...are yet to resume non-essential ... Singh, Anil Shahstri, Karan Singh amongst others voiced...

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Amid rising political uncer-tainty, fear and panic

across the Valley, theOpposition here has cometogether to warn the Centreagainst any move to tinkerwith the special status of theState.

Staunch political rivalsassembled in the lawns ofFarooq Abdullah’s fortifiedGupkar road residence andsent an unequivocal messagethat when it came to protect-ing the special status enjoyedby the State, they stood shoul-der to shoulder.

Burying their own politi-cal differences, the represen-tatives of mainstream politicalparties along with theCongress resolved to protectand defend the identity, auton-omy and the special status ofthe State against all attacks andonslaughts — whatsoever.

After chairing the all-partymeeting, National Conferencepresident and Member ofParliament from Srinagar,Farooq Abdullah, flanked byPDP chief Mehbooba Muftiand PDP patron MuzaffarHussain Baig, told reporters,“During the all-party meetingit was unanimously resolvedthat all the parties, will be unit-ed in their resolve to protectand defend the identity, auton-omy and the special status ofthe State against all attacks andonslaughts what so ever”.

Reading out the text of theresolution passed during themeeting he said,“Modification, abrogation ofArticle 35-A, 370, delimitationor trifurcation of the Statewould be an aggression againstthe people of Jammu, Kashmirand Ladakh.”

Ironically, there was noreference on the prevailingsecurity situation emergingalong the Line of Control dueto regular incidents of “unpro-voked” ceasefire violations by

the Pakistan army.Farooq Abdullah also said

the political parties in thismeeting resolved to seek audi-ence with the President ofIndia, the Prime Minister andalso other leaders of the polit-ical parties to apprise them ofthe current situation and makean appeal to them to safeguardthe legitimate interest of thepeople with regard to the con-stitutional guarantees givento the State by the Constitutionof our country.”

“The political represen-tatives will also apprise themof the ‘unwholesome’ conse-quences, both short and longterm, bound to follow the‘unconstitutional’ violation ofthese guarantees. The repre-sentatives of the political par-ties also resolved to remainunited and stand together forsafeguarding the identity,autonomy and special status ofthe State.

The all-party meet wasalso attended by former Chief

Minister Omar Abdullah,senior National Conferenceleaders and party MP’s MohdAkbar Lone, Justice (Retd)Hasnain Masoodi, Mohd AliSagar and Congress was rep-resented by former CabinetMinister Taj Mohi-ud-Din,Sajjad Lone and Imran RazaAnsari of Peoples Conference,Shah Faesal Chairman ofPeoples’ United Front,Muzaffar Ahmad Shah,President of Awami NationalConference.

Farooq Abdullah alsoappealed to the people ofJammu & Kashmir to keeppeace and calm in the Valley.

“I also appeal to both thecountries, India & Pakistannot to take any step that mayaccelerate the tension betweenthe two countries,” he said.

The situation remainedtense in the Valley and formerIndia all-rounder Irfan Pathan,who is the mentor of Jammu& Kashmir State teams, alongwith age-group aspirants, leftfor their respective homesafter ongoing Under-16 andUnder-19 trials in Srinagarhave been postponed due toprevailing security situation inthe Valley.

The State administrationhas issued an advisory for alltourists and Amarnath Yatristo leave the Valley due to apotential terror threat. Pathanwas in Srinagar to oversee thetrials for the U-16 (VijayMerchant Trophy) and U-19

(Cooch Behar Trophy) andprune the list of probables.

“We have for the timebeing postponed the secondphase of junior team trials. Wehad the first phase from Juneto July. This was the secondphase. However since therehas been a Government advi-sory, I had a meeting withJammu & Kashmir CricketAssociation (JKCA) CEOBukhari and administratorJustice Prasad.

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Following the assurance ofUnion Health Minister

Harsh Vardhan, the residentdoctors of All India Institute ofMedical Sciences (AIIMS)called off their four-day longstrike on Sunday. However, theSafdarjung resident doctorsare yet to resume non-essentialservices.

The move came after theHealth Minister assured thedelegation of Resident Doctors’Associations (RDA) of AIIMSand Safdarjung hospital thattheir concerns over theNational Medical Commission(NMC) Bill will be dulyaddressed.

In a communique to theAIIMS director, the RDA saidduring a meeting, the UnionMinister assured them ofaddressing their concernswhile drafting the regulationsof the NMC. The Ministeralso told them that the repre-sentatives of the AIIMS RDAand students’ union will beconsulted while drafting the

regulations of the commis-sion.

“The Health Ministerexplained the objectives ofbringing NMC Bill 2019 atlength and assured us that theapprehensions... Will be dulyaddressed while drafting theregulations by the NMC onceit is constituted,” the AIIMSRDA said in the communique.

It referred to section 14 (1)para (2), admissions intoundergraduate courses atAIIMS New Delhi, section15(5) admissions into AIIMS

New Delhi vide Exit Test andsection 32 (Community HealthProviders). “We were alsoassured by the Minister thatrepresentatives of RDA andstudents unions AIIMS (NewDelhi) will be consulted beforeframing of regulations of theNMC bill under section 57 ofthe Bill,” the AIIMS RDA said.“In this regard, a GBM ofRDA-AIIMS was convenedand its executive committeeconveyed that decision of with-drawing on the strike andresuming of all services by the

resident doctors with imme-diate effect,” read the letter.

“If the Bill cannot beamended in the present situa-tion, it was also requested thatas per section 4 (3) (g) DirectorAIIMS, New Delhi should bemade ex-offico member of theNMC at least in its 1st term,”read the letter.

Dr Harsh Vardhan tweet-ed, “Today morning, I havemet RDA representatives ofSafdarjung and AIIMS. I haveclarified their doubts and mis-understanding related to NMCbill. I have explained to doctorsthat NMC Bill is one of thebiggest reform in the medicaleducation sector which iswould a blessing for 130 crorepopulation of the country.”

“I have appealed doctors tocall off the strike so thatpatients should not get any dif-ficulty in availing healthcarefacilities,” the Health Ministertweeted. After a governingbody meeting of the RDAAIIMS, the executive com-mittee decided to withdraw thestrike and resume all serviceswith immediate effect.

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After a series of desertionsby party leaders and los-

ing the coalition Governmentin Karnataka, the Congresshas finally decided to convenethe crucial Congress WorkingCommittee (CWC) meetingthis weekend to find a suc-cessor to Rahul Gandhi to leadthe party.

The party on Sundayannounced that CWC will meeton August 10 and sources saidfinding a new party chief is intop on the agenda. The meet-ing would be the first sinceRahul had announced his deci-sion to quit as the party chief.

The meeting comes afterseveral top party leaders suchas Shashi Tharoor, AmarinderSingh, Anil Shahstri, KaranSingh amongst others voicedconcern over lack of clarity overthe leadership issue and opinedthat Priyanka Gandhi was theneed of the hour.

Priyanka has said she is not

ready to take the baton sinceshe was newer to the party ascompared to her sibling Rahul,who has ruled out the possi-bility of a Gandhi family mem-ber succeeding him

Karan Singh on Sundaysaid Priyanka will be a “unify-ing force” and will enthusecadres if she takes on the man-tle of party president.

Last month, Singh had saidhe was “aghast” at the disori-entation into which the partyhas fallen following Rahul’sresignation, and urged theworking committee to meetimmediately under the chair-manship of former prime min-ister Manmohan Singh andtake necessary decisions.

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Two separate mass shootingswithin 24 hours left 30

people dead and several othersinjured in the US States ofTexas and Ohio, including onethought to be a hate crime, thelatest in a string of such inci-dents in America that haveshocked the nation.

The first shooting tookplace in the southern bordertown of El Paso in Texas, wherea 21-year-old gunman openedfire at a crowded Walmartstore, killing 20 people andwounding 26 others onSaturday.

Hours later, a man killednine people before being shotdead by police in Oregon dis-trict, a historic neighbourhoodknown for its nightclubs, bars,art galleries and shops, inDayton, Ohio early Sunday,police said. “The shooter isdeceased. There are 9 othersalso deceased. At least 16 oth-ers went to area hospitals withinjuries,” Dayton police said.

At least 26 others wereinjured, said Dayton Mayor.

Detailed report on P12

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Around two lakh jobs havebeen cut across automobile

dealerships in India in the lastthree months as vehicle retail-ers take the last resort of cut-ting manpower to tide over theimpact of the unprecedentedsales slump, according toindustry body FADA.

With no immediate signsof recovery, the Federation ofAutomobile DealersAssociations (FADA) fearedthat the job cuts may continuewith more showrooms beingshut in the near future andsought immediate Governmentintervention such as reduc-tion of GST to provide relief tothe auto industry.

“The majority of job cutshave happened in the last threemonths...It started around Mayand continued through Juneand July,” FADA PresidentAshish Harsharaj Kale toldPTI.

He further said, “Right

now most of the cuts whichhave happened are in front-endsales jobs but if this (slowdown)continues, then even the tech-nical jobs will be affectedbecause if we are selling lessthen we will also service less, soit is a cycle.”

When asked how manyjobs have been cut across thedealerships in India, he said,“Close to about two lakh.”

“It is a guesstimate that ourmembers have already cut 7-8per cent of the jobs in most ofthe dealerships as the degrowthhas been very high,” he added.

Around 2.5 million peoplewere employed directlythrough around 26,000 auto-mobile showrooms operated by15,000 dealers. Another 2.5million are indirectly employedin the dealership ecosystem, headded.

The two lakh jobs cuts inthe last three months are overand above the 32,000 peoplewho lost employment when286 showrooms were closed

across 271 cities in the 18-month period ended April thisyear, he added.

Stating that more dealer-ships have closed in the pastthree months, Kale said, “Weare collating the figuresagain...In a few cases some(dealers) have gone for closureof outlets, not the main outletsbut those which were put upanticipating some geographic

reach.”Elaborating reasons for

taking the drastic step of cut-ting jobs, he said the ‘margin oferror’ in the business in the pastfew years has really gone downwith cost almost doubling inthe last three to four years.

“The margin that we earnoverall as a business has notgone up. Therefore, if we gointo a degrowth situation we

get into cash loss. So to avoidthat, dealers have been cuttingdown on costs other than man-power...Till March this yearnone of the dealers went for anymanpower correction becausewe thought this was a tempo-rary slowdown and it will soonrecover,” he said.

However, he said, “Theway the first quarter haspanned out despite good elec-tion results and the Budget, thedegrowth continued. It is clearnow that a proper slowdownhas hit us.

Now dealers have resortedto cutting manpower.”

Terming manpower as ‘themost precious resource of deal-ers’, Kale said, “That is the lastthing we try to cut down.When the slowdown started wefirst decided that we should gofor stock reduction.

Most of OEMs have sup-ported us. While cutting othervariable expenses that we can,we did not touch manpower tillMarch and almost mid-April.”

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At a time when Peoples’Democratic Party (PDP)

Chief and former ChiefMinister Mehbooba Mufti isbusy forging unity amongmainstream political partiesin Kashmir, the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) hasasked her to explain her posi-tion before it regarding the ille-gal appointments in Jammuand Kashmir Bank.

The ACB is currentlyinvestigating complaints offinancial irregularities and ille-gal appointments in the Jammuand Kashmir Bank.

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After fuelling hopes andfrenzy about taking some

spectacular decision on thestatus of Jammu & Kashmir,curtailing Amarnath Yatra,and deploying thousands oftroops in the Valley, the ModiGovernment is expected todiscuss its option to deal withthe troubled State in a crucialCabinet meeting on Mondaymorning.

Ahead of that meeting,Home Minister Amit Shahchaired a high-level securityand intelligence meet onSunday.

The hour-long meetingwas attended by NationalSecurity Adviser Ajit Doval,Union Home Secretary RajivGauba and other senior offi-cials. The additional secre-tary of Jammu & Kashmiralso met Shah.

While senior officials weretightlipped about the outcomeof the high-level meeting thattook place in Parliament com-plex, it is understood that thesituation in Kashmir andstrategies to tackle it was dis-cussed in threadbare.

The possibility of theUnion Cabinet taking someimportant decisions onKashmir seemed very muchon the cards with PrimeMinister Narendra Moditelling his party MPs to be pre-sent in Parliament fromMonday to Wednesday. Modiwas addressing them at theend of the two-day conclave ofthe BJP MPs.

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Amongst the news of land-slides on yatra routes, traf-

fic jams and highway rowdyismthat we have been hearing inthe recent past, came the shock-ing revelation that only three,yes three, tourists visited theNanda Devi Biosphere Reservethis summer season.

No surprises that none ofthem were indigenous visitors.Compare this statistic to themore than 1.5 crore Kanwadpilgrims that visited Haridwarduring the past one month,who also brought with them20,000 odd metric tonnes ofgarbage. Where this garbagewill go, directly or indirectly, isanybody’s guess – into theGanga!

The State of Uttarakhand istoday caught in the conundrumof pilgrimage and tourism.While we want to promote ourState as a destination where onecan commune with nature andembark on adventures of a life-time, most of the time we endup disguising pilgrimage num-bers as the figures of touristarrivals.

Our State invests largeamounts in developing infra-structure for all forms oftourism while we generally endup getting more and more pil-grims. Pilgrimage travel is oftenless dependent on all-weatherroads as it is prone to econom-ic ups and downs in the mar-

ket place. Because faith-basedtravelers are committed travel-ers, they tend to save for thesereligious experiences and trav-el despite the state of the econ-omy.

Faith travelers tend to havedifferent motives for travel. Forexample, the faith-based trav-eler often travels as part of areligious obligation or to fulfilla spiritual mission. Faith-basedtravel can provide a steadyflow of income to our localtourism economy.

In 2014, while on a studytour of the flood ravaged regionof Kedarnath, where it waspredicted that the pilgrimagewould not revive, and indeedgiven the extensive damage tothe site, could not be conduct-ed for the next decade, I waspleasantly surprised to see somepilgrims walking through thefilth and the remains of thedead. For them, visiting Shiva’sabode was an article of faith,something they had to do evenin the face of all-pervadingdeath and disaster.

On the other hand, many ofus have also witnessed withconsternation on the Yatraroutes, the sad sight of pilgrimsalighting from a bus with alltheir kitchen equipment andprovisions, spreading a sheet bythe roadside, cooking and eat-ing, leaving only their trashbehind. Such visits, needless to

say, contribute nothing to localeconomies, barring garbageand a carbon footprint. Thebroader and more equipped thehighway, the less the depen-dence of village economies forfood and shelter. No wonder allvillages on our Yatra routes liein ruin, even as all dhabhaswear a forlorn look, even dur-ing peak season.

Whether we like it or not,our state is home to some of themost revered pilgrimage sites.In earlier times, people wouldembark on pilgrimages on foot,essaying their final goodbyes tofriends and family, consideringthe ardor of the task at hand.

All pilgrimage was basedon one basic principle – thegreater the rigour, the more themerit of the journey. Today,with better infrastructure, wehave shortened the duration ofsuch visits, while tourismalways thrives on lengtheningthe number days a visitor staysin the place visited.

In its very definition, pil-grimage is a meaningful jour-ney to a sacred place, givingopportunities for quiet andreflection. It was the transfor-mation from a state of alwaysdoing to a state of simply being.Today our tour operators offera week long package for visit-ing the Char Dham, not evengiving hapless pilgrims - oftennot used to mountain travel –

any breathing time. Pilgrimagewould inevitably end up ener-gising those who undertookthem – mentally, physicallyand spiritually. Today, inUttarakhand, it is tiring anddevoid of spirituality.

Often people embark onpilgrimage when they are at acrossroads in their lives, whenundergoing a change in theirlife’s direction or relationships.Others may be in search of adeeper spirituality, healing andforgiveness. Or sometimes pil-grimage marks a special day,

coming of age or other occasionfor giving thanks. Our policiesmust be oriented towards ren-dering such journeys mean-ingful, developing just the rightmix of comfort and naturalrejuvenation.

While all pilgrimage isfaith-based travel, not all faith-based tourism is pilgrimage.Sometimes one may just go outto meet the elements irrespec-tive of religious belief. TheBrazilian author, Paulo Coelho,in his fascinating parable on pil-grimage (with the same name)

has explored the need to findone's own path. According tohim, in the end, we discoverthat the extraordinary is alwaysfound in the ordinary and sim-ple ways of everyday people.

Pilgrimage, to him is a“per-fect combination of enchant-ment and insight”. Our policymakers need to discover thatinsight to bring back theenchantment of travellingthrough the mountains. It isestimated that globally, 25 percent of the traveling public isinterested in some form of pil-

grimage or faith-based tourism.When one adds to this thenumber of people who travelfor faith-based conventions,and faith-based activities suchas weddings, barring funerals,the number becomes extraor-dinarily large. World religioustravel is one of the fastest grow-ing segments in travel today.Religious travel is estimated ata value of US$18 billion and 300million travelers strong. Majorfaith-based destinations such asIsrael, Italy and Saudi Arabiahave developed large industriesthat provide services for peopleon pilgrimage.

Uttarakhand can capitaliseon the growing demand forfaith-based travel. However,the manner in which we con-duct our Kanwad and Char-Dham Yatras, or even theNanda Devi Raj Jat, needs acomplete rethink. The need isnot for more and more infra-structure, but the involvementof communities.

The need, therefore, is totrace out and imbibe, even inleisure travel, the values of pil-grimage. Understanding thesevalues is simple. For instance,one must travel to seek andlearn, not eat and drink andwallowing in luxury. Or wemust challenge ourselves,embracing physical difficulty,gaining more merit in the ardorof the journey, or even being

mindful of the cleanliness andpurity of the place visited.Today, travelling through ourfragile mountain State, travel-ers need to be reminded andeven forced to adhere to the val-ues of faith-based travel. Ourrivers and mountains just can-not afford another orgy oftruck-borne-DJ-blaring hooli-gans on trucks, waving thenational flag as a license fordrug, traffic and alcohol abuse.

By its very nature pilgrim-age is low budget and this isconducive to what our villagerscan offer in terms of food andhomestays. The Governmentmust act as a facilitator and doeverything possible to connectthe two, rather than pleadingbefore global investors, who areprofit-oriented and usuallyexploitative of the environ-ment.

Let us, as concerned citi-zens, draw up a code of conductto be followed by all pilgrims toour holy towns and sites. Let uspoint out to travelers, if theydispose of their trash on theroads. Most importantly, let usourselves display these valueswhen we travel to other desti-nations.

(The writer is an anthro-pologist, author, traveler &activist who also runs a publicwalking group called Been There,Doon That?)

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The Aakash EducationalServices Limited (AESL)

announced that the tenthedition of its annual schol-arship exam Aakash NationalTalent Hunt Exam (ANTHE)will be held on October 20this year across 24 Statesand Union Territories in thecountry.

The dates for the annualscholarship exam for 2019were announced at a functionattended by Dehradun mayorSunil Uniyal ‘Gama’ andAESL Dehradun branch headHimanshu Singh.

Being one of the largestprivate sector pan-Indiaexams, ANTHE gives deserv-ing students an opportunityto secure up-to 100 per centscholarship and helps themtake the first step in theirendeavour to become doctorsand IITians. Students study-

ing in Class VIII to XII canparticipate in the exam.

The last date for submit-ting enrolment form forANTHE 2019 is October 15,2019 with a fee of �500 whichcan also be paid through

netbanking channels, debitcard, credit card or directly atAakash Institute’s branch/cen-tre. More than 2,000 studentsacross classes VIII and XIIwill be eligible for 100 percent scholarship on tuition fee

along with 600 students eli-gible for cash awards. The tal-ent hunt will be conductedacross the States and union ter-ritories of Assam, AndhraPradesh, Bihar, Chandigarh,Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Goa,

Gujarat, Haryana, HimachalPradesh, Jammu and Kashmir,Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala,Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra,Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan,Tamil Nadu, Telangana, UttarPradesh, Uttarakhand andWest Bengal.

CEO of AESL AakashChaudhry said “We are over-whelmed by the responsethat ANTHE has receivedover the last one decade.

It has today emerged asone of the largest gateway inthe country for school stu-dents aspiring for Medical orIIT dream. More than threelakh students appeared forANTHE last year.

We are confident thatjust like the previous years,students will come out inlakhs to apply for the presti-gious talent hunt exam andtake advantage of this greatopportunity to achieve theircareer goals.”

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Alegal aid service programmewas conducted for the ben-

efit of veterans in Uttarakhandat the initiative taken by ArmedForces Tribunal (AFT) headand the State Government incoordination with State LegalServices Authority at Ranikheton the weekend.

The programme wasorganised for the ex-service-men of Uttarakhand under theguidance of AFT chairman,justice Virender Singh.

The aim of the programmewas to enhance awareness of the rights and ben-efits available to armed forces personnel, ex-ser-vicemen and their family members and alsoacquaint the ex-servicemen with the purpose,jurisdiction and functioning of the AFT.

Uttarakhand and Haryana are the two Stateswhich have included ex-servicemen in the listof persons eligible for free legal aid service underSection 12 of Legal Services Authorities Act,1987. Justice Singh delivered the inaugural

address on the occasion while major generalPraveen Kumar, the judge advocate general ofIndian Army, Air Marshal BBP Sinha, memberof AFT, Lucknow and Shailendra Sharma 'Atal'senior Central Government counsel alsoaddressed the gathering.

A large number of veterans from variousparts of Uttarakhand had turned up for the eventto derive maximum benefit from this initiative,informed the PRO Defense Wing (Lucknow).

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The first MonsoonMarothan 2019 was organ-

ised in the district headquar-ter Pauri on Sunday to attracttourists.

The run was flagged off bychief guest, Cabinet MinisterSubodh Uniyal in the presenceof State minister Dhan SinghRawat, Pauri MLAMukeshKoli, municipal coun-cil chairman Yashpal Benam,district magistrate DhiraajGarbyal and others.

The run was held in thejunior and senior categoriesfor males and females. A 10kilometres women’s open run

and 21 kilometres men’s opengroup were also part of theevent. In the men’s open 21

kilometre category, BipinKumar from Lansdowne camefirst in one hour 11 minutes

while Hari Singh fromHyderabad and ManmohanSingh from Lansdowne camesecond and third respectively.

In the 10 kilometrewomen’s open run, ReemaPatel from Varanasi, UP, camefirst followed by Sonia fromAgastyamuni in Rudraprayagin second position and Nehafrom Kashipur in UdhamSingh Nagar in third position.

In the four-kilometre racefor boys and girls, four year oldTanishk Bhandari completedthe race and was the centre ofattraction.

The winner of the 21 kilo-metre run, Bipin Kumar wasawarded �50,000 and a medal

while the 10 kilometrewomen’s race winner ReemaPatel was awarded ��,000and a medal.

Addressing the gatheringduring the prize distribution,cabinet minister SubodhUniyal greeted all participantsespecially those from Gujarat,Maharashtra, Hyderabad,Uttar Pradesh and otherplaces.

He appreciated the effortsof the Pauri district magistrate,adding that such events willhelp boost the flow of visitorsto the district.

State minister Dhan SinghRawat also expressed his viewson the occasion.

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The Booknerds held theirexciting battle among

authors “Lit Dangal 2.0” hereon Sunday. The event wit-nessed many prominentauthors, poets and novelistsfrom across Uttrakhand.

The panel of speakers con-sisted of Dhruv Bogra, JatinSethi, Anita Bhatnagar Jain,Benu Malik, Sangita Singh,Vijay Bansal, Maria Wirth,Jitender Sharma, Lokesh Ohri,Atul Pundir, Sanjeev Jain,Tathagat Anand Srivastava and

Ranvir Singh Chauhan. Co-founders of the Bookners,Rohan Raj and Neha Rajremarked that the event wasstarted to create intrigue andinterest in the writing com-munity and to attract moreattention towards it. Eachauthor was allotted a period ofseven minutes during whichthey had to showcase their tal-ent in front of the present audi-ence and the panel.

The author who came ontop at the end turned out to beAtul Pundir. Even in the high-ly improbable rainy weather

the event was a housefull por-traying the enthusiasm of thebook lovers. In the two-hourlong event intellectuals,authors, poets, bureaucratsand cadets from RIMC tookpart.

Booknerds which wasfounded in 2014, has till dateconducted over 230 eventsand hangouts in which over 40books from different authorshave been launched. In thecoming days The Booknerdswill work to bridge the gaps inthe writing community, onlineas well as offline.

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MLA, Bharatiya JanataParty State general secre-

tary and its membership cam-paign head in the State KhajanDas said that the party’s nation-al leadership has given a targetfor making 10 lakh new mem-bers of the party inUttarakhand.

However, the BJP state unithas assured the party’s centralleadership that it will induct 11lakh new members in the state.Das said this while addressingthe media after a meeting heldhere to review the BJP mem-

bership campaign. Khajan Dassaid that the party is aiming tomake one lakh new membersfrom the Nainital district.

The party’s district headPradeep Bisht has assured thatthis target will be met easily.Das said that the party workerwho brings the maximumnumber of new members in theparty will be felicitated at thestate level by the party leaders.

MLA Banshidhar Bhagat,Mandi Parishad head GajrajBisht and other office bearersand workers of the party fromthe district were among thosewho attended the meeting.

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As the number of peopleafflicted by dengue in

Dehradun rose to 158 on theweekend, Chief MinisterTrivendra Singh Rawatappealed to the people toobserve precautions, seek prop-er treatment and not to panic.

In a brief video messageshared on the social media, theChief Minister said that thenumber of dengue patients isrising considerably. He said,“Whenever one develops suchhigh fever, one should meetdoctors in government hospi-tals and seek the proper treat-ment for the ailment. Dengueis not an ailment without treat-ment. This disease is treatedproperly in government hos-pitals.” Referring to the reasonsfor the spread of dengue, heappealed to the public to clearup stagnant water from theirsurroundings because the lar-vae of the Aedes mosquitowhich causes this diseaserequire clean water to propa-gate. The chief minister stressed

that preventing the spread ofmosquitoes and protectingoneself from these pests is theeffective way to avoid gettingafflicted by dengue.

Meanwhile, on Sunday, thedistrict vector borne diseaseofficer Subhash Joshi visited theRaipur area in Dehradun fromwhere a considerable numberof the dengue cases in the cityhave been reported. On theoccasion, the Raipur hospitalmedical superintendent DrAnand Shukla informed that apublic address system was usedto inform the public aboutdengue in various localities.The public was informed aboutthe disease and measures to be

taken to avoid being afflicted byit. It was learnt that Ashahealth workers were goingfrom door to door, distributinginformational pamphlets andsending those suffering fromhigh fever to the nearest gov-ernment hospital. Similar mea-sures were also taken in theJohdi village area.

It is pertinent to mentionhere that on the weekend, inDehradun 26 new cases of thedisease were reported by thedistrict health authorities.Earlier, on Friday the healthdepartment had reported 30new cases of the disease. Withthese cases, the total number ofdengue affected patients this

season has increased to 158.According to the data provid-ed by the health department,the virus of dengue which ini-tially was concentrated in a fewareas has now spread in theentire city. Of the 26 new casesof the disease reported onSaturday, six cases were fromVani Vihar while three werefrom Shanti Vihar. Both thesecolonies are bearing the max-imum brunt of the denguemenace as 36 cases so far havebeen reported from there.Apart from these two colonies,the health department report-ed one case each from 18colonies located in differentcorners of the city.

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Aday after atotal of four

leopards werefound dead onAugust 2, theprincipal chiefconservator offorests Jai Rajdirected that ared alert bedeclared in theGarhwal region.In a letter to theprincipal chiefconservation off o r e s t s(wildlife)/chiefwildlife wardenon the weekend,the PCCF statedthat necessaryactions have tobe taken afterthree leopardswere found deadnot far fromeach other. Hehas directed ared-alert in theGarhwal region.In addition tothis, the case ofthe leoparddeaths has to beinvestigated within 15 days.Directing that the cause ofdeath of the big cats be ascer-tained, he has further askedthat copies of the post mortemreports should be sent to hisoffice. The PCCF has saidthat he should be informed assoon as the viscera test reportis received. Personal effortsshould be made to secure thereport soon.

It will be recalled here thaton August 2, department staff

on patrol discovered leopardbodies in Chidiyapur range ofHaridwar forest division,Laldhang range of Lansdowneforest division and Rawasanrange of Rajaji tiger reserveduring the morning. Theseleopards are estimated to befour to f ive years old.Additionally, a leopardessaged about three years wasalso found dead in Lalpanicompartment of Dehradunforest division on the same

day. In his written communi-cation to the chief wildlifewarden, the Rajaji tigerreserve director PK Patroinformed that the bodies ofthe three leopards inLansdowne forest division,Haridwar forest division andRajaji tiger reserve were foundwithin one kilometre radiuswhich is suspicious. Threeteams of the Lansdowne andHaridwar forest divisionsalong with Rajaji tiger reserve

had been formed to probe thearea concerned. The dogsquad from Rajaji tiger reservewas also sent to the area.Considering the scenario, it issuspected that the big catswere poisoned probably inretribution. It has been seen insuch cases in the past thatowners of cattle killed by bigcats at times, poison the killsto kill the big cat either in ret-ribution or to prevent the bigcat from killing more cattle.

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In a road accident casereported on Sunday on the

Mussoorie-Dhanaulti road, atruck transporting sandflipped over resulting in traf-fic blockade for more thanfour hours on the route.

Station House Officer(SHO) of Mussoorie policestation Bhawna Kainthola said,“The truck flipped over in the

morning and blocked theroute. First we asked for twoJCBs, which took time toreach at Bataghat, but evenwith JCBs the truck could notbe set right. Then we calleddisaster control room andasked for a crane. It took usabout four hours to clear theroute.”

According to the infor-mation provided by the localpolice, the truck driver was not

in the vehicle at the time ofaccident. The truck was bigand heavily loaded and parkedon a slope. Prima facie itappears that the truck gotunbalanced and flipped over.

For over four hours theMussoorie Dhanaulti routewas diverted both fromMussoorie and Tehri sides butwas restored after the cranesucceeded in taking the truckout of the way.

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The Herbal Research andDevelopment Institute

(HRDI) at Mandal inGopeshwar celebrated theHerb Day to encourage culti-vation of medicinal herbsamong farmers. Events wereheld in Gopeshwar and in dif-ferent blocks of Kumaon andGarhwal regions of the Statewherein planting material aswell as technical knowhowwere given to farmers by sci-entists and master trainers ofHRDI.

The HRDI directorChandra Shekhar Sanwal stat-ed that the institute has beensupporting cultivation of high-ly sought after high value med-icinal plants like Kutki, Kuthand Atisetc to strengthen themedicinal plants resource basein the state to meet their risingdemand.

It is pertinent to mentionhere that Herb Day is celebrat-ed on August 4 to popularise theusefulness and importance ofmedicinal plants and sensitisethe public about the state’s tra-ditional knowledge and usagesof medicinal plants. It is also cel-ebrated to realise the conserva-

tion value of Rare, Endangeredand Threatened (RET) speciesof medicinal plants. The day isalso celebrated to create aware-ness about cultivation of med-icinal plants.

Uttarakhand is home tosome of very high value med-icinal plants that continue to bethe mainstay of healthcaredelivery to a very large segmentof population in the country.Further growth of herbal sec-tor is critically dependent uponthe sustained supplies of med-icinal plant resources. With cul-tivation limited to only a fewmedicinal plant species, wildcollections remain the majorsupply source of herbal rawdrugs, putting acute pressure

on the wild medicinal plantresources. Many of the medic-inal species have already beenassessed as of conservationconcerns.

As conservation of wildmedicinal plant resourcesassume a very high priority, thecontinuous availability ofauthentic and quality medici-nal plants is crucial to the sus-tenance and growth of herbalsector. Further, the demand formedicinal plants is also on therise due to growth of herbal-based wellness sector. Hence,continuous use of herbals forhealth care requires qualityherbal materials and productswith authenticity and sustain-ability.

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The state meteorological cen-tre on Sunday

issued a warning ofthe possibility ofheavy to very heavyrainfall at isolatedplaces especially inR u d r a p r a y a g ,C h a m o l i ,P i t h o r a g a r h ,Nainital, Pauri andDehradun districtson Monday andTuesday. Overall in the state, theweather is likely to remain gen-erally cloudy with the possibil-ity of light to moderate rainfalland thundershowers at mostplaces. The state administrationhas asked all districts and dis-aster management teams tostay at high alert after thewarning issued by the meteo-rological centre.

In the provisional capital ofUttarakhand, light to moderaterainfall and thunderstorms areagain likely to occur at mostplaces on Monday. The maxi-mum and minimum tempera-tures are likely to be 30 degreeCelsius and 24 degree Celsiusrespectively.

Meanwhile on Sunday, themaximum and minimum tem-

peratures recorded at variousplaces in the state were 33degree Celsius and 24.2 degreeCelsius respectively inDehradun, 34.9 degree Celsiusand 27 degree Celsius inPantnagar, 22 degree Celsiusand 15.8 degree Celsius inMukteshwar, 24.4 degreeCelsius and 18 degree Celsiusrespectively in New Tehri.

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Two more suicide cases werereported on the weekend in

which two women in separate loca-tions hanged themselves to death.

In the first case reported inVasant Vihar police station, a 35year old married woman, who wassuffering from depression hangedherself in her home. The womanwas identified as Bhawana Thapaand was married for the last 15years. She had two children and herhusband works as a security guardat a bank in Gujarat. According tothe police, prima facie it appearsthat she was suffering from depres-sion and was taking treatment forit for the past three-four years.

The second case was reportedin Dalanwala police station inwhich a 59 year old woman wasfound hanging from a tree nearSanskrit University at Pritam Road.The woman was identified asBasanti Devi and was presently liv-ing in Nehru Colony. According tothe information provided by thepolice, she was suffering fromdepression and came to Dehradunin January for treatment. She calledher husband Jagat Singh Thakur atabout 2:15 in the night and saidthat she is about to commit suicide,after that she switched off thephone.

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The Prantiya Udyog Vyapar Mandal (PUVM) state pres-ident Anil Goel said that the limit for registration under

Goods and Services Tax (GST) should be increased fromRs 20 lakh to Rs 40 lakh. Talking to media persons aftera meeting of the PUVM here, Goel said that some prob-lems are being faced in filing GST returns due to some tech-nical issues in the state. Considering this, the governmentshould provide relaxation in the last date for filing GST.He said that a number of office bearers of the PUVM haveraised questions about the functioning and importance ofdistrict development authorities. The suggestions, com-plaints and details of other issues received in the Nainitalmeet of the PUVM will be listed and shared with the stateauthorities soon, he said.

Earlier in the meeting, it was decided that the stateworking committee election would be announced by theend of this month.

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The new Dehradun SeniorSuperintendent of Police (SSP)

Arun Mohan Joshi, after assumingcharge on the weekend stated that hispriority will be to work on traffic man-agement in the district as well as on therising trend of substance abuse amongthe youngsters.

SSP Joshi has stated that his prior-ities will be to work on traffic and crowdmanagement in the district. The motiveis to work with absolute transparencyand to treat every individual equally andaccording to the law.

He also said that with the increas-ing cases of cyber crime and online consin the district it is important for the cit-izens to stay aware, for which an aware-ness campaign will be conducted by thepolice department. A thorough plan willbe devised so that necessary precautions

can be taken in advance.About women safety he said that it

is important to file every complaint inregard to women safety and this will behis priority as well. The department willensure that immediate action is takenon the complaints.

Strict action will be taken againstthose who are found to be involved inillegal mining and vehicle operatorsfound to be indulging in over loadingwill be seized and penalised with heavyfine. With the coming Eid festival andIndependence Day parade it will be upto the new Dehradun SSP to manage thetraffic system in the provisional statecapital, as it has been witnessed in thepast that every function or festival in thedistrict headquarters results in traffic sit-uations throughout the day. Also, ensur-ing timely disposal of the remainingpetty offence cases will also be theresponsibility of SSP Joshi.

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Campaigning against illegal mining,over loading and other such factors

which lead to the cases of road acci-dents, three trucks were seized latenight on Saturday by Patel Nagarpolice as drivers of all three truckscould not present their driving license.One dumper was seized by Sahaspurpolice for overloading and one truckwas seized from Raipur area as thetruck was found at the time of no-entry.Also, under the supervision of CircleOfficer (CO) Dalanwala one dumperwas seized for overloading near Jhajraand drivers of three others were issuedchallan under the Motor Vehicles Actfor not providing satisfactory paperwork.

Soon after the intensive checkingcampaign of vehicles inside the districtboundaries, dumpers and vehiclesinvolved in illegal mining stoppedcoming, which according to the policeappears to have stopped because some-one informed them about the check-ing. Dehradun Senior Superintendentof Police (SSP) Arun Mohan Joshiordered that a team under SpecialOperations Group (SOG) in chargeshould identify these people who havetransferred the information so thatstrict actions can be taken against them.

In the state from the month

January to May this year, for red lightjumping, over loading in goods carri-ers, taking passengers in goods car-riages, driving under the influence ofliquor and speaking on the phone whiledriving 43,119 challans were issued byboth police and transport department.Last year in the corresponding timeperiod 41,999 challans were issued byboth the departments.

In Dehradun district from Januaryto May this year, 22,696 recommenda-tions were filed 8,354 were still pend-ing as of May 2019. Out of these rec-ommendations 9800 were foundunqualified, 2291 cases were mitigatedand 1994 cases were sent to the court.

It is pertinent to mention here thaton July 11, a 15-year old girl was killedwhile going to school on Shimla Bypassroad at Badowala. She was hit by adumper, which was being driven fastfrom the opposite direction. Thedumper was operating at the time ofno-entry, for which the victim’s fami-ly and locals accused the police of neg-ligence. After the incident DirectorGeneral (law and order) instructed thethen Dehradun SSP to fix responsibil-ity of those who permitted the saidvehicle to operate in no-entry zone.After the incident Dehradun districtpolice has been conducting continuousdrive against heavy vehicles operatingin no-time zone.

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In a bid to help those affect-ed by the recent floods in

Bihar, the Ranchi districtadministration, with the sup-port of a number of city-basedsocial organisations, is all set tosend relief material to itsneighbouring State.

A number of places havebeen identified in the city wherethe interested persons can dropin relief material for this noblecause. Some of the drop pointsidentified in the city includeJharkhand ThalassemiaFoundation in Main Road andHotel Konark near RailwayStation. However, soon the NGOsplan to come up with more suchdrop locations across the city.

Social organisations includ-ing Life Savers, Fallen Leaves,Rotaract Club and others will notjust supply foods but alsomobilise other essential items likemedicines, sleepers, clothing,toiletry, soaps and more whichcan be used by survivors in therelief camp.

Also, the organisations willcarry out the assessments togauge the families that wouldrequire support to re-establishthe settlements which are called‘back to home’ kits or ‘family kits’.

“Survivors with strong socialnetworks experience fasterrecovery and have access toneeded information, tools andassistance. Therefore, we havearranged all the mediumsthrough which we propagate themessage about this relief drive.Also, we have made commonzones to drop the necessityincluding eatables, toiletry items,and clothing.

Meanwhile, the organisa-tions have also urged people tosupport by donating help kitwhich includes matchsticks,kerosene stove, buckets, if pos-sible,” said Shreysee Banka, amember of NGO Fallen Leaves.

One back to home or fami-ly kit will include 5kgs of rice, 1kg of Toor Daal, 100gm sugar,250 gms of milk powder and 100gms each of basic spices likecoriander, turmeric, SambharMasala and others among fooditems. Apart from this, the kitwill also include an assortmentof utensils including cooking ves-sels, plates, spoons and others.There are also plans to includesanitary items like soaps, tooth-paste, detergent, sanitary padsamong others along with a num-ber of garments for the survivors.

Atul Gera of Life Saverssaid, “People can either donate afew things or an entire kitdepending on what their budgetallows. Once sufficient itemsare collected we would packthem and send them to Biharwith the help of railways.”

He added, “A similar drivewas organized by the districtadministration with our supportduring the Kerala Floods lastyear.” The flood situation inBihar remains grim as more than88 lakh people have been severe-ly hit by the calamity. People arestill struggling to stand back ontheir feet.

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Set up by Ranchi boysAniruddh Sharma and

Ayush Bathwal, Bengaluru'sThird Wave Coffee Roasters hasbeen given 15th rank amongworld's 50 best coffee shops byParis-based international sur-vey agency, Big 7 Travel.

This chain of coffee shopshas seven outlets in Bengaluruand 11 in Hyderabad and Pune.The owners plan to start twonew shops in Bengaluru laterthis month.

Aniruddh Sharma is theson of Niranjan Sharma, thewell-known entrepreneur inthe city who owns NewRajasthan Kalewalay in Lalpur.

Aniruddh and Ayush start-ed the Third Wave Coffee inBengaluru in 2017 and aim toopen at least 15 outlets in city.The coffee shop has managed toget itself recognised interna-

tionally in just two and a halfyears of its establishment. Thecoffee shop won IndiaRepresent NationalChampionship award in thesegment of coffee in the year2018 and 2019. Hygiene, puri-ty and quality are the special-

ity of the coffee shop. The Big7 Travel survey has appreciat-ed the talented staff network ofthe shop. Aniruddh did hisschooling from St. Xavier'sSchool and graduation from St.Xavier's College Ranchi beforegetting a degree in Hotel

Management from IHMBhubaneswar. He decided tolaunch the chain of Third WaveCoffee Roasters in a bid to dosomething better and innova-tive. The first spot in world sur-vey was given to Simple KaffaTaipei, Taiwan.

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After paying obeisance toGuru Nanak Dev on his

550th Prakash Parva, HaryanaChief Minister Manohar Lal onSunday announced that landmeasuring 9.75 acres would betransferred to GurudwaraChilla Sahib, Sirsa where GuruNanak Dev had spent 4 monthsand 13 days during his journey.

“Ownership rights of land,which at present rests with theState Government would betransferred in the name ofGurudwara as per the policy ofthe State Government,” saidManohar Lal while addressinga state level function orga-nized to mark the 550thPrakash Parva of Guru NanakDev at Sirsa.

The Chief Minister alsoannounced that the StateGovernment would provideall support and cooperation tothe Gurudwara Chilla Sahib forstarting projects of public wel-fare.He said that Guru Nanak

Dev had spent 4 months and 13days in Sirsa where he alsodelivered his divine message forthe welfare of the society.

One acre land would beprovided for the setting up ofSikh Dharamshala and for this,Deputy Commissioner, Sirsahas been asked to identify suit-able piece of government land,the Chief Minister said.

Manohar Lal alsoannounced to establish a SikhMuseum in Kurukshetra so asto give inspiration to the younggeneration and said that 400posts of Punjabi Teacherswould be advertised soon togive more recognition to thePunjabi language.

He further announced thatsignboards in the name ofGuru Gobind Singh would beinstalled on the national high-way passing from Haryanaupto the border of Punjab andRajasthan.

Wth a view to enable largenumber of pilgrims be itHindu, Sikh or of any other

region to visit religious places,50 per cent concession in farewould be given to them. TheState Government has recent-ly given relaxation in fare to the

senior citizens visiting holycities of Amritsar and Varanasi,he said. The Chief Ministeralso said that the StateGovernment has formed a

Trust after the name of BabaBanda Singh Bahadur for thedevelopment of Lohgarh as atourist destination. A memor-ial of Baba Banda Singh

Bahadur, Museum and MartialArt institute would soon beconstructed in Lohgarh withthe help of this Trust, he added.

While congratulating thelarge number of Gurus, saintsand devotes which convergedin Sirsa not from Haryana butfrom other states also, theChief Minister said that wehave a long history of great per-sonalities and the messagesdelivered by them from time totime play a vital role in ourlives.

He emphasized that mereeducation is not enough and tillwe do not instill moral valuesamong the children, we couldnot achieve our target in lifeand added that Saints andGurus have a big role to play inthis direction.

Manohar Lal further saidthat during the tenure of pre-sent State Government, so far,besides ensuring unprecedent-ed development in the fields ofroads and other infrastruc-ture, special emphasis has been

given on imparting qualityeducation to the children basedon moral values so that theycould contribute in developinga new nation He said that dur-ing the next tenure, Security,Health and Education (SHE)would be our thrust areas.This, he said, could not beachieved by the governmentalone and support of society atlarge would be needed toachieve this. The ChiefMinister further said that theState Government has decidedto celebrate the anniversaries ofour great personalities at thestate level so as to spread a pos-itive message to all sections ofthe society.

The coffers of the StateGovernment are always openfor the welfare work of peoplebelonging to all sections of thesociety, he added. Earlier, theChief Minister inaugurated ablood donation camp near thevenue and also went around anexhibition put up on the life ofGuru Nanak Dev .

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Renowned advocate and for-mer Aam Aadmi Party

(AAP) leader HS Phoolka hasasked the Punjab Vidhan SabhaSpeaker Rana Kanwar PalSingh to accept his resignationas Vidhan Sabha member or hewould knock the door of thecountry’s Apex Court.

Phoolka, who had submit-ted his resignation as DakhaMLA in October 2018, hasasked the Speaker to accept hisresignation so that by-pollscould be held in his assemblysegment along with the twovacant seats — Jalalabad andPhagwara. “If the Speaker failto accept my resignation, Imay approach the SupremeCourt,” he declared in a letterwritten to the Speaker.

Phoolka, who has resignedfrom Vidhan Sabha in Octoberlast, and also from AAP inJanuary this year, is not attend-ing the ongoing monsoon ses-sion that started on Friday.

Phoolka had earlier toowritten to Speaker Rana K PSingh saying he will not havea rethink over his resignation.He had earlier said the Speakerhad assured him that he wouldtake a considered decision onhis resignation. It was earlier

believed that the lawmakerhad not submitted his resigna-tion in a proper format.Phoolka had stepped down topress for immediate actionagainst those involved in des-ecrating the Guru Grant Sahibin the state in 2015.

While quitting as MLA, hehad claimed the CongressGovernment had not takenaction against those named inthe Justice Ranjit SinghCommission's report on sacri-lege incidents.

In his fresh communica-tion to the speaker on Sunday,Phoolka wrote, "I had originallysubmitted my resignation inthe month of October 2018,thereafter, I had personallyappeared before you and hadalso submitted a one-line res-ignation from the VidhanSabha.” "After that I hadresigned from the Aam AadmiParty. You had called me for ahearing on March 23, 2019 and

in that meeting also, I hadmade it clear to you that I haveresigned from the party and myresignation may be accepted,”Phoolka stated. "And I had fur-ther told you that in case youfeel my resignation is not in the(proper) format, then tell me inwhat format it should be, (and)I will sign that," he wrote.

"Despite all this, till todaymy resignation has not beenaccepted as yet.

I request you to accept myresignation so that bye-elec-tions for Dhaka constituencycould be held with Phagwaraand Jalalabad constituencies,"he said.

BJP's Som Prakash andShiromani Akali Dal's SukhbirSingh Badal, who were theMLAs fromNotably, Phagwaraand Jalalabad respectively, wereelected to the Lok Sabha fromHoshiarpur and Ferozepurrespectively in general electionsearlier this year.

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Ahead of the 150th GandhiJayanti, the India Post on

Sunday organised a memorialpostal ticket exhibition at theBaxi Jagabandhu EnglishMedium School-2 atSatyabhamapur under Baliantablock to commemorateMahatma Gandhi’s OdishaPadyatra and his stay in theState.

Noted freedom fighter andformer MP Bhabani CharanPatnaik and MLA ShashiBhushan Behera inauguratedthe exhibition. A postal envel-op to commemorate Gandhi’sstay at Balianta was alsoreleased on the occasion.

The envelop has been pre-pared with help of the BaliantaMahatma Padyatra SmrutiParishad.

Among others, OdishaChief Post Master General DrSantosh Kumar Kamila, StateDirector G Gurunathan,Bhubaneswar Postal Divisionchief Satyabadi Biswal, notedpostal ticket collector and for-mer Chief Secretary SahdevSahoo attended the pro-gramme.

The guests encouraged stu-dents to take to philately to gainmore knowledge. During his

Harijan Padyatra, MahatmaGandhi had stayed atSatyabhamapur on May 12,1934. He visited different areasalong the Kuakhai and

Kushabhadra rivers for thenext three days and preachednonviolence, remedies foruntouchability and messagesfor gaining Independence. In

a first, Gandhi facilitated entryof Harijan people in the localNikunja Biharitemple.Satyabhamapur PostMaster Indira Priyadarshini

coordinated the meeting.Guests distributed prizesamong winner students ofdebate competitions held onideologies of Gandhi.

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India successfully conductedtwo back-to-back flight tests

of its state-of-the-art quickreaction surface-to-air missiles(QRSAM) against live aerialtargets from a base in Odishaon Sunday.

The Defence Research andDevelopment Organisation(DRDO) successfully test-firedthe two missiles from the inte-grated test range (ITR) atChandipur near here.

"Two missiles were testedagainst two live targets meetingcomplete mission objectivesof engaging the targets.QRSAM, with many state-of-the-art technologies, engaged

the targets at different rangesand altitudes," an official state-ment said.

The entire mission wascaptured by various electro-optical tracking systems, radarsystems and telemetry systems.

The all-weather and all-ter-rain QRSAM system has beendeveloped for the Army, withsearch and track on the movecapability having a very shortreaction time.

Defence Minister RajnathSingh has congratulated theDRDO on achieving the sig-nificant milestone, the state-ment said.

"The systems are equippedwith indigenously-developedphased array radar, inertial navigation system, data link and RF seeker," it said. The missile, which can be mounted on a truck and stored

in a canister, is equipped withelectronic counter measuresagainst jamming by aircraftradars, defence sources said.

QRSAM uses solid-fuelpropellant and has a range of25-30 km, the sources said.

The first trial of theQSRAM was conducted onJune 4, 2017, they said. OnFebruary 26, 2019, two roundsof trials were successfully car-ried out on the same day.

The two missiles were test-ed for different altitude andconditions. The test flights hadsuccessfully demonstrated theiraerodynamics, propulsion,structural performance andhigh manoeuvring capabili-ties, the sources added.

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The Janata Dal (United), anNDA ally headed by Bihar

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, onSunday announced that it wouldgo it alone in the upcomingAssembly elections in neigh-bouring Jharkhand that has aBJP-led government.

The JD(U) will also try toemerge as a political alternativein the current situation plaguedby "mob lynching, corruption,and rapes" in that state, theparty's Jharkhand unit chiefSalkhan Murmu said.

Reacting to this, theJharkhand unit of the BJP saidthe party expects that the JD(U)would side with it on develop-ment plank. "We are looking for-ward to contesting as manyseats as possible (in Jharkhand),

depending on the number ofwinnable candidates we get. Weare not averse to contesting allthe 81 seats if we get as manygood candidates," Murmu toldPTI here. Murmu made theannouncement here a day afterhe held deliberations withKumar and the party's nationalvice president and poll strategistPrashant Kishor. "The poll bugle(in Jharkhand) will be soundedby Nitish Kumar on August 25at Ranchi, five days after thelaunch of a Nitish Lao JharkhandBachao campaign at all districtheadquarters in the state to gal-vanize public support in ourfavour," he said.

The JD(U) had announcedon June 9 that it will not be a partof the BJP-led NationalDemocratic Alliance (NDA)outside Bihar and will contest the

upcoming Assembly polls infour states on its own. The partytook the decision in its nationalexecutive meeting to attain thestatus of a national recognisedparty by 2020.

The JD(U) has emerged asthe second largest party in theassembly polls held in BJP-ruledArunachal Pradesh. It has alsomade inroads in Nagaland.

In the past, the JD(U) hadalso contested some assemblyseats in the BJP stronghold stateslike Gujarat and Karnataka.Making it clear that the JD(U)will not have any tie- up with theBJP in Jharkhand, notwith-standing the alliance between thetwo parties in Bihar, Murmu saidthe party was planning to launcha campaign on August 9 againstincidents of mob lynching, cor-ruption and rape in Jharkhand.

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After Union Civil AviationMinister Hardeep Singh

Puri advice to cap on airfare toand from Srinagar, the nation-al carrier Air India on Sundayannounced reduction of faresfor flights in and out ofSrinagar, with Srinagar-Delhitickets priced at Rs 6,715 andDelhi-Srinagar at Rs 6,899 tillAugust 15.

The fare drop came barelyan hour after the Air India saidit is capping ticket prices to andfrom Srinagar at Rs 9,500 tillIndependence Day in view ofthe prevailing situation inJammu & Kashmir. Puri hasasked all the Airlines to rein inthe surging Air Fares for pil-grims returning fromAmarnath dham.

According to informationgiven by Air India, if a passen-ger cancels his flight from

Srinagar before August 15 orchanges the date of his journey,he/she will be given a fullrefund for his ticket and nocharge will be imposed in caseof a change made in travel dates.

Despite the Director-General of Civil Aviation(DGCA) directives not toincrease airfare to/fromSrinagar, airfares have surgedvery steeply after the StateGovernment asked Amarnath

Yatra pilgrims and othertourists to cut short their stayand return amid threats of ter-ror attack in the region.

Domestic airlines IndiGo,SpiceJet, GoAir and AirAsiahave hiked their fares betweenthe Rs 10,000 to Rs 20,000range. The usual rates onSrinagar-Delhi route are Rs3,000-3500. Moreover, flightsfrom Srinagar to Jammu havealso spiked up to Rs 16,000.

Also, as per the web portalsof all domestic airlines of theSrinagar route, most of the tick-ets have been sold out.

The Kashmir Governmenthad on Friday issued an advi-sory asking Yatris and touriststo return home as soon as pos-sible. “Unnecessary panic isbeing created by linking this toall kinds of other issues. A puresecurity measure is beingmixed up with issues with

which it has no connection.That is the cause of the panic,”a notice from the HomeSecretary and the DivisionalCommissioner had said.

On Friday, the DGCAasked airlines to operate extraflights to and from Srinagar tofly out Amarnath pilgrimsfrom the valley. Airlines suchas Air India, IndiGo andVistara announced that giventhe turmoil, they were tem-porarily waiving off cancella-tion and rescheduling chargesfor flights to and from Jammu& Kashmir. Vistara, GoAir andIndiGo have waived off can-cellation and reschedulingcharge fee for flights to orfrom Jammu & Kashmir tillAugust 9.Air India also took toTwitter announcing that it willgive a full fee waiver onrescheduling or cancellationfor all flights to or fromSrinagar till August 15.

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The Centre plans to open an“Uphaar Sangrahalaya”

(Gift Museum) where all theGovernment functionaries willbe bound to deposit the giftsthey receive while dischargingtheir duties. The guidelines tothis effect have been framedand the same are expected to beshortly notified.

IAS and IPS officers haveto take prior permission fromthe Government before accept-ing gifts valuing more than Rs5,000. The bureaucrats are evenrequired to inform theGovernment if they acceptgifts of over Rs 25,000 fromtheir relatives or friends.

As of now, the PrimeMinister, his Council OfMinisters and senior officersare bound to deposit the giftsthey receive in foreign coun-tries in the Government’s trea-sure trove — Toshkhana.

According to the draft rulesprepared by the Ministry ofFinance and circulated to allministries and departments, astrong room called UpaharSangrahalaya would be estab-lished in the office of theController General of Accountswhere Government func-tionaries will be bound todeposit the gifts they receivefrom “domestic/unknown”sources. These rules will applyto every person appointed to acivil service or posts (includinga civilian in Defence Service) inconnection with the affairs ofthe Union Government.

The proposal states thatthat the officers should notaccept any gift in case wheresanction of the Government isrefused under the Central CivilServices (Conduct) Rules. Incase the gifts have been accept-ed by the Government func-

tionary and sanction for thesame is refused later on, thesame have to be deposited in thetreasure wallet. But the giftsreceived by the Governmentfunctionaries from near relativesand friends under the specifiedrules need not to be depositedwith the Upahar Sangrahalay.

The decision regarding dis-posal of articles deposited in theUphaar Sangrrahalay willreportedly be taken by the JointController General of Accounts(Administration) of the strongroom. All articles received in theUpahar Sangrahalay will report-edly be valued at the earliest bya board consisting of the JointController General of Accounts,Deputy Controller General andAccounts Officer of theAdministration in consultationwith the Customs Appraiser.And the value assessed by theBoard would be treated as thefair price of the articles.

The proposal said, “UpaharSangrahalay articles such asjewellery etc which are not like-ly to be required for use or fordisplay as laid down in Rule 14of these rules, may be sold attheir book value to anybody(an individual, a firm, a com-pany or an association of per-sons), by Accounts Officer(Administration) Where anarticle has been in the UpaharSangrahalay for more than twoyears, it should be re-valued bythe Board before it is sold bythe Accounts Officer.”

The proposal said the assis-tance of the a Scheduled Bankwould be necessary for dispos-al of gold and diamond articlesand approval of the Boardshould be obtained in caseswhere it is proposed to sell arti-cles at reduced price. It said arti-cles which are neither neededfor any presentation or dispos-al should be sold by e-auction.

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Delayed and deficient mon-soon have raised concerns

over the outlook for agricultureyields, food prices and rural sen-timents. As per the InvestmentInformation and Credit RatingAgency (ICRA) report on‘South West Monsoon 2019-Update’, the overall volume ofrainfall during June-July 2019was considerably below normal,at 90.8 per cent of Long PeriodAverage (LPA), led primarily bythe significant shortfall record-ed in June 2019. Weak El Ninoconditions over Pacific Oceancoupled with cyclone Vayu inArabian sea impeded theprogress.

While the IndiaMeteorological Department(IMD)’s latest data, Indiarecorded 453.3 mm rainfall asagainst the normal of 489.3mm, a deficiency of 7 percentso far. As many as 12 sub divi-sions are faced deficient rain-fall across the country. IMD

expects normal monsoon inAugust and September due tofavourable weather conditions.

According to ICRA, nnterms of the major regions,substantial deficit was record-ed in the case of the SouthPeninsula (19 per cent belowLPA), as on July 31, 2019.Moreover, the deficit stood at11 per cent below LPA, 8 percent below LPA and 5 per centbelow LPA, respectively, in thecase of the North-East India,North-West India and CentralIndia. “As many as 14 subdivi-sions received deficient rainfall-- Gangetic West Bengal;Jharkhand; West Uttar Pradesh;Uttarakhand; Haryana,Chandigarh and Delhi;Himachal Pradesh; Odisha;Gujarat region; Saurashtra andKutch; Marathwada; Telangana;Tamil Nadu, Puducherry andKaraikal; South InteriorKarnataka; and Kerala andMahe,” the ICRA said.

“Notwithstanding sub-stantial weekly variation 19

subdivisions received normalprecipitation on a cumulativebasis till July 31, 2019, where-as three subdivisions recordedexcess rainfall,” it said. This islikely to have an adverse impacton agricultural output andincomes in those regions.Moreover, some districts inAssam and Bihar have report-ed heavy flooding in the recentweeks, which may also damp-en the outlook of crop outputin these areas.

“This is likely to have anadverse impact on agricultur-al output and incomes in these

regions. Moreover, some dis-tricts in Assam and Bihar havereported heavy flooding in therecent weeks which may alsodampen the outlook of cropoutput in these areas,” saidICRA adding that temporaldistribution has beenunfavourable with a low 26 percent of instances of normalrainfall across the sub-divi-sions on a weekly basis.

As per AgricultureMinistry’s latest data, area sownto almost all kharif (summer)crops was lagging so far due todeficit rains and floods, with rice

acreage at only 223.5 lakhhectare and pulses in 105.14 lakhhectare. As per the AgricultureMinistry’s latest ministry data,rice — the main kharif crop —has been planted in 223.53 lakhhectare so far in the currentkharif season of the 2019-20crop year (July-June), downfrom 255.48 lakh hectare a yearago. Sowing of kharif cropsbegin with the onset of south-west monsoon and harvestingfrom October onwards.

Similarly, acreage of puls-es was down at 105.14 lakhhectare as against 113.74 lakhhectare, while that of coarsecereals at 136.17 lakh hectare asagainst 145.16 lakh hectare inthe said period.

The coverage of oilseedswas also less so far as 149.49 lakhhectare was covered so far thiskharif season when comparedwith 157.39 lakh hectare a yearago. Among cash crops, areaunder sugarcane and juteremained lower, while cottonacreage remained higher so far.

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Realising that ‘handing overthe control’ of unruly Delhi

Zoo, also known as NationalZoological Park to the CentralZoo Authority (CZA) will notbe an easy affair, the UnionEnvironment Ministry is nowmulling various options —from transferring it to theDelhi Government to bringingit under the ambit of a society— for its better management.

The Delhi Zoo is the onlyzoo in the country under theMinistry however followingallegation of rampant mis-management and irregulari-ties in animal record, it haddecided to handover it to thestatutory body, CZA.

Sources in the Ministryadmitted that while in a bid toget ‘rid’ of the Delhi Zoo fol-lowing various reports of finan-

cial mismanagement andadministrative irregularities,the Ministry may have hastilyannounced its plans to han-dover the management to theCZA, but now it has dawnedupon it that such a step is fullof legal complications.

“For instance, operationof the zoo (Delhi Zoo) by theCZA will amount to conflict ofinterest,” as being regulatorybody, direct control in respectof Delhi zoo would interferewith efficient and unbiasedperformance of regulatory roleof CZA in respect of matterconcerning to Delhi Zoo,” saidthe sources.

They cited certain provi-sions under the WildlifeProtection Act 1972, whichdoes not allow the CZA tooperate a zoo. As per the sub-section (A) of Sec 38 C theCZA has to lay down standards

and norms in operation ofzoos. “And since CZA has toregulate operation and man-agement of zoos and has been

assigned a regulatory func-tion, the CZA cannot operatea zoo,” they pointed out.

Not only this, said the

sources, the CZA officials willhave to delegate powers by thegovernment to exercise powersfor establishment matters of theDelhi Zoo.

Formation of a society isanother option. But it meanslots of homework to be donebefore that can happen. Theyexplained,” the formation of thesociety for management of theDelhi Zoo and its registrationshall involve lots of works likepreparation of bye-laws of thesociety, legal vetting, concur-rence of the Ministry ofFinance followed by consulta-tion and preparation of thenote for approval of theGovernment.

“All of these works are jobof the Wildlife Division and notof the CZA.” The last option willbe to ask the Delhi Governmentto operate Delhi Zoo, which thesources said would be in con-

formity with the provisions ofthe Wildlife (Protection) Act,1972. However, given thestrained relations between theBJP-led Centre and the KejriwalGovernment in Delhi, the trans-fer to the later will, in most like-lihood, might not happensmoothly.

Delhi Zoo from time totime had been in the news forall the wrong reasons. InJanuary 8, 2019, in an explosiveaffidavit filed before the DelhiHigh Court, a panel led by thenCZA member secretary DNSingh (who is retired now),pointed out several irregulari-ties such as fudging of animaldeath data, not carrying post-mortem in case of unnaturalanimal death, concealing ofanimal deaths, and mysteriousnature of deaths among others.The panel had sought actionagainst the erring officials.

New Delhi: Israel greeted Indiaon friendship day with a Twittermessage that featured the song‘yeh dosti’ from Bollywoodblockbuster Sholay, drawing anequally warm response fromPrime Minister Narendra Modiwho asserted that the bondbetween the two countries is“strong and eternal”.

“Happy #Friend-shipDay2019 India! May ourever strengthening friendship& growing partnership touchgreater heights,” the Israeli embassy said in a tweeton Sunday.

The message had the Hindilyrics “yeh dosti hum nahitodenge” (We will not breakthis friendship) of the songfrom the 1975 movie “Sholay”,starring Amitabh Bachchan,Dharmendra and HemaMalini, and emoticons con-veying that Israel loves India.

It had a short montage onvarious meetings betweenModi and his counterpartBenjamin Netanyahu, with themusic from the song playing inthe background. Modiresponded with a tweet inHebrew saying India and Israelhave proved their friendshipover time.

“Thank you and wishing aHappy Friendship Day toIsrael’s wonderful citizens andmy good friend Netanyahu.“India and Israel are time test-ed friends. Our bond is strongand eternal! May the friendshipbetween our nations grow andprosper even more in the timesto come!” he said.

Both Modi and Netanyahuare known to share a greatchemistry which is visible inbilateral meetings. Netanyahu,who failed to form a coalitionafter the April polls, plans to visitIndia ahead of the repeat elec-tions in September. Modi visit-ed Israel in July 2017, the first byan Indian Prime Minister in 70years. During the historic visit,the warmth between Modi andNetanyahu, also known as Bibi,was apparent. PTI

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The CBI is carrying outsearches at the residence of

expelled BJP MLA KuldeepSingh Sengar and otheraccused in connection withthe Unnao rape victim’s acci-dent case, officials said onSunday.

The search operation isspread across at least 17premises in four districts ofUttar Pradesh - Lucknow,Banda, Unnao, Fatehpur, theysaid.

The premises of otheraccused in these districts arealso being searched. Sengar,nine others and 15-20 uniden-

tified persons were booked formurder by the CBI in the acci-dent case.

On July 30, the car inwhich the victim, who hasaccused Sengar of raping her athis residence on June 4, 2017,was travelling was hit by anover-speeding truck in RaeBareli. Sengar, who is facing aprobe since last year, wasexpelled from the BJP thisweek after the Uttar Pradeshgovernment came under criti-cism for not providing enoughsecurity to the victim.

Two of the victim’s auntswere killed, while she and herlawyer were critically injured inthe accident.

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The Union Health Ministryhas asked the Indian

Council of Medical Research(ICMR) to probe into the alle-gations against the Indian armof Swiss food giant, Nestle, forallegedly sponsoring researchin five Indian hospitals in vio-lation of a law that protects andpromotes breastfeeding.

The move followed after anNGO Breastfeeding PromotionNetwork of India (BPNI),wrote to the Ministry com-plaining that the Nestle hadviolated the infant milk sub-stitutes, feeding bottles andinfant foods act, also known asthe IMS Act which prohibitsdirect and indirect sponsorshipof health workers by productmanufacturers.

Nestle, however, has deniedthe allegations stating that thetrials were being conductedafter following all the norms.

In a letter dated August 2,Health Secretary Preeti Sudaninstructed ICMR director gen-eral Balram Bhargava to“ensure that all trials in futureare screened for any infringe-ment of IMS Act”. ThePrint hasseen a copy of the letter.

The IMS Act bars financialinducements, pecuniary bene-fit, and funding of seminars,educational courses, contests,fellowships or research forhealth workers by companiesmanufacturing baby productslisted under the IMS Act.

According to the BPNicomplaint, Nestle India Ltd islisted as the primary sponsorand source of monetary ormaterial support to five hospi-tals conducting the researchtitled “MulticentricObservational Study toObserve Growth in Pretermhospitalized infants”.

The leading manufacturerof infant milk substitutes andinfant foods has been found tosponsor research in hospitalsnamely Cloudnine Hospital,Bengaluru, Institute of ChildHealth, Kolkata, ManipalHospital, Bengaluru, Sir GangaRam Hospital New Delhi, and Calcutta Medical ResearchInstitute, Kolkata, as per the BPNi.

“On examining the ICMRClinical Trial Registry main-tained by the ICMR, BPNI con-firmed that Nestle IndiaLimited, a producer of infantmilk substitutes and infantfoods, is sponsoring research,”said the BPNi letter.

However, the Nestlespokesperson said that“Clinical study for the purposeof scientific information is notprohibited under the IMS Act.The IMS Act does not dis-courage or prohibit dissemina-tion of scientific information.”

In a statement, thespokesperson said the objectiveof the clinical study was toencourage science-basedresearch and all InstitutionalEthics Committee approvalshad been obtained from theparticipating sites.

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In a move to ensure that ben-efits of various welfare

schemes of the ModiGovernment reach the target-ed sections of the society, theBJP has asked its Ministers tohold monthly dinner meet-ings with party MPs andupdate them about theschemes.

A decision to this effectwas taken on the first day of theBJP’s two-day training programme for its MPs on Saturday.

Parliamentary AffairsMinister Pralhad Joshi said allparty MPs from both LokSabha and Rajya Sabha havebeen divided in groups of 20-25 MPs each.

The Ministers will invitethem on dinners and will dis-cuss the Government’s workingand its various welfare schemes,he said. The first such meetingswere held at several Ministers’residence on Saturday, he added.

This exercise will not berestricted to the periods duringparliament sessions alone butwould be continue on a month-

ly basis, he said. Since the BJPcame to power in 2014, it hasbeen consistently engaging itsMPs to spread words about var-ious achievements of the gov-ernment and the welfareschemes begun by it.

After the tabling of theUnion Budget also, the party’stop brass had asked its MPs todiscuss its key initiatives withlocals in their respective con-stituencies. The BJP had alsoasked its MPs to carry out‘padyatra’ in their respectivesegments to inform votersabout various welfare schemesof the Government.

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Amaravati: The continuingheavy flood in Godavari riveraffected over 74,000 people inparts of East and West Godavaridistricts in Andhra Pradeshon Sunday with nearly 18,000of them being shifted to reliefcamps, officials said.

A second warning signalwas issued at Sir Arthur CottonBarrage at Dowaleswaram aswater flow in the river, whichhas been in spate since last weekfollowing heavy monsoon rains,crossed the 13 lakh cusecsmark on Sunday morning andalmost the entire quantum wasbeing let out into the Bay ofBengal.

However, there were nocasualties reported and teams ofthe National Disaster ResponseForce and the State DisasterResponse Force reached out tothe affected areas with essentialsupplies and food.

All required measures havebeen taken by the Collectors ofthese two districts and the sit-uation was under control, the

state Disaster ManagementAuthority (SDMA) said in arelease.

Power supply remained cutoff while road and communi-cation network were badlydamaged in the two districts, itsaid.

As per preliminary esti-mate, damage to roads andother infrastructure was �6.45crore.

The heavy floods batteredat least six mandals in the twodistricts with the impact moreon East Godavari where 52,500people were affected, theSDMA said adding a total of21,568 were hit in WestGodavari.

In all, people in 280 villagesin both the districts were facingthe brunt of the flood fury, theauthority said.

The famous GoshpadaKshetram on the banks ofGodavari at Kovvuru was inun-dated, following which templeshere were closed.

The water-level touched 29metres at Polavaram dam con-struction site, but all access tothe project remained cut off asthe main approach Kademmasluice bridge submerged.

For the fifth consecutiveday, island villages underDevipatnam mandal of EastGodavari district remained indarkness as power supply wascut off.

Consequently, as many as17,632 people were moved torelief camps where over 35,000food packets have been dis-tributed for them on Sundayafternoon, the release said.

The Yedduvagu andSiddaramvagu bridges in WestGodavari district remain sub-merged, cutting off trans-portation to villages in theregion.

Rice (25 kg to each affect-ed family), kerosene, edible oil,potatoes and redgram daal havebeen supplied for the flood vic-tims in the two districts, theSDMA release said.

In West Godavari, officialsorganised 47 medical camps inthe flood-hit areas to preventoutbreak of communicable dis-eases.

State Panchayat RajMinister PeddireddiRamachandra Reddy spoke toCollectors of the Godavaridistricts and reviewed the sit-uation. PTI

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At least six persons werekilled in rain-related inci-

dents in Mumbai and elsewhereMaharashtra, even as the IndianAir Force (IAF) helicopters air-lifted 58 people marooned in aflooded village in Kalyan talukaof Thane district and the NDRFand the local fire brigade per-sonnel rescued at least 850stranded people from inundat-ed low-lying areas of Kurla andSanta Cruz in Mumbai andVasai taluka in Palghar district.

The skies opened up inMumbai and several parts ofMaharashtra for the secondconsecutive day, inundating therailway tracks at several placesand low-lying areas across themetropolis and adjoining areasand thus affecting the suburbantrain services and road traffic.

Being a Sunday, normal lifein Mumbai remained by andlarge unaffected as sizeable sec-tions of Mumbaikars had cho-

sen to stay indoors. However,people living in low-laying areasbore the maximum of the heavyrains that battered the metrop-olis and adjoining areas.

While a slum dweller iden-tified as one Mehaboob MazarShaikh (20) was swept away inswollen waters of a creek atDharvi in north-centralMumbai, one Mala BhumannaNaagam (52) and her SanketBhumanna Naagam (26) wereelectrocuted in their home nearRaje Sambaji school at SantaCruz’s Golibar Rao in north-west Mumbai.

A 14-year-old boy –PavanPrajapati – was washed away inflood waters at Mori village inVasai taluka of Palghar district.Two persons from Pune – iden-tified as Nitin Shelar, (37) andVaishakh Nambiar (38) –drowned at a waterfall in Satarain western Maharashtra. Thetwo deceased had gone for pic-nic along with others when themishap took place.

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Lucknow: The Uttar PradeshGovernment on Sunday shunt-ed out the District Magistrateand Superintendent of Police ofSonbhadra, besides orderingaction against 13 other officialsafter they were indicted in aninquiry into the killing of 10Gond tribals last month over aland dispute.

Addressing a press confer-ence at his residence, ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath saidFIRs have been registeredagainst against 28 people in thismatter. Twelve primary mem-bers of Adarsh Krishi SahkariSamiti, Umbha, who are alive,will also be booked for grab-bing gram sabha land.

The disputed land inUmbha and Saphi villages alsobe transferred back and regis-tered in the name of gramsabha, he said, while announc-ing that a Special InvestigationTeam (SIT) will look into thematter.

Adityanath said depart-mental proceedings have beeninitiated against SonbhadraDistrict Magistrate AnkitKumar Agrawal andSuperintendent of Police

Salman Taj Patil for taking"one-sided decision" againstthe villagers.

Directives have been issuedto attach Agrawal and Patil tothe Department ofAppointment and Personneland the DGP Headquarters,respectively, he said.

S Ramalingam has beenmade the new DistrictMagistrate of Sonbhadra, whilePrabhakar Chaudhary is thenew Superintendent of Police,officials said.

"The entire matter will beprobed by an SIT. The SIT willbe headed by DIG SIT JRavindra Gaud, and will haveAdditional SP Amrita Mishraalong with three inspectors.DG SIT R P Singh will be mon-itoring the work of the SIT," theChief Minister said.

"Action has been initiatedagainst eight gazetted officials,including the district magis-trate, superintendent of police,additional SP, three circle offi-cers, ARO co-operative andARO (Revenue Department).Seven non-gazetted officials,including three inspectors, oneSI, two head constables and one

constable, will also be probed,"he said.

He said another team willbe set up under AdditionalChief Secretary (Revenue)Renuka Kumar to look into theissue of land grabbing by "fake"societies in the last 60-70 yearsin Mirzapur and Sonbhadra.

"Fake societies inSonbhadra and Mirzapur havegrabbed more than one lakhacre of land. In 1972, then chiefminister Hemwati NandanBahuguna had constituted aprobe committee underMangaldev Visharad. However,no action was taken as a num-ber of Congress leaders wereinvolved," Adityanath said.

"The Government hasformed a six-member teamwhich will probe into the landgrabbed by fake societies inMirzapur and Sonbhadra andthen using it for their person-al use. The probe report will besubmitted in three months'time," he added. In July, 10 peo-ple were killed and 28 injuredin the clash after a villageheadman and his supportersopened fire on a group of trib-als over a land dispute. PTI

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Patna: Bihar Chief MinisterNitish Kumar on Sundaylamented that his ferventrequest for grant of central sta-tus to Patna University twoyears ago was dismissed byPrime Minister NarendraModi denying the institutionmuch needed help.

He said he is hopeful nowthat the university will get itsdue as Vice-President MVenkaiah Naidu is present atthe programme held to observethe centenary of the library ofthe varsity.

Later in his address, Naidusaid he would talk to UnionHRD Minister RameshPokhriyal and find out if mea-sures could be taken to accordcentral university status to it.

Had his request beenaccepted two years ago, theglory of the institute which wasonce considered "the greatestnot just in the country, but thewhole of Asia", could havebeen restored, said Kumar, an

alumnus of the university,referring to its centenary cel-ebrations held in October,2017.

At that programme twoyears ago, Kumar said, he hadrepeatedly requested Modi,who shared the dais with him,"with folded hands" to consid-er the demand for a central sta-tus to the university.

"But my plea was turneddown," Kumar said.

The prime minister, whohad spoken afterwards, haddismissed the request statingthat the idea of granting cen-tral status to universities hadbecome obsolete and PatnaUniversity would do better toavail of the opportunities athand given the government'sthrust on making institutes ofhigher learning world class.

The development hadcome barely a couple ofmonths after Kumar returnedto the NDA and it had led toopposition parties like Lalu

Prasad's RJD launching a bar-rage of ridicule on the chiefminister.

"That was, however, a dif-ferent occasion. Today we arehere to celebrate the centenaryof the library of PatnaUniversity," Kumar said recol-lecting that the vice presidentwas also present at that pro-gramme as the chief guest.

Turning towards Naidu,whom Kumar has known sincethe days they were cabinetcolleagues in the Atal BihariVajpayee government, Kumarsaid, "Now that you are amongus, I hope something would bedone to give this university itsdue. The state government isdoing its bit. But had theCentre agreed to take it over,it would have made a world ofdifference."

The chief minister saidBihar is the land of scholarslike Aryabhatta and Chanakyaancient seats of learning likeNalanda. PTI

Thiruvananthapuram: KeralaIAS officer SriramVenkitaraman, arrested afterthe car driven by him fatallyknocked down a journalist, wason Sunday shifted to the"remand cell" in theGovernment Medical CollegeHospital here from a privatehealth-care facility, police said.

Amid tight security andhigh drama, Venkitaraman,who got himself admitted to theprivate hospital soon after theaccident on Saturday, wasbrought out in a stretcher witha face mask and shifted to themedical college hospital afterbeing produced before a mag-istrate.

The 33-year-old officer wasseen lying motionless on thestretcher with his spectacleson. The IAS officer was shiftedto the Government hospitalafter charges that "five startreatment" was being given tohim in the private hospital,despite being remanded to judi-

cial custody. Venkitaraman hadallegedly driven the car in anintoxicated state and knockeddown K Mohammed Basheer

(35), Bureau Chief ofMalayalam daily "Siraj" while hewas riding a motorcycle in theearly hours of Saturday. PTI

Alappuzha(Ker): Kerala PWDMinister G Sudhakaran,known for making controver-sial statements, on Sundaycriticised IAS and IPS officials,saying there were many peo-ple like arrested IAS officerSriram Venkitaraman in thecivil service.

Venkitaraman was arrest-ed Saturday after a car he wasdriving in an allegedly inebri-ated condition fatally knockeddown a journalist inThiruvananthapuram.

"I had said earlier alsothat there are similar type ofpeople (who drink and drive

in IAS and IPS). They consid-er themselves as God.

They are human beings,"Sudhakaran told reportershere in response to queriesregarding the accident involv-ing the civil service officer.Observing that one shouldnot have a notion that thecharacter of a person wouldimprove if he cleared IASexamination, the minister said,"It is only an exam." The IASofficer, who was allegedlydrunk, rammed his car into abike, killing K M Basheer,bureau chief of a vernaculardaily. PTI

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Activists and people fromvarious walks of life on

Sunday staged a protest againstthe Right to Information(Amendment) Bill, 2019 Billpassed last month by both theHouses of Parliament, a legis-lation that empowers theUnion Government to fixtenures and the salaries ofinformation commissioners.

At a meeting held the AirIndia Modern School of Kalinain north Mumbai, the partici-pants adopted a resolution tofight against the RTI amend-ment "at all levels".

The participants, includingformer Union InformationCommissioner Shailesh Gandhiand activist Anjali Damania,decided to go public and organ-ise a movement against the RTIamendment bill.

Gandhi said that thechanges made in the originalRTI Act without the necessitywere wrong and that theGovernment was not giving“concrete answers” as to why ithad amended the Act.

Anjali Damania said thatafter the amendment, “ the bat-tles have started and now weneed to fight the battle at alllevels”. RTI activist Anil Galgalisaid that the government madechanges in the Constitution byignoring the provisions andrules. “The government is aconducting a new experiment

to put pressure on theInformation Commissionersdirectly so that people cannotexercise their right to infor-mation,” Galgali said.

AAP spokesperson PreetiMemon Sharma charged thatthe amendment had been madeso that the Government couldcontrol the InformationCommissioners by giving thempost retirement benefits “Ineffect, the right to informationenvironment is beingdestroyed,” she said.

Senior journalist HemantDesai said that the Centre wasresorting to politics usingEnforcement Directorate andCBI, while another journalistRavindra Ambekar said that itwas wrong to expect anythingfrom the politicians by thepeople.

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Banda: Irked by his wife cele-brating passage of the anti-tripletalaq bill by the Rajya Sabha, aMuslim man allegedly gave herinstant triple talaq and expelledher from his house in Fatehpurdistrict near here, said police.

"Mufeeda Khatun, a resi-dent of Jigni village underBindki police station celebrat-ed the successful passage of theanti-triple talaq bill in RajyaSabha. This angered her hus-band Shamsuddin who expelledher from the house on August3 after giving hr instant tripletalaq," said Bindki's CircleOfficer Abhishek Tiwari onSunday.

The police have registereda case against Shamsuddin on

a complaint by his wife.In her complaint, Mufeeda

said her husband reached herhome and "divorced" herinstantly pronouncing "talaq"thrice in front of her parents.

The Parliament on July 30,had approved the bill thatmakes instant triple talaq acriminal offence, with the RajyaSabha passing the contentiouslegislation.

Lok Sabha had passed theMuslim Women (Protection ofRights on Marriage) Bill lastweek. With the Rajya Sabha alsoapproving it, the practice ofinstant divorce by Muslim menhas been rendered punishablewith a jail term of up to threeyears. PTI

Madurai: Days after a food vis-a-vis religion wrangle involvingfood aggregator Zomato,arestaurant here has kicked upa row by naming a chicken del-icacy after 'Iyers', a Brahmincaste,while another hotel inTamil Nadu won support byannouncing it will not servethose who link food to religion.

Though the restaurant herehas apologised for naming adish as "Kumbakonam IyerChicken," it has raised ques-tions on the reasons behind itand a Hindu outfit alleged that"cheap publicity" was a key dri-ving factor.

The hotel tendered anapology and removed the pro-motional content on socialmedia after Brahmin associa-tions and Hindu outfits strong-ly protested against it.

Kumbakonam is a town inThanjavur district, the hub ofthe Cauvery delta in TamilNadu, with a sizable population

of Tamil Brahmins.The town is popular for its

distinct coffee flavour and thegeneric term "KumbakonamCoffee" is used by many hotelsto mean the authentic taste ofthe region, a favourite beverageamong Brahmins of the dis-trict.

Hindu Tamizhar Katchileader Rama Ravikumar

alleged the labelling was noth-ing but a cheap publicity stunt.

"You are hurting them andyou are playing with their sen-timents and this may incitetrouble, which is completelyavoidable. This is a cheap pub-licity stunt," he told PTI.

Choosing the town's name,which is not very popular forany specific non-vegetarian

delicacy, unlike many othertowns of Tamil Nadu and fur-ther linking it to a communi-ty that was tied to vegetarianfood has exposed their inten-tions, he said.

On a Pudukottai hotel say-ing it won't serve anyone wholinked food to religion, heasked "what about the demandfor halal tagged food..?, pleasetell me if this is not an attemptto link religion to food?"

Also, he wondered whythat hotel came up with thisslogan now and not before theZomato episode.

The hotel at Pudukottai,about 110 kilometers fromhere, has put up a board saying"No food to those who look atreligion (in food)., food has noreligion."

Also the hotel condemnedwhat it called "bigots," whochose to link food to religionon the background of theZomato controversy.

Several local people laud-ed the hotel for its initiative andsaid it was a step in the rightdirection.

When contacted on thetwin issues, Vice President ofthe Tamil Nadu ThowheedJamath, Abdul Rahman, saidlinking the Brahmin commu-nity to a non-vegetarian deli-cacy was a wrong step.

"Knowing fully well thatIyers do not eat non-vegetari-an, if you name a non-vege-tarian dish after them, whatdoes it mean ?" he asked,adding nothing should be doneto hurt the sentiments of anycaste, community or religion.

On the claim that thedemand for halal tagged foodwas linked to religion, he said:"We say the name of God, it isa prayer and then the meat iscut properly to drain out theblood and make it clean and fitfor consumption...This is a sci-entific method and this is

halal."Preferring only halal meat

is "my right, faith and choiceand this cannot be linking reli-gion to food," he said.

"There is a right to religionin food, only thrusting religionon matters related to food is notcorrect. No one can dictatewhat the other person shouldeat and must not eat."

Asked about thePudukottai hotel's new sloganhe said, "I don't know its inten-tion, but this appears to beaimed at promoting and sup-porting harmony."

Zomato had on July 24refused to resolve the com-plaint of a customer aboutbeing assigned a Muslim deliv-ery executive for his food order.

"Food doesn't have a reli-gion. It is a religion," the com-pany had tweeted in responseto the customer's request forchange of the rider as he was a'non-Hindu'.

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� ��,��:��+��6��&��#�7�� Kochi: Experts from different

research institutes in the coun-try would gather at the CentralMarine Fisheries ResearchInstitute (CMFRI) here onTuesday to analyse the reasonsfor the fluctuating existence ofoil sardine in the southernArabian sea.

The national-level sympo-sium would try to identify thefactors affecting this marinespecies along the south-westcoasts and find ways and meansto address the issue, a CMFRIpress release said here Sunday.

Experts working in theareas of climate change,oceanography, fishery biologyand socio-economics wouldengage in a panel discussion toset a way for the future courseof research on fluctuating trendof oil sardine on a multi-disci-plinary platform.

The meet aims to recognisemicro-level ecological factors ofthe ocean that influence the bio-logical cycle of oil sardine, saidE M Abdussamad, principalscientist of the CMFRI.

He said recent investigationof the CMFRI had indicatedthat climate change, especiallyEl Nino-La Nina episodes, hasa significant impact on the oilsardine.

Based on this, CMFRI hadissued an advisory that avail-ability of sardine from Keralacoasts this year would decreasedrastically depending on theintensity of El Nino.

The collapse experiencingtoday endorses the CMFRIfindings. However, micro-levelanalysis is required to identifyhow various oceanographic andclimatic parameters affect thebiology of the

fish,Abdussamadsaid.Apart from El Nino, various

oceanographic phenomenasuch as increase in the sea sur-face temperature, upwelling andfluctuations in ocean produc-tivity are considered crucialfactors affecting the life-cycle ofoil sardine.

A multi-disciplinaryapproach is essential to analysethese aspects to generate arefined view on this enigmaticfish species, he said. The sardineresource is highly susceptible tofrequent and heavy fluctua-tions, but specific causativeagents for this remain an enig-ma to the researchers, fisher-men and managers, he said,adding that the discussion on amulti-disciplinary approachwould lead to a better under-standing of the reasons behindthe situation. PTI

Jaipur: The bodies of a man anda woman were found hangingfrom a tree in a village farm inAmer area here on Sunday,police said.

It appears to be a case ofsuicide, however, no note wasrecovered from the bodies, Sub-Inspector, Amer Police Station,Mahesh Chandra said.

The deceased were identi-fied as Hanuman Meena (30),and Priyanka Meena (24), of

Netata village, he said.They were missing since last

Thursday, he said, adding thatboth were married to someoneelse and had children.

Priyanka's husband hadlodged a complaint againstHanuman for running awaywith his wife, the officer said.

The bodies were handedover to family members afterpost-mortem and further inves-tigation is on, he added. PTI

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Bengaluru: Facing flak forpresenting a basket of fruitwrapped with banned plastic toKarnataka Chief Minister B SYediyurappa recently, the cityMayor GangambikeMallikarjun has said she 'vol-untarily' paid a fine of �500 forthe violation.

After the photo of her pre-senting the basket went viral,Gangambike was criticisedbecause there is already a banon plastic ban and severaltraders in the city had beenpenalised in the past for stor-ing and using the plastic prod-ucts.

"My photograph of giftinga basket of dry fruits wrappedwith a plastic cover to thechief minister went viral in thesocial media.

Being the first citizen of thecity, I did not wish to sendacross a wrong message to thepeople of the city. Hence, I

decided to pay the penalty of Rs500," the mayor said in a state-ment Saturday.

The Mayor, however,pointed out that there was noclause in the rules for penalis-ing those using plastic thoughthere was such a provisionagainst traders.

She also said there was aproposal to impose fine on theend users of plastic productsand it would be incorporated inthe law.

"In order to spread awareness among masses about the problems posed bypolythene bags, I decided topay the penalty even before thisclause is incorporated in theplastic ban bylaw," the mayorsaid.

Gangambike rued that theplastic ban was in place since2016, yet it had not been effec-tive in curbing the polythenemenace. PTI

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Guwahati: Expressing concernover pendency of cases, ChiefJustice of India Ranjan Gogoisaid on Sunday that more thantwo lakh cases are in courts for25 years, while over 1,000 caseshave not been disposed of evenafter five decades.

Speaking at a public func-tion here, Justice Gogoi saidthough the judiciary faces crit-icism for the huge number ofpending cases, it is not entirelyresponsible for the delay as theexecutive also has some respon-sibility in the justice deliverymechanism.

"In India, we have a littleover one thousand 50-year-oldcases and above two lakh 25-year-old cases," he said.

The CJI said, out of about 90lakh pending civil cases, morethan 20 lakh are at a stagewhere summons have not beenserved yet.

"This is about 23 per cent ofthe civil cases in the country. Incriminal cases, the figure isworse. Out of 2.10 crore (pend-ing) criminal cases, the totalpendency at the summoningstage is over a crore.

"If summons have not beenserved, how do my judges startthe trial? This is my question tothe executive. The responsibili-ty of summoning solely lieswith the executive arm of thegovernment," Justice Gogoi said.

He said out of the total

pending criminal cases, about 45lakh are petty offences.

Justice Gogoi said he hadaddressed the chief justices ofvarious high courts on July 10,during which he requested themto "go after" the 50-year-old andthose pending for 25 years.

He instructed Gauhati HighCourt acting Chief Justice ArupKumar Goswami to clear suchlong pending cases in Assam assoon as possible.

He also expressed hope thatthe Centre will accept his pro-posal to raise the retirement ageof high court judges to 65 yearsfrom the current 62.

"The immediate result -there will be a freeze of retire-ment for three years. In thesethree years, we can try and fillup the 403 vacancies by good

judges. This is my dream. Itshould be carried out by my suc-cessor Chief Justice (of India)and I don't see why he cannotchange the face of Indian judi-ciary," Justice Gogoi said.

On the trial courts, the CJIsaid already around 4,000 postshave been filled of 6,000 vacan-cies and 1,500 more will be filledup by the end of this year.

"As far as the high courts areconcerned, out of 1,079 posts allover the country, 403 are vacant.I have requested the chief justices(of the high courts) to send theirrecommendations.... Make goodrecommendations," he said.

In Assam and other NorthEast states, there is no casewhich is 50 years old, but thereare 106 cases which are pendingfor 25 years, Gogoi said. PTI

� ��0��!�� 01�'��2# Mumbai: Mumbai Congress

chief Milind Deora on Sundayproposed the names of SachinPilot and Jyotiraditya Scindia forthe post of party's national pres-ident.

Deora told PTI he agreedwith Punjab Chief MinisterAmarinder Singh that the newCongress president should beyoung, capable and possess elec-toral, administrative and organ-isational experience, and a panIndia appeal.

"In my view, Sachin Pilotand Jyotiraditya Scindia have allthese qualities and can providestrength to the organisation andvigour to the opposition space,"he said.

He added that he was"unequivocally ruling myselfout" adding that "I know mystrengths and capabilities and Iam willing to work with anyonein the best interest of our party".

Deora said Pilot or Scindiashould be made interim presi-dent at least, and be publiclybacked by the Gandhi family.

"Unless of course, theGandhi family disagrees withmy assessment," he added.

To a query on what if theparty decided on someone otherthan the two, he said, "If theparty collectively decides onsomeone else, I will respect itswisdom. But I will be surprisedif the party or public disagreeswith my assessment."

Responding to a questionon the party's indecisiveness

regarding the new president,Deora said Congress mustrespect the faith 13 crore votershave reposed in the party by tak-ing decisive steps.

"It is high time we, as a party,made a collective call on ourleadership. In my opinion, weneed to put our best foot for-ward, enthuse the cadre andonce again attract the attentionof the electorate," he said.

He said the delay in electinga new congress chief was hurt-ing the party.

"India's single largest oppo-sition party has a huge respon-sibility towards strengtheningthe world's largest democracy,"he said. Speaking about theupcoming assembly polls insome states, includingMaharashtra, Deora said, "Wehave crucial elections coming upin October and further delay canimpact our prospects adversely."

On Rahul Gandhi's s deci-sion to quit, Deora said it wasunfortunate and added that theCongress leader did his best forthe party.

"If he has decided to stay

away from the procedure to pickthe new Congress chief, wemust respect his decision,"Deora added.

When asked if the Congresswill accept a non-Gandhi as theparty chief, the former LokSabha MP said the contributionof the Nehru-Gandhi family tothe party was unmatched.

"We are standing at such acrucial juncture in history thatwe have to depart from con-ventional political routes. It istheir (Nehru-Gandhi family)decision to stay out of the lead-ership race and we must respectit," he said.

On general secretaryPriyanka Gandhi's possible can-didature for the top job, Deorasaid, "Priyanka Gandhi is excep-tionally talented. It is the fami-ly's decision to not be involvedwith the office of the Congresspresident. We must respect thisand move on."

When asked if the leader-ship vacuum hurt the Congressin Karnataka and Goa, Deorasaid many of these events couldhave been avoided if the partyhad a strong and decisive cen-tral leadership. "We do not havethe luxury of time," Deora saidabout the need for the Congressto act fast. Responding to aquestion on whether hefavoured polls for the post ofCongress president, Deora saida call on this would have to betaken by the party's workingcommittee (CWC). PTI

�� 7427-�-

Within days of Bengal ChiefMinister Mamata

Banerjee launching her publicrelation portals “Didi ke Bolo”(Tell Didi) and “Amar GorboMamata” (Mamata My Pride) inan apparent bid to assuage pop-ular feeling by reaching out tothe masses, one of her keyMinisters Subroto Mukherjee onSunday said things couldboomerang if not followed upscrupulously.

Mukherjee a senior leaderknown for not speaking out ofturn and sans insinuations said“Didi ke Bolo is a good gestureto reach out to the masses andaddress popular issues but at thesame time it is a risky move toobecause if you do not follow upand redress popular grievancesthen you will be in trouble.”

Apparently advised by elec-tion strategist Prashant Kishor— who is professionally direct-ing the Trinamool Congressand Banerjee’s image-makeoverdrill — the TMC supremo hadafter much trumpet blastlaunched the portal Didi keBolo.com and a helpline wherethe people were asked to regis-ter their complaints to enable theChief Minister to directly inter-vene and solve their problems.

In fact the nodal office at theState secretariat Nabanna, hadreceived humungous responsefrom the masses with thousandsof complaints pouring in sincethe launch of Didi ke Bolo.

“A complaint not reachingthe Chief Minister is one thingand the issue officially reachingher but not getting redressedimmediately is another" saidMukherjee. “On one hand this

strategy is full of possibilities forthe Government to performbut on the other hand if this isnot handled and followed upscrupulously then you are in fortrouble as it will not take long forthe popular faith in you to diedown,” he said advising theChief Minister to take care of thefollow-up exercise.

“I will request the ChiefMinister to take up and followup each and every case to redressthem otherwise things mayboomerang,” the Minister said.

Mukherjee is credited withbringing Banerjee, a firebrandyoung leader into the Congressand fetching her a ticket to con-test her first parliamentary elec-tions from Jadavpur con-stituency whence she defeatedthe Marxist heavyweightSomnath Chatterjee to enterthe lower house in mid-eighties.

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Chennai: A police complainthas been lodged by a BJPspokesperson against BishopEzra Sargunam for his allegedprovocative and abusive remarksagainst Prime MinisterNarendra Modi in a Tamil newschannel's digital platform.

The Bishop, a well knownevangelist of the EvangelicalChurch of India, made theremarks in an interview of himby Cauvery News's digital plat-form which was streamed afew days ago.

In his complaint, NarayananTirupathi, BJP's Tamil Naduunit spokesperson, detailed theallegations made by Sargunamand sought the Bishop's arrestand prosecution under IPC 504(intentional insult with intent toprovoke breach of the peace).

The senior functionary, a

well known television face of theBJP in debates, said in his pleathat Sargunam's remarks werebeing circulated in the socialmedia and sought action.

His online complaint wasregistered in the AbiramapuramPolice Station on Sunday and areceipt with acknowledgementnumber was given under theCommunity Service Register(CSR). The crux of Sargunam'sallegation in the interviewappeared to reflect accusationsPrime Minister Modi facedabout a decade ago when he wasthe Gujarat Chief Minister.

When the anchor pointedout that none of the allegationsagainst Modi were proven in acourt of law, the evangelist inhis repartee used a particularword which is also seen asuntenable. PTI

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The Tamil chauvinists inTamil Nadu film industry

has chosen an innovative styleto lampoon superstarRajinikanth’s political dreams.While Kamal Haassan, theother superstar, who tried tobreak into the world of poli-tics with an outfit namedMakkal Neethi Maiam had tomake a hasty retreat followingthe drubbing he received inthe Lok Sabha election heldon April 2019, Rajinikanthhas not yet announced thename of the party he propos-es to launch.

What is known is that“Thalaivar”, as Rajinikanth is

addressed by fans, would beready with the party andplans in time for the nextAssembly election scheduledfor 2021. But the DMK andother outf its are nothumoured by the moves ofRajinikanth. An unsignedarticle published in ‘Murasoli’,the DMK’s mouthpiece inOctober 2018 had lambastedand lampooned Rajinikanthfor his political dreams.

The article was inresponse to Rajinikanth's let-ter to his fans and followersthat those who are after powerand wealth would not haveany place in his scheme ofthings. The Murasoli articleasked how was it possible forRajinikanth to expect his fol-

lowers to work tirelessly formaking him the ChiefMinister while they them-selves should not aspire foranything. It is an open secretthat nothing would be print-ed in Murasoli without theconcurrence of party chiefMK Stalin.

The latest attack onRajinikanth is a film Comali(Tamil for Joker) which por-trays the political dreamshilariously of the protago-nist who was in coma for 16years. Though the moviemaker, a staunch Dravidianactivist, is silent about thecharacter, the teaser of themovie released on Saturdaymakes it clear that Rajnikanthis the target of director

Pradeep Ranganathan andactor Jayam Ravi. By Sundaymorning, the trailer drew aviewership of over one mil-lion.

There is a big fight amongstarts of the Tamil film indus-try to grab the political spacevacated by J Jayalalithaa, theformer Chief Minister, whobreathed her last in 2016.Vishal and Joseph Vijay arethe ones in contention for thechair while there are otherstoo waiting in the sidelines totry their luck. Interestingly,Stalin and other Dravidiannationalists are silent overthe entry of film actors bornin Tamil Nadu while they areopposed to any kind of polit-ical move by Rajnikanth.

Siliguri (WB): The viciouscycle of cross-border cattlesmuggling along the India-Bangladesh border has snow-balled into a major challengefor the BSF which alwaysremains on the receiving end.

On July 11, a BSF soldierlost his hand and suffered seri-ous injuries in a bomb attack byBangladeshi cattle smugglersalong the India-Bangladeshborder in West Bengal.

According to an officialwho spoke on the condition ofanonymity, cattle smugglersfrom India are treated astraders once they cross over toBangladesh.

"All these smugglers needto do is to furnish taka 500 peranimal to the officials inBangladesh afterwards theyare free to sell it to whoeverthey wish," he said.

"Since there is a hugedemand for cattle inBangladesh, smugglers neverlose a single chance to crossover to the neighbouring coun-try where they earn easymoney. The demand and sup-ply chain has to be broken," theofficial said, adding that thesecriminals often open fire at theBSF, killing or injuring theofficials deployed at the border.

According to officials, tensof thousands of cattle are esti-mated to be smuggled toBangladesh annually throughthe porous India-Bangladeshborder in West Bengal.

Floating banana stems arehugely popular for illegallysending cows, oxen and buf-faloes across the border intoBangladesh using the flow ofriver.

Vast rivers with strong

water currents are favourablefor the smugglers who prefersending the cattle after sunsetto avoid detection.

As per the modus operan-di, the smugglers place theheads of the bovines betweentwo strong banana stems andtie them together before theyare pushed in the deep water,allowing the currents to take

the animals to the other side ofthe border where their accom-plices wait for the livestock.

The demand for cattle inBangladesh is always high andit peaks ahead of Eid festivities.

The official said thatBangladesh does not treat cat-tle smuggling from India as acrime as cattle trade is a legalsource of income in

Bangladesh. "A cattle smuggler becomes

a trader once he is inBangladesh and pays taka 500per animal as Customs dutyafter smuggling of cattle fromIndia," he said.

Bangladesh generatesincome at three stages from thisvicious cycle of cattle smug-gling.

First, they get revenue atthe entry of the animal inBangladesh, second in meatexport and third is the indus-tries related to it like textile.

The factors contributing tocattle smuggling include thesupply and demand chain,unabated movement of cattlefrom hinterland to borderareas.

The implementation ofnon-lethal strategy by the BSFalso contributes to the rise in

cattle smuggling besides it is aneasy earning of all the stake-holders in the entire chain.

"The price difference issuch that it is a profitable tradeeven if a cattle is auctionedthrice," the official said. Porusborder and unfenced gaps arefavourable conditions for thesmugglers.

Smuggling of cattle, drugsand narcotics, leather, armsand ammunition has been amajor challenge for the BorderSecurity Force (BSF) and theBorder Guard Bangladesh(BGB) — the border guardingforces of the two countries.

Since it is a source ofincome for the government ofBangladesh, the BSF does notget any support from the BGBto stop cattle smuggling.

Last month, the 48th bi-annual Director General-level

talks between the BSF and theBGB were concluded in Dhakaduring which it was mutuallydecided to enhance coopera-tion to better check crime andsmuggling of cattle and nar-cotics across the 4,096 kmfrontier shared by the neigh-bours. The BGB, however, hasaccepted that cross-bordersmuggling cannot be stoppedcompletely at the Indo-Banglafrontier as it sought greatercooperation from the BSF to

tackle the menace. Brigadier Jalal Gani,

Commander of the North WestRegion, Bangladesh, said thatsmugglers are poor people whoindulge in the illegal activityjust to sustain themselves andnot to lead a lavish lifestyle.

"Regarding the killing ofsmugglers by the BSF, this isour request that we should fol-low the law of the land. Killingis not the solution," the com-mander said. PTI

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��)��-��+��Lucknow: The Samajwadi Party will hold a Day-longprotest across the state on August 9 to highlight thealleged "poor law and order" situation in the State.

The party workers will be staging demonstrationsall over the state on August 9 in which all party MPs,MLAs and office bearers of its different wings will beparticipating, said SP national spokesperson RajendraChaudhary.

"There is complete jungle raj in the state. In everydistrict, there has been a spurt in the crime graph. TheSP workers are being targeted in every district. TheBJP leaders are giving patronage to criminal elementsin the state," said Chaudhary in a statement.

The statement listed a series of demands, includ-ing the shifting of the Unnao's woman rape accusedand BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar to a jail outsidethe state, allocation of land to tribals of Umbha vil-lage in Sonbhadra district and entering their namesin revenue records. PTI

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Barpeta (Assam): Three suspectedmembers of the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) werearrested from different parts ofBarpeta district, police said onSunday.

Police nabbed two sleeper cellmembers and one linkman of JMBon Saturday night, a senior officersaid.

The three have been identified asMustafizur Rahman (25), ShafiqulIslam (29) and Danesh Ali. They wereproduced before a court which sentthem to eight days police remand.

Barpeta Superintendent of PoliceRobin Kumar said Rahman andIslam are trained JMB cadres, whileAli is the linkmen of all jihadi activ-ities in the district.

Last week, four more suspectedjihadis were arrested from differentparts of Barpeta and adjoiningChirang districts.

They were identified as HafizurRahman, Yakub Ali, Sariful Islam andHanif Ali. They were arrested forjihadi activities, police said. PTI

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Lucknow: The condition of theUnnao rape victim who wascritically injured along with herlawyer after their car was hit bya truck in Rae Bareli on July 28is stable, doctors attending toher at a hospital here said onSunday.

King George's MedicalUniversity Trauma Centre in-charge Dr Sandeep Tiwari said,"The condition of both theUnnao rape survivor and herlawyer is stable."

Yesterday, the rape victimhad developed pneumonia.

Because of pneumonia,she has fever and is also beinggiven medication to controlher blood pressure. She isbeing given oxygen through atube inserted in the windpipe,Tiwari said on Saturday.

He stressed that KGMU isfully equipped to provide besttreatment to the two patients.

She and her lawyer suf-fered critical injuries in thetruck-car crash; her two auntswere killed. One of the auntswas a witness to the rape of thewoman in 2017 when she wasa minor.

The victim and her lawyerare under round-the-clockobservation, doctors said.

The Supreme Court will pass orders on Mondaywhether the woman should be moved to AIIMS hospital in Delhi for better treatment. PTI

Hyderabad: At least 12 people,including some women diedand four others were injuredafter the three-wheeler inwhich they were travelling washit by a lorry in Mahabubnagardistrict on Sunday, police said.

The incident happenedatKottapalli village in Midjilmandal of the district when thelorry rammed into the overcrowded three-wheeler vehiclecoming from opposite direc-tion, they said.

The deceased were labour-ers and were returning home,police said adding the vehiclewas at least carrying 16 in itwhen the incident happened.

Telangana Chief MinisterK Chandrasekhar Raoexpressed shock over the roadaccident.

Rao conveyed his heartfeltsympathies to the family mem-bers and instructed the officialsconcerned to offer best medicalfacilities to the injured, an offi-cial release said.

Meanwhile, a group of peo-ple including family membersand relatives of the deceasedstaged a protest demanding jus-tice, including a compensationfor those killed. PTI

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Water, water everywhere/ Norany drop to drink.” Thesewords, from an evocativepoem by the famous 18thcentury English poet,

Samuel Coleridge, echo the helplessness ofa harried sailor, his ship stranded in the mid-dle of the sea but with no water to drink asall supplies on it have been exhausted. Thesailor’s desperate cry, uttered over 300 yearsago, seems to ring an ominous bell in Indiatoday as the country battles extreme waterscarcity in several regions alongside exten-sive flooding in many others. This ironicalsituation is the result of prolonged water mis-management, leading to depleted ground-water levels, coupled with a waxing and wan-ing monsoon.

The change in monsoon patterns acrossthe country has been causing significant raindeficit in Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh,Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Delhi over thelast decade as compared to historical rainfallaverages. In other States like Assam, Bihar andKerala, floods caused by an aggressive mon-soon are leaving behind a trail of death anddestruction. The first casualty of the disrup-tion in rainfall is agriculture as an estimated49 per cent of India’s farms depend solely onrain for irrigation. According to the EconomicSurvey 2017-18, farmers without access to irri-gation lose nearly 14 per cent of their incomebecause of rainfall shocks. And among those,who are able to irrigate their fields, 62 per centrely exclusively on groundwater. Since ground-water is replenished only through rain seep-ing into the ground, the vagaries of the mon-soon lead to a vicious cycle of drought-rid-den fields and rapidly depleting aquifers acrossthe country, with the depth of access togroundwater plunging from 7.5 m in 1998 to9.2 m in 2018.

A 2012 World Bank report on ground-water exploitation in India asserted that thecountry recorded the highest dependence onwater from aquifers globally. While 90 per centof this groundwater is used for irrigation, theremainder is used to supply drinking water.Highlighting over-exploitation of 29 percent of groundwater blocks, the report pre-dicted a 60 per cent rise in this figure in 20years, with serious implications for agricul-tural sustainability, food security and econom-ic growth.

However, the crisis is almost upon usmuch before the World Bank’s deadline. InJune 2018, the NITI Aayog had predicted thatthe demand for potable water would com-pletely outstrip supply by 2030 in the absenceof any urgent action. Even more alarmingly,21 cities, including Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennaiand Hyderabad,would run out of groundwa-ter as early as 2020, affecting 100 million peo-ple and leading to an estimated six per centloss in GDP by 2050.

Another complication is the impact ofexcessive groundwater extraction on waterquality as water collected from deeper under-ground is more likely to be contaminated with

harmful chemicals like arsenic,nitrate and fluoride. An evengraver food crisis looms on thehorizon because when irrigationwells go dry, farmers use untreat-ed wastewater laced with indus-trial chemicals and humansewage for watering their foodcrops, which eventually findtheir way into our kitchens. It isobvious that India is sitting on apotential “water” bomb threaten-ing public health by unleashinga spectre of diseases among itsover-populated and under-resourced habitations.

How did India, venerated asa land of rivers and holy waterssince primordial times, achievethis disconcerting status of anation riddled with water defi-ciency and toxicity? “After 1990,cities in India have grown rapid-ly but without considering wherethe resources are coming from”,says Samrat Basak, Director ofthe World Resource Institution(WRI) India’s Urban WaterProgramme. Reflecting on thesocial impact of the water crisis,VK Madhavan, Chief Executiveof the non-profit WaterAid India,contends that soon young girls,especially in rural areas, mightstart dropping out of school enmasse to help their families fetchwater from increasingly remotewater access points. This warn-ing is corroborated by data fromthe India Human DevelopmentSurvey (IHDS), a nationally rep-resentative survey covering

41,554 households in 1,503 vil-lages and 971 urban neighbour-hoods across India, jointly con-ducted by the National Councilof Applied Economic Research(NCAER) and University ofMaryland, the US, in 2004-05and 2011-12. IHDS found thatonly 44 per cent households hadaccess to piped water, with the fig-ure going up by merely four percent between 2004 and 2012. TheIHDS findings also show a sub-stantial decline in the duration ofwater availability — from 5.3 percent in 2003-04 to 3.8 per cent in2011-12 — for households withpiped water in metro cities.Consequently, households with-out indoor water sources spendprecious time collecting water atan average of 80 minutes per day,extending to even three hours forabout 10 per cent of these house-holds. How will the economycounter this time burden andhuge opportunity cost?

Compelled to take cogni-sance of the water crisis, theGovernment decided to prioritisewater management in the latestUnion Budget, to ensure provi-sion of potable water throughoutthe country by 2024 under theproposed “Har Ghar Jal” scheme.Union Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman also announced theformation of a new Ministry, theJal Shakti Ministry, by mergingthe Ministries of Drinking Waterand Water Resources and RiverDevelopment and Ganga

Rejuvenation for overseeing allwater-related issues. TheGovernment has identified 1,592blocks in 256 districts facingacute water scarcity and over-exploitation of groundwater asprospective locations for rainwa-ter harvesting and water conser-vation in the first phase.

Other initiatives, includingrenovation and re-use of tradi-tional water bodies and water-shed development, are slated forthe next phase. The UnionBudget 2019-20 also allocated�9,150.36 crore for the NationalRural Drinking WaterProgramme, marking a massiveincrease of 69 per cent over theallocation of �5,391.32 crore in2018-19.

Water conservationists andexperts are, however, notimpressed, dismissing the Budgetprovisions as a “pipe dream”.Raman VR, Head of Policy at theNGO WaterAidIndia, posits thatin 2017, the Ministry of DrinkingWater and Sanitation itself esti-mated the need for �500,000crore for providing piped drink-ing water to all households. Evenif States contribute half thisamount, the annual requirementtill 2024 would be over �60,000crore, to cover hardware, humanresources, infrastructural, oper-ations and maintenance costs.Where will these funds comefrom?

“There is no evidence tosuggest that merely enhanced

spending will increase bothwater supply and the net areaunder irrigation,” says DrBiksham Gujja, former head ofwater policy at WWF-International and founder ofAgSri, a private organisationpromoting sustainable agricul-ture and water resources man-agement. He argues that the JalShakti Ministry should insteadfocus on developing tools andtechnology for efficient hydro-logical management.

On an optimistic note,India’s relatively wet climate,even in the most arid regions,offers hope even in today’sdire situation. What is neededis efficient and wider imple-mentation of programmes forrainwater harvesting, develop-ment of water storage bodieslike ponds and reservoirs, pro-motion of water re-use andrecycling and better filtrationtechniques for de-contaminat-ing potable water, across thecountry. And these solutionsneed to be enforced now — thetime for long-term planninghas run out!

Coleridge’s hapless marinersurvived the challenges at sea,presumably finding clean waterat the end of his ordeal. But willthe rising tide of India’s popula-tion be equally fortunate?

(The writer is Editor at theNational Council of AppliedEconomic Research. Viewsexpressed are personal)

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Sir — Cafe Coffee Day founderVG Siddhartha’s suicide shouldring alarm bells in the corridorsof the all-powerful FinanceMinistry. The mandarins in thebureaucracy and their politicalmasters should no longer pretendthat everything is hunky-dory vis-à-vis the Indian economy.

Only investigations can revealthe details of his business dealsand the debt burden and possiblyoffer reasons that forced theowner of a successful enterpriseto take the fatal step. The stake-holders will get their dues and themarket, too, may stabilise after awhile. But it is time for theGovernment to wake up andsmell the coffee. It is importantthat we learn the right lessonsfrom this unfortunate incident.

Javvadi Lakshamna RaoVisakhapatnam

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Sir — It took widespread publicoutrage for the authorities towake up to the tragic plight of theUnnao rape victim at the handsof a powerful ruling party politi-

cian, whose word was law in theboondocks in Uttar Pradesh.

In a big embarrassment forthe Uttar Pradesh Government,the Supreme Court transferred allcases related to the alleged rapeof a girl in 2017 by the nowexpelled BJP MLA, KuldeepSingh Sengar. In short, the topcourt did everything in its powerto try and ensure justice to thevictim and her tormented fami-

ly, who have been living in fear ofthe goons of the MLA ever sincethe victim mustered the courageto lodge an FIR against him forthe heinous crime. Hopefully,her bravery and courage will notgo waste and the leader and hishenchmen will soon be given thesternest possible punishment per-missible under law.

Having said that, the questionis why did it take so long for the

ruling party to expel Sengar?The BJP leadership owes an apol-ogy to the voters. Regretfully, withthe saffron-clad Yogi Adityanathas the Chief Minister of UttarPradesh, a criminal like Sengarconspired to defy the justice sys-tem after he had raped a minorgirl and then terrorised her andher family.

Vani ASecunderabad

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Sir — Yes, it is true. The way wedrive and behave on the road isset for a transformative coursecorrection, on paper at least,with the Parliament’s green signalto a landmark legislation thataims to improve road safety withstringent laws for errant drivers,contractors in case of faulty roadsand vehicle makers if they fallshort of production standards.

Once the Bill becomes a law,stringent penalties will reduceroad accidental deaths, which inIndia come to around 1.5 lakhannually. It has taken the countrydecades of indiscipline on roads,violating traffic rules and escapingany accountability for poor engi-neering to gain the shameful rep-utation of being the world leaderin road accidents. While most ofthe features of the Bill are welcome,some aspects have the potential tobe misused by the traffic police.Often, traffic police are reported toharass drivers and vehicle ownersfor inadvertent and trivial mistakes.

J AkshayBengaluru

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Earlier this month, Member of ParliamentRajeev Chandrasekhar alleged that socialmedia companies used algorithms to sup-

press, deny and amplify certain conversations,and made a case for India to enact a legisla-tion to check algorithmic bias. Chandrasekhar’sallegation is not new, not in India or anywhereelse. In fact, it is a symptom of a much biggermalaise — a rapidly evolving technologyecosystem with disparate and reactive attemptsat accountability and regulation.

The reason why Governments around theworld and industries have become so con-cerned about Artificial Intelligence (AI) in gen-eral is because it presents vast economic andsocial opportunities. AI systems (ie, comput-er science that emphasises on the developmentof intelligent machines to mimic certain fea-tures of the human brain) have improvedmobility, fostered greater information-sharingculture and are fundamental to many functionsand businesses today, including LinkedIn,social media firms, search engine functions andcab aggregators like Uber. However, with anincrease in the use of AI, multiple issues oftrust, privacy, bias, market dominance andsecurity have also arisen.

On the issue of algorithmic bias itself,Chandrasekhar is right to the extent that var-ious technology companies have skirted theseissues in the past and have been criticised forbeing politically influenced or for using tech-nologies in a manner that is sometimesbeyond their control or are driven by hiddenmotives — often both. Further, due to priceefficiencies and immediate benefits like lowerprices and convenience benefits to consumers,people tend to be “present biased” and are morethan willing to trade off future benefits (say pri-vacy or stronger redressal mechanisms amongother things) for present gratification (likelower prices and convenience).

This common cognitive bias results in atendency to overestimate immediate utility anddiscount future or invisible harms that mayaccrue to communities later, much like the fall-outs of climate change or the impact Facebookon the 2016 US elections, or the impact on civilliberties, attributable to predictive technolo-gy used for policing and facial recognitionapplications. Notably, allegations of AIentrenching bias and discrimination are notlimited to technology companies, they extendto Governments and State authorities as well.Take the example of the discriminatory out-comes of using AI in the US criminal justicesystem and for policing in Australia.

Thus, there have been rising and com-pelling reasons to regulate technology firms,particularly those, who rely on discriminato-ry and biased AI outcomes. However, adopt-ing the right governance framework is becom-ing increasingly difficult, both because AI tech-nologies are becoming more complex and arebeing applied in a variety of different contexts— from helping in procedural vetting of doc-uments to content moderation. They presenttwin capacities for enormous social develop-ment and harm, often together. Therefore,before rushing to draft a law to “regulate algo-rithmic bias” in India, the need of the hour is

to consider and experiment with innovativemodels so as to ensure that the economic gains,social influence and security impact of AI ispositive for all. Thus, engaging and bringingall relevant stakeholders into the conversation— academia, policy-makers and the widercommunity — will be crucial to assessing thechallenges that lie ahead.

In this context, understandably, variousGovernments around the world, as also inter-national organisations, have begun to weigh inon the issues of regulating certain technologycompanies and their use of AI. In India, con-versations around regulating AI and technol-ogy companies have been conflated and thereis no clarity as to how this can be achieved.Further, discussions around technology regu-lation in general have been scattered across reg-ulators (depending on specific subject matter)and are bereft of guiding principles, unlikewhat has been done in several other countries.

For instance, in Australia, following therelease of a White paper on the governance ofAI by the Australian Human RightsCommission earlier this year, anotherAustralian federal Government agency, respon-sible for scientific research (CSIRO), releaseda discussion paper on AI and ethics, propos-ing a toolkit to assist stakeholders in applyingeight core principles. Similarly, in Europe, theEU High-Level Expert Group comprising 52experts on AI, including representatives fromacademia, civil society and industry, recentlypublished its Ethics Guidelines for TrustworthyAI, following stakeholder consultation ondraft guidelines. The EU guidelines were notbinding, but nevertheless offered stakeholdersa set of guiding principles to follow to indicate

their commitment to achieving “TrustworthyAI.” Most importantly, the EU guidelinesidentified core ethical imperatives such as pre-vention of harm, respect for human autono-my, fairness and explicability.

Therefore, in India, before attempting tocraft laws and regulations, officials and thepublic alike need to better understand in gen-eral the effect of AI and the impact of deploy-ing its uses on individuals and the society ingeneral, while establishing clear policy objec-tives and governing principles. More impor-tantly, policy discussions need to clarify the dif-ference or lack thereof between regulating tech-nology companies deploying AI unethically,and behind regulating all kinds of AI indis-criminately.

Further, regulations in this space need tobe grounded on core principles of data priva-cy, security, consumer safety, ethics and fair-ness. It is instructive to note that at present,there is no cogent and comprehensive data pri-vacy law in India. Simultaneously, it must alsobe noted that the potential impact of certainkinds of AI, including on other human rights,goes beyond privacy, and impacts future ofwork and innovation, decision-making, andhas a profound impact on our democracticprocesses and institutions.

In this context, it is crucial to rememberthat any meaningful policy discussion aroundthe regulation of AI and algorithmic bias inIndia will first need to start by acknowledg-ing that core socio-economic issues and bias-es cannot be cured by technological advance-ments. Acknowledging the inherent bias in oursociological understanding of the world, in ourdatabases and existing jurisprudence, allows us

to control and correct for such bias in thedeployment of any technology, including AI,or at the very least, opens our minds to the pos-sibilities of over-reliance on such AI.

Further, any regulation on AI will need tobegin with the establishment of foundationalconcepts and building on the existing frame-works of law and governance before we moveon to ethical and other challenges that may gobeyond the framework of the law.

Policy will then need to take into accountthe scope of deployment of AI and the impactof such deployment. In the clamour to regu-late technology companies, it must not be for-gotten that there are differences in variousfirms deploying AI and its varied uses. Forinstance, there is a difference between AI usedon an OTT platform to present viewers withchoices of certain kinds of movies over othersand the one used to filter or moderate con-tent on a big social media platform that canlead to real world violence.

A governance framework that does notengage in the nuances of technological uses andthe different kinds of biases — which exist inthe offline and online world, in our thinkingand in the software we build, in power struc-tures and differing incentives, in ourGovernments and businesses — can be bothmisleading and misguided. In correcting fordiscrimination and bias, unless we militateagainst absolute and simplistic understandingsof technology and on drafting laws withoutconsulting the wider community, a law regu-lating algorithmic bias may be more harmfulto the innovation ecosystem in India than nolaw at all.

(The writer is fellow at the Esya Centre)

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India has a robust and vibrantstart-up base of over 40,000companies that is growing at a

steady pace. A digital revolutionpowered by smartphones, a sizeablemiddle class with growing dispos-able incomes and a consequent risein consumerism are some factorsthat have propelled this growth. Thisis not a recent occurrence butrather the latest development in anevolutionary curve that can betraced back to four decades. The late1980s saw the birth of IT companies,some of whom went on to becomegiants on the global economic mapafter the IT revolution. It laid downthe success road for dot-com star-tups like the ticketing website

BookMyShow as well as a number ofindustry portals. India is home to 26unicorns and a rise in their numberhelps bring in more investment.

Now, the bad news. Despite thedevelopments and influx of invest-ment, close to 90 per cent of start-upsfail within the first year. One of theprimary reasons behind this is theirinsistence on catering to a localaudience. An innovative eco-systemthat enables start-ups think beyondlocal shores and devise strategies thatcan cater to wider markets is the needof the hour.

Scout for new marketsFinding customers is an expen-

sive process for start-ups if they donot have brand recognition. It isimportant that they develop busi-ness strategies with an eye on thefuture instead of focussing solely onshort-term results. If they want tostay relevant in the global marketscape, they need to develop a busi-ness plan with an eye for other glob-al markets, targetting countrieswith high mobile and broadbandpenetration, stable political climate,favorable socio-economics, easy tax

and regulatory requirements Success stories Some start-ups having firm

foothold in the country have start-ed making international footprintwith success. Oyo hotels and homes,one of the most famous home-grown hospitality chains, started itsglobal expansion by foraying intoNepal and Malaysia. It then spreadto China, which has a boomingtourism industry with a stronginflux of international tourists, andhas successfully established thou-sands of hotels spread across 28provinces. It is now eyeingIndonesia, Europe and the UK.

Zomato is another desi startupthat initiated its presence in theinternational market starting withDubai in 2012. It now has operationsin 10,000 cities across 24 countries.The cab aggregator, Ola, the ticket-ing platform, Cleartrip, and the craftbeer brand, Bira 91, are a few othercompanies that have successfullyexpanded their operational base.

The right packagingIf a company offers a spe-

cialised product, it needs to think

about how to sell its product acrossmarkets. Products have a standardlifecycle — they start slow, acceler-ate, reach a peak, slow back downand then diminish/disappear. Unlessthey come up with a re-targetted andrefurbished second gen productand start exploring secondary mar-kets, they will lose out on the edge.Finding a secondary market is notas difficult as is thought. Forinstance, Kellogg’s has perfectedthe art of catering identical productsto noticeably different markets.Although a lot of its cereal productstaste similar, packaging is smartenough to set it apart.

Opportunities for Indian play-ers in the global market

Travel providers: They need tofocus on key emerging marketswith a high volume of first-timetravelers. Airline firms should usetheir own channels to attract cus-tomers and build brand image. Bigdata can be mined to createdetailed purchase records of trav-elers. This will help companiesdesign targetted product offeringsand marketing campaigns.

Technology should be leveraged toprovide in-flight amenities likeWiFi, movies et al. Finally, travelagents should be incentivised todrive international sales.

Consumer brands: Asia-Pacifichas one of the fastest growing mar-kets for apparel and retail sales.Divisions should focus on thisregion. As for established markets,online channels play a key role inboosting sales figures. Maintaininga strong online brand image is thekey to driving positive recommen-dations.

Real estate developers: Playersfrom this sector should focus onproviding end-to-end solutions andincrease the wallet share fromexpats. They can offer value-addedservices like furniture, interiordesign and relocation assistance.Firms should organise and advertiseproperty launch events in regionswith a high volume of NRI diaspo-ra. They can tie up with foreign mar-keting agencies to reach out topotential international customersand build an online brand imagethat projects them as a trustworthy

source of information. SaaS: According to a KPMG

survey, over 43 per cent of smallbusiness owners use mobile devicesas their primary platform. SaaSplayers should focus on deliveringcustomised products for small busi-ness owners. The product shouldhave the ability to function bothonline and offline if emerging mar-kets have to be targetted as data isstill expensive in those areas. Astrong online marketing strategy,coupled with direct client contactvia an in-house sales team, is moreeffective than field sales.

What does the start-up eco-system need?

India needs to invest more inR&D and establish a working col-laboration with different countries.This will help solidify the linksbetween multinationals, local com-panies and academic institutions.Innovations need to focus on soci-etal problems such as healthcare,education, transportation, sanita-tion, clean energy and other suchpressing issues that most of thecountries across the world face.

Mindset change: We need tocreate an environment where entre-preneurship is supported by the pol-icy ecosystem. Often, due to pauci-ty of adequate funding and maturementorship, start-ups struggle toexpand or even break even. Theysurvive by adopting short-cut tech-niques, colloquially referred to as thedesi jugaad. However, if start-ups areto really compete with their coun-terparts in the developed economies,they need more seamless access tomarkets abroad, easier access to cus-tomer base and easier access to cap-ital and mentorship.

Start-up cells in embassies:The Government can help booststart-ups’ capacities by establishingdedicated start-up cells withinembassies of different countries orin collaboration with the embassiesof different countries in India. Thiscould be a designated Trade Cell,which is funded by the Governmentand has the sole mandate of help-ing start-ups and SMEs to gain afoothold in markets abroad.

(The writer is president, interna-tional operations, of a leading agri firm)

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The country will need to growby 9 per cent every year for

five years continuously and raiseaggregate investment rate to 38per cent of GDP to achievePrime Minister Narendra Modi’starget of turning India into a $5trillion economy, Ernst & Young(EY) has said.

In its latest edition ofEconomy Watch, EY saidassuming India grows by pro-jected 7 per cent in the currentfiscal year ending March 31,2020, the size of the economywill grow to $3 trillion from$2.7 trillion in the previousyear.

It will have to grow by 9 percent in each of the five subse-quent years to take the size ofthe economy to $3.3 trillion inFY21, $3.6 trillion in FY22,$4.1 trillion in FY23, $4.5 tril-lion in FY24 and $5 trillion inFY25.

“Assuming an inflation rateof 4 per cent which is the tar-get inflation rate as per theMonetary Policy Framework, areal growth rate close to 9 percent would be required toincrease the size of the Indianeconomy to $5 trillion by FY25.This implies a nominal growthrate of 13 per cent, assuming anaverage annual depreciationof the rupee viz-a-vis the US$at 2 per cent,” it said.

In FY19 (2018-19), thegross investment rate, estimat-ed at 31.3 per cent, was able todeliver a real growth rate of 6.8per cent. The implicit incre-mental capital-output ratio(ICOR) was 4.6, it said. “Thisis relatively high because of

deficient capacity utilisation.”Historically, India’s average

ICOR during the three-yearperiod from FY17 to FY19 hasaveraged 4.23. The highestachieved investment rate inIndia was 39.6 per cent inFY12.

EY said achieving suchlevels would be consistent withthe requirements of our demo-graphic dividend.

In China, average savingand investment rates of close to45 per cent have been main-tained for a long period.

Total investment is thesum of public investment,household investment andinvestment by the private cor-porate sector.

Raising the growth rate to9 per cent in FY21 wouldrequire uplifting the investmentrate to close to 38 per cent ofGDP as against 31.3 per cent in

FY19, it said.“If the inflation rate is

lower than 4 per cent on anaverage and if the exchange ratedepreciation is higher than 2per cent per annum, reachingthe size of $5 trillion would bedelayed even beyond these tar-get years.”

While the central govern-ment plays a four-fold role indetermining the overall invest-ment rate through its bud-getary capital expenditure,spending through PSUs, poli-cy initiatives inducing privateinvestments and coordinationwith state governments, theCentre’s share in country’saggregate investment was quitesmall at 1.6 per cent of GDP inFY19.

As per actuals from theController General ofAccounts (CGA), this consti-tuted only 5.1 per cent of the

aggregate investment. Afteradding central PSU’s capitalexpenditure of 2.4 per cent ofGDP in FY19, the Centre’s con-tribution to the investmentincreases to 4 per cent of GDP,which is 12.6 per cent of thetotal investment.

“This can be substantiallyimproved. The center maytherefore provide a policyframework to induce the stategovernments and the privatesector to uplift their investmentrates,” EY said.

“Furthermore, if the centralgovernment can successfullyreduce its revenue deficit, therewould be room for higher cap-ital expenditure with the samefiscal deficit. It can also induceadditional investment throughthe CPSEs while keeping inmind, the overall constraint ofresources in the form of savingsin the system.”

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The current slowdown inthe Indian economy is

cyclical and growth will pick upin one or two years, former RBIGovernor Bimal Jalan said onSunday.

Jalan further said the gov-ernment has alreadyannounced many reforms, andit is now a question of imple-mentation, particularly interms of investment.

“The slowdown in thegrowth is cyclical. In one or twoyears, I am sure, there will bea turnaround,” he told PTI inan interview.

Jalan also pointed out thatthe situation today is very dif-ferent from 1991 when thecountry faced a severe eco-nomic crisis on the externalfront.

“India is in a very strongposition today, unlike in 1991.If you look at our inflation rate,it’s quite low. If you at look atour reserves, it’s quite high,” heasserted.

Last month, the IMF andAsian Development Bank(ADB) had cut India’s growthforecast, citing global anddomestic headwinds.

According to IMF’s latestprojection, the Indian economy

is estimated to grow at 7 percent in 2019 and 7.2 per centin 2020. The AsianDevelopment Bank had alsolowered India’s GDP growthforecast to 7 per cent for thecurrent year on the back of fis-cal shortfall concerns.

Asked why the private sec-tor still not investing, Jalan said,“It may be due to post-demon-etisation effect or may be theywere waiting for (Lok Sabha)election results.”

On overseas sovereign bor-rowings, he said they should belong term.

“The government hasalready announced that it (over-seas borrowings) will be for 5-20 years, it should not be forshort term,” the former chair-man of the ExpenditureManagement Commission said.

Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman in the Budget for2019-20 had announced thatthe government would startraising a part of its gross bor-rowing programme from exter-nal markets in foreign curren-cies.

Asked what were thebiggest risks for the Indianeconomy, Jalan, also a formermember of Parliament, said hethinks unemployment is a veryimportant problem.

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The Reserve Bank is expect-ed to cut the policy rate by

25 basis points, for the fourthtime in a row, on Wednesday togive a boost to the economy ata time when key indicatorspoint towards a slowdown,opined experts.

The industry also expectsthe six-member MonetaryPolicy Committee (MPC)headed by RBI GovernorShaktikanta Das to take steps toimprove liquidity situation andalso ensure transmission ofrate (repo) cuts to borrowers bythe banks.

The Monetary PolicyCommittee (MPC) will meetduring August 5 to 7, 2019 forthe Third Bi-monthlyMonetary Policy Statement for2019-20.

Managing director andCEO of Union Bank of IndiaRajkiran Rai G said that theMPC is likely to cut rate by 25basis points.

“At this point of time weneed growth impetus. I am surethey will reduce rates,” he said.

Industry body CII in astatement said the central bankstarted its interest rate easingcycle in February 2019, takingcognizance of the headwinds togrowth and inflation readingremaining below the RBI’s tar-get of 4 per cent.

However, the transmissionof the rate-cuts to the end-con-sumers has remained very grad-

ual and relatively lower than therepo rate revisions, it said

The CII said the RBIshould cut cash reserve ratio(CRR) by 50 bps which willrelease around Rs 60,000 croreinto the system.

“This along with infusingliquidity in the banking systemwill also reduce the burden onbanks’ resources, given the factthat currently, the credit-depositratio is hovering at a high of 77-78 per cent,” it added.

Industry body Assochamsaid that economy requiresfunding at a cheap rate for fur-ther investment to boost thegrowth rate and to speed up thetransmission effect because theinflation is well contained.

“Addressing the liquidityproblem of NBFCs, a rate cutwill help in boosting the eco-nomic growth and consumerspending that may increasethe demand for passenger andcommercial vehicle,’ it added.

When asked for expecta-tions from the MPC,Anshuman Magazine, CBRE’schairman and CEO for India,South East Asia, Middle Eastand Africa said in the light ofincreasing investor confidenceand consumer spending, theeconomic sentiments are cur-rently looking up.

India’s retail inflation mar-ginally accelerated, followingthe third consecutive policyrate cut by RBI to 25 basispoints, he said.

“We expect several indus-

tries and sectors, includingreal estate, to pick up in thecoming times and register sub-stantial growth in the latter partof the calendar year,” he added.

In its June policy review,while reducing the rate for thethird time in a row, the RBI hadsignalled more easing as itlooked to support an economygrowing at the slowest pacesince the BJP first came topower in 2014.

Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman will meet heads ofpublic as well as major privatesector banks on Monday toreview the flow of credit toimportant sectors of the econo-my, including MSME, automo-bile and housing sectors, accord-ing to an official statement.

Generally, the finance min-ister holds a review meetingwith heads of public sectorbanks and financial institu-tions, but this time the ministryhas also invited major private-sector lenders.

Ashish R. Puravankara,Managing Director,Puravankara Limited said it isvery encouraging to hear theRBI Governor’s advisory tobanks to pass on the benefit ofthe rate cuts announced inJune, down to the industries.

“For real estate sector areduction in the cost of fundsmeans that we can pass that onto our customers directly,which will be encouraging forthe sector at large,” he said.

Edelweiss Research in a

report had said the Indianeconomy is in the throes of abroad-based slowdown—sharpcontraction in auto sales, slow-ing investments and subduedexports.

“In our view, the RBI shouldideally front-load a 50bps ratecut at its forthcoming meetingon 7 August, but the RBI gov-ernor’s recent interview suggestsa more measured approach.Hence, a 25bps rate cut looksmore probable,” it said.

Shanti Ekambaram,President — ConsumerBanking, Kotak MahindraBank too opined that the cen-tral bank is likely to cut therepo rate by 25 bps.

“It will be important tostudy the policy narrative to geta direction of likely futureaction by the RBI, liquiditymeasures, any other structur-al changes etc. Suffice it to saythat inflation will be the cen-tral theme balanced with theneed to boost growth,”Ekambaram added.

While inflation continuesto remain within the RBI’scomfort zone, key indicatorslike automobile sale and almostflat growth in the eight coresector industries showing signsof a slowdown.

India’s economic growthrate slowed to a five-year lowof 5.8 per cent in the January-March quarter of 2018-19, dueto poor performance in theagriculture and manufacturingsectors.

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Industry body CII on Sundayurged the government to

lower the base price for 5Gspectrum, saying the high priceof such radiowaves will haltaccelerated growth of the sec-tor and deter adoption of tele-com services by the masses.

The Confederation of IndianIndustry (CII) cautioned thatparticipation of Indian telecomcompanies may be severely con-strained in the upcoming auctionfor 5G spectrum due to low aver-age revenue per user, and addedthat high reserve prices couldfurther subdue this.

In a representation sub-mitted to the government, theCII made a case for a lower 5Gspectrum reserve price, theauction for which is expectedto be held later this year.

“India’s telecommunicationsector has achieved globalrecognition for the speed of itsgrowth and has the lowest tar-iffs in the world, ensuring accessfor poor users and in remotegeographies. High reserve pricesof spectrum will halt this accel-erated growth and deter uptakeof telecom services by poorersections of society,” the CII saidin a statement.

The association has ques-tioned the current spectrumpricing model arguing thatusing the metric of dollars permegahertz per population is“inappropriate” for Indian mar-

ket where telecom prices are setat very low levels and popula-tion is high. Instead, the CIIrecommended use of dol-lar/MHz/revenue ordollar/MHz/GDP as a metricfor comparing spectrum priceacross markets.

“The population level ofthe country does not translateinto proportionate revenues,resulting in lower cash flows formobile operators,” the CII said.

Further, the approach ofrelying on last auction pricesworked only when there wereno distortions in the auctionprocess, said CII, adding thatground-up valuation of spec-trum is a better approach.

“Also, this approach ofinflating the auction prices toarrive at the reserve price has-n’t been followed in all cases bythe TRAI (Telecom RegulatoryAuthority of India) in the past.Where in some case, the TRAIhas reduced the reserve priceeven when the market prices inthe preceding auctions werehigher,” the CII said.

It urged the government torelook the base prices for 5Gspectrum by valuing themground up, using models whichfactor in the current financialstress of the sector.

Highlighting the financialdifficulties being faced by theindustry, the CII noted thatsince 2016, high competition inthe market had led to lowerrealisations.

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In a bid to promote IFSC as anattractive destination for

investment for global re-insur-ers, the government has relaxednorms for setting up shops atGandhinagar internationalfinancial services centre.

The notification of Finance(No. 2) Act, 2019, has paved theway for reduction of the NetOwned Funds (NOF) require-ment for the opening ofbranches of foreign re-insurersin International FinancialServices Center (IFSC) to Rs1,000 crore from Rs 5,000crore.

The significant reductionin NOF requirement with theamendment in the InsuranceAct 1938 is expected to attractglobal re-insurance companiesoperating in financial centreslike Singapore, Dubai, HongKong, Malaysia, London etc. Toset up branches in IFSC inIndia.

The above amendment isthus expected to increase thenumber of foreign re-insuranceplayers in IFSC, Gandhinagarand lead to on-shoring of inter-national insurance transac-tions, a senior finance ministryofficial said.

State-owned reinsurer

General Insurance Corporationof India in 2017 opened itsIFSC Insurance Office (IIO) atIFSC Gandhinagar in Gujarat,the first and only IFSC so far.

Opening an office at IFSCwould allow global players tocater to the needs of customersoutside the jurisdiction of thedomestic economy.

Such centres deal withflows of finance, financial prod-ucts and services across bor-ders.

Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman in her budgetspeech, announced the gov-ernment’s intent to make Indiaa hub for aircraft financing andleasing activities by leveragingbusiness opportunities availablein India’s financial SpecialEconomic Zones (SEZs),namely, IFSC.

Besides, the governmenthas provided several direct taxincentives to an IFSC including100 per cent profit-linkeddeduction in any ten-year blockwithin 15 years and exemptionfrom dividend distribution taxamong others.

Together, these steps willlead to the creation of aspira-tional jobs in insurance andaviation finance and contributeto making IFSC a global finan-cial and IT services hub.

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The UGC hasrecommended

the granting ofInstitution ofEminence (IoE)status to Odisha-based KalingaInstitute ofI n d u s t r i a lT e c h n o l o g y(KIIT).

The decision was taken at ameeting of University GrantsCommission (UGC) where fivetop public universities includingDelhi University, HyderabadUniversity, BHU and IIT Madrasand Kharagpur were also rec-ommended for the same .

KIIT is the only institute inOdisha and among seven pri-vate universities in the countryto be recommended for the IoEstatus. “For this (recommen-dation) Dr Achyuta Samanta,Founder, KIIT... has given thecredit to PM Narendra Modi,Ramesh Pokhariyal Nishank,Minister, HRD and OdishaChief Minister Naveen Patnaik,”a KIIT statement said.

KIIT, an institution forprofessional education, was

started in 1997 and became adeemed University 15 yearsback. . For this Dr. AchyutaSamanta, Founder, KIIT &KISS has given the credit toNarendra Modi, PrimeMinister of India, RameshPokhariyal Nishank, Minister,HRD and Naveen Patnaik,Chief Minister of Odisha.

In addition to KIIT,Samanta, an academician-turned BJD MP, also set upKISS (Kalinga Institute ofSocial Sciences) for tribal stu-dents.At present 50,000 indige-nous students are providedfree food, lodging and educa-tion. The effort is aimed atweaning away poor tribalyouths from the clutches ofNaxalism.

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NMDC received “InnovativeStakeholders Interface”

award at the SCOPE CorporateExcellence Awards 2019 atNew Delhi today.

Shri Sumit Deb, ExecutiveDirector (P&A) received theaward on behalf of NMDCfrom BP Singh, IAS, FormerGovernor of Sikkim andFormer Home Secretary,Government of India.

NMDC received this awardfor organizing an InternationalConference on Minerals &Metals Outlook-2030 at NewDelhi during October 2018.

This conference was attendedby more than 600 delegatesfrom 16 countries.

During the said conferencedeliberations took place onthe future of minerals andmetals worldwide. The seminaralso helped to understand theglobal commodities market forminerals and metals, high-lighting the inter-linkagebetween mineral developmentand economic growth, thedevelopments in the interna-tional metals market that canimpact the Indian metalsindustry and identifyingopportunities in Indian miningand metals.

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The National Company LawAppellate Tribunal

(NCLAT) has stayed eviction ofSterling Biotech from itspremises as the debt-riddencompany was going under theinsolvency resolution processand was under the moratoriumperiod.

A two-member benchheaded by NCLAT ChairmanJustice S J Mukhopadhayaupheld the order passed by theMumbai Bench of the NationalCompany Law Tribunal(NCLT), which had asked SreiInfrastructure Finance, a finan-cial creditor, to hand over thepossession of the A and B wingpremises of Laxmi Towers.

The appellate tribunalobserved that although SterlingBiotech, which is presentlygoing through liquidation, isnot the owner of the premisesit cannot be ejected or dis-turbed during the moratoriumperiod as the company has toremain as a going concern.

“We hold that theAdjudicating Authority(NCLT) has rightly directed theAppellant to hand over the pos-session of ‘B’ Wing premises ofLakshmi Towers and rightly

prohibited the Appellant fromevicting the ‘Corporate Debtor(Sterling Biotech) from ‘A’Wing premises of LakshmiTowers,” said NCLAT.

However, it also said that“So far as the question as towho is the owner of ‘A’ and ‘B’Wings premises of LakshmiTowers and whether theAppellant has any right over thesaid property, such questionsare not required to be deter-mined in the proceeding underthe ‘I&B Code’.”

NCLAT also said if SterlingBiotech is saved during the liq-uidation proceeding or if it issold to a third party along withthe employees then, in suchcase, one may move before theCompetent Court of law forappropriate decision.

Besides, the appellate tri-bunal also said that “theLiquidator cannot sell the assetsof the premises in question.”

Resolution Professional ofSterling Biotech had movedNCLT against the financialcreditor to return the posses-sion of B Wing premises ofLakshmi Towers and restrainSrei Infrastructure Financefrom taking any action in rela-tion to A Wing premises, whichhad allowed it.

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Hyundai Motor India soldover 16,200 units in the

utility vehicle segment in Julyto take a lead over MarutiSuzuki India (MSI) andMahindra & Mahindra(M&M), which have for longdominated the vertical.

Last month, Hyundai sold atotal of 16,234 units of Creta,Venue, Tucson and KonaElectric, while in comparisonM&M sold 16,003 utility vehicles(UVs). M&M sells seven mod-els in the UV segment like XUV500, Scorpio, Bolero and Thar.

MSI on the other handreported sale of 15,178 units inthe UV segment last month. ItsUV portfolio comprises mod-els like Ertiga, Vitara Brezzaand S-Cross.

“Hyundai has strong posi-tion in compact SUV segmentwith Creta. Now with Venue,we have further consolidatedour position in the UV seg-ment,” Hyundai Motor IndiaNational Head-Sales Vikas Jainsaid.

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Government tenders worthover �25,000 crore were

either cancelled or modifiedand re-issued after theDepartment for Promotion ofIndustry and Internal Trade(DPIIT) stepped in to changetheir conditions in order topromote ‘Made in India’ goods,a top official said.

“The department is takingevery step for effective imple-mentation of public procure-ment order, 2017, to promote‘Made in India’ products,” theofficial said.

The government issued theorder on June 15, 2017, to pro-mote manufacturing and pro-duction of goods and servicesin India and enhance incomeand employment in the country.

A tender worth �8,000crore was withdrawn and re-issued with modified condi-tions after the intervention ofthe DIPP. The project wasrelated with setting up of a ureaand ammonia plant for gasifi-cation.

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Two separate mass shootingswithin 24 hours left 30

people dead and several othersinjured in the US States ofTexas and Ohio, including onethought to be a hate crime, thelatest in a string of such inci-dents in America that haveshocked the nation.

The first shooting tookplace in the southern bordertown of El Paso in Texas, wherea 21-year-old gunman openedfire at a crowded Walmartstore, killing 20 people andwounding 26 others onSaturday.

Hours later, a man killednine people before being shotdead by police in Oregon dis-trict, a historic neighbourhoodknown for its nightclubs, bars,art galleries and shops, inDayton, Ohio early Sunday,police said.

"The shooter is deceased.There are 9 others alsodeceased. At least 16 otherswent to area hospitals withinjuries," Dayton police said.

At least 26 others wereinjured, Dayton Mayor NanWhaley told reporters.

The first shooting that tore

through a Walmart jammedwith back-to-school shoppersin El Paso on Saturday markedanother bleak milestone in anation pocked by gun vio-lence: the 250th mass shootingof 2019.

And the rampage notchedan even darker statistic: Itoccurred on the 215th day ofthe year, meaning there havebeen more mass shootingsthan days so far this year.

"The ages and genders of allthese people injured and killedare numerous in the agegroups," El Paso Police ChiefGreg Allen said.

"The situation, needless tosay, is a horrific one."

Texas authorities are inves-tigating the El Paso shooting asa possible hate crime, Allensaid.

For several minutes onSaturday morning, the packedWalmart store, where shopperswere busy buying back toschool stuff for their kids, filledwith gun smoke and the echoof gunfire. Footage shot onmobiles appeared to show mul-tiple bodies lying on the groundin the store's parking lot.

Twenty people were killedand 26 others injured in the

shooting in El Paso, said TexasGov. Greg Abbott.

"On a day that would havebeen a normal day for someoneto leisurely go shopping, turnedinto one of the most deadly

days in the history of Texas."President Donald Trump

condemned the attacks as an"act of cowardice" and saidthere could be no justificationfor the killing of innocent peo-

ple."The FBI, local and state

law enforcement are workingtogether in El Paso and inDayton, Ohio. Information israpidly being accumulated in

Dayton. Much has already belearned in El Paso. Lawenforcement was very rapid inboth instances. Updates will begiven throughout the day!" hetweeted.

"God bless the people of ElPaso Texas. God bless the peo-ple of Dayton, Ohio," Trumpsaid.

Marcelo Ebrard, the secre-tary of foreign affairs ofMexico, said six Mexicannationals were among the ElPaso injured.

Victor Guerrero, aspokesman for Del Sol MedicalCenter, said the hospital wastreating 11 El Paso victims.Nine were in critical but stablecondition and two were stable,he said. Patient ages rangedfrom 35 to 82.

The University MedicalCentre of El Paso received 13patients, according to RyanMielke, the hospital'sspokesman.

Mielke said the victims'conditions ranged from minorinjury to fatal.

The authorities identifiedthe El Paso gunman as PatrickCrusius from an affluent Dallassuburb. He was taken into cus-tody after he surrendered to the

police outside the Walmartstore.

The authorities said theywere investigating a manifestoCrusius, who is white, mayhave posted before the shoot-ing, which described an attackin response to "the Hispanicinvasion of Texas."

The manifesto is filled withwhite nationalist language andracist hatred toward immi-grants and Latinos, blamingimmigrants and first-genera-tion Americans for taking awayjobs.

Citing a source familiarwith the investigative process,the CNN said the FBI hasopened a domestic terrorisminvestigation into the shootingto be worked concurrent to thestate investigation, with Texasauthorities taking the lead.

A Twitter account thatappeared to belong to Crusiushas been shut down. Tweets onthe account had praised Trumpand, in particular, his effort tobuild a wall along the US-Mexico border.

The FBI is asking witness-es who took photos or videosduring the shooting to submittheir unedited media to themfor examination.

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Sudan's pro-democracymovement signed a power-

sharing agreement with theruling military council onSunday aimed at paving theway for a transition to civilianrule following the overthrow ofPresident Omar al-Bashir inApril.

Representatives initialed aconstitutional document thatwould establish a joint militaryand civilian council to rule fora little over three years untilelections can be held. Theagreement would establish aCabinet appointed by theactivists, as well as a legislativebody.

The military overthrew al-Bashir in April followingmonths of mass protests againsthis three-decade-long auto-cratic rule. The protestersremained in the streets,

demanding a rapid transition toa civilian authority. They havebeen locked in tense negotia-tions with the military forweeks while holding massprotests.

General MohammedHamdan Dagalo, the deputyhead of the military council,told a joint news conferencethat the deal has ended an erain Sudan's history "character-ized by rivalry and fighting."

"We have entered the nego-tiations as partners and leave asone team. The national will hastriumphed... It is a win-win," hesaid.

Protest leader Omar al-Dagir said a "fair and trans-parent" investigation intorecent violence by securityforces against protesters, andachieving peace with rebelgroups, would be top prioritiesfor the transitionalGovernment.

"There will be no democ-racy without peace," he said."National reconciliation willbe the slogan of the transitionalperiod."

The two sides reached apreliminary agreement lastmonth following internationalpressure, amid growing con-cerns the political crisis couldignite civil war.

That document providedfor the establishment of a jointcivilian-military sovereigncouncil.

A military leader wouldhead the 11-member councilfor the first 21 months, fol-lowed by a civilian leader forthe next 18. There would alsobe a Cabinet of technocratschosen by the protesters, as wellas a legislative council withmajority from the Forces forthe Declaration of Freedomand Change, the main protestcoalition.

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Iran has seized a foreigntanker in the Gulf, state

media said Sunday, in whatwould be the third such seizurein a month amid heightenedtensions with its foe the UnitedStates.

The Islamic RevolutionaryGuard Corps "seized this shiparound Farsi Island which wascarrying around 700,000 litresof smuggled fuel", said aGuards statement quoted bythe official news agency IRNA.

Seven foreign crew werearrested in the operation car-ried out on Wednesday night,said Fars news agency, which isconsidered close to the Guards.

Tensions between arch-enemies Iran and the US havesoared this year afterWashington stepped up itscampaign of "maximum pres-

sure" against Tehran.Ships have been attacked,

drones downed and oil tankersseized since May, a year afterthe United States withdrewfrom a landmark nuclear dealbetween Iran and world pow-ers and began reimposing bit-ing sanctions against the coun-try.

At the height of the crisis,US President Donald Trumpcalled off air strikes against Iranat the last minute in June afterthe Islamic republic's forcesshot down a US drone.

The seizure of the latesttanker would be the third byIran in less than a month inGulf waters -- a conduit formuch of the world's crude oil.On July 18, the Guards saidthey had detained the Panama-flagged for MT Riah for allegedfuel smuggling.

And a day later, they

announced they had impound-ed the British-flagged StenaImpero in the Strait of Hormuzfor breaking "internationalmaritime rules".

The identity of the latestvessel seized and the national-ity of its crew had not yet beenrevealed on Sunday.

The Guards said their boatshad been patrolling the Gulf tocontrol traffic and detect illic-it trade when they seized thetanker.

"The ship was transferredto Bushehr and its smuggledfuel was handed over" to theauthorities in coordinationwith judicial authorities, said astatement. Fars quotedBrigadier General RamezanZirahi, a commander of theGuards who carried out theseizure, as saying the tankerhad been en route to deliverfuel to Gulf Arab States.

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Rescuers recovered morebodies in rough seas where

three ferry boats capsized afterbeing buffeted by fierce windsand waves off two centralPhilippine provinces, bringingthe death toll to 31 with threemissing, the coast guard saidSunday.

Coast guard spokesmanArmand Balilo said the deadwere mostly passengers of twoferries that flipped over insudden wind gusts and pow-erful waves Saturday offGuimaras and Iloilo provinces.Sixty-two other passengers and

crew were rescued.A third ferry, which was

not carrying any passengers,also capsized in the Iloilo Straitbut its five crewmen survived,Balilo said.

Survivors recounted howthe sky suddenly turned darkmidway through their trip, fol-lowed by strong winds and rainthat battered their ferries.

Authorities wondered whya third ferry was allowed to sailabout three hours after twoother ferries overturned almostat the same time at noon in badweather.

Forecasters have warned ofheavy monsoon rains, thun-

derstorms and rain-triggeredlandslides amid a tropicaldepression more than 1,000kilometers (620 miles) off thecountry's eastern coast.

Classes and work were sus-pended in metropolitan Manilaon Friday and Saturday amidheavy rains and flooding,which caused intense trafficjams in low-lying areas of thecapital.

About 20 typhoons andstorms batter the Philippineseach year, making the archi-pelago that lies on the Pacifictyphoon and earthquake beltone of the world's most disas-ter-prone countries.(AP)

Idlib: The chief of Hayat Tahriral-Sham, the main jihadist groupin Syria's northwestern Idlib,on Saturday refused any with-drawal from a future bufferzone after a truce went into effectin the area.

"What the regime could nottake militarily or by force, theywill not get through peacefulmeans or through negotiationsand politics," said Abu Mohamedal-Jolani. "We will never with-draw from the zone."

Jolani made his commentsduring a meeting with reportersorganised by the former Al-Qaeda affiliate group HayatTahrir al-Sham (HTS).

On Thursday the Syrian

government agreed to a truce inthe northwestern region of Idlibon condition that a Turkish-Russian buffer-zone deal isimplemented, according to statenews agency SANA.

Most of Idlib province andparts of Hama, Aleppo andLatakia — which currently hostssome three million residents —are controlled by the HTS.

The region is supposed to beprotected from a massive gov-ernment offensive by theTurkish-Russian deal, but it hascome under increasing fire byDamascus and its backerMoscow since the end of April.

The Government of SyrianPresident Bashar Al-Assad has

accused Turkey of dragging itsfeet in implementing the deal,which provided for a bufferzone of up to 20 kilometres (12miles) between the two sides, freeof heavy weaponry.

"We will not change ourposition, neither at the request ofour friends or our enemies,"Jolani insisted, refusing any ideaof a demilitarised zone.

Air strikes on the Idlibregion stopped on Friday afterthe government's truceannouncement but the fightingsince late April has killed 790civilians in regime and Russianattacks, the UK-based SyrianObservatory for Human Rightsmonitor says. AFP

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Ajournalist in the Gulf Coaststate of Veracruz has been

shot dead just days before hewas scheduled to testify beforestate authorities about threatsof violence against him.

The state attorney's officesaid in a statement that JorgeCelestino Ruiz Vázquez wasfound dead at his home short-ly before midnight Friday afterpolice responded to a call alert-ing them to gunshots at the res-idence in Actopan, 60 kilome-ters (37 miles) south of statecapital Xalapa.

Ruiz Vázquez was sched-uled to give statements to

authorities next Tuesday. Healleged that Actopan MayorPaulino Domínguez Sánchezwas behind the threats.

The Committee to ProtectJournalists says Ruiz Vázquezwas the third journalist killedin a single week, and the 10thkilled this year, in Mexico.

Tokyo: A strong 6.3-magnitudeearthquake struck in the Pacificoff Fukushima, northeasternJapan, on Sunday, but there wasno tsunami threat, US andJapanese authorities said.

The quake jolted largeareas in the region at 7:23 pm(1023 GMT) with its epicentrelocated 54 kilometres (34miles) east of Namie, easternFukushima, according to theUS Geological Survey said.

The quake was also felt inTokyo. The JapanMeteorological Agency saidthere were no worries abouttsunami damage.

The agency issued anwarning when the quake hit,but there was no report ofinjuries.Shinkansen bullet trainservices were temporarily sus-pended in the region, publicbroadcaster NHK said. AFP

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British Prime Minister BorisJohnson's Government has

urged EU leaders again to droptheir opposition to renegotiat-ing the terms of Brexit, claim-ing recent European electionsrequired a change of approach.

Johnson, who took officelate last month, says he wantsto leave the European Unionwith a deal but insists the cur-rent terms are unacceptableand if necessary Britain will exiton October 31 with no agree-ment at all.

In an article in the Mail onSunday newspaper, Johnson'sBrexit Secretary Steve Barclaysaid European Parliament elec-tions in May had changed thepolitical dynamic and urgedEU leaders to amend the man-date of their chief negotiator,Michel Barnier.

"The political realities havechanged since Mr Barnier'sinstructions were set," Barclaywrote.

"Since the last mandate

was agreed, 61 percent of all theEU states' MEPs have changed.Such a fundamental shift illus-trates the need for a change ofapproach.

"Mr Barnier needs to urgeEU leaders to consider this ifthey too want an agreement, toenable him to negotiate in away that finds common groundwith the UK.

"Otherwise, no deal iscoming down the tracks."Former prime minister TheresaMay quit after delaying Brexittwice while she tried unsuc-cessfully to get the divorceterms she struck with Brusselsthrough the British parliament.But the EU has refused toreopen the deal, the result of 17months of tough negotiations.

Johnson has ramped uppreparations for leaving with-out any agreement.

However, some British law-makers have vowed to stophim, fearing the economic con-sequences of severing ties withBritain's closest trading partnerovernight.

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Phnom Penh: Khmer Rouge 'brothernumber two' Nuon Chea died on Sundayaged 93, a spokesman for the Cambodia tri-bunal where he was convicted of genocideand crimes against humanity told AFP.

"We can confirm that defendant NuonChea... Passed away this evening on 4August 2019 at Khmer Soviet Friendshiphospital," said Neth Pheaktra, spokesmanfor the tribunal.

The cause of his death was not givenbut he had been in hospital since early last

month.The reign of terror led by "Brother

Number 1" Pol Pot left some two millionCambodians dead from overwork, starva-tion and mass executions from 1975 to1979.

But Nuon Chea, considered the KhmerRouge's chief ideologue, was not arresteduntil 2007.

He and other senior members of theultra-Maoist group were put on trial at theExtraordinary Chambers in the Courts of

Cambodia.The UN-backed court sentenced him

to life in prison last year after he was foundguilty of genocide against the ethnicVietnamese and Cham Muslim minoritygroup.

His lawyers had informed the court thatNuon Chea would appeal, but prosecutorsare now expected to ask the Supreme Courtchamber to terminate his case following hisdeath, according to a court official.

AFP

Damascus: A Syrian pro-gov-ernment newspaper is report-ing 26 soldiers, including sevenofficers, have been killed in anexplosion blamed on a techni-cal error in central Syria.

Al-Watan quoted a militaryofficial as describing Saturday'sexplosion at the Shayrat airbase in the Homs province assevere.

The official news agencySANA reported an explosion

Saturday at the base, saying itkilled an undetermined num-ber of soldiers. It said the blastwas caused by a technical errorwhile transporting ammuni-tion.

The Britain-based SyrianObservatory for HumanRights, an opposition-linkedgroup that monitors the war,put the death toll at 31. It saidthe cause of the explosion wasunclear. AP

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The US and the Taliban werethrashing out elements of a

deal to bring a close toAfghanistan's 18-year conflictat the second day of renewedtalks in Doha on Sunday.

The US, which invadedAfghanistan and toppled theTaliban in 2001, wants to with-draw thousands of troops andturn the page on its longest everwar. But it would first seekassurances from the insurgentsthat they will renounce Al-Qaeda and stop other militantslike the Islamic State groupusing the country as a haven.

The talks, now in their

eighth round, began onSaturday with no end dateissued publicly.

A Taliban source told AFPefforts had been made toorganise a direct meetingbetween US envoy forAfghanistan Zalmay Khalilzadand Taliban co-founder MullahBaradar, who heads the move-ment's political wing.

The men have met previ-ously, as recently as May.

A coalition led byWashington ousted the Talibanin late 2001 accusing it of har-bouring Al-Qaeda jihadistswho claimed the September 11attacks against the US thatkilled almost 3,000 people.

But despite a rapid con-clusion to the conventionalphase of the war, the Talibanhave proved formidable insur-gents, bogging down US troopsfor years.

Washington is hoping tostrike a peace deal with theTaliban by September 1 --ahead of Afghan polls due thesame month, and US presi-dential elections due in 2020.

US President DonaldTrump told reporters at theWhite House on Friday that"we've made a lot of progress.We're talking".

"We are pursuing a peaceagreement not a withdrawalagreement, a peace agreement

that enables withdrawal,"Khalilzad tweeted on Friday ashe arrived in Doha after talkswith Pakistani Prime MinisterImran Khan in Islamabad.

"Our presence inAfghanistan is conditions-based, and any withdrawal willbe conditions-based."

In another sign of progress,the Afghan government hasformed a negotiating team forseparate peace talks with theTaliban that diplomats hopecould be held as early as laterthis month.

The Washington Postreported Thursday that an ini-tial deal to end the war wouldsee the US force in Afghanistan

reduced to as low as 8,000 fromthe current level of around14,000.

In exchange, the Talibanwould abide by a ceasefire,renounce Al-Qaeda, and talk tothe Kabul administration.

"After 19 years, PresidentTrump has made it very clearthat his desire is that we devel-op a diplomatic resolution thatpermits us to reduce theresources that are locatedthere... While simultaneouslyensuring that Afghanistannever again becomes a platformwhere a terrorist can strike theUnited States," US Secretary ofState Mike Pompeo saidSunday during a visit to

Sydney.An Afghan official hinted

last week that the governmentof President Ashraf Ghani waspreparing for direct talks withthe Taliban, the details of whichhave yet to be announced.

"We have no preconditionsto begin talks, but the peaceagreement is not without con-ditions," Ghani wrote in Pashtoon his Facebook page on Fridayahead of the talks.

"We want a republic gov-ernment not an emirate," hesaid, a challenge to the Talibanwhich has insisted on revertingto the "Islamic Emirate" nameAfghanistan bore under itsrule.

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Even before I sat for the inter-view, director Nikhil Advanifired his first salvo, “Yes, how

do I help you?” I asked him about hisforthcoming film, Batla House. Hecounter questioned, “How old areyou? Where were you when theoperation Batla House happened?And when 26/11 happened?” As Iwas about to respond, he said, “Askthe people of Delhi about this, theirreaction will tell you everything.”

He told us that if you ask aboutthe 26/11 incident fromMumbaikars, they will share theirexperiences like ‘they were at officeworking or probably sleeping athome’. When Nikhil asked the peo-ple of the capital about the incident,he got similar reactions. So, as a res-ident of Mumbai, who was there dur-ing the attacks, he could easily relateto their reactions.”

There is no denial of the factthat the incident had shaken peopleto the core. “I was in great shock too,the moment I got to know about theincident. I knew about Batla Housebut was not aware of the aspects anddimensions of the case. So whenRitesh (Shah, writer of the film) cameto me with the script, the first thingI said was, yaar Ritesh, Dilli police!He then told me to at least read thescript first. ‘We need to change themindset of people like you’, he said.I read it and asked him to show meeverything that he has not includedin it,” said Nikhil. He wanted to knowevery single detail of the incident sothat he could decide whether hewants to do it not. He was curiousto know the reason why one part ofthe story was kept out. And, after heknew everything, he met people whoreported from the field when theencounter had taken place. Hedescribes how the incident wasinterpreted differently by differentpeople depending on which side ofthe story they were, either the policeor the students. “I told Ritesh that wehave to tell the second side of thestory as well, ye ek tarfa nhi ho sakta(this can’t be one sided). So we tookpeople’s view into account andrewrote the whole script,” added he.

The excitement with whichNikhil was narrating the story madeit quite evident how important thisfilm was for him. “I feel that oneneeds to have multiple perspectivesto be able to tell a story accurately.When the encounter happened,

everyone started saying that thestudents are terrorists and the policeis corrupt,” he said. At its core, thefilm talks of truth getting lost. He saidthat we labelled five students as ter-rorists without any evidence and alsoforget that the lost truth is connect-ed to a police commissioner (SanjeevKumar Yadav), who has been award-ed six times for his bravery but weare calling him a murderer withoutgiving a second thought to it. He isthe film’s central character. Nikhiltold us, “Most people will say thatbecause the film is made on SanjeevKumar Yadav, it would show hisside only. But no, that’s not thecase. I want to showcase everyside of the story.” Recalling afunny incident, Nikhil said,“He called me up one day andsaid ‘yaar wo Sumo (car) nhithi humare paas, Qualisthi, wahi use karna.’(We did not hadSumo car, wehad Qualis,please use thatonly in thefilm).

The direc-tor said guess-ing, “During theincident, theremust have beensome evidencethat the policefollowed to

reach the door of the Batla Housebuilding and nobody knows whathappened inside the door or that thepolice just went in because at thetime, there were six bomb blasts inDelhi and they had the pressure ofarresting somebody, so they just wentand picked up those boys. Was itthat? I have shown everything.” Thefilm is kept open for interpretationsbecause even though the court haspassed the judgement but people areappealing it, so nobody knows thetruth. “At the end, we are showing

what the court accepted but itwas very important to tell the

another point of view also,”he added.

Making a film on a reallife incident is nothing lessthan a challenge. Because it

is a linear story, it might getconfusing but, Nikhil said,

“Because Ritesh is a goodwriter, we have tried toseparate the threadsof the characters toavoid any confu-sion.” Emphasisingon how engrossingthe story is, he saidthat one won’t beable to reach fortheir phones in thecinema hall while

watching the film.The film has a mes-

sage, ‘Encounter ka mat-

lab hai Surgical Strike, matlab keep-ing India Safe. Fark sirf itna hai kihumare borders shahar ke andar hotehai.’ (Encounter means surgicalstrike, which in turn means keepingIndia safe. The only difference thatlies is, we have borders within ourcities). “We have used the wordencounter very loosely and oftenmisinterpreted it. We asked proof forsurgical strikes, not bothering aboutthe soldiers and pilots, who havegone on that mission. Infiltration isnot happening only on the borders,it is happening with our own peo-ple and within our cities.

How has this film enriched hisjourney as a director? Nikhil saidafter a long contemplative pause, “Ithas certainly increased my patiencelevel. I did Kal Ho Na Ho, Salaam-e-ishq and Chandni Chowk to China,all because I wanted to prove it toeverybody that I am still relevant.But I soon realised that I have start-ed making films for all the wrongreasons till I made D-Day andeverything changed.” He then madetwo more films, which he feels if hehasn’t made, he wouldn't have beenas patient. “Batla House has taughtme that it takes quite an effort andtime to write a good script, researchand get the material tog00ether. I amenriched as a director because todayI realise I am very much satisfiedwith what I have done. Most peoplehave said ‘yaar I have spent thewhole time googling about BatlaHouse’,” Nikhil said. He has under-stood the importance of figuringthings out before jumping to theconclusions.

“I now know that I will have todo other things like making a showand producing a film for my dailybread and butter but personally Ishould tell the stories that I want toand not compromise on it,” headded.

(The film releases on August 15.)

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It hasn’t been long ago when one ofPablo Picasso’s paintings had set anew world record as it was sold at$179 million (approximately �1,147crore) in New York. It became the

most expensive artwork to have ever soldat an auction. The painting is believed tohave comprised the complete size of theIndian art market. Looking at the statistic,it is evident that India holds a very minus-cule part of the international art market.And to be statistically accurate, the shareis less than 0.5 per cent.

The need, hence, is to broaden the artmarket in India to help artists get morevalue and recognition in the global artscene. And an auction is a perfect way toallow the market evaluate an artist’s worth.Or so believes Ashish Anand, MD andCEO of DAG Modern, which holds anoth-er fund-raising for 115 years of CharityGala, for the Taj Public Service WelfareTrust. He tells us that a very few Indianartists are known outside India and evenin the country, not many people are awareof the senior and accredited artists. He says,“Introducing these respected masters tobuyers is very critical. They are a part ofour heritage and culture. They reflect theart traditions in India. And what better thanauction houses to preserve their legacy?”

While SaffronArt and Christie’s hadalready been creating space for moreartists to gain prominence and becomehousehold names, DAG, he says is also fol-lowing the auction route to make them vis-ible in the global art sphere. Also, he says,“the demand is increasing for these worksby people who are interested in collectingart. So why not?”

The auction, to be held on August 9,puts on display 25 paintings from 20th cen-tury contemporary artists.

The first painting at the display, as onetakes a walk through the exhibition, is artistP Khemraj’s Asha Hans, priced at�15,00,000 to �20,00,000. The painteruses ink and gold on ivory and through aseries of squirrel’s back-like textured lines,he intertwines a range of figures, which areplaced with intimate proximity to eachother. It is said that the painting showcasedhuman angels rising in unison to reach thenumerous golden-headed deities.

Moving further, one of the most strik-ing paintings, is Gogi Saroj Pal’s Aag kaDariya, priced at �7,00,000 to �10,00,000.The very first glance at the artwork mightteleport one back to the stories of how Lord

Krishna was born and how Vasudeva hadcarried the infant in a basket on his headin order to save him from the wrath ofKansa. However, the only difference hereis that a woman carries the basket on herhead. The artist here tries to point out thatwhile everyone celebrates Krishna’s birth,no one mourns the death of a girl child whowas sacrificed to ensure that Krishnacould live. Pal, here, represents the margin-alised voice of women while alluding totheir strength.

So what is the criteria for selecting thepaintings? Ashish says that the artworks bythe most established artists and that of highquality are usually chosen. “We also ensurethat the works that we have are of differ-ent styles and on disparate subjects, whichcan fall into a comprehensive range. Thepaintings here range from �2,00,000 to�45,00,000,” says he.

While the Untitled sketch painting byAmrita Sher-gil, with its starting price of�40,00,000 to �60,00,000 stands to be themost expensive of the lot, the least expen-sive ones are by Krishna Reddy and PoojaBroota, priced at �2,00,000 to �3,00,000each. Talking about the criteria for thereserve pricing, Ashish explains that the

reserve price has to be less than the esti-mated price. He says, “The reserve pricingis a price where you are willing to sell some-thing. In an auction like this, if a paintingis of �10,00,000, so it could potentially selleven for �2,00,000. So literally, it can be soldon any price. And if there is not much com-petition, the painting could also sell at�2,00,000.”

So what is it that sells a painting, evenif it is a mere sketch, for lakhs? As per hisobservations over the years, he says the rep-utation of the artist and quality of work arechosen the most. “The people are willingto pay big prices because of the value of theartist’s work. Else, who will pay �45,00,000for a painting? But since the name underthe painting is Amrita Sher-gil’s, the paint-ing will definitely sell. But even such namesbecome huge with time and not just in aninstant. So if one finds anything from MFHussain, even his sketch will have a lot ofvalue. It is because of the rarity and antiq-uity of their works that they sell,” explainshe.

As we proceed further, we comeacross artist Sunil Das’ Untitled painting,which strikes at one glance due to its var-ious mysterious entities like strong hors-es, sensuous bulls and shadowy women.The painting highlights a woman in whiteattire ahead a dark background, whose“eyes could easily transfix the spectator.” Itbrings one in the presence of such awoman, whose smouldering eyes holdallure, anguish and desolation. One cansense how her body has been consumedby time, her unabashed gaze and a prouddemeanour imbues her with a sense of dig-nity, claiming her space outside the darkand the shadows. The woman in the paint-ing, though, looks invincible.

Even though the painting appears tobe highly powerful and represents some-thing that might take one by storm if s/hedwells deeper into its concept, its darktheme wouldn’t make someone want tolook at it everyday in their homes. A vis-itor and art connoisseur, Ravi Bajaj, says,“The writer might have created this mas-terpiece to surely create something pow-erful. However, it’s too dark. For an auc-tion, it’s not something that gives a happyvibe. Personal emotions are also important.I like more colour and brightness ratherthan the dark demons that seem to be hid-den here in this mysterious but brilliant art-work.”

To the contrary, however, cartoonistand painter, Gopi Gajwani, who has alsobeen a close friend to Das, says that everypainting has a story. “It narrates theframework of the artist through its visual.Sunil was a very good friend of mine andI absolutely adore his work. They have ameaning and try to say something that isimperative to understand. I think this is avery powerful painting,” he adds.

Ashish, upon this, says, “Not everypainting is meant for every person. This isnot for the one who doesn’t want to lookat it everyday. Different paintings are fordifferent people and not all of them canown it. Das’ painting is dark yet beautifuland strong.”

Among other artists displayed are FNSouza, GR Santosh, Shobha Broota, PTReddy, J Sultan Ali, Jamini Roy, ShantiDave, Bimal Dasgupta, Madhavi Parekh,Ved Nayar, SH Raza, Sohan Qadri, NatvarBhavsar, KH Ara, Sakti Burman, RabinMondal, Avinash Chandra, P Khemraj andAnupam Sud.

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E��<��6��2��A couple’s caustic, increasingly jarring interactions over a

Mumbai evening strain their relationship until it threatens tobreak at its fraying seams.

Starring Khushboo Upadhyay, Rohit Kokate, HimanshuKohli, the arthouse drama releases on Netflix on August 9.

��9��When a dad-to-

be learns he’s actual-ly a sextuplet, he setsoff on a wild journeyto meet his long-lostfamily. Actor MarlonWayans stars as allthe six siblings.

Among others,the slapstick comedy

film stars Bresha Webb and Michael Ian Black. It releases onAugust 16 on Netflix.

��0�$The drama features a Victorian fantasy world filled with

mythological immigrant creatures. Feared by humans, they areforbidden to live, love or fly with freedom. But even in dark-ness, hope lives, as a human detective and a faerie rekindle adangerous affair. The city’s uneasy peace collapses when a stringof murders reveal a monster no one could imagine. The thrillerreleases on August 3 on Amazon Prime.

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The topic of ‘managementwithout stress’ in the cor-

porate world has quite popu-lar and is nowadays being dis-cussed in most seminars andplenaries held across the globe.It’s a known fact that corpo-rates spend millions and insome cases even billions tofind that magical technique ofmanagement without any kindof tension. But still no compa-ny has found that technique.Why?

After lot of brainstormingand following a pragmaticapproach, it can be said thatthe art of stress-free manage-ment is mainly about usingeight Ms, seven Ps, six Ss andfive Ts in an organised, useful,profitable and peaceful man-ner so as to ensure the maxi-mum possible satisfaction ofall concerned. The eight Msare — men, money, material,machine, marketing, mutualconnection, mutual relationand means. The seven Ps —productivity and performance,price and profitability, plan-ning ahead of time, pecuniarydiscipline, publicity, publicrelations and politeness, punc-tuality and personal commit-ments. The six Ss — skill, stan-dard, strategy and speed,salesmanship, system andstructure and social good. Andfinally the five Ts — time andsense, technology or tech-niques, teamwork, treatment ofeach other and the habit of giv-ing thanks. Now, in order to bea good manager, one has tohave a good judgement of allthese factors and the abilitiesof innovation, intuition, entre-preneurship and enthusiasm.One should have the qualitiesof farsightedness, global think-ing, humility, integrity andhumour. Since competitionhas been ever-increasing andthere are rapid changes intechnology and emergence of

innovative trends, one musthave resilience through suchpressures. A lack of this wouldaffect one’s health and happi-ness and a tranquil state ofmind.

If one plans, organises andmanages the above factorsproperly, one can sustain anatmosphere of growth and canachieve success for himselfand for all the members of theteam. If not, one is bound tofail in life, business, adminis-tration and organisationalwork. Now, in order to attainsuccess in achieving the goal oflife, we must add two Ms, Ps,Ss and Ts to the above list aswell. These are — moral val-ues, meditation, purity, peace-ful and calm personality, spir-itual study, soul-conscious-ness, truthfulness and trustee-ship.

If we practise meditation,there would be no mental ten-sion and that is why it is usu-ally explained to managersand administrators that onemust give some time to med-itation everyday in order tomanage and multi-task with-out letting the stress over-power you.

It should, therefore, beremembered that meditationand management have an inti-mate connection. They verymuch go hand in hand. Onewho can manage well can alsomeditate well and the viceversa of it is also applicable. Sothere is tension at many placesbecause there is managementwithout meditation. And indisturbed atmospheres, manymight find it difficult to med-itate as well. There is thus theneed to follow good principlesof management in order to beable to facilitate easy medita-tion at workplaces. This wouldautomatically bring in a stress-free environment and lifestylefor everyone.

Advertising is dead, longlive advertising’. If onewere to believe the chat-

ter around the advertising busi-ness over the last few years, onewould assume it’s all gloom anddoom. The traditional advertis-ing business has been undersiege, its control over the ‘brandcreative’ has gone from amonopoly to a constant tug ofwar of ‘who’s winning the cam-paign pitch’. The advent of thedigital economy has changedeverything, from how brandscreate, communicate and sell.The bells of the ad-pocalypsehave been ringing loud.

Or have they? This is how Isee it, the business is growing. I’dsay it’s booming! Everyonefrom Facebook to Google andAmazon are in the advertisingbusiness. What the influx of dig-ital has done is break down allnorms and barriers that hadbeen created over decades in theindustry. The clear-cut demar-cations between creative, mediaand beyond have been shakenup and what we have now is anindustry where it is not just thetraditional advertising agenciesthat are the players but everyonefrom new-age digital first cre-ative shops, creators, publishers,platforms and even brandsthemselves have turned aroundand said, “Why can’t we dothings the way we believe thisworld allows us to, rather thanhow it’s always been?”

E-commerce has allowednew age brands to start, createand distribute their productswithout having to build outlarge-scale distribution models

over years. The availability ofdigital tools has enabled anyoneto have the ability to become acreator and in doing so makecontent that is not just relevantto today’s audience but rathermore than relevant for brands towant to engage with their cus-tomers through them. It’s alsoenabled people like me (and my

co-founder Rohit Raj), with noprior knowledge of the advertis-ing industry, its history, rules andsystems to start and grow anadvertising agency without everhaving worked in one. I’m aproduct and student of the prosof the digital disruption of theadvertising industrial complex.I’ve been on the sidelines watch-

ing and participating in thischange in the dynamics.

So when IVM Podcastsbrought upon the opportunity tohost a podcast on the advertis-ing industry itself, it was anincredible opportunity for me tohave conversations with peoplefrom all sides of the spectrum.Over the last 36 weeks, I’ve had

conversations with everyonefrom agency heads of legacyagencies like Ogilvy and LeoBurnett, founders of new-agecontent companies like PocketAces and Kommune, marketersand communicators from plat-forms like LinkedIn and Twitteralong with focussing on areaslike talent, legal and many otheraspects that play such a crucialpart in shaping the industrytoday. The insights I’ve gottenover what I like to call “casualchats over coffee that just seemto have a recording devicearound” have been both eye-opening and jargon-breaking.Because what a podcast allowsone to do is to have a muchmore open conversation than ifyou have a camera on someone’sface, which in so many ways putsa person on guard. What it alsoallows is for people to be morecasual and stay away from jar-gon that many a time creates abarrier for people from outsidethe pond to really gather what’sgoing on.

And while everyone agrees

that things have changed a lotand the old ways are dying, whatI have heard has been extremeoptimism on both the craft aswell as the scope of advertising.Because the power of an idea isso much stronger if it has moretools in its arsenal. What it hasalso opened up is the questionsand responses we get from somany listeners, most of whomare in their early days in theindustry or even trying to figurea way to get into it, de-clutter-ing their minds about the manynon-existent barriers and open-ing it up to the possibilities andjourneys brought forth but theguests on the show is what I liketo call the brightest part of thenarrative.

So while the world order hasbeen broken down, it’s a wholenew and happy day. Becauseadvertising as we know it mightbe dead but what’s in its place isa much bigger and excitingthan ever. Long live advertising.

(The author is the contentchief and co-founder of TheGlitch.)

Every third year, the temperaturein the Thar Desert rises to 50degrees due to famine or

drought. The rural population is dis-turbed but locals do not get distract-ed. This is the reason why Thar is theonly desert in the world where thereis density of life in abundance. The bio-diversity has never depleted even incomplex geographical and meteoro-logical conditions and in fact, hasfound the possibilities of life by alwaysadjusting itself to the conditions.There will be shortage of water in adesert but this is nature’s way of deal-ing with it. This is a region where saltywater is extracted from beneath theearth and sweet water pours from thesky. But dense rainfall can make thedesert a swamp with the entire areabecoming a saline lake. Every livingorganism has adapted its life accord-ing to the available resources, whilemaintaining the possibility of life bymutually cooperating with otherspecies. Mankind created unique trea-sures of water storage for themselves,their animals (especially cattle) and forfuture generations, life has beenarranged to move ahead smoothly. Insome areas of India, where there ismore rainfall than the Thar Desert,there is scarcity of drinking water,while the people of the desert avoid thesituation by utilising water as if it wasthe treasure of their ancestors.

Time changed, developments tookplace, humans tried to control naturethrough technology. To make lifemore convenient and prosperous, wehave developed ways that by a sim-

ple gesture, our needs are madeavailable at our disposal; whether

it is by storing under-ground

water or by building dams to blockrivers.

The exercise of pulling under-ground water from heavy capacity-powered pumps and through pipelinesfrom the place of origin developed theculture of tap water, which madehumans forget the value of it. Still thereare people, who walk miles just to fetcha jar of water. A person who has beensaving wealth and resources for the lastseven generations is least concernedabout the availability of water neededfor existence.

Will the next seven generationshave water and air to survive? By see-ing tap water, the people were so fas-cinated that they forgot the precioustreasures of water harvesting passeddown to them by their ancestors. Evenafter seeing that they were looted infront of their eyes, they remainedsilent. Imagine the thousands of yearsof indefatigable hard work that wentinto making these precious treasures.To provide water, our governmentspends money at a faster pace than aflowing river, making directionlesspolicies and schemes, which give lesswater and more troubles.

There isn’t a

single village or region in the desert,where there is no traditional source ofwater. Did you know that the namesof villages are based on the sources ofwater. They have — Bera, Beri, Nadi,Sagar, Hala — prefixed to them. A vil-lage’s name is kept without it meaning‘water stagnation’. In the last five to sixdecades, the government’s plans forproviding water to the people are mak-ing them forget the traditional watersources as well as making them eye-witnesses to their own methods ofwasting water. From Barmer toJaisalmer, Bikaner, Churu, Nagaur,Jodhpur, Pali, Jalore to the foothills ofAravali, Sikar in Jhunjhunu, old Johad— community owned traditional har-vested rain water storage — ponds,rivers, streams, kunds (small ponds),baavdis (step well) — all have turnedinto ruins. The villagers have filledthem with soil and garbage. They havebecome places of illegal mining. Thecourtyard of the house, well known forits cleanliness, is now used to get ridof dead animals and trash. A genera-tion that drank water only from thesetraditional water sources, today onlytalks about how waste these become.

A follower ofM a h a t m a

Gandhi, late Anupam Mishra, wrotesome of his experiences seen in theconstruction process of ponds and thewastage caused due to it in his book— Aaj Bhi Khare Hai Talaab (ThePonds are Still Relevant). He wrote,“Hundreds and thousands of pondsdid not appear from oblivion. Therewere some who was commissioned towork for these ponds and there weremany who actually constructed hun-dreds and thousands of them. But inthe last few decades, they have beentreated as a complete waste especial-ly by technologically advance people.”Perhaps this is a time shift. The newgeneration that measures the worldwith a snap of a finger has seen thesewater sources being turned intogarbage dumps in the villages. Theyaren’t aware of the traditional watersources that was so prevalent in theolden times. This generation is leastconcerned about the sources. Due tolack of communication between thetwo generations in regard to knowl-edge and culture, the gap has widened.

As things are evolving now, natureis changing and weather patterns arechanging too. The water crisis in thedesert has started knocking. The

method of harvestingrainwater is in

doldrums. There could be a crisis ofwater when there is disruption in sup-ply of through canals and pipelines.There is no reason why the old watersources can’t be restored; it is only alack of will. Lately, the government,civil society organisations and mediaestablishments have started taking careof the traditional sources, harvestingrain water, organising the society tospread awareness on water crisis andare driving a campaign to build hun-dreds and thousands of units of thesewater sources. By combining manpow-er and hydropower, the society has theopportunity to revive the traditionalwater sources. To rejuvenate these, tohand over these priceless treasures intothe hands of the future generation,there is a need to raise thousands ofhands again so that the comingseven generations could live withfour million species of livingbeings.

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Satwiksairaj Rankireddy andChirag Shetty on Sunday createdhistory by becoming the first

Indian pair to win a BWF Super 500badminton tournament, stunningreigning world champions Li Jun Huiand Liu Yu Chen in the final ofThailand Open here.

India’s top men’s doubles duo ofRankireddy and Shetty posted a hard-fought 21-19, 18-21, 21-18 win toclaim its biggest career title after bat-tling for an hour and two minutesagainst the third seeded Chinesecombo.

This was not only their first tri-umph at Super 500 level and above butalso the most prestigious doubles titlefor India since the inception of theranking system.

This achievement will also propelthe current World No 16 Indian com-bination into the top 10 for the firsttime, making it the first-ever Indianmen’s doubles duo to enter the elitebracket.

This was the first final of the 2019season for the unseeded Indian pair,doubles Silver medallist at the 2018Commonwealth Games.

During the thrilling summit clashagainst the World No 2 Chinese team,Rankireddy displayed brilliant antic-ipation and extraordinary placementsfrom the front court, while Shetty con-trolled the backcourt effortlessly.

Li and Liu had earlier this yearbeaten the Indians at Australian Open.

“When we played them at theAustralian Open, we lost to them veryclosely. We understood they wereunder pressure today but we hadnone since we were very excited to playour first final,” said Rankireddy.

“I have some shoulder issues so wehad decided that I would play morefrom the front and Chirag from theback. I was focussing more on the ser-vice and the net,” he added.

Rankireddy and Shetty startedattacking from the word go and afterbreaking away from a tied 3-3, theymoved ahead to open up a 10-6 lead,but their Chinese opponents keptbreathing down their necks and madeit 14-14.

It was a closely-fought affair afterthat and the Indian pair could take aslight edge only at 20-18.

Although Li and Liunarrowed the gap furtherdown to 19-20, the Indiansmanaged to win the crucialpoint to wrap up the firstgame.

In the second game, theRankireddy and Shetty managed totake an upper hand at the beginningas they moved up to a 6-2 lead, but theChinese soon bridged the gap to 5-6before catching up with them at 11-11.

After the interval, Liand Liu surged ahead to13-11, but the Indians lift-ed their game and drewparity at 13 apiece.

The Indians then overtook theiropponents to make it 16-14 and thenclimbed to 18-16 before the Chinesepair won five consecutive points totake it to the decider.

Rankireddy and Shetty were slowoff the blocks in the third game butmanaged to make it 6-6. From there-

on, the Indians never looked back andkept their composure to maintain theedge till the end.

Even though the Chinese pairfought back and at one stage reducedthe gap to 18-19, the Indians lookedin no mood to climb down and wenton to pocket two consecutive pointsto seal the match in their favour.

Rankireddy said, “Well, we keptour calm all throughout the tourna-ment. Even when we were down 1-4in the third game, we didn’t lose hope.

We just were steady and did not rushthings to give them a bigger lead.

“We just stuck to our plan of keep-ing the shuttle low and not hurryingthrough the points. I think that real-ly worked and that helped us get thelead at 8-6.”

Intelligent rotation of the shuttlecombined with Rankireddy’s power-ful smashes flummoxed the world’ssecond-best pair whose every come-back was thwarted by the ever-alertIndians.

Even when Li and Liu tried to pro-long the rallies in an attempt to tire outthe Indians, Rankireddy and Shettywere up to the task and never relin-quished their advantage, convertingon their first match point to get themonumental victory.

“It’s the biggest title we have wonso far in our career. Right now I amout of words after playing in a finaland beating the current world cham-pions. I am extremely happy,” saidShetty after the win.

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England forward Jadon Sanchoscored a goal and set-up anoth-

er as Borussia Dortmund beatBayern Munich 2-0 on Saturday todeny the German league and cupchampions a fourth straight SuperCup title.

Sancho, 19, fed Spain forwardPaco Alcacer for Dortmund’s open-er just after the break before clinch-ing the victory and his side’s firsttrophy since 2017 with a clinical fin-ish within the final half an hour ofplay.

“We absolutely wanted to winthis match, it was very difficult,” saidDortmund coach Lucien Favre.

“Bayern were very strong andhad a lot of possession but wedefended well and stayed verycompact.

“We knew that we had to go onthe counter-attack and we did thatvery well.”

Bayern, who pipped Favre’sside to the Bundesliga title last sea-son and lifted the German Cup,were without World Cup winningleft-back and new signing LucasHernandez due to a knee problem.

Dortmund’s big name summerarrivals of winger Thorgen Hazardand Julian Brandt, as well as defend-er Mats Hummels, returning theclub after three seasons in Bavaria,were also ruled out due to injuries.

Bayern captain Manuel Neuersaid errors proved costly.

“We gave Dortmund the matchby making too many mistakes,”Neuer said.

“We made the mistakes all onour own, we gave them possessionand that’s why we conceded thegoals.”

The home side, who finishedsecond in the league last season, hada good early chance.

Portugal winger RaphaelGuerreiro broke down the leftflank and cut-back to find captainMarco Reus inside the penaltybox.

Reus’s effort was then wellsaved by Neuer after less than aminute of play.

Bayern’s best opportunity of thefirst half fell to Kingsley Coman 10minutes later.

He found himself unmarked inthe box but his toe-poke shot wassaved by Marwin Hitz low to theright.

Bayern’s inability to make themost of the ball in first 45 minutescame back to bite them almostimmediately after the break.

Sancho attacked down the leftdrawing four Bayern defenders

with quick step-overs.The teenager fed striker

Alcacer at the edge of the box whobeat Neuer with a low shot for a 1-0 lead on 48 minutes.

Dortmund’s lead was doubledwith 22 minutes to go from a clin-ical counter-attack.

Sancho was free once again onthe right wing, he burst into the boxbeyond Bayern’s back-four andnutmegged the experienced Neuerto make it 2-0.

Influential Sancho left the fieldwith 10 minutes to play after seem-ing to be hurt following an off-the-field challenge by Joshua Kimmich.

Bayern coach Niko Kovacbrought on Portugal midfielderRenato Sanches and France WorldCup winner Benjamin Pavard late-on but they were unable to find thegoals to retain the title and the early-season bragging rights.

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Manchester City drew firedthe first shot in their bat-

tle for supremacy with rivalsLiverpool on Sunday as theysnatched the Community Shieldwith a 5-4 penalty shoot-out winafter a 1-1 draw at Wembley.

Raheem Sterling gave Citya first half lead before JoelMatip grabbed a late equaliserfor Liverpool in the annualcurtain-raiser to the Englishtop-flight season.

In the shoot-out, City keep-er Claudio Bravo saved fromGeorginio Wijnaldum, withGabriel Jesus driving in thewinning kick after successfulefforts from Ilkay Gundogan,

Bernardo Silva, Phil Foden andOleksandr Zinchenko.

The jubilant celebrationsfrom City's players and fansshowed inflicting an early psy-chological blow on Liverpoolwas a moment to savour, regard-less of the supposed warm-upstatus of the glamour friendly.

With City installed asfavourites to win the title for athird successive season andLiverpool expected to presentthe strongest challenge to PepGuardiola's side, their meetingon the eve of the season was awindow into what to expectthis term.

After pipping Liverpool tolast season's Premier Leaguetitle with 98 points to their

rivals' 97, City went on tocomplete an unprecedenteddomestic treble by adding theFA Cup to the League Cup they

won earlier in the campaign.But Jurgen Klopp's men

didn't dwell on that painfulnear-miss as they won the

Champions League just weekslater.

On the evidence of thishard-fought contest, which fea-tured both flashes of qualityand signs of rustiness, there willlittle to separate the two teamsas they go head-to-head for themajor prizes once again overthe next 10 months.

Retaining the CommunityShield trophy they won 12months ago would improveCity's belief that they can repeatlast season's remarkable silver-ware haul, but Liverpool couldtake encouragement as wellafter they finished stronglyenough to have won.

The only dark cloud forCity was an injury to Leroy

Sane, who limped off in the10th minute holding his rightleg after collapsing while chas-ing a long pass.

Sane was playing on theday reports claimed his agentshad agreed a contract withBayern Munich, who are keento sign the Germany winger.

City's victory was a well-time riposte for Guardiola,who this week hit back atKlopp's claim that the champi-ons live in a transfer "fantasyland".

Guardiola gave a debut toSpain midfielder Rodri, whojoined from Atletico Madridfor a club record £63 million(69 million euros) in the close-season.

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Australia’s Nick Kyrgios overcame a mid-match meltdownand his rival’s shoe repair delays to defeat Greek top

seed Stefanos Tsitsipas and reach the ATP Washington Openfinal.

The 52nd-ranked Aussie hammered 19 aces, saved amatch point and often played to the crowd in a dramaticand emotional 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (9/7) victory over Tsitsipas,whose broken shoes caused two third-set delays.

Tsitsipas, who becomes world number five on Monday,fell behind a set and a break, took advantage of Kyrgios los-ing control with racquet slams and call complaints to forcea third set, only to fall in the tie-breaker.

Kyrgios will play for the $365,390 (328,851 euro) topprize against 10th-ranked Russian Daniil Medvedev, whoeliminated German lucky loser Peter Gojowczyk 6-2, 6-2.

The 24-year-old Aussie beat Medvedev this year inRome in their only prior meeting.

Kyrgios, who improved to 4-1 against top-10 rivals thisyear, seeks a sixth career ATP title and his first sinceAcapulco in March.

“It’s probably one of the best tournament weeks of mylife,” Kyrgios said.

Medvedev, 23, seeks his fifth ATP title after taking hismost recent crown at Sofia in February.

Italy’s 62nd-ranked Camila Giorgi, a 2018 Wimbledonquarter-finalist seeking her third WTA title, and 79th-ranked American Jessica Pegula advanced to the women’sfinal at the US Open tuneup tournament.

Kyrgios excited the crowd throughout with such flam-boyant moves as underhand serves, between the legs shotsand leaping drop shots. Other times he would just swat away.

“He was on fire in some moments,” Tsitsipas said.“It felt like sometimes he didn’t care at all. It’s proba-

bly his plan to put you out of focus.”Kyrgios admitted, “I’ve always been able to play high

level tennis. I just need to be more consistent. I have to bementally tougher.”

It was the Greek star’s first match against Kyrgios, whois of Greek and Malaysian heritage. Each man won 91 points,hit 58 of 91 first serves, won 48 of 58 first-serve points and16-of-33 second serve points.

“His serve was just unreal first set. I couldn’t do any-thing with it,” said Tsitsipas.

“I haven’t seen anything like it.”

.�� US teen Coco Gauff, the 15-year-old who electrified

Wimbledon with a fourth-round singles run last month, cap-tured her first WTA title on Saturday in women’s doubles.

Gauff and partner Catherine McNally, who combinedto win last year’s US Open junior women’s doubles title,defeated Hungary's Fanny Stollar and American MariaSanchez 6-2, 6-2 to hoist their inaugural WTA trophy.

The teens jumped into each others arms and later huggedin celebration of the breakthrough milestone triumph.

Gauff defeated idol Venus Williams in the first roundat Wimbledon and rescued two match points on the way tobeating Polona Hercog in the third round before eventualchampion Simona Halep eliminated her.

Gauff, in her first post-Wimbledon singles appearance,qualified for the Washington main draw but lost her firstmatch 6-4, 6-2 to Kazakhstan’s Zarina Diyas.

McNally, a 17-year-old American who made only herfourth WTA appearance in singles, took her first three tourmatch wins to reach the semi-finals, where she lost 7-6 (7/5),6-2 on Saturday to Italy’s Camila Giorgi.

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China’s Zheng Saisai surprised seventh-seededMaria Sakkari 7-6 (7/5), 6-2 on Saturday to line

up a title clash with second-seeded ArynaSabalenka at the WTA tournament in San Jose,California.

U n s e e d e dZheng knockedoff her third seed-ed opponent ofthe week, afterdowning eighth-seeded AmericanDanielle Collinsand fourth-seededUS teen AmandaAnisimova in athree-set quarter-final marathon onFriday night.

On Sunday,Zheng will beseeking a firstWTA singles titlewhen she takes onSabalenka, the world number 10 who defeated fifth-seeded Croatian Donna Vekic 6-4, 6-3.

Sabalenka, of Belarus, reached her first finalsince she won the Shenzhen Open in January.

She and Vekic traded six service breaks in thefirst seven games before Sabalenka pocketed theset.

Sabalenka broke twice more in the second setto capture the match in just under 80 minutes, afterthe players combined for 14 double faults and 10service breaks.

“I don’t know, I just hit the ball as hard as Icould and everything was going in,” Sabalenka saidof the key to her victory. “Probably was a lucky dayfor me.”

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Defending champion RafaelNadal heads the field for

the ATP Montreal Masters thatstarts on Monday with NovakDjokovic and Roger Federeropting out of the key US Opentuneup.

With Djokovic and Federerputting a return to action onhold after their dramaticWimbledon final, 33-year-oldNadal will be seeking to retainthe title he earned last year inToronto, when he beat risingstar Stefanos Tsitsipas in thefinal.

The Greek is back, takingthe fourth seeding behind a pairof fellow young guns in num-ber two Dominic Thiem ofAustria and Germany’sAlexander Zverev, seeded third.

Federer and Djokovic aren’tscheduled to resurface untilthe Cincinnati Masters starts onAugust 12, giving them onetournament prior to the August26 start of the US Open atFlushing Meadows, the finalGrand slam of the year.

Federer has been trainingon hardcourt at home inSwitzerland after falling toDjokovic in a dramatic five-setfinal at the All England Clubthree weeks ago, in which theSwiss great held two matchpoints.

Djokovic has been picturedrelaxing at various European

beach resorts with his familyprior to picking up the racquetonce again.

Nadal, meanwhile, is pacinghimself after another seasonmarred by injury, insistingdespite the pleas and induce-ments of Cincinnati officialsthat he won't decide whether toplay there until he sees how hefeels after Montreal.

“Depending on what hap-pens in Montreal, I’ll take adecision on Cincinnati,” hesaid.

“Cincinnati is still anoption. But I want to arrive wellprepared and ready for the USOpen, the last major of the sea-son.”

Nadal could face a chal-lenge in the second round aftera bye, with a possible matchagainst Australian Alex deMinaur — winner of theAtlanta title last weekend.

Second seed Thiem haspurposefully left it late for thehardcourts, preferring to stay aslong as possible on Europeanclay by entering both Hamburgand Kitzbuehel.

Thiem, beaten by Nadal inthe last two Roland Garrosfinals, has a special goal drivinghim when he lands in fran-cophile Canada.

“I’ve never won a match inCanada, I’d like to change that.”he said.

“I’m just hoping to playwell.

“Canada is a big goal — I’mreally hoping to get a win there.”

Thiem will open his cam-paign against either CanadianDenis Shapovalov orFrenchman Pierre-HuguesHerbert.

Third seed Zverev, whowon the title here two years agowith a win over Federer in thefinal, will open against eitherBriton Cameron Norrie orHungarian Martin Fucsovic.

Tsitsipas will bid to betterhis 2018 finals showing butmust first get past either home-grown Milos Raonic, the 2013finalist, or American TaylorFritz, runner-up to de Minaurin Atlanta.

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Taiwan shuttler Chou Tien-chenclinched the men's singles title at

the Thailand Open badminton tour-nament on Sunday, in a thrilling finalagainst Hong Kong opponent AngusNg Ka Long.

Both players collapsed afterthird-seed Chou eked out victory 21-14, 11-21, 23-21 in a 67-minutematch at Bangkok’s Indoor StadiumHuamark.

“I love you guys, thank you,” the29-year-old winner told the crowd inan on-court interview.

Former world champion andhometown favourite RatchanokIntanon was denied a third ThailandOpen title later on Sunday whenChinese top seed Chen Yufei defeat-ed her 22-20, 21-18.

In women’s doubles, Japaneseseventh seeds Shiho Tanaka andKoharu Yonemoto fended off Du Yueand Li Yinhui, the eighth seedsfrom China, in three close games.

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Lewis Hamilton regained hismomentum in the drivers’

world championship with a mem-orable strategic victory on Sundaywhen he overcame young rivalMax Verstappen to triumph in atense and thrilling HungarianGrand Prix.

The 34-year-old defendingfive-time champion started third onthe grid in his Mercedes and, afterstalking the 21-year-old Dutchtyro for most of a fascinating tac-tical contest, finally swept into thelead on lap 67 of a stirring 70 laps.

Hamilton’s record seventh winin Hungary and 81st of his careerwrecked Red Bull’s hopes of turn-ing Verstappen’s maiden pole posi-tion into victory and increased hislead in the title race to 62 pointsbefore the sport’s European sum-mer break.

Verstappen, who led most ofthe race before his tyres faded,came home 17.796 seconds behindin second and clocked a record racefastest lap for the Hungaroring aftera late pit-stop.

Four-time champion SebastianVettel was third for Ferrari aheadof team-mate Charles Leclerc,Carlos Sainz of McLaren and PierreGasly in the second Red Bull.

Kimi Raikkonen was seventhfor Alfa Romeo ahead of Hamilton’sMercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottaswho had been forced into an earlypit-stop after a first lap incident.

British rookie Lando Norris

was ninth in the second Mercedesand Alex Albon 10th for ToroRosso.

“What a drive, what a strategy,”said Hamilton’s race engineer PeterBonnington. “Only you could makethat work today.”

Mercedes matched Red Bull’sstrategy until gambling with a lateadditional pit-stop that leftHamilton with 20 laps to make upa 20-second deficit on fresh tyres— a move that worked withVerstappen complaining to histeam before he lost the lead “mytyres are dead”.

“They rolled the dice and itworked for them, unfortunately,”Red Bull team boss ChristianHorner told Verstappen.

“But you drove your heart out.”

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Star India grappler VineshPhogat has bagged her

third consecutive Gold inwomen’s 53kg category afterwinning the Poland Openwrestling tournament inWarsaw.

The 24-year-old pre-vailed 3-2 over local wrestlerRoksana in the final of thecompetition.

Vinesh had earlier beat-en Sofia Mattson of Sweden,the Rio Olympics Bronzemedallist, in the quarterfinalsof this international tourna-ment.

The top Indian womanwrestler had stood atop thepodium at Grand Prix ofSpain and at the Yasar DoguInternational at Istanbul,

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The Haryana Steelers playedtheir heart out, but went

down 28-35 to the TamilThalaivas in the Pro KabaddiLeague in Patna on Sunday.

Vikash Kandola bolsteredthe Haryana team after makinga return to the side, but theThalaivas found a way to main-tain their lead in the last fewminutes of the match.

The Haryana Steelers got offto a great start through fantas-tic raids by Kandola and Naveenin the opening minutes of thematch.

Vinay pulled off a brilliantraid point in the sixth minuteand Sunil scored a tackle pointin the next minute which helpedHaryana take a four-point lead.

Kandola widened the gapbetween the two teams when hehelped Haryana carry out an allout of the Tamil Thalaivas teamin the eleventh minute.

Naveen and Vinay backedup Kandola with a few raidpoints as the Haryana Steelersended the first half with a nine-point lead at 19-10

The Tamil Thalaivas tried tofight back through a tacklepoint and a few raid points, butraiders Kandola and Naveenensured that Haryana stay in thelead. Dharmaraj Cheralathantackled Ajay Thakur in the 26thminute as the Haryana Steelerstook a five-point lead at 24-19.

However, the TamilThalaivas gained momentumthereafter and clinched raid andtackle points quickly.

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England finally saw the back of SteveSmith but only after a second cen-

tury in his comeback Test sawAustralia compile a potentially match-winning lead in the Ashes opener atEdgbaston on Sunday.

Ashes-holders Australia, biddingto win their first Test series away toEngland in 18 years, were 356-5 at teaon the fourth day — 266 runs ahead— with the hosts a bowler down in theabsence of James Anderson.

Smith made 142 following his 144in the first innings of the match — theformer Australia captain's first Testsince the end of a 12-month ban forhis role in last year's ball-tamperingscandal in South Africa.

Matthew Wade, in his first Test fornearly two years, was 86 not out afterputting on 126 for the fifth wicket withSmith.

Only three times have a side mademore than 150 in the fourth inningsto win a Test at Edgbaston.

Smith is just the fifth Australiabatsman to score a hundred in bothinnings of an Ashes Test, followingWarren Bardsley (1909), ArthurMorris (1946/47), Steve Waugh (1997)and Matthew Hayden (2002/03).

Having reached lunch on 98 notout, Smith went to three figures in stylewhen he cover-drove England pace-man Stuart Broad for his 10th four in147 balls faced.

�� He celebrated by removing his bat-

ting helmet and waving his bat joyous-ly towards the Australia changingroom.

And while there was applausefrom a packed crowd, there were alsorenewed chants of "Crying on the telly,we saw you crying on the telly" in a ref-erence to the emotional press confer-ence Smith gave in Sydney after he wassent home from South Africa.

"When he goes out to bat, it'salmost like he's in a trance-like state,"former Australia captain Waugh toldChannel Nine.

"He knows exactly what he's try-ing to do, exactly what the oppositionare trying to do... he analyses every balland it's like a computer, he spits out theanswer," added Waugh, now a mentorto the Australia squad.

England captain Joe Root broughthimself on to bowl his part-time off-breaks and deployed Joe Denly's occa-sional leg-spin in a desperate bid forwickets on a sluggish pitch.

Wicketkeeper Wade, playing as aspecialist batsman, with Australia cap-tain Tim Paine behind the stumps,reverse-swept Root to complete a 70-ball fifty.

Wade was given out lbw to Broadby Wilson on 69 but his review showedthe ball going over the top of thestumps.

The new ball, however, did even-tually give England the wicket theycraved.

Chris Woakes, on hisWarwickshire home ground, got adelivery to deviate in the air outside offstump, with Smith edging an intend-ed drive to wicketkeeper JonnyBairstow.

The match was in the balancewhen Australia resumed on 124-3, alead of just 34 runs, with Smith 46 notand Travis Head unbeaten on 21.

Smith, cleared of concussion afterbeing hit on the head by a Ben Stokesbouncer on Saturday, has now scoredmore than 1,000 runs in his past 10Ashes innings.

England were once more lookingto Broad, who took 5-86 in the firstinnings, to lead their attack in theabsence of Anderson, their all-timeleading Test wicket-taker.

Lancashire paceman Andersononly managed four overs in Australia'sfirst innings 284 before breaking downwith a calf injury.

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Krunal Pandya's twolast-over sixes afterRohit Sharma's char-

acteristically sublime 67 lift-ed India to 167 for fiveagainst West Indies in thesecond T20 Internationalhere on Sunday.

Rohit scored his runs off51 balls, setting India up fora challenging total beforePandya and Ravindra Jadejapropped up the innings bysmashing 20 runs in thefinal over, which was bowledby Keemo Paul.

In the process, Rohitbecame T20 internationals'most prolific six-hitter, goingpast Chris Gayle with 106maximums. He struck sixfours and three sixes in thematch.

Sent into bat, India wereoff to a quick start as theyreached 50-run mark in theseventh over, with Rohitdoing the bulk of scoring.

Rohit found the gapswith ease, clipping Paul offhis pads for a six over deepmidwicket. The World Cuphighest scorer then swepthim for a four as the Indiansupped the tempo.

Keemo Paul gave WestIndies their first break-through when he bowledShikhar Dhawan with theIndian scorecard reading 67for one in the eighth over.

Two quite overs followedas Indian captain Virat Kohlijoined Rohit, who broke theshackles with a six over deepmidwicket, Sunil Narinebeing the bowler, and thenbrought up his 17th half-cen-tury in this format with a sin-gle to long-off.

Nicely getting under-neath the flight of left-armspinner Khary Pierre, Kohligot going with a neat six.

Well settled at the other

end, Kohli's deputy Rohitthen smashed CarlosBrathwaite for a six and fouras India's hundred came upin the 13th over.

It took a fine catch fromShimron Hetmyer to bringan end to Rohit's stay in themiddle -- he hit one high upin the air off Oshane Thomaswith just over six overs left inthe Indian innings.

Rishabh Pant (5) per-ished quickly, top-edgingOshane into the hands of

third man fielder KieronPollard.

Sheldon Cottrell thenhad the big one, sendingKohli's middle stump cart-wheeling for a 23-ball 28with a perfectly-executedyorker and performing histrademark salute celebra-tions.

By that time tough,Kohli became the highestrun scorer among Indians inT20 cricket, includingdomestic tourneys.

�� &-$��40/

Ottis Gibson and his entireSouth African coaching team

and management staff have losttheir jobs, Cricket South Africa(CSA) announced on Sunday.

The decision, taken during aboard meeting last week, follows adisastrous South African WorldCup campaign in which theProteas finished seventh of the 10teams.

The clean-out comes shortlybefore a tour of India next monthduring which South Africa willplay their first three Test matchesin the new world Test champi-onship.

In a statement, CSA said afootball-style team manager would

be appointed, who would takecharge of all aspects of the nation-al team, including the appointmentof a coaching staff, the captain orcaptains and medical and admin-istrative personnel.

The team manager will reportdirectly to a Director of Cricket, anew position.

Former South African playerCorrie van Zyl, currently in chargeof cricket pathways at CSA, will beacting Director of Cricket until afull-time appointment is made.

The statement said Van Zyland CSA chief executive Thabang

Moroe would appoint an interimmanagement team for the tour ofIndia as well as an interim selec-tion panel and captain.

Faf du Plessis, the current cap-tain, was on Saturday night namedSouth African Cricketer of the Yearand it would be a surprise if he wasreplaced.

Sunday’s statement said noneof the current team management,including coaches, would beretained.

“This change will herald anexciting new era for the SA cricketand will bring us into line with best

practice in professional sport,” saidMoroe.

Former West Indian player andcoach Gibson was appointed SouthAfrican team coach in 2017. His con-tract was due to expire next month.

Gibson said during the recentCricket World Cup that he was keento continue in the job but hisprospects plummeted when SouthAfrica were among the first teams tobe eliminated from contention for aWorld Cup semi-final place.

Van Zyl, 57, played in one unof-ficial Test during South Africa’syears of isolation and in two one-dayinternationals in 1992 following thecountry’s return to official interna-tional cricket. He had a brief spell asSouth African coach between 2009and 2011.

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Senior pacer BhuvneshwarKumar is happy with the com-

ing up of bright prospects likeNavdeep Saini and says he’s alwaysready to guide the youngsterswhen they come in to the nation-al team.

The 29-year-old Bhuvneshwartook two wickets for 19 runs toplay an important role in India'sfour-wicket win against the WestIndies in the first T20International here on Saturday.

“As a senior player you alwayswant to perform. Even you couldnot perform you have to con-tribute to the team. That is the firstthing I want to do and luckily I did

that,” Bhuvneshwar said at thepost-match press conference.

“When young players likeNavdeep Saini does well andKhaleel (Ahmed) does well, youwant to always talk to them. Youwant to make them comfortable.That is the first thing I want to doand I always guide them,” headded.

Bhuvneshwar was all praise forSaini who starred in the India’s winwith figures of 3/17 in his Indiadebut match.

“Just before coming into theteam he played for India A againstWest Indies A in West Indies. Thatis why he did well. When you dowell at international level, it givesyou a lot of confidence,” said the

senior pacer.“He has bolwed really well.

The most important thing is, hehas proved in different stages. Heplays so much of cricket, in IPLand for India A. So when he cameinto the (senior national) team hewas very confident.”

Asked about the switchingfrom ODI cricket to T20 format,he said, “Not really mental adjust-ment because T20 and ODI are thesame, not the same format but youhave to bowl deck bowling in ODIand T20 as well.

“It is only that T20 is a short-er format and when you go toODI, it takes more load on thebody. This is something we alwaystake care of.”

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Turkey last month.“The biggest positives from

wrestling against strong oppo-nents are it forces me out of mycomfort zone, makes me pushmy limits, and teaches importantlessons! Happy with my perfor-mance at the #PolandOpenExcited by this start as a 53 kgwrestler, now onwards andupwards,” Vinesh tweeted.

“As always, thank you toeveryone out there for the con-stant stream of good wishes,love, and support A big thankyou to my coach Woller Akos,physio Rucha, @IndiaSports,@FederationWrest, and@OGQ_India.

“I thank god for the oppor-tunity. #lookingforward# m a k e e v e r y d a y c o u n t#1YearToGo,” she added.

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