earlier claim that Modi had requested him to“mediate” in the matter — something India has out-right denied.

To a query by a reporter in the White House if hethinks Kashmir is a bilateral issue between India andPakistan, Trump, ignoring the question, said: “Havethey accepted the offer or not (to mediate). Well, it isreally up to Prime Minister Modi.”

“I met with Prime Minister Khan. I think they arefantastic people — Khan and Modi. I would imaginethey can get along really well. But if they wantedsomebody to intervene, or to help them; And I spokewith Pakistan about that, and I spoke frankly to Indiaabout that. But that been going, that battle, for a longtime. If I can, if they wanted to, I would certainly helpthem,” he added.

On July 22, while speaking to reporters along withvisiting Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, Trumpclaimed that during his meeting with Modi in Osaka:“We talked about the subject, (and) he actually said,‘Would you like to mediate, mediate or arbitrate?’ Isaid, ‘Where,?’ (and he said) ‘Kashmir’.”

Ukraine to open river tour inChernobyl Exclusion Zone

Kiev, Ukrainian authorities have revealed that tourist

routes were being developed along the Pripyat andUzh rivers in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, a mediareport said.

“Water routes for the exclusion zone visiting weredeveloped... All routes are checked by dosimetristsand are safe for visitors,” Xinhua news agency quotedthe report as saying on Thursday.

The plan to develop new tour forms in the exclu-sion zone was initiated by tourism operators becausethe number of visitors there has increased 10 timesover the past five years.

The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, some 110 kmnorth of capital Kiev, witnessed one of the worstnuclear accidents in human history on April 26, 1986.

After the disaster, a large tract of land around theplant was designated as a forbidden zone for de-cades.

As the radiation levels decreased, the 30-square-km area around the plant was officially opened totourists in 2010. The country launched guided toursto the plant in 2018.

About 63,000 tourists visited the Chernobyl Ex-clusive Zone last year, according to the Ukrainian gov-ernment.

—IANS

Four injured in Bangkok explosionsBangkok,

At least four people were injured on Friday inexplosions that took place at three different locationsin the Thai capital, which is currently hosting the 52ndASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting.

The first two blasts went off at around 7 a.m. nearBuilding B of the Government Office Compound andRoyal Thai Armed Forces Headquarters on ChaengWattana Road, Lieutenant Colonel Suban Athiset,Vice-Superintendent of Thung Song Hong Police Sta-tion, told Efe news.

He added that the police were “still investigatingthe type of bombs” and “there was no report of in-jury”.

Another explosion went off an hour later down astreet off Rama 9 Road, leaving two women injured.

Police told Efe that it was a home-made bomb andthey believed it was planted by students from a tech-nical institution nearby.

At around 8.30 a.m., there were two more blasts -one at the busy commuter skytrain station ChongNonsi and one in a nearby parking lot - which injuredtwo people.

The explosions occurred just before US Secretaryof State Mike Pompeo was to deliver an address onthe sidelines of the meeting.

The blasts came a day after a bomb threat at thepolice headquarters here.

The Thai government said in a statement that theywere still investigating the explosions and urged thepublic not to panic.

“Regarding the bombs this morning, I would liketo condemn those who are behind this, which destroythe peace and the image of the country. I have or-dered the officials to take care of public safety and ofthose who have been affected by these incidentsimmediately,” Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ochasaid on Twitter.

No group has so far claimed the attacks.—IANS

Japan executes two death rowinmates

Tokyo, Japan hanged two death row inmates on Friday,

the Justice Ministry said, in the country’s first execu-tions this year.

The two were identified by the Ministry as KoichiShoji, 64, who murdered two women in Kanagawaprefecture in 2001, and Yasunori Suzuki, 50, who killedthree women in Fukuoka prefecture between 2004and 2005, reports Kyodo News Agency.

“I ordered the executions based on careful con-sideration,” Justice Minister Takashi Yamashita said ata press conference, noting the two “took away thelives of the victims who had done nothing wrong forvery selfish reasons”.

Friday’s hangings brought the number of execu-tions under the government of Prime Minister ShinzoAbe, who took office in 2012, to 38.

They follow the executions last December of twomen who were involved in the 1988 murder-robberyof the President and an employee of an investmentadvisory company.

Japan also hanged AUM Shinrikyo cult guruShoko Asahara and 12 former members of thedoomsday cult in July 2018.

—IANS

These exercises are helpful for thosewith obesity genes

Beijing, Some people have inherited obesity genes which

increases their risk of becoming fat. But, in a hope forsuch people, researchers have identified certain ex-ercises that are effective in combating genetic effectsthat contribute to obesity.

Regular jogging was found to be the best type ofexercise for managing obesity. Besides, mountainclimbing, walking, power walking, certain types ofdancing and yoga practices also reduce the BodyMass Index (BMI) in individuals predisposed to obe-sity.

Surprisingly, cycling, stretching exercises, andswimming did not counteract the genetic effects onobesity.

Obesity is a challenging condition to control be-cause it results from interactions between a person’sgenetics and lifestyle. Doctors often recommend ex-ercise, but it has not been clear which kinds are bestfor curbing weight gain in individuals whose genet-ics increase their risk of becoming obese.

Thai ladyboys steal Indianman’s necklace in Pattaya

Bangkok, An Indian businessman has been robbed of his gold

necklace worth Rs 1,20,000 by a gang of Thai ladyboys inPattaya’s Soi 6, one of the more notorious parts of the city’sfamous nightlife.

Aman Preet Bagga, 37, told the police that he was outwith friends strolling around the bar area in Soi 6 when hisgroup was accosted by a three ladyboys who “groped”them whilst offering them “sexual services”, The Thaigerreported. Bagga said that his group declined their offersand later when he checked his personal items, he realizedthat his necklace had been stolen.

The group tried to find the ladyboys but weren’t ableto locate them. Police Captain Maneerat Jansanthia thatthe Pattaya police were checking CCTV footage in the areato locate the thieves. —IANS

Unnao rape survivor’s accident case tobe heard in Lucknow for 15 days: SC

New Delhi, The Supreme Court on

Friday ordered that trans-ferring of the accident caseof the Unnao rape survivorto Delhi be kept in abey-ance for 15 days. The casewill be heard in Lucknowtill then, the apex courtsaid.

On Thursday, a benchheaded by Chief JusticeRanjan Gogoi had shiftedthe five cases related to theUnnao rape to Delhi andassigned a special judge toconduct day-to-day trials.

Today, the Central Bu-reau of Investigation (CBI)urged the SC not to trans-fer the accident case toDelhi.

Representing the CBI,Solicitor General TusharMehta told the court thatone of the arrested ac-cused in accident case hasto be presented before aJudicial Magistrate inLucknow. “Therefore, thecourt must not to transferthe accident case to Delhitill probe is complete,” he

said.The court accepted the

CBI request not to transferthe accident case till thehearing on the remandproceedings of the ac-cused are completed.

Earlier in the day, thetop court ordered fortransfer of the rapesurvivor’s uncle from a jailin Rai Bareli in UttarPradesh to Tihar Jail inDelhi.

The victim’s uncle isserving a 10 year jail termin a case. The order cameafter the Uttar Pradeshgovernment raised no ob-jection to a plea seekinghis transfer to Tihar Jail.

The court also directedthe media not to disclosethe identity of the rape sur-vivor after it was informedthat some old videos of herand her family were beingbroadcast.

After it informed of thefamily’s hesitation to shiftthe injured survivor andher lawyer from a hospitalin Lucknow to AIIMS Delhi,

the bench said will take upthe matter on Monday, thenext date fixed for hearing.

The court was also in-formed that the UttarPradesh government hadpaid compensation to thesurvivor and the CRPF hadtaken over the family’s se-curity since Thursdaynight.

Chief Justice Gogoi hadon Wednesday taken suomoto cognisance of a let-ter written by the rapesurvivor’s family allegingthreats from the hench-men of BJP MLA KuldeepSengar.

On Sunday, the rapesurvivor, who had accusedSengar of raping her in2017, was travelling to RaeBareli with her lawyerMahendra Singh and twoaunts when a truck beingdriven on the wrong sidehit them. While the girl andher lawyer were criticallyinjured, her two aunts —one of whom was a wit-ness to the crime — werekilled in the accident.

—IANS

Ahmedabad Page 6

National6 AHMEDABAD SATURDAY 3/8/2019

A delegation led by P Ramasamy (2nd from R) Deputy Chief Minister of Penong,Malaysia calling on Tamil Nadu Cheif Minister K Palanisamy, in Chennai on Friday UNI.

Resident doctors shouting slogans during a strike against National Medical Com-mission (NMC) Bill, outside OPD at Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Science Hos-pital in Patna on Friday UNI.

Kochi, While a division bench

of the Kerala High Court onFriday ruled out the need fora Central Bureau of Investi-gation (CBI) probe into thebrutal murder of a YouthCongress worker, Shuhaib,in Kannur last year, thevictim’s father and the Con-gress party has said they willapproach the SupremeCourt against the order.

Congress workerShuhaib was brutally mur-dered on the night of Feb-ruary 12 last year and thepolice had arrested 17people, most of them locallevel CPI-M workers.

This fresh developmenthas come as a huge relief forthe Pinarayi Vijayan govern-ment as this murder tookplace in Vijayan’s home dis-trict and the local Congressleadership has been cryingfoul that the real “culprits”have not been arrested, norhas the conspiracy angle inthe case looked into.

Following the Vijayangovernmenta’s refusal to goahead with a CBI probe, thefamily of the victim and theKannur Congress partyleadership approached asingle bench of the KeralaHigh Court and then JusticeB. Kemal Pasha ordered a CBIprobe into the incident onMarch 7 last year.

Kerala HC rules out CBI probein Congress worker’s murder

Shocked by the singlebench verdict, the Keralagovernment then ap-proached the divisionbench of the Kerala HighCourt, which granted a stayon Justice Pasha’s verdict.

Speaking to the mediaon Friday after the divisionbench refused the CBIprobe, the the Kerala gov-ernment counsel said thatthe court noted that therehad been no efforts on thepetitioner’s part to vacatethe stay.

“Moreover, the peti-tioner was unable to but-tress their plea that therewas a conspiracy behind themurder, with any evidencefor it,” said the counsel.

Asked about the neworder, Pasha, who has sinceretired said he had nothingto say about Friday’s direc-tive as it has been deliveredby the appeals court. Speak-ing to the media, Shuhaib’sfather, Mohammed, how-ever said that he and hisparty (Congress) have de-cided to approach the Su-preme Court to challengethis order and will fight thecase till a CBI probe is or-dered. “It’s common knowl-edge that the Kerala gov-ernment is fighting againsta CBI probe. As they all know,if it happens then their topleaders would be behind

bars. We will fight for a CBIprobe,” said Mohammed.

Welcoming the new di-rective, former Kannur CPI-M district secretary P.Jayarajan said that this di-rective should be seen as afeather in the cap of theKerala police which did aclean job.

“The CPI-M then hadmade its position clear inthe case. And we evenousted those party mem-bers who were arrested inthe case,” said Jayarajan,who was the Kannur partydistrict secretary at the timeof the incident.

Kannur Lok Sabha MPand senior Congress leaderK. Sudhakaran, who went ona hunger strike at the timedemanding a CBI probe, saidthat it should be noted thatthe Kerala governmentbrought in a lawyer fromDelhi to argue the case.

“We are certain thatthere was a conspiracy inthe case and a good major-ity of those who have beenarrested are all dummy ac-cused and the real culpritsare out. We will go in appealagainst this verdict in theSupreme Court,” saidSudhakaran. The Congressparty had used this murdercase in a big way to attackVijayan for shielding the realaccused. —IANS

Panaji, Women are feminine

and fragile and, therefore,should not be made towork in night shift jobs,Goa BJP’s woman MLAAlina Saldanha said on Fri-day. Saldanha, a formercabinet minister, also saidthat women belong in thehome, especially duringthe nights, otherwise theirchildren face hardship.

“Women are said to befeminine and femininitymeans they are fragile,compared to their counter-parts. I don’t think it is fairthat the lady should gothrough the hardship, hav-ing to work in the night,”Saldanha told the report-ers outside the state legis-lative assembly complexon Friday.

Her comments come aday after former Chief Min-ister Churchill Alemao toldthe state assembly thatGoan women are “delicate”and therefore could notwork on night shifts. Hehad also said that non-Goan women are “fast”, trig-gering outrage.

Alemao was speakingduring a brief debate onthe Factories (Goa Amend-ment) Act, 2019, which al-lows women to work nightshifts in factories andmanufacturing units.

On Friday, Saldana saidthat she firmly believesthat “ladies should be in

Women are fragile, feminine,should be home at night: BJP MLA

their homes”, especially atnight.

“ They are mothers,they have so many respon-sibilities and the childrenare there. Without themother, the children arelost in the house. They donot know what to do. Thepresence of the mother inthe house is very essen-tial,” she said. 1“Especiallywhen children have to goto school, the mother hasto be there at home to getthem ready for school thenext day. I feel that womenshould not be made to

work night shifts and I amsure these flaws (in thenamendment) will be con-sidered,” Saldanha added.

When asked why shedid not express her oppo-sition to the amendmentwhich was passed by a ma-jority of 26-5, Saldanhasaid: “It is not that I did notobject, I am very sorry. Iwas busy writing downsome points on another is-sue and that’s how I missedit. In fact, I am very upsetabout it. It was a very shortdiscussion, but I missed it”.

—IANS

Elderly woman walks 108 km tooffer prayers at Jharkhand shrine

Ranchi, Every year, 68-year-old

Krishna Rani covers a dis-tance of 108-km by foot tooffer prayers to Lord Shiva atthe Baba BaidyanathTemple in Jharkhand duringthe holy month of Shraavan.

A retired teacher hailingfrom Bihar, Rani starts fromMuzaffarpur district andreaches Sultanganj fromwhere she take water fromthe Ganga river and thenreaches the temple situatedin Deoghar district. Shecompletes her journey in15-18 hours.

During Shraavan, one ofthe most auspicious

months in the Hindu calen-dar, more than 30 lakhpeople offer water to theShiva Lingam at the BabaBaidynath Temple, alsoknown as the ‘ManokamanaLingam’. This is one of the 12‘jyotirlingas’ of Lord Shiva.

During Shraavan, thenumber of devotees offer-ing prayers at the ShivaLingam everyday is overone lakh, while on Mondays,the number crosses twolakh.

The devotees or‘kanwariyas’ take water fromriver Ganga in Sultanganjand walk on foot to reachthe temple (a 108-km dis-

tance) amid chants of ‘BolBum’.

There are two types ofpilgrimages a devotee canundertake: one in whichthere is no time limit toreach the temple and theother - known as ‘Dak Bum’- in which a devotee has tocover the journey in 24hours.

Rani started performingthe ‘kanwar yatra’ in 1976and since 1982 has been un-dertaking the Dak Bumyatra. She is now popular asKrishna Bum, and thou-sands of people turn up towatch her undertake thejourney.

Barabanki (Uttar Pradesh), The Barabanki school girl, who had stumped a police

officer with her questions on women’s security in relationto the accident of the Unnao rape survivor, is now facingsafety issues herself.

After a video of the girl questioning the police officerwent viral on social media on Wednesday, her parents havestopped sending her to school.

“My daughter is naive and did not realise the impact ofwhat she had said. I will now meet the principal on Mon-day and then decide when to send her to school again,”the girl’s father said on Friday.

The video was further highlighted when Congress Gen-eral Secretary Priyanka Gandhi tweeted the viral clip andquestioned the working of the UP Police.

The girl’s father said that the school had not informedthem of the event. “Even if the event was held, the schoolshould have taken care to guard the children’s privacy. Sud-denly, we have TV channels knocking at our door and evenpoliticians are contacting us. The situation is getting scaryfor my daughter,” he said.

Student who questioned copin UP school is now scared

New Delhi, A Bill amending the Un-

lawful Activities (Preven-tion) Act, 1967, which allowsthe government to tag anindividual as terrorist, waspassed by the Rajya Sabhaon Friday with a move byopposition parties to send itto a House panel gettingdefeated.

As a division was calledfor by some members dur-ing the Bill’s passage, 147members voted in favourand 42 against it.

The Lok Sabha has al-ready passed the Bill, underwhich the government candesignate individuals as ter-rorists if the person commitsor participates in acts of ter-rorism, prepares for or pro-motes terror or is otherwiseinvolved in terrorism.

Replying to the debate,Home Minister Amit Shahsaid earlier that it is impor-tant to name terrorists indi-vidually as it had been seenthat when terroristorganisations were banned,the terrorists floated an-other outfit.

He also said that coun-tries like the US, Israel, Paki-stan and China designate in-dividuals as terrorists.

Many opposition partiesopposed the provision, say-ing this could be misused.

Congress leader P.Chidambaram said that tag-ging an organisation as aterrorist was different frombranding an individual. Hestressed that the provision

RS passes UAPA bill to tagindividuals as terrorists

violated individual liberty.“Let me caution you, the

government, that it will bestruck down. Instead of lis-tening to us here and mak-ing the necessary correc-tion, you are forcing us to goabout a kilometre away toanother building (SupremeCourt) and present (thecase) to another set of indi-viduals.

“How does it raises theesteem of Parliament? Weare doing something whichis hopelessly unconstitu-tional,” the former UnionMinister said, adding thatthe Bill should be sent to aSelect Committee.

Among other key provi-sions, the Bill empowers theDirector-General of the Na-tional Investigation Agency(NIA) to grant approval forseizure or attachment ofproperty when a case is be-ing investigated by theagency.

The existing law requiresthe investigating officer toobtain prior approval of thestate police chief to seizeproperties linked to terror-ism.

The government is ofthe view that on many occa-sions, terror accused ownproperties in differentstates. In such circum-stances, seeking approval ofstate police chiefs causesdelay and hampers investi-gation.

While the Congress hasendorsed most amend-ments in the Bill, it stoutly

opposed the clause thatempowers the governmentto designate an individual asterrorist.

Chidambaram said thatPakistan-based Lashkarchief Hafiz Saeed and activ-ist Gautam Navlakha, whohas been arrested for theBhima Koregaon violence,cannot be compared.

Home Minister Shahclarified that a person can-not be designated a terror-ist on assumption and beliefas argued by the oppositionleaders. He said there wouldbe a four-stage scrutiny be-fore any individual is taggedas a terrorist.

Speaking first on the Bill,Elamaram Kareem of theCPI-M opposed it. He saidthat in the name of combat-ing terrorism, the govern-ment was imposing stateterrorism on people.

“Home Ministry willhave the authority to de-clare a terrorist in any stateand need not inform theconcerned state govern-ment. This is the new modelof cooperative federalism.The properties of such iden-tified people will be confis-cated.

“Individuals expressingdissent can now be declaredas terrorist arbitrarily. Theprinciple of jurisprudencehas been turned upsidedown by placing on the per-son on whom allegationsare made to prove his or herinnocence,” Kareem said.

—IANS

BJP set to achieve target of 50 lakhnew members in UP

Lucknow, The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is all set to achieve

its target of 50 lakh new members in Uttar Pradesh inthe ongoing membership drive that began on July 6.

The BJP has booth committees in all 1.63 lakhbooths in the state and party members have been en-rolling members at all the booths.

The BJP this time has not confined the membershipdrive to its traditional vote base, but is making sure thatit penetrates into all sections of the society. The party isfocusing on OBCs, Dalits and the weaker sections of thesociety. Muslims will also form a part of the party’s mem-bership drive.

The idea is to expand the party’s vote base in UttarPradesh and marginalise caste-centric parties beforethe next Assembly elections due in 2022.

The BJP has combined this exercise with social re-sponsibilities by encouraging tree plantation, SwachhBharat mission and water conservation in villages andcities across the country.

“We are celebrating the membership drive as a‘Sangathan Parv’. The party workers are also plantingsaplings, launching cleanliness drives in villages beforeasking people to join the party,” said party GeneralGecretary Vijay Bahadur Pathak.

BJP working President J.P. Nadda had told the partyworkers at the launch of the membership drive that theinitiative should also have a social responsibility aspect.“It should include Swachhta Abhiyan at every boothand a plantation drive as well. Every couple should planta tree per five members of their family,” he had stated.

The membership drive is also being undertakenthrough missed calls and the party workers will visitbooth-level members too to verify their authenticity.

—IANS

India stresses on ‘unimpeded’ consularaccess to Jadhav

New Delhi, India has asked Pakistan to provide “unimpeded

consular access” to Kulbhushan Jadhav, in an environ-ment “free from the fear of intimidation and reprisal”,after Islamabad said it has sent a proposal to New Delhiallowing consular access to the Indian national.

“Pakistan has been asked (on Thursday) to provideunimpeded consular access to Shri Kulbhushan Jadhav,in an environment free from the fear of intimidation andreprisal, in the light of the orders of the InternationalCourt of Justice (ICJ). Their response in now awaited, “sources said.

India on Thursday said it is “evaluating” Pakistan’soffer for consular access to Jadhav, amid reports thatIslamabad has set some conditions on providing Indianofficials access to him. There are reports that Islamabadis insisting on having their own person present duringthe meeting between Indian officials and Jadhav.

“I am not getting into the modalities. We have re-ceived a proposal from Pakistan, and we are evaluatingit in the light of judgment of the ICJ. We will maintaincommunication with Pakistan through diplomaticchannels,” said Ministry of External Affairs spokesper-son Raveesh Kumar on Thursday.

The Pakistan Foreign Office spokespersonMohammed Faisal, in answer to a query at a media brief-ing in Islamabad, said: “We have offered the Indian HighCommission to avail consular access on this Friday. Thereply from the Indian side is awaited.”

—IANS

Zomato app gets 1-star ratings forbeing biased

New Delhi, A large number of users have started giving Zomato

one-star reviews on Google Play Store to voice theirdisagreement against the food delivery app on how thecompany is fine if some customers want specifically“Halal” meat.

The users claimed that by having the ‘Halal’ option,Zomato is associating religion to food.

Reacting to this, Zomato said in a letter the tag ap-peared on their site or app because people had askedfor it before and that is how the website is programmed.

“We provide this information, so that you, as a cus-tomer, can make an informed choice about whether youwant to eat Halal meat, or not. As an aggregator, it’s im-perative that we showcase all the various facets that arestaurant would like us to display to its potential cus-tomers,” the company tweeted.

“Bye bye Zomato, you lost one precious customer,many more to come. Don’t support one side if you can’tresolve the issue. #ZomatoUninstalled,” tweeted oneuser.

Many uninstalled Uber Eats’ app too and tweeted#BoycottUberEats for supporting Zomato.

One user wrote: “Can @ZomatoIN tell me what’swrong in fearing food delivered by a Muslim in timeswhen Muslims jingoistically follow jihad to the extentof poisoning Hindu food? and if food does not have areligion why do you care to replace Halal meat with anon-Halal one?@ThePlacardGuy #Zomato.”

The controversy began on Tuesday when a Zomatocustomer tweeted: Just cancelled an order on@ZomatoIN they allocated a non-Hindu rider for myfood they said they can’t change rider and can’t refundon cancellation. I said you can’t force me to take a de-livery. I don’t want don’t refund just cancel.”

In response, the official Twitter handle of Zomatotweeted: “Food doesn’t have a religion. It is a religion”.

—IANS

Varied monsoon in northeast likely toaffect crops

By Sujit ChakrabortyAgartala,

Amid the monsoon, five of the eight northeasternstates experienced normal rainfall while Manipur andNagaland witnessed huge deficiencies and only Sikkimobserved excess rainwater.

According to scientists of the Indian Council of Ag-ricultural Research (ICAR), the erratic monsoon is likelyto affect both Kharif and Rabi crops in the northeast-ern region.

As per the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD),Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram andTripura witnessed normal rainfall, while Manipur andNagaland experienced 60 per cent and 29 per centshortages of downpour during the first two months -June and July - of the four month-long monsoon pe-riod categorising as large deficiency and deficiency re-spectively.

Only Sikkim witnessed 28 per cent excess downpouragainst the 900 mm normal rainfall during June andJuly.

IMD Director Dilip Saha said in Agartala that thefour-month-long southwest monsoon is now in full-swing in most parts of mountainous northeastern re-gion.

“Like previous years, there would be normal mon-soon in the eight northeastern states. The currentweather condition is favourable for the good monsoon,”Saha told IANS.

ICAR scientist B.K. Kandpal said that during the ini-tial period of the current monsoon, there was deficien-cies of rainfall affecting and delaying the cultivation ofKharif crop.

“We predict that due to the erratic monsoon, thecultivation of Rabi crop would be delayed. I have somehesitation about the production of both Kharif and Rabicrops this season,” Kandpal told IANS.

Hyderabad, On the direction of

Telangana High Court, afresh autopsy was con-ducted on Friday on thebody of a leader of CPI (ML)New Democracy who waskilled in an alleged encoun-ter by the police on July 31.

A three-member com-mittee of expert doctorsconducted the fresh au-topsy on Punnam Lingaiahalias Linganna at govern-ment-run Gandhi Hospitalin Hyderabad.

Police made tight secu-rity arrangements at thehospital to prevent any un-toward incident.

Tension prevailed in thepremises as some sympa-thizers of CPI (ML) New De-mocracy gathered there.Police arrested the protest-ers including Maoist sympa-thizers Vimalakka andSandhya.

Police allowed only fam-ily members of Lingannanear the mortuary. After theautopsy, the body washanded over to the family.

The High Court onThursday had ordered freshautopsy on a Public InterestLitigation (PIL) filed byGaddam Laxman, Presidentof State Civil Liberties Com-mittee, who alleged that itwas a stage-managed gunbattle as the body ofLinganna bore injury marks.

The petitioner soughtdirection to the state gov-

Fresh autopsy conducted onslain CPI (ML) ND leader

ernment to form a SpecialInvestigation Team (SIT) toprobe the ‘fake encounter’.He also sought direction topolice to register a murdercase against police person-nel responsible for the kill-ing.

While petitioner’s coun-sel, V. Raghunath, submittedthat Linganna was a triballeader fighting for the rightsof tribals, the governmentclaimed that he was a mem-ber of a banned outfit andwas acting against thestate’s interests.

The court directedGandhi Hospital superinten-dent to constitute a three-member committee of ex-pert doctors to conduct

fresh autopsy and submitthe report to the court byAugust 5.

Following the court or-der, Linganna’s body wasshifted from Kothagudemtown to Hyderabad for freshautopsy. The first autopsywas conducted at a hospitalin Kothagudem.

Linganna was gunneddown by police on July 31 inGundala forests inTelangana’s Bhadradri-Kothagudem district. Policeclaimed that he was killed inan exchange of fire but CPI(ML) New Democracy al-leged that he was caughtand killed in cold blood bythe police.

—IANS

Hike Sticker Chat introduces top-end data encryption, auto backup

New Delhi, Betting big on safeguarding data along with seamless

backup, Hike Sticker Chat — a dedicated platform aimedto deldvanced encryption standard (AES) and 2048-bit RSAwhich is one step away from military-grade encryption.

All daiver a sticker-centric chat experience — will nowencrypt users’ data with nearly military-grade encryption,Kavin Bharti Mittal, Founder and CEO, Hike said here onThursday.

Along with advanced encryption, the company has alsointroduced auto backup, to make switching from one de-vice to another easier without manually backing up or re-storing user data. “As part of the update, we’re encryptingdata with 128 bit advanced encryption standard (AES) and2048-bit RSA which is one step away from military-gradeencryption. All data on the platform is backed up on ourown Cloud. We do that to keep our data extra secure. “s

Air Marshal HS Arora AVSM ADC, Air Officer Com-manding-in-Chief South Western Air Command calledon Hon’ble Governor of Gujarat Shri Acharya Dev Vraton 02 Aug 19.

NASA scientistcharged withpossessing childporn

San Francisco,A scientist working at

NASA’s Johnson Space Cen-ter has been charged withfive counts of child pornpossession, the Accordingto the investigation, Mes-senger possessed chimediareported citing court docu-ments. Scott Roger Messen-ger, 50, was arrested on July23, Khou 11, a CBS-affiliatedtelevision station reportedon Tuesday. The chargeswere linked to a 2018 inves-tigation that the WebsterPolice Department in Mas-sachusetts conducted.puter, which was used to thepolice found.

Ahmedabad, Page 7

Business Brief

Business 7AHMEDABAD SATURDAY 3/8/2019

London, Google has stopped lis-

tening and transcribingGoogle Assistant recordingsin Europe after Germany’sdata protection commis-sioner said the country wasinvestigating reports thatthird-party contractors lis-tened to users’ bedroomtalks captured by Google’sAI-powered Assistant.

Belgian broadcaster VRTNWS reported last monththat users’ conversationswith Google Home speakerswere being recorded andaudio clips were being sentto sub-contractors whothen “transcribed the audiofiles for subsequent use inimproving Google’s speechrecognition technology”,raising serious privacy con-cerns.

In a statement releasedlate Thursday, Germany’sdata protection commis-sioner said the use of auto-matic speech assistantsfrom providers such asGoogle, Apple and Amazonis proving to be highly riskyfor the privacy of those af-fected.

“This applies not only topeople who run a speechassistant, but to all thosewho come into contact withit, for example if they live ina household in which de-vices such as Google Assis-

Google pauses listening to EUvoice recordings, probe begins

tant are installed are used,”said the Hamburg Commis-sioner for Data Protectionand Freedom of Informa-tion.

A Google spokespersonsaid it has paused “languagereviews”. “We are in touchwith the Hamburg data pro-tection authority and are as-sessing how we conductaudio reviews and help ourusers understand how datais used,” The Verge reported,quoting a Google spokes-person. According to theGerman anti-trust regulator,Google was able to gatherpersonal information —some of it sensitive —within the private and inti-mate sphere of the personsconcerned from the re-corded conversations.

Against this back-ground, the Hamburg Com-missioner for Data Protec-tion and Freedom of Infor-mation has initiated an ad-ministrative procedure toprohibit Google from carry-ing out correspondingevaluations by employeesor third parties for the pe-riod of three months.

“This is intended to pro-visionally protect the rightsof privacy of data subjectsfor the time being. Googlehas declared that in thecourse of these administra-tive proceedings, transcrip-

tions of voice recordings willno longer be carried out atpresent and for at least threemonths from 1 August 2019.This covers all of the EU,”said the commissioner.

VRT NWS, with the helpof a whistleblower, was ableto listen to more than 1,000excerpts recorded viaGoogle Assistant.

“In these recordings, wecould clearly hear addressesand other sensitive informa-tion. This made it easy for usto find the people involvedand confront them with theaudio recordings,” said thereport. The transcribersheard just everything: per-sonal information, bedroomtalks, domestic violence andwhat not about Google As-sistant users in Belgium andthe Netherlands. VRT “over-heard countless mensearching for porn, argu-ments between spouses,and even one case in whicha woman seemed to be inan emergency situation”. TheBelgian broadcaster said therecordings were done de-spite the fact that some ofGoogle Home users did noteven say the wake word, “OkGoogle”. In a statement,Google had said it only tran-scribes and uses “about 0.2per cent of all audio clips”, toimprove their voice recogni-tion technology. —IANS

Bajaj Finance Ltd offers interest ratesupto 8.95% on its fixed deposits

Vadodara,Fixed Deposits have established themselves as

one of the safest investment instruments as com-pared to ever so volatile stock markets, mutual fundsand gold. It is one of the best ways to grow your fundswhile ensuring the safety of your principal amount.It is one of the most popular investment choices, es-pecially for investors who have absolutely zero risk-taking capacity.

Interest rate and FD ratings are two of the mostimportant factors to consider while choosing a FixedDeposit offering. Bajaj Finance Fixed Deposit will of-fers one of the highest interest rates of up to 8.60%for new customers, up to 8.85% for existing custom-ers and up to 8.95% for senior citizens with effect fromMay 8, 2019. With the highest stability ratings of FAAAby CRISIL and MAAA by ICRA, Bajaj Finance FixedDeposit is the safest option for investment.

In addition to high interest rates, Bajaj FinanceFixed Deposit offers the highest safety on your de-posit too. Start investing to get guaranteed returnsand make your savings grow easily.

iPhone 11 to support ApplePencil: Report

San Francisco, The 2019 line-up of iPhones are expected to

come with support for Apple Pencil — a wireless sty-lus pen from Apple, a new analyst note from Citi Ana-lysts suggests. Rumours about Apple Pencil supportfor iPhones go back several years when CEO Tim Cookin an interview in 2016 had said, “If you’ve ever seenwhat can be created with that pencil on an iPad oran iPhone, it’s really unbelievable...”, news portal9To5MAC rehone XS Max, the D42 (internal name)would replace the ported on Wednesday.

Earlier, ahead of the launch of the 2018 iPhones,there were multiple reports from Asian supply chainindicating the new devices would work with Apple’sstylus. In addition, the upcoming iPhone 11 line-upis expected to feature company’s new A13 chip, sporta new Taptic Engine and feature a lightning port foraudio and charging.

The iPhone-maker would launch three iPhone 11models this year. The D43 (internal name) would re-place the iPhone XS Max, the D42 (internal name)would replace the iPhone XS and the N104 (internalname) would replace the iPhone XR. According to thereport, the new iPhone 11 models replacing theiPhone XS series would have a triple rear camera set-up at the back and all three sensors will be placed atthe back. Known Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo had alsoearlier suggested that the upcoming iPhone modelswould be equipped with reverse wireless charging.

By Nishant AroraNew Delhi,

Considered a“colourless, unimaginabledrone”, Timothy DonaldCook who joined Apple atage 37 in 1998 has success-fully proved he is a betterCEO than late Steve Jobs.

Apple today is nearly a$1 trillion dollar companyand despite the globalslowdown, has been ableto not only maintain itsgrowth trajectory but alsodiversified into services,entertainment and otherverticals which are bring-ing in more moolah thanits devices segment. Cookhas spent over two de-cades at Apple, and nineyears as CEO, and peopleacross the globe now havea valid question: who isApple’s best bet to replaceCook as CEO and keep the

Cook’s ‘doppelganger’ Williams isApple’s best bet as next CEO

company on the growthpath?

For Jobs, Cook was thenatural choice and hepicked him over morepopular names around forthe CEO job, like legendaryApple Chief Designer JonyIve (who has now movedon). Cook became COO in2005, and officially Jobs’right hand man. Identify-ing his unique set ofstrengths, Jobs made himthe Apple CEO on August24, 2011.

In December 2015,Cook promoted his long-time lieutenant in opera-tion - Jeff Williams - to therole of Apple COO. The duolater created history.

Williams has been called“Tim Cook’s Tim Cook”. He isin charge of the operationsside of the business, just asCook used to head up op-

erations when Jobs wasCEO. “There are uncannynumber of similarities be-tween Williams and Cook,”writes journalist LeanderKahney in his biography ofTim Cook.

According to Fortunereporter Adam Lashinsky,“Williams is in many ways adoppelganger for Cook”.

“Tall, lean, and grey-haired, like Cook, Williamswas said by Apple execu-tives to look so much like hisboss that from behind, theycould be mistaken for eachother,” writes Lashinsky inhis book “Inside Apple”.

Since 2010, Williams hasoverseen Apple’s entire sup-ply chain, service and sup-port and social responsibil-ity initiatives — the “last be-ing something that hasgrown in importance underCook”.

Sterling and Wilson Solar's Rs 3,125crore IPO to open on 6th August, 2019

Ahmedabad,Shapoorji Pallonji

Group’s solar engineering,procurement and construc-tion (EPC) business, Sterlingand Wilson Solar Ltd, onThursday, announced its ini-tial public offering (IPO)worthRs. 3,125 crore. Theprice band for the three-dayIPO, which opens on 6 Au-gust, is fixed at Rs. 775- Rs.780 apiece. The IPO, a pureoffer for sale, will see its pro-moters—Shapoorji Pallonjiand Co. Pvt. Ltd and thecompany’s chairmanKhurshed Yazdi Daruvala—offload shares worth Rs.2,083.33 crore andRs.1,041.67 crore, respectively.Daruvala holds 33.33% in thecompany, while ShapoorjiPallonji and Co. holds a65.77% stake. The rest is heldby individual members ofthe promoter group, such asPallonji Shapoorji Mistry andCyrus Mistry.

While the net proceedsfrom the share sale would goto the promoters, the com-pany said in its red herringprospectus that the promot-

ers will utilize part of the pro-ceeds for repaying certainloans of Sterling and WilsonSolar and Sterling and WilsonInternational Solar FZCO.Mint reported on 18 Marchthat the Shapoorji Pallonjigroup was planning the IPOto deleverage its balancesheet. The company pro-vides EPC services primarilyfor utility-scale solar powerprojects with a focus onproject design and engineer-ing and manages all aspectsof project execution fromconceptualizing to commis-sioning. It also provides op-erations and maintenanceservices, including forprojects constructed by thirdparties. Its business is fo-cused in India, Africa and

West Asia.The firm commenced

operations in 2011 as the so-lar EPC division of Sterlingand Wilson Pvt. Ltd, and wasdemerged into a separatecompany in April 2017. Therenewable energy EPC firm,with presence across 26countries, had commis-sioned and contracted 205solar EPC projects with a to-tal capacity of 6,870.12megawatts (MW) as of 31March. In 2017, Sterling andWilson won a contract tobuild a 1,177MW solar pho-tovoltaic (PV) plant in AbuDhabi, the largest suchproject at a single location. Itsorder book stood at Rs. 3,831crore at the end of fiscal year2019.

Rahil Ansari, Head Audi India, poses with the Audi e-tron the first fully Elec-tric SUV which will launch soon in this year, during the inauguration of AudiGurugram New Showroom, at Gurugram Haryana on Friday UNI.

Place : AhmedabadDate : 02.08.2019

By order of the BoardFor BRIDGE SECURITIES LTD.

Sd/-Pragnesh Shah

Chairman & Managing Director(DIN : 00144888)

BRIDGE SECURITIES LIMITEDCIN : L67120GJ1994PLC023772

Reg. off: 17, Suhasnagar Society, Nr. Dinesh Hall, Ashram Road;Ahmedabad-380 009 Ph: 079 26578808,

Web: www.bridgesec.co.inE-Mail bridgesecurities@yahoo.co.in

NOTICENOTICE is hereby given pursuant to Regulation 29(1) (a) of the Se-curities & Exchange Board of India (Listing Obligations & DisclosureRequirements) Regulations, 2015 that the Board of Directors of theCompany shall meet on Friday, August 09, 2019 at 03:00 P.M. tointer alia consider and approve, the Unaudited Financial Results ofthe Company for the Quarter and year ended 30th June, 2019. The information contained in this notice is also available on the websiteof the Company at www.bridgesec.co.in and also on the website ofthe Stock Exchange viz. BSE Limited at www.bseindia.com.

NOTICE OF BOARD MEETING

For, MINAXI TEXTILES LIMITED Bharatbhai P. PatelManaging Director

DIN : 00161825Place : ChhatralDate : 02/08/2019

MINAXI TEXTILES LIMITEDRegd. Office: Plot No. 3311, G.I.D.C, Phase-IV,

Chhatral, Tal.Kalol Chhatral GJ-382729CIN : L17119GJ1995PLCO25007

Notice, pursuant to Regulation 29 of the SEBI (ListingObligations and Disclosures Requirements) Regulations, 2015,is hereby given that a meeting of Board of Directors of theCompany will be held on Monday, 12th day of August, 2019, at03:00 P.M. at Registered Office of the Company inter – alia totake note of and approval of the Unaudited Standalone FinancialResults and Limited Review Report of the Company for the quarterended on 30th June, 2019, to take note of Closure of Register ofMembers and Share Transfer Books, to fix the record date (cut-off date) and fix the date for holding of Annual General Meeting.

Pursuant to Regulation 47 the said Notice may be accessedon the website of the company www.minaxitextiles.com and mayalso be accessed on the website of the Stock Exchange on whichthe shares of the company are listed i.e. www.bseindia.com.

Surbhi Industries Limited

Pursuant to Regulation 47 read with Regulation 33 of the SEBI(Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations2015, NOTICE is hereby given that a Meeting of the Board ofDirectors of the Company is scheduled to be held on 13th day ofAugust 2019, at 3.00 PM at registered office of the company interalia, to consider, approve and take on record the Unaudited FinancialResults of the Company for the quarter ended on 30th June 2019.Further, details are also available on Company’s websitewww.surbhi.com as well as Stock Exchange’s website i.e.www.bseindia.com.

NOTICE

CIN NO. L17110GJ1992PLC017672Reg. : “SURBHI HOUSE”, 2nd Floor, F. P. No. 206, B/h Old Sub-Jail, Ring Road, Khatodara,

SURAT GUJARAT 395002

Place : SuratDate :02.08.2019

By order of the BoardFor, SURBHI INDUSTRIES LTD.

Sd/-RAVJIBHAI PARBATBHAI PATEL

Managing Director(DIN: 00023332)

CHANGE OF NAMEI have changed my old name

from LIMBACHIAJIGNESHKUMAR

SURESHBHAI to New NameLIMBACHIYA

JIGNESHKUMARSURESHBHAI

Add. : 9, Yogeshwar Park,Nikol, Ahmedabad

1323CHANGE OF NAME

I have changed my old namefrom UMANGKUMAR

BHARATKUMAR PATEL toNew Name UMANGKUMAR

BHARATBHAI PATELAdd. : 63, Sai Villa

Bhanglows, Nr. MahakaliMandir, Himatnagar-383001

V045

DisclaimerA d v e r s t i s e m e n tappeared in this NewsPaper have not beenverified factually and“WESTERNTIMES” doesnot stand responsible forthe sales proposition.

Sales growthboosts India’s Julymanufacturingoutput: PMI

Mumbai, Sustained sales growth

slightly boosted India’smanufacturing sector out-put in July, a key economicindicator showed on Thurs-day.

As per the IHS Markit In-dia Manufacturing Purchas-ing Managers’ Index (PMI),the composite indicator ofmanufacturing perfor-mance showed an indexreading of 52.5 in July 2019,up from 52.1 in the previousmonth. An index reading ofabove 50 indicates an over-all increase in economic ac-tivity, or growth, and below50 an overall decrease.

INF/JAM/270

Gujarat Water Supply & Sewerage BoardTender Notice No. 8 of 2019-2020. (Reinvite)

Executive Engineer, Public Health Mechanical Division, 2nd Floor,Jalbhavan, Ellis bridge, Ahmedabad invites tenders by E-tendering processfrom experienced contractors and qualifying bidders as per technical &financial criteria mentioned in tender for following type of works. Lastdate of on-line submission of tender :- 19.08.2019 up to 18.00 Hr. Thedetailed tender notice & tender documents are available on website :www.nprocure.com and www.statetenders.com. SuperintendingEngineer, Public Health Mechanical Circle, Ahmedabad reserves theright to reject any or all tenders without assigning any reason.

Sr. Details of Works 1. Estimated cost Rs. Tender ID No.No. 2. EMD Amount Rs.

3. Tender Fees Rs.1 Hiring of light commercial diesel G.P.S.fitted (1) 24,17,030.00 371323

vehicles with required no.of unskilled helpers (2) 24,200.00 per each vehicle for repairing of existing (3) 900.00hand pumps in various villages of Nadiad,Mahudha, Mehmdavad, Matar, Kheda & VasoTaluka of Kheda district for period of one year.

Contact toll free Nu.1916 for problem of Rural Water Supply Scheme.

No.INF/ABD/673/2019-20

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, KOTA|¢¢Ú¼è² „ê™Ý¢ Ðí¢ñβ¢ïçx¢ÜUè, „æSƒ¢Ý¢ ÜU¢ïÅ¢

2nd Floor, Prabha Bhawan, MNIT campus, Jawahar Lal Nehru Marg,Jaipur-302017 (Rajasthan) Jaipur

Îìç±¼è² ¼H, Ðí|¢¢ |¢±Ý, »}¢»Ý¥¢§üÅè, …ï»H»Ý }¢¢x¢ü, …²ÐéÚ -Îìç±¼è² ¼H, Ðí|¢¢ |¢±Ý, »}¢»Ý¥¢§üÅè, …ï»H»Ý }¢¢x¢ü, …²ÐéÚ -Îìç±¼è² ¼H, Ðí|¢¢ |¢±Ý, »}¢»Ý¥¢§üÅè, …ï»H»Ý }¢¢x¢ü, …²ÐéÚ -Îìç±¼è² ¼H, Ðí|¢¢ |¢±Ý, »}¢»Ý¥¢§üÅè, …ï»H»Ý }¢¢x¢ü, …²ÐéÚ -Îìç±¼è² ¼H, Ðí|¢¢ |¢±Ý, »}¢»Ý¥¢§üÅè, …ï»H»Ý }¢¢x¢ü, …²ÐéÚ -ADVERTISEMENT NO. 01/TEACHING/IIITKOTA/ESTT/2019

On-line applications are invited from Indian Nationals for filling up various teaching posts of theinstitute. For details of each category of posts and other information visit institute websitewww.iiitkota.ac.in,On-line application process will start from 30.07.2019 and end on 28.08.2019.Date : 20.07.2019

Registrar21351/11/0004/1920

BOARD MEETINGBISIL PLAST LIMITED :This is to inform you that the Board of Directors of the Company willmeet on 13th August, 2019 for taking on record the Unaudited FinancialResults for the quarter ended on 30th June, 2019.

DENIS CHEM LAB LIMITEDThis is to inform you that the Board of Directors of the Company willmeet on 13th August, 2019 for taking on record the Unaudited FinancialResults for the quarter ended on 30th June, 2019.

GUJARAT CRAFT INDUSTRIES LIMITEDThis is to inform you that the Board of Directors of the Company willmeet on 13th August, 2019 for taking on record the Unaudited FinancialResults for the quarter ended on 30th June, 2019.

KAMRON LABORATORIES LIMITEDThis is to inform you that the Board of Directors of the Company willmeet on 13th August, 2019 for taking on record the Unaudited FinancialResults for the quarter ended on 30th June, 2019.

KUSH INDUSTRIES LIMITEDThis is to inform you that the Board of Directors of the Company willmeet on 13th August, 2019 for taking on record the Unaudited FinancialResults for the quarter ended on 30th June, 2019.PROMACT IMPEX LIMITEDThis is to inform you that the Board of Directors of the Company willmeet on 13th August, 2019 for taking on record the Unaudited FinancialResults for the quarter ended on 30th June, 2019.

SHREE RAJESHWARANAND PAPER MILLS LIMITEDThis is to inform you that the Board of Directors of the Company willmeet on 13th August, 2019 for taking on record the Unaudited FinancialResults for the quarter ended on 30th June, 2019.

SUPER BAKERS (INDIA) LIMITEDThis is to inform you that the Board of Directors of the Company willmeet on 13th August, 2019 for taking on record the Unaudited FinancialResults for the quarter ended on 30th June, 2019.

Ahmedabad Page 8 CMYK

CMYK

Sport8 AHMEDABAD SATURDAY 3/8/2019

The summer transfer window may be drawing to a close in England, but on the continent it's only getting started. Neymar and James Rodriguez have both been linked withhigh-profile departures from Paris Saint-Germain and Real Madrid respectively, while in Italy the pursuit of Romelu Lukaku by Inter MIlan and Juventus looks set to haveramifications for Edin Dzeko, Gonzalo Higuain and Mauro Icardi. With a whole month of transfer news still to come, Sportsmail assesses the likelihood of 10 of the biggesttransfers mooted to happen between clubs on the continent in the coming weeks.

Birmingham, After single-handedly

dragging Australia out of ahole by scoring a magnifi-cent hundred on the open-ing day of the first AshesTest, Steve Smith revealedthat there were times dur-ing his one-year ban whenhe considered walking awayfrom the game completely.

After Australia were re-duced to 122/8 before Teawith Smith at the creasewaging a lone battle onThursday, the former cap-tain, who returned to actionrecently after serving a oneyear ban due to his involve-ment in the ball tamperingscandal in South Africa,struck 144 off 219 balls tohelp his team post 284 intheir first innings.

“There were timesthroughout the last 15months where I didn’t knowif I was ever going to playcricket again,” ESPNcricinfoquoted Smith as saying af-ter the day’s play.

“I lost a bit of love for itat one point, particularlywhen I had my elbow opera-tion, and it was really bizarre,it was the day when I got mybrace off my elbow I found

Ban made Smith unsure of his cricketing careermy love for it again. I don’tknow what it was, it was likea trigger to go again, I wantto play, I want to go out andplay for Australia and I guessmake people proud and justdo what I love doing.

When Smith reached his24th Test century atEdgbaston, emotions spilledover which were visible onthe faces of his teammatesin the dressing room bal-cony. In the stands, therewere Australian fans and hisfamily who gave him astanding ovation while thelocal supporters’ boos andtaunts fell on deaf ears.

“I’ve never sort of had

those feelings ever beforewhere I didn’t have a greatlove for the game and it wasthere for a little while. Fortu-nately that love’s come backand I’m really grateful to bein this position now, playingfor Australia again and do-ing what I love,” said Smith.

Smith first shared a 88-run ninth wicket stand withPeter Siddle who scored 44off 85 balls, and thenstitched together a 75-runpartnership for the lastwicket with Nathan Lyon (12not out) to take the Aussiesto a fighting first inningsscore.

He also rated the innings

as one of the best hundredsin his career.

“I think it has got to beone of my best hundreds,definitely, first Ashes Testmatch, the ball was doing afair bit out in the morning soI had to work really hard,”said the former captain.

For England, StuartBroad grabbed 5/86 whileChris Woakes returned fig-ures of 3/58 in the absenceof pace spearhead JamesAnderson who got injuredafter bowling just four overs.

At Stumps on Day One,England were 10/0 andwere still 274 runs behind.

—IANS

Kohli posts ‘squad’ pic,fans ask where’s Rohit

Nicolas Pepe joins Arsenal on record signingLondon,

Ivorian winger NicolasPepe joined Arsenal fromFrance’s Lille in a deal thatmakes him the most expen-sive acquisition in that club’shistory, the Gunners haveannounced.

“The 24-year-old IvoryCoast international com-pleted the paperwork on hismove on Thursday. He willwear the No. 19 shirt,” theteam said on its website on

Thursday, reports Efe news.Pepe “has become our

record signing” the PremierLeague club said, but with-out revealing any figures orthe duration of the newplayer’s contract.

Media outlets estimatethat Arsenal would have hadto pay Lille around 80 mil-lion euros ($88.5 million) tosign Pepe to a five-year dealwith the English club.

The Ivorian scored 37

goals and assisted on an-other 18 in 80 matches forLille during his two-yearspell at the French club.

The winger also madethree appearances in the re-cent 2019 Africa Cup of Na-tions tournament in Egypt,where Ivory Coast reachedthe quarterfinals before be-ing eliminated on penaltiesby the eventual champion,Algeria.

—IANS

Brian Lara predicts England will winAshes

New Delhi, Legendary West Indies batsman Brian Lara has

predicted that World Cup winners England will beatAustralia in the ongoing Ashes series.

Along with the winners, Lara also predicted thatEngland skipper Joe Root will end up as the leadingrun-scorer by the end of the five-Test series while ChrisWoakes will be the leading wicket-taker.

“My predictions for the Ashes 2019, winners: En-gland; most runs: Joe Root; most wickets: ChrisWoakes,” he tweeted on Thursday.

On Thursday, Steve Smith scored a brilliant hun-dred to single-handedly drag Australia out of a holeand help them post 284 before being bowled out inthe fag end of the opening day of the first Ashes Testat Edgbaston. Woakes picked up three wickets whileStuart Broad scalped five during the course of theAustralian innings. At Stumps, England were 10 forno loss and were still 274 runs behind.

Spectators wave sandpapers atWarner, Bancroft at Ashes

Birmingham, The Australian trio of David Warner, Cameron

Bancroft and Steve Smith — involved in 2018’s Sand-paper Gate fiasco — had to face a rough time on DayOne of the first Ashes Test at Edgbaston.

On Thursday, Warner and Bancroft didn’t have agreat return to the Australia Test side as they wereboth dismissed by Stuart Broad within the first eightovers of the match. While Bancroft scored a mere 8,Warner could manage only two runs.

Having served their respective bans for their rolesin the Sandpaper scandal, the Australian openers weregreeted with a chorus of boos by the hostileEdgbaston crowd.

In addition to the boos, the English crowd alsowaved sandpapers at both Bancroft and Warner posttheir dismissals as they walked off the field.

Bancroft was caught trying to rough up one sideof the ball with sandpaper the Cape Town Test againstSouth Africa. Warner and Smith were banned from in-ternational cricket for 12 months while Bancroft washanded a nine-month ban by Cricket Australia.

—IANS

Smith 2nd fastest batsman to score 24Test tons

Birmingham, Australian batter Steve Smith has become the sec-

ond fastest batsman to score 24 hundreds in Testcricket. On Thursday, Smith scored a magnificent 144-run irst Ashes Test against England at Edgbaston.

The 32-year-old record his 24th Test hundred in118th inning, 52 more than legendary batsman DonBradman to achieved the feat in 66 innings.

India skipper Virat Kohli is third at the list havingby Sachin Tendulkar who took 125 innings.

The former Australian skipper is now equal withGreg tons in Test history. Only six Australia batsmenhave more Test centuries than Smith.

—IANS

dia vice captain.Earlier before the depar-

ture for the West Indies tour,Rohit had also posted aphoto on Instagram whichsaid: “I don’t just walk out formy Team. I walk out for mycountry.”

Ever since India’s exitfrom the World Cup in thesemifinals, there have beenrumours about a rift be-tween Kohli and Rohit. How-ever, both Kohli and headcoach Ravi Shastri have de-nied the reports with the In-dia captain terming therumours “baffling”.

Rohit doesn’t followKohli on Instagram and re-cently he unfollowedAnushka Sharma — wife ofIndia skipper too, whichadded fuel to the riftrumours. However, Kohli stillfollows Rohit on the picturesharing website, but not hiswife Ritika Sajdeh.

Anushka also doesn’tfollow Ritika and Rohit onInstagram and same is thecase with Ritika who doesn’tfollow the Indian skipperand his wife. —IANS

New Delhi, The Indian cricket team

has arrived in the US for theupcoming three-match T20Iseries against the WestIndies which starts from Sat-urday.

Players have been tak-ing to their social mediahandles posting pictures ofthemselves while practisingand enjoying in Florida.

On Friday, skipper ViratKohli also posted a picturewith his teammates onInstagram with a caption“SQUAD”.

In the picture, RavindraJadeja, Navdeep Saini,Khaleel Ahmed, Shreyas Iyer,Krunal Pandya,Bhuvneshwar Kumar andK.L. Rahul can be seen pos-ing alongside Kohli.

However, vice captainRohit Sharma is missingfrom the frame, which hasonce again given ammuni-tion to people who havebeen speculating about arift between Kohli and hisdeputy. Various fans com-mented on the picture ask-ing about the absence of In-

News in a Nutshell