Himesh Gandhi Formally Claims Sugar LandCouncil Seat in Texas

HOUSTON (TIP): Awell-known Indian Americancommunity leader and a politician, Himesh Gandhi,formally won council seat in Sugar Land, Texas on May5. The win is Gandhi's fourth and final term. He received100 percent of the 4,353 votes.

"Thank you to the citizens of Sugar Land for yourtrust and confidence as I serve my fourth and final term.It has been an honor and a privilege to serve!" Gandhiwrote on Facebook.

Gandhi was first elected in 2012, when he was 35, theyoungest councilman to be elected in a citywide vote.

He has served on numerous city council committeesand was also a member of the task force thatspearheaded development of the Smart Financial Centerat Sugar Land-an iconic concert and performance hallthat opened last year.

Other successes and projects launched by the cityduring Gandhi's previous term include the successfulannexations of Greatwood and New Territory, theacquisition of a former prison site for redevelopment, the completion of drainage projects, andthe return to normal operations after the devastating effects of Hurricane Harvey.

In 2015, Gandhi was honored by the Houston Business Journal as one of the region's 40 under40 young leaders. The Indian Panorama had carried the news then.

Gandhi earned a B.B.A. from Houston Baptist University and his law degree from the SouthTexas College of Law Houston. He, his wife Farrah and their son Jaiden live in the Telfairneighborhood.

VOL 6 ISSUE 18 ● DALLAS ● MAY 11 - MAY 17, 2018 ● ENQUIRIES: 646-247-9458 www.theindianpanorama.news

Ritzy Glitzy New York Indian Film Festival kicks off,with celebrities in attendance

MABEL PAIS/ BIDISHA ROY

NEW YORK CITY (TIP): The longest-running, most prestigious South Asian Film Festivalin North America, NYIFF, kicked off on May 7 at the Village East Cinemas in the lower east sideof Manhattan at 181-189, 2nd Avenue, New York, NY 10003.

The Festival boasts 78 shorts, documentaries and feature films screened over the period of 6days. The Festival continues until May 12 at the location. (Read more on page 10

Israel attacks Iranian targets in SyriaJERUSALEM (TIP): In the largest operation in Syria since the

signing of disengagement agreement in 1974, Israel said, May 10, ithas struck almost all of the Iranian infrastructure on Syrian soilduring the overnight raids in retaliation to a barrage of rocket fireon its territory by Iran. The Israel Defense Force claimed that theovernight clash, the largest-ever direct clash between the Iranianand Israeli armies contd on Page 20

Trump scraps the Iran nucleardeal, calling it ‘embarrassment’

Iran will remain in N-deal, says RouhaniEuropean leaders call on Washington to let them carry on with pact

WASHINGTON (TIP): US PresidentDonald Trump on Tuesday, May 8, pulled outof the landmark nuclear deal with Iran, anObama-era accord which he has repeatedlycriticized.

"It is clear to me that we cannot preventIran's nuclear bomb. The Iran deal is defectiveat its core. Therefore, I am announcing todaythat the United States would withdraw fromthe Iran nuclear deal," Trump said.

Moments later he signed a fresh set ofsanctions against Iran and warned countriesagainst any cooperation with Iran on itsnuclear weapons program. Ever since hiselection campaign, Trump has frequentlycriticized the Obama-era Iran nuclear deal,also

contd on Page 20Trump has scrapped nuclear deal with Iran. But Iran's President Rouhani

says Iran will remain in deal

The Red Carpet.Jay Mandal's fabulous photograph says it all. From L to R: Consul GeneralSandeep Chakraborty, Mira Nair, Salman Rushdie, Aroon Shivdasani, Aasif Mandvi, Madhur

Jaffrey and Sree Sreenivasan. Photo / Jay Mandal -on assignment

Pakistan's former Prime MinisterNawaz Sharif faces probe forlaundering $4.9 bn to India: Reports

World Bank deniesreports Shariflaundered US$ 4.9billion to India

ISLAMABAD (TIP): In furthertrouble to Nawaz Sharif,Pakistan's top anti-corruptionbody on Tuesday, May 8, ordered aprobe against the embattledformer Prime Minister and othersfor allegedly laundering USD 4.9billion to India, media reportssaid. contd on Page 20

Nawaz Sharif is now facing aprobe for allegedly

laundering USD 4.9 billion toIndia

TRUMP: WILL MEET KIM ON JUNE 12 IN SINGAPOREMeeting with Trumpwill be positive forKoreas, says Kim Jong-un

WASHINGTON (TIP): USPresident Donald Trump today,May 10, announced that he willmeet North Korean leader KimJong-un on June 12 in Singaporefor a historic meeting to discussdenuclearization of the KoreanPeninsula.

contd on Page 20

The much-anticipated meeting between US President DonaldTrump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will take place on

June 12 in Singapore

Himesh Gandhi has won for thefourth time a seat in the Sugar LandCouncil (Facebook photo)

Suspect in fatal shooting at Dickerson Pike liquorstore arrested in Texas

DALLAS (TIP): A man wanted in the killing of a woman outside a Nashville liquor storeFriday, May 4, was arrested Tuesday, May 8 in Texas. Kevin Newson, 33, was taken into custodyby the U.S. Marshals fugitive task force Tuesday, May 8 afternoon.

Newson is charged with criminal homicide and aggravated assault in the fatal shooting of 32-year-old Jacqueline Johnson.

He will be returned to Nashville in coming days, Metro police reported Tuesday night. Policesaid gunfire erupted around 8:45 p.m. Friday after an altercation at Firehouse Discount Liquoron Dickerson Pike near Broadmoor Drive. Johnson was hit in the neck and transported toSkyline Medical Center, where she died after surgery, the department said early Saturday. Atthe time, police said the shooting suspect, who they hadn't immediately identified, was thepassenger in a black sedan that fled eastbound on Broadmoor from Dickerson. Authoritieshaven't said what the altercation was about or given a possible motive in the fatal shooting.

2 THE INDIAN PANORAMAFRIDAY, MAY 11, 2018INDIANS ABROAD

Indian Origin Nitin Bawankule namednew Google Cloud head, India

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA(TIP): Search engine giant Google onMay 8th namedNitin Bawankule as the head of Google Cloud,India.

Bawankule, who has been associated with Google for morethan six years, is currently the head of sales for Google verticals.He will report to Google Cloud Managing Director RickHarshman, who heads the Asia Pacific operation of Google.

Bawankule has over 20 years of experience serving majortechnology companies. Prior to his joining Google, he workedwith Dell, Motorola Mobility, Whirlpool and Godrej.

"Nitin brings with him an excellent mix of digital, technicaland consumer products sales experience. We are very excited tohave him join our team and take our India story to the nextlevel," Harshman said.

Bawankule completed his post graduate diploma inmanagement from IIM Bangalore. He earned his bachelor'sdegree in engineering from VNIT Nagpur.

He has wide experience working in industries ranging fromDigital Consumer Electronics, Telecom, and IT.

According to Bawankule, by 2020, the public cloud servicesmarket in India is poised to reach $4.10 billion.

"Business leaders across industries are increasingly adoptingcloud technology because they understand it helps solve anumber of real challenges - teams work better together, databecomes useful to make smart decisions and companies createnew value to stay competitive in a quickly changing economy,"Bawankule said.

While speaking at Google Digital Retail India 2020, he said,"By the year 2020, every fourth purchase in organized retail willbe online."

Indian origin Village Girl TurnedWellness Chef competes onChopped

NEW YORK CITY, NY(TIP): Dalia David, a simple farm girlfrom India has made it to "Chopped" (a reality cooking show onFood Network) breaking the rules set by culture, becoming thefirst Indian Wellness Chef to compete on the show andshowcasing the importance of mindful eating.

Dalia will be showcasing her talents on Food Network's"Chopped" on May 15th at 9pm EST in the Episode "PlumSurprise".

She feels this episode is important because it represents the1st generation Indian immigrants who are pushing culturalnorms and choosing careers that give them meaning instead oftaking on more traditional roles expected and chosen by theirfamily (i.e, doctor, pharmacist, engineer). She is honored to berepresenting the young girls in Indian villages who have bigdreams.

About Dalia DavidDalia hails from a pineapple plantation in Southern India and

spent her childhood on rice paddy fields surrounded by coconuttrees and acres of banana trees. Coming from a farming family,her meals came from the earth and at a young age she becameaware of how food nourished her body and provided strength forthe day. This has influenced her food philosophy greatly. Dalia'spurpose is to create meals for families that cater to theirpersonal eating style and improve their strength and vitality.Her food philosophy is simple; it should be healthy, delicious,and satisfy cravings. Specialties are plant-basedcuisine, glutenfree, & wellness focused food.

Dalia is a trained Chef from the Natural GourmetInstitute and has studied Plant Nutrition at CornellUniversity. Her goal is to make unique dishes that are bothdelicious and nutritious using local and organicingredients. Her cooking style is one you would call "healthyglobal fusion" as east meets west is part of her intuition.She comes to you from the kitchens of Jean Georges' SpiceMarket, Pure Food & Wine, The James Beard Foundation,and as Catering Chef for LinkedIn HQ NYC feeding 400people daily.

Indian American JudgeNominated to Federal Judgeship

NEW YORK (TIP): PresidentDonald Trump nominated DianeGujarati, a prosecutor of Indiandescent, to a federal judgeship on May11th. She he had been former PresidentBarack Obama's choice for the position.

The White House announced thatDonald Trump is sending thenomination of Diane Gujarati, who isthe Deputy Chief of the CriminalDivision of the federal prosecutors forthe Southern District of New York, tothe Senate for confirmation as aDistrict Judge on the Federal court forNew York's Eastern District, whichcovers parts of the city as well thesuburbs on Long Island.

Barack Obama nominated her for thejudgeship towards the end of his termin September 2016 but she was notconfirmed by the Senate requiringPresident Trump's renomination.

Her father, Damodar Gujrarati, is anemeritus professor of economics at theUS Military Academy at West Point,which trains army officers.

Her renomination by Donald Trumpshows both her legal standing as well asthe administration's difficulty in

finding candidates within itsideological spectrum who will be ableto win Senate support.

She is expected to have a smoothsailing in the Senate because of the

support of presidents from bothparties.

A graduate of the Ivy League YaleUniversity's law school, she has alsobeen an adjunct professor at New YorkUniversity School of Law.

Federal New York Eastern DistrictCourt is located in the New York Cityborough of Brooklyn.

The federal prosecutor's office forSouthern District of New York, wherestarted in 1999, is one of the most high-profile jurisdictions in the US as itincludes Wall Street as well as thestate's capital Albany.

Formerly headed by Preet Bharara,the office had prosecuted severalimportant people in finance, includingRajat Gupta, Raj Rajaratnam andMathew Martoma for insider tradingon Wall Street and also severalimportant politicians like New YorkAssembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.

Rajat Gupta, one of the highestranking Indian American businessleaders, was managing director ofconsulting firm McKinsey and wassentenced to two years in prison andfined millions of dollars.

Diane Gujarati is the Deputy Chief ofthe Criminal Division of the United

States Attorney's Office for theSouthern District of New York and is an

announced nominee to be a UnitedStates District Judge

Google on May 8th named Nitin Bawankule as the head ofGoogle Cloud, India

SINGAPORE (TIP): VijayakumarRagavi,18-year-old Indian origingirl,has won this year's A*Star TalentSearch award in Singapore for herstudy of genetic heart disease"hypertrophic cardiomyopathy".

Chennai-born Vijayakumar Ragavi,now a Singaporean citizen, topped thelist of 611 other students fromsecondary and tertiary institutionsaccording to reports.

She has been awarded a cash prize, asponsored trip to an overseasconference and a trophy as well as acertificate for winning the competition.

Ms Ragavi said she spent almost twoyears studying and preparing for heraward-winning project on hypertrophiccardiomyopathy.

"It is estimated to be the most geneticheart disease in the world. People withthe disease often suffer fromarrhythmia induced sudden cardiacdeath," Ms Ragavi said.

Arrhythmia is a group of conditionswhere the heartbeat is irregular, tooslow or too fast.

At the talent search, Ms Ragavi'sresearch focused on stem-celltechnology, which allows for thedetection of genetic disease throughblood samples, rather than the typicalmethod of performing cardiac biopsies.

Such biopsies are extremely difficultprocedures which entail taking a smallpiece of the heart so that it can bechecked for genetic disease in thelaboratory.

Ms Ragavi designed a humanizedhypertrophic cardiomyopathy modelthat recapitulates the diseasephenotype. The subsequent findings setthe foundation for gaining insights intodisease pathology and therapeuticintervention.

"I really didn't expect to win. I wasquite surprised since it was veryunexpected, but I was happy that myparents were so proud of me," MsRagavi said.

She will be pursuing a degree inbiomedical science at an overseasuniversity next year.

"I want to become a researcher infuture and thought this would be goodexposure for me," said the Year 6

student from National University ofSingapore's High School forMathematics and Science.

"I want to work in the field of stemcell and regenerative medicine," shesaid.

Her parents, RajamanickkamVijayakumar, who works at Hewlett-Packard, and home-maker RajendranGomathi are very proud.

A*STAR Talent Search is a 2006initiative, rewarding students who haveperformed well in scientific research. Itis part of the A*STAR GraduateAcademy (AGA)'s Youth Scienceoutreach to schools with the aim toinspire & sustain a passion in sciencein the young in Singapore.

Indian Origin TeenWins A* StarTalent Search Award in Singapore

Chennai-born Vijayakumar Ragavi, now a Singaporean citizen, topped the list of 611other students from secondary and tertiary institutions

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3INDIANS ABROADTHE INDIAN PANORAMAFRIDAY, MAY 11, 2018

Indian Americans ownedstartups get Googleinvestment

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA (TIP): Googleannounced that it has made the first round ofinvestments in two innovative companies ownedby Indian Americans that have built next-generation products to explore the possibilitiesof digital assistant ecosystem.

In a blog post by Sanjay Kapoor, vice presidentof corporate development at Google, and NickFox, vice president of product at Google, wrotethat the company has made the first batch ofinvestments in four start-up companies, out ofwhich two - Go Moment and Pulse Labs - areowned by Indian Americans.

The two firms have been identified by Googlefor investments because they are working onprojects that are synonymous with thecompany's vision to make the life of users mucheasier than ever thought before.

According to Google, it has been providingtools for developers, starting from Android toChrome to Action, to create products that enablea natural conversational experience to its users.

"To promote more of this creativity, we'reopening a new investment program for early-stage startups that share our passion for thedigital assistant ecosystem, helping to push newideas forward and advance the possibilities ofwhat digital assistants can do," says the blogpost.

Go Moment, a technology startup based inSanta Monica, California, is founded by IndianAmerican Raj Singh. Google was impressedwith its product Ivy, which is a smart textingplatform for hotels and the hospitality industry.

Ivy is a digital assistant platform that worksas a personal assistant, communicating withhotel guests via text messaging - addressingsome of the most frequently asked questionsand services automatically, such as "What's thewifi code? "I'd like more towels" etc.

The app is designed in such a way that it canalso book restaurant reservations, spaappointments and other revenue enhancingservices. Ivy is based on the IBM Watson'sartificial intelligence technology.

Pulse Labs, a Seattle-based technologystartup, offers UX testing solutions for thedevelopers who use the voice ecosystems such asAmazon Alexa, Google Assistant and Cortana.

The tool offered by Pulse Labs helpsdevelopers get UX feedback on voiceapplications that they are working on.Developers and designers of voice applicationscan use the platform to test what they've builtwith real people and quickly acquire in-depthinsights anduse that feedback to create a moreengaging user experience.

Pulse Labs was founded in December 2016 byIndian American Abhishek Suthan and DylanZwick.

The new Google investment program willoffer capital to provide additional financialresources for the development, hiring andmanagement of selected startups. In addition tothis they will also get expert advice from Googlestaffs ranging from engineers, productmanagers, and design experts to fine tune theirplatform.

The Google selected startups will be providedaccess to upcoming features and tools, so theycan bring their products to market as quickly aspossible. Google team will also offer promotionalsupport through Google marketing channelsand will also get exclusive access to the GoogleCloud Platform.

Indian American Democrat AftabPureval wins Ohio District 1 primaryaOHIO (TIP): Indian American Aftab

Pureval has won the Ohio District 1Democratic party primary unopposed onMay 8th.He will face Republicanincumbent Steve Chabot in the generalelection on November 6.

Pureval, the first Democrat to getelected as the Hamilton County Clerk ofCourts in more than 100 years, isconsidered a rising star in the party.

Pureval's father came to the UnitedStates from India. His mother had livedas a Tibetan refugee in India before shemoved to the United States, along withher husband.

Earlier, two other Democrats had alsoannounced their candidacy from thedistrict: Robert Barr and Laura AnnWeaver. But both withdrew from the raceas the primary approached.

As the Hamilton County Clerk ofCourts, Pureval is credited with endingnepotism.

"He is the right kind of moderate that Ithink fits the district and can help movethe political center of gravity back to themiddle from its right-wing trajectory inWashington," Cincinnati Mayor JohnCranley had told the CincinnatiEnquirer.

Born and brought up in southwestOhio, Pureval went to public schools andreceived a bachelor's degree in politicalscience from the Ohio State University in2005. He had served as a student body

president at the university. During histenure, he pushed the Ohio statelegislature for increased funding forhigher education.

After college, Pureval went toUniversity of Cincinnati College of Law.There he worked in the DomesticViolence Clinic representing women who

were victims of violence. Later he movedto Washington, D.C., to join White & CaseLLP, one of the largest law firms in thecountry.

Four years later, he returned toHamilton County where he worked as aSpecial Assistant U.S. Attorney for theDept. of Justice.

Many political observers believe if anyone can flip the seat, it is the 35-year-old Pureval.

Indian American Aziz Ahmad winsOhio state house District 7Democratic primary

OHIO (TIP): IndianAmerican Aziz Ahmadwon unopposed in theOhio House ofRepresentatives District 7Democratic primary heldon May 8th.In theNovember 6 generalelection, he will faceRepublican incumbentThomas Patton.

Ahmad has beenrunning a campaignlargely focused on threeissues: education reform,"common sense gunpolicy" and healthcare.

"As yourrepresentative, I want tohelp us innovatesolutions to the issues weare facing in ourcommunities every day,"he says on his campaign website. "There is so much talent andpotential in this district. I have seen and heard inspiringpeople all over the area talking and offering practical solutionsthat never see the light of day, because they don't reach theproper faculties. It's time for a change, which starts withengagement in politics on all levels (local, state and federal)."

A teacher by profession, he says that the current educationalsystem is broken and needs immediate action to improve."Better education is the basis to solving our state and nationalissues" he says.

Ahmad says that Barack Obama and Bernie Sanders are hisrole models, and he really appreciates the efforts of Obama inaddressing the healthcare issue. The candidate says he alsoadmires the progressive mindset of Sanders, which questionscurrent system and creates ideas that can improve it.

A resident of Strongsville, he is a Teach for America CorpsMember. He is also pursuing a master's degree in publicadministration and policy from American University.

Aziz Ahmad, DemocraticCandidate, Ohio House ofRepresentatives District 7

Indian American Aakash Patel receivesendorsement by Florida Lt. Gov. CarlosLopez-Cantera in County Commission race

HILLSBOROUGH, FL

(TIP): Indian AmericanAakash Patel, who is runningfor a seat of the HillsboroughCounty Commission, hasreceived the endorsement ofFlorida Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera.

The two have worked witheach other for more than adecade and a half.

Patel had worked alongsideCantera during the latter'sterm in the Florida House ofRepresentatives from 2004

through 2012. Cantera worked with Patel in his activities related to theLeadership Tampa Bay.

Earlier, the Indian American had received the endorsement of DannyBurgess, a member of the Florida House of Representatives.

"I had the opportunity to get to know Aakash Patel through his workwith Leadership Tampa Bay and his service on their board of directorssince 2014," Lopez-Cantera said. "Aakash has impressed me with hisdrive, ambition and ability to apply his conservative ideals toencourage and mentor others in the business community andleadership roles.

"I strongly support his effort to become a member of theHillsborough County Commission where I am certain he will work toconsistently apply his solid conservative principals in all that he does.I wholeheartedly endorse Aakash Patel, in his campaign to become thenext Hillsborough County Commissioner for District 1," he added.

Patel thanked the lieutenant governor saying that he is extremelyhonored to have his support.

"I am extremely honored to have the support of such a trueconservative friend as Carlos Lopez-Cantera. Having spent timeadvancing individuals in leadership roles beside the Lt. Governor, Isincerely admire his strength and guidance across the state of Florida,"Patel said. "I sincerely thank Lt. Governor Lopez-Cantera for hisendorsement of my campaign for Hillsborough County Commission."

Patel, who earned his bachelor's degree in political science andEnglish literature from Florida State University, worked at The TampaBay Times' Tallahassee Bureau.

There are seven elected members onthe Hillsborough Board of County

Commissioners. Patel is running fromDistrict 1.

4 THE INDIAN PANORAMAFRIDAY, MAY 11, 2018US

Indian Origin Techie SrinivasKuchibhotla's Killer Gets Life in Jail

KANSAS (TIP): A US Navy veteran was sentenced to life in jailfor killing Srinivas Kuchibhotla, the Indian Origin techie fromHyderabad, in a racially motivated hate crime at a bar in KansasCity last year. "Get out of my country!" Adam W Purinton hadshouted before firing shots at Srinivas Kuchibhotla and his friendwho were at a bar in the city of Olathe on February 22, 2017. MrKuchibhotla died after he was taken to a hospital, while his friendAlok Madasani was injured. Another man, Ian Grillot, who tried tointervene was also shot. Purinton was captured a day later atanother restaurant, where he had allegedly boasted of killingMiddle Easterners, according to The Kansas City Star.

The 52-year-old Purinton received the maximum punishment forthe murder, and two sentences of 165 months each for the attemptedmurders, the prosecutor's office said.

The shooting came a month after President Donald Trump wassworn into office in January 2017 and ignited international outrageamid concerns of rising racial prejudice following the Republican'sdivisive election campaign.

President Trump was also criticized for not speaking against theincident. However, he raised the issue later in an address to theCongress. In January this year, Mr. Kuchibhotla's wife SunayanaDumala was invited to Donald Trump's first State of the Unionaddress. Hundreds of mourners marched through the Kansas Citysuburb in memory of Mr Kuchibhotla and also honored Grillot,who tried to save him. They held a vigil with Hindu, Christian,Jewish, Muslim and Sikh prayers.

Association of Indian Muslims of Americacondemns police attack on AMU Students

MARYLAND (TIP): The Association of Indian Muslims of Americahas condemned last week's police attack on students of India's AligarhMuslim University.

We, an organization of Indian Americans, learned with muchsadness that last week a contingent of policemen in the city of Aligarhattacked a large group of students of Aligarh Muslim University(AMU), at the campus of the university, causing serious injuries tomany of them," an official release from the organization read. Theorganization said officers attacked students who were peacefullyprotesting against a recent communal incident wherein a group ofHindu extremists allegedly barged into the campus and committedviolence over the display of a portrait of MA Jinnah, founder ofPakistan, in one of the University buildings.

The portrait of Jinnah was installed in one of the universitybuildings after he became a member of the AMU Students Union in1938, said Kaleem Kawaja, the Executive Director of AIM.

He pointed out that there are portraits of Jinnah displayed in themain building of the Indian parliament and the High Court in Mumbai.In late 1948 after Mr. Jinnah's death, the Indian Constituent Assembly,the forerunner to the Indian parliament, passed a condolence motionand conveyed it to the government of Pakistan. The significance ofJinnah's photograph in an AMU building is a similar historicalphenomenon that should not be misconstrued otherwise, Kawaja said.

He said that a large number of Indian Americans are very aggrievedat the outrageous and violent behavior of the police in abetting theillegal action of a bunch of extremists against the century-old AMU."We categorically condemn this action of the Indian police and requestthe government of India to take appropriate action against the erringpolicemen and extremist Hindu activists," he said. The group said theway the law enforcement officers behaved reflected their partisanattitude.

The release said police escorted protestors from the extremist group,Hindu Vahini, to the main gate of the university before they entered theuniversity premises. It added that police also beat up AMU studentsviolently despite the peaceful nature of their protest.

"At the same time police authorities are continuing to refuse to filecases against the extremist Hindu Vahini volunteers for illegal violenttrespassing," the release said.

While Purinton would be eligible for parole in 50 years, he waslikely to spend the rest of his life in prison.

Donald Trump personallywelcomes 3 Americans freed

by North Korea back to the USWASHINGTON (TIP): Donald

Trump personally welcomed homethree American detainees on May 10after they were released byPyongyang, seen as a diplomatic winfor the US President ahead of hisplanned summit with North Koreanleader Kim Jong-un.

The Americans -- Kim Dong Chul,Kim Hak-song and Kim Sang Duk,also known as Tony Kim -- were freedyesterday while Secretary of StateMike Pompeo was on a visit to theNorth Korean capital to finalise thedetails of the summit.

The trio had been jailed for anti-state activities and placed in NorthKorean labour camps.

Trump and his wife Melaniaentered the plane after it landed in theearly hours of Thursday and a fewminutes later emerged with the threeAmericans of South Korean origin towave to the media.

Vice President Mike Pence and hiswife Karen Pence were also on hand towelcome the three men home.

Speaking to the media on thetarmac at Joint Base Andrews AirForce Base, Kim Dong Chul said hisrelease felt "like a dream."

"We are very, very happy," he said.The three former detainees earlier

issued a joint statement thankingTrump for their release.

"We would like to express our deepappreciation to the United Statesgovernment, President Trump,Secretary Pompeo, and the people ofthe United States for bringing ushome," the trio said.

President Trump told reportersthat it was "nice" of the North Koreanleader to release the three men ahead

of their planned summit."Frankly we didn't think this was

going to happen ... it's a veryimportant thing to all of us to be ableto get these three great people out," hesaid.

Trump said he wanted to pay his"warmest respects" to the family ofOtto Warmbier, the American whowas released by the North Koreans ina vegetative state, only to die dayslater. Asked if this was his proudestachievement, Trump said that wouldbe "when we denuclearise that entirepeninsula".

"It's a great honour. But the truehonour is going to be if we have avictory in getting rid of nuclearweapons," he said.

Trump was also asked about theprospects of making a deal with theNorth Korean leader.

"I really think he wants to dosomething and bring his country intothe real world," Trump said.

"I think this will be a very big

success. It's never been taken this far,there's never been a relationship likethis."

Trump has previously said therelease of the three Americans waspart of working towards thedenuclearisation of the KoreanPeninsula.

"Some great things can happen, andthat's what we hope," he added.

Trump said yesterday that he wouldannounce the location and the timingof the summit in three days time. Thetwo leaders are expected to meetsometime in June.

US media said Trump scored adiplomatic victory with North Koreareleasing the three imprisonedAmerican citizens.

After their meeting with Trump,the three men were expected to go tothe Walter Reed Medical Center inMaryland for further evaluation andmedical treatment, CNN quotedWhite House Press Secretary LindsayWalters as saying. (PTI)

‘Maximum pressure’campaign against N Korea

worked: White HouseWASHINGTON (TIP): The Trump

administration's "maximumpressure" campaign against NorthKorea has worked, the White Househas said, ahead of President DonaldTrump's historic summit with NorthKorean leader Kim Jong-un.

The White House statement comesa day after North Korea releasedthree Americans who were detainedin the country for months.

"The President has talked about,certainly, that the maximumpressure campaign has worked. Wehave seen North Korea makeprogress since that campaignstarted," White House PressSecretary Sarah Sanders toldreporters.

Sanders said Trump had also beenvery clear that some of the successwas due to America's key allies andpartners like South Korea's President

Moon Jae-In, Japanese PrimeMinister Shinzo Abe and ChinesePresident Xi Jinping, who played a"big role" putting pressure on NorthKorea.

"They have all played a big role inthe maximum pressure campaign.But a lot of that is due to the fact thatthe President has spent timedeveloping relationships with thoseindividuals, and they've collectivelybeen able to put pressure on NorthKorea," Sanders said yesterday.

Trump told reporters yesterdaythat the time and venue for hissummit meeting Kim had beendecided and would be announced inthree days, ruling out theDemilitarised Zone that divides theKorean peninsula as a venue for themeeting.

Trump had spoken with Moon Jae-in to discuss Pompeo's visit to North

Korea."The two leaders welcomed North

Korea's decision to release threeAmerican detainees, and expressedhope for joyful family reunions," saida readout of the call.

Trump would host Moon at theWhite House on May 22.

Sanders said the President viewedthe release of three prisoners byNorth Korea as a positive gesture anda step in the right direction from theNorth Korean leader.

"However, total denuclearisationwill remain the top priority," shesaid. Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbardcalled for building on themomentum.

"The nuclear threat posed to us byNorth Korea is real, and the need todenuclearise North Korea is urgent.Historic progress has already beenmade. (PTI)

5SOUTH ASIATHE INDIAN PANORAMAFRIDAY, MAY 11, 2018

Trump heralds capture of fiveIslamic State commanders

WASHINGTON (TIP): US President DonaldTrump said on May 10 that five "most wanted"leaders of the Islamic State terror group had beencaptured, an apparent reference to the capture offive commanders of the militant group by Iraq.

"Five Most Wanted leaders of ISIS just captured!"Trump wrote in a post on Twitter, providing nofurther details.

Iraq had described the capture of the IslamicState commanders as "some of the most wanted"leaders of the group. The list did not include IslamicState leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. (Reuters)

Kim trying to set goodconditions for meeting withTrump: Pompeo

WASHINGTON (TIP): North Korean leader KimJong-un is trying to set good conditions for hismeeting with President Donald Trump, USsecretary of state Mike Pompeo said on May 9.

He also said that the place and date for thesummit has been locked and would be announcedsoon.

"I think that Chairman Kim is trying to set goodconditions for the summit, right. We are havinggood conversations, productive conversations. So, Ithink the work that President Trump has done toput us in this place made this possible," Pompeo tolda group of reporters travelling with him.

Last month he travelled to Pyongyang secretly. Atthe time he was the CIA director.

Pompeo said that the meeting was veryproductive and that they have set a date and placefor the meeting. He hoped that the name of thevenue and date would be announced at thebeginning of next week.

"We are planning on it, will be a single day, but inthe event that there is more to discuss, there'll be anopportunity for it to extend into the second day aswell," Pompeo said in response to a question.

He stayed in Pyongyang for about 13 hours,during which he met Kim.

"We had a chance to talk substantively aboutwhat we intend to be on the agenda, and also howwe're going to begin to coordinate in the days aheadbetween now and the summit in a way both sidesare confident that we will set the conditions for asuccessful meeting between the two leaders," hesaid.

Describing the release of three Americans, whowere on his plane, he said this is incrediblyexciting. "They seem to be in good health," he added.(PTI)

Volcanic gases promptdoor-to-door evacuation inHawaii

PAHOA, HAWAII (TIP): Police went door-to-door in Hawaii to roust residents near two newvents emitting dangerous gases in areas where lavahas been pouring into streets and backyards for thepast week. Authorities ordered nearly 2,000residents to leave two communities in the mostlyrural district of Puna on Hawaii's Big Island lastThursday. Some ignored the order and stayed towatch over their property.

But on Tuesday, the emergence of the two newvents prompted Hawaii County to issue a cellphonealert ordering stragglers in Lanipuna Gardens toget out immediately. Police followed up withpersonal visits.

"There were a number of people at theirresidences,'' Talmadge Magno, the administrator forHawaii County Civil Defense, said at a newsbriefing. There was no sign of holdouts in Lanipunaafterward, he said.

Edwin Montoya, 76, had planned to stay to carefor animals and keep looters away from his family'sproperty in neighboring Leilani Estates. But he wasforced to evacuate after the new fissures emerged,including one just a mile away. (AP)

CIA has a very important role inmonitoring China’s rise as aglobal power: Gina Haspel

WASHINGTON (TIP): IdentifyingChina as a major national securitychallenge for the US, a top CIA official toldlawmakers that the spy agency has animportant role in monitoring China's riseas a global power.

"CIA has a very important role inmonitoring China's rise as a global power,"Gina Haspel, US President Donald Trump'snominee for CIA Director, told members ofthe Senate Select Intelligence Committeeyesterday.

She is currently the acting director ofCIA. If confirmed, Haspel would be thefirst female head of the spy agency.

"China efforts to diminish US influence,not only in the Pacific, but all around theworld, China's unfair trade practices, andChina's overt and illicit efforts to steal UStechnology and know-how and intellectualproperty," she said.

The CIA is raising its investment oneach of these hard targets.

"We have incredible expertise on Chinaat the agency. It is a very strong team. I'mvery proud of our analysts. It is a subjectthat a week doesn't go by that, either, thePresident asks for an expert briefing orSecretary Mattis asks for someone to briefhim on China issues," Haspel saidresponding to a question from SenatorMarco Rubio.

For decades, American foreign policytowards China has been rooted in thebelief that as they prospered,economically, they would embracedemocracy, they would embrace the global

rule of law, Rubio said in his remarks."That consensus, by all accounts has

been catastrophically wrong," he said."Today China is undertaking a

comprehensive effort to supplant theUnited States and to undermine us. Andthey've benefited from the greatesttransfer of wealth in history, through thetheft and the forced transfer of intellectualproperty. They use unfair trade and otherpractices to undermine our industrial andtechnical base," Rubio said.

They gather and exploit data at anunrivaled scale. They're building the mostcapable and well-funded military in world,second to ours," he said, and asked if theCIA was equipped to meet this multi-

faceted challenge.Haspel responded saying China, Russia,

Iran and North Korea have veryaggressive, offensive cyber programmes,both to steal secrets and in some cases,earn illicit money.

The CIA can, probably, make the biggestcontribution, in collection, about thesecountries' activities and various groupsactivities so that we can inform the USgovernment agencies that have to mountour defence," she said. "Everyone in the USgovernment has been struggling, as allwestern governments are, on what is themost effective way to organise yourself forcyber defence. We're still working on that,but CIA has a big role," Haspel added. (PTI)

Trump signs Holocaust propertylaw that has angered Poland

WARSAW (TIP): US President DonaldTrump has signed an act that Jewishgroups praise as helpful in their efforts toreclaim lost property in Poland, butwhich the Polish government says isdiscriminatory.

The White House said on Wednesdaythat Trump signed the Justice forUncompensated Survivors Today ( JUST)Act. It requires the State Department toreport to Congress on what steps dozensof countries in Europe have taken tocompensate Holocaust survivors or theirheirs for assets seized under NaziGerman and Communist rule.

The law does not give the US anypowers to act against any country anddoes not single out Poland. But Poland isthe only country in Europe that has notpassed legislation to compensate formerowners for assets seized in the upheavalsof 20th-century European history, andWarsaw sees itself as the key target ofthe law.

The Nazis' seizure of Jewish-ownedproperty in Poland during World War II,and the murder of most of Poland'sJewish population, was followed after thewar by the Communist state's seizure oflarge amounts of property that wasnationalized. Most of the original ownersof that property were not Jewish.

Since the fall of communism, someclaimants have regained lost property on

a case-by-case basis through courts, butso far Poland has not passedcomprehensive legislation regulating theprocess, creating a situation that hasbeen riddled by fraud and led to a sense ofinjustice.

Polish Foreign Minister JacekCzaputowicz says he believes that the USpressure through the JUST Act unfairlysets Jewish claimants above non-Jewishones, creating tensions within Polishsociety.

He argued that Polish law treats allPolish citizens equally, whether they are

from the Polish majority or from ethnicminorities that made up significantsegments of prewar society _ includingJews and Ukrainians.

"This position of the (US) Congress isnot good because it wants some privilegesfor the Jews, for the Jewish community,but not for the Poles. I think that thePoles who live in the US may feel hurt bythat,'' Czaputowicz said in an interviewwith The Associated Press last week.

He recalled that there were non-JewishPoles who fought against Nazi Germanyand then settled in the United States,leaving behind property that was seizedby the Communist regime.

"Their property here remains withoutany settlement, and nobody speaks ontheir behalf, only on the behalf of theJews. That is not good because thatdivides our society,'' Czaputowicz added.

Polish organizations have also lobbiedCongress members in past months askingthem to oppose the act, efforts thatincluded a mass letter-writing campaign.

The World Jewish RestitutionOrganization said Thursday that it wasgrateful to Congress for passing the actunanimously, and to Trump for signing it."This is a powerful statement ofAmerica's unwavering commitment tosupporting Holocaust survivors in theirquest for justice,'' said Gideon Taylor,WJRO Chair of Operations. (AP)

MANGALURU/CHIKMAGALUR

(TIP): The Karnataka election is crucialfor the Congress party—the polls willdecide whether the party can halt themarch of the Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) into southern India and whether itis able to prevent its expansion to newerterritories.

If indeed the Congress manages averdict in its favour, it would be the firsttime since its historic defeat in the 2014general elections that the party hasretained a state. Interestingly, noincumbent government has been re-elected in Karnataka since 1985.

At stake for Congress is also thefuture of one of its last remainingregional bigwigs, chief ministerSiddaramaiah, and the fight for electoralsurvival ahead of general elections nextyear. In the past four years, Congress hasbeen defeated by the BJP in over a dozenstates, drastically shrinking its politicalfootprint.

Politically, one of the big bets of theCongress party in Karnataka is tocement its support base amongeconomically weaker sections,particularly through populist schemeslike the Anna Bhagya—a free ricescheme.

“This government has worked for thepeople. It has offered relief to peoplefrom poorer sections by providingseveral schemes like Anna Bhagya andhealth schemes. People always look forchange but we feel that Siddaramaiah isconnected to the grassroots andunderstands our problem,” said P.S.Jagadeesh, a farmer and departmentalstore owner at Pattangere village inKadur assembly constituency ofChikmagalur district.

To craft its return to power, theCongress in Karnataka is relying on thevotes of Dalits, who make up 17% of thepopulation, Muslims (11%) and Kurubas(8%), the community to whichSiddaramaih belongs.

Voters in coastal Karnataka also feelthat with the Popular Front of India, apro-Muslim political outfit, decidingthat its political wing, Social DemocraticParty of India, will not contest electionsin the region, Muslim votes couldfurther consolidate in the favour of theCongress party.

However, a section of voters are of the

opinion that the trend of not returningan incumbent should continue and achange in regime should be sought.

“Modi is doing very good work at thecentre. We also want to give BJP achance in the state because it can workin tandem with the Union government,”said Arun Patil, a salesman at ajewellery shop in Puttur assemblyconstituency of Dakshin Kannadadistrict.

Political analysts say that the stakesare high for the Congress in this electionand that populist schemes floated by theSiddaramaiah government could givethe party an edge.

“Karnataka is the last remaining

bastion of the Congress party and so thestakes are very high. It is a make-or-break election for the Congress. Theoutcome of the Karnataka polls has thepotential to change India’s political map,particularly with respect to BJP’s entryin southern India,” said MuzaffarAssadi, former professor at MysoreUniversity.

“There is neither much anti-incumbency against Siddaramaiah noris there an outright vocal support in hisfavour. But under Siddaramaiah, thestate has been an experimentallaboratory for populist schemes for theunderprivileged and that can go in hisfavour,” Assadi added. Source: Livemint

BBeennggaalluurruu ((TTIIPP)):: Congress presidentRahul Gandhi on Thursday said PrimeMinister Narendra Modi saw a “threat”in him, and the attack by him over hisprime ministerial ambition was onlyaimed at “distracting attention”.

Gandhi also hit out at Modi for rakingup the issue of UPA chairperson SoniaGandhi’s foreign origin, saying “mymother is Italian” but she was “moreIndian than many Indians”. “Thiselection is not about Rahul. I have nowlearnt to deal with the PM. When hecan’t respond, he distracts,” Gandhisaid responding to questions aboutModi’s repeated attacks on him over hisprime ministerial ambition.

Training his guns on Gandhi after he

publicly declared his prime ministerialambition at an interaction here, Modihad wondered whether the countrywould ever accept such an “immatureand naamdar (dynast)” leader for thepost. The Congress chief, who wrappedup his campaign tour of Karnataka witha press conference, referred to a storyabout Gautam Buddha to claim the PMhad “anger” for everybody. “Modi hasanger inside him and he has got angerfor everybody not only for me. I attractthat anger because he sees a threat inme. His anger is his problem, not myproblem,” Gandhi said. He mocked thePM over visiting temples and called himan “election Hindu” who rememberedHindu shrines only during polls.

Source: PTI

6 THE INDIAN PANORAMAFRIDAY, MAY 11, 2018 INDIA

PM NARENDRA MODI ARRIVESIN NEPAL ON TWO-DAY VISIT

JANAKPUR (TIP): Prime Minister Narendra Modiarrived here on May 11 on a two-day state visit to Nepalduring which he will hold talks with the country’s topleadership to build mutual trust.

Defence Minister Ishwar Pokhrel and Province 2 ChiefMinister Lalbabu Raut received Modi at the airport.

This is the third visit of the Prime Minister to Nepal andthe first high-level visit from India since the formation of thenew government in Nepal this year.

In Janakpur, Modi will visit the 20th century Janakitemple and offer special prayers. Later, Modi will be accordeda civic reception by the Janakpur Sub-Metropolitan City atBarhabigha ground.

Nepalese Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has reached theJanaki temple to welcome his Indian counterpart.

Ahead of his visit, Modi said India would remain asteadfast partner of the Himalayan nation in its quest forgrowth and development.

Describing his trip to Nepal as a reflection of hisgovernment’s commitment to ‘neighbourhood first’ policy,Modi had said the Himalayan nation had entered a new eraand India would continue to support it. Source: PTI

Sridevi’s death: SC dismissesplea for independent probe

NEW DELHI (TIP): The SupremeCourt on Friday dismissed a pleaseeking an independent probe intothe death of Bollywood actor Sridevi.

The actor had died on February 24due to accidental drowning in herhotel bathtub in Dubai.

A bench of Chief Justice DipakMisra and justices A M Khanwilkarand D Y Chandrachud dismissed theplea filed by one Sunil Singh who sought an independentinvestigation into the death of the actor.

He moved the top court after the Delhi high court had onMarch 9 refused to entertain his PIL to probe her death,saying authorities in India and Dubai had already lookedinto the incident. Source: PTI

PWD scam: Kejriwal’s nephewarrested, AAP fumes

NEW DELHI (TIP): Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’snephew Vinay Bansal was arrested on Thursday by an anti-graft body in connection with alleged financial irregularities ina drainage project for the PWD, prompting AAP to allege aconspiracy to malign the party chief ’s image.

While Bansal was sent to one-day judicial custody by a Delhicourt, his arrest triggered a political slugfest, with the BJP’sDelhi unit demanding Kejriwal’s resignation and Delhi DeputyCM Manish Sisodia alleging that the Centre was using DelhiPolice and the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) only “to harassand trouble” AAP leaders and their relatives.

The ACB claimed Bansal was a 50 per cent stakeholder inRenu Constructions that was allegedly involved in financialirregularities in laying a drainage system. Source: The Tribune

Karnataka elections: Can Congressstop BJP’s march into south India?

MODI SEES ‘THREAT’ IN ME, SAYS RAHUL

Kovind becomes first Prez in 14 years to visit SiachenNEW DELHI (TIP): President Ram Nath

Kovind on Thursday visited Siachen BaseCamp and addressed the soldiers posted there.He also visited the Kumar Post. PresidentKovind is the second President of India to visitSiachen. The previous visit was undertaken byPresident A P J Abdul Kalam in April 2004.This makes President Kovind the firstPresident to travel to Siachen in 14 years.

Addressing the soldiers, President Kovindsaid that as the Supreme Commander of theArmed Forces and as the President of India,he has come among them carrying thegratitude of the entire country. The Presidentnoted that Siachen is the world’s highestbattlefield and it is difficult to live even anormal life in the extreme climate. In such asituation, it is extraordinary for soldiers tostay in a state of constant mobilisation and

combat readiness. Their determination anddedication are worthy of the highest praise –and their allegiance to the defence of India isan ideal for all our fellow citizens.

The bravery and valour of soldiers deployedin Siachen over the past 34 years, the Presidentsaid, has given every Indian the confidencethat our borders are safe and secure. ThePresident said he had come to Siachen toiterate to the troops posted here that allcitizens of India and the Government of Indiawere always with them and supportive of theirfamilies.

The President also paid his respects at theSiachen War Memorial, which is a symbol ofthe sacrifice of 11,000 soldiers and officers whohave been martyred since the Indian Armybegan Operation Meghdoot on the SiachenGlacier on April 13, 1984.

7INDIATHE INDIAN PANORAMAFRIDAY, MAY 11, 2018

STUDENT SEEKS SWARAJ’SHELP, SHE TELLS HIM TOREMOVE ‘INDIAN-OCCUPIEDKASHMIR’ FROM PROFILE

NEW DELHI (TIP): A medicalstudent from Jammu & Kashmir inPhilippines who thought he wasscoring a point by listing hislocation as “Indian occupiedKashmir” on Twitter discoveredthe perils of doing so when he raninto trouble, and sought the help ofthe external affairs minister whorespon-ded saying there is no placecalled Indian-occupied Kashmir.

Sheikh Ateeq, whose Twitter handle was @SAteEQ019,requested Swaraj to help him get a new passport and said heneeded one to get back to his “home, India” as his health wasdeteriorating.

“I am from J&K doing medicine course here in Philippinesmy passport got damaged I applied for new one 1 month ago Irequest u pls help me to get it as i literally need to go home formedical checkup ,” Ateeq tweeted on Thursday. He had askedSwaraj for help earlier, on April 5.

“Dear ma’am @SushmaSwaraj I greatly need your help. Isthere anything u can do to rush the process of my passport as itis damaged. I need to get back to my home, India. My health isdeteriorating and I cannot shoulder the expenses any more asI’m student (sic),” he said earlier.

Swaraj, who actively addresses people’s concerns on Twitter,replied to Ateeq on Thursday saying she would have helped himhad he belonged to Jammu and Kashmir, and that there was noplace called Indian-occupied Kashmir.

Soon after, Ateeq corrected the location on his Twitter bio to“Jammu &kashmir/ Manila”. Swaraj acknowledged thecorrection in a tweet that was shared minutes later and askedthe Indian envoy in Manila to help the student. “I am happy youhave corrected the profile. Jaideep - He is an Indian nationalfrom J&K. Pls help him,” the minister wrote.

Nitish Kumar, Sushil Modi among 10,000 guests for Lalu Yadav son’s wedding

PATNA (TIP): Lalu Yadav had missed his son Tej PratapYadav's engagement ceremony last month. The 69-year-oldveteran politician, serving time for the fodder scam in the1990s, reached home in Patna late on Thursday evening on athree-day parole to let him attend his eldest son's wedding laterthis week.

Tej Pratap Yadav is to marry Aishwarya Roy, the daughter ofsix-time Rashtriya Janata Dal lawmaker Chandrika Roy and acabinet colleague of Lalu Yadav in many governments. Theyoung couple had exchanged rings in the presence of some 200guests at a Patna hotel.

The wedding is at a much larger scale at the city's veterinarygrounds. A member of the Yadav household said the guest listruns into several thousand - another suggested it could touch10,000 - and includes top political leaders from across thecountry. Friends as well as political rivals alike.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who ended his party's grandalliance with Lalu Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Party and theCongress, is expected to set aside their political rivalry andmake it to the wedding. So will Deputy Chief Minister SushilKumar Modi, the senior BJP leader who played aninstrumental role to get central agencies probe Lalu Yadav,sons Tej Pratap and Tejashwi and daughter Misra Bharti.

When Sushil Kumar Modi hosted a reception for his son'smarriage, Lalu Yadav had made it a point to show up and spendtwo hours to bless the newly-weds. Mr Modi is expected toreciprocate that gesture.

But Lalu Yadav, who was received by his family at the airportand driven straight home, will have to be careful not to violateparole conditions imposed by the jailors.

In Patna, Lalu Yadav will have to stay home or the venue ofthe wedding and has been banned from speaking to the media,his party supporters or make any political statement. If hedoes, he can be hauled right away back to Ranchi's BirsaMunda central jail. "Lalu has been released on parole with hishands and feet tied," Rashtriya Janata Dal's Shivanand Tiwaryhad complained when he heard about the tough conditions.Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi promptly hit back,reminding him and other RJD supporters that the conditionshad been imposed for good reason.

Supreme Court reserves judgement onpleas challenging validity of Aadhaar

NEW DELHI (TIP): Marathonhearings in the Aadhaar case, whichwent on for 38 days spread across fourmonths, ended on May 10 with theSupreme Court reserving its verdict onpetitions challenging the constitutionalvalidity of the unique identificationproject.

A five-judge Constitution bench,comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI)Dipak Misra, justice AK Sikri, justiceAM Khanwilkar, justice DYChandrachud, and justice AshokBhushan heard over 30 petitions againstthe Aadhaar Act and the Centre’sdefence of the controversial law.

Besides the law itself, the petitionschallenged government orders thatmade it compulsory for linking of bankaccounts, mobile phone numbers,permanent account numbers and filingof income taxes to the Aadhaar uniqueID number.

The main thrust of the case broughtby petitioners was that Aadhaarencroached on the privacy of citizensbecause it enta-iled collection offingerprints, iris scans and other detailsof citizens with/without their consent.

At the end of the hearings onThursday, Attorney General KKVenugopal remarked it was the longestcase in the SC’s history, behind only theKesavanand Bharti case dating back tothe 1970s, which was heard by a bench of13 judges and dealt with powers of theexecutive to amend the Constitution.

The main thrust of the case broughtby petitioners was that Aadhaarencroached on the privacy of citizensbecause it entailed collection offingerprints, iris scans and otherpersonal details of citizenswith/without their consent.

Shyam Diwan, appearing forpetitioner Kalyani Menon, termedAadhaar “an electronic leash” and

argued the government couldcompletely destroy an individual by“switching off ” the 12-digit uniqueidentification number. Kapil Sibal,appearing for the West Bengalgovernment, called it the mostimportant case to be decided by the SCsince independence; the key issue iswhether citizens can be deprived oftheir fundamentals rights including theright to make their own choices, he said.

Gopal Subramanium, appearing forSG Vombatkere, said that in the absenceof a comprehensive data protectionregime, data retention covering theentire population was a riskyproposition and it must be undertakenwith substantive and proceduralreasonableness

Arvind Datar, appearing for ShantaSinha, said the Act should not have beenpassed as a money bill; even if the Act isupheld, the unique ID can’t be used forpurposes other than distribution ofsubsidies, he said. Aadhaar must berevisited in light of the Supreme Courtjudgment that the right to privacy is afundamental right, Datar argued. Amoney bill can be introduced only in theLok Sabha; the Rajya Sabha cannot make

amendments to a money bill passed bythe Lok Sabha and can only makerecommendations that the lower housecan choose to accept or reject. The rulingNational Democratic Alliance has acomfortable majority in the Lok Sabha,but is in a minority in the Rajya Sabha,and presenting it as a money bill helpedthe government skirt resistance in theupper house

P Chidambaram, appearing forCongress leader Jairam Ramesh, said theLok Sabha speaker’s decision to declarethe Aadhaar bill a money bill attainedfinality only as far as parliamentarianswere concerned; it does not prevent theSupreme Court from judicially reviewingthe speaker’s wisdom, he argued.

Attorney general KK Venugopal madethe case that the Aadhaar law compliedwith the tests laid down in the right toprivacy judgment. It’s fair, just and areasonable law with s adequatesafeguards, is in pursuance of a largerpublic interest, including preventingdissipation of social welfare benefits, andfor prevention of black money andmoney laundering. And these are alllegitimate state interests, Venugopalsaid. Source: HT

In one voice, political partiescall for ceasefire in Kashmir

SRINAGAR (TIP): All mainstream parties of Jammu andKashmir, including the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), on Wednesday asked theCentre to declare “a unilateral ceasefire for the month of Ramzanand the period of the Amarnath Yatra.”

“There was a unanimous decision of all the parties at themeeting that the Government of India consider a unilateralceasefire in view of the coming month of Ramadhan andAmarnath Yatra to extend relief to the masses. The partiessuggested that the Centre offer the ceasefire as former PrimeMinister Atal Bihari Vajpayee did in [November] 2000,” ChiefMinister Mehbooba Mufti said after the meeting of all regionalparties at Sher-i-Kashmir International Convention Centre here.

She had called for an all-party meeting in the wake of growingencounters and civilian casualties in street protests, especially inthe past 40 days, leaving 69 people, including 28 civilians and aChennai tourist, dead.

“Encounters and crackdowns are causing trouble to thecommon man. Efforts must be made to maintain theenvironment so that both Id and Amarnath Yatra are peaceful...It’s important to retrieve the dialogue process,” she said. An all-party team would meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discussthe outreach. Terming the Agenda of Alliance (AoA) “avisionary document,” Ms. Mufti said, “The need of the hour is togo back to the document and seek its immediate implementation.

The participants [of the meeting] wanted implementation of theAoA, which they believed would positively change the situationin J&K.”

Senior BJP leaders, including Deputy Chief MinisterKavinder Gupta and Sat Sharma, were also present at themeeting. The all-party meeting was attended by the NationalConference’s Ali Muhammad Sagar, the Congress’s G.A. Mir, theCPI(M)’s M.Y. Tarigami, the Peoples Democratic Front’s HakimMuhammad Yaseen, the Awami Ittehad Party’s Engineer Rashidand the Democratic Party Nationalist’s Ghulam Hassan Mir.

Ramzan will start in Kashmir next week and the yatra willbegin from June 28 and will end on August 26. Source: HT

8 THE INDIAN PANORAMAFRIDAY, MAY 11, 2018EDITORIAL

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TRUMP'S IRANWALK-BACK:DOUBLEWHAMMY FORINDIA AFTERCATSA

Just when Indian diplomats werefiguring out how to mitigate the impactof Countering America's Adversaries

Through Sanctions Act (CATSA) on its armsand oil trade with Russia, South Block hasanother reason to burn the midnight oil. USPresident Donald Trump's intention to exitthe Iran deal, and reimpose sanctions ifTehran declines to renegotiate, could sendIndia's plans for the region in smoke. Thesanctions will pretty much cover all areas ofinterest to India vis-a-vis Iran: petroleum,ports, shipping and banking. The bright sideis that except for Saudi Arabia and Israel,pretty much the rest of the world has nottaken kindly to Trump's attempt to redefinethe Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action(JCPOA) to cover "responsible" behavior byIran both externally and domestically.

The world can be grateful that Tehrandoesn't have an impetuous leader likeTrump. Javed Zarif, Iran's chief negotiatorfor the deal, has resolved to diplomaticallylobby with the other parties to theagreement. Yet, Trump's explanation thatIran could emulate North Korea bynegotiating denuclearization will find fewtakers for it is widely realized that Tehranwould have to be suicidal if it were to showsigns of weakness. On the contrary, the USmay have lost North Korea's trust by goingback on the Iran deal just as it lostPalestinian support after Trump announcedthe shifting of the US embassy to EastJerusalem.

India needs to work with countries with ashared interest in the JCPOA to ensure thatTrump's exit from the Iran deal does notharm its investments and plans for theregion. India and other countries on thesame page must also engage with Iran todiscourage it from retaliatory malignbehaviorthat may further muddy the waters.PM Modi will get the opportunity to discussthe issue with like-minded leaders when hemeets them for two multilateral summitslater this year. The problem for India is ithas no company like the Chinese Sinopecwhich has no business interests with a UScompany and can thus escape sanctions.India will first have to make common causewith countries in the same Iranian boat.

(Tribune, India)

AS I SEE IT

It's not about the nuclear deal

If - and that's a big if - the leaders of the U.S.,China, South Korea and North Koreasucceed in concluding a deal on the

denuclearization of the Korean peninsula aswell as on a peace treaty formally ending theKorean War, they would be front runners forthe Nobel Peace Prize. That deal couldappropriately be called a Joint ComprehensivePlan of Action (JCPOA) if it lays down adetailed blueprint for denuclearization, withprovisions of intrusive inspections. The onlything that could stand in their way is Iran.

There should be little doubt that U.S.President Donald Trump's real, but ofnecessity undeclared, objective inwithdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal is aregime change in Tehran. This goal is evenmore ardently desired by Israel and SaudiArabia. Ever since Iranian PresidentMahmoud Ahmadinejad made particularlyprovocative statements about Israel, Israelis ofall political persuasions have wanted to get ridof the regime in Iran. The Saudis have openlycalled for cutting off the head of the (Iranian)snake. Thus, three important and powerfulstates have a congruence of interests seldomseen in recent times.

IRANIAN DISCONTENT: There have beenfrequent and persistent reports in the Westernmedia for several months about large-scaledemonstrations and protests by Iranian peopleagainst the regime. Living conditions aredifficult. Iran did not get the goodies that itexpected after signing the JCPOA. Inflation ishigh. The Iranian rial is trading at 75,000 to thedollar. People are angry with the government.According to the well-researched workDemocracy in Iran: Why It Failed and How ItMight Succeed by American academic MisaghParsa, disaffection among the people hasmanifested itself in several forms. Hundreds ofmosques do not have imams and theattendance at Friday prayers has dwindleddramatically. Some are converting toChristianity and, according to Professor Parsa,even to the Baha'i faith, which is the largestnon-Muslim community in Iran. ProfessorParsa states that there is massive corruptionas well as economic inequality in Iran. All inall, he suggests that it is quite likely that theremight be a revolutionary upsurge, though he iscareful not to indicate any timeline for it.

A DIFFERENT CALCULATION: It is thisdiscontent that Mr. Trump might be countingon tapping. His calculation seems to be that thereimposition of severe sanctions would renderlife very difficult, almost unbearable, for thepopulace who might, in the absence of otheravenues, take to the streets, as they did in 1979to overthrow the Shah's regime which too, likethe present one, had strong military andoppressive secret services such as the Savak

but which could not defeat public anger,frustration and rage. For these reasons, Mr.Trump is unlikely to listen to voices of reasonor to appeals from his Western allies. He isequally not likely to grant exemptions fromsanctions to any country engaging in any formof trade and other transactions with Iran. Hisadministration will follow strict interpretationof the guidelines regarding the sanctionsregime.

IRANIAN RESTRAINT: Iran has shownrestraint, forsaking knee-jerk reaction. It didnot declare that the deal was dead, as it mightwell have done. It did not announce immediateresumption of uranium enrichment, which itemphasized will be at the industrial level. Ithas so far not called off International AtomicEnergy Agency (IAEA) inspections. Iran willconsult with the other signatories to theJCPOA for several weeks before taking anyfurther action. This shows the maturity ofIranian diplomacy. It remains to be seen howlong France and others will stick to theirposition of continuing to adhere to the deal;they will eventually have to fall in line in someway with the Americans, if not for politicalthen for economic considerations. For Mr.Trump, the Republicans are fully with him andthe Democrats will be too eventually.

Will Iran live up to the Americancalculation? For the present, Mr. Trump'sdecision has strengthened the hardliners.President Hassan Rouhani, regarded as amoderate, has no option but to take a defiantstance. The Iranian people, proud as they are oftheir heritage, will stand behind their regime.But there may come a time when theirhardships reach a stage when they might feelcompelled to take to the streets.

In the meanwhile, Iran will even morevigorously support the Bashar al-Assadregime in Damascus, in which it will be joinedby Russia and Hezbollah, which has done verywell in the parliamentary elections in Lebanon

this month. The Houthi rebels in Yemen willfeel more emboldened to take on the Saudi-ledcoalition; of course, the Yemeni people willcontinue to suffer, as will the Syrian people, foryears to come. Iran will more directlyintervene in Iraq and render the possibility ofprogress in the non-existent peace effort inAfghanistan even more difficult.

If the regime in Tehran does not collapse,the Washington-Jerusalem-Riyadh axis mightlook for an alternative course of action, notexcluding military. In that case, the NobelPeace Prize will elude Mr. Trump.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi hasestablished special relationship with Israeland its present Prime Minister, BenjaminNetanyahu. He has also made efforts to forgeintimate relations with the U.S. With bothIndia has the upper hand, since it is they whowant to sell expensive military hardware toIndia. Under the circumstances, India hasmade a well-drafted two-sentence statement onthe Trump decision. The first strikes a balancebetween Iran's right to develop nuclear energyfor peaceful purposes as also the internationalcommunity's concern to ensure that itsnuclear program remains strictly peaceful.The second sentence contains implicitdisapproval of the American decision andwarns, again implicitly, against any strongmilitary action. For India, the question willalso be: can it rely on the U.S. to honor even itswritten word embodied in internationalagreements? Mr. Trump wants to annul everysingle achievement of his predecessor -Obamacare, the North American Free TradeAgreement, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, theParis Agreement, and now JCPOA. India willhave to remain vigilant in dealing with thisadministration; it would not be prudent toassume that it is a special case.

FALLOUT FOR INDIA: The impact onIndia will be severe. The price of crude isalready close to $80. Energy imports from Iranwill become difficult and expensive. Fuelprices will go up. The Reserve Bank of Indiamight have to increase interest rates to containinflation and step in to check the fall in therupee's value. All this might have a directbearing on politics, given the fact that thegovernment was the beneficiary of low crudeprice for the first four years but may have toface consequences of inflation and attendantfactors in its fifth.

(The author is a former Indian Ambassador tothe United Nations, was Special Envoy for West

Asia in the Manmohan Singh government)

GUESTCOMMENT

By Chinmaya R.Gharekhan

THE U.S. WON'T EASE THE TERMS OF SANCTIONS ON IRAN, AS THEGOAL IS REGIME CHANGE IN TEHRAN

“The impact on India will be severe. The price of crude isalready close to $80. Energy imports from Iran will becomedifficult and expensive. Fuel prices will go up. The Reserve

Bank of India might have to increase interest rates to containinflation and step in to check the fall in the rupee's value. All thismight have a direct bearing on politics, given the fact that thegovernment was the beneficiary of low crude price for the firstfour years but may have to face consequences of inflation andattendant factors in its fifth", says the author.

US goal in Iran is regime change

9PERESPECTIVETHE INDIAN PANORAMAFRIDAY, MAY 11, 2018

CAN THE BJP WREST KARNATAKA FROM THE CONGRESS?

"Yes", says Muralidhar Rao; Rajeev Gowda says "No"; For Sandeep Shastri, "It's Complicated" |Yes | Muralidhar Rao

The JD(S) and the Congress are two facesof the same coin. The BJP will win with amajority

Yes, we will definitely wrest power from the Congress.The Bharatiya Janata Party's preparation, bothorganizationally and politically, points to a victory for

the party. We can also sense that the mood of the people inKarnataka has changed. People have problems, which the Stategovernment has failed to address. Whether it is in theagricultural sector, infrastructure, or urban management,mismanagement has become a major issue. People have beenagitating for quite some time and their disillusionment withthe ruling Congress is complete. The BJP leadership hasworked hard to mobilize public opinion against the rulingparty. The BJP will continue to do what it has been doing in therest of the country, which is to fight against the Congress.

Issues in KarnatakaAs far as the issues in the campaign are concerned, in the

last two years, the farm sector has been in the grip of an acutecrisis and the government has been unable to address andarrest the problem of farmers' suicides. Close to 3,800 farmershave committed suicide in the last five years. The governmenthas been insensitive to the issue. Even before the elections, weorganized a special campaign for farmers, collected grainsfrom them, and pledged to put an end to the crisis.

Look at Bengaluru. It has become a city of crime. It is full ofpotholes. It faced floods. Even the Lokayukta, P. VishwanathShetty, is not safe in his office and the attack on himdemonstrated how law and order has deteriorated in the State.Corruption, scams and scandals have added to people'srestlessness with the ruling party. The attitude of the Stategovernment to terror groups, particularly in coastal areas, isappalling. More than 24 activists have been killed byextremists. Not a single case has been pursued; arrests havenot been made. The Congress's silence on the Popular Front ofIndia, which should have been banned a long time ago, appearsto indicate that the PFI enjoys protection from thegovernment.

We have been accused of associating ourselves with theBellary brothers. This has been completely misrepresented.Janardhana Reddy, who has been named in the FIR, has notbeen given a ticket and we have not used him in the campaign.His brother is a sitting MLA. There is no case against him.Also, don't you think Chief Minister Siddaramaiah could havetaken action against the two brothers? Why didn't he?

The BJP's promisesI think the promises made in our manifesto will persuade

people to vote for us. In the farming sector, we have spelt outthe issues we are going to pursue. For instance, to address thedebt crisis, we have declared a ?1 lakh loan waiver for farmersrom nationalized banks and co-operative banks.

Bengaluru is a hub for translating the global ambitions ofIndia. Instead, we now see the city being associated with crimeand corruption. On the welfare front, we have conceptualizedmany programs for the people of Karnataka: free education forall students in government colleges, for BPL families,smartphones for women. We are working on a growth-centricplan and that's our promise to the people of Karnataka. We willget more than 150 seats. I have no doubt that a massivemajority will come to the BJP. The Janata Dal (Secular) andCongress are two faces of the same coin. Both are pursuingvote-bank politics and are family-driven parties. We will winon the promise of development alone.

(MURALIDHAR RAO IS A NATIONAL GENERALSECRETARY OF THE BJP)

(AS TOLD TO ANURADHA RAMAN)

NO | Rajeev Gowda

The voters prefer a stable governmentthat has ensured inclusive growth

Prime Minister Narendra Modi belatedly descended onKarnataka in a desperate attempt to revive the BJP'scollapsing campaign. Unfortunately for him, the ground

reality will demonstrate that Karnataka is not Gujarat. Mr.Siddaramaiah's inclusive welfare programs have ensured that

voters remain steadfastly with the Congress.

Achievements of the CongressHunger will soon be history due to the Anna Bhagya

scheme. Mathru Poorna is transforming the health of women,during and after pregnancy, while ensuring healthier children.Indira canteens help the urban poor access a nutritious mealat low cost. Dairy farmers received higher prices and childrenget milk in schools. Farmers gained from a loan waiver,subsidized rental equipment, and farm ponds. An integrated e-market increased farmer's income by 38% in 2015-16, accordingto a Niti Aayog report.

Karnataka leads India in investment intentions and followthrough. The youth flock to Bengaluru, India's start-up capital.A quarter of jobs created in India were in Karnataka, asreported in April 2016. Mainstays like IT and biotechnologycrossed revenues of $50 billion. With an average GSDP growthof 8% over five years, people will be happy to stay with agovernment that works.

Nightmare years of the BJPVoters have not forgotten the five nightmare years, which

were marked by incompetence and instability, when the BJPran Karnataka. Three Chief Ministers took turns to defendcorruption on a scale that shamed the State. B.S. Yeddyurappaled his Cabinet colleagues, the Reddy brothers, Katta Jagadish,Krishnaiah Setty, Harta Halappa, etc. to jail. Mr. Modi'srhetoric and flood of falsehoods cannot cover up that sorrytrack record, especially when the same crew is back helmingthe BJP's election campaign.

A track record in abetting instability is also true for theJD(S). Widely regarded as untrustworthy, it is now confined tothe Old Mysore region. It will garner at least 10 seats less thanits 40 in 2013. However, it has kept the BJP from gaining afoothold in Old Mysore. The BJP's absence in Old Mysoremeans that in 10 of Karnataka's 30 districts, it is likely to winonly a handful of seats. Its old Hindutva laboratory, the coast,rejected it in 2013, and will do so again, turned off bypolarization. The BJP won nearly half of Bengaluru Urbanlast time but will do worse now. It is in closely fought Mumbai-Karnataka and Central Karnataka that the BJP is hoping togain seats. While it may be aided here by the Karnataka JanataPaksha and the Badavara Shramikara Raithara Congresscoming back to the BJP fold, the chemistry has gone all awryowing to competing factions. In Hyderabad-Karnataka, it iscounting on the eight seats given to the Reddy family to help it,but the leadership of Mallikarjun Kharge and the fact that theUnited Progressive Alliance granted 371(J) status to thisregion will ensure that the Congress stays ahead. Dalit angerat the BJP's injustice nationwide is reflecting acrossKarnataka. In contrast, Mr. Siddaramaiah has allocatedbudgets in proportion to the population percentage ofScheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

Opinion polls show that Mr. Siddaramaiah remains thenumber one choice for Chief Minister. According to polls,voters consider the BJP to be the most corrupt party. A sectionof the Lingayats is expected to quietly vote for the party thatresponded to their aspirations. The Supreme Court awarding alarger share of Cauvery water to Karnataka has marked Mr.Siddaramaiah as a champion of the State's interests. He hasalso highlighted Kannada pride. A stable government whichhas delivered to all sections and ensured inclusive growth iswhat the voters prefer. On May 15, the Congress will be backwith a bang, setting the trend for 2019.

(RAJEEV GOWDA IS A CONGRESS MP ANDCHAIRMAN OF THE AICC'S RESEARCH

DEPARTMENT)

It's Complicated | Sandeep Shastri

In several constituencies, the BJP, JD(S)and the Congress are engaged in a three-way fight

The Karnataka electoral contest seems to be heading for aphoto finish and is fascinatingly complex and suspense-filled.

Contradictory trendsFor the last three decades, Karnataka has never given a clear

majority to the ruling party. This should make it easier tomake predictions. The BJP could argue that it is the natural

alternative to the Congress. Yet politics often defies logic.Karnataka was also witness to another trend during the sameperiod: it has almost always gone against the national trendduring Assembly elections. Karnataka seems set to negate oneof these two trends, but the question is which one.

The BJP is convinced that it will wrest Karnataka fromthe Congress and make a grand entry in the south on thestrength of what it will term as an anti-incumbency vote.Even if one were to assume that there is anti-incumbency,the BJP does not become the natural beneficiary of that.Opinion polls have pointed to the split of the anti-Congress vote between the BJP and the JD(S). The BJP isalso heavily banking on its star campaigner, PrimeMinister Narendra Modi, to help it. The dependence ofthe party on the Prime Minister was evident in the last-minute increase in the number of rallies that Mr. Modiwas scheduled to address. Yet, the impact of hiscampaign is still a matter of debate.

This is the first major test of Mr. Modi's capacity tosway an electorate in a State Assembly poll south of theVindhyas. But can the faction-ridden State unit of theBJP and an increasingly sidelined chief ministerialcandidate take the possible momentum generated by thePrime Minister's whirlwind campaign to the ground andtranslate that into votes? More importantly, has the BJPpitched its campaign on appropriate and relevant State-level issues and has its chief ministerial candidateinspired the electorate to favor the party?

The ruling Congress has its visible strengths but couldwell have peaked too early and lost the momentum in thecrucial final week of the campaign. In the run-up to thecampaign, it was clearly setting the agenda, pushing theBJP on the defensive. In its Chief Minister, the partyfound a campaigner who could bring together the diverseelements within the party to take on the opposition witha conscious focus on the local. Yet, there are factors thatcould halt this movement. The responsibility ofdefending the State government has virtually been left tothe Chief Minister, with other Ministers busy managingtheir own small constituencies and contributing verylittle to the State-wide campaign.

The JD(S) questionFurther, the unhappiness of the electorate with the

track record of the State government on the key issues oftackling price rise, generating employment, andcontrolling corruption is visible. A key strategy of theCongress to win over the Lingayats by recommendingthem a minority religion status appears to havebackfired.

The presence of the JD(S) as a key player in selectregions has converted the electoral battle in severalconstituencies into a three-way fight. By carving out foritself a segment of the anti-Congress vote, the JD(S) issurely eating into the BJP vote. Yet, the same could besaid about the anti-BJP vote, which, especially incommunally sensitive areas, could be split between theJD (S) and the Congress. The JD(S)'s efforts to be king-maker has led to a debate on whether Karnataka is onceagain heading for an Assembly with no party securing aclear majority.

(SANDEEP SHASTRI IS A POLITICALSCIENTIST AND THE NATIONAL COORDINATOR

OF THE LOKNITI NETWORK)

(SOURCE: THE HINDU)

War of words-Rahul Gandhi and Narendra Modi

10 THE INDIAN PANORAMAFRIDAY, MAY 11, 2018NYIFF

2018 New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF)“

NYIFF is known around the world for its top-notch, out-of-the-box programming, and this year is no different. The New Yorkaudience is sophisticated, well-traveled, educated and discerning; as such, our content reflects what we think will resonate withthe cinephiles of this cosmopolitan city and will keep them coming back for more."

Aroon Shivdasani, Founder-Executive & Artistic Director, IAAC.

“We had to make some tough choices but I'm thrilled with our selections representing new independent Indian and South Asiancinema, as well works from the South Asian Diaspora" Aseem Chhabra, NYIFF Director

About NYIFFThe New York Indian FilmFestival (NYIFF) is the oldest,most prestigious film festivalscreening premiere of feature,documentary and short filmsmade from, of, and about theIndian subcontinent in theIndependent, arthouse, alternateand diaspora genres. Six days ofscreenings, post-screeningdiscussions, industry panels,award ceremony, special events,nightly networking parties, redcarpet galas, media attentionand packed audiences build anawareness of Indian cinema,entertain & educate NorthAmericans about the real India,and add to the amazing culturaldiversity of New York City.

For further information, visitwww.iaac.us/NYIFF2018/index.htm

About IAAC The Indo-American Arts Council(IAAC) is a not-for-profit,secular service and resourcearts organization charged withthe mission of promoting andbuilding the awareness,creation, production, exhibition,publication and performance ofIndian and cross-cultural artforms in North America. TheIAAC supports all artisticdisciplines in the classical,fusion, folk and innovative formsinfluenced by the arts of India.IAAC works cooperatively withcolleagues around the UnitedStates to broaden theircollective audiences and tocreate a network for sharedinformation, resources andfunding.

Its focus is to work with artistsand arts organizations in NorthAmerica as well as to facilitateartists and arts organizationsfrom India to exhibit, performand produce their works here.

For further information, visitwww.iaac.us

About Qube Cinema,Inc. Qube Cinema, Inc., a provider ofend-to-end digital cinematechnology and solutions, is thedistribution partner for thefestival. The company draws ondecades of experience in cinemaand provides a seamless digitalenvironment for exhibitors,filmmakers and post-productioncompanies with DCI compliantproducts that are flexible,reliable and cost-effective.

For further information, visitwww.qubecinema.com

About Qube WireFilmmakers increasingly rely onQube Wire for secure andreliable movie content deliveryto the festival.

To sign up for Qube Wireservice, visitwww.qubewire.com

BY MABEL PAIS

The longest-running, mostprestigious South Asian FilmFestival in North America,

NYIFF, kicked off on May 7 at theVillage East Cinemas in the lowereast side of Manhattan at 181-189, 2ndAvenue, New York, NY 10003.

The Festival continues until May12 at the location.

The Festival boasts 78 shorts,documentaries and feature filmsscreened over the period of 6 days.

Festival Highlights:The opening night red carpet took

place on Monday, May 7th from 6 pmto 7 p.m. outside the Village EastCinemas, preceding the U.S.premiere of Ravi Jadhav's Marathilanguage film NUDE (with Englishsubtitles).

The closing night red carpet willtake place from 5-6 p.m., May 12, onceagain outside the Village EastCinemas, preceding the New Yorkpremiere of veteran NYIFF directorHansal Mehta's biopic on Islamicfundamentalist Omar Saeed Sheikh,OMERTA, at 6 p.m.

The centerpiece slot was occupiedby Miransha Naik's Konkanilanguage film JUZE (with Englishsubtitles), making its NorthAmerican premiere at NYIFF onMay 10.

The entire festival schedulecomprising of 78 films in 11languages (English, Hindi, Marathi,Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada,Tulu, Konkani, Bengali & Assamese),is available on the festival's website.The programming boasts four worldpremieres, two internationalpremieres, six North Americanpremieres, one U.S. premiere and 11New York premieres from four SouthAsian countries (India, Pakistan,Bangladesh & Sri Lanka), as well asNorth America and the UnitedKingdom.

NYIFF 2018 paid tribute to twoIndian film industry icons whopassed away in the last four months:Hollywood/Bollywood actor ShashiKapoor and the India's first femalesuperstar Sridevi. Kapoor's tributecomprised of two masterpiecesAcademy Award winner JamesIvory's: SHAKESPEARE WALLAHand HEAT AND DUST. The festivalalso screened AUTOBIOGRAPHY OFA PRINCESS, starring New Yorkauthor and chef Madhur Jaffrey, aspart of its Merchant-IvoryRetrospective. To honor Sridevi'smemory, NYIFF showcased theactress' 2012 return to Bollywood inENGLISH VINGLISH, shotprimarily in New York City.

Additional highlights atthe festival included:

Discovering the Film andTelevision Market in India PanelDiscussion, Shooting films in NewYork State Panel Discussion, The

Inclusion Rider's Role inDiversifying Hollywood PanelDiscussion, Networking events andnightly parties, The NYIFF 2018winners will be announced at theawards night ceremony on May 12

from a list of nominated films forOn a par with the procedures of

the Oscars and Golden Globes, thejurors send their decisions directly toKPMG, who bring the envelopes forthe winning films and filmmakers to

the awards ceremony on May 12,immediately following the closingnight film.

(Mabel Pais writes on the Arts andEntertainment, Social Issues, Health

and Wellness, and Spirituality)

Opening nightmovie, Nude

Closing night movie, Omerta

Centerpiece, Juze

Best Film: BALEKEMPA

JUZE

LIGHT IN THE ROOM

NUDE

TAKE OFF

Best Director:Atanu Ghosh (MAYURAKSHI)

Ere Gowda (BALEKEMPA)

Rahul Nair (LIGHT IN THE ROOM)

Chezhian Ra (TO-LET)

Nishil Sheth (BHASMASUR)

Best Screenplay:CHUMBAK

CRD

HER, HIM, THE OTHER

THE HUNGRY

JUZE

Best Actress:Sushama Deshpande (AJJI)

Vinitha Koshy (LIGHT IN THEROOM)

Kalyani Mulay (NUDE)

Parvathy (TAKE OFF)

Bindu Raxidi (PADDAYI)

Best Child Actor:Mittal Chouhan (BHASMASUR)

Kapil Garo (ISHU)

Chandra Kiran GK (SUMMER OFMIRACLES)

Ali Halji (NOBLEMEN)

Rushikesh Naik (JUZE)

Best Short:AL-WAR

HUMMINGBIRD

MAACHER JHOL (The Fish Curry)

JAAN JIGAR

MANDI (The Market)

Best Documentary:ABU

BIRD OF DUSK

CHILDREN PLAYING GOD

LIMITLESS

NAKED WHEELS

Heat And Dust English Vinglish Photos / Courtesy NYIFF

11WORLDTHE INDIAN PANORAMAFRIDAY, MAY 11, 2018

Vladimir Putin, newly inaugurated,reviews Russia’s ‘invincible

weapons’ on Red SquareMOSCOW (TIP): Russia's Vladimir

Putin watched advanced jets carrying ahypersonic missile he has touted asinvincible scream over Red Square onWednesday, days after the start of hisfourth presidential term.

Part of an annual event marking theSoviet Union's World War Two victory overthe Nazis, Putin looked on as thousands oftroops marched past him and columns oftanks rumbled across the famous square ina show of military might reminiscent ofthose displayed during the Cold War.

Putin reviewed the parade from atribune packed with Soviet war veterans,some of whom wore rows of campaignmedals and clutched red roses. IsraeliPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, inMoscow for talks on Syria, was alsopresent, as was Serbian PresidentAleksandar Vucic. Hollywood actor StevenSeagal, who was given a passport by Putinin 2016, was also a guest.

The authorities, backed by state media,use the event to boost patriotic feeling andshow the world and potential buyers ofmilitary hardware how a multi-billiondollar modernisation programme ischanging the face of the Russian military.

Putin, whose relations with the West areon a hostile trajectory, has said he does notwant an arms race while warningpotential enemies that his country hasdeveloped a new generation of invincibleweapons to protect itself just in case.

"We remember the tragedies of the twoworld wars, about the lessons of historywhich do not allow us to become blind. Thesame old ugly traits are appearing alongwith new threats: egoism, intolerance,aggressive nationalism and claims toexceptionalism," Putin told the parade.

"We understand the full seriousness ofthose threats," added Putin, whocomplained about what he said wereunacceptable attempts to rewrite historywhile saying Russia was open to talks onglobal security if they helped keep worldpeace.

Putin has sharply increased militaryspending over the 18 years he hasdominated Russian politics, handed theRussian military significant policy-

making clout, and deployed Russian forcesin Ukraine and Syria, stoking tensionswith the West.

As commander-in-chief, he has also attimes donned military uniform himselfand been filmed at the controls of astrategic bomber and on the conning towerof a submarine in photo opportunitiesdesigned to boost his man of action image.

Weapons displayed on Red Squareincluded Russia's Yars mobileintercontinental nuclear missile launcher,its Iskander-M ballistic missile launchers,and its advanced S-400 air defence missilesystem, which Moscow has deployed inSyria to protect its forces.

'INVINCIBLE MISSILE': The firstpublic outing of the Kinjal (Dagger)hypersonic missile, carried by advancedMiG-31K interceptor jets, was one ofseveral world premieres for Russianweapons. Putin disclosed the Kinjal'sexistence in March along with othermissile systems he touted as unbeatable,describing how it could evade any enemydefences. Russian media have said it canhit targets up to 2,000 km (1,250 miles)distant with nuclear or conventionalwarheads and that the missiles havealready been deployed in Russia's southernmilitary district.

Russia's most advanced fifth generationSu-57 stealth fighter, which has undergonetesting in Syria, also took part in theparade for the first time, as did anunmanned armoured reconnaissance andinfantry support vehicle, the Uran-9.

Armed with a 30mm automatic cannon,a machine gun, anti-tank missiles and arocket launcher, it looks like something outof a Hollywood science fiction film.

An unmanned de-mining vehicle, theUran-6, was also put on show, as wereRussia's latest military drones and anarmoured vehicle designed to supporttanks on the battlefield dubbed "TheTerminator" by its maker.

An advanced Russian militarysnowmobile fitted with a machine gun, theBerkut, built to bolster Moscow's Arcticambitions, also traversed the cobbledsquare. The Moscow parade was one ofmany which took place across Russia onWednesday involving a total of 55,000troops, 1,200 weapons systems and 150 warplanes in 28 Russian cities.

Some politicians in former Sovietrepublics and satellite states regard theparade as crude sabre-rattling by aresurgent Russia they say poses a threat toEurope's security. Russia dismisses suchallegations as nonsense. (Reuters)

Sweden allows mosque to call forprayer in controversial move

STOCKHOLM (TIP): Swedish policetoday granted a mosque permission to holda weekly call for prayer, triggeringdivisions among politicians and the publicfive months ahead of elections in acountry which has taken in waves ofasylum seekers in recent years.

The police permit, which is valid for ayear, has caused concern among somepoliticians that it will exacerbate culturaltensions, while others maintained aneutral stance of the September 9 generalelection.

"Call to prayer will not strengthenintegration in (the southern city of Vaxjo),but it will rather risk pulling the cityfurther apart," city council Anna Tenje ofthe conservative Moderates told TT news

agency. But Sweden's Social DemocratsPrime Minister Stefan Lofven said thatending segregation goes hand in hand withtackling unemployment and making sureschools and neighbourhoods have highstandards. "The entire society in Sweden isbuilt on having different religions," he toldTT. According to a poll conducted by thesocial research company SIFO andpublished by the private broadcaster TV4in March, 60 per cent of respondents saidthey wanted to ban the Islamic call toprayer from mosques in Sweden.

The police said in their statement thatthe mosque in Vaxjo will be allowed to holdthe Islamic call to prayer, the Adhan, everyFriday for three minutes and 45 seconds.

Leader of the Christian Democrats Ebba

Busch Thor, who contested the decision,said "people shouldn't have to hear it intheir homes." The police said the volume ofthe mosque's speakers was not allowed toexceed a certain level so as not to riskdisturbing households nearby.

They added the decision was based onthe nation's public order laws and not onreligion.

Vaxjo's mosque is the country's third tobe allowed to hold a call to prayer,following one in a Stockholm suburb andanother in the nation's southeast.

Avdi Islami, a spokesman for theMuslim community in Vaxjo, saidthousands of Muslims visit the mosqueevery year and likened the prayer calls toringing church bells. (AFP)

Google suspends all adsrelated to Irish abortionreferendum

LONDON (TIP): Google says it is suspending alladvertising connected to Ireland's abortionreferendum as part of moves to protect "electionintegrity."

The internet giant says that from May 10 it will nolonger display ads related to the May 25 vote onwhether to repeal Ireland's constitutional ban onabortion.

Google says the move is part of its global efforts toprotect election integrity. It applies to ads on Googleand on YouTube, which it owns.

Google's statement Wednesday follows a decision byFacebook to ban foreign advertisements for thereferendum, amid concerns about North Americangroups' influence.

The role of online ads in elections is under scrutinyafter revelations that political consultancy CambridgeAnalytica harvested Facebook users' data to micro-target political ads to select groups during the 2016U.S. presidential race. (AP)

Britain says world shouldhold Donald Trump to hisword on finding new Iransolution

LONDON (TIP): British Foreign Secretary BorisJohnson said the world should hold U.S. PresidentDonald Trump to his stated aim of finding a newsolution to the Iranian nuclear threat.

Johnson, speaking to the British parliament, said itwas now up to the United States to come forward withconcrete proposals on Iran. (Reuters)

UK foreign secretary BorisJohnson attacks TheresaMay customs proposal as'crazy'

LONDON (TIP): British Foreign Secretary BorisJohnson has attacked Prime Minister Theresa May'splan for a customs partnership with the EuropeanUnion after the UK leaves the bloc -- the latest sign ofdissent within her Cabinet.

Johnson told the Daily Mail newspaper that thepartnership idea was "crazy" and would create a"whole new web of bureaucracy."

The comments come after May's Cabinet last weekfailed to agree on a preferred option for Britain'sfuture customs relationship with EU. May's preferredoption is a partnership under which the UK wouldcollect import duties on behalf of the EU for goodsarriving via British ports.

Johnson tells the newspaper that May's idea is"totally untried and would make it very, very difficultto do free trade deals." (AP)

UK airports to add explosivedetection dogs to screencargo

LONDON (TIP): British officials say dogs trainedto detect explosives are being deployed at airports toscreen cargo for possible devices.

The Department of Transport said on Sunday thateach dog has been trained for 12 months to be able todetect small traces of explosives. They will be based inairport cargo sheds to screen large volumes of freightas one additional layer of protection.

Aviation minister Elizabeth Sugg says the use ofthe dogs "will bolster our existing rigorous securitymethods."

Dogs are already deployed at UK airports, includingLondon's sprawling Heathrow Airport, to aid police inidentifying criminals and preventing drug transportand other illegal activities. (AP)

12 THE INDIAN PANORAMAFRIDAY, MAY 11, 2018 BOLLYWOOD

SONAM KAPOOR MARRIES ANAND AHUJAIN TRADITIONAL SIKH WEDDING

Bollywood star Sonam Kapoor on May 8tied the knot with longtime beauAnand Ahuja, a Delhi-based

businessman, in a traditional Anand Karajceremony that was attended by familymembers and close friends from the Hindifilm industry.

True to her image of a fashionista, Sonamlooked radiant in a red and golden AnuradhaVakil lehenga choli. The floral attirematched the brides blush, while the heavyjewellery elevated her royal look. Ahujaopted for beige bandhgala by RaghavendraRathore.

The couple got married in the Sikhceremony at Sonams maternal auntsbungalow in Bandra, here. The weddingceremony started around 12:30 pm and endedat around 1:20 pm.

Father Anil Kapoor, mother SunitaKapoor, brother Harashvardhan, ArjunKapoor, Sanjay Kapoor, Boney Kapoor alongwith daughters Janhvi and Khushi, MohitMarwah among other family membersattended the wedding ceremony.

From Bollywood, megastar AmitabhBachchan, son Abhishek and daughterShweta were among the first ones to arrive atthe venue.

Other industry celebrities who attendedthe wedding were Karan Johar, Saif AliKhan, who arrived with wife KareenaKapoor and son Taimur, Karisma Kapoor,Rani Mukerji, Jacquline Fernandez, SwaraBhasker, Javed Akhtar, designer MasabaGupta, Ranveer Singh, Aamir Khan, wifeKiran Rao and elder son Junaid.

The wedding ceremony will be followed bylunch, and later in the evening the newlyweds will host a grand reception at a five starhotel for other relatives and Sonamsindustry friends.

Sonam and Anand, who have been datingfor the past two years, announced theirwedding a week ago. The wedding waspreceded by two-day long celebrations thatincluded mehendi and sangeet functions.

Source: PTI

Cannes 2018: Desi girl KanganaRanaut is a retro vision

Kangana Ranaut is truly a vision to behold at the Cannes Film Festival.The Queen actress made her debut at the film festival in a glamorousblack embellished saree by Sabyasachi. Kangana has accentuated her

look with a teenmaniya necklace, crafted out of rose-cut diamonds,Colombian emeralds and basra pearls, as stated by the designer. Kangana'spictures were shared by Sabyasachi and the posts give a detailed description

about her debut appearance at the Cannes.Speaking at the Indian Pavillion at the 71st edition of the festival, where she had a

discussion with Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) chairman Prasoon Joshion women in Indian films, Kangana said the times have changed and gender bias isnot the norm anymore in the film industry.

Asked if she is an exception, Kangana said, “I am not an exception. With themodernisation and the way the world has changed...the difference between menand women have changed. There is a certain equality that has come about in hesystem. People now question if actor and actresses put in the same effort, whycan’t they be treated as equals?”

She also talked about regional cinema: “We have four regional films that arebeing screened here. It is very endearing that our regional films - Bengali,

Malayalam, Punjabi, Assamese - are getting such a platform and will be showcasedhere. Someone made a film for the first time in Lakshwadeep and it is getting such

a grand platform as Cannes! The fact that filmmakers are now getting such wideplatforms is great.”

13HOLLYWOOD THE INDIAN PANORAMAFRIDAY, MAY 11, 2018

Selena Gomez is proudly standing onher own two feet. After dealing withthe fallout of yet another breakup from

Justin Bieber, multiple sources tell E! Newsthe singer is in a much better place andlooking toward the future. We're told Gomezhas "completely moved on" Bieber and is"not interested in getting back together withhim anytime soon."

The insider explains, "She respects him asa person but has decided she is muchhappier doing her own thing. Selena rarelyeven talks about Justin anymore, and is fullyopen to dating."

A second source says Selena, 25, andJustin, 24, "aren't in contact." After thingsbetween the celeb pair began to fall apart inMarch, the "Sorry" performer beganspending time with Instagram model BaskinChampion. Despite a whirlwindreconnection, it's safe to say Jelena is overfor good.

"Selena is going in a different directionwith her life," the source shares with E!News. "She's had a lot of self-reflection timeand it's been good for her. She's hanging outwith friends and taking it easy."

The "Wolves" songstress, who prior toBieber dated The Weeknd for almost a year,is "learning to appreciate" the single life,adds the source. "You can never say neverwith her and Justin, but at the moment theyaren't in contact and she's feeling very strongand content," our insider says.

Meanwhile, Selena's career onlycontinues to pick up speed. After attendingMonday night's 2018 Met Gala, the pop star isexpected back in the recording studio as shecompletes her third studio album. The firstsource tells us, "Selena has been travelingconstantly and is putting a lot of her effortinto her new music and projects with Coachand Puma. She really wants to finish analbum this year and is focused solely onmaking hits and keeping herself healthy."

Of course, Selena still experiences boutsof self doubt every now and then. In anInstagram video posted Wednesday, shealluded to disliking photos taken of her atthe Met Gala. "Me when I saw my picturesfrom MET," SelGo captioned a video ofherself sprinting through a parking garagestill wearing her custom Coach gown andfull glam.

PENELOPE CRUZ, JAVIERGOT EQUAL PAYCHECKS

FOR CANNES MOVIE

JORDIN SPARKS WALKSRED CARPET 3 DAYSAFTER GIVING BIRTH

Just three days after giving birth to her firstchild, singer-actress Jordin Sparks hit thered carpet to promote her upcoming film '

Show Dogs'.Sparks, who welcomed her son Dana Isaiah

Thomas Jr on May 2, was spotted donning afloral Saloni dress, Schutz shoes and MelindaMaria jewellery at the movie's premiere.

At the premiere, Sparks, who is married toDana Isaiah, described the birthing process as'miraculously beautiful'.

"Dana caught him with my midwife, Simona,and when he handed him to me, I was absolutelyoverwhelmed with joy. He was and is everythingwe imagined," she said.

Source: ANI

The entertainment industry has along way to go when it comes topay-disparity. However, that isn't

the case with popular Hollywood couplePenelope Cruz and Javier Bardem as theactress has revealed that the duo receivedequal paychecks for their new movie'Everybody Knows.' According to areport, Cruz discussed her and Bardem'ssalary for the movie at its premiere at the71st Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday.

When asked if the couple both receivedthe equal paychecks for their latestmovie, Cruz broke out a sly smile andreplied: "Actually, yes."

The Oscar - winning actress then spokeabout how she works with her real-lifepartner, who she first collaborated within 1992 film 'Jamon Jamon'.

"We don't take the characters home atthe end of the day. We have similar waysof work. The fact that we know eachother and trust each other helps," Cruzsaid.

Cruz, 44, admitted that she had adifferent approach to roles when she wasyounger."When I was in my 20s, I thoughtthe more I would torture myself and the

more I would stay incharacter for months,

the better the resultwould be. I learnedit's not reallyrelated to that. Ihave a life and Ihave a job. That

allows me tojump fromreality tof i c t i o n , "she said.

Selena Gomez has ‘moved on’ from Justin Bieber and is feeling ‘strong’

14 THE INDIAN PANORAMAFRIDAY, MAY 11, 2018WORLD

Spain takes tentative firststep to legalisingeuthanasia

MADRID (TIP): Spain's lower house voted onMay 8 in favour of examining a bill on legalisingeuthanasia, a first in the country even if there willlikely be major opposition as it weaves its waythrough parliament.

Lawmakers voted 173 against 135 -- and 32abstentions -- to examine the bill, which wasoriginally drafted by Catalonia's regional assembly.

This is the first time that a bill aimed at legalisingeuthanasia makes it past this first hurdle afterprevious attempts failed, a parliamentspokeswoman told AFP.

It seeks to modify part of article 143 of Spain'spenal code, which currently bans anyone fromcausing or cooperating with the death of anotherperson suffering from "a serious, terminal illness orone that causes serious, permanent ailments thatare difficult to endure." The bill would make it legalfor a person to cause or help cause the "reliable,peaceful, painless death" of another suffering fromthose problems if they "specifically, freely andunequivocally" ask for it.

Currently in Spain, people with incurablediseases only have the option to refuse treatment.

But according to an opinion poll conducted byresearch firm Metroscopia in March 2017, 84 percent of Spaniards are in favour of allowing peoplewith terminal illnesses to be helped to die"painlessly." Lawmakers from Spain's conservativeruling Popular Party and another from the regionalparty of Navarra voted against accepting the billtoday.

Centre-right party Ciudadanos, meanwhile,abstained, while all the other groupings inparliament -- most of them left-wing -- voted infavour.

Now that it has passed the first hurdle, the billwill go through various stages in parliament -- withdifferent groups likely to present their amendments-- before it gets to the final voting stage in the lowerhouse. (PTI)

Ex-head of Chineseinsurance firm jailed for 18years

BEIJING (TIP): Wu Xiaohui, the formerchairman and CEO of China's Anbang InsuranceGroup, has been sentenced to 18 years in prison forfraud and embezzlement, a court said on May 10.

Wu was also denied his political rights for fouryears and 10.5 billion yuan ($1 billion) worth of hisassets were seized, Efe news reported citing thecourt.

All his illegal gains will be recovered.The trial of one of China's most successful

businessmen began in March and Wu pleaded guiltyto a fraud involving more than 75.2 billion yuan.

Wu was under investigation from June 2017 and inFebruary was removed from his post as head ofAnbang, one of the most important insurancecompanies in China.

According to the prosecution, Wu used Anbang asa fund raising platform and a channel to transfercustomer premiums to line his own pockets.

He owned and controlled more than 200companies that were little known and which hadincreased their participation in Anbang withinvestments to have absolute control over the group.

In 2011, based on Wu's decision, the companylaunched a new investment product and forgeddocuments to obtain approval from China'sInsurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC).

The CIRC set a limit on sales of the product, basedon Anbang's financial statement, but Wu ignored itand issued false financial reports to make peoplebelieve in the group's ability to pay and raised muchmore than allowed. Anbang is known for severalhigh-profile international acquisitions, includingthe purchase in 2014 of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel inNew York. The CIRC took control of Anbang a yearago because the company struggled to pay investorsafter a wave of global purchases. (IANS)

Israel destroys Iranianinfrastructure in Syria in largest

operation since 1974JERUSALEM (TIP): In the largest

operation in Syria since the signing ofdisengagement agreement in 1974, Israeltoday said it has struck almost all of theIranian infrastructure on Syrian soilduring the overnight raids in retaliation toa barrage of rocket fire on its territory byIran.

The Israel Defence Force (IDF) claimedthat the overnight clash, the largest-everdirect clash between the Iranian andIsraeli armies, was a setback to Iran'smilitary capabilities by "many months".

Israel's Defence Minister AvigdorLieberman said that his army struck"almost all of the Iranian infrastructure inSyria" overnight in response to a rocketbarrage at its military outposts in theGolan Heights by Iran.

Asserting that Israel does not want anescalation, Lieberman said that Israelwon't allow Iran to turn Syria into a"forward base" against his country andthat, Israel has no desire to expand theirmilitary presence to create new proxiesand fronts.

"If it rains on us, it will pour on them,"he said in a stern warning to Iran.

"I hope we finished this chapter andeveryone got the message," he said, adding

Iran was truly the only country today thatrepresents extremism, not justideologically but also in its willingness tosacrifice its citizens, sacrifice its future forthis same extremist ideology.

He also confirmed that no rocket landedin the Israeli territory.

An army spokesman said that four of the20 rockets fired on Israel were interceptedby the iron dome anti-missile system and16 fell within Syrian territory.

The IDF "suffered no casualties", eitheron the ground or in the air, and that norockets fired from Syria made any impactin Israeli territory, the spokesman said,adding that "all of our planes returnedhome safely".

It was the "largest such operation (byIsrael) against Iranian targets," it added.

"All targets that we engaged wereeffectively destroyed, causing significantdamage to the Iranians," the spokespersonsaid.

The Agreement on Disengagement wasan agreement between Israel and Syria,signed in May 1974, which officially endedthe Yom Kippur War and the subsequentattrition period on the Syrian front.

The Israeli military accused the IranianRevolutionary Guards' Al Quds force and

its commander, Maj. Gen. QassemSoleimani, of launching the attack at theIsraeli Golan Heights.

This is the first time that Israel hasdirectly accused Iran of firing on itsterritory.

Defence sources here said that Israelioperation targeted weapons storage,logistics sites and intelligence centres usedby elite Iranian forces in Syria.

Five Syrian air-defence systems werealso destroyed after coming under heavyfire, they said, adding none of the Israeliwarplanes were hit. Russia is reported tohave been informed in advance of theIsraeli attack. There was no immediateword on Iranian casualties but accordingto reports in the regional media, therewere several casualties as a result of theIsraeli strike and that explosions wereheard near the Syrian capital, Damascus.

The rocket barrage was fired from Syriaat Israel at around midnight.

The Syrian Observatory for HumanRights reported a little later that Israel hasattacked targets of the Syrian military onthe outskirts of Quneitra in the GolanHeights. Siren alerts were sounded soonaround midnight in the north and centre ofthe Golan Heights in northern Israel. (PTI)

Australian, 104, dies in assistedsuicide in Switzerland

LIESTAL (TIP): A 104-year-oldAustralian biologist who drewinternational attention to his right-to-diecase ended his life in Switzerland on May10, an advocacy group said.

Exit International, the group that helpedDavid Goodall carry out his wish, said thescientist was declared dead at 12:30 p.m. inLiestal, a town outside the city of Basel,where he had traveled to take advantage ofSwitzerland's assisted-suicide laws.

"My life has been rather poor for the lastyear or so. And I'm very happy to end it,"Goodall said Thursday in the room wherehe died shortly after.

The British-born scientist said this weekthat he had been contemplating the idea ofsuicide for about 20 years, but only startedthinking about it for himself after hisquality of life deteriorated over the lastyear.

He cited a lack of mobility, doctor'srestrictions and an Australian lawprohibiting him from taking his own lifeamong his complaints, but he was not ill.

Assisted suicide is legal in Switzerland,where the procedure is available foranyone who acknowledges in writing thatthey are taking their lives willingly _without being forced. But the practice isfrowned upon by many doctors and someothers who say it should be reserved for theterminally ill. Goodall and his supporterswant the practice to be more accepted as alegitimate choice for elderly people insound mind.

On Wednesday, Goodall told a crowdednews conference that medically assistedsuicide should be more widely available.

"At my age, and even at rather less thanmy age, one wants to be free to choose the

death and when the death is theappropriate time," he said.

Hundreds of people _ some far more frailthan Goodall, who used a wheelchair _travel to Switzerland every year to taketheir lives. The best-known group to helpforeigners end their days in the Alpinecountry is Dignitas, but others include LifeCircle in Basel, Goodall's choice.

Swiss lawGoodall took his life with an intravenous

drip of pentobarbital, a chemical oftenused as an anesthetic but which is lethal inexcessive doses. A doctor put a cannula inhis arm, and Goodall turned a wheel toallow the solution to flow, ExitInternational said.

Philip Nitschke, director of ExitInternational, said that before activatingthe drip, Goodall had to answer "severalquestions so he knew who he was, where hewas and what he was about to do."

"He answered those questions with greatclarity, activated the process" whileBeethoven's Ninth Symphony played in thebackground, he added.

His last words before losingconsciousness were "this is taking anawfully long time," Nitschke said, but "hedied shortly thereafter."

Exit International said Goodall hadrequested that his body be donated tomedicine, or his ashes sprinkled locally.

"He wishes to have no funeral, noremembrance service or ceremony," thegroup said in a statement. "David has nobelief in the afterlife."

The Swiss federal statistics office saysthe number of assisted suicides has beengrowing fast: Nine years ago, there were297. By 2015, the most recent yeartabulated, the figure had more than tripledto 965. Nearly 15 percent of the cases lastyear were people under 65 years old (AP)

15ADVERTISEMENTTHE INDIAN PANORAMAFRIDAY, MAY 11, 2018

Abreak-up can leave you totallyexhausted, both mentally andemotionally. Especially, if you

have been with your partner for yearsand planned a future together. When lifeturns out to be is far from what youexpected; you will be emotionallydrained and confused. Falling in loveagain becomes a distant dream becausegetting over your past becomes yourbiggest challenge.

Whether you’re going the onlineroute, or trying to meet someonethrough more traditional methods –blind dates, church or synagoguegatherings, taking a class orvolunteering at something that’simportant to you (and where potentialdates might also be hanging out) – hereare some useful suggestions to guideyour search.

Be honestThis does not, of course, mean

revealing all the gruesome details aboutyour marriage, your life, or yourself ona first date. But try to share truths aboutyourself in a positive light in thebeginning of any relationship.

Be upbeat This might be hard when you’re

depressed, anxious and feeling hopelessabout getting your life back on track.But it’s still worth the effort. A positiveoutlook, even for an evening, is morelikely to mean that your date will enjoyhim or herself – and you may besurprised to learn that so will you!

Be yourselfBe upbeat even if you’re feeling down.

It’s actually okay to share that you’re notfeeling quite up to par just yet, even on afirst date. Or that you’re nervous. Justdon’t dwell on it.

Be adventurousTry something you’ve never done

before. It might be sky-diving, but even

something a little (or a lot) less risky canbe adventurous – if you take yoga,maybe try a different class. Even smallchanges in a routine can be exciting andscary – and the evidence is that they cancreate changes in your brain’s chemistrythat will make you feel better and moreopen to other possibilities.

Be carefulTry to make sure that you are still

being honest and true to yourself, evenwhile you’re trying new things and newpeople. This can mean that you have tocheck in with yourself on a regularbasis. What does your gut tell you about

this person? And even harder, can youask yourself whether or not you’re justgoing for someone who appears to be theopposite of your last partner? Thesearch for an opposite is very common;but it frequently doesn’t work because,unconsciously, you may have chosensomeone who still has characteristicslike your ex. Or you may have ignoredother warning signs because you wereso focused on the ones you know can beproblematic. Or you may have forgottensome of the good, early parts of therelationship, which really do not need tobe jettisoned along with everything thatwent bad.

Ingredients 4 Egg, boiled, 1 tsp Ginger-Garlic Paste, 1 tsp Red Chilli Powder,1/2 tsp Turmeric Powder, 1/2 tsp Salt, 1 tsp Cumin Powder, 1 tspCoriander Powder,

For Curry1 tsp Cumin Seeds, 1 Green Chilli, 1 Onion, finely chopped, 1 tspGinger, chopped, 1 tsp Garlic, chopped, 1 tsp Turmeric Powder,1 tsp Coriander Powder, 1 tsp Cumin Powder, 1 tsp Red ChilliPowder, 1 tsp Salt, 1/2 Cup Water, 2 Tomatoes, 1/2 Cup Water, 3Tbsp Coriander Leaves,

For Tadka1/8 tsp Hing, 1/4 tsp Methi Seeds, 1 tsp Mustard Seeds, 1Kashmir Chilli, 8-10 Curry Leaves, 1 tsp Kashmiri Chilli Powder

Method Take boiled eggs in a bowl. Add ginger-garlic paste, red

chilli powder, turmeric powder, salt, cumin powder andcoriander powder. Mix the spices thoroughly.

Take a pan of oil, put the eggs in the pan and saute. Take apan and add cumin seeds, green chilli and chopped onion.Saute them tilll golden brown and then add ginger, garlic,turmeric powder, coriander powder, cumin powder, redchilli powder and salt.

Mix them well. Add water and let it simmer.

Now add tomatoes, mix well and add more water. Mixthem thoroughly. Grind the mixture to get the perfect mixof spicy gravy. Put the eggs into the gravy and mix.

Now add coriander leaves and mix. Bring to simmer.

Put hing, methi seeds, mustard seeds, kashmiri chilli,curry leaves and kashmiri chilli powder in a pan. Sautewell. Pour it over the curry along with coriander leavesand mix well.

Ingredients Popped lotus seeds, 1/2 CupCashew nuts, 2 tsp Ghee,Rock salt, 1/2 tspCardamom, 3 Cups Milk,According to taste Sugar,Dry fruits, chopped.

Method Roast the seeds and

some cashew nuts ona pan with a little gheeand season with rock salt.

As soon as it cools, take 3/4th of the mixture and grind itin a blender with some cardamom.

In a separate deep pan, bring to boil 2-3 cups of milk.

Add sugar, followed by the ground makhana mixture, andstir well.

Add the remaining roasted makhana and cashew.

Continue stirring until it thickens.

The kheer can be served either hot or cold, garnishedwith chopped dry fruits.

16 THE INDIAN PANORAMAFRIDAY, MAY 11, 2018 WOMEN

EGG MASALA CURRY

HOW TO FIND LOVE AFTERA PAINFUL BREAK-UP

F O O D C O R N E R

HABITS THAT ARE MAKINGYOUR LIPS DARK

Everyone aspires to have pinkish, soft and lustrous lips.Whether you are a man or a woman, you should try tomaintain the skin and take special care of your lips.

Take proper care for maintaining the lips by following thenatural remedies or treatments and at the same time learnabout the reasons responsible for causing dark black lips.

Not exfoliating your lipsWith the passing time, our lips start to lose its moisture

and start to get dull and dry. So, it becomes very importantthat you exfoliate your lips frequently to maintain pinkpouty lips.

SmokingAnother common habit that can lead to dark lips. Regular

smoking transfers the tar and nicotine to your lips andcauses discoloration. So, it is suggested that you shouldavoid smoking to get rid of dark lips.

Lack of moisturizationChipped and dry lips can also lead to discoloration of lips.

So, it is important that you retain the moisture of your lipsby applying a hydrating lip balm. If you are looking for anideal lip balm, look for the ingredients like shea butter andcocoa butter.

Lack of lip careWhen it comes to skincare, we almost forget about our lips

which later results in dry and chapped lips. So, just like yourskincare regime, it is very important that you have properlip care routine too. You can also massage your lips withalmond oil before going to bed as it helps in regulating theblood flow and makes your lip luscious.

Skipping sunblockJust like your skin your, lips too need protection from the

harmful UV rays. So, it is suggested that you opt for a lipbalm with SPF 30.

MAKHANA KHEER

Frequent sauna bathing maysignificantly reduce the risk ofstroke, according to a long-term

study.In the 15-year follow-up study

published in the journal Neurology,people taking a sauna four to seventimes a week were 61 per cent less likelyto suffer a stroke than those taking asauna once a week.

"The findings are very significant andhighlight the multiple health benefits oftaking frequent sauna baths," said SetorKunutsor from the University of Bristolin the UK.

Stroke is one of the leading causes ofdisability worldwide, placing a heavyhuman and economic burden onsocieties.

The findings by researchers,including those from the CambridgeUniversity, involved 1,628 men andwomen aged 53 to 74 years living in theeastern part of Finland.

Based on their frequency of takingtraditional Finnish sauna baths (relativehumidity 10-20 per cent), the studyparticipants were divided into threegroups: those taking a sauna once aweek, those taking a sauna two to threetimes a week, and those taking a saunafour to seven times a week.

The more frequently saunas weretaken, the lower was the risk of stroke,researchers said.

Compared to people taking one saunasession per week, the risk was decreasedby 14 per cent among those with two to

three sessions and 61 per cent amongthose with four to seven sessions.

The association persisted even whentaking into account conventional strokerisk factors, such as age, sex, diabetes,body mass index, blood lipids, alcoholconsumption, physical activity andsocio-economic status.

The strength of association wassimilar in men and women, researcherssaid.

The mechanisms driving theassociation of sauna bathing with

reduced stroke may include a reductionin blood pressure, stimulation ofimmune system, a positive impact on theautonomic nervous system, and animproved cardiovascular function, theysaid.

In a recent experimental study, thesame group of scientists also showedthat sauna bathing has acute effects onthe stiffness of the arterial wall, henceinfluencing blood pressure and cardiacfunction parameters.

Source: PTI

Walnuts may improve hearthealth and reduce colorectalcancer risk by impacting the

gut microbiome—the collection oftrillions of bacteria in thegastrointestinal tract, a study has found.

Walnuts are just one in a line foodsthat contain dietary fibre and haveinterested scientists for their impact onthe microbiome and health, saidresearchers from the University ofIllinois at Urbana-Champaign in the US.

Dietary fibre acts as a food source forgut microbiota, helping the bacteria todo their jobs—breaking down complexfoods, providing us nutrients, or helpingus feel full, they said.

Diets rich in nuts, such as walnuts,have been shown to play a role in hearthealth and in reducing colorectal cancer,researchers said.

The study, published in The Journal ofNutrition, shows that consumingwalnuts not only impacted the gutmicrobiota and microbial derivedsecondary bile acids, but also reducedLDL-cholesterol levels in the adults inthe participants.

This in turn is beneficial forcardiovascular, metabolic, andgastrointestinal health, researcherssaid. "We found that when you consumewalnuts it increases microbes thatproduce butyrate, a beneficialmetabolite for colonic health. So theinteraction of walnuts with themicrobiome is helping to produce someof those health effects," said Hannah

Holscher, an assistant professor at theUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

"It is about getting to the 'black box'that is all the microbes in our GI tract tosee how they are interfacing with thefood we eat and having downstreamhealth effects," said Holscher.

"Some of those health effects arehypothesized to be related to themetabolites bacteria produce," she said.

For the study, 18 healthy male andfemale adults consumed diets that eitherincluded no walnuts or 42 grammes—about a third cup or a palm-full ofwalnuts—for two, three-week periods.

Faecal and blood samples were

collected at the beginning and end ofeach period to assess secondaryoutcomes of the study, including effectsof walnut consumption on faecalmicrobiota and bile acids and metabolicmarkers of health.

Walnut consumption resulted inhigher relative abundance of threebacteria of interest: Faecalibacterium,Roseburia, and Clostridium.

The microbes that increased inrelative abundance in this walnut studyare from one of the Clostridium clustersof microbes, and there is increasedinterest in those because they have theability to make butyrate," Holscher said.

Source: PTI

17HEALTH & FITNESSTHE INDIAN PANORAMAFRIDAY, MAY 11, 2018

WALNUTS MAY IMPROVE HEALTHBY IMPACTING GUT BACTERIA

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PPAAGGEE SSPPOONNSSOORREEDD BBYY

MASS VACCINATION MAYNOT PREVENT EBOLA

LONDON (TIP): Mass vaccination programmes will nothelp prevent new Ebola virus outbreaks, a study has found.

Researchers from University of Kent in the UK analysedthe prospects for various Ebolavirus vaccines and found that,for the foreseable future at least, Ebolavirus outbreak controldepends on surveillance and the isolation of cases.

The findings come as the World Health Organisation hasannounced a new Ebola virus outbreak in the DemocraticRepublic of Kongo.

The study revealed that very high proportions ofpotentially affected populations would need to be protectedby vaccination to establish herd immunity, which preventsvirus transmission within a population.

The study identified that, in the critical phases of manyEbola virus outbreaks, the average infected individualinfects four or more other people, which enables the virus tospread rapidly.

At this level, 80 per cent of a population would need to beimmunised to prevent outbreaks, even if a highly effectivevaccine that protects 90 per cent of individuals aftervaccination was available.

Such vaccination rates are currently unachievable. In avaccination trial during the West African Ebola virusepidemic, only 49 per cent of individuals who had been incontact with Ebola virus patients could be vaccinated.

Thirty-four per cent of contacts refused vaccinationalthough they had been exposed to the disease.

There are currently no clinical vaccine candidatesavailable that protect against all four human-pathogenicEbolaviruses. It also remains unclear whether the availablevaccine candidates provide the long-term protection that isrequired for the sort of prophylactic mass vaccinationprogramme that could prevent Ebola, which becomesrepeatedly introduced into the human population fromanimal reservoirs. A large vaccination programme wouldalso be costly and impractical, the study points out.

Costs for current Ebolavirus vaccine candidates areestimated to be in a range of USD 15-20 per dose, with some462 million people living in the areas affected by Ebolavirusoutbreaks, many of them in very remote rural areas.

In the absence of a realistic prophylactic mass vaccinationprogramme, the researchers conclude that clinical vaccinecandidates will need to be focused on health care workerswho are often involved in disease transmission, potentially incombination with the vaccination of patient contacts.

Source: PTI

Sauna bathing may reduce risk of stroke

18 THE INDIAN PANORAMAFRIDAY, MAY 11, 2018 SCIENCE & TECH

SCIENTISTS TRAIN SPIDER TO ‘JUMP ON DEMAND’

Scientists have successfully trained a spider to jumpdifferent distances and heights for the first time,unlocking the secrets of how some predatory species

catch their prey while hunting.The study by researchers at the University of Manchester

in the UK is the most advanced of its kind to date and first touse three-dimensional (3D) CT scanning and high-speed,high-resolution cameras to record, monitor and analyse aspider’s movement and behaviour.

The aim of the research, published in the journal NatureScientific Reports, is to answer the question of why jumpingspider anatomy and behaviour evolved the way it did.

This improved understanding of spiders will help imaginea new class of agile micro-robots that are currentlyunthinkable using today’s engineering technologies,researchers said.

“The focus of the present work is on the extraordinaryjumping capability of these spiders,” said Mostafa Nabawy,lead author of the study.

“A jumping spider can leap up to six times its body lengthfrom a standing start. The best a human can achieve is about1.5 body lengths,” said Nabawy.

“The force on the legs at take-off can be up to five times theweight of the spider - this is amazing and if we canunderstand these biomechanics we can apply them to otherareas of research,” he said. The researchers trained thespider, which they nicknamed Kim, to jump different heightsand distances on a manmade platform in a laboratoryenvironment. Kim belongs to a species of jumping arachnidknown as Phidippus regius, or ‘Regal Jumping Spider’.

Source: PTI

NASA launches spacecraft to study Mars quakes

NASA on Saturdayblasted off itslatest Mars

lander, InSight, designedto perch on the surfaceand listen for"Marsquakes" ahead ofeventual humanmissions to explore theRed Planet.

"Three, two, one,liftoff !" said a NASAcommentator as thespacecraft launched on adark, foggy morning atopan Atlas V rocket at 4.05 am Pacific time (1635 IST) fromVandenberg Air Force Base in California, marking NASA'sfirst interplanetary launch from the US west coast.

The $993 million project aims to expand human knowledgeof interior conditions on Mars, inform efforts to send humanexplorers there, and reveal how rocky planets like the Earthformed billions of years ago.

If all goes as planned, the lander should settle on the RedPlanet on November 26.

Its name, InSight, is short for Interior Exploration usingSeismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport.

NASA chief scientist Jim Green said experts already knowthat Mars has quakes, avalanches and meteor strikes.

“But how quake-prone is Mars? That is fundamentalinformation that we need to know as humans that exploreMars," Green said.

The key instrument on board is a seismometer, called theSeismic Experiment for Interior Structure, made by theFrench Space Agency. Source: AFP

NEW MESSAGE BUG CRASHESWHATSAPP, ANDROID DEVICES

SAN FRANCISCO (TIP): A bug isbeing forwarded via messages, whichwhen tapped, could send not just theWhatsApp Android app crashing butpossibly even the entire Android deviceas well, the media reported.

"As with any message bomb, itinvolves sending and receiving aspecially crafted message with hiddensymbols in between spaces.

Tapping on a portion of the text willbasically make the app 'expand' thehidden symbols, potentially overloadingthe app and even the OS," SlashGearreported on Sunday.

Such messages or "message bombs"are not new and not limited to Android.Even iMessage is not immune to bugsthat could send the app crashing.

"There seem to be two variants of thisWhatsApp message being forwarded.One involves an ominous black dot thatcomes with a warning on what willhappen if you tap on it, which mostcurious cats will do anyway," the reportadded. Another "message bomb" whichis causing the messaging platform tocrash is more "nefarious, looks too

innocent" and does not come with awarning. The message includes specialcharacters that do not display visibly butare used to change text behaviour.

A superfluous amount of these

invisible symbols causes WhatsApp tofreeze.

Facebook-owned WhatsApp has notcommented on the potentially disruptivebug so far. Source: IANS

Artificial intelligencesystem can predict

school violenceWASHINGTON (TIP): Scientists have

developed an artificial intelligencesystem that can help predict whichstudents are at higher risk ofperpetrating school violence.

The researchers found that machinelearning—the science of gettingcomputers to learn over time withouthuman intervention—is as accurate as ateam of child and adolescentpsychiatrists, including a forensicpsychiatrist, in determining risk forschool violence.

"Previous violent behaviour,impulsivity, school problems andnegative attitudes were correlated withrisk to others," said Drew Barzman, achild forensic psychiatrist at CincinnatiChildren's Hospital Medical Center in theUS. "Our risk assessments were focusedon predicting any type of physicalaggression at school. We did not gatheroutcome data to assess whether machinelearning could actually help preventschool violence. That is our next goal,"said Barzman, lead author of the studypublished in the journal PsychiatricQuarterly.

Researchers evaluated 103 teenagestudents in 74 traditional schoolsthroughout the US who had a major orminor behavioural change or aggressiontoward themselves or others.

The students were recruited frompsychiatry outpatient clinics, inpatientunits and emergency departments.

The team performed school riskevaluations with participants. Audiorecordings from the evaluations weretranscribed and manually annotated. Thestudents, as it turned out, were relativelyequally divided between moderate- to

high-risk, and low-risk, according to twoscales that the team developed andvalidated in previous research.

There were significant differences intotal scores between the high-risk andlow-risk groups. The machine learningalgorithm that the researchers developedachieved an accuracy rate of 91.02 percent, considered excellent, when usinginterview content to predict risk ofschool violence.

The rate increased to 91.45 per centwhen demographic and socioeconomicdata were added.

"The machine learning algorithm,based only on the participant's interview,was almost as accurate in assessing risklevels as a full assessment by ourresearch team, including gatheringinformation from parents and the school,a review of records when available, andscoring on the two scales we developed,"said Yizhao Ni, a computational scientistat Cincinnati.

"Our ultimate goal, should researchsupport it, is to spread the use of themachine learning technology to schoolsin the future to augment structures,professional judgment to more efficientlyand effectively prevent school violence,"said Barzman. Source: PTI

New tech purifieswater using sunlight

Scientists have developed a newtechnology that uses the sunlightto purify water with near-perfect

efficiency.The idea of using energy from the sun

to evaporate and purify water wasreportedly described by Greekphilosopher Aristotle over 2,000 yearsago.

By draping black, carbon-dippedpaper in a triangular shape and using itto both absorb and vaporise water,researchers have developed a method forusing sunlight to generate clean waterwith near-perfect efficiency.

"Our technique is able to producedrinking water at a faster pace than istheoretically calculated under naturalsunlight," said Qiaoqiang Gan, anassociate professor at the University atBuffalo in the US.

"Usually, when solar energy is used toevaporate water, some of the energy iswasted as heat is lost to the surroundingenvironment. This makes the processless than 100 per cent efficient. Oursystem has a way of drawing heat infrom the surrounding environment,allowing us to achieve near-perfectefficiency," said Gan.

The low-cost technology, described inthe journal Advanced Science, couldprovide drinking water in regions whereresources are scarce, or where naturaldisasters have struck.

Researchers have launched a startup,Sunny Clean Water, to bring theinvention to people who need it. Thecompany is integrating the newevaporation system into a prototype of asolar still, a sun-powered water purifier.Solar stills have been around for a longtime. These devices use the sun's heat toevaporate water, leaving salt, bacteriaand dirt behind. Then, the water vapourcools and returns to a liquid state, atwhich point it's collected in a cleancontainer. Source: PTI

19BIZ & FINANCETHE INDIAN PANORAMAFRIDAY, MAY 11, 2018

SEBI splits post ofCMD for listed firms

NEW DELHI (TIP): In sweeping changes to the way thelisted companies constitute their Boards, markets regulatorSEBI has asked them to split the post of chairman andmanaging director and have at least six independentdirectors, including a woman.

The changes need to be put in place in phases, SEBI said,while setting a deadline of April 1, 2019 regarding theindependent directors. The companies will have more time tosplit the CMD post, for which the deadline is April 1, 2020.

The move comes after SEBI’s Board in March accepted 40of the 80 recommendations of the Uday Kotak panel oncorporate governance. The panel had submitted its report toSEBI in October last year.

Among the new rules, SEBI has enhanced disclosure ofrelated-party transactions and made mandatory secretarialaudits for listed entities and their material subsidiaries.

Further, it has directed listed companies to have at least sixdirectors and at least one of them needs to be a woman. Also,it asked the top 100 listed companies to webcast annualgeneral meetings.

These regulations will come into effect in two phases. Mostof the changes will be effective April 1, 2019, and April 1, 2020,the SEBI said in a notification.

Under the new norms, top 500 listed entities will have toensure that the chairperson is a non-executive director fromApril 1, 2020. It will eventually lead to a split in the post ofchairman and managing director. Source: PTI

MARUTI RECALLS 52,686UNITS OF SWIFT, BALENO

NEW DELHI (TIP): Country’s largest carmaker MarutiSuzuki India Ltd (MSIL) will undertake a ‘service campaign’for new Swift and Baleno models to inspect a possible fault inthe brake vacuum hose.

The company said on Tuesday 52,686 customers of newSwift and Baleno models, whose vehicles were manufacturedbetween December 1, 2017 and March 16, 2018, will be asked tocome in for the service campaign.

Starting May 14, owners of the vehicles included in thisservice campaign will be contacted by dealers for inspectionand replacement of the faulty part. The inspection andreplacement will be done free of cost.

A total of 44,982 units of new Swift, which was launched inFebruary this year, and 7,704 units of Baleno will be coveredunder the service campaign.

Brake vacuum hose is a rubber pipe that creates andreleases vacuum while applying brake but it has no impacton braking and braking distance.

Service campaigns are undertaken globally by automobilecompanies to rectify faults that may potentially causeinconvenience to customers.

Both the models are built on the same platform and sharea common architecture. The Delhi-based company has nottermed the exercise as a recall but ‘a service campaign toaddress a potential inconvenience to the customer’.

WALMART TO OPEN 50 NEWSTORES IN INDIA IN 4-5 YRS

NEW DELHI (TIP): A day afterannouncing US$ 16 billion investment inIndia's largest online retailer Flipkart,Walmart Inc on May 10 said it willcontinue to grow its wholesale cash-and-carry business, adding 50 new stores inthe next four-five years.

"We currently have 21 stores and planto open 50 stores in four to five years.Plans are on track," Walmart IndiaPresident and CEO Krish Iyer said at aselect media roundtable called to explainthe Flipkart deal.

Walmart Chief Executive DougMcMillon said Flipkart, in which the USretailer is acquiring 77 per cent stake,would continue to operate as a separateboard-managed company with co-founder Binny Bansal as the CEO.

Flipkart gives Walmart an onlinepresence. So far it had been handicappedby India's retail policy that does notallow overseas companies to sell directlyto consumers (except in wholesale cash-and-carry segment).

Companies like Flipkart and Amazonoperate as e-commerce marketplaces -- asegment where 100 per cent foreigndirect investment (FDI) is allowed.

"As we speak, we have a pipeline of 20stores and we expect to open five storesin the current year and then pick uppace and eventually start opening 12-15stores a year," Iyer said.

For the cash-and-carry business,

Walmart currently operates in ninestates and 19 cities and the futureexpansion is focused on more or less thesame geographies.

"We are not spreading thin. We arecontinuing in same geographies butprimarily focus is on Punjab, Haryana,Uttar Pradesh, Uttrakhand,Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh andTelangana," he said.

At its 21 Best Price wholesale stores,Walmart sells everything from fast-moving consumer goods to furniture toother retailers and institutions. It couldpotentially use these Best Price stores aspickup and delivery points to serviceonline sales made on Flipkart.

Analysts believe that Walmart'sinvestment in Flipkart, whose 34 percent market share in India's online salesis ahead of rival Amazon's 27 per cent,will boost the Indian e-commercecompany's logistical operations and helpit move into new areas such as onlinegroceries.

Walmart is buying 77 per cent ofFlipkart from existing shareholders,including Japan's SoftBank, for US$ 14billion and investing US$ 2bn of freshequity. Walmart India is a wholly-ownedsubsidiary of Walmart Stores Inc andoffers close to 5,000 items through itscash-and-carry wholesale format.

Source: PTI

Oil prices jump after US walksaway from Iran nuclear deal

Oil prices rose more than 2% onMay 9, with Brent hitting a 3-1/2-year high, after US President

Donald Trump abandoned a nuclear dealwith Iran, likely curbing the OPECmember’s crude exports in an alreadytight market.

Trump on May 8 pulled the UnitedStates out of an international nucleardeal with Iran that was agreed in late2015, raising the risk of conflict in theMiddle East and casting uncertaintyover global oil supplies.

Brent crude oil futures rose to asession high of $76.75 per barrel, theirhighest since November 2014. They werestill at $76.73 per barrel at 0344 GMT, up$1.88, or 2.5%, from their last close.

US West Texas Intermediate (WTI)crude futures were up $1.61 per barrel,or 2.3%, at $70.67 a barrel, close to highsalso last seen in late 2014.

In China, the biggest single buyer ofIranian oil, Shanghai crude futures hittheir highest in dollar terms since theywere launched in late May, at around$73.25 per barrel.

“The big event of the night wasPresident Trump’s cancelling of thenuclear deal made with Iran back in2015. Sanctions will therefore (likely) bere-imposed on Iran, which willultimately affect Iran’s oil exports,” saidWilliam O’Loughlin, investment analystat Australia’s Rivkin Securities.

Iran re-emerged as a major oilexporter in 2016 after international

sanctions against it were lifted in returnfor curbs on Iran’s nuclear programme,with its April exports standing above 2.6million barrels per day (bpd).

This makes Iran the third biggestexporter of crude within theOrganization of the PetroleumExporting Countries (OPEC), behindSaudi Arabia and Iraq.

Walking away from the deal meansthat the United States will likely re-impose sanctions against Iran after 180days, unless some other agreement isreached before then.

ANZ bank said Trump’s decision“puts into place a scenario that could seethe crude oil market tightensignificantly in H2 2018 and into nextyear.”

Exports to fallIran’s exports of oil to Asia and Europe

will almost certainly decline later thisyear and into 2019 as some nations seekalternatives in order to avoid troublewith Washington and as sanctions startto bite.

Despite this, it is not yet clear howstrongly global oil markets will beaffected. The United States buys noIranian oil, while the other signatories ofthe agreement, Russia, Britain, Franceand Germany, are opposed to ending theagreement, and may continue to buyIranian crude. Asia, by far the biggestimporter of oil from Iran, will likelycontinue to take in some supplies as well,as it did during the previous round ofsanctions. Source: Reuters

20 THE INDIAN PANORAMAFRIDAY, MAY 11, 2018TURN PAGE

contd from Page 1

Trump scraps the Iran nuclear...known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA.France, Germany, and the UK regret the U.S. decision to

leave the JCPOA. The nuclear non-proliferation regime is

at stake.

- Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) May 8, 2018

He had described the agreement, which was negotiated

by then US secretary of state John Kerry, as a bad deal.

I am deeply concerned by today's announcement that

the US will be withdrawing from the JCPOA & will begin

reinstating US sanctions, says @antonioguterres. Full text

here: https://t.co/LqC2WFJfAC

- UN Spokesperson (@UN_Spokesperson) May 8, 2018

The Iran nuclear deal was reached in Vienna in July 2015between Iran and the P5 (the five permanent members of the UNSecurity Council) plus Germany and the European Union.

Trump's decision would have global ramifications, strainingIranian economy and heightening tensions in the Middle East.

IRAN WILL REMAIN IN N-DEAL, SAYS ROUHANI:

Meanwhile, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Tuesday,May 8, that Iran would remain committed to a multinationalnuclear deal despite US President Donald Trump's decision towithdraw from the 2015 agreement designed to deny Tehran theability to build nuclear weapons.

"If we achieve the deal's goals in cooperation with othermembers of the deal, it will remain in place... By exiting thedeal, America has officially undermined its commitment to aninternational treaty," Rouhani said in a televised speech.

"I have ordered the foreign ministry to negotiate with theEuropean countries, China and Russia in coming weeks. If atthe end of this short period we conclude that we can fullybenefit from the JCPOA with the cooperation of all countries,the deal would remain," he added.

The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) is the fullname for the nuclear deal, struck in 2015 between Iran, the fivepermanent members of the U.N. Security Council - the UnitedStates, Russia, China, Britain and France - and Germany.

Rouhani added that Iran was ready to resume its nuclearactivities after consultations with the other world powers whichare part of the agreement.

Trump's announcement was hailed by Washington'sprincipal allies in the Middle East, Israel and Saudi Arabia,both sworn foes of Iran.

Under the deal, Iran curbed its nuclear activities in return forthe lifting of most sanctions imposed on the country.

Trump said he would reimpose economic sanctions onTehran immediately. His decision puts pressure on hisEuropean allies, who are key backers of the deal and reluctantto join the United States in reimposing sanctions on Iran.

BANKING TURMOIL: Some Iranians had been cashing intheir savings even before Trump's announcement he would pullout from the international deal with Iran, straining a bankingsystem weighed down by bad loans and years of isolation.

An official with Iran's biggest state-owned Melli Bank toldReuters savings had declined by an unspecified amount,although he said this was a temporary phenomenon and thatthey would recover once the uncertainty over Trump's decisionpassed. "When there is political uncertainty, its psychologicalimpact on people causes a drop in savings. But it will pass afterTrump's deadline," the official said before the announcement,declining to be named. A senior Iranian central bank officialsaid conditions within the banking system had deteriorated inthe past year, and "we have still not passed the danger zone" butadded that the central bank had "all the measures ready toprevent any crisis".

EU WILL STAND BY IRAN: Europe will stand by theinternational nuclear accord with Iran, EU Foreign Policy chiefFederica Mogherini said in a live press statement in Rome onTuesday. "The EU is determined to preserve it," she said. "Weexpect the rest of the international community to continue topreserve it, for the sake of collective security." "The nuclearaccord belongs to the whole of the international community,"Mogherini added. "To the Iranian people I say: do not let anyonedismantle this deal, one of the greatest achievements of theinternational community." "I am particularly worried abouttonight's announcement of further sanctions," she said, addingthat the deal with Iran "is the culmination of 12 years ofdiplomacy."

MOST AMERICANS REJECT MOVE: Less than one inthree Americans agrees with President Donald Trump'sdecision to pull the US out of an agreement to limit Iran'snuclear program, according to a Reuters/Ipsos national opinionpoll released on Tuesday, May 8.

The poll, conducted on May 4-8, ahead of the President'sannouncement to end the deal, found that 29 per cent of adultswanted to end the deal with Iran and five other world powers toease sanctions and limit Iran's nuclear program. Another 42 percent said the US should remain in the deal, and the remaining 28per cent said they "don't know". Even among those who are

registered as Republicans, less than half - 44 per cent - advocatedending the US involvement in the deal. Another 28 per centwanted to remain, and the remaining 28 percent said they didnot know. - Agencies

'US UNDERMINED COMMITMENT TO TREATY':

If we achieve the deal's goals in cooperation with othermembers of the deal, it will remain in place... By exiting thedeal, America has officially undermined its commitment to aninternational treaty. Hassan Rouhani, Iranian President

'WILL WORK COLLECTIVELY': We will work collectivelyon a broader framework, covering (Iran's) nuclear activity, thepost-2025 period, ballistic activity, and stability in the Middle-East, notably Syria, Yemen, and Iraq. Emmanuel Macron,French President

'IT'S A HISTORIC MOVE': Israel thinks that Trump made ahistoric move, and this is why Israel thanks him for hiscommitment to confront the terrorist regime in Tehran, and hiscommitment to ensure that Iran never gets nuclear weapons.Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Prime Minister

'DECISION MISGUIDED': Donald Trump's decision towithdraw from the deal is misguided. I believe that the decisionto put the JCPOA at risk without any Iranian violation of thedeal is a serious mistake. Barack Obama, former US President.(Source: PTI and agencies)

Israel attacks Iranian targets in..., was a setback to Iran's military capabilities by "many

months".Israel's Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said that his

army struck "almost all of the Iranian infrastructure in Syria"overnight in response to a rocket barrage at its militaryoutposts in the Golan Heights by Iran. Asserting that Israeldoes not want an escalation, Lieberman said that Israel won'tallow Iran to turn Syria into a "forward base" against hiscountry and that, Israel has no desire to expand their militarypresence to create new proxies and fronts. "If it rains on us, itwill pour on them," he said in a stern warning to Iran.

"I hope we finished this chapter and everyone got themessage," he said, adding Iran was truly the only country todaythat represents extremism, not just ideologically but also in itswillingness to sacrifice its citizens, sacrifice its future for thissame extremist ideology.

He also confirmed that no rocket landed in the Israeliterritory. (Source: PTI)

Pakistan's former Prime Minister...The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in a press release

said its Chairman Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal took notice ofreports making rounds on news channels claiming that Sharifallegedly laundered USD 4.9 billion to India, the Express Tribunereported. According to the media report, this incident ismentioned in the World Bank's Migration and Remittance Book2016, the release said. However, details of the media report inquestion have not been mentioned in the brief statement issuedin Urdu, Geo TV reported. The statement claims that the amountwas laundered to the Indian Finance Ministry after whichIndian foreign exchange reserves witnessed an increase andPakistan suffered as a result. Sharif is facing three corruptioncases at the accountability court following the Supreme Court'sverdict in the Panama Papers case. An NAB inquiry is alsounder way against him for alleged illegal expansion of a roadleading to his estate in Lahore's Jati Umra locality.

Once formulated, this will be the fifth case against the oustedpremier by the NAB. Earlier today, the accountability courtsought more time from the top court to end the trial onreferences filed by the NAB against members of the Shariffamily. Accountability court judge Muhammad Bashir, whopresides over the hearings, has written a letter to the top courtrequesting for a second extension in the trial. Earlier in March,the Supreme Court had granted a two-month extension to theaccountability court to wrap the proceedings. However, as thetwo-month deadline expires, the case is nowhere near its end,with the Al-Azizia Steel Mills and Flagship Investments stilluntouched, the country's top anti-graft body is running out oftime. The Supreme Court of Pakistan had disqualified Shariflast year, forcing the three-time prime minister to resign. Sharifhas dismissed the corruption charges as politically motivated.

The political future of Sharif, who leads the country's mostpowerful political family and his party, has been hanging in thebalance since then. If convicted, he can be jailed. World Bankdenies reports Sharif laundered US$ 4.9 billion to India

Meanwhile, the World Bank has denied as "incorrect" themedia reports in Pakistan that cited its report to allege thatformer prime minister Nawaz Sharif laundered US$ 4.9 billionto India. Pakistan's top anti-corruption body, NationalAccountability Bureau, on Tuesday ordered a probe against theembattled former prime minister and others after reports of hisinvolvement in the money laundering emerged in the media.The World Bank in a statement said, "In the past day, there have

been media reports citing the World Bank's Remittances andMigration Report of 2016. These media reports were incorrect.

The World Bank's Remittances and Migration Report is aneffort by the World Bank to estimate migration and remittancesnumbers across the world, it said.

"The report does not include any mention of moneylaundering nor does it name any individuals," said the WorldBank, which was issued after media reports cited its annualreport for allegations that Sharif laundered US$ 4.9 billion fromPakistan to India.

In its annual report, the statement said that the World Bankestimates bilateral remittances between countries using themethodology summarized in the World Bank Working Paper 102South-South migration and remittances by the authors of thereport. The World Bank also referred to a statement by the StateBank of Pakistan which rejects estimates of US$ 4.9 billion inremittances from Pakistan to India on September 21, 2016, andprovides an explanation of the methodology used in the WorldBank report and the official remittances numbers. (Source:

PTI)

Trump: Will meet Kim on June...Trump's announcement came hours after US Secretary of

State Mike Pompeo returned home from North Korea withthree detained Americans.

Trump, who personally greeted the trio at the Andrews AirForce Base, praised Kim for their release ahead of theirsummit.

"The highly anticipated meeting between Kim Jong Un andmyself will take place in Singapore on June 12th. We will bothtry to make it a very special moment for World Peace!," Trumptweeted.

Trump has struck a cautiously optimistic tone in discussingthe prospects of reaching a deal during his upcoming summitwith Kim, saying he is hopeful a historic agreement can bebrokered while also warning the talks could prove unfruitful.

But the President saw the release of the three Americans asyet another reason for optimism as he prepares for thesummit. "We are starting off on a new footing-I really think wehave a very good chance of doing something very meaningful.A lot of very good things have happened," Trump said as hegreeted the three former prisoners.

The Americans-Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak-song and KimSang Duk, also known as Tony Kim-were freed yesterday byNorth Korea while Pompeo was on a visit to Pyongyang tofinalize the details of the Trump-Kim summit.

The summit, which has been in the works since Trumpaccepted Kim's invitation to meet in March, will be the firstever meeting between a sitting US president and North Koreanleader. US officials had also considered holding the summit atthe Korean demilitarized zone or in Mongolia, but ultimatelysettled on the city-state of Singapore as the location.

Meanwhile, Kim Jong-un has said that the meeting withTrump will be positive towards easing tensions on the KoreanPeninsula, Pyongyang state media reported on Thursday, May10. Kim made the remark to visiting US Secretary of StateMike Pompeo on Wednesday, May 9 the state-run KoreanCentral News Agency (KCNA) reported.

During the meeting with Pompeo, Kim described theplanned summit as "historic" and "the excellent first steptowards promotion of the positive situation development inthe Korean peninsula and building of a good future".

This was Pompeo's second visit to the Asian country afterhis secret trip over Easter, when he also met with Kim, tofinalize preparations for the summit, reports Efe news.

"At the meeting, an in-depth discussion was made on thepractical matters for holding the North Korea-US summit andits procedure and ways. Kim Jong-un reached a satisfactoryconsensus on the issues discussed with the US state secretary,"Yonhap News Agency quoted KCNA as saying.

This is the first time that the North Korean leader officiallyspoke of the meeting with Trump, which has been scheduledfor the end of May or the beginning of June and will be thefirst meeting in history between the heads of government ofthe two countries. KCNA said Kim also "accepted an officialsuggestion of the US President for the release of Americanswho have been detained" and gave an order "on grantingamnesty to them for their repatriation". The three Americans--Kim Dong-chul, 64, Kim Sang-duk, 58, and Kim Hak-song,around 60--who had been held prisoners in North Korea, wereall born in South Korea but later acquired the US citizenship.

Pompeo also delivered Kim a "verbal message" from Trump,adding Kim highly appreciated that the US President had shown"deep interest in settling the issue through dialogue".

Details of Trump's message were not disclosed.The North's media covered Wednesday's meeting extensively.The Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of North Korea's

Workers' Party, devoted the front page to the Kim-Pompeomeeting, with relevant photos, including those showing the twoshaking hands. (Source: PTI / IANS)

21ASTROLOGYTHE INDIAN PANORAMAFRIDAY, MAY 11, 2018

W E E K LY H O R O S C O P EMAY 14 - MAY 20, 2018

Aries: Ganesha says you rod the crest ofachievements and glory and now yourattention shifts to the needs of the family.Children will bring happiness and parents, in-laws, extended family, siblings call for yourtime. You also retreat from the cares of theworld into your private shell. It could be a farmhouse, country home or even a quiet corner ofseclusion. But you need to get away and be byyourself. You need to think things over as theyhave all been moving as fast as a Hollywoodthriller.

Taurus: You make big purchases and fill your office andhome with works of art. You feel like doing upyour place tastefully and that costs moneywhich you don't mind spending. You have newperspectives to life and are faced with a stringof possibilities. You have many options andworry which to choose from; this is, of course,a good problem to have. Exert caution againstoverindulgence and try to maintain a sense ofproportion, and balance.

Gemini: You need to make strong decisions and steerthe boat in the right direction. You areenergized and enthused to steer full steamdirection. You achieve a lot and are single-minded and focused. The results arespectacular. You win applause and grow inseveral ways. There will also be happy timeswith friends and family. You should, onceagain, watch your temperament closely. Trynot to slip into your dark moods.

Cancer: There is substantial growth in the last period.You have reached a point in your life and inyour career where what you say is ofconsequence and you are listened to with care.Your innovative schemes and ideas win manyadmirers and you also make money. There aremeetings, collaborations and all types ofexpenses too. You spend time with the familyand there may be minor hospital expenses.But, once again, luck is on your side and all iswell that ends well.

Leo: This is a formidable phase in which youpush ahead hard and true. You are all firedup to make inroads and are greeted withsuccess in all your activities. You spend onluxuries like there was no tomorrow; homeand wardrobe renovation take a lot of yourtime. You also make sensible investmentsand may buy property. There is money to bemade on the markets too. It will be in yourinterest if you can guard againstoverindulgence in this period.

Virgo: The bull - run in your life continues. Thereare new associations and, possibly,steaming sex. It may not last but will bewell worth it while it does. You spend largesums on the object of your affections and,for a while at least, lose all balance andsense of direction. You throw caution tothe winds and immerse yourself in yourpet indulgence. Money and emotionsremain in sharp focus this period and youalso move up the ladder of success andfame.

Libra: There are many possibilities now, but italso depends on how you tweak them. Thisperiod is full of hope and promise. Theremay be an end to your struggles and mentalconfusion or they will just increase andblow up in your face. It depends on you inmany and be healthy and more productiveor get into needless emotional and psychicdilemmas and drown in their turbid waters.

Scorpio: Luckily, you are brought back to the realworld just in time. Several domestic andwork pressures mount and you are pressedto solve them and sort out your affairs. Youwill have to deal with finance, settlementsand legal matters. You have the necessarynegotiating skills, but all this is a waste oftime and a detour from what you reallywant to do which is to ideate. There areexpenses and pressures of all types and youare pushed to find answers.

Sagittarius: You continue on the practical plank and settledown to working hard. There are a lot of finerdetails that need your attention both at home andat work and there is no time for fanciful thinking.There are appraisals at work and several keydecisions to be taken if self-employed. This is avaluable time and you can't squander it. Monieswill have to be looked into, children's schooling,parents' and spouse's medical issues and severalsuch matters hog your time and attention.

Capricorn: You will be relating better to people and will bemaking several long-term plans. There areindications of travel, and conferences,gathering and conventions to attend. All thiswill go a long way in bolstering your career.You meet up with associates and party. There isthe danger of spiraling expenses and some ill-health too. You may get into arguments,altercations and unnecessary disagreementsand could lose your temper and say things youwould be better off not saying.

Aquarius: In many ways, this can be a beautiful period.There will be better health, better prospectsand better income, and you will cool off andnot enter unnecessary argumentation. Thereis a lot of entertainment on your plateincluding a dash or romance. You are in lovewith love and so any person or thing that suitsthe mood will become the object of youraffections. You will pass through moments ofheightened emotions and this can be verybeautiful if you dare to share it with someoneclose.

Pisces: You decide to take the family out and havesome truly wonderful moments. Ifintellectually inclined, you do exceptionallywell. There will be several visitors and someeven from overseas. So, a lot of your time willbe spend socializing and travelling to touristspots. Creative pursuits will be highlighted. Itis a happy period with no particularaccomplishment or achievement but nothing,also, to complain about.

Shree Ganeshaya Namah

Bejan Daruwalla is world's most famousastrologertoday. He appears regularly onworld wide TV shows. Bejan who has been aprofessor in English, hasauthored a numberof books on astrology. India'sPrime MinisterNarendra Modi , on March 29, 2012,lunchedone of Bejan's books, '2012- End oftheWorld? Bejan contributes to a number ofjournals andnewspapers in many parts of theworld which includeBerkley Communications(London) Times of India(Delhi, Mumbai,Kolkata, Chennai) and The IndianPanorama (New York and Texas). Bejan'spredictionshave mostly been correct andpeople the world overrely on his predictions.

Bejan Daruwalla is available for astrologicalconsultations. He can be reached atinfo@bejandaruwalla.com and on phone 011-91-8141234275www.bejandaruwalla.com

22 THE INDIAN PANORAMAFRIDAY, MAY 11, 2018 SPORTS

Sunrisers Hyderabad beat DelhiDaredevils, secure play-off spot

NEW DELHI (TIP): ShikharDhawan and Kane Williamsonshared an unbeaten 176-run standto overshadow a breathtakinghundred by Rishbah Pant asSunrisers Hyderabad sailed intothe Indian Premier Leagueplayoffs with a commandingnine-wicket victory over DelhiDaredevils.

Delhi’s total of 187/5 was achallenging target but Dhawan(92*) and captain Williamson(83*) ensured Sunriserssauntered home in 18.5 overs.Sunrisers’ brilliant performancecame after Pant’s maiden IPLhundred, an epic 128 not out off63 balls which was not enough toarrest his team’s slide.

With just six points from 11games, Delhi are now certain tomake another early exit from thetournament. Sunrisers, who leadthe table with 18 points from 11games, showed that they couldnot just defend small totals butalso chase down stiff targets.

Dhawan, due for a big score,rose to the occasion with asublime innings that was lacedwith nine boundaries and foursixes. Williamson was not farbehind as he breezed to his sixth

fifty-plus score of thecompetition.

Earlier, Pant helped Daredevilsovercome a poor start to reach animposing total. Pant was

unstoppable as he toyed witharguably the best bowling attackin the competition, single-handedly giving a fightingchance to a struggling Delhi. His

special knock comprising 15fours and seven sixes made up forhis involvement in run-outs ofcaptain Shreyas Iyer and HarshalPatel (24). Source: PTI

Rishbah Pant plays a reverse sweep against Delhi Daredevils.

Mumbai’s upward marchcontinues, Knights stalled

KOLKATA (TIP): Mumbai Indians produceda brilliant bowling and fielding performanceafter Ishan Kishan's batting pyrotechnics as thedefending champions thrashed Kolkata KnightRiders by 102 runs to stay in the hunt for aplayoffs berth in the Indian Premier Leaguehere on Wednesday.

Sent in to bat at the Eden Gardens, Mumbaiscored an imposing 210/6, riding on 19-year-oldKishan's 21-ball 62, studded with five fours andsix sixes, and then bowled KKR out for 108 in18.1 overs.

Brothers Krunal and Hardik Pandyareturned with figures of 2/12 and 2/16,respectively, while all the other five MI bowlerstook a wicket each as they excelled as a bowlingunit.

Chasing an imposing target of 211, KKRsuffered a batting collapse. Chris Lynn andNitish Rana top-scored with 21 each while allthe other KKR batsmen came a cropper. Theirhighest partnership was 31 between Lynn andUthappa (14) for the second wicket.

KKR made a disastrous start to their runchase as Sunil Narine (4) was out on the secondball, top-edging a Mitchell McClenaghan shortdelivery to Krunal Pandya. Lynn and Uthappawere going strong but a horrible mix-up in thefourth over led to Lynn being run out as thehome side were reduced to 32/2. The twowickets meant KKR were lagging behind in thepowerplay overs as they could score just 47from the first six overs.

Earlier, Kishan smashed a 17-ball half-century as MI overcame a slow start to post210/6. Ishan tore apart KKR’s bowling,hammering Kuldeep Yadav for four consecutivesixes, en route to his 62 (5x4, 6x6).

Source: PTI

Rahane to lead Indiaagainst Afghanistan in

Kohli’s absenceBENGALURU (TIP): Virat Kohli’s much-

hyped county stint paved the way for KarunNair’s comeback even as senior batsmanRohit Sharma was dropped from the 15-strongIndian squad announced here on May 8 for thehistoric one-off Test against Afghanistan nextmonth.

Vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane will lead theteam in Kohli’s absence, the selectioncommittee, led by MSK Prasad, announcedafter a meeting in which multiple squads werepicked. Rahane, however, has been droppedfrom the ODI squad for England tour. He waspart of India’s 50-over squad during the SouthAfrica tour.

Ambati Rayudu and KL Rahul were notablecomebacks in the ODI squad for the Englandtour, while young speedster Siddarth Kaulwas rewarded with the ODI and T20 berthsagainst Ireland and England for his consistentIPL performance.

Nair, only the second Indian to score atriple-century, is making a comeback after 14months. The 26-year-old Nair scored 612 runsfor Karnataka in the last Ranji Trophy withthree hundreds. Nair has played six Testmatches, scoring 374 runs, but after his 303against England at Chennai, his sequence ofscores read 26, 0, 23 and 5.

Kohli has been named captain for the two-match T20 series against Ireland.Interestingly, Surrey had officially announcedthat Kohli would be available for the entiremonth of June, but the two T20 Internationals

are scheduled for June 27 and 29. Surrey’scounty game against Yorkshire atScarborough is scheduled from June 25-28.

“Except Virat, all Test specialists areplaying. He is going for a cause as he wants tocome well prepared for the England Testseries. He is very keen to do well in Englishconditions. It is a great opportunity for us towin the series,” chief selector Prasad said at amedia conference. Source: PTI

India should play day-nightTest, it’s the future: Ganguly

KOLKATA (TIP): The Indian cricket boardmay have refused to play a day-night Test inAustralia later this year, but former Indiacaptain Sourav Ganguly feels the pink-ballcontest is the future and the country will haveto embrace it someday. “Day-night Test is theway forward. Every country has to play day-night Tests. India have reservations but that’sthe long term future for Test cricket,” saidGanguly.

India are one of the only two current Test-playing nations to have avoided playing pink-ball cricket at international level, Bangladeshbeing the other one.

Even as Ganguly sounded critical of India’sdecision to avoid playing day-night Test, theformer left-handed batsman said the Indianteam had the potential to win pink-ball Testmatches. “They are a good side, they will winday-night matches also. It’s just a differentball, I don’t think there’s any other difference.And they have such class players, they canwin,” he said. On Wednesday, formerAustralian skipper Michael Clarke had saidthat India refused to play a day-night Test inAustralia because they felt they had a betterchance against Australia with the traditionalred ball. “Remember India have never beatenAustralia in Australia. This is their chanceand that’s exactly what Kohli, Ravi Shastriand all in Indian cricket would be thinking,”Clarke had said.

The Australian reasoned that the wicketsare flatter and spin-oriented during the day,while at night there’s little spin and a bit moremovement with moisture around. “Theyprefer to take their chances during the day. Ican understand why they do not want to play

under lights.”Ganguly also backed Kohli’s decision to

skip the historic Test against Afghanistan. “Ithink since the side is Afghanistan, he haschosen to play county cricket. If it had beenany other team, he would have not gone. It justshows how important the England tour is forhim,” said Ganguly.

Ganguly said India were good enough tobeat Afghanistan without Kohli. “India willbeat Afghanistan without Virat. Andhopefully they can do well in England also.”

The former India captain expressedsurprise at the exclusion of Ajinkya Rahanefrom the ODI squad for the England tour. “Iam surprised Rahane is not in the team. Heshould have been in the team. He has beenmoved around too much, he is a qualityplayer,” Ganguly said.

Sheshnag (the serpent god) comprises animportant part of Hindu mythology. Asthe reclining couch and the roofing

canopy of the god Vishnu, it has been a godvenerated by all and worshipped by many forcenturies.

It is considered to be the king of the serpentrace and the ruler of the infernal regionscalled PATAL. God Vishnu sleeps over the bedof its coils during intervals of creation.SheshNag is also represented as onesupporting the world on its hood. The Nagshave three Kings, VAASUKI, TAKSHAK andSHESH. Shesh is said to represent the‘remainder’ when the universe is destroyedand the power of creation (Lord Vishnu) restson its coils.

The Nags are dwelling in an underworld,called NAG LOKA, which is an immensedomain crowded with palaces, houses, towersand pleasure gardens. According to VarahaPurana, three of the lower worlds, PATAL,ATAL and SUTAL belong to the Nags. Theirfavorite places of visitations are the banks ofriver, IKSHUMATI, the NAIMISH forest on theshores of the GOMATI, the northern banks ofthe GANGA and the NISHAD land. They alsodwell under the sea. These nags are not alwaysthe enemy of man and they even inter marrywith them. Arjun of Mahabharata married aNag girl named Uloopi.

Sheshnag as Ananta, the TimelessShesh Nag is the serpent with a thousand

heads and is also called ‘ANANTA ‘, thetimeless, because it does not die withdestruction of the universe. All serpents areof divine extraction, because they are thechildren of Kadru, who herself is thedescendant of Kashyap. The main city of Nagsis Bhogvati (the city of pleasures), whereShesh appears like the White Mountainadorned with gems. The later Purana identifyShesh even with Krishna as Vishnu. Shesh issaid to be the soul of Krishna’s brotherBalrama. Thus Shesh emerged from the bodyof dying Balrama and entered the earth,where he received a warm welcome by allother serpents.

Sheshnag’s Avatar as LakshmanIn the Treta Yuga, Vishnu decided to

descend on earth as Lord Rama, the seventhavatar of Lord Vishnu.

Lakshman–the younger brother. They werevirtually inseparable. Lakshman was theyounger brother and therefore had to obeyevery command his elder brother, Lord Rama,gave. Lakshman carried out the taskbeautifully and is commended for his staunchdevotion to Lord Rama.

In his avatar as Lakshman, Sheshnagrendered unflinching service to God andreceived profuse grace. He exemplified theattitude of an ideal brother and self-sacrifice.When Lakshman was lying unconscious afterbeing hit by the Brahmastra in the battlefield,Lord Rama said that he could get anything inthis world but not a brother like Lakshman.Such was the love and devotion between thetwo.

Lakshman abandons life because SageDurvasa appears at Rama’s doorstep andseeing Lakshman guarding the door, demandsan audience with Rama. At the time, Ramawas having a private conversation with Yama.Before the conversation began, Yama gaveRama strict instructions that their dialoguewas to remain confidential, and anyone whoentered the room was to be relieved of theirlife. Rama agreed and entrusted Lakshmanwith the duty of guarding his door. WhenDurvasa made his demand, Lakshmanpolitely refused. The sage grew angry andthreatened to curse all of Ayodhya ifLakshman did not immediately inform Ramaof his arrival. Lakshman, in a dilemma,decided it would be better that he alone die tosave all of Ayodhya from falling underDurvasa’s curse and so interrupted Rama’smeeting to inform him of the sage’s arrival.

Rama quickly concluded his meeting withYama and received the sage with due courtesy.Lord Rama was Maryada Purushottam andstood by his words. In order to fulfill hisbrother’s promise, Lakshman went to thebanks of the river Sarayu resolved on givingup the world through penance. And reachesVaikunthah before Lord Vishnu waiting forhim.

Sheshnag’s Avatar as BalaramaBalrama was the son of Vasudeva and

Devaki. He was the elder brother of LordKrishna. He is said to be the incarnation of“Sheshnag” (Serpent God on whom LordVishnu rests). His weapon was a plough. He isalso called ‘Haldhar’. He is a protector fromdesires, the divinity of strength or thestrength of the divine, symbolizing duty,honesty and simplicity.

In the Treta age (there are four agesaccording to Hinduism- Krita (Sat) Yuga, TretaYuga, Dwapar Yuga and Kaliyuga) Balarama’seternal incarnation was as Lakshman.

When Devaki was pregnant with theseventh child, Lord Vishnu called uponYogmaya (divine illusion) and said, “Devaki’sseventh eternal embryo should be installed inRohini’s (another wife of Vasudeva) body.”Yogmaya transferred the embryo to Rohini’swomb from Devaki’s womb. This was done toprevent Kans from killing him at his birth.Kans was destined to be killed by Devaki’s

eighth son, and not to take any chances he waskilling all the sons born to Devaki at birth.

Rohini got pregnant and after nine months,eternal incarnation in the form of Balramawas born. Kans was informed that Devaki’sseventh child was dead. Balrama was growingup at Nandbaba’s house. After one yearKrishna was born. Both of them werebeautiful and attractive. Sage Garg had said atthe time of naming ceremony that this childwill have infinite strength (BAL). That is whyhe is called Balrama. Because he was drawn

from Devaki’s to Rohini’s womb, He becameknown as Lord Sankarsana (ploughing) andbecause of His strength, He is known as LordBalrama. He was so powerful that he, singlehandedly, at a very tender age, killed the greatdemon, Asura Dhenuka, who was in the formof an ass.

Just before Rukmani’s marriage, Revati,daughter of King Raivat of Aanart region wasmarried to Balrama. For lifetime, Balramajiwas always with Krishna and protected him.He was elder to Krishna so he could not orderhim but whenever Krishna needed him; henever hesitated to give his service to him.

He had contributed towards killing thedemons and giants. Balrama had gone withKrishna in the Dhanush Yagna organized byKans. He supported Krishna in killing Kubal,the elephant. While wrestling, Balrama threwMushtik (trusted lieutenant of Kans) so badlythat he was killed on the spot.

Jarasandh used to attack Mathura on andoff. Balrama, along with the army of theYadavas used to fight with Jarasandh and sendhim back every time. When Kalyavan came toattack, even Jarasandh came with him.Balrama caught hold of Jarasandh with hisstrong hands. Krishna asked Balrama to leavehim saying that there were many demons andif Jarasandh is left alive then he will make anarmy of the demons. When Jarasandh willcome once more with the demon’s army, manymore demons can be killed. So Balramarelieved him. Jarasandh had twenty-threearmies with weapons. Slowly and gradually,Balrama defeated them all. When Kalyavanhad encircled them – then Krishna ran in frontof them and Balrama confronted his army.Krishna got Kalyavan burnt and Balramadefeated his army.

Balrama trained both Bhima andDuryodhana in club-fighting. Eventually, hisstudents faced one another in the final combatof the Kurukshetra war. Because of this,Balrama chose to remain neutral during theconflict. Eventually when Bhima (of greaterstrength) defeated Duryodhana (of greaterskill) by dealing a blow below the navel withhis mace (a move against the rules of macecombat), Balrama threatened to kill Bhima.This was only prevented when Krishnareminded Balrama of Bhima’s vow to killDuryodhana by crushing the very thigh heexposed to his wife Draupadi.

Today also there are many temples of‘Dauji’ (elder brother) where he is worshipped.It is a common belief, he bestows materialisticrichness.

23SPIRITUALITYTHE INDIAN PANORAMAFRIDAY, MAY 11, 2018

SHESHNAG:THE SERPENT GOD

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