· places, including Joharpuri area ... visit, sources said. Meanwhile, the Supreme ......

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Awonder of the yore and aland of contemporary fas-

cination, India holds enor-mous potential for both domes-tic and foreign tourists whohave little explored its incred-ible diversity for want of pro-motion and infrastructure. Thiswas the focal point of a day-long conference — The PioneerExotica Tourism Summit —where speakers, includingUnion Ministers Nitin Gadkari,Prahlad Patel and Piyush Goyalon Wednesday showcasedIndia as a dream tourist desti-nation.

Besides Punjab CabinetMinister for Tourism &Cultural Affairs CharanjitSingh Channi, filmmakerBharat Bala, fashion designerRitu Beri, IATO presidentPronab Sarkar, Air India ex-CMD Ashwini Lohani, HarkritAhluwalia of Citrus CountryFoundation; Seema Bhat, vicepresident of the EcotourismSociety of India; Anil Chadhaof ITC Hotel; Abu Sufiya ofDelhi Tourism; Mandip SinghSoin, founder ibex expedition;Subhash Goyal, tourism policyexpert; Raveen SinghAhluwalia, Patiala FoundationChief; Amar Nath of NeemranaHotels; Sumitra Sernapathy,

CEO women on Wanderlust;Samil Malhotra, TurinMarketing were other partici-pants at the summit.

The conference was divid-ed in five different panels, thefirst being ‘Dekho apna desh’.This was moderated by ThePioneer Editor-in-Chief DrChandan Mitra and addressedby Tourism Minister and chiefguest Prahlad Patel.

Union Minister for Road,Transport and Highways NitinGadkari was guest of honour atanother panel discussion titled“Highway to heaven”. Dr Mitrawas the moderator.

Minister of RailwaysPiyush Goyal spoke on thetheme “Deep into India’s heart”in conversation with Dr Mitra.

In a speech heard withrapt attention, Prahlad Patel,Minister of State (independentcharge) for Culture andTourism, talked about involve-ment of all the stakeholders,including the Centre and StateGovernments, hotels, touroperators and locals, for thegrowth of tourism in the coun-try. He said that by next fiveyears, the Government aims todouble the domestic touristfootfall.

“We all are responsible forthe growth of the tourism sec-tor and an individual cannot

individually promote it. Allthe sectors should come togeth-er for its growth,” he said while

speaking at the Pioneer ExoticaTourism Summit 2020 hereon Thursday.

Patel was of the view thatthe tourism has never beengiven its due importance in the

past. “Had it been, we wouldhave witnessed tremendousprogress in the North-Eastregion where connectivity wasnever taken seriously. Morethan monetary benefits, it is thepositive perception towardsthe tourism that matters. Withour holistic approach, we aimto double our domestic touristfootfall within next five years,”

he added. Union Minister Nitin

Gadkari suggested the stake-holders in the sector to adoptthree basic formulas — the PPPmodel, fast environment clear-ances, and innovative ideas,besides a strong political will.

Gadkari said his Ministryis working on 22 green corri-dors, a dedicated Mumbai-Delhi Expressway, and directroad connectivity toMansarovar. These will help ingrowth and generation ofemployment in the tourismsector, Gadkari said, addingIndia under the dynamic lead-ership of Prime MinisterNarendra Modi is on the pathof being a “Tourism Giant.”

Gadkari said tourism hasgreat employment potentialand this is the way forward toeradicate poverty from thecountry.

Related reports on P5

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Two days after the clashes inNorth-east Delhi, which

claimed 27 lives, including aDelhi Police Head Constable,the situation remained tensebut under control with heavypresence of the security forcesin the riots-affected areas.

A few incidents of violencewere reported in some otherplaces, including Joharpuri areain northeastern part of Delhibordering Uttar Pradesh, withshops set ablaze and the bodyof an IB staffer found in a drainnear Maujpur with multiplestab wounds on his body. Aspolice conducted flag marchesand security personnel spreadout across the northeasternedge of national Capital in a bidto quell the violence ragingsince Monday, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi in his firstreaction to the event appealedfor peace and brotherhood.

More than 200 people have been reported to be injured in riots between the pro and anti- Citizen Amendment Act

(CAA) groups, which tookplace in Maujpur, Gokulpuri,Gautampuri, Jafrabad, ShivVihar, Bhajanpura, Seelampur,Kardampuri and Chand Baghareas in North-east Delhi.

Asserting that it wasimportant that calm wasrestored at the earliest, Modiwrote on Twitter, “Had anextensive review on the situa-tion prevailing in various partsof Delhi. Police and otheragencies are working on theground to ensure peace andnormalcy.”

The task of bringing the sit-uation under control was givento National Security AdviserAjit Doval. “What has hap-pened has happened. Inshallah,there will be complete peacehere,” Doval said as he walkedthrough the mostly mixedneighbourhoods of North-eastDelhi and met locals.

On Tuesday, he undertooka late night tour with DelhiPolice Commissioner Amulya

Patnaik and newly-appointedSpecial Commissioner (Lawand Order) SN Shrivastava.

Shrivastava is believed tohave been handpicked by theMinistry of Home Affairs(MHA) after current policechief Patnaik faced flak for fail-ing to curb the spiraling vio-lence against the backdrop ofUS President Donald Trump’svisit, sources said.

Meanwhile, the SupremeCourt scolded the Delhi Policeon Wednesday for failing to actprofessionally and to checkincidents of violence in north-east Delhi. The apex courtlashed out at the law enforcingagencies for allowing the insti-gators of violence to get awayand said they should act inde-pendently as per law withoutwaiting for somebody’s nod.

“If somebody makes aninflammatory remark, policehas to take action,” it said.

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Chief MinisterNaveen Patnaik

was on Wednesdayformally announcedas the president ofthe State’s ruling BijuJanata Dal (BJD) forthe eighth time con-secutively.

Notably, Patnaikwas the lone candi-date to file nomina-tion for the post of BJD chief.

Party returning officerPratap Keshari Deb announcedthe election of Patnaik alongwith 80 others elected as theBJD State executive members.

The results wereannounced after a StateCouncil meeting held at theparty headquarters here earli-er in the day. The meeting wasattended by 355 members of

the party.After being re-elected,

Patnaik thanked the people ofOdisha and said, “The BJDdoesn’t fight elections to win orlose; it fights to win the love ofthe people of this State andserve them.”

With the election of BJD

president and State Executivemembers, the five phases of theparty’s organisational polls thathad started in December lastyear came to an end.

Patnaik is the founder-president of BJD, which wasformed after the death of BijuPatnaik in 1997. The party’sorganisational elections areheld every three years.

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On Wednesday, theChhattisgarh police sent

former MLA Anup Sai to judi-cial custody after the one-dayremand period ended.

Meanwhile, Raigarh CGMCourt did not allow narco andbrain mapping test of Sai, saidRaigarh Additional SP AbhisekVerma. However, on Thursday,a fresh application will be filedfor narco- analysis test and

brain mapping of Sai, Vermaadded.

But, a scientific team ofChakradharnagar police ofChhatisgarh matched the tyresign of Innova and Bolerovehicles with that of AnupSai's vehicle on the site of mur-der of Kalpana Dash and her 14–year- old daughter Babli. But,no further information wasgiven by the Chakradharnagarpolice.

Raigarh SP Santosh Singhsaid Sai was not cooperatingwith investigators.

Both Kalpana and Sai werestaying as couple for quitesome years after which Kalpanawanted Sai to marry her lead-ing to a quarrel between the

two and later becoming thecause of Kalpana and herminor daughter’s murder, saidRaigarh SP Singh. But, somedays before the murder,Kalpana had contacted anestablished lawyer ofJharsuguda over phone to filea case against one high profileperson, the SP told though hedid not reveal the identity ofthe high profile person.

On the other hand, he toldthat all data were availablewith police and if necessary allconcerned would be investi-gated.

Meanwhile, Sai’s lawyerVijay Saraf informed that hisbail application would be filedwithin two to three days.

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Finance Minister NiranjaPujai on Wednesday told

the State Assembly that theAnnual Budget 2020-21 envis-ages participation of citizens inthe process of empowermentand governance under the 5Tand Mo Sarkar initiatives.

Replying to a two-day dis-cussion on the GeneralDiscussion of the Budget, theMinister refuted all charges ofthe Opposition and claimedthat the Budget is meant forinclusive growth across all sec-tors.

“Focus has been given onhealth service, famers andfarmers’ welfare, poverty erad-ication, food security, overalldevelopment and empower-ment of farmers, workers, SCand ST people, women, chil-dren, youth and senior citi-zens,” said the Minister.

While the Government hasbeen preparing “Women

Budget” for the last eight yearsand “Child Budget” last year, rnew budgets titled “ClimateBudget” and “NutritionBudget” were prepared thisyear. By presenting e-Budget,the State has saved 1,000 trees,he said.

Pujari said the AnnualBudget has also priortised theirrigation sector. “It has beentargeted to irrivate 1,84 lakhhectares of land during 2020-21,” he said.

Pujari said a Rs 1,000-crore project has been initiat-ed to convert the SCB MedicalCollege Hospital to a AIIMSplus and world-class healthfacility. A whopping amount of22,631 crore has been provi-sioned for the education sector.To ensure supply of pipe water,Rs 8,000 crore would be spentin the coming year, theMinister informed.

“About Rs 2,000 crore hasalready been distributed to 40lakh beneficiaries under the“Mamata” scheme. To makeOdisha an international leveltourism place, the budget pro-vision has been doubled fromRs 194 crore to Rs 401 crore.The Government has planned

to create 30 jobs for youths by2025. Besides, 2,25,000 jobswould be created n the down-stream sector.

While 6,2083 doctors arepresently on job, the OPSC hasalready made a selection list of1,403 doctors for appointment.Besides, the Government hascreated 6,000 Staff Nurse and600 Paramedic posts, he said.

On the Opposition mem-bers’ charge on loan burden,the Minister said Odisha is wellbelow the permissible Debt-GSDP ratio of 25 per cent inincurring loans. The State’sloan is 16.5% to the rationwhile Interest Payment-Revenue Receipt Ratio is only5.83 per cent against the 15 percent norm.

“It has been estimated thatthe revenue expenditure will beRs 1,24,300 crore. The Budgetwill be a surplus one,” he said.

Leader of Opposition (BJP)Pradipta Naik, CongressLegislature Party LeaderNarasingha Mishra, BJP mem-ber Mohan Charan Majhi,Congress Member Tara PrasadBahinipat, BJD member PratapDeb and many other membersparticipated in the discussion.

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The first phase of the ongo-ing Budget Session of the

State Assembly came to anend on Wednesday. The sessionran for nine days. The second phase of the

session would begin on March11. Discussions on demands forgrants would be held for 14days. The Appropriation Billwould be presented and passedon March 31, according to theschedule.

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West Bengal Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee would

meet Union Home MinisterAmit Shah here in the EasternZonal Council (EZC) meetingon Friday (February 28).

The EZC meeting is likelyto play a vital role for a trucebetween Banerjee’s TMC andShah’s BJP. Banerjee wouldmeet Shah in the EZC meetingfor the first time after theCitizenship Amendment Act(CAA) was enacted.

It is not known whether thetwo leaders would have a one-to-one meeting in the backdropof the violence in Delhi over theCAA, NRC and NPR. Banerjeehas been a bitter critic of theCAA, NPR and NRC. She didnot attend the recent NitiAayog meetings. But now, she

has decided to take part theEZC meeting to be chaired byShah which has led to specu-lations in political circles.

Banerjee arrival at the air-port here on Tuesday eveningand was welcomed by OdishaParliamentary Affairs MinisterBikram Keshari Arukha onbehalf of the State Government.

Benerjee said she wouldmeet her Odisha counterpartNaveen Patnaik on Thursday.

On Wednesday afternoon,Mamata Banerjee along with

her family members visitedthe Jagannath Temple in Puriand offered prayers to thedeities. She spent about half anhour at the shrine. She was ear-lier received by the Puri districtCollector and other officials.

Chief Ministers of Biharand Jharkhand, Nitish Kumarand Hemant Soren, respec-tively, are also scheduled toattend the EZC meeting. NitishKumar was scheduled to arrivein Bhubaneswar later onWednesday.

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Former MLA of ErasamaBijaya Kumar Nayak passed

away at a private hospital inBhubaneswar on Wednesday.He was 70.

Nayak, who had been suf-fering from prolonged ail-ments, was admitted to the pri-vate hospital a few days ago. Hebreathed his last while under-

going treatment at around 9.45am. Born in Gobindapur vil-lage under Erasama block ofJagatsinghpur district, Nayakwas elected to the StateLegislative Assembly as aCongress candidate in 1995and served as a legislator till2000.

Politicians cutting acrossparty lines condoled over thedemise of Nayak.

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The most talked-about reces-sion indicator is the ‘invert-

ed yield curve' which meansyields on bonds with a shorterduration fetch higher divi-dends than those on bonds thathave a longer duration. Thisabnormal situation signals animpending recession. The bondmarket phenomenon is a trustysignal of an eventual recession.The second factor is the slow-ing of the Gross DomesticProduct. The next indication isthe fall in corporate profits.Most significantly, copper trad-ing constitutes the barometerof economic health because ofits extensive use in home-building and commercial con-

struction.When economic hiccups

occur badly, gold prices soar. Ithas now become 20% highersince last May when the US andChina escalated their tarifffight. Historically, gold tradingis known as the safest haven intimes of economic uncertain-ty.

Similarly, the global‘Economic Policy Uncertainty'index tracks the amount oftimes media articles use buzz-words related to economic andpolitical uncertainty.Additionally, it measures thenumber of tax laws set toexpire and the spectrum of dis-agreement among economists:The more the dissent, the high-er the index. Business spendingtoo is critically important.Gross private domestic invest-ment has been tumbling toalarmingly low levels in therecent times.

Cash-flush Indian corpo-rates like ‘Maruti Suzuki',despite having flat raw mater-ial costs, have suffered heavi-ly due to huge customer dis-counts and price cuts to boostsales. Maruti Suzuki’s operatingmargins, for instance, has con-

tracted by over 5 percentagepoints. Other frontline com-panies such as Hero MotoCorp,Bajaj Auto and Ashok Leylandalso saw operating marginsshrink sharply by up to 3.5 per-centage points in recent times.India’s economy hasn’t beenthis bad in 42 years. Pulling itback from the abyss will requirehonesty rather than imagina-tion. This is the third year ofunprecedented slowdown.Only Government spendinghasn’t been so bad; and that’sprobably the only silver liningto boast of. When PrimeMinister Modi returned topower, he gave highly rosyprojections of public financeswhich never happened as is evi-dent from the latest budget pre-sentation. Incidentally, StateGovernments have a deficitequal to 3% of GDP, higherthan the budgeted 2.6%. Nowonder, Indian corporate bor-rowers are making a beeline foroverseas debt markets. Evenborrowing abroad, which hit anew record of $22 billion lastyear, will become costliershould India’s sovereign ratingfall into junk territory. S&PGlobal Ratings have warned

last month that it might lowerIndia’s ratings if the economicgrowth doesn’t recover. A shal-low recovery will probablyshow up in the coming quarter.But if the current US-Iran ten-sions cause oil prices going up,which is very likely, the loss ofdiscretionary consumer spend-ing at home and abroad couldhurt India further.

The Reserve Bank of Indiais of course ‘twisting’ its balancesheet by selling short-termGovernment bonds to banksand buying long-term securi-ties from them only to keep alid on the benchmark 10-yearbond yield. But this supportmay not be enough for theGovernment’s five-year, $1.5-trillion infrastructure planwhich will rely heavily on pub-lic funding. Proven financialgurus say the Indian centralbank should purchase assetsfrom the non-bank financialsector which will help shadowfinanciers deal with their largeoverhang of bad loans to openup the clogged funding arter-ies of the economy.

The GST has subsumedmany of India’s indirect taxes,but it has several design flaws

resulting in poor and expensivecompliance for small firms.

Most shockingly, whatmany self-styled experts can’tsee is the enormously disturb-ing challenge relating the envi-ronment. The Indian economyis particularly vulnerable to cli-mate change with regard to airand water pollution and more.India is infamous today forbeing home to 22 of the 30most polluted cities in theworld. Chinese economicdevelopment, one generationahead of India, is now rapidlyreducing pollution with man-ifold techniques and approach-es.

Most importantly, themenace of inequality in Indiakeeps causing inordinate delayin turning the country a trulybig economic power. Therecent IMF projection of Indiaas the fifth colossal world econ-omy, based on bland GDP sta-tistics, will never mean a thing.Rather, India will cease to getforeign aid that has been com-ing for more than half a cen-tury. The IMF does not talk ofthe unforgivable wealth differ-ences between billionaires andpaupers. Even the ‘regional

difference' problems couldbecome increasingly difficult totackle. For example, India’srichest State, Goa, has similarliving standards to a poorEuropean country likeBulgaria. By contrast the poor-est State, Bihar, ranks alongsideMali in sub-Saharan Africa inper capita GDP terms.Ingenious policy changes haveto happen without delay. Orelse, India may be looked uponas an economic superpower onrecord, but the people mayhave turned horribly unin-spired and unskilled andunhappy without access to adignified, equitable life. Allthis as India has not beeninclusive enough. The big hypeabout the country’s fast-pacedeconomic growth has not per-colated down through theeconomy. Hopefully if onlythe analysis is perfect, by 2030,China will be number one, theUS second, and India third bysurpassing Germany and Japan.

Nobel laureate AbhijitBanerjee says the Indian econ-omy is very close to a big andlong recession if urgent cor-rective steps are not taken asprivate consumption, con-

tributing nearly 60% to theGDP, has been the villain forthe battered growth rate- cur-rently growing at 4.5% againstthe previous year’s 8.1.Manufacturing is in a dis-turbingly bad shape registeringa 15-year low at a 2% estimat-ed growth, disturbingly lowfrom 6% in the previous year.Similarly, the construction sec-tor is lagging at 3.2% comparedwith 8.7 last year.

Business investment, a keydriver of GDP, is estimated togrow at only the shameful 1%against 10% in the previousyear, which means less jobopportunities in the markets,and hence less money in peo-ple's pockets. They can't buywhatever is produced by themanufacturing sector. Mosthurting, the agriculture is lowertoo than the previous year. Thedangerous cyclic downfall con-tinues to remain in motioneven now.

The countries performingbetter on the Social ProgressIndex are managing to do soirrespective of their economicheft. With poorer economiesthan India, they have rankedhigher. They have made it pos-

sible by ensuring broad-basedpublic participation in eco-nomic expansion attempts bypursuing policies which pro-mote extensive schooling, high-er literacy, better healthcare,widespread land reforms andgreater gender parity.

China was at the sameeconomic level as India around1980 when it undertook mar-ket reforms. But it made con-stant investments in improvingits basic education and healthstandards. When Chinabecame an export-led econo-my, the products did not par-ticularly require highly skilledlabour but a highly schooledand inspired population. Theproduction for the world mar-kets are bound to ensure cer-tain specifications and qualitycontrols.

Basic education, goodhealth and decent environ-ment are not only valuableconstituent elements of quali-ty of life, but also they aid indriving economic successes.Economic recession is a reali-ty in India, which has a lot tolearn from China. Poorer coun-tries are happier because ofequity.

��

As part of its drive againstelectricity bill defaulters,

the North Eastern ElectricitySupply Company of OdishaLimited (Nesco) disconnectedelectricity supply of 7,724 con-sumers in Mayurbhanj,Baleswar, Bhadrak, Jajpur andKeonjhar districts betweenFebruary 16 and 25.

And the power distribu-tion company collected arrearsworth Rs 11,84,20,000 from47,366 consumers from thefive districts during the peri-od.

Power supply to 2,481consumers in Baleswar, whoowed Rs 3.26 crore, wassnapped in the 10 days.Similarly, power supply to1,423 consumers in Bhadrak,who owed Rs 2.78 crore, 563

consumers in Jajpur, whoowed Rs 1.33 crore, 1,325consumers in Mayurbhanj,who owed Rs 3.11 crore and1,932 consumers in Keonjhar,who owed Rs 2.96 crore, hasbeen disconnected, said anofficial.

While dues of Rs 2,27crore were collected from8,435 consumers in Baleswar,Rs 1.62 crore was collectedfrom 4,096 consumers inBhadrak, Rs 2.09 crore from3,416 consumers in Jajpur, Rs3.96 crore from 25,457 con-sumers in Mayurbhanj and Rs1.89 crore from 5,962 con-sumers in Keonjhar.

A total 133 squads wereengaged for the drive, includ-ing- 38 in Baleswar, 20 inJajpur, 27 in Mayurbhanj and24 each in Keonjhar andBhadrak.

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Odishi dance artist DrSrinibas Ghatuary (Milan)

has brought laurels for theState by being awarded with aDLit degree in dance from theUniversity of Central America.

He is the first Odishi danceartist to get the degree. He wasawarded the DLit for hisresearch on the topic ‘SashtriyaNrutyare Sakhi BhabaraMahatuapurna Bhumika OTaara Samajika Prabhaba.’

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Mother, motherland andmother goddess are one

and the same which is estab-lished by the Indian philoso-phy. Without the developmentof women, a civilisation cannot

progress, told Governor ProfGaneshi Lal, while inaugurat-ing a book ‘Status of Women inIndia’ at the Raj Bhavan here onTuesday.

The book has been pub-lished by Drusti WomenStudies Centre and MahilaSamanwaya.

Lal told that Indian histo-ry and Puranas have manyexamples of women power.The women have given proof of

their talent and ability as perthe need of time and chal-lenges, he added.

Among others, Dr AnjaliDespande, Gita Gunde, Gita

Gokhle,Pragyan ParimitaAcharya and Gopal PrasadMohapatra spoke about statusof women and their problemsin India. The book has made ananalysis of the status of womenfrom the perspectives of health,education and employment.

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Padma Shri ProfRadhamohan, eminent

social reformer and an advo-cate of organic farming, wasfelicitated by AMOFOI andFreethought Party of India(FPI) in a meeting here onSunday.

Founder secretary ofAMOFOI B and FPI generalsecretary B Ramchandra CSTVoltaire welcomed the guestsand highlighted the achieve-ments made by ProfRadhamohan in the field ofsocial reform and in organic

farming.Prof Radhamohan was

felicitated by president ofAMOFOI Manas Jena and

president of FPI DrBijayananda Kar.

In his thanks - givingspeech, Prof Radhamohan

pointed out the health hazardscaused to mankind by chemi-cals used in farming and loss offertility of the soil due toabsence of organic farming. Hesupported the casteless, dowry-less, priestless love marriageand one-child family principlesof FPI and AMOFOI.

Among others, ManasJena, Dr Bijayanand Kar,Sundhansu Sekhar Dhada,Sidharth Ranjan, Dr NiharRanjan Mohapatra, MS Yadavof BSP and Madam SwapnaBijayini of AMOFOI spoke.Two priestless love marriageswere held.

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Chief Minister NaveenPatnaik on Wednesday

launched the Mo Sarkar pro-gramme in the Revenue andDisaster ManagementDepartment and asked theofficials to respect dignity of thepeople visiting Governmentoffices.

With this, all the Tehsilsand Registration Offices whichprovide more than 70 lakhpublic services to citizens nowcame under the Mo Sarkar ini-

tiative.“Tehsils and Registration

Offices are the heart and soulof rural administration. Theymust be seen as efficient,accountable and responsive tothe needs of people. Keepingthis transformative vision inmind, I had launchedissuance of E-Certificatesprogramme through E-District Portal in Decemberlast year under 5-T initiatives.Registration Offices will be onthe focus of Mo SarkarProgramme,” Patnaik told.

He further said, “I am gladthat through the new portal,more than two lakh citizenshave applied for various cer-tificates and 1.35 lakh citizenshave received their certifi-

cates without visiting anyGovernment offices. TheRevenue and DisasterManagement Departmentis way ahead in adopting 5-T initiatives and perfectlyready to embrace MoSarkar. The StateGovernment has abolishedall types of fees for obtain-ing miscellaneous andcaste certificates. This willdirectly benefit around 50lakh citizens, includingstudents, who apply for var-ious certificates annually.”

Under the e-PAUTIPortal, citizens have alreadypaid land revenue online inrespect of 1.4 lakhKhatiyans. In all mutationcases, updated RoR is

delivered at the doorstep ofcitizens through speed post.Registered deeds are alsodelivered to citizens at theirdoorstep through speed postbased on consent, Patnaik said,adding, “I am happy that, thecitizens are now getting reg-istered deeds on the same dayof registration.”

Revenue Minister SudamMarndi said the departmentis fully prepared and com-mitted to fulfil the obligationsof Mo Sarkar.

5T Secretary VK Pandianinteracted with Tehsildars ofAthagarh, Karanjia, Champuaand Jharsuguda and Sub-Registrars of Bhanjanagar andKamakhyanagar on conceptu-al clarity on Mo Sarkar.

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Aman was found hangingfrom the ceiling while his

wife and daughter were spottedlying dead in a pool of blood ina house in the Palia area ofChhatrapur in Ganjan districton Wednesday morning.

Deceased BrundabanBehera was a businessmanwhile his wife and daughterwere identified as Urmila andSunita, respectively. Sunita wasstudying Plus III.

As per reports, locals spot-ted the blood-soaked bodies ofUrmila and Sunita lying on the

floor in the drawing room ofthe house and informed policeabout the incident.

Ganjam SP Brijesh KumarRai along with other police offi-cials rushed to the spot andlater found Brundaban’s bodyhanging in a room of thehouse.

“Police got informationabout the bodies of mother anddaughter lying on the floor andrushed to the spot. Upon inves-tigation, we found anotherperson hanging from the ceil-ing and launched an investiga-tion,” said the SP.

A forensic team was alsoroped in to assist in investiga-tion.

Though the exact reasonbehind the triple deaths was yetto be ascertained, preliminaryinvestigation by the police indi-cated that Brunaban mighthave first killed his wife anddaughter over some familyfeud before committing suicideby hanging.

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Police on Wednesdayarrested a private school

owner, Bibhuti Gupta, forallegedly raping a woman atBondamunda of the steel city.

As per the complaint,elder sister of a student of theprivate school located inSector-1 of Bondamunda metthe Gupta requesting him toallow her some more time topay pending school fees of sixmonths. Citing the poorfinancial condition of herfamily, the woman soughtmore time to pay the schoolfees of her younger brother.

But Gupta assured thewoman to waive her youngerbrother’s school fees. Also,

the accused promised thewoman to provide a job.

With all these promises,Gupta raped the woman onseveral occasions in the pastsix months. Instead of pro-viding a job, the school ownerissued life threats to thewoman, the complaint stated.

Fol lowing this , thewoman sought an interven-tion of Rourkela SP K SivaSubramani. Based on thecomplaint, the Bondamundapolice detained the schoolowner for questioning.

Later, the woman wassent for a medical examina-tion. Sources said the accusedis an active member of apolitical party.

�� '��&��

Awoman was raped by agang of dacoits at

Gotidhara under the BrahmaniTarang police station in thesteel city on February 23 night.

As per a complaint lodgedby the victim with police, sevenmiscreants barged into a houseat late night with the intentionof committing dacoity. Thewoman’s husband, the caretak-er of the house, was sleeping onthe first floor while she wassleeping on the ground floor.

The dacoits threatened thewoman’s husband and laterraped her. They also lootedarticles worth lakhs from thehouse before fleeing the spot.

Acting on the basis of thecomplaint, police have regis-tered a case and started inves-tigation into the incident. Tilllast reports came in, policewere still clueless about themiscreants.

�� *��

The Allergan, Sightsaversand the International

Agency for the Prevention ofBlindness (IAPB) on Mondayannounced launch of its uniquejoint initiative, ‘Keep SightIndia,’ a community basedglaucoma screening progammeto prevent glaucoma-relatedvision loss in Ganjam district.The pilot project kicked off inOctober last in partnershipwith Sightsavers local partner,Sankara Eye Hospital.

The progamme providestraining for healthcare profes-sionals to screen at-risk popu-lations, ensure early and accu-rate diagnosis and provideappropriate treatment andlong-term care in an effort tomake a positive impact onpeople with glaucoma at all lev-els of comprehensive eye care.

The first outreach campwas organised on December 3for the World Disability Dayand subsequently four out-reach camps were conductedunder the pilot project. The

o u t r e a c hcamps includ-ed services likevision testing,refraction, IOPmeasurement,fundus pho-tography, spec-tacle dispens-ing, cataractidentification,referral ser-vices andc o u n s e l l i n gservices. Todate, 8,276people havebeen screenedfor glaucomain these fouro u t r e a c hcamps, fromwhich 749glaucoma sus-pects wereidentified and referred to thebase hospital.

Sightsavers India CEO RNMohanty said, “We are excitedto be partnering with Allergan,an organisation with a longlegacy in eye care. Sightsaverstoo like Allergan is committedin finding and providing effec-tive solutions for patients suf-fering with glaucoma, which isone of the leading causes ofirreversible blindness.

Honorary chairman,Sightsavers India Board and

former Chief ElectionCommissioner, India, Dr SYQuraishi said, “Nearly, 75 percent of sight loss can be curedor prevented; so it’s an areawhere initiatives like this canhave a strong impact where itis needed the most.”

“India will play a crucialrole in meeting WHO’s targetsfor eye health”, said Director ofDevelopment andCommunications, IAPB,Joanna Conlon, adding, “Thecountry is already at the fore-

front of delivering people-cen-tred solutions for eye care.”

“Allergan is honoured topartner with Sightsavers andIAPB on ‘Keep Sight’; theirwealth of knowledge andexpertise, combined with ourpassion for science and solu-tions will have a real impact onour shared goal of reducing thehigh burden of irreversibleblindness in the country,” saidAssociate Director, Eyecare,Allergan India, GopinathKesavan.

��

A 17-year-old boy of Jajpurdistrict, who lost his right

hand in a mishap during workin a rice mill, would get Rs 9.38lakh as compensation by themill owner following an inter-vention of the authorities.

Chandan Sahoo ofSankhachila village under theKorei police station lost hishand on April 2 last year whenhe accidentally put it in themachine while working in theKrupalu Rice Mill at Panikoili.

Chandan’s motherPurnima filed a case against themill owner in the Court ofJudicial Magistrate First Classat Jajpur on February 17 this

year. The court direct-ed the Panikoili policestation to investigatethe matter. '

District LabourInspector GopalKrushna Mangarajsaid, “fter knowingabout the plight ofChandan on February20 after around tenmonths of the inci-dent , we filed a caseagainst rice mil ownerAnirudha Dash andserved him a notice.He deposited a chequeof Rs 9.38 lakh in ouroffice on Tuesday forproviding compensa-tion to Chandan. Acase has been regis-tered against the millowner. We are investi-gating the incident.”

��

Following anintervention of

officials of theDistrict ChildProtection unit andWomen and ChildD e v e l o p m e n tDepartment, a childmarriage bid wasfoiled at Podalgudavillage underNandahandi blockof Nabarangpur dis-trict on Tuesday.

Preparations were on tomarry off a 15-year-old girl ofPodalguda village with a 22-year-old youth from Rusiaguda.The marriage was supposed tobe held at 8 pm. But the districtadministration got informa-tion that the girl who was

going to be married is a minorand a school dropout. Officialsof the Child Protection Unit,local police and Women andChild DevelopmentDepartment reached the girl’shouse and talked to her fami-ly members.

They created awarenessamong families of the minorgirl and the youth about the illeffects of child marriage. Afterbeing convinced, members ofboth the families submitted awritten undertaking not tomarry off the girl.

��

Atoddler was electrocutedwhen he put a live electric

wire in his mouth at Kandetaravillage under the Komna policestation in the district late onTuesday night.

Reportedly, family mem-bers of the eight-month-oldKunal had left an electric wireplugged in and went to sleep atnight. In the meantime, thebaby, who was crawling on thefloor at that time, picked up theelectric wire and later put it inhis mouth. Soon after, his fam-ily members rushed him to theDistrict Headquarters Hospital(DHH) in critical condition.

But doctors at the hospitaldeclared him dead. A post-mortem of the body will beconducted, said Nuapada PSIIC Aditya Mahakud.

�� *��&'��

Seven masked mis-creants looted cash

and jewellery at gun-point from the house ofa resident Birju Sahu ofvillage Machhadhoraunder the Umarkotepolice station late onMonday night.

The entered intothe bed room of thehouse by breaking the maindoor and tied Birju and ter-rorised them by brandishinggun and other lethal weapons.

Terrified Birju's wife hand-ed over the key of the almirahto the dacoits and they lootedRs 6.5lakhs cash, 100 grams ofgold and five litres of petrol.

On Wednesday, policebegan investigation with thehelp of sniffer dog and foren-

sic team. The dacoits wereconversing in Hindi and locallanguage, so involvement oflocals can’t be ruled out, saidpolice.

The cops suspect that thedacoits might have come bybikes because they had takenfive litre of petrol with them.Investigation is on said,Umarkote SDPO HemantaPad.

��

A‘Neighbourhood YouthParliament’ was held at

the Khariar AutonomousCollege by NYK, Nuapada incollaboration with the YouthRed Cross wing of the collegeon Tuesday.

"The objective was to edu-cate youths about their role tobring a healthy and ideal polit-ical system in the country andto create an opportunity forthem to share their perceptionon contemporary socioeco-nomic development throughdebate and discussions," saidProfessor of Chemistry andAdvisor of Youth Red crosswing of the college Dr TarunPradhan

College Principal Dr

Harendra Panda, who inaugu-rated the programme, urgedthe Youth Clubs to actively par-ticipate in nation building andhelp the local communitiessolve the problems of develop-ment they are confronting.

Altogether, 50 male andfemale students of the collegetook part in the programme.Among the students,Tanushree, Mamina, Sanskruti,

Ganesh, Suman, Nirupama,Jogin, Manaswini, Jayanti,Niharika, Ramesh, Karismaand Gobinda were the speakers.

Other guests included DrPadmalochn Barma, DrBishnudev Mallik and MeenaGujrati, Lecturers of the college.The programme was repre-sented by Diptimayee Majhiand Sangram Keshari Singh ofNYK, Nuapada.

��

Results of the Plus TwoScience annual examina-

tion would be announced inthe last week of May whilethose of Arts, Commerce andVocational Education streamswould be out by June 7,informed School and MassEducation Minister SameerRanjan Dash in the State

Assembly on Wednesday.The Minister said evalua-

tion of the Plus II answersheets would begin from thefirst week of April and actionwould be against the teacherswho do not cooperate in theevaluation process.

Besides, the Ministerinformed that as many as 2,585Government High Schools inthe State are running withoutheadmasters. This apart, 2,451schools have no libraries and 90have no blackboards.

He further said that awhopping number of 35,679schools in the State have noelectricity connection while34,394 do not have access todrinking water and sanitationfacilities. Moreover, 37,645schools in the state have noplaygrounds, he added.

�� '��&��

If the air pollution in Rourkelacity can be brought under

control then the average lifeexpectancy of the people will beextended by 3.5 years, claimedenvironment experts.

Speaking at the ‘NationalClean Air Programme’ jointlyorganised by the State PollutionControl Board, the Chicago-

based Energy Policy Instituteand the Tata DevelopmentCentre, the experts exhorted so.

Notably, Rourkela isamong the 102 polluted citiesof the country and 7th mostpolluted city of the State.Similarly, out of 31 industriesof the city, 24 have got star rat-ing accord (minimum pollut-ed significance). But dust andsmoke coming out from theindustries, construction works,roads and other mining activ-ities affect the lives and liveli-hoods of the people. The airpollution works as a slow poi-son in human body.

So, the industries, PollutionControl Board, local adminis-tration and the people at largejointly have to work to curb theair pollution, said the speakers.

�� *��

Ayouth from Sundargarhdistrict with suspected

coronavirus disease (COVID-19) was admitted to the VIM-SAR, Burla on Tuesday.

As per reports, the youthwho returned from SouthKorea recently would undergoa medical checkup at the hos-pital.

Dr Sudarsan Pothal of theDepartment of PulmonaryMedicine of VIMSARinformed that the youth wouldbe kept under observation forseven days at the special coro-navirus isolation ward.Requisite samples of the youthwould be sent to Bhubaneswarand outside the State for tests.The youth would be allowedleave the hospital only after get-ting the test reports.

Sources said the youthaccompanied by a medicalteam was brought to the hos-pital by a special vehicle.

��

The Confederation of IndianIndustry (CII) celebrated its

State Annual Day onWednesday, inaugurated bychief guest Minister of Home,Energy, Industries and MSMECapt Dibya Shankar Mishra.

Chairman, CII OdishaState Council Ranjan KumarMohapatra, vice-chairman DrPradipta Kumar Mohanty andIdco CMD Sanjay Singh werein dais.

The Minister said, “Withresources like minerals, natur-al resources, skilled manpow-er and young talents, we can bethe best State in terms of indus-trialisation and economy.”

CII Odisha chairmanMohapatra welcomed theguests and dignitaries . Idco

CMD Singh said,“Idco hasstarted developments withIndustrial Park, Khordha FoodPark, Deras Food Park, alu-minum park, Angul, plastic

park, Paradip, electronic parkand IT park, Bhubaneswar.” Healso informed that the Idcohad floated RFP to study indus-trial potential in all districts and

spoke about the plan toset up five new foodparks across the Stateand MSME parks in alldistricts.

The inaugural ses-sion was followed by around table on invest-ment climate of sectoralindustrial parks ofOdisha with two paneldiscussions.

Concluding the daythe new office-bearerwere announced. Theyare chairman, CII OdishaState Council RajivKumar, (VP, Operations,Tata Steel, Kalinganagar)

and vice chairman ManishKharbanda (Group Advisor,Corporate Affairs, Legal, CSRand Sustainability, Jindal Steeland Power).

��

Two miscreants looted 160grams of gold jewellery

from an elderly couple afterintroducing themselves aspolicemen in Nabarangpurtown on Wednesday.

Like any other day, PLaxman Rao (74) ofDasarapada and his wife PJayalakshmi (70) were on theirway to the KanikaParameswara temple in thetown by a two-wheeler. Themotorcycle-borne miscreantsintercepted the couple and

introduced themselves as policeofficials.

Citing some investigationinto a gold jewellery loot case,the criminals askedJayalakshmi to keep the goldjewellery she was wearing inthe dicky of the couple’s two-wheeler. Even one of them putthe gold jewellery himself in thecouple’s two-wheeler dicky.

When the couple reachedthe temple and opened the two-wheeler dicky, the jewellery wasmissing. The couple later fileda complaint in this regard at theNabarangpur police station.

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��

Gujarat Governor AcharyaDevabrata Ji felicitated five

Odia scribes at Gandhinagar onthe occasion of the IndianJournalists’ Union (IJU) nation-al executive council (NEC)meet held on February 19 and20.

While senior journalist andpresident of Odisha Union ofWorking Journalists SugyanChoudhury was felicitated onhis being elected as NEC mem-ber of IJU New Delhi, AsutoshRath, Shyam Sundar Rout,Pabitra Kumar Patra andParamananda Mishra wereaccorded hearty welcome asspecial invitees.

The two-day meet herediscussed threadbare on thethreat to media. Exhorting themedia representatives from allacross the country, chief guestAcharya Devabrata remindedthe media people of their indis-pensable role as makers ofIndia’s destiny by remaining

ever vigilant to the cause of thenation and society at large.

Noted scribe Ved PrakashVaidik ( interviewer of HafizSaeed) narrated his experi-ences of daredevilry of inter-viewing Saheed.

Delivering his presidentialaddress, IJU president KishanBal Pandit came down heavilyon the corporate houses andpolitical leaders owning mediahouses who were squeezing theservice conditions of journal-ists and forcing them to wal-low in penury.

He urged the PM to deci-

sively intervene in the affairs ofmediapersons and preserve,protect and defend the freedomof Press. Mediapersons fromKarnataka, Himachal,Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana,New Delhi, Bihar, Odisha andGujarat assembled on the occa-sion.

A memorandum to thePM was submitted by Panditthrough the Governor ofGujarat for the welfare of thejournalist fraternity. The meet-ing ended with a vote of thanksby IJU secretary generalMurugesh B Shivpuji.

��

Members cutting acrossparty lines on Wednesday

demanded in the StateAssembly that theGovernment-AES agreementbe reviewed as the “highhand-edness” of the American com-pany (AES) has put the OdishaPower Generation Corporation(OPGC) in jeopardy.

Raising the issue during theZero Hour, BJD memberSoumya Ranjan Patnaik allegedthat many workers of OPGCare being treated differently bythe present management runby the AES.

While the OdishaGovernment bears 51 per centstake, the AES with 49 per centstate has taken administrationcharge as per the agreement.Under its management, Odiaemployees are being exploited,he alleged.

Leader of OppositionPradipta Naik also expressedconcern over how the powerutility is being managed by theAES. He demanded that theagreement reviewed soon.

He claimed the employeesappointed by the AES man-agement are getting higherremuneration compared tothose engaged by previousmanagement of the company.

Congress legislature partyleader Narasingha Mishra alsosaid that there should be “nolegal restriction on reviewingthe pact”.

BJD members KishoreMohanty and Amar PrasadSatpathy also alleged that manyemployees had been stagingprotest against the AES’ “dis-crimination” for the last twodays.

They demanded that theGovernments intervene andsave the project.

��

Speaker Surjya Narayan Patroon Wednesday directed the

Energy Department to repairthe electrical infrastructuresdamaged due to untimely rainsin the State in August 2019 andon February 25 (Tuesday) andsubmit a report in theAssembly after its vacation.

The Speaker ruled thisafter Congress LegislatureLeader Narasingha Mishra andLeader of Opposition (BJP)Pradipta Kumar Naik allegedthat the State Government isyet to undertake restorationand rehabilitation works inBalangir, Bhawanipatna andother parts of the State whereelectrical and road infrastruc-tures and houses were damageddue to rains in August 2019.They too informed that suchinfrastructures were damageddue to untimely rains thisTuesday.

They demanded that theGovernment repair andrestoration works at the earli-est.

��

Leader of Opposition (BJP)Pradipta Kumar Naik on

Wednesday demanded in theState Assembly that outsourc-ing and contractual appoint-ment in various Government

jobs be stopped at the earliest.“As per the Supreme Court

direction, employees shouldget equal pay for equal work.However, the Government isviolating the order by appoint-ing employees on contractualand outsourcing basis. It is verydifficult on parts of qualifiedteachers in schools, lecturers incolleges and other contractualemployees to manage theirfamilies at a very low amountof salary. Thus contractual andoutsourcing systems should bewithdrawn at the earliest,”demanded Naik.

He demanded that a HouseCommittee be formed to lookinto the matter.

��

Apalm leaf engraving and Pattachitracompetition was inaugurated by SBI

first lady Reeta Agarwal and SBIBhubaneswar Circle Chief GeneralManager Praveena Kala at the SBI LHOhere on Tuesday.

There were nine participants, includingsix women, in the competition. They werefrom nearby villages of Raghurajpur of Puridistrict. The team was led by SatyanarayanDas, a seasoned campaigner of palm leafengraving and Pattachitra painting. Theguests judged the best three among the creationsand gave away prizes to the winners.

The initiative was the brainchild of PraveenaKala to promote and encourage the age-old artand culture of Odisha. Reeta Agarwal expressed

happiness over the initiative to encourageyoung budding artists to take up the professionseriously. She also inaugurated a sand art on sus-tainability at the special sand art pavilion at theLHO.

��

BJP State presidentSamir Mohanty on

Wednesday flagged off afleet of campaign vehi-cles to be deployed toinform the residentsabout the rally to beaddressed by UnionHome Minister AmitShah in support of theCitizenship AmendmentAct (CAA) here onFebruary 28.

The CAA is to giveIndian citizenship to thereligious minorities fac-ing harassments inPakistan, Afghanistan andBangladesh. But the oppositionCongress and a few regionalparties are misleading the peo-

ple and creating riots for vest-ed interest, alleged State BJPmedia cell chief and party’sspokesperson Golak

Mohapatra. He urged people tojoin the meeting of Shah inlarge numbers in nation’s inter-est.

�� &��

AGMR Kamalanga labourcontractor, Melco India,

finally disbursed retrenchmentcompensation to its labourersafter activist Er DebashishaHota moved court on behalf ofthe labourers.

On September 30 last,Melco India had retrenchednearly 60 labourers withoutgiving proper notice to them.The labourers approached the

GMR Kamalanga top officialsa number of times but of noavail. The DLO and the DLCdid not listen to their pleadings.

However, after theybrought the matter to thenotice of Er Hota on December30, the latter filed a case beforethe DLO along with all recordsdemanding retrenchment com-pensation of Rs13, 56, 284,which was finally disbursed bythe company.

Er Hota thanked MelcoIndia for giving the compen-sation to its employees withina record time of only twomonths of filing the case. Otherindustries should follow suit orelse, labour agitation will beintensified, Er Hota threat-ened.

��

Congress member SantoshSingh Saluja on Wednesday

brought a Privilege Motionagainst Water ResourcesMinister Raghunandan Das inthe State Assembly allegingthat he misled the House byfurnishing different informa-tion on irrigation on differentdays.

Raising the issue during theZero Hour, Saluja said that whilehe had asked three questions toknow about the percentage ofland irrigated in Tureikela blockin his constituency’s Kantabanjiblock, the Minister's data fur-nished in response to the sepa-rate questions were different. TheMinister's figures of irrigatedland were 26.9 per cent, 27 percent and 24 per cent, respectively.

Saluja demanded that thenotice be sent to the PrivilegesCommittee for action. SpeakerSurjya Narayan Patro said hewas examining the notice.

��

The Reliance Jio has becomethe No. 1 mobile service

provider in Odisha with thehighest number of subscribersas well as gained a dominantrevenue market share in theState as per the latest datareleased by the TelecomRegulatory Authority of India(TRAI).

The Jio with 1.18 croremobile subscribers has over-taken the Airtel in less thanthree and a half years of com-mercially launching its ser-vices in the State in September2016. Maintaining steadygrowth in subscribers as themost preferred network, TheJio has added over 37 lakh newsubscribers to its kitty in 2019,the highest by any telecomoperator in the State.

As per the latest data, theJio is followed by the Airtelwith 1.17 crore subscribers, theBSNL 60 lakh and theVodafone Idea with 34 lakh inthe State as on 31st December2019. The Jio presently hasaround 36% subscriber marketshare and 58% revenue marketshare in the State.

��

An Odia girl was criticallyinjured and admitted to a

hospital when she was shot atin Munnekolal under theMarathahalli police station inBengaluru on Wednesday.

Subhashri Priyadarshini(25) was reportedly shot at by

an Odia youth, AmarendraPatnaik, in front of a women’shostel. She is out of danger now,police said.

Amarendra had fired atSubhashri from a country-made gun. Later, police foundAmarendra in a critical condi-tion near a bridge atMarathahalli in the afternoon.

He sustained a deep injury inhis neck, police said. He wasadmitted to the Sakara hospi-tal and his condition was crit-ical.

Police recovered a lettercontaining 17 pages and sus-pected that the incident wasfallout of a one-sided loveaffair.

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Punjab Chief Minister CaptAmarinder Singh diagnosed

corona virus as a malady afflict-ing supply of smartphones inthe State. Capt Amarinder, con-cluding the debate on theGovernor’s Address onWednesday, declared thatsmartphones are the out-of-coverage area for Punjab youthfollowing the outbreak of coro-navirus in China — drawingsharp criticism from the oppo-sition.

The Chief Ministerinformed the House that pro-viding smartphones was thetopmost priority of the StateGovernment, and it would sure-ly be distributed. “However, thedelay is due to coronavirus,”

said the Chief Minister.Taking a dig at Capt

Amarinder’s statement, theOpposition refused to buy theChief Minister’s reasons andlashed out at him for comingout with novel “excuses” everytime for not fulfilling the pre-poll promises.

Notably, the Congressparty, before coming to power,had declared in its electionmanifesto to distribute freemobile phones to the youth to“encourage and incentivizethem to use digital technolo-gy in day-to-day lives” underConnect with Capt campaign.

Even, in its first budget, thestate government had allottedRs 10 crore budget for the‘smartphones for youth’ for thefirst phase of the scheme.

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Union Road and TransportMinister Nitin Gadkari onWednesday spel led out his

mantra to take the tourism sector in thecountry to newer heights. He suggestedthe stakeholders in the sector to adoptthree basic formulas — the PPP model,immediate environment clearances andinnovative ideas — that could, backed bya strong political will, go a long way inpaying rich dividends.

Highlighting the work on 22 Greencorridors, a dedicated Mumbai-DelhiExpressway and a direct road connec-tivity to Mansarovar which will help inthe growth and generation of employ-ment in the tourism sector, Gadkari said,India under the dynamic leadership ofPrime Minister Narendra Modi is on thepath of becoming a tourism giant.

Speaking at the Exotica TourismSummit organized by The Pioneer,Gadkari said tourism has great employ-ment potential and this is the way for-ward to eradicate poverty from thecountry. Gadkari said the country's'ethno structure' requires a greatimprovement if we need to augmenttourism.

Known for dishing out numbers andstatistics at will, the Union Minister said22 projects comprising 7,500 km ofGreenfield expressways and corridors,costing Rs 3.10 lakh crore, are plannedto be completed by 2025 and all throughdifferent modes including PPP.

"We will complete the flagshipMumbai- Delhi Expressway in the nextthree years. This will be India's longestexpressway at 1,320 km and will reducetravel time between Delhi and Mumbaifrom 24 hours to 13 hours," Gadkari saidat the Summit sharing the dais with ThePioneer Editor Dr Chandan Mitra.

On his prime role as Road andTransport Minister, Gadkari said he

has been continuously working to takethe load off 80 per cent traffic on roadby making a total of 1,80,000 network ofhighways as against the present norm of40 percent traffic on only two percent ofroad infrastructure.

Talking about religious tourism, theRoad Minister said his agenda for thecurrent year is completing the about Rs12,000-crore Char Dham project withweather connectivity roads to Badrinath,Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamunotri.

He also said efforts are on to com-plete a highway through Uttarakhand formaking the Kailash-Mansarovar Yatraeasy. "The work is about to be complet-ed and will be commissioned anytimesoon. Ppeople can visit Mansarovarthrough Pithoragarh in Uttarakhand," heoutlined.

"I have also taken a keen interest indeveloping our ver y own Auli(Uttarakhand) near Joshimath which canbe a destination l ike Davos inSwitzerland. I am in talks withUttarakhand government on this projectso that several world-level conferencescan be brought to the small place whichis more scenic than Switzerland," saidGadkari, known to give the country'sfirst Tolled Expressway between Puneand Mumbai.

Gadkari also shared details of hisinland waterway and ports projectswhich, according to him, have immensepotential for the tourism sector besidesthe commercial aspects. He said verysoon India will also become a destina-tion for cruise tourism and pointed outthat the present Varanasi to Haldiawater project will be expanded tillBangladesh and further till Myanmarmaking it easier for freight movementright from Punjab till Myanmar whichwill be cost effective and above all lesspolluting.

On the occasion, Mitra, a formerRajya Sabha member, termed Gadkari as

the most competent and popular min-ister in the Modi cabinet and exudedconfidence that the ambitious projectslined up and talked about so passionately

by the Minister will be completed with-in deadlines.

Gadkari, who is holding severalportfolios including Shipping, received

a huge round of applause from the audi-ence as Dr Mitra praised this ambitiousproject.

Tagged as the infrastructure man of

the country, Gadkari in his first tenureof the Modi government did a lot of workfor Ganga Rejuvenation as part of theNamami Gange project.

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Passengers can now trav-el between Delhi to

Shimla on a single ticket;said Railways MinisterPiyush Goyal while speak-ing at 'EXOTICA TourismSummit' organised by ThePioneer group onWednesday.

Talking about effortsof railways' to promotetourism, the Minister said"We are running RamayanExpress which will connectsites associated with LordRam. Similarly there is atrain called SaamantaExpress which will coverprominent places associ-ated with Gautam Buddhaand chief architect of theConstitution Dr B RAmbedkar," The idea isalso to take the railway toChardham, he added.

The Minister said thatas a nation we all must acttogether to bring theexcitement back of pro-moting India. In fact thePrime Minister NarendraModi himself suggestedeach of us to plan a visit of15 places within the coun-try in next three years.

"India has a hugepotential and I am sure thisinitiative will go a long wayin promoting tourism," headded.

The Minister alsotalked about energy poten-tial of India, saying that thecountry is the fastestrenewable energy grow-ing and efforts are made tomake it a power surpluscountry.

After Prime Ministertook the office, he hasbeen particularly focusedon the north east to theextent that every ministertrying to visit the regiontwice or thrice in a yearand every month three tofour cabinet ministerwould actually go to northeast, he said.

"That is the level ofengagement theGovernment had with thenorth east I am happy toshare with the investmentwhich has significantly

ramped up on the railwaysand road front. We believeconnecting all the faith ofnorth east with the main-land," he added.

Goyal further said thattrain services are very crit-ical and essential for devel-opment of north east."Only four out of eightstates are currently left outof services due to localpressure and problem.There are lots of trainsrunning in Tripura butArunachal Pradesh is notconnected," he said.

"I am delighted that allthe eight states of the northeast are aligned to thevision of the PrimeMinister for faster infra-structure development andin next two and half years,all these four states will beconnected to the railwaymap of India. We will beable to take the railway toevery parts of the regionright to extreme end toBangladesh," he said.

"We are also lookingto working withBangladesh to connectsome parts so that a longcircuit is cut off and actu-ally travel throughBangladesh to other partsof the region," the minis-ter said.

While responding to aquestion by The Pioneereditor Dr Chandan Mitraon privitisation of rail-ways, Goyal asserted thatIndia Railway is the prop-erty of the people of Indiaand shall always remain.

The minister alsoreceived a great round ofapplause when he sharedto the august gatheringthat there has not beeneven a single passengerdeath on Indian railwaynetwork from April 1tilldate.

To a query from audi-ence, Goyal said that a lothas been done on improv-ing the on-board foodquality through use ofartificial intelligence."Now you can track yourfood packets by scanningthe bar coded meal boxesand gain access of thebase kitchen where it hasbeen prepared andpacked. This can beendone through a rail app,"Goyal said.

The Railway Ministerwho also holds theCommerce portfolioappreciated The Pioneerfor conducting a dedicat-ed session on tourism asthis sector has immensepotential.

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The Government aims to dou-ble the domestic tourist foot-

fall in the next five years, PrahladPatel, Minister of State (inde-pendent charge) for Culture andTourism, said on Thursday butnot before pointing out that all thestakeholders including the Centreand State Governments, hotels,media, tour operators and localsare equally responsible for thegrowth of tourism in the country.

"We all as stakeholders areresponsible for the growth of thetourism sector and responsibili-ty cannot be laid on one individ-ual. All the sectors should cometogether for its growth," he saidspeaking at the Exotica TourismSummit organized by ThePioneer here on Thursday.

India's domestic tourist foot-fall in 2018 was 1.85 billion.

Patel was of the view thattourism was never discussedminutely. Had it been, we wouldhave witnessed tremendousprogress in the North-east regionwhere connectivity was nevertaken seriously. It was only dur-ing former Prime Minister AtalBihari Vajpayee's regime thatsome efforts were made but theywere never taken up in a sus-tained manner after that, he said.

"More than monetary bene-fits, it is the correct and positiveperception towards the tourismthat matters. With our holistic

approach, we aim to double ourdomestic tourist footfalls withinthe next five years," he main-tained.

Acknowledging that therewas a lot yet to be done to putIndia on the global map, he saidthe stakeholders can take advan-tage of the tourism vacuum thathas been created due to Chinagetting affected by the deadlycoronavirus. We can become analternate to China as a tourist des-tination, he said.

Patel, who was the chief guest

at the event, also spoke aboutrelaxing norms in e-visa such asextending the facility from oneyear to five years, cutting down one-visa fee and reducing GST forhotel rooms.

This apart, he said his min-istry is also working extensivelywith the Ministry of ExternalAffairs to shorten the e-visa for-mat and drastically reduce thevisa fees further which has beena concern for many foreigntourists.

The Pioneer Editor Dr

Chandan Mitra, who made thewelcome remarks, said India hasan immense tourism potentialand the inaugural Summit dedi-cated to the sector is a steptowards harnessing it. He said theproblems faced by foreign touristsshould be removed.

Mitra later moderated a paneldiscussion with Ashwani Lohani,ex-CMD, Air India, PronabSarkar, Indian Association ofTour Operators ( IATO)President, Ritu Beri, FashionDesigner and Anil Chadha, COOITC Hotels.

Lohani, who has headed var-ious senior posts in the tourismdepartments like ITDC at theCentre and Madhya Pradesh,pitched for domestic tourismsaying that there was a need tocatalyse people within the Stateand inter-States as well. He sug-gested putting up signages allover in a large scale, improvingconnectivity through roads andtrains besides slashing the trav-el cost as measures to boosttourism.

Sarkar felt that tourism inthe country can flourish onlywith the joint cooperation ofStates and the Centre. "Butunfortunately, we don't evencontribute 1 per cent share in theglobal tourism while smallneighbouring countries aredoing much better. We want toreach the magical figure of 20million international tourists'

arrivals by 2020. For this, thereis an urgent need to improveinfrastructure, cut down GSTrates further as tourism is notluxury but an economic activitythat can create lots of jobsaround a monument and atourist spot," he said.

For her part, Beri recalledhow she showcased India's cul-ture through her work abroad."We should be proud of our richculture and we as Indians shouldfirst accept that we are above therest of the world."

Chadha outlined how thevisiting US President DonaldTrump and his family loved theIndian cuisine that ITC Mauryaserved to them during their staythere to stress the fact that Indiahas many strengths up its sleevesthat could strengthen its tourismsector in multifarious ways.

INSETAs a measure to woo for-

eigners and for their conve-nience, the monuments ortourists hotspots witnessing morethan one lakh footfall, will havesignage in the mother tongue ofthat country. For instance, inSanchi Stupa, which is visited bymore than a lakh Chinese havesignboards in their mothertongue. "Also, we plan to make itpossible for tourists to scan a QRcode at a location to listen toinformation about that place intheir own language, said TourismMinister Prahlad Patel.

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Aim to double our domestic tourist footfall by 2025: Prahlad

TOURISMSECTOR HAS HUGE EMPLOYMENTPOTENTIAL: NITIN GADKARI

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Union Road and TransportMinister Nitin Gadkari on

Wednesday said the Centre incoordination with Delhi andneighboring States are working ona war footing to contain the pol-lution in the national Capital.

Stating that "pollution andbad air environment" have been adeterrent to tourists in visitingDelhi, Gadkari said projects worthRs 55,000 crore are on the anviland under which 150 black spotshave been identified other thantaking away the vehicle movementfrom Delhi roads to the peripher-al Expressways. Gadkari said thisat the Exotica Tourism Summitorganized by The Pioneer.

The Road Minister said thathis ministry is in talks with theDelhi government, other stake-holders like the DDA and munic-ipalities to expedite the work onthese black spots which can bemade accident free and pollutionfree and ensure good roads tomotorists.

"I have already done theDhaula Kuan area congestion freeand reports have suggested thatthe air quality in the entire stretchhas improved. Air pollution andlocal environment affects andimpacts a lot on tourists' mindsets.My government is working on var-ious projects worth Rs 55,000crore to make the national Capitaland neighboring areas pollutionfree," said Gadkari at the Summit.

The Centre is developing aDwarka Expressway costing Rs10,000 crore and also a dedicatedroad to connect Delhi airportfrom Dhaula Kuan, said Gadkariadding that his Ministry has hireda consultant to resolve the bottle-necks at the identified black spots.

The Union Minister alsoexpressed his keenness in devel-oping a Yamuna Riverside Frontand in this respect he has alreadymet Delhi L-G couple of times.

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India will not hesitate to crossthe border in dealing terror-

ism, Defence Minister RajnathSingh said on Wednesday on theoccasion of the first anniversaryof the Balakot air strikes. TheIAF jets on this day bombedJaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terrorcamp in Pakistan in retaliationagainst the killing of 40 CentralReserve Police Force(CRPF)men in a suicide attack inPulwama on February 14.

In his tweet message tomark the anniversary, thedefence minister said India'sapproach in dealing with ter-rorism has undergone a majorchange as its armed forces nowdo not hesitate to cross the bor-der to protect the countryagainst the menace.

"I thank the Prime MinisterShri @narendramodi for bring-ing change in India's approachagainst terrorism & our ways tocounter terror. The SurgicalStrikes of 2016 and BalakoteAir Strikes of 2019 are testi-mony to this change. This iscertainly a New and ConfidentIndia in making," Singh said ina series of tweets.

He also said "India todaycelebrates the first anniversaryof Balakote airstrikes.

It was a successful counterterror operation launched by

the fearless @IAF_MCC airwarriors," Singh tweeted.

He said the Modi govern-ment has adopted a newapproach to combat terrorreflecting a strong resolve toeven carry out cross borderstrikes to protect India from thescourge of terrorism.

For his part, Air chiefMarshal RKS Bhadoria flew aMIG 21 sortie of squadron 51at Srinagar base. This squadronhad taken part in the dog fightwith Pak F 16s on Feb 27, a dayafter the Balakot strikes.

On September 29, 2016,the Army carried out surgicalstrikes on a number of terrorlaunch pads across the Line ofControl (LoC) in Jammu andKashmir in retaliation to anattack on its base in Uri thatmonth.

A fleet of Mirage jets onFebruary 26 early morning lastyear carried out aerial strikesagainst the JeM terrorist campin Balakot. The next dayPakistan Air Force retaliated bycrossing the Line ofControl(LOC) in Rajouri andPoonch to target militaryinstallations.

However, the IAF jetsthwarted the attempt and in theensuing aerial battle one F-16was downed by a Mig-21 flownby Wing CommanderAbhinandan Varthaman.During the aerial combat, his

plane was hit by ground firefrom Pakistan and he had toeject. The Pakistan Army cap-tured him after his parachutelanded across the LOC.

The IAF pilot returned toIndia three days later followingdiplomatic outreach by majorpowers and India's stern warn-ing to Islamabad led to hisrelease after two days, avertingfurther escalation of the conflict.

It was the first time sincethe 1971 India-Pakistan warthat the IAF jets crossed theLOC thereby signaling a doc-trinal change in India'scounter-terror approach as thestrike was carried out deepinside Pakistan.

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The Opposition onWednesday slammed the

Centre over Delhi violencewith Congress president SoniaGandhi and NCP demandingthe resignation of HomeMinister Amit Shah andCPI(M) saying that the Delhiis a “chilling reminder” of the2002 Gujarat riots. TheOpposition also sought timefrom President Ram NathKovind to discuss the violencethat has engulfed parts ofnortheast Delhi. CPI(M) gen-eral secretary Yechury has writ-ten a letter to the Presidentseeking appointment for thegroup of leaders.

Calling for Amit Shah'sresignation, Sonia held theCentre, the Home Ministerand the Delhi Governmentresponsible for the communalviolence in the city. SeniorCongress leaders includinggeneral secretary PriyankaGandhi Vadra participated in aparty peace march from theAICC headquarters against theviolence in Delhi and wouldsubmit a memorandum toPresident Ram Nath Kovind onThursday.

Sonia spoke to the mediaafter chairing a CongressWorking Committee (CWC)meeting, and alleged there wasa "well-planned" conspiracybehind the violence, that has alsoled to injuries to more than 200people over the past three days.

NCP MP Supriya Sule alsodemanded Amit Shah's resig-nation for the "huge securitylapse" in connection with theviolence in Delhi and alsourged Prime MinisterNarendra Modi to conduct a"transparent" probe into thealleged security lapse.

"The Centre should be heldresponsible for what has hap-pened in Delhi. Union HomeMinister Amit Shah must resig-nowning moral responsibility,"Sule told reporters outside theVidhan Bhavan (LegislatureComplex) in Mumbai. "It is ahuge security lapse during USPresident Donald Trump''svisit. The home minister isresponsible for it," she added.

"There should be an impar-tial probe into it...It is myhumble request that the PMcarries out a transparentinquiry into the security lapse,"the NCP leader said.

Talking to reporters sepa-rately, former Maharashtrachief minister PrithvirajChavan said, "TheGodhramodel has been replicated inDelhi."He was referring to the2002 post-Godhra communalriots in Gujarat, in which over1,000 people, mostly from theminority community, werekilled.

CPI(M) general secretarySitaram Yechury onWednesday said the violence inDelhi is a "chilling reminder" ofthe 2002 Gujarat riots. He saidthere was no way to restorepeace and normalcy in Delhi

other than by calling in theArmy.

"It's clear that the violencein Delhi has the sanction ofpolice and that of the powersthat govern them. Adequatecompensation should be pro-vided to the kin of the dead andthose injured by the Centre andthe state government," he said.

"I, along with the GeneralSecretary of the CommunistParty of India, D Raja,President of the LoktanthrikJanata Dal, Sharad Yadav,President of the SamajwadiParty, Akhilesh Yadav andprominent leaders of politicalparties like the DMK, NCP andothers wish to seek an appoint-ment with you at the earliest,preferably the 28th of February,2020," Yechury said in his theletter to President Kovind.

The Congress WorkingCommittee (CWC) passed aresolution, demanding answersfrom both the governments,while also urging the people of

Delhi to "reject the politics ofhate and do their best in heal-ing the rifts caused by theseshameful events".

"After reviewing the situa-tion, the CWC is of the firmopinion that what has hap-

pened in Delhi is a colossal fail-ure of duty for which the entireresponsibility must be borne bythe Central Government andparticularly the Home Ministerand (the CWC) calls upon theHome Minister to tender hisresignation immediately," saidGandhi, reading out the CWCresolution.

She went on to attack theAAP dispensation, saying ChiefMinister Arvind Kejriwal andhis government are "equallyresponsible for not activatingthe administration" to reachout to the people to maintainpeace and harmony. "It is thecollective failure of the two gov-ernments that has resulted in agreat tragedy in the capitalcity which threatens to becomeworse by the day," she said.

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Responding to Congresspresident Sonia Gandhi’s

demand for the resignation ofUnion Home Minister AmitShah over the Delhi violence,the BJP on Wednesday rakedup Sikh riots of 1984 saying theparty whose hands are soiledwith the blood of innocentSikhs is talking about control-ling violence and indulging in"dirty politics".

Senior BJP leader and UnionMinister Prakash Javadekar saidthat Shah was continuouslyworking with the police to con-trol the situation in the nation-al capital and demanding his res-ignation was "laughable".

"The Home Minister iscontinuously working with thepolice, helping their morale anddirecting them. Such com-ments and politics from theCongress will not help themorale of the police. We appealto them to not do politics onthe issue," Javadekar told apress conference.

He further said Shah hadcalled a meeting of all politicalparties including the Congressover the communal violence inDelhi -- which has, so far, leftat least 22 dead -- and assert-ed it is the responsibility of allparties to help maintain peace.

Javadekar said all partiesshould cooperate and workfor peace at a time when vio-lence is abating, notwithstand-ing the ongoing investigation.

Earlier, at a press confer-ence here Congress Presidenthad held Union Home Ministerfor failing to check violence anddemanded that he should stepdown.

"Playing a blame-game atthis time is wrong. Politicisingsuch violence is a wrong wayalways used by the Congress,"Javadekar said, while assertingthat culprits will be identifiedand no one responsible will bespared.

"At such a time, attackingthe government and politicis-ing violence is a dirty politics,"he said, adding that it alsodemoralizes police.

He also raked up the 1984anti-Sikh riots when theCongress was in power to hitback at the opposition party.

"Those whose hands aretainted with the bloods ofinnocent sikhs in 1984 arenow talking about checking theviolence...They themselves hadsupported the violence,"Javadekar alleged.

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New Delhi: Accusing theCongress of putting “familyinterest above national interest”,the BJP on Wednesday attackedthe Opposition party for declin-ing to attend a banquet given inthe honour of visiting USPresident Donald Trump at theRashtrapati Bhavan because itspresident Sonia Gandhi wasnot extended an invitation.

Senior BJP leader and LawMinister Ravi Shankar Prasadsaid his party presidents werealso not invited for similar ban-

quets to honour US presidentGeorge Bush and BarrackObama when they had visitedIndia when the Congress-ledUPA was in power.

The BJP had not boycotted

the events then, he said, notingthat Rajnath Singh and NitinGadkari were the party presidentin 2006 and 2010 respectivelyduring the visits of US presi-dents.

Prasad noted that GhulamNabi Azad and Adhir RanjanChowdhury, Congress leaderin Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabharespectively, besides formerPrime Minister ManmohanSingh were invited for the ban-quet given in Trump's honour.

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Chief of Army Staff (COAS)General MM Naravane on

Wednesday visited Kashmirfor two days to review the pre-vailing security situation.

Accompanied by NorthernArmy Commander Lt Gen YKJoshi and Chinar CorpsCommander Lt Gen KJSDhillon, Naravane visited theformations and units deployedalong the Line of Control.

The COAS was briefed bythe local commanders on thesituation prevailing in the Lineof Control (LoC), ceasefireviolations, India’s retaliation,counter-infiltration operationsand operational preparednessbeing maintained in the region.

During his interaction withthe soldiers, Naravane praisedthe sharp vigil and alertnessalong the Line of Control (LoC)and the high morale of thetroops.

He also exhorted the sol-diers to remain alert for anyeventuality. Naravane furtherreinforced the need to be pre-pared to meet emerging securitychallenges effectively at all times.

The COAS was earlierbriefed by the Chinar CorpsCommander at the Badami BaghCantonment on the overall sit-uation pertaining to the Line ofControl and the hinterland.

Naravane also interactedwith senior officials of theadministration and securityforces besides meeting mem-bers of the civil society.

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The Central IndustrialSecurity Force (CISF) on

Wednesday took over the secu-rity of the strategic Srinagarinternational airport.

The security unit will at theSrinagar airport be headed by asenior Commandant rank offi-cer. The airport was earliersecured by the Central ReservePolice Force (CRPF) that hasmajor deployment in Jammuand Kashmir besides compo-nent of the Jammu and Kashmirpolice. With this induction,total airports under CISF secu-rity cover raised to 62 as on date.

Special Director Generalof CISF Airport Sector M AGanapathy was the chief gueston the occasion. The functionwas attended by senior officialsof Airports authority of India,CRPF and representatives ofAirlines operators (Air India,Air Asia, Indigo, Spice jet, GoAir etc.) and other stakeholders,the CISF said in a statement.

During the ceremony,Airport Director, Srinagar air-port, Santosh Dhoke handedover a key replica toCommandant Srinagar airport,Amandeep Singh Dhaliwal assymbol of handing over of secu-rity to CISF. In his address,Ganapathy emphasized thatcoordinated efforts should bemade by all government agen-cies and stakeholders to ensuresecurity of Srinagar airport.

After the function, SDG,

Airport sector along withCommandant, Srinagar airportand Airport Director, Srinagarairport, AAI visited all the areaof airport including terminalbuilding and airside, andreviewed the security arrange-ment of the airport. Ganpathyalso addressed the CISF per-sonnel at the airport.

The CISF has deployedover 500 personnel to guard thepremises, which includes frisk-ing at the gate followed bycomprehensive search ahead ofboarding a flight.

The CISF, which has beentasked with security of all air-ports and government installa-tions, will provide a "compre-hensive anti-terror cover to thefacility", a senior official said.

The CISF has deployedover 500 personnel to guard thepremises, which includes frisk-ing at the gate followed bycomprehensive search ahead ofboarding a flight.

The CISF is the designatedForce for securing all the air-ports and other vital installa-tions, including governmentbuildings and industrial estab-lishments in the defence andspace sectors as also private sec-tor. The CISF will provide a"comprehensive anti-terrorcover to the facility", officialssaid.

The CISF will be guardingthe airport premises while theCRPF and the Jammu andKashmir Police will secure theouter perimeter.

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India on Thursday sent an air-craft to evacuate its nation-

als from coronavirus-hitWuhan and deliver a consign-ment of medical supplies toChina. In the meantime, Indiahas also issued a fresh traveladvisory to avoid non-essentialtravel to Korea, Iran and Italydue to incidences of coron-avirus (COVID-19) infectionsin those countries.

Sources said that an IndianAir Force special flight carry-ing around 15 tons of medicalassistance comprising masks,gloves and other emergencymedical equipment has depart-ed for Wuhan. This assistancehas been provided in the wakeof the Corona virus outbreakin China and the request by theneighbouring country to pro-vide medical supplies.

The Flight will bring backover 80 Indians and around 40citizens from neighbouringcountries on February 27, thesources said. Meanwhile, the

ITBP officials said that quar-antine facility is ready toreceive the Indians and for-eigners who are being evacu-ated from Wuhan.

Earlier this month, PrimeMinister Narendra Modi hadwritten to Chinese President XiJinping expressing the solidar-ity of India and also offeredassistance to the affected coun-try. The medical supplies willhelp augment China's efforts tocontrol the outbreak of thisinfection which has beendeclared as a Public HealthEmergency by the WorldHealth Organisation.

A few days back, Indiahad flown back two batches ofevacuees from China, com-prising 640 Indians and sevenMaldivian nationals. Most ofthem were students studying

medicine there.They were taken directly to

two special quarantine facilitieson arrival. All of them havebeen discharged after testingnegative for the virus.

In the meantime, India hasissued a travel advisory toavoid non-essential travel toKorea, Iran and Italy due toincidences of coronavirus(COVID-19) infections inthose countries.

The new travel advisory,issued on Thursday will beapplicable along with the exist-ing advisories against travel toChina. In addition, peoplecoming from Republic ofKorea, Iran and Italy or havingsuch travel history since 10February may be quarantinedfor 14 days on arrival to India,the advisory said.

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President Ram Nath Kovindwill be conferring awards on

five women scientists for theirresearch achievements and forapplication of technology for thesocietal benefits at the NationalScience Day (NSD) function atVigyan Bhawan on February 28.The focal theme of NSD 2020 is" Women in Science".

Five women scientists willreceive awards under two cate-gories - SERB Women excel-lence awards and NationalAward for Young WomanShowing Excellence throughApplication of Technology forSocietal Benefits. This year'sawardees Under the SerbWomen Excellence Award, areDr Niti Kumar, Central DrugResearch Institute Lucknow, DrDeepa Agashe, National Centrefor Biological Sciences (NCBS),Tata Institute of FundamentalResearch (TIFR), Bangalore,and Dr K Geetharani, IndianInstitute of Science (IISc),Bangalore, a senior official fromthe Ministry said.

Similarly, national awardfor Young Woman ShowingExcellence Through ApplicationOf Technology For SocietalBenefits will be given to DrShweta Rawat, DRDO DIPAS,Delhi and Dr Shalini Gupta, IITDelhi.

New Delhi: The Supreme Courton Wednesday asked PoonamJaidev Shroff, socialite estrangedwife of industrialist Jaidev Shroff,to search for a house of her"choice" in Mumbai in a week'stime or it will direct the BombayHigh Court registry to do theneedful which will be binding onher.

The top court, which hadearlier asked her to locate apremises of her choice as herhusband agreed to pay the renttill final disposal of their divorceplea by a family court at Bandra,got irked when told that so far nosuitable premises has been foundfor her stay.

"Do you want a house ornot? You look for a house andcome back next week. There areall kind of people living inMumbai and for all kind of peo-ple, there there are houses," abench headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde said.

"We will treat it as lack ofbona fide on your part if you donot get a house. You select ahouse, he (her estranged hus-band) will pay the rent...Otherwise, we will ask theRegistrar General of BombayHC to select an architect whowill find a house for you," saidthe Bench. PTI

New Delhi: The Bar Associationof India (BAI) has expressedconcern and dismay over the useof "effusive terms of praise andadulation" by Supreme CourtJudge Justice Arun Mishra forPrime Minister Narendra Modi,saying such an act served todilute the perception of impar-tiality and independence of thejudiciary.

It is a foundational obliga-tion of the judges to maintain adiscreet and dignified distancefrom the executive branch of thegovernment, it said.

BAI President Lalit Bhasinsaid in a statement on Tuesdaythat such act also diminishes theconfidence of the public as thejudges of the apex court areexpected to decide cases againstthe executive branch whileupholding constitutional prin-ciples and the Rule of Law asparamount.

"The executive committee ofthe Bar Association of India isdeeply concerned and dismayedby certain statements made byJustice Arun Mishra, Judge,Supreme Court of India, as partof his vote of thanks address inthe International JudicialConference..., Bhasin said. PTI

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The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approvedthe Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2020, which

allows any "willing" woman to be a surrogatemother and proposes that widows and divorcedwomen can also benefit from its provisions,besides infertile Indian couples.

Briefing media, Union Ministers SmritiIrani and Prakash Javadekar said that this billincorporated all recommendations made by theRajya Sabha select committee, which studied anearlier version of the draft legislation, and isaimed at banning commercial surrogacy andallowing altruistic surrogacy.

Irani said the bill proposes that only Indiancouples, with both partners being of Indian ori-gins, can opt for surrogacy in the country. Sheasserted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi hasled from the

front with a liberal view on the issues ofreproductive rights of women, be it medical ter-mination of pregnancy, the Assisted ReproductiveTechnology Regulation Bill or the surrogacy bill.The amended bill is reformed version of the draftlegislation which was passed by Lok Sabha inAugust 2019 but its provisions, including thatonly a close relative of a couple can be a surro-gate mother, had invited criticism.

The Government then agreed to send the billto a Rajya Sabha Select Committee, which isheaded by BJP MP Bhupender Yadav, for hold-ing wide consultations with various stakehold-ers and making recommendations. Bill will betabled in the forthcoming Session, starts fromMarch 2.

Cabinet also approved setting up of aNational Technical Textiles Mission with a total

outlay of Rs 1,480 crore with a view to positionthe country as a global leader in technical tex-tiles. The Mission will have a four year imple-mentation period from financial year 2020-21 to2023-24. Irani said arrangements have been madeunder the Mission for skill development of 50,000people in the field of technical textiles.

"We have mandated use of technical textilesin 9 ministries and 92 products and our hope isthat with convergence of efforts with the tech-nology group we will see a new future for espe-cially MSME and technologists in the field oftechnical textiles, thereby making India self suf-ficient specially in strategic fields like defence andaerospace," she said.

The Cabinet meeting chaired by PrimeMinister Narendra Modi also approved bill togrant institution of national importance statusto National Institutes of Food Technology atKundli in Haryana and Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu.

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Samajwadi Party MP AzamKhan, his legislator-wife

Tazeen Fatma and MLA-sonAbdullah Azam surrenderedbefore a Rampur court onWednesday and were sent tojudicial custody overAbdullah’s allegedly fake birthcertif icate. RampurSuperintendent of PoliceSantosh Kumar Mishra toldPTI that the three Khan fam-ily members have beenremanded in custody tillMarch 2.

The case relates to twobirth certificates for AbdullahAzam, who allegedly also gavea wrong date of birth while fil-ing his nomination papers forthe Assembly elections in2017.

Abdullah's election wasset aside by the AllahabadHigh Court last December. Hethen approached the SupremeCourt, which is still hearingthe case.

Rampur's AdditionalDistrict Judge DhirendraKumar on Monday rejected ananticipatory bail plea filed bythe family and issued non-bailable warrants and a noticefor attaching their property.

On Wednesday, the threefamily members surrenderedbefore the court, which sentthem to judicial custody.

In a tweet, the SP accusedthe ruling BJP of vendettaagainst the powerful politician.

A Rampur BJP leaderAkash Saxena had lodged anFIR at Gang police station onJanuary 3, 2019 alleging fraudrelated to Abdullah Azam'stwo birth certificates. In April,police filed the charge sheet incourt.

It alleged that AzamKhan's son also had two pass-ports and two PAN cards.

In one birth certificate,issued by the Rampur munic-ipality, Abdullah's birth datewas mentioned as January 1,1993. The other certificate

said he was born in Lucknowon September 30, 1990,according to the charge againsthim.

A case was also registeredagainst Azam Khan and hiswife as they had submitted anaffidavit testifying their son'ssecond birth certificate.

Azam Khan representsRampur in the Lok Sabha andhis wife is an MLA from the

Rampur assembly seat. Theirson Abdullah won from theSuar assembly segment in2017.

The Allahabad HighCourt set aside Abdullah'selection last December on aplea by defeated BSP candi-date Kazim Ali Khan that theSP candidate was under 25when he filed his nominationpapers in 2017. AbdullahAzam allegedly used fakedocuments to claim that hehad reached the age to contestthe polls.

In recent years, AzamKhan has also faced charges ofencroachment of land aroundRampur's Mohammad AliJauhar University, where he isthe chancellor.

The SP indirectly blamedthe ruling BJP for the caseagainst the politician, sug-gesting that it was vendetta.

“The Samajwadi Partydoesn't consider any actiontaken in revenge appropriate.Governments can't run on

bias,” the party tweeted inHindi.

"The Samajwadi Partyalso trusts the judicial process.We have faith in court, we willget justice, it added.

The Bharatiya JanataParty welcomed the develop-ment.

"Azam Khan did politicsfor himself only. It is for theexploitation of the poor. Wewelcome the decision of thecourt to send him to the jail,”BJP spokesperson ChandraMohan said.

He said SP chief AkhileshYadav should give an expla-nation on the kind of peopleassociated with him in politics.

The Supreme Court hadon January 17 refused to staythe Allahabad High Court ver-dict annulling Abdullah's elec-tion to the UP Assembly.

A bench headed by ChiefJustice S A Bobde had soughtthe response of the ElectionCommission and the defeatedBSP candidate on the matter.

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On a day Samajwadi PartyMP Azam Khan and his

family surrendered before aRampur court in a fake birthcertificate case, Uttar PradeshChief Minister Yogi Adityanathon Wednesday said hisGovernment was cleaning allthe “dirt”, whichever form itmight be.

Speaking in the StateAssembly, the Chief Ministernoted, “Virus grows in dirt.There is a campaign to cleanthis kind of dirt.”

He was apparently refer-ring to the arrest of Azam Khanand the BJP-led StateGovernment's resolve to pun-ish corrupt leaders.

Samajwadi Party MPAzam Khan, his legislator-wife Tazeen Fatma and MLA-son Abdullah Azam surren-dered before a Rampur courton Wednesday and were sentto judicial custody overAbdullah's alleged fake birthcertificate.

Rampur Superintendent ofPolice Santosh Kumar Mishratold PTI that the three Khanfamily members have beenremanded in custody till March2. The case relates to two birthcertificates for Abdullah Azam,who allegedly also gave a wrongdate of birth while filing hisnomination papers for theassembly elections in 2017.

Abdullah's election was setaside by the Allahabad High

Court last December. He thenapproached the SupremeCourt, which is still hearing thecase.

Rejecting the oppositionSamajwadi Party's claims ofvendetta politics, the chiefminister asserted that his gov-ernment has never discrimi-nated against anyone.

"We have never discrimi-nated. Our minister came andasked whether power has to besupplied to Rampur and I saidit should be as it was in thepast," Adityanath said.

Without taking names, thechief minister said, "Bijli to abbahut chamak rahi hai wahanpar. Bahut tezi se chamak rahihai. Jab chamakti hai to faltuvirus nahi panapte."

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Twenty-four people werekilled and five others sus-

tained injuries after a privatebus carrying a wedding partyfell into a river on Kota-Dausahighway in Bundi district onWednesday morning, policesaid.

The wedding party with atleast 29 persons on board washeaded to Sawai Madhopurfrom Kota when driver ShyamSingh apparently lost control ofthe bus around 9:30 am whileon a bridge near Papdi villageunder Lakheri police stationlimits, Lakheri Sub-InspectorRajendra Kumar told PTI overphone.

The bus, then, plungedinto Mej river from the bridgethat had no wall or railing, hesaid.

Thirteen people died on

the spot including the driverwhile the others succumbed totheir injuries on the way to ahospital in Lakheri town, thepoliceman added.

Reacting to the incident onTwitter, Chief Minister AshokGehlot said, "I am deeply sad-dened to learn about the trag-ic incident in Bundi in which24 persons have lost lives afterthe bus fell into river Mej."

He shared his condolencesto the bereaved families andwished for speedy recovery ofthose who were injured in theincident.

Gehlot also announced acompensation of Rs 2 lakh tothe next of kin of the deceased.

Bundi District CollectorAntar Singh Nehra told PTIthat the 24 people who diedinclude 11 women, 10 men andthree children while a womanand a minor girl were among

the five injured.He said three of the

injured are in a state of traumaand have been sent to a hospi-tal in Kota for treatment.

Two of the injured weredischarged after receiving treat-ment, Nehra further said.

After being discharged, thetwo persons claimed that thebus lost control as one of thewheels came off, the collectorquoted them as saying.

However, it has not yetbeen confirmed as the reasonbehind the accident, Nehraclarified.

The five injured personswere identified as Murli (55), aresident of Basant Vihar,Ganeshpal area of Kota city;Deepak Sindhi (18), son ofNarayan; Amit (35); Kannu(13), daughter of Suresh; Manju(35), wife of Mahavir Dhobi,Lakheri SI Kumar said.

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The unanimous resolutionpassed by the Bihar

Assembly against the new for-mat of NPR and NRC withmore than 50 BJP MLAs in towhas thrown the OppositionGrand Alliance in disarray.

Jitan Ram Manjhi, a betenoire of Kumar, appearedbowled over by Kumar’s moveas the former told reportersoutside the Assembly onWednesday, “He (Kumar) ismost welcome to return to theGrand Alliance.. There will beno confusion over leadership ifhe comes back. He will be theobvious choice.”

The Bihar Assembly had

on Tuesday passed a unani-mous resolution categoricallystating that there is no need ofNRC in the State and that theNational Population Register(NPR) exercise be done strict-ly according to the 2010 format.

The all-party resolutiongot the approval of the legisla-tive Assembly in the post-lunch session following adebate on the adjournmentmotion moved by Leader of theOpposition Tejashwi Yadavand others in the House.

Bihar is the first NDA-ruled State to categorically sayno to the National Register ofCitizens (NRC) and statingthat the National PopulationRegister (NPR) exercise be

done as per the 2010 format.The sudden development

also seems to have bewilderedthe BJP, which is part of the rul-ing coalition in the state, withsome of its leaders asserting thatthe resolution will take the windout of the sails of the opposition,which had been sharpening itsattack against the governmenton the emotive issue.

Another section within thesaffron party has been leftwondering as to whether sucha move was tantamount to achange in the party's stand.

Congress MLA AwadheshSingh echoed the sentiments ofManjhi, saying, "We know thatNitish Kumar is a secular leaderwho has his roots in the social-

ist movement. We would behappy if he leaves the NDA andcomes back."

The RJD, headed by itsjailed founder Lalu PrasadYadav, was, however, notimpressed by showering ofpraises on Kumar.

Lalu's wife and RJD nation-

al vice president Rabri Devi,who is also the leader of theopposition in the legislativecouncil said, "We are not goingto have any change of mind(about Nitish Kumar)."

Notably, a couple of hoursbefore the resolution waspassed, her son Tejashwi Yadav,who is the leader of the oppo-sition in the state assembly, hada 20-minutes long meetingwith the chief minister insideKumar's chamber in theVidhan Sabha premises.

The young RJD leader hasbeen celebrating the resolutionas a "success" of the oppositionin Bihar in making the BJPretreat despite its central leader-ship's insistence on "not yielding

an inch" on the NCR-NPR issue.Congress MLC Prem

Chandra Mishra, who is also anAICC panelist, also took asceptical view of Tuesday'sdevelopment and said, "NitishKumar should explain howcome he can go on supportingthe CAA while being opposedto NPR and NRC. All thethree issues are connected."

The Citizenship(Amendment) Bill was sup-ported by the JD(U) in parlia-ment. The chief minister has,however, remained steadfastin his opposition to a country-wide NRC.

Regarding the NPR, theJD(U) leader had agreed thatadditional clauses like places of

birth of parents were causinganxieties among the peopleand got his MPs to request theCentre for dropping thesebesides writing on the issuehimself, much before the res-olution was passed. Thealliance partner BJP, which hasfelt hamstrung under the shad-ow of the chief minister, hasemerged a confused lot.

Deputy Chief MinisterSushil Kumar Modi wrote onTwitter that the resolutionshould "silence the oppositiontrying to reap political benefitsout of rumour-mongering onNRC and NPR".

BJP MLC SachchidanandRai, one of the known detrac-tors of Kumar, was visibly

peeved when he told a newschannel, "I wonder if the party'scentral leadership was seized ofthe matter."

State minister Vijay KumarSinha, who was in the Housewhen the resolution was passedsaid, "It would have been bet-ter had the members beeninformed about the resolutionin advance."

With the deft move, thechief minister also appears tohave won back the respect ofelection strategist PrashantKishor, a staunch opponent ofCAA-NPR-NRC, who wasrecently sacked from the partyand had accused Kumar ofcapitulation before the BJP forcontinuance in power in Bihar.

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Maharashtra AssemblySpeaker Nana Patole on

Wednesday rejected the BJP'sdemand for a StateGovernment resolution hon-ouring Hindutva icon VinayakDamodar Savarkar for his con-tribution to the Independencestruggle, triggering protestfrom the Opposition party.

Leader of OppositionDevendra Fadnavis alsodemanded that theGovernment ban "Shidori", thein-house magazine of theMaharashtra Congress for pub-

lishing "objectionable" refer-ences to Savarkar. He tore acopy of the magazine.

Speaking in the Assembly,Fadnavis demanded that theGovernment move a resolutionon the death anniversary ofSavarkar for his sacrifices andcontribution to the freedomstruggle.

To this, deputy ChiefMinister Ajit Pawar said thatFadnavis, a former chief min-ister, had written to PrimeMinister Narendra Modi onAugust 20, 2018 and January17, 2019 urging the Centre tohonour Savarkar with Bharat

Ratna."I wonder why there had

been a delay when the BJP wasin power in Maharashtra andalso at the Centre," he said.

"Modi had been the PMformore thanfive years now while Fadnavis had ruled the state for the last fiveyears.

Like today, Savarkar's deathanniversary falls every year," hesaid.

NCP ministers ChhaganBhujbal and Jayant Patil object-ed to the references made toSavarkar by Fadnavis whilequoting from the magazine.

�� *�*�

Passengers arriving at theMumbai International

Airport from Iran and Italy willalso be screened for the novelcoronavirus (Covid-19) infec-tion, Maharashtra HealthMinister Rajesh Tope said onWednesday. Passengers arriv-ing from China, Hong Kong,Thailand, Singapore,

South Korea, Japan, Nepal,Indonesia, Vietnam andMalaysia are already undergo-ing screening at the airport. Iranand Italy were added to the liston Wednesday on the instruc-tions of the Union Government,Tope said. "Travelers from twomore countries, Iran and Italy,

will be screened at the airportapart from those from ten othercountries," the minister said.

A total of 53,981 travelerswho arrived here by 441 flightshave been screened at theMumbai airport so far since theoutbreak of the coronavirus wasreported in China's Wuhan city.

As many as 91 travelerswere admitted to isolation facil-ities in the state for suspectedCovid-19 infection, but none ofthem tested positive, Tope said.

Eighty-eight of these trav-elers were discharged whilethree are under observation athospitals in Pune and Mumbai.

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The Railway ProtectionForce (RPF) has busted

countrywide illegal e-ticketbooking rackets and arrested 79persons, a top official said hereon Wednesday.

It has also identified 16,735user IDs - through which tick-ets were booked illegally - forblacklisting besides blocking27,948 tickets worth �7.96crore for upcoming journeys,said Arun Kumar, director-general of the RPF.

ANMS and MAC, theillegal softwares which the

racketeers used for booking e-tickets fraudulently by gettingaround One Time Password(OTP) and CAPTCHA sys-tems, were completely "neu-tralized" by RPF sleuths, hesaid.

"Tickets valued around �30 crore, which were alreadyused by passengers, were alsoseized," he said.

The racket existed since2012 but became more active inthe last two or three years,Kumar said.

As many as 79 personshave been arrested in connec-tion with the rackets which

were suspected to have links toterror financing, he added.

The arrests were made invarious parts of the countryand the accused included own-ers of the illegal software.

No agents have been arrest-ed yet, he said.

RPF sleuths deactivatedANMS software on January 23and MAC on February 8, hesaid. Similar softwares hadbeen deactivated in the past, hesaid.

The illegal ANMS soft-ware had captured nearly 80per cent of the ticket bookingmarket, Kumar said.

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Afortnight after having beenhanded over the case, the

National Investigation Agencyon Wednesday raided sevenplaces in South Kashmir'sPulwama district in connectionwith a probe into an encounteralong the Jammu-SrinagarNational Highway last monththat left three JeM terroristskilled, officials said here.

The officials said theraids were conducted at theresidence of Jaish-e-

Mohammed (JeM) comman-der Zahid Ahmad Wani atKarimabad and SameerAhmad Dar, a driver by pro-fession and was arrested dur-ing Nagrota encounter onJanuary 31.

Dar, cousin of suicidebomber Adil Dar who killed 40CRPF personnel in a deadlyattack last year in Pulwama,was among the five arrestedafter the incident.

The houses of three over-ground workers (OGWs) whowere arrested from Pulwama inconnection with the January 31encounter - Suhail Javed Lone,Zahoor Ahmad Khan andShoiab Manzoor -were alsosearched.

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Former IPS officer DGVanzara, who was accused

in the alleged fake encountersof Ishrat Jahan andSohrabuddin Sheikh and waslater discharged in both thecases, has been given post-retirement promotion as theInspector General of Police(IGP) by the GujaratGovernment, six years after heretired from service.

As per the notificationissued by the State HomeDepartment, a copy of whichVanzara tweeted on Tuesday

night, he has been promoted asthe IGP with effect fromSeptember 29, 2007.

Additional secretary to theState Home Department,Nikhil Bhatt, on Wednesdayconfirmed that his departmenthas issued a notification aboutVanzara’s promotion.

Vanzara, a 1987-batch IPSofficer, had retired as theDeputy Inspector General ofPolice (DIG) on May 31, 2014.

He was suspended by theState Government in May 2007after his arrest in connectionwith the alleged fake encountercase of Sohrabuddin Sheikh.

Later, he was also made anaccused in the Ishrat Jahanalleged fake encounter case.

The former IPS officer wassubsequently discharged inboth the cases by special CBIcourts, first in August 2017 inthe Sohrabuddin Sheikh case,and then in May last year in theIshrat Jahan case.

“Consequent to clean chitreceived from Judiciary in allEncounter Cases vch (which)were concocted by Anti-National Forces agnst (against)me & Gujarat Police, I am givenPost-Retirement Promotion ofInspector General of Police

wef 29-09-2007. I am thankfulto both Govt of India & Govtof Gujarat,” Vanzara tweetedalong with the copy of theGovernment notification.

Vanzara was heading theGujarat ATS when the allegedfake encounters took place.

After his arrest in March2007 by the state CID, Vanzararemained in jail for aroundseven years. The Sohrabuddincase was transferred to Mumbaiin September 2012. He wasserving as Deputy InspectorGeneral of Police of BorderRange at the time of his arrest.

Vanzara, who had joined

the police service as a DeputySuperintendent of Police(DySP) in 1980, was promotedas an IPS officer in 1987.

He served as DeputyCommissioner of Police ofAhmedabad Crime Branch andwas later promoted as DIG. Healso worked as DIG of AntiTerrorism Squad (ATS) inAhmedabad. Sheikh was killedin an alleged fake encounternear Gandhinagar in November2005, after which his wife dis-appeared. According to theCBI, she, too, was killed.

The central agency hadclaimed that Tulsiram

Prajapati, Sheikh's aide and aneyewitness to the allegedencounter, was later killed bythe police at Chapri village inGujarat's Banaskantha districtin December 2006.

Ishrat, a 19-year-oldwoman from Mumbra nearMumbai, Javed Shaikh aliasPranesh Pillai, AmjadaliAkbarali Rana and ZeeshanJohar were killed by Gujaratpolice in an alleged fakeencounter on the outskirts ofAhmedabad on June 15, 2004.

The police had claimedthat they had links with ter-rorists.

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There’s more trouble comingin former Finance Minister

P Chidambaram’s way. TheCBI on Wednesday informedthe Delhi High Court that itwill register an FIR in thehotel grabbing case involvingChidambaram’s family mem-bers and bank officials. TheCBI had in November 2017registered a preliminaryenquiry on a complaint by anindustrialist Dr Kathirvelaccusing Chidambaram’s wifeNalini and her sister Padminifor grabbing his hotel inTirupur in Tamil Nadu byconniving with IndianOverseas Bank officials.

The CBI informed theHigh Court they will file thedetailed probe report by nexthearing scheduled on April21. Arguing before Justice

Rajnish Bhatnagar, advocateYatinder Chaudhary pointedout that for the past threeyears, CBI’s delaying the case.

The CBI's counsel told thecourt that the agency has fin-ished the probe and decided toregister FIR on the hotel grab-bing case and will file detailedprobe findings by the nexthearing.

According to Kathirvel'scomplaint, in 2008, his hotel

Comfort Inn was grabbed byPadmini by conniving withIOB officials.

He said that his businesswere illegally declared by theBank as NPA and conductedauction and granted the hotelto Padmini. Those daysChidambaram was FinanceMinister. Kathirvel producedbefore the CBI and HC the let-ters from Chidambaram tohim on the issue and Nalini'sconversation records with himto settle the case. He also pro-duced a cheque given by Nalinito the agencies and court.

Soon after the CBI regis-tered the probe, Padminipassed away and CBI had ques-tioned many senior bank offi-cials involved in the illegalauction of Kathirvel's hotelfacilitating auction, leading toownership of the hotel toPadmini.

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India prides itself on its traditional sys-tems of medicine that have now receivedthe Government’s support, too. In amajor push to the healthcare sector, aseparate Ministry of Ayurveda, Yoga &

Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, Sowa Rigpa andHomoeopathy (AYUSH) was set up inNovember 2014 “to ensure the optimaldevelopment and propagation of AYUSH sys-tems of healthcare.” It was earlier known asthe department of Indian System of Medicineand Homeopathy (ISM&H). Its objective wasto focus on the development of education andresearch in indigenous systems of medicine.Later, Sowa-Rigpa (the art of healing), a tra-ditional Tibetan system of medicine practicedin the Himalayan belt, was added to it.

Men-Tsee-Khang, the Dalai Lama’sTibetan Medical & Astro institute based inDharamsala, Himachal Pradesh, is the maintraining and research center for Sowa-Rigpa.The institute recently prepared a “precious pill”called the Chulen Rilbu, which could alleged-ly prevent the spread of infectious diseases,including the dreaded Coronavirus (a con-cerned Dalai Lama had earlier given mantrasfor the purpose).

It is in this background that a shockingincident took place last week in Dharamsala.Dr GD Gupta, the local chief medical officer,decided to stop the distribution of ChulenRilbu that was being sold for �5 to those inter-ested. Local authorities cited reports of pub-lic disturbance and commotion created by thepublic demand for the pill. Though theRimsung Rilbu is distributed in other centersall over the country, it is true that there werelong queues at Dharamsala.

On February 16, the CMO visited theMcLeod Ganj branch of Men-Tsee-Khangand verbally issued orders to stop the sale ofthe pill. He even threatened the Tibetan insti-tute that non-compliance may result in finesup to �10 lakh and closure of clinics. This,obviously, was not in the CMO’s power as theMinistry of AYUSH and the Ministry ofHealth and Family Welfare are two separateGovernment entities. Further, the CMOdoes not have the capacity to judge the poten-cy of the pill, which needs to be used as anamulet (the smell prevents the infection,according to Tibetan doctors). Did the CMOthen possess special competence in law andorder problems to act?

Under pressure of insensible local author-ities, Men-Tsee-Khang’s director, TashiTsering, had no choice but to issue a publicnotice, saying that the pill would not be soldat Tibetan clinics in Kangra district (it is stillbeing sold in Delhi and elsewhere).

According to The Tibet Sun, Tashi main-tained that the institute had never made anyclaim regarding the pill having properties toprevent contagious diseases. He said, “The pillhaving prophylactic properties is prepared asper formulations given in the ancient Buddhisttexts and has been around for centuries.”

Many believe that the CMO’s actions wereonly an act of jealousy. Men-Tsee-Khang is

a reputed institution establishedin 1916 in Tibet. It was re-estab-lished in Dharamshala by theDalai Lama in 1961 and its mainobjective is to preserve, pro-mote and practice Sowa-Rigpa.

Tibetan doctors are noquack. Dr Yeshi Dhonden, whorecently passed away at the age of92, was awarded the Padma Shriaward by the President of Indiain 2018 for his contributions toSowa-Rigpa. For years, DrDhonden served as Men-Tsee-Khang’s director and from 1963to 1980 as personal physician tothe Dalai Lama.

Sowa-Rigpa is today famedacross the world. According tothe AYUSH Ministry’s website, itis “one of the oldest, living andwell documented medical tradi-tion popular in the world. It is anancient Indian medical systemwhich was enriched in the entireTrans-Himalayan region.”

The medical treatise, theGyud-chi or four tantras, writtenin Sanskrit, was enlarged betweenthe 8th and 12th Century byscholars with inputs from China,Turkestan, Persia and Greece.

The implications of thethreats uttered by the CMO aremultiple. First, Sowa-Rigpa ispopular all over the Himalayanbelt, particularly in Ladakh,Himachal Pradesh (Lahaul, Spitiand Kinnaur), West Bengal(Darjeeling and Kalimpong),Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh.It is also practiced in countrieslike Bhutan, Mongolia andRussia. It is an insult to the beliefs

of the populations of these areas. The greatest irony is that

China is extensively using thissystem in its fight against thedreaded Coronavirus. Xinhua,quoting an official in Qinghaiprovince said: “Tibetan medicinehas played an active role in thevirus treatment.” The newsagency said that the Chineseauthorities are using Tibetanmedicine “to help fight theCoronavirus in northwest China’sQinghai province.”

Huang Licheng, an officialwith the provincial health com-mission, confirmed that “ofQinghai’s 18 confirmed cases, 17have received treatment involv-ing traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) and Tibetan medicinehas played an active role in thetreatment.”

The province has officiallyincorporated allopathic andTCM treatments since the out-break: “TCM doctors heavilyparticipated in rescue work, espe-cially those practicing Tibetanmedicine.”

Xinhua further reported:“The provincial hospital ofTibetan medicine produced abatch of anti-virus medicationsfeaturing Tibetan medicine, with1,000 of them already sent to thefront lines in Hubei Province.” Itadded that “local Tibetan med-icine hospitals have also pro-duced medications to preventvirus infection and distributedthem to the public for free.”

There is another largerimplication of the intolerant

attitude of the authorities inHimachal Pradesh. One canunderstand that with this typeof behaviour, more and moreTibetan refugees want to leaveIndia. At a time when theCentral Government is takingup the defence of the oppressedminorities in neighbouringcountries, why harass theTibetans, who since they lefttheir country, have sided withIndia even in difficult times?Remember the Tibetan SpecialFrontiers Forces’ participationin the Liberation of Bangladeshin 1971?

The situation is alreadydismal. The Tibet Sun wrote:“The demographic landscape ofthe Tibetans in exile has dras-tically changed, with more thanhalf the population shown bysurvey to have moved fromIndia to Western countries.” Atone point, more than 1,35,000Tibetans lived in India. TheCentral Tibetan Administration(CTA) recently confirmed thatthe number of Tibetans inIndia has reduced drastically (to72,000 according to somesources).

Is it in India’s interests toantagonise a population, whichalready feels let down? No, it isnot. Let us just hope that the localauthorities will understand that,even if they are unable to graspthe larger political scenario, withChina trying hard to attract theTibetans back to Tibet.

(The writer is an expert onIndia-China relations)

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Sir — Even in regimented autoc-racy, dissent has never beenknown to disappear, it just sim-mers. In avowed democracies,the test of governance lies in theGovernment’s capacity to listen,respond to it and then channelit for a greater purpose. Theongoing violence in parts ofDelhi pales before the pilot scalefracas at the Jawaharlal NehruUniversity earlier. If the latterwas predicated on ideologicaldivides, the former has willynilly been steered into a territo-ry uncomfortably reminiscent ofdarker periods in our history. Allthe more reason that policingought to be more proactive,professional and emancipated.

R Narayanan Navi Mumbai

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Sir — It is curious as well asinteresting to know that anevent called “Period Feast” wasrecently organised by a Delhi-based Non-GovernmentalOrganisation (NGO) to bustmyths around menstruation.

The event came days after stu-dents of a college in Gujarat’sBhuj were forced to strip toprove that they were not men-struating while they were cook-ing food.

Later, a video of a religiousleader surfaced in which he wasseen sermonising that “menstru-ating women who cook food for

their husbands will take birth asdogs in their next lives.”

The event was organised byDr Surbhi Singh, the founder of“Sachhi Saheli” to debunk com-mon misconceptions. A group of28 menstruating women cookedand served meals to over 500people at the “Period Feast”wearing aprons with the tagline,

“I am a proud menstruatingwoman.” There are so manymyths and superstit ionsentwined with the idea of a men-struating woman. Educationalone is the solution to dispeland displace such deep-rootedmyths from the minds of people.

TK NandananChennai

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Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “Delhi aflame” (February 26).Clashes in the capital are a mat-ter of grave concern. BJP leaderswere entrusted with the respon-sibility of convincing the peoplein favour of the Citizenship Act.It was expected of them to dispeldoubts and apprehensions andnot issue provocative statementslike its leader Kapil Mishra hasdone. Leaders and Governmentsmust be more sensitive withmatters related to security.

SwetaVia email

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Sir — This refers to the editor-ial, “Delhi aflame” (February26). In the present surchargedatmosphere, leaders need toexercise restraint and refrainfrom making provocative com-ments. Instead, they must play aconstructive role.

JuhiVia email

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In the last two decades, the gender landscape inrural India has been slowly greening and womenare now on the cusp of a powerful social and

political revolution. The harbinger of this change isa unique policy experiment in village-level gover-nance that has brought transformative results for theweakest of the weak and the poorest of the poor: Thevillage women. In 1993, India introduced thePanchayati Raj Act, mandating a three-tiered struc-ture of local governance at the village, block and dis-trict levels with reservation of one-third of all postsin gram panchayats (village councils) at the bottomtier of India’s decentralised governance system, forwomen. The vision was that these women-headedcouncils would bring greater transparency and bet-ter governance in their villages. It revitalised an age-old system of rural local Government whose name“panchayat” is drawn from Sanskrit, meaning thecouncil of five wise men.

This new law was a step towards the fruition ofMahatma Gandhi’s dreams of village-level self-gov-ernance with gender justice as a key pillar. Gandhibelieved that, if implemented correctly, thePanchayati Raj system would alleviate the alienationof the common people from governance and alsopreclude the external intervention of higher-levelcivic officials, who might not be familiar with theconcerns of local people. Earlier politics was con-sidered a foul word and women were expected tokeep a hygienic distance from it. However, devel-opment scientists and social activists now acknowl-edge that the modern development paradigm hasa political salience and politics underpins all facetsof development. It is politics which is the firingengine for all the cylinders of development. It is truethat political power needs to be sanitised and hasto be reinforced with ethical underpinnings in orderto make it more benevolent. This can come aboutonly when more educated and development-orient-ed individuals embrace politics as a critical arena forinnovation and change. Politics is the fulcrum of gov-ernance and unless the quality of political timberis improved, governance will continue to limp.

Experience of this social and political experi-ment has shown that women are not just equal tothe task but orientate public-good provision moretowards the preferences of their gender, namely morewater, health and roads. Though less politically-savvyand often only semi-illiterate, these women had anadvantage in being actively mentored by the districtbureaucracy. Several NGOs also designed pro-grammes for skilling them in governance. Womenface a host of difficulties handling political power:Cultural norms, social hierarchies and patriarchalpractices — which together tend to favour and attractmen and discourage the participation of women.

Several women who started their politicalcareers as self-described “rubber stamp” officials arenow asking questions about Budget allocations. Theystride about in Government offices with polishedinformality sharing their concerns with officials intones of supportiveness and also assertiveness. Theyare successfully challenging the traditional villagemale elite by defying petrified social codes of femalebias and are now powerful aspirational symbols androle models. Women leaders today are more thanjust mouthpieces for their politically-savvy husbands.For most of them, reserved posts offer the only realopportunity to bring change to their communities.When these seats are coupled with new skills — frompublic speaking to development planning to bud-get management — they are better prepared to deliv-er development to their societies and negotiate with-in the political space that has opened for them.However, the path they have trodden after the ini-

tial euphoria of winning the elections hasnot been easy. There have been growingpains and many early entrants retreated,never to emerge again. The avalanche ofsocial and cultural mores rained heavilyon them. Although the resistance is whit-tling down, it is clear that achieving gen-der equality in leadership will require sus-tained policy actions that favour womenover a long time.

The vision is truly not as romantic asmany would like us to believe. But, aswomen have shown, they have all that isneeded to ride out these storms. The menknow this very well but they don’t wantto concede that women possess the abil-ity to be the better halves because they areafraid of losing their last refuge, politics.

In the long-term, the journey isgoing to be harder and tougher than pol-icy wonks can imagine. The wait couldpotentially be eternal. But if bureaucratscan muster the will, they can succeed.They know from past lessons that theyhave the tools and they need to vigorous-ly back reforms that can engender greaterempowerment for women. For sustainablechange to happen, women need to active-ly compete in the present political game.Legislation and policy pronouncementsseldom penetrate the surface of social andpolitical barriers. They are ultimatelyimpotent against the grid of the establishedpower structures inherent in most ruralhouseholds and villages.

The great strength of democracy,according to Amartya Sen, lies in that, “itgives people in need a voice and, by sodoing, plays a protective role against somany different forms of political and eco-nomic abuse”. The Panchayati Raj is justa beginning; it is only one step on the way,but it is the right step on the right ladder.

These women are reconfiguring gen-der and social dynamics and have start-ed exploring their wider responsibilitiesas stakeholders as citizens of a polity.However, decentralisation is not easy. Theskill levels in impoverished communities

are very low. And, in a country wheredemocracy has been established in a top-down manner, a feudal mindset may stillprevail. The people may not be aware thatthe Government should be accountable tothe people — not the other way around.

A lot of positive changes are comingin the better-governed villages. There arestill large swathes where discriminatorytraditions continue to dominate. Severalfactors constrain the effective participa-tion of women leaders. Some of theserelate to a patriarchal culture, which nei-ther sees women as political entities norallows them to develop their potential. Thesame cultural standards also prohibitwomen from envisioning themselves aspolitical entities. Other related factors thatconstrain participation are a lack of basicfamiliarity of women with political gov-ernance and absence of legal literacy.Women need to be given adequate advo-cacy tools strengthening democraticengagement and gain control over localresources and influence over local gover-nance. Village assemblies are a critical par-ticipatory institution in providing equalaccess to all members of the communityto the deliberations and negotiations inlocal governance; but elite control of thesebodies has prevented functional democ-racy from taking roots. It has been foundthat the average participants in such vil-lage assemblies are the less-poor house-holds with the participation of the poordwindling over the years. This is the rea-son why, in several remote and tribal pock-ets, Panchayat Raj has failed to enhancethe social outcomes for most citizens.

The social pecking order of villagescannot be overturned easily and severalchallenges remain to fuller empowerment.Legitimately-elected women representa-tives remain vulnerable to manipulationand harassment and are often reduced tomere proxies, while the real decision-mak-ing authority remains with their husbandsor power brokers from higher castes.There are also instances where a woman

belonging to a Scheduled Caste or tribehas been elected as head of a panchayatbut is at the mercy of her upper caste land-lord in the village for her livelihood. Insuch cases, too, the reins of power anddecision-making clearly lie elsewhere.

At the policy level, we must under-stand the structural impediments in thefull evolution of Gram Panchayats as func-tional governance units remain. ThePanchayati Raj Act created these bodiesbut did not endow them with various gov-ernance functions — like the financialauthority on provision of education,health, sanitation and water. Instead thelaw simply enumerated the functions thatcould be transferred and left it to the StateLegislature to devolve them. There hasbeen very little devolution of authority andfunctions till now. Gram sabhas wereexpected to be the primary legislature ofrural governance with responsibilities tocatalyse local planning by conducting‘needs assessment’ exercises and devisingplans for development projects that wouldbe aggregated at the panchayat level. Whenfurther aggregated and rationalised at thedistrict level, these would become officialinputs into the State Government’s annu-al budgeting process.

Gram sabhas did remain a pivotalinstitution in local planning; but had lit-tle real role in governance. Despite thenoble intention, they have struggled to stayrelevant. They continue to be plagued bylow participation and frequent hijackingby influential interests and have not beenable to mature into viable democraticunits. The dip in popular participation andweak political will has had significantimplications for the future of democrat-ic decentralisation in India.

The heroic stories of tenacious womenscripting tales of success are great signs ofa brighter tomorrow. Women’s empower-ment is a journey, not a fixed point thatyields to simple policies.

(The writer is a well known develop-ment professional)

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The only visible programmearranged for the visiting US FirstLady Melania Trump, apart from

posing for photographs with the icon-ic Taj Mahal serving as a majestic back-drop and waving at the massive crowdslustily greeting the American FirstCouple in Ahmedabad, was a visit to aDelhi Government school on Tuesday.This was the first time that a US FirstLady visited a school in India. The visitwas arranged as Melania showed aninterest in the “happiness curriculum”introduced by the Delhi Governmentas part of its innovative move to refine

the education system. It was launchedon July 2, 2018 in the presence of theDalai Lama, to help students remainstress-free. The curriculum is beingtaught to an estimated 10 lakh studentsin over 1,000 schools. The daily 45-minute “happiness class” is usually thefirst period for students in classes I toVIII, while Kindergarten children haveclasses twice a week.

The “happiness curriculum” hasbecome one of the showcase projects ofthe Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam AadmiParty (AAP) Government in the edu-cation sector. In October 2019 DutchKing Willem Alexander and QueenMaxima also witnessed a “happinessclass.”

The US First Lady’s role is notrestricted to being just decorative andhas evolved significantly since the daysof Martha Washington who playedhostess to visiting dignitaries duringGeorge Washington’s presidency. Theyhave always made use of their global vis-its in a positive manner.

Jacqueline Kennedy, who visitedIndia in the ’60s made a terrific impres-sion on the people.

Indians were also so enamoured byRosalyn Carter and her husband Jimmythat the village of Chuma Kheragaonin Haryana was renamed Carterpuri inhonour of their visit. Hillary Clintonwas a household name in the countryand she continued her interest in Indiaeven after she ceased being the FirstLady. Similarly, Michelle Obamaenchanted India during her two visits.

Melania’s visit also generated quitea bit of interest as she was one of themost glamorous First Ladies to visit thecountry and her carefully-chosen out-fits created quite a stir, with the fash-ion police appreciating two and dissingthe third. However, apart from her obvi-ous glamour quotient, she has kept asomewhat low profile. The Guardiannewspaper once described Melania as“seldom seen and even more seldomheard. The former model may not beas popular as her predecessor Michelle

Obama, but she is far more popularthan her husband.”

Incidentally, many First Ladieshave supported some special cause closeto their hearts using their celebrity sta-tus. While Jacqueline Kennedy promot-ed American arts, Eleanor Roosevelttook up progressive causes, includingcivil liberties, Hillary Clinton came upwith a new health plan, Laura Bush pro-moted literacy, Michelle Obama a bet-ter diets for children and so on. MelaniaTrump, too, focusses on issues affect-ing children. In the past four years shehas made multiple visits to schools —both in the US and abroad. From par-ticipating in a Viking huddle class, inMichigan, to taking the Queen ofJordan to Washington DC’s first pub-lic charter school for girls at ExcelAcademy, Melania showed her commit-ment to kids. During international trips,she has visited the AmericanInternational School in Riyadh and tooka calligraphy lesson with local childrenat a Kyobashi Tsukiji Elementary School

with Akie Abe while visiting Japan.Melania is also involved in an initiativeto help American children that shelaunched in May 2018. The awarenesscampaign, called “Be Best,” is dedicat-ed to children’s well-being, cyberbully-ing and opioid abuse.

According to The New York Times,though President Trump tried to dis-suade her from getting involved in theinitiative, Melania stuck to the cause.The Palm Beach Atlantic University inFlorida honoured her this month as its“2020 woman of distinction.” ButMelania has faced criticism for notspeaking out against her husband’stweets and actions, like the controver-sial separation policy where childrencaught on the border were split up fromtheir parents and kept at detention cen-tres.

However, unlike the US, therehave been few visible and active spous-es of Indian presidents and prime min-isters. Not much is known about thewives of Presidents Rajendra Prasad and

S Radhakrishnan. Thankfully, VVGiri’s wife Saraswati Bai took up a morepublic role and Abida Fakhruddin AliAhmed became an MP twice. PranabMukherjee’s wife Suvra was unwell mostof the time and Giani Zail Singh nom-inated his daughter as his hostess.

Prime Minister Lal BahadurShastri’s wife Lalitha was more of ahousewife and most of the others fol-lowed suit. However, Sonia Gandhitook interest in her role as the hostessand Manmohan Singh’s wife GursharanKaur was also more visible. PVNarasimha Rao declared his daughteras his hostess and the wives of IK Gujraland Deve Gowda kept a low profile.

Sadly, most of them did not utilisetheir position like the American FirstLadies to promote any social cause ortake active part in politics.

One just hopes that the spouses offuture leaders of the country will comeout from under the shadow of their hus-bands.

(The writer is a senior journalist)

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The government is keeping aclose watch on the impact

of coronavirus outbreak onthe Indian economy and vari-ous options are being gauged atvarious levels, Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharman said onWednesday.

The minister also said thatthe process of merger of pub-lic sector banks was underwayas per the schedule. The gov-ernment has announced tomerge 10 state-run banks tocreate four big lenders.

The government is "close-ly monitoring" the impact ofthe coronavirus outbreak onthe economy, she said.

"We are very closely mon-itoring it. Secretary-level offi-cials are engaging with theirrespective industries. I hadinformed you about variousoptions we have including air-lifting raw material for somespecific sectors, resourcingfrom other countries.

"All these are being workedat the concerned department

level. We will have quick reviewof all departments coming backwith specific help that they mayrequire. We will collate allthese and come back to you,"Sitharaman said.

Over 2,700 people havedied due to novel coronavirus2019 (COVID-19) while thenumber of those infected isaround 80,000. In the wake ofthe virus outbreak, whose epi-centre is China, many airlines,including Indian carriers, havecancelled some of their over-seas flights.

On bank mergers,Sitharaman said there is "nouncertainty about bank merg-er" and the process is on as perthe schedule.

Last year in August, thegovernment announced merg-ing 10 public sector banks intofour. United Bank of India andOriental Bank of Commerceare to be merged with PunjabNational Bank, making theproposed entity the secondlargest public sector bank (PSB)from April 1 this year.

It was also decided tomerge Syndicate Bank withCanara Bank, and AllahabadBank with Indian Bank.Similarly, Andhra Bank andCorporation Bank are to beconsolidated with Union Bankof India.

In April 2019, Bank ofBaroda, in the first three-waymerger exercise, amalgamatedVijaya Bank and Dena Bankwith itself.

SBI had merged five of itsassociate banks -- State Bank ofPatiala, State Bank of Bikanerand Jaipur, State Bank ofMysore, State Bank ofTravancore and State Bank ofHyderabad as well as BharatiyaMahila Bank with itself effec-tive April 2017.

�� 6'�&

India's slowdown has bot-tomed out and now its econ-

omy needs to be opened up ifthe country wants to realise theambition of a 10 per centgrowth rate, former NITIAayog Vice Chairman ArvindPanagariya has said.

In his keynote address at adiscussion on India's UnionBudget 2020, he said in the nextfiscal year, India's GDP growthis expected to be 6 per cent andthen it will get back to 7-8 percent which has been the case inthe last 15-16 year period.

"On the slowdown, myown assessment is that we havebottomed out," Panagariya, aProfessor of Economics at theColumbia University, said atthe discussion organised byIndia's Consulate General herein partnership with the US-India Strategic Partnership

Forum (USISPF) on Tuesday."In the second half of the

current fiscal year, which wouldbe ending on March 31, weshould see some bit of recov-ery, not a big one but certain-ly the second half (of the fiscalyear) should look better thanthe first half," he said.

Panagariya noted that sinceabout 2003, India has beengrowing at an average rate ofabout 7 per cent and the firstfive years of the Modi govern-ment was characterised by 7.5per cent growth on an average.

Emphasising that theIndian economy "can do a lotbetter no doubt", he said that inhis assessment, the main factorwhich led to the slowdown hasto do with the financial marketsand that translated into weak-ening of the balance sheets ofboth the banks as well as thecorporates.

"I think you could criticisethe government here for beinga little slow in beginning theprocess of cleaning up of thebank Non-Performing Assets(NPAs). The problem wasknown actually by 2013…" butthis particular problem of

NPAs never gets solved veryquickly," he said. Sounding anoptimistic note, he said as theclean up happens, "we shouldsee the growth returning".

On the Budget, Panagariyawelcomed positive steps takenby the government includingon fiscal consolidation, fiscaldeficit, corporate tax reduction,initiation of simplification forthe personal income taxation aswell as privatisation.

Pointing to a "negative" inthe Budget, Panagariya saidthat one of the things that hasbeen going on for the last 2-3years is that India is turningmore and more towards importsubstitution.

"Trade economists use amore aggressive term - protec-tionism. And I've been sayingthat this is something thatshould not only be stopped buthas to be reversed.

"Unfortunately, this budgetgoes very far in the direction ofraising duties and particularlydisconcerting is the fact that alot of the items on which theduties have been raised andthat too quite a bit are all labourintensive products," he said.

�� *�*�

Notwithstanding a slow-down in consumption due

to the sluggish economy, theIndian retail market is esti-mated to reach $1.3 trillion by2025, helped by multiple struc-tural, socio demographic andeconomic drivers, says a recentstudy. According to a studyjointly released by BostonConsulting Group andRetailers Association of Indiatitled R'etail 4.0: Winning the20s', the retail market stood atUSD 0.7 trillion in 2019.

"India's long-term con-sumption and retail growthdrivers are expected to providea strong foundation for futuregrowth. Indian retail market isestimated to reach USD 1.1-1.3trillion mark by 2025, report-ing a CAGR of 9-11 per centfrom 2019," it said.

The report noted that dataand technology driven disrup-tions along with supply sideinnovations will shape the

future of the retail landscape."With the onset of digital

revolution, it is imperative forretailers to embrace data andtechnology to shape consumershopping preferences and min-imise costs prompting retailersto up their game. Also,increased margin pressures,retail space crunch, rising costsare putting considerable strainon business models thus push-ing retailers to innovate to winin the next decade," it said.

According to AbheekSinghi, Managing Director andSenior Partner, BCG the Indianretail market is still fragment-ed and offers an opportunityfor the top five retailers to morethan double their share fromless than five percent to over 10per cent in the next decade.

"Winning in the 20s willrequire retailers to rethinktheir value proposition andoperating model. Precipitatingand participating in ecosystemswill be a key driver of success,"he added.

��

Banks have started dispens-ing more of �500 notes

than �2,000 denominationnotes, a move seen as gradualphasing out of the high denom-ination currency note.

The Reserve Bank of India(RBI) in an RTI response lastyear had said that the centralbank had stopped printing�2,000 denomination curren-cy notes.

Although there has beenno dictate from the FinanceMinistry, banks on their ownhave decided to fill their ATMswith smaller denominationnotes for the convenience ofcustomers, sources said.

Some banks have alreadystarted recaliberation of theirATMs and other banks will alsofollow the suit, sources said.

State-owned Indian Bankhas already announced that itshas decided to stop using �2,000 notes in theirATMs.

When asked if the FinanceMinistry has asked banks notto push �2,000 notes throughATMs, Union ministerNirmala Sitharaman said theministry has not issued anyinstruction to banks in thisregard.

"As far as I know, no suchinstruction has been given," thefinance minister said on thesidelines of an event here.

Getting change for a �2,000note has become an issue anddue to that some banks have

stopped using �2,000 notes intheir ATMs, sources said.

According to the RBI's RTIreply, 3,542.991 million notes of�2,000 denomination wereprinted during 2016-17.

However, 2017-18 saw asubstantial reduction in print-ing and only 111.507 millionnotes were produced, whichfurther reduced to 46.690 mil-lion notes in 2018-19.

This indicates that whilethese high denomination noteswould continue to be a legaltender but will be phased outeventually.

The move is seen as anattempt to prevent hoarding ofthe high-value currency andthus, curb black money. Thegovernment had in November2016 demonetised �1,000 and�500 denominations notes.

Replying to a question inParliament, Minister of Statefor Finance Anurag SinghThakur in December said thereis no proposal to withdraw�2,000 denomination notes.

"This is the real worry(about demonetisation) whichhas surfaced now. I think thatyou should not worry about it,"Thakur told the Rajya Sabhawhile replying to a questionwhether the government wasplanning to withdraw �2,000notes in future.

According to the reply,notes in circulation (NIC) as onNovember 4, 2016, were�17,74,187 crore which havenow increased to �22,35,648crore as on December 2, 2019.

Mumbai: Extending gains forthe second day, the rupee onWednesday rose by 20 paise tosettle at 71.65 against the USdollar in line with other Asiancurrencies, helped by lowercrude oil prices.

At the interbank foreignexchange market, the localcurrency opened at 71.76 to theUS dollar. During the day, thelocal unit saw a high of 71.59and a low of 71.79. The domes-tic unit finally settled at 71.65,up 20 paise from its previousclose. The rupee had settled at71.85 against the US dollar onTuesday.

"The rupee opened on a flatnote and witnessed volatilityafter the RBI, yesterday,

announced two long-term repooperations (LTROs) for three-year tenors worth Rs 25,000crore each to be conducted onMarch 2 and March 9," saidGaurang Somaiyaa, Forex &Bullion Analyst, Motilal OswalFinancial Services.

Also, forex traders said,easing crude oil prices sup-ported the local unit. The glob-al crude benchmark Brentfutures fell 1.40 per cent totrade at USD 54.18 per barrel.

"Indian rupee, in line withother Asian currencies, gainedamid lower dollar index andcrude oil prices," said VKSharma, Head PCG andCapital Markets Strategy,HDFC Securities. PTI

�� *�*�

Rare paintings, exquisite wristwatches and luxury cars

belonging to fugitive diaman-taire Nirav Modi will be auc-tioned next month, auctionhouse Saffronart said onWednesday. The sale of 112assets is being done by Saffronarton behalf of the EnforcementDirectorate through a live auc-tion, while 72 other items wouldbe sold through an online auc-tion. Modi, who has allegedlydefrauded state-run PunjabNational Bank of over �14,000crore, is currently lodged in aBritish jail.

Saffronart, which had con-ducted an auction of some art-works belonging to Modi inMarch last year that fetched over�55 crore, initially said therewould be a live auction of 112items on Thursday (February27) and an online auction nextweek. In a late evening state-ment on Wednesday, Saffronartsaid the live auction has beenpostponed to March 5 on"instructions from theEnforcement Directorate".

The online auction wouldbe held as scheduled earlier onMarch 3 and 4. A 1935 paint-ing by Amrita Sher-Gil titled'Boys with Lemons' is expect-ed to be the biggest draw at thelive auction and could fetchanywhere between �12-18crore.

��

The government onWednesday decided to lift

the nearly six-month-old banon export of onions in a bid toprotect the interests of farmersas prices are likely to fallsharply due to bumper rabicrop.

Sources said the decisionwas taken at a meeting of aGroup of Ministers (GoM)headed by Home MinisterAmit Shah.

"Since the price of onionhas stabilised and there isbumper onion crop, govern-ment has decided to lift ban onexport of onions. Expectedmonthly harvest in March isover 40 lakh MT compared to28.4 lakh MT last year," FoodMinister Ram Vilas Paswansaid in a tweet on Wednesday.

The lifting of ban would beeffective once the DirectorateGeneral of Foreign Trade(DGFT) issues a notification inthis regard.

The GoM on Wednesdayalso deliberated on whether toreduce or scrap the MinimumExport Price (MEP) on onionto facilitate outbound ship-ments, the sources said. TheMEP is the rate below which noexports are allowed.Paswan,Agriculture Minister NarendraSingh Tomar, CommerceMinister Piyush Goyal andCabinet Secretary Rajiv Gaubawere present at the meeting.

�� *�*�

All new floating rate loansgiven to medium enter-

prises will be linked with exter-nal benchmarks from April 1,according to the Reserve Bankof India.

With respect to micro andsmall enterprises, floating rateloans are already linked withexternal benchmarks.

In a circular issued onWednesday, RBI said it has nowbeen decided that all new float-ing rate loans to the mediumenterprises extended by banksfrom April 1, 2020, "shall belinked to the external bench-marks".

The move is aimed at fur-ther strengthening monetarypolicy transmission so thatbenefits of reduction in key

lending rate (repo) can bepassed on to medium enter-prises also, the apex bank said.

Floating rate personal andretail loans have already beenlinked to external benchmarks.RBI repo rate, treasury billyields, and other market inter-est rate published by FBIL(Financial Benchmark IndiaPrivate Ltd) are among thebenchmarks.

According to the RBI, sub-sequent to the introduction ofan external benchmark system,the monetary policy transmis-sion has improved in respect ofthe sectors where new floatingrate loans have been linked toexternal benchmarks.

Since February 2019, theRBI has reduced the repo rateor short term lending rate by135 basis points.

��

IndiGo on Wednesday said ithas responded to all queries

from markets regulator Sebiregarding related party trans-actions and asserted that theywere entered into in the bestinterests of the company.

InterGlobe Aviation, par-ent of the country's largest air-line IndiGo, also said it hasstrong processes for ensuringarm's length dealings withrelated parties.

On Tuesday, sources toldPTI that a preliminary probe bySebi has suggested prima-facieviolations of corporate gover-nance and listing disclosurenorms in certain related partytransactions involvingInterGlobe Aviation.

In a statement, IndiGoWhole Time Director and CEORonojoy Dutta said it has not

received any communicationfrom Sebi regarding any out-come of any preliminaryenquiry by the regulator.

"Further, IndiGo stronglydenies any allegations ofwrongdoing or avoidance ofprocesses. It reiterates that ithas strong processes for ensur-ing arm's length dealings withrelated parties and that suchtransactions were entered intoin the ordinary course of busi-ness and were in the best inter-ests of IndiGo," he said.

According to him, IndiGohas responded to all queriesfrom Sebi regarding these mat-ters and remains confident thatits position would be accepted.

"If and when Sebi conveysto IndiGo any outcome of anenquiry, IndiGo being confi-dent of its compliance record,will deal with it appropriately,"he added.

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Indian equities remained infree fall for a fourth session

in a row on Wednesday fol-lowing a sustained global sell-off as the number of newcoronavirus cases surged innew regions, putting the worldeconomy at a bigger risk.

The BSE gauge Sensex set-tled the day with a loss of392.24 points, or 0.97 per cent,at 39,888.96 — the lowest clos-ing in over three weeks.Starting off on a weaker note,the index plunged over 521points during the day.

Over the past four ses-sions, the Sensex has lost1,281.16 points or 3.11 percent. The broader NSE Niftyplummeted 119.40 points or1.01 per cent to end at11,678.50 — its worst levelsince February 3.

The NSE index has shed402.35 points or 3.33 per centin the last four days. On theSensex chart, Sun Pharma wasthe top loser, followed byMaruti, L&T, Hero Motocorp,Infosys, ONGC and RIL. Onthe other hand, SBI, HUL,HCL Tech, Asian Paints, andUltratech Cement ended withgains. Sectorally, BSE realty,auto and capital goods wereamong the top losers, droppingas much as 2.16 per cent.

Barring telecom, all sec-toral indices closed in the red.In the broader market, BSEmidcap and smallcap indicesfell up to 1.34 per cent.

“Increasing concernregarding coronavirus in theworld over is impacting glob-al market. The economicimpact is expected to be worsethan thought earlier forcinginvestors to stay away fromrisky assets,” Vinod Nair, Headof Research at Geojit FinancialServices, said. Further, analystssaid, the domestic market isbracing for yet another sub-dued GDP growth, with aforecast of 4.6 to 4.7 per centin Q3 compared to 4.5 per centin Q2, which is adding to thefear. With a spread of thenovel coronavirus in coun-tries like France, Iran, SouthKorea and Italy, market par-

ticipants are growing increas-ingly fearful about the impacton the global economy. Thedeath toll is now at more than2,700 while those infected areapproaching 80,000, althoughnew cases in China, the epi-centre, are falling.

Bourses in Shanghai,Tokyo, Seoul and Hong Kongsettled with significant losses.Stock exchanges in Europewere trading on a negative notein their morning sessions.Equities on Wall Street plungedin overnight trade afterAmerican health authoritiessaid they ultimately expect thenovel coronavirus to spread inthe US. Brent crude oil futuresfell 1.77 per cent to USD 53.30per barrel. On the currencyfront, the Indian rupee appre-ciated by 19 paise to 71.66 perUS dollar.

��*�.��A7B��%��%��

Auditors will have to pro-vide detailed disclosures

about loan defaults, amount ofcash losses and immovableproperties as well as otheraspects about companies intheir annual reports startingthis financial year, with thegovernment putting in place astringent framework.

Amid instances of corpo-rate misdoings wherein therole of auditors has also comeunder the regulatory scanner,the corporate affairs ministryhas come out with the revisedframework that seeks to bringin “greater transparency andfaith in the financial affairs ofthe companies”.

The corporate affairs min-istry has notified theCompanies (Auditor’s Report)Order, 2020 (CARO, 2020). Itwould be applicable for auditof financial statements of eli-gible companies for the finan-cial years commencing on orafter April 1, 2019.

“CARO 2020 wouldnecessitate enhanced due dili-gence and disclosures on thepart of auditors of eligiblecompanies, and has beendesigned to bring in greatertransparency in the financialstate of affairs of such compa-nies,” the ministry said in arelease on Wednesday.

A specific format has been

prescribed for auditors toreport the period and theamount of default by the com-pany in repayment of loans orother borrowings or in thepayment of interest thereon toany lender.

In a significant move, theministry said auditors wouldhave to provide details abouta company’s investments andwhether any guarantee orsecurity has been extended toother entities during a finan-cial year. This is to ensure thatsuch actions are not “prejudi-cial to the interests of thecompany”.

“The amount of cash loss-es incurred in the financialyear and in the immediatelypreceding financial year haveto be reported,” the releasesaid. As per the latest CARO,an auditor has to render opin-ion based on various aspectsthat “no material uncertaintyexists as on the date of theaudit report that company iscapable of meeting its liabili-ties existing at the date of bal-ance sheet as and when theyfall due within a period of oneyear from the balance sheetdate”. The ministry noted thatthe latest CARO is expected tosignificantly improve the over-all quality of reporting byauditors on the financial state-ments of the companies.

This would lead to greatertransparency and faith in the

financial affairs of the com-panies. This is automaticallyexpected to result in greaterinflow of investment by and inIndian companies, it added.Further, an auditor has toconsider whistle-blower com-plaints received during a yearby the company in the audit aswell as report whether thecompany has conducted anynon-banking financial orhousing finance activitieswithout a valid certificate ofregistration from the ReserveBank of India.

Any objections or con-cerns raised by outgoing audi-tors should also be taken toconsideration by present audi-tors before forming an opin-ion. Among other require-ments, an auditor has to reportwhether a company is adeclared wilful defaulter andwhether term loans werediverted for any purpose otherthan for which the amountwas raised. There is also a for-mat for reporting details ofsuch immovable propertieswhose title deeds are not heldin the name of the companybut are disclosed in the finan-cial statements, the releasesaid. Details of proceedingsagainst a company for holdingbenami property and whetherthe same have been disclosedin the financial statementsalso need to be disclosed in theCARO.

��

Car sales in India are expect-ed to be relatively flat this

year after plunging 11.8 per centin 2019 amid slowing econom-ic growth, as per Moody’sInvestors Service. The ratingagency also lowered its globalsales forecast as the coron-avirus outbreak reducesdemand and disrupts automo-tive supply chains.

“We expect Indian autosales to rise 0.5 per cent in 2020,supported by stimulus mea-sures, discounts on new carsthat do not comply with BharatStage VI (BS VI) emissionnorms, which will take effect inApril,” the ratings agency said ina statement.

But weak consumerdemand and tight liquidity willlikely limit any improvement incar sales this year, it added. “In2021, we expect Indian carsales to rise 2 per cent,” Moody’sInvestors Service said.

Commenting on globalauto sales, it said, “We expectglobal auto unit sales to decline2.5 per cent in 2020, narrowingfrom a 4.6 per cent drop in 2019,but worsening from the 0.9 percent decline that we had previ-ously projected for this year.”The ratings agency expects salesto rebound only modestly in2021 with growth of 1.5 per

cent. “Our outlook on the sec-tor remains negative,” Moody’sInvestors Service said.

It further noted, “We wouldconsider returning to a stableoutlook if we were to expectglobal light vehicle sales growthto recover to at least 1 per centover the next 12 to 18 months.A stable outlook would alsorequire improving pricing andat least stable capacity utilisa-tion.” Moody’s also predictedauto sales decline in China. “Inthe wake of the coronavirus out-break, we expect auto sales inChina, which includes bothpassenger vehicles and com-mercial vehicles, to fall 2.9 percent this year, a meaningfullyweaker performance than the 1per cent growth we had previ-ously projected,” Moody’s said.Elaborating on the market, itsaid that cautious consumers aresteering clear of crowded areas,including auto dealerships,while corporate demand forvehicles is weakening as broad-er economic uncertainties causecompanies to scale back capitalspending.

“Work stoppages and lowerproduction levels because ofgovernment-mandated busi-ness days off, the reduced flowof migrant workers across Chinaand disruptions in auto-partssupply chains have loweredproduction levels,” it added.

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Script Open High Low LTPUPL 567.00 569.90 555.95 561.15PAGEIND 22301.10 22376.25 21865.85 22084.00INDIACEM 88.40 104.60 87.90 104.60MARUTI 6375.00 6375.00 6189.40 6237.60HDFCBANK 1200.00 1204.20 1186.00 1199.65IBULHSGFIN 324.55 334.45 315.80 321.60HDFC 2290.00 2309.70 2255.35 2281.05SBIN 325.00 330.70 324.35 328.25HCLTECH 579.95 589.10 575.50 584.00RELIANCE 1412.10 1415.00 1387.25 1391.40TATASTEEL 412.25 419.45 411.95 416.25SADBHAV 77.00 82.75 67.05 78.35LT 1237.00 1239.00 1207.15 1211.45NAVINFLUOR 1481.20 1629.00 1462.00 1538.95YESBANK 34.90 37.00 34.50 36.55BHARTIARTL 535.00 539.50 520.45 534.80SUNPHARMA 388.00 388.00 372.60 374.60TATAMOTORS 147.65 147.95 143.80 144.50AUROPHARMA 504.00 520.00 504.00 510.05JINDALSTEL 170.00 175.10 169.15 170.25IDEA 3.87 4.13 3.63 3.97BAJAJFINSV 9480.00 9502.75 9358.05 9372.20HINDUNILVR 2236.00 2255.60 2204.95 2240.95ICICIBANK 528.80 529.20 522.10 523.65EQUITAS 114.85 115.90 113.55 114.55HDFCAMC 3258.00 3313.60 3226.95 3276.35DMART 2329.80 2418.30 2306.00 2360.55INFY 798.00 801.50 780.80 782.70INDUSINDBK 1153.00 1153.00 1125.60 1135.05INFRATEL 218.50 221.15 211.30 218.75NAM-INDIA 417.10 444.25 417.10 427.15KOTAKBANK 1675.80 1677.00 1657.85 1673.30BANDHANBNK 415.00 423.25 391.55 394.25RBLBANK 307.65 317.60 304.70 314.60TATACHEM 755.00 755.00 736.60 745.00DEEPAKNI 504.00 520.70 496.00 502.25POWERGRID 186.00 188.40 184.00 186.10BAJFINANCE 4824.00 4837.00 4770.00 4809.75TCS 2156.00 2163.60 2113.10 2123.05ITC 200.90 201.85 196.35 198.55ADANIENT 243.00 246.25 241.00 241.50HEROMOTOCO 2180.00 2194.50 2133.90 2141.15JSWSTEEL 256.00 263.50 255.30 259.75PEL 1497.00 1497.00 1418.50 1429.20GSPL 236.00 238.00 232.55 232.55ASHOKLEY 80.90 81.85 77.60 77.95SANOFI 7525.00 7637.55 7070.00 7114.30INDIGO 1378.00 1410.00 1352.65 1397.25ZEEL 251.90 253.50 247.00 251.65EICHERMOT 17497.00 17546.95 17050.00 17230.00DRREDDY 3092.00 3113.95 3061.10 3065.25GMRINFRA 25.45 25.45 24.20 24.40MUTHOOTFIN 943.00 953.90 935.05 940.25ESCORTS 824.65 839.00 819.60 826.45AXISBANK 728.85 735.60 721.00 729.75VEDL 132.40 133.60 129.40 130.30MOTHERSUMI 113.50 114.80 110.70 111.15ULTRACEMCO 4349.70 4424.25 4290.00 4346.30ONGC 97.90 98.50 95.45 95.80HINDALCO 174.00 174.00 167.90 169.90APOLLOTYRE 153.10 158.10 146.10 148.85CIPLA 402.20 424.85 401.00 422.45BPCL 460.00 460.00 443.15 448.50SRTRANSFIN 1322.00 1325.00 1268.80 1273.25SPICEJET 87.45 90.20 86.30 88.85BIOCON 300.00 307.55 297.75 298.15DLF 216.00 217.65 210.75 212.20LICHSGFIN 348.80 354.00 344.85 347.90HDFCLIFE 566.95 571.50 555.00 557.65MFSL 585.00 593.60 582.60 588.05DABUR 501.30 506.85 497.30 500.75ADANIGAS 152.05 159.90 148.50 149.05APOLLOHOSP 1781.20 1795.05 1763.30 1772.95ASIANPAINT 1830.00 1843.55 1821.00 1826.55GRAPHITE 257.00 266.65 253.20 254.85PFC 128.20 130.25 126.90 127.25SBILIFE 899.95 914.45 882.30 891.25POLYCAB 1101.00 1158.00 1101.00 1139.95MANAPPURAM 176.80 178.65 175.20 176.25JUBLFOOD 1820.00 1864.00 1820.00 1847.50NOCIL 95.70 103.45 94.70 97.55BANKBARODA 79.50 81.05 79.10 80.25TATAGLOBAL 369.00 370.00 361.05 365.25NESTLEIND 16435.10 16495.55 16155.00 16175.05GAIL 114.75 114.75 107.60 108.00TECHM 823.45 825.95 808.25 810.35NCC 40.45 41.00 39.45 39.95BEML 844.40 844.40 817.05 820.40AUBANK 1155.00 1201.60 1077.00 1174.50IRCON 536.70 555.30 520.60 524.25GRASIM 720.95 723.05 699.55 701.70GLENMARK 296.90 303.75 294.20 296.00WOCKPHARMA 349.00 350.35 334.75 337.05HEXAWARE 364.00 366.80 363.00 365.25AMARAJABAT 715.95 715.95 676.50 695.20BALKRISIND 1212.00 1212.00 1181.70 1185.85CANBK 162.70 163.10 159.20 159.90COALINDIA 175.00 177.65 172.75 173.85HEG 955.50 994.50 948.00 959.95CGCL 198.50 212.10 198.50 210.50ADANIPOWER 55.55 56.00 53.85 54.55SIEMENS 1382.00 1396.75 1340.85 1346.15M&M 506.00 512.70 500.40 503.50PNB 49.60 50.10 49.00 49.15GODREJIND 415.00 416.50 402.00 413.00HAVELLS 626.05 656.00 626.05 645.50TATAPOWER 51.30 51.30 48.85 49.70

L&TFH 115.25 117.05 113.70 115.00STAR 497.95 501.00 487.60 490.00MINDTREE 1051.00 1051.00 1019.00 1028.40BAJAJ-AUTO 2950.00 2975.00 2921.10 2949.95PHILIPCARB 119.85 122.25 117.40 118.20IOC 110.50 111.30 108.00 108.40TITAN 1252.00 1266.60 1245.40 1260.00MIDHANI 221.00 224.50 209.50 211.15NTPC 109.90 111.50 108.30 109.45DIVISLAB 2120.00 2161.45 2092.10 2146.00IRB 100.00 102.00 92.20 93.90BASF 805.65 953.00 805.65 940.50SAIL 38.50 39.15 38.25 38.55SOBHA 322.00 323.75 307.70 314.20NAUKRI 2653.35 2699.20 2550.15 2573.75JUBILANT 513.25 523.00 506.05 510.00IGL 451.00 463.70 451.00 455.95BATAINDIA 1714.90 1714.90 1668.20 1676.90HINDPETRO 210.10 211.15 207.30 208.85TORNTPHARM 2200.00 2281.00 2200.00 2236.15BLISSGVS 136.65 138.25 125.00 127.85ADANIPORTS 355.00 362.45 353.00 358.05WIPRO 243.00 243.10 238.50 240.00AMBUJACEM 212.85 216.00 210.30 213.60WELCORP 190.10 199.65 186.50 195.30BRITANNIA 3024.00 3068.50 3020.00 3036.00BHEL 33.80 33.80 33.10 33.25NIITTECH 1890.00 1908.20 1855.25 1885.80EDELWEISS 99.00 100.75 94.75 96.75ABBOTINDIA 16199.00 16499.90 15910.50 16249.05ICICIPRULI 488.00 488.65 471.25 472.50PNBHOUSING 390.00 407.00 382.65 396.35RADICO 401.00 435.80 401.00 428.65OMAXE 159.90 160.90 158.00 160.90M&MFIN 369.30 369.35 359.20 360.60SRF 4102.65 4163.40 4101.00 4126.85TATAELXSI 988.00 989.40 953.00 961.45HEIDELBERG 197.70 212.00 197.70 204.80BOMDYEING 77.10 78.25 75.30 75.80SUNTV 466.55 477.35 459.50 463.10CONCOR 543.00 543.00 511.00 511.30MCX 1330.00 1377.00 1317.00 1367.00PIDILITIND 1556.00 1561.35 1526.85 1530.00NMDC 100.50 101.40 97.35 97.90JAICORPLTD 92.65 97.10 92.50 94.00AVANTI 533.00 533.15 510.70 514.35TRENT 756.50 762.00 735.15 737.45SUZLON 2.90 2.95 2.71 2.77SUDARSCHEM 470.00 490.05 465.05 469.10ACC 1414.00 1418.45 1388.20 1398.60VOLTAS 703.00 704.45 685.30 690.00ADANIGREEN 177.90 177.90 171.30 171.35NBCC 29.40 29.65 27.75 28.25BEL 82.40 82.60 79.40 80.25RAJESHEXPO 656.50 657.10 638.05 639.60IDFCFIRSTB 39.05 39.40 38.80 38.95

STRTECH 107.35 107.35 102.35 102.85DELTACORP 156.00 157.60 151.10 154.40PRSMJOHNSN 62.00 69.70 62.00 65.15JUSTDIAL 491.00 492.35 483.15 488.40CANFINHOME 505.00 509.65 505.00 506.65SPARC 158.15 160.75 152.00 154.35HSCL 53.65 57.65 52.30 55.75LUPIN 670.00 675.80 665.00 668.55PTC 52.10 52.80 51.85 52.00RALLIS 226.40 236.50 220.75 231.10MGL 1094.00 1107.25 1071.20 1075.10PVR 2028.60 2038.00 1995.40 2022.25GODREJCP 615.55 615.55 599.30 602.00RAYMOND 565.00 570.90 550.00 553.40BAJAJHLDNG 3643.00 3643.00 3468.00 3490.00INFIBEAM 59.10 59.10 57.00 57.15MARICO 305.80 308.10 299.70 306.70SHILPAMED 522.70 538.75 489.45 489.45TVSMOTOR 425.00 437.60 423.00 435.25FEDERALBNK 87.80 87.80 84.60 85.15SUNTECK 366.50 367.60 356.00 358.10COLPAL 1342.40 1342.40 1316.00 1331.80BANKINDIA 58.25 58.30 56.55 56.80UJJIVAN 375.15 377.00 367.65 369.05ABCAPITAL 84.00 85.40 82.90 83.15GRANULES 173.90 178.25 170.85 173.55STARCEMENT 86.90 97.20 86.50 92.40UNIONBANK 42.70 42.70 41.05 41.25ENGINERSIN 80.50 80.50 74.50 74.90CASTROLIND 152.55 157.45 151.40 153.40JINDALSAW 83.30 86.25 81.25 82.15IPCALAB 1426.00 1427.25 1365.90 1371.95

BHARATFORG 461.50 465.00 454.20 455.05RAMCOCEM 791.40 799.40 779.55 792.90ATUL 4910.00 4968.00 4847.45 4891.35RELAXO 799.40 799.40 758.00 761.00ICICIGI 1289.85 1292.00 1216.00 1225.00RAIN 98.20 105.50 97.90 102.30MRF 69300.00 69380.90 68000.00 68000.00GNFC 173.00 173.00 168.15 168.95AIAENG 1766.05 1768.25 1729.70 1753.90RECLTD 131.55 133.75 129.25 129.75AJANTPHARM 1424.00 1433.00 1361.00 1427.10ADANITRANS 290.50 290.50 260.85 264.05IDBI 34.35 34.35 33.30 33.50VENKYS 1402.00 1424.20 1365.00 1375.00TATAMTRDVR 60.95 61.70 59.75 60.45VBL 815.00 849.05 808.15 841.40FORTIS 154.40 160.20 153.35 155.65PIIND 1532.95 1550.15 1532.95 1539.70PFIZER 4175.00 4282.60 4147.40 4192.35CEATLTD 1011.00 1042.00 996.90 1009.75DIXON 4160.00 4160.00 4005.00 4042.15NATIONALUM 36.35 36.60 35.95 36.05GLAXO 1361.00 1395.50 1340.10 1340.10RITES 315.00 321.00 312.60 318.05UBL 1261.50 1261.50 1226.00 1226.85SONATSOFTW 334.95 349.65 330.50 343.00GUJGAS 292.95 292.95 282.75 283.55BERGEPAINT 572.00 572.65 565.05 566.20PETRONET 264.00 264.75 258.65 261.25EXIDEIND 175.00 175.00 168.15 170.35CADILAHC 269.00 271.30 262.05 262.95PCJEWELLER 17.40 17.40 16.75 16.90TORNTPOWER 310.10 310.10 302.65 303.95BALRAMCHIN 157.00 157.85 150.80 151.00EIDPARRY 192.00 198.70 192.00 196.55SWANENERGY 134.90 137.45 132.20 133.05ORIENTCEM 81.00 89.70 81.00 82.65INOXLEISUR 482.95 491.95 479.55 487.60JMFINANCIL 113.40 118.40 112.60 116.20COROMANDEL 615.30 617.90 606.55 608.85GODREJPROP 1094.80 1097.60 1052.00 1083.60IBREALEST 81.25 82.55 77.90 79.65INTELLECT 132.80 134.50 122.55 123.50ASTRAZEN 2720.35 2753.95 2645.30 2660.00WELSPUNIND 42.90 43.60 42.70 43.10ISEC 503.00 504.20 495.90 499.40OIL 117.00 117.55 113.20 113.50RELINFRA 22.10 22.35 20.95 21.45GODFRYPHLP 1219.00 1228.60 1181.05 1195.00CHAMBLFERT 154.00 154.00 148.85 150.00MEGH 56.50 58.90 56.45 57.30GHCL* 173.90 180.60 172.60 180.00RPOWER 1.90 1.92 1.85 1.86JBCHEPHARM 539.45 576.50 539.45 563.55AMBER 1535.00 1535.00 1470.00 1470.00RCF 41.95 42.45 41.20 41.50BBTC 1060.35 1110.00 1056.90 1101.90GSKCONS 9630.00 9695.00 9506.00 9631.80RVNL 22.50 22.80 22.30 22.40DCBBANK 160.80 164.40 159.35 161.85JKTYRE 65.45 67.60 63.75 65.60FORCEMOT 1203.00 1224.00 1180.00 1189.50LINDEINDIA 710.10 742.00 702.00 723.10PARAGMILK 94.65 96.25 91.20 94.45CRISIL 1600.15 1637.25 1547.75 1573.70GARFIBRES 1549.50 1667.75 1549.50 1642.00GODREJAGRO 522.80 522.80 497.00 502.10CUMMINSIND 534.10 543.25 527.40 533.80MASFIN 1074.70 1130.25 1058.45 1111.65MOTILALOFS 775.00 790.45 772.00 783.15WHIRLPOOL 2212.70 2255.40 2198.90 2230.55METROPOLIS 1801.00 1924.40 1801.00 1856.20LALPATHLAB 1644.95 1667.50 1638.00 1649.25JSWENERGY 61.50 61.50 60.20 60.40GICRE 198.15 198.50 187.20 189.55CREDITACC 943.00 960.00 933.00 936.25JKLAKSHMI 321.00 339.20 314.20 314.70BOSCHLTD 13767.50 13777.50 13232.00 13232.00VMART 2394.65 2404.60 2364.25 2379.90FINEORG 2244.35 2283.95 2223.65 2233.20THYROCARE 589.40 619.70 587.40 596.90APLLTD 651.65 663.30 646.05 648.25CROMPTON 288.85 288.85 280.90 287.25DEEPAKFERT 92.00 95.50 91.00 92.35CHOLAFIN 323.30 324.80 313.00 319.15BAJAJELEC 445.00 445.00 431.25 438.00DALBHARAT 814.90 826.00 801.65 801.80WESTLIFE 470.05 487.55 466.00 474.60PRESTIGE 338.25 338.25 328.85 333.05DISHTV 10.25 10.32 9.84 9.91TV18BRDCST 24.75 25.75 24.55 25.20VINATIORGA 1006.60 1034.65 996.15 1007.00MPHASIS 885.00 885.10 842.05 851.30LAURUSLABS 431.25 434.00 417.60 419.05ITI 80.85 81.85 80.40 80.75SHREECEM 23280.00 23574.90 23165.50 23461.25ABFRL 264.75 265.80 260.20 262.30HONAUT 34165.00 34340.00 33650.15 33700.00SCI 52.35 52.65 50.15 51.20RELCAPITAL 7.40 7.46 7.05 7.08CCL 239.00 242.60 232.80 235.50ORIENTELEC 254.80 268.00 252.10 262.00HINDZINC 177.00 177.85 171.10 174.80IEX 188.15 189.90 183.10 187.55EMAMILTD 269.20 278.00 264.20 269.80SCHNEIDER 99.95 102.80 97.50 98.60FRETAIL 328.25 328.45 316.05 319.80COCHINSHIP 342.00 358.10 342.00 345.00

CARERATING 506.05 512.65 491.65 495.40LEMONTREE 57.75 58.60 53.55 53.75KALPATPOWR 358.00 358.00 345.05 346.60TIMKEN 1084.80 1091.35 1032.00 1034.45THERMAX 960.00 961.85 922.00 944.55AEGISLOG 242.85 247.95 236.90 239.80ESSELPRO 189.00 190.90 186.15 187.053MINDIA 20899.95 21099.35 20651.00 20780.55RESPONIND 87.15 87.15 85.05 87.00APLAPOLLO 2004.80 2025.05 1985.60 1992.80GMDCLTD 55.35 55.45 53.70 53.70HFCL 16.80 16.80 16.45 16.50FCONSUMER 17.75 17.80 16.30 16.85INDHOTEL 138.35 141.00 138.00 140.35ALKEM 2646.00 2668.75 2608.20 2628.80HAL 718.00 722.75 698.95 702.10KEI 505.90 514.90 505.90 508.35VIPIND 440.00 447.50 438.00 439.00ITDCEM 57.85 60.50 55.35 56.15DBL 334.10 336.60 328.50 330.90PHOENIXLTD 960.00 960.00 903.05 906.80LTI 1987.50 2002.10 1970.30 1999.00BIRLACORPN 705.15 744.75 705.15 723.35IDFC 34.90 34.90 33.50 33.55CAPPL 318.55 327.90 316.00 321.95BALMLAWRIE 108.00 108.00 105.65 106.00WABAG 212.05 216.55 204.95 205.80ARVINDFASN 352.00 360.00 348.70 358.65NATCOPHARM 632.00 634.40 621.35 622.15TIMETECHNO 50.25 50.25 48.65 49.10CESC 680.00 684.35 666.35 667.50GREAVESCOT 136.80 136.85 132.05 132.90QUESS 534.00 544.45 522.55 535.00SUNDRMFAST 435.00 437.30 427.00 428.80MRPL 40.15 40.15 39.40 39.65REPCOHOME 293.55 294.05 289.75 290.40TEJASNET 60.30 60.35 56.10 57.85ITDC 291.15 291.35 276.00 278.40DCAL* 82.50 87.50 81.90 84.50TRIDENT 6.01 6.05 5.91 6.02MINDAIND 374.20 377.30 372.00 375.65LTTS 1675.00 1706.90 1673.55 1678.70GILLETTE 6145.00 6145.00 5809.00 5831.90IFCI 5.70 5.75 5.55 5.57DHANUKA 495.65 499.90 478.00 484.50INDIANB 79.25 79.75 77.65 78.15JSLHISAR 72.10 72.30 69.40 69.95FSL 44.50 46.20 44.50 45.70BLUESTARCO 825.00 849.10 824.15 846.70KEC 342.00 342.00 329.90 330.40HUDCO 30.75 32.40 30.75 31.90UFLEX 219.90 231.50 217.05 228.30AKZOINDIA 2300.00 2325.85 2268.00 2307.10KAJARIACER 554.25 555.00 544.15 544.15LAXMIMACH 3200.00 3407.60 3200.00 3259.10NHPC 22.00 22.00 21.60 21.65GSFC 65.95 67.55 65.95 66.25BAJAJCON 190.00 190.00 181.55 186.45NIACL 123.95 124.00 115.95 117.65SHANKARA 478.00 489.20 462.20 473.50IIFL 182.75 183.70 180.00 180.50PGHL 4107.25 4175.95 4060.00 4141.35ADVENZYMES 159.80 164.55 158.55 160.70SOUTHBANK 9.56 9.56 9.45 9.48SIS 586.25 586.25 569.70 570.65GESHIP 257.00 267.20 251.50 267.00OFSS 2775.00 2775.00 2725.00 2758.45JSL 41.65 41.85 39.85 40.15ASHOKA 93.50 93.50 91.45 93.15FDC 257.00 259.10 245.55 247.75ORIENTBANK 40.20 40.20 38.80 39.00JKCEMENT 1441.35 1441.35 1420.35 1432.65PNCINFRA 186.15 187.85 181.20 182.45J&KBANK 19.25 20.30 18.90 19.75JYOTHYLAB 130.95 133.30 129.00 132.50SYNGENE 308.00 312.00 306.00 308.00TTKPRESTIG 5857.00 5886.95 5840.40 5842.60FINCABLES 348.00 357.00 346.65 349.00HERITGFOOD 345.20 347.80 337.60 339.20MOIL 135.60 135.60 129.70 134.40NESCO 721.20 732.55 715.00 719.95BDL 282.40 287.15 278.10 280.15GICHSGFIN 105.70 107.45 101.00 101.85TATACOFFEE 90.60 91.25 89.60 89.60JCHAC 2793.55 2862.60 2791.55 2860.55NILKAMAL 1413.40 1428.00 1400.00 1401.40JISLJALEQS 6.07 6.07 5.75 5.90VAIBHAVGBL 1147.30 1168.90 1120.00 1127.50SYMPHONY 1335.00 1344.80 1312.00 1319.55NLCINDIA 54.75 55.25 54.20 54.30REDINGTON 113.55 116.60 113.00 113.05BAYERCROP 4535.70 4563.15 4428.45 4482.85TATAINVEST 902.70 925.20 902.70 907.00TIINDIA 546.25 560.00 544.60 548.45GUJALKALI 357.35 367.85 350.60 356.00KTKBANK 72.60 72.95 71.50 71.75SUPREMEIND 1395.00 1395.00 1377.30 1392.40JAMNAAUTO 38.50 38.50 37.20 37.45ASTERDM 166.35 170.20 165.40 167.30NETWORK18 29.50 29.80 28.05 29.30GALAXYSURF 1578.00 1664.25 1574.30 1627.25HINDCOPPER 35.05 35.05 33.85 34.25VGUARD 203.10 203.75 201.20 201.85TATAMETALI 633.55 648.15 633.55 642.50MINDACORP 115.60 117.05 111.75 112.75HIMATSEIDE 110.75 111.00 105.30 106.50NH 326.00 342.30 322.00 339.90AAVAS 1889.05 1943.90 1882.55 1899.30

CHENNPETRO 110.85 112.30 108.90 109.00KRBL 277.00 278.55 268.00 270.95MMTC 18.85 19.10 18.50 18.50PGHH 11174.20 11256.50 11124.00 11225.85ALLCARGO 110.70 113.15 108.20 109.20GRINDWELL 600.00 600.00 593.65 594.15IBULISL 104.80 109.95 103.15 103.15SJVN 24.00 24.00 23.65 23.75OBEROIRLTY 516.60 516.60 508.35 513.75LAOPALA 214.00 217.25 202.30 207.00DHFL 13.16 13.16 13.16 13.16RATNAMANI 1314.85 1328.95 1285.00 1328.00HATHWAY 21.00 21.40 20.50 21.35LUXIND 1520.95 1543.40 1514.90 1523.85TAKE 97.55 98.10 94.00 96.50PERSISTENT 712.00 722.15 707.00 720.00GEPIL 730.50 734.85 722.50 722.50CARBORUNIV 343.00 343.00 331.85 334.10GPPL 75.40 78.00 75.15 76.40KANSAINER 502.00 506.25 501.20 502.90BRIGADE 229.85 238.80 229.85 237.50CUB 219.10 219.50 217.00 217.00SKFINDIA 1994.95 1994.95 1860.00 1872.60DCMSHRIRAM 343.05 343.05 336.00 339.70IOB 8.92 8.92 8.75 8.81MAHABANK 11.11 11.25 11.10 11.10FINOLEXIND 554.80 556.00 548.55 554.00ZENSARTECH 141.00 141.15 136.65 138.85ENDURANCE 990.00 990.00 961.60 961.60ANDHRABANK 14.80 14.95 14.60 14.75SFL 1647.60 1667.40 1627.50 1644.50WABCOINDIA 6823.60 6845.00 6763.00 6826.00KNRCON 268.50 274.05 266.10 273.50VSTIND 4206.65 4235.95 4173.20 4204.90SYNDIBANK 21.00 21.05 20.70 20.80INDOSTAR 280.85 282.40 273.20 280.05TCIEXP 890.00 904.90 863.60 885.10ERIS 420.00 431.60 405.00 405.05ALBK 13.75 13.80 13.30 13.65VARROC 398.35 398.40 386.55 387.60CENTRUM 18.65 19.50 18.65 19.50MAXINDIA 85.40 89.45 85.00 88.20UCOBANK 13.00 13.20 12.70 12.75CYIENT 430.60 439.90 426.00 431.60CENTURYPLY 154.70 156.90 153.90 156.00MAHSCOOTER 4618.00 4637.50 4550.55 4550.55TNPL 166.15 166.75 162.75 162.75VTL 1088.90 1102.50 1072.05 1086.00ASTRAL 1190.00 1191.00 1170.95 1174.05MAHINDCIE 142.30 142.30 140.45 140.90MAHLIFE 378.85 388.00 370.20 388.00ZYDUSWELL 1460.00 1460.00 1437.15 1440.50JAGRAN 70.00 70.00 67.10 67.50GULFOILLUB 730.25 730.25 710.25 710.60CENTRALBK 16.35 16.35 16.10 16.25DBCORP 116.90 119.70 116.25 117.60GDL 122.00 122.00 120.00 120.65ECLERX 600.00 617.50 586.85 587.00BLUEDART 2811.00 2898.25 2779.00 2847.80SOMANYCERA 200.00 200.45 189.00 189.00TVSSRICHAK 1555.00 1564.65 1525.00 1558.70KPRMILL 615.60 618.20 606.20 618.00SHK 110.25 111.60 108.95 109.65TEAMLEASE 2385.85 2404.75 2338.95 2370.00UNITEDBNK 7.68 7.68 7.52 7.56EIHOTEL 137.00 137.50 134.70 135.00KPITTECH 87.10 88.00 86.50 86.60NBVENTURES 67.05 67.55 63.60 64.60CORPBANK 18.95 19.10 18.70 18.70LAKSHVILAS 16.40 16.50 15.65 16.50MAHLOG 407.55 409.00 394.00 400.15GET&D 129.70 130.90 126.50 129.80IFBIND 504.20 504.20 479.65 480.05MAGMA 49.95 50.00 48.00 48.00SOLARINDS 1191.30 1220.00 1181.40 1220.00CERA 2445.00 2451.20 2426.10 2435.00SCHAEFFLER 4476.40 4517.75 4456.00 4517.75INOXWIND 36.70 37.00 36.00 36.00MAHSEAMLES 340.50 342.10 335.00 335.80MHRIL 217.10 221.15 217.10 221.15SUPRAJIT 194.70 201.25 191.30 197.90VRLLOG 232.00 233.30 228.00 228.35FLFL 362.55 364.75 352.10 356.40TVTODAY 230.15 234.85 229.30 232.20CHOLAHLDNG 540.70 545.05 540.70 542.45SHOPERSTOP 380.00 385.95 376.55 382.50GAYAPROJ 21.75 21.75 21.75 21.75SHRIRAMCIT 1393.65 1406.90 1393.65 1403.15TCNSBRANDS 562.25 573.20 562.25 573.20CHALET 328.00 328.80 328.00 328.80

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SCRIP OPEN HIgh LOW LTP CHANGENIFTY 50 11738.55 11783.25 11639.60 11678.50 -119.40YESBANK 34.90 37.05 34.45 36.90 1.75SBIN 324.85 330.80 324.20 328.15 1.35HCLTECH 576.90 589.05 575.50 583.25 0.80INFRATEL 216.30 221.40 211.00 216.60 0.30BRITANNIA 3025.10 3069.90 3016.70 3037.00 3.45HDFCBANK 1197.50 1204.70 1185.65 1201.10 0.80TITAN 1256.00 1267.00 1245.10 1259.90 -0.20HINDUNILVR 2238.80 2255.70 2202.35 2233.00 -0.60BHARTIARTL 532.70 539.40 520.30 535.10 -0.15AXISBANK 725.30 735.75 722.00 728.30 -0.45ASIANPAINT 1826.00 1845.00 1820.00 1825.00 -1.10KOTAKBANK 1670.10 1677.70 1657.00 1673.80 -2.00POWERGRID 185.00 188.40 183.95 185.75 -0.40ADANIPORTS 356.90 362.50 352.90 357.60 -0.80BAJFINANCE 4815.00 4837.75 4767.25 4814.55 -11.40ULTRACEMCO 4320.25 4423.90 4286.05 4328.60 -15.40BAJAJ-AUTO 2937.00 2974.00 2920.00 2935.00 -12.40NTPC 110.00 111.55 108.25 109.55 -0.55ZEEL 250.00 253.55 247.00 250.60 -1.30DRREDDY 3097.00 3115.50 3060.30 3066.00 -20.90COALINDIA 174.20 177.75 172.65 173.70 -1.40UPL 565.80 569.80 556.00 561.55 -4.80CIPLA 406.00 425.00 405.80 422.00 -3.80NESTLEIND 16545.00 16545.00 16150.05 16199.30 -181.20HDFC 2278.00 2309.50 2253.55 2276.50 -26.10TATASTEEL 411.30 419.40 411.30 416.50 -4.80JSWSTEEL 256.00 263.70 255.55 259.40 -3.20M&M 507.70 512.45 500.00 502.75 -6.20INDUSINDBK 1145.00 1150.00 1125.20 1139.20 -14.65TECHM 820.00 825.50 808.20 811.00 -11.10ITC 200.65 201.95 196.30 199.00 -2.80BAJAJFINSV 9455.00 9494.90 9360.00 9377.00 -148.00TCS 2154.00 2163.90 2112.95 2122.00 -34.15ICICIBANK 526.85 529.35 522.20 522.50 -8.45HEROMOTOCO2180.00 2195.00 2136.00 2149.00 -35.15EICHERMOT 17430.00 17600.00 17035.40 17237.30 -295.00WIPRO 243.05 243.45 238.40 239.95 -4.15RELIANCE 1410.00 1412.35 1387.35 1389.50 -26.90ONGC 97.40 98.50 95.50 95.70 -1.85IOC 110.20 111.30 108.00 108.35 -2.10VEDL 131.00 133.70 129.35 130.15 -2.55INFY 793.95 801.45 780.50 782.25 -16.15BPCL 457.60 459.55 443.20 447.25 -9.50LT 1235.00 1238.00 1206.00 1214.90 -27.15MARUTI 6350.00 6368.85 6186.05 6260.00 -154.55HINDALCO 172.95 173.20 167.75 169.85 -4.60GRASIM 718.00 722.20 700.00 700.00 -20.40TATAMOTORS 146.90 147.90 143.70 144.50 -5.40SUNPHARMA 385.10 386.95 372.50 374.00 -14.90GAIL 114.00 114.10 107.60 108.15 -5.85

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SCRIP OPEN HIgh LOW LTP CHANGENIFTY NEXT 50 27757.65 27826.25 27401.15 27470.15 -393.50IDEA 3.85 4.15 3.60 4.05 0.10DIVISLAB 2116.00 2162.95 2091.10 2148.00 32.00INDIGO 1365.10 1410.50 1351.10 1397.55 20.65AUROPHARMA 507.40 520.00 504.00 510.20 6.25AMBUJACEM 211.90 216.05 210.05 213.40 1.80DMART 2326.85 2419.00 2305.05 2344.90 13.15PGHH 11177.30 11264.05 11106.05 11230.00 52.70BANKBARODA 79.25 81.05 79.05 80.35 0.30ACC 1399.00 1418.70 1387.35 1404.00 2.90HAVELLS 640.55 652.70 636.00 644.60 1.00MARICO 306.80 308.25 299.90 306.30 0.35HDFCAMC 3250.00 3315.00 3225.00 3266.85 2.35DABUR 501.00 507.00 497.25 500.50 0.25LUPIN 668.10 676.00 664.55 667.85 -1.30SHREECEM 23488.85 23597.30 23153.10 23500.00 -72.05BERGEPAINT 570.00 573.35 565.05 566.00 -3.10IBULHSGFIN 324.60 334.70 315.65 322.75 -1.95UBL 1245.00 1252.00 1225.15 1231.15 -8.60L&TFH 116.05 117.10 113.70 115.30 -1.25PETRONET 264.00 264.65 258.55 260.95 -2.90COLPAL 1344.80 1344.80 1315.55 1329.85 -15.45PFC 127.90 130.25 126.75 127.30 -1.55SBILIFE 893.80 914.80 881.50 890.00 -11.20HINDPETRO 211.00 211.30 207.15 208.40 -2.65HINDZINC 175.10 177.95 170.85 175.00 -2.60PNB 49.45 50.10 49.00 49.05 -0.85PIDILITIND 1550.00 1562.95 1526.20 1528.00 -28.15OFSS 2780.00 2780.00 2720.05 2732.50 -52.50BIOCON 299.90 307.70 297.65 298.00 -5.85ICICIPRULI 479.45 489.05 470.70 471.50 -9.55NHPC 22.00 22.05 21.55 21.60 -0.45GODREJCP 610.20 612.75 599.00 602.00 -13.75HDFCLIFE 565.30 571.45 555.00 556.50 -13.00DLF 214.85 217.70 210.60 211.80 -4.95PAGEIND 22015.00 22398.45 21817.85 22100.00 -585.50MCDOWELL-N 700.00 701.30 684.00 684.20 -19.10BANDHANBNK 415.00 423.00 391.30 392.50 -11.40SIEMENS 1376.15 1397.65 1340.00 1342.70 -40.05NMDC 99.85 101.40 97.30 97.85 -3.45ASHOKLEY 80.65 81.90 77.60 77.90 -2.75CADILAHC 270.20 271.60 262.00 262.50 -9.70SRTRANSFIN 1314.90 1318.00 1268.05 1274.55 -48.35BOSCHLTD 13750.00 13834.75 13222.05 13265.85 -531.00BAJAJHLDNG 3648.00 3648.00 3465.00 3494.00 -148.25PEL 1498.00 1498.00 1417.50 1426.00 -67.30MOTHERSUMI 113.00 114.80 110.70 111.50 -5.30GICRE 197.90 198.65 187.05 189.60 -9.10ICICIGI 1281.80 1292.70 1214.00 1227.00 -59.90CONCOR 535.40 542.20 510.15 513.00 -29.00NIACL 124.00 124.00 115.65 117.40 -7.80

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Seoul: South Korean virus casesjumped again on Wednesdayand the US military confirmedits first case among Americansoldiers based in the Asiancountry, with his case andmany others connected to asoutheastern city with a grow-ing illness cluster.

South Korea’s Centers forDisease Control and Preventionsaid 216 of the 284 new caseswere in Daegu, where the gov-ernment has been mobilizingpublic health tools to containthe spread of the outbreak,and in neighbouring towns.

The US military said the23-year-old soldier was in self-quarantine at his off-base resi-dence. He had been based inCamp Carroll in a town nearDaegu, and visited both Carrolland nearby Camp Walker inrecent days, according to thestatement.

South Korean authoritiesand US military health profes-sionals were tracing his contactsto determine if other peoplemay have been exposed.

About 28,500 US troops arestationed in South Korea asdeterrence against potentialaggression from North Korea.United States Forces Korea pre-viously said a widowed depen-dent had the virus, the first caseinvolving a USFK-related indi-

vidual. South Korea’s 600,000-member military has reported18 cases and quarantined thou-sands of soldiers as a precau-tion.

Bowling alleys, movie the-atres and a golf course at fourUS bases were closed after thesoldier’s case was confirmed,Colonel Edward Ballanco, com-mander of the US ArmyGarrison Daegu, said.

All restaurants at the bases,and at Camp George in Daegu,could now provide only takeoutmeals with soldiers and familymembers prohibited from din-ing there, he said.

“This is a setback, it’s true,there’s no getting around that,but it’s not the end of the war,”he said on a video messageposted on Facebook.

“We are very well equippedto fight this thing off. I am cer-tain that, that soldier that hastested positive, he’s on his wayup to Camp Humphreys today,is going to get better medicalcare than anyone else in Koreawho has the coronavirus.”

South Korea now has 1,261confirmed infections of thevirus and 11 fatalities from theCOVID-19 illness it causes.The national government hasbeen channelling medical per-

sonnel, protective suits andother supplies to Daegu, andthere are concerns the local hos-pitals are being overwhelmedand fatigued doctors arebecoming vulnerable to infec-tions.

“This week will be criticalin the fight to combat the ill-ness,” Prime Minister ChungSe-kyun said at a meeting inDaegu City Hall to discussquarantine efforts. AP

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Tehran: Iran on Wednesdayreported four more novel coro-navirus deaths among 44 newcases in the past 24 hours, tak-ing the total number of fatalitiesto 19 and infections to 139.

Health Ministry spokesmanKianoush Jahanpour called onIranians to refrain from travel ashe announced the new tallies onstate television.

Fifteen new COVID-19cases surfaced in the Shiite holycity of Qom, nine in Gilan, fourin Tehran, three in Khuzestan,two each in Sistan andBaluchistan, Kohgiluyeh and

Boyerahmad, and Fars, and onein Markazi, Kermanshah,Ardebil, Mazandaran, Lorestan,Semnan and Hormozgan, hesaid.

Iran has been scrambling tocontain COVID-19 sinceWednesday last week when itannounced the first two deathsin Qom, a centre for Islamicstudies and pilgrims that attractsscholars from abroad. It hasclosed schools, universities, cul-tural centres, sporting events anddeployed teams of sanitaryworkers to disinfect buses, trainsand public spaces. AFP

H��*��1��#�� Geneva: There are now more

new cases of the coronavirusreported each day outside Chinathan inside the hardest-hitcountry, the World HealthOrganisation said onWednesday.

“Yesterday, the number ofnew cases reported outsideChina exceeded the number ofnew cases in China for the firsttime,” WHO chief TedrosAdhanom Ghebreyesus tolddiplomats in Geneva, accordingto a written version of hisspeech.

The UN health agency putthe number of new cases inChina at 411 on Tuesday andthose registered outside the

country stood at 427.Governments worldwide

are scrambling to prevent thespread of the new coronavirusafter a surge of infections inItaly, Iran and South Korea.

Tedros said the “suddenincrease of cases” in those coun-tries was “deeply concerning”,adding that a WHO team wouldtravel to Iran this weekend toevaluate the situation.

While new case numbersand deaths are dwindling at thedisease epicentre in China, thecountry remains by far thehardest hit.

Tedros said that as ofWednesday morning, 78,190cases of COVID-19 had been

registered in China, including2,718 deaths.

That compares with 2,790cases and 44 deaths reportedacross 37 other countries.

But WHO has said the epi-demic in China peaked and onFebruary 2 and has been declin-ing since.

Bruce Aylward, who head-ed a WHO-backed expert mis-sion to China, hailed the dras-tic quarantine and contain-ment measures taken by Beijing,saying the country had“changed the course” of the out-break.

But he told reporters inGeneva that other nations were“simply not ready”. AFP

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Tehran: Iranian cyberpolicehave arrested 24 peopleaccused of online rumour-mongering about the spreadof the coronavirus in thecountry, semi-official newsagency ISNA reported onWednesday.

The Islamic republic hasbeen battling to control anoutbreak of the novel coro-navirus that has claimed 19lives among 139 infections inthe past week.

“Twenty-four peoplewere arrested and handedover to the judiciary and 118(internet) users were talkedto and let go” after receivingwarnings, said Vahid Majid,head of the Iranian policeforce’s cyber unit.

The arrests were carriedout after the establishment ofa special unit to “combatrumour-mongers regardingthe ‘spread of coronavirus inthe country’,” he was quotedas saying.

“The police are moni-toring all the news pub-lished in the country’scyberspace.” AFP

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Kuala Lumpur: Malaysia wasplunged into a bitter powerstruggle on Wednesday asMahathir Mohamad sought toform a unity government fol-lowing his shock resignation, butold foe Anwar Ibrahim alsopushed to become premier.

The developments deep-ened a crisis that began when theruling coalition -- which includ-ed both men when it stormed toa historic poll victory in 2018 -- fell apart after a failed bid toestablish a new governmentwithout Anwar.

Anwar was Mahathir’s des-ignated successor, but he wouldlikely have been pushed out andblocked from becoming leaderif the weekend bid had suc-ceeded.

Their notoriously stormyrelationship has shapedMalaysian politics ever sinceMahathir — during a first stintin office in the 1990s — sackedAnwar as his deputy, and he wasjailed on dubious sodomy and

corruption charges.They reconciled ahead of

the 2018 polls to oust a corrup-tion-plagued coalition led byNajib Razak, but many weresceptical Mahathir — at 94, theworld’s oldest leader — wouldstick to a vow to hand power toAnwar.

Mahathir quit on Mondayas premier but it remains unclearwhether he had a hand in theplot to topple the government,although analysts suspect he atleast gave it his blessing. He hasbeen named interim leader andinitially appeared to have strongsupport to remain as premier.

But backing fell away earlyWednesday and rumoursswirled Anwar had garneredenough support from MPs forthe top job, fuelling expectationsthat Mahathir might finally cedepower.

The elderly leader, howev-er, announced in a televisedaddress to the nation that hewished to establish a unity gov-

ernment, and was willing toreturn as premier.

“Party politics must be putaside for now,” said Mahathir. “Ifallowed, I will try to form aninclusive government, not sidingwith any political parties.” “If Istill have the support I willreturn. If not I will accept who-ever is chosen,” he added.

Moments later at a pressconference at his party head-quarters, Anwar said he hadreceived backing from threeparties in the “Pact of Hope”coalition — the grouping inpower until Mahathir quit — tobecome premier.

Anwar, 72, said the coalitionhad invited Mahathir to a meet-ing on Tuesday evening aimedat reviving the coalition, but afterhe failed to show they decidedto put him forward as their can-didate. “Since the attempt to top-ple the government last week wehave remained steadfast indefending the mandate of theMalaysian people,” he said. AFP

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Washington: The US is ready to consider anagreement with the Taliban after they haveagreed to dramatically reduce violence acrossthe war-torn Afghanistan, US DefenceSecretary Mark Esper told lawmakers onWednesday.

The US plans to sign an agreement withthe Taliban on Saturday in Qatar.

The historic deal would see the US with-draw thousands of troops, winding downAmerica’s longest war which was launched afterthe September 11, 2001 attacks but has grownincreasingly unpopular at home.

“If the Taliban demonstrate the willingnessand capability to do so, the US is prepared toconsider an agreement that advances the peaceprocess,” Esper told members of the HouseArmed Services Committee ahead of a hear-ing on defence posture statement. “Should,intra-Afghan peace dialogues progress, the USwill reduce our force posture as appropriate,based on conditions on the ground,” Esper said.In Afghanistan, he said, the US remain com-mitted to ending the war through a politicalagreement that ensures Afghanistan cannot beused as a safe haven for terrorist groups toattack the United States. PTI

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Geneva/Colombo: Sri Lanka onWednesday notified the UN about itswithdrawal from a UNHRC resolutionthat called for accountability to humanrights abuses committed during thenation’s civil war with the Tamil sepa-ratists and pledged to appoint a newcommittee to review the reports of theprevious probes which investigatedalleged war crimes.

Sri Lanka co-sponsored the UnitedNations Human Rights Council’s 2015resolution along with 11 other coun-

tries, including the US and Britain, call-ing for an investigation into allegedhuman rights violations during theisland nation’s civil war, which endedin 2009 with the killing of theLiberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam(LTTE) chief Velupillai Prabhakaran bythe Lankan army.

The resolution 30/1 on promotionon reconciliation in Sri Lanka was co-sponsored by the Lankan governmentheaded by then President MaithripalaSirisena.

Dinesh Gunawardena, Sri Lanka’sforeign minister, in his address to the43rd session of the UNHRC in Genevaannounced the withdrawal while accus-ing the previous government in erringwith co-sponsoring the resolution.

He declared a commitment toachieve sustainable peace “throughan inclusive, domestically designed andexecuted reconciliation and account-ability process, including through theappropriate adaptation of existingmechanisms”. PTI

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Jerusalem: Israel’s foreign minister denouncedDemocratic front-runner Bernie Sanders onWednesday for what he called his “horrifying com-ment” about Jerusalem, saying that those who sup-port Israel would not back Sanders’ presidentialcandidacy after such remarks.

At a contentious Democratic debate onTuesday night in South Carolina, Sanders labeledIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a“reactionary racist” and said he’d consider revers-ing President Donald Trump’s historic move of theUS Embassy to Jerusalem and return it to Tel Aviv.

In a daring foray into American domestic pol-itics, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said therewas a not a Jew in the world who “hasn’t dreamedof Jerusalem” and Sanders words were so severethat he had no choice but to retort.

“We don’t intervene in the internal Americanelectoral process, which is splendid,” Katz toldIsrael’s Army Radio, before noting that Sanders hada long history of attacking Israel and the thingsmost sacred to its identity and national security.

“Naturally, people who support Israel will not support someone who goes against thesethings,” he added. Sanders’ comments at the debatecame after he recently announced he would skipan appearance before the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC,which he called a “platform for bigotry.” AP

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Beirut: Shelling and airstrikesby Syrian government forceskilled at least three people onWednesday in northwesternSyria, where dozens of villages,including major rebel strong-holds in the last opposition-held area, have been cap-tured over the past few days.

The new push byRussian-backed Syrian troopscould worsen the humanitar-ian crisis that has displacednearly a million people andleft more than 300 civiliansdead since the beginning ofDecember.

The Syrian ResponseCoordination Group, a reliefgroup operating in the coun-try’s northwest, said thatGovernment forces had strucknumerous civilian targets inthe past 24 hours, includingeight schools and three med-ical centers. AP

Islamabad: Pakistan’s former PrimeMinister Nawaz Sharif has beendeclared an “absconder” by the gov-ernment for violating the bailrequirements by not presenting hismedical report from his doctors inLondon, according to a media reporton Wednesday.

Sharif, 70, left for London inNovember last for treatment after theLahore High Court allowed him to goabroad on medical grounds for fourweeks.

According to Sharif ’s physician,the three-time prime minister is suf-fering from complex multi-vesselcoronary artery disease and substan-tial ischemic and threatenedmyocardium for which he is due toundergo surgery.

The government on Tuesdaydecided not to extend the bail of Sharifand declared him an “absconder” for

violating the bail requirements by notpresenting his medical report beforea board formed on the order of theIslamabad High Court (IHC), DawnNewspaper reported.

The decisions were taken at ameeting of the federal Cabinetpresided by Prime Minister ImranKhan.

“After Nawaz Sharif failed to sub-mit his medical report of any hospi-tal in London, the medical boardrejected a medical certificate sent byhim and (the government) declaredhim an absconder,” Special Assistantto the Prime Minister on InformationFirdous Ashiq Awan said at a post-Cabinet meeting press conference.

“From today Nawaz Sharif is anabsconder according to the law of landand if he does not return to the coun-try he will be declared a proclaimedoffender,” Awan said. PTI

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Dhaka: Bangladesh has yet againshelved a controversial plan to relocatesome 100,000 Rohingya refugees to aflood-prone island in the Bay ofBengal, a minister said Wednesday.

Authorities have long sought torelocate some of the country’s million-plus Rohingya population to BhashanChar, despite warnings the silty stripof land was prone to violent and poten-tially deadly monsoon storms.

The move would take some pres-sure off the overcrowded border campshome to huge numbers of the perse-cuted and stateless Muslim minority,most of whom fled neighbouringMyanmar in 2017 after a brutal mili-tary crackdown.

But rights groups say that somerefugees had been coerced into agree-ing to relocation and the plan has beenstaunchly opposed by the Rohingya

community at large.Junior disaster management min-

ister Enamur Rahman saidBangladesh would increase its focuson diplomatic talks aimed at return-ing the refugees home.

“The relocation plan has beenpostponed,” he told AFP, adding thatthere had been “much progress” inrepatriation discussions with Myanmarwith China acting as intermediary.

Bangladesh and Myanmar havealready signed a repatriation deal tosend back some Rohingya to theirhomeland — but safety fears meanvery few have agreed to return.

Thousands are suspected to havebeen killed in Myanmar during the2017 Rohingya crackdown andrefugees brought reports of wide-spread rape and arson by soldiers andethnic Rakhine mobs. AFP

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Miuccia Prada andRaf Simons — two

of the fashion world’sbiggest creative names— will collaborate onPrada collections fromSpring/Summer 2021going forward indefinite-ly, the designersannounced at a newsconference on the side-lines of Milan FashionWeek.

Prada, who has beenthe creative force behindone of luxury’s most suc-cessful brands for 30years, said the new part-nership didn’t signal aneventual succession.“Don’t make me olderthan I am,” the 70-year-old designer quipped.

Simons, 52, is con-sidered one of the fashionworld’s biggest talents,whose future has beenthe subject of intensespeculation since he leftCalvin Klein in 2018. Hepreviously was creativedirector of Jil Sander andDior, and also has hisown eponymous label,which he said would con-tinue.

Their first collabora-tion will appear on theSeptember runway forSpring/Summer 2021.“The contract in theory isforever,” Prada said.“Maybe this is the firsttime in fashion historythat two expert designers

who had their own suc-cesses in this sector willwork together,” saidPatrizio Bertelli, the co-CEO of the Prada Groupwith his wife, MiucciaPrada.

The announcementcame on a day when thenew coronavirus was agrowing concern aroundthe fashion capital.Giorgio Armani took theunusual step to show hiscollection behind closeddoors to an empty the-ater, streaming for thefashion public, as a pre-caution. The rest of thescheduled fashion showscontinued as planned.Later, the number of con-firmed cases in Italy roseto at least 152 and offi-cials halted the VeniceCarnival to try to stop thespread of the virus.

Prada said they wentahead with theannouncement despitethe growing emergencyin Italy — where morecases of the COVID-19virus have been con-firmed than in HongKong. She said that theglobalised world isbecoming ever morecomplex “and we need towork, also if these uglyand difficult things arehappening.”

The designers saidthat the collaborationwas born out of longmutual respect datingfrom 2005 when Simonstook over as creativedirector of Jil Sander,which was at the timepart of the Prada Group.

They both said thatthe collaboration wasalso meant as a bulwark

against a tendency in thefashion world for creativ-ity to be squelched bybusiness priorities. “Ithink a lot of creatives ina lot of positions dealingwith independent brandsand creative director-ships feel troubled, feellike the fashion industryis moving more andmore toward an industrythat might end upexcluding creatives,”Simons said. He specifiedthat in the fashion worldthere are examples offinancial success with-out a strong creativedirection.

“It is definitely some-thing we question, andwe do believe that a col-laboration between cre-atives could re-positionthat aspect of the wholebusiness,” he said. —AP

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In one scene, Gandhi and Kasturba are onopposite sides of the stage, both on an elevat-ed platform. In another, Bapu sits by Kasturba’s

slowly disintegrating funeral pyre and when askedto leave, he says, “Saath (60) saal ke liye saath rahethe, saath (60) minute toh baithne do.” Thesescenes from Dear Bapu, Love Kasturba will cer-tainly transport you to various phases of histo-ry, exploring their relationship.

The play opens with the drama of the QuitIndia Movement. Gandhi is arrested and sent tothe Aga Khan Palace in Pune. Kasturba leads inhis absence. She, too, is arrested and sent to theArthur Road Jail in Bombay. Due to poor

health, she is sent to be with Gandhi. A fewyears later, she passed away. Now, her

soul writes letters to Gandhi. These let-ters evaluate their relationship of 60years. From marriage to death, theletters leave nothing — politics,marriage, family, children, com-panionship.

� How was it to recreate andunderstand Kasturba Gandhias nothing much has beenwritten about her in the past?

Saif Hyder Hasan: Wehave usually seen various

biopics centred aroundMahatma Gandhi.Kasturba is just seenstanding behind him as asupporting character. Sheis never seen leading the

narrative. I wanted to keepthe play very dif-ferent. So thisexplores theirre l at i ons h ipand personalequation fromKasturba’s per-spective. That’swhere the dif-

ference lies.

� What made yougo for this role, espe-

cially after such a longgap?Zeenat Aman: It was my

director’s thought and amaz-ing screenplay that pushed

me to go for this role. Thefact that I had to play

the protagonist justadded to my excite-ment. Let meunderline this thatthough there aremixed reviewsbut you can notimagine the love,claps and appre-ciation Ireceived in allthe cities weperformed.

� How didyou conceptu-

alise it? Werethere any referencepoints?

Saif: The wholeconcept is the result of

one line — ‘what was itlike to be married to India’s biggest

icon?’ I interrogated further andthat laid the foundation for this.There are a couple of books anddiaries of Kasturba’s grandchildren,which helped me develop the plotof the story. To understand anycharacter you need to read a lot ofbooks. I made sure that I don’t stickto one book, otherwise it wouldlook like an adaptation. Though Ihad read many books on her, it wasonly two years ago that I decided todo a play on Kasturba. While mak-ing a play or a film, it is very impor-tant to dig deeply into the charac-ters and not rely on the internetcompletely. Books are the bestsource of information. That’s wherethe whole secret lies.

A lot of research has also gonebehind deciding the attire. I sawsome of Kasturba’s pictures. Inmost or rather all of them she waswearing white. There were a few ofthem in colourful saris too. Theywere mostly of her early phases oflife.

� What was your understandingof Kasturba?

Zeenat: My director hadalready done a very thoroughresearch about her. He read almostall the books based on her. And Ifollowed up with his research andadded my bit to it as I had very lesstime to do my own groundwork.

While I was going through

that process, I found that Kasturbawas a powerful woman. She had anamazing journey with Mahatma.Even though she didn’t agree withhim on various subjects, she wasalways there for him. WhenKasturba was in jail, she supportedthe wives of the men, who werejailed with Gandhi. She participat-ed in the Harijan Movement andwas even sent to prison for it. It wasquite intriguing and inspirational tolearn about her. However, it wasquite challenging. I had the mate-rial in front of me, I just had to pro-ject it at a glance.

� Did you feel the pressure of

putting Kasturba in the rightlight as it would lead to variousfresh perspectives?

Saif: No. I didn’t feel any kind ofpressure. I just tried to portray her asshe was. You just have to be honest.I would only say, Kuch to log kahenge,logo ko kaam hai kehna.

� How do you find modern rela-tionships different than the oldschool ones?

Zeenat: I feel that you cannotcompare any relationship becauseeach of them is very different.They have their own space andenergies. Their history, emotionalbaggage and everything they bringto the table is way different. In fact,you can not compare any relation-ship. Even if you see the child-par-ent dynamic, there relationship isvery distinct. We deal with differ-ent individuals who bring in a cer-tain dynamics. So I feel there cannever be any comparisons.

� How was it exploring yourselfthrough theatre?

Zeenat: It’s been encouraging,exciting and interesting. And thebest part is that during the play, eachcity reacted differently. People inMumbai are different from theones in Delhi and Hyderabad. Theycheer, laugh and cry at different tim-ings. Maybe, the performance alsogets different as it evolves over time.

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�� "��.�?��.��$��/��"��/�:��/�� Ayushmann Khurrana hasproved himself time and

again by portraying charactersnot many have tried before,and he feels blessed to be anactor at a time where he canstand up and root for socialcauses on screen.

On his new film ShubhMangal Zyada Saavdhan,Ayushmann feels the film hasbeen successfully made,released and accepted isbecause even before same-sexrelationship became legal inIndia, many actors stuck theirneck out and given the audi-ence some brilliant work on thesubject. He says he has all thoseactors and films to credit first.

“The fact that ShubhMangal Zyada Saavdhan is asuccess today is because thepath was made for it by others.Many before me have toiledhard to make the pathsmoother. We have to realiseand acknowledge the monu-mental work that was done bysome of the finest actors ofIndian cinema much beforeme,” he said.

He added: “Before ShubhMangal Zyada Saavdhan, ourindustry has also made some ofthe most soul-touching filmson the subject. I don’t think wecan ever forget Shabana Azmiji’s incredible performance andNandita Das’s heart-wrenchingacting in Fire’, Sanjay Suri andPurab Kohli’s vulnerability inMy Brother Nikhil, ManojBajpayee’s brilliance in Aligarhand Kalki Koechlin’s strengthin Margarita With A Straw.’”

Ayushmann also men-

tioned films that brilliantlytook on the stereotype faced bythe LGBTQ+ community.“Films like Kapoor And Sons,Karan Johar’s Bombay Talkiesand Sonam Kapoor’s Ek LadkiKo Dekha Toh Aisa Laga haveall depicted and handled same-sex relationships with pro-found thought, dignity, andsensitivity,” he noted.

“Today, Shubh MangalZyada Saavdhan is being cele-brated the world over and I

have to share this moment withall the actors and directors whohad taken it on themselves topromote inclusivity in ourcountry. This is a very specialmoment in my life and I’mcherishing all the love that myfilm and my performance isreceiving and I feel blessed tobe acting at a time where I canstand up, back and root for asocial cause like this," hedeclared.

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Blessed to act for social causes: Ayushmann%�/)*�2�2-�216

��/��S��*��<�.��.%��$�/��%��&�./4��$�� +�/��$��/�� -��6�� <��/�$�/��5%��<��/��/�<�.�� /��"��$�/��$��@.��00�./��!�� & � ��*�

� What initiatives have youtaken to enhance the hugetourism potential of the State?

Punjab has many attractionswhich we are striving to promotethrough different initiatives. ThePunjab State Tourism Policy, 2018,aims to strengthen the State’s poten-tial and encompasses the fast-grow-ing and organised sub-categorieslike rural, medical, historical, cul-tural and religious tourism. We areinviting the Punjabi diaspora to gen-erate more international interest inthe State.

Our focus is on conservation ofimportant heritage buildings andinfrastructure development for pro-viding last-mile connectivity totourist places. Development of eco-tourism in Harike, Ropar andKeshopur will go a long way in nur-turing our ecological resources andpromoting them as attractions.

The Patiala Heritage festival andthe Sufi festival have emerged as bigtourist draws. The unique MilitaryLiterature Festival, celebrated for thelast three years, is an impressive plat-form for people from various walksof life to interact with historians,authors, poets, journalists anddefence experts. I see these initia-tives getting concretised further.

� How are you ensuring last mileconnectivity to each destination?

My government is strengthen-ing and further improving theState’s road, rail and air connectiv-ity to facilitate travel not just for ourown people but also tourists. Thiswas scaled up manifold ahead of thehistoric 550th Prakash Purb celebra-tion of Sri Guru Nanak Devji whenlakhs of people from around theworld visited the State. Road con-nectivity from Dera Baba Nanak toKartarpur Sahib in Pakistan wasdeveloped as a part of these celebra-tions. At Sultanpur Lodhi, the roadnetwork has been upgraded/devel-oped. Punjab got the BestInfrastructure Development Awardby ICTCA in July 2017. In fact, theroad and rail network is reachingthe furthest end of the state. In addi-tion, we also have a good air con-nectivity, with two international air-ports at Chandigarh and Amritsar,besides four domestic airports atLudhiana, Adampur, Pathankotand Bathinda.

� How are investments beingfacilitated in the hospitality andtourism sector?

We have declared tourism andhospitality as the “thrust sector” tofacilitate investment. In fact, mygovernment has provided liberalfiscal and non-fiscal incentives toinvestors in this sector, as part ofthe Industrial & BusinessDevelopment Policy, 2017.

� What are some of the amend-ments to the Punjab StateTourism Policy 2018 to make itmore accessible for the different-ly-abled?

We have already approvedamendment in the Punjab StateTourism Policy 2018 and CulturalPolicy 2017 to make our sitesaccessible to the differently-abled,where a new section with specialprovisions has been included. Stepsto implement these are being takenin right earnest and I have askedthe Department to expedite theprocess. We need to bring places atpar with international standards ifwe are to harness their full poten-tial.

� How do you plan to make peo-ple aware of Punjab’s rich histo-ry and encourage them to visitrelated sites while ensuring thatthey are maintained well?

We are well aware of the needto promote and market ourtourism projects and are payingspecial attention to them. Anagency has been hired for adver-tising, branding and marketingPunjab as a preferred tourist des-tination. We have a strategy inplace to promote lesser knownplaces of tourist interest. Reuse ofmost public sector heritage build-ings being conserved has beendefined along with their O&M.We’ve also constituted theAmritsar Cultural & TourismDevelopment Authority for main-tenance and upkeep of importantheritage buildings in Amritsar. Asa result of these efforts, theGolden Temple, Amritsar, hasbeen adjudged as the cleanest reli-gious place. It received theSafaigiri Award in October 2017.The Golden Temple was alsoconferred an award for being themost visited place in the world atthe Sixth International TourismConclave and Travel Awarded atDehradun in October 2019.

� What measures are beingundertaken to preserve andbring lesser known folk forms tonational and international fora?

The range of cultural artforms in Punjab is really wide andimpressive. We are cognisant ofthe need to preserve them for ourfuture generations and also topromote them on the domestic

and global platforms. PunjabSangeet Natak Akademi, anautonomous body under the aegisof the Cultural AffairsDepartment, is looking after allperforming arts and folk formslike Dhadi, Kawishri and folkdance. The Ishmit MusicAcademy in Ludhiana is alsopromoting music, culture, artand folk forms through trainingprogrammes, for which we havesufficient trainers and teams inplace. In order to promote the cul-tural art forms, heritage festivalshave been revived and held atPatiala, Kapurthala and Amritsar.Punjab has been conferred withthe “Best Cultural Destination inIndia” award for 2019 by atravel maga-zine.

� Do you think initiatives likethe Kartarpur Corridor wouldpave the way for a better relation-ship between India and Pakistan?

I have always maintained thatwe need to exercise caution in ourrelations with Pakistan and counterany attempt at infiltration anddisruption of peace from across theborder. At the same time, people topeople contact between the twonations is vital to improve relations.The Kartarpur Corridor is, in myopinion, a step in the right direc-tion, though the possibility of itbeing used by Pakistan to promoteits nefarious anti-India designscannot be ruled out. It is a Catch-22 situation, but with adequatesecurity measures, it will strength-en friendly relations between thetwo neighbours. For us, in the Sikhcommunity, it has come as a much-awaited initiative that has helped usrealise our aspiration and dreamfor khulle darshan didar of the his-toric Sri Kartarpur SahibGurdwara.

� What were the special activi-ties to celebrate the 550th BirthAnniversary of Sri Guru NanakDev?

The 550th Birth Anniversaryof Sri Guru Nanak Dev ji was ablessed and historic occasion forall of us in Punjab and we tookevery possible step to ensurethat it was celebrated in a man-

ner befitting the occasion.No expense was

spared and arrangements were ini-tiated a year prior to the actual event.Actually, the celebrations started ayear prior to the main event.

The main celebrations wereheld in a specially erected pandal,having a capacity of 20,000 people,from November 5 to 12 (PrakashPurab) at Sultanpur Lodhi. SehajPath was also held in this pandalduring the time. The PrakashPurab Utsav was celebrated atDera Baba Nanak from November8 to 11, 2019.

Keeping lakhs of pilgrimscoming to these historic towns inmind, three tented cities were setup at Sultanpur Lodhi and one atDera Baba Nanak for providingtented accommodation to 38,500pilgrims. A free service of intra-city mini buses and e-rickshawswas provided for the convenienceof pilgrims.

In addition to the mainevents, light and sound showswere held all across the State tospread Guru Nanak Devji’s uni-versal message of brotherhoodand compassion. A special VidhanSabha session dedicated to SriGuru Nanak Devji was held onNovember 6. The inter-faith con-clave held at Guru Nanak DevUniversity, Amritsar, in the pres-ence of H E Dalai Lama, wasanother highlight of the celebra-tions. In addition, 550 NanakNaam Leva (person who believesand follows teachings of in GuruNanak irrespective of religion),prominent personalities fromacross the world, who haveexcelled in their respective fieldswere honoured to mark the occa-sion.

My government also launchedgold and silver plated commem-orative coins, besides a coffeetable book Seone Ka Birkh and aLonely Planet book, The BlessedTrail, on the life and times of SriGuru Nanak Devji. Books werepublished by Punjabi Universityand Guru Nanak Dev Universityon the life, time and teachings ofSri Guru Nanak Dev’.

� What infrastructure projectswere initiated by the StateGovernment?

Considering the importance ofthis occasion and the universalglobal following of Sri Guru NanakDevji, three major infrastructuralprojects were launched with the helpof the Central Government. Thesewere the establishment of theNational Institute of Inter-FaithStudies at Guru Nanak DevUniversity, Amritsar, a heritagemuseum called Pind Babe Nanak Daat Sultanpur Lodhi, in addition toinclusion of Sultanpur Lodhi in thesmart city project and will be devel-oped as a heritage city.

My Government undertookvarious projects for the overall ben-efit of the people. These includedinauguration of Bebe NanakiUniversity College for Girls atSultanpur Lodhi, Sri Guru NanakDev Ji Invention, Innovation,Incubation & Training Centre(CIIIT) at the main campus ofPunjab Technical University atKapurthala and Sri Guru Nanak DevJi Auditorium at Punjab TechnicalUniversity, Kapurthala.

Besides this, construction wasundertaken of four high-levelbridges, two foot over bridges, onerest house, 16 roads including VVIProutes, construction of eight tempo-rary parkings, two temporary roads,two pontoon bridges andrepair/widening of two roads, fagadeimprovement, signages and more.We also built a major bridge on thecreek of river Beas, undertook lin-ing, cleaning, fencing and strength-ening a stretch of left and right banksof Kali Bein by providing boulderstone pitching, ensured overalldevelopment of 70 villages/MCgraced by Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji, setup a biodiversity park and planted550 saplings in each village of theState.

� What are the StateGovernment’s plans to celebratethe 400th Parkash Purab of SriGuru Tegh Bahadur in the year2021?

The State Government will cel-ebrate the 400th birth anniversaryof Sri Guru Tegh Bahadurji in 2021.A State level function will be organ-ised and year-long activities wouldbe kick-started on 399th PrakashPurab, which will be celebrated onApril 12. The main function will beon April 18, 2021. We have request-ed the Prime Minister to constitutea national-level committee forobserving this historic occasion.Besides, a permanent light andsound show, dedicated to Sri GuruTegh Bahadurji and Sikh history, willbe installed at Anandpur Sahib inthe Virasat-e- Khalsa complex. Thememorial of Bhai Jaitaji at SriAnandpur Sahib will be completedon priority.

KIIT university is hostingthe first Khelo India

University Games (KIUG)2020. It is another milestonefor the university to host themost prestigious university-level sports meet under theGovernment of India’s flag-ship Khelo India Programme.KIUG, an annual sportingevent under the aegis ofMinistry of Youth Affairs andSports, Government of India,Sports Authority of India(SAI) and Association ofIndian Universities (AIU),aims to revive the sports cul-ture in India.

Since it was going to behosted in Odisha, a ‘go-ahead’from the state governmentwas needed. Talks were heldand the dates were finalised.The Odisha governmentunder the aegis of the SportsAuthority of India and theMinistry of Youth Affairs andSports was set to host thefirst-ever Khelo IndiaUniversity Games.

We were no strangers tosports. KIIT and KISS haveaccorded high importance tosports since their inceptionbesides top notch academics.The two institutions havetogether produced more than5,000 sports talents. The stu-dents of KISS have participat-ed in Olympics, South AsianFederation Games, AsianGames and many more. In

fact, KISS has played animportant role in popularis-ing Rugby in India.

Dutee Chand, Olympicathlete, who has won gold inthe World University Games2019 and two silvers in AsianGames 2019, is a student ofKIIT. Juana Murmu, who isfondly referred to as theHurdles Queen and PurnimaHembram, who has wonBronze in Heptathlon at 2015and 2017 AsianChampionships are studentsof KISS. The most recentachievement being SumitraNayak’s penalty scored in thedying minutes of the game toclinch the bronze medal forIndia, in a team consisting offive players from KISS, at the

Asia Women’s Div-1 Rugby15-s championship. In fact,numerous policymakers havepredicted the presence ofKISS students in the forth-coming 2024 Olympics.

KIIT has also been host-ing top-level sporting tourna-ments for many years.However, playing hosts toIndia’s sporting event at theyouth level was always goingto be a challenge. It was a dif-ferent ball game altogether.“We had to ensure everyminute detail was taken careof. Arguably, the most chal-lenging bit was to accommo-date around 5,000 people intwin capacity, air-conditionedrooms in the middle of theacademic year when we

already had 30,000 studentsresiding on-campus. Our pri-ority had to be expediting theconstruction of several hostelblocks and sporting arenasthat were in-progress andscheduled to be completed bythe end of the calendar year.The pace had to be doubledand a collective effort wasrequired. The entire staff ofKIIT and KISS got involvedwith the utmost dedication. Iwas involved in the monitor-ing of entire turn of events,”said professor AchyutaSamanta, founder of KIIT &KISS.

“We paid attention toevery detail. Officials fromKhelo India had been monitor-ing the progress and inspect-ing all the locations. It is fairto say that they seemed con-tent with all the arrangements,so much so that all 17 eventsof KIUG can be conducted atthe KIIT campus itself,” addedhe.

“Only a few days were leftfor the start of the competitionand players started to arrive.The madness had officiallybegun. A gripping sense ofanticipation surrounded theentire university. The firstflick of the racket against thebackdrop of the beautiful KIITcampus — I was overjoyedwith a sense of satisfaction. Itwas finally time for kick-off.And I was reminded of my

childhood. Memories of mychildhood makes me happyand sad at the same time,”Samanta said.

Growing up, he barely gottwo meals a day let alone hav-ing the privilege to go out andplay. Neither had Samantaplayed sports or had situationsconducive to even think aboutplaying. Circumstances weredifficult and he has workedhard to fight his way out ofpoverty. By god’s grace, today,he feels lucky enough to becontributing towards thedevelopment of so manyyoung sports stars and thesporting infrastructure. Hishappiness knows no boundsnow.

He said that there were afew nerves initially. He alwaysfelt confident and knew theywould be able to pull it off.Samanta said, “After all, wehad to live up to the tag of the‘Sports Capital of India’, onethat Bhubaneswar has earnedhaving hosted numerous inter-national competitions, oneafter the other. Here, I wouldlike to thank the Governmentof India and Odisha forencouraging and supportingus to conduct such an event.And we want to go beyond.We are determined to becomethe sports capital of the world.And tournaments such as thiswill go a long way in helpingus achieve that dream.”

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Dantewada district of Bastardivision in Chhattisgarh has

been a part of the national newsone more time. Cricketer SachinTendulkar was surprised to see thezeal for cricket in a polio-affect-ed child, Maddaram, from one ofthe most backward regions ofIndia. He shared the video of himand captioned it as: “Begin 2020with this inspiring video.”

Once plagued by Naxal vio-lence, today, Dantewada is touch-ing new heights as there have beena drastic drop in Naxal incidents,decline in the number of malnu-trition kids, women are defyingthe old age superstitions by join-ing the unconventional enter-prise like production of sanitarynapkins and the farmers havethemselves become a brand interms of organic products.

Chief Minister ofChhattisgarh, Bhupesh Baghelsaid, “If we don’t provide ploughin the hands, they will hold thegun. This is the only way to elim-inate Naxalism. He emphasised onthe need of eliminating problemslike malnutrition and malariabecause they are more dangerousthan Naxalism.”

The district has been selectedfor the pilot project for the cam-paign to eradicate poverty frombackward areas of Chhattisgarh.The campaign, PoonahDantewada Madhakal, whichmeans, “we will build a newDantewada.”

The poverty percentage in thedistrict is 70, which is way high-

er than the national average of 22per cent. The Chhattisgarh gov-ernment has kept a goal of liber-ating this district from the catego-ry of the most backward districtsof the country and raise it as adeveloped one in the comingtime. The new action plan priori-tises the allocation of right pricesand adequate income for the for-est produce. This year, 22 minorforest produce will be purchasedat minimum support price by thegovernment. Due to this system ofprocurement, now a reasonablerate of forest produce will beobtained for �30 crore.

The processing hub is beingestablished at Balod GramPanchayat with a budget of �100crore, which is estimated to pro-vide income to 5,000 families. Theannual income of �25,000 is esti-mated to be received by theseactivities.

Within the district, 9,534 peo-

ple have the forest rights patent-ed. It is being ensured that thefields of these people are beingdeveloped for the production ofspices, kosa, drumsticks, coffeeand vegetables. With this, eachfamily is expected to generate anannual income of �30,000.

Arrangements are being madefor the compilation of the‘Biodiversity Register’, in whichyoung men and women, whohave passed 10th from 143 grampanchayats will be provided witha training of three months at dis-trict level and a sum of �6,500 permonth. Almost 387 farmers gen-erate an income of �40,000 perannum via vegetable and fruit cul-tivation. Women self help groupsare producing dry mango powderand pickles. Fifty families arereceiving an annual income of�30,000 with two dairy. Fourmore units of dairy are underprocess.

According to the district’s2002 statistics, they are approxi-mately 20,857 women employedin self help groups. Approximately,262 self-help groups provide warmfood for malnourished womenand children as a part of theSuposhan Abhiyan. Eight womenself-help groups generate anincome of �11,93,000 by produc-tion of sanitary napkins.

This is just the beginning. LikeMaddaram, Dantewada is alsoworking with passion and zeal torise up and build its future ahead.

(The author, Taran PrakashSinha, is the IAS Commissioner.)

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Serge Gnabry fired BayernMunich to the brink of theChampions League quar-

ter-finals as the German’s dou-ble inspired a superb 3-0 rout ofChelsea in the last-16 first leg atStamford Bridge on Tuesday.

Gnabry had tormentedTottenham Hotspur with fourgoals in Bayern’s 7-2 victory innorth London earlier this sea-son and the former Arsenalwinger returned to the Englishcapital to push Chelsea to thebrink of elimination.

The 24-year-old’s time withArsenal was a disappointmentand he even flopped during aloan spell at West BromwichAlbion.

But he has been reborn withBayern and his two goals in thespace of three minutes leftHansi Flick’s side within touch-ing distance of the last eight.

Robert Lewandowski gotBayern’s third before Chelseadefender Marcos Alonso wassent off in the 83rd minute.

Chelsea will need anotherMunich miracle in the secondleg on March 18 to overturn thedeficit at the Allianz Arena,where they famously beat theGerman club in the 2012Champions League final.

“I have a lot of friends here.A lot of them were in the standsand I think they were giving megood power,” Gnabry told BT

Sport of his London goal streak.“Three goals should give us

a lot of confidence. But we needto be prepared for the second legand we can’t take it seriousenough.

“We saw last season withLiverpool beating Barcelona, weknow we have to be careful andfocus.”

This hasn’t been a vintageyear for Bayern, but they havebeen energised since the exit ofdisliked boss Niko Kovacand outclassed Chelseain all phases.

None of the previoussix teams to have won allof their ChampionsLeague group games havelifted the trophy that sea-son, but five-time winners Bayernwill fancy their chances of break-ing that duck if they can maintainthis form.

Chelsea boss Frank Lampardadmitted his young team were“underdogs” against a club ofBayern’s vast European experi-ence and his pre-match predic-tion proved spot on in a chasten-ing defeat.

“The performance was poorand sometimes you have to bebrutally honest. They outclassedus in every department and it’squite sobering,” Lampard said.

“I’m disappointed we could-n’t do more against them. Wehave to take it on the chin andwork towards getting back to thelevels we want to be at.”

��.� 1 Antoine Griezmann res-cued a 1-1 draw for Barcelona atNapoli in the first leg of their last-16 tie on Tuesday.

Frenchman Griezmann struckjust before the hour mark in Naplesafter Dries Mertens had put thehosts ahead in the 30th minute withhis 121st Napoli goal, drawinglevel with Marek Hamsik as theclub’s all-time top scorer.

Barcelona ended the game with10 men after Arturo Vidal was sentoff with two minutes to go afterpicking up two yellow cards, follow-ing an angry clash with Napolidefender Mario Rui.

“In the end it’s a draw that is agood result considering that wehave another home game,” said

Barcelona coach QuiqueSetien, with his side in astrong position ahead of thesecond leg at the Camp Nouon March 18.

The clash was the firstbetween the two teams andalso a CL debut for both

Setien and Napoli counterpartGennaro Gattuso, who took overafter the group stage.

“They didn’t hurt us, they tick-led us,” said Gattuso. “It wentwrong in one moment and theypunished us.” Napoli captainLorenzo Insigne added: “We couldhave won, so we’re a bit disappoint-ed. It was emotional to face playerslike (Lionel) Messi.”

Messi failed to score on his firstappearance at the Stadio San Paolo,where Napoli legend DiegoMaradona reigned supreme threedecades ago.

The 32-year-old Messi scoredfour goals at the weekend inBarcelona’s 5-0 win over Eibar thatput the Spaniards back top of LaLiga, but could not add to his 114

Champions League goals.“If Barca didn’t do today what

they did three days ago (againstEibar) it’s to Napoli’s credit,” saidGattuso.

“I hope that no one thinks it’sover. We know it will be very hardbut nothing is finished yet.

Messi fired over on nine min-utes after combining well withFrenkie de Jong but Gattuso’s sidepiled the pressure on the Catalans.

Their pressing paid off on thehalf-hour mark, with Piotr Zielinskibreaking free down the right beforefinding Mertens, who curled amagnificent finish past Marc-Andreter Stegen.

He equalled Hamsik’s recordand is now six goals clear ofMaradona, but was forced off earlyin the second half after a SergioBusquets tackle for which the

Spaniard will be suspended for thesecond leg.

Barcelona did not waste muchtime in getting on level terms, asMessi and Busquets combined tosend Semedo into the box in the57th minute.

The Portuguese full-backcrossed low for Griezmann topower home right-footed.

“At first we found it hard to findspace, or create space or get shotson goal,” said Griezmann.

“But the more we saw that theywere tiring, the more we were ableto push forward and make chances.”

Vidal was sent off after a slid-ing tackle on Rui before appearingto headbutt the Napoli defender.

The Chilean will also miss thereturn leg in Spain, with defenderGerard Pique a doubt after going offlate on with an ankle injury. AFP

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Proving her mettle yet again, youngSonam Mailk downed Sakshi Malik for

the second time in a row, this time by pin-ning the Olympic medallist, to make it tothe Indian team for next month’s OlympicQualifiers here on Wednesday.

Asked to re-appear in trials after not-so-strong performance at the RomeRanking series event and the recently-con-cluded Asian Championships, the 18-year-old Sonam tore apart the challenge of estab-lished seniors in the 62kg competition.

She first got past Radhika and then car-ing little for reputations, Sonam beat theAsian Championship 59kg Gold medallistSarita Mor (3-1) in the semifinals beforewinning by fall against Rio OlympicsBronze medallist Sakshi in the final.

She pinned Sakshi in the second peri-od when she was trailing 1-2 and oneminute left in the bout.

Nine wrestlers appeared in the 62kg tri-als, including 2018 World ChampionshipBronze medallist Pooja Dhanda and a fewfrom upper weight categories.

“There was no nervousness before thebouts. I was determined to compete hard.I have fought against them before and Iknew I had to battle it out. So I was pre-pared,” Sonam said.

Sonam said she needs to hone her stylebefore the Bishkek Qualifiers.

“I will try my best. I need to work onmy leg defence and ground attack before theBishkek Qualifiers.”

Meanwhile, Kiran won the trial in 76kg.The Asian Olympic Qualifiers will be

held in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan from March 27-29. The finalists will qualify for the TokyoOlympics.

��

World No 1 Chen Yufei and defending men’ssingles champion Viktor Axelsen will

headline a star-studded international contingentwhen the 10th edition of the India Open Super500 tournament will begin here on March 24.

With the Olympic qualification cut-off set toend on April 26, the $ 400,000 event will see agalaxy of stars descending at the Indian capital,making the upcoming edition of the Super 500event one of the best ever.

Yufei will be leading eight of the world’s top10 women’s singles shuttlers with the others beingAkane Yamaguchi, He Bingjiao, Carolina Marin,An Se Young, Michelle Li, three-time champi-on Ratchanok Intanon and India’s very own worldchampion PV Sindhu, besides former World No1 Saina Nehwal.

Among the men, while Axelsen will be gun-ning for his third title, he will have to contendwith fellow top-10 players, Sai Praneeth and 2018winner Shi Yuqi. 2012 champion and formerWorld No 1 Son Wan Ho will be another of thestar shuttlers vying for the title. Three-time worldjunior champion Kunlavut Vitidsarn, whoreached the Barcelona Spain Masters final thismonth, will be one of the young guns capable ofcausing an upset.

For India’s 2015 champions Saina Nehwaland Kidambi Srikanth, the tournament will becrucial as they look to bag some valuable rank-ing points and materialize their Tokyo Olympicdreams. 2014 Commonwealth Games Goldmedallist Parupalli Kashyap, HS Prannoy,Sourabh Verma, Sameer Verma and Lakshya Senare the other Indian shuttlers who will be show-ing their fireworks in the singles main draw.

For the 2017 champion Sindhu, the tourna-ment will be the perfect battleground to test her-self against the world’s best in her quest for theOlympic Gold she missed at Rio the last time.With the draw having the planet’s best shuttler,Chen Yufei, who began the season with theMalaysia Masters title, Sindhu is expected to putup a flawless show in front of the home audience.

The tournament will also give the biggeststars a chance to improve their ranking and, inturn, better their seeding at Tokyo — somethingthe likes of Yamaguchi, Intanon, Marin will behoping to do.

In doubles, all eyes will be on Thailand Openchampions SatwiksairajRankireddy and ChiragShetty, who are current-ly ranked 10th and arealmost certain of makingthe trip to Tokyo. Theheavily-stacked draw hasseven men’s doublespairs from theworld’s top 10, ledby World No 4Takeshi Kamura andKeigo Sonoda.

The Indian pairsof SatwiksairajR ankireddy-AshwiniPonnappa and PranaavJerry Chopra-Sikki Reddyneed to show their bestform in a mixed doublesfield that sees the WorldNo 1 combine of ZhengSi Wei and Huang YaQiong leading 9 top-10teams.

The women’s dou-bles section too ispacked with eight top-10 teams where Sikkiand Ashwini will be theIndian team looking toleave their mark.

��

The novel coronavirusoutbreak has prompted

six countries, includingthe deadly disease’s epi-centre China, to with-draw from next month’sshooting World Cuphere, the National RiflesAssociation of India

(NRAI) revealed onWednesday.

The ISSF WorldCup is slated to be held

from March 15 to 26 atthe Karni Singh ShootingRange.

“There were somecountries which were com-ing but because of theCoronavirus outbreak,their national policies dic-tate that they can’t come,”

NRAI President RaninderSingh told reporters.

“China have taken awise decision on their ownas a nation. They don’t wantto infect others and hence

won’t travel. Taiwan, whichhas locked down their entireisland, Hong Kong, Macau,North Korea andTurkmenistan have alsobacked out because of

national policies,” he added,referring to the domestictravel restrictions imposedby the governments of thesecountries.

The NRAI chief alsoinformed that Pakistan willalso not be competing at theevent as the country’s shoot-ers are busy familiarisingthemselves with a newcoach.

“Don’t connect last timeto this time. Pakistan werenever coming. They havetwo athletes who have qual-ified for pistol events for theTokyo Olympics,” he saidreferring to the denial ofvisas to Pakistani shooters inlast year’s World Cup.

“My colleague Mr JavedLodhi (Pakistan shootingfederation’s executive vice

president) has informed methat ‘our coach in Germanyis only available during thattime and our shooterswould much rather trainwith him for the Olympicevents than participate inthe World Cup’,” Singhadded.

Last year, theInternational OlympicCommittee (IOC) had sus-pended all Indian applica-tions to host internationalevents after two Pakistanishooters were denied visasto compete in the WorldCup held here.

The sanction was laterlifted after assurances fromthe Sports Ministry thatpolitical issues will not comein the way of granting visasto participating athletes.

�� *' )'�

Five-time Grand Slam winnerMaria Sharapova, one of the

world’s most recognisable sports-women, on Wednesday announcedher retirement at the age of 32.

“Tennis — I’m saying goodbye,”Sharapova said in an article forVogue and Vanity Fair magazines.

“After 28 years and five GrandSlam titles, though, I’m ready toscale another mountain — to com-pete on a different type of terrain.”

Sharapova burst onto the sceneas a supremely gifted teenager andwon her Grand Slams before serv-ing a 15-month ban for failing adrugs test at the 2016 AustralianOpen.

The Russian former worldnumber one’s ranking is currently373rd.

Sharapova has hardly played inthe past year because of long-standing shoulder problems.

When she did play she lost as

many matches as she won andwas dumped out in the firstrounds at Wimbledon, the USOpen and, most recently, theAustralian Open in Melbourne.

Sharapova shot to fame as agiggly 17-year-old Wimbledonwinner in 2004, the third-youngest player to conquer theAll England Club’s hallowed grasscourts.

She became world numberone in 2005 and won the USOpen the next year.

“One of the keys to my suc-cess was that I never lookedback and I never looked forward,”Sharapova said on Wednesday.

“I believed that if I keptgrinding and grinding, I couldpush myself to an incredibleplace.”

She would win the 2008Australian Open and in 2012, theSiberian-born captured theFrench Open to become the 10thwoman to complete a career

Grand Slam. She added OlympicSilver to her resume that year.

Her 2014 French Open titlewas another high after a dispir-iting injury low.

“In giving my life to tennis,tennis gave me a life,” Sharapovasaid in her retirement missive.

“I’ll miss it everyday. I’ll missthe training and my daily routine:Waking up at dawn, lacing my leftshoe before my right, and closingthe court’s gate before I hit myfirst ball of the day.

“I’ll miss my team, my coach-es. I’ll miss the moments sittingwith my father on the practicecourt bench.

The handshakes — win orlose — and the athletes, whetherthey knew it or not, who pushedme to be my best.

“Looking back now, I realizethat tennis has been my moun-tain. My path has been filled withvalleys and detours, but the viewsfrom its peak were incredible.”

�� *��)��

Manchester City’s appealagainst their two-year

European ban for breaches offinancial regulations has beenofficially registered by theCourt of Arbitration for Sport,CAS announced onWednesday.

The Premier League club,who were also fined 30 millioneuros ($32.5 million) byEuropean football’s governingbody UEFA earlier this month,had immediately contested the“flawed” process and statedtheir intention to appeal.

CAS said in a statement onWednesday: “The Court ofArbitration for Sport (CAS) hasregistered an appeal filed byManchester City football clubagainst the Union of EuropeanFootball Associations (UEFA).

“The appeal is directedagainst the decision of theadjudicatory chamber of theUEFA Club Financial Control

Body (CFCB) dated 14February 2020 in whichManchester City was deemedto have contravened UEFA’sClub Licensing and Financial

Fair Play Regulations.”CAS said it was not possi-

ble to say when the matterwould be resolved but it isexpected to take severalmonths.

The adjudicatory cham-ber said on February 14 Cityhad broken the rules by “over-stating its sponsorship revenuein its accounts and in thebreak-even information sub-mitted to UEFA between 2012and 2016.”

Pep Guardiola’s City facelosing hundreds of millions ofpounds in prize money, TVrevenue, gate receipts and spon-sorship income should theirappeal fail.

Last week, City FootballGroup CEO Ferran Sorianosaid the club hoped to havetheir appeal heard by CASbefore the start of next season’sChampions League.

If the ban stands, it couldraise questions about the futureof Guardiola and key players.

�$��1Chenniyin FC will take onFC Goa in the first semi-final of theIndian Super League on February29 in Chennai.

The Football SportsDevelopment Limited onWednesday announced the sched-ule of the playoffs for the league,which will be played over two legs.

Defending championsBengaluru FC will take on ATKand FC Goa will play ChennaiyinFC for a spot in the final, to be heldon March 14.

In the first leg, FC Goa andChenniyin will play at Chennai onFebruary 29, while Bengaluru andATK will clash against each otherat Bengaluru.

The second-leg games arescheduled to be played on March7 in Goa (FC Goa vs ChennaiyinFC) and March 8 in Kolkata (ATKvs Bengaluru FC) ahead of thesummit clash in Goa, the weekendthereafter.

The organisers also announcedthat teams with the highest goalaggregate in their respective two-legged ties progress to the final.

In case scores are tied after twolegs, the “away goal” rule willapply that is the team which hasscored more away goals will qual-ify for the final.

If the away goal rule cannotdetermine a winner, then the gamewill go to the extra time in the sec-ond leg.

The away goal rule will notapply in extra time and the teamthat scores the higher number ofgoals in extra time will win thesemi-final.

If both teams score none orequal number of goals in extratime, the winner will be decidedthrough the penalty shootout.

Moreover, yellow cards andcautions accumulated from theleague stage will not be carried for-ward to the playoffs.

However, a suspension result-ing from a caution in their lastleague game will be applicable inthe first-leg semi-final.

In addition, if a player or teamofficial receives a caution in bothlegs of their playoffs, he will be sus-pended for the final. PTI

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��%� ��.��1 India’s nationalshooting federation onWednesday said it will not allowits shooters to travel abroad fortraining due to the novel coro-navirus threat and won’t hesitatein pulling out of a TokyoOlympics Test event in April ifit becomes a health risk.

Indian shooters are sched-uled to travel to Tokyo to par-ticipate in the Olympic Testevent slated to take place fromApril 16 to 26 in the Japanesecapital, which will host the mainevent in July-August this year.

“We have chosen our testevent team but we are yet todecide (on travelling there). I’mnot going to risk any of thosekids. If we receive any advice

from the Indian OlympicAssociation (IOA) or the inter-national federation, our ownmission in Tokyo or even ourown assessment we feel there’s athreat, it isn’t worth the risk,”National Rifle Association ofIndia (NRAI) presidentRaninder Singh said.

“We are also not allowingour shooters to travel overseasto train as well due to the virus,”Singh said.

“If a shooter is infected inthe test event then we are sub-jecting him or her to the gravestof dangers and then that shoot-er won’t be able to participate inthe Olympics, hampering ourchances of winning a medal,” headded. PNS

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On a high after two easy victo-ries on the trot, including one

against defending championAustralia, the Indian women’scricket team will aim to inch clos-er to a semifinal berth when ittakes on New Zealand in the ICCWomen’s T20 World Cup heretoday.

The Indians have hardly brokea sweat in their 17-run and 18-runwins over hosts Australia andBangladesh in their previous twomatches, and they are perched atthe top of five-team Group Astandings with four points fromtwo matches.

A win against New Zealandtoday will take the HarmanpreetKaur-led side on the threshold ofa knock-out stage spot, to becompeted among top two teamsfrom Group A and B.

In the two matches so far, theIndian team has been impressiveboth in batting and bowling.

The 16-year-old sensationShafali Verma has been the stand-out batter with a whirlwind 17-ball39 against Bangladesh, followingher 29 against Australia.

One-down JemmiahRodrigues has also been amongthe runs with 26 and 34 in the twomatches so far.

Only captain Harmanpreet,among the top order batters, hasnot scored big and she is due a biginnings.

India is also likely to be bol-stered by the return of star open-er Smriti Mandhana who missedthe match against Bangladesh dueto fever.

The middle-order has alsodone its bit with Deepti Sharmaplaying a major role againstAustralia with an unbeaten 49while Veda Krishnamurthy hit amatch-defining 11-ball 20 not out

for a late flourish againstBangladesh.

The bowling department hasbeen led admirably by seasonedleg-spinner Poonam Yadav —seven wickets in the first twomatches — with pacer ShikhaPandey ably supporting her withfive scalps so far.

New Zealand, though, have abetter head-to-head record againstIndia in recent years, having wonthe last three matches between thetwo sides.

Exactly a year back, they hadbeaten the Indian team 3-0 in athree-match T20I home series.

India will, however, remembertheir massive 34-run win against

New Zealand in the previous edi-tion in 2018. Harmanpreet hadstruck a memorable 103 to lead herside to victory.

New Zealand have some topclass players in their ranks in theform of captain and all-rounderSophie Devine and top-orderbatswoman Suzie Bates whilepacer Lea Tahuhu and leg-spinnerAmelia Kerr will lead the bowlingdepartment.

They will go into this matchon a high after an easy seven-wick-et win over Sri Lanka on Saturday.

Devine had led her side fromthe front with an unbeaten 75 off55 balls at the top of the order inthat win.

/��$��1Captain Heather Knight’s maid-en T20I century helped England notch upa record-breaking 98-run victory overdebutants Thailand on Wednesday.

Knight blasted a majestic 108 not outfrom 66 balls to become the fourth batterto make a hundred at the event and sendrecords tumbling.

England’s total of 176 for two, after

being sent in to bat, was their highest T20Itotal and Knight’s unbeaten third-wicketstand of 169 with Nat Sciver (59 not out)was the highest partnership for any wick-et in Women’s T20 World Cup history.

Thailand managed 78 for seven fromtheir 20 overs, with England’s victory by 98runs the largest winning margin at the tour-nament.

All this was scarcely conceivable after

a remarkable start to the game when the2009 winners were reduced to seven fortwo. Bot England openers were dismissedfor ducks for just the second time in T20Is.

Knight has a remarkable record atManuka Oval, with all four of her T20I 50+scores coming in Australia’s capital, the mostof any woman at a single venue in the for-mat.

Natthakan Chantham top-scored witha 53-ball 32 in the Thailand’s unsuccessfulrun chase. PTI

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Former captain Faf du Plessis willnot play for South Africa in a

three-match one-day internationalseries against Australia but remainspart of the country’s future plans,Cricket South Africa (CSA)announced on Wednesday.

Du Plessis, who stepped downfrom the captaincy in all forms of thegame earlier this month, is being rest-ed along with recent regular playersin Rassie van der Dussen andDwaine Pretorius.

The first match in the series willbe in Paarl on Saturday, following theconclusion of a T20 series.

Test left-arm spinner KeshavMaharaj has been rewarded forgood form in a domestic one-daytournament with his first one-dayinternational call-up since 2018.

Coach Mark Boucher said thesquad was picked with an eye to thefuture with the next World Cup stillthree years away.

“We always saw the series againstEngland and Australia as an oppor-tunity to play some fresh talent,” saidBoucher. “If we feel that we need torest players, we will, as we have donein the recent past. Faf (du Plessis) hasbeen fantastic for us in white-ballcricket and remains very much in ourODI plans and we will manage hisworkload for the near future diligent-ly.”

The squad includes batsmanJanneman Malan and wicketkeeper-batsman Kyle Verreynne, who wereboth included in the squad for arecent series against England but didnot play. Malan has previously beencapped at T20 level while Verreynneis uncapped.

RICHARDSON IN AUS TEAM '��'1� Pace bowler JhyeRichardson was added to the

Australia ODI squad for three clash-es in South Africa.

Selectors also named anunchanged line-up for the one-dayseries against New Zealand at homenext month. Richardson dislocatedhis shoulder ahead of last year’sWorld Cup in England but wasrecalled for T20 series against SouthAfrica and will remain with the teamfor the one-dayers.

“He has slotted back into the T20squad in South Africa and is push-ing for a place in that side,” nation-al selector Trevor Hohns said ofRichardson.

“Keeping him in South Africawith the one-day squad gives usanother exceptional fast bowler whois ready to go.”

Australia face New Zealand inthe first of three ODIs in Sydney onMarch 13.

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India skipper Virat Kohli lost the topspot in the ICC Test Player Rankings

after managing only 21 runs in the firstTest which his side lost to NewZealand by 10 wickets in Wellington.

Kohli, who has 906 points, slippedto the second position in the list whichalso features Ajinkya Rahane,Cheteshwar Pujara and MayankAgarwl at the eighth, ninth and 10thplace respectively.

While India vice-captain Rahane,who scored 75 in the opening Test,gained a spot and Mayank returned toa career-best 10th position after amass-ing 92 runs, which included a second-innings half-century, Pujara droppedtwo places after returning with iden-tical scores of 11 in the two innings.

Kohli’s slump meant Australia’sSteve Smith was back on top of the listfor the eighth time after first occupy-ing the top position in June 2015. Thelast batsman apart from Smith andKohli to be number one is NewZealand’s Kane Williamson, for aneight-day period in December 2015.

In bowling chart, off-spinnerRavichandran Ashwin, who took threewickets for 99 in the first inningsagainst New Zealand, slipped a placeto ninth but remained the only Indianfeaturing in the top 10 with 765points.

Fast bowler Ishant Sharma, whotook a five-wicket haul on his come-back from injury during the openingTest, gained a place to be at the 17thspot.

New Zealand pac-ers Tim Southee andTrent Boult madebig gains after fin-ishing with nine andfive wickets, respec-tively in the first Testagainst India.

While Southeeadvanced eightspots to take sixthposition, whichis his highestsince a career-best fifth placein June 2014,Boult moved upfour slots to takejoint-13th posi-tion.The all-rounders’ listfeatures Jadejaand Ashwin atthe third andfifth posi-tions respec-tively. WhileJadeja didn’tplay the firstTest, Ashwinscored 0 and 4to lose a placein rankings.

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Trent Boult and Tim Southee haveexposed the chinks in Prithvi

Shaw’s armour but India skipper ViratKohli is ready to wait and watch beforeany corrective analysis as he does notsee a pattern in the young opener’s dis-missals so far.

There are a few shortcomingsthat experts have noticed in Shaw’s bat-ting after the 20-year-old right-hand-ed batsman scored just 16 and 14 in thetwo innings of the first Test againstNew Zealand.

“I think we can sit down andanalyse, maybe after 8 or 10 similar dis-missals. I don’t think (it’s fair to theguy), who is playing away from home

for the first time and is probably expe-riencing different kind of bowlingattack at international level comparedto playing at home,” Kohli had said,when asked about Shaw’s dismissals.

“I don’t think at this stage, we needto sit down and discuss what’s goingwrong because I don’t see anythingwrong. It’s the execution of thingswhich was not there.”

International cricket is about find-ing one’s own straps and Shaw also willwork out what is best for him, feels thecaptain who has 70 hundreds to hiscredit in all formats.

“He (Shaw) will figure out. He willfind ways to score runs because he isa natural stroke-player and he scoresruns. It is not that he gets small runs

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Aspecialist batsman during his forma-tive years before shifting to fast bowl-

ing, New Zealand’s imposing pacer KyleJamieson wants to transform into an all-rounder going forward.

The 25-year-old, who made a dreamdebut against India in the first Test, played asa batsman in his younger days, and it wasn’tuntil he met the then New Zealand U-19coach Dayle Hadlee that he was asked to seri-ously consider focusing on fast bowling as aprimary skill.

“I was pretty much a batter all throughhigh school and then made the NewZealand U-19s, and Dayle Hadlee got ahold of me and told me to run in,which kind of shifted me towardsbecoming more of a bowler,” Jamiesontold ICC.

“I always liked batting, it was probablywhat I grew up admiring the most —whilst I did bowl, I did not think of that

as my career option growing up. NowI’m a bowler who can bat, trying to getto the all-rounder stage, that’s whereI ideally want to be,” the 6-ft-8-inchtall fast bowler said.

Jamieson impressed with hisbounce and ability to extract move-ment in the first innings of theWellington Test, where he pickedup four wickets. He also scored 44

off just 45 balls in New Zealand’s reply.

‘TOUGH TO COUNTER’Indian batsmen will get a liberal dose

of "chin music" in the second Test at theseamer-friendly Hagley Oval, senior New

Zealand pacer Neil Wagner declared, harp-ing on the visitors' struggles when faced

with pace and bounce.With India troubled by short balls bowled

from round the wicket, the 33-year-old Wagnerpromised that they will employ the same strat-egy during the second match starting Saturday.

"It's obviously tough for them to come hereand play where there is obviously a bit morebounce and pace," said Wagner.

"Obviously, playing in India where there isnot that much bounce and pace around and soit is something new for them to adapt to," headded.

Wagner, just like his coach Gary Stead,believes that Indians will be better but he expectsthe home side to be relentless in its endeavourto compound the agony for the visitors.

"Hopefully, we can keep the squeeze on andbowl the way the boys bowled in Wellingtonand if we can keep piling the pressure on, wewill make the job a lot easier for ourselves," hesaid.

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Australian pace legend GlennMcGrath on Wednesday said

India’s bowling attack remains a“world class” one despite the recent

debacles against New Zealand andblamed the under-whelmingperformance on factors such asinjury layoffs and toss.

While Ishant Sharma

returned with a five-wicket haul, hispace colleagues Jasprit Bumrahand Mohammed Shami managedjust one wicket each as NewZealand posted a match-decidingfirst innings score of 348 despitebeing 216 for six at one stage in firstTest.

“I still have total faith in theIndian (bowling) lineup. They hada few injuries of late. Sharma is com-ing back and he did get five wick-ets. Bumrah had a couple of injuriesand he is coming back,” McGrathtold reporters.

“So, yeah, I think the Indianbowling attack is world class andthere is no doubt about that,” headded.

“I don’t have any issues with thebowling attack, you don’t lose formovernight. It was just one of thosethings where the toss made a hugedifference. (in the first test in NewZealand), but you still got to get andscore runs.”

McGrath praised Ishant for“reinventing” himself and also laud-ed Shami and Bumrah.

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She has been the backbone ofIndian women’s cricket

team’s batting but swashbuck-ling India opener SmritiMandhana is delighted thatteen prodigy Shafali Verma isstealing her thunder at theongoing tournament as it takesthe pressure off her.

The 23-year-oldMandhana, who has been a keyplayer for the Indian team in thelast two-three years, said Vermais showing she is capable of fill-ing her boots.

“I used to score a lot of ourruns in the last two of threeyears, especially in thePowerplay, but now with Shafalicoming in, she’s getting theruns in the way I do. It makesthe team more balanced,”Mandhana said.

“Shafali has been a hugepositive coming into the T20side. The way she’s going abouther batting, it’s so easy to batalongside her,” she said on theeve of India’s group matchagainst New Zealand.

Verma has alreadyannounced her emergence onthe global stage. The 16-year-old has scored 68 runs acrosstwo games in this World Cup,including five sixes and sevenfours, at an impressive strikerate of 212.

Smriti said Verma’s bestattribute is the “routine she likes

to follow and no one has gonein and told her she has tochange that”.

Talking about New Zealandmatch, Mandhana said, “I don’tthink we will be going into thegame thinking about a total, butwe will continue playing theway that is working for all of ourbatters.”

Seasoned New Zealandpacer Lea Tahuhu said she islooking forward to bowling atVerma.

“Personally, I love thethought of facing Verma. Itmakes me fire up a little bitmore and I’m really looking for-ward to playing her,” saidTahuhu.

“I actually played her in theT20 Challenge in India lastyear and I know she’s not goingto take a step back,” she said,referring to India’s IPL style T20tournament played in Jaipur.

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<F��!��0��0�)�$��1�Glenn McGrath is not

in favour of tinkering with thefive-day format, saying to bring inmore fans to the game, day-night Test matches is the way for-ward.

“I am a big fan of Test crick-et. To me, Test cricket is still theultimate and we got to keep the

game fresh, people enjoying it.We have got to keep Test crick-et alive and moving forward andpositive and people coming tothe game. And to me, the wayto that is Day-Night Test crick-

et. I am big fan of it . I’m not a bigfan of four-day Test cricket. I’mvery much a traditionalist — fivedays — that’s Test cricket to me,”elaborated McGrath.

“But if we can bring somethingnew that keeps people coming tothe game, then that’s brilliant. DayNight cricket it that, it brings dif-ferent challenges. When you bowl,you bat it can make a big differ-ence. Different tactics, so it justbrings a different awareness anddifferent things you have to do,” heelaborated. PTI

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(when he gets them). He gets big runs andknows how to get runs.”

The reason why Shaw faltered couldbe due to the lack of understanding of thepace of the Basin Reserve track but theformer U-19 World Cup-winning skip-per was not alone as some of the team’sother big names also failed to gauge thenature of the pitch.

“It is just a matter of understandingthe pace of the wicket and conditions assoon as possible. Again, when he is in aclear frame of mind, he is very, verydestructive,” Kohli said, hopeful thatShaw will learn quickly.

Clarity of mind is paramount at thehighest level and once Shaw has that, therewould be no stopping him.

“I think whenever we have done well

overseas, the opening partnership hasbeen with a lot of clarity and positivityeven clearing the in-field, taking bowlerson so that you put them under pressure.He is that kind of a player,” Kohli said.

“Once he feels that he can do it, Ithink it will be a different ball game. Themindset can shift very quickly.”

While Kohli’s Test squad has hadhorses for courses policy, it seems that theskipper wants to stick with Shaw in thesecond Test even though Shubman Gillcan’t be completely ruled out of reckon-ing. “Prithvi obviously wants to performand no doubt about it, every batsmanwants to. We need to give him that timeto get used to the conditions a little bit andonce he starts scoring, he will feel moreconfident about it.”

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