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capital 02BHUBANESWAR | SATURDAY | OCTOBER 5, 2019

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State gets major boost in MSME sector

PNS n BHUBANESWAR

The Union Ministry ofMSME is extending major

financial support for setting upof technology centres and clus-ters for development of micro,small and village industries inOdisha.

Odisha has been sanc-tioned three TechnologyExtension Centres with aninvestment of `60 crore forenhancing the outreach of tech-nology and skilled manpowerrequired for the MSME sector.

Secondly, the MSMEMinistry has also sanctioned 34Clusters for various products topromote traditional industriesin the State.

Under both the pro-grammes, the State will be get-ting an investment of over Rs120 crore from the Ministry ofMSME.

Union Secretary MSMEMinistry, Arun Kumar Pandahas been instrumental for the

massive support for the State.Dr Panda was pursuing

the proposals sent by theGovernment of Odisha andthese Centres will come up inBrahmapur, Bhawanipatna andKeonjhar.

Additional DevelopmentCommissioner MSME PiyushSrivastava has informed theState Government in thisregard.

He has urged the StateGovernment to operationalizethe Centres during 2019-20 ina time bound manner.

In fact, Odisha is in the pri-ority list of the MSME Ministrywith the presence of Ministerof State, MSME, PratapChandra Sarangi and UnionSecretary Panda.

The MSME Ministry isfollowing up the announce-ment made by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi for establish-ment of Technology Centresand Extensions Centres in thecountry for providing state of

the art technology to the States.The Government of India

is setting up 20 TechnologyCentres and 100 ExtensionCentres with an estimated costof Rs 6,000 Crore. While thecompetent authority hasapproved 20 Centres for thecountry, Odisha has got threeTechnology Centres, whichwill significantly enhance theoutreach of technology neededfor MSME sector.

Similarly, these centres willprovide scope for skill devel-opment. Looking at therequirement, Prime MinisterModi harped on setting up ofTechnology Extension Centresin the country.

MSME TechnologyCentres will be given supportfrom Central Tool Room andTraining Centre (CTTC),which is functioning inBhubaneswar.

In order to promote tradi-tional industries and createemployment in rural areas, the

MSME Ministry has sanc-tioned 34 Clusters in the State.

On an average, each clus-ter will come up with a cost ofRs 2 crore, so Odisha will getan investment of over Rs 60crore in this regard.

These Clusters are sanc-tioned under the Scheme ofFund for Generation ofTraditional Industries (SFUR-TI).

The clusters will be set upin Khurda, Mayurbhanj,Baleswar, Jajpur, Bhadrakh,Puri, Cuttack, Ganjam,Nayagarh, Dhenkanal,Keonjhar and Sundargarh dis-tricts.

The Khadi and VillageIndustries Commission(KVIC) under MSME Ministrywill be coordinating these clus-ters, which will promote tradi-tional industries like bell metal,handicraft, saal leaf and plate,agarbatti, coir, handloom, beewax, bamboo craft, jute craftand mahua, etc.

Sanctioned 3 Tech Extn Centres, 34 Clusters

Rajdhani Exp to showcaseOdishan art, culture

PNS n BHUBANESWAR

The Rajdhani Express train startsfrom Bhubaneswar and reach-

es New Delhi covering differentStates. With a view to transformingthe train into an ‘Express of Odisha’sArt & Culture’, an agreement wassigned between the East Coast Railway and the NavratnaPSU Nalco.

The Railway Ministry hasapproved this project with the

efforts of Union MinisterDharmendra Pradhan. As per theagreement, the outer side of thebogies of the Rajdhani Express willshowcase Odisha’s Pattachitra,tourist places and popular classicaland folk dance forms.

Work for transforming theRajdhani Express into the Expressof Odisha’s Art & Culture has com-

menced and is expected to be com-pleted by the middle of October.The newly-branded RajdhaniExpress will be flagged off by UnionPetroleum and Steel MinisterDharmendra Pradhan and UnionMinister of Mines, Coal &Parliamentary Affairs PrahalladJoshi from the New Delhi railwaystation.

Branded trainto be flaggedoff soon

PNS n BHUBANESWAR

Dhiren Kumar Dhal wasreelected as secretary of

the Utkal Chamber ofCommerce & Industry (UCCI)at its Annual General Body(AGM) meeting here last week.Saswata Patnaik and GiridhariLal Sharma were elected asvice-president (industry) andtreasurer, respectively. Theywill hold their offices for thenext two years.

The 55th AGM of UCCIwas held under the chairman-ship of its president RameshMahapatra. As per the Articlesof Association of the UCCI, thepresident and other office-bearers will continue as such tillthe next AGM scheduled to beheld in September next year.

Forty-five members fromdifferent categories were elect-ed to the executive committee.A total of 600 out of the 738 eli-gible voters participated in theelection which was conductedunder the supervision ofreturning officer AshokAgrawalla.

Dhiren Dhalreelected secretary

OSRTC issuestoll-free number

PNS n BHUBANESWAR

To ensure implementationof 5T mantras of the Chief

Minister, the Odisha StateRoad Transport Corporation(OSRTC) has now introduceda dedicated toll-free numberfor benefit of passengers.

Passengers can dial thetoll-free number to knowabout bus services provided bythe OSRTC and to lodge com-

plaints for rederessal. Thetoll-free number is 1800-345-1122.

The toll-free number willoperate 24x7 at OSRTC,Corporate Office, ParibahanBhawan, Bhubaneswar.

Based on the experiencedgained and the feedbackreceived from passengers,remedial measures would betaken to enrich bus services,said an official.

To provide better bus services

PNS n BHUBANESWAR

The Bhubaneswar-KualaLumpur flight operated by

the Air Asia has been resched-uled with effect from October27.

As per the revised timing,Air Asia flight AK 30 wouldtake off at 9.30 pm from theBiju Patnaik InternationalAirport (BPIA) inBhubaneswar and arrive atKuala Lumpur at 3.50 am (IST)from October 27.

Similarly, Bhubaneswar-bound AK 31 flight wouldleave Kuala Lumpur at 7.45 pmand land at the BPIA at 9 pm(IST) on the same date.

PNS n BHUBANESWAR

In yet another sad reportfrom the Nandankanan

Zoological Park here a hippodied on Friday amidst herpesvirus spread scare following thedeath of four elephants at thezoo in the last one month.

The virus attack also killeda female elephant in theChandaka sanctuary a coupleof days ago.

The female hippo ofNandankanan had been ailingsince a long time, informed thezaoo authorities.

The death of the semi-aquatic mammal has againraised question on the hygien-ic conditions being maintainedat Nandankanan for the wildlifeinmates.

Hanspal flyoverwork to begin soonPIONEER NEWS SERVICE nBHUBANESWAR

Construction work of a fly-over at Hanspal here would

begin soon as the NationalHighways Authority of India(NHAI) has floated a tender inthis regard.

The 5.5 km-long flyoverwould be constructed at anestimated cost of `32 crore onthe Engineering, Procurement& Construction (EPC) mode,the tender notice said.

While the completion peri-od has been fixed at 18 months,

the maintenance period is 60months, the notice added.

Bhubaneswar MPAparajita Sarangi said, “Alongstanding demand of localresidents is finally being met.A committee of residents hasbeen formed to monitor time-ly completion of the project.”

Earlier in July, Sarangihad held a meeting withUnion Road Transport &Highways Minister NitinGadkari regarding the flyoverconstruction at Hanspal,which is an accident-pronespot.

PNS n CUTTACK

The six-day Dusshera festiv-ities began in Cuttack with

‘Bilwadhibasa’, the invocation ofclay idols of Goddess Durga, atthe spruced up Mandaps inevery corner of the city onFriday evening. With ‘AparajitaPuja’ scheduled late in theevening of Bijaya Dasami onTuesday next, the five-day Pujaof the Goddess will end and thedistrict administration hasfixed Wednesday for theimmersion of deities.

The Binod Behary PujaCommittee, which determinesthe timings of different ritualsof the deities at the Mandaps,has fixed ‘Netra Utsav’ onSaturday afternoon and ‘Sandhipuja late on Sunday evening.The ‘Tareni Puja’ will be heldon Monday afternoon. Alongwith these important rituals,

Guru puja, Surya puja andDwarapala Puja will be heldevery day during the morninghours.

This year, at least 170Mandaps have come up in thecity, of which 70 have invokeddeities of Goddess Durga andthe remaining pandals are wor-shipping the idols of LordShiva. Like every year, the pan-dals are decorated with colour-ful lights, welcome arches andmany of them have lined updifferent cultural programmeseveryday during the eveninghours to attract the revelers.

Maintaining Cuttack’s age-old tradition of giving sparklingwhite backdrops to the deitieswith silver tableaus, three newmandaps of the city have joinedthis bandwagon this year.Bidanasi, Chhatra Bazzar andGanga Mandir puja commit-tees have sported silvertableaus, taking the total num-ber of Mandaps having whitemetal in their tableaus in thecity to 27.

While the Bidanasi PujaCommittee has made itstableau with over 190 kg of sil-

ver at an estimated cost of Rs1 crore, the Chhatra BazaarCommittee has come up witha massive structure using near-ly 250 kgs of silver and theCommittee is observing thisyear’s festivals by spendingaround Rs two crore.

Similarly, the GangaMandir Committee, which isobserving its silver jubilee thisyear, is observing the festival ingrandeur.

Soon after the Durga Pujacelebrations, the Mandaps willgear up for the Gajalaxmi Pujascheduled on October 13 andthe Shyama Kali Puja onOctober 27. The Puja festivitieswill end with the KartikeyaPuja, a fortnight later inNovember, which will bringwith it the famous Baliyatra fes-tivals, an important event in theannual festival calendar of thecity.

PNS n BHUBANESWAR

It is true that Gandhiji hasdied, but Gandhi’s thoughts

are alive and will continue toilluminate us. The Congresswill take all steps to encourageyouths to follow Gandhianideals.

AICC general secretaryand Odisha-in-charge JitendraSingh said this while inaugu-rating the “Intellectual Seminar’organised by the PradeshCongress Committee here onFriday.

Presiding over the pro-gramme, PCC presidentNiranjan Patnaik saidGandhi accepted truthand nonviolence as godin his lifetime. Thus,promotion of Gandhiideals would certainlydrive away prejudices,corruption and mis-eries from the society,he opined.

Convenor

Arjyakumar Jnanendra deliv-ering the welcome address saidit is very disappointing that aparty having not sacrificing adrop of blood in the freedomstruggle is now deciding fate ofpeople of the country.

Noted linguist Dr DebiPrasanna Patnaik, former VCDr Bimalendu Mohanty, jour-nalist Rabi Das, columnistTusharkant and former VC DrT Barik said a conspiracy hasbeen thatched against theGandhism for a few years now.

Among others, AICC sec-retaries G Rudra Raju, ShaikhMastan Vali and AnilChoudhury attended the sem-inar.

On the occasion, a book,“Gandhi Bhagwan”, written byDr Jnanendra was released bySingh.

‘Gandhi thoughtscontinue to exist’Congress holdsintellectuals’meet

State Government seeks IISc support

PNS n BHUBANESWAR

The State Government wouldrope in the support of the

Indian Institute of Science (IISc),Bangalore to improve Governanceand provide better service to thepeople, .

This will be a totally new ini-tiative as the Naveen PatnaikGovernment is harping on the ‘5T’initiative. The IISc is the premierinstitution of the country forresearch, innovation and develop-ment and has a huge dedicatedteam.

The IISc would set up a RISECentre and extend support for e-Governance, Smart City agriculture,

healthcare, disaster managementas well as works and housing.Recently, the Team IISc held a dis-cussion with senior officials of theState Government for setting up theproposed RISE Centre atBhubaneswar.

The Centre for ModernisingGovernment Initiative (CMGI),which is spearheading good gover-nance in the State, would joinhands with the IISc for establishingthe RISE Centre.

The CMGI and the IISc wouldsign a Memorandum ofUnderstanding (MoU) in thisregard, said a senior official in theState Government. CMGI ExecutiveDirector Md Sadiq Alam is coordi-

nating the initiative with IISc.The RISE Centre would provide

inputs for transformation ofGovernment service delivery by itsvarious stakeholders, leveragingArtificial Intelligence (AI), MachineLearning, Autonomous System,Sustainability and Clean Energy.And a capacity improvement would

be done through the RISE Centre.This would be done in the first

phase; and later, more technologi-cal interventions would be in placewith the RISE Innovation Centre.

With this pact, the StateGovernment would receive researchknowledge, technology solutionsand scientific support to improvegovernance, bringing in innovationin working.

The IISc would help CMGI setup the State RISE Centre atBhubaneswar and the initiativewould help the State Government,which is harping on better gover-nance through the 5T initiative andMo Sarkar programme.

The RISE Centre would alsodevelop new areas of applicationsand help in improving the ‘Startup’initiative. Development of MSMEecosystem is also on the cards ofIISc; and this would spur employ-ment generation.

CMGI, IISc, Bangalore toset up RISE centre in BBSR

170 Mandapshave come up

Air of festivity in Cuttack as Durga Puja begins

IN KHORDHA

PNS n KHORDHA

In a shocking incident, a cou-ple was found hanging in a

room at Sananairi village underChilika block in Khordha dis-trict on Friday morning. Theyhad a love marriage twomonths back.

The deceased were identi-fied as Sanatana Sahu (22) andShibani Jena (19). According toreports, the couple had beenstaying in a rented house in thevillage ever since their mar-

riage. They had differencesover dowry. On Thursdaynight, Shibani, a native of Puridistrict, allegedly committedsuicide by hanging following aheated argument with her hus-band. Knowing about herdeath, her parents lodged apolice complaint against herhusband. By this, Sanatan gotfrightened and followed hiswife’s path to avoid policearrest, said reports. Policerecovered the bodies and start-ed investigation.

PNS n NAYAGARH

Amassive fire broke out atthe building of the district

Collectorate here on Fridayreducing properties worthlakhs of rupees to ashes.

Though there was no lossof life in the mishap, severaldocuments, computers, furni-ture and important files weredestroyed in the blaze.

According to sources,office staffers spotted thicksmoke billowing out of thebuilding and immediately ranout in panic. On beinginformed, fire tenders, whichwere rushed to the spot, dousedthe flames. Though the exactcause of the fire was yet to beascertained, Fire Service per-sonnel suspected that it couldbe due to an electric short cir-cuit, sources said.

PIONEER NEWS SERVICE nBALESWAR

Nilgiri BJP MLA SukantaNayak on Friday staged a

dharna in front of the NilgiriSub-Collector’s office alleg-ing that he was misbehaved bylocal Tehsildar Sushrita Tudu,

He undertook the agita-tion in fallout of a verbal spatbetween him and Tudu overdemolition of a shed ofMoharirs during an evictiondrive in the court premises.

The eviction drive wascarried out in the courtpremises near the Sub-Collector’s office in the pres-ence of Tehsildar Tudu andAdditional Tehsildar RakeshPanda.

However, MLA Nayakprotested the drive allegingthat the constructions werebeing demolished withoutrehabilitating the occupants.

A video clip of the inci-dent which went viral reflectsthe tehsildar purportedly say-ing “I am not talking to you”repeatedly to the legislator.

The incident triggeredtension as supporters of theMLA locked the office of thetehsildar protesting the evic-tion drive.

Proteststehsildar’smisbehaviour

Fire breaksout in N’garhCollectorate

Nilgiri MLAagitates againsteviction drive

Couple found hanging 2months after marriage

Hippo dies atNandankanan

GOOD GOVERNANCE

BBSR-KLumpur flightrescheduled

Vendor runover by train,loses legsPNS n JAJPUR

Avendor lost his legs after heaccidentally slipped while

alighting from a moving trainat the Gadamadhupur railwaystation in the district on Friday.

The injured man was iden-tified as Gunanidhi Dora (55)of Thanual village in the dis-trict.

Sources said Dora wasalighting from the movingtrain after selling sweets. But heslipped and fell on the railwaytracks and the speeding Puri-Howrah Train ran over hislegs.

Immediately he was rushedby the locals to theDharmashala CommunityHealth Centre. Later, he wasshifted to the SCB MedicalCollege Hospital at Cuttack ashis condition deteriorated,sources added.

Locals have requested theState Government to bear themedical expenses due to hispoor financial condition.

IN JAJPUR

UCCI holds office-bearers’ polls

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The State Government onFriday gave premature

retirement to two officials,against whom the Vigilancepolice had registered cases.

The officials are DhenkanalRTO Basanta Kumar Beheraand Deputy Commissioner ofExcise Dillip Kumar Nag.

Behera had been bookedby the Vigilance police in 2018for allegedly amassing assetsworth �3.6 crore dispropor-tionate to his known sources of

income.Nag had also been arrest-

ed in a disproportionate assets(DA) case after such propertiesworth �1.5 crore possessed byhim were unearthed.

The State Government hadlast month decided for prema-ture retirement of inefficientand corrupt employees. Theaim of the move is to weed outofficers and employees ofdoubtful integrity or ineffi-ciency, said a circular of theGeneral Administration andPublic Grievance Department.

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The Supreme Court Collegium hasrecommended the name of advo-

cate Sanjeeb Kumar Panigrahi forappointment as a judge of the OrissaHigh Court.

The Chief Justice of the OrissaHigh Court had on May 7 recom-mended the names of eight lawyers,including Panigrahi, to the Collegiumin this regard. “The Collegium resolvesto recommend that Sanjeeb KumarPanigrahi, Advocate, be appointed asJudge of the Orissa High Court,” anofficial statement said.

The Collegium has also recom-mended the name of Bibhu PrasadRoutray, Judicial Officer, to be appoint-ed as an Orissa High Court judge.

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The National Human RightsCommission (NHRC) has sought an

action-taken report from the StateGovernment on the measures taken to pre-vent malnutrition among residents ofNagada in Jajpur district.

Based on a petition filed by rightsactivist Akhand of Puri, the NHRC onThursday asked the State Chief Secretaryto submit the report within four weeks. Italso directed the Chief Secretary to deposebefore it if he fails to submit the report with-in the stipulated time.

The petitioner has alleged that both theState and Central Governments have failedto make any difference on the ground at

Nagada as children of the village still failto get nutritional food.

Notably, in June and July 2016, mediahad highlighted the misery and malnutri-tion cases in Nagada, where as many as 20children died due to lack of nutritionalfood.

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SAMBALPUR: Police onFriday arrested notorious crim-inal Amit Sahu alias AmitBihari following an encounternear a temple under theKhetrajpur police station here.The cops also rescued a youth,whom the criminal had heldhostage for extorting money.

Amit had kidnapped theyouth and demanded a ransomof Rs 60,000 to release him.Following a ransom demandcall, the family members of the victim lodged a com-plaint with police.

Police managed to traceAmit, who spotting the copsfired two rounds at them in a

bid to escape. In self-defence,police fired back at him. Amitwas hit by a bullet on his left legand overpowered. Cops seizeda pistol and live ammunitionfrom him. Besides, police alsorescued the abducted youth inless than 12 hours of receivingthe complaint.

“The kidnapped victim istotally safe. But he was beatenup very severely by accused; so,there are injury marks on hisback. After some minor treat-ment, he would be dischargedfrom hospital,” a police officialsaid. Amit was wanted in morethan nine cases in the district,he added. PNS

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AProtection of Childrenfrom Sexual Offences

(POSCO) Court here on Fridayawarded 10 years’ jail term toa youth for sexually assaultinga minor girl and impregnatingher in 2016.

Judge Pranati Sahu alsoimposed a fine of Rs 10,000 onthe accused, Sk Iqbal, of

Miramahala village under thePurunabazar police stationafter convicting him in the case.

Iqbal had lured the ClassIX student and raped her onDecember 29, 2016. When vic-tim’s family members came toknow about it, they had lodgeda complaint at the Purunabazarpolice station. After registeringa case, police had arrestedIqbal on January 3, 2017.

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Two labour sardars werearrested on Friday in con-

nection with the death of amigrant worker in Balangir afew days ago.

They were KhyamanidhiMeher (42) of Rengali andLakhindra Kumbhar (32) ofSinkhaman village.

A case is registered againstthem in Sadar PS here under

the Bonded Labour System(Abolition) Act, 1976 and theInter-State Migrant Workmen(Regulation of Employmentand Conditions of Service)

Act, 1979, informed BalangirSDPO Srimant Barik.

Sources saidKshyamanidhi had broughtsome labourers and kept them

in Sinkhaman village. Theywere supposed to go for theirdestination place. However,labourer Kanalu, who sufferedfrom fever, died on Monday.

Rather than taking him tohospital or informing police,the labour Sardar sent his bodyto his native village and thebody was buried in a hush-hush manner by local Dalalsand some other people.

Kshyamanidhi andLaksindra took nine labours ofBhubanpali village of Bargarhdistrict illegally without anydocumentation. Police said aninvestigation was on.

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In a clear admission about thepoor health of the economy,

the Reserve Bank of India(RBI) on Friday slashed itsGDP growth estimate for thecurrent fiscal to 6.1 per centfrom 6.9 per cent and reducedthe interest rate by quarter ofa per cent even as the stockmarket benchmark BSE Sensexplummeted by 434 points dueto heavy sell-off in banking andFMCG stocks.

The market was disap-pointed by such a massivedownward revision of growthforecast and less than expect-ed reduction in interest rate.Given the tame inflation rateand feeble growth, the streetwas expecting at least 40 basispoint rate cut. The disappoint-ed triggered a collapse in themarket. It was the fifth straightrate cut that brought interestrate to almost a decade low.

With all six members of theMonetary Policy Committee(MPC) voting in favour of arate cut and for retaining theaccommodative stance, thebenchmark repurchase ratewas cut by 25 basis points to5.15 per cent. The previouslowest repo rate of 5 per centwas recorded in March 2010.

Following the rate cut, thereverse repo rate was reducedto 4.9 per cent. While fivemembers voted for a 25 bps cut,Ravindra Dholakia voted for a0.40 per cent reduction.

The RBI revised down-wards its estimate for GDP

growth in the current fiscal to6.1 per cent from 6.9 per centit had previously estimatedafter lower-than-expected 5per cent growth rate in April-June and no substantial uptickin the following quarter. Riskson the 6.1 per cent GDPgrowth estimate are “evenlybalanced”, it said.

The repo rate cut is aimedat pushing consumption upduring the ongoing festivalseason by reducing borrowingcosts for home and auto loans,which are now directly linkedto this benchmark.

RBI Governor ShaktikantaDas said as long as the growth

momentum remains as it isnow and growth revives, theMPC will continue with anaccommodative stance whileensuring inflation remainswithin the target.” The RBI willcontinue accommodativestance as long as it is necessaryand growth revives,” he said.

In the four previous ratecuts since February, the RBIhad cut interest rates by 110basis points whose transmis-sion to borrowers in form oflower lending rate has“remained staggered andincomplete”, the Central banksaid in a statement.

As against the cumulative

policy repo rate reduction of110 bps during February-August 2019, the weightedaverage lending rate (WALR)on fresh rupee loans of com-mercial banks declined by 29bps. However, the WALR onoutstanding rupee loansincreased by 7 bps during thesame period.

Central banks around theworld are loosening monetarypolicy to offset a global slow-down, worsened by US-Chinatrade tensions. The rate cut bythe RBI follows a series of fis-cal steps taken by theGovernment over the last sixweeks to spur growth, includ-ing steepest ever cut in tax paidby companies, cost the exche-quer �1.45 lakh crore.

Asked if the corporate ratecut would impact fiscal deficittarget of 3.3 per cent of theGDP, Das said the Governmenthas stated that it will maintainfiscal deficit target and “wehave no reason to doubt that”.

Admitting that the impactof the 135 bps rate cut will “taketime” to filter in, Das said,“While the recent measuresannounced by the Governmentare likely to help strengthenprivate consumption and spurprivate investment activity, thecontinuing slowdown warrantsintensified efforts to restore thegrowth momentum.”

The RBI raised its near-term inflation forecast slightlyto 3.4 per cent for the secondquarter of the fiscal started inApril, while projecting it wouldstay below its medium-term

target of 4 per cent.On reviving growth, the

MPC welcomed the recentmoves by the Government asthe ones in the right direction,but the resolution did not haveany reference to the fiscaldeficit or fiscal management,which is generally deemed tohave an inflationary impact.

Meanwhile, after openingnearly 300 points higher, theSensex gave up all the gains toturn negative shortly after thepolicy announcement by theRBI. The Sensex gyrated 770points during the day to end433.56 points or 1.14 per centlower at 37,673.31. It hit anintra-day low of 37,633.36 and

a high of 38,403.54. The broad-er NSE Nifty plunged 139.25points or 1.23 per cent to closeat 11,174.75. During the holi-day-truncated week, Sensexplummeted 1,149.26 points or2.96 per cent, while Niftydeclined 337.65 points.

Top laggards includedKotak Bank, ICICI Bank,HDFC Bank, Tata Motors,L&T, SBI, Tata Steel and AxisBank. On the other hand, TCS,Infosys, ONGC, TechMahindra, IndusInd Bank andNTPC rose up to 1.03 percent. Rate-sensitive bankingstocks faced the heat, finance,auto and realty indices tankingup to 2.45 per cent.

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India has finally broken itssilence on repeated state-

ments issued by Turkey andMalaysia attacking New Delhion the Kashmir issue and askedthem to have a proper under-standing of the situation inKashmir before making furthercomments.

Expressing “deep regrets”on the statement issued by thetwo countries, External AffairsMinistry SpokespersonRaveesh Kumar reiteratedIndia’s position that Pakistanhad invaded and illegally occu-pied parts of Jammu &Kashmir and the current devel-opments in J&K and Ladakhare purely its internal matter.

Kumar called uponAnkara, which has issued sev-eral statements on Kashmirsince August 6, to have a prop-er understanding of the situa-tion in Kashmir before makingfurther comments.

“India and Turkey arefriendly countries. We, there-fore, deeply regret that sinceAugust 6, there have beenrepeated statements by theTurkish Government on a mat-ter completely internal to India.These statements are factuallyincorrect, biased and unwar-ranted,” Kumar said.

Malaysian Prime MinisterMahathir Mohamad had raisedthe Kashmir issue at the UnitedNations, alleging that Indiahad “invaded and occupied”

Jammu & Kashmir and askedNew Delhi to work withPakistan to resolve the issue.

Pointing out that India andMalaysia have traditionallyenjoyed good and friendly ties,Kumar said, “This relation-ship has been enhanced inrecent years. We have noted thecomment on J&K by the PrimeMinister of Malaysia. Wedeeply regret these commentssince they are not based onfacts,” Kumar said.

“Government of Malaysiashould bear in mind the friend-ly relations between the twocountries and desist from mak-ing such comments,” he added.

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The Supreme Court on Fridayfavoured an “amicable solu-

tion” for the re-construction ofGuru Ravidas temple on a bet-ter location after it was demol-ished in Tughlaqabad forestarea here, saying it respectseverybody’s “sentiments” butlaw has to be followed.

The temple was demol-ished by the DelhiDevelopment Authority (DDA)citing the top court’s direction.The demolition had led to aseries of protests, including inDelhi, Punjab and Haryana.

The SC asked the parties inthe matter to hold a consulta-tion to arrive at an amicablesolution on a “better land”and “better location” and saidif they are agreeable, then itwould pass order.

A Bench of justices ArunMishra and S Ravindra Bhatsaid that Attorney General KKVenugopal was also appearingin the matter and the petition-ers, who were seeking apexcourt permission to re-con-struct the temple, should holdconsultation with him on theissue. “You find an amicablesolution and come back to us.Any day we can pass the order.We respect the sentiments ofeverybody on earth but wehave to follow the law,” thebench said.

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Indian Air Force (IAF) chiefRKS Bhadauria on Friday

said “it was a big mistake” byIAF men to bring down theMI-17 chopper on February 27in Jammu & Kashmir, killing allsix on board besides a civilianon the ground. He said theCommission of Inquiry (CoI)is over and action will be takenagainst the guilty.

Officers may face chargesof culpable homicide notamounting to murder as perprovisions of the military lawand IAF top brass will decideon the quantum of punish-ment, said sources.

Hit by a surface-to-air mis-

sile of the IAF, the helicoptercrashed in Budgam shortlyafter take-off from Srinagar.

The incident took place ona day when the Pakistani fight-er jets intruded into Indian air-space and tried to hit Indian mil-itary targets in Rajouri sector inretaliation to the IAF air strikesagainst terrorist infrastructure inBalakot a day earlier.

“It was a big mistake,action being initiated againsttwo IAF personnel,” saidBhadauria, adding followingthe CoI corrective measureshave been taken so it does nothappen again and those wholost their lives will be declaredbattle casualties.

He said this at his first

annual Press conference as IAFChief ahead of the 87th AirForce Day on October 8.Bhadauria took over as the IAFChief on September 30 fromoutgoing Chief BS Dhanoa.He also said the Court ofInquiry got over last week.

The Commission ofInquiry confirmed that thechopper was shot by Israeli ori-gin ground based Spyder sur-face to air missile system of theIAF. The probe found at leastfive officers, including a GroupCaptain responsible for thecrash, defence sources hadstated earlier. The Pioneer hadreported on August 23 that thehigh-level probe by the IAF hadheld five officers guilty as it was

found out that the helicopterwent down after getting hit byan Indian missile.

These findings formed partof the mandatory court ofenquiry. The officers foundguilty of negligence and not fol-lowing procedures include oneGroup Captain, two WingCommanders and two FlightLieutenants, sources said.

The enquiry found thatthe ‘Identification of Friend orFoe’ (IFF) system on-boardthe helicopter was switched offand there was a “vital gap” incommunication and coordi-nation between the groundstaff and the crew of the ill-fated helicopter. The IFF helpsair defence radars identify

whether an aircraft or heli-copter is friendly or hostile. Inearly May, the IAF transferredthe Air Officer Commanding(AOC) of Srinagar base toensure a thorough probe intothe incident.

Officials said the CoI wasalso specifically focusing onexamining the role of variouspeople, including those con-trolling the air defence systemwhen the helicopter was hit bya surface-to-air missile.

Incidentally, the helicopterwas shot down around the sametime when Indian and Pakistanifighter jets were engaged in theaerial battle. Moreover, the inci-dent took place when the Indianforces on their highest alert fol-

lowing the Pakistani aerial raid.The helicopter crashed withinten minutes of take off after get-ting hit by own missile.

Earlier, the then IAF ChiefDhanoa had also said some

time back the Service needs tolearn lessons on what hap-pened, how it happened and ifmistakes were made need tomake sure it does not happenagain.

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At least 6,000-tonne coalsupply and 5,000 cubic

meter (CuM) of overburdenremoval (OBR) were affecteddue to two separate incidents ofwork disturbances at theTalcher coalfields of theMahanadi Coalfields Limited(MCL) since Thursday.

Overburden removal

operations at the Ananta OCPwere affected on Thursdaynight after one JudhisthirSahoo of Burdabanpur villageunauthorisedly entered intothe mine premises and forciblydamaged equipments to stopdewatering operations fromthe sump to the external minearea.

Besides his reportedinvolvement in the stone-pelt-

ing on vehicles at the mine onFriday morning, Sahoo alsokidnapped two MCL employ-ees identified as ArtatranaSahoo, Design-Mech. Fitterand Dhirendra Behera, Design-Mech. Helper.

The Project Officer,Ananta OCP, lodged an FIR inthis regard at the local policestation and safe release of theabducted employees could besecured at around 2:30 pm.

The operations the AnantaOCP were normalised at 2:45pm after the Sub-Collector

and the SDPO, Talcher, inter-vened.

Besides affecting the OB

removal to the tune of 5000CuM, the stoppage of dewa-tering operations also affected

coal production operations atthe OCP. The mine, which istargeted to produce 40,000tonne of coal, is limited to pro-duce around 30,000 only due tothis obstruction in dewatering.

Earlier on Thursday, somepeople had obstructed coaltransportation from 11 am to1 pm at Biswal Chhak nearDera village in Talcher, due towhich supply of about 6,000tonne of coal from theBhubaneswari OCP was affect-ed. The estimated loss due tothis was �2.4 crore.

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Ayouth’s body was foundhanging in the premises of

the Swami NigamanandaAshram at Chhend Colonyhere on Friday. The deceasedwas identified as SuryanarayanRath.Rath was working at a col-lege and was staying in theashram. He was also teachingchildren residing in the ashram.

Reports said the ashramresidents got suspicious whenRath did not open his room’sdoor in the morning. They laterfound Rath’s body hangingfrom the room’s ceiling.

After receiving informa-tion, police and Magistratereached the spot and sent thebody for postmortem. A pall ofgloom has descended on thearea when the news spread.

Though reason behind thedeath is yet to be ascertained,it is suspected that the youthhas committed suicide.

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Vigilance sleuths caught ALaxmi Prasad Rao, a re-

engaged Office Assistant ofBrahmapur MunicipalCorporation (BeMC), red-handed while demanding andaccepting illegal gratification of�25,000 from Nilachal Sahu ofPrem Nagar, Brahmapur toprocess a file for re-allotmentof a municipality shop near theCity High School in his favour.

Rao had been re-engagedas Office Assistant on consol-idated remuneration on April3, 2019 following his retirementas Senior Assistant.

Acting on Sahu’s com-plaint, the anti-corruptionagency officials laid a trap onThursday and caught Rao red-handed while taking thedemanded money from com-plainant in front of Pidha Hotelin the city.

Sahu is the owner of Pidha

Hotel. Earlier, the shop hadbeen allotted in favour of Sahu’selder father. The complainanthad applied for re-allotment ofthe shop in his favour forwhich he had deposited therequired fees with BeMC onAugust 9, 2019.

Rao was arrested andwould be forwarded to court.His Government quarter atPrem Nagar and paternal houseat Kularsingh under thePurushottampur police stationin Ganjam district were undersearch, informed an officialstatement.

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Afraudster was arrested bythe Khandagiri police on

Thursday on the charge ofdefrauding a woman and a fewothers on the pretext of pro-viding them jobs.

He was identified asNityananda Mallick (42), aresident of Singhpur villageunder the Kuakhia police sta-tion of Jajpur district.

Mallick, who frequentedone Kalpana Das house inDumaduma area here, posed asa senior official of the RevenueDepartment and offered her ajob in the RevenueDepartment.

Another womanSatyabhama Das, who wasworking at the AIIMS,Bhubaneswar met Mallick at

Kalpana’s house. During inter-action, Mallick also offeredSatyabhma a clerical job in theBoard of Revenue office inCuttack for which he demand-ed �25,000 in first installment.

He asked her to pay the rest�25,000 after receiving theappointment letter. WhenSatyabhama consulted Kalpanaon the jobp r o m i s emade byMallick, thelatter assuredher and shehad also paidMallick forthe same rea-son.

A f t e rbeing assuredby her friend,she trusted

Mallick and gave him �25,000.But after waiting for a few days,when Satyabhama realised thatMallick was a fraud, she fileda complaint with theKhandagiri police against him.

Following arrest of theaccused, the police forwardedhim to a local court that turneddown his bail plea and sent himto the Jharpada jail.

Reports said that theaccused had duped around 20unemployed youths of �12lakh on the guise of providingthem jobs.

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The 150th Gandhi Jayantiand the 115th Shastri

Jayanti were celebrated withmuch fanfare and enthusiasmby the district administration ina function held inside collectoroffice parade ground here onWednesday.

State Water Resources andI and PR MinisterRaghunandan Das attendedthe event as chief guest whospelled out that Gandhianphilosophies are relevant for alltimes.

Speaking on former PMShastri, Das said he had main-tained high moral value inpower politics.

Among others, districtCollector SK Mohapatra, Sub-Collector MM Mohanty,Cashew DevelopmentCorporation ChairmanAmarendra Das, and theProject Director DRDA spoke.

Earlier a padayatra from

Gandhi Chhak to district head-quarters was organized, inwhich school and college stu-dents participated. A photoexhibition was opened atSanskruti Bhawan here,exhibiting Gandhiji’s livingmemories.

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The Utkal Sammilani onFriday severely criticised

Congress leader and formerMP Bhakta Charan Das fordeciding to fight for formationof another State (Kosal) bybifurcating Odisha.

“Das’ statement in favourof dividing Odisha is unsavoryand not acceptable,” saidSammilani MancheswarIndustrial Estate branch pres-ident Dillip Dashsharma.

Dashsharma said that quit-ting electoral politics for insti-gating regional imbalance isvery unfortunate. “It wouldhave been better if he had toldthe media what he and hisparty did for development ofwestern Odisha and the KBKregion when they were inpower,” contended Dashsharma

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While the Puja celebrationsare round the corner and

the blessings of Devi Durgacomes to our homes throughgifts, for those who stay inorphanage or similar institu-tions, getting a gift with loveand affection means a lot.

Here is a story of such agesture from DAV Public

School, Pokhariput to lightenthe moments of happinessthrough gifting when the Joy ofGiving Week (October 2 toOctober 8) is underway.

On the occasion of cele-brating the week, teachers ofthe school, Pokhariput, tried tobring loads of smile and joy tothe inmates of AdrutaChildren’s Home, Gadakanaand Missionaries of Charities

Saint Mother Teresa’s Home,Satya Nagar, recently.

The team of teachers led bySupervisor SanghamitraSatapathy under the mentor-ship of school Principal DrSujata Sahu, collected cartonloads of daily need items, gen-erously and happily donated bythe parents of the morning ses-sion (LKG to Standard II), andshared them with the inmatesof these two stay homes.

Not only sharing the good-

ies with the inmates of theAdruta Children’s Home,Gadakana and Missionaries ofCharities Saint Mother Teresa’sHome, Satya Nagar, but theentire team of teachers of spenta quality time with the inmates,listened to their stories, sawtheir performances live at theirplace and also came to knowthe challenges through whichthe inmates are passingthrough in their everyday life.

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The newly-constructed modern bus terminalat Haladiapadar, five kilometre from here,

was made operational on Thursday.The project had been inaugurated by Chief

Minister Naveen Patnaik in February 2016.In the first phase, all the buses belonging to

the Odisha State Road Transport Corporation(OSRTC) and other State Government buses willoperate from the new bus stand.

The Brahmapur Development Authority hasopened a ticket counter at the terminal. Sourcessaid that out of 35 Government buses, only fivebuses started plying from Haladiapadar.

As many as 10 out of 40 city buses wouldrun between Haladiapadar bus stand and city.

The new bus terminal has come up on a 3.90-acre of land with an investment ofRs 13 crore.

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Mahatma Gandhi’s 150-thbirth anniversary was

celebrated here on Wednesdaywith enthusiasm.

While programmes likechanting of Ram Dhoon,Prabhat Pheri, Fit India March,peace and goodwill proces-sion, garlanding of Gandhi’sstatue, an all-religion prayermeeting and plantation wereheld by the district adminis-tration, peace marches werealso held by political partieslike BJP and BJD to createawareness among people onGandhian thoughts and prin-ciples.

The Tulsichowra SaraswatiShishu Mandir observed it ina remarkable way. The school

authorities, besides organisingvarious programmes in theschool premises, chose tomark the occasion by inaugu-rating a Sanskar Kendra at thelocal Sungadia, which is one ofthe most neglected areas of thetown and which is inhabitedby a large number of dalit peo-ple.

This Sanskar Kendra aimsto educate, reform and trans-form the poor and neglectedchildren of the area.

While SSVM PradhanAcharya Ratikanta Samalpresided over the inauguralfunction, lawyer DhirenMohan Panda was chief guestand CRCC Pradeep KumarNath guest of honour. SSVMteacher Bisnu CharanMohanta and social activistLingaraj Mishra were presentas special guests. Notably, peo-ple belonging to the ValmikaSamaj dwell at Sungadia inlarge numbers.

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Jeypore Congress MLA TaraPrasad Bahinipati, who is

known for his sarcastic com-ments on various issues, hasalso often been found in a joy-ful mood and dancing at cul-tural events.

On Thursday, he dancedhis heart out on a stage with awoman singer during a cultur-al show orgainised here as partof the Dussehra festivities. Avideo of the event has goneviral.

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The Institute of CompanySecretaries of India (ICSI),

Bhubaneswar Chapter organ-ised a Fit India Walkathonhere on Friday.

MP Aparajita Sarangi aschief guest flagged off thewalkathon. She said a fit mindin a fit body is very important.She encouraged all the partic-

ipants to devote themselvesfor physical activity and sportsevery day and make India a fitnation.

A large number of ICSI

members, students and inviteesattended the walkathon.

The ICSI, New Delhi isgoing to celebrate its 51st foun-dation day in alignment withthe agenda and goals of theGovernment of India for India@ 75-Sankalp se Siddhi in thepresence President Ram NathKovind at the Vigyan Bhawan,New Delhi on October 5(Saturday).

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ROURKELA: Police on Thursday arrested ayouth from Bihar on the charge of postingobscene pictures of a girl of the Steel City onsocial media. Reportedly, the accused youthidentified as Amanjit Sharma of Munger districtin Bihar had developed a love relationship witha girl of the city through social media.

But two months back, the girl got marriedto someone else.

In a bid to take revenge, Amanjir created afake ID on Facebook and posted some obscene pictures of the girl that later went viralon social media.

After a complaint was lodged by the girl, thecity Cyber police had launched an investigationinto the incident. The cops arrested Amanjitfrom Bihar and produced him in a court hereon Friday. PNS

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Asserting that he will not beafraid of taking decisions

for fear of attracting com-plaints of corruption, DefenceMinister Rajnath Singh onFriday invited the private sec-tor for active participation inthe defence industry.

Singh also said the Centreis committed to exploiting theentrepreneurship spirit of pri-vate defence sector and readyto interact and resolve theirproblems in the plans to takethe Indian defence industry tothe size of USD 26 billion by2025.

Stating that his doors arealways open, he urged the pri-vate companies to come for-ward as he would like to give allhelp wherever possible. Singhis scheduled to travel to Parison October 7 on a three-dayvisit, primarily to receive thefirst of 36 Rafale fighter jets.The next day, Singh will fly asortie in a Rafale fighter jetfrom a French airbase in Paristo gain first-hand experience ofthe aircraft.

Speaking at the IndiaInternational Security Expo,

organised by PHD Chamber ofCommerce and Industry, Singhsaid India cannot remaindependent on importedweapons for long since it didnot align with the country'splans to become a superpow-er.

The Minister said thatwhen he became the DefenceMinister people told him heshould be careful on whom tomeet and who to allow entry,as there could be scope forinviting complaints of corrup-tion.

"They said that there aremany business-related propos-als, and there are matters relat-ed to imports and exports,

and the minister should becareful of all this otherwisesomeone will raise a finger('Nahi to ungli uth jayegi').

"A Minister who is afraid ofcorruption charges, shouldrefrain (from taking decisions),Rajnath Singh is not worriedabout all this. People and bigindustry organisations in thiscountry know who is what('kaun kya hai'). I am not wor-ried at all. Come. My doors areopen. Whatever help I cangive, the defence ministry willgive. This is an assurance Iwould like to give you," he said.Defence procurement has oftenbeen dogged by allegations ofcorruption.

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The Centre has handed overthe probe into recovery of

huge arms, ammunition andcommunication hardware inPunjab, suspected to have beendelivered through drones fromacross the border, to theNational Investigation Agency(NIA).

The decision to hand overthe probe to the federal anti-terror probe agency was takenfollowing Punjab government'srequest in the wake of thestate police's claim to havebusted a terror module of theKhalistan Zindabad Force(KZF), backed by a radicalterror group based in Pakistanand Germany, last month.

Punjab Police had said theterror group was conspiring tounleash a series of strikes inPunjab and adjoining States.

The Centre is convincedthat scheduled offences underthe National InvestigationAgency Act 2008 have beencommitted and having regardto the gravity of the offencewhich include conspiracy to

carry out terrorist activity tocreate communal tension,instability and revival of ter-rorism in Punjab, these arerequired to be investigated bythe NIA in accordance with theAct, according to a HomeMinistry order.

The central Governmenthereby directs the NIA to takeup the investigation of theaforesaid offences, it said.

The initial investigation hasfound the use of drones todeliver weapons and communi-cation hardware from Pakistan,a home ministry official said.

Four persons were arrestedfrom the outskirts of ChohlaSahib village in Tarn Taran dis-trict on Punjab on September22. A huge cache of arms,including five AK-47 rifles, pis-tols, satellite phones and hand

grenades were seized from them.The weapons were sus-

pected to have been deliveredfrom across the border by thePakistani intelligence agencyISI for jihadi and pro-Khalistani terrorist outfitsworking under its command,Punjab Police said.

Punjab DGP Dinkar Guptasaid the module was busted fol-lowing inputs gathered from

sources that activists of thebanned KZF had planned tocarry out multiple terroriststrikes in J-K, Punjab andother adjoining States.

The Pakistan Army-ISIcombine has been workingovertime for the last one decadeto revive militancy in Punjabthrough terror outfits proppedup by them and based in othercountries.

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The CPI(M) on Fridayaccused the BJP and the

RSS for trying to duplicate theNational Population Register(NPR) and the NationalRegister of Citizens (NRC) aspart of their efforts to "sharp-en polarisation" in the countryand consolidate "communalvote bank".

Addressing a press con-ference here after the conclu-sion of the party's two-daycentral committee meeting,CPI(M) general secretarySitaram Yechury said thoughNRC is specific to Assam andwhile knowing this aspect theChief Ministers of various BJP-ruled states purposefully

demand a National Register ofCitizens (NRC) in their Statesto create tensions.

"The NPR is dangerous.This Government has revivedthe preparation of the NationalPopulation Register (NPR).This is being done in prepara-tion for an all India NRC on thebasis of this NPR. The centralGovernment has asked somestates to start constructingbuildings to be used as deten-tion centres," he said.

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Amidst rising tensionbetween India and

Pakistan and reports indicatingthat the Balakot terror camp,which was destroyed by the IAFaerial strikes on February 27and other such launch padshave become active again, IAFchief RKS Bhadauria said hereon Friday if the Governmentdecides they will carry out thenecessary action.

Asked about the threatpotential of drones especially inthe aftermath of such an attackon oil refineries in SaudiaArabia recently as part of thenew way of asymmetric war-fare, the IAF chief had antici-pated such a challenge and weare also procuring sensors andother equipment to thwart anyattack. He said the IAF is alsoaware of incidents in Punjabwhere drones were used todrop weapons by Pakistan.

Sounding this warning toPakistan without naming it, theIAF chief, however, said it is notthe IAF strategy to use suchstrikes as the first step but if anyincident takes place, in obvious

reference to Pulwama attack,the Service is ready if theGovernment decides.

He also said it was wrongto assume that despite theBalakot air raids, terrorist campswere now thriving. If Balakotstrikes had not taken place, thelevel of terrorism would havebeen much more, he pointedout. The Air Chief was address-ing the annual Press conferenceahead of the Air Force Day onOctober 8 and responding toArmy Chief General BipinRawat's recent statement aboutBalakot reviving.

On China rapidly rampingits infrastructure especially

along the Line of ActualControl (LAC) and mod-ernising its air force, he said,"We know what exactly is hap-pening there(China)."

Responding to queriesabout IAF's modernisation, hesaid the focus is on indigenisa-tion and modernization besidesacquiring critical weapons andspares to maintain operationalpreparedness. In one of themajor steps towards indigeni-sation, the IAF is backing thedesign and production ofadvanced medium combat air-craft (AMCA) by DRDO. Itwill be a fifth generation fight-er aircraft (FGFA). Bhadauriaruled out importing a new air-craft of such generation "now orin foreseeable future."

Incidentally, India andRussia have been working onthe joint project to developFGFA since 2007. Both sideshad signed only a preliminary$295 million design contractfor the co-development of theFGFA in 2010.

He also dismissed reportsabout procuring 36 moreRafale fighter jets from Franceand said the process of select-

ing the suitable fighter for the114-jet project is on. These jetswill be manufactured withinIndia as part of the StrategicPartnership. The proposeddeal is worth over 10 billiondollars.

Bhauduria said IAF willsoon place an order for 83 moreindigenously designed andmanufactured Tejas light com-bat aircraft (LCA). The costnegotiations were in anadvanced stage, he said addingbesides these projects, the IAFwill soon procure 21 moreMIG-29s and 12 more SU-30s.

About the induction planeof 36 Rafale jets as per the gov-ernment to Govt deal withFrance worth over �58,000crores, he said the first fourRafales manufactured as perthe Indian specifications willcome to India in May end nextyear. Bhadauria as deputy chiefof air staff was instrumental inthe Rafale jet negotiations withthe French Government andDassault Aviation, manufac-turers of the fighter jet. As trib-ute to him, the first IndianRafale aircraft is having tail noRB-01.

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The Parliamentary StandingCommittee on Information

and Technology headed byCongress MP Shashi Tharoorhas decided to examine thesecurity and privacy of thecitizens' data and review thefunctioning of the UniqueIdentification Authority ofIndia (UIDAI).

The Lok Sabha Secretariaton Friday said the panel hasselected various subjects forexamination including policyissues on information tech-nology including cross borderdata flows, artificial intelli-gence (AI) and internet ofthings (IoT).

The committee is alsoreviewing functioning of thetelecom regulator TelecomRegulatory Authority of IndiaTRAI, Bharat Sanchar Nigam

Limited (BSNL), MahanagarTelephone Nigam Limited(MTNL) and the country'spreparedness for 5G.

"Review of functioning ofUIDAI, Citizens' data securityand privacy, and digital pay-ment and online security mea-sures for data protection," arethe subjects selected by thecommittee for examination,"said the Lok Sabha secretariat.

Safeguarding citizens'rights and prevention of mis-use of social or online newsmedia platforms, includingspecial emphasis on womensecurity in the digital space, willalso be examined.

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In a bid to ensure trans-parency, members for

National Medical Commission(NMC) will be elected throughlottery system on 14th of thismonth, Union Minister forHealth Dr Harshvardhan saidon Friday.

Talking to reporters heresaid that the entire process ofconstituting the NMC will befully transparent and mediawill also be involved in selec-tion process. He said, NMCwill bring historic reforms inthe medical education systemin the country.

An official in the HealthMinistry said that once theNMC becomes effective,Medical council of India willautomatically be abolished. Hesaid, there is also a high possi-

bility that NMC will be able toimplement its rules, regulationsand guidelines for medicaleducation system from nextacademic year.

The Act provides for set-ting up of NMC in place of theMedical Council of India fordevelopment and regulationof all aspects of medical edu-

cation, profession and institu-tions.

Several relevant sections ofthe Act came into force onSeptember 2 after which theUnion Health Ministry onAugust 9 wrote to to all chiefsecretaries, home secretaries ofUTs and state medical councilsseeking nominations for selec-tion of members of the NMC.

InsetFrom 2020, admission to

MBBS courses in all medicalcolleges across the country including JIPMER andall the AIIMS will be throughthe National Eligibility cumEntrance Test (NEET), UnionHealth Minister HarshVardhan announced on Friday.

AIIMS and JIPMER havealso been brought under theNEET ambit now.

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The filing of applications fornext year's Haj pilgrimage

will be completely digital andthe process will start fromOctober 10 and there will be 22embarkation points for 2020Haj, Minority Affairs ministerMukhtar Abbas Naqviannounced on Friday

"The new embarkationpoint to be opened for Haj nextyear will be at Vijayawada inAndhra Pradesh. So, in Haj2020, two lakh Indian Muslimswill go for Haj from 22embarkation points across thecountry," he told newspersons.

Naqvi said this after chair-ing a review meeting organisedon the completion of Haj 2019where he took stock of thepreparations for next year's

pilgrimage.The meeting was attended

by senior officials from theministries of External Affairs,Civil Aviation and Health.India's Ambassador to SaudiArabia Ausuf Sayeed and HajCommittee of India ChairmanSheikh Jinna Nabi also attend-ed the meeting.

Naqvi said Haj 2020 will be"100 per cent online" and a sys-tem has been developed to pro-vide e-visa to all the pilgrims.

"People can apply onlinefor Haj 2020 from October 10till November 10. Applicationsfor Haj can also be be filedthrough a mobile application,"he said.

The minister said HajGroup Organisers (HGOs) canapply on an online portal fromNovember 1 to December 1.

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Chief Minister BhupeshBaghel addressed a massive

public gathering on Fridayduring 'Gandhi VichaarPadyatra' held on the occasionof 150th birth anniversary ofMahatma Gandhi in Kandel.

He announced that a col-lege would be opened inKandel in the name of Fatherof Nation Mahatma Gandhi,Madamsilli dam would benamed after late BabuChhotelal Shrivastav, waterwould be released from damsfor crops in summer. He also

announced bridge construc-tion in Kandel and naming ofGovernment HigherSecondary School Gopalpuriafter freedom fighter ShriHazari Lal Jain.

The Chief Minister said to

protest the irrigation tax impo-sition by British rulers inKandel, freedom fighter lateShri Babu ChhotelalShrivastava had launchedKandel Nahar Satyagrah.Mahatma Gandhi had decided

to reach Kandel and join theprotest but soon after receivingthis information, British rulershad withdrawn the irrigationtax imposed. To make thesememories of Kandel NaharSatyagrah unforgettable,'Gandhi Vichaar Padyatra' hasbeen organized. Chief Ministercommemorated the personal-ity and contribution ofMahatma Gandhi in socialreformation, his fight for farm-ers, labourers and poors. Hededicated his life for womeneducation, women empower-ment and self-dependence. Hefollowed the path of truth andnon-violence to made Indiafree. It was the first ever non-violent movement for inde-pendence of a country.Mahatma Gandhi made non-violence his strength and madeIndia free.

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The Bombay High Court onFriday dismissed all peti-

tions challenging the proposedfelling of 2,646 trees in AareyColony at Goregaon in northMumbai to make way for con-struction of a car shed forMetro phase-III, after address-ing the environmental con-cerns raised by the petitioners.

Holding that the decision-making process on tree fellingadopted by the Tree Authorityof the BrihanmumbaiMunicipal Corporation (BMC)as “fair, transparent and basedon reason”, a HC division benchof Chief Justice PradeepNandrajog and Justice BharatiDangre noted: “The Carbon di-oxide sequestration of 2,702trees for their entire lifetime cal-culated at 12,79,062 kg would becompensated in 3,948 fullyloaded trips of Metro Trainsoperating”.

The HC bench refused todeclare Aarey Colony a forestand also declined to quash theBMC tree authority's decisionallowing felling of over 2,646trees in the green zone to makeway of a metro car shed.

Dismissing the petitionsfiled by green activist ZoruBhathena and Shiv Sena cor-porator Yashwant KamalakarJadhav, the HC bench observed:“Thus, as in the two companion

petitions which we have dis-missed today, the Greens faileven in these two petitions, butnot on account of sailing theirboats in the wrong channel, buton merits”.

The HC bench imposed afine of �50,000 on YashwantJadhav, who had filed a petitionagainst the approval granted bythe civic body's tree authority.He is a member of the BMC’stree authority.

Terming all the petitioners"Davids" (environmentalists)taking on the industrial"Goliaths", apparently suggest-ing that they are fighting anunequal battle, the court said:"Relationship with nature andlove for environment alone istrue and all other relationshipsare unreal and temporary, istheir (environmentalists) belief.Their hearts are a temple ofdevotion to flora and fauna".

"The greens (environmen-

talists) fail in the instant petitionbecause they have lost touchwith the procedure to be fol-lowed as per law. The clock can-not be put back. We do notmake any comments thereon asthe petitioner has to now swimor sink before the SupremeCourt,” the judges noted.

“The issue is pending beforethe Supreme Court and theNational Green Tribunal.Hence, we are dismissing thepetition on the principle ofcommonality and not on mer-its," a bench of Chief JusticePradeep Nandrajog and JusticeBharati Dangre said.

Activist Zoru Bhathena,who had challenged the deci-sion to cut the trees, said: “I amextremely saddened to get thisnews. We will take this fight for-ward. It’s a sad day for Aareytoday. We will approach theSupreme Court”.

Later in the evening,

Bhathena tweeted: “The Aareybattle of David Vs Goliath nowmoves to the Supreme Court.Do take a few seconds to readwhat the Bombay HC had to sayabout this epic battle to SaveAarey”.

Alluding to environmentalconcerns raised by the petition-ers, the Judges noted: “In con-nection with the issues of envi-ronmental concerns, it has to benoted that the project proponenthas already planted 20,900 treeswith GPS tagging on each plantin Sanjay Gandhi National Parkand the survival rate is 95%,proved by the letter dated 27thSeptember 2019 addressed bythe Chief Conservator Forestand Director Sanjay GandhiNational Park to the ChiefProject Manager of MMRCL.This establishes that about 7times the number of trees to befelled have been replaced byplanting saplings of trees, whichprocess commenced two yearsago”

“Further, the project isbeing financed substantially byJapan International CooperativeAgency (“JICA”) and the projectis registered with The UnitedNations Framework for ClimateChange (UNFCC). It is thusbeing monitored by ForeignAgencies on the environmentalimpact,” the judgement stated.

“The project report demon-strates that the benefits and/or

reduction in Carbon di-oxideemissions by virtue of the pro-ject demonstrate that the samewould be reduced by 2,61,968tonnes over ten years because ofreduced dependence onmotarised transport,” the HCbench observed.

The green activists, ofwhich Bhathena is part, havebeen protesting vehementlyagainst the decision taken by theBMC’s tree authority on August29 to allow cutting of 2,185 treesand transplantation of 461 trees.

While giving a go-ahead tothe MMRCl to cut 2,185 treesand transplant 461 trees inAarey Colony for constructionof car depot for Metro-3 corri-dor, the BMC’s Tree Authorityhad said that the MMRCLwould have to plant 13,110 trees

In its petition filed in thehigh court, activist Bhathena hadchallenged the proposed fellingof 2,648 trees in Aarey Colonyto make way for construction ofa metro card there by saying thatthe decision taken by the BMC'sTree Authority, taken on August29 this year, approving the fellingof trees to make way for ametro car shed was not in accor-dance with a previous order ofthe high court.

Last month, several celebri-ties, including AmitabhBachchan and Akshay Kumar,had come out in support of theMumbai Metro.

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)��$��+89��:��.�6;6�� Muzaffarpur/Wayanad: AnFIR has been lodged in Bihar'sMuzaffarpur against nearly 50celebrities, including AparnaSen, Adoor Gopalakrishnanand Ramchandra Guha foralleged sedition after they wrotean open letter to Prime MinisterNarendra Modi voicing concernover growing incidents of moblynching.

Police said the FIR waslodged on Thursday under sev-eral sections of the Indian PenalCode, including those related tosedition, public nuisance, hurt-ing religious feelings and insult-ing with an intent to provokebreach of peace.

Reacting sharply to the reg-istration of the FIR againsteminent film personalities, writ-ers and others, Congress leaderRahul Gandhi alleged the coun-try was moving towards becom-ing an "authoritarian state"where anybody who said any-thing against Modi or his gov-ernment was put behind bars.

The case was lodged fol-lowing an order by MuzaffarpurChief Judicial Magistrate SuryaKant Tiwari on a petition bylocal advocate Sudhir KumarOjha, who claimed, amongother things, that the letter sup-ported secessionist tendencies".

"The CJM had passed the

order on August 20, acceptingmy petition upon the receipt ofwhich an FIR was lodged at theSadar police station here," Ojhasaid. He said nearly 50 signato-ries to the letter were named asaccused in his petition, whichaccused them of having "tar-nished the image of the coun-try and undermined the impres-sive performance of the primeminister", besides "supportingsecessionist tendencies".

The letter was written by 49eminent personalities, alsoincluding filmmakers ManiRatnam, Anurag Kashyap,Shyam Benegal, actor SoumitraChatterjee and vocalist ShubhaMudgal in July this year.

Rahul Gandhi, who wasaway in his constituencyWayanad in Kerala, denouncedthe FIR.

He said it was not a secretanymore that the country wasmoving towards an authoritar-ian state, adding that the primeminister should tell the countrywhy had he "destroyed" theeconomy and created "massivejoblessness".

"Everybody knows what isgoing on in the country. It is nota secret. In fact, the wholeworld knows it. We are movingtowards an authoritarian state.It is pretty clear," the WayanadMP, who has come to his con-stituency to express solidaritywith the protests against thenight traffic ban on a highwaypassing through the Bandipur

Tiger Reserve, told reporters."Anybody who says any-

thing against the prime minis-ter, anybody who raises any-thing against the government isbeing put in jail and attacked.The media is crushed.Everybody knows what is goingon. This is not a secret," he said.

An FIR was filed at Bihar'sMuzaffarpur on Thursdayagainst around 50 celebrities,including Ramachandra Guha,Mani Ratnam, AdoorGopalakrishnan and AparnaSen, who had written an openletter to Prime Minister Modi,raising their concern over thegrowing incidents of moblynching in the country.

The case was lodged after achief judicial magistrate passedan order on a petition filedagainst the celebrities before hiscourt.

The petition claimed thatthe celebrities had allegedly"tarnished the image of thecountry and undermined the impressive performance ofthe Prime Minister", besides"supporting secessionist ten-dencies".

Hitting out at the ModiGovernment over the "massivejoblessness" and the dwindlingeconomy, Gandhi said the"GDP growth was not visible"anymore.

The Centre could give a taxbenefit of �1,25,000 crore to 15people, but not to the poor, healleged. PTI

Burdwan (WB): Ten personswere arrested here on Friday foralleged assault on DebanjanBallav — a Sanskrit college stu-dent who was accused of heck-ling Union Minister BabulSupriyo at Jadavpur Universityon September 19.

In his complaint, Ballav,who has been in the eye ofstorm over the JU campusepisode, claimed that he and hisgirlfriend were dragged out ofa bus and assaulted by theactivists of Akhil BharatiyaVidyarthi Parishad (ABVP)near Burdwan on Wednesday.

"Based on Ballav's com-plaint, we have arrested 10persons. We are still investi-gating the matter," EastMidnapore Superintendent ofPolice Bhaskar Mukherjee said.

He, however, declined tocomment on whether thosearrested were members of the

ABVP. The right-wing stu-dents' outfit, on its part, saidBallav's charges were "baselessand politically motivated".

Supriyo was shown blackflags and heckled by a sectionof students last month onJadavpur University Campus,where he had gone to addressa seminar organised by theABVP.

The next day the Unionminister tweeted a picture ofthe Sanskrit college studentpulling him by his hair duringthe scuffle.

Ballav's mother hadappealed to Supriyo not toharm his son's career and theminister assured him of thesame.

The undergraduate stu-dent, however, refused to apol-ogise to Supriyo, claiming thathe had raised his hand in selfdefence. PTI

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Kolkata: The economic slow-down has dimmed the lights ofBengal's biggest festival thistime, forcing Durga puja organ-isers to scale down celebrationsdue to shrinking sponsorship.

Not just small-budgetpujas, big-ticket ones have alsocurtailed their budget by near-ly 15 per cent to 30 per cent,mostly compromising on mar-quee decoration, according toorganisers.

On an average, setting up atheme-based marquee for thefive-day fiesta, replete withsafety arrangements and basicamenities, costs anythingbetween �12 lakh and �30crore in Bengal.

"Owing to economic slow-down, we failed to achieve ourtarget of Rs 65 lakh. We are run-ning short of Rs 20 lakh. Most

sponsors, this time, eitherdeclined to make a contributionor paid less than what they do,"Sudipto Kumar, an official ofDeshapriya Park communityPuja in south Kolkata, said.

Corporate firms are notwilling to spend on advertise-ments, he claimed.

"Every year, huge adver-tisement hoardings and postersgreet revelers outside the pujapandals, but this time, thenumbers have shrunk consid-erably," he added.

Echoing similar sentiments,Ekdalia Evergreen Club saidseveral sponsors have goneback on their promise, citingthe ailing economy.

"Some sponsors, who hadsigned a contract with us, havealso backed out. In 2008-2009(during global recession), we

had faced a similar situation,"club secretary GautamMukherjee said.

Organizers have made sev-eral modifications this year,mostly cutting down on pro-motional activities.

Kajal Sarkar, the presidentof Forum for Durgotsab, saidsponsorship has fallen by 30-50per cent.

"Donations, subscriptionsand retail advertisements coverabout 30 per cent of the expens-es, the rest is usually taken careof by corporate funding," Sarkarsaid. The situation has goneworse for small-budget Durgapujas committees, with some ofthe organisers opting for amarquee without any distincttheme.

"We had decided to adornour pandal with glass struc-

tures, but lack of funds forced us to find

an alternative in plaster ofparis," said

Ashok Deb, an official of aDurga Puja committee in North24 Parganas district.

According to advertisingagencies, weak consumer sen-timent is also one of the reasonsfor lack of sponsorship.

"Most advertisers in Indiatry to leverage the festive sea-son. In the current year, adver-tising spends across multiplesectors have taken a hit due toweak consumer sentiment.

"Nevertheless, the govern-ment is taking active measuresto tackle the scenario by pro-viding relief in corporate taxrates," Anand Bhadkamkar, theCEO of Dentsu Aegis NetworkIndia, stated. PTI

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The DMK and other fringeTamil forces in Tamil Nadu

which swear by Tamil and areknown for their stiff oppositionto Hindi may have to do arethinking on their aversion forthe national language of thecountry.

It has been brought to lightthat CN Annadurai, the founderof the DMK and the first non-Congress Chief Minister of theState, was for the three-lan-guage policy prescribed by thethen national leadership of India.This revelation came immedi-ately after the DMK-ownednewspaper Murasholi publishedan article stating that Annaduraiwas never a supporter of thethree-language system.

But the revelation made bya Tamil scholar and commen-tator T Ramakrishnan thatAnnadurai had endorsed thethree-language formula hasshaken the DMK leadershipwho propagates the sloganHindi is Hinduism. Since 2014,the DMK has been attacking theCentre of trying to imposeHindi over non-Hindi States inthe country.

In an exclusive interviewgiven to the popular Tamil lit-erary journal Kanaiyazhi (Tamilfor Ring) in its April 1967 issue,

Annadirai had said: “We in theState Government are ready toaccept the three-language for-mula if other States too follow itup.” The journal had carried theinterview with Annadurai in itsApril 1967 and has since then,formed one of the prized itemsof Kanaiyazhi. The interview fig-ured in the collected issues ofKanaiyazhi (1965-1970).

K Kasturirangan, the theneditor of the journal who hadinterviewed Annadurai, laterrose to the position of editor ofDinamani, a popular Tamilnewspaper. The then ChiefMinister had said during theinterview that there were schoolsin Chennai where Gujarati andMarati were being taught.“Hence, there is no bar in teach-ing Hindi in similar lines in ade-quate number of schools,” hehad said during the interviewwhich was held at New Delhiwhere he had gone to attend theChief Minister’s Conference.

Despite Annadurai’s stanceon the three-language formula,the Tamil Nadu LegislativeAssembly had passed a resolu-tion demanding the scrapping ofthe three-language formula inJanuary 1968. Political com-mentators are of the view thatAnnadurai was not keepinggood health at that time andmight have lost his hold over theparty apparatus.

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Srinagar: Normal life remainedaffected in Kashmir for the 61stconsecutive day on Friday asmain markets were shut andpublic transport was off theroads, officials said.

Few shops in some areas ofthe city here were open from7:30 to 11:00 am, but downedtheir shutters afterwards, theofficials said.

However, there were no

restrictions anywhere in thevalley, but security forces weredeployed in strength in vul-nerable areas to maintain lawand order, they said.

They said auto-rickshawsand few inter-district cabs wereseen plying here, but the othermodes of public transport wereoff the roads.

The movement of privatecars was lesser on Friday ascompared to Thursday whenthe city had witnessed trafficjams at various places, theyadded.

Mobile services remainedsuspended in Kashmir exceptin Handwara and Kupwaraareas in the north, while inter-net services — across all plat-

forms — continued to besnapped in the valley since thenight of August 4, officialssaid.

The functioning of schoolsin Kashmir has remainedaffected since August 5 —when the Centre announced itsdecision to abrogate Article 370of the Constitution and tobifurcate the state into twoUnion territories.

The officials said the stateGovernment was trying itsbest to have normal function-ing in schools, but its effortsfailed again on Thursday asmost parents continued to keepchildren at home due to appre-hensions about their safety.

Divisional Commissioner,Kashmir, Baseer Khan had onMonday directed all DeputyCommissioners and concernedofficers to ensure that all gov-ernment schools as well asprivate institutions up toHigher Secondary level of thevalley be open by Thursday andColleges to open by or beforeOctober 9.

Most of the top level andsecond rung separatist politi-cians have been taken intopreventive custody while main-

stream leaders, including twoformer Chief Ministers —Omar Abdullah and MehboobaMufti, have been eitherdetained or placed under housearrest.

Another former ChiefMinister and sitting Lok SabhaMP from Srinagar FarooqAbdullah has been arrestedunder the controversial PublicSafety act, a law enacted by hisfather and National Conferencefounder Sheikh MohammadAbdullah in 1978 when hewas the Chief Minister.

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Shahjahanpur: A court hereon Friday reserved its order onan application by a SpecialInvestigation Team (SIT) seek-ing permission to take voicesamples of former Union min-ister Chinmayanand and a lawstudent, who has accused himof raping her.

The SIT had on Thursdaymoved the application for tak-ing their voice samples as wellas that of three youth, who havebeen charged with demandingextortion from the BJP leader.

After hearing the respec-tive counsels, Chief JudicialMagistrate Omvir Singhreserved his order and is like-ly to pronounce it on Saturday.

The law student's counselAnoop Trivedi said he andothers objected to the SITapplication as voice samples, ifrequired, should have beensought within stipulated 15days time. "Now after passageof one month, this applicationdoes not seems right," Trivediadded. PTI

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The impersonation case con-nected with the National

Eligibil ity-cum-EntranceExamination Test (NEET), thequalifying examination foradmission to under graduateand post graduate courses inmedical colleges across thecountry, has snowballed into amajor scam of all-India pro-portion by Friday as theMadras High Court asked forcomments from the UnionHealth Ministry and the UnionHuman ResourcesDevelopment Ministry regard-ing the issue.

While the Madras HighCourt sought comments fromthe Centre, DMK chief MKStalin demanded a CBI probeinto the whole affair which hasshook South India as nine per-sons have been taken into cus-tody in connection with the

case.The impersonation case

broke out last month with theDean of Government MedicalCollege in Theni receiving anemail stating that one of theunder graduate students whocracked the 2019 NEET exam-ination had used fraudulentmethods like using the servicesof a proxy to write the exami-nation. The youth and hisfather, a practicing medicaldoctor were arrested by TamilNadu Police on September 25.The Tamil Nadu Governmentsince then had transferred thecase to the Crime BranchCriminal InvestigationDepartment of the State Police

which took into custody/arrest-ed another six persons inconnection with the scam.

The MHC asked theCBCID to complete the probeby October 15 and submit adetailed report to the court. Tilldate, four students and theirfathers have been arrested forresorting to fraudulent meth-ods to get admission to theMBBS course. While hearingthe case on Friday, the Courtopined that a scam of suchmagnitude could have nation-al ramification and hencesought comments from thetwo Ministries which are incharge of the NEET examina-tion.

It may be noted that polit-ical parties in Tamil Nadu bar-ring the BJP have been oppos-ing the NEET and has beenseeking status quo on theprocess of admission to MBBScourses in the State. The man-agement of the self financingmedical colleges in the State toowere resisting the introductionof NEET.

Stalin, while speaking tojournalists at Chennai said that

more than 50 students are‘believed to have taken thisroute to secure MBBS seats andagents from other States werealso said to have been involved,and hence an ideal case for theCBI to take up the investiga-tion’.

The police was told by theTheni Medical College studentand his father that a numberof students have “managed”admission to MBBS coursewith the help of proxy exam-ination writers, some of themhailing from Kerala. Followingthe disclosures by the father-son duo, the Tamil Nadupolice arrested four morestuets and their fathers. TheMadras High Court said onFriday that a case of this seri-ousness would not have hap-pened without official collu-sion and remarked that it hasan all India ramification. Thelocal media has reported thatthe Police have asked theNational Testing Agency, thebody entrusted with theconucting of the test to furnishdetails of Tamil Nadu stu-dents who cracked the NEET.

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Aurangabad: As many as six outof nine major dams that supplywater to urban and rural areas inMaharashtra's drought-proneMarathwada region continue toface shortage, the data released bythe irrigation department statedon Friday.

Dams, including Manjaraand Majalgaon in Beed,Siddheshwar in Hingoli, LowerTerna and Sina Kolegaon inOsmanabad, Lower Dudhna inParbhani are still in dead storageas rainfall has receded in the State.

There are nine major and 800medium and small irrigationprojects in Marathwada.

According to the irrigationdepartment's latest report, majorprojects in the region are in aslightly better position with 56.47per cent storage, compared 30.49per cent last year. As of today, themajor projects hold a total of3828.65 million cubic metre(mcm) water. However, the sce-nario with medium-sized projectsseems bleak. Medium projects in

Marathwada (Aurangabadregion) have 317.19 mcm water,which is 21.06 per cent of theirtotal capacity. It was 24.25 per centlast year on same day.

The small projects are in aslightly better shape with a grossstorage of 4473.44 mcm. Thisstorage is 40.89 per cent of totalcapacity, which was 26.92 per centsame day last year, the depart-ment's report stated.

Out of nine, six major pro-jects are in dead storage, where-as two — Jayakwadi inAurangabad and Lower Manar inNanded — are full.

Yeldari of Hingoli has livewater storage, which stands at 7.84per cent (188.18 million cubicmeter) of the project's total capac-ity. "Excess use of water for sug-arcane cultivation has alwaysbeen the primary cause for theshortage every year. However, thistime around, it is the scantyrainfall that has kept most of theprojects dry," water expertPradeep Purandare said. PTI

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Pudukottai (TN): The Centrallaw against instant divorce hasbeen invoked for the first timein Tamil Nadu on Friday againsta man for allegedly pronounc-ing triple talaq, police said.

A First Information Reportwas filed against SheikhAbdullah at the All WomenPolice Station here following acomplaint from his wifeRizwana, they said.

"A case has been registeredagainst a man under the MuslimWomen (Protection of Rightson Marriage) Act based on acomplaint from his wife," asenior district police officialtold PTI, adding he has beenbooked for other offencesincluding harassment as well.

Also, his relatives, includinghis father, mother and brotherhave been booked for offencesincluding harassment, localpolice said. In her complaint, thewoman said she allegedly had toendure harassment at her in-laws house and her husband"pronounced triple talaq." PTI

Muzaffarnagar: A woman wasallegedly burnt to death overdowry in Saidham Colony inthe city, police said on Friday.

The incident happened onThursday evening in CivilLines police station area here.

The victim Sugna wasrushed to a hospital where shewas declared brought dead,Station House OfficerSameypal Atri said

A case has been registeredagainst four people includingher husband Arun Kumar whowas absconding, the SHO said.

According to a complaintlodged by the victim's family,the woman was burnt to deathby her in-laws who wereharassing her over dowry sinceher marriage to Kumar one-and-half-years ago.

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Sulthan Bathery (Kerala):Congress leader Rahul Gandhion Friday visited the five youthssitting on a relay hunger strikefor 10 days against the restric-tion on movement of vehicleson a national highway thatpasses through a tiger reservein neighbouring Karnataka.

Expressing solidarity withthe youths, Gandhi spoke tothem and said he hoped theissue would be resolved soon.He promised to make availablelegal help to solve the issue.

Gandhi, who reached thesite of the protest at Freedompark here, said the youngstersrepresent the cause ofWayanad, his Lok Sabha con-stituency, and thanked them fortheir "sacrifice".

"They represent the suffer-ing of the people here. All polit-ical parties are united as far asthe night travel ban issue isconcerned. There is no politi-cal difference on this," he said.

The movement of vehicleson a stretch of the nationalhighway in Kerala is bannedfrom 9 pm to 6 am to reducedisturbance to wildlife in theBandipur Tiger Reserve.

Gandhi recently metKerala Chief Minister PinarayiVijayan in New Delhi and dis-cussed the hardships faced bypeople of Wayanad due to theban of traffic.

Demanding that the ban belifted, the youths are sitting ona hunger strike.

Gandhi said no travel banis imposed in similar cases inother parts of the country.

The Congress leaderpromised to the people ofWayanad that "best legalresources" would be madeavailable in this matter.

"I have spoken to our legalexperts to deal with this issue.We will have the best legalresource of this country for thecause of Wayanad. I wantedyou to know that I stand withyou and we are going to gointelligently and sensitivelywork on this matter," he said.

He pointed out that hehad raised the issue in

Parliament.On Tuesday, the Centre

assured Kerala CM Vijayanthat a committee would beformed to study the ban.Thousands of farmers and stu-dents have taken out longmarches against the ban.

The Kerala governmenthas suggested construction ofan elevated stretch throughthe core area of the tigerreserve.

However, UnionEnvironment Minister PrakashJavadekar in a letter to Vijayanlast month stated that the state'srecommendation had been dis-cussed and it was suggestedthat a 'status quo' be main-tained.

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The Congress on Fridayasked its former Mumbai

unit chief Sanjay Nirupam andformer Haryana unit presidentAshok Tanwar to stop makingstatements against the partyahead of the Assembly electionsin the two States and asked himto act responsibly.

Congress spokespersonManish Tewari asked Nirupamto stop fuelling conspiracy the-ories, after he launched a vitri-olic attack on the party leader-ship for not granting tickets tohis supporters.

Tewari said that leaders,who have held top positions inthe party, should realise thattheir statements should nothelp those who have broughtthe nation to this passe.

"Sanjay Nirupam would bewell advised to restrain himself.It would be appropriate if hedoes not kite fly these conspir-acy theories that are unimagi-native," Tewari said at AICCbriefing. Tewari said it is under-

standable that there are differ-ences over ticket distributionand these two leaders are angryover it, but asked them to workwith maturity and sagacity.

Nirupam has launched arevolt against the party leader-ship saying that even after rec-ommending just one name forthe upcoming assembly polls,the party chose not to take hisadvice and rejected it. Nirupam,however, did not specify thename of the contender he waspushing for.

Congress also faces discon-tent in Haryana over ticket dis-tribution ahead as the formerchiefs of the party's units in thestate on Thursday resigned fromthe election committees anddeciding to stay away from thecampaign respectively.

Nirupam, who joined theCongress after he quit the ShivSena in 2005, has also threat-ened to quit the party. He wasremoved as the chief of theCongress in Mumbai earlierthis year and replaced by rivalMilind Deora.

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Chief Minister KChandrasekhar Rao on

Friday submitted a 22-pointcharter of demands to PrimeMinister Narendra Modi inNew Delhi and sought theirearly resolution.

The meeting betweenModi and KCR lasted for about50 minutes.

KCR is learnt to have dis-cussed the proposed Godavari-Krishna linkage by theTelangana and APGovernments and soughtCentre’s financial assistancefor the project.

In a memorandum sub-mitted to PM, the CM broughtto his notice about the severedelay in implementing thebifurcation-related promisesmade to Telangana in the APReorganiation Act and in therelease of funds.

The issues raised by KCRinclude: Release of �450 crore,which is the fifth instalment offinancial assistance for back-ward districts in Telangana asper State Reorganisation Act,2014.

Revival of CementCorporation of India inAdilabad district with the helpof NHAI (National HighwaysAuthority of India).

Enhancement of numberof Judges in Telangana HighCourt from 24 to 42.

Establishment of IndianInstitute of Management (IIM)in Telangana.

Sanction of Indian Instituteof Science Education andResearch (IISER). Sanction of23 Jawahar NavodayaVidyalayas (JNV) in new dis-tricts Pending railway projectsin Telangana State:Requirement of funds for com-pletion and expediting thework

Financial assistance toMission Kakatiya and MissionBhagiratha as recommended byNITI Aayog (�5,000 croresand �19,205 crore respective-ly) Setting up of Steel Plant atBayyaram in Khammam dis-trict as promised in StateReorganisation Act.

Release of funds forNational Investment andManufacturing Zone (NIMZ)at Zaheerabad, Medak District

Setting up of National Instituteof Design (NID) at Hyderabad.Its location was shifted toVishakhapatnam after bifurca-tion.

Sub-categorisation of SCsin Telagnana as per the reso-lution adopted by the TSLegislative Assembly.

Sanction of IIIT underPPP model at KarimnagarEnhancement of reservationsfor BCs in employment andeducation (BC 37 per cent, SC15 per cent , ST 10 per cent) 33per cent Reservation for OBCsand women in Parliament andState Legislatures as per theresolution adopted by TSLegislative Assembly.

Development ofHyderabad — Nagpur &Wa r a n g a l - H y d e r a b a dIndustrial Corridors

PMGSY (Prime MinisterGram Sadak Yojana) allotmentof funds for upgrading 4,000km for better connectivity inbackward regions

Road works in Left wingextremism affected areas.Centre should bear full costinstead of 60:40 ratio betweenCentre and State.

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Recently, while addressing theUN Climate Action Summit2019 in the US, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi said, “Webelieve that an ounce of action

is worth more than a tonne of preaching”and announced that India had ambitiousplans to harness solar energy. A target ofinstalling 175 gigawatt (GW) of renewableenergy by 2022 has been set, which mayfurther increase to 450 GW by 2030. TheGovernment had an initial target of 20GW of solar capacity by 2022, which wasachieved four years ahead of schedule.Encouraged by this performance, thetarget was revised in 2015 to 100 GW,which has now been further raised, as thePrime Minister informed in his address.

To meet this goal, a series of solarpower projects such as the Solar Parks andUltra Mega Solar Power Projects, CanalSolar Power Project and the installationof 1,00,000 solar pumps for farmers areat different stages of implementation.Solarisation of nearly 50,000 petrol sta-tions across the country is also being promoted. Over 3,000 fuel stations arealready solar-powered. Considering thatIndia is the fourth-largest emitter of carbon dioxide in the world, solar ener-gy appears to be a very convenient alter-native.

India is lucky that sunlight is availablein abundance but the challenge lies in theprocurement of solar Photo Voltaic (PV)cells, which is one of the major constrain-ing factors in our efforts to realise the fullpotential. According to a report submit-ted by the parliamentary standing com-mittee, in order to achieve the target of 100GW of solar electricity capacity by 2022,India should have had an installed capac-ity of 32,000 megawatt (MW) by 2017-18.But as of January 31, 2018, the countryonly had a capacity of 18,455 MW. As perthe standing committee, the Ministry ofNew and Renewable Energy has to installthe remaining 81,545 MW in just fouryears — this is over 20,000 MW a year andappears difficult to achieve.

A serious lacuna in the entire exer-cise is our poor record in indigenousmanufacturing of solar panels. TodayChina is the only country that caters tomost of the global PV cell demands. Itproduces the cheapest solar panels. It isdifficult for any country to match suchlow prices. This has led to a situationwhere China has a virtual monopoly andthis may not be desirable in the long run.Our own imports, mostly from China,accounted for 90 per cent of 2017 sales,up from 86 per cent in 2014. Thus, it isparadoxical that both our sources of ener-gy and oil as well as solar are currentlyheavily dependent on imports.

The world’s annual solar capacityreached close to 500 GW last year, whichmay go up to 3,000/5,000 GW by 2030, a

ten-fold increase. In the next30 years, this demand is like-ly to increase by hundredtimes and the major beneficia-ry will be China.

Strategically, it will not belogical for India to continuenourishing the Chinesemonopoly as it would intro-duce serious imbalances in theglobal situation. This calls forthe need to prioritise theexpansion and investment inthe manufacture of PV cellindustry. In the near future,hydrocarbon resources aregoing to be scarce and, hence,the emphasis on electric vehi-cles (EVs). They can becharged directly using PVcells. This will not only bringdown the carbon dioxideemission levels but also reduceour dependence on fossil fuels.

To actualise such a situa-tion, we must start investing inlithium ion batteries. Here,too, the Chinese have an upperhand and, hence, the need tolook for alternatives. Lithiumion batteries being compatiblewith PV cells, once they losetheir efficiency in cars, can bereused for domestic solar bat-tery applications.

In the years to come,demand for solar panels isbound to see a dramatic rise.Land availability for the estab-

lishment of solar plants in adensely populated country likeIndia can become a majorissue. It has been estimatedthat the setting up of a 1 MWpower solar plant requires twoto three hectares of land. Incase the solar panels are thin-film based, requirement ofland can go up to four to fivehectares. As for the first case,wastelands or land that is notavailable for cultivation can beused for the setting up ofsolar parks.

In order to improve effi-ciency of solar panels in theseparks, directional limitations inthe existing design have suit-ably been addressed by devis-ing a tracking system. A solartracker is a device that is usedto orient the panel towards thesun. For flat panel PV systems,a solar tracker ensures that thesun’s rays fall at the correctangle of incidence. A solartracker fitted PV panel canshow considerable improve-ment in its efficiency.

A dual axis tracker rotateson two axis and follows thesun vertically as well as hori-zontally so that the panel getsthe best incidence of sun rays,thus increasing its efficiencyby about 20 per cent.Nevertheless, in areas whereland is available like Rajasthan,

dust is a major problem, whichover a period of time, tends toerode the efficiency of thesolar panels.

But all is not lost as wemay not have to put all oureggs in the Chinese basket. Fordirect generation of electrici-ty, the solar thermal routecan also be explored. An arrayof parabolic mirrors helps putthe focus of the sunlight at theright place to produce suffi-cient heat, which raises steamand can be used to run a tur-bine, thus generate power.

Currently, this technologyis being used in the US(California), Israel, Spain andGermany. In India, two plantsare already operational inRajasthan and six others areunder construction, all in theprivate sector. The modelexperimental plant to harnesssolar energy through the ther-mal route was inaugurated justoutside Delhi in January thisyear and is running up to 50per cent efficiency. The devel-opment of indigenous solarmanufacturing facilities isimportant to harness solarenergy. This needs attentionand on priority.

(The writer is a formerGovernor of Uttarakhand anda Senior Advisor at the PranabMukherjee Foundation)

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Sir — Recently, a young softwareengineer was killed in Chennaiafter an illegal hoarding fell onher, following which she was hitby a water tanker. The MadrasHigh Court had pulled up theState Government, asking it totake appropriate action againstpolice and corporation officialswho were responsible for theincident.

“How many litres of blood doyou want to paint the road with,”rued the court. Following this,various political parties in TamilNadu vowed not to erect hoard-ings. However, warnings wereissued, only to be forgotten soon.

It was disgusting to note thatunder pressure, the same courthas allowed the Tamil Naduand Central Governments toerect banners to welcome PrimeMinister Narendra Modi andChinese President Xi Jinping fortheir informal meet in Chennainext week. The StateGovernment has claimed that itwas customary for the Ministryof External Affairs to welcomea visiting dignitary by way ofbanners.

The Modi Government has

been doing away with manytime-tested conventions in thelast five years. In the same vein,it should put an end to the ban-ner culture. I am sure the bilat-eral meeting will not fail if theconvention is given up.

N NagarajanVia email

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Sir — With the onset of theautumn season, hundreds of farmfires instances have been record-ed in Punjab and Haryana. Everyyear during this time, Delhi isfaced with the difficult task of

maintaining its air quality due tocrop burning from neighbouringStates. Although the DelhiGovernment has shown that it isalert regarding the situation, a per-manent solution is yet to come.

The States of Haryana andPunjab have been doing their bitto help the farmers shun the

practice of stubble burning. Theyhave been provided with manyalternatives and are being offeredsubsidies, too. But farmersremain reluctant and have nowdemanded a bonus of �200 perquintal on paddy or compensa-tion of �6,000 per acre to makethe switch. Perhaps, the DelhiGovernment can help by pitch-ing in some funds.

KristyVia email

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Sir — This refers to the editorial,“The ODF challenge” (September4). Prime Minister NarendraModi’s declaration that rural Indiais open defecation free (ODF) isa tall claim. The fact of the mat-ter is that despite the constructionof thousands of washrooms, manyvillagers prefer to do their businessin the open. The rural populacemust be enlightened about theimportance of hygiene and clean-liness so that they know about theperils of defecating in the open.

KusumVia email

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Astrong independent director is an asset toan organisation if he/she has the ability toobjectively analyse affairs to bring about a

convergence in the views of different sharehold-er groups and works towards protecting the inter-ests of minority stockholders and the company asa whole. Such a person increases the transparen-cy and accountability of the board and can pavethe way to making it strong.

After the �7,000 crore 2009 Satyam financialfraud, several committees were set up and theirrecommendations paved the way for India’s newCompanies Act, 2013, which clearly establishedthe responsibility and accountability of indepen-dent directors and auditors. Over the years, therehas been a sea change in their duties and obliga-tions, with an increased expectation to play anactive and vigilant role in the decisions that arebeing taken by the company at the board level.

In order to make the corporate governancestructure stronger, the Government has tightenedthe norms and taken the relatives of independentdirectors under its ambit and amended theCompanies (Appointment and Qualification ofDirectors) Rules, 2014. It has ordained that no rel-ative of an independent director should be in anyway “indebted” to the company, its holding, sub-sidiary or associate company, promoters or direc-tors. Additionally, relatives cannot give guaran-tee or provide any security in case of indebted-ness of any third person to the company or its pro-moters and subsidiaries. The new rules would gov-ern all transactions involving an amount startingfrom �50 lakh in the preceding two financial yearsor even the current year.

Now the question arises, whether indepen-dent directors are caught in a catch-22 situationwith stringent regulations on one side but do nothave enough power to govern company operationsas they are not involved in day-to-day function-ing?

It is common knowledge that many boards aremore of a “friends club” with directors rarely rais-ing any contentious issues. According to the the-ory of critical mass, any person, being in minor-ity in a group, would not be able to exert his/herpoint of view and generally tends to go with thedecisions of the majority. So, any independentdirector with a divergent view may not be com-fortable in expressing his/her views and maychoose to follow the crowd. This may have beenquite prevalent, considering the fact that many cor-porate governance mismanagements, like the liq-uidity crisis among the NBFCs due to the unex-pected default by IL&FS, have come to light recent-ly and the independent directors were alsocaught unawares.

Now, a majority of independent directors arefinding it difficult to discharge the stringent statu-tory duties that have been thrust on them by thechanges made to the Companies Act.Consequently, the number of resignations this yearwent up by 30 per cent and many eligible and expe-rienced members of business and bureaucracyrefused to accept positions as independent direc-tors. Although almost all have cited personal rea-sons for quitting, it’s clear that they are resigningbecause of some inkling of corporate mismanage-ment. However, Anil Khandelwal, formerChairman and Managing Director of Dena Bankand Bank of Baroda and also independent direc-

tor of JM Financial Asset ReconstructionCompany, boldly proclaimed the lack oftransparent governance in the compa-ny to be the cause for his leaving.

Some departures are appropriate ifthe board failed in its basic fiduciaryduties, especially where the independentdirectors fail to exercise their liberty.However, on the downside, honest peo-ple may be forced to abandon boards,undermining a system that was meantto bring balance to the boardroom.

One cannot expect independentdirectors to function at their best withpossible information asymmetries,which stems from the fact that the struc-ture of Indian companies is quite differ-ent from that of firms in the West. In theUS, the ownership is diverse and notconcentrated in a few hands and the roleof independent directors is to protect theinterests of shareholders. For instance,61.1 per cent of Dow Jones-listed tech-nology major Apple, is owned by vari-ous institutional investors, 27.89 per centby mutual funds and 1.06 per cent byindividual stakeholders like ArthurLevinson, Chairman and CEO TimCook and so on and 9.95 per cent byother investors. Compare this withIndian technology giant Wipro, 74 percent of whose ownership is with the pro-moter/promoter group, 16 per centwith institutional investors and a mere5.66 per cent with the general public orretail investors. This shows that owner-ship and management are not separatein India, mostly dominated by familiesand maintaining freedom of indepen-dent directors is questionable, peculiarand challenging.

This brings us to the major difficul-ty that is being faced by independentdirectors — the selection process. Willthe monitoring role not be hampered,given that the majority shareholders havea strong influence on selection and sus-

tenance of independent directors? In anattempt to enhance their eligibility cri-teria and role, the Securities andExchange Board of India (SEBI) hasaccepted the recommendations of theKotak Committee that an independentdirector must provide an undertaking ofhis/her liberty and this declarationmust be taken on record by the boardof directors of the listed company afterduly assessing its veracity. In addition,there must be no “board inter-locks”,which means that if A, being a non-inde-pendent director of a listed company X,is an independent director of companyY, then any non-independent director ofcompany Y cannot be an independentdirector of the listed company X.

The second problem faced by themin exercising wisdom is inadequateknowledge about the organisation, asownership and access to informationremain in the hands of the controllingstockholders. This is the case in mostcompanies and independent directorsjust have a ceremonial presence. Theyare generally luminaries in their fieldsand their reputation can get tarnishedbecause of the wrongdoings of firms. Forinstance, the Satyam episode defamedsix famous corporate and academic per-sonalities.

Their plight is apparent from the factthat after the confession by Satyamfounder B Ramalinga Raju on January7, 2009, some 115 independent directorsof more than 100 listed companies quitwithin a month.

As per sub-section four of Section149 of the Companies Act, 2013, at least50 per cent of the board should havenon-executive directors. If the chairmanis a non-executive director, then at leastone-third of the board should compriseindependent directors. If the chairmanis an executive director, then indepen-dent directors should make up at least

half of the board. If an independentdirector resigns or is removed from theboard, he/she has to be replaced by a newone within 180 days. With these changes,it is expected that India Inc. would needan additional 5,000 of them by 2019-end,which is quite challenging in itself.According to the Kotak Committee,there must be at least one independentwoman director on the board of the top1,000 listed companies by April 1, 2020.With the slew of recent resignations,there is a definite gap here. Althoughdatabanks are available from whereindependent directors can be selected,this experience has not been encourag-ing as companies prefer having a knownthan an unknown face on their boards.

Concrete steps need to be taken toimprove the functioning of independentdirectors. First, apart from the control-ling shareholders having a say in theirappointment and removal, minorityshareholders should also participate inthe process for the sake of transparen-cy. Second, SEBI should also create anombudsman where independent direc-tors can report any malpractices. If theyhave to honestly monitor performance,advise the Chief Executive Officer andprotect the interests of minority share-holders, they must unite and become arobust team capable of extracting infor-mation for better decision-making.

Finally, they should not be held liablefor any mismanagement by firms unlessthey have power and knowledge to pre-vent the same. Independent directorsshould have the power to question thepromoter group and dispassionatelyserve the interest of minority sharehold-ers in boardrooms. For this, SEBI has tocreate structures to ensure that they aremore than mute and passive participantsin board meetings.

(The writer is Assistant Professor,Amity University)

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The USA loves India”,tweeted AmericanPresident Donald Trump

as he enthusiastically shared theIndian Prime Minister’s Offices’message thanking and applaud-ing the energetic presence ofthe huge Indian diaspora atHouston, to mark the success-ful celebration of the HowdyModi event. The strength andshow of personal chemistrybetween Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and Trump atHouston does mark a water-shed moment in Indo-US rela-tions. As Modi called for astanding ovation for Trumpfrom the 50,000-strong Indian-

American community, he alsothanked the American peoplefor their “exceptional welcomeand hospitality” during hisvisit to the US.

Beginning from the meet-ing between former USPresident Obama and Modi in2014, to the first-ever trilater-al engagement between India,Japan and America in 2018, theleadership of both the countrieshas reaffirmed the importanceof strong Indo-US ties. Thereis a greater set of convergencebetween both the nations, rang-ing from a “free and open”Indo-Pacific region to the fightagainst global terrorism. Overthe years, the relationshipbetween these two maturedemocracies has evolved signif-icantly, which is not subject toany kind of “transactionalframework” and rather is wit-nessing a more robust “strate-gic alignment.”

India has sought to trans-form itself from being a “bal-ancing power” to a more “will-ing state” in redefining its pri-

orities in the international sys-tem. The same is reflected inIndia’s active public diplomacyin the last few years, seekingincreased global footprints withan emphasis on the nation’s softpower attributes and civilisa-tional strengths. This includesemphasis on yoga, spiritualism,peace and harmony. It alsoinvolves capitalising on thestrength of the Indian diaspo-ra. The Indian-American com-munity has been one of mostsuccessful in driving theadvanced technological revolu-tion in the US.

Modi’s charismatic andpopular leadership appeal andits hyper-energetic diplomacyhave backed this process inrecent years across the globe.The Howdy Modi event was anexpression of the same desireand objective. The soft powercredential of India is nowbacked by hard power choicesin terms of strategic align-ment and tactical diplomacy inforeign policy-making underhis leadership.

In the last few years, theIndian Government has soughtto build on developing newlinkages in Indo-US relation-ship. The Declaration ofFriendship to elevate strategicdialogue to a strategic andcommercial dialogue inJanuary 2015, the JointDeclaration againstCombatting Terrorism inSeptember 2015, developing

International Solar Alliance in2016 and the initiation of the2+2 Dialogue between Indiaand the US are some key devel-opments which define thenature of bilateral relations inrecent years. Indo-US defenceties have also seen an increasedlevel of engagement. In 2016,the two governments signedthe Logistics ExchangeMemorandum of Agreement

(LEMOA) and in 2018, theC o m m u n i c a t i o n sCompatibility and SecurityAgreement (COMCASA). Itenabled India access to UStechnology and utilisation of itsexisting platforms. Today, Indiais a major defence partner ofthe US, and there has been asignificant amount of increasein military hardware imports tothe country. Moreover, after agap of nearly eight years, theCope India exercise betweenIndian and American air forceswas organised.

Nonetheless, bilateral rela-tions still face limitations on thetrade front as market access hasbeen a key issue of contention.However, Modi pitched for USinvestment support as Indialooks to build a $5 trillioneconomy. While Modi reas-sured Trump that he was learn-ing from the President the “artof the deal”, it remains to beseen how both the leaders sur-mount difficulties in bilateraltrade negotiations.

On the global level, these

developments do pave the wayfor a greater understandingand better institutional cooper-ation. More importantly, thedevelopments in the Indo-Pacific have come with theirown set of challenges thatunderline the necessity ofcooperation. The meeting offoreign ministers from India,the US, Japan and Australiaexpressed their commitment tostrengthen “rules-based order”in the Indo-Pacific.

At his speech at the UnitedNations General Assembly,Modi highlighted the impor-tance of global action to fightagainst terrorism; climatechange and healthcare chal-lenges. The visit in his ownwords has been an “extremelyproductive one”, as he engagedwith a wide and different set ofpeople from industry to diplo-macy; civil society; businesscommunities and political lead-ers. To mark the 150th birthanniversary of MahatmaGandhi, Modi invoked hisvision for peace and prosperi-

ty for all at the inauguration ofthe Gandhi Solar Park. In hismeeting with leaders fromPacific island nations, heunderlined India’s commit-ment to advance their develop-ment priorities.

The show of politicalwarmth and trust betweenboth the leaders shall lead tosomething more tangible interms of trade negotiationsand cooperation. This willallow them to set more long-term objectives for commercialand trade engagements.

As both India and the USseek to consolidate on gainsfrom this comfort in relation-ship, it is necessary that bothmove beyond the framework ofa “top-down approach” andseek to institutionalise this“strategic alignment” at differ-ent levels to make it a morecogent and structural partner-ship in the future.

(The writer holds a PhDin East Asian Studies from

JNU and teaches at DelhiUniversity).

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The reduction in key policyrate by the RBI is expected

to revive investment andencourage consumption, there-by kick-starting the sluggisheconomy, India Inc said on Friday.

Industry’s reaction came asthe central bank slashed itsbenchmark lending rate by0.25 percentage points to 5.15per cent. The industry empha-sised that it was now critical forbanks to facilitate a faster trans-mission of rate cuts to ensurethat the measures reap results.

CII Director GeneralChandrajit Banerjee said thecumulative 135 basis points ratecuts this year along with a slewof measures announced by thegovernment to provide growthstimulus to a variety of sectorsis expected to lift growth fromits current stupor and unleashanimal spirits.

PHD Chamber ofCommerce and Industry

President D K Aggarwal saidFriday’s repo rate cut will helpinduce demand and refuel eco-nomic growth in coming quar-ters.

“This further reduction ofrepo rate will not only bringdown the lending rates but alsoincentivise investment andboost consumption,” saidSurendra Hiranandani, CMD,House of Hiranandani.

The RBI’s latest move totrim repo rate comes at a timewhen the economic growthhas hit a six-year low of 5 percent. This is the fifth straightrate cut by the central bank inas many policy reviews in2019, and takes the total quan-tum of reductions to 1.35 percent. Exporters body FIEO’sPresident Sharad Saraf howev-er, said the challenges inexports will continue and mayaggravate with geo-politicalsituation.

Muthoot PappachanGroup CMD Thomas JohnMuthoot said for the common

man to get the benefits ofthese cuts, it is important thatbanks ease the challenges forNBFCs to get funding fromthem, eventually pushing con-sumer sentiment.

“The rate cut is expected tocomplement other fiscal mea-sures such as the corporate taxrate cut that was announcedlast month to propel GDPgrowth,” said AnshumanMagazine, Chairman & CEO,India, South East Asia, MiddleEast & Africa, CBRE.

RBL Bank economist RajniThakur said the central bank isreaching its lower bound ofpolicy space and has tried tosteer support expectations awayfrom monetary side, addingthat it does not see more than15-40 basis points additionalcuts in this cycle.

Given the concerns ongrowth and inflation remainingwithin the target levels, amajority of analysts wereexpecting the RBI to cut ratesat the policy review meet.

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The Reserve Bank’s decisionto cut key policy rate by 25

basis points will boost con-sumer sentiment as well ashousing sales during the ongo-ing festive season which is acrucial period for the realty sec-tor, industry experts said onFriday.

With this cut, repo rate, atwhich it lends to the system,will now come down to 5.15per cent. The central bankmust now ensure effectivetransmission of rate cuts,announced on Friday as well asearlier, to home loan borrow-ers, they said.

“It is a significant and wel-come move by the ReserveBank of India (RBI)... To boostthe credit flow and spur theeconomic growth of the coun-

try,” said Confederation of RealEstate Developers Associationof India (Credai) NationalChairman, Jaxay Shah.

“We hope that the benefitof this reduction is passed onto the home buyers by thebanks/financial institutions.

“This, coupled with theupcoming festive season andreduction in corporate tax, willfurther enhance the sentimentamongst them, thereby pro-viding a fillip to the housingdemand and achieving Hon’blePrime Minister’s goal ofHousing for All by 2022,” Shahadded.

Echoing Shah’s view,National Real EstateDevelopment Council(Naredco) President NiranjanHiranandani said the movewill boost sales in festive spirits.

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Auto industry body SIAMon Friday welcomed the

RBI’s lending rate cut and saidthe availability of cheaperfinance along with the onset offestive season will help gener-ate better demand for vehicles.

The remarks came as thecentral bank slashed its bench-mark lending rate by 0.25 per-centage points to 5.15 per cent.

“The reduction of reporate by 25 basis points is a wel-come move indeed by RBI. Wehope that the banks wouldfully pass on the repo rate cutbenefit to consumers in theform of lower lending rates,”Society of Indian AutomobileManufacturers (SIAM)President Rajan Wadhera saidin a statement.

The onset of festive seasonalong with availability of cheap-er finance should induce high-er demand for vehicles, headded. The automotive sectorhas been going through a pro-longed slowdown with salesplummeting to all-time low inalmost two decades in August.

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The Economic OffencesWing (EOW) of the

Mumbai police on Fridayarrested Joy Thomas, the sus-pended Managing Director ofscam-hit Punjab andMaharashtra (PMC) Bank, inconnection with the �6,500crore bank fraud.

Thomas’ arrest came a dayafter the arrest of two promot-ers of the HousingDevelopment andInfrastructure Limited (HDIL)Sarang Kumar Wadhawan andRakesh Wadhawan and freez-ing of property worth �3,500crore that had been mortgagedto the bank.

Confirming the arrest ofThomas, Deputy Commissionerof Police and police spokesper-son Pranay Ashok said, “Yes. Wehave arrested the official inconnection with the PMC Bankcase registered by the EconomicOffences Wing of the Mumbai police”.

Simultaneously, the EOWagency carried out searches atsix places in Mumbai andneighbouring areas linked tothe former chairman of thebank and promoters of HDIL.

Rakesh and Sarang, whoare executive chairman andManaging Director respective-ly of the the HDIL, have been

remanded by a city court inpolice custody till October 9.

In a “confession” made tothe RBI through a letter, PMCBank’s suspended ManagingDirector Joy Thomas had ear-lier admitted to have givenloans to HDIL and its relatedentity to the tune of �6,500crore without informing allthe board members.

Last Monday, the EOWhad registered a case against thePMC Bank and the HDIL forcausing alleged losses worth�4,335 crore to the bank.

On the heels of a findingduring the investigations that thePMC Bank’s exposure to theHDIL group was nearly 73 percent of its total loan book size of�8,880 crore as of September 19,2019, the police had onThursday taken Sarang andRakesh into custody after they“failed” to give a “satisfactory”explanation to the questionsposed by the EOW officials.

The EOW has identified 44bank accounts relating to theaccused associated with theHDIL. It has also found �100crore worth shares in the demataccounts of one of the accused.

Among other things, it hascome to light during the inves-tigations that the PMC Bankcreated more than 21,000 fake accounts to hide the var-ious loans.

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Allaying fears of any threat tothe banking system, Reserve

Bank governor Shaktikanta Dason Friday asked the public notto panic as the entire bankingsystem, including cooperativeones, continue to remain soundand stable.

Das also said in the wake ofthe crisis at Punjab &Maharashtra Cooperative(PMC) Bank, the RBI is review-ing the existing regulatoryframework for cooperativebanks and will discuss thematter with the Government.

The statement assumesimportance as PMC is the 24th

cooperative bank to be placedunder RBI administrators in2019 and there are many regulatory and adminis-trative gaps in the system as thestates have a big say in their matters.

Also, there is political inter-ference in their functioning.Urban cooperative banks areregistered as cooperative soci-eties either with the StateCooperative Societies Act orthe Multi-State CooperativeSocieties Act, 2002 and are reg-ulated and supervised by theRegistrar of CooperativeSocieties of the respective statesor by the Central Registrar ofCooperative Societies.

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Agroup of aggrieved home-buyers of the scam-hit real-

ty developer HDIL have writ-ten to Prime Minister NarendraModi seeking his interventionto resolve their distress.

The Whispering TowersFlat Owners WelfareAssociation, representing over450 home-buyers of the HDILproject in suburban Mulund,have in a letter datedSeptember 1, to Modi saidthey are seeking his interven-tion as a last resort.

According to the letter,over 450 families have paidaround �350 crore to the now

bankrupt HDIL but the projecthas been stuck since the pastnine years.

“The project was launchedin 2010 and bookings wereaccepted since then. But,in thepast nine years,only 18 floors ofthe 46 storeyed-tower havebeen built, while work has noteven started on the secondphase,”the association said.

Shyam Chittari, a member of the association,has posted the letter on histwitter account.

The letter claims HDILhad taken �175 crore fromAllahabad Bank, J&K Bankand Syndicate Bank for the project.

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Union Textiles MinisterSmriti Irani will participate

in the plenary session of theWorld Cotton Day celebra-tions in Geneva, which willshed light on the challengesfaced by cotton economies.

The plenary session will beattended by heads of states,heads of international organi-sations and executives from theprivate sector.

The World TradeOrganisation (WTO) is hostingthe event at the request of Cotton— 4 countries, Benin, BurkinaFaso, Chad and Mali, to celebratetheir official application forrecognition of October 7 asWorld Cotton Day by the UnitedNations. “The Ministry ofTextiles, Government of India, isparticipating in the WorldCotton Day being observedfrom October 7 to 11 in Geneva,”an official statement said.

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Consumer Affairs MinisterRam Vilas Paswan on

Friday said bullet-resistantjackets manufactured accord-ing to the national BIS stan-dards are safer, lighter, 50 percent cheaper and even beingexported.

The formulation of theBureau of Indian Standard (BIS)standard on bullet resistant jack-et has placed India in the selectleague of nations like the US, UKand Germany who have theirown national standard.

“BIS has formulated anational standard on bulletproof jacket which will pro-mote Make in India. This jack-et is of best quality in the worldand is also lighter in weightwhich is convenient for ourjawans. Prices of these jacketsare 50 per cent lower and as aresult more exports are takingplace,” Paswan told reporters.

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Top union ministers includ-ing Home Minister Amit

Shah and finance ministerNirmala Sitharaman held a cru-cial meeting on Friday to discussthe proposed mega free-tradeagreement RCEP, which hasentered the last phase of itsnegotiations, an official said.

External affairs minister SJaishankar, commerce andindustry minister Piyush Goyaland minister of state for com-merce and industry HardeepSingh Puri also attended themeeting.

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Amid an industry feud overcall ringing time, Reliance

Jio has urged the telecom reg-ulator to abstain from man-dating a specific duration forcalls to ring, and said the mat-ter should be kept under for-bearance as “there is no needfor any regulatory intervention”.

Jio said if at all the TelecomRegulatory Authority of India(Trai) wants to take a view onthe issue, it should be in formof a “reference guideline andnot in form of a mandatedvalue”.

“In such case, the range of

20 seconds to 25 seconds maybe prescribed as referenceguideline,” Jio informed Trai,which is in the process offinalising its views on the issuethrough a consultation paper.

Rival Bharti Airtel —which had charged Jio of arbi-trarily shortening the ring timefor outgoing calls from its net-work -- has argued that low

ringing time for calls directlyimpacts the customer experi-ence, and asserted that stan-dardising the value at bothoriginating and terminatingends “is paramount at thisstage”.

Airtel has recommendedthat the terminating exchangetimer should be fixed at 45 sec-onds and the originationexchange timer at 75 seconds.

In its submission,Vodafone Idea has argued thatthe minimum ringing timershould be retained at 30 sec-onds, which, the companyclaimed is in tune with globalpractices.

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Script Open High Low LTPYESBANK 44.90 45.90 40.95 42.15SBIN 259.90 260.50 248.60 249.90KOTAKBANK 1620.90 1634.20 1557.90 1560.10BPCL 547.00 547.50 511.65 515.20IBULHSGFIN 265.45 272.00 241.60 245.45INDUSINDBK 1276.60 1292.50 1255.40 1264.00HDFC 1996.90 2016.25 1973.00 1976.90MARUTI 6790.00 6843.95 6616.05 6649.20HDFCBANK 1233.50 1239.85 1185.30 1188.95ICICIBANK 429.90 430.00 412.30 413.75RBLBANK 317.00 324.95 299.30 303.15ZEEL 249.90 253.70 233.00 236.80AXISBANK 672.00 677.00 651.90 656.15LT 1465.00 1473.85 1420.50 1424.15RELIANCE 1317.10 1328.50 1304.05 1307.45ESSELPRO 114.95 115.65 113.50 113.65TATAMOTORS 124.95 124.95 118.65 119.55TATASTEEL 342.15 344.90 331.25 333.10HEROMOTOCO 2671.00 2713.20 2659.90 2667.80ASHOKLEY 68.60 72.70 66.90 68.10BAJFINANCE 3980.00 4003.00 3892.15 3902.85PEL 1602.00 1613.75 1551.35 1596.60INFY 795.00 797.55 788.10 793.25BANKBARODA 91.90 92.40 88.00 88.70ESCORTS 624.00 626.05 593.30 598.35HINDPETRO 327.00 329.25 313.35 321.70HONAUT 28100.10 28486.95 27550.00 27711.80JUSTDIAL 668.95 672.35 607.00 612.80JSWSTEEL 222.00 223.70 212.35 214.45ITC 263.10 264.00 255.10 257.25VEDL 145.90 147.00 142.55 143.30FEDERALBNK 89.05 89.60 84.35 85.50JINDALSTEL 96.95 97.80 92.60 93.65ONGC 130.25 132.70 127.35 129.35IOC 153.45 153.80 147.35 150.55NIITTECH 1365.00 1384.90 1346.10 1380.10APOLLOHOSP 1383.50 1421.25 1383.50 1400.00M&M 569.00 575.10 555.70 563.90DLF 151.00 153.15 145.70 147.50TCS 2079.70 2087.00 2054.75 2080.00HINDUNILVR 1968.85 1976.00 1940.00 1944.90CANBK 184.45 185.70 178.30 180.05GRASIM 680.00 681.05 650.30 654.35BAJAJFINSV 8492.00 8517.00 8250.00 8271.75UJJIVAN 313.60 327.90 305.20 309.10TITAN 1300.00 1306.65 1241.05 1251.30EICHERMOT 18401.10 18506.60 17883.25 17907.00ADANIPOWER 61.75 61.95 59.60 60.15NTPC 117.70 120.45 116.45 117.45COALINDIA 187.50 189.30 182.20 185.75PNB 59.50 59.90 57.70 57.95BANKINDIA 62.20 62.65 59.80 60.30RECLTD 125.15 127.50 123.05 124.70BEML 963.90 983.00 936.05 941.35MPHASIS 937.20 940.00 936.95 938.00PHOENIXLTD 695.15 710.00 689.10 707.15SAIL 31.90 31.95 31.00 31.20HDFCLIFE 594.00 594.00 582.10 584.50AUBANK 651.45 653.65 640.80 644.90JAGRAN 62.00 63.00 59.00 62.05NAUKRI 2144.00 2325.50 2142.00 2255.00IDEA 5.23 5.31 5.01 5.04NCC 54.00 54.25 51.00 51.30HDFCAMC 2730.00 2739.75 2660.60 2676.50ULTRACEMCO 4177.00 4180.25 3967.80 3981.00L&TFH 83.00 83.80 80.00 80.60NBCC 35.00 35.00 32.90 33.10SUNPHARMA 392.00 394.00 384.30 385.90CIPLA 421.80 431.05 416.65 418.35ADANIENT 144.40 144.80 137.50 140.20BEL 105.80 107.50 104.25 105.05HINDALCO 184.00 185.75 181.65 182.15SUNTV 484.00 485.30 460.55 463.20IDFCFIRSTB 37.75 38.35 36.90 38.10IBREALEST 39.50 42.65 39.45 40.00CONCOR 635.00 636.90 612.00 614.65SIEMENS 1532.25 1557.05 1530.10 1542.80RELINFRA 27.00 27.65 25.45 26.10CENTURYTEX 891.90 898.40 867.00 868.00LTI 1509.10 1519.85 1500.10 1507.00TATAELXSI 695.00 696.00 680.60 682.20DRREDDY 2687.00 2687.00 2610.05 2610.05LICHSGFIN 383.75 385.80 370.60 372.75COLPAL 1491.50 1505.30 1441.70 1444.60INDIGO 1831.50 1840.00 1788.85 1806.15UPL 598.00 604.90 580.95 580.95DISHTV 18.00 18.10 16.80 17.05SRF 2739.00 2766.90 2658.30 2680.00ASIANPAINT 1752.00 1760.00 1717.55 1724.75BHEL 47.70 47.85 45.75 46.00HEG 981.00 989.90 950.00 953.60M&MFIN 328.90 336.45 323.45 324.00BIOCON 233.65 235.90 230.30 230.55EDELWEISS 87.45 90.25 81.55 84.45JUBLFOOD 1325.05 1330.30 1278.75 1290.70FRETAIL 383.60 383.90 379.40 382.00ADANIGREEN 62.15 65.90 61.30 65.05UNIONBANK 51.60 52.35 50.05 50.30BRITANNIA 2887.00 2929.60 2836.60 2844.05BHARTIARTL 351.95 351.95 334.50 338.80PIDILITIND 1396.00 1396.00 1364.00 1369.00SRTRANSFIN 1039.95 1040.65 1012.75 1014.60EQUITAS 102.75 106.85 98.80 99.65ACC 1563.00 1563.00 1483.30 1488.25GRAPHITE 284.00 289.00 278.30 281.05NMDC 99.20 99.20 95.30 95.50ICICIPRULI 469.20 470.05 451.70 454.10TECHM 704.00 713.65 702.90 707.90

HAVELLS 704.00 708.15 675.00 679.60TVSMOTOR 407.40 414.60 392.75 397.05GODREJCP 659.40 686.00 658.00 668.20ITI 86.90 90.20 86.00 86.75BAJAJ-AUTO 2924.00 2935.00 2853.75 2857.00COFFEEDAY 41.25 45.55 41.25 41.70DMART 1890.00 1917.90 1890.00 1894.85PFC 95.70 97.90 94.10 94.95MOTHERSUMI 99.80 101.05 97.05 97.45SPICEJET 125.00 125.00 121.60 122.30AMBUJACEM 197.95 198.15 189.05 189.80TATAGLOBAL 278.00 278.00 262.65 267.30DHFL 33.90 34.20 30.25 31.25WIPRO 237.50 240.90 236.20 237.70RAJESHEXPO 669.50 675.00 666.50 669.15NESTLEIND 13710.00 13778.60 13338.15 13455.45BHARATFORG 442.65 449.35 422.25 422.35BATAINDIA 1691.00 1699.00 1668.70 1676.25LUPIN 701.00 708.05 684.65 686.60ABB 1462.40 1501.50 1448.00 1460.40TATAMTRDVR 54.85 56.20 53.20 53.60APOLLOTYRE 167.00 174.50 167.00 168.75ATUL 3988.00 4031.15 3953.15 3958.55TATAPOWER 59.85 59.85 57.80 58.05RNAM 277.45 278.50 269.10 271.10IGL 353.95 358.50 346.20 347.25DELTACORP 155.95 156.25 150.20 152.30NATIONALUM 44.65 45.05 42.90 43.30DABUR 432.55 436.45 425.00 425.00IDBI 31.10 31.60 30.30 30.55DIVISLAB 1604.00 1657.60 1604.00 1624.60AUROPHARMA 585.00 585.00 566.10 567.15PETRONET 257.90 261.20 255.40 255.40POWERGRID 199.00 199.60 195.85 196.40CUMMINSIND 563.85 569.80 539.00 551.20RELCAPITAL 22.40 23.65 21.80 22.55STAR 313.05 316.80 308.50 309.70WOCKPHARMA 253.40 253.80 240.00 245.60BERGEPAINT 430.00 436.05 423.60 425.05ADANIPORTS 405.75 408.85 393.30 394.65IBVENTURES 118.00 121.00 107.10 110.25SUNTECK 405.00 406.00 395.70 403.40CEATLTD 967.50 972.00 946.00 946.00DEEPAKNI 297.75 302.40 290.25 298.10GAIL 131.10 133.80 129.90 132.10MRF 61670.00 61909.65 60564.30 60716.05MCX 965.95 966.00 930.00 934.80HCLTECH 1080.00 1080.90 1065.25 1078.45BALKRISIND 763.50 780.00 742.50 744.75BANDHANBNK 484.60 489.65 481.35 484.10INDIACEM 78.60 80.40 78.60 79.20UBL 1365.00 1365.00 1265.00 1265.00VOLTAS 679.00 679.00 653.00 656.00PVR 1840.00 1840.00 1764.30 1764.30MANAPPURAM 136.00 136.00 131.95 132.45FORCEMOT 1077.05 1128.80 1077.05 1104.75PAGEIND 21793.40 21876.95 20939.25 20987.00MARICO 384.65 384.65 376.80 377.85BOMDYEING 73.50 75.75 71.30 72.05BALRAMCHIN 163.30 163.75 152.40 155.60STRTECH 150.00 151.80 144.35 146.95OMAXE 192.25 192.25 186.95 190.25PTC 53.65 54.30 53.05 54.30TATACHEM 585.00 585.00 575.00 577.00CHENNPETRO 183.80 183.80 167.00 168.30SBILIFE 830.00 844.50 822.25 823.55GRUH 265.65 271.50 264.15 267.85VENKYS 1519.00 1547.20 1488.25 1492.65EXIDEIND 198.70 198.70 189.05 189.95SADBHAV 130.65 133.00 126.50 131.65CADILAHC 232.50 235.85 230.95 231.65FORTIS 136.00 143.00 136.00 139.40JUBILANT 495.40 508.50 477.25 480.00SHREECEM 18285.60 18285.60 18018.90 18170.50GLENMARK 319.70 329.00 314.95 315.65MRPL 53.00 53.40 51.20 51.25SPARC 124.80 125.60 121.55 122.65ABCAPITAL 79.15 80.30 77.25 78.50SCI 44.00 44.25 41.85 42.10GODREJPROP 1010.50 1028.65 978.50 1001.50BOSCHLTD 13561.45 13666.85 13165.75 13165.75GMRINFRA 17.30 17.30 16.45 16.55CHOLAFIN 292.90 293.70 286.70 288.00SWANENERGY 108.40 108.40 105.15 105.40NHPC 21.90 22.75 21.80 22.60MINDAIND 346.65 347.10 328.55 331.00DCBBANK 189.90 189.90 178.85 179.70CUB 212.05 220.70 212.00 218.00MINDTREE 727.00 729.20 708.90 712.90JBCHEPHARM 361.90 372.10 355.80 366.80AMARAJABAT 714.25 714.25 684.00 690.30VIPIND 469.00 473.45 461.95 463.60

BBTC 1129.75 1148.40 1093.55 1096.25MFSL 419.60 423.00 404.30 405.00MGL 894.75 904.05 876.25 876.60RAYMOND 562.70 562.70 548.75 553.65PCJEWELLER 32.80 32.80 31.25 31.85AJANTPHARM 1012.00 1014.80 991.35 991.35ENGINERSIN 113.00 113.40 107.90 108.70TORNTPHARM 1603.10 1658.15 1603.10 1631.95DBL 398.65 401.20 374.35 382.50ICICIGI 1195.00 1201.05 1176.55 1179.70MUTHOOTFIN 670.60 672.70 661.15 665.45HINDCOPPER 33.35 34.80 32.45 32.75RPOWER 2.56 2.64 2.37 2.44SUVEN 265.65 269.40 263.05 264.30JAICORPLTD 77.00 78.80 76.25 76.90INFIBEAM 39.95 40.20 39.35 39.70UCOBANK 11.90 13.10 11.82 12.43GODFRYPHLP 958.00 965.50 945.00 946.75SUZLON 2.30 2.48 2.30 2.43WELCORP 126.25 127.50 123.60 125.90NOCIL 99.85 102.40 99.00 99.70CASTROLIND 133.05 134.60 131.90 132.15RVNL 23.75 23.80 22.90 23.00LTTS 1621.00 1621.00 1587.65 1595.00ADANIGAS 129.20 131.40 127.50 127.50RITES 264.85 265.40 259.35 261.00PHILIPCARB 115.50 117.45 113.00 113.45ABFRL 209.05 211.50 205.50 208.25ADANITRANS 234.00 234.00 223.00 225.10HINDZINC 210.20 211.50 207.10 207.75TORNTPOWER 284.50 286.70 278.55 280.40WHIRLPOOL 1969.90 1980.00 1910.00 1930.00GLAXO 1380.00 1382.35 1340.00 1340.15APLLTD 526.00 561.35 526.00 549.35GNFC 196.50 199.50 194.20 196.00OIL 148.80 148.80 143.45 143.90INFRATEL 248.15 249.00 245.25 245.50IRB 72.00 72.00 68.85 69.60FSL 45.65 46.75 45.05 45.35HFCL 17.90 18.05 17.40 17.60JPASSOCIAT 2.25 2.46 2.21 2.31ABBOTINDIA 11109.70 11163.50 10775.00 10800.00RCF 47.75 47.90 46.30 46.45HEXAWARE 368.85 371.55 363.00 363.00SOBHA 454.00 454.00 431.80 447.70AAVAS 1597.75 1693.15 1597.00 1619.75RAMCOCEM 721.60 735.00 712.40 719.00PFIZER 3212.00 3218.10 3104.55 3142.00INDIANB 121.90 122.15 118.65 119.20REPCOHOME 304.15 309.90 296.45 305.55BAJAJHLDNG 3497.60 3629.30 3497.60 3581.90PGHL 4490.00 4575.90 4435.00 4487.95VINATIORGA 2140.00 2180.00 2101.00 2117.50IDFC 33.40 33.40 31.15 31.65GODREJIND 382.70 386.00 380.00 382.50AEGISLOG 185.45 187.00 173.10 173.25FCONSUMER 25.25 25.70 24.75 25.00PIIND 1305.00 1305.00 1258.65 1270.90ALLCARGO 111.70 111.70 103.50 104.00MOTILALOFS 631.40 631.40 600.50 614.40JKTYRE 68.85 72.90 68.40 69.05ITDC 258.00 261.70 240.20 241.80GREAVESCOT 137.55 141.30 135.85 137.00KAJARIACER 563.40 570.75 559.00 559.70KTKBANK 74.65 74.65 71.25 71.55CANFINHOME 390.00 396.15 390.00 392.70OFSS 3120.00 3160.25 3025.00 3124.90RADICO 307.50 308.40 298.00 299.05JSWENERGY 61.45 62.10 58.60 58.90JINDALSAW 83.10 84.45 80.05 80.50RCOM 0.68 0.74 0.68 0.73SOUTHBANK 10.80 10.87 10.53 10.59KEI 530.70 536.20 527.75 530.65SJVN 24.15 24.15 23.80 24.00TRENT 502.65 504.00 485.30 490.45INDHOTEL 156.10 159.05 153.45 155.50NAVINFLUOR 700.95 721.95 693.00 698.00POLYCAB 699.00 699.00 665.15 665.75GSPL 206.60 208.40 205.10 206.15BAJAJELEC 392.00 394.00 383.80 388.95AVANTI 353.00 366.05 350.00 354.90INOXLEISUR 333.00 333.00 320.75 323.65PNBHOUSING 578.00 584.00 571.60 573.00HSCL 79.30 79.30 75.00 75.15LALPATHLAB 1391.00 1391.00 1342.30 1356.50SHANKARA 309.30 309.40 290.40 295.00VGUARD 227.00 227.00 223.00 224.50ORIENTBANK 59.30 59.50 57.15 57.90DEEPAKFERT 95.95 97.65 91.80 92.05HIMATSEIDE 141.00 145.65 137.30 140.70GSFC 76.60 77.15 75.50 76.253MINDIA 19975.00 20065.60 19600.00 19682.60RAIN 91.40 91.80 89.25 89.65JISLJALEQS 18.85 18.95 18.10 18.20TIMKEN 809.90 814.75 770.00 780.00J&KBANK 32.50 32.50 31.60 32.20CROMPTON 240.20 247.00 240.20 243.60CHAMBLFERT 150.90 152.50 147.35 150.45INTELLECT 190.70 192.00 183.05 183.35IFCI 7.34 7.34 6.89 6.90IPCALAB 900.05 907.30 892.00 892.90PRESTIGE 288.00 288.00 267.50 271.05MOIL 137.50 138.75 133.70 135.00SUDARSCHEM 360.15 370.45 360.15 361.20ASTRAZEN 2242.15 2253.25 2176.20 2191.35ASTRAL 1160.00 1177.45 1150.25 1173.50MMTC 15.90 16.50 15.85 16.25GUJGAS 170.00 177.50 162.20 174.40HUDCO 34.85 34.85 33.30 33.45

BALMLAWRIE 170.95 171.00 165.20 167.55OBEROIRLTY 495.00 499.50 485.00 485.60QUESS 466.00 475.10 454.00 470.00KALPATPOWR 481.00 485.00 437.00 453.35JAMNAAUTO 37.50 37.50 35.30 35.35KEC 270.95 274.05 264.30 264.50SYNDIBANK 26.50 26.95 25.70 25.85REDINGTON 108.50 110.65 108.00 109.90DALBHARAT 797.50 802.95 788.95 793.65SUPREMEIND 1217.05 1220.00 1186.00 1186.00NATCOPHARM 575.45 576.10 555.20 563.95MEGH 49.95 51.15 49.30 49.60ZYDUSWELL 1660.65 1670.25 1596.20 1611.00VBL 624.00 624.70 612.60 617.10JSLHISAR 61.45 65.00 60.75 61.45HEIDELBERG 187.00 188.50 184.80 185.25ASHOKA 99.95 106.00 96.65 97.15WELSPUNIND 51.30 52.40 51.20 52.00UFLEX 215.30 215.30 209.05 212.95ALBK 28.00 28.20 27.00 27.15CENTRALBK 18.00 18.35 17.70 17.80BDL 294.00 297.60 290.05 291.00WABCOINDIA 6119.00 6156.95 6101.00 6128.00MAHSCOOTER 4427.25 4518.45 4382.40 4396.00CENTRUM 23.20 24.50 22.70 23.90GUJALKALI 440.05 446.50 430.60 432.70TRIDENT 57.00 57.75 56.80 57.00TATACOFFEE 76.00 76.00 73.00 73.00IEX 123.25 124.00 120.30 121.40GMDCLTD 62.05 63.20 61.50 61.85GODREJAGRO 475.45 477.65 467.00 470.00CENTURYPLY 162.35 165.70 160.70 165.70GSKCONS 8502.45 8502.45 8330.00 8330.00WABAG 267.35 269.95 260.10 261.50TV18BRDCST 24.20 24.60 23.85 23.90CARERATING 514.05 514.05 504.00 513.00LAXMIMACH 3457.05 3600.00 3400.00 3420.95JKCEMENT 1022.00 1042.50 1010.00 1042.50ALKEM 1895.00 1947.30 1879.35 1945.00WESTLIFE 288.00 308.90 283.70 299.15GRANULES 102.70 104.90 102.50 104.15CAPPL 414.00 414.00 409.00 409.80GHCL 210.00 222.00 208.10 213.00THOMASCOOK 139.30 142.50 138.35 138.35CREDITACC 667.00 684.95 667.00 677.00KANSAINER 497.10 497.15 487.50 487.50GILLETTE 7084.35 7116.95 7020.65 7099.00EMAMILTD 315.00 316.10 307.50 307.55BLISSGVS 103.00 103.95 100.40 103.60PGHH 11773.80 11794.90 11460.40 11470.00MAHINDCIE 165.00 165.00 154.10 156.05PARAGMILK 156.00 156.40 153.00 153.85NIACL 104.60 105.15 100.60 101.70DCMSHRIRAM 408.80 408.80 388.00 388.00ADVENZYMES 151.30 158.30 148.00 148.05JKLAKSHMI 297.00 305.00 295.00 297.00NLCINDIA 55.95 56.00 54.10 54.40

TNPL 190.00 194.30 187.00 188.20FINOLEXIND 590.65 597.70 580.00 583.00SKFINDIA 2176.30 2176.30 2045.15 2046.10RALLIS 167.45 169.40 162.95 163.60TIMETECHNO 58.80 58.80 55.50 55.70RELAXO 504.00 505.70 485.00 492.45GICHSGFIN 139.85 141.60 136.30 137.55KRBL 219.50 224.95 217.05 217.05SYMPHONY 1272.75 1305.00 1261.00 1282.00HATHWAY 19.70 20.25 19.30 19.55TATAMETALI 518.85 527.20 515.00 515.00TAKE 102.45 104.55 100.20 101.65EIHOTEL 174.80 175.30 170.05 172.25THERMAX 1150.00 1170.00 1122.55 1122.55SANOFI 5927.95 5927.95 5800.10 5800.10GALAXYSURF 1477.35 1485.00 1462.00 1470.05COCHINSHIP 333.55 338.75 331.45 334.50SONATSOFTW 313.15 313.15 302.00 303.55SUNDRMFAST 484.80 484.80 460.10 463.00BIRLACORPN 549.95 549.95 535.00 536.00SCHNEIDER 73.40 75.35 73.00 74.10CARBORUNIV 303.00 303.00 292.50 294.00BLUESTARCO 794.95 804.00 785.30 797.80HAL 700.50 705.00 686.00 692.00GET&D 184.35 185.55 173.05 173.05ITDCEM 46.50 48.20 44.80 45.95

TTKPRESTIG 6039.00 6150.00 6006.00 6021.10SREINFRA 9.50 9.50 8.51 8.78AKZOINDIA 1903.00 1906.00 1855.25 1902.00IRCON 368.00 369.95 360.60 364.10GICRE 222.60 224.00 221.05 222.40EIDPARRY 159.70 160.00 157.90 158.95COROMANDEL 414.90 416.50 401.45 404.55MAHLIFE 430.00 435.00 420.50 429.35ORIENTCEM 89.55 91.05 85.00 87.30CRISIL 1292.00 1330.50 1292.00 1328.00VARROC 447.15 452.00 430.45 452.00NESCO 569.00 570.95 565.20 567.45HERITGFOOD 372.05 372.05 360.00 360.00ASTERDM 121.90 121.90 119.20 119.70SYNGENE 309.55 314.25 309.55 310.40BAJAJCON 241.10 249.45 241.00 243.50FINEORG 1764.95 1765.00 1702.50 1702.50TVSSRICHAK 1721.05 1770.00 1700.00 1717.70ISEC 274.00 274.80 255.40 265.00FDC 167.95 169.05 166.50 169.00BASF 987.35 1012.35 950.00 977.00EVEREADY 41.95 43.50 41.95 42.35PNCINFRA 182.00 182.00 175.00 175.00LAOPALA 172.55 174.70 170.00 170.00LEMONTREE 56.55 56.90 55.95 55.95ENDURANCE 960.20 993.85 960.20 963.00PRSMJOHNSN 79.00 79.95 78.95 79.05APLAPOLLO 1338.25 1341.00 1304.00 1304.00ECLERX 417.10 417.10 395.20 399.25CORPBANK 14.75 14.85 14.30 14.30MINDACORP 93.55 94.00 87.95 88.35JSL 34.80 34.80 33.55 33.80DCAL 164.35 169.00 149.00 162.10FINCABLES 370.00 375.20 363.35 367.00GPPL 83.50 83.80 81.00 81.60MAHABANK 12.00 12.00 11.01 11.08CGPOWER 14.74 14.74 14.74 14.74TEAMLEASE 2975.65 3067.95 2937.85 3022.00NH 237.15 237.15 232.40 232.40BAYERCROP 3302.15 3351.60 3274.00 3274.00INDOSTAR 210.70 223.85 210.70 214.20PERSISTENT 556.85 565.95 552.65 559.05ANDHRABANK 16.25 17.15 16.25 16.70MAHLOG 357.65 357.65 350.00 353.75LUXIND 1200.00 1202.00 1171.50 1171.50NETWORK18 21.25 21.25 19.75 19.95JMFINANCIL 74.45 75.35 72.25 72.55TVTODAY 314.45 314.45 296.00 300.00IOB 9.57 9.88 9.57 9.68SHK 130.25 132.00 127.45 127.45VMART 1930.00 1953.05 1922.00 1951.00JYOTHYLAB 167.50 169.20 164.25 164.25SHILPAMED 271.00 284.30 271.00 280.00GDL 102.60 102.85 99.10 99.15MHRIL 215.00 215.00 212.45 214.40BLUEDART 2406.95 2406.95 2314.00 2314.00MAGMA 52.00 52.00 48.75 50.00CYIENT 466.40 469.00 457.65 457.70TIINDIA 388.80 388.80 375.80 383.40NBVENTURES 78.70 79.50 76.65 78.90ERIS 424.00 445.00 417.00 427.30MASFIN 705.00 705.40 697.85 700.60NILKAMAL 1196.85 1209.95 1196.85 1201.95TATAINVEST 805.00 815.00 802.00 803.00MAXINDIA 61.90 63.00 61.90 62.75FLFL 419.65 421.10 406.65 412.10UNITEDBNK 8.40 8.40 7.97 8.08ZENSARTECH 210.10 211.70 209.00 209.35GESHIP* 283.00 283.00 275.00 278.10JSWHL 2710.05 2795.00 2710.05 2795.00SOMANYCERA 192.00 194.05 188.00 188.00LINDEINDIA 512.85 519.25 511.95 513.10SIS 835.10 861.00 820.60 853.35KPRMILL 546.00 549.05 544.15 546.10RATNAMANI 935.60 969.00 935.60 944.15KNRCON 219.80 219.80 215.00 218.45SCHAEFFLER 4232.50 4265.00 4144.00 4200.00VSTIND 3702.75 3709.50 3643.95 3658.00GRINDWELL 609.00 609.95 593.30 607.00GEPIL 781.95 781.95 765.00 765.00IFBIND 635.20 678.20 635.20 641.25THYROCARE 500.00 502.00 491.10 492.00LAURUSLABS 357.40 360.25 350.00 350.00VTL 900.00 914.35 900.00 909.00SOLARINDS 1097.20 1102.60 1080.05 1080.65INOXWIND 32.50 32.65 31.10 31.35ORIENTELEC 165.00 165.00 161.70 162.75AIAENG 1664.95 1698.95 1660.00 1680.10DHANUKA 313.00 320.95 305.00 312.00SUPRAJIT 175.95 177.20 174.00 177.20TCNSBRANDS 741.65 741.65 713.60 715.00STARCEMENT 88.10 93.50 88.10 90.50CCL 235.90 237.85 233.00 233.00SFL 1309.00 1309.00 1261.00 1265.00IBULISL 111.20 111.20 111.20 111.20JCHAC 1845.00 1900.00 1845.00 1865.00GULFOILLUB 827.00 860.00 823.00 841.00SHOPERSTOP 424.70 429.75 415.80 415.80TEJASNET 81.70 83.45 81.45 82.25CHOLAHLDNG 480.00 480.00 470.05 472.70LAKSHVILAS 29.85 29.85 29.85 29.85DBCORP 138.00 143.05 138.00 139.85APARINDS 548.10 552.55 530.00 530.00GAYAPROJ 114.30 114.30 108.20 111.00MAHSEAMLES 372.50 372.50 366.05 366.05TRITURBINE 99.65 101.70 99.05 99.50SHRIRAMCIT 1317.85 1334.30 1312.85 1334.30CERA 2645.15 2645.45 2605.00 2606.05CHALET 317.85 317.85 312.00 314.55

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SCRIP OPEN HIgh LOW LTP CHANGENIFTY 50 11388.45 11400.30 11158.35 11174.75 -139.25ONGC 129.95 132.75 127.30 129.35 1.25WIPRO 238.00 240.90 236.25 238.05 2.20TCS 2060.60 2087.95 2054.95 2078.00 17.75INFY 790.00 797.60 787.05 792.30 6.70TECHM 705.00 713.80 702.55 707.40 4.90NTPC 117.30 120.50 116.50 117.25 0.50INDUSINDBK 1280.00 1292.95 1255.25 1259.00 3.50HCLTECH 1076.00 1081.80 1064.65 1078.00 1.20HEROMOTOCO2681.80 2715.00 2659.00 2669.00 1.55GAIL 132.00 133.80 129.80 131.75 0.05HDFC 1992.00 2016.90 1972.60 1975.05 0.50CIPLA 419.50 431.30 416.15 417.50 -0.60COALINDIA 187.70 189.35 182.15 186.45 -0.30RELIANCE 1319.90 1328.60 1303.85 1307.75 -3.30HINDALCO 184.00 185.75 181.55 182.05 -0.55M&M 565.05 575.00 555.45 560.90 -1.80IOC 153.25 153.80 147.30 150.85 -0.90SUNPHARMA 389.00 394.00 384.20 385.45 -2.70INFRATEL 248.25 249.00 245.05 246.00 -2.25HINDUNILVR 1966.00 1977.30 1939.10 1942.70 -19.35VEDL 145.75 147.05 142.50 142.90 -1.50YESBANK 45.00 45.90 40.95 41.90 -0.60BAJFINANCE 3979.00 4004.00 3892.30 3904.00 -55.80POWERGRID 199.05 199.80 195.60 196.25 -2.85BAJAJ-AUTO 2915.00 2935.00 2855.00 2856.00 -41.90ASIANPAINT 1753.90 1761.70 1717.10 1721.85 -27.10NESTLEIND 13792.00 13792.00 13335.90 13495.00 -214.85ITC 263.00 263.90 255.20 257.50 -4.15MARUTI 6793.00 6845.90 6618.40 6645.95 -108.10BHARTIARTL 348.30 348.70 334.25 338.85 -6.05SBIN 258.50 260.50 248.55 249.65 -4.50EICHERMOT 18450.00 18508.95 17857.45 17934.95 -349.70BAJAJFINSV 8514.00 8541.35 8250.70 8284.75 -161.70ADANIPORTS 405.50 407.25 392.95 396.00 -7.90AXISBANK 669.90 677.40 651.40 655.05 -13.35BRITANNIA 2915.00 2931.35 2835.10 2844.00 -58.95LT 1463.80 1474.00 1420.10 1427.00 -31.05UPL 598.90 604.95 580.35 581.45 -12.95TATASTEEL 344.75 344.80 331.10 331.70 -7.90DRREDDY 2687.00 2699.00 2611.35 2613.05 -64.10TATAMOTORS 122.80 123.80 118.80 119.05 -3.35HDFCBANK 1236.65 1239.60 1185.30 1189.75 -33.80BPCL 545.00 545.00 511.60 514.00 -17.60ICICIBANK 428.50 429.30 412.05 413.10 -14.20KOTAKBANK 1630.00 1633.70 1557.30 1559.95 -55.80TITAN 1303.00 1306.70 1240.10 1250.70 -44.80JSWSTEEL 222.30 223.90 212.45 213.00 -8.55ULTRACEMCO 4173.20 4183.30 3967.00 3979.60 -167.20GRASIM 677.35 681.75 650.05 651.05 -28.60ZEEL 249.00 253.90 232.60 235.40 -16.15

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SCRIP OPEN HIgh LOW LTP CHANGENIFTY NEXT 50 27136.25 27180.50 26641.10 26681.60 -341.60NHPC 22.00 22.75 21.95 22.65 0.70BAJAJHLDNG 3533.75 3630.70 3512.00 3588.00 62.75OFSS 3099.00 3160.00 3035.30 3137.00 52.95GODREJCP 664.70 685.85 657.00 670.05 10.10BANDHANBNK 480.00 490.00 480.00 485.25 6.75GICRE 224.45 224.45 221.05 224.30 2.15PEL 1599.00 1615.00 1552.25 1590.00 14.85DMART 1887.25 1918.00 1887.25 1892.05 6.85SIEMENS 1526.00 1556.45 1526.00 1530.70 5.05ASHOKLEY 67.85 72.65 66.80 67.70 0.05DIVISLAB 1636.00 1650.00 1619.05 1622.35 -6.00BIOCON 233.30 235.95 230.25 230.90 -1.30SBILIFE 831.00 844.80 822.05 825.90 -4.75SHREECEM 18375.70 18391.50 18004.55 18150.50 -109.10HINDZINC 209.75 211.45 207.00 208.15 -1.30BERGEPAINT 428.50 436.35 423.00 425.30 -2.75HINDPETRO 327.75 328.75 313.20 320.55 -2.40CADILAHC 232.10 235.95 230.80 232.10 -1.80PFC 95.65 97.95 94.05 94.35 -0.75PETRONET 258.30 261.40 255.45 255.60 -2.40HDFCAMC 2706.00 2722.70 2657.00 2679.00 -27.10MCDOWELL-N 627.00 634.35 614.05 614.10 -6.45INDIGO 1843.75 1843.75 1788.05 1805.00 -21.05DLF 151.40 153.20 145.60 148.00 -1.90ICICIGI 1195.50 1202.80 1176.00 1176.00 -17.70HDFCLIFE 593.25 594.70 582.05 583.95 -8.95MARICO 384.60 385.10 376.80 378.20 -5.80L&TFH 82.80 83.85 80.00 80.60 -1.40SRTRANSFIN 1038.70 1043.80 1013.00 1013.50 -18.75PIDILITIND 1393.95 1398.30 1364.00 1367.10 -26.05IDEA 5.15 5.35 5.00 5.00 -0.10DABUR 434.75 436.05 424.25 425.10 -8.55NMDC 98.40 98.40 95.10 95.45 -1.95PGHH 11740.00 11829.00 11464.65 11484.50 -244.65MOTHERSUMI 99.90 101.10 97.00 97.25 -2.15NIACL 104.60 105.45 100.25 101.60 -2.25AUROPHARMA 581.00 582.45 565.80 566.55 -13.10LUPIN 702.00 708.50 684.10 685.20 -16.00PNB 59.60 59.95 57.70 57.70 -1.35CONCOR 633.00 638.80 611.25 614.00 -17.85ICICIPRULI 468.75 470.85 452.15 455.40 -13.35BOSCHLTD 13565.00 13650.00 13165.00 13170.00 -393.70BANKBARODA 92.00 92.45 88.00 88.15 -2.75COLPAL 1496.95 1507.85 1442.10 1444.20 -45.55HAVELLS 702.00 708.90 675.35 680.05 -21.95PAGEIND 21779.95 21949.95 20941.00 20950.00 -683.90AMBUJACEM 197.50 198.20 188.85 190.00 -6.35ACC 1558.10 1559.30 1482.55 1486.00 -59.75UBL 1329.90 1341.40 1261.30 1261.30 -65.25IBULHSGFIN 266.20 272.00 241.55 244.50 -21.65

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E-commerce giantsAmazon.In and Walmart-

owned Flipkart on Friday saidthey have seen record growthin the first phase of their festivesales, on the back of new cus-tomers from 'Bharat' loggingonto these platforms.

Amazon attributed its stel-lar performance to "availabili-ty of selection, convenience andaffordability" on the platform,while Flipkart said its effortsaround affordability constructsand engagement via video andHindi language content hadhelped drive 50 per cent morenew customers compared to itslast year's Big Billion Days(BBD) sale.

Both e-commerce market-places started their festive saleon September 29 and is sched-uled to end on Friday.

"There was almost 50 percent growth in the number ofnew customers as compared toBBD 2018. On the seller front,over 40 per cent of transactingsellers during BBD were fromtier II and beyond towns. Therewas a 50 per cent growth in thenumber of sellers participatingin the sale this year comparedto last year," Flipkart GroupCEO Kalyan Krishnamurthytold PTI.

He added that there hasbeen strong growth across cat-egories like fashion, mobilephones, large appliances, fur-niture and groceries.

Amazon cited a report byresearch agency Nielsen tostate that it had the "highestshare of transacting customersand purchases across all onlineshopping platforms in the firstfive days" of its Great IndianFestival period.

"The first wave of the GreatIndian Festival was our biggestcelebration ever withAmazon.In -- witnessing high-est share of transacting cus-tomers and purchases across allmarketplaces in India. Wereceived orders from 99.4 percent pincodes and over 65,000sellers from over 500 citiesreceived orders in the fivedays," Amazon India SeniorVice President and CountryHead Amit Agarwal said.

He added that small busi-nesses across India are embrac-ing technology and servingcustomers with a wide selectionof products at great value andconvenience through Amazon'splatform.

Agarwal pointed out thatsellers witnessed about 3Xincrease in unit sales fromnon-metro customers, whilecustomers from over 15,000 pin

codes joined its Prime pro-gramme (which is paid) with a69 per cent increase in signupsfrom small towns as comparedto previous year's festive season.

Over 88 per cent of its newcustomers came from smalltowns. Fashion brought in thehighest number of new cus-tomers (nearly 5X growth),while the smartphone segmentsaw 15X increase and largeappliances 8X growth.

E-commerce companies,which see a large chunk of theirsales during the festive season,start preparing for festive salesmonths in advance, rampingup logistics and hiring thou-sands of temporary workers toensure timely delivery of prod-ucts. While the first phase offestive sale closes on October 4,these platforms are expected tobring in more sales as Diwaliapproaches.

According to Redseer,overall e-tailing is expected toclock gross sales of USD 3.7 bil-lion (Rs 24,000 crore) betweenSeptember 29 to October 4, ayear-on-year (y-o-y) growthof 60-65 per cent.

Total online shoppers dur-ing the event are expected to be32 million, up 60 per cent y-o-y, primarily driven by shoppersfrom tier-II and III cities, itadded.

New Delhi: Reliance HomeFinance Ltd (RHFL) on Fridaysaid it is in discussion with sev-eral investors for equity infu-sion, amid tight financial con-ditions plaguing the industryfor the past few months.

Since the IL&FS episode, allcategories of lenders in India,including banks, mutual fundshave put an almost completefreeze on additional lending tohome finance companies(HFCs) and non-banking finan-cial companies (NBFCs), andhave instead only been insistingupon reduction of existing bor-rowings, it said in a release.

Over this entire period,lenders have been willing to onlysecuritise existing asset polls ofHFCs and NBFCs to provideresources for meeting debt ser-vicing obligations, it said.

These unprecedentedactions lasting for more than 6months have severely impact-ed the financial flexibility ofalmost all HFCs and NBFCs inthe country including RHFL.

The company has beenaffected by a timing mismatchwith regard to the ongoing fur-ther securitisation or moneti-sation proposals with banks,and the same has resulted inminor delay on principal repay-ments aggregating to only �542crore to around 5-6 banks andlimited to only its bank bor-rowings, it said. PTI

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Hong Kong: Thousands of defiant masked protesters streamedinto Hong Kong streets on Friday after the city’s embattled leaderinvoked rarely used emergency powers to ban masks at ralliesin a hardening of the Government’s stance after four months ofanti-government demonstrations.

Challenging the ban set to take effect Saturday, protesterscrammed streets in the central business district and other areas,shouting “Hong Kong people, resist.”

Carrie Lam said at an afternoon news conference that themask ban, imposed under a colonial-era Emergency Ordinancethat was last used over half a century ago, targets violent pro-testers and rioters and “will be an effective deterrent to radicalbehaviour.”

The ban applies to all public gatherings, both unauthorisedand those approved by police.

Lam stressed it doesn’t mean the semi-autonomous Chineseterritory is in a state of emergency. She said she would go to thelegislature later to get legal backing for the rule.

“We must save Hong Kong, the present Hong Kong and thefuture Hong Kong,” she said.

“We must stop the violence ... We can’t just leave the situa-tion to get worse and worse.”

Two activists immediately filed legal challenges in court ongrounds that the mask ban will instill fear and curtail freedomof speech and assembly. The High Court was hearing a bid lateFriday to halt the ban. AP

Athens: Greek Prime MinisterKyriakos Mitsotakis on Fridaycalled on Turkey to “takeresponsibility” for a renewedwave of migrants to Greece, andfor an EU-Turkish deal to berevised so Athens can speed upthe return of rejected asylum-seekers.

“Turkey must take respon-sibility” and “control themigrant flow in the Aegean Sea,”the conservative Greek leadersaid during a debate in parlia-ment on migration.

Greece has felt underincreasing pressure. For thefirst time since 2016, the coun-try has become the main port ofentry into the European Unionfor migrants and refugees arriv-ing via Turkish shores.

The UN refugee agency(UNHCR) announced on

Tuesday that arrivals by seafrom Turkey to Greece, mostlyAfghan and Syrian families,increased to 10,258 inSeptember.

It said this was the highestmonthly total since 2016, whenthe European Union reached anaccord with Turkey to stem theflow of arrivals.

Turkey has welcomed near-ly 3.6 million refugees, the vastmajority from neighbouringwar-ravaged Syria.

Turkish President RecepTayyip Erdogan threatened inearly September to allow a newwave of migrants to go to theEU if he did not receive moreinternational aid.

Ankara wants to create inSyria a “security zone” somigrants could return there.

AFP

Washington: US PresidentDonald Trump openly calledon China as well as Ukraine toinvestigate his potential 2020election rival Joe Biden, taunt-ing Democrats seeking hisimpeachment for inviting for-eign election interference.

Speaking in Florida,

Trump blasted his accusers as“maniacs” pursuing “impeach-ment crap” as he sought to turnthe tables on a probe thatthreatens to make him only thethird US president everimpeached in the House ofRepresentatives, and face atrial in the Senate.

Adam Schiff, the Democratleading the impeachmentprobe in the House ofRepresentatives, said Trumpwas acting “with impunity” inthe face of the law.

“Once again we have apresident of the United Statessuggesting, urging a foreigncountry to interfere in ourpresidential elections,” Schiffsaid.

“It endangers our elec-tions, endangers our nationalsecurity and ought to be con-demned by every member ofthis body, Democrats andRepublicans alike.”

As a former StateDepartment diplomat testifiedbehind closed doors inCongress on his role in theUkraine scandal, Trump dou-bled down by calling forUkraine President VolodymyrZelensky and Chinese leader XiJinping to go after Biden, wholeads the race for theDemocratic presidential nom-ination next year. AFP

Islamabad: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan did not meeta high-level Afghan Taliban delegation to discuss the revival ofthe stalled peace process in Afghanistan, his top aide said onFriday, dismissing reports of the meeting in the local and inter-national media as “not true”.

Several local and international media outlets had reportedthat prime minister Khan and the Taliban Political Commission(TPC), led by its head Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, discussedthe Afghan peace process during a meeting.

Geo News channel reported that Khan stressed the need forpeace in Afghanistan and termed it as key to peace and stabili-ty in the region. PTI

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Iraq’s Shia spiritual leaderGrand Ayatollah Ali Sistani

called on the Government onFriday to heed the demands ofprotesters who have throngedBaghdad and other cities forfour straight days and con-demned the mounting death tollfrom clashes with police.

The endorsement fromSistani, who is revered amongIraq’s Shia majority communi-ty, prompted celebratory gunfirefrom protesters and piled newpressure on Prime MinisterAdel Abdel Mahdi as he battlesto quell the intensifying unrest.

Many had been waiting fora signal from Sistani in hisFriday prayer sermon read out

by representatives in Shiite holyplaces across Iraq before decid-ing whether to join other pro-testers in defying the daytimecurfew in force in Baghdadand other cities.

The Prime Minister hasappealed for patience from theyoung unemployed who haveformed the mainstay of theprotests, saying his not yet year-old Government needs moretime to implement reforms.

But Sistani retorted thatthe Government needed to actnow “before it’s too late” toaddress popular grievances orthe protests would simply inten-sify. The crisis required “clearand practical steps” or the pro-testers will “simply come backeven stronger”, he said.

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Kiev: Ukraine’s prosecutor-gen-eral said on Friday he wouldreview cases related to a gas firmwhere Joe Biden’s son used towork, after US President DonaldTrump pushed his Ukrainiancounterpart to look into theissue.

Trump’s request thatUkrainian President VolodymyrZelensky probe the activities ofHunter and Joe Biden, the fron-trunner for the Democraticpresidential candidacy, hassparked an impeachment probein the US.

Prosecutor-General RuslanRyaboshapka told reporters hisoffice would revisit about 15cases but stressed that they werenot necessarily connected toBiden’s son, Hunter Biden.

“We are conducting an auditof the cases that were earlier

overseen by the Prosecutor-General’s Office,” saidRyaboshapka, who was appoint-ed in August.

“We are reviewing all casesthat were closed or broken upinto separate cases, to make adecision on whether this wasillegal.” Ukrainian authoritieshave previously said the inves-tigation into gas firm Burismafocuses on a period beforeHunter Biden joined the com-pany’s board.

Ryaboshapka also suggest-ed the prosecutors may focusnot on Hunter Biden but onBurisma’s founder MykolaZlochevsky and other figures.

“As far as we can see, this ismore a question of Zlochevskyand Ukrainian businessmanSergei) Kurchenko than Burismaand Biden,” he said. AP

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Top US diplomats encour-aged Ukraine’s newly elect-

ed president to conduct aninvestigation linked to JoeBiden’s family in return for apotentially high-profile visit toWashington with PresidentDonald Trump.

That’s according to a cacheof text messages released lateThursday by House investiga-tors following a 10-hour inter-view with one of the diplomats,Kurt Volker, who stepped downas special envoy to Ukraineamid the Democrats’ impeach-ment inquiry.

The pages of text messagesconvey a distinct campaignamong the three diplomats,who — apparently against someof their stated better judgment

— appear to be trying to helpUkraine reset its relationshipwith Trump by pushing hisinterest in investigating hisDemocratic rival.

Volker, in a text message onthe morning of a planned July25 phone call between Trumpand Ukraine PresidentVolodymyr Zelenskiy, wrote:“Heard from White House —Assuming President Z con-vinces trump he will investigate/ “get to the bottom of whathappened” in 2016, we will naildown date for visit toWashington.”

An adviser to theUkrainian president appearsto go along with the proposal,which entailed investigatingBurisma, a Ukrainian gas com-pany where Joe Biden’s sonHunter served on the board.

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�While you are continuing your actingcareer, you have also turned into a suc-cessful producer, foraying majorlyinto regional films before The Sky isPink. What’s the story of PurplePebble?

I started my production housebecause I wanted to create somethingthat would stand outside of me andengage with meaningful cinema.Which is why I’ve produced region-al films that have amazing storiesto tell, be they Marathi, Sikkimese,Punjabi and Gujarati. You can callPurple Pebble my dream, sonamed because purple is thecolour of royalty and I consid-er myself a queen (laughs).And like a little pebble, likea rolling stone, I go from oneplace to the other, chasingnewer horizons. It has avery deep meaning but it’salso a cute name. WhenI started the productionhouse with my mother,who is also a director inthe company, the idea ofit was to be able to tella story that I wanted totell but couldn’t alwaysas an actor. And I

believe a lot in the kind ofcinema I want to make,which is content-heavy. Ichose to co-produce TheSky is Pink not because itis a Hindi film but itbeing a real human story.The characters are notsuperheroes, they are justeveryday people, a regu-lar couple, who havethrived in extraordinary

circumstances and survivedthem in such a positive andamazing way. I feel in such acynical world, people look forinspiration and surprisingly,we forget that they existamong us. Families shouldwatch this film and see howif you stick together, you cancome out of difficult cir-cumstances. It is one ofthose films.

�Considering you are aglobal star, how do youmanage your projects?

I worked around theclock for a year. Now I amjust dividing my timebetween what I do in theUS and what I do here.But that is manageablebecause I have alwaysbeen selective about allmy characters. If you gothrough my filmography,I have never played thesame person ever. I getbored by doing the same

things. Once I choose not torepeat myself, I find newer

areas to work on.

�How do you manage thismulti-national to and fro?

It is multi-continental, actual-ly. It was a very difficult balance to achievebut I was up for the challenge.

�What made you take up the TV showQuantico in Hollywood? You were anywayat the top of your game here, why did youchoose to begin again from the base inanother industry, especially one that isn’ttoo absorptive of Asians?

As I said, I do not like repeating myselfand I was honestly looking to evolve. I didmy rounds of the studios and had to intro-duce myself all over again. The struggle wastremendous. I had to take meetings and tellthem, ‘I am Priyanka Chopra. I am an actorfrom India and this is the kind of work I wantto do.’ I had the humility to do that and I feelthat it is required when you want to start any-

thing new, not just films. Just because I ama star here doesn’t mean the world knows me.

�But let’s face it, keeping it real is a diffi-cult adjustment to make, right?

It is difficult for people who don’t havehumility, whose pride is bigger than them orthe end result. I am sorted that way. I start-ed from scratch and I didn’t have my careerhanded over to me. I made my career bit bybit. Since I had done it once, I did it againthis time. Of course, this was a tougher taskbecause I did it in my 30s, when they say thata woman’s career in showbiz is over. I am veryhappy to be proving them wrong. I have analmost two-decade long career now. I thinkit’s all because I had humility and though itwas difficult at times and took a mentaladjustment, I knew what I wanted to do. AndI wanted to do it well. I didn’t want to do side-kick roles in Hollywood. Since I had been aleading lady here, I wanted to take off fromthat point and start out in a lead role there.I have to give kudos to ABC that they couldsee me as the leading lady. In the process, Ibecame the first Asian ever to helm theirshow. It had never happened before. So thatwas a big achievement and post that, it hasbeen an amazing experience, doing the workthat I have, people giving me that space andaccepting me in the US. Yes, it did take a lot.

�As somebody who is a fan of technolo-gy, your app, Bumble, is now a big hit inIndia. So now, you are a techpreneur?

I love technology and wanted to be anaeronautical engineer when I was young.Physics and Mathematics were my favouritesubjects in school and I have been a nerd allmy life. (Laughs) Like they say, nerds will rulethe world, if they don’t already! Anyway, mymanager in the US is a venture capitalist. AndI told her that if I ever wanted to diversify,I would want to focus on something relat-ed to women and their education. I was hav-ing dinner when Bumble got launched inNew York. Its founder Whitney (Wolfe Herd)was giving a speech, detailing why she decid-ed to create it. At that instant, I thought howamazing it would be to take this to womenin India to encourage conversations that theymay be diffident about, and to help themexpress themselves better. I lost no time andasked her if she was planning to expand over-seas? She said “no” but I told her that I wasthinking of taking the platform to India. Anapplication, which allows women to makethe first move, is such a powerful tool aswomen making the first choice doesn’thappen too often in our country. She likedthe idea and we worked on it for a year. I’llnever forget the date when I launched it inIndia, which was right after my wedding —December 5. I was super excited about it. Wenever expected the numbers we got.

The only thing I told Whitney was thatyou have to culturally reform it to be able toprotect the girls in the country. So we addedthe privacy feature and gave the user the rightto send the first text and not be inundatedby queries. There is also a photo verificationoption, so that you know the person you arespeaking to is actually the person you’respeaking to. Besides, Bumble BFFs and net-works allow women to not just date but also

find like-minded people and friends. And incase, you’re a homemaker or a home entre-preneur and are looking to expand your busi-ness, you can also find people who can helpyou do that. So it is just a tool to empowerIndian women and take command of theirown lives in their own hands. I just knew itin my gut that this is what I wanted to cre-ate for the girls here. And I’m happy that ithas done so well.

�How do you see the transformation ofIndian women over the years, having tra-versed a bit of that journey yourself?

To reach a place of equality and be treat-ed the same as guys is going to take a long

time. But the most important thing is to havewomen support each other and have eachother’s backs. Who else is going to do thatif not women themselves? The reason whyit didn’t happen for a long time was thatwomen didn’t have the time and opportu-nity. There were such few opportunities thatthey had to fight each other off to get whatthey wanted. Now, we are creating moreopportunities for women and have men whoare feminists. For example, in this film,Farhan (Akhtar), Sid (Siddharth Roy Kapur)and Ronnie (Screwavala) are feminist men.They believe in a female filmmaker and aproducer. So that is the world we want to cre-ate in our generation in the hope that maybe and hopefully, the work that we do is whatour grandchildren also follow without eventhinking about it. It really depends on us andI am seeing such a massive change, not justin India but around the world. Of course, itis a really long conversation and has to godeep. Education is a really big part of it andI think the government is taking necessarysteps and initiatives when it comes to that.I think that it will also require parents to havethat understanding of giving exposure to thegirl child instead of devaluing her. They needto give her the ability to stand up on her feetand understand that for her, educationmatters a lot. This kind of thought processwill dig a deeper road to a smarter India. AndI feel it will require us talking about it moreoften.

�Women in our country are also deeplycircumscribed by societal taboos. Youyourself have been at its receiving end inpublic life, as recently as when you choseto marry. How do you fight them?

We are one of the oldest civilisations andcultures in the world, so traditional tabooshave existed for thousands of years. But theywill take as much time to be obliterated asit will take us not to succumb to societal pres-sure. I don’t succumb.

�How do you handle trolls?I really want young boys and girls to con-

sider seriously what I say right now. Theseyoung people seek validation through socialmedia, from people who are not even theirfriends. They are not “your people” and theirvalidation wouldn’t even matter. That shouldcome from your friends and loved ones andthose who are, most importantly, invested inyour growth. Criticism from those peopleshouldn’t be taken seriously as someone sit-ting behind the anonymity of a computer,telling you how you should behave doesn’tmatter. There is a reason why they are calledtrolls. But why has trolling become news Inever understood! I have blamed the mediaa lot for it about how they have started to lit-erally report tweets. We should just stop mag-nifying their worth; it’s just crazy. You canreact to tweets where may be my mother issaying something about me. But it’s crazywhen some random people starts writing any-thing s/he fancies and that becomes news.And if you see the numbers of trolls, they arejust about 100-150 people. So it’s basicallymaking a headline out of 100-150 peoplewriting something absurd.

�How do you maintain a work-life balance?The most important thing is to have a

partner who understands and supportsyour individual ambition outside of him.Nick and I may be a unit but we are also indi-viduals. We both support our personalambitions.

And the second bit, which me and hehave, is communication. No matter where weare, we update each other about the entireday. I tell him if I am doing interviews or hav-ing dinner. He knows what is happening inmy life just as I know what’s happening inhis. Besides, video-calling has saved our long-distance relationship tremendously. Wevideo-call each other all the time. I thinkeventually it is also about how much youwant to make it work with the other person.And most importantly, to have time for eachother and support each other’s ambitions andnot just boast one’s own.

(The film releases on October 11.)' ��,�'��;�<��

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While traditions might have beenlost amid the glitter and glamourof the modern culture, they are

being revived with great intensity throughfood today. And what could poignantlyremind of this better than the time aroundDurga Puja, the annual highlight ofBengali social and religious calendar? It istime when long-lost delicacies and recipescould be brought back as the Puja is notjust a religious festival but something thatis experiential in itself — with pandal-hop-ping, feasting around and reliving child-hood and bittersweet memories. UnlikeNorth India, where fasting is observedthroughout the nine auspicious days ofNavratri.

Festive food is one thing that helps cre-ate memories. However, with the chang-ing times and a growing dependence onpre-packaged foods, takeaways and diningout, today’s generation doesn’t fit into thepicture. As a result, many delicacies haveconfided themselves only into cookbooksand long-lost grandmother’s recipes. ManojRawat, executive chef at Hilton Garden InnGurgaon Baani Square, tells us that thistime “there is again a shift towards tradi-tional dishes,” which have stood the test oftime and are sure to keep their presencealive. Be it Sondesh, Mishti doi, Bhapa doior Rasagulla, no puja celebrations can becomplete without these. However, apartfrom these delicacies, which are conven-tional, one will be surprised to know howmuch more could be explored. Forinstances — Shukto, plethora of vegetables

cooked in various spices with creamy,milky gravy and the slightest hint of sweet-ness and a core taste of bitterness; Mocharghonto, a traditional Bengali preparation,where the banana flowers are cooked alongwith potato and aromatic spices; Kabirajicutlets, a crumb fried cutlet, preferablyfilled with chicken, mutton or fish; Khichdibhog, a mixture of regular rice and dal witha few additions like spices, peas, potatoesand tomatoes; Charchari, a medley of

mixed vegetables cooked in Bengali styleto make a dry curry.

Other special dishes that, chef LalitMohan, director at Asian Academy ofCulinary Art, says, “evoke a distinct senseof nostalgia for the years gone by” andcould be revived today are Aakhir jolerniramish pulao, Muger dal dhonepata diye(Moong dal), Mete chorchori (stir-fried goatliver), Panch phoran (five-spice fish) andmany more.

New-generation singerArmaan Malik is out with

his new single, Tootey khaab,and fans are applauding not justat his singing skills, but also hisscreen-presence in the musicvideo. Armaan says he has nobig plans to give acting a shot,but he would probably not beable to resist the idea of facingthe camera if a true-blue musi-cal came his way.

He said, “Singing is a partof who I am but it is also truethat I am a performer. Actingis a performing art. So if I amoffered something like Aashiqui2 or Rockstar where I have toportray an artiste or a musician,it would be relatable to me.That might intrigue me enoughto become an actor. I wouldlove to be part of a Bollywoodmusical film, as an actor and asinger because music has to bethere for my act.” However, headds that currently, he has nobig plans to step into the actingbusiness because “I am quiteengrossed in my music and mylive gigs.”

This was the first time hehas appeared extensively in avideo of his song, and headmits enjoying the experi-ence.

Armaan, who has scoredhits such as Naina, Hero, Bol DoNa Zara, Main Rahoon Ya NaRahoon, believes that socialmedia plays an important rolein image and popularity build-ing exercise, but if only the starcan keep it “real.”

So, how “real” is he onsocial media?

He said, “I keep it 90 percent real (laughs). The rest 10per cent is my personal spacethat every individual shouldhave. Youngsters — whethercelebrities or regular persons —

are intelligent enough to under-stand what is real and what isfake. One cannot build a steadyfan following if you are fake.My pictures, songs, shootingdays, vacations, my people, theway I engage in conversation in

the comments section — every-thing is real.

“I think fans are smartenough to differentiate betweenfake and real social mediafeeds. One cannot be fake onsocial media to build a real

image as a celebrity. You can’tbe fake to look real,” he added.

His new song Tootey khaabis a break-up number. Thesinger said that although he hasnever faced heartbreak in life sofar, it was a very relatable songfor youngsters and that he cre-ated it observing people aroundhim.

“We live in an era where wefall in and out of love very eas-ily. We are not those lovers any-more who sulk after a breakupas it used to happen in the caseof old-world romance. But Ialso have seen friends whowent through rejection andheartbreak, and cried beforemoving on. In the video that iswhat I have tried to capture.The boy, after the break-up,feels upset for a while. Duringthis phase, he writes a song, andthat breakup song makes hima singing sensation. You see, itcompletely makes sense in areal context!” he smiled.

Starting his career inBollywood playback singingwith Bum Bum Bhole for thefilm Taare Zameen Par in 2007,Armaan has garnered a lot ofpopularity among the youngmusic-lovers. However, he saysthat every new song gives himthe same excitement to knowpeople’s reaction on his creativ-ity.

“I am always excited abouta new song because I am alwaysaiming to make my new songbigger and better from my lastreleased song. So, no matterhow much love and apprecia-tion my last song received, Ihave to offer something new tothem, I have to surprise themwith a new side of me. I amglad that Tootey khaab doesthat,” Armaan signed off.

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Ravichandran Ashwin, play-ing his first Test match

since December last year, sayshe badly missed playing forIndia in the last 10 months, somuch so that the wily off-spinner stopped watching thegame.

The 33-year-old, who hasbeen playing only one formatfor India since July 2017, lastplayed the Adelaide Test fromDecember 6 to 10, the first ofthe four on the tour ofAustralia.

To his disappointment,Ashwin did not feature in theplaying eleven in the followingTest series against the WestIndies in August-Septemberwhen India only played onespinner in Ravindra Jadeja.

“To stay away from crick-et itself was very tough for me.In order to substitute, I playedwhatever games I got. I triedand made opportunity formyself to go and play somecounty cricket (forNottinghamshire). I tried andplayed the TNPL as much as Icould, played some leaguecricket in Chennai,” he said.

“It was very important totick those numbers off becausethat is essentially where I camefrom. Going back and playingthere is probably the best thingthat could have happened,”said Ashwin, who when askedabout time away from nation-al duty.

After claiming his 27thfive-wicket haul in Tests onFriday, Ashwin showed that heremained India’s go to spinnerin home conditions.

Ashwin enjoyed his coun-ty stint in England where heeven dismissed South Africanopener Dean Elgar, who got thebetter of him here on Friday.

The offie said not playingregular cricket for India alsomade him realise how much heloves bowling.

“I am elated to be back.There is nothing like picking upa five-wicket haul for your

country. This place is very spe-cial for me but I enjoyed a five-wicket haul for Nottinghamtoo. One is not too lesser thanthe other,” Ashwin said.

“For me it is about playingthe game and I have realisedthat the joy of the game has tobe back in my heart. I madesure that I enjoy the gamewhere ever I go and play. ThatI thought to an extent was quitevisible when I played yesterday.”

Talking about SouthAfrica’s fightback in the ongo-ing first Test, Ashwin said Elgarand Quinton de Kock deservesall the credit for playing the waythey did.

“It is a proper Test matchpitch. You expect two teams tobat well don’t you? I thoughtthey batted really well.Whenever the ball spun, itspun from far distances notfrom the normal length.

“We might have giventhem few too many runs in themorning session which proba-bly gave them the momentum.You expect a good side to playthe way they did. So credit hasto be given where it needs to begiven,” he said.

“We came back in the backhalf of the day. That is how Testcricket is supposed to be,”Ashwin added.

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Opener Dean Elgar said he may have madehis best hundred for South Africa on Friday

in the first Test against India here and credit-ed county cricket, including his battles with RAshwin there, for making him a better batsmanagainst quality spin.

“Any three-figure mark for South Africa isa massive moment for me. It’s always an emo-tional time. A lot of hard graft has happened inthe previous series where you have failed. Youlook back and you realise that it’s very special.Even in the trying conditions that we have, wehave not experienced heat like this back home,”Elgar said at the press conference after the day’splay.

“The wicket obviously wears down quitequickly. I’d like to think it may be my best hun-dred I have had for South Africa, especially play-ing against the prowess of India and to showthem that last time was a little bit easier but thistime it is not going to be a pushover,” said Elgar.

Elgar was among the South African bats-men who had a disastrous tour of India fouryears ago. Even on Friday, South Africa were upagainst the wall at one stage it but Elgar andQuinton de Kock (111 off 163 balls) put theirteam back in the game with memorable knocks.

The southpaw said he learnt a lot from hispast mistakes ahead of his second series in India.

“We knew it was going to be tough. Weknew we were going to be facing qualitybowlers on a wearing pitch. But I always had thehope that if we knuckle down and give ourselvesa chance, the best chance to try and score, giveus a platform to allow us to express ourselves

a little bit, we could always get to the positionwe are.

“A lot of stern messages were given out thismorning in the huddle and it is nice to see thatthe new faces or even the older faces knuck-le down and do their bit for the side. It is toughplaying Test cricket in India. You are alwaysup against it, they are always coming at you.But I felt with previous experiences of play-ing against them that if you apply yourself, yougive yourself the opportunity, you can getthere.”

He said he learnt the importance of hisdefensive game from previous experience ofplaying against the Indians.

“The previous stats and history of playingagainst them proves that if you allow yourselftime, you give yourself a bit of opportunitywith your defensive game, your attacking gamewill come naturally and you will be able to getinto the position that you are now.”

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They need just one win out of thefour remaining matches to secure

playoffs spot in the Pro KabaddiLeague season 7 but Nitesh Kumar ledUP Yoddha (58 points in 18 games)want to keep the winning momentumgoing and win all four matches of thehome leg to not just only seal theremaining playoffs spot available butalso keep them on the winning trackbefore the final tussle for the glory.

Going into the home leg whichthey will play at Shaheed Vijay SinghPathik Sports Complex, GreaterNoida from today, last season's stardefender (100 tackle points in season6) and team captain Nitesh Kumarsays that though the team just needone win to pip Jaipur Pink Panthers(57 points in 21 games) to advancefurther in the tournament but that inno way will stop the side to play forwin in the remaining matches andmaintain winning run.

"Going into the home leg weexpect a lot of things to go in ourfavour. We have a chance to seal play-

off spot and what's better than doingit in front of the home fans. We needone win out of four matches toadvance further, so this in some waytakes out a lot of pressure from us andwe can go with a positive mindset.However, let me make it very clearthat even though one win will do thejob for us but we want to win all thefour games in front of our fans andmaintain the winning streak."

Going into the last phase of theleague, UP Yoddha will face table-top-pers Dabang Delhi and defendingchampions Bengaluru Bulls alongwith Telugu Titans and Puneri Paltanand according to the captain the teammanagement has plans to keepNaveen Kumar (Delhi) and Pawan

Sehrawat (Bengaluru) silent duringthe tie which will help them toachieve the goal.

"Delhi and Bengaluru are twosides that heavily depend on theirraiders and if we want to win againstthem then we have to make sure thatwe keep their main raiders Naveenand Pawan out of action for as muchtime as possible."

"We have played them againstbefore and in those games also theywere not able to take many pointsfrom us, so this is going to be a sortof motivation this time even and weare confident that we will keep themunder check this time too," he captainsaid.

The team during the course offour month-long tournament sufferedbecause of injuries to senior playerslike Rishank Devadiga and MonuGoyat but now that when they are fitand back in the side, the captain whoscored record 100 tackle points dur-ing last season says that the return ofsenior pros in the squad will furtherboost their chances to go a stepbeyond this time and win the trophy.

"Rishank and Monu are the twomost experienced players in ourteam and their return from injury isa massive boost for us in this last twoweeks of the tournament. They havea lot of experience and their presenceis going to matter a lot during crunchsituations and I am sure that togeth-er we will achieve better results thistime," the captain concluded.

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Dean Elgar and Quintonde Kock centuries helpedSouth Africa fight back

on Friday to reach 385 for eightin response to India’s mammothfirst-innings 502.

De Kock made 111 and puton a key 164-run stand withElgar, who scored 160, to thwartthe Indian bowling attack on daythree of the first Test inVisakhapatnam.

Off-spinner RavichandranAshwin kept chipping away atthe batsmen however to claimhis 27th five-wicket haul in 66Tests.

At stumps, the Proteas stilltrail by 117 runs as they chaseIndia’s first innings score of 502for seven declared.

Debutant SenuranMuthusamy, on 12, and KeshavMaharaj, on three, were at thecrease after the long day with 98overs bowled to make for losttime because of storms on dayone.

Wicketkeeper-batsman deKock completed his fifth Test

hundred in the final session witha six off Ashwin before eventu-ally being bowled by the off-spinner.

Ashwin struck again withthe wicket of Vernon Philanderfor nought.

The left-handed Elgar, whostarted the day on 27, led therevival after South Africa slippedto 63 for four in the morningsession.

NO FLUKEThe 32-year-old credited

his stint with Surrey in theEnglish county championshipfor his impressive show.

“I have played five monthsof county cricket. That’s anextremely big motivating factorfor my career that alwaysimproves me as a player,” saidElgar.

“I’d like to think that thisinnings didn’t come by fluke, butcame because I have done the

hard work. I have spent a lot oftime away from home whichyou have got to sacrifice.”

Elgar put on 115 with skip-per Faf du Plessis for the fifthwicket to put pressure on India’sbowlers.

Ashwin, back in the IndianXI after his last outing inAustralia last year, also saidplaying county cricket forNottinghamshire had helpedhim during his time away fromthe Indian team.

“I am elated to be back. It isalways special for India. Thereis nothing like picking up a fivewicket haul for your country,”said Ashwin.

“This place is very specialfor me but I enjoyed a five wick-et haul for Nottingham too. Oneis not too lesser than the other.”

SELFIE WITH KOHLIAshwin’s spin partner

Ravindra Jadeja also made itcount with Elgar’s wicket in thefinal session as he moved to 200Test scalps.

South Africa started the

day on 39-3 but fast bowlerIshant Sharma struck early, tak-ing overnight batsman TembaBavuma low for 18.

Jadeja also posed problemsand nearly got Elgar on 74 butwicketkeeper Wriddhiman Sahaspilled the chance.

Indian opener MayankAgarwal set the tone for thehosts’ dominance of the gamewith his 215 and a 317-run

opening stand with RohitSharma, who hit 176 of India’sgiant score.

An over-enthusiastic fancaused a brief security scarewhen he rushed on the field toget a selfie with the India cap-tain Virat Kohli.

Kohli, who is treated as anational hero, was taken bysurprise by the intrusion inbetween overs when the youth

tried to hug him before takinga picture and touching the starplayer’s feet.

Kohli tried to order theteenager off and vice-captainRahane also intervened but thepersistent fan stayed on thefield for more than two minutes.

Security officers eventuallyoverpowered him as he ran off,while the crowd roared andclapped.

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World number oneAshleigh Barty said

she produced some of herbest tennis this year as shebattled into the China Opensemi-finals on Friday with agutsy victory over PetraKvitova.

The Australian camefrom a set down to win 4-6,6-4, 6-3 and will play KikiBertens of the Netherlandsin the last four in Beijing.

“From my opinion, thatwas one of the highest-quality matches I played allyear,” said the 23-year-old,the reigning French Openchampion.

“Petra always has a wayof bringing out the best inme, she really does.

“From both of us, Ithink the level was incredi-ble.

“Regardless of winningor losing, I think I’d be sit-ting here with the exactsame perspective, kind ofthe same feeling of thematch afterwards.”

This was the sixth meet-ing between Barty and two-time Wimbledon championKvitova, with the formerwinning only one of her pre-vious encounters againstthe Czech.

Barty, who had strap-ping on her left calf, wasunder the cosh in the decid-ing set after seventh-rankedKvitova broke her first ser-vice game.

But Barty grabbed thebreak back and, with theclock ticking past two hourson court, broke Kvitovaagain for a decisive 5-3 lead.

Bertens, eighth in theworld, sealed her spot in thesemi-finals with a two-setvictory over Elina Svitolinaof Ukraine.

HEARTENED PROGRESSAndy Murray said that

his comeback from career-saving hip surgery was pro-gressing better than expect-ed despite going down fight-ing in the quarter-finals.

The 32-year-old Britonlost 6-2, 7-6 (7/3) to top seedDominic Thiem in Beijing,but said: “I think this (week)was maybe the best in termsof how I played since Icame back.

“It was great for me, Iplayed three matches infour days, which is quite alot.

“Actually I felt betterthan I expected today, aswell,” said the former num-ber one, who had a majoroperation in January and

only returned to singles ten-nis in August.

Asked if he was furtherahead than he expected tobe in his comeback, hereplied: “Yeah, maybe.

“I'm getting there, thisweek is better than lastweek, I hope next week isbetter than this week,” thethree-time Grand Slamchampion said.

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Left-arm spinner RavindraJadeja on Friday became

the second fastest Indian toscalp 200 wickets in Testcricket.

Jadeja achieved the featwhen he dismissed centurionDean Elgar (160) duringSouth Africa’s first innings onthe third day.

Jadeja took 44 Tests toreach the milestone and is

now only behind off-spinnerRavichandran Ashwin, whoneeded 37 matches to enterthe 200-wicket club.

Former India spinnersHarbhajan Singh and AnilKumble needed 46 and 47matches respectively to reachthe milestone.

Jadeja is also the fastestleft-arm bowler to achieve thefeat ahead of Rangana Herath(47 matches) and Australia’sMitchell Johnson (49).

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World number oneNovak Djokovic on

Friday put on a stunningshow of supremacy at theJapan Open with a 6-1, 6-2 win over Lucas Pouilleof France.

The Serb over-whelmed his opponent inthe quarterfinal match,showering Pouille with abarrage of powerful, pre-cision shots to deep, widecorners mixed with deli-cate drop shots.

“I am not a machine.But I did play like one

today,” he said after their50-minute contest.

“This was one of thebest matches I played thisyear. Very, very pleasedwith the way I feel andplayed on the court,” saidDjokovic.

"I am looking forwardto another battle onSaturday, hopefully I willbe able to keep up withthis quality of tennis.”

In the semifinals,Djokovic will face 2017champion David Goffin,who also comfortablydefeated Chung Hyeon 6-2, 6-2.

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Transcript of ˘ˇˆ˙˘˝˛˚˚˜ - The Pioneer€¦ · 2019-10-05 · showcase Odisha’s Pattachitra, tourist...